Iron Man 3 faces some stiff competition this weekend from the second major blockbuster of the summer, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness. Could it actually surpass Iron Man’s stellar start? Early buzz has been strong, but it doesn’t have the benefit of a lead-in from The Avengers. There are also some noteworthy films in limited release this weekend, including Noah Baumbach’s latest film Frances Ha starring Greta Gerwig and Mickey Sumner. Other options in select theatres include a spy thriller called Erased starring Aaron Eckhart, the mumblecore survival horror flick Black Rock, and Kim Ki-duk’s controversial film Pieta. Will you be watching anything this weekend? If you’ve already seen Star Trek Into Darkness, what did you think?

• Star Trek Into Darkness
• Erased (limited)
• Frances Ha (limited)
• Black Rock (limited)
• Pieta (limited)
• The English Teacher (limited)
• Augustine (limited)

It’s been four long years since The Hangover hit theatres and its influence is still reverberating throughout Hollywood. R-rated comedies like Ted, Horrible Bosses and Bridesmaids continue to make big money while other movies are seemingly being greenlit as long as they have a party element to them. Now the trend is about to reach its apex as CBS Films has decided to put out a version of The Hangover for our parents. That’s right… get ready for Last Vegas.

The movie stars Michael Douglas as Billy, a lifelong bachelor who has finally decided to tie the knot in his 60s. Naturally, his three closest pals Paddy (Robert De Niro), Archie (Morgan Freeman) and Sam (Kevin Kline) decide to head to Vegas and throw a wild bachelor party for him. There don’t appear to be any other twists to the plot, but what more do you need to know? Clearly another guaranteed hit for visionary director Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure). Last Vegas hits theatres on Nov. 1st; check out the trailer after the jump and see what you think.

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Looks like writer-director team Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer are up to their old tricks, bringing the most basic and broad humour possible in an attempt to parody the latest pop culture phenomenon. The creators of such films as Date Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans are now setting their sights on the Fast & Furious franchise with a movie called Superfast!. (Personally I think Action Movie would have been a better title, but hey, what do I know.) Based on past experience, we can probably assume that the jokes won’t be limited to the Fast & Furious series alone and will probably include a grab bag of celebrity gossip gags and superhero spoofs as well as anything else that happens to pop into their head on a given day. K5 International will handle foreign sales and their execs had this to say about the project:

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The landscape of late night TV will shift considerably next spring when Jimmy Fallon takes over The Tonight Show for Jay Leno and Seth Meyers slides into replace Fallon as the host of Late Night. David Letterman’s contract also expires in 2014, leading some to speculate that he may be retiring soon himself. There is definitely a changing of the guard underway, which means there is room for some new talk show hosts to step in and carve out an audience for themselves. It’s not just the major networks that are looking for new talent, either. TBS is currently in the process of adding a few more talk shows to their line-up in order to give Conan O’Brien some company. One of the possible hosts? Would you believe… Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody?

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Speaking of anthology horror film sequels, the sequel to V/H/S is already done and will be heading our way in less than a month. We saw a teaser trailer for the film back in January when it premiered at Sundance under the name S-VHS; they have since retitled it V/H/S 2 and cut a brand new red band trailer. Spoiler: there’s a lot more blood and gore and screaming in this one.

V/H/S 2 features segments from Simon Barrett (You’re Next), Jason Eisener (Hobo with a Shotgun), Gareth Evans (The Raid: Redemption) and Timo Tjahjanto (Macabre), Gregg Hale and Eduardo Sanchez (The Blair Witch Project), and Adam Wingard (You’re Next). Early reviews claim it is a massive improvement on the original, which gives me a bit of hope. At the very least, I’m looking forward to Eisener’s chapter “Alien Abduction Slumber Party.” V/H/S 2 hits VOD on June 6th and select theatres on July 12th; check out the trailer after the jump and let us know what you think.

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The horror genre is often seen as a great starting point for first-time filmmakers because it has a relatively low barrier to entry and an enthusiastic community of fans. However, the downside to this is that the market for low budget indie horror films can get pretty crowded — which might explain why the anthology format has been catching on as of late. Movies like V/H/S, The ABCs of Death and Chillerama have allowed like-minded directors to join forces and attract more attention than they would on their own. The ABCs of Death definitely pushed the limit of how many directors you can cram into one film with a total of 26 segments (one for each letter of the alphabet) from genre gurus like Nacho Vigalondo, Ti West, Ben Wheatley, Xavier Gens and Jason Eisener. Now it appears that a sequel is in the works and it just might end up having an even more impressive line-up. More info after the jump.

