Josh Brolin and Jason Clarke in new trailer for Everest and new poster for Bridge of Spies

An ensemble cast and phenomenal special effects are pulling the weight behind climbing adventure Everest. The impressive first trailer has just been released. The preview shows off some seriously epic mountainside action set pieces.

Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur (2 Guns, Contraband) commands the cast of Josh Brolin (No Country For Old Men, Guardians of the Galaxy), Jason Clarke (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Lawless), Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game, Pirates of the Caribbean), Robin Wright (Forrest Gump, The Congress), John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone, The Sessions), Emily Watson (War Horse, The Theory of Everything), Sam Worthington (Avatar, The Debt), Elizbeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby, The Man From UNCLE) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler, Zodiac, Donnie Darko).

The team behind Saving Private Ryan, The Terminal and Catch Me if You Can are reuniting for the Oscar tipped spy thriller Bridge of Spies. Steven Spielberg (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler’s List, Lincoln, Jurassic Park) and Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump, Captain Phillips, Philadelphia, The Green Mile) are teaming up again and the film’s first poster has been released. The key players include writers Matt Charman (Suite Francaise) and The Coen Brothers (Fargo) and the cast of Mark Rylance (Wolf Hall, Intimacy), Amy Ryan (Birdman, Gone Boaby Gone) and Alan Alda (The Aviator, The Blacklist).

Everest – September 25th

Bridge of Spies – October 9th

The Theory of Everything review

Director: James Marsh

Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Charlie Cox, David Thewlis, Simon McBurney, Harry Lloyd, Maxine Peake, Emily Watson

Stephen Hawking not only the most iconic scientist but likely the most recognisable British figure of the past fifty years. A filmed adaptation of his life was always inevitable and it was hot stuff during this year’s awards race and its arrival leaves us poised to speculate if it was worth the hype.

Cambridge – early 1960s. Students Jane Wilde (Jones) and Stephen Hawking (Redmayne) meet and fall in love but their relationship is soon tested to the limits as Stephen is diagnosed with, seemingly fatal, motor neurone disease. With his body gradually ceasing to function, Stephen is obsessed in his mind achieving its full potential for the sake of science, putting an unbearable strain on his family.

Most disappointingly, the film never outlives is obvious tailor-made-for-the-Oscars roots. While they’re not quite the pet projects of The Grand Budapest Hotel or Boyhood, films such as The Imitation Game and Selma at least protest their own political purpose. This does little besides reiterating a already well publicised story but that doesn’t prevent it from being a surprisingly intimate relationship analysation and character study.

By charting their relationship from conception to the bitter end we gain a beautiful narrative depicting an family in their insurmountable search for normality through their struggles. Helming this wonderfully are the two central performances. Redmayne superbly portrays Hawking’s physical descent – masterfully conveying the disease’s horrific effects – while still maintaining a naive optimism. His Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe are all well deserved.

Jones, who is still a relative newcomer following the subdued successes of Like Crazy and The Invisible Woman, gives a performance that is never quite as impressive as her opposite number but is equally powerful and engaging. Still, later on in the film, she gets sidelined as the typical struggling wife and unintentionally unempathable in her involvement with Charlie Cox’s mild mannered choirmaster in a painfully blatant romantic subplot. Her presence in the aforementioned awards’ spot for Leading Actress is a pleasing sign for British talent however.

The film’s supporting cast do not let up either: both David Thewlis (Harry Potter’s Lupin) and Simon McBurney (Rev’s Archdeacon) are excellent as Hawking’s mentor and father respectively. Confusingly, the two time Oscar nominated star of War Horse, The Book Thief and Breaking the Waves Emily Watson receives a high billing only to be given an almost cameo like appearance as Jane’s mother.

Despite the glossy sheen of James Marsh’s direction, there is the odd gaping hole in the narrative. Harry Lloyd’s character, Stephen’s roomate Brian, is fictional and was created entirely for the purposes of the film, suspending the belief of the “true story”. Also, the passage of time is conveyed very poorly. For those, somehow, unaware of the story it’d be unclear is this is taking place of five or twenty years. The film’s conclusion is also confusing as it puts focus onto their children, characters who have barely had a single comprehensible line of dialogue despite having an equally intriguing story to tell.

