Hugh Jackman hints at how The Wolverine will set up X-Men: Days of Future Past. Caesar will be talking by the end of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. What role is Doctor Who's Mark Gatiss playing on Game of Thrones? Spoilers ahead!
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Hugh Jackman spoke to Coming Soon about what it’s like to reunite with director Bryan Singer for the latest X-Men movie:
It has been phenomenal. He's just loving it. I think all of the actors who were in it before just love being back together and everyone is excited about it. It's a really great story, great concept, and in my position as Wolverine, I get to act with them all. I mean it's truly one of the great ensembles I think ever put together, so I'm really having a great time
He also hinted at the differences between the movie and the comic storyline it’s based on, saying, “there are a few differences, and fans like that.” Finally, he hinted that the after-credits scene of The Wolverine will tease X-Men: Days of Future Past:
If you stay on after the credits you get to see a nice little preview for Bryan's next film.
Star Wars Episode VII
So we still don’t know what’s in it, but Bad Robot may have Tweeted an image of the next Star Wars movie script. At least, that’s the best option for the meaning behind “Hot off the presses. Can you guess what’s behind the cover? #FoundAtBR #MysteryScript”. Below is the image the cryptic tweet accompanied. [Tor]
RIPD
Here’s an animated short to promote the movie coming out this week:
300: Rise of an Empire
Another day, another 300 Rise of an Empire poster. The movie is releasing six exclusive posters for Comic-Con. This is number four. [Coming Soon]
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Director Matt Reeves revealed what he’s carrying forward from Rise of the Planet of the Apes into the sequel:
I wanted to extend what I thought was achieved so brilliantly, the emotional connection with Caesar, with a greater sense of realism in the world, the face of it and scale of it. Where the first movie ends on the precipice of a major shift about to happen in the world, I wanted to come into that story. It's definitely a bigger ape world, but it still centered on Andy Serkis as Caesar, it's his POV. [. . .]
Caesar talks at the end of the movie, he has some level of speech. I wanted to make sure we're continuing to go along the path of evolution without missing it, it was so delicious to watch in the first movie. It's not like now they are talking in verse. Hopefully the movie is emotional and thrilling as you watch the apes come into being.
Where does the movie take place?
The ape civilization is in the woods, between Vancouver and New Orleans, the world after what happens with the simian virus flu. The two main locales are San Francisco and the Muir Woods where the ape civilization is born. We'll be doing a little shooting in San Francisco as well. A lot of the Louisiana shooting was to build huge wood sets outside in the woods to add realism, enormous exterior streets. We're shooting in the rain, in the wind, all on location out in the open in the elements.
Into the Woods
It looks like Jake Gyllenhaal won't be playing one of the princes in Into the Woods after all. His indie thriller Nightcrawler will be filming at the same time. Reports are that he had to choose between these two projects, and he chose the thriller. [Coming Soon]
Orphan Black
Co-creators Graeme Mason and John Fawcett spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the direction of season two, saying that the season premiere will pick up “maybe two hours” after season one’s finale and “launches like a rocket” from there.
They also spoke on the themes they will be exploring in season 2:
MANSON: We definitely will be continuing looking at bonds and themes of motherhood in all its guises that we show — Mrs. S. (Maria Doyle Kennedy) and the foster motherhood, Sarah and Kira (Sklyer Wexler) — as well as testing and stretching the bond between our three main women (played by Maslany), Cosima, Sarah and Allison… Sarah’s going to be on the run in season 2.
FAWCETT: She’s really freaked out because she’s got bad guys after her.
And on the role Rachel will play:
FAWCETT: Before getting into any other further clones, we’ve got this new clone that we really don’t know very well, and Rachel is going to figure in pretty strongly in season 2. She’s not just a bad guy. She’s got a lot of layers to her and has a very, very interesting backstory.
Finally, while star Tatiana Maslany has said that she believes Helena is dead, Fawcett and Manson also decided to throw that into question:
FAWCETT: I don’t know, I think she was pretty dead. She looked pretty dead to me.
MANSON: Shot in the heart, but, you know, she’s kind of a bad penny. Who knows?
Almost Human
Here’s a new promo for the new J.J. Abrams series.
Person of Interest
Check out an interview with Amy Acker, who plays the hacker Root. [TV Equals]
The Walking Dead
And here’s a video interview with producer Gale Anne Hurd. [TV Equals]
Plus, Entertainment Weekly has the first picture of new character Bob Stookey:
Showrunner Scott M. Gimple says, “His backstory is not entirely the same as in the comic and the novel. I think he’s seen things go bad over and over, and winding up in this stable place doesn’t shake him from his experience. He struggles with that.”
“You can see there’s something deeper and darker that’s going on with this character, just from the first episode,” says the actor playing Stookey, Lawrence Gilliard Jr. “We don’t really know what it is. We just know he’s got some issues that he’s dealing with.” [Entertainment Weekly]
And here's the Comic-Con exclusive poster:
Defiance
Star Grant Bowler explains what sets Defiance apart from other science fiction:
What we’ve tried to do, and one of the things that attracted me most to the show, was that it is true science fiction in the sense that it’s not one device. What kind of bugs me about contemporary science fiction often is that it’s normally one device, one occurrence, or one thing that’s happened, one problem if you like, but after that there’s really nothing. And I always sit at home and go, ‘well fix the problem,’ because if you just fix that one problem then everything goes back. It does have all of those constructs of true science fiction. It has its own rules of physics, of science, it has its own social rules. The world has changed to a large enough degree that every character has to adapt and cope. It does adhere to that, but at the same time be don’t sit around on our heels too much and stare at it all, because the reality is if you put characters in a world, the world’s going to be just the world for these characters. They’re going to be marching off trying to do all the things that people, or aliens, get to do and want to be. So we do try and wear our science fiction lightly if you like, but at the same time there’s an incredibly complex backstory and mythology to the show, that we spend at least half of our time making sure that we’re honouring.
Plus, he t about what role the video game has in the canon of the show:
It’s a two-way street. We have stories and events if you like that move over into the show, almost in real time. For instance when I burned out of the game on my roller, the show launched two weeks later which is pretty much what we decided is how long it would take you to go across country from San Francisco where the game takes place, to St. Louis where the show takes place. There have been major climactic events, like Razor Rain was a major climactic event, or the plague and the flu which swept across the country in opposite directions, so from game to show and show to game. So those kind of things we do, and they’re seeded far in advance. And then there’s character interactions, where characters will leave the game and come onto the show, like I did in the beginning, and also the opposite. And then we get into the more micro or incidental crossovers that happen on a more week-to-week basis if you like.
More at the link. [Hey U Guys]
Under the Dome
Here’s the pretty great Comic-Con poster for Under the Dome. [TV Line]
Game of Thrones
Writer-producer-actor Mark Gatiss will be in season 4 of Game of Thrones, but his role is being kept a secret. We certainly hope it’s a mix of his Sherlock Mycroft and the genetic experiment gone wrong from Doctor Who’s “The Lazarus Experiment.” [Entertainment Weekly]
Once Upon a Time
Actor Robbie Kay (Pinocchio) has been cast as an as-yet unnamed recurring Lost Boy. However, the show is reportedly still looking for Lost Boy leader Rufio, so he’s probably not going to be playing him. [TV Line]
Sharknado 2
The west coast can breathe a sigh of relief: the sharknado will be making landfall in New York City. [TV Line]
Additional reporting by Charlie Jane Anders