Seth Rogen enrols for Console Wars, Marvel unveils Doctor Strange directing shortlist and find the Empire Award nominees

The award ceremony season is in full swing with last week’s BAFTAs, this weekend’s Oscars and last night’s homegrown Tuorhoth Awards. Another alternate look on the last year’s films can be found with the Empire Awards for which the nominations have just been announced. The winners will be announced on March 30th but you can vote for your favourites here.

Best Film:

12 Years a Slave

Captain Phillips

Gravity

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Best Director:

Alfonso Cuaron – Gravity

Edgar Wright – The World’s End

Paul Greengrass – Captain Phillips

Peter Jackson – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave

Best Leading Actor:

Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Years a Slave

James McAvoy – Filth

Leonardo Di Caprio – The Wolf of Wall Street

Martin Freeman – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips

Best Leading Actress:

Amy Adams – American Hustle

Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine

Emma Thompson – Saving Mr Banks

Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Sandra Bullock – Gravity

Best British Film:

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

Filth

Rush

Sunshine on Leith

The World’s End

Best Supporting Actress:

Evangeline Lilly – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle

Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave

Mia Wasikowska – Stoker

Sally Hawkins – Blue Jasmine

Best Supporting Actor:

Daniel Bruhl – Rush

Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave

Sam Clafin – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Richard Armitage – The Hobbit:The Desolation of Smaug

Tom Hiddleston – Thor: The Dark World

Best Sci-fi/Fantasy:

Gravity

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Pacific Rim

Star Trek Into Darkness

Best Thriller:

Captain Phillips

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Now You See Me

Prisoners

Trance

Best Comedy:

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

This is 40

This is the End

The World’s End

Best Horror:

A Field in England

The Conjuring

Evil Dead

World War Z

You’re Next

Best Female Newcomer:

Adele Exarchopoulous – Blue is the Warmest Colour

Antonia Thomas – Sunshine on Leith

Elizabeth Debecki – The Great Gatsby

Freya Mavor – Sunshine on Leith

Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave

Margot Robbie – The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Male Newcomer:

Aidan Turner – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips

George McKay – Sunshine on Leith

Oscar Isaac – Inside Llewyn Davis

Tye Sheridan – Mud

Will Poulter – We’re the Millers

Picking up a Best Comedy nomination at the Empires was This is the End and the writing/directing duo behind it are lining up a new project. Evan Goldberg (writer of Goon, Pineapple Express and Superbad) and Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, 50/50, Paul) have been hired by Sony for Console Wars. This is a comedy detailing the vicious rivalry between Sega and Nintendo in the ’90s which lead to the multi-billion industry we know today. The pair will write and direct, as they did in This is the End, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Rogen went on to star in the film yet nothing’s been confirmed about that just yet.

Finally, we can announce the directing shortlist for Marvel’s upcoming fantasy project Doctor Stranger. The film was greenlighted by producer Kevin Feige in October and since there’s been huge speculation as to both who would call the shots on the superhero adventure as well as who would portray the titular hero. The potential directors are Mark Andrews, Nicolaj Arcel, Dean Israelite and Jonathan Levine. We’ll give you a quick brief for these four candidates.

Oscar winning director Mark Andrews directed Pixar’s feature length Brave and short animation One Man Band as well as writing Pixar’s short Jack-Jack Attack and John Carter. Israelite, cousin of Jonathan Liebesman is the director of successful short films The Department of Nothing and Magician. The most famous of the quartet is probably Jonathan Levine (50/50, Warm Bodies, The Wackness) but the most promising is Danish born Nikolaj Arcel, director of King’s Game and the brilliant period drama A Royal Affair.

The film will likely be the second in Marvel’s third phase but, if you can’t wait till 2016, there’s plenty of superhero action to keep you company. Captain America: The Winter Soldier comes this March, Guardians of the Galaxy launches in August, The Avengers: Age of Ultron battles in May 2015 followed by Ant-Man in July of that year. After that, there could be Captain America 3, Thor 3, Guardians 2 or Black Panther before Avengers 3.

Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo and the Battle that Defined a Generation – 2016

Doctor Strange – 2016

2014 Empire Awards – March 30th

25 X-Men DOFP posters unveiled, first image of Capaldi as Doctor and new Maleficent trailer

One of the biggest releases of this year is a new, kind-of, prequel to a Disney animated classic. Maleficent is the titular character and villain of the original Sleeping Beauty. A surprisingly terrifying new trailer for the film is not only haunted by Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent but Lana Del Rey’s eerie reimagining of “Once Upon a Dream”. First time director Robert Stromberg is calling the shots while Miranda Richardson (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), Sharlto Copley (District 9) and Elle Fanning (Super 8) make up the supporting cast.

Empire Magazine is not only the world’s biggest and best movie magazine; it has a huge fanbase here, at Tuorhoth Movies. To celebrate their 25th Anniversary and the release of X-Men: Days of Future Past, Empire have done something very special which is to release 25 alternate covers for their March 2014 issue. 15 covers have been revealed so far and more are being announced every hour.

