The wonderful world of film

Sir Christopher Lee passes away

Veteran actor Sir Christopher Lee died aged 93, it was revealed on Thursday.

The star of many films, Lee passed away on Sunday at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital after being admitted with respiratory difficulties and heart failure.

Lee had an incredible career, with performances in films ranging from the classic Hammer Horrors to the epic Lord of the Rings and Star Wars franchises.

His big break came in 1957, where he appeared as the Monster in The Curse of Frankenstein under director Terence Fisher.

The role proved a springboard to further appearances under the Hammer banner, most notably as Count Dracula, a role he would play a total of nine times.

While with Hammer, Lee also played the likes of Mummy, Fu Manchu and Rasputin.

Away from Hammer, his large roles included Lord Summerisle in the classic 1973 horror The Wicker Man, and his first big franchise appearance as Bond villain Francisco Scaramanga in Roger Moore’s second outing The Man with the Golden Gun.

His other main franchises came later on, first as Saruman the White in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy (a role he then reprised in the Hobbit trilogy), then as Count Dooku in Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith of the Star Wars series.

Lee also had an extremely active career outside of acting, not least in the world of music.

Lee was made a CBE in 2001, before being knighted in 2009.

Chris Hemsworth joins female Ghostbusters

Paul Feig, director of the all-female take on beloved classic Ghostbusters, has announced his latest piece of casting via Twitter.

Feig made the announcement with the words “our receptionist. #whoyougonnacall”, stating pretty much outright that Hemsworth will likely be taking on some form of Annie Potts’ role as Janine Melnitz in both original films.

Deadline did some snooping through casting assignments, digging up a reference to a “male tech assistant”, which may well be the job Hemsworth has landed.

The actor, most famous for his appearances as Thor in the Marvel franchises, joins a line-up that includes Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones.

The film is being pushed as its own story, not just another spin on the original tale of the ‘busters, and is currently targeting a 2016 release date.

Before that, Hemsworth is appearing in the new Vacation film, landing on August 21, while future co-star Melissa McCarthy is on screens now in Spy.

Female Jump Street gets more writers

Much like Ghostbusters, the Jump Street series is getting its own female-led spin-off, and Sony has adopted one of cinema’s new favourite tactics: having multiple writers working on separate scripts for the same film at the same time.

Warner/DC have been toying with the system for the Wonder Woman film (amongst others on their slate), and now Sony have jumped on the bandwagon by hiring Wendy and Lizzie Molyneux to draw up a draft idea for the film.

They join Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs, who were hired by Sony in April to get cracking on ideas.

The Molyneuxs (not convinced that’s how to pluralise their surname) have previously worked on the likes of Bob’s Burgers, with multiple scripts currently in development (including Hot Stuff at Dreamworks).

The main thrust of the franchise is also going strong, with Rodney Rothman working on a 23 Jump Street, and continued mutterings of a J_ump Street/Men in Black _crossover, which Sony has been pushing for since the success of the sequel.

There’s no news on the story or any real details for any of the three projects - not yet, anyway.

Spectre teaser released

The latest James Bond film, Spectre, got a new teaser trailer during the NBA finals on Tuesday night, marking the start of the steady increase of publicity materials for the highly-anticipated film.

A teaser trailer for the 24th film in the James Bond franchise made an appearance back in March, and the first half of this new trailer recycles much of that first glimpse.

From there, it’s a smash-grab of smash-cuts that give tiny glimpses of what’s in store for Daniel Craig’s Bond.

Ben Whishaw’s Q is briefly visible, as well as both new Bond girls Lea Seydoux and Monica Bellucci. There’s also a shadow-cloaked visit from Christoph Waltz’s Franz Oberhauser - long rumoured (and denied) to be a reincarnation of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the evil supervillain in charge of the shadowy, titular Spectre organisation.

The major players from the hit 23rd entry Skyfall are all returning, including the likes of Ralph Fiennes as M and Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, as well as director Sam Mendes.

Spectre’s script has been penned by John Logan and Neal Purvis & Robert Wade, the men responsible for much of the modern resurgence of Bond.

Spectre is due for release on November 6.