Star Wars, Geek Culture, and Power Converters
SPOILER WARNING: The link below and the text beneath the jump contains spoilers for the upcoming film Star Trek Into Darkness.
Yahoo! is at it again, and it turns out that the new Star Trek film is going to be featuring some familiar faces–and no, we’re not talking about who Benedict Cumberbatch is playing, either.
Spoilers after the jump! Continue reading
In case you had forgotten, Jurassic Park 4 is very much a thing. Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy was knee deep in the development process for a while. Key word: was. According to Kennedy’s husband and producer Frank Marshall, she’s left the production to focus on Lucasfilm-y things.
@jackdelamare No, Ms. Kennedy has moved onto Star Wars and will not be producing JP4. She’s traded raptors for TIE fighters.
— Frank Marshall (@LeDoctor) February 17, 2013
Believe it or not, it’s a rumor that has nothing to do with Star Wars. We’ve all been wondering for months now, with breath just a little more baited after the Super Bowl teaser trailer…just who is Benedict Cumberbatch playing in Star Trek: Into Darkness?
Well, it turns out that Entertainment Weekly may have just accidentally let this carefully kept cat right out of the bag. According to The Atlantic Wire, as EW was working on updating their back issue pages, someone put a descriptor on the page.
So who is it? We won’t say right here, but if you’re ready for the big reveal, there be spoilers after the jump.
Yesterday Disney’s Bob Iger confirmed that, yes, there will be standalone films coming to the Star Wars universe. Today, Entertainment Weekly suggests that two of those films may center around a young Han Solo and Boba Fett.
Sources close to the projects confirmed this was the direction the development was taking, although they cautioned it’s still very early in the process and, well, the deal could always be altered futher. Lucasfilm and Disney declined to comment on the information.
The Han Solo story would take place in the time period between Revenge of the Sith and the first Star Wars (now known as A New Hope), so although it’s possible Harrison Ford could appear as a framing device, the movie would require a new actor for the lead — one presumably much younger than even the 35-year-old Ford when he appeared in the 1977 original.
The Boba Fett film would take place either between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, or between Empire and Jedi, where the bounty hunter was last seen plunging unceremoniously into a sarlacc pit. Exactly who would play him isn’t much of a complication – in the original trilogy, he never took off his helmet. And in the prequels, we learned he was the son of the original stormtrooper clone, played by Temuera Morrison, who’s still the right age for the part if his services were required.
Keep in mind that this rumor kind of flies in the face of Iger saying yesterday that the standalone films would focus on characters not involved with the Saga.
You can probably guess that I’m very meh oh the possibility of a Fett movie (must he be in everything?) and intrigued by the possibility of a young Han Solo movie, even if it will likely wipe out years of established Expanded Universe canon. Seriously folks, embrace the multiverse. It’ll make your head hurt less in the long run.
As for why I’m meh on Fett? Come on. Dude is terrible at his job.
The Iron Man 3 spot that Marvel ran during the Superbowl yesterday amounted to little more than a big, expensive “Like us on Facebook” ad. Here’s the extended preview that Marvel wanted to lure everyone to see on their page.
Warning: the links in this post contain spoilers for the movie.
Now that we’ve all enjoyed The Avengers, it’s time for Phase Two of Marvel’s grand plan to take over the world comic book movie-verse, and Yahoo! weighed in this morning with news from the sequel to Thor. Rather than sticking with elite Shakespearean director Kenneth Branagh, who directed the first movie, Marvel has chosen to go with Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor.
Investigating the Yahoo post shows that this is old news, according to Collider’s official synopsis. Still, with an even more incredible cast than the previous incarnation and Taylor directing, Thor: The Dark World looks like it’s going to be an incredible movie.
Thor: The Dark World will be released November 8, 2013.
Now that the official confirmation has come down from on high, Bria and I have made an executive decision: Brian and Nanci are never allowed to go on vacation again. We are simply not equipped to deal with breaking news.
That said, this analysis probably would have been my responsibility anyway. Being one of the resident Trekkies on staff, I’m in the position to pick apart how J.J. Abrams performs when given an existing sci-fi franchise, and personally, I feel rather optimistic about this turn of events.
A while back we heard word of an interesting looking project Steven Spielberg had attached himself to: Robopocalypse. Based on a novel by Daniel H. Wilson, it looked to be your usual tale of Robots turning against humanity (when will we ever learn?). The interesting twist was who was attached to it. Drew Goddard of Cloverfield and Cabin in the Woods writing fame, Anne Hathaway, and Chris Hemsworth were either slated or rumored to be part of the film in some capacity.
Originally the film was set for an April 2014 release. Now? Well, it’s future just got a whole lot murkier.
Spielberg has indicated boredom with action films in some recent interviews, and though no explanation was offered for the delay, aside from a statement from Spielberg’s rep that it wasn’t ready and was too expensive to move forward without a polished script, the Lincolnfilmmaker may simply not be as enamored with the brutal extinction story as he once was.
DreamWorks purchased the rights to Daniel H. Wilson’s novel well before it was published in June 2011.
It was originally set to be ready for this July, but last May 20th Century Fox (which is co-financing the film with DreamWorks, and Disney’s Touchstone distributing) announced it would be pushed to April 2014.
Now …? It’s a question of when the robot revolution will take place, but if.
Of course, this naturally sparked some conversation on Twitter as to whether this postponement means Spielberg is switching his focus to another science fiction project. Episode VII, perhaps? I very much doubt it. Spielberg has expressed multiple times that he’s not keen on taking the helm of his friend George’s property.
Postponement of Robopocalypse or not, Spielberg’s probably not directing Episode VII.
(h/t Scott Hume on Twitter)
Instant gut reaction: It’s like Evangelion. WITH IDRIS ELBA.
Last week, Emily got rather excited about a preview trailer dropping. This week, it’s Bria’s turn as the Man of Steel trailer drops.