Starz have released the first trailer for Da Vinci's Demons, the upcoming series from The Dark Knight's David S. Goyer. The series is expected to debut in the spring, as Spartacus comes to an end. Check out the trailer below.
You can also watch our recent interviews with Goyer and Da Vinci's Demons cast members from New York Comic Con:
Here's your first look at Arnold Schwarzenegger in the upcoming cop action-thriller Ten, directed by End of Watch's David Ayer.
Schwarzenegger tweeted the following today: "I'm having a great time working with @DavidAyerMovies on my new movie, Ten. Check out my look:"
In Ten, an elite DEA task force deals with the world's deadliest drug cartels. Specializing in complex mobile operations, the team executes a tactical raid on a cartel safe house. What looks to be a typical raid turns out to be an elaborate theft operation, pre-planned by the DEA squad.
After hiding millions in stolen cash, the team believes their secret is safe – until someone begins assassinating them one by one.
Although The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo only performed decently at the box office, rumors surrounding a follow-up have continued to circulate. While director David Fincher has been openly noncommittal about helming The Girl Who Played with Fire, Dragon Tattoo star Daniel Craig remains hopeful for the project. Moreover, he may persuade Fincher to return.
"Of course I'll embrace [the movie], especially if Fincher does it," Craig told the L.A. Times. "I'm definitely going to work on him."
The first film was well received by critics and fans of the original books, but Sony-MGM is still hesitant about moving forward on a sequel.
The film hasn't been ruled out completely, but the studio says that if they were to greenlight Fire, it would need to be made on a lower budget.
As of right now, Sony is currently waiting on a first draft of the screenplay, which is being written by Dragon Tattoo writer Steve Zaillian.
Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love by following @Max_Nicholson on Twitter, or MaxNicholson on IGN.
Another month, another mile in Peter David’s marathon revamping of X-Factor. This time, we say goodbye to another member of the team and work through some fresh emotions left buried for far too long. As a whole, the book is a solid group of character studies bereft of major action pieces, which may not tickle every X-Factor reader’s fancy.
If you’re not into hearing about emotions and implications, this may not be the best book for you. There are hurt feelings and cute, romantic moments to be found but not much in the way of action. Now, you may be saying, “But Poet, David’s character work is the best part of X-Factor! It’s the reason I keep coming back!” Fear not, gentle reader. I understand where you’re coming from, and you stand a very good chance of enjoying this story. Monet provides some nice moments of levity to contrast the seriousness of Lorna’s engaging dilemma. The problem is, not every reader will have the necessary attention span or interests for an episode of Gilmore Girls in comic form.
Peter David’s trusty comic book partner, Leonard Kirk, is once again the artist in charge of X-Factor, but his work fails to meet his usual standard. It’s not too tough to find instances of stiff character posture, and some images seem a bit rushed, with inker Jay Leisten needing to guess at facial features in some backgrounds and smaller panels. The expressions on characters' faces – usually Kirk’s strong suit – are noticeably inconsistent as well, especially during the confrontation in the bedroom. The small degree of visual spice to be found here is underwhelming, with most large format images serving better to chew up space than to improve the story.
Don’t let the score sway your opinion, here. This is one of those issues that will appeal strongly to one type of reader and repulse another. It’s not terribly difficult to find technical flaws in this issue, but, overall, it’s a sturdy episode. When deciding on this one, it’s best to be honest with yourself about whether or not you can stand an issue entirely comprised of superheroes emoting.
Poet is a freelance writer, mid-core gamer, and frequent IGN contributor. Follow Poet on Twitter @PoetMase, or post a message on his IGN profile PoetMase.
Check out the latest images from Silver Linings Playbook, the upcoming drama from director David O. Russell starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Chris Tucker, and Julia Stiles.
Silver Linings Playbook opens November 21.
The Revenant opens with a young soldier, Bart Gregory (David Anders, Once Upon a Time), getting killed in the line of duty. One month later, shortly after being buried, he awakens as a mysterious vampire/zombie hybrid. It's not long before Bart realizes that, in order to stay alive, he must drink human blood. With the help of his old friend, Joey (Chris Wylde, Joe Dirt), Bart becomes a sort of nighttime vigilante, offing thugs and other bad guys in order to quench his undying thirst.
Despite being built around a few worn out genre cliches, The Revenant actually manages to offer quite a bit of slick originality and character. The film moves at a somewhat lax pace, allowing audiences to get to know our two leads, who often walk the line between being completely morally corrupt and often goofy and likable. And the picture injects just enough offbeat humor to keep things light and amusing, even when the film is treading dark territory. There's also a brooding undercurrent of tragic drama that perfectly complements the film's moody tone.
