HBO debuted the first Westworld teaser to coincide with the season 2 finale of True Detective. The brief tease for the series-length remake of Michael Crichton’s 1973 sci-fi film is certainly big, eye-catching and intriguing.
Continue reading Westworld Teaser Trailer: HBO’s Epic Sci-fi Western
As Shmi Skywalker once said, you can’t stop the change, and this has never been more true than when it comes to all the changes made to the masterpiece that is Star Wars. For years fans have stood helplessly by and watched their beloved film changed by the creator himself, and the balance of the force has been in turmoil ever since. Continue reading Cha-Cha-Changes: Fan Compiles Changes to Original Star Wars Trilogy
HBO is moving forward with its Westworld adaptation and did so in odd, fantastic fashion in the form of a very strange, yet incredibly intriguing promo video.
Continue reading HBO Westworld First Promo: “So Our Creatures Have Been Misbehaving”
After much speculation, Star Wars Episode VII has officially been moved from its summer 2015 release date to December 18th of that year. This comes on the verge of last week’s news of the writer change-up with J.j Abrams and Episode’s 5 & 6 writer Lawrence Kasdan taking over from Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3). The film’s plot is still tightly under the wraps, but rumors have it that Abrams was very unsatisfied with the initial draft, and felt a need to speed up production to hit its original summer date. Thankfully though, he’ll now get an extra few months to polish up the film and deliver a worthy inclusion to the Star Wars Saga.
Alan Horn, the chairmen of The Walt Disney Studios said in his press release,
[quote]”We’re very excited to share the official 2015 release date for Star Wars: Episode VII, where it will not only anchor the popular holiday filmgoing season but also ensure our extraordinary filmmaking team has the time needed to deliver a sensational picture”.[/quote]
Not only does the report give a release date, it also gives an estimated shooting date and location, which means they’ll also get an extra few months on the effects heavy post production,
[quote]Shooting is scheduled to begin spring 2014 at Pinewood Studios.[/quote]
All in all, this is great news. Yes, it won’t be hitting the usual May release that all previous 6 films have, but it’ll give Abrams more time to deliver a quality picture instead of a rushed one. While this film is almost destined to make bank, it doesn’t hurt that it be separated from the surplus of blockbusters due to hit summer 2015.
This list is long so bear with me: The Fantastic Four reboot, the video game adaptation Assassin’s Creed, Edgar Wright’s ‘Ant Man’, The Terminator reboot, the sequel Jurassic World, the sequel The Avengers: Age of Ultron, the sequel to Independence Day, the sequel Batman vs. Superman, Ted 2, and lastly Guillermo Del Toro’s Crimson Peak.
Wow. That is a lot. Now to be fair, the majority of those, besides the Marvel films (which are pretty much locked in), are bound to change in some form. But still, even half those in one summer would be a little insane. Would I like them all to be released? Hell yeah, to see all those one after another, but the film business is about money, so putting them back to back could really hamper their box office, and dissolve chances of more big blockbusters being produced. On the other hand, Star Wars Episode VII will now be in the clear for its pre-Christmas release date.
News has hit the web of J.J.Abrams confirming he won’t be directing the next installment of Star Trek; it is hardly surprising, considering he now has the chance to play in a whole other universe with Star Wars Episode VII. And now that Star Trek‘s characters have been well-established it will be nice to see how someone else runs the rebooted franchise. In an interview with Collider, Abrams had this to say about the direction the Star Trek franchise would be heading without him:
[quote]”It’s a little bittersweet. But, I will say that I’m going to be producing the movie. Whomever it is that directs the film will be someone we all know is going to keep the cast and crew in good hands. I feel very lucky to have been part of it, and it definitely feels like the right time to let someone come in and do their own thing. I certainly don’t want someone to come in and try to do what I would have done. We want to hire someone who’s gonna come in and bring their own sensibility. I’m very excited to see what comes next, despite feeling jealous of whomever that person is.”[/quote]
Moving onto news from Yahoo Movies, it is no secret that fans love finding Easter eggs in their beloved movies. Apparently J.J.Abrams does too: He let slip that Star Trek Into Darkness featured a cameo that may have passed the audience by:
[quote]”R2’s really been in all of the movies I’ve done, really for no other reason than I’m a huge fan, and when I was a kid I realized that R2 was also in ‘Close Encounters. Actually, I’m putting a ‘Star Wars’ character into ‘Star Trek’ as an homage to ‘Close Encounters.’ So there you go.”[/quote]
Below is the scene in question and it’s a doozy [Second image below]. Just for fun there is also a cameo by R2 from the first Star Trek movie [Pictured first below].
Incidentally this is not R2D2’s only appearance in other movies. Take a look at the images below to see the little guy popping up in other great films:
So good news is mixed with bad but the suggestion that a Star Trek character could turn up in the Star Wars universe is certainly intriguing. Jabba’s palace and Mos Eisley cantina seem the most likely of places from the old movies for said character to turn up but who knows? Keep reading Grizzly Bomb for more up to date Star Wars news. Before you go check out Geek Exchange website showing even more of Abrams’s Easter eggs.
We have known for a while that starting in 2015 Disney plans to release a new Star Wars movie each year, alternating between the new series and stand alone character based movies. We now have confirmation that these movies will be origin stories. Disney’s chief financial officer Jay Rasulo announced during a presentation to financial investors that the intermittent installments would play host to the origins of some of the best-loved characters from the franchise.
Variety broke the story yesterday afternoon stating that Rasulo sees it as “the sky’s the limit” for the for the sci-fi franchise, including expanding its presence in the company’s theme parks. “There’s incredible flexibility. It’s an unbelievable palette to create from.”
Rasulo also confirmed that from 2015 one Star Wars trilogy film or origin story film would also appear on the release schedule, starting with the seventh installment in the Star Wars saga directed by J.J. Abrams. Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg were previously rumored to have been hired to write the second and third installments, with Michael Arndt already scripting Star Wars Episode VII, however it is now confirmed the Kasdan and Kinberg will be writing the stand-alone origin movies.
Any Star Wars fan that knows his salt is aware that Kasdan is no new-comer to the saga, having written, in my opinion the best installment, Empire Strikes Back and having an eye in on Return of The Jedi. Aint It Cool News reported a little while back that one of the stand alone films would focus on Yoda, and Bleeding Cool recently reported that there was also talks of Han Solo and Boba Fett movies with a casting call already out for a young Han. It remains to be seen if Han Solo and Boba Fett would get separate movies or have share the screen. We already know that Harrison Ford and the rest of the central Star Wars cast will be reprising their roles, but this would be the first sign that Disney is looking to recast characters from the original trilogy for the new movies. Granted Harrison Ford is too old to play a young, agile Solo, but this is certainly a piece of casting Disney will need to get right.
It would be great to see two of the best characters from the saga face off against each other. I fear for fanboys the world over whose heads would explode in excitement!
Grizzly Bomb 