What happens when a legendary film critic brings is geriatric crankiness to an internet movie show? Film Jockeys follows the adventures of Carl Barker, his far-too-young production staff, the filmmakers and the movie characters that inhabit their world. Written and illustrated by Derek Bacon, it’s the perfect webcomic for passionate fans who also love spoilery scoops. For your consideration, Episode #23:

Another trailer for Guillermo Del Toro‘s Pacific Rim has been released, just in case you’re not already on board. The thing is, there’s not a whole lot that’s different about this new spot and the WonderConone we saw at the end of last month. You’ve got giant monsters battling giant robots in the sea and on land. You’ve got Idris Elba doing his best audition for the next rousing speeches supercut. You’ve got the tagline telling us to “Go Big or Go Extinct.” And you’ve got little bits (littler this time) of the likely comic relief characters played by Charlie Day and Ron Perlman. Honestly, I’d like to see more of the character stuff. Or something else besides big creatures and the kind of action that could just as easily sell a Michael Bay movie. At least the previous trailer hinted at some themes involving the humanity inside the robots. That which make them different from the monsters in spite of them initially being noted for their equal measure — big bad weapons of defense to go up against big bad weapons of offense. Knowing Del Toro, the big ideas are probably there, but of course that stuff doesn’t sell a movie to most people the way explosions and fighting behemoths do.

Harmony Korine and friends already gave us a taste of sand, sun and heavy weaponry, but it doesn’t quite feel like summer yet. Maybe that’s because global warming is making everything so cool or because President Obama keeps delaying all of our vacation planes, but the hugeness of the season still hasn’t fully descended. That’ll change this weekend when Iron Man 3 drops an arc reactor into theaters. Then, the parade of unbelievably massive summer movies commences with buddy cops, mischievous teens, people probably named Khan, bald Matt Damons, super men, and the end of the world itself in tow. It’s a tight race this year. Optimism runs high, and the next few months are packed full with studios and indie outfits hoping to entertain and score big, so the task of naming the 13 most-anticipated summer movies was a tough one. So instead of hurting our brains over it, we let math do the work by putting the question to the whole staff and tallying up the results. It’s a slightly eclectic mix, displaying the powerful potential of cinematic storytelling to bring us into the cool, dark room with a single light source. As luck would have it, we found a fittingly seasonal place to start:

You probably don’t need to watch the newly released Pacific Rim trailer below because by this point you already know if you want to see it or not. It’s a Guillermo del Toro movie about giant monsters fighting giant robots! But if for some reason you’re not yet convinced that this is going to be all kinds of over the top explodey goodness go ahead and take 2:38 to watch the new trailer below. It originally premiered at WonderCon where it was meant to be an exclusive, but del Toro and friends have decided to share it with the online world anyway. Check out the much loved Pacific Rim trailer from WonderCon below.

What with Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Elysium, Pacific Rim and the myriad other blockbusting sci-fi movies coming out, 2013 is shaping up to be a great year for the genre. If by “genre” you mean “these four ideas repeated over and over again.”

Anything happen this week to revolutionize the film industry? What, you don’t know? You must need the Reject Recap, our weekly rundown of the best and most important news and features any movie fan must read. Yeah, most of it is our own content, but we also look outside the FSR borders for great film-related (and sometimes TV-related) pieces elsewhere. If you see something you think should be included in the Recap, please email me.  Over the past seven days, in spite of a major film festival going on (well, maybe because of this), a lot of very interesting things happened or came out. The Internet continued to alter the business of cinema and we heard about long-awaited sequels to ’90s movies. Obligatorily, we also thought more about the next Star Wars movie. And once again we include a few must-watch videos. So, in honor of what’s gone on this week, put on David Bowie’s “Changes,” sit back and play catch up with us. (Kick)Start your weekend right after the jump.

As someone whose only experience with legitimate high culture is seeing a bunch of bizarre black and white photography in a pitch black room aided only by a small flashlight (thanks, France!) these new pieces of concept art from Pacific Rim strike me as exactly the kind of thing that an enterprising museum of fine art would do well to acquire. Sure, Banksy will probably just paint over them with a clever message of social relevance, but the time it would spend unmolested would be worth their while. Head over to Total Film for the hi-res versions of the concept art for Guillermo del Toro‘s new movie, and be sure to check out our talk with Charlie Day about playing a scientist for the production. And seriously, who wouldn’t want these pieces framed and hanging on their wall?

