Rumors, conjecture, speculation… All in a day’s work around the Star Trek 2 gossip mill, where the identity of the villain in J.J. Abrams’s sequel (currently in production) has seemingly undergone more revisions than a Kardashian’s Wiki page over the last few months. We know Benedict Cumberbatch has the part , but which part? Khan? Worf’s Zit? Who knows? Except for the obsessives at TrekMovie, that is — they apparently know. Spoiler alert! (Sort of.) Anyone who hasn’t been paying attention since the days when Benicio Del Toro was originally penciled in as Trek 2 ‘s baddie may be surprised to know that Khan in fact remains the villain, despite indications to the contrary by Abrams. Per TrekMovie [via /film ]: TrekMovie has confirmed this with a number of sources so we no longer consider it to be a rumor. Khan is back in 2013, however sources indicate that the film is not a rehash of “Space Seed,” the original Star Trek episode where Kirk and crew first encounter the genetic superman from the past. Great. Now we get to speculate about the plot. Or just caption the above set photo of Cumberbatch and Zachary Quinto, which crept out a while back from MTV . Your call! [ TrekMovie , /film ]
Universal’s going back to the well, this time bringing Star Trek / Transformers / Cowboys & Aliens writers Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci along to re-envision two horror properties of the not-so-distant past: “Kurtzman and Orci’s K/O Paper Products will develop and produce a modern reimagining of Universal library titles including The Mummy , alongside producer Sean Daniel and writer Jon Spaihts. The pair will also develop and produce Universal’s reimagined Van Helsing , with Tom Cruise attached to star in and produce the film.” Oh, I’m sure it’ll all work out just fine. Right, Ron ? [ Deadline ]
With The Dark Knight Rises release fast approaching, Warner Bros. has launched their latest bit of buzz-driving viral marketing by teasing a brand-new trailer for the July release. But in order to see that trailer, Bat-fans must first “help” the Gotham City Police Department “find” Batman by tracking hundreds of pieces of Bat-graffiti strategically placed around the world; for each bit of graffiti located and tagged via social media, Warner Bros. will unveil the new trailer one frame at a time . Graffiti: it’s not just for Oscar-nominees anymore! Tucked away in a dossier containing Batman’s GCPD criminal file (posted to TheDarkKnightRises.com ) are documents detailing where Batman stands following the events of The Dark Knight : Namely, at the top of the city’s hit list, having taken the rap for murder, kidnapping, and aggravated assault. In a viral call to action cleverly disguised as a police memo, “officers” (that’s you, Bat-fans) are directed to find pieces of pro-Batman graffiti stenciled across Gotham City (that’s every box office-targeted metropolis, right?) in an effort to stamp out grassroots support for the caped crusader. “Officers should also be directed to report any and all information pertaining to the investigation to the designated contact (#tdkr07202012 or tdkr07202012@gothampolicedepartment.com). This includes submitting photographic evidence of graffiti related to any movement in support of the vigilante’s return so we can suppress it before it becomes a problem. Officers should make sure that location services or store location is on in their camera settings.” The campaign has already unlocked a number of frames from the trailer (see below, courtesy Coming Soon): I’m sure Warner Bros. doesn’t endorse graffiti — except in bat form, and leading up to July 20, 2012, and in chalk, of course. And it’s a brilliant way to get fans in a tizzy over seeing a trailer ONE FREAKING FRAME AT A TIME. But isn’t this guy who shaved the Bat-signal into his facial hair (via Reddit) just as effective a piece of viral marketing? Move over, Movember! It’s time for… Bat-stache-uly? [via Coming Soon ]
The upcoming Cannes Film Festival added additional titles to its Official Selection Monday, including American title Gimme The Loot which screened last week at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Today’s additions join the 22 other films in the official selection and 16 in the event’s Un Certain Regard section as well as the previously announced Critics Week lineup . Additionally, the fest said the montage film Final Cut – Hölgyeim És Uraim by György Pálfi (Hungary), produced by Béla Tarr, which will close Cannes Classics on Saturday, May 25. Titles added to the Cannes official selection : Trashed by Candida Brady (UK) – Special Screening The Sapphires by Wayne Blair (Australia, 1st film) – Midnight Screening Maniac by Franck Khalfoun (USA/France) – Midnight Screening Djeca by Aida Begic (Bosnia-Herzegovina) – Un Certain Regard Gimme the Loot by Adam Leon (USA) (1st film) – Un Certain Regard Renoir by Gilles Bourdos (France), at the closing ceremony – Un Certain Regard
