-
Who can make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs?
Before we had more details about Disney's plans for its newly-acquired Star Wars movie franchise, we asked you who you thought would make a good replacement for Harrison Ford as Han Solo in the planned Star Wars: Episode VII movie. You chose Nathan Fillion by a wide margin — an excellent choice considering Joss Whedon based the character that Fillion played in Serenity on Han Solo — but the more we hear about Episode VII, the more we're convinced that Ford will be reprising the role himself. That doesn't mean that the hunt for Han Solo is over, however.
Last week, Disney announced that at least two spin-off movies set in the Star Wars universe are in development, in addition to the new trilogy that will begin with Episode VII. One of the spin-offs will be set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope and chronicle the adventures of Han Solo before his fateful meeting with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness) on Tatooine. Considering Ford was 35 when he played Solo for the first time, Disney will likely be looking to cast an actor in his 20's or early 30's, which puts Fillion, at 41, out of the running for the gig. Put on your thinking caps once again and help us to choose the best actor to play the smuggler, gambler and scoundrel who will one day woo a princess and help save the galaxy.
Rate the Top 10 Actors Who Could Play Young Han Solo >>
Posted 02.11.13 by BrentJS -
Who Should Wear the Cape & Cowl?
It's still unclear how Warner Bros. (WB) plans to proceed with the Batman franchise now that director Christopher Nolan has wrapped up his trilogy. If you've seen The Dark Knight Rises, than you know that Nolan handed the keys to the bat cave to someone from within the universe he created just in case WB wanted to continue the story. However, since the studio announced in June that Gangster Squad scribe Will Beall had been hired to pen a movie based on DC Comics' preeminent super-team, the Justice League — the team's current roster includes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Cyborg — it seems far more likely that a new Bruce Wayne/Batman will be chosen, one that has nothing to do with Nolan's universe.
It will be tough to fill Christian Bale's Academy Award-winning shoes, but there must be someone out there with the physicality to play a superhero and the acting chops to portray a man driven to prevent the kind of senseless violence that took his parents away from him. Help us choose the new Dark Knight.
Select the Top 10 Actors Who Could Play Batman >>
Posted 10.09.12 by BrentJS -
What do you get when you cross a director's ambiguous reply to a question with fanboy fervor? Headlines that read: "Josh Hartnett to Star in Daredevil Reboot."
It all started when a Twitter user commented that she hopes director David Slade (30 Days of Night, Twilight Saga: Eclipse) would get back to working on his as-yet-untitled Daredevil reboot and that "maybe" Josh Hartnett could "finally get a Marvel role." Sounds innocent enough, right? But, then Slade replied, "You and me both," and fanboys (and girls) everywhere went crazy, interpreting his response to mean that the director is also hopeful that Hartnett will get his Marvel movie, i.e., the title role in Daredevil. Sure, there's some connection between the two — Hartnett starred in Slade's last comic book adaptation, 30 Days of Night — but the amount of internet speculation generated by Slade's simple, 4-word response, has been beyond ridiculous.
Fortunately, Slade himself took to Twitter today to set the record straight. He had nice things to say about his experience working with his 30 Days of Night star, but said that Hartnett is "not being discussed" for the role.
read Slade's Tweets >> Posted 06.19.12 by BrentJS -
How would today's action movies look if there were no guns?
The answer is Bunraku, a martial arts movie that takes place in a world where guns are banned, giving way to some pretty spectacular fight scenes. Though it's an import, the movie boasts a stellar American cast, including Josh Hartnett, Woody Harrelson, Demi Moore, and Ron Perlman. The movie also stars Japanese singer and actor sensation Gackt. Bunraku is the first international movie for Gackt.
And we have eight exclusive clips from the movie, which is screening at this year's Toronto International Film Festival (the movie made the festival's Midnight Madness selection).
