Jack Huston Leaves The Crow

Director Corin Hardy needs a new Eric Draven

Is The Crow following a one in, one out policy? Because just a couple of hours after the news broke that Forest Whitaker is in talks to join the cast of the new Crow film, Variety reveals that leading man Jack Huston has had to leave the film even as pre-production continues.

It’s just another blow for a project that has been a revolving door of scripts, directors and leading men. Luke Evans was attached for a while, but Huston, best known for Boardwalk Empire, American Hustle and Kill Your Darlings, was cast to replace him in March and now has to drop out because of scheduling issues.  “Jack Huston is unfortunately unavailable to continue with us on The Crow,” Hardy says in a statement. “The Crow is an amazing project, and I am grateful that we have the time and patience to get it right. We look forward to unveiling our new lead and starting to film over the next several weeks.”

Relativity Studios, which is backing the new film, also seemed upbeat about the departure and the future of the movie itself. “Jack is a remarkably gifted actor, and we look forward to working with him in the future,” the studio said. “Corin Hardy has a tremendous vision for The Crow, and we are working closely with him to continue prepping the movie and supporting him as he brings his vision to the big screen.” 

Hardy is working to adapt James O’Barr’s gothic graphic novel, which sees Draven as a musician murdered by criminals before being brought back from the land of the dead by a mysterious, mystical crow to get revenge against those who wronged him and his fiancée. Alex Proyas brought the story to the screen in 1994, but the new film reportedly hews even closer to O’Barr’s story while making some changes such as having Andrea Riseborough play the villainous Top Dollar. Pre-production is underway in Wales and the studio was hoping to have the movie ready for next year. With luck, Hardy will still be able to keep things on track. 

Huston will next be seen in Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Longest Ride, which hits the UK on Friday. He also has Pride And Prejudice And Zombies (February 19, 2016) and the new take on Ben Hur (March 11, 2016) on the way.

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13 Minutes Trailer Arrives Online

Downfall's Oliver Hirschbiegel returns to World War II

Having won major attention – including an Oscar nomination – with his 2004 look at the latter days of Adolf Hitler in the meme-spawning Downfall, Oliver Hirschbiegel tried his hand at Hollywood with the unsuccessful likes of The Invasion and Diana. Now he’s back in a Hitler-adjacent story for World War II drama 13 Minutes, which has a trailer online. 

The film explores the compelling true-life story of Georg Elser (played here by Christian Friedel), a German carpenter who had spent most of his life largely eschewing politics. But, sickened by what he had seen of the Nazi regime and its treatment of his fellow countrymen and others, he swore to assassinate Hitler, carefully working on a bomb plot for a Nazi convention in Munich in 1939. 

We obviously – historical spoiler alert! – know that his attempt failed, but the drama’s real interest is in looking at why a man who had shown so little interest in politics would be driven to such lengths, and the consequences that came his way when he was caught. 

With Katharine Schüttler, Burghart Klaußner and Johann von Bülow also in the cast, 13 Minutes will arrive in the UK on July 17 and is initially scheduled to screen exclusively in Picturehouse Cinemas before a more general release on July 24. 

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Here's Why It's Better That Game of Thrones Goes Off-Book Next Season

[WARNING: The following contains spoilers from Game of Thrones' first five seasons. Read at your own risk!]

Even before Game of Thrones aired its first episode, the existing fan base created by author George R.R. Martin's books felt an excitement beyond the promise of finally seeing their favorite

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• Game of Thrones

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Norman Bates Will Creep You Out for Two More Seasons!

A&E has ordered two more seasons of Bates Motel, the network announced Monday.

"The vision of our incredible creative team has exposed the steady breakdown of the relationship between Norman and Norma Bates," A&E and Lifetime's Executive Vice President and General Manager Rob Sharenow said in a

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• Bates Motel
• The Returned

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Katherine Waterston Joins Fantastic Beasts

From Inherent Vice to magical life

She sizzled and stole scenes in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice earlier this year, and the role won her plenty of attention from other filmmakers. She’s now joining the cast of Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. 

Regular Potter director David Yates is launching what Warners already plans as a new trilogy, adapted by J.K. Rowling herself from her book. Eddie Redmayne is starring as Newt Scamander, who plies his trade as a magizoologist around the world, and visits New York in the first adventure. The story takes place roughly 70 years before Harry and the rest have their tangle with the dark forces of Voldemort.

Waterston has scored the plum role of a witch named Tina, AKA Porpentina, who works in the States. Yates is still looking to lock several other main roles including Queenie, Tina’s younger sister and Jacob, one of Newt’s rivals. The movie will be out here on November 18 next year. As for Waterston, she’ll next be seen in Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs, with the film about the Apple man headed to the UK on November 13. 

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Rupert Wyatt Will Direct Gambit

The Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes man goes superheroic

Given that it had a pre-assigned release date set for next year, 20th Century Fox’s latest stab at bringing X-Men hero Gambit to the screen needed to start moving quickly. With Channing Tatum long since attached in the lead, the film has now zeroed in on a director with The Gambler’s Rupert Wyatt on board.

Wyatt, who has a little bit of experience marshalling spectacle and special effects thanks to his work on Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, is the man Fox feels can best handle the story of the New Orleans mutant gambler and rogue (small “r”, though he has a long and slightly creepy romantic history with Rogue herself) who can throw playing cards as weapons while generate and expertly manipulating kinetic energy.

Josh Zetumer has written the script for the stand-alone adventure, though there’s a chance Gambit may turn up in X-Men: Apocalypse, even if it’s just in a post-credit sequence. Which we’d like to see, if only for Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool to show up and complain that he didn’t get a shot at such a sequence. Gambit is set to arrive in cinemas both here and Stateside on October 7 next year. 

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Forest Whitaker Ready For Star Wars: Rogue One

And he may also be part of the Crow remake

Forest Whitaker has made occasional trips into science fiction and fantasy in his career, but it seems he’s ready to make the biggest leap yet. The actor is in talks to join both the remake of The Crow and Star Wars: Rogue One.

Let’s start with the Star Wars film, or to give it its full title, Star Wars Anthologies: Rogue One. With Gareth Edwards directing, the focus is on the time before the events of Star Wars itself, AKA A New Hope. Felicity Jones, Riz Ahmed and Diego Luna are all part of a rag-tag rebel squad looking to heist the plans for the original Death Star. Ben Mendelsohn, meanwhile, is aboard as a villain in some capacity. And Whitaker? That’s still being kept behind the movie’s defensive deflector shields for now. 

And then there’s The Crow, which has Corin Hardy attempting a new adaptation of James O’Barr’s tragic graphic novel about a rocker (Jack Huston), who is killed by thugs and returned from the dead by a supernatural force to seek vengeance. Andrea Riseborough is attached as the villainous Top Dollar, but it’s not yet known whether Whitaker will be on the side of good or bad. According to Variety, it appears he’ll work on The Crow before he heads to the galaxy far, far away. 

Whitaker is at work on Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi drama The Story Of Your Life right now, and has boxing drama Southpaw due here on July 24. 

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