Ghost in the Machine
Trailer Bin
The Worlds’ Ender.
In the trailer bin, Asa Butterfield gets trained for interstellar war by a grizzled Harrison Ford and a tattooed Ben Kingsley in the first trailer for Gavin Hood’s adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, also with Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin. Eh, seems a bit big and busy for this particular book, but I guess Ford should gets his reps in before Episode VII.
Meanwhile, Simon Pegg’s plan to get the lads together for a pint or twelve is muddled by an altogether different alien invasion in the first trailer for Edgar Wright’s The World’s End, closing out the trilogy started by Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Along for the ride: Nick Frost (naturally), Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, David Bradley, and Rosamund Pike. I’m in.
Update: Another arrival today: Paul Greengrass of Bloody Sunday and United 93 dramatizes another bad day on Earth in the first trailer for Captain Phillips, a.k.a. the true story of Somali pirates vs. the MV Maersk Alabama, with Tom Hanks, Catherine Keener, Max Martini, Yul Vazquez, Michael Chernus, Chris Mulkey, Corey Johnson, David Warshofsky, John Magaro and Angus MacInnes.
Update 2: Also in this week’s queue, a red-band trailer for The Coens’ Inside Llewyn Davis, based on the memoirs of Dave Von Ronk and starring Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, Garret Hedlund, F. Murray Abraham, and John Goodman. To be honest, this is barely indistinguishable from the one making the rounds in January, but I’m not averse to double-posting for the Coens.
And finally, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney experience mechanical difficulties at the ISS — er…was ammonia involved? — in the first teaser for Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity. I’ve been looking forward to this one for awhile, but I gotta say, all the noisy explosions in space vex me. It’d be a much more powerful trailer if you couldn’t hear any of that.
Only Loves Sprung from Only Hates.
Also in today’s trailer bin, a UK teaser for Joss Whedon’s guerrilla adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing, featuring a number of the usual Whedon suspects, among them Clark Gregg, Nathan Fillion, Fran Kranz, Reed Diamond, Amy Acker, and Alexis Denisof. (An earlier, peppier US trailer — without the benefit of that awesomely ethereal and catchy cue from Anna Karenina — is here.)
This reminds me – I didn’t post it earlier because the trailer was so drab, but Julian Fellowes of Downton Abbey has also brought forth another version of Romeo and Juliet, with Hailee Steinfeld, Douglas Booth, Damien Lewis, and Paul Giamatti. Steinfeld was a real find in True Grit, but I’m otherwise not seeing the point of this.
Bad Girls, Angry Gods, Rainy Nights, Dead Men.
I have yet to see Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, but it seems like it’d make a decent double feature with this one: Emma Watson leads a pack of ne-er-do-well teens into the mansions of LA’s idle rich in the first trailer for Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring, also with Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Claire Julien, Taissa Farmiga, Georgia Rock, and Leslie Mann. Eh, ok. On the bright side, this doesn’t have to be very good to be far better than Somewhere.
Back from the recent unpleasantness in New York, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) makes a Faustian bargain with Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to save Natalie Portman and/or Earth from the clutches of Christopher Eccleston in first trailer for Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World. Returning for more Asgardian shenanigans is pretty much the entire cast from the first film, including Anthony Hopkins, Idris Elba, Tom Hiddleston, Rene Russo, Ray Stevenson, Jaimie Alexander, Kat Dennings, and Stellan Skarsgard.
The inimitable Tony Leung does his best Neo impression in the rain in our first look at Wong Kar-Wai’s The Grandmaster, also with Zhang Ziyi. This is a lousy teaser, and the muddy, gray jump-cuttiness of it all is inauspicious for the director’s first foray into martial arts. But, hey, Tony Leung.
Ryan Reynolds (nee Hannibal “Blade 3” King, Deadshot, Green Lantern) looks for a comic book hit at last, while Jeff Bridges channels his recent Crazy Heart/True Grit turns to make a mortgage payment or three, in this ho-hum trailer for Robert Schwentke’s R.I.P.D., also with Mary Louise-Parker and Kevin Bacon. Looking like highly derivative MIB territory here, and Schwentke — the director of Red — does not inspire confidence.
Man of Emo.
On the heels of Zod’s recent demands to Earth, Zack Snyder, Christopher Nolan, and co. release a new trailer for Man of Steel, with Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe, Ayelet Zurer, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Antje Traue, Lawrence Fishburne, Richard Schiff, Christopher Meloni, and Harry Lennix.
