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There’s so much to look forward to in our speculative fiction future. Here are some of the science fiction books we’re most excited about and/or are currently consuming…

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Top New Science Fiction in April 2020 Eden by Tim Lebbon

Type: Novel

Publisher: Titan Books

Release date: April 7

Den of Geek says: Pitched as an Amazing Race through Annihilation’s Area X, this frontrunner in the wave of New Weird-derived eco-thrillers looks inventive and tense.

Publisher’s summary: Earth’s rising oceans contain enormous islands of refuse, the Amazon rainforest is all-but destroyed, and countless species edge towards extinction. Humanity’s last hope to save the planet lies with The Virgin Zones, thirteen vast areas of land off-limits to people and given back to nature.

Dylan leads a clandestine team of adventure racers, including his daughter Jenn, into Eden, the oldest of the Zones.

The holidays are winding down and that means we at Ioncinema.com are gearing up for our annual pilgrimage to Park City where an A-list of documentaries is now set to premiere. Earlier this month Tabitha Jackson and the Sundance doc programming team let the cats out of the bag, unsurprisingly announcing much anticipated Us Doc Competition titles such as the Ross Brothers’ Western, Louie Psihoyos’ Racing Extinction, Marc Silver’s 3 1/2 Minutes and Lyric Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe’s (T)Error, along with some surprises like Bryan Carberry and Clay Tweel’s bizarro Kickstarted doc Finders Keepers (see trailer below). Having been produced by the fine folks behind The King of Kong and Undefeated, the film bears all the markings of its well regarded pedigree, yet appears to be of even odder ilk, following the story that unfolded when a severed human foot was discovered in a grill bought at a North Carolina auction.

There are few filmic genres that get your blood pumping quite like a good hostage drama, thanks to the back-and-forth between characters and the inevitable double-crossing along with last-minute bargaining between the two or more parties. So, following the award-winning success of last year’s astute hostage drama, Captain Phillips, Amplify is hoping to recapture that specific air of tension with this year’s Default.

Billed as a claustrophobic thriller, the film largely takes place 35,000 feet in the air, where an american news crew find their plane hijacked by a gang of Somalian pirates. Led by Atlas (David Oyelowo), the terrorists seek to record an interview with renown journalist, Frank Saltzman.

Default was directed by Simon Brand — known for his work on Paraiso Travel and Unknown — and is said to hone the socio-political undertones found in Tom Hanks’ aforementioned thriller. Joining Oyelowo on the casting list is Jeanine Mason, Stephen Lord...

While we may not all agree on the specific severity of awfulness, I think we can all agree that A Good Day to Die Hard was one of 2013.s worst action films, if not all of the year.s films in general. It was almost dangerous to watch Bruce Willis dial in John McClane.s latest exploits, and Willis himself made it clear in August that he was tired of starring in action movies. Naturally, he.s gone and gotten himself attached not just to another action movie but to a role that was vacated by Arnold Schwarzenegger. So, I guess that earlier plan is out the window. Willis has signed on for the lead role in the Brazilian hostage thriller Captive from Emmet/Furla Films and Aldamisa Entertainment. Captive will be directed by Simon Brand, the Columbian director who got his break with the 2006 locked-room mystery Unknown, from a...

Via: Variety

Bruce Willis is looking to possibly join an indie action-thriller film called Captive, which was originally being developed with Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's no longer attached to the project though. 

The film will tell the story of an "American real estate magnate living in Brazil who is kidnapped and held for ransom at a prison cell hidden in a Sao Paolo landfill while a detective specializing in ransom cases tries to find him."

The movie will be directed by Simon Brand (Unknown) and is scheduled to start shooting in March. The next movie we will see Willis in will be Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. ...

• Bruce Willis (Die Hard) is set to star in the action thriller Captive, taking over for the previously rumored Arnold Schwarzenegger. Simon Brand (Unknown) is directing with a script by Benjamin van der Even (Che: Part Two) and Kario Salem (Chasing Mavericks) from a story by Nicolai Fuglsig. Willis will play a real estate developer who gets kidnapped and held for ransom while at work in Brazil. Production is set to begin in March. [Deadline]

• Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs) will play the woman who claimed to be the Grand Russian Duchess Anastasia, in Duchess. The film will be directed by Arie Posin...

