Paramount shuffles "Paranormal 6", "Rings," "Friday the 13th" and "M:I 5"

On Monday, Paramount Pictures announced that it would be moving around several of its upcoming major films. The list includes Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (pushed from March 13th to October 23rd), Friday the 13th (yet another reboot after the 2009 remake, also originally scheduled for March 13th, which was then pushed to November 13th, and now is being pushed back all the way to May 13th, 2016), Rings (a reboot of "The Ring" franchise, now taking Friday's spot of November 13th), and Mission: Impossible 5. The subtitle for M:I 5 is still unknown at this time. Paramount decided to bump it up by 5 months from it's Christmas Day release to July 31st, the reason being so that it wouldn't have to compete with Disney's Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. To get the full scoop behind the big release date change, head over to http://www.thewrap.com/paranormal-activity-6-friday-the-13th-pushed-back-the-ring-reboot-gets-release-date/

First Official Trailer for "Ted 2"

Earlier today, Universal Pictures released the first official trailer for Seth MacFarlane's "Ted 2", the follow-up to his 2012 blockbuster comedy. The film stars Seth Macfarlane, Mark Wahlberg, Amanda Seyfried and Jessica Barth. Newlywed couple Ted and Tami-Lynn (MacFralane and Barth) want to have a baby, but in order to qualify to be a parent, Ted will need the help of John and Samantha (Wahlberg and Seyfried) to prove he's a person in a court of law . Ted 2 will be released on June 26th.

Hans Zimmer: "Hollywood is keeping orchestral music alive"

Over at The Frame, producer Michael Lanz spoke with composer Hans Zimmer at his Santa Monica studio to discuss the specifics of Zimmer's Interstellar score. You can read the article here http://www.scpr.org/programs/the-frame/2015/01/20/41178/interstellar-composer-hans-zimmer-says-hollywood-i/ or even head to Soundcloud where the 6-minute interview was posted. Listen to Zimmer talk about how his son inspired him, and why Hollywood is crucial for new orchestral music. https://soundcloud.com/the-frame-kpcc/hans-zimmer-on-interstellar-score-and-why-hollywood-is-important-for-orchestral-music

Netflix's February 2015 slate

Thanks to The Hollywood Reporter and Vulture, we have a complete list of what Netflix is adding to its roster as well as what is being removed. A total of 41 films/TV shows will be removed, but 48 new films and TV shows are being added. As far as what will be going:

      Six Bond films:

• From Russia With Love 
• Goldfinger
• Live and Let Die 
• A View to A Kill
• For Your Eyes Only
• Never Say Never Again

      

      3 90's Batman films:

• Batman Returns
• Batman & Robin
• Batman Forever

And various other films such as: Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Now Redux, Mad Max, Nacho Libre, Zodiac and Airheads, Ali, Panic Room and Dredd. For the complete list, head on over to http://www.vulture.com/2015/01/what-is-expiring-from-netflix-february-1.html

As for the 48 new films and TV shows being added, such titles incude:

• Mr. Peabody and Sherman
• Earth to Echo
• Scary Movie 5
• Robocop (2014)
• The Fluffy Movie

For the full list, head to http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/movies-coming-netflix-february-764711

Weekend Box Office - 01/18/2015

Numbers for this weekends Box Office results are in, and its nothing too surprising. American Sniper was expected to be number one this week after the recent nominations for Best Picture and Best Director for this years Academy Awards. The big surprise however is that Blackhat is at the #10 spot on its opening weekend.. not good... I'm sure the studio isn't happy about that at all.

#	TITLE	WEEKEND BOX OFFICE	TOTAL BOX OFFICE	%
01	American Sniper	$89,505,000	$92,930,000	+15,344.7%
02	The Wedding Ringer	$20,600,000	$20,600,000	N/A
03	Paddington	$18,966,000	$18,966,000	N/A
04	Taken 3	$14,625,000	$63,412,000	-62.7%
05	Selma	$8,785,000	$26,449,000	-22.3%
06	The Imitation Game	$6,792,000	$50,398,000	-5.8%
07	Into The Woods	$6,782,000	$114,535,000	-29.0%
08	The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies	$4,895,000	$244,572,000	-47.8%
09	Unbroken	$4,163,000	$108,506,000	-49.0%
10	Blackhat	$3,838,000	$3,838,000	N/A

"Blackhat" Soundtrack Debacle

Last week, composer Harry Gregson-Williams (Shrek, Man On Fire, The Town) was surprised to find that his score for Michael Mann's new cyber-thriller Blackhat was not included in the final cut of the film. Over the years, Mann (who's new film joins the list of some of his more notable works such as The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, Collateral and Public Enemies), has established quite a reputation for cutting and changing the scores for his films drastically to the point where they are no longer recognizable. Gregson-Williams did not receive the news so well and took to Facebook to express his dissatisfaction.

