International trailer for The Young Victoria starring Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany, and Jim Broadbent. From director Jean-Marc Vallée and writer Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park), a dramatization of the turbulent first years of Queen Victoria's (Blunt) rule, and her enduring romance with Prince Albert (Friend). [imdb]

Peter Weir's (Master and Commander, The Truman Show) next film, The Way Back has brought on board Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess and Saoirse Ronan (Atonement). They are in final negotiations to star in the fact-based story of a group of soldiers who engineered a grueling escape from a Siberian gulag in 1942. The film is based on the memoir by Slavomir Rawicz. Farrell plays a tough, tattooed Russian; Harris an American; and Sturgess portrays a young Polish inmate. Ronan will play a Russian on the run who meets up with the fugitives. (Coming Soon) [imdb]

Kristin Scott Thomas has joined the cast of the John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy, directed by visual artist Sam Taylor-Wood. Aaron Johnson (Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging) will play the young Lennon while Anne-Marie Duff (Shameless) will play his mother. (THR)

Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell are in talks to star as villains Whiplash and Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2. (THR)

International trailer for Kathryn Bigelow's action thriller The Hurt Locker, featuring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes. [imdb]

Being Human cast interviews. Now this is more like it. Not sure what Mitchell's doing in a bright yellow t-shirt though.

From the AMC press tour: Mad Men is getting a third season and will be back next summer; The Prisoner reimagining, starring Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellan, will premiere in November. (via Alan Sepinwall)

5 seasons of The Wire in a 5-minute rap.

Photos (here, here and here) from the period drama The Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Miranda Richardson, Paul Bettany, Thomas Kretschmann, Mark Strong, and Jim Broadbent. [imdb]

The finale Twilight poster.

Gregor Jordan, who directed that subversive black comedy about U.S. soldiers in West Berlin, Buffalo Soldiers, will helm the suspense thriller Unthinkable, starring Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Sheen, Carrie-Anne Moss, Brandon Routh, Gil Bellows, and Martin Donovan. (THR) [imdb]

Ridley Scott confirms that he is making a film based on Aldous Huxley's classic novel Brave New World with Leonardo DiCaprio. (io9)

Quantum of Solace spoilers in the Daily Mail! I have to say, I had my doubts about Gemma Arterton, who plays a Bond girl in the new film, at first. (Especially when she starting getting a reputation as a plot blabbermouth.) But after seeing Lost in Austen and the new Tess of the D'Urbervilles, she's really impressed me with her range.

Sons of Anarchy has been picked up for a second season. (THR)

Entourage has also been renewed. (THR)

Jace at Televisionary previews the new pilot for the American remake of Life on Mars.

A Catherine Weaver scene from a future episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Also, some spoilery pictures from 2x08 of Derek Reese and ( *spoiler* )

Have just finished K. J. Bishop's The Etched City - definitely the coolest and most mindmeltingly gorgeous novel in any genre I've read in a while. ( Read more... )

One of the (many, many) films I saw when I was in Shanghai over the Xmas/New Year's break was Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's documentary Nanking. It told the story of the 1937 rape of Nanking after it fell to Japanese invading troops, and the attempts by the some Americans, British and Germans living in Nanking, protected by their "Westernness", to set up a safe zone for the Chinese who could not afford to get out of the city. One of the most interesting figures to came to light in the documentary was the John Rabe, a German businessman and Nazi, who saved some 200,000 Chinese from being slaughtered.

A biopic about Rabe, written and directed by Florian Gallenberger, is one of several upcoming films about the Nanking massacre. (Others include Simon West's The Rape of Nanking and Chuan Lu's Nanking Nanking.) Currently in post-production, it stars Ulrich Tukur (The Lives of Others) as the title character John Rabe, Daniel Brühl as Georg Rosen, an employee at the German embassy in Nanking. Steve Buscemi plays Robert Wilson, an American doctor who, along with Rabe and Minnie Vautrin, was instrumental in setting up the Nanking Safety Zone. Some official stills from the film at the Shanghaiist. [imdb]

Pictures from The Young Victoria, a film about the turbulent early year of Queen Victoria's rule. It stars Emily Blunt as Victoria, Rupert Friend as Prince Albert, Miranda Richardson as the Duchess of Kent, Paul Bettany as Lord Melbourne, Jim Broadbent as King William, and Thomas Kretschmann as Victoria's uncle, King Leopold of Belgium. [imdb]

Jeremy Irons will guest star as the Patrician in the two-part TV adaptation of Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic, according to the Mirror. [imdb]

Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) has joined the cast of Paul Greengrass' Green Zone, based on the nonfiction book Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, about Iraq right after the American invasion. Isaacs will play an American military officer. Matt Damon stars as an investigator searching for weapons of mass destruction, Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) as a foreign correspondent from the NYT, and Greg Kinnear makes an appearance as a CIA agent. (Variety) [imdb]

Neve Campbell will play a Venetian courtesan in Vivaldi, a film about the famous baroque composer. The film stars Joseph Fiennes as Antonio Vivaldi, as well as Malcolm McDowell, Gérard Depardieu, Jacqueline Bisset, and Carice van Houten. (Variety) [imdb]

Rose Byrne will star opposite Nicholas Cage in the sci-fi thriller, Knowing. She plays the daughter of a woman who in 1962 buried a time capsule containing predictions about events that will take place in the future, including a world apocalypse. Cage plays a teacher who unearths the time capsule decades later at his son's elementary school. (Hollywood Reporter) [imdb]

And meta to come on the Sarah Connor Chronicles season finale... Probably tomorrow, when I've seen it.

Paul Bettany and Thomas Kretschmann have joined the cast of The Young Victoria, a film about the turbulent early rule of Queen Victoria (Emily Blunt), and her romance with Prince Albert (Rupert Friend). Kretschmann will play Victoria's uncle, King Leopold of Belgium, and Bettany will play the young ruler's chief advisor, Lord Melbourne. (Hollywood Reporter) [imdb]

A very different but equally evocative Chinese poster for Ang Lee's Lust, Caution. (The international poster is here.) [imdb]

Nicole Kidman and Ralph Fiennes will star in an adaptation of an award-winning novel by German law professor Bernhard Schlink. With adapted screenplay by David Hare and directed by Stephen Daldry, The Reader is set in postwar German and centers on Michael Berg, who is 15 years old when he begins a long, obsessive affair with Hanna, an enigmatic older woman. He never learns much about her, and when she disappears one day, he expects never to see her again. But to his horror, he discovers that she is a defendant in a Nazi war crimes trial, and it soon becomes clear that she is guilty of an unspeakable crime. Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack and Scott Rudin are producers. (Hollywood Reporter) [imdb]

Trailer for the period drama Silk, based on the novella by Alessandro Baricco, about a married silkworm merchant-turned-smuggler in 19th century France travelling to Japan for his town's supply of silkworms after a disease wipes out their African supply. During his stay in Japan, he becomes obsessed with the concubine of a local baron. Directed by François Girard (The Red Violin) and starring Michael Pitt, Keira Knightley, Alfred Molina, Kôji Yakusho, Callum Keith Rennie, Miki Nakatani and Mark Rendall. [imdb]

SuperheroHype has an interview with the writers of Wanted, Michael Brandt and Derek Haas. What fascinated me was to learn that the screenwriters had been hired to write the film when only the first issue of Mark Miller's comic had come out. Also encouraging is that everyone - writers and execs - seems determined to keep the material R-rated. Wanted is currented being filmed, with Timur Bekmambetov (Day Watch, Night Watch) directing, and a cast including James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and Terence Stamp. [imdb]

HBO has renewed Entourage and Flight of the Conchords. (Coming Soon)

Teaser trailer for P2, a horror thriller starring Rachel Nichols (Alias) and Wes Bentley (American Beauty). [imdb]

International trailer and a clip from 3:10 to Yuma.

Teaser trailer for Harold & Kumar 2 (aka Harold & Kumar Go to Amsterdam). Sequel to Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, the film follows the cross-country adventures of the pot-smoking duo (John Cho and Kal Penn) as they try to outrun authorities who suspect them of being terrorists when they try to sneak a bong on board their flight to Amsterdam. Paula Garcés and Neil Patrick Harris also star. [imdb]

Trailer for the fantasy adventure Enchanted, starring Amy Adams, James Marsden, Patrick Dempsey, Susan Sarandon and Timothy Spall. Adams plays a storybook princess who has been banished by an evil queen (Sarandon) to...Manhattan?

"Shocked by this strange new environment that doesn't operate on a 'happily ever after' basis, Giselle is now adrift in a chaotic world badly in need of enchantment. But when Giselle begins to fall in love with a charmingly flawed divorce lawyer (Dempsey) who has come to her aid -- even though she is already promised to a perfect fairy tale prince (Marsden) back home -- she has to wonder: can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world?"

