Callum Keith Rennie joins Fifty Shades of Grey

It took a while, but the cast of Fifty Shades of Grey is starting to shape up. Battlestar Galactica veteran Callum Keith Rennie has joined the cast as Ray Steele, Anastasia's stepfather. Rennie has recently been seen on The Killing and Californication.

Ray Steele is described as an Army vet who married Ana's mother after her first husband died. Though they later divorced, Anastasia still considers him her real father and was taught about self-defense, guns, and tools by him. He is also a skilled carpenter and an avid fly fisher. He doesn't have a huge role in the books so I wouldn't be surprised if the movie role is expanded a bit.

Fifty Shades of Grey is set to open in theaters on February 13, 2015. 

Jason Momoa in talks for Batman vs. Superman

Jason Momoa nearly joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as he was considered for the role of Drax the Destroyer. He was ultimately not cast as the role went to Dave Bautista, but now the DC Universe has its eye on Momoa for Batman vs. Superman.

Rumor has is that Zack Snyder is eyeing Momoa for the film's big villain which has yet to be announced. However, the role as of right now is considered unannounced but the internet is quick to come to the conclusion that he could be playing Doomsday. Another theory being supported by the internets is that he could be playing Martian Manhunter.
If you have never seen Momoa in anything, he is most recognized for the reboot of Conan the Barbarian. You know, the reboot that basically failed to go anywhere. I think it's a bit too soon to start speculating villains or heroes at this point. I feel like including Martian Manhunter would be a waste unless they are planning on including him in Justice League. With Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman being in Batman vs. Superman I feel like adding another hero would be a bit too much.

Ben Whishaw to play Freddie Mercury

It was rumored a while back that Ben Whishaw (Skyfall) was in the running to replace Sacha Baron Cohen in the Freddie Mercury biopic. We now have confirmation that Whishaw will indeed be portraying Mercury in the untitled biopic.
Dexter Fletcher has been confirmed to direct. The story is set to start in the 70's with the band's formation and ends around the time of the 1985 Live Aid concert set. Sacha Baron Cohen dropped out of the film after being attached for quite sometime due to creative differences with the remaining band members.

Gal Gadot cast as Wonder Woman

I'm a little late to the party, but it has been announced that Gal Gadot has been cast to play Wonder Woman in Batman vs. Superman. This confirms that Wonder Woman will be introduced in some way prior to Justice League in 2017 and somewhat backs up the theory that she will not be receiving her own movie.

Gadot is an Israeli born actress who is most recognizable from her work as Gisele in the Fast and Furious films. She also competed as Miss Israel in the 2004 Miss Universe pageant and served two years in the Israeli military. This will be her first major starring role and will no doubt be a recurring role. She beat out actresses such as Olga Kurylenko and Elodie Yung for the role of Wonder Woman.
Many are wondering the motivation behind casting Gadot as Wonder Woman and are hoping she isn't treated like Black Widow was in The Avengers. In other words, the basic consensus seems to be that people don't want her to just be a pretty face with minor support to the main heroes, Batman and Superman. She will also be sharing the screen with Amy Adams who was pretty lame in Man of Steel.

I personally think Wonder Woman is one of those comic heroes that is impossible to cast and/or portray correctly. I don't have much hope for this character at all so this doesn't bug me.

X-Men: Apocalypse coming in 2016

They aren't wasting any time with the X-Men franchise, that's for sure. Director Bryan Singer tweeted today that the follow up to X-Men: Days of Future Past, to be released in 2014, will be titled X-Men: Apocalypse and will hit theaters on May 27, 2016. Well, it's the assumed sequel to Days of Future Past.

If you aren't aware, Apocalypse is the name of an immortal mutant with ancient Egyptian roots. Apocalypse possesses superhuman strength, the ability to teleport, a genius intellect, and the ability to control energy. The fact that Bishop is being introduced in Days of Future Past could possibly lead to Apocalypse because of the alternate universe. Only time will tell.