I dunno…Of course we don’t want to see the same movies as in the past, but much like Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, the tone feels off here to me. Superman isn’t Batman. He’s not particularly angsty, usually, and imo should just be the Last Boy Scout. I’m not sure I much like this Most Dangerous Catch walkabout stuff they have him doing. (And that stilted Russell Crowe voiceover doesn’t inspire confidence either.) But we’ll see.
Can’t Start a Fire Without a Spark.
Katniss and Peeta discover winning isn’t everything in the first teaser for Francis Lawrence’s Catching Fire, with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone, Jeffrey Wright, and Amanda Plummer joining Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Hemsworth, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Paula Malcomson, Willow Shields, and Toby Jones.
I thought the first film was an admirable attempt at recreating the book that was mostly hamstrung by the fact that we were no longer privy to Katniss’s interior monologue. And the second volume, with its straining for a reason to get back in the arena, is probably the weakest of the trilogy. Still, this is a very promising teaser – It’s fun to watch Sutherland and Hoffman, two pros of different generations, adding heft to the proceedings.
Bad Magic, Badder McAvoy.
Are you watching closely? Fast Five meets Zombieland meets The Prestige as Jesse Eisenberg does magic and Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine finish off their post-TDKR house payments in the full trailer for Louis Leterrier’s Now You See Me, also with Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Melanie Laurent, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Common, and Michael Kelly. Looks pretty goofy…but maybe.
Also in the trailer bin, and NSFW: After working with Danny Boyle in Trance, James McAvoy takes another step towards fully embracing his inner Ewan MacGregor in the trailer for Jon S. Baird’s adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s Filth, also with Jamie Bell, Jim Broadbent, Eddie Marsan, Joanne Froggatt and Imogen Poots. Never read the book myself, although the Bad Lieutenant meme is a bit of a cliche at this point.
The Air (and Anne) Up There.
In the trailer bin, working class stiff Matt Damon aims to crack open the stately lunar pleasure domes of the 1% in our first look at Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium, also with Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, William Fichtner and Wagner Moura. The Damon-in-the-exoskeleton battle scenes do have a distinctly District 9 sensibility about them.
And in related movie news, Anne Hathaway has joined the cast of Chris Nolan’s next, Interstellar, also with Matthew McConaughey. “Interstellar will depict a heroic interstellar voyage to the furthest reaches of our scientific understanding. The movie hits theaters on November 7, 2014.” Between this and Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity this October, I’m liking the embrace of ambitious films about space travel of late.
Hard Knock Lives.
Following on the heels of Jim Kirk and Jay Gatsby, there’s plenty more action in the trailer bin this week. First up, Hugh Jackman’s Logan heads off to Japan in the James Mangold’s The Wolverine, with Brian Tee, Will Yun Lee, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, and Famke Janssen.
I’ve seen about half of the first Wolverine movie twice now on two different plane trips, and wasn’t impressed. Still, Marvel’s been on a roll lately, and with Mangold in the director’s chair and a shift in scenery, this could potentially make for some quality summer air-conditioning.
Elsewhere in the comic book world, Hit-Girl et al face some Freaks & Geeks-style dilemmas in the first trailer for Kick-Ass 2. (Note: This is a red-band trailer, so NSFW — mainly because Hit-Girl still swears like a sailor.)
The first outing was a great time at the movies, so this one has my ticket even if Matthew Vaughn and Nicolas Cage have left the premises. I have high hopes for Jim Carrey, reportedly the best thing about The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, as Colonel Stars and Stripes.
And while we’re watching people play super-hero dress-up on the red band frequency, roid-raging bodybuilders Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, and Anthony Mackie try to make crime pay in the red-band trailer for Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain, i.e. Michael Bay’s apparent stab at a Coen-brother crime noir. (This one’s more NSFW, for all the Bayhem reasons you’d expect.)
There’s very little chance I pay money to see this film, partly because the only Michael Bay movie I’ve ever been entertained by was The Island, and mainly because I’m getting a little sick of films trying to mainstream torture of late. Still, this is a highly likable cast, and dubious credit where due: As with Bad Boys 2, nobody brings cartoonish Grand Theft Auto: Vice City-style debauchery to life quite like Mr. Bay.
Update: I meant to post this yesterday with the others, but forgot — and that’s how much of an impression this trailer made on me. Nonetheless, Brad Pitt and Mireille Enos struggle to balance family life and the zombie apocalypse in the trailer for Marc Forster’s loose adaptation of Max Brooks’ World War Z, also with Bryan Cranston, David Morse, James Badge Dale, and Matthew Fox. Eh, maybe.
