After headlining the sappiest shark movie ever made, AnnaSophia Robb is diving into darker waters for her next project. The young Soul Surfer star is joining Aaron Eckhart (Battle: Los Angeles) and Sean Bean (“Game of Thrones”) in Pan, director Ben Hibon’s twisted reimagining of the classic Peter Pan tale.
Set in the present, Pan finds former detective Hook (Eckhart) on the trail of a childlike predator with the help of his one remaining ally on the force, Det. Smee (Bean). Robb is playing Wendy, one of Pan’s surviving victims eager to leave a mental asylum to aid in his capture.
Production is slated to begin in Eastern Europe come October.
Silvatar Media has released a trailer for first-time director Nick Simon’s upcoming psych-thriller Removal. Billy Burke (Drive Angry) stars as a highly medicated cleaning service employee working an all-nighter at an Italianate mansion while haunted by memories of a brutal murder/suicide he once witnessed.
Removal costars Emma Caulfield (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), Mark Kelly (Dead & Breakfast), Oz Perkins (Star Trek), Elliot Gould (Oceans 11), and the drop-dead gorgeous Kelly Brook, who is coming off Alexandre Aja’s well-reviewed fish-&-chicks frightener Piranha 3-D.
Brook, who plays real estate agent Kirby, talked to the Khaleej Times about the film and her character last December while attending the Dubai International Film Festival.
She said:
Kirby is trying to sell this house and needs the signature of Cole’s wife, but she’s gone missing. She goes into this situation and sees that all isn’t what it seems. You can’t pull the wool over her eyes, but you don’t know what part anyone else is playing. It’s a very psychological movie.
Brook’s additional horror creds include Survival Island, House of 9, and Ripper. No word yet on a release date for Removal, but I’ll keep you posted because you saved my life in ‘Nam. Consider us even.
“Sons of Anarchy” star Charlie Hunnam is set to star in director Guillermo Del Toro’s mecha-influenced robot movie Pacific Rim. Written by Clash of the Titans scribe Travis Beacham, the film revolves around human-piloted robots built to defend the earth against giant alien creatures.
Hunnam, best known for his role as Jackson “Jax” Teller on the F/X’s biker drama “Sons of Anarchy,” will play the heroic pilot who must save the day … or not. Plot details are being kept under wraps. The film marks Del Toro’s return to the director’s chair since 2008’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
Pacific Rim goes into production in September. Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. are looking at a summer 2013 release.
Lionsgate has set a June 14 home video release date for Sideshow Pictures long-delayed slasher Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet, starring horror hottie Danielle Harris (Hatchet 2) and genre bad-boy Bill Moseley (Manson Girls).
The film’s synopsis reads:
A local tradition of celebration turns deadly for a group of teenage friends. While celebrating the anniversary of the death of local student and axe murderer, Mary Hatchet, they find themselves face-to-face with their own mortal reality. Haunted, the friends run from the bloody rampage, but as the seemingly endless night wears on, they learn that they must expose the truth behind the urban legend of Bloody Mary.
Man, this is exactly why I’m so glad I didn’t have any friends as a teenager. You can’t get killed by creepy spirits when you spend your Friday nights playing Risk with your granddad and his blind pooch Elmer.
Disney hosted the world premiere for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides this weekend at the Disneyland amusement park in Anaheim, CA. Unfortunately, event organizers told me the shindig was over at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia so all I got were photos of gang affiliated young men (Wut up, Lil Puppet!).
Thankfully, the pros did make it out to the Happiest Place on Earth to take shots of POC’s star Penelope Cruz (in a form-fitting off-the-shoulder Marchesa evening gown), the film’s much buzzed-about sirens (pictured above), and party guest Vanessa Hudgens showing leg for the cameras.
Also in attendance: Johnny Depp, Ian McShane, Astrid Berges Frisbey (she plays Mermaid Syrena), Geoffrey Rush, Rolling Stone-turned-franchise-player Keith Richards, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and director Rob Marshall.
Penelope Cruz
Out to be seen were: Teri Hatcher and Eva Longoria (“Desperate Housewives”), Eliza Dushku (“Dollhouse”), Ashley Tisdale (High School Musical), Emma Roberts (Scream 4), Ashley Bensen (“Hellcats”), Shay Mitchell (“Pretty Little Liars”), Chelsie Hightower (“Dancing with the Stars”), Chelsea Kane (Bratz), and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler.
Warner Bros. has released the first official trailer for the fifth installment in their always-fun fright franchise Final Destination. The film stars Emma Bell (“Walking Dead”), Nicholas D’Agosto (“Heroes”), David Koechner (Piranha 3-DD), Arlen Escarpeta (Friday the 13th), and Tony Todd (Candyman).
