At approximately 1:12, this red-band trailer for “BATTLE OF THE DAMNED” – initially framed as “Dolph Lundgren Versus The 28 Days Later Monsters,” which would be entertaining enough as it its – becomes the Greatest Trailer EVER:
http://www.springboardplatform.com/js/overlayhttp://cms.springboardplatform.com/embed_iframe/81/video/850211/sh007/shocktillyoudrop.com/10/1/

So, uh… Yeah. Variety says Paul Rudd is Marvel’s “ANT-MAN.” He has the power to change his size, talk to ants and be considered an integral part of “Avengers” history mainly because he was there that day. No confirmation of whether Rudd will be playing either the Hank Pym or Scott Lang version of the character.

Here’s a trailer for “GRAND PIANO,” in which Elijah Wood is a concert pianist who is informed mid-performance that a mysterious sniper is planning to shoot him if he misses a note. Really.

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1

Whoa. When was the last time the first 20 seconds of a trailer (for an original movie) immediately made you decide the movie had to be seen? Here’s “WELCOME TO YESTERDAY,” a Michael Bay produced scifi movie (which clearly owes more than a little to “CHRONICLE”) which opens thusly: A teenager is watching a home movie of his seventh birthday and catches a glimpse of himself – as in his present-day teenage self – standing in the background.

UPDATE III: Un. Real. LaBeouf has taken to his official Twitter to apologize for not giving proper credit for having been “inspired” by Clowes’ comic. One small problem with that: The film is effectively a shot-for-shot, word-for-word, panels-as-storyboards adaptation without credit. That’s not inspiration, or even homage – it’s straight-up plagiarism. LaBeouf is being more or less pilloried for this as we speak – which, since he’s been wealthy and famous since his mid-teens will have no real career impact, but for now it’s kind of amusing. I wonder if he actually does that “NoNONoNoNononononononoNoNONONOnoNo!” thing in real life?

UPDATE II: The video has been password-locked, in the wake of nobody being able to figure out if LaBeouf asked permission to film Clowes’ comic (the author claims he doesn’t know what’s going on) and no one being able to answer if this is A.) a not-terribly-talented actor doing something idiotic or B.) a not terribly talented actor trying and failing at some kind of elaborate James Franco-style “life as comedy sketch” bit.

UPDATE I: The piece weirdly makes no mention of this, but it appears to be based on this Daniel Clowes comic:

I’ll give the kid this: Making your “directoring debut” a short about how miserable, deluded and meaningless movie critics – online critics especially – are when you’re best (exclusively?) known for “TRANSFORMERS” and “KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL” displays some serious “I don’t care how I’m percieved” swagger. I mean… sure, that sort of thing is generally better reserved for when you’ve actually done something, but points for brass all the same.

//player.vimeo.com/video/81777239

Some of this is actually painfully well-observed in an “Okay, who blabbed?” sort of way – “roundtable” junket interviews really are singularly miserable, bizarre little pageants of feigned mutual non-resentment – which is why it’s sort of dissapointing that it doesn’t build to anything more interesting than “critics nitpick their betters because they’re sad about their lives sucking.”

It’s been easy to forget – after the (legitimate) down-marks handed him by “THE DARK KNIGHT RISES” and “MAN OF STEEL” plus the (murkier) transformation of his name into a synonym for inappropriately-grim movie adaptations of… anything, really – why everybody got so excited about Christopher Nolan in the first place. Once upon a time, the “big deal” about “BATMAN BEGINS” was that a legitimately great, exciting new(ish) filmmaker was going to make a Batman movie.

This teaser for “INTERSTELLAR,” though, serves as a big reminder of the other reason to be glad the Nolan Bros. are mostly getting out of the superhero business:

Show of hands on who would’ve thought, even five years ago, that Matthew McConaughey would “work” as a voice of sombre inspiration? I’m in love with this teaser, and not only because I’m SO onboard with the the idea that our semi-abandonment of space-exploration as a virtuous goal worth striving for being a goddamn disgrace – which seems to be the implicit them at play here, or at least one of them (it was also one of the dozen or so interesting thematic points raised but for no ultimately purpose in “MAN OF STEEL,” so maybe this is a “thing” for these cats.)

