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A 'Twilight' Star Will Shake the Foundations of Olympus in 'Hercules 3D'

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A 'Twilight' Star Will Shake the Foundations of Olympus in 'Hercules 3D'

By Mike Bracken Apr 05, 2013

You probably already knew that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has signed on to play Hercules in Brett Ratner’s upcoming film about the son of Zeus, but today we’ve learned who’ll be donning the sword and sandals in Renny Harlin’s rival production, Hercules 3D.

Twilight actor Kellan Lutz has landed the lead in Nu Image’s take on the mythological hero – and while he’s not anywhere near as ripped as the Rock, director Renny Harlin says size is irrelevant.

“It takes more than a good physique to portray the most legendary, mythological personality in history — and Kellan has exactly that, personality. He's not afraid to explore the strengths and vulnerabilities of the character, and he impressed me with his passion and heart."

While that might be true on some levels, if I’m given the choice between the Rock and Kellan Lutz I’m going with the Rock 10 times out of 10. No offense to Lutz, but Hercules is a big, buff dude who’s the strongest man around. I don't buy that when I look at Lutz.

Of course, this casting might work – because it appears that Harlin’s film will focus on the romance between the son of Zeus and “the mortal princess of Crete, who has been promised to his older brother.” We’re sure Harlin and company will work some action into that, but maybe his take is looking to be a little more story-focused than just mindless action. We don’t know for sure, because the script details are being kept secret. Another thing working in Lutz's favor? He's already got mythological experience: the actor played Poseidon in Tarsem Singh's The Immortals. 

Can Kellan Lutz pull this off? Is he big enough to play a convincing Hercules? Are we going to have another giant-sized debate a la Jason Momoa as Conan? Only time will tell. Start the discussion by weighing in on all this Hercules news in the comment section.

Best of the week: horror movies anywhere and the memory of Roger Ebert

Best of the week: horror movies anywhere and the memory of Roger Ebert

By Peter Hall 5 April 2013

Reviews, interviews and features

The 10 best moments of Marvel's phase one films by Evan Saathoff

Check out this trippy alternatives poster for 'Room 237' (exclusively) by Erik Davis

Dialogue: Jon M. Chu about future "G.i. Joe" movies, standalone sequels, 'He-man' and more by Todd Gilchrist

What rusty Griswold plays Ed Helms in "Holiday"? by John Gholson

Disney's 2015 movie slate is crazy: 'The Avengers 2,' 'Pirates 5,' ' Star Wars,' 'Ant-Man,' 'Find dory' and much more by Erik Davis "

Producer Jason Blum is save Hollywood horror film by Peter Hall.

Our 'evil dead' INFOGRAPHIC: kills, nudity, chain saws, box office and more from John Gholson

10 Horror movies, which you can prove extremely bloody and really great by Jacob S. Hall

On the test bench: Love is beauty in new 'to the miracle' spot by Alison Nastasi

On the test bench: The schmoes 'Evil Dead' check Movies.com

Six films with books so terrifying as ' evil dead's Necronomicon by Mike bracken

Columns

Box office report: 'Retribution' and 'Temptation' own Easter weekend, but no party host by Erik Childress

You're old: "Monty Python's the meaning of life" came 30 years ago by Eric D. Snider

New on-demand: how to watch "Django Unchained" and "The impossible" before the disc by Robert B. DeSalvo

The geek beat: Ask five post 'Return of the Jedi', the ' Star Wars: Episode VII "can answer by Chris Clow

New on DVD/Blu-ray: Marvel's phase one set arrives as 70 + years of Warner Bros. ' greatest romances by Peter Hall

"Man of Steel" Countdown: Lex Luthor debate and Henry Cavill on Brits playing American superhero by Jeffrey Taylor

Cine Latino: Antonio Banderas and Zoe Saldana what are up to? by Elisa Osegueda

The best and worst - movie trailers of the week by Perri Nemiroff

When can I watch with my children "Jurassic Park"? by Sean O'Connell

The weekend rent: the 10 best ways of cabin fever by Robert B. catch DeSalvo

Discussions, give-aways and galleries

New 'Star Trek in darkness' pictures, plus "Pacific Rim" cards and 'Great Gatsby' poster by Movies.com

What movie news of the last year do you wish was a joke? by Christopher Campbell

Juno Temple smokes money into this Freakalicious poster for ' the brass teapot "by Peter Hall

Gallery: The incredible worlds of sci fi Steven Spielberg has given us over the years by Peter Martin

Do you prefer remakes or prequels? by Christopher Campbell

Poster crop Quiz: Get the best and worst horror remakes? Brian Salisbury

The symbol, "accessible": What does that Roger Ebert for you? by Christopher Campbell

Cine Latino: "Cinco De Mayo: die Schlacht ' Trailer Premiere

Cine Latino covers all things related to Latino culture and cinema well, every Wednesday.

Ever wonder what really to celebrate Cinco De Mayo are? Now, it is not the independence of Mexico, as many people believe.  The fifth may actually commemorates the battle of Puebla, a small victory with big implications for Mexico as they slayed of the French army and ultimately slowing his efforts to enter Mexico City. For the first time this epic battle will be his way onto the big screen in Cinco De Mayo: La Batalla and thanks to our friends over at Pantelion we have the exclusive trailer premiere.

Here is the official Overview:

Cinco de Mayo: La Batalla chronicle the history of Mexico battle of Puebla, the most important battle in the history of Mexico. If the unbeatable French army invades Mexico a monarchy, General Ignacio Zaragoza played by Kuno Becker, to be set up, to the city of Puebla, Commander badly one armed and outnumbered force defending men. Meanwhile, two young Mexican lover, succeeds to find love amid the chaos of the war. Cinco De Mayo chronicles the courage of a people pushed to the limits, which are fighting for their nation, their families, and their pride.

Director: Rafa Lara, Cinco de Mayo: La Batalla star Kuno Becker, Angelica Aragon, William Miller and Liz Gallardo. May 3rd, 2013 the film hits theaters in Los Angeles and Orange County.

Check out the pictures below and tell us your opinion about the movie. Make sure that you have to follow us on @elisaosegueda and @Moviesdotcom.

 

Learn How to Make a Skateboard Movie

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Ryan Decenzo, Torey Pudwill, Ryan Sheckler, Zered Bassett are four of the best skateboarders right now. Red Bull wanted to follow them for its Red Bull Perspective project, to invite audiences to experience what it would be like to skate. Director Nicholas Schrunk and crew flew to each of the skater's hometowns to film them in their element and find out what skateboarding means to them.

In the trailer, we get to see the incredible equipment used behind the scenes to capture the guys in action. Anamorphic lenses offered the viewer a wide frame to be part of the action and lent a cinematic quality to the video. A Phantom camera that shoots up to 4,000 frames per second on a "super slider" captured real-time, slow-motion shots of the skaters in midair. A homemade cable camera gave a bird's-eye view of the guys skating the streets. Also on scene was well-known skate camera operator Ricki Bedenbaugh. It's a cool overview of everyone's collaborative efforts behind the camera and on-screen. Watch the making of the movie below, and visit Red Bull's website for more details about the Perspective project.

You can watch the resulting film there, too. In related news, we know cat-bike guy has his own commercial now, but how long do we have to wait for their behind-the-scenes movie? Answer: too long.

