Movie News

Trailer Tracker: The Green Hornet, latest Narnia film and more

It’s that time of the week!  That’s right, time for Trailer Tracker where we at Player Affinity brave the bleak and foreboding world of the internet searching for the newest trailers. This week, we get a first look at the anticipated comic book adaptation The Green Hornet, voyage with the Dawn Treader to Narnia for a third time, check out the high concept Tomorrow, When the War Began from Australia and finally show Conviction with the new drama starring Sam Rockwell and Hillary Swank.

Sony approaches Adam McKay for Ennis’ “The Boys”

According to Collider.com, Samuel Bayer, who helmed the A Nightmare on Elm Street remake, said a few months ago that he was interested in directing a film based on the comic book series. However, he also said that Sony was seeking the Anchorman director for the job. The Boys is a comic book series focused on “a superpowered CIA squad” in a modern world where many people have superpowers and some tend to get unruly. The series was created by Garth Ennis (writer) and Darick Robertson (illustrator). 

Marvel gets Dr. Strange movie rolling … with Disney?

After the property jumped around to Columbia Pictures and Paramount, Marvel finally has the rights to Dr. Strange back, and it looks the film will be getting the movie treatment. According to Deadline Hollywood, Joshua Oppenheimer and Thomas Donnelly, writers of the upcoming film Conan, have been hired by the studio to write a script for a film based on the character Dr. Strange. Although not confirmed, it is very possible that this will be the first Marvel-based film that is produced under Disney.

DVD/Blu-ray DISCussion (New for 6.22.10)

A foursome of new releases make up our DISCussion this week. First there’s the Paul Greengrass-Matt Damon political action thriller Green Zone, followed by Jay Baruchel romantic comedy She’s Out of My League. Then two dramas: one geared to a young audience with Robert Pattinson in Remember Me and one to an older audience: Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren in The Last Station.

She’s Out of My League Review

She’s out of My League is the type of film that seems to suffer from a crisis of identity; is it a romantic comedy or an Apatow-esque combination of raunch and insight? Jay Baruchel’s first starring vehicle tries to have its cake and have sex with it too, and winds up splitting its resources to less effective result.

“Toy” a joy, “Jonah” Hexed at weekend box office

As was expected Toy Story 3, Pixar studio’s final installment in its only trilogy, towered over the box office boasting the highest June opening of all time and the highest opening for the beloved production company.

Launching in an ultra-wide 4,028 theaters for a sizable $27,385 average, Woody, Buzz and company escaped with $110.3 million with $20 million of the gross coming from 3-D screens. The mammoth launch was the second largest for an animated film (behind only Shrek the Third) and handily beat the $70.5 million debut of The Incredibles, the former Pixar record holder. Overseas brought the early tally to $155.1 million and if this threequel behaves anything like most animated films, the record $441.1 million domestic gross of Shrek 2 could be up for grabs.

Casting Notes: Rise of the Apes rumors, Battleship and more X-Men

Today’s casting notes include a couple actors who have been offered roles in the prequel to Planet of the Apes, some more speculation about the Marvel origins film X-Men: First Class

DiCaprio set as J. Edgar Hoover for Eastwood

Every so often that one film pops up and you say to yourself, “well, that’s just not fair.” That was initially what I thought when Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman teamed up for Invictus. I turned out to be a bit off with that, but here we are again. Now, according to Deadline Hollywood, Leonardo DiCaprio will star as FBI frontman J. Edgar Hoover for director Clint Eastwood, producer Brian Grazer and Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who wrote Milk.

DVD/Blu-ray DISCussion (New for 6.15.10)

This week we take a look at some January 2010 films: Denzel Washington in the post-apocalyptic action film The Book of Eli and Michael Cera in the C.D Payne book adaptation Youth in Revolt. On Blu-ray, Sam Raimi’s cult classic (aren’t all of his cult classics?) Darkman with Liam Neeson and the ’80s incarnation of timeless sci-fi hero Flash Gordon.

Trailer Tracker: The Smurfs, Tangled and more

Hello and welcome back to Trailer Tracker, where we at Player Affinity pound the gavel and play judge, jury and possibly executioner to the newest trailers hitting the web. On this lovely week in June we take the blue pill and visit The Smurfs, venture to ancient Britain with the red-band trailer for Centurion, revisit a classic fairy tale with the Disney animated film Tangled and get stuck in The Middle Men with you, a flick starring Luke Wilson about the early days of the internet.