Universal Pictures has enlisted screenwriter James Vanderbilt to help craft a cinematic universe based on the works of Robert Ludlum, author of The Bourne Identity. First up in this universe will be the adaptation of Ludlum’s The Janson Directive, which will star Dwayne Johnson. Vanderbilt will adapt Janson Directive from a story co-authored with Academy Award-winner…
The follow-up trailer for the third Purge movie, Election Year has dropped and it looks grim. Director James De Monaco (who has helmed all three films) returns with newbies Elizabeth Mitchell (Revolution) Frank Grillo (Captain America: Winter Soldier & Civil War). When Senator Charlene Roan (Mitchell) vows to eliminate the annual “Purge” – a night where all…
That title is just all over the place. However, the laughs look to be delivered at rapid pace if the second trailer to The Lonely Island’s newest film Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is something to go by. Former boy band member Connor4Real (Andy Samberg) looks to maintain his celebrity status when his solo album is a…
The St Kilda Film Festival, now Australia’s longest running, publicly-owned short film festival, has today released the nominees for the festival’s title award, best short film. Prevailing against the country’s best 100 short films were Red Rover, Death in Bloom, Slingshot and The Orchestra. Other award categories and nominees were; Best Documentary: You Better Take…
Given its status time-travelling superpowered team adventure, it feels safe to say Legends of Tomorrow is probably the most ambitious effort yet in the CW’s ever-growing lineup of superhero TV shows. Set around the time-travelling Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill), who snatches various DC heroes and villains out of the present to go on a sprawling…
The Goosebumps novel series was one I read religiously as a child growing up – in fact I don’t know many 90’s children who weren’t invested in this wonderfully ghoulish series – so the idea of a (long overdue) cinematic adaptation of R.L. Stine’s classic tales was one I embraced wholeheartedly. The type of subject matter…
For a while there it looked like the only version of Deadpool we’d ever see on the big screen was the somewhat cringe-inducing one we saw in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Studio execs at Fox were unsure about how to move forward with the character and make it a viable film. But when some test footage…
Taika Waititi‘s New Zealand-set and produced Hunt for the Wilderpeople releases this week and we were lucky to be in attendance at the film’s Sydney premiere. Alongside getting to see the film itself (look for our review later in the week), we were also treated to a short Q&A with director Taika Waititi and cast members Julian…
Hi Folks, We see a few changes this week with regards to #1. X-Men: Apocalypse sits at the top spot with $6.4 million – a pretty good turnout but not the same figures as Captain America: Civil War or even Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice on their openings. In second place we have The Angry Birds Movie, the comedy-adventure based on the video game. The…
The first teaser to Disney’s Beauty and the Beast has landed. Disney has opted with something in much the same vein as The Jungle Book and Maleficent when it comes to retelling this classic as a live-action feature. Watch it below: In this very small teaser – breathtaking yet understated – we can make out a few things. Emma Watson is…
It has been confirmed True Detective‘s Cary Fukanaga will direct and Steven Spielberg will co- produce Stanley Kubrick’s long term project Napoleon as a miniseries for HBO. We can also get excited that this project will have Kubrick’s long time producer Jan Harlan along for the ride. If you’re not aware, this is something Kubrick spent a great deal of…
After the longest deliberating process in the history of the festival, the Cannes Jury announced that British filmmaker Ken Loach won the Palme d’Or for I, Daniel Blake. This is now Loach’s second d’Or, though some have suggested it will be his last film. I, Daniel Blake is a social drama about a man’s struggles in the bureaucracy of the healthcare system. After collecting the award Loach thanked…
After a strong fourth episode, “Blood in the Streets”, Fear the Walking Dead made the smart move of getting us off the open water in order to make a big push for season 2, bringing us to Strand’s promised compound in Mexico to deal with the intricacies of death and, surprisingly, split the group into…
“God has forgotten me. He can’t find me here.” – Vanessa Ives Like season two’s memorable “The Nightcomers”, this week Penny Dreadful hones in on a pair of characters portrayed by two remarkable actors in “A Blade of Grass.” With the support of Dr. Seward (Patti LuPone), Vanessa (Eva Green) recalls the events that took place while…
Among all of the hearsay regarding season three of FX drama Fargo, we finally have some concrete news. Ewan McGregor will star and play two characters: brothers Emmit and Ray Stussy Emmit Stussy is the Parking Lot King of Minnesota. A handsome, self-made, real estate mogul and family man, he sees himself as an American success story….
