Trailer Time: True Detectives Season 1 (2014) New HBO Drama

Any new series from HBO is worth taking note of, and this one has some serious star power.  The first trailer for True Detectives aired this past Sunday with Boardwalk Empire.  The series will debut in January 2014.

True Detective” is written by Nic Pizzolatto and directed by Cary Fukunaga. It centers on two detectives, Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Martin Hart (Woody Harrelson), whose lives collide and entwine during a seventeen-year hunt for a serial killer in Louisiana. The investigation of a bizarre murder in 1995 is framed and interlaced with testimony from the detectives in 2012, when the case has been reopened.

Is Cumberbatch in Star Wars Episode VII or Not? Whither Darth Khan-Smaug?

So is Benedict Cumberbatch going to become a nerd god by playing Sherlock Holmes, Smaug, Khan Noonian Singh AND a Sith?  Yes, no, yes, no; depending on whom you talk to, but someone finally managed to ask the good Mr. Cumberbatch what’s going on.  He has dropped out of Guillermo del Toro‘s Crimson Peak (in which he was replaced by Loki, sorry, Tom Hiddleston) and he has also been mentioned in connection with the adaptation of the non-fiction book The Lost City of Z which had previously been a Brad Pitt vehicle.  

The London Telegraph cornered him at the Toronto Film Festival and he said,

“This is the simple truth. J.J. and I have worked together before. I would love to work with him again. No offer has been made. That is that. And that is that.”

“Of course I’d love to do Star Wars and work with JJ Abrams again because we had such a good time on Star Trek. But nobody has been cast and there are no offers out to anyone apart from the regulars who are returning. So that’s that rumour quashed…We’ll have to wait and see.”

Geek Tyrant had the rest of the interview and summarized: It seems the guy knows what going on with the film, confirming that Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher will be coming back to reprise their roles. He also confirms that no one else has officially been cast. It certainly sounds like he’s in the mix of things, and there’s no doubt that he’s had discussions with Disney, Lucasfilm, and Abrams. He never says “No, I’m not going to be in Star Wars.” He just beats around the bush and says we’ll have to wait and see, which tells me the possibility is there, even if no official offer has been made yet.

If I had to guess, I’d say he’s still in the mix.  His response was certainly not the denial from his people early last week.  This needs to happen.  I want Darth Khan-Smaug channeling the Dark Side of The Force for several episodes.  Close the deal, Disney!

 

Thor the Dark World Gets an International Banner and Loki a New Character Poster (also Tom Hiddleston on the reshoots)

Tom Hiddleston‘s Loki got a new character poster today and the movie an international banner as the parade of Thor images continues. Hiddleston also talked with The Huffington Post regarding the reshoots that were done earlier this summer:

“We were adding new stuff. So that was fun for me. And some of the things were scenes I’d actually pitched for a long time ago….The thing about Kevin Feige is he’s very, very open and collaborative. And he and Louis D’Esposito, who run the studio — I find it very admirable that they’re open to ideas…Chris Hemsworth and myself have lived inside these characters for two movies now and we’ve been inside every scene and we know what works and we know what doesn’t works. And also, we know what we’ve done and what we shouldn’t try to repeat. Because that was the great sort of fire underneath myself was not wanting to take anything for granted or just put the old recipe in the microwave, you know? And try and find new things for the characters to do — new iterations of the relationship between Thor and Loki. And Kevin was really open to that. I remember as we were conceiving of the shape of the film, Kevin and [director] Alan Taylor were really open to it, especially because they always talk about the connective aspect of the Marvel universal.”

It’s awesome to hear actors talking this way about roles that were dismissed as kiddie fare twenty years ago.  Loki and Thor have a very nuanced relationship scarred by mistrust, jealousy, betrayal and-yes-still fraternal love.  The two of them do it beautifully and more Loki in the film is not a bad thing at all.  Thor the Dark World opens November 8, 2013.

 

Jurassic Park 4 is “Jurassic World”; Release Date Confirmed; Spielberg Producing

Universal Pictures today announced that “Jurassic Park 4” has been retitled Jurassic World and that the film will be released in 3D on Friday, June 12, 2015.

Steven Spielberg returns to produce the long-awaited next installment of his groundbreaking “Jurassic Park” series. Colin Trevorrow directs the epic action-adventure from a draft of the screenplay he wrote with Derek Connolly. Frank Marshall and Pat Crowley join the team as fellow producers.

Jurassic World will be shot in 3D.

That’s straight from Universal’s press release. Rumors of the film’s plot had an amusement park located on Isla Nublar (the original island). Perhaps that’s Jurassic World? Spielberg producing is nothing. He produces 10 films a year. This is all on Tereverrow. I’d love to see dinosaurs be awesome again!