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Preview of Tales of Honor #1

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The Honorverse expands to comics this week courtesy of Matt Hawkins (Think Tank, Witchblade) and Jung-Geun Yoon (Artifacts, Age of Ultron) with the arrival of Tales of Honor #1; check out a preview here...

"Based on the bestselling military science-fiction novels by David Weber, this original comic book series introduces spaceship captain Honor Harrington on the eve of her execution. From prison, Honor relays her epic adventures, starting with a command outpost to a hellish backwater star system that ends up being the linchpin of an interstellar crisis that will bring war to her home planet. This series is part of a new multi-platform story world that includes a mobile game app to be released with the first issue and a feature film currently in development."

Tales of Honor #1

Tales of Honor #1

Tales of Honor #1

Tales of Honor #1

Tales of Honor #1

Tales of Honor #1 is released on Wednesday, priced $2.99.





The Week in Spandex - Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Defenders, Doctor Strange, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Watchmen, The Flash, Heroes Reborn and more

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Our weekly round up of all the latest stories from the world of screen superheroes, including Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Avengers 3, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Defenders, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Spectacular Spider-Man, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Batman vs. Superman, Watchmen, The Flash, Arrow, Constantine, Heroes Reborn and more...

Well, it's March, which means we're only a few weeks away from the start of the 2014 superhero season as Marvel Studios gets things underway with the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (out March 26th here in the UK), and this week has brought us a new featurette for the Phase Two solo sequel entitled 'Conspiracy', which features comments from Chris Evans (Captain America), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Anthony Mackie (Falcon), Robert Redford (Alexander Pierce) and Marvel chief Kevin Feige [watch it here]. Meanwhile we've also got a new character poster for Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson, a.k.a. Falcon, along with character promo artwork for Cap, Black Widow, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) [see here]...

...Looking ahead to August and Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has spoken briefly about Thanos, seemingly downplaying expectations that we might get to see an adaptation of the classic limited series The Infinity Gauntlet within the Marvel Cinematic Universe: ""Here's the thing, truthfully the Marvel Cinematic Universe takes out of both the 616 and Ultimate Marvel Comics universe, and then they recreate some elements themselves. What Thanos wants in the comics is not necessarily what Thanos wants in the movies; we don't know yet..."

...In other Guardians of the Galaxy-related news, Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa has explained why he passed on the role of Drax the Destroyer (subsequently filled by WWE star Dave Bautista), as well sharing a few thoughts on his auditon with Chris Pratt (Star-Lord): "I think it's perfectly cast. Dave is perfect for that role, for Drax. It didn't really fit in my time because I've done so many things where I don't say much and I'm colored up and I have my shirt off again. I made a conscious choice to turn down some movies that were action-based to direct Road to Paloma so people could see that side. I want my children to see their father happy. It's not that it's not a good role, it just wasn't the right thing. I was on Stargate: Atlantis for four years playing a similar character called Ronon, who was an alien who didn't say much and grunted. I've been there and done that, whether people have seen it or not. You want to stretch... One of the funnest auditions I've ever done in my life was with [Chris]. He's phenomenal. He's going to kill it. It's going to be amazing. It's a whole Han Solo vibe. It's going to be a phenomenal movie. I'm glad that he is the lead of that. He's funny as hell, man. He can improv; he just acts circles around me. It was really, really fantastic." Meanwhile, Momoa - who has been strongly rumoured for a DC role in Batman vs. Superman - did admit that there are superhero characters he'd like to play, although he's keeping his cards close to his chest for the time being: "There's definitely some, absolutely. I was a huge comic book fan, and I still am... I'm not going to tell you the ones I collect, because then you'd know..."

ABC to deliver a sneak peek at The Avengers: Age of Ultron next month
...Despite the fact that production has only recently kicked off (check out some more set photos and video of the Hulk's rampage in Johannesburg here), it seems we'll be getting our first official look at Joss Whedon's eagerly-anticipated sequel The Avengers: Age of Ultron later this month. On March 18th, ABC is set to give us a "front row seat to the inception of Marvel Studios, the record-breaking films, the cultural phenomenon, and further expansion of the universe by Marvel Television" with the one-hour special Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe, which will include new footage from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy, along with a first-look "sneak peek" at Age of Ultron...

...While we're on the subject of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Iron Man 3 screenwriter and All Hail the King writer-director Drew Pearce appears to have confirmed that Whedon will be back for The Avengers 3 during an interview where he was asked if the latest Marvel One-Shot [check out the poster here] would have any repurcussions for the Marvel Cinematic Universe: "One of the things when you’re a writer or director in the Marvel universe is you come in, you leave some tasty morsels dangling at the end, and maybe you’re the one who comes in and picks them up again next time, or maybe it’s someone else, or maybe they just hang there awhile and that’s fine too. Despite any cliffhanger-ness to the short, I also don’t feel like it’s unsatisfying. That’s all you can really hope to do. Unless you’re Joss [Whedon] and you’re making Avengers 2 and 3, and then you have a pretty good idea if you’re making the next one or not..."

...In a few other bits and pieces from Phase Three, it's been reported that Patrick Wilson (Watchmen, The Conjuring) is set to join Paul Rudd (Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues) and Michael Douglas (Behind the Candelabra) in the cast of Edgar Wright's Ant-Man; Kevin Feige has dismissed reports linking directors Mark Andrews (Brave), Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair), Dean Israelite (Welcome to Yesterday) and Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies) to Doctor Strange, as well as shooting down talk of Johnny Depp starring as the Sorcerer Supreme [read his comments here]; and Full Metal Jacket and The Dark Knight Rises star Matthew Modine has thrown his hat in the ring for the role of Stephen Strange, posting a photo of the Master of the Mystic Arts with the caption: "#Marvel I’d like to play #Doctor Strange - let’s make this happen" [see here]... 

...On the small screen, ABC has released the first four minutes of this week's episode 'T.A.H.I.T.I.' via IGN, which sees Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his team dealing with the aftermath of Skye' (Chloe Bennet) shooting in the previous episode, and we've also got a clip from 'T.A.H.I.T.I.' which you can view here, along with a batch of images from the next episode 'Yes Men' featuring Jaimie Alexander reprising her role as Lady Sif from Thor and Thor: The Dark World as she comes to Midgard in search of The Enchantress' sister Lorelei (Elena Satine; Smallville)...

Marvel's Netflix series Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Defender heading to New York...In other Marvel Television news, Disney CEO Bob Iger, Marvel CCO Joe Quesada and New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo held a press conference to announce that Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage are heading to NYC, giving New York State its largest ever production commitment with a $200 million deal to shoot the shows. Check out some highlights from the press conference, and here's the official description from the press release: "This pioneering agreement calls for Marvel to develop four serialized programs totaling 52 one-hour episodes culminating in a four to eight episode mini-series programming event. Led by a series focused on Daredevil, followed by Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage, the epic will unfold over multiple years of original programming, taking viewers deep into the gritty world of heroes and villains of Hell’s Kitchen, New York. Netflix has committed to a minimum of four, thirteen episodes series and a mini-series event in which the Marvel characters from the first four series team up as The Defenders, much like The Avengers..."

