Chris Pine Joins Wonder Woman

Chris Pine has reportedly signed on to join the cast of Wonder Woman starring opposite leading lady Gal Gadot in the Warner Bros Comic Book movie set to be directed by Patty Jenkins.

Star Trek star Pine will play love interest Steve Trevor in the new DC Comics big screen adaptation. In the original Wonder Woman comics Steve Trevor as an intelligence officer fr the US Army whose plan crash landed on Paradise Island, the isolated magical homeland of Wonder Woman’s Amazon people.

In addition to being frequently rescued by Wonder Woman, Trevor often fought alongside her and worked with her meek alter-ego Diana Prince oddly oblivious to her true identity.

There have actually been many different versions of the Steve Trevor character in the subsequent decades of Wonder Woman comics, with the pair even marrying in the final issue of the original series.

It’s likely the film version Pine will play will probably be at least loosely based on the classic stereotype of a handsome army officer who falls understandably for the goddess like Wonder Woman. Though it’s unclear if Pine’s character will actually be clueless enough to be fooled by Diana Prince slipping on some glasses and acting a bit timid…

Hayley Atwell Talks Agent Carter Season 2

Hayley Atwell spoke in-depth to excited fans at the Showmasters London Film & Comic Con 2015 sharing news about the much anticipated second season of Marvel TV series Agent Carter.

Beautiful star Atwell confirmed that the new season will see the show relocate to Los Angeles as Howard Stark opens a film studio and Jarvis struggles to adapt to life in the glamorous Hollywood setting, much to Peggy’s amusement. Hayley admitted she also very much enjoyed recent chemistry casting sessions for a new love interest for Peggy. Aside from lots more ‘snogging’ Hayley confirmed that the show will continue to explore other elements of Peggy’s backstory and likely at some point address the founding of SHIELD and her having a family. In great news for fans of the show Hayley confirmed that she hopes that the series will keep running long enough to allow her to explore Peggy’s journey into the 1960s and 1970s as well.

Speaking in the wake of recent debate about how Marvel has handled it’s female heroes Hayley also shared her impassioned views on issues like feminism in comic books and the LGBT subtext some fans have read into the series with the Cartinelli pairing.

On a lighter note Hayley explained the origins of her ongoing hilarious Dubsmash war with the cast of Agents of SHIELD and some of the pranks that make life working for Marvel such a  treat.

Rachel McAdams In Doctor Strange Talks

Rachel McAdams has admitted that she’s in the early stages of talks with Marvel about potentially joining the cast of Doctor Strange as the love interest for Benedict Cumberbatch. The Mean Girls and True Detective star did acknowledge that it was unclear whether things would go anywhere. So there may yet be another face staring in wonder at the evidently magic Cumberbatch cheekbones.

Inside Out Review

The Plot

Riley is an 11 year old girl dealing with her family relocating to San Francisco. Meanwhile the various emotions that populate the inside of Riley’s head including Joy, Sadness and Anger face their own challenges in preserving her personality and happy state of mind.

The Good

Pixar always deliver the flawless quality in digital animation you would expect from the company that pioneered the technology. However, what makes Pixar films truly special is their ability to consistently tell original stories with subtle emotional complexity that appeal to young and older audiences equally.

Inside Out represents a brave and ambitious effort to explore the inner emotional workings of the human mind in a colourful cartoon way. Though easily Pixar’s most conceptually challenging adventure, Inside Out remains at its core an easily identifiable story about coming of age and the precise moment when the uncomplicated joy of early childhood comes to a reluctant end.

It’s incredibly easy to instantly relate to Riley’s painful experience of moving home and losing friends, both real and imaginary. Much like the Toy Story franchise was really a long metaphor for the painful realities of mortality, Inside Out is actually a beautiful ode to lost childhood innocence.

Director Pete Docter has a proven knack for highly emotional storytelling. After all he’s the man responsible for the heart-breaking and poignant opening 10 minutes of Up. Inside Out is once again packed with characters and sincere moments guaranteed to tug on audiences heartstrings till they break.

Visually, Inside Out has a soft edged dream like quality that playfully offsets the films more serious substance. Pixar does a great job of personifying the most common human emotions as endearingly fuzzy faced cartoon caricatures. The amusing antics of Fear, Anger & Disgust serve as a happy distraction to the main adventure which sees Joy and Sadness fighting to preserve Riley’s identity and treasured memories.

A superb voice cast lead by Amy Poehler add an extra dimension of personality to their emotional characters. Phyllis Smith’s permanently gloomy Sadness and Lewis Black’s perpetually furious Anger often steal the show.

The Bad

Inside Out does a mostly brilliant job of taking its highbrow psychological concepts and turning them into fluffy cartoon fun, however younger children may still find that some of the film’s subtext and Riley’s adolescent anxieties harder to understand.  The film treads a fine line between oversimplification and the risk of losing its target audience in the intricacies of the human mind.

The Ugly Truth

Given a recent trend towards easy crowd pleasing sequels and prequels it’s refreshing to see Pixar explore genuinely original territory again with a clever and poignant emotional story. Inside Out has enough colourful fun to keep young children happy and enough sophisticated subtext to capture the hearts of older audiences too.

Review by Russell Nelson

Mission Impossible Rogue Nation London Premiere Pictures

Check out  the latest gallery of high quality pictures of Tom Cruise and the rest of the cast and crew of action sequel Mission Impossible Rogue Nation walking the red carpet in London for a special fan screening event at the BFI IMAX.