Agora - Trailer

A revised trailer for Agora with English title treatments and in much better quality. A historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning a slave who turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hopes of pursuing freedom while also falling in love with his master, the famous female philosophy professor and atheist Hypatia of Alexandria (Rachel Weisz).

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Madeline Stowe to direct Wolverine, a sparkly vampire and Rachel Weisz

Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz and Robert Pattinson will star in the period drama Unbound Captives for Hyde Park Entertainment reports Variety.

Madeline Stowe and her husband, actor Brian Benben, penned the script under the pseudonym O.C. Humphrey back in the early 90's.

Variety have the news and go on to say that Madeline Stowe was offered $3 million for the script in 1993 and later $5 million, but she turned the offers down.

“There was never a moment's hesitation on my part, but it felt unreal, and I can
remember my husband putting a finger across his neck to signal not to take the
offer...Gil made me realize it when he said there isn't anyone who's going to
make the movie you want to make...”

Originally she had hoped to take the lead role for herself when she wrote it, but now she wants to direct the film about a woman (Weisz) whose husband is killed and her two children kidnapped by a Comanche war party in 1859.

She is rescued by a frontiersman (Jackman), while Pattinson will play the son.

“I saw three actresses, and knew after meeting with Rachel that she was the
person I wanted to hand this role to...Robert said yes last fall, before
everything broke with 'Twilight.' Hugh said yes a couple of weeks ago.”

Intersting news and good to see them sticking to their guns.

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Agora - Poster for Egyptian epic

Alejandro Amenbar’s Agora stars Rachel Weisz as the legendary astronomer Hypatia, trapped in the legendary Library of Alexandria, and telling the story of her fight to save the old world’s wisdom from the religious riots sweeping the streets of Alexandria

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The Brothers Bloom - Hand Drawn poster

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The Brothers Bloom - trailer

The Brothers Bloom is a globe-trotting comedy about the last great adventure of the world's best con men.

Welcome to the world of The Brothers Bloom, where deception is an art and nothing is as it seems. The brothers have perfected the art of swindling fortunes through years of fraternal teamwork. Now they've decided to take on one last spectacular job—luring a beautiful and eccentric heiress into an elaborate plot that takes them around the world.

For as long as they can remember, the Brothers Bloom have had only each other to depend on. From their childhood in a long series of gloomy foster homes to their highflying lives as international con artists, Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) and Bloom (Adrien Brody) have shared everything. Stephen brilliantly concocts intricate stories that the brothers live out, but he's still searching for the perfect con, the one where "everyone gets what they want." Meanwhile, Bloom yearns for "an unwritten life"—a real adventure, one not dreamed up by his old brother.

Eager to retire, Bloom agrees to take part in one last grand scam. He insinuates himself into the life of Penelope (Rachel Wiesz), a bored, single New Jersey heiress. When a genuine romance begins to blossom between them, he is reluctant to exploit her naiveté, but Penelope has already taken the bait: She impulsively joins Bloom, Stephen and their "associate," a sexy Japanese explosives expert named Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi), on an ocean liner to Greece. Penelope is convinced she's happened upon the adventure of a lifetime and offers to bankroll a million dollar deal. As the quartet makes their way from Athens to Prague to Mexico to St. Petersburg, Penelope quickly becomes addicted to the illicit thrills. But as Stephen's elaborate web of deceit pulls tighter, Bloom begins to wonder if his brother has devised the most dangerous con of his life.

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Discuss: Batman 3 rumours - Who could play the bad guys?

Bearing in mind Christopher Nolan has not yet signed up for the third Batman film, no story has been decided, no script has been written, no casting has been made and no characters have been chosen, the old casting rumours keep on coming.

Remember all of this is basically the internet throwing up whatever it can think of, but it does get the old brain juices flowing.

Nolan has made a point of saying he wouldn't have any super powers in his Batman films so people have been saying things will stay realistic. However Nolan did set up the fact that things keep escalating once the Batman hit the scene so it could go a little madder now that the Joker and Two-Face have appeared in Gotham. The great thing about Batman's bad guys is that most of them have no powers they are just disfigured freaks.

The Riddler keeps getting mentioned and we have had Johnny Depp mentioned for that. Now I have heard that Eddie Murphy could play him, as Axel Foley said "Get the fuck out of here!" springs to mind with that rumour. If they do use The Riddler I hope they have him as a buttoned up obsessive kind of criminal who out thinks the Bat. Depp would be cool in the part, but Crispin Glover could bring a weirdness to the part. Guy Ritchie could be another interesting choice and his work with Nolan on Memento shows he can play the obsessive rather well.

Catwoman is another one that many people think will be in the next film. If she is I'd like to see her as the thief she is and not as the big bad. Maybe a cameo or just in the background. Although if they do use her she'll probably end up as the love interest in the film. Rumours as to who would play her have included Cher, Maggie Gyllenhall, Angelina Jolie and most recently Rachel Weisz. Basically, any actress people can think of but I would like to see Carla Gugino take the part of Selina Kyle.

The Penguin. In the comics he has recently been portrayed as an arms dealer, criminal kingpin and a go to kind of guy for illegal goods. All of these would be okay for the next film and again, he wouldn't necessarily have to be the main villian. Philip Seymour Hoffman is the main rumour for this one and I can't really think of anyone better for the part.

