Bryan Singer on Prepping X-Men: Days of Future Past

Director Bryan Singer has been tweeting details on X-Men: Days of Future Past, which he recently sealed a deal to helm after Matthew Vaughn parted ways to direct The Secret Service instead.

Singer tweeted Thursday, "Well here goes. Beginning full prep on Xmen Days of Future Past. Very excited!"

This was followed by this tweet Friday afternoon: "Scout went well. Looks like Montreal it is."

The sequel to X-Men: First Class is expected to begin shooting in early 2013 for a July 18, 2014 release.

Source : ign[dot]com

Bryan Singer on Prepping X-Men: Days of Future Past

Director Bryan Singer has been tweeting details on X-Men: Days of Future Past, which he recently sealed a deal to helm after Matthew Vaughn parted ways to direct The Secret Service instead.

Singer tweeted Thursday, "Well here goes. Beginning full prep on Xmen Days of Future Past. Very excited!"

This was followed by this tweet Friday afternoon: "Scout went well. Looks like Montreal it is."

The sequel to X-Men: First Class is expected to begin shooting in early 2013 for a July 18, 2014 release.

Source : ign[dot]com

"X-Men Meets Terminator" In Days of Future Past

Mark Millar has been talking up the forthcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past, explaining that the superhero sequel will have a very definite Terminator vibe.

The Kick-Ass co-creator – who has just been installed as the chief consultant on Fox’s Marvel movies – spoke to SFX (via Total Film) about Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class sequel.

"Vaughn is going for a big sci-fi style thing with X-Men: Days of Future Past" he revealed. "It's X-Men meets The Terminator.

"You've got robots, you've got time travel, you've got superheroes - it's got everything in one film."

Could this mean the iconic Sentinels will be making an appearance in the movie? Whatever the case, it sounds like the scope will be bigger than part one.

"Cost-wise it's going to go up, and ambitious-wise it's gone up," Millar explained. "But Vaughn can handle it. Vaughn made Kick-Ass for $28 million."

And it sounds like Millar is planning continuity for the universe, telling SFX in a separate story: “Fox have said that they want to build a cohesive universe and I’d personally like this to work in complement to the Marvel one. It would be cool if these universes didn’t contradict each other so if you went to see Spidey, The Avengers, the X-Men, etc, as a viewer you would have no idea that all three are coming from different studios. I’d love to make it look like they’re all just happening in one place.”

Chris Tilly is the Entertainment Editor for IGN in the UK and heard this Terminator connection from another source last night. He can be found on both Twitter and MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Looper Review

Jumping between the years 2044 and 2074, the sci-fi thriller Looper is about a hit man whose next and final target is himself. In this near future, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) serves as a “looper,” a hit man tasked with killing and disposing of criminals who have run afoul of the mob. But these victims come from 30 years in the future where time-travel exists but is illegal. The mob, however, employs it to transport their victims into the past since getting rid of a body is just that much tougher in 2074.

Joe’s work is all very mechanical: kill, dispose, kill, dispose. Loopers are relatively low on the criminal totem pole (“Gat Men” are the more elite of the future mob’s henchmen). The worse thing a Looper can do is let their loop get away as that brings all sorts of hell down on them. And every Looper knows that at some point, the mob will “close your loop,” or send your future self back for you to terminate. Joe’s troubles begin when his older self (Bruce Willis) is sent back for him to kill, but promptly escapes.

Older Joe has his own very specific mission in 2044, one that leads him to a young mom named Sara (Emily Blunt) and her troubled little boy, Cid (an impressive Pierce Gagnon). That’s all we’ll give away for now suffice to say that the dilemma for both Joes is deciding between the life you can make for yourself now or the one you will have in the future.

Looper is sci-fi, but not garishly so. It’s set in a future that’s quite familiar and relatable, one determined by economic and sociopolitical woes. Sure, there are cool hover bikes, but only a few can afford them; otherwise, people drive 30-year-old cars since manufacturing appears to have ceased in this bleak future America. There are looters and homeless aplenty on the streets, and not much in the way of law enforcement. The most popular narcotic, which young Joe is addicted to, can be used like eye drops. This is a future where people make do with what’s left.

