Sci-Fi Movies Wednesday: The Dark Knight Rises, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Prometheus, Blade Runner 2, Kick-Ass 2, Thor 2, Ender’s Game, Robocop, Dredd, Pacific Rim + more

In this week’s Sci-Fi Movies Christopher Nolan discusses the final chapter of his Batman trilogy, we get new details on that G.I. Joe 2 delay, learn release dates for the next ‘Planet of the Apes’ and X-Men movies and discover new details on Prometheus and the Blade Runner sequel. All that plus much more including news on Kick-Ass 2, Thor 2, Iron Man 3 Transformers 4, Pacific Rim, Dredd, Ender’s Game and the Robocop remake along with the latest images and videos.

GENRE MOVIE NEWS

Christopher Nolan says The Joker won’t be referenced in The Dark Knight Rises + First TV spots released

Director Christopher Nolan has revealed that The Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight", won’t be referenced in "The Dark Knight Rises" [Empire Magazine via The Playlist]:

"We’re not addressing The Joker at all. That is something I felt very strongly about in terms of my relationship with Heath and the experience I went through with him on The Dark Knight. I didn’t want to in any way try and account for a real-life tragedy. that seemed inappropriate to me. We just have a new set of characters and a continuation of Bruce Wayne’s story. Not involving The Joker."

Another segment of Empire Magazine’s cover story features an interview with co-writer David Goyer, where Goyer talks about the final scene in the film first discussed with Nolan after "The Dark Knight" was released in 2008 [via CBM]:

"The final scene of The Dark Knight Rises is exactly that scene we talked about then…It remained completely unchanged. We both knew in our hearts that we were onto something special. I have to tell you, having finally seen everything strung together a little while ago and seeing that scene, I got a complete lump in my throat."

Here are some more thoughts from Nolan and his brother and co-writer Jonah Nolan on the end of this three-feature "Batman" franchise [via The Playlist]:

"It’s the right way to end it — to blow the whole thing up" says Jonah Nolan. "I think with almost every other franchise it’s a mistake to try and keep those plates spinning. You want stakes. You want tectonic plates to shift. And as a writer you wanna feel like you’ve worked on a complete story, with a beginning, a middle and an end." "It’s an incredibly fun arena to work in and incredibly rewarding, so I will look back on it very fondly. But I’m done with it," says director Christopher Nolan.

David Goyer and star Christian Bale also spoke about the likely scenario in which Warner Brothers continues the franchise without this creative team [via The Playlist]:

David Goyer: "It would be ridiculous to expect that Warner Bros. wouldn’t attempt to do something." Christian Bale: "My understanding is that this is the last one… I’ve had that experience with another thing of thinking a fourth one could work and it didn’t really happen — and that’s a thorn in my side. So if Chris came to me with a script and said, ‘You know what? There is another story,’ then I would love the challenge of making a fourth one work."

The interview also includes an interesting revelation from David Goyer that at the 2008 premiere of "The Dark Knight", Warner Brothers executives expressed their desire to have Leonardo DiCaprio play The Riddler in the third film. Check out the entire piece in the latest issue of Empire Magazine on newstands or on iPad now. And in other news, AMC Theatres has announced a three-movie marathon of the trilogy in select theaters on July 19, 2012. Tickets go on sale beginning June 11. Click here to head over to the official AMC website. It’s worth noting that the AMC marathon lists the runtime of "The Dark Knight Rises" at a series-high 2 hours, 45 minutes. "The Dark Knight Rises" hits conventional and IMAX theaters on July 20, 2012.

Character posters [more at Yahoo! Movies & The Dark Knight Rises | Facebook France via ComingSoon]

Catwoman poster [Batman-News]

Banner posters [more at Collider]

First two TV spots [via Trailer Addict, (2)]

Iron Man 3 begins filming; First official set photo + Villain rumors

Paramount Pictures has announced that production on "Iron Man 3" has begun. The film, directed by Shane Black, is currently filming in Wilmington, North Carolina and production will also include locations in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina, Miami, Florida and China. The studio released the first official set photo featured above.

