This year’s mammoth blockbuster X-Men: Days of Future Past relaunched the franchise by intertwining the stories of the modern team (Storm, Iceman, Kitty, Colossus, Rogue) and the twentieth century’s lot (Beast, Havok, Quicksilver, Gambit). They’re linked by the time travelling antics of Wolverine who must end the three way feud between Professor X, Magneto and Mystique. It’s the First Class graduates who take focus in the next instalment of the franchise, Apocalypse.
As well as introducing the legendary, titular comic book villain, it has long been rumoured to be featuring younger versions of some of the 2000 team, in particular Cyclops (formerly James Marsden) and Jean Grey (formerly Famke Janssen). For the laser-vision equipped Scott Summers, the trio of Charlie Rowe (Never Let Me Go), unknown Ben Hardy and Timothee Chalamet (Cooper’s son Tom in Interstellar) are in the running. For Grey, an unstable mutant with telekinesis, two A-listers are in consideration.
The first is Chloe Grace Moretz, probably the most famed of the two after the massive success of Kick-Ass. The seventeen year old kept a firm place on the map with the Oscar winning Hugo but has slipped a little in the last year or two with the generic likes of teen weepie If I Stay, rom-com Say When, horror remake Carrie and the flop sequel Kick-Ass 2. Hailee Steinfeld is the other and is probably the more lauded following a Oscar nomination (shamefully for Supporting Actress and not Leading) for the Coens’ masterful western True Grit. She’s since starred in the surprisingly successful musical comedy Begin Again. I’d tip the balance in favour of Moretz for this role but it’ll depend on whether she’s up for it too.
Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, Valkyrie, Days of Future Past) directs with the cast of James McAvoy (Atonement, The Last King of Scotland), Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave, 300), Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games, Silver Linings Playbook), Hugh Jackman (The Prestige, Les Miserables), Nicholas Hoult (Warm Bodies, A Single Man), Evan Peters (American Horror Story) and Channing Tatum (21 Jump Street, Foxcatcher).
It’s fair to say that Jonathan Nolan is yet to achieve the success of his older brother Christopher, the mastermind behind Inception, Memento, The Prestige, Insomnia, The Following, Interstellar and The Dark Knight trilogy. Jonathan still penned the original Memento short novel, scribed The Prestige, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar with Chris and launched the TV show Person of Interest (now in its fourth season). He’s gathered a stellar cast for his televised reboot of Westworld, a fantastic sci-fi thriller from 1973 in which the robots at a Western theme park turn on their customers. It has now gained the backing of a full series order for HBO.
Westworld stars James Marsden (X-Men, The Butler), Miranda Otto (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, War of the Worlds), Jeffrey Wright (Casino Royale, Source Code), Evan Rachel Wood (The Ides of March, The Wrestler), Rodrigo Santoro (300, Che), Thandie Newton (Crash, The Pursuit of Happyness), Ed Harris (Gravity, The Truman Show), Ingrid Bolso Berdal (Hercules) and Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs, The Remains of the Day, Thor).
Earlier this year, Days of Future Past, the fantastic seventh instalment in the X-Men franchise, became a phenomenal success critically and commercially; it’s easily the best of the series so far and the highest grossing of the year so far but those yet to see it may want to avoid the next SPOILER HEAVY paragraph.
You may well remember that Anna Paquin’s Rogue was initially set to return in the sequel/prequel/crossover as part of the 2023 team but she was completely cut bar the lineless cameo alongside James Marsden, Famke Janssen and Kelsey Grammer in the alternate future. Since then we’ve learned that the original plan was for Rogue to have been captured by the Sentinels prompting an attempted rescue by Magneto (Ian McKellen) and Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) whilst Wolverine is being sent back, a scene briefly glimpsed in the trailer. We’d love to see this scene in an extended cut of the film as it’d provide more screentime to the criminally underused McKellen.
Taking to Twitter for a Q&A, director Bryan Singer (X-Men 2, Valkyrie, The Usual Suspects) responded to a fan’s plea for a director’s cut with the above scene with “Yes! Coming later this year.” Hopefully out for Christmas, the director’s cut will star Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Patrick Stewart, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Ellen Page, Evan Peters, Omar Sy, Fan Bingbing, Halle Berry and Ian McKellen.
