This Week's Casting Update

(Pic: MTV Movie Blog)

• Tom Hardy is unveiled as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises website.  Suddenly, I'm worried for Christian Bale...and his back!
• Armie Hammer, having great success post The Social Network, joins yet another movie.  This time he will be The Lone Ranger opposite Johnny Depp's Tonto.  Sensing the beginnings of a good career!
• Somehow I can't imagine Michelle Williams as Glinda the Good Witch in the Oz: The Great and Powerful.  She joins James Franco who'll be Oz and Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz as the evil witches of the West and East.  I've always pegged her as a dramatic, serious actress.  Even in Dawson's Creek, her character was extremely emo.  
• Joel Edgerton (Kinky Boots) is Tom Buchanan in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby replacing Ben Affleck who dropped out to do another film.  Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan are already part of the cast as Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan.  I'm eager to see Luhrmann's next but his decision to film in it in 3D is giving me major doubts.  
• The other Snow White film (which is how I refer to it), Snow White and the Huntsman, has found its Huntsman.  It's Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth.  The evil Queen in this version will be played by Charlize Theron and Prince Charming will be Sam Claflin (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides).  The movie has also moved up its release date to release before Tarsem Singh's Snow White film.  Ah, rivalry!  

Entertainment Weekly's First Look at Katniss Everdeen

Just as Entertainment Weekly has become The Hunger Games central and the place to get all your breaking Hunger Games news, this blog might be a bit Katniss-heavy in the next few months.  I'm a Hunger Games fan and I'll need something to fill the void that going to be there once Harry Potter finishes.  I have to have something to look forward to.

Speaking of Katniss, here's Jennifer Lawrence on the EW cover debuting her look as Katniss Everdeen.  Get used to the name, you'll be hearing a lot of it.

So, what do we think? The bow, the arrow, the pin.  It's all there.  And I much prefer Jennifer as a brunette than a blonde.  She's on her way to becoming Katniss.  This makes me eager to see the rest of the cast in their dos now.  How long until that gets released?  

Movie Review: Source Code

Ok, full disclosure: I'm a Jake Gyllenhaal fan.  So, this review might tend to have some Jake bias as well some sentences talking about how pretty his eyes.  Sorry, moving along.   Let's get it to it.  I had been awaiting this movie ever since I saw the trailer last year.  A sci-fi Groundhog Day! Count me in.

Source Code opens with Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) waking up on a train that heading into Chicago and he realizes that he is somehow in the body of another person, Sean Fentress, a teacher.  And, oh yeah, there's a bomb on the train, too.  It turns out that Stevens is in military program called the Source Code that allows you to inhabit the body of a person 8 minutes before their death.  There is supposed another bomb exploding later in the day and Stevens has to figure who the bomber is to prevent another disaster from unfolding.  That was the easy part. 

The audience shares those 8 minutes over and over again with Stevens as he tries to orient himself to his surroundings and narrow down the list of suspects.  I liked the parts where he had to solve the mystery, I just wish the suspects had been a bit more entertaining.  And I thought the location of the bomb was found out too easily.  Make the mystery a bit harder.  

But, and there is a but the movie sells itself on the chemistry between Sean/Colter and Christina's characters.  Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan) is a fellow commuter on the train and yes, you guessed it, the love interest.  Stevens becomes fixated on saving Christina which helps him succeed on his mission to find the bomber and leads to surprising twist of a ending.  I liked it, it showed promise.  

Overall, a great action flick that I wish contained more of the mystery behind the who-done-it but covers it nicely by focusing the action on the main characters.  Definitely worth a watch.  

Directed by Duncan Jones; Written by Ben Ripley; Cinematography by Don Burgess; Editing by Paul Hirsch; Music by Chris Bacon

Additional Cast: Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright, Michael Arden, Cas Anvar, Russell Peters

Rating: 

The Adventures of Tintin: First Teaser Trailer!

It's here, the first teaser trailer of The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.  (Hint: It's about a ship.)  Take a look.

I liked how we had to wait all the way til the end of the trailer to see a first glimpse of Tintin's face. Not so much for Snowy. I loved the comics and even watched the serialized cartoon whenever it was on. This looks waaaaaay better than the motion capture of Polar Express and A Christmas Carol. That was just plain creepy! Sorry, Robert Zemeckis, you know it's true. I suddenly feel like reading some old comics now. Enjoy the trailer.

First Look: New Tintin Posters

Today's news is a biggie!! Empire Online is releasing the first look at the The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn one sheet poster and it's so awesome.

International Poster

(Poster: Empire Online)

US Poster

(Poster: AintItCool.com)

Empire Online will also debut the trailer tomorrow morning.  I'm totally going to have trouble sleeping tonite.  

The Hunger Games: Major Casting Updates!!

