Following on the heels of 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Serviceand 2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circlecomes a prequel film, The King’s Man, and the second movie trailer has just arrived from 20th Century Fox (we previewed the first trailer here at borg last July). Delayed for re-shoots and because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the studio now has its sights set on a September premiere in theaters (we’re not holding our breath). Stepping into an early Kingsman of the type perfected by Colin Firth is the actor who should have played a Bond (but ended up as another M), the BAFTA-winning, twice Academy Award-nominated actor Ralph Fiennes. The young recruit that looks to mimic that series hero Eggsy played by Taron Egerton in the first two films this time goes to Harris Dickinson(Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance).
Following on the heels of 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Serviceand 2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circlecomes a prequel film, The King’s Man, and the first movie trailer has just arrived from the new 20th Century Fox. Stepping into an early Kingsman of the type perfected by Colin Firth is the actor who should have played a Bond (but ended up as another M), the BAFTA-winning, twice Academy Award-nominated actor Ralph Fiennes. The young recruit that looks to mimic that series hero Eggsy played by Taron Egerton in the first two films this time goes to Harris Dickinson, soon to be voicing a character in Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.
As with the prior films The King’s Manappears stylish, but with a historical England twist. Expect again wall-to-wall, part dark comedy, and that over-the-top, operatic violence. Series director Matthew Vaughn(Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2, X-Men: First Class, Layer Cake) continues to make his mark on the action genre, with his own British spy genre tale mixing the vibe of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Avengers of the 1960s, based on the 2012 The Secret Service: Kingsman comic book series from award-winning creators Mark Millar(Kick-Ass, Old Man Logan) and Dave Gibbons (Watchmen).
Every great British spy story needs a Bond girl, and whether she’s a “King’s Man” or foil, this time the choice is actual former Bond girl Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters) to take over where Sofia Boutella left off in the first movie. You’ll also find a familiar face with Captain Marvel and Shazam!’s Djimon Hounsou. The King’s Manreflects a cast list that includes superhero go-to guy Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, Avengers: Age of Ultron),Stanley Tucci(Captain America: The First Avenger),Rhys Ifans (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), Daniel Bruhl (Captain America: Civil War, Falcon and Winter Soldier), Charles Dance (Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Gosford Park),Watchmen and Downton Abbey’sMatthew Goode, and Pirates of the Caribbean and Bohemian Rhapsody’sTom Hollander as King George V.
Take a look at the first trailer for The King’s Man:
While moviegoers are awaiting the new trailer for DC Entertainment’s Aquaman coming this weekend from San Diego Comic-Con, studios have slipped in a few other film trailers you may want to check out:
Godzilla: King of the Monsters stars Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown in the next installment of the franchise.
Welcome to Marwen is a Robert Zemeckis drama featuring Steve Carell as a post-trauma victim who uses action figures to re-create his lost world.
Patient Zero stars Doctor Who’s Matt Smith and Game of Thrones’ Natalie Dormer with the irrepressible Stanley Tucci.
And Overlord appears to be J.J. Abrams’ attempt to mash-up an M. Night Shyamalan horror thriller with Quentin Tarentino’s over-the-top World War II action flick Inglourious Basterds.
Previewed last year here at borg.com and teased even earlier here, the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast, starring the Harry Potter series’ Emma Watson as Belle, is on its way to theaters this year. Disney just released a new television spot and theatrical poster showcasing leads Watson and Dan Stevens and the all-star cast. You can’t understate how significant this film will be for Disney this year at the box office, with the potential to rival both Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: Episode VIII, based on early responses to the first release of images from the film.
An Academy Award nominee for Best Picture, Disney’s animated Beauty and the Beast is arguably the finest Disney production to come from the studio in its more than ninety year history, and no actress today has such a large and devoted fan following as Watson. More than 20 million viewers saw the first teaser, and nearly 30 million viewers watched the first trailer. Watson’s first major genre role since Harry Potter will make this a big box office winner for Disney.
This is the first time audiences get to see Watson singing as Belle. She evokes Julie Andrews in a very The Sound of Music-inspired setting. Here is the new trailer for Beauty and the Beast:
An Academy Award nominee for Best Picture, Disney’s animated Beauty and the Beast is arguably the finest Disney production to come from the studio in its more than ninety year history. Coming next year to the big screen is a new, live-action version of Beauty and the Beast (teased earlier this year here at borg.com), starring the Harry Potter series’ Emma Watson as Belle. Academy Award-winning screenplay writer Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Chicago, the Twilight series) is directing the picture.
Despite press accounts to the contrary, don’t look for an adaptation of the classic fairy tale, but a close adaptation of the animated Disney film (as the original did not have the talking furniture or most of the other characters created for the 1991 film). Just like the first teaser was quite pretty as set design goes, so is this fuller trailer. More than 20 million viewers watched the first teaser, so make no mistake: Emma Watson’s first major genre role since Harry Potter will make this a big box office winner for Disney.
The previews remind us of the grand production of Phantom of the Opera back in 2004, a sleeper, but a visual spectacle, too. Jacqueline Durran (Pride and Prejudice) adapted the animated costumes for the film, which look close but not quite as amazing as the 1991 animated versions. Everything else looks like this could be a near scene-for-scene copy of the 1991 version except in the animated movie Belle had dark brown hair and a distinct, different hair style from other “Disney princess” characters that set her apart from the rest of the blonde fairy tale leads, something you’d think Disney would have kept the same at least for cross-marketing its toy tie-ins.
