Sci-Fi Storm

This week we lost two great British actors, David Warner and Bernard Cribbins.

David Warner played a number of memorable roles, from pure villains like the brutal Pomponius Falco in Masada (for which he won an Emmy) and the Evil Genius in Time Bandits, to sympathetic enemies like Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Always a memorable actor in every role, he did guest spots on many shows including Babylon 5 and Star Trek: The Next Generation and many animation voice roles. He was also a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and played many classic roles on stage.

When I first had access to cable and the movie channels, there were a few movies I would watch over and over – two of them were Time Bandits and Time After Time, where he played Dr. John Stevenson, who in fact was Jack the Ripper, who escapes from 1893 London in H.G. Wells time machine to 1979 San Francisco. They were followed by Tron, where he played the dual role of Ed Dillinger/Sark – END OF LINE.

Bernard Cribbins is perhaps best known for his role as Wilfred Mott, Donna Noble’s grandfather, during David Tennant’s run in Doctor Who. He originally appeared in the Christmas episode, “Voyage of the Damned”, and was later retconned as Donna’s grandfather when he became a recurring character. His emotional pleas in Tennant’s final episode could really be felt. Cribbins also appeared in the 1966 theatrical movie Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., a film adaptation of the William Hartnell episode The Dalek Invasion of Earth” which starred Peter Cushing as wholly human Dr. Who. He even interviewed for the part of the Doctor in 1974…but lost to Tom Baker.

An actor since he was 14, he is also well known in Britain as the most frequent storyteller in the children’s series Jackanory, as well as appearing or narrating many other children’s programs, and received a special award from the British Academy Children’s Awards in 2009 and in 2011 received an Officer of Order of the British Empire (OBE) honor for services to drama. In 2014 he received the J.M. Barrie award for contribution to the children’s arts.

Warning…as Tom Holland says at the beginning, there is a major spoiler if you haven’t yet watched Avengers: Endgame, so go watch that first…but the irony of Tom Holland warning of spoilers…

It is with great sadness that we learned a few minutes ago that actor Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca in the Star Wars saga, passed away in April 30th at home in Texas surrounded by his family.

His family released a statement on Facebook and Twitter:

The family of Peter Mayhew, with deep love and sadness, regrets to share the news that Peter has passed away. He left us the evening of April 30, 2019 with his family by his side in his North Texas home.
Peter was the man behind the mask of Chewbacca in the original Star Wars trilogy, episode 3 of the prequels, and the New Trilogy. He fought his way back from being wheelchair-bound to stand tall and portray Chewbacca once more in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He also consulted on The Last Jedi in an attempt to teach his successor. He put his heart and soul into the role of Chewbacca and it showed in every frame of the films from his knock kneed running, firing his bowcaster from the hip, his bright blue eyes, down to each subtle movement of his head and mouth. But, to him, the Star Wars family meant so much more to him than a role in a film.
The relationships that began then grew into the friends and family that he would love for decades to come. As the films released and became more well-known he had his eyes opened to the possibilities of what he could achieve with his role in the Star Wars universe. For more than 30 years Peter traveled all over the world spending time with his fans and friends. Peter developed lifelong friendships with the other cast members and his fans while on the convention circuit touching the lives of millions. As he realized over the years the impact he could have, he became heavily involved with the 501st legion, Wounded Warriors, Make-a-Wish, and other non-profit organizations.
To this end, he established the Peter Mayhew Foundation, supporting everything from individuals and families in crisis situations to food and supplies for children of Venezuela during their recent road to freedom. He not only provided funds but became personally involved with each individual, family and cause he supported.
As he grew older he continued to “soldier on” as he put it and was completely in his element around his fans and supporters. He grew great strength from the energy of his family, friends and the fans he knew and loved.
He is survived by his wife Angie and three children. His kindness, generosity and care will live on in the Peter Mayhew Foundation with Angie taking the helm as his voice.
There will be a memorial service for friends and family held on June 29th and in early December in Los Angeles there will be a memorial for fans set up with his family in attendance, personal effects, and collection at EmpireConLA.