There’s posters for all of the stars that you’ve seen already in the trailers, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, Patrick Stewart, Peter Dinklage, Ian McKellen and Nicholas Hoult, as well as some we haven’t seen at all. First looks at Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Toad (Evan Jonigkeit), Havok (Lucas Till) and William Stryker (Josh Helman) are granted here. Ellen Page, Booboo Stewart, Fan Bingbing, Halle Berry, Daniel Cudmore, Omar Sy and Adan Canto also star and we can expect their covers to be unveiled very soon. Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Stan Lee, Hugh Jackman, Shawn Ashmore and director Bryan Singer are all offering insights into this special event on Twitter.

Speaking of Twitter, Doctor Who’s official page has launched the first image of The Twelfth Doctor in anticipation of this autumn’s series 8. Jenna Coleman has been confirmed to star as Clara and showrunner Stephen Moffat has hired Ben Wheatley (Kill List, A Field in England) to direct the first two episodes. For a start, I’m not convinced by the shoes or his arms’ impression of The Silence but Peter Capaldi has proved more than once that he’s capable of the charisma required for Who.

Doctor Who series 8 – autumn

X-Men: Days of Future Past – May 22nd

Empire’s X-Men: DoFP special – in shops 30th January

Maleficent – May 30th

Richard Gere for Marigold Hotel 2, McKellen talks Slight Trick of the Mind, Murray and more for B.O.O. plus Addams Family return

We’re sorry that we didn’t bring you any movie news yesterday but it was Halloween and we were busy with the festivities.

 

Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith and Penelope Wilton played a group of OAP’s trying to recapture something on a holiday to India and a hotel ran by Dev Patel in Shakespeare in Love director John Madden’s 2011 hit The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The film’s excellent $136 million grossing has prompted sequel talk. Deadline’s report also stated that Richard Gere (Pretty Woman, Primal Fear, An Officer and A Gentleman, Chicago) is in talks. We don’t know much more but we’ll be reporting more as soon as we hear it.

 

There’s multiple productions based on the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and his most famous character, Sherlock Holmes. The Guy Ritchie/Robert Downey Jr/Jude Law film franchise is quite excellent but my favourite is BBC’s modern day retelling Sherlock with stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman and writers Stephen Moffat and Mark Gatiss. There’s also the US remake of Moffat’s Sherlock, Elementary, but a fourth is entering the mix and it’s very different to all the others.

 

It’s Slight Trick of the Mind, a novel by Mitch Cullin, not Conan Doyle, written in 2005 and set in the 1940s. It sees Holmes as an old man remembering his one unsolved case. Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Twilight, The Fifth Estate) will direct but the only confirmed star is Sir Ian McKellen (X-Men, The Lord of the Rings, Richard III, The Hobbit) who talks about his role.

 

“I’ve never had ambitions to play Sherlock Holmes, but this is Sherlock in a very particular place… he’s nearly 100 years old, and in retirement, and it’s more about being a beekeeper than it is being a detective.” He tells this to the brilliant Empire Magazine. On the subject of there being a young actor for the roles set in the classic Victorian Holmes setting, he said sometimes they call in Michael Fassbender to be me as a young man, and sometimes they put Patrick Stewart and me through the mangle of film technology and out we come looking 20 years younger, so who knows what will happen (See X-Men)? Then again, it’s not an expensive movie, so there probably won’t be too much CG.”

 

The long running comedy franchise The Addams Family started off with a 1960s TV series telling the story of a ghoulish family and their misadventures. It was cancelled after two brief series but they returned in the 1990s with the ’91 and ’93 film adaptations directed by Barry Sonnedfield and starring Christopher Lloyd, Raul Julia, Angelica Houston, Christina Ricci and Joan Cusack.

 

Another version is in the works and it’s not a Tim Burton project, as you might of heard. Burton and Illumination gave up on The Addams Family earlier this year leaving the space for a remake open. MGM have swooped in with plans for an animated film (CG, stop motion or hand drawn, the most unlikely option, is still unknown) are coming together but they’ll need to bring in some big names in order for there to be a chance of a greenlight.

 

Another upcoming animation project is B.O.O: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations. Dreamworks are bringing us this sci-fi comedy. Seth Rogen (Knocked Up), Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation), Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) and Matt Bomer (In Time) were already signed on to voice the film but there’s been a few more castings. Bill Murray (Ghostbuster, Groundhog Day, Lost in Translation), Octavia Spencer (Fruitvale Station, The Help, Being John Malkovich) and Jennifer Coolidge (American Pie, Legally Blonde) have joined under director Anthony Leondis (Igor).

Just so you know, this weekend is unlikely to have any film news. On Saturday, we hope to bring you our review of the new Marvel adventure Thor: The Dark World and on Sunday we have a new feature called Blockbuster Sunday which features the UK and US box office top 5 as well as my predictions for the next week.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – 2015

Slight Trick of the Mind – late 2014

The Addams Family – 2016?

B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations – June 5th 2015