Incase it’s escaped your notice, there is a small event called Comic Con happening right now in San Diego where hundreds of thousands of film and comic fans descend on the city to see loads of stuff that no one has seen before! All the studios are there with their stands and each will present a key-note style press conference for all many of their big movies coming up in the next year or so. This is why HeyUGuys has been bombarded with many more posts than usual. Jon, myself and our fabulous team or writers are going to do our best to keep up with it all so hold onto your butts and get ready for a fun ride!

Here’s the beginning of the Elysium viral marketing campaign. Elysium is directed by Neill Blomkamp who helmed the amazingly awesome movie District 9. The cast for this one is rather spectacular and includes Sharlto Copley, Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Wagner Moura, Alice Braga and Diego Luna. Elysium is is scheduled for release in the UK 8th March 2013 but that hasn’t stopped Sony getting the virals out early and ComingSoon have snapped this first poster for the for the movie which directs you over to http://www.armadyne.net which has a recruitment video for you to watch.They’re building the future and they need you!

We’ve massive fans of Blomkamp here at HeyUGuys and we cannot wait to see more from this!

I’ve been eagerly anticipating Neil Blomkamp’s next big screen project ever since seeing District 9 for the first time; he’s clearly an immensely talented director and the cast he’s lined up so far is very impressive. But with Latino Review revealing that his forthcoming film Elysium has found its villain I just got a little more excited.

They’re reporting that Wagner Moura the star of the excellent Elite Squad films has been cast and will join the likes of Sharlto Copley, Matt Damon and Jodie Foster in his violent futuristic sci-fi flick. The 8th of March 2013 has also been earmarked as the film’s release date.

It’s nice to see the recent love of Elite Squad with this adding to last week’s announcement that its director Jose Padilha will be helming the Robocop reboot.

We’ll bring you more news on Elysium as and when we get it.

Alice Eve has joined the cast of Men In Black III as the younger version of agency head Emma Thompson.

Eve will star opposite Thompson, Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Rip Torn, Alec Baldwin, Jermaine Clement, Sharlto Copley and Nicole Scherzinger.

Barry Sonnenfeld is directing.

Agent J (Smith) is forced to travel back in time to team up with the young Agent K (Brolin) to save the world.

It was recently announced that Men In Black III had extended a pre-planned holiday hiatus, with production expected to re-commence at the end of March.

Men In Black III will be released on May 25, 2012 by Sony Pictures.

Source: Deadline

Jodie Foster (Flightplan) has signed on to star in Elysium, writer-director Neill Blomkamp’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed low-budget District 9.

Foster will star opposite Matt Damon (Hereafter) and Sharlto Copley (The A-Team) in the sci-fi film Blompkamp has wrote and will direct.

Plot details are being kept under wrap, but we’ll be sure to update you when we have more information.

Foster will next be seen in The Beaver, which she directed and co-stars in opposite Mel Gibson (Edge of Darkness).

Deadline reported this story.

Good news for fans of fantasy cinema who enjoy a cerebral side to the state-of-the-art computer imagery and pyrotechnics on display – the director and star of last year’s breakout hit District 9 are set to reunite.

According to Deadline, Neill Blomkamp and Sharlto Copley will be back together for Elysium, which is reportedly another sci-fi parable, this time set in the far future on another planet.

With 2010 proving to be an equally satisfying year for the duo (District 9 scored a best picture nomination at the Oscars, while Copley was the best thing in this summer’s heavy-handed film adaptation of The A-Team), Blomkamp will probably have a much larger budget to play with this time around, plus a now (semi) bankable star at his disposal too.

Let’s hope that regardless of how they are now viewed in Hollywood, the two can still deliver on what made District 9 so special.

On Monday I got to spend some time with an absolute legend. That legend was made famous by a movie that you might have heard of called, District 9.  The man in question is Sharlto Copley who plays “Howling Mad Murdock” in the A-Team movie which came out on DVD and Blu-ray on Monday this week too. The A-Team is a TV series that some would argue has always been crying out for a big budget film version and in the end Twentieth Century Fox turned to director, Joe Carnahan and actors, Liam Neeson, Shalrto Copley, Bradley Cooper and Rampage Jackson to make it happen.

