Wednesday, November 18

• Medusa Unveiled in New Percy Jackson Trailer

  The international trailer for Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is out, and it shows the storyline in a much more coherent way than earlier teasers — and displays at least one plot change from the book and an older Percy. (Logan Lerman is clearly not 12 in this clip.)

  It also offers a pretty cool preview of some of the movie's creature designs. Highlights include glimpses of the watery powers that Percy inherited from his sea god father Poseidon (Kevin McKidd), a very cool sequence in which his teacher Mrs. Dodds (Maria Olsen) transforms into a bat-winged Fury, and a first look at Uma Thurman as Medusa. Sporting a head full of snakes and a come-hither attitude, she tries to entice our young hero out from behind his iPod to "sneak a peek," with all the horrible consequences that would entail.

  See Meet the Cast of Percy Jackson to learn more about the movie's half-bloods, Greek gods, monsters, and occasional mortals.

  
  

  Posted 11/18/2009 by Bill

  Related: Uma Thurman | Kevin McKidd | Logan Lerman | Maria Olsen | Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Friday, October 30

• New Posters, Lightning Billboard for Percy Jackson Movie

  The new poster for Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief has the young hero Percy hip-deep in water and brandishing a lightning bolt. Not a good idea — unless you just happen to be a demi-god and the son of Poseidon. Then everybody else had better watch out.

  This theme is carried over in what's being touted as the "world's first electronic lightning billboard." The movie's stars came out as they turned on the billboard's juice. Logan Lerman (Percy), Kevin McKidd (Poseidon), and Alexandra Daddario (Annabeth, daughter of Athena) were all on hand for autographs and interviews at the event.

  Talking with ET, they were all clearly charged up about the movie, and Lerman offered his own summary of what the whole thing is about:

  The movie takes place in the modern day. And Greek mythology is real. Basically, Zeus has lost his master lightning bolt, and the world is going to come to an end because there's gonna be this huge war between the gods. Everybody's pointing their fingers at Percy, the son of Poseidon. And he doesn't even know that he is a demi-god, half human, half god. And he goes on this huge journey to try to save his mom, find who the lightning thief really is, and save the world.

  Still want more Percy? An Italian website has gotten ahold of a neat set of character banners, including a first look at Daddario as the daughter of Athena and Brandon T. Jackson as the undercover satyr Grover Underwood.

  
  

  Posted 10/30/2009 by Bill

  Related: Kevin McKidd | Brandon T. Jackson | Logan Lerman | Alexandra Daddario | Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Wednesday, August 12

• Becoming a God for Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

  Kevin McKidd got a major promotion. Best known for his role as Roman legionary Lucius Vorenus in HBO's Rome, he's now playing the Greek god Poseidon in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. The movie, adapted for a popular young adult novel of the same title, imagines the ancient Greek gods in the modern world, with the story focusing on young Percy, who finds out that his father is quite literally divine.

  It's good to be a god, McKidd explains:

  I'm 40 feet tall for most of the film, but then we come to human form, We can atomize ourselves because we're gods. We can do what we want, right? So we can atomize ourselves and walk around the streets of Manhattan, wandering Manhattan, and dress in Gap clothing and do all that stuff, then atomize ourselves back to 40-foot Greek god stage. It's a really fun film.

  His own son, he says, is particularly impressed with his new job, and has begun devouring the whole Percy Jackson series, looking for spots where he might see his dad on screen. Assuming that Lightning Thief proves successful at the box office, McKidd could reprise his role in at least three more Percy Jackson movies.

  
  

  Posted 08/12/2009 by Bill

  Related: Kevin McKidd | Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Thursday, June 4

• Script of Planned Highlander Reboot Features .... Guns?

  We learned long ago not to pay too much attention to this business about "there can only be one." And here it comes. A Highlander reboot is in the planning stages, with rumor, or perhaps just fantasy, placing Rome's Kevin McKidd in the star role as Connor MacLeod. But it's not just the actors and the script that would be updated. It's the weapons as well.

  In the original, it's all about swords and axes, anything with an edge. There are strict rules about how you take your opponent's head. One important rule is no guns. But an advance script review for the planned reboot reveals that in this version anything goes.

  Advised early on by his mentor to become proficient with the weapons of whatever time period he is in, MacLeod later tries to take out his nemesis Kurgan from a safe distance with a sniper rifle. Presumably swords are still needed for the coup de grace, but still a pretty surprising change. Practical perhaps, but not quite so personal.

