Ridley Scott Confirms New ‘Alien’ Film, But Teases A Surprising New Direction

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December 5, 2017

Ridley Scott is never without a shortage of projects to work on. Right now he’s feverishly doing reshoots on Oscar bait All the Money in the World, and after that he’ll jump into an adaptation of Don Winslow’s The Cartel. But earlier this year he kept busy producing Blade Runner 2049, and directing Alien: Covenant. Both films underwhelmed at the box office, and in the case of the latter it’s led to speculation that Scott’s ambitious franchise plans have ground to a halt.

That’s apparently not the case, according to Scott’s latest comments to EW. He confirms to them that a new Alien film will happen, but we may see a shift away from the alien Xenomorphs. Say wha!?

“We are [going to make another], we are. I think what we have to do is gradually drift away from the alien stuff.”

Okay, so what’s he want to turn his attention to? Artificial Intelligence, a subject that has been coursing pretty close to the surface in his Alien movies, anyway. You can’t have a malevolent android running around and not have it be an issue, right?

“People say, ‘You need more alien, you need more face pulling, need more chest bursting,’ so I put a lot of that in Covenant and it fitted nicely. But I think if you go again you need to start finding another solution that’s more interesting. I think AI is becoming much more dangerous and therefore more interesting.”

As an example Scott noted Facebook’s experiment with two AIs last summer in which they started talking in their own unique language, forcing the whole thing to be shut down. He’s right, that shit was mad scary…

“They put two AIs together and they were communing. It already invented a f—ing language! And they couldn’t decipher what the language was so they had to switch them off. What was said and where’s it gone? They could have already implemented something we don’t know.”

Does anybody want to see Alien go down that path, though? I doubt it, and definitely 20th Century Fox wouldn’t want it. If the Alien: Covenant box office tells us anything it’s that only the hardcore fans are sticking around, so why do something that could potentially turn them off next?

As Expected, Bryan Singer’s Been Fired From ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’

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John Nolan

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December 5, 2017

“Bryan Singer is no longer the director of Bohemian Rhapsody.”

That was the tersely worded statement from 20th Century Fox tonight as they announced the departure of Singer from his Queen biopic, which had seen its production halted over the director’s sudden absence. The news of Singer’s mysterious disappearance broke over the weekend and it hasn’t looked good from the start. Singer never returned to the set following Thanksgiving break, citing an illness that had afflicted him and his family.

It might have been fine, except for Singer’s history of absences which in some cases has forced the film’s cinematographer to stand-in as director. This unreliability, predictably, pissed off star Rami Malek who confronted Singer, leading to an argument that reportedly saw the director hurl an object at him. They are said to have mended fences on that one, but surely an incident like that was run up the flagpole to Fox execs, who had warned Singer they wouldn’t tolerate any “unprofessional behavior” on his part. Also, co-star Tom Hollander temporarily quit the project due to Singer’s unprofessional conduct.

Singer denies all of this, saying in a statement “I wanted nothing more than to be able to finish this project and help honor the legacy of Freddie Mercury and Queen, but Fox would not permit me to do so because I needed to temporarily put my health, and the health of my loved ones, first.”

That just doesn’t seem to track, though, does it? Singer and Fox have a long and lucrative history together, stretching back to X-Men in 2000. They wouldn’t give him a couple of weeks off if they truly felt it was due to a health issue? But Singer also has a history of flaking out during production, as he did recently with X-Men: Apocalypse and before that on Superman Returns. As I said in the earlier post, it doesn’t make sense that he keeps getting such high-profile gigs if he has such a reputation.

Singer’s denials just don’t sound credible, and claiming he’s “suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because of the tensions on the set” just sounds, well, pretty damned weak.

