New Nightcrawler to BAMF Into ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’

Bryan Singer, director of the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse, announced on Instagram that Kodi Smit-McPhee (Let Me In) has joined the cast as Nightcrawler.

No, not the Jake Gyllenhaal character from last summer’s Nightcrawler; rather the German-born, sticks-to-walls, teleporting blue-skinned mutant last seen onscreen portrayed brilliantly by Alan Cumming in X2: X-Men United.

Singer wrote: “Excited to welcome @kodismitmcphee to the cast of #XmenApocalypse as young #Nightcrawler.”

In the comics, Nightcrawler, a.k.a. Kurt Wagner, could teleport from place to place in a puff of smoke with his trademark “BAMF!” sound effect.

X-Men: Apocalypse will BAMF! into theaters on May 27, 2016.

Presenting His Royal Highness, Aquaman!

King of the Seven Seas Aquaman made his first official public appearance on the interwebs yesterday, courtesy of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder, and I will say that while Jason Momoa does look pretty badass, he doesn’t look anything like Aquaman.

Which is not necessarily a bad thing, and certainly not unexpected — no one thought the orange-and-green color scheme from the comic books was going to be attempted onscreen, and everyone expected the director to toughen up the Atlantean royal’s look.

Pirates of the Caribbean 5… Yes, 5, Starts Filming

We all know dead men tell no tales, but apparently dead franchises do… well, the Pirates of the Caribbean series is not quite dead, and reanimating corpses is sort of what the whole series is about, so who can really be surprised by another installment of Disney’s amazing cash cow, appropriately subtitled Dead Men Tell No Tales.

With the indispensable Johnny Depp back as Capt. Jack Sparrow, the franchise is now helmed by a directing duo, Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning, best known for 2012’s well-regarded seagoing Kon-Tiki.

Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush is also back as Captain Barbossa, with Kevin McNally as Gibbs and Stephen Graham as Scrum. They’re joined by n00b hotties Kaya Scodelario and Brenton Thwaites, as well as Golshifteh Farahani (late of the recent bomb Exodus: Gods and Kings). But the big news is that Oscar winner Javier Bardem is confirmed as the Big Bad, Captain Salazar.