Armie Hammer Really Wants to See his Batman Footage

“I just want a picture of me in the Batsuit.”

Armie Hammer was at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival to promote his film ‘Wounds’ with writer/director Babak Anvari and co-star Zazie Beetz.  While being interviewed by comic book nerd Kevin Smith for IMDB, Smith asked Hammer, who almost portrayed the Dark Knight in George Miller’s ‘Justice League’ film, if he was ever considered for Batman in the Zack Snyder film.  He also talks about being deep in pre-production with Miller for the film and that he shot test footage that he himself has never seen and is begging”someone to let him see it.

Smith is clearly curious about Hammer being in the role because he also asked him about it last year at the festival.

Click below to see the video.  Hammer’s comments begins at the 6:27 mark.

Top 10 Films of 2018

2018 is coming to an end and I’ve seen a lot, like seriously A LOT of movies.  I’ve probably seen more than I’d like to admit sometimes and seen them multiple times than I care to admit as well. I started the 2018 grandfathered into Moviepass before it went to complete and utter uselessness, and then migrated over to AMC A-List which was a huge help in seeing films this year.   With that, below is a list of My Personal Top 10 Films of 2018 that I have seen.  This 2018 list could change by early January cause I haven’t seen all the films due to limited release or I just haven’t gotten around to them, Sorry to Bother You, Beautiful Boy, and The Favourite, to name a few.  All films I’ve heard are great but like I said I missed for one reason or another.  This doesn’t mean that these are the best reviewed or highest quality films of 2018, but simply the movies I’ve seen this year that gave me an emotional reaction once I finished watching it.  It could be feelings of happiness, joy, sadness, surprise, hope, shock or somehow all of the above so while I’m sure there are people who will disagree with my list these are mine.  Just a heads up, I’ve already cheated cause technically there’s more than 10 on my list due to an honorable mention section and at the end you’ll see a movie that I’ve labeled Most Disappointing Movie. No long blog post this year, just the movies and maybe a few lines about each movie. Keeping it short this year.

Honorable Mentions

Making this 2018 list I jotted down every new movie I saw this year, either in the theatre, home video, or streaming and narrowing it down to 10 was impossible.  I have great things to say in about the movies I saw this year, so I wanted to list a few movies that didn’t crack the list, but are still a great joy to watch.  These are in no particular order: Avengers: Infinity War, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, Searching, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Teen Titans Go! To The Movies, A Simple Favor, Game Night, BlacKkKlansman, Three Identical Strangers, Ready Player One, A Star is Born, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Miseducation of Cameron Post, Blindspotting, Annihilation, Tag, Aquaman (Yes, Aquaman), Bumblebee (Yes, a Transformers movie), Incredibles 2, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Teen Titans! GO to the Movies and Bohemian Rhapsody. 

Click below to see the list

2018, the Summer of Documentaries

 

An Unexpected Season of Documentaries Worth Watching

The summer of 2018 has been interesting to say the least.  It unofficially opened in late April with ‘Avengers: Infinity War” and there’s been some ups and downs in the summer blockbuster season.  We’ve had the 5th Jurassic Park movie, ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’, a Pixar sequel I’ve been waiting 14 years to see, ‘Incredibles 2’, and after Infinity War, Marvel released the 20th Marvel Cinematic Universe film with ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’.

In this time, indie films have snuck their way into the summer season and I wanted to highlight 3 films I’ve seen over the last month that are all documentaries that everyone should see if you’re not in the mood for seeing the Rock punch the tallest building in the world on screen with his 3rd film released in the last 6 months, ‘Skyscraper’.  Side note, I really enjoyed ‘Skyscraper’.  It’s exactly the movie you expect it to be with an unexpected homage to one of my favorite films, Bruce Lee’s ‘Enter the Dragon’.

Armed with my MoviePass (which I’ll continue to use until my use of it literally causes the company to go under), I spent the last month seeing 3 documentaries I’ve heard great things about.  In order of viewing, I saw the Mr. Rogers documentary ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’, the Whitney Houston documentary ‘Whitney’, and ‘Three Identical Strangers’, that tells the story of triplets who were separated at birth, adopted each by 3 different families, and accidentally reunited with each other after nearly 20 years.

