Jaws, the Steven Spielberg film that ushered in the era of the summer blockbuster, is being released for the first time on Blu-Ray. As part of Universal’s 100 anniversary celebration, the studio put its digital restoration team to the test and they have emerged with what is likely to be the best Blu-Ray of 2012.

The film’s transfer is impeccable (check out how they did it in a video below). The color and 7.1 surround sound pop and it's easy to be afraid to go into the water once again, almost four decades after Jaws first terrified audiences.

Featuring over four hours of new features, including the can’t-miss documentary The Shark Is Still Working, fans of the Spielberg classic get to witness how difficult it was to make the classic film. We’ve only heard about the troubles Spielberg and his team had in the summer of 1974 in New England working with an animatronic shark that was revolutionary for its time, but still full of kinks that would be expected of a first generation anything!

Jaws is considered one of the most influential films in cinematic history and is right at the top of Spielberg’s best films. Starring Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider, the film spawned a legion of Jaws quotes, the most famous being, “You’re going to need a bigger boat.” Considering the Blu-Ray’s pristine transfer, let us paraphrase: You’re going to need a bigger TV. 

 

Jaws Blu-Ray Restoration

The film also served as the first time composer John Williams worked with Spielberg. It is a relationship that has produced some of the most memorable movie scores of all time and landed Williams an Oscar for Best Score. Try to think about Jaws without having Williams’ haunting theme permeate through your head.

Among the Blu-Ray extras that stand out beyond The Shark Is Still Working featurette is the doc The Making of Jaws, a two-hour inside look with interviews with cast and crew that is simply stellar. Also, not to be missed is the on-set interview with a very young looking Spielberg! Fans of the film will treasure the Jaws Archives feature that takes viewers inside the storyboards and production photos of a classic.

Although it’s small and a regular feature on Blu-Ray releases, the original Jaws trailer is sure to thrill. 

My business card now says "Catching Fire Casting Announcer." Let's get right to it:

Stephanie Leigh Schlund has joined the Catching Fire cast as Cashmere, sister to Alan Ritchson's Gloss. Cashmere and Gloss are District 1 tributes who participates in the Quarter Quell.

Schlund has appeared in the film The Last Song, along with the TV show Drop Dread Diva. She joins Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth, along with Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Jena Malone, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire will hit theaters November 22, 2013.

Of all the action heroes featured in 2010’s The Expendables, none has had a career resurgence as much as Dolph Lundgren. The man, most known as the Russian fighter from Rocky 4, is being appreciated once again for his kick-ass role alongside his former boxing foe, Sylvester Stallone.

Movie Fanatic caught up with Lundgren to have him take us inside The Expendables 2 and one thing immediately becomes clear… this man is brilliant. The Rhodes Scholar with a PhD from Oxford and a Fulbright Scholarship to MIT, even gets to put his education to work in The Expendables 2 as we learn his character Gunner is a chemical engineer with a massively high IQ.

Movie Fanatic: Was it nice to portray your character as the super smart person you are?

Dolph Lundgren: Yeah. Stallone did that [laughs]. It took me 25 years to graduate from the Russian Siberian Express from the [mimics Russian accent] “I must break you.” It was fun to do. I suppose it finally paid off after 25 years!

Movie Fanatic: Was there any competition on the set as to who could literally pull the most weight?

Dolph Lundgren: I don’t think there’s any kind of positioning. You just try to do your job and you try to deliver what’s expected of you. It’s too late once you start shooting. If you’re not in shape by the time you get there, you’re never going to do it. It’s too hard and the schedule's too tough. You had better get in shape if you’re going to last through the picture.

Movie Fanatic: You get to show more of Gunner’s personality traits in The Expendables 2. Like, he’s not that smooth around women! 

Dolph Lundgren: The first time I meet the girl, she shows up and we’d all been drinking -- especially Gunner. He’s really drunk. Not a happy drunk! He ends up having an argument with this girl he just met. He’s coming on to her a little too hard and they wind up having a fight. So he gets kind of kicked in the head by this Chinese chick and that was funny.