Of note: The screenplay for this, by Johnathan Nolan, was originally developed with input/collaboration from Steven Spielberg for him (Spielberg) to direct. He bowed out, Christopher Nolan stepped in. So this is potentially sort of a reverse-“A.I.” in as much as we’ve got a brilliant, anti-emotional, aesthetically-clinical grump taking over a Spielberg project as opposed to the reverse. That should be interesting…

Relax, it’s fine.

Also, “SAVING MR. BANKS”

Do I still talk about how great “THE AVENGERS” was too much? Probably – but even I’d be doing it a lot less if the success of that particular film (and the Marvel Cinematic Universe) wasn’t hovering so much of current Hollywood business-dealing like an omnipresent specter. In the same way that “HARRY POTTER” sent everyone with money to spend in the movie business scrambling to lock down a kids/YA fantasy franchise of their own, the mad rush now is to set up multi-film/cross-genre “worldbuilding” movie brands – preferably using superheroes but not exclusively, since Universal has been making some noise about bringing back the Universal Monsters for a “seperate-films-followed-by-a-team-up” project of their own.

Other than Marvel/Disney, the guys in the best shape in this regard are Fox; who’re holding onto the comfortably expansive “X-MEN” franchise strong and hoping that second time will be the charm for “FANTASTIC FOUR.” Warner Bros is approximately one Martian Manhunter away from throwing up it’s hands and saying “Fuck it! “MAN OF STEEL 2” is now “JUSTICE LEAGUE 1.” And Sony? Poor Sony has only James Bond – whom they are obliged to treat gently – and Spider-Man… whom they are demonstrably content to ride hard, put away wet, pass around the yard and rent out to visiting foriegn business associates over the weekend.

The studio has already set up dates for three sequels  to “THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN,” one of which lands in just a few months. Meanwhile, they’ve invited five “superstar” writers – Alex Kurtzman (ew), Roberto Orci (eeeeeew), Jeff Pinker (eh), Drew Goddard (oh?) and Ed Solomon (didn’t know he was still working) – to work out a “universe” built around the extended Spider-Man mythos. Currently on the docket: A solo “VENOM” feature (because I guess it must still be 1995 somewhere…) and a villain-centric “SINISTER SIX” movie (soooo… will they not be teaming up in the main series? What are these other three movies about, then?) The interesting name is Goddard, since he’s also developing the “DAREDEVIL” project for Marvel’s “DEFENDERS” run on Netflix.

I imagine the only reason no one is saying “BLACK CAT” yet is solely because they haven’t bothered to write her into the movies yet, whereas Eddie “Venom” Brock is being namedropped in viral marketing already. After that, I look forward to seeing what kind of surefire masterpieces can be grown from fertile seeds like Man-Wolf, Rocket Racer, Prowler, Morbius: The Living Vampire (okay, that one could be good) or The Spider-Slingers. What a time to be alive.

“EDGE OF TOMORROW” is the hopelessly-generic, boring title given to this otherwise pretty damn good-looking Japanese light-novel adaptation in the belief that it’s original moniker – “ALL YOU NEED IS KILL” – was just too damn awesome for the average audience to wrap it’s brain around. Seriously, WTF? People would actually be talking about that title – “All You Need is KILL?’ What is that? What does that even MEAN!??” They wouldn’t be able to get it out of their heads. (And did no one suggest calling it “RESPAWN,” which still sounds better and would “click” with it’s intended audience?)

The premise is one of those “why didn’t I think of that?” high-concepts: It’s “GROUNDHOG DAY” meets “GEARS OF WAR.” Tom Cruise is a green recruit in a war against alien invaders who gets killed in his first deployment… only to find himself somehow stuck in a “time loop” that causes him to wake up alive and well that same first-day of service every time he dies, able to use his gradually improving war skills and specific foreknowledge of what not to do to fight a bit better and progress a bit further each time. Emily Blunt’s character (a fellow soldier who has become a wartime celebrity for having developed inexplicably superhuman combat skills “somehow”) is called either “Full Metal Bitch” or “The Bitch of War” in translations of the original, which I assume won’t be the case here.