So a new director will be found to get Bohemian Rhapsody rolling again. Ron Howard, your phone is ringing. [THR]

Quentin Tarantino Has A ‘Star Trek’ Movie In The Works With J.J. Abrams

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John Nolan

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December 5, 2017

This is pretty incredible right here. For some time now Quentin Tarantino has expressed interest in directing a Star Trek movie. Seems kinda out of nowhere, right? But nah, he’s always loved genre and Star Trek is at the top of his list of favorites. He said a couple of years ago…

“Some of those episodes are fantastic, and the only thing that limited them was their ‘60s budget and 8-day shooting schedule. And even having said that, they did a magnificent job. You could take some of the great, classic ‘Star Trek’ episodes and just easily expand them to 90 minutes or more. And really do some amazing stuff…The obvious one would be ‘City On The Edge Of Forever,’ that’s what everyone would go to, but there’s a reason why everyone would go to that. It’s one of the classic stories of all time, and one of the great time travel stories. However, in thinking about that concept even further though, I think one of the best ‘Star Trek’ episodes ever written was for ‘Next Generation’… ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise.’ I actually think that is one of the great, not only space story, but the way it dealt with the mythology. That actually could bear a two-hour treatment.”

Well, he may be about to get his chance. Deadline reports Tarantino is in talks to direct a Star Trek movie, having pitched an idea to J.J. Abrams. Abrams has run with it from there, assembling a writers room to make this thing happen. If all goes as planned Tarantino will take the helm himself.

Wow. Imagine if this whole thing comes together! The Star Trek franchise could use a shot in the arm after the underwhelming Star Trek Beyond, and…well, this is one Hell of a shot in the arm. Whatever happens it’ll have to wait until Tarantino wraps up his Manson-era movie first, so we may be waiting a while. But this is one of those projects that, on paper, sounds almost too good to be true.

Rian Johnson Talks ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ 3-Hour Cut, Deleted Scenes, And More

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John Nolan

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December 4, 2017

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is only days away, isn’t that crazy? And fortunately it seems that much of the news has shifted over to Rian Johnson’s new trilogy, which we aren’t going to know anything about for a while, rather than spoiling what is right around the corner. Johnson kept the lid on tight in his conversation with Collider, but did manage to tell us how long his initial cut of the movie was and why he felt some stuff that he loved needed to be cut…

“We had a long movie from the start. It was well over three hours, the first cut… It’s much better at two and a half [hours] than it was at over three, but it was a cut I had put together, is where we started. And it was over three hours.”

“A lot of really good stuff came out in the edit. I actually just reviewed the deleted scenes we’re gonna have on the Blu-ray. There’s a bunch of — some of my favorite scenes ended up having to come out just structurally… There’s a lot of really substantial, really good scenes. There’s a couple whole sequences actually that we lifted out. It’s weirdly — and this always happens — it’s like your babies you have to kill. It’s some of my favorite stuff from the movie.”

While there may be demand to see a full director’s cut, Johnson promises the version you’re seeing in theaters is exactly what he wants up there. So you’ll get these deleted moments on the home release, and that’s it. Take it or leave it. Let’s face it, you’ll take it.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens December 15th. If you can’t help it and you really need to see more right now, check out the new Chinese trailer below which features some footage we haven’t seen before.

Bloody Footage For ‘The New Mutants’ Teases A Demon Bear Attack

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John Nolan

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December 4, 2017

In the New Mutants comics, the “Demon Bear” saga is integral to the origin of the team’s frequent leader, Danielle Moonstar. The Native American mutant is haunted by visions of the Demon Bear, an evil spirit creature created by the malevolent possession of her parents. Moonstar dares to challenge the beast herself and is savagely mauled and left for dead in the blood soaked snow.

Pretty friggin’ harsh for a comic geared towards kids, right? Well, by all accounts Josh Boone’s New Mutants movie is a full-blown psychological horror, with a trailer that’s creepier than any superhero movie I’ve ever seen. And it looks like Boone plans on revisiting Moonstar’s violent first encounter with the Demon Bear, based on this brief new teaser.

The 10-second clip shows the bloody ramifications of an encounter in the snowcapped forest. While it doesn’t explicitly show Moonstar (played by Blu Hunt), it does look like a recreation of her fight with Demon Bear in the comic books. And maybe my eyes deceive me but that looks like a little wooden bear over to the left. Am I just seeing things?

Also starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Maisie Williams, Henry Zaga, and Alice Braga, The New Mutants opens April 13th 2018.

