K&O Producing That Van Helsing Reimagining You Didn't Want

Tom Cruise was attached a reimagining of Van Helsing, not related to the Stephen Sommers piece of popcorn garbage from eight years ago. Guillermo del Toro was involved in a story/producing capacity and I'd bet his time working with Cruise on At the Mountains of Madness is what got him involved. But like many efforts, del Toro bolted.

Here to pick up the pieces two years on are Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman who just inked a two-year, first-look deal with Universal. That new Mummy film is also on their slate first up.

It's not all bad though. Cruise remains onboard. Long past the take-the-paycheck phase (He still gets paid top-dollar), he is so focused on making good products and pushing himself with different material and directors calling the shots this must be something interesting.

The Dark Knight Rises Viral Leads You to Frames of Final Trailer

That didn't take long.

TheDarkKnightRises.com has an "Anonymous Vigilante Investigation" report including the Arrest Warrant for "John Doe, aka 'THE BATMAN.'" On the last page of "Police Evidence," a simple click leads you to the opening frames of the trailer to be released in front of The Avengers this weekend.

Coming Soon (from Super Hero Hype! forums) has already cracked it and have frames from said trailer.

Warner Brothers has been smart downplaying The Dark Knight Rises. Let The Avengers bask in all the glory. Marvel deserves their day in the sun and they'll have it, especially if indications are right and Joss Whedon's epic team-up breaks the 3-day record.

But once the dust has settled, it's all about Christopher Nolan and his Batman finale, baby. Chief among complaints is their lack of a viral marketing campaign. This morning, they heard your cries.

New International, & Spoilerific, Prometheus Trailer

A new international trailer for Prometheus has made its way online for your viewing pleasure. Be warned, fellas, this is the most straight-forward one cut together so far. AKA plot points are laid out and we even get a glimpse of character's fates. I, myself, jumped up at the 2:32 mark.

Watch at your own discretion:

This is 40 Trailer Is the Next Step in Judd Apatow's Chronicles About Growing-Up

Like any good filmmaker, Judd Apatow has a specific voice and in three films under his belt has focused on one subject, in varying degrees; maturing.

Putting away childish things (The 40 Year Old Virgin), becoming a parent (Knocked Up) and facing one's mortality (Funny People). Here is the latest, the "sort-of-sequel" to Knocked Up, This is 40 with Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann reprising their Pete and Debbie characters.

The title, and accompanying trailer, says it all. It's about getting older. Something we can all relate to. Looks promising (Nice to see returning alums Jason Segel, also returning from Knocked Up, and Melissa McCarthy), just hope Apatow has matured enough as a filmmaker and learn to cut the fat. Good as his films have been, we don't see more comedies clocking in at over two and a half hours.

The Dictator's Humor-Free Opening Scene Now Available to Watch

Fair to say were I to encounter Admiral General Aladeen, he wouldn't take too kindly to my criticism of his "documentary," or however Sacha Baron Cohen and Larry Charles are presenting this, The Dictator. He'd have no problem ridiculing me like he has others, in character, like Ryan Seacrest or Roger Ebert. Maybe even take me down like the oft-replayed scene of his Olympics.

The first scene from the forthcoming comedy is online, and for the life of me, it isn't working. When it opens next month, there's always the chance it's hysterical and you see me do a 180 (Not the first time), but for now, dead silence while I watched the back-story that opens the film:

James Bond Will Return In the Year Two Thousand & Fourteen

This week is CinemaCon and since we're not there (Alas we have day jobs!), you won't be seeing us giving our commentary on footage like The Dark Knight Rises and Oh my God awesome it was (Batman On Film is your friend), how the 48 frames-per-second decision left many speechless over The Hobbit, and not in a good way (Badass Digest did a nice write up) or how wonderfully retro the 8-bit centric Wreck-It Ralph sounds (Coming Soon, bitches yo!) Point is I'm not big into cutting and pasting shit other people saw and described. Nothing wrong that but not my cup of coffee. Cut to me doing just that, of course.

Anyway last night was Sony's turn to wow exhibitors and there doesn't seem to be anyone in the crowd who didn't flip for the forthcoming James Bond movie Skyfall. Via Coming Soon, before a frame was shown Sony let it be known when the end credits close out with the traditional "James Bond Will Return" text, 2014 is when to expect just that.

Guess this means Eon is getting back into the swing of things with the standard two-year gap between films. To think there was a dark period where it looked like Quantum of Solace was Daniel Craig's swan-song from the tuxedo and martinis, shaken not stirred. Assuming this means it will be indeed be Craig walking through that gun-barrel the year after next?

First Look at Django Unchained

Two staples of a Quentin Tarantino film; the dialogue and his ability to mime other films, at times replicating the look of characters like their costumes if not shot-for-shot recreating moments from films that have influenced him.

While the former can't be accounted for (The script's not hard to get your hands on though) Entertainment Weekly has the first look at his latest Django Unchained, featuring Jamie Foxx as the title character, Christoph Waltz as his German bounty hunter pal and Leonardo DiCaprio as the antagonist, a plantation owner who stands between our hero being reunited with his wife.

K&O Swinging With Spider-Man for Amazing Sequel

Amid increasing rumblings of low internal tracking, audience indifference and not-so-hot buzz on the finished product (and how it deviates heavily away from canon), Sony is staying the course for an Amazing Spider-Man sequel. No shocker there. It would have to flop miserably for them to throw in the towel and even our box-office predictions of its impending under-performance nobody sees that happening.

James Vanderbilt penned early drafts, and it's now being handed over to Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Those guys launched Transformers and rebooted Star Trek. Strange they'd be brought on in a pure writing capacity for a sequel to someone else's material. Yeah, I know they did for that Mission: Impossible III and The Legend of Zorro, but they were in a different place then career-wise.

They insist filming on The Sensational Spider-Man, or whatever they call it, starts up in "the first quarter of 2013." And while I don't doubt Sony will keep the character on their home turf indefinitely, I suspect they won't be as quick to get that follow-up before cameras after July 3rd and instead reassess the property at that point.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation Trailer Surprisingly Not as Stupid as Expected

The first G.I. Joe movie was stupid. It knew it, its cast knew it and that was its charm. A living breathing cartoon not to take seriously. Mass destruction, guys walking around with names like Destro and Heavy Duty and no one batting an eye, underwater hideouts for the villains. Shit to appeal to little boys. If you weren't into that, fine but for those of us who were, it was bliss.

This time out for G.I. Joe: Retaliation, director Jon Chu and Dwayne Johnson (who this makes no bones of contention to say is the star here) swear this is a different beast, going as far to use the worn-out "reboot" phrase. While it isn't a reinvention of what Stephen Sommers did three years ago, helmer and actor weren't too far off. Same over-the-top set-pieces, gadgets, characters, etc. but this feels different.

And yet the same smile on my face when the trailer is over.

Lobo Movie Has New Writer/Director - Warner Brothers' Sanity Called Into Question

Guy Ritchie was supposed to do a Lobo movie. Then he realized it's not the mid 90s anymore and he'd rather do another Sherlock Holmes instead.

Warner Brothers thinks there's an audience somewhere as they've assigned Brad Peyton, fresh off the surprise success of Journey 2: The Mysterious Island to write and direct reports "TOLDJA." They're still licking those Green Lantern wounds and after The Man of Steel next June they'll no longer have the Christopher Nolan tit to suckle from anymore.

And they have a stock-pile of DC scripts taking space at the Burbank offices like The Flash, Wonder Woman, Justice League and even obscure stuff like The Spectre and Adam Strange. Where's the logic in picking DC's intergalactic bounty hunter instead?