It seems that every day has become The Hunger Games announcement day.  And it's a good thing!  It feels like the beginning of the Harry Potter series when we first who would play Harry, Ron, Hermione, Sirius, Hagrid and the characters we grown to identify in their iconic roles.  So, it's fitting that as the Potter series is drawing to a close, we have The Hunger Games to look forward to.  And so let's to the casting updates.

First of all, all of the tributes have been cast.  All 12 districts.  If you were following the casting updates on Facebook, here's what the final tally looks like:

(Pic: The Hunger Games Tribute Page)

Here's the breakdown for each district.  

1. District One: Marvel (Jack Quaid) and Glimmer (Leven Rambin)

2. District Two: Cato (Alexander Ludwig) and Clove (Isabelle Fuhrman)

3. District Three: Tribute Boy (Ian Nelson) and Tribute Girl (Kalia Prescott)

4. District Four: Tribute Boy (Ethan Jamieson) and Tribute Girl (Tara Macken)

5. District Five: Tribute Boy (Chris Mark) and Foxface (Jacqueline Emerson)

6. District Six: Tribute Boy (Ashton Moio) and Tribute Girl (Kara Petersen)

7. District Seven: Tribute Boy (Sam Ly) and Tribute Girl (Leigha Hancock)

8. District Eight: Tribute Boy (Samuel Tan) and Tribute Girl (Mackenzie Lintz)

9. District Nine: Tribute Boy (Imanol Yepez-Frias) and Tribute Girl (Annie Thurman)

10. District Ten: Tribute Boy (Jeremy Marinas) and Tribute Girl (Dakota Hood)

11. District Eleven: Thresh (Dayo Okeniyi) and Rue (Amandla Stenberg)

12. District Twelve: Peeta Mallark (Josh Hutcherson) and Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence)

Except for the main cast, most of the tributes are newcomers.  The latest and last tributes to be named, Cato and Clove have had previous film experience.  Alexander Ludwig was previously in Race to Witch Mountain and Isabelle Fuhrman was in Orphan.  Almost didn't recognize her there.  

Now, onto the big parts.  Wes Bentley (American Beauty) has nabbed the part of Head Gamemaker Seneca Crane.  After a long time that I'm hearing Bentley's name in a mainstream movie.  Where has he been?  This will certainly raise his profile.

Up next is Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) as Caesar Flickerman, the host of the Hunger Games and the only one between the tributes and the audience.  Get on his good side and you might get to live a bit longer.   I'm really looking forward to how he's going to play this role.  He's gotta go over the top, he's the host of The Hunger Games.   

And finally, the role that I kind of assumed would go to Robert Downey Jr., Haymitch Abernathy, the mentor from District 12 and one of the few living tributes who won The Hunger Games.  Instead, it's Woody Harrelson.  I'm not disappointed.  I kinda want him to be the sort of role he did in Zombieland, I guess you could call it mentoring teens in that too.  And besides Robert Downey Jr is practically up for every role in Hollywood.  He can't do them all, can he?  

And there you have it, that's practically all the adults and tributes in The Hunger Games except Cinna and President Snow and I have a feeling the filmmakers have something big that's why the announcements haven't been coming in the last few days.  Shooting is said to commence soon and I for one can't wait for the first look of all these characters.  I do love the beginning of a series.  

Pixar reveals bonus short "La Luna"

Here's a wonderful surprise from Pixar, they will reveal a new short film, La Luna, at the upcoming Annecy International Festival this June.

"La Luna is the timeless fable of a young boy who is coming of age in the most peculiar of circumstances. Tonight is the very first time his Papa and Grandpa are taking him to work. In an old wooden boat they row far out to sea, and with no land in sight, they stop and wait," reads the synopsis.

"A big surprise awaits the little boy as he discovers his family’s most unusual line of work. Should he follow the example of his Papa, or his Grandpa? Will he be able to find his own way in the midst of their conflicting opinions and timeworn traditions?"

This sounds wonderful!  La Luna is director Enrico Casarosa's debut film although he's been with Pixar for awhile now and will be scored by Michael Giacchino who is turning out be the Pixar resident music director.  I'm not complaining.

Mega Poster Edition: Bridesmaids, Pirates 4, Green Lantern, Transformers and more!

Last time, the boys from Hangover had the floor, this time it's the ladies who are bringing it this summer.

Maya Rudolph and Kirsten Wiig (who also wrote Bridesmaids), the ladies of SNL

Ellie Kemper (The Office) and Melissa McCarthy (Mike & Molly) are staring you down!

Rose Bryne and Wendi McLendon-Covey, who wore it better?

More posters from Green Lantern, Monte Carlo, Smurfs, Pirates 4 and Transformers after the cut.