A new international trailer has been released for James Mangold‘s The Wolverine.  The film finds Hugh Jackman’s titular character isolated in modern day Japan where he faces his ultimate nemesis “in a life-or-death battle that will leave him forever changed.  Even though this trailer goes further than the previous ones in showing the details of the plot, it’s also my favorite trailer thus far.  It shows off Wolverine being a bad-ass, but also retains some fun comic-book elements like Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova), who has a much bigger role than I suspected, and the gigantic Silver Samurai who comes down like a boss fight.  Hopefully, Mangold has found the right balance between Wolverine’s serious side and the fun comic book elements of good summer blockbuster.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Brian Tee, Rila Fukushima, and Tao Okamoto.  The Wolverine opens in 3D on July 26th.

All of the hooplah surrounding Arrested Development Season 4′s debut on Netflix last weekend got me waxing nostalgic for another beloved series that was all too short-lived: Paul Feig‘s Freaks and Geeks. When you consider its impressive shelf life, it’s hard to believe the series only aired on NBC for one season and consists of merely 18 episodes. For the sake of comparison, ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager will air its series finale this Monday and will finish with five seasons and 121 episodes in hand. Continuing down that path, Freaks and Geeks averaged just above 6.5 million weekly viewers during its run while Secret Life‘s most watched episode to date (the Season 2 premiere) garnered a little over 4.5 million viewers. In addition to the frustration I feel for having 103 more Secret Life episodes to never watch than Freaks and Geeks episodes to cherish, this also provides an interesting example of the ratings expectations/requirements of a network series in comparison to that of a cable series.

I could go on and on doing my best Brendan Bettinger: Stats Genius impersonation but the real reason I’m here is to present this week’s Top 5. In this installment you have at your disposal our visit to the set of Man of Steel, Allison watching the Indiana Jones movies for the first time, After Earth interviews with Will and Jaden Smith, another set visit for The Wolverine, and Matt’s review of the aforementioned fourth season of Arrested Development. As you’ve grown to expect, a brief recap and link to each of the above makes its home after the jump.

As you can see in the recent trailer, Viper (played by Svetlana Khodchenkova) plays a key role in director James Mangold‘s The Wolverine.  However, when I participated in a group interview with Khodchenkova on set last year, the only info she was willing to give up about her character was that “she’s a villain” and “she has reasons for everything she does.”  That being said, Khodchenkova was more than willing to talk about how she got cast, what it’s like working on a big budget Hollywood movie for the first time, her costume, and more.  Hit the jump for the interview.

A new trailer for James Mangold‘s The Wolverine has gone online.  The film finds Hugh Jackman’s titular character isolated in modern day Japan where he faces his ultimate nemesis “in a life-or-death battle that will leave him forever changed.”  This new trailer goes heavy on the drama by showing Logan’s guilt over killing Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) in X-Men: The Last Stand, and why he would consider getting rid of his powers.  This trailer also shows off the strange mix of ancient Japanese warriors and hi-tech sci-fi; a combination that is best represented by the hulking Silver Samurai.  But if Wolverine can shield a guy from what appears to be a nuclear blast, then a giant robot samurai shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Brian Tee, Rila Fukushima, Tao Okamoto, and Svetlana Khodchenkova.  The Wolverine opens in 3D on July 26th.

A new Japanese trailer for director James Mangold’s sequel The Wolverine has made its way online.  The film finds Hugh Jackman’s titular character isolated in modern day Japan where he faces his ultimate nemesis “in a life-or-death battle that will leave him forever changed.”  There are a few bits of new footage to be found in this trailer, including an increased focus on Wolverine’s possible mortality in the face of danger.  The action sequences continue to look impressive, and I’m hoping the reliance on CG is minimal since the most promising stuff in all of the trailers we’ve seen thus far is the tight, hand-to-hand combat scenes.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Brian Tee, Rila Fukushima, Tao Okamoto and Svetlana Khodchenkova.  The Wolverine opens on July 26th.

20th Century Fox has released a batch of high-resolution images from director James Mangold’s upcoming sequel The Wolverine.  The film finds Hugh Jackman’s titular character isolated in modern day Japan where he faces his ultimate nemesis “in a life-or-death battle that will leave him forever changed.”  We recently got a look at the character in action by way of two trailers, but these images give us a closer (and clearer) look at the environment that Mangold has cooked up for the Japan-set story.  We’ve seen a few of these images before in lower resolution versions, but there are also some new peeks at The Wolverine in action, including a rather impressive chain wrangling.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film also stars Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Brian Tee, Rila Fukushima, Tao Okamoto and Svetlana Khodchenkova.  The Wolverine opens on July 26th.

The international trailer for director James Mangold’s sequel The Wolverine was released about a half-hour ago, and now the domestic version is online.  The film finds Hugh Jackman’s titular character isolated in modern day Japan where he faces his ultimate nemesis “in a life-or-death battle that will leave him forever changed.”  The U.S. trailer contains new footage, and while I think the international version is slightly better, both trailers hammer home the “life-or-death battle”. The big difference is that the U.S. version reveals the man offering Wolverine a chance at mortality.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Brian Tee, Rila Fukushima, Tao Okamoto and Svetlana Khodchenkova.  The Wolverine opens on July 26th

A new international trailer for director James Mangold’s The Wolverine has been released online. The upcoming film follows the events of X-Men: The Last Stand where a guilt-ridden Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) doesn’t want to live with the curse of immortality, so he’s offered the chance to lose it thanks to a mysterious benefactor.  I really like this premise, although it reminds me a little of this comedy video.  Mangold looks like he’s found a nice balance between action and drama, and I’m eager to see where this story goes.