Over two years ago, and indie thriller called Captive was in the works with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead as he was making his way back onto the big screen after ending his run as a governor. However, it appears another team member from The Expendables will step into the role instead. Variety has word that Bruce Willis, who ended up not returning for The Expendables 3, will take the lead role in the film about an American real estate magnate living in Brazil who is kidnapped and held inside of an armored truck for ransom, all while a detective (a role that has yet to be cast) specializing in ransom cases tries to find him. The script came from writer Benjamin van der Veen and a story by Nicolai Fuglsig and has Simon Brand on board to direct. Brand directed a thriller called Unknown in 2006, which also dealt with...

Colombian broadcast giant Rcn is looking to shift its film production focus away from local product in favour of low budget English-language genre fare, top brass said on Thursday [11].

During a tour of the company’s premises in Bogota, newly promoted executive vice-president of international channels Julian Giraldo told a group of mostly Us producers and trade press that the move was a result of market forces at home and abroad.

“We are now trying to focus more on co-productions in English,” said Giraldo after screening footage from in-house Rcn Films’ first two such projects, Gallows Hill and Default. Rcn Films is currently raising funds for a couple of further projects budgeted in the $1m-$3m range.

Although Rcn Films has backed more than 45 local titles, Giraldo said it was difficult to raise more than $3m from local investors in Colombia and intimated that indigenous product lacked global appeal.

“That’s why we are moving towards English-language...

With the five major American TV network upfront presentations set to take place next week, each of them has been locking down their schedules for the new season.

That means the axe has fallen on numerous shows over the past 48 hours, while others have scored renewal orders. Decisions have also been made as to which pilots will be ordered to series. Here's the breakdown by network:

ABC

Renewed: Castle, Grey's Anatomy, Last Man Standing, The Middle, Modern Family, Nashville, The Neighbors, Once Upon a Time, Revenge, Scandal, Suburgatory

Cancelled (Or Finished): Body of Proof, Family Tools, Happy Endings, How to Live With Your Parents for the Rest of Your Life, Malibu Country, Red Widow

New Shows: Marvel's highly anticipated "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," the 'Once' spin-off "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland," the Hannah Ware and Stuart Townsend-led murder thriller "Betrayal," the remake of...

The second G.I. Joe movie hits screens in a couple of months and to give you a taster of what it's like, Paramount Pictures, MGM and Skydance Productions have attached a four-minute 3D preview to the new fantasy action film Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.

The first look at G.I. Joe: Retaliation in IMAX 3D, RealD 3D and digital 3D cinemas will run throughout Hansel & Gretel's theatrical engagement.

Based on the best-selling Hasbro characters, this follow-up to the 2009 release G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra, sees the G.I. Joes not only fighting their mortal enemy Cobra, but forced to contend with threats from within the government that jeopardise their existence.

The film stars D.J. Cotrona, Byung-hun Lee, Adrianne Palicki, Ray Park, Jonathan Pryce, Ray Stevenson, Elodie Yung, Channing Tatum with Bruce Willis and Dwayne Johnson.

Directed by Jon M. Chu, and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Brian Goldner of Hasbro,...

The history of cinema has had many long-running actor/director partnerships. What first springs to my mind is the long collaboration between actor John Wayne and director John Ford, which has inspired several film books and documentaries. More recently we’ve had the Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro team-ups ( although Leonardo DiCaprio may just catch up to Mr. D ). And now we have the eighth film that actor Johnny Depp has done with director Tim Burton since they first paired all the way back in 1990 for Edward Scissorhands ( Wow! ). After films based on children’s books, a low-budget filmmaker’s life, and a Broadway musical what have the duo decided to tackle now? Why, it’s a classic cult TV show from the late 1960′s : Dark Shadows. What’s their take on this supernatural soap opera?.

Time for a bit of disclosure here. During its original run on ABC television,...

We salute 50 of the finest contemporary films with budgets of less than $10million. Did your favourite make the list…?

