We’re just over four months before the premiere of “Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens,” and every bit of footage that we are teased with just builds our excitement.

Like this 30 second TV spot released in South Korea for the movie, which is now on the YouTube channel for Star Wars Korea. 

The opening reveals a shot of the First Order, which was formed following the Empire’s defeat at the end of “Return of the Jedi.”

It looks like they are growing in numbers as a raising crane shot shows a mass number of Stormtroopers and rows of TIE Fighters alongside them. With the voiceover, “There’s been an awakening…” (which we heard before in the US trailers).

Looking a little closer, it’s likely that General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), who oversees the First Order, is addressing the platoons. With Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie), among the higher-ranking officers behind Hux.

The setting could also possibly be Starkiller Base, which is the primary post for the First Order.

Sometimes trailers and TV spots show footage that ends up not appearing in the final version of the movie. Regardless, what we see from this, and the other footage that has been released, is that director JJ Abrams is certainly intending to show us striking visuals that touch on what we remember from the original trilogy — but with a fresher feel.

Watch the complete TV spot:

SEE ALSO: 1,000 studio workers behind "Revenge of the Sith" gathered to watch this epic Darth Vader scene get shot

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"Fantastic Four" opened in theaters on Friday, and with its release has come a plethora of poor reviews.

"Even if lip-service is paid to some great threat to life on Earth as we know it, the filmmakers bring nothing new to the formula, resulting in a film that's all wind-up and no delivery,"The Hollywood Reporter wrote.

And it's not just the critics who are tearing it apart. Fans are also upset with Fox's reboot of Marvel's first family. Many are so upset that they have been taking to the "Fantastic Four" social-media accounts denouncing the movie as "boring" and "unfantastic" while warding off others from seeing it. Anyone who says the film is good is getting accused of lying, being in cahoots with Fox or the director, or getting paid off by the studio.

Take a look.

This is how many of the comment threads on the "Fantastic Four" Twitter account look:

A tweet asking fans whom they would take with them this weekend to see the film backfired quickly.

Here are more responses to that message:

It's much of the same on Facebook — with some fans asking when Fox will sell the rights for the Fantastic Four characters back to Marvel and Disney.

The top upvoted comments on most Facebook posts are negative, taking shots at the reboot.

Anyone suggesting that they enjoyed the film is getting scrutinized by fans. Here are two examples:

For the record, we have seen the movie, and it's a rough ride.

How rough? Not "Transformers 4" or "Jupiter Ascending" terrible, but it's pretty bad, which is unfortunate because the film had a lot of potential. Those who make up the group (Kate Mara, Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell) are fun to watch on-screen, and it's a shame that for a movie called "Fantastic 4" that the movie is not centered on telling their stories more. Instead the movie spends too much of its time focused on a teleporter, so the characters are one dimensional, defined mostly by their sudden newfound powers.

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Nicolas Cage has been in a lot of movies over the course of his more than 30-year career. Some of them have been great, some of them fell just short of that, and others are straight up terrible. That said, he’s bound to have some personal favorites, and in a recent interview, he revealed four roles that are especially near and dear to his heart.

Talking to Time recently about his upcoming role in the new political drama, "The Runner," about a fictional politician in the wake of the BP oil spill, he fielded a question about his favorite roles. He said:

"There’s a few of them, sure. I thought that Werner [Herzog] and I got up to something special in 'Bad Lieutenant.' Certainly Mike Figgis and I found something pretty emotionally naked in 'Leaving Las Vegas.' I was very happy with 'Vampire’s Kiss,' which in my opinion was almost like an independent laboratory to start realizing some of my more expressionistic dreams with film performance. Then using what I had learned in 'Vampire’s Kiss' and putting it into a very big action movie in the form of 'Face/Off' with John Woo. If you look at those two movies back to back, you can see where I stole from my performance in 'Vampire’s Kiss.'"

That’s certainly an interesting variety of roles and films, some critically acclaimed, others less so, with one bona-fide cult classic in the mix. So lets take a closer look at each of them.

"Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call—New Orleans"

When you put an out-there actor like Nicolas Cage together with a filmmaker like notorious German auteur Werner Herzog, you’re bound to get something interesting. Cage plays a manic, corrupt detective in the Big Easy coping with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He dives into his character like a cracked-out Jimmy Stewart, and his performance harkens back to some of his riskiest roles. It toes the line of being too over the top, as he’s pasty, emaciated, and constantly sweating, but his drug-induced paranoia and delirium is not something you’ll soon forget.

"Leaving Las Vegas"

As the role that won Cage an Oscar, his turn in "Leaving Las Vegas" is, obviously, his most critically acclaimed. Cage plays an alcoholic screenwriter who has lost everything and ventures to Sin City to drink himself to death. He researched the role by binge drinking for two straight weeks and having a friend videotape him so he could analyze his speech patterns. His performance is deep and understated, which, for a career as full of bananas, gonzo turns as Nicolas Cage’s, makes it something of an anomaly.

"Vampire’s Kiss"

In 1989’s "Vampire’s Kiss," Cage plays a literary agent who is gradually going insane. When he encounters a vampire, well, you can imagine how things go off the rails from there. If "Leaving Las Vegas" is his most subtle role, this is the polar opposite. This is Nicolas Cage cranked up all the way; chaotic and mad and absolutely bonkers. He’s deranged to the point that it can be legitimately disconcerting at times, and be dominates the black comedy, to both its benefit and detriment.

"Face/Off"

Easily Hong Kong action legend John Woo’s most successful American movie, Cage’s turn in "Face/Off" boggles the mind. At some point in the movie you realize that you’re watching Nicolas Cage play John Travolta playing a character pretending to be another character. Your perception of individual scenes constantly shifts as you dig through the layers of which actor is playing which character pretending to be which other character. And all of this craziness is wrapped up in a slick action vehicle that leaves you a lot to chew on.