Meanwhile, here’s our first set photos of the Iron Patriot custome first introduced in 2009’s "Dark Avengers" #1 [via ComingSoon.net]:

In the comics the character is played by Norman Osborn, but because that character is a "Spider-Man" villain and the rights to that franchise belong to Sony Pictures and not Disney a different character will be donning the armor for "Iron Man 3". And as can be seen in the second photo above, that character is the villain Eric Savin, played by actor James Bade Dale. Speaking of villains, Ashley Hamilton is in talks to play government cyborg Firepower. In other news, Latino Review reports that due to the huge success of "The Avengers", Disney and Marvel have increased the budget from $140M to $200M. "Iron Man 3" is scheduled to hit conventional and 3D theaters on May 3, 2013.

Paramount delays G.I. Joe: Retribution to 2013 for 3D post-conversion

Hope you weren’t too eager to check out "G.I. Joe: Retribution" this August because Paramount has announced that they’ve delayed the sequel to March 29, 2013. The studio says the film is getting delayed to provide a proper 3D conversion. Here’s the official line from Hasbro President and CEO, Brian Goldner:

"It is increasingly evident that 3D resonates with movie-goers globally and together with Paramount, we made the decision to bring fans an even more immersive entertainment experience."

Deadline says there was more to the delay than just needing more time for 3D. The site reports the following from their Paramount insiders:

“This was a case of letting a schedule to fill a summer slot dictate the film not being in 3D even though we knew that would be the most commercial version of the film. Then in the spring there were 2 big events. First John Carter lost $200M despite the best efforts of the Pixar brain trust. But the 3D film managed to gross over $200M overseas, nearly tripling its U.S. take.

“Also Channing Tatum had a breakout spring, starring in The Vow and 21 Jump Street. In our first screening of the film the reaction from audiences was good but with 2 big concerns: 1) They didn’t like the fact that Channing and The Rock really didn’t have any time to develop a friendship before Channing died, and 2) Why wasn’t it going to be in 3D? We went back and shot another week with Channing to develop more of his story with The Rock, which made the film play much better. But we didn’t have the time to be in 3D.

“Then a week ago Battleship basically had the same performance as John Carter – $60M-$70M U.S. and just over $200M international. That was just a wake-up call that said to us we need to offer the best version of the film irrespective of summer market share to ensure the best possible performance. And not being in 3D will cost us a ton of business internationally.”

Director Jon Chu has confirmed re-shoots and new scenes.

Fox sets 2014 release dates for Planet of the Apes and X-Men sequels + Independence Day getting 3D re-release July 2013

20th Century Fox has announced that sequels to "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and "X-Men: First Class" will both arrive in theaters in 2014. "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" will arrive first on May 23, 2014. As previously reported, Rupert Wyatt is returning to direct. The ‘First Class’ sequel will follow on July 18, 2014 with Matthew Vaughn returning to direct. While it’s officially listed as "Untitled X-Men Sequel", AICN may have discovered the title…or at the very least some new details on its plot. 20th Century Fox has recently registered the title "Days of Future Past" with the MPAA Title Registration Bureau:

To the average person, DAYS OF FUTURE PAST might not mean anything, but, if you’re an X-Men fan, you know this feeds directly into that neighborhood of the Marvel Universe.

DAYS OF FUTURE PAST was a two-issue story arc of the X-Men comics, published by Marvel in 1981, that dealt with alternative timelines. In an alternative future, mutants were incarcerated in internment camps. However, the Kitty Pryde of that time transfers her mind to the Kitty Pryde of now in order to prevent that from ever happening. The assassination of Senator Robert Kelly by the Brotherhood is what sets off this chain of events, and now with the X-Men made aware of the future, they must try to stop it from happening and… well, it’s almost like BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II, but with mutants.

In other release date news from Fox, the studio has announced that "Independence Day" will be getting a full 3D post-conversion for a July 3, 2013 release.

New Prometheus Details + Ridley Scott talks Blade Runner sequel

Before Damon Lindelof came on board Ridley Scott’s "Prometheus", screenwriter Jon Spaihts put in the original screenplay. Spaights spoke to Shock Till You Drop and ComingSoon.net and he discussed how the film came together and how he worked with both Scott and Lindelof to develop the concept.

