Hemsworth Takes to the Open Ocean In the Second Trailer for 'In The Heart Of The Sea'

I know that RDJ is everyone's favorite Avenger, and truly the comeback kid of the group but it's really starting to look like Chris Hemsworth will be the superstar career to come out of the Marvel epics. His latest film, In the Heart of the Sea has him taking the lead role in a book adaptation that explorers the true story that inspired Moby Dick. Hemsworth has everything a major Hollywood player needs and has proven time and again that he is much more than a pretty face and the son of Odin. Now, working with Ron Howard, he's set to really launch his career outside of Marvel. 

Jaws never scared me. I mean, if I was in the water and say a shark I'd definitely need a new pair of underwear but the idea of a shark? Nah, wasn't keeping me up at night. While not a horror movie, this trailer had me terrified. Obviously there's the fear of a colossal creature under the water while you're in a tiny (comparatively) ship in the middle of the ocean, but that's not what really got me shaking. It's the genius that is Ron Howard who decides to pull the camera WAYYY back in the long shots. That's the real fear factor in sea based movies that's never really hammered home, just how impossibly alone you are. The first few shots of the trailer pull back a curtain and make very apparent that these early seafarers were basically the ballsiest bunch the world has ever known, heading out into a vast nothingness with little more than a few planks of wood. Maybe this has been obvious to everyone else but I never fully appreciated the scope of it until watching this. I tend to overblow things but check it out for yourselves and tell me you'd have the gusto to scream "All aboard!" and head out to sea. 

Side note: These guys are whalers...back then that meant killing a whale with a spear that you through from nothing more than the power of your arm. Marinate on that. 

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Chris Hemsworth Challenges Moby Dick in the Trailer for 'In the Heart of the Sea'

Other than Robert Downey Jr., nobody has found more success outside of Marvel than Chris Hemsworth, and he's done it by taking on a wide array of roles both big and small. Last year he had a chance to work with Ron Howard on the F-1 racing film, Rush, a performance that showed what he could do when given a challenging dramatic role to chew on. And after wide critical praise, Hemsworth is teaming with Howard again for In the Heart of the Sea, a film based on the true story that inspired Herman Melville's Moby Dick.

The trailer for the sea-faring film has been released, focusing on the multiple dangers faced by whaling crews in the 19th century. Starring Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Brendan Gleeson, Tom Holland, Michelle Fairley, Cillian Murphy, and Ben Whishaw as Herman Melville, the film tells of the 1820 incident involving the New England whaling ship Essex and an attack by a whale of mammoth size. What follows is a harrowing story of vengeance and survival, powerful enough to inspire Melville to retell it in his classic novel.

In the Heart of the Sea opens March 15th 2015.


Heart Of The Sea : bande annonce VO HD by cloneweb

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Ron Howard to Direct Adaptation of 'The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair'

Next month will see the U.S. release of Swiss author Joël Dicker's crime novel, The Truth About the Quebert Affair, but we're already a couple of years behind the 8-ball on that one. The book was released a couple of years ago in France and has sold in the millions, becoming a European sensation. Whether it finds that same level of success here yet is unclear, obviously, but Hollywood isn't waiting around to find out as a movie with a big name director is already in the works.

Warner Bros. has picked up the rights to the book and set Ron Howard and Brian Grazer to bring it to the screen. Howard will direct and produce the film about a young hot-shot author who gets in the middle of a decades-old murder mystery when his mentor, a prominent American writer, is found to have the dead body of a missing 15-year-old girl in his backyard.

The book will hit shelves here on May 27th. Howard just wrapped his adaptation of In the Heart of the Sea starring Chris Hemsworth. He's also planning to reunite with Tom Hanks for Inferno, the follow-up to The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons.

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Andy Serkis to Direct 'The Jungle Book' for Warner Bros.

As Disney moved forward with their live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book, with Jon Favreau directing and Idris Elba voicing Shere Khan, Warner Bros. had been stuck in neutral. Alejandro Gonzalez-Inarritu had been set to direct before he dropped out, with the studio turning to Ron Howard, instead. But it turns out it won't be Howard at the helm, as it will be Andy Serkis making his feature debut.