Much of this is thanks to writer/director Kerry Prior's sharp script which keeps you on your toes, dodging the more obvious story routes and rarely taking the easy way out. That said, the film does get a little too dark toward the finale. It also drags just a bit, especially after one particular twist involving Joey.
The film's principal leads (Anders and Wylde) also inject quite a bit of lively humor, emotion and realism into the characters. Their chemistry together drives the picture, often playing a lot like a warped variation of Bonnie & Clyde, by way of The Boondock Saints, An American Werewolf in London and Return of the Living Dead Part III (the one where the guy resurrects his dead girlfriend).
The film also adds a sly dash of social commentary, a bit of playfully nasty gore, plenty of brutal mayhem and surprisingly decent effects. While some might not have a taste for the twists and turns The Revenant makes, the ride is quite fascinating, fun, a little tragic and almost always refreshing.
The Revenant finally comes to DVD in the U.S. courtesy of Lionsgate Home Entertainment. The film is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, mixed in 5.1 Dolby Digital. Sadly, Lionsgate opted against a Blu-ray release.
To say that the transfer is awful really doesn't put into words how genuinely shoddy it is. Right off the bat the image shows signs of heavy ghosting on text, snow and noise during low light scenes and a genuinely distracting amount of artifacting. And it doesn't get better from there. Depth is virtually nonexistent, as are textures and details. And color is a mess of flat, ugly browns and muted yellows. In fact, the transfer is so bad that it very nearly ruins the impact of the whole movie! It almost looks like a bootleg.
I'd point the finger at the low-budget production, but The Revenant was shot on Red One cameras, a traditionally very reliable shooting medium. Unfortunately, despite a few other regions getting a Blu-ray, The Revenant isn't getting a U.S. Blu-ray release anytime soon. Perhaps the HD streaming release is the way to go with this one, because the DVD transfer is certainly not praise-worthy in the slightest.
Audio, thankfully, is quite a bit better. Surrounds are fairly aggressive, giving life to virtually every scene. Dialogue sounds good, with no crackles or distortions, though there is quite a bit of hiss at times and also some echo in certain scenes. Bass is also a little subdued, but does chime in to punctuate a few key moments. The transfer might be nearly unwatchable, but at least the film sounds decent.
Extras consist of two commentary tracks (one from director Kerry Prior, the other from the cast), a making-of featurette, deleted scenes, a photo gallery and trailers. The commentaries are quite fun and informative. If you like party tracks, stick with the cast track. But the more rounded of the two is easily the director track. The candid 13-minute featurette is also well made and interesting and the 13 minutes of deleted scenes are well worth watching.
The Revenant is a clever, refreshing and fun horror-comedy destined for cult status. If only the transfer weren't one of the worst of the year. Seek this one out, but try to track down a high-def copy.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II will feature a simplified perk system that may be nerfed without warning, according to the game's multiplayer designer.
Speaking to CVG, David Vondehaar admitted that the increasing complexity of perks as the series has progressed was one of the first things he wanted to address.
I can nerf perks and I will, mark my words. A perk should never be something you need just to compete.
"Perks were pretty important for us to rethink, because they were getting too complex, " he said. "You had perks, perk pros, perks that influence you, perks that influence your gun, perks that influence team mates.
"We've simplified that so perks only ever affect your character, and more importantly, Black Ops II's perks aren't absolutes. In Black Ops our only balancing options were to remove the perk or keep it; now we can tune any perk by increments to nerf it or improve it.
"I can nerf perks and I will, mark my words," Vonderhaar continued. "A perk should never be something you need just to compete. A perk is 'I got a parking spot,' or 'the soda machine gave me free soda.' Your life shouldn't depend on it. The community helped me understand that, and that's why our new system has no absolutes. We can try to make it the most balanced CoD ever."
So it looks like any die-hard COD fan is going to need to be prepared to adapt their tactics in response to any nerfs. But whether Black Ops II can manage to be the game that finally does away with cookie-cutter strategies and builds when so many others have failed remains to be seen.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II is out on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on November 13, and on Wii U from launch.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
Wonder Woman is getting another chance at a TV series. It was just last year David E. Kelley made a semi-infamous Wonder Woman pilot for NBC, which was passed on by the network. Now however, Vulture reports that there is a brand new TV take on Princess Diana in the works at The CW.
Titled Amazon, this is a complete origin story – what Vulture describes as being about “a young, budding superhero, rather than a fully formed defender of liberty.” It seems that, like Smallville, Diana may not even be called Wonder Woman at this point or wear the Wonder Woman costume – which would explain not using that name in the title.
