Lloydy's round-up

Couple of things that have caught my attention this week...

New American Hustle trailer

The teaser trailer did the rounds a while back and now the full official trailer for the much-anticipated American Hustle has arrived. A reunion for the Silver Linings Playbook dream team of David O. Russell, Bradley Cooper, J-Law and De Niro, along with the addition of Christian Bale and Amy Adams, makes for what could likely be a worthy Oscar-contender. And even if all else fails, it's still the most impressive array of hairstyles that I've seen for a while.

Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge

Syfy announced earlier in the week that they have given the go-ahead to a new Muppet reality show - surely no greater type of show -which will oversee competitors vying for a job in Jim Henson's Creature Shop, participating in challenges ranging from creating "everything from hand puppets to large-scale theatrical creatures".  This sounds AWESOME, I love Syfy and I LOVE The Muppets (Beaker ftw). I honestly cannot wait for this to start, WHY HASN'T IT ALREADY STARTED??

The Mean Girls Musical Update

According to Tina Fey's husband (he is scoring the musical) there are currently five songs in development, including an "October 3rd" song and a "Fetch" song, but they are struggling with how to portray the Christmas scene (Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock... it is an iconic scene after all). Otherwise it sounds like it's coming along nicely, which I am very pleased about.

Earlier in the week I saw Prisoners, so expect a review in the next couple of days.  I'm also really looking forward to Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity and the LFF opener Captain Phillips opening over the next couple of weeks. Watch this space!

Future Film Friday: Muppets Most Wanted

It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights, it's time to get excited for the new Muppet film tonight! (or next year). 

Yes, the sequel to 2011's blockbuster The Muppets is on its way! Although, I'm not sure why Muppets Most Wanted is being labelled as a 'sequel' when The Muppets was certainly not the first Muppets movie (and arguably not the best... am I right Muppets Treasure Island fans??). 

THAT SAID, I am looking forward to the release of Muppets Most Wanted next year, although a lot of that anticipation is reserved for seeing if the promotion of the movie can live up to the hype of the last one. From parodies of Twilight to Miss Piggy's X Factor performance with Olly Murs, two years ago we saw a lot of the Muppets, and I'm looking forward to even more in 2014. 

The second reason I'm so excited for this film is the brilliant casting. I'm not talking so much about Ricky Gervais, but Tina Fey and Ty Burrell, stars of two of my absolute favourite sitcoms in recent times (I'm really hoping Ty Burrell is actually playing Phil Dunphy playing Jean Pierre Napoleon!)

It's a long time to wait though, so in the meantime I'll have to entertain myself with BBC's own 'Muppet show' - The Puppet Game Show, created by The Jim Henson Company themselves, which incorporates a very similar format to its predecessor (puppets entertaining front-of-house while backstage, chaos ensues) but with an additional celebrity gameshow element. It sounds interesting, but if it's not for you, then here's the movie trailer. Enjoy!