Back in the late 1990s, you only had two options for discussing movies. You could hang out with friends in the parking lot or late night waffle hut afterward, complaining about nipples on Batman, or you could go online to sites like Aint It Cool and Movie Poop Shoot to give unbridled, anonymous opinions slathered with as much cursing vitriol as you pleased. That’s what the internet has given us. A tool to help social uprisings, and a forum for hiding your identity while calling Joel Schumacher a “douchenozzle.” That wide-ranging usefulness is a thing of beauty, and Kevin Smith is seeking to tap into it with his new show, Spoilers. The set up is simple: Smith will amass a crowd of 50 movie fans to watch a film and then discuss it afterward. Smith will play ringmaster, and members of the opinion-loaded audience will get to share to their heart’s content. In short? It’s the comments section come to life. Of course, that’s not all the show has up its sleeves.

Can you hear it? Out there in the distance, on a cold crag of rock with the wind whipping at its monstrous back is a marketing department VP howling at the empty night. Battleship – in all of its $209m budget plus probably $200m more in marketing – was hoping for the kind of win at the box office that would signal the go-ahead for two more movies and the trappings that come with franchises. It did not succeed. As proof that sticking feathers up your butt and calling yourself a chicken doesn’t work, the Peter Berg-directed pile of messy noises made a paltry $25m this weekend, coming in at #2. A fitting, metaphorical place. It’s not surprising that The Avengers ended up back in the top spot, this time earning another $55m – bringing its domestic take closer to the half-billion mark and making its grand total right at $1.8b (with a b).

The most striking thing about the new Skyfall trailer is the beauty. Yes, there’s the beast. The brawn. Daniel Craig still looks hulking and dark as James Bond, but the trailer shows off some truly gorgeous shots without giving them all away. That’s what happens when you hire Sam Mendes to direct and Roger Deakins to director photography. The latest entry in the Bond franchise sees M’s past coming to haunt everyone and 007 attempting to kill the people trying to kill him. This time, you know, it’s personal. Now see if you can spot any shaky-cam. Check out the trailer for yourself (as if you’ve bothered to read any of this anyway):

Duncan Jones burst onto the scene three years ago with his debut film, Moon, a quiet slice of science-fiction perfection that featured Sam Rockwell as a lone space station astronaut counting down the days to his return to Earth. Jones followed that up two years later with the sci-fi thriller Source Code. It was a far more traditional film than its predecessor, but there was still lots of speculative fun to be found. Sophomore slump successfully averted the question became what would Jones do next? He was rumored for several projects (including the Superman reboot) and has spoke openly of his plans to return to the sci-fi genre with his original script, Mute. Per Variety, Jones has signed on to direct a biopic about 007 creator, Ian Fleming. The film will follow Andrew Lycett‘s biography “Ian Fleming, The Man Behind James Bond,” but there’s no confirmation yet if it will focus on a singular section of Fleming’s life or be more all-encompassing. Fleming worked briefly as a journalist before finding his niche in British Naval Intelligence during WWII, and later went on to create the most famous fictional spy in the world.

We’re next going to see mega-talent multi-hyphenate funnyman Simon Pegg have “a fantastic fear of everything” in, uh, a film called A Fantastic Fear of Everything, but he’ll soon go on a “search for happiness” in a film called, you guessed it, Hector and The Search for Happiness (ha, fooled you!). Of course, Pegg also has both the Star Trek sequel and The World’s End lined up before that (and, oh, thank heaven for that), but this is a news piece about Search for Happiness, so here we go. News from Cannes (told you to get used to it) announces that Pegg will star in Peter Chelsom‘s (Serendipity, Shall We Dance, and yow! Hannah Montana: The Movie) film, billed as a “drama comedy” (perhaps a “dramedy”?) about a wacky London psychiatrist. Chelsom has adapted the film’s script with Tinker Lindsay from the bestselling novel by François Lelord. The film centers on Pegg’s Hector, “an eccentric yet irresistible London psychiatrist in crisis: his patients are just not getting any happier! He’s going nowhere. Then one day, armed with buckets of courage and an almost child-like curiosity, Hector breaks out of his sheltered vacuum of a life into a global quest to find out if happiness exists. More importantly, if it exists for Hector. And so begins a colorful, exotic, dangerous and hysterical journey.”

