Movie Muser

For the past few years Sylvester Stallone has shown he’s certainly not afraid to revisit past success, and for the most part it’s worked, with decent box office for the likes of Rocky Balboa and Rambo. Now he’s bringing his famed boxing creation back once more for a movie that has the potential to become a franchise in its own right, but carrying on without him.

Now Stallone has shared the first picture from Creed, with features the actor in the ring alongside Michael B. Jordan as Adonis, the son of Rocky’s former opponent Apollo Creed.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘Adonis Johnson (Jordan) never knew his famous father, world heavyweight champion Apollo Creed, who died before he was born. Still, there’s no denying that boxing is in his blood, so Adonis heads to Philadelphia, the site of Apollo Creed’s legendary match with a tough upstart named Rocky Balboa.

‘Once in the City of Brotherly Love, Adonis tracks Rocky (Stallone) down and asks him to be his trainer. Despite his insistence that he is out of the fight game for good, Rocky sees in Adonis the strength and determination he had known in Apollo—the fierce rival who became his closest friend. Agreeing to take him on, Rocky trains the young fighter, even as the former champ is battling an opponent more deadly than any he faced in the ring.

‘With Rocky in his corner, it isn’t long before Adonis gets his own shot at the title… but can he develop not only the drive but also the heart of a true fighter, in time to get into the ring?’

The movie is due out in November.

It’s odd that in their animated movies Disney is content that fairytale people can have American accents, but when they turn live-action everything gets very British, whether it’s Angelina Jolie adopting an English accent for Maleficent or the fact most of the cast of Cinderella were Brits.

They’re certainly following that course with  Beauty & The Beast, which already has Emma Watson (Belle), Luke Evans (Gaston), Dan Stevens (the Beast), and Emma Thompson (Mrs. Potts) bringing their UK credentials to the movie (although Josh Gad and Kevin Kline will add a bit of an American dimension).

Now they’ve added one more, as the ever-excellent Ian McKellen has signed on, according to Variety, to play the butler who’s been turned into a clock, Cogsworth.

McKellen’s involvement isn’t too surprising as the film will reunite him with his Gods & Monsters and Mr. Holmes director, Bill Condon.

The live-action take on Beauty & The Beast will shoot this year with a March 17th, 2017 release set.

For quite some time JK Rowling has been working on the script for the Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, with the first part of the three movie series coming November 18th, 2016 (with 2018 & 2019 set for the parts 2 &3). There’s also a director, with David Yates set to return to the Potter realm for the movie.

What’s the film is currently lacking is someone to play the movie’s hero, Newt Scamander, but now Variety says Yates and Warner Bros. are narrowing down their choices and that currently Eddie Redmayne is the top choice for the role. No offer has been made and a few other actors are being considered, including Nicholas Hoult, but the Theory Of Everything Oscar winner is the front-runner.

The movie is set 70 years before the Harry Potter movies and follows ‘magiczoologist’ Scamander after he sets out to write the book Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them (which is one of Harry’s textbooks). The other main characters are two American girls and two American boys, who will be cast soon.

Although there have been a couple of unofficial glimpses, EW has now given us the first proper reveal of Ant Man’s villainous character, Yellowjacket, who it has to be said is looking pretty cool.

If you look hard, you’ll also see the tiny Ant Man himself is in the photo, but it’s tough to see how at that size he’s going to survive a punch from a plasma-cannon wielding bad guy.

However Director Peyton Reed comments, “Hank Pym’s Ant-Man suit doesn’t have a single weapon, whereas Yellowjacket is armed with plasma cannons. Ant-Man is very fast when he’s small. Also, when he shrinks, he increases his density, so he’s got increased strength.”

Here’s the synopsis: ‘The next evolution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings a founding member of The Avengers to the big screen for the first time with Marvel Studios’ “Ant-Man.” Armed with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, master thief Scott Lang must embrace his inner-hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym, protect the secret behind his spectacular Ant-Man suit from a new generation of towering threats. Against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Pym and Lang must plan and pull off a heist that will save the world.

Marvel’s “Ant-Man” stars Paul Rudd as Scott Lang aka Ant-Man, Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne, Corey Stoll as Darren Cross aka Yellowjacket, Bobby Cannavale as Paxton, Michael Peña as Luis, Judy Greer as Maggie, Tip “Ti” Harris as Dave, David Dastmalchian as Kurt, Wood Harris as Gale, Jordi Mollà as Castillo and Michael Douglas as Hank Pym. Directed by Peyton Reed and produced by Kevin Feige, Marvel’s “Ant-Man” delivers a high-stakes, tension-filled adventure on July 17, 2015.’

A few months ago Warner & DC announced a huge slate of movies that they’re planning to make over the next few years, from Justice League to Wonder Woman. However a lot of those movies are currently lacking directors, although if Warner gets its way, they’ll fill the Aquaman job with James Wan, according to THR.

The helmer is currently extremely hot after helping Furious 7 to a record-breaking opening weekend. Many had wondered if he was the right man for the job as up to that point he’d only had success in horror, such as Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring, but he’s proven he can handle a massive action franchise.

Aquaman isn’t set for release until 2018, which should give Wan time to make The Conjuring 2 (which is shooting this autumn) and perhaps even another Fast & Furious sequel before his massive superhero movie is released.

Jason Momoa is set to play Aquaman and will first be seen in 2016’s Batman v Superman. It doesn’t appear Wan has signed the deal to direct yet, but it appears one will be sorted soon.