Landing a Star

Up in the Air breakout Anna Kendrick will star in an untitled new comedy to be directed by Jonathan Levine (The Wackness) with Seth Rogen and Wanted’s James McAvoy.

McAvoy will play a twentysomething man who learns he has cancer, while Kendrick will take on the role of a psychologist who counsels him.

Production on the project, which Nicole Holofcener (Friends with Money) was set to helm until she and the studio could not agree on where to shoot it, is set to begin filming next month.

Photo: TwilightGroupie.com.

Update: Joseph Gordon-Levitt is replacing James McAvoy in the movie now that the latter has pulled out of the project “due to unrelated circumstances beyond his control.”

The New Husband

Joel Edgerton’s loss is James McAvoy’s gain.

The X-Men: First Class star is taking over the male lead in The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby now that the Aussie actor has had to bow out of the intriguing project.

So, McAvoy will headline the Him part of this two-separate feature cinematic experiment that Ned Benson (In Defiance of Gravity) is writing and directing.

Yes – The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby will be told from two points of view: one McAvoy’s and the other (the Her part) Jessica Chastain’s, actually (so you know I’m totally into it ’cause I’m totally into her).

Photo: FanPop.com.

Weapon of Mass Destruction

This summer, Angelina Jolie is going to kick some butt.

Screeeeeech! No, this isn’t 2005 or 2003 or 2001. It’s 2008, and the actress is co-starring alongside James McAvoy (Atonement) and Morgan Freeman in Wanted, an action movie from Russian-Kazakh director Timur Bekmambetov (Day Watch, Night Watch).

Wanted follows the rise to arguable greatness of Wesley Gibson (McAvoy), a paper-pusher ridden by anxiety trapped in a boring desk-job existence.

All Wesley wants is a life that means something. But Wesley is a sheep. His boss is constantly on his case, ditto his girlfriend, who is cheating on him with one his co-workers, and what is he doing about it? Nothing.

Do you know what whips a sheep into shape but good, though? A fox – a lady named Fox (Jolie) in this case.

Fox finds Wesley one night and tells him that his father, whom he thought dead, was in fact done in the day before, that he was one of the greatest assassins who ever lived, and that the man who killed his father is now after him.

And that’s how Fox recruits Wesley into the millennia-old Fraternity, a secret society that trains him to avenge daddy dearest by unlocking his dormant talents. See, he is one of the few people in the world who can shoot the wings off a fly. His father could, and so can he.

As our drone learns to develop lightning-quick reflexes and phenomenal agility, he also learns the ancient, unbreakable code that governs the so-called “weapons of fate” that make up the Fraternity: Kill one man. Save a thousand.

Slowly, though, Wesley realizes there is more to his deadly associates than previously revealed, especially when it comes to their enigmatic leader, Sloan (Freeman).

By the time he gets to the bottom of it – and Wanted delivers the ol’ switcheroo – you will have had just about enough of the movie’s ballistic, disconnect kinetics.

I enjoy a good shoot ’em up. In fact, I did when Shoot ’Em Up hit movie screens last year.

Wanted has elements of that Clive Owen vehicle, and of Crank, too. But unlike those movies, this one’s a little too dense, mythology-wise, for its own good.

As for McAvoy. Is it too soon for him to take on such a plum role? The Scot’s American accent is flawless, but is he just too unknown for audiences to connect with him? I say yes, but he pulls it off. This could be his breakthrough. (Sorry, Atonement.)

More off-putting, though, was how distractingly thin Jolie was during production. Girlfriend, you’re not a starletbot. You’re supposed to be the sexiest woman on the planet, the one for which several of your fellow H-town actresses would make the switch. Look the part.

Wanted is only so…if you really want it.

My Rating **1/2

Photo: Universal Pictures.

OG Mutant in Revolt

No end and no beginning....