Talking to Sharlto was a privilege and it was the first time an actor of his calibre had heard of our little home, HeyUGuys and and thanked us here at HeyUGuys for helping with the promotion of District 9. I was quite taken aback. We simply loved the movie and if you’ve never seen it, you must!

In the interview, Sharlto talks to us about his love of the original series, how he felt seeing the a-team van getting crushed and how he brought his own ideas to the table for the movie. He also tells us where he currently is with Men in Black III and whether there are any further developments on a possible District 10.

Have a watch of the below and I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed interviewing him.

I have to admit, when I heard that a new A-Team movie was being made, I was rather dubious. This is a TV series that I had grown up with and along with The Dukes of Hazard and Knight Rider and the memories of all three should not be touched! It’s revival caused quite a lot of controversy on various movie blogs but how did the final product come out?

The A-Team stars Liam Neeson (Hannibal Smith), Bradley Cooper (Templeton Peck aka Face), Sharlto Copley (Murdock) and Rampage Jackson (BA) in roles that had been made famous by Mr. T, Dwight Schultz, Dirk Benedict and the late George Peppard. I guess the main question is would George Peppard turn in his grave watching the movie? Well, I’d like to think not alhough history tells us he was rather hard to please!

On the Blu-ray, there are two different editions – the Theatrical Version and the ‘Explosive Extended Edtion’. Since I’d seen it at the cinema, I decided that the extended version was the only way forward. It has quite a few nice extra scenes in there with the main memorable difference being the inclusion of Dwight Schultz and Dirk Benedict in the movie rather than finding them as an added extra after the credits (see the theatrical version). This made a nice change and after seeing it, I think director Joe Carnahan made a mistake not putting them in the final cut. That said, should they have been there at all without Mr. T? That debate could go on forever.

The A-Team is a fun movie with huge explosions, ridiculous lines and crazy stunts – so it’s not too different from the original. I think that the 4 main characters did a great job in their portrayal as The A-Team and with a strong supporting cast including Patrick Wilson and Jessica Biel and this is a movie that I could put on during a Saturday afternoon again and again and still enjoy it’s craziness!

The Blu-ray is packed to the brim with extras which I’ve placed below. For a much more in-depth look at the movie, click here to view Tracy’s full review. We’ll be interviewing Sharlto Copley on Monday for the release so keep your eyes peeled for our interview next week.

The A-Team is released on DVD and Blu-ray this Monday, 29th November and you can pre-order it here.

—————-

Special Features

This Edition contains fully loaded 3 discs and includes 4 character postcards.

Over 90mins of additional content including:

• The Devil’s in the Details: Inside the Action with the Director
• Deleted Scenes
• Gag Reel
• A Team Theme Mash Up Montage
• Plan of Attack
• Character Chronicles
• Visual Effects Before and After

Joe Carnahan’s big screen A-Team movie was seemingly the perfect summer blockbuster. As over the top and bombastic as expected it certainly satisfied hardened nostalgics as well as introducing Face, B.A., Murdock and Hannibal to a new generation.

The Blu-ray and DVD is out on the 29th of November and to whip you into a furious frenzy of anticipation we’ve been given this exclusive clip from the Blu-ray special features which has Jessica Biel telling us about her character and the A-Team experience.

We reviewed the film on its cinema release here, and we”ll be delving into the handsome Blu-ray edition very soon, so until then – enjoy the clip.

Our friends at Upbeat have created this eight minute video with details of what movies are coming out over the 2010 Summer Holiday season. The show, called “Cinema Scoop” and presented by Kylie Olsson, has been commissioned by the Film Distributors Association in which we get to see an 8 min round-up looking at all the movies that are coming out in the UK this summer. Some are already  in the cinema and some are coming shortly.

