Movies

John Carpenter, the legendary director of films including “Halloween,” “Escape From New York,” “The Thing,” “Starman,” “Big Trouble in Little China” and many more, isn’t one to hold back in conversation. Ask him about “They Live,” his subversive sci-fi flick that starred professional wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper as the film’s blue-collar hero Nada, who discovers an alien conspiracy to mind-control the people of Earth using invisible messages, and he’ll admit that it’s his most political movie — his response to consumerism and class disparity in the 1980s. “By the end of the ’70s there was a backlash against everything in the ’60s, and that’s what the ’80s were, and Ronald Reagan became president, and Reaganomics came in,” Carpenter said at the fourth annual Hero Complex Film Festival, where he appeared for an onstage Q&A between sold-out screenings of “They Live” […]

Superman fans eager to see the Last Son of Krypton take flight on the big screen in “Man of Steel” can get a taste of the action in “Metropolis Mayhem,” an online video game from Warner Bros. “Metropolis Mayhem” launches Friday at metropolismayhem.manofsteel.com. The 2-D game allows players to fly Superman through Metropolis, using their keyboard to maneuver the Man of Steel around obstacles and destroy objects with heat-vision. Players must collect Superman logos to increase their score while dodging floating laser beams, plasma weapons from dropships and guided rockets shot from helicopters. Get hit five times, and Supes is a goner. Though “Metropolis Mayhem” may not feature the explosive special effects sure to shake theaters when “Man of Steel” opens June 14, it does feature a snippet of the film’s moving score, composed by Hans Zimmer. PHOTOS: 75 images […]

The White House rejected a petition to build a Death Star, but a different piece of “Star Wars” machinery has been brought to life — with Lego. On Thursday in New York City’s Times Square, Lego unveiled its largest model ever: A life-size X-wing Starfighter, constructed out of Lego bricks — 5,335,200 of them, to be exact. The “Star Wars” X-wing replica, which weighs nearly 46,000 pounds and contains a full-scale R2-D2 in the cockpit, was created to promote “The Yoda Chronicles,” a new Lego Star Wars three-part animated series premiering next week on Cartoon Network. The model will remain in Times Square through Saturday. Afterward it will land at Legoland California Resort, where it will be on display through the remainder of 2013. The X-wing Starfighter is, of course, the ship that Luke Skywalker and other members of the […]

Director J.J. Abrams, in an appearance last night on the TBS talk show “Conan,” shared a very brief deleted scene from his sci-fi blockbuster “Star Trek Into Darkness,” showing actor Benedict Cumberbatch showering. Abrams played the clip after the conversation with host Conan O’Brien turned to the charges of sexism that have erupted over a scene that did make the final cut of the film — in which Chris Pine’s Kirk ogles Alice Eve’s Dr. Carol Marcus in her underwear. (“Some people felt like it was exploiting her. While she is lovely, I can see their point,” Abrams conceded.) Though the shower footage has the Internet all aflutter, it’s not necessarily the best example of the dynamic performance Cumberbatch delivers in the film as the villain (can we finally name him now?) whose identity was kept secret for so long. […]

The apocalypse has never seemed so funny. The new trailer for “The World’s End,” the latest film from director Edgar Wright,  has arrived, and judging from the clip, the movie promises to deliver the same charming brand of humor Wright and his leading men Simon Pegg and Nick Frost pioneered in such films as “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz.” “The World’s End,” due in theaters Aug. 23, upends the usual Pegg-Frost dynamic, however, with Pegg playing Gary King, a (lovable?) loser trapped in a state of arrested development who recruits his old pals — including Frost’s responsible attorney Andy — to finish a famous pub crawl in their hometown that they had once unsuccessfully attempted in their younger days. Naturally, things don’t go quite according to plan, and Gary and Andy, along with pals Steven (Paddy Considine), Oliver […]

The latest trailer for “Man of Steel,” the new Superman film that sees Henry Cavill don the red cape of the famous hero, begins with a cryptic transmission from Michael Shannon’s General Zod, warning citizens of Earth, “You are not alone.” Zod’s chilling speech, in which he demands that the last son of Krypton surrender or bring about the destruction of his adopted planet, serves as the backdrop for a number of scenic shots from the film, set for a June 14 release. “Man of Steel” is directed by Zack Snyder from a story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, the writing team behind the “Dark Knight” trilogy, which modernized Batman and broke box-office records. But reviving the world’s first comic-book superhero on the big screen — Superman turns 75 this year — is no small task. “In the comic-book […]

Production is underway for “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” and director Bryan Singer is offering fans a behind-the-scenes peek at the action via Twitter, posting pictures of Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Peter Dinklage and more. “Days of Future Past,” due out in July of 2014, picks up after Matthew Vaughn’s 2011 prequel “X-Men: First Class,” which chronicled the mutant superheroes’ origins as young people in the 1960s, discovering and learning to manipulate their powers. “Future Past” aims to bridge the gap between “First Class” and the original “X-Men” film trilogy. Singer, who also directed 2000′s “X-Men” and 2003′s “X2,” on Monday tweeted a photo of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence, who is reprising her role as shape-shifting mutant Raven, better known as Mystique. The snapshot shows Lawrence in full costume — revealing blue body suit and paint with a shock of […]

Fans who’ve waited years for a follow-up to the sci-fi blockbuster “Independence Day” might soon be treated not just to one sequel to the memorable hit film, but to an entire franchise based on the alien invasion thriller. The film’s co-writers — director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin – told the Hero Complex Film Festival audience at a matinee screening of the 1996 blockbuster that they have ideas for a sequel (and maybe more). “What we talked a lot about, the mythology of why did the aliens come in the first place, what is the bigger story of this whole thing?” said Emmerich, seated beside Devlin, “Independence Day” star Jeff Goldblum and the movie’s effects wizard Volker Engel. “When you get a bigger mythology going, you have the chance to not only do one or two or three, you […]

“The Wolverine,” the new film starring Hugh Jackman as the near indestructible mutant Logan, is set to open in theaters July 26, bringing the revered Chris Claremont/Frank Miller comics saga to the screen. The newest trailer for the movie, directed by James Mangold, showcases the film’s story line, which explores the character’s inner demons, even as he faces external threats after traveling to Japan to say goodbye to an acquaintance. The clip opens with Jackman haunted by a nightmare visitation from Famke Janssen’s Jean Grey. Logan promises her that he’ll never hurt her, or anyone else, again. But, she whispers, “It’s too late.” He wakes up, bearded and alone, outside in the woods, where he’s exiled himself in search of solitude. But his time there doesn’t last long. Soon, he’s off to Japan to see the man whose life he […]

Remember Patton Oswalt’s eight-minute “Parks and Recreation” monologue about his proposed plot for “Star Wars: Episode VII”? It took YouTube only one month to animate the comedian’s suggestions, spider-Wookiee and all. During a guest spot on the NBC comedy last month, Oswalt played a Pawnee citizen aiming to filibuster a City Council vote. He launched into a lengthy, improvised speech about his ideal story line for the upcoming “Star Wars” sequel. The outlandish plot includes a resurrected Boba Fett, Marvel’s villain Thanos (teased at the end of “The Avengers”), Tony Stark, the gods from “Clash of the Titans” and “Wrath of the Titans” and a beheaded and mechanized Chewbacca, among other awesome but unrelated characters from the realm of genre entertainment. The full speech was released on YouTube, drawing more than 2.7 million views and attracting the notice of J.J. […]