Those lyrics by Madonna came to mind almost immediately upon leaving the theater, having properly kicked off the summer season – so sowy, Captain America et al., and Batman and Superman! – by catching X-Men: Apocalypse, the threequel to the prequel-sequel-movie-with-the-mequel. Y’ know (don’t act like you don’t), the second Bryan Singer-directed follow-up to 2011’s X-Men: First Class (the first being X-Men: Days of Future Past, which opened two Memorial Day weekends ago).

But why – why did that particular thought cross my mind?

Because, as the seminal and successful franchise stands, the future participation of new-gen stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence is completely up in the air (all three were contracted for a reboot trilogy), yet that of next-gen X-Men like Sophie Turner (HBO’s Game of Thrones), Mud’s Tye Sheridan, Kodi Smit-McPhee (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Alexandra Shipp (she played Aaliyah for Lifetime), and newcomer Lana Condor – who respectively join the action as young Jean Grey, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Jubilee – is all but assured.

Also, because Simon Kinberg’s screenplay allows for quite the neat resolution to the destructo-drama that Oscar Isaac’s villain of the title brings about – no spoiler, since, after all, his character is named Apocalypse. Trust me, folks, to say this doesn’t constitute a betrayal. You don’t really believe that the mythical OG mutant the actor portrays – or tries to under a beyond-misguided, if necessary thicket of purple-ish blue make-up and armor like – comes out on top, right?

If you do, I have a bridge I’d like to talk to you about.

While it gets thisclose, the end of the world doesn’t take to be in this one, ’cause of the X-Men – although a heckuva lot of collateral damage is produced. Most of our young heroes live to see the rest of the ’80s (the action picks up in 1983, a decade after the events of the last blockbuster), and all is well on Earth, at least until the post-credits scene gets to rollin’ and you get to wonderin’ again).

X-Men Apocalypse has great strengths and greater weaknesses. It wisely gives J. Law’s Mystique a leadership role to sink her teeth into, albeit reluctantly, before she realizes who Apocalypse is or that he has awoken from a millennia-long slumber – a smart move that makes us think of Katniss Everdeen. It effectively introduces a new crop of X-Men that swiftly and somewhat smoothly becomes ready for battle (and good at it, too); Turner, in particular, is a standout. It even throws it back to First Class by giving us more Rose Byrne, whose CIA agent Moira MacTaggert becomes a grounding, welcome sight for sore eyes (an abundance of pop-y-colored visual effects will do that to ya) even if she’s made to repeat clumsy exposition, if memory serves.

Plus, there’s a sharp cameo at the halfway point everyone’s gonna love.

What’s cringe-worthy is how truly indistinctive the bad guy turns out to be – no fault of Isaac, for I am sure it wasn’t his idea to style the peacock, not to mention the character, to within an inch of his immortal life.

Potentially interesting baddies like Olivia Munn’s Psylocke and Ben Hardy’s Angel are treated like stock, barely uttering any dialogue and clearly in it to win it through sheer CGI-aided athleticism. (Actually, few characters handle the dialogue.)

To say that X-Men: Apocalypse is uneven would be obvious. It’s clear that, overall, this trio of movies has been better, much more thoughtfully conceived; the relationships among McAvoy’s Professor X and Lawrence’s badass shapeshifter and the Fass’s Holocaust-survivor Magneto have been a treat of intricate conflict that have chronicled actual growth. Ditto that this one’s just a tad overstuffed.

At least three storylines worthy of expansion compete against one another, what with Mystique out on her own in the world, rescuing oppressed mutants and Magneto trying to assimilate to regular Joe life with tragic results, and, of course, Apocalypse rising and the professor and his gifted pupils setting out to stop him (again, keep your eye on a certain redhead).

And at least one theme could have been further explored: feminism. Given that the powerful women in this are the ones to respect.

At face value, X-Men: Apocalypse is too much and, surprisingly, all fine and dandy. Just take it for what it is and you will enjoy. Fingers crossed, Singer, Kinberg & Co. will learn from their indulgences (Evan Peters is back as Quicksilver) and – paging Ms. Turner – triumphantly deliver the streamlined Jean Grey-centric new entry we all want in a few years.

