Screen Rant

‘Magic City’ Season 1 Finale Review

Kevin Yeoman — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 10:35:41 PDT

It must be nice working for Starz and knowing a second season has already been ordered before your program even premieres. Early renewals aren’t uncommon in the realm of pay-cable networks – HBO does it all the time – and Starz has treated Spartacus and Boss to the same good news as they did Magic City. Considering how long it took the series to find its legs, it is now clear that the storyline set up during the course of this first season will be running headlong into season 2.

Since the penultimate episode left much of the drama wrapped up enough to make savvy audience members wary, ‘Time and Tide’ begins with the odd emotional disconnect of watching Maria, the wife Victor Lazaro (Yul Vazquez), who has been trapped ...

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Movie News Wrap Up: June 2, 2012

Niall Browne — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 08:36:11 PDT

This week:

Channing Tatum ascends to Jupiter; Gillian Anderson, Haley Joel Osment, and Rufus Sewell will Follow You Down; Sparks fly as Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel find a Safe Haven and Gemma Arterton hedges her bets with Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake in Runner Runner.

1. Everyone’s favorite G.I. Joe, Channing Tatum, has joined the cast of the Wachowskis’ Jupiter Ascending.

What’s the film going to be like? I’ll let Tatum tell you:

“It’s going to be a crazy action movie from the [directors] of The Matrix. They’re going to reinvent the wheel as far as action goes, all over again.”

Sounds good, but what’s it about?

“Higher forms of life [who] are watching us from other, albeit this time non-meta worlds, but actual, other worlds, as in planets and moons.”

Not sure if that clears things up, ...

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10 TV Shows We’re Kind Of Sad To See Go (But Not Really)

Anthony Ocasio — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:15:35 PDT

Before the full force of the summer television season begins, let’s take a look back at some of the television series that were canceled this year – and whether or not we’re actually sad to see them go.

From CSI: Miami to cross-dressing workplace comedy Work It! (remember that show?) come with us as we reminisce about both the tragic, and merciful, TV show fatalities of 2012.

YEEAAHHH!

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New ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Details: Studio Wanted DiCaprio as Riddler

Kofi Outlaw — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:49:13 PDT

The world starting wondering what Chris Nolan’s third Batman film would be about almost immediately after the end credits rolled on The Dark Knight way back in 2008, and there were plenty of forthcoming theories about who the villains would be. (Ironically enough, Tom Hardy’s character Bane was one of the most persistent ones.)

In a recent article for Empire, Batman trilogy co-writer David S. Goyer dropped some interesting details and anecdotes about The Dark Knight Rises - including Warner Bros.’ plan to have The Riddler be the villain, with Leonardo DiCaprio playing him.

Here are some of the details about TDKR, as per Batman News:

In Fall of 2008, Christopher Nolan and co-writer David Goyer came up with the ending to The Dark Knight Rises. They didn’t know what the ...

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SR Geek Picks: New E.T. Theme Song, Nic Cage ‘Star Wars’; Marvel Bathrobes & More!

Justin Vactor — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 10:25:13 PDT

Welcome to Screen Rant’s “Geek Picks,” where we collect the finest movie-related geekery from around the web for you. Today you’ll find Harry Potter Quidditch jerseys; Star Wars coasters; how The Avengers SHOULD have ended, and an 8-bit Avengers shirt. All that and more on this edition of SR’s Geek Picks!

To kick things off today, TheGeekTwins has a nice list of Star Wars Wallpapers. My favorite is the New Hope wallpaper.

While Marvel announced that it will be showing The Avengers to some lucky astronauts up in space, Amazon has a listing for a 10 disc, 6-movie collection titled: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One – Avengers Assembled. I will be pre-ordering this as soon as humanly possible. The only question is: Are all 6 films worth the asking price?

Also, our friends over at FirstShowing found some ...

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New ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ & ‘Expendables 2′ Extended TV Spots

Sandy Schaefer — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 10:11:03 PDT

Sony will attempt to successfully relaunch the Spider-Man movie franchise with next month’s The Amazing Spider-Man. Later this summer, Sylvester Stallone and his fellow action star legends will demonstrate just how much gunfire, explosions, and cheesy one-liners you can cram into a single movie, with The Expendables 2.

We’ve rounded up new extended TV spots for both film, which can be viewed after the jump. Feel free to let us know your own thoughts about each title, in the comments section.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) makes his debut as Peter Parker in Amazing Spider-Man, which re-explores the origins of the titular costumed superhero from a different perspective. Moreover, director Marc Webb’s reboot also follows Pete on a quest to discover the truth behind the disappearance of his biological parents so many years ...

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‘Sherlock’s’ Benedict Cumberbatch Joins ’12 Years a Slave’

Sandy Schaefer — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 09:05:54 PDT

Fresh off directing the critical-darling Shame, Steve McQueen is ready to move ahead with his next project: Twelve Years a Slave, an adaptation of Solomon Northrup’s famous memoir about his experiences living as an African-American man in New York (before the U.S. Civil War) – when he was suddenly kidnapped and sold into slavery, eventually being rescued nearly a dozen years later.