Listen: Molly Ringwald Sings a Jazzy Version of 'The Breakfast Club''s 'Don't You (Forget About Me)'

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Listen: Molly Ringwald Sings a Jazzy Version of 'The Breakfast Club''s 'Don't You (Forget About Me)'
By Alison Nastasi Apr 10, 2013
I'm not one of those people that are vehemently opposed to jazz music — the kind of person that simply hears the words and their entire body coils in horror. Would jazz be more palatable to the haters if someone like Molly Ringwald were crooning a version of Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)?" The actress covered the song for her new album Except Sometimes
. The track was featured in John Hughes' The Breakfast Club — a movie that helped make Molly a 1980s teen idol.
"When I recorded the album… it was really soon after John Hughes passed away. And he was in my mind a lot," the star told Vulture. "I felt like I wanted to sing a tribute to him. And also, I wanted to incorporate who I was into who I am. You know what I mean? Not that I’ve changed, but I feel like I’ve evolved. And I think the song represents that in a way. It’s the same song but imagined in a different way, and more along the lines of stuff that I’m doing now."
We didn't know Ringwald was a singer, so that was a pleasant surprise. The standard is performed with the kind of tenderness you can't help but be somewhat charmed by. I've heard others say it's a bit depressing — an actress clinging to her once great past. However, Ringwald was born from jazz. Her father is the blind jazz pianist Bob Ringwald, and she recorded an album with him when she was only six years old. Ringwald has also been active on television, in The Secret Life of the American Teenager
most recently. Let us know what you make of her "who I was/who I am" cover, below.
If you'd like to learn more about jazz, check out musician and writer Ted Gioia's website. He offers some great recommendations in the genre.http://m.comingsoon.im/

Movie News: Fiery 'Amazing Spider-Man 2' Photo; 'Django Unchained' Diluted for China; Explosive 'Java Heat' Trailer

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Movie News: Fiery 'Amazing Spider-Man 2' Photo; 'Django Unchained' Diluted for China; Explosive 'Java Heat' Trailer

By Peter Martin Apr 10, 2013

The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Director Marc Webb tweeted a fiery photo from the set of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which he described with the caption: "Day 45. This is what happens when you try to give Electro a ticket." Jamie Foxx plays the villainous Electro opposite Andrew Garfield as the heroic Peter Parker. The movie also stars Emma Stone, Shailene Woodley and Dane DeHaan, and is due for release on May 2, 2014. [Twitter via SuperHero Hype]

Django Unchained: Hollywood studios have become increasingly willing to adjust their films so as to qualify for distribution in China, and the latest example is Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. According to the Mainland China distributor, Tarantino is making “slight adjustments... such as tuning the blood to a darker color, or lowering the height of the splatter of blood.” The movie’s running time will evidently be the same, so none of the footage will be cut entirely; the new version opens in China tomorrow. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Ricky Stanicky: After starring in a string of movies that didn’t do so well at the box office, Jim Carrey took on supporting roles in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and the upcoming Kick-Ass 2. But he’s now confirmed that he will take on the lead role in the comedy Ricky Stanicky. He will team once again with Steve Oedekerk, who worked with him on the TV show In Living Color and directed him to success in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. [Deadline]

Java Heat Trailer: Due for release on May 10, Java Heat reteams Kellan Lutz (The Twilight Saga) and Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler), who previously appeared together in Immortals; this time it's an action thriller set in Indonesia. The first trailer has been released, and it features plenty of bullets, explosions, unusual accents and Rourke firing a machine gun. [The Film Stage]

New 'Elysium' Trailer, Plus: Everything You Need to Know About the Monster Sci-fi Movie

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New 'Elysium' Trailer, Plus: Everything You Need to Know About the Monster Sci-fi Movie

By Erik Davis Apr 09, 2013

When December comes and we're looking back upon the year that was, we'll most likely be talking about a 2013 that gave us a lot of great coming-of-age movies and a whole ton of freaky sci-fi flicks. One of those sci-fi flicks is Elysium, which hits theaters on August 9, after Oblivion and After Earth, and it marks the follow-up for District 9 director Neill Blomkamp.

UPDATE: Here's the new trailer (also watch on Yahoo) ...

In addition to the film's first trailer (watch above), we also have a new poster for you to check out below. Also, we've picked out the most important things to know about the summer blockbuster based on its exhilarating presentation at last year's San Diego Comic-Con and you can devour it all below.

What It's About

Set in the year 2154, Matt Damon stars as Max, a former criminal trapped on the wasteland that is now Earth, working the daily grind in what looks to truly be a hellhole. The wealthy have all left the planet for Elysium, a perfectly crafted society hovering above Earth where there's a cure for all sickness and those who can afford it live immaculate lives.When Max is involved in an on-the-job accident involving radioactive awfulness, he's given five days to live and must return to his criminal roots in order to find a way off Earth and to Elysium, where he can be cured. Part of this involves being retrofitted with some sort of armored suit that extends his life and gives him enough strength to rip the heads right off the lethal droids hunting him down.-- Think Mad Max meets WALL-E, with a hard-R rating that includes tons of cursing, blood, violence and plenty of scenes involving people exploding.-- The seven minutes of footage we were shown was explosive and powerful; a true original sci-fi tone that's dark, bleak and creative, especially with its maniacal villain, played by Sharlto Copley.-- Speaking of Copley, his character looks like a homeless badass who wields a sword and ninja-like throwing stars that explode once they hit flesh.-- Some of the film was shot on location in Mexico City inside the world's second-largest garbage dump. Needless to say this caused some issues. Not only was the dust in the air all fecal matter, but with a lot of scenes involving helicopters, the actors would end plenty of takes covered from head to toe in, well, "dust."-- Blomkamp brought back a lot of the same crew from District 9 to help create the film, which looks like it was made for a lot more money than it actually was. A lot of credit was given to Blomkamp from the cast, all of whom said he was incredible prepared.-- The hardest stunt on the film involved Matt Damon's stunt guy crawling underneath a cart full of pigs, which were so freaked out that they urinated all over him continuously.
Neill Blomkamp: It’s a film about an orbital space station called Elysium. Earth is diseased and has been left behind and the money and resources have left with it.Matt Damon: My character is trying to get to the space station because he’s dying and it has health care.The first time I met Neill, he gave me this whole graphic novel of different weapons systems and vehicles [that would be in Elysium] and I looked at the stuff and told my wife, “There’s no way we’re going to let this get away.” So we planned our whole life around it. The level of detail that went into it was great. And after I saw District 9, Neill went to the top of the list of people I wanted to work with and I feel so lucky it came around to me so quickly.Jodie Foster: I play a political figure. When I saw the script and luckily it had a female character that I could play.It’s about all sorts of things that matter to me and it’s interesting to see somebody be able to marry an intellectual idea with beautiful primitive gut-wrenching explosions and death.I have one scene with Matt and in that scene he’s very quiet, he was being held captive. [Laughs] So there was only moaning.Sharlto Copley: The key for me was to play a villain, to be able to access two parts of myself because it was very different from roles that I have played before. My character has seen a lot of violence and has grown up in a very hard environment and a very dangerous way. I’ve been involved in violent things happening and seen a lot of violence and to be able to come to an understanding that there is a certain level of violence that exerts in the world. Secondarily to almost see the world is a black-and-white way.The last time I had seen a really entertaining villain was Heath Ledger’s Joker so I felt that with this character I had the opportunity to do something different. He’s very dark and intimidating but hopefully audiences will  also find a certain level of charisma and entertainment value. Blomkamp allowed me to do my own thing.Elysium hits theaters on August 9. 

New HBO Doc to Explore the Life of 'Sleepless in Seattle' Writer-Director Nora Ephron

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New HBO Doc to Explore the Life of 'Sleepless in Seattle' Writer-Director Nora Ephron

By Alison Nastasi Apr 05, 2013

The film industry lost several greats this week — exploitation director Jess Franco and film critic god Roger Ebert. While Hoop Dreams filmmaker Steve James reassures Ebert audiences that he will be finishing his documentary on the Chicago Sun-Times writer — based on Ebert's 2011 memoir Life Itself — news about another late film favorite has surfaced. Hollywood trailblazer Nora Ephron passed away last summer, and THR reports that the screenwriter/producer/director will be the subject of an "intimate portrait" developed by her son, journalist Jacob Bernstein. He'll direct and coproduce Everything Is Copy, which is being planned for release through HBO.

The Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail filmmaker is usually associated with her 1990s slate of neurotic romantic-comedies, but the playwright and novelist saw a late-career resurgence with the Meryl Streep-starring film about Julia Child, Julie & Julia, and her 2010 book of essays I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections.

For those of you new to Bernstein, his New York Times Magazine remembrance of his mother is a lengthy, but touching tribute that shares Ephron's final observances with humor and grace. The play Berstein mentions, Lucky Guy, recently debuted on Broadway with Tom Hanks playing New York journalist Mike McAlary. Ephron started writing the play in 1999. Time praised Ephron's "genuine love of her subject and her solid grounding in the nuts-and-bolts details of the world she chronicled." The same could be said for most of her works.

