Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Logan Marshall-Green
Certificate: 15 Trailer
From the opening credits, gliding over the surface of an Earth-like planet, you can tell that Prometheus is a very different kind of Alien.
Ridley Scott’s return to the genre that he mastered – twice – has been trumpeted as the prequel to the series. The one that explains the beginnings of H.R. Giger’s beasties. But when we see our first E.T., it's clear that the director's thinking bigger than that: he doesn’t want to explain where the Space Jockey on LV-246 came from. He wants to explain where EVERYONE came from.
The new Prometheus international trailer interrupted my viewing of Homeland last night. Fortunately, it was really, REALLY good so I didn't mind too much.
Read on to watch the epic three-minute video - but be warned that it contains a lot of plot details. For example, it's now blindingly obvious that Charlize Theron is a terrorist. And that Damien Lewis is a robot.
Still, if you listen really carefully around the two-minute mark, you can hear the arrival of the awesomeness train into the station of cinema-ville. And if you listen even harder, you can hear me on the station platform jumping up and down and shrieking with excitement. Either that, or it's Michael Fassbender making robot sex noises.
For more Prometheus goodness that doesn't spoil the plot, see the Michael Fassbender "David" promo. It is also ridonkulously amazing.
Meet David. He can do things that other robots would consider... unethical. He also looks like Michael Fassbender. In short, he is the sexiest robot of all time. Yes, even sexier than Bicentennial Man.
Friday, 10 February 2012Written by Ivan Radford and Selina Pearson
Director: David Cronenberg
Cast: Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen Certificate: 15
Sabina Speilrein (Knightley) is dragged into a Zurich mental hospital. She's hysterical. She looks like Keira Knightley. And her voice is really weird. How can she be cured? Carl Jung (Fassbender) decides to try out Sigmund Freud's (Mortensen) radical new talking therapy, psychoanalysis. It may or may not involve spanking.
As you already know, I have an unhealthy obsession with Jean Dujardin's eyebrows. So rather than rant and blather on about the 2012 Oscar nominations, I'll let The Artist's facial hair do the talking for me. Until I get home from work this evening when I'll probably start blathering on anyway - because that, apparently, is what the internet is for.
Mostly, the Oscar nominations this year are as we all expected. But not quite. To begin with, Hugo is leading the pack. Yes, Martin Scorsese's Hugo has 11 nominations compared to Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist, which has 10. Add to that Melissa McCarthy's Best Supporting Actress nod for Bridesmaids...
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Bill Paxton
Certificate: 15
Trailer
“Don’t think of her as a woman. That would be a mistake.”
That's Kenneth's (McGregor) take on Mallory Kane (Carano), a lady with a lethal streak as blunt as her name. A newcomer to cinema, the MMA star doesn't so much act as pummel her way through the screen, tearing up everything in her path like a machine with the dial switched firmly to "kill". And thighs switched firmly to "squeeze".
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas
Certificate: TBC
Release Date: Wednesday 18th January
Stephen Soderbergh directs an all star cast in action thriller HAYWIRE, including mixed martial arts supremo Gina Carano as Mallory Kane, a highly-trained black ops specialist, contracted for hazardous covert missions by the US Government. When her paymaster’s point-man (Ewan McGregor) teams her with fellow agent (Channing Tatum) to extract a Chinese journalist held hostage in a Barcelona safe house, the mission swiftly unravels and she barely escapes with her life. During her next assignment in Dublin, with Irish assassin Paul (Michael Fassbender) Mallory is violently betrayed and pursued across the city by the local police and assorted ruthless hitmen.
Now the target of an international manhunt, spearheaded by the CIA official who hired her (Michael Douglas), Mallory realises she can trust no one and is forced to flee across the US from upstate New York to the New Mexico desert. There, she seeks refuge in the home of her ex-soldier father (Bill Paxton), but danger is not far behind her. As she confronts her heavily-armed pursuers, she begins to understand the cause of her betrayal, and the part played by a shadowy Spanish official (Antonio Banderas). Battling with her superiors to uncover the truth behind their deception, she sets out to exact revenge on those that want her dead.
The full Prometheus trailer has parked its shiny bum on the internet - and as far as teasers go, it's pretty damn teasing.
We still don't know that much about Ridley Scott's prequel-but-not-a-prequel-but-still-connected-to-the-Alien-franchise-but-not-really mystery film. The official synopsis reads something like: "A team of explorers find a clue to the origins of man on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe... There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race."
