This week in movie news:
A new trailer for The Gift starring Joel Edgerton and Jason Bateman; a pair of actors join the voice cast for animated release Batman: Bad Blood; Martin Campbell is in talks to direct the Jackie Chan film formerly titled The Foreigner; Tom Hardy vehicle Legend receives a new UK trailer; and the Oscar-nominated writer of District 9 will adapt Charlie Human novel Apocalypse Now Now.
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STX Entertainment has released a new trailer for upcoming thriller The Gift starring Joel Edgerton, Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall. The film – which marks Edgerton’s directorial debut – centers on a long-held secret between two former classmates, a revelation that could ultimately wreak havoc on their lives.
The new trailer ultimately offers more of a tease at the actual film instead choosing to develop theme and atmosphere. Mirroring the events of the film, the footage spends the first half of its runtime on past instances of former rivalries ending in brutal retribution on behalf of the wronged party. The Gift hits theaters on August 7, 2015.
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Yvonne Strahovski (Dexter, Chuck) and Gaius Charles (Friday Night Lights, Grey’s Anatomy) have joined the cast of the upcoming animated film Batman: Bad Blood as new allies to the Dark Knight. Strahovski will play Batwoman a.k.a. Katherine Kane, and Charles will provide the voice of Batwing a.k.a. Luke Fox.
Plot details for the film – which will be released on Blu-ray, DVD and digital HD in early 2016 – have not yet been revealed, but the film reportedly serves as a followup to this year’s Batman vs. Robin. Jason O’Mara (Batman), Stuart Allan (Robin/Damian Wayne), Sean Maher (Nightwing) and Morena Baccarin (Talia al Ghul) are all returning in their respective roles for the film, and Ghostbusters alum Ernie Hudson will play Lucius Fox, Luke’s father.
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Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, Green Lantern) is in talks to direct the film formerly known as The Foreigner, with Jackie Chan in the lead role. While the film is currently untitled, the story – based on the Stephen Leather novel The Chinaman – centers on a restaurant owner in London’s Chinatown who decides to track down the Irish gang who killed his daughter.
Campbell was previously attached to direct but ultimately dropped out to direct Hunter Killer for Relativity Studios. Now that the latter project has fallen apart, his schedule is once again free for his return. Deals are currently being negotiated, and the film is looking to begin production this fall.
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Studio Canal has released a new UK trailer for this fall’s crime thriller Legend. The film – written and directed by Oscar winner Brian Helgeland – tells the true story of identical twin gangster Reggie and Ronnie Kray in the 1960s.
Tom Hardy leads the film in a dual lead performance as the Kray twins and is joined by an ensemble cast that also includes Taron Egerton, Emily Browning, Paul Bettany, Colin Morgan, Christopher Eccleston and David Thewlis.
Legend hits UK theaters on September 9, 2015 and is released in the U.S. on October 2, 2015.
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Oscar-nominated screenwriter Terri Tatchell (District 9) will adapt Charlie Human’s novel Apocalypse Now Now for an upcoming Canadian-South African film adaptation. Redlab Digital and XYZ Films acquired the film rights to the project and tapped Tatchell – who also worked on this year’s Chappie – to board the film.
The novel tells the story of Baxter Zevcenko, a high school kingpin of his smut-riddled schoolyard. When Baxter’s girlfriend is kidnapped, he teams with a supernatural bounty hunter named Jackson “Jackie” Ronin and ventures into his town’s seedy underworld, where they just might face the apocalypse.
