Moonrise Kingdom

The trailer for Wes Anderson's upcoming film Moonrise Kingdom has after an insane amount of waiting, finally been released. It is everything one would want and expect from Wes Anderson. The coloring, the music, the setting and the story are all classic trademarks Anderson has come to be known by.

The story is about two young kids who run off together, and the resulting shenanigans that ensue as the community tries to find them. It's got the regular Anderson cast with Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray but with newcomers that are sure to fit in perfectly to his world with Harvey Keitel, Edward Norton, Bruce Willis and Frances Mcdormand. Check it out below

War Horse: Proof that Steven Spielberg Still Has It

2011 is the year that Steven Spielberg proved to the world that he has not yet become a "Hollywood hack". Most people were ready to write the guy off (myself included) quite unfairly after the colossal blunder that was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. But were we all forgetting the movies this man had given us, were we all forgetting the magic this man had created? This man had made a robotic shark scary, he made us all care about a little alien, he made dinosaurs walk the earth, put us on Normandy beach on D-Day, took us on thrilling adventures to find the Ark of Covenant and the Holy Grail. This mans name is synonymous with movies....and yet we all wrote him off.

So he definitely had something to prove as December, 2011 came and he released his animated, soon to be classic The Adventures of Tintin and the epic, heart wrenching War Horse. While Tintin oozed with fun and adventure and literally every frame was exciting and fun, War Horse is a whole different cinematic experience.

There are movies that remind you why you even love them in the first place, movies that make you fall in love with them all over again. War Horse is one of those movies. From John Williams' sweeping score to Janusz Kaminski's breathtaking cinematography every bit of War Horse draws you in and takes a hold of you.

Jeremy Irvine plays the poor farm boy Albert who raises the endearing Joey(the horse) only to have to give him up with his father sells him to Captain Nicholls, a superbly subtle performance from the vastly underrated Tom Hiddleston (Thor, Midnight in Paris) as World War I breaks loose on Europe. What follows is the journey Joey experiences through the trenches and battles that made the first great war so terrible. He passes through different owners who's own stories tug at your heart, yet make you believe whole heartedly that the world is truly a good place, despite the terrible things human beings are capable of. Soon Albert is in the fight as well, running through battlefields and trenches hoping to one day meet his friend again.

There is a warming yet gutwrenching scene as Joey has been caught in barbed wire and a temporary cease fire occurs as a British soldier, with the help of a German soldier untangles Joey from the mess.


The acting is incredible. Hiddleston gives a great performance as the kind Captain who promises Albert that he will protect Joey and return him to him if he can. As Peter Travers said in his review at rollingstone magazine, you just want more of him. Both Peter Mullen and Emily Watson are great as Albert's parents and Neils Arstup as a French farmer/grandfather is terrific.

Spielberg has created a sweeping epic, and like only he can do, made us care just as much about the animals as the human characters. The year of 2011 was a pretty weak year for movies with only a few bright spots, and War Horse is possibly the brightest of them all. Spielberg deserves to be at the very least nominated for Best Director at this years Academy Awards, and it definitely deserves Best Picture. Cause really, what else was better this year?

**** out of ****

The Dark Knight Rises: Official Poster Release

The Internet has been going crazy this weekend with The Dark Knight Rises. First the viral campaign kicked into gear (it lead people to get free passes to an early screening of Prologue) and Christopher Nolan held a special screening for his directing peers and the movies news websites.

The reactions to the prologue have been overwhelmingly good, with the exception that people had a hard time understanding Tom Hardy's Bane. But even so, apparently that wasn't enough to detract from the amazing spectacle that everyone witnessed.

We began wondering if we would get anything else this weekend...a poster...a new trailer..anything. The users at nolanfans.com had basically given up hope when suddenly today, the official website was updated, revealing the new poster.



Its dark and cold and extremely foreboding. It gives us an amazing glimpse at the more than likely epic experience Christopher Nolan has in store for us come July. The man has yet to make a bad film, and it doesn't look like he is about to start with this one.

A side note to get people excited, once the official website was updated with the new poster, the teaser trailer would not work anymore. But in the coding for the website, it suggests that soon they are gearing up to release the full length theatrical trailer online. Hopefully that will happen this weekend, and the moment it does, I'll be posting about it.

Viral Marketing for The Dark Knight Rises

As with all Christopher Nolan films, The Dark Knight Rises is featuring an elaborate viral marketing campaign for the rabid fans. I took part in the one for The Dark Knight, which consisted of websites that would have clues that would lead you to other websites, dates and times usually rewarding the fans with the release of the new full length trailer or posters.

Inception also had one, but most of that campaign featured websites that were set in the "world" of Inception, and merely served to enhance the story.

The campain for The Dark Knight Rises kicked off today with the release of two "confidential" documents, one discussing that a nuclear scientist by the name of Dr. Leonid Pavel has gone missing, the other is a page of dialogue between two unknown people. Many lines and dates are blacked out. As of now we aren't sure whether this has any clues to more oncoming viral stuff, or is just serving as story to the prologue that comes out in few select IMAX theaters across the country.

And with that, here is the little information I have on Dr. Pavel and how I believe he ties in to the prologue.

