The Lone Ranger Trailer

UK Release Date: 9th August 2013.

Stars: Gore Verbinski (director), Arnie Hammer, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, William Fichtner, Tom Wilkinson, James Badge Dale

Plot: Native American spirit warrior Tonto recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid, a man of the law, into a legend of justice.

Almost everything about this trailer is poor. Right from the start with the awfully boring voice over to the minuscule action scenes that tell us absolutely nothing about the characters or story. When I watch a trailer I want to be impressed and made to look forward to a film, I want to be told something about the characters or the plot that gives me indication to watch; I don’t want to just see Johnny Depp looking up from under a train.

The only good thing that comes of this trailer is that Helena Bonham Carter actually looks as though she belongs in this setting which is more than can be said for any of the other main actors that feature in this minute and a half trailer. It’s a risk putting Arnie Hammer as the lead man seeing as though he’s not been a lead before (the same risk earlier this year with Taylor Kitsch cost Disney millions) and I can’t help but feel that Johnny Depp is miscast and I think that it might get pretty annoying hearing him through the entirety of the film with that accent.

To me it looks as though Disney have another flop on their hands. This does nothing to inspire the fun or the great sotrytelling that Disney films are usually associated with. When promo pictures for The Lone Ranger were first released they were met with negativity, the same has happened with the trailer on internet forums. Oh dear.

The Coen Brothers Bring You ‘Gambit’

UK Release Date: 21st November 2012

Stars: Michael Hoffman (director), Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Cameron Diaz, Stanley Tucci

Plot: An art curator decides to seek revenge on his abusive boss by conning him into buying a fake Monet, but his plan requires the help of an eccentric and unpredictable Texas rodeo queen.

Unfortunately, this is not a trailer for a film based around the universally popular X-Men character of the same name, even though if you type ‘Gambit trailer’ into Youtube you will just be forced to watch Taylor Kitsch as Gambit for a few seconds. What this Gambit actually is is a remake of the 1966 Michael Caine film and this trailer is bound to put a smile on anyone’s face.

Written by Joel and Ethan Coen you are guaranteed a hit really, it just seems a shame that they’re not actually directing this one. But since the script is from them you can anticipate lots of humour and great characters. Michael Hoffman’s most recent film was The Last Station which managed to get Oscar nominations for both Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer, so maybe Hoffman can once again get the best out of his cast here.

The trailer for Gambit gives us plenty to look forward to in terms of a charming-as-ever Colin Firth and a hilarious and naked Alan Rickman; it also gives us something not to look forward to: Cameron Diaz putting on a ridiculously annoying accent as if she wasn’t irritating enough already! Luckily, the trailer puts across a suave sense of style and sophistication which Colin Firth can carry single handedly, but it looks as though Alan Rickman will be allowed to let loose and will be the cause of much laughter come the end of November.

Savages Looks Nothing Short of Brilliance.

UK Release Date: 28th September 2012.

From acclaimed director Oliver Stone comes Savages, the story of two young marijuana growers Ben and Chon who face off against a Mexican cartel who have kidnapped their shared girlfriend.

The cast is a stellar one indeed featuring star after star. Taylor Kitsch headlines the film and despite his recent flops this one could buck the trend. Before, with John Carter and Battleship you could tell that they were never going to do that well, there was just something about them, whereas I think Savages looks a lot better than the both of them. Aaron Johnson looks almost unrecognisable as Ben, a marijuana growing graduate of the University of California. The rest of the cast has more stars in it than a pack of Milky Way Magic Stars: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Salma Hayek, Benecio Del Toro, Blake Lively and Emile Hirsch, a fine cast indeed.

Savages is a crime thriller and audiences never get bored of the crime genre and everyone loves an exciting thriller and it looks as though Oliver Stone has captured the essence of the genres brilliant, although just a sneak peak the trailer provides great excitement and gives fans something to really look forward to.

