On the same day that a new poster dropped for the appropriately named Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider Man, we also got a new poster for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. Is there some Super Hero rivalry going on here? Batman trying to steal Spidey’s thunder? A coincidence? That would mean Columbia and/or Warner Brothers was going about things willy-nilly and one didn’t know what the other was doing? You believe that? I don’t, especially since The Dark Knight Rises has been in the news for one reason or another nearly every single day for a year.

Okay, enough with the conspiracy theory, back to to the posters. Both of them are as dark as the Knight, in tone as well as color. I’m thinking that Andrew Garfield’s Spider Man nee Peter Parker is going to be a lot darker than Tobey Maguire’s. They one line synopsis tells us as much: “Teenager Peter Parker grapples with both human problems and amazing super-human crises.”  Having seen Never Let Me Go, I’m thinking Garfield can handle the angst and he does have a nerdy appeal. 

The poster for The Dark Knight Rises is ominous. That’s Bane taking center stage walking away from Batman’s disgarded cowl. The short synopsis “The terrorist leader Bane arrives in Gotham City, and pushes its hero Batman to the breaking point and beyond.” The new poster fits that to a tee. It’s not just fan boys geek-gasming over the thought of Bane (Tom Hardy) going toe to toe with the Bat.

Teenaged Spidey is no match in any way, for Bruce Wayne. Especially not a Bruce Wayne personified by Christian Bale. (I’m just saying if they are setting up a ‘dueling super heroes’ thing, they need to relax. It’s no contest.) Frankly, they’ll have to coexist anyway. The Amazing Spider Man hits for the 4^th of July, where it will reign over the box office for about 2 ½ weeks before The Dark Knight Rises opens and flattens all competition on July 20^th. 

Here’s an international trailer for first time helmer Rupert Sanders’ Snow White and the Huntsman. This is the one from Universal that stars Kristen Stewart as Snow, Chris Hemsworth as the Huntsman, Sam Claflin as the Prince, Noah Huntley as King Magnus and Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen. The trailer isn’t all that much different than the English language version. The editing is tighter, so it’s shorter, and it does not have Theron’s voiceover narration.

From a script co-written by the suddenly hot Hossein Amini (Drive, 47 Ronin),the synopsis for this version: In the epic action-adventure Snow White and the Huntsman, Kristen Stewart plays the only person in the land fairer than the evil queen (Theron) who is out to destroy her. But what the wicked ruler never imagined is that the young woman threatening her reign has been training in the art of war with a huntsman (Hemsworth) who was dispatched to kill her. Sam Claflin joins the cast as the prince long enchanted by Snow White's beauty and power.

Producer Joe Roth has already compared his film to The Lord of the Rings in terms of its epic scope. This is also the one with the kick-ass dwarves. All seven used to be named for Roman Emperors, but the names have since been changed: Caesar/Beith (Ian McShane), Tiberius/Neion (Nick Frost), Constantine/Muir (Bob Hoskins), Claudius/Coll (Toby Jones), Hadrian/Duir (Eddie Marsan),and Trajan/Gort (Ray Winstone), Stephen Graham was playing Nero but dropped out. I can’t figure out who replaced him.

Since filming began in October, Kristen has accidentally Chris Hemsworth in the face giving him a black eye, suffered a foot injury then temporarily shut down production after she tore a ligament in her thumb during an attack scene. The kid is committed. 

 Snow White and the Huntsman opens June 1. Below are some pics from Entertainment Tonight’s set visit. Enjoy!

Fans of the Starz Spartacus series are no doubt excited or at least curious about, the upcoming season premiere of the third incarnation. After Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, comes Spartacus: Vengeance, with new lead, Liam McIntyre.

McIntyre is delicious and it should be stressed that he’s not trying to replace fan favorite Andy Whitfield, the late Aussie actor cut down by cancer earlier this year, but this series should probably quit while it’s (semi) ahead. Frankly, watching the preview that Starz has just released, I cannot believe how much it still wants to be 300.  While it is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Spartacus: Vengeance is taking it to a whole new level. Nearly every frame of this trailer looks like a shot from Zack Snyder’s game changing film. It even has the pounding rock soundtrack akin to the Nine Inch Nails song used in the first trailers for 300.  I’ll say this, they seem to have upped the gore factor. Snyder’s gouts of blood were highly stylized as are these, but the volume has definitely increased, not to mention the realistic wounds these leather-speedo clad warriors are inflicting.