My Rating **1/2

Photo: 20th Century Fox.

And Then There Were the Mutants

The X-Men are a particular breed of superhero.

As we know from three previous, non-origins X movies, the likes of Professor X, Magneto, Wolverine & Co. are tremendous and especially tortured folk because they are, in fact, special.

Their powers – or abilities, actually (I don’t know...that just kinda sounds better) – are noteworthy because they aren’t the result of intergalactic provenance or a chance encounter with a extraordinary specimen.

No, their abilities are the result of evolution – of, yep, biology – and their struggle to achieve acceptance among regular humans is quite mighty.

With the historically revisionist X-Men: First Class, directed with panache by Layer Cake and Kick-Ass helmer Matthew Vaughn, we get to see how Professor X and Magneto first met each other, and thus, exactly when and where and how their struggle got its start.

The movie has a retro-cool thing going on that’s pretty irresistible, as is its cast led by James McAvoy, who plays a young, slightly arrogant Charles Xavier, and the fantastic Michael Fassbender (Jane Eyre), who’s becoming a leading man right before out eyes. The latter plays the role of revenge-minded Erik Lehnsherr, a.k.a. the young Holocaust survivor who turns into Magneto.

Kevin Bacon and January Jones co-star, as the villainous Sebastian Shaw and the icy Emma Frost, as do Jennifer Lawrence (as young Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (as young Beast), and Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids), as a company woman (read into that one, folks) who’s very much on the mutants’ side, among others.

The movie, a prequel/reboot hybrid of the first order, is set at the very height of the Cold War (there’s a prologue of sorts that further illuminates a character’s pain-stricken past).

Plot-wise, it sees our mutant friends (some of whom will eventually splinter off and become formidable foes) acting as allies to the United States as they play a key role in the Cuban missile crisis, aiding to avert nuclear disaster. It is a clever device that serves its purpose nicely, for it adds a layer of urgency to the movie that another more outlandish one may not have otherwise provided, y’ know what I mean.

As a whole, the movie grabs and keeps the audience’s interest.

It looks pretty nifty and it’s well acted.

The weakest link, by far, is Jones, who reaches into subzero levels of coldness to play her part, which in turns renders her completely inaccessible (girl, warm your shtick up).

Thank goodness for McAvoy, Fassbender, and a compelling Lawrence, all of whom carry the core of the conflict with aplomb, and for Vaughn, who breathes new, stylish life into a once-celebrated-cum-maligned franchise I wouldn’t mind see go on from this point on into the future.

My Rating ***1/2

Photo: 20th Century Fox.

Memory of a Crime

Don’t you just hate it when you steal a priceless work of art – and then you get your head knocked out and you can’t remember where it is?

Or when the goon that you got in cahoots with really starts to lose his temper and threatens your existence?

That’s what James McAvoy’s poor little good-guy auctioneer gone naughty goes through in Trance, the next film from Danny Boyle that’s opening in limited release on April 5.

So what’s a dude to do to get himself out of the jam?

Find a hypnotherapist, of course, and if she’s a hottie like Rosario Dawson, keep her from becoming a target herself. (Unless, of course, she’s also in on it on working ya som’in’ fierce.)

The plot of the film reminded me of Inception, in a way, especially when I heard bad-guy Vincent Cassell tell McAvoy in the trailer that “she put that there” and that “it’s not real.” I presume he is talking about a memory.

Anyway, for a second there I even forgot I wanted to type what I just did because the Trance looks like total Boyle goodness, especially the cleverly executed nudity.

This one’s gonna a sexy one, people.

Photo: EW.com.

The Activist Next to the Whistleblower

James McAvoy and Benedict Cumberbatch are going to be making us have thoughts for nerds.

That’s ’cause the Wanted man is in talks to co-headline an untitled, Bill Condon-directed movie about Julian Assange, with the Sherlock star in the role of the WikiLeaks whistleblower.

