We’re very excited about the debut trailer for Doctor Strange starring Benedict Cumberbatch that appeared online in the wee small hours of Wednesday morning.
Comic book blockbusters are a dime a dozen these days, but we think this one is going to be rather special – especially for Sherlock fans.
Here are five links between the Marvel movie and the world of Holmes that have us excited for both this film, and future films from the studio.
1. Benedict Cumberbatch
Obviously. Best get this one out of the way first. Both Sherlock and Doctor Strange share a supremely talented actor in their leading man. But you knew that already, right?
There are plenty of differences between the characters, but also plenty of similarities too, hopefully making this new role a mix of exciting new dimensions but also familiar quirks for Benedict to get his teeth into.
2. Strange the investigator
No guarantees this will actually happen in the film of course, but one of the main traits of the character, apart from being Sorceror Supreme and Master of the Mystic Arts, is how often he is called upon to investigate phenomena that take a turn for the… well, strange. Doctor
Stephen Strange may have once been a surgeon, but in the pages of the Marvel comic books in which he stars and makes guest appearances he finds himself sometimes evoking a certain famous consulting detective to solve mysteries that other Marvel heroes are at a loss to explain.
3. Mads Mikkelsen
It’s still unknown just who he is playing, but the former Hannibal Lecter is apparently the leading bad guy in the film version of Doctor Strange. He also has a couple of links to the BBC series – chiefly, his brother Lars played Sherlock’s most repellent foe thus far in the form of Charles Augustus Magnussen in the third series of the show.
But also he was Le Chiffre, the first opponent for Daniel Craig’s James Bond in 2006’s Casino Royale – a film that was scored by David Arnold. Who we all know and love as one half of the composing team behind Sherlock.
In a newly released trailer of the horror flick Crimson Peak, the clip starts out in a dimly lit room with a trembling young girl who fears what may come out of the dark.
Mia Wasikowska portrays Edith, who grows up to be an aspiring author, torn between the love of an old friend and the romantic temptation of Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston). As Edith tries to escape the ghosts of her traumatic past, she becomes captive to a house that bleeds the truth.
"You see where I come from, ghosts are not to be taken lightly," the Thor star warns.
Director Guillermo del Toro's star-studded cast includes Sons of Anarchy's Charlie Hunnam and Jessica Chastain, both adding elements to a thriller that will surely leave viewers on the edge of their seats.
DAILY MAIL
By ROSS MCDONAGH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 18:48 EST, 24 March 2015 | UPDATED: 19:36 EST, 24 March 2015
He's made a name for himself as a chameleon onscreen.
And for Michael Fassbender's next transformation he plays a grizzled cowboy who is more than willing to shed his share of blood in the first trailer for Slow West.
The film tells the story of a 16-year-old boy travelling from 19th century Scotland to the wild west in search of his young love.
The trailer introduces Jay Cavendish, played by The Road star Kodi Smit-McPhee, and his girlfriend Rose Ross, played by newcomer Caren Pistorius, looking very well-to-do and very much in love as they frolic in the Highlands.
'Once upon a a time, Jay Cavendish traveled from the cold shoulder of Scotland to the baking heart of America to find his love,' Fassbender's voice growls. 'A jackrabbit in a den of wolves.'
We are then whisked to a desolate turn of the century American Frontier, where the boy looks very out of place as he stammers and tries to explain his presence to a gang of bandits.
The lead outlaw is about read him his last rights when he drops dead mid-sentence... to reveal a masked Michael Fassbender with a smoking gun, and we know the 37-year-old Irish German has nailed the role of Silas Selleck before the audience even sees his face.
'Keep heading west solo, you’ll be dead by dawn,' he tells the stunned Smit-McPhee. 'I can take care of myself,' he replies.
'Sure kid,' Silas tells him. 'You need chaperoning. Let’s drift.'
The beautifully shot scenes also introduce us to Payne, the fur coat wearing bounty hunter villain, played by Ben Mendelsohn.
The lights hadn’t even come up at the world premiere of “Can a Song Save Your Life?” when Marc Schipper’s BlackBerry began buzzing with messages from distributors clamoring for rights.
