Director John Singleton has signed on to write, direct, and produce an untitled biopic of the late rapper Tupac Shakur. A biopic about Tupac has been a long time coming, and I think that Singleton is the right director to take on the project. After all, he personally worked with Tupac on his film Poetic Justice. Singleton was in talks for the project a couple years ago, but for one reason or another it didn't go through. It's good to see the the movie is finally going to move forward into production. Singleton had this to say in a statement,

"Tupac was the guy who I planned to do a lifetime of films with. His passing deeply affected my life as well as countless people in this world. His life story is as important to my generation."

He will begin working on a draft of the screenplay, and the plan is to start shooting in the summer. Tupac lead a very interesting life, and in the course of it he released five albums before he was killed 18 years ago. There's some controversy surrounding his life and death, and it will be interesting to see how it is portrayed in the film.

Who do you think should play Tupac?

Via: THR

David Fincher is adapting the UK TV show Utopia with Gillian Flynn, writer of Gone Girl. Utopia is described as a conspiracy thriller with some extra geekyness peppered in.

Via Variety: Utopia revolves around the drama that ensues when die-hard fans of an iconic graphic novel suddenly learn that the author has secretly written a sequel. The hunt for the manuscript becomes a thriller in itself as the meaning of the book is slowly revealed.

Seeing a novelist like Flynn make the jump to screenwriting is a pretty rare thing. Let's hope she’s able to keep what’s so interesting about the original in the American adaptation.

The Fincher produced House of Cards has been wildly successful on Netflix. I’m kinda disappointed that Netflix is not distributing Utopia too, as it would seem to be the perfect audience.

Production has started on the thrilling mountain climbing drama Everest. We have our first look at the film featuring Jason Clarke at the head of a team of climbers. The movie is being directed by Baltasar Kormákur (Contraband), and the cast also includes Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, and Jake Gyllenhaal. The movie tells the true story of two groups of climbers who attempted to climb the world’s highest mountain during an insane snowstorm.

It will be released in IMAX 3D on February 27th, 2015, and here's the full press release with all of the details on the story. This seems like it will be a pretty intense film. 

Universal Pictures, Walden Media and Cross Creek Pictures, announce the start of principal photography on the Working Title Films production of EVEREST.  Universal Pictures will release EVEREST in North American theaters in 3D and IMAX 3D on February 27, 2015.

Inspired by the incredible events surrounding a treacherous attempt to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain, EVEREST documents the awe-inspiring journey of two different expeditions challenged beyond their limits by one of the fiercest snowstorms ever encountered by mankind.  Their mettle tested by the harshest of elements found on the planet, the climbers will face nearly impossible obstacles as a lifelong obsession becomes a breathtaking struggle for survival. 

The epic adventure stars Jason Clarke (The Great Gatsby, Zero Dark Thirty), Josh Brolin (True Grit, No Country for Old Men), John Hawkes (Lincoln, Martha Marcy May Marlene) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Source Code, Brokeback Mountain). They are joined by Martin Henderson (The Ring), Emily Watson (The Book Thief), Michael Kelly (Netflix’s House of Cards) and Thomas M. Wright (television’s The Bridge).  EVEREST will be directed by Baltasar Kormákur (2 Guns, Contraband) and produced by Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, Cross Creek’s Brian Oliver and Tyler Thompson, as well as Nicky Kentish Barnes (About Time). 

EVEREST is adapted for the screen by Mark Medoff (Children of a Lesser God) and Oscar® winner Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire).  Kormákur’s creative team includes director of photography Salvatore Totino (The Da Vinci Code), production designer Gary Freeman (upcoming Maleficent), and costume designer Guy Speranza (The World’s End).  

EVEREST will shoot on location in Nepal on the foothills of Everest, the Italian Alps and at Cinecittà Studios in Rome and Pinewood Studios in the UK. 

Universal Pictures will distribute the film worldwide.

During a recent interview with Total Film, Elizabeth Olsen talked about her role as Scarlet Witch in Joss Whedon's Avengers: Age of Ultron. When asked if she would wear the sultry costume that her character dons in the comics, she said,

“We’ve done some costume stuff, yeah! My favourite piece is my secrecy cloak that prevents anyone from seeing what I’m wearing. There’s a hood, and a robe – it protects the image!

"I don’t think Joss ever would have hired me, honestly, if he wanted me to wear those outfits; I am not a professional athlete and nor am I a model. Wearing those costumes wouldn’t be fun for anyone who wasn’t those things. He already had a different idea. It respects and involves the comic-book character but it’s different, more rooted. It’s for someone today.

"Well, If someone walked around wearing what she wore in the comics, people would stop and say, ‘What the hell… she thinks she’s a superhero!’”

Whedon has always been great with costumes, so I'm excited to see what he's done with the looks of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, who is being played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Via: Super Hero Movies

For years we've been waiting for the classic 1980s series The Wonder Years to be released on DVD, and I'm happy to say that The Wonder Years: The Complete Series will finally be released later this year!

