Zero Dark Thirty star Jessica Chastain is in talks to take on the lead female role opposite Matt Damon in Ridley Scott's sci-fi film The Martian.

The story is based on an e-book written by Andy Weir that follows an astronaut who gets stranded on Mars and must figure out how to stay alive long enough to get back home. The movie has been described as a cross between Cast Away and Apollo 13.

Chastain is a great actress, and she and Damon should make a great on screen team. She's also been in films such as Lawless, Tree of Life, and A Most Violent Year, which comes out later this year, as well as Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. 

Here's a more detailed description from the book:

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. 

Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. 

Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. 

But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

There was a point where it looked like Jason Momoa would be playing the character Drax in James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy. I'm glad it didn't happen because Dave Bautista was perfect for the role. Marvel concept artist Andy Park has released a few more pieces of concept art that he did for the film, and one of them gives us a glimpse at what Momoa might have looked like in the film. There's also an illustration of a Nova Corpsman and Rocket and Groot. I love all of the art that Park has created for this movie, and I hope he releases more of it.

Today

NBC has revealed the first photo of Allison Williams as Peter Pan for their telecast of Peter Pan Live. 

Williams is an accomplished actress and singer. Since graduating from Yale University in 2010, she has starred as Marnie Michaels on the twice Emmy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning Girls. Williams has also appeared on The Mindy Project and The League.

One of the main reasons that I'm looking forward to this is that Christopher Walken is playing Captain Hook. That is going to be extremely fun to watch.

As for Williams' look in the special… it's interesting. Peter Pan has traditionally been played by females on stage and Williams should be fine. They cast her for a reason. 

Director James Gunn recently released a concept photo on Instagram, showing fans what Stan Lee's original cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy might have looked like. I just want to point out that's not Lee in the photo. It's just a stand in. The original cameo idea was recently revealed by the director at Dragon-Con, but unfortunately, it didn't make it in the film. Here's a description of what Gunn said at the con:

"One of the losing battles regarded Stan Lee's original cameo in the film. Originally, Gunn had planned to have Lee in one of the Collector's exhibits. Groot would then look at the exhibit aghast, to which Lee would flick off the large tree creature."

Here's an updated explanation from Gunn of why the cameo didn't work that was posted yesterday. Gunn posted it after I wrote my original article, which is why my facts were off. 

#‎gotgpicoftheday‬ At a panel on Sunday at Dragoncon, I talked about a deleted @realstanlee cameo in Guardians, and promised the folks there I’d post a photo on Instagram - so here it is! As you can see, this is not Stan, but a double. In the original cut of the film, when the Guardians enter the Collector’s museum, Rocket looks over and sees Cosmo the dog in one display case, Quill looks over into another display case and is surprised by a tentacle slapping against the glass, and Groot looks over and sees, in another display case, Stan Lee. In one take, Stan Lee just slowly turns up his finger, flipping off Groot. We shot this footage with a Stan Lee double because Stan wasn’t able to come to the UK at the time. The plan was to shoot Stan in the same lighting when I was back in LA, and we’d digitally replace the double’s head with Stan’s actual head (not quite as difficult as it sounds). Although I thought the cameo was funny, I thought the flipping off joke was too similar to the moment earlier in the film where Quill flips off the Nova Corps, so I excised that part of it immediately. A couple of the guys at Marvel thought Stan Lee in a case was too broad of a joke in general, and that it took the audience out of the movie. I argued about it for a bit, but we ended up not keeping it in the film. In a pretty typical case of Internet-journalism-telephone, articles online yesterday said that Disney forbade the scene because of standards . However, that’s incorrect - no one at Disney ever even saw the scene, and it was cut solely for creative reasons. ‪#‎gotg‬ 
‪#‎guardiansofthegalaxy‬

I still think it would have made for a better cameo. 

AMC has released a new spot for The Walking Dead season 5 called "You Are Not Safe." It features a fair amount of new footage from the upcoming season including a zombie explosion. It just seems like things get progressively worse for this little group of zombie survivors. I feel bad for them. At the same time I get pleasure out of watching their pain, and so do the millions of people who watch the show. We sure do live in an interesting society. 

Disney is on a roll with their Big Hero 6 TV spots. Their animation studio has released another one called "I Think I Can Dance." It features the robot Baymax acting more like he's drunk than he is dancing, but he does bust a little move at the end. It's an amusing spot for a movie that is going to end up being a huge hit for Disney. The movie comes out on November 7th, and having seen a lot of stuff from the film, I'm really excited about it. 

