The Dark Knight Rises Opening Will Play Before M: I 4 in IMAX

Not been confirmed by anyone, but judging by their strategy of how they sold The Dark Knight and how religiously they're following that pattern for The Dark Knight Rises, everyone is expecting a full-length theatrical trailer in December.

One big move in their game plan was attaching the opening sequence from Christopher Nolan's first Batman sequel in front of Warner Brother's big Christmas 2007 tentpole I Am Legend. /film says WB, being the superstitious types, will mirror that play by attaching the opening minutes of Rises to a big IMAX release. In this case, it won't be their own Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows but surprisingly Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol from rival Paramount. M:I 4 (Word from early screenings is Josh Holloway steals the damn movie away from everyone else and the action sequences deliver) opens exclusively in IMAX theaters on December 16, the same day the Holmes sequel opens everywhere, before dropping on all screens on the 21^st.

Just what will be in those cock-teasing few minutes for IMAX audiences is the $64,000 question. Although early indications suggest it may not be heavy on the action side as was the case for the bank-robbery opening from The Dark Knight. Something more on the side of exposition, i.e. the leaked Liam Neeson cameo perhaps.

New Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows Trailer Approaches Revenge of the Fallen Levels of Retardation

Way to make me pull a 180 of my feelings there, Guy Ritchie.

The first trailer for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows from back in July I liked fine. But only under the terms it promised more of the same. That was a-OK in my book, since I quite enjoyed the 2009 original and preferred it, and its Robert Downey Jr. performance, to Iron Man.

This new trailer (available through iTunes Movie Trailers and below) is...off. It plays similar to the afore-mention first trailer only longer, with more face time for Jared Harris' Professor Moriarty, a brief glimpse of Rachel McAdams (How quickly are they going to kill her off is my question), some time for the lovely Kelly Reilly and obviously more action. Way, way, more action and too much of the "Sherlock-Vision" used just enough in Sherlock Holmes.

Sitting here next to my cup of coffee in my office, that last part (the overuse of "Sherlock-Vision") is what's giving me such strong Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen vibes. Everything that worked in Holmes ramped up to extreme levels it reaches full-retard. Minus the racist 'bots, of course. My anticipation on this sequel which I'm still looking forward to has suddenly turned to caution.

Justice League: Doom Trailer

Batman's greatest rival, Ra's al Ghul continues his quest to save Earth from humanity by thinning the ranks of the human populace. But after being thwarted over and over again, Ra's seeks to distract Batman by stealing the bodies of his dead parents while he enacts his nefarious plot. And to insure that Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash and the rest of the JLA do not interfere with his plans, he individually defeats each of the heroes using strategies developed by Batman himself! And when the League learn of his betrayal, they look to expel the Dark Knight from their ranks.

Target Makes Choosing a Deathly Hallows Blu-Ray More Difficult

As most Muggles know by now, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II is headed to DVD/blu-ray on November 11.  One look at the pre-order page on the WB Shop already shows that picking a perfect blu-ray edition of the final Potter film will not be easy - even more so since some sort of ultimate box set is planned for release next year. 

Now Target has thrown their own special blu-ray edition of Deathly Hallows Part II into the mix, and this looks like a good one.  According to Mugglenet, they are planning to release a 4-disc set, which will consist of the 2-disc special edition, a DVD copy of the film, and an exclusive 48-minute documentary about the final film. 

You can take a look at the documentary (and get an idea of what Gary Oldman really thinks of blu-ray extra features) below.  There are a few spoilers about the finale in the video, so tread carefully if you haven't already seen the movie:

Damn you, Target.  That looks like it's going to be really good.

Amazing Pics From The TDKR Set In LA

I posted some images on TMT the other night of the Batwing attached to a helicopter being flown above the city, the question was whether it was just being airlifted to a location or being filmed so this new vehicle would have in camera flying shots.

