When word came earlier this month that rising young star Hailee Steinfeld would be joining Asa Butterfield for the upcoming sci-fi film Ender’s Game, there were also rumours that none other than Harrison Ford was talks for a leading role.

It now looks like those rumours were well-informed, with Variety reporting that both Harrison Ford and Abigail Breslin are joining Butterfield and Steinfeld as leads in the film.

“Set in Earth’s utopian future, “Ender’s Game” stars Asa Butterfield (“Hugo”) as a genius strategist recruited by the government to help destroy an insect-like alien race.”

And with the additional casting news comes information on the roles that Ford, Breslin, and Steinfeld are taking:

“Ford will play Colonel Hyram Graff, who’s in charge of training young military recruits. Breslin will play Valentine Wiggin, Ender’s older sister, while Steinfeld plays Petra Arkanian, Ender’s trusted right hand.”

Sounds pretty awesome to me. Though I’m still yet to see Butterfield in anything, I’ve heard good things about his performances to date, and it’s not everyday you hear about strong performances from a child actor, so that’s a good sign in my books. Breslin was of course excellent in Little Miss Sunshine, and can currently be seen on the big screen in New Year’s Eve (which she was good in, though she and her friends were given far too much make-up to wear, if you ask me). Ford, whose best known roles include a healthy dose of sci-fi films, was last seen in Cowboys & Aliens for Jon Favreau, and he’ll naturally undoubtedly play a great mentor to the younger characters.

Gavin Hood, whose credits include X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Tsotsi, and Rendition, will be directing from his own screenplay, based on Orson Scott Card’s original novel (is it just me, or is his name awesome?), with production set to begin early next year in New Orleans, and a release date scheduled for 29^th March, 2013. This is definitely one to keep your eye on, and you can be sure we’ll be keeping you updated as and when there’s more news to tell.

This summer’s movie event becomes the Christmas holidays must-own Blu-ray^™ and DVD as a lone gunslinger leads an uprising against an alien threat in the explosive, stunningly-imagined film, Cowboys & Aliens.  To celebrate, we’ve teamed up with Paramount Home Entertainment to giveaway a copy of the movie on DVD to three lucky winners!

A blazingly original, cross-genre adventure from acclaimed director Jon Favreau, Cowboys & Aliens features heart-pumping action, spectacular visuals and a first-rate cast. Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford headline as adversaries obliged to join forces against a terrifying enemy, with a supporting cast that includes Olivia Wilde and Sam Rockwell.

Arriving in stores on 26 December from Paramount Home Entertainment, the Blu-ray^™ Triple Play and DVD editions of Cowboys & Aliens bring all of the thrills and fun home. Available to pre-order now here.

To be in with a chance of winning the movie on DVD, simply answer the following question using the form below then click here to see our other competitions:

Who directed the movie Cowboys and Aliens?

Competition now closed.

The small print:

• Open to UK residents only
• Only one entry per household will be counted
• The competition will close 26th December at 23.59 GMT
• The winner will be picked at random from entries received
• No cash alternative is available

The usual T&Cs can be found here. Good Luck!

Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) has signed on to star in Summit Entertainment’s Ender’s Game.

Steinfeld will feature opposite Asa Butterfield (Hugo) in the sci-fi action-thriller. Harrison Ford (Blade Runner) is also said to be in talks for a potential lead role.

Based on Orson Scott Card’s novel of the same name, Ender’s Game centers on an unusually talented child whose sent to an advanced military school in space as preparation for a future invasion.

Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) is attached to direct his own adapted screenplay.

Ender’s Game is currently scheduled for release on March 29, 2013.

Source: Variety

Spielberg’s been out of the director’s chair for a little while (since Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls) but is making up for lost time by putting out action-adventure spectacle (Tintin) and serious drama (War Horse) in short succession. It’s like 1993 all over again.

In honour of Spielberg returning to action, here are six of his best.

They are in no particular order and other opinions are available (please share yours in the comments section):-

1. Jaws

As with each film on this list, there is an insurmountable challenge in trying to find something new to say and so it eventually comes down to simply restating what anyone with half a mind already knows to be true, namely that Jaws is one of the finest films of this or any decade, genre or director.

A masterclass in atmosphere-building, working with limited resources and almost debilitating technical problems, Spielberg crafted a film of almost peerless tension, thrills and technical virtuosity. It is difficult to distil its high-points to a manageable few, but the appearance of the shark (nick-named Bruce after Spielberg’s lawyer, a name echoed in Nemo years later) as Roy Scheider chums the waters (“you’re gonna need a bigger boat”), the body popping out of the boat as Richard Dreyfus dives down to a wreck, John Williams’ matchless score as we witness the first strike on a skinny-dipper, the focus pull / dolly zoom on Scheider as he sits on the beach and sees the kid disappear in a plume of crimson and Quint’s fingernails on the blackboard all resonate to this day.

It’s been years since I last watched it, but it never ceases to feel fresh on each repeat viewing. Despite unimaginable leaps and bounds in special effects, Bruce remains an effective and affecting antagonist, even with the afore-mentioned technical difficulties. Although in many ways it is as impersonal and relentless as the truck driver in Duel (the film in Spielberg’s cannon to which this bears closest resemblance), it doesn’t feel as mechanical as a villain without a human face might be expected to be. My 11 year-old son, raised on a steady diet of far superior special-effects and model work has seen Jaws a few times now and he loves it too.

Consider it whole-heartedly recommended by both of us.

2. Raiders of the Lost Ark

Everyone knows the back-story, indeed the Indy series has already been the subject of a Video Vault special on this very site. Spielberg and Lucas, blah-blah, TV serials and cliff-hangers, blah-blah, James Bond, blah-blah. Enough. This is, quite simply, the finest action adventure film ever made.

Others tried to follow in its footsteps with such varied results as Romancing the Stone, King Solomon’s Mines and The Goonies, but nothing comes close. It is impossible to fault the film at any turn. The script is laced with witty one-liners, deft and light exposition and expert myth-building. The set pieces (snakes in the Well of Souls, the truck chase, the South American booby-trap prologue, the face-melting finale) are energetic and thrilling but threaded effortlessly into the narrative, avoiding so much of the stop-start and narrative/geographic incoherence that besets and bests so many modern action films. Harrison Ford has arguably never been better, even as Han Solo and certainly the rest of the cast have never come close to matching these exalted heights.

More fun than any film about Nazis and dusty archeological relics has any right to be, depending on which of Spielberg’s films you have seen most recently, this is likely to be one of your favourites. Simply brilliant.

3. Jurassic Park

Quite how Spielberg managed to avoid getting bogged down, making this and Schindler’s List in parallel, is astounding. In all the ways that Schindler’s List is, quite rightly (and commendably), heavy, serious and deliberate, Jurassic Park is light, lively and entertaining. As ILM had developed the CGI work from Terminator 2 to the point where dinosaurs could be believably rendered and as Stan Winston knew he could deliver believable and dexterous large and small animatronic models, so Spielberg welded his usual technical ability to a story that was both thrilling and intellectually engaging. Although Jeff Goldblum’s considered warnings about the dangers of playing God are quite fleeting in their time on-screen, they nonetheless provide an invaluable over-arching ethical context for the ensuing adventure ride.

The successive sequels (evidence of the law of diminishing returns, if ever it was needed) laid on more dinosaurs and more special effects, but it is this original that remains the most exciting, the most deftly directed, the most narratively propulsive. Holding off with the T-Rex until well into the welcomely brisk running time and giving the raptors their moment too, Spielberg brings all of the elements together perfectly and just compare the CGI-rendering of the dinosaurs to (say) Weta’s work on King Kong. The extent to which the seamless work of ILM has stood the test of time bears testimony to just how far ahead of the curve it was in 1993.

Everything has weight, texture, even personality and it is this that makes the set-pieces work as well as they do – the T-Rex chasing the protagonists through the trees, the raptors in the kitchen, the attack on the hapless Wayne Knight, the lawyer on the toilet. It is thrilling and compelling in every way from beginning to end and after the relatively below-par Spielberg efforts of Always and Hook, an utterly welcome return to form.

4. Schindler’s List

Schindler’s List was famously the project that Spielberg had known about for years but did not feel ready to make until the early 90′s. He had tried to get Roman Polanski to make it, but it felt to close to the nerve for him (though he would eventually channel his own experiences through The Pianist) and so it waited until Spielberg was ready.

Clearly it was worth the wait. Although it is easy to simply batch together a number of Spielberg’s efforts into his “serious” films as opposed to his popcorn entertainment (Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, Empire of the Sun and Munich would accompany Schindler on such a List), Schindler’s List stands head and shoulders above even such exalted company.

On its release on video, one bus stop advert simply quoted a review from the time, “quite simply one of the greatest films ever made”. It is as true now as it was then. Yes, Spielberg could be accused of lapsing into sentimentality for Schindler’s final collapse against his car as the Allies approach, but that is churlish in the extreme. There are sequences of Schindler’s List that are so unflinchingly, unforgivingly and harrowingly shot that it is all you can do to not sob uncontrollably for much of the running time. Liam Neeson was perfectly cast as the conflicted and undoubtedly opportunistic Schindler, but all the plaudits were rightly taken by Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth, a monster of a man, capricious, cruel and likely psychopathic, shooting Jews with a sniper rifle from his balcony as if he were merely on a morning stroll.

