Sci-Fi Storm

Wow…I’ve been to the London Madame Tussauds, and they can be frightfully real at times…well, I can say they really NAILED Qui-Gon Jinn. And the Han “Shot First” Solo isn’t bad either…
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In this next chapter of the epic Maze Runner saga, Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and his fellow Gladers face their greatest challenge yet: searching for clues about the mysterious and powerful organization known as WCKD. Their journey takes them to the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with unimaginable obstacles. Teaming up with resistance fighters, the Gladers take on WCKD’s vastly superior forces and uncover its shocking plans for them all.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials hits theaters September 18th, 2015.
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Update 5/18: EuropaCorp has announced that they have set a July 21, 2017 worldwide release date for Valerian, in addition to extending their deal with China’s Fundamental Films, who will kick in $50 million for the film and will distribute it in China.

Fifth Element director Luc Besson joined Twitter today, and in the process announced that he will return to the sci-fi genre with his next project: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, based on the French comic series Valérian and Laureline by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières, which is closing in on 50 years of being published.

The stories follow Valérian, a spatio-temporal agent from the 28th century, and his companion and fellow agent Laureline, who grew up as a peasant girl in 11th century France, while they take on jobs for Galaxity, the capital of the Terran Galactic Empire on Earth.

Many see Valérian and Laureline as having influence in later science fiction, including Star Wars.

Besson also tweeted that Dane DeHaan (Chronicle, The Amazing Spider Man 2) and Cara Delevingne (Anna Karenina) will star as the two protagonists.

Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the writing duo behind all three Captain America films including the upcoming Captain America: Civil War (which started filming today), as well as Thor: The Dark World and all three Chronicles of Narnia films, and also created Marvel’s Agent Carter (man these guys are BUSY!), have been signed to take on what will be the climax of Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – Avengers: Infinity War, Parts 1 and 2.

Marvel announced today that Martin Freeman is joining the cast of Captain America: Civil War.

That’s it. Not a single detail.

Martin Freeman, of course, is known for playing Dr. John Watson on Sherlock (for which he won the 2014 Supporting Actor Emmy) and Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit.

Captain America: Civil War is expected to be released on May 6th, 2016.

About 11 months later, the marriage between director Josh Trank and the Star Wars universe is over.

“After a year of having the incredible honor of developing with the wonderful and talented people at Lucasfilm, I’m making a personal decision to move forward on a different path,” Trank said via a press release on StarWars.com. “I’ve put a tremendous amount of thought into this, and I know deep down in my heart that I want to pursue some original creative opportunities. That said, the Star Wars universe has always been one of my biggest influences, and I couldn’t be more excited to witness its future alongside my millions of fellow Star Wars fans. I want to thank my friends Kathleen Kennedy, Kiri Hart, Simon Kinberg, and everyone at Lucasfilm and Disney for the amazing opportunity to have been a part of this. May the Force be with you all.”

Although this sounds like the typical “amicable” split, Rebel spies tell is otherwise. Trank was the director for the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot for Fox, which was produced by Simon Kinberg, who is also working at various levels in the upcoming Star Wars films and reportedly as a producer on Trank’s film, and was less than thrilled with Trank on the Fantastic Four film (which some circles believe was made just to stop the rights reverting back to Marvel). In addition, Trank was a no-show at Star Wars Celebration, having what he tweeted was the “worst flu of my life,” but rumors were that he was already on the way out and Disney asked him not to come.

So it remains to be seen who will take the center seat for this movie which is still in development, but if the current environment towards production dates holds, it should not delay the expected 2018 release date.

Last week Ben and Ray Lai, owners of Horizon Comics Productions, filed suit in the Federal Court of Massachusetts against Marvel and parent company Disney over claims that Marvel lifted the design of the Iron Man body armor designs from their own title, Radix.

The two allege that after they created Radix in 2001, they worked for a time for Marvel as artists, and that Radix materials had been distributed within Marvel. Then, in 2008 after the Lai brothers left Marvel, the first Iron Man movie came out, with a full mechanized body armor.

In the suit they say that “Marvel’s “Iron Man” comic book character first appeared in 1963. From that time until the first movie in the franchise was released, the comic typically depicted Iron Man wearing simple spandex-like attire and minimal armor.” But with the movie’s updated look and Marvel employees having access to the Radix designs, they believe their designs were lifted for the movies’ more modern high-tech armor.

However, it appears that their description of the “traditional” Iron Man armor isn’t quite accurate. Going all the way back to the first appearance of Iron Man in “Tales of Suspense #39”, we see him in full body armor…pretty clunky, and not unlike the armor Tony Stark built to escape his captors in the beginning of the 2008 movie. And through the years, although artistically you could probably mistake the depiction as being spandex, showing musculature, it was originally stylized full armor. And if you need other examples of full body armor with anatomical design, just do a Google image search for “George Clooney nipple suit” and witness the destruction of a franchise. 🙂

We’ll see what becomes of it. There is in fact a clear resemblance between a poster shot of Stark/Iron Man in a three point stance to a Radix promotional image…

This time we get to see glimpses of the plot – it seems that some group (Universal executives? 🙂 ) don’t want Britt Robertson and George Clooney to escape to Tomorrowland, which looks even more like the 50s/60s Disney-esque future city we thought we’d have by now…with a touch of steampunk to get between the worlds…

From Disney comes two-time Oscar® winner Brad Bird’s “Tomorrowland,” a riveting mystery adventure starring Academy Award® winner George Clooney. Bound by a shared destiny, former boy-genius Frank (Clooney), jaded by disillusionment, and Casey (Britt Robertson), a bright, optimistic teen bursting with scientific curiosity, embark on a danger-filled mission to unearth the secrets of an enigmatic place somewhere in time and space known only as “Tomorrowland.” What they must do there changes the world—and them—forever.

Featuring a screenplay by “Lost” writer and co-creator Damon Lindelof and Brad Bird, from a story by Lindelof & Bird & Jeff Jensen, “Tomorrowland” promises to take audiences on a thrill ride of nonstop adventures through new dimensions that have only been dreamed of.

The film also stars Hugh Laurie as brilliant scientist David Nix, Raffey Cassidy, Tim McGraw, Judy Greer, Kathryn Hahn, Keegan-Michael Key and Thomas Robinson.

“Tomorrowland” is produced by Damon Lindelof, Brad Bird and Jeffrey Chernov and directed by Brad Bird, with John Walker, Brigham Taylor, Jeff Jensen and Bernard Bellew serving as executive producers.

On the last day of Star Wars Celebration, Star Wars: Rogue One director Gareth Edwards joined Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy, Kiri Hart, and Pablo Hidalgo in a panel to discuss the “interstitial” Star Wars movies which are taking place outside the main saga stories and will be released in the years in between the saga releases. Kennedy announced that they are calling these movies the Star Wars Anthology Series.

Previous thoughts on Rogue One following the adventures of the Rebels’ Rogue Squadron were squashed as Edwards gave the basic premise, which takes place between Episode III and IV, and will “revolve around a rogue band of resistance fighters who unite for a daring mission to steal the Death Star plans and bring new hope to the galaxy.” Possibly the ones who got the plans to Princess Leia?

A sizzle real was shown (and well received from reports), but is not available online yet. The film will star Oscar winner Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything), but other cast members still have not been named.

This leaked out via a lousy cell phone video, so Warner Bros. Pictures has released the official teaser now for Zack Snyder’s Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice starring Henry Cavill as Superman and Ben Affleck taking over as Batman.

We still have to wait 11 months for the movie, which opens March 25th, 2016.