Honorable Mentions of 2012: 'Argo'

Affleck
You've seen our Top Ten of 2012 list, but now let's take a look back at the movies that just missed the cut. These are our Honorable Mentions of 2012.
What the hell happened to Ben Affleck? The guy goes from being a punch line to being the director Warner Bros. supposedly wanted for their big "Justice League" effort.
You want to know how he did it? He made his movies.

Instead of being just the next actor to try his hand at directing, Affleck took another road. He found the grown-up stories that he wanted to tell and made them in intelligent ways. Every step of the way, with "Gone Baby Gone," "The Town," and now "Argo," Affleck has made his film. They aren't large in scale. There isn't a ton of action or enough humor to fill out a trailer, but they are made for adults, never assuming that the audience is dumb. With "Argo," Affleck to another step forward in refining that formula.
Based on the true story of Americans trapped in a hostile Iran, "Argo" took a chapter of history that was only recently declassified to the public and made it into a fantastic thriller that's actually one part Hollywood satire. So what if the entire airport sequence was embellished for drama? You didn't breathe once during it.
Up next, Affleck may attempt to make Stephen King's epic novel "The Stand" into a film, but here's to hoping that he doesn't forget the type of movies he's been making.

J.J. Abrams and Alex Kurtzman talk Star Trek Into Darkness

After the recent teaser trailer set excitement levels hurtling through the roof, questions have been asked as to how Benedict Cumberbatch’s character will fit into the general plot of Star Trek Into Darkness.

All we really know so far is that he’s named “Harrison”, that he used to be part of Starfleet and that he shares a history with the crew. Now, some of the creative team have dropped a few hints as to what we might expect, but predictably, it’s all fairly vague.“Well without revealing too much,” begins screenwriter Alex Kurtzman, “what I can tell you is that in the same spirit as 'can the Enterprise be under water? What does that mean? How are we going to justify this? How are we going to explain it?’ We went back and we talked a lot about things that made us want to make the first movie in the first place as fans. “And what do we feel was successful for the fans. A lot of that had to do with honoring the history - honoring the show. But we also want to come up with a way to make the stories feel fresh and unpredictable. So without revealing too much, we applied the same thinking to Harrison.”Hmm, that certainly doesn’t reveal too much, does it? Director J.J. Abrams was similarly cagey, although his comments did succeed in cranking our anticipation levels up even further…“The whole thing, not just his backstory, but his agenda, his plan, his secret…” explains Abrams, “all that is what, for me at least, makes him such a frightening and cool villain.”

Monsters University Teaser Posters Land

Less Animal House, more Monster House...

Before you look at the new Monsters University teaser posters below, know this: you are about to have serious letterman jacket envy. Damn you, MU, damn you.Frustratingly, even if you head over to the still-really-rather-impressive Monsters University website, there's no way you can order yourself a proper letterman jacket. Disney! Pixar! Have you no mercy? Anyway, here are the posters in question, one with Mike & Sully in their dorm and another complete with some appropriately-titled books littering the floor. Would you read 'Scareonomics' if it was in your local library? It's a pretty safe bet...

Mike Newell Talks Reykjavik

Mike Newell is one of cinema's most reliable and talented dramatists, and, with a back catalogue featuring Four Weddings And A Funeral, Donnie Brasco and now Great Expectations, he has a gift for versatility, too. His next project, Reykjavik, shifts forward 150 years or so to 1986 and the pivotal peace talks between Ronald Reagan (Michael Douglas) and Mikhail Gorbachev (Christoph Waltz).

"It's a story about human contact being established in a desert where it shouldn't exist", Newells told Empire of his historical drama, "and against all the odds it does. It's a triumph of the human spirit."

The director describes it as an origin story for the end of the Cold War, which pits Reagan and Gorbachev in an odd-couple East-meets-West relationship upon which, as Hollywood tagline man might put it, 'the fate of the entire world hangs". Red Heat in an overcoat? Could be.Unsurprisingly, the city of Reykjavik is on the shooting schedule for next year, as well Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam, earmarked for interiors work. Newell expects to start working with Waltz and Douglas - both currently shooting elsewhere - in late December or early in the new year. "We have to get the hair right", says the director of the make-up task ahead, "because Reagan was so vain about his hair - and obviously the birthmark and the baldness for Christoph Waltz." Better keep Frank Drebin away from the set.

Saw director James Wan will helm MacGyver

Hit TV show and frequent source of Simpsons mickey-taking MacGyver is getting a big-screen adaptation, with a less than likely name slated to fill the director's chair.James Wan, the director of horror shockers Saw and Insidious, is reportedly set to be helming the project, in one of the more surprising directorial appointments of recent years.For those of you unfamiliar with the TV show, MacGyver was a secret agent with an aversion to guns and a predilection for homemade gadgets and gizmos. He was the kind of chap who could take down a whole cartel of baddies armed only with a biro and a pack of Blu-Tack.The character was the loose inspiration for recent parody flick MacGruber, but it seems that film's flaccid box-office performance hasn't dissuaded New Line for giving the original a new lease of life.Wan will be directing from a script originally written by Jason Richman and reworked by Brian and Mark Gunn, with work set to begin on the project in the coming months. As for who should play MacGyver, get those suggestions in to the comments board below…

‘Big Bang Theory’s Kevin Sussman & John Ross Bowie Sell Toon Comedy To Amazon

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Nellie AndreevaEXCLUSIVE: Writing team John Ross Bowie and Kevin Sussman, actors best known for their roles on CBS’ The Big Bang Theory, have sold an animated workplace comedy project to Amazon. Titled Dark Minions, the comedy is set on an evil space station where two opinionated misfits are squeezed into working for “the man.” Peter Principato, Paul Young and Joel Zadak of Principato-Young, which manages Bowie, will executive produce, with Bowie and Sussman co-executive producing and Sussman’s manager Jill McGrath serving as a producer.

Bowie and Sussman met and became friends while guest starring together on The Big Bang Theory, where they have recurred as Leonard and Sheldon’s nemesis Barry Kripke and comic book store owner Stuart, respectively. Sussman was promoted to a regular going into this season. Bowie and Sussman’s spec Dark Minions caught the attention of Sony TV last year, leading to the studio backing the duo’s comedy The Ever After Part, which sold to Fox last season, and The Second Coming Of Rob, loosely based on Bowie’s life, which sold to CBS in July. The writing team is additionally repped by APA.
Amazon has been ramping up original comedy and children programming development. Amazon Studios, the content development division of the online retailer, is finalizing a deal for its first  ...

Lindsay Lohan Confirms She'll Play Elizabeth Taylor in New Film

Jonathan Keltz Entourage actor Jonathan Keltz will guest-star on an upcoming episode of Fairly Legal, TVGuide.com has learned exclusively.USA sets premiere dates for final season of In Plain Sight, return of Fairly LegalKeltz, who played Ari's assistant Jake on Entourage, will appear in the 10th episode of the second season as Jacob Matthews, a former high school star quarterback who was the main suspect in the disappearance of his girlfriend Carmen. At the time, Jacob claimed to not have seen her the day she went missing, but now six years later, her remains have been recovered and evidence suggests he was lying.Besides Entourage, Keltz's credits include the film Prom and guest spots on Breakout Kings, CSI: Miami and Leverage.Fairly Legal returns for its second season on Friday, March 16 at 9/8c on USA.