Spectre is the new Bond title while Sherlock star joins cast and first trailer for Terminator: Genisys

Dr No! From Russia With Love! Goldfinger! Thunderball! You Only Live Twice! On Her Majesty’s Secret Service! Diamonds Are Forever! Live and Let Die! The Man With the Golden Gun! The Spy Who Loved Me! Moonraker! For Your Eyes Only! Octopussy! A View to a Kill! The Living Daylights! Licence to Kill! GoldenEye! Tomorrow Never Dies! The World is Not Enough! Die Another Day! Casno Royale! Quantum of Solace! Skyfall! In the prestigious fifty year franchise twenty three titles have been thrown into the mix and the twenty fourth has now been confirmed.

Spectre confirms the return of the organisation that plagued Bond and the MI6 from the very beginning and through his early adventures. A similar iteration to it, named Quantum, was emerging in the early Craig films but Skyfall dropped that plot thread but this appears to be a fully fledged revival.

Also the cast has been made public officially for the first time. Returning stars of Skyfall include Daniel Craig (Munich, Layer Cake, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) as James Bond, Naomie Harris (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, 28 Days Later) as Eve Moneypenny, Ben Whishaw (Cloud Atlas, Paddington) as Q, Rory Kinnear (The Imitation Game, Southcliffe) as Tanner and Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Schindler’s List) as M with director Sam Mendes (Road to Perdition, American Beauty).

The new additions include two time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz (Inglourious, Big Eyes, Django Unchained) as the villain Oberhauser who we’re praying won’t be a new incarnation of Blofeld, a far too cliched character to ever master on screen. Also it’ll undoubtedly be a case (seen with Naomie Harris in Skyfall, Marion Cotillard in The Dark Knight Rises and with Benedict Cumberbatch in Star Trek Into Darkness) where the character’s actual identity is leaked and then has to be denied by the stars until the film is released, and by that point the twist surprises no one. Dave Bautista, better known as Guardians of the Galaxy’s dim witted hero Drax, will play Oberhauser’s henchman Mr Hinx.

Other Spectre agents include Italian star Monica Bellucci (The Matrix, Irreversible) as Lucia Sciarra and Lea Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Colour) as Madeleine Swann. One role we are yet to discover much about is Denbigh, played by Andrew Scott. The Irish actor had a very minor role in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, appears in this year’s acclaimed British films Pride and Locke but he’ll be best recognised as Sherlock’s villainous genius Jim Moriarty. You can admire the full gallery from the announcement below.

Today’s other major release was the trailer for Terminator: Genisys, a reboot that’ll revolve around an alternate timeline. Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World) directs the cast of Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), Matt Smith (Doctor Who), Jai Courtney (Divergent), JK Simmons (Spider-Man, Whiplash) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (Predator, Total Recall). Some of the footage in the trailer is impressive but a lot of it seems to aesthetically resemble a standard, generic sci-fi blockbuster. It’s certainly shaky ground on which to start a new franchise.

Spectre – October 23rd 2015

Terminator: Genisys – July 3rd 2015

Christoph Waltz in talks for Bond 24 and Jude Law set for Arthur villain

Road to Perdition, American Beauty and Skyfall’s Sam Mendes has assembled the perfect cast for the twenty fourth Bond film. Daniel Craig (Layer Cake, Munich) returns as 007 with fellow agents played by Ralph Fiennes (Schindler’s List, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), Naomie Harris (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, 28 Days Later), Rory Kinnear (The Imitation Game, Southcliffe) and Ben Whishaw (Cloud Atlas, Lilting). New additions are likely to include Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave, Serenity), Lea Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Colour) and Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy).

A new addition is shaping up in the form of two time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz (Inglourious, Django Unchained, The Zero Theorem). The word is that it’ll be a villainous role but we don’t know of what significance it’ll be to the yet undisclosed plot. Also we’re not quite sure on how this’ll interlock with Ejiofor’s appearance or Bautista’s role as a henchman. Bond 24 is set to start shooting next month in Mexico, Austria, Italy, Morocco and London.

Casting for Warner Bros’ new reboot of the Arthurian legends has taken a few rough turns. Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, RockNRolla, Sherlock Holmes) first opened up the project before Thor’s Idris Elba was supposedly cast in the mentor role of Bedevere. Since, Elba has departed the project and rumours of Elizabeth Olsen (Godzilla) playing Morgana went nowhere.

