In a recent interview with Empire Magazine, Director Robert Rodriguez discussed his two creative masterpieces, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and Machete Kills, which starts production this summer. Robert Rodriguez’s discusses the direction he plans to take the Sin City sequel by stylizing it to match the comic book.

“I really held back the first time, because I didn’t know whether audiences would go for it. So it ended up looking like a real movie, but in black and white, with a few flourishes. This one is going to push way further towards the books. It’s going to shock and surprise people.”

Rodriguez also reveals that some “seriously big names” are set to come on board for the film, but nothing is set in stone. Clive Owen is rumored to reprise his role, and while Angelina Jolie is also a rumored prospect for the role of Ava Lord, but Rodriguez did not confirm or deny whether she is a candidate for the role. Instead he told Empire that Ava Lord’s:

” a great part for any actress. She’s completely diabolical with no mercy. She’s as evil as evil gets.”

Of course when the interview moved on to Machete Kills, Rodriguez wanted to clear up the synopsis revealed by him and the production team behind the film.

“That synopsis we put out is misdirection — it’s all fake. Machete is recruited by the President, that’s true, but there’s no cartel leader and the weapon in space is just one of our early story ideas. That said, there is still a space element, for sure. We’ve given the character a much bigger playground. It’s going to be like a James Bond movie, with a Bond-style villain.“

He also lets Empire know that Mel Gibson’s role will be crazy, and his villainous character that will have people talking.

“Mel’s just a badass. We have the same attorney and we’ve talked over the years about stuff we’re making. This won’t just be him grinning, doing bad-guy stuff. He’s going to do something with it that’ll really get people talking.”

Robert Rodriguez is really clearing up a lot of rumors about both of his films, and giving his fans a lot to look forward to. What do you think about the sequels to Sin City and Machete, will it live up to the hype?

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“Some men are coming to kill us. We’re going to kill them first.” And it seems that just for starters.

The first trailer for the upcoming 23rd James Bond adventure, Skyfall, was unleashed on the interwebs this morning, and damn does it look badass. Let’s roll the tape:

Skyfall, directed by Academy Award winning director Sam Mendes (American Beauty), is Daniel Craig’s third turn as Britain’s greatest super spy following 2006′s Casino Royale and 2008′s Quantum of Solace. The plot centers around: “Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.” Naturally, the film will take place in locales across the globe from London to Singapore to Istanbul

Skyfall also features the return of Judi Dench as Bond’s boss M, as well as new characters played by Albert Finney, Ralph Fiennes and Helen McCroy. Naomie Harris and Bérénice Marlohe are the Bond girls, Javier Bardem is the villain, and Ben Whishaw will play Bond’s gadget man Q, the first time the character’s made an appearance in the Craig films, and the first time the character’s been played by an actor younger than geriatric.

Skyfall will be released in North America on November 9.

Source: Screenrant

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 Hugh Jackman  hit up his twitter account and tweeted that filming for the eagerly awaited  The Wolverine will begin shooting  in August.

Directed by James Mangold, and written by Christopher McQuarrie and Mark Bomback, The Wolverine will follow the feral mutant portrayed by Hugh Jackman in four X-Men movies and 2009′s spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine, as Logan heads to Japan where he battles nefarious bad guys like The Silver Samurai for the love and honor of a woman betrothed to someone else.

Are y’all excited about this? I for one, am not. I want to be, I do. I’m a huge Wolverine fan. I’d love to see a film that does justice to the character. However, with FOX and Jackman involved I don’t think we’ll ever get proper movie. A) FOX blows.  Their catalog of comic-book movies (minus X-Men First Class) all fucking suck. They haven’t proven to me that they can make a comic-book movie worth a damn. B) I know it’s nerdy blaspheme to say this, but Hugh Jackman sucks as Wolverine. Here’s the thing. The character of Wolverine is that of a wild beast trying desperately hard to find his humanity. Jackman plays it the other way around. That, and he’s far too tall and good looking for the role.

Anyhow, this is Fox’s last chance to give us the Wolverine we all want– and with McQuarrie writing the script, James Mangold behind the camera, and Hugh Jackman significantly older and more grizzled than he was before, maybe they can pull it off.

The Wolverine will claw into theaters July 26, 2013

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While Peter Berg and Universal’s Battleship was solid in the international market this past weekend, pulling in a reported $226.8 million, it was its domestic release that would prove its worth. With a weekend haul of only $25.3 million dollars, Battleship was clearly a miss (see what I did there). While  live-action Hasbro film was able to defend against the third place $17 million dollar The Dictator, it was unable to take the top spot of Joss Whedon‘s Avengers,  which is now in it’s third week at number 1.

In an interview with Yahoo, Universal’s president of domestic distribution Nikki Rocco said she expected this, saying:

“It is obviously a disappointment, but we will move on. And we have Memorial Day coming up,”… “The studio has a picture that already has a quarter of a billion dollars in the bank, and it won’t die at $25.3 million domestically. We all know that.”

