Who better to teach the world about Star Wars day than a well known Star Trek actor? Tim Russ trolls his way through an awful but hilarious explanation of the holiday and what May the 4th means.
While for the most part this video is silly, he does bring up an interesting point. There is only one war going on, so why isn't it called Star War?
MGM and Paramount just can't seem to crack the Death Wish remake they've been working on for years. The Grey director Joe Carnahan wrote the script and was all set to direct it, but he bailed on the project when the studio insisted that Bruce Willis be cast in the lead. Carnahan didn't like the casting choice, so he walked, and the studio eventually hired the guys who directed the 2013 cult hit Big Bad Wolves to take over. Now Deadline reports that those guys (Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado) have left the movie as well, leaving the project without a director once again.
Graham Yost (Justified) and Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler) have both rewritten Carnahan's original script, but it's unclear exactly what the problem is with getting this movie off the ground. The subject matter certainly isn't easy — for those who don't know, the first movie followed a guy who turns into a vigilante after his wife and daughter are murdered and sexually assaulted, respectively. This remake is supposed to hew a little closer to the original novel on which the 1974 Charles Bronson film was based, but there seems to be some internal confusion about whether or not that's actually the approach they want to take.
I'll leave you with the letter Keshales and Papushado wrote on social media announcing their departure, which Deadline had translated:
Relief. Finally a bit of breathing room. You probably remember that a few months ago we were bombarded with greetings and congratulations on receiving our first Hollywood job, Death Wish. You might also remember that Navot and I insisted not to comment on the story or on any of your excited posts about it… not even with a “like”.
It’s not like we became snobs overnight. And it’s not like anybody prevented us from speaking out, it’s just that we found ourselves in a terrible situation. On the one hand, we were indeed offered a dream job, we were indeed offered a legendary salary, and we did indeed pass a stressful and amazing audition with the presidents of MGM and Paramount, and we even met and got the approval of one of the toughest most intimidating stars in Hollywood… yes, yes, Bruce Willis himself saw Big Bad Wolves and thought we were the right people for this violent mission.
On the other hand, the news caught us by surprise, because in reality there were huge differences between our vision and the vision of the studio with the famous roaring lion… we wanted to stay away from the original and problematic (albeit fun to watch) Michael Winner film, and move more towards the spirit of the original novel by Brian Garfield – an excellent minimalist novel that never got the cinematic treatment it deserved. We wanted to follow the vision of the director who originally was set to make it, but ultimately was not allowed to – Sidney Lumet. Lumet wanted to direct a film about a simple man, he even thought of Jack Lemmon for the lead, which experiences a terrible tragedy and then falls to the depths of hell. When we imagined the thriller in our minds we thought Taxi Driver, Falling Down… with a bloodcurdling finale like Sicario.
Unfortunately, the time table for the project did not allow us to make the big changes we wanted to make to the script, and as time passed we realized that we were not going to get what we wanted for this project.
Last night, after long deliberations we finally decided to leave the project.
It was not easy.
To know that you’re giving up money, fame, the opportunity to work with a big star… that you’re kicking the door in Hollywood’s face… knowing that you’re disappointing everybody who supported and encouraged you and wanted you to fulfill your dreams –
All this can really mess with your head and make you doubt yourself. And so it did. But anybody who knows us even for a minute, knows that we’ve never compromised on our vision.
These were three grueling months, three months during which time I walked around wearing sunglasses because I was afraid to answer uncomfortable questions.
Today I can finally take them off and say thank you for your support, your embrace and all the love.
So what now?
A little peace and quiet, a lot of patience and above all, love.
When Star Wars fandom speaks, Lucasfilm listens.
Star Wars: Bloodline, an upcoming novel that centers on Princess (now General) Leia Organa, takes place between the events of Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens and explores her political maneuverings and the struggles she faced as The First Order came to power. It also bestows Leia with a badass new nickname ("The Huttslayer") which was suggested by a fan. EW spoke with author Claudia Gray about how that nickname was worked into the larger Star Wars mythos:
Leia encounters a criminal figure who is fascinated by her because she’s known as “The Huttslayer” in the underworld. He even has a holograph recording of her killing Jabba. What made you decide to revisit her time in that skimpy gold bikini?
