Ralph Fiennes' Skyfall Role Revealed?

Much of the rumor-mill has had Ralph Fiennes pegged to play Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Skyfall.

While he doesn't spill the beans, Fiennes offered one hint to The Daily Record seemingly null and voiding those visions of him sporting a bald head and stroking a white cat (Even if he was playing Blofeld, we can all agree it would have been a different design for Bond's arch-nemesis. Less-than-informed, younger movie-goers would be under the misguided impression Blofeld was a Dr. Evil knock-off):

"I'm allowed to say that I'm a government agent."

No, leave that info-divulging to Movie Web who claim to have received word from an Eon-based mole filling in the blanks towards Fiennes' on-screen identity:

"Ralph Fiennes play's a government agent, which we never get a name on, because he is set to play the new M."

In a twist that plays against the logic of simply offing Judi Dench's M and thus giving Daniel Craig's 007 a character-arc in Skyfall, the site adds the thrust of the plot involves a past action of M coming back to haunt her resulting in MI6 putting a new M in charge.

Sony Saving Face - Insists The Girl Who Played With Fire Still a Go

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo wasn't the money-magnet Sony spent all that dough hyping it up to be. As everything goes back to normal as this week progresses including the box-office, Sony is left standing in the aftermath of Dragon Tattoo's underwhelming intake.

Like every other studio backed in a corner (of their own doing), they're swearing The Girl Who Played with Fire will still commence as planned to EW:

"[Dragon Tattoo] continues to do strong business and nothing has changed with respect to development of the next book."

They go as far to reiterate old information (dating back to before Dragon Tattoo opened) to "prove" everything is still a go, i.e. Steven Zaillian, the high-dollar, Oscar-winning scribe is adapting Stieg Larsson's second Millennium trilogy novel and stars Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig contractually bound for follow-up films. Also re-confirmed is the iffy subject matter of whether or not David Fincher will return to direct.

It's too soon to close the book on this however. Dragon Tattoo has barely opened in the foreign territories (where it was always going to make its bread-and-butter). So it's possible we haven't seen the last of Mara as Lisbeth Salander. Just don't take the word of this update. It's nothing more than Sony trying to save face.

Prometheus Teaser Trailer

As much as I harp on not liking directors going back to the well (especially when we're talking about ones with vast careers as Ridley Scott), there's still that excitement in the air when seeing footage for the first time.

Here is such a scenario with the unveiling of the teaser to Prometheus:

Fox has been trying for the longest to nip the "It's an Alien prequel!" rumors in the bud. Ironic given the purposefully calculated maneuver to include signatures from Scott's 1979 sci-fi/horror masterpiece, i.e. the slow reveal of symbols revealing letters and the same sound-effects used in the original Alien trailer. The latter being a reference people these days won't catch.

But like all the great teasers, there's intriguing imagery from beginning to end and I want to see more, even if I wasn't already going to see this when it drops this coming June. To that I tip my fedora and say, "Good work, Fox marketing!"

To Boldly Go Where Most Tentpoles Have Gone Before - Post Conversion 3D

For awhile there, we all bought into James Cameron's "Fuck 3D post conversion!" diatribe and while there is merit to that argument the fact that Cameron is supervising a theatrical rerelease of Titanic in post conversion whiffs of hypocrisy. We've also seen a fair amount of good work done on applying the 3D gimmick to big movies in post-production without the use of 3D cameras. Thor, Green Lantern (as terrible a movie it was) and Immortals come to mind.

You can add Star Trek 2 to the list as J.J. Abrams tells MTV:

"'We're shooting on film, 2-D, and then we'll do a good high-end conversion like the 'Harry Potter' movie and all that. Luckily, with our release date now we have the months needed to do it right because if you rush it, it never looks good.'"

Another possibility in the cards is lensing in IMAX, a move that will sit better considering how generally better accepted it is, and the fact that Christopher Nolan and Brad Bird have wowed audiences with the format.

Nolan to WB, "Shut Up and Let Bane Mumble"

I'm already tired of the "I CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT BANE'S SAYING!" comments on The Dark Knight Rises prologue and trailer. That, and people who think they're clever to "decipher" the Occupy Wall-Street/99% allegory from one line of dialogue by Anne Hathaway. Because Christoper Nolan, li'l brother Jonah and David Goyer were fucking Nostradamus to know that left-wing bullshit was going down back in early 2009 when they started writing. Ugh. Better prepare yourselves for another seven months of this crap, folks.

It's not just people on the Internet complaining about Bane. They include Warner Brothers executives and reports THR, helmer Nolan isn't playing ball with adjusting Tom Hardy's muffled vocals at great lengths for us dumb-ass movie-goers to understand what he's saying this July:

"'Chris wants the audience to catch up and participate rather than push everything at them. He doesn't dumb things down,' says one high-level exec, declining to be named. 'You've got to pedal faster to keep up.'"

