People love street racing games. They allow us experience all sorts of thrilling, illegal actions, without all the jail time and incidents involving dropped soap. Just look at the Fast and Furious franchise, its on it’s sixth film with nothing more than fast cars and a case of Tokyo drifting. Easy to see why Dreamworks is cashing in on the racing film phenomenon with their adaptation of a Need for Speed.

Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the game franchise, Dreamworks and their Need for Speed project have already signed several young up and comers, and now they’ve upped their “game” hiring a Batman…well, our generation’s Bruce Wayne at least.

Veteran actor and two-time Batman Michael Keaton has joined the cast as “the reclusive and eccentric host of an underground supercar race where he invites the best drivers from around the world.”

Essentially he’ll be Bruce if he grew up without the theater incident and kept all the money and power, but it sounds more like a supporting role according to the synopsis from Heat Vision:

The story tells of a local street-racer (Paul) who partners with a rich and arrogant business associate (Cooper), only to find himself framed by his colleague and sent to prison. After his stint in the joint, he joins a New York-to-Los Angeles race to get revenge. But when the ex-partner learns of the scheme, he puts a massive bounty on the racer’s head, forcing him to run a cross-country gauntlet of illegal racers in all manner of supercharged vehicles.

With the backing of a great cast including Aaron Paul and Dominic Cooper, as well as Imogen Poots, Rami Malek and actor/musician Kid Cudi in supporting roles, the film has a solid number of notable names. Having Michael will help bridge the youth gap.

Need for Speed is being written by George Gatins, in conjunction with his brother and producer John Gatins, Mark Sourian and executive producer John Brooks Klingenbeck. It will race into theaters on February 7th, 2014.

Source: Screen Rant

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Ten years before Batman Begins hit theaters and jump started the ailing Dark Knight film franchise, Warner Bros released a decidedly different Batman movie called Batman Forever. The film was the first directed by Joel Schumacher and attempted to “lighten up” the darker Tim Burton movies with a convoluted storyline about  The Riddler and Two-Face turning the people of Gotham into TV watching zombies… Or something. But that wasn’t what Michael Keaton wanted.

The Batman/Bruce Wayne role was taken over by Val Kilmer in Forever, but originally Keaton was supposed to return. In a new interview with the WTF podcast, Keaton recounted meetings with the studio where he wanted to take the character next, as well as his admiration for what Christopher Nolan’s done with the Caped Crusader.

“The guy who’s doing them now, Chris Nolan, he’s so talented, it’s crazy. [Christian Bale] is so talented. It’s so good.” he enthused. “But I say that like I’ve seen them, and I actually haven’t. I didn’t even see much of the second one that I did.”

“You look at where he went, which is exactly what I wanted to do when I was having meetings about the third one,” he continued. “I said you want to see how this guy started. We’ve got a chance here to fix whatever we kind of maybe went off. This could be brilliant.”

Keaton’s portrayal of Batman and Bruce Wayne in Burton’s Bat-films still holds up and it remains some of the best, out-of-left-field casting ever in the history of blockbuster movies. Some of you young people might not remember, but there was once a time when the casting of Michael Keaton as Batman was highly controversial. He was, at the time, most famous for being Mr Mom and Beetlejuice after all.

And now you know the rest of the story…

Source: Collider

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Shot on set by bystander Mike McPhee, this footage has either a stunt double or star Joel Kinnaman -we can’t tell which- riding this new “RoboCycle”. Since there’s nothing exploding, or Jose shouting anything that involves “boom!” we’re going to assume it’s Kinnaman.

This short video, gives us a bit of an insight into just how filming has been so far for the stars and crew in Toronto. And, as far as I know, “RoboCycle” hasn’t been trademarked yet.

The jury is still out on whether this reboot will be worth watching. The Batman inspired suit and Judge Dredd’s motorcycle aren’t doing the film any favors.

RoboCop stars stars Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson, Abbie Cornish, Jackie Earle Haley, Michael K. Williams, Jay Baruchel, Jennifer Ehle, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and hits theaters everywhere February 14th, 2014.