For additional information, information on the memorials or to offer condolences email ryan@ReelAppearances.com
Rather than gifts and flowers the family asks that you consider donating to the foundation so that they can continue his efforts to help the community. You can donate at http://petermayhewfoundation.org/make-a-donation.php

I met Peter briefly back in 2014, and he was as always gracious and thankful for the fans. He had just a couple weeks ago met up with fans at Star Wars Celebration in Chicago.

Suffering from physical issues owing to his immense frame – he needed knee replacements but had to wait until they built a machine large enough to create the parts large enough – he was often wheelchair bound but managed to stand tall again for scenes in The Force Awakens, but worked as a consultant on The Last Jedi to help train his replacement.

May the Force be with you, Peter…always.

Here it is…and oh, so many questions…is that Kylo Ren’s fighter? And who is the new Skywalker? But…LANDO!

This was a jaw-dropping moment today…Disney did an about-face and reinstated James Gunn as director for Guardians of the Galaxy 3, after having fired him back in July when old inappropriate tweets regarding rape and pedophilia of his surfaced. Gunn was immediately apologetic over his “poor judgement” at bad humor.

Today, Gunn was grateful for Disney’s letting him back in:

The reaction in social media seems relatively positive, but bears close monitoring.

I’ll just leave this here for you…

Talk about extremes…hot off the heels of his blockbuster turn in Aquaman, it seems that Jason Momoa is looking for something a little less, well, wet. And the driest place in the universe would of course be Arrakis, the desert planet also known as Dune.

We hear Momoa is in talks to take on the role of Duncan Idaho, the swordsmaster for the Atreides clan, in Denis Villeneuve’s remake of the Frank Herbert classic novel. Idaho was previously played by Richard Jordan in the 1984 David Lynch film, and James Watson in the 2000 Syfy miniseries.

Now, we know a blockbuster cast does not make a blockbuster movie (ala the Lynch film), but I’m becoming more and more intrigued with each passing announcement…and Jason, if you are out there, I’d like to be there for the next haka…

Two reboots, four castings…

Both Zendaya (The Greatest Showman) and Oscar Isaac (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) are currently in talks to join Denis Villeneuve’ Dune reboot at Legendary Entertainment. Zendaya would play Chani, the Freman love interest of Paul Atreides, played by Timothee Chalamet. Isaac would play Paul’s father, Duke Leto Atreides. Neither have been confirmed at this point.

The casting for War Of The Worlds, however, is confirmed –
Gabriel Byrne (Hereditary) and Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey) will lead up an ensemble cast in the Urban Myth Films reboot to be directed by
Howard Overman (Misfits). From the sounds of it, this will be loosely based on the H.G. Wells novel, set in present-day Europe and focusing on the aftermath of an alien attack.

Speaking of The Greatest Showman, star Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson will team again, but this time for a sci-fi thriller
Reminiscence written by Westworld executive producer Lisa Joy, who will also make her directorial debut. Set in a near-future Miami affected by global warming, Jackman will play a private investigator who specializes in recapturing vivid cherished memories for clients, with Ferguson as one of his clients.

So the nominations for the 91st Oscars are out, and as usual we take a look at where the science fiction/fantasy genre landed – and it’s mostly Disney vs. Disney between Black Panther and Mary Poppins Returns – but neither received any acting nominations, which is disappointing.

Black Panther scored a Best Picture nomination, along with Production Design, Costume Design, Original Score, Original Song for “All The Stars”, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing,

Mary Poppins Returns is nominated for Production Design, Costume Design, Original Score, Original Song for “The Place Where Lost Things Go”,

Avengers: Infinity War, Christopher Robin, Ready Player One, Solo: A Star Wars Story all received one nomination for Visual Effects.

A Quiet Place received one nomination for Sound Editing.

Incredibles 2, Ralph Breaks The Internet and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse all share the Animated Film nomination with Isle of Dogs and Mirai.

Now who you gonna call? It appears another Ghostbusters film will be a reality, but this time it will be a true sequel to the original team as opposed to be a sequel to the 2016 remake. And Jason Reitman, the son of original director Ivan Reitman, will be directing. It has not been announced if the original Ghostbusters team will be involved. Production is expected to start this summer.

Reitman even released a teaser for the movie: