TV, Movies & Home Theatre - Page 43

With Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice not doing so well at the box office, and rumors of Warner Bros. not being happy with its performance, we're now looking at the VFX breakdown of one of the biggest movies of the year.

There's copious amounts of green screen used, and I'm sure you're not surprised by that. Zack Snyder said during a recent interview with Empire that it was great to have Batman in the movie, as he got to use more practical effects - compared to all of the digital work with Superman.

He said: "It has been really fun using Batman as the answer to Superman, because he's not flying around and acting crazy. He's just driving around in his Batmobile, doing his Batstuff. We were able to do a lot of this practically. Batman brings that back. Figuring out how to mix Batman's practical approach with Superman has been an awesome experience".

Ben Affleck's performance in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was one of the standout parts of the movie, and now news has broken that Affleck has already written a script for the standalone Batman movie.

The news is coming from William Morris Endeavor co-CEO Patrick Whitesell, which is the agency that represents Affleck. While talking with the Hollywood Reporter on how many movies in the DCEU that Affleck has signed on for as Batman, Whitesell said: "He's contracted to do at least Justice League [Part] One and Two, so at least three times wearing the cape. There's a script that he's written that is a really cool [Batman] idea, so that's out there as an option".

There was news a little while ago that Affleck was attached to the standalone Batman movie as the co-writer, director and star - but Whitesell's comments seem to point to the fact that this has changed, and that Affleck will only star in the Batman movie. Affleck commented a while ago, saying that the movie is "in development" and that his completely focused on finishing his adaption of Dennis Lehane thriller Live By Night. Affleck said: "I tend to be a one-movie-at-a-time guy. So, when I'm finished with this movie, I'll then focus on my next movie and figure out what that will be".

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is making Warner Bros. an insane amount of money right now, opening to a huge $424 million weekend - with the studio releasing the new international trailer for Suicide Squad.

The new trailer has appeared overseas, and now online - showing off a few seconds of new footage. The new international trailer is also a little more fun and quicker than the previous trailers, losing the weirdly placed but super-cool "Bohemian Rhapsody" from Queen that was in the original trailers.

While Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is being ripped apart from critics, it is making more money than the negative reviews can whinge about it - pulling in over $170 million domestically in its first weekend. For the worldwide numbers, Batman v Superman is crushing it - raking in an insane $424 million so far ($254 million of that from international box office sales).

Considering Warner Bros. had a huge $250 million budget, Batman v Superman will make that back within the next week, pushing against its insanely awful 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. With a $170 million opening weekend haul, it would make Batman v Superman place somewhere around #5 when it comes to opening weekend dominance domestically.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens debuted to the tune of $248 million late last year, and then Jurassic World stomped through earlier in 2015 with its huge $209 million opening. Batman v Superman is breaking other records as well, such as it being the biggest Thursday pre-show on an Easter weekend, too.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is finally here, with the movie beating both The Dark Knight and The Avengers at the box office on Thursday night.

During its preview debut on Thursday, Batman v Superman made $27.7 million at the domestic box office - beating out Age of Ultron which pulled in $27.6 million last year. It also beat The Dark Night, which made $18.5 million during its preview screenings. The all-time record for Thursday night screenings still goes to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which commanded a huge $57 million during its Thursday night screening.

Batman v Superman is still aiming at around $160 million for its opening weekend, even through a sea of negative reviews. It's already scooped up $7 million overseas, as it is flooding international markets. I've seen it and simply wasn't a fan - even after enjoying Man of Steel - seeing it a second time with the disappointment behind me had a more enjoyable feel - but it is definitely very messy with its editing, and its characters are constantly in impossible situations - which feels super forced. The last third of the movie however, is pretty much directly out of the comic book - which is awesome.

The hype surrounding the launch of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has been nothing but out of this world, with early reviews really slamming Warner Bros.' new superhero movie.

Some of the reviews, such as Uproxx's review, state: "I am gobsmacked by just how dull this movie turned out to be". Screencrush's Matt Singer said: "In Snyder's formulation, protecting the world from evil isn't a gift or a calling; it's a burden. And that feeling is reflected in the movie itself, a burdensome 150-minute slog about two men fighting over who is in the right when both are very clearly in the wrong".

Todd McCarthy from the Hollywood Reporter says that the writers gave up when it came to pushing Wonder Woman into the movie, explaining: "With just her sword and shield, she doesn't seem meant to mix it up with these big guys right off the bat".

Netflix is spending more money, securing the rights to Bright in a bidding match with Warner Bros./MGM and PalmStar.

Bright is pitched as an R-rated thriller with fantasy elements, costing Netflix a reported $90 million. The streaming giant just secured the rights to War Machine with Brad Pitt recently, to the tune of $60 million, so Netflix is spending big in order to have the names Brad Pitt and Will Smith on its content.

Smith will reportedly play a cop partnered with an orc, who will be played by Aussie actor John Edgerton. $45 million of the total cost will be used to shoot it, with $45 million being spent on talent, and the back end residual fees Netflix won't get because of its anticipated limited cinema release.

