Martin Scorsese is hands down one of the greatest directors that has ever lived. I think I've enjoyed every movie that he's ever done. But, of course, I like some more than others. He has a brilliant and unmistakable directing style. Today we have a video essay that focuses on his use of silence. The video comes from Tony Zhou, and this is the description that came with the video:

"Even though Martin Scorsese is famous for his use of music, one of his best traits is his deliberate and powerful use of silence. Take a glimpse at fifty years of this simple technique from one of cinema's masters. For educational purposes only."

Sit back, relax, and learn something about Scorsese's storytelling for the next six-minutes.

"How many of us can recall that moment when we experience happiness as a state of being, that moment when everything in our world was alright?"

Koch Media Films has released a new UK trailer for Simon Pegg's inspirational movie Hector and the Search for Happiness. This, my friends, is going to be the feel good movie of the year. Just watching this trailer made me happy. And who doesn't want to feel happy?!

The movie also has a fantastic supporting cast that includes Christopher Plummer, Rosamund Pike, Stellan Skarsgard, Toni Collette, Jean Reno, and Veronica Ferres. Here's the synopsis:

Hector (Pegg) is a quirky psychiatrist who has become increasingly tired of his humdrum life. As he tells his girlfriend, Clara (Pike), he feels like a fraud: he hasn't really tasted life, and yet he's offering advice to patients who are just not getting any happier. So Hector decides to break out of his deluded and routine driven life. Armed with buckets of courage and child-like curiosity, he embarks on a global quest in hopes of uncovering the elusive secret formula for true happiness. And so begins a larger than life adventure with riotously funny results.

The film will get a limited release on September 19th, 2014, and then expand into more theaters on October 3rd.

It has yet to be confirmed when or if Dick Grayson a.k.a. Robin will be introduced into the DC Comics universe that Warner Bros. and Zack Snyder are developing. But if it happens, there's one big actor that has expressed interest in taking on the role, and that's Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe.

During a rapid fire Q&A with Buzzfeed, the actor was asked what franchise he'd like to join next, and this is what the actor had to say, "Batman. If they reboot that again I’ll do that too. It’s happening, isn’t it? With Ben Affleck. I could be Robin, I’m perfect."

Is he perfect though? As much as I like Radcliffe as an actor it's really hard for me to imagine him as Robin or Nightwing. There's a rumor floating around online that Batman v. Superman takes place years after Bruce Wayne and Grayson had a falling out and the two haven't spoken to each other in years. If that's true, then when Grayson is introduced it will be as Nightwing. There's also the possibility that Batman could have one of the other Robin characters by his side.

There was another rumor early on that Girls co-star Adam Driver was up for the part of Nightwing in Batman v Superman, but that hasn't been confirmed either. As time goes on we'll eventually see what comes of these rumors. In the mean time, what do you think about Radcliffe as Robin? He has a great relationship with the studios making the movie, so them considering him doesn't seem like it's out of the question. 

Via: Collider

A few years ago Sylvester Stallone was developing a fifth Rambo movie called Rambo V: Savage Hunt, but the development of it was shut down in 2011. Since then, there hasn't been much talk of a new Rambo movie. There was a TV series announced last year, but Stallone isn't going to be a part of that.

Some information has now surfaced from Splendid Film that the production companies that are developing the TV series have bought the rights to the next film. They also say that Stallone will be coming back to reprise his role. A press release was posted, but it's in a different language. This is what part of it translates to:

"With Rambo V Sylvester Stallone returns in his iconic role. This time he goes up against a Mexican cartel. Stallone, who has also written the screenplay, describes the new Rambo as his version of No Country for Old Men. Like the last film, Rambo V is produced by Avi Lerner (The Expendables 1-3)"

I really enjoyed Stallone's last film in the franchise, John Rambo, and it would be cool to see him come back and go ballistic. The plot for the new film doesn't sound as exciting as the one the actor was working on back in 2009, but I'm sure it will provide fans some solid entertainment if it actually happens.