Talks with Howard didn't make it very far, and so Warner Bros. has turned to Serkis, who has a wealth of motion capture experience to draw from. It will come in handy for a film that will have plenty of CGI animals making up the story of Mowgli, an Indian orphan raised in the jungle.  While this may be Serkis' first time in charge of a project such as this, he's been getting plenty of training as 2nd Unit Director on Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy. He specifically worked on the brilliant barrel chase scene in The Desolation of Smaug.

Serkis had been looking to make his debut on an adaptation of Animal Farm, but who knows where that production is at now. He'll be seen next as Caesar in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.  What are the chances we see Serkis suit up as Baloo? [THR]

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Ron Howard Swings to 'The Jungle Book'

Ron Howard's thrilling Formula One film, Rush, probably deserved more love than it received. While it performed reasonably well at the box office, for a racing movie anyway, it didn't attract the eye of Academy Awards voters. And maybe the lukewarm reception to Rush is what has driven him to his next move, taking on a potential franchise in Warner Bros.' live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book.

THR reports that Howard is in talks to direct and produce The Jungle Book, taking over for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu who dropped out a month ago.  Steve Kloves' daughter Callie wrote the script, adapting Rudyard Kipling's classic children's book about Mowgli, an orphaned boy raised in the jungle by animals.

The move was crucial as Warner Bros. is racing to keep up with Disney's version which has Jon Favreau directing. The studio is probably going to want Howard to jump into this next after he wraps up In the Heart of the Sea. He also recently became attached to drug-world thriller Mena, and has been developing Stephen King's The Dark Tower for the big screen.

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Ron Howard to Direct "Mena'; John Carney goes to 'Sing Street'; John McTiernan Returns for 'Red Squad'

* Rush may have been met with critical acclaim, but it didn't lead to a sizable box office or anything in terms of Academy Awards nominations. That's not stopping Ron Howard from pushing forward. He's got an adaptation of In the Heart of the Sea coming up soon, and now he's set to direct drug-world film, Mena, which Universal has just spent a whopping $1M to acquire Gary Spinelli's spec script. The true story centers on "Barry Seal, a portly pilot who, in the 1980s, was a 300-pound gun runner, and drug trafficker who transported contraband for the CIA and the Medellin cartel. He was eventually shot to death by the latter in Baton Rouge." [Deadline]

* After making his name with the beloved Irish musical romance Once (still a personal favorite), John Carney has wisely stuck closely to the genre. Later this year he'll deliver Can a Song Save Your Life? with Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo, and now he's set to direct Sing Street, which will feature original music by his friends Bono and The Edge of U2. The 1980s-set film follows "a 14-year-old Dubliner dealing with the stress of his parent’s marriage, a drop-out brother and bullies at a new school. The youngster forms a band then heads off to London with his aspiring model girlfriend in search of fame and fortune." Filming is set to begin this summer.

* Yay, John McTiernan is back! Once the most prominent action director of the 1980s, responsible for knock-out flicks like Predator and Die Hard, McTiernan found himself swept up in the Anthony Pellicano wire-tapping scandal and was sent off to prison. Obviously this killed many of the projects he had cooking (he was to direct the awful Killing Season at one point), but now that he's finally been released it's time to get back to work. McTiernan is sticking to his roots by directing Red Squad, a DEA thriller penned by Cam Cannon and Jorge Suarez. The story sounds like typical McTiernan, centering on “a former DEA agent with a rogue streak and his select team of mercenaries who descend upon a Mexican border town to neutralize a drug lord.”[Variety]

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Review: 'Rush, Starring Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl

What kind of person would strap himself into what is essentially a bomb and race around a track at an ungodly speed without an ounce of fear? Only the "rebels, lunatics, and dreamers", that's who. Ron Howard's Rush is about two such men, brash Englishman James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and the analytical Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl), two men forged in the fires of an intense rivalry that would power Formula One racing in the 1970s. The aptly-named Rush is all gears, drive shafts, adrenaline, and burning rubber, and it's easily Howard's most impressive and confident film in years.

