Into the Woods Teaser Trailer Released

Source: Play Pro Media

Here there be monsters filled with a thirst for blood...and songs filled with rhyming couplets!
Walt Disney Pictures have this week unveiled the teaser trailer for their upcoming musical fantasy blockbuster Into the Woods. Based loosely on the narrative of the Broadway production of the same name, this Rob Marshall-directed motion picture follows the likes of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Les Miserables into battle as one of a select few cinematic productions which dare to completely spoken dialogue (well, relatively speaking, anyway) from the storytelling equation.

Both of its aforementioned predecessors arguably thrived in the box office thanks to their all-star cast ensembles; in this respect, Into the Woods isn't at all likely to be perceived as inferior by mainstream audiences. From James Corden to Chris Pine, from Emily Blunt to Anna Kendrick, from Annette Crosbie to Johnny Depp (no, really!), the list of beloved thespians attached to the project is utterly staggering, offering Marshall and his intrepid production (and post-production) team to forge an unforgettable big-screen masterpiece which (with the right creative vision powering its storyline and direction) could even match or surpass the festive takings of Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies...

Into the Woods imparts its first magical yarn to viewers in cinemas worldwide this Christmas Day.

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb Teaser Trailer Released

Source: Den of Geek

Or, as we're tempted to call it from now on, Night at the Museum UK!
20th Century Fox have this week released the teaser trailer (below) for their upcoming fantasy film Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. Starring Ben Stiller, Robin Williams and (you guessed it) Ricky Gervais, the not-so-anticipated follow-up to the decent-if-unspectacular 2006 blockbuster Night at the Museum and its 2009 successor Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian finds protagonist Larry Daley (Stiller) whisked off to the Natural History Museum here in good ol' Great Britain ("Oh, Britannia, Britannia all the..." etc.) as he desperately attempts to locate a replacement for the now-decrepit Egyptian artefact which brings his otherwise-inanimate historical pals to life on a nightly basis.

Much as we'd love to tell you otherwise, Secret of the Tomb doesn't look set to test and broaden the boundaries of mainstream cinema to any notable degree. It'll instead apparently feature countless riffs on well-worn gags, cameos from the likes of Rebel Wilson (here's hoping that most of Fox's target audience went to see the brilliantly quirky Pitch Perfect, then!) and wonky CGI, yet if anyone thinks for a minute that lingering cynicism surrounding the future of this surprisingly long-running series will diminish Secret's box office potential, then come this Christmas, they're likely going to find themselves sorely mistaken!

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb awakens in cinemas worldwide this December 19th.

Jungle Book: Origins Release Date Announced

Source: Star Wars 7 News

Only one audacious film studio would attempt to directly best Disney at their own game...
Warner Bros. Pictures have this week announced the global release date of their upcoming live-action fantasy film Jungle Book: Origins. Based (as if you hadn't already guessed) on Rupyard Kipling's universally beloved 19th Century short story collection The Jungle Book, Origins' screenplay will be written by Steve Kloves (whose previous work includes contributions to the Harry Potter franchise) and directed by none other than The Lord of the Rings and Planet of the Apes' Andy Serkis.

In any other decade, these attributes alone would have virtually guaranteed Warner a considerable amount of box office success. Perhaps that'll still be the case come 2016, yet the fact that Walt Disney Pictures are launching their own live-action reboot of The Jungle Book - starring Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley and now Bill Murray (in the role of Baloo, no less!) just a year before Origins certainly won't help matters. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Tarzan, King Arthur, LEGO Ninjago and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them should all soften the blow for the studio in the event of a misfire, but it'd come as no great shock to us if we catch wind of a production delay or cancellation talks for the project in the not too distant future. For now, though, let's wish Serkis and company the very best of luck in bringing Origins to our screens - lesser production teams have doubtless tried and succeeded before with the odds stacked firmly against them!

Jungle Book: Origins crawls into cinemas worldwide on October 21st, 2016.

First The Hateful Eight Promotional Poster Released

Source: Digital Spy

Perhaps the most infamous creation of the most infamous film auteur ever is coming back to life!
Director Quentin Tarantino and The Weinstein Company have this week released the first promotional poster for their (apparently) revived action-adventure motion picture The Hateful Eight. Intended as a homage to Western cinema (the genre, not the oft-maligned regional approach to big-screen narratives), the latest project from the mind behind Django Unchained has already set its satirical lenses to work by selecting a title which unashamedly parodies the classic 1960 blockbuster The Magnificent Seven (starring the recently-departed Eli Wallach and Steve McQueen amongst other big names of their era), and fans of the aforementioned director's work can be sure that the shameless puns and sight gags won't end there by a long shot.

In fact, the words "a long shot" are probably going to end up being closely associated with Hateful's turbulent production schedule in months to come, as the film was originally thought dead by the vast majority of Tarantinoians (apologies, that's the best noun we can possibly use to describe the man's fandom at this point in the evening - stay tuned for more horrendously contrived attempts at finding a collective noun with which to comedically group them!) after the initial screenplay was leaked online back in January. Presumably if this isn't all a hoax, then Django's Samuel L. Jackson, House and Two & A Half Men's Amber Tamblyn and the rest of the all-star cast ensemble who appeared at the event where Tarantino announced further drafts were in development will all be back on board to start shooting what should be one of the most ambitious ventures from Pulp Fiction's helmer yet.