In this age of multi-million dollar blockbusters and eye-watering fees paid to some actors, you may forget we’re in an age of austerity. However, for the vast majority of the film industry, there is no huge vat of money, nor has there ever been. But this hasn’t stopped some of the finest films of recent years being made on a relative shoe-string, and in some cases, quite literally with a shoe-string.

I reckon filmmaking thrives at the sharp end, and low budgets mean more creative ideas, and as a result, more engaging films. To prove this, here is a list of what I consider to be the finest 50 contemporary films made for under $10 million. There is a breathtaking array of recognisable genre pictures in here, too, with budgets rangin...

James Caviezel, Frequency James Caviezel's Jesus Backlash: "Rejected in My Own Industry" Below is the domestic box-office take of James Caviezel's films, whether in leads or supporting roles, released from 2004 to the present (via Box Office Mojo). Could that be one important reason producers have shied away from him? Highway Men (2004), $371k The Passion of the Christ (2004), $370.78m Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004), $2.69m The Final Cut (2004), $551k I Am David (2004), $288k Madison (2005), $517k Unknown (2006), $26k Deja Vu (2006), starring Denzel Washington, $64.03m Outland (2009), $166k The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009), $637k Caviezel's pre-2004 films — including supporting roles — generally performed much better perhaps because he was usually partnered with bigger names, including Jennifer Lopez, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, and Dennis Quaid. Even so, none of his movies could be called a blockbuster. Titles from 1998 to 2002 are listed [...]...

The man who played Jesus Christ in Mel Gibson's much criticized "Passion of the Christ," says the role has been his "cross to bear," and that Hollywood has shunned him ever since making the film.

Jim Caviezel, who, before taking the role of Jesus, was a rising Hollywood star with strong reviews for his work in "Frequency," and "The Thin Red Line," told an audience at First Baptist Church of Orlando on Saturday that Gibson begged him to reconsider taking the gig.

"He said, 'You'll never work in this town again,'" Caviezel remembered. "I told him, 'We all have to embrace our crosses.'"

Caviezel recounted a similar story in 2004, when he spoke of the encounter in an interview with the 700 Club.

"The next day, he said, 'I want you to be aware of what you are going to go through. You may never work again.' He said that several times publicly.

Alien invasion movie Battle: Los Angeles is officially landing on DVD and Blu-ray on June 14. Amazon has had the science-fiction film available for pre-order for a few weeks, but Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has finally released all the details.

Starring Aaron Eckhart (Rabbit Hole) as a Marine staff sergeant, the movie follows a platoon sent into the City of Angels after it’s attacked by vicious aliens. Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar) stars as an Air Force sergeant who joins Eckhart’s group as they try to save some civilians, including Bridget Moynahan (Lord of War) and Michael Pena (The Lincoln Lawyer).

Sony plans to release the movie in three versions: DVD ($28.95), single Blu-ray ($34.95) and Blu-ray/DVD Combo pack ($38.96).

All versions will come packed with a spaceship’s haul of special features, with the most on the Blu-ray editions. The DVD will carry six featurettes:

Behind The Battle Building the Aliens Acting...

Easter is here, which means it's time for flamboyantly gay hats to courageously come out of the closet, and time to ogle Hollywood's hottest Jesi!

Jesus is one of the most coveted roles in show business, but it's not for the timid. To succeed, you have to make us believe you're willing to die for our sins. Not stub your toe for our sins, not get a nasty paper cut for our sins, but you have to convince us you're willing to get nailed ... so we can do the same.

The actors on the following pages all have that Original Sinnocence™, that combination of piousness and grungy hotness. Take a look at our Calvacade of Christ, and decide which one deserves to be crowned awarded "Sexiest Jesus!"

Jeremy Sisto in Jesus

Jesus was a 1999 four-hour NBC mini-series that featured Jeremy in the title role and Debra Messing as the spunkiest Mary Magdalene in history.

