It's been rumored for a few months that Tom Cruise would star in Universal's reboot of The Mummy, and now the studio has made it official — but they've also delayed the film for three more months. The film, which was originally supposed to come out this April before being bumped to March of 2017, is now set for a June 9th, 2017 release.

Variety brings us the news, though there's no indication of what character Cruise will portray. He will apparently "play a major part in development," which essentially makes him a player in Universal's writers room dedicated to relaunching the classic Universal Monsters like Frankenstein, The Wolfman, and more into their own modern cinematic universe.

Alex Kurtzman is directing The Mummy, which stars Kingsman breakout Sofia Boutelle as the title villain and will take place in modern day. To read more about what we know of the film so far, click here.

Elder Wars is an awesomely entertaining short film that centers on two elderly men who sit down for a friendly game of chess. That game intensifies immensely as it escalates into an extreme action-packed war of survival. The short was directed by Andrew McMurry of AndrewMFilms, and as you'll see, things get ballistic in the funniest of ways. They use all kinds of weapons to try and decimate each other, from machine guns to magic wands. This short film might be the most fun you have online today. Enjoy!

Fans of Timecrimes and Primer might enjoy Synchronicity, the newest film from writer/director Jacob Gentry. I haven't seen any of his previous movies (I hear The Signal was well-liked), but this low-budget indie is a solid piece of science fiction that handles the concept of time travel with the kind of precision geeks will appreciate.

In the not-too-distant future, physicist Jim Beale (Chad McKnight) leads a three-person team in an attempt to create time travel. Their experiments rely on a powerful substance called MRD that is only manufactured by a single company, run by a shady businessman (Michael Ironside) whose mysterious female companion (Brianne Davis) proves integral to Jim's future. When Jim is essentially blackmailed into giving up the rights to his time machine in exchange for the material necessary to complete his experiment, he ends up desperately sending himself back in time to try to figure a way out of his situation.

McKnight (who looks like a cross between Shane Carruth and Tom Welling) brings an appreciated soulfulness to Jim, Ironside does his usual Ironside thing in a small part, and Davis tries her best to embody a noir-ish femme fatale, but it's A.J. Bowen as Jim's sidekick/lab partner Chuck who comes off as the most natural of the bunch. As much as I like the concept of this movie, some of the dialogue feels more like "movie dialogue" than anything real people would actually say; an early lecture about the history of Tesla vs. Edison struck me as the worst offender in that regard.

But whatever shortcomings the script has are overshadowed by the exceptional atmosphere Gentry creates. The production design evokes Blade Runner with its metallic walls and smoky vibe, as spotlights constantly rove outside and stream through horizontal window shutters, casting shadows everywhere. Much of the movie takes place at night, and avoiding daylight helps keep the audience on our heels when it comes to knowing exactly when the action on screen is supposed to be taking place. The production is obviously limited by a relatively small budget, but they're able to make the most of what they have with a lot of slick location shooting that adds credibility to world-building. There's a great use of macro photography, conjuring imagery that looks like an exploding sun as a visual cue for time travel, recalling the way Darren Aronofsky used similar close-ups in The Fountain to great effect.

But the best part of the movie may be the editing, also by Gentry himself. Every storyteller uses editing as a tool, but this one utilizes a style in which we almost float through the movie from scene to scene; it turns out to be hugely important in how we learn about events in the movie because we don't see everything play out in a completely linear way. The movie jumps around enough to make sense as a character progresses through the story, but then when time travel is factored in and the same character is operating twice in the same timeline, like Marty McFly in Back to the Future Part 2, it will reveal that a different version of that character is just off screen, recontextualizing what we know up to that point.

I don't want to dive deeper into plot specifics because half of this movie's fun is watching how it all plays out, but I will say that the ending was slightly underwhelming and I never fully bought the central romance, which is a big problem since the whole movie hinges on that single relationship. Still, I was interested in what happened next and anxious to see how Gentry tied it all together. I don't think he stuck the landing, but there's enough good stuff here — including a killer synth score — to make this worth recommending to sci-fi buffs looking for a new time travel movie to obsess over.

The Thor: Ragnarok rumors continue to fly. In the wake of their report about the fate of Odin in the movie, Geek.com is back with a new piece of info about the Marvel sequel.

Spoilers ahead.