Lance Reddick joins American Horror Story

American Horror Story: Coven finally has its "Voodoo Satan" and his name is Lance Reddick. The veteran from Fringe and The Wire has joined the cast as Papa Legba, the so-called Voodoo Satan who is more powerful than Angela Bassett's character, Marie Laveau. Not much else is known about the character or when he will show up.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - First Trailer

We finally have the first, CGI-filled trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. I have watched it twice now and I still just can't wrap my head around it. And that is in a bad way.

I didn't like the first Amazing Spider-Man and I think this one looks even worse. The CGI alone is just gross. It doesn't even look like a movie. It looks like a video game. Not to mention the fact that I feel like this trailer basically just gave the entire movie away.
I don't understand why they are making the same mistake Spider-Man 3 did and including so many damn villains. From what it seems we have Electro, The Rhino, Harry Osbourne/Oscorp, and potentially the Green Goblin. It's too much, even if they are saving some of them for future films. I also want to include how it appears they are skipping all possible backstory on Harry because in this trailer he looks like a creeper out to get Peter from the get go. Way to go, Marc Webb. I will be passing on this one like I did the first one. Maybe I'll watch it when it's on DVD.





#TheAmazingSpiderman2 #AmazingSpiderMan

Fast and Furious might start from scratch

In addition to the grief around Paul Walker's unexpected death, there is a problem due to the fact that he was in the middle of filming a movie. Previously it was announced that Fast and Furious 7 had been put on an indefinite hold, but there is now some talk that the film may be scrapped and started from scratch with a new script that excludes Walker's character.

Fast and Furious 7 was already halfway finished filming, but most of the key scenes involving Paul Walker were not completed yet. The big concern by Universal and director James Wan is how to move forward without tarnishing Paul Walker's memory and disrespecting the fans. In addition to the production indefinitely stopping, another option being explored is to restart and basically cut out Walker's character altogether. Personally, I find that the most disrespectful option.
The other option is to do rewrites and try and work around the scenes that were not filmed yet. There is a big possibility of body doubles, like what they did when Brandon Lee died during filming of The Crow, so fans can kind of feel like they are saying goodbye to Walker while seeing him on-screen one more time. One minor detail with this thought is the potential for CGI to be introduced and have Walker's face digitally placed onto a double.

The bottom line is there is no getting around that Walker starred in a franchise about street racing and died in a fiery car crash. It is very sad, don't get me wrong, but it is just a fact. I think the best thing they could do would be to just move forward. It isn't disrespectful to, for lack of a better way, kill off Walker's character. If they still want to make the July 11th release date they are going to have to make some decisions fast.

Right now, all of us at Universal are dedicated to providing support to Paul’s immediate family and our extended Fast & Furious family of cast, crew and filmmakers.   At this time we feel it is our responsibility to shut down production on Fast & Furious 7 for a period of time so we can assess all options available to move forward with the franchise.  We are committed to keeping Fast & Furious fans informed, and we will provide further information to them when we have it.  Until then, we know they join us in mourning the passing of our dear friend Paul Walker.
Read more at http://collider.com/fast-furious-7-decisions-paul-walker/#8c7leVfTeSXGbsP8.99

Frozen and Monsters U lead Annie Award nominations

Hard to believe it's that time once again, but the nominations for the Annie Awards have been announced. The leaders, to no surprise, are both Disney films and one of them is Pixar.

The nominees are...

Best Animated Feature:

A Letter to Momo
Despicable Me 2
Ernest & Celestine
Frozen
Monsters University
The Croods
The Wind Rises

Best Animated Special Feature:

Chipotle Scarecrow
Listening Is an Act of Love
Room on the Broom
Toy Story of TERROR

Best Animated Short:

Despicable Me 2 - Puppy
Get a Horse!
Gloria Victoria
My Mom is an Airplane
The Numberlys

Best Animated TV/Broadcast Commercial:

Despicable Me 2 - Cinemark
Sound of the Woods
The Polar Bears Movie

Best General Audience TV/Broadcast Production for Preschool:

Bubble Guppies
Disney Sofia the First
Doc McStuffins
Justin Time
Peter Rabbit

Best Animated TV/Broadcast Production for Children:

Adventure Time
Beware the Batman
Disney Gravity Falls
Kung Fu Panda - Legends of Awesomeness
Regular Show
Scaredy Squirrel
Teen Titans Go!
The Legend of Korra

Best General Audience Animated TV/Broadcast Production:

Archer
Bob's Burgers
Disney Tron Uprising
Futurama
Motorcity

Marcia Gay Harden joins Fifty Shades of Grey

Marcia Gay Harden is the latest addition to Fifty Shades of Grey in a pretty decent wave of casting news. She will play Christian Grey's adoptive mother, Dr. Grace Trevelyan Grey. She is also the adoptive mother to Elliot Grey (Luke Grimes) and Mia Grey (Rita Ora). Grace is a pediatrician described to have sandy blonde hair and hazel eyes. Christian's father, Carrick Grey, has yet to be cast.