McAvoy would play activist and author Daniel Domscheit-Berg – upon whose book, Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website, the project will be partly based.

What...a decidedly classically handsome-looking movie this will be. I mean....

Photo: ICYDK.com.

When the Awesome Aussie Met the Fass and J. Mc

So. James McAvoy, Hugh Jackman, and Michael Fassbender got together the other day....

No, not to do things to me.

Sad face.

To talk up their upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past with the good folks from Yahoo!, natch.

What followed was an impromptu and oh-so-good-natured roast of sorts of one Sir Ian McKellen, their co-star in the blockbuster. The Awesome Aussie and the Fass decided to do their very best impressions of McKellen for the cameras – and it was awesome.

McAvoy, meanwhile, did Patrick Stewart, by which, of course, I mean that.... Oh, just watch the darn thing.

Photo: Veooz.com.

Colossus In the House!

Bryan Singer wants to make sure his forthcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past is a strong offering – so he’s bringing Daniel Cudmore on board.

Yes siree, the tall Canadian looker is gonna play Colossus again in the prequel-sequel-movie-with-the-mequel.

And the actor is “so pumped” about it. Which I think is hella cute. (Especially because I have met the guy, to talk Twilight Saga for a gig I had, and I have a bit of an idea what he looks like when he is geeking about something.)

Cudmore joins a star-studded ensemble that already includes James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, and Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, and Omar Sy (The Intouchables).

And Singer is not done adding names to his cast sheet, so it’s only a matter of time until he announces that like, he’s called Famke Janssen to bring Jean Grey back from the dead. The actress thinks it’s quite possible.

Too bad there’s no plausible way to resuscitate James Marsden’s Cyclops – ’cause I’d sure like to see his ass his calves him back in action.

Photo: AceShowbiz.com.

To Toronto and Beyond

Well, I’m not going to the Toronto International Film Festival this year – it kicks off tonight – but that doesn’t mean I can’t keep up with it.

Click here to find out what movies will be at the top of attendees’ lists.

Among the hot tickets are The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; Atonement, starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy; Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Noah Baumbach’s Margot at the Wedding; and Rendition, starring Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Photo: Paramount Vantage (Margot at the Wedding).

Law Abiding Citizen

So this is why Robin Wright dyed her hair so dark soon after hitting Splitsville for good with Sean Penn, for Rober Redford’s The Conspirator.

The plot of the multi-hyphenate’s Lincoln assassination drama is revolves around the aftermath of the 16th president’s death, and follows the trial of Mary Surratt (Wright), the mother of one of John Wilkes Booth’s co-conspirators. James McAvoy plays her initially reluctant lawyer.

Check out the trailer and see who else you spot in it:



The Conspirator, which also features Kevin Kline, erstwhile Gilmore Girl Alexis Bledel, Justin Long, and Evan Rachel Wood, is due out in theaters on April 15.

J. Mc Does Prada

It’s official: James McAvoy is a star.

The endorsements are pouring in for the Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby and X-Men: Days of Future Past actor. Look at him doing Prada (he’s hawking the fall/winter collection).

Cute, huh.

Check out this video to see just how cute the guy can be, especially when wearing glasses.

Photo: Out.com.

A Matter of Perspective

They say that every love story has, at the very least, three versions of itself going for it: that of one person, that of the other, and, of course, the truth.

Som’in’ like that, right?

Anyway, that is the exact premise of Ned Benson’s upcoming The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, an ambitious, multi-perspective, multi-picture story about love starring Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy.

Check out the trailer for the film, which will be released as the Them version of itself on Sept. 26 (the so-called god behind the project, Harvey Weinstein, is totally planning on making the Her and Him versions available in the fall as well).

Photo: E! Online.

The Xverse Gets Bacond

The cast of Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class is getting connected to just about everyone else in Hollywood now that Kevin Bacon has joined them.