The Theory of Everything makes the poor mistake of portraying both its leads as saints but it’s undoubtedly one of Britain’s most engaging, thoughtful and excellently acted films in years. While morally unsatisfying, it’s still a worthy contender as one of the finest entries of the 2014/15 awards season.

8/10

“There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.”

Ford talks Blade Runner 2, Doug Liman in talks for new thriller and Watson and Thewlis join Theory of Everything

Blade Runner is rightly appreciated as one of the science-fiction greats. In all the talk of him reviving the role of Han Solo for Star Wars: Episode VII, Harrison Ford (who was on a promotion tour for his latest feature Ender’s Game when IGN asked him about Blade Runner) has told us more about the possibilities of a sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 futuristic thriller.

“I remember it with complication, but I’m not there to generate nostalgic moments, I’m there to do a job of work. I quite understand that everybody has an ambition when they come and do a film, and everyone’s ambition may not be focused on the same thing. I truly admire Ridley as a man and as a director, and I would be very happy to engage with him again in the further telling of this story.” Thanks to IGN for the eye-opening interview. If Ridley Scott is returning as a director, there’ll certainly be an effort to improve from his latest work, Prometheus (a reboot/prequel of his own sci-fi classic Alien), Robin Hood (Scott and Russell Crowe’s dull retelling of the English legend) or Hannibal, and give more of the quality we’ve seen from him in American Gangster and Gladiator. He’ll probably get back on track with the upcoming thriller The Counsellor (starring Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem – out November 15th) and biblical epic Exodus (with Aaron Paul, Christian Bale, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro and Maria Valverde – December 12th 2014).

Doug Liman should be hard at work completing his current project Edge of Tomorrow. The Jumper, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity director has Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton starring in his sci-fi action adventure but he’s now in talks for a different project.

Last year’s tragic death of beloved director Tony Scott left a huge amount of projects unfinished. One of them was the story of the drug smuggling ship Narco Sub shifting cocaine up from South America into the US. David Guggenheim (writer of Nick Cage’s action-packed Stolen and 2012’s crime mystery Safe House with stars Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington and director Daniel Espinosa) is currently polishing a script for the feature, alongside his potential Safe House 2, and the aforementioned Ridley Scott’s company Scott Free producing the thriller.

Finally, we’ve got two major castings for Theory of Everything. Eddie Redmayne (Les Miserables, Birdsong. My Week With Marilyn), Felicity Jones (The Tempest, Like Crazy) were already set to star in the Stephen Hawking biopic under the direction of James Marsh (Oscar winner from Man on Wire, Project Nim and Shadow Dancer). Emily Watson (4 time Oscar nominee from Breaking Waves, War Horse and many others) and David Thewlis (BAFTA nominee from Harry Potter and Kingdom of Heaven, and also War Horse and Watson’s landlord) are now confirmed castings in unspecific roles in the telling of Britain’s most iconic scientist who struggles through motor neurone disease (he was predicted to die aged 23 but he’s still living now at 71!) and two divorces. We’re expecting these two castings to add a bit more award contention to the film

Blade Runner 2 – 2016?

Edge of Tomorrow – May 30th 2014

Narco Sub – 2016?

Theory of Everything – 2015

Tuorhoth’s first predictions for the 2014 Academy Awards

October and November are seeing the releases of some of the huge contenders for the Oscars next year well before award season has begun. We’ve no idea how well any of these films are going to do critically seeing as none of them have actually been released to mainstream audiences. This isn’t an award by award breakdown but we’re giving you a brief guide as to what could be nominated in “the big six” awards at world’s biggest annual movie event. I’m also ranking the potential nominees by their likelihood of winning by colour: red means most likely to win, blue means second most likely and green means I’ve ranked them third.

