It's not often that a film gets described as "Godzilla meets Lost in Tranlsation," but that's exactly what people are calling Colossal, a mysterious project from Timercrimes writer-director Nacho Vigalondo. Ahead of its launch to foreign buyers at the Cannes Film Festival, the pic has tapped Interstellar actress Anne Hathaway to topline, which, coupled with the intriguing plot, should make Colossal the subject of a significant bidding war at the festival.
One of my most anticipated movies of the fall is Sicario, a ripped-from-the-headlines thriller from Denis Villeneuve, the incendiary director behind Prisoners and Enemy. Emily Blunt stars as an idealistic FBI agent who gets caught up in an operation to catch a drug lord, only to become ensnared in a violent race for survival once she crosses the border from Tucson to Mexico with two Delta Force rangers. Villeneuve has yet to disappoint, and I'm loving everything I've seen from this movie so far.
As someone who's still getting over HBO's The Jinx, I don't know what I was expecting from the network's latest documentary, rather tellingly titled Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop, but rest assured that if you're falling asleep too easily at night, here's a very viable solution. I left the film deeply unsettled, and like the dark ideas that rattled around subject Gilberto Valle's head and brought prosecutors as well as a media firestorm to his doorstep, I have a feeling Thought Crimes won't be leaving me anytime soon.
With its miserable fall season, NBC could really use a hit right now, and it's banking on Heroes Reborn, a continuation of the once-popular superhero series, to provide that boost. Today, NBC released the first official images from the upcoming limited series, which will see the return of some old cast members as well as the unveiling of many new ones. The new shots provide our first look at Jack Coleman, reprising the role of Noah Bennet (aka HRG), and new characters played by Chuck alum Zachary Levi and up-and-comer Kiki Sukezane.
Now that the robotic, death-dealing cat is out of the bag as far as Terminator Genisys goes, Skydance and Paramount are really going all out to impress that its new approach to franchise hero John Connor is one way in which the upcoming blockbuster is "boldly" reinventing the rules of the Terminator franchise. We'll find out whether or not that gamble is going to pay off for the studios when the pic opens at the start of July, but in the mean time, a fresh crop of posters has gone a step further by identifying all the major players - including Jason Clarke not as John Connor but as the "T-3000."
Normally, it would be pretty silly to devote an entire news article to what an actor's hair will look like in an upcoming movie, but here, I'll make an exception. After sporting a full head of hair in X-Men: First Class and a shaggy mane in X-Men: Days of Future Past, it's been revealed that James McAvoy is finally shaving it all off to play the famously bald leader of the X-Men, Professor X, in next year's X-Men: Apocalypse.
Seriously, what's the deal, Hollywood? Lupita Nyong'o delivered a searing, soul-baring performance in 12 Years a Slave, for which the then-newcomer won an Academy Award, and yet the bulk of her roles since have relegated her to voice or mo-cap parts. It's deeply frustrating that an African-American actress, especially one as talented as her, isn't fielding offers left and right to star in the kinds of high-profile dramas that would allow her to act without any barriers between her and the audience. Nyong'o has a role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and newly unveiled concept art reveals that she's near unrecognizable in her part, which feels like a missed opportunity on the part of director J.J. Abrams and everyone at Lucasfilm and Disney.
As I reported earlier today, CBS has axed Battle Creek, Stalker and The McCarthys, but it's time for almost every other showrunner working on the network to pop open the champagne. Renewed for the 2015-16 season are stalwarts The Good Wife, NCIS, Blue Bloods, Hawaii Five-0, NCIS: Los Angeles, Criminal Minds, Elementary and Person of Interest, along with freshman entries CSI: Cyber and The Odd Couple. More seasons of Survivor, The Amazing Race, Undercover Boss, 60 Minutes and 48 Hours have also been ordered.
Avengers: Age of Ultron has Hulk-smashed its way through its first two weekends and is on track to be one of the year's most profitable pics, but there's much more at the multiplex than Marvel heroes this summer. In fact, looking at the lineup of reboots, sequels and slick blockbuster titles, 2015 is looking like one of the most sprawling summers for popcorn pleasures in ages. But what's really strange is how many of the most interesting titles have flown so far under the radar, dominated on social media by juggernaut films like Mad Max: Fury Road, Tomorrowland, Jurassic World and Ant-Man. Here are my picks for the 10 movies you might not yet know about - but that you absolutely have to carve out the time to see if you want to get the most out of your cinema trips this summer.
With Furious 7 a box office behemoth and his disaster epic San Andreas positioned as one of Warner Bros.' biggest tentpoles in the summer season, Dwayne Johnson has never been bigger, and that's not about to change anytime soon. The actor has signed on to star in a DreamWorks' sci-fi action comedy titled Alpha Squad Seven, which will send The Rock into the one territory he has yet to conquer: space.