The arrival of a new Jackie Chan trailer hasn’t really been something worth noting for a while now as the past decade of his career has been heavy with (mostly) inferior Hollywood productions. His hometown productions fared better with films like New Police Story, Little Big Soldier and Shaolin offering up some solid action alongside stronger than usual stories. But now we’ve gotten a one-two punch of Chan-related news, and both parts are equally interesting… ven if only the second half is actually welcome. Chan has announced that he’s retiring from action films. Or at least, he won’t be taking lead roles in big action movies anymore. I’ve been fighting and doing action films all my life, you’ve got to find a point to stop. With this movie I’m the director, I’m the writer, I’m the producer. So okay, I think it’s a good time to announce that it’s my last big action movie. I would still do action movies but not a big one like this.” Chinese Zodiac follows the adventures of a renowned thief/treasure hunter who’s searching for a set of ancient Chinese sculptures crafted in the likeness of the zodiac animals. The trailer fails to mention it, but Chan has previously disclosed that this is in fact the long-awaited third film in his absolutely kick-ass Armour of God series (aka Operation Condor series here in the US). Check out the trailer for what appears to be Chan’s final all-out action movie.

Co-workers! Pffft! Amirite? Yeah! You know what I mean! It looks like Elizabeth Banks feels me too, as she is set to star in Alan Ball‘s dark comedy What’s The Matter With Margie? as a “downtrodden” office drone who snaps and kills her co-workers. Fun! Deadline Henderson reports that Daniel Minahan will be directing the film, which comes from producer Balls’ own original screenplay. Not much else is known about the project at this time, but so far, it sounds like a perfect fit. Banks has long been due her own comedy vehicle, and she’s terrifyingly adept at going off the rails in hilarious fashion (her freak-out in this week’s What to Expect When You’re Expecting is one of the film’s rare bright spots, and she’s also done it in films like Wet Hot American Summer, The Details, and The 40 Year Old Virgin). Ball’s brand of dark American humor is a solid fit for this film, which is (shockingly) only his third screenplay. Yet, considering his first was American Beauty, we’re lucky to be getting another film from such a talented scribe. While this will be only Minahan’s second feature, the director has a lot of great TV gigs under his belt – including Deadwood, John From Cincinnati, Game of Thrones, and two Ball properties – Six Feet Under and True Blood.

It’s not every day that press releases are issued that refer to Susan Sarandon as a “devious criminal,” but that’s where we’re at when it comes to Jonathan Mostow‘s Still of Night, a project that sounds compelling just by virtue of those two little words. News from Cannes (duh) reports that Exclusive Media will finance and produce the new thriller, which will see Sarandon’s criminal character making life really hard for Michelle Monaghan, who will portray a woman with more than enough trouble on her plate already. Mostow (Terminator 3, U-571, Surrogates) has penned the script himself, which is described (quite effusively) as “a paranoia thriller that builds to a pulse-pounding crescendo, Still of Night is a smart, stylish ride packed with shocking twists that will give you nightmares – because it could actually happen to you.” What? What, really? No! Tell me more!

After The King’s Speech won the Oscar for Best Picture and got multiple theatrical releases, it was always just a matter of time before Hollywood tried to capitalize on its success by releasing a whole slate of King George VI movies. So here we are, getting the release of the trailer for the first of these films, Hyde Park on Hudson. It’s not quite as exciting as the inevitable news that King George will be joining The Avengers in the summer of 2014, but for now it will have to do. Seriously though, all joking about King George showing up on the cover of “Tiger Beat” aside, everyone is actually looking forward to Hyde Park on Hudson for one reason: the chance to see Bill Murray play Franklin Roosevelt. So, how does he do? From what we can tell from this first look at the film, it seems like he does wonderfully. He’s not quite doing an F.D.R. impression, but he’s not just being Bill Murray either. Most importantly, it seems as if Murray’s version of Roosevelt is a charismatic troublemaker – something of a Woody Woodpecker archetype – who’s not just being portrayed as a historical figure and a powerful man, but instead as a multi-faceted individual with his own quirks, hang-ups, and small pleasures. Quite simply, it appears as if getting the chance to watch Murray live in the skin of this character for a couple of hours is going to be a terribly entertaining experience.

With Brave, Pixar’s latest film, not hitting theaters for another month, the studio is still looking to capitalize on some early summer dollars, particularly when it comes to the impending Memorial Day holiday weekend. The three-day weekend has a surprisingly slim release schedule that’s not particularly kid-friendly (its only two wide releases are Men in Black III and Chernobyl Diaries), so Pixar’s decision to re-release four of their most popular films exclusively to AMC Theatres for the weekend is a total no-brainer. From May 25 to May 28, select AMC locations will be showing Toy Story 3, Ratatouille, Up, and Wall-E on a rotating schedule as part of the “Pixar Summer Movie Weekend.” Each film will also come with a classic short from Pixar and an exclusive new look at Brave. While it would be nice if Americans used the upcoming three-day holiday to, I don’t know, go outside?, there are worse things to do with your kids (or your adults) than to take them to check out some Pixar classics in theaters. Some of these films haven’t been in theaters for nearly five years (Ratatouille specifically), so this offer will likely provide a first chance for some tiny Pixar fans to see their favorites on the big screen, and that’s a pretty charming prospect. Also, if you go to see Wall-E in an Austin-area theater, the odds are high that you’ll see the Head Reject snuffling into his beard.

