New Trailer For Room Opens Online

Brie Larson makes us a captive audience

Heading both to TIFF and to the BFI London Film Festival, Leonard Abrahamson's dark drama Room has just released its latest trailer. Brie Larson, William H. Macy and Joan Allen head the cast, and the film's based on the novel by Emma Donoghue.

Nothing to do with the world-conquering Apple game or the infamous Tommy Wiseau debacle, this Room is based on the 2010 novel by Emma Donoghue, which is itself based loosely on the real life case of Elisabeth Fritzl. Fritzl was imprisoned in a secret basement space by her appalling father Josef for 24 years, bearing him several children which he explained as foundlings. She was discovered in 2008, and her father was jailed for life in 2009.

In Donoghue's Booker-shortlisted version, this becomes the story of Ma, seven years a prisoner with a five-year-old son called Jack, who is also the novel's narrator. Their captor remains offstage, given little attention, since the focus is Jack's world view, having never known anything but the small space in which he lives. But that world is about to be shaken when he and Ma are finally freed.

Donoghue wrote her own screenplay, and this is Abrahamson's first film following last year's excellent Frank. Room plays at the BFI London Film Festival on October 11, and gets its full UK release on January 29.

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

Read More

Frank Whaley Joins Netflix's Luke Cage

Playing Detective Rafael Scarfe

The cast is building quickly now for the Marvel/Netflix Luke Cage series: part of the interlocking Defenders quartet that also includes Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist. Mike Colter is Luke Cage (AKA Power Man), with Alfre Woodward, Theo Rossi and Mahershala Ali signed up for other roles. And now there's also Frank Whaley (Pulp Fiction, Under The Dome) who'll be carrying a badge as Detective Rafael Scarfe.

Straight from the comics, Scarfe works for the NYPD and is a regular fixture in stories featuring Luke Cage and Iron Fist/Danny Rand (his first appearance was in an Iron Fist issue, "The Name Is Warhawk", in 1975). He used to be Misty Knight's partner before she quit the force to form half of The Daughters Of The Dragon (who frequently teamed up with Cage and Rand as the Heroes For Hire). Scarfe went over to the dark side with some other corrupt cops in the Daredevil event series Shadowland.

Lots of crossover potential then, with the strong likelihood that Whaley will find a place in the Iron Fist series too. Rosario Dawson, similarly, will show up in Luke Cage as Claire Temple, having also been a Daredevil semi-regular.

Luke Cage is shooting as we speak, and should arrive on Netflix sometime next year, probably after the second season of Daredevil. Jessica Jones will make her debut before both in November of this year.

Source Empire News http://ift.tt/1Q2LOyk

Read More

Bruce Willis Rounds Up Marauders

Dave Bautista, Christopher Meloni and more set for the action thriller

Bruce Willis isn’t exactly on much of a roll lately. A run of slightly dodgy action roles and now him having to leave Woody Allen’s latest, apparently for schedule reasons, have seemed to dominate his recent career. He’s sticking with action thrillers, though, signing on to star in Marauders alongside Dave Bautista and Christopher Meloni. 

Steven C. Miller, who just worked with Willis on Extraction, is attached to direct the film, which will also feature Lydia Hull, Tyler Olson, Christopher Bowen and Danny A. Abeckaser in its cast. Michael Cody and Chris Sivertson wrote the script, which follows an FBI agent on the trail of a group of bank robbers who appear to be modern-day Robin Hoods, handing off their hauls to charity. As he digs deeper into the gang, he discovers that their actions are all tied to a trail of secrets leading to the powerful owner of a bank (Willis) who is overseeing it all.

The cameras are scheduled to role later this month in Ohio, which does make us wonder why he had to drop out of Allen’s film and yet can still work on this one despite it being closer to his start on Broadway in Misery. Perhaps this one requires less commitment and he can squeeze in necessary stage rehearsals between days spent spewing dialogue at his castmates on the movie. 

And in related casting news for one of the names above, Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Dave Bautista, soon to be seen as Mr. Hinx in Spectre, has another new role. He’s attached to star in a thriller called Bushwick, which finds him as a war veteran who must help a young woman (Jane Levy) cross a dangerous area of New York’s Brooklyn that has fallen victim to violent secessionists. Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott are gearing up to direct that one in New York later this year, working from a screenplay by Nick Damici and Graham Reznik.

Source Empire News http://ift.tt/1Q2nFYT

Read More

Patrick Dempsey Joins Bridget Jones's Baby

He'll be a mystery man

The news had gone so quiet on the third Bridget Jones film – Bridget Jones's Baby – that we were beginning to think it had slipped quietly back into total limbo. But things are heating up again, with word that Patrick Dempsey is in negotiations to play a role.

Quite what he’ll be up to remains a mystery, as does the plot for the film, which has a script by Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding and One Day/Far From The Madding Crowd’s David Nicholls. It’ll reportedly be based on Fielding’s columns and not her latest Jones book, Mad About The Boy, which caused a stir by killing off Mark Darcy and leaving Bridget alone to raise two kids. Firth is on board, so Mark will be very much a presence (possibly ghostly, but more likely real) and Renee Zellweger is once more the mishap-prone heroine.

