Only “Extra” was invited to the top secret “Deadpool” set in Vancouver for an exclusive one-on-one with Ryan Reynolds. Host Mario Lopez sat down with Ryan, following their huge viral April Fools’ Day prank with the star last month, to find out more about Reynolds’ car accident, “Deadpool,” and baby James.
Seth Rogen Confirms AMC’s ‘Preacher’ Has Begun Filming
Seth Rogen posted a photo on his Twitter feed which confirms that his new AMC show, Preacher, has begun filming. The adaptation of the graphic novel has been rolling around Hollywood for some time, bouncing from feature film to TV show status before landing at the feet of Rogen and frequent collaborator, Evan Goldberg.
Here is the photo regarding Preacher from Rogen’s Twitter feed:
I can't believe we are fucking doing this!!!! #Preacher pic.twitter.com/PR0LjZD8wh
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) May 13, 2015
AMC’s Preacher is an adaptation of the comic book series on the same name created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, and published by DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint.
Preacher is one of the most celebrated graphic novels of all time, the story of a man of God in a small Texas town who sets out to avenge the decimation of his hometown by supernatural forces.
According to IGN.com the potential plot of the show “revolves around Jesse Custer, a conflicted preacher in a small Texas town who merges with a powerful creature that has escaped from heaven. Along with his ex-gal, Tulip, and an Irish vampire named Cassidy, the three embark on a journey to literally find God”.
The material is perfect for AMC, who has turned The Walking Dead into the biggest show on the tube, and has developed a track record of quality dramatic storytelling.
Seth Rogen will work as a feature writer on Preacher, and will certainly have input along the way in various aspects. AMC’s Preacher stars Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer, Joseph Gilgun as Jesse’s Irish vampire best friend Cassidy, Ruth Negga as Jesse’s girlfriend Tulip O’Hare, Ian Colletti as Arseface, and W. Earl Brown as Arseface’s father Sheriff Hugo Root. There is no firm day for when Preacher will hit the airwaves, but we do know 2016 will be the year.
Josh Boone To Helm “New Mutants” Film
The New Mutants are a spinoff of the X-Men with a younger set of mutants. The series gained in popularity in the early 90s when Rob Liefeld was the artist and he created the characters Cable and Deadpool.
Josh Boone the director The Fault In Our Stars will helm a New Mutants film that is based in X-Men cinematic universe, 20th Century Fox announced today.
Boone will direct the project and co-write the script with Knate Gwaltney. Simon Kinberg and Lauren Shuler Donner will produce.
Kinberg says: “We’re so excited to explore this new part of the X-Men universe, and so excited to do it with Josh, who is uniquely suited to tell this story about young characters.”
A release date has not been announced yet.
Film Clip: See Matthew McConaughey and Ken Wantanabe Lost in Gus Van Sant’s ‘The Sea of Trees’
The first film clip from Gus Van Sant’s upcoming drama The Sea of Trees has been released ahead of its Cannes premiere. While I am never too keen on seeing film clips over trailers, this film has intrigued me from its announcement. The clip doesn’t give anything away, it simply shows us the two main characters in what must be one of their first encounters.
Here is the Sea of Trees clip:
As you can see, nothing is given away, which is good. The Sea of Trees tells the story of Arthur Brennan (McConaughey), a severely depressed man who travels into the mysterious Sea of Trees near Mt. Fuji in Japan to kill himself. He meets Takumi Nakamura (Wantanabe), who has lost his way, and the two men forge a relationship as they try and get Nakamura to safety.
McConaughey looks to be continuing his powerhouse acting roles here. He and Wantanabe make an interesting pairing, and given that Van Sant is at the helm, expect many moments of introspection and existential conversation. It has been recently announced that Roadside Attractions has picked up the rights to the film ahead of its Cannes competition.
Aside from McConaughey and Wantanabe, The Sea of Trees stars Naomi Watts as McConaughey’s wife. There is no release date yet for The Sea of Trees, but one should be announced shortly after Cannes.
Watch The Feature-Length Trailer For Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Crimson Peak’
Guillermo del Toro has released the first full-length trailer for Crimson Peak, his grand, sweeping haunted house story. The trailer showcases a wonderful cast, all the tropes of haunted house lore, and some wonderful art direction and chilling moments.
