The Super-Bowl 2014 Trailers special: Transformers 4, Noah and more!

We’re not venturing into sports just yet but the American Football extravaganza known as Superbowl is a huge event for advertising. With well over 100 million Americans watching, companies have to pay the whopping sum of $8 million dollars just for a one minute advertising slot. Only the biggest of big budget, big star blockbusters can afford to make the cut so you may be quite surprised when I tell you that among the nine titanic efforts trailered last night is the new project from Darren Aronofsky!

But before we get to that, we have the matter of a movie I recently predicted to make over a billion dollars. I speak of the fourquel of a monster series – Transformers: Age of Extinction.

Director Michael Bay (Armaggedon, Pearl Harbour, Bad Boys) returns to the series after a quick, and unsuccessful, break to make Pain and Gain. The franchise hopes to continue it success with an new human cast with Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz and Jack Reynor, replacing the old guard of Shia LaBeaouf, Rosie Huntington-Whitley and Megan Fox. This time, the Autobots are at battle with the villainous Dinobots and the technology tycoon Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer), the former is revealed in the very first trailer. The film also stars Stanley Tucci and Peter Cullen. July 10th.

The second instalment in this nine-part epic is Marvel’s very own Captain America: The Winter Soldier. We’ve seen footage from this before but Superbowl unveiled the second trailer, which offers more in depth look at new antagonist The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). The plot pitches Captain America (Chris Evans) still adjusting to life in the 21st Century as well as working with SHIELD Agents such as Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Crossbones (Frank Grillo) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to bring down a new menace who’s terrorising Washington. Cap 2 also stars Emily VanCamp, Samuel L Jackson, Robert Redford, Cobie Smulders, Dominic Cooper, Hayley Attwell and Toby Jones and is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo. March 28th.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is next. Marc Webb returns to direct the sequel which increases the stakes for Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) who has to balance life between his superhero alter ego Spider-Man, who’s battling Electro (Jamie Foxx), Rhino (Paul Giamatti) and the sinister father/son double act of Oscorp (Dane DeHaan as Harry and Chris Cooper as Norman), and normal life with the grieving Gwen (Emma Stone) and lonely Aunt May (Sally Field). The new trailer can be found here. To be honest, I’m not that impressed. April 18th.

Following on from their “Across the Internet” campaign, Muppets Most Wanted has launched a new ad in which the new doppelganging villain Clementine literally reaches out to us Across the Internet. Tina Fey, Ty Burrell, Stanley Tucci, Ricky Gervais, Lady Gaga, Tom Hiddleston, Salma Hayek, Christoph Waltz and Danny Trejo make up the human cast alongside the classic Muppets such as Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Sam the Eagle, Beaker, Dr Honeydrew, Walter and Animal. Flight of the Conchords/The Muppets’ James Bobin directs. March 28th.

With a premise of no CG, just expensive cars going ridiculously fast, video game adaptation Need for Speed is actually in good shape. It sees newly released ex-con Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul – Breaking Bad’s Jesse Pinkman) getting back into the dragraces that got him locked up for a year. Upon hearing the news, Marshall’s ex racing partner Dino (Dominic Cooper – Marvel’s Howard Stark) puts a bounty on his head. Scott Waugh (Act of Valour) directs a huge cast including Michael Keeton, Dakota Johnson, Scott Mescudi and Imogen Poots. The superbowl spot can be found here. March 12th.

We return to the aforementioned Darren Aronofsky who, after impressing with the likes of Black Swan, The Wrestler, Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, makes his comeback with a huge budget and cast list for his new epic picture Noah. The new trailer is available but I’m shocked that a director as prestigious as Aronofsky would fall to the depths of a Twitter hashtag; this time it’s “#TheFloodIsComing”!. The film stars Russell Crowe, Anthony Hopkins, Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Ray Winstone, Kevin Durand, Douglas Booth, Nick Nolte and Frank Langella. April 4th.

Pompeii seems to me like one of the potential box office clunkers of the year with a decent cast list which doesn’t match its huge budget but director Paul WS Anderson (Event Horizon, Resident Evil) may prove me wrong. The new trailer unveils a fair bit of spectacle so the film won’t rely on the cast of Kit Harrington, Carrie Anne Moss, Emily Browning, Jessica Lucas, Kiefer Sutherland, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jared Harris and Jessica Lucas alone. May 2nd.

3 Days to Kill launched a new trailer too. McG (This Means War, Terminator: Salvation, We Are Marshall, Charlie’s Angles) directs this new action thriller starring Kevin Costner as an dying agent who teams up with his daughter for one last assignment which get him the life saving drug he needs. Also starring Amber Heard, Connie Nielson and Hailee Steinfeld. February 21st.

