This fall you'll see Joseph Gordon-Levitt as you've never seen him before: As Bruce Willis. In the sci-fi time-travel action pic Looper, from Brick director Rian Johnson, Gordon-Levitt plays Joe, an assassin who ties up loose ends for the mob by killing targets as they're sent back in time from the future -- until one day his own future self (played by Willis) comes through for extermination. Previewing a teaser for the September release at WonderCon, Johnson and Gordon-Levitt discussed the trickiness of transforming Gordon-Levitt into a young Willis, pulled off with the aid of prosthetics, and why it's particularly difficult to talk about their time travel thriller.
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St. Patrick's Day was not exactly lucky for Nicolas Cage, whose aromatic new thriller Seeking Justice bowed in 231 theaters to a gravely underwhelming $260,000. That would make for a per-screen average of $1,125 and change — by far the worst opening of Cage's 30-year career.
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There's not a lot that looks like it might be able to stop Terrence Jones and the Kentucky Wildcats in their march toward an NCAA men's basketball title. But one person at least found a way to slow Jones down &— and she calls herself a fan.
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It may be indicative of Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders’ fearlessness – or his newness, this being his feature debut – that, after presenting much-anticipated footage to fans yesterday at WonderCon, he nonchalantly dropped the vivid phrase “dwarf gangbangs” into a discussion about his dark (and yes, likely PG-13) allegorical fairytale actioner. (Now that’s how you get the attention of a certain demographic.) For the record, there are no such scenarios in June's action-packed SWATH, but there were many more revelations and key insights to be had into Sanders’ take on the age-old tale, which stars Twilight’s Kristen Stewart and debuts two months after that other Snow White movie dances into theaters.
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Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel Prometheus made the biggest impression on the geek faithful Saturday at WonderCon, where glimpses into the film’s set-up and ensuing space shenanigans were revealed in a new two-and-a-half minute trailer for the sci-fi action film. The trailer (not to be confused with the more truncated one-minute teaser that leaked yesterday) offered more hints at spoilers and narrative threads for fans to try to piece together, not to mention some very interesting new imagery – but how much do Prometheus-watchers really want to know? [Spoiler alert, obviously.]
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Saturday at WonderCon, Timur Bekmambetov debuted new footage and a 3-D trailer for his upcoming revisionist fantasy-actioner history lesson Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter -- the Seth Grahame-Smith-penned retelling of how America's 16th President saved the nation... from vampires. Watch the 2-D version of the trailer after the jump and marinate on the wholly new lessons we can learn from the saga of Honest Abe -- or, as star Benjamin Walker explained to the crowd in Anaheim: "As an American, I want to know that my leaders are strong and have the capacity to make decisions -- and cut some heads off."
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Screening the first 12 minutes of Sound of My Voice and a dynamic new trailer, Fox Searchlight opened WonderCon 2012 with everything they've got -- footage, star/co-writer Brit Marling and director Zal Batmanglij, that viral secret handshake, and an in-character appearance by the film's cult members Klaus and Mel, who addressed the Anaheim Convention Center crowd with a pitch to join them on a spiritual journey. Their invitation: Join them at Booth #348 today, where they'll be happy to meet you, discuss their beloved leader from the year 2054, and "answer any questions and help you with your future."
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A new minute-or-so-long trailer for Prometheus has landed, and while it's unclear how much of this footage will be included in Saturday's planned 2:33 minute trailer debut (which will follow 20th Century Fox's WonderCon presentation), Ridley Scott's June 8 sci-fi pic just keeps the hits coming. Sparse on dialogue, big on images, the trailer teases Prometheus's IMAX release and impresses on the startling strength of its visuals alone.
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This is pure speculation, but it's St. Patrick's Day weekend! Let's connect the dots: Lionsgate and WWE Studios are teaming up on a reboot of the 1993 pic Leprechaun, the creature comedy-horror which infamously featured a young Jennifer Aniston and kicked off a series of terrible films centered on a murderous Irish fairy hell-bent on recovering his precious gold. World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), meanwhile, has a diminutive wrestler named Hornswoggle under contract, whose ring persona is that of a mischievous leprechaun. Pure coincidence, or will Leprechaun mark the next screen debut for a WWE star?
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If only all ticket buyers were anthro majors, amirite? "If I were an anthropologist put on Barsoom, I'd try to integrate myself within the Tharks and learn more about their lifestyle. I'd definitely need to know about the current political climate first. That's always a good idea when you're thrust into an alien environment, here literally. Political unrest kept me out of Bolivia... On Barsoom, I'd be drawn to the civil war, but I wouldn't want to become involved. As an anthropologist, we like to keep our heads down in these types of situations. I actually have a shirt from my old archeology club at Boston University that says, 'Don't shoot — I'm an archeologist!' in 13 different languages. Then again, Tharks don't read." [Box Office Magazine]
Susan Sarandon is a woman at her wit’s end in Jay and Mark Duplass’ comedy Jeff, Who Lives at Home; stuck in mind-numbing office job and still dealing with the problems of her two grown but immature sons – Jeff (Jason Segal), an unemployed pothead, and Pat (Ed Helms), a douchey sales rep – her Sharon spends her days daydreaming about the life she once wanted for herself. As Sarandon confessed in a chat with Movieline, there was plenty in Jeff she related to as a single working mother in an often unforgiving industry – but, as she’s discovered, there’s always “a new dawn, a new day.”
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Friday in Washington D.C., Secret Service agents arrested protesters gathered at the Sudanese Embassy to draw attention to the ongoing humanitarian and food crisis in the North African nation. Among those charged: Members of Congress, Martin Luther King III, the president of the NAACP, journalist Nick Clooney, and his son, George Clooney, whose star power lent the protest an elevated media platform. Ol' George has long been vocal in his political activism, using his celebrity to help shed light on humanitarian concerns, and as evidenced by these 9 most handsomely stoic of Clooney shots from today, he makes social activism look darn good.
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"Russell Brand was NOT arrested for a misdemeanor yesterday ... turns out it was a FELONY, and the late Steve Jobs may be to blame. We did some digging and just found out ... in Louisiana property damage that exceeds $500 triggers a felony arrest. You'll recall, Brand allegedly snatched a photog's iPhone Monday night and hurled it through a plate glass window. The iPhone alone costs more than $500...Steve Jobs famously believed he could charge a lot for the iPhone -- and did. And now Russell is paying dearly for it." [TMZ]
Gary Ross may have been an unexpected choice to direct The Hunger Games, but his quest for the gig was no less obsessive than the fervor of the novels’ fans; it took him exec-stalking across the Atlantic, involved elaborate custom-made storyboards, and inspired him to make a video of actual Hunger Games fans and their love for Suzanne Collins’s sci-fi series. (Besides, who else could’ve brought on Steven Soderbergh to direct second unit on one of the film’s big scenes?)
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The first trailer for Tim Burton's Dark Shadows was unveiled today, revealing what Burton really has up his sleeve for his adaptation of the cult soap opera. Namely: Gothic guffaws! 1970s humor! Johnny Depp playing vampire Barnabas Collins with that unmistakable Johnny Depp quirk! Seriously, is every Depp role for the rest of time going to feel like some variation on his Hunter Thompson? Anyway: Check out the trailer and unleash your thoughts.
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