A good turn at last took place when Charlie Hunnam (Pacific Rim, Sons of Anarchy) took on the lead role of Arthur while Spanish born actress Astrid Berges Frisbey (I Origins) will play romantic interest Guinevere. Jude Law (Contagion, The Aviator, Cold Mountain, Enemy at the Gates, Artificial Intelligence) is now set to reunite with his two time Sherlock Holmes director Ritchie as a unnamed villain.

Knights of the Round Table: King Arthur – July 22nd 2016

Bond 24 – October 23rd 2015

Yates, Jackson, Skarsgard, Waltz and more confirmed for Tarzan and Schwentke directing Insurgent

This year’s Divergent hopes to be as successful as The Hunger Games and Twilight franchises to which they owe a lot. This action adventure is set in a futuristic Chicago where everyone is set into groups based on their personalities. Some, including Tris (Shailene Woodley), don’t fall into any one group and are known as Divergent and they rise up against their oppressors, chiefly Jeanine Matthew (Kate Winslet). We previously believed that the film’s director, Neil Burger (Limitless, The Illusionist, The Lucky Ones), would also call the shots on sequel but he’s been ruled out due to scheduling difficulties. Instead, German director Robert Schentke has been hired for the second instalment titled Insurgent. Swentke is the man behind RED, The Time Traveller’s Wife and, less successfully, RIPD.

Warner Bros’s new attempt at cracking Tarzan has taken a huge step today. A date, title and main stars have been confirmed. Most excitingly, Harry Potter 5, 6, 7 and 8’s David Yates has been confirmed to direct while some of the long standing casting rumours have been officially announced. Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood, Battleship) will play Tarzan, Margo Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street, Love Actually) will play Jane and Samuel L Jackson (The Avengers, Pulp Fiction) and Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained, Carnage) have been cast as yet unnamed villains. The likes of Stuart Beattie, Craig Brewer, John Collee and Adam Cozad are attached for the script duties.

Tarzan – July 2016

Divergent – April 4th

Insurgent – 2016

The Super-Bowl 2014 Trailers special: Transformers 4, Noah and more!

We’re not venturing into sports just yet but the American Football extravaganza known as Superbowl is a huge event for advertising. With well over 100 million Americans watching, companies have to pay the whopping sum of $8 million dollars just for a one minute advertising slot. Only the biggest of big budget, big star blockbusters can afford to make the cut so you may be quite surprised when I tell you that among the nine titanic efforts trailered last night is the new project from Darren Aronofsky!

But before we get to that, we have the matter of a movie I recently predicted to make over a billion dollars. I speak of the fourquel of a monster series – Transformers: Age of Extinction.

Director Michael Bay (Armaggedon, Pearl Harbour, Bad Boys) returns to the series after a quick, and unsuccessful, break to make Pain and Gain. The franchise hopes to continue it success with an new human cast with Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz and Jack Reynor, replacing the old guard of Shia LaBeaouf, Rosie Huntington-Whitley and Megan Fox. This time, the Autobots are at battle with the villainous Dinobots and the technology tycoon Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer), the former is revealed in the very first trailer. The film also stars Stanley Tucci and Peter Cullen. July 10th.

The second instalment in this nine-part epic is Marvel’s very own Captain America: The Winter Soldier. We’ve seen footage from this before but Superbowl unveiled the second trailer, which offers more in depth look at new antagonist The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). The plot pitches Captain America (Chris Evans) still adjusting to life in the 21st Century as well as working with SHIELD Agents such as Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Crossbones (Frank Grillo) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to bring down a new menace who’s terrorising Washington. Cap 2 also stars Emily VanCamp, Samuel L Jackson, Robert Redford, Cobie Smulders, Dominic Cooper, Hayley Attwell and Toby Jones and is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo. March 28th.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is next. Marc Webb returns to direct the sequel which increases the stakes for Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) who has to balance life between his superhero alter ego Spider-Man, who’s battling Electro (Jamie Foxx), Rhino (Paul Giamatti) and the sinister father/son double act of Oscorp (Dane DeHaan as Harry and Chris Cooper as Norman), and normal life with the grieving Gwen (Emma Stone) and lonely Aunt May (Sally Field). The new trailer can be found here. To be honest, I’m not that impressed. April 18th.

Following on from their “Across the Internet” campaign, Muppets Most Wanted has launched a new ad in which the new doppelganging villain Clementine literally reaches out to us Across the Internet. Tina Fey, Ty Burrell, Stanley Tucci, Ricky Gervais, Lady Gaga, Tom Hiddleston, Salma Hayek, Christoph Waltz and Danny Trejo make up the human cast alongside the classic Muppets such as Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Sam the Eagle, Beaker, Dr Honeydrew, Walter and Animal. Flight of the Conchords/The Muppets’ James Bobin directs. March 28th.