Prom

Opens: April 29th 2011

Cast: Aimee Teegarden, Thomas McDonell, Danielle Campbell, Yin Chang

Director: Joe Nussbaum

Summary: Portrays the precarious passage from high school to independence as some relationships unravel and others ignite. For Nova Prescott, it’s a battle of wills as she finds herself drawn to the guy who gets in the way of her perfect prom. Others face all the insecurity and anticipation that surrounds one of high school’s most seminal events.

Analysis: Disney's attempt at creating the next "High School Musical" franchise for itself, this teen romantic comedy is a batch of clique cliches - the beauty queen, the rebel with better hair than anyone else in the film, the handsome yet dumb foreign exchange student, the 'so above it' geek who really wants to belong, and at least one or two 'fugly' girls.

It's all very "The Breakfast Club" meets "10 Things I Hate About...

I was saddened to learn this morning that Betty Garrett, the great star of stage, screen, and TV, passed away yesterday at the age of 94 after suffering an aortic aneurysm.

Garrett was one of those rare people — like, say, Jack Valenti — who happened to be a witness to and/or participant in a remarkably high number of historic events of the 20th century. She was a member of Orson Welles’s famed Mercury Theatre company, and was with him on the night that he shook up America with his infamous radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds” (1938); she was Frank Sinatra’s leading lady in two of the earliest great M-g-m musical-comedies, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” (1949) and “On the Town” (1949); her career was greatly hurt by the Hollywood Red Scare after her husband, the Oscar nominated actor Larry Parks, refused to name names before the House Committee...

The Hangover: Part Two

Opens: May 26th 2011

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifinakis, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong

Director: Todd Phillips

Summary: Phil, Stu, Alan and Doug travel to exotic Thailand for Stu’s wedding. After the unforgettable bachelor party in Las Vegas, Stu is taking no chances and has opted for a safe, subdued pre-wedding brunch. However, things don’t always go as planned.

Analysis: It really wasn't until about three months before its release that Warner Brothers realised "The Hangover" was going to be a hit. Test screening response was through the roof, while the trailer had great reaction after premiering at ShoWest and online. About that time they commissioned director Todd Phillips, along with his "Old School" and "Road Trip" scribe Scot Armstrong, to pen a sequel. Yet they still waited to see how the first one went before fully committing to the follow-up.

The wait didn't last long.

The trend towards well scripted, high concept thrillers that take place in just one location is truly peaking, and in anticipation of the claustrophobic thrills of both Devil and Buried on DVD and Blu-ray right away we thought we would countdown our favourite thrillers that take place in just one room.

Grab a pen folks, 'cause you're gonna want to catch up with these claustrophobic thrillrides!

M. Night takes the producer chair in this horror flick about a literal elevator ride from hell, where a group of strangers realize they are trapped in an elevator with the devil!

After the abysmal ratings following the bloated Last Airbender, it was sure good to see M. Night back in the creative environment he's best suited- involved in a little indie with a big concept.

Back in the 50s and 60s the American government conducted a rash of freaky experiments on unsuspecting citizens.

Back for its third year (see the 2010 edition) and bigger than ever, today kicks off the first in a fifteen-part look at the various cinematic releases hitting the U.S. in 2011. Each 'part' contains brief descriptions and editorial opinion/analysis of varying length covering twenty films. Expect the remaining ones to go up between now and the first major releases in mid-January.

Like all cinematic lists set within a timeframe, there's some overlap. Some films here have already opened worldwide but have yet to hit the U.S., some upcoming films you'd expect to be here aren't because they're either still in development or have already announced 2012 release dates, some were on last year's list but got delayed so have been included again (but with all new analysis).

I confined my list to films that have either set 2011 release dates or had begun/completed production, and only films that have...

Back for its third year (see the 2010 edition) and bigger than ever, today kicks off the first in a fifteen-part look at the various cinematic releases hitting the U.S. in 2011. Each 'part' contains brief descriptions and editorial opinion/analysis of varying length covering twenty films. Expect the remaining ones to go up between now and the first major releases in mid-January.

Like all cinematic lists set within a timeframe, there's some overlap. Some films here have already opened worldwide but have yet to hit the U.S., some upcoming films you'd expect to be here aren't because they're either still in development or have already announced 2012 release dates, some were on last year's list but got delayed so have been included again (but with all new analysis).