Movie Fanatic: Was it true you were supposed to die in the first film?

Dolph Lundgren: Yeah, I was supposed to die in the first movie. In the original script I wasn’t supposed to make it but Stallone -- or somebody -- decided, “Yeah, let’s keep him alive. He seems like an interesting guy.” I don’t know who, but it was probably Sly!

Movie Fanatic: You mention Gunner’s drunk earlier, I thought he got clean from the first film?

Dolph Lundgren: He got clean from the other stuff. The stuff in the bag [smiles]. No plastic baggies in this one… just the sauce. He’s Swedish. He’s got no choice. All Swedes have to be drunks. They’re Vikings -- they kill people.

Movie Fanatic: What’s your favorite memory of working with Sly on The Expendables 2?

Dolph Lundgren: He’s got that sort of innate instinct where most people wouldn’t go for that. He’ll pull out this [mimics Stallone], “Dolph. I’ve got this knife and I like it.” And he’ll whip something out this big [pulls his hands almost three feet apart]. Who’s gonna think of that?! Like this is the Navy SEAL knife, this is the Russian commando knife, which one do you want? But he’ll take it and manufacture something like what he gave me. He thinks in a different league! That’s kind of why he is who he is. That’s why he has a special talent.

Movie Fanatic: Your bad guy is Jean-Claude Van Damme. What do you think he brought to the franchise?

Dolph Lundgren: He gave 108 percent… maybe even 109. From what I saw, he made the bad guy very mercurial and kind of extremely unpredictable and strange. Most people are aware his career has gone up and down just like everybody else, and maybe even more so than other people. I think the audience will have an interest and curiosity of, “Who is this guy and what’s gonna happen?” For all of us, our own personality is loaded on top of the character that makes it even more interesting for the audience.

Movie Fanatic: And the expansion of the roles for Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger had to be a plus for everyone involved…

Dolph Lundgren: Yeah it was. I think that Arnold and Bruce thought it was interesting to hang out with that gang of ten -- the hard hitting, super macho guys full of guns. It doesn’t get any more macho than that. You can’t beat that! They also realized, "Yes, I may be a big star, I’ve done a lot of movies. But this is special." In that genre, it doesn’t get any more brutal and macho than this.

What happens when the guy sent back in time for you to kill, c'est toi? Find out in the French trailer for Looper:

 

Looper French Trailer

Looper will open the Toronto International Film Festival this September. It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises) and Bruce Willis (The Expendables 2), along with Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, and Jeff Daniels.

Joseph Simmons (Gordon-Levitt) is a special assassin whose marks are sent to him from the future. One day, the mark that appears in front of him is his future self (Willis).

Rian Johnson wrote and directed the film, which hits theaters September 28.

Just a few days before their movie The Expendables 2 hits theaters, a set photo from the next Arnold Schwarzenegger/Sylvester Stallone film, The Tomb, has been released. And they look absolutely thrilled to be there.

The film stars Stallone as an engineer who is wrongly convicted of a crime and sent into the prison he built. Once there, he plans an escape with the help of his cellmate, played by Schwarzenegger.

Jim Caviezel, Vinnie Jones, Amy Ryan, and Vincent D'Onofrio also star. Mikael Hafstrom directs.

The Tomb does not yet have a release date. While you wait, check out The Expendables 2 helicopter clip and watch Sly and Arnie in the film August 17.

Australian actor Joel Edgerton stars in The Odd Life of Timothy Green and tells us exclusively in our video interview how the Disney film was a special endeavor. The science fiction he experienced in The Thing was nothing compared to the supernatural power that drew him in his latest.

 

Joel Edgerton Exclusive Interview

“I loved that it was a film that strives to talk about family -- because we’re all parents and children,” Edgerton said. “But it had that element of magic to it that I’ve never really been involved in. I’ve been involved in science fiction films, but this is the real world with kind of a thin veneer of magic over it.”

