Corona | Coming Attractions

UPDATED: 5-minute trailer for Cloud Atlas

A five-minute international trailer for Cloud Atlas, the film adaptation of David Mitchell's fictional period/contemporary/science fiction drama, has leaked online. Directed by Lana Wachowski and Andy Wachowski of The Matrix trilogy and Tom Twkwer of Run Lola Run, this has been a film that hasn't seen much advance material be seen.

Yesterday EW got the drop and landed 20 new images from the movie, set for release on October 26. Supposedly later this morning a domestic trailer will drop on the internet, and when it does, I'll be back to show you that. For now, watch this one because it makes the picture look amazing.

A third Hobbit movie for Peter Jackson and actors?

It's not a rumor, it's a fact: talks are underway right now with The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson to make a third Hobbit-inspired movie. There's only a smattering of facts available right now to go on, but reportedly the minutia being discussed include returning several of the actors from Jackson's two Hobbit movies.

If a deal is reached (and really, who's going to say that one won't be?), Jackson would reassemble his team in New Zealand next summer and film this new Middle-earth picture.

The Dark Knight Rises opens with $160 million

Warner Bros. has released the final tally for the opening weekend of The Dark Knight Rises and it has become the new number one movie at the box office. Including the early Thursday midnight screenings, The Dark Knight Rises took in $160,887,295, giving the film enough to be the third-highest opening weekend on record.

Compared to 2008's The Dark Knight, the third Christopher Nolan Bat-movie beat its predecessor by $2.2 million, The Dark Knight went on to gross $533.3 million dollars domestic, and while the final estimate for The Dark Knight Rises won't be known for a while, it's highly likely that the picture will cross $400 million dollars domestic in a couple of weeks.

Russell Crowe intent on directing Bill Hicks biopic

Passing away at the incredibly young age of 32, comedian Bill Hicks made a gigantic impact in the world of cerebral comedy. Thanks to the era of YouTube and videotape, Hicks' cutting and sarcastic sense of humor (and wicked sense of cutting down some of the slimier aspects of our culture) has made sure that more people know of him today than when he passed away from pancreatic cancer in 1994.

Trailer: Man of Steel

The first trailer, a teaser, for the new Superman movie Man of Steel is finally online. And there are two versions.

Visually, both Man of Steel trailers are the same but they feature different narration. On one version we hear Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner) speaking to Clark/Superman, and in the other it's Jor-El (Russell Crowe) speaking to his son.

First, the Jonathan Kent voiceover trailer:

And now the Man of Steel trailer featuring Russell Crowe's Jor-El:

Warner Bros. withholding box office figures for The Dark Knight Rises

Since the rise of the blockbuster, a growing fascination with the opening weekend tally for movies has held sway with the general public. As blockbuster movies continue to shatter weekend forecasts and set new benchmarks for their grosses, so the interest in observing and reporting this news has grown.

The shooting tragedy and The Dark Knight Rises

I find myself conflicted over the way I should report the news about last night's senseless act of violence at the Aurora theater in Denver, Colorado. There is the fact that the shooting at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises is newsworthy, if that word can be used to cover the murder of 12 innocent people and the injuries to nearly three dozen more.

Deconstructing the Weakest Bat-film: Batman Begins

Batman Begins has garnered a significant amount of praise over the past seven years, and a good deal of it has been deserved:  it established a very strong – and quite dark – realistic context, features more development for the character of Bruce Wayne than all four previous films combined, and even, in the first act’s constant intercutting of flashbacks, brandishes some of Hollywood’s finest pacing.  Such credentials are not insubstantial.

How much will The Dark Knight Rises make at the box office?

Four years ago when The Dark Knight opened in theaters, it went on to enjoy a commanding three-day box office finale of $158.4 million dollars. Just this May, Marvel's The Avengers set a new record for the highest-grossing opening weekend ever, $207.4 million dollars.

Could lightning strike twice in the same year? Is it possible for The Dark Knight Rises to eclipse The Avengers and set a new opening weekend record?

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy movie: A Down-and-dirty Roundtable

The 2012 San Diego Comic-Con has now concluded, but when the geeks were assembled in Hall H last Saturday evening, that's when things really got interesting. Marvel Studios took to the stage and laid bare its plans for the next two years of superhero cinematic adventures.

Comic Con 2012: Guardians of the Galaxy officially announced

At their Saturday panel, Marvel Studios made it official and proclaimed that Guardians of the Galaxy will open in theaters on August 1, 2014.

In addition to a piece of marketing artwork showing the working logo for the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, a piece of concept artwork was also revealed on the official Marvel website. Seen in the Guardians line-up are the characters of Star-Lord, Gamorra, Drax the Destroyer, Groot and Rocket Raccoon.

Ben Whishaw confirmed as 007's new Q

Since the reboot of the James Bond franchise with Casino Royale and the casting of Daniel Craig as 007, there has been no quartermaster for the gadgets of MI6. The character of Q, as he's been called throughout the Bond series of movies, will finally rememerge in Skyfall and be played by Ben Whishaw. Today the producers of Skyfall and MGM finally confirmed what was widely assumed: that Whishaw will play the new Q in the film, and the first photo of the actor as Q was also presented.

Third Hunger Games book gets split into two movies

When the first film in a book trilogy makes over $400 million dollars at the domestic box office, it's pretty much a given that the mechanics of business will push for a way to make the screen story a quartet of films. We've already seen the fourth and final book of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, split into two movies. Now the same studio behind the popular vampire love story is splitting the final tale in their Hunger Games film franchise into two movies.

Lionsgate announced today that The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 will come out November 21, 2014. Then, nearly one year later to the day The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 will arrive on November 20, 2015.

Has the next Star Trek villain been revealed?

It was just a couple of months ago that we all thought that the bad guy in the next Star Trek movie would be Khan. Since J.J. Abrams and his camp weren't saying much, it was up to independent movie websites to try and find out. But when it all but seemed that Benedict Cumberbatch would be playing the genetic superman in nuTrek movie #2, along came Simon "Scotty" Pegg who said that there was no Khan in the sequel. And then later, producer/screenwriter Robert Orci also said that the new movie wouldn't have Khan in it.

So who is Cumberbatch playing, and why is Abrams and his team keeping it a heavy duty secret from the world?

Michael Fassbender to star, produce in Assassin's Creed movie

Michael Fassbender, that British rising star of Hollywood and indie film, has reached an agreement with Ubisoft to play the lead role and also help produce a big budget Assassin's Creed movie. Although the video game company didn't talk too much besides gushing about getting into business with Fassbender, it's a good guess that the Prometheus/X-Men: First Class star would play the cloaked assassin Altair (and perhaps his modern day descendant.)