Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman: The Secret Service, Layer Cake, Stardust, X-Men: First Class) most celebrated film was the ingenious superhero satire Kick-Ass. As well as brilliant turns from Aaron Taylor Johnson, Christopher Mintz Plasse and Mark Strong, the most outstanding performances came from Nicolas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas, Lord of War) and Chloe Grace Moretz (Hugo, Clouds of Sils Maria) as the duo of superheroes Big Daddy and Hit Girl. The disappointing Kick-Ass 2 had Jeff Wadlow in place of Vaughn and seemed to derail the franchise.
Vaughn has now revealed that he’s developing a Big Daddy/Hit Girl based spin off as well as a straightforward sequel. “We’re working on an idea for a prequel of how did Hit-Girl and Big Daddy become Hit-Girl and Big Daddy,” he said. “If we make that, hopefully that will be the sorbet for the people that didn’t like Kick-Ass 2 and then we can go off and make ‘Kick-Ass 3’ I think we’ve got to do this prequel to regain the love that we had with ‘Kick-Ass.” We expect the prequel to star Cage and Moretz and Kick-Ass 3 to star Aaron Taylor Johnson (Godzilla, The Avengers: Age of Ultron).
The unimpressive first poster for Ant-Man may have put some off the Marvel sci-fi blockbuster but it seems to be getting its marketing right in these stylish new shots. Peyton Reed (Yes Man) directs the cast of Paul Rudd (Anchorman, Knocked Up), Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), Corey Stoll (House of Cards, Salt), Michael Pena (End of Watch, American Hustle), Judy Greer (Archer, Jurassic World), Bobby Cannavale (Chef, Blue Jasmine) and Michael Douglas (The Game, Falling Down).
After receiving acclaim at Cannes, the Oscar-tipped action thriller Sicario has debuted its first trailer in breathtaking style. Denis Villeneuve (Enemy, Prisoners) directs the cast of Emily Blunt (Edge of Tomorrow, Into the Woods, Looper), Benicio Del Toro (Guardians of the Galaxy, Traffic, The Usual Suspects), Jon Beranthal (Fury, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, The Wolf of Wall Street) and Josh Brolin (American Gangster, Inherent Vice, No Country for Old Men).
Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, James Spader, Elizabeth Olsen, Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, Paul Bettany, Don Cheadle, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Samuel L Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Andy Serkis, Stellan Skarsgard, Claudia Kim, Thomas Kretschmann, Linda Cardellini, Anthony Mackie, Julie Delpy
It’s fair to say that Joss Whedon’s 2012 superhero smash hit Avengers Assemble has reached phenomenon status. With $1.5 billion hauled in at the international box office, the film paved the way for a massive cult following as well as consecutive hits in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s second phase including The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy. Whedon is now reassembling the team for a sequel that has anticipation and dread at fever pitch.
The Avengers – arms dealer Tony Stark (Downey Jr), war veteran Steve Rogers (Evans), ex-spy Natasha Romanoff (Johansson), split-personality scientist Bruce Banner (Ruffalo), expert archer Clint Barton (Renner) and alien prince Thor (Hemsworth) – return to combating Earth’s biggest threats their days may be numbered. When Stark and Banner harness the power of the Infinity Stone from Loki’s sceptre, they use as the basis of an advanced AI to shield Earth from extra-terrestrial threats. However, the machine they create, Ultron (Spader), sees evil in humanity and views them as the threat in need of extinction.
The highest compliment one can give Age of Ultron is that Whedon revives the character-driven, quotable dialogue that makes spies, robots, monsters and gods as human and grounded as possible. Each and every ingenious gag and one liner fleshes out the Avengers from mere heroes to a band of characters as iconic, engaging and lovable as his previous creations such as Buffy and her vampire slaying troop or the crew of the Serenity.
His directorial flair also comes to light in some fantastically constructed action sequences with the excellent special effects we’ve come to expect from Marvel, even if they don’t quite reach the epic or thoroughly detailed levels of Godzilla or Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Sadly the finale resorts to the series’ cliche of the heroes defending a city from an aerial threat but at least this applies the twist of the city itself being the threat. Overall the ridiculousness of the action only serves as an uncanny reflection of the comic’s brash, adventurous tone.