Amazon is being written by Allan Heinberg, whose TV credits include Grey’s Anatomy and The O.C., but who is known to comic book fans for creating and writing Young Avengers at Marvel.
Vulture notes there is no pilot ordered yet, just a script. It’s unclear how the development of Amazon affects progress on a potential new Wonder Woman movie, which Variety reported Michael Goldenberg (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) was writing – not to mention the character’s likely presence in the JLA movie. However, the potential TV series focusing on such a young version of Diana may make it possible for it to not be seen as a conflict with a different (and no doubt older) movie interpretation of the character.
While the 2011 NBC pilot starring Friday Night Lights' Adrianne Palicki was passed on, there's still plenty of nostalgic love for the 1970s Wonder Woman TV series, which starred Lynda Carter and helped elevate Wonder Woman into a much more well-known and popular character.
A war of words has broken out between some current Blizzard employees and Blizzard North co-founder David Brevik after the latter revealed he was "a little sad" about how Diablo III turned out.
Brevik, who designed Diablo I and II but had no involvement in the third game in the franchise, was asked by IncGamers during Gamescom what he felt about Blizzard's latest dungeon crawler.
I am also a little happy, which I hate to say, it shows that the people that were involved in Diablo really did matter, and so I am happy that it has come to light.
He responded, "I have very mixed emotions about it. On one hand I am sad that people haven’t enjoyed Diablo because it’s a love, a passion, and it's obvious people still have a giant love and passion for Diablo... That makes me feel great.
"I am sad because people are outraged and... some of the decisions they have made are not the decisions I would make, and there have been changes in philosophy and that hasn’t gone over very well...
"I am also a little happy... I hate to say, [but] it shows that the people that were involved in Diablo really did matter, and so I am happy that it has come to light that how talented that group was, how unique and special... when the people leave the game changes, and it shows how critical people are in this industry."
His comments provoked a Facebook status update by former Diablo 3 technical artist Chris Haga, which was quickly leapt on by other contributors to the game. In the post, Haga originally stated, "Suddenly I feel like I was just thrown under a bus," before more of the game's developers shared their views. Unfortunately, this exchange was then screenshotted and posted on Reddit. It's since been removed from there, but you can see it below:
One of the comments that has drawn the most attention is that of Diablo 3 game director Jay Wilson, who replied saying "F*** that loser". A number of other game developers took to Twitter last night to label his reaction as heavy-handed, considering Brevik's fairly mild comments about the current state of a franchise he helped create.
Blizzard arrogance has reached new heights.
Red 5 CEO and former Diablo II producer Mark Kern tweeted, "Gotta say, that Jay Wilson, never having been at Blizzard for D1 and D2 and never having met Dave Brevik, has no place to say what he did.
"Dave Brevik created 2 genre-busting, award winning, world-loved Diablo games. Jay Wilson has done ____ with Diablo 3. Fill in the blanks.
"Blizzard arrogance has reached new heights," he concluded.
Brevik is currently company president of Gazillion Entertainment, which is working on the upcoming Marvel Heroes. While the Diablo-style MMO has no estimated release date right now, it's been referred to in the past as "the spiritual successor" to Diablo II.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
Pierre Morrel (Taken) is currently in negotiations to direct The Hitman's Bodyguard, a new action film from David Ellison's Skydance Productions.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, financing is expected to go through Paramount. Tom O'Connor (Fire with Fire) has written the screenplay, which centers on "a protection agent who is forced to escort to the Hague a hitman awaiting his chance to testify against a war criminal and ex-head of state of an Eastern European country."
Morrel was previously attached to helm Bastille Day for Vendome Pictures and Anonymous Content, but the director has since passed on the project.
David Cronenberg and Robert Pattinson are out and about promoting Cosmopolis, which means they're spending a good amount of their time not just talking about their movie but also getting hit with KStew and superhero questions. But Cronenberg ain't having it, and in particular he does not appear to be a big Batman fan… at all.
When asked whether he would consider making a superhero movie, Cronenberg responded as follows: "I don't think [directors] are making [superhero movies] an elevated art form. I think it's still Batman running around in a stupid cape. I just don't think it's elevated. Christopher Nolan's best movie is Memento, and that is an interesting movie. I don't think his Batman movies are half as interesting though they're 20 million times the expense. What he is doing is some very interesting technical stuff, which, you know, he's shooting IMAX and in 3D. That's really tricky and difficult to do. I read about it in American Cinematography Magazine, and technically, that's all very interesting. The movie, to me, they're mostly boring."
