Green Lantern 2 To Be A Darker, Edgier Film

Green Lantern had a reasonable (not great) opening weekend but was otherwise a creative and financial dud. It is an example of that strange studio phenomenon: a film that manages to feel both over-written, with villains and set pieces seemingly cobbled together from different script drafts, and under-scripted, thanks to the total lack of sense behind most of the character actions. And audiences didn’t respond, once the marketing gave way to word of mouth? Shocker.

Because that opening weekend was north of $50m, Warner Bros. is still planning a sequel. What will the studio’s approach be this time? A solid script that establishes a story with logical and emotional drive and then embellishes it with action? Pfft. Why bother, when it can just be darker and edgier? (Or Dark Knight-ier, as the case may be.)

Warner Bros. film group president Jeff Robinov told the LA Times,

We had a decent opening so we learned there is an audience. To go forward we need to make it a little edgier and darker with more emphasis on action… And we have to find a way to balance the time the movie spends in space versus on Earth.

There is already a script outline put together by Greg Berlanti, Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim, all of whom worked on the first film. But the LAT reports anonymous sources saying that the outline could be changed or scrapped altogether.

And as for Martin Campbell, who directed the first? He has an option to direct the sequel, but WB reportedly doesn’t want him to be in the big chair. So there might be some backstage dealmaking to be done, but expect to see another name on the film in 2013 or so. (As we expected, really.)

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‘The Hobbit’s’ Thorin Oakenshield Revealed

Warner Bros. has released an image of Richard Armitage as Thoren Oakenshield, who led a force of a dozen dwarves (and the hobbit Bilbo Baggins) on the Quest of Erebor. This completes the brave company of adventurers from Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which is due to be released on December 14th, 2012.

The Oakenshield still was released to The One Ring.net and the Tolkien mavens there were raving about Thorin’s sword, Orcrist the Goblin-cleaver, which is prominently displayed in the photo, and it appears just the kind of weapon required in a vast and dangerous task such as reclaiming the Lonely Mountain from Smaug the Dragon.

For images of Thorin’s 12 dwarf companions see: “Balin and Dwalin: More Dwarves From the Hobbit” for Balin and Dwalin, “New Still Shows 3 Dwarves From The Hobbit” for Ori, Dori and Nori, “More Hobbit Dwarves” for Bombur, Bofur, Bifur, Kili, and Fili, and “Two More Hobbit Dwarves Revealed” for Oin and Gloin. For images of Bilbo and Gandolph see “Here’s What The Hobbit Will Look Like.”

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‘John Carter’ Trailer Arrives!!

The John Carter trailer is here!  Check it out below…

When I was 12 years old (1976 I think heh), I was in a store somewhere and passed by a bookstand and stopped dead in my tracks.  On the rack was Swords of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (8th in the series).  The cover immediately took me to that ancient planet and I haven’t looked back since.

On March 9th, 2012, Disney will release John Carter, the film version of Burroughs’ creation.

If the following trailer is any indication, this film will be well worth the wait.  I can’t wait for it.  I think I’ve read the entire series of Mars books probably a dozen times or so since I first saw that book on the stand and have been waiting for a film treatment for about that long as well.

Enjoy the trailer after the break and please comment and let me know what you think. Read more

Netflix Launching Completely New Price Structure?

Netflix hadn’t hinted at any upcoming plans to change the services it offers, but NewTeeVee spotted an unadvertised DVD-only plan on its site a few days ago, and an anonymous tipster from within the company indicates that’s just the start. The DVD.Netflix.com page offers unlimited DVDs by mail, per month (one at a time) for $7.99, which slots it between the standard DVD & streaming combo plans and a $4.99 offering that gives just two DVDs per month.

According to the tipster we spoke to, Netflix is planning to change its pricing entirely, by also implementing a streaming only plan with no discs for $7.99, and jacking up the minimum pricetag for combined services to $15.98 from the current $9.99 it has charged since November. They indicated the change would take place tomorrow night around 9 p.m., with customers notified by email and no plans to grandfather any of the old pricing setups along.

With aggressive expansion plans pressing forward and its costs to acquire content rising sharply, hiking the price by 50 percent on many of its 20 million+ subscribers could be the easiest way to make the numbers add up, it could be just those subscribers who are left to determine exactly what Watch Instantly streaming (or DVD access) is worth to them.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

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First Look: ‘The Hobbit’ Dwarves Gloin & Oin

Never toss a dwarf! We’ve got another awesome photo from Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (and There And Back Again) to feature this morning, following that epic first look just yesterday at dwarves Dori, Nori and Ori.

