From IGN:

Chris Nolan's Post-Dark Knight Film

It doesn't involve Batman, but it is about a crazy billionaire...

February 11, 2011

He didn't wear a cape and cowl or prowl the streets of Gotham City at night, but Howard Hughes was just as... eccentric, shall we say, as his fellow loco-in-the-coco billionaire, Bruce Wayne. And now Christopher Nolan, who is about to make his third Batman film, is reportedly planning on tackling a Hughes biopic after that.

Vulture has the report, which says that the filmmaker wants to revisit the Hughes film which he had to abandon back in 2004 when Martin Scorsese's own bio film about the famed aviator got to theaters first.

"While Scorsese's film is understood to have been heavily based on Charles Higham's biography Howard Hughes: The Secret Life and centered largely on the early years of Hughes' life up to 1947," says the site, "we hear Nolan's movie is based on Michael Drosnin's Citizen Hughes: The Power, the Money and the Madness … and would focus on the freakier decades of Hughes remarkably secretive and OCD-addled life."

You know, the "wears tissue boxes for shoes" and "pees in glass jars" decades.

When writing Citizen Hughes, Drosnin had access to over 3,000 pages of Hughes' own handwritten notes. That means we could see any of the following (apparently true) nuggets from his life story:

-- The time Hughes spent (most of 1948) "sitting naked in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel with only a pink dinner napkin covering his genitals as he screened movies from his studio, RKO Pictures."

-- "Obsessed with food safety -- [he] once bought every franchise restaurant chain in his home state of Texas." (He also installed an aircraft filtration system in his Chrysler because of his concerns about air quality.)

-- The period when he had his hair cut and nails trimmed only once a year. Also, the time when he was addicted to Baskin Robbins Banana Ripple ice cream and codeine injections.

-- The later years for Hughes when he "considered only Mormons trustworthy enough to be let into his inner circle."

And so on. Vulture's inside sources indicate that the plan is to shoot this film in 2012 for a 2014 release.

From IGN:

Captain America 2 In The Works

Who is writing the squeakquel to First Avenger?

February 11, 2011

Captain America: The First Avenger doesn't open until July 22, and Marvel has locked down writers for its sequel.

LatinoReview.com reports that First Avenger's scribes, Stephen McFeely & Christopher Markus, have been hired to write a sequel. The writing duo scripted the first film and Joss Whedon was brought in to do a polish on their draft.

Chris Evans will reprise his role in the film, as he is signed for six movies, but little else is known about the story this early in the game.

We know that First Avenger is bookended with scenes set in present day, with the end of the movie rumored to involve Cap being frozen in ice. It's possible a sequel could pick up from this point and unfold in present day, the same time period as Whedon's Avengers movie.

From IGN:

X-Men's Havok, Cyclops Not Brothers

Producer Bryan Singer talks X-movie universe continuity.

February 11, 2011

X-Men: First Class producer Bryan Singer has revealed that two characters who were brothers in the Marvel comics will not be related in the movies' continuity.

Singer acknowledged to The Los Angeles Times that "the timeline is different" between the X-Men movies and the comics, and thus Havok (Alex Summers) and Cyclops (Scott Summers) won't be brothers in the film universe. (James Marsden played Cyke in the original trilogy, while Lucas Till plays Havok in First Class.)

"It wouldn't physically fit for him to be the brother of Cyclops. We take some liberties on that. There are notions, but, um, I don't want to give away certain interrelations, but let's just say there are some things that do adhere to the comic books and do so in a way the fans will get a kick out of," said Singer.

He added, "And those things can, perhaps, move forward into the future…. That's one reason we wanted to call the film First Class even though it isn't the [Jeff Parker-penned story arc called] First Class in the comics as fans know it. You couldn't really tell that story without going even earlier and explaining how they got there and how it came to be. I liked the title, so we kept it, but this is a prelude in a way that will eventually lead to the [scenarios] that fit in more clearly with the First Class comics and situations."

X-Men: First Class opens June 3.

From IGN:

Nemesis Screenwriter Hired?

Rumor has it that a scribe's set for the adaptation of the Millar comic.

February 11, 2011

The big screen version of the Mark Millar and Steve McNiven graphic novel Nemesis is said to be heating up over at Fox.

According to Latino Review, the powers-that-be are fast-tracking Nemesis and have tapped Matthew Michael Carnahan to script. Carnahan, the brother of A-Team director Joe Carnahan, penned Lions for Lambs, The Kingdom and State of Play.

Tony Scott (Man on Fire, Top Gun) is attached to direct. He will also produce the film, along with his brother Ridley Scott, via their Scott Free Productions banner.