When the film arrives August 15, audiences will also discover the magic that is the chemistry between Edgerton (recently seen in Warrior) and his co-star Jennifer Garner, as hinted at so well in The Odd Life of Timothy Green trailer.

“From the moment I walked in the room, Jennifer was very comfortable to be around. I was kind of relaxed and I knew we would have fun,” Edgerton added. “She was everything I’d imagined her to be.”

Robert Pattinson has been all over the news lately, though not necessarily for his film career. With his new film Cosmopolis coming out later this week, and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 hitting theaters in November, Pattinson is now joining the cast of Queen of the Desert.

Pattinson joins Naomi Watts in the new film from Werner Herzog, about English author Gertrude Bell. The biopic tells the story of Bell's travels through the Middle East as an ambassador and cartographer, as well as her life as a writer. Pattinson will play famed British Officer T.E. Lawrence (aka "Lawrence of Arabia).

Watts will take on another biopic, starring as the beloved Princess of Wales in Dianna. Queen of the Desert is set to begin production this fall.

Things get steamy in this new clip from the upcoming musical comedy Pitch Perfect, when an impromptu a cappella battle (you know how those always happen) turns to the subject of sex. Take a look:

 

Pitch Perfect Clip

Anna Kendrick (Paranorman) stars as Beca, the No Diggity-spittin' hip-hop enthusiast who helps turns a bland glee group around to take on the boys in the championship. Brittany Snow, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Rebel Wilson (Bachelorette) also star.

Jason Moore directs the screenplay by Kay Cannon. Pitch Perfect hits theaters October 5. Check out the Pitch Perfect trailer for another look.

English Director Tony Scott died on Sunday by jumping from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California. He was 68 years old.

The younger brother of Ridley Scott reportedly climbed a fence and jumped from the bridge with no hesitation, leaving a suicide note in his office.

Scott is best known for directing the 1986 action film Top Gun, as well as films like The Fan, Unstoppable, and the 2009 remake of The Taking of Pelham 123. He had signed on to directed the Top Gun sequel that is currently in the works.

Scott's publicist Simon Halls has confirmed the death, asking that the privacy of the family be respected during this difficult time.

Lena Headey is the star of the latest clip from Dredd, with her character Ma-Ma making a public announcement that she intends to kill Judges Dredd and Anderson. Check it out:

 

Dredd 3D Ma-Ma Clip

Karl Urban stars as Judge Dredd, with Olivia Thirlby as the rookie Judge Anderson. Wood Harris, Jason Cope, and Domhnall Gleeson (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) also star.

Urban will also star in the upcoming film The Loft. Check out the latest The Loft trailer for a look.

Dredd, an adaptation of the 2000 A.D. comic character, will hit theaters September 21. For more, watch this other Dredd 3D clip.

Music producer, Wu-Tang Clan member, actor, director, and writer RZA has a new film coming out. Check out the red band trailer for The Man with the Iron Fists:

 

The Man with the Iron Fists Red Band Trailer

RZA wrote, directed, and stars in the martial arts film as The Blacksmith, a weapons-maker in 19th-century China who joins with the warriors of the village to stave off an evil force. Russell Crowe (who will play Jor-El in Man of Steel), Cung Le, Lucy Liu, and Byron Mann also star.

RZA, who had a recurring role on the final season of the TV show Entourage, will also be appearing in next year's G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

The Man with the Iron Fists will hit theaters November 2.

The Avengers Blu-ray will be hitting theaters shortly, and in the meantime we've been offered a glimpse of one of the deleted scenes offered on the DVD. The clip extends the very brief conversation between Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner and Harry Dean Stanton's Security Guard.

 

The Avengers Deleted Scene

The film stars Ruffalo along with Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, and Samuel L. Jackson, all of whom can be immortalized as a background image with The Avengers wallpapers.

Joss Whedon's smash-hit superhero film has made almost $1.5 million worldwide since it opened May 4. With all that success, it's no surprise that Joss Whedon will write and direct The Avengers sequel.

