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Billy Connolly Cast in The Hobbit

David Sztypuljak — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:20:16 +0000

Well, this is some rather cool news as everyone’s favourite Scottish Comedic legend has been announced to be joining Peter Jackson in New Zealand in The Hobbit! Connolly will play the role of Dain Ironfoot, a great dwarf warrior and cousin of Thorin Oakenshield.

According to Deadline:

They go on to say that with Connolly now cast in this role, casting is now complete and after the amazing first trailer for the first part of the 2-part saga, I cannot wait to see it!

Source: Deadline

New Art from Pixar’s Brave

David Sztypuljak — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:37:33 +0000

Our friends over at The Pixar Times have put up these rather lovely new images from Disney’s annual animation exhibit where they give sneak peaks into the art of their upcoming movies. At the event is this exhibit for Pixar’s new movie, Brave and as we’ve seen with pretty much everything released so far, it’s looking pretty great! The source of the images is BanksLee‘s twitter account via Stitch Kingdom who found them.

I simply love the moulds they have of the characters in the movie and as I said in a post recently on the John Carter concept art, the attention to details never ceases to amaze me!

Brave follows the story of Princess Merida voiced by Kelly Macdonald and has a cast which also includes Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Julie Walters, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson and Robbie Coltrane. This is one that we’re very excited about, especially as they’re bringing out so many great images for the movie.

Brave is set for release 13th August here in the UK. Click here for the rest of our coverage.

Click the images below to enlarge.

New Images From Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie And Pixar’s Brave

Kenji Lloyd — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:00:59 +0000

Over the course of the year, we’ve been seeing some terrific things from Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie and Pixar’s Brave, both of which will be getting their big-screen release in the year to come.

For Brave, we got our first look at the trailer back in the summer, and have seen plenty of other wonderful things from the film before and after that. And from Frankenweenie, we’ve most recently been treated to a handful of images, both official and from the set, in the past few months.

We’ve now got a new image from each of the films, courtesy of Stitch Kingdom via The Playlist, and they both look excellent.

Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie is a remake of his own 1984 short film of the same name, and the images we’ve seen so far have been very impressive. This new image shows us the lead character of Victor Frankenstein lying up in bed, looking down at his dog Sparky who’s set up shop beneath it.

With Pixar’s Brave, we similarly get an image of the lead character with Merida drawing back her bow, her sights clearly and determinedly set on something.

The attention to detail in both of the images is of course impressive, and you’d expect nothing less from the likes of Tim Burton and Pixar. Both films are being distributed by Disney (which is no doubt why we’re getting them together), and both will be released in 3D. Brave will be the first one out the gate next year on 17^th August here in the UK, followed a few months later by Frankenweenie on 5^th October. Without further ado, here are the terrific new images. As usual, click to enlarge.

Wonderful New Trailer for Pixar’s Brave

Jon Lyus — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:02:18 +0000

Anything new from Pixar is guaranteed to be worth watching but this new trailer for their forthcoming film Brave is just a joy to behold.

There’s an excellent cast lending their voices to the film with Princess Merida voiced by Kelly Macdonald with Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Julie Walters, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson and Robbie Coltrane along for the ride.

Here’s a synopsis to tickle your fancy and look below for the new trailer,

The trailer comes to us from the film’s Facebook page.

Disney Pixar Release New Fantastic Images from Brave

David Sztypuljak — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:16:19 +0000

It’s all go here today at HeyUGuys HQ! It’s been trailer-tastic with The Hunger Games, Carnage, The Iron Lady and Pixar have even given us the first clip from their new Toy Story Short, Small Fry but they are the studio that just keep on giving as now we have some new images from their new Feature Length Animation, Brave.

Brave which we can expect to see 17th August 2012 (2 months after the US – BOOOOO!)

Pixar’s Brave Gets An Updated Full Synopsis

David Sztypuljak — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 17:00:17 +0000

We’re slowly getting to see more from Pixar’s movie, Brave with our friends from PixarPlanet.comproviding us with this new full length synopsis. Brave follows the story of Princess Merida voiced by Kelly Macdonald and has a cast which also includes Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Julie Walters, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson and Robbie Coltrane. This is one that we’re very excited about, especially as they’re bringing out so many great images for the movie.

Brave which we can expect to see 17th August 2012.

If you’ve missed our coverage including the first teaser trailer, you can check it all out here.

