This Week in Movie Trailers: Ender's Game, The World's End, Gravity, and more!

Summer is here!

Last week, Iron Man 3 officially kicked off the summer blockbuster movie season (Check out Dan's review here). And since the festival/award season rears its overstuffed head in the fall, movie lovers are being inundated at the moment with new trailers, pictures, and posters from all the big upcoming films. 

So in what may (or may not) become a regular posting, I (Chris from The South) give you a wrap-up of some of the new trailers that hit the internet this week (and one from a few weeks ago to catch up on). Many of these film are included on Dan and I’s respective Power Rankings Lists on the right hand side of the screen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
And with these new trailers, we may see some movement in the rankings.

First, we have Ender’s Game, the long-gestating film adaptation of one of the most beloved sci-fi novels of all time by Orson Scott Card.  For those of you who do not know, Ender’s Game is about: 70 years after a horrific alien war, an unusually gifted child is sent to an advanced military school in space to prepare for a future invasion.
 

Ender’s Game stars some top young talent Asa Butterfield (Hugo), Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), and Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), plus some big name stars like Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, and Viola Davis. The film is directed by Gavin Hood.

Plus, it was shot in my backyard (not literally, but in my city) of New Orleans. The film is certainly highly anticipated, and though I have not read the book, the trailer has got me really excited. It looks like a highly enjoyable sci-fi adventure opening November 1.

Check out more trailers – including Gravity, The Word’s End, Thor, and Inside Llewyn Davis after the jump:

I love the films of Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World). They are always fun, energetic, and full of geeky movie and pop culture references.

His newest film, The World’s End, re-teams the writer-director with his two most frequent collaborators, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, for the final film in a loosely connected trilogy that began with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (the so-called “Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy" or  “Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy”) – all three films include a running gag reference to British Ice Cream product Cornetto (and have a lot of blood too).

The World’s End follows five friends who reunite in an attempt to top their epic pub crawl from 20 years earlier unwittingly become humankind's only hope for survival.

In addition to Pegg and Frost, the film also stars a slew of British talent like Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan, and Rosamund Pike. Catch it in theaters August 23.

Next up is yet another film shot in my current (and Dan’s former) stomping ground. The Butler stars Forrest Whitaker as Eugene Allen, who served eight presidents as the White House's head butler from 1952 to 1986, and had a unique front-row seat as political and racial history was made. It is based on true story.

The film is directed by Lee Daniels (Precious, The Paperboy) and stars a who’s who list of Hollywood stars: John Cusack as Richard Nixon, Robin Williams as Dwight Eisenhower, James Marsden as JFK, Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan, Liev Schreiber as Lyndon Johnson, and many others, plus Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Vanessa Redgrave, Janes Fonda, Lenny Kravitz, Minka Kelly, Mariah Carey, Alex Pettyfer, and Oprah Winfrey.

The film could be hit-or-miss, but by the looks of the trailer (and its Oscar-bait subject matter and cast), the film is lining itself up for a potential award season run starting October 18 in theaters.

I know Dan is particularly excited about this next film – Captain Phillips, starring Tom Hanks as Vermont native Captain Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama, a cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in 2009. 

The film is directed by Paul Greengrass, who brings his trademark shaky cam, action-style directing (Bloody Sunday, United 93, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum).

With Hanks and Greengrass teaming up, the film looks to be a hit. Captain Phillips is due out Oct 11.

Next we look at the second trailer for Inside Llewyn Davis (which is very similar to the first one, released a few weeks back), from our beloved Coen Brothers.

The film follows a singer-songwriter as he navigates New York's folk music scene during the 1960s. Of course Bob Dylan instantly springs to mind, but the film is actually loosely based on the life (and the 2005 memoir) of the late Dave Van Ronk and the Greenwich Village music scene (of which Dylan was a apart of as well).

I should not have to tell you how excited I am about this film. We here at North/South Film always eagerly anticipate the latest Coen Brothers effort, and since we are both big fans of this time period’s music, we are doubly excited for this flick.

The film stars Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Garret Hedlund, Justin Timberlake, F. Murray Abraham, and John Goodman. Hitting theaters on December 6, it is certain to make an Oscar run later this year as well.

Now that all those other films are out of the way, we get down to the really good stuff - the just release teaser trailer for Alfonso Cuarón's long-awaited new film Gravity. And now that Iron Man 3 has hit theaters, Gravity moves up to the #1 spot on my Most Anticipated List.

 

Cuarón is one of my favorite directors - Y Tu Mamá También is truly fantastic, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is by far the best of the series, and Children of Men is one of my favorite films of all-time.

Gravity stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney (and that is about it). The film is said to employ some extremely advanced/impressive special effects and should certainly be seen in IMAX 3-D, as intended, to really immerse yourself in the experience.

Now granted, the teaser, as beautiful and mysterious as it is, is just that - a teaser. Nothing too big is revealed, but it has got me excited to no end. Mark it down . . . Gravity will be one of the best, if not THE BEST, film of 2013. So without further ado, here it is:

And finally, I wanted to add the trailer for Thor: The Dark World, which was released about two weeks or so ago. I planned on highlighting the Marvel sequel in its own article when it first premiered online, but just did not have time. So to make up for that, I am including it now.

Returning to series are Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Kate Dennings, Jaimie Alexander, Ray Stevenson, Rene Russo, and Anthony Hopkins. They are joined this time around by Zachary Levi, Chris O’Dowd, and Christopher Eccleston. Game of Thrones helmer Alan Taylor replaces Kenneth Branagh in the director’s chair this time around.

I liked the first film a good bit and the newest entry appears to have upped the action quite a bit. I think it can be a fun series and quite different from other Marvel properties like Iron Man and Captain America. Check out the trailer here: