The U.S.-based National Board of Review has awarded its prizes for the best films and performances of 2014, but you’ll have to wait until next year to see many of them in Canada. The group chose J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year as best picture, with its star Oscar Isaac named best actor (tied with Michael Keaton of Birdman) and Jessica Chastain named best supporting actress for her role in the film. A Most Violent Year opens this month in select U.S. cities, but won’t hit Canada until Jan. 30. Clint Eastwood was named best director for American Sniper (opening Jan. 16), while Julianne Moore received the best actress prize for Still Alice (Jan. 23). Best supporting actor went to Edward Norton for Birdman. The group also released its top 10 films of 2014. They are, in alphabetical order: American Sniper, Birdman, Boyhood, Fury, Gone Girl, The Imitation Game, Inherent Vice, The Lego Movie, Nightcrawler and Unbroken. Most have opened in Canada, although Inherent Vice and Unbroken won’t screen here until Christmas Day.
The Imitation Game opens Dec. 12 in Toronto with a wider release to follow. Rounding out the group’s prizes: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller received the best original screenplay prize for The Lego Movie; Paul Thomas Anderson won best adapted screenplay for Inherent Vice; How to Train Your Dragon 2 was named best animated feature; best documentary went to the Roger Ebert doc Life Itself; and best foreign film was Wild Tales. That one opens in Canada on March 6.In the irreverent spirit of fun that made The LEGO® Movie a worldwide phenomenon, the self-described leading man of that ensemble—LEGO Batman—stars in his own big-screen adventure. But there are big changes brewing in Gotham City, and if he wants to save the city from The Joker’s hostile takeover, Batman may have to drop the lone vigilante thing, try to work with others and maybe, just maybe, learn to lighten up. Will Arnett reprises his starring role from The LEGO Movie as the voice of LEGO Batman, aka Bruce Wayne.
Zach Galifianakis (Muppets Most Wanted, the Hangover films) stars as The Joker; Michael Cera (TV’s Arrested Development) as the orphan Dick Grayson; Rosario Dawson (TV’s Daredevil) as Barbara Gordon; and Ralph Fiennes (the Harry Potter films) as Alfred. The LEGO® Batman Movie will be directed by Chris McKay, and produced by Dan Lin, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Roy Lee, who worked together on The LEGO Movie. The screenplay is by Seth Grahame-Smith and Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers and Jared Stern & John Whittington, story by Seth Grahame-Smith, based on LEGO Construction Toys and based on characters from DC. Batman was created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger; Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Jill Wilfert, Matthew Ashton, Will Allegra and Brad Lewis serve as executive producers. The new film’s production designer is Grant Freckelton, returning from The LEGO Movie. Also returning is The LEGO Movie editor David Burrows, along with editors Matt Villa, and John Venzon.
Regardless of whether or not these newly revealed sets for The LEGO Batman Movie turn out to represent the film accurately, they look to be must-haves for any Batman fan. First up: the Batcave. Though there’s an obvious comedic touch with the multicolored spare Batsuits, this is our first indication that Tim Burton’s Batman movies might have more of a stylistic influence on Lego Batman than expected. Case in point: a pale-skinned Penguin, penguin commandos, and giant rubber duck vehicle right out of Batman Returns. Other features, like a quick-change rotating chamber, jail cell, and Batcomputer array are standard among most Batcave playsets, but not necessarily on LEGO versions. A whopping 12 minifigs come with this one, though many use the same inmate uniform base body. And it is here we see another particularly cool Burton influence. Take a close look at the Two-Face figure. While no actor has been formally announced for the part, the character’s face is pretty obviously modeled after Billy Dee Williams.
And since Williams has starred in The LEGO Movie and numerous other LEGO Star Wars projects, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to suspect…nah. I shouldn’t get your hopes up without any more concrete information. Other nice touches on this set include the vines growing outside Poison Ivy’s cell, and the extremely specific cafeteria food items like watermelon slices, pretzels, and kielbasas. I’m going to assume those are part of a comedy scene at some point. If a funnier Batman doesn’t work for your LEGOing sensibilities, though, you can leave those parts out and still have a pretty imposing Arkham for more serious displays. Finally, and on the more affordable side, we have Batman vs. Mr. Freeze. Freeze uses Bionicle-style ball joints for a giant mecha body, and comes with an opening and closing ice trap with which to send the Bat to DAH COOLAH! Batman comes with a fire gun, because this version of him is like honey badger. Are you ready to build some Bat-blocks?