Chris Hemsworth Lands Robopocalypse

Chris Hemsworth Lands Robopocalypse
Steven Spielberg has his lead

Source: Deadline

Who else could fight off an entire army of revolting robots than Thor himself? While we doubt he’ll be allowed to tote Mjolnir along with him, Chris Hemsworth is Steven Spielberg’s pick for his next big project, Robopocalypse.

Spielberg has been developing the techno-fear thriller, based on Daniel H Wilson’s novel, for some time now and Disney is looking to get it into cinemas on April 24, 2014.

The plot finds mankind finally perfecting artificial intelligence. But the new creation, Archos, decides that it should protect its new robo-life and all of its mechanical buddies from its human “masters” and promptly launches a war against us. Uh-oh. Somebody forgot the laws of robotics, eh? Several plot strands follow members of the resistance as they attempt to fight back.

Assuming Deadline’s report is accurate and Hemsworth has landed the lead, one person involved with the film will be very happy: writer Drew Goddard, who directed the Aussie actor in The Cabin In The Woods.

Between being James T Kirk’s dad, playing Thor, working with Joss Whedon and now Spielberg, Hemsworth is certainly building up some genre cred. He’s currently at work on Thor: The Dark World and will next be seen in Ron Howard’s Rush and the delayed Red Dawn reboot.

Source: EmpireOnline

Will Smith's Raising Cain Again

Will Smith's Raising Cain Again
He may direct Cain and Abel pic

Source: Deadline

Everyone and their god seem to be working on a Biblical epic these days. Between Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott taking a look at Moses and Darren Aronofsky off building his giant ark for Noah, you do start to wonder if they’ve heard something we’re not privy too. Bible fever is spreading, with Will Smith now attached to what made end up his directorial debut – The Redemption Of Cain. At least, that’s the working title as he develops it for Sony.

This is not the first we’ve heard of the project.Word first leaked about it back in 2010 when the idea focused on Cain – of Cain and Abel infamy – turning out to be a vampire. The original script was written by Caleeb Pinkett (younger brother to Smith’s missus, Jada Pinkett Smith) and Dan Knauf, with World Trade Center scribe Andrea Berloff busy polishing it up for Smith’s Overbrook company to pitch.

The original title for the film was The Legend Of Cain, and the Redemptionbit makes us think they might be taking a more sympathetic look at the central figure. But we'll have to wait until more news hits, which won’t be for a while since Smith doesn’t intend to make this as his next film, and will probably want more time to prepare if he’s going to be calling the shots and starring to boot… 

Source: EmpireOnline

Mads Mikkelsen Won't Be In Thor 2

Mads Mikkelsen Won't Be In Thor 2
Blame the Hannibal TV show...

Source: Zoomin.TV


Bad news you if you were one of the many eagerly wondering who – or what – Mads Mikkelsen might be playing in Thor 2. He won’t be playing anything, because he’s not doing the movie. He admitted as much to Zoomin.TV.

“That’s not happening, unfortunately,” says the Dane. I went in for a meeting, it was a little bit too late, and then Hannibal came up. And it films during the same period, so…”

That's the US TV drama, which will chart the devious doctor’s earlier days working with Special Agent Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) while hiding the slightly inconvenient fact that he’s even more dangerous than most of the people they’re hunting. Mikkelsen is set to play the psychiatrist with a taste for fava beans, a nice chianti and human liver.

The series is filming now, with Mikkelsen the second victim of its cannibalistic schedule, after David Slade, who dropped out of the Daredevilreboot to focus on his directorial duties on the show.

Source: EmpireOnline

Stephen Daldry Directing Wicked?

Stephen Daldry Directing Wicked?
Universal wants him for the witches

Source: Deadline

While today at Comic-Con may have seen one take on a prequel to The Wizard Of Oz with Sam Raimi’s Oz The Great And Powerful, Universal – which did not bring any movies to the event – is also pushing ahead with its own very different Oz origin film based on the musical Wicked, dangling the idea of directing in front Stephen Daldry.

Wicked, as you’ll likely be aware unless you’ve somehow managed to miss a mention of one of the biggest showtuners to happen along in years, is based on Gregory Maguire’s novel series, which takes a fresh eye to the background of Glinda and, as she’s called in the books, Elphaba, aka the Wicked Witch Of The West.

The twist here is that the story (in the musical, it starts before Dorothy arrives and then weaves a little bit in and out of the 1939 film’s events) is told from Elphaba’s point of view, the green-skinned outsider who will become the Wicked Witch through circumstances that are not completely her fault. And who may not be as evil as we've been led to believe.

If he does take on the job, Daldry faces a big challenge – the show has such a big following now that fans will be ready to complain about changes. But the plot is naturally cinematic (not really surprising, since it was originally developed as a film…) Plus Daldry certainly has the skills to pull it off. That said, we've been here before: there was talk of this happening back in 2010and, if we remember rightly, way back in about 2004 as well, so we'll believe it when we see it.

