The Walking Dead’s Glen Mazzara and Robert Kirkman have dropped hints about the show’s return.

Showrunner Mazzara told Collider that mid-season premiere ‘Nebraska’ will pick up “five seconds” after the cliffhanger finale of ‘Pretty Much Dead Already’.

“After the finale, finding Sophia in the barn is just a huge event that rocks our characters and changes everything on the farm,” he explained. “So, I think the stakes are much higher and people are dealing with a lot more.”

He added that the second half of the season “accelerates the storytelling”, following criticism from some fans that the first seven episodes lacked pace.

“I don’t know if we’d say that we regret any of the episodes that we did,” said Mazzara. “I’m proud of those episodes and, if some people feel that some of those episodes were slower than others, I could argue that we were spending time with our characters.”

Kirkman added: “We recognise this criticism, and it is valid, but we are working on a 13-piece puzzle that, as a whole, should be seen in a different light. We’re hoping that, when it’s all put together, people will see that it all came together in a good way.”

Mazzara also suggested that The Walking Dead is “a difficult show to write”.

“People have expectations about the show,” he argued. “If we have a zombie attack every week, people say it’s the zombie-of-the-week. And, if we don’t have zombies, people say there are no zombies. So, it’s a challenging situation.

“[But] I think people will be satisfied, by the end of this run. You learn how to do a show, as you’re writing it. The story material reveals itself, so if there’s a way to break down that criticism and look at it moving forward, that’s valid.”

The Walking Dead returns to AMC in the US on February 12. The show resumes on FX in the UK on February 17.

Release Date: 20 January 2012
18 | 88 minutes
Distributor: Entertainment
Directors: Måns Mårlind, Björn Stein
Cast: Kate Beckinsale, India Eisley, Stephen Rea, Michael Ealy, Theo James, Charles Dance

It’s been six years since Kate Beckinsale donned Selene’s eye-catching black catsuit/corset combo, and though she doesn’t appear to have aged a day, the Underworld series is now looking very long in the fang.

This fourth chapter follows on directly from the second. Though technically a direct continuation of Underworld: Evolution’s narrative, Awakening feels more like a reboot, with the series’ rich mythology jettisoned in favour of a new status quo. Humanity has learnt of the existence of vampires and lycans and hunted them to near extinction. Selene is captured, but escapes 12 years later with the hybrid child she never knew she had in tow, a child which could change the outcome of the war forever…

Awakening could be praised for attempting something different, but given that humans take a back seat almost immediately after the opening mass-cleansing montage in favour of a tired super-Lycan conspiracy, the new world established in Awakening feels like a missed opportunity. Directors Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein up the gore quotient significantly, with Lycan noggins prised apart and throats ripped out at regular intervals, but the pair have little sense of pacing or an eye for dynamic action sequences, while the prevalence of CGI wolves betrays the series’ roots in much more satisfying practical effects.

It’s not awful, merely functional and lacking an identity now that the lore of previous entries has been abandoned. If you only see one sexy-black-catsuit-lady-killing-monsters-in-pointless-3D movie this year you might be better off waiting for Resident Evil: Retribution.

Rating : 4/10

source:sfx.co.uk
by:jordanfarley

His brother Chris may be well known for waving his hammer about in Thor, but younger sibling Liam Hemsworth will get a couple of blockbusters of his own this year, if all goes well, with The Hunger Games and The Expendables 2.

Meanwhile, director Philip Noyce, who brought us 2010’s marvellous action flick, Salt, has hired Liam to star in his next film. Called Timeless, it’s a sci-fi drama about a chap who builds a time machine to visit his wife, who died years before. The script’s by Bill Kelly, who wrote the Sandra Bullock paranormal thriller Premonition, and the 2007 fantasy, Enchanted.

Given Noyce’s talent for drama, with The Quiet American and Rabbit-Proof Fence being among his most acclaimed films of recent years, Timeless could be well worth looking out for when it emerges next year. Another great time-travel movie to place alongside Primer, Time Crimes and Back To The Future? We certainly hope so.

Shooting commences on Timeless in July.

Whilst Marvel’s Thor 2 has been bogged down a little with script work and the need to find a new director (all now sorted, it seems), Iron Man 3 has been full steam ahead. Shane Black is directing the new film, which is set for release in May 2013. And reports are coming in that production could be starting as early as April.

The film is set to shoot in North Carolina, and Robert Downey Jr will, as you might expect, be reprising his role as Tony Stark in the movie.

Should the shoot start in April, as opposed to the previously reported late May start date, then presumably there’ll be flexibility in the schedule to allow Downey Jr to do a week or two of travelling the world to promote The Avengers, which is out around the same time.

We still have no news of who the villain is going to be in Iron Man 3, and who is going to be playing them.

Whilst chatting about the rather ace TV series Justified, Neal McDonough, who played Dum Dum Dugan in Captain America: The First Avenger, was questioned on his future projects for Marvel Studios.

“Yeah, they’re planning Captain America 2 for the end of this year, because Marvel does one film at a time. So they’re going to do Thor 2 and as soon as Thor 2 has wrapped, they’ll do Cap 2.”

“Hopefully right after that, we’ll jump into Nick Fury because that’s the one I’m looking forward to more than anything… it’ll be me and Sam Jackson. In the real Marvel universe, Dum Dum Dugan is Nick Fury’s right hand man. I just pray that they have a 1970s setting, because I want to see Sam Jackson with lambchops kicking people’s asses for Marvel universe. It would just be awesome. And to work with Sam would be a treat.”

