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Don't miss your favorite movies ranging from action, thriller to comedy and more AS WE RE-LUNCH BIGGER AND BETTER New Trailer For Kingsman: The Secret Service We’ve already had one full trailer for Matthew Vaughn’s latest Mark Millar adaptation, Kingsman: The Secret Service. You might remember that we had the director himself taking us through that first look. Here comes a second promo, which features a few new scenes. Colin Firth stars as Harry Hart, a suited, booted and immaculately mannered gentleman spy, one of the finest that bespoke espionage agency the Kingsmen has to offer. He takes young, chav-tastic upstart Gary “Eggsy” Unwin (Taron Egerton) under his wing after spotting real potential in the young man. See New Trailer For Kingsman: The Secret Service The agency could use some fresh blood, particularly with the diabolic, operatic Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson clearly having a ball chewing the scenery as a flamboyant Bond-throwback villain) launching a terrifying scheme to change the world by nefarious means. With the likes of Michael Caine, Mark Hamill, Sofia Boutella, Sophie Cookson and Vaughn stalwart Mark Strong in the cast, Kingsman: The Secret Service will now hit UK cinemas on February 13 next year.  Bryan Singer Confirmed For X-Men: Apocalypse He's locked in his director's deal Given the success of X-Men: Days Of Future Past and his comments after the film’s release about follow-up plans, it was all but a foregone conclusion that Bryan Singer would return to direct the new film, X-Men: Apocalypse. But the vagaries of filmmaking deals ensure that things take time to lock in and Singer has only just officially signed his contract to tackle the next instalment. With Simon Kinberg back writing the script, based on ideas he’s thrown around with Singer, Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, the new film will be set a decade after Days, in the 1980s, and chronicles what happens when the powerful mutant Apocalypse causes trouble for our heroes. And who will those heroes be, given that time has now marched on even further? Kinberg took part in a Yahoo video Q&A to talk about the future of the past. "The X-Men film that we're working on now as everybody knows is X-Men: Apocalypse and that really follows the stories of the First Class X-Men: Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, many others of that generation,” he says. “So, in future X-Men films? Perhaps, but in Apocalypse it will really be the continuation of the 'past' of Days Of Future Past." As for characters from the original trilogy, some of whom were returned in the timeline glimpsed at the end of Future Past? "If we included some of the original X-Men, like Storm, Jean, Scott, and others, we would have to recast them, because Apocalypse takes place a good twenty years before X1, which now insanely was fifteen years ago. It would be very hard to do. Halle, Famke, and Jimmy, and others have done such wonderful jobs of bringing those characters to life and they're so identified, those actors, with the parts now,” says Kinberg. “So it would be a tall task, but I also would have said before First Class there would be no way we could find actors who could stand alongside Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, and I think we managed to with Michael and James finding their own interpretation of the characters, not doing an impersonation. So, are we going to have to recast? If some of those characters were in the movie we would, but we'll see." Ted 2 Just Added An Amazing Actor: With a movie like Ted or, more relevant to this discussion, Ted 2, there are two types of casting, beyond confirmation of original stars returning: The kind we want to hear about and the kind we probably don't, and hopefully won't. The latter applies to the anticipated celebrity cameos whose arrivals play out best when you don't know they're coming. Morgan Freeman would be a prime candidate for such a random appearance, however news that he's boarding the cast of Seth MacFarlane's anticipated Ted followup indicates that his arrival isn't one of the reported cameos. Variety has reported confirmation today that Morgan Freeman has signed on to play "an iconic civil rights lawyer who comes into the picture when Ted needs to resolve some legal issues." Are Ted's civil liberties in jeopardy in some way? It causes us to wonder, what rights does a talking bear have in this country? Sounds like Freeman's character will be involved in sorting that out one way or the other. Variety goes on to note that MacFarlane showed interest in bringing Morgan Freeman into the sequel from the start, as he was looking for a "high-profile actor" for a fun role. Freeman certainly is high-profile, and he's proven time and again that he can handle fun as well as he can handle serious roles. It was on this day in 1994 that Shawshank Redemption made its debut at TIFF. While Frank Darabont's feature adaptation of Stephen King's novella was by no means Freeman's first role -- his credits go back a bit further than that -- for many, the part of the contraband smuggling Red in Shawshank is one of his best roles in film. Twenty years later, Freeman is as busy as ever, stacking up roles in major projects. That includes Now You See Me (and the upcoming sequel, due out in 2016), the part of Vitruvius in The Lego Movie, Professor Norman in Lucy and roles in Transcendence and Dolphin Tale 2, to name a few. He's also expected to appear in the upcoming Olympus has Fallen sequel, London has Fallen. Ted comes from Seth MacFarlane and stars Mark Wahlberg as John, a man who's still best friends with his childhood pal Ted, who happens to be a talking, living stuffed bear. As one might expect from a comedy by and starring Seth MacFarlane, the tone of the first film was comical, focusing on the ridiculous shenanigans of a grown stuffed bear who's still as devoted to John in adulthood as he was when they were kids. We'll have to wait and see how that relationship has developed since then in the sequel. In Ted 2, Morgan Freeman joins returning stars Mark Wahlberg, Jessica Barth and Patrick Warburton, along with Ted newcomer Amanda Seyfried, who worked with Seth MacFarlane on A Million Ways To Die In The West. And, of course, Seth MacFarlane is directing, co-writing and voice-starring as the titular stuffed bear, Ted. Ted 2 is filming new and due to hit theaters June 26, 2015.   