Movie & TV News, Posters & Stuff

[zerosum]

Give me a Pixar animated movie starring Deadpool as Boba Fett's apprentice!   

[Smithk4]

Disney to Buy Lucasfilm for $4.05 Billion; New 'Star Wars' Movie Set for 2015



The Walt Disney Co. has acquired Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion in cash and stock and announced a new Star Wars movie to be released in 2015.

Kathleen Kennedy, current co-chair of Lucasfilm, will become Lucasfilm's president, reporting to Walt Disney Studios chair Alan Horn as part of the stock and cash transaction. Disney is paying approximately half the price in cash and will issue 40 million shares of stock, the company said Tuesday in a statement.

Kennedy will serve as executive producer on new Star Wars feature films, with the franchise's creator and Lucasfilm founder George Lucas, 68, serving as creative consultant. There are plans to release a new Star Wars film every two or three years.

“For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” said Lucas, chairman and CEO of Lucasfilm, in a statement. “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. I’m confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come. Disney’s reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment and consumer products.”

The deal comes on the heels of Disney's 2009 acquisition of Marvel Entertainment and its 2006 purchase of Pixar Animation Studios, two potent entertainment brands that appeal to families. The Disney board has approved the Lucasfilm acquisition, but it is subject to antitrust scrutiny by the U.S. government. 

While Lucas and Disney have had a long relationship, it has been most visible at the company's theme parks, where Star Tours and other attractions have been popular for more than two decades.

However, the Stars Wars movies have been distributed through Twentieth Century Fox, which will now be cut out of future Star Wars and other related business. (Though Fox already has been set to release 3D versions of the past Star Wars movies, it is unclear if that relationship will be impacted by the sale. The acquisition also raises questions about the future of Stars Wars: Clone Wars, a highly popular series on Cartoon Network, which is owned by a Disney competitor, Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner.)

Disney also is acquiring Lucasfilm’s hugely profitable consumer products and merchandising businesses, which should be a good fit for the buyer.

“Lucasfilm reflects the extraordinary passion, vision and storytelling of its founder, George Lucas,” said Bob Iger, Disney chairman and CEO, in a statement. “This transaction combines a world-class portfolio of content including Star Wars, one of the greatest family entertainment franchises of all time, with Disney’s unique and unparalleled creativity across multiple platforms, businesses and markets to generate sustained growth and drive significant long-term value.”

In a call with investors, Iger said the first new Star Wars movie was targeted for 2015, and that the company planned for another movie every 2-3 years after that. Disney releases 8-10 pictures per year, including one from Pixar and up to two from Marvel Studios. The plan is for a Star Wars movie in one of those tentpole slots.

Iger told investors that Star Wars was a perfect proerty for TV, particularly the company's young male-skewing network Disney XD, and plans to expand its presence in its theme parks.

In addition, while Star Wars merchandise has been a big business, that business has mostly been domestic, Iger said. Using Marvel as a model, Disney plans to grow international marketing of Star Wars products by increasing the brand's presence in their stores, with more toys and with with other products.

Big news indeed. But for now, let the comic relief begin!

[Smithk4]

Hobbits get serious about air safety



Weta has teamed up with Air New Zealand to produce a Hobbit-inspired safety video that includes a cameo by Peter Jackson.

Those airline safety videos they make you watch as the plane taxis out can be a massive yawn-fest. We may or may not be guilty of tuning out in favour of reading something vastly more interesting â€" the instructions on the air sickness bag, for example.

Air New Zealand understands this. For a while now, the airline has been producing funny safety videos in a variety of styles in order to get people to pay attention.

The latest â€" An Unexpected Briefing â€" was made in partnership with Peter Jackson's Weta, and features a motley cast of elves, hobbits, dwarves and other assorted characters from Middle Earth.

Conclusion: Every airline safety video from now on should have at least one hobbit.

[donnieoneshot]

Mark Hamill Talks Star Wars: Episode VII

As details continue to flood in regarding the just-announced Star Wars: Episode VII, EW managed to catch up with Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, who reveals that he was made aware of plans for a third trilogy last August.

"[George Lucas] asked Carrie [Fisher] and I to have lunch with him and we did," Hamill says, "I thought he was going to talk about either his retirement or the 'Star Wars' TV series that I’ve heard about â€" which I don’t think we were going to be involved in anyway, because that takes place between the prequels and the ones we were in and, if Luke were in them, he’d be anywhere from a toddler to a teenager so they’d get an age-appropriate actor â€" or the 3-D releases. So when he said, 'We decided we’re going to do Episodes VII, VIII, and IX,” I was just gobsmacked. “What? Are you nuts?!” [Laughs]"

Although Hamill learned of the plans for more films, he was as surprised as anyone at the announcement of Lucasfilm being bought by Disney when he read about it online yesterday. He also doesn't know what involvement - if any - he'll have in future Star Wars films, but he remains optimistic as a fan.

