Liam Neeson to Star in Juan Antonio Bayona’s A Monster Calls

 

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Liam Neeson has been added to the cast of the upcoming film adaptation, A Monster Calls. The film is based on the award-winning novel of the same name by Patrick Ness.

A Monster Calls is set in present-day England, it features a boy who struggles to cope with the consequences of his mother’s terminal cancer; he is serially visited in the middle of the night by a monster who tells stories.

Juan Antonio Bayona will direct the feature. Ness adapted the screenplay for Focus Features. It is scheduled to be released in theaters on October 14, 2016. Neeson joins previously announced Felicity Jones. There is no word on what his character in the movie will be, all that is known is that he will play one of the monsters.

Author Ness and illustrator Kay won the Carnegie Medal and the Greenaway Medal in 2012, the “year’s best” children’s literary awards by the British librarians (CILIP). A Monster Calls is the only book whose author and illustrator, whether two persons or one, have won both Medals.

TellTale’s The Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us Heads to PS4 & Xbox One

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TellTale Games has officially announced that both seasons of “The Walking Dead” and their newest game, “Wolf Among Us” will be released on the PS4 and Xbox One later this year.

The news was revealed via a blog post, where the developer also explained “The Walking Dead – Season Two” and “Wolf Among Us” will be available as retail discs for Xbox 360 and PS3 thanks to strong sales.

Currently, “Wolf Among Us” has one more final episode to release while “The Walking Dead – Season Two” is in full swing.

TellTale Game is also preparing to release a new game in collaboration with Gearbox called “Tales From The Borderlands,” not to mention the mysterious episodic Game of Thrones project that has been confirmed without much else.

Josh Brolin to Play Thanos in Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy”

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Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy finally has its Thanos. According to a report from Variety, Josh Brolin has been cast to play the villain in the upcoming feature.

Thanos first appeared in the post-credits scene in “The Avengers,” but is a major villain in the Marvel universe. The character is also expected to appear in one, if not both, of the upcoming “Avengers” sequels.

“We’re definitely tied to ‘Avengers 3,’” director James Gunn recently said.

Guardians of the Galaxy  hits theaters Aug. 1. The cast includes Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Bradley Cooper.

The film is officially described as follows:

In the far reaches of space, an American pilot named Peter Quill finds himself the object of a manhunt after stealing an orb coveted by the villainous Ronan. In order to evade Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a group of misfits including Gamora, Rocket, Drax the Destroyer, and Groot. But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand – with the galaxy’s fate in the balance.

You can watch the official trailer for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy below:

Adam McKay in Talks to Direct “Ant-Man”

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After Edgar Wright departed as director from the upcoming Marvel project, Ant-Man, the studio has been scrambling to find a new director. According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, Adam McKay is in talks to be taking over the project.

McKay is most known as the director behind the “Anchorman” films.

Both Marvel and Wright said the director’s exit was due to creative differences, and sources say Marvel had been unhappy with Wright’s take on the project for weeks (considering the film was supposed to start shooting June 2 and has now been put on hiatus.) Despite the fact that Wright willingly made revisions to the script he wrote with Joe Cornish earlier in the process, sources say the new rewrites were made without his input, and he walked after receiving Marvel’s new version of the script early the week of May 19.

The cast for the adaptation features Paul Rudd as the title character alongside Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, Corey Stoll and Patrick Wilson.

Ant-Man is set to hit theaters on July 17, 2015. Marvel states that Wright’s leaving would not affect the release date.

Official Release Date and Poster For Outlander Revealed

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Starz has officially announced that their upcoming series, “Outlander” will premiere on Saturday, August 9. They also released an interesting poster which you can see above.

The television series is based on the sci-fi/romance/adventure series of the same name written by Diana Gabaldon.

The tale follows Claire (Caitriona Balfe), a married British combat nurse from 1945 who mysteriously falls back in time to 1743 Scotland, where she is torn between her husband Frank Randall (Tobias Menzies) and Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), a Scottish warrior who comes to her rescue.

“Outlander” is executive produced by Ronald D. Moore (“Battlestar Galactica”). The sixteen-episode first season is currently shooting on location in Scotland.

The first two episodes of the series are written by Executive Producer Moore and directed by John Dahl (Dexter, Breaking Bad, Justified).

Nicolas Cage Joins Cast for “Pay the Ghost”

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The popular short story from Tim Lebbon titled “Pay the Ghost” was recently optioned for the big screen. Now according to a report from Variety, Nicolas Cage is currently attached to star in the supernatural thriller.

