Sci-Fi Storm

The New York Post’s Page Six sent Jedi and Sith into a panic Monday when they said that the production of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was in a “crisis” after Disney execs saw the first cut of the film and weren’t happy, also saying that the film was not “testing well”, and expensive reshoots were necessary.

It’s time to calm down, padawans.

Reshoots are not all that unusual, and were in fact done for The Force Awakens. They are done to help solidify the story when scenes need to be altered or added, which was exactly the reason they were done on the previous film. It allows for a tightened, superior film instead of something less so.

In addition, our sources tell us there have been no screenings for a test audience – only Disney brass have seen it outside the production team. And they simply want a solid movie in the franchise. A weak movie could have a detrimental effect on the following movies, including Episode VIII, and put future productions in jeopardy. Disney has the money, so they are going to pull out all the stops and make sure it is good.

The December 16th release date is not affected at this time as there was planned time for reshoots.

Some Trek tidbits from the weekend…first, the second trailer for Star Trek: Beyond was released during a fan event marking the 50th Anniversary of the original series, which also paid tribute to the late Leonard Nimoy. You can see the trailer below.

Also announced at the time was that attendees of San Diego Comic-Con this summer will have the chance to attend the world premiere of the new movie – at a first-of-its-kind outdoor IMAX event that will even include a full orchestra! The event will take place on July 20th, with the movie being widely release two days later.

Lastly a followup to a story we have been following: Back in December, CBS/Paramount sued Axanar Productions about the crowdfunded film Axanar. While we believe that CBS/Paramount actually may have been on the right side of things, how they went about it drew a lot of ire from the fans in general and cooled way down the many other fan productions that they had previously tolerated.

At the fan event, producer JJ Abrams said that Paramount will be dropping the lawsuit, saying “This wasn’t an appropriate way to deal with the fans.” Apparently Justin Lin, who is directing Star Trek: Beyond and is himself a fan, played a big role in getting the studio to call off the lawyers. Things are still in process, so fans appear to be treating the news with cautious optimism so far.

As of Tuesday’s haul at the domestic box office, Captain America: Civil War has reached over $206 million, in just 5 days. This, coupled with Disney’s Jungle Book holding as the #2 movie after four weeks and passing $300 million soon, you would think Disney would be up on the news – but after an earnings report that didn’t meet expectations, owing in large part to the television business, especially ESPN, softening, saw stock its stock prices take a 4% hit, and Disney announcing it would close down its console gaming business, primarily the Disney Infinity line, and taking a $147 million charge to do it.

So how was the movie? [very minor spoilers perhaps ahead] On a rare occasion that I was able to see it opening weekend, I enjoyed it overall. It relied less on the incessant barrage of fighting action that was the hallmark of Avengers: Age of Ultron, and more on the story. However, some of the justification for what was ripping apart the team seemed contrived, and I think a lot of people may generally dislike the idea of friends taking differing sides and fighting each other, and at times be jovial about it. But that joviality also lightens the movie up, which otherwise be a major downer. It does, however, seem to be setting the stage for Infinity War, which is sort of expected…

Hail Ceasar! star Alden Ehrenreich is in negotiations to play the young Han Solo for the upcoming untitled Star Wars anthology film, which will deal with the scoundrel smuggler’s adventures before the events of A New Hope, although an exact plot is unknown. The film is still in pre-production, with the directing duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The LEGO Movie).

The movie is currently scheduled for a May 25th, 2018 release.

If you were looking forwarded to seeing the third installment of The Maze Runner next February, you might need to wait a little longer.

Production on the movie was suspended back on March 28th when star Dylan O’Brien suffered an injury on the set. The injury was never specified, but it is believe that he fell off the back of a set piece and injured his cheekbone or orbital socket. It was hoped that a little time off would help and production would pick up in a couple weeks again, but Fox has now said that production is on hold indefinitely. “The resumption of principal photography on Maze Runner: The Death Cure has been further delayed to allow Dylan O’Brien more time to fully recover from his injuries,” according to 20th Century Fox’s statement. “We wish Dylan a speedy recovery and look forward to restarting production as soon as possible.”