Marcia Gay Harden recently finished filming the latest from Woody Allen, Magic in the Moonlight, and has appeared on HBO's The Newsroom. Fifty Shades of Grey began filming this week and will hit theaters on February 13, 2015.

Eloise Mumford joins Fifty Shades of Grey

Eloise Mumford has been cast as Kate Kavanagh, the best friend and roommate of Anastasia Steele. Kate is described as a 22-year old vivacious woman with strawberry blonde hair, green eyes, and a curvaceous body. Ana describes Kate in the books as breathtakingly beautiful.

Mumford's most recognizable role (probably) is Lena Landry on the television series, The River. She also starred in So Undercover alongside Miley Cyrus. I personally have never seen her before, so I'm just whatever about this one. Fifty Shades of Grey opens in theaters on February 13, 2015.

Rita Ora joins Fifty Shades of Grey

British singer Rita Ora has joined the cast of Fifty Shades of Grey. Ora will be playing Mia Grey, the adoptive sister of Christian and Elliot Grey. Mia is described as a tall, curvaceous, bubbly 22-year old woman who plays the cello and is fluent in French.

Ora only has four film credits to her name and is currently signed to Jay-Z's Roc Nation record label. Filming for Fifty Shades of Grey began this past Monday and is set to hit theaters on February 13, 2015.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 may get a new title

We are expecting the first full trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 later on this week, but some other countries have already received some trailer teasers. Along with seeing Spidey flying around New York, we got a possible subtitle for the film as the trailers have the title The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro.
Now, this doesn't mean the US will get this title. Movies will have different titles depending on the country of release quite often, so it is possible that certain international releases will have the Rise of Electro title attached while some won't. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the official title winds up having the subtitle. It seems to be the current trend to have a subtitle for comic book sequels. I think the only recent exception is Iron Man as that character kept the sequential Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3 titles.

CBM has the teaser trailers that are absolutely nothing to get excited about. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 hits theaters in 3D on May 2, 2014.

Oldboy has the weakest Thanksgiving opening ever

Spike Lee's remake of Oldboy has opened to some (not surprising) bad press and the weakest holiday opening ever. The film grossed only $850,000 over five days.

Now... this isn't very surprising. Even though it starred relatively high name actors such as Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Samuel L. Jackson, and Sharlto Copley it was a highly unnecessary remake. Not to mention Spike Lee has been on a lot of people's shit list lately. Add into the fact that Oldboy suffered a schedule change and should have been released on October 25th, I think people just lost interest. It's actually a bit funny that the reason for the delay was the lack of genre competition over the Thanksgiving holiday. Whoever thought a remake of Oldboy would beat Catching Fire and a new Disney movie probably just lost their job.

Fast and Furious 7 delayed indefinitely

This isn't a surprise.

Due to the sudden death of Paul Walker which occurred yesterday, production of Fast and Furious 7 has been delayed indefinitely. Shooting was set to resume tomorrow in Atlanta, but Universal and the production crew have canceled the shoot and have not set a resume date at this time. The production wants to allow enough time for the cast and crew to grieve the loss of Walker as well as allowing time to complete inevitable re-writes to the script. Walker's character, Brian O'Conner, was a main character so obviously his role will need to be put in a different direction. The only Fast and Furious film Walker did not appear in was The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

However, director James Wan and Universal have not determined if the July 11, 2014 release date will need to be changed. Wan stated that more than half of the actual filming has already been completed and they were set to go to Abu Dhabi after filming in Atlanta wrapped. I personally won't be surprised if this movie is delayed by a couple months.