Sony moving forward with 23 Jump Street:  Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill are set to return as officers Jenko and Schmidt for a third time, as Sony gives the green light to 23 Jump Street. According to Deadline, the studio is moving forward with the project, and has appointed Rodney Rothman, one of the writers on 22 Jump Street, to produce a script. With 22 Jump Street currently sitting pretty as the tenth highest grossing film at the US box office this year, the move should come as little surprise, with Sony keen to cash in on a good thing. The report doesn’t reveal whether Chris Miller and Phil Lord will be returning to the directors’ chairs, although it does suggest that the gig is theirs if they want it. Failing that, the duo will likely assume production duties, as has been the case with the sequel to The LEGO Movie, which is slated to arrive in summer 2017.    'Breaking Bad' & 'Sherlock' Dominate 2014 Primetime Emmy Awards As 'True Detective' & 'Game Of Thrones' Lose Out:  The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards, the Oscars of the television world, were held last night in Los Angeles. And if you thought that NBC were somehow airing a repeat, you'd be forgiven: the awards were dominated by previous winners, with "Modern Family" tying "Frasier"'s record for most victories in comedy, and "Breaking Bad" taking its third drama prize on the trot. Hotly-tipped newcomers like "True Detective," "Fargo" and "Orange Is The New Black" were virtually shut out, taking only three prizes between them ("True Detective" and "Fargo" both winning for directing, and "Fargo" did take Best Miniseries), while other favorites like "Game Of Thrones" and "Mad Men" came out empty handed. Instead, "Modern Family" took three, including Ty Burrell for Best Supporting Actor, while "Breaking Bad" took three acting prizes, including a fourth for Bryan Cranston along »  Tyler Perry Had No Idea Who One Of The Best Directors In The World Was: Tyler Perry is an above-average director, a money-making machine and by all accounts, a pretty affable guy. One thing he is not, however, is a film scholar. He proved that this week when he casually mentioned he had no idea who the hell David Fincher was until after he accepted a role in the acclaimed director’s newest adaptation, Gone Girl. Speaking to New York Magazine, Perry outlined some fun stories about singing along with Ben Affleck and discussed the pressures of playing a character from a book adaptation. Not surprisingly, however, those statements aren’t getting quite as much press as his casual reveal that he wasn’t at all familiar with David Fincher. Like David Fincher, David Fincher. The dude who directed Se7en, Fight Club and The Social Network. Here’s a portion of the exact quote, courtesy of Yahoo… "I probably would have walked away from it. If I had known who David Fincher was, and his body of work… I would have said, No." Here’s the crazy thing about this. It’s not that someone would have no idea who David Fincher is. In fact, I bet half of the people reading this story have no idea who David Fincher is. No, the weird thing is that Tyler Perry and David Fincher are both extremely successful directors working in the exact same industry. They’re both in the top 1% of directors in the world, and it’s utterly bizarre that Tyler Perry wouldn’t be at least reasonably familiar with his work. It’s like Kevin Love saying he has no idea who Dirk Nowitzki is. Beyond that, it’s also utterly bizarre that someone of Tyler Perry’s status, who can do pretty much whatever he wants, would take a movie role without knowing who the director is. What if it was someone terrible? What if he was putting himself into a nightmare situation? It seems like he would have wanted to cover his back, but I guess he just trusts his agent that much, which is either the most awesome or the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. I can’t really decide. Regardless, Tyler Perry will play Tanner Bolt in Gone Girl. The celebrity litigator should provide a nice opportunity for the director and sometimes actor to show his dramatic chops. He’s popped up in non-Madea efforts like Star Trek before, but hopefully, this will be the opportunity he needs to show everyone there’s some talent there. If anyone can put those pieces together, it’s David Fincher. In the time since the movie finished shooting, Tyler Perry has had nothing but nice things to say about his fellow director. Here’s to hoping he found the time to backlog through the director’s entire catalog. It’s well worth the effort. Ving Rhames returning for Mission: Impossible 5 Mission: Impossible 5 is set to restore a familiar face to its ensemble, with franchise regular Ving Rhames in place to join the cast. Director Christopher McQuarrie broke the news by tweeting, “Welcome back Mr. Rhames”, confirming that his character, Luther Stickell, would be making a return. Rhames was a regular in the first three films of the series, before sitting out the most recent outing, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, but for a tiny cameo at the film’s end. Plot details are pretty sketchy at this point, although further casting rumours have recently come to light, with Rebecca Ferguson in line for the female lead and Alec Baldwin wanted for the head of the CIA. Directed by McQuarrie and co-starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg, Mission: Impossible 5 will open in the UK on 26 December 2015. Bad Boys 3 Announced By Martin Lawrence:    On the day of August 13th, 2014, Sir Martin Lawrence