Moviefone Editorial

Tag: @movieid:10134307

  • Jessica Chastain Eyes Villain Role in ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix,’ Simon Kinberg to Direct

    Closing Ceremony Red Carpet Arrivals - The 70th Annual Cannes Film FestivalJessica Chastain may be taking a page out of old friend and classmate Oscar Isaac’s book to play a villain in the next “X-Men” movie.

    The actress is reportedly in talks to join “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” as the main villain, Lilandra, the empress of an alien empire called the Shi’ar.

    The movie has also officially tapped Simon Kinberg, a longtime franchise writer and producer, to make his directorial debut.

    “X-Men: Apocalypse” stars Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Alexandra Shipp, Tye Sheridan, and Kodi Smit-McPhee are all reprising their roles.

    Sophie Turner will also return as Jean Grey, who will be the focus of the movie. In the comics, Jean’s powers are hugely amplified when she comes into contact with a cosmic energy called the Phoenix Force. It takes over her personality and turns her into the evil Dark Phoenix, a foe that the X-Men must band together to defeat.

    The Dark Phoenix was incorporated into “X-Men: Last Stand,” though it was a split personality that Professor Charles Xavier embedded into Jean’s subconscious.

    “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” is in preproduction and scheduled for release Nov. 2, 2018.

  • Here Are Release Dates for ‘Deadpool 2,’ ‘Avatar’ Sequels, More ‘X-Men’ Movies

    Break out your blockbuster calendar, ’cause 20th Century Fox just booked your life for the next few years.

    The studio spent the weekend announcing release dates for several upcoming films, including four — yes, four — “Avatar” sequels; “Deadpool 2”; the “X-Men” sequel “Dark Phoenix” with Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey, the “X-Men” spinoff “New Mutants,” Steven Spielberg’s Pentagon Papers film with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks; Bryan Singer’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”; and Steve McQueen’s heist film “Widows.”

    Schedule yourself accordingly:

    • “New Mutants”: April 13, 2018
    • “Deadpool 2”: June 1, 2018
    • “Dark Phoenix”: Nov. 2., 2018
    • “Widows”: Nov. 16, 2018
    • Steven Spielberg’s untitled Washington Post/Pentagon Papers film: Dec. 22, 2017.
    • “Bohemian Rhapsody”: Dec. 25, 2018

    AVATAR SEQUELS

    Dates for James Cameron’s FOUR “Avatar” sequels were announced on Facebook:

    • “Avatar 2”: December 18, 2020
    • “Avatar 3”: December 17, 2021
    • “Avatar 4”: December 20, 2024
    • “Avatar 5”: December 19, 2025

    Some previously announced films were also moved around on the schedule:

    • “Murder on the Orient Express” was moved from Nov. 22, 2017 to Nov. 10, 2017.

    • Jennifer Lawrence’s “The Red Sparrow” was moved from Nov. 10, 2017 to March 2, 2018

    • “The Predator” was moved from Feb. 9, 2018 to Aug. 3., 2018.

    • Fox also pushed The Predator from February 2018 to August 3, 2018.

    [via: The Hollywood Reporter, io9]

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  • Sophie Turner Confirms She’s Filming Next ‘X-Men,’ Then ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8

    23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards - ArrivalsRed alert: Sophie Turner is about to have a very busy year, and you can expect to see a lot more ginger slaying from her Sansa Stark and Jean Grey.

    The “Game of Thrones” star was at the BAFTA Awards over the weekend, and revealed juicy details on her schedule. She not only announced the end of filming for GoT Season 7, she basically confirmed Sansa would be around for the final Season 8. She also snuck in an “X-Men” movie tease, which sounds very promising for Dark Phoenix.

    Here’s what she told Hey U Guys at the BAFTAs:

    “So we’re about to start shooting the next ‘X-Men.’ We just finished shooting Season 7 of ‘[Game of] Thrones,’ and I’ve got a couple of movies to do before ‘X-Men’ starts. And then we go on to Season 8. So I’ve got a busy year lined up.”

    Watch that part around the :50 mark:

    Turner made her debut as Jean Grey/Phoenix in 2016’s “X-Men: Apocalypse,” and reports recently came out saying the next film, “X-Men: Supernova” will start filming in June, following Jean Grey and her “Dark Phoenix” saga.

    Previous reports said “Game of Thrones” Season 8 would start filming in September, and that timeline does seem to fit. No word yet on the other movies she should be filming pretty soon if “X-Men” does start shooting in June, but that’s something else to look forward to.

    [via: Hey U Guys, Collider]

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  • Stephen Merchant Is the New Caliban in Surprising ‘Logan’ Photos

    BAFTA LA's Behind Closed Doors With Stephen MerchantThe third Wolverine movie is going to give us the second Caliban within a single year.

