Antonio Banderas Faces a Robot Revolt in Trailer for 'Automata'

This past weekend The Expendables 3 pretty much got hammered at the box office, and whether or not that had anything to do with the film being leaked the point is audiences didn't turn out for it. And that's a shame because the film is easily the best of the franchise and features one of the year's most surprisingly hilarious performances by Antonio Banderas, who has been on an impressive streak of late.  He'll next take on a genre he's long claimed to love but rarely had a chance to explore, and that's science-fiction with the new film, Automata.

The first trailer and posters for Automata have been released, and it kind of looks like a cross between I Robot and Blade Runner. Directed by Gabe Ibáñez and co-starring Banderas' wife Melanie Griffith, Dylan McDermott, Robert Forster, and Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, the futuristic film follows an employee of the ROC robotics corporation who investigates the manipulation of a robot. The androids all must follow specific protocols but what Banderas' character discovers is that they may be more human than people realize.

Automata hits theaters and VOD on October 8th.

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Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan Reunite in 'Ithaca'

The combination of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan used to be a powerful thing, capable of dominating box offices in everything from Joe vs. the Volcano to rom-com classics You've Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle. Things have changed considerably for them as they've gotten older, especially for Ryan who hasn't had a feature film since 2009. But now, twenty-four years after their first pairing. Hanks and Ryan will be reunited, although it won't be as romantic leads.

Hanks is set to produce Ryan's directorial debut, Ithaca, which she also plans to star in alongside Sam Shepard, Melanie Griffith and Jack Quaid. Based on William Saroyan's novel The Human Comedy, the Erik Jendresen-adapted film "is set in 1942 in a small town in California’s San Joaquin Valley, where 14-year-old Homer Macauley is determined to be the best and fastest bicycle telegraph messenger anyone has ever seen. His older brother has gone to war, leaving Homer to look after his widowed mother, his older sister and his 4-year-old brother. As spring turns to summer, Homer delivers messages of love, hope, pain and death to the good people of Ithaca."

Perhaps Hanks can be convinced to make a small cameo? Production is set to begin this summer.  [Deadline]

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