Check out two different trailers for James Bond's return in Skyfall.James Cameron explains the future of Avatar. Kick-Ass 2 adds a villain. Why can't The CW figure out how to copy The Hunger Games? Plus a Total Recall clip!
Spoilers from here on out!
Top image from Skyfall.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The big question hanging over the Amazing Spider-Man sequel is whether Marc Webb will be back to direct it. The film has been enough of a critical and commercial success for Sony and Columbia Pictures to want him back, and Webb himself reportedly wants to return — but he still owes 20th Century Fox a movie as part of the two-picture deal that previously produced 500 Days of Summer. Fox is reportedly willing to grant him permission to go back into production on the next Amazing Spider-Man, but only if he agrees to make two additional films down the line instead of just the one. That would limit his future flexibility quite a bit — and it seems as though this would remove much of any chance that he could direct the mooted Amazing Spider-Man 3 — but the short-term benefits may be too much to pass up. Either way, this is likely to be resolved fairly soon, given that the next Spider-Man movie is due out in April 2014. [Los Angeles Times]
Avatar 2 and 3
Director James Cameron has bought a bunch of farmland near Lake Pounui in New Zealand, and a New York Times report on his move suggests that he might well move more aspects of production of the Avatar sequels to New Zealand. Here's the key quote from the piece, which also once again pushes back the timeline on the Avatar sequels:
The "Avatar" sequels, Mr. Cameron said, will almost certainly be shot in [Peter] Jackson's Wellington production studio, about 15 minutes by helicopter from Pounui. Visual effects will be completed at nearby Weta Digital, owned by Mr. Jackson and his partners, though motion-capture work on the "Avatar" sequels will still be done on a stage in California. "Avatar 2" will not be ready until 2015 or later, at least a year past the 2014 date Fox executives once had in mind.
The article also says Avatar 4 is not yet definite thing and only the first two sequels are confirmed. Of course, Cameron himself has talked about making about six Avatar movies, and I'd be shocked if we see any of these by 2016 at the earliest, so who even knows at this point. [New York Times]
Total Recall
Here's another sneak peek clip. [SpoilerTV]
Skyfall
And here are the first two full trailers for Daniel Craig's latest James Bond movie. One is the American version and the other is for international audiences, and the two feature some slightly different footage. They both feature Bond pretending to be dead (after M accidentally ordered him shot), some major changes at MI6, the emergence of Ralph Fiennes as a challenger to Judi Dench as M, and Javier Bardem being evil and sporting a silly haircut, as he is wont to do. Also, Ben Whishaw shows up as the new Q. Basically, yeah, I'm excited.
Kick-Ass 2
John Leguizamo, who redefined for all time what cinematic villainy could be when he played Clown in Spawn (he redefined it as this, whatever the hell that is), will reportedly play Javier, the bodyguard to Christopher Mintz-Plasse's returning bad guy Red Mist. Or I should say one of Red Mist's bodyguards, as I'm pretty sure the movie is still going to feature the extremely tall, roided out female ex-Soviet bodyguard. Also, I'm pretty sure Red Mist is now known as The Motherfucker. Basically, "ridiculous" doesn't even begin to describe this movie. [Deadline]
Paranormal Activity 4
Here's another teaser trailer for Catfish directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman's second entry in the franchise.
Doctor Who
I feel like this was sort of inevitable ever since that closing statues montage way back in "Blink", especially since we know Amy and Rory's final episode is set in New York and features the Weeping Angels, but it's now being rumored that the Statue of Liberty will be revealed as the biggest Weeping Angel of them all. Assuming this is true — and this seems like the kind of rumor that's so crazy that, yes, it absolutely could be true — there are a couple logical questions to this big twist. First, how exactly the Statue of Liberty could be a Weeping Angel when we know exactly how it was built, and the joint French-American construction project didn't to my knowledge involve any deathless evils from the dawn of time. Second, how there could ever be an occasion where nobody was looking at the Statue of Liberty (well, actually, I can think of one real-life example of that). Anyway, I'd take this all with a grain of salt until we hear more, but this does pretty much sound like the kind of thing Steven Moffat would do. [Blastr]
The Walking Dead
Here's a poster for the upcoming third season. [SpoilerTV]
Grimm
Here's a complete set of cast photos for season two. [SpoilerTV]
The seventh episode will reportedly feature a guest character named Bill, described as "a Drang-Zorn (a badger-like creature) who is on the run with his daughter." [SpoilerTV]
Supernatural
The fourth episode of the upcoming season eight is reportedly called "Bitten." Here are some tidbits on some of the episode's various guest characters:
It will feature Kate a possible recurring guest who is described as a pretty coed. Also a character called Michael who falls in love with Kate but their relationship is hindered by a supernatural force. And finally Brian, Michaels best friend who hates Michaels relationship with Kate. A college professor named Ludensky, who has a secret past, is also being cast.