The trailer itself introduces us to the three main characters and their unusual relationship in which the two men share Blake Lively’s character as she is the girlfriend to both of them. It is her narration that informs us who the characters are and tell us that even though she is narrating, it doesn’t mean she makes it out of the story alive (a good bit of dialogue delivered badly in the trailer, if it’s in the movie it better be more dramatic) but this provides an interesting story either way and Savages could be Stone’s next big hit!

Why Can’t Taylor Kitsch Catch a Break?

Taylor Kitsch is not having a year to remember by any stretch of the imagination. So far in 2012 he has headlined two huge box office flops; John Carter and Battleship. With Savages coming out later this year this could be his last chance to crack Hollywood as a leading man. It could have all been so different for Taylor Kitsch.

Kitsch’s first major role was in television show Friday Night Lights and, despite not having a high viewership it went down very well with critics and, the odd episodes I saw, I really enjoyed it; Kitsch himself was praised for his performance as the hard drinking and womanising running back Tim Riggins. It was his performance on the show that got him his big chances in Hollywood in the first place, so he must have some quality as an actor.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine was Kitsch’s introduction to mainstream cinema audiences in the role of fan favourite X-men character, Gambit. This was only a smaller part in an ensemble cast and although the film was heavily criticised (especially by comic book fans) I thought Kitsch portrayed Gambit well and it’s a shame he won’t be reprising the role for The Wolverine.

John Carter of Mars was Taylor Kitsch’s big chance. It was hugely budgeted by Disney and prolifically marketed yet for one reason or another it just didn’t have enough pull to draw in audiences and cost Disney huge losses (which thankfully are now being recovered by The Avengers). Battleship was a chance for Kitsch to win back fans and critics with another starring role in a big budget film and yet this film failed again, largely because of the success of The Avengers. I think anything released at the same time as The Avengers was never going to do as well as it could have done another month.

Later on this year Taylor Kitsch is playing the lead role in Oliver Stone’s Savages. Stone is a well acclaimed director and the rest of the cast includes Aaron Johnson, Benicio del Toro, John Travolta and Uma Thurman so these factors could make Savages a success and bring Kitsch to public prominence which I think he deserves. Before casting Taylor Kitsch in the lead role Stone asked to see 30 minutes of footage from Battleship to get an idea of how Kitsch could handle being a leading man and something obviously impressed Stone enough to cast him.

I think that Taylor Kitsch is a good actor and deserves a proper chance. Perhaps it was a bit unfair throwing him in at the deep end in films with huge budgets because huge budgets tend to take away from actors performances and so people will see Kitsch as a failure because of the loss of money rather than his performances. If he started with movies that were more low budget then he would have had a better chance at making it as a leading man; it would have been helpful to build up an audience first before throwing him in as a lead action hero. However, I don’t think this is his fault, it is that of the studios.

Savages could be Kitsch’s last chance at being a leading man without having to start again because with potentially three huge flops with his name on it in the space of a year will not look good on his CV.

Why Did ‘John Carter’ flop?

John Carter of Mars (as it was named originally before becoming simply ‘John Carter‘) was meant to be the next huge franchise. At least, that was what Disney had hoped for anyway. Disney have had great success with the average Pirates of the Caribbean franchise but have failed to replicate this in recent years with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Tron: Legacy and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. John Carter, the budget suggests, was thought to be a sure fire hit.

Unfortunately, Disney has recently announced in a statement to shareholders that John Carter has made substantial losses. £126 million to be exact. So why did the film fail? Here are a few possible reasons.

Taylor Kitsch had a lot of expectations thrust upon him.

 

The Cast: The films boasts some recognisable names: Thomas Haden Church, Dominic West, Mark Strong, Willem Dafoe and Bryan Cranston and usually this bodes well, but as good as they are none of them are that familiar with huge blockbusters (minus Dafoe in the first Spider-man film) or have a lot of mainstream cinema fans. The big risk was putting a relatively unknown actor in the lead role; Taylor Kitsch had a small part in X-men Origins: Wolverine but is best known for his role in television series Friday Night Lights. My point is, he is not a leading man, he is barely even a supporting man. He is not someone that Disney should have rested such huge expectations on.

