Though Jason Statham is one of the most widely known action stars in the world today, it wasn't that long ago when he first arrived on the scene. After delivering memorable performances in Guy Ritchie's crime capers Snatch and Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, it was really The Transporter, back in 2002, that elevated him to action stardom. In subsequent Transporter films, the Crank franchise and dozens of stand-alone action flicks since, he's refined his niche, but that film truly marked his breakout. Though it's been five years since Transporter 3 made bank with $108 million, the success of the series has led EuropaCorp towards rebooting the franchise with three new films. Now, likely hoping to kick-start another young actor's career, EuropaCorp has tapped Game of Thrones actor Ed Skrein to take the lead role in Transporter 4.
Back in 2011, I was impressed by Margin Call, a sharply written financial drama that featured a talented ensemble cast including Kevin Spacey and Zachary Quinto. Its writer-director, J.C. Chandor, was a fresh face to Hollywood, but his raw talent was undeniable. Now, Chandor is back for his sophomore writer-director effort with a film that's almost Margin Call's polar opposite. All Is Lost, a mesmerizing tale of one man battling against the merciless ocean, features almost no dialogue, one cast member (the indomitable Robert Redford) and an ambiguity that's crucial to its overall impact.
Roland Emmerich's burning desire to make an Independence Day sequel (or two) has been well-established over the past few years, but actor Will Smith has been unquestionably a lot more ambivalent about the prospect of revisiting the 1996 blockbuster. He's gone back and forth multiple times as far as the planned sequels, ID Forever Parts 1 & 2, are concerned, never outright confirming his involvement but not straight-up killing rumors. Until now, that is. Deadline is currently reporting that they have it on good authority that Smith has told 20th Century Fox that he won't be participating in the sequel.
I wasn't the only one disappointed by Apollo 18, a found-footage horror flick that posed an interesting setup but forgot to infuse its narrative with tension, scares or even the most basic of intrigue. So, it's safe to say that director Gonzalo López-Gallego didn't make the greatest first impression. However, his next project, a thriller called The Man on Carrion Road, is shaping up into something far more intriguing than that half-hearted Paranormal Activity rip-off. Today, supervising studio Atlas Independent succeeded in getting the film on my mental checklist of projects to watch by announcing that Deadwood actor Ian McShane has joined the cast.
When Fast & Furious star Paul Walker tragically perished last November in a California car crash, the uncertain future of his blockbuster racing franchise became a huge topic of discussion, but other projects the actor had worked on also faced tough decisions about how to deal with his passing.
We weren't too impressed by Kristen Stewart's latest dramatic venture, the Guantanamo-set drama Camp X-Ray, when it bowed at the Sundance Film Festival last month (nor were a fair number of critics, judging by the film's current 56% Rotten rating on aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes), but the film has landed a distributor all the same. IFC Films announced earlier today that they have inked a deal to distribute the film for North American audiences.
Universal and Gold Circle found themselves with a breakout hit back in 2012 when college-set musical comedy Pitch Perfect took off in a big way, earning huge dollars at the box office and burning up the bestseller charts for its a capella-heavy soundtrack. Especially when you add in extremely positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, the green-lighting of Pitch Perfect 2 was never in doubt. Now, however, what that sequel will look like is a little more certain as Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson have officially signed on to reprise their roles.
After crawling through 15 depressingly low-rated episodes of its first season, The Michael J. Fox Show, once viewed as NBC's most promising new fall sitcom, has been yanked off the air.
Rodrigo García has long been a well-respected name in the television industry, helming pilots for such successful shows like Carnivàle, Big Love and Six Degrees. In recent years, however, he's also been gaining more credibility as a Hollywood director, thanks to the success of his films Mother and Child and Albert Nobbs, the latter of which Glenn Close and Janet McTeer both earned Oscar nominations for.
I'm not sure how to feel about 24: Live Another Day, FOX's upcoming resurrection of their wildly popular espionage thriller series. On one hand, 24 was running low on creative juices by the end of its original, eight-season run, and an addition to the series might just drive home the realization that audiences have already had their fill of Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). On the other, however, 24 was a huge show for a long time, and it's widely considered to be one of the best spy thrillers in television history, so there may still be an appetite for it.