Charlie Day joins us this week to talk about the inventive offensiveness of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia as well as what it was like to play a hipster scientist for Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim. Plus, Sasha Grey gives us some romance tips after scaring us in Would You Rather, Craig Mazin shares the creation of four Identity Thief script pages, and we answer a listener question about finding viable production partners. That’s a lot of ground to cover, and we’re all hung over on discount champagne, so let’s get started. Download Episode #6

Everyone knows you can’t judge a book by its cover, but were you aware that movies shouldn’t be judged by a trailer either? I know, seems counter-intuitive, but while the trailer advertises a feature the two aren’t interchangeable. Terrible trailers sometimes give way to fantastic films just as brilliant trailers sometimes reveal ridiculously bad ones. It’s a crap shoot really. The list below features twelve of our favorite trailers that premiered in 2012. Some of the movies turned out to be gems, others ended up being far less impressive and a few won’t be released until 2013, but all of them made us excited to watch one more movie…

While we’d be willing to hazard a guess that the only thing you really need to know about Guillermo del Toro‘s Pacific Rimis that it involves giant, human-controlled robots battling sea monsters, apparently that’s not quite enough to sell this thing, because now we need to look at pictures of humans standing around looking mad. Where the hell are the robots? Bring out the sea monsters! At least hit us with some Charlie Day. The Lebanese Movie Guide (because of course?) has just debuted a new still from the film (via ComingSoon) which basically reveals nothing beyond the fact that stars Idris Elba and Rinko Kikuchi will stand together at some point, looking at each other in a vaguely combative way, while some diligent workers toil behind them (is that guy playing Galaga?). If this means that we might get a similarly-tense robot-staring-down-a-sea-monster still in the near future, that’s a-okay. Pacific Rim opens on July 12th.

The trailer for Pacific Rim crashed through a few bridges and buildings, but it’s here now for our viewing pleasure. With all the extra-dimensional monsters and giant robots clashing, is there any doubt it’s the holiday season? Add an oven-full of grandma’s cookies, and you’ve got a true winter celebration. And now the team over at Aint It Cool has delivered the Q and A equivalent of grandma’s cookies: Guillermo del Toro addressing the Butt-Numb-a-Thon audience about his mech suit movie. The geek level here is high, so if your eyes grow wide, it’s normal. Check out the video Q and A for yourself:

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly column recapping news, updating you on the trends of today and bringing you thoughts on what is going on in this world gone mad. We begin this evening with a number of looks at Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim. In conjunction with the newly released trailer, these images, poster, etc. have brought the buzz around this one to a fever-pitch just as the movie del Toro passed on (The Hobbit) moves into theaters. It’s an interesting dichotomy, really. While Peter Jackson has delivered one of the bigger disappointments of 2012 (see my notes below), del Toro gives us hope for 2013. Lots and lots of hope. More new images just after the break.

At last weekend’s Ain’t It Cool News Butt-numb-athon, Guillermo del Toro called Pacific Rim a “film made by fans, but not a fan film,” and it’s easy to see what he’s talking about in this first full-length trailer for the film. He isn’t making Hellboy this time around, but a big, accessible summer blockbuster for everyone. Considering all the massive action on display here, this could be what makes del Toro an actual household name. Who can’t get behind human-controlled gigantic robots defending Earth from monstrous aliens? We may have said the same thing about Cowboys & Aliens all those many naive years ago, but del Toro is a filmmaker we can trust with a high-concept as good as this. Check out the first trailer for Pacific Rim after the break!