2 days later, Mann responded when Variety reached out to him to hear his side of the story.

For further details, read Williams' Facebook post here http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/blackhat-composer-harry-gregson-williams-says-michael-mann-scrapped-most-of-his-score-20150113 and read Variety's article here http://variety.com/2015/biz/news/michael-mann-responds-to-composers-criticism-1201406396/

Behind the Organs of Hans Zimmer's "Interstellar" Soundtrack

Over at Thompson on Hollywood you can get an in-depth look at how composer Hans Zimmer and Organist Roger Sayer incorporated a church organ into the score and how Zimmer's one simple idea (pun intended) for the film evolved into an emotional rollercoaster ride that became a fan-favorite soundtrack, as well as a front-runner for this year's Best Original Score Academy Award.

"I sat down and I wrote this piece really about what if feels like to be a father and what it feels like to have a son, and I was writing about my son", says Zimmer.

For the full behind-the-scenes video, head on over to http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/watch-how-composer-hans-zimmer-captured-the-metaphysical-and-the-mystical-in-interstellar-20150105 to see what methods Zimmer and Sayer used, as well as how director Christopher Nolan inspired Zimmer to write one of the top film scores of 2014.

Empire's 10 Best Soundtracks of 2014

Empire Magazine Online has released its list of the top 10 soundtracks of 2014. Not surprisingly, a few fan-favorites have made it onto the list, as well as 2 of this year's nominees for the Academy Award for Best Original Score*

In order from #10 down to #1, the top soundtracks are:

• 10 - Only Lovers Left Alive
•   9 - The Fault In Our Stars
•   8 - Palo Alto
•   7 - Under the Skin
•   6 - Chef
•   5 - Gone Girl
•   4 - Interstellar*
•   3 - The Guest
•   2 - Guardians of the Galaxy
•   1 - The Grand Budapest Hotel*

For an in-depth look at each soundtrack as well as interviews with the composers, head on over to http://www.empireonline.com/features/best-movie-soundtracks-2014/

Re-Watch the Oscar's Nomination Announcement

Did you miss the live stream of the Academy Awards nominations announcement this morning? No Worries! The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences have uploaded the announcement to YouTube for all to enjoy!

Part 1

Part 2

New Trailer for "Get Hard"

Warner Bros. have release and brand new trailer for the upcoming Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart comedy, Get Hard. Screenwriter Etan Cohen makes his directoral debut with this film about a wealthy investment banker (Ferrell) who hires a car washer (Hart) to help prepare him for a maximum security prison sentence. I enjoyed most of the jokes, but this film seems like it can go wrong, real fast. While I do enjoy Kevin Hart in his acting roles so far, he starting to go down the road of "typecasting" which I would hate to see happen. But if he keeps taking these roles, its bound to...

Get Hard stars Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Tip “T.I.” Harris, Alison Brie, and Craig T. Nelson, and is set to open in theaters everywhere March 27th.

Read more to watch the new trailer...

87th Academy Awards Nominations Announced

The nominees are in! Earlier this morning Directors Alfanso Cuaron and J.J. Abrams and Actor Chris Pine announced the nominees for every category for the 87th Annual Academy Awards. While most of the nominees were expected, there were a few surprises. Such as Whiplash getting a best picture nomination, The LEGO Movie NOT getting a nomination for Best Animated Feature and Gone Girl not being nominated for Best Picture.

Read more to see the complete list of nominations. The 87th Academy Awards ceremony will be televised Live on Sunday Februrary 22nd, 2015.

