Teaser Trailer for 'Woman in Black' Starring Daniel Radcliffe

Daniel Radcliffe is a guy who I hope succeeds in his film career once Harry Potter is done this July.  The Brit is a very talented actor who has kept his nose and image clean even though he has been forced to grow up in the spotlight (unlike pretty much all young American stars today).

Here is an early look at Radcliffe's first film, post-Harry Potter, The Woman in Black.  The flick centers on a young lawyer who travels to a remote English town only to discover its ghostly secrets.

Below is the teaser trailer for the film, while below the video is the film's full synopsis.  The Woman in Black hits U.K. theaters February 12th, 2012, while a U.S. release date is still undecided. 

The story follows a young lawyer, Arthur Kipps (Radcliffe), who is ordered to travel to a remote village and sort out a recently deceased client’s papers. As he works alone in the client’s isolated house, Kipps begins to uncover tragic secrets, his unease growing when he glimpses a mysterious woman dressed only in black. Receiving only silence from the locals, Kipps is forced to uncover the true identity of the Woman in Black on his own, leading to a desperate race against time when he discovers her true intent.

Michael Shannon is Zod in Superman!

 

Just last month it was rumoured that Michael Shannon was in talks to join Zack Snyder's Superman reboot. Speculation had him pegged as either Lex Luthor or general Zod. well now it's official, Shannon will be General Zod! Although he doesn't obviously bring a lot of physicality to the role in terms of his size or physique, he definitely makes up for it in talent. It'll be pretty damn awesome watching him go toe to toe against Cavill as Supes next Christmas. This also marks the fourth Academy Award winning or nominated actor to join the cast so far.

In addition to the awesome casting news the official title has also been revealed as "Man of Steel". It's long been rumoured this would be the title, but there's been no confirmation until now. Aside from the finished cast and the suit reveal the next thing we can likely expect is an actual release date.

Official Press Release:

Warner BrosPictures and Legendary Pictures announced today that Michael Shannon will star in the role of General Zod in director Zack Snyder’s new Superman film, titled “Man of Steel.”

Snyder stated:

“Zod is not only one of Superman’s most formidable enemies, but one of the most significant because he has insights into Superman that others don’t. Michael is a powerful actor who can project both the intelligence and the malice of the character, making him perfect for the role.”

As General Zod, Shannon will go toe-to-toe with Henry Cavill, who plays the new Clark Kent/Superman in the film. The main cast also includes Amy Adams as Lois Lane, and Diane Lane and Kevin Costner as Martha and Jonathan Kent.

Michael Shannon was honored with an Academy Award® nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Sam Mendes’ “Revolutionary Road,” with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Shannon was most recently seen in the award-winning HBO drama series “Boardwalk Empire,” from executive producer Martin Scorsese. He will next be seen in Sony Pictures Classics’, “Take Shelter,” from director/writer Jeff Nichols.

Charles Roven, Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Deborah Snyder are the producers of the film. The screenplay is being written by David S. Goyer based on a story by Goyer and Nolan. Thomas Tull and Lloyd Phillips are serving as executive producers.

“Man of Steel” will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Weekend Box Office: April 8-10

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Hop - $21.6 million

2.  Arthur - $12.6 million

3.  Hanna - $12.3 million

4.  Soul Surfer - $11.1 million

5.  Insidious - $9.7 million

6.  Your Highness - $9.5 million

7.  Source Code - $9 million

8.  Limitless - $5.6 million

9.  Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules - $4.8 million

10.  The Lincoln Lawyer - $4.6 million

The moviegoing public has spoken, and they would rather have Russell Brand as the Easter Bunny than in a role that Dudley Moore did so much better.  Hop takes the top spot again with $21.6 million, bringing its total up to an impressive $68 million in less than 10 days.  It will most likely take a hit next weekend when the animated Rio opens in theaters, but it's done very well so far.

Arthur, in the meantime, opened with a so-so $12.6 million.  Can we all agree now that they shouldn't have remade this in the first place?