Top Gun 2 Filming Begins

Danger Zone Re-Entry

Tom Cruise and Paramount Pictures have announced that production has begun long awaited sequel ‘Top Gun’.  The film, titled, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ has been teased for years and is being directed by Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy, Oblivion).  Kosinski has worked with Cruise before on the film Oblivion.

Click below to see the entire photo that Cruise posted and more details on the plot and returning cast.

‘Bond 25’ U.S. Release Date Announced with Danny Boyle Confirmed to Direct

Universal has Won the International Distribution Rights to the Franchise

Official progress on the 25th James Bond movie has begun moving forward.  Today it was announced by EON Productions that the film will be released in the U.K. on October 25, 2019 and will be released in the U.S. 2 weeks later on November 8, 2019.  It has also been announced that Danny Boyle has officially signed on to direct the film with production starting this year on December 3, 2018.  This gives Boyle just under 11 months to finish the film from the moment he starts shooting.  Boyle’s ‘Trainspotting’ writing partner John Hodge will write the script.  The last Bond film ‘Spectre’ also had a roughly 12 month turn around from the start of production to release.

Click below for additional information about Universal Pictures’ involvement with the Franchise

James Gunn Reveals Alternate Intro Songs for the Guardians in Avengers: Infinity War

These Songs Could Have Introduced the Guardians

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ director James Gunn took to Facebook earlier in the day to reveal some news about his involvement with ‘Avengers: Infinity War’.  He is credited as a producer on the film and it’s no secret that the filmmakers of the MCU are very collaborative with each other.  The Russo Brothers who directed Infinity War discussed talking with Ryan Coogler and his team about the look of Wakanda to allow some consistency between the films and it’s no surprise that James Gunn was consulted as well.  That being said, Producer Kevin Feige felt it necessary to have Gunn involved in a more official capacity as this movie would be the first time someone other than Gunn has featured the Guardians of the Galaxy characters.

In the post he discusses that the Russo Brothers pretty much gave him the choice of choosing what song would introduce the Guardians of the Galaxy in the film for their first appearance.  For those who have seen the movie already, the introduction involves the on screen title card “SPACE” before hearing “Rubberband Man” by The Spinners.  Gunn has revealed what the other songs were that he submitted before the Russos ultimately chose “Rubberband Man”

Click below to see the list, Gunn’s entire post, and he was kind enough to include a Spotify playlist labeled “GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY AWESOME MIX 2.1”

Jeff Daniels and Ethan Hawke at the Montclair Film Festival

Over the weekend I was got tickets to 2 events hosted by the Montclair Film Festival.  Both were moderated by Stephen Colbert and it was a series of Storyteller Conversations in which Colbert interviewed actors in the industry.  Saturday I saw him interview Jeff Daniels (Dumb and Dumber, The Newsroom, The Looming Tower), and Sunday I saw him interview actor Ethan Hawke (Blaze, Boyhood, Dead Poets Society, Training Day).  Colbert discussed their careers and also took some questions from the crowd.

Click below to read my highlights of the conversations along with video.

Solo: A Star Wars Story “Featurette” Reveals Lots of New Footage

Marketing is in full speed for the upcoming “Solo: A Star Wars Movie” coming out Memorial Day Weekend.  Today Lucasfilm has released a new behind the scenes featurette.  Titled “Becoming Solo”, you see the director Ron Howard, Co-Writer Lawrence Kasdan, and the cast talk about the character of Han Solo and his journey in the film.

Click below to see the featurette.

Avengers: Infinity War “Chant” TV Spot Released

Marvel Studios has a released a new extended TV Spot for the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War.  Marvel and Disney are banking on the popularity and success of February’s Black Panther.

The majority of the 60 second TV spot takes place in Black Panther’s county of Wakanda and features a few seconds of new footage including a Chant as the Avengers and the Tribes of Wakanda scream prior to defending the country that we’ve all seen in the trailers.  For people who don’t follow the MCU or have only seen Black Panther, this TV could easily be thought of Black Panther 2, which I’m not entirely against.

Click below to see the TV Spot

Vin Diesel and Director Joe Russo Talk Avengers: Infinity War

Vin Diesel, Groot himself, took to Facebook to share a video of him on the Disney Lot with 1/2 of the Russo Brothers directing team, Joe Russo, to talk International Women’s Day and tease Avengers: Infinity War.

Click below to see the video