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

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

New Hobbit 2 posters and trailer, Disney plans Cruella De Vil film and the must-sees of October 2013

October 2013 through to January 2014 is bringing us some big releases. This feature will be guiding you along and giving you the opportunity t start filling in your film diary.

October:

The Fifth Estate – Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, the last two Twilight films) directs the true recent story of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The British actor of the moment Benedict Cumberbatch (The Hobbit, Sherlock, Star Trek: Into Darkness) takes the lead role while Spanish star Daniel Bruhl (Rush, The Bourne Ultimatum) plays tech-obsessed activist Daniel Domscheit-Berg as they set out extracting secrets from whistleblowers across the world and publishing them online. Carice van Houten (Repo Men, Valkyrie) and Peter Capaldi (World War Z and the new Doctor Who) also star. OCT 11th

Emperor – Tommy Lee Jones (Men In Black, Lincoln, No Country for Old Men) and Matthew Fox star in Peter Webber’s (Girl With A Pearl Earring) WW2 drama about the two leads character’s deciding the fate of surrendered Japanese Emperor’s daughter Hirohito (Eriko Hatsune). OCT 4th

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 – Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn are the directors of the animated sequel to the 2009 oddball family comedy. James Caan, Bill Hader, Anna Faris and Adam Sandberg are the stars of a plot that sees all the animals in the safe-haven of Swallow Falls turn into bizarre food-animal hybrids. OCT 25th

Captain Phillips – Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan) is the title character in the true story of Captain Richard Phillips and his ordeal at the hands of Somali pirates. Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Green Zone) is the director of the hostage thriller that could see him and Hanks in  contention for Oscars. OCT 18th

Machete Kills – Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) directs this action sequel. Danny Trejo (Breaking Bad) returns in a plot that sees his character, Machete, thrown back into action when the US Government appoints him with the task of charging into Mexico and taking down on of the US’s most wanted drug lords. Pop-star Lady Gaga stars in a revamped cast featuring Amber Heard (Drive Angry, Zombieland), Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar, Fast and Furious) and Carlos Estevez (AKA Charlie Sheen) as the US President. OCT 11th

Ender’s Game – Scott Orson Card’s sci-fi novel is finally adapted into a big-budget action film. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield – Hugo) is a seemingly ordinary teen whose chosen to go to outer space and begin training as one of the first of a new breed of war commanders who must fight back against the impending alien threat. Harrison Ford (Star Wars, Indiana Jones), Sir Ben Kingsley (Iron Man 3, Gandhi, Hugo), Viola Davis (The Help), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) and Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) also star in Gavin Hood’s (Tsotsi, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) space set thriller.

Romeo and Juliet – The aforementioned Steinfeld also has a lead role in this Shakespeare adaptation. If you don’t know the plot 1) HOW??? 2) Romeo Montague (Douglas Booth) falls for Juliet Capulet (Steinfeld) but their protective head of one of the rivalling famlies Lord Capulet (Damian Lewis) prevents them from meeting so Romeo’s friend Friar Laurence (Paul Giamatti) concocts a dangerous plan to get the romantic pair together. Ed Westwick and Kodi Smit-McPhee also star in the period drama that has a Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey, The Young Victoria) script to it’s name. OCT 11th

You’ll have heard plenty about Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World in recent months. Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Jaimie Alexander, Natalie Portman, Christopher Eccleston, Anthony Hopkins, Kat Dennings, Idris Elba and Stellan Skarsgard all play roles in a plot that sees Norse god brothers heroic Thor and sinister Loki forced to team-up to end the potential destruction caused by revived evil race the Dark Elves and their diabolical leader Malekith (30th). October also brings the release of horror sequel V/H/S/2 (14th). There’s also Dexter Fletcher’s Proclaimers based, Scottish, comedy musical Sunshine on Leith (4th). Ken Jeong, Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Maya Rudolph, Michelle Rodriguez, Bill Hader, Michael Pena, Samuel L Jackson, Luis Guzman and Snoop Dogg are all voicing characters in the story of a snail who dreams of becoming the fastest thing in the world titled Turbo (18th). James Corden and Julie Walters star in the true story of Paul Potts as he aspires to become a world renowned opera singer. His dreams are crushed over and over again until he auditions for the little known, in 2007 that is, talent show Britain’s Got Talent in One Chance (25th). Finally, we’ve got stupid, crass daredevil sequel Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (23rd). Our coverage of each month’s must-sees continues at the beginning of November with the November must-sees featuring Gravity, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Counsellor, Grace of Monaco, Last Vegas, The Family, Kill Your Darlings, Escape Plan, Philomena, Dom Hemingway and many more.

Cruella De Vil was the iconic villain of 101 Dalmations. She’s now set to have her own spin-off film. This seems to be part of Disney’s apparent plan to turn a lot of their animated classics into more grown-up live-action films. Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland was the first and it’s been followed by Rupert Sander’s Snow White and the Huntsman and the upcoming Maleficent (a retelling of Sleeping Beauty directed by Robert Stromberg and starring  Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning) and Cinderella (Kenneth Branagh directing with Lily James, Richard Madden, Helena Bonham Carter and Cate Blanchett building up the cast). Aline Brosh McKenna (writer of The Devil Wears Prada and We Bought a Zoo) has been hired to script the film as well as Branagh’s Cinderella.

Moving on, we’ve got fresh new The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug posters for you to admire.

Director Peter Jackson’s imagery is as stunning as ever in these character teasing banners. At the bottom, we’ve got returning company members Kili (Aidan Turner), Fili (Dean O’Gorman), Dwalin (Graham McTavish), Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman). Above them is the ever menacing presence of the Elven King Trandruil (Lee Pace). At the top we find a more cryptic poster. We know that it’s the legendary Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) with the bow in the foreground. Behind him we find the Master of Laketown (Stephen Fry) accompanied by a more sinister, knife wielding figure. Much internet searching in my behalf as to who this actor or his character is has been fruitless so I challenge YOU to wildly guess his true identity in the comments.

Following the posters was an epic new trailer for the film which you can find over at The Verge. Anyone trying to avoid any plot details of the film (seeing as it does now differ from original book by JRR Tolkien) may want to skip to the next paragraph. Sauron is in it! The return of Lord of the Rings’ big bad was teased by The Necromancer in the previous film, An Unexpected Journey, but his eye does flash up on the screen. His distinctive orc army also looks like it’ll make an appearance in the dark land of Mordor. We’re also teased more of likely the most terrifying dragon in recent film history in the form of the titular villain Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch). The Desolation of Smaug looks like it could be a more open with roaming special effects rather than An Unexpected Journey which was, at time, a little cramped into tight sets and the adventure really got going as soon as we got out of the enclosed areas.

“His name is Bilbo!”

Cruella De Vil – 2016?

Cinderella – March 13th 2015

Maleficent – May 30th 2014

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – December 13th

The November Preview Special – Early November here on Tuorhoth Movies