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New Star Wars: Rebels Character Revealed

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NewsDen Of Geek2/18/2014 at 3:14PM
Star Wars Rebels logo

We get our first look at Zeb, an alien rebel based on original Ralph McQuarrie designs and voiced by Steve Blum in Star Wars: Rebels.

We are only now getting our first official promos for the highly anticipated Star Wars: Rebels, but more characters are being unveiled, which brings us to Zeb. As debuted at IGN(video below), Zeb will be voiced by actor Steve Blum and is a nifty original creation from an alien race previously unseen…save for the conceptual art of Ralph McQuarrie from the original 1977 Star Wars, because Zeb is one of the unselected visions of Chewbacca!

“I think I actually screamed when I was booked to play Zeb,” Blum said to IGN. “It is literally a role of a lifetime. I’ve been lucky enough to play some major superhero roles in my career, but to be given the chance to play a new character in a Star Wars series? Brain explosion.”

Set in the vastly untapped era of storytelling space between Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars, the show Star Wars: Rebelshas a wide birth of about 20 years to explore new stories and mythologies from long before the construction of the first Death Star.

Star Wars: Rebels will premiere with a two-hour movie event this summer on Disney XD, which will be followed by a series of shorts to introduce the characters. The show will make its official debut in the fall!

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Norman Reedus and Robert Kirkman Teaming Up for New Sci-Fi Movie

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NewsDen Of Geek2/18/2014 at 8:26PM

The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus is teaming with Robert Kirkman again, this time for a low budget sci-fi thriller!

Norman Reedus has hunted his way into our hearts as Daryl Dixon on The Walking Dead. Now it's time for him to take charge on the big screen. And what better way to do it than in another genre project that just happens to have Walking Dead co-creator Robert Kirkman involved, as well? Airis a science fiction film produced by Kirkman and his Skybound Entertainment company, and will also star Guardians of the Galaxy's Djimon Hounsou.

Airis written and directed by video game writer and designer Christian Cantamessa (Red Dead Redemption) from a script co-written by Chris Pasetto. According to The Hollywood Reporter (who have more details on the project) Air"is set in an underground cryogenic facility after a nuclear fallout renders the atmosphere unbreathable. Air centers on its two custodial workers (ReedusHounsou), who take care of the cryogenically sleeping personnel that are to re-establish society, but they struggle to preserve their own sanity and lives while maintaining the extremely fragile environment of the last livable place on earth." 

Described as "low budget" and coming from a first-time director, Aircould have the same kind of isolated creepiness that made Duncan Jones'Moonsuch a hit with genre fans. No word on a start or release date just yet, but we'll keep you posted.

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Watch the Guardians Of The Galaxy Trailer Here

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TrailerDen Of Geek2/19/2014 at 12:08AM

The first trailer for Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy has finally arrived! Watch it right here!

If folks weren't excited about Guardians of the Galaxy before, they will be now! There was no big Guardians of the GalaxySuper Bowl trailer, and even though we're still nearly six months away from the film's release date, Marvel just kept making fans wait, even releasing a cruel 20 second teaser trailer earlier today. But now, the Guardians of the Galaxytrailer that debuted on Jimmy Kimmel Liveis here in all its glory for fans to enjoy! Watch the first trailer for Guardians of the Galaxyright here!

Guardians of the Galaxy is directed by James Gunn. It stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Glenn Close, and a galaxy of others. It opens on August 1st.

Learn about the history of the Guardians of the Galaxy in comics here!

Check out our breakdown of the Guardians of the Galaxytrailer here!

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Disqus - noscript

I've been eagerly awaiting this movie, but I hope the final product is less hammy - I'm tired of every male character in the cinematic Marvel universe playing a slight variation on Tony Stark. This is why Paul Rudd as Ant-man scares me a little as well.

"and even though we're still nearly eight months away from the film's release date" - The release date is August 1. It's February 19. We only have about 5.5 months now.

Corrected! We sometimes don't function very well here when it gets late...

How are Cap, Thor, Banner, or Hawkeye in any way variations of Tony Stark?

Chris Pratt's Star Lord is farrrrrr from Tony Stark. If anything, he reminds me of Captain Jack Sparrow of space. "But whyyy is the rum gone?"

Avengers: Age Of Ultron shooting locations confirmed

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NewsSimon Brew2/19/2014 at 4:06AM

Joss Whedon will be taking The Avengers to South Africa, South Korea, Italy and England, Marvel confirms...

Production has begun on Joss Whedon's upcoming Avengers: Age Of Ultron, with some footage already shot in South Africa as part of the film's international production.

Marvel has now confirmed where else the film is set to shoot, and inevitably, Johannesburg is one of the places on the list (no surprise, given the number of set reports that have popped up from there over the past few days!).

The bulk of the film is still going to be shooting in London, with Pinewood Studios housing a lot of the work. Furthermore, the Avengers: Age Of Ultron team will be visiting Seoul in South Korea and Aosta Valley in Italy. Additional locations are still to be announced, the press release teasers. Halesowen is beautiful in the spring. Just saying.

Avengers: Age Of Ultron arrives in cinemas on May 1st 2015.

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New trailer lands for 22 Jump Street

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TrailerSimon Brew2/19/2014 at 4:09AM

A safe for work trailer for the upcoming 22 Jump Street - starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum - has landed...

The latest trailer for 22 Jump Street, which reunites Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, has landed. As it turns out, it's a green band flavoured version of the previous red band promo. It thus covers much the same ground, but without the swearing and stuff. Knew you'd be pleased.

The film - which has been directed by Christopher Miller and Phil Lord (currently topping the US and UK box office thanks to The LEGO Movie) will be released

The film lands in cinemas on June 12th.

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Guardians Of The Galaxy: A Comic Book History of Marvel's Newest Movie Stars

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FeatureMarc Buxton2/19/2014 at 7:00AM

With the Guardians Of The Galaxy movie generating significant buzz, we look at the comic book roots of the Marvel team!

The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spider-Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, the Avengers, Daredevil, and arguably Doctor Strange, these are the core concepts and characters of the Marvel Universe. Virtually everything else in the Marvel Universe has a thread that connects to one of these titles. For the most part, these are the brands that the mainstream world is familiar with. With Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel and Disney are about to take a huge gamble, one that can pay off by doing what the comics have traditionally failed to do: expand the Marvel Universe past that core list of titles. Marvel has a rich back catalogue of characters that hardcore fans traditionally refer to as B or C list characters. The thing is these characters should be just as marketable as the A-list or mainstream ones. And if the first trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy is any indication, they just might be.

The Guardians of the Galaxy have been around for a long time, since the waning days of the Silver Age, and while the title has had periods of moderate success it usually failed to make any lasting impact on the world of Marvel publishing. The Guardians are a footnote, an obscurity, a title with a cult following but no history of sustainability. The Guardians of the Galaxy film could do what almost fifty years of print (yes, they’ve been around that long) couldn't. Even if they fail, they still have the juggernaut called the Avengers to off-set any potential flop. Looking at Marvel’s recent track record, failure is a remote possibility at best. Still, the Guardians of the Galaxy could be a tough nut to crack as their publishing history, and team make-up has gone through some complex changes over the years. Heck, Marvel even switched the team’s time period in the past decade!

When the Guardians first appeared in 1969, the team that made its debut in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 was completely different than the team that will make its film debut in August of 2014. Guardians of the Galaxy will hold the distinction of being the first Marvel Studios film not based almost exclusively on concepts created by Stan Lee or Jack Kirby. While it’s possible that Lee had some input into the Guardians’ creation, the first appearance of the team was penned by Arnold Drake, best known for creating DC’s Doom Patrol, with art by the great Gene Colan. It’s ironic that with his illustrious career primarily with DC, that Marvel is getting an Arnold Drake creation to the silver screen before Warner Bros., but that’s a snark for another column.

The original Guardians were introduced as a team of aliens led by a human who was trapped in a cryogenic sleep for 1000 years. Members of the team include a crystallized Plutonian named Martinex, a giant from Jupiter named Charlie-27, and a fin-headed archer from Alpha Centauri named Yondu. In interviews taking place in the intervening years, those involved claimed the mission statement of the title was Star Trek meets The Dirty Dozen, but what fans got was a static, uneven sci-fi piece as the foursome took on the evil aliens, the Badoon in the far future. It was the idea of the future that made this otherwise forgettable one-shot stand out, as this was the first time Marvel readers were able to see the future through the eyes of protagonists. Sure there was Kang in the Avengers, but he came to the present, readers never got to see more than a glimpse of what Lee and Kirby’s universe may become. Alas, Drake’s throwback style didn’t fit in within the bombastic Marvel Universe and the series was soon forgotten…until Steve Gerber.

When Steve Gerber became the writer of the Guardians feature in Marvel Presents #3, the writer worked the same magic he had on Howard the DuckMan-Thing, and the Defenders. Gerber took characters that were practically blank slates and brought his own unique personality to the character’s already appealing designs. Gerber added the enigmatic Starhawk, and Nikki, a young girl from Mercury who added a youthful exuberance to the cosmic adventures as well providing the book a much needed point-of-view character. When Gerber was done with the Guardians, the team had fleshed-out characters with deep motivations. The team quickly popped up in Marvel Two-In-One and, most importantly, Avengers, where they played a pivotal role in one of the 1970s' most popular story arcs, “The Korvac Saga.” Their participation in the battle against Korvac, one of the most iconic stories of the Bronze Age, established the Guardians as legitimate players in the Marvel Universe.

The Guardians hung out on the periphery until the nineties when editor in chief Tom Defalco wanted to expand the Marvel line. He turned to Jim Valentino to guide the Guardians’ first solo title, and the book was an instant hit thanks to Valentino’s energetic storytelling. Mr. Valentino took advantage of the futuristic setting by using familiar elements of the Marvel Universe in very new ways to keep a new generation of comic readers engaged and guessing. Familiar elements like Captain America’s shield, Tony Stark’s tech, the Phoenix, Ghost Rider, and even a time traveling female Yellowjacket, who joined the team providing the book with a tether to the present. The book even had a spinoff mini-series, the Galactic Guardians. Yet, it seemed that it was Valentino that readers were rallying around not the Guardians themselves, as the book quickly fizzled when he departed to co-found Image Comics. Valentino told exciting stories, but it was his crackling dynamism that made the Guardians pop. Marvel seemed disinterested in trying again without Valentino, at least with the original future Guardians.

While all this was going on, the Guardians were not the only cosmic beings exploring the Marvel cosmos. Creators Jim Starlin and Steve Englehart excelled at cosmic adventure introducing characters like Adam Warlock, Thanos, Drax and Gamora, and many more alien heroes and villains that served to enrich the Marvel Universe outside of Earth. In the '80s, the heroic Marvel population grew by one when Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen introduced Rocket Raccoon in the obscure Marvel Premiere back-up feature “The Sword in the Star.” Meanwhile, Star-Lord, created in 1976 by Steve Englehart and Steve Gan, had been bouncing around the Marvel Universe. Star-Lord had a brilliantly conceived origin and was worked on by such luminaries as Chris Claremont and John Byrne, but the adventures of Peter Quill failed to find a foothold in the ever changing and finicky publishing landscape that was the newsstand.

These obscure characters existed, they were fleshed out, and they were ready for a talented creator or creators to step in and make them realize their full potential. Enter, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, otherwise known as DnA, and their cosmic opus, Annihilation. DnA wanted to present a cosmic crossover event with cinematic action and huge stakes. They just needed the cosmic players to populate the tale of universal armageddon.

One of the titles Abnett and Lanning revived was Guardians of the Galaxy, but this time they needed the team to be smack dab in the present Marvel Universe. The old Guardians were removed from the Marvel Universe proper; it would be hard to convince the modern comic reader that the future Guardian’s adventures “counted.” So DnA picked up the threads of visually stunning but underutilized characters like Drax and Gamora, added Star-Lord and Phylla-Vell (the daughter of the original Captain Marvel), and did something absolutely unexpected. The writing duo added Rocket Raccoon to the mix along with, startlingly, the long forgotten Kirby monster, Groot, the sentient tree. Moreover, the writing duo played the farcical pairing completely straight, and against all odds, the formula worked.

The synergy of the characters and the sweeping narrative revitalized the cosmic characters of the Marvel Universe. Before DnA, there had been a number of attempts to revive Silver Surfer or Captain Marvel, but nothing stuck. DnA’s Guardians of the Galaxy popped, the fans that were daring enough to try something outside the accepted insular confines of the Marvel Universe proper were treated with characters that crackled with energy. There was just something fun about the Guardians, the creative daring that allowed for Rocket Raccoon and Groot to exist side by side with Adam Warlock and other “serious” cosmic characters. Abnett and Lanning’s Guardians of the Galaxy title premiered during a huge industry downturn, but the critical attention was there, and those who discovered it, loved it. DnA stuck around for a number of years, guiding the team to new heights, and while the dollars weren’t always there, no one can argue the duo succeeded artistically.

The book garnered a cult following, but also, and more importantly, it got the attention of Marvel Studios who saw the energy and marketability of the team. Hopefully, in eighteen months, when Guardians of the Galaxy hits the big screen, the contributions of DnA will not be forgotten, because it was their writing acumen and daring that propelled the Guardians into the  spotlight after five decades. Now that the film is imminent, Marvel will need more Guardians material, especially featuring the current team, to fill up book shelves when the film debuts. And that's where the current Guardians of the Galaxytitle, written by Brian Michael Bendis and having played host to a number of terrific artists like Steve McNiven, Francesco Francavilla, and others, comes in. Marvel seems to finally have found a formula that works for this team of freaks, misfits, and outcasts...and big screen success can't be far behind!

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Guardians of the Galaxy trailer breakdown

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NewsDen Of Geek2/19/2014 at 9:00AM

We take a careful look at Marvel's first Guardians Of The Galaxy trailer, and find quite a lot to like!

The debut trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy was just full of fun surprises, wasn't it? For starters, many folks may find themselves surprised by the fact that generally C-list Marvel characters like Rocket Raccoon, Peter Quill, and Groot could look this appealing in a big screen adventure. Whether it's the slick, faintly Star Wars-y vibe of the characters and tech on display, or the irressistible groove of Blue Swede's "Hooked on a Feeling," the Guardians of the Galaxy trailer sure feels like a breath of fresh air with many competing blockbusters (and superhero flicks) trying to out-scowl one another. We couldn't help ourselves: we had to take a closer look at this one. Help us spot what we missed!

1. Hey look, it's Korath the Pursuer! Who's that, again? We get our first clear look at Djimon Hounsou's character. Marvel fans, take note: for the first time in movie history, we have seen a live-action representation of the Kree!

2. The Nova Corps. Alright, so the Nova Corps are kind of a bunch of douchebags from the looks of things. It's still pretty cool to see John C. Reilly as Rhomann Dey, and Peter Serafinowicz is a nice surprise, too. Since a Nova movie probably isn't that far from Marvel's minds, the stodginess of the Nova Corps on display in Guardians of the Galaxy would be perfect for a character like Richard Rider or Sam Alexander to play off in a future film!

3. This is our clearest look yet at Dave Batista in full Drax the Destroyer makeup. Because he wasn't terrifying enough without all of this, right?

4. Zoe Saldana's Gamora (known in the comics as "The most dangerous woman in the galaxy") has only committed 10 fewer murders than Drax according to her rap sheet. 

5. Rocket Raccoon...this kinda speaks for itself, doesn't it? However, Rocket Raccoon's creator, Bill Mantlo, is in poor health and needs some ongoing care. You can read about his difficulties and learn how you can donate right here.

6. Groot: The other side of the "how bizarre is this movie going to be?" equation comes in Groot...who looks like a fairly impressive CGI creation! No word yet on the size of Groot's vocabulary for this. He's generally a tree of few words, and they tend to be rather specific. 

7. In case there was any lingering doubt about whether Guardians of the Galaxy takes itself too seriously, this bit should have squared that away for you nicely.

8. If we're lucky, the prison sequence in this film will provide as bizarre a mix of alien races as we saw in Star Wars' famous cantina scene. If there's ever a chance for Marvel Comics scholars to go absolutely berserk spotting their favorite alien races and picking apart the implications of their inclusion, this will probably be the scene.

9. Burn this image into your brain. Here's a raccoon with a laser machine gun riding a sentient tree. Try and wrap your head around that.

10. It's no secret that Chris Pratt didn't mess around about getting into shape for the role of Peter Quill. But...damn, dude. Way to make the dudes of America reevaluate their diet and exercise habits.

11. Our first official look at Nebula, played by Doctor Who's Karen Gillan. Nebula, for those of you who may not know, is the granddaughter of Thanos, the looming baddie who made a memorable post-credits appearance at the end of Avengers. James Gunn hasn't made it a secret that Thanos will appear in some capacity in Guardians of the Galaxy, but the size of his role is unknown at this time.

12. It's not gonna get you an R-rating if the blood isn't red, is it? 

13. Our only real look at Benicio Del Toro as The Collector since the post-credits sequence of Thor: The Dark World. This raises the spectre of whether Guardians of the Galaxy will be plagued by the same problem that has faced virtually every Marvel movie that doesn't feature Tom Hiddleston's Loki: are any of these villains going to be enough to carry a movie? 

14. Star-Lord's helmet actually looks way cooler in live-action than it does on the comics page.

15. The "usual suspects" shot that has been the centerpiece of virtually the entire Guardians of the Galaxy buzz-building machine suddenly makes a lot more sense when you've seen the rest of this trailer. So, IS Guardians of the Galaxy going to be The Usual Suspects in space? Is Thanos' presence going to loom over this like Keyser Soze? We'll find out on August 1st.

Alright, Marvel scholars....this is where you come in. What else is in here? Is this handsome devil above another Kree? We won't be satisfied until we see as many Kree as possible and someone named Mar-Vell or Noh-Varr get mentioned, but that may be asking too much. Let us know what other fun stuff we've missed, and we'll add 'em here as necessary!

You can read our history of the Guardians of the Galaxy comics right here!

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The Lufthansa Heist Guys: A Goodfellas Roundup

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NewsTony Sokol2/19/2014 at 9:00AM

A look behind the Lufthansa crew from Goodfellas and where they all ended up after the big score. For some it really was a bed of flowers.

The Lufthansa Heist at Kennedy International Airport in 1978 is The Rolling Stones of crime. Criminals aren’t supposed to be allowed to reap the spoils of their crimes, but the Lufthana heist made a lot more money than just the original $6 million ($20 mil if you account for inflation), which is the biggest heist in American history. The Lufthansa heist has, so far, produced two made for TV movies, The 10 Million Dollar Getaway, which I’ve never seen, and The Big Heist, which happened to be on a couple weeks ago in all its Donald Sutherland Irish accent mashup glory.  Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese, is of course a gangster classic. The Beatles of crime is, of course, the Gallo Profaci wars, which launched the stories of The Godfather.
 
The Lufthansa heist is back in the news now that Vincent Asaro got pinched. The cops say Asaro is in charge of all illegal activities at JFK airport. Asaro is alleged to be a big guy in the Bonanno family and is the first gangster to face charges in the Lufthansa heist. Asaro’s mouthpiece says the feds just gave Martin Scorsese a followup to Goodfellas. Asaro says the mastermind behind the Lufthansa heist never kicked up his full take. In Goodfellas, the Lufthansa heist was planned by gentleman thief Jimmy Conway and aided and abetted by Tommy DeVito and Henry Hill.
 
Well, Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito didn’t really exist, and Henry Hill was a rat who wasn’t really involved in the Lufthansa heist, so who are these guys? Let’s look at the Lufthansa heist lineup from Goodfellas.

Jimmy Burke AKA Jimmy Conway AKA Jimmy the Gent AKA The Irishman
Played by Robert De Niro in Goodfellas
 
In Goodfellas, Robert De Niro played Jimmy Conway. His real name was Jimmy Burke and he was known in the movie and in real life as Jimmy the Gent. Also, The Irishman. Both Goodfellasand Wise Guy, the book by Nicholas Pileggi, says Burke planned the heist. Working off a tip from a local bookie, well, in Goodfellas he covered up bald spots. Asaro says Burke owed him. Jimmy Burke was an associate of the Lucchese family. He couldn’t get his button because he was Irish. Burke was born in New York. His mother was Jane Conway, and nobody knows who his old man is. Burke’s mom put him in an orphanage, and he was taken in by the Burke family. There are rumors that some of the unclaimed cash from the Lufthansa heist was buried at their house.
 
Jimmy Burke started in crime when he was a teenager. He proved that he was a standup guy by the time he was 18 in 1949 when did a nickel bank forgery without opening up his mouth. Jimmy the Gent made an ex-person out of his future wife’s ex-boyfriend when she complained that he was bugging her, and he wound up in a dozen pieces. Jimmy the Gent had two girls and two boys with Mickey. He named the boys Frank and Jesse James. Frank was the crash car driver on the Lufthansa heist.
 
Burke owned Robert’s Lounge, a bar in South Ozone Park, Queens, where wise guys played cards all night and Burke buried bodies in the morning. Burke and Henry Hill spent six years in prison starting in 1972 for beating the shit out of Gaspar Ciaccio in Tampa, Florida. When they got out in six, they added dope to their portfolio. The Mafia had a no dope policy. It was really more like a “don’t ask don’t tell but fucking pay me” policy. Every mob book about the sixties and seventies sticks to that story.
 
Burke’s crew held up the cargo workers, and Burke took their wallets and told them he’d kill their families if they couldn’t keep quiet for forty-five minutes. $6 million in cash and jewels was supposed to be split up between Burke, his crew, and the Gambino and Lucchese families. Except that Asano says Burke didn’t kick up his full percentage, and a lot of guys didn’t live long enough to collect. Burke got spooked by the publicity and clipped everyone involved except his son Frank James, Tommy, and Angelo Sepe. Hill wasn’t part of the Lufthansa heist and wound up putting Burke away when he dropped a dime on all his friends. Burke died in prison, but on his way there he pointed to Kennedy airport and told the cops "that was all mine."
 
Burke strangled Jimmy Breslin almost to death after he wrote a piece on Paul Vario. That should have made it to the movie. On December 11, 1978 Burke pulled off the Lufthansa heist.

Thomas DeSimone AKA Tommy DeVito AKA Two-Gun Tommy AKA "Tommy D"
Played by Joe Pesci in Goodfellas
 
In Goodfellas, Tommy DeVito was played by Joe Pesci. The guy’s real name was Thomas DeSimone, and he was actually ten years younger than Henry Hill. Even though Pesci looks older, and the movie makes out that they were kids together. Tommy was born to be a mobster. Thomas Anthony DeSimone was born in Boston and called Rosario DeSimone after a grandpa who was an LA’s mob boss. Tommy’s “Uncle Frank” was Frank DeSimone, becoming the second DeSimone family member to become the Los Angeles crime family boss. Tommy was an associate of the New York’s Lucchese family, and his two brothers were associates of the Gambino family. Tommy was married to Angelica "Cookie" Spione, her brother was gangster Joe “The Barber” Spione, who Tommy killed.
 
In 1965, DeSimone joined Paul Vario’s East New York crew. In 1968, when he was 17, DeSimone committed what Henry Hill says was his first murder, a random stranger. Tommy carried his his gun in a brown paper bag on hijackings. Tommy’s brother Anthony was killed for being a rat. Tommy was probably whacked for killing William "Billy Batts" Bentvena during his "welcome home" party at Burke’s Robert's Lounge. Bentvena was a made man in the Gambino family and in the same crew as John Gotti. Burke held Bentvena down, and DeSimone beat him with a tire iron. But his fucking shoes shined. Burke and DeSimone had to kill Bentvena again on the way to the dog kennel they buried him under, but they stopped at Tommy’s mom’s house along the way. DeSimone killed bartender Michael "Spider" Gianco for asking why he didn’t go fuck himself. Unless Henry Hill made that story up. Tommy DeSimone strangled Jimmy Burke’s best friend, Dominick "Remo" Cersani, with a piano wire pretty much because Jimmy told him to.
 
In Goodfellas, Billy Batts was played by Frank Vincent.
 
But Tommy DiSimone, violent as he was, wasn’t all about killing. He helped plan and recruit for the Lufthansa heist. He was the only member of the crew who was spotted because his shoes were so polished; DeSimone also got rid of Parnell "Stacks" Edwards for forgetting to ditch the truck from the Lufthansa heist. According to Henry Hill, in his memoir Gangsters and Goodfellas, Karen was sleeping with Paul Vario while Hill was in jail. Tommy wanted to get in on the action, but Karen turned him down, and DeSimone tried to rape her. Vario fingered Tommy for the Bentvena killing to the Gambino family. Sometime in late December 1978, DeSimone was told he was going to get his button. DeSimone's wife, Angela, reported Tommy missing on January 14, 1979. She said he owed her $60. In Gangsters and Goodfellas, Henry Hill says John Gotti whacked him; mob informant Joseph "Joe Dogs" Iannuzzi says Thomas Agro did it. Pesci was 46 years old when he shot Goodfellas, DeSimone was 28 when he was shot by goodfellas.

Henry Hill AKA the wise guy who spilled to the feds and Nick Pileggi
Played by Ray Liotta in Goodfellas
 
Henry Hill was played by Ray Liotta in GoodfellasHenry Hill, Jr was associated with the Lucchese family. He was never made, because his father was Irish. In 1980, Hill spilled to the FBI and more than fifty guys were sent up, including Lucchese capo Paul Vario and Jimmy Burke. Hill was an errand boy for Vario since he was 13. He got a union card as a bricklayer and dropped out of school for easy “no show” work. Hill was hot when he was young, specializing in arson after he blazed the Rebel Cab Company cabstand. The first time Hill was arrested he was 16 years old. He was actually pinched for a Lenny Vario crime, but he kept his mouth shut under heavy questioning. Hill joined the army in June 1960 to duck a probe into a 1957 Apalachin mob summit that may or may not have named his boss. Hill did two months in jail when he was in the army for stealing a sheriff's car and getting into a fight at a bar. In Goodfellas, Hill meets his future wife Karen Friedman on a double date with Tommy, but it was actually Paul Vario's son, Paul Jr., who went on the date. Setting his old man up, so he could give Hill the devil horns later on. On April 7, 1967, Hill and Thomas DeSimone knocked off Air France for $420,000 by getting a guard drunk and laid, and making a copy of his key to the safe. Lucky fucking guard.
 
Hill says that William "Billy Batts" Bentvena was killed because Burke took over Bentvena's loan shark operatons while Bentvena was in jail and, now that he was out, Bentvena wanted it back. He says it happened a few weeks after the party, but it was still DeSimone who yelled "Shine these fuckin' shoes!" and pistol-whipped Bentvena. Hill says they stopped at DeSimone's mom's to get a shovel, and she made them coffee and breakfast. DeSimone killed Bentvena with the shovel and a tire iron. Having killed Bentvena twice, it was only fair that they bury him twice.
 
Hill did a six year stretch with Burke for beating John Ciaccio for skipping a bet. A month later, Hill was busted because Ciaccio's sister worked for the FBI. A judge found Hill and Burke guilty of extortion on November 3, 1972 and was housed at United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg, along with Paul Vario. Most of John Gotti’s crew was there at the time too.
 
Two months after Hill got out of jail, Martin Krugman, his bookie, told him about Lufthansa and how much money there was in the vault at Kennedy Airport. Hill wasn’t actually on the job, and Krugman was whacked and hacked up at "Vinnie's Fence Company." Hill went into dope. Selling and using. He got fingered by a mule who also squealed about Lufthansa. Hill was busted on April 27, 1980 and ratted out everyone who he thought was out to clip him. Burke tried to contract a job on Hill to Greg Bucceroni, but he passed and Burke went to jail. Hill’s testimony convicted 50 guys. Jimmy Burke got 20 years for the 1978–79 Boston College point shaving scandal.
 
Henry and Karen Hill went into the witness protection program. Henry got popped on drug charges in Seattle in 1987 and was kicked out of the program. Hill hid out on Howard Stern’s show. He’s currently an exhibit at the Museum of the American Gangster in New York City. Hill died on June 12, 2012, one day after his 69th birthday. The next day, the former arson specialist was cremated.

Paul Vario AKA Paul Cicero
Paul Sorvino played Paul Cicero in Goodfellas
 
Paul Sorvino played Paul Cicero in Goodfellas. His real name was Paul Vario, and he was born in New York City. Vario was a captain in the Lucchese family. At one point he was underboss. When he was 11, in 1925, Vario got a seven months juvenile detention term for truancy. Vario and his crew treated Kennedy Airport like Citibank. Vario controlled and protected gambling in East New York, Brooklyn. He owned a flower shop, restaurant, and the cab stand that served as his office. His brother, Vito "Tuddy" Vario, ran the Euclid Avenue Cab Co. and Presto Pizzeria. Tuddy is based on Paul Vario's younger brother Vito, and Vinnie (Charles Scorsese) is based on Thomas Agro.
 
Hill says Vario didn't talked on the phone, because you never knew who could be listening. Hill also says Vario had a nasty temper. Vario had his boys beat all the waiters from Don Pepe's with baseball bats for keeping Vario and his wife Phyllis waiting in line. Vario was "membership director" for mob boss Joe Colombo's Italian-American Civil Rights League in the '70s. He pulled out after Colombo started labeling the FBI and U.S. government racist, drawing heat. Starting in the late 1960s, Vario was underboss to Lucchese family head Carmine Tramunti. Vario got three years for whatever was going on at his chop shop at the federal prison located in Lewisburg. Vario cooked for the other inmates. When Vario got out of jail in 1975, the Lucchese boss was Anthony Corallo and Salvatore "Tom Mix" Santoro was underboss.
 
The DEA wanted Vario on a $1.5 million drug operation, even though Vario barred his soldiers from dealing drugs. Paul Vario approved of the Lufthansa Heist in 1978. According to Henry Hill, Vario kept a million dollars in cash in a vault. Vario fed Thomas DeSimone to the Gambino family for trying to rape Henry Hill’s wife, who Vario was schtupping. Paul and Phylis Vario had three sons, Peter, Paul Jr., and Leonard. Vario died on May 3, 1988 of an inflamed colon while he was jailed at Fort Worth Federal Prison in Texas. Vario was serving a ten to twelve year sentence for helping Henry Hill get a no-show job when he got out of prison. Also, on Hill’s testimony, for extortion at JFK Airport. He was 73.

Martin Krugman AKA Morrie Kessler
Played by Chuck Low in Goodfellas
 
In Goodfellas, Chuck Low played Morrie Kessler who was based on Martin Krugman. Martin Krugman was a bookie who kicked up to Jimmy Burke. Krugman ran "For Men Only," a men's hair salon and wig shop for men who didn't have enough hair to get salonned. Left to Jimmy Burke, those rugs might have been stapled on the lock-challenged. Krugman was a Russian Jew. He was the guy who tipped off Burke about how much money they could make off the Lufthansa heist. Henry Hill was the go-between. Krugman figured his cut from Lufthansa was $500,000. Burke figured anyone bald and brazen enough to ask for that much was spilling to the FBI. As Hill tells it, Jimmy, Angelo Sepe, and alleged Bonanno captain Vincent Asaro, the guy that was just pinched, killed and chopped up Krugman, and buried him next to Remo and Michael Gianco under Robert’s Lounge.

Karen Friedman AKA Karen Hill
Played by Lorraine Bracco in Goodfellas
 
Lorraine Bracco played Karen Hill in Goodfellas. Karen Hill wasn’t part of the Lufthansa heist, but it impacted her life. Also, she was fucking Paul Vario, and Tommy DeSimone tried to rape her after she turned him down. Karen Friedman was cleaning teeth when she met Henry Hill. She was a nice Jewish girl from a strict Jewish family from Nassau County. Her friend Dana Shapiro didn’t want on a date with Paul Vario’s son, Paul Jr., alone, so they paired her up with Henry Hill and they went out for drinks at the Villa Capra on Cedarhurst Avenue in Brooklyn.  Henry and Karen got married on Aug. 29, 1965 in North Carolina, away from Karen’s family, who they wound up living with when they got back. Henry converted to Judaism so they could remarry in a Jewish ceremony. Karen and Henry had two kids, Gregg and Gina. Henry fucked around. Karen had an affair with his boss, Paul Vario. After Henry Hill sang to the feds, he was put in the witness protection program with Karen and the kids. Hill got pinched for drug possession and got kicked out of the program. Karen and Henry separated in 1989, and Karen filed for divorce in 1990, but it was not finalized until 2002. 

Parnell Steven Edwards AKA Stacks Edwards AKA Stax Edwards
Played by Samuel L. Jackson in Goodfellas
 
Samuel L. Jackson played Stax Edwards in Goodfellas. Taken out with a shot behind the ear by Joe Pesci’s Tommy. He’d be late for his own funeral. Parnell Steven "Stacks" Edwards was an expert at credit card theft and sometime musician who played the blues. His own blues started when he was supposed to get rid of a truck. On Dec. 18, 1978, Tommy DeSimone and Angelo Sepe shot Edwards for not getting rid of the getaway truck like Jimmy Burke told him to. Burke was convinced that the blues musician would sing if caught.
The Burke crew stole a van in Flushing to use on the Lufthansa job. Edwards was supposed to dump the van, but the cops found it in a no-parking zone in Brooklyn two days after the robbery. Cops found fingerprints in the inside of the van and also on Kerry Whalen's wallet, which was sitting in the van. The day after the cops found the van, Robert’s Lounge was hosting a Christmas Party for Paulie Vario, who was up from Florida. Stacks was at the party. Stacks took one look at the wad of cash Henry Hill was flashing and started joking about how the white Mafia guys kept all those millions from the Lufthansa heist while Stacks was fucking broke. Henry remembered, "I knew that Stax had signed his death warrant that day."
 
Stacks Edwards was first on the hit parade when Burke ordered all loose ends cut off. On December 18, in an Ozone Park Queens apartment where Stacks was cooling his heels, he got shot in the back of the head six times. DeSimone  was promised that the Edwards hit would straighten him out and he’d be a made man. We know how that went.
 
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Jai Courtney Is Kyle Reese In Terminator: Genesis

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NewsDen Of Geek2/19/2014 at 2:01PM

Jai Courtney (A Good Day to Die Hard, Spartacus) has been cast in the role of Kyle Reese in the Terminator reboot, opposite Emilia Clarke.

Since the casting of Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor in the upcoming Terminator reboot aka Terminator: Genesis, fan speculation has centered around who will play Kyle Reese, the oft-doomed best friend and future baby daddy of the savior of humanity.

Wonder no more, as Varietyis reporting that Jai Courtney has been cast in the high-profile role. Courtney, best known for playing John McClane’s son in A Good Day to Die Hard (2013), as well as playing the doomed BFF to rebellious Spartacus on Starz’s Spartacus: Blood and Sand, seems already perfectly cast as rebellious John Connor’s best friend.

In the original Terminator film, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) is sent back in time by his fellow in arms, John Connor, to protect Connor’s mother, the still single Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). Of course, John did not mention that Kyle would also become his father too…

However, Terminator: Genesis appears to be playing with the mythology, because in addition to working with Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke, Courtney will star alongside Jason Clarke in the role of an adult John Connor, a character previously unseen in the original Terminator.

Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World) is set to direct.

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Five New Pics of X-Men: Days of Future Past

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NewsDen Of Geek2/19/2014 at 2:49PM

Check out five new images from X-Men: Days of Future Past, including Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique and Michael Fassbender as Magneto.

Marvel Studios may have released a taste of their cosmic adventures this week, but another Marvel property at 20th Century Fox has plenty to share with fans as well with the release of five new stylish pictures from Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Below, you can check our director Singer himself on the set, as well as new images of Jennifer Lawrence’s blue phase as Mystique, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, and Peter Dinklage rocking the ‘stache still as Bolivar Trask.






X-Men: Days of Future Past opens on May 23, 2014. Directed by Bryan Singer, the man who launched the cinematic X-franchise, it will not only reunite the all-important X-Men trinity of Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellen, but it will also team them up with their younger X-Men: First Class counterparts like Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, and James McAvoy. And that's just the start! Plenty of old X-Men favorites, including Shawn Ashmore's Iceman and Anna Paquin's Rogue are back for this one, too. Whatever X-Men: Days of Future Past may turn out to be, it probably won't be dull!

SOURCE: ComingSoon

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Animal Kingdom's David Michod Directing Pilot For New Starz Drama

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NewsDen Of Geek2/19/2014 at 4:37PM

The director of crime dramas and thrillers like Animal Kingdom and The Rover is directing Starz's ballet drama, Flesh and Bone.

David Michôd is one of those directors who hits audiences with a wallop and leaves them curious for another round. After helming the Golden Globe and Oscar nominated Animal Kingdom, the wait for his upcoming dystopian Outback fantasy, The Rover with Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson, can be interminable. But he has already signed on for more as the director of Starz’s gritty new ballet drama, Flesh and Bone.

Directing the first episode, Michôd promises an edge to the new Starz series that appears to be looking for a little blackness in its graceful swans.

Flesh and Bone was created by Emmy award-winning Breaking Bad writer and executive producer, Moira Walley-Beckett and follows a young ballet dancer with a distinctly troubled past, as she joins a prestigious ballet company in New York.  The dark and gritty series will unflinchingly explore the dysfunction and glamour of the ballet world.

“I’m entirely enamored of the visual, visceral, artful way David tells story,” said creator Moira Walley-Beckett.  “His style and sensibility is very much in alignment with my vision of my show.”

Of Michôd, Carmi Zlotnik, managing director of Starz says, “David is perhaps the most exciting filmmaker we’ve seen in quite some time.  He is the kind of meticulous craftsman who has the eye to bring forth a character and create such a tension with the viewer that it is palpable.  That is why we are so very excited he will be helping to establish the tone of Flesh and Bone.  Moira is writing such complex characters set against the backdrop of a world of beauty and grace, and David has a superb ability to convey this equally thrilling and poignant story.”

Black Swan’s Sarah Hay has been cast in the lead role along with renowned dancers, including former American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Irina Dvorovenko and current soloist Sascha Radetsky, and also Ballet Arizona company dancer Raychel Diane Weiner.

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Original Japanese Godzilla About to Be Unleashed Again

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NewsJim Knipfel2/19/2014 at 6:07PM

The original Godzilla, Gojira, is about to tour the U.S. in all its uncut, undubbed glory to celebrate the film's 60th anniversary.

In the run-up to the release of Gareth Edwards’ reboot in May, as well as the 60th Anniversary, Rialto Pictures will be touring the greatest (and grimmest) Godzilla of them all across the U.S., which takes me back to the film's 50th anniversary.

In January of 2004, my girlfriend and I were sitting in a Coney Island bar one cold and blustery day talking to a man in a long white robe with a long white beard he'd made from a mop. We mentioned that earlier in the day we'd seen the original 1954 Gojira for the first time.

“Oh, that's real smart,” said the man wearing the mop.

It's a commonplace problem for Godzilla fans. Most American audiences have never seen the films without heavy re-editing, and so have no idea how anyone with a whiff of intelligence might appreciate silly kiddie fare like that. In fact, it wasn't until 2004, the 50th anniversary of the original's release, that any large American audience had a chance to see the King of the Monsters' debut film as Ishiro Honda crafted it (i.e. without Raymond Burr mucking it all up, and complete with direct references to Nagasaki, and a few subtle political jabs at the U.S., all of which had been scrubbed clean out of the American version).

Far from silly kiddie fare, it's an extremely dark and somber parable not simply about Hiroshima, but about the perils of continued nuclear testing; about Japan's recovery after the war; about the lasting psychological scars of nuclear attack and an uneasiness toward the future. It's a gorgeous and moving picture still hailed as one of the greatest Japanese films ever made. Plus, it's got a giant monster with radioactive breath.


Now, to mark the film's 60th anniversary and perhaps remind people what Edwards' new film is hoping to compete with, Rialto films will be touring a pristine  print of Gojira across the country between mid-April and early May, with stops  at art houses in several selected cities. And believe you me, there's nothing like seeing it on the big screen. If you live near any of the below cities, you should consider it a necessity. Here's the schedule.

April 18 - 24    NEW YORK,  NY    Film Forum
April 25 - May 1    SANTA FE,  NM    Jean Cocteau Cinema
May 2 - 5    PORTLAND,  OR    Hollywood Theatre
May 2 - 8    SEATTLE,  WA    SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 23 - 26    HOUSTON,  TX    The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
May 28    LEXINGTON,  KY    Kentucky Theatre

July 17    COLUMBUS,  OH    Wexner Center for the Arts

 

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Is This the Cast of the Fantastic Four Reboot?

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NewsSimon Brew2/20/2014 at 8:17AM

Want to know who's been cast as the Fantastic Four in director Josh Trank's movie reboot? Step this way...

Now, the way things tend to have gone with regards rumours and stories surrounding the upcoming movie reboot of the Fantastic Four movie series is that a story breaks, and then either director Josh Trank debunks it on Twitter, or director Josh Trank debunks it on Twitter, and then we get a legal letter. We suspect, though, that's not going to be the case here.

For The Hollywood Reporter now reckons that the purported line-up for the new Fantastic Four is in place, and deals are being made between Fox and the new cast to lock them down (presumably to more than one movie).

So who's in? Well, Michael B Jordan has long since been locked down to play Johnny Storm/The Human Torch. Miles Teller has been linked for a while too, and he's taking on the role of Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic.

Kate Mara is now reportedly the choice to play Sue Storm meanwhile, and a name that hadn't really been mentioned much before, Jamie Bell, has landed the role of Ben Grimm/The Thing.

Deals haven't yet been signed, and there is a problem with regards finding a sufficient space in Miles Teller's schedule for one. But all things being equal, it looks like the new Fantastic Four have been found.

The new Fantastic Four film starts shooting in the next few months, ahead of ifs release on June 19th 2015.

***UPDATE: Director Josh Trank has had no issue calling BS on ridiculous casting rumors and Internet gossip over the last few months. Using Twitter as essentially a lie detector test, he has the ability to shoot down nonensense incredibly fast. Thus, it is with some interest that in the past 12 hours, all Trank had to Tweet was the following.

Indeed.

The Hollywood Reporter.

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Disqus - noscript

Just curious, but how are they going to portray Johnny & Sue Storm as brother and sister when these are the actors portraying them?

Easy, just mirror society as it is today. They will be step-sibs.

Everyone keeps talking about how "HOT" it is that Michael B. Jordan is going to be the Human Torch. The flip side of that, is that you're a RACIST if you don't like that choice. Well, I'm African-American and I DON'T like that choice because simply put -- it makes NO sense at ALL! Its infuriating to see these directors take such huge liberties with these characters just for the sake of being either politically correct or "different" enough to rein in the audience. I would have preferred Ben Grimm as a black man, rather than Johnny Storm mostly because of the sibling connection with Sue. To me this just adds an unwarranted dynamic to the two.

The character has always been white and is STILL white in the comics, why make such a change to the movie to distance it even more from its history. I've been a fan of the Fantastic Four since I was a kid and this definitely takes away from the dynamic of the group by now introducing a needless quotient. I for one, will NOT be seeing this movie and that's a shame because I like the adage of going with a younger version of the group, but changing the Torch like this is too much, even for me. Forget it. I hope this movie makes no money at all.

Warner Bros has the rights to one LEGO Movie sequel

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NewsSimon Brew2/20/2014 at 8:22AM

Warner Bros is pushing ahead with a LEGO Ninjago movie. But it only as the rights to one sequel to The LEGO Movie itself.

Things might be about to get a bit expensive for Warner Bros. With The LEGO Movie proving to be an international smash-hit, it's already moving ahead on The LEGO Movie 2. But The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that the studio faces a slight problem: it only has the rights, as things stand, to make one sequel.

Furthermore, it looks as if The LEGO Movie 2 won't be the next LEGO film that the studio releases. Instead, a LEGO Ninjago film is closer to production (although this appears to be under a different deal), with the studio having already been giving an extension to get the film into production. Under the original terms, Warner Bros had to greenlight a Ninjago film by November 2013. LEGO allowed the studio more time, and the film is set to be directed by Charlie Bean (TRON: Uprising). The LEGO Movie directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are set to join the team of producers on the project.

Once that's moving, then Warner Bros will take up its option on The LEGO Movie 2. However, after that film, the producing team of Dan Lin and Roy Lee, and the LEGO organisation itself, can shop further LEGO Movie sequels to other studios. Most agree that's unlikely, but at the very least, Warner Bros is presumably going to need to dig deep to keep the series going under its proverbial roof.

More news on The LEGO Movie 2 and LEGO Ninjago as we hear it. In the meantime, The LEGO Movie is in cinemas now. You won't be able to get that sodding song out of your head for days...

The Hollywood Reporter.

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Matthew McConaughey on Christopher Nolan's Interstellar

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NewsGlen Chapman2/20/2014 at 8:25AM

Matthew McConaughey has been chatting about his part in Christopher Nolan's upcoming sci-fi movie Interstellar

You don't need us to tell you that Matthew McConaughey is on form of late, showcasing a renewed focus and the ability to select interesting project after interesting project. It's now definitely a case that he's working on films truly worthy of his talents.

Currently receiving praise and awards season buzz for Dallas Buyers Club and further praise for HBO's True Detective, he has the small matter of Christopher Nolan's next film, Interstellar, to discuss as it's due at the end of the year.

In a recent interview, McConaughey has been chatting about Interstellar, telling Variety that  "it's the most ambitious thing he's ever done. And he's done some ambitious stuff. There's no fucking around on set. He's a great problem solver. In that way, he's very indie. Here's a guy who could have whatever budget he wants – and we finished shooting early".

McConaughey went on to discuss the audition process for the role. "He came up to me and said, 'Mud. I love that movie.' I sat down with him for about two-and-a-half hours at his house. Not one word came up about Interstellar. I walked out not sure what to think. I mean, he's not the guy who takes general meetings".

Nolan, meanwhile,  has also discussed McConaughey's casting. "Matthew works from the inside out", Nolan enthused. "He approaches the character from a deep human understanding, refusing to take shortcuts to an emotional connection with the audience – all while never losing sight of the demands of the overall narrative".

Interstellar is due for release on November 7th 2014.

Variety

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Disqus - noscript

McConaughey should've got an Oscar nod for his performance in Mud. That really was an expectedly good movie and his performance was perfect for the role and the mood of the film.


Bryan Singer interview: X-Men: Days Of Future Past, Star Trek and more

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InterviewRyan Lambie2/20/2014 at 8:45AM

During our visit to the Days Of Future Past set last June, we spoke to Bryan Singer about directing X-Men, Star Trek and more...

We had to feel a little bit sorry for director Bryan Singer when we visited the set of X-Men: Days Of Future Past last year. Not only did he have a gigantic summer film to create, but he also had a terrible cough ("Sorry, my allergies are going crazy," he told us), and he had load of jet-lagged writers gathering round to disrupt his day.

