Rejoice, Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz faithful! At long last, the eagerly anticipated threequel in Edgar Wright's "Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy" (AKA "The Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy" -- Wright's version of Kieślowski's Colors series) is on its way. Deadline reports that The World's End, to be directed by Wright with collaborators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost starring, is set to begin filming this September with fingers crossed for a spring 2013 release. But wait, there's more! Get a taste of the trio's upcoming shenanigans from the film's synopsis, which promises adventure, friendship, and -- what else? -- pubs.
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Even laundromats are scary to children's author-turned-crime novelist Simon Pegg in the intriguing British indie A Fantastic Fear of Everything, which is just about the most promising new trailer I've seen all week, and delightful to boot. Enjoy Pegg's litany of neuroses (and a stop-motion hedgehog!) in this first look at the film, directed by Kula Shaker frontman Crispian Mills.
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In the decade or so since Nick Frost first made a name for himself on the BBC comedy series Spaced, much has happened. For starters, he's not waiting tables at that Mexican restaurant. He's moved with ease from television to film, most famously in genre riffs Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (with Spaced comrades Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg), and in the alien geek ode Paul (which he co-wrote and stars in with Pegg). Also notably, Frost has ventured out from the fold in films like Pirate Radio and the forthcoming Snow White and the Huntsman. And, with this week's The Adventures of Tintin, he notches another milestone: Working with his hero, Steven. Steven Spielberg.
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What does it take to revive a passion for one's work, years on, whether said vocation is saving the world or churning out sequels in a blockbuster franchise? How does one reclaim human contact in today's isolating, gadget-dependent world? These are questions IMF agent Ethan Hunt and his portrayer Tom Cruise face in Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol, Cruise's fourth outing in the spy series, directed entertainingly enough by Pixar veteran Brad Bird. If the hoodied Cruise evokes a touch of Eminem-level moodiness in the posters, it's with good reason: Stopping a maniacal supervillain may be on the docket yet again, but this time around Ethan Hunt has gone emo.
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This Dec. 16, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol premieres in IMAX five days in advance of its general release. Why exactly? Probably to encourage fans of the Tom Cruise franchise to see the picture in the large format director Brad Bird intended when he shot thirty minutes-worth of the fourth Ethan Hunt film in IMAX. To convince journalists that the large format is indeed worth higher ticket prices, an advance release date and a little early buzz, Paramount screened about 20 minutes worth of wild action sequences at the Rave 18 theater in Los Angeles last week. Ahead, the stomach-flipping details (and very mild spoilers).
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Just when you thought that the trailers for Steven Spielberg's upcoming The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn couldn't get any more action-packed, Paramount and Columbia have unveiled a brand new peak at the highly-anticipated motion capture 3-D film that will have you frantically etching the release date -- December 23 in the U.S. -- onto every available calendar surface. Just like you've already done for Adam Sandler's Jack and Jill.
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After taking a 13-year sabbatical from feature directing, comedy legend John Landis is back with the black comedy Burke and Hare, which stars Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis (sans CG, looking like himself!) as notorious 19th century criminals William Burke (Pegg) and William Hare (Serkis), who committed a series of murders in order to sell their victims' bodies to science. Watch three new clips from the September release and decide: Is Landis back in fine comic form?
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Universal's geek bonding road trip flick Paul screens shortly tonight at SXSW, but another sci-fi alien pic with ties to the Nick Frost-Edgar Wright-Simon Pegg universe may have already stolen its thunder: Attack the Block, director Joe Cornish's horror comedy about inner-city London kids who channel their delinquent ways into survival skills when vicious space invaders descend.
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The great thing about the massive program at the SXSW Film Festival, which starts this week, is that it runs so deep and it takes so many chances, whether on up-and-coming directors, megastars in need of PR miracles (looking at you, Mel), or random collaborations between artists so awesome, the mere idea of them working together blows your mind (four words: Die Antwoord + Harmony Korine). But many of these folks have a lot riding on their SXSW debuts. Movieline names 10 films and filmmakers with something big prove this week in Austin.
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