They're probably already burning him in effigy on some comic book movie forum somewhere, but Cronenberg doesn't stop there. When asked if he thinks "the subject matter prohibits the elevated art form," the helmer points to Hollywood as part of the problem.
"Anybody who works in the studio system has got 20 studio people sitting on his head at every moment, and they have no respect, and there's no… it doesn't matter how successful you've been," he says. "And obviously Nolan has been very successful. He's got a lot of power, relatively speaking. But he doesn't really have power."
Certainly Cronenberg knows the industry, and you can be sure he's had some crappy interactions with studio suits at one time or another. But his next quote paints him as being biased against comics in general, which sounds an awful lot like "Get off my lawn you darn kids" talk. That's disappointing from the guy who made films like The Fly and Videodrome -- not to mention A History of Violence, an R-rated adaptation of a comic.
"But a superhero movie, by definition, you know, it's comic book," he says. "It's for kids. It's adolescent in its core. That has always been its appeal, and I think people who are saying, you know, 'Dark Knight Rises is, you know, supreme cinema art,' I don't think they know what the f**k they're talking about."
All that said, he ends the conversation with the following: "As an actor, I would play Batman."
Now that's something I would love to see.
Via Next Movie
Talk to Movies Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN and on Facebook.
Larry David and HBO will continue to collaborate – the only question is whether that collaboration will include more Curb Your Enthusiasm.
At the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour yesterday, HBO executives Michael Lombardo and Richard Plepler confirmed they had signed a deal with David to write and star in a movie for the cable channel, with Greg Motolla (Superbad, Adventureland) directing. It has previously been reported that Jon Hamm and Michael Keaton will also star in the film, but HBO did not comment on that.
Lombardo and Plepler noted that this would not be a Curb Your Enthusiasm movie, but were a bit coy on whether David would be playing himself in any way, with Lombardo simply stating, “He's not playing the Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
But as to how this movie affects future seasons of Curb, Plepler said that, per usual, the ball was in David’s court – that if he wants to make more, they will. “It means whatever Larry wants it to mean for future seasons of Curb. And we always say, he has essentially carte blanche with us. Don't quote us on that because he'll take it! But he does, and when he wants to come back and do Curb, we'd be thrilled. Right now, he wants to do the movie. So we are thrilled about that.”
The execs did say they were sure this movie would happen before a potential Curb: Season 9, with Lombardo remarking, I think, after the last season of Curb, Larry sat down and said, ‘What is it I want to do?’ And it was this film that he wanted to do. But I don't think he's closed the door to another season of Curb. I think he wants to do another season of Curb if he has a great idea for another season of Curb.”
Added Plepler, “He said to us, this is what he's feeling right now, and we said, "Fantastic."
Back in June, it was reported that Harry Potter helmer David Yates and Nanny McPhee Returns' Susanna White were both in consideration to direct Warner Bros.' live-action Tarzan movie.
Now, according to Deadline, Yates has been chosen by the studio as their primary get. The filmmaker is said to be in serious negotiations for the jungle-dwelling epic. At this time, however, Warner Bros. has denied that Yates is set for the job. Meanwhile, Constantin Films is still moving forward with its own adaptation of the tree-swinging ape man -- a motion capture flick starring Kellen Lutz and Spencer Locke.
Earlier this year, Yates was rumored to also be attached to a Doctor Who feature film, but producer Steven Moffat, head writer on the BBC television series, recently put that notion to rest. This would open up the Potter director's schedule for Warners' Tarzan, should a deal go through.
Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love on Twitter and IGN.
Comedian-writer Larry David (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm) is now in negotiations with HBO to develop a new film starring himself, Jon Hamm and Michael Keaton.
The mysterious project was originally set up at Fox Searchlight, however, the LA Times reports that the movie will likely premiere on the pay-cable network instead of the big screen. The film will mark David's first feature screenplay since his 1998 comedy Sour Grapes. Of course, the writer has had a longstanding relationship with HBO over the course of Curb Your Enthusiasm's eight-season run, in which he's played a caricature of himself.
The film could also mean the first major comedy role for Hamm, who has made a steady stream of cameos or supporting/guest roles in comedies like Bridesmades, Friends With Kids, 30 Rock and SNL. David's unique brand of situational dialogue could prove to be an excellent vehicle for the Mad Men star.
While a ninth season of Curb has been rumored, it's probable that this movie will push the series' schedule back (should the deal go through).
Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love on Twitter and IGN.
Andy and Lana Wachowski's adaptation of David Mitchell's time-spanning novel Cloud Atlas has been pretty low profile up until this point, but it jumped onto the radar for a bunch of us today with the release of a stunning five-minute-plus trailer.