The gimmick of Millar's comic is basically what if Batman were the Joker? Billionaire Matt Anderson dons a costume and uses an array of hi-tech gadgetry to avenge the deaths of his parents -- except they were supervillains and now so is he. And his victims? The world's top cops. He first set his sights on Asia before coming to Washington D.C. where he locks horns with Blake Morrow, the police chief who caught his parents.

You can check out IGN's reviews of the comics here.

From IGN:

More Dark Knight Rises Location Buzz

Bat-sequel reportedly headed to India and the Big Apple.

February 11, 2011

Location scouting and second unit photography is reportedly under way for The Dark Knight Rises.

According to a source for Batman-on-Film, "There's going to be something big shot at the New York Stock Exchange, probably in October. Word has it that principal photography will start in India."

No word on what the sequences in India will be about, or if India is doubling for another country.

Earlier this week the same source informed BoF, "They are doing a plate shot in a helicopter over New York City this week. Apparently, Chris Nolan wants to get the city with snow on the ground."

Mike
(1 Day Until Toy Fair 2011!)

Fassbender on Prometheus' Connection to Alien

Source: ComingSoon

February 12, 2011

MTV talked to Michael Fassbender about starring in Ridley Scott's Prometheus, which was originally started as an Alien prequel but evolved into a new sci-fi film through the work of Damon Lindelof ("Lost") and Scott. But how much will the film still be connected to Alien?

"There's a definite connecting vein," Fassbender said. "You realize you're part of something else, but it's definitely in keeping with the old ones."

He added that first thought it was another Alien movie, but then he read the script. "It's new, yet it's in keeping with the old traditions as well. But there's a whole new revelation within this film."

He continued by saying that the structure of the first "Alien" movies is still there. "There's action in it, but the intelligence is what struck me when I read it. It's more sort of like the original ones. There are things happening and building, and the intelligence of the first two-thirds of the film gets you ready for the action."

He said he's going to be doing some yoga and Pilates to get ready for the role. "I need to sort out my posture a little bit. I want to be as tall as I can standing next to those aliens!"

Co-starring Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron, the film is scheduled for a June 8, 2012 release.

Exclusive: Michael Fassbender Talks About Magneto

by SuperHeroHype

Feb 12th, 2011

And his relationship with Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class

If you've seen actor Michael Fassbender in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, Zack Snyder's 300, Neil Marshall's Centurion or his unforgettable performances in Steve McQueen's Hunger and Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank, then you already know that he's well up for the role of playing Erik Lehnsherr a.k.a. Magneto in Matthew Vaughn's superhero prequel X-Men: First Class.

The first trailer for the movie hit the internet in a big way this past week and since Fassbender was back in New York City to film Steve McQueen's follow-up Shame and to do some press for his upcoming role as Rochester in Cary Fukunaga's adaptation of Jane Eyre, ComingSoon.net's SuperHeroHype sat down with him to talk about his role in the movie as well as his anticipated turn as the Master of Magnetism.

Because he's been so busy working the last few days, he hadn't realized his image in the trademark Magneto helmet was on the front page of every cool website, but we were glad to hear that the actor had done his homework on the character even if that didn't necessarily mean doing an impression of Ian McKellan who played Magneto in the previous three films. "I haven't based it on him at all actually, and I hope the fans aren't going to be disappointed by that, because I know he's rated as #1 comic villain, well he's up there anyway," he told us. "I just tried to steep myself in the source material, the comic books, and there's so much. He's such a fascinating guy, and how he becomes Magneto is a really interesting journey. The fact that he has been let down so many times by human beings and this distrust that he has. You can see where it's coming from. Obviously, what was happening in the concentration camps and then he escaped from there with Magda, fell in love with her, then their child got burned and he ended up killing the whole town and she's like 'Whoa, this is too heavy for me, I gotta leave.' So the love of his life left him."

Hearing all of Fassbender's knowledge about Magneto's origin, we wondered how much of that was going to be in the movie. At one point, 20th Century Fox was going to do a separate Magneto origins movie, but Fassbender confirmed we'll only see a little bit of his origin this time around. "We see the stuff that's happening in the concentration camp, you see that, but you don't see that relationship (with Magda). I've just held that for my own personal use (in developing) the character, so when we meet him at the beginning of this film, he's definitely a lone wolf. He's on a mission and he's uncompromising and then he bumps into Charles, literally collides into him, and then it's the development of their relationship and really exploring that during the '60s and the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King an Malcolm X."