The Hateful Eight will stride into cinemas worldwide in 2015.

New Homefront: The Revolution Development Studio Announced

Source: Twinfinite

As if Deep Silver hadn't already caused enough Kaos with Dead Island!

Koch Media have this week announced their acquisition of CryTek's Homefront franchise of dystopian first-person-shooter video games. This much-needed deal will ideally allow the publisher's newly-formed development studio Deep Silver Dambuster (a subsidiary of Dead Island's Deep Silver) to put the finishing touches to Homefront: The Revolution in time for its projected release window.

Despite the mediocrity of its immediate predecessor, we can't help but feel sorry for The Revolution at this point - the project was originally in-the-works at THQ before that esteemed-yet-fledging publisher was shut down in 2013, at which point its assets were transferred to CryTek in order to secure the product's future. CryTek aren't exactly in a prime financial position right now either, though, hence their decision to transfer the Homefront IP in its entirety to another studio. Of the product's immediate prospects at Koch Media and Deep Silver, chief exec Klemens Kundratitz had this to say: "We strongly believe in the potential of Homefront: The Revolution and trust in the new team [which is largely composed of laid-off CryTek staff who were already assigned to the product's development] to continue the path they have been walking in the last years."

Homefront: The Revolution will ignite the flames of change on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC in 2015.

LittleBigPlanet 3 & Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker Release Dates Announced

Source: Wii U Daily

Battle hand-drawn foes and Goombas galore in two hotly anticipated first-party exclusive titles...
Sony and Nintendo have this week announced official release dates for their impending platforming video game products LittleBigPlanet 3 and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker respectively. Whereas the former will continue to build upon its franchise's long-established formula of online level creation and experimentation, the latter is the first original spin-off from the Super Mario series that we've seen in some time, finally placing the eponymous mushroom-headed protagonist at the heart of its narrative.

Just as we've come to expect from their respective publishers, both titles demonstrated huge potential at their E3 2014 showings and should no doubt garner impressive sales in both the United States and the UK come their release dates. Since virtually all of the launch dates for major video game releases coming our way in the next few months have been announced as of today, now seems like the perfect opportunity to recap the current release calendar for the remainder of 2014 and early 2015. As ever, our most-anticipated titles are highlighted in yellow, so do look out for those!

• SEPTEMBER 2014 - The Sims 4 (2nd); Destiny (9th); Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes (23rd); FIFA 15 (23rd); Forza Horizon 2 (30th)
• OCTOBER 2014 - Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (3rd); Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (3rd); Alien: Isolation (7th); Project Spark (7th); Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! (14th); The Evil Within (14th); Evolve (21st); Fantasia: Music Evolved (21st); Just Dance 2015 (21st); Civilization: Beyond Earth (24th); Assassin's Creed Unity (28th); Sunset Overdrive (28th); Bayonetta 2 (TBA)
• NOVEMBER 2014 - Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (4th); Halo: The Master Chief Collection (11th); Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal (11th); The Crew (11th) Dragon Age: Inquisition (18th); FarCry 4 (18th); LittleBigPlanet 3 (18th); Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (18th); Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (21st); Project CARS (TBA)
• DECEMBER 2014 - Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix (5th); Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (9th)
• JANUARY 2015 - Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (TBA - UK Release Window)
• FEBRUARY 2015 - The Order: 1886 (20th); The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (24th); Batman: Arkham Knight (TBA)

LittleBigPlanet 3 builds its foundations exclusively on PlayStation 3 this November 18th and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker pulls out its map exclusively on Nintendo Wii U in January 2015 (that's the UK release window, anyway - it's still scheduled for a Winter 2014 launch in the US for some peculiar reason).

New BioShock Video Game Teased

Source: Rift Enabled

You can't keep a persistent Big Daddy (or a long-running franchise) down!
2K Games have this week hinted at the announcement of a new instalment in their BioShock franchise of first-person-shooter video games. Primarily developed by Irrational Games, this accomplished series kicked off with the aptly-named cult classic BioShock back in 2007 and since then, we've been graced with two diverse and innovative follow-ups, the latter of which - BioShock Infinite, which landed on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC last year - came admirably close to scooping up our Game of the Year award for 2013 here at On-Screen.

The news comes fresh from 2K's UK division via their Twitter account rather than the company's global Twitter feed, so make of that what you will. Here's the tweet in question:

Oooo, what COULD this mean?! pic.twitter.com/P93Nl643SU
— 2K United Kingdom (@2KInternational) July 24, 2014

To any long-standing fans of Rapture, this screeenshot should be a particularly familiar one, since "Eve's Garden" was one of a variety of stores which the player could visit whilst exploring Fort Frolic in the original BioShock. The teased reveal doesn't have to be a fully-fledged follow-up or DLC outing, of course - there's every chance that it'll turn out to be something akin to a Humble Bundle or the like, but all the same, that won't stop us speculating that the image (itself a satirical biblical allusion) might be intended to foreshadow a return to Rapture in some form. Stay tuned to On-Screen for more news on 2K Games' upcoming video game projects as we move closer to the mid-August return of Gamescom...

BioShock Infinite is out now for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.