We seem to be looking at what happened in the lead up to the events on LV-426 in the first Alien film. But Ridley's been pretty adamant that this isn't a directly linking prequel.
Yet everything about this screams Alien. The pods littering the ground around Michael Fassbender's character. The familiar outline of the infamous space jockey's ship. The way the titles appear in the same gradual procession of vertical and horizontal bars.
So what's it all about? Like all the best teasers, Prometheus' trailer doesn't answer any of our questions - it just asks a load more. When Ridley Scott does answer them in 2012, it should be something very special. As long as you forget that this is the director who also made Robin Hood and A Good Year.
Read on for the full Prometheus trailer. Then get very excited.
There's nothing like curling up with a good read during the cold winter months. Something sad. Something unforgettable. Something about sex addiction.
Which is why Shame's script makes the top of the Christmas reading list in our Advent Calendar.
But while the chance to read Steve McQueen and Abi Morgan's description of Michael Fassbender's sex face has obvious appeal, Shame's screenplay is a fascinating read because of McQueen's visual style. He's scarily good at creating perfect moments on screen, but how much of that is in the script?
Take Michael Fassbender's breathtaking run through the New York streets, in one long, graceful tracking shot. How do you get to that from a few sentences on a page?
Thanks to Fox Searchlight's lovely awards campaign site, you can now take a peek at the Shame script. A great resource for those wanting to vote for McQueen and Morgan's work (they jolly well better), as well as folks trying to learn the lyrics of New York, New York, but also a curious insight into the creation of a staggering slice of cinema.
What more could you want from a quiet read after Christmas dinner?
Tyrannosaur stomped all over the competition at tonight's BIFA awards. The British Independent Film Awards, which were streamed live on the internet, saw Paddy Considine's superb film pick up three awards, including Best Debut Director, Best Actress (Olivia Colman) and Best British Independent Film. All of them were well deserved - as you can see from their lovely happy faces (image via @PaulPopplewell).
Fellow lead nominee Shame picked up Best Actor for Michael Fassbender, while Carey Mulligan was pipped to the Best Supporting Actress post by Coriolanus' Vanessa Redgrave. The other pleasant surprise was Michael Smiley winning Best Supporting Actor for Kill List - an announcement met by cheers from the audience, much like Weekend's two wins for Best Production and Most Promising Newcomer, which went to the wonderful Tom Cullen.
Whoops also went out to Chris O'Dowd's drunken hosting. He started the evening off lightly sloshed, then quickly escalated to off his tits. And got funnier as he went along. Until the end, when he could barely speak in words, let alone sentences.
BIFA's Top 5 Drunk Chris O'Dowd Quotes
1. "Mike Leigh's comedic abortion farce Vera Drake..."
2. "Vanessa Redgrave, you sexy owl."
3. "Moet! It's pronounced 'Mo-et'! As in 'pirouette'! And 'who gives a shit'!
4. (Looking at himself on the screen) "There he is!" (Then, later) "I'm so drunk!"
5. "Women want to be him, men want to sleep with him... Daniel Craig!"
Other highlights of the evening included Ralph Fiennes picking up the Richard Harris award for outstanding contribution to British film, which he accepted while the in-house BIFA band played the theme from The Avengers, after being introduced by the hilarious Tom Hollander: "I thought I would be tossed aside like the unwanted exfoliant from a gift bag... in Voldemort, I have found my truest friend.")
Massive credit should also go to Richard Ayaode for winning Best Screenplay for Submarine, the Oscar-snubbed Senna claiming Best Documentary, and also to Maria Djurkovic for taking home Best Production Design for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. All the right films got a mention somewhere - even Lynne Ramsay bagged Best Director for We Need to Talk About Kevin. Oh, and Kenneth Branagh popped up to collect The Variety Award.
And that's BIFA 2011. The whole thing was a brilliant success for three reasons. Firstly, it was a celebration of a ridiculously impressive year for British indie productions (look at just how many are heavyweights at bigger ceremonies). Secondly, it was proof that awards can be streamed online - and streamed well. This evening has done wonders for the profile of BIFA, which will only keep getting bigger from now on. And finally, it introduced the internet to drunk Chris O'Dowd. Which we've all wanted to see for a long time.
Read on for the full list of winners - and then head over here to read our five-star Tyrannosaur review and our interview with Paddy Considine. (Also, follow @AuntieNubbins on Twitter because he dutifully screen-capped the whole thing and I stole a couple of his images.)