Here is a synopsis:
In a hyper-saturated, hyper-driven dystopia, guns are banned and the sword is king.In a world with no guns, a mysterious drifter (Hartnett), a young samurai and a bartender (Harrelson) plot revenge against a ruthless leader (Perlman) and his army of thugs, headed by nine diverse and deadly assassins. This visually stunning film is filled with uniquely choreographed action sequences of a new style that melds east with west and old school with new.
Bunraku is derived from a 400-year-old form of Japanese puppet theater, a style of storytelling that uses 4-foot-tall puppets with highly detailed heads, each operated by several puppeteers who blend into the background wearing black robes and hoods.
You'll get a better sense when you check out the eight clips.
watch the clips >> Posted 09.12.11 by Chris -
Bourne fans weren't exactly pleased when writer-director Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton) revealed that that the Bourne 4 script he was working on — titled Bourne Legacy — will be a "stand-alone project" that wouldn't include the character of Jason Bourne but "a whole new hero," which Gilroy later revealed would be a new agent with the same training as Bourne. Gilroy also explained that he didn't want to replace Matt Damon, who had previously announced that he wouldn't do another Bourne without The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass. Greengrass dropped out of the fourth Bourne in December of 2009. Gilroy maintains that Legacy won't permanently replace Damon, leaving open the possibility of his return.
who's up for the part? >> Posted 02.25.11 by Ryan -
Back in 2003, Warner Bros. was desperately trying to figure out how to bring two of their most iconic characters back to the big screen. The Batman franchise had crumbled beneath the neon campiness of Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin five years earlier and there had not been a new Superman movie in theaters since the equally terrible The Quest for Peace in 1987.
The answer to Warners' dilemma seemed to be to combine both characters in one spectacular movie: Batman vs. Superman. The title alone is enough to make many comic book movie fans quiver in anticipation. And, with Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en) working on the screenplay and Wolfgang Petersen (Troy) attached to direct, the movie seemed like a sure-fire blockbuster.
Fast-forward seven years and we now have director Christopher Nolan's brilliant Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, as well as the mediocre Superman Returns, Bryan Singer's homage to the original Superman, but no Batman vs. Superman. So, whatever happened to the team-up movie? In a recent interview with MTV, Petersen said that it came "pretty close" to being made.
And then the studio got a single Superman script I think from J.J. Abrams at that time, and [Warner Bros. chief] Alan Horn was so torn – because it’s such a fascinating concept to do a Batman versus Superman film. And I still think it would be to do that. But the studio decided to try separate versions of Superman and Batman, and then maybe think about down the road if you want to bring them together in one film.
It's long been known that Warners had been pursuing Josh Hartnett for the role of Superman. What was not known before now is that the only other actor in serious contention for the role was Christian Bale, who stars in Nolan's Batman movies as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Considered for Superman and now playing Batman? Obviously, Bale has "superhero" written all over him.
For his part, Petersen has no regrets about Batman vs. Superman falling by the wayside. Warners offered him the job directing Troy shortly thereafter, and he has nothing but praise for Nolan's take on Batman.
I loved Dark Knight! I was completely sucked into it, blown away by it. I thought right away it deserved an Academy Award for Best Picture, and I was really disappointed that it didn’t get it. I thought Heath Ledger was just phenomenal. I am a big fan of that movie.
Posted 03.16.10 by BrentJS -
A recent report says that Josh Hartnett has signed on to star in Gunslinger, a revenge story about a man (Hartnett) and his brother who seek retribution against the gang that killed their parents in a post-apocalyptic America. Gunslinger is being produced by Mark Williams and Albert Martinez Martin, with Chris Nahon directing. Williams commented on the production:
This story takes a unique and startling look at what might happen when the lawlessness of the Old West returns ... but with better weapons.
If the title and plot sound familiar to you, perhaps you're thinking of author Stephen King's novel The Gunslinger, which is part of his incredibly popular Dark Tower series. Considered by King to be his masterpiece, The Gunslinger was first published in 1982 and revolves around the quest of a gunslinger to catch "the man in black" in a post-apocalyptic, alternate timeline world. So far, though, Variety has given no indication that the two works are related in any way.
