Movies

Whenever I see any of the Pirates 4 previews I think a few things. 1....how a spicy character like Captain Jack Sparrow is best used...

Superman casting rumors were heating up this week and now it's final: English actor Henry Cavill will play the Man of Steel in the Zack Snyder reboot. Cavill, 28, is not a big name here -- he's currently starring inThe Tudors -- but he was previously considered for both Batman and James Bond, so obviously studios have had their eye on him for a while. According to Deadline:

Variety confirms that everyone's favorite orphan is getting a reboot courtesy if Will Smith's production company, with daughter Willow Smith set to star. Smith's production company is teaming with Jay-Z to form a new movie-making joint venture and ANNIE is on the list.

Geoff Boucher got to ramble around the X-MEN: FIRST CLASS set yesterday, and hear about Matthew Vaughn's anxiety about getting it finished, and James...

A few set photos floating around this afternoon are of interest for various reasons. ¶ A fan on the street snapped a shot of a...

Despite reviews which ranged from pleasantly amused to fuming accusations of being one of the worst movies of all time, GREEN HORNET managed to lead at the box office with $40.5 million over the four-day holiday. That was doubtless inflated by the 3D conversion, so, sadly, studios will keep doing it and keep making movies less watchable.

Poor Emma Stone. As lovely and charming as she is, she did not know that by answering some nerdy question on the red carpet she was stepping into a hotbed of fannish research. While everyone went all Zapruder inspecting the bulges on Andrew Garfield's wrists in the recently released look at him in Spider-garb, she innocently answered the burning question:

He's done launching social networks, and has moved on to climbing walls. The first photo of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man has been released; he...

This grainy scan from tomorrow's EW is running around the internet. We smell something, and it smells like THE ROCKETEER.

We caught a screening of GREEN HORNET last night, and despite all the dire forebodings of a superhero movie starring Seth Rogen , it was charming, very funny and worthy of repeated viewings. As I tweeted last night, the mix of Rogen, director Michel Gondry and scripters Rogen and Evan Goldberg (SUPERBAD) should have aroused no worry whatsoever as long as they were allowed to play to their considerable strengths -- which mostly involve comedy. And in fact GREEN HORNET is an action comedy -- quite goofy in spots, visually inventive in others but always putting its characters first. It has the deliberately awkward mise en scene of all Gondry films, but way more propulsive action.

So, as happens frequently in America, we treat History like a Cassandra, reading and studying, but choosing not to believe or remember the lessons it teaches us. I know Cassandra's fate, and thus the dangers of saying "I told you so". So instead, I'll quote Gene Wilder in " Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory": Oh, you should never ever doubt what nobody is sure about. So, what can we expect in 2011?

Our thoughts? Man, this looks like a Marvel movie. Same blue/grey/tech, same sinister doctors/feds, same heroine helping the hero find his place/use his powers in the world.