Kevin Feige reveals why Captain America can't necessarily trust his own allies in The Winter Soldier and whether new superheroes will show up in S.H.I.E.L.D. Michael Caine joins Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, because obviously. A familiar mutant is seen on the X-Men: Days of Future Past set. Spoilers right now!
Top image from Star Trek Into Darkness.
Star Trek Into Darkness
Benedict Cumberbatch discusses the complexities of his villainous character:
Well I describe him as a ‘home-grown terrorist.’ He’s somebody who has the most extraordinary proficient ability as a warrior with close hand combat and weaponry. But also with psychological warfare – like a master chessman he can… or I should say chess player, chessman could be a piece I guess! He’s a tactician with the most extraordinary kind of mind and ability to manipulate a situation and get people to trust him and do his bidding almost actually, a Hannibal Lecterish quality I guess. There’s no tricks involved, it is purely about knowing the person and the dynamic that they’re part of. And that means that within the range of acting I got to do I had the great boy/man thrill running around and doing a lot of live action stunts, with wire work and carefully choreographed and rehearsed fight scenes and chases. And that’s the great thing about the film – there’s lots of live action and stuff that is not CG. It’s very much real and gravitationally bound in some parts as well, and earthbound. And then on top of that, the icing of the cake and the real treat and meat of it as well was to have really juicy acting scenes as well.
He expands on just why his character has his sympathetic aspects:
But there will be a reveal in the… piece – I was about to say play! But it’s interesting that I was going to say play because there is an aspect of it where it is much more of a morality play, the kind of depth of story is much more in tune with the original series I think than had previously been the case in this type of genre film. But anyway that’s detracting from what I was saying which was… what I said about being a terrorist. I think I definitely touched on this in front of you guys this morning [a press conference]... Well basically I believe like modern terrorism, and there sadly a lot of parallels that make this very relevant. It’s not that the means may be disgusting, the level of violence and death and destruction and distress caused. But often the intentions are noble – and I mean that in the broadest sense. It’s an underdog fighting a superpower. It’s a minority. And elements of that superpower can get corrupted; in this case it’s Starfleet. And he believes in what he is doing and hopefully at the point where that’s explained it might garner some sympathy.
Be sure to check out the rest of the interview, as Cumberbatch comes out swinging throughout the entire piece. [Click Online]
Here's an interview with Bones actor Karl Urban.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige offers some hints about the sequel's character dynamics in the print edition of Entertainment Weekly:
"With the Greatest Generation and World War II, there's a tendency to reflect on that period and say, 'Things were black and white back then, and now it's hard to know who the bad guys are. We wanted to play on that a little with Cap being uncomfortable with the way SHIELD, and in particular Nick Fury, operates."
Also, Feige offers some general praise for the sequel, particularly its directors Chris and Anthony Russo:
We always like to break and up until people started seeing the new “Iron Man” movie, people were accusing us of going “All Dark Knight” with it and I kept saying, “That’s not what we’re doing.” It’s sort of how we were advertising it, but in the same way, we really believe that humor is necessary and to have a whole range of emotions over the course of a movie. You can get frightened, you can get deeply emotionally attached, but all those things happen more if you’re laughing and engaged throughout the journey.
That being said, the Russos are incredibly talented filmmakers and have that full range. You don’t get Robert Redford if you don’t have a vision that can explain to him before he signs up to your movie. This is on top of Scarlett Johansson and Sam Jackson and Chris Evans. Everyone now as we’re in the middle of our fifth week of production and it’s going extremely well, they’re bringing a lot to the table. I like that our unconventional choices, they’re only unconventional until the movie comes out and then every studio in town hires our filmmakers and they go onto bigger tentpoles from there. I’m very happy when that happens. Kenneth Branagh is starting his second post-“Thor” franchise at Disney now with “Cinderella” and he finished “Jack Ryan” for Paramount and when we were hiring him, people were wondering what was going on. The Russos I think will surprise a lot of people but they’re just incredibly hard-working, incredibly talented and keeping their heads down five weeks into making a great movie.
