HBO has officially confirmed that Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn will star in True Detective Season 2, and that Justin Lin will direct the first two episodes. It was previously rumored that these two actors could be involved, and I think it's great that it has all been made official. These two are great actors and perfect for a crime drama series like this. 

The second season will follow three police officers and a career criminal, who must navigate a web of conspiracy in the aftermath of a murder. 

Farrell is set to play a character named Ray Velcoro, "a compromised detective whose allegiances are torn between his masters in a corrupt police department and the mobster who owns him"

Vaughn will play Frank Semyon, "a career criminal in danger of losing his empire when his move into legitimate enterprise is upended by the murder of a business partner." I know Vaughn is mostly known for his comedic work, but I think he'll surprise a lot of people with his performance in this. That's what a show like this can do for actors. 

Stay tuned for additional casting. The hour-long drama was created by Nic Pizzolatto, and is set to begin production later this fall in California.

For those of you looking to study the movies of Marvel, you'll have to attend The University of Baltimore. They recently announced a new course for their students called "Media Genres: Media Marvels." It will be available to take in spring of 2015 and the course will “will scrutinize the intricately plotted world of Marvel films,” from Iron Man to Guardians of the Galaxy.

Arnold T. Blumberg teaches the course, and this is what he had to say in a statement: 

"One thing we’ll do is dive into the impact of the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ film, which proved two things: Mainstream movie audiences are not remotely tired of superhero movies; and Marvel Studios can now release a sci-fi adventure that actually features talking trees and raccoons. It’s not that they’re getting away with it—they’ve created a universe in which fans completely accept these developments, and they’re ready for even more."

I'm pretty confident that there are fanboys out there who know more about the Marvel universe and what it means for film then this guy does, but it would be a fun course to take. It's an easy 'A'! 

A course like this just goes to show that our culture is deep in a geek phase, and society is obsessed with superheroes and other forms of geek culture. Next thing you know college students will be able to major in Marvel! Blumberg goes on to explain:

“This series not only provides action-packed entertainment but also profound statements about the nature of heroism, the great responsibilities that come with wielding great power, our willingness to trade freedom for security, and much more. Every generation has a modern media mythology that serves as a framework for entertaining as well as educating about ethics, morality, issues of race, gender, class, and so on.”

I'd actually love to enroll in the course just to see exactly how the curriculum will be taught and how deep into the Marvel universe rabbit hole this guy will go. If you read our site and you do end up taking take this course please let us know!

Via: Screen Crush

Vin Diesel has released a couple new photos from director James Wan's highly anticipated film Fast and Furious 7 on his Facebook page. The actor has also seen the first trailer, and he offered up his thoughts on it saying:

"Universal came to visit, to show the trailer for FF7… Speechless… yeah, it was that INCREDIBLE! I must also say, that it was emotional and bittersweet… we all went above and beyond to make Pablo proud, but man, I wish he could see what we have created and just how far we have come."

The guy is obviously extremely happy with how things turned out. There are still no details on the story, but the movie also stars Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Elsa Pataky, Lucas Black, and the late Paul Walker.

The movie is set to be released on April 3rd, 2015.

Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage is set to star in an upcoming crime thriller called The Thicket. The movie is based on a book by Joe Lansdale, and according to the press release, the book is apparently one of the "best American crime novels to emerge in recent years." If you're not familiar with the book, it has been compared to other stories such as Stand By Me and True Grit. Here's a breakdown of the story:

Set in tough, turbulent and feral East Texas in the early 20th century, this dark thriller follows the story of Jack, an innocent young man, who goes on an epic quest to rescue his sister after she has been kidnapped by a violent killer, Cut Throat Bill, and his gang. Jack enlists the help of a crafty bounty hunter named Shorty (Dinklage), a grave-digging alcoholic son of an ex-slave, and a street-smart prostitute. Together they track the girl into the deadly no-man's land known as The Big Thicket - a place where blood and chaos reign.

The movie is being produced by Gianni Nunnari who has a solid track record of producing films that include Se7en, The Departed, and 300. He had this to say in a statement:

"That Joe Lansdale's dark vision will be brought to life by the brilliantly talented Peter Dinklage starring as Shorty - it is a dream of mine. This is the kind of original movie with edge and style that Hollywood Gang is hungry for; luckily we found all these things in THE THICKET.  We cannot wait to share this movie with audiences around the world."

Dinklage is an incredible actor, and this sounds like a great film project for him to take on. I love the fact that he's going to play a bounty hunter. The actor had this to say about the story:

"Completely original. The characters and the world they inhabit jumped from the pages for me in such a cinematic way."

I might have to actually read this book and spoil the movie for myself. Dinklage will next be seen on the big screen in the movie Pixels opposite Adam Sandler.