Nature never nurtured. #NewMutants pic.twitter.com/lDw5vrqF03

— New Mutants (@NewMutantsFilm) December 4, 2017

‘Please Stand By’ Trailer: Dakota Fanning Takes Her Star Trek Script To Hollywood

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John Nolan

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December 4, 2017

While her younger sister Elle is the most visible of the Fanning sisters, Dakota has stayed busy with a number of interesting projects. She may be on the verge of a comeback, too, with the TNT series The Alienist drumming up a lot of buzz. I don’t know if there will be the same reaction to her next feature, Please Stand By, but it may draw some interest from Trekkies everywhere.

Directed by Ben Lewin, who turned some heads with The Sessions a few years ago and has The Catcher was a Spy (starring Paul Rudd) headed to Sundance, the film stars Fanning as an autistic woman who flees her caregiver for a very special reason. She’s written a 500-page Star Trek script and she must boldly go out into the world to deliver it in time for a writing competition in Hollywood. Who knows? Maybe her script ends up in the next season of Star Trek Discovery?

Penned by Michael Golamco (Grimm) with Toni Collette, Alice Eve, Jessica Rothe, Tony Revolori, and Patton Oswalt co-starring, Please Stand By hits VOD and theaters on January 26th 2018.

Her Turn: Robin Wright Takes Charge As ‘House Of Cards’ Returns For Final Season

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John Nolan

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December 4, 2017

Netflix’s House of Cards has been left in limbo for the last few weeks, in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations made against star Kevin Spacey. The network has been trying to find a way to move forward with the sixth and final season without its most integral character, Spacey’s Frank Underwood, and now it looks as if they’ve found just the right story to tell.

Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos has confirmed season 6 will resume production early next year, running for an abbreviated 8 episodes. Normally the House of Cards seasons have been 13 episodes each. The focus will now shift to Robin Wright as Claire Underwood, and it’s fortunate the end of season 5 left them the perfect avenue to doing so. In last season’s finale she took over as President of the United States, leaving her husband Frank in a tenuous position personally and legally.

We can probably expect to see the new season kickoff late next year, and don’t forget there may be spinoffs coming, too. [Variety]

Rian Johnson On His New ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy And If He’ll Direct Each Film

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John Nolan

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December 4, 2017

For as long as most of us can remember, Star Wars has been the vision of one man: George Lucas. That ended five years ago when Disney purchased Lucasfilm, and since then we’ve seen a number of filmmakers jump into that sandbox, some faring better than others. The latest trilogy began with J.J. Abrams on The Force Awakens, followed by a spinoff (mostly) led by Gareth Edwards, and an upcoming Han Solo spinoff with Ron Howard. But it’s The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson who has earned such a level of trust that his vision will launch a brand new trilogy unlike any we have seen.

It’s still super early on this, of course; Johnson still has to get through the press tour for The Last Jedi, then Abrams will return to wrap up the trilogy with Episode IX. But Collider caught up with him to talk about his plans for this new trilogy of movies, which reportedly will steer clear of the Skywalker clan, and Johnson reveals his pitch to Lucasfilm was incredibly simple and free of hard details…

“We were just generally talking about what could we do and I was like, ‘What would be most interesting to me is…’ and then I just said—it wasn’t even a specific pitch, the pitch was: ‘A new trilogy. Three movies, one story. New characters, new places. Let’s start fresh.’ That was the most exciting thing I could possibly think of and Kathy really responded to that and we’re gonna give it a shot.”

He says that, despite rumors saying otherwise, he was never in line to direct Episode IX. That was always going to go to someone else after the previously-attached Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World) was booted from the project over creative differences.

With so much freedom being afforded to him, does that mean Johnson plans to direct all three movies? Well, he’s not so sure just yet…

“Honestly I don’t know yet [if I’ll direct all three]. I know I’m gonna come up with the whole thing, the idea is to come up with one big story, but I know I’m gonna write and direct at least the first one. Then I’m gonna have to—even the first one at this point we’re still figuring it out, so I don’t know yet. But I know I want to come up with the whole thing and then we’ll see.”