...And on the animation front, Earth's Mightiest Heroes are heading to the Savage Land in this weekend's episode of Marvel's Avengers Assemble, entitled 'Savages': "When Tony becomes too reliant on his tech, Cap challenges him to go without it for one full day. Not only is the challenge accepted but is made far more complicated when Tony takes them to the Savage Land where they stumble upon Justin Hammer who they'll have to battle completely tech-free!" Watch a clip from the episode here...

...Moving on to Sony's Amazing Spider-Man franchise and both director Marc Webb and star Andrew Garfield have once again spoken about the possibility of the web-slinger making a cameo appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (short version - they'd both love it), while Webb admitted that there's previously been "efforts that were made, but obviously nothing came to fruition" [read their comments here]. Meanwhile, it's also been confirmed that Webb will return to the director's chair on 2016's The Amazing Spider-Man 3, and Sony chief Amy Pascal has revealed that the studio plans to use the spin-offs Venom and The Sinister Six to deliver "Spider-Man movies every year." Of course, before we get to those movies there's still the small matter of this year's sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and with its release date fast approaching Sony has debuted not one but two more trailers for the film, as well as an extended international TV spot [see here and here] and a couple of Daily Bugle viral articles [see here and here]...

...In other Spidey news, it's been announced that the short-lived animated series The Spectacular Spider-Man is set for a Blu-ray release on April 22nd, with a 4-disc collector's edition set to include all 26 episodes of the two seasons, along with bonus features that includes The Spectacular Spider-Man Music Video and the featurettes Stylizing Spidey and Spider-Man: Re-Animated; you can check out the cover art for the Blu-ray set here...

...With a second trailer seemingly on the horizon, Bryan Singer dropped a few seconds of unseen footage from May's X-Men: Days of Future Past this week, giving us a brief new look at the likes of Past Professor X (James McAvoy), Future Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Bishop (Omar Sy), Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), Warpath (Booboo Stewart) and of course Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). Meanwhile, although previous reports suggesting that Fox harbours ambitions to cross its X-Men franchise over with its rebooted The Fantastic Four have been denied, the studio's Marvel overlord Simon Kinberg has admitted that they're interested in bringing the two Marvel franchises together, telling Empire that: "It's something we are interested in creating. If its possible for the movies to inform each other in ways that make the experience of each film more satisfying..."

...Producer Joel Silver (V for Vendetta, Non-Stop) has spoken about his attempts to get a live-action Watchmen movie off the ground in the early 90s alongside director Terry Gilliam (The Zero Theorem), which Silver says would have been "MUCH better" than the version we got in 2009 courtesy of Zack Snyder: "It was a MUCH much better movie. Oh God. I mean, Zack [Snyder] came at it the right way but was too much of a slave to the material. [We were working from] a Sam Hamm script--who had written a script that everybody loved for the first Batman - and then [Gilliam] brought in a guy who'd worked for him to do work on it [Charles McKeown, co-writer of Brazil]. What he did was he told the story as-is, but instead of the whole notion of the intergalactic thing which was too hard and too silly, what he did was he maintained that the existence of Doctor Manhattan had changed the whole balance of the world economy, the world political structure. He felt that THAT character really altered the way reality had been. [McKeown] had the Ozymandias character convince, essentially, the Doctor Manhattan character to go back and stop himself from being created, so there never would be a Doctor Manhattan character. He was the only character with real supernatural powers, he went back and prevented himself from being turned into Doctor Manhattan, and in the vortex that was created after that occurred these characters from Watchmen only became characters in a comic book... So the three characters, I think it was Rorschach and Nite Owl and Silk Spectre, they're all of the sudden in Times Square and there's a kid reading a comic book.. and he's like, 'Hey, you're just like in my comic book.' It was very smart, it was very articulate, and it really gave a very satisfying resolution to the story, but it just didn't happen. Lost to time..."

...Things have fallen pretty quiet on the Batman vs. Superman front lately (despite all those rumours / speculation that we'd get our first look at Ben Affleck as The Dark Knight by the end of February), although Superman Returns star Kevin Spacey did offer a few thoughts on the casting of Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor in the upcoming Man of Steel sequel, stating that: "First of all, I think [Jesse Eisenberg] is a remarkable actor. He's just going to fucking own it. I think it's a great idea and I wish him the best with it..."

Grant Gustin as The Flash...DC fans might not have had much to get excited about when it comes to the big screen, but on the TV front we have had our very first look at Grant Gustin in costume as The Flash in The CW's upcoming Arrow spin-off pilot, while it's also been revealed that Michelle Harrison (Emily Owens, MD) has signed on to play Barry's mother Nora. Shooting on the pilot will get underway later this month, with a cast that also includes Candice Patton (The Game) as Iris West, Jesse L. Martin (Law & Order) as Iris' father Detective West, Danielle Panabaker (Friday the 13th) as Caitlin Snow / Killer Frost, Rick Gosnett (The Vampire Diaries) as Eddie Thawne, Broadway star Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon / Vibe, Tom Cavanagh (Ed) as Harrison Wells and original Flash star John Wesley Shipp in an as-yet-unrevealed role...

...The battle comes home as Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) and Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) meet face-to-face in Starling City in this week's episode of Arrow, entitled 'The Promise', which executive producer Marc Guggenheim says "makes the season finale we did last year look like a student film." Be sure to check out two promos [here and here], along with the Producer's Review featurette for 'The Promise', which is described as follows: "THE TURNING POINT — Oliver is shocked when he learns that Slade has come to Starling City. Back on the island, as Oliver, Slade and Sara (Caity Lotz) prepare to take over the freighter from Ivo (guest star Dylan Neal), Sara pulls Oliver aside and tells him he needs to kill Ivo to prevent him from telling Slade what happened with Shado. Oliver feels immense guilt over the situation but realizes Slade’s growing rage from the Mirakuru makes him unpredictable and he could turn on his friends if he thinks Oliver is to blame. Oliver agrees to kill Ivo and the battle begins." And, if you're wanting another glimpse at the Suicide Squad as they're to appear in the show, head on over to Green Arrow TV for six new images from the March 19th episode...

...If a new rumour is to be believed, Matt Ryan's (The Tudors, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior) John Constantine looks set to come up against fan-favourite villain Papa Midnite in NBC’s forthcoming television pilot. True or not, expect to hear movement on casting over the coming weeks on Constantine, which has David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight Trilogy, Man of Steel) and Daniel Cerone (The Mentalist) writing and Neil Marshall (Game of Thrones, The Descent) directing...

