Film Festival

Want to see a possible new poster for The Avengers? How about a tease of high end toys based on the whole team? What are Andrew Garfield, Rhys Ifans and Irrfan Khan saying about The Amazing Spider-Man? If Bruce Wayne built a suit like Iron Man, what would it look like? Was a student humiliated when he got caught wearing Superman underwear? Who would have been cast in an X-Men movie if it got made in the 1990s? Read about all this and more in today’s Superhero Bits.

Is this the new poster for The Avengers? Stark Industries (via Comic Book Movie) says it might be.

Andrew Garfield spoke to Total Film (via CBM) about the tone of The Amazing Spider-Man:

We haven’t gone for gritty, we’ve gone for grounded. If we try and make Batman, we’ll fail. The new Batman is it’s own thing – and also in terms of tone, Spider-Man is nothing like that character. Spider-Man is witty, Spider-Man is a kid, Spider-Man wants to have fun, he’s a teenager and he needs to go through first love and piss around.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman flying next to a car via The Awesomer.

A Young Justice video game will be released in 2013 called Young Justice: Legacy. Read more at Superhero Hype.

Tobias Kwan‘s interpretation of Batman is striking. Thanks to Geek Art.

Tom Hiddleston spoke to Total Film (via CBM) about fighting members of The Avengers:

I had huge fun with Chris Evans, as Captain America, because super-soldier though he may be, he’s still a man, up against a God who in his own mind is infinitely superior. Then, in the ring with The Hulk, we’ve got this silver tongued, lightening quick mind up against the embodiment of rage..Loki has this mercurial, transformative ability, not just physically but intellectually, so not all the fights are purely physical. Mind games? Maybe..

If you’re in a cosplay kind of mood, and specifically ready to see superheroes, head over to Gamma Squad for a huge gallery.

If you thought San Diego, New York and Chicago cons have all the fun, turns out that Comic Con India will have a major presentation featuring The Avengers and John Carter. Read more at the Hollywood Reporter.

Continue Reading Superhero Bits >>

Due to the amount of graphics and images included in Superhero Bits, we have to split this post over THREE pages. Click the link above to continue to the second page of Superhero Bits.

• Superhero Bits: Toy Fair, The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers, Ghost Rider, Superman
• Superhero Bits: The Dark Knight Rises, Youngblood, V for Vendetta, The Avengers, Amazing Spider-Man
• Superhero Bits: The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Dark Knight Rises, Black Widow, Green Lantern
• Superhero Bits: Green Arrow, The Avengers, Dark Knight Rises, Amazing Spider-Man, Deadpool
• Superhero Bits: The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Amazing Spider-Man, Shazam
• Superhero Bits: The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers, Man of Steel, Spider-Man, Chronicle

Darren Lynn Bousman, who co-wrote and directed the midnight cult fave Repo! The Genetic Opera, has created a follow-up musical called The Devil’s Carnival. The 55-minute film features some returning Repo! players such as Paul Sorvino, Alexa Vega, Bill Moseley, and Ogre of Skinny Puppy. It also has some new faces such as Jessica Lowndes, Sean Patrick Flannery, Briana Evigan, Ivan Moody, Marc Senter and Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan from Slipknot.

The teaser for The Devil’s Carnival announces more of the involved talent, and you can check it out below.

Boseman told THR the film is “more accessible than Repo but also a lot darker than Repo,” and promised a roadshow release that will hit 30 cities starting in April, with a companion 13-song album. The tour will also “[turn] venues into environments that tie to the movie and that will encourage audience participation.”

Repo! co-writer Terrence Zdunich wrote the music for The Devil’s Carnival with Saar Hendelman.

This one doesn’t look to be to my taste, but I expect the people who turned into big Repo! fans will want to check it out, and might find something to love here.  More info will be found on TheDevilsCarnival.com.

• Repo! The Genetic Opera Movie Trailer
• Many More Added to Mother’s Day Remake: Jaime King, Alexa Vega, Shawn Ashmore and More
• Three New Photos From Repo! The Genetic Opera
• Darren Lynn Bousman Plans For REPO Franchise
• Repo! The Genetic Opera!: “this isn’t Saw… Nor is it Sweeney Todd…”
• Brett Ratner Plans ‘Last American Virgin’ Remake, Sells ‘Mother’s Day’ Remake

Just as the Weinstein Company skips cable and goes straight to Netflix, one-time Harvey Weinstein genre film creator Robert Rodriguez is getting his own cable channel thanks to Comcast.