There's plenty more at the link. [Superhero Hype]
Ant-Man
From the same interview, Kevin Feige delves into the genesis of Edgar Wright's planned Ant-Man movie, hinting it could be a real departure from anything else Marvel Studios has done:
Well, it’s for a couple of reasons. The primary reason is because I met a very talented filmmaker who was about my age almost ten years ago, we got along very well. He had a movie called “Shaun of the Dead” which hadn’t come out yet and he said he really wanted to meet to talk about “Ant-Man”… and this was even before we were on the studio. This was just at the dawn of us even discussing becoming our own studio. But we met with him, he had a cool idea and when we became our own studio, we hired him and Joe Cornish, who as you know, went on to do “Attack the Block” and become a very talented filmmaker in his own right. At the time he hadn’t done much at all but we really believed in him and we believed in Edgar and they delivered a draft that was sort of unlike anything we’d done before that was sort of wholly Edgar and wholly Marvel and a very fun spin on the Ant-Man mythology. And if you’ve seen the in-progress test we showed at Comic-Con last year and there’s been some clips of it we’ve released. People go like, “Ant-Man, is that a joke? What happens? He talks to ants?” And Edgar and his team put together this test of basically just Ant-Man going down the hallway and it is so kick-ass and so bad-ass, people instantly go, “Oh, I get it! Now we see what it can be.” And that of course is only 1% of what the movie is, but it’s certainly enough to get people to realize, “Oh, that’s why you’ve been thinking about this for so long.”
Check out the link for more. [Superhero Hype]
Guardians of the Galaxy
Here's a video interview with Star Trek actress Zoe Saldana, in which she confirms she will physically portray her Guardians role of Gamora with green makeup, rather than with motion capture. [Total Film]
The Avengers 2
Kevin Feige offers this hint about the franchise's future in the latest print edition of Entertainment Weekly:
"All of the Avengers from the first movie will be back and they will be the core team, but what's fun is that the roster shifts. It was always the intention to have a story line that brought in, obviously, new bad guys and potentially new heroes."
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Director Bryan Singer tweeted a photo of Ellen Page back on set as Kitty Pryde. Check it out here.
Interstellar
In what has to be just about the least surprising news imaginable, Michael Caine will reportedly appear in Christopher Nolan's upcoming science fiction epic. This will be the sixth straight Nolan film in which Caine appears, following on from the Dark Knight trilogy, The Prestige, and Inception. Caine will appear alongside Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and the recently reported Jessica Chastain. [Deadline]
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige says the show could potentially be used to introduce previously unseen superheroes, but it doesn't sound like a major priority:
“If that works the way everyone expects it to work I think that would open up another avenue, another outlet for some of those characters. Maybe they guest star, I don’t know. I think they’re avoiding the cameo of the week on that show, which is very smart.”
[EW]
Game of Thrones
Here are synopses for the last two episodes of the season, which air June 2 and June 9. [SpoilerTV]
Episode 3.09 - The Rains of Castamere
Robb presents himself to Walder Frey, and Edmure meets his bride. Jon faces his harshest test yet. Bran discovers a new gift. Daario and Jorah debate how to take Yunkai. House Frey joins with House Tully.
Episode 3.10 - Mhysa
Joffrey challenges Tywin. Bran tells a ghost story. In Dragonstone, mercy comes from strange quarters. Dany waits to see if she is a conqueror or a liberator.
True Blood
Here's a trailer for the sixth season.
Here are brief synopses for the first three episodes, which will air June 16, June 23, and June 30 respectively:
Episode 6.01 - “Who Are You, Really?”
Bill’s bloody reincarnation ushers in a new era for vampires, faeries and humans alike.
Episode 6.02 - The Sun
Sookie meets a handsome stranger; Eric takes on the governor; Bill contemplates his new powers.
Episode 6.03 - You’re No Good
Bill looks for a solution to an impending catastrophe; Eric takes a hostage, while Sam tries to recover one.
Revolution
Here's a sneak peek at the next episode, "Love Boat."
Once Upon a Time
Michael Raymond-James discusses whether Neal will learn the truth about Tamara before season's end:
Emma continues down the road of trying to wake Neal up. She has suspicions that are clearly founded — but she doesn't have hard facts yet — and she'll continue to try to convince Neal. Neal's going to struggle with being able to accept that.
What's the likelihood of Neal and Emma getting back together?