SEE ALSO: A graphic designer wants to create the world's largest mosaic of Nicolas Cage's face

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Actor and comedian Robin Williams died one year ago today, on August 11 2014, at his home in California in an apparent suicide. He was 63.  

Williams, who got his breakout role in the 1978 sitcom "Mork and Mindy," had an incredible range. 

The talented star made us laugh in movies like "Mrs. Doubtfire" and won best supporting actor at the 1998 Oscars for the character he portrayed in the drama "Good Will Hunting."

In memory of Williams, we've compiled some of his best moments on screen that display both his comic and dramatic genius. 

In "Moscow on the Hudson" (1984) Williams plays a Russian sax player who comes to New York City. His comic skills shine in the grocery store scene where his character Vladimir Ivanof is overwhelmed by the variety of coffee selections.

(This video may take a moment to load.) 

Williams demonstrates his range of on-screen personalities starring as a radio D.J. in the film"Good Morning Vietnam" (1987) for which he earned an Academy Award nomination.

Williams' "seize the day" speech in "Dead Poet's Society" (1989) also led to an Oscar nod. In the movie, Williams plays an inspirational English teacher, John Keating, who famously tells his students: “Now in this class you can either call me Mr. Keating, or if you’re slightly more daring, O Captain My Captain.”

Warning: spoilers ahead

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, you know that not only has Fox’s "Fantastic Four" reboot earned overwhelmingly negative reviews, but the movie also has fared poorly on its opening weekend at the box office.

Last seen on the big screen in 2007, this film was supposed to be the grand return of Marvel’s First Family in a time when superhero movies have never been more popular. Unlike "Avengers: Age of Ultron" and "Ant-Man," however, this film failed to deliver a fun superhero story that could be enjoyed by both hardcore fans and people just looking for a good movie to watch. What also didn’t help matters was a production fraught with behind the scenes drama, including the director attempting to place the blameon others for the film’s failings. 

Was the film completely filled with bad moments? Of course not. There were a few brief moments of competency sprinkled throughout. That said, the negatives far outweigh the positives, and the final product was not the reboot that fans and general moviegoers deserved. Currently the future of the franchise is in question, but that won’t stop us from pinpointing the reasons why this first film doesn’t work. Here are "Fantastic Four"’s five primary failings.

SEE ALSO: The biggest problem with "Fantastic Four" is that it skips the best part of the story

1. It's Unnecessarily Dark

Let’s start with what we already knew going in: this movie wasn’t going to be the light-hearted affair that the previous "Fantastic Four" movies were. Emphasizing the sci-fi elements, the reboot looked like it was blending Marvel’s First Family with Interstellar.

Just because something is different doesn’t mean it’s bad, but unfortunately, the dark and gritty tone proved to be part of this movie’s downfall (as many suspected it would be). There was no hope or brightness of any kind until the final minutes, and this was even reflected in the lighting scheme. It almost felt like this movie was apologizing to the audience for being a story about superheroes. While there were a few great, dramatic dark moments (like when Reed sees Ben in his rock form form for the first time through the air vent), on the whole this dreary approach was a poor creative direction that made the film a largely depressing affair.

2. It Has Pacing Issues

"Fantastic Four" filmed from May to August of last year, but they had to do reshoots last January after the studio reportedly was dissatisfied with the film. If you pay close attention, you can notice continuity errors from these reshoots (Sue Storm’s hair, for one), but between the reshoots and the rumor that Fox took over the film from Josh Trank, this never felt like a complete story. This film fells like it was lacking a whole second act, jumping from Point A to Point C.

The first half of the movie was decent, albeit agonizingly slow. We learn about Reed Richards’ childhood, meet each member of the team, watch them go to Planet Zero and gain their powers, etc. Then the "One Year Later" title card comes up, and things go off the rails. Twelve months from the characters’ lives are gone, and the audience is thrown back into the proceedings after a lot of things have already happened to the main characters. Throw in a rushed fight with Doom (Toby Kebbell), and the heroes suddenly find themselves with their own headquarters at the end. Everything was rushed to completion, making this feel like half a story rather than a whole one.

3. The Poor Character Development

On a positive note, the movie did get Reed Richards right when it came to his intellect, although that came at the expense of some of his personality. Unfortunately, the three other heroes got the shaft. Aside from her pattern recognition and brief flirtation with Reed, Sue wasn’t that interesting. Johnny was established as a "hothead," but he seemed more angry than brash, and his reasons for joining the team were flimsy at best. Ben was essentially a blank slate whose primary function was being Reed’s friend, and even when he did turn into The Thing, he was mopey the whole time. Granted, I’d probably be sad if I turned into a rock monster, but this Ben Grimm had none of the sass and personality he had in the comics and previous film series.

Worst of all, other than Reed and Ben’s friendship and Reed and Sue’s brief flirtation, the film didn’t make much of an effort to delve into the relationships between these characters. As an example, Johnny and Ben didn’t meet until around the halfway point, and by the end of the movie, they’re making jabs at each other despite the fact that we never saw them become friendly with each other (which was also a pacing issue). One moment they’re all strangers/acquaintances, and by the end they’re all the best of friends. When did this happen? Why didn’t we explore their growth as characters? If only the movie had focused less on the technical side of things and spent more time on developing its principal players.

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"Fantastic Four" has only been out for one weekend, but it has already been deemed a failure. 

Some of the criticism will be well-deserved — there are very obvious problems with the movie, problems that are easily identified and very clearly hamstring all the good things the film has going for it. Problems like erratic, strange pacing, a terrible climax, and a total lack of a compelling antagonist. It's a terrible shame, really. 

If you've read any of the comics coverage I've written here, you might have figured out that I absolutely love the Fantastic Four. They're great characters unlike any others in comics, and all the things that make them unique in the comics — the fact that they are a family with a married couple at its core, that they are explorers and scientists first and foremost, that they are all about the joy and wonder of the unknown forever exploring the farthest reaches of imagination— these  are all things that make them something superhero blockbusters desperately need right now. 