I know what you were thinking: “Whew! The Oscars are over! No more of this Uggie red-carpet business ! We can back to real celebrities and real celebrity issues — like what Jimmy Kimmel thinks about Kim Kardashian . Hard-hitting!” Alas, guess who went to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner over the weekend? Moreover, guess who just got a freaking book deal ? First off, there’s the Artist wonder dog hamming it up on the WHCD red carpet, presumably awaiting a glass of pinot grigio and maybe a crab cake or just holding poor Diane Sawyer up on her way to the metal detector. It’s hard to know without having been there, and when you consider that a retired Jack Russell terrier was invited and you weren’t, it’s easy to think you should have been there, and what are you doing with your life, paying off five figures’ worth of student loans while this dog has awards campaigns and international social-media notoriety in his name, and maybe you went into the wrong line of business, and really who wants to live longer than 14 or 15 years anyway on this godforsaken rock, especially one riven by war, pestilence and, well, this … More from the AP [via Huffington Post ]: Uggie, the Jack Russell terrier who appeared in the Oscar-winning The Artist , has a memoir coming. Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, announced Friday that Uggie: My Story will come out in October. His tale of tails will be transcribed by biographer and presumed dog whisperer Wendy Holden. Whatever. I’m totally willing to accept responsibility for this and apologize accordingly for the tsunami of existential woe about to wash over every struggling writer in America, on one condition: You’d better cut me in, Uggie. That is all. [Photo: Getty Images] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Peter Jackson is currently experiencing the direct opposite of the CinemaCon Oscar Hype phenomenon explored here last week, with his Hobbit — shot at the adventurous rate of 48 frames per second — drawing more than a few skeptics out of the geek woodwork. This calls for damage control. “Nobody is going to stop,” Jackson told EW late Friday, days after his 10-minute Hobbit preview was dismantled by the CinemaCon press corps. “This technology is going to keep evolving.” That wasn’t all, and oddly or not, Jackson’s admonitions didn’t sound so different from those of CinemaCon darling Ang Lee , who would really rather you just wait and see the entire movie before leaping to conclusions: “At first it’s unusual because you’ve never seen a movie like this before. It’s literally a new experience, but you know, that doesn’t last the entire experience of the film–not by any stretch, [just] 10 minutes or so,” Jackson tells EW. “That’s a different experience than if you see a fast-cutting montage at a technical presentation.” So what does he say to people who just decide they don’t like the glossy new look of the format he’s using? “I can’t say anything,” Jackson acknowledges. “Just like I can’t say anything to someone who doesn’t like fish. You can’t explain why fish tastes great and why they should enjoy it.” When it debuts Dec. 14., The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be the first major performance for 48-frames, while this week’s showcase was just an audition. Jackson says those who remain unconvinced should wait to see more before closing their minds completely. “There can only ever be a real reaction, a truthful reaction, when people actually have a chance to see a complete narrative on a particular film,” he said. Now watch it sweep the Oscars . I’m just saying. [ EW ] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
“He’s full of praise for Ricky Gervais, but he’s never seen the American version of The Office . ‘I can’t, there’s no point. Ricky’s truly was done like a documentary. In the States they can’t go there. They’ve got to light it brighter, and the camera can’t move in quite the same way because the audience won’t stand for that. It’s a horrible way of using the device. They’re using a device that they don’t truly understand. And I’m not a fan of kind of doing something. Do it or don’t do it. If you’re going to do a fake documentary, make it a fake documentary. Have the balls to just do it that way.'” [ The Guardian ]
Martin Scorsese has long proven his mastery of filmmaking, passion for storytelling and an infectious worship of the medium in which he’s produced nearly five decades of singular, sometimes legendary work. Perhaps it should come as no surprise, then, that man of such fervency and skill would take so well to one of the rapidly developing hallmarks of contemporary cinema culture: Trolling. Scorsese joined fellow Oscar-winner Ang Lee on a panel Wednesday at CinemaCon , where the filmmakers told the industry crowd how sincerely they believed in the 3-D renaissance. I mean, sure, Hugo turned out OK ( critically , anyway; commercially, oof ), and Lee’s forthcoming 3-D epic The Life of Pi has plenty worth anticipating with or without the stereoscopic