Last year, the production of Star Wars: Episode VII took to the road across the UK holding numerous auditions with thousands turning up for the chance of a part. When the main cast was unveiled only young Brit Daisy Ridley seemed to have come from the auditions but now a pair of unknowns are confirmed as part of the new ensemble. The UK’s Pip Andersen and America’s Crystal Clarke have been selected for roles yet to be revealed by the new Star Wars brain trust, the writing/directing combination of Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Empire Strikes Back), Josh Trank (Chronicle), Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla), Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), JJ Abrams (Star Trek Into Darkness, Lost, Super 8) and Rian Johnson (Breaking Bad, Brick, Looper).
Episode VII will star Andy Serkis (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Lord of the Rings), Domhnall Gleeson (About Time), Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), Harrison Ford (Blade Runner), Mark Hamill (Arkham City), Carrie Fisher (The Blues Brothers), Adam Driver (Tracks), John Boyega (Imperial Dreams, Attack the Block), Daisy Ridley (Toast of London), Peter Mayhew (Killer Ink), Kenny Baker (Amadeus, Labyrinth), Anthony Daniels (The Lego Movie), Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis, The Two Faces of January), Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) and Max Von Sydow (The Exorcist, Minority Report, Shutter Island).
There have been countless on screen incarnations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary Victorian detective Sherlock Holmes but three are running simultaneously right now. Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law star in the blockbuster big screen adaptation, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman take the leads in BBC’s modern reinvention and Johnny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu in the indirect US remake Elementary. Our perception of the character could well be rewritten with the new portrayal coming from two time Oscar nominee Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, X-Men, Apt Pupil).
Mr Holmes, previously titled A Slight Trick of the Mind, sees an elderly version of the detective retiring to a beekeeping home in the mid-twentieth century and recalling his one unsolvable case. Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, The Fifth Estate) also directs Laura Linney (Kinsey, The Truman Show, Mystic River. A first look at the film (above) was revealed earlier today.
The upcoming biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings is finally beginning to take shape. Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, American Gangster, Gladiator) directs the Oscar hopeful which may well be the grandest scale seen on film yet. If it’s as good as it promises there should be masses of box office interest. Get a very first glimpse at the film here and find the first poster below. Exodus will star Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, Ben Kingsley, Aaron Paul and Sigourney Weaver.
Exodus – December 26th
Mr Holmes – 2015
X-Men: Days of Future Past – The Director’s Cut – late 2014
There were worries that, post-Deathly Hallows, the Harry Potter franchise’s titular star Daniel Radcliffe would never by able to become a credible actor in the shadow of his famous role. He’s yet to star in any blockbuster action but he’s building himself up as a genuine star with roles in indie films such as Horns, What If and Kill Your Darlings. He is set to be returning to the land of mainstream with Victor Frankenstein and Tokyo Vice but he’s now hinting at a far bigger gig.
“If they reboot that again, I’ll do that too,” said Radcliffe of the Batman series. “It’s happening, isn’t it? With Ben Affleck. I could be Robin! I’m perfect.” It’s quite likely that the Brit is teasing the media who so often inflate any loose statement from him into a full blown confirmation. Even if this is reliable, Robin is no longer a credible character so an appearance from Nightwing would be more probable. Zack Snyder’s (300, Watchmen, Man of Steel) sequel Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice will star Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Amy Adams, Ray Fisher, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Jeremy Irons and Laurence Fishburne.
Looking into the future, only certain projects have been confirmed to be expanding (or X-panding) the X-Men universe. They are Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Apocalypse (focussing on the First Class graduates of Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Evan Peters, Channing Tatum and Hugh Jackman) and James Mangold’s Wolverine 3 as well as the in-development X-Force (Jeff Wadlow), Mystique, Gambit and Deadpool (Tim Miller/Ryan Reynolds). One instalment that fans are beginning to cry out for is a follow up for stars of the original trilogy (Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, James Marsden, Famke Janssen, Shawn Ashmore, Ellen Page, Daniel Cudmore, Anna Paquin, Ben Foster and Ian McKellen). Golden Globe winner Kelsey Grammer, who brilliantly portrayed Beast/Hank McCoy in the disappointing The Last Stand, has expressed interest in returning. “I hope to do another,” confirms the star. “I hope they find some way to come up with a new story that involves Beast in my timeline.”
Well X-Men, Godzilla, Lego and Cap have been and gone and it’ll be another few months before Interstellar and Hobbit get to fill our screens so right now Guardians of the Galaxy and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes have our attention for this summer. Today, we’re talking about the former as our buddies from the ever-brilliant Empire have unveiled the very first look at Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Lincoln) flanked by fellow villains Nebula (Karen Gillan – Doctor Who, Oculus) and Korath (Djimon Hounsou – Gladiator, Blood Diamond). James Gunn (Slither, Super) commands the cast of Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, John C Reilly, Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin.
