#Film #News from @totalfilm

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Right, we know we said you need to leave space on your Christmas list for the new LOTR Lego collection, but you’re going to have to find a little more now, as pictures have been released of the new Dark Knight Rises toy range… and it’s awesome.

First up is a trio of vinyl pop figures of Batman, Catwoman and Bane, and if ever there were a cuter model of a masked psychopath than the latter, we’ve yet to find it.

In addition to that, there’s a new Batman action figure in the pipeline, with some interesting-looking accessories included. Is that some kind of drill attachment he’s sporting there? How will that fit into the film, we wonder?

There’s also a model of Bruce Wayne’s new vehicle, The Bat, which should probably find its way onto your list as well. But best of all is the Batman chessboard, which plays out atop Gotham City’s skyline and features pieces shaped like Robin, Penguin and the Batmobile.

If that isn’t one of the greatest pieces of tie-in merchandising ever created, we’ll eat our collective hat. The toys should be launched around June, so start saving those pennies now. Try not to justify it too much… it’s best just to hand your money over!

Work on the forthcoming RoboCop reboot continues to move forward, with MGM announcing that Gran Torino screenwriter Nick Schenk has signed on to write the script.

One of a raft of classic properties that MGM is seeking to revive (see this week’s news story about Joe Carnahan’s Death Wish revamp), RoboCop will be directed by Jose Padilha, who has outlined his plan to delve deeper into how Alex Murphy became a cyborg.

“I have my take on it," Padilha told Superhero Hype, "And I can tell you this: In the first RoboCop, Alex Murphy is shot, gunned down, then you see some hospitals and stuff and then you cut to him as RoboCop. My movie is between those two cuts.”

“How do you make RoboCop?” he continues. “ How do you slowly bring a guy to be a robot? How do you actually take humanity out of someone and how do you program a brain, so to speak, and how does that affect an individual?"

No further casting news has been released as yet, but rumours linking Michael Fassbender to the project refuse to go away. We’re yet to be convinced by the need to reboot RoboCop, but if Fassbender were attached, we’d admit to having our interest piqued.

Production is set to begin later this year, with RoboCop is expected to open at some point in 2013.

For those of you with little to no interest in pigskin-chucking, Marvel have released a teaser for their Superbowl advert for The Avengers online. And brief as it is, there’s still some new stuff in there to keep the fans excited.

The teaser is completely dialogue-free, but does show a few new snippets of action, including Thor standing atop the Chrysler Building and Black Widow looking slinky.

Check out the new teaser, below…



Expect the full trailer (and probably some others besides) to hit the web after the Superbowl airs on Sunday 5 February. Meanwhile, Joss Whedon was recently part of an Avengers Twitter chat, and took the opportunity to put those Spider-Man rumours to bed once and for all. “There is no Spider-Man cameo,” said Whedon. “But the Avengers do turn off the dark.” Intriguing…

Tom Hiddleston was also present, and he had a few words to say about how Loki has changed for The Avengers. “More mischievous. More evil. More hubristic. More delusional. More damaged. More badass,” he explains. That’s that cleared up then.

The Avengers opens in the UK on 27 April 2012.

Lucasfilm have released what they describe as a “kids featurette” to promote the 3D refit of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, and it just might be the most irritating trailer ever made.

Featuring an excruciating “woah dude” voiceover, and more Jar-Jar footage than you’d believe, it takes a while to realise that this isn’t some kind of fan-made wind-up… this is real!

The new trailer emerged a day or so ago, but we wouldn’t want you to miss it, so here it is in all its terrible glory…



“That sound can only mean one thing… POD RACING.” Good Lord, it’s enough to make you puncture your own ear-drums. And the less said about the narrator’s jaunty advice to Darth Maul, the better.

If you can stomach the idea of revisiting Episode I after that, the film re-opens in the UK next Thursday, 9 February. Although as Simon Pegg once described it, a 3D Phantom Menace would be like, “the car actually crashing into your face as opposed to just unfolding before your eyes.”

A second theatrical trailer has been released for The Hunger Games, and after the action-centric first effort, this one is pleasingly heavy on dialogue.

The trailer opens with Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) giving her younger sister Primrose a Mockingjay pin, of which she promises, “as long as you have it, nothing bad will happen to you.”

That pin will go on to become something of an icon throughout the trilogy, as hinted at by the scene in which Lenny Kravitz’s Cinna smuggles it back to a stunned Katniss. Take a look at the new trailer to see for yourself….



This trailer has probably got us more excited than any of the others, as it takes the time to show the respective motivations driving Katniss and her fellow tribute, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). Whilst she is doing everything to protect her sister, Mellark just wants the opportunity to show that the state, “that they don’t own me.”