 

The Marketing: This movie was given a lot of promotion, there have been trailers all over the television and internet for weeks, maybe even months. But none of the trailers really showed the audience what the film was about, there was nothing that could appeal to the audience or pull them in, nothing to hook viewers. Also, the name change from ‘John Carter of Mars‘ to just ‘John Carter‘ was a mistake in my opinion. At least with the reference to Mars in the title there is something different, it might interest science fiction fans more than just a person’s name would. The film could be about anyone!

Andrew Stanton: One of Pixar's finest but a risky choice?

The Director: This is not an insult to Andrew Stanton at all, more of an acknowledgement of the risk that was taken in his appointment. Stanton co-directed A Bug’s Life and directed himself Finding Nemo and Wall-E; all three are terrific films and he did a good job on them. But there is a difference between directing an animated film and directing a huge scale, big budget blockbuster. It was a risk taken by Disney, but if you’re not going to have an accomplished leading man then surely an accomplished live-action director is a must.

It’s All Been Done Before: The books on which John Carter is based were written over 70 years ago. They have influenced much of modern science fiction and therefore offers nothing new to the film scene anymore. Avatar, for example, used a similar storyline but did it on a much bigger scale. The characters were stronger, the inhabitants of another planet looked better and all in all the special effects were like nothing anyone had ever seen before. Newer science fiction, whilst based on John Carter, has left the source material behind leaving nothing fresh for that audience to see here.

Obviously there are more reasons that John Carter has flopped and these are just a few of my theories behind the huge losses. Disney may be slightly worried by the losses at the minute but with Pixar’s Brave coming up and Marvel’s The Avengers also arriving in cinemas over the next couple of months they can be in no doubt that they will make that money back easily.

‘Out of the Furnace’ Cast Coming Together and Looking Great!

It has been announced today that Casey Affleck has been cast in upcoming thriller Out of the Furnace in which he will be playing the brother of Christian Bale who has been attached to the project for a while.

Out of the Furnace, scheduled for a 2014 release, follows Slim (Bale) who has recently been released from prison and plans to marry his girlfriend. Instead Slim becomes embroiled in a quest for revenge when his brother is murdered after getting involved in a gambling racket.

Being as though the story outline states that Affleck’s character will die it is unclear how much he will feature in the film. Also in the running for this part were Channing Tatum, Taylor Kitsch and Garrett Hedlund so it’s safe to say that Affleck definitely deserved it compared to his competitors. He is one of the finest talents around and is very under rated and understated as an actor.

Just a couple of days ago Zoe Saldana was announced as a new addition to the Out of the Furnace cast, playing Slim’s ex-wife. These two new additions along with Bale make the cast look very exciting and almost certain to be a hit already.

Robert Duvall and Viggo Mortensen have both been rumoured to be in the film, however no official casting announcement has been mde regarding either of these two actors. However, they would both be a welcome addition to the ensemble.

John Carter of Mars

UK Release Date: 9th March 2012.

There has been a lot of hype about this film within the comic-book community, despite it being based on a novel. The story follows John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), a civil war veteran who is transported to Mars, or Barsoom as it is known. Here, he becomes involved in the conflict between the various nations of the planet. Carter then takes it upon himself to save the people of Barsoom.

It is clear that Disney is attempting to find another franchise that will make them as much money as the Pirates of the Caribbean series has so far (despite now owning Marvel and milking the merchandise as much as possible) and where they failed in 2010 with the Prince of Persia film, John Carter may just succeed. The visuals look great and the special effects used on the creatures that we see in the trailer look terrific.

The cast is not full of stars but it does carry some recognisable names: Willem Dafoe, Mark Strong, Thomas Haden Church and Lynn Collins among others, whilst Taylor Kitsch gives his audition to become a Hollywood leading man after his small part in the dreadful X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Andrew Stanton is directing and has co-wrote the screenplay and he has a very successful career behind him so hopefully this will be another great film that he can add to his list.