First Green Band and Red Band trailers for "Spy"

Paul Feig and Melissa McCarthy are at it again! The first Green Band and Red Band trailers from the duos upcoming comedy film, Spy, has been released. Spy tells the story of Susan Cooper, a CIA analyst who gets the chance of going into the field for the first time. While some of the jokes fell flat for me personally, I thought that this was a pretty hilarious trailer. I loved all the films that Paul Feig and Melissa McCarthy have done together, so I'm hoping this will be the same. I also think it will be interesting to see who well Jason Statham does in a comedy film, seeing as he's usually in serious, action packed film.

Spy stars, Meslissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Rose Byrne, Jude Law, Bobby Cannavale, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Peter Serafinowicz, Miranda Hart, Allison Janney and Morena Baccarin. The film is set to open in theaters May 22, 2015.

Read More to watch the trailers...

Disney moves "The Jungle Book" to 2016, Sets "Ghost in the Shell" for 2017.

Disney has come out and announced some new and updated release dates for their upcoming films.

• The Finest Hours - October 9th, 2015
• The Jungle Book - April 15th, 2016
• Pete's Dragon - August 12th, 2016
• Ghost in the Shell -  August 14th 2017

After the recent report that Scarlett Johanson had signed on to lead Ghost in the Shell, Disney has set the films release date for August 14, 2017. Originally set to release of October this year, Disney has pushed the release of Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book to April 15, 2016, and now the coast guard drama The Finest Hours, will take its place on October 9th , 2015. The Live action Pete's Dragon remake is now set to release August 12th, 2016.

67th Annual Directors Guild Awards Nominees Announced

The Directors Guild of America have announce their nominees for the 67th Annual Directors Guild Awards (DGA). While most of these nominations were expected, the one I thought was out of the blue was Clint Eastwood's American Sniper. Not that the direction of the film was bad, but I feel that either Gone Girl or Interstellar should take its place seeing as the direction of both films were far superior. The awards ceremony for the 67th Annual Directors Guild Awards will be held on Feburary 7, 2015.

Read more to find out which directors were nominated...

RUMOR: "Gone Girl" team remaking "Stangers on a Train"

The trio team behind last years Gone Girl is at it again! According to reports from Deadline, Director David Fincher, Author/Screenwriter Gillian Flynn and Actor Ben Affleck are teaming up again to remake Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 film, Strangers on a Train. Gillian Flynn is set to write a modern adaptaion of the film, and Affleck is set to star and produce the film under the 'Pearl Street Films' banner with Warner Bros.

The original film is about a professional tennis player who is tired of his marriage. While on a train ride he runs into a man who offers to kill his wife, in exchange that he kills the mans father. The report mentions that rather than a professional tennis player, the main character will be a movie star in the middle of a awards season campaign.This certainly sounds interesting,  and after the fantastic output of Gone Girl, I'd love to see more from this team.

New Trailer for Avengers: "Age of Ultron"

Marvel and Disney have released a brand new trailer for the upcoming Joss Whedon film Avengers: Age of Ultron, and its exciting! We have some great new footage including a bit more of Iron Man vs. The Hulk. It looks like it will be a epic battle to go along with The Avengers fighting Ultron! Speaking of which, James Spader's menacing voice works perfectly as Ultron, and sends chills down your spine. The only problem I have with this trailer is one specific shot of Ultron, the animation doens't look all too great. But I'm not worried, this is probably just early animation. I'm sure the finished product will look great!

Read more to watch the new trailer...  The film stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, James Spader, Stellan Skarsgard, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Paul Bettany and Don Cheadle.  Avengers: Age of Ultron comes to theaters in 3D May 1st, 2015.

New Janurary Releases for Netflix announced.

It’s the first month of the new year, which means a fresh batch of films have been added to Netflix’s cue. And with that, a batch has also been removed. It’s quite impressive to see how many get added and how many get removed, all in the blink of an eye.  Thankfully they tell you in advance what movies will be vanishing and when, as well as what will be added.