Cate Blanchett has been in talks to join the cast for a while now, and Mark Ruffalo recently revealed that she'll be playing a villain if her deal goes through. There's been speculation that she might play Hela, the Goddess of Death, and Geek.com's sources tell them that Hela is indeed going to be the major villain of the movie. She'll travel from the realm of Niflheim to Asgard, where she'll team up with Loki in some capacity. But this next part is the most fascinating aspect of this report, and has big implications for the rest of the MCU movies:

There has been speculation that the character of Hela could replace the physical embodiment of Death that Mad Titan Thanos falls in love with when he obtains the Infinity Gauntlet in the comic books on which the Avengers: Infinity War movies are loosely based. The general thought is that having a character representing Death suddenly appear in a big Avengers movie would be more confusing to audiences than a character they already know represents Death from a previous movie...

In Thor: Ragnarok, Hela and Loki will have set their plan well in motion by the time Thor gets wise to what’s going on. Hela ends up creating the incident to Thor’s journey in the film. According to our sources, when Thor confronts Hela, things do not go well. Not only does she banish Thor from Asgard, but she destroys Mjolnir!

Destroying Mjolnir sounds like a pretty huge deal, and I love the idea of Hela being the object of Thanos' affection. It's exactly the kind of streamlined move Marvel Studios has been known to make before: based enough on the comics where fans will see they're paying homage to the source material, while also not going so far into obscurity that they lose general audiences along the way. I hope this all pans out, and most importantly, that the script for Thor: Ragnarok is better than the previous two Thor movies.

Almost fifteen years after the first movie debuted, Zoolander 2 is coming to theaters next month. The film faces the uphill battle all sequels face of having to top the original, but it's arguably even more challenging for comedies than action films or dramas. It's tough to make a comedy sequel that contains elements of the original that people will still like, but not so much that it just feels like a complete retread. I wish Zoolander 2 luck.

Paramount has released a new TV spot for the movie, as well as a video interview with Ben Stiller in character as the idiotic male model Derek Zoolander answering questions from a Vogue reporter. Check both of them out below, and get ready to walk the catwalk again when Zoolander 2 hits theaters on February 12th.

The western movie streak continues! There have been a lot of good westerns recently that include The Hateful Eight, Bone Tomahawk, and Slow West, and Jane Got a Gun is coming up. We’ve got another one on the way called Forsaken, and it stars father and son duo Kiefer and Donald Sutherland. I’ve gotta say, it’s pretty cool to see the Sutherlands starring in a movie together like this. It looks like it will be a decent film worth checking out, especially if you’re into westerns.

In 1872, JOHN HENRY CLAYTON (Kiefer Sutherland) retires as a gunfighter and returns to his hometown of Fowler, Wyoming in hope of repairing his relationship with his estranged father, REVEREND CLAYTON (Donald Sutherland). However, he soon learns that the town is in turmoil, as the railroad will be coming through the area and a criminal gang is terrorizing ranchers who refuse to sell their land. John Henry is the only one who can stop them, but his father does not want his son to return to a life of violence.

The movie premiered earlier this year at TIFF and will be released on February 19th. It was directed by Jon Cassar (24: Live Another Day, Fringe, Daybreak, Terra Nova, The Kennedys) from a screenplay by Brad Mirman. Forsaken also stars Demi Moore, Michael Wincott, Brian Cox, Landon Liboiron and Siobhan Williams. 

I don't know about you, but I've always wanted one of the classic phasers from the original Star Trek series. I've owned some cheap-ass looking toys over the years, but I've always wanted one that looks like the real thing. The newest episode of DIY Prop Shop shows us how to build one for under $50! As you'll see, this thing actually turns out to be pretty awesome. This is one I might actually attempt to make.

According to director Bryan Singer and producer Simon Kinberg, we might actually get to see a new big screen adaptation of X-Men’s Dark Phoenix Saga storyline. We already saw this story arc attempted in X-Men: The Last Stand, but it didn’t do the story any justice. I’m sure fans would love to see the storyline get a proper film adaptation. 

The Dark Phoenix Saga is one of the most popular and best X-Men comic book stories, so I don’t think anyone would object to seeing Singer take a crack at it. The story follows Jean Grey, who becomes possessed by a fiery cosmic bird that makes her one of the most powerful beings in the universe. As you might imagine, that’s an intense thing for her to deal with so she struggles to control that power and that leads her down the path of evil, eventually becoming the Dark Phoenix.