Even an executive with the studio is proud of how things for Battleship turned out, saying in his Deadline interview:

”Our P&A spend and production costs are even less than The Dictator – and our cast made it to the Oscars without offending AMPAS. Ha.”

The next time Universal wants to make a movie based on a board game maybe they should try using a few of our ideas.

The Marvel super flick now brings it’s total to an impressive $55 Million in it’s third weekend, building it’s total domestic earnings to $457.1M and over $1 Billion worldwide, but with Will Smith and Men in Black III just around the corner there could very well be a new number 1 next week. Any bets?

Source: Deadline

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Jackie Chan has been the face of Martial Arts since the 90′s, but today he hangs his cap. While promoting his latest film Chinese Zodiac at Cannes, Jackie Chan officially announced that he would be retiring from acting in action films.

“[Chinese Zodiac] is my last action film. I tell you, I’m not young any more. I’m really, really tired. And the world is too violent right now. It’s a dilemma – I like action but I don’t like violence.

I want the audience to know also I’m not only a comedian. I can act. Day by day, year by year, I’m going to show you the real Jackie Chan.

I don’t just want to be an action star, I want to be a true actor. I want to get rid of my image.”

So at 58 years-old, it is understandable that the actor feels its time to keep himself from harm, and build a different image for himself. Jackie Chan has starred in over 100 films, most of which were in the action genre. His current decision is said to be a combination of wanting  serious acting roles, and just being to tired to keep up with the high stakes in current action films, which revolve around larger amounts becoming tired of starring in films that revolve around large amounts of violence.

This news makes the JC Film Nostalgia come up, so check out this video clip of Rush Hour Bloopers, and tell us what you think of the announcement.

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From Hardcover to Broadway, ‘Peter & The Starcatchers’ a series of bestselling children books, is becoming a huge hit. The Broadway play has received nine Tony Award nominations earlier this month, and Walt Disney Pictures has hired writer Jesse Wigutow to adapt the book into a movie with franchise potential.

Wigutow is currently the man to have with his adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s thriller The Osterman Weekend in development at Summit with director Brian Kirk (“Game of Thrones“) and a reboot of The Crow at Relativity Media with F. Javier Gutierrez. It will be interesting to see how he handles a more child-friendly story.

Highlights from the Broadway Show:

In an evocative and fast-paced adventure on the high seas and on a faraway island, an orphan boy named Peter and his pretty, mysterious new friend, Molly, overcome bands of pirates and thieves in their quest to keep a fantastical secret safe and save the world from evil. The story precedes J.M. Barrie’s beloved Peter Pan. So are you excited to see Disney tackle the preceding adventures that made Peter Pan ‘the boy who never grew up’?

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Normally, I am a forgiving person when it comes to reboots, more so than most others.  It’s nice to see what the new blood can do with an old franchise, even if it usually doesn’t work out for the best.  And, all things considered, it’s still better than just taking an old film, adding a few scenes and special effects and then remarketing it for cash (yes, I’m looking at you Mr. Lucas).

But when it was announced that Highlander would be getting the facelift treatment, I was skeptical.  The atmosphere and conceptual genius behind the first one is not easily reproduced.  It is all too easy to fall into the trap of remaking it in an actiony vein and losing the theme of the original.

Now, as if the news couldn’t get any worse, Ryan Reynolds is slotted as the forerunner of possibles in casting.

To quote the source:

“Ryan Reynolds has emerged as the front-runner to topline Lionsgate-Summit’s franchise reboot, and though it’s unclear whether an actual offer has been made, sources tell Variety that both sides are in talks and are very interested in working together. Insiders add that Reynolds is weighing other offers and that [he] could still pursue another project,”

Ok, so Christopher Lambert (pre-gigantic forehead days) was not the most amazing of actors, but he did fit the role.  And even Sean Connery with his inability to do a Spanish accent was enjoyable.

But… Ryan <choke> Reynolds!?  Seriously?  This guy floundered through Green Lantern like a chimpanzee on crack and they want to set him up to destroy another franchise?  Was he sent by malevolent aliens from outer space on a mission to mutilate the movies that fans love?   This guy needs to be locked away; at least until Highlander is finished shooting, else angry fans may be doing some shooting of their own.

Next thing you know, Justin Bieber will be slotted to compose the new soundtrack.

Thanks to comingsoon for giving us the bad news on this one.

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With the release of ‘The Avengers‘, it has laid waste to the box-office and made it hard for other films to rise and take the No. 1 crown. Deadline writer, Nikki Finke pointed out logistics and numbers coming from Battleship’s current release information:

“It opened with only $420K midnights from 1,074 theaters: that’s weaker than Warner Bros’ under performing Dark Shadows last weekend and even Disney’s notorious 2012 bomb John Carter…Universal cautions that ‘both of those films have a bigger geek base’ whereas the strength of Peter Berg’s military vs. aliens actioner is ‘that it’s the anti-geek, anti-midnight movie of all time.”

