The Queen is a fictionalized look at the very real events that surrounded the British Royal Family following the death of Lady Diana, one of the most popular figures in the world, in 1997. While the public openly mourns the “People’s Princess”, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (played by Helen Mirren) and the rest of the Royals, very much disregarding the public unrest, retreat to their holiday residence, as they no longer considered Diana a part of the family since her high-profile divorce from Prince Charles (Alex Jennings). In this time of turmoil newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) tries to reconcile the Queen with her people, and the British with their monarchs.

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Posted in Movies, Reviews •

The new James Bond movie Casino Royale, which has been receiving quite positive reviews so far, finally opens in cinemas this Friday (November 17), and we’ve still got a couple more interviews with the cast and crew from the film for you. Today we have Gary Powell, the stunt coordinator of the action-laden Casino Royale which makes a point of showing more physical action (instead of computer-based action) than the previous Bond movies.

Powell, whos father, uncles and older brother have all worked on Bond films stretching back to the very first one, Dr. No, in 1962, first joined the Bond crew on GoldenEye in 1995. He was a stuntman on Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough. His other credits include Saving Private Ryan, The Mummy, 28 Days Later, Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and The Legend of Zorro.

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Posted in Interviews, James Bond, Movies •

About a week and a half ago we reported about a rumour that Warner was targeting Michael Hoffman to direct the sixth Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Warner has since denied this to Potter fansite MuggleNet. Instead, it now seems that David Yates, the director of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (part 5, released in May 2007), will return to direct the next film.

This information is mentioned in Production Weekly’s latest issue and is backed up by Mugglenet, who claim they have heard that Yates has been in talks with Warner to direct Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Principal photography in the sixth film should start soon after Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix starts in cinemas next year, while the film would be released at the end of 2008, if the previous release-pattern of roughly 1.5 years between each film is followed.

Click here to discuss Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on the X-Boards.

Posted in Harry Potter, Movies •

Voice-actor Peter Cullen has revealed in an interview with The Oklahoman that he has the hard-core Transformers fans to thank for getting to reprise his role in Michael Bay’s upcoming Transformers live-action adaptation.

“(The filmmakers) were thinking more Hollywood big names,” Cullen said. “They did start to consider the original voice actors because of the enthusiasm and the … stubbornness of the fan base. God, I’m grateful for those guys.” Cullen had voiced Optimus Prime and a host of other character in the original Transformers cartoons in the mid-eighties. In the interview he mentions the casting process he was involved in: “The script assistant was there, and she started reading for Ironhide. I said, ‘Excuse me, dear, do you mind if I read it?’ Because I actually played this character.’ [...] They wanted to find out if I in fact could act. Optimus steps out of his normal frame, and becomes … a little more human.”

Click here to discuss Transformers on the X-Boards.

Posted in Movies, Transformers •

Warner has launched a competition in which creative internet users are prompted to create a “musical mash-up” to help promote their upcoming film The Fountain, directed by Darren Aronofsky.

The basic idea is to create a music video, using various film clips and original tracks from Clint Mansell’s soundtrack, provided on the website. Finished mash-ups can be uploaded to the site, where they will be viewable and rateable by all, and at the mercy of reader comments. The top three mash-ups will be presented on the film’s official site for download, alongside a couple of Mansell’s own cuts. Click here to join the contest.

The Fountain is released November 22. Click here to discuss the film on the X-Boards.

Posted in Movies •

Keiraweb.com reports that Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End could be the last time that we see Keira Knightley portray the character of Elizabeth Swann. According to the report the British actress told producers of her intentions saying “I’ve been playing this girl since I was 17. I’m 21 now and I’m onto very different things, but it’s fun to try to invest Elizabeth with some rebellious spirit.”

In addition to Pirate 3, Knightley has three other projects in various stages of development: Atonement, Silk and The Best Time of our Lives.

Click here to discuss this news story on the X-Boards.

Posted in Movies •

After what seems like an eternity the trailer for Fanboys has finally hit the net, excuslively on IESB. You can view it by clicking here.

Fanboys is a comedy about friends, fans and delusions of grandeur. Fanboys takes place in the fall of 1998, a time when everything was pure and Star Wars ruled the world once again. The movie follows four life-long best friends who travel cross-country in an attempt to break into George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch. Their mission is to see Star Wars Episode I early when they discover one of the young men in their group is diagnosed with terminal cancer and will not live long enough to see the film in theaters the following May. The movie stars Kristen Bell, Jay Baruchel, Chris Marquette and Sam Huntington (Superman Returns) and features cameos by Ray Park (Darth Maul) and Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian).

Click here to discuss this news story in the Realm of Star Wars on the X-Boards.

Posted in Movies, Star Wars •

Fans have at long last gotten their first real glimpse of the live-action Venom that will appear in next summer’s Spider-man 3. This summer at Comic-Con, a rough trailer for the film was previewed to audiences, the end of which revealed a brief glimpse of Topher Grace being exposed to the symbiote, collapsing on the floor and transforming into the fearsome Venom. While some fans were somewhat disappointed that the official trailer released last week was completely devoid of any footage of the villain, the Comic-Con trailer has at last been leaked onto YouTube. Venom, who was also “semi”-revealed last week through designs for the video game tie-in, appears as a mix between his comic book image (complete with a disgusting tongue, gnashing teeth, and his ominous giant white spider) and the film version of Spider-man.

Click here to watch the trailer at YouTube while it’s still there, and click here to discuss Spider-man 3 on the forums.

Posted in Movies, Spider-Man •