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Fifty Shades Darker Teaser – Our first look at Jamie Dornan in the sequel?

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I’m not 100% convinced by this, but numerous sources are suggesting it’s legit and so we’re posting it!

One of the reasons for being suspicious is that Fifty Shades Darker doesn’t have a director yet, and the February 2017 release date was only announced a few days ago. However after Universal had a huge hit with Fifty Shades Of Grey it’s not too surprising they quickly want to say that more will be coming.

Apparently when it does, it will be pitched as a thriller, according to the Universal top brass. It will further follow the kinky adventures of Jamie Dornan’s Christian Grey and Dakota Johnson’s Anastasia Steele.

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James Wan Wanted For Robotech – The Furious 7 director is up for the anime adaptation

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James Wan has had massive success in horror with Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring, but it’s Furious 7 that’s made Hollywood sit up and take notice that this is a guy that can handle a big, tentpole movie. Recently rumours emerged that he’s in contention to direct Aquaman and now Deadline reports that he’s in talks to direct Robotech.

Sony Pictures is behind the long-gestating anime adaptation, which is envisioned as a sprawling sci-fi epic. The original animated series takes place at a time when Earth has developed giant robots from the technology on an alien spacecraft that crashed on a South Pacific island.

Mankind is forced to use the technology to fend off three successive waves of alien invasions. The first invasion concerns a battle with a race of giant warriors who seek to retrieve their flagship’s energy source known as “protoculture,” and the planet’s survival ends up in the hands of two young pilots.

The likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire have previously been involved in the film, but it doesn’t appear any actors are currently attached.

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The Last Witch Hunter Teaser – Vin Diesel is on the trail of supernatural evil

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Vin Diesel has been having huge success in the Fast & Furious series, but outside that his career hasn’t been having many hits. However he’s got high hopes for The Last Witch Hunter, and after months of Vin posting pics and titbits on his Facebook page, a trailer has finally arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘The modern world holds many secrets, but the most astounding secret of all is that witches still live amongst us; vicious supernatural creatures intent on unleashing the Black Death upon the world. Armies of witch hunters battled the unnatural enemy across the globe for centuries, including KAULDER, a valiant warrior who managed to slay the all-powerful QUEEN WITCH, decimating her followers in the process.

‘In the moments right before her death, the QUEEN curses KAULDER with her own immortality, forever separating him from his beloved wife and daughter in the afterlife. Today KAULDER is the only one of his kind remaining, and has spent centuries hunting down rogue witches, all the while yearning for his long-lost loved ones. However, unbeknownst to KAULDER, the QUEEN WITCH is resurrected and seeks revenge on her killer causing an epic battle that will determine the survival of the human race.’

Elijah Wood and Michael Caine co-star, with an October release set.

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Irrational Man Trailer – Joaquin Phoenix & Emma Stone star in Woody Allen’s latest

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It’s time for our first look at Woody Allen’s annual movie, and coming off the Oscar-winning triumph of Blue Valentine he’s brining us Irrational Man, which stars Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone and Parker Posey.

As always with Allen there aren’t too many details about the movie, but Phoenix will play a philosophy professor who’s suffering from an existential crisis which results in him wondering what the point of life is. However then – and this will be a shock for Allen fans – he meets a younger woman, strikes up a friendship, who changes his life.

It’s not exactly groundbreaking territory for Woody, and as so often in his films, it feels like Joaquin in playing an Allen analogue. Whether it’ll work this time around should become clearer soon as it’s due to premiere at Cannes in mid-May.

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Far From The Madding Crowd – Carey Mulligan takes on Thomas Hardy’s classic heroine

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The 1960s film version of Thomas Hardy’s classic tale was recently re-released ahead of this version with a clear message; this new take on the story had better be near-perfect, or by comparison it will be buried. This version certainly takes some risks, especially a non-English director and the use of a Belgian actor in the crucial role of Gabriel Oak, which was so well played by Alan Bates in the original. It also doesn’t have Nic Roeg as cinematographer, the man who not only brilliantly put Hardy’s characters and landscape on the screen but directed the pivotal sword seduction scene.

So is it a success?

Well, taken on its own terms, it is. The photography is lush, although it lacks the muddy gloom of Roeg’s work, but it’s still a fine-looking film. The performances are good, although pretty much all of them come second to the original, apart from Michael Sheen’s superb turn as Boldwood, which is at least a match for Peter Firth’s original. Both capture Boldwood’s desperate twitchiness and sad yearning for Bathsheba. The only complaint here is that Sheen isn’t in it enough, it’s more of a cameo than a fully rounded role. Carey Mulligan is no Julie Christie, but she’s game, Matthias Schoenaerts seems to be concentrating too much on getting his accent right to remember to act, while Tom Sturridge struggles in the role of Troy – he’s feckless but looks like a member of a boy band, and his tragic relationship with Fanny is underpowered.

Thomas Vinterberg omits several key scenes, such as the aftermath of Sergeant Troy’s disastrous abandoned wedding to Fanny, and later his discovery working as a fairground attraction, but in the main his telling of the story works. Bathsheba’s trio of suitors are all magnificently pained, she is suitably flighty and seems to have little idea of the effect she is having on these three lonely men.

The big set pieces are all present and correct too – Oak’s saving of Bathsheba’s bacon three times, Troy’s seduction of her with his sword, Fanny’s tragic death in a poorhouse, Boldwood’s setting up of a huge Christmas party which is to end in violence. It reveals Hardy’s tale as something of a potboiler and, despite all the death and misery, pretty optimistic for him.

Overall verdict: A fine addition to the collection of Thomas Hardy films which, while never quite throwing off the shadow of the 1960s version, may find its audience with students and the younger generation just discovering his books. It’s also a cracking tale and keeps up the pace throughout.

Reviewer: Mike Martin

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Mad Max: Fury Road Gets A Final Trailer – Tom Hardy & co. love mayhem

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After a very, very long wait, it’s just a couple of weeks until we get to see the reinvention of Mad Max, with Tom Hardy taking over the role from Mel Gibson in Fury Road.

To make sure we know this is going to be a film that’s just as nuts as the earlier movie, while ramping up the style and the budget, a final trailer has arrived, which you can watch below.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘Oscar-winning filmmaker George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” revisits his own post-apocalyptic trilogy featuring the anti-hero known as Mad Max. Tom Hardy stars in the role of Max Rockatansky, alongside Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough, Hugh Keays-Byrne and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Miller directed from a screenplay he wrote with Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris. Miller also produces, along with Doug Mitchell and P.J. Voeten. Iain Smith, Graham Burke and Bruce Berman serve as executive producers. “Mad Max: Fury Road” is a Kennedy Miller Mitchell production. The film will be presented by Warner Bros. Pictures, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures. Scheduled for release on May 15, 2015, it will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures.’

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