Fox has not yet said anything about the release date (currently February 17th), but the longer it takes O’Brien to recover, the less likely they will meet that date.

Browncoats beware…do not read on if you wish to be surprised at Nathan Fillion’s cameo role in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy 2…but sorry ladies, the character is not “Captain Tightpants”…
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Sorry for the lack of updates lately…we had to attend to a family emergency this past week and returned home late last night, and we have a lot of decompressing to do while attending to an event this week with its own bit of drama attached…but here is a bit of catch up for this past week…

The big news yesterday is that we know who the next companion is on Doctor Who. West End stage actress Pearl Mackie, most recently appearing in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time for the National Theatre, will play a character named Bill in the 10th season, which will not air until 2017. This will be Mackie’s first major role on television.

While we await renewals for a few shows (notably Supergirl), some others did get the nod this week. Grimm will return for a sixth season on NBC, but the network ordered a base of 13 episodes instead of 22 – but that could still increase. NBC has a lot of shows competing for the schedule next Fall, several of which are serials done in 13-episode chunks, and the shorter order will allow them to have more options in scheduling them. If things don’t work out for one of the other shows, Grimm could see the order increase. Also on the renewed list is MTV’s freshman fantasy series Shannara Chronicles, which had so-so live ratings, but picked up heavily in the L+3 and L+7 rating plus lots of social media buzz and digital downloads making it their best new show.

Syfy has given a green light for a pilot for the long-in-development David S. Goyer project Krypton. The series intends to see what life was like on Superman’s home planet years before its destruction, and follow the house of El and in particular Kal-El’s grandfather who seeks to bring hope and equality to a planet in disarray.

And finally moving from the small screen to the large one with a couple of Marvel tidbits…it appears that Iron Man/Tony Stark will be making an appearance in the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming film starring Tom Holland as the webslinger in Sony’s reboot of the franchise. Whether this is an attempt to bring Spider-Man closer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe following his upcoming appearance in Captain America: Civil War, or it is just a courtesy crossover for Sony allowing Spidey in the Avengers universe, who knows. But it can only be a plus.

And lastly, Marvel’s Inhumans film, planned for 2019, has been taken off the release slate – at least temporarily. While this could put the production in doubt, it may just be a scheduling matter – the new Indiana Jones movie was scheduled to release just a week later which would have a Disney/Lucasfilm likely overshadowing a Disney/Marvel film. Plans are still in place for the movie, but they just don’t have a release window picked out yet.

Witness the power of the Sorcerer Supreme in the first teaser for Marvel’s Doctor Strange starring Benedict Cumberbatch, in theaters November 4th!

DC’s cinematic universe may have gotten off with a limp, given the critical response to Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, but with it still pulling in plenty of money Warner Bros. isn’t shying away from their superhero slate or their flagship characters.

BvS star Ben Affleck had a pitch for a standalone Batman movie he talked about last year, and Kevin Tsujihara, Warner Bros. chairman and CEO, confirmed today at CinemaCon that the movie will move ahead with Affleck’s movie, in which he will star and direct. “I’m also excited to know that we will be working with Ben Affleck on a stand-alone Batman movie,” Tsujihara said.

Affleck will also appear as the caped crusader in at least two other films already on the docket – Justice League Parts One and Two.

The current list of DC universe movies, in order of release, are:

Suicide Squad – Aug. 5, 2016
The Justice League Part One – Nov. 17, 2017
The Flash – March 16, 2018
Wonder Woman – June 2, 2017
Aquaman – July 27, 2018
Shazam! – April 5, 2019
Justice League Part Two – June 14, 2019
Cyborg – April 3, 2020
Green Lantern Corps – June 19, 2020

The trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was revealed by star Eddie Redmayne last night at the MTV Movie awards…

Opens November 18th!!