Starring:Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Ellen Page, Evan Peters, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Shawn Ashmore, Halle Berry, Omar Sy, Josh Helman, Lucas Till, Fan Bingbing, Adan Canto, Booboo Stewart, Daniel Cudmore, Evan Jonigkeit, Mark Camacho
Across fourteen years and seven movies, the X-Men have always been far behind their other Marvel counterparts, such as the multi billion Avengers or Spider-Man, at the box office and in recent years have slipped back from their critical credibility; the series only three three instalments to really be proud of, namely 1, 2 and First Class. Fox’s masterplan to return X-Men to its status as the superhero monopoly is to bring back Bryan Singer (the man who made the mutants into a success), take one the most famous X-Men storylines (Phoenix and Hellfire Club are already taken), unite two very different casts and ramp up the budget to $200 million, risky business for a franchise yet to individually surpass the $500 million mark.
The year is 2023 and The Sentinels, adapting robots programmed to kill all mutants and humans carrying the X-Gene, have ravaged the world into an apocalyptic wasteland. The remaining X-Men, Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (McKellen), Storm (Berry), Colossus (Cudmore) and Iceman (Ashmore), opt to use the powers of Kitty Pryde (Page) to project Wolverine’s (Jackman) consciousness into his body fifty years ago in order to prevent Mystique (Lawrence) from inadvertently instigating The Sentinels’ creation. To do this, Logan must unite the younger Charles (McAvoy) and Erik (Fassbender) at a time that they couldn’t be further apart.
Days of Future Past has divided opinion but it’s indisputable that its increase in scale confirms it as the first truly epic mutant adventure. It’s immensely exciting for X-Men comic fans to, at last, see the series finally reaching The Avengers’ heights. It may well be overshadowed by the recent Godzilla but, painstakingly trying to not give too much away, Magneto’s stadium sequence is one of the great set pieces of the year.
While arguably scattershot and rough in its plot, the film’s script, constructed in chief by Simon Kinberg, Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn, is the first to have genuine power in its dialogue – fans may get teary. The decision to make Mystique the villain who has to be stopped philosophically rather than physically is inspired. The Dark Knight can sleep easy and its still the best superhero film of all time but DOFP is by far the most emotional.
Across the giant ensemble, the majority of that emotional power comes from a masterful performance from James McAvoy. His Xavier is a broken one since his crippling incident eleven years before, regularly taking a serum that gives his legs life but crucially takes away his telepathic powers. Logan was once a recluse reformed by Xavier and, although the Canadian is infamously intolerant, he must now return the favour. This leads to the most electrifying discussion there’s been in an action movie in a meeting of minds between McAvoy and the equally admirable Patrick Stewart.
Hugh Jackman meanwhile is channelling his usual action steeliness but thankfully this is the first time that he’s really owned the role since X2. Wolverine’s action in this instalment is excellently wince inducing, at last ridding the artificial feel of the other films’ violence. The rebar sequence is exactly how to genuinely horrify within the 12A region
She may not have a scratch on Katniss (The Hunger Games) or Tiffany (Silver Linings Playbook) but Mystique is fastly becoming an icon of Jennifer Lawrence’s career and the X-Men franchise in general. Here, she finally has a role pivotal to the plot and Lawrence portrays the shapeshifter with a perfect mix of angst and mysterious allure.
Despite the mega cast, all the buzz seems to be around Evan Peters’ scene-stealingly charismatic portrayal of Quicksilver and deservedly so. Pietro Maximoff’s super speed antics during the Pentagon raid are undoubtedly the funniest action scenes there have ever been. I’ve now got serious doubts in Aaron Taylor Johnson’s performance in the upcoming Avengers sequel Age of Ultron.
Nick Hoult’s Beast (who subscribes to the same serum as Xavier) and Ellen Page’s Kitty (who’d be killed should the dormant Logan lash out at any given moment) are as lovable as ever while I admire the extension of continuity with the inclusion of minor roles such as Toad (Jonigkeit), Styker (Helman)and Havok (Till) but many classic characters are undernourished in a Xavier-centric storyline, most obviously Magneto. The series’ most formidable actor Ian McKellen is given frustratingly little to do while it seems that his younger counterpart Michael Fassbender never quite has the full on menace that he had in First Class.