The first sight of a little girl, hiding from the Warsaw extermination, her red coat deliberately sticking out against the monochrome stock of the rest of the film at first seems like an almost unpardonable gesture of optimism and sentimentality, until we catch sight of that same coat on a conveyor belt, body after body being carried to an incinerator after having been exhumed. What looks for all the world like a beautiful winter snow-storm turns out to be a blanket of ash, blown from the fires of extermination camps. We breathe a sigh of relief as Schindler’s Jews are rescued from Auschwitz and herded back onto their train, only for the camera to pan over to another queue of Jews, headed down into a basement below a chimney that it blowing endless clouds of smoke and ash into the cold night sky. We see industrious children finding hiding places, only to have the wind knocked out of us as those hiding places are revealed to be faeces-filled pit latrines. We tense up as we watch Ben Kingsley’s Itzhak Stern walk across a compound while Goeth takes pot-shots and the camera follows Stern as in the background we see the prostrate forms of those not so fortunate. Blood pumps from skulls, lives and bodies shattered by bullets shot at point-blank range.

What is perhaps most incredible is that amidst such harrowing incidents and details, Spielberg is able to avoid getting bogged down in the bleakness of it all. Yes, of course, a film about the Holocaust was never going to be a laugh riot, but the subject matter is so disturbing, so traumatic, that the occasional moments of levity are an essential respite and it is to Spielberg’s eternal credit that the finished film does not feel tonally inconsistent or abrupt. A quip from Schindler (“if this factory ever produces a shell that can actually be fired, I’ll be very unhappy”), the cathartic release of a seeming gas chamber turning out to be a shower, these interludes, however brief, mercifully leaven an otherwise unmanageable meal. But we must take it and this is why Spielberg had to make the film real but accessible. It is an unenviable task and a seemingly insurmountable one, but he succeeds and we are all the richer for it. An incredible story, imperiously and impeccably told and unchallenged by anything else Spielberg has made before or since.

5. Minority Report

Spielberg came to Minority Report off the back of a relatively “serious” patch, comprising Amistad, Saving Private Ryan and the austere and cold AI:Artificial Intelligence. Tom Cruise was in the middle of an incomparably successful period, having notched up Jerry Maguire, two Missions Impossible, Vanilla Sky and Magnolia in the previous years, before moving on to The Last Samurai, Collateral, War of the Worlds and more Impossible Missioning. It was really one of those seemingly obvious and inevitable joint ventures of stratospheric star and peerless director that made you wonder, “how come this hasn’t happened already?” The end product is a fascinating melding of chase movie, crime drama, sci-fi thriller and philosophical treatise that is arguably as close as Spielberg had come to perfection since his 1993 double whammy almost a decade earlier.

Although Spielberg resolutely refuses to hem in or pin down interpretations of his films through DVD commentaries, the making-of content on Minority Report is thoroughly considered and thought-provoking stuff, with the metaphysical elements (prosecuting someone for something they are destined to do, but have not yet done) having remained at the front of Spielberg’s mind throughout and finding their way front and centre in the final screenplay. Set-pieces such as the scrap with federal agents at the Lexus factory (has Colin Farrell come close to being this good since?), the alleyway run-in with jet-pack wearing Pre-Crime agents, the opening finding and arresting of a murder “suspect” and the escape from the shopping mall with the help of Agatha’s foresight are breathless, with special effects used in the advancing of the story rather than showing off and the silvery-blue cinematography proving evocative rather than distracting.

Were it not for the now inevitable (but nonetheless infuriating) Spielbergian sentimental coda, this could have given Raiders, Jurassic Park and Jaws a literal run for their money in the “which is Spielberg’s best action film” stakes. As it is, his insistence on wrapping it all up with a bow rather takes the shine off what might have otherwise been a sensational film rather than a merely excellent one.

6. Munich

At last, Spielberg seemed to have found a way of telling a serious and compelling story without spiralling into sentimentality at the last. Whether War Horse or Lincoln will be able to show that Spielberg can pull it off more than once remains to be seen. Munich is unlike anything else in Spielberg’s oeuvre.

All of the polish is gone and what we are left with is something gritty, bleak and savage. Consider two stand-out moments. Firstly, Eric Bana’s Avner reuniting with his wife and their desperate, frantic love-making. Avner is clearly somewhere else entirely and the scene plays out as one of a man in utter turmoil, having become someone, something else entirely. Secondly, there is the almost unwatchably personal and frank assassination (murder?) of a female target, shot repeatedly with makeshift weapons in necessarily close-up detail. Spielberg’s point is clear – these are not meaningless Arnie killings, dozens of faceless “baddies” mowed down by machine gun fire. These are people, on both sides, and the killings carry grave and enduring consequences for everyone, as personal vengeance becomes mingled in with the overall mission.

Once again, the cinematography is perfect, a multitude of muddy shades and grainy stocks effortlessly evoking time and space. The tension of the build-up to the assorted hits is superbly crafted, ratcheting the pressure to almost unbearable levels, though Spielberg has the presence of mind (as he did with Schindler’s List) to sweeten the pill with a few welcome lighter moments, that we might be able to digest his more important, over-arching themes. Eric Bana has the most heavy lifting to do, acting-wise as he conveys the sense of a man honouring his sense of duty and national identity, but losing himself and his soul in the process. He presents us with a compelling portrayal of a man who has lost everything in his efforts to do that which he is assured is “right”. But right and wrong have become utterly and helplessly blurred, not by way of a cop-out from Spielberg, but simply because a hopelessly fraught and complicated historical situation has created a world where there is no black and white, only greys.

It is in the finale that perhaps the greatest and most important gut-punch is found. Avner speaks with Geoffrey Rush’s case officer in New York and in the background stand the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. Of course nothing is said regarding them and the inclusion of them is subtle, but the point is clear. Though the events portrayed are rooted in slightly more distant history, the themes and issues could not be more relevant, more resonant for us today. A formidable piece of work from a director who seems able to continue to stretch himself.

Reviewing this box set when it is out in stores and in all probability snapped up by eager Star Wars fans seems a little unnecessary. The promise of a shiny high def transfer and the long awaited deleted scenes from the Original Trilogy conspire to tempt you to part with your cash once more, to enjoy the long time ago all over again.

But there’s a problem. A wave of negative reaction to some of the changes made by Lucas for this box set became clear a few weeks prior to the release as rumours of some important scenes ruined by needless additions and more handy work by the CG Replacement Bureau. Then video clips were uploaded to confirm the changes and boycotts were threatened and those unhappy with the Special Editions and 2004 DVD ‘improvements’ found new voice and dusted off their VHS copies and chided those who had their pre-orders booked.

So, who’s right? Are the changes too much for those who loved the originals, or is the HD transfer and wealth of extras enough to make the purchase worthwhile? As with many things, both are right, from a certain point of view.

We’ve already looked back over the films this past week in our Video Vault series, so if you’re looking to find out more about Episodes I to VI then click here to read them; there is an assumption that you’re not going in totally blind here. If you’ve never seen the films at all and can spare the cash then this box set is an instant recommendation – just make sure you watch them in the order they were made, don’t be tempted to start your journey to the dark side and out again with The Phantom Menace.

The more pertinent question is perhaps asked of those who already own the DVD set (and probably the VHS copies as well): Do I need to buy this set too?

The HD transfer is most obvious in Episodes IV to VI, and what I found strange were the additions for the 1997 Special Editions and how they showed their age. The advancement of computer technology is so rapid and is  noticeable when some of the visual effects which impressed in the late nineties now look very out of place. The additions to Mos Eisley are not as polished as the 1977 footage, with some very messy compositing of the newer elements over the old and some problems with the focus in certain shots. It surprised me as the original footage looks incredibly sharp for the most part, occasionally there is a very muddy shot in between the crystal clear original footage which itself isn’t completely free from problems.

Looking on the positive side there are moments when I saw things I had never seen before, and I’ve watched these films a lot. In truth I’ve never seen the sparks that fly off the colliding lightsabers in the duel between Vader and Kenobi. At first it looks a little like CGI sweat and it may have always been in there but this was new to me. Obi-Wan Kenobi’s new scream to scare off the Sandpeople is a strange addition to those of us who have known the original but isn’t a huge offence overall. It was a genuine thrill to see the detail and the dirt of the first film in particular, not least in contrast to the clinical green-screenery of the prequels; the forests on the moon of Endor look lush and verdant and the ice planet of Hoth is so sharp you could shave a Wookie with it. The occasional transfer quirks aside this is the most beautiful version of the films we’ve seen and when I first saw the discs at the Big Screen event I was sold.

The additions will irk some, and infuriate others. I’m sure a lot of people may not even notice the newly CGI Yoda in The Phantom Menace or question Vader’s new, and controversial, cry of ‘Noooooooo.’ just before he saves Luke from the Emperor’s final attack, but you’ll know which applies to you. In all honesty the films remain some of the most exciting science fiction films we have and they have never looked better. I’d question the need to buy this new set if you already have the DVDs and aren’t too fussed about the HD, but as we’ll see there is a reason to keep your old copies around even if you do.

