NEWS: Behind The Scenes of The Dark Knight Rises

It's sooooo close!

Some new footage and other bits and pieces

NEWS: First Look At Tom Hardy As Bane In Dark Knight Rises

Here it is! The first look at the absolutely huge Tom Hardy as Bane. If you thought he was big in Bronson, this shows that the man can really bulk up

NEWS: Amy Adams As Lois Lane in Snyder's "Superman"!

Amy Adams, who impressed a lot of people in "The Fighter", has been cast as Lois Lane in the re-reboot of Warner Bros. "Superman: Man of Steel". Or As Broadway World reports - "Spiderman" - tut tut.


What has surprised me the most is that she's 36. I thought she looked much younger, lucky her.

Taking over from the incredibly thin Kate Bosworth in Superman Returns, Adams will play the feisty young reporter Lois Lane who steals the heart of Clark Kent. It was reported that Wild Bore favourite Michael Shannon might be playing the enemy which would be amazing. Will Snyder be able to pull this off? I'd have to judge it on Sucker Punch really because as much as I love Snyder's previous work, I don't know if a Superman film is the way to go - I can't help but think it will be a camp version of Batman Begins. I always think of Batman as the awkward, moody younger brother and Superman as his older, jock, perfect looking sibling - who is the most interesting? Not Superman.

NEWS: Kevin Costner in Superman

Superman re-reboot to get Kevin Costner as Superman's dad - Pa Kent. But what will be the cost ... ner?


"Superman: The Man of Steel" will be a mixed bag. It looks like it will be another origins story with Henry Cavill playing the Man of Steel himself and Diane Lane will play his mum. We know Snyder wants to do a Batman Begins spin on it (who wouldn't?) but we've yet to see if it will really take off. Bwahahaha.

Just as long as there's not a bald Spacey in sight.

NEWS: Alberto Falcone MIGHT NOT BE in Batman "The Dark Knight Rises"

While others are confirming Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play Alberto Falcone in "The Dark Knight Rises", Entertainment Weekly are saying they shouldn't be so hot to step off the mark ...


News this week that JGL was going to play Falcone's son Alberto would make sense, it ties in nicely with the first film, it suits him and the Holiday Killer thing is a bit more down-to-Earth.

However, it has now sprung to light that this has not necessarily been confirmed and is part of the 'hype-building' that surrounds the film. It's not to say this isn't true but until we get word of what's going on, it's important to say that rumours will be everywhere. Falcone would make sense, but don't get too tied up into it just yet!

NEWS: Watch Films On Facebook!

Do you watch Facebook? Why not go all post-modern and watch The Social Network on it while chatting to your friends watching with you? Well soon you can ...

Well, with Warner Bros you can anyway. They are setting up a streaming service with Facebook that will allow users to access their films and stream them from the site. Probably not good news for services such as LoveFilm etc. but I think would be good news for the general public - ease of access, no need for subscriptions (no mention of it anyway) and all just from your Facebook page.

The first out of the bag will be The Dark Knight which will be about $3 and, like iTunes, you get 48 hours to watch it after purchase. If it's a success, then watch out as they roll out more and more content to the service. Thomas Gewecke has said “Facebook has become a daily destination for hundreds of millions of people. …….Making our films available through Facebook is a natural extension of our digital distribution efforts. It gives consumers a simple, convenient way to access and enjoy our films through the world’s largest social network.” - which is true. Facebook might be taking over the world a bit at a time, but right now I think it's a good idea. If you go to the Dark Knight page and 'Like' it - then it should tell you how you can access it.

NEWS: Batman Dark Knight Rises Info!

More news on Batman: The Dark Knight Rises - I'd say there were a couple of spoilers ahead. But unless you want to know absolutely nothing, move on - otherwise for some general plot - keep going, it's not exactly spoiling anything.

Basically the Catwoman storyline looks like it will be an origins tale (yawn) but still, hopefully it'll have that Nolan touch. The main evil guys will be the League of Shadows (hmmm) which will be Talia Al'Ghul as reported here a while back (Marion Cotillard?), Tom Hardy as Bane and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as reportedly Black Mask (but nothing confirmed).

For Batman fans, the League of Shadows was mentioned in Batman Begins but in the comics they are called the League of Assassins. If you were in the league and you didn't complete your mission, you'd be targeted by the League - hence a lot of people tried to kill Batman, failed and were subsequently targeted. Maybe that's where Levitt comes in? A character called Dr Darrk was in it who led the group and was more devious than an out-and-out killer. I could see Levitt being that creepy. Is it also a push to think that Liam Neeson could return?

NEWS: First Look At New Spider-Man

Sony have released the first picture of Andrew Garfield in the new Spiderman movie. What do you think?