When the first trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming male stripper drama, Magic Mike, came out, it painted Channing Tatum’s titular character as a dreamer whose side job was at odds with his aspirations for becoming an artist and finding true love. It seemed like the movie was a fun excuse to have a bunch of ripped dudes take their shirts off in order to sell tickets to the boy-crazy segment of the film-going population, sure, but it also looked like a story that had heart and the potential to connect with audiences on a deeper level. This new international trailer is a little bit different. Its focus is on Alex Pettyfer’s character making his debut in the world of male stripping, and it doesn’t make even momentary mention of anyone’s post-stripping goals. Basically, it makes Magic Mike look like a movie where, for a couple of hours, girls will be shrieking and guys will be wiggling. I guess abs translate much easier than dreams to a multilingual audience.

When it was said that “there can be only one,” obviously the original Highlander movie was referring to mystical, sword-wielding immortals and not movies about mystical, sword-wielding immortals because, despite the fact that we were down to one by the end of that first film, sequels were made. And now Lionsgate-Summit seems to be well on their way to making a reboot a reality. They’ve already got Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) on board to direct and a script from screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, so, after a little casting, things should be good to go. In an earlier press release announcing the project Summit described this new Highlander’s plot by saying, “In Highlander, after centuries of dueling to survive against others like him, Connor MacLeod, an immortal Scottish swordsman must confront the last of his kind, a murderously brutal barbarian, who lusts for the Prize.” So, basically this is a straight remake of the first film, and though Christopher Lambert was still looking pretty spry the last time I saw him, he’s definitely aged out of playing a hunky immortal. Simply put, we’re gonna need a younger Connor MacLeod.

Suspense novelist Patricia Highsmith will forever be known as the scribe behind “Strangers on a Train,” which has been adapted for the big screen over two dozen times (and most memorably by Hitchcock himself), but Highsmith also wrote another seminal work of fiction whose influence arguably surpassed “Strangers.” Two years after publishing “Strangers,” Highsmith adopted the pseudonym Claire Morgan to pen a very important piece of homosexual fiction – “The Price of Salt.” Despite the book’s ground-breaking portrayal of a lesbian relationship in the 1950s, the book has yet to yield a full-scale cinematic adaption – but that’s changed now. News from Cannes (our new favorite kind of news!) reports that John Crowley (who previously directed the achingly beautiful and deeply sad Boy A) will direct a big screen take on the book, now titled just Carol for the film, that will star Cate Blanchett and Mia Wasikowska as the lovers, Therese and Carol.

What is Movie News After Dark? Tonight, it’s hanging on by a thread, as we enter Day Four of Dear Leader Neil Miller’s Mental Health Break Staycation. While he’s off eating the finest BBQ that FSR’s hometown of Austin, Texas has to offer and Instagraming all the way, the rest of us are slaving over our keyboards and monitors to bring you the best content we possibly can. Of course, for tonight’s round of MNAD, that includes kitty GIFs, Battleship love letters, and something about the world’s most green soda missing the boat on a marketing opportunity and saddling up with the wrong superhero (to super-sad effect). It’s Movie News After Dark! And, man, is it tired. I won’t bury the lede here, folks, some people love Peter Berg‘s Battleship. Our Cole Abaius is not one of them. But guess who is! Huffington Post’s Mike Ryan! The scribbler has penned a love letter to the film, and while I can’t quite agree with the sentiment, he brings up some interesting and articulate points. And, as Ryan is both a friend and a colleague, I can assure you – he’s not joking and he’s not trolling.

After Eli Roth brought us Cabin Fever in 2002 and then the first Hostel film in 2005, everyone just assumed that he was going to be one of the big horror directors going forward for the next decade. But then he just made a Hostel sequel in 2007 and kind of…stopped. In recent years he’s been spending most of his time producing and taking various acting jobs, with little indication when or if he would ever return to directing. But today that has changed. A press release from Exclusive Media and Worldview Entertainment has announced that the two companies have teamed with Roth to bring us his next foray into the horror genre, The Green Inferno. Little is known about the project at this point, but quotes from both Worldview CEO Christopher Woodrow and Exclusive Media executive Alex Walton specifically tout Roth’s past financial success, so one can assume that the director won’t be straying too far from the slasher film formula that brought him big box office dollars with Cabin Fever and Hostel.