Sophie Turner is taking on the role of Jean Grey in X-Men: Apocalypse, and she is one of the film's main characters. The movie is set in 1983, and it could very well help pave the way for a Dark Phoenix film because these most recent films have altered the future. This means that the events that took place in the original X-Men trilogy aren’t completely solid. They can retell the story in a different way. While talking to IGN, Kinberg said:

“I think everything that hasn't been told from First Class and Days of Future Past is up for grabs going forward, so it would absolutely be a story we could tell in a different way.”

He went on to explain that they will explore the powers of Jean in Apocalypse saying, “We definitely explore how powerful [Jean Grey] is in this movie, and that can be something that is empowering and something that is dangerous.”

It would make complete sense to follow through with this story arc for Jean. Singer admitted that he would “possibly” want to do “the full Phoenix story.” If he did, he would re-explore it, and it seems like they’ve already set the character on the path. He says that “the idea of that brewing within her” is something he wants to play with, and that we “may find a piece of that in this movie.”

I don’t think Fox is going to stop making X-Men movies anytime soon, so this is very much a possibility somewhere down the road, especially if Singer and Kinberg are keen on developing it. I would love to see it happen with Turner in the role, so I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed. 

CineFix has released a great video for all of you movie geeks out there to watch. It offers us a top ten list of what they think are the greatest opening movie shots of all time.

The first moments of a film have the power to set the tone for the entire movie. If the filmmaker does his job right, that first shot has the ability to grab the attention of the audience and suck them right into the story that is going to be told. 

It's really hard to argue with this list. I think they did a great job with it. Some of the films on the list include The Searchers, Raging Bull, Apocalypse Now, Star Wars: A New Hope, Fight Club, The Player, and more. Check it out!

Here's the full list:

Symmetry - The Searchers (1956)
Pushing through the doorway into the wild, capturing the frontier man as he approaches from afar.

Beautiful - Raging Bull (1980)
The operatic shadowboxing of a hooded pugilist, bouncing in slow motion, glowing in the occasional snap of a flashbulb, completely at home in the ring.

Beautiful - Apocalypse Now (1979)
A different kind of operatic violence in its serene ballet of smoke, fire, and helicopters.

In Media Res - Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)
Panning down from those iconic scrolling titles into an empty starscape, a rebel ship screams into frame throwing us into the middle of a chase we know nothing about.

Space - Contact (1997)
A tour of our universe turns into a simultaneous retrospective of modern human history via the reach of our radio waves

Movie Microcosm - Fight Club (1999)
A longshot tour through innerspace - in this case the brain of our hero.

Movie Microcosm - Day for Night (1973)
Creating and subverting our expectations; defining the world we're going to inhabit in a way we don't understand until the next shot turns it on its head

Long Scene - Flowers of Shanghai (1998)
An absolutely beautiful oil-lamp-lit 9 minute long shot that pans patiently back and forth across a table in a Chinese brothel following the complicated dynamic of an entire party.

Long Take - The Player (1992)
A meticulously choreographed crane shot that comments on itself and its industry while simultaneously setting up the entirety of the plot.

Long Take - Touch of Evil (1958)
Criss-crossing a moving bomb with our heroes time and time again, the audience has no choice but to wait anxiously for it to explode.

The Martian supporting actor Benedict Wong is the latest actor to join the cast of Scott Derrickson's Doctor Strange. He will be taking on the role of Strange's sidekick, Wong. So now there are two Benedicts in Doctor Strange!

The highly anticipated Marvel film has been in production for awhile now, and he joins Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams, Tilda Swinton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Mads Mikkelsen. 

Wong is Stange's right-hand man who is is a master in the martial arts of Kamar-Taj. He also performs healing duties, assists in occult matters, and tends to Strange’s affairs. One of his more important duties is looking after Strange’s body when he is astral projecting himself into other dimensional planes.

The actor did a fantastic job in Ridley Scott's The Martian. He was one of those actors that stole every scene he was in, and I think he's a great choice to take on this character,

Source: THR

Deadpool has released a very special message for Australia Day in a new promo video for his upcoming film. In it, he amusingly admits that his role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a career low for him. This is actually one of the funnier viral-type promo videos that have been released for Deadpool. 

Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld recently said that this movie contains the best version of Deadpool that he's ever seen. That's pretty high praise and should get fans even more excited to see this movie when it opens up in theaters on February 12th. To catch up on all of our Deadpool movie news, click here.

