The first trailer for Prometheus really played on it links to Alien (even if it’s still not clear exactly how the movie is linked to Alien, as all Ridley Scott will say is that it has ‘Alien DNA’), but this new teaser suggests it’ll be a movie on a somewhat grander scale than the claustrophobic sci-fi horror. It looks all kinds of cool, with grand vistas and a look like both feels like Alien, but which is also its own creation. The movie arrives in UK cinemas on June 1st.
Simon Kinberg Hints First Class Sequel To Focus On Magneto
Screenwriter Simon Kinberg is out promoting This Means War, which means journos have been able to ask him about his next job, scripting the sequel to X-Men: First Class. Kinberg has hinted that the mutant follow-up will focus on Magneto’s journey to being a villain.
He told MTV, “I’m a huge X-Men fan. I grew up loving the comic books and it was really exciting to be able to do the origin story of Xavier and Magneto, and getting those two actors, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, were really amazing. So being able to explore those characters with actors of that quality will be exciting a second time around, and doing some things unexpected with those characters, which is the plan.
“That’s what was so cool about the first one and what we want to continue. Magneto becomes the villain ultimately of the franchise but he’s a much more complicated character as a young man. He’s someone you sympathize with, you care about and you root for even though you might not necessarily agree with his methods, you understand his philosophy.
“The truth is ultimately that because Michael is such an interesting actor, he’ll never be full-on anything. He’ll have a villainous side and he’ll have a sympathetic human side you’ll be able to relate but you’ll also be afraid of him. He becomes Magneto, he says ‘Call me Magneto’ at the end of the first movie.”
It certainly sounds like it’s the metal-controlling mutant Kinberg is most interested in, which isn’t surprising, as while Professor X has his school and a relatively settled existence, there’s a whole world of possibilities for Magneto, who even in his Ian McKellen form was always one of the most interesting supervillains.
Shame – Q&A with Michael Fassbender
Just before the release of Shame, Michael Fassbender took part in a special post-screening Q&A, filmed at the Hackney Picturehouse and beamed to cinemas around the UK. If you missed out on the live broadcast, it’s now been posted online, with Fassbender talking for half an hour about the film and his role in it. As he’s been much praised and admired for playing a sex addict in the film, he’s got some interesting things to say, so the Q&A is well worth a watch.
Matthew Vaughn Returning For First Class Sequel
Despite the success of X-Men: First Class, director Matthew Vaughn has always suggested that he wouldn’t be returning for the sequel. That’s all changed now, as Deadline reports he’s made a deal to come back for First Class 2.
All the main cast should be back too , including headliners James McAvoy (Professor X), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), and Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique). Bryan Singer is returning as producer, with Simon Kinberg (Sherlock Holmes) on board as the screenwriter.
X-Men: First Class is the least successful entry in the 20th Century Fox franchise, but it did pull in $353 million worldwide. Fox hopes that the current attention surrounding Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence as actors will propel thw next installment to higher profits.
No set start date has been announced, and there is not yet a release date (it may depend on how things move forward with Wolverine as to when the movie gets made). New Mutants will be brought into the fold this time around, so expect to hear casting announcements in the near future.
Prometheus Plot Spoilers Revealed By Actress Kate Dickie?
Ridley Scott has done a great job of keeping everything about Prometheus secret. The film has mainly played on whether it’s a prequel to Alien or not, with Scott saying it has Alien DNA, and the teaser trailer mirroring Ridley Scott’s 1970s horror. What we haven’t known is much about the plot, with the synopsis deliberately fudging things.
Now Game Of Thrones actress Kate Dickie may have let things slip (although nothing’s been confirmed so feel free to take it with a pinch of salt until something firmer arrives), so if you want to keep the surpise, stop reading now! SPOILERS from now on: In an interview with Scottish paper The Star (via AlienPrequelNews) Dickie said she plays Mudow, a crew member of the spaceship Prometheus responsible for waking the others out of their cryogenic sleep at the beginning of the movie, a scene pulled directly from both Alien and Aliens.
Soon after the crew wakes up, they “meet a terrifying host of vicious, skeletal alien monstrosities which chase the crew through the halls of their spaceship.” Dickie apparently only makes it through 28 minutes of the film before being “eaten” by one of these monsters, presumed to be the Space Jockeys. Mudow is set to serve as a fitness trainer, who gets the Prometheus crew in shape after so many months of cryo-sleep. “With their muscles wasted from five years without use, she helps them to get fit – only for them to fall victims to horrible creatures that begin stalking them for food.”
If all this is true, it’s almost disappointing, as you’d have hoped the space jockeys would be something more interesting than Predator-like killers, but perhaps there’s more to it than revealed here. Prometheus is out in June.
Weekend Picks Up Best Film At Gay and Lesbian Critics Awards
GALECA, the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, has announced the winners of its Dorian Awards, giving Best Film Of The Year to the more than deserving Weekend. As everyone loves the movies but it’s getting shut out by bigger movies at other award ceremonies (it’s still shocking it didn’t make it onto the BAFTA longlist in any category), it’s great GALECA has recognised it.