The menu system on the main discs are simple and won’t blow your mind but they are a vast improvement over those found on the three discs of extras which invite you to select a film, then a location (Tattooine, Hoth, Bespin etc) and then to select a category (interviews, deleted scenes etc) and then a further click to play them. It’s not fun to navigate this menu every time you want to see a particular special feature. The interviews to introduce each film’s extras are short and drawn from cast and crew and are a nice addition. The deleted scenes are a lot of fun, with the early scenes of Luke and Biggs on Tattooine being the most substantial. The scene with Han and a female companion in the Cantina is here, as is an extended scene in the land speeder with Luke and C3PO searching for R2D2 and while most of these have been seen before on various multimedia releases it’s good to have them all in one place.

What I alluded to earlier about keeping the DVDs handy is one of the more puzzling elements of this collection as the deleted scenes for the Prequel Trilogy do not include those found on the DVD releases. This is a strange omission and a real shame, nice though it is to see a brief cameo by Dominic West as a Naboo guard pushing over a defeated Battle Droid there were some substantial scenes excised from the original cut that would have fitted alongside the new scenes perfectly. Maybe there’s a definitive box set coming our way – maybe when the 3D version are put out…

When I was a kid the only way you could have Star Wars in your own home was as part of the documentaries made and televised at the time of release of the Original Trilogy films. These are included on the final disc of extras and proved a highlight for me as I was hit by a wave of nostalgia. Also included, and perhaps the most intriguing extra, on the disc was The Masters – a discussion of the making of The Empire Strikes Back with the late Irvin Kershner proving a wonderful guide through the difficult second movie.

So in the end I was won over by the new transfer and the decent, if limited, set of extras. If you have the DVDs and are annoyed at the constant tinkering by Lucas then be warned – this won’t light your saber. If you’re a fan and want to see Star Wars in the best way possible then the choice is clear. The galaxy far, far away has never looked better.

Paul Bradshaw completes the Original Trilogy Video Vault series.

Ah, those blinking Ewoks. A long time ago, 1983 to be exact, Return of the Jedi was loved by critics and fans alike. Grossing more than $475 million worldwide, opening to rave reviews and sell-out audiences, the then third and final chapter of George Lucas’s landmark space opera was lauded the ultimate Star Wars experience.

28 years, three prequels and two messy special editions later and Episode VI, as it’s now been officially rebranded, seems to have aged about as well as a bottle of vintage semi-skimmed milk. Yes, the military might of the Empire is brought to its knees by a handful of teddy bears. Yes, the coolest bounty hunter in the galaxy is given a spectacularly uncool death in the first fight. Yes, the ‘surprise’ sibling revelation adds all kinds of uncomfortable subtexts to the first two movies, and yes – it ends with a stupid singsong, but ROTJ remains the most satisfying, exciting and downright entertaining film of the series.

Coming as it does after the Saturday matinee fun of A New Hope and the moral ambiguities of The Empire Strikes Back, Richard Marquand’s epic finale borrows the best of both before sprawling over a massive 45-minute three-way battle that ends with cinema’s greatest showdown.

Continuing the mid-season serial opening of Episode IV and jumping over the cliff-hanger ending of Episode V, ROTJ throws us straight into a daring jailbreak. With Han Solo frozen solid and sold as a wall ornament to the ‘vile gangster’ Jabba the Hutt, Luke plans an audacious rescue using R2D2, and a reluctant C3PO, as bait. He might look a cross between an inside-out toad and something you find in a festival portaloo, but Jabba remains one of great characters of the Star Wars universe.

Described by Roger Ebert as a ‘Dickensian Cheshire Cat’, the scheming, smirking muppet re-interpretation of Sydney Greenstreet finally gives the boring desert planet of Tatooine a real personality. Lording it over his seedy court and feeding drunks and dancing girls to his pet Rancor, Jabba takes pleasure in being bad. After Empire’s brooding gloominess, Jedi wastes no time getting back to good old-fashioned swashbuckling adventure – giving us pit monsters, bikini-clad princesses and Errol Flynn style acrobatics on the plank of a pirate ship.

The thrilling opening salvo is the last time we see the whole gang working together, and the last time Lucas has any room for simple adventuring. Splitting up to fight the Empire on three fronts, Han and Leia head off to the forest, Lando starts prepping for another Death Star run and Luke gets ready to stand up to his Dad. Splitting the action between dogfights in space, swordfights in the Emperor’s throne room and guerrilla warfare on the ground, Marquand brings the series to a close with an almighty bang.

Of all the planets in the Star Wars galaxy, Endor is surely the most believable. It might look like it was filmed in the woods behind George’s house, but it also requires the least suspension of disbelief – and the least green screen work. Which brings us to the Ewok question. It’s unlikely that anyone who already had an issue with them is going to change their mind, literally, in the blink of an eye – but Lucas’s latest Blu-ray tinkering is an attempt to address what seems to have grown into a problem of Gungun sized proportions for long-time fans.

They might feature in the brilliant Kurosawa influenced speederbike chase and they might take down an AT-ST with a couple of ingeniously placed logs, but nothing can save them from the levels of hatred levied at their furry little butts from grownup audiences – or protect their dignity from the erupting cheers each time one of them catches a laser blast to the face. In retrospect, it’s all too easy to blame cynical marketing and unblinking eyes for something that seems to fit perfectly comfortably within Lucas’s expansive universe. No stranger, cuter or inauthentic than any of the other Star Wars creatures – the Ewoks are surely long overdue for a reprieve.

High above the treetops, the real battle is just getting started. The greatest gift the prequels gave us was repositioning Anakin as the central figure of the series. Finally forced to confront the darkness within, Vader’s final battle with his son is a fitting culmination to the whole saga – losing none of its power to the bolted on backstory of the recent chapters. The new movies might have spinning Yodas and double bladed lightsabers, but you can’t beat Jedi’s epic family faceoff for pure visceral emotion – the moment when Luke starts slamming away at his father’s hand with tears streaming down his face sends shivers down the spine every time. Ruined by the addition of a 6.1 DTS surround sound cheesy scream as he sacrifices himself for his son, Anakin’s greatest moment is undone with a single Blu-ray tweak.

Irreligious tampering aside, the closing scenes of ROTJ represent the very best of Star Wars. With alien creatures fighting robotic walkers, Lando hurtling through the Death Star, love amid the laser battles, Tie Fighters buzzing around X-Wings, Han being witty, Threepio being annoying, the Emperor being camp and Luke and Vader locked in combat – lit only by the glow of their lightsabers – it’s the climax to end all climaxes. Matched with the best of John Williams’s ambitious, multi-layered score and pitched at a level of frantic intensity never yet rivalled in a Hollywood blockbuster it feels, more than anything, like the perfect end to a perfect trilogy.

Forget the Ewoks. Let Boba Fett go. Return of the Jedi is still the ultimate Star Wars experience – Search your feelings, you know it to be true!

Truth be told, there are easier films to revisit than Empire. Not because it isn’t enjoyable to do so (the number of genuinely superior sci-fi films can probably just about be counted on the fingers of one hand), but because pretty much everything that can be said about it has been already. Thus, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel by finding something ground-breaking to say about Empire, I will simply sing its praises, as we all remind ourselves just how good it really is.

*****

We all know how elite a club Empire belongs to – that consisting of sequels that either measure up to or surpass their progenitors. Alien/Aliens, The Godfather Parts I & 2, Toy Story 1 & 2, X-Men, Blade, Spider-man, The Dark Knight. That’s a pretty impressive and select group to belong to. It goes without saying that Empire benefits massively from George Lucas’s commendable decision to hand over the writing and directing reins to others, leaving himself with no more than a “story by” credit.

Just as Harry Potter benefited from the shifts in tone permitted by the departure of the capable but workmanlike Chris Columbus after the first two instalments, so Irvin Kershner’s arrival (with due credit to writers Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett) ushered in an altogether darker, more grown-up approach to the material, resulting in a film not matched for quality by any other in the franchise and well deserving of its place alongside Alien, Blade Runner, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and so forth at the very apex of the genre.

The unprecedented and entirely unanticipated success of Star Wars (Spielberg had said it would make $100m, Alec Guinness had wisely opted for gross points, neither quite realised what was coming) afforded Lucas a lot more freedom and certainly a much bigger budget second time around. Although, as with all sequels, there was a loss of the novelty and originality enjoyed by the first instalment, Empire was very much its own creature tonally and narratively, yet with enough through-put of characters and mythology to enable it to feel familiar yet fresh.

What is it that really marks out Empire? Why is it so good? Let me count the ways…

1. Boba Fett, the coolest character in the entire Star Wars universe, features heavily

2. The AT-AT assault on Hoth is hugely impressive, a sensational opening for the film, throwing us straight into the action

3. In Luke’s dream-sequence fight with Vader, we encounter the idea of him destroying himself in destroying Vader, a moment of unexpected psychological depth and subtlety in a franchise that would eventually give us Jar Jar Binks

4. “I love you!”

5. “I know.”

6. Vader’s revelation about Luke’s father, a gut punch whose impact at he time is nigh on impossible to imagine, so inured to it as we now are.

7. The bleak note on which it ends – Han frozen, Luke handless and devastated, Lando a traitor. Even with the knowledge that the finale was yet to come, U certificated films had no business being this harsh.

