More Marvel's A.K.A. Jessica Jones Recurring Guest Stars Announced

Image Source: Marvel

Daredevil has some steep competition this year when it comes to dominating Netflix's roster of super-heroic entertainment.
Marvel Studios have this week announced another pair of thespians who will star in a recurring capacity in their fourth small-screen superhero drama. Following hot on the heels of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel's Agent Carter and the soon-to-première Netflix series Marvel's Daredevil, Marvel's A.K.A. Jessica Jones will also make its début on the aforementioned paid video-on-demand service in the months to come, but more importantly, the show will introduce Breaking Bad and Veronica Mars actress Krysten Ritter as the titular Avenger-turned-educator of budding defenders of the cosmos.

Much to Ritter's relief, we suspect, she won't be alone in her efforts to bring Jones' exploits from the printed page into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Enter David Tennant and Rachael Taylor, both of whom are now officially attached to the project as regular guest stars and will presumably continue to appear in future seasons of A.K.A. Jessica Jones provided their characters reach the end of Season One breathing. Whilst Tennant (who's set to play the elusive Purple Man)'s Curriculum Vitae is likely so cram-packed with noteworthy film and TV productions (not least Doctor Who, Broadchurch, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and - how could we forget - Casanova) that the vast majority of MCU followers should be more than familiar with his immense actorial range, Taylor (soon to be recognised as Jones' pal Trish Walker / Hellcat) will perhaps represent something of an unknown quantity for most given that her most widely-publicised performances came in the form of contributions to Transformers (2007) and a soon-axed Charlie's Angels remake. Between Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Hayley Atwell and numerous other actors, though, the list of previously unknown stars whose careers have been rapidly elevated thanks to their involvement with the Earth's Mightiest Heroes is damn near endless and as such, regardless of the extent to which Taylor believes she has excelled in the entertainment industry so far, there's a substantial chance that the most lucrative days of her career lie just beyond the horizon.

Marvel's A.K.A. Jessica Jones will recruit thirteen episodes to its cause and reveal each and every one of them onto Netflix at once in late 2015. What's more, long before Ritter's MCU inauguration, Charlie Cox will adopt the mantle of Marvel's Daredevil in a 13-part series due to land in the same place this April 10th.

Further Doctor Who Season Nine Production Details Announced

Source: Zap 2 It

The Twelfth Doctor is back for another run of adventures - but just who wrote the second set of scripts due to be filmed for the new series?
Executive producer Steven Moffat has this week confirmed additional details regarding the production of the new series of the BBC's science-fiction drama Doctor Who. The 12-part season, which marks the ninth since the programme exploded back onto our screens with Chris Eccleston at the TARDIS' helm in 2005, will once again star The Thick of It's Peter Capaldi as the "idiot" who recently cast off labels such as "a good man" and "an officer" in favour of the universe at large taking a less morally-eschewed perspective on his perspective, not to mention Jenna Coleman, who'll return as Clara Oswald, or as we've come to know her, the only human being capable of taking the Time Lord down a peg or three.

During our unscheduled Christmas hiatus, Moffat went on record (via the official BBC website) so as to reveal that Toby Whithouse had just added a two-parter to his Who repertoire by penning Episodes 3 and 4 of Season Nine, both of which are currently being filmed by the show's production team somewhere in the secretive depths of Cardiff, but as ever, the story's far from being all over. Instead, once those two instalments are in the hands of the various post-production editors, Capaldi and the gang will move onto film two episodes written by Moffat himself (neither of which has been officially titled yet, although "The Magician's Apprentice" - the name of which was confirmed in the closing moments of the 2014 Christmas Special - could well be amongst them) along with a series of 45-minute voyages through time and space produced by (as the Moff said in response to the Radio Times earlier this week) by "some new" and "some old" British talent. Work schedules allowing, Mark Gatiss, Jamie Mathieson and Gareth Roberts all seem like fairly safe bets for at least a few of the slots in this year's line-up of one-off writers, although quite who'll act as the "new" additions to modern Who's formidable array of scribes could well remain a mystery which keeps fans speculating from now until the weeks leading up to Season Nine's première!