Even Loopers’ weapon of choice is decidedly old school: the Blunderbuss. The genetic mutation of telekinesis exists, but it’s not as exciting as you’d think, being deemed more of a tacky parlor trick than anything truly extraordinary. All of these choices by writer-director Rian Johnson (who previously directed JGL in Brick) and his team make Looper a decidedly understated sci-fi film where the emphasis remains on the characters rather than the genre trappings of the future world they inhabit.

Johnson weaves a taut narrative around his rather convoluted, but high concept premise; it’s a testament to his skill that you never find yourself picking apart how things exactly all click. You’re simply along for the ride since you care about these characters, which is even more impressive given how unsympathetic Joe is for much of the movie. He’s paid in silver like a Judas, kills people without any real qualms, and is ruthlessly self-centered. His older self is more sympathetic … until you learn his game plan. Both Gordon-Levitt and Willis never demand the audiences’ sympathy; they simply let you come to your own conclusions about Joe as being either an anti-hero or a villain.

No discussion of Looper and its two lead performances can be had without talking about the makeup worn by Gordon-Levitt throughout. It’s initially distracting to see the young actor’s face altered by prosthetics so as to resemble a young Bruce Willis, an illusion they never quite pull off. But it’s Gordon-Levitt’s replication of Willis’ mannerisms, attitude and low, slightly mumbling voice that sells you after a few moments of settling into things. Willis plays a supporting role here, but he has several key emotional scenes (often with minimal dialogue) that allow him to shine. Some of his best moments come in a diner scene with young Joe where the term “self abuse” takes on a whole new meaning.

Blunt is nicely cast against type as an earthy, American single mom whose complicated relationship with her little boy becomes even more so about halfway through. We’re used to seeing Blunt as a funny or somewhat prissy English rose-type, and she’s clearly having fun playing someone far more damaged and salt of the earth. Jeff Daniels steals his scenes as young Joe’s gruff, but amiable mob boss and father figure Abe, while Paul Dano and Garret Dillahunt have small, but memorable roles as colleagues of young Joe’s. Piper Perabo appears as a stripper and single mom young Joe is banging. (Go, Joe!)

Looper is one of the year’s most engaging sci-fi films, one that works as both a thriller and a character piece about people faced with making big life decisions (often at the business end of Blunderbuss). It could have all been insanely gimmicky, but Looper is instead tastefully executed.

Source : ign[dot]com

PAX: Solid Snake Wasn't Based on Snake Plissken

Speaking at the Hideo Kojima Introspective: Past, Present, and the Future of METAL GEAR at PAX, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima explained that his venerable Snake character was not based on the scruffy anti-hero Snake Plissken, played by Kurt Russel in John Carpenter's 1981 action film Escape From New York.

"Snake is the character in the game, but really Snake is you", said the director of Kojima Productions and Vice President of Konami Digital Entertainment. Kojima went on to describe his respect for Carpenter as a director, and his appreciation of the Russel film and character, but said, "Snake as a character has his roots in the 2D game. He was a pretty ambiguous character, didnt have much personality. We wanted to play with that so that's how he developed."

Kojima also expressed interest in making a game about The Boss, saying it wouldn't be a spin-off.

More news from the panel will be inbound shortly.

Casey Lynch is Editor-in-Chief of IGN.com. Hear about his love for PAX , metal, and Dark Souls on IGN and Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

There's Still Hope for The Dark Tower

The future is not bright for the highly ambitious movie and TV adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower as Warner Bros. is now the second studio to pass on the epic.

Variety reports that Warners has opted not to move forward with The Dark Tower, making it the second studio after Universal to pass on the film/TV saga. Oscar winner Ron Howard was set to direct and produce via his Imagine Entertainment banner with Akiva Goldsman scripting. Russell Crowe had been circling the role of gunslinger Roland Deschain after Javier Bardem bowed out.

As the trade points out, "Imagine is still able to take the project back out to other studios, but this latest news is a blow to the film’s future — when Universal first let go of the film, most insiders around town believed WB was its best chance of getting made."

UPDATE: Good news! Deadline reports that Media Rights Capital, the company behind Seth MacFarlane's Ted and Neill Blomkamp's Elysium, is now in serious talks with Imagine Entertainment to finance The Dark Tower. "MRC has a distribution arrangement with Universal, but it’s unclear whether that studio would release the film," the site points out.