SPOILERS:

Alon Aboutboul was cast as what was described as "mad scientist" type character. In the document he appears to be Dr. Pavel. According to the document a lot of people are after this guy. Which brings me to the prologue.
As of now the biggest, and most widely accepted rumour is that the prologue will feature an airplane that Bane is hijacking in order to kill an evil dictator. With this viral stuff I believe he is trying to kidnap Dr. Pavel, who i believe will be on the plane. We know from set photos that Bane has some sort of "doomsday" device. I think he kidnaps Pavel and makes him build this device. The prologue will be this kidnapping scene, and according to cinematogropher Wally Phfister, the opening sequence (prologue) is going to be mind blowing. I think it will be reminiscent of Inception's hallway fight.

I will be seeing the prologue on the 16th and will post my review about it shortly after, and will continue to post updates on the viral and normal campaigns

Below are the two documents released

The Dark Knight Rises: Details Revealed

After much torture and speculation, Christopher Nolan has finally shed a very small light on The Dark Knight Rises via this months Empire Magazine. Now I know alot of people are wanting to remain completely in the dark about this movie till they see it which is more than fine, but seeing as how Christopher Nolan himself released this info, its safe to say its very VERY minimal in the spoiler content.

"It’s really all about finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne’s story. We left him in a very precarious place. Perhaps surprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later, eight years after The Dark Knight. So he’s an older Bruce Wayne; he’s not in a great state." -Christopher Nolan

For a long time people have been speculating when this film would take place, many believing that it was directly after the events of The Dark Knight and that the first scene would be the police pursuing Batman like the end of the previous film. Chris' comments here obviously can lay that speculation to rest.

Nolan also spoke about the upcoming prologue that will be playing before Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol in select IMAX theaters. He states that its the first six or seven minutes of the film, and that it will be an introduction to the character of Bane.

Bane is shaping up to be an incredible villain. Many people I know are concerned he won't be able to live up to Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight. Tom Hardy is more than a capable actor and Bane is the perfect villain to challenge Batman. Not only is he a physical challenge but Bane is also extremely intelligent, capable of tormenting Batman/Bruce psychologically. Hardy calls Bane "Brutal" and "incredibly clinical"

Also concerning Bane, Lindy Hemming The Dark Knight Rises' costume designer cleared up some speculation about Bane's mask...

He was injured early in his story. He’s suffering from pain and he needs gas to survive. He cannot survive the pain without the mask. The pipes from the mask go back along his jaw line and feed into the thing at the back where there are two canisters of what ever it is…the anesthetic. - Lindy Hemming

Below are a few official photos of Bane from the movie. The prologue as well as the first full length trailer will be appearing December 16.

The Dark Knight Rises: Epic shots from New York

The past two days have been nothing short of amazing in the world of an avid Christopher Nolan/Batman fan. Filming has been going on in New York and in the past two days scenes that can only be described as epic have been captured by fans going out with cameras to the set. Us over at nolanfans.com have been in complete awe at the videos and photos that have been popping up online.

So far its pretty safe to say, especially after these past few days if it hasn't been clear enough since filming first started back in May that The Dark Knight Rises is going to top The Dark Knight, and all other Superhero films. The Avengers? who could possibly care about Stan Lee's super one dimensional characterizations being directed by Joss Whedon when you have Christopher Nolan concluding his epic trilogy of the tormented and conflicted Batman. The talent level is just way too high in comparison. Even The Amazing Spiderman (which i'm extremely intrigued by) probably won't stand a chance next to this film. Now Superman is gonna be interesting when its finally finished, but I just don't see anything that could possibly be better than what Nolan and Company have been doing with this film.

With all the pictures and videos flooding in from the last two days I thought i would post a few of them on here, but be warned while not giving away any plot details, these leaks could be deemed kind of spoilery, so if you want to stay completely in the dark and wait to have your mind blown next july, stop reading. but also remember, what you see in these photos and videos haven't been through post production, and they are just from fans, the final product will look drastically different.

First here are some pictures of Christopher Nolan directing.





Now some photos of the filming.

This one is Matthew Modine (looking like a high ranking police officer) in action.
If you don't know who Matthew Modine is he starred in Memphis Belle, Cutthroat Island, Any Given Sunday, and as Private Joker in Full Metal Jacket. He is a good actor that fits with Christopher Nolan's trend of casting past has beens in his films. (like Rutger Hauer in Batman Begins, David Bowie in The Prestige, Eric Roberts in The Dark Knight and Tom Berringer in Inception)









Some photos of Batman and Bane




And now two videos from the set.

Catwoman/Selina Kyle


This one is just epic




This one is the most spoilery, its an epic fight scene between Bane and Batman...

The Dark Knight Rises: Production Update From New York

The continuing production of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises began its first day in New York City today. The production started back in May in India and has since then been in London, Pittsburgh, L.A and now finally New York. So far we have been pretty lucky with the footage and photo's fans have been capturing, and mostly they have all been pretty spoiler free.

The photos from today are no different. From its first day in New York we got some photos of Bruce Wayne's Lamborghini as well as photos of Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne (for the most part we have just gotten photos of him being Batman) as well as Joseph Gordon Levitt as the cop John Blake.

Along with that, the other day a man who is playing an extra as a Gotham City Police Man tweeted that they are getting ready to film "the biggest action sequence that has ever been filmed in New York". That is beyond exciting and I don't think I can wait till July. Luckily we have to only wait till December for the full length trailer.

I'm still depressed that no theaters here in Utah will be showing the prologue because they are all digital projection theaters. But I will just have to make do with the regular theatrical trailer and more set photos to help be get through till July.

Check out the pictures of the production below. Its good to see Bale as Bruce Wayne, there wasn't enough of Bruce in The Dark Knight in my opinion.