Tag Archives: Warner Bros.

Movie News & Opinions

‘Akira’ Update – Oldman out, Ken Watanabe Might Be In

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A quick addendum to yesterday’s casting update for Warner Brothers’ remake of Akira: I’ve got my morning coffee, meaning I’m not nearly as bitter as I was yesterday. Oh and also, Superhero Hype has word that Gary Oldman has officially passed on the part of Colonel Shikishima, and Ken Watanabe (Inception) is their next choice for the character.

Watanabe is quickly becoming a recognizable face for his role in big movies like Christopher Nolan’s Inception and Batman Begins, but he’s had equal success in Japanese cinema. He’s a talented guy and would likely handle a complex role like ‘The Colonel’ pretty well, not to mention he’d be lending some much needed credibility to the rest of the young and fairly untested cast. With Oldman out, there’s not much star power left to carry the picture.

That said though, Garret Hedlund is still the only actor locked down as of yet. We’ll keep you updated on all the Akira news as it develops.

Movie News & Opinions

‘Akira’ Testing for the Role of Tetsuo

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Sigh. Gamma Squad‘s got the latest on casting for Warner Bros.’s Akira project and boy oh boy, there’s no getting away from how bad an idea this movie is. To recap, Garret Hedlund (Tron: Legacy) is still the probable choice for the role of Kaneda, Helena Bonham-Carter and Gary Oldman (both from Harry Potter) have been offered roles as Lady Miyako and Colonel Shikishima, and Kristen Stewart (Twilight) has been offered the role of Kei, who you can expect will have her character thrillingly revitalized as a bored white girl with no discernible personality.

She can hardly contain her excitement…

Here’s some more exciting news, if you think ‘exciting’ means crapping on things that exist: Kaneda and Tetsuo are now brothers! Betcha didn’t see that coming. Now this conflicted relationship between old friends decaying into resentment and hate is replaced with…sibling rivalry, I guess? Cool?

Speaking of Tetsuo, Warner Bros. is now screen-testing 8 actors for the role of the best-friend-turned-psychic-monster, though none of the listed actors look to me like they can pull off being in a cyber-punk biker gang:

From Left to right: (Top) DJ Cotrona (Detroit 187), Logan Marshal Green (Devil), Toby Kebbell (Rock n’ Rolla), Richard Madden (Game of Thrones). (Bottom) Rami Malek (Twilight: Breaking Dawn—Part 2), Michael Pitt (Boardwalk Empire), Paul Dano (Cowboys & Aliens), Alden Ehrenreich (Tetro)

I suppose of all of the candidates, the only actors I’m familiar with are Richard Madden, Paul Dano and Michael Pitt. I really enjoy Game of Thrones and am a fan of Paul Dano, however, so I think by default my go-to is Michael Pitt. He’s great on Boardwalk Empire, but I don’t have a vested interest in it, so I don’t mind seeing him tarnished by this tripe.

To be fair I shouldn’t be this cynical without having seen the finished product, but in my defense, WHAT THE HELL, HOLLYWOOD??

MOVIES

Hero Express – ‘The Avengers’ Banners, ‘Man of Steel 2’. and ‘TDKR’ Wraps?

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Welcome back to the Hero Express, your one-stop sometimes SPOILER filled shop through the news filled world of superhero’s in Film, TV, Video Games and whatever else floats your boat.

Continue reading Hero Express – ‘The Avengers’ Banners, ‘Man of Steel 2’. and ‘TDKR’ Wraps? →

Movie Trailers

Batman: Year One – Official Sneak Peek

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Back in April we told you about the impending Animated adaptation of Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One. At that time all we had were some casting announcements and a few picture stills. What we have now however, is a whole lot more. Yesterday Warner Bros animation department released an “Official Sneak Peak”, which will appear on the upcoming Green Lantern: Emerald Knights DVD…

Well, that was awesome. Cranston I think will be great as Gordon, and Dusku and Sackhoff will garner no complaints from me, but while I like Ben McKenzie, after hearing his bat-voice, it’ll have to grow on me. Alex Rocco had me excited initially because he played Moe Green, but after this I just don’t hear Falcone when he talks. I hope I’m wrong.  Regardless, I think this will be great, and I can’t wait to pick it up.

Batman: Year One is (accroding to IMDb) set to hit the shelves September 27th. So to hold you off till then, check out the video below. It’s from Comic Book Artist Will Sliney, who is most recently been working on the Star Wars: The Clone Wars comic book.

Movie News & Opinions

Dark Knight Rises: Bane Revealed…

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So starts the viral ad campaign for the next installment of Nolan’s Batman franchise.

Fan Made Poster…

This comes to us from Hero Complex:

In a stroke of viral marketing brilliance, Christopher Nolan gave his intrepid fans on Twitter a sneak preview of “The Dark Knight Rises“: the first photo of Tom Hardy as Bane in the next Batman film.

As fans discovered, tweeting “#thefirerises” helps fill in the hidden Tom Hardy image on “The Dark Knight Rises” website, which launched Friday. Holy Twitter, Batman! What a way for Nolan to mark the first week of filming.

Tom Hardy is becoming one of my favorite actors, and while I didn’t love the movie Bronson, it was his performance in there that proved to me he was the right choice for Bane, and no doubt helped Nolan’s vision as well.

I can’t wait for 2012…

TV

Wonder Woman in Danger: NBC Passes on Pilot

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It’s sad to say that NBC has decided to pass on the pilot to the new Wonder Woman series. It seemed like a mess from the start. I remember many of my colleagues didn’t mind the costume and I myself though she should have had the original star spangled underpants. Hell, NBC probably would have picked the pilot up they had use that costume.

And BOOM that's a wrap!

But instead the series is effectively dead unless a miracle happens and it manages to air elsewhere. However that does not seem to be in the cards as NBC was their last option according to Spinoff Online:

Continue reading Wonder Woman in Danger: NBC Passes on Pilot →