The Dark Knight posters: one, two and three. There's also a bootleg trailer at Dark Horizons. Ops, it's been taken down. The official trailer will be released here on Sunday. [imdb]

New poster for Doug Liman's Jumper. [imdb]

Matt Ausiello is saying that Garrett Dillahunt (No Country for Old Men) will take over the role of the Terminator named Cromartie, who is a shape-shifter, played by Owain Yeoman in the pilot of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. [imdb]

The fifth and finale season of HBO's The Wire will begin airing in January, and if you've never watched this powerful and absolutely genius show, it's never too late to start. Stephen King loves it, and so does an overwhelming number of critics. 3 "prequel" clips have been released on Amazon, showing the Prop Joe and Omar as kids, and the first meeting between Bunk and McNulty. AICN has also posted the summaries for the first four episodes. [official site]

See the armoured bears. New posters for The Golden Compass here and here.

Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz) is Scotty and John Cho (Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle) is Sulu in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek. The main cast also features Chris Pine (Kirk), Eric Bana (the villain, Nero), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Anton Yelchin (Chekov), and Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy as Spock. (Coming Soon) [imdb]

The Jumper trailer, now in HD Quicktime. Stars Hayden Christensen, Jamie Bell, Rachel Bilson, and Samuel L. Jackson. Directed by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity).

Review of Battlestar Galactica: Razor at Eclipse Magazine. HUGE SPOILER at the end.

Clips from the next episode of Heroes, "The Kindness of Strangers." (Oh, Angela Petrelli!) Also, "Milo Is Shirtless" is evidently the new Heroes tagline.

Alan Sepinwall's column on Mad Men, which is finishing up its first season next week (contains spoilers):

'One of the keys to the genius of "Mad Men" -- far and away the best new show of the year, making every network rookie look lazy and dull in comparison -- is how often the series' writers resist the temptation to spell everything out in large print.'

Trailer for Doug Liman's (The Bourne Identity) sci-fi action adventure, Jumper, based on the novel by Steven Gould. A young man discovers that he can teleport, but the ability comes at a cost - an ancient sect called the Paladins is intent on killing everyone who is like him. It stars Jamie Bell (Hallam Foe), Hayden Christensen (Shattered Glass), Rachel Bilson (The OC), and Samuel L. Jackson. THIS LOOKS SO MIND-BLOWINGLY COOL. Edited: trailer_spot has the link for the downloadable Quicktime version of the trailer. [imdb]

Edited 2: Interview with author Steven Gould about his latest book.

A new trailer for His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass. Ian McKellan voices Iorek Byrnison, Christopher Lee makes an appearance, and Stelmaria speaks with Kristin Scott Thomas' wonderful and seductive voice! (I know she doesn't appear in person, but just the thought of KST and Daniel Craig in the same oral space is enough to make me weak.) Also, director/writer Chris Weitz at the HisDarkMaterials.org blog defends his decision to move the last few chapters of The Golden Compass into the script for the sequel, The Subtle Knife. [imdb]

Eric Bana has been cast as the villain in the J.J. Abrams directed Star Trek XI. Already on board are Anton Yelchin, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana and Leonard Nimoy. Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter says that Chris Pine (Just My Luck) is in talks to star as Captain Kirk. Don't know who he is either? Here is a picture. [imdb]

New trailer for Love in the Time of Cholera, directed by Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), based on the novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. [imdb]

Teaser trailer and some (regretably small) stills at Twitch from Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon, a historical martial arts epic directed by Daniel Lee. It features Andy Lau and Maggie Q. The story is based on the classical Chinese novel, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (pinyin: sānguó yǎnyì), set in the period of disunity and turbulence at the end of the Han dynasty. It's a work of fiction that has had as much an influence on the Chinese consciousness as Homer or Shakespeare do in the West. [imdb]

Slate has a slideshow of the history of the vibrator - just the thing after the latest episode of Mad Men!

An international poster for The Golden Age, with thanks to trailer_spot. Directed by Shekhar Kapur, it stars Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush, Samantha Morton and Abbie Cornish. [imdb]

Reps for Abbie Cornish meanwhile have denied those Bond 22 casting rumours. (Moviehole)

The official site for Doug Liman's new film Jumper has been launched. Based on Steven Gould's sci-fi novel about a teenager who discovers that he has the ability to teleport, its cast includes Jaime Bell, Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Samuel L. Jackson, Diane Lane and Tom Hulce. [imdb]

Telegraph has a slideshow of official stills from Joe Wright's adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel, Atonement. Keira Knightley, Romola Garai and James McAvoy star. [imdb]

The cover of the movie-tie-in edition of Philippa Gregory's historical novel The Other Boleyn Girl shows Scarlett Johansson as Mary Boleyn, Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn, and Eric Bana as Henry Tudor. The film is directed by Justin Chadwick (Bleak House), and written by Peter Morgan (The Queen). [imdb]

Clive Owen in Details magazine. (Just Jared)

A must-see video recap of season one of Dexter.