Don’t get me wrong, I would never scoff at the opportunity to gawp at buff semi-naked man-flesh, but while he’s got dimples to die for, Liam McIntyre is no Gerard Butler. I think I’ll just pop in the 300 dvd instead. Spartacus: Vengeance premieres on Starz January 27.

“Excellent work gentlemen, excellent.”

I made a list today of the ‘big’ end of the year film’s I have yet to see. There are twelve, so I can’t say this definitively, but as of right now, Martin Scorsese’s Hugo is my favorite film of the year. I am not alone by any means. It’s even made a convert out of me in terms of 3D technology. (At least for this particular film.) The MPAS short list came out today for Achievement in Visual Effects . Hugo is, of course, on it. The film is a feast for the senses, including spectacular visuals. Dick George Creatives played a big part in that, especially in creating the Automaton at the heart of the film. Below is a short video on the people and the process responsible for creating that special piece of the movie. It’s a fascinating look behind-the-scenes.

The Automaton – Behind the Scenes from Sociates on Vimeo.

Dick George Creatives is a company based in Surrey, England who have been working in Film and Television  for more than thirty years. It’s obvious that they love their jobs.

Hugo is out now. If you haven’t seen it, I can’t recommend it highly enough. Pure movie magic.

“A shocking mystery from across the sea. A tangled tale of wealth, power…maybe even murder…"

I’ve said it before, the marketing campaign for David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been brilliant. The latest, from the Dragon Tattoo Tumblr site Mouth Taped Shut, is a nine-minute clip that takes the “found video” route like that of this year’s Apollo 18; made to look like a segment of video news magazine “Hard Copy” circa 1985. The piece focuses on the mysterious disappearance of Harriet Vanger, a member of one of Sweden’s most powerful and influential families (kind of the Swedish Kennedys.) Hard-hitting investigative reporter Richard Abrams interviews “witnesseses” and sources close to the Vanger family in an attempt to crack the case.

The case is at the center of Fincher’s film and Stieg Larsson’s book on which it's based. The mystery is what put journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) together with hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) after Blomkvist is hired by Henrik Vanger to dig into the disappearance and Blomkvist then hires Salander as a research assistant.

I’m sure it cost a lot of money to make that clip look like old cheap VHS tape, but it’s a masterful job. I don’t think this clip gives anything away that could not have been gleaned from any of the trailers or clips that are already out there. It’s the concept that’s the hook here. Check out the site and click on What is Hidden in the Snow for more. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opens December 21 in the US and Canada and 26^th December in the UK.

Wish You Were Here is a psychological drama/mystery from Australia starring Joel Edgerton, Felicity Price and Teresa Palmer (I Am Number Four). It was recently confirmed as an opening film of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival (in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition)

Four friends – husband and wife Dave and Alice (Edgerton and Price), and Alice's sister Steph (Palmer) and her new boyfriend Jeremy (Antony Starr) – lose themselves in the fun of a carefree South East Asian holiday Only three, however, return back to Australia. Dave and Alice come home to their young family desperate for answers about Jeremy's mysterious disappearance. When Steph returns not long after, a brutal secret is revealed about the night her boyfriend went missing. But it is only the first of many. Who among them knows what happened on that fateful night when they were dancing under a full moon in Cambodia?

Check out this trailer.

I don’t think it gives too much away because I haven’t automatically figured out what’s going on. There are hints that lead me to want to know more, like a good trailer should lead the viewer to do.

Writer/Director Kieran Darcy-Smith is making his feature directorial debut. As an actor he appeared in The Reef and with Edgerton in last year’s Animal Kingdom and The Square, directed by Joel’s brother Nash and co-written by Joel. They’re all part of Australian film collective, Blue Tongue Films and thanks to Edgerton’s higher profile (Warrior, The Thing, The Great Gatsby), the collective is benefitting. (Nash is also bringing a film to Sundance, a short called Bear, costarring Theresa Palmer. Do you need a diagram yet?)  At this point the only release date for Wish You Were Here is April 19^th in Australia. That will change, probably after Sundance. If not, just like with Animal Kingdom, good word of mouth will probably get it at least a limited US release.