A special message from Deadpool. See the Deadpool Movie in cinemas on February 11

Posted by 20th Century Fox on Thursday, January 21, 2016

No doubt a lot of our readers remember the unparalleled frustration of going toe-to-toe with Mike "Can't Figure Out How to Ride a Hoverboard" Tyson in Mike Tyson's Punch Out on the NES. Known as one of the single hardest boss fights of the 8-bit era, but seemingly accurate, as Tyson... View Full Post on GameTyrant

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I’ve been hearing a lot of talk about how epic X-Men: Apocalypse is going to be and how the X-Men have never faced a villain like Apocalypse before. This character is going to take things to a whole new level because of how powerful he is. We know what he’s capable of thanks to the comic books and the cartoon series, but this is the first time he will be utilized in a live action film. When talking about what we can expect to see from the villain in the movie, director Bryan Singer said:

"To me he is the God of the Old Testament and all that comes with that. I started from there. When Oscar and I met, we began discussing, since he isn’t really God, he’s the first mutant perhaps, he’s imbued with certain unique powers. Some of them may or may not be from this Earth."

The director went on to expand on those unique powers that he's obtained over the course of his existence. 

"He has a number of different powers that he’s acquired over the years as he’s moved from body to body, accumulating these various abilities. One of them is to imbue other mutants and to heighten their powers and abilities. Secondly, he can shield from psychic powers; he can form shields so that it makes it harder for a psychic like Xavier to tap in and get to them. He’s not a psychic himself though. He can amplify your power, transform you as a mutant but his ability to physically damage, destroy, or build is in the non-biological world. That’s in the physical world, he can change the inorganic molecules of things. These are some of the powers that we’re exploring and there are some epic things that he does towards the end of the picture."

The filmmaker revealed that Apocalypse’s "greatest power is the power of persuasion.” He explained that that is something the villain has been working on for "tens of thousands of years." He finds "people at a time in a moment when there's an emptiness, when there's a need," and from there he gives them what they need to fill that emptiness and need.

Singer also talked about how he was inspired by cults when developing this character for the big screen. 

"Then we started looking at cults and the nature of cults. True cult leaders develop god complexes, and the old God always traditionally had four horsemen. So I thought a cult has traditionally four factions to it that interest me. It has a political faction, and I’d always felt Magneto could fill those shoes. It always has a military faction, so Archangel could fill those shoes as the guardian. There’s also a youth faction, those that you’re trying to seduce and grow into your cult, the young whose minds are malleable, and lastly the sexual component because cult leaders tend to sexualize their position and have sex with half the people in their cult. And the Psylocke character was a very bright character in the comic but is always looking for guidance and leadership. Always trying to find the right guy, so she starts with one and ends up with Apocalypse in this one. I always thought there was a mixture of ancient religion and cultism combined in the character of Apocalypse."

I’m fascinated by cults, and I like how Singer implemented certain aspects of them into who Apocalypse is and the followers that he recruits. I’m excited to see more of this character as the marketing for the film continues. X-Men: Apocalypse hits theaters May 27th, 2016.

Mortal Kombat, we need to talk. I love ya baby, really I do. But you're getting greedy. I suppose it was a matter of time before we saw a re-release of Mortal Kombat X with all the goodies unlocked and the DLC characters added in, but for those of us who have been playing the game... View Full Post on GameTyrant

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"From the human beans that created E.T."

Disney has released the first poster for Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Roald Dahl's beloved children's classic, The BFG. This movie looks like it has the potential to be great! One of the things that I like most about what I've seen from it is that it has that magical Spielberg touch. I included the teaser trailer for you to watch below in case you missed it.

As you can see, the poster features the young character Sophie, who is played by Ruby Barnhill, as she is excitingly looking up at the big friendly giant.

The BFG (Mark Rylance), while a giant himself, is a Big Friendly Giant and nothing like the other inhabitants of Giant Country. Standing 24-feet tall with enormous ears and a keen sense of smell, he is endearingly dim-witted and keeps to himself for the most part. Giants like Bloodbottler (Bill Hader) and Fleshlumpeater (Jemaine Clement) on the other hand, are twice as big and at least twice as scary and have been known to eat humans, while the BFG prefers Snozzcumber and Frobscottle.

Upon her arrival in Giant Country, Sophie, a precocious 10-year-old girl from London, is initially frightened of the mysterious giant who has brought her to his cave, but soon comes to realize that the BFG is actually quite gentle and charming, and, having never met a giant before, has many questions. The BFG brings Sophie to Dream Country where he collects dreams and sends them to children, teaching her all about the magic and mystery of dreams.