TV Squad has some Dead Like Me movie spoilers.

David Anders has been signed on as a series regular in season two of Heroes.

House is in a minor mess because of the neglect of the last few days, but once that's sorted, tidied and vacuumed, laundry folded, the plants watered and so on, things to do today:

- Make caps Children of Men DVD for film_stills and cap_it
- Wrap presents
- Finish reading The Nikopol Trilogy by Enki Bilal
- Put in orders at Amazon and Abebooks
- Catch up on sleep...hopefully

~

Ocean's 13 poster.

Doug Liman and the cast and crew of Jumper were filming in Rome's Colosseum.

Previously seen stills from The Golden Compass are now at OutNow in high-res.

MaryAnn Johanson (The Flick Filosopher) heralds the Second Coming of Star Wars - otherwise known as Eragon (which Dae and I saw yesterday, by the by, and had as much of a laugh ridiculing it in the cinema as we did during Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven):

"And lo! How it is that Fangmeier found in his quest the second coming of Mark Hamill in Ed Speleers, a paragon of bland blondness and earnest youth. And mark! How it is that Fangmeier, worshipper of the Lucas and stealer of the Lucas’s thunder, found the second coming of Carrie Fisher in Sienna Guillory, a demigoddess of brusque efficiency and royal tediousness. And see! How it is that Fangmeier unblinds our eyes and leads us to know that Jeremy Irons himself is the second coming of Alec Guinness, ripe with mystery and magic and swordfighting practice sessions and not revealing who the hell he really is. And exalt! How it is that Fangmeier prostrates himself before the Lucas by using the Lucas’s own eyes through which to tell us his tale! Verily, if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Fangmeier is the most frank and forthright petitioner of the Lucas’s favor yet."

Coincidentally, Dae was of the strong opinion that Eragon felt like it was a film made in the '80s: the hair, the costuming, the cheese... And maybe in the '80s, it would have been a successful film, even.

Peter Watts has made his new sci-fi novel "Blindsight" available for free online under a Creative Commons licence. (via Grumpy Old Bookman)

You are TIME's Person of the Year... Yes, YOU.

Alan Sepinwall welcomes your thoughts on the first season finale of Dexter:

"At this point, I want to open the floor for two things: opinions on the finale and the season, but also comments from readers of the novel on what the show left out, what it added in, and whether you feel the changes improved the work. I know a few key differences, like the fact that the ITK's identity wasn't revealed until the very end (and that he never tried dating Deb), but not everything."

Robin Hood 1.02: Yes, I'm still watching. It's curiously addictive in its campiness. I also remain amused at the earnest attempts at political commentary in an otherwise lighthearted show. ( example )

~

Two new teaser trailers for Hot Fuzz, a buddy cop comedy from the writers and director of Shaun of the Dead. [Official Site] [imdb]

Hong Kong megastar Andy Lau (House of Flying Daggers) and Asian-American actress Maggie Q (Mission: Impossible III) will star in Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon, a martial arts epic (what else?). The film will be based on the the 600-year-old historical novel, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (not to be confused with "The Return of the King" although their share an acronym) by Luo Guangzhong, which is about the latter years of the Han dynasty when China was divided into three kingdoms: the Wei, Shu and Wu. If you have never heard of this novel, for the sake of comparison, it's like the Shakespeare/Tolkien/Tolstoy of Chinese literary canon. More details about casting at Twitch.

Clips from The Prestige. [imdb]

New international trailer for animated picture, Happy Feet. OutNow also has some high-res stills. [imdb]

Rachel Bilson (OC) has joined the cast of Doug Liman's science fiction flick, Jumper. She replaced Teresa Palmer when the role was reconceived as being a 25-year-old woman rather than a 20-year-old. This is no doubt related to the earlier casting decision to go with the older and more "prominent" Hayden Christensen as the lead instead of Tom Sturridge, who originally had the role. (Coming Soon) [imdb]

Guardian interview with James McAvoy.