Chances are that with the tenth anniversary of the show's resurrection fast approaching this March, Doctor Who could make a bonus appearance on our screens before too long. Failing that, though, the programme will return for its ninth season on BBC One this Autumn.

Ted 2 Teaser Trailer Released

Source: Screenrant

Forget Not Suitable For Work, if possible, this clip probably shouldn't be experienced anywhere near to the rest of society...
Universal Pictures have this week launched the teaser trailer for their upcoming comedy motion picture Ted 2. Scheduled for release in this year's Summer of Film blockbuster season, the sequel to 2012's Ted will see both Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane reprise their roles as the hapless yet endearing John and his endearing yet hopeless animated plaything Ted, but aside from those two, the cast ensemble has undergone something of an overhaul, ditching the likes of Mila Kunis in favour of Les Miserables' Amanda Seyfried - who'll portray a lawyer assigned the task of defending Ted so as to allow him and his wife to have a child (don't ask) - and Last Vegas' Morgan Freeman (not that we're complaining in either of those two cases, of course).

As the old saying goes, however, the more cast members change, the more sexually-provocative and borderline insulting gags stay the same (or words to that effect, anyway). Indeed, what Ted 2 lacks in returning guest stars, the teaser trail (below) suggests it'll more than compensate for with a barrage of one-liners and slapstick-centric set-pieces that are all but guaranteed to take even the most seasoned follower of cinematic comedy outings off-guard, even if only for a moment. Yet what the trail can't confirm or deny just yet is whether what's sure to be one of 2015's most divisive mainstream movies will make up for its predecessor's failure to maintain momentum during its third act, since from our perspective, this aforementioned structural shortcoming was a pivotal factor that had a profound influence on the original Ted to such an extent that the piece itself only acquired a 3* rating from On-Screen as opposed to the quartet of stars MacFarlane and company might have earned had they not placed the tediously clichéd romance blooming between John and Kunis' Lori centre-stage for such a prolonged stint of time. If Ted 2 does begin to look set to change the franchise's critical trajectory, though, then it'll come as no surprise for our dedicated readers to learn that this very blog will be the first to bellow the news from atop a skyscraper - in other words, stay tuned to On-Screen...

Ted 2 will - provided that its distributors aren't too busy joining Wahlberg and MacFarlane's characters in a narcotics-inhaling session, of course - commence the hunt for its Thunder Buddies in UK cinemas nationwide this June 26th.

New Game of Thrones Season Five Teaser Trailer Leaked

Source: YouTube

For those wondering, Danaerys and the gang are joining fans in staring at HBO until they release an official cut...
Members of the YouTube social networking community have today leaked an unofficial version of the first full teaser trailer (below) for the long-awaited fifth season of HBO's ongoing fantasy drama Game of Thrones. The video, which premièred at an IMAX screening of the penultimate and final episodes of the show's fourth season ("The Watchers on the Wall" and "The Children" respectively) yesterday evening in the United States, made its way online earlier today, although no officially-endorsed rendition had surfaced on the interwebs in response at the time of writing (if and when one such cut does appear, we'll update this article accordingly).

As the hordes of Thrones fanatics in attendance at last night's screenings would doubtless attest, in bringing about (SPOILER ALERT!) the demise of Tywin Lannister (not to mention Tyrion's prostitute-turned-scornful lover Shae), the union of the Knight's Watch with the forces of one Stannis Baratheon (check out any clip featuring Davos if a recap of the latter construct's significance is required) and the supposed downfall of Arya's adversary-turned-uneasy ally Sandor Clegane, "The Children" appeared to signal an all manner of changes for the status quo come Season Five. Indeed, unless the programme's marketing team have deceptively mashed together a handful of scenes which deviate from the norm (whatever that transient concept really means in the case of a series which comes close to changing its goalposts on a weekly basis), all the evidence displayed here strongly implies that the past twelve months will have dramatically altered the political trajectory of Westeros and its presumably increasingly weary residents to such an extent that the outcome of the long-running War of the Five Kings will undoubtedly continually represent anything but a done deal.