Source : ign[dot]com

New Michael J. Fox Series in Development

Vulture is reporting that Emmy award-winning actor Michael J. Fox (Family Ties, Back to the Future Trilogy) could be headed back to prime time TV with his own new show. A single-camera comedy is currently in development for the star, who's been battling Parkinson's disease since being diagnosed in 1991.

Fox, with Larry David, on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

The show is reportedly "inspired" by Fox's own life, which suggests that his condition will also be front and center on the show. Perhaps in the same way that it was on the hilarious episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm that Fox guest starred on last year, "Larry vs. Michael J. Fox." Fox is working with director Will Gluck (Easy A) and writer Sam Laybourne (Arrested Development) and it's being reported that they've already begun shopping it around to networks.

Source : ign[dot]com

How Sony Won Gamescom Before It Even Started

Microsoft should be afraid of Sony. Before the PlayStation publisher’s pre-Gamescom press conference this week, Sony’s foreseeable software future seemed weak. The PlayStation Vita seemed only to have a handful of promising titles for the remainder of 2012 – LittleBigPlanet PS Vita, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, a Call of Duty game we knew next to nothing about, a Persona 4 remake, and a poorly timed Assassin’s Creed tie-in were the PlayStation brand’s best and brightest. But after displaying a strong lineup of exclusive games on both PlayStation platforms, a brilliant new business strategy, and confidence in risky game ideas, Sony’s future couldn’t look better than it does now.

Gamescom will be Sony’s show. This is bad news for Microsoft, who didn’t even bother to show up.

Sony’s Cross Buy announcement undoubtedly earned it a great deal of gamer goodwill. Buying Battle Royale, the new Ratchet & Clank, and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time on PS3 scores you a free Vita copy. This is an incredible move for Sony. These are three of its most popular and promising titles, and you can play them anywhere, any time, for one price. Cross Buy puts PlayStation fans ahead of the curve, and rewards them for purchasing PS3 games they were likely to buy anyway. It looks amazing on the back of the box, it’s something people will tell their friends about, and it makes a Vita worth owning for every single PlayStation fan. That’s just smart marketing.

“

Cross Buy puts PlayStation fans ahead of the curve

Until Dawn, Rain, and Puppeteer all represent something astounding about Sony’s initiative toward supporting innovative ideas. Following Papo & Yo, Journey, and many other clever concepts, this trio of games look unlike almost anything you’ve played. Each of them certainly has a niche appeal, but Sony’s willing to risk a limited audience if it means putting exclusive, original games on its platforms. Add in the casual mentions of Beyond: Two Souls and The Last of Us during the conference, and you’re looking at a large stack of Sony-only goods. Oh, and let’s not forget Media Molecule’s cute and creative Tear Away, either.

For the first time since I bought it, I want to play my Vita. A quirky indie game like Sound Shapes reassures me that more great stuff is on the way, and Sony really came out of the corner throwing haymakers. I want Black Ops Declassified because it looks like a true Call of Duty game. Killzone Mercenary is the Sony sequel I want most on the platform I’m aching to play.

Before I came to Gamescom, I played my Xbox more than any other platform. That changes the moment I get back to my living room. All of a sudden, the future of gaming in my life is dominated by a platform I traditionally ignored for my Xbox 360. The level of imagination and accessibility in these original, exclusive games is so much more interesting to me than another Halo game. Make no mistake: I’m thrilled about Halo 4, but it’s the one and only Xbox exclusive I plan to play this fall; the only other two exclusives I can think of in the next few months are Gears of War: Judgment and Fable: The Journey – of those, I only have faith and interest in the former.

Microsoft missed a great opportunity at Gamescom to tell the world about why it should care about Xbox 360, Xbox Live, the fall update, and how it all connects to Windows 8. More importantly, maybe, just maybe, it could have given us a game worth thinking about, investing in emotionally, or getting excited to play with on Surface, Windows Phone, Windows Live, or any other gaming platform it may have on the way. I love my Xbox 360 -- I just want as much a reason to play it as I now have for my PlayStation devices.

