To say that Seth MacFarlane's stint as Oscars host polarised opinion would be a little like saying that it's a bit nippy in space. As statements of the bleeding obvious go it's right up there with suggesting that Joaquin Phoenix is a leftfield pick to succeed him. Well, guess who MacFarlane is tipping to succeed him?
 
MacFarlane has tweeted that he definitely won't be returning to the Dolby Theater as host next year, slipping in a sly dig at the critics - that's pretty much all of them - who panned his efforts in March.

Traumatized critics exhale: I'm unable to do the Oscars again. Tried to make it work schedule-wise, but I need sleep.However, I highly-->

May 20, 2013

With a packed looking schedule, including Ted 2 and comedy Western A Million Ways To Die In The West, MacFarlane has his plate full for the foreseeable. His pick for 2014 host? Yup, Commodus himself, Joaquin Phoenix. Busy little bees ahoy.

Read Empire's analysis of MacFarlane's efforts here and then let us know your pick for next year below.
[[Poll921]]

64519.jpg

Read more at Empire Magazine

Once upon a time, two brothers called Bruno and Michel Papet wrote a book called Les Liens Du Sang. In 2008, this was adapted into a movie Jacques Maillot called Les Liens Du Sang, and now, in 2013, actor-turned-director Guillaume Canet (of Tell No One and Little White Lies fame) has taken the French tale and transported it to 1970s New York for his English language debut, Blood Ties, casting Clive Owen, Billy Cudrup, Mila Kunis, James Caan, Zoe Saldana and his own wife, Marion Cotillard, in the process.

Owen plays Chris, an ex-con who's just come out of prison to be greeted by his grumpy cop brother Frank (Cudrup) and his happy-but-not-long-for-this-world father (Caan). Chris' ex-wife, Monica, is a prositute and a drug user, somehow keeping their two kids in cereal and underwear despite her shaky situation. Instead of making up with Monica, Chris begins a relationship with Natalie (Kunis), the cashier at the garage Frank has managed to wangle Chris a job at. Meanwhile Frank, as well as being a cop with a criminal brother living in his flat, also has personal problems, as the girl he's in love with, Vanessa (Saldana), has had a kid with another ex-con who he's just put away for six months.

It's only with all these pieces in play that Canet's copera can really begin, and with such a large cast and so many plot beats to chug through, it can, at times, feel a little like hard work watching Owen's Chris - prehaps unsurprisingly - revert to his bad habits. Considering the movie clocks in at 144 minutes, Canet obviously enjoys taking his time over the many plot strands, concentrating primarily on the film-stealing firey relationship between the brothers but allowing Zaldana some great scenes and Caan a few moments too. It's all enjoyable in its cops-and-robbers way, but there isn't all that much you won't have seen before, despite certain impressive flashes.

Elsewhere, Kunis plays a mostly thankless role, Owen's Brooklyn accent wobbles slightly, and Canet falls victim to choosing songs that seem a little blunt considering the situation - Money, Money, Money hits the speakers when there's, um, money involved - but there's plenty to dig into here for anyone who enjoys period police dramas, and it's worth the long run-time for a very satisfactory ending.

50383.jpg

Read more at Empire Magazine

60473.jpg

Read more at Empire Magazine

Squawking dispiriting phrases like "brand awareness" and "built-in audience", Sony last week flew away from a fraught auction with the Angry Birds film rights clutched in its talons. And the man tasked with turning the ubiquitous phone app into a coherent narrative? Veteran comedy writer Jon Vitti.

The Emmy Award-winning Vitti looks like a pretty canny choice too. The hugely respected writer cut his teeth on Saturday Night Live, before stints on The Simpsons, The Critic, The Larry Sanders Show, King Of The Hill, and The (US) Office. But if sketch comedy and sit-com have been his domain on TV, on the big screen he's beenly about animation, consulting on the Ice Age films, Robots and Horton Hears A Who, and contributing a writing credit to The Simpsons movie. He also co-wrote Alvin & The Chipmunks and its Squeakquel.

Who better then, to bring comedic order to the destructive chaos of those furious kamikaze avians with their pathological hatred of the porcine?Why do they hate the pigs so much? What are their interpersonal relationships? What drives and motivates them? Can birds and pigs ever just get along? These, and more, are the burning issues that Vitti will be wrestling with for the next few days.

The Angry Birds movie will, of course, be a 3D animation. There's no director attached so far, but with admirable confidence that Angry Birds will still be a thing in three years time, Sony already has a release date booked of July 1, 2016.

71639.jpg

Read more at Empire Magazine

Though there have been several one-sheets online already, we’ve clearly reached the point in the Man Of Steel promotional campaign where the character posters come striding out. Welcome, then, Supes himself, General Zod and super-dad Jor-El. {Man Of Steel Character Posters}

Even though Jor-El’s presence in the film is traditionally limited – he might be one of the sources of advice to son Kal-El (Henry Cavill), but he perishes along with the rest of planet Krypton early in the story – Crowe’s star power is being used to help boost the film. Which, along with the character’s iconic status, explains why he gets his own image here along with the others.