The BFG opens in theaters on July 1st, 2016.

When it was announced that Ezra Miller would be taking over the mantle of Barry Allen in the DC film universe, more than a few feathers were ruffled that TV's Barry Allen, Grant Gustin, was getting the snub. Being a part of that bunch, I wouldn't have blamed Gustin for feeling a bit angry he was being replaced when he has done a phenomenal job as leading man in The Flash on CW. After about a year of silence on the issue, Gustin took to Twitter after a couple misinterpreted actions on his part:

Hey, Twitter. Stop putting words in my mouth. Hate that I felt the need to do this, but read this if you please. pic.twitter.com/uVeoGGYRez

— Grant Gustin (@grantgust) January 22, 2016

Glad to see Gustin is okay with it, and I can see both sides of the issue. The film universe is not connected to the events of the TV series, and it would only confuse and alienate people to try and merge them now. On the other hand, I think Gustin is not just a "TV actor" and if, somewhere down the line, I see Stephen Amell appear in the films as Green Arrow, I'll probably take issue again. For now, as long as Grant's happy, I'm happy. 

Found another reason to talk about how much I love Star Wars: The Clone Wars series this morning! I was never into CSI, but I'm more than familiar with the David Caruso sunglasses thing. This video by EliteMasterLordOfAll spoofs that, and if you're a fan of this one, definitely check out the rest!

When Disney shifted Star Wars: Episode VIII into a December 2017 release date, it set up what was sure to be an epic face-off at the box office: Star Wars vs. James Cameron's Avatar 2. But now The Wrap is reporting that Avatar 2 has been delayed again, but its new date is unspecified.

20th Century Fox originally wanted this sequel to come out in December of 2014, which would have been five years after the original movie hit theaters. It was then delayed to December of 2015, then December 2016, then December 2017, and now this. I should have known the would-be box office battle was too good to be true, simply because the studios wouldn't want to share the limited number of IMAX screens that are available.

It remains to be seen what's going to happen with these Avatar sequels, but Cameron is going to shoot three new movies back-to-back-to-back and intends for all of them to come out one year apart. With Disney seemingly claiming the month of December as Star Wars territory for the foreseeable future, Avatar may have to move to the summer if it wants to goose its numbers with IMAX screens. I actually think it would be a cool opportunity for Cameron and his team to try to open Avatar 2 in February or March, a season most big-budget blockbusters avoid.

I'm starting to get the sense that maybe I've underestimated the potential of future Avatar movies. For the past few years, I've harbored some serious doubts that people would want to return to Pandora so many years after the original, but the massive success of Jurassic World has proven the power of nostalgia is very strong (and international audiences LOVED Avatar, which is why The Force Awakens likely won't ever top its number one spot on the list of highest grossing movies of all time). What do you think?

SNL struck gold when they had Adam Driver parody Kylo Ren on Undercover Boss. The skit has renewed interest in the show, and made "Matt the Radar Technician" an unofficial part of Star Wars lore for years to come. With so many collectible Star Wars characters available as action figures, it's only fair that Matt got his own piece of the merchandising action. Unfortunately this is not for sale, just a concept by Jim Heston that Nerd Apporved managed to seek out!

I'm really bummed out I can't buy this right now.
 

Nooooooooooooooooooooo! Please, anyone but McG...and Brett Ratner. Sony Pictures is in talks with the Charlie's Angels director to helm the live-action big screen adaptation of the 1980s animated classic and action figure line, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. 

Over the years, I've been excited about the possibilities of what a Masters of the Universe film could turn out to be, but if McG is actually hired to direct it, there's no hope. The guy is such a mediocre director who has never made a great film. I don't expect that to start with Master of the Universe.

I don't understand why Sony wants him to direct the film, especially after what he did with Terminator: Salvation. The studio should seriously reconsider what they are doing. Hollywood has been trying to get this new He-Man film off the ground for years, and I'm willing to wait a few more years if it means McG won't direct it.

This news makes me sad. Maybe McG has some fans out there who will be excited about this, but I've never met a fan of his work. I just don't think he has what it takes to make the badass He-Man film that fans would want to see. Hell, after McG's done with it, the 1987 Dolph Lungdren version could still end up being the better movie.

You all know how I feel — what are your thoughts on McG possibly directing this movie?

Source: Deadline