Colin Farrell joins Fantastic Beasts

We previously thought that Harry Potter’s spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them had made all of its major castings but its now been announced that Golden Globe winner Colin Farrell will play a role. The star of Minority Report, In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths, Saving Mr Banks and the year’s Oscar favourite The Lobster has been confirmed for a part which might turn out to be a villain. This may also be an indicator that more a-list talent is on the way.

David Yates (Harry Potters 5-8) directs the film while the cast includes Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything, My Week With Marilyn), Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice, Michael Clayton), Alison Sudol (Transparent, Dig), Dan Fogler (Secret and Lies, Europa Report) and Ezra Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Perks of Being a Wallflower).

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – November 18th 2016

Marisa Tomei rumoured for Spider-Man, new Deadpool image and Alison Sudol in Fantastic Beasts

Deadpool himself is joining the hoards of fans at the San Diego Comic-Con. We’ll be reporting on the events of the day as best we can as the weekend progresses in one of the biggest media events of our time. Stars set to be joining include the casts of The Hunger Games (Jennifer Lawrence, Sam Claflin, Julianne Moore), Star Wars (Oscar Isaac, Harrison Ford, Gwendoline Christie), Crimson Peak (Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain), Doctor Who (Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez) and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot).

Alison Sudol is the latest star to join the cast of Harry Potter spin off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The star of Dig and Transparent joins an ensemble including Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything), Ezra Miller (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) and Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice). David Yates (Harry Potter 5-8) directs.

Finally, it’s been reported that Marisa Tomei is in line to play Aunt May in Marvel’s new Spider-Man reboot. The Oscar winning star of The Ides of March and The Wrestler is replacing Sally Field. Tom Holland (The Impossible) takes on the role of Peter Parker while Jon Watts (Cop Car) directs.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – November 18th 2016

Spider-Man – July 28th 2017

Ezra Miller in talks for Fantastic Beasts

Ezra Miller has made a name for performance in the teen rom-com The Perks of Being a Wallflower and an intense role a child killer in the indie thriller We Need to Talk About Kevin as well as being the future Flash in the DC comics films. He’s now set to be joining the cast of the Harry Potter spin off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. David Yates (Harry Potter 5-8) will direct with the cast already including Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything, My Week With Marilyn) and Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice, Broadwalk Empire) while Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, The Grand Budapest Hotel) and Dakota Fanning (Now is Good, Effie Grey) are competing for the second female lead.

Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them – November 18th

Forest Whitaker in Rogue One, Katherine Waterston joins Fantastic Beasts and Rupert Wyatt in line for Gambit

The first of the Star Wars Anthology series, Rogue One, has assembled an impressive team and cast but there’s been a new addition. Oscar winning actor Forest Whitaker (Platoon, Good Morning Vietnam, Panic Room, The Last King of Scotland, The Butler) is in negotiations to join the film. It’s unclear if this is a villainous role or more of a Obi-Wan esque mentor role. Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark) writes, Gareth Edwards (Godzilla) directs and the cast includes Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler, Four Lions), Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything, Like Crazy), Ben Mendelsohn (The Dark Knight Rises, Killing Them Softly), Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Riot Club) and Diego Luna (Elysium, The Terminal).

After Eddie Redmayne was cast as Newt Scamander, David Yates/JK Rowling’s Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has been looking for two female leads. Previously, the older casting was between Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby) and Kate Upton (The Other Woman) but the British star of Paul Thomas Anderson stoner comedy Katherine Waterston has instead been cast. The role has been revealed and Porpentina, whose younger sister Quennie will be played by either Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, The Grand Budapest Hotel), Lili Simmons (Banshee), Alison Sudol (Transparent) or Dakota Fanning (Coraline, Now is Good).

X-Men: Days of Future Past opened up the series to new areas to explore. This includes a sequel to First Class, Bryan Singer’s Apocalypse (2016, and also new spin offs such as Tim Miller’s Deadpool (2016), James Mangold’s Wolverine 3 (2017) and Josh Boone’s The New Mutants (2017). Channing Tatum (21 Jump Street, Foxcatcher) has been signed on to play Gambit for a long time but he has now found a director in the form of Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Escapist).

