One of the most successful game franchises of recent times could very well be branching out and making its way onto the silver screen.
Variety are reporting that Sony Pictures are closing in on a deal with Ubisoft to develop the Assassin’s Creed movie. This comes as no surprise after Ubisoft set up Ubisoft Motion Pictures back in May and it’s expected that a number of other titles could find their way into cinemas.
The Big Screen event in the O2 Arena in London hosts ‘secret screenings’ in which the audience has absolutely no idea what they are going to see.
While queueing for the first secret screening, I heard that the film was ‘Warrior’ and as I’m not a fan of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) I considered whether or not I would stay to watch the film and because there was nothing else on that interested me I decided I would and I’m very glad I did.
The film was excellent.
The story follows the broken family of two brother who are fighters, albeit ex-fighters, and their father. Both brothers Tom Conlon (Tom Hardy) and Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton) enter into a MMA championship with a prize of $5 million.
Starting with Tom returning to his fathers house after many years of separation he learns that his father is now a recovering alcoholic who has found the lord, Tom is quick to explain that he has no interest in a relationship with him and purely wants help training.
Roland Emmerich, director of Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012 and many more, was at the Big Screen event on the weekend for a panel and preview of his new movie Anonymous. After his panel he visited the press room for an impromptue press conference.
Question: Have you been enjoying the Empire Big Screen weekend?
Emmerich: I’ve been here since like eleven o’clock and i did only my stuff so i couldn’t see anything else
Question: Talking about your film Anonymous that’s brought you here and you’ve been sharing a little bit with your fans tonight, perhaps you can tell us a little bit what the films all about and what inspired it?
Emmerich: Anonymous is about the authorship question that Shakespeare didn’t write his plays and it’s a theory i believe in and share with many other famous writers and actors and the movie is mainly kind of a political thriller during the Elizabethan age.
Question: Do you think this film represents a bit of a departure for you, it’s a period piece and based on real events as opposed to something a bit more fantastical?
There were a few things at this weekends Big Screen event held in the O2 Arena by Empire that got an extraordinarily loud reaction from the audience. Roland Emmerich for example got a huge applause after his interview, The Attack the Block Panel also garnered a large response.
Although I did not have my decibel meter with me that day, I can quite confidently say that i believe the loudest reaction from a crowd all weekend was for The Muppets.
Via live streaming, Director James Bobin and, everyone’s favourite frog, Kermit joined an audience at the O2’ Indigo Theatre for an interview and a first look at the movie.
After a brief misunderstanding from Kermit.
“Anything for the Empire, We’re all big fans of Her Majesty”
The final day of Empire’ Big Screen event kicked off with a showcase from Paramount of their upcoming movies. Paramount was the first studio this year to cross the $2 billion revenue mark and with some of their upcoming titles it doesn’t look like they have any intention of slowing down.
To start off we have trailer for Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol starring Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton (26th of December), Paranormal Activity 3 (21st of October) and Like Crazy starring Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones (3rd of February 2012).
We then moved swiftly on to some behind the scenes footage of Cowboys & Aliens with Jon Favreau describing Harrison Ford as the John Wayne of his generation and how a movie like this has never before been made.
Kill List, Directed and written by Ben Wheatly (Down Terrace), is a new English horror movie set for release September 2nd. The film wasn’t screened at Empire Presents Big Screen but we were lucky enough to see 5 clips from the upcoming flick.
The basic premise is 2 guys get a list of people to kill in exchange for money. Wheatly and stars MyAnna Buring and Neil Maskell attended the panel and were very careful not to let anything slip regarding the plot but we were promised a genre bending, scary and violent horror film.
According to everyone on the panel, moderator included, when this film has been screened it has left audiences shocked and in some cases appalled. Of the clips shown, 2 of them contained violence and it was quite graphic.
To everyone’s surprise, during this mornings showcase Guy Ritchie made an appearance to discuss his upcoming film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
After a few unseen clips from the upcoming movie Ritchie came out and had a short discussion about the film.
“We’re close to finishing, I’m mopping up a few details at the moment. We completely wrap in a couple of weeks, but on every film I’ve ever done I always leave at least a week for reshoots.”
If you have ever seen a documentary or news report featuring Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, then I’m sure you are well aware of how bat shit crazy they are.
Kevin Smith’ first adventure into horror tells the story of three highschool guys who use ‘The craigslist for people who want to get laid’. They meet up with a woman who they believe wants to sleep with them but its ends with them being drugged and dragged off to a church where the church members intend on doing the lords work by executing sinners.
The church is quite obviously based on the Westboro Baptist Church but go by a different name, There is even mention of the Westboro Baptist Church and how they are not murders, Possibly an early attempt at avoiding a law suit?
Empire Presents Big Screen kicked off this morning in the O2 Arena in London with a showcase of upcoming films from 20th Century Fox. Marketing Director, Chris Green took to the stage and after a short introduction and thanks to Empire the footage began.
First we got a montage of interviews with directors such as James Cameron, George Lucas, Tim Burton and many more. They were all discussing how and why they got into film making and most importantly, how much they love Fox.
Swiftly moving on a preview of Rise of the Planet of the Apes and some behind the scenes footage mainly focusing on the motion capture technology used in the film, It does look extremely impressive and will be in cinemas all around the UK this week. Chris Green mentioned that the UK previews took over £1 million and the feedback is very much positive.
Next up we had In Time and although I’ve never been a fan of Justin Timberlake’ singing or acting, this film did look like it could be a good watch. The story is based around the idea of over population and the human race has started putting a clock on peoples life in the form of some cool digital numbers on everyone’s wrist. Starring alongside Timberlake is Amanda Seyfried, Olivia Wilde, Cillian Murphy and last but not least Johnny Galecki star of The Big Bang Theory. In Time hits cinemas November 1st.
Any Harold & Kumar fans out there will know that a Harold & Kumar adventure involves mischief, misunderstanding, hilarity and of course getting high. Today a trailer hit the web for the upcoming follow up to the 2008 ‘Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay’ and it doesn’t look like it will dissapoint.
Returning as the title characters are John Cho as Harold and Kal Penn returning to the role of Kumar after being Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement in the Obama administration.
Starring along side Cho and Penn is Patton Oswalt (Who will be the first man to smoke weed in 3D!), Danny Trejo, Danneel Ackles and of course Neil Patrick Harris who will be returning from the dead.
A Very Harold And Kumar Christmas will hit big screens in November of 2011.
Trailer after the jump
One of the most successful game franchises of recent times could very well be branching out and making its way onto the silver screen.
The Big Screen event in the O2 Arena in London hosts 'secret screenings' in which the audience has absolutely no idea what they are going[...]
Roland Emmerich, director of Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012 and many more, was at the Big Screen event on the weekend for[...]
There were a few things at this weekends Big Screen event held in the O2 Arena by Empire that got an extraordinarily loud reaction from t[...]
The final day of Empire' Big Screen event kicked off with a showcase from Paramount of their upcoming movies. Paramount was the first stu[...]
Kill List, Directed and written by Ben Wheatly (Down Terrace), is a new English horror movie set for release September 2nd. The film wasn[...]
