All Articles by Dave Trumbore

Elizabeth Banks Toplines WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH MARGIE?, Alfred Molina and Freida Pinto Star in DESERT DANCER, Sean Bean Joins the 4th REICH

Posted: May 18th, 2012 at 8:04 am

Let’s start the day with some casting, shall we?  Here are the headlines:

• Elizabeth Banks will topline What’s the Matter with Margie?, a dark comedy from Alan Ball.
• Alfred Molina and Freida Pinto are set to star in Desert Dancer, based on the life of Iranian dancer, Afshin Ghaffarian.
• Sean Bean will join The 4th Reich, an action-horror film set in World War II.

Hit the jump for more on both projects.

TRON: UPRISING Behind-the-Scenes Featurette

Posted: May 17th, 2012 at 8:44 pm

While fans of TRON may be holding their breath waiting for a sequel to 2010′s TRON: Legacy, Disney XD aims to hold you over with their futuristic animated series, TRON: Uprising.  With the debut of the first episode set to air on the network tomorrow (unless you’ve already watched it here), Disney has released a behind-the-scenes featurette with tons of footage and some great cast commentary from the recent press junket. We were lucky enough to bring you interviews with stars Elijah Wood, who plays Beck, and Mandy Moore, who voices Mara.

TRON: Uprising also stars Emmanuelle Chriqui, Nate Corddry, Lance Henriksen, Reginald VelJohnson, Paul Reubens, Tricia Helfer and, of course, Bruce Boxleitner. The first episode, “Beck’s Beginning,” will air Friday, May 18 (9:30 – 10:00 p.m., ET/PT) with an uninterrupted encore on Disney XD on Monday, May 21 (7:00 p.m. ET/PT), followed by the series launch on Thursday, June 7 (9:00 p.m.).  Hit the jump to see the featurette.

ENDER’S GAME Updates from Producer Roberto Orci; Talks About Kubrick Influence, Favorite Scene, Zero G Battles and More

Posted: May 17th, 2012 at 8:38 pm

Harrison Ford reportedly called Ender’s Game, “one of the most emotional science fiction movies he has ever seen.”  If you’re a fan of Orson Scott Card’s award-winning novel, this article should let you breathe a little easier about the upcoming Gavin Hood adaptation.  While I was a bit leery about Hood’s attachment to my beloved property (see X-Men Origins: Wolverine), the Ender’s Game production blog has been shedding some interesting light on the filmmaker’s approach.  Hood and producer Roberto Orci (Star Trek) really seem to get the gist of the novel; that should elicit a sigh of relief followed quickly by a jolt of excitement from fans.  Orci recently participated in a Q&A on the blog in which he commented on the tone of the picture, the relationship between Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and Ender (Asa Butterfield), as well as his favorite scenes.

Ender’s Game tells the story of Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, a young boy sent away to Battle School to hone his military skills and, hopefully, save the world from an impending alien invasion.  Also starring Abigail Breslin, Sir Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Nonso Anozie and Viola Davis, the picture opens November 1st, 2013.  We’ve also got some images from the production, so hit the jump to check it out!

Fox Schedules PLAYDATE with Director Tim Hill; Jesse Wigutow to Script PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS for Disney

Posted: May 17th, 2012 at 6:53 pm

20th Century Fox is looking to schedule a Playdate.  The family-friendly pitch will be written by Tim Hill (Hop) and Dave Johnson, with Hill in line to direct.  Though the plot is being kept quiet at the moment, as Deadline reports, the title is fairly revealing.  The Alvin and the Chipmunks director has a long history of writing for children’s television series (Rocko’s Modern Life, SpongeBob SquarePants) and is set as the director for Dimenson Films’ remake of Short Circuit.

Fans of Peter Pan will want to hit the jump for information regarding the adaptation of the Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson novel series, Peter and the Starcatchers.

