Universal Pictures has released the first trailer for their long-awaited epic period fantasy 47 Ronin. You can check it out here below.

Keanu Reeves plays a half-breed outcast selected to join a group of ronin (guess how many there are) in the battle against the evil Lord Kira (Tadanobu Asano, Thor), the man responsible for killing their master. On their journey of vengeance, they engage in well-choreographed skirmishes and encounter all manner of CGI monstrosities. The predominantly Asian cast includes Japanese actors Hiroyuki Sanada (The Last Samurai) and Pacific Rim‘s Rinko Kikuchi as well as recognizable Japanese-American character player Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Mortal Kombat). Chris Morgan (the Fast and the Furious movies), and Hossein Amini (Drive) collaborated on the screenplay.

The trouble with unnamed insider sources is that sometimes their information is unreliable. However, when there is trouble on a film set, budgetary issues, and multiple scheduling changes, the information from those insider sources may have some validity.

Last week we reported that those problems took a toll for 47 Ronin, and as a result Universal Pictures forced director Carl Erik Rinsch out of the editing process. But when a studio ousts a director just like that, sometimes it’s best to get the word from the actual person. Reports are now saying that Rinsch is still very much a part of the editing process and has not been fired by Universal.

A press junket for the upcoming Robin Hood was held recently and Ridley Scott was up to answering many questions, including some about his upcoming prequel to Alien.

In a majorly unexpected announcement, Scott declared that it would not just be one prequel movie, but that it would be a two-part film leading up to the events of the original 1979 horror classic. When asked if he would be directing both parts and if they would be filming them both at the same time — as is a popular method for multi-film projects these days — Ridley simply suggested that he was concentrating on the first right now. If Scott was to direct both, the simultaneous approach would be best.

Carl Erik Rinsch has only really directed commercials so far, but his name became known when it was announced that the Ridley Scott understudy would be directing the prequel of the 1979 horror classic, Alien.

Eventually we found out that Scott himself would instead be taking over the Alien project for Fox, which was great news for fans of the original but not so good news for Rinsch. So what has the rising director gone on to do since then? Well, a little short film called The Gift (no, Keanu Reeves in not in it), and it just so happens to have studios in a bidding war to acquire the rights to develop a feature film based on it.

Be sure to continue on over to the other side to watch the short film. It’s very much worth the five minutes of your time.