There is a new featurette for The Giver, and it has me so relieved. The trailer came out a few weeks ago (you can watch it here), and I was a little nervous. First of all, it was all in color. Second, it really played up the action-y elements. I expected that, but there was so much of it in the trailer that I worried they had totally missed the tone of the book. I guess I should have had more faith in Jeff Bridges.

The new featurette is black and white, except for an apple that bursts into color and shatters… something. I don’t know, it’s symbolic, you guys. But the red apple was a nice touch. The Giver is set in a ”colorless dystopian society that enforces Sameness and fears freedom. All memory of human history has been erased, emotion does not exist, and citizens' professions are chosen for them." The main character, Jonas, can “see beyond” the Sameness, and the first time he does, he sees the color in an apple. Another nice touch is putting Lois Lowry, the author of the book, front and center talking about the questions the book raises. I’m wondering if I’m not the only fan of the book who found the first trailer off-putting. This featurette seems designed to soothe our fears. 

It worked for me. I am totally on board now. I’ve gotten a glimpse of the nuance that was missing from the trailer, and let’s be real, Bridges was born to play the Giver. The rest of the casting seems solid. I can even get behind Taylor Swift as Rosemary. Also, I’ve noticed that the footage in the trailer seems to come from later in the film, and most of the footage here seems to come from early in the story. It looks like we’ll transition into a colorful world along with the Jonas. 

The Giver is directed by Phillip Noyce and also stars Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Skarsgard, Katie Holmes, Meryl Streep, Cameron Monaghan, and Odeya Rush. It hits U.S. theaters on August 15.

When the first image of the new costume for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was released last year, most people (including much of our staff) were convinced that it was a fake, photoshopped poster. It seemed like quite a departure from the suit Andrew Garfield wore in the first movie, and it looked suspiciously like the costume designs used in Sam Raimi’s films. But upon closer inspection, the costumes look very different from each other. Our Spidey-sense was way off that day!

The new costume in director Marc Webb’s upcoming sequel is the most faithful interpretation of the suit we’ve seen so far in a live action film. It looks straight out of the comics! But Prinster’s “The Mighty Masks of Spider-Man” infographic proves that the filmmakers could have literally put Peter Parker in a paper bag and still technically remained faithful to the comics.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 hits theaters May 2nd, marking over a half century since Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s now iconic creation first appeared in the comics in 1962.

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I've really liked everything that I've seen for Tom Cruise's upcoming sci-fi action film Edge of Tomorrow. This looks like it could be an incredible movie. We've got a new TV spot for the movie for you to watch today with some new footage. The movie was directed by Doug Liman, and it also stars Emily Blunt, who seriously looks amazing in this movie. 

The epic action of "Edge of Tomorrow" unfolds in a near future in which an alien race has hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, unbeatable by any military unit in the world. Lt. Col. Bill Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop—forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again...and again.

But with each battle, Cage becomes able to engage the adversaries with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Blunt). And, as Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy.

The movie is set to be released in theaters on June 6th, 2014

“Oh wow! You guys are bad parents.”

I’m a big fan of the folks at How It Should Have Ended. They lovingly poke fun at plot holes in films, and within their format they’re able to take the story a step further into realms of rollicking ridiculousness. I do feel, however, that if Honest Trailers gets to a movie first, HISHE doesn’t want to tread any of the same material and their offering ultimately suffers. The Honest Trailer for Disney’s Frozen came out last month, and the ScreenJunkies guys did a fantastic job with it. HISHE’s send up of Frozen falls a little flat in the beginning but it redeems itself with the post credits scene, so be sure to wait and stay for that. I still think one more scene or another quick alternate ending would have been great to see. Hopefully they release an extra bonus scene!

It's been rumored for a long time that Benedict Cumberbatch would be playing a villain in J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: Episode VII. There was a time when the actor was coy about it, but when he was asked about it in a recent interview with The Iris, he said that it's not going to happen.

