BillNighy Tagged Articles at Cinematical

With his film due out in a couple of weeks, Harry Potter is beginning to make some waves. First up is an update on the Potter IMAX delay. Long story short, Half-Blood Prince won't be arriving on IMAX screens the same day the film hits conventional theaters because of a deal IMAX made with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for an exclusive four-week run. However, three theaters will be getting Harry Potter in IMAX on opening day, July 15th, but if you don't live in New York, Los Angeles or Chicago, you're out of luck. Collider tells us those three theaters are as follows: Century City IMAX (Los Angeles), Henry Crown (Chicago), and AMC Loews Lincoln Square (NYC). The first 12 minutes of the movie have been converted to IMAX 3D, and so I'm sure it's worth the trip for those who live in the surrounding areas. Unfortunately, everyone else will have to wait another two weeks.

Read the rest over at SciFi Squad

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present for your consideration the first candidate for Best Actor for next year's Academy Awards. Michael Sheen gives a blistering, fierce, and romantic performance as the enslaved hero of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, which opens in wide release today. It ain't art, but it is hellaciously entertaining.

No one is more surprised than me. The first film in the series, Underworld (2003) brought a centuries-long blood feud between vampires and lycans (AKA werewolves) to a head in the modern day. The sequel, Underworld: Evolution (2006), explored what might happen if the two feuding clans could somehow be brought together through the presence of a hybrid wolf / bat / human. Both movies were directed by Len Wiseman, both movies were stylish to the point of being mannered, both featured CGI werewolves * transformations, and both were defined by the heroics of the murderous Kate Beckinsale, memorably packed into a skintight, black leather bodysuit atop monstrous black boots.

Without Beckinsale and Wiseman, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans charts its own path, aided immeasurably by the return of Sheen and Bill Nighy. The two had supporting roles in the first film -- Sheen as the rebel werewolf leader Lucian, and Nighy as imperious vampire lord Viktor -- and have been elevated to top billing, joined by Rhona Mitra as Sonja, Viktor's willful, defiant daughter and Lucian's love interest.

As a whole, the picture lives up to the juicy lead performances, neatly leaping over.the stumbling blocks so common in prequels (and third installments in a series), and delivering generous amounts of fast-paced action and bloody battles to satisfy both faithful fans and curious newcomers.

Believe me, I struggled long and hard to come up with a catchy title like 'From Mars to Metro City' or something like that, but hey, sometimes a pun just isn't going to happen and it's best to move on. Variety reports that Kristen Bell has signed to voice the female lead in the feature film adaptation of Astro Boy. If you know your Astro Boy, you probably don't remember many female leads in the story, but hey, count your blessings if this is the only change in store for the classic manga tale.

Astro Boy was written by Timothy Harris, and is the story of a boy robot who is abandoned by his creator and left to fend for himself in the wilds of Metro City. The robotic Pinocchio tale had it all, absent father figures, betrayal, and robot gladiators, you know, just your usual kid's story. Bell will be joining Nicholas Cage, Freddie Highmore, Nathan Lane, and Bill Nighy in Imagi Studios 3-D update of the classic manga.

So while she may not be Harley Quinn (but I guess it doesn't hurt to fantasize), Bell has three other projects in various stages of production. Unfortunately, they seem to be the usual run of the mill romantic comedies that all young actresses seem to have to make at some point in their career. Bell will also be making a reappearance on TV's Heroes this season as the electrifying baddie, Elle Bishop. But none of these projects will get Bell fans hyped like the rumored Veronica Mars flick -- no matter how misguided that idea might be.

Astro Boy is scheduled to arrive in theaters in 2009.


[Thanks: Coming Soon]

Just when you thought Astro Boy was never going to make it to the big screen, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We have received the official press release from Imagi Studios and Summit Entertainment (who are partnering for the flick) with the full cast for the anime update. Imagi finally found their lead in Freddie Highmore back in February and they have announced that joining Highmore in the cast are Nicolas Cage, Bill Nighy, Nathan Lane, and Eugene Levy. There is no word yet on which characters from the original series will be making an appearance, but I could definitely see Lane doing a respectable job as Hamegg.

Astro Boy is the story of a boy robot looking for love and acceptance after being abandoned by his creator. After a Pinocchio-like journey of servitude in a circus, Astro was whisked off to safety by the understanding Professor Ochanomizu. Of course, Astro also spent his time battling mad scientists and out of control robots in between bouts of abandonment issues.

