Blog Posts by Ben Skipper

The first trailer for Quentin Tarantino's 'Django Unchained' has arrived.

Jamie Foxx stars as the titular slave turned bounty hunter alongside Christoph Waltz as his mentor Dr. King Schultz and Leonardo DiCaprio as slave trader Calvin Candie.

The story starts with Schultz on the hunt of a band of criminals who the enslaved Django has seen before. Shultz frees Django and enlists his help in exchange for teaching him his bounty hunter ways and helping Django save his wife from the clutches of a deliciously villainous Candie.

Tarantino's script doesn't quite sparkle like it did in the trailers for 2009's 'Inglourious Basterds' but the film certainly looks fun, with everyone involved clearly relishing the opportunity.

Leonardo DiCaprio in particular looks at his scenery-chewing best.

“You had my curiosity, now you have my attention"... Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candie

There's also a nugget of film history at the end of the trailer, as we see the original Django Franco Nero (it's a name used often in the western genre) sitting with the latest gun-slinger to share his name.

Read More »from First Django Unchained trailer unveiled

US interviewer Kathie Lee Gifford endured a very awkward moment with actor Martin Short when she asked him how his marriage was, unaware that his wife died nearly two years ago. 

The comedian and star of ‘Three Amigos’ was on the show to promote the upcoming ‘Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted’, to which he lends his voice.

[Related video: Madagascar 3 trailer]

Gifford said that he and his late wife Nancy Dolman, “have one of the greatest marriages of anybody in show business,” before asking: “How many years are you in love with her now?” So it was both uninformed and grammatically incorrect.

Short, proving how nice a man he is, didn’t correct her. Instead replying: “We…married 36 years,” to which Gifford asked back: “But you’re still in love?”

“Madly in love, madly in love,” Short said.

After an advert break Gifford informed the audience that Short had corrected her, stating that his wife had died of ovarian cancer in August 2010.

She apologised on air and then later on Twitter Read More »from Martin Short asked about happy marriage two years after wife died

Andre 3000 has stepped out for the first time as Jimi Hendrix as he begins filming a new biopic about the legendary guitarist.

The Outkast star was photographed as he made his way onto the Dublin set of the film, ‘All Is By My Side’.

[Related story: Jimi Hendrix biopic won't use his music]

Bizarrely, the film won’t use any of Hendrix’s music after a spokesperson for his estate told Deadline earlier this month: “To the best of our knowledge, this production never approached Experience Hendrix about licensing the music.”

However, as the film is based on the musician’s early career before his talents propelled him to world fame, it does not necessarily need to use his music.

Directed by John Ridley, ‘All Is By My Side’ also stars Imogen Poots and ‘Captain America’s Hayley Atwell.

Read More »from Andre 3000 spotted as Jimi Hendrix for first time

An artistic Canadian boffin has shown off his anatomical drawing of Marvel’s fan-favourite character and star of ‘Avengers Assemble’, The Hulk.

Drawn in 2002 but recently re-published after the success of Joss Whedon’s hugely successful ‘Avengers’ film, the drawing shows in detail the Hulk’s skull and how it might work.

The artist, Glendon Mellow, wrote on his blog: “I tried to draw on not only my mother's nursing school anatomy textbooks, but also gorilla and hominid ancestor skulls.”

Proving his geek credentials, he added: “I included details such as three scars on the bone (I'm Canadian: Wolverine wrecked his face a few times and I wanted to document that) and perfect glowing teeth. If anyone has perfect shiny teeth, it needs to be Hulk.”

The Hulk and his mild-mannered alter-ego Dr Bruce Banner was played in the recent film by Mark Ruffalo and has been played before on the big screen byRead More »from Boffin’s amazing anatomical drawing of The Hulk skull

Posters for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ are ten-a-penny at the moment, the latest of which – showing Catwoman’ - coming courtesy of an eagle-eyed fan.

Stylistically similar to the trio of posters unveiled by yours truly last week, the poster is the best of the recent crop showing us Catwoman crushing a Bat symbol under her heel.

[Related blog: Three new character posters for The Dark Knight Rises - Exclusive]
[Related story: Third Dark Knight Rises trailer breakdown]

With the lipstick mark at the bottom, this would have made for a spectacular teaser poster late last year but there’s still has plenty of symbolism for us to mull over.

We particularly love the classy bat symbol left between the lipstick lips over the film’s title.

The poster was uncovered by a fan who followed the QR code that was on the theatrical versions of the recently-released “A Fire Will Rise” poster, which first debuted on the film’s Facebook page a week ago.

Set for release 20 July, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ stars Christian

Read More »from Secret Catwoman poster for Dark Knight Rises revealed

This week saw the release of the first trailer for ‘Skyfall’, James Bond’s latest adventure.
 
It was all very exciting, but a bit of a mystery at the same time, as canny producers have kept much of the plot under wraps so far.

With this in mind, we decided to get our magnifying glass and decipher (as best we can) this most teasing of teaser trailers.

[Related blog: The first poster for Skyfall]

What does Skyfall mean?

It all begins with Bond (Daniel Craig) involved in a game of word association. “Country... England. Gun... shot. Agent... provocateur. Murder... employment.

“Skyfall... done.”

What does it mean? No-one knows yet as the term isn’t used in any of the Ian Fleming books.

Whole message boards have been set up to answer the question ‘What is Skyfall?’, but we’ve got our own theory (that’ll probably be totally wrong).

The trailer and the official synopsis hint that it’s the codename for an old Bond mission that went horribly wrong. When Nicholas Woodeson says ‘Skyfall’ to 007, weRead More »from Skyfall teaser trailer breakdown

Nicolas Cage is renowned for showing up in some terrible movie posters, but this is ridiculous.

An incredible one-sheet for Ryuhei Kitamura’s ‘Marble City’ was snapped by Twitch Film in the Marche du Film market area of Cannes, where films are bought and sold for international distribution.

[Related story: Movie poster mistakes]
[Related story: First poster for 'The Sweeney' remake]
[Related story: James Bond on target in new 'Skyfall' poster]

The film hasn’t begun production yet, and Cage is only ‘in talks’ to star, but that didn’t stop a canny graphic designer featuring him on the poster. Or at least his head, because that is definitely NOT the actor's body.

We’re sure he’s kept himself in shape, but come on.

Cage-d animal... freakishly toned Nicolas Cage (Credit: Twitch Film)

Described as “’Kill Bill’ meets ‘Drive’” by its director, ‘Marble City’ follows a newly released prisoner who seeks vengeance against those who put him in the slammer. Along the way he finds inner peace, presumably by murdering a lot of people.

Polaris Pictures' Producer Jeremy Wall Read More »from Nicolas Cage freakishly toned in bizzare poster

Red Bull, Oliver Twist and parkour are three things that should never mix. And yet here we are.

Variety have reported that Red Bull Media House have signed on to produce ‘Twist’, a 3D re-telling of the classic Charles Dickens tale set in the present day world of free-running.

It sounds like something a random word generator would throw up.

The project will centre on the novel’s Fagin Gang, who use their parkour skills to pull off a series of art thefts, because... why not?

About as Dickensian as a ‘Transformers’ marathon, Pure Grass Films plans to start pre-production on ‘Twist’ in January.

Next up: War and Peace set in an American high school... in 3D!