A Song of Ice and Flynn.
Less than a fortnight before the first half of A Storm of Swords gets its close-up, HBO releases an extended trailer for Game of Thrones Season 3. Looks solid as usual, although biting Daft Punk from the very memorable Tron: Legacy teaser is an odd choice.
Of course, if this TRON-Tyrion mash-up whetted your appetite for GRRM retro-style — Thatcher! Jazzercise! Lipgloss! — look no further than Game of Thrones‘s mid-90′s-style credits, not unlike the Firefly one making the rounds awhile back.
Get Bin Mandarin.
The Iron Man 3 bandwagon continues to roll on with the full trailer for Shane Black’s third installment of the franchise. Clearly, Kingsley’s Mandarin is going at least quarter-Bin-Laden…So will Tony have to team up with Jessica Chastain and venture back down the torture well, then?
Iron’s Bane.
In the Mood for Love.
Also in the trailer bin, Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou share love and heartbreak, Michel Gondry-style, in the first trailer for Mood Indigo. Looks to be more Science of Sleep than Eternal Sunshine, but I’ll watch anything Gondry does at this point. (Also seen at Dangerous Meta.)
The Freewheelin’ Llewyn Davis.
“Oh, hello! I’ve heard your music, and heard many nice things about you from Jim and Jean and from others.” One of my most anticipated films of 2013 gets a trailer: Inside Llewyn Davis, a.k.a. the Coens’ riffing on Dave Von Ronk‘s memoir and 60′s Greenwich Village, featuring Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, Adam Driver, and F. Murray Abraham. Looks like it was filmed through Todd Haynes’ Claire and Robbie filter. Can’t wait.
From Hell’s Heart…
After relying heavily on Star Wars for their first outing, J.J. Abrams and co. now borrow from the Dark Knight and the Nolanverse — especially the Inception button — to lend heft to the teaser for Star Trek: Into Darkness, with Benedict Cumberbatch as the new, still unidentified Big Bad. (Khan? Gary Mitchell? Garth of Izar? Smaug? Severus Gruber?) Eh, I’m in…but we just did the vengeance-upon-the Federation schtick with Eric Bana in the last movie.
?II remirP.
“I have to apologize. I was born with a disfigurement, where my head is made of the same material as the sun.” Er, isn’t everyone? In any case, Shane Carruth’s long-awaited follow-up to Primer, Upstream Color, gets a teaser. It premieres at Sundance early next year.Update: And now a second teaser.
A Very Long Holiday.
The full trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is now online. Looks solid but tone is everything. Also, it never occurred to me until watching this how much Time Bandits follows this same template.
Not No Parkay, Not No Margarine.
Jennifer Garner, Olivia Wilde, and Yara Shahidi are dueling maestri of butter-carving in the new trailer for Jim Field Smith’s Butter, also with Ty Burrell, Hugh Jackman, Alicia Silverstone, Rob Corddry, Ashley Greene, Kristen Schaal, and Pruitt Taylor Vince. Getting a definite Mike Judge vibe from this.
Prohibition…What Fresh Hell is This?
John Hillcoat’s Lawless — with Shia LaBoeuf, Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain, Gary Oldman, Mia Wasikowska, and an eyebrow-less. potentially scenery-chewing Guy Pearce — gets a director-edited red band trailer. They had me with Hillcoat, although in all honesty I kinda hate the new name of this film — It sounds like a Seagal flick. (I preferred The Wettest County.)
Dog with Seven Bones.
From Martin McDonaugh, the writer-director of In Bruges (which I enjoyed but didn’t love), Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, and Christopher Walken are dog-thieves who bite off more than they can chew in the first trailer for Seven Psychopaths, also with Woody Harrelson, Abbe Cornish, Olga Kurylenko, Tom Waits, Zeljko Ivanek, and Gabourey Sidibe. You had me at Rockwell and Walken. (Also, replace the shih tzu with a sheltie, and we’d be at Eight Psychopaths [rimshot].)
Still Alien After All These Years.
Completing the trifecta of big Xmas previews (with TDKR and The Hobbit — still quiet on The Avengers front), Ridley Scott goes back to LV-426 with Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green, and the ubiquitous Michael Fassbender in this first look at Prometheus. (Note the several nods to the Alien trailer.) I’m in, although I was more excited when it seemed less definitively prequel-ish — I’m not sure I need everything explained about the original space jockey.
Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold.
“Far over the Misty Mountains cold, to dungeons deep and caverns old…” Also materializing online, as of last night, is the first trailer for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Looks great, although I’m a little wary of the Twilight-style division of the book (presumably, Smaug is in the second film), as well as the “original trilogy” tone — The Hobbit is more whimsical; it shouldn’t just be a prequel to the Lord of the Rings. (Also, “prequel to the original trilogy” is a phrase that deservedly spawns doubt in the hearts of many in the world of men this age.) But, all in all, this looks splendid. One year to go!
A Black Sunday for the Rogues.
So it looks like Selina Kyle has also taken note of Bruce Wayne’s 1%-ness…The second trailer for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises is now online.
Also, if you hunt and peck online, you can occasionally find a bad dub of the six-minute prologue on line as well. (This wasn’t it.) I caught it at the Smithsonian last week and my thoughts were basically: 1) Ooh, Carcetti! 2) Wait, what did Bane just say? (You get used to it) and 3) Hmm, this is more Bond than Batman…but let’s see where Nolan goes with it.
B-Movies Go A-List.
In the trailer bin of late:
- If Contagion wasn’t enough for 2011, Steven Soderbergh has assembled an impressive cast for some straight-to-video-ish action in the new trailer for Haywire, with Gina Carano, Ewan MacGregor, Michael Fassbender, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, and Michael Douglas. It doesn’t look all that great, but with Soderbergh and that cast, you never know.
- Speaking of A-list casts down for some B-movie action, Ryan Gosling is a stunt driver by day and wheelman by nightin the red band trailer for Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive, also with Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Oscar Isaac, Ron Perlman, and Albert Brooks. This got great reviews at Cannes, and, like Haywire, I’m intrigued by the personnel involved. But Oldboy has already cornered the market on hammer shenanigans.
- In the not-too-distant future, Justin Timberlake has time on his side — or does he? — in the Comic-con trailer of Andrew Niccol’s In Time, also with Cillian Murphy, Amanda Seyfriend, Olivia Wilde, and Vincent Kartheiser. The timestamp thing is rather goofy, but Niccol (Gattaca, The Truman Show) is usually good for a smart sci-fi premise. I’m in.
- Luke constructs a lightsaber, Han shoots up a shield generator, and wampas and sandstorms attack in this preview of the Star Wars Original Trilogy deleted scenes, coming soon to a Blu-Ray player near you. Sorry, I think you have to buy the prequels as well to get these.
- And, not a movie trailer per se, but Rick Grimes and the gang are as ready as they’ll ever be for another round of the zombie apocalypse in the new trailer for Season 2 of The Walking Dead. I’m more excited about S2 of Game of Thrones personally, but this’ll do until the trouble gets here.
The Bat Will Break.
Flitting alongside Harry Potter 7.2 this past weekend — review forthcoming, once I emerge from the backlog — was the Bane-centric first teaser for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, with Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Morgan Freeman. (Screencaps are here.)
As I said when the poster dropped, it’s hard to imagine this one topping TDK, and I could do without all the “every journey comes to an end” marketing pablum here. Still, the moment with Bats in trouble and backpedaling suggests Nolan may be maximizing Bane’s potential here.
Spider’s Edge.
Along with the recent pics in Entertainment Weekly, above, also out just before Comic-Con is our first look at Marc Webb’s reboot of The Amazing Spiderman, with Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Denis Leary, and Campbell Scott (as Pa Parker? That’s a new twist.) The jumping around at the end is very Mirror’s Edge, and the tone feels a bit too dark and Nolan-y to me for our friendly neighborhood webhead. Still, I’ll see it.
Red Rackham’s Trailer.
In the trailer bin, a ginger-haired boy journalist and his trusty canine sidekick uncover a clue to a long lost treasure in the first full trailer for Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, with Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Daniel Craig. Hmm…the mo-cap looks even better than Beowulf, but I’m still not sold on the look, and Snowy/Milou in particular conjurs up grim visions of Scooby-Doo. Why not just replicate the traditional Herge style?
Trotter, Traitor, Spaceman, Spy.
In the trailer bin of late:
- If Super 8 didn’t fill your quota of Spielbergian schmaltz for the month, check out the workings of the master himself in the first trailer for Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, with Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Peter Mullan, Niels Arestrup, Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irvine, Benedict Cumberbatch and Toby Kebbell. Er…ok. I hear good things about the play, and granted I’m more of a sucker for Old Yeller than a Black Beauty type, but this doesn’t look all that interesting to me. Bring on Lincoln already — which, by the way, just added David Straithairn as William Seward to its already impressive cast.