Right around when I was working on this part of the book there was a movement that went around in some Star Wars fan circles – a lot of talk about how much people don’t like the ‘Slave Leia’ outfit. That’s her most powerless moment in the entire thing… It was a dancing girl outfit, but it gets called a slave outfit. I believe it was a young lady named Angie P, who said, “I petition that we call it The Huttslayer outfit,” and I was like, “That is a great name and that is going to happen right now.”
And now ‘Huttslayer’ is canon!
Not only did I like recasting that outfit as a memory of Leia being really strong and kick-ass, but think about it – for a human being to kill a Hutt with her bare hands? That’s unbelievable. Anybody who would be able to pull that off would be remembered for it. That would be legend.
How would you say Leia feels about it years later?
She doesn’t regret doing it, but it’s not like something she took a lot of satisfaction in either. It was just an ugly thing she had to do.
That's pretty awesome (and obviously has shades of Jaime Lannister's nickname from Game of Thrones). But Gray didn't stop there. She also retroactively fixed one of the flaws of the original movie by explaining why Leia suddenly slips into an English accent, only for it never to be heard again:
There’s one part of the book that actually uses new logic to repair a flaw in the original movie: her shifting accent.
In interviews, Fisher laughs at herself for that scene she has with [Grand Moff ] Tarkin in A New Hope, because Carrie Fisher has an English accent in that scene, and she doesn’t in any other scene in the movie. She sort of laughs at her younger self for being so influenced by Peter Cushing. But I thought: I’m gonna use that. So there’s an explanation in [Bloodline] that she’s actually making fun of Tarkin. She’s mocking his accent in that moment. She remembers that’s what she was doing. So that moment has been explained. It’s no longer a problem.
It’s never too late to fix a plot hole.
Hopefully, Carrie Fisher would be pleased by that. It had a meaning the whole time.
For more, including how Leia's reacts to finding out Darth Vader is her father, read the entire interview at EW. Star Wars: Bloodline hits shelves this coming Tuesday.
Desmond Drake did an amazing job with his character analysis of Captain America in his last video, and his newest on Iron Man is just as good. I don't even know if the Marvel writing team is as good at describing the cinematic motivations of the character as this guy is! Learn about Iron Man's greatest weakness below.
If you thought maybe you could just catch the new online-only Star Trek series by binging in a weekend and dropping the new platform, CBS already planned for that. The Atlantic reports the network will be ensuring you hold onto their subscription by only giving one episode a week of the new series throughout 2017.
CBS president Les Moonves expresses pride in the fact that many people will flock to the program:
“We could have cashed in for a lot of money, selling it to Netflix, Amazon, Hulu … they were all very interested in it...We know that Star Trek is a high-priced, quality product … there are a lot of very rabid Star Trek fans who are going to sign up for it.”
Leave it to classic network television to attempt to ruin everything everyone loves about streaming. Of course, they don't understand that cord cutters are leaving BECAUSE it's different than television.
As much as I want to take part in a new Star Trek series, I cannot, and will not, be chained to a less-than-great platform wishing to keep the old guard alive with its archaic tactics. If that means a good series gets cancelled, fine. It's not like that doesn't happen to us all the time whether we like it or not anyway...what's one more?
I love a good pun, so this new parody video from Freakin Rad called Captain America: Civil Boards hooked me with the title alone. But it also contains a fun premise, some pretty cool special effects, and a funny appearance by another superhero that I won't spoil here. Check it out below in preparation for the real Civil War hitting theaters this week:
I’ve got a great trailer you've gotta watch for an upcoming sci-fi film called Somnus. The movie was directed by Chris Reading from a script he co-wrote with Russell Owen.
The story follows the crew of “an aging cargo ship on their final mission working the monotonous Earth-Mars shipping route. Malfunctions aboard the ship force a change of course to Somnus, a remote asteroid colony. The crew soon discovers the inhabitants of the colony have a dark past, and troubling plans for the future of mankind.”