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With the recent announcement that an Angry Birds animated movie will be hitting theatres in 2016, it’s hard not to feel that Blue Sky has already beaten Sony and Rovio to the punch with their Rio franchise. To be fair, the connection was already formalized when they released an Angry Birds Rio game as a tie-in for the first movie back in 2011. Now the sequel is on the way and the first official teaser trailer has arrived online.

As is becoming common with these animated movies, the trailer doesn’t feature any actual footage from the movie, but rather just some of the characters singing and dancing. I never saw the original but it made $484 million worldwide so I guess someone out there will be excited about this. Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Jamie Foxx, Leslie Mann, Tracy Morgan and Jemaine Clement will all return along with the rest of the voice cast. Rio 2 hits theatres on Apr. 11, 2014; check out the trailer after the jump and see what you think.

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Update: Zach Braff says that The Hollywood Reporter got their facts wrong and Worldview is merely providing a loan for gap financing. Read more in his latest Kickstarter update.

Just when you thought this whole Kickstarter thing couldn’t get anymore confusing than it already is, Zach Braff had to go and make it more complicated. Last month the internet lit up with strong opinions and heated arguments after Braff launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund his movie Wish I Was Here, a spiritual successor to Garden State. Many people questioned the ethics of a rich Hollywood actor asking fans to donate money to support a personal project, eventually prompting the founders of Kickstarter to post a response on their blog entitled Who is Kickstarter for?. Braff’s film went on to reach its $2 million goal in just 3 days and currently sits at $2.6 million. With the campaign still active, however, this week it has been announced that Wish I Was Here landed full financing at the Cannes Film Festival. Huh?

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Although the first teaser trailer for Riddick was just twenty seconds long, it had the advantage of leaving fans wanting more. Now that the first full trailer for the movie has finally arrived online, well… I think it left me wanting a little less. I can appreciate that this seems to have more in common with Pitch Black than The Chronicles of Riddick, but the limited budget feels painfully obvious here.

Still, Vin Diesel is clearly having fun returning to this character. The story picks up with Riddick stranded on a desolate planet. He lures a group of bounty hunters to the planet where they must face off against a horde of hostile alien predators (including himself). Karl Urban reprises his role as Lord Vaako, while Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) and WWE star Dave Bautista also make appearances. Riddick hits theatres on Sept. 6th; check out the new trailer after the jump and let us know what you think.

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So you thought a couple of lawsuits might put the kibosh on The Asylum’s brilliant business strategy of producing and distributing movies that are low budget ripoffs of Hollywood tentpoles? Think again. Earlier this year they churned out Hansel & Gretel and Jack the Giant Killer, and now they are gearing up for their own thinly-veiled version of Guillermo del Toro’s sci-fi flick Pacific Rim. The title? Atlantic Rim, obviously.

Directed by Jared Cohn (Bikini Spring Break, 12/12/12), this movie also happens to feature monsters that have risen from the bottom of the ocean and a team of pilots who use giant robots to fight back. It stars David Chokachi as a “reckless liability” who is also “the best we’ve got”, along with Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves), Jackie Moore and former Naughty by Nature frontman Treach. It may not look pretty, but it’s definitely a perfect fit for what The Asylum does best. Atlantic Rim goes direct-to-DVD on July 9th; check out the trailer after the jump and see what you think.

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Robert Rodriguez is continuing to expand his media empire this week with the announcement that he will launch his own U.S. TV network by the end of the year. It is called El Rey Network and will target Latino audiences with English-language programming including original reality, scripted and animated series. To quote Rodriguez, it will be “the home of kick-ass entertainment.” Spanish-language channel Univision also announced this week that they have secured a partnership with El Rey to handle the “back-office operations, sales and distribution” of the new network. As part of their upfront presentation in New York, Rodriguez also revealed their first two original scripted shows: an untitled action-adventure series from Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and an adaptation of the Robert Rodriguez / Quentin Tarantino film From Dusk Till Dawn. Surely a Spy Kids show can’t be far off.

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Following up on last week’s announcement about a new Dungeons & Dragons movie (which is now being challenged by Hasbro with a potential lawsuit), here is something even more ridiculous that fantasy fans can look forward to. The long-running restaurant chain Medieval Times is apparently in the process of adapting itself for the big screen. This is, of course, a family dinner venue where guests are treated to a jousting competition and rousing theatre performance while they eat like slobs and get served by wenches. Sure, we’ve seen theme park attractions like The Pirates of the Caribbean turned into successful movie franchises, but unfortunately this does not have the power of Disney behind it. On the bright side, it could spark a new trend of movies based on restaurants. Here’s to hoping Applebee’s: The Movie isn’t far off.

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