Who doesn’t love each new appearance of Kevin Kline? He’s featured prominently in this new trailer. Check it out:
You probably saw the television series starring The Terminator’s Linda Hamilton and pre-Hellboy Ron Perlman. You’ve also probably seen the Academy Award nominee for Best Picture, Disney’s animated Beauty and the Beast–arguably the finest Disney film in its animation vault. Coming next year to the big screen is a new, live-action version of Beauty and the Beast, starring the Harry Potter series’ Emma Watson as Belle. Academy Award winning screenplay writer Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Chicago, the Twilight series) is directing the picture.
Despite press accounts to the contrary, don’t look for an adaptation of the classic fairy tale, but an adaptation of the animated Disney film as the original did not have the talking furniture or most of the other characters created for the 1991 film. The first teaser trailer dropped this week for the 2017 release, and viewership surpassed Star Wars: The Force Awakens with more than 91 million views in its first day of release. You haven’t watched it yet? We have queued up this very pretty teaser for you below, after the break.
Dan Stevens (Night at the Museum 2, Sense and Sensibility) co-stars as The Beast, and the rest of the cast is full of familiar genre favorites. The Hobbit’s Luke Evans is the swaggering Gaston, Kevin Kline (Dave, Silverado) is Belle’s father Maurice, the Star Wars prequels’ Ewan McGregor is Lumiere, the candelabrum (originally voiced by the late Jerry Orbach), Stanley Tucci is the harpsichord, Audra McDonald (Kidnapped) is the wardrobe, and anglophiles will be happy to see The Hobbit and X-Men’s Ian McKellen as Cogsworth the clock and Emma Thompson (Much Ado About Nothing) as Mrs. Potts, the teapot.
Check out this popular first trailer for Beauty and the Beast:
It must be fun to be on the production set watching Mark Wahlberg make movies. The actor conveys a passionate sense of determination no matter what he stars in. You can track back through his films and see this–no matter whether the movie was a hit or not, you can see Wahlberg firmly planted in his role and delivering all he can muster. In The Perfect Storm (2000) you have him responding to a once-in-a-lifetime disaster, in Planet of the Apes (2001) he’s facing an impossible world, and in Rock Star (2001) he’s a devoted fan turned star, poking fun at his former life in Rock ‘n’ Roll. In The Italian Job (2003), a role that could have been made for a young Tom Cruise, we saw one of Wahlberg’s best roles as lead man of an all-star cast of master thieves. If the whole world hadn’t noticed him yet, Martin Scorcese’s The Departed (2006) made that happen in his supporting tough guy role. And whether or not you like M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening (2008), it’s easy to get sucked in because you believe Wahlberg believes he is running from the strange, murderous, phantom wind. Who else could pull off performances with such a wacky comedic edge like Ted (2012), Pain & Gain (2013), and 2 Guns (2013)?
So it’s no wonder that one of the two key components that make Transformers: Age of Extinction a complete blast of a roller coaster ride is star Wahlberg. For all the Transformers movies (Age of Extinction is the fourth in the series) you either buy in to the world of machines-turned-robots or you don’t. There’s no in-between. And if you get that far, then the movie is a success only if the actors believe the CGI-heavy world they are performing in. Wahlberg’s failed inventor and sharp mechanic Cade Yeager lets you know at the beginning of the movie where he stands with the goofy yet perfect line “I think we just found a Transformer!” From there on you follow this guy because he really wants everything he is after–the truth, protecting his daughter, and defying the law to protect those he sees as innocent.
Transformers: Age of Extinction is now available in an impressive Blu-ray edition that brings the 3D IMAX shots right to your home television, with visuals that demonstrate the leading edge of the medium right now. As we have mentioned here at borg.com with prior Blu-ray 3D, you can’t beat the landscapes in modern 3D films, and Age of Extinction would be a treat for the eyes for that alone. Crisp, bright colors and sound and depth filmed with some impressive camera wizardry actually elevate this movie beyond what it might be as seen in its 2D Blu-ray, DVD, or film version. Finely textured background detail will make you think someone took years to create each frame. There’s enough to dazzle here that, if you don’t get tired along the way, you may walk away judging this as I did as almost as good as the first Transformers movie.
The crux of the 1992 thriller Sneakers, reviewed here at borg.com last week, was all that mattered in the future is “Who controls the information.” The problem behind every problem? Too many secrets. If everyone knew everyone else’s secrets, would that make us safer? In Sneakers, the solution is a little black box invented by fictional Dr. Gunter Janek, a white haired, young, brilliant genius played by Donal Logue (Life, Copper). His box is not just a decoder of secrets but THE decoder of secrets. In a way Sneakers was prescient, but it took 20 years for the secrets to be revealed, not through a black box but via the Internet—led by a young Dr. Janek-looking genius, Australian editor, activist, publisher and journalist Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks.
Next month actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who continues to prove he can play any role he attempts with aplomb, stars in his next leading role as Assange in the journalism thriller The Fifth Estate.
Fargo, Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona and Oh, Brother Where Art Thou? fans (you know who you are) will be happy to know a new Coen Brothers flick is coming to theaters before year end. Written by the Coens and directed by Michael Hoffman (Restoration, A Midsummer Night’s Dream),Gambit stars big names Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, and Cameron Diaz along with Stanley Tucci.
Firth drops the dashing and charming for befuddled and put upon as Harry Deane, a British art curator working for an eccentric and abusive billionaire named Lionel Shahbandar, played by Rickman in his first starring post-Harry Potter film role. Firth decides to take revenge on his boss by duping him into buying a fake Monet. But it all requires the efforts of… an odd Texas rodeo queen (Cameron Diaz) and her mom, played by an even stranger grandmother, played by Cloris Leachman.
On paper that actually doesn’t sound so bad. But the trailer is completely over the top, and Coen Brother fans will gravitate toward it, and everyone else… might get dragged along by their Coen Brothers-fan friends.