Gambit – October 7th 2016

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – November 18th 2016

Rogue One – December 16th 2016

Fantastic Beasts female lead rumours and Tilda Swinton in talks for Doctor Strange

Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them seems to have Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) in place as hero Newt Scamander but the search is on for two different female leads. Lead one seems to be targeting a younger set of actresses: Saoirse Ronan (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Atonement), Dakota Fanning (Coraline, Now is Good), Lili Simmons (Banshee, True Detective) and Alison Sudol (Dig, Transparent).

Lead two is considering Kate Upton (The Other Woman), Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice) and Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby). Personally, from those two list Ronan and Debicki seem the best fit for the series. Harry Potter veteran David Yates is set to direct.

They might be more renowned for their blockbuster friendly action and stars (Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Bradley Cooper) but Marvel have among their ranks plenty of venerable dramatic actors: Oscar winners Jeff Bridges (Obadiah Stane), Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts), Natalie Portman (Jane Foster), Anthony Hopkins (Odin), Tommy Lee Jones (Chester Phillips), Ben Kingsley (Mandarin), Robert Redford (Alexander Pierce) and six time nominee Glenn Close (Nova Prime) have all joined the MCU. The next Oscar winner to join is Tilda Swinton.

The British star of We Need to Talk About Kevin, Moonrise Kingdom and Michael Clayton is in talks to join fantasy action Doctor Strange. Three men (Morgan Freeman, Bill Nighy, Ken Watanabe) were rumoured to in line for the mentor role of The Ancient One but the gender of the character has been controversially altered from the comics. Scott Derickson (Sinister) directs the cast of Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game, Star Trek Into Darkness), Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave, Children of Men) and Daniel Bruhl (Rush, The Bourne Ultimatum).

Doctor Strange – October 28th 2016

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – November 18th 2016

Ian McKellen joins Beauty and the Beast and Eddie Redmayne favourite for Fantastic Beasts

Following the financial successes Alice in Wonderland ($1 billion), Snow White and the Huntsman ($395 million), Maleficent ($760 million), Cinderella ($405 million+), Oz the Great and Powerful ($495 million) and Into the Woods ($205 million) there’s now talks of Pinocchio and Dumbo entering the production mill. In the more immediate future, a live action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast is on the way and has just cast Ian McKellen (X-Men, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit) as the living clock Cogsworth.

This is his third collaboration with Oscar winning writer/director Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Kinsey, Dreamgirls, Mr Holmes) who directs the cast of Emma Watson (Harry Potter, Noah), Dan Stevens (The Guest, Downton Abbey), Luke Evans (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Fast & Furious 6), Josh Gad (Frozen, The Wedding Ringer), Audra McDonald (Private Practice), Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda, Cry Freedom) and Emma Thompson (Saving Mr Banks, Love Actually, The Remains of the Day).

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a spin off of the incredibly successful Harry Potter films, has been in development for ages but is only now at the casting stage. Eddie Redmayne, the recently Oscar winning star of The Theory of Everything, is the current favourite for the role of Newt Scamander, a wizard who travels the world in search of its most fearsome creatures. Matt Smith (Doctor Who, Terminator: Genisys) and Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class, Warm Bodies) previously mentioned in connection with the film but it’d appear that Redmayne is the closest to taking the role for director David Yates (The Girl in the Cafe, Harry Potter).