Source: EmpireOnline

Jon Favreau In Tune With Jersey Boys

Jon Favreau In Tune With Jersey Boys
Update: He's in negotiations
 Source: Variety

Update: In the same news story aboutStephen Daldry being courted to direct Wickedcomes word that Favreau is now in official negotiations for the Jersey job.

Hugo producer Graham King has been pushing a film adaptation of jukebox musicalJersey Boys: The Story Of Frankie Vallie And The Four Seasons for a couple of years now. It would appear that the movie is creeping closer to seeing that green light flash as Jon Favreau has emerged the frontrunner to direct it.

If he does take the gig, it would be a definite change of tone for Favreau, who has spent the last few years helping Marvel grow its cinematic universe via two Iron Man films and his executive producing job on other titles such asThe Avengers. He also tackled – less successfully – Cowboys & Aliens. Most recently, he’s directed the pilot for Revolution, a new TV series from JJ Abrams and Supernatural creator Eric Kripke.

Jersey Boys will follow Vallie and the other Four Seasons in their rise to pop superstardom. The show has toured the world after launching on Broadway in 2005. Back in January, King hired Hugo writer John Logan to write the latest draft of the script.

When the film will actually kick off production is another matter, since Favreau has also been developing Magic Kingdom. In between megaphone gigs, he’s been getting back to his acting routes, and will appear in People Like Us (due some time this year), Identity Thief (out July 12, 2013) and Iron Man 3 as Happy Hogan, which hits our screens on May 3 next year. 

Source: EmpireOnline

Comic-Con: Wreck-It Ralph Footage

Comic-Con: Wreck-It Ralph Footage
The secret life of video games...

As part of Disney’s panel at Comic-Con today, the Mouse House sent director, and Simpsons veteran, Rich Moore to introduce some footage from new ‘toon Wreck-It Ralph. But instead of just throwing up a trailer, he unveiled 10 minutes of footage (“The movie’s only 11 minutes long,” he joked) showing the various worlds of the film.

We began with an introduction to Wreck-It Ralph’s world, which, if you’ve seen the traileralready, you’ll be familiar with. Ralph (John C Reilly) bemoans his life as the bad guy in a game called Fix-It Felix. See, Ralph appears doomed to simply destroy buildings and is vilified for it, while Felix (Jack McBrayer) repairs everything and gets feted. And, as Ralph points out, Felix has a magic hammer, so there’s no real skill involved.

Ralph dreams of something more, which shocks the villains he meets when he finally agrees to attend Bad-Anon, a support group for video game baddies. This scene is loaded with cameos from various games, including Zangief of Street Fighter II, a zombie from Resident Evil, Clyde the orange ghost from Pac-Man (who, it is revealed, is hosting the group in his haunt in the middle of the game – a great touch) and Dr Robotnik from Sonic The Hedgehog.

Then we were off to Game Central Station, where Ralph tangles with an annoying, officious customers officer (“Anything to declare?” the man asks. “I really hate you,” replies Ralph. “I get that a lot.”) and helps out poor, destitute Q-Bert with some fruit.

After that, we were given shorter looks at Hero’s Duty, the first-person shooter Ralph visits trying to be a hero, and Sugar Rush, the brightly coloured race game where he meets Sarah Silverman’s “Glitch” Vanellope von Schweetz.

This one looks like it’ll be a whole lot of fun, with the sort of attention to detail you normally see in something like The Simpsons. Which shouldn’t really surprise anyone.

There were a couple of other announcements: music producer Skrillex will be providing the soundtrack for Hero’s Duty and Firefly star Alan Tudyk will be King Candy. “There’s your Comic-Con bombshell,” Moore laughed. “Tweet that.”

Source: EmpireOnline

Comic-Con: The Host Previewed

Comic-Con: The Host Previewed
Stephenie Meyer launches her next pic

While the screaming, capacity crowd in Comic-Con's Hall H lapped up the chance to see Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner and the rest of Team Twilight appear for the Breaking Dawn Part 2 panel, novelist Stephenie Meyer asked everyone to wait once the assembled vampires and werewolves left the stage. Because she’d brought a surprise: footage from The Host.

With director Andrew Niccol at the podium to kick off the look at the latest cine-baby birthed from a bestseller, we were treated to a batch of scenes from different parts of the movie.

The Host finds Saoirse Ronan as Melanie Stryder, a young woman living in a world where bodysnatching aliens have effectively taken over most of the human race by replacing their consciousness. Melanie and her brother have been on the run for two years, but she’s finally been captured, and implanted with her alien invader. After a brief flash of Ronan running and jumping out of a window, the footage proper starts with her opening her eyes on a space-age medical table. “Call me… Wanderer…” And we’re off.

