Why Watch? Last year’s Transcendent Man dealt with Ray Kurzweil and the possible future where human life is extended thanks to computer memory, The Cloud and our own egos. In Tom Scott‘s new short, we find that death might be preferable once the lawyers have taken over. It’s straightforward sci-fi that pulls off the storytelling magic of placing you at the center of it – a movie that directs its attention to you and manages to nail down a universal humor. You’re dead. Now what? What will it cost? Only 5 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films

Why Watch? Staring straight into the camera, a pretty young woman tells us she’s 21 years old, and she’s a monster. Throughout the rest of Francesco Calabrese‘s short film, she explains the problems she faces, and the filmmaker talks to her neighbors, her mother and a scorned friend who all have a different take on this seemingly benign human being. Shot engagingly, every element comes together to hold the mystery. Then she shows her true nature. What will it cost? Only 5 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films Thanks to Thane E. for the tip.

Nacho Vigalondo‘s Timecrimes was a different kind of time travel movie, and his second feature, Extraterrestrial, is definitely a different kind of alien invasion. The new trailer has a creepy sort of vibe, both from the miles-wide ship that lands and from the young man who wakes up in a gorgeous woman’s apartment. Apparently he’s got incredible beer goggles and a desire to video tape her while she sleeps. It’s a great trailer for a great movie, but it’s not telling the whole story. Check it out for yourself:

With a dormant development arm, James Cameron has fully committed himself to holding his breath underwater and exploring the depths of narrative that he can mine from Pandora and the world of Avatar. A sequal and a threequel were already in the mix, but The Playlist is noting that Cameron seems more than open about an Avatar 4. It was 14 years from first draft to finished film, and its been almost 3 years since that sci-fi epic was released, so if the prospect of 3 more seems like it would take up the rest of Cameron’s sane days, it’s because they just might. The director looks to be quitting the original story game. “I’ve divided my time over the last 16 years over deep ocean exploration and filmmaking. I’ve made two movies in 16 years, and I’ve done eight expeditions. Last year I basically completely disbanded my production company’s development arm. So I’m not interested in developing anything. I’m in the Avatar business. Period. That’s it. I’m making Avatar 2, Avatar 3, maybe Avatar 4, and I’m not going to produce other people’s movies for them. I’m not interested in taking scripts,” said Cameron.

Avoiding Prometheus trailers, images and information was just too taxing. They’re just putting out too much great stuff. Ridley Scott and his team should be proud of what they’ve shown so far, and that June 8th release date just cannot come quickly enough. A new international trailer has debuted thanks to the UK’s Channel 4 (via Film Stage). It brags a lot of Charlize Theron, a screaming Noomi Rapace and three full minutes of crazy sci-fi action. Check it out for yourself:

Meet your new fear: Time-Traveling Nazis. An band of Australian movie misfits has decided to continue the legacy of Brian Trenchard-Smith and other down under heroes of exploitation by sending Nazis into the future. It’s an idea close to Iron Sky‘s Moon Nazi concept, but the results look far different. And far more low rent. With Asylum-level effects, The 25th Reich from director Stephen Amis made our list of interesting projects out of Berlin, and now the trailer promises not to take itself too seriously. With an SS spider-robot squeaking out “Heil Hitler!” it would be hard to. The movie focuses on an elite squad of US soldiers in the outback given a task by OSS to travel in time and save the future from those spider-robots and their Nazi overlords. It looks aggressively cheesy. But hopefully that’s part of the fun. Check out the trailer for yourself:

According to Anne Thompson, Roadside Attractions picked up Jamie Bradshaw‘s sci-fi thriller Branded. The film is set in a future where corporate entities have created brands which make the entire population complacent, and one man fights against them to expose the truth. Hopefully the product placement will be as hilarious as it is ironic. “The most powerful weapon on earth today is not a gun or a disease, nor is it even visible to many,” says Bradshaw. “It is Marketing.  Marketing is the power to control your desires and change your mind, and if you look closer there is something about it that is not of this earth.” It stars Ed Stoppard (Brideshead Revisited), Leelee Sobieski and Jeffrey Tambor. It sounds like a fantastic, timely concept, and for the life of me I can’t figure it out, but I really want to eat a Doritos-shell Taco Bell taco right now. Maybe this finally make people realize what a sharp, satirical masterwork Josie and the Pussycats really was. Pink is the new cross-platform pass-along rate. Or something. Also, it’s important to note that this project has nothing to with the television show Branded (which was featured in The Big Lebowski). Regardless of all that nonsense, the movie should be headed to theaters this September.