Shock: I know Damon Lindelof came in eventually to work on the screenplay, so did he keep the same story and pump up the dialogue? What were some of his contributions?

Spaihts: His main contribution honestly is something I can’t talk about. He shifted the center of gravity of the story a little bit in ways I can’t be specific about without giving too much away. He worked on a few shifts in the mythology, and then inevitably worked to touch on a lot of other things, so wrote a lot of new dialogue to the scenes and modified a few of the character relationships in very interesting ways. It is still very much the story I wrote to begin with, with my cast of characters, my structure and big set pieces. There’s a lot of new work in there, there’s a lot of Damon in it, but it’s still very much a lot of me.

Spaihts confirmed that "Prometheus" is the first of a planned trilogy — "My story development envisioned a trilogy from the beginning" — and Spaihts says talks are ongoing with regards to his involvement in further extending the franchise:

"It’s very possible. There’s been talks, the talks are ongoing, but making schedules and creative notions line up in this town is always difficult, so it’s very possible, but far from certain."

"Prometheus" hits conventional, 3D and IMAX 3D theaters this Friday. Check out interviews with stars Charlize Theron here, Michael Fassbender here (and here) and Idris Elba here.

And be sure to check out Anthony’s interview with writer Damon Lindelof at Movies.com.

Moving on to another Ridley Scott project is the upcoming "Blade Runner" sequel. Scott has already revealed that the sequel will focus on a new female protagonist, but in an interview with The Independent, Scott doesn’t rule out the possibility of Harrison Ford’s character, Deckard showing up in the sequel:

"I don’t think it’ll be Harry [starring]," Scott said. "But I’ve got to have him in it somewhere. That’d be amusing."

Scott also took the time to describe a scene from the movie [via Collider]:

“There’ll be a vast farmland where there are no hedges or anything in sight, and it’s flat like the plains of—where’s the Great Plains in America? Kansas, where you can see for miles. And it’s dirt, but it’s being raked. On the horizon is a combine harvester which is futuristic with klieg lights, ‘cause it’s dawn. The harvester is as big as six houses. In the foreground is a small white clapboard hut with a porch as if it was from Grapes of Wrath. From the right comes a car, coming in about six feet off the ground being chased by a dog. And that’s the end of it, I’m not gonna tell you anything else.”

Watch the interview with Scott below:

New clip [YouTube via Blastr]

Watch three more clips here, here and here

Featurette on the "Prometheus" [YouTube]

IMAX poster [Collider]

Principal cast expected to return for Kick-Ass 2

The principal cast of "Kick-Ass", including Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass), Chloe Moretz (Hit-Girl) and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Red Mist) are all expected to reprise their roles for the upcoming Jeff Wadlow-directed sequel "Kick-Ass 2", and Deadline reports that Nicolas Cage is in talks for a cameo role:

Johnson is nearly done with his deal to reprise as the title character. Moretz in a similar situation as is Mintz-Plasse. Also in talks is Nicolas Cage to return in a cameo role (his reps say he has yet to receive an offer). There are several other star roles for new characters, and it’s sure looking like it will work out well for a fall shoot.

Creator Mark Millar, meanwhile, talked about the expected structure of the film telling Digital Spy that the movie will be split up into two segments with the first part centered on Hit-Girl and then the second part on Kick-Ass:

“‘Hit-Girl’ will be the first 30 minutes of the movie and then the next 70 minute is ‘Kick-Ass 2.’ So ‘Hit-Girl’ is structured as the first act,” he explained. Wadlow said at last weekend’s Kapow! Comic Convention that he wanted to explore “what happens to her when she’s not being Hit-Girl.”

If shooting gets underway this fall, "Kick-Ass 2" could be ready for release May 2013.

Marvel says Thor 2 will have "major new villain"

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige gave an early tease as to what we should expect from Alan Taylor’s "Thor 2", telling Empire Magazine that the sequel will show "the other side of Asgard" [via CBM]:

"It’s not all polished and golden in this film. And the events of Avengers will have affected Thor for sure. His relationship with Loki will continue to evolve, and the biggest part is Natalie and Thor returning with Jane Foster."