Yet despite his hectic schedule, Bryan Singer was kind enough to take about half an hour to answer our questions about his new X-Men film in a lively group interview. He also spoke about how Days Of Future Past harks back to the ensemble filmmaking of The Usual Suspects, and also his lifelong affection for Star Trek, which led to his brief cameo in Star Trek Nemesis.

Can you tell us how you came to have two casts?

Originally it began with a discussion Matthew Vaughn and I had, where we felt that although fans love seeing new characters, they also love the familiar. So it was a way to make it special, and do a movie that isn't a sequel or prequel, but what I call an interquel. And Days Of Future Past's framework was a really great jumping-off point, because it's such a great book.

It's been a while since you've done an X-Men movie. Do you feel that stepping onto a set and directing a new one is different now with other projects behind you?

Yeah, I think so. I produced X-Men: First Class - I was involved in the development and execution of that, so I feel like I've been recently involved in the universe. Directing is weird. It feels very familiar, and it feels more comfortable, going back into it, than doing something new.

Does the structure of this film hark back to The Usual Suspects, which played around with time?

Yes. In fact, in two ways. One, structurally, and also in the way I've shot it. Because I shot the elements that take place in the future first, and The Usual Suspects was a movie that carried one actor through both the flashbacks and the present day. It was like shooting a little movie first. That movie starred Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri, Dan Hedaya, Giancarlo Esposito. And they all left and the suspects came. 

Well, we've got the same thing here. We had the X-Men of the future - all the actors I'd worked with before - and then they left, and then new people arrived, so you really feel like you're making two separate movies.

Are they stylistically different, those two halves, and how are you approaching them?

Yeah, the future is tonally very cold. And the 70s is the 70s.

What's the most challenging aspect of shooting in 3D?

Well it's interesting. To talk 3D for a moment, Jack The Giant Slayer was a film I actually shot in native stereo as well, and I used stereo monitors. And I found that it was very educational because I learned what worked better or worse in 3D. But on this movie I wanted to be more aggressive with the camera, so I made a conscious choice not to direct using 3D monitors, and to use normal monitors.

I know you were pretty wowed by the 48FPS Peter Jackson uses on The Hobbit. Is that something you thought about using for this movie?

I feel it would have been impractical. I also think it works for certain things, and other things it's not so good for. We talked about doing some scenes in 48 and others in 24, and alternating, but...

Are you in a Twitter race with James Mangold and Marc Webb?

Yeah. A friend of mine's working with Marc, and I hear we both like tweeting a lot. I'm not very big into social media, but I made a promise that if I ever did another film with a pre-existing fan base, that I would do Twitter. Because I feel that there's always  a lot of chatter about a movie you're making, and it's always nice to be able to share something and connect with the fans. I do all the tweets myself, which is why they're sometimes misspelled and a bit stupid.

It's also a way to reassure people and take a bit of control of your press. I remember on Valkyrie, this film I did with Tom Cruise about a plot to kill Hitler, we were shooting in Germany, and there was all this scrutiny over the movie. It was like, "Oh God, they've got to go back to LA to do reshoots. They're in trouble." And it's like, no, we had a desert scene and there are no deserts in Germany! We had three days in the desert. It wasn't fun to be, "Calm down everyone. We're fine." 

Are you aware of how positive the response has been to that?

I've been told it is, and I sometimes read talk-backs on Twitter, but I when I make a movie I try not to go online and read too many articles or things like that. But people read them and tell me, "Oh they're happy with this!" I remember one, they were like, "Oh no, no leather uniforms." And I had the pleasure of tweeting, "No, there's no leather." And they were, "[Relieved] Oh. Okay."

Did you get a picture of Peter [Dinklage's] birthday cake for Twitter?

He likes the cake, actually. Peter and I are both from New Jersey, and we're both very shy. We're both, "No happy birthdays." But we did the cake. I did tweet it, yes. But no one seems to have reacted to it. Or maybe they did.

Talking of uniforms, which are we going to see this time?

In the past, less. Some, but less. In the future - you'll see. The future's more of a warzone.

It seems like a really cool move to inject the series with science fiction and time travel, and these big ideas. How do you translate such a crazy, wild comic book story?

To me, that's the thing that made it more appealing than just doing a sequel. It is somewhat a science fiction movie and a time travel movie, which I've never done before - it's a new thing, as opposed to another X-Men picture. That part is challenging and kind of fun. The key is making something where the past and the future can intertwine, and there's a logic to it. You get into a lot of stuff with that.

I thought I'd cracked it. I was talking to James Cameron in New Zealand, and I pitched it to him - I was at Peter Jackson's party. It was a real trip, one of the most fun conversations I've had in years. And he was really into it - he'd done time travel in The Terminator, so I said, "Okay, here's what I want to do with time travel", and I pitched the thing, and he seemed to approve. He gave me all the physics behind it. So yeah, it's trying to create a time travel film with integrity.

Speaking of powers, is this why Quicksilver's in it? Obviously he's being used by Marvel as well, so can you talk a little bit about that decision?

He was in our script quite early. It's not a big part in the script , he's not there throughout the picture. Super speed's been played throughout the series - Twilight uses it... Can you bear with me for a second? [Consults monitors for a take]

I had some ideas of how to do the power, the speed, that I hadn't seen before. So I started development with super high-speed photography and stuff like that, so yeah. It's a fun character.

Point of view type stuff?

Yes.

He looks like a strong personality. We saw some artwork of his room and his look. He has a little Walkman type-thing.

Yeah, that's modelled after the first portable tape player.

We've seen Bishop as well. What other new characters are there?

Blink, Bishop, Sunspot, Warpath - but he's an old character. Those are all in the future. The only new one in the past is, is Quicksilver, I think.

Is Scarlet Witch in it?

There may be a reference, but no, no. There are 26 main characters, and with seven of them, there were a lot of restrictions in terms of schedules.

I really wanted Peter [Dinklage]. If you're an X-Men movie, you can compete with another movie and still be in first position, but if you're up against a television show... Peter was in the script forever, but the reason he was announced so late was because I didn't want to announce the character until we had an actor. It took me so long to figure that out.

[Consults monitor again] 

You're working with the younger cast from First Class for the first time as director. Is there a different vibe with those guys?

Yeah. The older cast are a bit more set in their ways, and the younger cast are having, like, a party. Every day they dance and play music in their trailer, I'm told, and then they come here. It's hilarious. I've never had a cast like it. They're having so much fun, and then the moment the camera rolls [snaps fingers] they're on it. They're fantastic actors. I'd worked with Nick [Hoult] on Jack The Giant Slayer, James [McAvoy], Michael [Fassbender], Jennifer [Lawrence]...

What I'm finding most interesting is just how much fun they're making it. More than I've ever seen on any other film, and my sets are usually pretty happy.

Can you tell us about Bingbing Fan's character, Blink?

She's a very dark character. She's more Mystique than Raven, and part of the movie deals with a battle for the soul.

How important is continuity in this film, will we see Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique become the Mystique from the first X-Men films? Or will time travel open up the door to change things?

I don't want to give that away. But what I'll say is that, in terms of the way we play the characters, this is an alternate universe movie. We're respecting the continuity of the previous movies as best we can. It's not easy bringing certain characters back to life, but we're doing our best. 

I was curious, because of the time travel aspect and the ensemble, whether you went to other movies and were inspired by movies from the 70s.

Those are my favourite movies, the movies of the 70s.

[Consults with someone over a shot - Singer decides he wants a profile shot of Nixon]

I think from The Usual Suspects, I've learned to love ensemble pictures.

How does this movie interrogate the themes of the earlier films?

It establishes that some villain characters may have been right with their fears. And it confronts the notions of hope and second chances. It's characters that are lost trying to find themselves. In X-Men one and two, the characters had come into their own and knew who they were. In this one, they're all lost. And they're trying to keep it together.

How has technology changed since the first films?

We have so much more technology. We re-watched the first X-Men films. We didn't have the effects stuff we have now. But we still do as much practically as we can.

One of the best things about First Class was the friendship between Erik and Charles. Obviously they're in different places here, but how is that in this movie?

It's great. Yesterday we did James [McAvoy]'s first scene - or the first scene where we'll see him in the movie. And he looks like a homeless guy. He's a really great character. When we made X-Men one and two, Patrick and Ian always had questions about where they came from, and what was their friendship, and First Class was a beautiful way to explore that. In this one, they're on the journey to becoming Patrick and Ian. So it's nice to have Patrick and Ian in here as well, to remind us where we want them to go.

Is Nixon a villain in this film, or is he just a pawn in a much bigger game?

He's Nixon! [Laughs] Not all of that speech is going to make it. There's two parts to the speech that I'll use, and one part is kind of filler because we cut away to another scene to some ominous thing that you'll see. I just asked for some filler dialogue that is a bit draconian. He's not really so [aggressively] "Rrrr!"

[Here, someone asked an inaudible question about time travel]

As the story structure was coming through, I believe I cracked the time travel logic. Then once that happened, we thought it was a story worth telling, this could be fun. Especially for people like my mother, who aren't particularly X-Men fans. The moment I told her what it was, she was like, "Oh, I love time travel movies!"

Time travel movies are very specific. Whether it's Back To The Future or The Time Machine or Looper, there's something eternally interesting about going into the past and affecting the future, multiverses, and all that stuff. 

When you're making a genre film, you do have to think about people like your mom, though, don't you? Because you can't just make it for the comic fans. Was your mom a reference point?

No. I wouldn't want to see that movie. [Laughs]. "There's so many explosions! It's so loud! I don't understand."

But you can't get too geeky.

No, I care primarily about the fans. I know you're never going to please every fan. But I am conscious of the audience outside the fan base. Particularly with X-Men, because if you compare the success of the X-Men versus the Marvel films, you'll see Marvel's reach is so much greater. Everyone knows who Hulk and Spider-Man are. X-Men's always been a bit of the bastard stepchild of the comic book universe. It's its own thing - it exists on the outside.

I didn't initially know who Wolverine was. But I knew who Spider-Man was. I knew who Batman was. So it's important to make a film that can reach outside the X-Men bubble of exposure and interest.

What were you into as a kid?

I was into Star Wars and Star Trek. Every night I'd watch Star Trek with my friend at his house. I had two friends, and one friend was Spock and the other was McCoy, and I was Kirk.

Are you keeping an eye on that franchise?

I don't know. It's scary. Jumping into someone else's franchise scares me.

We saw in the production department some of the art for the future sequences. I was wondering if that scratched your Star Trek itch.

I saw the pre-vis of the X-Jet landing, and to me, it literally looks like a Klingon Bird of Prey. I said I wanted the nose from Concorde and this from that, and then I saw it, and I was like, "Fuck, it looks like a Bird of Prey."

Have you figured out how you died in the Star Trek movie?

I think I got sucked out of a front window. I think I'm in about 19 frames of that movie. I remember being at the premier, and Halle Berry's sitting in front of me, and my 19 frames came on, and she actually turned around and looked at me. [Laughs] And I have a trading card, a Star Trek trading card!

Bryan Singer, thank you very much.

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The top 25 underappreciated films of 2009

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The ListsRyan Lambie2/20/2014 at 8:50AM

The unloved films of 2009 provide the focus in our final list of the 2000s' overlooked greats...

The year 2009 will partly be remembered as the year Avatar dominating the box office, with audiences flocking to see James Cameron's leafy pulp epic in shimmering 3D. Making almost $2.8bn worldwide, Avatar was a true behemoth, besting Cameron's own Titanic as the highest-grossing film of all time (not adjusted for inflation) and hastening a rush of 3D films in the years that followed.

Films such as 2012, Sherlock Holmes and boozy comedy The Hangover were also among the top 10, but as always, some of the most memorable and individual films of the year were far from the most financially successful. So to round off our series of underrated flicks of the 2000s, here's our selection of 2009's overlooked films...