...Kevin Conroy is set to lend his voice to The Dark Knight once again this year for the animated movie Batman: Assault on Arkham, and during a recent interview he reflected on his 23 year run as the definitive voice of Gotham's Dark Knight Detective: "I had absolutely no expectation that this job would turn into what it became. I started recording it in 1991, and it went on the air on Fox in 1992 as a prime time series. Then over 23 years, it just evolved from Batman: The Animated Series to The Adventures of Batman and Robin to Justice League and then Batman Beyond. Since then, there’s been the direct-to-video movies and now the Arkham games. He’s such an iconic character. He’s such a part of the American cultural landscape. It’s an amazing thing to be a part of and to have contributed to. Like all actors, you never know where your career is going to go. You plan for things and you train for things, but you never really know the direction you’re going to go. So I had no idea that I was going to end up doing voice acting for animation and that I’d be voicing Batman. But it wound up working really well. The show is just a really good marriage of what I brought to the character and what Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Andrea Romano and all the people putting the series together were looking for..."

...Any fans hoping that Beware the Batman would return to Cartoon Network this month are out of luck, with the CG-animated series once again absent from the schedules in March and all but confirming that the show has met the same fate as Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series. So, for the time being, that just leaves Teen Titans Go!, and you can check out a clip and images from this coming week's episode by heading over to The World's Finest...

...And finally, in a surprising piece of news, it's been announced that NBC is reviving the formerly-popular TV show Heroes for a new 13 episode event series from original creator Tim Kring, which is described as a "stand-alone story" and is set to air on the network in 2015. "The enormous impact Heroes had on the television landscape when it first launched in 2006 was eye-opening," said Jennifer Salke, NBC's Entertainment President. "Shows with that kind of resonance don’t come around often and we thought it was time for another installment. We’re thrilled that visionary creator Tim Kring was as excited about jumping back into this show as we were and we look forward to all the new textures and layers Tim plans to add to his original concept. Until we get closer to air in 2015, the show will be appropriately shrouded in secrecy, but we won’t rule out the possibility of some of the show’s original cast members popping back in." You can watch a teaser for Heroes Rebornhere.

 Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen - Available now via Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.

Gary Collinson




New footage in Transformers: Age of Extinction trailer tease

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New footage in Transformers: Age of Extinction trailer teaseDespite the fact there's less than four months to go until its release, we're yet to see a first trailer for Michael Bay's Transformers: Age of Extinction (although we have had a look at the sequel thanks to a Super Bowl TV spot, and it was pretty much as you'd expect in all honesty).

Well, the wait will soon be over, with Entertainment Tonight revealing that the trailer will debut this coming Tuesday (March 4th), and as part of the announcement we've got a short teaser for the trailer, which you can watch below...

Transformers: Age of Extinction jettisons Shia LaBeouf and company, with the human cast now consisting of Mark Wahlberg (Pain & Gain) now headlining alongside Jack Reynor (What Richard Did), Stanley Tucci (Captain America: The First Avenger), Nicola Peltz (Bates Motel), Bingbing Li (Resident Evil: Retribution), Sophia Myles (Underworld), Victoria Summer (Saving Mr. Banks), Titus Welliver (Lost), and T.J. Miller (She's Out of My League). Meanwhile, on the Transformers front, the ranks of the Aubobots will be bolstered by the big screen debut of Grimlock and the Dinobots.


Transformers: Age of Extinction is set for release on June 27th.



And the winners of the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards are...

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Nominations for the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards announced
Ahead of the Oscars tomorrow evening, the 29th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards have taken place tonight, with Steve McQueen's drama 12 Years a Slave leading the field with five wins, including Best Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay (John Ridley), Best Cinematography (Sean Bobbitt)and Best Supporting Actress (Lupita Nyong'o).

In the other acting categories, Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto were named Best Male Lead and Best Supporting Male for their work in Dallas Buyers Club, while Cate Blanchett received the gong for Best Female Lead for Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine. Here's the full list of nominees, with the winners highlighted in red...

Best Feature
'12 Years a Slave'
'All Is Lost'
'Frances Ha'
'Inside Llewyn Davis'
'Nebraska'

Best Director
Shane Carruth - 'Upstream Color'
J.C. Chandor - 'All Is Lost'
Steve McQueen - '12 Years a Slave'
Jeff Nichols - 'Mud'
Alexander Payne - 'Nebraska'

Best Screenplay
Woody Allen - 'Blue Jasmine'
Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater - 'Before Midnight'
Nicole Holofcener - 'Enough Said'
Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber - 'The Spectacular Now'
John Ridley - '12 Years a Slave'

Best First Feature
'Blue Caprice' - Alexandre Moors - director/producer; Kim Jackson, Brian O'Carroll, Isen Robbins, Will Rowbotham, Ron Simons, Aimee Schoof, Stephen Tedeschi - producer
'Concussion' - Stacie Passon - director; Rose Troche - producer
'Fruitvale Station' - Ryan Coogler - director; Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker - producers
'Una Noche' - Lucy Mulloy - director - producer; Sandy Pérez Aguila, Maite Artieda, Daniel Mulloy, Yunior Santiago - producers
'Wadjda' - Haifaa Al Mansour - director; Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul - producer

Best First Screenplay
Lake Bell - 'In a World'
Joseph Gordon-Levitt - 'Don Jon'
Bob Nelson - 'Nebraska'
Jill Soloway - 'Afternoon Delight'
Michael Starrbury - 'The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete'

John Cassavetes Award (Given to the best feature made for under $500,000)
'Computer Chess' - Andrew Bujalski, writer/director
'Crystal Fairy' - Sebastiàn Silva, writer/director
'Museum Hours' - Jem Cohen, writer/director
'Pit Stop' - Yen Tan, writer/director; David Lowery, writer
'This is Martin Bonner' - Chad Hartigan, writer/director

Best Female Lead
Cate Blanchett - 'Blue Jasmine'
Julie Delpy - 'Before Midnight'
Gaby Hoffmann - 'Crystal Fairy'
Brie Larson - 'Short Term 12'
Shailene Woodley - 'The Spectacular Now'

Best Male Lead
Bruce Dern - 'Nebraska'
Chiwetel Ejiofor - '12 Years a Slave'
Oscar Isaac - 'Inside Llewyn Davis'
Michael B. Jordan - 'Fruitvale Station'
Matthew McConaughey - 'Dallas Buyers Club'
Robert Redford - 'All Is Lost'

Best Supporting Female
Melonie Diaz - 'Fruitvale Station'
Sally Hawkins - 'Blue Jasmine'
Lupita Nyong'o - '12 Years a Slave'
Yolonda Ross - 'Go For Sisters'
June Squibb - 'Nebraska'

Best Supporting Male
Michael Fassbender - '12 Years a Slave'
Will Forte - 'Nebraska'
James Gandolfini - 'Enough Said'
Jared Leto - 'Dallas Buyers Club'
Keith Stanfield - 'Short Term 12'

Best Cinematography
Sean Bobbitt - '12 Years a Slave'
Benoit Debie - 'Spring Breakers'
Bruno Delbonnel - 'Inside Llewyn Davis'
Frank G. DeMarco - 'All Is Lost'
Matthias Grunsky - 'Computer Chess'

Best Editing
Shane Carruth & David Lowery - 'Upstream Color'
Jem Cohen & Marc Vives - 'Museum Hours'
Jennifer Lame - 'Frances Ha'
Cindy Lee - 'Una Noche'
Nat Sanders - 'Short Term 12'

