Benedict Cumberbatch has teased more details about his role in Star Trek Into Darkness.
The British actor plays the main villain John Harrison in JJ Abrams' forthcoming sci-fi sequel. The character has previously been described as a 'one man weapon of mass destruction'.
Now, the actor has revealed more about the character. He told SFX: "As a psychological terrorist, he's someone who can plant an idea that's as vicious as a bomb and explode loyalties and expose relationships and try and turn people against one another to do his bidding."
The actor continued: "He really disrupts the unity aboard the ship, both physically and mentally. And he's a worthy adversary – there's a lot of shadowplay going on with him and Kirk and Spock, Kirk primarily, but both of those characters – he knows how to manipulate them."
Ridley Scott is actively going ahead with a sequel to Prometheus, it has been reported.
The science fiction film about a group of explorers who travel into space to seek the origins of mankind on Earth starred Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron and Idris Elba.
Michael Fassbender gives the latest take on just how Prometheus connects back to Alien in ways a mere prequel couldn't possibly hope to:
What I will say is that the first Alien film had an intelligent, slow-burning, sinister element to it — there's this feeling in this. Before I read the script, I thought the concept had already been exhausted. I'd seen so many of them — AVP: Alien Vs Predator, Alien here, Alien there. But I can tell you there's no Predator. I came dressed one day as the Predator and was like, "What do you think?" I tried to get him in [laughs]. But it's amazing. It's really about strong characters again. And I love the fact that Noomi [Rapace] is a strong leading female, like Sigourney Weaver was.
He also explains what he found so fascinating about his character, the android David:
What I thought was interesting was him being programmed to react in a certain way. And part of that is him blending in with humans, so does an ego develop to facilitate that? He's there to serve them, but he's sort of disliked because they think he might be superior to him. Or just different. Because humans have that thing where they're like, "Something's different? Persecute!"
Finally, he compares his character to Ian Holm's android in Alien:
He's less developed than Ian Holm [laughs]. That's the way I'm going to describe him from now on. Ridley said, "He's like the butler," but there's a vanity to him. And he always has the answers so there's a swagger to him, too. In fact, I think he might be kind of creepy. I do creepy well.
The upcoming tent-pole film "Prometheus" from 20th Century Fox, set to premiere June 8, has achieved the quintessential Hollywood trifecta: an A-list director (Ridley Scott) teamed with a star-laden cast (Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace) in an action/sci-fi prequel to one of the most successful franchises ever, "Alien."
Scott's return to the thriller genre is perhaps the most exciting aspect of "Prometheus." The British-born director created the modern incarnation of the genre with his 1979 release "Alien." Since then, Scott has cemented his legacy elsewhere with award winning pictures "Gladiator," "Thelma & Louise" and "Black Hawk Down."
Can it be? The iconic group of legendary British actors, back together again for another Monty Python film? Well not exactly, but the famed comedians are joining forces again to star in a film directed by fellow member Terry Jones.
It’s called absoultely anything, and has been described as a Sci-Fi farce that combines live-action acting with CGI.According to Variety, the film is set to begin shooting later this year, with the Pythons voicing aliens who embew an earthling with the power to do “absolutely anything”.
Naturally, things go horribly awry, while Robin Williams voices a dog named Dennis that tries to make sense of the mess following the lead character.
Posted December 27th, 2011, 1:12 PM by Matt Singer
Continuing our list from yesterday here are five more of the best genre movies of 2011. Click over for our picks for the best romance, Western, horror film, legal thriller, and comic book movie. Today it’s time for the best spy movie, cop movie, sports movie, mystery, and science-fiction. Let’s do it.