appeared on the Conan television talk show. His intentions were to promote discussion and celebration of his new FX series Partners. Mr. Lawrence was plenty excited about the team-up with Kelsey Grammer. But he was, perhaps,more excited about a new project. A project that will reshape the cinematic world as we know it. Though the show has only just aired, we have heard that Martin Lawrence has announced another collaboration with Michael Bay. Once again, the actor will be playing Detective Marcus Burnett. Shit just got real: there's going to be a Bad Boys 3. Lawrence says that he has been talking with producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and that a screenplay for Bad Boys 3 is being actively developed. The script would "potentially re-team him" with co-star Will Smith. But, really,how can you have Marcus without Mike Lowry?And going a step beyond that, how can you have Smith and Lawrence without Michael Bay? Smith is going to spend his fall making an untitled NFL concussion drama for director Peter Landesman. Michael Bay will wipe the stink of Transformers off him with a documentary about wildlife poaching. Martin Lawrence will, in all likelihood, depressingly shoot ninety more episodes of Partners. After all that, could Michael Bay return to continue the epic tale of Mike Lowry and Marcus Burnett? Criticize Mr. Bay for his flashy style, and his celebration of excess, cruelty and capitalism, but it is an undeniable fact that he was put on this Earth to make Bad Boys movies. Bad Boys was his first movie, and its a pretty sedate affair; a movie that was once meant to star Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz, and had likely been worked around a bit by producers and script doctors. Bad Boys 2, however, is the Michael Bay movie they'll play in Heaven for all his fans, and in Hell for all his detractors. Bearing very little resemblance to the first film, it is a celebration of sociopathic excellence, one of the most viscerally violent movies ever made for a major studio, both aesthetically and morally. It is a monument of towering action gratuitousness, and now Bay is returning to that sandbox after the four films in the planet-destroying Transformers films, and also the uniquely misanthropic Pain And Gain. Michael Bay's art is Bad Boys and he's hopefully about to paint his masterpiece. David Guggenheim (Safe House) is just the latest screenwriter hired by Sony to script Bad Boys 3. Knowing Bay, he will read this script, keep three pages of it, throw the rest in the garbage and announce to the crew, "Okay guys, today we're going to violently throw cars." Every day. Bad Boys 3 is coming. Michael Bay will fulfill his promise. An angel will get its wings, and fly to the heavens while playing the riff from Hot For Teacher on repeat. Life is beautiful.                                                                                          Naomie Harris Set For Southpaw :   She'll star with Jake Gyllenhaal Boxing drama Southpaw has seen more than a few changes both in front of and behind the camera, but director Anton Fuqua has finally solidified the cast list, and Naomie Harris has now jumped aboard. Originally developed as an unofficial follow-up to 8 Mile with Eminem playing a boxer, Southpaw has since evolved into a standalone film, with Jake Gyllenhaal as Billy "The Great" Hope, a left-handed pugilist who wins a big title but suffers a tragedy shortly after. With his life in tatters he must piece everything back together to regain the respect of his young daughter. Sons Of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter wrote the original script, though Fuqua has reportedly since brought on Equalizer collaborator Richard Wenk to polish it. Though Lupita Nyong’o had been in courted to play one of the main roles, Harris will instead step in as Angela, the social worker who aids Gyllenhaal and his offspring. Rachel McAdams made a deal to play Billy’s wife Maureen, while Forest Whitaker is set as Titus “Tick” Willis, who retired from the ring after losing an eye and trains younger fighters. Fuqua is busy cranking the cameras now for a 2015 release. Harris, last seen in Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, has most recently worked on John Le Carré adaptation Our Kind Of Traitor and will be back in the spy world once more when she returns as Eve Moneypenny to the Bond franchise for the 24th instalment. Daisy Ridley Set For Star Wars Episodes VIII And IX Too And Rian Johnson's reportedly set to direct IX as well as VIII It’s hardly a surprise considering she was announced alongside the main Episode VII cast back in April, and the information is buried in a talent agency story that’s about as dry as the dustiest corner of Tatooine’s desert surface, but Daisy Ridley is apparently on board for the next two Star Wars films, currently being developed by Looper’s Rian Johnson. Ridley, who scored a role in The Inbetweeners 2 but was cut when the opening sequence was later re-shot (eh, she can dry any tears on her Property Of The Millenium Falcon towel), is now at work on Star Wars: Episode VII under the direction of J.J. Abrams. According to Deadline’s report on Ridley’s new agency move, the plan is that the actress – who is one of the leads of the new film – will appear in both Episodes VIII and IX. Speculation has been rampant as to the character she’s playing, with many suggesting that she could be a daughter of Carrie Fisher’s Leia and Harrison Ford’s Han Solo. Johnson, meanwhile, was hired to direct Episode VIII and write a treatment for IX, with Deadline reporting that he’s also now scheduled to direct the third film. Ridley appears in Episode VII alongside John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Gwendoline Christie, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Lupita Nyong'o and Max von Sydow, plus saga veterans Ford, Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew and Kenny Baker. The latest Star Wars adventure will be out here on December 18 next year.

