Green Lantern Debuts a 9th TV Spot

Warner Bros. Pictures has aired a ninth TV spot for Green Lantern. You can check it out using the player below, courtesy ofthemoviebox.net.
Plot Summary: In a universe as vast as it is mysterious, a small but powerful force has existed for centuries. Protectors of peace and justice, they are called the Green Lantern Corps. A brotherhood of warriors sworn to keep intergalactic order, each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants him superpowers. But when a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the balance of power in the Universe, their fate and the fate of Earth lie in the hands of their newest recruit, the first human ever selected: Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds). Hal is a gifted and cocky test pilot, but the Green Lanterns have little respect for humans, who have never harnessed the infinite powers of the ring before. But Hal is clearly the missing piece to the puzzle, and along with his determination and willpower, he has one thing no member of the Corps has ever had: humanity. With the encouragement of fellow pilot and childhood sweetheart Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), if Hal can quickly master his new powers and find the courage to overcome his fears, he may prove to be not only the key to defeating Parallax…he will become the greatest Green Lantern of all.
Directed by Martin Campbell, the film stars Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Angela Bassett, Tim Robbins, Temuera Morrison, Jay O. Sanders, Taika Waititi, Jon Tenney, Geoffrey Rush and Michael Clarke Duncan.
Green Lantern arrives in both conventional and 3D theaters on June 17.

New Writers Hired to Penn Author Marie Lu’s Futuristic Novel, Legend

CBS Films has hired up-and-coming writers Andrew Barrer and Gabe Ferrari to adapt Marie Lu’s forthcoming novel “Legend”, a futuristic Robin Hood-like tale set against two warring nations that inhabit what is now the United States.
According to Heat Vision, the company hopes to develop the project as a major young adult franchise, not unlike ‘The Twilight Saga’.
CBS has already hired Jonathan Levine to direct the adaptation, which is being produced by Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey of ‘The Twilight Saga’ fame.
The novel, which has received positive early reviews, is being published by Putnam and is due out on November 29.
Story synopsis: Legend takes place in Los Angeles over a hundred years in the future, when North America is split into two warring nations. Legend focuses on Day, a fifteen-year old Robin Hood figure who happens to be the nation’s most wanted criminal, and June, a teenage prodigy who is hired to hunt him down. The pair are caught in a game of cat and mouse until an impossible truth about their totalitarian leaders forces them to work together.
Barrer and Ferrari wrote Die in a Gunfight, a Romeo and Juliet-like action project that made the 2010 Blacklist.

Trailer Scares Up Korean Monsters in Sector 7

Drilling for oil has always been a dirty and dangerous job, but when the crew of a drilling rig encounter a vicious sea beasty, well, it’s not going to be a good day. While there are obvious comparisons to Bong Joon-ho’s The Host, we’ll have to admitSector 7 looks like a viable contender and a real corker. This summer we’ll see which Korean monster emerges victorious.
Check out the film’s official website for the new trailer. Looks like another compelling argument against the dependency on fossil fuels…
Story Synopsis: In Sector 7, an underwater oil field located south of Jeju Island, Hae-jun is working as a marine equipment manager on an oil prospecting ship called Eclipse. Joining the crew later is Jeong-man, a former colleague of Hae-jun’s father, assigned to Eclipse as captain. Though his job is to oversee the withdrawal of the ship, he suggests conducting some drilling one last time. After 3 weeks of preparation, Hae-jun takes new recruit underwater, but he sinks to the bottom of the sea when his equipment fails. Shortly after crew members begin to turn up dead, one by one, their bodies viciously mutilated. What the few survivors soon discover is a transparent underwater creature they encountered once before. The viral monster infiltrated the ship through the drilling pipe and has been feeding on the crew to survive. For Hae-jun and his colleagues, a fight for their lives begins.

DreamWorks Unveils International Poster for Real Steel

After already debuting the domestic poster for Real Steel, DreamWorks Pictures has today unveiled the international poster for the film (via heyyouguys.co.uk), which gives one a better look at the featured robots. You can check it out below.
Story Synopsis: A gritty, white-knuckle, action ride set in the near-future, where the sport of boxing has gone hi-tech, Real Steel stars Jackman as Charlie Kenton, a washed-up fighter who lost his chance at a title when 2000-pound, 8-foot-tall steel robots took over the ring. Now nothing but a small-time promoter, Charlie earns just enough money piecing together low-end bots from scrap metal to get from one underground boxing venue to the next. When Charlie hits rock bottom, he reluctantly teams up with his estranged son Max (Goyo) to build and train a championship contender. As the stakes in the brutal, no-holds-barred arena are raised, Charlie and Max, against all odds, get one last shot at a comeback.
Opening in conventional and IMAX theaters on October 7, the Shawn Levy-directed film stars Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly, Dakota Goyo, Anthony Mackie and Kevin Durand.

