Sci-Fi Storm

I tend to take things from Jim Hill Media with a large grain of salt, but this seems likely – Disney may be scaling back on the next installment of The Chronicles of Narnia, Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Disney has yet to greenlight the film, which was meant to be a tentpole for 2010, but that role is now being held by Prince of Persia: The Sands Of Time. Why? Prince Caspian took in less than half of what The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe did domestically, and Disney may be looking to cut the budget…

An alternate trailer for Star Trek has gone online at Crave Online that adds a bit of a (perhaps not so big) surprise at the end – a classic character…now, if it was the Shat, THAT would be a surprise…Read More to see the video.

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Sorry for the late news on this one…Twilight, for which I have not seen so much buzz for a new film in a long time, got results from the buzz with a heavy take at the box office this weekend, at an estimated $70.6M, followed by Quantum Of Solace at $27.4M and Disney’s Bolt at $27.0M.

Scribes Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (Smallville, Spider-Man 2, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) have been brought in to rewrite Warner Brothers big-screen Robotech adaptation. Lawrence Kasdan apparently wrote a previous draft, and no mention of it being live action or animated this time, although various reports are still calling it live-action – Tobey Maguire is only listed as a producer at this time.

The teaser and the first full trailer for the upcoming Star Trek are now live at the Apple web site at a variety of resolutions, including some HD levels. Note that Quicktime 7 is required. Other issues aside, it LOOKS good. And apparently (from the teaser), the original Enterprise was a turboprop (look at the left nacelle towards the end)…

Heard this from JMS: World War Z just got a director in Marc Forster, who most recently directed Quantum of Solace). JMS is updating the script based on Marc’s notes, and Brad Pitt’s Plan B is producing.

Popwatch has an exclusive image of the new Enterprise for the upcoming J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie. It isn’t a radical departure from the original design, but when I first saw it, the word that came immediately to mind was…”guppy”.

Marvel Studios seems to be going full bore with their Avengers franchise. After the success of Iron Man and the previously announced sequels plus The Avengers and Thor, it appears they may be looking to bootstrap another in the franchise, announcing that Joe Johnston (Jumanji, Jurassic Park III) will direct First Avenger: Captain America, set for release in 2011, although no script is in hand yet – in fact, they haven’t hired the writers yet…

J. Michael Straczynski, who’s The Changeling opens in wide release today, is currently working on a remake of the classic 1956 movie Forbidden Planet for Warner Brothers, which has long been in development – last I heard was in 2001 when New Line got the rights, and apparently Dreamworks has had it since until last year. I wonder if Robby the Robot will come out of retirement?

Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. and director Jon Favreau, already confirmed on Iron Man 2, will be working on more in the franchise. Downey has agreed to a retroactive 4 picture deal with Marvel Studios, which now includes Iron Man 3 and The Avengers, and Favreau is confirmed to executive produce The Avengers. In addition, Don Cheadle, who takes over the role of Jim Rhodes, is also signed to appear in The Avengers.