Lionsgate has released its first trailer for The Hunger Games, the Gary Ross-directed adaptation of the first of a trilogy of Suzanne Collins novels. In case you’re not familiar with the books and/or the upcoming film, here’s a bit of info directly from Lionsgate:

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the evil Capitol of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains.

Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

Will this be good? Who knows. At least they don’t seem to be taking the Twilight approach and making it incredibly cheesy, so at least that’s something.

Check out the trailer after the break. Look for The Hunger Game, which stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth, to arrive in theaters on March 23rd.

Continue Reading →

If there’s one thing you can say about action star and all around badass Jason Statham it’s that he’s consistant. In almost every movie he does, he ends up playing pretty much the same character.

Not that we’re complaining. He does it pretty well and is usually, if not supremely talented acting-wise, at least fun to watch. This leads us to the trailer for his latest upcoming action extravaganza Safe.

Written and Directed by Boaz Yakin, who’s previous credits include Fresh and Remember the Titans, Safe features Statham as a former elite agent protecting Mei (Catherine Chan), a 12-year-old numerical prodigy who has in her head a code the Triads, Russian Mafia and corrupt cops are determined to get.

As you would expect, the trailer features mostly what Statham fans are expecting: action. It also gives us a bit of insight into the story and who we can expect in the film opposite the star. And yes, Statham beats up and kills several people during the trailer. No surprise there.

Check out the trailer after the jump. Safe, which in addition to Statham features Anson Mount, Chris Sarandon and James Hong, opens on March 2, 2012.

Continue Reading →

Even though I’m not all that enthusiastic about the upcoming big screen adaptation of The Hunger Games, I know some of you are. And because I love and respect all our diligent readers, we’ve got brand new character posters from the film to share with you today.

The poster collection includes some of your favorite citizens of Panem: Rue (Amandla Stenberg), Cato (Alexander Ludwig), Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), Effie (Elizabeth Banks), Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth).

In case you never read the book, here’s some info on the story:

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games.  Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains.

Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy.  If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

The Hunger Games opens in theaters everywhere March 23rd, 2012. Click through for some larger versions of the posters after the break.

Continue Reading →

Red State is a movie filmed straight from the first draft of the shooting script.

Right from the opening shot of a small town, the cuts of scenery are so quick the audience doesn’t even know what they’re supposed to be looking at. Eventually the camera settles on a mother driving her son to school. On the way they pass a group protesting the funeral of a recently murdered homosexual student. Director Kevin Smith finally lingers on a shot of one of the protest signs featuring the phrase “Anal Penetration” in big, bold letters. We see the sign a few times more before the boy gets to school.

When he does, he explains to his teacher (who doesn’t even seem to mind his tardiness) why he’s late, and she launches into some unbelievably clumsy exposition about the group’s leader, Pastor Abin Cooper (Michael Parks), a nut of a fundamentalist who’s universally despised around these parts and runs his own private Wacoville just outside of town. It’s also brought up at the murdered boy went to that very high school! Two things should immediately pop out: 1) If the kid went to that school, and was murdered two weeks ago, how on earth is it possible that none of his classmates knew him? And 2) If everyone already knows Abin Cooper, then why spend so much time explaining who he is, what he does, where he does it, why he does it…? The answer, of course, is to fill in the audience, but it’s done in such an amateurish way that you can’t believe it came from writer/director Kevin Smith, who’s not only made eight feature films, not only been writing professionally for nearly 20 years, but who’s also a man who prides himself on the quality of his writing.

And this is in the first three minutes.

Continue Reading →

Yes, there’s bound to be several barbarian-like hordes of Twilight fans (that is, if there were a tribe of sickly-looking, sparkle-ridden barbarians…maybe those wimpy Phoenicians) at this year’s Comic Con, but those of us who prefer vampires of Buffy-slaying variety will be pleased to know that Buffy creator Joss Whedon’s newest project A Cabin in the Woods now has a U.S. release date: April 13th, 2012. Need I mention that’s a Friday? OOooOOoooOOo!

