The first footage from The Golden Compass has found its way onto the internet. The video appears to be a promotional clip put together for exhibitors to get excited about - and as far as we’re concerned it does the job!

The proto-trailer features a mix of mostly incomplete scenes from the film (i.e. with special effects still lacking) and a behind-the-scenes look with director Paul Weitz and the cast talking about the story. These are the very first moving images from the anticipated adaptation of the first book in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, and with the film not out until December 7 the proper trailer might still be a few months away. Click here to view the footage on Bridge To The Stars.

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Posted in Movies •

A publication date of April 17 has been announced for The Children of Hurin, the new fantasy book based on incomplete drafts written by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The story, begun by Tolkien in 1918 has been completed by his son Christopher who has spent 30 years working on the project, described by publisher Harper Collin as ‘an epic story of adventure, tragedy, fellowship and heroism’. The 320 page book is the first new J.R.R. Tolkien book since The Silmarillion (also edited by Christoper Tolkien) was published posthumously in 1977, four years after the writer’s death.

This detailed but unfinished work is an interrupted narrative version of a poetic tale about the Children of Hurin told once long ago by the poet Dírhavel. The tale is set in the First Age of Middle Earth and tells the tragic fate of Hurin’s family from the house of Hador Goldenhead. At this stage it is unknown if the book will form the basis of the announced Lord of the Rings trilogy prequel which is planned in addition to an adaptation of the Hobbit.

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Posted in Books & Comics, The Hobbit / LOTR •

Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson have officially signed up for the final two Harry Potter films, according to Variety. 

The trio, who play Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger in the films, inked contracts to star in the two remaining Potter films still to be made, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Warner Bros. president of production Jeff Robinov commented: ‘It would be inconceivable to imagine anyone else in the roles with which they have become so identified’.

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Posted in Harry Potter, Movies •

Martin Scorsese will direct Leonardo DiCaprio for a fourth time in The Wolf of Wall Street, reports Variety. The Sopranos scribe Terence Winter will write the screenplay based on Jordan Bellfort’s upcoming tell-all autobiography of the same title.

DiCaprio would play Belfort, a Long Island penny stockbroker who served 20 months in prison for refusing to cooperate in a massive 1990s securities fraud case that involved widespread corruption on Wall Street and in the corporate banking world, including mob infiltration. The yet to be casted second lead of the film would play the FBI agent who tried to make Belfort an informant. It is currently unclear where The Wolf of Wall Street currently stands on Scorsese list of upcoming directing projects.

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Posted in Movies •

Transformers movie site SectorSeven.org has revealed that Matrix trilogy and Lord of the Rings star Hugo Weaving will voice Megatron in Michael Bay’s Transformers.

The Nigerian-born actor was competing for the voice role against Frank Welker who provided the vocals for the Decepticon leader in the original TV show. Apparently Welker will voice another unnamed robot for the film.

Meanwhile, AICN has reported a rumor that Keith David has been cast as the voice of Decepticon Barricade. 

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Posted in Movies, Transformers •

In ‘Miss Potter’, Oscar-winning actress Renée Zellweger plays the mother of all children’s books Beatrix Potter (not JK Rowling). With his new film ‘Babe’ director Chris Noonan accomplishes a sensible compromise between biopic and family entertainment.

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Posted in Movies, Reviews •

There isn’t a gamer out there that doesn’t think this will be the last year new software is released for Nintendo’s popular little box and yet the most popular handheld on the planet isn’t going quietly. For the second time in a recent weeks the GBA incarnation of a game based on a movie turns out to by far the best version in this age of the XBox 360 and Playstation 3.

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Posted in Reviews, Sci-Tech & Video Games •

Flynetonline has published the first images captured during filming in Thailand of Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo.

The latest outing for the violent action franchise sees the title character hired by Christian missionaries while working as a snake hunter in Thailand to deliver medical and religious supplies to the persecuted Karens of Burma. The missionaries are captured and Rambo is saddled with the job of rescuing the surviving missionaries.

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Posted in Movies •

In an interview with Dark Horizons, Matthew Modine has revealed that he has won a role in The Incredible Hulk.

‘He said he’s in town doing a bit of work on a new film called The Neighbour’ said DH, ‘- which he said is going to be very funny - and then he said he’s doing something else with the ‘makers of the Transporter movie that I did”. I pushed… and he went ‘[made funny growling noise] he’s big and green’.

Director Louis Leterrier has said that The Incredible Hulk will be Marvel’s horror movie, describing it as ‘Frankenstein meets Jekyll and Hyde with a little bit of Edward Scissorhands and that the lead will be portayed as more of a hero this time around. The film will also be truer to the original comic book that Ang Lee’s 2003 take.

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Posted in Movies •

Bloody-Disgusting reports that screenwriters Chad and Carey Hayes are penning a script for a sequel to the classic b-movie horror The Blob.

The duo, who were responsible for House of Wax & The Reaping said ‘It’s a B.L.O.B: Biological Lethal Organic Bomb. It was created by our own government in the 50s, they beta tested it, it almost got out of control, but they confined it. Now it’s back. But it’s a fast blob, there’s nothing slow, it’s got major attitude. It’s like Shaun of the Dead or Tremors’.

The 1958 original starring Stever McQueen told the story of a giant amoeba-like alien that emerges from a meteorite and terrorizes the small community of Downingtown, Pennsylvania. A comedy sequel called Beware! The Blob was released in 1972 and the film was remade in 1988 with Kevin Dillion taking the lead. Since 2000, the town of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania - one of the filming locations - has held an annual Blob Fest. Activities include a re-enactment of the scene in which moviegoers run screaming from the town’s Colonial Theatre, which has recently been restored.

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Posted in Movies •