The drama, starring Keira Knightley playing a singer trying to make it in the music business, had been flagged by publicists and organizers at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival as one of the hottest titles for sale. It didn’t disappoint.
“Even before the credits were rolling, we had a bunch of offers in, people saying, ‘Don’t go to anyone else because we really want this movie,’ ” Schipper, chief operating officer of Exclusive Media Group and the negotiator for the film’s producers, said in a Sept. 10 telephone interview.
After an all-night bidding war, Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s namesake company bought the U.S. distribution rights for $7 million. Organizers say the deal was one of the biggest in the festival’s 38-year history and highlighted Toronto’s place as one of the world’s leading film markets.
Perhaps the greatest battle played out at downtown restaurant Patria on Sept. 7. As Knightley, co-stars Mark Ruffalo, Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green and director John Carney (“Once”) held court on a narrow patio, representatives from The Weinstein Co., Fox Searchlight Pictures Inc. and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (LGF:US) pressed through the party’s 250 guests to make their pitch, according to Tobin Armbrust, one of the film’s producers.
Band of Spartans
He likened the scene at the restaurant to a battle depicted in the 2006 movie “300” in which the Persians struggled to surge through a gap in the mountains defended by a small band of Spartans.
Actor Gerard Butler has been left spooked as storylines from his new film Olympus Has Fallen play out in real-life as if producers had a premonition about the future
The action thriller, chronicles the rising tensions between North and South Korea, as well as America's attempt to aid their allies before a terrorist attack is carried out on the White House in Washington, D.C.
The film was shot in early 2012, well before the communist country threatened to bomb the United States with nuclear missiles and Butler admits the parallels are startling.
He tells GQ magazine, "It's almost like we had a crystal ball. The headline (of the newspaper) was something like, 'Obama assures South Koreans that the U.S. will back them up.' That's the opening scene for the movie!"
And he's also convinced the film's writers knew it wouldn't be long before a woman was appointed head of the Secret Service.
Angela Bassett's role in the film was originally intended for a man, but the part was rewritten when director Antoine Fuqua opted to cast a woman.
This is the first picture of Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth shooting a new film in London in which she plays a woman who wakes every day remembering nothing.
The movie, Before I Go To Sleep, is based on the bestselling first novel by former NHS clinical scientist SJ Watson.
The book was published two years ago and snapped up by Liza Marshall and Ridley Scott’s production company, Scott Free London.
Watson told the Standard of his thrill at watching Kidman and Firth bring his book to life. “It was fascinating for me to see somebody totally inhabit this character. She totally embodies what I thought Christine should be,” he said.
“There was one moment where she thought a line gave the wrong tone for Christine and as soon as she said it, I felt she was totally right. It’s weird that Nicole Kidman now knows my character as well as I do.
We’ve been provided with four clips and almost four minutes of behind-the-scenes-footage from director James McTeigue’s (V for Vendetta) thriller The Raven to share with our readers. The film stars John Cusack as Edgar Allen Poe, and follows the author as he teams up with a detective (Luke Evans) in order to catch a killer who is modeling his crimes after Poe’s stories. It’s certainly an intriguing premise and Cusack isn’t one for phoning it in, so I’m hoping we’re in for a solid thriller with some nice surprises.
Keira Knightley refused to rewatch previous adaptations of Anna Karenina prior to filming the latest big screen take on Leo Tolstoy's epic novel over fears she'd accidentally copy other actresses' performances.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star reteamed with her Atonement director Joe Wright for the literary masterpiece, with Knightley playing Karenina, a married woman who has an affair with a soldier.
Greta Garbo and Helen MCCrory have previously played the part - but Knightley was keen not to pay close attention to their scenes.
She tells Interview magazine, "I saw a couple of versions ages ago. I've seen the one that was on TV in England with Helen MCCrory playing Anna, and she's wonderful.
Director John Michael McDonagh is following the success of his dark Irish
comedy The Guard with a light-hearted look at a priest being tormented by the
local community,
The Guard star Brendan Gleeson will play the persecuted
holy man while Chris O'Dowd and Aiden Gillen are also on board as locals in
Sligo who make lifea misery for him.
