One of the major obstacles Disney is currently facing with their massive blockbuster John Carter is explaining how and why this movie, which looks so similar to so many others, was made at all. It’s based on an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, first published in 1917, that has become so engrained in the popular conscious it has almost lost its identity. Burroughs’ vision was so ahead of its time and influenced so many things that came after, those properties have long since taken ownership. But the fact of the matter is, without John Carter, there’s no Star Wars, no Avatar, no Blade Runner, almost no sci-fi in general.
Aiming to fix some of that, Disney has released a 90-second featurette reintroducing the world to John Carter. They’ve also thrown in a bunch of new footage to sweeten the pot. But not too much. The Andrew Stanton-directed film starring Taylor Kitsch, Willem Dafoe, Mark Strong and others will be released March 9. Check it out after the jump. Read More »
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They eventually made a fourth Indiana Jones. That’s what I tell myself each time Dan Aykroyd comes out and speaks, with the utmost confidence, that a third Ghostbusters will eventually be made. Like the Jones sequel, Ghostbusters 3 is a movie that has been long rumored and discussed ad nauseum. So I figure if Spielberg, Lucas and Ford can find a common ground after years of conjecture, the same will probably happen for the Ghostbusters crew.
Of course, we all know the main hold out has been Bill Murray but in the latest twist, Aykroyd suggests they could “Jack Ryan” that role and just make it with someone else. I wonder what Sony has to say about that. Read more after the jump. Read More »
The year 2015 is coming up fast, and it seems like many of the future inovations seen in the future Hill Valley of Back to the Future: Part II have not come to pass — but I’m still hopeful that we’ll all be in flying hovercars in just three years time (um, yeah). Last year, Nike finally produced a limited edition “preview” run of the self-lacing Nike MAG sneakers. I saw last week on Gizmodo that we’re getting close to inventing the real-life Mr. Fusion. And this weekend at the New York Toy Fair, Mattel has finally announced the much anticipated release of the Hoverboard, a futuristic hovering skateboard that Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) used in the Back to the Future sequels.
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There is an image in this trailer for Beyond the Black Rainbow in which a silhouetted woman seems to crawl out of the pupil in a screen-filling close-up of a human eye. It’s beautiful and weird, and that’s the trailer in a nutshell. Watching this, I have no idea what this film is about. I do know that it is the writing and directing debut of Panos Cosmatos, and that it played a few festivals in the past couple years, premiering in the US last year at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Watching the trailer again I also know that Cosmatos is a big fan of Stanley Kubrick and early David Cronenberg, as well as probably any esoteric bits of psychedelic science fiction from the late ’60s through the early ’80s. (There’s even a vibe of Matt Howarth comics, although Howarth seems to be so close to forgotten that I don’t expect that means much to many people now.) I can tell that the film is probably very, very slow and destined to drive some audiences crazy, but that just makes me want to see it a bit more. Read More »
It’s easy for some to completely write of Transformers: Dark of the Moon as a forgettable Summer big budget blockbuster, but I think it would be wrong to overlook the technical achievements of some of the awesome action sequences.
ILM and Digital Domain have both released videos breaking down all the work that went into the action you saw on screen. You might be surprised to find out that Optimus Prime, Autobots and Decpticons weren’t the only CG additions in the film. Whole real-world environments and complete shots were created within the computer – buildings, vehicles, bridges, skyscrapers, cities and planets.
For me, these visual effect breakdown videos are the closest thing we have these days to the “Movie Magic” specials from my childhood. While I agree those were more fun, and nothing will beat the magic of practical effects done right, its still fun to get a look behind the curtain and see how the magic was constructed. Watch the videos embedded after the jump.
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After seven years away from theaters, Star Wars comes back to the big screen this weekend. Of course, it’s not a new movie or even an original re-release. Instead it’s what’s generally considered one of the worst of the bunch, converted into an experience many people hate. I refer, of course, to Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 3D and if one good thing comes of this re-release, it means George Lucas has to come out and answer questions. (Of course, he did this for Red Tails too but focused more on his upcoming career and Hollywood controversy.)
In an interview Lucas did with The Hollywood Reporter he offers what I think is the most plausible and straightforward answer he’s ever given as to why he changed the Greedo/Han Solo scene in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Read the quotes and agree or disagree after the break. Read More »
Douglas Trumbull, the man who helped redefine visual effects in cinema working on films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Blade Runner, has very lofty goals. Despite being on the outside of Hollywood looking in, for the most part, since the mid-eighties, the director is still trying to push the limits of cinema in innovative and interesting ways. He’s talked about using a new, high-speed 3D system and recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to go into more detail. A lot more detail.
Trumbull said he’s working on a film that will “reinvent the movies.” A “first person cinema reality which is indistinguishable from reality” set 200 years in the future, dealing with “man’s place in the universe.” He says it’s “way beyond anything that Peter Jackson and Jim Cameron have been doing or are thinking of.”
You’ve got to read more details after the jump. Read More »
Briefly: There’s not much info at this point, but both Variety and Deadline are reporting that Legendary Pictures has scrapped the Alex Proyas film Paradise Lost. Read More »
