At long last, the sequel to Disney's massively successful, if narratively weak, Alice in Wonderland is starting to roll cameras, with James Bobin replacing Tim Burton in the director's chair. It took a suprisingly long time for this next chapter of the planned franchise to get off the ground, considering the first film broke $1 billion at the box office, but a press release indicates that filming is now underway.
After 2012's Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, rapper Nicki Minaj largely cooled her jets in terms of hit-making, taking a break to serve as a judge on American Idol and then to appear in The Other Woman. However, the singer/songwriter is about to reclaim the spotlight, with her third album The Pink Print due to drop this year.
If you weren't already convinced that Homeland actor Rupert Friend looked the part of the bald, unnamed assassin at the heart of upcoming video game adaptation Hitman: Agent 47, here's a new pic that directly compares the actor to his computer-generated counterpart. Thoughts?
The Voice coach Blake Shelton has made a name for himself with catchy, uplifting country anthems, from rowdy duet "Hillbilly Bone" to love song "God Gave Me You," and there's no reason to suspect that the singer will be stocking his next album with anything other than comparably crowdpleasing tracks. Recently, Shelton announced the title of his upcoming album to be Bringing Back the Sunshine, surely indicative of the album's cheerful tone, and dated it for release on September 30th.
Few filmmakers have the Oscar pedigree of Stephen Daldry, whose past works include Billy Elliot, The Hours, The Reader and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (all of which have been nominated for Best Picture and/or Best Director). And so, though his upcoming film Trash doesn't yet have a U.S. release date, it would be foolhardy to count it out of this year's awards race.
Earlier this year, Roger Ebert's fascinating life was brought to the big screen in the incredible Life Itself, but Hollywood doesn't appear to be done with the legendary film critic just yet. Russ & Roger Go Beyond, a project centering on Ebert's collaboration with eccentric filmmaker Russ Meyer on the ill-fated satire Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, has popped up and is gaining some traction. According to Deadline, Will Ferrell is eyeing the part of Meyer in the pic, which will explore the comedic and unnatural partnership that the two men struck up.
Over the years, Tim Burton has proven himself to be one of Hollywood's most quirky and imaginative directors, particularly in the horror and fantasy genres. This fall, however, the Beetlejuice helmer will be setting his sights on something a little more grounded, with his character-driven drama Big Eyes. Starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz, the film looks to be a serious Oscar contender, and we've been keeping an eye out for any new information about the project.
Alliances are made and destroyed in "It's Not For Everyone," this week's rather gross but enjoyable installment of The Strain. As Eichorst, Palmer and the Master's vampire virus continues to fester inside the plane passengers, Eph works alongisde Nora and Jim to uncover the specifics of the strain and figure out how to stem its spread. Unfortunately for them, Jim's blunder in slipping the Master's box out of the airport has already knee-capped their attempts.
After last week's grueling, miserable "Gladys," a meditation on the resolute nature of the Guilty Remnant that seriously lost points for its needlessly shocking depiction of the title character's murder, I finally put The Leftovers on probation. One more episode, I promised myself, to determine whether or not showrunner Damon Lindelof's bag of tricks was one I wanted to keep reaching inside. How canny of Lindelof, then, to follow up "Gladys" with an episode so distanced (both physically and thematically) from Mapleton as to be an utterly unsuitable 'decider' hour, as it were.
EuropaCorp's Transporter trilogy truly marked the arrival of Jason Statham as a bona fide action star, and now the franchise is getting a reboot - albeit without Statham. However, The Transporter Legacy, as the fourth film in the series has recently been titled, may launch a new actor to action stardom.