Also criminally underused is fan favourite Storm, the only mutant who actually needs an origin story. While Berry herself brilliantly kicks off the most devastating scene in the film, she hardly gets a line in within the sprawling action and the same goes for Shawn Ashmore’s (now) bearded Iceman. Less surprisingly, Colossus is again deprived of the development he gets in the comics; casting Magik for future films could bring him to the forefront of the narrative. Maybe we shoud just feel lucky that they made it; we all know what happened to Anna Paquin’s Rogue
Alongside the traditional X-Men, DOFP introduces a new roster of mutants, Bishop, Warpath, Sunspot and Blink, about 50% of which are awesome. Blink, played by China’s Fan Bingbing, can essentially play Valve’s Portal in real life (the dream of every gamer) without the device while time traveller Bishop (French star Omar Sy), as well as giving the team some much needed ethnic diversity, just has a boss blaster. They both accelerate the mayhem of the frantic but ingenious opening set piece. Sadly, the addition of Sunspot (Adan Canto) and Warpath (Booboo Stewart) may excite the fans but their lack of contribution to anything but the spectacle only increased frustration that so many got so little.
The spectacle is something that Days of Future Past gets bang on. Singer doesn’t formulaically stream the CG into our eyes but uses to terrifying effect with the mutant targeting robots known as the Sentinels, the creation of falsely martyred monster Bolivar Trask (impeccably played by Peter Dinklage). They do begin as a bit of a standard giant robot in the ’70s setting but, in the future, they become truly demonic beasts.
Singer’s return to X-Men isn’t as dark as Watchmen, as smart as The Dark Knight or as plainly fun as The Avengers yet it has read a page of all of their books and is easily the most emotional superhero film of all time. It ramps the scale up to 11 and still retains its human drama. Way too many major stars get stuck in tiny roles but arguably that allows leads McAvoy, Stewart, Lawrence, Hoult, Jackman, Page and Peters to excel and it finally has a narrative that revolutionizes what we thought we knew about X-Men.
9/10
“The past: a place of potential promise, and possibility. We are the sum of our choices, as what we do now defines what we will do. Infinite decisions mean infinite consequences, for the future is never truly set.”
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
There’s little over a week until the release of X-Men: Days of Future Past, a time travel sequel predicted to become the biggest film of 2014 so far. Its two settings, 1974 and 2024, are setting up two story threads that the series is attempting to follow with future instalments. The only two that we can firmly say are coming soon are Bryan Singer’s (The Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil, Valkyrie, X-Men 2) X-Men: Apocalypse and James Mangold (3:10, Walk the Line, Girl Interrupted, The Wolverine) Wolverine 3. Oscar nominee Hugh Jackman, a star busy working on Les Mis 2: Dream a Dream Harder!!!, and his iconic anti-hero Wolverine has been in every X-Men film so far and yet his involvement in Apocalypse hasn’t been confirmed.
He managed to let that slip today when he announced his intentions to film Apocalypse and Wolverine 3 back-to-back, confirming his participation in the sci-fi epic. The two projects are likely to be Jackman’s final in the role. He joins James McAvoy (Professor X), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique) and Nicholas Hoult (Beast) while its rumoured that younger versions of Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, Jean Grey and Gambit (traditionally played by James Marsden, Halle Berry, Alan Cumming, Famke Janssen and Taylor Kitsch) will feature. Other X-Men projects we still want to get out there are Jeff Wadlow’s X-Force, Tim Miller’s Deadpool, Lauren Shuler Donner’s Gambit and Mystique.
We recently gained the confirmation that a 13 episode first (potentially of many) season of SHIELD origin story Agent Carter will be filling in the mid-season gap between the two parts Agents of SHIELD season 2. Just to prove that the show is definite, Marvel have revealed an awesome new poster for the show which we hope will star Hayley Atwell, Dominic Cooper and Toby Jones. However, Carter isn’t the only comic book TV show to debut a new teaser image. DC and Danny Cannon’s Batman prequel Gotham (starring Ben McKenzie, Jada Pinkett Smith, Donal Logue and Sea Pertwee), which we can confirm will feature villains such as Penguin, Riddler, Poison Ivy and Catwoman, and Arrow spin off The Flash (starring Grant Gustin) also disclosed as few new sneak peeks. Note – for Gotham look out for the cat, the penguin poster, the plants running up the side of the building and the graffiti “?” hinting at what’s to come for the supporting cast.
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