Mirror Mirror Trailer - Julia Roberts Is Supposed To Be Evil, Right?

Tarsem, Relativity Media and all the key players said from the start Mirror Mirror was apples and oranges compared to Snow White & the Huntsman. That Universal-backed, Rupert Sanders take is more-action, male-driven. Mirror Mirror is intended to be a lighter, family-friendly Snow White affair.

Unfortunately, they didn't tell us when Julia Roberts was playing the Evil Queen (a casting call I thought was brilliant) she wouldn't play it "Evil" per say. Instead her frame of mind is from a staple romantic comedy of hers, and not one of the good ones either.

That's what we get with our first-look at Mirror Mirror courtesy of Yahoo! Movies:

Both Tarsem and Relativity are on a roll after Immortals proved many (read: my big mouth) wrong by its commercial success and not being a 300-cloning piece of crap. That said, way to fuck up your lead, gentlemen. You're opening four months before Snow White & the Huntsman and have good will coming off Immortals and now this?

Exclusive: WB Already in Sequel Mode for The Man of Steel

When a studio commissions a writer for a sequel to an as-yet-released franchise-hopeful, it's an act of showing confidence in their product. They're telling us, "We have a winner here, you fellas are gonna love it and we're getting the ball rolling for more now because of that!"

It's just hard to cipher through that bullshit to guage when it's legitimate confidence or a case of the studio saving face. Paramount did that on Star Trek, hammering out new deals for Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, and Roberto Orci to pen a sequel a month prior to its release and judging by its reception the move was justified. Not so much in other cases, like Green Lantern 2, Tron 3 and that Terminator: Salvation sequel McG was telling everyone about.

We're hearing through the grapevine executives in Burbank are very happy with what they've seen from The Man of Steel so far. Both regarding the latest round of rewrites as supplied by the Mulroneys (the husband-wife writing duo behind the unmade Justice League: Mortal and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) among others and the footage assembled.

Production doesn't wrap 'till the start of 2012 and even then Zack Snyder's Superman epic will have another year and half before the general public votes with their wallets come June 2013. Nevertheless, Warner Brothers already has their sights set for a Man of Steel follow-up and gone as far to commission a shortlist of writers with Steve Kloves at the very top in addition to Travis Beacham and Lawrence Kasdan.

Keep in mind, no meetings, deals, etc. have gone down with any of these guys and/or their representation. Beacham (hot off his Pacific Rim script at WB/Legendary) is quite the active Twitterer. So it wouldn't surprise if he denies this, and that's perfectly fine. This is WB's way of covering their ass and keeping stuff lined up in the event The Man of Steel goes over as well as they're hoping and, so far, feeling based on everything they're seeing.

Doctor Who Hops on the Tardis Traveling to the Silver Screen

A big-budget Doctor Who movie without the presence of current (and popular) time-lord Matt Smith and with its own separate continuity is in development.

We'll hear the Star Trek comparisons if not already but big difference here, kiddos. Trek was a dead, rotting carcass of a joke when J.J. Abrams came aboard with his continuity-adhering reboot that managed to play for the devoted and the general public. Problem is the BBC revival series, since it returned to television in 2005 first sporting Christopher Eccleston's mug and later David Tennant, already did that.

Doctor Who is cool and, more importantly, profitable for the BBC. Guess that's why the network is bringing out their big-guns, handing the reigns of this film incarnation to David Yates, reports Variety. Suppose that makes sense. He brought one British cinematic icon to a fitting conclusion in Harry Potter and the logic is he can perform the same magic (for lack of a better term) to the Time Lord.

And like that, those Johnny Depp for Doctor Who rumors will resurface in addition to whatever British actor who doesn't already have his own franchise. But since it isn't expected for a couple of years ("We're going to spend two to three years to get it right," Jane Tranter of the BBC tells the trades), we'll find plenty of other thespians for the rumor-mills besides Michael Fassbender.

The Hunger Games Trailer Is All Set-Up

It's not that the first theatrical trailer for The Hunger Games is bad, per say. It's alright but the focus here is all about setting up our lead characters, the environment and so on. Co-worker buddy tells me what you're seeing is the first couple of chapters.

If you hoping for cross-brow action and young kids killing one another over the span of two minutes and thirty-six minutes, prepare to be disappointed. You'll just have to wait 'till the next trailer closer to its March 2012 release.

