Fault in Our Stars wins at MTVs, Rebecca Hall joins BFG and Stallone in first still from Creed

BIrdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Birdman, Guardians of the Galaxy and Boyhood were among the most celebrated films of the previous awards season but the MTV Awards have a history of selecting mainstream flicks. Previous films to have been crowned include Terminator 2, A Few Good Men, Scream, There’s Something About Mary, The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, Napoleon Dynamite, Wedding Crashers, Transformers, Twilight, The Avengers and The Hunger Games: Caching Fire. Last night’s results are in on the 2015 awards (novelty awards included).

Best Movie:

The Fault in Our Stars
American Sniper
Boyhood
Gone Girl
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
Selma
Whiplash

Best Male Performance:

Bradley Cooper – American Sniper
Ansel Elgort – The Fault in Our Stars
Chris Pratt – Guardians of the Galaxy
Channing Tatum – Foxcatcher
Miles Teller – Whiplash

Best Female Performance:

Shailene Woodley – The Fault in Our Stars
Scarlett Johansson – Lucy
Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
Emma Stone – Birdman
Reese Witherspoon – Wild

Best Breakthrough Performance:

Dylan O’Brien – The Maze Runner
Ellar Coltrane – Boyhood
Ansel Elgort – The Fault in Our Stars
David Oyelowo – Selma
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl

Best Scared Performance:

Jennifer Lopez – The Boy Next Door
Zack Gildford – The Purge: Anarchy
Dylan O’Brien – The Maze Runner
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Annabelle Wallis – Annabelle

Best On Screen Duo:

Zac Efron & Dave Franco – Bad Neighbours
Bradley Cooper & Vin Diesel – Guardians of the Galaxy
James Franco & Seth Rogen – The Interview
Channing Tatum & Jonah Hill – 22 Jump Street
Shailene Woodley & Ansel Elgort – The Fault in Our Stars

Best Shirtless Performance:

Zac Efron – Bad Neighbours
Ansel Elgort – The Fault in Our Stars
Chris Pratt – Guardians of the Galaxy
Channing Tatum – Foxcatcher
Kate Upton – The Other Woman

Best Fight:

Dylan O’Brien vs Will Poulter – The Maze Runner
Chris Evans vs Sebastian Stan – Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Jonah Hill vs Jillian Bell – 22 Jump Street
Edward Norton vs Michael Keaton – Birdman
Seth Rogen vs Zac Efron – Bad Neighbours

Best Kiss:

Ansel Elgort & Shailene Woodley – The Fault in Our Stars
Rose Byrne & Halston Sage – Bad Neighbours
James Franco & Seth Rogen – The Interview
Andrew Garfield & Emma Stone – The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Scarlett Johansson & Chris Evans – Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Best WTF Moment:

Seth Rogen & Rose Byrne – Bad Neighbours
Rosario Dawson & Anders Holm – Top Five
Jonah Hill – 22 Jump Street
Jason Sudeikis & Charlie Day – Horrible Bosses 2
Miles Teller – Whpilash

Best Villain:

Meryl Streep – Into the Woods
Jillian Bell – 22 Jump Street
Peter Dinklage – X-Men: Days of Future Past
(Spoilers) – Gone Girl
JK Simmons – Whiplash

Best Musical Moment:

Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
Bill Hader & Kristen Wiig – The Skeleton Twins
Chris Pratt – Guardians of the Galaxy
Seth Rogen & Zac Efron – Bad Neighbours
Miles Teller – Whiplash

Best Comedic Performance:

Channing Tatum – 22 Jump Street
Rose Byrne – Bad Neighbours
Kevin Hart – The Wedding Ringer
Chris Pratt – Guardians of the Galaxy
Chris Rock – Top Five

Best On Screen Transformation:

Elizabeth Banks – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
Steve Carell – Foxcacher
Ellar Coltrane – Boyhood
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything
Zoe Saldana – Guardians of the Galaxy

Best Hero:

Dylan O’Brien – The Maze Runner
Shailene Woodley – Insurgent
Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
Martin Freeman – The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Chris Pratt – Guardians of the Galaxy

Trailblazer Award:

Shailene Woodley (The Descendants, Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars, The Spectacular Now)

Comedic Genius Award:

Kevin Hart (Get Hard, Ride Along, Think Like a Man, The Wedding Ringer)

Generation Award:

Robert Downey Jr (The Avengers, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Sherlock Holmes, Zodiac)

Here’s the winners’ leaderboard:

Bad Neighbours, The Fault in Our Stars, The Maze Runner – 3
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – 2
22 Jump Street, American Sniper, The Boy Next Door, Into the Woods – 1

With various big names already attached to his fantasy adventure The BFG, famed director Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, Lincoln) has enlisted even more cast members for the project. Rebecca Hall, the Golden Globe and BAFTA nominated star of Iron Man 3, The Town, The Prestige and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, was the first major addition in an announcement that included Jemaine Clement (What We Do in the Shadows, Flight at the Conchords) and Penelope Wilton (Shaun of the Dead, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel). The cast already includes Mark Rylance (Wolf Hall, Bridge of Spies), Bill Hader (Superbad, The Skeleton Twins) and Martin Freeman (Fargo, Sherlock, The Hobbit trilogy).

