New Photos from White House Down

Here's our first look at the upcoming thriller White House Down, starring Channing Tatum as a Secret Service agent who must protect the President (Jamie Foxx) from terrorists. The film opens June 28, 2013.

Source : ign[dot]com

Robopocalypse Author to Develop Amped

Robopocalypse author Daniel H. Wilson is now in final negotiations to develop his best-selling thriller Amped for Working Title Films.

The project was originally set up at Summit, but the property's rights were lost over the course of the studio's merger with Lionsgate.

Set in the near future, the story of Amped takes place in a world where nano tech-enhanced humans and ordinary humans are at war with one another.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City, I, Robot) is attached to helm the feature.

Meanwhile, Wilson's Robopocalypse is getting the big screen treatment from director Steven Spielberg, with a release date set for Summer 2014.

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.

Source : ign[dot]com

Robopocalypse Author to Develop Amped

Robopocalypse author Daniel H. Wilson is now in final negotiations to develop his best-selling thriller Amped for Working Title Films.

The project was originally set up at Summit, but the property's rights were lost over the course of the studio's merger with Lionsgate.

Set in the near future, the story of Amped takes place in a world where nano tech-enhanced humans and ordinary humans are at war with one another.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City, I, Robot) is attached to helm the feature.

Meanwhile, Wilson's Robopocalypse is getting the big screen treatment from director Steven Spielberg, with a release date set for Summer 2014.

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.

Source : ign[dot]com

Arnold Schwarzenegger Looks Badass in Ten

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.

Source : ign[dot]com

Looper: Joe Vs Joe Mission

In the run up to the release of the awesome sci-fi thriller Looper starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis on Friday September 28, the filmmakers are giving you the chance to become a real-life looper by joining a UK-wide online race.

There are ten online missions dotted around the internet, with exciting spot prizes up for grabs for completing each mission. Complete all ten missions and you'll be entered into a draw to win a iPhone 5 and the chance to interview director Rian Johnson!

To get involved all you need to do is sign up at JoeVsJoe.co.uk. Once your profile is created, players will receive updates on the official site, Facebook and Twitter, telling them where to go to unlock daily missions. Missions will be hidden on websites, Twitter, Facebook and in cinemas. By completing the missions and entering their answers in the Joe Vs Joe website, the trainee Loopers unlock and receive a fragment of a map that will eventually reveal the location of their other self.

IGN's Mission

When you're a young Looper like Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), you get the girls, the cars and the money as standard - but you've got to keep your eye on the ball. Test your own smarts by watching the below trailer and tell us: What colour is the lampshade that levitates?

Visit www.JoeVsJoe.co.uk to input your answer now.

Entering this ninth mission today on IGN will give you the chance to win a Storm Blackout watch, but if you've entered every mission over the past nine days - and play the final task tomorrow, you could win an iPhone 5 PLUS the chance to interview Looper-director Rian Johnson. The Storm Blackout watch, which is water resistant to 50m, has super matte black links and lazer dial which changes colour under different lighting. This watch also has a 3D dial with edge to edge glass and STORM’S signature rotating disc date feature.

Full competition terms and conditions can be found at www.JoeVsJoe.co.uk 

Source : ign[dot]com

Bruce Willis Might Join the CIA in American Assassin

Action icon Bruce Willis is now in talks to star as a CIA agent in the CBS Films thriller American Assassin, based on the Vince Flynn novel. Mike Finch scripted the adaptation for producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. Jeffrey Nachmanoff is attached to direct.

Variety details the film's story, which centers on Mitch Rapp, "a former Syracuse grad student who joins the CIA after his girlfriend his killed by a terrorist attack." Willis is in negotiations to play the mentor figure to Rapp.

Should he accept the role, this would mark a reunion for Willis and di Bonaventura, who worked together on Red and G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

The studio is currently eying a fall 2013 production start date.

