Film News Roundup: 10

Reports surfaced last month that Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” was likely going to move to a Christmas date due to editing issues. Those rumors proved to be true. Earlier this week Paramount Pictures chairmen Brad Grey officially signed off to move the film to Dec. 25 after watching Scorsese’s new cute of the film.  Scorsese’s original running time was over 180 minutes; the theatrical release of the film will run at 165 minutes.

“The Wolf of Wall Street” will be facing off against “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” “47 Ronin,” Grudge Match,” and the Justin Bieber documentary “Believe” on Dec. 25. The film faces steep competition to win the box-office but its Dec. 25 date puts it in the heart of Oscar contention.

Also, Paramount Pictures released a new trailer for the film. While the first trailer showcased the more eccentric tone of the film, the latest trailer presented more details of the film’s plot. The film is based of Jordan Belfort’s memoir. Leo DiCaprio stars as a Belfort, a hard-partying New York stockbroker convicted of security fraud and money laundering. One of the many highlights of the trailer is the chemistry between DiCaprio and Jonah Hill. The dynamic relationship between both actors will surely be a major part of the film that I can’t wait to see.

Check out the trailer below. The film also stars, Matthew McConaughey, Jean Dujardin, Margot Robbie, Kyle Chandler, Jon Bernthal, and Rob Reiner.

Warner Bros. released a new trailer for “The LEGO Movie.” The film is helmed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, directors of “21 Jump Street” and “Cloudy with a Change of Meatballs.” The film revolves around an ordinary guy named Emmet (Chris Pratt) who is thought to be the Special, the one who can save the LEGO universe from the evil President Business (Will Ferrell).

As surprisingly funny the first trailer was, this new trailer was a stroke of genius that raised my expectation for the film; it had multiple laugh out loud moments that required me to re-watch the trailer over and over again. One standout was the appearance of the LEGO Batman voiced by Will Arnett; you can never go wrong by adding Batman in your film, even in LEGO form.

The voice cast also includes Elizabeth Banks, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Channing Tatum, Cobie Smulders, and Jonah Hill. “The LEGO Movie” hits theaters on February 7, 2014. Check out the trailer below.

In other news, Aaron Taylor-Johnson has officially signed of to play Quicksilver, aka, Pietro Maximoff in “The Avengers: Age of Ultron.” The Wrap reported that the deal took long to finalize because there was concern the filming schedule of the Marvel sequel would interfere with Taylor-Johnson’s promotional obligations for “Godzilla”; apparently that was sorted out.

            Taylor-Johnson joins James Spader as two of the new cast members to join the film; we’ve yet to hear official word of Elizabeth Olsen joining the cast.

You can see Taylor Johnson and the rest of the Avengers when “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” opens in theaters on May 1, 2015.