Battleship opened today in theaters nationwide, and while it has made$220 million Internationally. North American buzz on the film has been overshadowed by ‘The Avengers’, so the Midnight showing for the film has not hauled in the numbers it expected.  The film has all the elements to be a high-grossing film: good graphics, action,well-known actors, and aliens. Even though this film has been made fun of for being based on a childhood board game, this film should not be something you miss out on.

While it is difficult to compete with a titan, i.e.: The Avengers, the film does have a lot to look forward to. The die-hard fans of Marvel may not want to defect, and will continue to watch the movie 4 times and onward, but the ending is the same, the plots points are the same, and moviegoers would do best to spend their money on other films.

So what this Nerdbastard would like to make clear, is that you shouldn’t revoke my ‘nerd-liscense’ just because I don’t want to watch The Avengers in theaters so much that I go broke, but that you should take the time to watch another movie. John Carter really stunk a high heaven, and to compare a worthless movie from beginning to end with Battleship that has more merit,better acting, and lots of destruction then be my guest and rot your brain.

Nerdbastard out!

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Alright Prometheus promotions team, I’ll give you this one. As the need for new and innovative ways to market a movie continue to one-up each other, the boys and girls promoting Ridley Scott‘s  next little sci-fi epic found a way to make theirs eye catching. Giant freakin’ heads are eye catching, right?

Taking a subway stop in Paris, France that has been derelict for the past 73 years or so and transforming it into the apparently iconic giant blue head and little vases scene from the movie that subway goers only catch a quick glimpse of before they head of to the next stop for more cheese and wine.

Yes, I closed off with a lame french stereotype. Hey, at least I didn’t say something about how hordes of Parisians are currently surrendering to the giant blue head.

You can watch an almost-like-being-there video of the subway ride after the jump. I for one welcome our giant blue headed masters…

(more…)

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World’s collide when Game of Thrones creator, George R.R. Martin, or GRRM to most of us, reviews Marvel’s The Avengers. We already know GRRM is quite the Marvel fanboy, even having written a letter to Stan Lee back in ’60s, so what did he think of the “best superhero movie ever”?

Here’s what was posted on his blog,

I liked THE AVENGERS a lot… but maybe “loved” is too strong. I do have quibbles.

I definitely want to see it again, this time in 2D. I did not think the 3D added much, and the process made many of the scenes too dark. I am really not in love with today’s 3D process. Yes, sometimes it works very well, as on HUGO, but mostly it doesn’t.

Lots of lots of great stuff in THE AVENGERS, which most of the world has commented on, so I won’t. The action scenes were spectacular, and overall I thought they did very well with Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Captain America, and Nick Fury. All great characters, all handled well, their interactions were one of the best part of the films.

However, I think they wasted the Black Widow and Hawkeye. Hawkeye is actually one of my favorite Avengers, so that saddened me. I missed the dynamic from the comics, where it’s Hawkeye who is the cynical smartass (not Iron Man), always in conflict with the super straight guy Captain America. I guess, having capitalized on the undeniable talents of Robert Downey Junior to create a terrific character in Movie Iron Man, they did not feel there was room for a second wise-cracking iconoclast. Fine, but it left Hawkeye without a personality. Or much to do.

Same’s true of the Black Widow. Scarlett Johanssen looked great in that outfit, but she seemed to be there only as eye candy. The shot in the middle of the battle where she pulls out a pistol was silly. I don’t know who this Black Widow was, and I don’t think the screenwriter did either. She wasn’t the original comic Black Widow, the Russian femme fatale who seduces Hawkeye into trying to kill Iron Man. She wasn’t the later comic book Black Widow, who dons a costume, comes over to the good guys, and teams with first Hawkeye and then Daredevil. She was just… there.

My own golden rule for these Marvel movies is simple — stay with the way Stan Lee did it, and you won’t go far wrong. THE AVENGERS should have done that. Hawkeye was not actually a founding member of the group, he came in later… around the same time Iron Man and Thor were leaving. Black Widow came in even later than that. So I would have followed Stan’s scenario, left them out of this first movie, and replaced them with… Ant-Man and the Wasp! Who WERE founding members of the Avengers. They wanted a woman in the group, sure, but the Wasp would have done just as well as Black Widow, and Ant-Man… hey, I love Hank Pym.

All that being said… these are, ultimately, just quibbles. I did really like the film. The Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form next year in San Antonio is really going to be a fanboy bloodbath, with AVENGERS, PROMETHEUS, and THE HOBBIT all contending for the same rocket.

‘Nuff said.

I disagree with Black Widow not doing anything, but that’s probably because I saw her really do nothing in Iron Man 2 and The Avengers was a massive improvement. Hawkeye though, was kinda wasted, you got that right, George. It also seems he’d be a fan of those rumors of Ant Man joining the team and he must be excited about Edgar Wright trying to make the Ant Man movie happen.

It’s super cool GRRM shared his thoughts on The Avengers, but all I can think is, “GET BACK TO WRITING THE WINDS OF WINTER!! Love, an impatient fan.”

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