  Overall, the reviewer pans the script, concluding that, in this draft of the reboot anyway, the screenwriters have decided to tell the same story as the 1986 original, but in the wrong way.

  
  

  Posted 06/04/2009 by Bill

  Related: Kevin McKidd | Highlander

Wednesday, February 18

• Marvel Promises "Faithful"Thor Adaptation

  

  After twittering online that Kenneth Branagh "gets" Thor, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada went on the record about the Thor movie meetings at the New York Comic-Con and talked about the "faithful" adaptation that Branagh is planning:

  [Branagh] has immersed himself in [the comics]... He was talking about characters and villains that even I was going, like, who was that?, y'know. But if you're a Thor-head, you're going to go, oh yeah, of course... So it was wonderful to hear this stuff. He wasn't just concerned about Thor, but he also understood going in, from the beginning - because we established very early on... Well, at the end of the Iron Man movie, but very early on [in the process], that there's going to be other movies that become part of this tapestry. This is essentially our Star Wars, our universe is our Star Wars, and he understands that his Thor movie is one of the legs of this table that will interplay with an Iron Man movie down the road, or The Avengers movie down the road. Whatever is going to happen is part of a shared universe.
  

  Thor is still without an actor to play the lead role. While Daniel Craig and Kevin McKidd have been mentioned as candidates, fans are petitioning for relative unknown James Preston Rogers, who played a Viking in Outlander, for a time was training to be a professional wrestler, and does have a resemblance to the thunder god.

  
  
  Next Showing: Thor opens July 16, 2010

  Posted 02/18/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Daniel Craig | Kevin McKidd | Kenneth Branagh | Thor | Outlander

Tuesday, December 16

• Kenneth Branagh Finally Talks Thor

  Months after being picked to direct Thor, Kenneth Branagh at last shed some light on his latest foray into big-budget moviemaking, his first since Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

  With rumors swirling over who will play the Asgardian, from Daniel Craig to Rome's Kevin McKidd, Branagh tried to quiet the chatter: "There's been lots of talk [about casting] -- I sound like a politician -- but we are too early at this stage. We're getting the story and the visual effects together and all of that is very exciting. Someone sensational is going to play the part but it is early days."

  With Thor scheduled to open July 16, 2010, and the Avengers movie to follow a year later in 2011, Branagh will have to move quickly, as those "early days" are almost over. But for those who echo Robert Downey Jr.'s concerns over how they will blend Thor and Iron Man and the Hulk realistically into one movie, Branagh's vision for Thor should please: "It's a chance to tell a big story on a big scale. It's a human story right in the center of a big epic scenario."

  
  

  Posted 12/16/2008 by Ryan

  Related: Daniel Craig | Kevin McKidd | Kenneth Branagh | Thor

Thursday, December 4

• Thor Update

  With the upcoming Avengers movie arriving in 2011, the pressure is on both First Avenger: Captain America and Thor to excite audiences in preparation. Thor has a confirmed director in Kenneth Branagh, but nothing but rumors over who will play the thunder god. Recently, Daniel Craig reportedly turned down the role, but was in fact just "having a joke."

  If not Craig, then who? How about Rome's Kevin McKidd? IGN recently spoke to McKidd, who confirmed that he is one of the front-runners for the role and would be "excited" to work with Branagh.

  Should McKidd win the part, there seems little chance that the hammer-throwing Asgardian will team up with fellow Rome star Ray Stevenson's gun-toting Punisher, but, you never know, this is Hollywood.

  
  

  Posted 12/04/2008 by Ryan

  Related: Daniel Craig | Kevin McKidd | Ray Stevenson | Kenneth Branagh | Thor | Rome

Monday, December 1

• Could Rome Conquer the Big Screen?

  Times are good for cancelled TV shows. On the heels of the recent greenlighting of an Arrested Development movie, another short-lived, critically-acclaimed series is making its case for a shot at the big screen. Bruno Heller, creator of HBO's Rome, revealed in the trades today that he's working on a feature film adaptation of his popular period drama. Heller gave few details on the project, indicating only that "there is talk of doing a movie" and that he has a story outline mapped out.

  A winner of 11 Emmys during a successful two-year run, Rome was nonetheless cancelled after HBO deemed the show too expensive. Its chances of making the leap to the big screen would likely hinge on the return of its two stars, Kevin McKidd and Ray Stevenson, the latter of whom stars this week in Lionsgate's comic book reboot Punisher: War Zone.

  
  

  Posted 12/01/2008 by reelz

  Related: Bruno Heller | Kevin McKidd | Ray Stevenson | Rome | Punisher: War Zone