Star Wars

Star Wars fans with more money than friends can now liven up their homes with these life size replicas of C3PO and R2D2. Made of fiber glass, the life size figures come complete with voice and light functions. Of course, such quality doesn't come cheap, with a cost of $11,500 for the pair.

Source : /film

W

Elizabeth Banks has signed to play Laura Bush in 'W', Oliver stone's forthcoming George W Bush biopic.

Banks will next be seen in Kevin Smith's 'Zack and Miri Make a Porno', after which playing the First Lady will certainly be a change of pace.

Source : Newsaskew

Redbelt

Trailer for the new David Mamet film Redbelt. Whilst the trailer suggests a somewhat routine thriller, with Mamet as board as writer director, i'm willing to bet there is much more of interest within the fim itself.

Iron Man

Source: Cinematical
New shot of the villian in the forthcoming Iron Man film , Iron Monger

Hancock

New promotional image from Will Smiths summer blockbuster, Hancock. Word on the film has been mixed. Whilst the trailer showed promise, reviews of early screenings suggest that pretty much all the good stuff is contained therein. The film also apparently takes some strange turns involving Will Smith as an ancient god. Rumours that Jazzy Jeff plays jesus are unconfirmed.

Source: Aint it Cool News

X Files 2

Teaser poster for this summers X Files sequel, which is apparently still without an official title.

Source: Aint it Cool News

The Hobbit

Sir Ian McKellen has confirmed his intention to reprise his role as Gandalf in the forthcoming Hobbit films.

In a question and answer session on his official website, McKellen was asked "Will you again be our Gandalf in The Hobbit now that the deal is settled?" Sir Ian answered, "Yes I will, if Peter Jackson and I have anything to do with it, he being the producer and me being, on the whole a very lucky actor."

Asked whether executive producer Peter Jackson had approached him about reprising the role, McKellen elaborated:-

"Encouragingly, Peter and Fran Walsh have told me they couldn't imagine The Hobbit without their original Gandalf. Their confidence hasn't yet been confirmed by the director Guillermo del Toro but I am keeping my diary free for 2009!"

Source: The Guardian

War Inc

Poster for the new John Cusack satirical comedy 'War Inc'. Although Cusack plays another troubled hitman, early rumours of this being a semi-sequel to Grosse Pointe Blanke appear to be slightly wide of the mark. The official synopsis reads:-

"War, Inc. is a a political satire set in Turaqistan, a country occupied by an American private corporation run by a former US Vice-President (Dan Akroyd). In an effort to monopolize the opportunities the war-torn nation offers, the corporation's CEO hires a troubled hit man, played by John Cusack, to kill a Middle East oil minister. Now, struggling with his own growing demons, the assassin must pose as the corporation's Trade Show Producer in order to pull off this latest hit, while maintaining his cover by organizing the high-profile wedding of Yonica Babyyeah (Hilary Duff) an outrageous Middle Eastern pop star, and keeping a sexy left wing reporter (Marisa Tomei) in check."

War Inc opens in the USA on May 23rd, and later in the year in the UK.

Source: Cinematical

Fanboys

The saga of 'Fanboys' continues with the news that we will now be seeing not one but two versions of the film.

Fanboys tells the tale of a group of friends and Star Wars fans. When one of the friends is diagnosed with terminal cancer the group attempt to break into George Lucas's ranch in order to obtain a pre release print of 'The Phantom Menace' for hiim to view before his death.

The film was picked up by the Weinstein company, who decided that the whole cancer sub plot was a potential audience turn off and re-edited the movie to remove all references to it. Both versions were test screened and received almost identical scores. Despite this the Weinsteins' were all set to go with the new melanoma light version.

One thing they didnt count on was that a film called Fanboys would attract a lot of, well, fanboys, who have expressed their displeasure at the editing of the film.

As a result of the furore the Weinstein Company have now announced that both versions of the film will be released on DVD.

There is no word yet as to which, if any, version will see a cinema release, nor any indication of a release date. Given the Weinstein's previous track record this could be an indication that they are preparing to dump the film out there as cheaply as possible and cut their losses. In this instance though the presence of Seth Rogen amongst the cast pretty much guarantees a reasonable audience for any cinema release.

Source: Aint it Cool News, Cinematical

Meet Dave

Trailer for the forthcoming Eddie Murphy 'comedy' Meet Dave, in which he continues to piss away whatever talent he once has.

Murphy plays a human shaped spaceship who falls in love with Elizabeth Banks. Murphy, re teaming with Norbit director Brian Robbins, also plays the miniature alien pilot of the ship.

Dave opens July 11th in the USA.

The Wolfman

Producer Scott Stuber has been talking to Empire Online about the effects for the forthcoming Wolfman remake. Pleasingly, albeit somewhat surprisingly, they will be attempting to use practical effects wherever possible. Stuber states:

"We really want to stick to the physical stuff. So much of what we're trying to accomplish is that when Benicio is the wolf, you really know it's Benicio Del Toro and you have the eyes and the emotion of what he is. "

"You wouldn't get that with a completely CG creature who you disassociate from Benicio Del Toro. There will inevitably be some CG work to help with some of the transformation, but it's a (special effects make up creator) Rick Baker-centric film and that's what we wanted from the get-go."

Source: Empire Online

South Park

Although not strictly movie related, fans of South Park may want to head over to the new official website which, amongst other items, features streaming versions of every show released. Even better, the episodes are absolutely free of charge.

The one caveat is that UK and Australian viewers will have to wait a little while longer until they can use the service, due to some rights difficulties. Of course, the more IT literate of you will know this is not something that is particularly difficult to circumvent.

As far as I am aware this is the first time the entirety of a major series has been placed online for free, and it will be interesting to see whether other shows follow suit.

Source: Cinematical.

Day of the Dead

Poster for the forthcoming remake of 'Day of the Dead'.

Despite the presence of Ving Rhames, this is unrelated to the recent Dawn of the Dead remake. Interesting also to note the large mention of George A Romero. Romero had nothing to do with the remake, which according to early reports bears little resemblance to the original.

Source: Impwards

Bob Marley Biopic

Further to last weeks news that the Weinstein Brothers had optioned the rights to a movie based on the biography of Bob Marley's wife, the film has hit a major stumbling block, and one you thought might have come to light before they signed the deal.

Despite the fact that the film is being produced by Marley's widow, Rita, the sale of her book rights naturally didn't include rights to use any of the music.

Martin Scorsese has already licensed the song rights for his forthcoming Marley documentary, and the Marley family are now suggesting that they wouldn't be interested in providing the songs to a competing project.

"All our efforts and support are currently directed toward the documentary," Ziggy Marley said. "We believe that this project is the best way to represent our father's life from his perspective, and any other film project pertaining to our father will be empty without his music to support it."

Suggestions are that the Marley family would acquiesce only if there was to be a significant delay between the release of the documentary and the film, which by their reckoning would push the project back to around 2015.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Spine Tingler - The William Castle Story

Trailer for the forthcoming documentary about the films of William Castle. Castle was best known for his showmanship and gimmicks, including flying skeletons on strings above the audience, selling life insurance policies to guard against those dying of fright during the film and, most famously, placing shock buzzers under cinema seats for 'The Tingler'



Source: Cinematical