Guillermo del Toro discusses the potential story for Pacific Rim 2. Damon Lindelof explains why Brad Bird's Tomorrowland really is all about Disneyland... sort of. Ellen Page discusses her return as Kitty Pryde for X-Men: Days of Future Past. David Fincher's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea hits a fresh setback. Spoilers right now!
Top image from Pacific Rim.
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Kitty Pryde actress Ellen Page — who, if the movie even loosely follows the example set by the original comic, could have a fairly significant role in the film — discusses what it's like working with the movie's 3D cameras:
It’s pretty wild. Just the cameras are massive, and it’s interesting to talk to Bryan, because him expressing, just as like a film nerd, the difference and the challenges of shooting 2D vs. 3D, that’s just an interesting thing to know about. But also, just when you’re on the side watching the monitor, obviously they have 3D monitor screens for hair and makeup people and everyone watching, it just looks so incredible. It does. Obviously, combining the old cast and the new cast this movie is going to be epic in scope.
When did you first hear that you were going to be asked to be in it? Was it something that you knew for a while?
No, I didn’t know for that long. I knew they were kind of doing it, but I didn’t expect it. I didn’t expect to play Kitty Pryde again, so when that came up and I met with Bryan, because I didn’t work with Bryan I worked with Brett Ratner, it was just awesome. I feel so grateful to be back.
[Collider]
The Wolverine
Here's a pair of character posters. [Coming Soon]
Man of Steel
Here's a character poster featuring Russell Crowe as Jor-El. [First Showing]
Pacific Rim
Here's a TV spot. [Shock Till You Drop]
Guillermo del Toro says he wants to explore in a sequel just what's going on with the monstrous kaiju that the heroes spend the first film fighting. This quote might be considered particularly spoiler-y, as it also seems to hint at the motivations behind the kaiju attacks in Pacific Rim itself:
"They’re a race of blind consumers grabbing planets, consuming them, and moving to the next. The idea [with the sequel] is to explore a little bit of that. I won’t spoil it, but I don’t think we’ll repeat a single beat from the first movie... It will take us a while to develop. I don’t think the screenplay will come out so quick. It took us a year and a half to do this script, and It’ll take us at least two years to develop the other script."
[EW]
Godzilla
Here's an official set photo from the filming of Gareth Edwards's Godzilla movie. This shot of a subway being attacked recalls a similar sequence in the 1954 original. [Nuke The Fridge]
Tomorrowland
Writer Damon Lindelof says we won't actually see Disneyland in this film, and discusses the inspiration for his and Brad Bird's top-secret project, which will star George Clooney and Hugh Laurie. This is just an excerpt from a larger explanation, in which he points out that, of all the different regions of Disneyland, Tomorrowland is the only one that doesn't really have its own story, and that led to the original idea:
And there’s this Neil deGrasse Tyson speech — you can YouTube it — and he gave an eloquent and beautiful talk about how the abandonment of the space program after we landed on the moon is responsible for the fact that we no longer have an optimistic view of our future. I just said, “There’s a movie in there somewhere.” And that was the beginning of me curating this rather fascinating “is it or isn’t it?” Disney history in this kind of Dan Brown, Da Vinci Code way. Like, all these things that I didn’t know about, the history of Tomorrowland in the park, and could that be the basis of something? Even though the movie is not about the park — I will say this exclusively to you, that none of the movie takes place in a Disneyland park. It doesn’t, but that history became the inspiration for this amazing story.
I brought Jeff Jensen in, who had come up with all these amazing theories about Lost while it was on, some of which were just so much better than what we were coming up with in the room. I said, “Come in and look at this stuff and talk to me about it,” and then we started coming up with the germs of a really cool story, and then at the same time, I was hanging out with Bird, because we were both in the Bad Robot universe; he was posting Ghost Protocol as we were working on Into Darkness. I kind of got my hooks in him because I started asking him all these questions about Disney, because he worked there for a number of years and was basically trained by a couple of the original Imagineers, and he was like, “Why are you asking me these questions?” and I said, “I’m working on this project regarding Tomorrowland,” and then he was in. And then we went and picked up George Clooney, and we were off to the races.
There's still a bunch more at the link. [Grantland via /Film]
After Earth
Here's another preview clip.
And here's a behind-the-scenes video. [Coming Soon]
Transformers 4
Paramount has announced that Chinese actress Li Bingbing has joined the cast in "a major role." Transformers 4 is one of several recent blockbusters to be made as Chinese co-productions, and it's already been confirmed that parts of the movie will be filmed in China.
