After Earth Trailer – M. Night Shyamalan Isn't Done with His Twists

Ironic.

The trailer for After Earth, courtesy of The Film Stage, keeps its director M. Night Shyamalan out of the credits (A sign the controversial filmmaker is that toxic to audiences). Yet it ends with his trademark twist. The exotic, alien planet Will Smith and son Jaden inhabit is a desolate Earth, and also suggested another twist in the making.

It feels like this is more Jaden's story than movie-star poppa Will. Does Smith eat it not too far into the narrative and it shifts into Jaden's survival? A bold move, if that's what Shyamalan has up his sleeve.

Star Trek Into Darkness Announcement Teaser

Paramount released the "announcement teaser" to Star Trek Into Darkness. A full trailer (Oh lord this is more "teaser to a trailer" crap) is out December 17:

First thoughts:

• Benedict Cumberbatch sounds like Patrick Stewart with an American accent.
• Spock lands on a volcano planet, of some sorts, echoing Revenge of the Sith.
• Alice Eve's unnamed beauty (Carole Marcus... I hope not) screams at an off-screen threat. How slasher-movie of you, J.J.!
• Destruction galore, on the bridge of the Enterprise, on Earth, panicked running and mournful faces (Scotty comforting Uhura). Lacking the "fun" nature of the '09 reboot. Everything is glum here. Classic sequel marketing; up the ante and show it's for real.

An extra, few seconds from the Japanese version feature a familiar image. Two hands "touching"separated by glass; one in yellow, Starfleet uniform and the other in blue.

Misdirection or is Abrams saying they really are retreading Wrath of Khan territory? Hell, we still don't know who Cumberbatch is playing and his "For I have returned...to have. my. vengeance!" speech sounds like Khan. Please let it be the former. Otherwise, yeah, good trailer.

Kristen Wiig Loves Lamp

Kristen Wiig, as you'll remember, tried to put the kibosh on a Bridesmaids sequel. The comedian thought, God forbid, a blockbuster can be loved by all and self-contained. That battle is on the quiet front but not over (Universal made The Bourne Legacy, minus Jason Bourne, we shan't forget).

That doesn't mean she can't join a sequel to someone else's comedy hit, however. She's in talks for Anchorman: The Legend Continues, reports The Wrap. The script is still being written and she's the only addition past the returning principals. If all works out, she'd play a love-interest for Brick Tamland, Action News Team's weatherman played brilliantly by Steve Carell.

While we wait for negotiations to work itself out, enjoy this complication of Brick’s finest moments and ask yourself. Would someone as beautiful as Wiig fall for someone as brain-dead as Tamland?

Disney Keeps Threatening Tron 3 - Hires New Writer

Tron: Legacy came and went. With a thud. Wasn't embraced by fandom, the public wasn't in awe of 3D light-cycles or bad-CG de-aged Jeff Bridges. Disney talked up Tron 3 here and there. Writers were assigned. But they were going through the motions.

Just covering their asses is all. Disney spent serious cash rebranding Tron for the twenty-first century. They'd never admit outright, "Yeah Tron: Legacy failed like Tron did." Remember even John Carter had writers commissioned for its follow-up The Gods of Mars even after its disastrous box-office.

Thing is they're still talking sequel. This time, its Jesse Wigutow commissioned. Borys Kit's Mouse Moles say this is Alan Horn's doing. Why, I don't know. Lucasfilm is theirs and Star Wars Episode VII is coming for 2015 (Supposedly the director will be announced before Christmas). Plus what Marvel and Pixar churn out. That leaves little room, or need, for Tron 3.

Look you took a gamble, backing the pony on sequelizing a thirty-year-old pricey flop-turned-cult favorite. It failed. You get credit for the risk, but move the Hell on, Disney. Nobody is going to see Tron 3 and you're ultimately not going to make it. Stop fooling yourselves.

Source: Heat Vision

Seth MacFarlane Sets "A Million Ways to Die in the West" as Next Comedy

It was this way on television for years. But more than ever before, Seth MacFarlane can do whatever he wants. Following Ted, surprising in its humor and heart (Surprising for MacFarlane and his brand of humor, not going off the rails and turning into a political soapbox), I have to admit I do want to see where he’s headed as a director.

To the Old West, reports THR.

He'll direct, star and co-write A Million Ways to Die in the West:

"The plot has been described as a Blazing Saddles-style movie -- meaning a Western with contemporary humor, with one undercurrent being just how dangerous and painful life really was in the late 1800s.

The script, said to be laced with MacFarlane’s hallmark racy humor, also calls for a romantic female lead."

Just the other day, some colleagues were commenting how Blazing Saddles is such a product of the early 1970s. No way would any studio, in fear of being crucified by political-correctness, dare make Mel Brooks' classic Western send-up today. If MacFarlane approaches a third of what Brooks covered thirty-seven years ago, he's a gutsy guy. And he has my respect.