Beautiful Trailer for Pixar’s Brave Released

Jon Lyus — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:47:22 +0000

With news that Cars 2 has done the good business Disney Pixar hoped it would, taking the Number One spot in the US box office last weekend, and Tom Hanks’ startling revealation that Toy Story 4 is already underway over at Emeryville the timing of this new trailer couldn’t have been better.

In what an arena increasingly populated with prequels and sequels (Monsters University is another forthcoming Pixar film) the arrival of the trailer for Brave follows on from some intriguing sneak peeks last week and it acts perfectly well as a teaser for what appears to be a very dark fairy tale, complete with both a Bear and a Bow.

Can’t wait.

Here’s the trailer

IFRAME Embed for Youtube

First Official Image from Disney Pixar’s Brave

David Sztypuljak — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 23:55:47 +0000

It’s been a non-stop day today (and we’re only 55 minutes in!) Not 10 seconds after put up the brand new trailer for Captain America and only a few hours after the first official images from The Hobbit, we have the first official image from Disney Pixar’s new movie Brave.

The image comes our friends at Stitch Kingdom and gives us our first rendered look at Princess Merida voiced by Kelly Macdonald. The rest of the cast includes Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Julie Walters, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson and Robbie Coltrane. This is one that we’re very excited about, especially as they’re bringing out so many great images for the movie. This one below may be the first official image but yesterday, Disney released the first poster for the film and today, we also get the official website.

Brave which we can expect to see 17th August 2012.

Keep track of Brave on Facebook.

Click the image below to view it in all it’s high resolution glory!

New Character Designs for Pixar’s Brave Appear

Jon Lyus — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:37:02 +0000

We’ve only just had our first real look at Pixar’s Brave with the unveiling of the poster yesterday and now we’ve got an eyeful of the gorgeous character designs for Mark Andrew’s debut feature.

The four images below are of Lord Macintosh (Craig Ferguson), the delightly twisted face of The Wise Woman (Blackadder fans fill in your own punchline here) who is voiced by Julie Walters, the flame haired Princess Merida (Kelly MacDonald) and finally we have Emma Thompson’s character Queen Elinor. Sadly we have to wait until the 17th of August next year to see this one come together.

Here are the images,

IMAGES NOW REMOVED AT THE REQUEST OF THE STUDIO

Keep track of Brave on Facebook.

These came from The Pixar Blog via Bleeding Cool.

Disney Pixar’s ‘Brave’ Gets a Teaser Poster

David Sztypuljak — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 11:41:47 +0000

Disney Pixar’s have just sent us the brand new teaser poster for their new movie, Brave which we can expect to see 17th August 2012.

Brave has a voice cast which includes Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Julie Walters, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson and Robbie Coltrane.

This poster comes from someone who spotted the poster in their cinema and had the good mind to snap it!

Keep track of Brave on Facebook.

Click it to make it grow!

Another New Concept Image from Brave

David Sztypuljak — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:30:02 +0000

Following on from the three new images that Disney Pixar released last week for Brave, we have another here along with those previous ones now in high resolution courtesy of Disney!

Brave has a voice cast which includes Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Julie Walters, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson and Robbie Coltrane. We can expect it to hit our cinema screens August 17th 2012 – so far away!!

Reese Witherspoon was originally going to play the lead role but as we said in the previous post, this is no longer the case and Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald will now fill the role as Merida.

The First Look at Pixar’s 13th Feature – Brave

David Sztypuljak — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:15:43 +0000

Here’s a nice treat for a Monday! Entertainment Weekly have been given the honour of debuting the first look at Disney Pixar’s 13th full-length feature , Brave. The movie was previously titled The Bear and Bow and has gone through a bit of a problematic ride after changing director, Brenda Chapman to Mark Andrews late last year although Chapman is still co-directing.

Brave has a voice cast which includes , Emma Thompson, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane, Emma Thompson and Billy Connolly. We can expect it to hit our cinema screens August 17th 2012 so a while to wait I’m afraid!

Reese Witherspoon was originally going to play the lead role but EW confirm that this is no longer the case and Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald will now fill the role as Merida.

Rather like these new concept images but then, if it has the word Pixar written on it, I’m sold!

Gulliver’s Travels Video Interview – Emily Blunt

Jon Lyus — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 15:00:59 +0000

Rob Letterman’s big screen adaptation of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is out in UK cinemas on the 26th of December and we had the chance to sit down with the director and cast to get their take on this larger than life tale.

