Screen Junkies » Idris Elba

Guillermo del Toro Talks Us Through The ‘Pacific Rim’ Trailer

Wookie Johnson — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 19:08:03 +0000

We were all treated yesterday to our first good look at robots housing giant monsters when the trailer for Pacific Rim premiered. Now that enough time to drool has passed, MTV caught up with Guillermo del Toro to get an explanation about what the trailer shows. Also to discuss del Toro’s fondness for punching giant monsters with the aid of elbow rockets, and how the finished film makes this preview look like Howard’s End. I don’t recall the punches in Howard’s End being this awesome.

Robots House Giant Monsters In ‘Pacific Rim’ Trailer

Wookie Johnson — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:59:28 +0000

The first trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim has debuted and it is a real wake-up call for monsters from the deep. When gigantic creatures emerge from an intergalactic portal in the Pacific Ocean, they just assume that humans will let them destroy our best bridges and throw cars into the water. Think again, monsters.

Little do they know that we possess the technology to make gigantic robot suits that will march right up to them and punch them in their monstrous faces. Didn’t see that one coming, huh? Just wait until we figure out how to give swords to those robots. ‘Merica!!

Daniel Craig In Talks For 5 More ‘Bond’ Films After ‘Skyfall’

Penn Collins — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:43:26 +0000

Regardless of how you feel about Daniel Craig, can we all agree that the fact that he’s considering signing on for eight James Bond films is a little much? People UK has reported that he’s in talk to carry on the franchise for five more films (six if you count the upcoming Skyfall).

I’m lukewarm to Craig as Bond and the Bond franchise in general. In fact, the only thing that really gets me into the theater to see a Bond film is the debut of a new actor as James Bond, which this news would preclude for quite some time. In fact, I don’t really know who would benefit from having Craig play Bond for 15 more years or so. Yuck.

The public would get tired of him (Brosnan only did three, and he felt like he owned the James Bond role for twenty years), Craig would have to sacrifice some far more prestigious roles, and the studio wouldn’t get the boost of reinvigorating the franchise with someone like Michael Fassbender (good), or Idris Elba (really, really good).

I could understand someone like Timothy Dalton, an actor who really made his name with Bond wanting to go down in the annals of history as “eight-time James Bond portrayer,” but Craig has so much else going for him, I have difficulty thinking that he’d take this, even with the bags of money they must be offering.

Don’t do it, Daniel!

This Thanksgiving, Be Thankful For ‘Prometheus’ Stills From ‘Entertainment Weekly’

Penn Collins — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:05:02 +0000

Entertainment Weekly has our first looks at Prometheus stills, and boy, oh, boy are they pictures from the movie!

The images prove that the news about casting Idris Elba, Michael Fassbender, and Charlize Theron weren’t dirty lies after all. I knew it!

These pics really don’t lend themselves to commentary, but it would appear that Ridley Scott’s Alien sort-of prequel has some ancient alien heads, nifty uniforms and spacesuits, and an extremely pixelated spaceship (though that could just be the scan quality).

Draw your own conclusions from these, or conservatively wait to pass judgment until you get more information. Sorry if that sounded judge-y. I seriously don’t care what you do.

‘Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance’ Stills Exhibit Little To No Vengeance

Penn Collins — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 21:49:08 +0000

A week ago, this post would have come with a .wav file cricket soundtrack, but our dear friend Comic-Con changed all that. After their big Hall H presentation, people still thought that Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance was a big dumb unnecessary remake, but now it’s one that people want to see.

It’s a pretty random assortment of pictures, all wildly devoid of context, but the picture of Idris Elba looking like he’s cranking out a deuce while learning to ride a motorcycle makes it all worthwhile. If that’s not your thing, we’ve also got Nicolas Cage staring thoughtfully. If that’s not your thing either, this just isn’t the post for you. No hard feelings. But don’t leave our site. Peep this Leighton Meester piece instead.

Casting Round-Up: Isla Fisher, Ed Helms, Idris Elba, And Jason Momoa Acting In Stuff

Wookie Johnson — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:19:11 +0000

7 photosSarah Shahi

What To Expect When You’re Expecting can expect to rent comfortable motorhomes for Isla Fisher and Ed Helms. The pair are replacing Kristen Wiig and Matthew Morrison in the J.Lo/Cameron Diaz pregnancy comedy. It’s expected that Fisher and Helms will be responsible for making sure this movie is a comedy. (NY Mag)

Untitled Sylvester Stallone/Walter Hill Action Film doesn’t have a title yet but it does have Jason Momoa. Hollywood’s go-to barbarian will go toe-to-toe with the 65-year old action star and likely die a horrific death. Sounds believable! (Latino Review)

Pacific Rim has found its lead. Idris Elba will take the role of Sensi, a part originally tailored for Tom Cruise. Somebody had better call that tailor back in. (Deadline)

DiCaprio To Slave (Driver) Away For Tarantino’s ‘Django’?

