"The Double" On Blu-ray and DVD - January 31, 2012

The 2011 spy thriller, "The Double", from VVS Films, will be released on a DVD/Blu-ray combo pack, On Demand and Digital Download, January 31, 2012, in both English and French.

From a screenplay by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, the co-writers of "Wanted" and "3:10 To Yuma", "The Double" is Brandt's directorial debut.

Cast includes Richard Gere, Martin Sheen, Topher Grace and Odette Yustman-Annabel :

"...when a US Senator is killed, the evidence points to a Soviet assassin code-named 'Cassius', who was long-thought to be dead.

"'Paul Shepherdson' (Gere), a retired CIA operative is paired with FBI Agent 'Ben Geary' (Grace), to stop Cassius before he finds his next target..."

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "The Double"...

2012: Enter The "Dragon Lady"

In celebration of the Chinese 'Year Of The Dragon', Sneak Peek creator Milton Caniff's 'Dragon Lady' character from the classic action adventure newspaper comic strip "Terry and the Pirates".

The character was based on a real woman pirate from the South China Sea named 'Lai Choi San'.

Inspired by movie characters played by actress Anna May Wong, the 'Dragon Lady' term has since been applied to powerful Asian women.

Caniff's 'Dragon Lady', aka 'Madam Deal', debuted in in the first "Terry and The Pirates" Sunday strip story (1934), as a beautiful, yet cold seductress, who unexpectedly fell in love with 'Pat Ryan'. In the years leading up to World War II, she organized the resistance against the Japanese invasion of China.

During the 1940's, actress Agnes Moorehead played the character on radio and in the "Terry and the Pirates" film serial (1940), the part was played by Sheila Darcy.

Click the images to enlarge...

ABC Possessed By "666 Park Avenue"

The ABC Network confirms they have ordered an hour-long pilot, from David Wilcox, a producer for the Vancouver-lensed "Fringe", to be based on the book series "666 Park Avenue" by author Gabriella Pierce.

The drama will follow an innocent couple from the midwest who moves to New York to be resident managers of a building on the Upper East Side. Once they move in, they discover that all the tenants of the building are witches, having unwittingly made deals with a demon, "...to have their deepest needs, ambitions and desires fulfilled..."

The adaptation will also be written by Wilcox.

"666 Park Avenue" is the fourth drama ordered to pilot at ABC this season.

Click the images to enlarge...

"Underworld" Awakens" To $25.4 Million

The Vancouver-lensed, 'vampires' vs 'werewolves', fantasy action horror feature, "Underworld: Awakening", the fourth movie in the "Underworld" series, earned $25.4 million at the North America box office this weekend, marking the return of Kate Beckinsale to the franchise, as the vampire warrior 'Selene'.

"Underworld Awakening" is the first of the "Underworld" films to be exhibited in 3D and IMAX.

Beckinsale reprises her role from "Underworld" and "Underworld Evolution", with new cast including Sandrine Holt, Michael Ealy and India Eisley.

"...Since the events of Underworld: Evolution, 'Selene' (Beckinsale) was captured by Humans and held captive in cryogenic suspension for the past 12 years..."

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Underworld Awakening 3D"...

"Coriolanus" Opens in Canada January 20, 2012

D Films reports that actor/director Ralph Fiennes’ feature film "Coriolanus" will open theatrically in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, January 20th, 2012 with further expansion across Canada TBA:

"...a feared and revered military commander courts tragedy when he enters the political arena in "Coriolanus', a driving action/drama that marks the directorial debut of the film’s star, two time Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes.

"Updating William Shakespeare’s late-period tragedy of ancient Roman setting to the 21st Century of guerrilla insurgencies, instant polling and 24-hour news networks, Fiennes delivers a trenchant tale of honor, power, politics and pride.

"'Caius Martius 'Coriolanus' (Fiennes), a Roman General is at odds with the city of Rome and his fellow citizens. Pushed by his controlling and ambitious mother 'Volumnia' (Vanessa Redgrave) to seek the exalted and powerful position of 'Consul', he is loath to ingratiate himself with the masses whose votes he needs in order to secure the office.

"When the public refuse to support him, Coriolanus' anger prompts a riot which culminates in his expulsion from Rome. The banished hero then allies himself with his sworn enemy 'Tullus Aufidius' (Gerard Butler) to take his revenge on the city..."

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Coriolanus"...

Fox Unlocks Abrams' "Alcatraz"- January 16, 2012

The new Vancouver-lensed, supernatural TV series "Alcatraz" debuts January 16, 2012 on Fox with a special 2-hour season premiere, airing 7-9 PM.

The serialized, mystery-laden, time-shifting series, from J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions, is co-created by Elizabeth Sarnoff ("Lost") :

"...on March 21, 1963, the 'Alcatraz' jail facility officially closed due to rising costs and decrepit facilities. All the prisoners were transferred off the island. Only that's not what happened. Three hundred and two inmates disappeared that night. They were never seen or heard of again. Until now..."