Cinema Scoop looks at Marmaduke (voiced by Owen Wilson), Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Knight and Day (starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz), The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Nicolas Cage), Grown Ups (Adam Sandler), Salt (Angelina Jolie), Going the Distance (Drew Barrymore), The Karate Kid (Jaden Smith & Jackie Chan), The A-Team (Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper and Sharlto Copley), Toy Story 3, The Last Airbender (Directed by M. Night Shyamalan), Step Up 3d, Piranha 3d, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (starring Michael Cera and directed by Edgar Wright), The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Illusionist, Gainsbourg and The Rebound (Catherine Zeta Jones & Justin Bartha).

Check out the video below and pick a few films to watch this summer…… there are many to choose from!

Tonight London played host to the UK premiere of one of the summer’s biggest films, Joe Carnahan’s A-Team and our friends from Upbeat were there to collect the footage and interviews.

Tracy reviewed the film here, and along with The Karate Kid the 1980s return to gather the rose tinted nostalgics into the cinemas and in assembling a cast of Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton Jackson and Sharlto Copely director  Carnahan has done pretty well in recreating the team of Face, Hannibal, B.A. and Murdock.

The team assembled in the big smoke along with Jessica Biel to welcome the film to the UK and we’ve got the footage for you below.

Photo: EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA

“…if you have a problem, if no one else can help and if you can find them, maybe you can hire, The A-Team.”

Those are golden words to a generation of kids who made sure, that no matter what, they were planted in front of the TV in the 80′s when The A-Team was at it’s peak.  Now as adults, those same people get to revisit their childhood and their heroes, but this time it’s on the big screen.

The A-Team is directed by Joe Carnahan and stars Liam Neeson as Hannibal, Bradley Cooper as Lt. Templeton ‘Faceman’ Peck, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson as B.A. Baracus, and Sharlto Copely as Murdock.  Wrongly convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison, the quartet break out and go on the lam in order to clear their names and reclaim their careers and lives and bring the true criminal to justice.

I’ll admit that I didn’t really watch The A-Team growing up.  I only started watching it in my 20′s and early 30′s so I can’t speak from a nostalgic point of view.  For me, this film delivers all of the fun that a typical summer popcorn film is supposed to deliver.  It’s was fast paced and full of explosions, humor, absolutely ridiculous stunts and reality impaired action. But oh what a ride it was.

The Story
Not really knowing the original story of the team I wouldn’t have known any different about what the film was trying to do.  I did however go to see this with a true A-Team aficionado.  In the beginning she wasn’t real happy when the characters were introduced but once it became clear that they were providing the viewers with a bit of an origin story, she became happy again.

If you’re familiar with any of my reviews, you will know I don’t do spoilers of any kind.  I keep the synopsis to an absolute minimum and try to keep any key details out.  So as far as the story goes, I’ll just give you the basics.  You see the team as they first meet one another and are then taken to a point 8 years later after they have established themselves as a team.  You go through the court hearing, conviction, jail time, break out and the mission to clear their names.  It moves quickly, but it doesn’t really linger in one place too long.  Sometimes this type of pacing can be a detriment, but it’s easy enough to follow along so you’re not left scratching your head trying to figure it out.

The Cast
What can I say. I think they nailed it.  From the pictures that were first released I was surprised at how much they all looked the part.  Liam Neeson just keeps getting better with age.  He’s got that twinkle in his eye that George Peppard had and you can tell that the man really does like it when a plan comes together.  He conveyed the aura of a leader and that made him the perfect Hannibal.

I always have a giggle when I think of Bradley Cooper.  I can’t help but remember him from Alias.  Boy has come a long way.  Even though he looks great without a shirt on, you may not think of him as any type of action film actor.  I am rethinking my stance on this point because here he’s able to hold his own in the action scenes. He also provides a bit of comic relief as well which is not unexpected.  He’s got the comedy chops to pull it off without it being awkward.

My first thought when I heard about Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson as B.A. was ‘Who?’.  I don’t follow the UFC or MMA so I wasn’t familiar with him.  I was a tad nervous for anyone trying to fill Mr. T’s shoes however.  He is, after all, an icon.  But Jackson does an awesome job. Bringing the qualities that made B.A., the mo-hawk, the scowl, the fear of flying, alive once again.  B.A. was a perfect role for Jackson, and I’m excited to see what else he does in the future.

