News of the Week (05/12/12) – Damon, Foxx & Schwarzenegger

“In a race against time, a crew of art historians and museum curators unite to recover renown works of art stolen by Nazis before Hitler destroys it” – that is the true story synopsis of The Monuments Men, to be directed by George Clooney. Clooney will also be starring in the film alongside a rather impressive cast: Daniel Craig, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Hugh Bonneville and Bob Balaban. The latest big name actor to join the project is good friend and previous co-star of Clooney’s Matt Damon. Clooney is also co-writing the feature and it is set to start shooting in Europe at the beginning of 2013.

It has long been confirmed speculation, although not actually confirmed, that Jamie Foxx would be playing the main villain Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Well this week it has been announced that what everyone already knew IS true. Foxx seems very excited to be playing the role and he should make for a good villain. Another piece of casting news was announced this week regarding the sequel and that is that Dane DeHaan, of Chronicle fame, will indeed be playing Harry Osborn. Like Foxx, DeHaan has been linked with the role for a while now so it is good to get some solid confirmation about it.

 

Arnold Schwarzenegger has made a swift return to acting since leaving his post as the governor of California, starring in The Expendables 2 and having an incredible four films slated for release in 2013. However, he will also be returning to Conan for The Legend of Conan. The Legend of Conan will not be a reboot or a remake but a catch-up with the old character, a greater hero story apparently. It will completely ignore the Jason Momoa update that was released earlier this year and absolutely flopped. Sylvester Stallone, a good friend of Arnie’s, has relatively good success when he brought back his famous characters (Rocky and Rambo) to the big screen a few years ago and Schwarzenegger will be hoping to do the same with Conan.

 

And how could I ignore the two posters that were released this week for two of the most hyped movies of the next year: Star Trek Into Darkness and Man of Steel.

‘Iron Sky’ Trailer introduces Nazis from Space!

UK Release Date: 20th April 2012.

Iron Sky is a science fiction comedy war film (packing in the genres). Set in the year 2018, it tells a story of German Nazis who, after being defeated in World War II, fled to the moon. Here, they built a space fleet and prepared to return to Earth and conquer it as they tried to before. The events of Iron Sky is what happens when the Nazis try that.

Iron Sky doesn’t feature any actors/actresses that mainstream film viewers will be familiar with. The names attached to this project include Julia Dietze, Gotz Otto, Christopher Kirby and Tilo Pruckner.

The synopsis seems ridiculous, of course it does. But here we have a film that does not take itself too seriously and never intends to, that much is obvious by giving the Nazis the line “we come in peace”. The trailer is very cleverly made, in my opinion, as it opens much the same as alien invasion science fiction films before revealing the ‘aliens’ in fact to be Nazis from the moon. It sounds so wrong, but the trailer looks so right.

The comedy elements in the trailer work well, the action scenes look good, the special effects look really good and the trailer on a whole really sells the film well. Iron Sky will not be getting a wide release and has not really been publicised at all, but I think it could turn out to be a very good film indeed.