The Best Spy Movie of the Year
“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” (In IMAX)
Directed by Brad Bird
Even fans of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” would admit the film is more of a character study about spies than a true spy movie. For real genre thrills, I’m going with something bigger: much bigger. “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” delivered everything we’ve come to expect from this series — high-tech gadgets, ferocious fights, Tom Cruise running — on a grander scale than ever before. Director Brad Bird’s IMAX action scenes, especially one dazzling, dangling sequence atop the tallest building in the world, were absolutely stunning. Badass Digest’s Devin Faraci makes some excellent observations about the gaping holes in the film’s story. So why isn’t anyone talking about them? Because people get so caught up in “Ghost Protocol”‘s enormous imagery they don’t have time to think.
he Best Sports Movie of the Year
“Warrior”
Directed by Gavin O’Connor
This might be the most inexplicable flop of the year. “Warrior” was a shameless crowd-pleaser, with twice the underdogs of your typical underdog sports movie, but for some reason the crowds never showed up to be pleased. Maybe the lack of a bankable star kept people away, but the lack of a bankable star meant two very good young actors, Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy, got to play the lead roles of Brendan and Tommy Conlon, estranged brothers who both enter the same mixed martial arts tournament in search of a big cash prize. The final fight felt seriously anticlimactic and Nick Nolte goes a bit overboard in his alcoholic suffering at times, but the rest of this movie is just about perfect. Any sports movie would be blessed to have a lead character as good as Hardy’s or Edgerton’s. This one has both. If I had to bank on one 2011 movie slowly becoming a massive word-of-mouth hit on DVD and Blu-ray, I’d pick “Warrior.” It could easily become this decade’s “Shawshank Redemption.” Read my full review here.
The Best Cop Movie of the Year
“The Guard”
Directed by John Michael McDonagh
The buddy cop movie has had its up and downs in recent years but it rose from the ashes like a phoenix who was getting too old for this shit with the comedy “The Guard.” Brendan Gleeson delivers a brilliant performance as Sgt. Gerry Boyle, a small town Irish cop who stumbles, accidentally and disinterestedly, onto a drug smuggling ring. He teams with an American FBI agent (Don Cheadle, whose Southern accent is the one weak spot in the film) and together they make a classic pair of mismatched partners. “The Guard” was written and directed by John Michael McDonagh, brother of “In Bruges” filmmaker Martin McDonagh. I suspect if you liked the latter, you’ll dig the former, which has a similarly picaresque setting and dark sense of humor. Listen to my full review here.
The Best Mystery of the Year
“Cold Weather”
Directed by Aaron Katz
Mysteries are all about finding things in unlikely places and the DIY, improvisational genre of mumblecore is probably the last place in moviedom you’d expect to find a good whodunit. Yet here is Aaron Katz’s “Cold Weather,” a very successful experiment in marrying the off-the-cuff mumblecore aesthetic with the rigid structure of a drawing room mystery. A college dropout with an interest in forensic science and Sherlock Holmes novels moves back home to Portland and gets a job in an ice factory. An old flame comes to visit then seemingly disappears. Was she kidnapped? Or even murdered? While Hollywood turned Sherlock Holmes into a six packed, speed ramping action hero, Katz proved you don’t need any of that to tell a compelling story. All you need are a few interesting characters, one good brainteaser, and a pipe. Read my full review here.
The Best Sci-Fi Movie of the Year
“Attack the Block”
Directed by Joe Cornish
There was plenty of callbacks to old movies in “Attack the Block,” including 80s gang flicks like “The Warriors” and “Streets of Fire,” but the film was far more creative than your typical nostalgia pastiche. Even the design of the “gorilla-wolf” aliens that crash into a giant South London housing complex was refreshing (if something with glowing, razor-sharp teeth and a hunger for human flesh can be termed “refreshing”). Director Joe Cornish’s dazzling debut film was light on science but heavy on scares and humor, and it featured a cast of charismatic misfit kids who made the Goonies look like the Muppet Babies. Buried beneath the laughs and scares, there are even some powerful themes about personal responsibility and the dehumanizing nature of life in the projects. Believe, bruv: this movie deserved better than its $1.0 million domestic gross. Read my full review here.