Here's an international trailer for Benicio Del Toro's great looking film Paradise Lost. The film is based on a true story, and Del Toro plays the infamous Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar. The movie follows a young Irish surfer named Nick, played by Josh Hutcherson, who visits his brother in Colombia. While he's there he unexpectedly falls in love with Escobar's niece.

The movie was directed by Andrea Di Stefano (Life of Pi screenwriter). The film has been getting spectacular reviews while it's been on the film festival run, especially in regards to Del Toro's performance, so this is a film that you might want to consider seeing when it's released. Unfortunately, there's no U.S. release date set for it yet.

Here is a fun new animated short from Cartoon Network's DC Nation. This one is called "Onomatopoeiabot, and it features an action packed scene with Green Arrow and Black Canary taking out an army of Onomatopoeiabots. I love these little shorts that DC Nation releases. Most of them are better than the series they are developing these days. 

This video supercut of "Arcades in Movies" was created by the Huffington Post. It features a lot of movies from mid-70s to the mid-90s, which was the golden age for arcades.

Back when I was a kid I wanted to own an arcade. I thought it would be such a fun job. Oh, how the times have changed. If I wanted to go to and arcade today, odds are I'd have to go to a Dave and Buster's.

Movies in the super cut via /Film:

“Rancho Deluxe” (1975) “Jaws” (1975) “Jaws 2″ (1978) “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (1978) “Dawn of the Dead” (1978) “Midnight Madness” (1980) “Bustin’ Loose” (1981) “Death Wish II” (1982) “Rocky III” (1982) “Tron” (1982) “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” (1982) “Jekyll and Hyde… Together Again” (1982) “The Toy” (1982) “Joysticks” (1983) “WarGames” (1983) “Twilight Zone: The Movie” (1983) “Strange Brew” (1983) “Nightmares” [segment 'Bishop of Battle'] (1983) “Never Say Never Again” (1983) “High School U.S.A.” (1983) “Rumble Fish” (1983) “Footloose” (1984) “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” (1984) “Ghostbusters” (1984) “Gremlins” (1984) “The Karate Kid” (1984) “The Last Starfighter” (1984) “The Philadelphia Experiment” (1984) “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension” (1984) “Ninja III: The Domination” (1984) “Night of the Comet” (1984) “The Last Dragon” (1985) “Code of Silence” (1985) “The Goonies” (1985) “Real Genius” (1985) “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (1986) “Maximum Overdrive” (1986) “The Color of Money” (1986) “Something Wild” (1986) “Over the Top” (1987) “Can’t Buy Me Love” (1987) “Best Seller” (1987) “Death Wish 4: The Crackdown” (1987) “Bloodsport” (1988) “Big” (1988) “Parenthood” (1989) “Back to the Future Part II” (1989) “The Wizard” (1989) “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (1990) “RoboCop 2″ (1990) “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991) “Suburban Commando” (1991) “Juice” (1992) “Encino Man” (1992) “Honeymoon in Vegas” (1992) “Roadside Prophets” (1992) “Toys” (1992) “Double Dragon” (1994)

George Clooney's next directing gig will be a big screen adaptation of a book called Hack Attack. It's based on the true story of journalist Nick Davies and his account of the British phone hacking scandal surrounding Rupert Murdoch's news empire. Here's a more detailed description of the story:

Hack Attack depicts a world where, as Davies writes, "Everything is for sale. Nobody is exempt." Over six years, Davies investigated News Corporation and its subsidiary, News International; his book shows how their habit of hacking into the voice mail messages of elected officials, celebrities, and even ordinary British citizens and the victims of terror attacks was wide-ranging and ongoing. The resulting scandal would not only mark the end of News of the World after 168 years of continuous publication, but spur a government inquiry that would bring to light some of the most unthinkable of business practices.

The film is set up at Sony Pictures and president of production Michael De Luca said this in a statement:

"As the son of a journalist, George has a sharp interest in the role journalism plays in all of our lives – whether that's for good, as in Good Night, and Good Luck., or for bad. With Hack Attack, George will explore the dark side of that world, a business where all of the rules of journalism are broken in the race for an easy and ever-larger payday."

Clooney added,

"This has all the elements – lying, corruption, blackmail – at the highest levels of government by the biggest newspaper in London. And the fact that it's true is the best part. Nick is a brave and stubborn reporter and we consider it an honor to put his book to film."

