The first trailer for 12 Years a Slave has arrived and let’s just say, this movie looks amazing.
Chiwetel Ejiofor, who has been at the top of many people’s list for Black Panther (speaking of, have you checked out our Justice League Casting Couch?), stars as Solomon Northrup. Based on his own memoirs of the same name, the film follows Northrup’s journey from being a freed man living in New York to being tricked by a fake job offer and sold into slavery.
If that’s not the crappiest thing that could happen to a person, I don’t know what is.
Joining Ejiofor is a star-studded cast including Brad Pitt, Alfre Woodard, Michael K. Williams (Chalky White in Boardwalk Empire), Paul Giamatti, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, and Michael Fassbender.
12 Years a Slave marks the third time Michael Fassbender and director Steve McQueen have worked together. McQueen has been nominated and won many awards for his previous work but with this cast combined with a premiere date of December 26th, it appears as McQueen and company might be gunning for the big prize come Oscar time.
Finally the teaser trailer for The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug is out! Set to run before Man of Steel in theaters this week, the next chapter of the Hobbit trilogy is available now online. The story continues as the company of Thorin Oakenshield continues their quest to reclaim their homeland of Erabor from the menace of Smaug the dragon. Along the way the company will encounter not only the wood elves who Thorin believes betrayed him during the fall of Erabor but the men of Laketown as well as they near the Lonely Mountain. And lets not forget the pale Orc Azog is still hot on their trail. Check out all of the action in the trailer below
Lots of exciting stuff going on, whether it’s from the book itself or added in for the movie. The movie looks just as gorgeous and eye popping as the first one, which also featured a good amount added to the film. We get to see more Elves, including Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel and the return of everyone’s favorite pointy-eared archer, Legolas! There’s also a quick glimpse of Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman and more of Bilbo and company, but honestly, let’s get to the elephant in the room… or dragon, as it were.
“I… Am…. Kahn! Err… Smaug!”
Smaug the Terrible doesn’t look very terrible, visually. He actually looks breathtakingly awesome in the last seconds of the trailer as he finds our lead Hobbit in his treasure horde. I was surprised they show Smaug in his full glory onscreen instead of saving it as a surprise for when the movie is released. At this point the extra bonus will be hearing Smaug speak in the voice of actor Benedict Cumberbatch. I doubt they really could have hired a better actor for the role of the ancient and angry dragon. Cumberbatch has a very baritone and intimidating voice more than equipped for the likes of Smaug. Did you hear this guy in Star Trek: Into Darkness? I’ll walk over your cold corpses?! Can’t wait till December!
“Who you calling pointy-eared?”
What did everyone think of the trailer, and Smaug in particular? Sound off in the comments section below!
As we reported, the current Doctor Who; Matt Smith (who has played the Doctor for 4 years) is leaving the show at Christmas, speculation has been rife over who will replace him. With the season finale having John Hurt pop up as an unknown Doctor could he stay on after Smith’s departure? He will probably have prior commitments and would be unable to stay long term on the show so I think that’s a no, but if not him then who? Well the bookies are currently taking bets on it, and have a full list of their suggestions you may want to look at, either at The Guardian or The Mirror, but here are some of my ideas for possible contenders.
I think the most interesting thing about all the clips and previews we’ve seen from the new Star Trek movie is definitely Benedict Cumberbatch. Not just in a “Oh who is he?” sort of way, (although GODDAMMIT WHO IS HE?!), but more in that he’s probably the best actor of the bunch, with the possible exception of Karl Urban. I say Karl Urban, because I defy you to watch Dredd and think that dude pulled off the most menacing and accurate portrayal of Judge Dredd, all only using the lower half of his face. That’s irrelevant though, because the real meat and bones here is the fancy new clip we have of Benedict acting circles around Chris Pine. Probably because of his soothing, baritone voice and limey accent. Those brits always have inherently more authoritative voices don’t they? Here, judge for yourself:
There’s been talk about the “villain in a glass cage” trope that’s being used here, but I don’t really find that all that interesting or revelatory. Tropes exist and will continue to do so. The creation of a new one isn’t anything to be particularly surprised about, unless for some terrible reason anal-eel interrogations become a new movie trope, and every movie has a scene with a good guy getting violated anally by writhing eels while the villain taunts and cackles from the darkness. Is that how Zero Dark Thirty started? I know there was an interrogation scene somewhere… Oh god I hope my horrific prediction hasn’t come true! HOLLYWOOD, NO ANAL EEL INTERROGATION SCENES PLEASE!