Sechs Filme mit Büchern so erschreckend wie ' Evil Dead'' s-Necronomicon

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Outside of Cthulhu, the Necronomicon might be the most infamous creation of horror author H.P. Lovecraft’s career. The book, allegedly written by mad Arab Abdul Alhazred, first turns up in the author’s 1924 short story The Hound – and from there, it’s become arguably the most infamous title in the history of the dark arts. Impressive, since it doesn’t actually exist.

Like so many of Lovecraft’s creations, the Necronomicon became a pop-culture touchstone only after the author’s death. In the years since Lovecraft’s passing, the book has served as a key plot element in many different novels, movies, comics and television shows, becoming the most obvious choice whenever a tale calls for a grimoire that can bring about bad things.

Fede Alvarez’s reboot of Evil Dead (in theaters now) is the latest film to use Lovecraft’s manifest of the macabre as a focal point – which isn’t the least bit surprising since Sam Raimi’s earlier films helped make the text a household name (although, it should be noted that the spellbook used in the original film was entitled the Naturon Demonto and was a Sumerian riff on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Necronomicon didn’t appear until 1987’s Evil Dead 2, and was rechristened the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis). Yet, for as evil as the Necronomicon is, it’s hardly the only bad book to be featured in a Hollywood film. Here are six other terrible tomes you wouldn’t want to have on your Kindle.

The Book of the Dead – The Mummy

Stephen Sommers’ 1999 reimagining of The Mummy is interesting in that it features not one mystical book, but two. This high adventure finds treasure-hunters Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz unintentionally reviving Imhotep from his ancient slumber after Weisz reads a page from The Book of the Dead aloud.

The revived high priest then goes after everyone who disturbed the tomb of his love, and it’s only with the power of the Book of Amun-Ra that Fraser and Weisz can wrap things up once and for all.

In the grand hierarchy of evil books, The Book of the Dead is pretty potent stuff – the power to resurrect the dead is one that can be used in a lot of dangerous ways, although it seems unlikely to actually lead to mankind’s complete downfall. Despite not having potentially world-altering capabilities, this piece of supernatural nonfiction is still dangerous enough to make our list.

The Three Mothers – Inferno

"I do not know what price I shall have to pay for breaking what we alchemists call Silentium, the life experiences of our colleagues should warn us not to upset laymen by imposing our knowledge upon them." -- The Three Mothers, E. Varelli

Our next book of forbidden knowledge has no inherent magical powers or rituals, but reading it will reveal secrets better left unknown…

The Three Mothers figures prominently into Dario Argento’s 1980 film Inferno. The title, which is the spiritual successor to the director’s Suspiria, features another of the director’s wicked “Three Mothers” – witches who rule the world from their elaborately designed homes in New York, Freiburg and Rome.

Suspiria focuses on the first mother, Mater Suspiriorum (the Mother of Sighs), while Inferno looks to expand the mythology and focuses on Mater Tenebrarum (the Mother of Darkness).

Irene Miracle opens a door better left shut when she discovers an old book entitled The Three Mothers. The strange tome was written by an architect named E. Varelli, and describes how these three wicked witches rule the world from their secret homes. Miracle becomes convinced that she’s living in the same building as Mater Tenebrarum based on clues in the book -- and she and her brother become embroiled in a fight for their lives as the witch empties her cauldron in an effort to keep her identity a secret.  

Varelli’s The Three Mothers might be the least powerful occult artifact on our list, but it’s still worthy of mention because cracking it open tends to always unleash the darkness.

The Collected Works of Sutter Cane – In the Mouth of Madness

"…as in the same second he saw them spill and tumble upward out of an enormous carrion black pit, choked with the gleaming white bones of countless unhallowed centuries. He began to back away from the rip as the army of unspeakable figures twilit by the glow from the bottomless pit came pouring at him toward our world."– In the Mouth of Madness, Sutter Cane

While most of the books featured on this list are dusty tomes long forgotten, books that require a Herculean effort to obtain, the works of one Sutter Cane are terrifying because of how easily accessible they are. You could march right down to your local Barnes & Noble and pick up any one of the author’s books in paperback format for a few bucks in the cinematic world John Carpenter creates in his 1995 movie.

Cane’s work – a series of Lovecraftian pastiches with Stephen King overtones -- serves as the catalyst for the end of the world in John Carpenter’s underappreciated film. Titles like The Hobb’s End Horror might sound cheesy and innocuous, but Cane’s collective fiction is something much darker – an invocation designed to spread madness and resummon the Elder Gods -- masquerading as popular fiction. His final creation, In the Mouth of Madness, is the culmination of his multistage ritual. Bad things await everyone who reads it.

The collected works of Sutter Cane are one of the most dangerous collections of forbidden knowledge on the list, if only because the reader has no idea that he’s stumbled on to something incredibly powerful and malevolent. Sam Neill learns that the hard way in the film.

Interesting trivia: most of the text attributed to Sutter Cane is actually taken from H.P. Lovecraft’s works.

The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows – The Ninth Gate

We start our next chapter in this tale of frightening film fiction with a book authored by Lucifer himself: The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows.

The Nine Gates sits at the center of Roman Polanski’s mesmerizing The Ninth Gate – an occult thriller starring Johnny Depp based on Arturo Perez-Reverte’s novel The Club Dumas. In the film (which branches off from the novel), Depp is tasked with determining which of three remaining copies of The Nine Gates is legitimate for his shady employer.

The real book contains a ritual allowing the owner to conjure Lucifer directly – and presumably acquire great power. However, figuring out which book is legitimate proves more dangerous than Depp’s character ever imagined.

In the pantheon of cinematic books of forbidden knowledge, The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows is right up there with the best of them. Anything that allows a person to conjure the devil directly has to be bad news, right?

The Book of Eibon – The Beyond

Woe be unto him who opens one of the seven gateways to Hell, because through that gateway, evil will invade the world. – The Book of Eibon

Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond is one of my favorite Italian horror movies. A woman renovates a hotel built on one of the seven gates of Hell (funny how Fulci tells us there are seven, while Polanski says there are nine. Ryuhei Kitamura’s Versus, meanwhile, posits there are 666…) and opens it – bringing forth a zombie apocalypse (which was only included to appease a German marketplace that was crazy about zombies at the time of the film's release).

Yet, amidst all the zombies, face-eating tarantulas, and other gory goodies in Fulci’s film, there’s also The Book of Eibon. The question is, is the book part of the cause of the supernatural shenanigans or the solution? Fulci never makes that 100% clear.

What is clear is that the eldritch tome – which was first mentioned by author Clark Ashton Smith and later appropriated by Lovecraft (it appears in The Dreams in the Witch House, The Horror in the Museum and The Shadow Out of Time) – is filled with arcane knowledge and forgotten lore. If you stumble across this one in the stacks at your university library, we think it’s best if you turn around and walk the other way…

Interesting trivia: The Book of Eibon was the second time Fulci used a piece of occult literature in his work. The Beyond's spiritual precursor City of the Living Dead utilized The Book of Enoch in a similar fashion.

The Grand Grimoire – Warlock

The spell book. All witches keep grimoires, yet one is indestructible, one is the bible of black magic - the Grand Grimoire. Always witches have lusted for it, and now, here, I find a page - one lone page! -- Redferne

We wrap things up with one of the most powerful books ever featured in any film – The Grand Grimoire.

The Grand Grimoire is right up there with The Necronomicon – at least as it’s portrayed in Steve Miner’s 1989 film Warlock. What’s so special and terrifying about this creepy codex? It contains the true name of God – and if satanic minion Julian Sands finds it and says that name backwards, it will undo all of creation. Yikes.  

The text in the film is so powerful that it’s been separated into three sections and hidden across America in hopes of preventing anyone from recovering it and unleashing the dark magic contained within its pages. Sands’ warlock uses all the powers of Hell at his disposal in an attempt reassemble the treatise, with only a 17th-century witch hunter (Richard E. Grant) and an ‘80s party girl (Lori Singer) standing between him and his goal.

Interestingly enough, The Grand Grimoire is allegedly a real work of nonfiction that contains instructions for summoning Lucifer in order to make a pact with the dark lord. 

