After breaking out with the Twilight franchise, Kristen Stewart has demonstrated some sizable dramatic chops with her roles in Jack Kerouac adaptation On the Road and blockbuster Snow White & The Huntsman - and with a lead role in Olivier Assayas' upcoming Clouds of Sils Maria, she doesn't look to be slowing down any time soon. Recently, Stewart toplined a smaller film, a Guantanamo Bay-set drama titled Camp X-Ray, which premiered to lackluster reviews at Sundance (though most viewers gave the actress high marks for her lead performance).
A film adaptation of Jeff Brown's beloved children's book Flat Stanley has been in the works over at Fox for some time now, but today brings news that the project is finally moving forward with a new director and pair of writers. Josh Greenbaum, who previously directed a golf documentary titled The Short Game, has signed on to helm. Additionally, Chad Damiani and J.P. Lavin will re-write the film, which is being envisioned as a live-action take on the story, working from an earlier draft by Adam Goldberg (Aliens in the Attic, ABC's The Goldbergs) and Chris Bishop (The Goldbergs).
Though the first chapter in The Purge franchise didn't really make much of its futuristic premise, in which the sinister New Founding Fathers of America have allotted 12 hours out of the year wherein all crime is legal, The Purge: Anarchy looks like a real step up from its predecessor. Following a group of individuals trapped in a city on Purge Night, it's filled with creepy characters and, if the trailers are any indication, some truly bone-chilling twists.
I'm beyond excited for August's Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, in which Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez return to the seedy locale of their stylized 2006 noir hit. The flick looks completely awesome, with the addition of talented actors like Eva Green and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, along with returning faves like Jessica Alba and Mickey Rourke. One thing that has been a little tricky for the film's marketing department to nail down, however, is exactly how Sin City: A Dame To Kill For is going to feel.
One of the casualties of the 2013-14 television season that hurt the most (behind the cancelled then resurrected NBC cult comedy Community, of course) was Fox's Enlisted, a frankly hilarious comedy about three brothers on the same military base in fictional Fort McGee, Florida.
A few days ago, we got our first look at Henry Cavill dressed as Clark Kent in Warner Bros.' upcoming superhero tentpole Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, a massive gamble that we can only hope won't be absolutely awful (though all the news we've been getting about the Zack Snyder-directed movie isn't promising). Today, thanks to USA Today, we have our first shot of Cavill in full Kryptonian regalia as Superman himself (though, for some reason, the hero gets second billing in the title, despite this being a sequel to Man of Steel). And it's... moody?
For me, Pirates of the Caribbean was one of those franchises that started off on a tremendously high note and then proceeded to go off the rails in a deeply disappointing fashion. The Curse of the Black Pearl was a ripping yarn, boosted by Johnny Depp's then-enjoyable portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow, but Dead Man's Chest, At World's End and On Stranger Tides suffered tremendously by impressing Sparrow as a main character, bringing in a glut of CGI creatures (did this series really need a Kraken?) and sacrificing ever shred of self-aware intelligence in favor of blockbuster spectacle. Will producer Jerry Bruckheimer learn from the franchise's increasingly paltry reception in time to save Pirates of the Caribbean 5?
This year at Comic-Con, Warner Bros. is occuping the very prestigious Hall H on Thursday, July 24th at 6 pm to announce the details of the long-awaited Blu-Ray and DVD release of fan favorite Batman: The Complete Television Series. In attendance will be Adam West (Batman), Burt Ward (Robin) and Julie Newmar (Catwoman). Working to build up anticipation for the announcement, the studio recently released a sizzle reel - and boy is it terrific.
We still don't know too much about Woody Allen's upcoming Magic in the Moonlight, and a new set of images (below) doesn't do much to shed light on the story. However, the shots do give us a tantalizing look at the film's stellar cast, led by Emma Stone and Colin Firth. With Marcia Gay Harden, Eileen Atkins, Hamish Linklater, Simon McBurney and Jacki Weaver also playing roles, part of me wants to go in with the mystique intact - Allen rarely disappoints, and it would be tricky for him to do so with this cast.
When I first heard that there was going to be another 300, my gut reaction was, "But they all died!" Dear viewer, don't worry one second about that. After all, Warner Bros. wouldn't have cobbled together 300: Rise of an Empire if the studio hadn't been able to come up with a worthwhile reason to revisit those war-loving, glory-seizing Spartans and their magnificent six-pack abs... right? In all honesty, 300: Rise of an Empire was an inevitability after 300 left such a noticable imprint on the cinematic landscape, grossing over $450 million and producing the immortal "This is Sparta!" meme while also racking up some accolades and undoubtedly influencing filmmakers. Luckily, Noam Murro's 300: Rise of an Empire isn't just a worthy follow-up to the CGI-heavy bloodbath that was 300 - it actually surpasses its predecessor in one major regard.