After almost a full year off air, Game of Thrones therefore looks all set to sharpen its pitchfork and light its torch in time for ten further one-hour instalments of high-octane fantasy warfare, the first of which will air on HBO this April 5th and via Sky Atlantic in the UK this April 13th at 9pm.

UPDATE (30-01-2015, 11.32pm) - As if in answer to our pleas, HBO have just released an official, high-definition version of the aforementioned Season Five trailer, so scroll down just a little further if you'd rather view the video in its admittedly visually sumptuous original format.

Terminator Genisys Super Bowl XLIX TV Spot Unveiled (& Why Genisys Is Our Most Anticipated Film of 2015)

Source: Robot Butt

Don't worry, this one isn't going anywhere in the months to come. In short, Arnie and co will be ba - oh, forget it.
Paramount Pictures have revealed the first full TV trailer for their upcoming science-fiction film Terminator Genisys just a few days ahead of the spot's Stateside début during the ad breaks of the Super Bowl XLIX event taking place over the weekend. Helmed by Game of Thrones' Alan Taylor and starring his Thrones cohort Emilia Clarke (or Danaerys, as Westeros' residents know her when they're not too busy attempting to avoid death by dragon-fire) in the pivotal role of Sarah Connor, this fifth cinematic chapter in the time-hopping franchise of part-dystopian, part-epic (in the most literal sense of the generic term) will seemingly erase the narrative continuity of all of its predecessors - the dreadful Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines included, with any luck - in the hope of kick-starting a rumoured trilogy wherein the past, present and future of the planet Earth as we've come to know it on-screen so far will be up for grabs.

Before moving on any further in our analysis of the latest video preview for a blockbuster which we're unashamed to admit ranks as our Most Anticipated Film of 2015 thanks to the refreshingly radical nature of its premise, the all-star cast of talented thespians lined up to take on its leading roles and the unmatched strength of its initial teaser trailer, though, it's necessary at this point for us to acknowledge that this secondary glimpse doesn't offer much in the way of new material. That said, Super Bowl viewers (or anyone like ourselves who found themselves compelled enough by the teaser to hang around) can catch some never-before-seen (well, until hordes of fans flocked online yesterday to watch this particular clip, of course) footage from Genisys between the four- and fourteen-second marks as well as a couple of aesthetically spectacular explosions by waiting just eighteen or so seconds, both of which should provide more than enough in the way of reasons for sceptical and more open-minded Terminator followers alike to take a look below so as to further inform their viewpoint on whether or not the series can fulfil its potential for the first time since Judgement Day arrived in 1991.

Terminator Genisys will offer audiences the opportunity to come along for the ride "if they want to live" this July 3rd in UK cinemas nationwide. In the meantime, stay tuned to On-Screen for all of the latest info, TV spots, leaks and the like...

LEGO Jurassic World & LEGO Marvel's Avengers Announced

Source: Co-Optimus

At the rate they're churning out LEGO spin-offs and sequels, we're starting to wonder if TT Games could build Rome in a day!
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment have this week confirmed the release of two further instalments in their long-running franchise of licensed video games based on pre-established LEGO properties. Designed exclusively by TT Games, this near-unparalleled saga of block-tastic adaptations began life with LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game in 2005, only to move onto a wealth of other beloved film sagas such as Indiana Jones, Harry Potter and The Hobbit once all six of George Lucas' science-fiction epics had been infused with the satirical humour for which TT's projects have rightly become renowned.

What's next on the development team's slate, then? A mixture of properties old and new, it would appear - joining Jurassic World at the time of its cinematic début will be LEGO Jurassic World (prizes are over in the corner for anyone who predicted that title), a prehistoric platformer whose main campaign will incorporate the events of Jurassic Park (1993), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Jurassic Park III (2001) as well as - of course - this Summer's Chris Pratt-starring re-imaging of Isla Nublar and all of its ferocious inhabitants. Whereas in previous years TT might have been content to halt their LEGO offerings after one fully-fledged instalment, though, 2015's first licensed tie-in only represents the metaphorical appetiser dish, with players' main courses coming in the form of LEGO Marvel's Avengers.