Oh Sharlto Copley.  You had me at District 9, but now I’ll forever be smitten with you.  After hearing his Wikus accent in District 9, I was wondering how he would sound with an American accent that has a bit of a southern drawl. The answer is he sounded American.  Go figure right? At one point, when Murdock had to use a different accent, they did a nice little shout out and he reverted back to the Wikus accent. His portrayal of Murdock was spot on I thought.  He had the crazy eye, and crazy talk down to a science.

The Film
I’ve said that it’s fun and fast paced and what a summer film should be.  There were parts of the action that I had a hard time following only because they used the late night drunk camera to film it.  I guess a steady cam wouldn’t work in that type of scene though.  Otherwise there were plenty of explosions, fighting and gun fire to make this action movie fan happy.  Some of the CGI could have been a little better, but that’s just getting nit picky.  The tank scene provided some great action along with some hearty chuckles.  It stuck to the fun and cheesiness of the series even if it went a bit beyond with the death toll and sexual innuendos.  I will tell you to keep your eyes open as you watch this.  I found out about some little Easter eggs after I saw it and am thinking I need to go again so I can catch them.  They are subtle so keep your peepers open.  I didn’t stick around for the credits though, so I can’t say if there is anything afterward.  If there is and you see it, let us know in the comments.

All in all, The A-Team delivers exactly what you think it will.  It’s a film that you can go zone out on and leave the real world behind for 2 hours, have some laughs, get excited over some good action and just have fun with.  It’s not an Oscar winner, but it’s not meant to be.  And that’s ok with me.  I get nervous with all of these remakes, re-imaginings, and reboots that are happening these days.  But with The A-Team, I’ll just say, I love it when a reboot comes together.

This past weekend saw two big movies open at the US box office. There were high hopes for The Karate Kid and The A-Team, and they enjoyed remarkably differing fortune at the box office. With an opening weekend gross of around $25M, The A-Team only made a small percentage of its production budget, while The Karate Kid opened with a massive $68M, against a budget of $40M.

Both are reboots of much loved 80′s properties, and are surely just attempts to milk some more money out of our collective nostalgia. So why has one cash-in so outperformed the other? Here’s five potential reasons.

1. Trailers

It all began with the trailers. Whilst the promos for Joe Carnahan’s action film oozed cheese, bad dialogue and over the top set pieces, the trailers for The Karate Kid evoked more of the spirit of its source material. It threw in some reflections of the original film, whilst updating them for a more contemporary audience. It seemed to understand the charm of the original film, and translated it perfectly to the present day. The A-Team however threw in some lazy one liners evocative of the eighties series, without showing them in any relatable context, and almost seemed to be mocking the much loved TV series. The A-Team stank of cynical money-grabbing, whilst The Karate Kid looked to be a genuine attempt to bring a classic story to a 21st century audience.

2. Buzz

Because of the differing success of the trailers, The A-Team was written off pretty early as a trashy, poorly conceived action film, whilst the enthusiasm for The Karate Kid was greatly increased. Then along came the review scores. Currently, The Karate Kid holds a 69% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. Conversely, Carnahan’s picture trails with 52% rotten. Whilst on a broad level i don’t think review scores mean all that much anymore (particularly considering the relatively small percentage of the theatre audience that internet movie sites actually hit), if you are given a choice between two movies aimed at similar demographics, that 20% review score differential is going to obviously curry favour for the picture with the greater numbers.

4. Story

We all loved The A-Team. It was pure eighties. There were bullets flying, but no-one got shot. BA had superhuman strength, taking on several goons at a time. Murdoch was Howlin’ Mad, and we all watched with anticipation as sparks flew from the heroes’ welding tools, as they put together another hastily constructed tank. We enjoyed watching it, but even then, deep down, we knew it was rubbish. The same basic story every week, with a very similar setting, it was The Seven Samurai on a pitiful budget. The Karate Kid, on the other hand, had a really very touching story at its heart. The young son of a single mother, moving to a new school, being bullied by the local teenagers, was heartbreaking. The friendship struck up between Daniel Larusso and Mr Miyagi was compelling, helped greatly by the overwhelming likability of the quiet, noble Miyagi as played by Pat Morita. The underdog story wasn’t original thematically, but was presented in a compelling and fresh way, through a young boy overcoming the odds using martial arts. The Karate aspect was very much of its time, when a generation of young western boys became fascinated with the hand to hand combat styles of the Far East.

