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‘Despicable Me 2’ Teaser Trailer: Killing Time With A Minion Barbershop Quartet By Russ Fischer/March 1, 2012 11:00 am EST The first teaser trailer for Despicable Me 2, which doesn’t hit theaters for over a year, takes the approach used for so many ads for the first film: it trades on the simple appeal of the series’ little yellow minions. And, damn it, this is a funny teaser. Three of the tiny guys do a completely absurd a capella rendition of ‘Barbara Ann’ by The Regents (and made famous when covered by The Beach Boys) as a fourth adds his own little accent to the song....

‘Jack The Giant Killer’ Writer Darren Lemke To Pen ‘Goosebumps’ Adaptation By Angie Han/Jan. 16, 2012 3:00 pm EST Hey, remember that R.L. Stine children’s horror novel series Goosebumps? Columbia Pictures certainly does, and it’s hoping you do, too. Back in 2008, the studio acquired the rights to over 50 of Stine’s books with the intention of bringing the stories to the big screen, but is still struggling to get the project off the ground after several failed attempts....

‘Snow White And The Huntsman’ Interactive Trailer By Russ Fischer/May 23, 2012 9:30 am EST It’s fun to watch how the drive to promote big-ticket films has led to new initiatives in putting movie content online, even well in advance of a film’s opening. Fox’s efforts for Prometheus are at the front of the pack this year, but there are other good things going on. Trailers often aren’t enough any longer; now we see annotated trailers, or director commentaries layered onto the footage....

‘The King’s Speech’ Takes Top Prize In Toronto By Russ Fischer/Sept. 20, 2010 10:30 am EST The top prize awarded at the Toronto International Film festival is an interesting one, because unlike many other festivals which use a jury to award the biggest prizes, TIFF’s top honor is an audience award. This year, audiences in Toronto gave the People’s Choice Award to The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth as King George VI of Britain, “who overcame a nervous stammer to deliver a crucial address on the eve of that country’s entrance into World War II....

Arnold Schwarzenegger Is Animated Hero ‘The Governator’ By Russ Fischer/March 30, 2011 6:21 pm EST Since he left office not long ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger has reportedly been considering quite a few new film projects. But over the last couple weeks word emerged that his first new project would be a TV series. That soon was adjusted to an animated TV series. And now the cat’s out of the bag: going right for the most obvious character possible, the governator will actually voice an animated character in a show called The Governator....

Charles Grodin And Director Martin Brest Might Return For Midnight Run 2 By Russ Fischer/June 2, 2010 12:08 pm EST When we first started to hear about a sequel to the late-’80s buddy comedy/thriller Midnight Run, the word was that only Robert De Niro was expected to return. Original co-star Charles Grodin has more or less retired from acting, and director Martin Brest hasn’t made anything since 2003’s Gigli — seemed like he wouldn’t be the guy tapped to direct the new film....

Charlize Theron Joins Ridley Scott’s ‘Prometheus’; Fassbender Claims Movie Is Still “Absolutely” Connected To ‘Alien’ By Peter Sciretta/Feb. 11, 2011 3:21 pm EST Academy Award-winning actress Charlize Theron (Monster) is in talks to join Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. Theron will join Noomi Rapace (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) and Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds), although Charlize’s character details have not been revealed in the trade update. The science fiction project set-up at 20th Century Fox, was originally developed as an Alien prequel....

By Germain Lussier/Nov. 18, 2010 12:00 pm EST It seems the coolest thing about Star Wars these days is not liking Star Wars. Bashing George Lucas and what has become of the Star Wars universe is certainly the latest craze and anyone who comes out and says they’re still a Star Wars fan probably feels like, well, what actual Star Wars fans felt like before 1997. In that long stretch between Return of the Jedi and the Special Editions, Star Wars wasn’t as despised as it may be now, but it certainly wasn’t cool like it was when the prequels came out....

Disney Announces ‘Iron Man 3’ Release Date By Peter Sciretta/Oct. 18, 2010 12:20 pm EST Just minutes ago, it was revealed that Disney would be paying a lump sum to acquire the marketing and distribution rights to the last Marvel Studio films under the Paramount Pictures deal, The Avengers and Iron Man 3. Part of this announcement came as a surprise as we didn’t know that Marvel was this close to announcing a third Iron Man film....

First Look: Pixar’s New Short ‘La Luna’ By Russ Fischer/May 5, 2011 9:43 am EST One of Pixar’s upcoming short efforts is a film called La Luna, about a young boy coming of age in peculiar circumstances. The short is soon to premiere at the Annecy International Animation Festival, which runs June 6-11 in France. Enrico Casarosa directs and is Head of Story; he’s been with Pixar since 2002, starting on Cars, with credits following on Ratatouille and Up....