Rodriguez proposed El Rey, “designed to be an action-packed, general entertainment network in English for Latino and general audiences that includes a mix of reality, scripted and animated series, movies, documentaries, news, music, comedy, and sports programming.”

Rodriguez created El Rey with FactoryMade Ventures executives John Fogelman and Cristina Patwa. It will feature “Hispanic producers, celebrities and public figures,” and is planned to launch by January 2014.

(The channel could be named after the LA theater, but probably really refers to the fictional gangster retreat in Jim Thompson’s novel The Getaway, which is also referenced in From Dusk till Dawn.)

In a press release Rodriguez and Fogelman said,

This partnership with Comcast signals an important moment for the Latino community in this country – we are passionate about creating a wildly entertaining destination that we can be proud of by appealing to both Latino and mass market audiences. We engineered El Rey to address a burgeoning opportunity to deliver unique, high-quality and compelling content to a hard-to-reach demographic and are excited to bring more opportunities to generations of talent, storytellers and dreamers through this special partnership.

This sounds like a step in the fulfillment of ideas that Rodriguez had way back when he was starting to make films. He originally imagined his debut feature El Mariachi as an action movie that he could sell to Latino television as a way to begin making his name and provide more films created specific for a Latino audience. Whether Rodriguez will create content specifically for El Rey is yet to be revealed, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect him to do so.

Along with El Rey, Comcast announced Aspire, “Spearheaded by Entrepreneur and NBA Hall of Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson… Aspire is dedicated to delivering enlightening, entertaining and positive programming to African-Americans families,” and REVOLT, “the first channel created entirely from the ground up in this new era of social media” said Sean “Diddy” Combs.” There’s also BabyFirst Americas, a network “designed for infants, very young children, and their parents.” [Deadline]

• Sequel Bits: ‘Star Trek 2,’ ‘Machete Kills,’ ‘John Carter 2 and 3,’ ‘Indiana Jones 5′
• Danny Trejo in Talks For Robert Rodriguez’s ‘Machete Kills,’ April Start Possible
• New Additions to the National Film Registry Include ‘The Silence of the Lambs,’ ‘El Mariachi,’ ‘Forrest Gump’
• Sequel Bits: Drew Pearce Hired to Write ‘Sherlock Holmes 3;’ Fourth ‘Paranormal Activity’ Very Likely; ‘Sin City 2′ Has New Nancy Callahan Story
• J.J. Abrams’ New Company FactoryMade Ventures Looks Toward Creater-Owned New Media
• ‘The Departed’ Screenwriter William Monahan Working on ‘Sin City 2′ Script

What is Page 2? Page 2 is a compilation of stories and news tidbits, which for whatever reason, didn’t make the front page of /Film. After the jump we’ve included 48 different items, fun images, videos, casting tidbits, articles of interest and more. It’s like a mystery grab bag of movie web related goodness. If you have any interesting items that we might’ve missed that you think should go in /Film’s Page 2 – email us!

Header Photo: Volkswagen Imperial Walker

Pajiba lists 30 Reasons Why We’ll Miss Downton Abbey

Muppets cosplay.

FilmForum takes a look at the history of Miramax: A journey through Netflix

Tim Doyle‘s latest Simpsons-inspired print “742 Evergreen Terrace”

USA Today has an article titled “All hail John Williams, a maestro of movies”

LEGO R2-D2.

Peter Jacobson Joins ‘Ray Donovan’, Zach Cregger Cast In NBC’s Jimmy Fallon Pilot

Drive street art.

GeekTyrant lists the top 10 fictional movie presidents.

Continue Reading Page 2 >>

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The Weinstein Company is helping Netflix compete with pay cable channels. Today the two companies announced a deal that “will make foreign language, documentary and certain other movies from The Weinstein Company exclusively available for Netflix members in the U.S. to watch instantly.”

In other words, when films like Oscar frontrunner The Artist, Ralph Fiennes‘ Coriolanus and Madonna‘s W.E. make their TV debut, it won’t be on HBO or similar channel, but on the Netflix Watch Instantly service. This deal doesn’t cover the full Netflix slate, and could well have taken place because TWC’s own research shows that a movie like The Artist is likely to do better with the Netflix subscriber base than it is on cable. Still, the end result is that this is a blow to cable company deals. Will other similar contracts between studios and Netflix follow?

Read the press release below.

Netflix Inc. and The Weinstein Company (TWC) today announced a new multi-year licensing agreement that will make foreign language, documentary and certain other movies from The Weinstein Company exclusively available for Netflix members in the U.S. to watch instantly.