Lastly, we have another Kevin Costner project. Draft Day sees the manger of American Football’s Cleveland Browns who’s struggling to find the number one draft pick for his team. Costner will star alongside Terry Crews, Jennifer Garner and Ellen Burstyn while director Ivan Reitman (Ghost Busters, No Strings Attached). April 11th

We report Transformers 4’s on-set fight, new Hot Wheels director and Marvel’s new Raccoon

Michael Bay is a notoriously rash man on-set. It’s rumoured that, while working on Armageddon, the authenticity of the plot was questioned (somebody said “wouldn’t it be easier to teach astronauts how to drill rather than training drillers to go to space”) he just said “shut up!”. A spat with his Transformers star Megan Fox lead to her leaving the development of sequel Dark of the Moon. He was involved in a recent fight on the set of his new sci-fi action sequel Transformers: Age of Extinction (the fourth the the series) but it appears that this wasn’t his fault. This was the report given by the production team:

“Contrary to several erroneous news reports, Bay did not get hurt in a fight on his set. The production company did have a rather bizarre encounter with a man (allegedly under the influence of a narcotic substance) who was wielding an air conditioning unit as his weapon of choice.

“The young man, who had earlier accosted several other crew members, barrelled onto the set in Quarry Bay and swung the cumbersome appliance directly at Bay’s head. The director ducked and wrested the air conditioner from his attacker, preventing what could have been a serious accident. The company’s security team quickly stepped in and subdued the assault. The police, who also scuffled with the assailant and two of his companions, ultimately arrested the three men. No one on the cast or crew was injured and the production immediately resumed filming without further incident.”

Joining Transformers, Battleship and many others on the list of films inspired by toy lines now is Hot Wheels. This miniature toy car producer really doesn’t seem like it has much of a story to it (Transformers spawned an animated TV series and a film before it’s 2007 rebooting) but Simon Crane is confirmed to be directing the film. Director McG (Terminator Salvation, This is War, We Are Marshal, Charlie’s Angels) and writer John Gatins (Real Steel, Flight) have both at some point been rumoured to be working on the film. Crane isn’t regularly a director but has served as a stunt co-ordinator in films like Titanic, Saving Private Ryan and World War Z so we can expect the action set pieces to be ones to savour. I’m guessing that previous development may have been halted by the Wachowski’s unsuccessful racing action Speed Racer so they’ll need to skip over next year’s Need for Speed and try and go in for 2016 or 17 for a release date.

Finally, we’ve got some more on one of the last Guardians of the Galaxy to be cast. This heroic fictional sci-fi team was created by Marvel and their film adaptation is fast approaching. It’ll be part of the same universe (owned of coarse by Disney) as Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, the Agents of SHIELD, Hulk, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, the Inhumans, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Loki, Ultron and the rest of the Avengers although none of the above will feature in GOTG, although we’re told that Thanos – the purple smiling guy from the post-credit-sequence from 2012’s The Avengers – will make another teasing appearance.

Bradley Cooper (Oscar nominee from Silver Linings Playbook and The Hangover) will be providing the voice for Rocket Raccoon but it’s his co-star, on a cast including Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Lee Pace, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker, Benicio Del Toro, Djimon Hounsou, John C Reilly and Dave Bautista, Chris Pratt (who plays the lead character Peter Quill/Star Lord) has told us more about Cooper’s character.

“You think it’s a cartoon character, but it’s not, it’s a very real creature,” the actor tells Access Hollywood. He’s referring to that fact that Cooper’s role will be partly motion capture from the set. “Rocket has been tortured his whole life and no one else likes him, so he’s lonely and he’s angry and there are all these elements to the character. You sort of forget about that, you wouldn’t think about, and hopefully will come to life. I think it will and that’s why they hired a really good actor to do the role. I could not be more excited that Bradley Cooper is voicing Rocket Raccoon. It’s a great character. It’s probably the best character in the movie, just because it’s not what you would expect.”

Transformers: Age of Extinction – July 10th 2014

Hot Wheels – 2016 or 2017?

Guardians of the Galaxy – August 1st

Jude Law on Sherlock Holmes 3, Need for Speed plus Transformers 4 pic

Jude Law is the two time Oscar nominee star of Cold Mountain, Enemy at the Gates and his new crime comedy hit Dom Hemmingway but his best known, and loved, role is as Sherlock Holmes’ (Robert Downey Jr) long suffering assistant Dr John Watson. Just after the huge success of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, director Guy Ritchie has had to leave the third instalment to make The Man From U.N.C.L.E with Arnie Hammer, Henry Cavill, Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debecki, Hugh Grant and Jared Harris. Holmes 3 then seemed to be suspended until Ritchie was able to return but Law has decided to tell us more of the project.