Z for Zachariah
Star Trek's Chris Pine, In Time and Les Miserables actress Amanda Seyfried, and the always welcome Chiwetel Ejiofor — who among many, many other great roles, was one of the best parts of Serenity — will reportedly appear together in this post-apocalyptic thriller, which "centers on a teenaged girl (Seyfried) who is seemingly the sole survivor until a scientist (Ejiofor) finds her farm, and the two fall in love [but] another survivor, a young man (Pine), surfaces, complicating matters." The film will reportedly be shot in August and directed by Compliance director and Homestar Runner co-founder Craig Zobel. [Heat Vision]
Ghostbusters 3
Dan Aykroyd is still talking this thing up, and this time around he actually offers some fairly concrete plot details:
“We’re going to have to cast. We need four new ghostbusters. We need four new Columbia students. It’s based upon new research that’s being done in particle physics by the young men and women at Columbia University. Basically there’s research being done that…I can say that the world or our dimension that we live in, our four planes of existence, length, height, width, and time, become threatened by some of the research that is being done. And Ghostbusters, new Ghostbusters have to come and some the problem.”
As with a lot of quotes from Dan Aykroyd, it's actually kind of hard to tell whether he's discussing the planned plot of the movie, or if this is just what he thinks is currently happening in the field of paranormal research. Anyway, he also says there will always be a place for Bill Murray in the film, to the point that it sounds as though Murray could just show up on set randomly in the middle of filming and Aykroyd would find a way to incorporate him. Which is probably the most sensible thing Aykroyd has said about this project to date, come to think about it. [Comic Book]
R.I.P.D.
Here's a TV spot.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
David Fincher's long-planned adaptation of Jules Verne's novel is starting to run into the sorts of production roadblocks you normally only find when Terry Gilliam (or possibly George Miller) is trying to make a movie, as the film has reportedly been shut down a mere month before it was due to start filming in Sydney, Australia. The decision to halt production until at least 2014 is reportedly due to casting concerns in the wake of Brad Pitt passing on the main role of Ned Land. [The Sydney Morning Herald]
Game of Thrones
Here's a trailer for next Sunday's episode and ninth of the season, "The Rains of Castamere."
Arrow
Executive producer Marc Guggenheim discusses the repercussions of Tommy's death heading into next season, specifically in how it affects Laurel:
Definitely she's going to feel some fairly overwhelming guilt because people, particularly like Ross and Rachel, can argue whether or not [Laurel and] Tommy were on a break when Laurel slept with Oliver in the penultimate episode. The thing that's pretty much indisputable is the fact that Laurel, by sleeping with Oliver, chose Oliver over Tommy and yet it was Tommy who came to save her. She feels an enormous amount of guilt over, "Did I pick the wrong guy?" These will all be things we're exploring in Season 2. The reason we did it wasn't just to end the season on an impactful note. It really was to create all sorts of different stories and dramatic conflicts in Season 2.
Do you think this could be a catalyst for Laurel to maybe put on a pair of fishnets? [Laughs] It's a catalyst for her to do a variety of different things. It's going to drive a lot of what Laurel does in Season 2, both good and bad. Tommy's death will reverberate through the cast of characters and will affect the changes and choices that Oliver makes and that Thea makes. It's going to affect everybody. It's not like you'll never hear Tommy's name never uttered again. If anything, Tommy is a larger presence in death than he was in life.
[TV Guide]
The Vampire Diaries
Claire Holt discusses how the show will continue exploring Rebekah and Matt's budding relationship when her character is leaving for the spin-off, The Originals:
"Julie [Plec] has left the door open for us to have cross-overs and for each of the characters to swap between the show. [Rebekah is] going to have to mend her relationship with Klaus in order to make it successful and work for her. I'm hoping Rebekah and Klaus will reconnect again because we had some fun times in the '20s."
[TV Guide]
Orphan Black
Here's the synopsis for episode nine, "Unconscious Selection":
After Kira’s life is threatened, Sarah is on the warpath, but Dr. Leekie makes her think twice about her plans for revenge. Meanwhile, Cosima faces the truth about Delphine, forcing her to choose sides. Now, it’s up to Sarah to decide the killer’s fate, but the truth about where Sarah came from changes everything.
Falling Skies
Here's a promo for season three.
Continuum
Here's a brief synopsis for episode eight, "Second Listen":
Kiera investigates the mysterious disappearance of several deceased time traveler's bodies; Alec is taken hostage by Garza on orders from his future self.
Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.