So Batman 3 is definitely full steam ahead. Today, in an interview with the LA Times’ Hero Complex Blog, Chris Nolan talked a little bit about the final installment in his Batman trilogy.

Although we had known for some time that Nolan would return to direct for the sequel to The Dark Knight, we now have confirmation that the film is moving forward. So, what do we know so far?

• The title is “The Dark Knight Rises.”
• July 20th, 2012 is the tentative release date.
• Christopher Nolan will direct a script written by his brother, Jonathan, based on a story by Chris and David S. Goyer.
• The villain is not The Riddler. And although Nolan previously pronounced Two-Face dead, that may have changed since then. Mr. Freeze is not up for consideration. One villain they haven’t ruled out is Superman, but I would be shocked if that was the case. He did hint at the possibility of the villain not being a comic-book character, which is not a bad proposal.
• Tom Hardy has been cast in a lead role, and the filmmakers are looking for a new female lead.
• Nolan said, “We’ll use many of the same characters as we have all along, and we’ll be introducing some new ones.” Ok, I respect the lack of information he releases on his upcoming film projects, but that is verging on nonsense.
• The film will be the final in Nolan’s trilogy and will bring the story to a conclusion, something rare and great to see in this era of milking a franchise until it disintegrates. I kind-of hope Bruce Wayne sacrifices himself at the end of the film.

Thoughts? Do you like the name? I’m not a huge fan, but it’s a nice twist on The Dark Knight and “The Dark Knight Returns” by Frank Miller. Villain ideas? Black Mask, Hugo Strange, a non-comic-book character possibly.

Alright, so that’s it for Batman 3, and I know it is enough to get me in the theater come summer 2012. Let’s try to forget about it for a year-and-a-half and enjoy the movie when it comes.

Today, IMAX and Warner Bros. announced that they have signed a deal to release twenty films in the format over the next three years. In the statement, several release dates were revealed, as well as an update on Guillermo del Toro’s The Hobbit.

First, the deal: After having a lot of success in the past, Warner Bros. is going all-out with the IMAX format. The deal, revealed today in a press release, details the company’s plans to exhibit 20 films in IMAX theaters over the next 3 years.

The first five movies under the agreement are Legends of the Guardian: The Owls of Ga’Hoole 3D (September 24, 2010), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (3D) (November 19, 2010) and Part II (3D) (July 15, 2011), Happy Feet 2 (3D) (November 18, 2011), and The Hobbit (December 2012). In addition, the studio will release 15 other films over the course of 2011, 2012 and 2013, including Gravity, Fury Road, Batman 3, and Superman.

In addition to this being a huge success for IMAX, now we know that The Hobbit is not dead. As of right now, both Hobbit scripts have been handed in to the studio and, although not officially green-lit, the finances are being worked out right now.

This is reassuring, considering how grim the movie’s future looked as a result MGM’s financial trouble. As far as I know, there will still be two parts, but the press release only listed one. Could WB be paring the story down to make it fit into one film?

I sure hope not. I can’t wait to see del Toro’s take on Middle-Earth. Hopefully, the film(s) will make a splendid, tonally different, addition to the terrific Lord of the Rings series.

Oh boy. Any hope you may have of Roland Emmerich either disappearing off the face of the earth or directing a film that doesn’t obliterate society has probably been shattered. 2012 has made some serious bank: $225 million worldwide, which Variety calls the fifth best international opening of all time.

This is sort of surprising, considering the buzz for 2012 wasn’t huge or anything. The biggest star power in the film is John Cusack, who is talented as all get out, make no mistake, but apparently is still quite a box office draw. That, or the explosions. The film was budgeted at around $200 million, so they’re in good shape.

In other news, Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox has already gathered up $12.6 million in the UK where it has been released for a month. It’ll surely make its money back when it is released here on November 25.

Sadly, Focus Features’ Pirate Radio only scraped together $2.9 million in its limited release, while (not so sadly) Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol fell in profit by 26%, giving the film a total gross of only $63.3 million.