For January 2015, Netflix has added such films as:

• Ghost
• Bruce Almighty
• Cast Away
• Insomnia
• Mean Girls
• Taking Lives
• Son of God
• Chinatown
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
• The Road to El Dorado
• Fantasia
• RoboCop (1987)
• Sunset Boulevard 
• The French Connection

For the full roster as well as the dates each film is added, head over to http://screencrush.com/netflix-instant-january-2015/

Weekend Box Office - 1/11/2015

Not only has Taken 3 stolen the number one spot this weekend at the box office, but its also now the second highest opening in January. It's now surpassed Cloverfield, but did not yet reach last years Ride-Along

#	TITLE	WEEKEND BOX OFFICE	TOTAL BOX OFFICE	%
01.	Taken 3	$40,400,000	$40,400,000	N/A
02.	Selma	$11,200,000	$13,487,000	1,668.9
03.	Into the Woods	9,750,000	$105,272,000	-47.9%
04.	The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies	$9,435,000	$236,517,000	-56.6%
05.	Unbroken	$8,368,000	$101,602,000	-53.9%
06.	The Imitation Game	$7,624,000	$40,840,000	-1.9%
07.	Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb	$6,700,000	$99,523,000	-53.9%
08.	Annie	$,919,000	$79,437,000	-56.3%
09.	The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death	$4,825,000	$22,334,000	-67.9%
10.	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1	$3,750,000	$329,525,000	-50.4%

New Trailer for "Chappie"

Sony Picture released a brand new trailer for Neill Blomkamp‘s (District 9 and Elysium) upcoming film, Chappie. Compared to the last trailer, this one gives us just a little bit more detail of the story, and better look at some of the characters as well. Chappie tells the story of a robot who’s part of a police force, but imbued with artificial intelligence that makes him question his purpose, and also provides a serious problem for the company that created him.

The film stars Sharlto Copley, Hugh Jackman, Dev Patel, Sigourney Weaver, Ninja, Yo-Landi Vi$$er, and Jose Pablo Cantillo. Chappie will open in theaters March 27th.

Read more to watch the new trailer...

Alfonso Cuarón, J.J. Abrams and Chris Pine to Announce Oscar Nominations in a Two-Part Presentation

'Tis the season for awards nominations! After recently announcing the nominees for the Producers Guild Awards and Writers Guild Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences will soon announce theirs. In a press release today, producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced that directors Alfonso Cuarón & J.J. Abrams; and actor Chris Pine will announce the nominees for every category during a live telecast January 15th. What make this years telecast different from the previous years, is that this will be the first ever two-part announcement. This year they will also announce the nominations for every category instead of just the major categories. Directors Alfonso Cuarón & J.J. Abrams will take the stage at 5:30as PT and announce the first 11 categories, while Chris Pine and Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs will announce the final 13 categories at 5:38am PT.

The awards ceremony will partake  on February 22nd, 2015.

Read more for the Press Release and the Full list of Categories...

New "Spectre" Images from Austria

After a short holiday break, filming has continued on the upcoming James Bond film Spectre. Earlier today, MGM and Sony have released 21 photos from a shooting location in Austria. The photo shoot includes actors Daniel Craig, Lea Seydoux, and Dave Bautista in front of the snowy mountain tops of Austria. Keep in mind, this is just a small photo shoot with the actors and nothing more.

Spectre stars Daniel Craig, Lea Seydoux, Dave Bautista, Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Andrew Scott, and Monica Bellucci; and it's directed by Sam Mendes. Spectre opens in theaters November 6th, 2015.

Read more to view the images...

T.J. Miller and Ed Skrein join the cast of "Deadpool"

Now that we have an official release date for Deadpool, its time for casting news! We already know that Ryan Reynolds is more than likely going to reprise his role as the "Merc with a Mouth", but now a report from The Wrap has stated that actors T.J. Miller and Ed Skrein have joined the cast for the upcoming film.

With script by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, and directed by Tim Miller, Deadpool is set to release in theaters on February 12th, 2016.

Read more for details...

The "Writers Guild of America Awards" nominations announced, Includes surpise nomination "Guardians of the Galaxy"

Hot off the presses of the Producer Guilds Awards nominations, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has just came out with the nominations of their Writers Guild Awards. While most of the nominations here are expected, there are a couple of big surprises! James Gunn and Nicole Perlman has been nominated for Guardians of the Galaxy, while Dan Gilroy was nominated for Nightcrawler! Along with these films, the nominations list includes Gone Girl, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Whiplash, Boyhood, The Imitation Game, Wild and Foxcatcher. The awards ceremony will be held February 14th.


Read more for the full list of nominations...