Source: Coming Soon 

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This past Friday, photos from the Toronto set of Jose Padilha‘s RoboCop reboot showcased Joel Kinnaman suited up in the redesigned RoboCop costume. And while many of us – ourselves included – have been bashing the new design and praying it’s only a prototype… Looks like we’ll have to get used to the new Alex Murphy, if this new teaser poster is any indication.

Originally thought to be a fan-made poster, the teaser has actually been around since last June’s Las Vegas Licensing Expo and confirmed to be official by Cinema Blend. We even included it in our round-up for 2013 films from the expo; this is just the first good quality image that has been released in the past few months.

Any way we look at it, there will still be some tweaks on the final RoboCop design. Check out the old, but now full-sized poster below the jump:

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Ermahgerd Robokerp!

Today, a few set photos snapped from the set of Jose Padilha‘s RoboCop reboot found their way online. From them, we see a guy in a cybernetic suit. We can assume that this is our first look at the new RoboCop. We can’t say for sure though.

Here’s the thing. We know, from script details, that OmniCorp -the evil corporation at the center of Robot Technology- has many failed attempts with its cybernetic drone program (aka RoboCops). So, it’s possible this is a look at one of those failed designs. I for one, hope it is the latter and that the final design has some semblance to the original (1987) film . I mean, my god,  did the the movies design team raid Daft Punk’s helmet closet or something? As for the rest of the suit, did they steal the Iron Man suit and spray-paint it black? Ugh, It’s awful!

I’m not going to judge this movie on the suit alone, that would be unfair. Imma hold out for the trailer before I go full tilt. The suit is not winning me over, though,  I’ll tell you that much.

What do you readers think? Sound off in the comment section below.

RoboCop also stars Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson, with Abbie Cornish, Jackie Earle Haley, Michael K. Williams, Jay Baruchel, Jennifer Ehle, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste. The film is set for release on August 9, 2013.

In RoboCop, the year is 2029 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Their drones are winning American wars around the globe and now they want to bring this technology to the home front. Alex Murphy is a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit. After he is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp utilizes their remarkable science of robotics to save Alex’s life. He returns to the streets of his beloved city with amazing new abilities, but with issues a regular man has never had to face before.

Director José Padilha (Elite Squad) reimagines the tale of part man, part machine, all cop starring Joel Kinnaman (The Killing) as the title character, Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight Rises) as the scientist who creates RoboCop, and Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers) as media mogul Pat Novak. RoboCop is being produced by Strike Entertainment’s Marc Abraham and Eric Newman, with Eric Carraro as Executive Producer. The film is currently in pre-production and slated for a summer 2013 release.

Source: ComingSoon

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With Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter finished and floundering at the box office (reviewed here), writer/creator Seth Grahame-Smith is off to his next project, the much rumored and still up in the air sequel to 1988′s Beetlejuice. Bleeding Cool had a chance to needle the writer for some details, and he delivered. While it is in development right now,  Grahame-Smith stressed that the movie is ‘just theoretical right now,’ so here’s whats happening, theoretically.

If we come up with nothing but shit then we’re not going to do it. Beetlejuice, I think, is too important to too many people, myself included, and Tim (Burton), and Michael Keaton, to do a sequel just for the sake of it, because we’d think it would be commercial. It’s one of my favourite movies of all time. I still have the original 1988 poster in my office, framed, above my desk. It was an important and seminal movie for me. I want to find a way, so badly, to get it right, but I am so absolutely horrified at the thought of getting it wrong that we’re taking our time and being really careful about it. Though I have talked to Tim quite a bit about it, and I have talked to Michael quite a bit.

I’m liking where this is going already, he sounds like he loves the property and will treat it right. A needles sequel for nostalgia will do no one any good.

More revealing details after the jump.

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We have to wait a little longer to see Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Rises, and NerdBastards’ Matthew Jackson is dealing with the wait by filling his head with as many other Batman tales as possible. In the six weeks leading up to the flick’s release, he’ll be revisiting all six Batman franchise films so far (yes, even the crap ones) and writing retrospective essays on what worked, what didn’t, and what each film means to the franchise at large.