I still think it rather strange to reboot the franchise seeing as, although Spiderman 3 was crap, it still had legs and was leading on to other things. However, I imagine that since Raimi didn't want to do it anymore and Maguire was over it, they had to do something - so why not start again?

As you can see they've tried to give it a darker edge, a far cry from Raimi's initial Spiderman which was very bright and colourful. Instead, taking lessons from the hugely popular Batman reboot, it looks as if this will be a much more sinister affair. I'm just a bit worried that the original film is still too fresh, and it still stands up, and do people want to see time and time again how Peter Parker gets his powers? It's been done to death.

I'm also a bit worried about Rhys Ifans as Dr Curt Connors, but Martin Sheen and Sally Field as Uncle Ben and Aunt May are a good choice. Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Irrfan Khan as Proto Goblin (a big red beast that is a kind of experiment for Green Goblin), Denis Leary as Captain Stacy and Chris Zylka as Flash Thompson. Seeing as there is no talk of a Mary Jane then we're hoping that his less romantic, and more passionate, affair with Gwen can only be a good thing. Right? What does everyone think?

NEWS

Playstation Phone

People are starting to work themselves up into a frenzy that the Playstation Phone will be around the corner soon. However, even though it's been verified that Sony are working on a device that doesn't need constant Wi-Fi but uses a cellular network, it might be assumed that this will just be the PSP2 people have been hearing about.

The image here was 'leaked' online but it's hard to say whether it's real or not. Apparently it will run on Google Android and feature direct access to the Sony Marketplace. Engadget says the device pictured features a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 mobile processor, 512MBs of RAM, 1GBs of ROM, a 3.7 to 4.1-inch touchscreen display, a built-in camera with LED flash, and the slider panel. The bit in the middle is a touch sensitive surface rather than analog sticks and well, that's about it.

Sony have neither confirmed nor denied the picture which means it either is a proper leak, or it's just creating online buzz as a marketing ploy, or both. Either way, let's hope it's not like the N:Gage. Do you know anyone who bought that? Let me know - because they weren't cheap!

Dark Knight Returns

Christopher Nolan has announced that Batman 3 will be entitled 'The Dark Knight Rises' and, although we know Tom Hardy will be in it, we still don't know as what. Nolan ruled out the Riddler making an appearance and it will be shot in 2D like the last one. There have been rumours that the villain might be a woman ... let's hope it's not Halle Berry again.

Craprica

If, like me, you were still holding out in the hope that Caprica could get better then don't bother, it's been cancelled. Ratings and reviews were tough (Wild Bore one will be up as soon as I finish the first season), but with it's painfully slow storyline and with no action, it's hardly surprising. The Battlestar fans were never going to get on board with it as it has been lacking anything that had drawn their interest. Has anyone else been watching it?

Instead Syfy has asked BGS makers to concentrate on Cyclon Wars set prequel Blood & Chrome, with a young Bill Adama taking on the Cylons. At the moment, it's just a TV pilot but could turn into a series completely set during the war, which would be a lot better.

If you're a big fan of Caprica don't worry, they will be drip feeding the end of the first season throughout the beginning of 2011. Yawn.

Star Wars New Films & 3D Extravaganza

If you didn't already know, George Lucas is going to squeeze out even more money by re-releasing the entire 6 Star Wars films in 3D (as well as the 4 Indiana Jones films) and if it is to be believed, that afterwards he will embark on three new films taking place during Episodes 4-6 but nothing to do with the main characters. This also will be completely separate to the confirmed Star Wars TV series that was greenlit a little while ago. Is it all a bit too much? What do you think?

South Park "Insheeption" Rip Off

Oh dear, for what is normally my favourite original show it looks like the South Park crew have ripped off College Humour in terms of their Inception jokes last week. They have since apologised but here's the original College Humour video and the end is great, what do you think? Worth apologising for?

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

The Hobbit

In case you don't know, Martin Freeman (Tim from The Office) is now
going to be Bilbo in Jackson's The Hobbit. Is this a good call? I will hedge
my bets after his carbon copy acting that might as well be renamed as
the following. "Tim From The Office In Space!" (Hitch-hiker's Guide
To The Galaxy), "Tim From The Office At School" (Nativity) etc. etc.,
but let's wait and see. Oh and Sylvester McCoy, the Time Lord himself,
might pop up as a wizard.

Avatar Sequels

And so the time has come for Cameron to announce that he will be
filming Avatar 2 and 3 back to back to be released at Christmas
2014 and 2015. Apparently they will be self-contained stories,
so I don't think it will be a Matrix blunder this time. Do you think
they should just leave it alone?