But we're here to talk about a movie, not a comic book, and while it's easy to point out the various ways "Fantastic Four" fails its source material, it's probably far more egregious a sin that the movie doesn't do justice to the immense talent of everyone working on it.

Director Josh Trank has only made one feature film before this — the excellent found footage superhero horror story "Chronicle"— but it established him as a promising, interesting storyteller who might do something special with an honest-to-God comic book franchise. He's also assembled a cast of some terrific young actors at the top of their game, particularly Miles Teller ("Whiplash") and Michael B. Jordan ("Fruitvale Station"). 

It's an utter shame to see all that talent go to waste here. 

Make no mistake, though — the movie isn't all bad. Not in the least! The first half is really compelling stuff, introducing us to seven-year-old genius Reed Richards and his best friend Ben Grimm, before jumping to his teen years where he's talent scouted by Dr. Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey) to join the Baxter program, a sort of government think tank currently devoted to cracking interdimensional travel  — a problem Reed has inadvertently solved. 

This first half of the film makes "Fantastic Four" more science fiction than traditional superhero story, and if you don't mind the lack of action or spectacle it's really quite good. Even after the teleportation accident that transforms Reed, along with three of his associates and his best friend Ben, there are flashes of a fascinating film unlike anything we've really seen before in superhero cinema: a sci-fi horror story.

Then it faceplants. Hard.

Not long after Reed and his friends transform — Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan) into a human torch, Sue Storm (Kate Mara) can turn invisible and project force fields, Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) changes into a massive, rock monster, and Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbel) goes missing — the film starts to quickly fall to pieces. Characters start doing things for reasons that make little sense, one time jump too many gives the film a choppy, stitched-together feel, and it leaps — it certainly doesn't build— to the messiest climax I've seen in a blockbuster movie in a long time. 

That climax is where all the film's problems come to a head — Doom returns, similarly changed (good luck trying to figure out how, though — outside of his disfigurement, the film doesn't even bother trying to explain his powers) and after a genuinely brilliant and scary scene where he kills his way through the lab, he's pursued by the as-yet-unnamed Fantastic Four back to Planet Zero, the other dimension from which the Four's powers originate. 

What follows is a mess of a final fight scene, one that seems to come completely out of nowhere while also managing to be the least exciting thing ever. That it takes place in a barren CGI landscape certainly does not help.

And just like that, the movie's over. 

Yet calling "Fantastic Four"bad doesn't seem to feel right. Make no mistake — it certainly isn't good — but what it feels, more than anything, is incomplete. Already, much has been made of the ugly behind-the-scenes battle that has unfolded across numerous articles across various publications, but many people who will see this movie will also never read them. They'll never wonder if they could've gotten something different; they'll just know that what they got is a mess.

Worst of all, it's a mess that will likely scare many people away from some of the finest superhero comics ever made.

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NOW WATCH: The director of 'True Detective' season 1 is unveiling a new Netflix movie that looks just as intense

Netflix announced Tuesday that they will be releasing the next film from comedy director Christopher Guest exclusively in 2016.

Sent from Netflix through a cryptic invitation, the film is titled “Mascots” and will follow a “group of unusual men and women” taking part in the 8th World Mascot Association Championships for the crown of “Best Mascot in the World.”

Guest is known best for making faux documentaries and giving his actors the freedom to improvise on the material they are given. The results have led to some memorable works like “Waiting for Guffman,” “Best in Show,” and “A Mighty Wind,” to name a few.

Though the Netflix “invite” doesn’t indicate it, “Mascots” will likely be in the same style as Guest’s previous films. He co-wrote those with Eugene Levy (known best from starring in the “American Pie” movies), and had an ensemble cast that included the duo as well as Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, Fed Willard, Jane Lynch, Larry Miller, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer (the latter two starred with Guest in the legendary comedy "This is Spinal Tap").

This will be Guest’s first feature-length movie since 2009’s “For Your Consideration.” In 2013, he directed eight episodes of the HBO comedy “Family Tree,” starring Chris O’Dowd.

This continues Netflix hiring brand-name talent to fill their original programming.

Adam Sandler signed a four-movie deal with them last October, Cary Fukunaga’s movie “Beats of No Nation,” the follow-up to him directing the first season of “True Detective,” will be released in theaters and Netflix simultaneously later this year, while Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have recently announced they are working on projects that will originate on the streaming service.

Read the invitation Netflix sent out regarding the Guest movie below:

SEE ALSO: Here's what's coming to Netflix in August

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For better or worse, 20th Century Fox is still moving ahead with "Fantastic Four 2." That’s what all the latest intel is telling us, and we just have to accept it, no matter how big of a flop the first film was. With the stage already set, it seems as though the sequel will pose its own set of challenges to whomever directs it. 

Hitfix recently published an analysis of the entire Fantastical situation, claiming that the sequel was happening. According to their sources, a few details were confirmed: (1) "Fantastic Four 2" is still in the works, (2) it may not make its original release date of June 9, 2017, and (3) this is Trank’s world that we’re living in. Drew McWeeny wrote: 

"The next filmmaker in is going to start from a difficult position, and they're going to have to work hard to create their own movie while starting with some of Trank's choices intact. For better or worse, Trank was given room to define these characters, and his signature will remain on the next film no matter who writes and directs it. The next movie will be a reaction to this one."

So, let’s recap where we are at the end of Fantastic Four. (Warning: spoilers) 

This film was a bit more "dark and gritty" than the first run of films; our heroes got their abilities from traveling to the Planet Zero, instead of cosmic radiation in space; these characters are a lot younger than they’re classically depicted; they are given their own facility in a remote location to conduct their work; Doctor Doom was zapped through his inter-dimensional gateway; and Tim Blake Nelson’s character, who was pegged as the man to become Mole Man, is gone.