So for starters, the newest photos from Valkyrie manage to make Tom Cruise look a lot more dashing. Good thing, too, because the only other photo release prompted a flurry of cheap shots aimed at everybody's favorite tabloid whipping boy. Empire now has three new studio stills from Bryan Singer's historical drama about the infamous July 20th plot to assassinate Hitler. Joining Cruise are Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Izzard and Terrence Stamp. There are also some extra shots in the newsstand edition of Empire this month, along with an interview with Singer.

Cruise stars as German Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. In 1944, Stauffenberg along with other high-ranking officers in the Nazi party attempted to assassinate Adolph Hitler. Stauffenberg and his crew attempted to kill Hitler with a bomb planted in a briefcase. Obviously they failed, and the key players were rounded up almost immediately. By 1945, most of the men involved had committed suicide or had been executed in a variety of nasty ways.

The release dates, they are a-changing! Universal just moved the release of the action flick Wanted, which stars Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy, from March to June 27th, 2008. That June release date was also held by Pixar's new one, WALL-E, and the Tom Cruise "Hitler assassination plot" flick -- Valkyrie. According to Coming Soon, Valkyrie has officially budged (though I think it would have absolutely crushed Wanted and it's courting a different audience than Wall-E). United Artists will now release the film on October 3rd of 2008 -- a date also held by less intense competition -- Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Guy Ritchie's Gerald Butler drama RocknRolla.

Valkyrie is directed by Bryan Singer and written by Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and Nathan Alexander. Tom Cruise has become everyone's favorite punching bag lately, and reaction to the trailer, particularly Cruise's lack of a German accent, was pretty hostile. (Although probably not as hostile as it would have been had he...attempted a German accent!) But the plot sounds awesome, Singer is a great director (Superman Returns aside), and it's got a hell of a cast -- including Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Stephen Fry, Eddie lzzard, Terence Stamp, Tom Wilkinson, and Black Book's stunning Carice Van Houton. How bad could it be? It's got to be better than Wanted -- have you seen the trailer for that thing? Haven't I seen that movie, oh, a thousand times already?

I love talking animals as much as the next guy, but does Steve Buscemi always have to play some kind of toothy rodent? Actually, it's possible he only did that once, for Charlotte's Web (I'm not sure what kind of animal he is in Home on the Range). But wasn't that enough? Sure, he kinda looks rodent-like, but I'm sure he has the range when we're not looking at his mug. Anyway, according to The Hollywood Reporter, this time around it's a hamster named Bucky, who Buscemi will provide his voice for in the Disney movie G-Force. As we told you a few months back, G-Force is a Jerry Bruckheimer production that mixes live-action and computer animation and is about a group of genetically enhanced commando guinea pigs who have to stop an evil billionaire with world-domination dreams. Other voices will be provided by Nicolas Cage, as a mole named Speckles, and Tracy Morgan, as a guinea pig named Blaster.

As for the live-action roles, new to the cast are Bill Nighy, as an industrialist, and Will Arnett, as an FBI agent. And thank goodness for them, because the actors previously brought on to appear in the movie were too obscure for me to handle. They included Gabriel Casseus (Black Hawk Down) , Zach Galifianakis (Into the Wild), Kelli Garner (The Aviator) and Jack Conley (Fun With Dick and Jane). I know in a movie like this it's all about the talking animals, but with Nighy we've got ourselves a real movie. And with Arnett we have a funnier movie. Bruckheimer told THR that this will be another movie to be enjoyed by everyone "from the smallest kid to the oldest grandparent." He also pointed out that the movie's director, Oscar-winning visual effects master Hoyt Yeatman, came up with the idea with his son. From there it was apparently passed on to National Treasure screenwriters Cormac and Marianne Wibberley (aka The Wibberleys). G-Force is currently in production and expects a May 2009 release (Just a hint to Bruckheimer: it might make sense to add an extra dimension to this movie, since I think everything else animated coming out that month is going to be in 3D).

I'm no horror buff, but I do love the zombies. Well, I love the idea of zombies. I'm not really that interested in watching all the low-budget zombie movies, all the Italian zombie movies, or all the non-Romero Living Dead movies. But it's funny, I was looking over Ryan's recent Cinematical Seven of reasons he doesn't care for zombie movies, and it dually serves as my own list of reasons I like zombie movies. Or at least those zombie movies that apply. Primarily, I like zombie movies for the first reason: the symbolism.