You know, I had serious doubts about this film (too many terrible teen movies about princesses, I guess), but from the looks of the trailer, the very talented cast somehow has managed to pull it off. [official site] [imdb]

TheMovieBox links to several clips, interviews and a behind-the-scenes video for Control, Anton Corbijn's film about Joy Division's singer Ian Curtis. [imdb]

The evocative poster for Ang Lee's Chinese-language espionage thriller, Lust, Caution. [imdb]

James Marsters (Angel) talks a bit about his upcoming guest spot on the British sci-fi show Torchwood. (SyFy Portal)

Rupert Friend (Pride & Prejudice) has been cast opposite Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada) in the historical drama, The Young Victoria. He'll play Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria (Blunt). (Coming Soon) [imdb]

Sex and the City the film will begin filming this autumn. The lead actresses from the groundbreaking HBO show - Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon - will reprise their roles. (Guardian Unlimited)

Christine Fischer Guy interviews author Guy Gavriel Kay for Bookninja. [mp3]

I've been reluctant to pick up any books by an unfamiliar crime author in the last couple of years, but I've been hearing a lot of good things about local novelist Peter Temple that makes me think again. His "The Broken Shore" has just won best crime novel of the year at the CWA Duncan Lawrie Awards for Crime Writing.

Golden Globe winner Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, My Summer of Love) will play Queen Victoria in The Young Victoria. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and written by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park), the film will chronicle the turbulent early years of her reign (which lasted from 1837 to 1901) and her romance with Prince Albert, whom she married in 1840. (Coming Soon)

Jet Li is in negotiations to play the villain in Mummy 3, which will be directed by Rob Cohen (Stealth). (Hollywood Reporter) [imdb]

Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) has been cast in Fox's new sci-fi drama Them, which is based on Michael Oeming and Daniel Berman's graphic novel Six about a sleeper cell of extraterristrial terrorists. She joins James D'Arcy (Master and Commander), Rachel Nichols (Alias), Ben Feldman and Reg Rogers. The hour-long series is directed/executive produced by Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3), and written by Battlestar's David Eick and John McNamara of Profit. (TV Guide) [imdb]

The fourth season of Battlestar Galactica - which may be its last - has been picked up for 22 episodes. During the between-seasons hiatus, SCI-FI channel will air a two-hour extended event that will lead into the new season, which premieres early 2008. (Dark Horizons)

Trailer for the Russian fantasy-horror epic, Day Watch.

Director of Children of Men (and my own personal hero), Alfonso Cuaron, answers fans' questions at CHUD as part of the Global Fan Summit.

More hi-res stills for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End have been added to the gallery at OutNow.

Guardian talks to Danny Boyle, director of Trainspotting and the upcoming Sunshine:

Scientists may scoff at Sunshine's most bonkers bits and may also feel that Murphy is too young (he's 30) and good-looking to save the world. Boyle will have none of it. Take Cox, he says. He is a proper scientist "who is very handsome and used to be in D:Ream. He's one of the backing musicians on Things Can Only Get Better. And he looks like Cillian."

The Couriers, a graphic novel series by Brian Wood and Rob G., following the adventures of two mercenary couriers who handle big money exchanges and assassination gigs in a futuristic version of New York City, is brought to the big screen. The books are known to be heavily influenced by Hong Kong action cinema. Emmy-winning writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Lost, Jake 2.0) will be adapting them for the film. (Cinematical)

Ian McShane (Deadwood) has joined the cast of fantasy film The Dark is Rising as Merriman Lyon, mentor to the hero, Will Stanton, played by Alexander Ludwig. It is based on the novel by Susan Cooper, and directed by David L. Cunningham. Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under) will also star. (Variety) [imdb]

Ben Stiller and Tom Cruise are - oh kill me now - The Hardy Men. (Coming Soon)

Dark Horizons interviews James McAvoy, whose upcoming films include the Austen biopic Becoming Jane, the Ian McEwan adaptation Atonement, and Wanted, based on the Marvel comic book.

What's this Bionic Woman TV series remake that David Eick and Laeta Kalogridis are executive producing/writing for NBC? I suppose I would know more if I were any kinds of knowledgeable about the original '70s series, or a bigger science fiction geek than I obviously am (for Shame). The project has however nabbed British actress Michelle Ryan to play Jamie Sommers aka The Bionic Woman - so, kudos for casting outside the box.

Julian Fellowes, Oscar-winning screenwriter of Robert Altman's Gosford Park, will be collaborating with another legendary American director, Martin Scorsese, in a period film about the early years of Queen Victoria's reign, titled The Young Victoria. (Guardian)

Gary Kemble at ABC.net interviews novelist and fantasist Terry Pratchett:

"If they make a picture that's better than the book, that's great. If they make a picture that's as good as the book, that's great. If they make a picture that isn't as good as the book, everyone will say, well it's not as good as the book, so the book's okay," he said.