Best Documentary
'20 Feet From Stardom - Morgan Neville, director/producer; Gil Friesen & Caitrin Rogers, producers
'After Tiller' - Martha Shane & Lana Wilson, directors/producers
'Gideon's Army' - Dawn Porter, director/producer; Julie Goldman, producer
'The Act of Killing' - Joshua Oppenheimer, director/producer; Joram Ten Brink, Christine Cynn, Anne Köhncke, Signe Byrge Sørensen, Michael Uwemedimo, producer
'The Square' - Jehane Noujaim, director, Karim Amer, producer

Best International Film
'A Touch of Sin' (China) - Jia Zhang-Ke, director
'Blue Is the Warmest Color' (France) - Abdellatif Kechiche, director
'Gloria (Chile) - Sebastián Lelio, director
'The Great Beauty' (Italy) - Paolo Sorrentino, director
'The Hunt' (Denmark) - Thomas Vinterberg, director

Robert Altman Award (Given to one film’s director, casting director and its ensemble cast)
'Mud'
Director: Jeff Nichols
Casting Director: Francine Maisler
Ensemble Cast: Joe Don Baker, Jacob Lofland, Matthew McConaughey, Ray McKinnon, Sarah Paulson, Michael Shannon, Sam Shepard, Tye Sheridan, Paul Sparks, Bonnie Sturdivant, Reese Witherspoon

17th Piaget Producers Award
Toby Halbrooks & James M. Johnston
Jacob Jaffke
Andrea Roa
Frederick Thornton

20th Someone to Watch Award
'My Sister's Quinceañera' - Aaron Douglas Johnston, director
'Newlyweeds' - Shaka King, director
'The Foxy Merkins' - Madeline Olnek, director

19th Stella Artois Truer Than Fiction Award
Kalyanee Mam - 'A River Changes Course'
Jason Osder - 'Let the Fire Burn'
Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez - Manakamana'





Chris Evans featured on new poster for Captain America: The Winter Soldier

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With its release date fast approaching, Marvel Studios has debuted a new character poster for the upcoming superhero sequel Captain America: The Winter Soldier featuring Chris Evans as the man out of time...


"After the cataclysmic events in New York with The Avengers, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” finds Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, living quietly in Washington, D.C. and trying to adjust to the modern world. But when a S.H.I.E.L.D. colleague comes under attack, Steve becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue that threatens to put the world at risk. Joining forces with the Black Widow, Captain America struggles to expose the ever-widening conspiracy while fighting off professional assassins sent to silence him at every turn. When the full scope of the villainous plot is revealed, Captain America and the Black Widow enlist the help of a new ally, the Falcon. However, they soon find themselves up against an unexpected and formidable enemy — the Winter Soldier."

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is set for release on March 26th in the UK and April 4th in North America, with Evans joined in the castby Marvel veterans Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes / The Winter Soldier), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Cobie Smulders (Agent Maria Hill), Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter), Toby Jones (Arnim Zola) and Maximiliano Hernandez (Agent Jasper Sitwell), while newcomers to the MCU include Anthony Mackie (Pain & Gain) as Sam Wilson / Falcon, Emily VanCamp (Revenge) as Sharon Carter / Agent 13, Frank Grillo (Zero Dark Thirty) as Brock Rumlow / Crossbones, George St-Pierre (Death Warrior) as Georges Batroc / Batroc the Leaper, and Robert Redford (All Is Lost) as Alexander Pierce.



Ripper Street Series 2 - Episode 1 Recap

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Take Heed Coppers: There’s a New Opiate in Town – Megan Applegate with a recap of the series two premiere of Ripper Street…

Ripper Street Series 2 - Episode 1 RecapWhitechapel’s Not All That Different
“The Ripper has faded”…but the old neighborhood’s still pretty rough.

It’s now 1890 in Whitechapel. Emily has left Detective Inspector Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) after the false hope of their daughter being alive proved too much. Detective Sergeant Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn) has moved past his unrequited love for Rose Erskine and married another brothel girl, Bella.

Cue Shattering Glass

Season 2 opens with a young sergeant making his way through a tenement seeking out the mysterious “Blush Pang.” Cut to our man in uniform falling from a shattered window on the metal spikes below making a mess of himself and his poor legs. What was he after? Who was Blush Pang?
Seems there’s a new Chinatown popping up and when our three crime-fighting amigos being their investigation, they find themselves introduced in the most unceremonious way to division K’s Inspector Jedediah Shine (Joseph Mawle), a perfect nemesis for our beloved Inspector Reid this season.

The trio uncover a dangerous new opiate set to flood the streets of London and it’s a race against time to slow the spread of the deadly heroin.

A Moustache-Twisting Bad Guy

Reid’s division K housed the majority of the new influx of Chinese immigrants, which has now spilled into Whitechapel’s H division. To boot, it comes to light that Inspector Shine’s spent the past ten years in the Hong Kong police department. Potential conflict of interest? What about a crooked cop? The storyline certainly is ripe for Shine to play the heel and when Shine’s sergeant ends up dead in the hospital, Shine wastes no time pointing fingers and accusations at Reid, with no one but the Elephant Man, Joseph Merrick, himself to serve as witness.

We’re left with the Teflon-coated Reid looking dismayed and terrified at the same time. Corruption abounds in London and it’s landed (seemingly) at his feet.

Megan Applegate




Razzies 2014: After Earth and Movie 43 dominate the 34th annual Golden Raspberry Awards

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Awards season comes to a head tonight as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the winners of the Academy Awards, and - as is traditional - yesterday saw the very worst of cinematic achievement celebrated with the 34th annual Golden Raspberry Awards.

While Adam Sandler dominated the nominations (as usual) with Grown Ups 2, the Razzie favourite went away empty handed for a change as the ensemble comedy Movie 43 and M. Night Shyamalan sci-fi After Earth picked up three gongs apiece, with Movie 43 claiming Worst Picture, Worst Director(s) and Worst Screenplay and Jaden Smith and Will Smith named Worst Actor, Worst Supporting Actor and Worst Screen Combo.

Check out the full list of nominees here, with the "winners" highlighted in red...

