One poster to rule them all…One month after we got a look at the first trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, we now have an official one-sheet ahead of the film’s December release. You can check it out embedded in the article.

Here is the official write-up from Warner Bros.: “Set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films, “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” tells the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan.  A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg—a mighty fortress that will later come to be known as Helm’s Deep.  Finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation, Héra, the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.”

Obviously there is plenty to explore in the world of The Lord of the Rings, but that The War of the Rohirrim is both a prequel and works in Helm’s Deep – the setting of one of the greatest sequences of Peter Jackson’s original trilogy – will no doubt set up a fan-servicing picture. Kenji Kamiyama, who was behind a few Ghost in the Shell works and the animated Blade Runner series Black Lotus, directs. But there is also some major The Lord of the Rings prestige behind the movie, too, with Wētā Workshop founder Richard Taylor, concept designers John Howe and Alan Lee, and screenwriter Philippa Boyens all on board in various capacities.

The voice cast for The War of the Rohirrim features Brian Cox as Rohan’s king Helm Hammerhand, Gaia Wise as his daughter Hèra, Luke Pasqualino as Hammerhead’s antagonist, and Miranda Otto as Éowyn, returning from Jackson’s The Two Towers and The Return of the King.

The War of the Rohirrim – which arrives on December 13th – will be the latest expansion of the J.R.R. Tolkien works, with Amazon’s The Rings of Power currently in its second season and The Hunt for Gollum possibly turning out as a two-part epic.

Will you be catching The War of the Rohirrim?

The post New Lord of the Rings film, The War of the Rohirrim, gets official poster ahead of December release appeared first on JoBlo.

Looking at Kevin Costner’s filmography as a director, one thing is apparent: the guy loves his epics. His debut, 1990’s Dances with Wolves, clocked in at just over three hours, while his 1997 follow-up, The Postman, ran just under that. After practically making a short film with Open Range (139 minutes), he took a two-decade break before diving into his next: the multi-part Horizon, with its first two parts surpassing the six-hour mark. So what drives Kevin Costner to make such lengthy movies? It comes down to the classics.

At History Channel’s recent History Talks event (via Deadline), Kevin Costner said it was seeing movies of an epic scale that not only captured his curiosity for film but also subconsciously made him lean towards movies of such lengthy runtimes. In particular, he cited 1962’s How the West Was Won, which credits three directors – Henry Hathaway, John Ford and George Marshall – for the novelistic tale (“It was a 4-hour movie. So it’s no surprise, mine are three.”) and George Stevens’ 1956 film Giant (“It’s another 3-hour movie. Get the picture with me.”).

Both films are widely regarded as some of the finest American western movies ever made, so it’s really no wonder that they made such an impression on Kevin Costner, whose own Dances with Wolves did something neither of those works did: win the Best Picture Oscar. While people like to hate on it solely for beating Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, there’s no denying it is one of the most sweeping films of the ‘90s. But as for How the West Was Won – which actually runs about 20 minutes shorter than Dances with Wolves (although there is an extended version of Costner’s movie that hits four hours) – it was that film that truly captured his imagination. On it, he added, “Everybody left for intermission, and I didn’t. I wasn’t going to give up my magic seat. I waited for that movie to start again, and when I was over, it marked me.”

In the discussion, Kevin Costner also noted that it’s important to give it all – runtime be damned – when making movies. “It doesn’t matter when you make a movie, it’s going to live forever, so it matters what details you put in it because if you put the right details in it, it’s going to be relevant, and that’s the one thing I hope in my life. It’s not hard to be popular; it’s very difficult to be relevant. I want my life to be relevant…”

What is your favorite Kevin Costner movie? Dance on into the comments below and let us know!

The post Kevin Costner explains why his movies are so long appeared first on JoBlo.

Looking at Kevin Costner’s filmography as a director, one thing is apparent: the guy loves his epics. His debut, 1990’s Dances with Wolves, clocked in at just over three hours, while his 1997 follow-up, The Postman, ran just under that. After practically making a short film with Open Range (139 minutes), he took a two-decade break before diving into his next: the multi-part Horizon, with its first two parts surpassing the six-hour mark. So what drives Kevin Costner to make such lengthy movies? It comes down to the classics.