“The Artist,” the most honored film of the year with 17 awards for Best Picture and ten Academy Award® nominations, including Best Picture, will make its pay TV debut exclusively on Netflix rather than on traditional premium cable.

Written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius and starring Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, “The Artist” brings to life the dawn of talking pictures in an original and deeply entertaining way. The film’s many honors include the Golden Globe for Best Picture/ Comedy or Musical and Best Picture Awards from the Producers Guild of America, British Academy of Film and Television, the London Critics Circle and NY Film Critics Circle. It has garnered numerous prestigious awards for Hazanavicius, Dujardin, Bejo, and composer Ludovic Bource.

Also making its pay TV premiere on Netflix is “Undefeated,” nominated for a 2012 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Directed by Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin, “Undefeated” follows players on a Memphis, TN inner-city high school football team as it attempts to win its first playoff game in the school’s history.

A diverse slate of TWC specialty films will appear exclusively on Netflix within one year of their theatrical release, including the gripping French-language World War II drama “Sarah’s Key,” starring Academy Award-nominated actress Kristin Scott Thomas; the recent French box office record-breaker “The Intouchables;” the romantic drama “W.E.,” directed by Madonna and winner of the Golden Globe for Best Original Song/Motion Picture; the taut Shakespearean adaptation “Coriolanus,” directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes; and “Bully,” a timely documentary about bullying in America’s schools.

Terms of the deal, the first between TWC and the world’s leading Internet subscription service for enjoying movies and TV shows, weren’t disclosed.

“We couldn’t be happier to be working again with Harvey and Bob, who have an unmatched track record of creating critically acclaimed and commercially successful movies,” said Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. “‘The Artist’ is a symbol of the Weinsteins’ triumphant return to the top of the film business. Through deep passion, great taste and phenomenal vision, Harvey and Bob continue to surprise audiences and make history.”

“It is a fantastic coup for Netflix to acquire ‘The Artist’ and the package of additional titles,” said TWC Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein, “With this deal, a company that loves movies, Netflix, joins forces with a company that is built on that same love. It’s exciting that we can offer consumers a supremely convenient way to see the kinds of movies that made us want to be in this business in the first place.”

• First Toronto Festival Announcements Include New Work From George Clooney, David Cronenberg and Francis Ford Coppola
• Ep. 176 – Certified Copy (GUEST: Scott Mendelson from Mendelson’s Memos)
• ‘The Artist’ Nearly Sweeps BAFTAs with Seven Major Awards
• Cool Stuff: The 2012 BAFTA Best Film Brochure Covers
• Screen Actors Guild Calls Jean Dujardin of ‘The Artist’ and Viola Davis of ‘The Help’ Best Actors of 2011
• Directors Guild of America Crowns ‘The Artist’ Helmer Michel Hazanavicius as Best of 2011

Amazon’s Gold Box Deal of the Day today is The Godfather Collection (The Coppola Restoration) on Blu-ray for only $25, 60% off the $63 msrp. The set includes the entire Godfather trilogy, along with a comprehensive set of extra features. The deal is only good until the end of the strike of midnight, so act fast!

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Rachel Berry may be the Glee character known for her outsized dreams of superstardom, but it’s Kurt Hummel who’s taking Hollywood by storm at the moment. Or Chris Colfer, the actor who plays him, is, at any rate. Not content with simply earning a Golden Globe, two Emmy nominations, and a spot on the Time 100 for his role on the hit Fox series, Colfer has spent his time away from McKinley High penning feature screenplays, selling a Disney pilot, and landing a book deal — all by the age of 21.

The first of those scripts, Struck By Lightning, shot this past summer with Brian Dannelly (Saved!) at the helm, and we have an early trailer now. Colfer stars as an ambitious high school senior who blackmails his peers into contributing to his literary magazine before he is, you guessed it, struck by lightning and killed. The dark comedy also boasts some other notable stars, including Christina Hendricks, Allison Janney, Sarah Hyland, Angela Kinsey, Dermot Mulroney, and Rebel Wilson. Watch the trailer after the jump.

[via Vulture]

Based on just this trailer, there doesn’t seem to be much about Struck By Lightning that sets it apart from every other indie coming-of-age tale out there. Still, it’s a decent start for a first-time screenwriter, especially one so young. It helps that there’s some good talent involved. Dannelly’s Saved! was an enjoyable high school tale with bite, and though the cast isn’t comprised of huge movie stars, several of them have done strong work elsewhere. I’m also happy to see that Colfer actually can do something besides Kurt Hummel, which should bode well for his future in front of the camera as well as behind it.