Philip Seymour Hoffman on Happiness in Newly Released Interview:

It's been just four months since we lost the incomparable Philip Seymour Hoffman. Even as I look back at the tribute that poured from my mind after his death, it's difficult to believe that he's still gone. The man was my favorite actor and at least once a week I'm reminded of one of his films, and immediately become filled with momentary sadness because of his eternal absence. But he lives on in the movies we loved, and now we get the chance to dive deeper into the mind of the great actor in an interview that is heartbreaking in hindsight. PBS Digital Studio's "Blank on Blank" just released a previously unaired, animated interview segment with Hoffman where he talks about happiness in his life. It's kind of difficult to sit through. Watch!

Here's the "Blank on Blank" interview with Philip Seymour Hoffman from PBS Digital Studios:

Here's the longer 45-minute talk with Simon Critchley that is also worth listening to (via Larry Wright):

Some of what Hoffman says here gave me chills, knowing that he ended up dying from a vice that he indulged too much in after going so long without it. But at the same time, it gives hope that we can all find out own happiness, and be self-aware enough to know when something truly makes us happy. Hoffman can be seen in God's Pocket right now, and also in the forthcoming thriller A Most Wanted Man hitting theaters this summer. His final performance will be seen in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part I this fall. This great actor will continue to inspire many for years to come and his family, friends and fans still miss him.

Game of Thrones movie news: George RR Martin reveals he wants a film after season 8

George R. R. Martin thinks it would be great if Game of Thrones was to end with a movie.

The 65-year-old author wrote the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series which the hit HBO show is based upon and he has given his blessing to the conclusion to of the story happening on the big screen, even though he has not finished writing the books.
He said: "If we go seven or eight seasons and then the show is still big enough that we can get the $200 million to finance a huge epic movie to end it ... sure!"
However, he isn't interested in any prospective movie being shot in 3D as he is not a fan of the technology.
"I don't care about 3D - it gives me a headache," he told the Independent Magazine.

Martin also admitted he is sometimes frustrated that budget restrictions of $6 million per episode mean some TV episodes cannot recreate what he put in words in his books - something that is particularly true when it comes to shooting battles.
The writer - who acts as co-executive producer on Game of Thrones - said: "We still run into budgetary problems. We've done a couple of great battles, for example, the Black Water battle in season two that I scripted and in this past season, episode nine was one long battle - the Battle of the Wall.
"Those have been great episodes, but we've also had to skip half the battles. Instead we have a messenger run on from off stage and say, 'We've won the battle!' Battles are very expensive."

Chinese Multiplex Launches Own Film Rating System

HONG KONG – A cinema in Urumqi, in China’s Xinjiang Province, has taken it on itself to issue age restrictions for the movies it plays.

The six screen complex, part of state-owned China Film Group’s nationwide circuit, recently issued a ‘PG-13’ advisory to Chinese horror-thriller “The House That Never Dies” (pictured) and the Canadian action movie “Brick Mansions.” Others are given a “G” rating for general audiences.

The cinema’s executive manager Yao Lin was quoted by Chinese media as saying that he has no film classification experience and is not working to defined guidelines. Rather his decisions are subjective.

China has no nationwide classification or rating system, and instead all films that are granted a release certificate are officially deemed as suitable for all audiences. Despite years of lobbying by some producers and distributors, regulators have not budged on the issue.

The Urumqi cinema is not alone. Two Golden Palm cinemas in Ili have apparently also begun their own advisory system, as has the Fenghe Studios cinema in Guangzhou. Two years ago, major distributor Bona Film Group said that it would similarly specify appropriate age classifications.

Yao argues that he is merely enforcing the law concerning protection of minors, which makes it illegal to show them pornography, violence or extreme terror.

He said that in summer months when children are on holiday from school, youngsters often left at the cinema by their parents. Initially, some were surprised that the cinema turned some of them away, but Yao says that parents had quickly accepted his actions.

Doctor Who: Deep Breath first reaction review

He doesn’t enjoy hugs, rejects scarves and definitely doesn’t do doors. Peter Capaldi’s first full episode as the 12th(-ish) Doctor trades in the uncertain identity of a new front-face.
But in truth, the measure of writer Steven Moffat and director Ben Wheatley’s smart, funny Capal-debut’s success is its assurance: it knows what it wants, knows what it doesn’t what and says “Shush” to anything in between.
So Who’s eighth series opens with a roar as the TARDIS is vomited into Victorian London, where the Paternoster Gang (Vastra, Jenny, Strax) and Jenna Coleman’s shell-shocked Clara need to figure out who the new Doc is and help him do so.
Meanwhile, just as 12 has issues with his face, so a man-droid stalking the streets is interested in faces. And eyes. And other body parts...
Moffat takes his time unpeeling that macabre (and faintly undersold) story, but his newly stealthy pacing gives 12’s mysteries room to simmer.
Which they do, in Capaldi’s sure, spidery hands. He’s funny, terse, wayward – likeable with it, sure, but also sharper than his costume’s curt lines and clear that his is a Doctor about whom assumptions shouldn’t be made.
Coleman likewise explodes any series 7-based presumptions with her forthright delivery. Equally forthright is the lived-in, cinema-standard direction, which shares a purposeful mien with Capaldi’s “attack eyebrows” and reiterates Wheatley’s flair for witty/tense stand-offs over dinner tables.
With the climax brimming with emotion, the crackle of all-fronts confidence is emphatic.
Deep breath, relax: Capaldi knows how to fly this thing.

'Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day' Before and After Posters

What starts out as a normal day for Alexander and his family soon turns into anything but that in Disney's adaptation of the hugely popular children's book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. A new set of posters offer a look at this miserable day in question before things go off track, and after everything has come crashing down on poor Alexander, his parents and his siblings. Take a look:

Disney's Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day follows the exploits of 11-year-old Alexander (Ed Oxenbould) as he experiences the most terrible and horrible day of his young life, a day that begins with gum stuck in his hair, followed by one calamity after another. But when Alexander tells his upbeat family about the misadventures of his disastrous day, he finds little sympathy and begins to wonder if bad things only happen to him. He soon learns that he's not alone when his mom (Jennifer Garner), dad (Steve Carell), brother (Dylan Minnette) and sister (Kerris Dorsey) all find themselves living through their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Anyone who says there is no such thing as a bad day just hasn't had one.
  
Tom Felton And Joseph Fiennes On For Clavius
Because Bible-spawned films are all the rage at the moment, it’s perhaps not that surprising that yet another one is busily gearing up. Waterworld director Kevin Reynolds is preparing to make Clavius and has Tom Felton and Joseph Fiennes set to star.
Aiming to take a different track from the (relatively) more straightforward adaptations Noah and Exodus: Gods & Kings, Clavius is instead looking at the Jesus story from another angle. The script, from Paul Aiello and Reynolds, follows the titular agnostic Roman centurion (Fiennes) who is dispatched by Pontius Pilate to investigate the rumours that the Messiah has risen from the grave and to track down Jesus’ allegedly missing body.
As he digs into the story, looking to subdue an uprising in Jerusalem, his doubts about the supernatural event begin to waver as he meets the apostles and other people. Felton’s role in the film isn’t specified, but according to Deadline, he won’t be playing Pilate, since the producers are still locking down someone to take that role. Reynolds and the rest want the film ready for an Easter 2015 release.
Fiennes, currently on screen in Hercules, has worked on Strangerland opposite Nicole Kidman and is attached to supernatural thriller The Unholy. Felton, who was in Belle and In Secret, has Ghosts Of The Pacific and Grace And Danger awaiting release.

 Transporter 4 Gets Title And Release Date

First announced at Cannes last year, Luc Besson and his EuropaCorp accomplices are returning to the Transporter franchise with a new trilogy, sadly not this time to feature Jason Statham. Ed Skrein will instead be taking the driving seat in the first of the new movies, directed by Camille Delamarre (Brick Mansions). And with shooting underway as of last month, we now have a title and - for the US at least - a release date. The Transporter Legacy will be out in the States in March next year, via the newly minted EuropaCorp USA.
That moniker seems to be a deliberate and mischievous nod to the Bourne franchise, but also makes no sense: it suggests an inheritor of the Statham mantle, when the film is actually a prequel with Skrein playing the same character, a young Frank Martin. Martin is, you'll recall, the driver who never changes the deal and never opens the package (except when he does). Statham played the role in three films: four, if you include his cameo in Michael Mann's Collateral.
The Transporter has already been a short-lived TV series sans-Stath, starring Chris Vance. Why Vance wasn't chosen for the step back up to the big screen is not a matter of public record. You may recognise Skrein from Ill Manors, or from Game Of Thrones, where he played Daario Naharis in Season 3 (replaced by Michiel Huisman in year 4).
A recast prequel series to a Stath vehicle? We've seen this before with the Death Race films, for which Luke Goss stepped into the DTV instalments. Whether, outside France and the States, The Transporter Legacy and its follow-ups will fare better, remains to be seen. There's no UK release date for Legacy so far.
 A movie miracle: how Hollywood found religion:

Gods not dead

heaven is for real

letters to God

Big news from the box office: some people released some Christian-themed movies that weren’t completely terrible. The terribleness of Christian movies is, of course, an article of faith among film critics, who reserve for them their most damning barbs (“doesn’t even meet the standards of decent propaganda”; “doesn’t belong in a theatre”). On Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, they garner basement-level scores rivalled only by torture porn and holocaust-exploitation flicks. But not this year, which has seen box-office success for studio-backed movies such as Son of God ($67m since its debut in late February), Darren Aronofsky’s Noah ($359m), God’s Not Dead ($60m), Heaven is for Real ($91m), and, soon Ridley Scott’s retelling of the story of Moses, Exodus. In October, we can look forward to Left Behind, a remake of a 2002 end-of-days conspiracy thriller starring Nicolas Cage. Also in the offing: a star-studded cast in the long-awaited prequel to The Passion of the Christ (Mary, Mother of Christ) and a Cain and Abel film set to star Will Smith. Some have christened this “year of the Bible movie”.