After my essay on Batman last week, a reader theorized that the biggest problem with the Tim Burton-era Batman films is in fact Tim Burton. After all, he’s been rather publicly dismissive of comic books overall, and he’s always more interested in the visual aspect of his films than the characters that populate them. While it might be the most powerfully distilled version of a Tim Burton superhero movie, and that may be a big problem for some viewers, Batman Returns is a fascinating, darkly gorgeous entry in the franchise with far fewer and (mostly) shallower flaws than its predecessor.

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We have to wait a little longer to see Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Rises, and NerdBastards’ Matthew Jackson is dealing with the wait by filling his head with as many other Batman tales as possible. In the six weeks leading up to the flick’s release, he’ll be revisiting all six Batman franchise films so far (yes, even the crap ones) and writing retrospective essays on what worked, what didn’t, and what each film means to the franchise at large.

If nothing else, we can thank Tim Burton‘s 1989 film for the explosion of the Bat-franchise. Even if you hate the flick (and I understand there are some that do), we all owe it something. Without it, we don’t get the brilliant animated series that kept much of its tone (and Danny Elfman‘s glorious score), we don’t get nearly as many Batman action figures and t-shirts. Sure, someone would have made a Batman film eventually, even if this one never got off the ground. But it did, and thus it’s the launch pad not just for the Batman franchise, but for the modern age of superhero cinema.

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One of the big pieces of news out of Wondercon this weekend was the new trailer for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but the original author behind that project has his sights set on future projects, and he discussed one of the biggest ones while at the ALVH panel in Anaheim: Beetlejuice 2.

Seth Grahame-Smith talked to Collider about some of the ideas he was playing with for sequel, including his timeline for putting pen to paper for the script. “Beetlejuice is hopefully the third thing I’m gonna write this year,” he said. “I’ve met with Tim [Burton] about it, I’ve met with Michael Keaton about it. There’s a lot of goodwill to want to do it from both of those guys; Tim from a producing aspect and Michael from returning to the character. Again, it’s on me. It’s whether or not I can come up with a script that’s worthy of them jumping back in.”

And if they do jump back in, expect the sequel to take place in “real time,” meaning that the sequel will take place 26-27 years after the original. Beetlejuice himself, however, will be more or or less the same because “time means nothing in the afterlife, but the world outside is a different story.”

As for storyline, and what the movie might be about, Grahame-Smith says, he right now only has a “rough idea of what it’s gonna be.”

“The thing that Tim and Michael and I all agree on, and is most important for me is, I don’t wanna be the guy that destroys the legacy and the memory of the first film; I would rather die,” he says. “I would rather just not make it, I’d rather just throw the whole thing away than make something that pays no respect and doesn’t live up even close to the legacy of the first film.”

Beetlejuice 2 is still far from even pre-production, but expect to hear Grahame-Smith talk more about it when he starts promoting his two big summer movies, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Dark Shadows later this spring.

Source: You Bent My Wookie

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In other Tim Burton news coming out today we’re learning that a sequel to one of filmmaker’s first hits, Beetlejuice, is at the top of someone’s to-do list, and it’s none other than the man that portrayed the titular ghoul himself, Michael Keaton.

While being interviewed by STYD, Seth Grahame-Smith, author of the book by Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and screenwriter of Burton’s Dark Shadows adaptation, talked about a meeting he had with Keaton about getting another Beetlejuice movie in front of the cameras.

We talked for a couple of hours and talked about big picture stuff.  It’s a priority for Warner Bros. It’s a priority for Tim.

Apparently, Keaton’s been chomping at the bit to get going on another Beetlejuice, and now it seems he’s closer than ever. How big are his expectations?

Huge, he’s been wanting to do it for 20 years and he’ll talk to anybody about it who will listen. I really told him, I have a huge reverence for Tim and a huge reverence for that film in general.  I don’t think we should do it if we shit on the legacy.  He agrees.  So, right now, it remains to be seen, I have a couple of story ideas, but we’re very early out.

For years, there’s been the often rumored about Beetlejuice: Hawaiian Style project, but it  never seemed to get past the provocative title stage. So could an actual, factual Beetlejuice sequel truly now be in the making? Hopefully, they’ll get rolling soon before Keaton himself really does become a ghost.

Source: Geek Tyrant

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