No release date has been announced at this time for Struck By Lightning, though it seems likely to hit at some point this year.

• Casting Bits: Jason Bateman in ‘We’re the Millers’, Max Martini in ‘Pacific Rim’, Rebel Wilson in ‘Struck by Lightning’
• Casting Bits, Ensemble Comedy Edition: ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting’, ‘Struck By Lightning’, Untitled ‘Knocked Up’ Spinoff
• Casting Bits: Dev Patel in ‘More As This Story Develops’, Vince Vaughn in ‘Neighborhood Watch’, Allison Janney in Chris Colfer’s ‘Struck by Lightning’, Jason London in ‘Roswell FM’
• TV Bits: Dwight Schrute-Centered ‘Office’ Spinoff in the Works, Plus: ‘Indie Game’, Paul Feig, Alan Ball, Rebel Wilson
• ‘Liberal Arts’ – Writer/Director/Star Josh Radnor Becomes A Mini-Cameron Crowe [Sundance 2012]
• ‘Detachment’ Trailer and Poster: Adrien Brody and Tony Kaye Go to School

It seems like Orlando Bloom‘s comeback is going to start…any…minute…now. He took a couple years off, and then did a film that there was reason to anticipate (Mark Ruffalo’s Sympathy For Delicious) and a few other projects that were destined to be baby steps back to public awareness more than anything else. (Main Street, The Good Doctor, and The Three Musketeers.)

Bloom has a couple additional films on the horizon: The Laureate; Cities; and a little thing called The Hobbit, in which he’ll reprise his breakout role of Legolas. But that role isn’t likely to be a particularly big part, and so there’s room for something else. So he’s added one more project: a South African crime tale called Zulu, in which he’ll co-star with Djimon Hounsou.

ScreenDaily says the film will be directed by French filmmaker Jérôme Salle based on Caryl Férey’s post-apartheid novel in which two Cape Town cops “work together to fight lawlessness in the city in a post-apartheid era.” Salle scripted with Julien Rappeneau. The film should shoot in Cape Town in July.

Djimon Hounsou was freed up to do this project thanks to the demise of Legendary’s Paradise Lost, in which he was going to play the Angel of Death. That was postponed from a shoot early this year, to summer this year, and then to, er, never when Legendary and Warner Bros. pulled the plug.

Zulu, the novel, is said to be quite violent; we’ll see if that aspect is preserved in the film. Here’s the synopsis:

Ali Neuman, the chief of the Cape Town police crime unit, investigates the murder of 18-year-old Nicole Wiese, found one morning in the South African city’s botanical gardens with her skull crushed in. Since the victim’s father was a member of the Springboks rugby team that won the world championship in 1995, the case attracts heavy press coverage. The trail leads Neuman to an extraordinarily brutal narcotics gang with links to a former apartheid official. The good guys don’t walk away from their encounters with the bad guys unscathed. This is a welcome addition to the growing ranks of crime books set in South Africa—powerful and unflinching in its portrayal of evil both mindless and calculating.

• ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ Trailer: After Many Trials, Peter Jackson Returns to Middle-Earth
• Casting Bits: Miley Cyrus in ‘Hotel Transylvania,’ Rufus Sewell in ‘Paradise Lost,’ Clive Owen in ‘Recall’ And More
• Watch the First Five Minutes of ‘The Three Musketeers’
• Casey Affleck Joins ‘Paradise Lost’ as Gabriel; Camilla Belle May Play Eve
• Casting Bits: Jonah Hill in ‘Neighborhood Watch;’ Rufus Sewell in ‘Paradise Lost;’ Clifton Collins, Jr. in ‘Pacific Rim’
• Djimon Hounsou Cast as the Angel of Death in ‘Paradise Lost’

Wonder Woman has had a difficult time on screens lately, with a feature film taking seemingly forever to develop, and a TV version dying on the vine. And, in general, the concept of the heroine isn’t quite as rigorously explored as is the idea of the male superhero.

But the cinematic heroine is still a powerful figure. A new documentary looks at the birth of the superheroine, and the development of the popular image of the powerful woman. Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines will premiere at SXSW in the next few weeks, but we’ve got the trailer for the doc below.

So this isn’t just a doc about Wonder Woman, but a more ambitious look from Kristy Guevara-Flanagan at how that character influenced multiple generations of women and storytellers.