WORST PICTURE
After Earth
Grown Ups 2
The Lone Ranger
A Madea Christmas
Movie 43

WORST DIRECTOR
Dennis Dugan, Grown Ups 2
Tyler Perry, A Madea Christmas / Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor
M. Night Shyamalan, After Earth
Elizabeth Banks, Steven Brill, Steve Carr, Rusty Cundieff, James Duffy, Griffin Dunne, Peter Farrelly, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham, James Gunn, Bob Odenkirk, Brett Ratner, Jonathan van Tulleken, Movie 43
Gore Verbinski, The Lone Ranger

WORST SCREENPLAY
After Earth, M. Night Shyamalan,Gary Whitta and Will Smith
Grown Ups 2, Adam Sandler, Tim Herlihy and Fred Wolf
The Lone Ranger, Justin Haythe, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio
A Madea Christmas, Tyler Perry
Movie 43, Ricky Blitt, Steve Baker, Will Carlough, Tobias Carlson, Jacob Fleisher, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham, James Gunn, Claes Kjellstrom, Jack Kukoda, Bob Odenkirk, Bill O'Malley, Matthew Alec Portenoy, Greg Pritikin, Rocky Russo, Olle Sarri, Elizabeth Shapiro, Jeremy Sosenko, Jonathan van Tulleken and Jonas Wittenmark

WORST ACTOR
Johnny Depp, The Lone Ranger
Ashton Kutcher, Jobs
Adam Sandler, Grown Ups 2
Jaden Smith, After Earth
Sylvester Stallone, Bullet to the Head / Escape Plan / Grudge Match

WORST ACTRESS
Halle Berry, The Call / Movie 43
Selena Gomez, Getaway
Lindsay Lohan, The Canyons
Tyler Perry (as Madea), A Madea Christmas
Naomi Watts, Diana / Movie 43

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Chris Brown, Battle of the Year
Larry the Cable Guy, A Madea Christmas
Taylor Lautner, Grown Ups 2
Will Smith, After Earth
Nick Swardson, Grown Ups 2 / A Haunted House

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Salma Hayek, Grown Ups 2
Katherine Heigl, The Big Wedding
Kim Kardashian, Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor
Lady Gaga, Machete Kills
Lindsay Lohan, InAPPropriate Comedy / Scary Movie 5

WORST SCREEN COMBO
Entire Cast, Grown Ups 2
Entire Cast, Movie 43
Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen, Scary Movie 5
Tyler Perry and Either Larry the Cable Guy or That Worn Out Wig and Dress, A Madea Christmas
Jaden Smith and Will Smith on Planet Nepotism, After Earth

WORST PREQUEL, REMAKE, RIP-OFF OR SEQUEL
Grown Ups 2
The Hangover Part III
The Lone Ranger
Scary Movie 5
The Smurfs 2




New promotional posters for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 featuring Spidey and Electro

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Sony has unveiled some new promotional artwork for the upcoming superhero sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which gives us some great new shots of Andrew Garfield's wall-crawler, as well as Jamie Foxx's Electro, who seems to have finally ditched the hoodie...




We’ve always known that Spider-Man’s most important battle has been within himself: the struggle between the ordinary obligations of Peter Parker and the extraordinary responsibilities of Spider-Man. But in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker finds that a greater conflict lies ahead.

It’s great to be Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield). For Peter Parker, there’s no feeling quite like swinging between skyscrapers, embracing being the hero, and spending time with Gwen (Emma Stone). But being Spider-Man comes at a price: only Spider-Man can protect his fellow New Yorkers from the formidable villains that threaten the city. With the emergence of Electro (Jamie Foxx), Peter must confront a foe far more powerful than he. And as his old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, Peter comes to realize that all of his enemies have one thing in common: OsCorp.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is set for release on April 18th 2014 in the UK and on May 1st 2014 in North America, with a cast that also includes returning stars Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy), Sally Field (Aunt May), Chris Zylka (Flash Thompson), Campbell Scott (Richard Parker), Embeth Davidtz (Mary Parker), Martin Sheen (Ben Parker) and Denis Leary (George Stacy) alongside new additions such as Dane DeHaan (Chronicle) as Harry Osborn, Paul Giamatti (12 Years a Slave) as The Rhino, Chris Cooper (American Beauty) as Norman Osborn, Colm Feore (Thor) as Donald Menken, Marton Csokas (The Lord of the Rings) as Dr. Kafka, B.J. Novak (The Office) as Alistair Smythe, and Felicity Jones (Like Crazy) and Sarah Gadon (Cosmopolis) in as yet unrevealed roles.




Costume designer Michael Wilkinson talks Wonder Woman's suit in Batman vs. Superman

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We've already heard a few comments from costume designer Michael Wilkinson (American Hustle) about his work Batman vs. Superman, where he's set to design Ben Affleck's Batsuit and Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman costume, as well as tweaking Henry Cavill's Superman suit [see here and here]. However, speaking to The Wrap, Wilkinson has gone into a little more detail about designing the look of the Amazon Princess for her big screen debut in Zack Snyder's Man of Steel sequel.

"It's a thrilling and slightly scary prospect of course. It's so important to get her right. She really deserves to be presented on-screen in her full glory, so what I do is look at the history of the character has been presented on the big-screen, small-screen, comic books, and graphic novels; we process it all. Then we kind of put that aside and work out what is right for our film, for the cinematic universe that our director Zack Snyder is putting together. We try to create a Wonder Woman relevant for today's audiences."

Wilkinson was then asked whether we can expect to see Wonder Woman's costume reflecting that of her traditional comic book look, to which he replied, "Absolutely! I mean, you just have to look at the Gladiators from ancient Rome, they did their thing… with the shield and everything. Yes, it works for Thor and 300, so let's see what happens."

Batman vs. Superman is set for release on May 6th 2016 with a cast that also includes Amy Adams (Lois Lane), Diane Lane (Martha Kent), Laurence Fishburne (Perry White), Jeremy Irons (Alfred Pennyworth) and Jesse Eisenberg (Lex Luthor).




Vikings Season 2 – Episode 1 Recap

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No Fury Like Lagertha Scorned – Megan Applegate recaps the first episode of Vikings season 2…

Well, not so much fury as agonizing heart break, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

So Long, One Eye

The eye-patched Viking rides across the battle field, reminding Rollo (Clive Standen)  how they’ve fought bravely many times together, and would he just reconsider this whole “kill your brother” thing so we can all shake hands and get back to poking sticks at Northumberland’s King Aelle? That was so much more fun.

Rollo won’t be swayed to give up his support of Jarl Borg and in short time, the battle between Borg’s supporters and King Horik’s Ragnar-led troops begin. It isn’t long before Rollo does his best to dispatch Floki (Gustaf Skarsgard). Thankfully he fails, but it isn’t without a lot of damage and a few bitten-down fingernails on this side of the screen.

With Floki down, Rangar (Travis Fimmel) (and the rest of us) watch Rollo run a spear through One Eye’s mid-section and hoist him overhead as some sort of morbid battle standard. Bloody stuff.

It’s not long before the brothers are facing one another and in a show of post-rampage remorse, Rollo stands down and states that he cannot fight his brother.

Can’t We All Get Along?
 

Borg refuses King Horik’s attempt to make a deal (one third of the disputed property’s income) and it looks like we’re all headed back to the battlefield when Ragnar stands up and tells everyone to go to their corners. In actuality, he tells the politicians that there’s more than enough farmland and gold in the west that every fighting man could profit instead of killing one another.  Logic prevails and cooler heads win.
 
Look Homeward, Viking


Arriving back home, things have changed. Remember last season’s awful plague that killed Ragnar’s daughter, Gyda?

Bjorn, disgusted at his father’s philandering, drops the name Aslaug (that gorgeous princess he tangled with a time or two while at war, played by Alyssa Sutherland) and Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) confronts her husband. Ragnar swears it was a one-time thing and placates his angry wife.