The kiddie-assassin film, Hanna, did surprisingly well, opening with $12.3 million (it may even switch places with Arthur once the final totals for the weekend come in).  The film reportedly only had a production budget of about $30 million.  Soul Surfer, the inspirational true story about a girl returning to surfing after losing an arm in a shark attack, opened with a strong $11.1 million.  Another low-budgeted film (about $18 million), was heavily marketed to Christian family audiences, and the marketing seems to have paid off. 

Insidious pulled off a rare feat for horror films for not falling a cliff in its second weekend.  Dropping only 26%, the haunted-kid tale earned $9.7 million to bring its total up to $27 million.  Keep in mind, the movie only cost about $1 million to make.  That's a win for the micro-budgeted horror genre.

Your Highness, which just looked insanely stupid rather than funny, bombed this weekend with $9.5 million.  Worse, it dropped 9% from Friday to Saturday, which means word-of-mouth was terrible.

Source Code had decent 38% drop for its second weekend, falling from second place to seventh with $9 million.  It's no Inception, but it's doing all right.

It's Rio vs. Scream 4 next weekend, so check back in to see what movie will give the other the bird at the box office.  And yes, I will be using that terrible joke again next weekend.

New X-Men First Class Trailer

What I'm sure is intended to be the second theatrical trailer for X-Men First Class has made its way online once again. The first time we saw it, it was entirely in Russian; the voices and captions both.

Lucky for us we now have that same exact trailer in English, it does however have Chinese captions.  Enjoy the awesome trailer below that is sure to win you over, that is if you're not behind the prequel no one asked for already.

Now if Fox can actually avoid the temptation of raping the original franchise again and returning for an X-Men 4, they might be able to successfully launch a new franchise all together with the First Class generation we'll first see in the new film.

Tobey Maguire Joins Life of Pi

Way before you kids knew him as Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire was a reliably solid character-actor appearing in one great movie after another. Go ahead, and check out his filmography pre-dating 2002 and tell me I'm wrong. I'll wait.

With his days as the web-slinger over, he's going back to those roots and that’ a great thing. In addition to Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby (an example of director and material that seem like a great fit, not to mention that cast), Variety reports Maguire has signed on to reunite with one of his early collaborators: director Ang Lee for his adaptation of Life of Pi.

He'll play the writer who interviews the protagonist as an adult (played by Irrfan Khan, who also appears in The Amazing Spider-Man in a strange case of connecting-the-dots) about his experience as a young boy shipwrecked for 227 days stranded in a boat with a Bengal tiger.

Victory for Wraith Fans! Nick Cassavetes Replaces Neeson in Hangover 2!

In a case of last minute changes (The film opens at the end of next month), Variety reports Liam Neeson's role in The Hangover Part II (itself already on everyone's radar after the originally-intended Mel Gibson was fired) has been recast. But don't start assuming Zach Galifianakis refused to work with him because he didn't really save those poor people's lives in Schindler's List or didn't actually rescue his daughter from slave-traders in Taken.

Simply, reshoots were required for his cameo as a Bangkok tattoo artist and Neeson was already on the other side of the ocean filming Wrath of the Titans. So in steps actor/director Nick Cassavetes, of all people, to fill in.

Who would have thought we'd go from Mel Gibson to Liam Neeson to Nick Cassavetes? No disrespect to him; just so random.

R.I.P.D. is Dead to Galifianakis

While we're on the topic of Ryan Reynolds vehicles, the supernatural action/comedy/thriller/whatever-it-is-it-sounds-silly R.I.P.D. has been hoped to be his first project following Green Lantern opening. In the event the WB/DC epic goes over well, then Universal will look like geniuses and have something ready to go while Reynolds' stock is high. If it doesn't, well we know it wouldn't be their first expensive write-off in recent years.