(Oh, and the good little song that’s at the end of the trailer after the low-in-the-mix use of Bikini Kill’s ‘Rebel Girl‘? That’s ‘Ladyflash‘ by The Go! Team.)

WONDER WOMEN! THE UNTOLD STORY OF AMERICAN SUPERHEROINES traces the fascinating evolution and legacy of Wonder Woman. From the birth of the comic book superheroine in the 1940s to the blockbusters of today, WONDER WOMEN! looks at how popular representations of powerful women often reflect society’s anxieties about women’s liberation. WONDER WOMEN! goes behind the scenes with Lynda Carter, Lindsay Wagner, comic writers and artists, and real life superheroines such as Gloria Steinem, Shelby Knox and others who offer an enlightening and entertaining counterpoint to the male dominated superhero genre.

[FirstShowing]

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The sequels never stop, and the first one we want to talk about today is Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters, the sequel to the 2010 film Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. We know that Thor Freudenthal will direct the movie based on the second book in Rick Riordan‘s YA series, with a script by Ed Wood writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. Logan Lerman and Alexandra D’addario are said to be returning, and now Variety reports that Douglas Smith (Big Love) is in final talks to play a co-starring role.

The Sea of Monsters, which sees the modern versions of characters inspired by Greek mythology seeking the famous and mythical Golden Fleece, is set for release on March 26, 2013. So we’ll probably hear about more casting and a shoot start soon.

After the break, slight news on Crank 3, Insidious 2 and that still-theoretical Twilight continuation.

Crank and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance co-director Brian Taylor was recently signed to make a Twisted Metal movie for Sony, all on his lonesome. (That is, sans Crank and Ghost Rider co-director Mark Neveldine.) But Crank sequel plans aren’t dead yet. Or Taylor is at least still talking about making another of the Jason Statham-starring low-budget action films.

During a recent ‘Ask Me Anything’ session on Reddit (via Bleeding Cool), Taylor talked about Crank in general, and promised a third film soon, perhaps next year:

[Crank's poisoning] was a plot device designed to showcase the shit we do w/ cutting and camera movement but became a metaphor for our entire ADD approach to reality

try explaining to amy smart that she has to take stripper pole lessons and roll around in horse manure naked for the integrity of the film. now that’s directing.

[Crank 3] will happen, prob 2013.

we were going to have chelios track down bin laden [in Crank 3] but that got fucked up…

Next up, we know that a sequel to the horror film Insidious is in the offing; the film was announced in the past couple weeks after speculation began last year that James Wan‘s movie would be granted a follow-up. Now Dread Central reports that the characters Specs and Tucker, played by Leigh Whannell and Angus Sampson, will return. Whannell said,

I can say that yes, my character will be seen in Insidious 2. It may probably bum a lot of people out, though, to hear this news. It’s part of the reason I don’t even read the internet message boards anymore; there was this hatred that spewed out from fans saying ‘I hated those guys! They sucked! They ruined the movie!’ so there will probably be a lot of people out there who will be disappointed to hear that the Specs and Tucker characters will be coming back.

Finally, let’s stoke the fiery ire that is burning in anyone that hopes Twilight will be done after the release of Breaking Dawn Part 2 this year. The purchase of Summit by Lionsgate opened up the conversation about more Twilight movies, with company execs saying they’re up for more movies if Stephenie Meyer will write more books. (Surprise, right?)

If that does happen we might not have Robert Pattinson to kick around any longer as the vampire Edward Cullen. The actor, who has been very entertainingly open in the past few years about his dislike of the Twilight films, says he’s probably aged beyond the point of being able to play the hundred-year-old high school vampire: “I’d be curious what Stephenie would write, but I just think I’d probably be too old. I’m already too old. But yeah, it’d be kind of interesting.” Say it ain’t so! [Reuters]

• There Will Still Be Another ‘Percy Jackson’ Movie, and Thor Freudenthal Will Direct
• Fox Developing ‘Percy Jackson’ Sequel
• Sequel Bits: James Wan and Leigh Whannell Back for ‘Insidious 2′, ‘Bridget Jones’s Baby’ on Track to Shoot This Year
• Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Reynolds Attached to Tim Burton-Produced Art Biopic ‘Big Eyes’
• ‘Ed Wood’ Screenwriters Hired to Pen Ridley Scott’s ‘Monopoly’
• ‘Crank’ Co-Star Says ‘Crank 3′ Happening With or Without Jason Statham