Source : ign[dot]com

Looper Review

Jumping between the years 2044 and 2074, the sci-fi thriller Looper is about a hit man whose next and final target is himself. In this near future, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) serves as a “looper,” a hit man tasked with killing and disposing of criminals who have run afoul of the mob. But these victims come from 30 years in the future where time-travel exists but is illegal. The mob, however, employs it to transport their victims into the past since getting rid of a body is just that much tougher in 2074.

Joe’s work is all very mechanical: kill, dispose, kill, dispose. Loopers are relatively low on the criminal totem pole (“Gat Men” are the more elite of the future mob’s henchmen). The worse thing a Looper can do is let their loop get away as that brings all sorts of hell down on them. And every Looper knows that at some point, the mob will “close your loop,” or send your future self back for you to terminate. Joe’s troubles begin when his older self (Bruce Willis) is sent back for him to kill, but promptly escapes.

Older Joe has his own very specific mission in 2044, one that leads him to a young mom named Sara (Emily Blunt) and her troubled little boy, Cid (an impressive Pierce Gagnon). That’s all we’ll give away for now suffice to say that the dilemma for both Joes is deciding between the life you can make for yourself now or the one you will have in the future.

Looper is sci-fi, but not garishly so. It’s set in a future that’s quite familiar and relatable, one determined by economic and sociopolitical woes. Sure, there are cool hover bikes, but only a few can afford them; otherwise, people drive 30-year-old cars since manufacturing appears to have ceased in this bleak future America. There are looters and homeless aplenty on the streets, and not much in the way of law enforcement. The most popular narcotic, which young Joe is addicted to, can be used like eye drops. This is a future where people make do with what’s left.

Even Loopers’ weapon of choice is decidedly old school: the Blunderbuss. The genetic mutation of telekinesis exists, but it’s not as exciting as you’d think, being deemed more of a tacky parlor trick than anything truly extraordinary. All of these choices by writer-director Rian Johnson (who previously directed JGL in Brick) and his team make Looper a decidedly understated sci-fi film where the emphasis remains on the characters rather than the genre trappings of the future world they inhabit.

Johnson weaves a taut narrative around his rather convoluted, but high concept premise; it’s a testament to his skill that you never find yourself picking apart how things exactly all click. You’re simply along for the ride since you care about these characters, which is even more impressive given how unsympathetic Joe is for much of the movie. He’s paid in silver like a Judas, kills people without any real qualms, and is ruthlessly self-centered. His older self is more sympathetic … until you learn his game plan. Both Gordon-Levitt and Willis never demand the audiences’ sympathy; they simply let you come to your own conclusions about Joe as being either an anti-hero or a villain.

No discussion of Looper and its two lead performances can be had without talking about the makeup worn by Gordon-Levitt throughout. It’s initially distracting to see the young actor’s face altered by prosthetics so as to resemble a young Bruce Willis, an illusion they never quite pull off. But it’s Gordon-Levitt’s replication of Willis’ mannerisms, attitude and low, slightly mumbling voice that sells you after a few moments of settling into things. Willis plays a supporting role here, but he has several key emotional scenes (often with minimal dialogue) that allow him to shine. Some of his best moments come in a diner scene with young Joe where the term “self abuse” takes on a whole new meaning.

Blunt is nicely cast against type as an earthy, American single mom whose complicated relationship with her little boy becomes even more so about halfway through. We’re used to seeing Blunt as a funny or somewhat prissy English rose-type, and she’s clearly having fun playing someone far more damaged and salt of the earth. Jeff Daniels steals his scenes as young Joe’s gruff, but amiable mob boss and father figure Abe, while Paul Dano and Garret Dillahunt have small, but memorable roles as colleagues of young Joe’s. Piper Perabo appears as a stripper and single mom young Joe is banging. (Go, Joe!)

Looper is one of the year’s most engaging sci-fi films, one that works as both a thriller and a character piece about people faced with making big life decisions (often at the business end of Blunderbuss). It could have all been insanely gimmicky, but Looper is instead tastefully executed.