It was downhill all the way from here on in. Jedi would have to end more upbeat, it would have been unconscionable for it to be otherwise and much as Revenge of the Sith ended on and contained some pretty dark beats, we watched it with the knowledge of all that was to come and with Lucas tying himself in knots to get the end of one section of track to match up with the beginning of what had already been laid it felt too clinical, too calculated, too lacking in freedom. Depending on your mood, you might rate Star Wars more highly than Empire, but the rest of the franchise can’t come close.

A long time ago, in a living room far, far away (well, Elgin), I remember sitting down to watch Star Wars for the very first time. Now, twenty-odd years, a full franchise and hundreds of pounds worth of merchandise later, I am sitting down to watch it again in anticipation of the saga’s encroaching release on Blu-ray.

The problem with Star Wars, however – and there’s a sentence I never thought I’d type – is that it doesn’t feel like a movie. It feels like so much more than that. A childhood spent mimicking the sound of a YT-1300 light freighter (not) making the jump to lightspeed; the rush of endorphins that dutifully follows the recitation of the series’ theme music, a deep conviction that Han Solo shot first, and a general aversion to any religion which doesn’t grant you Force powers and a complimentary lightsaber. It’s a part of who I am.

And it all started here: in garish yellow print before a jaw-dropping pan through space, right into the centre of a heated exchange between an asthmatic masked invalid and a princess of dubious nobility. Right in the centre of the action are two droids – the heart and mouth of a franchise that is taking its first gasps of life. R2D2 (Kenny Baker) and C3PO (Anthony Daniels) – or The Simpsons’ gay droids from Star Wars – are given a message meant for Alec Guinness (Alec Guinness) and carted off to the nearby planet of Tatooine, where they are quickly captured by a gang of intergalactic hoodlums and sold to a young farm-boy (Mark Hamill) and his Aunt and Uncle.

When Darth Vader (David Prowse) and Darth Vader’s voice (James Earl Jones) realise that precious information has been leaked, he sends his gleaming white Stormtroopers in search of the escaped droids. R2D2, determined to complete the mission set him by Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and deliver the plans to Mr. Guinness, leads Luke Skywalker and C3PO away from the farm moments before his relatives are searched and killed by Stormtroopers. United in the desert, Alec Guinness tells Luke that he once knew his father, having fought with him in the Clone Wars (you had to be there…or maybe you didn’t) as Jedi Knights.

With nowhere else to go, Luke accompanies Alec, along with chauffeurs Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) to the planet Alderaan aboard Han’s ship, the Millennium Falcon. Finding the planet in ruin, literally, they encounter a fighter ship nearby and inadvertently follow it into range of a giant, moonlike structure’s tractor-beam. Captured by this Death Star, Luke and Han discover that the princess is being held captive and is to be executed. Setting out to save her while Alec Guinness disables the space-station’s tractor-beam, they run afoul of a group of Stormtroopers and are forced to make an immediate escape. Fleeing aboard the Falcon, minus Alec Guiness who was killed in battle with Darth Vader, our heroes are followed back to a rebel base on Yavin IV, where they are forced to stand up to the Death Star before it can attack, and destroy Vader’s Empire once and for all.

As if you didn’t know. Star Wars, and this original film in particular, has punctured public awareness and dominated pop culture like no other. Phrases like “May The Force be with you”, “These are not the droids you’re looking for” and “The regional governors now have direct control over their territories” (OK, maybe not so much) have become common-place, almost independent of their source. While Trekkies hid in their basements, practising their Vulcan nerve pinches and sharpening their home-made bat’leths, the masses embraced Star Wars completely, as the droids left their mark on the Hollywood walk of fame and Jedi even became a practised religion in its own right.

A beautifully organic high-concept that kicks the traditional fairy-tale into orbit, George Lucas created a film that speaks to people of all ages, helping to form the blockbuster concept and inspiring a generation of filmmakers to pick up the mantle. The film’s legacy is incredible, not only making way for another five instalments but sowing the seeds for Pixar (through Industrial Light and Magic) to later reap, patenting a lived-in future to be fervently mimicked by everyone from Ridley Scott and James Cameron to Joss Whedon, as well as instigating  innumerable other stylistic and technological innovations without which modern cinema couldn’t conceivably exist.

While there may be naysayers who claim Star Wars to be derivative, poorly written and over-blown (and who may, dare I say, even have a point), there is no denying that Star Wars is much more than the sum of its parts. Taking characters from The Hidden Fortress (1958), scenes from The Dam Busters (1955) and elements of the setting from Dune, Lucas has nevertheless worked his influences into something endlessly compelling, beautifully realised and utterly timeless; something that has inevitable gone on to pay its own dividends in terms of homages (take a bow, Robot Chicken and Family Guy). Star Wars may just be a kids movie, a Saturday morning matinee in the vein of Flash Gordon, but it’s so rewatchable, so entertaining and so completely majesterial that that is of no consequence whatsoever.

Laying foundations that will be built upon (and…well, the opposite of built upon) by its two sequels and three prequels, Star Wars has continued to represent the very best in sound design, special effects and blockbuster filmmaking, overcoming its flaws with an inherent quality that is perhaps best evidenced in John Williams’ continued loyalty to the  franchise. Say what you will about clunky dialogue (who wouldn’t have a bad feeling about this?!), infantile comic relief (BUT SIR! C3PO remains my favourite character) and Lucas’ incessant tinkering that accompanies every re-release (OK, I’ve got nothing), but only a crazy person could find fault in a film which has brought us Williams’ titanic ‘Main Title’ and iconic score (‘The Imperial March’ didn’t come until later, the unmatched ‘Dual of the Fates’ until even later still).

But, whatever Star Wars means to cinema, however much money it made George Lucas (at last count: lots) and regardless of how thankful James Cameron is that he was spared a career as a truck driver, I will always remember Star Wars as that little film that blew my mind. For years all I wanted was to be a Jedi, a Corellian spice smuggler, or, Hell, a Jawa if I flunked school. I loved Star Wars like I’d never loved a film before, and continue to love it to this day. Seriously, just ask my lightspeed impression, it’s very convincing.

@popcornaddict

Olivia Wilde, best known for playing Thirteen in House, is currently in talks to replace Jennifer Garner in the upcoming indie dark comedic thriller, Better Living Through Chemistry, Variety report.

Garner and her husband Ben Affleck are now expecting their third child, opening up the lead female role for the film, and Wilde sounds perfect for the part. She brilliantly brings out both the good and bad in her characters, and the latter is something she’ll likely be doing a healthy amount of for this project.

Wilde’s popularity has been steadily rising over the past few years, starring alongside Emile Hirsch, Anton Yelchin, and Justin Timberlake in Alpha Dog, becoming one of the leads with Hugh Laurie in House, starring with Garrett Hedlund and Jeff Bridges in TRON: Legacy, and can currently be seen opposite Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and Sam Rockwell in Jon Favreau’s fantastic Cowboys & Aliens this summer.

Better Living Through Chemistry would see her working again with her Cowboys & Aliens co-star, Sam Rockwell, who will play a quiet small-town pharmacist stuck in a rut and a loveless marriage, who finds himself in affair with a trophy wife, whom Olivia Wilde is set to play. She introduces him to the recreational side of prescription drugs, and things start to spiral out of control when they start plotting her husband’s death.

Michelle Monaghan (Source Code) will be playing Rockwell’s wife, and Dame Judi Dench is expected to be the film’s narrator. Geoff Moore and David Posamentier will be making their writing and directorial debut with this film, which made it onto the last Black List of best unmade films, and it sounds like it should be excellent when it gets made. I only hope that its indie nature won’t mean that it doesn’t get a UK theatrical release.

Wilde has recently finished filming Butter, with Hugh Jackman and Garner, so it could well have been Garner who put forward Wilde’s name to replace her. She’s been absolutely fantastic in everything I’ve seen her in, and it’s always nice when great young actresses get the attention they deserve.

She’ll next be seen on our screens in The Change-Up, alongside Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds, which is due out on 16th September, and will follow that up with Andrew Niccol’s highly anticipated In Time opposite Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried, both of whom she has worked with before on Alpha Dog. (If you’re yet to see Alpha Dog, I cannot recommend enough that you should seek it out.) Things are certainly looking good for Wilde’s career at the moment, and Better Living Through Chemistry is another title we can look forward to seeing her in.

Here at HeyUGuys we like to live our lives a quarter mile at a time, so we jumped at the opportunity to attend a Fast & Furious 5-themed, day-long event at the Santa Pod Raceway in Northamptonshire to celebrate the DVD, Blu-ray and Digital release of the movie (download the movie on iTunes here).

Europe’s first permanent drag racing venue, Santa Pod hosts both the first and last round of the European Drag Racing Championship, along with the British championships.

AM

An action-packed day, the typically dour British weather put paid to a potentially thrilling Drag Strip race during the first part of the morning, but a stunt fighting school was still on the agenda, to which our group of excitable bloggers were more than happy to participate in.

The class room session was delivered by two of the UK’s best-known stuntmen, Paul Heasman and Jason Hunjan. Smart gave us a brief guide and lesson in how to choreograph a fight scene, whilst Hunjan showed the group how to react on film to an explosion (readers of a nervous disposition may want to avert their eyes away from one particular image below). After class was dismissed we had an opportunity to have a quick chat with our two teachers.