Reinforcing the incredible character dynamic is a brilliantly acted ensemble that may be the films curse as well. We get to witness Stark’s decaying assurance as his own brainchild becomes his downfall in a series best performance from Sherlock Holmes star Robert Downey Jr. Snowpiercer’s Chris Evans and Lucy’s Scarlett Johansson excellently revive their likeable charisma to roles that could easily be annoying as Captain America and Black Widow respectively. There’s nothing wrong with Rush’s Chris Hemsworth performance but the character of Thor struggles with a lack of purpose without his brother Loki driving the plot.
The standouts really are Shutter Island’s Mark Ruffalo (who harnesses the power of donning motion capture to make his Hulk the best and most emotional depicted on screen) and The Hurt Locker’s Jeremy Renner. The latter finally brings in the wise-cracking class that Hawkeye missed out on last time and re-establishes him as the everyman who rallies the team in their time of need.
There’s of coarse some new blood to shake up the lineup. The Blacklist star James Spader brings menace, malice and unnerving showmanship to Ultron, a villain distinguishing himself by being taken far more seriously. Ultron resembles and manifests every Avengers’ fear of an opponent who is more of a frightening concept of their hopelessness rather than a straight forward villain. His recruits are twins Wanda and Pietro Maximoff (AKA Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver). Accents aside, Wanda is an engaging, powerful character to watch tanks to the agency of Elizabeth Olsen’s first rate performance but Aaron Taylor Johnson’s Quicksilver is far less fun or interesting than the Evan Peters incarnation seen in last year’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, and the filmmakers know this.
The roster doesn’t end there. Paul Bettany expands his long running role as Stark’s digital personal assistant JARVIS into Vision, a synthetic android whose deeds will have fans raving for months to come. The likes of Samuel L Jackson, Don Cheadle, Cobie Smulders, Anthony Mackie and Stellan Skarsgard all reprise their roles from various MCU films while Andy Serkis, Thomas Kretschmann, Linda Cardellini and Claudia Kim join the fun plus there’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em cameos from Julie Delpy, Idris Elba and more. With fifteen plus principal characters, there’s a clear flaw in messy overcrowding.
There’s a possibility that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is getting too big for its shoes with overpopulation and the increasing pressure to go even bigger than last time. And so its fitting that (alongside bonkers comic book spectacle) Age of Ultron thrives in its smaller moments, It’s a hilarious, extravagant, worthy sequel to a film whose cult status is only boosted by the follow up.
8/10
“The gates of Hell are filled with the screams of his victims! But not the screams of the dead, of course. No, no…wounded screams…mainly whimpering, a great deal of complaining and tales of sprained deltoids and… gout.”
Marvel’s blockbuster collaboration of franchises Avengers Assemble is the third highest grossing film ever at $1.5 billion and the established the model of a cinematic universe. Since then, Iron Man ($1.2 billion), Thor ($640 million, Captain America ($710 million) and Guardians of the Galaxy ($770 million) have all thrived but haven’t quite replicated the success of Joss Whedon’s superhero masterpiece. Last week, we predicted the film’s sequel (Age of Ultron) number one spot correctly and we’ll see quite how much it can take in its opening weekend.
US:
The Avengers: Age of Ultron – Director: Joss Whedon – $191 million
Fast & Furious 7 – James Wan – $6.6 million
The Age of Adaline – Lee Toland Krieger – $6.2 million
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 – Andy Fickman – $5.9 million
Home – Tim Johnson – $3.5 million
UK:
The Avengers: Age of Ultron – Joss Whedon – £8.6 million
Far From the Madding Crowd – Thomas Vinterberg – £1.5 million
Unfriended – Levan Gabriadze – £1.3 million
Fast & Furious 7 – James Wan – £1.1 million
Home – Tim Johnson – £0.7 million
This week I’ve scored 4/10 while Age of Ultron has scored a higher opening weekend than Furious 7, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Man of Steel, Iron Man 3, and The Dark Knight Rises and is the biggest debut since the original’s $207 million haul in 2012 (retaining its all time record). The film will undoubtedly be among the top three of all time very soon. The surprise addition to the UK box office is Thomas Hardy’s Victorian drama Far From the Madding Crowd starring Carey Mulligan which has successfully provided a lucrative alternative to the blockbusters.