The cast also includes Canadian starlet Jacqueline MacInnes Wood (pictured above) in her horror film debut. The 24-year-old babe is best known for her roles as Steffy Forrester on the CBS soap “The Bold and the Beautiful” and Julie Gunn in Disney XD’s family sci-fi flick Skyrunners.
Final Destination 5 arrives in theaters on August 26. The film will play in standard and 3-D formats.
If your dark passenger is threatening to drive you up the wall unless it gets some “Dexter” action, rest assured that Showtime is coming to the rescue. The first official trailer for season six of the Emmy and Golden Globe winning series has hit the web.
Peep it:
OK … it’s not much, but it definitely gets the blood pumping. As-of-now, there is no word on what new faces will join the cast for season six and plot points remain under wraps. However, a leaked casting call reveals some interesting characters to come (via TV Line):
Jamie: Described as an outgoing and fun Latina in her mid-20s, this Florida native relocates to Miami for grad school.
Chicago Mike: New thirtysomething African-American homicide detective who possesses a finely turned BS detector. The Windy City native does not play well with Dexter others.
Louis: A buddy of Masuka’s (C.S. Lee) who joins MMP as a new lab intern. Role calls for a Caucasian actor in his 30s who is “attractive in his own way.”
The Louis role makes me nervous for Masuka. I’m hoping they don’t off the little freak. If they do, I would love to see Masuka exposed as some super-smart serial rapist or sex fiend.
(UPDATE: Colin Hanks, son of Oscar winer Tom Hanks, has been cast in an pivotal and antagonistic role. Details at this point remain hush-hush)
“Dexter” goes into production this month. Season six premieres this fall.
Twentieth Century Fox is drumming up further excitement for director Mathew Vaughn’s X-Men: Degrassi High First Class with a series of origin trailers for its most popular mutants. Posted here for your viewing pleasure is a look at Jennifer Lawrence as young Mystique.
While I personally can’t get past the fact that Mystique now looks an acne-riddled Na’vi with a ginormous forehead, I guess it’s cool to get a glimpse at her backstory … you know, if you actually go to superhero movies for the plots.
Actress Mayra Leal, best known for trying to kill Danny Trejo while completely nude in Robert Rodriguez’s Machete, is once again up to no good in Maya Entertainment’s psycho-bitch thriller Playing House. The 5-foot-3 Latin stunner plays a disturbed woman obsessed with a young married couple.
No word on whether Leal gets all-kinds of naked in the movie, but the trailer seems to hint so. If that’s the case, here’s hoping she beats her 7-minute nude scene in Machete. After all, actors should always challenge themselves.
Peep the trailer:
The film’s synopsis reads:
In order to afford their dream house, newlyweds Jen and Mitch McKenzie (Sarah Prikryl, Craig Welzbacher) ask their best friend Danny (Matt Lusk) to move in with them.
The plan works beautifully until Danny brings home Blair (Mayra Leal), a stunning temptress who decides she likes what the young couple has and never wants to leave.
The seductive stranger turns the friends against each other and exploits unspoken desires to achieve her own unique version of the American Dream.
Playing House is writer-turned-director Tom Vaughan’s feature film debut. Its premiere was held at this year’s WorldFest Film Festival in Houston, TX.
Cinemax has set a May 13 premiere date for its erotically-charged new anthology series “Femme Fatales.” Hosted by South African model-turned-actress Tanit Phoenix (Death Race 2: Frankenstein Lives), each of the show’s 13-episodes will explore just how far a woman will go to get revenge and/or escape a dire situation.
Peep it:
The official synopsis reads:
Women find extraordinary ways of coping with their problems, channeling their survival instincts and bringing out their inner guile.
The show is inspired by and styled in the tradition of pulp stories, film noir and graphic novels, and takes place in contemporary settings. Each episode features different casts and storylines, some of which are intertwined.
The show’s premiere episode is entitled “Behind Locked Doors” and stars pretty newcomer Kit Willesee as a spoiled, out-of-control Lindsay Lohan-like actress who gets thrown into a cell with a hardened felon, played by Serbian stunner Ana Alexander (Oh, please, may there be a plunger involved).
I gotta say that kicking the series off with an episode set in a woman’s prison is a great way to form a covenant between producers and viewers—a holy union that promises nudity and lesbians in exchange for ratings. I, for one, am all in.
If “Femme Fatales” looks like something you’d enjoy, don’t forget to check out Univision’s “Mujeres Asesinas,” an anthology series—now in its third season—that follows desperate, angry, and often top-heavy women as they viciously discard the men who have wronged them.