At History Channel’s recent History Talks event (via Deadline), Kevin Costner said it was seeing movies of an epic scale that not only captured his curiosity for film but also subconsciously made him lean towards movies of such lengthy runtimes. In particular, he cited 1962’s How the West Was Won, which credits three directors – Henry Hathaway, John Ford and George Marshall – for the novelistic tale (“It was a 4-hour movie. So it’s no surprise, mine are three.”) and George Stevens’ 1956 film Giant (“It’s another 3-hour movie. Get the picture with me.”).

Both films are widely regarded as some of the finest American western movies ever made, so it’s really no wonder that they made such an impression on Kevin Costner, whose own Dances with Wolves did something neither of those works did: win the Best Picture Oscar. While people like to hate on it solely for beating Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, there’s no denying it is one of the most sweeping films of the ‘90s. But as for How the West Was Won – which actually runs about 20 minutes shorter than Dances with Wolves (although there is an extended version of Costner’s movie that hits four hours) – it was that film that truly captured his imagination. On it, he added, “Everybody left for intermission, and I didn’t. I wasn’t going to give up my magic seat. I waited for that movie to start again, and when I was over, it marked me.”

In the discussion, Kevin Costner also noted that it’s important to give it all – runtime be damned – when making movies. “It doesn’t matter when you make a movie, it’s going to live forever, so it matters what details you put in it because if you put the right details in it, it’s going to be relevant, and that’s the one thing I hope in my life. It’s not hard to be popular; it’s very difficult to be relevant. I want my life to be relevant…”

What is your favorite Kevin Costner movie? Dance on into the comments below and let us know!

The post Kevin Costner explains why his movies are so long appeared first on JoBlo.

Industry estimates for the weekend had Paramount’s Transformers One, the critically acclaimed animated prequel, easily winning the weekend box office race with about $40 million. In our box office predictions, we were somewhat more conservative, expecting the animated pic to earn about $30 million. Yet, in a surprise twist of fate at the weekend box office, the film underperformed pretty drastically, allowing Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice to win the box office crown for the third week in a row, with the hit sequel making $26 million compared to Transformers One’s $25 million.

So what happened? It could be that audiences have just grown weary of the Transformers franchise, which has been on a downslide at the box office since back in 2017 when Transformers: The Last Knight earned about half what the previous instalment, Age of Extinction, did domestically. Since then, none of the Transformers movies have performed all that well domestically, with the highest grosser being Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, with $157 million. Yet, the franchise is still strong overseas, particularly in China, which is why the studio is still making them.

Transformers One was expected to reverse the downslide, being animated and sporting an all-star voice cast that includes Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, and Scarlett Johansson. But, despite an amazing A CinemaScore rating, audiences just did not turn out to see the movie. The audience reaction could mean that the movie will be a word-of-mouth hit, but it faces steep competition next weekend from The Wild Robot, which earned raves out of TIFF.

All told, this is a fabulous result for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which now has a huge $225 million domestic total and should have no trouble passing about $270-ish, with a $300 million finish not out of the question. Blumhouse’s well-reviewed Speak No Evil fell a modest 49% to $5.8 million this weekend, which is good for a genre flick. It’s made just over $21 million so far and should end up with a $30 million-ish gross.

It managed to beat Lionsgate’s Never Let Go, which continued the studio’s disastrous reign at the box office with a poor $4.5 million opening. At the end of the day, the movie’s hook just wasn’t enough to pull in a genre audience despite the presence of Halle Berry in the lead. The studio’s slate isn’t likely to get any better, with them also distributing Francis Ford Coppola’s critically maligned Megalopolis next weekend. 

