Chris McKay hired for Lego Movie 2 and Domnhall Gleeson, Toby Kebbell and more rumoured as Doctor Doom

You can find our review of the excellent Lego Movie just here but the saga continues with the new sequel which has now given directing precedence to Chris McKay. Don’t get disappointed that the first film’s Phil Lord and Chris Miller aren’t in charge; McKay was both the original’s editor and animation director. Also, he shares a vague similarity with the pair in that he’s transferred from more adult material (Robot Chicken in this case) to the kids’ animations genre, like Lord and Miller did with 21 Jump Street. Nothing is known about the plot but we can’t wait to see the next adventure of Emmet and the Masterbuilders. We can hop for it to star Chris Pratt, Elizbaeth Banks, Morgan Freeman, Will Arnett, Liam Neeson, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie and Will Ferrell.

Months of rumours ended in the recent confirmation that Michael B Jordan (Fruitvale Station), Kate Mara (127 Hours), Miles Teller (The Spectacular Now) and BAFTA winning Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot, The Eagle, The Adventures of Tintin, King Kong, Jumper) will portray Fox’s new rebooting of The Fantastic Four, brought to us by Chronicle’s writer/director Josh Trank. However, the FF have always come with a certain Latverian dictator. The first official casting net for Doctor Doom has been released and one of the names is hugely exciting.

First up, there’s Toby Kebbell. The English star is well liked for Prince of Persia, RocknRolla and Dead Man Shoes and has Warcraft and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes coming up. Next, we’ve got BAFTA nominee Eddie Redmayne who impressed with Les Miserables, were he played Marius, and My Week With Marilyn and raises his star profile with Jupiter Ascending and The Theory of Everything soon. He’s followed by the BAFTA nominated indie actor Sam Riley, acclaimed for the likes of Control, On the Road and Brighton Rock but my personal pick of the quartet is Domhnall (son of Brendan) Gleeson, an excellent Irish star from the likes of Harry Potter, About Time, Dredd and True Grit. You may have recognised a common theme: young tall actors from the British Isles. Fox seems to be building a much younger cast which could be both a curse or a path to success.

The Lego Movie 2 – May 16th 2017

The Fantastic Four – June 18th 2015

Weekend box-office – 6th to 13th of March 2014 – will Non-Stop take flight?

It’s a good time to be Liam Neeson! As if starring in Star Wars, Taken, Schindler’s List and Batman Begins wasn’t enough, he’s following the huge box office success of Taken 2 with the brilliant Lego Movie, were he plays the face-switching lawman Good Cop/Bad Cop, and new box office candidate Non-Stop. The plane-set thriller seems to be lauded by some and loathed by others but the true success of a blockbuster lies in the money but it faced, in the UK, the debut of America’s three-week number-one smash hit Ride Along and, in the US, biblical epic Son of God, which was tipped to follow in the footsteps of The Passion of the Christ to become a surprise box-office sweep. Let’s see how they did.

US:

1. Non-Stop – Director: Juanne Collet Serra – $28.9 million
2. Son of God – Christopher Spencer – $25.6 million
3. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller – $20.8 million
4. 3 Days to Kill – McG – $5 million
5. The Monuments Men – George Clooney – $4.9 million

UK:

1. The Lego Movie – Chris Miller, Phil Lord – £3.2 million
2. Non-Stop – Juanne Collet Serra – £2.7 million
3. Ride Along – Tim Story – £1.4 million
4. The Book Thief – Brian Percival – £1.3 million
5. Mr Peabody and Sherman – Rob Minkoff – £0.8 million

Non-Stop has cracked the box office this week but the Lego Movie held firm at the top against three major new entries in the UK. Non-Stop made nearly three times less than Taken 2. Compared to its US run, Ride Along made a poor UK opening while WW2 drama The Book Thief made a modest fourth place debut. This week I scored 5/10 taking my running total to 85/180.

