Will Smith Reportedly Has Declined Director Roland Emmerich's Offer To Star In 'Independence Day 2' And '3'

Although most of us remember Will Smith for his days the hysterical leading man who moved in with his Aunt Viv and Uncle Phil on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, what really cemented the actors as a blockbuster star was his role in the 1996 hit Independence Day. Well it seems Smith wasn't exactly keen about the idea of returning for the Roland Emmerich's upcoming sequel to the film (Which is set for a July 4, 2016 release date) because the actor has apparently declined an offer to appear in the film, despite the fact that original stars Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman will be reprising their respective roles.

 

The reports of Will Smith's choice not to return for the sequel has come to us courtesy of Deadline, who indicate that Smith has decided to pass on Independence Day 2. While initially it had seemed that this would be the case all along, once it was announced that Goldblum and Pullman would be returning, it seemed that there was a glimmer of hope for the return of Smith's Captain Steven Hiller. Though there was always the possibility that the actor could change his mind, director Roland Emmerich had stated himself that Smith would most likely be to costly for the film's budget, and had even revealed that there had been two drafts of the script written; one with Smith's character and one without him.

Emmerich has had the project in production for quite some time now, and has gone on the make popular critically average disaster blockbusters such as The Day After Tomorrow, 2012, and White House Down since Independence Day hit theaters. While the project had seemed to have had lost some steam in the early 2000s, it went on to land a summer 2015 release date (Which has now been moved to 2016) which all but confirmed the film was finally headed into production. While it's still unknown what the plot of the film will be, it will reportedly follow the stepson of Will Smith's character from the original film as the series' new protagonist for ID2 and 3.

There's been speculation that Michael B. Jordan (Chronicle) is being considered for the role, but it seems unlikely considering the actors upcoming busy schedule (Including a Rocky spin-off focusing on Apollo Creed's son, a  role as Human Torch in Fantastic Four, and a possible part in Star Wars: Episode VII). But with Smith out of the picture now, Emmerich will surely be looking for a new young charismatic up and coming actor to take on the film's lead, so it's likely we'll be hearing a list of actors being considered some time soon, and we'll probably learn whether Jordan really is in contention or not.

Now Deadline not only reported that Smith won't be appearing in the upcoming sequels to Independence Day, but apparently the actor also isn't interested in reprising his role as Agent J in the upcoming Men In Black 4, which is currently being penned by 22 Jump Street co-writer Oren Uziel. The site also reports that Sony plans on rebooting the franchise now, although it's still unknown whether it will just follow a new pair of MIB Agents in the already established universe, or completely remake the first film (The former is more likely). Smith disinterest in returning as J doesn't come as much of surprise considering his return for the third installment was a surprise in it's self as Smith has been quick to declare he doesn't want to become the "sequel guy".

So how do you feel about Will Smith not returning for Men In Black 4 or Independence Day 2? Would you be happy with Michael B. Jordan as the sequel's new lead? Let us know below!

 

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Paul Bettany Set To Play Vision In 'The Avengers: Age of Ultron'; Could Ms. Marvel Be Joining The Team's Roster?

Now that Warner Bros. has moved their Batman Vs. Superman release date back to 2016, and Marvel's Ant-Man has moved up to July 17, it's safe to say the superhero movie genre will be dominated by Marvel Studios come summer of 2015. While the recent accusation of star Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas will surely draw a larger crowd than originally expected for Edgar Wright's Ant-Man, Joss Whedon's long awaited sequel to The Avengers will really be the major hitter for the studio once 2015's blockbuster season kicks off. As we learned just a few months back, the film will be adding two new members to the team this time around in the forms of Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), but now it seems we can add yet another member to the mix; classic Avengers member Vision. 

The Daily Mail had initially been the one's to report that actor Paul Bettany (Transcendence), who currently has been providing the voice of Tony Stark's A.I. program JARVIS in the Iron Man series, had gone in for costume and make-up test for the role of Vision, with the casting now being further confirmed by Variety. The inclusion of the character doesn't come as much of a surprise, considering the fact the the android Ultron (Played by James Spadar) will be the primary villain of the upcoming film, who is in fact the creator of Vision in the comics. While the character originally starts out as an ally to Ultron against The Avengers, he eventually is able to break away from Ultron's control and join the team's fight against him. 

