MOVIE HYPE SA

CLOVERFIELD 2 (In Development)

2012-03-09T13:30:00.000+02:00

CLOVERFIELD 2

Shock Till You Drop met up with Drew Goddard recently before he ventured out to Texas for the South By Southwest Film Festival to show off his impressive directorial debut, The Cabin in the Woods.

There's a full interview on that movie coming, but he also provided an update on Cloverfield 2, the sequel to the film he wrote for producer J.J. Abrams and director Matt Reeves.

CloverField

"I'm in, I'm ready to do it," Goddard told the site. "Someone call J.J. and tell him to get moving, but because Matt and J.J. and I have been fortunate enough to be busy, it's hard syncing our schedules up. We're all very passionate about returning to that world."

Asked if an idea is on paper, he responded: "If you asked each of us what we wanted to do, you'll get three different answers, which is how the first film was. The aesthetic of Cloverfield benefits from that. Three voices pulling it. Look, nothing would make me happier than to get the three of us in the room to get started." He added with a laugh, "But you've got this Star Trek thing..."

CIUDAD (Cast News)

2012-03-09T11:00:00.000+02:00

CIUDAD

Dwayne Johnson is set to headline the Russo Brothers' film adaptation of their own upcoming graphic novel, Ciudad.

Dwanye Johnson Training for his next role in Pain and Gain

First announced some years ago, the still-unpublished graphic novel (written with Ande Parks) is set in one of the most dangerous and corrupt cities in the world. Johnson plays a black market mercenary who's hired by a Brazilian drug lord to rescue his kidnapped daughter..

"Exploring genre has always been a driving motivation for us as filmmakers," said the Russos, "This movie is the culmination of a long time ambition to bring our sensibilities to an action thriller."

Johnson, has already appeared this year in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and has a diverse upcoming slate that includes G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Snitch, Fast Six, Michael Bay's Pain and Gain and, just announced, Hercules.

VENOM (In Development)

2012-03-09T09:30:00.000+02:00

VENOM

Venom will be Back!!!

Venom is coming back to the big screen.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Sony is in negotiations with Chronicle director Josh Trank to helm the Spidey villain's solo feature film.

Flash Thompson as Venom

The studio has been developing a Venom spinoff film for awhile after the character of Eddie Brock appeared in Spider-Man 3 played by Topher Grace. The Hunger Games director Gary Ross was attached to the film for awhile before moving on.

The plan is reportedly to hire a new writer to pen a new Venom screenplay and to have a different actor other than Grace play the role next time around.

There's also no word on whether or not the character would fit into the rebooted universe of The Amazing Spider-Man, but it would seem reasonable to assume that it will.

Trank was recently reported to be up for directing Fox's reboot Fantastic Four Reborn, but it would seem that this Venom film is more likely his next gig than that.

Its kind of weird that Sony would want to work on a Venom film, while the Amazing Spider-Man film didn’t even release yet. We not even sure if they will fall in the same universe or will they be separate from each other.

We think that will fall into the same universe with them most likely coming together in one film.

Kind of what Avengers have done with all those characters.

Flash Thompson Vs Eddie Brock as Venom Which One Will They Use?

We just excited that Venom is coming to big screen!! Hopefully this time he could be treated right!!

JOURNEY 2 TO THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (Sequel Talk)

2012-03-09T08:00:00.000+02:00

JOURNEY 3

After its phenomenal box office take of over $275 million worldwide, it's now been confirmed that Journey 2: The Mysterious Island will get a sequel from New Line Cinema.

Journey to get a sequel

While no actors have been set for Journey 3, The Hollywood Reporter claims that Journey 2 director Brad Peyton and writers Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn will be returning for the 3D followup.

"I grew up a fan of [author Jules] Verne, so I know a lot about the mythologies," said Peyton. "Mysterious Island was one of eight or nine really seminal works. I know we've just scratched the surface of what we can do. This one's going to be a lot bigger. We're going to go to a completely different world. It's just going to be a bigger experience and we're going to grow the mythology. Journey 2 was about rebooting a franchise. Now it's about making the seminal work in the franchise."

The studio is fast-tracking the family adventure and hopes to have the project ready for theaters by 2014.

Journey 2 releases March 16 in South Africa.