Gamescom belongs to Sony, as does my heart. This is a brilliant sign of things to come, and it was all done before the show had even begun.

Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN's Xbox 360 team. He’s also quite Canadian. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

X-Men: First Class Sequel News - What is Days of Future Past?

Bryan Singer has confirmed that X-Men: First Class 2 will revolve around the Days of Future Past comic run.

Singer exclusively told IGN that the script is being written now, adding “It’s going to be very ambitious. It’s called Days of Future Past and it deals with aspects of that comic but also some very new things but I don’t want to give any of it away. Matthew Vaughan will be directing and I’m totally excited about it.”

So what is Days of Future Past? For those who haven’t been following the X-Men for the last 30 years, it’s a storyline that was first published in 1981 and deals with alternate timelines.

Set in a dystopian future in which Sentinels rule the United States, the X-Men – along with all mutants – are incarcerated in concentration camps.

Using her psychic abilities, Kitty Pryde transfers her mind to her younger, present-day self to forewarn the X-Men about the horrors that await them, and the political assassination that triggers it all.

This means that the movie could potentially tell parallel stories – Godfather: Part II style – with the Bryan Singer X-Men of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen starring in the future story and the Matthew Vaughn cast of James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender appearing in the present (or past, depending on when they decide to pitch the timeline).

Obviously this is just speculation at the moment, and as with the previous X-Men movies, the filmmakers might just be using this concept as a jumping off point to tell their own story, but we nevertheless asked Singer if there would be any chance of crossover on this front:

“I think there’s a strong desire to broaden out the universe” he explained. “The X-Men universe is every bit on its own as big as the Marvel universe, and I think that it’s time to reach out and explore it and perhaps bring some connectivity between the films as Marvel has done so well. So, you may see some of that, I don’t know.”

Click on the video below to see the full interview, and let us know your thoughts on Days of Future Past in the comments below.

Chris Tilly is the Entertainment Editor for IGN and couldn't be more excited about this X-news. His idle chat can be found on both Twitter and MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Total Recall Review

You can forget about getting your ass to Mars because this version of Total Recall is set solely on Earth, a dystopian and post-chemical warfare future where there are only two areas of the world left inhabited by humans (a renamed Britain and Australia, but strangely a Britain where only Kate Beckinsale’s character has an English accent).

Based on both the Philip K. Dick short story and the 1990 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by Paul Verhoeven, this retelling of Total Recall follows everyman Doug Quaid (Colin Farrell) whose excursion to  memory implant agency Rekall unleashes hell on him.

Quaid learns he is really Hauser, a double agent whose espionage mission against the resistance (led by Bill Nighy, sadly without a mutant baby torso) has apparently led him to switch sides from serving the nefarious chancellor Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston). Hunted by his “wife” Lori (Beckinsale, who is also the wife of the film’s director, Len Wiseman), Quaid/Hauser gets help from resistance member and former flame Melina (Jessica Biel).

While it has a few nods to the 1990 film, this Total Recall brings nothing new to the table, no clever spin or unique take on the story's premise. Love it or hate it, the original movie at least had personality thanks to its absurd sense of humor. It was a truly excessive movie – not the least of all in its violence – but this Total Recall is like a declawed animal. Anything that could have made this version distinct simply isn’t present.

That’s a shame, too, given the vulnerability and much-needed humanity Farrell brings to the proceedings. He’s the best thing in the film besides the practical sets that keep it from being yet another genre film with an entirely CG environment. Beckinsale appears to be enjoying herself as the film’s villainess -- a role that essentially combines the Sharon Stone and Michael Ironside characters from the original film -- but she’s just mere eye candy and a cipher. Also lacking in dimension but blessed with beauty is Biel's Melina, while Cranston's Cohaagen doesn't possess the malevolent glee that made Ronny Cox’s villain fun.

Although executed with technical proficiency, this remake of Total Recall is, ironically given its narrative, without any true identity of its own. It’s a completely serviceable, by-the-numbers action thriller to watch on a plane or while trying to fall asleep with the TV on, but it’s all rather joyless despite its incessant action set-pieces. It’s like a cover song by a decent, but forgettable tribute band. Their rendition hits all the proper notes, but lacks soul.

Source : ign[dot]com