These days we kind of take it for granted that Liam Neeson is the biggest badass on the planet. But, once upon a time, he was just a budding action star, an actor making a transition from the dramatic roles of his youth to the more throat-punching direction his career has taken recently. Then Taken happened, and suddenly he became the biggest action star on the planet. That modestly budgeted actioner took in $226m worldwide, becoming such a surprise hit that we now find ourselves in the position of eagerly awaiting the sequel. This week, “Entertainment Weekly” is taking advantage of the anticipation by debuting a few stills from the movie, as well as having a little chat with Neeson about what danger his character is going to face this time around. When asked about how Taken 2 ties in to the end of the first film, Neeson explained, “The action is supposed to take place about a year or a year and a half after the first story. It’s a very clever sequel with the usual thrills and spills, but the ante is upped quite a bit in this one.”

A sequel to Ridley Scott‘s ground-breaking take on Philip K. Dick‘s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” (that would be Blade Runner) has been bandied about for years and years, to the point that most people assumed it would never get made. But with Scott having one hell of a sci-fi resurgence as of late, thanks to his upcoming Prometheus, Blade Runner 2 is no longer just a dream. And it’s getting more firepower behind it than we could have ever hoped for. According to a new press release from Warner Bros. (via ComingSoon), Hampton Fancher is in talks to reunite with Scott to “develop the idea for the original screenplay” for the sequel. Fancher, of course, first conceived of what would become Blade Runner with Scott years ago, but back then, they envisioned it as the first in a series of films, not just a single film. How funny that their idea has finally come around. Fancher is also an actor and a fiction writer, and he’s penned some other screenplays, such as The Minus Man. The release also confirms that the new film will indeed be a sequel to the first, and that it will take place “some years after” the original Blade Runner. With Fancher’s return nearly secured, who else might we expect to come back for more?

Larry David has reigned as the king of cable comedy for quite a few years now due to the continued success of his HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm. His largely improvised look at what it’s like to be a rich, curmudgeonly Hollywood type getting in fights with everyone, everywhere he goes, is a comedy goldmine, and has proved that his network success with Seinfeld was in no way a fluke. To this point though, David hasn’t been able to successfully make the transition to being a feature film presence. When David takes a film role, more often than not, we end up with something like Whatever Works, the Woody Allen film that was probably his least acclaimed work of the past decade. But, if news being reported today is to be believed, Larry’s luck might be about to change. THR has a report that David is currently in negotiations to star in a new comedy from Superbad director Greg Mottola, that’s coming from a treatment by Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer, and David Mandel – all writers who David is familiar with from their work on Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Reportedly, the still-untitled comedy is going to be largely improv-based – much like David’s current television work – with a loosely scripted plot that’s being kept under wraps used as a framework for heat-of-the-moment riffs.

Another adaptation of Dune has been kicking around for a little while now. The last we heard of it was Pierre Morel (Taken) quickly joining and then leaving the project, a project which Paramount soon after dropped. Four years ago a genuinely enticing filmmaker got attached to finally make it happen: Peter Berg. Berg, for those of you who don’t know, has his gigantic board game adaptation Battleship opening in theaters tomorrow. The Kingdom and Friday Night Lights director isn’t the first person to spring to mind when you think Dune, but Berg was certainly the most interesting director whose name was mentioned. The director can certainly do epic and big, but could he do fantasy? Either way, his plans fit nicely into his signature style: gritty and rough. When asked about what his plans for the film were, Berg told us, “My feeling was, I wanted to make a grittier, rougher film than the [David] Lynch movie. My experience with Dune was just a really great adventure story, and it was muscular, violent, and intense. Obviously there was a very cerebral, mystical, almost-supernatural component to it, and mind communication, and the Bene Gesserits were kind of a bunch of badass witches. At its core, I wanted to make something that felt more like Star Wars, where it just had more grit to it.”

There is absolutely no place for kidnappers in the world as long as Liam Neeson is still around. After jump-starting his new career as movie badass for hire with Taken (soon to be followed by Taken 2: More Takener), Neeson has a found a nice little niche for his work when he’s not busy being nominated for Oscars and stuff. That niche? Ass-kicking bad dudes (and, on occasion, bad wolves). And, in Neeson’s cinematic world, there is no one as bad as kidnappers. Coming out of Cannes is the news that will star in A Walk Among the Tombstones, a film about a guy who (guess what!) goes after some nasty kidnappers. Seriously, kidnappers, put away your duct tape and tiny little magazine letters, it’s over for you. Scott Frank (who wrote Out of Sight, Get Shorty, and Minority Report, and made his directing debut with The Lookout) will write and direct the film, which is based on Lawrence Block‘s “Matt Scudder” book series. There are currently seventeen Scudder books, so if the film is a success, it could swiftly turn into a new franchise. The film is described as such: “Formerly a cop with the NYPD, now an unlicensed private eye and a recovering alcoholic haunted by past mistakes, Matt Scudder is hired to find the kidnapped wife of a drug dealer.  He operates just outside the law where the police don’t go to track down the kidnappers, who he discovers have been involved in multiple kidnappings and brutal [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]