This is the first feature film that Reading has made and it looks like it could be a pretty awesome movie! According to the press release, the film was inspired by the iconic work of Douglas Trumbull in such films as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Reading also wanted to use practical effect techniques to make the movie and shot on location and using models as much as possible. He even shot the interior of the ship using decommissioned military aircraft at the East Midland Aeropark.
The film stars Meryl Griffiths (The Missing Hand), Marcus McMahon (A Helical), Mac McDonald (Shooter), and Jennifer Moylan-Taylor (Guardians of the Galaxy). Epic Pictures will release the film sometime this year, and I’m looking forward to it!
Burger Fiction recently traced the on-screen evolution of both Captain America and Iron Man through film and television history, and with Spider-Man making an appearance in Captain America: Civil War, I should have expected a video was on the way doing the same thing for the ol' web-head. Here it is, and with a few days to spare, too. Nice work!
In an interview with Uproxx, Captain America: Civil War directors Anthony and Joe Russo revealed that the titles of their next two movies — the massively-anticipated Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and Part 2 — are actually going to be changed.
I asked the brothers how they decided where to divide the movie – and they said this was a misconception because the two movies are entirely different entities.
“The movies are two very different movies,” answered Joe.
I then asked if it’s misleading having them labeled as “Part 1” and “Part 2”
“It is misleading,” said Anthony.
Joe added, “The intention is we will change it, we just haven’t come up with the titles yet. But, yes, we will change it. And, yes, that is a scoop: we will retitle them.”
The title change is to avoid comparisons to YA adaptations like Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and Divergent, which split their final stories into two films in an attempt to squeeze more money out of audiences. The two-part Infinity War isn't going to be the final movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (far from it), and I'm glad to hear confirmation that it won't be one long story that's arbitrarily cut in the middle and leaves the audience hanging.
BirthMoviesDeath spoke to their sources and added the following info to the story:
"...Each film [is] very much its own movie, and that Infinity War I [will] have a definitive, complete ending. No cliffhangers, no 'to be continued.' It [will] be a whole film...
Infinity War I, I understand, is very Thanos heavy, setting up not only the character (which previous films have failed to do) but also getting him the Infinity Stones (which previous films have failed to do). Infinity War II is going to be the big action finale, with just about every Marvel Cinematic Universe hero showing up."
This all corroborates an earlier report about how the two films will feel different from each other, so I'm glad the Russos are still taking that approach and changing the titles to reflect that. The writers of Infinity War have been talking about Thanos a lot recently, and the villain is obviously going to have a huge part to play in these two films. What do you think the new titles will be?
One of the first big plot points we heard about Star Wars: The Force Awakens came in the summer of 2014, before the movie even had an official title. It stated that the film would open with Luke Skywalker's severed hand floating through space, still holding his lightsaber from Empire's Cloud City fight with Darth Vader, and the hand would fall through the atmosphere of Jakku and land on the surface of the planet. That obviously didn't end up making the final cut that we saw in theaters, but now Mark Hamill himself has confirmed this was the original opening of the film. Speaking with The Sun, Hamill said:
“One day I read the first 15 minutes of the film absolutely accurately,” he said. “I can tell you now that in the original opening shot of 7, the first thing that came into frame was a hand with a lightsaber, a severed hand that enters the atmosphere, and then the hand and bone burns away and goes sticking into the surface of Jakku,” he added. “And this alien hand comes in, don’t know if it was Maz but it was an alien hand who takes the light saber way, and then the movie proceeds as you see it.”
I wonder if Abrams actually filmed that original opening. Maybe it'll eventually make its way onto a Blu-ray release of the new trilogy or something a few years down the line. Either way, it has to feel good for Devin Faraci over at BirthMoviesDeath right now to have his scoop confirmed now even though it didn't happen in the movie.
Via: Uproxx
Universal Pictures is ramping up its cinematic universe full of classic monsters, and The Mummy reboot is first out of the gate. Variety reports that Russell Crowe is in talks to join that film as a Dr. Jekyll-like character, a part that could eventually lead to his own spin-off down the line. It sounds like the plan is to pull a Batman v Superman and introduce a handful of classic characters as cameos in that movie before they each get spin-off films, though some — like Johnny Depp's Invisible Man — will apparently first appear in standalone movies.