With her superiors hoping Wanderer will ransack Melanie’s memories for the location of one of the rebel strongholds, the alien realises that might not be quite as easy as it first thought. Melanie’s a lot mentally stronger than most people…

We saw a mixture of flashbacks to Melanie’s life on the run and her time post-merging, when she’s brought back to the revel base buried deep in the desert that is run by William Hurt’s Jeb Stryder. There’s the hint of the tension between Ronan, Max Irons and Jake Abel and some action footage to finish, in which the resistance has to try to evade the aliens, featuring a scruffy truck facing off against shiny cars, motorbikes and a helicopter.

What we saw was still rough with a temp score, but looked visually polished even though Niccol only recently finished shooting.

We’ll all get to see The Host when it’s out on March 29, 2013. Expect, we suspect, a trailer soon.

Source: EmpireOnline

Bloody New Dredd Clip Crashes In

Bloody New Dredd Clip Crashes In
Try your first hit of Slo-Mo for free

Source: Lionsgate

There are positive vibes coming out of Comic-Con about Dredd, which opened the event. Riding that wave of approval, here's a short new Dredd clip from the official website. It's not a trailer, but if it were, you might call it "red band", given the slo-mo blood-splattering that fills its minute of run-time. 

"Bare, rippling flesh gets pierced in loving slo-mo," says Empire's Chris Hewitt in his Dreddreview. This is exactly what he was talking about, as veteran Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) and rookie Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) make an impromptu entrance into a den of druggies. Slo-Mo, you'll have read by now, is both the name of Mega City One's new illegal drug of choice, and its effect. So there's a plot reason for the bullet-time; it's doesn't just look cool.

"We're fighting the Stallone film to some extent," Dredd creator John Wagner told us this week in an exclusive interview. This clip seems a reasonable salvo in that battle, demonstrating that bloody violence and a down-and-dirty aesthetic are the order of the day rather than big-budget  fantasy FX, catchphrases and comedy sidekicks.

"Zarjazz!" we say,* and we'll probably keep saying it until Dredd's released on September 7. 

*It's a 2000 AD thing.

Source: EmpireOnline

Oz The Great And Powerful Trailer Online

Oz The Great And Powerful Trailer Online
Sam Raimi wants you to meet the wizard

Source: Apple

Sam Raimi received something of a hero’s welcome at Comic-Con, and he brought with him not only Michelle Williams and Mila Kunis, but also the fruits of their collective labours. Or at least the trailer for it… Now the promo for Oz The Great And Powerful is online over at Apple.

Opening with a real nod to the 1939 Wizard Of Oz, the footage starts in Kansas, in black and white. Here, Oscar Diggs (James Franco) is a small-time magician working circuses and sideshows, who really wants to be something more.

Unfortunately for Oscar, he’s also a philandering cheat and soon has to escape in his trusty balloon. But he’s whisked away to the Technicolor spectacle of Oz, where his greatest adventure lies.

Raimi has pulled out the visual stops for this one, and the Emerald City in particular looks like it could be a showstopper. Oz The Great And Powerful is out on March 8 next year.

Source: EmpireOnline

Comic-Con: Lone Ranger Footage Unveiled

Comic-Con: Lone Ranger Footage Unveiled
Depp and co go Western...

Walt Disney studios brought a three-pack ofFrankenweenie, Oz The Great And Powerfuland Wreck-It Ralph to Comic-Con this year. But the Mouse had an extra surprise lurking for after that…. The first footage from The Lone Ranger.

Opening with a narration from Tom Wilkinson, talking about the possibilities brought by the coming of the railroad, the camera swoops around desert terrain, then into a cave, where we find a speeding locomotive.

From there, we get a look at various Western characters and just a hint of our hero. It’s evocative stuff, and a clear sign that while the budget might have been tweaked, it was still lavish and impressively stretched in the way Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski do best.

The other person who gets to talk? That would be Johnny Depp as Tonto. “There comes a time, Kemosabe, when good man must wear mask…”

Given the format of the footage, we’d expect to see a trailer sooner rather than later.

Source: EmpireOnline

Comic-Con Photos: The Hobbit Unveiled

Comic-Con Photos: The Hobbit Unveiled
See Gandalf, Thorin & the trolls!

Our cracked team of reporters are now on the ground at Comic-Con in San Diego and have sent us back what they're seeing. First up, a good look at the huge display for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which features wizards, dwarves, trolls and whatever Gollum is*, as well as new posters for the film.

As we all know, Peter Jackson has once again journeyed to Middle-Earth to direct, and the stars include Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Hugo Weaving and Cate Blanchett. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be out on December 14, 2012, withThe Hobbit: There And Back Again following on December 13, 2013.

So what do we think of these designs? Do those trolls look like the Tom, Bert and Bill you read about? Let us know!

*Acceptable answers include, of course, one of the River-folk and a "Stoor hobbit", but there's a fairly strong argument that he's one of a kind.

Source: EmpireOnline