In his second teaming with Frost/Nixon scribe Peter Morgan, Howard has delivered a sexy cool thrill ride that will hook you right from the starting gate. The danger in any sports film, and is especially true with a niche like F-1 racing, is to make it more than just the nuts, bolts, and rules of the road. Rush is at its heart the ultimate guy flick, about two vastly different guys whose hatred for one another was only surpassed by their desire to be the best, no matter the consequences.

When we first meet Hunt he's storming into a hospital, dressed in his racing gear and bleeding from the face. Clearly injured, he's still all swagger and braggadocio, and within moments he's bedding one of the nurses (Natalie Dormer in a throwaway role, sadly) and embarking on a whirlwind fling. Hunt is a live-wire magnetic guy with a personality that makes everybody love him, or at least want to be in his orbit. He leads with the chin and thinks from his gut, staring down death without a moment's hesitation. Lauda is almost too perfect a rival for him. The chilly, rat faced Kraut is the picture of cold, clinical precision and intensity, but his chilly demeanor makes him a pariah with few friends. To him, racing is a business, one to be considered and examined with a fanatical monk-like discipline. Their divergent philosophies only converge at the single aspiration of becoming an F-1 world champion.

But first they have to get through the lower-tier Formula 3 races, and the film does itself a great justice by letting us in on the ground floor of their epic conflict. It's in the minor leagues that we see the origins of their mutual contempt, and it opens the door to a richer experience as the contentious relationship evolves. Hunt always seems to be one step behind Lauda; trailing behind him in securing big money deals, landing the more advanced cars, and then hitting the big time in the F-1 circuit. But Lauda never had Hunt's fearlessness or natural charisma, and certainly not his gift with the ladies.
Sadly, those ladies aren't given a whole lot to do in the film other than serve as window dressing. Olivia Wilde has a spot of tea in the role of Hunt's first wife, Suzy Miller, who would ultimately ditch him for the more glamorous Richard Burton. Alexandra Maria Lara plays Lauda's wife, Marlene, who after an assured introduction is given little to do but look really concerned about his safety.  This is a bro movie so perhaps it's understandable the ladies would get the short end of the stick, but it's still disappointing to see that side of their lives basically ignored. Morgan's script shares some of the same thematic beats as Grand Prix and Days of Thunder, the "competition as life microcosm" aspect a familiar one in most films in the genre. A minor problem that Morgan has always had rears its ugly head as he tends to underline the film's themes unnecessarily. This is most noticeable towards the end as the film stretches for a coda that is fairly obvious to anyone who has been paying attention.

Fortunately, Hemsworth and Bruhl are absolutely amazing in what are career-defining performances. Hemsworth gets a chance to prove he's capable of more than playing an Asgardian thunder god. He exudes confidence and sexual energy in every scene, and is careful not to overplay it to the point where Hunt becomes more of a caricature. It's Bruhl who really comes away looking like a champion, giving the icy Lauda warmth that wins us over as he goes through some pretty severe life challenges. While the difficulties he faces are best left unspoiled for those who haven't yet hit Wikipedia, Lauda must eventually learn to put aside his "outsider" reputation and let others through his emotional wall. He's also forced to come to grips with his own mortality and limitations, a lesson that doesn't come easily. Both actors are great separately but they are superb when sharing the screen as Lauda and Hunt's career-long battle gives way to a mutual respect and realization that they aren't so different.
Aided by Hans Zimmer's riveting score and breathtaking cinematography by Danny Boyle's favorite DP, Anthony Dod Mantle, the race sequences thrust you right in the heart of the action. Howard, who has always been one of Hollywood's safest and least inspiring directors despite his box office successes, makes you feel every gut-wrenching twist and turn of the track. You can practically smell the ozone and exhaust fumes in every visceral, action-packed moment. The final rain-soaked race is an emotional and visual stunner, momentous in execution because of the incredible stakes involved.

Even if you don't know a tail pipe from a tail feather, Rush will win you over with its brilliantly-staged action and deft attention to character detail. It's a stirring tribute to two men who didn't just compete for a living, but competed as a way of life and drove one another to become the best in the world.