Artist Laura Knighton a.k.a. That Disney Lover has created a fun set to Disney princess art that was inspired by the stretch portraits that we see in the Haunted Mansion at the Disneyland theme parks. The set is called the "Phantom Manor Stretch Portrait Series." Like the original paintings, everything looks happy and peaceful on the top, but the lower you go the more menacing the image becomes.

Via: Boing Boing

Oscar Isaac has emerged as a very talented and sought after actor, and he ended up landing a decent-sized role in J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: Episode VII, which is sure to launch his career into a whole other stratosphere. I like the rumors I've heard about his character so far, and it should be interesting to see which of those rumors are true. To read about what those rumors are click here. I don't just want to throw it all out there and spoil it for you.

The actor recently did an interview with with EW in which he talked about his career and working on Star Wars: Episode VII. He doesn't give any crazy details but it sounds like it's been a great experience for him.

Here's a few questions and answers from the lengthy interview that focuses on Star Wars, working with the original cast, hundreds of Stormtroopers, and cheesy lines. 

Is being in something as high-profile as Star Wars affecting the kinds of decisions you’re making about your own career going forward?

"I’ve never been good at those kinds of calculations. It’s more like, if I get something and I read it and I think that there is something to do here or it’s different in some way or, like, that’s a psyche I’d like to inhabit—it’s more about that. It’s impossible to know what you’re going to get, you know? That’s how I look at it."

Have you had much interactions with the original trio of Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, and Mark Hamill on or off-screen?

"Yeah, I have. Both. They’re such funny people. Carrie is hilarious and doing such cool work. Harrison is back. He went on hiatus for a little while, but he’s 150 percent back. It’s pretty amazing to see him bounce back. He looks incredible. Everyone’s having a really good time. J.J. sets that tone. There’s a lot of enthusiasm and it’s being done with a lot of heart. There’s nothing cynical about the way we’re doing this. Even the in way he’s shooting it—he’s shooting on film and actually building the sets, so you’ve got hundreds of Stormtroopers or whatever, and hundreds of extras and all the ships. You actually see it. It’s all real. Everyone can interact with the world."

The original Star Wars, of which you’ve said you’re a big fan, are filled with cheesy lines and dialogue which the actors have not shied away from criticizing over the years. How does this compare?

"Yeah. [Laughs] I’m constantly looking for a cheesy line to say to harken back to the old ones. No, what they’re trying to do and what’s really great is J.J.’s been loosening it up a little bit and trying to make it alive and energized. It’s not formal. They’re messy, energized people. We’ve all intentionally tried to do that. Just make it a little more fiery and messy."

The way he talks about Fisher and Ford makes it sound like he has spent a lot of time working with them on the film. I also thought it was cool when he mentioned there being hundreds of Stormtroopers on the set. That's going to be a sight to see. The movie opens up on December 15th, 2015. 

I've got a fun treat for all you Nightmare Before Christmas fans out there. Musician and composer Danny Elfman appeared at the Haunted Mansion Holiday at Disneyland earlier today to record a special reading from Tim Burton's classic holiday story. 

Burton gave the former Oingo Boingo frontman his start composing music films, starting with Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. And they've been collaborating with each other on musical movie scores ever since. Elfman also provided the singing voice for Jack Skellington in the movie, so it's kind of cool to watch him read from the story. 

Source: Disney Parks

For those of you looking to get your horror movie fix during the Halloween season, you may or may not get it from the new movie Ouija. The story centers on a group of friends who stir up a dark ancient entity while attempting to contact their late friend through a Ouija board. I'm sure it will offer up a few scares for audiences who haven't become desensitized to horror movies like I have. I'll go see it because I'll watch any horror movie, I'm just not expecting to see anything special. Universal Pictures has released a new UK trailer for you to watch. 

The Michael Bay-produced film was directed by Stiles White, and it stars Olivia Cooke, Douglas Smith, Bianca Santos, Daren Kagasoff, Vivis Colombetti, Ana Coto, and Erin Moriarty. It's set to set to haunt theaters on October 24th. 

CineFix has gone deep down the rabbit hole for their 8-bit and 16-bit “gamified” version of The Wachowskis' 1999 classic, The Matrix. The latest installment of 8-Bit Cinema is quite meta, as it’s a movie that uses a computer generated world to recreate a movie about a computer generated world. If your head hurts after that explanation, remember, all I’m offering is the truth. Don’t go throwing up your “Tastee Wheat” all over the The Nebuchadnezzar.

If old-school graphics aren’t your thing, perhaps classic video game sounds effects are. If you want a good laugh, be sure to check out the The Matrix: Reloaded fight scene cut to 8-bit sound effects that we posted last month.