Posted 09.12.09 by BrentJS -
The original 30 Days of Night movie, released in 2007, was one of the forerunners of Hollywood's resurgent interest in vampire movies, so it's no wonder that a sequel is in the works now that America's in the throes of vampire mania thanks to movies like Twilight and HBO's True Blood. According to a recent report, shooting on 30 Day of Night: Dark Days is expected to begin in October in Vancouver, Canada, with Ben Ketai directing from a script that he wrote with Steve Niles, creator of the comic book series that inspired the features.
It was also reported that the character of Stella Oleson, played by Melissa George in the first movie, would be recast. There's no word on whether Josh Hartnett, who played Eben Oleson, Stella's estranged husband and the hero of the first movie, will appear in the sequel. Eben became a vampire at the end of 30 Days of Night, but if the movie sequel follows the comic book sequel, Dark Days, Eben may be resurrected, opening the door for Hartnett to return.
Posted 09.04.09 by BrentJS -
Kevin Feige, President of Production at Marvel Studios, told Empire some updates regarding the adaptation of Thor and Avengers. First, he talked about Thor:
We will probably be having cast announcements in the next month or so on Thor. We're looking to cast Loki and Odin soon, and the main female role. And we'll also hopefully have lockdown shortly, gearing towards the beginning of production, which will be early next year. So I think there will be a lot of announcements between now and then.
Director Kenneth Branagh has already confirmed that shooting was to begin in January of next year. As for casting rumors, Josh Hartnett has been mentioned as the front-runner for Loki, and Natalie Portman the female lead, likely Thor's wife Sif. Looks like fans will know for sure sometime next month.
Feige also updated Branagh's pre-production:
Branagh's here, we're prepping, and he's put together some spectacular animatics already for our first action scene. We're digging into the second and third now, and we are just embarking on a rewrite of the draft.
As for The Avengers:
Zak Penn [X2: X-Men United and The Incredible Hulk writer] is already on board The Avengers [as screenwriter] and he's spending a lot of his time looking into what we're doing with Iron Man [2], Thor andCaptain America, seeing how we're tying it all together. And he's beginning to outline the script now -- he'll be doing that over the summer.
Feige offered no update as to whether Jon Favreau will direct The Avengers. Thor opens June 17, 2011, while The Avengers opens May 4, 2012.
Posted 05.06.09 by Ryan -
Thor, the mythological Norse god of thunder and one of the founding members of Marvel Comics' super-team, the Avengers, is expected to be one of the most complex -- and commercially risky -- comic-to-film adaptations in Marvel's planned lead-up to the Avengers feature film.
The intended release date for the film has already been pushed back, and there have been no shortage of cast rumors -- from Josh Hartnett or Natalie Portman portraying the evil trickster god Loki, to Alexander Skarsgård lifting the hammer in the Thor role -- but recently one more name has been added to the list: Charlie Hunnam of the FX series Sons of Anarchy. At the recent premiere of Mutant Chronicles, Hunnam was asked about the Thor rumor and he admitted that he had been called in for the role.
Superhero films were once thought of as cheap, "popcorn flicks," but with films such as Iron Man (2008) and The Dark Knight (2008) scoring record box office numbers while simultaneously courting Oscar buzz, the genre has come out of the shadows and into the Hollywood spotlight.
Still, the prospect of playing a larger-than-life character in spandex (or leather, armor, etc.) can be a daunting decision for any actor. About his film choices, Hunnam has said:
Well, I have a great deal of pride, and I care infinitely about what my peers think (of me). It could be my downfall, but I don't think it is -- Hollywood is run on perception, and if you stray off the path of what you want to do with your career, it's suicide. I have 60 years to make the money, but the choices I make in the next five years are really going to define my career.
Hunnam has appeared in Cold Mountain (2003), Green Street Hooligans (2005), and Children of Men (2006). He currently stars as Jackson "Jax" Teller on the FX series Sons of Anarchy.
Posted 04.23.09 by BrentJS