The movie - Calvary - is budgeted
at £5m - reveals how the priest is informed in the confessional that a mystery
assassin is going to kill him within a weekj.
Other stars included Kelly
Reilly and David Wilmot.
The Guard - starring Gleeson as a corrupt Irish
cop - grossed 15m worldwide, including Ireland where it was the biggest
homegrown hit in recent memory.
Dame Judi Dench has revealed that she felt an "extraordinary energy"
after her late husband Michael
Williams died 11 years ago.
The veteran actress says that she found it helpful to grieve by doing one job
after another in a short space of time and admits her busy working schedule
nearly gave her agent a fit.
"I had this extraordinary energy after Michael died. I went off to Nova
Scotia and did six weeks on 'The Shipping News'. Then I came home and two days
later I started 'Iris'. Then I did some more work on 'The Shipping News'. And
two days after I started 'The Importance of Being Earnest'," Contactmusic quoted
her as telling Stella magazine.
"My poor agent nearly had a fit because I was cutting things so fine. But I
found working at that pace and doing those kinds of parts helped me. Whereas
playing a grief-stricken widow would have been no help at all," she said.
The 77-year-old actress is set to portray a woman whose husband has just died
in her latest film 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel', and insists that it wasn't
an emotional decision only.
"It wasn't just an emotional decision. There were professional reasons, too.
I think if I'd played a grief-stricken widow too soon after Michael died I might
have over-egged the part. Or at least I don't think my judgment would have been
that good," she added.
There’s dangerous method acting in this talky film about sexual obsession
By Jay Stone, Postmedia NewsJanuary 12, 2012 9:12 PM
Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) has a spanking good time with her analyst Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) in A Dangerous Method.
A DANGEROUS METHOD ★★★
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley, and Viggo Mortensen Directed by: David Cronenberg Rating: 14A (sexual content, adult themes, not suitable for children) Playing at: ByTowne Cinema, AMC, SilverCity
The cinema of David Cronenberg is consumed by the transformation of bodies and the psychology that follows from that, a genre that resulted in a lot of oozing and bodily fluids in the earlier, wetter films, and much brooding in his later, more mature ones. A Dangerous Method seems like a departure — it’s about the ideas of psychoanalysis as developed by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung — but around the time that Keira Knightley twists her face into paroxysms of orgasmic pain as she’s being spanked with a belt by Michael Fassbender, we realize that a) the human mind can never be divorced from the body that houses it, and b) Keira Knightley can contort her chin into an alarming forward thrust.
Indeed, Knightley dives so wholeheartedly into hysteria that one has no option but to suppose it must be on purpose. She plays the real-life Sabina Spielrein, a young Russian woman who, in the late 1890s, was transported to the Swiss clinic of Dr. Jung (Fassbender) to see if his new “talking cure” could save her. Sabina screams, laughs, twists her arms and hands into frozen claws, and yawns hugely with the pain of memory: She appears to be suffering from some form of muscular paralysis and a serious case of theatrical overkill.
This isn’t just method acting. It’s dangerous method acting.
It doesn’t take long for Dr. Jung to discover that she has spent her childhood being physically abused by her father, and that she enjoyed it. “I looked for any humiliation,” she recalls, an instant psychotherapeutic breakthrough that you suspect would have taken years under stricter Freudian analysis. “I’m vile, filthy and corrupt.”
Such self-laceration is the beginning of a cure, apparently, although Sabina will never lose her taste for the lash. She becomes the masochistic lover of Dr. Jung, an otherwise calm and measured man whose brand of psychoanalysis also depends on a belief of mysticism: “Catalytic exteriorization phenomenon,” he calls it, when the crack of dry wood occurs just a few minutes after he thought it might. He’s married to a wealthy woman (Sarah Gadon), who does not satisfy his unexpectedly perverse urges. Having a mistress to spank is just the thing.
This adventure in sexual liberty is a metaphor of sorts — the libido meeting the id, perhaps — that occurs under the far-off tutelage of a superego in the person of Freud (Viggo Mortensen). Freud is a father figure to Jung, just as Mortensen is something of a muse to Cronenberg (this is their third film together), and the therapists analyse one another’s dreams with a quick facility. Actually, given the ready-made symbols (that log could be a penis), Freud’s interpretations are almost comically obvious.
