Why The Lone Ranger was always a smarter bet than John Carter...

Well, um, this does look like Arnie Hammer a The Lone Ranger and Johnny Depp as Tonto.  Here is your first official look (congrats on getting it online before cell-phone photos were leaked) at Gore Verbinski's The Lone Ranger.  If you recall, the film was almost shelved last year over budgetary concerns.  Disney only put the project back on the table when costs were trimmed from $250 million to $215 million.  Ironically, it was this story that first brought to light the insanely high price tag for Andrew Stanton's John Carter, which (barring a miracle) is set to open to pretty lukewarm numbers tomorrow.  I've long argued against the ever-rising budgets of big-scale would-be blockbusters, arguing that studios shouldn't "spend Return of the King money on Fellowship of the Ring".  But it is beyond odd that this film was the one to make Disney finally come down hard on budgets.  Even if $215 million is still a bit much to spend on a Lone Ranger film, it is surely a far-safer bet than a complete unknown entity like John Carter (which has no stars, cult-level source material, an untested live-action director at the helm, and - in hindsight - isn't a good movie).

Relativity releases a bunch of photos, but no title, for their Snow White film.

I don't usually post about every photo from every movie, but Relativity was nice enough to send me a batch of photos all in one handy file, so why not?  Anyway, we get glances at Lily Collins as Snow White, Julia Roberts as 'the Wicked Queen', Arnie Hammer as 'the Prince', and all seven dwarves.  While most of the pictures try to sell the 'fairy-tale beauty' and/or 'virginal innocence' of the title character, the best picture is the cast photo above.  Not only is Collins actually smiling, there is a sense of playful wickedness that is lacking from the other photos.  Obviously the Tarsem Singh project will be visually scrumptious, and I'm all for films that actually have bright and bold colors, but I still fear for an industry that feels the need to have three (3!) Snow White projects coming out over the next year.  Anyway, the other bazillion photos are after the jump.  Enjoy.

Scott Mendelson

Wow! A new Green Lantern still that isn't just a screen-capture from the trailer!!

Nothing much here from Cineheroes, just a clear look at Peter Sarsgaard as Hector Hammond before he turns all big-headed and uber-villanious. Still, it's nice that this a real image and not just someone pulling a still from the trailer and passing it off as an 'exclusive first look!'. Are we really that lazy and/or desperate for hits? I guess so. Anyway, enjoy.

Scott Mendelson

Neville Longbottom bloodied and battered in first Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II image.

One of the most exciting moments of any of the Harry Potter books was in the final pages of the otherwise lackluster Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. There was about a paragraph where it was teased that Neville Longbottom, NOT Harry Potter was the 'chosen one' who would eventually confront and destroy Lord Voldermort. The idea that Harry Potter would end up a supporting character in his own adventure, that the somewhat marginalized Longbottom was to be the true hero... that would have been an unexpected and daring narrative choice. But after tossing out the idea, Dumbledore quickly pooh-poohs the notion and once again asserts that Harry Potter is the would-be chosen one. It was the second time in just the last act of Order of the Pheonix, following the Voldermort vs. Dumbledore battle where I was hoping that Albus would finish off Tom Riddle right then and there, that JK Rowling had the chance to surprise us and take the stories in an unexpected direction I have no qualms about how the books turned out (books 6 and 7 were much better than 5), but it would have been a wonderful plot twist, leading into the 'third act' of the series, to completely turn the tables likes that. Alas, it was not to be. The above image originated at Cinemablend.

Scott Mendelson

Thor is angry because...?

Thor just read the script?

Thor just watched the trailer?

Thor just watched a rough cut?

You pick...

Scott Mendelson

But wait, there's more! Entertainment Weekly debuts full shot of Chris Evans as Captain America.