It make sense that Marvel and Whedon would chose to go with the character, considering how heavy he plays into the mythology of Ultron's creation, as well as his relationship with new addition Scarlet Witch in the comics. That being said, there's been several rumors claiming that the character would be showing up in the sequel, with earlier reports hypothesizing that Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson could be revived as the android following the events of the first Avengers film (A conflict that has since been resolved on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). There had also been several rumors that Vin Diesel (Fast and Furious 6) had been interested in playing the part, but he's since gone on to land the role of Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy. Given that Bettany himself was rumored to play the role of Ultron, it's interesting that he's now been cast as Vision, and may further indicate that Tony Stark will be the creator of Ultron (And possibly Vision) considering the fact that Vision will share the same voice as his own A.I. system.

Now for those curious about how Vision will look in Age of Ultron, Comic Book Theory has reportedly seen concept art and the actual suit that Bettany may be sporting in the film which they've given a detail description of: “It has a helmet akin to the Iron Man armor, but it’s designed more like a face than a smooth Stark helmet. The iconic yellow and green are present in the design, but it’s more metallic shades than bright ‘comic book colors.’ They said it reminds them somewhat of the T-100 from Terminator 2 but it’s not as shiny. The yellow metal “liquid” bits seem to light up. This may or may not happen since there are two designs for that section. One lights up the other doesn’t. That’s the only difference. The cape is present, but they say it appears to only “pop out” when in flight mode. The cap sports some similar shades of yellow as the body. The “neck pieces” are the same yellow but they seem to shift positions from “standing” (for lack of a better word) to “flight mode.” So basically, if this description is anything to go by, we can expect a costume very reminiscent of the design used in the comics, as well as some similarities between Vision's face and the Iron Man helmet (Similar to the design being used for Ultron's face).

Now there's also been a rumor surrounding Age of Ultron circulating courtesy of Latino-Review, and that's the possible edition of Carol Denvers aka Ms. Marvel. The site mentions that the role will be the last major casting addition Whedon and co. will making, and will eventually lead into a solo film sometime in Marvel's Phase 3 (Which is rumored to already have a script in development). Whether's there's any truth to the rumor or not still remains to be seen, but it seems like a likely possibility considering how strongly Whedon feels about having female heroines in his films and TV shows (See Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and with the film's current roster only consisting of two female characters, an extra one doesn't seem out of the cards.

Director Joss Whedon is clearly taking a different route with the upcoming sequel, presumably keeping things much closer to the original source material. Bringing classic Avengers members such as Vision, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch certainly wasn't what most fans were expecting, yet it seems like the perfect point in the series to introduce these characters. While the rumor that Whedon will be adding Ms. Marvel to the current ensemble shows he's still taking certain things from the more recent Avengers comic storylines, the recent casting of Thomas Kretschmann (The Pianist, Valkyrie) as classic villain Baron von Strucker as well as the possible inclusion of his organization Hydra (Previously headed by the Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger) shows that Whedon's primary focus is to use Age of Ultron to pay tribute to many of the classic aspects of the team left out of the first film. We can only hope that the appearance of Kretschmann's Strucker ties in with events that we'll see take place in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

So what do you think of Paul Bettany's Vision joining The Avengers line-up? Would you be happy if Ms. Marvel has a part in the film? Sound off below!

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Empire Drops 25 Character Covers For 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' Showcasing The New Line-Up Of Mutants

Considered one of the biggest, if not, the biggest film coming out in the year 2014 in terms of comic book movie adaptations, Bryan Singer's X-Men Days of Futures Past definitely has a lot of fan expectations to meet. Taking place after the events of the lackluster third installment X-Men: The Last Stand and Matthew Vaughn's well received X-Men: First Class, this film assimilates the past and present future timelines, in which the survival of the mutant race primarily relies on the alterations of the actions in the past. Now while it may not be a new trailer like many had hoped, we have an all new look at twenty of the film's characters courtesy of Empire's limited edition covers.

As seen from the photos below it is extremely safe to say that a large amount of the movie is going to occur in the nations capital (I mean, look at the background), but enough talk, look below and bask in the glory of Empire Magazines's 25 X-Men: Days of Future Past:

Beast (Nicholas Hoult) of the 1970s

New mutant Blink (Fan Bingbing) of the future

Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) of the 1970s

Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) of the future

Havok (Lucas Till) of the 1970s

Magneto (Ian McKellen) of the future

Magneto (Michael Fassbender) of the 1970s

Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) of 1970s

Storm (Halle Berry) of the future

Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) of the 1970s

Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) of the future

Quicksilver (Evan Peters) of the 1970s

A Sentinel of the 1970s

Rogue (Anna Paquin) of the future

William Stryker (Josh Helman) of the 1970s

X-Men: Days of Future Past director Bryan Singer

Toad (Evan Joingket) of the 1970s

Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) of the 1970s

New mutant Warpath (Booboo Stewart) of the future

Bishop (Omar Sy) of the future

Colossus (Daniel Cudmore) of the future

New mutant Sunspot (Adan Canto) of the future

Kitty Pride (Ellen Page) of the future

Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) of the future

A Sentinel of the future

So lets start thing off with the the covers focusing on the film's past characters, who will reportedly be getting 70% of the screen time in Days of Future Past. Many of these characters designs such as Magneto's new suit and helmet, Xavier's hippie-esque look, and Mystique and Beast's slight redesigns from X-Men: First Class have already been shown in set photos, but these covers give us a better idea of what the final product will look like. But most interesting about these past covers is our first look at a younger Toad (Evan Joinkget), who reportedly will be serving in the Vietnam War along with returning First Class member Havok (Lucas Till), and our first look as Josh Helman (The Pacific) as a young William Stryker, which confirms earlier rumors that the character would be included in the film. It'll be interesting to see how Helman's younger version of Stryker ties in with the eventual future versions of the character played by Danny Huston (X-Men: Origin Wolverine), and of course Brian Cox (X-Men 2).

Now before we get to the future spectrum, there is one other important thing of note from the "past" character covers, and that's the controversial design Bryan Singer has chosen to go with for the character of Quicksilver. Evan Peter's upcoming portrayal of the speedster garnered a lot of buzz after Singer announced the inclusion of the character in film just mere weeks after Joss Whedon announced the very same character would be appearing in Avengers: Age of Ultron. That being said, the character redesign here isn't exactly going to cool down all the flack Singer's been getting for his version of the character, as his costume design here is drastically different from his comic book incarnation. 

Now of course, there's many returning mutants movie goers will probably remember from the original X-Men trilogy on the future covers, specifically Rogue (Anna Paquin), Ice Man (Shaw Ashmore), Storm (Halle Berry), Kitty Pride (Ellen Page), Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), and of course Wolverine himself (Hugh Jackman). New mutants include classic X-Men fan favorite Lucas Bishop (Omar Sy), who may be set-up in this film for an even more important role in the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse. Same can be said for Boo Boo Stewart's Warpath, who will be making his debut here along with Sunpot (Adam Canto) and Blink (Fan Bing Bing), and will likely be a major character if Jeff Wadlow's (Kick-Ass 2) upcoming X-Force film.

So what do you think of the character designs so far? Any changes to the cast or important things about your favorite character that you feel were left out? Drop a comment below telling us what is on your mind bub!

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Super Bowl Spot For 'Transformers: Age of Extinction' Shows Us Optimus, Mark Wahlberg, And Even Dinobots

Recently, director Michael Bay's name has been coming up often in association with the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot he's producing, but many have forgotten the director has his own film hitting theaters this summer too, and that's the fourth installment to the Transformers series. While many will agree that the director's last film in the Transformers franchise; Dark of the Moon, was an improvement over Revenge of the Fallen, many are worried about how Bay will handle the classic Dinobots on the big screen. Well now Super Bowl XLVII has brought us our first look at Tranformers: Age of Extinction, with a glimpse at the Dinobots themselves.

 

Here's the Super Bowl TV spot for Transformer: Age of Extinction: 

So to start things off on a positive note, fans will be pleased to see that good old Optimus is back in action, despite having an all new look to him. There's also the pleasant absence of Shia LaBeouf's trademark squeals, replaced here with Mark Wahlberg's character running and screaming for his daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz). It also seems Megatron (Who has possibly become Galvatron in this film) has finally come to realize that he was never intended to transform into a giant space tank or jet, but now a giant gun face, similar to the past cartoon incarnation. And how could one miss the new Autobot parachuting with two handguns in tow, and of course, we now finally witness the long over due appearance by the previously rumored Dinobots. Now as of yet the robots of the film don't exactly seem to be of much concern, but rather the human characters, as has been the case with the last couple of Transformers film. While Wahlberg's leading man Cade Yaeger will surely make for a good enough substitute for LaBeouf's Sam Witwicky, the real pressure lies on new comers Nicola Peltz (The Last Airbender) and Jack Reynor (Delivery Man), who both have rather lackluster films on their resumes.