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – November 18th 2016

Beauty and the Beast – 2017

David Yates to pursue Fantastic Beasts, Jennifer Lawrence in talks for Tarantino’s latest and Spielberg’s Minority Report up for TV

In 2016 we will witness an expansion of the world of Harry Potter; Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will depict adventurer Newt Scamander documenting the world’s most fearsome creatures seventy years before Harry’s arrival at Hogwarts. The writer of the legendary book series JK Rowling will tackle the screenplay for the first time while the search for a director as so far proved fruitless. Alfonso Cuaron, Oscar winning director of Gravity and Children of Men as well as the acclaimed third Potter instalment Prisoner of Azkaban, reportedly turned down the job leaving suggestions for other previous directors of the franchise. Both Philosopher’s Stone/Chamber of Secrets’ Chris Columbus and Goblet of Fire’s Mike Newell have somewhat lost their way since. David Yates, helmer of films 5-8, would then seem a viable choice were he not preoccupied with the new adaptation of Tarzan. Variety have know reported that Yates may wriggle through scheduling conflicts to direct both as he’s now in talks to direct Fantastic Beasts.

 

 

 

It wasn’t long ago that The Hateful Eight was dead. Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill, Jackie Brown, Inglourious, Reservoir Dogs, Django Unchained, Pulp Fiction) had announced his new Western thriller but then cancelled after a script leak. However, when a live script read proved massively popular, the project kicked back into gear. Samuel L Jackson (The Avengers, Jurassic Park), Kurt Russell (The Thing, Vanilla Sky) and Bruce Dern (Nebraska, Coming Home) have already been cast but it’s now rumoured that one of today’s biggest stars may also join the ensemble. Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence, best known as star of Winter’s Bone, American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook as well as franchise figurehead Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, is rumoured to be in talks for a role in the film.

Thanks to the massive successes of The Sopranos, Mad Men, Game of Thrones and their like, television is no longer perceived as a step down for film stars, rather an equally respectable art form. It has attracted huge stars such as Matthew MacConaughey and Woody Harrelson to True Detective or Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright to House of Cards. With quality at a high, there’s been an resurgence of shows based on films. The most recent was the brilliant adaptation of the Coen brothers’ cult classic Fargo, starring Martin Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton. Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys is next up although that’s far less promising.

The latest to get snapped up is Minority Report, a greatly underated high concept sci-fi thriller. Steven Spielberg (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Colour Purple, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Munich, Lincoln, Jurassic Park) was the director for the 2002 release whilst Tom Cruise, Max Von Sydow and Colin Farrell starred. We can see the concept, a Phillip K Dick invention of detectives preventing future murders from occurring after witnessing them in precognitive visions, working well in serial form as a futuristic crime drama. Spielberg will produce the show while Godzilla’s Max Borenstein is set to write it.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – November 18th 2016

The Hateful Eight – December 2015

Minority Report – 2016?

 

Cuaron retreats from Fantastic Beasts and Kinberg teases original mutants for X-Men: Apoclypse

The spin off of the most successful film franchise of all time (Harry Potter) has a confirmed writer (JK Rowling), release date (November 2016) and title (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them). The fantasy adventure will depict legendary wizard Newt Scamander travelling the world in search of its most fearsome creatures, seventy years before Harry and co read the textbook based on his notes. The next logical step is the appointment of a director and the only one of those to be mentioned in contention for the job was Oscar winner Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Gravity). However, the Mexican has confirmed that it’s not in his plans. He’s taking a quick break from directing but has expressed interest in making a back to roots horror with fewer time-consuming visual effects. He’s still yet to offer comment on the rumour of his part in The Shining prequel The Overlook Hotel.

Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men, X2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Apt Pupil, Valkyrie) is set to bring sci-fi disaster epic X-Men: Apocalypse (the eight in the series) to us in 2016 with the First Class graduates Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult and James McAvoy as well as Channing Tatum and Hugh Jackman (still waiting for word on Evan Peters, Lucas Till and Rose Byrne). We weren’t sure if the main cast would expand beyond this until writer Simon Kinberg announced that “It will focus primarily on the First Class cast but it will certainly have some of the original cast involved, too.”

The return of the original X-Men (James Marsden, Famke Janssen, Kelsey Grammer, Ben Foster, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn) cast has long been rumoured but this is the first real confirmation. Many of them (Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry, Daniel Cudmore, Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, Ellen Page, Ian McKellen) do reappear in this month’s DOFP, which is making a huge impact on the box office.

