More X-Men: First Class Pictures Flood the Internet!

Since that ensemble shot from X-Men: First Class leaked, 20^th Century Fox and the filmmakers are (wisely) going out their way to assure fans their prequel/reboot/whatever the Hell it is won't be a camptastic schlock-fest. More and more official photos are making their way to the interwebs, and it shan't be too long before we get some real life footage in motion.

Director Matthew Vaughn called up /film and had a chat on the matter while simultaneously premiering two more pics from First Class with the newly youthful Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) in action.

Overall I'm digging the retro 60s look. But...that helmet on Fassbender...Sorry, kiddos. But it looks silly as shit. And before you spout out about how Sir Ian McKellen's helmet looked silly in the first three X-Men movies, stop right now. It looked fine. The production team rightfully took the basic design and tweaked it so it'd appear more film appropriate, and it worked.

I'd say the best call made on that first movie a decade back was the decision to design Magneto as a Nazi especially coming off that haunting opening sequence.

New "Red Riding Hood" Trailer

Seyfried plays Valerie, a beautiful young woman torn between two men. She is in love with a brooding outsider, Peter, but her parents have arranged for her to marry the wealthy Henry. Unwilling to lose each other, Valerie and Peter are planning to run away together when they learn that Valerie's older sister has been killed by the werewolf that prowls the dark forest surrounding their village. For years, the people have maintained an uneasy truce with the beast, offering the creature a monthly animal sacrifice. But under a blood red moon, the wolf has upped the stakes by taking a human life. Hungry for revenge, the people call on famed werewolf hunter, Father Solomon, to help them kill the wolf. But Solomon's arrival brings unintended consequences as he warns that the wolf, who takes human form by day, could be any one of them. As the death toll rises with each moon, Valerie begins to suspect that the werewolf could be someone she loves. As panic grips the town, Valerie discovers that she has a unique connection to the beast--one that inexorably draws them together, making her both suspect...and bait.

Super Bowl XLV TV Spots

Pre-Game Spots:

Battle: Los Angeles (Sony)
The Eagle (Focus)
Just Go With It (Sony)
Kung Fu Panda 2 (Paramount)
Priest (Sony)

Game Spots:

Captain America: The First Avenger (Paramount)
Cowboys & Aliens (Universal)
Limitless (Relativity)
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Disney)
Rango (Paramount)
Super 8 (Paramount)
Thor (Paramount)
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Paramount)

Post-Game Spots:

Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (Paramount)
Take Me Home Tonight (Relativity)

Robert Downey Jr. Says "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road!"

And with that, goes my curiosity for this one.

Reports Heat Vision, Robert Downey Jr. bowed out of Disney's planned "reimagining" Oz: The Great & Powerful with Sam Raimi set to direct. No reason was given, and this makes it now four projects Downey was originally attached to star only to exit – Megamind, Cowboys & Aliens, Gravity and this.

Either he's realized his career (hitting red-hot status thanks to Iron Man three years ago) is at the breaking point of overexposure or something much better is on the horizon yet to be announced. The only things Downey has scheduled for this year is wrapping up Sherlock Holmes 2 and The Avengers and recent reports I've read around have conflicting info on when it starts up. Some say this spring, others say this fall.

Speaking of eccentric character actors-turned-matinee idols, the Mouse has turned around and offered the part to their Golden Boy Johnny Depp. Altogether now, folks...1...2...3... "REALLY?!"

I like Depp; don't think you'll find many who don't. But this is just too expected. Hell, it's turned into a cliché at this point to hire him as your odd-ball protagonist. These roles will pay for his great-grandkids' college education, sure and he's great at it to be fair. But come on, dude. Haven't you had enough of your fill for that "type?"

X-Men: First Class Teaser Poster!

It's turning into a virtual avalanche of X-Men: First Class news this week.  We now have the first official teaser poster, courtesy of Ain't It Cool News:

Warner Bros. To Reboot 'Lethal Weapon'

Yes, you read that correctly.

Warner Bros. studios is going to reboot the Lethal Weapon franchise.

I'll let that sink in for a moment...

Why is this happening?  Well, Heat Vision (who broke this story) will report that it is due to longtime studio executive Jessica Goodman leaving at the end of this year and her portfolio (projects she had in the pipeline) being reassigned to several other studio execs.  But you want to know the real reason why a classic film such as Lethal Weapon is being redone?  I will spell it out clear as day.

Hollywood has run out of fucking ideas.  Plain and simple.

Enjoy the next ten years when we'll witness remakes of The Terminator and Blade Runner too.

Fuck you Hollywood.