Not to be one of those "In Nolan We Trust" assholes (I can't stand that saying because those jackass fanboys only give Nolan the benefit of the doubt but were it anyone else, they'd scream bloody murder. They should give all directors in charge the benefit of the doubt), but Nolan's a competent filmmaker to know what he's doing here.

The Dark Knight Rises Trailer

There's a lot of like to about the first theatrical trailer to The Dark Knight Rises, courtesy of Coming Soon.

A lot of little things – Alfred, who was beautifully portrayed as Bruce's surrogate father and the only person who still believed in him when everyone else wrote him off as fuck up in Batman Begins and stood by his frankly psychotic yet idealistic plan to save his home, finally breaking down, the unseating of Jim Gordon as Commissioner now that his days as "a war hero" are past him, the slow emergence of Selina Kyle and where she stands, the mysterious prison facility Bruce Wayne is in (and notice, sporting grey hair) and the montage of Gotham's destruction.

All of this carried to the most chilling rendition of the Star Spangled Banner leading to the payoff of that football field's decimation. Yet it all still comes down to the finality of this onscreen incarnation of the World's Greatest Detective and the mortality of Wayne. That evocative image of the broken mask says it all.

What I like the most is Christopher Nolan is still being coy. While there's plenty of bit pieces here and there in these two minutes to enjoy and overanalyze (Something no doubt the Internet will until its July 20^th opening), you can sense still much more to The Dark Knight Rises intentionally being held back.

Somewhere Right Now Roger Moore Is Saying, "Don't Do It, Daniel!"

If the Broccolis were serious about creating a long-term, years' spanning continuity, you wouldn't hear a nasty, single syllable from my mouth.

But we're talking about people with a proven track-record of reneging on their claims of "going back to Fleming" after box-office receipts get low and suddenly they're once again trying to recapture that lightning-in-a-bottle spark from Goldfinger. Continuity has never been a priority for them, and judging by the James Bond franchise's viability fifty years on, it's justified.

Producer Michael Wilson tells People UK they've drawn up a contract for Daniel Craig to stay on as James Bond for an additional five pictures, not including the lensing-as-we-speak Skyfall, due out November 2012.

Doing some calculations in my head, Craig would be fifty-four by the end of this new arrangement under the assumption Eon and Sony would crank out a Bond picture every two years, no exceptions.

Craig is doing wonders with the character. But as much as the Broccolis want to repeat all the glory days, do they lack the common sense to remember the low point in the series too, i.e. when Roger Moore was practically laughed off the screen for being too old?

Bill Murray Is (Still) Awesome

You're aware Bill Murray is holding up Ghostbusters 3 from being willed into existence by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It's only brought up every six months for the last decade. Could the cycle of non-news finally come to a (long overdue) halt? The National Enquirer thinks so.

Murray's latest shenanigans suggest they've finally taken the hint of his wanting nothing to do with a second sequel after his "reaction" to the newest draft of the script:

"Then, after they sent him the latest reworked screenplay weeks ago, Murray fired back his shocking answer – nailing the coffin shut forever – by sending Dan and Harold a box containing the new script SHREDDED into confetti, along with this nasty note: 'No one wants to pay money to see fat, old men chasing ghosts!'

Insiders say furious Dan and Harold vow that Bill's off their 'who ya gonna call' list forever – and they'll make the movie WITHOUT him!"

From the get-go, Sony has said they'll only move forward with Murray's participation. So good luck at that "WITHOUT him!" thing, fellas.

The Dictator Trailer

After you face a failure, it's the norm to go back to the well. Recharge your batteries, regain confidence in your material and build up goodwill again with the movie-goers who first made you rich and famous.

Judging by the trailer of The Dictator (courtesy of Moviefone), that isn't the case for Sacha Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles.

They're not letting Bruno, and how it was received, stop them from pushing further how much one can make a comedy outrageous in its set-up and execution (at times, brilliant, See: the steel-cage fight in Bruno) and have your protagonist be as despicable and unsympathetic as possible. For that, the duo has my respect.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation Trailer Continues the "Retardedly Awesome" Trend from Rise of Cobra

For all those fanboys who shit-talked Jon Chu without giving the guy a chance strictly because of his association with Justin Bieber, you may all shut the Hell up. AKA here's the trailer for G.I. Joe: Retaliation:

Not hard to see why this went over so well at Butt-Numb-A-Thon this weekend, and truthfully if you weren't a fan of the Stephen Sommers-directed first installment G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, this isn't going to do anything to win you over. Even with the bigger names in the cast including Dwayne Johnson, clearly taking over the franchise, and Bruce Willis as the original Joe.

There's a shot where Cobra plants a flag on top of the White House for crying out loud!