Today in film news, we have our first official look at the upcoming Power Rangers reboot! Entertainment Weekly has revealed this new image of Elizabeth Banks as the film’s antagonist, Rita Repulsa. Banks, who has never played a villain before, says she’s excited to be an unpredictable character. Based on the popular '90s show, the movie also stars Dacre Montgomery, RJ Cyler, Naomi Scott, Becky G and Ludi Lin. It hits theaters in March 2017.
Willem Dafoe is making the switch from Marvel to DC. The actor, who played the Green Goblin in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films, has just been cast in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, according to The Hollywood Reporter. We don’t yet know who Dafoe might be playing, but he has apparently been cast as a good guy, not a villain. Snyder's latest superhero film hits theaters in 2017.
Remember that time The Martian, a movie about a man facing certain doom while left to die in space, won as a comedy at the Golden Globes? Well, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has decided to change its policy so a non-comedy can’t win in this category in future ceremonies. Under their new rules, the HFPA will require that dramas with comedy in them still be submitted as dramas, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Avatar 2 was originally scheduled to go up against Star Wars: Episode VIII, but James Cameron promises that these two franchises will never have to compete. Cameron told Famous Monsters of Filmland he had planned to release the Avatar sequels a year apart, but he will no longer be doing so as to avoid opening on the same date as a Star Wars movie. “That wouldn’t be fair to them,” he joked.
Director Joss Whedon’s feud with Marvel over Avengers: Age of Ultron was very public, but he now regrets giving the studio so much flak. Though Marvel insisted on the inclusion of some scenes that Whedon wasn’t happy with, like Thor’s cave sequence, Whedon said at the Tribeca Film Festival that he’s ultimately very proud of the movie, according to Deadline.
The first images from the upcoming Magnificent Seven remake have been unveiled via USA Today. They show virtually the entire cast in action: Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Byung-Hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Martin Sensmeier. This remake of the 1960 classic is directed by Antoine Fuqua (Southpaw) and written by Nic Pizzolatto (True Detective). Hopefully this can make up for the travesty that was True Detective's second season.
Daisy Ridley and J.J. Abrams are reuniting; after making her film debut in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ridley is in talks to star in Kolma, another fantasy project from J.J. Abrams’ studio Bad Robot, The Wrap reports. Based on the Israeli movie All I’ve Got, Kolma follows a 22-year-old woman who was in a car accident that results in her boyfriend’s death. Decades later, when the woman dies, she is given a choice: be reunited with her boyfriend in the afterlife or return to the day of the accident to live as a 22-year-old again. Marielle Heller (Diary of a Teenage Girl) is in talks to direct.
James Ponsoldt will be making a new movie about the rise of the music video revolution, according to Variety. Ponsoldt, director of The Spectacular Now, is in talks to helm an adaptation of the Craig Marks book I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution. The film will tell the story of MTV’s first 10 years and its journey from obscure network to cultural touchstone.
The upcoming comedy Office Christmas Party is growing more and more crowded. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sam Richardson (Veep), Vanessa Bayer (Saturday Night Live) and Courtney B. Vance (The People v. OJ Simpson) have all joined the cast. Directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck (Blades of Glory), Office Christmas Party follows a group of employees who hold a massive Christmas party in an attempt to impress a client and avoid having their branch shut down. It also stars Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston, Randall Park, Olivia Munn, Kate McKinnon and T.J. Miller.