Sequel News: Plans Afoot for 'MacGruber 2'; 'Chronicle 2' Script is Very Dark

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Sequel News: Plans Afoot for 'MacGruber 2'; 'Chronicle 2' Script is Very Dark

By Mike Bracken Apr 10, 2013

We hope you’re ready for some sequel news because we’ve got the latest updates on Chronicle 2 and the follow-up to Will Forte’s cult hit MacGruber.

MacGruber is one of the rare instances where a Saturday Night Live sketch actually made for an entertaining film. Will Forte’s MacGyver wannabe was the focal point of the 2010 film – which didn’t set the box office on fire, but has gone on to become a cult favorite. Fans have been hoping for a sequel for quite some time, and it looks like their wishes are finally coming true.

Forte had this to say about the subject when it came up during a recent EW interview:

“We are going to make MacGruber 2 for sure. Whether we have to do it with a video camera in our backyards – there will be some form of MacGruber 2.”

The actor goes on to add that he’d consider a Kickstarter fund to get the project off the ground – and we suspect hardcore MacGruber fans would back that thing in a second.

No matter what happens, rejoice – it appears as though there’s going to be more MacGruber in our life in the not too distant future. This might be a good time to stock up on flannel shirts and start growing your bitchin' mullet. 

Chronicle 2 screenplay is “really dark”

There have been a lot of stories circulating about the in-development sequel to found-footage superhero flick Chronicle recently, and screenwriter Max Landis has finally stepped in to set the record straight.

Landis gave IGN a progress report recently, admitting that “Chronicle 2 is in an interesting place right now. It's moving along.” He also scuttles reports that the studio “just wanted to do the same thing again” – which actually came from Landis’ father, filmmaker John Landis.

He clarifies that situation, saying that when you’re making a follow-up to a successful film like Chronicle, everyone wants to be cautious and have a say in the direction. No one wants to risk losing money, and everyone wants to make a film that succeeds. That's led to lots of internal discussions about the project's direction.

For his part, Landis turned in a script that has already generated comments.

“The report came out that they didn't like my script. They liked my script. It's just a really dark script. The question is more of 'How do we all compromise to get something we want?' And that's an incredibly slow process.”

We’ll be honest – none of these comments are actually inspiring a lot of confidence in us about the state of Chronicle 2. Most of them read like typical Hollywood double speak – “how do we all compromise” and the like has us worried that there’s some real internal tension surrounding the direction of this project. We’d hope that Fox would allow Landis and director Josh Trank to make the film they want to make (particularly since the original did so well), but this is Hollywood – and studio suits are going to get involved.

We’ll bring you more on this story as it progresses – but for now, we just have to hope that everyone really is committed to making the best sequel possible.

The weekend rent: the 10 best ways to catch cabin fever

"The weekend rent offers quick-hit what you watch at home, to get to for new releases in theaters, turned up on Friday."

Everyone calls a remake of Sam Raimi's the evil dead the new Evil Dead in theaters in 1981, but is it really? What seems like a remake or reboot might actually be to merge a setup the storyline of this new movie with the original series star Bruce Campbell, who is expected to be returned in army of darkness 2 (the fourth film in the original series, evil dead). If you evil dead in theaters this weekend checking out, stick around for the closing credits, and tell us if you think that the bonus material is any idea how the original series and the new movie all universe could be part of a large Deadite.

It is us that the new evil dead is a remake, restart or cleverly disguised sequel, still give cabin fever. Is there a perfect horror movie setting as an isolated cabin in the Woods? Whether the threatening outside forces are psychopaths, Monster, werewolves, zombies or viruses, filmmaker go on back to the hut in the forest scenario. Here are 10 of our favorites.

Night of the living dead:OK, barricading it technically is a farmhouse and no cabin, but George A. Romero has ground-breaking zombie classics his figures even in this isolated farmhouse while hordes of the undead trying their way into claws, to eat.

Friday the 13th:The classic 1980 slasher had distributed the counselors at Camp Crystal Lake in several cabins on the property. Prior to the opening for the kiddies on a stormy night dark, a crazy Mrs. Voorhees is a small knife happy, because her son, Jason, years ago drowned during the guides in a booth, the premarital sex were hidden, is holding--and horror fans know what that means.

The evil dead:Sam Raimi's original 16 mm film star Bruce Campbell as ash, who travels to the haunted cabin in the woods with his girlfriend and his friends shot. The quiet dead are discovered the evil dead Necronomicon, read, and the group is susceptible to possession by dark forces in the forests.

Evil Dead 2:This 1987 sequel to the evil dead is also directed by Raimi and Campbell as ash has returned. But as the story somehow follows the original ash seems to have no memory of the events of the first film, evil dead 2 feels itself more as a remake with better Gore effects and a portion of demented humor thanks to Campbell's over-the-top performance. Cheerful!

Hut: The title is you really on the nose for the subject of jour, but no cabin in the Woods-horror-list would be complete without Eli Roth gross story about a group of beer-loving, pot-smoking young adults, the contaminated water to drink on your cabin and start to slough way have their meat. Yes, this time is the threat from inside cabin, so that a simple faucet way scarier than Mrs. Voorhees.

The foreign:Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman play a couple spending one night in his parents away summer house, during a series of masked psychos to keep try to get inside. Spoiler: they get in. You can get in. You know this now.

Misery:Oh, what is to 'Oogie Mess' Kathy Bates' Annie Wilkes the author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) if it will save her favorite author from a car accident and holds him captive in their isolated mountain home, so he to write a book to your liking. Bates won the Academy Award for best actress for her wacky performance as Sheldon's "Number one fan" in this popular Stephen King adaptation, so movie snobs who dismissed with the Academy can take it as "Junk e Horror".

Pumpkinhead:After a couple of celebrating young people accidentally kill the son of the local Yokel Ed Harley (Lance Henriksen), the young people in their cabin in the Woods group, while ED visits a local witch and has her revenge to unleash the monster Pumpkinhead. Stay away from Windows, children.

Dog soldiers:Neil Marshall under seen 2002 jewel accompanied a group of British soldiers fell into the Woody Highlands for a training mission, the in perforated end - what else? -a remote cabin at home as a vicious werewolves trying in to obtain and copy them apart.

The cabin in the Woods:The brilliance which is written by Director Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon is this story, that it all what we (see the nine films know listed above) and makes it on the head about the cabin in the Woods scenario. Yes, it starts with five students travel in their van to a remote cabin in the Woods to celebrate and adultery, but they are upheld by an external organization, the every movement monitoring and manipulating their environment. If the undead redneck family is evident in the cabin, which is really the least of worries of the group.

All of the above films are available on DVD or Blu-ray and VOD services.

Tony Stark Calls Out Mandarin in First Full 'Iron Man 3' Clip

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Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark is feuding old-school style in this new Iron Man 3 clip, which finds the superhero calling out his nemesis Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) from the middle of a throng of reporters. Did no one tell Tony Stark that all celebrity and superhero word battles are to be conducted on Twitter these days?

Stark is a badass all the way through the new clip from Shane Black’s upcoming film, going so far as to offer up his home address to everyone within ear shot. We wonder how many fans will be sending letters and postcards to that address now. We hope it doesn’t really exist or someone’s about to get a lot of nerd detritus shipped their way…

We can’t really discern too much about the film from this brief bit of footage, but we’re hoping that Iron Man 3 kicks off Marvel Phase Two with a bang when it jets into theaters on May 3. Have a peek at the clip below and let us know if you’re on board with Tony Stark’s newest adventure.

TV ratings: CNN's latest launch launches only, MSNBC looks solid debut for Chris Hayes

April 1 was more fun for MSNBC as CNN. Both networks saw primetime starts Monday evening with Chris Hayes' all in and (get to) see The Point their respective opens very different results bring.

Ed Schultz Replacement of Hayes primetime debut 20, 859.000 total viewers and 298,000 adults of 25-54. MSNBC continue to time slot leader the O'Reilly factor- Scott Brown guest host for Fox News Channel Bill O'Reilly - trail but demo saw profits from Schultz. The Ed show averaged only 205,000 viewers in the key demo in the first quarter.