Another horror flick, Mubi’s demented (and awesome) The Substance, underperformed this weekend, only making $3.1 million despite amazing reviews. It was beaten by Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine, which made $3.9 million for a smashing $627 million plus total. The controversial documentary Am I Racist?, earned $2.53 million, bringing its total to a decent $9 million (quite good for an independently distributed doc). At the same time, the biopic Reagan added another $1.7 million to its coffers for a $26.5 million total, with a potential $30 million finish in reach. Finally, the K-pop concert film Jung Kook: I Am Still made $1.42 million for a $2.57 million total, while Alien: Romulus started to close out its theatrical run with $1.32 million and a $103 million domestic total.

Next weekend sees the release of The Wild Robot. Will it be able to finally take down Beetlejuice Beetlejuice? Let us know in the comments!

The post Weekend Box Office: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice beats Transformers One in a surprise upset appeared first on JoBlo.

Industry estimates for the weekend had Paramount’s Transformers One, the critically acclaimed animated prequel, easily winning the weekend box office race with about $40 million. In our box office predictions, we were somewhat more conservative, expecting the animated pic to earn about $30 million. Yet, in a surprise twist of fate at the weekend box office, the film underperformed pretty drastically, allowing Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice to win the box office crown for the third week in a row, with the hit sequel making $26 million compared to Transformers One’s $25 million.

So what happened? It could be that audiences have just grown weary of the Transformers franchise, which has been on a downslide at the box office since back in 2017 when Transformers: The Last Knight earned about half what the previous instalment, Age of Extinction, did domestically. Since then, none of the Transformers movies have performed all that well domestically, with the highest grosser being Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, with $157 million. Yet, the franchise is still strong overseas, particularly in China, which is why the studio is still making them.

Transformers One was expected to reverse the downslide, being animated and sporting an all-star voice cast that includes Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, and Scarlett Johansson. But, despite an amazing A CinemaScore rating, audiences just did not turn out to see the movie. The audience reaction could mean that the movie will be a word-of-mouth hit, but it faces steep competition next weekend from The Wild Robot, which earned raves out of TIFF.

All told, this is a fabulous result for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which now has a huge $225 million domestic total and should have no trouble passing about $270-ish, with a $300 million finish not out of the question. Blumhouse’s well-reviewed Speak No Evil fell a modest 49% to $5.8 million this weekend, which is good for a genre flick. It’s made just over $21 million so far and should end up with a $30 million-ish gross.

It managed to beat Lionsgate’s Never Let Go, which continued the studio’s disastrous reign at the box office with a poor $4.5 million opening. At the end of the day, the movie’s hook just wasn’t enough to pull in a genre audience despite the presence of Halle Berry in the lead. The studio’s slate isn’t likely to get any better, with them also distributing Francis Ford Coppola’s critically maligned Megalopolis next weekend. 

Another horror flick, Mubi’s demented (and awesome) The Substance, underperformed this weekend, only making $3.1 million despite amazing reviews. It was beaten by Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine, which made $3.9 million for a smashing $627 million plus total. The controversial documentary Am I Racist?, earned $2.53 million, bringing its total to a decent $9 million (quite good for an independently distributed doc). At the same time, the biopic Reagan added another $1.7 million to its coffers for a $26.5 million total, with a potential $30 million finish in reach. Finally, the K-pop concert film Jung Kook: I Am Still made $1.42 million for a $2.57 million total, while Alien: Romulus started to close out its theatrical run with $1.32 million and a $103 million domestic total.

Next weekend sees the release of The Wild Robot. Will it be able to finally take down Beetlejuice Beetlejuice? Let us know in the comments!

The post Weekend Box Office: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice beats Transformers One in a surprise upset appeared first on JoBlo.

Transformers One is now playing in theaters, and many critics (including this one) say it’s the best Transformers movie ever made (disagree with that? Take our poll!) Yet, the film has been the subject of a bit of controversy, with some fans resenting that, for the first time in the movies, someone else is voicing Optimus Prime other than the legendary Peter Cullen. We recently sat down with Transformers One director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4), who addressed the change head-on. 