Five Mini-Clips: Zack Snyder’s ‘Sucker Punch’ By Germain Lussier/Nov. 24, 2010 9:00 am EST Got about 46 seconds to spare? If so, there are few better uses of your movie-loving time then watching these five mini sizzle reels from Zack Snyder’s upcoming Sucker Punch, set for release March 25. The film stars Emily Browning as Baby Doll, an abused young girl who is forced into to a mental hospital for women....

Four New Photos From Guillermo Del Toro’s ‘Pacific Rim’ By Germain Lussier/Aug. 30, 2012 12:10 pm EST After Pacific Rim revealed itself to the world at Comic-Con, director Guillermo del Toro promised total radio silence until the first trailer hit this Winter. I guess he forgot about the power of Empire Magazine, which has just published four new photos from the set of the July 12, 2013 sci-fi action film. Starring Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, Idris Elba, Charlie Day and Ron Perlman, Pacific Rim is set in the future where giant monsters called Kaiju have invaded Earth....

Geek Deals: Arrested Development Complete Series For $28, Batman: Arkham Asylum For $15, Up To 53% Off HBO Box Sets And More! By Peter Sciretta/Dec. 8, 2010 12:00 am EST We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. The video game gold box deal of the day is Batman: Arkham Asylum for only $14.99 on PS3 or X Box 360. The price will only be good until midnight tonight (Wednesday, December 8th 2010) so act fast!...

Is The ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ Delay Really About Channing Tatum? By Russ Fischer/May 30, 2012 9:30 am EST But things worked out so that Tatum’s popularity is at an all-time high, and Paramount has G.I. Joe: Retaliation, which… well, he’s not in the movie very much. Oops. So while the reports of a release date delay for Retaliation were oriented around the fact that the film would be converted to 3D, the real factor may be that those reshoots we mentioned recently will actually be done to keep Tatum in the movie a lot longer....

James Franco To Direct ‘The Broken Tower’ Starring Michael Shannon? By Russ Fischer/Oct. 25, 2010 2:30 pm EST Is James Franco mad about poets? If so, why not? Someone has to keep the art alive in the imagination of mainstream America. The actor played noted ‘Beat’ poet Allen Ginsberg in Howl, and he’s now reportedly set to direct The Broken Tower, which is a biography of the poet Hart Crane (son of the man who invented Life Savers candy) who committed suicide by jumping off a steamship in 1932....

Justin Lin Already Has Final, 12 Minute ‘Fast Six’ Scene Done By Germain Lussier/Aug. 12, 2011 10:30 am EST Director Justin Lin is dropping scoops all over the internet as he talks to press promoting the upcoming Blu-ray release of his $600 million beast, Fast Five. We covered a bunch of them earlier, such as his recent meeting with Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron about Terminator 5 and why he turned down Die Hard 5....

LOL: Avoid Movies With Bold, Red Uppercase Fonts In Their Posters? By Peter Sciretta/Feb. 2, 2011 5:00 pm EST This graphic has been floating around the interwebs today, warning people to avoid movies with posters featuring blod, red, uppercase fonts. See the full graphic after the jump. A funny observation but not a rule to live by, as evidenced by this image created by Reddit user Roarbox: And here are some others:...

LOL: IMDb Prematurely Awards “Best Original Score” Oscar To ‘The King’s Speech’ By Peter Sciretta/Feb. 13, 2011 9:03 pm EST A couple /Film readers (notably Andrew G and Luis MG) have pointed out that the Internet Movie Database’s Academy Award nomination/winners page lists composer Alexandre Desplat’s score for The King’s Speech as the winner of the “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score” Oscar. There is no way IMDb has an advance listing of the Academy Award winners....

LOST’s Man In Black’s Name Finally Confirmed? By Peter Sciretta/Aug. 3, 2010 5:00 pm EST I always thought this was one of those really stupid questions Lost fanatics obsess over. Does it really matter what the man in black’s name was? But Lost fanatics like to look for mystery in places where sometimes a mystery doesn’t actually exist. Well, for those of you Lost fanatics, we finally have confirmed the man in black’s official human character name....

Mark Millar Says His Directorial Debut ‘Miracle Park’ Is “Trainspotting Meets X-Men” By Russ Fischer/Sept. 16, 2010 6:00 pm EST Here’s something refreshing from Mark Millar: he’s talking about a movie that he’s actually making, rather than one that might get made. In this case, he’s talking up Miracle Park, the low-budget film that Millar is actually directing right this very minute. It’s a superhero thriller that he calls “Trainspotting meets X-Men....