Rollo stands trial for betraying his kinsmen and as all the warriors around him are calling for his head on a platter, the village law man grants him a pardon. The scene closes with the man flipping a very large, very gold coin through his fingers and we realize Ragnar has bribed the man in exchange for his brother’s life.

The chief takes time to properly mourn his daughter in a touching scene, inviting the ghost of his child to come and speak with him if she’s able. Instead of Gyda, however, a boat bearing a very, very pregnant Aslaug arrives and life as Lagertha knew it appears to be over.

Everyone Else Is Doing It…

We’re subjected to a few awkward dinners with Ragnar flanked by his two leading ladies. Poor Lagertha does her best to be civil (not what I expected from our fierce shield maiden) but when Ragnar has the gall to suggest they make some sort of sister wives “arrangement” (with Aslaug nodding in approval), it’s all she can do not to rip her husband’s lips off her shoulders and toss them into the sea.

Lagertha’s mind is made up and in the next scene, Siggy’s helping her pack a few trunks onto the donkey cart. Bjorn has a choice to make and chooses his father. In a tear-jerking scene, Lagertha kisses her boy goodbye and rides off into the sunset.

Ragnar plays the jilted lover scene and rides after his wife, wondering why she’d ever think of leaving.

“You have humiliated and insulted me,” Largertha tells him. “You leave me no choice but to leave and divorce you.”

Boom. Just like that, Lagertha has chosen her path. It’s not long before Bjorn comes running into the scene, announcing his changed his mind—he’s going with his mother.

Ragnar watches his family leave him and returns to the village where Aslaug and her big ol’ belly wait to comfort him.

Megan Applegate



A new Golden Age begins at this year's Oscars?

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Commenting on the Critics with Simon Columb...

Jenny McCartney writes, for The Telegraph, how this year’s Oscars could spell the start of a new Golden Age:

"The candidates for Best Picture – including 12 Years a Slave, Dallas Buyers Club, Philomena, American Hustle and Gravity – each offer something of uniquely memorable quality... I’m not alone in thinking this: in the US, there is talk of a “golden age”. Michael De Luca, a producer on the Oscar-nominated film Captain Phillips, said: “There’s incredible work being done … Not to over-inflate it, but it looks like it could be another renaissance."

Read the full article here.

Her article digs into the finance of the films, and how only three of the contenders – Gravity, Nebraska and Captain Phillips - were wholly financed by the studio system. And, according to Charles Gant in Sight and Sound (and looking at the figures on Box Office Mojo), Nebraska is the only film to “miss its mark”, currently taking in a worldwide box-office of $16.5m after spending an $11m budget (Nb – for a film to make its money back, it needs to double its production cost to compensate for publicity and exhibitor costs).

But let’s consider some of the contenders from the previous few years. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help and The Blindside have failed to hold a positive reputation. When the nominees were released, many mocked the inclusion of these twee choices. This year, if The Butler appeared in the nominees, it would’ve filled this void. But it didn’t get a nomination.

In fact, Inside Llewyn Davis’ moody, corduroy-clad glum-guitarist didn’t even get a nomination. A film made by Oscar-winners the Coen brothers (winning in 2008 for No Country for Old Men), who seem to make an appearance annually didn’t get a look in, except for nominations for Best Sound Mixing and Best Cinematography.

This year, the nominees are incredibly strong, and their success at the box-office prove as much. The justification for Gravity winning Best Picture is akin to the arguments for Avatar winning in 2009 – except Gravity holds an artistic integrity that James Cameron and his blue-folk never held. Philomena is the British darling that has snuck in, akin to An Education and Atonement, and it has not only reduced audiences to tears, but it has dramatically changed the credibility of Steve Coogan. No longer is he the actor in The Parole Officer.

Finally, the argument as to which will win is underlined by the importance of Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave.  Whether you prefer Gravity or American Hustle, the lack of cinema that depicts the brutality and harrowing truth of slavery means that 12 Years a Slave, whether it wins or not, will never be forgotten. Maybe not a Golden Age just yet, but things are going in the right direction…

Simon Columb




Teaser trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins 'Cold, Cold Heart' DLC

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Batman: Arkham Origins -- Cold, Cold Heart

With rumours of a new Arkham game announcement from Rocksteady abound, Warner Bros. Games has released a first teaser trailer for 'Cold, Cold Heart', the first story-based piece of DLC for the most recent instalment of the blockbuster video game franchise, Batman: Arkham Origins, which will unearth the tragic origin story of Mr. Freeze and his emergence as one of The Dark Knight's greatest foes. Check out the teaser trailer here...


'Cold, Cold Heart' is set to arrive on April 22nd for Xbox 360, PS3, WiiU and PC.




Disney's Frozen crosses $1 billion at the box office

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It's a big weekend for Frozen - not only is the Disney animation up for two Oscars in Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for 'Let It Go', but it's also crossed the $1 billion mark at the global box office, with Deadline reporting that the film has earned $388.7 million domestically and $611.5 million internationally for a worldwide haul of $1,000,200,000.

Frozen becomes the 18th film to reach a billion in box office receipts, and is now the biggest ever non-sequel animated film of all-time, and the second-highest grossing animated film behind Toy Story 3. It's also Disney's seventh film to reach that milestone, and only the second film of 2013 to cross ten figures after another Disney release in Marvel Studios'Iron Man 3.




Thomas Kretschmann talks briefly about Baron Strucker role in Avengers: Age of Ultron

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We know that production is underway on Joss Whedon's eagerly-anticipated sequel The Avengers: Age of Ultron, with several batches of set images and video surfacing from the "action photography" that's been shooting in Johannesburg, South Africa, featuring an apparent rampage by The Incredible Hulk [see here and here]. While principal photography is set to get underway this month, it seems that some of the cast have already been shooting, with new Cinematic Universe addition Thomas Kretschmann (Dracula) speaking briefly about his role as Baron Strucker to B.Z. Berlin (via CBM):

"I have a multi-picture deal which means I will not only appear in the 2nd part, but they're planning with me for a longer period of time. But I don't know details yet, they're keeping their cards close to their chest - top secret! I was nervous [starting work on the film]. I was overprepared; then on the set I went up to Joss Whedon, who passes for a genius, and said 'this is my first day, this is huge, please have patience with me, I'm a bit nervous."

Kretschmann is joined in the cast of Age of Ultron by fellow franchise newcomers James Spader (The Blacklist) as Ultron, Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass 2) as Quicksilver and Elizabeth Olsen (Oldboy) as the Scarlet Witch, while returning Marvel veterans include  Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Mark Ruffalo (The Incredible Hulk), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Don Cheadle (War Machine), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), and Paul Bettany (JARVIS / The Vision). The film is set for release on May 1st, 2015, with a first-look set to land later this month.



Oscars 2014: And the winners of the 86th Academy Awards are...

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The stars of the silver screen gathered in Hollywood last night as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences celebrated the very best in cinematic achievement over the past 12 months with the 86th annual Academy Awards.