It’s so far unclear if the new film Creed will be an Oscar favourite or a limp reboot of the lagging Rocky franchise (one that began with a Best Picture win in 1976 steadily declined through four sequels in the 1980s and returned with the minor hit of 2006’s Rocky Balboa). The new addition of the franchise has Michael B Jordan (Chronicle, The Fantastic Four) reteaming with his Fruitvale Station (an acclaimed urban drama) director Ryan Coogler to play Creed’s grandson who recruits Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone – First Blood) as his new mentor to become a new boxing legend. The film’s first still has been revealed. Graham McTavish (The Hobbit, Outlander) and Tessa Thompson (Selma, Dear White People).

Creed – November 25th

The BFG – July 22nd 2016

First trailers for The Invisible Woman and I, Frankenstein plus Tarantino’s films of 2013 and new casting for Home

Aaron Eckhart’s upcoming action I, Frankenstein looks like it could be the big dark fantasy of 2014. Stuart Beattie was the writer of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and director of teen adventure Tomorrow, When the War Began and now this effects filled horror. The Frankenstein Monster (Eckhart) is now a 200 year old living in present day hiding under the name of Adam. He’s recruited to end a war between two immortal clans with his surprising superhuman strength and agility. Bill Nighy (Love Actually), Yvonne Strahovski (Dexter), Jai Courtney (A Good Day to Die Hard), Miranda Otto (The Lord of the Rings) and Caitlin Stasey (Tomorrow, When the War Began) make up the cast for this film and all feature in this new trailer which offers a first glimpse at the film.

Our next trailer is for The Invisible Woman. Ralph Fiennes (Skyfall, Harry Potter, Schindler’s List, The English Patient) stars in and directs the new period drama in which he portrays Charles Dickens in the classic Victorian author’s relatively untold true story. Despite being married and at the height of his career, finds himself obsessed with his younger secret lover Nelly Ternan (Felicity Jones). Kristn Scott Thomas (Only God Forgives), Michelle Fairly (Game of Thrones) and Tom Hollander (Rev, Gosford Park) also star.

Moving on, there’s been some new additions to the cast of Home. This Dreamworks (Kung-Fu Panda, Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon animation is about a quirky group of aliens called the Boov landing on Earth to seek refuge from their villainous enemies. Joining three time Emmy award winner Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) and pop star Rihanna (who had brief acting experience in Battleship) are 5 time Golden Globe nominee Steve Martin (The Jerk, Three Amigos) and Jennifer Lopez (Out of Sight)

Finally, we have the Top Ten films of the year so far according to legendary director Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs and many others). The two time Oscar winner has released his expert view on the year’s releases so far and it’s got a good mix of mainstream hits and indie dramas.

1. Afternoon Daylight (Jill Soloway)
2. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)
3. Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen)
4. The Conjuring (James Wan)
5. Drinking Buddies (Joe Swanberg)
6. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
7. Gravity (Alfonso Cauron)
8. Kick-Ass 2 (Jeff Wadlow)
9. The Lone Ranger (Gore Verbinski)
10. This is the End (Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg)

There’s quite a few surprises in this list. Before Midnight, Blue Jasmine, Frances Ha and Gravity were likely due to their good (excellent, in Gravity’s case) reviews. Drinking Buddies and Afternoon Daylight I haven’t seen but they didn’t seem to be major critical successes with US critics (mainly 3 star reviews) but they seem to have struck a chord with Tarantino. There’s also four massively mainstream releases in the list (which is surprising for the director known for making the kind of action films that flip the genre). Kick-Ass 2 wasn’t a hit with even some of the fans of the first film but the increased violence of the sequel was unlikely to put off the director of Pulp Fiction. The Lone Ranger (which I applauded in my review of Verbinki’s Western) pushed many US critics into the zone of reviewing the film before they’ve seen it but Tarantino’s interest in the Western genre after his huge success with Django Unchained. The most surprising perhaps are This is the End which seemed a just above average comedy and The Conjuring which is a fairly soft-core horror.

The Invisible Woman – February 7th 2014

I, Frankenstein – 24th January 2014

Home – 5th December 2014