The movie Stallone wanted to make was going to be an adaptation of James Byron Huggins' novel Hunter. This was the synopsis:

John Rambo could track anyone - or anything - on earth. Now the military desperately needs him for a mission that his ultrasensitive instincts tell him he should refuse. A beast is loose somewhere north of the Artic Circle. It has already decimated a secret research facility and annihilated a squad of elite military guards. And the raging creature is headed south toward civilization, ready to wreak bloody devastation.

It's a job that Rambo and his 22-year-old hunting partner, Beau Brady, can't turn down, but they and a team of highly-skilled special forces kill team discover that the prey is a terror beyond their wildest imagination - a half-human abomination created by a renegade agency through a series of outlawed genetic experiments. It has man's cunning, a predator's savageness, and a prehistoric power that has transcended the ages. And even if Rambo and Beau survive its unrelenting hunger for human blood, they'll still have to contront the grim reality that it may have grown immortal.

Are you excited to hear that Stallone could be coming back for at least one more Rambo movie? 
 

Today marks the 25th anniversary of Tim Burton's 1989 film Batman. This movie was so awesome, and I personally think it still holds up today. I watched this movie again a couple months ago and was entertained from beginning to end. It was a true comic book movie. I got a chance to see the movie on opening day at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. It was actually my first time seeing a movie in the legendary theater, and I still remember the experience of walking in and being wowed by how big it was, and there was a huge Batman symbol projecting on the curtains of the screen. It was a great day, and an amazing movie. Christopher Nolan himself called it "...a brilliant film, visionary and extraordinarily idiosyncratic...".

As a way to pay tribute to the film, I've come up with 10 fun bits of trivia that you might not know about it.

• Robin Williams was offered the role of The Joker when Jack Nicholson hesitated. He had even accepted the role, when producers approached Nicholson again and told him Williams would take the part if he didn't. Nicholson took the role and Williams was released. Williams resented being used as bait, and refused not only to play The Riddler in Batman Forever (1995) but to be involved in any Warner Bros. productions until the studio apologized.
• The Batmobile was built on the chassis of a Chevy Impala. It was 20 ft long, had an 8 ft wheelbase and weighed 1 and 1/2 tons.
• The casting of Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman caused a controversy amongst comic book fans, with 50,000 protest letters sent to Warner Bros. offices. Bob Kane, Sam Hamm and Michael E. Uslan also heavily questioned the casting.
• In order to combat negative rumors about the production, a theatrical trailer was hastily assembled to be distributed to theaters. To test its effectiveness, Warner Bros. executives showed it at a theater in Westwood, California to an unsuspecting audience. The ninety-second trailer received a standing ovation. Later, it would become a popular bootleg at comic book conventions, and theater owners would report patrons paying full price for movie tickets just to have an opportunity to see the trailer, and leaving before the feature began.

• Keaton was unable to hear while wearing the Batsuit. He said that his claustrophobia helped get him in the proper mood to play Batman. "It made me go inward and that's how I wanted the character to be anyway, to be withdrawn," he said.
• In the original script with Robin included, the Flying Graysons (John, Mary, and Dick) are introduced at the parade scene. The Joker shoots the trapeze artists sending John and Mary to their deaths and leaving Dick to survive. Dick later becomes Robin in full costume at the end. The special edition version of the DVD release of Batman (1989) features an animated storyboard sequence of The Complete Robin Storyboard Sequence (2005), where Dick Grayson was voiced by Jason Hillhouse, and Batman and the Joker were voiced by Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill respectively.

• Kiefer Sutherland was offered the role of Dick Grayson and turned it down before the character was subsequently written out of the script.
• Michael Jackson was asked to write and perform the songs for the movie, but he had to turn it down due to his concert commitments. Two separate soundtracks of the movie were released, one featuring the songs by Prince, and the other of Danny Elfman's score. The Prince CD included songs not used in the movie, and other unused songs were released as B-sides on the singles released from the album.
• The surgical tools used to "reconstruct" the Joker's face are the same props as the dental tools used by Steve Martin on Bill Murray in Little Shop of Horrors (1986). Coincidentally, Jack Nicholson appeared in Murray's role in the original The Little Shop of Horrors (1960).
• Below you'll find the sketch pitch for the Joker that producer Michael Uslan's created from a newspaper clipping of Nicholson's The Shining. 