Here is the Crimson Peak trailer:
Guillermo del Toro has been working on Crimson Peak for several years, and it looks as if his vision will not be compromised. For my money, del Toro is at his best when he is in the realm of horror, as he was in The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth. The film has a loaded cast, including Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, and Charlie Hunnam.
Crimson Peak hits theaters on October 16, just in time for Halloween.
New York Comic Con’s Computers Can’t Handle The Crowd
UPDATE:
Heidi MacDonald of The Beat was the first reporter to report the issue with New York Comic Con ticket sales.
Tickets to the event went on sale at noon EST and then Twitter exploded with disappointed fans as the NYCC’s servers could handle the load and left people stranded in the ticket queue which eventually led to an error page.
At 1pm EST it was reported that 3 day passes and VIP tickets were sold out.
Hi #NYCC Fans! USE THIS LINK to buy tickets: http://t.co/L88lddnsdP #NYCC #NYCCTix
— New York Comic Con (@NY_Comic_Con) May 13, 2015
#NYCC Ticket Update: Just got through the queue – 3 Day Passes and VIP tickets are SOLD OUT.
— Tuesday Night Movies (@TuesNightMovies) May 13, 2015
#nycc in a nutshell pic.twitter.com/9KHxg0V2D6
— lefleur (@bernthaI) May 13, 2015
Exactly how we feel right now — this nycc virtual queue is a disaster #nycc #showclix pic.twitter.com/jdximg3AYJ
— JadoreNewYorkxo (@jadorenewyorkxo) May 13, 2015
David Dastmalchian On His New Film “Animals”
Matthew Sardo spoke with actor, writer David Dastmalchian about his new film “Animals” that will be in select cities and VOD on May 15.
Dastmalchian takes his own experiences to give viewers a gritty tale about love and addiction, set around the confines of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. The film won a Special Jury Prize at SXSW in 2014.
Sardo and Dastmalchian also talked about David’s love of pop culture and his friendship with Mark Hamill.
Dastmalchian has appeared in “The Dark Knight” and Marvel’s latest film “Ant-Man.”
About “Animals”
Bobbie and Jude are a young couple living in their broken-down car parked alongside Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo. Their days are a continuous ritual of theft and scoring until they must confront the difficult truth of their relationship after one of them is hospitalized.
More information: animalsthefilm.com
If you have a chance be sure to see @AnimalsTheMovie! Original, beautifully acted, &deeply affecting! @Dastmalchian https://t.co/j6cxMRXyd7
— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) May 11, 2015
About David Dastmalchian:
David studied acting at The Theatre School DePaul University. In Chicago, he received acclaim for lead roles in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie and Sam Shepard’s Buried Child. His feature film debut was as the Joker’s deranged henchman, Thomas Schiff, in Christopher Nolan’s THE DARK KNIGHT. His most recent film performance has gained critical attention, portraying the troubled Bob Taylor in Denis Villeneuve’s PRISONERS. He will be seen next in Michel Franco’s Chronic opposite Tim Roth and Marvel Studio’s Ant-Man (director Peyton Reed). His TV appearances include Intruders (BBC), CSI:Cyber (CBS), Almost Human (Fox) and Ray Donovan (Showtime). As a writer, his short plays THAT’S WHAT THEY SAY and MYSELF OF MY STATE have been produced in Chicago (WNEP, Caffeine Theatre) and his short film, KEEN, was awarded Best Screenplay at the New York Independent Film Festival. David also received the Special Jury Prize for Courage in Storytelling at the 2014 SXSW Film Festival for ANIMALS.
Devil’s Due Launches Digital First Imprint with “Galaxys for Hire”
In the ever changing landscape of publishing, Devil’s Due is expanding its strategy for several of its new titles to embrace a triumvirate of digital first editions, crowd-funding, and traditionally printed comics distributed through comic book shops. First to be released is the sci-fi action series Galaxys for Hire by Shawn DePasquale and Sherard Jackson: A series centered around two rivaling sisters, Tanna and Mallori Galaxy, trying to survive a rigorous life in space in the 51st century.
From the explosion of comic-cons to the new boom in indie comics, to the rise of new direct-to-reader sales channels such as crowdfunding, Devil’s Due has positioned itself to go wherever the fans are, on a case-by-case basis, while continuing to build relationships with retailers and Diamond Distributors.