Anthony Mackie Plays RUNNER RUNNER, Alex Pettyfer Leads DIAMOND DOGS and Tim Roth Spies MOBIUS

Posted: May 17th, 2012 at 6:09 pm

Some casting news to share with you today.  Check the bullets:

• Anthony Mackie (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) is in talks to join Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake in the gambling drama, Runner Runner.
• Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number Four) will topline Diamond Dogs, an English-language thriller by director Pascal Chaumeil (Heartbreaker).
• Tim Roth (The Incredible Hulk) will join Jean Dujardin (The Artist) and Cecile De France (Hereafter) in the spy-thriller, Mobius.

Hit the jump for more.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES NBA Playoffs TV Spot

Posted: May 17th, 2012 at 5:15 pm

After surviving the onslaught of The Avengers marketing machine over the last few months, we now have about two months of The Dark Knight Rises madness to look forward to.  We brought you some new images recently and now a new TV spot for Christopher Nolan’s epic conclusion to his Batman trilogy has hit the airwaves.  It’s a promo for the NBA playoffs (similar to this Brave spot for the NFL draft) and features cuts of the Caped Crusader between such current sports phenoms as Meadowlark Lemon and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (they still play, right?).

The Dark Knight Rises, starring Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine, opens July 20th.  Hit the jump to check out the commercial.

Marvel Releases THE AVENGERS Movie Timeline

Posted: May 17th, 2012 at 4:38 pm

On the seventh day, Joss Whedon created The Avengers.  Marvel has released a new infographic movie timeline that highlights specific super-heroic instances in time and places them in the context of The Avengers and the individual movies that built up to it.  While The Avengers franchise no doubt revolves around Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, the new infographic has made him into a pseudo-Christ figure by demarcating the timeline with BIM (“Before Iron Man”) and AIM (“After Iron Man”).  While it’s true that Iron Man had more movies than the rest of The Avengers (excluding 2003′s Hulk, which the timeline wisely forgets), I’d much rather see the scenes relative to one Special Agent Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) or even the beloved Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg).  Hit the jump to check it out.

More Posters from Cannes: SPRING BREAKERS, DRACULA 3D, Brian De Palma’s PASSION and WHITE HOUSE TAKEN (OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN)

Posted: May 16th, 2012 at 11:16 pm

With the Cannes Film Festival officially kicking off today, there is plenty of big, bold movie marketing to be found.  For those of you who couldn’t make it to France (including me), we thought we’d bring you some of the sights.  Our international correspondent Magdalena (who you can follow on twitter) has been busy snapping some shots of promotional material at the festival.  We already brought you the first iteration here, but now we have some more goodies to check out.  They include shots of Spring Breakers, Dracula 3D, Brian De Palma’s Passion and Olympus Has Fallen starring Gerard Butler. Hit the jump to check them out.

Casting: Richard Dreyfuss Joins Ensemble in Indie SQUATTERS, Helena Bonham Carter and Kathy Bates Star in THE YOUNG AND PRODIGIOUS SPIVET

Posted: May 16th, 2012 at 8:35 pm

More casting news for you today.  Here it is at a glance:

• Richard Dreyfuss has joined the indie pic, Squatters, along with Lolita Davidovich, Nancy Travis, Evan Ross, Luke Grimes and Andrew Howard.
• Helena Bonham Carter and Kathy Bates have joined Amelie director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s The Young and Prodigious Spivet.
• Max Greenfield of Fox’s New Girl has joined the Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler comedy, They Came Together, directed by David Wain.

Hit the jump for more.

Disturbing NSFW Trailer for Elijah Wood’s MANIAC Remake

Posted: May 16th, 2012 at 7:36 pm

As if these images from Elijah Wood’s remake of the 1980 slasher flick, Maniac, weren’t disturbing enough, here’s a new trailer to haunt your dreams.  This NSFW first look at the Franck Khalfoun-directed thriller features nudity, gruesome violence and the scalping of not just the dime-store mannequins, but real live women as well.  The original, directed by William Lustig, starred Joe Spinell as Frank, a psychopath with a history of childhood abuse who takes women’s scalps as trophies.  Wood is doing his best to out-creep Spinell in this trailer and I dare say that he has succeeded.  Maniac also stars America Olivo and Nora Arnezeder.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer.

