
With director Brad Peyton’s Journey 2: The Mysterious Island opening February 10, we’ve been provided with some Journey 2 movie swag to giveaway to some of our readers. As the synopsis says, “in this follow-up to the 2008 worldwide hit Journey to the Center of the Earth, the new 3D family adventure Journey 2: The Mysterious Island begins when 17-year-old Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) receives a coded distress signal from a mysterious island where no island should exist. It’s a place of strange life forms, mountains of gold, deadly volcanoes, and more than one astonishing secret. Unable to stop him from going, Sean’s new stepfather, Hank (Dwayne Johnson), joins the quest. Together with a helicopter pilot (Luis Guzman) and his beautiful, strong-willed daughter (Vanessa Hudgens), they set out to find the island, rescue its lone inhabitant and escape before seismic shockwaves force the island under the sea and bury its treasures forever.” Hit the jump for what you can win and how to enter.

Last Christmas I landed one of my dream interviews: I got to sit down with director David Fincher for over forty-five minutes and we talked about The Social Network, how he makes movies, why he wanted to direct The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Zodiac, The Game Blu-ray, and so much more. If you’re a fan of Fincher’s and missed it, click here. I promise you’ll learn a lot about the way he makes movies.
However, while we covered a lot of subjects, there were many things I just didn’t have time to ask. So when I sat down with him the other day in New York City for another exclusive interview for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, I decided to bring up some of the questions I never asked. While the full interview will run in the coming days, I’ll tease you with a few things: I asked Fincher if he prefers Star Wars or Star Trek, which is his favorite Star Wars movie, and if he ever alter or edit a previous movie as George Lucas has with Star Wars. Hit the jump for his answers.

Amazon’s Gold Box Deal of the Day is Fraggle Rock: Complete Series Collection for $44.99 (which is 55% off). Included are 96 episodes over 20 discs. Remember, if you spend over $25 you get free shipping and Gold Box deals are only good for one day. Hit the jump for the list of special features and here’s a few other great deals.
DVD
Blu-ray
Hit the jump for more for a lot more deals broken down by price.

Paramount and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot have settled on a couple of screenwriters to pen their adaptation of the graphic novel-picture book Boilerplate: History’s Mechanical Marvel. Deadline reports that JD Payne and Patrick McKay will handle scripting duties for the pic, which takes place in the late 19th and early 20th century and tells the story of the world’s first robot who “fought alongside Terry Roosevelt and Lawrence of Arabia, journeyed to the South Pole and was involved in the silent movie business before disappearing on the battlefields of World War I.” The idea for the story is fantastic, and hopefully Abrams and Co. can pull off an equally fascinating feature film.
Payne and McKay have yet to have one of their scripts produced, but they wrote the Goliath pic that Relativity is developing (and may or may not star Dwayne Johnson and Taylor Lautner), and are also penning a feature film adaptation of the Spike TV series Deadliest Warrior. Hit the jump to read a synopsis for the graphic novel.

While earlier this year, Mickey Rourke was reported as being one of four principal cast members in Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths, we assumed that the Oscar-nominated star would reprise his role as Tool, the tattooing, knife-wielding badass, in the sequel to The Expendables. Now it looks as if the two projects are mutually exclusive, as Rourke has sided with the In Bruges director and co-star Colin Farrell at the expense of the Simon West-directed sequel. Even though he did the original The Expendables as a favor to Sylvester Stallone, it appears that Rourke is seeking a return to award nominations, as McDonagh has won one Oscar (Six Shooter) and was nominated for In Bruges. Hit the jump for more on Rourke and Seven Psychopaths.

Having stretched his considerably talented mental acuity in such roles as Tony Stark, the billionaire prodigy behind Iron Man, and Sherlock Holmes, the famed detective, it’s not a stretch to call Robert Downey Jr. a genius. He’ll get a chance to play a third mental giant in The Accidental Genius, a new pitch picked up by Warner Bros (per Deadline). The drama centers on a man of previously average intelligence who wakes from a coma to find himself gifted with a superior intellect. (You can draw parallels to Downey Jr.’s career here, if you’d like.) The man teams up with a prodigy-turned-burnout (or here) to decipher strange symbols that could unlock the secret to a century-old, world-altering mystery.
The Accidental Genius is a nod to a true-to-life medical condition in which a coma patient may awaken with heightened cognition. Downey Jr and Susan Downey will produce through Team Downey with Ben Silverman’s Electus. Adam Gibgot, the writer of The Accidental Genius, will also be executive producer with David Gambino. Gibgot recently wrote the pilot for Oliver Stone’s drama Darkhorse on FX.

At this year’s Toronto Film Festival, I was able to talk with the cast and director Marc Forster about Machine Gun Preacher. With the movie opening in limited release this weekend (it expands next week), you can expect our video interviews in the next few days. However, with Forster currently shooting World War Z with Brad Pitt, I used some of my time to ask why he decided to change the story of the book for the movie. He said:
“You want to capture the spirit of the book, but at the same time, you have to create your own narrative for the film. There are a lot of things from the book that we are trying to incorporate into the film. It’s a tricky balance.”
He also talked about what drew him to the project and goes into more detail about World War Z. Hit the jump to watch.

There’s nothing about the animation of Family Guy calls for the big screen. But the series does rank among the best in communal viewing experiences, so we wanted to give you a heads up on a Family Guy screening in a theater near you. Well as long as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, or Seattle is near you. At midnight September 15, the show will celebrate its upcoming tenth season with “Something, Something, Something Anniversary” in theaters in these 10 cities. The screening will feature a sneak peek at the season premiere, “Lottery Fever” alongside fan favorite episode “Road to the Multiverse.” The event will close out with the 22-minute bonus feature “History of the World,” which recounts the creation of the earth.
Full details on the screenings are in the press release after the jump.