Source : ign[dot]com

The Walking Dead: The Game -- Episode 2: Starved for Help Review

Toss the idea of slaying zombies out of your head; The Walking Dead: The Game -- Episode 2: Starved for Help is a suspense thriller. Yes, the undead lumber around, but developer Telltale Games throws us a curveball here and focuses our concern on man's inhumanity to man. That's pretty awesome.

The second of five downloadable episodes, Starved for Help picks up three months after the zombie apocalypse broke out in the original episode of The Walking Dead: The Game. We're still playing as Lee Everett, protecting Clementine, and dealing with a motley group of survivors assembled at a makeshift fortress that used to be a motel.

“

It's a dilemma that had me debating whose side I was on and turning my back on established relationships, and that's pretty frickin' impressive.

This time, we get to see the fruits of our labor in the first game. See, The Walking Dead: The Game is all about choice and consequence. Rather than focus on action, the majority of the game is building relationships by talking to people. You don't get a second chance to say something in this adventure game; dialogue pops up, and you have a limited amount of time to make a choice that will influence your friends and make new enemies. (For nuts and bolts of how the game controls, please check out the review of Episode 1.)

Every one of those decisions is then carried on into future episodes, so Episode 2 is the first time to see what that exactly means, and what it means is a whole lot of reasons to replay the episode. What Lilly thinks of you, how much Clementine trusts you, which lies do you have to remember -- all of the decisions you made before set the stage for Lee’s continuing story. Based on which survivor you saved in Episode 1, you have different defenses and plenty of new information in Episode 2.

And then things go to a dark place. A really dark place.

Playing on an iPhone or iPad? 

The Walking Dead: The Game -- Episode 2: Starved for Help is out now for iOS and we've put it through its paces. The port is generally top-notch. Players will make all the same gruesome choices, experience the same dialogue and see the same visuals as the console & PC release. There are some frame rate drops and general hitching for the first few seconds of every new scene, but it quickly resolves itself. This issue is slightly more prevalent here than on consoles, but it is not serious enough to be more than a minor annoyance. 

The Walking Dead's more action-oriented gameplay works great with revised touch-screen controls. Rather than move an on-screen reticle with a joystick, players simply tap the screen when they need to stomp a zombie or perform another action. Other moments, like smashing a walker's head into the side of a pick-up, are done with a simple swipe left or right. Moving Lee is slightly more awkward - players slide their finger in the direction they want to walk. But it still works. 

The Walking Dead: The Game only supports iPhone 4 / iPad 2 and newer devices. The more modern your device, the less stuttering you're likely to experience. Episode 2 can be purchased from within the The Walking Dead: The Game for $4.99, or $14.99 for a season pass.

Anyone concerned with the quality of Telltale's iOS port can put their concerns to rest. The experience might be a hair inferior to playing on a console or PC, but playing on your mobile device is still a great way to see this intimate and intense story unfold.

-Justin Davis, IGN Wireless Editor

Starved for Help opens with the series' most grotesque moment so far (if you choose to play it that way, of course), but beyond that, it starts stretching your moral muscles. The group's nearly out of food, and when it's up to you to choose which few survivors get rations for the day, you have to figure out if you're playing favorites or focusing on the greater good.

It's all about the tough choices.

The greater good: that's key to the episode. While Episode 1 was a whirlwind of chaos, life's moving at a steady pace here, and it's time to decide if Lee's going to be an upstanding person or a cold-hearted survivor. It's a dilemma that had me debating whose side I was on and turning my back on established relationships, and that's pretty frickin' impressive.

“

For that moment, I really was Lee, and he wasn't the man I thought he was.

Choice in games is mostly black and white, but suddenly I was thinking "Why do I care what Clementine thinks of me? We need to think about surviving," when all I wanted to do was keep her happy last episode. I can't think of another game that had me establish a character I thought I knew and then be debating big decisions a few scenes later. I began wrestling with whether a Mass Effect-style Paragon or Renegade playthrough made sense here -- could I mix and match?

