Sci-Fi Storm

We already know that Star Wars: The Last Jedi has been charged with developing a new saga trilogy to follow on once the Skywalker saga is concluded with Episode IX. But now it appears there is another saga in the works, this one from the minds of Game Of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

We wonder if this might squeeze out the anthology films, while these two sagas interleave their release years.

Disney happened to have their earnings call today as well, and CEO Bob Iger was asked if they considered doing a series, given their experience in the small format. Their interest was in creating Star Wars films,” replied Iger. “We’ve been talking with them for some time. They didn’t express interest in a series.”

Of course there were no details on release dates or plot, but Iger did say they were focused on “a particular point in time” in the Star Wars universe. I’m still hoping for some new stories set in the Old Republic.

In theaters May 25th

In theaters May 4th

In theaters June 22nd

And the biggest surprise Super Bowl commercial (where many are spoiled before hand) seems to go to The Cloverfield Paradox…not because we finally got the new title (it had been going around as The God Particle) and see the first footage, but actually because Netflix released it for streaming immediately after the game! That’s right – it’s available now from Netflix…it had been rumored that the streaming service would acquire the film, which had been very quiet about showing footage, and was planned to be released in theaters in April.

So far, reviews have been poor to mixed – Rotten Tomatoes so far has a tomatometer score of 15% on 41 reviews from critics, and a 61% audience score.

Peter Craig, who wrote the screenplay for both parts of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, will return to young adult/teen violence by adapting S.T.A.G.S., the [asin=B074DGVYMF]YA novel from M.A. Bennett[/asin] released this past week.

The movie, from Fox 2000 and Chernin Entertainment, revolves around St. Aidan the Great’s School (S.T.A.G.S.), an exclusive English boarding school. Greer and nine other first year students are surprised to receive invitations from the Medievals, the school’s most admired – and snootiest – group of students, to attend a private weekend retreat, given that they’ve only received ridicule from them. But the retreat which promised “hunting” turns foul, as the first years are in fact the prey being hunted…

The second season of American Gods finally has a new showrunner. After the abrupt departure of producers Bryan Fuller and Michael Green over budget cuts, The Hollywood Reporter says that Jesse Alexander (Heroes, Hannibal) has signed on to manage the show alongside original novel writer and executive producer Neil Gaiman.

The show has had a lot of uncertainty after reported budget cuts were being imposed by FreemantleMedia on the Starz series. Starz CEO Chris Albrecht says that Fuller and Green were not fired, and have not quit, and will be involved “as much as they can be,” but it seems unlikely at this point. The two would likely retain their executive producer credits. In addition, Gillian Anderson (Media) has already stated she will not return to the show, and Kristen Chenoweth (Easter) is not certain she will return. The former might be replaced fairly easily – the character changes appearances easily, thus far showing up as Lucille Ball, David Bowie and Marilyn Monroe, but Easter looked to set up for a pivotal part in the upcoming war of the Old and New Gods.

Stan Lee, who was hospitalized on Wednesday for an irregular heartbeat, was released from Cedars Sanai hospital yesterday and reports that he is “feeling great”.

“All I really want to do is tell you that I’m feeling great,” Lee told KABC via Skype. “I’m glad I spent that evening in the hospital. It did me a lot of good, now I’m home and looking for new trouble we get in to. You know, the usual…I figured that a little check up wouldn’t be bad for me. And in fact it turned out to be pretty good, it got me a lot of publicity. I didn’t realize the whole world worried if I was in the hospital of not.”

We do, Generalissimo.

The 95-year-old creator of so many comic book characters that have become central to the biggest blockbusters of recent years, has kept on the go with a seeming non-stop run of convention appearances.