Also today, the ever excellent Empire Magazine are celebrating their 301st issue and their 25th birthday with a poll of the 301 greatest films of all time, voted for by the fans. So, to find out if Rocky knocked out Raging Bull, if Lord of the Rings (You Shall Not) passed Avatar, if The Dark Knight rised over Avengers or if Star Wars shrieked “Noooooo!” as Shawshank, Pulp Fiction, Inception, Fight Club or Godfather beat it to the top spot, click here. You can find the full list as well as Empire’s monthly goodness in their next issue this Thursday.

X-Men: Apocalypse – May 19th 2016

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – November 18th 2016

Gravity’s Cuaron could be booked into The Overlook Hotel and Gareth Edwards is rumoured for Star Wars

We’ve known for some time that JJ Abrams will revive Star Wars with 2015’s Episode VII, 2017’s Episode VIII and 2019’s Episode IX however a standalone Star Wars spin off will interject each in instalment in 2016, 2018 and 2020. There’s been high levels of speculation regarding these spin offs focus with the polls lead by Boba Fett, Han Solo, Yoda and Red Squadron.

There’s still no word on which of these will get the prequel treatment but there’s been huge news with the confirmation that British director Gareth Edwards, who has mastered monsters the the small scale sci-fi/horror/drama Monsters and on one of the biggest yet in this year’s reboot of Godzilla, has been roped in by Lucasfilm for the first of the spin offs. If your now worried about the integrity of Godzilla 2 then don’t as Edwards has stated that he’s still set for both projects.

The concept of an expansion of Stanley Kubrick/Stephen King’s psychological horror The Shining but, excluding the unsuccessful 1997 miniseries and 2012’s fan conspiracy documentary Room 237, nothing’s really materialised. Almost 35 years on from the original, it’s reported that Oscar winning Mexican Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Gravity) has been offered the directing job in The Shining’s prequel The Overlook Hotel. However (with Cuaron also offered the gig on Harry Potter spin off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), it’s likely he’ll only make one of these projects if any.

Is Cuaron the right man for The Shining? Would you rather the film’s various mysteries never get definitive answers? Tell us what you think about The Overlook as well as your thoughts on Edwards’ Star Wars in the comments.

The Overlook Hotel – 2017?

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – November 18th 2016

Star Wars: Episode VII – December 18th 2015

Untitled Star Wars spin off – 2016

Godzilla 2 – 2017

Fantastic Beasts rumours Alfonso Cuaron and work begins on Godzilla 2

The obvious next step for JK Rowling’a Harry Potter spin off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, having likely got together a script, is to find a director but they are going back through their list of former Potter directors to see if they’re interested. There were four director across the eight films: Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuaron, Mike Newell and David Yates. Unsurprisingly, Cuaron is rumoured to be the first director to be approached for the film. Since he made his mark on the series with Prisoner of Azkaban (our personal favourite from the bunch), the Mexican has made the smash hit sci-fi thrillers Children of Men and Gravity (which one seven Oscar – winning Best Director, Cinematography and Editing and nominated for Best Picture and Best Leading Actress – last year) so his return will be most welcome.

Our review of Gareth Edwards’ new vision of Godzilla is coming very soon but you’ve likely picked up that it became the US’ second biggest opening weekend release of the year so far, only slightly behind Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and took an astonishing $190 million worldwide. It isn’t too far fetched to expect distant roars of a sequel headed our way. Writer Max Borenstein has expressed interest but everyone’s wondering what could be the new film’s focus. The word of the day seems to be Mothra, another legendary monster from the time that certainly was hinted at in the new film, but we’re interested if the sequel will just stick with Godzilla. Many monster film, and disaster films in general, give very little thought to its human characters but that’s something the new film got right. It needs to dedicate to that ideal by reviving the likes of Aaron Taylor Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen and Sally Hawkins to retain humanity’s presence.

Godzilla 2 – 2017?

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – November 18th 2016