My take is that nothing is off the table. What I mean by that is that it's all on the table, anything can happen. These are two people who care deeply about each other and they have a complex history but they also share a child and they have those unresolved feelings and issues that they haven't been begun to address. Anything can happen. They could end up together or they could end up friends who co-parent together or not. It could go any number of directions. I would get in a lot of trouble if I narrowed it down.
Elsewhere, Raymond-James discusses whether Neal still feels guilty about what he did to Emma all those years ago:
Yes. I think he does, but Neal feels that he really didn’t have a choice in the mater. It was a matter of her fulfilling her destiny and for the greater good. I mean, we’re talking about her saving a town full of people that I grew up with, people from Fairytale Land, so these aren’t total strangers where I can be like, “Screw them. This is about me and my love.” So, in Neal’s mind he was sort of jumping on the grenade for the greater good. But of course there’s guilt. Of course there’s pain for having inflicted pain on someone you care about. I don’t know how you get beyond that.
[TV Line]
Orphan Black
Creator Graeme Manson discusses what's ahead on the show, starting with Paul and Sarah's relationship:
Paul’s got some surprises up his sleeve, for sure, and Sarah’s been playing pretty fast and loose with Paul. But she’s probably denying a certain amount of attraction with Paul. And certainly, Paul has been knocked off kilter as he was falling back for Beth only to discover that it was Sarah. So he’s got a whole pack of worms on his hands with her and his emotions with her, as well as they’re under the eye, apparently, of a larger conspiracy.
We’ve met so many clones already. Are there more that you hope to introduce?
There’s always the chance of another clone, but we’re very [cautious about] overdosing. It’s not a clone-of-the-week show. It’s a character drama. It’s a sci-fi character drama that happens to be populated by clones. They’re not cannon fodder. We don’t have a lot of red shirts — but maybe a few.You brought up the idea of monitors watching them. How’s that going to influence the other clones’ storylines? We’ve seen Sarah’s monitor, Paul, but obviously there’s others…
We’ll see who all has a monitor. The first thing they have to do is find that out, so I don’t want to go too far into that. But it’s an onion, and there’s layers to peel back. So whether or not they all have one, that’s certainly a first step into our mystery.
There's more at the link. [TV Line]
Falling Skies
Here are a couple teasers from stars Noah Wyle and Moon Bloodgood:
Wyle: I wanted to make sure there was a bit of a learning curve to his ability to lead and to be an orator. He’s gonna get stronger as the season goes on. He’s gonna get more comfortable in the role. [At the beginning of the season] he’s sort of acting presidential, rather than being presidential, but he gets better.
Bloodgood: Something’s very wrong [with the baby]. Anne doesn’t know what it is. She starts to investigate. People start to think it’s postpartum depression on my part. Everyone thinks I’m kind of nuts. But the baby is only acting peculiar around me. So what I do in my own mind is think, ‘Is something wrong with me or is something wrong with the child?’
[EW]
Defiance
Stars Jaime Murray and Tony Curran discuss how the relationship between their characters, Stahma and Datak, develops:
Murray: I feel like it’s a period piece even though it’s 35 years in the future. It’s a very patriarchal society. Stahma is repressed. It’s a society in which “her role is as a breeder and a bleeder.” It’s complicated by coming from a strict caste system. Datak would almost have been an untouchable and Stahma is almost royalty. They would never have been together on their home world. It’s a bit of a power struggle. She is more highly educated and she sees the longer game. He’s shrewd and sharp. He’s had to live on his wits. She has to suggest ways of dealing with things. He’s sometimes more at the whim of his emotions. She has to avoid hurting his pride.
Curran: As the season progresses, you see interesting dynamics develop. Stahma and Datak are coming from a different planet and very different ends of a cultural spectrum. They’re trying to re-invent themselves. Stahma wouldn’t have had as much power in their home world. She keeps his temper in check. Datak begins to wisen up to Stahma’s cunning. She’s a refined tool while he’s a blunt instrument.Murray: We all wear masks, but Stahma wears the mask all of the time. She loves him but she never takes it off. It just “slips” slightly at times.
There's a bunch more at the link. [SpoilerTV]
Warehouse 13
Here's a sneak peek at tonight's episode, "Parks and Rehabilitation."
Beauty and the Beast
Here's a preview for the next episode, "Date Night." [KSiteTV]
Additional reporting by Katharine Trendacosta and Charlie Jane Anders.