• News

• All

Jun 12, 2015 By Trevor Flynn The Walking Dead

Welcome to This Week in Geek, our roundup of geek-centric film and TV news from the last week. This week we have tributes for the late Christopher Lee and updates on Marvel’s Daredevil, Ghostbusters, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Doctor Strange, Captain America: Civil War, X-Men: Apocalypse, The Martian, Victor Frankenstein, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and more.

It was announced earlier this week that Jon Bernthal (“Shane” from The Walking Dead) has been cast as Frank Castle, a.k.a. The Punisher in Season 2 of the Netflix series Marvel’s Daredevil. Bernthal will join Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock, a.k.a. Daredevil in his war on crime in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City with his own form of brutal vigilante justice. The Punisher, one of Marvel’s grittiest and darkest characters, uses his military expertise to “punish” all criminals after his wife and children were murdered by the mob. Marvel’s Head of Television Jeph Loeb said of Bernthal’s casting: “Jon Bernthal brings an unmatched intensity to every role he takes on, with a potent blend of power, motivation and vulnerability that will connect with audiences. Castle’s appearance will bring dramatic changes to the world of Matt Murdock and nothing will be the same.” Season 1 of Marvel’s Daredevil is available on Netflix and Season 2 will premiere in 2016. Check out our review of Marvel’s Daredevil here. (via Superherohype.com)

Director Paul Feig has revealed via Twitter that Chris Hemsworth is joining his Ghostbusters reboot. Hemsworth, perhaps most famous for playing “Thor” in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will play the receptionist for the new all-female Ghostbusters team. In the 1984 original and 1989 sequel, the team’s receptionist was played by Annie Potts. Feig’s new take on the Ghostbusters stars Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon and will hit theaters July 22, 2016. (via Superherohype.com)

San Diego Comic-Con, the legendary mecca for nerds the world over, will reportedly feature this year’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The guests scheduled to appear at the event include Lucasfilm president and producer Kathleen Kennedy, director J.J. Abrams, and other unnamed special guests. Not only will Comic-Con be promoting The Force Awakens, there will also be showcases with Hasbro about new Star Wars toys and the 40th Anniversary Celebration of Industrial Light & Magic, the visual effects company behind Star Wars. All things Star Wars will go down at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, July 10. (via Superherohype.com)

Chiwetel Ejiofor, the Oscar-nominated actor known for 12 Years a Slave and Serenity, has been cast as Baron Mordo in the upcoming Doctor Strange movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Traditionally in the Doctor Strange comics, Baron Mordo is a troubled, evil student of The Ancient One (to be played by Tilda Swinton). However, it has been reported by Deadline that Ejiofor’s Mordo will be a combination of a few Doctor Strange characters, as well as starting out as a friend to Strange and shifting to his classic arch-nemesis status. Doctor Strange is directed by Scott Derrickson and will be out in theaters November 4, 2016. (via Deadline.com)

Following the box office success of this year’s Kingsman: The Secret Service, director Matthew Vaughan has announced to Yahoo! that he is in fact writing a sequel. While Vaughan is known for refraining from directing sequels to his films, there is a good chance he will break that rule on the sequel to Kingsman. For the time being, Vaughan is still writing the script and is also preoccupied with his remake of Flash Gordon for Fox. However, be sure to check back for updates on the stylish, sophomore secret agent caper. (via Yahoo!)

It has become very clear by now that director Bryan Singer is not shy about giving fans sneak peeks of his X-Men: Apocalypse, which he is currently filming. One of the most recent teasers from the set of Apocalypse comes in the form of a resurgence of perhaps the most beloved new characters from last year’s X-Men: Days of Future Past; Evan Peters’ Quicksilver. Singer recently shared a picture on his Instagram of the kind of complex set needed to film Quicksilver’s wholly entertaining slow motion scenes like that of Days of Future Past. X-Men: Apocalypse starring Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, and Oscar Isaac in the titular role will hit theaters May 27, 2016. (via Superherohype.com)

After the unfortunate passing of legendary actor Christopher Lee earlier this week, many celebrities have voiced their condolences at the sad news. Among them have been Lee’s Lord of the Rings co-star Sir Ian McKellen and director Peter Jackson. McKellen’s tribute reads:

“When I arrived in New Zealand to start filming as Gandalf, in the first week of the 21st Century, Peter Jackson held a dinner for some of the cast. I was happily next to Christopher Lee who I had known of throughout my actor-admiring life. He’d been cast as the white wizard Saruman but his opening line to me was: ‘I’ve always thought I should play Gandalf. I read Lord of the Rings every year, sometimes twice.’

He then treated me to a snatch of the black speech of Mordor and I felt inadequate. Not that that was Chris’ intention: he was 78 and well practiced in the art of gentlemanly rectitude. The epitome of “tall, dark and handsome” kept any inner demons for his acting Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster and, once, as Sherlock Holmes.

It’s what made his Saruman so effective. With his long beard and white robes, he had the air of a stern yet benign Pope that belied his ambition to rule Middle-earth, with cruelty and spite. Between our facing-off on the set, he could easily be persuaded to reminisce. After all there were over 200 films on his CV and a couple of singing albums. His earliest intention was to be an opera bass., Touchingly he was a little nervous at the outset. ‘Peter made me do my first speech 10 times!!’ I told him not to worry as the previous day I’d had to repeat a scene 27 times. His dark eyes widened and glinted but he didn’t complain again.