Taking home the main prize, the Oscar for Best Picture, was Steve McQueen's acclaimed slavery drama 12 Years a Slave, while the film also received Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress (Lupita Nyong'o). Also winning three awards - Best Actor (Matthew McConaughey), Best Supporting Actor (Jared Leto) and Best Makeup and Hairstyling - was Dallas Buyers Club; however, the night belonged to Gravity, which claimed seven gongs in total including Best Director for Alfonso Cuaron.

Check out the full list of nominations here, with the winners highlighted in red...

Best Picture:
"American Hustle"
"Captain Phillips"
"Dallas Buyers Club"
"Gravity"
"Her"
"Nebraska"
"Philomena"
"12 Years a Slave"
"The Wolf of Wall Street"

Best Director:
David O. Russell, "American Hustle"
Alfonso Cuaron, "Gravity"
Alexander Payne, "Nebraska"
Steve McQueen, "12 Years a Slave"
Martin Scorsese, "The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Actor:
Christian Bale, "American Hustle"
Bruce Dern, "Nebraska"
Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Wolf of Wall Street"
Chiwetel Ejiofor, "12 Years a Slave"
Matthew McConaughey, "Dallas Buyer's Club"

Best Actress:
Amy Adams, "American Hustle"
Cate Blanchett, "Blue Jasmine"
Sandra Bullock, "Gravity"
Judi Dench, "Philomena"
Meryl Streep, "August: Osage County"

Best Supporting Actor:
Barkhad Abdi, "Captain Phillips"
Bradley Cooper, "American Hustle"
Jonah Hill, "The Wolf of Wall Street"
Michael Fassbender, "12 Years a Slave"
Jared Leto, "Dallas Buyers Club"

Best Supporting Actress:
Sally Hawkins, "Blue Jasmine"
Jennifer Lawrence, "American Hustle"
Lupita Nyong'o, "12 Years a Slave"
Julia Roberts, "August: Osage County"
June Squibb, "Nebraska"

Best Original Screenplay:
"American Hustle"
"Blue Jasmine"
"Dallas Buyers Club"
"Her"
"Nebraska"

Best Adapted Screenplay:
"Before Midnight"
"Captain Phillips"
"Philomena"
"12 Years a Slave"
"The Wolf Of Wall Street"

Best Animated Feature:
"The Croods"
"Despicable Me 2"
"Ernest & Celestine"
"Frozen"
"The Wind Rises"

Best Foreign Feature:
"The Broken Circle Breakdown," Belgium
"The Great Beauty," Italy
"The Hunt," Denmark
"The Missing Picture," Cambodia
"Omar," Palestine

Best Visual Effects:
"Gravity"
"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug"
"Iron Man 3"
"The Lone Ranger"
"Star Trek Into Darkness"

Best Cinematography:
"The Grandmaster"
"Gravity"
"Inside Llewyn Davis"
"Nebraska"
"Prisoners"

Best Costume Design:
"American Hustle"
"The Grandmaster"
"The Great Gatsby"
"The Invisible Woman"
"12 Years a Slave"

Best Documentary Feature:
"The Act of Killing"
"Cutie and the Boxer"
"Dirty Wars"
"The Square"
"20 Feet from Stardom"

Best Documentary Short:
"CaveDigger"
"Facing Fear"
"Karama Has No Walls"
"The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life"
"Prisoner Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall"

Best Film Editing:
"American Hustle"
"Captain Phillips"
"Dallas Buyers Club"
"Gravity"
"12 Years a Slave"

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:
"Dallas Buyers Club"
"Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa"
"The Lone Ranger"

Best Music (Original Score):
"The Book Thief"
"Gravity"
"Her"
"Philomena"
"Saving Mr. Banks"

Best Music (Original Song):
"Alone Yet Not Alone" from "Alone Yet Not Alone"
"Happy" from "Despicable Me"
"Let It Go" from "Frozen"
"The Moon Song" from "Her"
"Ordinary Love" from "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom"

Best Production Design:
"American Hustle"
"Gravity"
"The Great Gatsby"
"Her"
"12 Years a Slave"

Best Short Film, Animated:
"Feral"
"Get a Horse!"
"Mr. Hublot"
"Possessions"
"Room on the Broom"

Best Short Film, Live Action:
"Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn't Me)"
"Avant Que De Tout Perdre" (Just Before Losing Everything)
"Helium"
"Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa?" (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)
"The Voorman Problem"

Best Sound Editing:
"All Is Lost"
"Captain Phillips"
"Gravity"
"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug"
"The Lone Survivor"

Best Sound Mixing:
"Captain Phillips"
"Gravity"
"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug"
"Inside Llewyn Davis"
"Lone Survivor"

What do you make of this year's Oscar winners? Let us know your thoughts, or head on over to The Flickering Myth Forum...




Preview of Jupiter's Legacy #4

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Mark Millar and Frank Quitely's Jupiter's Legacy #4 arrives on shelves this week, and we've got a preview of the issue for you right here...

"Brandon and his Uncle Walter have instigated the superhero revolution, but there are those who would still stand against them. On the other side of the world, Chloe and Hutch are hiding with their enormous secret and hoping to evade the man charged with hunting renegade superhumans."

Jupiter's Legacy #4

Jupiter's Legacy #4

Jupiter's Legacy #4

Jupiter's Legacy #4

Jupiter's Legacy #4

Jupiter's Legacy #4

Jupiter's Legacy #4

Jupiter's Legeacy #4 is released on Wednesday, priced $2.99.



The Flash TV pilot begins production

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On Friday we got our first look at Grant Gustin as The Flash, and now executive producer Andrew Kreisberg has taken to Twitter to reveal that production is underway on the Arrow spin-off pilot, posting the following image of a clapperboard (and the official logo?)...


The Flash pilot is being directed by David Nutter, and sees Gustin joined in the cast by Candice Patton (The Game) as Iris West, Jesse L. Martin (Law & Order) as Detective West, Danielle Panabaker (Friday the 13th) as Caitlin Snow / Killer Frost, Rick Gosnett (The Vampire Diaries) as Eddie Thawne, Broadway star Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon / Vibe, Michelle Harrison (Emily Owens, MD) as Nora Allen, Tom Cavanagh (Ed) as Harrison Wells and original Flash star John Wesley Shipp in an as-yet-unrevealed role.



Ripper Street Series 2 - Episode 2 Recap

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Megan Applegate with a recap of the second episode of Ripper Street series two…

Freaks and Friends

The season’s second episode tugged viewers into the underground freak shows of London after a woman with a protruding tail was found murdered in a hospital and her infant son missing.

The woman was poor, but obviously well cared for. Detective Inspector Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) and Detective Sergeant Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn) are on the hunt and use the newly minted Detective Constable Albert Flight (Damian Molony) to sit around the office and dig through paperwork for clues on their main suspect, John Goode, who is impervious to pain and suffers an odd tic or two.