"I can see both sides of it," he says. "Because in a way, there was a beginning, a middle, and an end and we all lived happily ever after and that’s the way it should be â€" and it’s great that people have fond memories, if they do have fond memories. But on the other hand, there’s this ravenous desire on the part of the true believers to have more and more and more material. It’s one of those things: people either just don’t care for it or are passionate about it. I guess that defines what cult movies are all about."

Hamill reiterates that Kathleen Kennedy will be handling a lot of the work on the new films, leaving Lucas to his newfound retirement and plans for a charitable educational foundation funded by the multi-billion dollar sale.

[TaraJayne]

Ha Ha that Hobbit air safety video is ace. 

[TaraJayne]

Give me a Pixar animated movie starring Deadpool as Boba Fett's apprentice!   

God I love Deadpool. I actually think I have problems. I am totally obssessed with him

[nCogNeato]

Big news indeed. But for now, let the comic relief begin!

I have to admit I love Disney a little for making that video.   

[nCogNeato]

Hobbits get serious about air safety



Weta has teamed up with Air New Zealand to produce a Hobbit-inspired safety video that includes a cameo by Peter Jackson.

Those airline safety videos they make you watch as the plane taxis out can be a massive yawn-fest. We may or may not be guilty of tuning out in favour of reading something vastly more interesting â€" the instructions on the air sickness bag, for example.

Air New Zealand understands this. For a while now, the airline has been producing funny safety videos in a variety of styles in order to get people to pay attention.

The latest â€" An Unexpected Briefing â€" was made in partnership with Peter Jackson's Weta, and features a motley cast of elves, hobbits, dwarves and other assorted characters from Middle Earth.

Conclusion: Every airline safety video from now on should have at least one hobbit.

That's fantacular.

[nCogNeato]

God I love Deadpool. I actually think I have problems. I am totally obssessed with him

Deadpool obsession = problem?  Don't be silly.

[donnieoneshot]

Earlier this week it was announced that the Battlestar Galactica prequel series, subtitled "Blood and Chrome," will finally be seeing the light of day in the form of a web series. The original two-hour pilot will be broken up into ten 7-12 minutes 'webisodes' that will be aired on Machinima's YouTube channel throughout the next four weeks.

Today, they've released the first clip from the new series. It features Luke Pasqualino as William Adama and you can watch the action packed clip below!

Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome takes place in the 10th year of the first Cylon war. As the battle between humans and their creation, the sentient robotic Cylons, rages across the 12 colonial worlds, a young, talented fighter pilot, William Adama (Luke Pasqualino), finds himself assigned to one of the most powerful Battlestars in the Colonial fleet: the Galactica. Full of ambition and in pursuit of the intense action that the Cylon war promises, Adama quickly find himself at odds with Coker (Ben Cotton), the battle-weary officer to whom he reports. With 47 days left in his tour of duty, Coker desires an end to battle just as much as Adama craves the start of it. Though they clash at first, the two men forge an unlikely bond when a routine mission turns dangerous and becomes a pivotal one for the desperate fleet.

Joining Pasqualino and Cotton in the cast is Lili Bordan, who will play Dr. Beka Kelly, a Ph.D. who worked for Graystone Industries that created the Cylon robots. Currently assigned to a secret military mission, Beka and Adama quickly establish a rapport.

[Smithk4]

Watch Mark Hamill Predict Star Wars Episode VII Back In 1983

George Lucas has talked for years about a nine-film Star Wars series, which would include both prequels and sequels to the original trilogy and make Star Wars geeks keel over in delight. Then, of course, we got the bloated and overly digital prequels, and fans stopped feverishly anticipating Star Wars content while Lucas started saying that he was done directing Star Wars films. The nine-film series that people had wanted so much for decades seemed all but dead.

That all changed, of course, when Disney bought the rights to Lucasfilm last week and announced that they were planning a brand-new trilogy of Star Wars films. Suddenly the sci-fi universe that Lucas created seemed crammed with possibilities, and when Mark Hamill revealed that Lucas had tipped him off about the new series, it seemed possible we might be seeing the return of Luke Skywalker-- or maybe just a Hamill cameo? Turns out, this isn't the first time Hamill has been out talking about coming back to Star Wars… in fact, he was doing it almost 20 years ago. Here's a recently re-circulated video from 1983 of Hamill talking about the possibilities for more Star Wars movies after Return of the Jedi:

And via Movies.com, here's another video of Hamill making a weirdly prescient prediction around the same time, saying Lucas told him he'd probably be back playing Luke Skywalker in 2011. Not so far off!