Geoffrey Golden — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 03:54:38 +0000

Though the possibility has gotten more remote, Will Smith could be returning to the wild wild west as the lead in Quentin Tarantino‘s new spaghetti western Django Unchained. Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio is now in actual talks to play the lead villain. Between Tarantino, Smith and DiCaprio, that’d be one heckuva posse.

Leo’s All-Time Greatest Spazzouts

DiCaprio might play Calvin Candie, the ruthless Candyland ranch owner, who pits male slaves against one another in battles to the death and offers up the female slaves for sexual abuse. Man, that guy could use a big dose of vitamin comeuppance. Freed slave Django must come to his captive wife’s rescue. Smith is on the top of Tarantino’s list for Django, though Jamie Foxx, Idris Elba and Chris Tucker (really?) are also possibilities. Christoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson are also expected to join the cast in major roles.

Tarantino almost nabbed DiCaprio for Landa in Inglorious Basterds, as the actor was interested in the role early on. The talks didn’t pan out that time, but perhaps second time’s a charm? (Deadline)

Guillermo Del Toro Wants Idris Elba For ‘Pacific Rim’

Wookie Johnson — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:19:08 +0000

6 photosNew ‘Thor’ Character Posters Are Like Mugshots Of The Gods

Everything’s coming up Idris Elba. “The Wire” actor has enjoyed numerous successes since the HBO show ended and it looks like there’s a role waiting for him if he wants to play with Guillermo Del Toro and giant robots for four months.

Most recently seen in Thor, Elba is also rumored to maybe work with Tarantino on Django Unchained. Though there have been zero confirmations regarding that. Details are vague right now about Pacific Rim. If he does join, he and Charlie Hunnam will help protect Earth from invading monsters. Tom Cruise might help out too. You saw the way he handled Rain Man‘s freakouts. Killing evil creatures from another world should be a walk in the park compared to that. (The Wrap)

Idris Elba To Definitely Play Django For Tarantino In Unsubstantiated Rumor

Joseph Gibson — Mon, 30 May 2011 17:45:41 +0000

The popular social networking site Twitter is useful for many things. You can get real-time updates on why people on Twitter are single, for instance. And as anyone who follows entertainment news knows, it can also be used to generate unsubstantiated rumors, like the one that Thor‘s Idris Elba is talking with Quentin Tarantino to play the titular character in the director’s upcoming Django Unchained. Here are the tweets in question, which are leading many to speculate that Elba is being considered for the part:

Having one of the biggest meetings of my professional life today…meeting a very controversial director for a very controversial part. :-/

On the plane to the destination of my fate…..ok…. a lil dramatic….destination of my life..?

6 photosNew ‘Thor’ Character Posters Are Like Mugshots Of The Gods

These tweets could of course be about anything – maybe Oliver Stone is doing a remake of JFK with Idris Elba as Jackie O – but the prospect of Idris Elba getting cast in this part, also rumored to be going to Will Smith, is pretty tantalizing. (@IdrisElba )

New ‘Thor’ Character Posters Are Like Mugshots Of The Gods

Joseph Gibson — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 16:56:59 +0000

The people over at Thor‘ target=’_blank’>Thor-2′ target=’_blank’>Thor Posters Inc have been catching some flack for perceived laziness, since many of the posters have that “90s superhero movie” look and feel to them. Then, when they try to do something different, they catch holy hell from poster aficionados too! So it looks like this time, with these 6 character posters that have been released on several different websites recently, they decided to split the difference. They look like the infamous “red” posters, but with a more traditional color scheme. It remains to be seen if everyone on the internet will be satisfied with these.

The posters feature six characters from the movie, and they look like they should be holding cards with their heights and weights. There’s Chris Hemsworth at Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Idris Elba as Heimdall, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster and Jaimie Alexander as Sif. Now you know a little bit more about Norse mythology than you did before. Thanks, Marvel! (via Firstshowing.net)

‘Prometheus’ Adds Three More Bodies To The Menu

Joseph Gibson — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:21:19 +0000

Actors are apparently lined up around the block to get chewed up by the non-Alien-or-are-they? aliens in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. And the next lucky chosen three are Idris Elba of “The Wire,” Sean Harris of the Red Riding trilogy, and Kate Dickie of Red Road.

Apparently this isn’t your run-of-the-mill casting either, since all 3 actors had to sign secrecy agreements and were only allowed to read the story for the movie by visiting Ridley Scott’s office (maybe Ridley Scott is just a big pervert?). While this level of secrecy means no word on what characters they’ll be playing, it’s also leading some to speculate that the movie we know as Prometheus might actually be an offical Alien movie after all, and this is all just smokescreen designed to keep us off-guard. We’ll just have to wait and see just how much “Alien DNA” will be in Prometheus. (via Collider)

Idris Elba In Talks For ‘Ghost Rider 2′

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

_Peace.