The actor will play a villain, sparring against protagonists Charles Xavier, played by James McAvoy, and Michael Fassbender’s Magneto. No word on just who Bacon’s character is specifically, or how he’ll figure into the Xverse yet, though.

On a related note, buzzy up-and-comer Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) will play Mystique.

Production on the blockbuster is set to begin in London this summer.

Photo: JollyPeople.com.

In Session

Hello, Magneto!

The first images from X-Men: First Class have begun to make their way to the WWW, and I must say Michael Fassbender makes on heckuva young Magneto.

Click here to get a load of what James McAvoy looks like Professor X, the early years.

Back to Fassbender, though: Is he the dog’s pajamas or what!

Up first for the German-Irish actor is March’s Jane Eyre. I cant wait.

Photo: SlashFilm.com.

Update: Click here to read more details about the X prequel opening on June 3, straight from director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Kick-Ass), as well as look-see at the rest of the cast, which includes Rose Byrne (FX’s Damages), Nicholas Hoult (A Single Man), and Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone).

Mutant Time Warp

The most ambitious crowd-pleaser of 2014 now has a preview, kids.

So behold the first trailer for the star-studded mutant bonanza X-Men: Days of Future Past starring James McAvoy and Hugh Jackman and Michael Fassbender and Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen and Halle Berry and Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult and Ellen Page and…well, you get my drift.

The blockbuster looks. Like it going to be. Pretty gosh darn epic:

X-Men: Days of Future Past is due out on May 23.

Fast Guy

From horror to heroics – say that out loud really fast. The difference is rather minimal.

In real life, though, Evan Peters will really be able to tell a change is afoot. Thanks to Bryan Singer.

Meaning the director has turned to the American Horror Story player to join James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Hugh Jackman & Co. in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Peters will be playing Quicksilver, the speedy son of Magneto.

Rumor had it Quicksilver would appear in The Avengers 2. Guess that is not the case now?

Photo: OhNoTheyDidnt.LiveJournal.com.

The (Ultimate) Activist Next to the Whistleblower

Awww.

It looks like that dream pairing of Benedict Cumberbatch and James McAvoy will have to happen another day.

The X-Men: First Class star will not be playing opposite the Sherlock star in that movie about Julian Assange that director Bill Condon is prepping, after all.

Instead, the role of Daniel Domscheit-Berg, the activist who helped the whistleblower build the infamous WikiLeaks website, will be played by Daniel Brühl.

If the baby-faced Spaniard looks familiar that’s because you are probably remembering him from Inglourious Basterds.

Photo: Collider.com.

The Brits Get In on the Awards Action

Today, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts showered Atonement with no less than 14 nominations, including best film, best British film, best director for Joe Wright, and actor nominations for James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, and Saoirse Ronan.

American front-runners No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood both received nine nominations, including best film and best director for the Coen brothers and Paul Thomas Anderson, respectively.

Paul Greengrass was nominated for Best Director for The Bourne Ultimatum. The film also picked up a nod in the best British film category.

For a complete list of BAFTA nominees, click here.

Photo: Focus Features (Atonement).

Apocalypse Rising

Poor Jean Grey. No matter how she fits into the Xverse, the end of the world follows.

That is made clear from the outset of the first trailer for the upcoming threequel to the prequel-sequel-movie-with-the-mequel X-Men: Apocalypse.

Directed by Bryan Singer, the blockbuster will feature Oscar Isaac in the villainous title role and see Michael Fassbender’s Magneto sort of pawned into becoming one of his Horsemen – Olivia Munn’s Psylocke, Alexandra Shipp’s Storm, and Ben Hardy’s Archangel will complete the infamous quartet – while Professor X (James McAvoy), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) & Co. (welcome back, Rose Byrne!) try to avoid obliteration for all (Sophie Turner from HBO’s Game of Thrones will be playing young Ms. Grey).

Check. Out. The trailer...now:



X-Men: Apocalypse is scheduled to be released just in time for Memorial Day 2016.