It’s taken 33 Commentary Commentaries, 33 different movies we’ve heard all kinds of people from directors to actors to whatever was going on with Cannibal: The Musical, but we’ve finally gotten to AH-NOLD. That’s right. This week we’re looking into Total Recall, that mind-melting actioner from 1990 wherein Arnold Schwarzenegger uses a completely innocent bystander as a human shield, loses his memory, and saves just about every mutant living on Mars. He doesn’t save the girl with three breasts, though. That probably deserves a spoiler alert. But it’s time to hear what Schwarzenegger and director Paul Verhoeven have to say about the whole experience. With the remake headed our way this Summer, we felt it was time to find out everything we could about this modern classic. Maybe this time next year we’ll have a Total Recall 2012 commentary from Colin Farrell and Len Wiseman. Wiseman has already offered a commentary for his film’s trailer, but there’s no way in the world it’s going to be as entertaining as listening to Verhoeven and Schwarzenegger. No way. Let’s get our asses to Mars, shall we?

After working with hairy primates, director Rupert Wyatt is using the success of Rise of the Planet of the Apes to move up the food chain. According to Variety, he’s cast Charlize Theron in his latest sci-fi flick, Agent 13. There are no details about the story, written by T.S. Nolan, but it’s unlikely that it will be made any time soon. Wyatt is attached to more than a handful of projects, but more Apes are on the way with him locked in for at least one more go. Plus, this particular movie is more like a script with two well known players stapled to it. It still needs to find a home. At the very least, the spy thriller nature of the title and the promise of science fiction with Theron in the lead and Wyatt calling the shots is not a bad idea. Not a bad idea at all. As long as the title isn’t the codename for Aeon Flux 2.  

Some of you are avoiding Prometheus advertising like it’s the black plague or Cabin in the Woods spoilers or that bookie you owe money to. That’s fine. It’s understandable for a movie this gigantic, promising and appropriately mysterious. But you’ll want to go back after seeing it this summer to check out all the cool stuff you’re missing. Guy Pearce’s TED Talk was a hell of a way to introduce the world to Ridley Scott‘s newest sci-fi epic, but now they want to introduce you to someone else: Michael Fassbender‘s David. Tell him Happy Birthday, find out what he can do, and check out the video yourself:

“The cut that you’re gonna see in cinemas…it’s always the director’s cut, really.” That’s Ridley Scott speaking to the press at a Prometheus event in Paris. Fortunately it’s in English, although it only has the appearance of plain speak. Scott has taken advantage of home entertainment by releasing director’s cuts in the past (the most famous/biggest improvement being Kingdom of Heaven), so it’s not exactly obvious how theater cuts are always the director’s cut. However, it’s great news to see that Scott will be delivering his vision onto the big screen since he hasn’t always been able to. Plus, he’s confirming that the cut is around the 2 hour mark. That might be arbitrary, but it’s a welcome change in a world where big blockbusters are becoming more and more bloated (and yet, way too often, without substance to back up the hours). [Prometheus Forum]

Why Watch? A woman is asked to interrogate her husband to see if he’s who he claims to be, or if he’s a dangerous shape-shifter in this swift, starkly-crafted science fiction gem. With verbal dexterity, it keeps up the mystery even with death on the line. What will it cost? Only 5 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

When did this trailer for the trailer thing become the norm? Was I napping or something? We’re now advertising for advertisements? Maybe that’s what happens when you give iTunes the exclusive – they demand that you make another video. Already got the trailer you worked real hard on? Great. Now make another trailer so we can make people want to see the trailer you made. Infinite regression is our worst enemy here. But, then again, that’s the kind of thing Rian Johnson probably wouldn’t mind tackling because he’s got a mind to take the Gordian knot of time travel and toy around with it like a rubber Rubik’s cube. Here he is alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt talking about the action and the mind-exercising premise of Looper to get people excited. The cheeky line, “I think you guys are gonna like it a lot,” is where things get sold on the market floor:

The Mayans, the wise race of ancients who created hot cocoa, set December 21st, 2012 as the end date of their Calendar, which the intelligent and logical amongst us know signifies the day the world will end, presumably at 12:21:12am, Mountain Time. From now until zero date, we will explore the 50 films you need to watch before the entire world perishes. We don’t have much time, so be content, be prepared, be entertained. The Film: Children of Men (2006) The Plot: In the near future global civilization is on the brink of total collapse as the human race approaches extinction via a long dry spell of human infertility. There hasn’t been a human child born in almost two decades and the answer for our sudden inability to bear children has been an elusive scientific mystery in all those years. In this world of societal discourse and upheaval Theo Faron (Clive Owen) is an everyman with ties to an underground group of revolutionaries through a past relationship with the group’s leader Julian (Julianne Moore). Kidnapped off the streets by the group Theo is asked by Julian to help attain transit papers for a young woman and help see that she crosses the British border to safety. Asking no questions of what the significance of that particular girl’s safety is Theo agrees and along the way to the first stop on their journey their vehicle gets ambushed. Following that event Theo’s initially loose involvement in the situation becomes more important when he takes

In September, Bruce Willis will be hunting Joseph Gordon-Levitt (unless it’s the other way around? Or the other, other way around?) for Rian Johnson‘s Looper. You know this because Tyler knows this. And because you’ve probably had your calendar marked for this one since a year and a half ago. The fine folks at /film have debuted the first poster for the Sony flick, and it looks beautiful, mirrored, and like it will continue the People Evaporating theme that’s hit everyone from Source Code to Total Recall lately. Check it out for yourself:

