Movie News

Movie News: DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, THE PACT, TOMORROWLAND, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN

Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2011

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain American: The Winter Soldier, The Pact, Tomorrowland, and The Incredible Shrinking Man have all made recent film news. You will find a table of contents below so that you can quickly navigate to the movie you want to read about quickly.

* Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is back on track.
* Guardians of the Galaxy will have CGI, MC team members.
* Tucci out, Atwell in for Captain American: The Winter Soldier.
* The Pact gets a sequel.
* Tomorrowland has cast its villain.
* The Incredible Shrinking Man is being re-made.

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Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Andy Serkis says everything’s falling into place now.

I had a very good meeting with a certain director today and we had a very exciting conversation about where the story’s going. I think it’s gonna be an amazing film, really incredible. We’re gonna be shooting in the second quarter of this year, probably. It’s really shaping up. We’re going to be into it fairly soon.

“Second quarter” may indicate that the film is a tiny bit behind schedule, as the production was originally eyeing a March start.

Guardians of the Galaxy

And how will Gunn and company create the team member who is an animal, and another who is a tree?

In a new interview, two members of the Oscar-nominated team behind The Avengers answered that last question. Rocket Raccoon and Groot will be created with a blend of full computer graphics and motion capture. Read the quote below.

Cinema Blend spoke with Avengers Executive Producer Victoria Alonso and ILM Visual Effects Supervisor Jeff White about The Avengers and, in the end, brought up Guardians of the Galaxy:

Cinema Blend: What makes me fascinated by the project is that you have five members of this team, and one of them is Rocket Raccoon, a talking raccoon, and another one is Groot, who is quite literally a walking tree. You’re obviously not putting a person in a costume for those parts. Are those going to be fully CG characters? Are there plans to use motion capture again?

Victoria Alonso: We’re going to do a combination. You can’t do any motion capture with a raccoon – they won’t let you put the suit on [laughs]. But we will do rotomation, probably, for some of the behavior. Rocket will have his own personality, of course, and clearly we can’t do mocap on a tree, per say, but we definitely will have performers to emulate what James Gunn will lead to be the behavior and the performance. He’s very clear on where he wants to take the characters.

Alonso also confirmed that while Gunn has just arrived in London, production has been going on for some time:

Production has already started! Completely. It started months ago and we have an entire team in London already – we start shooting in June. Our director [James Gunn] travels next week and it’s going, baby! It’s a fast train to a beautiful place.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

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Stanley Tucci, who revealed in a recent interview that his character Dr. Abraham Erskine won’t be in the sequel.

But contrary to previous reports, Tucci claims that Cap’s former flame Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) will make an appearance after all, as part of a flashback sequence. Hit the jump for more details.

Tucci offered the casting updates in an interview with Collider. He had only great things to say about making the first Captain America movie, and expressed his disappointment that he wouldn’t be returning:

I loved making that movie. I had a great time. I really like Joe Johnston. I think he’s a wonderful director. I also love the look of the film, and the tone of the film, and the character was great. I was thrilled to be able to play that. I was so sad that I died because I wanted to come back and do another one.

The use of flashbacks (or comic book science) could theoretically allow Tucci to reprise his part, but the actor stated that he had not been asked to do so: “No, they haven’t [asked], unfortunately. I’m really sad.” Atwell has, though. “I know that Hayley is going back to do a flashback scene,” he revealed.

The Pact

The Pact, is now headed for a sequel that picks up a few weeks after the last film left off. Dallas Hallam and Patrick Horvarth will write and direct this time around, replacing original filmmaker Nicholas McCarthy.

Tomorrowland

Brad Bird and Damon Lindelof, with Jeff Jensen, are cooking up a big secret with Tomorrowland, a Disney-backed film that seems to have roots in parts of Disney’s past.

Though the precise nature of the story has been kept from the public, George Clooney is known to be the lead. Now Hugh Laurie is joining the cast as the villain.

The Incredible Shrinking Man

MGM has acquired the rights to The Shrinking Man, the classic sci-fi novel by Richard Matheson. The same source material inspired the 1957 movie The Incredible Shrinking Man, so it’s a reboot of sorts.To help bring the story to life, the studio has hired two writers who should be intimately familiar with the original book. The 86-year-old Matheson will pen the screenplay with his son Richard Matheson Jr., updating the plot to keep up with the times.

The new version will…be “an existential action movie.” “My original story was a metaphor for how man’s place in the world was diminishing,” explained Matheson Sr. “That still holds today, where all these advancements that are going to save us will be our undoing.” Matheson’s book centered a man who starts to shrink after accidental exposure to radiation and insectiside, reflecting mid-century fears about the atom bomb. The reboot will focus more on contemporary developments, such as nanotechnology.

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Source: Slashfilm (1, 2, 3), Variety, Collider, THR

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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