The day of the screening I was joking around with some friends at my day job and came up with this snazzy catchphrase regarding the new movie 2012: “Only John Cusack can outrun disasters of massive proportions but not be able to stop the disaster that was his character’s marriage.” I knew that Amanda Peet played Kate Curtis, the separated wife of Cusack’s Jackson Curtis and I had a feeling that by the end of the movie their long lost love would be reunited by the events of the movie.  Boy was I right, and I didn’t need the Mayans to predict this like they allegedly have predicted the disaster that is 2012.

Director and Screenwriter (gotta give credit where credit is due) Roland Emmerich managed to create what will be this season’s greatest comedy. I don’t think that is what he set out to do upon drafting, filming, and editing 2012 but that is the end result. This two-and-a-half hour comedy will have you rolling in your seat as you watch Cusack and the gang outrace disaster after disaster after disaster. The over-the-top elements and wacky situations in which Cuscak and the gang find themselves is downright hysterical. You’ll laugh as the Cusack Gang (short name from now on) out drive an earthquake that is ripping California apart. You won’t be able to resist the temptation to crack a smile when the Cusack Gang manage to hit the perfectly placed upturned pavement, use it as a ramp to jump a very large hole caused by the massive earthquake they were outrunning, and drive through a glass building that was toppling in front of them. It’s the Dukes of Hazzard meets Lethal Weapon 4!

The plot is straight out of an NBC Movie of the week that should be shown as a two-parter during February sweeps. In 2009 Doctor Adrian Helmsley, played by Chiwetel Ejofor, discovers that the Earth’s core is getting hotter. He takes the facts and presents them to Carl Anheuser, played by Oliver Platt, who is the President’s top scientist. They determine that with the help of the world’s government, ships can be built to house all of the world’s culture as well as those select individuals that helped fund the project and all government parties throughout the world. The plans are put into motion and in 2010 the governments unite. Over the next two years the Chinese build six very large metal ships that will be used to transport countless live animals and people to safety for months if not years, and house state-of-the-art electronics that will guide their way. These Arks will be used for the months or years it takes to restart civilization after the great floods.

There is even a Who’s Who of characters that gave 2012 that NBC Movie of the Week feel. Danny Glover is the President of the United States. Woody Harrelson is Charlie, the one “crazy person” who knows the Government’s plans but isn’t taken seriously. Blu Mankuma plays Harry Helmsley the father of Ejofor’s character, and George Segal plays Tony Delgato who hasn’t spoken or seen his son in years and is also Harry’s musical partner. This short list of actors helped to make 2012 feel like a Movie of the Week. Where are Hasselhoff and Shatner when you need them?

I won’t even get into the wooden performance Glover gives as the POTUS. His delivery and demeanor seemed to indicate that this was a paycheck and not really a wise career move. Cusack did a good job at not taking the story too seriously. I mean, how can you when you’re constantly avoiding disaster with seconds to spare. Peet was the only actor who delivered a believable portrayal of a character. As I’ve been told, it only takes one rotten apple to ruin the bunch – thanks to Amanda Peet for being that apple. I kid, I kid… you were the bright spot to this comedy and you were the only person that made me believe that your character was in danger.

I’m sure some will think this was an amazing movie based on the great effects. YES, the effects were incredible. The way Emmerich choreographed the destruction of the Earth was, to say the least, beautiful. His use of real-world physics helped to portray the massive destruction that was happening before our eyes. His sinking of California was an awesome effect and the way the land mass sank while buildings kept toppling over was darn cool to watch. His use of dust and debris from downed buildings converging down the roads and toward the populace was too reminiscent of images captured on 9/11/01 in New York city.  I found myself picking up small sound effects that added to some of the massive events unfolding on the screen. There is a scene where the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy is being lifted by a massive tsunami and the scraping noise of the jets sliding off the bow of the ship was a nice touch of realism. But, as we all know, effects do not make a movie great. Story and acting are also needed to help sell the Hollywood magic and are just what was missing from 2012. I find it hard to take a movie seriously when the entire audience is laughing at EVERYTHING that is happening in front of them. If Emmerich is smart he’ll have Columbia put this under the Comedy section come Oscar time.