US:

1. 300: Rise of an Empire – Noam Murro
2. Non-Stop – Juanne Collet Serra
3. Mr Peabody and Sherman – Rob Minkoff
4. Son of God – Christopher Spencer
5. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller

UK:

1. 300: Rise of and Empire – Noam Murro
2. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
4. Non-Stop – Juanne Collet Serra
5. Ride Along – Tim Story

Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore in Non-Stop, this week’s US number one.

Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks, Alison Brie, Chris Pratt and Morgan Freeman (left to right from Batman) in The Lego Movie, this week’s UK number one.

The Lego Movie review

Directors: Phil Lord, Chris Miller

Starring: Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Will Arnett, Charlie Day, Alison Brie, Charlie Day, Nick Offerman, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Cobie Smulders

A dreadful error was made during the marketing campaign of The Lego Movie. Instead of teasing 100 minutes worth of hysteric, subtle satire, they’ve advertised a cheap animation complete with low brow jokes and character listing. Don’t let this put you off!

Lego City is a town of charming but narrow minded minifigure citizens who, unquestioning, follow the construction orders of their seemingly benevolent leader President Business (Ferrell). Emmet Brickowski (Pratt) is, unknowingly, perhaps the most gullible and uninteresting of them all. However, after he discovers the coveted Piece of Resistance, he is told by the determined rebel Wyldstyle (Banks) and soothsaying wizard Vitruvius (Freeman) that he is The Special, the one destined the end Business’ reign. Emmet journeys to other lands to meet his fellow Master-Builders but they all correctly doubt him to be their destined saviour.

The two generations attending this movie will know of two very different Legos. The elders recall a time of Danish bricks that called upon their owners to build whatever thy desired; the newcomers are part of a construction and gaming phenomenon that’s brilliantly tackled franchise after franchise with Star Wars, Indy, Pirates, Batman, Marvel, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and now The Hobbit and The Simpsons. This excellently caters to both audiences, perhaps the parents more so.

It may sound generic but the story, scribed by the film’s directors, is organically based around Lego. Despite numerous similarities to The Matrix, the real story is of the heroes’ endeavour to restore creativity to a world dictated by orders. The message, although at times it’s so blatant it feels as if it’s a candy coloured medicine injecting itself into our hearts, is one that’ll drastically hit hard at both kids and parents, maybe the latter more so.

Secondly, nearly all of the humour is spot on. It’s vastly silly but in a bizarre way rather than just plainly immature. The supporting roles of Freeman’s dotty wizard, Ferrell’s scheming mastermind, Neeson’s personality schismed Good Cop/Bad Cop, Arnett as Batman (perhaps the best Dark Knight parody to date: “Darkness! DUN! DUN! No parents!”) and Day as the hopelessly obsessed ’80 Something Guy are just hilarious and Pratt’s quietly adorable Emmet steals numerous scenes, the head-wheel sequence in particular.

The most admirable feature is the impeccable Lego animation. The hand crafted stop-motion is delightful as it is bold and brash, CG only being used in the most distant of images. There’s a huge amount going on; a DVD viewing maybe necessary in need to pick up every joke. Miller and Lord’s humour’s brilliantly judged, varying from pop culture references (which are so good I don’t want to spoil them by referencing) to parodying its own genre with the sickly pop tunes maximised to satirical brilliance.

9/10

“Everything is awesome!”

Weekend box-office – 27th of February to 5th March 2014 – will The Lego Movie build on its success

Can epic animation The Lego Movie keep up its winning ways? You’d think so but McG’s new star bloated action thriller 3 Days to Kill and Paul WS Anderson’s disaster epic Pompeii arrived to challenge the Danish bricks.