If the name wasn't enough of an indication, this spiritual successor to 2013's LEGO Marvel Superheroes will focus on the escapades of the Marvel Cinematic Universe incarnation of the Earth's Mightiest Heroes, chronicling their confrontation with Loki and his legions of Chitauri forces in Avengers Assemble (2012) before depicting the events of this April's Avengers: Age of Ultron just a few months after the latter motion picture arrives on UK shores ("and more", according to Warner's official press release, though quite whether this aside hints at levels inspired by Thor, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the like remains to be seen). In spite of our qualms with the lack of creative inspiration present in last year's LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (which managed a respectable 6/10 thanks to its trove of DC Easter eggs along with its sublime DLC packs), then, that TT are returning to pre-established narratives for inspiration this time around at least offers hope we're in for a more substantial treat here.

LEGO Jurassic World will open its gates to Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo WiiU, Nintendo 3DS and PC this June, whilst LEGO Marvel's Avengers will assemble on precisely the same set of consoles this Autumn.

An Inspector Calls TV Adaptation Central Cast Members Announced (& Some Thoughts On 'The Theory of Everything')

Source: FanPop

With the position of Professor of the Dark Arts occupied at present, Remus Lupin has found gainful employment elsewhere...
The BBC have today announced the identities of the performers who will serve as the central cast ensemble for the studio's upcoming televised adaptation of An Inspector Calls. Originally performed as a stage drama in 1945, J.B. Priestley's classic play centres on a mysterious yet tragic occurrence which - with a little help from the no-less-ambiguous construct who gives the text its name - prompts the prosperous Birling family to uncover secrets surrounding the social consequences of their recent actions that could collectively ruin them before the night is done.

Amongst the actors confirmed to star in the first fully-fledged screen rendition of the production since 2010 are Ken Stott (of The Hobbit fame, who'll portray Arthur Birling), Miranda Richardson (better known as Harry Potter's own Rita Skeeter, though here she'll go by the name of Sybil Birling), Chloe Pirrie (Shell), Kyle Soller (Bad Education), Sophie Rundle and Finn Cole (both from Peaky Blinders). By far the main attraction of the piece, however, will undoubtedly be David Thewlis, who'll take on the role of none other than the Inspector just months after he graced our screens as Nick Davies in The Fifth Estate and, more notably still, as Stephen Hawking's tutor Dennis Sciama in The Theory of Everything. Speaking to the BBC Press Office regarding his casting as perhaps Priestley's most famous (or indeed infamous) creation, Thewlis confirmed that he was "thrilled to be working on this beautiful screen adaptation with [director] Aisling Walsh".

Further details surrounding the plot, production and broadcast window of An Inspector Calls will doubtless be issued by the Beeb in due course, but with the weekend on the horizon (and thank goodness, we might add), we thought it worth passing on a wholehearted recommendation relating to Thewlis' recent work. As was mentioned above, the Harry Potter thespian's latest contribution to the film industry came in his portrayal of Sciama in The Theory of Everything, and much as various other Academy Award contenders and mainstream blockbusters alike will try to vie for our readers' attention this month and next, we'd strongly advise considering a trip to the cinema in order to experience Theory (a 5* game-changer for the biopic genre if ever we laid eyes upon one, to be frank) for yourself at some point in the not too distant future. As ever, Thewlis is on top form, yet it's Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones' Oscar-worthy performances which ensure that the understated yet heart-wrenching score, James Marsh's similarly subtle yet aesthetically impactful direction, the simultaneously mainstream-appeasing and intellectual screenplay (which serves as something of a tour de force for budding biopic innovators) and the range of other exemplary turns from the likes of Charlie Cox are merely the metaphorical icing on an already delectable cake.

Anyway, back to business - An Inspector Calls will film in Yorkshire over the course of February ahead of its UK première on BBC One in late 2015.