It doesn’t sound like the most appealing project to work on, especially since you already have to adhere to the rules that have been put into place by a different director, but there’s some wiggle room here. As we learned from Trank himself (and other reports with off-the-record sources), there were a lot of scenes cut from the film. We saw a piece of b-roll, for instance, that featured Reed Richards’ infamous Fantasti-car; and his character’s relationship with Sue Storm never came to fruition with a romance for the ages. So there’s at least two points that can make it into the sequel. And, if you really think about it, how much character development was actually going on in this film? Not a whole lot. So there’s also room to stretch these characters to their limits. Pun intended.

Another plus for the future director of the sequel? The cast: Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Miles Teller and Jamie Bell. Unfortunately, "Fantastic Four" is still in theaters, so we’ll have to endure talk of this first attempt for a little while longer. 

SEE ALSO: 5 big reasons why 'Fantastic Four' bombed at the box office

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I hope you weren’t getting super pumped up for the release of the Zach Galifianakis and Kristen Wiig-starring heist comedy "Masterminds," because that is no longer happening.

With Relativity Media filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, they can’t afford to market the movie and it has been pulled from their release schedule.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a representative for Relativity Media, which is currently bankrupt and up for sale, confirmed that they did indeed remove "Masterminds" from the schedule — a release already pushed back my months—though they declined to elaborate as to why. However, a source "close to the company," whatever that means, did reveal that this move was made because they don’t have the capital to market the movie. It’s easy to imagine how that might be a problem when planning to release a film.

With debts and liabilities totaling more than $1 billion, the company, founded by Ryan Kavanaugh in 2004, owes money to a collection of other businesses and vendors. Back on July 30, Relativity filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and they have a court hearing scheduled for later this week, August 14. An auction is now in the works—Toronto-based Catalyst Capital already purchased $130 million of the debt. As Relativity is a sizeable player in the industry, the people they owe money to have an interest in them stay in business, but there are obvious issues that need to be addressed.

Relativity’s financial woes have already had a big impact on a number of movies in the pipeline. "The Crow" reboot lost most of its production team, who walked off as part of the fallout. Sony recently terminated a $3 million dollar deal for the distribution rights to the upcoming skating comedy "The Bronze," leaving it, like "Masterminds," without any source of promotional funds. The upcoming action thriller "Autobahn," with a star-studded cast of Felicity Jones, Nicholas Hoult, Anthony Hopkins, and Ben Kingsley, is likely in the same boat.

 There do appear to be some releases that will go ahead as scheduled, however. THR notes that "Red," a joint venture between Relativity and EurpaCorp, is not included in the larger bankruptcy proceedings, so the films in that arena should be unaffected. That includes titles like the actioner "The Transporter Refueled," still slated for a September 4 release; the home invasion horror film "Shut In," penciled in for February 19, 2016; and "The Lake," a thriller about Navy SEALs finding treasure, which stars J.K. Simmons and should still be released on July 15, 2016.

"Masterminds" was already pushed back from an August release to an October 9 date. With a cast that includes Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, and Owen Wilson, you have to imagine it will see the light of day eventually, but it looks like we’re going to have to wait a while longer until this Relativity mess is sorted out.

Watch the "Masterminds" trailer and see what we're missing:

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The poster for Bryan Cranston's new movie, "Trumbo," was released Tuesday and we found something a bit surprising. 

Along with Cranston, the biopic about famous blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, the film also stars Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, John Goodman, and Louis C.K.

Here's the poster:

Did you catch Louis? He's almost unrecognizable:

The funnyman will be playing Arlen Hird, a fellow blacklisted scribe who falls on hard times. Here's a closer look of how he looks in the film:

"Trumbo" opens in theaters on November 6.

SEE ALSO: A guest role on "The X-Files" helped Bryan Cranston get his Emmy-winning role on "Breaking Bad"

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NOW WATCH: Here's the new 'Batman v Superman' trailer that just got a standing ovation at Comic-Con

Warning: spoilers ahead

The long-awaited movie on iconic rap group N.W.A., "Straight Outta Compton," shows the meteoric rise of members Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E, but it also holds a mirror up to events dominating the news cycle today, like the latest unrest in Ferguson, Missouri and numerous stories about excessive force used by police.

One of N.W.A.’s first big hits on their 1988 debut album Straight Outta Compton was “F—k tha Police.”

The song became a rallying cry for youth living in urban areas of the country — like N.W.A.’s home turf of Compton, California — that constantly endured police brutality and racial profiling.

In fact, the film depicts the birth of the song following the police harassing the group when standing outside of a recording studio. 

Later in the movie they are ordered not to play “F—k tha Police” at a concert in Detroit. They do not abide and gun shots ring out while they perform the song, once more causing them to be handcuffed and taken to jail.

Chants of “F--k tha Police” have now changed to #BlackLivesMatter over the last year, but the tension between those living in urban areas of the country and the police are as high as ever. Particularly since last weekend in Ferguson. Following the one year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown on Sunday, protests in Ferguson have carried on that have led to arrests and gunfire between citizens and police.

“Police in our society are trained to win at all costs. They’re not trained to uphold the law, to know your rights, to protect,” Ice Cube told The Daily Beast while doing press for “Straight Outta Compton,” in which he’s a producer. “Their thing is to win—win the argument, win the struggle, win the scuffle. Win. And if you have to violate somebody’s rights, so be it. Win on the street—we’ll deal with it afterwards.”

While other movies may have attempted to put a positive, uplifting spin on the situation by the end of the movie, “Straight Outta Compton” doesn’t let you off the hook. The Rodney King beating, trial (where all the officers involved were found not guilty), and eventual riot are laid out front and center.

