Quantum of Solace Teaser Trailer

Sony has released the teaser trailer for the latest James Bond film, Quantum Of Solace. The teaser will be attached to Hancock, which hits theaters later this week. Filled with flashes of Paul Greengrass/Bourne-style action sequences, fast cars, and hot women, what more could you ask for? It looks totally bad ass. Tell me what you think in the comments below.

Quantum of Solace continues the high octane adventures of James Bond (DANIEL CRAIG) in CASINO ROYALE.

Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal. Pursuing his determination to uncover the truth, Bond and M (JUDI DENCH) interrogate Mr White (JESPER CHRISTENSEN) who reveals the organization which blackmailed Vesper is far more complex and dangerous than anyone had imagined.

Forensic intelligence links an Mi6 traitor to a bank account in Haiti where a case of mistaken identity introduces Bond to the beautiful but feisty Camille (OLGA KURYLENKO), a woman who has her own vendetta. Camille leads Bond straight to Dominic Greene (MATHIEU AMALRIC), a ruthless business man and major force within the mysterious organization.

On a mission that leads him to Austria, Italy and South America, Bond discovers that Greene, conspiring to take total control of one of the world’s most important natural resources, is forging a deal with the exiled General Medrano (JOAQUIN COSIO). Using his associates in the organization, and manipulating his powerful contacts within the CIA and the British government, Greene promises to overthrow the existing regime in a Latin American country, giving the General control of the country in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of land.

In a minefield of treachery, murder and deceit, Bond allies with old friends in a battle to uncover the truth. As he gets closer to finding the man responsible for the betrayal of Vesper, 007 must keep one step ahead of the CIA, the terrorists and even M, to unravel Greene’s sinister plan and stop his organisation.

Watch the trailer in High Definition on Moviefone. Quantum of Solace hits theaters on November 7th 2008.

Hayden Panettiere’s Got a Gun

Hayden Panettiere’s Got a Gun

Packing some heat, Hayden Panettiere looked ever the femme fatale while on the set of her hit show Heroes, which was shooting in Los Angeles on Saturday (June 21).

Also on hand was boyfriend Milo Ventimiglia, who wore an all black ensemble with his hair slicked back as he filmed a few action sequences.

Season three of the show is all set to open with a three-hour episode airing Monday, September 22, 2008. According to studio reports, the first hour will be a clip show of the past two seasons with the final two hours containing the Heroes season premiere and the opening of the third volume, “Villains”.”

While “Villains” was originally designed to be included within the second season, the writers’ strike forced the volume to be carried over into what’s sure to be a captivating season three.

Fringe Friday: Quick Impressions After Thursday's Press Screening

Fringe

The Lost season-four finale is all the rage with the kids today, but I would be remiss if I didn’t report at least a few of my findings from yesterday’s Fringe screening at the Fox lot.

Long story short? It’s super.

Want the long story long? Click in for what Fringe is about, why it’s great and what unanswered questions from this series are going to be torturing us come fall on Fox…

Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, Fringe

What Is It? FBI Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) finds herself entangled in an investigation of a series of paranormal crimes and mysteries. Many or all of these happenings appear to be related to the dirty work of an evil genius. To solve these mysteries and crimes, she must work with a similiar genius, only the one on her side (John Noble) is incarcerated, insane and of indeterminate moral orientation. His miscreant adult son (Joshua Jackson) is the only who can, well, “speak Walter,” meaning that he is the only one equipped to interpret the man’s mad mutterings.

Sure to have procedural elements as well as an ongoing myth arc, Fringe buffers its horror-show edge with a fair portion of comedy, an undercurrent of romance and some nice action sequences as the basis for a lot of interesting character interaction, as Dunham puts together a motley team of investigators and scientists (including the marvelous Kirk Avecedo) to help take on the bogeyman behind the curtain.

Is It Good? Have you seen the Alias pilot? How about the Lost pilot? Did you think those were OK? If yes, you’ll like this. It is of equivalent quality, if perhaps a bit less grandiose than the Lost pilot. Still, the story structure of Fringe feels perfect. All the narrative pieces that need to fit together, in the end, do. Guns placed on tables in act I go off in act III. Loose ends are tied up or are drawn out enough to be a season-long story threads. Anna Torv’s Olivia Dunham is a woman of substance and grace. Joshua Jackson, for his part, is what they call laugh-out-loud funny.