“Peter Cullen is Optimus Prime,” Cooley said, adding, “he’s my Optimus Prime. That’s what I grew up with. That’s the iconic voice. And Chris and I talked a lot about that early on. And even before Chris came on, I was, you know, how, how are we going to do this? But the thing that really clicked for me was that this is Orion Pax. So it’s before he becomes Optimus Prime, which means he doesn’t need to have all the knowledge and the power yet to be Optimus.”

Indeed, much of the film revolves around Optimus in his early days, when he’s still just a miner (without the ability to transform) opposite his best pal, turned archenemy, D-16, later to become Megatron. Yet, as the film continues, Hemsworth’s voice starts to take on a more Peter Cullen-like cadence.

“When I heard Chris’s voice, he’s got the weight to it,” said Cooley. “He’s got that power in his voice naturally. And so when we first met, we talked about it a lot, and we’re like, okay, Orion can be a little looser. He can be kind of a little more naive, a little more kind of, you know, shooting from the seat of his pants. And then Chris just brought that super charm that he has into the voice. And, I remember that moment when he’s, you know, we were reading through the script. And he, I think it was the speech that he’s giving to the miners that even in his performance, he was standing up a little straighter chest out and just kind of had, you know, the cadence of the power and just had the rhythm of, of starting to sound like Optimus. I got goosebumps because I thought it worked so well.”

What do you think of Hemsworth’s voice acting in Transformers One? Let us know in the comments!

The post Transformers One: Director Josh Cooley on why Chris Hemsworth took over as Optimus Prime from Peter Cullen appeared first on JoBlo.

Transformers One is now playing in theaters, and many critics (including this one) say it’s the best Transformers movie ever made (disagree with that? Take our poll!) Yet, the film has been the subject of a bit of controversy, with some fans resenting that, for the first time in the movies, someone else is voicing Optimus Prime other than the legendary Peter Cullen, with Chris Hemsworth taking over the role. We recently sat down with Transformers One director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4), who addressed the change head-on. 

“Peter Cullen is Optimus Prime,” Cooley said, adding, “he’s my Optimus Prime. That’s what I grew up with. That’s the iconic voice. And Chris and I talked a lot about that early on. And even before Chris came on, I was, you know, how, how are we going to do this? But the thing that really clicked for me was that this is Orion Pax. So it’s before he becomes Optimus Prime, which means he doesn’t need to have all the knowledge and the power yet to be Optimus.”

Indeed, much of the film revolves around Optimus in his early days, when he’s still just a miner (without the ability to transform) opposite his best pal, turned archenemy, D-16, later to become Megatron. Yet, as the film continues, Chris Hemsworth’s voice starts to take on a more Peter Cullen-like cadence.

“When I heard Chris’s voice, he’s got the weight to it,” said Cooley. “He’s got that power in his voice naturally. And so when we first met, we talked about it a lot, and we’re like, okay, Orion can be a little looser. He can be kind of a little more naive, a little more kind of, you know, shooting from the seat of his pants. And then Chris just brought that super charm that he has into the voice. And, I remember that moment when he’s, you know, we were reading through the script. And he, I think it was the speech that he’s giving to the miners that even in his performance, he was standing up a little straighter chest out and just kind of had, you know, the cadence of the power and just had the rhythm of, of starting to sound like Optimus. I got goosebumps because I thought it worked so well.”

What do you think of Chris Hemsworth’s voice acting in Transformers One? Let us know in the comments!

The post Transformers One: Director Josh Cooley on why Chris Hemsworth took over as Optimus Prime from Peter Cullen appeared first on JoBlo.

With Transformers One earning the best review in the franchise’s history, we want to know how you think it ranks in the pantheon of Transformers films. Is it better than the very best of the Michael Bay films? Does it outrank the critically acclaimed Bumblebee? Is it even better than the animated classic, Transformers: The Movie? Let us know by taking the poll below!

The post Poll: What’s Your Favorite Transformers Movie? appeared first on JoBlo.

