With the release of Star Trek Into Darkness a mere six months away, the Internet is once again abuzz with speculation about just who the hell Benedict Cumberbatch is playing. Now the man himself has attempted to end the speculation – only to fuel more speculation – by telling us all that he’s playing (drumroll!) … John Harrison!
Last year’s espionage thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was not just one of the best spy movies to hit cinemas in a long time (and I include Skyfall in that appraisal); it was also one of Gary Oldman’s finest performances. Now there’s talk of bringing back George Smiley and the gang for another installment of espionage a la Le Carre.
Hollywood has a long history of absorbing Japanese samurai plots – particularly those of Akira Kurosawa – and turning them into Westerns. Seven Samurai became The Magnificent Seven, Yojimbo became A Fistful of Dollars, and so forth. Well, the Japanese are getting some of their own back. Years ago, Clint Eastwood tried to kill the Western in Unforgiven. Now the Japanese have resurrected it in a remake of the same film.
Is there any sci-fi scenario in movies in which Earth has not been eradicated or irrevocably changed for the worst? We already had Tom Cruise gazing sadly around at a post-apocalyptic scenario in the Oblivion trailer, now welcome Cruise’s brother in Xenu Will Smith to the party.
Score another one for reinvigorating my faith in cinema. When I first read the synopsis for Ben Wheatley’s A Field In England – about English Civil War deserters looking for hidden treasure and finding some crazy mushrooms in a field with the help of an alchemist – I was first moved to my usual “WTF?” which then rapidly turned to “Awesome.” I mean, English Civil War, alchemy, mushrooms, a FIELD? What’s not to love?
Now I’m definitely in a glass case of emotion. (Sorry, I had to do it). For once I don’t feel incredibly sarcastic about a news item and it shows! We were all very excited when the Anchorman sequel, Anchorman: The Legend Continues, was announced via late-night flute solo. The news kept getting better when it was confirmed that most of the original cast would be returning. Now we’re beginning to get our first glimpses of what the rest of the cast will look like … and I for one am totally thrilled.
You just learn something new every day. It may count against my cred as a film blogger/cinephile extraordinaire, but I did not know that there was a Scarface remake in the pipeline until about ten minutes ago. But there is, and now we know his ethnicity too! Which was apparently a bit of a secret up until now.
If you’re like me, then you have been waiting with bated breath for the next Shia LaBeouf film. I mean, after Lawless, why wouldn’t you want to see LaBeouf in everything ever? He’s a Method Actor, guys. A Method Actor.
He’s probably the nicest guy in Hollywood, but Steve Carell’s very niceness seems to work against him sometimes. He was way too nice to be a Noah in Evan Almighty, and even his diabolical mastermind turned out to love fluffy stuffed animals and small children in Despicable Me. Now Carell is about to get even nicer, by teaming up with the studio that has made niceness into a brand name.
Imagine a film that stars Michael Cera as a an ‘acidic, self-absorbed’ young man whom we really all love, because why wouldn't you love someone like that? What? That sounds like every other Michael Cera film ever? But this is a new one and it’s set in Chile, not American suburbia, so it’s bound to be different. Right? RIGHT?!