“Having not just one do so well is a big deal, but having so many – Heaven is for Real, God’s Not Dead and Son of God – all come along and do well in the space of this year is unprecedented,” says Shawn Robbins, an analyst at boxoffice.com. “No doubt about it, Hollywood has been caught napping.” He attributes a big part of this to social media. “Thirty years ago you had network television, trying to appeal to everyone. Now you can reach a niche audience with much greater ease. They have these grassroots marketing campaigns for faith-based movies that start with churchgoers who are looking for something they’re not getting from the movie theatre. And the better they do, the more attention they’re getting from the studios.”
Noah – the trailer

To anyone familiar with William Goldman’s dictum that “nobody knows anything” the term “faith-based movie” will make zero sense: 99% of the time Hollywood works on nothing but faith. But the term is used more specifically to refer to the mushroom patch of independently produced, Christian-themed movies that sprang up in the shadow of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ 10 years ago. Often released straight to video, and promoted via viral campaigns by groups such as the American Family Association and the Concerned Women of America, they induce a spooky sensation in the secular viewer. It’s as if one has left one’s body and touched down in another, alternative universe, full of actors you’ve never heard of playing characters with porn movie names – Raymie Steele, Shasta Carvell, Buck Williams – who emote, soapily, to the kind of music that you hear while on hold to speak to someone about life insurance. No one smokes or curses. The men are usually cops, or firefighters, and often have a black best friend, dispensing gold-plated advice. There is a higher-than-average chance of encountering a mullet, or a cameo by a cast member from Duck Dynasty, or a product placement for Chick-fil-A.
Heaven is For Real, starring Greg Kinnear as Todd and Kelly Reilly as Sonja.
Heaven is for Real, starring Greg Kinnear as Todd and Kelly Reilly as Sonja. Photograph: Allen Fraser

By contrast, Heaven Is for Real, released earlier this year, came from a real studio, Sony, and featured a real actor, Greg Kinnear, playing a pastor whose son claims to have visited heaven while undergoing an appendectomy. To be accurate, Kinnear suffers a fractured leg and passes a round of kidney stones before his son suffers a burst appendix – faith-based movies are big on hospital visits – but the dilemma that follows is the main event, as Kinnear grapples with the question of whether he believes his son or not. The film backs the son all the way: heaven turns out to resemble a toilet-roll commercial and Jesus looks like Rod Stewart in a bathrobe, with music that sounds like the music you hear while on hold to check on your pension. Still, the film has irony, doubt, humour and a moderately gripping drama of tested faith. “Not stupid in the way you’re thinking,” concluded Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir. A backhanded compliment, but still: a backhanded compliment! From a real critic! That’s an important milestone for a genre seeking Hollywood gentrification.

In some ways these films are a straightforward response to box-office disenfranchisement: a burp from the bible belt, ignored by an industry set on manufacturing global blockbusters. On the east and west coasts of America, the response has been to stay home and watch HBO, while the heartland turns out for The Blind Side, in numbers that have necessitated a shift in the battle lines between Christianity and Hollywood. As recently as 10 years ago, the news that a movie adaptation of a story from Genesis, by atheist Darren Aronofsky, featuring CGI rock monsters and a homicidal Noah, would have prompted outrage from the evangelical right, maybe even a boycott, certainly a placard or two. But despite efforts from the likes of Glenn Beck to drum up controversy, the film’s release, via an internet-savvy promotional campaign from Paramount, was met with a noticeably nuanced response from Christian groups – mixed to be sure, but not giving off the night sweats of a belief-system under seige.

“Noah is not poorly made or shoddy,” ran a seven-page review in Christianity Today. “It is not political. It is not evangelistic. It is not a theological treatise.” Furthermore, the writer meant that as praise. For its qualities as a movie.
Rusell Crowe talks about Noah

“As a Christian I worship the creator of creativity,” says Marcus Pittman, a Christian documentary film-maker working in Virginia, who released his guide to dealing with atheists, How to Answer the Fool, on the internet. “There used to be this attitude of well, they’ve made this terrible movie, but it’s all in the name of Jesus so we should go. People were happy to have at least something. But this idea that Christian movies as a genre – this kind of Joel Olsteen, chicken-soup-for-the-soul version of Christianity, ‘the number one inspirational movie in America’ where everything has a happy ending – it’s kind of insulting. Bad movies are kind of blasphemy to the image of God. A lot of Christians I know watch Marvel movies. There’s good versus evil, there’s a hero, they’re clean. They’re very Biblical. Superhero movies have a massive Christian fanbase. I see kids coming to church dressed as Superman all the time.”

This is a far cry from the paranoia that has characterised the relationship between Christianity and Hollywood in the past. In 1913, there was a ban on building cinemas within 200ft of a church in some American states. “To make money by lying to people when one is in the consciousness business is a particularly serious perversion,” wrote American theologian Harvey Cox in 1962, whose objections to Hollywood went far beyond the normal objections to its lifestyle and morality – although he did, like most, view it as the second coming of Sodom and Gomorrah – but cut to the very issue of cinematic representation itself. “To lie with an artform is all at once to have another god, to make graven images, to steal, and to bear false witness. The theological judgment on such efforts as Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments should find its inspiration in the reaction of Moses to the Golden Calf.” That is: condemnation, death and destruction.
Charlton Heston as Moses in Cecil B DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956).
Charlton Heston as Moses in Cecil B DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956). Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/PARAMOUNT

As shrill as some of this sounds today, Christian fears that the movies would usurp the church’s role as a place of worship have been largely proven correct. No other medium is as well placed to offer transcendence. “The cinema has done more for my spiritual life than the church,” wrote John Updike. “My ideas of fame, success and beauty all originate from the big screen. Whereas Christian religion is retreating everywhere and losing more and more influence; film has filled the vacuum and supports us with myths and action-controlling images. During a certain phase in my life film was a substitute for religion.”