It will be interesting to see how they handle the aging of Dum Dum Dugan, given the ending of The First Avenger.

McDonough isn’t currently listed on IMDB as one of the cast for The Avengers, but no doubt there’ll be some surprise appearances in the film.

What’s particularly interesting from his comments is the Nick Fury feature being so close to going into production. If this is the case, Marvel will be dominating release schedules for a while to come with the likes of Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Captain America 2, Nick Fury, Ant-Man and Dr. Strange all on the cards. This does seem to hint, too, that Captain America 2 will be one of Marvel’s 2014 releases.

More news on Marvel’s numerous projects when it’s available.

Think back to the worst examples of Hollywood filmmaking. What comes to mind? An absence of truly interesting ideas. Two-dimensional characters. A lack of any real sense of build-up, drama or suspense sacrificed at the altar of big explosions and expensive CG effects. A ridiculously bloated running time.

Remarkably, director Josh Trank’s debut feature, Chronicle, flings itself wholeheartedly into blockbuster territory, but doesn’t succumb to its worst excesses. Unlike so many mainstream action films, it works because it’s an intelligently written drama first, and an explosive spectacle second.

Chronicle’s events will immediately recall some epic moments from classic movies and comic books, but these resonate so perfectly because they’re all rooted in an intimate story about three high school friends.

The first of these friends is Andrew Detmer (Dane DeHaan), a teenager who one day decides to record his day-to-day life on a cheap video camera. And what a depressing day-to-day life it is. Andrew’s mother is terminally ill, while his ex-fireman father (Michael Kelly) is a violent alcoholic who can barely afford to pay for his wife’s medication.

A shy, awkward outsider, Andrew seeks refuge in his filmmaking, even if it does sometimes annoy his two closest friends – his philosophy-spouting cousin, Matt (Alex Russell) and charismatic, outgoing classmate Steve (Michael B Jordan). The trio grow closer still when an encounter with a strange, subterranean energy gives them remarkable powers of telekinesis.

As you might expect from a bunch of ordinary high school kids, the three friends initially use these powers to pull off a series of stunts and practical jokes – terrorising children with floating teddy bears in a toyshop, or flinging objects at one another with unerring accuracy. Gradually, their powers increase. “It’s like a muscle,” one of the friends suggests. “We’re working it out. Getting buff.”

Eventually, the boys’ powers become so extraordinarily strong that, in spite of Matt’s attempts to impose a few rules to prevent their being misused, things inevitably begin to go wrong. The results are explosive, dramatic, and truly affecting.

On a budget of around $15million, Trank has created a great-looking film. Forget any preconceptions you may have about Chronicle being just another found footage movie – a kind of Cloverfield with superpowers instead of a giant monster, perhaps. Its use of handheld cameras goes way beyond mere wobbling frames and dizzying point-of-view shots.

Trank comes up with all kinds of clever, imaginative ways of moving his camera around, and providing unique and surprising perspectives. He plays fast and loose with the subgenre, cutting from Andrew’s view to that of another character who’s filming events from somewhere else, or in some scenes, to black-and-white security cameras.

Far from being a gimmick, or an attempt to hop on a stylistic bandwagon, the idea of presenting the film through its characters’ lenses is an intrinsic part of Chronicle’s storytelling. There are moments in here that really wouldn’t have worked had they been shot in a traditional Hollywood fashion.

Running to around 90 minutes, Chronicle is an urgent, lean and sinewy piece of filmmaking, shot and edited with quiet confidence. It evolves as events unfold; the cheap, grainy camera that Andrew shoots with at its opening soon gives way to a more expensive one, and his powers of telekinesis add a still further twist to Chronicle’s aesthetic.

The real reason Chronicle functions so well, though, is because its protagonists are so believable. Their actions, whether good, mischievous or downright nasty, all make logical sense, because their personalities are so well established.

Max Landis’ script is full of energy and economy, and the teenage banter is perfectly observed. The performances, too, are uniformly excellent – Dane DeHaan is particularly compelling as the film’s troubled focus. And as Chronicle reaches its final act, the care with which Trank and Landis develop the characters’ friendship is such that we’re fully invested in what happens to them.

Chronicle’s storytelling brilliance is best summed up in one brief sequence. At a high school talent show, Andrew takes the stage and uses his powers to pull off a series of conjuring tricks, among them a walk along a tightrope. But rather than immediately leaping around and revelling in his remarkable abilities, Andrew at first teeters and totters around awkwardly, provoking titters of derision and amusement from the spectators.

Then, like a true showman, Andrew starts to work his magic, with each trick building on the last in scale. By the end of his performance, the audience are clapping and cheering with appreciation, and with that, one of the school’s outsiders becomes one of its biggest celebrities.

This is precisely what Chronicle does. Arriving at the start of a year positively heaving with expensive sequels and comic book movies laden with special effects, this relatively low-budget debut treads a line to a perfectly judged conclusion, and barely puts a foot wrong along the way.

For all the blockbusters due out over the spring and summer – many of which cost anywhere north of $100million – Chronicle is the movie they have to beat. It truly is that good.

Rating : 10/10

source:denofgeek.com
by:Ryan Lambie