That tug of war over feelings comes into full view when a new group of survivors from the St. John's Dairy Farm show up and invite your group to come over and trade gas for food. The family asks Lee all sorts of probing questions about the group, but are they being creepy or protective? Do you turn your back on the strangers or hope the relationship brings salvation?

Have questions? Check out Telltale and IGN's Official The Walking Dead: The Game Wiki.

I'm not going to spoil the lynchpin moments that come later, but know that Telltale spends a lot of time setting the stage. The suspense builds like a slowly filling water balloon as you have conversations accented with just enough weirdness to unsettle you and then other characters. Then, there's the reveal, and the water balloon pops.

As the final events of Episode 2 rushed at me, there was no time for weighing decisions and pondering if I was trying to impress Clementine. I saw the response I'd personally give and picked it. For that moment, I really was Lee, and he wasn't the man I thought he was.

It's heavy stuff, but The Walking Dead is still just a game -- something some technical hiccups remind you of over and over again. Lip syncing seems to be a bit more lax this time around, music will drop out mid track, and animations (which were already a bit herky jerky) will freeze as scenes change. None of these are issues that should make you skip this title, but they pull you out of an otherwise engrossing experience. The same thing can be said for characters’ weird side comments that Lee doesn't investigate and Lee's observations that I doubt any of us would make -- just little gripes that remind you this is a game.

Source : ign[dot]com

What if Looper Was a Retro Video Game?

Curious what the upcoming sci-fi thriller Looper -- starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a hit man whose next assignment is his future self, played by Bruce Willis -- would be like as an old school video game? Well, then this is for you:

Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up!

Looper opens September 28.

Source : ign[dot]com

Zero Dark Thirty: New Pics and Teaser Poster

Check out the latest images from director Kathryn Bigelow's upcoming military thriller Zero Dark Thirty, which chronicles the hunt for Osama bin Laden. The film stars Joel Edgerton, Jessica Chastain, Chris Pratt, Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler, Edgar Ramirez, Harold Perrineau, Stephen Dillane, Scott Adkins, Frank Grillo, Jennifer Ehle, and Jason Clarke.

Source : ign[dot]com

Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace Have a Passion for Each Other

Check out the steamy new trailer for Passion, director Brian De Palma's upcoming thriller starring Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace (Prometheus, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo). Passion, an English-language remake of the French film Love Crime, follows two women: the icy, career woman Christine (McAdams), who is into kinky sex, and her shy, but increasingly ambitious assistant Isabel (Rapace). When one betrays the other, a nasty revenge plot kicks in. The film will screen at this year's Toronto Film Festival.

Source : ign[dot]com

Samuel L. Jackson Joins Oldboy

Director Spike Lee's planned remake of the Korean revenge thriller Oldboy has added two big names to its roster of talent.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Avengers star Samuel L. Jackson -- who appeared in Lee's School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues,  and Jungle Fever -- is reuniting with the helmer for Oldboy.

"Jackson has come on board for a small but critical part in the new film, according to a person close to the production who was not authorized to talk about it publicly. The actor will play the man who is being tortured by the hero (Brolin) in a key revenge scene," said the paper, which added that the remake won't use the tooth extraction method of torture employed in the original film.

Meanwhile, musician Bruce Hornsby -- who has scored Lee's documentary Kobe Doin' Work and the upcoming drama Red Hook Summer -- will score Oldboy, with the composer saying Lee has advised him to come up with some darker tones for the music in this film.

Source : ign[dot]com

James Franco Joins Jason Statham on Homefront

James Franco is set to join Jason Statham in Millennium Films' upcoming action-thriller Homefront, penned by Sylvester Stallone.

According to Variety,Gary Fleder will direct the film which follows ex-DEA agent Statham as he moves to a new town to try and escape a troubled past. When The Stath arrives however, he discovers that the place is riddled with crime and headed up by a meth magnate, played by Franco.