US:

1. The Lego Movie – Director: Chris Miller, Phil Lord – $31.5 million
2. 3 Days to Kill – McG – $12.3 million
3. Pompeii – Paul WS Anderson – $10 million
4. RoboCop – Jose Padhila – $9.4 million
5. The Monuments Men – George Clooney – $8.1 million

UK:

1. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller – £6 million
2. Mr Peabody and Sherman – Rob Minkoff – £1.7 million
3. Tinkerbell and The Pirate Fairy – Peggy Holmes – £1.2 million
4. The Monuments Men – George Clooney – £1.1 million
5. RoboCop – Jose Padhila – £0.9 million

Lego continues its reign of terror on the box office meaning RoboCop, Pompeii and The Monuments Men continue disappointing box office runs. I scored a disappointing 3/10 from last week, taking my running total to 80/170, but hopefully I can improve with these predictions:

US:

1. Non-Stop – Juanne Collet Serra
2. Son of God – Christopher Spencer
3. Pompeii – Paul WS Anderson
4. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller
5. RoboCop – Jose Padhila

UK:

1. Non-Stop – Juanne Collet Serra
2. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller
3. Ride Along – Tim Story
4. The Book Thief – Brian Percival
5. Mr Peabody and Sherman – Rob Minkoff

Emmet Brickowski (Chris Pratt) in The Lego Movie, this week’s UK and US box-office number one.

Weekend box-office – 19th to 26th of February 2014 – will RoboCop buy Lego for a dollar?

The LEGO Movie’s success has been pretty astronomical, both commercially and critically. Uninanimous four and five star reviews added to last week’s $70 million US opening led to the confirmation of sequel, scheduled for 2017, and our review of the animation is coming soon but the true test of a film’s box office success is if it can stay on top in the weeks to come. Sadly, LEGO had some tough competition this week with the new releases of RoboCop, About Last Night, Endless Love and Winter’s Tale while it made its debut in the UK. Let’s find out how it did.

US:

1. The LEGO Movie – Director: Phil Lord, Chris Miller – $49.8 million
2. About Last Night – Steve Pink – $25.6 million
3. RoboCop – Jose Padhila – $21.7 million
4. The Monument’s Men – George Clooney – $15.5 million
5. Endless Love – Shana Feste – $13.3 million

UK:

1. The LEGO Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller – £8.1 million
2. The Monument’s Men – George Clooney – £1.6 million
3. RoboCop – Jose Padhila – £1.5 million
4. Mr Peabody and Sherman – Rob Minkoff – £1.4 million
5. The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese – £1.1 million

My predictions from last week score me a vastly disappointing 1/10 taking my running total to 77/160. The LEGO Movie made a brilliant debut in the UK and held off tough competition across the Atlantic. About Last Night made a good entry while RoboCop made a remarkably poor opening. Valentine’s Day favourites Endless Love and Winter’s Tale opened at fifth and seventh respectively. The latter is terribly disappointing, making $8 million from a $60 million budget. Joining Lego and Monuments, new UK entries The Pirate Fairy and Cuban Fury debuted at sixth and seventh respectively.

US:

1. Pompeii  – Paul WS Anderson
2. The LEGO Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller
3. About Last Night – Steve Pink
4. RoboCop – Jose Padhila
5. The Monument’s Men – George Clooney

UK:

1. The LEGO Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller
2. The Monument’s Men – George Clooney
3. Stalingrad – Fyodor Bondarchuk
4. RoboCop – Jose Padhila
5. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch

Bad Cop (Liam Neeson) and Lord Business (Will Ferrell) in The LEGO Movie, this week’s UK and US number one.

Weekend box-office – 11th to 18th of January 2014 – will The LEGO Movie de-construct Monuments Men?

Both the UK and US box offices have had films completely dominate the box office recently. However, Ride Along and The Wolf of Wall Street both have to compete with two major releases each; The Wolf must face off with RoboCop and Mr Peabody and Sherman while Ride Along tackles head on The LEGO Movie and The Monuments Men. Find last week’s predictions here.