Of course, even Hamill doesn't know if he'll be called upon to appear in Star Wars Episode VII, currently targeted for a 2015 release. But it is nice to look into the wayback machine and tell all those optimists from the early 80s, "Hey, this is really going to happen!" Even if some pesky, unloved prequels got in the way first.

[nCogNeato]

saying Lucas told him he'd probably be back playing Luke Skywalker in 2011. Not so far off!

That's pretty awesome.

[Smithk4]

Eddie Murphy and Shawn Ryan to produce beverly hills cop series

”Get the f*#k outta here!” because Beverly Hills Cop is getting a TV show spin-off. After last year’s heartbreaking news about Beverly Hills Cop 4, fans were disappointed by the studio’s decision to shelf the fourth installment in the mega successful franchise. But good news emerged soon after and Eddie Murphy was set to produce a TV series based on the hit action-comedy franchise. That was a year ago and today, almost a year later, we can finally bring you some more exciting updates.

Vulture reports The Shield creator, Shawn Ryan, is working with Eddie Murphy and Sony Pictures Television for a Beverly Hills Cop TV series. To get us even more excited about the news, the duo just pitched their show idea to the networks yesterday. In addition to producing, Murphy will also have a small starring stint in the show, hopefully to reprise his role as the hilarious Axel Foley.

According to last year’s Rolling Stone interview with Murphy, the proposed show would follow “Axel Foley’s son, and Axel is the chief of police now in Detroit.” At the time, Murphy was already open to appearing on the show in that capacity, saying he would “do the pilot, show up here and there,” and that still seems to be the case with the actor set to star in the pilot and a few “special” episodes of the series first season (if and when it gets one).

Vulture’s sources described the show’s pitch as a “standard buddy-cop show designed to be a crime procedural with some strong comedic elements.”

More official details are bound to emerge any day now. The project has yet to find a network home, but with Ryan and Murphy on board, lets just that the show is off to a very good start.

Beverly Hills Cop TV Pilot Casts Its Lead



When we first learned that a Beverly Hills Cop sequel TV pilot was in the works, we were left to wonder who would play the starring role of Axel Foley's son? That question has been answered! The role of Aaron Foley will be played by stand-up comedian Brandon T. Jackson, otherwise known to Tropic Thunder fans as Alpa Chino.

We learned back in August that Eddie Murphy and Shawn Ryan were developing a TV pilot that follows up on Murphy's beloved 80s comedy Beverly Hills Cop, and that CBS picked up the pilot, which would follow Axel's blue-collar police officer son Aaron, who attempts to get out from under his father's shadow by heading to Beverly Hills to deal with the criminal elements in the wealthy neighborhood. Murphy is expected to guest star in the pilot, and might play a recurring role, should the comedy go to series.

TVLine reports that Brandon T. Jackson has landed the lead role in the project. In addition to Tropic Thunder, he's appeared in Fast & Furious, Tooth Fairy and Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. He's also no stranger to sequels or to playing the son of a movie cop in a comedy. Jackson played the role of Trent, the stepson to Martin Lawrence's character Malcolm Turner in Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son. Hopefully he's the right man for this Beverly Hills Cop pilot (you can't really go wrong with Alpa Chino, right?), as I'm sure I'm not alone in having high hopes that the project is successful and makes its way onto CBS' primetime line-up.

[GamerMan316]

This guy was awful in the third Big Momma film, though to be fair he was still probably the best thing in it!

[GamerMan316]

Splinter Cell Movie Enlists Tom Hardy as Sam Fisher



Tom Hardy is set to take on Tom Clancy, as the actor who played Bane in the Dark Knight Rises has signed on to play Sam Fisher in Ubisoft's movie adaptation of Splinter Cell. Eric Warren Singer, who also wrote th 2009 Clive Owen action thriller 'The International' is on board to pen the script, while Ubisoft is still in talks with studios.

Apparently, Ubisoft has held preliminary talks with Warner Bros and Paramount about the Splinter Cell movie. The Assassin's Creed movie meanwhile, which is set to star Michael Fassbender is with New Regency and Fox. There's no plot details for Splinter Cell as yet, with Variety simply reporting that Hardy will play Fisher.

"Tom Hardy is currently one of the biggest talents in the film industry, and he has a phenomenal ability to take on complex and varied roles with his broad range of acting skills," said Jean-Julien Baronnet, CEO of Ubisoft Motion Pictures. "His involvement in the 'Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell' movie is exciting news for movie and video game fans alike. Meanwhile, Eric Singer is one of the most talented writers of the moment, and ... we're confident he'll bring a fresh approach and create a thrilling story ... while still respecting all the codes and traditions of the franchise that are so important to fans."

There's no date as yet for the Splinter Cell movie, but Splinter Cell: Blacklist is out in 2013.