Man Of Steelfinds young Kal-El growing up on Earth, raised by the kindly Jonathan (Kevin Costner) and Martha Kent (Diane Lane). Unsure about his place in society thanks to his incredible powers, he chooses at first to hide away, hunted by reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams) who has heard the stories of his feats.

Yet he’s forced to reveal his presence to the world when General Zod (Michael “I WILL FIND HIM!” Shannon) arrives on the planet and demands that Kal-El swears fealty to him, lest Zod get medieval on the Earth and its inhabitants. And in related Crowe news, he's apparently seen the movie and thinks highly of it, believing that it's set to change Henry Cavill's life.

With Zach Snyder directing a script by David S. Goyer, Man Of Steel touches down in UK cinemas on June 14. There’s plenty more about it in the current issue of Empire, in shops and on the iPad now. Plus, we talked to Steel composer Hans Zimmer about taking on a character so closely associated with John Williams’ theme. 

71636.jpg

Read more at Empire Magazine

It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything from Hobbit helmer Peter Jackson, which would make sense as he’s been busy getting second film The Desolation Of Smaug ready for its December bow and digging into the post-production cycle on final trilogy piece There And Back Again. Yet he’s briefly surfaced on Facebook to report that he’s returned to the set for pick-ups on the film.

Posting a brief message along with a picture of himself with Ian McKellen in full Gandalf get-up, Jackson says that it’ll be the crew’s last ever Tolkien shooting (cue lots of comments asking about Silmarillion and other possible stories) and that all involved are in for an intense few weeks.

And for those of you who have been missing the behind the scenes blogs, a new one is set to hit soon, according to Jackson. So that’s nice.

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug finds our heroes finally tackling the scaly, gold-craving reptile with the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch and the likes of McKellen, Richard Armitage, Aidan Turner, Graham McTavish, Sylvester McCoy, Stephen Hunter, Dean O’Gorman and Empire Award winner Martin Freeman are all back for the film, which marches into our cinemas on December 13.

34974.jpg

Read more at Empire Magazine

Thanks to the success of The Hunger Games in particular, Liam Hemsworth always has plenty of work coming in. He’s just taken on the role of a fighter pilot in action adventure pic Aurora Rising.

From the sounds of it, this could be a Top Gun-style role for the Aussie actor, as he’ll be playing a surfer-turned-ace fighter pilot who becomes embroiled in a messy combat mission.

In the aftermath of that opening skirmish, he’s recruited to be part of an elite team testing a new generation of aircraft – planes that will come in handy, since there’s a new international conflict just on the horizon.

Relativity Media is backing this one, and has a script in hand from Christian Gudegast. There’s no word on a director yet, but that slot should be filled soon enough.

Hemsworth has already worked with the company on corporate espionage thriller Paranoia, due out in the States on August 16, but still awaiting a UK date. Over here, he’ll next crop up in Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire, which arrives on November 22.

54662.jpg

Read more at Empire Magazine

Hunter Killer, the submarine thriller derived from Don Keith and George Wallace’s book Firing Point has been pinging the development radar for a few years now. Several directors and more than one actor have come and gone, but it has now apparently reached McG’s desk.

Jamie Moss has written the script, which finds an untested submarine captain working alongside a Navy SEAL team to rescue the Russian president when he’s taken prisoner during a political coup. The unlikely allies must work together to stop a rogue general bent on kicking off World War III. Which, you must admit, is pretty typical for a rogue general. They’re never about just making sure everyone has enough ice cream, are they?

Originally planned as a directing gig for Taken’s Pierre Morel, production company Relativity Media then approached Phillip Noyce. Once he passed, it sat on the shelf until Antoine Fuqua and Gerard Butler got interested, before they also dumped it in favour of this year’s Olympus Has Fallen.

McG just directed action thriller Three Days To Kill with Kevin Costner as a hit man on a mission for the company, and since that one has apparently turned out well, everyone (except Costner, unless he decides to take a role) has decided to try to team up again. The director is only in negotiations right now, so we’ll have to wait and see if this one sets sail at last.

21174.jpg

Read more at Empire Magazine

With his funding now in place, Garden State writer/director Zach Braff is ploughing ahead with his Kickstarter-aided new film Wish I Was Here. He’s deep in casting mode, and is now adding Kate Hudson to the movie.

Braff will star (much as he did with State) as Aidan Bloom, a struggling 35-year-old actor who is having trouble finding his identity and providing for his family. He and his wife (Hudson) are struggling financially and when his father (Mandy Patinkin) falls ill and is unable to pay for his kids’ private schooling, Aidan decides to teach them himself.

Yet he’s still got a lot of growing and learning to do himself, especially when he can’t seem to stop leaning on the fantasy character Space-Knight he created as a child.

Josh Gad is also aboard as Aidan’s brother, who has a crush on a cosplay girl (Anna Kendrick) he meets.

With a script co-written by Braff’s brother Adam), Wish I Was Here should be shooting in August for a September 2014 release. Hudson is on our screens now in The Reluctant Fundamentalist and has recently worked on HBO TV movie Clear History with Jon Hamm and an almost unrecognizable Larry David, who you can glimpse in the teaser below.

8164.jpg

Read more at Empire Magazine