So, 2012 is well underway and as the western world returns to its offices, so does the film industry. First up comes news that despite the (relative) box office under-performance of David Fincher's 2011 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo US remake - taking in around $70 million worldwide, with a budget of $90 million - Sony Pictures have confirmed that shooting will go ahead on the second entry in Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, sequel The Girl Who Played with Fire in 2013. It seems unlikely that the studio will risk another Christmas release, so at this moment in time a spring/summer opening looks most likely.Whilst Fincher himself is yet to be confirmed for the second film, both Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara have signalled their intention to reprise the roles of Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander respectively for the second and third entry in the series, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. A Sony spokesperson told Entertainment Weekly: '[The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo] continues to do strong business and nothing has changed with respect to development of the next book.' To get you back in the mood, here's that electrifying cover of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song courtesy of Yeah Yeah Yeahs vocalist Karen O, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
In the other major story this week, Collider reported a few days ago that an anonymous IMAX projectionist in the US had received an updated soundtrack for the wildly anticipated The Dark Knight Rises (2012), featuring cleared up dialogue for main villain Bane, played by British actor Tom Hardy. There was much criticism of Bane's apparently indecipherable dialogue at advance screenings of the six minute IMAX prologue for the film (though not from us, read our review here), and it seemed that director Christopher Nolan had bowed down to the critical pressure by lowering background noise during Bane's speech. However, Warner Bros. today categorically denied that any post-production clean-up had taken place and Collider have since apologised for any confusion. The chances are, by the time July 4 rolls around, everyone will be in far too much of a mad rush to see the film to quibble over a few ambiguous lines of character exposition.
Last but not least - and the news you've all been waiting for - despite reports to the contrary, the hardworking folk at HeyUGuys have confirmed that gross-out ichthyophobic horror Piranha 3DD will be getting a theatrical release in UK cinemas in 2012. A representative for Entertainment Films stated: 'We would like to assure everyone that Piranha 3DD will not be going straight to DVD in the UK as mistakenly reported. We will be giving Piranha 3DD a full theatrical release and the film will not be released on DVD until the usual window post UK theatrical release.' Phew...
This week, we're running a fantastic competition offering three of our readers a copy of HBO gangster series Boardwalk Empire Season One - starring Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Kelly Macdonald and Michael Shannon - on DVD. Click here for full details on how to enter.
We'll leave you with our trailer of the week, which is for Juan Diego Solanas' Upside Down (2012), starring Kirsten Dunst and Jim Sturgess. Apologies pour la français...it's the only trailer we have at this moment in time.
Daniel Green
