We’ve got the latest on Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: The Force Awakens in today’s Movie Morsels, along with casting news for Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Luc Besson‘s next sci-fi epic, a new Hunger Games: Mockingjay–Part 2 TV spot, the trailer for Dirty Grandpa, and more!
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
While J.J. Abrams still guards his films’ secrets, it’s clear that the director wants to mitigate any false expectations fans might have for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. So for the second time in as many days, we have the director discussing “The Case of the Missing Skywalker” (a.k.a. the official poster’s lack of Luke). Addressing the theories running around the internet that our favorite Jedi may have turned to the Dark Side, and is perhaps Kylo Ren. Abrams remarks:
“I saw that too, I’m always interested in seeing people’s theories. What’ll be cool when people finally see the movie and see what it really is. Hopefully some people will say, ‘I was right,’ other people will be like, ‘All right! You want people to be debating things even before the movie comes out, it’s a dream!'”
Dream or not, Star Wars: The Force Awakens–starring Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Max von Sydow–opens in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D on December 18, 2015.
Here’s the video interview with Abrams’ comments.
[ExtraTV]
Guardians of the Galaxy 2
And the latest actor to join the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is French star Pom Klementieff, best known here in the States for her role in Spike Lee’s Oldboy remake.
It’s not yet known who Klementieff will play, but she will join Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, and Vin Diesel in director James Gunn’s sequel, due out on May 5, 2017. The film begins shooting in early 2016.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay–Part 2
We’ve got the latest TV spot for the fourth and final Hunger Games film, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Donald Sutherland. Directed by Francis Lawrence, the film arrives on November 20 in 2D, 3D, IMAX 3D and RealD Cinema.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Director Luc Besson’s films are known for their idiosyncratic casting (love it or hate it, Chris Tucker’s performance in The Fifth Element is still one of the batshit craziest in mainstream cinema), and it looks like the action auteur will continue that tradition in his next sci-fi epic, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, based on the French comic series. No less a pop superstar than Rihanna (pictured above in her best known film role in Battleship) has just signed on for the production. She’ll join Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne in the July 21, 2017 release.
Pitch Perfect 3
While Pitch Perfect 2 wasn’t quite the favorite that its predecessor was, Universal is happy enough with its performance to reenlist director Elizabeth Banks to helm Pitch Perfect 3. The sequel hits theaters on August 4, 2017.
[Variety]
Dirty Grandpa
Finally today, it’s the (non-embeddable) trailer for the Robert De Niro and Zac Efron-starring raunchfest Dirty Grandpa. Thanks to co-star Aubrey Plaza, it actually looks pretty damn funny. Dirty Grandpa lands on January 22, 2016. Check it out on Buzzfeed.
[Facebook]
Images: Disney, Dark Horse, Lionsgate, Universal
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