Fisher Stevens to Direct Adaptation of Philip Roth’s AMERICAN PASTORAL

Posted: May 16th, 2012 at 6:07 pm

I was only familiar with Fisher Stevens from the 1986 film, Short Circuit, so imagine my surprise when I watched the heart-wrenching and Academy Award-winning documentary, The Cove, and discovered Stevens was a co-director.  It looks like Stevens will step back behind the camera once again for an adaptation of Philip Roth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, American Pastoral.  This fictionalized account follows the protagonist, Seymour “Swede” Levov, who not only achieves the American dream, but loses it in dramatic fashion when his daughter becomes a political activist and terrorist during the Vietnam War.  American Pastoral, adapted by John Romano (The Lincoln Lawyer) is set to start principal photography early next year.  Hit the jump for more.

John Cusack Plays GRAND PIANO, Jude Law Stars in DOM HEMINGWAY and Liam James Added to THE WAY, WAY BACK

Posted: May 16th, 2012 at 5:34 pm

A couple of heavy hitters in casting news today.  Here are the headlines at a glance:

• John Cusack may join Elijah Wood in the indie thriller, Grand Piano.
• Jude Law will star in the title role of Richard Shepard’s Dom Hemingway.
• Liam James joins Steve Carell and Toni Collette in indie drama, The Way, Way Back.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

First Trailer for THE POSSESSION

Posted: May 16th, 2012 at 4:31 pm

The first trailer for the horror film The Possession has gone online. Produced by Sam Raimi, the film centers on a young girl who acquires an antique box at a yard sale, but she’s unaware that the box contains an evil spirit.  First of all, if you haven’t been creeped out by the poster yet, take a look here. As for the trailer, let me just say that the film earns positive marks for not following in the found footage genre’s footsteps.  The Possession trailer actually plays more like an homage to classic horror films like The Exorcist, Rosemary’s Baby and Poltergeist rather than any major horror film that’s been produced within the past ten years.  It’s also refreshing to see an exploration of the darker side of  Jewish folklore (the original film was titled The Dibbuk Box) rather than a rehashing of Catholic mythos.  Director Ole Bornedal may well have found a combination of a respectable method of shooting and a capable cast that can restore some faith in the horror genre.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kyra Sedgwick, and Natasha Calis.  The Possession opens on August 31st.

Finances Secured for Computer-Generated 3D Action Thriller THUNDER RUN, Starring Matthew McConaughey, Gerard Butler and Sam Worthington

Posted: May 15th, 2012 at 7:09 pm

Financials have been squared away for the all-computer-generated, 3D action thriller, Thunder Run, starring Matthew McConaughey, Gerard Butler and Sam Worthington.  Brian Presley’s Freedom Films was able to secure a P & A arrangement, just prior to the start of Cannes, in a deal that shares the financial burden between Freedom and Fred Malmburg’s Paradox Entertainment.  A good thing, since VFX work has already begun on the ambitious project, an adaptation of a non-fiction  book by Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent, David Zucchino. “Thunder Run – The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad” tells of the capture of the Iraqi capital by American forces at the onset of the Iraq War in April of 2003.  Zucchino’s novel was adapted by Academy Award-winner Robert Port (Twin Towers) and Black Hawk Down screenwriter, Ken Nolan. Hit the jump for more on Thunder Run.

Aaron Sorkin to Adapt STEVE JOBS for Sony

Posted: May 15th, 2012 at 6:11 pm

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Earlier reports have been confirmed that Oscar-winning screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network), will adapt the Steve Jobs biography for Sony Pictures.  The Walter Isaacson-penned biography, titled simply, “Steve Jobs,” came out a few weeks after the business mogul’s death last October; reports quickly started circulating that Sony was courting Sorkin to adapt it.  While the rumors that Noah Wyle and George Clooney are in the running to portray Jobs have not been confirmed, Sorkin is officially attached.  Also, please keep in mind that this is not the Ashton Kutcher indie biopic, Jobs, which was scripted by Matt Whiteley. Hit the jump for more on Sorkin and the Steve Jobs biopic.

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