When it first got announced that they were going to remake Paul Verhoeven’s action/sci-fi classic Total Recall, the collective groans of film fans could be heard the world over. If there was ever an action movie full of iconic imagery and quotable lines that didn’t need to be sullied, it was that Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring original. This remake was going to star a pipsqueak like Colin Farrell instead of a mountain of muscle like Arnie, nobody was going to be getting their asses to Mars, and there wasn’t even any confirmation that it would include a three-boobed hooker. Who needed it? Well, after watching the first full-length trailer, I’d say that anybody who’s ever been a fan of adrenaline pumping action, jaw dropping special effects, sprawling future cities, the feminine wiles of Kate Beckinsale or Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston acting grizzled, guns, explosions, or Stormtroopers needs this movie. Check out the trailer and be blown away:

Editor’s Note: This review previously ran as part of our Fantastic Fest coverage but with The Corridor hitting limited theaters this weekend, it makes sense to publish it once again. A sharp twist to the concept of getting together for a boys’ weekend (and the ultimate bizarre response to the influx of Dude Bro movies), The Corridor opts for rounded, deeply complicated characters who have the kind of shared history that is as likely to cause an outbreak of hugs as it is a burst of heated words and violent threats. The whole messy pile then gets an eyebrow-raising element right out of The Outer Limits dropped on top, and it’s off to the races. The film opens with a frantic confrontation where Tyler (Stephen Chambers) hides in a closet while his mother (Mary-Colin Chisholm) lies dead on the ground ostensibly by her own handful of pills. A brick wall named Bobcat (Matthew Amyotte), pretty boy named Lee (Nigel Bennett), and Brad Cooper look-a-like named Everett (James Gilbert) bust into the house only to be confronted by a maniacal Tyler who takes a swipe at Everett’s face and stabs Lee in the hand. Months later, they find themselves at a funeral/reunion at Tyler’s mom’s house in the woods with another childhood friend (Glen Matthews) in tow, trying to reconcile their relationship and deal with a supernatural force that threatens their existence.

In what sounds like a very cool (schmoopy romance can be cool right?) project, Richard Curtis is writing and directing About Time – a story focusing on a young man named Tim who finds out that he’s one in a long line of time travelers. That comes with some impressive powers, no doubt. Groundhog Day-like powers. Or the ability to go back and make sure Hitler wasn’t born or something important like knowing all the right questions in class or on dates. According to Variety, the production is looking at Zooey Deschanel as the leading love interest which means the costume department will be searching on ModCloth and she’ll get to sing a song. While we all fall in love with her manic big-eyed dreamgirlness. Right now, Tim the Time Traveler is being played by Domhnall Gleeson (Bill Weasley in Harry Potter, Shadow Dancer and Anna Karenina). All in all, it sounds like a potentially large-hearted project with a sci-fi conceit hiding somewhere in the atria. Plus, Gleeson is a presence with range who is beginning to come into his own after the massive wand-wielding franchise, and even though New Girl is solid comedy work, it’s about time Deschanel returned to film.

Why Watch? It’s a shrewd move that director Alex Albrecht from “The Totally Rad Show” (a person that I, in the interest of full disclosure, am friendly acquaintances with) chose to create an atmospheric character study instead of an all-out action blitz for VOLTRON: The End which, yes, features a pilot stuck inside a Battle Lion. That man also happens to be played by Psych‘s Timothy Omundson (Lassie!). What could have been an overt outpouring of fan knowledge and callbacks to the show is, instead, a smart emotional journey with an outrageous beard and a hell of a last second reveal that’s only injured by the movie’s title. Seriously. It’s great for getting the word out, but how cool would it have been to watch a solid sci-fi piece only to have that giant familiar face hit you near the end? That aside, it’s a sharply written, nicely crafted fan film that deserves a bit of notice. What will it cost? Only 4 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

During a panel about the state of the Battlestar Galactica franchise at this year’s WonderCon, Michael Taylor, the co-creator of Blood and Chrome—a Battlestar prequel that you may remember was green-lighted by SyFy back in 2010—screened a trailer for the two-hour pilot. This latest extension of the Battlestar universe revolves around 20-something William Adama, a recent Academy graduate. The images Taylor culled together and presented to the WonderCon audience were exciting—set in space and filled with Viper pilots, the look of it is much more in line with the original (reimagined) series than Caprica—if a bit depressing, since the show’s future is still uncertain. Last anyone heard, SyFy’s enthusiasm for the project was waning and as a result, they were thinking of maybe, possibly, one day breaking the pilot up into pieces and delivering it to us as an online series instead of airing it in its entirety on TV. As much as I’d like to eventually see Blood & Chrome in one form or another, I understand SyFy’s ambivalence. Caprica really did kill the franchise’s momentum.