The latest trailer to X-Men: Apocalypse is here, with Bryan Singer continuing his directing run after the stellar X-Men: Days of Future Past. Check it out, below:

The trailer highlights the movie's main villain - Apocalypse - reintroducing the concept of his Four Horsemen. In the comics, the Four Horsemen are mutants who bodies and minds are changed by Apocalypse, becoming his slaves. During the war, these mutants are his closest allies, and when he needs to attack someone or something, these mutants carry it out.

The trailer expands on our look of the new Jean Grey and Scott Summers (Phoenix and Cyclops), but the larger battle is still at play. X-Men: Apocalypse kicks off after the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past, with a younger group of mutants taking helm.

Marvel has dropped the latest official trailer for Captain America: Civil War, which is filled with so much goodness, that any Marvel or comic book geek is going to require a change of pants.

The new trailer gives us a better look at the conflict between The Avengers, with Iron Man and Captain America getting up in each other's faces. We have a much better, but not-so-long look at Black Panther, and we get a better glimpse of Ant-Man. But the best bit is in the last few seconds, where we see Spider-Man join in on the fun... saying "hey everyone".

Spider-Man sports an all-new suit, with moving eyes - just like Deadpool (something Deadpool took from Spider-Man in the comics). Spider-Man can now show emotions through his suit, which is a great evolution over the previous Spider-Man movies (both of the Spider-Man franchises from Sony, the original Spider-Man movies, and The Amazing Spider-Man reboot).

Keanu Reeves is currently training for John Wick: Chapter Two, where a new video has emerged of him "shedding" - or training with guns - with Taran Tactical.

Taran Tactical Innovations took to Facebook, explaining: "Well ladies and gents, everyone loves a little shredding. Make sure you guys check out 'John Wick II' when it hits theaters. The firearms action alone will be unlike anything you've ever seen. So much of it is revolutionary stuff that we gun owners have known of for years but never made it to the big screen".

It looks like Neo didn't die in The Matrix Revolutions, he just turned into Keanu Reeves and starting making movies as Reeves. Check out John Wick: Chapter Two when it's released next year.

There's a new TV spot for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and man does it kick some serious ass. We've seen most of the footage from this trailer except for a few new seconds - which really counts. Check it out below, then you'll hear my fanboy reaction below.

In the trailer, Superman punches Batman through the air and flies with him - and they crash through countless levels of the building in the abandoned city (which I'm sure is in the outskirts of Gotham, where Batman lures Superman with the Batsignal). Superman then throws Batman down like he's discarded trash, with Batman crashing into and destroying the Batsignal, sliding across the top of the building and nearly falling over it.

Snyder's cinematography comes into play here, with the camera coming up the building and seeing Batman's face - the glowing eyes from his suit, with rain pelting down around Batman, and the camera. Superman floats down, and tells Batman "stay down, if I wanted it, you'd be dead already". Batman pulls the pin from a grenade, and throws it onto the ground - covering the area in smoke, with Superman flying through it - and stunned. Batman is gone, but as he turns around and sees him - Batman fires a gun with Superman catching the bullet.

John Wick was one of the biggest surprises of 2015, with Keanu Reeves really getting fired up over his dog, but the universe portrayed in John Wick was enthralling - leaving cinemagoers, myself included - wanting oh-so-much more.

According to Exhibitor Relations, the sequel will be called John Wick: Chapter Two, which is nice and simple. John Wick: Chapter Two will drop on 2/10/17 - so we only have around 12 months until Keanu Reeves starts kicking ass again. John Wick: Chapter Two will see Keanu Reeves in the titular role, joined by Bridget Moynahan, John Leguizamo, Lance Reddick, and Ian McShane from the first movie, and newbies Common, Ruby Rose, Peter Stormare, and Laurence Fishburne.

Laurence Fishburne is an interesting addition, as Reeves and Fishburne were in The Matrix Trilogy together as Neo and Morpheus, respectively.

Something technologically spectacular is going to happen with The Simpsons this year. At the end of an episode in May the creators are going to have a live, interactive, animated segment where Homer will comment on the daily events and answer fan questions.

The segment won't last that long, only three minutes, but it'll make use of some novel motion-capture technology, impressive compute power and the magic of improvisation by the voice of Homer, Dan Castellaneta. The events that'll be discussed in those three minutes will be from that particular day, but the questions will be chosen from a list of tweets received between May 1st and May 4th.

The undisclosed motion-capture device will be used to track Castellenata's facial expressions and generate a simulacrum in the guise of Homer in real-time. "As far as I know, this is the first time that's been done by any animated show," Al Jean, the show runner told The Holywood Reporter. And indeed it is.

Deadpool is making some serious coin at the box office, with it securing the largest R-rated opening weekend award with $132.4 million - taking the award from the previous record holder being The Matrix Reloaded with $91.7 million.