The Hunger Games opens in the UK on 23 March 2012. Forget Harry Potter, there’s a new fantasy epic in town…

As if the release of The Hobbit weren’t enough to send fans of Middle-earth into a frenzy, LEGO have announced a new Lord Of The Rings collection featuring the heroes and villains of the J.R.R Tolkien trilogy.

A deal was signed last year to allow the toy company access to the rights to all characters and settings from the LOTR trilogy, as well as the upcoming adaptation of The Hobbit.

The first range of LEGO products is expected to arrive in December, ahead of The Hobbit’s release, and will be a heroes collection, featuring the likes of Frodo, Aragorn and Gandalf (in his traditional grey attire).
 

After that will come a small range of villains, including the Orcs of Moria, a Ringwraith and Gollum. Whether or not a Lego Eye of Sauron will be released remains to be seen, but we can only hope so.

We’d like to pretend that we’re too grown up to be hopelessly excited by this, but there it is… we aren’t. This year’s Christmas list has just written itself…

A new poster has been released for upcoming comedy 21 Jump Street, and judging by the explosions, it looks as though Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum have been dropped into their very own action spectacular.

We’re not sure the way they’re holding those guns conforms to police protocol, but they look like they’re having fun, so who are we to complain?

Is it just us, or does anyone else keep getting the promotional material for this one muddled up with those Modern Warfare ads? In both cases, Jonah Hill plays the buffoon to a hulking, musclebound straight-man as gunfire and explodey mayhem reigns supreme. Maybe we just need to get used to the new, streamlined Jonah…

21 Jump Street sees Hill and Tatum play a pair of undercover cops, sent to infiltrate their local high school in order to bust a ring of drug pushers. As the new tagline so succinctly puts it, “They thought the streets were mean… then they went back to high school.”

The film opens in the UK on 16 March 2012. In the meantime, you can check out the new poster in full, below. Police badge on a chain… that always looks badass, doesn’t it?

Despite leading lady Lily Collins having dropped out over scheduling issues, the casting process for the Evil Dead reboot continues apace, with a new name having been added to the project. However, this is no replacement for Collins, but rather a new leading man…

Shiloh Fernandez is the latest name on the cast sheet, and will take the role that Variety describes as the “male lead”. If you don’t recognise the name, Fernandez is best known for having played Peter in last year’s Red Riding Hood.

If he’s going to be the leading man, does that mean he’ll be taking on the Bruce Campbell role? Well, character details are slim at present, but there could be room for the cowardly incarnation seen in the original film.

The story focuses upon a group of five youngsters, who take a trip to a secluded cabin when one of their number (the character earmarked for Lily Collins) decides she needs some time out to recover from a drug problem.

The two male roles on offer are David and Eric. The first is a mechanic who’s engaged to one of the girls in the group, whilst the second is thought to be the one who triggers the Necronomicon’s terrible powers. We reckon Fernandez is in line for the latter…

Directed by Fede Alvarez from a script co-written by Diablo Cody, The Evil Dead will open in US cinemas on 12 April 2013, with a UK date yet to be confirmed. We hope one of those kids thought to bring a boomstick with them…

Last month we brought you news that the forthcoming Expendables sequel would be working within the confines of a PG-13 certificate, after Chuck Norris refused to sign on unless the film was a swear-free zone. Disappointing news then, for fans of the kind of guts and glory actioners the film harks back to.

However, according to Norris’s co-star Terry Crews, the decision to open the film to a wider audience can only be a good thing.

“It's PG-13,” begins Crews. “Do you really think only men 40 and over saw the first one? The kids bought tickets to Eat, Pray, Love and walked right into The Expendables.” Which kind of begs the question, why bother changing the certificate?

In any case, Crews is adamant that the lack of boobs, blood and sweariness won’t detract from the overall experience.

“I get [the concerns]. I really do," he says. "But boobs and blood do not a good movie make. You don't want to go - don't go. I respect it. But you will miss the greatest thing you've ever seen.”

To make sure you treat your eyeballs to the greatest thing they’ve ever seen (and you can take a Terry Crews promise to the bank – the blood bank! Sorry), be sure to buy yourself a ticket when The Expendables 2 opens in August 2012.

Scenes from upcoming James Bond movie Skyfall were being shot in London yesterday, and some new on-set snaps of Daniel Craig have emerged online.

After seeing the first official image from Skyfall earlier this week, we've been left to presume that times are going to be tough for Bond in his latest adventure.

From his 'I ain't got time to shave' stubble in the official image, to the dusty, battered pinstriped suit evidenced here, this is shaping up to be one of his most challenging missions yet.

Check out a selection of ComingSoon.net's images below:

Skyfall opens on 26 October 2012, at the tail-end of what's shaping up to be one hell of a year for movies.