What Happens? We were asked to neither review Fringe (at this stage) nor to give away key plot points, which limits discussion topics to a certain extent, but I thought the smattering of teases below might be of interest. However, to summarize the high points, the passengers of a transatlantic 747 flight are turning into melting messes—I call them snot zombies—and Olivia, an investigator who is at odds with her disdainful superior, is sent off on a wild-goose chase that turns out to be a mission into the midst of the mystery. Now, on to those teases…

Lance Reddick

Endearments: The dialogue in this pilot is riddled with the kind of patronizing endearments that the ad men of Mad Men can get away with in 1962, but which are just pathetic and old-school in today’s work environment. “Sweetheart…honey…baby.” (Told you Olivia was having trouble with her boss.) However, even when used derisively, “Sweetheart” in the hands of Joshua Jackson or Lance Reddick (Dunham’s dismissive team leader) almost makes a girl wonder if there really is some love behind the word. Does condescension necessarily abrogate a sincere sentiment? Olivia Dunham is not naive enough to think that, and neither am I, but I won’t apologize for the wondering…kudos to the script and the actors for adding in all the layers.

Self-Storage Units Are Evil: In movies and television, self-storage units are only used by no-goodnik serial killers and thugs, and in real life, you don’t need that much crap. Which is to say: (a) Seriously, self-storage units are evil, and (b) there is a no-goodnik out there in one of those units, and what happens there sets up a chain of events that entangle our heroine personally in what’s going down. Keep your eyes peeled during this scene. You’ll want to use your memories of it at a later time.

Negative Space Is a Powerful Thing: I don’t want to outline it too closely, but there is a “stock” TV scene where two characters face a medical crisis and are rushed into a hospital. As directed and edited together here, it is easily the best and most correct that I have ever seen, both visually and emotionally.

With Apologies to All the Hot Bald Guys: Hairless mammals are creepifying. Snot zombies are grossest of all, but hairless mammals definitely make the “things repellent and horrifying” list generated by this show.

The Titles: As reported elsewhere, the location titles are awesome: Specifically, they are 3-D words in the 2-D space of the show. It’s hard to explain, but I feel like I recognize the technology from a Spider-Man movie commercial where, if I recall correctly, the text of movie critics’ blurbs hung between the buildings of Manhattan as Spidey swung through the streets. Anyway, the titles look great in general and there is one in particular that has a cute twist, but I won’t spoil it for you here.

Mildly Relevant Factoid: Of the five major branches of the U.S. armed forces, the United States Marine Corps branch has the smallest percentage of female personnel. I include this information because based on what I’m deducing about Dunham’s backstory, it may be germane.

Crossover! In terms of series style, theme and structure, there’s a lot of Alias and X-Files at work here, but there’s also a fun little Lost shout-out. Look for it in one of the FBI scenes.

Quibbles: These quibbles are perhaps unfair because this was not a finished copy of the pilot, and/or these are painfully pedantic, and/or they are intentional plot points inserted by the writers, but…

Questions: With any luck, some of these will be answered in the November 2008 sweeps episodes of Fringe:

What else do you want to know? Post in the comments.

20 Robots in Transformers 2? Jail Break Planned?

Transformers

Transformers 2 screenwriter Roberto Orci has made an interesting comment on Don Murphy’s message board:

“I’d love and think we could almost barely manage ten on each side, with some front and center and others as more supporting.”

Translation: There will be almost 20 Transforming Robots in disguise in the upcoming Michael Bay sequel!

Despite reassuring comments from Bay himself, fans have been worried that the sequel would be more human focused than the original. But I’m not quite sure packing the film with 20 Transformers is a step in the right direction. The biggest fan criticism of the first film was that not enough time was spent with the Transformers as personalities. And now with almost 20 of them on the big screen, alongside the bevy of human characters, who knows if the sequel will be any different. On the other hand, this could mean more big robot action sequences, which is always cool.

Also this just in… Reader Jason X sent this in [SPOILER WARNING]:

“My girlfriend works at Eastern State Penitentiary in the Fairmount area of Philadelphia. It was used as a prison from 1829 until 1971, and is now a historical site and museum. Anyway, at the prison today producers for Transformers 2 were on site with scale models of Megatron, Optimus Prime and Star Scream and were scouting filming locations in cell block 1 and the prison kitchen. Just thought I’d let people know that filming should begin here soon.”

So looks like we can expect a big giant robot jailbreak.