3. Demographic

There are many reasons why The Karate Kid proved more compelling to the movie-going audience than The A-Team. One of the biggest is its broader appeal, particularly to a family audience. Starring a young teenager, with a wholesome story at heart, and no guns in sight, it is a much more suitable option for a family trip to the cinema. With a love story contained within, it also is probably more of a date movie than The A-Team. The A-Team is pitched to a very specific demographic. An over the top, boys own action television series, it appealed to 18-30′s males, but not really to women in the slightest. With no fond memories of watching the TV series as young girls, there is not much really to draw them in.

5. Big Willie Style

Will Smith is the box office man who can. Despite his prolonged absence from the big screen, his influence obviously still holds sway, even rubbing off on his family. If the Karate Kid of the title had been played by an unknown, i don’t think there would have been as much talk surrounding the movie, particularly early on. There was a lot of criticism for the casting of Jaden Smith, with people decrying the fact that ‘Will Smith’s kid’ had won the role through nepotism. Whether this is the case or not, i’m not sure. But it is clear that people were interested to see what kind of job he could do, and no doubt there were many who went into the movie hoping he would fail. The presence of Jackie Chan obviously helped too. It took a long time for Chan to gain cinematic credibility in North America. After big successes with Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon, he had finally won audiences over. His recent movies have begun to damage that, so his suitable casting here has come at a great time. The cast of the A-Team have had success. Last year, The Hangover and District 9 were two of the surprise hits of the summer, bringing relative unknowns Bradley Cooper and Sharlto Copley to the fore. One big role does not however make a bankable star. Liam Neeson is well respected, but despite winning his action credentials with 2008′s Taken, he has never really been a box office draw. The stars of the A-team movie are reasonably well known, but the interest and curiosity factor really just aren’t there.

Movies based on television series don’t traditionally do all that well, and TV shows that are suitable for adaptation tend to have more of a cult following than a big mainstream fanbase. Remakes of movies tend to have an advantage, because they already have a reputation AS movies, and in the case of The Karate Kid, the reputation of a good one. When you remake a successful movie, you know it’ll probably work, because it already has. TV shows are written into a smaller block of time, around 42 minutes, and when attempts are made to make a feature length version, the concept doesn’t tend to stretch far enough for 2 hours. There are exceptions of course, with Mission: Impossible being the one that immediately springs to mind.

It’ll be interesting to see if The A-Team closes the gap next weekend, by suffering a smaller drop off at the box office. Considering the huge deficit, there isn’t a chance for it to catch up with The Karate Kid’s total at the end of their respective runs. It may be, though, that The A-Team enjoys a second life on DVD, with those that didn’t see it in theatres checking it out. I don’t think we’ll see an A-Team sequel, but there is already talk of another Karate Kid film. That may very well become a victim of diminishing returns, but its success relative to its budget makes it worth a punt, and with the success it has enjoyed, we certainly haven’t seen the back of the 80′s cinema revival.

Bazmann – You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/baz_mann

We poor souls in the UK have to wait another 6 weeks longer until we get to see the brand new The A-Team movie. Our lucky American cousins get it tomorrow! which comes out over there tomorrow. UK release date is 28th July so it’s still a while away.

For those of you who can’t wait that long, fear not as we have 4 minutes of the movie which stars Jessica Biel, Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley and Quinton T. Jackson courtesy of MovieFone.

The A-Team is directed by Joe Carnahan and sees a group of 4 men put away for a crime they didn’t commit…..

Here’s a completely uninspired UK poster for the new The A-Team movie which is released 28th May. Hannibal may well love it when a plan comes together but does he love it when the design guys just rehash images together and shove some helicopters in the background? I think not!

Come on Fox, you can do better than this!

The A-Team is directed by Joe Carnahan and stars Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Jessica Biel.