Tom Hardy, Chris Pine and Reese Witherspoon have been in London to promote the release of This Means War, and the trio, along with director McG, rocked up on the red carpet at last night’s London premiere.

You can watch the video, which features interviews with the whole gang, above.

Hardy sports an impressive scruff of a beard, and he reckons that “the whole film was good fun… I tend to take myself incredibly seriously so it was to not, for once.”

Witherspoon meanwhile compares choosing between her hunksome co-stars to “Sophie’s Choice” and McG explains: “I was always curious about what would happen if Jason Bourne and James Bond took on each other in the spirit of chasing a woman…”

This Means War opens on 2 March 2012.

Read Total Film’s This Means War review.

The first official image from the new James Bond adventure, Skyfall, has been released online.

It shows Daniel Craig looking grizzled, moody and on a mission. We like.

Even though he's had a four year break from the role since appearing in Quantum Of Solace, the actor's looking as badass as ever, with a grainy smattering of stubble that suggests he hasn't had time for his usual grooming ritual.

And despite the fact that the 50th anniversary of the Dr No is inspiring all kinds of birthday celebrations for Bond, the new image suggest Skyfall is taking 007 in a pleasingly different direction.

The above image shows Bond in Shanghai, one of the many locations that director Sam Mendes is plonking him in.

Skyfall opens on 26 October 2012.

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The trend for sequels, prequels and reboots seems to be spreading beyond the medium of cinema, with DC comics revealing the first official cover for Before Watchmen, a new strand of spin-off comics designed to fill in the gaps of the original Watchmen story.

“Essentially, we’re looking at old characters through new eyes,” creator Len Wein told Wired. “What we’re doing is filling in a lot of the blank spaces in a story that has already, to some degree, been told.”

“There were still a lot of gaps in the histories of Watchmen's characters,” he continues, “and events only mentioned in passing or touched on briefly in the original story. We’re filling in those gaps in the most creative and inventive ways we can.”

Wein will write the Ozymandias series (one of several character-specific mini-series to be released), the cover of which can be seen below. However, original creator and comic-book legend Alan Moore will not be involved at all, having turned down DC’s overtures to write the prequel series. Moore confirmed that the series had been offered back to him if he “would agree to some dopey prequels and sequels.”

What this new development means is that we will almost certainly be treated to a Watchmen prequel movie, with DC likely having factored a film adaptation into their plans to reboot the franchise.

The new comics are set to arrive this summer… we wouldn’t be surprised to hear talk of a new movie by Christmas!

It was with great sadness that we learned of the death of actor Ben Gazzara, a star whose screen presence will possibly mean more to a lot of people than his not-too-familiar name.

Gazzara died in a Manhattan hospital on Friday 3 February as a result of his pancreatic cancer.

He first found fame in a stage production of Tennessee Williams' Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, but he went on to notch up well over a hundred TV and film appearances.

Most notable among his movie out put was Otto Preminger's Anatomy Of A Murder (which kickstarted his big screen career in 1959), and a brief but impactful role as porn baron Jackie Treehorn in The Big Lebowski.

We'll perhaps remember him most fondly as the scourge of the Double Deuce nightclub in '80s gem Road House, which saw him face off against Patrick Swayze's philosophising bouncer.

You're also likely to have seen him in everything from Happiness, to The Thomas Crown Affair remake, to Summer Of Sam and Dogville.

His gruff, piercing intensity was frequently utilised for tough-guy roles, such as the lead in Capone.

Our thoughts go out to Gazzara's wife and daughter.

BAFTA has commissioned a series of brochure covers to accompany the Best Film nominees ahead of next Sunday’s award ceremony, and rather gorgeous they are too.

Designed by Eda Akaltun and StudioSmall, the five brochures present an arty take on the five big films of the night. In case you missed the earlier announcements, they are Drive, The Help, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, The Artist and The Descendants.

On balance, we’d say that the Drive cover is probably our favourite, although the image for The Artist runs it close. Sadly, the images are not currently available to buy, or else we’d have snapped them up already.

The BAFTAs will be handed out at London’s Royal Opera House on Sunday 12 February. Until then, take a look at the artwork in full below…

While there's been no shortage of promotional material from The Hobbit since the epic two-parter started production (Peter Jackson sure does love the internet), it's always nice when something new arrives.

Another image has been revealed, and this one shows Bilbo in the midst of his unexpected houseguests: namely, the Dwarves he'll eventually go on a quest with.

This glimpse is also a reminder that character interaction is going to play as big a part in the film as troll fights, massive spiders and dragon raids - which is why we're so excited about seeing it.

It's also reassuring to see that food - a key concern for Hobbits and Dwarves - is still at the forefront.

Here's that image:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens on 14 December 2012.