This time we get to meet Oin (John Callen) and Gloin (Peter Hambleton). Gloin is the father of Gimli, the dwarf we all came to love in Lord of the Rings, that John Rhys-Davies perfectly portrayed.

Together, with all of the dwarves, they accompany Bilbo on the Quest of Erebor where they encounter Smaug and Gollum. Check out the photo below via Collider and stay tuned for plenty more. …

Continue reading Another Middle-Earth First Look: ‘The Hobbit’ Dwarves Gloin & Oin on FirstShowing.net.

First Look: Brad Pitt in ‘World War Z’ Set Pics

After seeming like it would succumb to the depths of development hell, a film based on the Max Brooks novel World War Z is finally shooting with Brad Pitt in the lead. Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace, Monster’s Ball) is directing the movie right now, and the first photos of Brad Pitt in costume have been shot as the movie is in Malta, shooting scenes that take place in Israel. Check a few out after the break.

The Daily Mail has these images, along with a few more. Granted, the site misidentifies Brad Pitt’s character as Max Brooks (he’s playing Gerry Lane), but the pics speak for themselves. We don’t get any idea of what the makeup and effects will look like, but we can start to see here that the scope of the film might be big enough to satisfy fans of the novel. Read more

Thor 2 & Iron Man 3 Confirmed For Summer 2013

Walt Disney Pictures have finally confirmed what we’ve suspected for a while, Thor 2 will be released in Summer 2013. Thor grossed $437 million worldwide, and Marvel Studios has a public mandate to release two movies a year. In 2011 it was Thor and the upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger.

In 2012 it will be the superhero team-up The Avengers with no second release yet announced (is anything planned? If so we’d need to see an announcement very soon, or like, yesterday). In 2013 we’ll get Iron Man 3 on May 3rd and Thor 2 later that Summer (my guess is mid-July).

Chris Hemsworth is contracted to return, as is love interest Natalie Portman (although its entirely possible she won’t). Director Kenneth Branagh will not return, and Marvel will need to find a new director to helm the sequel.

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Taylor Lautner In Shattering New Abduction Poster

Taylor Lautner is featured in the brand new poster for Lionsgate’s Abduction, set to hit theaters September 23, 2011.

The poster is pretty intense, showing Lautner sliding down broken glass, with a caption reading “The fight for the truth will be the fight of his life.”

Taylor Lautner shows he is still definitely leading man material in this new thriller about a young man who find out he’s not who he thought he was growing up.  He must escape a past he didn’t even know he had in order to protect his future.  Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Jason Isaacs, Maria Bello, Michael Nyqvist, and Sigourney Weaver also star.

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Mark Ruffalo Says ‘The Avengers’ Not Shooting In 3D

Briefly: Just in case you had any lingering questions about what format Marvel Studios was using to shoot The Avengers, your new Hulk, Mark Ruffalo, is here to put the question to bed. The actor, who is a prolific Twitter user (he will retweet the HELL out of you) has made a few statements recently about shooting the film.

The one with which we’re most concerned was “Avengers is not being shot in 3D.” To another tweet, he responded, “I know I got big shoes to fill with Banner. All I can say is I am giving it my all. I really want to score with this Banner.” And, just in case you were concerned that the shoot wasn’t going well, there was, “The Avengers shoot is going TITS.” That’s a technical term, I think. Might be explained in the latest edition of the Set Lighting Technician’s Handbook.

Will the film be post-converted to 3D? Possibly. There is quite possibly a preliminary decision made on that front already, but Marvel may not make the final call until after it has performance numbers for Captain America as well as Thor. Disney will distribute the film, and that company does like 3D…

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Mary Elizabeth Winstead Cast in ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’

After having a whole slew of evil ex-boyfriends in Scott Pilgrim vs the World, it looks like the next significant other for Mary Elizabeth Winstead will be the 16th President of the United States. Heat Vision reports the beautiful actress has landed the role of Abraham Lincoln’s wife Mary Todd in Timur Bekmambetov’s adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s historical action horror story Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Earlier this week we heard that Robin McLeavy had landed the role, but those reports have turned out to be untrue. They had a 50/50 chance of being right though since both actresses were the top choices for the role.

Winstead joins an interesting cast featuring Benjamin Walker as Abraham Lincoln, Anthony Mackie as his best friend Will, and Dominic Cooper as a mysterious man named Henry Stugress. The story kicks off with the revelation that Lincoln’s mother was killed by a supernatural creature, which fueled his passion to crush vampires and their slave-owning helpers. The book depicts the 16th US president as an axe-throwing highly trained vampire killer. It sounds like this project is coming together much easier than the adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s other horror infused period piece Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which may or may not have a third director lined up to get the project off the ground. Thoughts?

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