The men are at odds, however, in their approaches: Freud is the strict pragmatist, Jung, the quasi-spiritualist. “We’re on our way, bringing them the plague,” Freud says as he and Jung sail into New York City harbour on a visit to the U.S. Unfortunately, they’ve sailed out again by the next scene: A Dangerous Method doesn’t do much with its historical opportunities.
Freud’s disapproval of Jung’s affair seems pretty mild for a man whose field is the complex intricacies of the human soul. The screenplay by Christopher Hampton, based on his play The Talking Cure, portrays a subtle conflict — Freud is jealous of the fact that Jung married a rich woman — that will eventually result in differing approaches to psychiatry. It’s a talky film, but the characters are so rich that even the rhetorical shortcuts are compelling: The human mind is also endlessly fascinating.
The result is a dreamy but somewhat stilted historical document whose sexual obsessions come with the sense of remove that sometimes characterizes Cronenberg’s films. Spielrein, who went on to become an eminent psychiatrist herself, seems pathologically needy, but never very sexual, and Jung’s turmoil comes across as morose opportunism. Mortensen provides some acerbic spark, but the real treat is a small role by Vincent Cassel as Otto Gross, a psychotherapist who believes that indulging all his desires is the road to mental health: He’s an educated rake. “Freud’s obsession with sex has a great deal to do with the fact that he never gets any,” Gross says. Possibly, it’s as simple as that.
‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Star Tom Hardy To Play Al Capone in ‘Cicero’; David Yates To Direct
Posted by The Movie God | January 9th, 2012 at 11:14 pm
Tom Hardy is a busy, busy man, with multiple projects on the horizon. His star grows bigger every day, and will no doubt reach even greater heights when his turn as Bane in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy-maker, The Dark Knight Rises, finally arrives.
But that’s not stopping the British actor from locking up some projects for a little bit down the road, as well. Speaking to The Daily Mail, Hardy shared that he’ll be starring in a movie titled Cicero, where he’ll be playing a Prohibition-era Al Capone. The movie doesn’t even start filming until 2013-2014, but the script is currently being re-worked by director David Yates—who helmed the final four Harry Potter movies—from a draft written by Walon Green (The Wild Bunch, ER).
There’s also a chance that the project will turn into a Capone trilogy, but for now they’re just focusing on that first film.
In preparation for the role, Hardy has buried himself in the Warner Brothers vault watching classic gangster movies like The Public Enemy with James Cagney, The Petrified Forest with Humphrey Bogart, Little Caesar with Edward G. Robinson, The Roaring Twenties, which starred both Cagney and Bogart, and many others that deal with Prohibition.
And if you don’t think a British actor can or should play Al Capone, fear not. Fellow Brit Stephen Graham also plays a young Capone (rather fantastically, I might add) on the excellent HBO series Boardwalk Empire, which is also set during Prohibition.
The plain and simple fact of the matter is that Hollywood doesn’t make enough gangster flicks anymore, much the same as westerns. It’s rather confusing to think about how many of these types of movies were made back in the Golden Age of cinema that are now considered classics, yet very rarely do we see new actors and filmmakers and writers using their talents to create fresh new stories within those genres. A sad thing, indeed.
Having seen (and loved) The Public Enemy and The Roaring Twenties, I have very high hopes that something along those lines will come from Tom Hardy’s work in Cicero.
Next up for Hardy will be George Miller’s new chapter in the Mad Max franchise, titled Mad Max: Fury Road, which begins production in April.
Are you interested in seeing Tom Hardy as Al Capone? Is it even possible to not be interested?
Gerard Butler has said that he will "be a little more careful" about future roles after his surfing accident while filming On Men and Mavericks.
The 42-year-old was hospitalized in December when a wave knocked him over and dragged him across a reef on location in California.
"Many times I've found myself in positions I shouldn't be in. I was underwater for a long time and I remember thinking, 'This is crazy'," he recalled to The Mirror.
"I don't mind taking bumps and bruises but then you think, 'Hang on a minute, this is my life!' I should be a little more careful when I'm choosing my roles... I'd still like to be around in a few years!"
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.