Director Joe Carnahan (A-Team, Smokin' Aces) has released a few more clips from his next wild and crazy looking film Stretch. The movie was recently acquired by Universal Pictures, but there is no release date for it yet. 

The movie stars Patrick Wilson (Insidious) as "a down-on-his-luck chauffeur looking to relieve his debt by driving around a mysterious billionaire who drags him to hell and back." 

In the amusing clip directly below, Wilson has an encounter with David Hasselhoff, and in the hilarious exchange of dialogue the Hoff calls him a "punk ass motherfucker," and he then proceeds to hassle him for being late. 

I've included three other clips as well featuring odd and fun footage from the movie, which also stars Chris Pine, Brooklyn Decker, Ed Helms, and Jessica Alba. I love how insane this movie looks and I'm really excited to see it, especially after watching these clips. 

Here's a great piece of art that features Hellboy locked in battle with some giant tentacled creature. The illustration was created by Roger Cruz with watercolors, This is a great illustration with a lot of energy that is more than poster worthy. 

Via: XombieDirge

Six new photos have been released for Christopher Nolan's sci-fi space exploration film Interstellar. They come from Empire Magazine and they feature actors Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck, and David Gyasi. While talking to the publication, McConaughey had this to say about the film:

"This is the grandest adventure I think any of us will ever see on film. This is the biggest film I've ever been a part of. This is one of the biggest films anyone's ever been a part of."

That's a pretty damn exciting statement, and I can't wait to see what he's talking about for myself. Hathaway added:

"I am so excited for the world to receive this film, because there's going to be a new conversation I believe will happen because of it. It's not a dry, science-based film. It has a pulse. It's got blood in its veins."

The story chronicles the adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations of human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.

The incredible looking movie comes out on November 7th and also stars Ellen Burstyn, John Lithgow, Michael Caine, Wes Bentley, Bill Irwin, Mackenzie Foy, and Topher Grace. 

The Japanese toymaker, Revoltech, has started a cool new line of Star Wars action figures. They've revealed the first figure that they'll be releasing in the series, which is Darth Vader. It's labeled as figure “#001," which means there are more to come.

As you can see in the photo above, the awesome looking figures are also posable. Even Darth Vader's cape has points of articulation! That's definitely a unique feature that I don't think I've seen in a toy before. 

The figure will be released in December, and you can pre-order Vader here for $64.99.

We previously reported that William Shatner was rumored to be joining Leonard Nimoy in the newest Star Trek film coming out in 2016. Nimoy's Spock from the timeline most fans are familiar with is called "Spock Prime." Because of how time travel works, the "Prime" timeline the older Spock comes from no longer exists in the current cinematic universe. The effects of this can already been seen in the 2009 film. My theory is that Kirk's death in the movie Star Trek: Generations (1994) may have never happened due to changes in the timeline. So an old Kirk jumping back in time becomes possible but he won't be from the "Prime" timeline.

Director Bob Orci tweeted a few things from his twitter account and then sometime late yesterday locked up his twitter account. Thankfully Trekmovie kept the tweets.

boborci – September 22, 2014

love no win scenarios. In theoy, damned either way.

 boborci - September 23, 2014

Not in my interest to confirm or deny anything because it limits my options while maintaining my integrity as a truth teller.

The movie is not the movie till it is in the theater. Until then, everything is a rumor.

Orci is either keeping his options open or just does not want to lie either way. I've always felt it was bad for directors, producers, and writers to weigh in on rumors. You're either going to give yourself a reputation as a liar or you're going to be giving away all of the movie's fun secrets.

Shatner tweeted his own reaction to the rumors:

Let's talk ST. I don't know anything about the current gossip. Nobody has contacted me. Right now it's just rhetoric to cause hype.

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) September 23, 2014

I really hope the rumor is not true on all fronts. Star Trek: Into Darkness showed the Enterprise starting on its five year mission to new, never before seen adventures. My hope is for something new; not something old, borrowed, and already done in 2009.

Back in 2002 there was a Buffy the Vampire Slayer animated series that was in development, but unfortunately, nothing ever happened with it. I still think something like that would be a big hit. Thanks to Stephen Byrne, we have an awesome animated reimagining of the series called "The Animated Adventures of Buffy." It basically shows us what the opening sequence of a series like this might be like, and he threw in some fun Easter eggs for the fans. 

Byrne is the same guy who brought us the animated adventures of Doctor Who and Firefly. The guy does a great job with this stuff, and he has a really fun style. This is one of my favorite things that he's done, probably because I'm such a big fan of the series. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was such an awesome show! It's one of those shows I wish had never gone away. 

Via: io9

Just in case you feel you didn't get enough insane awesomeness from Gareth Evans' action movie The Raid 2: Berandal, we have five deleted scenes here for you to watch. It's pretty easy to place where these scenes would have fit into the movie. Most of them include some more intense moments that just didn't make the final cut in the already two and a half hour feature. 