Feige also revealed that the film won’t feature [SPOILERS from the end of "The Avengers"–highlight to view] Thanos but instead feature a brand new villain for the film:

"[T]here will be a major new villain. A major, major new antagonist…"

That new villain he was talking about may end up being played by Mads Mikkelsen who Variety reports is in talks to join the project. However, there is another rumor that the character The Enchantress will be in the sequel. And finally, Disney has moved up the release of "Thor 2" by about a week: from Wednesday, November 15, 2013 to Friday, November 8, 2013.

New synopses: Pacific Rim & Dredd

Universal Pictures has released the official synopsis for Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming creature feature "Pacific Rim" [via Marketsaw]:

When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes—a washed-up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)—who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse.

"Pacific Rim" is scheduled to hit conventional and 3D theaters on July 12, 2013.

Meanwhile, Lionsgate has released the official synopsis for "Dredd", which stars "Star Trek"’s Karl Urban [via CBM]:

The future America is an irradiated wasteland. On its East Coast, running from Boston to Washington DC, lies Mega City One- a vast, violent metropolis where criminals rule the chaotic streets. The only force of order lies with the urban cops called "Judges" who possess the combined powers of judge, jury and instant executioner. Known and feared throughout the city, Dredd (Karl Urban) is the ultimate Judge, challenged with ridding the city of its latest scourge – a dangerous drug epidemic that has users of "Slo-Mo" experiencing reality at a fraction of its normal speed.

During a routine day on the job, Dredd is assigned to train and evaluate Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), a rookie with powerful psychic abilities thanks to a genetic mutation. A heinous crime calls them to a neighborhood where fellow Judges rarely dare to venture- a 200 story vertical slum controlled by prostitute turned drug lord Ma-Ma (Lena Headey) and her ruthless clan. When they capture one of the clan’s inner circle, Ma-Ma overtakes the compound’s control center and wages a dirty, vicious war against the Judges that proves she will stop at nothing to protect her empire. With the body count climbing and no way out, Dredd and Anderson must confront the odds and engage in the relentless battle for their survival.

The endlessly inventive mind of writer Alex Garland and director Pete Travis bring DREDD to life as a futuristic neo-noir action film. Filmed in 3D with stunning slow motion photography sequences, the film returns the celebrated character to the dark, visceral incarnation from John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra’s revered comic strip.

Speaking of "Dredd", creator John Wagner recently watched the completed version of the film and liked what he saw: "Music is on the button. SFX are excellent. Filming is impressive…Karl is a great Dredd and Olivia gets Anderson completely. This is Dredd as it should be done—true to character, visceral, unrelentingly violent (but not off-puttingly so)." "Dredd" is scheduled to hit conventional and 3D theaters on September 21, 2012.

Promotional still [IM Global]

More Ender’s Game details

A second Q&A has gone up on the official blog for "Ender’s Game". One of the questions deals with how the film will deal with the extensive amount of internal monologue featured in the novel:

Q: How is the film team approaching the great deal of wonderful internal monologue? Voice-overs rarely translate well to the visual medium of film, so just wondering what types of mechanisms will be considered to convey the “important stuff” inside Ender’s head?

A: We have a muppet of the Colonel who narrates the whole thing from the future. Oh, no wait, different movie. I joke because that is a great question and I think Gavin would tell you that it was the biggest challenge he faced in composing his script. It was also the most challenging aspect of the casting process. So here we have two things that really make it happen. First, we got such an unbelievable group of actors who can convey so much with their faces and body language… frankly, with their performances, which is something a book is denied using to convey inner emotion or thought.

And secondly, of course, Gavin elegantly translated some of the inner thought into action or character decisions in his script — drama — and that allowed him to find natural places for the characters to speak about what they are going through.

The blog posting also revealed the International Fleet insignia below:

International Fleet insignia [Ender’s Game Blog]

Check out the rest of the Q&A here. "Ender’s Game" is scheduled to hit theaters on November 1, 2013. "Star Trek"’s Roberto Orci is a producer on the project.