San Francisco Police Department 'Detective Rebecca Madsen' (Sarah Jones), still reeling from seeing her partner die months earlier on an unrelated case, is sent to investigate a case of a homicide of a former warden at the Alcatraz prison, led by the FBI's 'Emerson Hauser' (Sam Neill), with 'Lucy Banerjee' (Parminder Nagra). But a fingerprint leads her to an Alcatraz inmate who clearly couldn't be the perpetrator. Or could he?

Madsen has a special interest in the case, as her uncle 'Ray' (Robert Forster), who raised her, and her late grandfather, were former guards at Alcatraz. Teaming up with noted Alcatraz expert and comic book 'geek', 'Dr. Diego Soto' (Jorge Garcia), the duo investigate behind the scenes, whether the impossible is happening: that inmates are reappearing, unaged, years after they should have died.

Each episode of "Alcatraz" promises to deliver closed-end stories involving the vanished inmates' reappearance and who (or what) is manipulating them.

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Alcatraz"...

Russell Crowe In CBC's "Republic Of Doyle" - Tonight !

Oscar winning actor Russell Crowe ("Gladiator") guest-stars on the third season premiere of CBC's St. John's Newfoundland-based, private eye, comic-drama TV series "Republic of Doyle", airing January 11, 2012 @ 9 PM.

Co-created by by series' star Allan Hawco, "Doyle" will feature Crowe as a gang member alongside actors Kevin Durand, Scott Grimes and Great Big Sea singer Alan Doyle.

"Republic of Doyle" has been sold to dozens of international markets, with downtown St. John's as the backdrop for many of the plotlines.

"It was never my intention to sort of make a tourism ad," said Hawco. "I just wanted to show the city in its most beautiful light and the way that I've always seen it."

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek Russell Crowe in "Republic Of Doyle"...

"The Grey": Live Or Die

Sneak Peek new billboard art supporting director Joe Carnahan's BC-lensed, action thriller, "The Grey", starring Liam Neeson.

The film also stars Dallas Roberts, James Badge Dale, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo, Nonso Anozie, and Joe Anderson, as 'oil-rig roughnecks'.

The crew are suddenly stranded by a plane crash in the hunting zone of a pack of 'grey' wolves.

Neeson plays the leader of the group, as his men are systematically attacked.

The 'social predators' live in nuclear families, feeding on prey, which they hunt by wearing them down in short chases.

"I haven’t had a situation like this since 'Narc'", said Carnahan, "where you get to make the movie you want to, staying as light on your feet as you can."

Screenplay for "The Grey" is by Carnahan and Ian Mackenzie Jeffers, who wrote the original short story.

Scott Free's Ridley and Tony Scott produced the $34 million budgeted feature with Inferno Entertainment's Bill Johnson, RSA's Jules Daly and Carnahan. Executive producer is Jim Seibel.

Inferno backed the film's budget, taking foreign distribution, with pre-sales in place for the UK, France, Australia, Latin America and the Middle East.

"Grey wolves have a territorial range of 300 miles, and they will run you out if you cross that," said Carnahan.

"If you’re within 30 miles of their den as is the case here, they will try to kill you. It’s simple arithmetic, but it creates an opportunity for one of those 'man vs. nature' movies..."

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "The Grey"...

"Alcatraz" : 302 Vanished. 3 Must Find Them.

Sneak Peek new key art , supporting the upcoming Vancouver-lensed, Fox TV series, "Alcatraz", debuting with a 2-hour season premiere, January 16, 2012.

Produced by J.J. Abrams and Elizabeth Sarnoff, "Alcatraz" stars Sarah Jones, Jorge Garcia, Sam Neill, Parminder Nagra, Robert Forster, Santiago Cabrera and Jonny Coyne :

"...when San Francisco Police Department 'Detective Rebecca Madsen' (Jones) is assigned to a homicide case, a fingerprint leads her to 'Jack Sylvane' (Jeffrey Pierce), a former 'Alcatraz' prison inmate who died decades ago.Given her family history – both her grandfather and surrogate uncle, 'Ray Archer' (Forster), were guards at the prison – Madsen's interest is immediately piqued, and once government agent 'Emerson Hause' (Neill) tries to impede her investigation, she's doggedly committed. Madsen turns to Alcatraz expert and comic book enthusiast, 'Dr. Diego Soto' (Garcia), to piece together the inexplicable sequence of events. The twosome discovers that Sylvane is not only alive, but he’s loose on the streets of San Francisco.

"And strangely, he hasn't aged a day since he was in Alcatraz, when the prison was ruled by 'Warden Edwin James' (Coyne) and 'Associate Warden E.B. Tiller' (Jason Butler Harner)..."

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Alcatraz"...