Two Fun

I don't know how I missed the original Red movie, but I'm definitely going to try to see it before the sequel comes out in July. The original cast is back, along with Sir Anthony Hopkins and, "surprisingly", he's playing a crazy person.

He's usually best when he's a little kra kra...



Plus, you really can't go wrong with anything starring Helen Mirren.



Looks like the queen gets to kick more ass in this one too.

Hail yeah!

Super Tuesday

Chris Evans has just signed to play Captain America in the upcoming Marvel film, The First Avenger: Captain America.

It's an odd choice, since he already played Johnny Storm (the "Flame-ON!" guy) in the previous Marvel Fantastic Four movies (which are going to be redone again with a new cast). He'll also play Captain America in the upcoming "Avengers" movie, which will also include Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), the Hulk (Edward Norton), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) all in one movie.



Filming has already begun on a stand-alone Thor movie with Chris Hemsworth (he played Kirk's young father in the last Star Trek movie), which will also co-star Anthony Hopkins and is being directed by Kenneth Branagh.

It will be cool to see an Avengers movie with all three characters (and probably more) and the same actors starring in them for once. It's a shame that Warner Bros. still hasn't be able to get their Justice League movie off the ground. Maybe Avengers will help give them a bit of a competition push...



However, the DC Universe is still going strong, there is a new Batman movie and Superman and X-Men movie reboots in the works and, of course, we have Ryan Reynolds currently filming the Green Lantern movie...so I'm looking forward to those as well.



The new Conan movie was also cast recently, with Stargate Atlantis actor Jason Momoa taking over Arnold's infamous loin cloth (hopefully it was dry-cleaned first).

I'm sure that Jason's main competition for the role, Kellan Lutz (from the movie Twilight and recent Calvin Klein ads), was bummed when he didn't get the barbarian role. But, I'm sure he's over it now...



It was announced today that Kellan has been cast as the Greek god Poseidon in the upcoming movie War of the Gods, which will also star Mickey Roarke (who also co-stars in the upcoming Iron Man 2) as King Hyperion.

Gold's Gym must be very busy lately with all of these Superhero, Warrior, and and Greek God movies coming out.

I certainly don't see any of these actors "preparing for their roles" at my local 24 Hour Fitness.

Jonathan Demme

Very sad news today...

Jonathan Demme, the Oscar winning director, producer and screenwriter and screenwriter, has died at age 73.

Born in Baldwin, Long Island, Demme has had one of the great filmmaking careers of his era, rising to prominence in the 1980s with his comedy films Melvin and Howard (1980), Swing Shift (1984), Something Wild (1986) and Married to the Mob (1988). He won his Oscar for directing The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and later helmed the acclaimed films Philadelphia (1993) and Rachel Getting Married (2008), along with many seminal documentaries such as the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense, and Neil Young: Heart of Gold. 

Like more than a few iconic directors Demme cracked into features making exploitation films for Roger Corman, directing such films as Caged Heat, Crazy Mama and Fighting Mad for Corman’s New World Pictures. His first breakthrough was Melvin and Howard, not a box office hit but a film that was critically acclaimed. He established his eclectic, energetic style with Stop Making Sense, followed by the manic Something Wild, the Spalding Gray monologue Swimming to Cambodia and the New York comedy Married to the Mob. 

Demme followed that with The Silence of the Lambs, one of the last films for Orion which was released in February and was the rare film to win all five major categories — Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay for Ted Tally, Best Actor for Anthony Hopkins & Best Actress for Jodie Foster –even though the studio didn’t have a ton of money to spend on a campaign, and horror is almost always overlooked by the Academy. Demme followed with Philadelphia, an early film that focused on the hypocrisy and prejudice surrounding the AIDS crisis, which won the Best Actor Oscar for Tom Hanks, who starred alongside Denzel Washington.

He directed some great films, was highly respected as a director, and beloved for his ability to work so well with actors and creative teams on each of his projects.

He will be missed.

Rock'em Sock'em

The first full trailer for HBO's Westworld series was released this week...



It looks like it's gonna be filled with lots of weird western wobots going cwazy.

And Anthony Hopkins.

I'm in!

The series begins on October 2nd.