Other winners include Meryl Streep for Film Performance of the Year for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (perhaps if the critics knew more about Maggie’s record on gay rights they wouldn’t have been as kind), as well as Michael Fassbender, who picked up the ‘We’re Wilde About You Rising Star of the Year’ award.
The excellent We Were Here, about the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, won both Best Documentary and Best LGBT-Themed Documentary Of The Year. Another great choice was 50/50, which was given Unsung Film of the year.
On the TV side, the LGBT friendly American Horror Story and Modern Family won in the Best TV drama and comedy categories, while Modern Family picked up LGBT-themed TV show of the year as well. GALECA also gave out gongs for Campy (Intentional Or Not) Film and TV show of the year, with The Muppets and Revenge getting the awards.
The may like quirky categories, but GALECA seems to make a lot more sensible choices than most awards bodies! For more info about GALECA, head to their website.
Shame (Cinema)
Starring: Michael Fassbender, James Badge Dale
Director: Steve McQueen
Running Time: 100 mins
Certificate: 18
Release Date: January 13th, 2012
Director: Steve McQueen
Running Time: 100 mins
Certificate: 18
Release Date: January 13th, 2012
Oh my God, Michael Fassbender has a penis! Whoever would have thought it? The fact the actor’s little man makes a more than fleeting appearance in the Shame has received so much attention, you’d have thought everyone has assumed he was a Ken-doll down there before he proved otherwise. It’s a pattern that’s repeated over and over, as if an actress gets naked it’s either barely mentioned or letched over, while male actors gets epithets like ‘brave’ and ‘bold’ thrown around. That’s not Fassbender’s fault, as he’s just doing his job and doing it well (and I’m sure there are some who’ll more than welcome little Fassbender’s appearance in the movie), but it would be nice if we could treat male and female genitals equally! [Read more…]
Prometheus Trailer – Get excited about Ridley’s return to sci-fi
After 20th Century Fox spent the last few days bigging up the release of a trailer for Prometheus (by releasing trailers for the trailer), they needed to deliver something worthwhile. Now that trailer is here and while it’s only a minute long it’s difficult not to get excited. Although in interviews Ridley has tried to distance the movie from Alien, suggesting it’s not a prequel in the way you’d normally think (there’ll be no xenomorph, for example), this trailer puts it smack bang in the same world, with a nod to Alien in both the production design and the way the title is revealed. It’s undoubtedly very cool and sets Prometheus up as one of the must watch flicks of 2012. Let’s just cross out finger Ridley can pull it off. Prometheus hits cinemas June 1st, 2012.
Prometheus Trailer Preview – Get a taste of the alien DNA
The trailer for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is due to hit on Thursday, but today on Apple trailers a 30 second preview has dropped has dropped, so you can get a miniature taste of Ridley’s return to sci-fi. The director has also been talking to Filmophilia about the movie, and has cleared up whether we’d see the infamous xenomorph in this movie, which we’ve been promised will be shot through with Alien DNA (many had assumed the HR Giger creatures would pop up right at the end). However Ridley says, “No. Absolutely not. They squeezed it dry. He (the xenomorph) did very well. (He laughs) He survived, he’s now in Disneyland in Orlando, and no way am I going back there. How did he end up in Disneyland? I saw him in Disneyland, Jesus Christ!”
He adds, “There’s a quote I did, a pretty good quote: By the end of the third act you start to realize there’s a DNA of the very first Alien, but none of the subsequent aliens. To tell you what that is is a pity, and I’m not going to tell you, because it’s actually pretty good, pretty organic to the process and to the original. But we go back, we don’t go forward.”
Take a look below for our first taste of this very exciting sci-fi-flick. Prometheus is due for release on June 1st, 2012.
Michael Fassbender Talks About Gay Sex In Shame
Michael Fassbender has garnered an awful lot of praise for his performance as a sex addict in Shame (out in the UK on January 13th). While the character is largely heterosexual, at one point he ends up in gay bathhouse, a situation Fassbender recently addressed in an interview with Time Out Chicago.
After being asked whether the slightly ominous scene was equating the character having gay sex with his descent into depravity, Fassbender said, “It doesn’t become about homosexuality or heterosexuality, it becomes about a fix, and where can I get my fix? That is a real scenario for many addicts that are predominantly heterosexual and they end up with a guy. You put yourself into a scenario that you wouldn’t do in a normal situation because your choice is gone.”
Fassbender also noted that he’d done a lot of research in sex addiction and was grateful to “one man in particular, his honesty gave me great insight into the gravity of the situation. When you’re imprisoned by these compulsions, what makes it different to the other addictions, it’s part and parcel of us. Alcohol is an extremity you’re adding into your life. But sex is something that most of us do. It’s a very strong primal instinct.”
While there’s been a lot of Oscar buzz over Fassbender’s performance, many believe he’ll miss out not because he doesn’t deserve it, but because the sexually frank themes and nature of Shame (along with its liberal inclusion of Michael Fassbender’s penis) are distasteful to the Academy’s old guard, who still hold a lot of sway over the awards. We’ll have to wait and see if that turns out to be true.