US:
The Avengers: Age of Ultron – Joss Whedon
Before I Wake – Mike Flanagan
Hot Pursuit – Anne Fletcher
Fast & Furious 7 – James Wan
Maggie – Henry Hobson
UK:
The Avengers: Age of Ultron – Joss Whedon
Spooks: The Greater Good – Bharat Nalluri
The Age of Adaline – Lee Toland Krieger
Far From the Madding Crowd – Thomas Vinterberg
Unfriended – Levan Gabriadze
Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, this week’s US and UK number one.
In one of the coolest marketing strategies of the year, Marvel have put online four incredible new posters for the IMAX release of Avengers: Age of Ultron and are putting it to the fans to vote for the best one. The first is a very retro and colourful of the team in the jaws of their new robot nemesis. Option two has the split panels similar to that of the recent Child 44 posters. Three highlights the apocalyptic destruction one might associate with The Road while four has the shredded paper style resembling one of Argo’s one sheets.
The film itself is directed by Joss Whedon (Serenity) and will star Chris Evans (Snowpiercer), Mark Ruffalo (Zodiac), Robert Downey Jr (Sherlock Holmes), Scarlett Johansson (Her), Chris Hemsworth (Rush), Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker), James Sapder (The Blacklist), Elizabeth Olsen (Godzilla), Aaron Taylor Johnson (Kick-Ass), Cobie Smudlers (How I Met Your Mother), Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind), Stellan Skarsgard (Good Will Hunting), Anthony Mackie (The Adjustment Bureau), Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong), Don Cheadle (Boogie Nights), Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings) and Samuel L Jackson (Pulp Fiction).
Edgar Wright’s shock departure from Marvel’s sci-fi adventure Ant-Man led to the studio appointing director Peyton Reed in his place. They also sought out Anchorman’s Adam McKay as a writer but his work with Kevin Feige and co may not be ending there. A new report suggests that McKay is in line to helm an upcoming superhero project. Guys like Joss Whedon (Serenity), Anthony and Joe Russo (Welcome to Collinwood), James Gunn (Slither), Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods) and Scott Derickson (Sinister) have already been appointed on Age of Ultron, Civil War, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange but there are several films currently without a director – Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther and Captain Marvel remain unassigned.
We’d propose that McKay will be bringing us the ensemble spectacular Inhumans, which depicts an isolated community of alien superheroes descended from the Kree. The cast is so far unrevealed but we will have our suspicions. The line up may include Vin Diesel (Riddick and the voice of Groot) as Black Bolt, Aaron Taylor Johnson (Kick-Ass, Anna Karenina) as Quicksilver and Elizabeth Olsen (Godzilla, Martha Marcy May Marlene) as Scarlet Witch and the Agents of SHIELD stars Chloe Bennett (Nashville) as Daisy Johnson/Quake, Ruth Negga (World War Z) as Raina, Luke Mitchell (7 Minutes) as Lincoln and Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks) as Calvin Zabo.
We were worried that The Social Network star Jesse Eisenberg’s performance as the supervillain Lex Luthor (yet another billionaire tech entrepreneur) would be a case of the typecasting that halted Dane DeHaan in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and why great performances such as Heath Ledger’s or Tom Hardy’s come out of the blue and excel. This first look at him in the role is something to get us hopeful however.
Batman V Superman is directed by Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen, Man of Steel) and stars Ben Affleck (Argo, Gone Girl), Henry Cavill (The Man From UNCLE), Amy Adams (American Hustle, Big Eyes), Gal Gadot (Fast and Furious), Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones), Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix, Hannibal), Scoot McNairy (Monsters), Holly Hunter (The Piano, The Incredibles), Diane Lane (Hollywoodland, The Perfect Storm) and Jeremy Irons (The Lion King, Reversal of Fortune).
As Avengers Assemble and Age of Ultron’s Joss Whedon ruled himself out from Infinity War. Now the two parted concluder to Phase 3 will be helmed by Anthony and Joe Russo, the sibling team who behind the Captain America instalments The Winter Soldier and Civil War. We still don’t know ant of the characters that’ll be surviving until the third and fourth Avengers films but we can expect the likes of Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher), Chris Hemsworth (Rush), Josh Brolin (No Country For Old Men) and Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game).