Columbia Pictures manages to deliver a PG-13 movie with intense disaster sequences, a 2.5 hour run time, little story,  lots of special effects, and laughs-a-plenty (which I’m sure was unintentional and just the by-product of a bad movie).

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ 

There’s more human suffering on display in Roland Emmerich’s 2012 than any other film I’ve seen. Emmerich raises the stakes of his own game, creating a level of destruction that outdoes anything seen in Independence Day or The Day After Tomorrow. Where he succeeds most brilliantly is in forming a perfectly satisfying piece of coherent bubble gum B-movie, where Michael Bay, given a comparable amount of funding, will produce utter chaos.

The only well-rounded character in 2012 is the calamity itself: unprecedentedly huge solar flares are causing the core of the earth to heat up and weaken the crust of the earth. This is making the tectonic plates of the earth shift around, causing earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanoes and the bisection of the occasional grocery store. Emmerich takes about a half an hour to warm up the audience for impending doom, which makes 2012 incredibly lengthy when it doesn’t need to be. He could lop off the entire front portion of the film and begin with a mysterious bang, letting us put the pieces together as we go along, and it would have functioned just as well.

As a result, we get weird subplots — the replacement of famous artwork in the Louvre and Buddhist monks and simple nonsense. That’s okay, though, because this breathing room lets us hang out with characters, none of whom are totally fleshed out, but also none that are really unlikeable. John Cusack, as a failed everyman writer, is as likable as he’s been in every role in his career.

Blessed with a slightly better script, he would really hold 2012 together; as it stands, it’s definitely an ensemble piece. We get fine turns from Oliver Platt, Woody Harrelson and Chitwel Ejiofor, but they’re the standard characters we’ve become familiar with since Emmerich showed them off in Independence Day. His actors are chess pieces in showcase scenes, which is totally fine. The movie knows what it wants to be, satisfies that purpose, and nothing more.

It’s an average film, highly entertaining in the theater and ultimately disposable on the way out. However, the “rollercoaster ride” cliche totally applies to 2012, and seems to wear it with pride. The thing is, I can’t see Emmerich going anywhere after this film; he’s going to have to try his hand at a different game, because where do you go after destroying the world?

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

All of you disaster movie junkies better listen up, because here’s a new featurette on the making of 2012. It’s not just the making of the newest Ronald Emmerich film, but of the special effects that go into the film. In actuality it’s just centering on the special effects of the tidal waves that envelop the Earth. The film, starring John Cusack and Amanda Peet, blasts into theaters on November 13th. If your curious as to see how it came out looking so great so far, check out the featurette below:

The city of Los Angeles is falling apart in a big way with an exclusive five minute clip from Ronald Emerich’s latest disaster-piece 2012. Starring John Cusack and Amanda Peet, the most recent take on who would survive the end of the world in this situation is coming to theaters on November 13th. Using to his full advantage of the superstitious tale of the world coming to an end on 2012, check the clip below and let us know what you think:

Sony, in an effort to grab more of an audience with the Roland Emmerich/John Cusack disaster film 2012, will “roadblock” televisions with a two-minute advertising sequence from the film on October 1st.

Similar to what Universal did with Dawn of the Dead several years ago only on a broader scale, the advertisement will put footage of the film in front of a purportedly astounding number of people: 110 million North American viewers. Online, this number could increase by as much as 30 million, according to the studio.

Expect to see 2012 footage on a bunch of cable networks along with ABC, NBC and CBS “between 10:50 p.m. and 11 p.m. on the coasts” and other times throughout the nation on the first of October. Afterwards, an extension of the two minute sequence will be viewable online at Fancast.com.

The film will finally be released in theaters on November 13th, 2009.