- Tom Cruise is on the run (again) and looking to pass the baton to Jeremy Renner in the new trailer for Brad Bird’s Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, also with Paula Patton, Simon Pegg, Josh Holloway, Lea Seydoux, Ving Rhames, Anil Kapoor, and Michael Nyqvist. Well, at the very least, it doesn’t have to be very good to be better than the last two.
- It’s not just Transformers up there: Another super-secret NASA expedition to the moon — circa the eventful month of December 1974 — goes awry in the trailer for Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego’s found-footage horror movie Apollo 18. A promising idea, but I’m not sold on the execution — I’ll probably wait for Netflix on this one.
- And, in the most promising of the lot, Gary Oldman takes up the mantle of Alec Guinness as George Smiley in the teaser for Tomas Alfredson’s period remake of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, also with Colin Firth, John Hurt, Ciaran Hinds, Toby Jones, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Stephen Graham, Simon McBurney, and Benedict Cumberbatch. Wow, that is a murderer’s row, and no mistake.
From Sigmund to Kermit.
In the trailer bin of late:
- Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, a.k.a. Aragorn and Magneto, look to make Keira Knightley right again in this first look at David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, also with Vincent Cassel. Looks a bit more staid and Merchant-Ivory than I would’ve hoped, and it’s still unclear to me whether Knightley can act. Still, Viggo v. Fassbender should be fun.
- Pizza-boy Jesse Eisenberg runs afoul of would-be bank robbers Danny McBride and Nick Swardson in the first trailer for Ruben Fleischer’s 30 Minutes or Less, also with Michael Pena, Fred Ward, and SCGSSM‘s most esteemed graduate, Aziz Ansari. (Class of ’00, I think — I didn’t know him.) Eh, I wasn’t a big fan of Fleischer’s Zombieland, but maybe.
- Dennis Quaid don’t brook no dancin’ in his town, least of all from some Boston prettyboy like Kenny Wormald, in this look at the highly vapid-seeming Footloose remake, also with Jennifer Hough of (I’m informed) Dancing with the Stars. Um, no. Also, Kenny Loggins or go home.
- Jason Statham goes all Chuck Norris (as usual) to rescue Robert DeNiro from the clutches of Clive Owen in this look at Gary McKendry’s Killer Elite. Been a long time since DeNiro was a mark of quality, but Statham tends to be fun, and it seems like Owen’s been laying low lately.
- After several different parody trailers, Jason Segal and Amy Adams finally play it straight in this trailer for Nick Stoller’s reboot of The Muppets, also with Chris Cooper and a host of cameos. I have a feeling this might be pretty good…but I don’t get that feeling from this trailer. Still, fingers crossed.
Banjos, Blood, and Baseball.
In the trailer bin of late:
- A frog-without-fear does his best to defend Sector 2814 in another parody trailer for The Muppets, with Jason Segal, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper, and a cast of many. (It’s the Muppets. I’m in.)
- A shirtless barbarian takes to beheading like it’s his business, which I suppose it probably is, in this violent R-rated look at
Khal DrogoConan the Barbarian, with Jason Momoa, Ron Perlman, Rachel Nichols, Rose McGowan, and Steven Lang. (Hard to imagine this being better than the classic Oliver Stone-penned original. I presume this’ll be hagga.) - And the Oakland A’s get the Aaron Sorkin treatment in Bennet Miller’s adaptation of Michael Lewis’s Moneyball, with Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, and Darryl Strawberry. (Looks…Sorkin-y. But definitely maybe.)
It’s Time to Play the Music.
“Wait…are there muppets in this movie?” Why, yes, yes, there are. In the trailer bin, a dapper Jason Segal tries to court Amy Adams in our first look at the romantic comedy Green With Envy. And it’s not easy being green, fuzzy, or a weirdo when the Fuzzy Pack comes back, in front of The Hangover Pt. II. Either way, movies are better with muppets.
Unicorn Spotted.
Blue blistering bell-bottomed balderdash! Along with the spiffy poster above, the teaser for Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is now online.
Hmmm. As a Tintin kid, I’m really looking forward to these movies. But, for now, I am not feeling the decision to go photorealistic with this at all. Snowy/Milou should not conjure grim memories of Scooby-Doo and Yogi Bear. Here’s hoping a few more rotations in the CGI-machine smooths this out some.
Don’t Trust the Neighbors.
