Kenneth Branagh seems to be a fan of author Henning Mankell. First he ,adapted the author’s series of novels about policeman Kurt Wallander into a series called Wallander for the BBC, and now there’s news that he’s going to direct a feature film adapted from another Mankell book, “The Italian Shoes.” You may be wondering what The Italian Shoes is about, and I’m glad you asked, because I didn’t know either. A quick trip over to the novel’s Amazon page reveals a hunk of text that describes it like this: “Living on a tiny island entirely surrounded by ice during the long winter months, Fredrik Welin is so lost to the world that he cuts a hole in the ice every morning and lowers himself into the freezing water to remind himself that he is alive. Haunted by memories of the terrible mistake that drove him to this island and away from a successful career as a surgeon, he lives in a stasis so complete an anthill grows undisturbed in his living room. When an unexpected visitor alters his life completely, thus begins an eccentric, elegiac journey…” Perhaps that unexpected visitor is an ex-girlfriend, because according to a Variety report Branagh is very serious about getting Anthony Hopkins to play the good doctor and Judi Dench to play a former love interest of said doctor. It would make sense that a lady would be the life-changing experience. Isn’t that always the way?

Work on getting a Thor sequel in production seems to be well underway. It was just yesterday the news broke that Monster director Patty Jenkins was getting looked at very closely to direct the hammer-wielding god’s second movie, and now Entertainment Weekly has some quotes from Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige about what direction the plot will take. Once this sequel goes into production, Thor will already have furthered adventures here on Earth alongside his Avengers buddies, so according to Feige, it’s time to “take Thor literally to other worlds.” In the Norse mythology that Thor plays around in there are nine different worlds. When I looked up the nine worlds over at Marvel, I learned that three of them share the same planet as Thor’s home Asgard, one of them is where we live (Midgard), and the other four are called Jotunheim, Svartalfheim, Hel, and Muspelheim. That’s a whole mouthful of words, and a whole heap of worlds full of elves, demons, and who knows what for Thor to smash with his hammer.

More than anyone else other than probably Nic Cage, later career Anthony Hopkins seems to choose roles based on what would be the most fun to goof around with. Just recently he’s been a growling old werewolf, a demon plagued exorcist, and an all-powerful Asgardian God. For a veteran of the film world like Hopkins, who really has nothing left to prove, why not just have fun and be hammy? I love watching this guy tear into some cheese. And according to The Wrap, it looks like we’re going to be getting some more of Hopkins making goofy faces and silly noises real soon, because he’s just signed on to star in Solace, a film about a doctor who uses psychic powers to help hunt down a murderer. That sounds like fun, and seeing as the script has been written by Peter Morgan, who is best known for writing hard-hitting stuff like The Last King of Scotland and Frost/Nixon, this time we might even get some real drama to go along with our one man Anthony Hopkins circus show. The project has yet to lock down a director, but with a script from a writer with a proven track record and a big name actor attached, that shouldn’t take too long to make happen. Just as long as they choose somebody willing to let Hopkins be Hopkins, I’ll be happy. Someday somebody has to get him and Cage together for some sort of father/son project. I’m dying to see who [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]

Today’s trailer is a public service announcement for anyone out there who feels like their family is dysfunctional. Here’s the message: it’s not. Or at least, the royal family of The Lion in Winter would give it a run for its money. Some of the harshest things ever said by familial characters take place in this flick (when Katharine Hepburn talks about peeling her husband like a pear? Messed up.), and it’s all done to bombastic trumpet blasts. Hepburn and Peter O’Toole own this movie, of course, but it was also the filmic debut of Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton who tear up the screen, keeping pace with the veterans. It’s good to know that even though he broke his arm during his first film, Hopkins kept acting. Plus, legend has it that Hepburn and O’Toole would drink wine and smoke cigarettes everyday after wrapping, and it’s not a stretch to imagine that after yelling at your co-stars for hours on end, you’d need a bonding break. As proof, even this trailer gets the blood boiling.

In general, Hollywood tends to be primarily secular… that is, until it makes a movie about exorcisms. Then it suddenly finds God. With this week’s release of The Rite, it’s time to break out the communion wine and drink to another movie about a priest fighting against demons. But in this flick, we have Hannibal Lecter on our side. So let’s raise a chalice of Chianti or the spirits of your choice and get our Rite on.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr grabs his codpiece and cape, then gets hammered in the cineplex with Thor. He also suffers from wedding overload with two new movies, Something Borrowed and Jumping the Broom. Though he probably should have put his shirt back on before seeing all the chick flicks. Finally, he takes a more esoteric and educational look at the Spanish Civil War drama There Be Dragons. Spoiler alert: There are no dragons in the movie.

