Two trailers, a motion poster and new photos for Guillermo del Toro’s long-awaited Gothic-horror romance Crimson Peak just dropped today.
Continue reading Crimson Peak Theatrical Trailer: Guillermo del Toro Horror Spectacle
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No Benedict Cumberbatch? No Problem, as Tom Hiddleston Takes Over Role for del Toro Film
Director Guillermo del Toro ran into a bit of a snag recently with his upcoming thriller Crimson Peak. His leading man dropped out of the film to take the lead in another project. This in itself seems like a huge setback – but when you realize that leading man was Benedict Cumberbatch, it becomes an enormous setback. Cumberbatch, who left Crimson Peak in order to take the lead role in James Gray’s Lost City of Z adaptation, is still fresh on everyone’s mind thanks to his portrayal of John Harrison/Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness. How do you top the in-demand Cumberbatch? You replace him with a god: Tom Hiddleston, Loki himself.
According to Screen Crush, The Avengers actor will join Charlie Hunnam, Jessica Chastain, and Mia Wasikowska in del Toro’s gothic film. Other details about Crimson Peak, which is scheduled to begin filming in early 2014, have been trickling out. The story will center around young author Edith Cushing as she discovers that her new husband isn’t the charming man he appeared to be. Del Toro has described the thriller, which takes place at the turn of the century, as a “gothic romance with ghosts” and “dark and stormy and wind-swept.”
Seeing Hiddleston in a film with a darker tone will be an interesting departure from his recent family-friendly Marvel Universe appearances (including reprising his role as Loki in Thor: The Dark World). His upcoming roles also seem to have him sticking to his sweet and charming side. Before we see him in Crimson Peak, we will hear Hiddleston as the voice behind Captain Hook in Disney’s animated Tinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy and he will appear in Muppets Most Wanted, both set to be released in 2014. On the opposite side of the spectrum, del Toro has promised that Crimson Peak will include “very visceral, physical violence.” Let’s see how Loki can handle it.
Guillermo del Toro Talks ‘Haunted Mansion’ & ‘Justice League Dark’
In 24 hours Guillermo del Toro might transition from lesser-known acclaim to household name, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to abandon pet projects like Pacific Rim in the future. In an interview with Collider, del Toro discussed the future of Justice League Dark (also known under the working title of Dark Universe) and Haunted Mansion, just two of the many movies on the hard-working director’s plate.
Coming off the success of Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney has put their Haunted Mansion ride forward as the next attraction-turned-movie experiment, but it’s already been three years in the making and it sounds like production is still far from finished:
[box_light]“…I’m a huge fan of Haunted Mansion and I would love to do it, but Disney at the same time wants to move really fast on it, and I’m busy for a year and a half or two so they don’t want to wait that long. But if we keep chasing writers that we don’t get, it’s getting to be difficult.”[/box_light]
In the same interview del Toro announced that he’ll be producing and not directing Haunted Mansion, but hopefully that still means he’ll be able to lend some creative attention to creature design – it’s what he does best after all. And if he has to drop directing control of Haunted Mansion, at least it means he has room to work on meatier projects like Justice League Dark.
For those who don’t know (I was one of ‘those’ until just recently) Justice League Dark is a team-up series featuring many of DC Comics’s supernatural/stranger characters, including the likes of Constantine, Frankenstein, Zatanna, and Deadman to name a few. In other words, it’s the Justice League… but dark. Guillermo del Toro has been attached to the film adaptation for some time now, and while the film is still in its preliminary stages, he has been working hard on the first steps already:
[box_light]“Justice League Dark is very active. I’m doing one more revision while we wait for the writer. It’s somebody big, [and] we’re patiently waiting for that writer. I think it’s worth it, I think it’s a guy we all admire. I’m doing my revisions on my sort of Bible, on my story for the film. I can tell you it’s the writing project I’ve enjoyed the most in English […] this was so much fun because it was character. It was a pretty easy plot, but the character interaction, Swamp Thing with Deadman and Demon, it’s so joyful for me to write that. Constantine is such a great character, so dry. I think it could be a great movie. I don’t want to do many changes until the proper writer comes onboard.”[/box_light]
I’m very curious to know who this mystery writer is, as it’s basically the only missing piece in what sounds like another hauntingly strange story for Guillermo to sink his teeth into. If he can build the same wonderfully weird atmosphere that he managed in the Hellboy series I’ll be front-row center on opening night, even if I barely know who any of the characters are.