Stringer Bell a.k.a. Idris Elba is in talks to join Nicolas Cage, Ciaran Hinds, and hottie Violante Placido in Ghost Rider 2. THR reports that Elba would play "an alcoholic warrior monk tasked with finding Ghost Rider." There are so many contradictions in that character description. Basically, Worst. Monk. Ever.

Johnny Whitworth is also looking to jump into the Neveldine/Taylor-directed flaming skull flick. The "CSI: Miami" star would be "a criminal who is recruited by the devil to find the boy and is later turned into a demonic creature." What’s with all the finding going on in this movie? I wonder how Neveldine and Taylor will make that interesting. Oh right, shoot the whole thing like it’s an acid trip. This can’t not turn out excellent.

‘The Wire’s’ Idris Elba Is the New Alex Cross

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Stringer Bell from "The Wire," actor Idris Elba, is taking over for Morgan Freeman as Dr. Alex Cross in Cross. The new installment of the James Patterson best selling novels will be directed by David Twohy, who will also rewrite the Kerry Williamson penned script.

Morgan Freeman chased after psychopaths as Cross in Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider, and he did it with class and a soothing tenor. Idris should carry the torch nicely, as he is a great talent who demonstrated on "The Wire" he can pop a cap in an ass, while on "The Office" he showed off his comedic chops. As a side note: doesn’t it wrinkle your brain when British actors who you didn’t know were British speak with a British accent? Quit fooling us, Red Coats! (Deadline)

Review: ‘The Losers’

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Losers
PG-13, 95m., 2010
Cast: Jeffery Dean Morgan, Idris Elba, Columbus Short, Chris Evans with Zoe Saldana and Jason Patric
Directed by Sylvain White
Screenplay by Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt based upon graphic novel series, “Ante Up” written by Andy Diggle and illustrations by Jock

The Losers is a wham-bam-thank-you-mama style of action flick where logic and brains are left on the bullet ridden floor.

The plot seems like directly from the classic 80s TV show “The A-Team," however, on steroids. A group of wisecracking CIA black ops going by the names of Pooch (Columbus Short), Roque (Idris Elba), Cougar(Óscar Jaenada) and Jensen (Chris Evans) are led by grey haired compatriot Clay (Jeffery Dean Morgan, who looks even sweatier and grizzled than in Watchman) into an assignment in Bolivia, where they are double crossed and mistaken for dead.

To clear their names and make it back home, the gang must travel the globe with the mysterious Aisha (Zoe Saldana, looking sexier and more bad-ass than ever before) searching for the uber Bond-type villain Max (Jason Patric in his most gleefully malevolent role to date), all the while unloading boxes of bullets and explosives wherever they go.

Keeping this movie from total “Micheal Bay Mayhem” is the fun-faired nature that the rag-tag group of actors bring to the absurd plot. They can shout off their signature one-liners and keep their cool in check by not looking back at explosions.

While we have seen much of this “men on a mission” story before, director Sylvain White and script writers Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt from the Vertigo comic series by Andy Diggle and Jock know this and they keep the movie speeding along with series of decent action eye candy and surprises that are in tune with their 80s action spirit.

The low point of the film comes in the form of its music, which, like most whiz-bang action-fests, is filled with blasting pop tunes. The Losers soundtrack seems to be stuck on shuffle with action scenes and stripteases going through a vomitorium of techno beats and 80s tunes. The opening action sequence spews out seven songs in less than five minutes, from “Black Betty” to “Small Town Girl."

The Losers may not be more than a 90 minute cartoon exercise but it gets the job done well for now, until The A-Team movie arrives in June, Predators in July, and then The Expendables in August.

Grade: B-

Assassinating People Looks Fun in New Trailer for ‘The Losers’

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The graphic novel The Losers has transmovieafied its way to the big screen and today we have the trailer. It’s the standard elite team of emissaries are betrayed by Jason Patric plot. But it looks like it could be fun. It borrows a good deal of its charm from The Italian Job and the Ocean’s films and rests that on the shoulders of a cast comprised of rising stars. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Idris Elba, and a nerdy Chris Evans (and his mind bullets) have a great rapport.

This looks like it will either be a modest hit or a fun but forgettable mid-season film. Not all of the jokes hit in this trailer. For instance, after Elba successfully blows up a SUV with a homemade rocket launcher, he exclaims, "I’m the black MacGuyver! BlaGuyver!!" We’ll never see a black MacGuyver in our lifetimes. MacGuyver’s love of ice hockey makes that an impossibility. (MSN)

Watch the trailer after the jump…