    “Logan” director James Mangold and Stephen Merchant both shared photos of Merchant in character, appearing to confirm his role as albino mutant Caliban, who was also in “X-Men: Apocalypse” earlier this year, but played by Tomas Lemarquis.

    Check out the new photos of Merchant’s character:

    How I spent my summer

    A photo posted by Stephen Merchant (@stephenmerchant) on

    Those of us who still know Stephen Merchant best from comedies like “The Office,” “Hello Ladies,” and “Hot Fuzz” — not to mention his super-dirty “Lip Sync Battle” — were pleasantly surprised to hear of his casting in a Wolverine sequel. But now some fans are even more surprised that the “X-Men” universe is being reshuffled with another recasting.

    “Logan” stars Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart (as a much older Professor X) with Boyd Holbrook as villain Donald Pierce. A new image on Instagram suggests Pierce’s storyline will be as leader of the assassins called The Reavers.

    “Logan” is scheduled for release March 3, 2017.

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  • ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Earns $8.2 Million in Thursday Previews, Beats ‘Days of Future Past’

    “X-Men: Apocalypse” has already earned a significant sum overseas, and it’s off to a good start domestically as it readies to take on the North American box office this weekend.

    “Apocalypse” pulled in an impressive $8.2 million in Thursday preview receipts, besting its predecessor, “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” in a squeaker: The latter film earned $8.1 million at the Thursday box office when it debuted in 2014. “Days of Future Past” went on to make $110.6 million during its Memorial Day weekend debut; “Apocalypse” is currently tracking at around $100 million, though studio Fox has tempered expectations by setting its earning estimate at $80 million.

    Unfortunately for “Apocalypse,” it’s fighting an uphill battle against a rash of bad reviews, which also plagued fellow superhero team-up flick “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” earlier this year. “Apocalypse” currently sits at 47 percent on Rotten Tomatoes’s Tomatometer, a steep drop from “Days of Future Past”‘s 91 percent.

    And the superhero flick is also facing a showdown with Disney at the box office, with “Alice in Wonderland” sequel “Alice Through the Looking Glass” also opening this holiday weekend. That flick may wind up with bigger numbers overseas, though, considering star Johnny Depp’s enormous power at the international box office. Only time will tell whether American filmgoers will prefer mutants or Mad Hatters this holiday weekend.

    [via: TheWrap]

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  • Bryan Singer Reveals How Quicksilver Steals the Movie (Again) in ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’

    [SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t seen the movie, stop reading now.]

    Another “X-Men” movie, another chance for Quicksilver to steal the show.

    Director Bryan Singer returns with his biggest X-Men movie yet, “X-Men: Apocalypse,” and he has brought “Days of Future Past‘s” Quicksilver (Evan Peters) with him. The speedster became an instant fan-favorite last time with his slow-mo running sequence through a Pentagon kitchen near Magneto’s cell. In “Apocalypse,” the action gets next level’d with a daring rescue through the X-Mansion as it is (naturally) blowing up.

    At a recent press junket for the film, Singer revealed how he and his production team put this scene together — an all-timer for the franchise.
    “It took a month-and-a-half to shoot two mins of film,” Singer said about the intricate shoot. “Evan Peters worked 17 days, doing most of his own wire work.”

    An extensive amount of pre-viz also went into the sequence obviously, as it employed “every type of special effects you can imagine — from CGI to explosive algorithms.”

    Several practical physical effects were used as well — including ol’ fashioned explosions.

    “What we did when we were done shooting in all the physical locations is, we blew them all up,” Singer grinned. “And [we] had Phantom cameras that run at 3000 FPS, fly in blast cases through the sets at 80 MPH — simultaneously with the explosion. So, when you look at the footage, you can actually read pages of a flaming book moving past the screen, and you can just read the words [on it] — and we just put all those elements together and crafted a scene that had to rival the one in the previous movie.”

    Blame H.G. Wells for inspiring Singer on how to, visually, bring Quicksilver’s super speed to life.

    “It was all born out of a short story I read when I was kid called ‘The Great Accelerator,’ by H.G. Wells, and it’s a story of a person who takes a potion that allows them to move so fast everything else seems like it’s standing still. And I’ve always wanted to put that on film, and the kitchen scene in ‘DOFP’ allowed me that opportunity, and Apocalypse allowed me to take it to the next level.”

    “X-Men: Apocalypse” is in theaters now.

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  • ‘X-Men’: 15 Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About Marvel’s Mutants

    At this point in its run, the X-Men franchise must be imbibing a little of Wolverine’s healing factor.

    These movies have been a fixture since the original “X-Men” exploded onto the scene in 2000. They’ve weathered every misstep and survived the rise of Marvel Studios and the Avengers. And now “X-Men: Apocalypse” is here to introduce a whole new wave of mutant heroes and the biggest, baddest X-Men villain of them all.