Come Back Green Lantern, All Might be Forgiven

DC Comics’ Green Lantern character may come back in a sequel to the summer superhero flick despite that film’s underwhelming performance.
Speaking at New York Comic Con, DC Entertainment’s Geoff Johns told his audience that Warner Brothers was hopeful of seeing the man with the lamp light up again despite the poor box office performance of The Green Lantern.
“[O]bviously, you want it to be as big asTitanic,” he is quoted as saying by The Hollywood Reporter. “I hope that the character gets another film, and it will be live-action again – I guarantee.”
The promise of a live-action film may be intended to allay fears that a straight-to-DVD ‘sequel’ might be spun off from the upcoming animated series on TW’s Cartoon Network.
The Green Lantern stars Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, who is recruited by the Green Lantern Corps to help defeat an enemy called Parallax. An extended cut with footage not seen in theaters was released on Blu-ray and DVD by Warner Home Video today.

New Posters for Steven Spielberg’s Adventures of Tintin Revealed

Both domestic and an international posters for Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, have debuted online today. You can check out both posters from the first installment in the franchise below.
Secret of the Unicorn stars Jamie Bell as Tintin, the intrepid young reporter whose relentless pursuit of a good story thrusts him into a world of high adventure.
Aso sarring are Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock, Daniel Craig as the nefarious Red Rackham, and Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as Thompson and Thompson.
Spielberg directed the first film, which is scheduled to arrive in theaters on December 23, 2011.
The sequel will be directed by Peter Jackson, with a third installment being planned.

Bond 23 May Show 007 to be of Scottish Blood

Prior to Daniel Craig taking on the role of British Secret Service agent 007, you could bank on the vast majority of James Bond fans voting for Scotsman Sean Connery as the actor whose interpretation they most enjoyed. Yet, even going as far back as David Niven, it seems that the character has often been interpreted as a suave Englishman. But what if Bond’s lineage is, in fact, Scottish?
That notion might become canon in the next (and officially the 23rd) Bond film. According to 411mania.com, the woman who owns Duntrune Castle near Lock Crinan in Argyll has claimed that the producers want to use the place in the movie, possibly as the home of Bond’s forebears.
“I think it is meant to be James Bond’s ancestral home – he will bring all the villains here,” Patricia Malcolm is quoted as saying. “I believe it’s mostly being filmed in China and Turkey. It looks as if they are going to construct the set and then blow it up. I think they are going to attack the castle from land and sea – there are going to a lot of bangs and explosions.”
The website says that the location will be in the film’s finale and that director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) has not yet started shooting the movie. All of these pieces of information are unconfirmed.
Media speculation is that the next Bond movie could be called Skyfall, a title that sounds a bit too much like Skyline for our liking. What do you think of it and of the idea that 007 could be Scottish? Is Bond a bonnie lad?

Cowboys & Aliens DVD and Extended Blu-ray Specs

If you follow our Twitter feed (@CinemaSpy) you’ll know that a couple of days ago we promised you the specs for the December 6 Blu-ray and DVD release of Cowboys & Aliens.
Forgive our tardiness but our stagecoach was delayed a day by a washed out road and the 1G wi-fi at the nearest saloon was spotty at best. Hence, it’s taken us a bit longer than expected to reach the best Western (OK, bad joke). Anyway, here are the full details.
According to Universal, the Blu-ray combo pack release will include and extended edition of the John Favreau-directed sci-fi western while the DVD will have the theatrical version. As far as we can tell, the extended edition includes roughly 17 minutes of extra footage but we’ve no idea what that shows. As for Bonus Features, here’s the list:
Blu-ray and DVD
IGNITING THE SKY: THE MAKING OF COWBOYS & ALIENS —A comprehensive, behind-the-scenes look at the production that invites viewers on set to meet the filmmakers and cast as they create this one-of-a-kind action film. In revealing conversations, Jon Favreau, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, as well as stars Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde, share their insights about the movie. Also featured are visual-effects powerhouses Legacy Effects and ILM, which join forces once again to push the technological envelope beyond anything ever seen before on screen. It includes:
FINDING THE STORY — Cowboys & Aliens, based on the graphic novel by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, has been in development for over a decade. Filmmakers, writers and cast explain why this particular team of Hollywood heavyweights hit the right note to bring this to the big screen.
THE SCOPE OF THE SPECTACLE —A look at the team behind the camera for the film’s massive New Mexico shoot, as the stars ride horses, shoot guns, jump from explosions, and get yanked 80 feet in the air! Director Jon Favreau stages unforgettable action set-pieces as cameras capture every moment, while legendary stuntman and Cowboys & Aliens’ second unit director Terry Leonard brings a lifetime of experience to the big-screen stunts, from legendary moments in John Wayne classics to doubling for Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
OUTER-SPACE ICON — Take a closer look at the creation of a new, terrifying alien design from Legacy Effects and Industrial Light and Magic.

