The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Brad Caleb Kane, a writer and producer on Fringe, will be taking care of writing duties for the Daredevil reboot.

From their piece:

Brad Caleb Kane, a writer-producer on cult Fox TV show Fringe, has been hired to pen the franchise’s relaunch, which has high ambitions: Kane is being asked to adapt one of the most influential and acclaimed comic stories of all time, Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s “Born Again” run from Daredevil.

Born Again is an incredible run, but perhaps one of the darkest chapters in the life of Matthew Murdock. If that movie were to be made it would be pretty bleak. Sure, it all ends up well, but… Jeez… Talk about a nadir…

Having said that, I’m incredibly excited about that prospect. Hopefully, Fox learned their lessons with X-Men: First Class and now know the difference between a good superhero movie and one forced out of spite and greed. With the story they’ve chosen, if they follow suit with a great team, this could be a fantastic superhero movie. And I’m doubly excited since Born Again isn’t an origin story. And it’s probably some of Miller and Mazzucchelli’s best work.

And what excites me even more is the possibility that this could pave the way to an adaptation of Kevin Smith’s dynamite run on the book.

If you haven’t read it, you have no excuse. It’s a fantastic book whether it’s getting made or not. And it’s less than $15 on Amazon.

I’m actually kind of excited to see this movie.

Not because it’s going to be good, but because of how spectacularly bad the previous movies were and how this one is going to top those in every way. And we’re going to see all kinds of crazy stuff. In this trailer alone we get a hint of the crazy sex that almost kills Kristen Stewart’s character… And the pregnancy that inevitably ends with a vampire-toothed C-Section….

Seriously… This might be in the running for one of the worst films ever made, but it will make so much god-damned money it’s crazy.

So, without further ado, here is the trailer for Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 1:

Well, the forces of the Scarab certainly want to keep Captain America down! Not only do they get into an all out brawl with the Star-Spangled Avenger, but they make sure he falls down a rocky shaft! Then, just to add insult to injury (serious injury, Cap had to have broken a limb o two in the fall), they drop a humongous weight down the shaft after him to finish the job. Never has a cliffhanger been so thorough and seemingly inescapable! You’ll have to watch chapter 7: Wholesale Destruction to see how Cap gets out of this scrape!

Wasn’t that exciting! Well, wasn’t it? Well at any rate, this is where I usually add the supplemental material for each episode, but I actually don’t have anything for this chapter. What I do have is a bit of history behind the serial itself. I have to give a Shoutout to commenter Bill who pointed out that the supposed reason that Captain America is so out of character in this serial is because it was never meant to be a Cap serial at all! This may have been originally intended as a serial starring the Fawcett Comics character Mr. Scarlet! It makes sense to me, Republic had already made two other serials with Fawcett characters, namely The Adventures of Captain Marvel and Spy Smasher. Also, in his civilian identity, Mr. Scarlet is a District Attorney, much like the serial’s rendition of Captain America. The speculation further goes on to say that Mr. Scarlett had been losing favor with readers and was relegated to back-up features. I can personally confirm this. Mr. Scarlet used to be the cover feature of Wow Comics, but was quickly superseded by Mary Marvel. To my knowledge, he never had his own solo title. While I can’t confirm this story, it’s extremely plausible. For comparison’s sake, here’s a comparison shot of both characters’ first appearances. Until next week, Keep Em’ Flying!

I love Swankmotron. He has great taste in movies, even if I don’t share all of his prequel love or absolute hatred of Pirates of the Carribean. Generally, he’s pointed in the right direction on movies. And he was right on in his review of X-men First Class (which you really should’ve read), with a couple of exceptions I take with his effusiveness over this summer geekfest.

This is undoubtedly the summer of the geek: Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern, Super 8, Cowboys and Aliens. . . and the film I was most worried about was X-men First Class. This franchise has faltered in its last two outings (X-men 3: The Last Stand and X-men: Origins: Wolverine: The Search for More Colons and Subtitles)  Both of those films had good things to offer, but both ended up kind of flopping limply into mediocrity.

Contrast this with my love for 2000’s original X-men and X2: X-men United, which rank in my top 10 and #2 favorite comic-based movies of all time, respectively. The summer of 2003 I went to the movies at least once a week, and before or after every other movie I saw, Id try to walk in to screenings of X2 just to catch another 5-10 minutes of it, always trying to get another look at the mansion fight, Colossus armoring up, Wolverine going all berserker rage, the opening break-in to the White House, the fight in the jets, etc. I went to see it total at least a half dozen times in the theater on top of that.