The Avengers hits shelves on DVD and Blu-ray September 25.

Tony Scott committed suicide over the weekend and will be dearly missed in Hollywood. His visionary style of filmmaking made action films unlike any other... and that includes his brother Ridley. From Beverly Hills Cop to Unstoppable, the director had a stamp that was solely his own and in his honor, Movie Fanatic presents the top 10 films of Tony Scott.

10. The Hunger
Given our passion for vampire movies these last few years, Scott proved to be ahead of his time with this 1983 classic that starred Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon. Extremely stylistic and haunting, the first indications of the visual touches that would become Scott's trademark style are in full effect in The Hunger.

9. The Last Boy Scout
A fun film that capitalized on TV star Bruce Willis' rising film fame, The Last Boy Scout also introduced audiences to a future Oscar winner in Halle Berry. Damon Wayans starred as a washed-up football player who holds the key to a scandal that will expose pro football in the most unflattering of lights. When the film begins with a pro football game where the man running with the ball towards the end zone fires a gun at those who seek to stop him, it certainly has one of the more attention grabbing beginnings to any of Scott's films.

8. Enemy of the State
Will Smith starred in another Scott film that proved ahead of its time. When Smith's character is drawn into an international spy ring unwillingly, we see a side of the government that would prove to be real once the Patriot Act was signed into law and our leaders were given further powers to eavesdrop on our lives.

7. Unstoppable
Denzel Washington starred in what would be the fifth and, sadly, final time he collaborated with Scott. The true story of a runaway train was pure Scott: Thrills, explosions and nail-biting suspense that didn't ease until the final credits.

6. Days of Thunder
Another blockbuster for Scott, this time with Tom Cruise -- who was riding a wave of success after the pair hooked up in Top Gun. The race car driver story also served as the meeting place for Cruise and his second wife, Nicole Kidman. The racing sequences alone were worth the price of admission as no one ever, or since, has captured professional racing as Scott did with his camera.

5. Beverly Hills Cop 2
Stepping into a film series for its sequel after a successful first film is no easy task. But when the helmer has Scott's abilities, the second film in the Beverly Hills Cop series proved that a movie franchise can get better with its sequel.

4. True Romance
Wildly original, True Romance starred Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, a youthful Brad Pitt and an almost unrecognizable Gary Oldman. The story of a Detroit man (Slater) drawn into a drug deal that promises to set him up for life compelled audiences in big ways in 1993. The closing sequence in a Beverly Hills hotel room is classic in how it's shot and executed, with the look that is the pure Scott stamp.

3. Crimson Tide
Washington again hooks up with Scott and once again they create cinematic magic. The film is a submarine tale and easily joins the list of the greatest of the sub-genre (get it?). 

2. Man on Fire
Surprised to find a Scott-Washington film again on this list? Hardly! Man on Fire is probably one of Scott's most underrated films in his career. It is a thriller that hits home on so many levels and gives his favorite actor a role that should have resulted in an Oscar nomination.

1. Top Gun
Cruise again pairs with Scott in a film that is not only one of the Top 10 Patriotic Films of All-Time, but is the best movie from the wildly talented filmmaker. There is almost a senior film thesis amount to write about Top Gun, but in a nutshell, between the flag waving, the soundtrack and the action sequences, this 1986 classic still stands as one of the best in the genre.

American Western movies and Japanese Samurai films have a deeply intertwined history, the most obvious bridge between them being The Magnificent Seven, which is a remake of Seven Samurai.

Now, the link will go the other direction. The Oscar-winning 1990 film Unforgiven is set to be remade as a Samurai film directed by Lee Sang-Il and titled Yurusarezaru Mono, which translates to A Thing That Can’t Be Forgiven. Ken Watanabe will star.

Watanabe is a Japanese actor known to American audiences for his work in such films as The Last Samurai and Inception. He will play the role originally played by Clint Eastwood (Trouble with the Curve).

