“When you’re just looking at it on the page and you read ‘he kicks the crap out of Stilson,’ they say ‘Gavin what are you doing? This has got to get a PG-13 rating, and you’re putting violence, don’t you know what the issue of bullying is?’ And I say ‘Yeah I do, I’m going to speak to that issue.’ He knows that he goes too far and we couldn’t shy away from that.”

In fact, Hood says that it was this attention to the spirit of the story that attracted the mostly veteran cast to Ender’s Game. Instead of focusing on the flashy effects and the super-cool technology at hand, they were excited to…

Join TJ to wrap up the week with a look back at the “Jacktastic” box office. TJ also wrote an ‘Escape Plan’ review because he enjoyed the film, so there. Then there’s the ‘Planes: Fire and Rescue’ Trailer — yes, this is a thing, apparently. ‘Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit’ has been pushed to a January release date. This is probably not a good thing. We got the first ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ trailer and boy does it look epic. Plus, you know, it’s just good to have Bryan Singer back at the helm of an ‘X-men’ film. ‘Back to the Future’ got a pretty fun improv act that you should check out. ‘Olympus Has Fallen’ is getting a sequel. Are you ready for this? It’s called ‘London Has Fallen’. Look, we’re not making this up. If you see ‘Thor: The Dark World’ in 3D, you’ll get to see 5 minutes of ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’. Seems like a sneaky way to sell 3D tickets to me. ‘Star Wars VII’ “Must” open in 2015 — because of reasons. And make sure you see ‘Ender’s Game’ this weekend!

More details continue to leak out about the behind the scenes tension at Lucasfilm that led to J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan taking over the script for Star Wars Episode VII. More and more, it’s sounding like decisions made by execs and money people back at the inception of the Lucasfilm purchase were way too ambitious, with the locked in 2015 release date causing a rushed process on the creative side, and forcing Disney execs to demand the film be completed in a time frame that seems unreasonable to those making the film.

THR reports on the situation, saying that “producer Kathleen…

I have to admit, I wasn’t sold on this movie at first. But I’m starting to get into the mood for it. Now who knows, maybe they’ve put all the jokes in the trailer and this will be a dud, but it looks to be a completely hillarious and fun movie. Now if they can find just enough seriousness to pull off a decent plot everything will be good!

Check out the trailer, it’s a lot of fun. The Lego Movie will be in theaters on Februrary 14, 2014.

Good news for fans of Ender’s Game who don’t want their movie ticket dollars lining the pockets of notorious homophobe: They won’t. After all that controversy over authorOrson Scott Card‘s extreme conservative views, a new report indicates that Card doesn’t actually stand to make any money off of Gavin Hood‘s film, and never did.

However, devotees of Card’s story aren’t totally in the clear. Card is still profiting from sales of his original novel, which has climbed to the top of the New York Times bestseller list in advance of the film’s release.

According to sources who spoke with 

So obviously, the big thing to see this weekend is Ender’s Game and I can’t wait to get my self to the theater to see it! I’ve read the book, and I’m currently reading Ender’s Shadow so I can be fully prepared for the film.

Opening This Weekend

Ender’s Game — PG-13

So I’ve read the book now, and I have to say that while I enjoyed it a lot, it’s also just a little bit strange. But I’m thinking that it will translate well to the big screen. It’s certainly a well loved Sci-Fi novel, and controversy over Orson Scott Card’s views aside, I think the film will do well this weekend. This is the…

There was a lot to absorb in that first trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past. Original trilogy X-Men were bumping up against First Class X-Men, new characters were showing up left and right, and the emotional arc was cresting just as action and mayhem broke out in both timelines.

Fortunately, director Bryan Singer is happy to guide fans through that jam-packed promo. “It really is what we wanted from the first look at the movie,” he said. Hit the jump for his commentary on some key moments.

Really looking forward to this film and so loving every minute of this! Great stuff, go check it…

It’s not just the stakes that are higher as Katniss Everdeen returns to the arena for The Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire. The budget is escalating as well. For its follow-up to last year’s hit The Hunger Games, which opens Nov. 22, Lionsgate upped the film’s budget from $78 million to north of $130 million.

Wow. That does not inspire confidence in me. That may be counter intuitive, but I often find that films with expanded and ballooned budgets are not better off for it. We’ll see, it does look pretty good. 

With “Thor: The Dark World” headed to theaters around the world, Marvel has already tagged on the mandatory credits stinger and probably other little nerdtacular bits to teaser other things in the ever growing Marvel-verse. But there will be one more thing for dudes dressed up as Loki to cheer about: five minutes of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” Whoa! Right? Well, hold up there, because it will also be shown during 3D screenings for the movie. Well done, Marvel, well done.

Ugh! I didn’t plan on seeing the film in 3D. I don’t want to see the film in 3D. Curse you, Marvel!