Even better? Del Toro is all for blending his JLD franchise with the inevitable Justice League movie that will hopefully see the light of day, now that Man of Steel has got the ball rolling.
Comic Rack: Guillermo del Toro’s DC Movie, Marvel’s New Teasers & More!
Welcome to Comic Rack! My pick of the top five comic news stories in no particular order…
Guillermo del Toro IS Working On A DC Movie
After a bunch of flip floppy wish wash from PR executives that we’ve previously touched on, lots of rumors and hearsay, it’s finally been confirmed that Guillermo del Toro is actually working on a DC Comics film. Or plans to anyway, I wouldn’t hold my breath for it to come out. Not that I wouldn’t love it, because his idea of a dark supernaturally themed DC movie with Constantine (Pronounced Constan- TYNE), sounds totally awesome and something right up his alley.
[box_light]“The movement for this happened before [The Avengers],” del Toro adds about DC building its own cinematic universe. “They were already galvanized to launch ‘Justice League’ and they were galvanized to make their universe cohesive… They are really, really, with ‘Superman’, very, very confident with what they have. They are now feeling they have two pillars. Batman and Superman… There’s a foundation that now they can build on.”[/box_light]
I’ve long been a fan of Guillermo’s, and think he’s one of the most creative and crafty directors out there that knows how to tell supernatural stories in a way that’s neither cheap nor boring. If Man of Steel is a big hit and the Justice League movie does in fact get made, you better believe I’ll be counting down the days until this project comes to fruition.
Find out more here.
Jeff Lemire Is Doubling Down On DC Projects
I’m such a huge fan of Jeff Lemire that simple, quick news like this can get my imagination running in a thousand different ways. The news is basically that he’s hinted at bringing some old school DC characters back into the modern fray. Which ones you ask? Well, they would consist of Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth, Jemm: Son Of Saturn, Red Tornado, and even The Spectre. Right now it’s all conjecture based on some images he tweeted, so It could all be for naught. I’m sure there’s always the possibility he was being a comics nerd and sharing some cool pictures with his fans, in the same way I share pictures of my cats with my fans. All zero of them. Regardless of my pathetic nature, if Lemire does end up doing something with these projects, you’ll definitely be informed right here the moment it does.
Find out more here.
Marvel Teaser Season Is Back, And One Features Brian Wood!
In yet another teaser released by Marvel to make us all speculate endlessly until we don’t, we’ve got the vague hint at some new book that will be possibly related to X-women. The teaser released shows a picture of two X’s, with a DNA double hellix behind them, along with Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel’s names. It’s a bit obvious it’s referring to women in some way, what with the XX chromosome being referenced, but the question is who exactly? We all know Brian Wood is pretty familiar with writing women so it’s a question of who he’ll be writing about, rather than if. A solid speculation could be that the DNA helix hints at the genetic code that leads to mutants, and along with the X being such a famously mutant related letter at Marvel it’s a safe bet to make that it’s gonna be an X-Men related title. Some say it could even be called X-Women? I personally think that’s a corny title, but I’m positive it’ll be an interesting book nonetheless.
Along with that came another teaser announcing Phil Noto’s arrival as artist of the new Thunderbolts series. It’s titled Explosive and the image is certainly that:
As always there are more teasers from Marvel, some of which are utterly baffling, like this “Birth” one:
And this trio of obvious ones for Hulk, Deadpool, and Spider-Man, respectively:
Find out more here, here, here, here and here.
Dan Slott Keeps Pumping Out The Spider-Man Craziness By Bringing In Spider-Man 2099
Listen, I haven’t read a Spider-Man book in years. I think the last time I did was when they switched Amazing to 3 times a week. I decided that was way more BS than I could handle at any given time, along with all of the One More Day nonsense that was going on. It pretty much put me off of Spider-Man forever, which hasn’t been remedied by the terrible movies and it’s subsequent reboots and forced sequels. He’s by far always been my least favorite character, and seeing all the wacky stuff Dan Slott has been doing to Spider-Man has done little to raise my interest in that book. Sometimes something is done when it’s done for you, and that’s that. That being said, I do find it interesting he’s bringing back Miguel O’Hara into the current continuity. That’s right, Spider-Man 2099 is going to be integrated into The Superior Spider-Man somehow. I remember reading issues of Spider-Man 2099 in the late nineties and being really stoked when I found his action figure because I thought it was rare. Regardless, the amount of novel things Dan Slott seems to be trying with Spider-Man these days, without getting into spoiler territory, is pretty interesting. It almost makes me wish somebody as gutsy and ballsy as him would try something like that with Batman or Superman, but he’s already gotten death threats and whatnot for stinkin’ Spider-Man, so I wouldn’t blame him for avoiding any other superhero properties for a while.
Find out more here.
Titan Comics Launches A Creator-Owned Based Imprint!
I’m a pretty huge fan of creator owned comics. They’re by far what I read the most of nowadays, and to me are always the more personally rewarding stories. I love me a good superhero book, don’t get me wrong, but there’s nothing like a perfectly made mini-series that takes chances with its story and uses the medium of comics itself to tell a more effective story than any of the Big Two could. While I’m not very familiar with Titan, I always applaud another indie publisher throwing their hat into the ring and I’m especially fond of the plan to focus on creator owned content. It’d be pretty great if we got another big creative owned hit from them the way Image did with The Walking Dead or Invincible. It’s unlikely, but not impossible.
Find out more here.
That’s all for this week’s edition! We’ll see you next time at the Comic Rack!
Guillermo Del Toro’s ‘Pacific Rim’ – First Trailer
After a five year hiatus from theaters, Guillermo Del Toro explodes back onto the scene with the first trailer for the highly anticipated Pacific Rim. Humans always expected aliens to come from the skies, so what happens when the aliens come from a portal in the ocean? We build giant mechs and kick their asses, of course! Something about this reminds me of the old Godzilla movies…but with more insanity!
After the aliens destroy the coastal cities and leave much of humanity in ruins, a program is started to create giant mechs called Jaegers to combat the monsters. (Insert Jaegerbomb joke here.) But seriously folks, look at this trailer and tell me that doesn’t look like the next great summer monsterfest:
The film has an all star cast including Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman, Idris Elba, Burn Gorman and Clifton Collins Jr., already seems to be at a scope of epic proportions. (Side note: Charlie Day is in this? As in, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s” Charlie? I’m sold just on that alone.)
Scheduled for release July 12, 2013, Pacific Rim promises to be a badass trip with insane special effects.
Is Guillermo del Toro on for “Heaven Sent”?
Don’t you hate it when someone says something about you and then another person says that you didn’t really say that and then you have to tell people that you did say the first thing and don’t know why anyone is saying you didn’t? Welcome to Guillermo del Toro’s weekend.
On Thursday, November 1st, the Latino Review posted that del Toro was talking with Warner Brothers about a project involving characters from the DC Universe. By Friday, November 2nd, various other outlets had picked up the story. Of course, people start seeing this and getting excited, but who wouldn’t be excited? Marvel has certainly found big success with their ensemble The Avengers, so DC fans are starting to feel it’s their turn.
But wait, it’s now November 3rd and with a new day comes new news. It seems that Pietro Filipponi over at The Daily Blam has talked to Mr. del Toro and says that there is “no truth” to the rumor that del Toro is interested in directing the superhero movie.
[box_dark]
Asked Guillermo Del Toro about the rumor he’ll be directing a supernatural superhero movie for DC/WB, he said there is no truth to it at all
— Pietro Filipponi (@Poni_Boy) November 3, 2012
[/box_dark]
Talk about letting the air out of your sails. Before you can even fully feel the disappointment of this news, it’s 15 hours later and Guillermo del Toro himself is responding to the story in the forums of his own site saying that he never said that, and he would love to do the project!
So what is this project everyone has been talking about? An ensemble cast of DC superheroes? Could it be? Maybe?
No. It’s not those characters. Even though Warner Brothers is saying that they are a go for The Justice League to start filming in 2013, it won’t be with Mr. del Toro at the helm. No, the DC characters that del Toro is interested in are more of the lesser known variety.
Referred to as “Heaven Sent”, the project would be centered around the “magical” characters in the DC Universe; Swamp Thing, The Spectre, Zatanna, Zatara, Phantom Stranger, John Constantine, Deadman, and more!
As awesome as Justice League will be (it will be awesome, it has to be, please angels in heaven above let it be awesome) this idea has potential to be amazing. Seriously, when was the last time The Spectre made news? When did you last actively think about Zatara? Not to mention, just imagine the casting discussions to be had! I’m kicking off the official campaign for Timothy Dalton as The Phantom Stranger.
Sound off in the comments below! Are you excited by this possible project? Who would you cast? Mr. del Toro is the man of 10,000 irons in the fire but we can always hope that this one will pan out.
Grizzly Bomb 