Posted above is the first image from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ 300: Rise of an Empire, a companion film to the Zack Snyder-directed blockbuster 300. The shot provides a peek at an at-sea battle sequence, one of six fight scenes featured in the fantasy-actioner directed by Noam Murro (Smart People).
[Rise of an Empire] happens over time in many different locations. The opportunities for the six distinct battles are even greater with different locations and tactics.
The few against the many is still here. It’s hundreds vs. hundreds of thousands. It’s about taking on the mightiest power of all with wisdom and tactics.
Rise of an Empire follows Athenian general Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) as he battles Persian king Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his vengeful navy commander Artemesia (Eva Green). The events occur at the same time that King Leonidas is leading his 300 Spartans into the Battle of Thermopylae.
Murro adds:
Themistokles is battle-scarred and a warrior, but at the same time he’s a politician. He’s not the king. He has to rule in a democracy. It’s a different complexity of character.
These people don’t want to fight, they even say that they are not Spartans. They are common people who have to do this to not be in under the rule of a dictator.
This is not a duplicate movie or a cookie-cutter. It’s a very different story to tell in keeping with the original flavor of 300.
Rise of an Empire is based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel and is adapted for the screen by Kurt Johnstad (300, Act of Valor) and Snyder, who also serves as producer. It arrives in theaters on Aug. 2.
Universal Pictures is set to release Jurassic Park IVon June 13, 2014. Paleontologist Jack Horner, the inspiration behind the trilogy’s Dr. Alan Grant character (Sam Neil), returns to the franchise as technical adviser.
While promoting the 3D re-release of Jurassic Park, Horner told USA Today that a new and never-seen-before dinosaur will be at the center of the sequel’s story.
He tells the site:
I can’t actually tell you who that will be. But you’ll want to keep the lights on after you see this movie.
Safety Not Guaranteed director Colin Trevorrow will helm the Steven Spielberg-produced 3D sequel, the first entry in the series since 2001’s Jurassic Park 3. The franchise has earned more than $2 billion worldwide.
Illuminati Films and Eros International have released a trailer for India’s first zombie comedy Go Goa Gone. Written and directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, the Hindi-language “zom-com” stars Saif Ali Khan, Kunal Khemu, Vir Das and Miss India Universe 2007 Puja Gupta (pictured).
Go Goa Gone follows a group of vacationing friends as they attempt to survive an undead outbreak with the help of a mysterious zombie slayer. The film premieres in India on May 10. The trailer’s popularity on YouTube (just under 2.5 million views in 2 weeks) should help secure its distribution worldwide.
A very set-oriented, classical but at the same time modern take on the ghost story. It will allow me to play with the conventions of the genre I know and love, and at the same time subvert the old rules.
Crimson Peak is co-written by Del Toro and Matthew Robbins (Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, Mimic) and produced by Legendary Pictures. Cameras are slated to roll in January 2014. Warner Bros. is expected to distribute.
Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. will also release Del Toro’s mecha-inspired robot movie Pacific Rim (starring Hunnam) on July 12.
Anchor Bay has set a May 10 release date for WWE Studios and Pathe UK’s No One Lives, an abduction thriller directed by Ryuhei Kitamura (Midnight Meat Train) and starring Adelaide Clemens (Silent Hill: Revelations), Lindsay Shaw (”Pretty Little Liars”), Laura Ramsey (The Ruins) and America Olivo (pictured).
The story follows a young couple as they’re abducted by a criminal gang and taken to an abandoned and secluded house where one of them is murdered, sparking the other to hunt down the captors and brutally slaughter them.
No One Lives also stars vagina-less actors Luke Evans (The Raven), Lee Tergesen (The Collection), Beau Knapp (Super 8), Derek Magyar (Train) and WWE wrestler Brodus Clay. Anchor Bay picked up rights to the thriller at last year’s American Film Market.