Joel Kinnaman talks Robocop remake + Gary Oldman cast as Robocop creator

Gary Oldman has joined the cast of Jose Padilha’s "Robocop". Oldman will star opposite Joel Kinnaman (Alex Murphy / Robocop) as Norton, "the scientist who creates Robocop and finds himself torn between the ideals of the machine trying to rediscover its humanity and the callous needs of a corporation." Kinnaman was recently interviewed by Collider and revealed that filming starts this September while also discussing what it means to star alongside Oldman:

"I couldn’t be happier. He’s pretty much the grand master of the game. I still think it made everybody that voted for the Oscars look bad that they didn’t vote for Gary Oldman, because what he did is so difficult in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It’s a completely different kind of thing. I mean, I loved The Artist. I thought it was fantastic. I saw it early before the whole hype of it and I thought that French actor (Jean Dujardin) did a great job, but he’s more like that guy. I’ve seen him in interviews and he is a bit animated like that character. But, Gary Oldman disappears into his character. It’s so subtle. It’s so difficult what he does, and it’s something that I don’t think maybe two or three other actors could do on their best day in the world right now. It was a master’s performance and he’s on top of his game right now. He’s in his golden age. So, I’m very, very excited and we have great scenes that have a lot of the substance that I was talking about. It’s very much a relationship between Gary Oldman’s character and Alex Murphy."

Check out the rest of the interview with Collider here. "Robocop" is scheduled to hit theaters on August 9, 2013.

Michael Bay says Transformers 4 will be his last and it’ll set up Transformers 5

"Transformers" director Michael Bay spoke with Hero Complex | LA Times about the recently opened "Transformers: The Ride 3D" at Universal Studios Hollywood and Bay declared that the fourth film will be his last "Transformers" movie as he plans to use it to set up "Transformers 5" for "the next guy". Bay also said that the film will feature an entirely new cast and some redesigns for the characters. "Transformers 4" is scheduled to hit conventional and 3D theaters on June 29, 2014. In the meantime, check out this trailer for "Transformers: The Ride 3D".

PREVIEW Videos & Images

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Russian poster [via STYD]

Red band trailer [IGN]

Feature trailer [via Trailer Addict]

The Amazing Spider-Man

Two new stills featuring Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy [via YourEntNow]

New promotional stills (including new look at The Lizard) [more at YourEntNow via at EW]

Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield singing (German television promotion) [YouTube via Vulture]

Extended TV spot [YouTube]

Brave

Featurette: Inside Look [Trailer Addict]

Frankenweenie

New poster [STYD]

The Host

Set visit with Saoirse Ronan and Max Irons plus first footage of the sci-fi romance [MTV]

Looper

Promotional still [First Showing]

Movie poster [First Showing]

Resident Evil: Retribution

Promotional posters [more at Kino Gallery via ComicBookMovie]

Seeking a Friend at the End of the World

Clip [Movies Blog | MTV]

Starship Troopers: Invasion

Japanese trailer [YouTube via Bleeding Cool]

Total Recall

TV spot: "Real or Recall" [Trailer Addict]

Watch another TV spot here

New trailer [Trailer Addict]

The Watch

New trailer [Conan]