25. A Perfect Getaway

A really good, surprisingly overlooked thriller, this. David Twohy is perhaps best known for writing and directing the Riddick trilogy of films, and his screenwriting across films such as Waterworld and The Fugitive. But - along with Below - A Perfect Getaway is among his best, yet least seen.

It casts Timothy Olyphant, Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich, with the story following a couple on a remote island for their honeymoon. But they soon cross paths with another couple, and things start to go just a little awry.

Shot against a beautiful backdrop, and with enough meat to the film to keep you continually interested, this is a slightly against the grain thriller, that - as with most in the genre - is worth approaching knowing as little as possible.

24. Youth In Revolt

Michael Cera makes some smart choices when it comes to picking films to make, and Youth In Revolt is very much one of them. Directed by Miguel Arteta (who also helmed Cedar Rapids, The Good Girl and the wonderful Chuck & Buck) and based on the novel by C D Payne, it pairs Cera with Portia Doubleday in what at first looks like a fairly conventional coming of age drama.

But conventional this isn't. There's some outstanding animation work, and also a quirk to Cera's character that's not going to endear everyone to the film, but certainly made it more interesting to us. Far more challenging than it appears, Youth In Revolt isn't an easy film, but it's a very good one.

23. The Road

Taking the solemn, poetic prose of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel and translating it to the screen was never going to be easy, but director John (The Proposition, Lawless) Hillcoat's minimalistic style of directing suits the atmosphere of the story perfectly. The problem, perhaps, is that without the decor of McCarthy's writing to counter-balance it, The Road becomes unremittingly bleak, which might explain why audiences didn't exactly flock to the cinema to watch it.

There's no denying the quality of the acting and direction, though. Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee are brilliant as the father and son trudging through a barren wasteland of cannibals and thieves, where death seems to be waiting everywhere. Hillcoat and cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe find beauty in the grey, devastated landscape, while Nick Cave and Warren Ellis provide an appropriately low-key score. The Road is hardly the cheeriest film of 2009, but it is surely among the most well crafted.

22. Jennifer's Body

Over time, we've reviewed Jennifer's Body three separate times at Den Of Geek, and come up with three different conclusions from three different writers. But it's that kind of film. Penned by Diablo Cody and directed by Karyn Kusama, the film gives Megan Fox comfortably her best screen role, playing alongside the excellent Amanda Seyfried.

Centered on the friendship between their two characters, the film takes a turn when one of them becomes possessed and starts taking out the male members of class. A surprisingly smart horror movie ensues.

21. The Box

Following the divisive (to say the least) critical reception of the sprawling Southland Tales, director Richard Kelly made The Box - a science fiction thriller infused with some of the impenetrable mystery of his earlier Donnie Darko. Cameron Diaz and James Marsden play an ordinary American couple whose lives are turned upside down when they're paid a visit by Frank Langella's shadowy Arlington Steward. Arlington offers the couple a million dollars in exchange for the push of a button on a strange box he carries around with him - the only catch being that, as soon as the button's pushed, someone unknown to them will keel over and die.

It's a tantalising premise from Richard Matheson (the American master of tantalising premises), which was adapted once before in an episode of The Twilight Zone. Richard Kelly takes the idea and spins it out into strange and unexpected places, with elements of horror, science fiction and 70s conspiracy thriller. Not everyone will be especially sold on the final few minutes, but until that point, Kelly builds up an unusual atmosphere of mystery and dread.

20. Gentlemen Broncos

While director and co-writer Jared Hess'Napoleon Dynamite made millions from a six figure budget, his third feature (after the Jack Black vehicle Nacho Libre) made about $118,000 from a $10m investment. Reviews were unfavourable to put it mildly, and while it's difficult to describe Gentlemen Broncos as anything but hit-and-miss, there are enough quirky performances and weird characters to make the film worth recommending. Michael Angarano is great as Benjamin, a budding sci-fi author, whose story (title: Yeast Lords) is brazenly plagiarised by established genre writer Ronald Chevalier. As Benjamin attempts to prove that Yeast Lords is really his own work, the story's occasionally interrupted by scenes from the book itself, which is a pulp adventure yarn that somehow manages to be even more surreal than John Boorman's Zardoz.

Jemaine Clement is good value as the insufferably pompous, thieving author, and the movie displays a real affection for a certain brand of cheesy SF fantasy. Gentlemen Broncos also has the bonus of Sam Rockwell, who wears a range of strange outfits and is seen riding a flying deer with rocket launchers strapped to its flanks. How Jared Hess got him to sign up for this we'll never know.

19. Dogtooth

We've not talked about the cinema of Greece a great deal at Den Of Geek, but Dogtooth is an interesting place to start. The core idea behind the film is a husband and wife who are dedicated to shielding their children from the outside world, and the consequences of that.

Played superbly, it's a very different drama, and not one that goes in straight lines, which will be to the frustration of some. But it's a skilful, suspenseful and fascinating film, and one that might just send you in the direction of far more Greek productions.

18. Ink

Made for a piffling $250,000, this sci-fi fantasy is full of great imagery and ideas, and it's hard to believe just how much writer and director Jamin Winans achieves for so little money. The story introduces a world-weary and selfish businessman (played by Chris Kelly) whose fate is bound up with that of the Storytellers, angelic beings who fight their mortal enemies the Incubi in a realm of dreams and nightmares.

Imaginatively shot and constantly entertaining, Ink deserved far more widespread attention than it received - barely distributed, it instead had to rely on word-of-mouth to find an audience. Ink's sheer quality meant that it soon became an underground success, but it's still a pity that such an ambitious, absorbing film didn't get the showing it deserved in cinemas.

17. Extract

The collected non-animated works of Mike Judge should, for our money, just be gathered together in one boxset with the word 'underappreciated' plastered across it. The latest exhibit? Extract, a smart comedy starring Jason Bateman as the owner of an extract plant, who's also battling with his fair share of personal problems. Oh, and potential industrial unrest at the factory too.

It's not Judge's best, but there's lots to enjoy, not least a cast that boasts Kristen Wiig, Mila Kunis and Ben Affleck in a welcome supporting role. It's a really witty film too, that's brief, to the point, and consistently entertaining. It's not up to Office Space standards, but Judge has made yet another comedy that puts most of Hollywood's humorous output to shame here.

16. Whip It

As underappreciated directorial debuts go, Drew Barrymore's Whip It is up there with the finest of them. It's a film about a women's roller derby team in a small town, and the effect it has on Ellen Page's character, Bliss Cavendar.

Barrymore's skill here is the sheer appeal she loads into the film. The roller derby sequences are great, and in conjunction with writer Shaun Cross (who penned the screenplay, based on her novel) she puts on screen a collection of characters that are interesting, and fun to spend time with.

It's a hugely entertaining movie this, cast well, and it bodes well for whatever Barrymore chooses to direct next.

15. Micmacs

French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet is best known for his visually sumptuous confections like Delicatessen, Amelie, or his lone venture into Hollywood filmmaking, Alien Resurrection. His 1999 comedy Micmacs is as stylised and individual as anything Jeunet's ever made, but it somehow failed to make the same impact of his more celebrated films. Micmacs follows Bazil, an ordinary man whose life has been ruined, in one way or another, by the arms trade - his father was blown up by a landmine when Bazil was still a child, and then as an adult, he's hit in the head by a stray bullet.

What follows is one of the quirkiest revenge stories ever, as Bazil devotes his energy to bringing down the weapons manufacturers that made those landmines and bullets. A carnival of strange characters and misfits assist him - these include a contortionist, a cook, a human cannonball and a mathematical genius - and the story deals with similar issues to Andrew Niccol's Lord Of War, but with Jeunet's peculiar humour and lightness of touch.

14. Exam

This futuristic psychological thriller takes the threatening air of TV's The Apprentice to its logical conclusion. A group of eight ambitious young candidates file into a coldly-lit room to take an exam which will land them a position in a pharmaceutical company. An invigilator tells them they have 80 minutes to answer a single question. But when the candidates turn their papers over and find them blank, they realise that this is no ordinary job interview - and as the time ticks down on a digital clock, events take a deadly turn.

Shot on a low budget, Exam makes the most of its single location, with the ticking clock and deteriorating relationships providing a rising sense of tension. The acting's a bit of a mixed bag, but Luke Mably really stands out as a hard-nosed London business type who becomes more sympathetic as the film progresses, and the film remains absorbing right up until its slightly anticlimactic ending. As a rare example of a psychological slasher movie, where the cast is slowly whittled down by cunning and mind games, Exam is highly recommended.

13. In The Loop

A film that's well known to British audiences perhaps, but outside these isles the big screen antics of Peter Capaldi's Malcolm Tucker remain mainly a mystery. Capaldi's Doctor Who casting may well motivate more people to seek out his previous work, but this big screen expansion of UK TV's The Thick Of It is a blisteringly funny, foul-mouthed, political work of comedy genius.

Even to begin quoting some of the film's best lines would put us the wrong side of many workplace's internet filters. Heck, the moment when Tucker asks for a bottle of milk for the US vice president is just one of the moments of sheer gold here. One of the best British comedies of recent times, hands down.

12. Enter The Void

Any film by maverick Argentine director Gaspar Noe (I Stand Alone, Irreversible) should be approached with caution, and Enter The Void is no exception. Set in Tokyo, Enter The Void's a drama about a young drug dealer who's shot dead by police and then views the life of his troubled sister from the hereafter. Shot entirely from a first-person viewpoint, Noe's movie attempts to simulate the experiences of tripping out on a psychedelic drug, with entire sequences devoted to Tron-like tunnels of light, pulsating shapes that look like bioluminescent jelly fish, or aerial scenes of Tokyo.

Filled to the brim with explicit sex and jabs of violence, it's a claustrophobic, unsettling brew. It's no surprise that Enter The Void divided critics, with the leaden pace proving infuriating at the best of times. But it's also a one-off, individual film from Noe, and as an eerie art installation about sex, drugs and death, Enter The Void has to be seen to be truly appreciated.

11. Fantastic Mr Fox

It's a genuine pity that Fantastic Mr Fox didn't find a wider audience, because it's the most gentle and broad showcase for Wes Anderson's storytelling to appear so far. Based on Roald Dahl's novel, it's a delightful stop motion-animated story about the daring Fox (George Clooney) and his repeated brushes with local poultry farmers - much to the chagrin of his wife Felicity (Meryl Streep).

Taking the central fox-farmer rivalry from Dahl's book, Anderson deftly bends the story to his own interests, resulting in a film as full of middle-class angst and colourful supporting characters as you'll see in, say, The Royal Tenenbaums or The Life Aquatic. Anderson's version of Fox is a newspaper columnist as well as an expert catcher of chickens, and much of the film's drama comes from Fox's attempt to reconcile his desire for a comfortable family life with his pathological need to hunt. There's a great voice cast, too, including Bill Murray as a legally-trained Badger and Willem Dafoe as a dastardly Rat. Stylishly animated and superbly written, Fantastic Mr Fox is a handcrafted, good-natured gem.

10. The Invention Of Lying

Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson's fantasy comedy isn't perfect, but it does have an abundance of wonderful ideas. One of them is its central notion that lying is a defining and even vital human characteristic. Set in an alternate reality where humans are hardwired to tell the truth at all times, Gervais plays Mark, an underachieving everyman who writes for the movies - a job made utterly joyless because films always adhere rigidly to the truth. But when Mark becomes the first person to utter a lie - he fibs about the amount of money left in his bank account - he realises that he holds a unique power to change the world. He writes the first fictional movie (about aliens invaders in the 14th century), becomes a celebrity, and inadvertently invents religion.

The Invention Of Lying is at its least interesting when it drifts into conventional rom-com territory, but utterly redeems itself in isolated moments - an earnestly truthful advert for Coca Cola ("It's basically just brown sugared water") is utterly inspired, while the scene where Mark soothes his dying mother with stories about Heaven is unexpectedly moving.  