“I hate celebrating anything I’ve done, but I’m so proud of those films. I think it was Joel Silver who said, ‘Take it out of that dusty room and put it on the street’.” Another reason why this has taken so long to “put on the street” is because of Downey Jr’s dedication to his role as Tony Stark, the two most recent times of that portrayal (Avengers Assemble, Iron Man 3) both brought him over $1 billion. “I think Warners (Bros) want it,” Law continues, “and there’s a lot of want from us as a team. We want it to be better than the other two. We want to make sure it’s smarter and cleverer, but in the same realm. It’s a slow process. We’re all busy. So getting us together to try to nail that has taken a little bit longer than we had hoped.”

It terms of a plot, we’ve already had Irene Adler and Moriarty so the next logical step is Conan Doyle’s best known work: The Hound of the Baskerville. It’s down to Iron Man 3 writer Drew Pearce to bring a story together though.

The new trailer for Need for Speed has come online. Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad’s Jesse Pinkman) plays the lead role of Tobey Marshall in the new video-game adaptation. Dominic Cooper (Captain America: The First Avenger), Michael Keaton (Batman) and Imogen Poots (V for Vendetta) all fill in the supporting roles. The new trailer for Scott Waugh’s (who’ll be happy to be known for something other than Act of Valour) film is surprisingly artistic as well as action packed.

Finally, we’ve got our hands on a new photo fresh from the set of Transformers: Age of Extinction (which you can find out more about on our 2014 preview page). It sees director Michael Bay heroically steering a camera stand through the desolate streets of whatever city he’s blowing this time.

Sherlock Holmes 3 – 2016?

Need for Speed – March 14 2014

Transformer: Age of Extinction – July 10 2014

Marvel’s Agent Carter TV show and gaming with Ghost Recon film writers and GTA V

Grand Theft Auto V has done what no game has done before! The sequel to the massively successful GTA franchise has made $800 million in one day! We know that we’re called Tuorhoth Movies but this is definitely the biggest news of the moment. Here’s an incredibly realistic motorbiking screenshot from the game itself.

We all thought Rockstar Games were crazy when they announced their $120 million budget but they’ve done the unthinkable.

The game has some ridiculously cool features. GTA 4 had comedian/actor Ricky Gervais doing a complete routine in one of the many comedy clubs but 5 tops that with 5 set tennis matches and 9 hole golf courses in one huge explorable open city. Rockstar Games production sold 18 million copies in one day. It’s smashed every possible record. The previous title holder was Call of Duty: Black Ops II which made $500 million on it’s first day and reached $1 billion 14 days later. To compare it with films, James Cameron’s Avatar took 19 days to reach the billion mark but keep in mind that a film ticket cost £10 pounds while a game price these days could be £40 pounds on the PlayStation 3 or X-Box 360 or £60 on the new generation of gaming consoles, e.g X-Box One and PlayStation 4.

A whole load of games are to be made into films, including Michael Fassbender’s Assassin’s Creed, Aaron Paul, Michael Keaton, Imogen Poots and Dominic Cooper’s Need for Speed, Tom Hardy’s Splinter Cell and a non Angelina Jolie Tomb raider adaptation. One of them is the Michael Bay produced Ghost Recon, which has just hired a pair of writers to scribe the adaptation.

Bay is known for producing plenty of Dreamwork’s live action sci-fi films as well as directing the Transformers franchise, Armageddon, Bad Boys, Pain and Gain, The Island and Pearl Harbour. The shooter game, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, will be penned by writing duo Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia. They’ll be known for TV shows like Jericho and Human Target as well as the still-in-production-hell projects that are Y: The Last Man and 20th Century Fox’s attempt at Zorro, or Zorro Reborn as it’s currently titled on IMDB. So now Bay’s upcoming projects are his directing continuation of the massively successful Transformers series with Age of Extinction (now starring Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Peter Cullen, Kelsey Grammer, Jack Reynor and Dinobots) as well as producing Ghost Recon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The Ubisoft Motion Pictures CEO, Jean-Julien Baronett, told Variety about the team, the personal squad of the US President, that are depicted in both the games and the potential new film franchise.  “These guys don’t belong to any specific organization. They’re in the field where the U.S. troops are not supposed to be. It’s a small team with very strong personalities and very specific skill sets. They’re using weapons nobody knows about but it’s very grounded. It’s not sci-fi.”