Eric Bana and Benedict Cumberbatch will be a tough act to follow but the newest Star Trek instalment is looking to cast Idris Elba. The star of Prometheus, Pacific Rim and Luther is in talks for the lead villain role for director Justin Lin (Fast Five). The cast includes Chris Pine (Jack Ryan, Into the Woods), Zoe Saldana (Guardians of the Galaxy, Avatar), Zachary Quinto (Heroes, Margin Call), Karl Urban (Dredd, The Lord of the Rings), Anton Yelchin (Fright NIght, Like Crazy), John Cho (American Beauty, Harold and Kumar) and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Mission: Impossible).
Finally today we’ve got our hands on the brand new posters for the thriller Child 44. The film depicts a detective in Soviet Russia who investigates a series of grim child murders. Daniel Espinosa (Safe House) directs the amazing ensemble of Tom Hardy (Inception, Locke), Noomi Rapace (Prometheus, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Jason Clarke (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Public Enemies), Paddy Considine (The Bourne Ultimatum, Pride), Joel Kinnaman (The Killing, RoboCop), Vincent Cassel (Black Swan, Trance), Charles Dance (Game of Thrones, The Imitation Game) and Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).
Child 44 – Apirl 17th
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice – March 25th 2016
Star Trek 3 – July 8th 2016
The Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 – April 27th 2018
The Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2 – Apirl 16th 2019
When it was announced that JJ Abarms was directing Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens we were hoping that Michael Giacchino would be the film’s composer after the great work he did for Abrams on the latest Star Trek films as well as his achievements in Super 8, Up and The Incredibles. In the end the job, wisely, went to the original’s John Williams (Schindler’s List, Harry Potter, Jaws) but an alternative approach is being taken for the spin off Rogue One, which is already the coolest film in 2016. The film’s music comes from Alexandre Desplat, the Oscar winning maestro of The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, The King’s Speech, Argo, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Tree of Life, for his Godzilla collaborator, British director Gareth Edwards. Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything) will star.
Marvel have one by one been releasing character posters for their upcoming blockbuster The Avengers: Age of Ultron and now it it the turn of the titular robotic villain and his two minions, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. We’ll show them with the whole cast.
Joss Whedon (Serenity) directs the cast of Chris Evans (Snowpiercer), Mark Ruffalo (Shutter Island, Foxcatcher), Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation, Lucy), Robert Downey Jr (Chaplin, Sherlock Holmes), Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, American Hustle), Chris Hemsworth (Rush, The Cabin in the Woods), Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind, Margin Call), Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene, Godzilla), Aaron Taylor Johnson (Kick-Ass, Nowhere Boy), Samuel L Jackson (Pulp Fiction, Jurassic Park) and James Spader (The Blacklist).
We begin today with a tip of the Starfleet Captain’s cap to Leonard Nimoy, best known as Spock – the most iconic and beloved science fiction character of all time. 1931-2015.
Another sci fi great is Ridley Scott’s android thriller Blade Runner but sadly Sott, who is still developing a sequel to Prometheus, won’t be a part of the now confirmed sequel. Harrison Ford (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars) will reprise his role as the detective Rick Deckard but instead for the director Denis Villeneuve. The Canadian was behind the Oscar nominated Incendies and 2013’s acclaimed Hugh Jackman/Jake Gyllenhaal thriller Prisoners. Plot details are yet to emerge but we might hear some more over the coming months.
We’ve had glimpses at Robert Downey Jr (Sherlock Holmes, The Judge, Chaplin) as Iron Man and Mark Ruffalo (Now You See Me, Shutter Island, Zodiac) as Hulk but now the likes of Chris Hemsworth (Rush, In the Heart of the Sea, The Cabin in the Woods), Scarlett Johansson (Under the Skin, Her, The Prestige) and Samuel L Jackson (The Incredibles, Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction). We hope to see fellow Avengers Chris Evans (Snowpiercer, The Iceman, Scott Pilgrim VS The World) and Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, American Hustle, The Bourne Legacy).
Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Joss Whedon also helms the cast of James Spader (The Blacklist), Andy Serkis (The Hobbit), Elizabeth Olsen (Godzilla), Aaron Taylor Johnson (Kick-Ass), Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother), Don Cheadle (Boogie Nights), Stellan Skarsgard (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Thomas Kretschmann (Wanted), Anthony Mackie (The Adjustment Bureau) and Paul Bettany (Master and Commander, A Beautiful Mind).