Zach Galifianakis was supposed to co-star, but that is no longer the case says "TOLDJA." The Hangover star has pointed the reason to scheduling conflicts; an oft-used ploy that can be the cordial way of saying, "I want out of this chicken-shit crap" or the honest-to-God truth. But it's said to be the latter in this case.

WB wants Reynolds on Green Lantern 2 ASAP (already been rumblings of bringing back the production to New Orleans = awesomeness) and Galifianakis is supposed to film the Will Ferrell/Jay Roach comedy Southern Rivals and potentially another season of Bored to Death. Just from the sounds of that, cameras won't roll by this fall on R.I.P.D. like Universal has hoped.

Fox Locks in Freshman Director for Deadpool

Oh for the love of...

I don't care what they claim out loud to the contrary. Warner Brothers isn't going to say, "Oh sure, Ryan Reynolds! Even though we just spent $200-$300 million for you to be Green Lantern for a bunch of movies and maybe even Justice League, sure you go right ahead and run over to Fox and do that Deadpool movie! We're totally fine with them jumping on our coattails in the event that Green Lantern is a mega hit and doing a rival comic-book tentpole with you! It's not like we still harbor ill-will over that whole 'Bryan Singer thing' and want to fuck over our competitors when and if we can!'"

24 Frames says that Deadpool spin-off movie they've spoken of is for real and has a director. Not following in the tradition of recent bigger-name hires like Matthew Vaughn and Darren Aronofsky (even though the latter didn't work out as history proved), visual-effects artist Tim Miller will make his directorial debut here. That hiring follows a similar path as Wolverine helmer Gavin Hood. Translation: he's controllable as Hell.

Fine, they're making Deadpool. But the only way Reynolds headlines is if Green Lantern either under-performs (resulting WB getting skittish towards the property) or outright bombs this June. If however it explodes like they hope, we'll hear some press-release talking about conflicting schedules and all that "official, everyone following the same narrative" bullshit.

Josh Pence Steps Out of Armie Hammer's Shadow & Into Liam Neeson's for The Dark Knight Rises

Irony's a bitch.

For all the praise Armie Hammer (rightfully, I'd add) got for his dual turn as the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network, it felt like it was almost glided over how another actor by the name of Josh Pence was used on his stand-in during takes. Then through the magic of effects-wizardry, they'd be spliced together and good old Armie's face got slapped on Josh's body and eureka we have two giant-sized Wasps bitching about suing Jesse Eisenberg's ass off.

So while Hammer is off working with the Clint Eastwoods and err...Tarsem Singhs of the world, what is Pence to do next? In an odd sense of irony and in a project that trumps his Social Network co-star, he's been added to the cast of future #1 money-maker of 2012 The Dark Knight Rises reports Heat Vision.

But here's where said irony kicks in, he'll be playing the young Ra's Al Ghaul (played by Liam Neeson in the first installment Batman Begins) in flashback sequences. So this guy's big break from not being "the other guy" and being trumped is playing a younger version of an on-screen villain previously played by a well-established, and now beloved frankly, actor? Will Neeson have his face and voice digitally glued over his face too?

Like I said, irony's a bitch.

Somebody Else Still Thinks The Crow is Viable

From this very moment until the end of all creation, The Crow will always be associated with the death of Brandon Lee.

Why filmmakers, studio heads, executives, etc. keep pushing as hard as they have with this property over the years, I'll never understand. After their first attempt to sequelize flopped hard (1996's The Crow: City of Angels), you'd think these well-paid, educated decision-makers would understand.

Pull someone off the street and ask them what they know about The Crow and I guarantee you'll get an answer to the affect of "Yeah isn't that the movie that guy died while they were making it?" That's name-brand awareness you don't want, people!

Relativity Media (hot with Limitless cash in their pockets) are the latest suckers to take a crack at the whip, reports Variety with 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo at the helm. No writer or actors are attached for the moment, but the intention will be to use Eric Draven (the character Lee played in the original '94 film) as the protagonist for this planned reboot.