Thanks to IMDb for the information!

turtlereveal.com

Paramount Pictures has released a character poster featuring Leonardo for director Jonathan Liebesman's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The leader of the Ninja Turtles is being voiced by Johnny Knoxville in the film, but we have yet to hear exactly what the character will sound like. We can expect to see three other Ninja Turtle character posters in the near future so stay tuned. 

The city needs heroes. Darkness has settled over New York City as Shredder and his evil Foot Clan have an iron grip on everything from the police to the politicians. The future is grim until four unlikely outcast brothers rise from the sewers and discover their destiny as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Turtles must work with fearless reporter April and her wise-cracking cameraman Vern Fenwick to save the city and unravel Shredder’s diabolical plan.

The movie comes out on August 8th, and I'm still not sold on the look.

Kelsey Grammer was introduced as Beast in the X-Men franchise in The Last Stand, and he made a very very brief appearance in Days of Future Past at the very end. Grammer revealed in an interview with Collider that he reached out to director Bryan Singer for a role in the last movie, and says that he hopes to do another one. Here's what he had to say about reaching out to Singer:

“Actually I called Bryan, I bumped into Hugh Jackman and he said, ‘Oh you’re gonna be in another X-Men, mate!’ and I said, ‘No I’m not, I don’t know anything about it.’ So I made a couple of inquiries, got a hold of the script, found out that it’s primarily dealing with the past and that timeline I don’t have a place in, but I saw that at the end there was this coda where he made an appearance. I said, ‘Listen, I really want to be involved,’ so Bryan arranged for it and I had a lovely time.”

It's pretty awesome to see thst Grammer wanted to be involved with the movie even if it wasn't that big of a part. Here's what he had to say about his desire to reprise his role:

“I hope to do another. I hope they find some way to come up with a new story that involves Beast in my timeline.”

I liked that Grammer was cast as Beast. It seemed like an odd choice when it was first announced, but he was great. I hope that Singer does include him again in a bigger role at some point.

If you're headed to San Diego Comic-Con this year you better star lining up for Hall H now because Warner Bros. is going to be showing off the first footage from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice this year! I figured there was a solid chance that this would be the case, but the confirmation comes from El Mayimbe from Latino Review who tweeted out the following information:

HOT #SDCC2014 RUMOR! The DC/Warners panel will show a hot clip from BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE. FIND SPOT @ HALL H line NOW! RT

He then followed that up with:

Hearing a hot rumor that the new BATMOBILE will be at comic con. #SDCC #SDCC2014 RT

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is currently shooting in Detroit, so there's definitely going to be some footage for director Zack Snyder to show off. 

Sounds pretty freakin' awesome to me! I'd love to see what that thing looks like in person. This is sure to be yet another amazing year at the epic geek con, and we'll be there to cover the insanity. We'll keep you updated on any other news in regards to the convention, so stay tuned.

Another piece of Guardians of the Galaxy fan art has surfaced, and this one comes from artist Vincent Rhafael. I'm so stoked to watch this movie that I'll post anything on it that I think is cool. If you come across anything for the film that you think is awesome please send it over to us because I want to see it! 

Paramount Pictures has done an ok job with bringing the Transformers to life on the big screen, but they've dropped the ball on G.I. Joe, twice. I don't know what's so difficult for them about getting G.I. Joe right, but they keep making crappy films, and that's what I'm expecting from the third one. 

I always did think that it would be cool to see the world of Transformers and G.I. Joe collide on the big screen. Marvel did it the comics and it was pretty awesome. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like a movie crossover like that will ever happen. In a recent interview with MTV, producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura is asked about the possibility, and this is what he said: 

"No, we haven't spent a moment on it. I know they did it in the comic books, but I think the reality that we're looking at is...it's hard enough to figure out how to do it alone and [then] trying to figure out how to do it together...I don't think that it's as organic as people think. I know a lot of the fans feel that way and I don't think they're wrong. I find it a harder thing to do, think about trying to combine the schedules of all the different people. So, that alone will probably stop us."

