CinemaCon has been the source of many interesting and exciting movie news items in the past few days. One major player at the theater owner convention was Sony who brought with them lots of info on it’s 2012 slate.

The folks at ComingSoon.Net are reporting that Sony made it clear that they are looking ahead in regards to one of it’s marquee franchises:

Sony’s President of Worldwide Distribution Rory Bruer talked about Sony’s slate for 2013 and beyond and confirmed that James Bond would indeed be back in 2014 with the 24th movie in the franchise and the follow-up to Skyfall.

This is expected news, but still great to hear confirmed. Daniel Craig is signed on for a total of 8 Bond films, and after the MGM bankruptcy fiasco it began to look like we might not get to see them all. Now that we have confirmation that the films are back to a quick turnaround of every other year we should be seeing a lot of our favorite Super Spy in the coming decade.

Sony also showcased the first footage from Skyfall at the event. Early word is that it looks good, but the teaser footage was a bit to fast paced to get a true feeling of it. We should be seeing the first teaser some time soon ourselves, so keep an eye peeled to The Flickcast for all your Bond news.

For a little while there it din’t seem like we would get another James Bond film after Quantum of Solace. With MGM’s money problems, it looked like James Bond was going to retire from his cinematic exploits while things were sorted out — if they were ever sorted out.

Fortunately, the tide turned and now Bond is back in a new installment called Skyfall, which is filming right now. As is the custom these days with highly anticipated film releases, the production has released the first of what wil no doubt be many videos highlighting the behind-the-scenes action of making a Bond film.

In this particular video blog, the producers and director take us to Shanghi, China for some brief glimpses into the filmmaking process and the sleek cityscapes of that location. Looks good. Can’t wait for this one.

Check out the video after the break. Skyfall, which stars Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Bérénice Marlohe and Judi Dench, hits theaters on November 9.

Continue Reading →

Sometimes the first official image from a movie can drastically change the public’s perspective of an upcoming film. It can show you an exciting new look from a main character, or it can give you hints to the story or plot. Then some times the first official still is just a man sitting by a pool in the dark.

Empire has debuted the first official image from Skyfall. A lonely and sullen looking Bond playing footsie with a swimming pool after hours. Maybe that watch is a new Q gadget, or perhaps there are sharks with laser beam head gear just out of frame!

Yeah, not exactly the most exciting first still in the history of movies, but it is still notable for a few reasons. One, it is James Bond, and with the recent strife with MGM, seeing him officially in Skyfall is nice to see. There was real concern that the movie would never get made, but it is really happening.

Also this is the 5oth anniversary of James Bond, which is a huge deal. The Golden Anniversary for a cinematic icon is important to recognize, and any opportunity this year to talk about Britain’s most dashing spy will be used. Hopefully they will be more meaty in the future.

The 50th anniversary of the longest running film franchise of all time is something to celebrate, and while at CES the first major release of that celebration was announced. Bond 50 is a comprehensive Blu-Ray collection of all twenty-two James Bond films, together for the first time in a single, high definition, collection.

The announcement was made by a who’s who of Bond creatives from the franchise’s storied history. Director’s John Glen, Martin Campbell and Micheal Apt, who together combined to direct eight of the films, were joined by Bond Girls Olga Kurylenko and Caterina Murino as they debuted the impressive new set.

The James Bond films are one of the longest and most storied film franchises in the history of cinema. Despite over twenty films and nearly five decades of action, the series has been rather consistent in the score department. For well over three fourths of the James Bond films music dudties have been held by two men, the late great John Barry and excellent David Arnold.

It was assumed that Arnold would be returning for his sixth Bond film with Skyfall, but it seems the delays caused by MGM have actually caused Arnold’s schedule to be too full, he will be spending much of the next six months being the musical director for the summer Olympics. MI6 is reporting that in Arnold’s absence, director Sam Mendes is calling on a long time collaborator to fill his shoes.

American composer Thomas Newman will be scoring the new James Bond film, “Skyfall”, due out later this year. It will be his first 007 adventure.

Newman has been a long time collaborator with “Skyfall” helmer Sam Mendes, having scored four of the directors other films: “American Beauty” (1999), “Road to Perdition” (2002) [which also starred Daniel Craig], “Jarhead” (2005) and “Revolutionary Road” (2008).

Newman is an interesting choice for a big budget action film, but in many respects so is director Sam Mendes. One thing is for certain, Newman always brings his A game, so you can expect to hear an exceptional Bond score once Skyfall hits theaters later this year.

There have been a lot of Hobbit related stories in the last few days, including the debut of the first teaser for the film. Now in addition to that first footage we are also getting the first one-sheet for the film, just in time for the Christmas cinema rush.

The poster does a great job evoking the sense of starting a grand adventure, and the focus on just Bilbo in Bag End is appropriate. Compared to the first Lord of the Rings one-sheet that focused on Frodo and the ring, this poster feels right as the beginning of the whole saga. The dutch angle and harsh lighting might seem a rather odd choice at first, but then you realize how off putting an uncomfortable leaving the Shire is for Bilbo and it all makes sense.

Everything we have seen from this movie up to this point has been amazing, it is finally starting to feel like there is a new Peter Jackson directed Tolkien film coming in less than a year. This poster helps set the tone for a two year adventure that brings us back into the glorious world of Middle Earth.

You can see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey next year and the full poster after the jump.

Continue Reading →

The art of the horror comedy is in danger of becoming extinct these days, if not for the zombie genre’s resurrection (pun not intended) with hits like Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland. Now, rising star in the horror genre Adam Green (Hatchet, Frozen) is taking a whack at it with his new film Killer Pizza, which just got picked up by MGM.