X-men: First Class is a return to greatness for this film franchise. One must first credit Producer Bryan Singer, who was able to bring a story and a feel much more in line with his first two outings. Second, you have to tip your hat to Matthew Vauhn, the director, for delivering and being able to pack more heart and guts into a superhero movie than we’ve had in a long while. Third, this script is amazing. A lot of humor. A few sly winks at the audience and fans, but ones that don’t present themselves so obviously as “Ah? Eh? See what we’re doing? That’s for you, fanboys!” It’s much more subtle. This script is all killer no filler. Even after seeing this movie twice (once at a press screening and once at the premiere midnight showing) I could not pick out any part that was padded or filling– a true rarity for a summer blockbuster action movie that clocks in at over 2 hours. Every scene has a purpose, every purpose is a note, or a beat, or a character point, or pushes the plot forward with amazing action. And fourth and finally, this cast, with few exceptions, delivers the goods.  A few words about them:

Stepping into roles played by greats like Ian Mckellen, Patrick Stewart, and a bad guy like Brian Cox in X2 sets an incredibly high bar.  And don’t get me wrong here, I still think Ian Mckellen > Michael Fassbender, Patrick Stewart > James Mcavoy, and Brian Cox > Kevin Bacon. I really have to disagree with Swank’s proclamation that Bacon’s Sebastian Shaw in his first scene is near as good as Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds. Very similar, and there’s room for comparison, but this Sebastian Shaw is more Bond Villain than evil sociopath Jew hunter Nazi. And in that he is perfect. It seems silly nowadays that a villain would want to irradiate the gold supply like Goldfinger, but Bacon’s Shaw is the kind of megalomaniacal genius who would come up with an audacious plan to start a nuclear war between the US and Russia in order to kill off most humans, leaving behind only mutants whom he could rule over. Nowadays Bond villains are so much more subtle, but in the 60’s, you had to have an audacous plan. Perfect execution on this point and a pitch-perfect performance by Kevin Bacon to deliver on this without making Shaw either too campy and over the top or sinister.

And I mentioned that Ian Mckellen > Michael Fassbender and Patrick Stewart > James Mcavoy,but somehow in this film Fassbender + Mcavoy > Mckellen + Stewart.  These two young actors have almost a bromance, and it’s really fun to see them as friends, and it’s really painful to see them at their most vulnerable and then at each others throats. Fassbender puts on the best performance in a movie of this type of the year. And inasmuch as Shaw is a Bond villain, he plays someone both suave and efficiently brutal enough to be James Bond out of Fleming’s novels. If Daniel Craig decides to retire as Bond, Fassbender would make a great replacement.

So? What else is good?  Charles Xavier trying to be suave, talking about “groovy” mutations. The 60’s vibe and how it blends with modern sensibilities, especially in a few exposition spots brilliantly told through historical footage or through faux 1960’s educational/propoganda films: especially the one where Sebastian Shaw explains his big plan. Great use of period music, especially a scene featuring -NR5MvETpY”>Keith Mansfield’s “Junior Jet Set”... except it feels and sounds much more like the sampled version Gnarls Barkley used in “Run,” again mixing old and new.

THE ACTION SEQUENCES. We got to see a tiny snippet of how brutal and amazing a fighter a teleporter could be with Nightcrawler in X2. But Azazael, including his red skin, is all demon, all killer, all brutal. Amazing.

GREAT cameos: an all-too-brief appearance by Ray Wise as Secretary of State Dean Rusk. And Swank alluded to the best use of the “f” word in a PG-13 movie ever: spot on- and I won’t spoil that any more that that.

And little allusions to future civil rights issues: Charles Xavier and Eric play chess on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where, ostensibly, a few years from now Martin Luther King will proclaim he has a dream. Wordplay around “don’t ask, don’t tell” and “mutant and proud”, which may as well be, “I’m black and proud.”

What wasn’t so good? January Jones. She sticks out like a sore thumb. I don’t even understand why people think she’s that attractive, and you could’ve done much better with other girls to fill out that Emma Frost White Queen outfit. Beast’s final costume. When a lot of the fiasco that happened over promotional material coming out, one of us robots (I think Jerk Bot) said that Beast looked “rapey” and like he was about to tell the Scarecrow and Tin Man to put up their dukes– and I think he still looks rapey, and he looks and talks like a cross between a blue Teen Wolf and Cornelius from the 1960s Planet of the Apes. His mouth just doesn’t move correctly, like Cornelius. By contrast, the X3 version of Beast looked better, frankly. HOWEVER, he ended up being one of my favorite characters in the film, and certainly has among the most interesting character journeys of the film. So, the Oscar for makeup and costumes should not go to Beast, but extra props to Nicholas Hoult for trying to act under all of that and still doing a great job. So there’s a silver lining to this cloud, the same way as the silver lining to the Emma Frost cloud is she just doesn’t get much screen time. Thank. You.