Planet of the Apes, The Fantastic Four 2 & Assassin's Creed Release Schedule Altered

Source: DualShockers

Michael Fassbender, Andy Serkis and Miles Teller join forces (in a manner of speaking) for three audacious adaptations for the ages.
As if it wasn't enough for them to reveal just when Gambit's set to show its cards to the world, 20th Century Fox have today also announced details of a revised release schedule for the third instalment in their rebooted Planet of the Apes saga, the follow-up to their impending X-Men Cinematic Universe spin-off The Fantastic Four and, just to top it all off, their long-in-limbo take on Ubisoft's hit Assassin's Creed franchise of time-travelling video game voyages. Whilst the former of this trio has seemingly been blessed with a painless development cycle (indeed, its existence and successful première looked all but inevitable from the outset given the commercial and critical acclaim reaped by Dawn of the Planet of the Apes last Summer), the latter pair haven't been anywhere near as fortunate, falling prey to sceptic fans and scheduling issues aplenty in their long-winded quests to début in auditoriums the world over (although admittedly The Fantastic Four 2 has been hampered of late more as a result of production troubles faced by its predecessor than anything else).

Contrary to popular belief (in some online circles, at least), though, the situation isn't hopelessly bleak at this point by any means, since none of these motion pictures are anywhere close to having their metaphorical heads removed by a metaphorical guillotine (short of The Fantastic Four performing woefully this July, anyway). Given that Dawn may well have scooped up our Film of the Year 2014 award (more on that particular shortlist soon), we'd be amazed if our readers didn't anticipate the fact that our levels of excitement for the follow-up are phenomenally high. Indeed, we're hardly fretful about the notion of experiencing a cinematic version of Creed, yet the same can't necessarily be said of Josh Trank's The Fantastic Four, especially in light of our profound disillusionment with the director's début effort, Chronicle (2/5). As ever, however, it'll doubtless pay dividends to reserve judgement until release date, and it's with that in mind that we'll reiterate the need for anyone who's got even a faint interest in discovering the critical or commercial prospects of film projects such as these (or any major mainstream blockbuster, for that matter) to keep it locked at On-Screen in the months ahead.

Planet of the Apes (and yes, Fox truly are refusing to brand it as anything other than the third film with that title in half a century) will now clamber into cinemas on July 14th, 2017, after which before the so-called Fantastic Four reassemble in time for June 2nd, 2017, yet not before Assassin's Creed loads up its Animus in local ODEONs, Vues and the like on December 21st, 2016.

Gambit Release Date Revealed

Source: Image Vent

We'd advise a celebratory re-watch of X-Men Origins: Wolverine were it not for the required sacrifice of a portion of our readers' souls...
20th Century Fox have today announced the official release date of their upcoming superhero film Gambit. Inspired by the printed antics of one of Marvel Comics' best-loved X-Men characters to date, the latest blockbuster project on Fox's slate will presumably balance its role as a spin-off instalment in the increasingly ambitious X-Men film franchise with its attempts to rectify the noteworthy missteps made as the production team of X-Men Origins: Wolverine attempted to render the acrobatic card-slinger on the big-screen for the first time alongside Blob, Deadpool and a number of other mutants who all clamoured for screen-time to such an extent that many argue it became difficult to know just what the loathed prequel outing in question was hoping to accomplish.

Quite whether the studio intended to release this particular temporal titbit so imminently after slotting Gambit into their launch schedule is another issue entirely, of course. Not for the first time, one of their leading players - in case the leading player, Channing Tatum (who'll be donning the literary construct's semi-iconic attire next year) - broke the news on Twitter without hesitation yesterday evening, leading Fox to re-tweet said post so as to confirm that the information contained within it was indeed official. In the long run, however, a few crossed marketing-centric wires shouldn't dampen the level of enthusiasm already exhibited by the franchise's (or the character's) fanbase, especially as by launching towards the latter end of 2016, this'll in fact mark the third X-outing in a single year, a feat which won't be echoed by any of Fox's competitors until at least 2017 when Marvel Studios follow suit and launch Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther in the space of just twelve months. There's plenty of time for the playing field to change drastically, of course, but at this precise moment, based on the tweet below as well as on the monumental superhero slates unveiled by Marvel and DC last year, it looks as if this particular genre is set to show no signs whatsoever of losing traction for the foreseeable future.

How do you say October 7, 2016 in Cajun?
— Channing Tatum (@channingtatum) January 6, 2015

In case the tantalising words depicted above weren't enough of an indication, Gambit will thrust its playing deck onto the nearest poker table on October 7th, 2016.