Shaun of the Dead may be a comedic zombie movie, and it may not have any political undertones or serious social commentary, as do Romero's films and other prominent examples of the genre, but it does permit a scholarly subtext reading nonetheless. And because I'm a scholarly sort of gent (or maybe really I just like to over-analyze everything), I'm going to take this opportunity to look at this deeper level of the movie. Sure, I could just write about why I think the movie is one of the most hilarious I've ever seen, but that would be boring; plus, I respect that some people don't have the same sense of humor as me.

Shaun's symbolism comes in the form of the romantic story. The movie, often referred to as a "rom zom com" (romantic zombie comedy), actually serves as a sort of cinematic relationship guide, comically instructing us about dealing with commitment issues. Look at the order in which the members of Shaun's party are killed (killed dead, not undead): #1: his stepfather (Bill Nighy); #2: his mum (Penelope Wilton); #3: the other guy who loves his girl (the underrated Dylan Moran, who must be seen in Run Fatboy Run); #4: his roommate (Peter Serafinowicz); and finally, #5: his immature best friend (Nick Frost). These are the people that have to die in order for Shaun (Simon Pegg) to devote his full attention to Liz (Kate Ashfield). In real, non-lethal terms, they are the people Shaun has to let go of before he can fully connect in a relationship.

I don't know what to think about Tom Cruise playing a German general, but at least he'll be well-supported in Bryan Singer's Valkyrie, which is about an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Hitler during WWII. Last week we learned that rising star Carice van Houten, who just so happens to be my new favorite actress, is on board, possibly as Cruise's character's wife. The only other confirmed member of the cast had been Kenneth Branagh, seemingly as much a fan of playing Nazi as he is of playing Shakespeare. Now we have an official announcement that two of my favorite actors, Tom Wilkinson and Bill Nighy, are also part of the ensemble. The pair was already listed on the IMDb as being "in negotiations" (as are Patrick Wilson and Stephen Fry still), but they have apparently finalized the deal and are now definitely involved.

Wilkinson and Nighy are perfect for the project, because they fit in with Singer's cinematic interests. Like the director, both Wilkinson and Nighy have been able to do comic book or action or other franchise-type movies (Nighy more so) while still maintaining their respective reputations as serious artists. I think that Valkyrie will actually fall somewhere between the two extremes (too Hollywood to be amazing, but too serious to attract the masses), but aside from Cruise the acting talents will at least make the pic seem to be amazing (sure, it could even be amazing, but I'll remain a cynic until I see it). I could probably watch a ten hour film in which Wilkinson and Nighy simply talk about economics (surely their respective characters from Separate Lies and The Girl in the Café could be friends, no?). They are that interesting. I just can't believe this is the first time somebody thought to put them together in the same movie.

Did you have trouble following the plot of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest? Well, get ready to be more confused by the next installment, which arrives in theaters May 25. Entertainment Weekly has a cover story about the movie in its latest issue, hitting newstands (and my mailbox) today, which includes quotes from stars Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp and director Gore Verbinski. All three seem to be in agreement that audiences and critics are going to have just as tough a time with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

Bloom goes so far as to joke that writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio can't even explain what's going on in the new movie. Verbinski claims he doesn't mind if people are confused, though. He says the Pirates movies are made to be watched multiple times in order to be fully clear to the viewer. Of course, he seems to think that having a convoluted story means having a deep and intelligent story, because he goes on to tell the magazine that he doesn't want to dumb the movies down to where they are "processed cheese". He wants us to think about Pirates of the Caribbean afterward. Funny, I am one of the few critics who was able to enjoy Dead Man's Chest, but I never once thought about it afterward. Except maybe to tell someone how cool the Davy Jones character looks.

As for the critics, who universally panned the second movie (I didn't review it, unfortunately), Depp says they are going to attack At World's End just as much if not more. He understands the reasons why critics took "a dump" on the previous film, predicts that they'll "go below the belt" with the new film, and he says it's all "cool". The villains from the movies had a bit to say on the subject, too. Geoffrey Rush says that when you're doing such complex stunts and action sequences, you can't be thinking of the critics. Bill Nighy adds that the grosses point to the idea that the movies are doing something right, implying that the minority opinions of film reviewers don't seem to matter. Of course, Nighy will never have to worry about what critics say about him, as he's one of the most enjoyable actors working today. And Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End will likewise not have to worry about negative reviews, because it will make a bundle regardless -- that is, as long as enough people don't care about being confused again.