PROJECT X (Featurette)

2012-03-08T17:30:00.000+02:00

PROJECT X

After the low-budget Project X opened to the tune of $21 million at the box office last weekend, Warner Bros. is eager to keep the party going.

The Hollywood Reporter claims that Michael Becall, who developed the story for the first film, will be teaming again with co-writer Matt Drake to hammer out a treatment for a Project X sequel. However, whether that treatment segues into a screenplay will be up to producers Todd Phillips and Joel Silver.

Currently, it's uncertain if the story will pick up where the first movie left off or if the creators will recast an entirely new ensemble. But seeing as the actors are still relatively unknown, it seems likely that they could return for a followup if the story called for it.

Project X releases 9 March! Check out our Featurette

THE AVENGERS (Hulk Update)

2012-03-08T16:30:00.000+02:00

HULK WILL SMASH!!!

THE AVENGERS HULK TO SMASH!!!

There's a lot riding on Joss Whedon's upcoming adaptation of Marvel's The Avengers, but for the most part, we know the drill with our heroes -- Iron Man, Thor, Captain America -- we've already seen these guys in their own movies. However, with the addition of Mark Ruffalo, there's been some concern as to how the actor will come off on screen as Dr. Bruce Banner. Well, Whedon's here to tell you there's no need to worry:

Glad to see Hulk being a real Gentleman and clearing a path for Black Widow?!

"Mark is such a delightful mensch it's stupid," Whedon told SFX. "His Banner is a bunch of contradictions: graceful and awkward, meek and confident, erudite and working class, funny and sad. And contradictions are what the Banner/Hulk dynamic are all about. Also, Mark kinda looks like the Hulk. So we got to build our Hulk from him."

But perhaps even more nerve-racking is the film's depiction of the Jade Giant himself. The character's track record has been a mixed bag over the years. What did Whedon's Hulk need to get right?

"So much," the director continued. "A Bruce Banner who's not obsessed with his own problems. A Hulk who not only feels flesh and blood, but is clearly an extension of Banner himself and not just a CGI thing that roars. A Hulk who feels dangerous, who might actually hurt someone we care about, who belongs in a classic horror film. And much more. He's the hardest character by far, and ended up being the most fun."

HULK is a HERO!!!

Avengers releases on the 27^th of April in SA and 4^th of May in the USA.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (Interesting News)

2012-03-08T15:30:00.000+02:00

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES ON TOP WITH FASHION

Bane in his ultra cool Coat

The Dark Knight Rises costume designer Lindy Hemming has been chatting up her approach to dressing Bruce Wayne and the villainous Bane in Christopher Nolan's upcoming finale to the Batman universe.

"Bane was meant to look like a cross between a dictator and a revolutionary," Hemming said in an interview with GQ Magazine.

"I designed the coat myself - it took a year. We took inspiration from a Swedish army jacket and a French Revolution frock coat and amalgamated the two," said Hemming. "It was a pain to have made, because in LA shearling is not their sort of thing: there weren't the tailors who could work with the fabric. It's funny: as soon as it was finished, GQ did a feature about shearling coats, so it looked like I had copied you!"

Bane might be a serial killer, but his very Fashionable!!

As for the Dark Knight himself, Hemming said, "Christian Bale was in Armani in the last film and I used Armani again for character reasons. Bruce Wayne is himself playing a part: that of a wealthy man who owns an enormous company and so a luxury brand like Armani seemed the right choice."

The Dark Knight Rises Releases in 27 July

FADING GIGOLO (Cast News)

2012-03-08T15:18:00.003+02:00

FADING GIGOLO

Woody Allen

Coming off a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for last year’s Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen is gearing up to star in a movie that he won’t direct.

The Beautiful Sofia Vergara

Variety reports that Allen is set to join John Turturro’s indie comedy Fading Gigolo. Turturro wrote and will direct the project, which finds Turturro and Allen “playing cash-strapped best friends who decide to go into the gigolo business together and subsequently attract the suspicion of the hasidic Jewish community in which they live.” Allen pimps out Turturro’s character who falls for a Jewish widow. It’s a pretty outlandish premise, but it’s not hard to see why Allen signed on. The guy has an impeccable sense of humor and pairing him with Turturro seems like a perfect match.

Sofia Vergara is also in talks to take a supporting role in the film alongside Sharon Stone, with the two playing customers of Turturro and Allen’s gigolo business. Allen hasn’t acted in a film he didn’t direct since 2000’s Picking Up the Pieces, but he stars this summer in his latest film as a writer-director, Nero Fiddled.