By the end of the movie you leave with the sobering reminder that in the 27 years following the release of the Straight Outta Compton album things haven’t gotten better when it comes to police relations in urban areas.

And as Ice Cube went on to tell The Daily Beast, it’s one of the points in the movie they wanted to drive home.

“The same thing happened before I was born; there was a riot in ’65 in Watts with the police,” said Ice Cube. “It happened when we were doing records, and it’s still happening today. It was important to show that nothing has changed.”

“Straight Outta Compton” opens in theaters on Friday.

SEE ALSO: Dr. Dre's first album in 16 years is exclusive to Apple

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The late Heath Ledger won an Oscar for playing the Joker in "The Dark Knight" for good reason. His committed performance brought the iconic comic book to character to life in the most terrifying way imaginable. 

Ledger passed away in January 2008, unfortunately unable to see the remarkable impact his performance had.

A clip from the documentary "Too Young to Die" has surfaced, and it gives a brief glimpse into Ledger's method for immersing himself in the Joker's madness.

This clip reveals the diary Ledger kept as he prepared for the role, which Ledger's father Kim looks through. To prepare to play Batman's greatest foe, Ledger locked himself up in a hotel room and then in his apartment for around a month.

The diary says a lot about both how Ledger felt during those days, as well as his many influences for the part.

In the notebook, an image of a hyena is visible:

Perhaps this inspired his laugh, which often has a hyena-like quality to it:

The notebook is filled with dialogue from the film that Ledger jotted down. He even wrote down all of his dialogue for the entire hospital room scene:

In this scene, Ledger memorably wears a nurse's outfit. In this clip, Kim notes that Heath's sister Kate used to dress him up in a nurse's outfit.

In the notebook, you might notice one figure that constantly pops up:

You can see it again on another page:

That is none other than Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece "A Clockwork Orange" from 1971.

In "A Clockwork Orange," Alex DeLarge is the leader of a gang that inflicts random horrible acts on unsuspecting citizens. Alex rapes, steals, and fights others for the fun of it. He sure does sound a lot like the Joker, a villain who simply wants "to watch the world burn."

Ledger was even able to flawlessly replicate that terrifying expression, often called the "Kubrick Stare."

Watch the full clip below:

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There is probably no movie in production right now more secretive than "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." It is, easily, the most-anticipated film of 2015, with eager fans readily waiting to analyze every new detail to come from the movie's actors and filmmakers. 

For this reason, security on set is — put mildly — next-level. Actor Oscar Isaac, who plays X-Wing pilot Poe Dameron in the film, admitted this much in interviews months ago when he told Yahoo Movies the conditions in which he had to read the script under.

Now, we're getting a few more details about "The Force Awakens" courtesy of a Fall movie blowout issue of Entertainment Weekly. An accompanying photo on EW.com shows yet another security measure: Director J.J. Abrams with screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan going over the script on what looks like a Star Destroyer set. 

What's of note here are the dark red script pages, which EW reporter and "Star Wars" expert Anthony Breznican notes are a security measure to prevent copying — since dark red pages on a black and white photocopier will print out black, rendering copied pages unreadable. 

There are doubtless many more security measures in place to ensure that the only information to come out of "The Force Awakens" set is the sort that Disney and Lucasfilm want us to see — measures that would probably be less useful the more we know about them. 

Regardless, they'll only be necessary for a few more months — "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is scheduled to hit theaters December 18, 2015. 

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Though there has been no official word, it seems from the Twitter accounts of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Zac Efron that they will team up for a movie version of the 1990s TV show “Baywatch.”

Here’s what The Rock has been tweeting:

So it seems The Rock is driving home the fact that it’s going to be an R-rated comedy. Which is kind of an appealing idea.

Zac Efron also tweeted about the movie:

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news, writing that Efron is currently in negotiations to star.

According to THR, the story centers on a by-the-book lifeguard (The Rock) who is forced to team with a young hothead (Efron) in order to save their beach from environmental destruction at the hands of an oil tycoon. (I feel a “The Other Guys” vibe here.)

The film will be made at Paramount and directed by Seth Gordon ("Horrible Bosses,""Identity Thief").

“Baywatch” ran for 11 seasons during the 1990s and at one time was one of the most watched television shows in the world.

BI reached out to Efron's reps to confirm his involvement but have yet to receive a response. We will update this story accordingly.

SEE ALSO: 6 reasons why Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has become a huge box-office draw

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The Weinstein Company released the first trailer for Quentin Tarantino's much-anticipated next movie, "The Hateful Eight," on Wednesday.

This post-Civil War tale looks at a group of bounty hunters taking shelter in a lodge during a massive blizzard. But when one of them shows up with a captive who is worth a lot of money dead or alive, the plotting and deception begins.

Tarantino's latest writing-directing effort stars Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Walton Goggins, and, of course it wouldn't be a Tarantino movie without Samuel L. Jackson.

"The Hateful Eight" will open in select theaters on Christmas Day and nationwide January 8.

Watch the trailer here:

SEE ALSO: The first trailer for HBO's creepy movie to TV adaptation 'Westworld' is here

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NOW WATCH: Ridley Scott is about to show us a world where the Allies lost World War II

Some might remember Netflix started as a DVD service that provided a way to watch a huge array of movies quickly and without late fees. Netflix's DVD service is not as integral as it once was, but the service still streams hundreds of movies.

There are so many movies on Netflix though that it can be hard to sort through.

The streaming site does a great job picking up films beyond mainstream hits. There's a diverse amount of overlooked films available to just about anybody. Now is a better time than ever before to catch films that might have gone unnoticed in theaters.

Here are some of the best movies on Netflix right now you may have missed:

"A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" (2014)

What it's about: In the post-apocalyptic Iranian ghost town known only as Bad City, a nameless teenage vampire (Sheila Vand) wanders the night.

