Around the World in Posters: Before Midnight, The Bling Ring and Only God Forgives!

Check back in with Celine and Jesse in the third part of the story in Before Midnight.

Waiting for Star Trek Into Darkness? Check out the Enterprise crew plus director JJ Abrams in Empire magazine.

I'm suddenly reminded of The Rocketeer (1991) in this new IMAX poster of Iron Man 3.

Let's count down the days to Spike Lee's adaptation of Chan-wook Park's Oldboy.

Neon-sign dragon welcomes us to the world of MMA fighting in Only God Forgives.

 Stylish new poster for brand-conscious The Bling Ring.

 

It's hammer time! Chris Hemsworth returns in Thor: The Dark World.

Meet the fastest snail on the track, it's Turbo!

New The Bling Ring Trailer!

Oh, Hermione! The full trailer for Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring released this week (Sidebar: What is with all the new trailers lately? I’m positively overwhelmed with all this new footage) and it shows more of L.A.’s teen set behaving badly and robbing celebrity homes.  I also caught a brief glimpse of Leslie Mann playing someone’s mom, I’m not yet sure who.  I’m still not used to Emma Watson’s American accent, I really hope it grows on me and doesn’t distract from the actual film.  The film will play in the Un Certain Regard section of this May’s Cannes Film Festival and release in June 2013.

News Update: Cannes Film Festival jury, Divergent and Shaun the Sheep!

(Photo: Oscars)

The jury for the Cannes feature film competition was announced this past Tuesday. The members are directors Ang Lee, Cristian Mungiu, Lynne Ramsay, Naomi Kawase and actors Nicole Kidman, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Auteuil and Vidya Balan. I’m totally floating my theory again that Spielberg and Lee are actually besties. A couple of months ago, they were both competing for the DGA (which they both lost to Ben Affleck) and the Oscar (which went to Lee) and now they’re on the same jury at the Cannes International Film Festival this May with Spielberg as jury president. Hopefully we might see a collaborative project from the both of them (like with Spielberg and JJ Abrams or Peter Jackson) someday. Hey, I can always hope.

First still of Shailene Woodley as Tris in Divergent as she is initiated into Dauntless.  Based on the Veronica Roth novel and directed by Neil Burger (Limitless, The Illusionist), the film also stars Kate Winslet, Aaron Eckhart, Theo James and Maggie Q and is due for release next March 2014.  Bodes well for the next The Hunger Games!

And finally, one of my favorite animated characters, the mostly silent yet lovable Shaun the Sheep is headed to the big screen. I've followed the little guy ever since he first appeared in Wallace and Gromit's A Close Shave and then graduated to his own TV series. Getting a starring role in his very own film was the obvious choice.  Here's to more adventures on the farm, Shaun looks very ready for his closeup!

Revisting Sholay (1975)

Sholay is like a rite of passage if you're Indian.  You have to see it and if you don't you'll get a horrified look with an exclamation, "You haven't seen Sholay!"  I've been guilty of this myself and while I have seen Sholay before, I had never experienced it on the big screen.

Yesterday though I crossed that off my list.  And what an experience it was.  From the first reel, nay, when the censor certificate first showed up on the screen, the hoots and whistles started.  Directed by Ramesh Sippy, Sholay is a story of a classic yarn of revenge, obsession and an good old-fashioned friendship between two rogues.  Starring legends of Indian cinema, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan, Hema Malini and Jaya Bhaduri, the film is so popular that to this day, the songs, dialogues and scenes are etched forever in people's minds. 

The comedy still makes me laugh, the songs are still as hummable as ever and the story (an everlasting script by writers Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan) still makes you gasp even if you know what's coming.  If you've never seen Sholay, make haste and watch this evergreen classic, which is quite long, will entertain you and give you your money's worth.

Directed by Ramesh Sippy; Screenplay by Salim-Javed; Cinematography by Dwarka Divecha, Edited by M.S. Shinde; Music by R.D. Burman

Additional Cast: A.K. Hangal, Satyen Kappu, Sachin, Asrani, Jagdeep, Macmohan and Viju Khote

Rating:

New Thor: The Dark World Trailer!

Debuting along with Iron Man 3 this Friday in theaters is the first ever Thor: The Dark World trailer.  After going back to his world Asgard at the end of Thor, we meet the hulky Norse God (Chris Hemsworth) once again on Earth as he is reunited with his lady love, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman).  Familiar faces return (Anthony Hopkins, Kat Dennings) and some new ones are introduced (Christopher Eccleston's Malekith) but the one face we were looking forward to is definitely back, the fiendish Loki (Tom Hiddleston).  A Thor sequel without him would be unthinkable. Directed by Alan Taylor, the film releases this November 2013.  What do you think?

Summer's Hottest Trailers: Man of Steel and Star Trek Into Darkness

Are we sure Man of Steel is not really directed by Christopher Nolan and not just produced by him? Because this trailer bears all his marks. This origin story of Superman looks incredibly promising with first looks of  Krypton, his father Jor-El (Russell Crowe), his adoptive father on Earth (Kevin Costner), Zod (Michael Shannon) and Lois Lane (Amy Adams).  Could this Superman film do what Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy did for the Batman brand? And what does the 'S' stand for? We’ll find out June 14, 2013.

 

The final trailer for this summer's most anticipated sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness, shows Benedict Cumberbatch's John Harrison luring the impulsive Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and the Enterprise crew into a trap.  Will they survive?  I'd put some pretty good odds on it. Star Trek Into Darkness hit theaters May 17th 2013

News Update: Stars Wars, Pitch Perfect and the Oscars!

• There is just too much movie news to process coming out of Cinemacon.  Prepare yourselves for 2015 as Disney will release The Avengers 2, two Pixar films (the original Inside Out and the sequel to Finding Nemo), the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean and the first of the proposed Star Wars trilogy, Episode VII.  Later sequels will also theaters promptly in 2017 and 2019. AND there will be a new Star Wars film every year from 2015-2019 in the form of spin-offs and sequels. Yup, Disney’s well on its way to world domination, at least in the movie world. 
• As expected Pitch Perfect is getting a sequel.  Make Rebel Wilson's character Fat Amy the lead and we're golden.  In case, you haven't checked out Pitch Perfect, what are you waiting for, it's aca-mazing! Snow White and the Huntsman is also heading to sequel-land.  Let's see who will be returning in the cast. 
• Suraj Sharma is not just a one-film wonder anymore. He’s signed his next film, Million Dollar Arm, with Jon Hamm about a sport agent who heads to Mumbai to recruit pitchers through cricket players.  This one sounds super interesting.  Dev Patel, you’ve got competition. 
• Get ready for the Oscars disguised as the Tony awards yet again. Producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan will be back as producers for next Oscars being held on March 2, 2014 to accommodate the Winter Olympics 2014.  Better steel yourself for more singing and dancing and less awards being handed out.