Footage was shown at Comic-Con this past weekend to excellent response (check out our write-up) and now Apple has the premiere of Watchmen and 300 director Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch teaser trailer. The sci-fi action flick stars Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Jena Malone, Carla Gugino, Jon Hamm, Scott Glenn and Oscar Isaac. Check out the insanity below. Read the full story

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Zack Snyder is probably one of the busiest and most ambitious filmmakers around. After exploding into the mainstream thanks to the success of 300 and following that with the uber-ambitious comic book adaptation of Watchmen, Snyder is one of those directors that you want to know more about. With his first all-CG film, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, releasing later this year and looking spectacular, many have speculated about what future projects the talent Snyder might have in store. Well, thanks to some reporting from the San Diego Comic Con, we not only have a glimpse of his new project Sucker Punch but also some juicy rumors about possible involvment in a Frank Miller written 300-esque prequel (though not quite a prequel) Xerxes.

First up we’ll take a quick look at the post-apocalyptic sexy girls fighting with robots action flick Sucker Punch which looks like a cross between Tank Girl and Sin City. The film stars an assortment of young actresses including Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung. The plot revolves around the story of a young girl (Browning), who is institutionalized by her wicked stepfather, retreats to an alternative reality as a coping strategy and envisions a plan which will help her escape from the facility. There’s a teaser site already up that has a pretty cool animated panorama of a scene from the film but doesn’t reveal too much else. In addition to the cast and title, we also have five tantiliazing posters for the film that showcase each of the girls. Sucker Punch is set to be released in March 2011 and footage should be revealed tomorrow at Comic-Con.

But what about after that? What is Snyder planning for his next project? According to Hero Complex, Snyder is eyeing returning to the ancient battelfields of the Persian war. Snyder has his sights set  to make the adaptation of Frank Miller’s latest novel that he’s been currently working on, titled Xerxes:

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Christian Bale, fresh off David O. Russell’s upcoming boxing drama The Fighter and prepping a potential Terrence Malick romance, may sign on to star in The Last Photograph, written by Kurt Johnstad from an idea by Zack Snyder. Niels Arden Oplev (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) is in talks to direct.

The drama concerns a photograph that causes two men to travel through modern-day, war-torn Afghanistan. Oplev is best known for his Tattoo adaptation which, despite it’s financial success and critical hype, is a fairly-standard thriller which employs the source novel’s perverse crimes more for shock value than for psychological imagination, something that Stieg Larsson, the writer of the book, does well. [Total Film]

This project could well prove beneficial in separating Oplev from the Millennium trilogy of films (Daniel Alfredson directed the last two Girl films), and Bale could use a hard-edged drama under his belt. Public Enemies didn’t quite do the trick for most. But who will play his partner traveling through Afghanistan?

Would you like to see this film get made with these potential parts? Who should play Bale’s partner?

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The first full-length trailer has been released for 300 and Watchmen director Zack Snyder‘s Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. The film features voice casting from Emily Barclay, Abbie Cornish, Ryan Kwanten, Anthony LaPaglia, Miriam Margolyes, Helen Mirren, Sam Neill, Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham. Snyder’s style is definitely there and I think it will work great for a family adventure film. Check it out below via Yahoo. Read the full story

E-mail Jordan Raup here. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook for the latest TFS updates!

Remember seeing the trailer for that weird animated owl movie by the guy that did 300? Yeah, we kind of forgot it too. As beautiful as the animation was, it didn’t exactly make me want to spend hours with these owls. Read the full story

The recently renamed Legend of the Guardians has its first trailer via Yahoo. The film is directed by Zack Snyder (Watchmen, 300) and features voice talent from Sam Neill, Geoffrey Rush, Hugo Weaving, David Wenham, Emily Barclay, Abbie Cornish, Emilie de Ravin, Ryan Kwanten, Jay Laga’aia, Miriam Margolyes, Helen Mirren, Deborra-Lee Furness and Jim Sturgess. Check out the trailer below, in HD on Yahoo, or attached to Tim Burton‘s Alice In Wonderland this weekend. Read the full story

Here we are, eight months and two versions later. When Watchmen was released on March 6, 2009, the film received polarizing reviews from both critics and audiences, and the box office intake has been debated as to whether it was a success or failure, with some like me arguing it actually performed at an impressive rate for the type of film it is, while others argued that it was a complete disappointment. In July the Director’s Cut was released to a stronger reaction, as being extended by 24 minutes of new footage, many said the film felt more fleshed out and had more room to breathe than its theatrical counterpart. Now we have Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut, and this version is most likely the last version of Watchmen we’ll see for a long time, if not ever, and what a glorious send-off it is. Read the full story

While the cast of Zack Snyder’s upcoming Sucker Punch is predominately female, they’ve just added a new, male member to the cast.  Joining Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Jena Malone, and Carla Gugino is Mad Men actor Jon Hamm, says THR.  Not too much has been revealed about the character he will be playing, although the article does mention his character’s name will be “High Roller”.  Other than that, nothing else seems to be known.