This year’s upcoming VIVID is set to be Sydney’s biggest yet. For VIVID Ideas, in particular, it’s hard not to call this year’s lineup their most ambitious effort with over planned 180 events and over 400 unique speakers including the House of Cards writer Beau Willimon and Orange is the New Black showrunner Jenji Kohan. We caught up with the curator of…
Mad Tiger is such a strange and brilliant film it’s hard to know where to begin. Donning Power Rangers-inspired costumes and describing themselves as a “Japanese Action Comic Punk band”, Peelander-Z are a band you’ve probably never heard but aren’t unlikely to forget once you encounter them. In their own words, their performances are probably…
Just because Benioff & Weiss are somewhat free from George RR Martin’s murderous ways in Game of Thrones’ source material, doesn’t mean the showrunners are any less capable of bringing us to tears. In what will be one of the most talked about scenes of the year when this season is over, a simple phrase…
The Iris here with this week’s picks to make your relationship with the small screen captivating and special. Tuesday Catalyst, ABC, 8:00pm AEST Biomedical engineer Jordan Nguyen and 13 year old Riley with cerebral palsy work together on a technology that grants Riley superpowers. Lincoln, One, 8:30pm AEST Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day Lewis) struggles to…
Captain America: Civil War star Daniel Bruhl is in talks to join the cast of J.J. Abrams sci-fi thriller The God Particle, directed by Juliuis Onah. Bruhl will join David Oyelowo, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, John Krasinski and Elizabeth Debicki who have all been cast to play a team of astronauts. The sci-fi thriller will be set…
Written and Directed by Lorene Scafaria, The Meddler is tender in its approach to comedy-drama; light on the former and heavy on the latter as it follows the highly likeable and sympathetic Marnie Minervini, who is portrayed with considerable depth by the supremely talented Susan Sarandon. The simple, soft touch with which Scafaria handles the…
Siberian Colossus Stafan Kapicic has been building a career as an anonymous bad guy in American cinema. It wasn’t his language stopping him; the six-foot-four actor can speak fluently in as many as eight dialects. He has played roles as eclectic as comedy-stoner to romantic-heartbreak in international cinema. However, until his role in Deadpool, he…
Melbourne WebFest, this week, announced the program and official selection for its fourth annual run this July. The festival will screen 55 web series from around the globe as part of their official selection, hand-picked from a festival record of 230 submissions. The festival has 23 awards on offer for the 55 nominees, raised from…
Sydney Film Festival’s 2016 Travelling Film Festival announced its return to Newcastle this coming July, unveiling a program of international cinema direct from their premieres at Sydney Film Festival. Newcastle cinema-goers will be treated to screenings of the Festival’s opening and closing night films: Goldstone and Love & Friendship. Award-winning filmmaker Ivan Sen’s Goldstone, starring…
For all you World of Warcraft nerds, this one’s for you! Blizzard Entertainment and HOYTS announced yesterday that they will be giving away free digital copies of the multi-player game World of Warcraft for people who buy a ticket through HOYTS cinemas for the film Warcraft. This promotion is to celebrate the release of the film…
With the Season 6 kicking off a few weeks ago, all eyes are on HBO’s fantasy drama and all the talk by showrunners of the series 2018 end-date has reignited rumors that a spin-off might be in the works. Given it’s enormous success it’s almost hard to imagine a world where HBO lets Game of…
Kara Bertoncini hit the 2016 Logies Red Carpet but before she did, Rahel Romahn shed some light on what excites him most about Australian TV. Find out what he has to say about how today’s Australian TV reflects the diversity of modern Australia below: You can check out the rest of our Logies coverage here….
What an incredibly frustrating film Regression turned out to be. It’s competently made, well-acted, and contains interesting ideas that are suitably unnerving; ingredients that make it all the more disappointing when its ultimate culmination results in a resounding whimper rather than a wow. Director Alejandro Amenabar knows his way around dark material, and for a…
X-Men: Apocalypse delivers the super fights, the superhero costumes, the supervillain and the super team. But was this latest X-Men film so special that, if it was a person, it would be enrolled at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters? Yes and no. Mild spoilers ahead. Set in 1983, 10 years after the previous Days of…
Adult Swim has released its slate for its upcoming new pilots, the most interesting of which is a new live-action comedy from the team behind Rick & Morty. Titled Art Prison, the show sees talented convicts battle for supremacy inside a “prison for the performing arts.” Writers of Rick & Morty, Tom Kauffman and Paul Isakson co-created…