With director Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion opening this weekend, we’ve been given some movie related swag to giveaway to some of our readers. Starring Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Winslet, Contagion is a “dramatic, multi-layered thriller about what can happen when a lethal airborne virus quickly spreads into a worldwide pandemic.”
I caught an early screening and thought Contagion was extremely well made with great performances, a strong script, fantastic direction, and I even loved the score. It’s definitely recommended and by the end of the film, you’ll notice every cough and sneeze in the theater. Hit the jump for details on the giveaway.

Director Ben Wheatley was already slowly but surely making a name for himself with 2009′s acclaimed crime/comedy Down Terrace and his most recent effort, Kill List, which hits theaters in the UK and Ireland on September 2nd. This in mind, the buzz surrounding Wheatley will most likely continue to rise going forward as it looks like his next pic, the dark comedy Sightseers, is being executive produced by Edgar Wright at Big Talk Productions.
Wheatley revealed Wright’s involvement in the pic to The Playlist over the weekend at Empire Big Screen 2011. The film, which is written by and co-stars Alice Lowe (Hot Fuzz) and Steve Oram (Wheatley’s aforementioned Kill List), is based on a short film and follows a pair of “psychotic caravaners.” Film4 is also on-board to produce Sightseers alongside Wright/Big Talk with production set to begin around the beginning of October. In addition to working with Wright on Sightseers, Wheatley will also work with Hot Fuzz star Nick Frost and Spaced‘s Michael Smiley in the comedy I, Macrobane. Wheatley says that production on that project will begin next year after Sightseers is in the can.

Actor/musician Reeve Carney (Snow Falling on Cedars) has signed on to play Jeff Buckley in director Jake Scott’s (Welcome to the Rileys) untitled biopic. Per the press release, the pic will chronicle Buckley’s life all the way up to his untimely drowning at the age of 30 in Memphis’ Wolf River. The film was written by Ryan Jaffe (The Rocker) and draws heavily from David Browne’s book Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley. Currently, Carney is playing the role of Peter Parker in Julie Taymor’s mildly cursed Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Previously, the actor worked with Taymor on her adaptation of The Tempest starring Helen Mirren.
This film iteration of Buckley’s life joins two other projects that are set to chronicle the late musician. Back in June, Penn Badgley signed on to play Buckley in co-writer/director Dan Algrant’s Greetings from Tim Buckley. That film is set to begin production in Brooklyn this week. Additionally, director Brendan Fletcher is developing a film based on the book A Pure Drop: The Life of Jeff Buckley. Unlike the other two films, though, Scott’s owns the exclusive rights to Buckley’s music and personal archives and is being executive produced by Buckley’s mother, Mary Guibert. For more on the project, hit the jump to read the full press release.

Robert Redford continues to fill out the cast for his next directorial project, as Susan Sarandon, Julie Christie and Richard Jenkins are the latest to join The Company You Keep. Redford will direct and star in the film that also features Shia LaBeouf, and recent additions Nick Nolte and Brit Marling. Based on the novel of the same name by Neal Gordon, the story centers on a wanted former Weather Underground militant (Redford) who goes on the run after an ambitious young reporter (LaBeouf) exposes his true identity.
Deadline reports that Sarandon and Christie play ex-Weather Underground members, while Jenkins will play a college professor who is a link to other members in hiding. While the cast is pretty great, I’m hoping Redford tries a decidedly less heavy-handed approach than his last directorial projects. Hit the jump to read a synopsis of the novel.

Summit’s magician heist flick is close to adding two more to its cast, as Mark Ruffalo and Amanda Seyfried are in negotiations to join the aptly-titled Now You See Me. Louis Letterier (Clash of the Titans) is onboard to direct and the story centers on a group of the world’s great illusionists who simultaneously pull off bank heists during their performances, sharing the money with their audiences before bailing to evade the team of FBI agents on their tail.
Jesse Eisenberg and Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) are already set to star, and Variety reports that Ruffalo is in talks to play the head FBI agent while Seyfried would play the master technician responsible for building all the contraptions the illusionists use. The two would be welcomed additions to the promising cast. The script was written by Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt (Prince of Persia) and Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are producing.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories for you this evening. First up, Jesse Eisneberg is set to star in director Richard Ayoade’s (Submarine) adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novella The Double. Vulture reports that in a spot-on bit of casting, Eisenberg will take on the lead role of a government clerk whose life is destroyed after what he believes to be an exact copy of himself begins working in his office and attempts to ruin his life.
Additionally, Nick Nolte has joined the cast of Taylor Hackford’s revenge thriller Parker. Stars Michael Chiklis and Wendell Pierce tweeted their enthusiasm on the first day of filming, revealing Nolte’s casting (via The Playlist). Based on Donald Westlake’s series of crime novels, the film is intended to start a new franchise with the title character, this time played by Jason Statham. The cast includes Statham, Chiklis, Pierce, Jennifer Lopez and Clifton Collins Jr.

The strange duality of Ringer – reflective of the CW show’s content – that while at once being one of the most highly anticipated of the Fall 2011 TV season (The return of Buffy!), almost no one knows anything about it. So clouded under a veil of mystery and enticing riddles, the only known facts are these: Sarah Michelle Gellar stars as a “woman in trouble” who takes over the life of her recently deceased (or is she?) identical sister and then, well… I have no clue, but color me intrigued. Intrigued enough to attend the 2011 Comic Con panel (featuring the likes of Gellar, Ioan Gruffudd, Nestor Carbonell, Kristoffer Polaha and series creators Eric Charmelo & Nicole Snyder) in the pursuit of answers to just what the hell this show’s about. Choice highlights (and maybe answers) follow along with a new trailer after the jump.
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