extras. But this … I mean, I just can’t: Martin Scorsese has become so enamored with 3-D filmmaking that he expects to use the technology in all his future projects. The Academy Award-winning director of The Departed told a crowd of theater owners at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas on Wednesday that he wishes his landmark films Raging Bull and Taxi Driver had been three-dimensional. Scorsese is so convinced of the power of 3-D, he said he only saw Hugo, his first 3-D movie released to critical acclaim last year, once in 2-D. “There is something that 3-D gives to the picture that takes you into another land and you stay there and it’s a good place to be,” he said. Yes! That land is called Migrainetown, and it is a good place to be if you are director with back-end points and/or an exhibitor selling the eye-cramping privilege for $16 a pop, both shuttered away in the local bank reinvesting the community’s money in more 3-D “infrastructure.” (“Keep them open,” Lee implored, for example, on behalf of Migrainetown’s independent movie houses. “Especially with 3-D, this is a new era coming. We have to keep up with it.”) And then there was… this , which apparently is the stock defense for anyone advocating new technology that completely takes viewers out of the movie : Scorsese compared 3-D to the rise of color movies. He said as a film student at New York University in the early 1960s, he was shocked when he heard predictions that all future movies would be filmed in color. He said anyone harboring doubts about the rising influence of 3-D technology should consider how color movies have taken over the industry. The 3-D craze allows filmmakers to accomplish the original goals of cinema, Scorsese said. “The minute it started people wanted three things: color, sound and depth,” Scorsese said. “You want to recreate life.” Wrong, wrong, wrong — they wanted color, sound and texting . Get it straight, Marty! Also: Come back to us! Also : If what happens in Vegas truly stays in Vegas, then why do I keep smelling sulfur? [ AP via Awards Daily ] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
After scoring a book deal, selling several TV pilots, and making her name 140 characters at a time on Twitter , microblogging mom and Canadian wit Kelly Oxford has sold her first screenplay to Hollywood. Warner Bros. acquired her spec Son of a Bitch for a reported low- to mid-six figures; the story concerns a pothead party girl who tries to keep her image intact despite discovering she’s pregnant. The ringing sound you just heard is Anna Faris’s agent’s phone. [ Deadline ]
The theatrical specialty release space has a new contender joining the fray. Chicago-based entertainment company MPI Media Group is launching a new theatrical distribution label with an initial slate of seven titles and have tapped veteran execs to spearhead operations. MPI’s EVP Greg Newman will oversee the newly dubbed MPI Pictures, which will be led by former Wellspring co-chief and producer Marie Therese Guirgis who will serve as Head of Theatrical Distribution. Guirgis and Newman will attend the upcoming Cannes Film Market to acquire more titles for release under its label. Also joining the team to oversee the initial MPI lineup are distribution executive Emily Woodburne (formerly of BEV Pictures) and marketing exec Dan Goldberg (formerly of Wellspring and IFC Films). MPI Pictures will specialize in foreign-language art house fare as well as “high end genre and American independent films,” according to MPI. “”The audience for commercial foreign-language and independent films remains a flourishing niche in the marketplace,” commented Newman on launching MPI Pictures in a statement. “With the launch of our theatrical division we have the ability not only to release completed feature films that we acquire but also to release our own original productions. The commercial appeal of all our films reaches across all distribution platforms from theaters to Video On Demand, digital, DVD and beyond.” MPI Pictures’ current roster of seven films include Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s ( Gunner Palace ) SXSW ’11 mixed martial arts doc Fightville , currently in release; Brian Crano’s story of two friends starring Jason Ritter, Bag of Hammers ; Mathieu Demy’s directorial feature debut Americano starring Salma Hayek and Chiara Mastoianni; Guillaume Canet’s drama Little White Lies with Francois Cluzet and Marion Cotillard; Catherine Deneuve and Romain Duris starrer The Big Picture by Eric Lartigau; Victoria Mahoney’s Berlin ’11 debut feature Yelling to The Sky starring Zoe Kravitz and Gabourey Sidibe; and crime drama The Heineken Kidnapping by Dutch director Maarten Treurniet. MPI Media Group is a producer, distributor and licensor of films, home entertainment, historical footage and more. Founded in 1976, Chicago-based MPI Media Group remains one of the largest independent entertainment companies producing and distributing narratives and documentaries.