Heasman is a 30-plus year veteran of the industry, who found himself donning a Stormtrooper outfit on the set of The Empire Strikes Back, during one of his earliest jobs.

“I was one of those (Stormtroopers) who had to put Harrison Ford into the carbon freeze chamber. None of us could see out of the costumes, so we didn’t know where to position him. On the first task the big chamber came down from above and hit him on the head, and he went mad!”

For anyone else, being on that set would have been the ultimate geek dream, but the life of a stuntman can sometimes prove to a less than glamorous time.

“We were on set doing that little scene for four weeks! I was lighter when I finished because the carbon freezing chamber was all steam and it was boiling hot. We wore black leotards and they gaffer taped us in and we spent hours and hours sweating.”

Growing up in the then actor-centric surrounding of Wimbledon, Heasman felt a connection to that world whilst living amongst it, and at school he opted to do drama instead of the more practical options available. He still has a great respect for the profession and some of his most satisfying jobs have been with those who are masters of their trade.

“I did all the fights in NEDS and had a great working experience with (writer/director) Peter Mullan. The reason I got that film was because I’ve done nine Ken Loach films previously, and I worked with Peter when he was doing My Name is Joe. In that film, we did a fight on the stairs where he beats a girl up, and got so good at doing it, sometimes I thought he’d actually hit her because of the way she was reacting. He’s definitely one of the best actor/directors I’ve ever worked with.”

Hunjan has worked on a number of prestigious productions in his ten year career, including a last three Bond films and Christopher Nolan’s Inception and Batman Begins. His own love for the work stemmed (unsurprisingly) from childhood.

“I used to love all the Bond films and TV programmes like The Professionals and The Sweeney. I was fascinated by the guys tuning the cars over and jumping off buildings. I remember at the age of 12 going to my careers day at school and telling them I wanted to be a stunt man and they were really dismissive – it wasn’t heard of back then.”

His thoughts on CGI as a replacement to physical stunt work:

“CGI has its place, but its better that they’re using less of it and in the right places, and going back to basics. They’re gone back to using physical stunts a lot more. The tipping point was Die Another Day, and after all the CG which was involved in the film, it was clear people wanted that realism – to wince when it looks like someone has been genuinely hurt.”

Having worked and trained with a number of big names in the industry (“the less famous the actor, the more difficult they tend to be”) he has much praise for one A-lister in particular:

“Matt Damon is a very skilled actor obviously, but physically, he could actually be a stunt performer himself. He knows how everything works. On Green Zone, (I’d had a fight with him the previous year on the last Bourne) we had a 60-beat fight to master. There were a lot of moves – smashing into walls, throwing each other around, etc. As we got near to filming the scene, the fight co-ordinator wanted to cut it down, but we’d rehearsed with Matt for three weeks prior to this. One evening, when Matt was catching a flight the next day, he asked if I didn’t mind staying on after wrap as he really wanted to rehearse as he was incredibly keen to do the whole fight. He’s a very nice guy, so I was cool with it.”

“Daniel (Craig) is another great physical actor. The only problem with those guys is you have to sometimes rein them in because they want to do more!”

PM

The afternoon activity proved to be the most exciting of the day as two members from the Fast & Furious 5 stunt team (Kyle Woods and Sli Lewis) offered a demonstration of how to drive around the specially-constructed Gymkhana course, before we were then given the opportunity to get behind the wheel and try it out for ourselves.

Gymkhana events are time and speed obstacles challenges, where the driver must maneuver through a small, twisty track, performing many different driving techniques, such as 180 degree spins, 360 degree spins, parking boxes and figure 8’s. Perhaps the greatest part of the task is that drifting is encouraged where it’s helpful or necessary.

A fantastic adrenaline-fuelled day out was had by all, and a group of grown man where able to finally to act out their previously unfulfilled childhood fantasies.

Fast & Furious 5 is available on DVD and Blu-ray from 5th September.

Read our interview with Kyle Woods.

To conicide with the release of Cowboys & Aliens, Paramount Pictures have sent over this infographic giving us a full run-down of who would win in a fight between numerous cowboys and aliens if they were to go head to head!

The movie is is helmed by Iron Man director, Jon Favreau and also stars Sam Rockwell, Noah Ringer, Paul Dano, Clancy Brown, Keith Carradine, Adam Beach, Abigail Spencer and Walton Goggins.

1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger (Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). It’s a town that lives in fear. But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known. Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents–townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors–all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.

Read on to find out who would win and click to enlarge! You can see all our coverage of Cowboys & Aliens here.

One of the highlights of Empire’s Big Screen this past weekend was the chance to see a little more of the Star Wars Blu-ray box set and to talk with two of the ILM crew that worked on the films as well as sit down with perhaps the longest serving ambassador for all things Star Wars, Anthony Daniels.

Dave posted the new Blu-ray set trailer which looks necessarily impressive in its new high definition coat and with the 40 hours or so of extras on the discs this, we are promised, will be the last time we’ll have to buy the films, and having seen it up and running I can am happy to say that it’ll be worth your money.

As we stand bruised but not beaten by the prequels and the special editions there are, in the Star Wars Universe right now, two future projects that hang like twin suns above the horizon: the expected 3D makeover for the entire saga and the recently announced TV Series.Time to stop staring in wonder and get some answers.

I first had the chance to sit down with ILM Digital Artist John Goodson and Visual Effects Supervisor Bill George. They told us a little about the films on the Blu-ray and in particular which of the many variations of the Original Trilogy we would see. “It’s the Special Editions, that’s what George [Lucas] wanted. If you had two films on a disc would have compressed them further. So it’s one film per disc for the maximum resolution,” George said. I asked them if they had a preference and they avoided the question with tact, leaving us in no doubt of their feelings.

Knowing they were both fans of the films I asked what it was like to go back and change the films they knew so well. John Goodson: “I worked on Episode Four and Jedi, so it was mainly the point when they go into Mos Eisley and you see these bigger cityscapes and then on Jedi George came in and said in Jabba’s palace we’re going to have this scene with a rapper so we had to get the blueprints and work out how we could cut a section out of it and fit a new room in. So working on it was interesting, having to  juggle all that stuff. And I’ve seen the stuff on the Blu-ray and they used to film all of the art department meetings and on The Phantom Menace we were in this little room in Skywalker ranch, only about five of us at the beginning, and then George would come in and give opinions – some of that is on the Blu-ray. It’s like watching old home movies.”

The pair were asked what they were most impressed with in the extras, George commented, “This is the last time you’ll have to buy anything. (Until the 3D version…) Some of the stuff we saw in the trailer – the models, the maquettes – getting the chance to see all of that is great. Things that aren’t in the film but are part of the film.” Goodson agreed, “Lorne Peterson wrote a book called Sculpting the Galaxy that chronicled a lot of the minatures, but there’s everything here and you have turntables so you can see it properly You get to see all of it, so for people interested in the nuts and bolts you can fill in all kinds of stuff you’ve never seen before.”

When they were asked if they were working on the 3D conversion they told us that they had anticipated the question and had requested to see some of the work in progress footage. A request that was denied. Given that the post conversion process is fraught with danger there is a lot riding on the the success of  James Cameron’s return to Titanic and when I told them that I had just walked out of the Fox panel where the had showed some of their 3D Titanic footage their eyes widened. Incidentally the footage shown was very impressive in parts, but seemed a little patchy in others – not surprising as it was unfinished but you can bet that when 2012 rolls around and Titanic 3D is unveiled there will be a number of interested parties rushing to see how Cameron has done. “If any series lends itself to 3D then Star Wars is it,” said George, with Goodson adding “This project is being overseen by John Knoll who is a stickler, and he’ll ensure it’ll be as perfect as possible. There’s too much invested in it.”

As for the TV series the pair understood they were still working on the scripts but they have no idea if ILM will be involved. Someone who has a more definite opinion on this project was the man who has been living in and around Star Wars for the last thirty five years – Anthony Daniels.

Daniels was as gracious and as talkative as his reputation suggested. He dropped in some excellent stories of the original filming such as Lucas’s minimal directing technique and that All Creatures Great and Small actor Christopher Timothy auditioned for the part of Han Solo which would have been very strange to see, but would have worked perfectly if Alan Bennett had been cast as Obi-Wan Kenobi.  He talked of the construction of the character – literally and figuratively before running through the potential voices for the C3PO from the Dalek inspired staccato to the famous Brooklyn car dealer voice and revealed how close he came to being vocally replaced until wiser minds convinced George Lucas to rethink. And I can’t publish the story he told us about the moment in Attack of the Clones when C3PO finally got his hands on a gun.

On the TV series he was unsure it was going to happen anytime soon. “I don’t believe that is going to happen in my lifetime. They looked into it, and I think the parameters – the production cost would be so big and very expensive that I think it’s many years off. Now as technology goes forward, and things become quicker and easier perhaps that’ll help.”

The conversation meandered through some very interesting discussion on the roots of the character of C3PO all the way from Greek mythology and the character of Tiresias through to Shakespeare and then ending up in a galaxy far, far away. The value of escapism and the perils of nostalgia were covered and while there wasn’t too much on the actual Blu-ray set but he did tell me to show my two sons the saga in order. I’m hoping there’ll be a No Jar-Jar edit somewhere in the disc options… Oh, and his favourite character in the entire Star Wars universe? Darth Maul. Because he’s a real bastard.