Something of this size, all placed in the hands of one person, could take a while to pull off. Next year’s Solo: A Star Wars Story and 2019’s Episode IX are the only concrete projects on the way. Yeah, there’s talk of an Obi-Wan spinoff but that doesn’t seem to have progressed very far. If Disney really hopes to have a Star Wars movie every single year, we could see Johnson’s movie perhaps be ready by 2021, assuming a standalone film is released in 2020. Whatever happens, the future for the Star Wars universe is unclear and that’s kind of exciting.

Top 10 Gambling Movies to Watch

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John Nolan

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December 4, 2017

There are lots of great gambling movies that have been made over the years and below you will find our top 10 list and all-time favorites. These include some classic and modern films with topics on everything from cheating casinos to online gambling. We’re sure you’ll agree though, they are entertaining and well worth watching.

21: This gambling movie is based on a true story and is based around a maths professor who trains a group of students to count cards and win big in Las Vegas. It’s based around the card game of blackjack and if this interests you be sure to check out the popular blackjack games for real money.
Casino Royal: This James Bond film stars Daniel Craig and features an awesome high-stakes poker tournament. Filled with the usual 007 action and fighting scenes, this is a great gambling movie that everyone will enjoy.
High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story: This is a great biographical gambling movie that follows the story of Stu Ungar, the only poker player to ever win three WSOP Main Event Tournaments. The movie covers the highs and lows of his rise to fame as well as how he eventually lost most of his money. A great film for poker fans.
The Cooler: This movie is about a man whose luck is so bad that he is employed by casinos to stand at tables of gamblers on winning streaks to help break their luck and return the edge to the casino. Of course, when the cooler’s luck changes so too does everything else in this highly entertaining film.
Rounders: This movie stars Matt Damon and tells the story of an entrepreneur who pays for university by winning at the poker tables. There are plenty of famous actors including Edward Norton and John Malkovich as well as high stakes games and a poker baron to defeat. The authentic depictions of poker strategy make this movie a must see.
Ocean’s Eleven: This movie stars George Clooney who is looking to get revenge on the casino owner that had him put in prison. Clooney gets a crew together in a big to rob three casinos in the one night. Another excellent film with a great cast of big name actors as well as plenty of action.
Killing Them Softly: This movie is all about poker and centres around an amateur crook hired by a poker player that wants to rob a game being hosted by mafia bosses. The mafia aren’t about to let this go unpunished and begin investigating the heist. With lots of action and murder, this gambling movie staring Brad Pitt and Ray Liotta is definitely one to watch.
Hard Eight: This movie is about a pro gambler that is past his prime and features a stunning cast including Samuel L Jackson and Gwyneth Paltrow. It combines black humour with the study of high stakes casino gambling.
Croupier: The star of this move is Clive Owen who plays Jack Manfred, a writer who is forced to fall back on his chip handling skill when his writing career doesn’t take off. The movie sees Jack getting involved with deceit, adultery, and even murder in this casino gambling action film.
The Cincinnati Kid: A classic movie from 1965, The Cincinnati Kid is all about poker and captures the excitement of game. Steve McQueen is the poker prodigy and he does a fantastic job especially during the movie’s iconic last hand scene. This is a definite must watch for poker fans.

That’s our top 10 gambling movies of all time, but there are dozens more that didn’t make the list. You can visit IMDB where you’ll find the ratings and scores for each of these films as well as information on others that we haven’t listed here.

David Ehrlich’s Top 25 Countdown Honors The Year’s Best Movies With Great Music

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John Nolan

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December 4, 2017

You know me, I don’t care to hype up anybody else’s stuff around here, but Indiewire senior critic David Ehrlich’s Top 25 video countdown is a real treat. I don’t know how he does it (Yes I do, he has loads of time and help) but annually he finds the most perfect music and the best moments, cuts them together perfectly in a way that beautifully captures the essence of what made each movie great.

I rarely find myself agreeing with Ehrlich’s choices, but I’ll admit to audibly shouting “Yes!” when Columbus ranked so high on his chart. Full disclosure: it’s going to be VERY high on mine, too.

Anyway, crank up the volume to 10 and check out his list below!