Ben-Hur
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Screenwriter: Keith Clarke and John Ridley
Cast: Jack Huston, Morgan Freeman, Toby Kebbell, Nazanin Boniadi, Haluk Bilginer, Rodrigo Santoro.
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Rated PG-13 | 123 minutes
Release Date: August 19, 2016

Since studios are big on remakes that use expensive CGI to achieve looks or stunts that couldn’t have otherwise been achieved when the film was first released, it only made sense that we get a remake for Ben-Hur. But just because it sounds good on paper doesn’t exactly mean that it should be made. Then again, if done well, it could avoid being a complete disaster.

And so that is where the new Ben-Hur from director Timur Bekmambetov finds itself. The film starring Jack Huston as the title character finds itself following other contemporary remakes that just don’t quite measure up to the originals despite their well-intentions to update the age-old story for a modern audience.

Yes. Ben-Hur is indeed another remake in the long line of remakes. The original 1959 film starring Charlton Heston ended up winning 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It may seem difficult to follow that up with a remake of the film, but Timur Bekmambetov‘s telling doesn’t seem to have any intentions of doing that. Instead, Keith Clarke and John Ridley‘s adaptation of the 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace draws inspiration from the previous two big-screen films that came before it, while also being sold as a faith-based film.

We were invited to sit down with a group of journalists to talk to Jack Huston, who plays the title character; Toby Kebbell, who plays Messala, Ben-Hur’s adoptive brother; and Morgan Freeman who plays Sheik Ilderim. The three talked about their experience on the set, the training they went through to prepare for the role, and the hesitations of remaking a classic. Check out the top five things you need to know about the film below.

Ahead of the panel scheduled to be held on Saturday at 12:30 pm in the San Diego Comic-Con’s fabled Hall H, Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. have unveiled the first poster for their upcoming giant monster movie spectacle Kong: Skull Island.

You can check out the poster here below.

Last week, the first image from Kong was revealed. Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts and stars Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, and John Goodman are expected to be in attendance for the Saturday panel.

We’ve already seen a couple of teaser trailers for A Monster Calls, which features Liam Neeson as a giant tree monster. Now an excellent official trailer has been released by Focus Features. You can check it out below.

The movie follows a young boy who escapes to a fantasy world while trying to cope with his mother’s sickness and the schoolmates who bully him. It also stars Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Sigourney Weaver (Alien, Ghostbusters), Lewis MacDougall (Pan), and Toby Kebbell (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Warcraft).

Warcraft
Director: Duncan Jones
Screenwriter: Charles Leavitt and Duncan Jones
Cast: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Robert Kazinsky, and Daniel Wu
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Rated PG-13 | 123 Minutes
Release Date: June 10th, 2016

Critics have been rather harsh to Warcraft so far, and as the lights dimmed and the movie started, I came into the theater thinking that I was only there to throw a little love on director Duncan Jones. Jones has had a rough year so far, and this whole movie is a big risk for not only him, but also for Blizzard Entertainment, who created the game that the movie draws inspiration from, World of Warcraft.

So how was the movie, when watched by a hardcore WoW geek?