One brave thespian wants to be Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy. Check out a bunch of sneak peeks from tonight's Fringe. Writer Jane Espenson reveals what's ahead on Once Upon a Time. Plus Godzilla gets a new writer!
Spoilers from here on out!
Top image from Fringe.
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Walking Dead recurring player Michael Rooker, who previously appeared in writer-director James Gunn's Super and Slither, says he wants to play Rocket Raccoon in the upcoming Marvel movie: I love raccoons. Raccoons are my friends (Laughs)!...Oh, yeah. Most certainly. I know that James Gunn is doing it. He is directing it, and he is re-writing it. He is a very loyal director. He is a very loyal writer, when it comes to working with people that he knows and loves. He really appreciates the efforts that each actor puts into these roles. And I would be very honored and pleased to work with James Gunn again... Whether it will happen or not, I don't know. But he is a dynamite guy, and we have remained friends ever since we worked together on Slither.
He also notes that he has particular experience relevant to the role of Rocket Raccoon, as he did motion capture work for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. More at the link, including his call for fans to campaign for him to get the role. [MovieWeb]
Star Trek Into Darkness
Director J.J. Abrams appeared on Conan last night and debuted the first ever footage from Star Trek Into Darkness. Normally, that would be pretty damn exciting, except for the fact that the clip is precisely three frames long. Still, here's our first look at Spock in next year's sequel.
You can also check out the interview with Abrams here and here.
Godzilla
Iron Man 3 screenwriter Drew Pearce has reportedly been hired to rewrite the script for the new Godzilla movie, which will be directed by Monsters's Gareth Edwards. The script is reportedly relatively close to being ready to film, with Pearce being brought in to do a four-week polish. [Variety]
Frankenweenie
Screenwriter John August explains how he approached the film's dark subject matter:
When I visited the set and I was there with my daughter who had turned five. When she realized Sparky died, she sat down on the floor and didn't move until we had a good ten-minute conversation about why everything happens. It was heartbreaking but very instructive because I told the producer, we need to make sure in marketing from teaser trailer on that the dog dies and the dog comes right back or we'll have parents rioting. The work, both in the script, shooting and Danny Elfman's music, is all about letting the moment play then picking things back up with the comedy that unfolds after that.
He also discusses how he developed the movie's story with director Tim Burton:
Tim showed up with the short film and then a list of other monsters he wanted to see that the boys created after being inspired by Victor. That was good, I could see the movie. So, my responsibility was finding the framework. Most movies are about the evils of science, so I said to Tim, this is a weirdly pro-science movie, let's embrace that. So, you have a new science teacher come to town, there's this science fair, the boys start their projects and then we needed a suburban town with a giant windmill. That's where New Holland came from and Dutch Day, that way we can explain why there's this windmill in a suburban American town. It was tremendously fun.
Skyfall
Here's the first sneak peek clip for Daniel Craig's latest James Bond movie. [IGN]
Wreck-It Ralph
And here are some descriptions for this movie's key characters. Check out the link for more, including a rundown of the real video game characters who make cameos in the film:
Wreck-It Ralph: Bad Guys Finish Last
Ralph is a heavy-handed wrecking' riot with a heart. For 30 years-day in, day out-he's been doing his job as "The Bad Guy" in the arcade game Fix-it Felix Jr. But it's getting harder and harder to love his job when no one seems to like him for doing it. Suffering from a classic case of Bad-Guy fatigue and hungry for a little wreck-ognition, Ralph embarks on a wild adventure across an incredible arcade-game universe to prove that just because he's a Bad Guy, it doesn't mean he's a bad guy.Fix-It Felix Jr.: The All-Around Good Guy
Felix is the popular star of Fix-It Felix Jr. and Niceland's hammer-wielding maintenance man who's beloved by all. When he is not busy fixin' all of Ralph's wreckin', this gold-medal-winning good guy is being showered with kisses, praise and pies from his tenants. Hardwired for niceness, anything other than being "The Good Guy" just doesn't compute.Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun: One Mean Space Marine
In the sci-fi battle zone of Hero's Duty, Sergeant Calhoun is more than just a pretty face-she is the tough-as-nails, take-charge leader who fights for humanity's freedom. When she's not offering in-game intel, she's training her troops for the next attack wave. This unrelenting commander is driven by a personal vendetta and will stop at nothing to protect the player and the arcade from a virulent Cy-Bug invasion.Vanellope von Schweetz: Hard Candy
Known as "The Glitch," Vanellope is a pixelating programming mistake in the candy-coated cart-racing game Sugar Rush. With a racer's spirit embedded in her coding, Vanellope is determined to earn her place in the starting lineup amongst the other racers. Only problem: the other racers don't want her or her glitching in the game. Years of rejection have left Vanellope with a wicked sense of humor and a razor-sharp tongue. However, somewhere beneath that hard shell is a sweet center just waiting to be revealed.
Fringe
Here's a teaser for tonight's episode, "In Absentia."
And here's a trio of sneak peeks.
True Blood
Blade Runner and Batman Begins costar Rutger Hauer will reportedly appear in the sixth season as Macklyn, described as "a mysterious and sinister figure with deep ties to Sookie and Jason." He will be a regular character on the show. [TV Line]
Once Upon a Time
Here's a promo for this Sunday's episode, "We Are Both."
And here are three sneak peeks, via Examiner.com:
Genre stalwart Jane Espenson discusses how Snow White and Emma will deal with the denizens of the fairy tale world, in the process dropping a reference to one of her other big genre shows:
They've got a lot of explaining to do. It's not just about explaining that it's not their fault, but where did they come from? Are they who they say they are? Who is that anyway? We don't know what relationships Mulan and Aurora had with the characters that we've already seen from fairy-tale land. Will they know the name Snow White or not? Of course, Emma doesn't know anything about this world. We handed them a big old of bouquet of obstacles to deal with. Not to mention, they're dealing with charred fairy-tale land. I'm reminded of cinder Earth from Battlestar Galactica and what happens when you find the place you've been yearning for and it's not what you thought it would be. It's interesting for both sides. Aurora and Mulan are going to have to deal with who these people are, who they naturally blame for this terrible situation. And we have to deal with Snow and Emma, on the other hand, dealing with this strange world.
How difficult will Emma and Snow's journey back to Storybrooke be? Not only just the journey, but dealing with Emma's feeling about Snow and Charming having given her up.
Absolutely. It's not just going to be Snow and Emma trying to get back, but obviously David trying to figure out how to get them back from the other side. We don't know how possible that is. It's not going to be easy. The first scene of Sunday's episode is not going to be, "Oh look, I got the hat to work!" It's going to take some real effort and I would look for that to not be resolved right away. We've put them in a very difficult situation and we're not going to make it easy to get out of it.
There's a bunch more at the link. [TV Guide]
Touch
While Keifer Sutherland's weekly exploration of crap quantum physics was originally slated to return for its second season on October 26, the show has now been pushed back to a January premiere and replaced with Kitchen Nightmares. No explanation was given for the decision, so I'm just going to assume Fox executives finally got around to actually watching Touch.[Deadline]
Supernatural
Here's a promo for next Wednesday's episode, "What's Up, Tiger Mommy?"
American Horror Story: Asylum
Here's an extended promo for the upcoming second season.
Arrow
Here's a complete set of promo photos for episode three, "The Lone Gunman", which airs October 24. [SpoilerTV]
The Vampire Diaries
Here's the latest cast photo for season four. [EW]
Additional reporting by Rob H. Dawson and Charlie Jane Anders.