US:

1. The Lego Movie – Director: Phil Lord, Chris Miller – $69.1 million
2. The Monument’s Men – George Clooney – $22 million
3. Ride Along – Tim Story – $9.6 million
4. Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee – $6.9 million
5. Lone Survivor – Peter Berg – $5.6 million

UK:

1. Mr Peabody and Sherman – Rob Minkoff – £3.9 million
2. RoboCop – Jose Padhila – £2.4 million
3. The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese – £1.6 million
4. Dallas Buyers Club – Jean Marc Vallee – £1 million
5. 12 Years a Slave – Steve McQueen – £1 million

Toy adaptation The LEGO Movie has made a brilliant entry, trumping the flat release of Clooney’s WW2 drama Monument’s Men. RoboCop’s UK opening has been pretty sluggish, losing out to sci-fi comedy animation Mr Peabody – that doesn’t fair well for its US release next week. The Oscar laden Wolf of Wall Street, Dallas Buyers Club and 12 Years a Slave cap off the box-office this week. My predictions from last week score me 6/10 taking my running total to 76/150.

US:

1. RoboCop – Jose Padhila
2. The LEGO Movie – Chris Miller, Phil Lord
3. Endless Love – Shana Feste
4. Winter’s Tale – Akiva Goldsman
5. The Monument’s Men – George Clooney

UK:

1. The LEGO Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller
2. Mr Peabody and Sherman – Rob Minkoff
3. The Monument’s Men – George Clooney
4. Her – Spike Jonze
5. RoboCop – Jose Padhila

Mr Peabody and Sherman (voiced by Ty Burrell and Max Charles), this week’s UK box-office number one.

Emmet (Chris Pratt) and Batman (Will Arnett) in The LEGO Movie, this week’s US box office number one.

Tune in tomorrow at nine o’clock for our live BAFTA’s special. See you then.

Weekend box-office – 4th to 11th of January 2014 – will Ride Along and Wolf of Wall Street have That Awkward Moment?

Two films have have dominated the box office recently and their wrath as continued today. New entries such as Jack Ryan, I Frankenstein and That Awkward Moment haven’t been able to knock off The Wolf of Wall Street and Ride Along for a third week running, despite my predictions from last week.

US

1. Ride Along – Director: Tim Story – $12 million
2. Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee – $8.9 million
3. That Awkward Moment – Tom Gormican – $8.7 million
4. The Nut Job – Peter Lepeniotis – $7.3 million
5. Lone Survivor – Peter Berg – $7.1 million

UK

1. The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese – £2.7 million
2. 12 Years a Slave – Steve McQueen – £1.4 million
3. That Awkward Moment – Tom Gormican – £1 million
4. I, Frankenstein – Stuart Beattie – £0.8 million
5. Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee – £0.8 million

New comedy That Awkward Moment has had a vastly disappointing start, making just two thirds of its $12 million budget, even though its only rivals were films that were kicking around in box-office for weeks, nearly two months in Frozen’s case. Jason Reitman’s Labor Day didn’t make a major impact either, entering seventh place with $7 million. Lone Survivor dropped three places but, seeing as it’s already made a brilliant $114 million, the studios won’t be fussed at this point. Sadly, these surprisingly low new entries mean that this week’s total is 2/10 taking my running score to 70/140.

US

1. The LEGO Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller
2. The Monument’s Men – George Clooney
3. Ride Along – Tim Story
4. Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee
5. That Awkward Moment – Tom Gormican

UK

1. RoboCop – Jose Padhila
2. The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese
3. Mr Peabody and Sherman – Rob Minkoff
4. Dallas Buyers Club – Jean Marc Vallee
5. 12 Years a Slave – Steve McQueen

Leonardo Di Caprio in The Wolf of Wall Street, this week’s UK box-office number one.

Ice Cube and Kevin Hart in Ride Along, this week’s US box-office number one.

Wonder Woman confirmed for Batman/Superman, Amazing Spider-Man 2 publishes new pics and Louis Leterrier and Sacha Baron Cohen for Grimsby

Louis Leterrier’s career has been a little sticky. His directorial debut Unleashed, starring Morgan Freeman, Jet Li and Bob Hoskins, put him forward and he was soon some lovely big budgets but all Transporter 2, The Incredible Hulk and Clash of the Titans fell flat. However, this year’s Now You See Me was quite a brilliant magician themed thriller. Read our review here. Sequel talk has been floating around a bit but his project after that is today’s focus.