But the records don't stop there for the Ryan Reynolds vehicle, as it was also the biggest opening day in February with $47.5 million - taking the record from Fifty Shades of Grey which had $30.2 million for its opening day. Deadpool was also the largest February opening weekend, aside from it being the biggest R-rated opening weekend - taking that award from Fifty Shades of Gray. Then, we have Deadpool being the largest opening ever for 20th Century Fox, and considering Fox were on the fence about making the movie, this is absolutely huge.

Deadpool has taken on some big movies in Zoolander 2 and How to Be Single, destroying them at the box office. Deadpool's awesome opening sequence was also powered by NVIDIA hardware when it comes to the CG involved, but the question I have is - how quickly will Deadpool get to $500 million? Additionally, do you think it could get to $1 billion?

I've been reading, watching and listening to anything I can find on Batman v Superman - with the latest nugget of information that I found was from the Batman v Superman prequel books on Reddit.

Someone uploaded the images, and as I was going through them all one of them covered 'new gadgets'. These new gadgets are explained on the image: "No complete list of Batman's gadgets exists, because he and Alfred are always inventing new ones. After every battle, Batman thinks of new ways that he can safely and securely catch criminals. From smoke grenades to whatever Batman needs, there's no doubt that Bruce and Alfred can build it in the Batcave!"

Well, taking a closer look at these images we can see some ancient motherboards being used. In the top left, we can see an ancient motherboard - it looks like a Socket A motherboard. We have some older boards spread out through the Batcave, so I have to ask - can't Batman afford a shiny new Z170-based motherboard from GIGABYTE or ASUS? If so, Batman - I will personally provide you with a new motherboard - just give me a call, alright?

Multiple sources have informed The Hollywood Reporter that Apple is developing a television series starring revered rapper Dr. Dre, who previously sold his Beats Electronics company to Apple for a stunning $3 billion. Titled 'Vital Signs', it's said to be a semi-autobiographical dark drama with "no shortage of violence and sex."

The show sees veteran music video director Paul Hunter billed as director; Empire co-executive producer-writer Robert Munic was specifically chosen by Dre to write and produce all six of the show's first episodes, which will be released all at once, likely via Apple Music and possibly other Apple outlets. It's said the concept for the show originates with Dre, who executive produced the highly successful 2015 drama Straight Outta Compton, which was based in part on his career.

Sonic the Hedgehog is getting his own feature film, after nearly 25 years since he was first introduced to the world. Sony will be teaming up with Sega Sammy Group in order to realize the blue blur into a combination action and CGI film.

This is the first theatrical production with Sonic, though he's had plenty of other animated for TV dramatizations. Speaking to The World Folio, the Sega chief executive, Hajime Saito confirmed the movie, saying that "Sega Sammy Group is currently planning with Sony Pictures to create a live-action and animation hybrid Sonic The Hedgehog movie scheduled for release in 2018."

Sonic is celebrating his 25th anniversary this year and there has been much speculation as to whether a new game is in development as well. Sega even teased a new piece of the puzzle just yesterday, hinting at something special for this year.

The movie industry is rife with a tremendous amount of talent,both on-screen and off-screen. Actors and actresses are challenged with having to get fully into their roles to convince us of whatever might be happening on screen. And surely they're the stars of the big-screen, but what about the people behind the scenes that make things go smoothly? The individuals who work diligently to make the experience a the experience truly cinematic, engaging and, ultimately, enjoyable.

And we had the opportunity to interview one of the industries most talented animators, turned pre-visualization artists, Mark Anthony Austin. Throughout his career he's worked on 20 hit blockbuster movies that include Star Trek Beyond, Goosebumps, The Jungle Book (2016), Avengers, Oblivion, War Horse, X-Men Days of Future Past and even Star Wars - A New Hope - Special Edition, where he had the honor of playing the legendary Boba Fett. The one character in Star Wars that has had the least amount of on-screen time, yet has become one of the most popular characters of all time.

We were able to ask questions about what it was like to don the helmet of and turn-into the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy. We also talk about life as an animator and pre-visualization artist and why pre-visualization is so important in the art of filmmaking. And of course, we ask the all too important questions about hardware too.

One of music's greatest producers Rick Rubin has a strange new project coming out: a Star Wars-themed electronic album featuring sound effect samples from the films. Named Star Wars Headspace, it includes tracks from Flying Lotus, Kaskade, A-Trak, Bonobo, Rubin himself, and many more. If you like, you can check out some samples here or listen to Zane Lowe's Beats 1 program throughout today to get a feel for it.

Headspace is releasing February 19 digitally (iTunes pre-orders are up here) and March 18 the old-fashioned way. The full track list is below.

The world's first Blu-ray player (in North America at least) is said to be available about a month ahead of time, starting as early as last Friday. The Samsung UBD-K8500 (which resembles a certain Sega console), according to some enthusiasts, can be found in some shops now, while Best Buy customers are being told it's shipping this Wednesday; others say a store in Santa Monica was advertising it and promptly sold out.

Funnily enough, the K8500 -- currently $399 -- can't actually play 4K Blu-rays at the moment, as they aren't currently available: Amazon is taking pre-orders for The Martian and Kingsmen: The Secret Service, but both don't ship until March 1. However, the device can stream 4K content from Netflix and other providers.