Hit the jump to watch the international trailer, and click here for the domestic version.  The film also stars Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Brian Tee, Rila Fukushima, Tao Okamoto and Svetlana Khodchenkova.  The Wolverine opens on July 26th.

Yesterday, six seconds of the first trailer for The Wolverine were released.  Today, we’re getting 20 seconds because studio marketing has gone to a horrible place where we get ads for ads for ads.  I’ll have my thoughts on the full trailer when it’s released tomorrow.

Hit the jump to check out the teaser for the trailer plus the new motion poster.  The film stars Hugh Jackman, Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Brian Tee, Rila Fukushima, Tao Okamoto, and Svetlana Khodchenkova.  The Wolverine opens in 3D on July 26th.

With the trailer for The Wolverine set to be released in two days, Fox has released two new posters and eight new images from the spinoff-sequel.  The images give us a look at supporting cast members.  The woman in the kimono is Mariko (Tao Okamoto), the woman Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) must protect from the Yakuza; the one with the bright red hair is the warrior Yukio, (Rila Fukushima); and the gal in green is the villainous Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova).  Looking over these images, I’m not exactly sure what director James Mangold is going for.  Most of the images fit in with the more “realistic” tone he’s been claiming, but Viper’s costume is pure comic-book.  I’m curious to see how it all plays together.  As for the posters, they’re easily in the running for worst of the year.  I honestly can’t decide which is worse—the one with the kneeling scream or the awful photoshop of Wolvie surrounded by ninjas.

Hit the jump to check out the posters and images.  The Wolverine opens in 3D on July 26th. [Update: Click here to check out the 6-second Vine "teaser" for the film]

Star Hugh Jackman and director James Mangold participated in a fan Q&A for The Wolverine today.  The duo fielded questions from Wolverine fans all around the world and talked at length about their vision for the film, what fans can expect to see on screen, as well as some of the behind-the-scenes preparation Jackman underwent for this movie.  The movie is still in production and Mangold comments that there are still some major pieces to shoot, but they had plenty to talk about!

The Wolverine, also starring Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Brian Tee, Rila Fukushima, Tao Okamoto and Svetlana Khodchenkova, opens July 26th, 2013.  Hit the jump for the video, quotes from the Q&A and a brand new official poster!

We’ve already seen quite a few photos and videos from the set of director James Mangold’s sequel The Wolverine featuring star Hugh Jackman muscled up for his starring role, but now some images have surfaced that give us our first look at the character of Viper.  Actress Svetlana Khodchenkova landed the role after discussions with Jessica Biel didn’t work out, and new images show the actress in costume.  Viper has a complex history with the character of Wolverine involving forced marriage and blackmail, so we’re unsure how she fits into the plot of The Wolverine.  What we do know is that the story finds Logan as an outsider in Japan.

Hit the jump to check out the images of Khodchenkova as Viper.  The Wolverine opens on July 26th, 2013.

Well that was fast.  With production on The Wolverine set to begin in a matter of weeks, director James Mangold was closing in on his female lead.  Jessica Biel was offered the role of Viper early last week, but we subsequently reported that talks between Biel and 20th Century Fox broke down and she would no longer be taking the role.  Now, just a couple of days later, it appears that Svetlana Khodchenkova has entered talks to take over the part opposite Hugh Jackman.  Hit the jump for more.

Focus Features has released a new featurette for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.  It’s mostly your standard EPK fluff where everyone talks about the greatness of the material and each other.  However, it also provides some background on the setting, and Tinker Tailor is a movie where the more you understand the world, the better off you’ll be.  The film throws a heap of characters and jargon at you and then jumps around timelines just to make the puzzle even more difficult to solve.  It certainly deepens the mystery, but it’s not a good sign when I’m handed a pamphlet (click here to view the interactive version online) with a list explaining code names and terms.  (I also spent the whole movie thinking “Karla” was a nickname for the Russians, but after the movie I found out it was a code name for the Soviet intelligence chief).  The featurette also attempts to build awards buzz for Gary Oldman, but we’ll see if that pans out.

Hit the jump to check out the featurette.  The film also stars Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Jones, David Dencik, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Stephen Graham, Kathy Burke, and Ciarán Hinds.  Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy opens December 9th.

The spy thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy continues to be one of my most anticipated films amongst the crowd of awards contender’s coming out this fall. The trailer is highly engrossing, the cast is top-notch, and the film debuted to strongly positive notices at the Venice Film Festival (not to mention that latest news that the pic may spawn a franchise). Now, a slew of character profiles have been released for the film. They give a rundown of pretty much every major character that appears, augmented by quotes from the actors who play them. It’s a pretty cool look into the espionage-fueled world of the film.

Hit the jump to check them out. The film stars Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Toby Jones, John Hurt, and Benedict Cumberbatch. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy opens in the U.S. on December 9th.