‘Power Rangers’ Official Teaser Trailer

Go Go Power Rangers. The first official trailer is here and it actually looks good. As someone who grew up in the 90’s with the original series, I didn’t think this movie would appeal to me but the film seems to have struck a balance somewhere between the original series and Josh Trank’s Chronicle but definitely closer to the latter.

The trailer introduces us to the five social rejects who will become the ‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’ after discovering a great alien power outside of Angel Grove. While the bright and campy tone of the original series is not apparent in the trailer, the film seems to have carved out its own place within the franchise while reminding us with the music and martial arts that this is unquestionably Power Rangers.

Towards the end of the trailer we get a glimpse of Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks) and a quick shot of Jason (Dacre Montgomery) beginning his metamorphosis into the Red Ranger inside what looks like it could be the rangers’ command center.

Saban’s Power Rangers follows five ordinary high school kids who must become something extraordinary when they learn that their small town of Angel Grove – and the world – is on the verge of being obliterated by an alien threat. Chosen by destiny, our heroes quickly discover that they are the only ones who can save the planet. But to do so they will have to overcome their real-life issues and band together as the Power Rangers before it is too late.

‘Power Rangers’ stars Dacre Montgomery as Jason Lee Scott (Red Ranger), RJ Cyler as Billy Cranston (Blue Ranger), Naomi Scott as Kimberly Hart (Pink Ranger), Becky G as Trini Kwan (Yellow Ranger), Ludi Lin as Zack Taylor (Black Ranger), Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa, Bryan Cranston as Zordon, and Bill Hader as Alpha 5.

Power Rangers hits theaters on March 24, 2017.

Marvel Adds Forest Whitaker to ‘Black Panther’

Forest Whitaker is set to join an already star studded cast in the upcoming Marvel’s Black Panther. Announced today via Marvel.com, Whitaker will play the role of Zuri, an elder statesmen in Wakanda.

The film has also added Daniel Kaluuya (Sicario, Black Mirror), Winston Duke (Person of Interest), and Florence Kasumba (Captain America: Civil War).

Kasumba is going to reprise her role as the stone cold Ayo (Move or you will be moved), a member of the Dora Milaje—the personal bodyguards of T’Challah A.K.A. Black Panther. Kaluuya is playing the role of W’Kabe, a loyal confidant to T’Challah who in the comics was the head of Wakandan security and T’Challahs second in command. Duke fills the role of M’Baku A.K.A. Man-Ape. M’Baku is the leader of a rival tribe in Wakanda. He is the greatest warrior in the nation second only to T’Challah.

The film stars Chadwick Boseman in the title role as Black Panther, Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia and Danai Gurira as Okoye.

Marvel’s Black Panther hits theaters February 16, 2018

NYCC 2016: ‘Justice League’ BTS Video

Warner Brothers has released an exciting behind the scenes look at the upcoming ‘Justice League’ to celebrate the film wrapping production. The studio has their work cut out for them as they attempt to win audiences back after the negative reception to Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice. We’ve already gotten to see a trailer plus reports from the press from their set visit a few months ago. The trailer plus this new behind the scenes look indicates a lighter tone and a general sense of the film being more fun than the dark and dire tone of the previous entries to the D.C. extended universe.

Check out the video below. There looks to be some great action and the cast looks like they had a blast making the film. It’s also nice to see the entire crew recognized for their hard work at the end. I don’t know about you, but this actually gets me excited to see the film now.

Justice League hits theaters November 17, 2017.

Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

New ‘Power Rangers’ Posters Revealed

It’s morphin’ time. Thanks to IGN, we just got our first look at the new posters for Power Rangers. The posters feature each ranger posing and ready to take on Rita Repulsa and the Putty Patrol. It is expected that Lionsgate will reveal the first footage from the film at NYCC this weekend.