Finally, some big news on the front of Marvel Films possible major expansion into television. Agents of SHIELD premiers in a weeks time and it looks as if a show based on Hayley Atwell’s character, Peggy Carter, could be on the cards.

Carter debuted in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger and then later appeared in Marvel One Shot short film production Agent Carter this year. She’ll be on for a small role in next year’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, most likely in a flashback sequence with Toby Jones’ Arnim Zola and Dominic Cooper’s Howard Stark. Louis D’Esposito, director of the short Agent Carter, stated recently that Peggy’s adventures could be continuing on a different medium. An Agent Carter show could possibly be running alongside any future seasons of Joss Whedon’s Agents of SHIELD building up the grounds of Marvel’s Cinematic and Small Screen Universe.

Grand Theft Auto V is out now

Ghost Recon could be out 2016

Transformers: Age of Extinction is out July 10th 2014

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is out May  16th 2014

Marvel One-Shot: Agent Carter is available on the DVD of Iron Man 3 now

Agents of SHIELD begins September 27th on Channel 4 for UK and ABC for US

Agent Carter could be on ABC in 2014

Jared Harris joins Man From U.N.C.L.E., Transformers 4’s full title and LFF line up

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. has gone through some tough times in production. Now Sherlock Holmes director Guy Ritchie is set to direct and Game of Shadow’s Moriarty, Jared Harris, will be working with Ritchie once more.

Armie Hammer (The Lone Ranger, The Social Network) and Henry Cavill (Man of Steel, Immortals) will play the leads Illya Kuryakin and Napoleon Solo. Elizabeth Debecki (The Great Gatsby, A Few Best Men) and Alicia Vikander (Catherine Mathilde in the brilliant Danish period drama A Royal Affair and the upcoming fantasy Seventh Son) also star. Harris and Hugh Grant (Four Weddings and a Funeral) are most likely going to be playing the villains that Solo and Kuryakin will face but little is known of the plot. It’ll most likely feature infamous villain T.H.R.U.S.H.

After his new caper comedy with Dwayne Johnson, Mark Wahlberg, Rebel Wilson, Ed Harris, Ken Jeong and Anthony Mackie Pain and Gain, Michael Bay will be returning to his best known franchise. And now, Transformers 4 has a title: Transformers: Age of Extinction. The recent confirmation that Dinobots would be the new antagonists, see our Sci-Fi Special, has been followed by a poster bringing us the name of the film for the first time, alongside a release date of 06 . 27 . 14. Mark Wahlberg (2 time Oscar nominee and star of comedy’s Ted and Boogie Nights), Jack Reynor (Irish actor from drama What Richard Did) and Nicola Peltz (Bradley Martin in TV’s upcoming Psycho prequel Bates Motel with Freddie Highmore and Vera Farmiga) team up in a bid to defeat both the Dinobots and evil billionaire human Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer – X-Men: The Last Stand, Cheers, Fraiser).

The line up for the BFI LFF (British Film Institute London Film Festival) has been officially announced. We already knew that Paul Greengrass (director of The Bourne Ultimatum, Green Zone) and Tom Hanks’ (star of Forrest Gump, Toy Story) kidnapping thriller Captain Phillips will open the festival and Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson’s Saving Mr Banks, as well as telling the story of Walt Disney trying to get the rights to make Mary Poppins into a film from the author PL Travers as she recalls her childhood in Australia and her inspirations for the story, will close it.

Alfonso Cauron’s space set thriller, Gravity, starring George Clooney (Oceans trilogy) and Sandra Bullock (The Heat), has delighted audiences, with 5 star ratings all round, at the Venice, and soon, Toronto film festivals. Steve McQueen’s (Shame, Hunger) 12 Years a Slave stars Brad Pitt (Fight Club), Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek: Into Darkness), Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Children of Men) leading a cast including Paul Dano (Looper), Paul Giamatti (The Illusionist) and the youngest ever Oscar nominee, Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild). Joel and Ethan Coen (famed directing brothers from the brilliant True Grit, The Big Lebowski and No Country for Old Men) bring us Inside Llewyn Davis, the story of a street folk singer making his way through New York in the 1960’s. Starring Oscar Isaac, Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan and John Goodman, this film builds up the incredible line up of the LFF 2013.

