Star Trek Into Darkness puts Kirk and Spock's fundamental differences under the microscope once again — but that will end up being a good or bad thing? And Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige talks more about the Mandarin.
All that, plus Nicholas Hoult discusses Warm Bodies and Mad Max: Fury Road, the S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot starts filming, Felicia Day discusses her Supernatural return, and a Doctor Who star joins Arrow!
Spoilers from here on out!
Top image from Star Trek Into Darkness.
Star Trek Into Darkness
Director J.J. Abrams hints at why Benedict Cumberbatch's villainous John Harrison poses such a threat Captain Kirk's fledgling control of the Enterprise:
In many ways, this film is about a guy who is being tested to earn [his ship]... There is an insidiousness and ruthlessness and fierce intelligence to [Harrison] that almost undermines the interconnectivity of the crew. The stakes are much higher... The goal of this movie is to make you cry. If the movie does its job, then by the end of the movie, you will have had a reaction involving the eyes.
And Kirk actor Chris Pine explains how the movie explores the often diametrically opposed views of Kirk and Zachary Quinto's Mr. Spock:
"The definition of who these two people are definitely comes to bear in this film. It's central to what happens in the story. Spock is a logical man of cold reason who is run by laws, regulations and prescriptions. Kirk is a guttural, by-the-heart, instinctive and impulsive guy. Those two ways of looking at the world are central to these characters and their journey."
[MTV via Comic Book Movie]
Iron Man 3
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige talks some more about how writer-director Shane Black approached the admittedly tricky character of the Mandarin, played in the movie by Ben Kingsley:
"None of us wanted to do Fu Man Chu. We weren't interested in that in the least... So as we've done with many of the films, we did an amalgamation. The Mandarin is relentless: he's a non-stop threat, and you've seen that in the first teaser trailer when Tony Stark's house tumbles into the sea. He doesn't mess around, this guy. When we took away the notion of the Fu Man Chu and 'I found rings in a spaceship,' we got much more to 'How do we bring his Ten Rings organization and make it scary the way real-life terrorists can be scary, but also much more theatrical and flamboyant, like how the Mandarin was in the comics?' So we made him very public and had him take credit for his actions, to announce them in a very public way before striking. That's good for a movie, because it makes things very dramatic, and it also brings the Mandarin into the 21st century, where the videos you pass through the 24-hour news cycle is as important as the strike itself."
It's been officially announced that the movie will open in IMAX 3D, despite the fact that it was shot in neither format. So, fingers crossed for one hell of a conversion, I guess. Anyway, here's a trio of set videos. [/Film]
Tron 3
Bruce Boxleitner, who plays the franchise's title character as well as human counterpart Alan Bradley, offers this update on the Tron Legacy follow-up:
I don't know. They say yes, they say no. It's way above my pay grade to be able to tell you that. It's still a money-maker for them (Disney), and it's still a great franchise. They announced it at San Diego Comic-Con, so I'm not speaking out of school here, but it's in development, and development can take a while. We've got to get that creative team back again. I do know they're working on the story concepts and stuff like that.
Warm Bodies
X-Men: First Class actor Nicholas Hoult explains the particular challenges of playing the zombie half of a romantic comedy:
I just felt bad for the other actors that had to do scenes with me because there wasn't a lot going on a lot of the time, and particularly for [costar] Teresa [Palmer]. She'd have pages of dialogue to rattle off whilst I just sat there and would look blankly at her. But it's that thing you know of just committing to it and believing in what you're doing. Trust in Jonathan [Levine] as well, you know he's a very talented director. So that gave me a bit of confidence.
Mad Max: Fury Road
Nicholas Hoult also discusses his experiences filming George Miller's fourth Mad Max movie, in which Tom Hardy takes over the title role:
It was fantastic to film. I mean crazy. You know I've never seen anything like it: the landscape we're in the, the vehicles, the stunts. But George Miller is a fantastic director and I think its going to be a really cool film.
Who do you play?
I play a character called Nux who is one of the drivers.Do you have in scrapes with Mad Max?
We've got a few scenes together
[Collider]
Jack the Giant Slayer
And let's finish our all things Nicholas Hoult update with his thoughts on Bryan Singer's gritty fairy tale epic, in which he has the title role:
I've seen a few little clips of it. It looks pretty impressive, like, visually. The giants they've created all have the personalities and the world that they live in, Gantua, is pretty spectacular.
Oz the Great and Powerful
Here's a new promo image spotlighting Michelle William's Glinda and James Franco's Oz. [The Lebanese Cinema Movie Guide]
Beautiful Creatures
Here's a sneak peek clip from the upcoming supernatural romance. [Coming Soon]
S.H.I.E.L.D.
Here are some photos tweeted from the set of the currently filming S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot, including an almost-silhouetted look at creator and pilot director Joss Whedon. [EW]
Supernatural
Felicia Day discusses her return tonight as Charlie Bradbury:
"This Charlie is a little bit more beaten up and a little bit more gun-shy in a sense. But she's still the kind of girl who's going to meet you toe-to-toe. She's never going to back down if she believes something. She's not intimidated, and she's willing to question. That brings out a lot of fun dynamics between her and, especially, Dean.
"I think that there might be costumes on everybody at a certain point. I can tell you there are definitely things you're going to want to screenshot and [make into] animated GIFs. You can highlight the quotes in the scripts. It's really witty and well-written. I know the legacy of women on Supernatural is a little bit up and down. Everybody assumes you're going to be in deathly peril all the time. So having Charlie be a part of the world in a different way and having the fans like her is really important to me and made me excited to go back."
[TV Line]
Arrow
As part of the show's increasingly impressive effort to cast every awesome genre actor in existence on the show — seriously, the show has already found room for Torchwood's John Barrowman, Battlestar Galactia and Dollhouse's Tahmoh Penikett, Fringe's Seth Gabel, and Farscape's Ben Browder, and that's just off the top of my head — Arrow has reportedly cast River Song herself, Alex Kingston, as Laurel Lance's estranged mother Dinah, who tries to reconnect with her daughter and ex-husband in an upcoming episode. And, if her character on Arrow is anything like her character on Doctor Who, there will be considerably more to her than meets the eye, which fits in nicely with all the speculation that her appearance will be used to introduce the Black Canary alter ego into the show's universe. Anyway, she will have a recurring guest role on the show. [EW]
Executive producer Marc Guggenheim says the introduction of Spartacus costar Manu Bennett as Deathstroke in the thirteenth episode will really shake up the flashback island narrative:
"One of the things we like to do on the show is use the comic book expectations to surprise people. So I will say that when Oliver meets Manu's character, it's a seismic change in the level of trust that Oliver does or does not feel on the island. And the connection with Deathstroke is probably not what people are expecting."
Guggenheim also says that, by season's end, Diggle and Huntress won't be the only ones who know Oliver's secret identity. [EW]
The Originals
Daniel Gillies is reportedly set to return to the role of Elijah for the proposed Klaus-focused Vampire Diaries spin-off. Elijah's role in the New Orleans-set show would reportedly be to try to help Klaus find redemption, which forces him to side against Klaus's evil protege Marcel. All that said, Gillies has a preexisting commitment to the Canadian series Saving Hope, which might end up precluding his involvement with The Originals if it keeps running. [TV Guide]
Being Human
Here's a brief synopsis for the third episode, "The Teens They Are a Changin":
Nora and Josh meet a teenage runaway; Sally tries to make things right with Troy; Aidan and Henry search for clean blood.
Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.