Three-time Golden Globe-nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor (Children of Men, 2012) will portray Northrup in Twelve Years a Slave. Furthermore, the film also reunites McQueen with his Shame and Hunger leading man, Michael Fassbender.

Variety has confirmed that the latest addition to the cast for Twelve Years a Slave is Benedict Cumberbatch, the fan-favorite star of BBC’s Sherlock. Suffice it to say, the English actor’s popularity should only continue to grow over ...

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‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ Review

Kofi Outlaw — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 08:34:27 PDT

Screen Rant’s Kofi Outlaw Reviews Snow White and the Huntsman

Snow White and the Huntsman re-imagines the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale as a Medieval fantasy epic, which starts off on a familiar note: A noble queen sees three drops of blood fall on fresh snow and wishes for a daughter who is just as fair. That daughter is born, but when the mother dies, the King, in his grief, takes on a new wife who proves to be his undoing. In this version, that evil queen is a man-hating sorceress named Ravenna (Charlize Theron), whose dark magic plunges the entire kingdom into despair and horror.

Ravenna is bonded ...

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Nicolas Winding Refn In Talks to Direct ‘Button Man’

Niall Browne — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 07:13:36 PDT

Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn has entered talks to direct Button Man, an adaptation of Button Man: The Killing Game, the violent 2000AD comic strip by John Wagner and Arthur Ranson. The film, based at DreamWorks, was written by Hilary Seitz and once had Leonardo DiCaprio attached to star.

Button Man follows Harry Exton, a contract killer who fights in an underground sport with other hired killers. Each killer works for a ‘Voice,’ a wealthy (but unknown) man who controls part of the game. The aim is simple – kill the other players or take the first three joints of their finger. When they lose three fingers, they’re killed. But when Harry tries to leave the lucrative game, he discovers that it is much more difficult than he anticipated.

We first caught wind of Button ...

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Original ‘Kick-Ass’ Cast in Talks for ‘Kick-Ass 2′

Sandy Schaefer — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 06:56:58 PDT

Following nearly two years’ worth of unconfirmed reports and claims by Kick-Ass comic book creator Mark Millar that a movie sequel is on the way, it finally looks like Kick-Ass 2 is a certainty.

Whereas the original Kick-Ass was co-written and directed by Matthew Vaughn – who also pulled in funding for the film on his own – the followup is being financed by Universal Pictures. Helming duties on Kick-Ass 2 have also been re-assigned to Jeff Wadlow, since Vaughn is currently caught up in pre-production on the X-Men: First Class sequel (which is due out in Summer 2014).

Prior to now, there has been some question as to whether or not the original Kick-Ass cast (specifically, Aaron Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz and Christopher Mintz-Plasse) would be returning for the sequel – since none of the aforementioned stars ...

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9 Movies We’re Looking Forward To: June 2012

John Hanlon — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 06:00:00 PDT

We’ve finally arrived at the summer movie season of 2012, and June promises to be a huge month with some studios releasing their biggest movies of the year. So far this year we’ve witnessed a couple of blockbuster misfires, but that pattern could easily change this month with a slew of big-budget releases arriving in theaters.

Right now, the biggest surprise of this June list is what’s not on it. It was only in late May that the release date of the potential summer blockbuster G.I. Joe: Retaliation was surprisingly pushed back nine months. Even without that on the schedule, there are still a bunch of movies to look forward to this month.

Here are nine movies that we at Screen Rant are impatiently waiting to see in theaters.

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Open Discussion – June 1, 2012

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 05:23:30 PDT

It’s already June, can you believe it!? Next thing you know it’ll be Christmas – yeesh!

As usual – talk about whatever you like as long as it’s related to movies, TV or Screen Rant itself – just remember to play nice.

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‘A Good Day to Die Hard’ Adds Supermodel Anne Vyalitsyna to Cast

Ben Moore — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 04:55:53 PDT

The fifth Die Hard film – officially titled A Good Day to Die Hard – is in the midst of shooting, with a cast that includes Jai Courtney, Amaury Nolasca, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Sebastian Koch, Yulia Snigir, and Cole Hauser (besides, of course, Bruce Willis as John McClane).

Now, Variety is reporting that Anne Vyalitsyna – a Sports Illustrated supermodel turned actress (and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine’s ex-girlfriend) – is joining the cast in her debut role.

There’s no word yet as to the role she’ll have in the film, but one presumes that since Yulia Snigir is a female villain, Vyalitsyna will be playing a potential love interest to ...

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Adam Sandler in Talks to Join Will Ferrell in ‘Three Mississippi’

Robert Yaniz — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:47:08 PDT

Love him or hate him, Adam Sandler has proven to be a consistent box office draw. From cult classics like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore to the mainstream success of 2010’s Grown Ups, the man has a built-in fanbase that flocks to theaters to see him yuk it up onscreen. It’s little wonder then that the latest Will Ferrell project is courting him to join the cast.

The film in question, Three Mississippi, involves two families who square off each Thanksgiving for an annual football game. Sandler would play the leader of the losing team, in a role that was originally intended for none other than Mark Wahlberg.

According to Vulture, the project was ...