Production on Fading Gigolo is set to begin this April in New York.

SALT 2 (No Progress)

2012-03-08T14:30:00.000+02:00

ANGELINA JOLIE DOESNT WANT ANY MORE SALT

Angelina Jolie seems to be turning a lucrative sequel in Salt 2, she did it with Wanted 2 and now she is at it again.

Angelina Jolie in Salt

Moviehole reports that the actress has turned down the "current incarnation" of the project. "Jolie's just finished reading Kurt Wimmer's script for a potential sequel to her 2010 hit but didn't go for it," says the site. "Columbia Pictures have had Wimmer go back to the drawing board to see if he can come up with something that'll work for Jolie."

Salt 2 seems highly unlikely for now.

OUT OF FURNACE (Cast News)

2012-03-08T13:05:00.002+02:00

OUT OF FURNACE

Star Trek's Zoe Saldana will join Christian Bale in Scott Cooper's Out of the Furnace.

The news comes mere days after rumors surrounding Viggo Mortensen's involvement with the project.

Zoe Saldana

Casey Affleck has been cast to play the part of Bale's brother

Saldana will play the girlfriend of Slim (Bale), who has just been released from prison. Although he has intentions of settling down and marrying up, Slim gets swept up in a quest for revenge after his brother is murdered at the hands of a gambling racket.

Production is slated for the spring, just before Bale begins shooting his next project Knight of Cups.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK AND THE MAKING OF PSYCHO (Cast News)

2012-03-08T08:00:00.000+02:00

ALFRED HITCHCOCK AND THE MAKING OF PSYCHO

Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson will reenact cinema's most famous shower scene for director Sacha Gervasi's feature film Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho.

Variety reports that the Avengers starlet will play actress Janet Leigh in the film, which has also cast British actor James D'Arcy (Master and Commander) as the late Anthony Perkins, who played serial killer Norman Bates in the Psycho series. Leigh played the doomed Marion Crane, slain in the shower by Bates in the 1960 slasher classic.

Anthony Hopkins will play director Alfred Hitchcock and Helen Mirren his wife Alma Reville. The John McLaughlin-scripted film is based on Stephen Rebello's book. The Hollywood Reporter says the focus of the film is on Hitch and Alma and that Johansson's role as Leigh will be smaller.

A.C.O.D. (Cast news)

2012-03-07T18:00:00.000+02:00

A.C.O.D.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead has joined Adam Scott, Jane Lynch, and Richard Jenkins in the comedy A.C.O.D. Collider reports.

Mary Elizabteh Winstead

The title stands for “Adult Children of Divorce”, and the plot centers on a guy (Scott) who has been caught in his parents’ ugly divorce of the past twenty years, and matters become even worse when his brother gets engaged.

Then the details of the feud are revealed in a definitive new book on children of divorce. According to Deadline, Winstead will be the rock and long-time girlfriend of Scott’s character. Stuart Zicherman will make his directing debut on a script he co-wrote with Ben Karlin (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart).

Winstead gave one of the more buzzed-about performances coming out Sundance this year with her captivating dramatic turn as an alcoholic in Smashed, but she’s been crushing it in movies for a while now.

She’s convincingly played a bad-ass in The Thing, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and Live Free or Die Hard, and I’m excited to see how she’ll play off Scott, Jenkins, and Lynch in a comedy.

Winstead will next be seen playing Mary Todd Lincoln in the action flick Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

DESPICABLE ME 2 – Trailer

2012-03-07T15:00:00.000+02:00

DESPICABLE ME 2 – Trailer

The trailer and poster for Universal Pictures' Despicable Me 2 have come online and can be viewed below!

Opening in theaters on July 3, 2013, the Illumination Entertainment sequel features the voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand and Al Pacino.

Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin directed the sequel to the 2010 release, which earned $543 million worldwide. The all-new comedy animated adventure features the return of Gru (Carell), the girls, the unpredictably hilarious minions... and a host of new and outrageously funny characters.

BATTLESHIP (Posters)

2012-03-07T14:30:00.000+02:00

BATTLESHIP

Check out the new International Posters for BATTLESHIP.