With a premise of no CG, just expensive cars going ridiculously fast, video game adaptation Need for Speed is actually in good shape. It sees newly released ex-con Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul – Breaking Bad’s Jesse Pinkman) getting back into the dragraces that got him locked up for a year. Upon hearing the news, Marshall’s ex racing partner Dino (Dominic Cooper – Marvel’s Howard Stark) puts a bounty on his head. Scott Waugh (Act of Valour) directs a huge cast including Michael Keeton, Dakota Johnson, Scott Mescudi and Imogen Poots. The superbowl spot can be found here. March 12th.

We return to the aforementioned Darren Aronofsky who, after impressing with the likes of Black Swan, The Wrestler, Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, makes his comeback with a huge budget and cast list for his new epic picture Noah. The new trailer is available but I’m shocked that a director as prestigious as Aronofsky would fall to the depths of a Twitter hashtag; this time it’s “#TheFloodIsComing”!. The film stars Russell Crowe, Anthony Hopkins, Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Ray Winstone, Kevin Durand, Douglas Booth, Nick Nolte and Frank Langella. April 4th.

Pompeii seems to me like one of the potential box office clunkers of the year with a decent cast list which doesn’t match its huge budget but director Paul WS Anderson (Event Horizon, Resident Evil) may prove me wrong. The new trailer unveils a fair bit of spectacle so the film won’t rely on the cast of Kit Harrington, Carrie Anne Moss, Emily Browning, Jessica Lucas, Kiefer Sutherland, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jared Harris and Jessica Lucas alone. May 2nd.

3 Days to Kill launched a new trailer too. McG (This Means War, Terminator: Salvation, We Are Marshall, Charlie’s Angles) directs this new action thriller starring Kevin Costner as an dying agent who teams up with his daughter for one last assignment which get him the life saving drug he needs. Also starring Amber Heard, Connie Nielson and Hailee Steinfeld. February 21st.

Lastly, we have another Kevin Costner project. Draft Day sees the manger of American Football’s Cleveland Browns who’s struggling to find the number one draft pick for his team. Costner will star alongside Terry Crews, Jennifer Garner and Ellen Burstyn while director Ivan Reitman (Ghost Busters, No Strings Attached). April 11th

Nolan’s Inerstellar poster and Samuel L Jackson could be on for Tarzan

There’s two Tarzan reboots coming out soon and one is bound to do better than the other. The first is a well animated but seemingly dull adventure with just Twilight’s Kellan Lutz and Resident Evil’s Spencer Locke and it’s already garnered a hugely negative response in America. The next is much more promising. Rising star of True Blood and Melancholia fame Alexander Skarsgard will tackle the jungle dwelling title role while two time Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz will play the poaching villain. Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) is the current favourite to play Jane but Samuel L Jackson could be picking up a new role in the film. Harry Potter veteran David Yates is still the favourite to direct.

Finally, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar has launched its very first piece of artwork or stills. It’s acting as a teaser for the full trailer which arrives in cinemas with Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug alongside the trailer for Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The film itself is the most anticipated original sci-fi plot of 2014 mainly because it’s from Christopher Nolan, the visionary director behind The Dark Knight trilogy, Memento, The Prestige and Inception, and stars Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Matthew McConaughey, Wes Bentley, Casey Affleck, Mackenzie Foy, Michael Caine, David Oyelowo and Matt Damon.

Tarzan – 2016

Interstellar – November 7th 2014

Gerard Butler confirms London Has Fallen and new Muppets Most Wanted and Hunger Games 2 posters

Gerard Butler (300, How to Train Your Dragon, Rock ‘n’ Rolla) is easily Scotland’s most popular current actor. Earlier this year, his White House set terrorist action flick Olympus Has Fallen delivered the box-office goods with a remarkable $161 million off a $70 million budget. The sequel has been greenlighted and will move action to London.

The plot sees the death and funeral of the Prime Minister being interrupted by a new series of terrorist threats. Agent Mike Banning (Butler), Speaker Trumbull (Morgan Freeman – The Shawshank Redemption, The Dark Knight) and President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart – The Dark Knight, Thank You For Smoking) are all caught up in the action.

We know that Olympus’ writers Katrin Benedikt and Creighton Rothenberger will return for London. However, director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Shooter, King Arthur) won’t return so the producers are looking for a replacement.