Since the rapport between Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan in the other "X-Men" movies have played a large part in why they're so great, we asked Fassbender if he'd been able to develop a similar on-screen chemistry with his own Charles Xavier, James McAvoy. "That was a big draw when I heard that (James McAvoy) was going to be playing Charles Xavier, I thought, 'That's really interesting," being a big fan of his and we briefly worked together ten years ago on 'Band of Brothers.' I like him a lot. He's really easy to work with, he's just a normal practical worker, and we sat down and made sure that the relationship had all the elements that we wanted and that the progression was a good one, that there's no filler scenes and every scene is there for a reason. We did a lot of writing together with Matthew, each day we'd sit down and make sure the scene was tight and that it was dealing with everything we wanted to deal with, the fact that they're unsure of each other, sniffing each other, almost like dogs, and then there's a real respect and liking for each other, and then the relationship fractures."

It may be of interest that following our interview, we went to check out new toys from Hasbro, and sadly, it doesn't look like the company was given enough time to have any movie-related toys before the movie's release but you can guarantee that if it does well, we'll have our first Michael Fassbender as Magneto action figure by year's end. Fingers crossed!

Look for our full interview with Michael Fassbender over on ComingSoon.net before Jane Eyre comes out on March 11.

Exclusive: Anthony Mackie on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Source: ShockTillYouDrop

February 12, 2011

Just a few days ago, it was announced that Anthony Mackie of The Hurt Locker was signed on to Timur Bekmambetov's adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith's Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter for 20th Century Fox. As luck would have it, Mackie was doing interviews for his role in George Nolfi's The Adjustment Bureau opposite Matt Damon, so we asked him about the casting rumors. It just so happens that we spoke to him on what would have been Abraham Lincoln's 202nd birthday… if he was a vampire himself, that is. Mackie told us the movie would be shooting in his birthplace of New Orleans starting in March and why the project interested him.

"The great thing about it and what I loved about the movie is the idea that it's the actual storyline," Mackie said. "They took Abraham Lincoln's biography, moment by moment, and put this sub-storyline of vampires in it, and I think that's kind of interesting. It kind of entices the next generation to look at history in way that's new and creative. I feel that if you watch this movie and you talk about it, you're talking about actual history, just with new plot points in it. That starts in like four or five weeks, we start shooting in New Orleans so I get to go home and work for three months."

Anyone who has seen Bekmambetov's Night Watch or Day Watch or Wanted will know that the Russian filmmaker absolutely loves to do some crazy action scenes, and we wondered if we might see any of that in a period piece that's meant to be historically accurate (other than the vampires, of course).

"That's why I'm so interested in doing the movie, not so much because of the vampires or Abraham Lincoln, it's the history aspect and I want to see just how far can he take it, because he's such an interesting guy and his style of directing and way of working is so interesting. It's unlike anything I've done in my career so far, so we'll see."

You can read the full interview with Mackie over on ComingSoon.net before Nolfi's The Adjustment Bureau opens nationwide on March 4.

Craven's Scream 4 Update from the Mix

Source: ShockTillYouDrop

February 12, 2011

Wes Craven posted the following image from the sound mix on Scream 4. He accompanied this update with the following: "Shhh… SCREAM4 Killer Revealed."

Craven's fresh off of additional shooting which took place in Michigan. The film opens on April 15.

Howard J. Ford's The Dead Finds U.S. Distribution

Source: Shock Till You Drop

February 12, 2011

We teased earlier that Howard J. Ford's The Dead was close to finding U.S. distribution.

This weekend, Shock has learned that the zombie film - which has revolved on the film festival circuit - has been acquired by Anchor Bay/Starz.

A DVD debut is expected later this year.

Rob Freeman stars as Brian Murphy, a man whose plane crashes in the South African bush. He joins forces with Daniel Dambele to cross the vast desert by any means necessary. A daunting task under normal circumstances becomes particularly challenging after the zombie apocalypse.

Mike
(When doing a countdown ... you should always save the best for last!)

Ladies and gentlemen ...

Welcome to the American International Toy Fair 2011!!!!!









Mike
("And ... here ... we ...go!")

Captain America, Thor and Transformers Talent Check Out Their Toys

by SuperHeroHype

Feb 16th, 2011

Evans, Hemsworth, Bay and Huntington-Whiteley visit Toy Fair

The last two days Captain America star Chris Evans, Thor star Chris Hemsworth, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon director Michael Bay and star Rosie Huntington-Whiteley visited Hasbro's 2011 Toy Fair showroom in New York to check out Hasbro's new movie toy lines. You can check out photos of their appearances below and you can view our full Toy Fair 2011 Gallery here!