So basically what he's saying there is that he's too lazy to try and make it happen. Oh well, maybe someone will at least try to give us an animated movie crossover of these two franchises one day.

Get More: Movie Trailers, Celebrity News

When Marvel hired Scott Derrickson to direct their upcoming Doctor Strange movie, my first thought was, I hope he casts Édgar Ramírez. Turns out, he might! Ramírez is doing press for the Derrickson-directed thriller Deliver Us From Evil, and IGN asked him if the director had approached him about a role in the Marvel movie. The actor said,

"We’re talking. We’ve been talking."

I would like Ramírez to be in all the things, so I am hoping that means he is about to sign on to star in Doctor Strange. But the actor wouldn't elaborate on what exactly they've been talking about, so it could mean that he joins Jared Leto, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Tom Hardy on the short (but apparently growing) list of actors up for the titular role, or it could mean that he is in the running to play Doctor Strange’s nemesis Baron Mordo, or it could mean that he is being considered for an entirely different part. But whichever, the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be all the richer with Ramírez in a major role.

Even if you don’t know him by name, you’ve probably seen the Venezuelan actor in something. At the very least, you saw him pursue Matt Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum, but his credits include Ché, Vantage Point, Wrath of the Titans, Zero Dark Thirty, and The Counselor. He received multiple nominations for his portrayal of the famous assassin in Carlos, and he was pretty much the only good part of Domino, which was his English language debut and the first time I saw him on screen. I have been a major fan of his ever since.

Ramírez made waves in the geek community back in 2011, when he turned down the role of Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness. If Cumberbatch ends up playing the Sorcerer Supreme and Ramírez is cast as Baron Mordo, it could be a fun moment for fanboys. Whether or not he gets an offer or takes a part in Doctor Strange, you’ll have plenty of chances to see him on the big screen in the future. Deliver Us From Evil opens July 2, the Simón Bolívar biopic The Liberator hits theaters October 3,* and he recently signed on to replace Gerard Butler in the Point Break remake, which should come out in August 2015. 

Doctor Strange doesn’t have an official release date yet, but it is scheduled to shoot in the spring of 2015.

Source: IGN via IndieWire

*A previous version of this article misstated The Liberator's release date.

Marvel has unveiled Skottie Young's Spider-Verse variant cover art and it features every incarnation of Spider-Man ever created. The first variant will debut on Superior Spider-Man #32 and the second will debut with The Amazing Spider-Man #9.  Every time I see new work from this artist I can't help but smile. 

Thanks to Harrison Ford's leg injury, it's looking like the release of Star Wars: Epsiode VII will have to be pushed to 2016. The rumor originated at Jedi News, who reports that an emergency meeting was held at Pinewood Studios yesterday to discuss the situation. 

Apparently a number of sources are telling the site that production of the film could be pushed back by a "substantial amount of time." 

Turns out Ford didn't sprain or break an ankle, instead he apparently he broke his leg. Next thing we know we'll be hearing that the poor guy broke his neck! Ford is a 70-year-old man now, and his bones don't heal as fast as they used to, so it might be a slow process for him to heal. It makes sense that production may have to be extended and the release date pushed. 

This news really does kind of suck, but fact of the matter is I've waited this long for these new Star Wars movies to happen, I can wait a little longer. Hey! They can rewrite the script to incorporate the broken leg! Han Solo in a wheelchair, pushing himself through the hallways of the Millennium Falcon, and Chewbacca could always push him around in battle. 

I've been hearing a lot of great things about Michael Fassbender's upcoming movie Frank, and today we have a new trailer for you to watch. The film premiered at Sundance, but I didn't get a chance to see it while I was there. The movie looks ridiculously fantastic though, so I'll most definitely be checking it out. A lot of you will probably think this movie looks really odd, which is one of the main reasons why I'm sold it. I enjoy weird off-beat stories like this. 

Frank is a comedy about a young wannabe musician, Jon, who discovers he’s bitten off more than he can chew when he joins a band of eccentric pop musicians led by the mysterious and enigmatic Frank and his terrifying sidekick, Clara. Frank’s uniqueness lies in the fact that he makes music purely for the joy of creating…and because he wears a giant fake head. After a rocky start, Jon ingratiates himself with the band members, and they retreat to a cabin in the woods to record an album. As his influence waxes, creative tensions mount, and the band’s entire raison d’être is called into question.