As for a director, the film has been linked to both Paul Feig and Peter Cattaneo, but now Sharon Maguire, who filmed the original Bridget, is back oversee things again. She’ll be kicking off the shoot on October 2, so the movie is finally, actually being made. V.G.! 

Source Empire News http://ift.tt/1Q2nFYR

Read More

Preacher Scores A Series Order

Seth Rogen tweets a teaser poster

After years stuck in cinematic and miniseries limbo, Preacher is finding its path on US cable network AMC to be a lot smoother. It has quickly progressed from development to pilot and now, as announced by executive producer Seth Rogen, has a series order. 

Preacher is coming to AMC! @evandgoldberg @SamCatlin123! The beginning is nigh!!! http://pic.twitter.com/xVgqYrkEK9

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) September 9, 2015

Rogen, who has been shepherding the series alongside regular writing/producing partner Evan Goldberg and Breaking Bad veteran Sam Catlin, made the announcement via a tweet that originally suggested a May 2016 launch for the show, but has since been edited to simply say that it’s on the way.

For those who don’t know, the original comic-book series Preacher, as created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, revolves around troubled smalltown Texan man of God Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper), who merges with the spawn of a demon and an angel named Genesis. After developing the power to force anyone to do what he says, he heads out with assassin ex-girlfriend Tulip O’Hare (Ruth Negga) and chatty vampire Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) on a journey to find the negligent deity and discover why he is abandoning mankind. 

The show will have a lot to live up to given how beloved (and violent/weird) the source material is, but at least we’ll now have a chance to see how the TV iteration turned out.

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

Read More

Star Wars: Episode VIII Will Head To Ireland's Skellig Michael

It'll follow The Force Awakens in shooting on the island

It’s not often you get Star Wars information from an Irish politician, but this is the way the world works right now. So word arrives that Episode VIII, which has Rian Johnson writing and directing, will be shooting some scenes on Skellig Michael, off the coast of Ireland. 

The move follows work by J.J. Abrams and the Force Awakens team, who shot there briefly last summer. According to RTE, Johnson and his crew are scheduled to film for just a couple of days this month, though there has been no start-of-shoot announcement by Disney or Lucasfilm about the plan. The latter company, however, did respond to Entertainment Weekly to clear up earlier reports that it would the Force Awakens production working on additional photography.

“Skellig Michael is one of our most dramatic and beautiful islands and it is very easy to understand why its stunning scenery has caught the attention of the makers of one of the world's biggest film franchises," said Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Heather Humphreys in a statement. "The return of Star Wars to Sceilg Mhichil is another win for Ireland and the Irish film industry, which is a growing and dynamic sector of our economy."

Because of the protected nature of the island – it’s home to both a site of archaeological interest and several species of endangered birds – an ecologist and observers from the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the National Monuments Service will monitor filming. So even BB-8 should feel safe.

As for what Johnson and his team will be shooting? That’s naturally still a secret and Lucasfilm would probably have wished to keep the news off the radar. The film itself will be out here on May 26, 2017.

Source Empire News http://ift.tt/1Q2nFIl

Read More

Tom Cruise Eyeing Luna Park

He's developing Doug Liman's long-gestating sci-fi pic

They worked so well together on Edge Of Tomorrow that Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman quickly reconvened (well, after the star had shot Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) for another collaboration, drug drama Mena. The pair has their eye on a third project, digging out a sci-fi tale that has long been sitting on Liman’s To-Do list.  

Now seemingly titled Luna Park, the film initially blipped news radars back in 2007, when Liman first set it up at Paramount and bagged Jake Gyllenhaal to star. Paramount got the project in its divorce from DreamWorks, but despite script passes from the likes of Simon Kinberg, Mark Bowden and Ken Nolan, nothing came of it. Jump in a wormhole to 2011, and it’s back looking likely, with Paramount and Skydance Pictures entering an agreement to co-finance and such names as Andrew Garfield, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson, Megan Fox and Olivia Wilde bandied about as possible leads. Yet despite an actual greenlight from the studio, the wheels came off when the budget rocketed past $100 million, and metaphors started mixing all over the place.

Cruise’s interest and partnering with the director to kick development back into gear, could certainly put things back on track, though Paramount and Skydance aren’t currently involved. Chances are everyone will see how the latest script turns out, with the story still following a group of former space-types travelling the world in an attempt to steal equipment that would let them rocket to the moon to find an energy source. And the final piece of the puzzle they need? A former NASA worker. If Ridley Scott’s The Martian is a big hit, this could stand an even better chance of finally leaving the launch pad. No writer is mentioned, though we do wonder if Christopher McQuarrie's phone has been ringing recently...

As for Mena, that will hit our screens on January 20. 

Source Empire News http://ift.tt/1Q2nDju

Read More