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New trailer for F-1 racing drama 'Rush' starring Chris Hemsworth

"More powerful than fear itself is the will to win". A new trailer for Ron Howard's Formula One racing film, Rush, has been released. Chris Hemsworth puts down Mjolnir and stars as brash English racer James Hunt, who in the 1970s was locked in a heated rivalry with Austria's Niki Lauda, played by Daniel Bruhl. The previous trailers have focused a lot on the personal drama between the two men, who are basically polar opposites in every way other than the lengths they'll go to be victorious. This cut packs a lot of intense racing action in a brisk 90 seconds, and looks like Howard's most promising film since Frost/Nixon, which also featured a script by Rush screenwriter, Peter Morgan.

Universal Pictures certainly has high hopes, giving it an Oscar-ready September 20th release date. Check out the trailer below....

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New domestic trailer for 'Rush' starring Chris Hemsworth

Following closely behind this week's U.K. trailer for Rush, Universal has now unveiled a new one aimed at U.S. audiences. Coincidentally, there seems to be more of an emphasis on character, specifically on Chris Hemsworth as Formula One racer, James Hunt. The story focuses on his rivalry with Brit racer Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl), even after Lauda suffered a terrible accident that left him in a coma.

Directed by Ron Howard and written by his Frost/Nixon scribe, Peter Morgan, this looks like the most thrilling race track film in quite some time. But will it appeal those who aren't fans of the sport? Check out the trailer below, and look for Rush to hit theaters on September 20th.


Rush - Domestic Trailer #2 [VO|HD1080p] by Lyricis

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Leonardo Dicaprio may star as mathematician Alan Turing in new biopic. Ron Howard to direct?

Leonardo Dicaprio has a penchant for playing great, real life figures who had a profound effect on their chosen field. Whether it's con man Frank Abagnale in Catch Me If You Can; Howard Hughes in The Aviator; or J. Edgar Hoover, Dicaprio seeks out those roles like a hawk. It's possible he'll be adding yet another to that impressive list, as Deadline reports he has the "inside track" to star in a biopic of famed English mathematician and cryptanalyst, Alan Turing.

Warner Brothers bought the spec script to Grahame Moore's The Imitation Game for a hefty seven figure sum, based mostly on Dicaprio's interest in the project. Turing is often considered the father of  computer science due to his study of algorithm and computing, leading to the creation of the Turing Machine, a pre-cursor of sorts to the modern computer. The film, based on Andrew Hodges' book Alan Turing: The Enigma, will follow his life beginning as a mathematician, to his time as a codebreaker in WWII, and his criminal prosecution for being a homosexual. Turing would ultimately take his own life by eating a cyanide filled apple.

I'm getting flashes of A Beautiful Mind right now, so I guess it should come as no surprise that Deadline reports Ron Howard is circling the directing job. Nothing is set in stone just yet, so we can add this to the pile up of potential flicks Dicaprio has attached his name to. Just last week he was lined up for the assassin film, Santori. He's got The Wolf of Wall Street possibly with Martin Scorsese; a potential remake of The Gambler; Todd Field's Creed of Violence; and the JFK assassination film Legacy of Secrecy. I probably missed something, too. And let's not forget he's currently in Australia filming The Great Gatsby, and after that he'll jump right into Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained.

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Sure Shots: Tom Cruise; Sam Rockwell; Rush

 
* Tom Cruise is re-teaming with writer/director Christopher McQuarrie(Valkyrie) on One Shot, a thriller based on one of the many Jack Reacher novels written by Jim Grant(pseudonym Lee Child). Reacher is an ex-military police officer, who wanders the country in an attempt to know it better. In One Shot, a sniper guns down five people with six shots. Quickly captured by the police, the case should be solved, until he asks to speak to one man: Jack Reacher. Having never read any of the Reacher novels, I can't say whether this is a good thing casting Cruise or not. But considering Reacher is described as being 6 foot 5, with a 50 inch barrel chest, something tells me this is a bad call, Ripley. Shooting begins later this year. [Deadline]

* The last two years have seen Sam Rockwell being unfairly snubbed by awards voters for his performances in Moon and Conviction. To me, studios should be beating down his door to front their pics. Well he's got another shot to show what he's made of, as ThePlaylist confirms he's now in talks to star in the indie feature, Better Living Through Chemistry. Jeremy Renner had been attached to the role for awhile, but due to his disgustingly busy schedule, had drop out. As he and Rockwell are close buds, it appears he was a factor in getting this deal started. Rockwell would play a small town pharmacist in a loveless marriage who gets mixed up in an affair that eventually turns deadly. Judi Dench, Michelle Monaghan, and Jennifer Garner are set to star as well in the film from debut writers/directors Geoff Moore and David Posamentier.