The series starred Fred Savage, Danica McKellar, Dan Lauria, Alley Mills, Jason Hervey, Olivia d’Abo, Josh Saviano, and Daniel Stern. The reason we've had to wait so long is because of some rights issues involving the music in the series. 

Jeffrey Peisch, senior VP of entertainment programming and marketing for StarVista Entertainment/Time Life had this to say in a statement,

“The Wonder Years has long been the most requested TV show yet to be released on DVD, and we’re thrilled to have the incredible opportunity to bring this iconic show to its many fans. As we’ve done with many other classic TV shows, the series will be treated with the care and attention it fully deserves after all these years, with deluxe packaging, robust extras and a lot more. We’re really big fans of the series, too.”

I love this series, and I'll definitely be picking up the series on DVD. 

Via: The Wrap

teagone

If you're like me and you're still not sold on Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in Batman Vs. Superman, here's a piece of fan-made art that might change your mind. The costume design doesn't look too far off from what we might end up seeing in Zack Snyder's film. 

I've also been hearing rumors that we could get our first official look at the main characters from Snyder's film by the end of February. That rumor comes from Forbes blogger Mark Hughes, who tweeted,

@aworas @BenAffleck I've indeed heard that the original planned reveal date for bat-suit, WW suit, & Superman is before end of February...

— Mark Hughes (@markhughesfilms) February 12, 2014

Hopefully that's still the plan, because we all want to see this Batsuit we've been hearing so much about! 

HBO's True Detective is seriously one of the greatest shows on TV right now. If you're not watching the show, you should be. The fourth episode, which aired on Sunday, was insanely good, and to top it off it ended with an incredibly breathtaking 6-minute long take that I've included in this post for you to watch. Above you'll find a cool Mondo poster for the show created by Phantom City Creative.

Thanks to The Playlist for the heads up on the video and to Hypable for the poster. The poster goes on sale Friday, so make sure to follow @MondoNews on Twitter for details.

What could be better than well done Gundam cosplay? Said cosplay done on a snowboard. This photo was captured by @funyafunya0320 (via: Comic Alliance). If you know who this mystery cosplayer is, let us know in the comments.

BIG news being reported today by Reuters is that Star Wars: The Clone Wars will be coming exclusively to Netflix in the US and Canada. The new, final season will be added in its entirety on March 7th, along with the five previous seasons, director's cuts never aired on television, and the feature length film of the same name. This means the series will no longer air on Cartoon Network, and it will mark the first time Star Wars will be coming to Netflix. Knowing Disney and the streaming giant's relationship, what does this mean for the future? I'm sure only more good can come of this!

Sony Pictures just released a third trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It features a few bits of cool new footage, but it still kind of pales in comparison to the 3.5 minute trailer they released previously. In case you missed that, make sure to click here to check it out! The movie comes out on May 2nd, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see at least one more trailer for the film before it's released, but I don't think we'll see that much more new footage. 

UPDATED:
Original embed was pulled so we've updated. If it breaks again let us know on twitter.

Check out this hilariously fun series of Disney character-themed cocktail concoctions created by Cocktails by Cody. So far Cody has crafted drinks based on Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Jasmine, Gaston, Hercules, Snow White, Maleficent, Mulan, Jafar, Ursula, Hades, and more. Do any of these look good to you?

Via: Incredible Things 

After Will Smith's I Am Legend came out the studio wanted to get a sequel into development. They wanted Smith to star in the sequel, the only problem was (spoiler!) his character died at the end of the first movie. Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman was hired to figure out how to make it happen.

In a recent interview with io9, Goldsman shared several of the ideas that he came up with for the film that thankfully never happened. None of the ideas seem like they could have really worked. When asked about the sequel, this is what he said,

Oh no no, [there was] never a movie. I mean, we wrote a prequel [and] a sequel. We had a really interesting prequel, which was the first outbreak of the virus, during a Thanksgiving Day parade, which was awesome. We did a really interesting prequel that [took place] later. Which was right after the first... really right when the population of of humans became pretty decimated. And it was this sort of trek to Washington. Which included a dark seeker elephant that had broken out of the zoo.

Then we did a sequel, that started with Neville again — and you realized that he was cloned. We've tried every which way. In fact if you're available you could be in the next movie. It will never happen but we really enjoyed trying to make it happen.

The first movie was based on the 1954 novel by Richard Matheson, and Vincent Price starred in  the 1964 adaptation The Last Man on Earth, which in my opinion is better than Smith's film. 

Walter White has led quite an interesting life. You can take a look back at all the crazy things that he's gone through in this "Look Back" video from Facebook. Watching it made me sad that Breaking Bad is over, but at least we have the spin-off series Better Call Saul coming! 

Warner Bros. has released the first trailer Melissa McCarthy's new comedy Tammy. McCarthy co-wrote the film with her husband, Ben Falcone, who also directed the film. The trailer shows her character robbing a fast food place while wearing a paper bag disguise.  What helps the trailer pop a little more is the fact that it's cut to Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise." The movie also stars Susan Sarandon, Allison Janney, Gary Cole, Mark Duplass, Toni Collette, Nat Faxon, Dan Aykroyd, and Kathy Bates. It looks like it could be an entertaining film. That McCarthy can be pretty damn funny. 