This story definitely fits the type of movies that Clooney likes to make. I think he's a talented actor and director, and he'll do a great job bringing this story to life. Shooting is scheduled to start next year.

The director of the Guillermo del Toro-produced film Mama, Andres (Andy) Muschietti, has been hired to helm the big screen adaptation of the video game Shadow of the Colossus for Sony Pictures. 

A feature film version of this game has been in development at the studio since 2009, and it looks like they are finally ready to move forward with it. The initial script for the film was written by Justin Marks, and Chronicle director Josh Trank was attached to direct it at one point, but those plans obviously fell through. 

Hanna screenwriter Seth Lochhead was hired to work on a new draft of the script a year ago. He's still attached and will be working with Muschietti on writing the new screenplay. The game’s story focuses on a young man named Wander, who rides around on his trusty steed Argo, traveling a world where he has to defeat 16 colossal creatures in order to resurrect his lost love, Mono.

I'm not really sure what to expect from Muschietti on this movie. I really loved the first half of his movie Mama, and I really hated the second half. Hopefully he's grown as a director and can make this new movie good from beginning to end. This has the potential to be a gloriously epic film if done right. So now we just have to wait to see what the direct does with it. 

It will be really cool to see what kind of visuals they come up for this thing. Here's a description of the story:

The protagonist is a young man who thinks his lover has died. Desperate to bring her back, he heads into a forbidden land, and summons a demon who can wake the dead. The price for bringing back his girl: slay 16 colossi that dominate this mystical place. These are skyscraper-sized giants that rise from the ground, fly through the air and come from the water. As the young man works through his quest on horseback, he begins to wonder if he is on a noble pursuit to bring back his lover, or perhaps has made a deal with the devil and is being used. Trank has been a fan of the game since it launched in 2005, and sought out the job.

Source: Deadline

The Doubleclicks, the geeky sister musical duo, have released a fantastic video on their YouTube channel in which they play the Doctor Who theme song on the cello. It's really well done, and I think you'll enjoy it. Have you all been enjoying the 8th season of Doctor Who?

Art by disgorgeapocalypse

After seeing what Bryan Singer did with X-Men: Days of Future Past, I can't wait to see what he has in store for X-Men: Apocalypse. The script for the sequel was being worked on over the summer, and the film is currently set to be released on May 27th, 2016.

A new report has surfaced from Canadian newspaper Journal De Montreal, who confirms that the movie will start filming in April of 2015 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Construction on the set for the film will begin at the end of this year at Mel’s Studio, which is where Days of Future Past was shot.

As of right now, no one has officially signed on to star in the film, but you can bet that we'll be seeing a lot of familiar faces such as Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, and Nicholas Hoult. Producer/co-writer Simon Kinberg previously said that the sequel will take place in the 1980s and also may feature some of the original cast such as Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, etc. Who knows how big of a role they will play in the film this time around though. 

The story for the film will center around the mutant villain Apocalypse, who we all saw in the post-credits scene of Days of Future Past. It was also said that the story will involve Ancient Mutants. It's going to be cool to see what kind of story they have developed from these elements. 

God Help the Girl is a sweet indie pop musical about a girl in recovery from a severe eating disorder. The girl in question, Eve, is played by Emily Browning, a lovely young actress who has been in some really crap movies (as well as the great A Series of Unfortunate Events). When we first meet Browning she is sneaking out to go to a rock show in Glasgow, singing the first of the movie’s songs, “Act of the Apostle,” about her trip. After the concert she meets James (Olly Alexander), whose disastrous set ended in a fight with his own drummer. Alexander realizes that she is too weak to get home on her own steam and helps her back to the clinic where she is being treated for anorexia. When she leaves, she seeks him out, and they become the best of friends.

The musical was written and directed by Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian and features songs from the band and from Murdoch’s album God Help the Girl, as well as original compositions. It is an incredibly charming movie. Murdoch’s songs have always told stories, and they work seamlessly as expressions from Eve, James, and their friend Cassie (Hannah Murray). I bought the album in 2009, but the story added depth and dimension to the long familiar songs. The use of “A Down and Dusky Blonde” was particularly heartbreaking and made God Help the Girl the most emotionally resonant film I saw at Sundance.

The casting is fantastic. Browning comes off as both brave and fragile, and as a viewer you are equal parts rooting for her and worried about her. Alexander is one of the most fanciable boys I have ever seen on screen. Sweet and sensitive and devoted, he is an indie teenaged girl’s dream. His chemistry with Browning is great, and the audience yearns for them to get together almost as much as he does. They are joined by Murray, an actress I have liked since she made her debut on Skins as Cassie, a quirky, eating disordered waif. Murray is again playing a character named Cassie, but this one is posh and a bit daffy and wholly well. She rounds out the trio and provides a welcome balance to the heavier Browning-Alexander relationship.

