True crime remains in vogue, and there may be no subject more topical than domestic terrorism. Discovery’s new miniseries Manhunt: Unabomber will bring us both, as Avengers star Paul Bettany plays the infamous bomber in a first trailer.
What does God look like? It’s an eternal question with which fiction has tussled on plenty of occasions, from the standard-issue “bearded white guy clad in flowing robe” to the off-beat “wordless flower child Alanis Morisette” to the factually accurate “Morgan Freeman chilling.” The upcoming faith-based drama The Shack takes a rather unusual tack in its depiction of the Lord; the film adapted from William P. Young’s best-selling novel splits the divine presence into the Trinity, with Jesus Christ as a carpenter of Middle Eastern descent, the Holy Spirit as a meek Asian-American woman named Sarayu, and God portrayed by none other than Octavia goddamn Spencer. Let the record show — God’s real, she’s black, and she’s got an Oscar.
We don’t often look to Discovery for hard-hitting prestige drama, but their new Unabomber limited series Manifesto is certainly turning heads. Not only is Paul Bettany set to play the infamous bomber in a Kevin Spacey produced series, but so too has Sam Worthington signed on for a leading role.
Hollywood has seen its fair share of movies where man attempts to conquer nature, only to find himself thoroughly humbled. Everest looks to continue that trend, putting one of the best ensembles in recent memory smack-dab in the middle of Mother Nature’s wrath. As the title implies, the film deals with an expedition up the world’s tallest mountain going oh-so-horribly wrong. As the trailer shows us, an Everest expedition going wrong looks like an incredible movie.
Sir Anthony Hopkins is known best by many for his portrayal of classy sociopath Hannibal Lecter—and it’s that sort of sophisticated, unnerving character that Hopkins has made a staple of his career-diet. So it’s not really surprising to see him playing yet another aristocratic, maybe-a-little-unhinged type in the trailer for ‘Kidnapping Mr. Heineken.’ But why complain? He’s just too damn good at it.
James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ opened on December 18, 2009, five years ago this month. In a theatrical release that would stretch on for 34 weeks, Cameron’s motion-captured 3D spectacle grossed $749 million in the U.S. and an additional $2 billion overseas. Box-office-wise, it is the biggest movie in history by an absurd margin; it tops its closest competition, Cameron’s own ‘Titanic,’ by some $600 million. That’s more than ‘The Dark Knight’ made in its entire domestic theatrical run.