If you’re in any doubt to the bombastic nature of the Joe Carnahan updated version of The A-Team then you might want to check out the first clip to be released.

It was a scene that, when partially included in the trailer, caused a mild tremor of concern from the wider fan community – the original A-Team series always required a willing suspense of disbelief, but when you parachute a tank out of a plane, then fight off an oncoming plane attack using that plummeting tank, it’s a sure sign that this new version would be all about insane, cartoonish action.

The film stars Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Sharlto Copley, Jessica Biel and Patrick Wilson and goes up against nostalgia juggernaut The Expendables and the recently released Losers movie to ensure that the ‘men on a revenge mission’ genre is prominent this year.

The A-Team is released in the UK on the 28th of July.

IGN gave this one to the world.

If you’re a child of the 80s then there is a very good chance you are aware that one of the most revered properties is blasting its way onto the big screen this summer.

Though a retrospect of the series reveals a heavily rose tinted perception, 20th Century Fox are hoping that Joe Carnahan’s The A-Team will win friends and influence a whole new audience while appealing to those of us who watched the Saturday afternoon show.

Continuing the marketing cavalcade there are now four new TV spots, each focusing on a member of the A-Team, and while there’s not a lot that is new here it might serve as a good introduction to the big names on the bill.

Check out the videos below, and hum along to the theme tune if that’s your thing.

A-Team Character TV Spot – Hannibal

A-Team Character TV Spot – Face

A-Team Character TV Spot – B.A. Baracus

A-Team Character TV Spot – Murdock

Yahoo always get the good stuff, and this time it’s four new character spots from the Joe Carnahan directed movie version of the A-Team. The reboot of the 80s TV show stars Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson and Jessica Biel.

Synopsis: A colorful team of former Special Forces soldiers were set up for a crime they did not commit. Going “rogue,” they utilize their unique talents to try and clear their names and find the true culprit.

The A-Team is released 28th July in the UK and although what we’ve seen looks pretty insane, I’ll definitely be going along to my local cinema to check it out. All four character spots are embedded below.

Yesterday I posted 10 new images from Joe Carnahan’s remake of the 1980′s TV series, The A-Team. It’s all a bit worrying as to whether one of my childhood memories is going to be wrecked in the blink of an eye but for the time being I’m holding out some hope!

In the meantime, 20th Century Fox have released four new character posters of the main stars Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. The A-Team is released in the UK 30th July. The US get is over a month earlier on Junes 11th. Yes, I’m jealous!

The chaps over at Filmofilia have managed to acquire 10 new photos of the main cast from The A-Team which is directed by Joe Carnahan and is released in the UK 30th July.

The movie stars Bradley Cooper as Lt. Templeton “˜Faceman’ Peck, Liam Neeson as Col John “˜Hannibal’ Smith, Sharlto Copley as Captain “˜Howling Mad’ Murdock, Quinton “˜Rampage’ Jackson as Sgt Bosco “˜B.A.’ Baracus and Jessica Biel. All the main cast have photos representing them in some way below and you can click each of them to enlarge.

The A-Team is the movie version of the TV series which was originally released in 1983. The previous trailers have looked like it may be well worth a watch but I hope they don’t wreck my childhood memories of something great!

Like us you were probably impressed with the first trailer to emerge from Joe Carnahan’s updating of the 80s TV mainstay The A-Team.

Now Fox have released a whole new trailer which gives voice to the new incarnation of our favourites, along with the requisite bangs and gunplay.

First of all this trailer won’t convert anyone, but if you’re a fan, or even have a passing interest in the series then this trailer will work for you. It gives us glimpses of the story that will be laid before us, offers each of the characters their ‘trailer moment’ and has our heroes scaling buildings with bazookas, escaping the authorities in a huge plane, and there’s the all important argument about travelling by air.

Quinton Jackson says the F word and there’s a great banter between the characters; Liam Neeson has George Peppard’s trademark Hannibal smirk to a tee. A good trailer for what may be a surprise hit, but is B.A. whistling the iconic theme tune a nod too far?

Check it out below or head on over to Apple for HD A-Team.