Be it Spectre, SPECTRE or S.P.E.C.T.R.E., Bond’s twenty fourth outing is attracting a lot of press attention and Empire has been tracking production from London to Berlin to the Austrian Alps. Their major new unveiling of the film kicks off in this weekend’s issue. As a sneak peak, we now have our first look at two of the film’s villains. Firstly the enforcer Hinx, played by Guardians of the Galaxy’s Dave Bautista, and the mysterious doctor Madeleine Swann (Blue is the Warmest Colour star Lea Seydoux) – pictured with director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead, Skyfall).
This pair are working for our main villain Oberhauser, two time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained, Carnage). This time round, our Bond is Daniel Craig (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), our Bond girl is Monica Bellucci (Irreversible), Moneypenny is Naomie Harris (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), Ben Whishaw (Paddington) is Q and Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Harry Potter, Schindler’s List, In Bruges) is M. Rory Kinnear (The Casual Vacancy, The Imitation Game) and Andrew Scott (Sherlock, Pride) also take places on the cast.
Yesterday, we got a suited up Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) in the first character one sheet but Shutter Island, The Kids Are All Right and Foxcatcher star Mark Ruffalo dons his motion capture outfit for his Hulk close up. Banner will be posing a greater danger than ever before as the Scarlet Witch begins her mid games.
Joss Whedon (Firefly) commands the returning cast of Jeremy Renner (American Hustle, The Hurt Locker), Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation, The Prestige), Chris Hemsworth (Rush, The Cabin in the Woods), Chris Evans (Snowpiercer), Don Cheadle (Boogie Nights), Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother), Stellan Skarsgard (Melancholia), Paul Bettany (Master and Commander) and Samuel L Jackson (The Incredibles) with the newbies Andy Serkis (The Hobbit), Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene), Aaron Taylor Johnson (Godzilla), Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong) and James Spader (The Blacklist).
By no means a disaster, Snow White and the Huntsman’s lukewarm commercial and critical performance led to a spanner in the works of the intended darker reboot franchise. With Kristen Stewart dropped, the spin off gained the returning cast of Chris Hemsworth (Rush, The Avengers) and Charlize Theron (Monster, Prometheus) with new addition Emily Blunt (Edge of Tomorrow, The Adjustment Bureau, Looper).
The next new casting is Jessica Chastain, a two time Oscar nominated star of Zero Dark Thirty, The Help, A Most Violent Year, Lawless, The Tree of Life and Interstellar, who’s set to be playing Ravenna’s (Theron) potentially eviller sister. Were she more heroic, we’d be hoping there’s not an overplayed good/bad relationship portrayed, like Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter in Alice and Wonderland.
On the subject of future castings, the first film’s dwarves (Ray Winstone, Nick Frost, Toby Jones, Eddie Marsan, Johnny Harris, Ian McShane and the late Bob Hoskins) have ruled themselves out and Sam Claflin’s (The Hunger Games’ Finnick) won’t have much to do without his romantic interest. Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) writes for first time director Cedric Nicolas Troyan.
We were disappointed when Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the team of 21/22 Jump Street and the BAFTA winning animation smash hit The Lego Movie, announced that, while they are still writing the latter’s sequel, they’re handing over the director’s keys. We’re now slightly relieved to hear that it’ll be in the hands of Emmy winner Rob Schrab, part of the team of the immensely popular Community. It’s also confirmed to be titled the simple and ingenious The Lego Movie Sequel.
The sequel will likely star Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy), Elizabeth Banks (The 40 Year Old Virgin), Will Ferrell (Anchorman), Will Arnett (Bojack Horseman) and Liam Neeson (Batman Begins, Taken).
The Avengers: Age of Ultron opened in a big way yesterday with its major one sheet poster. Joss Whedon’s (Serenity) team are kicking off a new character poster series with a shot of a very worried looking Tony Stark. The painted “A” We’ll soon be seeing similar glimpses at Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor Johnson), Vision (Paul Bettany), Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) and Ultron (James Spader).
Age of Ultron will also star Don Cheadle (Boogie Nights), Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother), Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong), Stellan Skarsgard (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes).
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