Update on Wed, January 19, 2011 by John DiNicola

TOLDJA! reports Warner Bros. and producer Joel Silver (this guy is still running the franchise?) have hired Will Beall to write the reboot.  Beall is the former L.A. cop who wrote the novel, L.A. Rex, along with the currently in pre-production, Gangster Squad, a period crime drama based on an elite crime unit that fought against organized corruption.  Ruben Fleischer is directing.

Apparently, Beall pitched a hard R-rated cop film in the same tone as the original.

Honestly, I couldn't care if they got Ben Affleck or Michael Mann to make this thing.  Some classics should be left alone and this is one of them.

New X-Men: First Class Images

Now these are some cool new X-Men images!  After yesterday's fanboy freakout over the somewhat underwhelming (and apparently leaked) first cast photo from Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class, these new official cast photos posted by the LA Times should put most fans (especially fans of January Jones' cleavage) minds at ease, at least for now:

You can almost hear a Patrick Stewart/Ian McKellen conversation going on there, right?

X-Men: First Class is still on target for a June 3 release, although director Vaughn does confirm in the article that they are indeed racing to get the thing done.  That's usually never a good sign, but despite the stress he's singing the praises of his multi-talented cast, which includes the likes of James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Oliver Platt, and the aforementioned January Jones.  He even goes so far to boldly declare that the quality of this fifth X-Men film is so good that Captain America, Thor, and the Green Lantern should essentially be the ones quaking in their boots right now.  That will come back to haunt you if the movie stinks, Matthew.

Rumors continue to swirl that we may see our first trailer sometime during the Superbowl, but nothing is confirmed yet.  In the meantime, at least we finally have some photographic evidence to know that this movie is actually happening.

Ricky Gervais Finally Comes to The Office

Michael Scott, meet David Brent.

It's been rumored for years, but Vulture is reporting that Ricky Gervais will finally be making an appearance on the US version of The Office on January 27.  Prior to tearing Hollywood to shreds as the host of the Golden Globe Awards (which I thought was hilarious), Gervais co-created and starred in the original BBC version of the show.

Showrunner Paul Lieberstein (and Dunder Mifflin HR rep Toby) confirmed the cameo, although he did stress it would be a relatively quick appearance.  "It's a little more than if you blink, you'll miss it, but if you don't set your TiVo right, you'll miss it," says Lieberstein.

Hmmm...sounds like we'll be finding him either on the pre- or post-credits sequence, going by the Tivo comment.  But the scene, which was filmed back in September unbeknownst to NBC, will be between Steve Carell's Michael Scott and Gervais' David Brent somewhere outside the Dunder Mifflin offices.  Now that will be a meeting of the minds I don't want to miss.

John Carter Versus Prometheus

If this was being read out loud, I'd totally do it as William Dozier!

Disney has decided shift the release date of John Carter of Mars, the Andrew Stanton-directed adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' pulp novels starring Friday Night Lights alum Taylor Kitsch. Instead of its June 8, it's now been placed on March 9, 2012. That slot was originally occupied by Tim Burton's Frankenweenie, also from Disney, which is now set for October 5, 2012.

Its direct competition will be none other than the just announced Prometheus, the Ridley Scott-helmed science fiction epic. You remember the one that was supposed to be that pair of 3D Alien prequels until wiser heads prevailed. Yeah, those two uber-budget geek-friendly properties are going up mano-a-mano next March.

As we approach that date, one of them will surely move. We can't have us nerds picking sides after all! Shit will get real...

The move on John Carter isn't a surprise per say – I'd expected it considering how fierce next summer will be. But my assumption was that it'd be moved closer to the Christmas holidays where its sole competition (so far) is Warner Brothers' Superman reboot. Movie-news colleague and Twitter bullshiter Jack Giroux suggested maybe the Mouse isn't totally confident in what they've seen?

The Dark Knight Rises Has Its Villains!

When that list of potential leading ladies was released for The Dark Knight Rises last week, one of the last of them I imagined getting hired was Anne Hathaway. Not a slight against her in the least, just figured she was better suited for Lois Lane in the Superman reboot Christopher Nolan is producing for next Christmas.

Shows what I know! Warner Brothers has officially announced Hathaway will play Selina Kyle (noticeably not saying the words "Catwoman") for the greatly-anticipated Batman threequel. In addition, Nolan alum Tom Hardy has been confirmed to play Bane, the baddie notoriously known for breaking Bats' back in the comics in the early 90s.

This also "shockingly" confirms those script leaks with Hugo Strange and the like were 100% Grade-A Internet bullshit.