The film arrives from director and producer Peter Berg (Hancock) and unfolds across the seas, in the skies and over land as our planet fights for survival against a superior force. Based on Hasbro's classic naval combat game, Battleship also stars Brooklyn Decker.

In France, Belgium and the UK, the film opens on April 11, and many other countries will get it in the following weeks before the movie hits North America on May 18. It Hits SA cinemas May 4th.

THE MUPPETS (Sequel talk)

2012-03-07T10:30:00.000+02:00

THE MUPPETS

Fans of The Muppets should be very pleased to hear that a sequel to last year's film is on the way. Word breaks through Vulture, where it is said that director James Bobin and writer Nicholas Stoller are set to return behind the camera.

Jason Segel & Kermit

Unfortunately, co-writer and leading man Jason Segel's involvement is not so certain as prior commitments are preventing him from being involved in the pre-production stage. Whether or not he or any of the other cast of last year's film return as actors remains to be seen.

Jason Segel was the whole reason the Muppets even got a film, as he pressed studios to get it made, he even co-wrote the story and some songs. Jason Segel understood what makes the Muppets so popular and he even made them relevant to a new generation once again, so a Muppets film without seems wrong, but it will probably be another hit…

But then the star, had the chance to speak with the guys over at Collider, and this is what he had to say:

"My goal was to bring The Muppets back and I did that leaving them in very good hands, my writing partner and James Bobin the director. All I wanted to do was to set the stage for them to do whatever they wanted. I did what I set out to do, and now I wanna pursue more human-related projects. I’m sure I’ll return in some capacity here and there, but that was half a decade of my life. Five years of hard work. I’m ready for a little puppet break.”

HELL & BACK (Cast News)

2012-03-07T08:30:00.000+02:00

HELL & BACK

Mila Kunis has joined cast of ShadowMachine's Hell & Back, the studio announced. She'll star opposite the previously announced Nick Swardson, TJ Miller, Rob Riggle, Brian Posehn and Kumail Najiani.

Mila Kunis

The R-rated stop-motion animated comedy follows two best friends (Swardson and Miller) as they rescue their buddy who has been accidentally dragged to Hell. ShadowMachine’s Corey Campodonico, Eric Blyler and Alex Bulkley are producing the film directed by Tommy Gianas ("SNL," "Human Giant," "Tenacious D," "Pretend Time") along with Ross Shuman, with current writing revisions by Hugh Sterbakov.

Kunis' character is officially described as follows:

Deema is a female demon whose ability to navigate the underworld makes her the toughest rogue demon in Hell. Her independent streak may come from her greatest secret: She's half-human. She was sired by the Orpheus of myth when he traveled down the River Styx years ago. What the myths don't say is that he was nailing everything that moved. When Orpheus is revealed to be...well, a bit of a tool, frankly...Deema has to look inside to figure out what it means to be human. She's the Han Solo of the film.

The film marks ShadowMachine’s first R-rated adult stop-motion animation feature and one of several in the works for the production outfit.

FIVE AGAINST A BULLET (Cast news)

2012-03-06T16:30:00.000+02:00

FIVE AGAINST A BULLET

Columbia Pictures announced that Bruce Willis will star in Five Against A Bullet, an action thriller being developed by producers Lorenzo DiBonaventura, Jordan Schur, and David Mimran.

Bruce Willis

Alex Litvak is writing the screenplay which centers on a Mexican politician who, after his father is killed by a drug cartel, hires the five best bodyguards from around the world to protect him through a contentious election.

Commenting on the announcement, Columbia's president of production Hannah Minghella said, “We have been excited about this project since acquiring the rights last year from Mimran Schur and believe Bruce Willis is the perfect actor to lead this cast. We look forward to moving 'Five Against A Bullet' into production quickly."

Willis was last seen in RED (a role he's expected to soon reprise) and can next be seen in Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, Rian Johnson’s sci-fi thriller Looper, Jon Chu's G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Simon West's The Expendables 2. He will also soon begin production on A Good Day to Die Hard (the fifth installment in the popular Die Hard franchise).

NIEGHBOURHOOD WATCH (TEASER TRAILER)

2012-03-06T14:30:00.000+02:00

NIEGHBOURHOOD WATCH

Make Sure you catch this film!!!

20th Century Fox has released the first trailer for Neighborhood Watch, opening in theaters on July 27, which you can watch below.