A CALL TO ACTION — A profile of prolific actor, writer and director Jon Favreau featuring on-set video diaries shot throughout the production.
ABSOLUTION — A look at the practical re-creation of a dusty Old West mining town, the town’s inhabitants and the amazing ensemble of actors who portray them, as well as an exclusive look at the film’s meticulous production and costume designs.
CONVERSATIONS WITH JON FAVREAU – Jon Favreau hosts candid interviews with cast and crew, including Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, Damon Lindelof


Blu-ray Combo-Pack cover art courtesy of Universal.U-CONTROL: Universal’s exclusive feature that lets the viewer access bonus materials without leaving the movie!
BD-LIVE™: Access the BD-Live™ Center through your Internet-connected player to access the latest trailers, exclusive content, and more!
pocket BLU™ App: The popular free pocket BLU™ app for smartphones is now even better with newly updated versions for iPad®, Android™ tablets, PC, and Macintosh computers, with features made especially to take advantage of the devices’ larger screens and high resolution displays.
Advanced Remote Control: A sleek, elegant new way to operate your Blu-ray™ player. Users can navigate through menus, playback and BD-Live™ functions with ease.
Video Timeline: Users can easily bring up the video timeline, allowing them to instantly access any point in the film.
Mobile-To-Go: Users can unlock a selection of bonus content with their Blu-ray™ discs to save to their device or to stream from anywhere there is a Wi-Fi network, enabling them to enjoy content on the go, anytime, anywhere.
Browse Titles: Users will have access to a complete list of pocket BLU™-enabled titles available and coming to Blu-ray™. They can view free previews and see what additional content is available to unlock on their device.
Keyboard: Entering data is fast and easy with your device’s intuitive keyboard.
UNIVERSAL’S SECOND SCREEN: an innovative and interactive viewing experience, that allows viewers to control, interact and explore Cowboys & Aliens with groundbreaking new features right on a networked tablet or computer, in synchronization with the movie on the television screen! While the movie plays, experience features such as:
Flick View: Interact with the movie, move content from the Tablet to the TV screen, and compare storyboards, animatics, and other executing content by “Flicking” them from on their tablet to their TV screen, simply by gesturing their fingers upwards on their tablets.
Scene Explorer: Viewers select various progressions of the same scene including storyboards, pre-visualizations and behind-the-scenes.
Behind the Scenes: Viewers get an all access look at the making of the film featuring interviews with cast and crew.
Storyboards: Viewers will be able to take a closer look at the storyboards created for some of the amazing sequences in the film.
3D Models: Viewers can take a look at the aliens and otherworldly gadgets in Cowboys & Aliens by the touch or swipe of their fingers. You can move the models in a 360 degree view, get tech specs and more.
Cowboys & Aliens stars Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, Paul Dano, Noah Ringer, Keith Carradine, Clancy Brown and Ana de la Reguera. The story takes place in 1873 and focuses on gunslinger Jake Lonergan’s (Daniel Craig) attempts to protect the remote town of Absolution from alien attacks while he tries to unravel the mystery of his lost memories. The film has a 44% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. You can watch the trailer below.

Leonardo DiCaprio May be Circling Villain Role for Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained

Last month it was revealed that Will Smith is the front runner to star in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, a story about the revenge of a slave on his former master. Tarantino has previously expressed that his take on the material is“to do movies that deal with America’s horrible past with slavery and stuff but do them like spaghetti westerns, not like big issue movies…”
While Smith is still rumored for the title tole, today comes word from Creative Screenwriting magazine Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith that Leonardo Dicaprio is in talks to play the evil plantation owner. Variety’s Jeff Sneider heard the same rumor, but neither he or the trade have yet confirmed the rumor.

Tarantino regulars Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz are in talks to play Stephen, a wise, proud house slave, and a German bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz, respectively.
In the story, a freed slave seeks to reunite with his slave wife, a journey that will see him team with a German bounty hunter to take down an evil plantation owner named Monsieur Calvin Candie.
Meanwhile, Idris Elba (Thor) is rumored to be in talks to play a role in the film
The plan is to begin filming in the fall.
Tarantino’s idea to mix his pulp style with the historical period motif will be an interesting experiment, but no less strange than the current trend which sees historical characters battling mythological creatures, i.e. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer. It will be interesting to see what the filmmaker comes up with.

