We sort through all the X-Men: First Class casting rumors. M. Night Shyamalan has ideas for The Last Airbender 2 - assuming he gets to make it. Superman could have an unlikely director. Kosinski talks the Black Hole remake. Spoileriffic!
X-Men - First Class:
We're nearing critical mass with all the casting rumors flying around right now, so let's see if we can't sort this out. First of all, Fox hasn't confirmed any of this, so at best we're talking about decent probabilities, but definitely not certainties. So, let's see...
- Nicholas Hoult, who played the kid in About a Boy and more recently appeared as Eusebios in Clash of the Titans, is said to be playing Beast. That was the part Ben Walker was going to play before he dropped out. [Deadline]
- Aaron Johnson, who played Kick-Ass in Kick-Ass, is maybe reuniting with director Matthew Vaughn to play Cyclops. Or maybe not. One source says "this is one hundred percent locked at this point" and another says he definitely isn't appearing. [Ain't It Cool vs. Entertainment Weekly]
- Lucas Till, whom hopefully none of you remember from Hannah Montana: The Movie, is reportedly playing Havok, who is, among other things, the younger brother of Cyclops. He's sort of a minor character for an X-Men reboot, and people are speculating that this is another misdirection, a lot like that Willow rumor we reported earlier. In that case, these obscure mutants are being used to mask the real characters these actors are playing. Which could be the case, except the actress auditioning for Willow accurately described that character's powers, so... honestly, I don't know. All this second-guessing makes my head hurt. [EW again.]
- Finally, Caleb Landry Jones, who we previously mentioned is maybe playing Banshee, has been upgraded to quite probably playing Banshee. Of course, with all of this, nothing is official yet. [EW once more.]
The Last Airbender 2:
Assuming M. Night Shyamalan gets to return after the critically disastrous (but financially half-decent, so far) first film, here's what he's going to do. The next film is pretty much mapped out, and it's "darker" and "richer" than the first one, with a great antagonists in Azula, who Shyamalan sees as the series' only true villain. He wants the Kyoshi Warriors to play a larger role. Although all of this comes from Shyamalan himself, it's unclear whether Paramount will give him the go-ahead for the sequel and how much control he would actually have over the film. [MTV Movie News]
Transformers 3:
Filming has started in Chicago, and there are a lot of smashed cars crushed under various debris. There's speculation that these represent the aftermath of a Decepticon attack. [<a href="http://transformerslive.blogspot.com/2010/07/transformers-3-chicago-set-video.html]
Superman Reboot:
I'm not sure there are enough grains of salt in the world (or electrons in the universe, for that matter) for this particular rumor, but here it is: a studio insider says David Goyer wants to both write and direct the new Superman movie, but the studio only wants him to write because his previous directorial efforts haven't been very good. Instead, they're supposedly going to get Chris Columbus, the non-discoverer of America who directed Bicentennial Man and Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief, to direct Goyer's script. I don't believe this for a second, but between Columbus and official "mentor" Christopher Nolan, this would be a rare opportunity to get the best and worst directors named Chris to work together. So there's that. [Superman Homepage]
The Black Hole:>
Tron Legacy director Joseph Kosinski is heading up this remake of the 1979 Disney movie. Actually, he says it's not a remake - it's a rebuilding of the core idea with more of a hard science approach that reflects the huge amount we've learned about black holes in the last 31 years. The movie is currently in the outlining stage. When asked whether he'd keep the ambiguous, metaphysical ending to the original, Kosinski explained the different direction in which he'd like to go:
It's one of the trippier endings I've ever seen in a movie, especially for a big Disney movie to end like that one did. But I think the notion of religion and science and philosophy… there's a lot of cool, interesting things to explore there. That's the cool thing about black holes. Even when you read about what's written about them from a science point of view, it almost sounds like science fiction or philosophy at some point because it's just so… it's nothing anyone has ever experienced firsthand. It's really a theoretical place and there's a lot of opportunity to do something really cool. But I think the approach would be a little more grounded than the original film was.
[IGN]
For those who don't mind being spoiled (which really should include everyone already reading this), here's the ending that he's talking about from the original film. And oh my goodness, is it ever trippy:
Scream 4:
Here are a ton more set photos:
Eureka:
Here's a sneak peek from tonight's premiere. That accent James Callis (Gaius Frakking Baltar!) is doing is simply amazing in its awfulness:
Being Human:
Deadline is reporting that Marc Pellegrino has been cast as Bishop, the frightening but charming mentor to the vampire Aidan. Pellegrino has previously played Jacob on Lost and Lucifer on Supernatural, so yeah... he probably has some idea how to play that type of role. [Deadline]
The Cape:
Here are a few heavily watermarked images from the upcoming superhero drama. [SpoilerTV]
Smallville:
Show writer Al Septien tweeted that some "old friends" might return this season, and to "stay tuned for new revelations." (He also had a winking emoticon, for any body language experts reading this.) Consider that a little bit of extra evidence that all these cast returns aren't just in Tom Welling's head, although there doesn't appear to be anything concrete yet. [@alseptien]
Additional reporting by Mary Ratliff.