"I would've liked a part in JJ's new Star Wars but it won't happen sadly."

At one point there was almost no doubt that the actor would be in the movie. Maybe he was going to be in the movie but things changed. I guess there's still a chance that he's just pulling our leg, but who knows at this point. The role would have been a Sith villain, which would supposedly be a major role that will continue throughout the whole new trilogy. 

The casting for the movie is almost complete, and it has been rumored that most of the new cast are going to be lesser known actors, which I think is a good way to go with a movie like this. It would have been awesome to see Cumberbatch in a Star Wars movie, though.

As of right now it's believed that Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, and Harrison Ford will be back to reprise their roles. Then there are names like Adam Driver, Lupita Nyong'o and John Boyega who are believed to be a few of the projects fresh faces. The only character that has been officially confirmed by the studio so far is R2-D2.

Star Wars: Episode VII will be set 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, and the script was written by Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan. 

Artist Dusan Cezek has recreated movie and superhero moments in 19 animated GIF loops. The solid color background, pixel impressionism, and spot on color pallets really encapsulate each character and hero.

We have been speculating about the role Paul Bettany will play in Avengers: Age of Ultron ever since we knew there was going to be in Avengers: Age of Ultron. (Check out this old post speculating that JARVIS could become Ultron. How young we were, how innocent.) The earliest hint that he could play Vision was in August of last year. Variety called it confirmed back in February. On Friday, the actor confirmed it himself.

In an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Bettany, who currently voices Tony Stark’s computer,  said he was making the jump from JARVIS to an actual appearance onscreen as Vision.

"It's very exciting for me, but everything is a double edged sword, right? Because I was playing JARVIS for years and my job was I would turn up at a recording studio for 45 minutes, do all my stuff, and then they would give me a huge bag of cash and then I'd go home. Now it turns out they've found me out and they want me to actually do something!"

Bettany said the filmmakers “pick and choose” which of Vision’s comic book powers he will have on screen.

"I can do all sorts of things, but I'm not allowed to really talk about them and what we're going to do because there might be a Marvel agent in the room who will actually wrestle me to the ground and fire me."

I am so onboard with Bettany doing anything in any movie ever. The thing that’s great about him is even when he is in a terrible movie (and he has made some really terrible movies), he reads every line like it’s Shakespeare. He is going to be so fun to watch kicking it with the Avengers. Can you imagine the face to face snark battle with Iron Man? I cannot wait. Avengers: Age of Ultron will be in theaters on May 1, 2015.

Hat tip: Dark Horizons

Like most kids, when I played with action figures I would imagine these elaborate scenes and epic battles in my mind. My Star Wars action figures have since been put into a box and have been replaced by much cooler/pricier Sideshow Collectibles and Hot Toys 1/6 scale figures. But photographer Zahir Batin’s stunning series of macro shots using Star Wars figurines really has me itching to bust out my beloved box of old toys. Batin’s series ventures into both the solemn and the silly sides of the Star Wars universe. When you’re part of The Empire,  you're often in horrifying and tragic situations. Sometimes you have menial and mundane tasks. And sometimes, apparently, you get to go water skiing. Who knew?

To see more of Zahir Batin’s Star Wars photos, head on over to his Deviant Art page. Thanks to Kotaku.

After struggling to find its way this year, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is finally picking up steam in the wake of Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s universe-exploding twist. It hasn’t been officially renewed for a second season, but it won’t be big news when it is. What is big news is that ABC may be coupling that pickup with a straight to series order of Agent Carter, a new Marvel series about Peggy Carter.

According to Deadline, the project was inspired by the Marvel One Shot that appeared on the Iron-Man 3 Blu-ray. The one shot may be enough to sell ABC execs on the idea, allowing them to forgo the traditional pilot stage. Star Hayley Atwell’s option was recently extended and a script has been in the can for at least three months, but the studio hasn’t made the call yet. The series may serve as a bridge between the fall and spring halves of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., taking over the time slot during their hiatus and connecting to the series plot somehow.