No One Lives will play selected theaters in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Philadelphia, Miami, Boston, Detroit, Houston and Baltimore.
Vineyard Haven’s Lucky Bastard is now playing a week-long engagement at Los Feliz 3 Cinemas in Los Angeles. The NC-17 rated film is a found-footage thriller set in the world of internet porn, and marks the directorial debut of veteran TV writer Robert Nathan (“Law & Order”).
Betsy Rue toplines as single mom turned adult star Ashley Saint, a performer caught at the center of a porn mope’s revenge plot after he is humiliated for ejaculating prematurely on the Lucky Bastard website, a pro-am site that pairs fans with their favorite starlets.
Rue is best known, of course, for her heart-stopping turn in 2009’s My Bloody Valentine remake, in which she attempts to escape a crazed killer while nude and in heels. She’ll next be seen opposite Taryn Manning in the psycho-bitch thriller Groupie.
MGM and Sony Screen Gems have released the first full-length trailer for Boys Don’t Cry director Kimberly Peirce’sadaptation of Carrie, Stephen King’s 1974 novel first brought to the big screen by Brian De Palma in 1976.
Chloe Grace Moretz (Let Me In) stars as Carrie, a telekinetic teen tormented by high school bullies and her crazy Christian mother (Julianne Moore). The trailer provides a peek at Carrie as she goes from mousey geek to mutant avenger.
Co-stars include Judy Greer (”Californication”) as gym teacher Miss Desjardin, Portia Doubleday (Youth in Revolt) as Chris Hargenson, Gabriella Wilde (Three Musketeers) as Sue Snell and Alex Russell (Chronicle) as Billy Nolan.
Fifty women made to fight without pillows, mud or Jell-O? As unnatural as that may seem, so goes the premise behind Josh C. Waller’s directorial debut Raze: Fight or Die. Stunner Rachel Nichols and Zoe Bell topline the thriller, making its world premiere at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.
Described by producers as a cross between Fight Club and Hostel, the film’s story finds 50 abducted women fighting against each other to the death for the amusement of rich and sadistic people.
Costars include hotties Rebecca Marshall (Saw 3-D), Nicole Steinwedell (”The Unit”), Adrienne Wilkinson (”Xena: Warrior Princess”), Tara Macken (”Sons of Anarchy”), Amy Johnston, Victoria Cruz (Reach), Brianna Gage (”Bri What”), Bailey Borders (The Change-Up) and Allene Quincy.
And, suddenly, the actress in the dark suit realized that the money spent on acting classes could have gone to better use.
Addison Timlin (“Californication”) is set to topline The Town That Dreaded Sundown, a Ryan Murphy and Jason Blum produced remake of the 1976 cult film based on the true story of the 1946 Moonlight Murders, a series of homicides committed by the Phantom Killer in the Texas/Arizona border town of Texarkana.
The Town That Dreaded Sundown follows a copycat killer mimicking the murders of the original film during its annual screening at Texarkana. According to Deadline, Timlin will star as Jami, a survivor whose own history holds clues to figuring out who’s behind the grisly murders.
Timlin is best known for toplessly playing actress Sasha Bingham on Showtime’s “Californication.” The 21-year-old stunner will next be seen as Stormy Llewellyn in director Stephen Sommers big screen adaptation of horror author Dean Koontz’s bestselling novel “Odd Thomas.”
If you had 12-hours to kill, rob, rape and torture and/or illegally download movies and music without fear of consequence, would that really be enough time? So is the premise behind Universal Pictures’ The Purge in which… oh, wait, this is actually some kind of sociopolitical thriller meant to teach us a moral lesson.
::sigh::
The Purge is a government sanctioned 12-hour night during which all fun criminal activity is permissible by law. Ethan Hawk and Lena Headey (pictured) star as parents on home lock down, caught in an ethical dilemma when their bleeding heart daughter provides shelter to a man wanted dead by crazed hooligans.