This film is a perfect summer movie. Now, to you comic book nerds and continuity hounds, just forget everything else. YES, this is not the First Class of the comic books. Yes, there are some things that contradict stuff from the other movies.  That’s fine.  Just like Batman Begins was not the same as Batman: Year One and just like it changed the Batman origin story from the Tim Burton Batman movies, this is a reboot. Relax and have a great time. Save the continuity nitpicking for the comic book store, where I’ll gladly meet you and tell you what a great film X-men First Class is.

3 1/2 stars

We have a guest post by Cupcaketron:

Yesterday, the web was hit with the “leaked” red band trailer of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I was able to see it before Sony yanked it and released the nicer, cleaner official version today. Sony did a pretty thorough job cleaning it up, as I can’t find it anywhere on the Net. Sorry, folks.
The trailer has a pretty quick-cut editing job, just showing images of action and expressions (and with the red band version, boob and blood). However, what makes the trailer seem so particularly haunting is Trent Reznor’s cover of Immigrant Song, with Karen O howling the lyrics. The trailer ends with a lead-up to the estate of where the mystery is set, giving it kind of a Shining-type feel. The tagline of “THE FEEL BAD MOVIE OF CHRISTMAS” ends it with a certain gritty atmosphere.

You can see the official green band trailer here, though.

As a fan of the book and the Swedish movie (not the subsequent books), it’s hard to not get excited about this. While the title character of Lisbeth Salander isn’t really the main character, she is somewhat of a unique heroine that us geek girls secretly wish they could be.

As a fan of the Swedish treatment, it’s really difficult to not draw comparisons. It’s my understanding that this movie with follow closely to the book in the same way the original version did, which means it’ll be a difficult task making it a stand-alone movie. However, Fincher has a way with making grit seem grittier, so this might actually turn out to be a unique movie.

Let me start off by saying that I’ve believed this movie could be good since day one. Bryan Singer has never faltered for me in the X-Universe on film and he’s got story and producing credit on this film. And with Matthew Vaughn (from Kick-Ass and Stardust) in the director’s chair, I’ve put a lot of faith in the fact that this movie will turn out much better than the last two film forays into the world of the X-Men.

Then the marketing campaign started and everyone started writing this movie off as terrible. A lot of people don’t understand (or don’t care to understand) that the marketing department at FOX has NEVER known what to do with these films and are a completely separate department from the filmmakers. Vaughn and Singer aren’t exactly cutting trailers and designing posters. And while these horrible marketing missteps did lessen my faith just a bit, I never thought this would be a bad movie. Maybe it would look a little silly, maybe it wouldn’t be as good as the first two X-Men movies (the ONLY X-Men movies….)

I thought we’d get a pretty good movie out of this at best. Boy was I wrong. We got a phenomenal, incredible movie out of this.

X-Men: First Class is the X-Men sequel I’ve been holding my breath for since X2 came out. The more I chew on it, the more I think it’s as good as that film. In fact, as much as I loved Thor, I MIGHT have liked this one better. I’ll need to see it again to be sure, but it begs to be watched again. In fact, I’m buying tickets to see it at least twice more. It was incredible.

This film has a very, very tight screenplay that is constructed in such a careful way that Clang! Boom! Steam! and I left the theatre and were literally marveling at it for hours, talking about how each nook and cranny of it was so tight and efficient. Yes, the story is good and the screenwriting was great, but the direction proves that Matthew Vaughn might just be the better director amongst X-Men filmmakers. He brings the story to life with an economy and speed that sucks energy from you (in a good way) and leaves you breathless. This film was 132 minutes long but didn’t feel like a minute over 90.

And I have to say: the cast was perfect. I had reservations about seeing a younger Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr and their origins (it’s not something I’ve read much of in any of the comics) but it serves this story and the film X-Universe so well that I couldn’t argue. They completely offered new depth to a host of characters I thought I new and showed me things I simply didn’t know about them or expect. And they did something I didn’t think was possible for a lifetime fan of the X-Men: they showed me something fresh and new with the relationship between Charles and Erik. The First Class team was completely appropriate and they kicked a lot of ass. I never thought Banshee would be so cool on screen, and they knocked Beast out of the park. (Particularly with all of the Robert Louis Stevenson subtext with him… And Frankenstein with Magneto… It was all so literary, but also never pretentious.)