Star Wars: The Complete Saga is out on Blu-ray at the 12th of September. Find out all about it right here.

Last week, I got to speak to a man who has been in some of the most well known films of all time and who I’ve admired watching on the big screen for over 30 years. That man is John Rhys Davies who has starred in Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and who can forget Solomon’s Mines!

John has a new movie coming out next week called War of Resistance, which details the story of a group of Dutch resistance fighters in the second World War. I spoke to him about his new role as Eusi, a priest trying his best to hide from the Nazis in a safe house during the war.  I couldn’t resist asking him about working with the likes of Steven Spielberg & Peter Jackson, and I certainly couldn’t help but inquire as to whether or not he’d be appearing in either of The Hobbit movies. Read on to find out more! I think you might like what you find!

———————

HeyUGuys: What was it about War of Resistance that attracted you to it?

John Rhys Davies (JRD): As usual, someone approached my manager, and what appealed to me was the fact that it’s based on real heroism. I like heroes, and would like to be a hero myself. I suppose we all want that. When you think about it, imagine having the chance to help people that weren’t normally the people that you wanted to associate with, or had associated with, but didn’t share the same values you have.  Imagine that if you do so, you run the risk of losing your life, that of your husband’s, your wife’s or your child’s.  I wonder if we wouldn’t just keep our heads down in these circumstances. There are some people who feel morally impelled to protect the vulnerable. The heroism of the Christian community in Holland at this particular period is one of the golden moments of Western civilization.

In the film world, we can all be heroes. In the real world where heroism can cost you your life or the life of the ones you love, people aren’t so willing to make those sacrifices.  When they do, they are set apart from the rest of us. It’s that wonderful line of Yates’:

“I’ve changed, I’ve changed utterly”.

The second World War is one of those very clear instances of us being in the right war at the right time with the right enemy, and achieving complete success. Nazism as a force in Europe was defeated definitively. You get the odd freak episodes like that which happened in Norway the other day, and these are the results of derangements. There is no articulate and rational political philosophy there. There may be some manifesto to draw people’s attention, but as a force, Nazism was destroyed, and that is one of the greatest achievements that our nation can be proud of.

HeyUGuys: In the War of Resistance, there is a a scene where you’re hiding in a room with numerous other people, were you actually in that cramped space or was there a set designed for it?

JRD: We were in a place where they had actually done that. You don’t have to be that imaginative to feel that terror and empathize with the people who were in that position. Many years ago I did something called War and Remembrance, which was a mini series in which I played an inmate of Auschwitz and we actually shot it in Auschwitz itself. It was one of the more depressing periods of my life. I would get up in the morning and would have my breakfast. Afterwards, I would get into my silk underwear and I would put my costume on in the hotel and would then drive through the gates of Auschwitz in my chauffeur driven car only to play one of those people who passed through those gates. You had the sense of two million people looking at you, two million ghosts and feeling their utter contempt and bewilderment for what you were representing and trying to be; how inauthentic you were.

It’s impossible to imagine evil on that scale. We see evil (like this little boy in Norway manifesting itself on that small scale and we can pardon it because of it’s clearly psychotic origins. But when you come to 3 millions Jews, 2 million Poles, 2 million Czechs, 2 million Russian soldiers etc. etc. etc., the scale of it beggars belief. And of course you have murders by Stalin and Pol Pot, which were perhaps greater in number.  I mean some of these people have such an inexhaustible capacity for murder that their lack of empathy, their lack of humanity, creates a vision of bleakness in their empty souls which is possible more terrifying than the torture and the extermination camps themselves.

I’m still capable of being surprised and shocked by human nature.

HeyUGuys: Where was the movie shot and what was it like working with the new young cast?

JRD: They shot a lot of it in America, but my scenes were shot in Amsterdam in Holland. They’re all very young, very new, but so good! They represent that school of young American actors who take their craft very seriously, sometimes too seriously, but then that’s the way to be at the beginning of your career. They inhabit the characters wholly. It was a joy just to meet them.

HeyUGuys: So you’re currently in Holland and I’ve been reliably informed you’re off to New Zealand, is that for some Hobbit related purpose?!

JRD: It’s for marital purposes as I have a wife and child there!

HeyUGuys: Ahh, I didn’t know that! We saw you on set in the latest Peter Jackson Production diary. What was it like going back and is there any chance you might cameo in it?

JRD: I would love to! I’ve had a great sort of 180 degree turn. After I did The Lord of the Rings, I didn’t want to get near prosthetic masks ever again, I still don’t really, and I didn’t want to play a dwarf to be honest with you. Why be one of thirteen when you can be one of one. As time comes between you and the horrors of that make-up, slowly you begin to see things through rather rosy spectacles. I did go down and see him (Jackson) and I did come as close to grovelling as you can get (Laughs!). I’m sure that Peter knows that I grovelled!

HeyUGuys: So you haven’t had confirmation that you’re in it yet?

JRD: I haven’t had confirmation that I’m not, but realistically I’m not. It sure would be sweet if one could. Let me tell you about it…..

I believe Peter Jackson has everything that a Director needs. His organizational ability alone is completely remarkable. I think it will change the way films are made. I think he’s upping the game for every other film-maker in the world. Projecting in 48 frames alone is going to give a level of clarity that we’ve never had in film before, and I think he’s housebreaking 3d. He is such a grounded level man with all the characteristics that a great Director must have. Added to which, he built a film industry from scratch to an international level. Marvellous intelligence and a marvellous modest nature, Peter has got it all!

HeyUGuys: How did it feel to be back on set?

JRD: Very much like going back to your old school where you’d been ‘cock of the walk’ and suddenly realizing that there was a whole new generation of new cocks walking around and you were just politely being treated as one of the quite distinguished old boys of the school, but not really today’s news. It did have a very nostalgic feeling and that’s how it should be. Time has moved on. Lord of the Rings was state of the art, but now it’s long live The Hobbit, which is now state of the art!

HeyUGuys: I know you must get asked this all the time but I have to ask you about Indiana Jones. You weren’t in Indy 4, did they ask you to be in it and is there any chance we may see you in Indy 5 if there is one?

JRD: (Laughs) If I’m asked, I will consider! They did ask me to do a little cameo on Indy 4 actually.  It was going to be shot a green screen studio. I was going to sit down and then it would cut it into the wedding or something like Indy getting an award or something like that. I thought the character of Sallah is worth more to the audience than that.

HeyUGuys: I completely agree. Every scene we see you in are some of my favourite scenes. Scenes like the one with you punching a Nazi through the newspaper while rushing Martin Brody off into the van and watching him drive off with the Nazi logo on the back are priceless moments!

JRD: Yes they are and he’s a great character, but times have changed you see. The Egyptian with the golden heart, warm and generous and outgoing; the image of the Arab world and ‘The Arab’ has changed in America since 911. Perhaps it’s not possible to have a Sallah again.

Watching Steven grow and change as an artist has been fascinating. There is an innocence and a light-heartedness that is born basically of lack of understanding of history that continues up to Raiders of the Lost Ark. But when you get to other deeper things like Shoah, and Schindlers List, his deep experience of Nazism, the nature of evil, and his own understanding and knowledge deepens.  As a result, his ability to laugh at the Nazis fades.  Nazi’s can’t be comic for him anymore, he knows too much now; he has lost his innocence.

HeyUGuys: How would you compare working between Jackson and Spielberg? Is working for them quite similar or is working for them completely different?

JRD: Both are geniuses. Both have that extraordinary pallet that an artist needs to make great work. Different styles yes, but both masters. I’ve worked with extraordinary masters – Blake Edwards, Franklin Schaffner, Spielberg is one of the giants. If dialogue were not permitted in film, Steven Spielberg would be the greatest filmmakers of all time. He can tell a story in pictures better than anyone I know.

PJ, well, I love PJ! You can’t really compare the two, as they’re both giants. Very good at casting, and very good at getting great performances from their actors. I suppose Jackson has a greater literary awareness ability, and that is a real advantage as a director. Steven though knows bad dialogue when he hears it, but I’m not sure that he can initiate great good dialogue. I admire them both very much!

HeyUGuys: Other than The Hobbit (which I’m sure you’ll get in!!), what else do you have coming up this year?

Well, it’s remotely possible. I don’t deserve to, having turned it down, but it sure would be fun. All I can say is if every film I’ve been offered gets made this year, I’ll be very busy indeed. At the moment we’re living in such extraordinary financial times, I’m not sure anyone can look 3 weeks down the road to know what’s going to happen.

———————–

Thanks so much to John for his time. War of Resistance is released on DVD the 22nd August.

Last night the stars of Cowboys and Aliens descended upon the O2 Arena in East London for the UK premiere. After some interesting answers at the press conference earlier in the day, we were keen to get them to expand on their comments.

Our video of the evening is below. In it you’ll see Roberto Orci discussing working with Harrison Ford, as well as some of the biggest names in Hollywood, fitting Oliva Wilde into the next Star Trek movie, and who he thinks should replace the late Majel Barrat as the voice of the Enterprise’s computer.