Photos: The best celebrity of Twitter political commentators

While Hayes weeks of promoting after Schultz well reported exit (get to) The Point premiere at less than a day in advance, saw. It opened at 278,000 viewers and 80,000 in the 25-54 demo, both window of time lows for the network in the year 2013. In the first quarter saw the hour typical offer, a repetition of Anderson Cooper 360, average of 520,000 viewers and 170.000 adults 25-54. These are losses of each 48 and 54 percent.

The point is, that CNN's lead second series under new network Topper Jeff Zuckerafter the last addition of the with Jack Tapper start. It will be a one-week thing, night Anderson Cooper 360-added to 23 pushed settled the bar includes Donny German, Margaret Hoover, Rick Reilly , and Jason Taylor.

STORY: "the lead with Jake Tapper" dips during the first week

Reliable breeder for cable news channels proved in recent years with the five on the FNC Panel series and the cycle come to MSNBC.

Above all, the five, was a great success for Fox. In the first quarter it was Reilly Factor second only to the o' on all cable news shows in total viewers (1.97 million) and the most important demo (345,000 adults 25-54).

Cable news programs tend to be very different from night to night, run, so the real test for everyone both in The Point come later in the week.

Watch the Only Remaining Footage from the 1926 Adaptation of 'The Great Gatsby'

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Watch the Only Remaining Footage from the 1926 Adaptation of 'The Great Gatsby'

By Alison Nastasi Apr 10, 2013

Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald died 73 years ago so we have no way of knowing what the Great Gatsby author would make of Baz Luhrmann's uproarious adaptation of his 1925 novel that opens on May 10. We can, however, look to his review of the 1926 film adaptation, directed by Herbert Brenon. The author's wife Zelda wrote of the movie: "We saw The Great Gatsby in the movies. It’s rotten and awful and terrible and we left." The Fitzgeralds would be happy to know that the movie is now lost, and all that remains is a one-minute trailer that website Open Culture recently published.

The early Gatsby adaptation was 80-minutes long and contained many of the lavish party scenes that Luhrmann's version will feature — starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher, and Jason Clarke as the Jazz-Age partygoers. In Brenon's movie, Warner Baxter — a silent screen idol who was once the highest paid actor in the industry — played Jay Gatsby. DiCaprio has a lot to live up to, but at least he can feel better knowing he won't be compared to a real-deal Roaring Twenties star whose movie is floating somewhere in the ether.

Watch the Original Uncut Australian Version of Mel Gibson's 'Mad Max'

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Mad Max is one of those films we'll forever remember for its assistance in launching Mel Gibson's career -- as well as a really crazy movie franchise unlike anything we had ever seen -- but it's hard not to watch the film and feel like it's missing something. Director George Miller has gone on record plenty of times admitting it'd be a much different movie if they had a higher budget, and the two Mad Max sequels reflect that -- they're very different movies. The original Mad Max is sort of like a tense psychological thriller, whereas the next two are these crazy postapocalyptic action flicks. 

There's still much to love about Mad Max, but when it first debuted in the U.S. back in 1979 there were changes and parts missing, in addition to a new audio track which dubbed over the actors' Aussie accents because, ya know, we Americans can't handle that sort of thing. The 2002 special edition DVD finally included the original uncut version, but with various versions floating around (including one that cut out some of the violence and bloodshed), many of you probably never watched Mad Max as it was originally intended.

That said, our friends over at Cinephilia & Beyond have unearthed the entire original cut online, and you can watch it below. 

The original uncut Australian version of the classic — Mad Max (1979). Mad Max as pure cinema. Not dubbed and not cut by five minutes. You will actually hear Mel’s voice and the rest of the cast with glories accents, not the horrible out of sync dub. And this contains all the extra blood and guts missing from the U.S. prints. If you’re a ‘Mad’ fan, you owe it to yourself to see this neo–classic. (NOTE: For educational purposes only)

George Miller is currently prepping his next Mad Max movie, titled Mad Max: Fury Road, starring Tom Hardy in the lead role. It's due out sometime in 2014, and here's what Hardy looks like in the film.

MORE: 'Mad Max: Fury Road': New Pics Reveal Freaky White Mutant, Plus Story Details and Crazy Character Names

What the Villain and Final Battle Would've Looked Like in J.J. Abrams' 'Superman' Movie

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What the Villain and Final Battle Would've Looked Like in J.J. Abrams' 'Superman' Movie

By Mike Bracken Apr 10, 2013

We’re not sure why everyone’s so crazy about J.J. Abrams’ aborted Superman project Superman: Flyby lately, but we’ve heard an awful lot about the film over the past few weeks – and today we’ve got some new concept art that shows what the film’s big villain would have looked like and how the final showdown was set to play out.

Comic Book Movie hooked up with concept artist Phil Saunders, who revealed his impressive artwork for the film (which was written by Abrams, and had directors Brett Ratner and McG attached at various points in the development cycle). You can find lots of cool pieces focusing on the pod Kal-El arrives in at the Comic Book Movie site, but let’s turn our attention to the new Rouser and final showdown concept art.

According to Saunders, "The highlight of the project was Superman's cousin Kata-Zor's giant battle mech. The film climaxed with an epic battle between Superman and this Kryptonian battle pod."  

Saunders says the image below was rejected for being “too chicken-like” – which is a pretty good call in our opinion.

The final design, though, is much cooler – the mech starts out as a flying craft before the legs come down, allowing it to walk on the ground.

The original plan was to have the interior of the mech as a giant room where the pilot was in a gyroscope that controlled the mech’s movements through the driver’s actions. That wasn’t practical from a price standpoint, so Saunders came up with a more traditional chair.

Then, Saunders shares a piece from the climactic showdown between the Man of Steel and the giant robot. “The battle ends when Superman flies circumnavigates the globe before the Rouser can turn around, building up enough momentum to fly through the battle pod." 

We’re not really sold on the idea of Superman battling a giant mech (feels way too Japanese anime to us…), but even we have to admit that the idea of Superman flying around the globe to build up speed before rocketing himself through the vehicle is pretty cool.

What do you guys think? Are you bummed that we never got to see Superman: Flyby? Does this concept art make you more interested in the project, or are you okay with the fact that it never got off the ground?

When Can I Watch 'Jurassic Park' with My Kids?

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“That was a terrible idea,” our nine-year-old son P.J. exclaimed at the end of our Jurassic Park screening. 

For a moment, I feared he was condemning our decision as parents to share Steven Spielberg’s modestly terrifying dino adventure with the kids. But when we asked him what was so terrible, he said, “Making an amusement park with real dinosaurs!” 

So even at nine, P.J. understood what philanthropist John Hammond (Sir Richard Attenborough) couldn’t figure out until it was far too late. 

Spielberg’s movie, which turns 20 this year, is roaring back into theaters with an upgraded 3D and IMAX conversion, ready to transport audience members back to Isla Nublar… and right back to the edges of their seats. Park is the rare occasion where advancements in technology actually have improved what already was a near-perfect film, bolstering the computer effects used to create Spielberg’s dinosaurs (which were pretty impressive back in 1993) and enhancing David Koepp’s streamlined script with tense beats and entertaining sprints through remarkable set pieces. 

Basically, Jurassic Park hasn’t aged a bit. If anything, it’s better now than it was 20 years ago, and it remains a must-see theatrical experience that – surprisingly – works for almost every member of your family. 

We took a safer approach, introducing our boys – who are ages nine and five – to Jurassic Park in the safety of our living room. We thought it would give us an opportunity to pause the film if need be, and give them the chance to regroup (thinking mainly about Brendan, who actually has a much higher tolerance for on-screen creature scares and movie thrills than his older brother did around the same age). 

We were being too cautious. Nothing unnerved them too much in Park, and watching it with them opened my eyes to a few deliberate choices I believe Spielberg made to help make his blockbuster more accessible. 

Brendan’s favorite character in the film, after all, ended up being Tim, the adolescent dinosaur enthusiast played by Joseph Mazzello. The genius of Spielberg is that he counters the inherent terror of either the T. rex or the stalking velociraptors by making Tim and his sister, Lex (Ariana Richards), the heroes of the film’s finale. Brendan actually has reenacted the kitchen scene from Park more than a few times after our screening. Those sequences ended up being more exciting than terrifying for our kids. 