The posters are definitely a step up from the last set released by the studio which had one that featured Billy chilling atop his Megazord. While the new ranger designs look more like MMPR meets Iron Man, it’s exciting to have a fresh take on the rangers for a new generation to fall in love with. My only hope is that we get some kind of call back to the original MMPR movie. What would you like to see? Personally I would love a cheesy roller blading scene for absolutely no reason or maybe the inclusion of a track from the original film such as “Free Ride” by Dan Hartman, or “Dreams” by Van Halen.

The film is directed by Dean Israelite and stars Dacre Montgomery as the Red Ranger, Naomi Scott as the Pink Ranger, Ludi Lin as the Black Ranger, R.J. Cyler as the Blue Ranger, and Becky Gomez as the Yellow Ranger.

Power Rangers hits theaters on March 24, 2017.

 

Solo Batman Film Not Yet Titled

It turns out the solo Batman film in development over at Warner Brothers is not yet officially titled ‘The Batman’. Ben Affleck clarified the statements he made the other day in a Facebook Live interview for his new film The Accountant  with E! News:

I mentioned the other day… it’s been around for a long time, but the movie… there is no Batman movie happening yet, we’re still trying to figure it out, you know, get the script and budget and all that stuff. And someone said, ‘what are you calling it?’ and I had said, like, back when we were promoting another movie, I was like ‘we don’t have a name for it, we’re just going with The Batman or Batman movie’, and I said that, and everyone was like ‘Affleck announces the name of his Batman movie.

This is a bummer as the title ‘The Batman’ would be a perfect antidote to the overloaded title Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

At this point the only thing that seems certain is that the film’s villain is set to be Slade Wilson A.K.A. Deathstroke. Recently Affleck tweeted out a visual effects test video on his twitter account featuring the supervillain. It is rumored he will be played by Joseph Manganiello.

Deathstroke belonged to a special operations unit before he turned mercenary. He possesses super human strength, speed, and intelligence. The character was most recently popularized by Manu Bennett on The CW’s Arrow which saw him also gain the ability of rapid cellular regeneration via a miracle drug called ‘Mirakuru.’ Bennett’s portrayal of Deathstroke took Arrow to new heights and was also the series’ most popular season. The surge in the characters popularity also spawned a Deathstroke run in DC’s rebooted comic book universe, The New 52.

SOURCE: Screenrant

First Look at Sir Patrick Stewart in ‘Logan’

Yesterday, Hugh Jackman announced that the third Wolverine film will be titled Logan via twitter — just as the films director James Mangold tweeted out a picture of the films official poster along with a photo of the scripts second page.

Today we get another look at the upcoming film in the form of a photo of Sir Patrick Stewart as an even older Charles Xavier. The photo was taken by Mangold himself.

Now before you read any further you should know the following could be considered a spoiler…

According to TheWrap, Professor X will be suffering from a cognitive breakdown. He doesn’t have a full grasp on his abilities anymore, and is also experiencing temporary amnesia as he is unable to remember who Wolverine is at times. It would be interesting if this is going to be a direct result of his powers and the more he uses them — the faster he deteriorates. Stephen Merchant will play the albino mutant Caliban as he assists Wolverine in taking care of the Professor.

Being that the film is based on the “Old Man Logan” comic book storyline, Wolverine will also be older and his powers won’t be what they used to.

The film is set in the year 2024 — when mutant births are in a decline due to unknown causes. The government is turning mutant children into killing machines in some sort of top-secret program called Transigen. The hand seen in the Logan poster belongs to a young girl who is part of the Transigen program. Instead of three claws, she has two. Wolverine is said to be serving as her mentor. Could this young girl be poised to be the first clawed heroine in the X-Men cinematic universe? Is it possible she is X-23? We know this will be Hugh Jackman’s last outing as the hero — leaving a hole to be filled in 20th Century Fox’s Marvel universe.

Logan hits theaters March 3, 2017.

SOURCE: THEWRAP

Young Han Solo Tests Female Lead

Three months ago Alden Ehrenreich was confirmed to star in the second Star Wars spin-off as Han Solo himself. Variety now reports that Lucasfilm is currently circling three different actresses for the films female lead.