The Ventriloquist. Not one of the most well known of Batman's adversaries but a good one none the less. Like many of the villains in Gotham he has major mental problems. Basically it is an old bloke with a dummy called Scarface. The old bloke is totally unassuming and the dummy is the one running things and treated as if he is a real person. Anthony Hopkins would be great in the role and he has previous experience with ventriloquist dummies controlling people in the film Magic.

Ice Man. Now we are getting into the realms of the super power although his ice gun could be explained as advance technology. Maybe stolen from Wayne's company or he was working on it for Wayne when the accident happened. Only person I can see in this part is Patrick Stewart who would be amazing.

Robin. I think there would be a massive outpouring of rage if it was announced that Robin was to be in the next film which is a shame. If done right Robin is a great character and works really well. Unfortunately the memories of Robin in the old TV series reins supreme. Shia Labeouf is the one rumoured for this part but they are missing the point on the old rumour mill. Robin should only be a young teenager or slightly younger, who loses his parents and is taken under Bruce's wing and is eventually adopted by him as his son. Maybe the kid out of The Spiderwick Chronicles would be good in the role.

There are many other characters in the Batverse - Bane, Black Mask, Poison Ivy, Firefly, Clayface, Harley Quinn to name a few more so Christopher Nolan will be spoilt for choice when he eventually sits down to write the next film.

Everything above is just a rumour. Let me know who you would want to see in the next Batman film and who could play them.
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The Brothers Bloom Poster

The brothers Bloom (Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo) are the best con men in the world, swindling millionaires with complex scenarios of lust and intrigue. Now they’ve decided to take on one last con - showing a beautiful and eccentric heiress (Rachel Weisz) the time of her life with a romantic adventure that carries them around the world. The Brothers Bloom also features Rinko Kikuchi, Maximilian Schell and Robbie Coltrane.

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The Fountain, 2006 - Blu-Ray Review

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz
Running Time: 96 minutes

Score: 5.5/10

Thanks to Andy D for this review.

Ok, in theory this is a good film but I’m only going to give it 5.5/10. I know this is in contradiction to the 5 word review, but I guess you’ll have to live with this and put it down to an individuals personnel opinion. I’ll give the film some credence before I explain the middling score I have awarded it. On the plus side it’s got a deep philosophical message and a well imagined vehicle to introduce its philosophy to us and cinematically it’s very well filmed (it looks gorgeous on Blu-ray)… but I have a problem. Some people who know me may say that I have several problems, but what I mean is this film didn’t grab me in the way it should have done. This is a shame because it could have and it should have grabbed me. I’m the perfect target audience for this type of film: I have a great imagination, I enjoy hard philosophical ideas and debates, I’m always willing to meet a film/book/piece of music half way in order to give it a chance to entertain me and I’m well–versed and really enjoy the more challenging surrealist and cloaked approaches to story telling (I’m a huge David Lynch fan).

I’ll sum up right away what didn’t work for me in The Fountain: I simply didn’t care about the main characters. I didn’t care that Rachel Weisz was slowly dieing from malignant cancers and I didn’t care that Hugh Jackman was losing it and unable to control his imminent lose. This film is described on this site else-where as a tear jerker… but not for me it wasn’t. I’m prone to feeling a little choked up from a good movie and this is where my good imagination is at its best. I can normally really feel empathetic with the characters in good movies and I end up feeling what they seem to be feeling. With the Isabel character (Rachel Weisz) I simply wasn’t bothered about her, in fact she slightly annoyed me by being a bit of a martyr. Tomas (Hugh Jackman) was just a to$$er who ends up wrecking her medieval novel by being a typical bloke and taking it in an obscure sci-fi and action-adventure direction. It reminded me of the old e-mail joke about the two school kids trying to write a short story together, ones a typical boy and ones a typical girl. The joke can be read here.

Some people I’ve spoken to about this film didn’t enjoy it for another reason and that was they simply couldn’t follow what was really going on. The film appears to jump from the present to the past and to the future with similar stories being enacted in each era.

If you allow me I will try to explain what I interpreted the film to be doing:

Boy meets girl. Girl slowly dies of cancer. Boy stubbornly and infuriatingly wastes the last precious weeks of their time together trying to find a cure instead of "being there for her". In an attempt to communicate with her idiot boyfriend girl writes a story about her philosophy on life and death which involves the tree of life as a metaphor for returning to the earth on death and being reborn in the flora and fauna of the planet. Girl is close to death, realises she will never complete the book and makes boy promise to finish it in order for him to finally understand her philosophy and so not feel pity for her …and to get over his own selfish miserable outlook on his imminent loss. Boy wastes more time killing monkeys with cancer. Girl dies. Boy becomes even more annoying by storming off during her funeral in a strop, yet is haunted by her request to finish her book. So he gives it a go and, like the typical bloke in the joke above, takes it off in an action-adventure direction which culminates in a fight with a priest at the top of a temple in front of the tree of life. The books' protagonist gets mortally wounded in the fight but embarks on a transcendence in a space bubble with the tree of life which mimics the boys real life transcendence to understanding his girlfriends philosophy. Once he finally understands what his girlfriend was banging on about he realises how she wanted the story to be concluded (the protagonist kills the priest and drinks from the tree of life to cure his wound… which it does by turning him into a bush, and so he lives on, achieving the tongue in cheek immortality …ish) and finally returns to his girlfriends burial place and plants a flower over her grave so she will live on in plant form… once the roots get into her decaying maggot-ridden remains that is. Ah-men.

Here’s my own 5 word review… Man the f*ck up Thomas. 5.5/10