What do you get when you team up Superman with John McClane? A whole bucket-load of ass-whupping, that’s what… especially if you’re a cabal of shady government types who have kidnapped their family.

That’s the set-up (minus the Superman bit, obviously) in new action thriller The Cold Light Of Day, in which Henry Cavill’s family holiday is disrupted by the abduction of his mother and siblings. Fortunately, his old man (Willis) is still around, but unfortunately, he’s the one with all the enemies.

Take a look at the new trailer, below…



To be honest, if Bruce Willis is your dad, you have to come to terms with the fact that a lot of people will want to kill him. Still, Cavill seems to adapt well enough, grabbing hold of the nearest gun and raising a little hell of his own.

Directed by JCVD helmer Mabrouk El Mechri, the film looks a little short of the Bourne-standard of secret service actioners, but Sigourney Weaver looks a pleasingly frosty presence in the Joan Allen ice queen mould. And we’ve always got time for Bruce Willis smashing heads through car windows…

The Cold Light Of Day opens in the UK on 6 April 2012.

Total Film sat down with Viggo Mortensen this morning to discuss A Dangerous Method, the Danish-American actor’s third collaboration with director David Cronenberg.

Mortensen received a Golden Globe nomination for his superb portrayal of Sigmund Freud in the psychoanalysis-themed period piece, but the film failed to earn any nominations for the BAFTAs or the Oscars.

We asked the former King of Gondor if he was disappointed that the film had been overlooked?

“[It’s been] totally overlooked, hasn’t it? I was particularly surprised at the BAFTA, y’know? It’s an English movie and, well, I guess when I look at some of the things that are nominated, the fact that we didn’t even get on the longlist of 15 candidates… I have to assume that it’s owing to not enough people having seen the movie.

“I’d hate to think it was simply a question of general ignorance and lack of individual imagination on the part of the voters [Smiles]. I’d hate to think it was that. I’d have to assume that [enough of them] didn’t see the movie. [Laughs] I hope that’s why! Because otherwise it’s baffling.”

So, do nominations mean a lot to him personally?

“They help people want to see the movie. Basically it’s a business thing. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter because obviously it’s kind of a lottery, isn’t it? Kind of a popularity contest that to some degree can be forced by promotion, or to a great degree, and again, if people see the movie then they can judge.

“I would like to have seen our movie recognised. I would certainly like David Cronenberg to be recognised. I don’t know if he’s ever been nominated for a directing [BAFTA award], I know he never has been for an Oscar or a Golden Globe which is startling to me still.

“But I don’t care about it in any sense other than, well, to some degree it would be a vindication of his work and our work on the movie, but it helps put people on seats, it helps people see the movie in theatres.

"If you can put in your newspaper ad ‘Nominated: Best Director’ Bafta, Oscar, Whatever, or Actor or Best Movie, obviously when you’re deciding what movie you’re going to see Friday or Saturday night, that does influence people.”

Look out for the full interview with Viggo Mortensen on TotalFilm.com next week.

A Dangerous Method opens on 10 February 2012.

Read Total Film’s A Dangerous Method review.

Following the recent release of the film’s first official trailer, Sony have consolidated their Resident Evil: Retribution publicity drive with the release of a first teaser poster.

Somehow, the studio have managed to resist cramming all their latest products into the new one-sheet (see the first twenty seconds or so of the trailer if you don’t know what we mean), in favour of sheer, unadulterated carnage.

The film’s tagline is “Evil goes global”, and that motto is borne out in the poster, which shows global landmarks such as Big Ben and Moscow’s Red Square laid to waste by the latest zombie outbreak.

Meanwhile, the ominous logo of the Umbrella Corporation looms large over proceedings, it being their deadly T-virus that has transformed the Earth into a playground for the living dead.

There’s no sign of the catsuit-clad Milla Jovovich in this one, but we’d bank on her returning in all her latex glory when the next poster arrives. Resident Evil: Retribution will open in the UK on 14 September 2012.

Whilst the 3D presentation of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 wasn’t to everyone’s taste, there can be little argument that Voldemort’s death scene benefitted from the technology, particularly when the confetti effect blew his smoking remains into the spellbound audience.

However, that great death scene could have been a little darker, at least according to a new set of production stills released by concept artist Andrei Riabotvitchev.

The new images show Voldemort suffering a Raiders Of The Lost Ark style face melt, in a scene that was presumably considered too gruesome for the younger members of the audience.
 

Another alternative ending shows Voldemort going the way of Cate Blanchett in Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. That’s what happens to people who reach for too much power, you see…

We were always fairly happy with the way David Yates elected to wrap up the franchise, but it’s interesting to note that more adult conclusions were considered. Old snake-features is dead though, which is of course the main thing.