Tessa Thompson (Creed), Naomi Scott (Power Rangers), and Zoe Kravitz are all said to be in London testing for the film right now. The film will be directed by The Lego Movie  directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller with a script penned by Lawrence Kasdan. Filming is set to being sometime in early 2017.

Tessa Thompson had a break out performance in last year’s Rocky sequel/reboot Creed and will also be seen in the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok. Given that she is already a part of the Disney family it seems likely she will land the role.

With Thompson and Kravitz in the mix, it’s possible they could be up for the role of Sana Starros. Sana is a human smuggler who made her first appearance in the 4^th issue of Marvel’s Star Wars comic series. She claimed she was married to Han although he denied it.

It is also rumored that Donald Glover could be playing the role of Lando Calrissian, however. It is still unclear where Lucasfilm is at with the casting process for Lando. Apparently Glover already tested for the role but they wanted him to go back in for an additional round of testing. That shouldn’t come as any surprise though, we are talking about Lando Calrissian. These actors go through multiple screen tests before they’re cast in the roles. In press interviews last December, actor John Boyega spoke about the long and arduous audition process he went through before cast in the role as Finn in Episode VII.

The young Han Solo Star Wars spin-off is set to hit theaters May 25, 2018.

SOURCE: VARIETY

‘Suicide Squad’ Gets Extended Cut

Coming as no great surprise, Warner Brothers is going to release one of the many alternate cuts of Suicide Squad. After being tested by audiences, the non-sensical film underwent numerous edits resulting in a disjunctive narrative that left many confused and disoriented including myself. The film itself felt more like a few music videos stitched together with action sequences in between.

The cartoonish acid trip will include an additional thirteen extra minutes of footage. Will this footage add the exposition this film was lacking? Will the Joker actually have something to do with the main plot?

Check out the promo for the Blu-Ray below. Its possible it was put together by the folks over at Trailer Park as it has the same spastic editing that the film had.

Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition was a big improvement from the theatrical release and provided the necessary connective tissue the film desperately needed. Hopefully the extended cut for Suicide Squad will do something similar.

Suicide Squad Extended Cut is set for digital release on November 5^th and a Blu-Ray release on December 13^th. Spread the word.

Wolverine 3 Has A Title and a Poster

Hugh Jackman announced this morning on his twitter account that the third Wolverine film will be titled Logan. The title is a play on the title of the comic book storyline Old Man Logan, which the film is based on. It seems like simpler titles for comic book movies is going to become a trend going forward.

Director James Mangold also shared a picture of the second page from the script and the films official poster via Twitter.

The script has Wolverine taking on a group of ‘bangers’ right from the start. The action described sounds like its going to be raw, brutal, and violent. This more realistic take on the film’s fight scenes will serve as a nice change of pace from the current blockbusters being produced by Marvel Studios. The language on this page combined with the action described most certainly guarantees an R-rating making it the second R-rated superhero film produced by 20th Century Fox.

Logan hits theaters March 3, 2017.

Solo ‘Batman’ Film Gets a Title

In an interview posted today by the Associated Press for the new film The Accountant, Ben Affleck revealed the new solo Batman film will simply be titled, The Batman. The film is currently being co-written by Ben along with President and Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment, Geoff Johns. Ben is set to direct and star in the film which does not yet have a release date.

The movie I think is going to be called ‘The Batman’. At least that’s what we’re going with right now. I might change it… That’s about all I got right now. We’re working on the script, the script is going well, I’m really excited about it.

The title itself is a refreshing antidote to the current trend of overloaded movie titles such as, Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Hopefully it doesn’t change. A simple title could be an indicator of a simpler narrative with a tighter focus. Hollywood has convinced itself it can jam pack two movies into one by adding a subtitle to the film’s title. BvS was attempting to be three films in one and it was a disjunctive cluster fuck that barely made any sense. Could the title of the solo Batman film be a sign DC is moving in the right direction? Time will tell…

SOURCE: AP