It has been confirmed that Rodrigo Santoro will reprise his role as Xerxes in 300: Battle of Artemisia. Santoro will join Eva Green (Casino Royale) as Artemisia, Sullivan Stapleton (Darkness Falls) as Themistocles, and Jamie Blackley (Snow White and The Huntsman) as Calisto.

The story is rumored to be a sort-of-sequel which will follow Xerxes (Santoro) is pushed into the bloody battle with the Greeks by the gold-covered maven goddess Artemisia (Green). Artemisia utilizes her knowledge of how much Xerxes’ father King Darius’s death has affected him, persuades Xerxes to go into battle against those responsible. Artemisia also searches for  group of men to join Xerxes in the battle against the Greeks.

She manages to use her feminine wiles to convince Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton) to side with her and Xerxes, even though the Persians took her family and he was firmly on the side of the Greeks. Ultimately, she convinces him that his life will be better off if he swaps sides. Themistocles’ skills as a fighter are only rivaled by his ability for deception and lies.

The James Bond franchise is bigger than one actor. It is all about the character of James Bond. However, the most recent iteration of that character, actor Daniel Craig, is extremely popular. So much so that producer Michael G. Wilson has come out publicly with his wish to keep Daniel Craig on board for a record number of films.

MI6 reported the producers comments:

“Daniel’s been a terrific Bond, a superb actor and a terrific man. The fans love him and I don’t think there’s a better actor to play the part… Filming has gone very well so far and I’d love Daniel to surpass Roger’s record and do eight pictures. Daniel’s been an absolute pleasure to be around because he takes the role so seriously. There’s really no one more passionate about making these films work than him – he’s a film maker’s dream.

A lot of people have said Daniel’s been their favourite Bond since Sean Connery and I can’t argue with them. He’s doing a great job.”

No deals are in place and all of this is likely conditional on the success of the next two Bond films, but it is great to hear the filmmakers have so much confidence in their current Bond.

Skyfall is due in theaters in November of 2012.

When this Mel Gibson starrer came to theaters, I didn’t get a chance to see it so my first exposure to it was on Blu-ray. I won’t go into a full review of the film here (I’ll leave that to our own Shannon Hood) but suffice it to say I liked director Martin Campbell’s mix of cop procedural, revenge tale and conspiracy thriller. Gibson plays Boston Detective Thomas Craven who’s daughter is brutally murdered right in front of his eyes after a rather brief homecoming.

This horrific act spurs Gibson’s character on a path of revenge and a quest for justice that takes him in many different directions as he crosses paths with all manner of characters. Of course, things are not as they seem and the crime is not s simple assassination gone wrong, nor was Craven the target as everyone, except him, suspect.

During the course of his investigation Craven discovers a wider conspiracy that leads to the power corridors of the highest levels of government. Into this mix comes Ray Winstone’s Jedburg, a shadow operative who ‘s motivations and loyalties are unclear.

Is he a friend or foe and who does he work for? These questions arise as the film progresses and as Craven and Jedburg have several scenes together. Even though the other actors in the film, including Danny Huston, Shawn Roberts and Bojana Novakovic, are quite good, Gibson and Winstone elevate their scenes together and make this movie, at times, a real pleasure to watch.

MGM is one of those staple studios that has been around since the beginning. To this day, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is one of the oldest studios that is still producing films, but sadly it looks like that won’t be for very long. The studio has been hemorrhaging money for some time, and when put up for sale, it hasn’t gotten large enough bids from other studios to consider a deal.

At this point, MGM obtained to sole distribution rights to one major franchise in James Bond. They teamed up with Sony to produce and distribute Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, but that didn’t seem enough to keep the studio afloat long enough to produce the next film.

In a recent press release from EON Productions Ltd., a production company who has worked with the franchise since Dr. No back in 1962, they seem to think this is the end of production for Bond 23.

“Due to the continuing uncertainty surrounding the future of MGM and the failure to close a sale of the studio, we have suspended development on ‘Bond 23’ indefinitely,” the duo said. “We do not know when development will resume and do not have a date for the release.”