Tom Cruise is starring in The Mummy alongside Kingsman: The Secret Service star Sofia Boutella (who is playing the title character), Annabella Wallis, and Jake Johnson. Alex Kurtzman, who is overseeing the whole slate of monster reboots at the studio with Chris Morgan, is directing from a script by Jon Spaihts. Crowe hasn't done franchise work like this before, so it'll be interesting to see if he can work well in a producer-driven machine like the one Kevin Feige has perfected at Marvel Studios.
Meanwhile, if you're interested in the character and haven't seen the BBC series Jekyll, seek that out. It's pretty great.
The Mummy hits theaters on June 9th, 2017.
We now know 5 of the 10 remastered maps coming to the updated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. Looks like...read more on Gametyrant
Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the guys behind the Jump Street reboot, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and The LEGO Movie, are directing the upcoming Han Solo origin spin-off movie, and Miller has taken to social media to celebrate Star Wars Day today by sharing a photo of a prop that will presumably appear in the film:
Can't wait to get "shooting"!#MayThe4thBeWithYou pic.twitter.com/HlteYut6m0
— Chris Miller (@chrizmillr) May 4, 2016
Seeing an image like this makes me roll my eyes at the idea of a Han Solo prequel — are we going to find out exactly Han got his blaster? Who cares? — but I have so much faith in Lord and Miller, I think they'll find a way to take what should be a terrible idea and turn it into something that's immensely enjoyable.
While an official decision has not yet been released about who will play the role of the young smuggler, Hail, Caesar! breakout star Alden Ehrenreich was reportedly the frontrunner for the part a couple of weeks ago. The untitled Han Solo film is being written by Jon and Lawrence Kasdan, and it's set to hit theaters on May 25th, 2018.
Space! In the tiniest of frontiers, you’re about to find something unlike anything you’ve experienced before! That’s right, in this episode the Dungeon Crawlers team interviews Alan Bahr of Gallant Knight Games...Listen on PodTyrant
While it isn't necessarily worthy of a full-on headbanging session, Eric Calderone's heavy metal cover of Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes' (aka the Mos Eisley Cantina band) up-tempo song is still pretty fun to rock out to.
Side note: I'm sure you all know this by now, but just in case you didn't — in the Star Wars universe, this genre of music is called "jizz." Yes, really.
Via: LaughingSquid
As if anyone needed further convincing that Han Solo shot first in the theatrical cut of 1977's Star Wars, the man who played Greedo has come forward to say that's exactly how it went down on both the set of the film and in the original script. Actor Paul Blake told the New York Daily News (via Uproxx):
"...it said it all in the original script, we played in the scene in English and at the end of the scene, it reads, 'Han shoots the alien.' It's all it says and that's what happened. It was very painful."
Like the rest of fandom, Blake wants to see the original version reinstated to the movie, but he has slightly more selfish reasoning: the altered version makes Greedo look like an embarrassingly terrible bounty hunter:
"He was a bit inept wasn't he? He's a worse shot than a Stormtrooper. I don't think Jabba had him under a pension plan let's put it that way. It would be lovely to see them go back to the original version, I much preferred it, I must say. And it does give it Greedo a little more glory if he's just blown away."
Despite George Lucas's constant meddling with the footage and multiple denials of the truth, we all know how it actually went down. An unearthed version of the original script proved it, and Blake is one more voice adding to the chorus that's been wanting to see the original version for years. But Lucas won't give in, and Harrison Ford has his own thoughts on the matter.
In 2014, we learned that Universal Pictures had acquired the rights to Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series. The plan was to adapt all of these books for the big screen. Producers Brian Grazer, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci are all attached to the project and they hired The Fault In Our Stars director Josh Boone to write and direct the first film in the series.
The first film in the series was supposed to be The Vampire Lestat. At the time, it was reported that "rather than a remake of Interview With the Vampire, the new film is expected to draw from the second and third books in Rice's series — The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned — and will likely be faithful to the source material."