Between this and the Netflix series plan, Marvel is upping their TV game. Let’s hope they can up the quality of their offerings, too, because while Marvel is killing it in the theaters, DC has the edge on TV. Hopefully they can find their footing. Atwell is too big an asset to waste on poor characterization and haphazard plotting.

Via: Slashfilm

Anyone who's played Smash Brothers against someone who picks Kirby knows the hilarity/frustration that happens when your character of choice (in my case mostly Marth) gets eaten by the little pink guy you see above. Sure, it's even worse that he gets your powers for awhile, but above all that it's just insulting to get eaten and spit out like a bad pumpkin pie pop tart (those were so disappointing). Thing is, it seems Nintendo's cast of characters was no longer a big enough obstacle, so the pink wonder moved on to take down Marvel's premier superhero team The Avengers, starting with the de facto leader, Captain America. 

The quite fantastic pic you see above was created in about 20 minutes by artist George Gant (creator of webcomic On The Grind), and as someone already stated, hopefully this is the first of a series of Kirby-vengers mashups. You can catch more of his work on Deviant Art and on Facebook, and let us know what characters you would like to see if it does in fact become a series.

My votes are Kirby Widow, Kirby Ms.Marvel, and Kirby Black Knight.

Via the TFW2005 website, Hasbro has posted 12 character wallpapers for their upcoming movie, Transformers 4: Age of Extinction. The wallpapers feature one character and their name, and the background color indicates whether they are Autobot or Decepticon.

Knowing each Transformer's name and allegiance could be a spoiler for some readers, so consider yourself warned.

The semi-reboot Transformers 4: Age of Extinction gets new humans and new adventures June 27th (USA).

While working on Injustice: Gods Among Us, artist Bruno Redondo was invited to exhibit at the MOMA in Alcazar de San Juan. For the occasion he created the Batman poster design that we are sharing with you today. Redondo notes that Javier G. Pacheco helped with suggestions for the color pallet. The whole piece has a great mood and has a kind of Sin City vibe to it. This would have made a fantastic silk screened poster, which as far as I know does not exist. Maybe if we bug the artist he'll make them.

I’m not super into traditional horror, but I enjoy horror comedy — like Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil and Cabin in the Woods, for example. Director Marjane Satrapi’s The Voices isn’t quite horror, but it’s dark, it’s bloody, and there are some laughs. Did I mention it was dark? I caught the movie earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival where it received mostly positive reviews. I was hoping to embrace this film, but it was mainly just disturbing, unsettling, and sad — despite its colorful displays of whimsy. It also felt much longer than its 1hr. 47 min. run time. Much, much longer.

Empire has released two new images from The Voices featuring Ryan Reynolds and Gemma Arterton. Reynolds stars as Jerry Hickfang, “a lovable but disturbed factory worker who yearns for attention from a woman in accounting (Arterton). When their relationship takes a sudden, murderous turn, Jerry's evil talking cat and benevolent talking dog lead him down a fantastical path where he ultimately finds salvation.”
 
GeekTyrant Editor Joey Paur seemed to have gotten more of a kick out of the film than me, but he also strongly cautioned in his review, “The movie is extremely entertaining, but it is also so wrong on so many levels. If you think you can enjoy watching an insanely black comedy full of bloody scenes that a normal person might not want to see, them I'm sure you'll like the movie!”

I will say that Reynolds gives one of his best performances, I just wish it was in a better film. The movie is being touted as a “genre-bending tale,” which for me translated to “all over the place.” The Voices also stars Anna Kendrick and Jacki Weaver.

There’s no release planned for the US yet, but for all of our UK readers, the film will be showing at Sundance London on April 26th.

The first trailer for David Fincher's Gone Girl is here, and it looks like a fantastic film. I'm a huge fan of Fincher's work. He's great at telling these kinds of stories, and I love the style and tone that he brings to this one. It even looks like Ben Affleck will bring a solid performance. I'm really looking forward to watching this one. 