Detective Inspector Jedediah Shine (Joseph Mawle) is never far behind Reid, Drake and Jackson and the sinister mustachioed lawman pays a visit to Joseph Merrick (Joseph Drake), the Elephant Man, reminding him how he should mind his own business about what he saw concerning the death of Shine’s man in last week’s episode. Shine also reminded Merrick how easy it is for Shine to pay him a visit and say hello. I’m fairly certain he didn’t have tea and crumpets in mind, either. Shine’s threatening Merrick to keep his mouth shut…or else.

Understandably, Merrick is terrified when Reid shows up to ask about the victim, Stella Brooks, and rings the bell for Reid to be removed. Undaunted, Reid returns another time to beg Merrick for any information about who would have Goode and Brooks’ child, as Goode has gone missing.

Merrick can’t come up with a name, but he does know that Goode is not the man’s actual name, and that his father is a doctor and that was who Stella might have been trying to find seven months ago.

Long Susan gets a meaty paw on her thigh in a scene with the sneering, slimy Silas Duggan, a man we find to be on the payroll of one Inspector Shine. Shine’s hands seem to be in every nefarious plot device this season.

Back at the station, the new constable proves useful, even if he does refuse a drink with the others at The Brown Bear, and unearths the fact that Goode was a patient of the infamous “doctor of hysterics” Karle Crabbe.

Reid and Drake pay Crabbe a visit in prison and gather what little information they can from the mad doctor. Viewers learn that a few months ago, Jackson found Reid’s wife, Emily, half-naked in a drunken stupor in a gutter and talk traveled fast through Whitechapel about how she railed at Reid in her madness.

Merrick attempts to venture out in public with a hood over his face to tell Reid what he knows about Linklater’s death. In a heartbreaking scene, he’s accosted by a growing mob in front of the precinct and the lines between who the freaks are and who aren’t is blurred for the audience. Constable Flight comes to Merrick’s rescue and chases the hecklers away with the shortest Billy Club I’ve ever seen.

Breed the Freaks out of Humanity

Cut to a lecture on eugenics by one Dr. Corcoran, a zoologist with a mean past. It comes to life that this very doctor is father to Alexander and his brother, both carriers of a certain genetic “curse” that also claimed the life of their mother. Both boys suffered immense cruelty at the hands of their father—beatings, deprivation, torture—all in the name of “curing” the abnormality so that it would not pass on to the next generation. The treatment eventually caused Alexander’s brother to take his own life and for Alexander to flee underground into the freak show scene and change his name—to John Goode.

The pieces are all fitting together now for Reid and it’s a race to get to the baby Corcoran is holding before John Goode does. They arrive too late to find Goode holding his son several stories up, preparing to jump and end both his and his child’s (potential) misery. No matter how the law men attempt to calm Goode, he will not be swayed.

Merrick saves the day and his monologue about ostracism and loneliness was something of beauty.

“Life is what you hold in your arms right now,” he tells the trembling new father. Goode steps down and Stella Brooks’ baby is safe.

So Long, Merrick

It’s time for us to say goodbye, as it happens, to the most honorable character thus far. As he promised, Shine pays an easy visit to Merrick and silences him once and for all.

In his office, Chief Inspector Fred Abbeline essentially sends both Reid and Shine to their corners, putting the kibosh on both men’s determination to undo the other. To add insult, he makes the two shake hands, which takes several awkward seconds and one loud outburst from Abbeline to finally make Reid comply.

Megan Applegate




Blu-ray Review - Gravity (2013)

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Gravity, 2013.

Directed by Alfonso Cuaron.
Starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.


SYNOPSIS:

Disaster strikes on a routine spacewalk, leaving seasoned astronaut Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) and medical engineer Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) completely alone and drifting in space.


In a case of perfect timing, director Alfonso Cuaron's taut, space-set thriller Gravity arrives on Blu-ray and DVD today in the UK, fresh from its success at last night's Academy Awards, where it dominated the night with seven awards in total (Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects).

Unless you've been living under a rock (or in outer space) for the past six months, I'm sure you're aware of the plot for Gravity, which is an exercise in simplicity itself. During a routine repair-job, two astronauts - veteran Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) and first timer Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) - are the only survivors when debris from a Russian satellite destroys their shuttle, leaving the duo stranded in the unforgiving, empty void of space. With their communication systems entirely cut off from Earth, and oxygen supplies running low, the pair must work together against insurmountable odds if they are to have any chance of making it home.

Quite simply, Gravity is a visual masterpiece, and coul d well be the finest example of CGI and other technical wizardry (yes, even 3D!) coming together to create an immersive, engaging – and ultimately terrifying – cinematic experience, which is greatly enhanced by Cuaron’s trademark long takes and mesmerising tracking shots. It is a true technical accomplishment and fully deserving of its plaudits in these areas; it’s greatest success is that the viewer never once questions the authenticity of what is on screen - the visual effects are essentially invisible, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are in space, and we as the audience are right there with them.

While any old Hollywood blockbuster can throw some glossy visuals up on the screen, it’s rare to get such an engrossing tale to back up the impressive imagery. However, Gravity delivers just that and from the very first scene we’re catapulted into this desperate situation facing our two leads and the tension never lets up until the closing credits roll. Credit is certainly due to Bullock and Clooney, who carry the film themselves and are both hugely impressive in their roles – especially Bullock, who delivers a career best turn. Things do start to get a little repetitive as we approach the third act, and the script – from Cuaron and his son Jonas – isn’t quite up to the standard of the visuals, meaning that a 91 minute film ends up feeling more like two hours. Still, this is a small complaint, particularly when we’re spending those seemingly two hours looking at such stunning imagery.

As you’d expect, Gravity does lose a little something on the small screen, but that’s not to say this isn’t one of the best-looking Blu-rays I’ve had the pleasure of watching. The 1080p video transfer is immaculate and captures all of the painstaking attention to detail, and it’s backed up by a spectacular 5.1 DTS-HD audio track. If you want to show off your home cinema set-up, then Gravity is the disc to do so with; throw in almost three hours of in-depth bonus material – and the film itself, of course - and this Blu-ray is a must have addition to your collection.

Flickering Myth Rating - Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★  


Gary Collinson is a writer and lecturer from the North East of England. He is the editor-in-chief of FlickeringMyth.com and the author of Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen.





Preview of The Darkness: Vicious Traditions

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Ales Kot (Zero, Wild Children) and Dean Ormston (Judge Dredd, Predator, Books of Magick) deliver a special Tales of the Darkness one-shot this week with the release of The Darkness: Vicious Traditions; check out a preview here...

"The Roman Empire is on the edge of collapse. A part of its army is stranded deep within the Visigoth territory. The barbarian leader wakes up in a mass grave. He should be dead; yet he is not."

The Darkness: Vicious Traditions

The Darkness: Vicious Traditions

The Darkness: Vicious Traditions

The Darkness: Vicious Traditions

The Darkness: Vicious Traditions

The Darkness: Vicious Traditions

The Darkness: Vicious Traditions

The Darkness: Vicious Traditions is released on Wednesday, prices $3.99.




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