Why you should see it: The film was described as an Iranian vampire western when it was first released in 2014, making it all the more intriguing. That description might be partially false: it was shot in California, but directed by an Iranian-American director and all the characters speak in Farsi. 

"A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" is flawed but riveting in many ways. Mainly, it doesn't look and feel like anything else out today. This is Ana Lily Amirpour's feature directorial debut. Directorial debuts don't have to be perfect, but they should at least show a lot of promise. And boy does "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" show a lot of insanely creative potential from its director.

"The Babadook" (2014)

What it's about: A spirit from a children's book comes to life and haunts a single mother and her son. 

Why you should see it: This Australian export is one of the best horror movies in a very long time. It feels like it builds on a lot of past horror classics, from 1968's "Rosemary's Baby" to 1980's "The Shining." Yet, it also feels like the kind of horror film that non-horror fans will greatly enjoy. It is a fresh, well-made spin on some well-worn genre territory.

"Blue Ruin" (2013)

Synopsis: A mysterious drifter (Macon Blair) returns to his childhood home to seek revenge for the death of his parents.

Why You Should See It: This overlooked revenge thriller, set in both the suburban and backwoods of the south, deserves to be put up there with the likes of "No Country for Old Men" and the first season of "True Detective." It takes the typical story of revenge and turns it on its head with some incredibly surprising twists and turns.

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When I interview artificial intelligence researchers for Tech Insider stories, the conversations almost always turn to science fiction.

I've seen a few movies about artificial intelligence (AI), like the "Terminator" and "The Matrix," for example, but I hadn't seen "2001: A Space Odyssey," considered by many I've spoken with as the pinnacle of sci-fi. (Marvin Minsky — one of the pioneers of AI — was even an adviser to the movie's production team.)

So I decided to spend a weekend binge-watching every acclaimed AI movie I'd missed. Taking tips from colleagues and The Guardian's list of the top movies about AI, I lined up seven films.

I didn't begin with any expectations or criteria, but by the end — red-eyed and suffering from a little bit of cabin fever — I realized that one movie on my list offered the most realistic vision of the future of AI, and it was a cartoon.

Read on to see how these iconic titles jibe with modern science. (Warning: Spoilers ahead.)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

The movie: Astronaut David Bowman and his crew mates aboard the Discovery One are headed to Jupiter in search of strange black monoliths — devices that appear at turning points throughout the human species' evolution. The ship's computer, Hal 9000, has a lot of responsibilities, including piloting the ship and maintaining life support for astronauts in hibernation.

Though Hal insists he is "by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error," he makes a mistake and two astronauts conspire to turn him off. Little do they know that Hal has a few tricks in his memory banks.

The technology: Hal has a wide range of tasks, which makes him an artificial general intelligence (AGI) — AI that has or exceeds human-level intelligence across all the fields of expertise that a human could have. AGI would take a huge amount of computation and energy. According to Scientific American, AI researcher Hans Moravec estimates that it would require at least "100 million MIPS (100 trillion instructions per second) to emulate the 1,500-gram human brain."

Is it possible?: The Fujitsu K computer already outpaces this estimate at 10 quadrillion worth of computations in one second. Despite the K computer's computing capabilities, it still took about "40 minutes to complete a simulation of one second of neuronal network activity in real time," according to CNET. Moravec writes "at the present pace, only about 20 or 30 years will be needed to close the gap." So, Hal is possible, but not right now.

Hal also has human emotions — pride, fear, and a survival instinct — but I wasn't sure where they originated. Humans have emotions because of evolutionary survival instincts. Emotions like fear and jealousy, according to the New York Times, may have helped us hoard scant resources for ourselves.

On the other hand, AI wouldn't develop emotions unless they’re programmed to replicate them. The humans may have given Hal a survival instinct, but surely they wouldn't have programmed him to survive at the expense of his human crewmates.

The takeaway: Watching Stanley Kubrick's stunning masterpiece was like watching a living painting. But it also serves to warn us to ensure any AGI we create doesn't prioritize its survival over the survival of the humans it serves.

WarGames (1983)

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The movie: Matthew Broderick plays a high school hacker named David Lightman, who mistakenly hacks into a government computer in charge of the nuclear missile launch systems at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Thinking he's hacked into a games company, Lightman begins to play as the Soviet Union in a what he thinks is a simulation game called Global Thermonuclear War, unwittingly setting off a series of events that threaten to create World War III.

The technology: The government computer, called the War Operations Plan Response (WOPR), learns from constantly running military simulations, and can autonomously target and fire nuclear missiles.

Is it possible?: WOPR combines two different technologies that exist right now, so I'd say this technology is possible with some time and effort — though it may not be a good idea. Like WOPR, DeepMind's deep neural net system, called deep-Q networks (DQN), learns to play video games and gets better with time. According to Deep Mind's Nature paper, the DQN was able to "achieve a level comparable to that of a professional human games tester across a set of 49 games."

Autonomous weapons that can target and fire on their own also exist right now. One frightening real-life autonomous weapons is the Samsung SGR-1, which patrols the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea and can fire without human assistance. These are the kind of self-targeting weapons that almost started World War III.

The takeaway: Autonomous weapons exist right now, but I can't think of any government that would be willing to put the most dangerous weapons known to man in the hands of an easily hackable computer that doesn't clearly differentiate between simulations and firing real weapons. However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, physicist Stephen Hawking, and over 16,000 AI researchers don't want to take that chance, and recently urged the United Nations to ban the use of autonomous weapons.

WOPR also has a clear set of goals — win the game at any cost, even if it means destroying humanity. It's a clear illustration of an AI that could decimate humanity, what philosopher Nick Bostrom calls "existential threat."

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

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The movie: In 2029, almost everyone in Japan is connected to the cloud via cybernetic android bodies, including detective Major Kusanagi. Tasked with finding a hacker named the Puppet Master, she learns that the hacker was originally a computer program that gained sentience. Over time, the Puppet Master learned about the nature of his existence, and his inability to reproduce or have a normal life.

