First Trailer for 'Maladies' Starring James Franco

We've already seen James Franco play himself hilariously in This is the End, but is Maladies him poking fun at his persona yet again?  Probably, considering the film is directed by some artist named Carter, who directed Franco in the self-mocking experimental flick Erased James Franco, which had the actor reenacting all of his prior work.  In Maladies, Franco plays a successful actor named James (hmmmm...) who gives it all up to write and numerous other pursuits. Moving in with his deranged sister (Fallon Goodson) and her equally messed up friend (Catherine Keener), James begins hearing voices in his head as the mental maladies begin to blend together.

A new trailer for Maladies has been released ahead of its March 21st release, and it looks like another forgettable artsy entry in Franco's career. Maybe the supporting cast of Alan Cumming, Claire Danes, and David Strathairn can salvage it.


Maladies Official Trailer #1 (2014) - James Franco, Catherine Keener Drama Movie by MegaUploader

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*UPDATE* Nightcrawler won't be in 'X-men: Days of Future Past' after all

 *UPDATE* Comingsoon has "confirmed" that Alan Cumming will not reprise his role as Nightcrawler in X-men: Days of Future Past. Hey, I warned you that McAvoy hadn't even read the script so any information he had was suspect! The original story is below. *

Practically everybody seems to be coming back for X-men: Days of Future Past, but there are still a few stragglers around. One of those that fans continue to hope will return is the German blue "elf", Nightcrawler, played marvelously by Alan Cumming in X-2. I've speculated the Nightcrawler could return as one of the CG-animated characters Bryan Singer has hinted at, only voiced by Cumming this time. I might have been wrong about that last part, but Nightcrawler could return, at least according to James McAvoy.

Stopping by Heat Radio to talk about his new film, Welcome to the Punch, McAvoy was inevitably asked about X-men, and reeled off the cast that he thinks will be joining him...

"You got me, [Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender,] Nicholas Hoult will be back, and he’s just blossoming massively over [in America]. Patrick Stewart, Ian Mckellen, Halle Berry, Alan Cumming, Peter Dinklage I hear mentioned – I don’t know if that’s happening – “Huge” Jackman is coming by, he’s massive, 7’5″ and muscley."

Now, it should be noted that McAvoy recently stated that he hasn't had time to read the script, so this could just be a misunderstanding. Then again, maybe not. Cumming was rumored to be a part of the film just last month along with Halle Berry. She's now officially on board, so it's possible he is too.

The intriguing part to me was that last bit about Peter Dinklage. Is he maybe not as rock solid a cast member as we thought? X-men: Days of Future Past opens on July 18th 2014.

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Will Storm and Nightcrawler be back for 'X-men: Days of Future Past'?

Bryan Singer's been busy getting the preparations in place for X-men: Days of Future Past, even occasionally tweeting updates from the set, but it doesn't sound like they're totally ready for action. While he's been teasing the possibility of a fully CGI mutant, he sounds unsure about the return of two popular live-action characters from the original trilogy: Nightcrawler and Storm. In fact, it sounds like the current script is unfinished to the point where the team roster isn't completely confirmed.

He's already got a lot of characters to deal with. The bulk of the cast from X-men: First Class will be returning, along with a large number from the original X-men trilogy. But we've heard next to nothing about Halle Berry returning as Storm. While talking to MTV, Singer didn't sound too confident....

Singer: "I can’t say. I don’t know yet. And it’s not necessarily a deal making aspect at all. I want to make sure it’ll make sense. But I love working with her."

And then while speaking to HuffPo, he said much the same thing in regards to Alan Cumming coming back as the teleporting "elf", Nightcrawler...


Singer: "I don't want to ... sometimes you don't want to say "yes" or "no" to something that may not be a "yes" or a "no," or anything. I haven't decided yet, a few things. I'm still, you know -- there are certain aspects of the script that I'm still toying with."

Plenty of waffling going on there. What it sounds like is that Singer is trying to figure out if either character NEEDS to be a part of his story, which is complicated enough dealing with the past, present, and far-flung future.  Indeed, making sure he can manage the large cast by giving them a purpose is Singer's top priority.....

Singer:  "I don't want to say [who the protagonists are] yet, or talk about that yet, but I will say that every character has a very important function in the story. The story is designed and catered to the combined cast. It's not just throwing in people to occupy the screen, occupy the billboards. The story 'Days of Future Past,' and our version of 'Days of Future Past' is geared very much toward the mass cast and all their relationships and all their foibles and their achievements."

My suspicion is that maybe Nightcrawler is the CGI character, and he just doesn't want to spoil it. Does that sound too far-fetched? Storm is far more important to the team as a whole, but Berry was terrible in the role and I'm not sure it'd be worth it to bring her back.

 X-men: Days of Future Past opens on July 18th 2014.

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