MOVIE BITES

• "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling does not currently intend to publish the "Harry Potter" encyclopedia in book form, choosing instead to focus on the online Pottermore website. [JKRowling]
• Spider-Man is a member of "The Avengers" in the comics universe, but the film rights to "Spider-Man" are owned by Sony not Disney, so we’re left with the desire to have these superheroes together on-screen without the possibility. "The Amazing Spider-Man" star Andrew Garfield would love to see that happen though: "I was very, very jealous, and I wanted to jump on the screen and play with them. It killed me that I wasn’t in it, but I understand why, and I’m not insulted. But hey, if Samuel L. Jackson wants to give me a shout, I’m there for the next one!". [Vulture]
• Guillermo del Toro has revealed that his "Pinocchio" stop motion 3D movie is on schedule to be finished and ready for release in 2014. [THR]
• DC Entertainment has announced that the alternate Earth’s "Green Lantern", Alan Scott will now be portrayed as gay. It all begins with the comic "Earth 2" #2 which releases next week. [Newsarama]
• Ridley Scott says his long-in-development adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s sci-fi novel "Brave New World" may never happen: "I don’t know what to do with Brave New World. It’s tough. I think Brave New World in a funny kind of way was good in nineteen thirty-eight, because it had a very interesting revolutionary idea. Don’t forget it came shortly before or after George Orwell, roughly the same time. When you re-analyze it, maybe it should stay as a book. I don’t know." [Collider]
• 20th Century Fox has pushed back the release of Thor Freudenthal’s "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" from March 15, 2013 to August 16, 2013. The studio has also announced that Kenneth Branagh’s "Walking with Dinosaurs" will be delayed by two months, from October 11, 2013 to December 20, 2013. [Box Office Mojo]
• Charlize Theron has revealed that the upcoming "Mad Max" film will begin filming in mid-July. Theron also revealed that despite the long delay in getting the project in front of the cameras, the script has not changed: "…exactly the same script…It was more logistics. It was the fact that [George Miller] had to finish “Happy Feet.” Then there was terrible floods in Australia, and the desert just never recovered from it. That sounds horrible. It did recover in a beautiful way, but not in a way that we needed it to, so that was a huge problem for us.". [/Film]
• Warner Brothers has tapped Guy Ritchie to direct the studio’s new version of the Robert Louis Stevenson pirate tale "Treasure Island". [Deadline]
• Harris Wilkinson has been hired by Lionsgate and WWE Films to write the reboot of the 1993 horror movie "Leprechaun". WWE wrestler Horswaggle has already been cast to play the creature. [Deadline]
• "Snow White and the Huntsman" had a strong debut this past weekend, debuting in first place with $56.2M ($95.5M worldwide). "MIB 3" fell to second place, but had a solid second weekend with $28.1M and a first place $106.7M worldwide. In other box office news, "The Avengers" crossed $550M in a record-setting 31 days and is now the 3rd highest grossing film of all time both domestically ($552.95M) and worldwide ($1.359B). [Box Office Mojo, (2)]
• "Piranha 3DD" launched at just 86 theaters and grossed $182,237. The film, which was released day-and-date with video-on-demand, added $390,251 from foreign markets for a dismal $572,488 worldwide. [Box Office Mojo]
• Ryan Reynolds has revealed that "R.I.P.D." has finished shooting. [/Film]
• Disney, Fox and Dreamworks has pushed back the release of Steven Spielberg’s "Robopocalypse" by nine months: from July 3, 2013 to April 25, 2014. [Box Office Mojo]

CASTING BITES

• There’s a rumor that Dwayne Johnson could be playing the DC Comics character "Lobo" in Brady Peyton’s upcoming adaptation of the character. [via Bleeding Cool]
• Mark Duplass and Ben Kingsley are attached to star in the sci-fi comedy "Convention" with Jennifer Aniston potentially attached to star as the female lead. The comedy is set a national box convention with Duplass paying an inventor unveiling his latest creation: a five-sided box that creates a rip in the space-time continuum every time he creates its special fold. [Variety]
• Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie have joined the voice cast of the upcoming CG animated project "The Canterville Ghost". The movie is an adaptation of the classic story from Oscar Wilde. [THR]
• Taylor Kitsch has denied reports that he’ll be playing Finnick in "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" (which is its new official title), leaving Armie Hammer and Garrett Hedlund as the remaining actors on the initial rumored shortlist for the role. [24 Frames | LA Times & E! News]
• Brenton Thwaites has been cast as the prince in Robert Stromberg’s "Maleficent". [Deadline]
• Peter Weller will star as the voice of Batman/Bruce Wayne in two upcoming Warner Brothers animated adaptations of Frank Miller’s Batman tale "The Dark Knight Returns". Ariel Winter will play Robin. David Selby, Wade Williams and Michael McKean round out the cast. [Heat Vision | THR]

Ray Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012)

• Ray Bradbury, the author of science fiction classics including "The Martian Chronicles", "Fahrenheit 451" and "The Illustrated Man", has passed away at the age of 91. President Barack Obama released a statement on the author’s life and work which you can read at the official White House blog.

Follow Russ on his blog: Your Entertainment Now and on Twitter: Twitter.com/YourEntNow.