The rivalry between the two masks a lurking kinship, though. “Motion pictures were not born in religious practice, but instead are a totally profane offspring of capitalism and technology,” writes Paul Schrader in his landmark book, Transcendental Style in Film, in which he isolates two strains of religious film-making: the epics of Cecil B DeMille, presenting religion as spectacle, with teeming hordes, VistaVision, shafts of light, and strangely subdued orgies. “Give me any couple of pages of the Bible and I’ll give you a picture,” boasted DeMille. The second stream is that of the austere transcendentalists of the arthouse – Yasujiro Ozu, Robert Bresson, Carl Dreyer – who, recognising the over-abundant, material “fallen” nature of the medium, pursue an aesthetic of scarcity, sparseness, abnegation. “The sparse means,” said Jacques Maritain in Religion and Culture (1932) are the “proper means of the spirit”.
Christian Bale as Moses in Ridley Scott's Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)
Christian Bale as Moses in Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014). Photograph: Allstar Picture Library

The austerity of Bresson and Dreyer is hardly the model many contemporary Christian film-makers have in mind – Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life bypassed evangelicals almost completely – but to bemoan the terribleness of Christian movies is, in some ways, to miss the point. Their terribleness is the point – a badge of independence from Hollywood’s corrupting glamour, the very paltriness of their artistic ambitions a reassuring sign of the sincerity of their belief. There is a kind of bonkers integrity to a film like Left Behind, Kirk Cameron’s end-of times conspiracy thriller, which sold 2.8m video copies in 2002. Who even knew there were 2.8m VCRs left in America? In its valiant attempt to link the Biblical rapture, a global currency meltdown, the rise of the Antichrist (through the UN, naturally) and war in the Middle East, using an abandoned quarry in Ontario (“whoever this Antichrist guy is, he’s going to have a huge war on his hands”), the film is propelled by the same mad belief as Ed Wood’s doomsdays-on-the-cheap. It’s so artistically bereft that only a belief in a higher power could explain its existence.
Left Behind: the movie

Hence the suspicion on Christian social networks that has greeted the news that Nicolas Cage was to star in the remake: is Cage even a Christian? Some claimed he was “not a believer”, others that he was a Scientologist and that the film would be “a big deception”. Others pushed back: “He’s not making this movie, he’s acting in it. Please do a little more fact-checking.”

There is a distinct danger, some say, of Hollywood moving into the market too fast, with too little understanding of the dog-whistle finesse with which Christian groups communicate with one another. “Like any good trend, there’s a danger of moving too fast,” says Robbins. “If they do move too fast they’re going to destroy whatever goodwill they’ve built up so far. It’s just like anything else, there’s a sweet spot to it. Mel Gibson made The Passion of The Christ independently but pulled off the perfect marriage of a film that looked and felt like a Hollywood movie but wasn’t. If Hollywood gets too involved the target audience will disperse pretty quick.”

Or as Luke (16:13) puts it: “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Bruce Campbell to star in Evil Dead TV series?

One of the more leftfield announcements at this year’s Comic-Con came from Sam Raimi, who announced that an Evil Dead TV show is something he is currently working on.

The director revealed that he is currently writing the new show with his brother Ted, and original star Bruce Campbell, with the latter now suggesting that he will be making a return in front of the camera.

Campbell broke the news in reply to a fan on Twitter, who asserted that the show would only be worth watching with Bruce in the leading role. “That’s the plan,” was the star’s response.

Neither Raimi nor Campbell have gone much further detail-wise, so we don’t know where the series will fit in with the timeline of the original trilogy, or whether it will relate in any way to the recent franchise reboot.

What we do know, however, is that a Campbell-starring Evil Dead series is good news indeed. Fire up the chainsaw, re-spray the Oldsmobile and saw off that shotgun… Ash is back.

Source: Bruce Campbell

Justin Bieber Plays Convict In Selena Gomez's New Film

Justin Bieber has landed a small role as a convict in his ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez's new film, Behaving Badly.
The Come and Get It singer's latest movie features her as a straight-laced high school student who ends up on a "rock 'n' roll-themed odyssey" with her friend, played by The Fault in Our Stars actor Nat Wolff.
Their barely-legal shenanigans bring them to a prison, and in a clip from the film, Bieber makes a very brief cameo as a fellow inmate, donning an orange jumpsuit and shuffling in the background of the scene.
Ironically, Bieber's appearance is art imitating life - the Baby hitmaker has had his own slew of legal troubles over the past year, including a DUI charge after he was accused of drag racing with a pal in Miami Beach, Florida in January (14), allegations he lashed out at a limousine driver in December (13), and an assault lawsuit filed against him by a paparazzo in Miami following an altercation last summer (13).

Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt To Marry Onscreen In New Movie

Engaged Hollywood couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will reportedly marry onscreen in their new movie.
The stars, who fell in love on the set of 2005 spy film Mr. & Mrs. Smith and went on to become a real life couple, plan to reunite on-set in Jolie's latest directing project, By The Sea.
Editors of The Hollywood Reporter now state the couple will exchange vows on camera as part of the story, which was written by Jolie herself.
The couple's real life engagement was announced in 2012, and they are regularly hit with rumours about when the wedding will take place.