Devil May Cry

Capcom are doing quite well at the moment. Dead Rising 2 has
made them a tonne of money so far and even DLC Dead Rising :
Case Zero (which I enjoyed) has made them a fair bit. People
have complained that these 'paid' pre-release items will mean
the end of free demos, but I argue that as long as these titles
are self-contained, they are worth shelling out for. It's just an
extra bit to the story and demos will always be free because
people will always want to know what they are buying first if
they can help it, and this is extremely important with games.
Anyway, back to Devil May Cry, Capcom have said that a new
look Dante is coming back and they've teamed up with the
amazing Ninja Theory team to release it. I'm excited. Are you?
You mean about the game? So did I ... sure ....

Inception

"An idea is like a virus" states DiCaprio and seeing as this hasn't left my mind since I've seen it, he couldn't be more correct.

I'm guessing most people have already heard the incredible feedback this film has received and so might walk into it thinking 'how great can this be?' and the answer is, it is perhaps one of the best films I've ever seen.

This isn't like Empire where they throw top marks at everything that's not complete crap (and sometimes even then they don't hold back), but this is a brave, original, perfectly crafted work of art. Yes it's art. Art can still be a commercial success and at least this isn't up it's own arse.

If you're not familiar with what it's about I can tell you the less you know the better. So I'm not going to reveal too much but let's say it's got a unique blend of different genres - action, heist, spy, sci-fi, thriller, horror, fantasy, drama and even a bit of comedy thrown in every now and then. DiCaprio is a man with a haunted past that is able with his crew to penetrate people's dreams.

That's the basis and I don't want to reveal more of the plot than this as it's a review, not an essay. Though I'm sure a lot of film students will have a field day on this film as it beckons more questions than The Matrix ever did. The symbolism, science and pretty much everything is enough to keep your mind busy for a while and what's great is that - it makes sense.

It doesn't patronise the audience by talking to them like a child, but it explains in simple enough terms all the intricacies of how the science of it all works and it is clearly a topic Nolan had thought to death about. Nothing is spared, every possible loophole filled and leaves the audience satisified (unlike the awful writing of Lost for example).

So let's move on to Nolan. There's no denying the man is a genius, he knows how to make a true film and you can see the passion he puts into his work all over the screen. The directing cannot be bettered and I would go as far as to say he is possibly my favourite contemporary director after this film. Not one of his past movies (not just Dark Knight - but Memento, Insomnia etc.) has ever failed to be nothing short of incredible. His confident, brave and bold projects shows that it really does pay to take a chance and take on something most directors wouldn't dare. The fact that he wrote Inception (I'd imagine he let his brother at least look over it) shows that his personal involvement with these films puts people like Bay and more to shame. Nolan has taught us that even subject matter like a comic book hero doesn't mean it has to be anything less than amazing.

Back to Inception though. It's possibly the first time that I have looked at a film and thought the CG looks entirely real. Completely believable. The fight scenes were enough to beat Heat & The Matrix (which if you remember were pretty much the best bits of the respective films) and the action is relentless. Like all Nolan films, not one scene is filler - every single moment in the film is relevant and even at a lengthy 2 and a half hours, I would have stayed and watched the whole thing again happily. It also shows that to have such an amazing scale, you don't need to be in 3D either and that it probably would have possibly ruined the film should people have been too obsessed with the 3D aspect of it. Thoughts?

Either way, the acting was perfect, I even enjoyed watching Page whom I hated before this film. Tom Hardy once again proves he is Britain's best young hope and even DiCaprio works on his Shutter Island performance to give a depth and gravitas I've never seen him do before. Even the score, cinematography, script and basically everything is incredible, I cannot gush about this enough. Fuck Toy Story 3 - if you've got a choice, choose this.

Saying that, it can't be completely perfect right? Well, that's true. For some reason, the first fifteen minutes felt a bit Johnny Mnemonic to me and I started to get a bit wary of where this was going, although luckily that feeling left quite soon. Also Michael Caine jarred with me slightly as I felt like he was just going to turn around and go "Yes Mr. Wayne" at any point. The fact that they go through so much trouble to plant an idea in someones head also feels ridiculous - surely there are easier ways of manipulation? And wouldn't it take someone just to go 'that's ridiculous, why would you do that?' to counteract it? Unless you truly believe it's like a disease and that you get obsessed with it. I don't know ...

However, these are such slight niggling things that all it will do is detract from your enjoyment of what is a perfect piece of film-making. I don't think anyone could argue that the way the dream layers come together at the end is nothing short of a superb piece of storytelling that could have easily gone wrong at any point. And the final shot? That's enough to drive you mad forever.

I can hardly fault this film and to be honest, I shouldn't, because if more film-makers like Nolan were around this truly would be a wondrous world. I'd just love to have a look at what goes on inside that head of his, but I guess this is the closest I'll ever get.
Maybe ....

Rating: 10/10