9. Down Terrace

Ben Wheatley's first film introduces much of what has gone on to make him one of the UK's very best filmmakers. There's sharp characters, pointed direction, a tight final cut and a collection of great performances, all wrapped into an economic British independent film.

This one's a crime drama, as a family look to get to the bottom of who the informant is in their midst. Underpinned by dark comedy, Down Terrace is interesting from the start for pinning a crime drama in the midst of kitchen sink Britain. There are one or two bits that might, er, have you turning your head away from the screen. A blisteringly good film, mind.

8. Pontypool

In common with Down Terrace, Pontypool proves you don't need an extensive budget, lots of locations and a huge company of actors to come up with something that really gets under the skin. The setting for much of the film is a lonely radio station, where Stephen McHattie's Grant Mazzy broadcasts, while reports from the world outside suggest that a virus is spreading outside the station's walls, with devastating consequences.

Tense, strongly played and just about lasting the course of its 95 minute running time, Pontypool takes its time certainly, but builds a tone and mood that pays dividends come the third act.

7. The Joneses

A terrific idea for a movie this, and it's arguably the most underrated film of David Duchovny's career. He's the head of a family here - The Joneses, as it happens - who move into a gleaming house, filled with gleaming products. Turns out, though, that this perfect family life isn't what it seems, for reasons we're not going to spoil here (although the back of the DVD box will have  damn good go for you).

Making some good points in the midst of a fairly light film, there are two core reasons why The Joneses works so well. Firstly, it has an original idea at the heart of it. Secondly, the execution commits to that idea, and does it justice. Oh, the film's got Gary Cole in too, so added points for that.

6. World's Greatest Dad

Actor-turned-filmmaker Bobcat Goldthwait is no stranger to taboo subject matters, having touched on zoophilia in his 2006 film Sleeping Dogs Lie and spree killings in 2011's God Bless America. World's Greatest Dad is similarly edgy, and stars Robin Williams as Lance, an English teacher whose obnoxious son Kyle (Daryl Sabara) accidentally strangles to death himself during an autoerotic asphyxiation session. Keen to paint a more sympathetic portrait of his late child, Lance forges a diary that depicts Kyle as a misunderstood, tortured poet. A cult of personality forms around the dead teen, while Lance becomes a minor celebrity on the chat show circuit - but privately, guilt over the whole charade nibbles at him.

What's surprising about World's Greatest Dad is how deftly and sensitively Goldthwait handles the premise. Refusing to mine his subject for cheap or easy laughs, Goldthwait is bravely unafraid to deal with the darkness of his story frankly, and as funny as the film is in its lighter moments, World's Greatest Dad is also a highly effective drama - Williams' central performance is sublime as a guilty, grief-stricken father whose frustrated creativity results in a media circus.

World's Greatest Dad's story doomed it to become a cult item, but make no mistake: this is a brilliant piece of filmmaking from Goldthwait, and deserves to be seen.

5. Adventureland

Greg Mottola, before he helmed Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in Paul, pulled together this charming, quite wonderful coming of age drama. It stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, who come together when the former has to take a job in a theme park over the summer when his parents' financial support dries up.

The work works in a few different ways. The core drama and hints at romance are handled well, with both Eisenberg and Stewart putting in strong work. The music is great too, capturing the 80s era perfectly. And as a comedy, Adventureland is a hoot, not least in any scene that Freaks & Geeks alumnus Martin Starr is let near.

Ryan Reynolds has a solid cameo role in this as well, but it's ultimately Mottola who's the star. He penned the script too, and his balancing of themes and genre proves delightful. 

4. Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call - New Orleans

It's not clear why Werner Herzog took on this largely unrelated 'rethought' of Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant - Herzog had never seen the original 1992 film, and he hadn't even heard of Abel Ferrara when he signrd up. But we're glad this very strange police drama was willed into existence, because it not only complements Ferrara's maverick film, but also gives Nicolas Cage one of his best leading roles in recent years.

Taking over from Harvey Keitel as the title Lieutenant, Cage is hunched and sweatily desperate, and turns in an endlessly engaging, jazzy performance. Herzog's direction is similarly free-form, following Cage's drug-addicted, corrupt cop around hurricane-battered New Orleans while occasionally pausing to admire things like a lizard basking on the side of a road or the contents of a fish tank. The result is a true one-off - a drama about gangsters and drugs and unpaid debts, shot through with an oblique sense of humour. This bad lieutenant has a lucky crack pipe and claims of a dead victim, "I can see his soul dance."

Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Michael Shannon and Brad Dourif are along for the ride, and there's a sense that everyone involved is just about clinging on by their fingertips as Herzog's film swerves wildly to its deranged climax. Poorly distributed in 2009, Bad Lieutenant is a real must-see.

3. Anvil

You can't help but recall the glory of Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap whilst watching the excellent, funny 'rockumentary' (that does indeed appear to be a word) Anvil: The Story Of Anvil. By choosing a rock band from the 80s that few will have heard of as a subject for his film, director Sacha Gervasi (who helmed 2012's Hitchcock) can put across a story that few will come to with much in the way of preconceptions.

The end result of this is a very, very funny and surprisingly touching film about Anvil's attempts to put together a comeback album, and their European tour. A film more about the fall than the rise, it's quite brilliant.

2. Moon

The cult following enjoyed by Moon made us hesitate to include it on this list, but then we thought again about its minimal box-office take (less than $10m theatrically, according to Box Office Mojo). And then we thought about how Sam Rockwell's wonderful performance was sorely overlooked at the Oscars and the BAFTAs, despite lots of attention at independent film awards. On balance, we came to the conclusion that Moon still qualifies as an underrated film, despite its core following.

Set in a near future where the Moon is mined for its resources, Duncan Jones' directorial debut sees bored astronaut Sam (Rockwell) nearing the end of his lonely contract on a lunar base. With only an artificially intelligent computer called GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey) to count as a friend, Sam whiles away the hours by tending his plants and building model houses. Then an accident during a routine mission leads Sam to question everything he thinks he knows about the base and his job.

There's an absorbing mystery in Jones' low-key sci-fi drama, but it's Rockwell's wounded, gentle performance that beguiles from beginning to end. The direction is uncluttered and perfectly paced, mimicking the measured tone of classic 70s and 80s science fiction films like Silent Running or Outland - the pleasing use of traditional miniature effects underlining the faintly retro theme.

The underlying appeal of Moon, however, is timeless: beneath the AI computers, sinister corporations and moon buggies, there's a poignant, human drama in here about mortality and memories, and that's what makes it one of the very best genre films of the past decade.

1. The Secret In Their Eyes

The Secret In Their Eyes is another example of a film that's seen the upside and downside of winning the Best Foreign Film Oscar. On the one hand, there's a degree of exposure, and the guarantee that it'll get slightly broader distribution. On the other, it still seems overlooked in large parts of the world, the UK included.

But what a film it is. From Argentina, it's the haunting story of a retired legal worker and a judge who, 25 years previously, had worked together on a case that remains unsolved. The former decides to write a novel about the case, and as such, digs up things from the past that have very unpredictable ramifications.

There are so many things to this wonderful film that set it apart. Narratively driven and keeping you very much on your toes, it's beautifully performed, superbly directed, and has a third act that stays in your head long, long after the film is finished. And that's before you get to the subtexts involved too.

A big hit in Argentina, The Secret In Their Eyes is a film that remains off many people's radars. And at a time when people are turning to Nordic noir to try and get something else out of the thriller genre, this example from far further afield proves that South American cinema has an awful lot to offer the world.

The top 25 underappreciated films of 2000

The top 25 underappreciated films of 2001

The top 30 underappreciated films of 2002

The top 25 underappreciated films of 2003

The top 25 underappreciated films of 2004

The top 25 underappreciated films of 2005

The top 25 underappreciated films of 2006

The top 25 underappreciated films of 2007

The top 25 underappreciated films of 2008

The 250 underappreciated films of the 1990s

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Pompeii: Review

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ReviewDon Kaye2/20/2014 at 8:55AM

Pompeii spends an hour on silly melodrama before we get to the main attraction – and even all that flowing CG lava left us cold.

Strangely enough, no one has made a movie about the destruction of the ancient Roman town of Pompeii in 55 years (famed Italian director Sergio Leone did it last, in 1959). Too bad, then, that director Paul W.S. Anderson bungles the job with his Pompeii, which spends an hour rattling through the most stock, cliché-ridden melodrama imaginable before getting to the main event. And even then, Anderson’s heavily CG-dependent eruption of Vesuvius carries little weight because we don’t care what has gone on before it.

You could argue that every disaster epic – and Pompeii has been called the original disaster story, although the upcoming Noah might have something to say about that – is really about the catastrophe itself, with minimal attention ever paid to the characters or story. That’s probably true, but Pompeii doesn’t even try: the screenplay, even with four credited writers, settles more or less on James Cameron’s Titanic template, with a few add-ons: Cassia (Emily Browning), daughter of a wealthy Pompeii businessman (Jared Harris), is also the object of desire for the arrogant and corrupt Roman senator Corvis (Kiefer Sutherland). But she only has eyes for Milo (Kit Harington), a buff young gladiator who – shocker! – watched his family die at Corvis’ hands years ago.

The story seems tired before it even begins, and it doesn’t even seem like Anderson or his actors are interested in it either. The “dramatic” scenes drag along, simple filler until the director can get to the next gladiator battle, and the story doesn’t so much reach a crescendo – as the best disaster movies do -- as merely just stop so that the fireworks can start. It doesn’t help that Anderson’s cast have either little to do or offer. Harington (Jon Snow on Game of Thrones) is all abs and mournful expressions, but is barely given any dialogue to recite, while Browning has the same glazed expression on her features that she did in Sucker Punch a couple of years ago.

The supporting players acquit themselves somewhat better. Sutherland’s cheeks are practically bulging from all the scenery he chews, but at least he’s entertaining in a borderline campy way. Adewale Aginnuoye-Agbaje stands out as perhaps the best and most interesting character, an African gladiator whose trust in the Romans’ promise of freedom after one last battle slowly curdles and turns to noble rage.  We also like seeing Harris and Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix) as Cassia’s parents, even if they too are given little more to do than look concerned.

But let’s face it, guiding strong performances out of his actors is not Paul W.S. Anderson’s strong suit – in fact, I’m not exactly sure what his skill set is as a filmmaker, except for his uncanny ability to keep the utterly mediocre Resident Evil franchise going. It’s clear that Anderson wants to aim higher with Pompeii, but he simply doesn’t know how to do it or even how to turn this bland material into something dynamic.

Even when the volcano blows its top, you might think the director would feel more at home. But sadly, Pompeii suffers from John Carter syndrome: it may be the original, but we’ve seen this stuff so many times by now that it holds no shock or awe for us. It also doesn’t help that so much of the film’s explosive third act is CG-intensive – the rivers of digital lava just aren’t convincing. And who in their right mind would stop running from an erupting volcano, with flames and lava surging all around them, to have a sword fight as Sutherland and Harington do? (Maybe a couple of Jedi Knights…)

If the story didn’t seem so rushed and drawn out at the same time, if we were given a cast and characters we could really care about, Pompeii the movie might have managed to say something profound about the what it means to be alive and human in the face of nature’s indifferent and destructive force. But when the movie itself is indifferent about that, why should we be bothered? For all its flame and ash, Pompeii barely musters any heat at all. 


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3 DAYS TO KILL: AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR McG

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InterviewDon Kaye2/20/2014 at 8:56AM

McG on working with Kevin Costner, making a movie in France for the first time and what went wrong with his Terminator and Superman films.

In 3 Days to Kill, Kevin Costner plays Ethan Renner, a retired CIA assassin who heads to Paris to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Hailee Steinfeld) after learning that he is ill and has just months to live. But once there, Renner is pulled back into service by an enigmatic and seductive agency operative (Amber Heard) who wants him to take out one more enemy – and offers him a chance to get well as part of the deal.