Starring Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill, Vince Vaughn, Rosemarie DeWitt, Richard Ayoade, Will Forte and Billy Crudup, the sci-fi comedy is directed by Akiva Schaffer (Hot Rod) and tells of a neighborhood watch crew that is secretly an excuse for local men to hang out together. Things take a turn for the serious, though, when the team accidentally uncovers a plot to destroy the world.

21 JUMP STREET (Sequel Talk)

2012-03-06T11:30:00.000+02:00

21 JUMP STREET

21 Jump street in cinemas 23rd March

Though the first film isn't even slated to open until March 16 in the US, 23^rd March here in SA. Sony Pictures is moving forward with a sequel to 21 Jump Street. E! has the news, having confirmed with Jonah Hill directly that the studio has greenlit the writing of a comedy followup.

"We are writing the sequel now," said Hill, who stars opposite Channing Tatum in the Phil Lord and Chris Miller film.

Also starring in the first film are Ice Cube, Brie Larson, Rob Riggle, DeRay Davis, Dave Franco, Jake Johnson, Johnny Simmons, Johnny Pemberton, Dakota Johnson and Ellie Kemper.

In the action comedy, Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum) are more than ready to leave their adolescent problems behind. Joining the police force and the secret Jump Street unit, they use their youthful appearances to go undercover in a local high school. As they trade in their guns and badges for backpacks, Schmidt and Jenko risk their lives to investigate a violent and dangerous drug ring. But they find that high school is nothing like they left it just a few years earlier and neither expects that they will have to confront the terror and anxiety of being a teenager again and all the issues they thought they had left behind.

THE BLING RING (Cast News)

2012-03-06T08:30:00.001+02:00

THE BLING RING

Director Sofia Coppola has just recruited Emma Watson to star in her new film The Bling Ring, based on the true story of a group of teenagers who commit a series of celebrity burglaries.

Emma Watson

Although Watson has said she wants to shift her focus to school for now, the young actress has still managed to work in several indie projects post-Harry Potter. She recently appeared in the Weinstein's My Week With Marilyn and just wrapped on Fox Searchlight's The Perks of Being a Wallflower. She was also recently cast in David Yates' Your Voice in My Head back at Warner Bros.

Coppola will write and direct the film, as well as produce with her brother Roman Coppola and Youree Henley

WINTERS TALE (Cast Rumours)

2012-03-06T08:30:00.000+02:00

WINTERS TALE

Tom Hiddleston

Akiva Goldsman has spent the last several years developing an adaptation of Mark Helprin‘s novel Winter’s Tale.

He signed a deal this time last year to make Winter’s Tale his directorial debut, but the progress was impeded when the budget for the supernatural period thriller became a concern at Warner Bros.

Goldsman turned to a pair of marketable A-listers he’s worked with for help: Russell Crowe (Goldsman wrote A Beautiful Mind and Cinderella Man) and Will Smith (I, Robot and I Am Legend) have agreed to appear in the film, so the project is back on track with $20 million subtracted from the projected budget.

Goldsman is now looking to cast the young leads: Heat Vision hears Benjamin Walker (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), Tom Hiddleston (Thor), Lily Collins (Abduction), Bella Heathcote (In Time), and Jessica Brown Findlay (Downtown Abbey) will undergo testing over the next two weeks.

Lily Collins

The early 20th-century tale centers on “a thief on the run who, when breaking into a wealthy man’s home, strikes up a relationship with the man’s terminally ill daughter.” Hit the jump for the full book synopsis.

New York City is subsumed in arctic winds, dark nights, and white lights, its life unfolds, for it is an extraordinary hive of the imagination, the greatest house ever built, and nothing exists that can check its vitality. One night in winter, Peter Lake–orphan and master-mechanic, attempts to rob a fortress-like mansion on the Upper West Side.

Though he thinks the house is empty, the daughter of the house is home. Thus begins the love between Peter Lake, a middle-aged Irish burglar, and Beverly Penn, a young girl, who is dying.

Peter Lake, a simple, uneducated man, because of a love that, at first he does not fully understand, is driven to stop time and bring back the dead. His great struggle, in a city ever alight with its own energy and beseiged by unprecedented winters, is one of the most beautiful and extraordinary stories of American literature.

This definetly sounds like a beautiful story to tell and with some wonderful names connected to the film, it will surely be a hit.