Sucker Punch is about a girl named Baby Doll (Emily Browning), who when committed to a mental institution in the 1950′s, is forced to escape with her friends into an alternate reality when she is scheduled to have a lobotomy.  The movie will be director Snyder’s fourth, after his Dawn of the Dead remake, and comic book adaptations 300 and Watchmen.  At this time, Sucker Punch is scheduled for release March 25, 2011, which is the month all of Snyder’s films have seen their release.

News like this only gets me even more excited for this movie.  Hamm has proven his skills on Mad Men as a dramatic actor, and he has a good leading man look to him, although we would assume he would play a supporting role this time around.  Snyder is also one of my favorite filmmakers of his generation, and I wonder what he can do with an original property.  He has a sensibility for visuals in his films like few others have. Unlike someone like Michael Bay, he makes movies with something to them and can actually shoot action.  Hopefully we see more news in the coming future for this movie and it’s ongoing production.

What do you think of Jon Hamm joining the cast of Sucker Punch?

Zack Snyder’s anti-superhero epic was released back in March and was met with a rather mixed response. While many seemed unimpressed by Snyder’s ambitious and faithful adaptation, the director’s cut improves upon many aspects, adding to an already excellent film that did the same thing the graphic novel did for its medium. Watchmen is an entertaining and rich film that delivers on almost every level. The original cut did have it’s flaws, mostly narrative wise, this cut makes most of those issues perish.

The story follows practically the exact same narrative as the graphic novel and it works. Most of the events and character arcs are still the same, except Dr. Manhattan. It still opens with The Comedian’s murder which leads to Rorschach who starts investigating. He sets out to spread the warning, first going to his old partner Nite Owl aka Dan Drieberg. Dan lives an isolated life now and is left without a sense of purpose. Adrian Veidt, former superhero Ozymandius, is now the world’s smartest man and one of the richest. He doesn’t believe in the masked killer theory and is more worried about the world problems to come. The only one with real super powers is Dr. Manhattan who is continually drifting away from humanity. His only connection comes from his relationship with Laurie Jupiter aka Silk Spectre II. Laurie feels as if she is living a lie considering she was forced into this profession of vigilatism due to pressure from her mother.

Read the rest of the review below >>

When 300 was released in March 2007 to enormous box office success, Hollywood decided to be Hollywood.  Even though (spoiler alert) essentially all 300 Spartans were killed at the end, news of a possible sequel began to emerge.  Details remained miniscule for the time being, with only the idea it would be based off of a new graphic novel to be written by Frank Miller himself, and may be a hybrid of a sequel/prequel.  Otherwise, little was and continues to be known, but some new facts have emerged from producer Mark Canton himself.

Speaking to MTV Splash Page, Canton said that work is being done by Miller, presumably on the follow up graphic novel.  Snyder himself hinted that it’ll take place between the final Spartan’s death and the film’s last scene.  And as to whether Leonidas, 300′s main character played by Gerard Butler returning, Canton said “Never assume anything; never assume anything”.  While some people attacked 300 for playing fast and loose with historical facts, it’s hard to imagine they would blatantly fudge history to have the star return, but at this point who knows.

To me a sequel to 300 seems like an odd idea.  300 as a movie felt like a very singular experience, similar to Snyder’s last movie Watchmen, and a sequel feels like it would be a pointless endeavor, with the exception of financial reasons.  I also don’t necessarily see Zack Snyder returning, as he has six projects lined up in addition to a possible follow-up.  And lastly, many feel that writer Frank Miller has definitely gone down a steep slope in terms of quality in the last decade or so, and if a new movie decides to be as reverent to the upcoming book as the last one was to 300, for all we know that could hurt the movie greatly.  And the last time Frank Miller was given total control, we got this.

What do you think of the idea of a sequel to 300?