The Best Comic-Con Announcements and Surprises of All Time

Do you remember where you were when Batman V Superman was announced? When the first glimpse of Avatar was bestowed upon the world? Probably not, but for the Comic-Con faithful, these moments are gospel. San Diego Comic-Con has become the destination for any geek worth his salt, and a select few moments throughout the convention's history have become legendary to fans across the world. Here are the most memorable moments from Comic-Cons past.





The Batman V  Superman announcementRight at the tail end of the 2013 Warner Bros. panel, a Jittery Zack Snyder turned up to announce that he was working on a sequel to Man of Steel. Then, with help from the booming voice of Harry Lennix and a choice excerpt from Frank Miller's classic Batman tale The Dark Knight Returns, Warner Bros. dropped a bomb on Hall H with the announcement of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (which was then untitled). When the logo blazed on screen with all its glory, SDCC 2013 had hit its definitive peak.


LIST Hollywood's 100 Favorite Films

Although there have been no Lone Ranger-size debacles, for the first time since 2001 no summer pic will cross $300 million domestically (X-Men: Days of Future Past, Maleficent and Transformers: Age of Extinction hover near $230 million). May kicked off with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 earning $200 million less domestically than 2013's Iron Man 3; by July 20, the divide had swelled to nearly $690 million as revenue topped out at $2.71 billion, down 20 percent compared with the same period last year.
International returns remain strong, making up for some of the damage, but in certain cases they aren't enough. Spider-Man 2 topped out at $706.2 million globally, notably behind the $757.9 million earned by The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012. "I would have liked Amazing Spider-Man 2 to make a lot more money for us than it did, but it made a lot of money for us anyway," Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal said in a recent interview.

Box-Office Slump: Hollywood Facing Worst Summer in Eight Years

A version of this story first appeared in the Aug. 1 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Less than six weeks before Labor Day, hopes for recovery at the North American summer box office have evaporated. The season is expected to finish down 15 to 20 percent compared with 2013, the worst year-over-year decline in three decades, and revenue will struggle to crack $4 billion, which hasn't happened in eight years. As a result, analysts predict that the full year is facing a deficit of 4 to 5 percent.

 

Actress Skye McCole Bartusiak From ‘The Patriot’ Found Dead At 21

21-year-old Skye McCole Bartusiak died on Saturday (July 19) in her Houston home. She was found in her bed in the garage apartment next to her parent’s home by her boyfriend. Skye has suffered from epileptic seizures since she was a baby, and though cause of death is still unknown, it’s likely she died from an attack.
Best-known for her role as Mel Gibson’s daughter in the 2000 film “The Patriot,” Bartusiak also appeared in “The Cider House Rules,” “Don’t Say a Word” and other movies, as well as TV shows like “24″ and “CSI.”
“We lost our girl,” her mother Helen McCole Bartusiak told CNN. “She was a kind and really beautiful girl.”
The investigation into Skye’s death is ongoing, but she had been reportedly struggling with epileptic seizures again after a long hiatus. Epilepsy attacks can be completely random — and fatal — if the victim’s airway passage becomes blocked, or if they are alone during the attack.
“We think she had a seizure and choked and nobody was there,” her mother said. “They were working on her for 45 minutes and could not get a heartbeat. I’ve done CPR on that kid more than one time and it just didn’t work this time.”
Helen began to perform CPR on Skye before the paramedics arrived, but sadly, it was too late to restore a heartbeat. CNN reports that on Sunday morning, her mother was looking through photos of Skye’s wonderful life in order to find some images for the funeral. These included pictures of her daughter with Presidents George W. and George H.W. Bush and Mel Gibson, among others.
“The girl has lived such an amazing life,” her mother said. Our deepest condolences are with the Bartusiak family at this time.

Want To Know The New ‘Star Wars’ Plot? Then This Is The Post For You

So we’ve got some major potential plot details that have surfaced on the Internet, folks. So if you want to remain blissfully unaware as to what might be happening in the latest “Star Wars” flick, do not — I repeat, do NOT! — read on. The potential for spoilers is strong with this one.
OK, so we good? Now let’s talk about how much “Star Wars Episode VII” is getting a hand from “Episode IV: A New Hope.” According to Badass Digest, the latest installment in the sci-fi universe is one epic adventure to reunite a lost hand with its Jedi. Really.
Though we have no confirmation as to who this source is, apparently the whole thing starts off with that infamous severed hand that was lost in time in, perhaps what will be forever known as the worst father-son fight in history.
“Imagine the standard Star Wars crawl, and when it ends the camera pans up to the stars. But instead of a spaceship zooming into frame we see… a hand! A severed hand, tumbling through space. A severed hand gripping a light saber,” Badass Digest writer Devin Faraci explained.
Apparently it is that hand — fallen into the, well, hands of Daisy Ridley and John Boyega, our heroes. In a quest to reunite the hand with its original Jedi owner, the duo “meet up with Han Solo and Chewbacca,” who are NOT, apparently, in the Millennium Falcon, but do admit “they haven’t seen their friend” to whom the hand belonged, “in thirty years, since the events of Return of the Jedi.”
But obviously it’s not so simple as all that — naturally, a big baddie must be introduced. So the post mentioned that while all this is going on, somewhere “on an ice planet,” some tricky bad guys “are building a super weapon” capable of destroying “entire solar systems” in a single clip. Sounds like a job for… everyone in this movie!