Well judging by these stunning shots taken by eyeprime, it looks will Nolan may well be going for some ambitious in camera shots of the vehicle flying through the city, given the machine is all lit up and looks as if it's meant to be in functional mode.

See more HQ's at the link.

New Footage Of Total Recall Shown At NYCC

Although The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers currently sit atop my "most anticipated of 2012 list", Len Wiseman's Total Recall adaption/remake hybrid is in 3rd spot right now.

As a director I like Wiseman's style and from his interviews he seems a humble guy with a real passion for making movies and plenty of imagination for actoin sequences.

The new footage sounds pretty damn cool and you can check the description out below courtesy of Hollywood.Com

After showing off some shiny 3D footage for Underworld Awakening, the fourth entry in his vampire/werewolf action series, producer Len Wiseman appeared a second time on the New York Comic Con jumbotron to introduce exclusive footage from his next directorial project, Total Recall.

The movie is a semi-remake of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi flick of the same name, but even after the first snippets of footage, the two films don't appear to share much other than a title and a loose, mind-bending scenario. The first round of footage was an extended version of the preview that played at SDCC (while Total Recall was still well into production). Colin Farrell plays Doug Quaid, who arrives at the brothel-esque Rekall center to have fake memories implanted into his brain—the ultimate form of escapism.

McClane (Star Trek actor John Cho, sporting a wild, bleached blonde do) runs the facility and personally assists Farrell with the process. But Rekall comes with one warning: You're not allowed to implant a memory that's actually true. Well, you can guess what happens next. Quaid's request to "become" a spy is denied when the machine goes haywire, due to a detection of truth. Before McClane can get answers out of Quaid, the Rekall center is infiltrated by a dozen robot and human police looking to bring Quaid down. The action sequence wowed audiences at San Diego, thanks to a wild series of gliding camera moves that follow Quaid has his inner killer turns on and beats the living daylights out of his opponents. Evidently, there's no CG trickery here—the filmmakers used the same techniques you see when a cam flies across the football field in an NFL game!

As far as I know, everything after this zippy camera move was new. The extended version of the scene sees Quaid escaping the Rekall Center through a duct and out into the open air of a futuristic metropolis. Then a sizzle reel of flashy imagery kicked in: Quaid running through a rainy, Blade Runner-esque slum; more of the flying cars and squeaky clean future city life; a vicious cat fight between Kate Beckinsale's Lori and Jessica Biel's Melina (which should bring smiles to those who know the original film); a vehicular crash/action scene atop a skyscraper/tower; and the meatiest of the shots, a quick dialogue between Quaid and Bryan Cranston's Vilos Cohaagen. Cohaagan was jabbing Quaid with a few threatening words, but they were barely audible over the screams Cranston received for just showing up.

Remakes will always make fans of the original nervous, but Total Recall may have enough imagination up its sleeve to make it feel like its own movie. Farrell isn't playing Ah-nuld (thankfully), and as we know from his diverse career, is fully capable of standing up and being the man. The brief shots of action we caught at the presentation made Farrell look like, for lack of a better phrase, a total badass, even amongst the movie's big scope. This movie may not take us to Mars, but from the quick reel of footage, it should end up taking us to enough other crazy places

New Footage Of The Avengers Shown At NYCC

We only just got the trailer but Marvel delivered more footage from their biggest release to date at the New York Comic Con.

The bulk of the footage was actually a recruitment scene between Black Widow and Banner which sounds very good.

Description courtesy of Geeks of Doom, also click the lnik to read some of the Q&A from the Marvel panel.

New footage was shown that centers around Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner, who is in hiding overseas (in what looks like India). He’s tricked into an ambush by Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow. “For a man trying to avoid stress, you picked a hell of a place to hide,” she tells him. He assumes the place is surrounded by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but she assures him it’s just the two of them there. Banner wonders how they found him. “We never lost you,” she replies.