In addition to this, Olivia Wilde gives her thoughts on successful female geeks, and the fanboy suspicion of them and trying not mention Blade Runner around Harrison Ford, and expanding on the statement he made at the press conference, ‘TV is replacing indie film’, Jon Favreau discusses how he believes first time filmmakers can break into the industry.

This morning, Jon and I got to see the brand new trailer for Star Wars: The Complete Saga and now, Yahoo UK have released the trailer that we saw for your viewing pleasure!

If you missed our live blog from the event, you can click here to view it munte-by-minute.

Today has been somewhat of a Cowboys & Aliens day with the press conference (live blogged here), our review going live and now we have the UK Premiere of the movie with stars Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde and Director Jon Favreau all in attendance!

We’ve got the live stream for you right here from the O2 which is the scene for the Empire Big Screen event which is kicking off in full force tomorrow. Before that though we have the premiere where our man Ben Mortimer will be present to get interviews with as many people as he can about the movie.

The stream will begin shortly so grab a cup of tea, sit back and watch!

Our man Ben Mortimer is currently at a swanky hotel in London with director Jon Favreau, and cast Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde for their new movie, The Cowboys & Aliens. The movie also has it’s UK Premiere this evening and we’ll be there to interview all the stars.

Before that though we are going to blog the Cowboys & Aliens UK Press Conference live. Just scroll down and you’ll see Ben’s updates coming in as it all happens. The press conference is due to start at 13.30 GMT but it may start a little late as they tend to do.

Cowboys & Aliens hits UK cinemas next Wednesday, 17th August.

Cowboys & Aliens UK Press Conference

(08/11/2011)

  

Close

1:10	HeyUGuys:  Getting ready for the Cowboys & Aliens UK Press Conference! Those expected to attend include Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde and director Jon Favreau. Yes, we are a little excited! Thursday August 11, 2011 1:10 HeyUGuys

1:36	HeyUGuys:  Looks like we’re running a little late. Currently queuing to get in! More interesting updates should follow shortly! Thursday August 11, 2011 1:36 HeyUGuys

1:46	montimer:  Currently waiting for the talent to arrive at the Cowboys and Aliens premiere. I’ll be live tweeting it on HeyUGuys.co.uk [via Twitter] Thursday August 11, 2011 1:46 montimer

1:51	Who would win in a fight? Indiana Jones  ( 40% ) James Bond  ( 40% ) Quorra  ( 20% ) Thursday August 11, 2011 1:51

2:06	Ben Mortimer:  Sorry to keep you all waiting. The PRs are just adding a few more chairs so they can accommodate all the journalists. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:06 Ben Mortimer

2:07	Ben Mortimer:  In a slightly weird turn of events, it would appear that Jason Schwartzman is working as a waiter at Claridges. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:07 Ben Mortimer

2:07	Ben Mortimer:  Or at least a man who looks a lot like him. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:07 Ben Mortimer

2:08	Ben Mortimer:  The panelists for today are: Jon Favreau Daniel Craig Olivia Wilde Harrison Ford Roberto Orci Thursday August 11, 2011 2:08 Ben Mortimer

2:09	Ben Mortimer:  I won’t lie. Even I’m slightly awestruck by that lineup, and I’m usually the most glib man in the room. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:09 Ben Mortimer

2:09	Ben Mortimer:  Oh, and to make things easier (for me, not you – sorry) I’ll be using initials rather than names when I refer to them. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:09 Ben Mortimer

2:11	Ben Mortimer:  The room’s suddenly got a lot quieter. Hopefully we’ll be starting fairly soon. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:11 Ben Mortimer

2:14

Ben Mortimer:  On the giant poster behind where the panellists will sit is a tagline. It reads: ‘First contact. Last stand’. I’m trying to think of something terribly witty to write about that, but failing. Anyone want to come up with something? Don’t think there’ll be a prize, but you will earn my admiration and respect. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:14 Ben Mortimer

2:17	montimer:  @HeyUGuysLive Might be worth retweeting that with a . before my username. [via Twitter] Thursday August 11, 2011 2:17 montimer

2:18	Ben Mortimer:  Oops. Just managed to not only not send a DM on Twitter, but to also post it to the live blog. D’oh! Thursday August 11, 2011 2:18 Ben Mortimer

2:19	Ben Mortimer:  Sorry to keep you all waiting by the way. The panellists are still hiding out back. We’re assured that this will start soon enough though. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:19 Ben Mortimer

2:22	Ben Mortimer:  It begins. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:22 Ben Mortimer

2:22	Ben Mortimer:  For those of you interested, they’re all wearing clothes. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:22 Ben Mortimer

2:22	Ben Mortimer:  Q: Which side of the movie appealed to you more: the cowboy side, or the alien side. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:22 Ben Mortimer

2:23	Ben Mortimer:  JF: Huge sci-fi fan, but I became aware of westerns throguh science fiction Thursday August 11, 2011 2:23 Ben Mortimer

2:23	Ben Mortimer:  DC: The western – ‘I always wanted to play a cowboy’ Thursday August 11, 2011 2:23 Ben Mortimer

2:24	Ben Mortimer:  OW – The western – ‘I didn’t think there’d be a female role this strong in a western’ Thursday August 11, 2011 2:24 Ben Mortimer

2:24	Ben Mortimer:  HF – ‘I don’t care which genre – I’m in it for the money.’ Thursday August 11, 2011 2:24 Ben Mortimer

2:24	Ben Mortimer:  HF – ‘The character is the main draw for me’ Thursday August 11, 2011 2:24 Ben Mortimer

2:25	Ben Mortimer:  Q: For Daniel – What did your 9 year old self think about sharing a screen with Harisson Ford? Thursday August 11, 2011 2:25 Ben Mortimer

2:25	Ben Mortimer:  DC – I went to the cinema on my own and saw Blade Runner, and thought to myself: ‘I want to work with that man’ Thursday August 11, 2011 2:25 Ben Mortimer

2:26	Ben Mortimer:  Q: For Olivia – I hear you’re a trekkie, and have a burning desire to play Captain Kirk. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:26 Ben Mortimer

2:28	Ben Mortimer:  OW – I grew up watching Star Trek with my family. There have been great female characters in Trek over the years, but I would love to play more powerful women in science fiction. I love the genre and I’d love to do more of it. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:28 Ben Mortimer

2:28	Ben Mortimer:  RO – Do you mind if we paint you green? Thursday August 11, 2011 2:28 Ben Mortimer

2:29	Ben Mortimer:  Q: For Daniel – When a stranger arrives in a western town you immediately think of Clint Eastwood. Do you go with it, or try to fight it? Thursday August 11, 2011 2:29 Ben Mortimer

2:29	Ben Mortimer:  DC – You go with it. I watched loads of westrns for research, and stole everything I could. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:29 Ben Mortimer

2:30	Ben Mortimer:  By the way, unless the quotes are in inverted commas, they’re paraphrased. Badly. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:30 Ben Mortimer

2:31	Ben Mortimer:  JF – Our start gift from Steven Spielberg on this movie was an iPad filled with classic westerns. We’d watch a classic western every night. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:31 Ben Mortimer

2:32	Ben Mortimer:  Q: For Harrison – Your character starts out quite feared. Was it fun to play a villain? Thursday August 11, 2011 2:32 Ben Mortimer

2:32	Ben Mortimer:  HF – It was fun. I didn’t know where it was going in the script, but I was pleased with what I read, and it was fun to do. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:32 Ben Mortimer

2:32	Ben Mortimer:  Q: Favourite westerns? Thursday August 11, 2011 2:32 Ben Mortimer

2:32	Ben Mortimer:  JF – Seven Samurai Thursday August 11, 2011 2:32 Ben Mortimer

2:33	Ben Mortimer:  DC – Little Big Man. Fave Sci-fi: Alien Thursday August 11, 2011 2:33 Ben Mortimer

2:33	Ben Mortimer:  OW: Alien Thursday August 11, 2011 2:33 Ben Mortimer

2:33	Here’s an image of Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde courtesy of @FilmFan1971 Thursday August 11, 2011 2:33

2:33	Ben Mortimer:  HF – ‘I’m going to opt out of this’ Thursday August 11, 2011 2:33 Ben Mortimer

2:34	Ben Mortimer:  Q: Harrison – I gather you weren’t too keen on the project when you first read it. What changed your mind? Thursday August 11, 2011 2:34 Ben Mortimer

2:35	And one of Daniel Craig & Director Jon Favreau courtesy of @FilmFan1971 Thursday August 11, 2011 2:35

2:35	Ben Mortimer:  HF – I didn’t know what I was reading, and was impatient a bit. Then when I spoke to Jon about what tone he was looking for in the script. I was reassured that JF wasn’t making a tongue in cheek poke at westerns. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:35 Ben Mortimer

2:36	Ben Mortimer:  JF – We thought long and hard about whether to keep the title ‘Cowboys and Aliens’. They had tried to make it as a comedy, but with a more ridiculous premise, you need to play it straight. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:36 Ben Mortimer

2:37	Ben Mortimer:  Favreau just said, ‘You have an expression around here ‘It does what it says on the tin” – Ronsil will be pleased/ Thursday August 11, 2011 2:37 Ben Mortimer

2:38	Ben Mortimer:  JF – What I’m most proud of is that these are real characters with real stakes, and we’ve made them work together. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:38 Ben Mortimer