Frank opens up in theaters on August 15th.

I love a good psychological thriller. If there's a supernatural element to the story, it also has the potential to mess with my mind and freak me out. There's a new film coming out from Sinister director Scott Derrickson called Deliver Us From Evil that looks like it will do just that. One of the craziest aspects of the film is the fact that it's based on actual events. 

I've always been interested in the supernatural, and I've done a good amount of reading up on this kind of stuff over the years. When I see a movie that is based on a true story, I like to do a little research to see what really happened.

Deliver Us From Evil, which premieres July 2, follows the true account of NYPD Sargent Ralph Sarchie, and it's based on the book he wrote, Beware the Night. The stories are directly taken from Sarchie's undisclosed police files. In the movie, Sarchie (played by Eric Bana) meets a renegade priest (played by Édgar Ramírez) during a case, which that the priest believes is demonic related. At first the officer doesn't believe in that kind of stuff and needs some convincing. They team up to solve the case and in the process combat the paranormal forces working against them. You get a little bit more insight into what Sarchie experienced in the description of the book that you can read below:

"A sixteen-year NYPD veteran, Ralph Sarchie works out of the 46th Precinct in New York's south Bronx. But it is his other job that he calls ‘the Work’: investigating cases of demonic possession and assisting in the exorcisms of humanity's most ancient—and most dangerous—foes. Now he discloses for the first time his investigation into incredible true crimes and inhuman evil that were never explained, solved, or understood except by Sarchie and his partner. Schooled in the rituals of exorcism, and an eyewitness to the reality of demonic possession, Ralph Sarchie has documented a riveting chronicle of the inexplicable that gives a new shape to the shadows in the dark.”

I can't even imagine what it would be like to go through the stuff that Sarchie has! I've done a little ghost hunting with friends for fun in the past, but I've never experienced anything like what is described in his book. According to reports he's conducted over 50 paranormal cases in his career, and in a recent trailer for an upcoming documentary called Sarchie, he says, "I'm a demonologist, and I'm going head to head with the devil." Throughout his career he has investigated witches, confronted satanists, and assisted in 20 exorcisms, some of them exhibiting extraordinary phenomena.

In a 2004 interview on radio show Coast to Coast, Sarchie detailed some of his nightmarish encounters with poltergeists and the supernatural, like an 8-year-old girl who was possessed and spoke fluent Latin. Sarchie explained to Coast to Coast that the exorcisms he assists on "are often performed at a church, and the person having the ritual performed on them, is usually restrained, sometimes even straight-jacketed. People can sometimes become possessed by curses, particularly by family members, if they are fueled by intense hatred." He also noted that according to the late Father Malachi Martin, who was a friend of his, "demonic spirits inhabit a 'middle plateau,' that is somewhere between our plane of existence and the realm of God."

Eric Bana's co-star Olivia Munn revealed at a press conference that this stuff was so frightening for him that he couldn't sleep for three weeks while he was researching the events described in Sarchie's book. Bana then went on to say that he was "coming from a skeptical place" when he took on the role and added, "[Director] Scott [Derrickson] scared the bejeezus out of me in pre-production. He had access to some materials that Ralph Sarchie had."

I'm really excited about this movie. In my opinion, the closer they stick to the original stories and source material the scarier the movie will be.

Paramount Pictures has released four new character posters for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles featuring the four fan favorite characters from the franchise. An international trailer was also released, which you can watch below thanks to The Film Stage. The trailer offers up a ton of cool new footage including a confrontation between Shredder and the four shelled heroes. Even though I don't really like the look of the turtles, the movie still looks like it will entertain audiences. The film was directed by Jonathan Liebesman (Battle: Los Angeles, Wrath of the Titans), and it's set to be released on August 8th!

Yesterday marked the 25th anniversary of Tim Burton's wonderful big screen adaptation of Batman. At that time, comic book movies were kind of a new thing, audiences weren't used to them, so the studio had to try and find ways to convince them on watching a dark and serious take on the superhero. 