The technology: In "Ghost in the Shell," technology has advanced to the point that false memories can be hacked and robots can build other robots. Major Kusanagi is a "ghost"— a human mind uploaded to and accessible through the cloud using her artificial body. She has superhuman strength and invisibility. She can also speak telepathically, access information, and even drive cars using her mind's access to the cloud.

Is it possible?: The idea of humans accessing the internet using just their minds is a well-trodden trope. Futurist and Google researcher Ray Kurzweil predicted that we'll be able to communicate telepathically using the cloud by 2030, just a year after the events of "Ghost in the Shell" take place.

Kusanagi's artificial body moves like a human body, but robots today still can't walk on two legs without collapsing midstep, as shown by the robots in the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals. So that makes it pretty hard to believe that robots would be dexterous enough to be backflipping off high-rise buildings in just 15 years. On the other hand, MIT is currently building superstrong robots that can punch through walls, but these robots aren't autonomous — they're controlled by a human wearing an exoskeleton.

The takeaway: We’ll probably have to wait more than 15 years for technology that will allow us to upload our minds into robotic bodies, but “Ghost in the Shell” brought up some very real ethical and safety concerns. For example: In the movie, a garbageman is convinced he’s helping a criminal in exchange for regaining custody of his daughter. But he later learns that his memories have been faked — he never had a wife or a daughter. Could hacker implant false memories?

“Imagine when the internet is in your brain, if the NSA can see into your brain, if hackers can hack into your brain,” Shimon Whiteson, an AI researcher at the University of Amsterdam, said.

The military is developing a brain implant that could restore memories and repair brain damage, so it's not too far-fetched to think these kinds of implants could be hacked.

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Days before "Fantastic" Four opened, director Josh Trank sent an email to some members of the cast and crew to say he was proud of the film, which, he wrote, was "better than 99 percent of the comic-book movies ever made."

"I don't think so," responded one castmember.

Maybe if Trank had left it at that, Hollywood insiders and fan websites could have played their own parlor games as to who was at fault for the film's colossal failure and "Fantastic Four" would have faded into the history books as did "John Carter" and other bombs before it. (The $122 million-budgeted film opened to just $25.7 million in the U.S. and $34 million abroad, far below even the most cautious predictions.)

But Trank, 31, could not resist tweeting on Aug. 6, as the movie was hitting theaters, that he had made "a fantastic version" of the film that audiences would "probably never see." Though Trank quickly deleted the tweet, his public disavowal of the film at such a key moment enraged 20th Century Fox executives and stirred a pot that had begun to bubble when the director was dropped by Lucasfilm from a "Star Wars" stand-alone film at the end of April, prompting THR to report that one of the causes was his erratic behavior on "Fantastic Four." Now, insiders on the film say the situation was worse than previously revealed, and Trank has enlisted pit-bull lawyer Marty Singer to advocate on his behalf. And so the game of blame is underway.

"Fantastic Four" is not the only big studio film to go flying off the rails, ostensibly because a director is in over his head. Sometimes a studio can salvage the project, as Paramount did when it shut down "World War Z" amid crew complaints about director Marc Forster and commissioned a rewrite of the third act. The film went on to gross $540 million worldwide.

Universal intervened to save the original "The Bourne Identity" when director Doug Liman seemed unable to pull that film together. It launched a franchise, but producer Frank Marshall — brought in to rescue the movie — said later that he had taken unprecedented measures to get the movie done. "I've always had a respect for the line between a producer and a director," Marshall told me in 2005, "and I had to step over that line into something that I feel is the director's responsibility."

Liman moved on to his next project, "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, only to run into similar problems. Akiva Goldsman, who wrote and was a producer on that film, called him "a madman," and Liman filed a grievance with the Directors Guild saying his prerogatives as director had been compromised. But the film grossed $478 million worldwide, and Liman's reputation suffered no serious damage.

In Trank's case, multiple sources associated with the project say the director did not produce material that would have opened the way to a salvageable film. And by several accounts, he resisted help. "He holed up in a tent and cut himself off from everybody," says one high-level source. Literally, there was a tent on the Louisiana set. "He built a black tent around his monitor," says a crewmember. "He was extremely withdrawn." Between setups, this person adds, "he would go to his trailer and he wouldn't interact with anybody."

Sources say Fox believed in what one executive calls a "grounded, gritty version of "Fantastic Four" that was almost the opposite of previous versions"— and initially thought Trank could deliver that. Several sources say Fox stood by Trank as he pushed a gloomy tone on young stars Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara and Jamie Bell. "During takes, he would be telling [castmembers] when to blink and when to breathe," one person says. "He kept pushing them to make the performance as flat as possible."

There were worrying personal issues as well. As THR reported in May, Trank and his dogs allegedly caused more than $100,000 worth of damage to a rented house in Baton Rouge that he and his wife occupied while the film was shooting there. Sources say now that after landlordMartin Padial moved to evict Trank, photographs of the landlord's family that were in the house were defaced. Padial made a complaint to the local sheriff's department and filed a civil suit in Louisiana that is sealed. Padial's attorney, Michael Bienvenu, declined to comment on the matter. The sheriff's department says the case was "closed as a civil matter between landlord and tenant."

Neither Trank nor Singer would comment.

A crewmember acknowledges that Trank bears much of the fault for the film's problems but also says the Fox studio should not escape blame. The movie was "ill-conceived, made for the wrong reasons and there was no vision behind the property," this person says. "Say what you will about Marvel but they have a vision."

As Fox hurried to put the project into production before rights to the material reverted to Marvel, the studio was scrambling with multiple rewrites and delays in starting the film. They "were afraid of losing the rights so they pressed forward and didn't surround [Trank] with help or fire him. They buried their heads in the sand." Fox declined to comment.

