Taron Egerton Could Be Headed To Sherwood Forest

For Robin Hood: Origins

A new take on the Robin Hood legend has various studios in an arms race to fling a movie into cinemas first. In this case, it’s with bows and arrows, and Lionsgate is pulling ahead. Kingsman: The Secret Service’s Taron Egerton is the man the studio wants in Lincoln Green, and early talks have started.

Deadline cautions that “early” is the key word here, and both sides are nowhere close to a deal. But should he finally spill ink on a contract, Egerton will be playing a take on Sherwood Forest’s finest outlaw in a film scripted originally by Knights Of The Round Table: King Arthur writer Joby Harold, who has pumped out a story that purports to show how the title character returns from the Crusades to discover Sherwood Forest and the surrounding area teeming with corruption and crime. So he forms a group of outlaws and becomes a force for good. 

Peaky Blinders/Luthor veteran Otto Bathurst is the man charged with the tough task of making this distinct from the many previous trips to the Hood. Lionsgate is promising this will be a “gritty reboot” but we’ll wait and see for now.

Egerton has been in demand since his breakout with Kingsman. He’ll next be seen in Legend with Tom Hardy (due September 11) and ski jump sports biopic Eddie The Eagle, which has a reported US release date of April 29, but no confirmed UK slot yet. 

Source Empire News http://ift.tt/1M97UPZ

Read More

Angelina Jolie And Brad Pitt Spar In The First By The Sea Trailer

Couple retreats

The last time Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Pitt sparred on screen, it was as married assassins in Mr. And Mrs. Smith. Don’t expect many explosions in their latest joint venture, unless you mean of the emotional kind. Here’s the teaser trailer for By The Sea.

Written and directed by Jolie Pitt, this is much more of an intimate drama, a throwback to 1970s films set in the era itself, and finds Vanessa (Jolie Pitt), a former dancer, and her husband Roland, an American writer, travelling the French countryside together. They seem to be growing apart, but when they linger in one quiet, seaside town they begin to draw close to some of its more vibrant inhabitants, such as a local bar/café-keeper and a hotel owner. Obviously there are issues to be worked out here, and from the looks of this, there will be tears, if not blood.

The tone is clear in this one, with Jolie Pitt spotlighting the couple’s interaction and just a glimpse in this initial peek at the film of supporting characters played by Mélanie Laurent, Melvil Poupaud, Niels Arestrup and Richard Bohringer. By The Sea arrives in the US this November before making it to UK shores on December 11. 

Source Empire News http://ift.tt/1MdFgim

Read More

Samuel L. Jackson And Tom Wilkinson May Voyage To Kong: Skull Island

John C. Reilly also in the mix for a role

After losing Michael Keaton and J.K. Simmons to scheduling clashes last month, Legendary/Universal and Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts are moving quickly to secure replacements. The filmmakers are now trying to lock in Samuel L. Jackson, John C. Reilly and Tom Wilkinson to join the cast.

Wilkinson appears to be the one closest to committing – according to Deadline, he has an offer on the table and may end up signing on to the adventure film. As for Jackson, he’s in early talks to take on the role that Simmons was to have played, but there’s no firm negotiations yet. And Reilly? He’s sitting atop the wish list of people being sought to take on Keaton’s vacated part.

If they do all actually join the film, they’ll be part of a cast that includes Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson and the recently cast Corey Hawkins. The film, written in various different drafts by Max Borenstein, John Gatins and Dan Gilroy, finds explorers heading to the fog-shrouded, mysterious titular island, home to the world’s biggest, angriest ape and a whole host of other creatures. As they venture deeper within the place, they encounter yet more surprises. All being well, the film will roar on to our screens on March 10, 2017.

Source Empire News http://ift.tt/1MdFhmo

Read More

Aaron Taylor-Johnson And Michael Shannon On For Nocturnal Animals

They're joining Jake Gyllenhaal in Tom Ford's latest

Tom Ford, who is gearing up to make Nocturnal Animals, the follow up to his debut A Single Man, already has Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams in the cast. Now he’s adding Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Michael Shannon to the mix.