Aside from Whedon producing and co-writing with frequent collaborator and Cloverfield and Buffy writer Drew Goddard (who’s also directing), Cabin stars Thor‘s Chris Hemsworth as a young professional who, with a group of friends, visits a rustic cabin in the woods (makes sense) “and ends up scratching the surface of something so massive and horrific that they can only begin to fathom it as time quickly runs out.” My guess is that it’s a busted septic line.

The film also stars Richard Jenkins (Let Me In), Bradley Whitford (The West Wing), Kristen Connolly (The Happening), Brian J. White (Stomp the Yard), Amy Acker (Angel), Fran Kranz (Donnie Darko), and Jesse Williams (Brooklyn’s Finest). Not much else has been said about the film, but with such names behind it, we can expect some genre-bending badassery (septic tank or not). Whedon himself has described it as, “The horror movie to end all horror movies,” though he may be slightly biased.

The film may not have a director, and a cast is still in the process of being shuffled into place and signed, but that hasn’t stopped a brand new poster and plot from being released for the upcoming sequel The Expendables 2.

What we do know, however, is that Stallone will be returning to act in the film, just not direct. No word on who Lionsgate is courting to take on the task, but a script is already in place by the man who brought us Muppets in Space and Curious George, Ken Kaufman. Here’s what Millenium Films is touting as the official plot:

The Expendables are back and this time it’s personal! After Tool (Mickey Rourke), the heart and soul of the Expendables, is brutally murdered on a mission, his comrades swear to avenge him. They’re not the only ones who want blood.

Tool’s beautiful young and wild daughter Fiona embarks on her own revenge mission, complicating matters when she is captured and ransomed by a ruthless dictator plotting to destroy a resistance movement. Now Barney and the Expendables must risk everything to save her and humanity.

Just about everyone and their mother is rumored to return for the sequel, including a meatier role for both Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. There is even talk that Jean-Claude Van Damme is planning on making an appearance this time as the film’s villain, making this, without question, the ultimate action cast.

We expect to hear more about the film as it travels to Cannes. Lionsgate says that the current scheduled release is August 17th, 2012. Take a look at the full poster after the jump, courtesy of First Showing.

Continue Reading →

Remember that movie The Cabin in the Woods we first told you about almost a year ago? What ever happend to that one?

It had a lot going for it, coming from Cloverfield writer and director Drew Goddard and co-written by the man himself Joss Whedon. It also starts Chris Hemsworth, soon to be seen in Marvel’s Thor extravaganza.

With all that going for it, why haven’t we seen it yet? Well, it was initially postponed for conversion to 3D. Why? Who knows.

Then, it fell victim to MGM’s money troubles and ended up being put on the shelf until the company emerged from its money troubles or found another company to distribute the film. Fortunately, both of those things seems to have happened and Lionsgate has agreed to take on the film and bring it to a waiting audience.

With all this good news we still have a bit of bad. We don’t know the exact release date for the film and we still don’t know exactly what the film is about. However, based on prior experience with films of this type we can guess it involves several attractive people, a cabin, blood, death, creatures and a bit of humor.  Sounds good. I’m in.

In addition to Hemsworth, the film features Kristen Connolly, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford and Brian White. When we get an official release date, we’ll let you know.

Now that he’s not in office anymore, it seems like former California Governor can’t keep still. First he announces that he’s doing a comic book/cartoon franchise based on the fictional affairs during his term as the Governator, and now he’s ready to jump on the big screen as The Terminator.

THR has the full scoop.

The star’s agency, CAA, has put together a package that it’s currently shopping to the studios that includes rights to produce a new Terminator sequel, which would be directed by Justin Lin, hot off Fast Five, which opens domestically Friday, and produced by Robert Cort. No screenwriter has come on board yet.

When the movie’s rights holder the Halcyon Group went through bankruptcy in 2010, Lionsgate and Sony joined together in an unsuccessful bid to claim the franchise for themselves. More recently, Universal has been talking to CAA about tackling the project.

The idea of both Lin and Schwarzenegger is obviously still in the preliminary stages, but with Lin’s Fast Five opening big this weekend, you can imagine that Universal, Sony, and Lionsgate all jumping on the project like a Snickers at a fat camp.

No word just yet on how this effects McG’s “reboot” of the franchise with Salvation but even McG will have to step aside when the Governator wants back at playing the metal-head.

Even as some networks are changing the way they provide programming to Netflix’s Instant Streaming service, the company is still managing to add programming as well. Case in point is the announcement late yesterday that Netflix is entering a new area of business. That business? Syndication.

This new endeavor will begin with an exclusive deal between Netflix and Lionsgate to stream up to seven season of the Emmy-winning AMC TV series Mad Men. Under the deal, the first four seasons of Mad Men will be available on Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” service beginning on July 27. Additional seasons will be added as they finish airing on AMC.

The announcement comes days after AMC announced it had made a deal to keep Mad Men on the air for three more years, bringing the total number of seasons to seven. So, expect to see a lot more Mad Men for years to come. Seeing as the new season of Mad Men won’t debut until 2012, the new Netflix deal gives viewers a chance to catch up with all the previous episodes.

See, who says you never get anything good on TV?

In a rather bold move AMC has decided to officially greenlight a fifth season of its Emmy-winning, flagship series Mad Men without a deal in place for creator/exec-producer Matt Weiner. The network is exercising its option with the series’ producer Lionsgate TV and work will start on the new season shortly.

While this may seem bold, and it is, it’s not unprecedented. In fact, AMC did the exact same thing two years ago when it was almost in the exact same position and negotiations with Weiner were dragging on. Sadly, even thought his may seem like good news for Mad Men fans, there’s at least one bit of bad. Because of the still unresolved negotiations with Weiner, the premiere of Season 5 is being pushed from the Summer to early 2012.

Here’s the full statement from AMC: “AMC has officially authorized production of season 5 of Mad Men, triggering our option with Lionsgate. While we are getting a later start than in years past due to ongoing, key non-cast negotiations, Mad Men will be back for a fifth season in early 2012.”

While some may slam Weiner for holding things up the delay isn’t all about money, at least not directly for him. His part of the deal is reportedly already in place, which would make him the highest paid showrunnner on TV with close to $30 Million for two years. The delay has more to do with creative elements of the show.

Continue Reading →

Mark Millar has definitely taken the comic universe by storm in the past 10 years. He first turned heads of fanboys (and fangirls) everywhere with The Authority in 2000. Then he went a bit darker with his anti-hero epic Wanted. Later, Millar would get his first taste of adaptation, as Warner Bros. optioned Wanted into a highly successful feature film.

The same thing happened with Kick-Ass and Lionsgate last year, and now just about anything Millar puts in a comic is getting picked up as a film right away. His super villain series Nemesis is already being worked on by Tony Scott’s company, and Superior, the story of a crippled teen who turns into a famed superhero is also being looked at by several studios.

Coming up next month, you’ll be able to see all of Millar’s favorite characters crossover in an epic portrait that spans over 3 variant covers by regular cover artist Leinil Francis Yu. When asked about the idea, Millar couldn’t have been more about it.

“It wouldn’t make sense as a story as they all exist in their own distinct universes. But I was talking to Leinil in New York about this a few weeks back and we came up with this idea of spreading the image across three variants, each character touching the front cover of another book and it seemed very exciting. These are my wee babies so to see them all playing together gives me a warm glow. I’m collecting them to form one big image and to have it framed over my desk.”

Check out the full-sized image after the jump, and catch each variant for Kick Ass 2 #2, Superior #4, and Nemesis #4, all on sale in December and January.

Continue Reading →

Out with the old, in with the new. Many people were speculating that the Saw franchise would go head to head with the Paranormal Activity franchise every October, after they had a dueling horror theme this past Halloween. It looks like Activity may have won that battle, as there is already a plan for a third film to release next October, and Lionsgate has no plans on continuing the Saw franchise. From Variety.

Paramount has greenlit “Paranormal Activity 3″ for production with plans to release the pic on Oct. 21.

Insiders said the pic’s original helmer, Oren Peli, and producer Jason Blum will have some part in the creative process but their roles are yet to be determined.

The first two “Paranormal Activity” pics revolved around a family haunted by an evil spirit, with both films lensed in the found footage style.The films have grossed a total of more than $300 million at the worldwide box office.

Continue Reading →