Best Supporting Actress

Cate Blanchett – The Monuments Men

Cameron Diaz – The Counsellor

Julianne Moore – Carrie

Michelle Pfeiffer – The Family

Kristen Wiig – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Best Supporting Actor

Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips

Benedict Cumberbatch – 12 Years A Slave

Jean Dujardin – The Monuments Men

Jonah Hill – The Wolf of Wall Street

Tommy Lee Jones – The Family

Best Leading Actress

Sandra Bullock – Gravity

Nicole Kidman – Grace of Monaco

Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Chloe Grace Moretz – Carrie

Emma Thompson – Saving Mr. Banks

Best Leading Actor

George Clooney – Gravity

Steve Coogan – Philomena

Leonardo di Caprio – The Wolf of Wall Street

Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips or Saving Mr. Banks (undecided)

Ben Stiller – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Best Director

Alfonso Cauron – Gravity

George Clooney – The Monuments Men

Paul Greengrass – Captain Phillips

Martin Scorsese – The Wolf of Wall Street

Ben Stiller – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Best Picture

12 Years A Slave

American Hustle

Captain Phillips

The Counsellor

Gravity

The Monuments Men

Out of the Furnace

Saving Mr. Banks

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The Wolf of Wall Street

So, these are my beginning of season suggestions for who will be nominated at this prestigious event. We’re now going to talk through those films and actors that I haven’t included but could be major contenders. There’s a huge cast for The Monuments Men which I haven’t fully gone over. I’ve put George Clooney, who I’ve already selected for Best Director for this film, in for Best Leading Actor for Gravity not The MM but he could easily win for both. Stars of The Monuments Men like Matt Damon, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Hugh Bonneville and Bob Balaban could squeeze into the supporting actor position that I placed Dujardin in. Dujardin is already popular with the academy after his Lead Actor win in 2012 for The Artist and as likely could get a nomination for The Wolf of Wall Street instead of The Monuments Men.

Wolf of Wall Street could do very well. Jonah Hill may seem like a surprise nominee but remember that he got similar recognition at the 2012 Oscars for Moneyball. I’ve only put Nicole Kidman forward for this film but Grace of Monaco is a noteworthy contender for a Best Pic nomination. American Hustle is only in one award on my list but the stellar cast of Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence (whose already in for Hunger Games 2), Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale. I think it will win Best Original Screenplay however.

Other potential nominees are the aforementioned Bale for Out of the Furnace, for which Casey Affleck and Zoe Saldana could also be in contention. Dame Judi Dench could get into the actress categories for Philomena. Robert De Niro stars in both American Hustle and The Family and could crack into the shortlists. Colin Farrel and Paul Giamatti came close to my lists for Saving Mr. Banks. 12 Years A Slave could through in Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Paul Dano and Quvenzhane Wallis back into the award scene while The Counsellor could do the same for Fassbender, Pitt, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem as well as it’s director Sir Ridley Scott. We can’t rule out other entries like All is Lost with Robert Redford, The Book Thief with Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson or Inside Llewyn Davis (the Coen brothers’ folk tale with Oscar Isaac, Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan). Spike Lee’s mysterious action remake Oldboy could creep in with it’s stars Josh Brolin, Samuel L Jackson, Elizabeth Olsen, Hannah Simone and Sharlto Copley.

It’s not too late to remove this year’s earlier hits like The Great Gatsby (Baz Luhrmann directing Leonardo di Caprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton), Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen directing Cate Blanchett and Alec Baldwin), Prisoners (Hugh Jackman, Paul Dano, Viola Davis, Melissa Leo, Terrence Howard and Jake Gyllenhaal in the directing of Denis Villeneuve) and Rush (Ron Howard’s biopic with Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl). Blockbuster action films like the upcoming The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Ender’s Game or 47 Ronin have been known to do well as the Oscars (see The Dark Knight, Inception and a few others) and there’s usually a surprise foreign language film in the mix (like Amour). There’s a whole variety of films that could be next year’s nominees but I think the leaders are: Gravity, Captain Phillips, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Monuments Men and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

Find out more about these films at our Future Films pages for 2013 and 2014.

The 86th Academy Awards will be hosted by Ellen De Generes and will be on ABC on March 2nd 2014

Tell us in the comments who YOU think will win big at the 2014 Oscars.