The cast of Peter Jackson‘s two Hobbit films, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again, is huge. Like, really, tremendously huge. They actors are all listed at the bottom of the post, but the point is that, after months of shooting, the cast isn’t quite big enough. Jackson has just added the man who will seemingly be the last on the roster: Scottish actor and comedian Billy Connolly. He’ll play Dain Ironfoot, a Dwarf warrior. Read More »
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So far, most of what we’ve seen from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has been more bright and colorful than footage from Peter Jackson‘s previous films in The Lord of the Rings series. The stills and first trailer emphasize that this is a film based on a decidedly more easygoing story than LotR.
More easygoing, yes, but one that still involves trolls, giant spiders and a dragon. In a new still from the film, we get a look at Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) in one of the film’s more down and dirty moments, seemingly just after the unlikely adventurer has made first use of his sword. Read More »
The ancient remake advice is ‘remake something terrible,’ and New Line is certainly following that to the letter by hiring Scott Zebielski to direct a remake of the ’80s comedy Police Academy. But is there any chance that this version of the story will actually be any better than the ’84 one? That original is the story of a bunch of bumbling misfits who train to become cops when their city, hard up for extra help, opens the Academy to anyone. What wonders will the remake offer? Read More »
Ten years ago this week The Fellowship of the Ring was released. Peter Jackson‘s first Tolkien adaption silenced a great many naysayers who said J.R.R. Tolkien‘s novels could never be properly translated to film. It also fostered a mainstream interest in fantasy movies that continues a decade later.
The development of a film based on Tolkien’s original Middle-Earth novel, The Hobbit, was the subject of speculation as soon as Jackson started work on The Lord of the Rings. Actually making the movie was a terrifically complicated process that involved rights deals, the financial solvency of MGM, a long period of development under original director Guillermo del Toro, and the eventual return of Peter Jackson to the director’s chair.
Now the first teaser trailer — a long teaser, at that — has been released for the first of two films based on the novel. Get the first look at footage from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, after the break. Read More »
What has caught the eye of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman)? It’s like he’s staring over my shoulder at some approaching wonder. It’s probably not footage from the movie in which he stars, and perhaps we’ll find out what he sees when that footage is unveiled. In fact, we’ll see the first trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey tonight at 10pm EST / 7pm PST, and I’m very much looking forward to Peter Jackson‘s return to Middle-Earth. While you wait, check out the full image below. Read More »
Like many things these days, it all began with a teaser trailer. The day was April 7, 2000 and New Line Cinema released a 100 second trailer teasing The Lord of the Rings, an epic series of films they had in production based on the famous books by J.R.R. Tolkien. Directed by Peter Jackson, a guy who, at that point, had only done five small movies, this one trailer lit a spark that changed the face of modern movies.
At that point, I’d never read the books but the kind of epic action that was being portrayed in the trailer was unlike anything I’d ever seen. I immediately shot over to Amazon, order the whole trilogy, and devoured the series with delight. The fact that these movies were being made was amazing and my anticipation was beyond fever pitch.
It all let up to ten years ago today, December 19, 2001, when dream became a reality and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released in theaters nationwide. It opened to about $75 million over its first five days, eventually grossed $315 million domestic, $871 million internationally, garnered 13 Oscar nominations – including best picture – and won four. Audiences knew we’d seen something epic, new and amazing but we had no idea where the journey would take us and is still taking us today. Read More »
Posted on Tuesday, December 13th, 2011 by Angie Han
For a while there it looked like Ariel Vromen‘s The Iceman was on the verge of falling apart, as James Franco dropped out of the project. But the hitman biopic is moving along with David Schwimmer and Chris Evans added to the cast in recent weeks, and now Winona Ryder has boarded the picture as well in a role once slated for Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Ryder will play the wife of mob contract killer Richard Kuklinski, a.k.a. The Iceman (Michael Shannon), who’s unaware of the true nature of her husband’s career. Ray Liotta and Ryan O’Nan will also star.
Based on interview footage and Anthony Bruno‘s book The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer, the picture is scheduled to begin production early next year in Louisiana. [Deadline]
After the jump, a former Everybody Loves Raymond star gets fired by a former The Office star, a Broadway adaptation casts a Broadway star, and a trio of rising Brit talents sign on for an artsy romance.
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Posted on Wednesday, December 7th, 2011 by Angie Han
I’m not indiscriminately against sequels, but for every X-Men: First Class, Kung Fu Panda 2, or Fast Five, there’s a The Hangover Part II, a Transformers: Dark of the Moon, or a Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. And while it’s admittedly unfair to jump to conclusions about movies before they’ve even entered production, the sequels we’re talking about today aren’t exactly at the top of my most-anticipated list. After the jump, read about:
- Grown Ups 2, the follow-up to last year’s Happy Madison comedy
- The Lincoln Lawyer 2 — and yes, that’s in addition to the upcoming TV series also based on the same source material
- Journey 3, a sequel to next February’s Journey 2
- and The Birdcage 2, fifteen years after the first Birdcage
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