With all the hype/press for this as the "next big thing," this trailer needed to impress those blind to the faith. In that sense, it failed. While I'm still optimistic of the final product (considering the cast, Gary Ross directing and Billy Ray writing), how anyone can label this a home run is spin. Or hard-core Hunger Games fans in denial.

Billy Crystal Hosting Oscars - You May Now Go Back to Not Caring

That took quicker than expected.

Billy Crystal will return to Oscar-hosting duties after sitting on the sidelines for eight years. Following this tweet from his official Twitter account (See, kids, Billy is still hip! He does the Twitter!):

"Am doing the Oscars so the young woman in the pharmacy will stop asking my name when I pick up my prescriptions. Looking forward to the show."

It's been subsequently verified by Variety, TOLDJA, etc.

So that's that then. After his 2004 duties when the reception was how Crystal's song-and-dance routine was tired and in need of rest, the Academy took to experimenting with awful results. Hugh Jackman was the only one that worked but, for some reason, he decided against hosting a second time. I guess enough time has passed for people to feel nostalgic for Crystal's schtick.

Although shouldn't he feel insulted he's only being turned to now after the Brett Ratner/Eddie Murphy experiment blew up in the Academy's faces and they're crawling back to him now when he made it known for some time he badly wanted to host again?

Snow White & the Huntsman Trailer Looks Damn Good

In the battle between Relativity and Universal, it's been all about one-upping each other with their rival Snow White productions. You got Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen? Well we got Julia Roberts! You're opening in June? Well we're opening in February.

It's been a game of fierce back-and-forth and you'd have to say Relativity claimed victory, if for no other reason than their being the first out the gate early next year with Tarsem's Mirror Mirror. However, Universal has drawn first blood dropping official footage for your viewing pleasure with the trailer for Snow White & the Huntsman, the action-oriented "grim'n'gritty" yarn directed by Rupert Sanders headlined by the afore-mentioned Theron, Kristen Stewart as an armor-clad, sword-carrying fairest of them all and Chris Hemsworth.

Check it out on Apple or below:

 Point goes to Universal after watching that.

Funny Thing Just Happened – Eddie Murphy Quit the Oscars Gig

Less than 24 hours after Brett Ratner "stepped down" (Code: His ass got fired) from producing next year's Oscar telecast, Eddie Murphy (Said to be have accepted the job due to Ratner's participation) has followed suit:

"Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak announced that Eddie Murphy has withdrawn as host of the 84th Academy Awards. 'I appreciate how Eddie feels about losing his creative partner, Brett Ratner, and we all wish him well,' said Sherak.

Commented Murphy, 'First and foremost I want to say that I completely understand and support each party’s decision with regard to a change of producers for this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. I was truly looking forward to being a part of the show that our production team and writers were just starting to develop, but I’m sure that the new production team and host will do an equally great job.'

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar® presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide."

Years from now, Tom O'Neill and Peter Hammond's heads in a jar will deem this "the Tower Heist curse" following Ratner's public fallout (He was a jackass for the "Rehearsing is for fags" remark, but really, Hollywood that's the worst thing someone's ever said?!), Murphy's resignation, Casey Affleck having a building fall on top of him and Matthew Broderick's dick exploding on the Sex & the City 3 set.

Benicio Del Toro May Kick Kirk & Spock's Asses in Star Trek 2

On paper, Star Trek had a great villain in Nero. He served as the driving force for Kirk and Spock on their individual character-journeys as well as leading them to their destined bromance. Alas somewhere amidst all those rewrites and reshoots, the Romulan heavy lost some of his umph, by no means the fault of Eric Bana, the Aussie thespian buried under that makeup reduced to huffing and yelling "SPOOOOCK!"

Following in the same direction as Bana, helmer J.J. Abrams has his head set for another dominant character-actor for the baddie position on the as-yet-titled Star Trek sequel. Variety reports Abrams wants Benicio del Toro for the role which in typical "Mystery Box" fashion is kept so under wraps not even the Oscar winner himself (He's already chatted with Abrams on participating but has yet to be formally offered) knows just who'd be played.

Writers/producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman vehemently stated against the use of Khan (Thank God) in the past and I'll take their word they're not bullshitting us. That's too expected and lazy this soon into all that goodwill they earned from the May 2009 reboot. Once we get into Star Trek 3 and 4, Abrams is long gone and K&O are involved in a strictly "Story By" credit/"I don't give a fuck anymore" fashion, then we'll see Khan.

