don't be dull, be fannish

My, oh my! Benedict Cumberbatch was nominated for an Oscar for playing Alan Turing in The Imitation Game: link.

That's so fantastic! First Matt Bomer won the SAG Award and the Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy for playing Felix Turner in The Normal Heart, and now Ben is up for an Oscar! Both for playing gay men. How awesome is that? \o/ I'll be crossing my fingers and toes for him!

♦ Matt Bomer joined Ryan Gosling and Russell Crow in Nice Guys: link

♦ Matt Bomer is also voicing one of the characters in Dreamwork's Bureau of Otherworldly Operations: link

♦ Rosa Salazar was cast as Brenda in The Scorch Trials: link

♦ Benedict Cumberbatch and Andrew Scott will appear together in The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses: link

♦ Matthew McConaughey and Alex Pettyfer won't be back for Magic Mike XXL: link

♦ Dominic Cooper will be back as Howard Star in Agent Carter: link

"Little Favour Official Trailer Starring Benedict Cumberbatch" (Watch on YouTube)

Too bad it will be available on iTunes only. Pah :( It looks really, really good.

○ Tom Hiddleston replaced Benedict Cumberbatch in Guillermo Del Toro's Crimson Peak: link. In the meantime, Benedict started the talks to join the Brad Pitt produced Lost City of Z: link. So, the thing with Star Wars was really just a rumor. Bummer.

○ Ian McKellen will play Sherlock holmes in A Slight Trick of the Mind: link. Eh. I love both Ian McKellen and Sherlock Holmes but this is not my cuppa. Sherlock without Watson? Sherlock with his mental powers fading? A young sleuth? Eh. Just... eh. I really don't like it when authors - this is based on a book - use Sherlock Holmes as nothing more than a springboard for their own creations. Either write about Sherlock and do him justice or build your own world, take the necessary risks and also responsibility for your own writing. This is just lazy.

○ A funny SDCC vid with the cast of X-Men: Days of Future Past: link.

♦ I don't know if anyone on my flist actually watches The Mentalist but Amanda Righetti and Owain Yeoman AKA Van Pelt and Rigsby will leave the show towards the end of S6: link. I don't mind at all, I never warmed up to them or their on and off romance - I very much prefer Cho - and I think S6 will be the show's last anyway, that the writers won't manage to reinvent it once the Red John storyline is over. And I wouldn't mind that either, the show ending. It's nice but pretty much, out of sight, out of mind for me.

♣ Tahmoh Penikett got a recurring part in Supernatural's S9, he will be playing ( spoilers! ) Link. NICE!

♠ And Benedict Cumberbatch will be voicing one of the characters in the animated movie The Penguins of Madagascar: link. NICE, too! Right now, he's doing voicework on another animated feature, Magik.

I don't think I appreciated the movie enough the first time I saw it. The second time around, now that I knew what it was like, it was much, much better. I think that people who expected an action packed thriller were disappointed. I would call it a character study more than anything else. Because nothing really ground-breaking happens in the film. It's all about the characters, their interactions, their lives, their thoughts... It's a slow movie, very... gloomy and sad. Yes, they are searching for a mole but it's done by going through papers and files, connecting the dots, not by shooting or blowing up the enemy.

This is the second movie that Tom Hardy filmed with Benedict Cumberbatch, the first being Stuart: A Life Backwards. And also his first with Gary Oldman, followed by Lawless, The Dark Knight Rises and Child 44 which they are filming now. I'm very happy for Tom because Gary Oldman is his hero :)

You know, the most interesting relationships in this movie were the gay ones. I thought Smiley's obsession with his slutty wife was pathetic and the only thing that really bothered me about the movie. But Peter and his lover, the teacher? Bill and his twink? Bill and Jim? I mean, Bill sold out the whole Hungarian spy ring to save Jim! Tragic stuff all around but quite fascinating!

Shooting doesn't begin until February 2014, but a cast is already in place. Charlie Hunnam, Mia Wasikowska, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jessica Chastain will star.

"Crimson Peak is a much, much, much smaller movie, completely character-driven," said Del Toro in a one-on-one interview. "It's an adult movie, an R-rated movie, pretty adult. Shockingly different from anything I've done in the English language. Normally, when I go to do a movie in America for the spectacle and younger audience, for Blade or whatever. This movie's tone is scary and it's the first time I get to do a movie more akin to what I do in the Spanish movies." (...) "This is a Gothic romance, haunted house, in the north of England."

(...) Tonally, Del Toro said Crimson Peak "has moments that are very visceral, physical violence. You're in this sort of sedate romance and then there is this brutal moment where you're like, "Whoa!" And it has a lot of kinky moments."

Source

Kinky, huh? A kinky movie with Benedict Cumberbatch? :P Gosh, I just hope he won't be playing a sleaze in it like he did in Atonement, that would be awful :( Also, del Toro obviously loves to work with Charlie Hunnam. First he He cast him in Pacific Rim and now in Crimson Peak. Cool!

Re-watched ST 2009 again. Wonderful, truly wonderful. I love JJ Abrams' style - it is the man who brought us Fringe, after all!

My favorite bits?

* The sequence that starts with McCoy bringing Kirk on board of the Enterprise. HILARIOUS and epic at the same time. Kirk's allergic reaction. McCoy's pursuit of him! And then Kirk being all smart and getting Pike to sound Red Alert and raise the shields which saved everybody's life.

* Kirk and Old!Spock meeting Scotty! Again, so cool and HILARIOUS! Simon Pegg's always funny but here he outdid himself!

I can't wait to get my hands on the new movie and watch Benedict do his thing again. He's breathtaking there *_*

Man, he's so, so gorgeous! I honestly don't get how anyone can consider him ugly.

The Lost co-creator first saw Benedict Cumberbatch on the first season of the British TV show Sherlock — which stars the English actor as a quirky, antisocial yet exceedingly brilliant modern-day version of the detective — and recommended his buddy, Star Trek director J.J. Abrams, take a look at Cumberbatch to play the villain of his sequel.

"When he came to meet us in L.A. for the first time, they had shot the second season, and I begged him for a DVD," Lindelof says. "He gave it to me and said that if I lost it he would have to kill me, at which point I fell deeply in love with him."

(...)

While most of Cumberbatch's roles tend to be dunked in gravitas, Abrams appreciated the balance of his self-deprecating humor off-camera and that seriousness on.

"When someone's going to be playing a role in a movie like Star Trek, you need actors who are going to commit to this as if they're doing the most grounded true-story drama," the director says. "You can't have people going into this in the campy, silly way. You have to really sell it because if you don't, the audience will feel there is a disingenuous, by-the-numbers approach. And Benedict every day brought a respect to the character and the audience."

Source

There's also a wonderful small sneak peek at a scene from the movie on said site. If you want to watch it without the ad, you can see it here. Yes, it's spoilery, but gosh, his VOICE, HIS VOICE!!!