Macaulay Culkin was one of the biggest child stars ever. But his time in Hollywood – especially at a young age – was plagued with all sorts of issues. Whether it had to do with who would control the money he earned as a minor or the constant media attention he was given, Culkin had far from the ordinary childhood. But if there’s one positive that came of it, it’s that his Home Alone director learned how to approach the impending stardom with the child actors on Harry Potter.

Chris Columbus recently revealed he “felt a tremendous responsibility” in how he worked with the Hogwarts students because of how he saw Macaulay Culkin being treated. “[I] knew what they were getting into. That’s the rest of your life as a child star…That’s gonna be your legacy, and you have to learn how to live with that.” Thankfully, by and large, the Harry Potter cast has kept level heads and proven to have continued success in the industry, whether on stage or screen (something we hope for the young cast of the upcoming series). Culkin would dip much further out of the limelight, taking some much-needed time off beginning in the mid-’90s, only turning up a decade later for various movies, TV appearances and, yes, pizza-themed parody bands.

Columbus offered another comparison to Macaulay Culkin and the Harry Potter team while noting the level of immediate pressure he faced during the casting process. “We went from shooting Home Alone 1 [where] nobody cared, but in the course of a year, Macaulay Culkin became a huge star, and that was unexpected. It’s not like Harry Potter, where you know that it may be extraordinarily successful…I had to put blinders on because that’s all I was hearing everywhere. You go on the street, you go into a pub, you go anywhere, and people are saying, ‘Who are you gonna cast? Who’s gonna be Harry Potter, who’s gonna be Harry Potter?’ And that, you take that information and you bring it back to the actor and the actor’s parents: ‘This is gonna get pretty intense.’”

While the sheer superstardom of Macaulay Culkin was a lot for people and Hollywood to handle, it is cool to see Chris Columbus learning from those days as he took on the monumental task of casting and working with the likes of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. That’s just the sort of care that an adolescent cast would need, so good on Columbus!

The post Chris Columbus reveals how Macaulay Culkin impacted Harry Potter appeared first on JoBlo.

Macaulay Culkin was one of the biggest child stars ever. But his time in Hollywood – especially at a young age – was plagued with all sorts of issues. Whether it had to do with who would control the money he earned as a minor or the constant media attention he was given, Culkin had far from the ordinary childhood. But if there’s one positive that came of it, it’s that his Home Alone director learned how to approach the impending stardom with the child actors on Harry Potter.

Chris Columbus recently revealed he “felt a tremendous responsibility” in how he worked with the Hogwarts students because of how he saw Macaulay Culkin being treated. “[I] knew what they were getting into. That’s the rest of your life as a child star…That’s gonna be your legacy, and you have to learn how to live with that.” Thankfully, by and large, the Harry Potter cast has kept level heads and proven to have continued success in the industry, whether on stage or screen (something we hope for the young cast of the upcoming series). Culkin would dip much further out of the limelight, taking some much-needed time off beginning in the mid-’90s, only turning up a decade later for various movies, TV appearances and, yes, pizza-themed parody bands.

Columbus offered another comparison to Macaulay Culkin and the Harry Potter team while noting the level of immediate pressure he faced during the casting process. “We went from shooting Home Alone 1 [where] nobody cared, but in the course of a year, Macaulay Culkin became a huge star, and that was unexpected. It’s not like Harry Potter, where you know that it may be extraordinarily successful…I had to put blinders on because that’s all I was hearing everywhere. You go on the street, you go into a pub, you go anywhere, and people are saying, ‘Who are you gonna cast? Who’s gonna be Harry Potter, who’s gonna be Harry Potter?’ And that, you take that information and you bring it back to the actor and the actor’s parents: ‘This is gonna get pretty intense.’”

While the sheer superstardom of Macaulay Culkin was a lot for people and Hollywood to handle, it is cool to see Chris Columbus learning from those days as he took on the monumental task of casting and working with the likes of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. That’s just the sort of care that an adolescent cast would need, so good on Columbus!

The post Chris Columbus reveals how Macaulay Culkin impacted Harry Potter appeared first on JoBlo.