On one hand, I cannot argue per se with the more realistic look of this World War II-era costume. On the other hand, there is a certain thrill with seeing your favorite comic book characters on the big screen looking exactly like their four-color counterparts. So I can only hope that the epilogue for the Joe Johnston period adventure, which will likely serve as a cliffhanger for The Avengers, will have Steve Rogers debuting his more traditional costume once the film shifts to present day, ala the first run of Ultimate Avengers. Still, as the X-Men series and Batman Begins proved, costume fidelity is a moot point if the film works. The big question now is when we're going to see a trailer for this thing. Word of mouth on the footage has been mixed, and there is no word on a Super Bowl spot, which would be the most appropriate venue. As of this time, Captain America is, along with X-Men: First Class and Rise of the Apes, among the only major summer tent-poles that hasn't debuted a teaser of some kind. I still cannot believe that Paramount isn't opening this one over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, but I can only presume that Michael Bay called dibs for Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon and wouldn't budge.

Scott Mendelson

First look at Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man reveals that... Peter Parker is indeed Spider-Man!

The net has been buzzing with all kinds of speculative silliness regarding 'clues' that can be deduced from this first official image from Marc Webb's Spider-Man reboot. Here's what we know: Andrew Garfield plays Peter Parker. Peter Parker is secretly Spider-Man. Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man wears a costume that's pretty similar to the comics and/or Tobey Maguire's suit from the Ram Raimi trilogy, but with a darker red/blue color scheme. Peter Parker apparently carries his backpack around with him at one point in the film, or perhaps only in this photo. Other than that, stop the speculation, people. It's a terrifically moody photo, and the blood on his face is a nice touch.

For those are care: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides gets first-look photos from Yahoo and USA Today.

These all came from USA Today and Yahoo. Enjoy. The trailer debuts on Monday.

First look at Karl Urban as Judge Dredd.

This one comes out from Lionsgate in 2012, and this still comes from Aint It Cool News. Looks pretty convincing to me. I've always had a soft spot for the original Sylvester Stallone Judge Dredd from 1995. Sure, it's kinda terrible, but it's amusingly progressive for an action picture (Dredd learns that compassion and due process are pretty cool), and it's insanely violent. I'm pretty sure that, save our three heroic leads, every single character with a speaking part dies onscreen. I love that Stallone apparently thought that it had a shot at a PG-13 at the time, but then Harrison Ford thought the same thing about the blood-soaked Air Force One.

Scott Mendelson

The obvious gender double-standard of GQ's Glee photo shoot.

Look, Glee's Lea Michele is really hot, and Dianna Agron isn't too bad either. So as a heterosexual male, I have no objection if they choose to partake in a somewhat risque photo shoot for GQ Magazine, although I do wish they had arranged for Jayma Mays to participate as well. There are others who may partake in a certain amount of finger wagging on the whole principal of the matter, but I've always been of the live-and-let-live philosophy. But what I do find annoying, if not a little disturbing, is the obvious differences in how female leads Michele and Agron are shot versus how male lead Cory Monteith is photographed. The pictures above are the most obvious (and least risque) examples, and they arguably speak for themselves. But just in case you need the obvious pointed out: the women are shot in overtly salacious poses in a state of semi-undress. Monteith is photographed fully clothed and (in his solo photos) engaging in relatively asexual behavior such as playing the drums or goofing off in the gym. I certainly don't need or want to see Moneith's bare ass or the man who plays Finn in any kind of compromising positions, but why is it that the women must be photographed with imagery out of a pornographic fantasy, while the male lead (and in fact most male actors in glossy photo shoots) get away with not doing so much as unbuttoning their top buttons? If you were going to do an entire shoot with Michele and Agron playing off the 'naughty schoolgirl' fantasy, wouldn't it have been a little bit fair to at least have a couple shots of Monteith with his shirt removed? Again, I'm not trying to get on a high horse about sexism and the double-standard of how men and women are photographed in Hollywood, but well, once you glance at the Glee pictorial, it kinda makes the point for me.

Scott Mendelson