Stallone will serve as a produce for the film alongside Kevin King Templeton and Rene Besson, with Trevor Short and Avi Lerner executive producing.

Lerner said, "I cannot think of a better group to put this film on the big screen. Sly's script is fantastic, James and Jason are remarkable actors and Gary really knows how direct this type of film. We start production at the end of September in New Orleans."

Fleder has previously directed "Runaway Jury" and "Kiss the Girls" while Statham and Stallone will be appearing onscreen together in The Expendables 2.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Worthington in Talks for Schwarzenegger's Ten

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.

Source : ign[dot]com

Silent House Blu-ray Review

In 1948 Alfred Hitchcock made a film called Rope, an ingenious thriller about two men who host a dinner party shortly after murdering a classmate they deem inferior. The ingenious aspect of the narrative is coupled with an equally ingenious method of cinematography, in that the film is made to look as though it were shot entirely in just one take.

Shoot to 2012, this very same technique is being used once more, but with a slightly fresh twist. In Silent House, we follow Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen), a young girl who ends up trapped inside a house while it is seemingly robbed. But things get more terrifying when it becomes clear to Sarah that the strangers may be omnipotent in nature.

Told entirely from Sarah's perspective, this one-take thriller unfolds right before your eyes in a surprisingly chilling manner. Alas, Silent House, from Open Water directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau (who also scripted), is no Rope. Rather, the film is a messy exploration of someone's madness painted with a thin veil of ghostly horror. As such, the film has very little replay value and is nowhere near as memorable as Alfred Hitchcock's classic.

The biggest problem with the film is in its twist. Without giving too much away, let's just say that the means do not justify the whole. In other words, Silent House is a film built on a lie. This wouldn't be much of a problem if the twist didn't negate the rest of the story that happened before it.

On some level, the twist is fascinating. It adds a layer of subtext that otherwise wouldn't be there in a generic horror film. However, it also makes for an unsatisfying whole that asks far too many questions and leaves the audience with almost no answers.

Cinematography, despite having a video-like appearance, is quite brilliant. The execution of the one-take visuals is expertly done. And the film's haunting foes are often rather creepy. Elizabeth Olsen, who basically controls the entire picture, is absolutely staggering here as well. While her sisters were not the world's greatest actresses, Elizabeth shows more promise than the both of them combined, and then some.

Silent House certainly boasts some interesting ideas, along with a great performance from Olsen, but the film simply has no replay value. It's not a very satisfying experience, and sometimes, because the audiences never privy to all that's going on inside the house, the one-take cinematography does dampen the thrills. However, if you're up for something that ultimately plays things a little more psychological than horrifying, Silent House should prove to be an interesting deviation from the normal genre fare.

The film comes to Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment. It is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen, in 1080p/AVC with 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. Shot on video, largely in the dark, Silent House does not always boast the finest image. There's quite a bit of motion blur, noise and other minor distortions. The encode is mostly decent, though, other than some minor banding.

Audio is fairly effective though not nearly as immersive as expected. Dialogue is clean, with no distortions or crackles. Surrounds are aggressive on occasion, but more subdued than I would have hoped. Given the one-take nature of the production, I would have expected a mix that relied on audio for thrills, and while Silent House does do that every once in awhile, sound design is a bit more muted and quiet, leaving the audience underwhelmed.

Extras are fairly thin. There's a commentary track from co-directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau. It's an interesting track that explores both the story and the film's elaborate cinematography. It'll really make you wish the film were just a little bit better. The disc also boasts Universal's traditional extras like BD-Live and pocketBlu. The BD also includes a DVD and Digital Copy of the film.

Silent House is a film worth exploring, if only once. It boasts a few decent scares and a great performance from Elizabeth Olsen, but it can't shake the stale story and dull twist that very nearly ruins the entire picture.

Source : ign[dot]com