I confined my list to films that have either set 2011 release dates or had begun/completed production, and only films that have...

Adrien Brody is a man without a name in Wrecked, a survival thriller that finds the Oscar winning actor in a debilitating car wreck, surrounded by dead bodies, with no memory of who he is or what happened. We first discovered the film earlier this year, during the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, which premiered some promo imagery for the picture. Check out the trailer after the break. MTV has the trailer, and for its first half, the film seems rather reminiscent of many conceptually gimmicky genre pics that have come before it—the 'trapped' aspect calling to mind other single-location thrillers like Buried, Frozen and the underseen Stuck, and the 'mystery' element reminding of the disappointing Jim Caviezel film Unknown. Curiously, the trailer goes off book in its latter half, with Brody plainly acknowledging himself as one of the potential criminals (meaning, thankfully, they're not relying on that as a twist...

The same year that Inside took me to horror heaven at the Toronto International Film Festival, Xavier Gens' Frontier(s) was also delivering infinite gory bliss. After getting behind the camera for Hitman and producing the lackluster (ok, abomination) The Horde, Gens is returning to the directors chair with The Fallout. On the eve of the Afm, ContentFilm International has taken worldwide sales rights to action thriller The Fallout to be directed by Xavier Gens (Hitman). The film is due is due to start principal photography in Feb 2010 in Eastern Europe, reports Screen Daily. The Fallout, set in a post-apocalyptic New York, is produced by Ross Dinerstein (The Killing Room, Powder Blue, Unknown), Darryn Welch (Goal! The Dream Begins,The Bang Bang Club, Stag Night), and Tony Krantz (24, Mulholland Drive) and was written by Karl Mueller and Eron Sheean who will also co produce.

The upcoming Will Smith drama Seven Pounds, co-starring Rosario Dawson and Woody Harrelson, gets an original score composed by Angelo Milli. His previous credits include 2006 independent thriller Unknown and the recent acclaimed drama Paraiso Travel. Produced by Columbia Pictures, Seven Pounds tells the story of a man "who will change the lives of seven strangers" according to the plot official summary. Gabriele Muccino, who directed Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness, is helming the project for release in December.Brought to you by Upcoming Film Scores (http://upcomingfilmscores.blogspot.com).

Vertigo Entertainment and Colombian television network and production outfit Rcn are teaming up to bring to the big screen the story of last week's dramatic rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages in Colombia.

Colombian filmmaker Simon Brand, whose credits include "Unknown" and Colombia's highest-grossing movie "Paradise Travel," is working with the producers to develop and direct the project, which has no writer on board yet. The producers are also looking to meet with financiers and studios in the coming weeks.

Betancourt, a former presidential candidate of Colombian and French descent, along with three Americans as well as Colombian police and soldiers, were held captive -- some since 2002 -- by rebels form the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or Farc. Colombian forces took acting lessons and spent months planting themselves among the rebels before culminating in a mission that saw the rebels tricked into thinking the captives were being transferred to another camp.

While many in Hollywood were vying for the rights to the dramatic story, Vertigo had the inside track on securing the rights due to the company's relationship with Rcn. Vertigo worked with Rcn to secure remake rights to the Colombian film "Al Final del Espectro," and has set up the project at Universal with the working title "At the End of the Spectra".

The feature will tell the story from three points of view -- the American, the French and the Colombian -- and recreate the rescue. The project will also be set partially in France and a French production partner is likely to come on board.

Vertigo is behind one of the summer's unlikeliest hits, horror thriller "The Strangers." Brand is repped by Uta.

The Weinstein Co. and IFC Films are back together again. This time, the two New York-based companies have acquired North American rights to the thriller Unknown. The film, starring Jim Caviezel, Greg Kinnear, Barry Pepper, Joe Pantoliano, Bridget Moynahan and Jeremy Sisto, is being directed by first-timer Simon Brand. The Weinstein Co. will distribute the film in North America. From writer Matthew Waynee, Unknown, revolves around five men who wake up in a locked-down warehouse with no memory of who they are. They are forced to figure out who is good and who is bad to stay alive.