Showing a large amount of faith in Guillermo del Toro‘s Pacific Rim, Legendary Pictures has hired the screenwriter who crafted the initial treatment, Travis Beacham, to get crackin’ on a second installment. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the production company is happy enough with early buzz to take the first steps toward developing a franchise. Of course, scripts are cheap relative to the finished product, so there’s always the chance that they could pull back on the reins if the film doesn’t meet their financial expectations. But if they’re happy…it means more monsters fighting robots in tropical locales. My personal fantasy is that if it hits big, it’ll ensure Beacham’s Killing on Carnival Row gets a greenlight and larger studio interest. That project — the future-set story of a detective hunting a serial killer who’s targeting mythical creatures —  got Tarsem Singh signed on a year ago but hasn’t yet been put into pre-production. Maybe a massively successful hit will be the catalyst it needs. Check out everything we’ve got on Pacific Rim

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly mashing together of things about film and television because that’s what the kids on the Internet are into these days — mashing things together. Obama Wan Kenobi – We begin this evening with an oddly drawn but somewhat sensible conclusion about what Barack Obama had to do with saving Star Wars. And by “saving,” we’re of course referring to the part where George Lucas sold Star Wars and LucasFilm to Disney, placing it in capable, active hands that will no doubt save it with many wonderful films that have nothing to do with the prequels. Or something like that. Either way, /Film found this link and I say it’s worth a read. 

UPDATED! With one more! There is something to be said for swiftly-unraveling movie virals that roll out with speed and punch – mainly, that they are the precise type of virals that other, similar campaigns should aspire to be. Just yesterday, the first few bits of marketing mayhem from Guillermo del Toro‘s Pacific Rim began rolling out, and they now show no sign of abating. While we met just one of the massive, fighting robots yesterday via blueprint – “Gipsy Danger” is her (?) name – today we get no less than three more giant blueprints for new Jaegers. Today we get to meet “Striker Eureka,” “Coyote Tango,” “Crimson Typhoon,” and an apparently unnamed Jaeger. And, yes, they all look amazing. Check out Coyote, Crimson, and, uhm, the other one after the break. And, please, don’t try to make these at home. Also, can someone get to work on a Jaeger Name Generator? Until then, just call me “Giraffe Havoc.”

Earlier this morning, our own Cole Abaius alerted us to the just-launching viral campaign for Guillermo del Toro‘s Pacific Rim, and while the creative marketing looked to be getting us pumped for something happening in just under two weeks, we haven’t had to wait that long to see a whole new piece of mech from the film. Up top is our first detailed look at one of the fighting robots – “a Jaeger” – from the upcoming film. Not impressed? Perhaps you should look down to the tiny little man standing at this Jaeger’s feet. Yup, that’s your size comparison. Giant, fighting robots that battle aliens and link up via neural bridge with unexpected hero fighter pilots. I’m sorry, what other movie were you looking forward to next summer? Pacific Rim opens on July 12, 2013. [Wired, via ComingSoon]

According to this video, we’re still safe, but it doesn’t seem like it will be that way for long. Guillermo del Toro‘s Pacific Rim has launched its first viral attack, and its official website is counting down to something that will happen in (as of this writing) about  2 weeks. Either a teaser trailer is going to launch, or a giant monster is going to take out San Francisco. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. It could be both. Or they might simply be testing the Kaiju Alert System. We all know how rusty that thing is, so it could all be routine. On the other hand, Total Film snagged this leaked memo where Great Britain Air Command has called down some serious mechanical back-up to aid the Pan Pacific Defense:

The great post-conversion war rages on, and even Guillermo del Toro and his already-epic-sounding Pacific Rim can’t win a decisive battle. Despite telling crowds at this year’s Comic-Con that he was resistant to the idea of converting his next film, a robots (human-controlled!) versus aliens (giant and monstrous!) adventure, del Toro has now been, in Variety‘s words, “strong-armed” into post-converting his film to 3D. The outlet reports that del Toro’s film will still be available in 2D, but that “the prospect of the 3D upcharge — especially overseas — was likely too much for Warners to resist.” The conversion is not expected to impact the film’s release date, though this news certainly impacts faith in the studio’s ability to make decisions based on artistic merit, rather than box office potential (who are we kidding? it’s always about the money!). You can watch del Toro and his Pacific Rim panel from Comic-Con HERE. Pacific Rim will open on July 12, 2013.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly column about movie news that wasn’t exactly nightly this week, so it’s giving you a Friday edition with a little extra umph… We begin this evening with one of four new images from Pacific Rim, courtesy of the most recent edition of Empire magazine. It features Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba and those sweet, shiny suits worn by the drivers of the giant-ass robots in Guillermo del Toro’s exciting next film. Now, when are we going to get a shot at those robots in action?