Well to get that awful image out of your head, here’s a few new posters featuring Chekov and Scotty via Moviefone. Frankly I find that Chekov adorable. Much more adorable that Walter Koenig ever was. Granted Koenig was amazing in his role, but have you seen him lately? So not adorable anymore.
Oh and lastly, a friend of mine was browsing through a bookstore and found a new Star Trek novel, where the cover art is strangely drawn so that Kirk looks halfway between Shatner and Pine and the more I look at it the more convinced I am it’s ripping my sanity in half.
There’s a lot of buzz online about our favorite UK shows, so we’ve put all this news together in a handy, more digestible format for your reading pleasure. First off is some information from Bleeding Cool looking at the upcoming series of Misfits. Now working on its fifth season it has been reported by Channel Four that this will be the last ever series. Here is the official blurb for what this series is going to cover.
Shocker of shockers, it’s still a month away from the release of Star Trek Into Darkness, but those bastards out there responsible for hyping the film still find it necessary to ceaselessly tantalize any and every Trekkie out there by releasing little clips or new stills. In particular a new trailer has been released, and this time it gives us a bit more of a confirmation of the growing themes for these Star Trek movies. It’s almost definitely revenge and the pursuit of it destroying you. This trailer paints a clear picture of Kirk becoming his own personal Ahab, with Cumberbatch painted as his white whale. I’m looking forward to the movie obviously, but I’m more looking forward to seeing how the film will stand up as the ever so important “middle” entry in the series, if it is indeed a thematic trilogy we’re getting with these new Star Trek films. Sure there could and probably will be more, but in the same way Wrath Of Khan, Search For Spock and Voyage Home were all linked around the character for Spock, this first three can be around the idea of revenge. I’m just looking to see how it’s all going to play out in the grand spectrum of things, because this trailer certainly makes the film look to be very, very revenge-centric. Overcome personal demons and all that. It’s literally titled INTO DARKNESS, so I suppose that’s the first clue anyway.
Also there was a new teaser that was shown on the MTV Movie Awards, which I would have never seen if not for Internet. I think the only reason I ever even put on MTV anymore is to watch that Catfish show. I have this fantasy about someone really beautiful pretending to be a total uggo, starting an online relationship with that person, and revealing that they’re actually totally gorgeous after all. Surprise! You got reverse-Catfished! I mean, that’d be a much more interesting show than one about a bunch of weird broken people pretending to be people they’re not right? How does this relate to Star Trek? It doesn’t. At all. And I’ll tell you why; It’s because there’s only so many ways you can possibly look at what generally adds up to the same series of clips, trailers, previews with a new little scene added in to make it technically new, and not just immediately groan in impatience and frustration. I’m not necessarily a child of instant gratification, but let’s just say I tend to like things as a sudden surprise than a long, excruciatingly dragged out wait. When it comes to film or TV, the journey is never the point, it’s always the destination. Unlike life, which is almost always the opposite.
Well regardless of my elaborate and terrible bitching, (because I’m a huge bitchy little emo man-baby), the clip does look goddamned neat, and the myriad pictures collected spell an interesting story. One I’m still not sure about, but why would I want to be? I’m one of those people who enjoys being surprised by a movie, and often films I’ve loved the most are the ones I knew nothing about beforehand at all. Take a look at them for yourself, and you be the judge of whether you find yourself wanting to know more about the scenes they’re from.
See like I said, that teaser was interesting, but mainly composed of things we’ve seen before, with little barely perceptible snippets of new stuff. I get it though, it’s a teaser. You’re supposed to watch it over and over to try to guess. I suppose I’m just so tired from being teased all the time. It’s a love/hate relationship with film and television. It teases you relentlessly, but you always come back for more. It’s probably the most abusive relationship there is. Aside from any of those on Catfish though. Man have you SEEN that show! Goddamn!
Oh yeah. Pictures. Woo!
Last but not least, there’s also some actually pretty well designed movie posters. They’re still basically floating heads, but at least they’re good floating heads.
And last but not least, I certainly won’t add in that picture of Alice Eve in her underwear like last time, because I am a man of class and taste. However, I can’t be held responsible for whatever my editor decides to add here at the last-minute. Ahem.
Grizzly Bomb 