The same goes for the T. rex sequence, an extended “attack” by a truly spectacular dino creation that had only one part – the chomping of the lawyer – that we felt the need to skip past. Again, Spielberg makes a wise decision to put the car holding Tim and Lex in danger, allowing Dr. Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to display tremendous courage and keep the children out of harm’s way. Once or twice we had to remind the boys that the dinosaurs were digital creations. It’s interesting that they are far more conscious of what’s manufactured by moviemakers for the screen. Sure, it creates a detachment from what’s happening in Spielberg’s story. The director probably would prefer that our kids fully believe in what’s happening on-screen. But if the safety buffer they create in their own minds allows them to revel in the popcorn thrills of a movie like Jurassic Park, I’m OK with that. 

Outside of the inherent dinosaur chills that come with Park, the rest of the movie is pretty tame. Goldblum jokes about one big “pile of shit,” and calls Hammond a “son of a bitch.” The inclusion of a Mr. DNA cartoon to explain the science of Jurassic Park was pretty brilliant, as both boys pretty much understood the basic concept behind the creation of the park. Oddly enough, P.J. loved Dr. Malcolm. Goldblum, obviously, is written as a scene-stealing part, but it’s fun to see the actor's dry humor connect with a nine year old who is formulating his own unique sense of humor. We may try the Goldblum-centered The Lost World soon, even though it's darker than its predecessor.

Now that Jurassic Park is back in theaters in 3D and IMAX, you might not want to waste time showing it to your kids at home, only to have them sit through it a second time in a theater. My kids thoroughly enjoyed the movie at home, and haven’t pressed to check it out in IMAX. 

But I did attend a 3D IMAX screening days after sharing it with our boys, and the theater was jammed with parents bringing children of all ages to experience the movie that blew them away two decades prior. And the kids sitting around me were enthralled, laughing and gasping on all the right beats. I actually believe Jurassic Park is far more universal than I might have thought prior to seeing it back-to-back almost a week ago. Our five year old handled it well at home. It likely will be OK for kids six and older in a theater, particularly if they’ve already tried other movies that use dinosaurs as digital threats (like Night at the Museum or even the Ice Age movies, animated though they might be).

As always, if you decide to go to Jurassic Park in 3D IMAX, drop me a line and let me know how it went.

If you’d like to read previous entries in the "When Can I Watch That with My Kids?" series, click right here. Some of the films covered: Star Wars, Back to the Future, The Goonies, Hugo, The Princess Bride, The Monster Squad and Elf, to name just a few.

You're Old: 'Indecent Proposal' and 'The Sandlot' Came Out 20 Years Ago This Week

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You're Old: 'Indecent Proposal' and 'The Sandlot' Came Out 20 Years Ago This Week

By Eric D. Snider Apr 09, 2013

Do you remember that magical weekend when you could see either the new movie about kids playing baseball in an empty field or the new movie about Robert Redford paying a million dollars to sleep with Woody Harrelson's wife? You do?? Then I have terrible news for you: You're Old™. Because that was 20 years ago.

Yes, Indecent Proposal was released on April 9, 1993 -- Good Friday, by the way -- and competed for attention with The Sandlot, which had opened two days earlier. (It was spring break for a lot of people, hence the Wednesday release for a kid-oriented movie.) I suspect there was little overlap between the two films' audiences. In fact, it's safe to say that anyone who saw them both in the theater was either a middle-aged pervert or a horny 13 year old.

(Aside: I would like to have a conversation with anyone who saw Indecent Proposal on Easter Sunday.)

The smutty melodrama got all the focus, with its star-studded cast and controversial premise. It was directed by Adrian Lyne, who'd also given us steamy thrillers Fatal Attraction and Nine 1/2 Weeks, and it was being released a year after the massively successful, erotically charged Basic Instinct. The plot was easy to summarize and easy to parody -- a great combination when it comes to building up buzz for a film. The late-night talk shows had a field day. It became a discussion topic: Would you have sex with someone who isn't your spouse for a million dollars? (Of course, a lot of people do that for free.) Being the recipient of mostly negative reviews didn't matter. Indecent Proposal was a hit, earning $18.4 million opening weekend on its way to a total gross of $266.6 million worldwide.

The Sandlot was at a disadvantage. It was a live-action, PG movie aimed at preteen boys (a hard demographic to crack without explosions or fantasy elements), and it was a nostalgic period piece set 30 years earlier. Also, it was about baseball, a sport that is beloved in real life and rarely lucrative on the big screen. It had neither big stars nor an easily encapsulated plot. Despite mostly positive reviews, it was only a modest success, with a final tally of $33.8 million worldwide.

But who's laughing now? Twenty years later, Indecent Proposal is remembered as a dated joke. Redford's respectability has survived, but Harrelson and Moore are kitsch figures now, the kind of actors who we not only don't take seriously but have a difficult time believing were ever taken seriously. A lot of people have seen Indecent Proposal, but you'd be hard-pressed to find many who love it. (Coincidentally, its underlying themes -- a billionaire thinks he can buy whatever he wants; non-billionaires struggle in a difficult economy -- are timely again in 2013.)

Meanwhile, The Sandlot found a receptive audience on home video, eventually spawned three direct-to-video sequels, and has just received a spiffy Blu-ray upgrade. (Indecent Proposal has been on Blu-ray since 2009. Does anyone care? NO.) People are writing about its 20th anniversary. Viewers of a certain age, especially men, remember it with great fondness and say "You're killing me, Smalls!" a lot. Nobody ever quotes anything from Indecent Proposal, not even the part where Demi Moore says, "I hate you" and Redford replies, "You wish you hated me" like a stone-cold badass.

In short, given enough time, the cream usually rises to the top. Indecent Proposal scored big at the time but is now justly regarded as ludicrous and campy, while The Sandlot is a bona fide cult favorite. Nice guys finish first (eventually) (usually)!

When Indecent Proposal and The Sandlot were released, 20 years ago this week:

- Indecent Proposal easily took first place at the box office, earning $18 million, with The Sandlot a distant second with $5 million. The previous weekend's top films had been Cop and a Half and The Adventures of Huck Finn. So, dark times all around. The Crying Game and Unforgiven were both still in the top 10 despite having been in theaters for 20 and 36 weeks, respectively, aided by the attention they'd received at the Oscars, held March 29.

- The five most-watched TV shows were 60 Minutes, Roseanne, Home Improvement, Murphy Brown and Murder, She Wrote. To answer your next question, yes, 60 Minutes and Murder, She Wrote only appealed to old people even then.

- The standoff between cult leader David Koresh and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Waco, Texas, had been going on for 41 days and would last another 10 before it all went kablooey.

- Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, had been killed several days earlier on the set of The Crow in an accident involving a gun that was supposed to only have blanks in it but whoops.

- The most popular song in the country was "Informer," by Snow. It had been number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks, and would stay there for another two. What is Snow doing now, 20 years later? Repeating that fact to anyone who will listen.

Watch: How 'The Impossible''s Impossible Tidal Wave Was Created

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The Impossible, which followed the story of a British family caught up--literally--in the massive tsunami that hit Thailand in 2004, earned Naomi Watts a well-deserved Academy Award nomination -- it couldn't have been easy to play a woman stuck by a branch in the breast and tossed around in the heaving water like a gasping tuna while her family gets carried off to parts unknown. Though Watts may have  gotten the most attention of any aspect of the movie for her role, that tidal wave was practically a character in itself.

Director J.A. Bayona's masterful staging of it sure set the bar for water disaster movies to come--but how exactly did he capture the wave's massive scope, with toppling trees and entire houses carried away like so much cardboard? Check out this exclusive clip in which Bayona details what all went in to the tsunami scene, part of a featurette that will be included in the film's DVD and Blu-ray release April 23. The Impossible is available now on VOD.