Via: Twitch

The team over at How It Show Have Ended has released a video that gives us a funny animated alternate ending to Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man 2. This was what they call a "written by fans" episode, where they used what the fans suggested to bring this one to life. I'm not sure if they made Harry Osborn sound like Napoleon Dynamite on purpose, but it's pretty amusing. I think it turned out great, I especially liked the very last part.

Nerdist recently sat down with Keanu Reeves, and during the interview they brought up the possibility of Speed 3, and it seems like they got him to verbally commit to a third film. This is what Reeves had to say when asked about it:

"Oh my gosh, 'Speed 3: Redemption'! Sure. You know what I mean? Jack Traven just dusting it off."

It looks and sounds like it was all in jest, but you never know! After all, this is Hollywood and anything is possible. Sylvester Stallone was able to bring back Rambo and Rocky, why couldn't Reeves bring back Jack? 

1994s Speed pulled in $350 million worldwide. Reeves passed on Speed 2: Cruise Control, which turned out to be a disaster anyway, so it was a smart move for the actor not to do it. 

Yahoo! asked Reeves a year ago if if he would be interested in returning for a third movie but his response back then was a lot different when he told them:

"Oh my gosh, no, I think that bus has left."

Maybe he has had a change of heart since then, but I personally don't think resurrecting the franchise will do anyone any good. Would you be open for a Speed 3 if Reeves reprised his role? 

I've come across a very interesting theory that Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and E.T. might actually all take place in the same universe. I love the idea that in some way these stories and worlds are connected with each other. 

io9 commenter plaidboy broke down the details and laid out a road map for how this is possible. It's absolutely fascinating, and even though this was probably never the intention of the filmmakers it's still some incredibly cool speculation.

Here's his full explanation of how this could be possible:

"[I] loathe to validate anything about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. But stick with me here; it's a little meta.

"Let's start by looking at things chronologically and diagetically, beginning a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away.

"The Star Wars happen. Yoda is a prominent senate member. Also in the galactic senate: representatives of the alien race that would eventually include ET.

"On earth:

"1936, China - Indiana Jones meets Lao Che in Club Obi Wan.

"1938, Egypt - Indiana Jones passes hieroglyphic depicting R2-D2 and C3PO.

"1982, America - Young Elliot befriends a stranded alien, ET, and shows him action figures of Lando and Greedo.

"The Star Wars, as a story, exists on Earth. As a story. But then, on Halloween, ET sees a boy dressed as YODA and RECOGNIZES HIM. So not only is Star Wars a story on Earth, but it's now confirmed as a TRUE story.

"We can see the story was laid out on the walls of the tombs and pyramids, thousands of years ago. This story eventually moved across the Asiatic continent, inspire legends and myths of lone samurai types defeating an empire, translating itself into lifestyles of the orient, and eventually, Club Obi Wan. Its universal heroes made their way into the cultural consciousness, eventually resulting in an epic film series depicting these ancient characters, ripping the story and images directly from the walls of the now well investigated tombs.

"So then, how did this story get here?

"The pyramids of the east and west were mysteriously built around the same time period by cultures an ocean apart. It's long been theorized that there was some sort of extraterrestrial intervention. This is confirmed by the presence of the aliens in Crystal Skull, their ship buried underneath a pyramid in Central America.

"Given these diagetic clues, I think it's completely reasonable to assume that the crystal skull aliens brought us this story, immortalizing it on the walls of the structures they helped us to build. Their gift was knowledge. Knowledge of the Star Wars."

After having read that, are you convinced that these stories could take place in the same universe? I want to believe that it's true, so in my head it is, and now I'm happy.

We still haven't seen a fully realized Hawkeye in the Marvel cinematic universe, but we've heard that he will have a much bigger role in Avengers: Age of Ultron. He originally had a part in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but it was ultimately cut out. MTV recently sat down with Jeremy Renner and talked about the character. During the interview, he teased that he could show up in Captain America 3, and also said that he's not really interested in seeing Hawkeye get his own solo film.

"I’m happy to be the ensemble. I'm not scratching or clawing to do a solo movie by any means. I think he's a utility guy that can bounce around into other people’s universes a little bit, especially 'Cap 3'. There's whispers of that."

I don't think Hawkeye needs his own film. The closest thing to a solo movie that I think could work would be if he and Black Widow teamed up for some kind of mission. I'm just curious to see what they do with the character in Age of Ultron. Hopefully Whedon was able to turn him into a badass. You can check out Renner's full thoughts on his character in the video below.

Avengers: Age of Ultron is set for release on May 1st, 2015, and Captain America 3 will come out on May 6th, 2016. 

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