Simon Kinberg Penning X-Men: First Class Sequel

Perhaps it’s best to think less of X-Men as an ongoing series with its own continuity and cast of returning characters, and the actors inhabiting said roles, every three years and more the comic book one-shots of yesteryear like the iconic Giant Sized X-Men #1 or Frank Miller's Wolverine min-series.

X-Men: First Class was a great one-off.

Unfortunately it left fans wanting more. Begging for more confrontations between James McAvoy's now-wheelchair bound Xavier and Michael Fassbender's Magneto whose anger from his own torture and persecution turned him into an anti-human militant. Maybe more in the latter part of the 1960s incorporating other defining events from that era like Vietnam (They could shoe-horn in another Hugh Jackman cameo) or move forward a decade to the 70s where more perceived "out there" aspects of the comics like the Sentinels or Asteroid M could work.

Problem is First Class didn't make much a dent at the box-office last June.

I know fanboys love to use the fallback Batman Begins comparison. But they have no idea what they're talking about. Chris Nolan's reboot played strong during its summer 2005 theatrical run and crossed the $200 million blockbuster goal-line. People, your friends and co-workers the kind of people who don't roam fan-forums and religiously follow the career paths of directors, were talking about it. Telling their friends "You have to see that new Batman movie. Trust me, it's awesome!" It had momentum. It had enthusiasm. And then it reached even more people on home video. They wanted to see Nolan further explore that Joker calling card in Begins' closing sequence.

Nobody's talking about First Class unfortunately. Except for us, the devoted nerds.

Its box-office was a letdown when you factor in the cost to get it made. Remember it was greenlit in May 2010 on the basis of Jamie Moss' first draft from a treatment cooked up by Bryan Singer who only passed on directing because of his commitment to Jack the Giant Killer. Plus they had to assemble a new cast, recreate the 1960s and all those visual effects. And they had to do all this at an extraordinarily accelerated rate to meet its June 2011 release. Costs blew well past $200 million to get that done (Fox is quoting it was closer to $140 million but nobody with common sense and knowledge of how movies get made believe that) and it was the lowest grossing installment in the franchise's history. The fanboys are right about one thing. Its doing great on video like Batman Begins. But that's a shrinking market these days and not often do sequels get made from home video sales.

Fox, to their credit, is on the first steps to fans getting what they want. Superhero Hype! says the studio has commissioned Simon Kinberg for writing duties on an X-Men: First Class sequel.

I'm already hearing those same fans complain about this call. Keep in mind, you guys bitch and moan about Kinberg being one of the writers for X-Men: The Last Stand for Brett Ratner, the guy they continue to insist "fucked up" the franchise. But Kinberg did all his work under the supervision your Geek God Matthew Vaughn before he bailed on the production weeks before filming began. The same Matthew Vaughn who directed X-Men: First Class. So once again, you have no idea what you're talking, in this case complaining, about.

Also it's early on and from what we're hearing Vaughn is on the fence about doing another one and this is more about having something in development so Marvel and the Mouse can't get their paws on the mutants. "Development" as in something going throw various screenwriters and eventually it either gets made or collects dust in the Fox vaults. So X-Men: First Class might in fact remain just a great one-off movie when it's all said and done. And if so, that isn't anything to complain about.

The Apes Will Keep Rising - Fox Moving Forward on Sequel

Rise of the Apes was a good prequel to a DOA franchise, well-reviewed by critics, dug by the general public and, generally speaking, a good standalone movie without getting into the chronology of the original Planet of the Apes films. How many others can make that claim?

Having just now ceased rolling in all those Benjamins from its theatrical gross (and you know the DVD/Blu-Ray sales will be bananas), 20^th Century Fox is ramping up for that sequel we all knew was coming, reports "TOLDJA."

Helmer Rupert Wyatt and screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver are return thanks to contractual obligation although we're in the early days of the sequel's development.

Surprisingly not bound by sequel options is star Andy Serkis who just locked down a deal to return as Caesar, said to be in the seven figure range. Meanwhile humans James Franco and Freida Pinto's fates remain to be determined. Since the prequel's success was on Serkis (who deserves every penny he's getting from this new contract, but one shouldn't hold their breath on an Oscar nod) and not theirs. Don't be surprised if neither return.