The summer of 2011 will see the biggest assemblage yet of superheroes onscreen with the upcoming releases of X-Men: First Class, Green Lantern, and Captain America: The First Avenger. (At least until next year when The Avengers hits theaters.) Every movie is a gamble to some degree, but these three mitigate the risk a bit in that the X-Men film is the fourth in a popular franchise and the other two both feature highly recognizable actors in the title roles. But there’s one superhero movie this summer that’s flying with a hammer in place of a safety net. The potential hurdles include a relatively unknown lead actor, a director thought to be an odd choice at best and a terrible one at worst, and a hero built on magic and fantasy. Thor is a god, an honest to god deity, and that can be a hard sell in the science-fiction and technology-filled world of Marvel films. Thor opens with a brief intro in the Southwestern US with a pair of scientists (Natalie Portman and Stellan Skarsgard) and their snarky assistant (Kat Dennings) tracking an odd weather phenomenon. They drive towards the center of the storm and accidentally collide with a figure emerging from the darkness.

UK’s “The Sun” isn’t the publication most known for its reliability and integrity, so this news should probably be taken with an entire shaker of salt, but they claim to have a source telling them that Sir Anthony Hopkins is talking to Bond producers about starring opposite Daniel Craig as the next Bond Villain. The shadowy source says, “The only stumbling block seems to be the number of films he is signing up for. There is a chance the character they want him to play could become a regular feature, like Blofeld back in the day.” That all sounds very interesting. A reoccurring villain might be just what this batch of Bond movies needs to get some of that serial storytelling excitement necessary for drawing an audience from film to film. And for Hopkins, an actor who seems increasingly content with taking showy roles and just having fun with them, being a mustache twirling bad guy in the Bond universe might just be the perfect fit. We’ve heard rumors before that Javier Bardem was also in talks to join Bond 23, most likely in the role of a villain, and this adds a little intrigue to that. With the possibility of Hopkins playing a reoccurring role, could this mean that Bardem is who they’re looking at to play his underling? Maybe Hopkins is the head of some evil organization and Bardem is his muscle? I’m not the biggest fan of this franchise in the world, but I like the direction [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]

During the first third of The Rite it feels like you might be watching something good. Don’t trust it. That’s just the demon inside lulling you into a false sense of security. The film starts off moody and slow. It seems to be very meticulously building its world and building its suspense. We are introduced to a young mortician named Michael Kovak (Colin O’Donoghue). Kovak isn’t a guy with lofty hopes and dreams, but he wants something more than painting the fingernails of the dead. So he enrolls in seminary school, with the understanding that right before he’s sworn in as a holy commando he can quit the whole thing and get a free education out of the deal.

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this shit late at night, what do you expect?

For 36 days straight, we’ll be exploring the famous 36 Dramatic Situations by examining a film that exemplifies each one. From family killing family to prisoners in need of asylum, we brush off the 19th century list in order to remember that it’s still incredibly relevant today. Whether you’re seeking a degree in Literature, love movies, or just love seeing things explode, our feature should have something for everyone. If it doesn’t, please don’t make us put the lotion on our skin. Part 21 of the 36-part series takes a look at “Pursuit” with suspense icon Silence of the Lambs.

Remember that little gathering of geeks that happened over last weekend? Comic-Con, or something of the like? It was there in San Diego that Marvel debuted the first footage for their next superhero excursion, Thor. It was a five minute trailer that proved to attendees that Kenneth Branagh’s film was made of more than the sum of silly costumes and star Chris Hemsworth’s workout routine. It proved Thor to be worthy of existing in the Marvel movie universe. But it only proved that to those who saw the footage. For the rest of us, there were still plenty of doubts. Until now. The footage has now been placed online — not as a bootleg, but as a digital copy — and the days of Thor are upon us. Check it out right after the jump.

These costumes look terrible. It’s hard to believe that in a world that has moved beyond the Batman of the 1960s in so many ways that costumes like this could still make it down the pipeline. It’s doubly bad that they are coming from the studio that took comic book characters and made them accessible by making them inhabitants of the real world. From the beginning, Thor was going to be faced with the production challenge of integrating a God into the scientific mix or Iron Man and Hulk, but why they decided to make it tougher on themselves is a complete mystery. Get a load of the ridiculous after the jump. And put on your eye patch for it.

Your daily recommended allowance of random movie stuff, stories that fell through the cracks, and news you can’t use.

Warner Bros. wants he iconic actor to face the true-life events of a priest in exorcism school. Yes, they exist.

There’s strange, and then there’s really strange. And then there’s sort of strange, which is in itself a completely different genre. I don’t know into which category this piece of news falls, but I know that it’s a little off the beaten path. Two new projects are in place that center around the world of exorcism. We ask: is this a new trend, or just coincidence?

Kevin Carr sits his chubbiness down and sees if The Wolfman, Valentine’s Day and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief can make the grade.

Hollywood, particularly Universal, has made an effort to resurrect their classic 19302-40s horror franchises in recent cinema history. From Bram Stoker’s Dracula to The Mummy to Van Helsing, Universal (and Columbia) have, for better or worse, mined the box office potential of their old properties to wildly different results. Next in line is one of their most classic monsters, The Wolfman.

Universal Pictures sent over a note this evening that their upcoming horror remake The Wolfman has been rated ‘R’ for bloody horror, violence and gore. Also, we’ve got pictures!

With Bill Nighy’s claim that he doesn’t like watching himself in movies, I figured I’d take the opportunity to suggest the practice to a few other actors. But it’s not exactly what you think.