    To celebrate this big release, we’re looking back at the five core “X-Men” movies released so far and explore some of the interesting trivia and hidden cameos you might not know about.

    ‘X-Men‘ (2000)
    1. Hugh Jackman wasn’t the first choice to play Wolverine. Actor Dougray Scott was originally cast in the role, but he dropped out because of a conflict with the filming of “Mission: Impossible II.” We imagine he regretted that decision later.

    2. Joss Whedon penned a rewrite of the screenplay. Whedon’s draft was rejected by the studio because of its “quick-witted” approach to the source material. Somehow, Marvel Studios didn’t seem to mind that approach when Whedon directed “The Avengers” 12 years later.

    3. Several major characters (Beast, Nightcrawler and Pyro) and other iconic X-Men elements (including the Danger Room) were cut from the script before filming because of budget concerns.

    ‘X2: X-Men United‘ (2003)
    4. This sequel is one of the major reasons leading to Marvel’s decision to reveal Wolverine’s origin story in the comic book, “Origin.” Many within the publisher feared that the movies would end up revealing this murky period of Wolverine’s past before they got the chance.

    5. Rather than resort to digital trickery, director Bryan Singer relied on a group of trained mimes to play the museum crowd that Xavier freezes in place with his psychic powers.

    6. In the scene where Mystique accesses Yuriko’s computer terminal, viewers are treated to a number of references to other Marvel characters. Among many other things, the computer files reference Gambit, Mister Sinister, Omega Red, Project Wideawake, the Von Strucker twins, and even Franklin Richards from the “Fantastic Four” franchise.

    ‘X3‘ (2006)
    7. Alan Cumming was expected to reprise his role as Nightcrawler in this sequel. However, because the role was so small and Cumming disliked the painstaking process of applying Nightcrawler’s makeup, he opted not to return. The prequel video game “X-Men: The Official Game” offered a story-based explanation for why Nightcrawler was absent.

    8. When Singer dropped out of this sequel to direct “Superman Returns,” Fox approached a number of potential replacements before ultimately choosing Brett Ratner. That list included Peter Berg, Joss Whedon, Alex Proyas, and ‘X-Men: First Class” director Matthew Vaughn.

    9. Gambit was originally intended to appear in this sequel as one of the X-Men and a rival for Rogue’s affections. Though the role was written out of the script, Gambit does have a small cameo in the novelization.

    ‘X-Men: First Class‘ (2011)
    10. This prequel started life as a Magneto-centric story in the vein of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” But in light of the lukewarm reception to that movie, the Magneto project evolved into an ensemble X-Men movie.

    11. While there was once a Marvel comic called “X-Men: First Class,” it featured an almost completely different cast of mutant heroes, including Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Angel, and Beast.

    12. The film’s original ending featured a “psychic” battle between Emma Frost and Charles Xavier, involving a city of the mind that the two would battle each other within — think punching each other into buildings or with buildings. The filmmakers were very excited to film, but never got the chance. Why? Fox cut it when “Inception” came out because of similar sequences in that film. Womp womp.

    ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past‘ (2014)
    13. Wolverine’s apartment in 1973 is decorated with many references and homages to his Japanese travels, including samurai swords and a photo of Mt. Fuji. Even the red and yellow color scheme pays tribute to his 1980’s-era costume from the comics (a costume that he has yet to actually wear in the films).

    14. When Mystique infiltrates the army base in Vietnam, her cover identity is “Col. Sanders.” Apparently she loves those 11 herbs and spices.

    15. Quicksilver’s appearance in both this film and “Avengers: Age of Ultron” created some tension between Fox and Marvel Studios. The two studios hammered out an agreement that stated that the X-Men movies can’t reference Quicksilver’s status as an Avenger, while the Avengers movies can’t acknowledge his mutant heritage or the fact that Magneto is his father.

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  • ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Stars Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy Reveal Secrets of Epic Final Battle

    [SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read any further if you have yet to see the movie.]

    “X-Men: Apocalypse” owes a lot to “X-Men: First Class.” Especially its ending.

    After hijacking the world’s nuclear arsenal and assembling his Four Horsemen, Alpha mutant Apocalypse (Oscar Issac) uses Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and a swirl of CG to literally build a new world from what’s left of the humanity’s old one. And after several punch-happy attempts to physically stop Apocalypse, Professor X must battle him in the psychic realm.

    This type of showdown is one fans of the comics and the ’90s animated series have been dying to see for years. In fact, as James McAvoy revealed exclusively in an interview with Moviefone, audiences almost saw a version of this fight in his first “X-Men movie.

    “We had a mind battle written into ‘First Class,’ between [Charles] and Emma Frost, and it was fairly epic — and cataclysmic,” McAvoy said. He elaborated that the battle between the two mutants would have taken place within a “city of the mind kind of thing,” as the two would be “tearing each other through walls and buildings and all that stuff.”