S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Nick Fury sent her to get Banner, because they need his help with something and he trusts Fury. “What if I say ‘no’?” he asks. “I’ll persuade you,” she responds. “What if the other guy says no?,” referring to the Hulk. “You’ve been two years without an incident, I don’t think you want to break that streak,” she says.

She goes on to explain that the Tesseract, which has the potential to “wipe out the planet,” has been taken and that the gamma signals used to track it are too weak. Since Banner is an expert in gamma radiation, that’s why they need him. Banner thinks that Fury wants him “in a cage” and starts to lose his temper and goes at her and she pulls a gun on him. He backs away as she holds the gun at him, obviously in fear of what could happen. “I’m sorry that’s mean,” Banner apologizes, trying to get her to put down the gun. As she does, she issues a command into a communicate: “Stand down.” We then see the outside of the place is actually surrounded by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. “Just you and me?,” Banner says.

The scene ends and a montage of footage from the movie is shown. We see Stark Industries with Tony Stark talking about The Avengers. This is intercut with Iron Man flying and some fighting action. Tony Stark talks to Loki, who says “I have an army.” Stark with the group, he playfully pokes Banner and says “You really do have a hold on this.” [He said some other stuff, but the crowd was screaming too loud to hear it.]

Weekend Box Office: October 14-16

 

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Real Steel - $16.3 million

2.  Footloose - $16.1 million

3.  The Thing - $8.7 million

4.  The Ides of March - $7.5 million

5.  Dolphin Tale - $6.3 million

6.  Moneyball - $5.5 million

7.  50/50 - $4.3 million

8.  Courageous - $3.4 million

9.  The Big Year - $3.3 million

10.  The Lion King 3D - $2.7 million

Well, I can't say I'm not enjoying this:  two 80s remakes get beaten out by a movie that looks like 80s movie.  The weekend, which was overall not much to write home about at the box office, ended in an almost too-close-to-call finish, with Real Steel just edging out the remake of Footloose to take first place for the second weekend in a row.  With a difference of less than $1 million between them, it's possible Footloose could overtake Real Steel when the actual numbers are tallied up tomorrow.  But considering that Real Steel seems to be scoring with family audiences - the film jumped over 60% from Friday to Saturday - I think that movie has the edge to keep its first place hold.

So what happened with Footloose?  Well, considering the remake was only budgeted around $24 million, it will almost certainly still make its money back, even though it finished the weekend well below the $20 million that was originally projected.  But it also means that audiences were (hopefully) not see eager to see this movie remade, despite some surprisingly positive reviews.  Certainly doesn't bode well for the planned remake of Dirty Dancing that seemed like such a good idea to...no one.

At least Footloose fared better than The Thing.  That remake (of a remake) disappointed this weekend with a lackluster $8.7 million.  But that was a blockbuster compared to the weekend's other new release, the Steve Martin/Jack Black/Owen Wilson comedy The Big Year, which outright bombed with $3.3 million.  That movie was almost beaten out by The Lion King 3D - a 17-year-old movie that was re-released on DVD last week.  Ouch.

Since there's not much out there for the grownups, George Clooney's political thriller The Ides of March had another good weekend, dropping only 28% to earn another $7.5 million.  Dolphin Tale still proved popular with the family crowds - this weekend's $6.3 million brought its domestic total up to $58 million.

Next weekend brings the home video scares back to the big screen with Paranormal Activity 3, as well as yet another big screen version of The Three Musketeers, and, for some reason...a sequel to Johnny English. 

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Launch TV Spot

This is the one, more so than even Arkham City and Gears of War 3, this is the game I am most looking forward to this year. The series is basically a true modern Indiana Jones and like playing the best summer blockbuster never made.

Yvonne Strahovski Melts The Screen In A Clip From Chuck Season 5!!!

This was captured by http://chucksarahmedia.com from Zachary Levy's recent appearence on Jay Leno. All I can say is try not to let your jaw hit the floor too hard fellas.

Chuck begins it's final season on October 28th.