Trailer for The Painted Veil, adapted from the W. Somerset Maugham novel and starring Naomi Watts and Edward Norton. So far only available on YouTube. I love the music, which I assume is from the film's score by Alexandre Desplat - it's reminiscent of Williams' Asian-influenced Memoirs of a Geisha score, but I actually like this. (ETA: It's Hans Zimmer, I've now found out.) Thanks to trailer_spot for the link. [imdb]

New projects:

Emotional Arithmetic, a novel by Canadian author Matt Cohen about three detention camp survivors who are all reunited for the first time, fourty years after their bond was forged, is being made into a film. From the site of the Montreal-based production company, BBR: "Emotional Arithmetic probes the intricate possibilities of love and madness and the shadows the past throws upon the present."

Filming with a budget of US $4.8M, Emotional Arithmetic has attracted some very big names, including Susan Sarandon, Gabriel Byrne, and Max von Sydow. They play the central trio: Melanie Winters, middled-aged, beautiful, a mother and a lover; Christopher Lewis, British novelist, whom she met when they were both children interned at Drancy in Paris; and the now-elderly Jakob Bronski, a heroic Russian dissident who's trying to move to Canada. Christopher Plummer and Roy Dupius also star as the husband and son of Sarandon's character. Production is scheduled to begin next month in Quebec. (Dark Horizons)

Films featuring real people that are not based on histrical evidence aren't exactly common. I tried to think of some examples, but realised that both the films I came up with, The Motorcycle Diaries and Beat, were based roughly on real events in the lives of Che Guevara and William S. Burroughs, respectively. Interpretation of Murder, a bestselling crime thriller by Jed Rubenfeld, features the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud and his protégé Carl Jung, speculating what occurred during their 1909 visit to New York. The film rights to the novel have been picked up by Warner Bros. (Dark Horizons) [Official Book Site]

Mark Burnett, executive producer of the reality TV show Survivor, has joined everybody else it seems in the rush to buy the film rights to every children's fantasy series in existence. In his case, it's The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, by author Michael Scott. Set in 21st century San Francisco, the books feature the immortal character Flamel as well as "Sophie and Josh Newman, a pair of teenage fraternal twins who find themselves caught up in an age-old battle between good and evil." (Dark Horizons)

~

Misc:

Kristen Bell dressed as Princess Leia? See stills from the movie Fanboys here. [imdb]

Doug Liman's Jumper might become a trilogy, says producers. (Dark Horizons) [imdb]

New trailer for Mel Gibson's bloody Apocalypto.

Part one of an interview with Jamie Callis (Gaius Baltar) hints at some interesting developments in season 3 of Battlestar Galactica between his character and the cylon number 3, played by Lucy Lawless.

Two new teasers for the super-cute Happy Feet. You know. That dancing penguins movie. Check out especially the one called "Baby Mumble". [imdb]

Profile of Irish actor Cillian Murphy in The Australian.

Twitch has a synopsis and some neat looking stills from Alex van Warmerdam new black comedy Waiter (Ober). The film will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. (Official Site) [imdb]

Interesting cast announcement for Doug Liman's Jumper. Hayden Christensen, who was rumoured to have been cast for an unknown part a while back, has been confirmed in - get this - the lead role, replacing the young Brit Tom Sturridge. Apparently they wanted a more "prominent" actor for the part. Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie Bell and Teresa Palmer remain with the production. (Dark Horizons) [imdb]

Producer Chuck Roven talked a little in an interview with Superhero Hype about Nolan's Batman Begins sequel, The Dark Knight. He says about Heath Ledger: "He's just a brilliant, brilliant actor and you know this Joker is a very interesting dark fellow." He doesn't say who in the supporting cast will be returning, adding that it will depend on "everybody's schedules". The screenplay is still in the process of being written. [imdb]

Senses of Cinema: Miyazaki's Heroines
Freda Freiberg

Most Miyazaki heroines are classical shojo in their age, cuteness, love of animals and pets, and sexual innocence. However, as Susan Napier argues, they are also endowed with the characteristics of the conventional masculine hero: they are active, assertive, adventurous and courageous. Some – notably Nausicaä and San – are crusading heroines, fighting the evils of environmental destruction, capitalism and militarism, supporting the victims of aggression and confronting the perpetrators.

New stills from Tom Tykwer's Das Parfum at OutNow! OH GOD. *dies* [imdb]

Click for high-res.