Part of the delight of the film is the look of it —  cool vintage costumes and candy-colored cinematography. It’s quirky and fun, but not precious or twee, which is an accomplishment. And of course, the songs are sweet and funny and charming, which is good, because they are the heart of the movie, deepening the audience’s investment in the central relationship, which doesn’t follow the typical course. The ending is something that I always say I wish more movies had the courage to do — it is organic and right for the characters — but it is heartbreaking in the best possible way. 

God Help the Girl opens in select theaters and on VOD Friday, September 5. I've included the trailer below, and you can watch a clip here.

I've got a seriously amazing short film for you to watch today called 1982. The film centers on a blocked novelist who is reflecting on "a pivotal year in his life when he struggled for the attention of his bickering parents." It's a beautifully shot film, and I love the transitions from one scene to the next. The story did a solid job at tugging on my emotional strings as well. I really hope that you take the time to watch this incredible short. You won't be sorry. 

The short was directed by Jeremy Breslau and was shot by Hollywood camera operator Frank Buono, who has worked with filmmakers such as Spike Jonze and Michael Bay. He's also the guy who designed and shot the incredible long take sequences in Children Of Men. Thanks to Twitch for the tip!

Fox has released a great behind the scenes featurette for Ridley Scott's new biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings. It focuses on the world in which this epic story is based. It features interviews with the cast and crew discussing the film, and also shows off some cool footage. The movie is also packed full of great actors, inculding Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, Aaron Paul, John Turturro, Sigourney Weaver, and Ben Kingsley. Scott has made some incredible epic historical films in his day, and all of them have been amazing. Exodus: Gods and Kings looks like it's going be incredibly awesome. The movie is set to be released on December 12th.

Tron: Legacy and Oblivion director Joseph Kosinski directed this insanely cool live-action/CGI trailer for Bungie's new sci-fi video game Destiny. It also features the voice of Peter Dinklage as one of the main characters, which I thought was great. Here's a little description that came along with the trailer:

A Fireteam heads out on an epic, action-packed road trip across our Solar System to face our enemies, take back what is ours and, in the end, Become Legend. Featuring “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin. 

I enjoyed watching this immensely, it has a lot of great action, fun humor. Then, of course, the visuals were stunning. If a Destiny movie ever happens, Kosinski is obviously the guy who needs to make it. Enjoy the trailer!

We're only about three weeks away from the premiere of the Batman-inspired series Gotham. Today we have a new TV spot and two behind-the-scenes videos for you to check out. The featurettes focus on stars Ben McKenzie and Jada Pinkett Smith talking about the series. The first episode was so good, and it's only going to get better! The series premieres on FOX on September 22nd! 

Funny or Die has released a great comedy sketch called "Snackopocalypse" that stars Chloe Grace Moretz, Clark Duke, Tyler Posey, Sufe Bradshaw, and First Lady Michelle Obama. 

The story is set in a world where junk food is king, but one girl (Moretz) doesn't succumb to the evils of junk food and avoids becoming a junk food zombie. So it's up to her to save the day, even if she does it grudgingly. 

This was a very funny short up until the very end. They really didn't need to throw that ending in there as it seemed out of place and it simply wasn't funny… for me anyway. Maybe you'll like the ending. I don't know, watch it and find out!  

According to Bleeding Cool, it's looking like Supergirl might get her own TV series. Their source says DC Entertainment is pitching the idea and that they've brought in TV producer Michael Green to help.

I'm sure most of you don't know who Green is, but he's worked on developing series such as Gotham, American Gods, Smallville, and Heroes. He was also a writer on Smallville, Heroes, Gotham, and films such as Green Lantern and the upcoming series The Flash. He also worked with Mike Johnson on the New 52 reboot of Supergirl. The guy definitely knows his way around the superhero kitchen. 

He will write and produce the series if it happens, and why wouldn't it happen? Look at all the shows being developed right now! We've got Arrow, Flash, Constantine, and Gotham. It would only make sense that Supergirl would be included, especially with all this talk of female superheroes not getting the spotlight they deserve. Meanwhile, Marvel has two female-centered shows in the works as well with Agent Carter and Jessica Jones. 

My little girls would love it if they had a Supergirl TV series to watch!