Also featuring are: Philomena (Stephen Frears’ drama with Steve Coogan and Judi Dench), Labour Day (Jason Reitman’s directing effort with Tobey Maguire, Josh Brolin, Kate Winslet and Clark Gregg), The Invisible Woman (Ralph Fiennes directs and stars in this drama that is unrelated to Marvel’s Fantastic Four. Also starring Felicity Jones and Kristin Scott Thomas). The Palme d’Or winner, Blue is the Warmest Colour, will headline, as will Only Lovers Left Alive (Tom Hiddleston, Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, Mia Wasikowska, Jeffery Wright and Anton Yelchin starring in a vampire romance) and Don Jon (The Dark Knight Rises and Looper star Joseph Gordon Levitt releases his first time directing job in a comedy he also writes and stars in. Also with Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore).

Joseph Gordon Levitt will be there at the event itself. Also appearing in person are Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson, Sandra Bullock, Judi Dench, Steve Coogan and Ralph Fiennes (a list featuring 6 Oscar wins and an additional two nominations), as well as others, are expected to attend. 234 films, in total, will be screened. For the full list go to the official BFI London Film Festival.

Man From U.N.C.L.E could be out in  2016 or 2017

Transformers: Age of Extinction is out July 10th 2014

The 57th BFI London Film Festival begins October 9th and concludes October 20th. Tickets are on sale from September 20th.

Sci-Fi special with Star Wars, Westworld, Transformers, Interstellar

In today’s science fiction special we’ll be talking two projects for JJ Abrams, Hollywood’s biggest current director, on both the small and big-screen: Star Wars and Westworld. As well as that we’ve got some big news for the next Transformers film as well as some more on Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. Do enjoy!

Star Wars Episode VII, since it’s announcement, has spread Internet rumours of possible plots, titles and stars for JJ Abrams’ sci-fi reboot. Benedict Cumberbatch is now linked to the franchise and Tuorhoth Movies can now say we said it first. A couple of months ago, when the casting criteria was unveiled, we included Cumberbatch in our list of potential Star Wars stars alongside Zachary Quinto as they worked with Abrams in his latest film Star Trek: Into Darkness. You can read our that particular post here. Disney focused on bringing Marvel to the table at Comic-Con so this is the first real piece of news that we’ve had.

The Into Darkness and Sherlock star could add this to the collection of upcoming films alongside The Hobbit trilogy as Smaug, The Fifth Estate as Julian Assange, voicing in The Penguins of Madgascar and Gary Oldman’s Flying Horse as troubled photographer Harry Larkyns. Perhaps his acceptance of this role, as reported by Film Chronicles, is the reason for his sudden dropping out of Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak. Although recent rumours of Alex Pettyfer (I am Number Four, Magic Mike) and Rachel Hurd Wood (Peter Pan, Tomorrow When the War Began) starring have been mooted.

Joel Silver and Tarsem Singh have had a stab of rebooting Westworld and Arnold Schwarzenegger was once in talks to star but know it looks as if JJ Abrams (Star Trek, Lost, Felicity) and Jonah Nolan (brother of Christopher and writer of The Dark Knight trilogy) will be rebooting the film for a HBO TV series. The original film is a true classic seeing two men meeting at a popular, high budget, robot populated, Western themed holiday destination but the robots malfunction and begin shooting the park’s visitors. Abrams’ recent absence from television, to direct films such as Super 8 and Star Trek, has ended with Westworld. It’ll be alongside Game of Thrones and Neil Gaiman’s upcoming American Gods on HBO.

It’s now confirmed that Michael Bay’s Transformers 4 will feature the infamous Dinobots. As well as a Kelsey Grammer playing human villain Harold Attinger, the film will introduce a new antagonist robot team: Grimlock (the team’s Tyrannosaurus Rex leader), Slag (a Triceratops number two), Sludge (Apatosaurus), Snarl (Stegosaurus), Swoop (Pteranodon) and Paddles (Elasmosaurus).

Christopher Nolan has had huge hits with The Prestige, The Dark Knight trilogy and Inception as well as now, hopefully, Interstellar. The ever updating cast currently boasts Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Matthew McConaughy, Michael Caine, David Oyelowo, Ellen Burstyn, Casey Affleck, John Lithgow, Wes Bentley, Topher Grace and most surprisingly Matt Damon.

Here’s a bit of the plot from one of the most secretive projects of next year.

“Set in the future, corn is the last crop to be cultivated on earth and the scientists embark on a journey through a worm hole into other dimensions in search of somewhere other crops can be grown.”

“‘The scene was of the main character (McConaughey) driving, trying to outrun a dust storm which eventually catches up to him and overtakes the truck in the town,’ location manager Laszlo Uhrik said. ‘So as you can imagine there was quite a lot of thinking about how to make this work.'”

Star Wars Episode VII is out in Summer 2015

Westworld could air on HBO in 2014

Transformers 4 is out July 10th 2014

Interstellar is out November 7th 2014