And the style of this film is so wonderful that words can barely describe: This feels like a cross between a James Bond film (the music sounded like Bond music without 007’s trademark theme and there were shots of Magento straight out of Goldfinger) and an X-Men movie (X2, actually, since that one was the best.) There were nods in the cinematography and style to the other X-films, echoing conversations between the main players, motifs (like Chess) were brought back, but never obtrusively or inappropriately. And the villain? Wow…

Let’s talk about the villain. Kevin Bacon’s Sebastian Shaw is so ruthless and scary I couldn’t even believe it. His first scene in the film is as good as the opening scene in Inglorious Basterds and has very much the same tenor to it. His evil schemes were brilliant and everything worked about him. I’m completely okay that they took some liberties with The Hellfire Club and his character, because this worked so much better.

Emma Frost is something else to talk about. January Jones played Emma Frost in a way only January Jones could. And they minimized her part accordingly. All of her interactions were appropriate for the film and since everything else was so good I gave her a pass on this one.

The star making parts, though, went to James MacAvoy and Michael Fassbender. They were incredible in this film and their relationship was heartbreaking, even coming close to drawing tears to my eyes. Twice. There’s a fascination they have with each other, and they feed off of each other, proving that neither could exist without the other in the most tragic of ways. Seriously, the climax of this film isn’t dealing with Sebastian Shaw, that’s long settled before the real climax, and that’s the confrontation between Charles and Erik. It’s beautiful. It was an excellent story, well told.

And I wouldn’t be opposed to them throwing Daniel Craig out of the Bond role and them installing Fassbender. Or he should play a Bond villain. He’s tremendous.

There’s so much more to say about this film but I just don’t want to ruin it. I could spoil all of the cameos (which were amazing!) but I won’t. I will say, though, this film had the single best use of the single F word allowed in a PG-13 film ever. Period. Not a single one of you could possibly disagree with me.

Damnit. More than anything, this film was just fun and exhilarating and goes a long way to elevate the genre of superhero movies into high art. I haven’t seen Captain America yet, but it seems as though Marvel might have three homeruns on their hands this summer.

I know a lot of you are on the fence about this movie, but you shouldn’t even consider skipping it. It’s dynamite and you’ll love it, as long as you can get over being a nerd… I’ve heard some people calling the lineup sacriligeous because it wasn’t the original First Class, but guess what? This isn’t the comic book First Class. This is a prequel to the first two X-Men movies and it couldn’t have been done more beautifully. Ignore the marketing campaign and just go see it. It’s a better movie than you’d think.

Chris Richard Hanson has been doing make-up and special effects for over two decades, working on films like “Hellboy”, “Underworld” and the “Men In Black” series. He’s had the privilege of working under some top directors and learning from some of the finest designers in the industry. And best yet, his shop is based right out of Salt Lake City. Hanson sat down with City Weekly‘s own Gavin Sheehan to talk about his career and the love/hate relationship with CGI.

Gavin’s Underground interview with Chris Richard Hanson

Gavin: How did you officially first break into the business with no experience?

Chris: I did have some experience in cheesy local movies, plus I worked for two years at a medical prosthetics lab making limbs out of fiberglass; they just needed a guy to spread the toxic stuff in molds for 6 bucks an hour, but I discovered silicone rubber material there, and made molds at night of my hands and developed a way to make realistic limbs just by screwing around. I sent all those pictures to FX shops in Hollywood, and just drove there one rainy day with my friend Ryan Peterson, an amazing sculptor who had been hired to work at a big FX studio. I lucked out and got a job making plaster molds on ‘The Santa Clause’ three weeks later. It only lasted like three weeks, and on my birthday, I was abruptly laid off, the show was over. The guy who laid me off laughed and said ‘Happy Birthday! Welcome to Hollywood!!’ again, I should’ve learned…

Gavin: What was the experience like working for The Jim Henson Company, and learning skills from a production outfit with such a rich history for visual effects?