    So why didn’t the battle make it into “First Class?” Blame Christopher Nolan.
    “‘Inception came out, while we were planning it, and [the studio] just cut it,” McAvoy said. “And this amazing action sequence that I was so pleased about doing — it was the only action sequence I had — turned into us just staring hard at each other. So I was glad we got a little bit of mind battle in it, and that was something I fought for to get into this movie.”

    What the actors didn’t have to fight for is to ensure that their characters didn’t get lost in the shuffle, as new mutants were added to the X-Men’s already very-deep bench. From Jean Grey to Nightcrawler, several fan-favorite characters joined the roster, in a movie that has to service at least three main characters and an epic baddie making his first long-awaited, live-action appearance.

    “There’s so much trust. I just get my script in the mail [and do what is there],” Jennifer Lawrence revealed. “Oscar — he was really involved, though, in shaping his character. Because he was going to be in so much make-up, he was meeting with [co-writer and producer] Simon [Kinberg] a lot — he was more creatively involved than any of us were.”
    McAvoy chimed in: “There’s room to get involved [with the story] once we’re there, on set. There’s room to move things around and inject things. And really, we all trust Simon because Simon is the guy who comes up with the great stuff every time we do it, so we trust ‘im.”

    So we know McAvoy’s favorite scene, but was Lawrence’s?

    “I loved doing our scene where I come to see [Charles] in his office, I felt that there was a lot of growth to our characters where we recognize that we differ in ideals — but have more patience with each other.’

    J-Law’s hardest scene? “Being strangled by Apocalypse. That was the hardest, because I was in a harness, being lifted by my genitalia.” Ouch.

    While a fourth film in this series has yet to be officially announced, McAvoy has at least one idea for a scene between Raven and Xavier that he would like to see.

    “I’d quite like to, one day, get us back to where we were in ‘First Class’ and actually just be like: ‘Hey, give us a cuddle.’ I don’t mean like lovers, I mean like brother and sister.”

    “You want more cuddles,” Lawrence joked. “You are so precious.”

    “X-Men: Apocalypse” smashes into theaters Friday.

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  • ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Has Powerful $103.3M Opening Overseas

    Mutant teens in ’80s fashions are taking over the world. “X-Men: Apocalypse” just opened in 75 international markets, and it kicked some serious butt.

    Here’s the scoop from Deadline:

    “Opening in 64% of the international marketplace, the latest installment in the X-Men franchise blasted off with $103.3M to best the debut of X-Men: Days Of Future Past in the same suite of 75 markets and at today’s exchange rates. That film ultimately grossed $514M overseas and $748M worldwide. North America opens next weekend on XMA with Korea going May 25, China on June 3 and Japan on August 11.”

    So it still has some major markets to go, including here in the U.S. starting this Friday, May 27.

    The same 75 markets X just marked gave “X-Men: Days of Future Past” a $100M opening, so it wasn’t too far behind, but it’s encouraging to see “Apocalypse” is on track to surpass its predecessor. “Apocalypse” also opened to No. 1 in 71 of those spots, was the biggest X-Men opening in 33 of them, and marked the biggest Fox debut weekend ever in six of them. Not bad at all!

    X-Men opens at home opposite “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” and neither film has particularly wowed critics. “Apocalypse” currently has a 52 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with “Alice” at 45 percent. Then again, “The Angry Birds Movie” has a 43 percent rating and it just topped the U.S. box office, so certain films are just critic-proof. But the ones that tend to stay in the top 10 for weeks on end — like “The Jungle Book,” “Captain America: Civil War,” and “Zootopia” — are the ones that both critics and audiences love.

    Are you planning to see “X-Men: Apocalypse” this weekend?

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  • Watch the ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Cast Go ‘Beast Mode’ in Dubsmash Video

    "X-Men Apocalypse" - Global Fan Screening - Red Carpet ArrivalsAt the very least, “X-Men: Apocalypse” should have some great bonus material for the Blu-ray/DVD. The movie comes out May 27, and the cast and director are now busy promoting the release. Singer shared Instagram clips throughout filming, and he’s not done.

    The director just shared a throwback to a dubsmash video the cast made on set, led by in full “Beast Mode,” along with Sophie Turner, Alexandra Shipp, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Evan Peters, Tye Sheridan, and Kodi Smit-McPhee:


    Wake yo ass u ’cause it’s time to go beastmode!

    You know, in this post-Deadpool world of self-referential fourth-wall breaking, that might’ve been a good scene to put in the movie. Marvel stars do loooooove their dubsmash videos, and it seems like only a matter of time before one or more ends up in a movie.

    Speaking of things that should at least make the Blu-ray, did you read about that crotch punch Jennifer Lawrence gave Sophie Turner? They need to do audio commentary for the home release, sharing more stories like that.

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