One of the things they put together was a 20-minute behind-the-scenes documentary short that takes us through the history of the character, and points out all of the thought and work that went into creating Burton’s movie. That doc has now been released online for all of you to watch!

The doc comes from 1989Batman.com, and they talked to director Andrew Gillman about it, and this is what he had to say:

"Warner Brothers had found themselves in a very difficult situation at the time. The marketing director at Warner told me that Adam West had been going to various media outlets stating that he should be Batman, that his Batman was the only true Batman, and that this dark thing that Warner was doing had nothing to do with Batman at all. This caused a problem for Warner Brothers because it created doubts in the minds of the film distributors and merchandisers around the world.

"Since the longer lead time involved in both merchandise production and film distribution requires a gamble on how a film will look in its finished form, Warner needed to create something to reassure these investors that Tim Burton’s vision for movie was going to work, that this movie was going to be successful. They needed to show them that Adam West’s statements were inaccurate, and that the film would present a version of Batman truer to the comic than the campy, comedic TV show of the 60’s. The opening sequence of the preview film has very specific references to clue-in these investors that the film was returning to Batman’s true heritage, with the West TV show being addressed as merely a footnote in the overall history. In fact, this film would be the vaccination of the Adam West Batman- returning to the character all the wonder of the original comics. So this whole opening statement is basically an assurance to the viewer that Warner is presenting you with the “real” Batman now."

There's a lot of great stuff loaded in the video so I hope you enjoy it!

Parks and Rec star Nick Offerman narrates this hilarious western genre short film called The Gunfighter. The narrator plays a huge part in this story, not only can the audience hear what he's saying, but so can the characters in the film. The narrator begins to talk about the gunfighter's inner thoughts and feelings as he enters a saloon full of people for a drink. The only thing the gunfighter can do is deny everything as it all unfolds. The short was directed by Eric Kissack from a script written by Kevin Tenglin, and it's amusingly vulgar and inappropriate. Enjoy the show! 

It looks like there's a chance that Tom Cruise could make a cameo appearance in J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: Episode VII. The rumor originated from Mirror.co.uk, who says the actor was recently in London and that he's met with Abrams and several other members of the production staff in regards to appearing in the continuing saga.

I have no idea if there's any truth to this rumor or not, but it's out there. You've got to remember that Cruise gave Abrams his big screen shot with Mission: Impossible III, which basically launched his filmmaking career. If Cruise wants to show make a brief appearance in the film, Abrams might just grant him that. 

If it happens, I could see Cruise being a major distraction, but I doubt Abrams will do anything to pull the audience out of the film they're watching. He doesn't seem like the kind of filmmaker that would do that kind of stuff. It will be interesting to see how this develops. 

Director James Gunn recently confirmed that Nathan Fillion would be making a small cameo in Marvel's sci-fi space adventure Guardians of the Galaxy. Thanks to Schmoes Know, we might know what that cameo will be. If you don't want it spoiled for you then don't read any further.

A lot of people thought that he would be playing Nova in the movie, but that isn't the case at all. In fact, Gunn himself denied it saying that the rumors have been "greatly (and entirely) exaggerated." The character he might be playing though is still really cool! Here's what the site reports:

"According our very reliable source with intimate knowledge of this and the production has spoken exclusively to us about this and we here at Schmoes Know have our answer:

"Nathan Fillion will be voicing the part of Cosmo, the psychic Russian cosmonaut dog that has appeared in the Guardians of the Galaxy comics."

How freakin' awesome is that?! For those of you who are not familiar with the character, here's some info:

Cosmo is a telepathic Russian dog in the Marvel Comics universe. The character was created by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, first appeared in Nova vol. 4 #7. Within the context of the stories, Cosmo is the security chief of the spacestation Knowhere and a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

This is perfect for Fillion, and it's great to see that this character will be included in the film. Since it's a voice role it also keeps Fillion open for actually appearing in any future Marvel movie installments, which I'm convinced will one day happen. In the mean time, I'll be ecstatically happy that he'll be providing the voice of Cosmo, the telepathic Russian dog.