Two new remakes in the trailer-bin: Anton Yelchin doesn’t cotton much to Mom Toni Collette’s potential new boyfriend next door, Colin Farrell, in Craig Gillespie’s 2011 edition of Tom Holland’s Fright Night, also with Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Evil Ed and — though he’s not seen much in this clip — David Tennant as Peter Vincent, Vampire Killer. As I said here, Fright Night was one of my Halloween standbys growing up, so I hope this one works out.
And, also out today, James Marsden and Kate Bosworth run into some trouble with Alexander Skarsgard and the local yokels in Rod Lurie’s remake of Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs. Even with the switch from Hammer Horror England to the Deliverance South, I’m not sure Straw Dogs needed to be remade — and it seems doubtful that Screen Gems is the studio to improve on the disturbing original. We’ll see.
Agent With Shield.
Among the trailers I’ve missed in recent weeks is this — arguably the most promising-looking comic book film in the summer of Thor, Green Lantern, and X-Men: First Class — the teaser trailer for Joe Johnston’s Captain America: The First Avenger, with Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Tommy Lee Jones, Stanley Tucci, Sebastian Stans, Toby Jones, and, above, Hugo Weaving looking pitch-perfect as the Red Skull. Granted, Johnston’s The Wolfman was terribad, but I’m holding out hope for this one (and to be fair, Johnston was basically a hired gun on Wolfman, coming in four weeks before shooting to replace Mark Romanek.)
There’s Something about Mary.
“A military trial of civilians is an atrocity…” Now isn’t that quaint? Union war hero James McAvoy finds himself reluctantly defending Robin Wright (a.k.a. Mary Surratt), a possible accessory to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, in the trailer for Robert Redford’s The Conspirator, also with Kevin Kline, Justin Long, Alexis Bledel, Evan Rachel Wood, Colm Meaney, Danny Huston, and Tom Wilkinson. Here’s hoping the historical setting here can ease the didacticism that marred Lions for Lambs.
Hammer and Prongs.
Metallica roadie or Norse God of Thunder? Chris “Papa Kirk” Hemsworth finds himself stuck inside of Midgard with the Asgard blues again in the teaser for Kenneth Branagh’s Thor, also with Anthony Hopkins, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Ray Stevenson, Clark Gregg, Kat Dennings, Colm Feore, Rene Russo, Jaimie Alexander, Stellan Skarsgard, and Idris Elba. Hmmm. Like the forthcoming Green Lantern over on the DC side, this looks rather cheesy…but maybe Loki will be fun.
Meanwhile, a more promising upcoming comic creation announces its main villain — one who’s also potentially featured in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises — in this impressive trailer for Batman: Arkham City, due out next fall. Looks great, and Arkham Asylum is both very fun and a totally immersive Batman experience. But, while I get that they’re riffing on Call of Duty: Black Ops here (and take that, Sam Fisher), I’m already way over the recent trend towards interrogation scenes in my gaming.
Life Through Other Means.
In the trailer bin of late:
- Whatever they may show in the trailer for Jodie Foster’s family dramedy The Beaver, I’m guessing Mel Gibson’s imaginary puppet friend says unspeakably filthy things in his downtime. Anyways, The Beaver also has Foster, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence, and Cherry Jones. Tell me if it isn’t terrible.
- Rome‘s Ray Stevenson gets his chance to shine as a son of Eire among the seventies Mob in the trailer for Jonathan Hensleigh’s Kill the Irishman, based on the true story of Danny Greene and co-starring Val Kilmer, Christopher Walken, Vinnie Jones, Linda Cardellini, Vincent D’Onofrio, and a whole lot of usual suspects in the mobster kingdom (Steven Schirippa, Robert Davi, Mike Starr, Paul Sorvino.) Eh, definitely maybe.
- HUGH JACKMAN. BOXING ROBOTS. SHAWN LEVY’S REAL STEEL. 10.7.11 (Oof. Only if there’s a lot of drinking involved beforehand.)
- “There’s a distinct visual look, and a grand scope, and even of a sense of narrative (sort of). What’s hinted at here is a big-canvas movie in the best sense, one with both cosmic significance and intimate drama.” Sadly, the trailer that prompted this post doesn’t seem to be online yet. Nonetheless, in front of Black Swan last week was our first look at Terence Malick’s eagerly-awaited The Tree of Life. And it looks appropriately mystical and Malickian: May 27th, 2011. Update: It’s finally up.
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Hidden Cities, Moses Gates
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