“We’ve been aggressive about crowdfunding for years now, but this opens Devil’s Due up to more opportunity with digital firsts,” said Devil’s Due ringleader Josh Blaylock “While some of our titles sell the best in stores, others actually earn most of their sales through conventions and online sales or crowdfunding. This is something completely new to the industry, but a trend we’re embracing and thriving from. Regardless of where you build the fanbase, once it hits a tipping point you can then offer the comics in all formats and through all sales channels.”
The digital first program will see several titles released in digital format, first available from www.DevilsDue.net, followed by third party digital distributors such as comiXology and Drive-Thru Comics, and (for certain titles) to its crowd-funding campaign backers and additional marketing, all which serve as marketing to promote the comics in anticipation of print distribution through the comic book shop Direct Market and several large comic-cons.
It should be noted that the company is still releasing comic books traditionally, without a digital-first component, as it always has.
Already known for their huge presence as web-comics, Plume [by K. Lynn Smith] and the recently added Scorch [by Ashley Witter], are also published by Devil’s Due and will maintain their own independent web presence.
First in this line-up is:
Galaxys for Hire [by Shawn DePasquale and Sherard Jackson] – May 2015
Mercy Sparx [by Josh Blaylock, Matt Merhoff and various artists] starting with issue 8 – May 2015 (still scheduled for print release as solicited).
Drafted [by Mark Powers] which ran as a critically acclaimed twelve-issue maxi-series from Devil’s Due a few years ago, in development as a film by Benderspink Productions – Summer 2015
Tales of Mr. Rhee vol. 3 [by Dirk Manning and various artists] – Fall 2015
Solitary vol. 2 by CW Cooke – Fall 2015
Source: Devils Due Media
Film Review: “Far From the Madding Crowd”
Beautifully shot and superbly brought to life by a strong cast led by Carey Mulligan, Thomas Vinterberg’s adaptation of Far From the Madding Crowd is certainly worth seeing, especially if you’re a fan of period romances and adaptations of Victorian era classics in particular.
However, because this particular Victorian classic has been adapted a number of times into films and TV mini-series, it begs comparison not only to Hardy’s work itself, but also to the media adaptations that have come before, and ultimately it falls short of the greatness achieved in those works. Because of its minimalist approach to distilling Hardy’s novel, this new film version feels like a “Cliff’s Notes” version, hitting all the most relevant plot beats while glossing over or skipping entirely the material that makes those plot beats so impactful.
Proud, headstrong, free-spirited Bathsheba Everdene (Mulligan), orphaned at an early age and living with her aunt, Mrs. Hurst, on a small farm amidst the rolling green hills of Dorset, England in 1860, finds herself courted awkwardly by Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts), a quiet and hard-working shepherd tenanting lands nearby. Though she finds herself taken by Gabriel’s soft-spoken and gentle manner, when he rather suddenly proposes marriage, she playfully declines, declaring that if she did desire to have a husband at all (which she doesn’t) she’d want that man to “tame” her, and she doesn’t believe Gabriel capable of that.
Not long after, the two find their fortunes tied together anyway, as Bathsheba inherits a sizable farm and finds herself in need of a capable shepherd, and Gabriel finds himself in need of employment after an unforeseen calamity forces him to leave behind the land he’d been tending and hoping to purchase. Bathsheba also finds herself facing unique challenges as the sole mistress of a working farm, having to earn the respect of her tenant workers, her neighboring landowners, and those who might purchase the seed and grain she harvests from her lands at market. She vows to surprise them all with her hard work, diligence, and dedication, and to rebuild the former greatness of what she’s inherited, and Gabriel pledges to help her.
But complications arise when other suitors to Bathsheba present themselves. First, there’s William Boldwood (Michael Sheen), a wealthy, middle-aged bachelor whose estate neighbors Bathsheba’s and who genuinely comes to like and admire her, despite his attention to her being initially earned via a thoughtless and whimsical prank. And then comes cavalry Sergeant Francis York (Tom Sturridge), a dashing soldier who dazzles Bathsheba with charm, bravado, and a display of swordsmanship he uses to set her heart aflutter and her better judgement on holiday. Despite her wisdom and practicality in matters of running her lands, Bathsheba is both impetuous and inexperienced in matters of courtship and love. That combination leads her to make rash choices that jeopardize all that she’s come to hold dear, especially the esteem and friendship of those who have come to care for her most, as well as her own personal liberty and financial security.