We spoke to one of the most luminescent stars in our sky at the moment, Emily Blunt on her role in Gulliver’s Travels and what it was like working with Jack Black and the array of British talent which included Catherine Tate, Billy Connolly, James Corden and Chris O’Dowd.

Check out our interviews with Billy Connolly and director Rob Letterman and you can see our review of the film here.

Interviewer: Hilary Oliver

Gulliver’s Travels Review

Jon Lyus — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 14:00:22 +0000

Updating the tales of Lemuel Gulliver to an age of iPhones, Guitar Hero and internet plagiarism is all well and good and as a frame on which to hang another virtuoso ‘Jack Black as Jack Black’ performance it should provide a broad enough base for an enjoyable, engaging comedy. It doesn’t.

Black plays a postal room worker in a publishing house who begins the film by being overlooked for a managerial position in favour of an employee on his first day and decides to change his life, and win the heart of Amanda Peet’s Travel Editor by applying for a travel writer’s position. One night of cribbing from the Time Out and Lonely Planet websites and he gets his first assignment – to investigate the Bermuda Triangle and so we are on our way.

A fancy visual effect later and Gulliver wakes to find himself on a mysterious island, tied down by an army of tiny people. From this point on two things happen: any meaningful connection to Jonathan Swift’s novel is lost and Jack Black leads an almost inexplicable collision of pantomime and pop culture with few redeeming features.

Arriving in Lilliput Black wins over the King and Queen (Billy Connolly and Catherine Tate) and their daughter (Emily Blunt) but immediately enrages the captain of the guard, and the Princess’s fiance, played by Chris O’Dowd. With Jason Segel appearing as a man imprisoned for falling in love with the Princess you can easily guess how this one plays out, but people have made great things with far less. How does Gulliver’s Travels fare?

What script there is exists to pepper a staggering level of platitudinous bilge into an idea of Swift’s tale without any kind of worth or weight to it; logic is stomped underfoot as the narrative lurches from one point to the next without warning. It’s an uneven journey we are on together and while the visual effects are diverting the script is woefully uninspired; both your face and your palm will be numb by the end of the film.

Any trace of satire is swept away in favour of a barrage of pop culture references (as opposed to jokes) and Gulliver’s Travels becomes a strange live action version of a Shrek film. The sharp blade of Swift’s wit is blunted repeatedly by an overriding crassness, it consoles itself with drenching Billy Connolly in a jet stream of urine and inserting trailer friendly moments with Jack Black using the Lilliputians as foosball players, or daubing them in Kiss makeup for a real life version of Guitar Hero – all of these ideas are fine, but never amount to anything other than a slap around the face for the audience members who may have dozed off while the film plays out.

Amanda Peet appears as Gulliver’s unattainable love interest and is typically charming, given that she’s asked to do very little here other than be the focus of Gulliver’s affections, play angry at the plagiarism element, then arrives in Lilliput (don’t ask) to need rescuing and finally watch as Gulliver believes in himself and overcomes an enormous evil robot. Like Blunt, Connolly and Tate she is given so little room to move and is criminally underused.

Enlisting some one of the finest British comic talent to accompany Mr. Black on his adventure should provide a decent comedic front to balance the wild yahooing of Black’s Gulliver and Blunt and O’Dowd do very well with the material, with O’Dowd in particular standing out from the crowd, adding a dash of Python to his Pantomime, but it is of little consequence as he is forced into a Wallace and Gromit-esque robot by journey’s end.

Emily Blunt’s character is drawn from the richest variety of pantomime with mood swings like a pendulum in a hurricane, her princess glides through the motions with a few good comedy moments and Jason Segel, playing her lovestruck admirer, was perhaps the only genuinely affecting performance in the whole shebang.

On the plus side Blenheim Palace looks very pretty.

I believe the intentions of Rob Letterman and the writers Nicholas Stoller and Joe Stillman were good, but this particular road to hell is a massively uneven one, with misstep after misstep and at the end all we have is an inexplicable song and dance number. There is no definitive adaptation of Swift’s classic novel and while a family-friendly comedy starring Jack Black was never going to delve into the satirical depths of the source material there’s no excuse for this comedy wasteland. The film aims low and fails to meet its potential at every turn. It could have been a lot of fun, but the good time the cast were having on set failed to make the journey back from Lilliput.