* Daniel Bruhl, who is most familiar as Nazi sniper hero Frederick Zoller in Inglourious Basterds, is in talks to join Ron Howard's Formula One film, Rush. He'd play Niki Lauda, the Austrian F-1 World Champion in a deep rivalry with fellow racer, James Hunt(Chris Hemsworth). While in a tight race for the championship in 1976, Lauda would suffer a terrible crash that left him in a coma for a short time. Peter Morgan(The Queen) wrote the script, and shooting may begin near the end of the year. Is it me, or is Rush starting to sound like a better film than The Dark Tower? Howard may just drop out of that one altogether.

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Sure Shots: Channing Tatum; Bryce Dallas Howard; Nicholas Hoult

* Channing Tatum in little green tights? I'm sure the ladies will love it. The buffed up actor is currently shopping a project called Peter Pan Begins, which sounds like a really ill-conceived origin story. Screenwriter Billy Ray(Shattered Glass) and producer Joe Roth(Alice in Wonderland) are aboard as well. More than likely Tatum won't actually be starring but could just be producing. Lord let's hope that's all it is.  Personally I think people should just check out the underrated 2004 Peter Pan and call it a day. Thanks to THR for the exclusively break on that story.

* We love Bryce Dallas Howard here at Punch Drunk Critics International, but I have to admit her directorial debut sounds derivative as heck.  She's set to follow in daddy's footsteps with The Originals, about a group of childhood friends who reunite as young adults when a former teacher falls into a coma. Wasn't that the premise behind Grown Ups? Are they going camping? Ugh. Howard and her brother-in-law Dane Charbonneau penned the script. She describes it as a "Breakfast Club for my generation". Double ugh.  Apparently one of the roles was written for Zoe Saldana(The Losers). Run, Zoe, run!

* You make one movie as Colin Firth's boy toy and suddenly you're Hollywood's fresh new plaything. Nicholas Hoult has signed on to Warm Bodies, Jonathan Levine's adaptation of Isaac Marion's upcoming novel about a relationship between a zombie and the human girlfriend of one of his victims. Shooting will begin this summer and should complete around the time of Levine's cancer comedy, 50/50, releases. That film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen. Thanks to THR for this story as well.

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Trailer Time: The Dilemma, starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James

Universal has released a new trailer for the latest film from Ron Howard, The Dilemma, starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James. Well...not exactly new.  The first trailer was pulled after GLAAD(Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) complained about the opening line from the trailer, which goes like this...

“Ladies and gentlemen, electric cars… are gay. I mean, not ‘homosexual’ gay, but, you know, ‘my parents are chaperoning the dance’ gay.”

Yeah.  GLAAD complained, Universal buckled, and now we've got basically the same trailer without that knee slapper of an opener.  Honestly it should've been pulled because it's not very funny, and an indicator of even weaker jokes within.

I understand GLAAD's point, that using the term in such a fashion is a slur and not complaining would be like giving the thumbs up to do it. Personally, I know I use "gay" to describe things all the time. Not terribly politically correct of me, I know. I think more attention is being drawn to the issue by causing such a fuss over a throwaway line in an awful looking comedy.

But as for the film itself, Vince Vaughn and Kevin James are best friends and business partners. Vaughn's character discover that his best friend's wife(played by Winona Ryder) has been cheating, and he must decide whether or not to spill the beans. The Dilemma marks Ron Howard's first comedy since 1999's EdTV. 

The Dilemma is due in theaters on January 14th, 2011. Check out the trailer, and let us know: Do you think GLAAD is making too big a deal out of this? Or was Universal wrong in putting the line in the trailer to begin with?

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