Finally, we’ve got a new poster for Muppets Most Wanted. It’s a caper sequel to the success of the 2012’s The Muppets as well a readaptation of the classic 1970s puppet comedy show. James Bobin, director of the 2012 Muppet adventure and co creator of TV comedy Flight of the Conchords, will call the shots. Tom Hiddleston, Danny Trejo, Salma Hayek, Lady Gaga, Christoph Waltz and Bridgit Mendler will all cameo while Tina Fey, Ty Burrell and Ricky Gervais replace Jason Segel and Amy Adams for the main human cast alongside Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo and the gang.

The better of the two of today’s posters is for the IMAX release of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. It features just it’s key protagonist Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and antagonist President Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland) despite a stellar cast. Constantine and I Am Legend’s Francis Lawrence is directing what is possibly this year’s biggest action sci-fi event.

This post isn’t very long so I thought I’d find you some other fun stuff from across the internet. I have a brilliantly animated youtube video from Sincerely Truman called Dear JJ Abrams urging Episode VII’s director to make Star Wars great again. Also, the ever reliable muppets at Screen Junkies managed to get the cast of Last Vegas, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline, Robert De Niro and Michael Douglas (a team with six Oscar wins and an additional 10 nominations) to read the lyrics of today’s pop hits, Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus, Best Song Ever by One Direction, Chinese Food by Alison Gold and brilliantly What Does the Fox Say by Norwegian comedy sensation Ylvis. Here’s the link.

London Has Fallen – 2015/16

Muppets Most Wanted – March 28th 2014

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – November 21st

Waltz on for Tarzan, Dallas Howard visiting Jurassic World, first pic of Meryl Streep going Into the Woods and Thor 2 posters

Austrian born two time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz has had unforgettable roles in films like Carnage and Water for Elephants as well as Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained and Inglorious as well as Terry Gilliam’s (Monty Python, 12 Monkeys, Time Bandits) upcoming bizarre sci-fi The Zero Theorem. He has now joined the cast of the new live action Tarzan remake.

The Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood, Battleship, Melancholia) is likely to play the jungle dwelling title character. David Yates (director of Harry Potter films 5-8) will direct the film that Warner Bros is yet to greenlight and it’s rumoured that he’ll bring in his Potter co-worker Emma Watson (The Bling Ring, This is the End, The Perks of Being a Wallflower) in for the role of Jane, Tarzan’s romantic interest. Variety’s reports that Waltz is in talks with the studios for the role of a villain and it’s this kind of A-list recruiting that could lead to Tarzan wiggling it’s way into our metaphorical movie date diaries.

Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic Park sequel, now titled Jurassic World (yes it’s cheesy but it won’t take anything away from the quality of the film) will be roaring in at 2015. There’s been no confirmation of Jurassic regulars like Sam Neil, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern and Richard Attenborough but series newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard is the first name to be put into real consideration. The Golden Globe Nominee from The Help, 50/50 and Spiderman 3 could be, and is in talks for, the sci-fi adventure’s 4th instalment, of which little is known of the plot. After this report from Variety, can we expect the Jurassic World casting announcements to come flowing in like they have done for Duncan Jones’ fantasy epic Warcraft (which brought in Paul Patton, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano, Anton Yelchin, Travis Fimmel and Anson Mount over just two days).

We leave today’s blog with a few new photos. There’s a couple of new posters for Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World starring supporting hero Idris Elba (Heimdall) and villain Christopher Eccleston (Malekith). Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones) will direct the more fantasy based Asgardian adventure although rumours suggest that Joss Whedon (director and writer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Serenity, Much Ado About Nothing, Dollhouse, Agents of SHIELD and Avengers Assemble) was called in to give the script a redraft.

We’ve also got a first look at Into the Woods. Rob Marshall (whose films have had multi Oscar wins with Chicago and Memories of a Geisha as well  $1 billion success with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) will direct the musical adaptation. Anna Kendrick, Johnny Depp, Chris Pine, Emily Blunt, Christine Baranski, Lucy Punch and James Corden will all be playing classic fairy tale characters but our main focus of this section is for Meryl Streep. She’s won three academy awards plus an additional 14 nominations and her new role in Into the Woods sees her as a fairly moral but wicked Witch who travels to different fairy tales in order to teach their stubborn characters important yet twisted lessons. Enjoy the new still from the film.

Tarzan – 2016?

Jurassic World – July 12th 2015

Thor: The Dark World – October 30th

Into the Woods – Christmas 2014