*½~~~ (1.5/5)

Gulliver’s Travels in out in the UK on Boxing Day.

Gulliver’s Travels Video Interview – Rob Letterman

Jon Lyus — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 15:00:13 +0000

Director Rob Letterman is the man behind Monsters Vs. Aliens and Shark Tale and he steps into live action to direct (or rather contain) Jack Black as he runs riot over Lilliput with Emily Blunt, Amanda Peet, Catherine Tate, Billy Connolly, James Corden and Chris O’Dowd in support.

Check out our interviews with Billy Connolly and Emily Blunt on Friday and you can see our review of the film tomorrow.

Gulliver’s Travels Video Interview – Billy Connolly

Jon Lyus — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:00:12 +0000

Billy Connolly is one of the most celebrated comedians alive today and his role as King of the Lilliputians alongside Catherine Tate, James Corden, Chris O’Dowd and Emily Blunt is his latest role in a nicely eclectic filmograpy which takes in The Last Samurai, a role in the recent X-Files film and the two Boondock Saints films.

We sat down with the man to talk about working on this classic tale. Check out our interviews with Emily Blunt tomorrow and director Rob Letterman on Wednesday and you can see our review of the film on the site this Thursday.

Inerviewer: Hilary Oliver

A TV Spot and Two Posters from Gulliver’s Travels

Jon Lyus — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 09:00:08 +0000

Rob Letterman’s 3D update of the Jonathan Swift novel Gulliver’s Travels is almost upon us and to further stoke the fires on anticipation caused by a multitude of posters and trailers I’m very happy to sate your desire for more outsized Jack Black with a new TV spot and a couple of posters.

I saw the film last week and am wedged under a heavy embargo so cannot tell you any more about what I thought until late December but there will be the interview I did with the director up on the site around the same time so you can hear what he has to say for himself.

The new TV spot is full of exactly the Jack Blackisms that will sell the film and the supporting cast, which is considerable, are on show as well, with Billy Connolly and Emily Blunt among the little people.

Here’s the TV spot, noticed by the /Film guys,

And now we move onto the posters, which take Photoshop down to a whole new level – seriously, look at Jack Black’s head in the second one. Man…

The posters both come from IMPA

New International Trailer for Jack Black’s Gulliver’s Travels

David Sztypuljak — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 17:27:41 +0000

Twentieth Century Fox have released a brand new International trailer for their new movie, Gulliver’s Travels which stars Jack Black, Amanda Peet, Catherine Tate, Emily Blunt, Billy Connolly, Jason Segel, Chris O’Dowd, T.J. Miller and was shot right here in England at Pinewood Studios.

The movie is directed by Rob Letterman and will be in 3D. Fox have also confirmed that the movie will be released on Boxing Day in the UK, 26th December.

Disney Pixar’s ‘Brave’ gets a Teaser Logo

David Sztypuljak — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:30:41 +0000

Here’s some rather nice news for the afternoon. Disney Pixar have revealed the logo for their new animation, Brave on their official Facebook page for the movie. Brave isn’t hitting US cinemas until 15th June 2012 so there’s still rather a long time to wait I’m afraid but after Newt got canned by the animation powerhouse, it’s great to see that Brave is still well on the way to hitting cinemas.

Brave was previously called The Bear and the Bow, but it’s name is now firmly fixed as Brave. The movie is directed Brenda Chapman (the first woman to helm a Pixar movie) and and will feature a voice cast which includes Reese Witherspoon, Kevin McKidd, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson and Julie Walters. It’s great to see that such a strong British contingent will feature.

More info on this movie as we get it.

New Image from Gulliver’s Travels

David Sztypuljak — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 03:00:03 +0000

MTV have gifted the world with 28 new images for movies that are coming up over the next few months. In a series of posts over the next few hours, I’m going to be putting up the image(s) and giving you a low-down on the cast, the synopsis and the release date (if there is one). If you want to see all the other posts in this series, click here.

This new image comes from Jack Black’s new movie, Gulliver’s Travels which I cannot wait to see. It looks completely nuts and i’m hoping will prove a real hit! It also stars Amanda Peet, Catherine Tate, Emily Blunt, Billy Connolly, Jason Segel, Chris O’Dowd, T.J. Miller and is directed by Rob Letterman.

It’s scheduled for release in the UK 26th December and was filmed at Pinewood Studios.