Amazing Spider-Man Sequel Has Its Harry Osborn

Dane Dehaan is the new Harry Osborn for The Amazing Spider-Man sequel, director Marc Webb tweeted.

Had he not essentially played Peter Parker's best pal with Daddy issues-turned-psycho-turned back to friend at the very end before dying, with shades of Akira's Tetsuo, in Josh Trank's excellent Chronicle, this would be good casting. It gets the part-time Leonardo DiCaprio doppelganger more coverage and maybe he can repeat the career second-wind (post web-slinger) as James Franco.

Throwing Harry, and Mary Jane Watson, don't forget, feels like more needless padding. What is this The Hobbit?!

The Peter/Gwen romance is still the focus and if Bleeding Cool is to be believed (and I do), she'll be in London. Flash Thompson begs for a bigger role and a comic-foil for Spidey. Unless J. Jonah Jameson and the Daily Bugle dynamic are back in the mix too. And if Harry is around, and with Norman Osborn having a boogeyman presence in The Amazing Spider-Man, his billionaire daddy shouldn't be far behind. Then there's Jamie Foxx as Electro, rumored to be one of several villains. And of course, someone's gotta get Aunt May's eggs!

So yeah, they didn't learn a damn thing from Spider-Man 3.

New Man of Steel Poster Sucks

They didn't put much effort, huh?

A new poster for The Man of Steel unlocked as a reward for favoriting The Dark Knight Rises home-video release tomorrow. For those of you forunate enough to attend and/or saw the bootleg footage, the image is taken straight from the Comic-Con footage.

This crappy poster notwithstanding, still expecting good things from the trailer in front of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Also still hearing good things on the actual film.

Star Trek Into Darkness Poster: The Wrath of Cumberbatch's Back

Nothing to interpret, misinterpret or get into hours of forum debates. That's Benedict Cumberbatch's back on the Star Trek Into Darkness poster.

Yes, it's taking from The Dark Knight marketing playbook and no, they're not hiding that. The first nine-minutes are in front of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in IMAX, a minute-long teaser trailer to regular prints and said opening screening for select net-press later this week. Maybe we'll know what season-one Original Series canon character the Sherlock star is playing by then.

I doubt it. But I'll stay optimistic.

Darkseid is the Villain in Justice League

I sure hope Warner Brothers knows what they're doing. But I don't.

Everything about Justice League is that kid tagging along your inner-circle. You've seen him around but don't know him that well. Nice enough, but he brings nothing to the table. He just nods, in annoying agreement, to whatever you, or your pals, said. He wants to be a part of the gang, because he likes what he sees. From the outside looking in.

Marvel took one of the biggest risks of our time, to the point of sacrificing the quality of sure-thing Iron Man 2 and large portions of Captain America. All in the interest of painting a wider landscape to the cinematic universe they created. To lead the way to The Avengers, and when that succeeded so spectacularly, that risk was forgotten. Justice League wants in on that action.

Latino Review, scoop kings who unearthed among other things Christian Bale as Batman, Heath Ledger as the Joker (Remember when that stirred up the Interwebs) and David Goyer penning The Man of Steel, say Warner Brothers has settled on the baddie for Justice League: Darkseid.

DC's biggest villain, the intergalactic conqueror was chiefly a physical advisory for Superman. Imagine Zack Snyder visualizing that smack-down versus Henry Cavill. Not a coincidence he bears striking resemblance to Thanos; the death-obsessed tyrant whose cameo in the closing minute(s) of The Avengers caused "Who's the purple dude?" reactions from 95% of the audience. All signs point to his being the villain for The Avengers 2, scheduled to drop May 2015. Opening the same summer Warner Brothers is scrambling to have Justice League out.

Part of me still thinks if Snyder's Superman redo over registers, the studio will get their heads outta their asses and steer direction towards a sequel for 2015 instead of Justice League. There just isn't time, tracks laid down onscreen (Assuming the rumors of Joseph Gordon-Levitt fully accepting the cape-and-cowl transpire) to properly connect the dots and we still have to see how The Man of Steel does.

And again, everyone can see from miles away how desperate you look, Warner Brothers. Don't be that tag-along kid. Set your own path, make your own moves independent of how (well) Marvel did. This is a fight you can't win.

Final Django Unchained Trailer Dials Back Tarantino-Isms

All the 70s slobbering homages are gone, and this final Django Unchained trailer, from Yahoo! Movies, is better for it. Don't even mind using hip-hop music in the background (my number-one pet peeve with trailer cutting).

Never doubted Quentin Tarantino would deliver. Everything shown from Django had a "Been there, done that" feeling is all. Save for Death Proof, which he just today acknowledged as his worst film (He's correct), he hasn't disappointed and as with Inglorious Basterds publicly released the script for all to read. How fearless is that?