Warner Announces TWO Complete Harry Potter Film Sets for Blu-ray/DVD

Warner Home Video has announced that it is going to release two sets of all eight Harry Potter movies on Blu-ray and DVD. One will be on shelves in time for Christmas and another will be out next year.
Harry Potter: The Complete 8-Film Collection will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 11. Unsurprisingly it includes all eight movies from the film franchise: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. The press announcement didn’t say whether the 3D movies will be released on Blu-ray 3D in this set.
Presumably each film will be on its own disc and there will be no extra discs of special features in this set because the release will have 8-discs. It sounds like there will be at least one new extra, though. WHV will also release the first six films individually as Ultimate Editions and each will include a new chapter of the documentary series ‘Creating the World of Harry Potter.’ Hence, if you bought these films already, Warner is hoping you’ll give in to your consumerist urges and buy them all over again.
Be warned, though, those Ultimate Editions might not be so ultimate after all. According to WHV, hard-core fans will be “pleased” to known that they might want to get in line again for a third copy of each film in 2012. The distributor plans to release a “comprehensive Harry Potter film collection, with even more extras and collectible premiums” sometime next year.

It Seems Russell Brand Can Get Into Canada After All

Turns out that we don’t have Canadian customs officials to thanks for keeping controversial Brit comedian and actor Russell Brand out out of the land of poutine and toques after all. Apparently his plane into Ontario never even left the ground.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the star of Get Him to the Greek and the inferior remake of the Dudley Moore ’80s comedy Arthur set off a lot of chatter among his Canuck fans this weekend when he tweeted that he would be late for a stand-up show at the Casino Rama north of Toronto.
“HELP! I’m gonna be late for Casino Rama show unless someone can force Canadian customs officials to let us land in Orillia!” he said.
That, it seems, was interpreted by some to mean that he was the subject of the customs officials’ objections.
Rumors to that effect weren’t killed by a subsequent statement issued by the casino:
“Casino Rama regrets to announce that this evening’s Russell Brand show has been postponed due to a travel issue being experienced by the artist”
Then they were fueled by another tweet from Brand, a.k.a. @rustyrockets:
“I’m sorry. I can’t enter Canada. We must abolish the borders between our nations AND our minds.”
Alas, some Canadians may be disappointed to discover that there appears to be no legal objection preventing Brand setting foot on their soil. Apparently the comedian was trying to be funny.
“Ok all, let’s be clear, @rustyrockets is still in Cali[fornia], he never left, he has no immigration or border issue, it was a tech issue with plane!,” Casino Rama has reportedly since acknowledged on its Twitter account.
A spokeswoman for the casino, Jenna Hunter, has also said that she thought Brand was trying to be ‘witty.’ To paraphrase Borat, a character played by another British comic-turned-film actor, very funny… not.

Tim Burton Seeks Ethereal Tone for Dark Shadows

One of the projects yours truly is chomping at the bit to see when it’s released in theaters is Tim Burton’s remake of Dark Shadows, starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins. While I can take Burton or leave him, his work on films like Sleepy Hollow, I believe, could lend a contemporary Dark Shadows the sort of quality that renders it timeless.
Here’s hoping, anyway.
Meanwhile, TheWrap caught up to Burton at the LACMA, which has begun hosting a Tim Burton exhibit in Los Angeles — showcasing props, early writings and artwork from the filmmaker — and had an opportunity to ask him about how filming on Dark Shadows was progressing.
Here’s what Burton said:
“I’m just starting, and it’s a weird tone and it’s a lot of actors and, you know, we’re not starting with the simple stuff; we’re sort of getting right in there. You like to kind of sneak up on it a little bit, but this one we just kind of slammed right into it. [asked if it will have a soap opera quality] Yes, I don’t know. I’m early into it because it’s a funny tone, and that’s part of what the vibe of the show is, and there’s something about it that we want to get. But when you look at it, it’s pretty bad. I’m hoping that it will be — it’s early days, let’s put it — I’m very intrigued by the tone. It’s a real ethereal tone we’re trying to go for and I don’t know yet.”
The filmmaker mentioned that he’s not shooting the film in 3D. So right away, there’s that to take away as a positive.
Dark Shadows also stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Jonny Lee Miller, Bella Heathcote, Chloe Moretz and Gulliver McGrath. It’s a cast that certainly fills one with anticipation at the possibilities.