“Pay the Ghost” kicks off on Halloween night, when a couple’s young son is mysteriously abducted. A year later, they begin to sense his presence in frightening ways. A string of terrifying clues draws them to search for the boy throughout New York, where they uncover ancient secrets and discover a vicious, vengeful spirit.

The short story was initially published in the collection, “October Dreams.” It was optioned by Midnight Kitchen Productions.

Currently the project is without a director though Dan Kay is set to write the script.

Dave Franco to Star in “Intern’s Handbook” Film Adaptation

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Sony Pictures recently acquired the film rights to the book, “The Intern’s Handbook: A Thriller.” Then they secured Dave Franco as the star of the project. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Shane Kuhn.

The Intern’s Handbook” follows s a company called HR, Inc., an intern placement agency that is actually a front for a network of assassins whose targets are high-profile corporate executives. The best of the best in this world is John Lago, who can get coffee and make copies like no one else while stealthily ratcheting up a body count.

The story tells of Lago’s stint in a Manhattan law firm, where he’s working as a temp while gathering intelligence for his hit. He then meets his toughest adversary yet: a female FBI agent assigned to take down the same target.

The novel was released in April of this year and is the first in a planned trilogy.

The script for the adaptation will be written by Oren Uziel. Neal Mortiz and Ori Marmur of Original Film will produce along with Circle of Confusion’s Brad Mendelsohn and David Alpert.

Netflix Finds Its Marvel “Daredevil” Star

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Owen Sleater, or you might know him by his mortal name Charlie Cox, will now be the next Daredevil! According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, Cox will star as Matt Murdock, the blind lawyer by day and crime-fighting hero by night on the Netflix and Marvel produced drama.

Cox becomes the first person cast in the drama series based on the Marvel Entertainment comics of the same name. Netflix picked up “Daredevil “– as well as “Jessica Jones,” “Iron Fist,” and “Luke Cage” and miniseries “The Defenders” — in a massive pact with Marvel. 

“Daredevil” will be 13 episodes for season one. Steven S. DeKnight will now oversee the show and Drew Goddard will serve as executive producer and consultant.

Marvel and Netflix declined comment on Cox’s casting. Official confirmation is expected to come shortly.

Cox is most known for the role that broke my heart, Owen Sleater on HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire.”

True Blood Releases Final Season Poster

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The final season of HBO’s “True Blood” is almost here and we have the first official poster for season 7. You can see the poster above!

The series is based on “The Southern Vampire Mysteries” series of novels by Charlaine Harris, detailing the co-existence of vampires and humans in Bon Temps, a fictional, small town in northwestern Louisiana. The series centers on the adventures of Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a telepathic waitress with an otherworldly quality.

“True Blood” season 7 will be the final season with 10 episodes premiering on Sunday, June 22.

Along with Paquin, “True Blood” also stars Stephen Moyer, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Alexander Skarsgård, Chris Bauer, Kristin Bauer van Straten, Lauren Bowles, Anna Camp, Nelsan Ellis, Lucy Griffiths, Rutger Hauer, Arliss Howard, Rob Kazinsky, Todd Lowe, Joe Manganiello, Michael McMillian, Kelly Overton, Robert Patrick, Carrie Preston, and Deborah Ann Woll.

The show explores several contemporary issues, such as the struggle for equal rights, discrimination and violence against minorities and homosexuals, the problems of drug addiction, the power of faith and religion, the control/influence of the media, the quest for identity, and the importance of family.

Adaptation of Stephen King’s IT Shifts from Warner Bros. to New Line

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According to a story from The Hollywood Reporter, a new upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s “IT” has shifted from Warner Bros. to their New Line division.

Cary Fukunaga, who you might recognize from “True Detective,” was hired to be the director for IT back in 2012 and word is that he is still attached. The studio is reportedly looking to release the film into two separate feature-length films. Part one would focus on the characters as children while part two would feature them as adults.

“IT” was previously and pretty famously adapted into television miniseries in 1990.

The story is officially described as follows:

A promise made twenty-eight years ago calls seven adults to reunite in Derry, Maine, where as teenagers they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city’s children. Unsure that their Losers Club had vanquished the creature all those years ago, the seven had vowed to return to Derry if IT should ever reappear. Now, children are being murdered again and their repressed memories of that summer return as they prepare to do battle with the monster lurking in Derry’s sewers once more.

Fukunaga himself will also attend to scripting duties alongside Chase Palmer with David Katzenberg, Roy Lee, Dan Lin and Seth Grahame-Smith producing.