Peter was tickled to have his Hammer Horror hero as the villain and devised a spectacular death to acknowledge his vampiric past - falling onto a spike which pierced his dastardly heart. Chris didn’t much approve and I think the episode can only be seen in the extended Director’s Cut.

An odd pity that he didn’t work in the theatre, nor direct a film, like his idol Laurence Olivier who had Chris as a spear-carrier in his film of Hamlet. But he was justly proud of the span and success of his career in movies and when knighted must, like all of us, have been pleased to share a title with Sir Larry.

The last time Saruman and Gandalf filmed together was ‘round a table in Rivendell but while Galadriel, Elrond and I were in the Wellington studio, Sir Christopher’s interjections were filmed in London some months later. You can’t tell. In movies, all is not as it seems.

Yet when he joined the Star Wars cast he said he did all his own stunts without benefit of a stand-in. That certainly wasn’t true of his gravity-defying fight with Gandalf. I suspect he just wanted to declare he was in old age fit for purpose. He needn’t have worried. His acting prowess never declined.

Peter Jackson said:

“It is with tremendous sadness that I learnt of the passing of Sir Christopher Lee. He was 93 years old, had not been in his usual good health for some time, but his spirit remained, as always, indomitable.

Christopher spoke seven languages; he was in every sense, a man of the world; well versed in art, politics, literature, history and science. He was scholar, a singer, an extraordinary raconteur and of course, a marvelous actor. One of my favorite things to do whenever I came to London would be to visit with Christopher and Gitte where he would regale me for hours with stories about his extraordinary life. I loved to listen to them and he loved to tell them - they were made all the more compelling because they were true - stories from his time with the SAS, through the Second World War, to the Hammer Horror years and later, his work with Tim Burton - of which he was enormously proud.

I was lucky enough to work with Chris on five films all told and it never ceased to be a thrill to see him on set. I remember him saying on my 40th Birthday (he was 80 at the time), ‘You’re half the man I am.’ Being half the man Christopher Lee is, is more than I could ever hope for. He was a true gentleman, in an era that no longer values gentleman.

I grew up loving Christopher Lee movies. For most of my life I was enthralled by the great iconic roles he not only created - but continued to own decades later. But somewhere along the way Christopher Lee suddenly, and magically, dissolved away and he became my friend, Chris. And I loved Chris even more.

There will never be another Christopher Lee. He has a unique place in the history of cinema and in the hearts of millions of fans around the world.

The world will be a lesser place without him in it.

My deepest sympathies to Gitte and to his family and friends.

Rest in peace, Chris.

An icon of cinema has passed into legend.”

(via Superherohype.com)

Jeremy Renner, otherwise known as Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is surely doing his part to hype up next year’s Captain America: Civil War. The actor recently tweeted a picture of himself with a promotional image for the pivotal new movie. The image features half of Captain America’s face on one side and half of Iron Man’s on the other with the burning question: “Whose side are you on?” in the middle. With their favorite superheroes pitted against one another over the Superhero Registration Act, Marvel fans are bound for some very conflicted feelings. Hitting theaters on May 6, 2016, Captain America: Civil War stars Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Chadwick Boseman’s debut as Black Panther, and the MCU’s first showing of their newly rebooted Spider-Man, for whom casting is still underway. Check out Renner’s tweet below. (via LatinoReview.com)

What do you say? What side are you on? #avengers #civilwar #captainamerica #ironman #marvel pic.twitter.com/aKKwuYR9mY

— Jeremy Renner (@Renner4Real) June 12, 2015

In other Captain America: Civil War news, actor Mark Ruffalo, a.k.a. Bruce Banner, a.k.a. The Hulk recently sat down for an interview with the website The Daily Beast. In that interview, Ruffalo speculated about his possible appearance in Captain America: Civil War. Ruffalo said, “I don’t know! I heard a rumor about that the other day. I haven’t seen a script, nobody’s told me, and I don’t have dates. But I can only hope so! Ruffalo went on to discuss his interactions with co-star Robert Downey Jr.: “I was talking to Robert Downey the other day, and he said,‘Ruffalo! I heard you’re coming out here,’ and I said, ‘OK! I’ll be there.’” This is no solid confirmation but considering how involved Downey Jr. is with the goings-on of the MCU, this mention to Ruffalo is a very good sign. At the conclusion of “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” Ruffalo’s Hulk was last seen flying off alone in a jet and his whereabouts were left ambiguous. Hopefully everyone’s favorite “giant, green, rage monster” does find his way back to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. (via LatinoReview.com)

The new trailer for Guy Ritchie’s slick new adaptation of the 1960s TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. has arrived. Starring Henry Cavill of Man of Steel fame and Armie Hammer (The Lone Ranger and The Social Network), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an unlikely pairing of an American CIA Agent (Cavill) and KGB Agent (Hammer) to take down a greater evil. The trailer, which you can watch below, is an action-packed and sexy glimpse of what is shaping up to be an archetypal summer blockbuster. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. comes out in theaters August 14, 2015. (via Superherohype.com)

The release dates of two highly-anticipated films, Ridley Scott’s The Martian and the horror revival “Victor Frankenstein,” have been swapped by 20th Century Fox. Moving up from its original release date, The Martian, starring Matt Damon will now hit theaters on October 2, 2015. Victor Frankenstein, directed by Paul McGuigan and starring James McAvoy as Dr. Frankenstein and Daniel Radcliffe as his assistant Igor, will now be coming out Thanksgiving weekend on November 25, 2015.(via LatinoReview.com)