Check out the trailer at Apple, where you can also find an introduction to the film from the oft-elusive Wachowskis and their co-director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run).
For those who aren't familiar with the book (like me), that trailer could be confusing. But it's also awesome, and isn't the point of a trailer to get prospective viewers interested and asking questions about a film? The trend these days to give away everything in a film's marketing campaign is a troubling one, so it's nice to have some mystery going into Cloud Atlas. That said, if you need some answers, Film.com is running a nifty "Beginner's Guide to Cloud Atlas" today that can at least answer your most basic questions.
The film, which stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Sturgess, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Hugh Grant, Ben Whishaw and many others, opens on October 26.
Talk to Movies Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN and on Facebook.
Terminator Salvation's Sam Worthington is currently in talks to work alongside the original Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger in David Ayer's action thriller Ten.
According to Variety, Worthington plans to accept the offer, provided his reps can make ends meet financially. The story is a revved up adaptation of Agatha Christie's book Ten Little Indians: A DEA task force robs a dangerous drug cartel under the guise of a tactical raid and takes refuge in one of its safe houses -- that is until team members are slowly picked off, one by one.
QED International is financing the film, and Open Road Films will distribute it in the States.
At Comic-Con last week, IGN spoke with executive producers Jim Kouf, David Greenwalt, Sean Hayes, and Todd Milliner as well as actors Silas Weir Mitchell (Monroe) and Reggie Lee (Sgt. Wu) about what weird happenings we can expect to see in Portland next season as Grimm returns for Season 2 on August 13th.
They all mentioned that Season 2 would focus on digging more into the mythology of the world Nick has found himself thrown into. Weir says, “It’s broadening; it’s less about Portland.” Lee concurred, “The mythology – you can tell that it’s going to be the crux of the story.” The crimes happening in Portland will start to relate to the bigger picture. Greenwalt confirmed, ““When were able to do episode 13, the network freed us up. They wanted us to establish a real procedural element to the show for the first few episodes. Once they pulled the leashes off, we were then able to run with it and get deep and deeper into the mythology. So we’ll continue into that in the next season.”
Greenwalt continued, “It’s going to get bigger and broader and it’s going to be a worldwide conspiracy. It’s actually based in real history. We’re just going to explain the world in a different way.”
Nick’s new lifestyle is dragging others in, too. Juliette may or may not know his secret and others could be let in on it too. Lee doesn’t know everything happening with his character his season, but he knows they’ll be exploring his history. He’s not sure if Wu will learn about Nick. He said, “In terms of finding out and being in the whole mythology aspect of things, that’s going to depend on them [the writers]. I think you have to have some people on the outside otherwise the inside doesn’t look so frightening. There’s no balance. I think who they leave on the outside and who they push to the inside is going to become a lot of what happens in season 2.”
Weir pointed out something he’d read from Kouf, “Season 1 is about Nick dealing with the fact that he is a Grimm, and season 2 is about the people in his life dealing with the fact that he’s a Grimm whether or not they know. It’s less about Nick per se and more about his circle.”
Toeing the line has to be more difficult now that his mother is playing a part, too. Kouf said, “She’s coming back and you’re going to learn a lot about her and what really happened the night his parents were killed. They’re going to work together a little bit.” He and Greenwalt also confirmed viewers will learn what happened with Nick’s father in the very first episode of season 2.
The series will continue to explore familiar fairy tales and turn them on their heads. Even though as Milliner said, “It’s a cop show at its heart,” the fantastical plays a huge part. Greenwalt said they started out with European mythology but any culture with fairy tales and legends is fair game. He called Grimms profilers of human behavior, and they could exist anywhere tales exist.
As far as which myths and such they choose, it’s mostly about what fits. Greenwalt said, “We just look for a good story and find what fairy tale that can be matched to. Then sometimes – well, we knew we wanted to do a Cinderella episode, but we did it a year after her wedding. We did the episode with the wolves and pigs, and we’re going to do something with sheep and wolves this year coming up.” They want to surprise the audience. Kouf said, “We’re trying to twist everything. We don’t want to give you what you expect.”
It’s interesting to note that the basic story hasn’t changed much from Milliner and Hayes’ initial pitch. Milliner went through it: “What if the Grimm fairy tales were happening right now and our lead was the last living descendant and the only one that could see them? That was the original pitch and that hasn’t changed, really. He wasn’t a cop all the time; he was a teacher in one iteration. So we’ve gone up and down a little bit in tone but not really too far. We stuck to our guns and said we want our guy to see fairy tales happening in front of him.”
See more interpretations of fairy tales mixed with crime solving when Season 2 of Grimm premieres on August 13 on NBC.