Ford based his script on Austin Wright’s 1993 novel Tony And Susan. Split into two chunks, one part of plot follows a woman (Adams), who receives a book manuscript and a note asking for her opinion on it, sent by her ex-husband, who she left 20 years before. In the other, Gyllenhaal plays a man whose family holiday turns violent.

Taylor-Johnson is aboard to play a mysterious man who may pose a threat to Gyllenhaal’s family, while Shannon will be the detective who investigates the incident. Focus Features is backing the film, which Ford is looking to have on screens next year. 

Taylor-Johnson, last seen in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, will make Ford’s film as his next job. Shannon, meanwhile, is much busier, with 99 Homes, Freeheld, Wolves, Midnight Special and Elvis & Nixon just some of the films he has due out. He’s also set to work on The Price and State Like Sleep. 

Source Empire News http://ift.tt/1UrtRN4

Read More

New Trailer For The Last Witch Hunter

Vin Diesel's war on Witch mass

Do you know what it’s like to live forever? You may not, but Vin Diesel certainly does. At least in The Last Witch Hunter, which has just released its full trailer.

The movie, directed by Breck Eisner, finds Diesel as an immortal warrior who ends up in present-day New York having to face down a powerful witch queen intent on unleashing a terrible plague that could wipe out the human race.

His chief ally in the fight, however, is a female witch (Game Of Thrones’ Rose Leslie), who teams up with him to help take down the rising evil. We get a little more background on Leslie in particular here, with the revelation that she’s a “Dream Walker” who can cross between our world and the magical realm of the witches, a handy talent that Diesel’s Kaulder must exploit to put a stop to the queen’s dastardly plan. There’s just one small catch – like The Matrix and Inception, if you die in the dream realm, you die in real life too. Cue this guy.

Wood, meanwhile, plays a young priest who is sworn to help Diesel in his struggle, with Julie Engelbrecht as the main villain and Michael Caine and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson aboard. Diesel, with typical bravado, is already talking up the idea of a sequel, but the film will have to perform first. Life’s a witch in the UK from October 23. 

Source Empire News http://ift.tt/1UrtT7E

Read More

Steven Spielberg Confirms Ready Player One

And takes aim at a 2017 release slot

Steven Spielberg is in one of his periods of high activity. Even as he was putting the finishing touches to Cold War thriller Bridge Of Spies, he was preparing to shoot Roald Dahl adaptation The BFG. And it looks like he’s already made another project official, with Warner Bros. and DreamWorks announcing a December 15, 2017 US release date for Ready Player One. 

The director had been reported as interested in the project back in March, but it wasn’t a done deal at the time. Now, though, he’s on board and the producers will be hoping that – unlike Robopocalypse, which has still yet to reactivate – he’ll stay that way. 

Written by Ernie Cline, the screenwriter behind Fanboys, Ready Player One follows teenager Wade Watts who likes to escape his dreary, dangerous real world by logging into Oasis, a globally networked virtual utopia where users lead idyllic alternate lives. 

When the game's eccentric, Steve Jobs-style billionaire creator dies, he offers up his fortune as the prize in an elaborate treasure hunt. Wade is pitted against powerful corporate foes and ruthless competitors who will do anything, in the Oasis and the real world, to reach the riches first. 

The script started life with Cline and Eric Eason before Cline’s pal Zak Penn was hired by Warner Bros. to take a fresh pass on boiling down the sprawling tale, laden with references to classic video games, comics, movies and other pop cultural items. Spielberg is surely key to getting this one made properly, since his clout will help unlock the many rights-heavy items and titles that will be needed to populate the story.

Bridge Of Spies, meanwhile, will be out in the UK on November 27, with The BFG following on July 22 next year. 

Source Empire News http://ift.tt/1UrtRMX

Read More

Alert: There Was a Degrassi Mini-Reunion And Drake Was There

Drake was reunited with his Degrassi squad!

Several of the stars of Degrassi: The Next Generation attended the premiere for the web series We Are Disorderly. Former Degrassi star Mazin Elsadig is on the show.

Daniel Clark, Adamo Ruggerio, and Lauren Collins turned out for the premiere, along with

...

Read More >

Other Links From TVGuide.com

• Drake
• Degrassi

Source TVGuide.com: Breaking News http://ift.tt/1hmgTlA

Read More