The film will follow a samurai in 19th-century Japan with a troubled past, who is forced out of retirement for one last job. Koichi Sato will also star Akira Emoto

Actress and comedian Phyllis Diller passed away this morning. She was 95 years old.

A sassy, irreverent, and self-deprecating comedic voice, Diller was a pioneering and incredibly important figure in the history of females in comedy.

While best known for stage and television, Diller also starred in numerous films throughout the years. She appeared in Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number and Eight on the Lam, and voiced the character of the Queen in A Bug's Life.

The news comes less than 24 hours after it was reported that director Tony Scott committed suicide at the age of 68.

Forest Whitaker (The Last Stand) plays Eugene Allen in the new film The Butler. Take a look at Whitaker in character in the first still from the film:

Allen served as White House Butler for 34 years under 8 different presidents. Oprah Winfrey also stars as Allen's wife, with Robin Williams as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan, John Cusak as Richard Nixon, James Marsden (Bachelorette) as John F. Kennedy, Minka Kelly as Jackie Kennedy, and Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan.

Cuba Gooding Jr., Liev Schreiber, and Alex Pettyfer (Magic Mike) round out the all-star cast.

The Butler is set to hit theaters some time in 2013. Lee Daniels directs.

On and off screen, Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard are a perfect couple. The engaged pair are starring together in Shepard’s Hit and Run, a fun film that he wrote and directed about a man in the witness protection program and his girlfriend who wind up in harm's way when Bradley Cooper's crime lord tracks them down.

Shepard and Bell tell Movie Fanatic in our exclusive video interview which cinematic couple they modeled themselves after. “Burt Reynolds and Sally Field,” Bell said.

 

Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell Exclusive Interview

“Their relationship in Hooper and Smokey and the Bandit… there is something really special with those two. That’s the archetype we’re after,” Shepard added. Judging by the Hit and Run red band trailer, the pair do remind us of Reynolds and Field!

Shepard and Bell also give Movie Fanatic a scoop as to where we can see them next together. “We’re going to do Overboard, the reboot,” Shepard proudly states. Check out our video interview above for more!

Check out the trailer for the upcoming film The Impossible, based on the true story of one family during the 2004 tsunami in Southern Asia:

 

The Impossible Trailer

The film stars Ewan McGregor (Moulin Rouge!) and Naomi Watts as Henry and Maria, parents of a family who are vacationing in Thailand when the tsunami hits and separates them. Geraldine Chapman, Tom Holland, and Marta Etura also star.

Watts is currently filming Diana, in which she will play the late Princess of Wales.

Juan Antonio Bayona (The Orphanage) directs. Catch The Impossible in theaters October 11.

Me, I'm just bummed that the aesthetic of the future is so similar to that of the 80's. "Dystopia" indeed! Check out the new TV Spot for Dredd, and tell me it isn't a super 80's throwback:

 

Dredd 3D TV Spot

Dredd is an adaptation of the "legendary" comic--the very same comic used as the source material for the 1995 film Judge Dredd, starring Sylvester Stallone (Expendables 2). It is set in a future where one position, called a Judge, has the abilities of judge, jury, and executioner.

Karl Urban (Star Trek) stars as Judge Dredd, who is charge with destroying a dangerous drug ring. Dredd is joined by the rookie Judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), who possesses powerful psychic abilities.

Dredd is directed by Pete Travis and hits theaters September 21. For more, check out this red band Dredd clip.

Although the heat outside is still searing, the calendar tells us that the summer movie season is about to come to a close. Sure, fall movies mean Oscar bait, but the fun that is the summer film will be sorely missed. It was an interesting summer, many films failed to live up to expectations (Prometheus), while others exceeded them (Ted).

The triumph of the summer has to be the first film to arrive back in May, The Avengers… but that is Movie Fanatic’s opinion. We want to know which film gets your vote as the best summer movie of 2012. And stay with Movie Fanatic as we announce the Top 10 of Summer 2012 on August 24.

What’s the best movie of summer 2012?