The film is written by French action specialist Luc Besson (The Professional) and directed by McG, the American filmmaker who graduated from music videos to features in 2000 with Charlie’s Angels. Since then, McG has made five more films, including a Charlie’s Angels sequel, We Are Marshall and the controversial Terminator Salvation. He also came close in the early 2000s to directing a Superman film based on a script by J.J. Abrams, but dropped off the project when his fear of flying prevented him from traveling to Australia to shoot the movie there.

Since then, McG has continued to direct and produce through his Wonderland production company, home of TV shows like Supernatural, Human Target and Chuck along with all his films. 3 Days to Kill marks his first time making a movie in another country, and Den Of Geek sat down with the director to discuss shooting in Paris, working with Kevin Costner and his thoughts on the direction of the Terminator and Superman franchises today.

Den of Geek: This movie has a lot of charm to it, but this material could easily become generic if you had taken it in the wrong direction.

McG: Man I tried to stay away from that, because that would be the only reason to do the picture, you know. Thematically there are themes that have been explored. It’s not like I’m making Her and the guy falls in love with his operating system. That’s never been done, you know, which is terribly original and wonderful. But on this one, I mean, for me it was about capturing humanity but making it exciting in an in-camera kind of way, in that Frankenheimer way. Have some humor that you wouldn’t expect but ultimately have heart and say, “Wow, I’m really kind of moved by this bicycle moment where a father’s teaching his daughter how to ride a bike...I wasn’t expecting that from a Luc Besson-Relativity-Eurocorp-McG offering." Hopefully we did it, man.

What jumped out at you when you were first given the script?

Well I’m a fan of Luc’s. I mean I saw Leon/The Professional as a seminal movie for me. It just kind of f**ked me up. I just really, really loved that film. It was so smart and so well done and I love Oldman, Natalie Portman’s performance, and everything about that movie. So there was that and then I was sort of circling at the same time that Kevin was circling it. I just thought that that was an interesting challenge and just an incredible opportunity to work with a guy who’s won the Academy Award as a filmmaker, and just try to make some discoveries along the way and just embrace that challenge. He’s a strong guy, man. And that’s basically it: the material coming from Luc, the idea of working with Kevin, shooting a picture in Paris as such a decidedly American filmmaker – you added that up and it seemed like a big challenge with a lot of room to go wrong, but I liked that sort of edge of your seat thrill. It keeps you sharp. So I dove in.

What are the differences and similarities in the European and American approach to action thrillers?

I think there’s a higher tolerance in Europe for films being a little more elliptical and not so clearly spelled out. Like when we test movies in America people want to know everything. They want to know what’s he dying of, what are they looking for, what’s gonna happen if you don’t capture the bad guy. Everything is so literal and I like that, but I also am a huge fan of international cinema. I think that was a good influence for me to go over there and work with a guy like Thierry Arbogast as a DP, who’s won three Caesars -- the French Academy Awards. He’s very artistic and soft spoken and slight and such a sort of poet with shaping light and the way that he goes about his business. It’s very different and it permeates every element of the filmmaking process. So the aesthetic of the French, living in so much beauty, living in so much history, being on a set where everybody’s speaking French, nobody even speaks English except for me and Costner -- it was very different in that regard and I hope the film benefits for it. And it speaks to the character because this guy’s a fish out of water and he’s trying to find his way. He’s a stranger in a strange land.


What were the pros and cons of shooting in location in Paris?

Well, a huge pro is just the inherent production design and the ability to feature Paris as a character. Look at that one scene where he’s standing on a bridge and he’s eating some sushi. He just saw a child being born. And the camera just sort of pans around to reveal the Eiffel tower. I mean that’s all in camera. It’s so beautiful it looks fake. Like there’s no way this can even exist. And it speaks to what the character’s going through right there. He’s just a guy out there, you know, having a bite to eat just blown away by the twists and turns of life. And the environment supported that feeling for me so much that those were some of the advantages of shooting in Paris. Disadvantages are just, you know, Kevin’s a big movie star -- so we had a lot of people kind of gathering around the set and had to manage the crowds. That sort of thing. But the French crew was, I think, a huge, huge advantage because they’re very subtle and very delicate and very sophisticated just in their daily life approach. And I think that I was the beneficiary for that because I can be a bit of a heavy hand and decidedly American klutz.

You're no first-timer, but can it still be intimidating to work with someone like Costner, who's an Oscar-winning director and has starred in so many classic films?

I’m just wired strangely because I wasn’t intimidated by that. And I’m a really weird person, you know, with my own anxiety disorders and some strange s**t going on. I mean I was afraid to fly and it got me thrown off the Superman movie when I didn’t fly down to Australia. But when it comes to stuff like this -- I wasn’t intimidated when my first movie was Charlie’s Angels and that was a big movie to tackle for a first time guy. I’m not intimidated to work with Costner because I just feel confident that I can look him in the eye and say, “This is what I think we should be doing and this is the way I’d like to do it.” And then at that point I start to listen and he’s got his point of view and I’m there for a reason. I want to listen to Kevin Costner and be the beneficiary of his organic story sense and his ability to understand his audience and his innate understanding of story and everything that goes with the filmmaking process. So I told him what I think we should do. Oftentimes he was on the same page. A couple of times he had some different ideas and we just partnered on it. I tried to emulate what I would imagine the Coen brothers dynamic would be, you know. They listen and talk and hopefully take it to a higher level as a function of that dialogue between the two of them. I don’t know those guys that well but that’s what I want to believe happens on their set. I made a decision early on to partner with Kevin so it felt good.

Did you fly to France?

Oh yeah. All the time, yeah. I’m much better now.

Because I obviously heard about the Superman stories...

Oh yeah. It’s all true. I mean it’s just, you know, it sucked. It was a really, really low point for me but it also got me to -- it was kind of like a rock bottom junkie moment, you know, where you go, "I’ve got to sober up or it’s just not gonna happen for me." I got with these two women at UCLA and I’ve been working on it ever since. And I fly back and forth to Europe now every week. But it’s something I’m always cognizant of and respectful of and I don’t want to fall back into it.

Speaking of Superman, having developed a version of that once and also having worked on the Terminator franchise, what are your thoughts on seeing both of them rebooted now and the direction they’re taking those in?

I think it’s great man. I mean obviously I’m a huge Nolan fan. I’m a huge fan of Zack’s. I love what they got up to with Superman. JJ and I were working on our Superman back then and I screwed it up by not getting on that plane. And, you know, Terminator, I think we had a lot right and we got a few things wrong. I think I ended that film improperly, and then the rights kind of got entangled in some legal mumbo jumbo. Now I’m delighted that they’re rebooting that and I’m hoping that they’re gonna crush that and my hopes are high because I love what Jim Cameron put in motion with this. It’s just an incredible story that’s becoming more and more relevant, you know. I mentioned Her -- Her is Terminator in a weird way. Every day that sci-fi nightmare becomes more and more real. So I’m excited by this whole idea of Terminator Genesis and what they’re gonna get up to. I learned a lot from making that movie and I loved working with (Sam) Worthington). loved writing it with Jonah Nolan and, you know, obviously working with (Christian) Bale is second to none. I don’t think I quite satisfied the core to the degree that they’re entitled to be satisfied, but I took my shot and a lot of people enjoy the movie and a lot of people had some qualms with it. So that’s part of it. You put yourself out there and sometimes you get kicked in the head and sometimes you get celebrated.

As for the version of Superman that I was going to direct...little bits and pieces came out with the Singer version and bits and pieces came out in Man of Steel. Not because of me but because of the long history of the character. I mean he’s from Krypton. There are some things that are gonna be in there no matter who’s doing it.

Is there a superhero you would like to tackle now if given the opportunity?

I like Aquaman and I don’t think anybody’s done this kind of story with water. I think that that could be interesting, you know. I mean we’ll see. I’m buddies with the guys at DC. I’m buddies with the guys at Marvel. I think we live in a world where, I mean, how great is Downey as Iron Man and who doesn’t love what Nolan got up to. Are you kidding? It’s some of the highest craft you could imagine. And to be in that genre is amazing. So my hat’s off to those guys. I love what they get up to and it's just an exciting time.


Going back to 3 Days to Kill, let's talk about the car chase done for real on the streets.

I’m a huge Frankenheimer fan, and I wanted it to be real and I challenged everybody to shut down these real big boulevards in Paris which is not easily done, you know. It’s hard but they’re very film friendly and they want it to work. So we’ve got cars going 100 miles an hour down these little Parisian streets that are designed for carts and buggies. I think that’s what gave it that just sort of grit and that shock value because metal on metal is -- it just can’t be animated properly. We’ve been looking at physics our whole life and you just know how things fall and how things bend and how they tumble. And I just love the challenge of doing the things in camera and not being so reliant upon CG. I love CG like the next guy, but I just wanted to take on that challenge. I thought it worked for Costner and who he is as a character and just sort of like the grit of his sort of next generational Eastwood thing.

The longer you can hold without a cut, the more authentic it becomes. We tried to hold as long as we can in a lot of these shots and, you know, it was just a ballet with all the rehearsal and safety meetings and the risks taken by the drivers, the guys hanging out the windows and that guy falling out of the car. There’s a lot going on there. When you see a guy in between two cars at 80 miles an hour, that’s just radical. I mean I don’t care how professional you are and how much trust you have in the two drivers, there’s no room for error.

And then you’ve got Kevin Costner wanting to do it himself. You have to tell him that maybe that’s not a good idea.

Yeah, he always wants to do everything. I’m like, “Costner, dude, you know, you’ve got to let this guy do it.” He’s just very immersed in the character. He really, really is. I can’t state that clearly enough. He’s just not interested in the trappings and the bulls**t of Hollywood. He’s interested in the craft of filmmaking. He’s just a True Grit kind of guy. I love that and I love the toughness that comes with that and I love the challenge that comes with that. Never once did I have to go get Costner out of his trailer. Costner was standing right there, ready to go, thinking about the movie, thinking about what’s right. When he comes to work, he comes to work. And that’s all I can ask for as a director. He’s the real deal.

Before we go, what are you most excited about that your TV and movie production company Wonderland has coming up?

Well I’m excited that we did Chris Evans’ first movie as a director, 1:30 Train, that he just wrapped. I haven’t seen the movie yet but I’ve seen a bunch of scenes from it. It looks really, really good. I just got back from Berlin and we’re excited about that. We’re chasing this Gus Van Sant movie, Sea of Trees, that I don’t know if we’re gonna get it or not but we’re trying to get more and more elegant material. In the television space, I mean we keep going with Supernatural which is a tremendous source of pride. We just bought this Israeli series, this thing called Allenby, which is very sort of True Detective/The Wire. We’re producing movies, producing television and then the films that I direct. There’s a lot of activity going on over there and we’re trying to get better and better and really improve the quality of what’s coming out of our shop...I’m super proud of the company and we’re just going to try to keep making great television, great films.

3 Days to Kill is out in theaters Friday, February 21.

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The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Our First Look at Green Goblin

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NewsDen Of Geek2/20/2014 at 10:44AM

Dane DeHaan is Harry Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. He's also the Green Goblin. Check out your first real look at the Green Goblin!

The Amazing Spider-Man 2is taking a rather different approach to the Green Goblin and all the attendant familiar drama than the previous Spider-Man franchise did. For starters, it's Dane DeHaan's Harry Osborn who kicks off the Green Goblin legacy, not Chris Cooper's Norman Osborn. And the genetic manipulation that is a theme of Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man franchise looks to have more of an obvious role in the creation of this Green Goblin. 

Check out your first official look at a clearly mutated (and not masked) Dane DeHaan as the Green Goblin in The Amazing Spider-Man 2! Whether this creepy clock tower (and the already examined presence of Gwen Stacy) is going to have a dramatic, long-lasting effect on the Spider-Man franchise remains to be seen, but we have our own ideas about that...

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Green Goblin

Amazing Spider-Man 2swings into theaters on May 2nd.

Source:Flickering Myth

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