Misfits
The United Kingdom's Channel 4 will be airing another eight sixty-minute episodes later this year for the show's fourth season. Here are some newly revealed details for the latest additions to the cast:
Misfits is back. And it's business as usual. With a couple of new faces. And some powers right off the actual A-list. New girl Jess (Karla Crome - Hit and Miss, Murder) is zipping on the jumpsuit, she has X-ray vision. And - well actually that's it. Because Finn (Nathan Mcmullen - Shameless) who also joins Jess, Rudy and Curtis in the locker room, he's telekinetic, but not in an A-list kind of way.
As Jess and Finn start their community service, it's not just litter they're picking up; it's bad vibes, body parts and power tools. And that's just the morning shift. With a six foot killer rabbit on the estate, a mysterious but easy-on-the-eye barman (HELLO ALEX!) getting Jess a little shaken but not entirely stirred *winks knowingly* and all hell quite literally breaking loose with the arrival of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, it's time to power up. The future's bright. The future's still a dirty shade of orange.
Warehouse 13
Here are some promo photos for next Monday's episode, "Personal Effects." [SpoilerTV]
The Vampire Diaries
Showrunner Julie Plec describes the new hunter introduced early in the fourth season, to be played by The Chicago Code's Todd Williams:
"[He's] very hardcore, he's very skilled he's very strong. He kind of takes our heroes by surprise, in that they think they can wipe the floor with him pretty easily and quickly, and he sort of stuns them with being difficult to defeat early on. They're going to realize they've got a bigger problem than they're used to."
She also discusses what's ahead for Klaus and the rest of the Originals in season four:
"He definitely has an agenda that he wants to service which we'll start to get a hint at about three episodes, four episodes in, and it will involve how he feels about the existence of this hunter. We'll definitely get glimpses of the other Originals over the course of the year. One of the things that we've always said in the writer's room is Esther's creation of the original vampires was predicated on a spell that she already had, so where did she get that? And what does that mean?" says Plec. "Does it mean that there are vampires that pre-date the original vampires?"
There's a ton more tidbits on season four at the link. [EW]
Battle Royale
The CW president Mark Pedowitz confirms the network's eternal quest for a Hunger Games copycat show has indeed led them back to the very thing people (rightly or wrongly) often accuse The Hunger Games of copycatting in the first place. But whether there actually will be an American TV version of Battle Royale is another question entirely:
"It's amazing what happens when you have just a phone call and a discussion. We'd love to do it. Hopefully, we'll be able to make a deal with the producers, and we'll see where it goes. But at this point in time, it's just a discussion for development."
He also revealed that no, the show won't be as gory as the source material:
"We're not planning to do anything we cannot get in the air. No, we are not going to go in that direction. We're going to wait and see what happens and how things develop."
The Selection
Mark Pedowitz also explains why The CW wasn't happy with their first attempt at a Hunger Games show, specifically one that supposedly melded The Hunger Games with elements of The Bachelor, based on the book by Kiera Cass. And while the failure of such a concept might seem obvious, let's remember that that this is The CW we're talking about, so that really sounds like it should be ideal:
"It just wasn't where we wanted to be tone wise. The producers and writers have gone back and are re scripting as we speak. We'll hopefully see something soon or make a determination whether to go forward. Big believer in the show. I really wanted a show that had a 'Game of Thrones'/'Hunger Games' tone, and we hope it's 'The Selection.' If it's not, then we will look at another arena to go to in terms of that. 'Battle Royale' comes with a nice, you know, cult following, as we all know, and might have been one of the predecessors of a lot of these things we see today."
Additional reporting by Rob H. Dawson and Charlie Jane Anders.