Nicholas Cage stars as Ghost Rider in a movie directed by Mark Stephen Johnson (“Daredevil”) and written by Johnson and David Goyer (“Blade,” “Batman Begins”).
Get the teaser and international trailer here.

Some theaters ran this new trailer with DaVinci this weekend, but this is the reel intended for audiences outside of North America.
It has a lot of footage we’ve seen, but paced much better, a little slower and building up to a new final shot that is really quite shocking and cool.
You’ve got 2 ways to get it as well: Superman Returns International Trailer (.mov download) or SR Youtube streaming(kinda low res, but loads quick)

You can all add another checkmark on your list of movies that never needed sequels. I hadn’t heard about this until Rabban posted it in our forums, but apparently theres a third Fast and the Furious movie coming out, Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Release date looks like 6/16/2006.

I really have nothing else to say about that.

The big big news is that Latino Review got a hold on the script to Transformers and gave it an A+. As is standard, they only really cover the first act (to keep some surprises in), but the description of the action is enough to make me hopeful.
If you read that script review you may come across some distressing names like “energon cube” being used to reference what is obviously the Matrix, and previous posts to (producer) Don Murphy’s board suggested things like Devastator being just a tank. Michael Bay has swung in to allay those fears via his site:

Many of the names in the script are aliases. The only people that know the real names of many of these characters are the COO of Hasbro, their corporate lawyer and myself….So rest assured AKA Devastator, is really not Devastator.

The Fantastic Four sequel (why?) has also shifted release dates off the big TF opening weekend of July 4, 2007.
This upcoming July 4th, we’ll see a teaser poster AND trailer hit theaters.

Last night’s “Smallville” had the first Superman Returns television commerical. For those who missed it, Aint-It-Cool has multiple formats you can stream online.

The footage itself contains mostly footage from the prior teasers released to theaters and the internet some time ago. There is one new shot that comes so quick you might miss it. To avoid spoiling anyone, I’ve provided a screengrab after the jump.

Also of note is the announcement that Superman Returns will debut on June 30th in IMAX 3D.  Why, there just happens to be an IMAX down the road from me…
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Yahoo has an interesting article on how a number of this summer’s coming movies are having toy lines made. The article focuses on the DaVinci Code and how it relates to last summer’s Star Wars toy ‘success’. I say success in quotes because Hasbro just reported a large loss and blamed it solely on sluggish sales of Star Wars toys. The article also makes note of how awful things went when the toy line came out for the Phanton Menace when it turned out that it was not well received by audiences. They also mention how poorly Last Action Hero translated to a toy line and a number of the other movies coming out that will get the toy aisle treatment including Superman Returns, Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest, and Pixar’s Cars.

It was interesting to note how X3 was seemingly absent from the entire article.

1 was awesome. 2 was enjoyable, though instantly forgettable. I saw no reason not to give 3 a try!

I went into the theatre expecting a nice fun action movie and not much else. It totally delievered on that level. Living up to it’s successors Mission Impossible III is an actioned packed guaranteed good time (not an actual guarantee).

When it comes to fun explosions, car chases, people jumping from helicopters and stuff like that I’m not generally a sucker for it but in this case I was at the edge of my seat from begining to end. On top of that there’s just all sorts of fun spy stuff. Messing with cameras, costumes, scaling walls, skydiving, retinal scans and all sorts of craZy stuff. It’s like James Bond only not stupid, boring or British.

Cruise’s character, Ethan Hunt, really steps it up in this movie. So much so that I’m confident in saying Ethan Hunt could kick that pansy Jack Bauer’s ass any day of the week. Not only does he run like only Tommy seem to (very reminiscent of Minority report at times) but he jumps around, gets all blown up, shoots people, beats people up, nails a hot chick and acts super cool all the way through it. Tom is phenomenal in this movie. He’s been a real craZy freak with the Katie thing and his cult but when it gets down to it there’s one thing that distinguishes him from the likes of John Travolta and Kirsty Alley and that’s the fact that he’s a good actor. Whether it be in acting like an mental patient or in his latest movie we can always count on Cruise to put everything he’s got into a performance and that enthusiam is never more appropriate than in a movie of this tone.

The rest of the cast is also solid. Ving Rhames’s character is a nice favourite to see back. Didn’t really see any repeats with the others but the newcomers were all solid. New spy guys Larry Fishburne and Billy Crudup were interesting and well played. His love interest was smokin’ hot! Above all else the performance which really blew my mind was Philip Seymour Hoffman as villain of the week. He just came off as so mean and totally in control of every situation. He’s come a long way since stealing a kiss from Marky Mark.

One beef I had with this flick, which I understand is a problem with Abrams in Alias and that I have seen briefly in Lost, is this super annoying flash forward scene he shoves at the starting of the movie. Watching this flick was like watching Payback after having been exposed to the all too revealing trailer. I’m seeing things develop and I know exactly where the story is supposed to go but now I’m just guessing at ways in which the story will lead me there. I much prefer to just learn the story as it goes along especially when the flash forward is quite late in the movie. This wasn’t like American Beauty where it was so vague that I forget it happens until it comes back. It was just too much.

That being said I still think this was a really solid movie. A great thrill ride for people who just like getting really into a fun action movie. If you like Mission Impossible 1, Alias, Felicity or Tom Cruise you really need to check this puppy out.

PS: Tom Cruise is not gay.

Marvel.com has a page up describing some of their future movie plans. Among the many movies on slate for Marvel, Iron Man is one of the top of their current list to get into production. They’ve taken on Jon Favreau of Swingers and Made fame to direct the Iron Man film.

Jon Favreau To Direct Iron Man

Los Angeles, CA (April 28, 2006) – Aggressively pursuing its strategy to develop and produce a new slate of feature films, Marvel Studios – a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: MVL) – has engaged director/actor/writer Jon Favreau to direct the highly anticipated big screen adaptation of Iron Man. Additionally, the studio has tapped several screenwriters to pen scripts based on some of its marquee Super Hero franchises. The projects to which screenwriters are now attached and have officially begun development include Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Ant Man, Captain America, Nick Fury and Thor. The announcement was made today by Avi Arad, Chairman of Marvel Studios.

Check out the page for more information on the franchises mentioned. Most of it is background stuff. The real announcement was having Favreau direct Iron Man.