( SPAM )

A Great and Terrible Beauty

Following on the backs of Harry Potter and His Dark Materials, another young adult series is going to be adapted for film. The series is by Libba Bray, and I've never heard of it until today, but it's about a group of girls at a prestigious boarding school, set in Victorian England and India - and it seems to be something like a cross between Hex and A Little Princess. Very interesting! The first book is called "A Great and Terrible Beauty":

"Gemma Doyle, sixteen and proud, must leave the warmth of her childhood home in India for the rigid Spence Academy, a cold finishing school outside of London, followed by a stranger who bears puzzling warnings. Using her sharp tongue and agile mind, she navigates the stormy seas of friendship with high-born daughters and her roommate, a plain scholarship case. As Gemma discovers that her mother's death may have an otherworldly cause, and that she herself may have innate powers, Gemma is forced to face her own frightening, yet exciting destiny . . . if only she can believe in it..." --Official Site

"A Great and Terrible Beauty is a stunning first novel about the repression and rigid caste system of the Victorian era, growing up, and learning about the power of the choices that we make in our lives. There certainly are gothic elements in the story, but there is also magic, humor and deep emotion." --Writers Write

“A delicious, elegant gothic.” —Publishers Weekly

“Shivery with both passion and terror.” —Kirkus Reviews

The sequel is "Rebel Angels". Not something you'd expect Mel Gibson to be producing, but there you have it. (If you're somewhat paranoid, like me, you might take that as a bad sign.) Gibson has optioned the rights for the trilogy by Libba Bray (book three is due out next year) and enlisted Charles Sturridge to direct. Sturridge has made some unremarkable movies, but rather good stuff for television, including Shackleton and Brideshead Revisted starring Jeremy Irons.

This is an interesting interview with the author, and I point the next section out for floweringjudas and slasheuse because of that conversation on boarding school lit we had, which makes me wonder about possible lesbian subtext in the trilogy: ( Read more... )

~

OMG Comic-Con floodage:

Spidey 3 character posters revealed at Comic-Com. Tell me that isn't Bryce Dallas Howard?! (Ain't It Cool News)

The J. J. Abrams Star Trek movie is real. Here's the teaser poster.

Samuel L. Jackson talks about Doug Liman's Jumper, and reveals that Hayden Christensen might be joining the cast (already featuring Tom Sturridge, Jamie Bell and Teresa Palmer). (Coming Soon)

Quint (Ain't It Cool News) interviews Zack Snyder about his comic-film adaptations, 300 (Frank Miller) and Watchmen (Alan Moore). JoBlo has some 300 Comic-Con posters.

The second season of HBO's Rome, premiering early next year, will also be its last.

( THERE IS MORE *dies* )

Those of you who watch Entourage: ( er. spoilers, if anybody cares )

~

Lyrical, stinging PotC fic, from orange_crushed: "Fair Night and Faraway" and its sequel, "Rising Sign". Jack/Elizabeth, with spoilers for DMC. Orange loves these characters - flaws, ruthlessness, lack of bodily hygiene and all - and makes you love them too.

There are layers to a heart; this is how it's meant to be, how we survive to take a second breath, a third, up from underwater. The chambered nautilus that draws our blood through veins and pumps and bilges and boots it out again; has a manner of unfolding that hides what should stay hidden, and lets the rest make tired rounds under the skin.

~

New:

For so_spiffed: Trailer for Crank, starring Jason Statham.

The Prestige trailer footage from Entertainment Tonight. Our first glimpse of video from Christopher Nolan's new film, and it's DARK and there is so much PERIOD COSTUME PRETTY! So go check out Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman.

Ain't It Cool News has a look behind the scenes of the set of Matthew Vaughn's Stardust. There's a fairly good quality still showing Lamia (played by Michelle Pfeiffer). Neil Gaiman has recently seen the half-hour reel and reassures us that it's all looking good so far. [imdb]

Picture of Chow Yun-Fat in costume on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean: World's End. (CHUD)

Get your male or female pirate name. Mine is "Geedunk Erin". (Sounds like some sort of Scottish drinking game.)

Cillian Murphy and Lucy Liu will star in Watching the Detectives, a romantic-comedy, but with a comic noir element (like Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang perhaps?). I really can't picture the two of them together though, at all. But then, Cillian can have chemistry with a hessian sack, so I'm sure he's up to the challenge. Paul Soter, who wrote the script as well as that for Club Dread, will be making his directorial debut. (Moviehole) [imdb]

Ron Howard (director of The Da Vinci Code, but also, to be fair, of The Missing) might be making Arrested Development into a film. Howard is one of the show's many, many producers. (Dark Horizons)

Samuel L. Jackson joins the cast of Doug Liman's Jumper, about a boy who discovers he has the ability to teleport. The film stars also Jamie Bell, Tom Sturridge, and Theresa Palmer. (Moviehole) [imdb]