Your friendly neighborhood Movie Morsels writer is off today, so I’ll be stepping in to deliver you your daily dosage of movie news. For once, it seems, it’s a relatively superhero-free day, so take a gander at the cinematic sweetness coming your way.
Ex Machina
The lines between artificial intelligence and humanity, and morality and opportunity bleed together in the trailer for Alex Garlend’s new film Ex Machina. The film follows a programmer named Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), who is invited up to a mountainside retreat by an eccentric CEO named Nathan (Oscar Isaac) in order to put a highly advanced android named Ava (Alicia Vikander) through a modified version of the Turing Test.
Ex Machina opens on April 10.
[A24]
Snowden
While Laura Poitras’ Academy Award-winning Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour heads to HBO, Oliver Stone’s biopic about the eponymous American whistleblower, Snowden, just released its first picture of star Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden.
That wasn’t the only image to hit the web either; JGL tweeted out director Oliver Stone’s first ever selfie from the film’s set.
Oliver Stone’s first selfie. PHOTO: http://t.co/uLofacdT20 pic.twitter.com/5nW5vIKimj
— Joseph Gordon-Levitt (@hitRECordJoe) March 3, 2015
I guess there’s a first time for everything. [CinemaBlend]
Independence Day 2
Welcome to Earth…again. While Will Smith may not be coming back for director Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day sequel, actor Jessie Usher will carry the torch in his stead. Usher, who currently stars in the LeBron James-produced Starz series Survivor’s Remorse, will play the son of Will Smith’s Captain Steven Hiller character. Joining Usher will be Liam Hemsworth and returning star Jeff Goldblum, who will reprise his role from the original. Honestly, it doesn’t much matter who they cast in this film; the real challenge will be crafting a speech remotely as epic as President Whitmore’s. [ScreenCrush]
Bridge of Spies
Remember that Untitled Steven Spielberg Cold War Project that has been floating around the movie trades forever and a day now? Well, now it’s the Titled Steven Spielberg Cold War Project, or more succinctly Bridge of Spies. The “Bridge of Spies” is the unofficial name for the Glienicke Bridge in Germany, which connected West Germany to East Germany during the Cold War and served as a location for prisoner exchanges between opposing powers. Bridge of Spies will tell the story of the first prisoner exchange between Western and Soviet powers on the bridge, with Tom Hanks’ James Donovan attempting to negotiate the release of American pilot Francis Gray Powers who was imprisoned by the Soviet Union after his plane was shot down.
If you think that sounds good, this will sound even better: John Williams will be scoring the project. The film opens on October 16, 2015.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
While many of us are looking forward to X-Men: Apocalypse, Bryan Singer is already looking toward his next project, an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. The sci-fi novel, which centers on a lunar colony that rebels from their rulers on Earth, has been unsuccessfully targeted for adaptation twice before. As they say, the third time is the charm, though. This time Arrow producer Marc Guggenheim is set to pen the script, which will be tentatively retitled Uprising. Lloyd Braun, Thor Halvorssen, Andrew Mittman, and Jason Taylor will produce alongside Singer.
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
Steve Martin is heading back to the silver screen for Ang Lee’s next film, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. The veteran actor will join Garrett Hedlund and Joe Alwyn in the adaptation on Ben Fountain’s 2012 novel. The film tells the story of 19-year-old soldier Billy Lynn and his squad, who become heroes after their survival of a fierce battle in Iraq is captured by news cameras. Back in the United States, the soldiers are taken on a promotional tour by the US administration, all of which leads to an appearance at the halftime show of a Thanksgiving Day football game in Texas, after which they’ll return to Iraq. Nearly the entire film takes place during the game, albeit with flashbacks and cutaways to outside events. No word yet on whether there’ll be a tiger in this one though… [ComingSoon]
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