Happy Sunday Shockya readers! We’ve got another installment of the Movie News Cheat Sheet for you and this one comes packed with some casting goodies as well as some big trailer news, too. We’ve also got a mini rundown of the best of the best at the Tribeca Film Festival as well as the latest in Hunger Games casting news.
Ready for your weekly dose of the must-knows in the world of movie news? Dive into this week’s Movie News Cheat Sheet …
1. The Hunger Games Casting Update: This was a big week for the film casting four tributes, Katniss’ little sister and potentially an escort and mentor, too. The sure things are Amandla Stenberg and Dayo Okeniyi as District 11’s Rue and Thresh, Leven Rambin and Jack Quaid as District 1’s Glimmer and Marvel and Willow Shields as Primrose Everdeen. The two that are still up in the air are Elizabeth Banks for the role of the peppy escort, Effie Trinket, and John C. Reilly as the perpetually drunk mentor, Haymitch Abernathy. (via Vulture, Variety and The Hunger Games Facebook Page)
2. American Reunion Brings Back Original Cast Members: Perhaps American Reunion isn’t much of a joke like the slew of direct-to-DVD sequels after all as it looks like nearly everyone from the original films is coming back. Just recently we found out Alyson Hannigan is back as the flute-playing nerd Michelle Flaherty and now Chris Klein will return as Chris “Oz” Ostreicher, too. The film’s also got Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott and Eugene Levy locked in, so that means, of the primary characters, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Thomas Ian Nicholas are the only two that are MIA. Then again, IMDb does have both actors listed on the film’s page as well as Nicholas’ character’s high school sweetheart, Tara Reid, but, of course, without any official confirmation, it might be risky to assume it to be true. (via People)
3. Cotillard is Miranda Tate & Gordon-Levitt is John Blake: Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the Black Mask? The Holiday Killer? Marion Cotillard as Talia Al-Ghul? Not so fast. Warner Bros. revealed the roles the two actors will take on in The Dark Knight Rises neither of which correlate with what we suspected them to be. Gordon-Levitt will assume the role of John Blake, a Gotham City cop who’s assigned to a special task by Commissioner Gordon while Cotillard will portray Miranda Tate, a Wayne Enterprises board member hoping to get Bruce to reinvigorate his father’s philanthropic efforts. (via EW)
4. Laughable X-Men: First Class Posters Continue to Pour In: Apparently the marketing team behind X-Men: First Class recently completely some Intro to Photoshop course because that’s exactly what the film’s posters resemble, the work of someone who merely knows how to cut and paste. You’d think after the wildly negative reaction to those first two character posters featuring James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender’s floating heads within silhouettes of their characters would have enticed the design time to deliver something big the next time around. Well, apparently the only thing they could think to do was throw in as many characters into the picture as possible. The more the merrier? Certainly not in this case. (via Empire Online)
5. The Tribeca Film Festival: We’re roughly half way through the festival and, personally covering the event, I’ve got a few films to note. First off, while The Bang Bang Club may be getting a ton of attention thanks to its star-studded cast including Ryan Phillippe, Taylor Kitsch and Malin Akerman, the piece actually deserves it being a fascinating telling of the true story of four wartime photographers risking their lives to snap some photos. There’s also the Chris Evans starrer Puncture. Yes, I’m often swayed by his good looks, but this is a project that really proves he’s a downright incredible actor. Evans stars as Mike Weiss, a lawyer who attempts to take on an all-powerful healthcare GPO to protect hospital nurses from accidental “sticks” by contaminated needles. Another must-see is the found footage style film Trollhunter. Think it’s an overused format? Think again. This is shaky cam at its best, the format putting you right amidst the action and making it feel as though this troll-packed adventure is real.
6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 Trailer Arrives on Wednesday: Yes, Warner Bros. has been kind enough to shower us in featurettes the past few weeks, but nothing can top a trailer. ABC Family plans to debut the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 trailer on Wednesday, April 27th amidst a showing of Happy Gilmore. I don’t quite know what Happy Gilmore has to do with the Harry Potter series, but hey, I’m not going to argue. Happy Gilmore kicks off at 7:00pm and wraps at 9:00pm ET/PT, so the trailer can pop up anytime during that period. Apparently the trailer will include portions of scenes of “Harry, Ron and Hermione escaping from Gringotts bank, the Room of Requirement fire storm, Mrs. Weasley taking on Bellatrix Lestrange, and Harry and Voldemort’s last stand.” (via Coming Soon)
7.Savages Cast Adds Three: We’ve known for quite some time that Oliver Stone’s Savages would star Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson as a pair of Americans running a marijuana business in Laguna Beach, California. Now we can add Blake Lively as O, short for Ophelia, the boys’ friend who gets caught up in their scuffle with a Mexican cartel played by Benicio Del Toro. Also joining the cast is John Travolta as “a burned out DEA agent” and Uma Thurman as O’s mother. Production is set to kick off in early July. (via Deadline)
8. More Vampires to Invade the Big Screen: Like we haven’t had enough with The Twilight Saga; now Preger Entertainment has acquired the right to Richelle Mead’s series of books, Vampire Academy. Surprise, surprise, the books are described as “a coming-of-age, action driven, paranormal romance fantasy.” The first book focuses on Rose, half human and half vampire, and Lissa, a mortal vampire princess. After two years on the run, they’re caught and sent to St. Vladimir’s Academy where they must deal with everything from average high school gossip to violent threats. Regardless of the overabundance of vampires in the entertainment industry, the public clearly pines for more because the fifth book in the series, Spirit Bound, hit stores and nabbed both a New York Times and USA Today #1 best-selling series ranking. (via Coming Soon)
9. Trailers: The Help, The Change-Up, 30 Minutes or Less: Looking for a film packing a great deal of humor and heart? The Help looks as though it’ll deliver. Emma Stone stars as Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan fresh out of college writing about cleaning in the local paper. Knowing nothing about the task herself, Skeeter turns to her maid, Aibileen (Viola Davis), for help. In the world of red bands, we’ve got two new entries, the trailer for The Change-Up starring Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds as well as 30 Minutes or Less starring Aziz Ansari and Jessie Eisenberg. Both pack some pretty absurd concepts, The Change-Up involving a body-swap and 30 Minutes or Less a bumbling bank robbery, as well as a whole lot of dirty humor.
10. Box Office: Tyler Perry certainly made a noble effort at snagging that top spot, but Rio barely beat out Madea’s Big Happy Family, adding another $26.8 million to the pot. Big Happy Family did start out strong though boasting $25.8 million for its first weekend out. In third is the Robert Pattinson-starrer Water for Elephants taking in a decent $17.5 million. Coming in at #4 is third weeker Hop, which saw an impressive 16.3% boost, likely due to the holiday, taking in another $12.5 million, letting it cross the $100 million mark. Poor Scream 4 dropped a whopping 61.7% after a weak opening, leaving it with just $7.2 million this time around. (via Box Office Mojo)
By Perri Nemiroff