Grimsby is the unambitious title of the new spy comedy that Leterrier’s now attached to direct. The premise, written by Borat’s Baron Cohen and Wreck It-Ralph’s Phil Johnston, is of a couple of comedic spec ops brothers on a secret mission. I think it’s going for less of the James Bond/Jason Bourne parody road that’s been well covered by Johnny English and various other attempts so I think it’ll try and go for a satirical take on say Call of Duty. Variety says that Leterrier won the job of calling the shots over I am Number Four’s DJ Caruso.

Previous Spider-Man films have suffered from a key problem. As soon as Peter Parker gets costumed and swings around he turns into a often disappointing 3-D model. It looks as if Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 it’s trying to capture a more physical Spidey (Andrew Garfield) and these new pics unveil that a bit of that as well as Jamie Foxx as the menacing Electro. Press next to cycle through. Emma Stone, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field, Dane DeHaan, Martin Sheen and Chris Cooper.

Finally we’ve come the big news of the day which is a bit of news about Wonder Woman. Joss Whedon performed an Amazonian dance around the project for a while before he became Marvel’s main man and names such as Cobie Smulders, Megan Fox and Jaimie Alexander thrown into the mix. However, Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) will be the one to bring Wonder Woman to the screen but I think we guessed that. The surprise is that we’ll get to see her in 2015’s superhero clash Batman vs. Superman, as it’s titled for now.

In addition, Fast and Furious’ Gisele, or her actual name Gal Gadot, is now set to play her. Batman vs. Superman isn’t the only time we’ll be able to see Bat, Supe and Wonder Woman share the screen. Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s The LEGO Movie comes before and features the aforementioned trio as well as Green Lantern for good measure. The Danish figures will be voiced by Will Arnett, Channing Tatum, Cobie Smulders and Jonah Hill as well as Elizabeth Banks, Chris Pratt, Liam Neeson, Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman, Alison Brie and Charlie Day meanwhile Batman vs. Superman has Ben Affleck as Batman and Henry Cavill as Superman as well as Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane and Amy Adams.

Batman vs. Superman – July 17th 2015

The LEGO Movie – February 14th 2014

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – April 18th 2014

Grimsby – 2015?

New Lego Movie posters and The Hobbit’s Lee Pace for role in Lance Armstrong movie

Anybody following the major sporting news of the last year or so will know the story of the former legendary, now infamous, cyclist Lance Armstrong. After recovering from cancer in 1997, he went on to seven consecutive Tour De France victories. When the truth of his use of drugs emerged, an accusation he denied throughout his career, he was stripped of those titles. January this year, he finally admitted in an open interview with Oprah Winfrey.

A biopic of Armstrong’s life may have found another key star now and Lee Pace is the man. He was the lead in fantasy adventure The Fall. He also starred in Lincoln and will have huge roles in the upcoming The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Guardians of the Galaxt. His role in the Armstrong biopic isn’t specified yet but we know Ben Foster (X-Men, 3:10 to Yuma) will have the lead role while Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids, The IT Crowd) plays sports journalist David Walsh. Stephen Frears, director of The Queen, Philomena and High Fidelity, is still attached while John Hodge (Trainspotting, Trance, The Beach) will be adapting David Walsh’s factual book Seven Deadly Sins.

We move on to the second and last of today’s news stories. We’ve got our hands on some great new character posters for the star studded stop motion animation The Lego Movie. Press next to cycle through them. Morgan Freeman, Charlie Day, Will Ferrell, Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks and Chris Pratt’s characters are the focus of these teasers while Liam Neeson, Cobie Smulders, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill and Alison Brie also star in the new feautre from Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

Untitled Lance Armstrong biopic – late 2014

The Lego Movie – February 14th 2014