Another source says the notion of firing Trank came up even before the cameras started to roll. But Fox put its faith in him because he had directed the studio's 2012 found-footage hero movie "Chronicle," which grossed $127 million worldwide on a $12 million budget. Based on that, insiders say Fox executives thought they had found an "in-house director," a young talent who could become another J.J. Abrams. And the studio was trying to shake off its reputation for micromanaging filmmakers. So executives were reluctant to interfere on "Fantastic Four" despite warnings of trouble.

When the seriousness of the problems could no longer be ignored, says a key source on the project, it was too late to fire the director. "How do you ask someone to take over half of a movie shot by someone else?" he says. "You either hire somebody desperate for work or you [start over], write off pretty much the whole budget and lose the cast."

As filming wound toward an unhappy close, the studio and producers Simon Kinberg and Hutch Parker engaged in a last-minute scramble to come up with an ending. With some of the cast not fully available at that point and Kinberg juggling "X-Men: Apocalypse" and "Star Wars," a lot of material was shot with doubles and the production moved to Los Angeles to film scenes with Teller against a green screen. "It was chaos," says a crewmember, adding that Trank was still in attendance "but was neutralized by a committee." Another source says the studio pulled together "a dream team," including writer and "World War Z" veteran Drew Goddard, to rescue the movie. Whether the final version of the film is better or worse than what Trank put together is a matter of opinion, of course, but the consensus, clearly, is that neither was good.

One central player on the film says the process of making big films often is messy, but in many cases the studio can fight its way out of difficulties. A "Fantastic Four" crewmember concurs but says that doesn't relieve the studio of its responsibility for what went wrong with this film. "To me, it is a classic indictment of the entire system," he says. "Give Josh Trank a $20 million movie. Groom him. But they don't make those movies anymore. … Nobody should escape scrutiny on this one. Everyone should take a good look in the mirror, myself included. Even I probably did the movie for the wrong reasons."

SEE ALSO: 'Fantastic Four' director blames studio for the movie's horrid reviews

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Marvel's next big film, "Captain America: Civil War" has so many superheroes in it, it's practically an "Avengers" sequel. But thrown in with a cast that includes everyone from Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to The Vision (Paul Bettany) are two huge heroes making their Marvel Cinematic Universe debut: Spider-Man and Black Panther. 

While bits and pieces about Spidey's appearance have trickled out ever since 19-year-old Tom Holland was cast in the role, we still know very little about Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther other than the character will likely fill a neutral role, refusing to take sides in the titular conflict between Captain America and Iron Man.

For the uninitiated, Black Panther is the alter ego of T'Challa, king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda. Wakanda is an extremely important location in the Marvel Universe, because — in addition to being a bastion of learning and technology far more advanced than that of the Western world — it's also home to some of the largest deposits of Vibranium, the super-rare metal found in Captain America's shield (and sought after by the titular villain in "Avengers: Age of Ultron"). 

Thanks to a sly Instagrammer named Andreas Meyer, we now have our first look at Black Panther in costume and on set:

#ChadwickBoseman as #BlackPanther and #SebastianStan as #BuckyBarnes #filming in #Berlin for #CaptainAmerica #civilWar #Action #Stunt #marvel #marvelcomics

A photo posted by Andreas Meyer (@meyerfotos) on Aug 12, 2015 at 9:37am PDT

The photo shows off a costume that adheres pretty closely to the concept art revealed at Marvel's big Phase 3 event last October — it's certainly not as slick, but this is a fuzzy set photo, a far cry from a color-corrected and CG-enhanced still that will more fully convey the high-tech nature of the Black Panther suit from the comics. 

"Captain America: Civil War" is currently in production and scheduled to hit theaters on May 6, 2016. 

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"Fantastic Four" is a strange comic book movie, one that's very shy on the actual superheroics. This could have been one of the film's great strengths, but ultimately served to cripple it in the long run. But how much of it comes from the source material?

Quite a bit, it turns out. 

If there's any direct comic book parallel to the story in "Fantastic Four," it's in the comic book series "Ultimate Fantastic Four," a 2003 comic book series that rebooted Marvel's First Family in a 21st century context. 

While "Ultimate Fantastic Four" was probably pitched as a radical reinvention, it really just ended up making the characters younger (they're adults in the mainstream "Fantastic Four" comics that kicked off in the '60s) and updated their origin a bit (from "spaceship bombarded with cosmic rays" to "interdimensional teleportation accident").

This worked out just fine, though, since — barring maybe the final few installments of its impressive 60-issue run — "Ultimate Fantastic Four" remained very accessible to readers who didn't follow other superhero comics. 

Unfortunately, while the new movie takes a lot of cues from the "Ultimate" origins, much of the comics' spirit (read: fun) was left out. But how about the look? 

Let's compare:

"House of Cards" alum Reg E. Cathey plays Dr. Franklin Storm.

An aging scientist who believes his generation has made a mess of the world, Dr. Franklin heads up the think tank that he recruits Reed into. The biological father of Johnny Storm, and the adopted father of Susan, he shepards the teleportation project, and convinces Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Victor von Doom to work together to get it done. 

On the page, Dr. Storm isn't all that different.

There's one big, obvious difference — his race, which also makes him the biological father of only one of the Storm siblings — but his role is more or less the same. He's a mentor to the team, acting as a shield between them and overzealous government liaisons. 

Miles Teller plays Reed Richards, the young genius largely responsible for the accident which creates the Fantastic Four.

In the film, we meet Richards when he's in grade school and causes a blackout with his homemade miniature teleportation device. As he matures, he's quiet, dedicated, and — following the accident — wracked with shame and guilt.

Post-transformation, Reed gains the ability to stretch like rubber, although the film is extremely conservative about showing this power off. His costume is the crudest of the bunch, with wiring and spring-like materials designed to stretch with him.

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