2:39	Ben Mortimer:  Q: We are seeing a number of movies that are based in comic books. Why do you think that is? Thursday August 11, 2011 2:39 Ben Mortimer

2:40	Ben Mortimer:  JF – It’s to do with marketing. Piracy has killed the DVD market, so the main market is in the theatre. Young people still do that, and they respond strongly to branded product Thursday August 11, 2011 2:40 Ben Mortimer

2:40	Ben Mortimer:  JF – The independent film market is being replaced by television with shows like Mad Men and The Wire. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:40 Ben Mortimer

2:41	Ben Mortimer:  JF – We hope that C&A might introduce young people to the western. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:41 Ben Mortimer

2:41	Ben Mortimer:  Q: For Harrison – As an actor how has working with special effects changed over the years Thursday August 11, 2011 2:41 Ben Mortimer

2:43

Ben Mortimer:  HF – For an actor special effects require only an active imagination, and I don’t find it that much more difficult to imagine an alien scampering in front of me than I do to ignore the grip pulling a carriage through a period drama. We now have the ability to replace a man in an alien suit with a computer generated alien, and what I was pleased with with Jon’s creations was that they didn’t move like a man in a suit. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:43 Ben Mortimer

2:44	Ben Mortimer:  HF – There is a tendency with directors to replace practical effects with visual effects and loose human scale. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:44 Ben Mortimer

2:44	Ben Mortimer:  Q: For Olivia – Can you talk about your research into the small number of women like your character in the film. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:44 Ben Mortimer

2:46

Ben Mortimer:  OW – There’s a great museum in LA that had a great exhibition called ‘Women of the Old West’, and I found it interesting researching them. In terms of characters from films, I didn’t really look at women in films, I looked at the same guys we all were. When I grew up watching westerns I wanted to be Steve McQueen, I didn’t want to be the girl. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:46 Ben Mortimer

2:47	Ben Mortimer:  OW – In the wide shots we were all spinning the guns, and Jon would say ‘Guys, not all of you can spin your guns.’ Thursday August 11, 2011 2:47 Ben Mortimer

2:47	Ben Mortimer:  Robert Orci has just described the cast as ‘The finest acttors in their price range’ Thursday August 11, 2011 2:47 Ben Mortimer

2:48	Ben Mortimer:  Obviously he didn’t stutter on the ‘t’, I just can’t type. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:48 Ben Mortimer

2:50	Ben Mortimer:  Q: Why do you think there are so many films this summer that feature aliens? Thursday August 11, 2011 2:50 Ben Mortimer

2:51

Ben Mortimer:  JF – There’s a lot of people who’s job it is to work out what films made money, and which films don’t, and Avatar made money, so it’s considered a safe genre. It’s also because the worldwide market is driving the industry now, and alien movies tend to be less divisive than films with political themes. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:51 Ben Mortimer

2:53	Ben Mortimer:  HF on Air Force One 2 – Sardonically – What’s ludicrous about Air Force One? I think a sequel’s a good idea. I’m trying to think if there’s a sequel pitched that I didn’t go for. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:53 Ben Mortimer

2:53	Ben Mortimer:  HF – When we did the sequels to Indiana Jones my ambition was that we would take the audiences knowledge of the character, and expand upon the character. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:53 Ben Mortimer

2:55	Ben Mortimer:  Final question – hope it’s a good one. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:55 Ben Mortimer

2:56	Ben Mortimer:  For Jon – In view of the film’s bloody opening, and the need to appeal to a younger audience, did you want to go further with the violence? Thursday August 11, 2011 2:56 Ben Mortimer

2:57	Ben Mortimer:  JF – We wanted to feel the bloodiness of the 80s style alien films, but I still wanted to make a film that I could show to my children. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:57 Ben Mortimer

2:57	Ben Mortimer:  JF – In the extended cut we’re going for a bit bloodier for the effects stuff, but we didn’t have to trim anything for the ratings. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:57 Ben Mortimer

2:58	Ben Mortimer:  That’s it boys and girls. Press conference over. Hope you enjoyed it. We’ll be covering the premier this evening. If anyone said anything that you’d like some more detail about, let us know and we’ll ask them. Thursday August 11, 2011 2:58 Ben Mortimer

3:04

 

 

Spawned from a graphic novel and possessing the kind of high-concept, easy-sell title which studio executives must have salivated over upon optioning it, Cowboys & Aliens reaches the big screen under the direction of actor-turned A-list director (and seemingly a regular fixture in this season of big-scale blockbusters), Jon Favreau.

This time around, the Iron Man helmer turns his attention towards a band of frontier folk who find themselves tussling with some unidentifiable flying objects who have stolen members of their community for equally mysterious purposes.  A gunslinger (Daniel Craig) who is suffering from amnesia awakens in the desert to find his right wrist is attached to his some kind of otherworldly artifact which he is unable to pry open and remove. Setting foot in the one-horse town of Absolution, he immediately makes his presence known by tangling with the son of the town’s rich and powerful cattleman, Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). Both are arrested and when daddy shows up to try and intervene and stop his son being carted away (alongside Craig) to court, the town is suddenly besieged by an array of large, laser-firing aircrafts, which proceed to turn the place into a fiery wreck, whilst scooping up a number of townsfolk, including Dolarhyde’s son and the local, mild-mannered saloon owner’s wife.

Finding tracks belonging to a creature from one of the invader’s ships, a posse head out at sunrise, intent on retrieving their stolen family members and loved-ones. Dolarhyde ropes in the stranger to help them (he is suffering from flashbacks which reveal snippets of the alien environment) and a mysterious girl from the town (Tron Legacy’s Olivia Wilde), who appears to know more about the situation than she cares to divulge.

The title alone gives you a clear idea of what’s in store here, and the coupling of those two diverse genres actually works well for the most part. These characters are from an age before modern science and pop culture permeated down through the masses, giving us endless stories of supposed other forms of life beyond the stars, and there’s a fun stoicism to the cowboys as they track down this mysterious force of which they have zero knowledge or reference of. However, this can’t quite disguise the flimsiest of premises and ultimately, a formulaic script which doesn’t offer enough surprises (neither the western and sci-fi tropes interwoven throughout offer anything much in the way of originality) to really stand out from the crowd.

Favreau, unsurprisingly, manages to coax some strong performances out of his starry cast. Ford (who seems to be still carrying some of that gruffness left over from his role in Morning Glory) is always a welcome addition to films of this nature (excluding ‘Crystal Skulls’, of course), but even so, he has to wrestle with some wonky  character continuity and actions, an issue which Wilde also suffers a little bit from. Craig is pretty solid, and cuts a lean, mean, figure, although there’s always that nagging doubt which leaves you thinking original lead Robert Downey Jr. may have brought a lightness of touch that the film (and character) needs. Rounding out the cast is the saloon proprietor, Sam Rockwell, bringing his normal reliable and likable quality to the film (and let’s face it, who wouldn’t love to have him serve booze for them at their local watering hole?)

Cowboys & Aliens is still a decent enough adventure flick for the most part, but for a film of this scope, and one which is chock-full of figures from the industry, many of whom have a solid track record for churning out big, audience-friendly hits from the past (Ron Howard and Imagine partner Brian Grazer are onboard as producers, while the big cheese himself, Steven Spielberg, is credited as executive producer) it’s all the more disappointing that this isn’t THE film of the summer.

While there are a couple of admittedly thrilling set-pieces (the terrifying alien attack on the town is well-crafted and a huge, upturned boat which has been left slap bang in the middle of the desert by the unwelcome ET’s, offers a surreal and wondrous sight), they can’t disguise the meagre plot and an unimaginative alien species (their lair, look and even the meaning behind their decision to come to earth, echoes that of the other big-profile creature feature of this summer, Super 8).

Many may enjoy what’s on offer here, and it’s certainly an enjoyable romp for a Saturday night out at the local multiplex. Just don’t go in there expecting to see much originality or freshness – something which would have been welcomed and embraced in yet another season crammed with the overly familiar.

***~~ (3/5)

The movie is out in the US tomorrow, unfortunately we have to wait another few weeks but keep keep Cowboys & Aliens at the forefront of our mind, Paramount have released these three new posters for the movie showing off three of the main cast, Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig.

The movie is is helmed by Iron Man director, Jon Favreau and also stars Sam Rockwell, Noah Ringer, Paul Dano, Clancy Brown, Keith Carradine, Adam Beach, Abigail Spencer and Walton Goggins.

1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger (Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). It’s a town that lives in fear. But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known. Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents–townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors–all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.

Cowboys & Aliens will premiere at the Empire BIG SCREEN event taking place over the weekend of 12th-14th August and then goes on general release in the UK on August 17th.

Source: Empire

Paramount have released two new featurettes giving us a great look at both Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford’s characters in their new movie, Cowboys and Aliens. The movie is is helmed by Iron Man director, Jon Favreau and as well as Ford and Craig, stars Sam Rockwell and Olivia Wilde, Noah Ringer, Paul Dano, Clancy Brown, Keith Carradine, Adam Beach, Abigail Spencer and Walton Goggins.

1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger (Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). It’s a town that lives in fear. But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known. Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents–townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors–all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.

Check out both of these new featurettes for the movie below. Cowboys & Aliens will be released in the UK on August 19th.

Source: Apple