Watch: This Freaky Sci-fi Short Just Nabbed Liam Hemsworth to Star in the Feature Version

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Watch: This Freaky Sci-fi Short Just Nabbed Liam Hemsworth to Star in the Feature Version

By Mike Bracken Apr 03, 2013

Back in 2010, Ricardo de Montreuil released a short film titled The Raven (not to be confused with the John Cusack Edgar Allan Poe film of the same name --p lease make your own "nevermore!" joke here) that generated a ton of buzz on the Internet. Now we’ve learned which big-name young actor could be playing the lead role in the feature version due sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Deadline reports that Liam Hemsworth is close to agreeing to play the title role in the big-budget update. Hemsworth is hot off parts in The Hunger Games and Expendables 2 and should fit quite nicely into this sci-fi conspiracy thriller. Based on the short, we’re assuming Hemsworth will play a character on the run who also happens to have some pretty amazing telekinetic powers.

Check out the trailer for The Raven below. Shooting is slated to start this June – so we suspect we’ll know whether or not Hemsworth is officially on board sooner rather than later.

'Veronica Mars' Movie: Jason Dohring Joins Project

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Logan Echolls is headed back to Neptune.

Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas announced Tuesday that original castmember Jason Dohring has officially joined Kristen Bell as part of the movie project being partially funded by Kickstarter.

"We now have three actors officially cast. Veronica. Logan and the waiter who says, 'Your check, sir,' " quipped Thomas in the news alert sent through Kickstarter for backers of the movie.

"Don't worry. We're busily working on bringing your favorites into the fold. As a Veronica Mars backer, you'll be the first to know," he wrote.

GUEST COLUMN: The Dangers of the 'Veronica Mars' Kickstarter Victory

Thomas also included images of Dohring from the Veronica Mars pilot make-up and wardrobe test in his announcement.

The story line as laid out on the project's Kickstarter page takes place years after the failure of Veronica's dad's re-election as town sheriff. "But something big is about to bring her back home and back to her calling," Thomas wrote of the movie's proposed premise. "My goal is to include as many of your favorite characters as possible. It is, after all, time for Veronica’s 10-year high school reunion."

On March 13, Thomas and Bell launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $2 million to fund a movie version of the UPN/The CW cult television series that ended in 2007. In less than 12 hours after the campaign kicked off, the $2 million goal was met; as of April 2, has raised more than $4.4 million with 10 days left to go in the 30-day window.

STORY: Rob Thomas Plans a 'Veronica Mars' Behind-the-Scenes Documentary, Comic-Con Visit

"The movie is outlined, but frankly, I needed to know how we were doing to figure out how to model the script and how to write it. There are very specific things that are going to be affected by what our budget is," Thomas told The Hollywood Reporter in mid-March.

Thomas hopes to film the movie in Southern California, where the series was originally set and he plans on making a Veronica Mars behind-the-scenes documentary and paying a visit to San Diego's Comic-Con this year.

E-mail: Philiana.Ng@thr.com
Twitter: @insidethetube

HBO Renews 'Game of Thrones' for Season 4

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Two days after an especially strong premiere, HBO has announced a fourth-season pickup for Game of Thrones.

The renewal, considered a given with the series' increasingly high profile and ratings growth, will include 10 episodes most likely to premiere in early 2014.

PHOTOS: 'Game of Thrones' Season 3 Preview

Game of Thrones' Sunday season premiere brought in a series record 4.4 million viewers, up 4 percent from the previous high despite particularly stiff cable competition from AMC's The Walking Dead. The series also pulled 6.7 million viewers across three plays during the course of the night, up from the 2012 debut by 7 percent.

Game of Thrones also is grossing 11.6 million viewers per episode across platforms, including linear plays, DVR, On Demand and HBO Go.

Created by David Benioff and Dan Weiss, Game of Thrones is based on the best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin and ranks as the network's third-most-watched series of all time -- trailing only True Blood among current shows.

A particularly expensive endeavor, Game of Thrones production is based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but it also shoots in Croatia and Iceland. Up until the current third season, the series has chronicled Martin's books individually. The current run, based on A Storm of Swords, will only follow roughly half of the book. Season four presumably will tackle the second half.

PHOTOS: 'Game of Thrones' Season 3 Premiere

The speed of the series has prompted some questions about the likely endgame. The final two installments of Martin's seven-book series have yet to be written.

"My dream chronology is that the books finish first, and I do have a considerable lead over them," the author recently told The Hollywood Reporter. "It's true that they're moving faster than I am -- the series has its own speed -- but I don't see us catching up for another three years or so, by which time another book will be out. That should give them another two seasons of material. And while I'm writing the last book, they'd be making those."

Email: Michael.OConnell@THR.com; Twitter: @MikeyLikesTV

'Jurassic Park' Inspires Attempt to Create World's First Dino-Chicken

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Montana State University paleontologist Jack Horner served as a consultant on Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, but apparently he didn’t learn anything during his time on the set because the doctor is hard at work trying to create his own modern dinosaur hybrid. Can anything good come of this?

Okay, so it’s not quite as dramatic as it sounds. Horner isn’t working to revive the T. rex by cloning DNA samples; he’s instead working on genetically reengineering the common chicken so it returns to its dinosaur roots. See? It’s not that scary…

Horner tells Hollywood.com, “The whole idea of making a dinosaur came from [Crichton's] original idea. I kept thinking, 'There's got to be a way to do this.'" 

The scientist’s first attempts were clearly inspired by Crichton’s work – he tried to extract DNA from a T. rex specimen, but when that didn’t pan out he approached the problem from a new direction: reverse-engineering chicken DNA to bring back traits long since eliminated through the process of evolution.

To achieve this, Horner and his team are hard at work modifying chicken eggs in hopes of breeding a new dinosaur. Since birds still contain dinosaur DNA, the whole process mostly involves locating which gene was responsible for the ancient chicken’s long tail, three-fingered hands, mouth and other dinosaur parts. Once discovered, the theory is that the scientists will be able to “reactivate” those genes and breed chickens that look far more like dinosaurs than the birds we see on the farm. Can dino-nuggets be far behind? Will all foods now suddenly taste like dinosaur? I hope science is prepared to deal with these questions.

As the site points out, the goal isn’t as far-fetched as it might seem. Scientists have already figured out how to activate a gene that gives chickens alligator teeth. How terrifying is that?

Naturally, all of this brings up a ton of ethical questions about man playing God and a potential dino-chicken apocalypse that will make the zombie apocalypse look like a stroll through Jurassic Park before all hell breaks loose. Horner tells us not to worry:

“Part of the project is to show people that it's not dangerous and it's not a bad thing... I've never heard anybody say, 'Well, I don't know, should we have made a Chihuahua?'" I think I can speak for all of us when I say “no, we probably shouldn’t have ever made the Chihuahua. There are enough yippy dogs in the world naturally without us adding to the pool without mankind creating new breeds.”

Horner remains convinced that dino-chickens will pose no threat to humanity, and he can be very persuasive when making that argument. Of course, Richard Attenborough was very reassuring, too – and look how that turned out.

I’m going to be cautiously optimistic about this whole project until Horner actually makes his first major breakthrough. That being said, rest assured that I’ll be amongst the first people bowing down to our new dino-chicken overlords at the earliest sign of trouble. Life really is stranger than fiction...

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DreamWorks, Participant Pick Up Church Sex Abuse Scandal Film (Exclusive)

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Steven Spielberg and Tom McCarthy

In a move certain to spark controversy, DreamWorks Studios and Participant Media have acquired film rights to the story of the Catholic Church's decades-long cover-up of its pedophile priests in Massachusetts as uncovered during a yearlong investigation by the Boston Globe.

PHOTOS: Popes on Screen: Top Papal Performances in Film and TV

Tom McCarthy (The Visitor) has signed on to direct and co-write the script with Josh Singer (the upcoming WikiLeaks movie The Fifth Estate).

Anonymous Content's Michael Sugar and Steve Golin and Rocklin/Faust's Nicole Rocklin and Blye Faust will produce. David Mizner, who brought the project to the producers, will serve as a consultant and associate producer. Participant's Jonathan King and Jeff Skoll will serve as executive producers.

Life rights have been acquired to the Boston Globe's "Spotlight Team" of reporters and editors, including then-Globe editor Marty Baron, special projects editor Ben Bradlee Jr., Spotlight Team editor Walter "Robby" Robinson and reporters Michael Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer and Matt Carroll.