Now of course, the flaws of this TV spot surely show upon second and third viewings, and it definitely seems the film has movie taken a sky dive from the heavens and is preparing to land face first when it comes to the special effects we see here. One scene that makes this highly evident in the trailer is the close up on Optimus Prime's face, where we can see an extreme lack of detail of which he had in the previous films. With film's like Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim proving the artistic potential giant on screen robots have, the standards Bay and co. have to meet visually with this film have been raised. We also see Optimus getting shot again through the chest (I mean I don't think 50 Cent would let that happen twice, so how did Optimus manage to?), and of course, he probably won't actually stay injured for more than ten minutes of the movie. We see the classic Bay-esque shots that have been a topic of ridicule from both fans and critics alike, such as the over abundance of explosions, and an already cheesy looking car chase sequence. It's easy to notice Bay's use of filming from a far away position in order to compensate for the lack of detail we mentioned earlier.

Being that this is only a TV spot for Age of Extinction, we can only hope to see more detail and a  more of the army aspect of the film arise through longer trailer. With cast editions such as Kelsey Grammer (X-Men: The Last Stand), and Stanley Tucci (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) playing roles that will apparently be key to the film's plot, there's surely much more footage to see as the film nears it's summer realize.  but for now we can sit and mindlessly enjoy Optimus riding the surprisingly sick (In a good way) Dinobot Grimlock to lord knows where. Despite being graphically less appealing it looks as though that Age of Extinction looks to offer more of a character developmental story along with a more aggressive story line similar to Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

So how do you feel about the first trailer for Transformers: Age of Extinction? Do agree you that the lack of detail will be compensated for with a truck load of action? Leave your comments below!

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Genuine Promo Art From 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Gives Us Our First Look At The Turtles And Shredder

With all the heat Marvel and DC films have been getting lately, it's easy for fans to forget that we will in fact finally be getting a new live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie later this summer. Fans haven't exactly been easy on the upcoming take on the TMNT, as only a few years back rumors had suggested that the film would have the turtles be of alien origin, and of course, as soon as many heard that Michael Bay (Transformers: Age of Extinction) would be producing the film, they were quick to pass off the movie as yet another misguided adaption. But reassured Ninja Turtle fans, because the first bits of concept and promo art for the film have made their way online, and believe or not, they aren't half bad.

Below are the leaked pictures courtesy of CBM which show off the character miniatures used for the upcoming film, that gives us a good look at the full body designs and costumes of each of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle members (Played by Pete Ploszek, Noel Fisher, Alan Ritchson, and Jeremy Howard):

Miniatures of the four turtles, with good looks at Raphael and Michelangelo and a glimpse of Donatello

Close-up of Leonardo in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle film, sporting the wooden chest platelets and some other cool armory along with his traditional double katana weaponry.

Full figure of Donatello from the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film with headphones and other gear that emphasizes his technological contribution to the team. 

At first glance it's obvious that director Jonathan Liebesman has decided to give the brothers very different looks from each other, which is something that wasn't done in the original 90s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film. Leonardo has a wooden chest plate and minimalist type armor which is perfect for his physical appearance. Raphael is given more a large muscular appearance and a mask that covers more of his face, being that he is the more physical and aggressive member of the team. Michelangelo wears a jacket around his waist, and doesn't look as physical as his brothers and does sport the shorter height from the other members of the half shell team. Then we come to Donatello, who's given glasses and a taller stature in comparison to the other turtles, and he generally has the look of the stereotypical "smarter sibling", which is really the only design that goes a bit over board.

Now as for the Shredder design we have bellow, there's definitely going to be a lot more reassurance from fans worried about Liebesman and Bay's take on the classic villain. While descriptions of the costume had many concerned that the many blades and metallic armory protruding from Shredder's suit would end up look like a convoluted mess akin to one of Bay's Decepticons in the Transformers series, it seems the look is actually pretty bad-ass. As we learned early in the film's production, Shredder's identity has been changed from the originally Japanese Oroku Saki, to an American named Eric Sachs, who will be played by William Fichtner (The Lone Ranger).

And finally we have that last bit of art leaked from the film, which actually gives us the best idea of what the final look of the turtles will resemble. The faces of the turtles are clearly showing a slightly more human look than we've seen in previous incarnations, but this is mainly due to the fact that Liebesman used mo-cap sensors on the film's actors, similar to how Mark Ruffalo's facial expressions and likeness were used for the Hulk in The Avengers. We also have a better look at the very different gear the characters are sporting, namely Donatello who not only is wearing glasses, but also a pair of high tech goggles.

So what do you think of the new designs Liebesman and Bay have decided to use for the turtles and Shredder? Are you going to reserve judgement until the first bits of footage are released? Let us know below!

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