From Deadline:

MGM is in talks to acquire Killer Pizza, an Adam Green-scripted adaptation of the Greg Taylor book about a 14-year old boy who lands a summer job at a pizza joint that is actually a front for a monster hunting enterprise.

Rafaella De Laurentiis is producing with 1492 Pictures and CJ Entertainment. 1492 Entertainment’s Chris Columbus brought it to MGM after meeting with the brass there and sensing the studio’s appetite for Gremlins and Goonies-type fare, and Killer Pizza fit that bill.

The film is said to have a very Joe Dante-esque feel taking tonal cues from Gremlins and Matinee. Can newcomer Adam Green join in the ranks of Dante and Landis in bringing these two genres to a happy medium? We’ll have to find out when MGM brings Pizza into production in the next year.

That’s right folks, the often delayed and occassionally in trouble next James Bond adventure is now a reality. In fact, it even has a title: Skyfall.

The announcement was made today at a London press conference by producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who confirmed that stars Daniel Craig and Judi Dench will indeed return in the Sam Mendes-directed 23rd James Bond adventure. Also confirmed were actors Javier Bardem and Ralph Fiennes, who will join the previously announced Naomie Harris, Berenice Marlohe, Albert Finney and Ben Whishaw in the film.

“We’re so delighted to have Sam Mendes direct Skyfall and be working once again with Daniel Craig,” Wilson and Broccoli said in a joint statement. “We’ve a great script, an extraordinary cast and an incredibly talented creative team for this latest James Bond adventure.”

In Skyfall “Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.” Mmm, tested loyalties and Bond stopping at nothing to save the world?

Continue Reading →

After setting up a new version of Robocop and Carrie, MGM’s reboot-o-rama continues with their plan to take the 1983 John Badam hacker thriller War Games and bring it to new audiences. With that in mind, the studio has tapped director Seth Gordon to develop the reboot and direct.

As you may know, Gordon first rose to prominence with the gaming documentary The King of Kong and most recently directed the upcoming comedy Horrible Bosses with Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Jamie Foxx.

In case you’re not familiar with War Games (although that’s unlikely), it starred Ally Sheedy as his girlfriend and Matthew Broderick as a computer hacker who finds a back door into a military computer system. Once inside, they start to play a nice game of “Global Thermonuclear War” which, unfortunately, isn’t a game to the computer. This sets off a series of events that if not stopped, could lead to WWIII.

Gordon will reportedly have a lot of leway in creating the reboot and with the level of sophistication of computer games, hardware and software these days, the results could be pretty interesting indeed. Gordon seems like a pretty good choice for this reboot.

Certainly better than the last time they tried to capatalize on War Games by making the abyssmal “sequel” War Games: The Dead Code. What a disaster that was. Let’s hope Gordon has better luck.

At the beginning of this year, MGM filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy which meant two things for film fans everywhere: there was a distinct possibility that we wouldn’t see The Hobbit or the 23rd film in the James Bond franchise for the unforeseeable future.

As we all know, Jackson is down under working on The Hobbit as we speak, and it looks like Bond may have just gotten saved, as both MGM and Sony have come to a deal and will work together to get the film made by 2012. From THR:

Sony Pictures, which released the last two James Bond movies, has struck a deal with MGM to co-finance and distribute worldwide the next Bond, still known only as Bond 23.

With Bond 23 set for release on Nov. 9, 2012, Sony and MGM also plan to join forces for the next film in the ongoing series, Bond 24, under a similar arrangement.

As part of the deal, announced Wednesday by MGM’s Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum and Sony’s Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal, MGM and Sony are also exploring co-financing deals on future movies produced by each of the studios during the next five years.

Along with Bond 23 and 24, Sony Pictures and MGM are locked in to release The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake and are in talks about working together on the Total Recall remake.

Though it was upsetting to see Darren Aronofsky to walk away from helming a reboot of the classic 1980′s sci-fi franchise Robocop, we knew that him working on a sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine may be a better fit. Also, we were sure MGM would find someone to take on the half-cop, half-machine.

It looks like that creative team is finally coming together. MGM already announced that foreign action director Jose Padilha will be taking on the role of director for the upcoming film, and now news is coming in that the studio has hired Josh Zetumer to pen the script.

Who exactly is Josh Zetumer? Well from what Deadline has been able to dig up, he looks to be Hollywood’s next big thing, if we ever get to see one of his films.

Zetumer first got on the radar when he wrote the script Infiltrator, which made the Black List. That spy thriller script is set at Warner Bros as a potential starring vehicle for Leonardo DiCaprio.

He also wrote drafts of Dune when Peter Berg was going to direct that remake at Paramount, and he scripted a fourth installment of The Bourne Identity before Universal instead developed a spinoff with Tony Gilroy. Zetumer just turned in Vale, a supernatural action thriller script at Warner Bros.

So while Detroit is still battling with getting their real-life RoboCop statue to kick off, we could be seeing more of this celluloid version very soon. The next question then becomes: who will they get to play protagonist Alex Murphy aka RoboCop? We’re sure to get an answer soon enough.

We know it was good news for both Bond fans and fans of the spy genre in general when it was announced that MGM was going through with the 23rd James Bond film. Now it looks like things could be getting better, as 20th Century Fox is looking into distributing the film.

From THR:

The new MGM management team of Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum has been talking informally to Paramount, where Barber and Birnbaum have a long-standing relationship. But last Friday, they also listened to a pitch from top Fox executives, who argue that their studio would do the best job exploiting Bond, as well as other future MGM films. They also believe they could wring the most out of the MGM library.

Fox has had a longstanding deal to distribute MGM movies on DVD and its films overseas, though that pact is set to expire in September.

The main contenders look to be Paramount and Fox, but that doesn’t mean that Sony, the studio that released the last two Bond films to theaters, is out of the fight. We’ll find out soon enough where MGM decides to land.