We haven't really heard anything about this project since the initial announcement. Now today we have a major update from Boone himself, who posted an image on Instagram of his completed script for Interview with the Vampire. Obviously, the project is moving forward!
#annerice #vampirechronicles #thevampirelestat
A photo posted by Josh Boone (@joshboonemovies) on
I'm sure there have been some changes to how the project will be developed since the initial announcement. We'll just have to wait and see how it comes together. I'm a fan of Rice's book series, and I'm excited to see how these film projects all come together.
We all knew the day would come that some artist would reimagine all of the Disney Princesses as wookiees, and now it is here. This series of amusing illustrations was created by artist Michael Nozinich. They were created for the site OBSVE to celebrate Star Wars Day yesterday. The characters include Ariel, Jasmine, Snow White, Merida, and Belle. I’ve gotta say… they all look pretty disturbing as wookiees.
We all knew that it was only a matter of time before some studio in Hollywood decided to adapt the Slender Man horror icon into a feature film. According to a report from ComicBook.com, Screen Gems is currently in the process of developing the movie, and a script already exists that was written by David Birke (13 Sins).
Slender Man is a nightmarish character, and I think there’s potential for this to be a terrifying horror film. Slender Man originated on a forum called Something Awful. User Victor Surge was part of a thread asking for “paranormal images through Photoshop.” Surge posted two photos of Slender Man with the following text:
“We didn’t want to go, we didn’t want to kill them, but its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified and comforted us at the same time . . . 1983, photographer unknown, presumed dead.
“One of two recovered photographs from the Stirling City Library blaze. Notable for being taken the day which fourteen children vanished and for what is referred to as ‘The Slender Man’. Deformities cited as film defects by officials. Fire at library occurred one week later. Actual photograph confiscated as evidence. – 1986, photographer: Mary Thomas, missing since June 13th, 1986."
From there, the users of the forum continued to build on the mythology of the nightmarish being. Slender Man has since exploded online with fan art, a miniseries, stories, short films, video games and more.
Screen Gems seems like the right fit for the big screen adaptation as they have a solid history of producing horror films. According to the report, they are looking to start shooting this fall, and the movie should be released in 2017. I’m actually looking forward to seeing how this turns out.
Here's one of the original photos that helped launch the Slender Man legend.
There are potential spoilers ahead… if this rumored information turns out to be true.
A Redditor by the name of Bothan-Spy seems to be dropping some information about Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: Episode VIII. The guy seems to have a source deep in the production feeding him stuff, and reading his posts and responses to people, he seems extremely confident in his intel. Of course, since there is no confirmation from the studio, this is just a big rumor that we can discuss with our friends.
The rumor involves Luke Skywalker, Kylo Ren, and Rey. During this scene, Luke gets pissed off and demonstrates part of the level of his power of the Force when he lets his temper get the better of him. Here’s the scene description:
“A couple weeks ago I posted a little bit of info about Ach-To being confirmed as the location of the first Jedi Temple (specifically, the large hut they built at Kerry is ‘where the Jedi began’). I also mentioned a certain member of the First Order winds up at this location in EpVIII as well. That individual is Kylo Ren.
“Here's the saucy bit: A few weeks ago they blew up-- specifically, blew apart-- an Ahch-To hut. According to my source, Kylo and Rey have a conversation that Luke does not like. Luke tries to stop them. Luke gets angry... and the whole hut they are in disintegrates (re: 'blows up'). My source did not specify as to the exact cause of the disintegration, but based on the info I believe Luke accidentally (or perhaps even purposely) does so using the Force.”
Take this information and do with it what you will. Believe, don’t believe it, you can see the whole conversation regarding this information here. Bothan-Spy has been answering questions and responding to people on Reddit.
I have no idea if it’s true or not, but it definitely sounds like a cool scene, and I’m curious to see what exactly this conversation entails if it turns out to be real. It makes me wonder if the conversation involved the death of Han Solo. That would certainly set Luke off.
Via: Cinemablend