GONE GIRL – directed by David Fincher and based upon the global bestseller by Gillian Flynn – unearths the secrets at the heart of a modern marriage. On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) reports that his beautiful wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick’s portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?

The movie also stars Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Kim Dickens, Patrick Fugit, Carrie Coon, and David Clennon. The movie is set to be released on October 3rd. Thanks to Comingsoon for the embed.

You gotta love Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. It's full of all kinds of entertaining awesomeness. Here's an incredible set of promotional art for the shows that reside on Adult Swim, and they were created by artist Man-Tsun. The series included in the set are Robot Chicken, The Venture Bros., Aqua-Teen Hunger Force, Metalocalypse, and Harvey Birdman. I love these shows, and I'm incredibly happy that Adult Swim exists to bring us this kind of hilarious entertainment.

Tommy Lee Jones directs and stars in a solid-looking new western called The Homesman. I know westerns aren't very popular these days, but I've always been a big fan, so I'm going to push my western fandom on you. 

The story follows him as a down-and-out man who is saved from dying and recruited to take three literally insane women on an odyssey from Nebraska to Iowa.

The movie looks great and it has an impressive cast that includes Hilary Swank, Hailee Steinfeld, Meryl Streep, Tim Blake Nelson, James Spader, William Fichtner, and Jesse Plemons.

There's no distribution for the film yet, but I hope someone picks it up so I get to see it. 

The latest TV spot for Brett Ratner's Hercules features some new footage and the name of Hercules being praised and chanted. I would love to see an awesome Hercules movie get made. I think it's an incredible character and story that should make for an amazingly epic film. Unfortunately, this movie that stars Dwayne Johnson isn't going to be it. It's kind of sad, after two bad Hercules movies come out in a row that make no money, no one will want to touch the character again. And yes, I'm predicting that this movie will bomb at the box office. I'll be very surprised if it doesn't. 

This Star Wars X-Wing tri-copter model might just be the biggest flying Star Wars model that exists. The thing is 5-feet long and was built out of PVC piping to keep it light at 19 pounds. It flies with the help of three twelve-inch rotor blades that are powered by 1200W electric motors. It may not be very fast or maneuverable, and it doesn't stand a chance in battle, but it's still really cool! It was built by Rodger Cleye and you can watch it take flight right here. Thanks to Technabob for the tip!

Sony Pictures has released an extended TV spot for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and I'm confident that we'll see a lot more TV spots before the movie is released on May 2nd. I should probably point out that this latest spot does include a bit of SPOILER filled information regarding Harry Osborne, unless he's lying to Peter! I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it all plays out when we see the movie in less than a month! 

It looks like Hans Zimmer will return to work with Zack Snyder on scoring Batman Vs. Superman. You would think it would be a no brainier that he would back to score the sequel to Man of Steel, but he previously talked about his hesitation on doing it saying:

“Honestly, I’m just sort of grappling with that right now. Quite seriously, the thought right now is that no, I don’t want to go and take what I did with Chris and just plonk it into another movie. There isn’t one good reason to do it, and there are so many good reasons not to do it.”

I guess the composer ended up coming up with lots of good reasons to do it, because he recently confirmed with Digital Spy that he will be scoring the film after he's done with Christopher Nolan's Interstellar.  Here's what he told them:

"We've already had a couple of chats. And once I finish the movie that I shall not talk about I will probably head over to where Zack is shooting his movie and just hang out a bit and see if we can come up with any ideas."

I'm happy to hear that Zimmer will be back. It will be good that there is going to be some consistency to the musical score of the franchise. I love what Zimmer did with Man of Steal, and all of the other films that he has scored for the matter. The guy is crazy talented at what he does.

Batman vs. Superman will star Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane, Holly Hunter, Callan Mulvey, Tao Okamoto, Jesse Eisenberg, and Jeremy Irons. The movie is set to open in theaters on May 6th, 2016.