Tammy (McCarthy) is having a bad day. She's totaled her clunker car, gotten fired from her thankless job at a greasy burger joint, and instead of finding comfort at home, finds her husband getting comfortable with the neighbor in her own house.

It's time to take her boom box and book it. The bad news is she's broke and without wheels. The worse news is her grandma, Pearl (Sarandon), is her only option—with a car, cash, and an itch to see Niagara Falls. Not exactly the escape Tammy had in mind. But on the road, with grandma riding shot gun, it may be just what Tammy needs.

Tammy will be released in theaters on July 2nd, 2014. Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are producing.

Last year, screenwriter Brad Copeland was hired to script The Weinstein Company’s big-screen take on the 1980s series Knight Rider. Since Copeland’s credits are strictly comedies — great sitcoms like Arrested Development and Grounded For Life, and horrid movies like Yogi Bear and Wild Hogs — it was safe to assume that this feature remake would be taking a more comedic route. Those assumptions now seem concrete with SchmoesKnow reporting last night that Chris Pratt and Danny McBride are in talks for the remake.

Considering the recent success of the self-aware, tongue-in-cheek big-screen adaptation of 21 Jump Street and the failure of the 2008 reboot of the Knight Rider series, a comedic take on the property actually seems like the safer bet. The original series starred David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, a lone crimefighter battling the forces of evil with the help of his artificially intelligent supercar K.I.T.T. (voiced by Boy Meets World’s William Daniels).

Pratt and McBride’s involvement hasn’t been confirmed, so take this as a rumor for now. It should be noted, though, that SchmoesKnow’s source is more hit than miss, so the two actors are likely at least in early talks. There’s no word on which actor would take on what role, but with Pratt’s action oriented roles in Guardians of the Galaxy and Zero Dark Thirty, he seems more groomed for Michael Knight with McBride likely being looked at to voice K.I.T.T.

Yesterday, @totalfilm tweeted this artwork that features Tom Hiddleston as every character in Thor: The Dark World. If a higher quality or higher resolution version pops up, we'll update the post.

As silly as it would be, I would totally watch an all Hiddleston Thor movie.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again… Rocket Raccoon is going to steal the show in James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy. We've got some awesome test footage from the film featuring Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and his pal Groot (Vin Diesel) going absolutely ballistic! This was part of the footage that was shown at Comic-Con last year. 

Just so you know, the first trailer for this movie is supposed to be released on February 18th, so stay tuned for that! I'm sure whatever Marvel plans on showing in that trailer will blow fans away.

Thanks to Gamma Squad for the heads up on these videos!

Here’s the first full trailer for Boondock Saints franchise producer Chris Brinker’s directorial debut, Bad Country. The film stars Willem Dafoe, Matt Dillon, Neal McDonough, and Amy Smart. Those are all actors I always enjoy watching — even if the films they’re in aren’t always befitting their talents. Having this group of actors together caught my eye — as did Dafoe and Dillon’s crazy '80s mustaches. I was even more intrigued after seeing the film being touted as a “backwoods gumbo noir.” Here’s some story info from DenOfGeek:

Supposedly inspired by real events, Bad Country is the tale of what happens when one detective’s (Dafoe) investigations leads to the arrest of Jesse Weiland (Dillon), a contract killer for the seedy bayou underworld. Facing life in prison and the prospect of losing his wife (Amy Smart), Jesse cuts a deal to rat on his criminal syndicate. But what always happens to the rat or their families?

Unfortunately, the trailer doesn’t live up to that promising premise. The acting looks stiff, the dialogue is beyond cheesy — Dillon’s lines all sound copy and pasted from other films, and the whole thing comes off like a fake SNL trailer. So, much like the Boondock Saints sequel, this is a film I’ll likely always wonder about but never bring myself to watch.

There’s no US release set for Bad Country, but apparently it will be released on DVD in Europe in March.

This amazing piece of mashup art features our favorite characters from The Walking Dead brutally killing a horde of Hanna-Barbera character zombies. The illustration was created by Derek Langille, and I hope you enjoy the massacre. 

This Japanese remake of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven looks like such an incredible film. I'm a huge fan of the original, and this remake looks like it will be just as awesome. 

The movie is called Yurusarezaru Mono, and it was directed by Lee Sang-il (Hula Girls). Ken Watanabe (Inception) stars in the film as a swordsman who takes a job as a bounty killer.

The story takes place on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido in the 1880s, during a time when Japanese settlers were displacing the native Ainu people. Watanabe plays a samurai with a fearsome reputation as a swordsman who is living in retirement with his Ainu wife when poverty and a large bounty tempt him into action again.

The movie also stars Kunimura Jun, Yagira Yuya, Sato Koichi, Emoto Akira, Koike Eiko, and Kutsuna Shioli. Unfortunately there's still no U.S. release date, but hopefully we get one soon. I need to see this movie!