Danish film director Thomas Vinterberg takes a few liberties with the staging of events depicted in Hardy’s novel, but for the most part, events play out the way anyone familiar with the story would expect them to. If anything, Vinterberg and the film’s script penned by David Nicholls (who also adapted Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles for BBC Films in 2008) softens the depictions of various characters, grounding them and making their decisions and actions, however emotionally-driven and damaging, somehow less extreme and more genteel. The script also incorporates Hardy’s own dialogue in key moments, and that, in conjunction with breathtaking cinematography work from director of photography Charlotte Bruus Christensen highlighting the unique light and landscape of the Dorset region, is perhaps the film’s best asset in its effort to capture the essence of Hardy’s work.
The cast here also brings their A-game, with the always exceptional Carey Mulligan bringing to life Bathsheba in a way that both makes sense for the time and setting and is relatable to modern audiences. Bathsheba, like so many of Hardy’s other memorable protagonists, is as much a victim of her social circumstances as she is of her own choices, and Mulligan brings just the right amount of pluckiness and willfulness to her portrayal of Bathsheba to both charm audiences and still be period-appropriate as she fights against the constraints that her gender and social position would put upon her. Similarly, Matthias Schoenaerts (2014’s The Drop) brings just the right quiet strength and dignity to Gabriel Oak, qualities which both attract Bathsheba and cause them to clash when they are at cross-purposes. The film’s take on William Boldwood, played capably by veteran British actor Michael Sheen, is perhaps the one made most sympathetic when compared to his presence in the novel. He’s still very serious and stodgy, a true product of his era, but here he’s not as indignant and volatile as Hardy depicted him. He’s a man of kindness and restraint, one audiences can genuinely believe might earn Bathsheba’s friendship and respect, if not her passion. Tom Sturrdige is also memorable and almost immediately hissable as Sergeant York, though viewers familiar with the novel and previous film versions may be surprised by the subtle tweaks to the character’s back story and actions that give York a little more realistic depth.
But all this fine work on behalf of cast and crew, as well as any merits the film makers’ take on the material might deserve, are wholly undercut by the film’s pacing and handling of time compression in regards to the speed with which the events all take place. The lack of any real sense of time passing between the pivotal events of the story robs the material of some of its impact and, perhaps more importantly, some of its sense. There’s often no indication at all from the production that the events audiences are witnessing are sometimes separated by months or even years — such was the pace of pastoral life in the rural England that Hardy so often wrote about — and thus the progression of the story as a whole feels unduly rushed, despite the film running just shy of two hours in length. With that running time in mind, it’s hard to argue that a film of this nature should have been longer; rather, the time put in might have been used a bit more efficiently, with more indications of just how much time is passing and being compressed from beginning to end, to make it all really click.
Considering that the most well-known and well regarded film adaptation of Far From the Madding Crowd, the 1967 version starring Julie Christie, Peter Finch, and Terrance Stamp, ran almost three hours in its effort to do justice to Hardy’s novel, it’s perhaps best to regard this film’s effort to accomplish the same task in two hours as bold and ambitious. But however one might admire that ambition, there’s no denying that this film, while quite good in its own right, won’t make you forget that earlier version, if indeed you’ve seen it and hold it dear to your heart. In that regard, if you’ve never seen that version, best not to go seek it out prior to seeing this one. Just forgive this one’s failings, let others make comparisons to what’s past, and enjoy the film for what it is.
Far From the Madding Crowd
Starring Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Tom Sturrdige, Michael Sheen, Juno Temple. Directed by Thomas Vinterberg.
Running Time: 118 minutes
Rated PG-13 for some sexuality and violence.
Rare “Return Of The Jedi” Publicity Shots
The “Its Mark Hamill” Facebook page posted nine rare “Return Of The Jedi” publicity shots.
The black and white photos are just breathtaking and capture the moment that was the end of the series.
Return of the Jedi was released in theaters on May 25, 1983. These photos were probably taken during the multiple photos leading up to the release of the film.
At the time this post was published the “Its Mark Hamill” Facebook had yet returned comment on the origin of these photos.