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‘Premium Rush’ Trailer #2: High-Stakes NYC Bicycle Chase

Kofi Outlaw — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:58:43 PDT

As you can see from the Premium Rush trailer above, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Dark Knight Rises) is in for a more of a thrill ride than your average New York City biker gets in a day. And that’s saying something.

This new cat-and-mouse thriller from acclaimed writer/director David Koepp (Carlito’s Way, Mission: Impossible, Stir of Echoes) features Gordon-Levitt as “Wilee,” an innocent bike courier who is given a not-so-innocent package to deliver. Of course the hot potato in Wilee’s possession attracts some bad people – namely the corrupt cop played (with accented menace) by Michael Shannon, who will again show his dark side as General Zod in next year’s Superman reboot, Man of Steel. Aiding Wilee is fellow bike messenger, love interest (and if I had to guess, eventual hostage) Vanessa played by X-Men 3‘s Dania Ramirez.

‘Premium Rush’ Trailer #2: High-Stakes NYC Bicycle Chase

Charlize Theron is ‘Totally Open’ to Joining ‘Game of Thrones’

Roth Cornet — Thu, 31 May 2012 18:53:48 PDT

If you’ve been following our coverage of Prometheus, you know that fan-favorite actress Charlize Theron has already dished out her thoughts on Ridley Scott’s return to the Alien universe, and opened-up about her role in the oft-delayed Mad Max 4: Fury Road.

However, during our time with Theron at the recent Prometheus junket in London, she also opened up about an especially important topic – whether or not aliens watch HBO’s Game of Thrones (among other great topics of discussion).

Question: You were involved in a small indie movie that went to Sundance a couple of years ago – are you still involved in production?

Charlize Theron: Yeah, we produced “Young Adult.” Then, I think we have eight projects now that are being greenlit for next year. I’ll go right into one in January. But yeah, we have ...

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‘Expendables’ TV Series in the Works?

Robert Yaniz — Thu, 31 May 2012 18:20:14 PDT

Back in the 1980s and early 1990s, Hollywood action cinema was known for its campy one-liners, over-the-top thrills and an overall sense of tongue-in-cheek fun. So, fans of such films – most notably those starring Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger – came out in droves for The Expendables, Stallone’s 2010 love-letter to old-school action, to the tune of a $274 million worldwide gross.

Now, in addition to the upcoming sequel Expendables 2 (and a third film as well) the franchise may be about to take its mayhem to television screens. Lionsgate, the studio that distributes the films, plans to develop several properties for the small screen. Besides a potential Expendables television series, films such as RED (which also has a sequel in the development) and the Step Up series are being looked at for possible adaptation. The studio – still ...

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New Release Dates for ‘X-Men: First Class 2′, ‘Thor 2′, ‘Rise of the Apes 2′ & More

Sandy Schaefer — Thu, 31 May 2012 16:07:15 PDT

Within the span of a single day, three highly-anticipated sequels to hit 2011 films - X-Men: First Class, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Thor – have all secured new official release dates.

Meanwhile, director Steven Spielberg’s Robopocalypse has been pushed back a year. (Presumably, because the zombie apocalypse looks to beat it to the punch.) Robopocalypse‘s previous release date will instead be occupied by Disney’s Lone Ranger and Fox’s 3D theatrical re-release of Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day.

Thor 2 will be the first of those buzzed-about sequels to reach U.S. theaters, now on November 8th (rather than the 15th) of 2013. That will give the Son of Odin a two-week head-start on Katniss Everdeen, who will return to theaters shortly thereafter with The Hunger Games: Catching ...

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Michael Fassbender Talks ‘X-Men: First Class 2′ & Acting Overload

Kofi Outlaw — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:44:40 PDT

These days if you watch a string of movie trailers back-to-back, there’s a good (1-in-4?) chance that you’ll see the face of Michael Fassbender appear onscreen. In the last two years alone, Fassbender has been a standout performer in an ecclectic blend of films ranging from big-budget thrill rides (Jonah Hex, Haywire, Prometheus), to more stirring and/or provocative indie dramas (Jane Eyre, Shame, A Dangerous Method).

However, the general moviegoing public best knows Fassbender from his role as a young Magneto in X-Men: First Class - and are eagerly anticipating his return to the character in the already announced X-Men: First Class 2 (tentative title). Scroll down to read what Fassbender had to say at the
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‘Nurse Jackie’ Renewed For Season 5; Adds ‘Dexter’ Showrunner

Kevin Yeoman — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:43:27 PDT

In renewing the award-winning Nurse Jackie for a fifth season, it looks as though Showtime is keeping it all in the family by tasking former Dexter head honcho Clyde Phillips to serve as the series’ new showrunner.

Phillips comes to Nurse Jackie following the announcement that co-creators Liz Brixius and Linda Wallem would be leaving the program after four seasons as showrunners. Apparently, the move works out well considering Phillips reportedly left his post on Dexter in part to spend more time with his family on the East Coast. Because Nurse Jackie is shot in New York, the location was a key component in luring the showrunner back to the network.

After experiencing a slip in the ratings during season 3, Showtime moved the series back to its original Sunday night time ...

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