On October 18, viewers will finally get to see Steve McQueen’s movie adaptation of the stunning memoir 12 Years a Slave, written in the 1850s by Solomon Northup. With a cast including Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Paul Giamatti, Quvenzhané Wallis from “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” Sarah Paulson of “Mud,” and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Northrup, expectations for McQueen’s film are through the roof. Today, we get another peek at the epic tale with the release of the television trailer.

McQueen’s previous film, the titillating “Shame” starring Michael Fassbender as a sex-addicted thirty-something, spared nothing in its approach to a loaded topic. Our expectation is that McQueen will employ the same raw energy and direction to “12 Years.”

Northrup’s memoir recounts the years following his enslavement. Northrup was born a free man – but on one fateful day, he is kidnapped, drugged, and sold into slavery in Louisiana. What follows is a decade-plus of his quiet wish to find the freedom that was once his. And when that wish comes true, Northrup takes his case to the courts.

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Actors Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Jon Bernthal, Kevin Vance, director David Ayer, set coordinator Owen Thornton and co-producer Alex Ott from the movie, Fury, visited the National Training Center, June 26 – 28. This visit allowed the actors and crew to speak with Soldiers about their shared experiences and the intricacies of being a part of a tank crew.

Read more. Thanks also Nikki. Filming will take place in the UK and starts September, as far as I know.

PS. Also spotted what seems to be a new tattoo for our Brad.
PS2. The BP Press Archive was updated by yours truly this week, along with the BP Media Archive (Talkshows ’13 & World War Z). More will get done this week.

Credit to LynnJPS.

Actor-producer Brad Pitt made an unannounced appearance at the annual CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas to show off material from his upcoming apocalyptic epic, “World War Z.”

“Listen, five years ago, I knew absolutely nothing about a zombie; today, I consider myself an expert,” Pitt said, smiling for a packed house of surprised theater owners at Caesars Palace on Monday night. “This whole thing started because I just wanted to do a film that my boys could see before they turned 18 — one that they would like, anyways. And they love a zombie.” The 49-year-old Pitt and partner Angelina Jolie have six children, including three sons.

“So, we settled on this book, Max Brooks’ book, called ‘World War Z,’” Pitt continued. “We were faced with two Herculean challenges: How do we keep the global, spectacular, dynamic scope of the book and how do we originate a genre that’s been done quite often and really, really well? What you’re about to see is our answer to those two questions.”

A 3-D version of the film’s trailer was shown, along with 2-D versions of frantic and frightening stand-alone set pieces from the movie, which were perhaps best described as “The Running Dead.”

Read more.

Thanks La_miga.

Actors: They’re so cute when they’re young. And, as their audition tapes often prove — super-talented. Now, some audition tapes featuring actors before they were uber-famous are going up on the auction block, and Darren Julien and Martin Nolan of Julien’s Auction House joined TODAY’s Matt Lauer Monday to share some extremely rare footage.

“We’ve never sold anything like this, so it’s hard to say” how much the tapes will go for, said Julien, though bidding estimates are currently in the very reasonable range of $2,000-4,000.

The tapes are not very high quality, but showcase some actors in the earliest years of their careers and shine a revealing light on just which actors went up for which roles, parts they weren’t always right for. One of the tapes features a 15-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio in 1990 trying out for a TV series based on “The Outsiders,” instead, the role went to “Mad Men’s” Jay R. Ferguson.

Also up for purchase: Brad Pitt, Robert Downey Jr. and Keanu Reeves all trying out for 1991′s “Backdraft” (the role went to William Baldwin), Gwyneth Paltrow and Helen Hunt trying out for the role Laura Dern ultimately won in 1993′s “Jurassic Park” and Nicole Kidman giving it her all while auditioning for 1991′s “Shattered” (a role that went to Greta Scacchi). Plus many more.

Read more. Must watch the video! Brad’s audition is at the 2 minute mark.

Earlier today, movie hunk Brad Pitt talked to ABC News’ Elizabeth Vargas on “Good Morning America” where he opened up about aging, fatherhood and touched on his new movie “World War Z”.

When talking about how everything changing when he became a father, he said, “It turns everything on its head. I love it. I love it.”

Brad spoke of how he and Angelina Jolie ensure that their children have as much normalcy in their lives as possible. He referred to his homes as “base camps” saying that they do spend time in New Orleans, but have a base camp in Los Angeles because they both work there a lot. He also said that they are looking to establish a European base camp because their children won’t be hounded there due to their strict paparazzi laws regarding photographing children.

He said, “They get more sense of normalcy there. We’re not as hounded at certain places there. France, especially. They have rules about shooting kids — photographing kids. I think they’re more sensitive to it after the Diana incident. They [the French] think they’re as cool as anyone else. We’re not being bothered there.”

With regard to aging, he said that he has already thought about what it’s going to be like turning 50-years-old next year. He said, “I’ve given a lot of thought to it. You become very aware of time. I think also being a father, you become very – everything’s time allocation for me now…spending my time wisely and doing the things that are important to me.”

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