The team spent a year interviewing victims and reviewing thousands of pages of documents and discovered years of cover-up by Church leadership. Their reporting eventually led to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, who had hidden years of serial abuse by other priests and opened the floodgates to other revelations of molestation and cover-ups around the world that still reverberate today.

The Globe team won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service "for its courageous, comprehensive coverage of sexual abuse by priests, an effort that pierced secrecy; stirred local, national and international reaction; and produced changes in the Roman Catholic Church."

The Church has been very vocal in the past about films they see as depicting the faith in a negative light and organized boycotts of movies including The Da Vinci Code.

"The Boston Globe's coverage of the Catholic priest scandal opened the door to a bigger story that had worldwide ramifications," DreamWorks president Holly Bario. "The story of how this team of editors and reporters came to uncover the truth will make a dramatic and compelling film, especially with the talents of our director Tom McCarthy and his co-screenwriter Josh Singer on board."

Added King: "It's great to be back in business once again with our friends at DreamWorks and Anonymous, especially on such a powerful and still-evolving story. We have been eager to do another movie with Tom McCarthy ever since The Visitor'"

The project marks the sixth collaboration between DreamWorks and Participant, having previously partnered on The Fifth Estate -- which is due in theaters Nov. 15 -- Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, the 2011 hit The Help, The Kite Runner and The Soloist.

Participant is no stranger to hot-button topics like the Catholic Church scandal. The company also backed such films as the documentaries An Inconvenient Truth and Food, Inc. Other Participant films include Good Night, and Good Luck; Charlie Wilson’s War; Waiting for Superman; The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel; and last year's No, an Academy Award nominee for best foreign-language film.

In addition to The Visitor, McCarthy wrote and directed The Station Agent and Win Win. He was nominated for an Oscar for co-creating the story of Pixar’s Up. McCarthy also wrote the screenplay for the Disney film The Million Dollar Arm, starring Jon Hamm, which begins shooting in May. He is repped by the Gersh Agency and attorney Andrew Hurwitz. 

Singer, a veteran TV writer, has worked on such shows as The West Wing, Law & Order: SVU, Lie to Me and Fringe. He is repped by WME and Anonymous Content.

Email: Tatiana.Siegel@THR.com, Twitter: @TatianaSiegel27

MTV 'Buckwild' Star Shain Gandee died of carbon monoxide poisoning, confirmed Sheriff

Shain Gandee, the 21-year-old star of the MTV reality series Buckwild, died of carbon monoxide poisoning, Kanawha County Sheriff's Office confirmed.

The native West Virginia was dead, along with his Ford Bronco's uncle and another person, his 1984 on a remote road on Monday morning, more than reported one day after missing will be found. Last seen in a local bar late on Saturday night, Gandee friends said, that he "mudding", or will go off roading.

Photos: 'Buckwild 101': what you should know about MTV's redneck reality show

Speculation surfaced later Monday that the exhaust pipe to Gandees car in thick mud was submitted to a backup caused by the exhaust, the trio killed. The Sheriff's Office told the Hollywood Reporter on Monday evening, confirmed that the death, while random, was caused by the carbon monoxide a declaration such speculation was "not irresponsibly", and now.

Already on Tuesday of Gandee's cousin Ashlee Gandee Lewis wrote on Facebook: "I just wanted to let everyone know that according the family Shain died peacefully in his sleep without pain or suffering. It was probably carbon monoxide. You now do the arrangement [s] for his funeral. Nothing is confirmed, but they think about Saturday."

Gandee, and most of his co-stars won the her had recently a raise for the second season of the hit show, rural life and celebrate trails tracked. The actor, who earned only $1,000 an episode of the first season, had pushed up to $4,000 per, with a bonus of $5,000.

Tim Burton to Direct Christoph Waltz, Amy Adams in 'Big Eyes'

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Tim Burton, Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams

Tim Burton is coming on board to direct Big Eyes, a drama from the Weinstein Co. based on the relationship between Walter and Margaret Keane, THR has confirmed.

Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams are in negotiations to play the couple, who both rose to prominence in the art world and mainstream for their popular paintings of big-eyed children in the 1950s and '60s.

The drama in the script by Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander centers on a decades-long dispute between the two after their 1965 divorce over who actually painted the pictures.

Walter Keane compared himself to lofty painters such as Rembrandt, slighting Margaret who then asked for a “paint off.” A years-long court battle ensued with a judge finally ordering the two to paint in court. Walter lost and had to pay millions, although he continued to say he was the originator.

For Burton, Eyes will reteam him with the writers of one of his most acclaimed movies, Ed Wood. Karaszewsi and Alexander were initially going to direct the project in a version that would have seen Ryan Reynolds and Reese Witherspoon starring but financing and scheduling never gelled. (Burton was always involved as a producer.)

Kid Cudi-splits of Kanye West's good music

Kid Cudi and Kanye West options have separated, although gütlich.

Cudi announced on Tuesday that he "no longer on good music"-the West of helmed record label-in an interview on Los Angeles radio station power 106. He said that his "big Brother" forever West are however

"[Kanye and I] were on the phone the other day talk and these are the things that I have been wanting to talk with him", Cudi said. "I mean your own direction and he got it because he's trying to start his new way and try new things as an artist and he just like was ' man, I feel you as an artist." It's cool, whatever. ""

Photos: 20 best and worst music of the film crossovers

Cudi confessed G.O.O.D. left the decision to hit someone said half a year ago but officially until recently had not. "This is only from a business perspective," he said. "There is no beef. There is no problem with someone on the label. It's all love."

But before you go to bed ' ye Trust Manager, Don C, the rapper and soon to-be father with his decision, Cudi and watch the throne employees, Jay z "I went through a process where I talked to Don C and then I went and spoke with Jay-Z and have their opinion him, how about things that I wanted to talk to him, approaching, and everyone gave me their blessing."

Cudi the next Studio album, Indicud, is making on April 23. Meanwhile, the rapper said that he will continue under his own label-wicked awesome records and the list of artists to focus. "I want to have no full name of artist," he confessed. "I would like to work with [King] chip and keep my sound goes of Cudi turn."

Cudi has ever dared last year hunger games film as the late contribution to the soundtrack of the and recently is transformed into DreamWorks must for speed vs Aaron Paul, Imogen poots and Dominic Cooper.

E-Mail: Sophie.Schillaci@THR.com; Twitter: @SophieSchillaci

Cine Latino: What Are Antonio Banderas and Zoe Saldana Up to?

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Cine Latino covers, well, all things relating to Latino culture and the movies, every Wednesday.

Banderas Mines the Story

The remarkable rescue of 33 Chilean miners that occurred three years ago captivated the world’s attention; of course, it didn’t take long before Hollywood began planning to take the heart-wrenching, death-defying story to the big screen. A few years ago Academy Award-nominated producer Mike Medavoy  (Black Swan, Shutter Island) entered into an agreement with the miners and screenwriter Jose Rivera (Motorcycle Diaries), and last year hired director Patricia Riggen (Girl in Progress) to helm the project. She recently told the Daily Star that Antonio Banderas will be starring in Los 33, but just whom he's playing is still unclear.

"Antonio Banderas will be part of our team of actors. We're very happy to have him in the cast. But he's just the first one confirmed. There will be many more," said Riggen.

The film will recount the events surrounding the mine's collapse and the subsequent rescue efforts, which culminated in the retrieval of all 33 miners after being trapped for 69 days half a mile beneath the surface.

Zoe Saldana, a Guardian?

It's no surprise that Zoe Saldana, who returns to the Star Trek franchise next month as Uhura, is in talks with Marvel Studios to play the green-skinned female lead in director James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Saldana would play the last of a humanoid species exterminated by a race known as the Badoon, joining Chris Pratt as Star-Lord and Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer. Of course, we know she'll be playing a badass assassin thanks to those fierce fighting skills we saw in Colombiana.

In our interview with her a few years back, she pointed out the badass women who have influenced her career: "Sigourney Weaver, who can hold a gun the same way she can hold a stage. Linda Hamilton, when she played Sarah Connor, I was so inspired. I was such a little girl when I saw Terminator. Angelina Jolie, obviously. Jessica Biel, who is such a beautiful woman…”

Bonus: What would happen if Antonio Banderas took over Hollywood? Our friends at Fandango Cine figured it out.

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