Chris: Weird, very surreal at first. I came home from Michael Burnett, who I had just been laid off from after 18 months of employment, and in one day my old tape deck answering machine was filled, with all these messages from the big guys, including the Hensons! The message said “were doing ‘George of the Jungle’, the movie, and need you to come in and sculpt Gorilla heads” I was stunned. When I went in the next day with my sculpting kit, The place had no Muppets, no “Dark Crystal” creatures or “Labrynth” stuff, they kept saying “oh that’s all over in England, buddy!“ And word came down that the 15 gorillas had been cut down to three, so I sculpted gorilla feet and a giant snake. There was a guy there named Jim Ensign, I believe, and it sounded so much like Jim Henson when the paged him on the speaker my first day. I panicked! ”He’s alive!? How??” But, like everything in that town, it was just a wishful thought with a goofy truth behind it… But seriously, it was a beautiful shop and I felt like I had arrived. My family even knew the Henson name, so now I seemed legit! Now if only Rick Baker would hire me my life would be complete!

With opening day just a few days away, reviews for the anticipated prequel to the X-Men movie franchise are starting to slowly roll in and critics seem to be very pleased with Matthew Vaughn’s foray into the X-Men Universe. FOX has been pushing this film pretty hard by releasing several trailers, tons of movie posters and more recently, featurettes and clips to give the fans a better idea of what to expect with this film.

Here at BSR! the field is pretty split, and excitement levels vary from one side of the spectrum to the other. Arse-bot is still very apprehensive, while Swank-mo-tron has been on board since before the first trailer even hit – with the rest of the bots’ anticipation levels falling everywhere in between.

Now, with opening day just around the corner, we want to know how excited all of you, our faithful readers, are for this film! Cast your vote in the poll below and feel free to leave a comment as to why you are or aren’t stoked to see X-Men: First Class this Friday!

According to Bleeding Cool, Warner Brothers are looking for writers for an upcoming Hawkman movie! Now, you may expect the pitch to be something like “The Mummy” meets “Superman”, but you’d be wrong. Here’s the official logline being bandied about:

Part INDIANA JONES/DA VINCI CODE, part GHOST tentpole about the fictional superhero that appears in D.C. Comic books. He used archaic weaponry and large, artificial wings attached to a harness made of the Nth metal that allows flight. Most incarnations of Hawkman work closely with a partner/romantic interest named Hawkgirl or Hawkwoman in his fight against supervillains. Based on the DC comic.

Brendon at Bleeding Cool speculates that this means that we’d be getting a more modern, earth-based Hawkman rather than a space-faring Hawk-warrior. I tend to agree with his assessment. If DC really wants to create a movie universe similar to Marvel’s they already have the alien thing covered with Green Lantern. A more relatable Hawkman would likely be a better fit. I can actually see the Ghost/Da Vinci thing working if they play up the resurrection/multiple lives angle of the current Hawkman.

One thing is certain, with the way they stress multiple times in the logline that the character will be “based on the DC comic”, no matter what they do with the character, he’ll be treated better than this:

We’ll keep you posted as the story develops. Let us know what you think of a Hawkman movie!

TheOneRing.Net has brought us news that Warner Brothers officially announced the names and release dates of the two Hobbit films.

The first is called “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” and will hit theatres December 14, 2012. The second is called “The Hobbit: There and Back Again” and will hit cinemas December 13, 2013.

It’s going to be a very long wait, but I’m very glad they’ve got a solid date and titles for these films. It was a great time from 2001 to 2003 to see a new Lord of the Rings movie every year and we’ll get 2/3rds of a taste of that back next year.

From the press release:

Both films are set in Middle-earth 60 years before Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” which Jackson and his filmmaking team brought to the big screen in the blockbuster trilogy that culminated with the Oscar®-winning “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.” The adventure of “The Hobbit” follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug.

Under Jackson’s direction, both movies are being shot consecutively in digital 3D using the latest camera and stereo technology. Filming is taking place at Stone Street Studios, Wellington, and on location around New Zealand.

Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf the Grey, the character he played in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and Martin Freeman, who just won a BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the BBC series “Sherlock,” takes on the central role of Bilbo Baggins. Also reprising their roles from “The Lord of the Rings” movies are: Cate Blanchett as Galadriel; Orlando Bloom as Legolas; Ian Holm as the elder Bilbo; Christopher Lee as Saruman; Hugo Weaving as Elrond; Elijah Wood as Frodo; and Andy Serkis as Gollum. The ensemble cast also includes (in alphabetical order) Richard Armitage, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, Sylvester McCoy, Bret McKenzie, Graham McTavish, Mike Mizrahi, James Nesbitt, Dean O’Gorman, Lee Pace, Mikael Persbrandt, Conan Stevens, Ken Stott, Jeffrey Thomas, and Aidan Turner.

Let’s hope Jackson can make lightning strike a fourth and a fifth time. Something tells me he can.