Sci-Fi Storm

The extended edition of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is available for pre-order now…it is available in [sfs=1440]Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/Digital[/sfs] and [sfs=1438]Blu-ray/Digital[/sfs] versions – no U.S. DVD release has been announced yet. Amazon also has an exclusive gift pack featuring a special Weta figurine depicting the river barrel run…that is available in both the [sfs=1439]Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/Digital[/sfs] and [sfs=1441]Blu-ray/Digital[/sfs] editions as well!

The extended edition adds 25 minutes of additional footage to the original feature, plus another 9 hours of bonus features!

Check out the extended edition trailer below, plus as an added extra, watch how they created the river scene…

We finally have a few details on the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron! FRom Marvel’s release:

Marvel Studios presents Avengers: Age of Ultron, the epic follow-up to the biggest Super Hero movie of all time. When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure.

Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron stars Robert Downey Jr., who returns as Iron Man, along with Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk. Together with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and with the additional support of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, the team must reassemble to defeat James Spader as Ultron, a terrifying technological villain hell-bent on human extinction. Along the way, they confront two mysterious and powerful newcomers, Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen, and Pietro Maximoff, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and meet an old friend in a new form when Paul Bettany becomes Vision.

Written and directed by Joss Whedon and produced by Kevin Feige, Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series The Avengers, first published in 1963. Louis D’Esposito, Alan Fine, Victoria Alonso, Jeremy Latcham, Patricia Whitcher, Stan Lee and Jon Favreau serve as executive producers. Get set for an action-packed thrill ride when The Avengers return in Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron on May 1, 2015.

An interesting note about “an old friend in a new form” and Vision. Vision is an android in most versions of the comics. Paul Bettany is the voice of Jarvis…are we getting a new version of Vision for the movie?

Looks like it is about time for the annual update on the lawsuit between games-maker Hasbro and Sweetpea Entertainment over the rights to films based on Hasbro’s Dungeons & Dragons game franchise.

The case has finally opened in court, and Deadline reports that the juryless trial has opened with a volley of magic missiles between the parties.

Patricia Glaser, the lawyer representing Sweetpea, claims that the lawsuit is simply an attempt by Hasbro to re-capture the rights in order to hand them over to Universal, while Sweetpea has met all the requirements to maintain the rights according to their 1994 agreement with then-D&D owner TSR, having produced several (poorly performing) sequels, including a 2010 direct-to-DVD release that they say Hasbro even signed off on. They go on to claim that since acquiring Wizards of the Coast in 1999, which had previously acquired TSR in 1997, Hasbro has been trying to undermine Sweetpea’s rights to the franchise.

Hasbro counter-claims that Sweetpea was doing nothing except producing “auto-sequels” and was not paying the required licensing fees.

An interested third party in this is Warner Bros, who after failing to negotiate proper rights with Hasbro to a movie based on Chainmail, the predecessor to Dungeons & Dragons, partnered with Sweetpea to take over the franchise rights. WB is apparently putting up as much as $1 million for legal fees for Sweetpea in the case.

The case is expected to last the rest of the week.

I have no idea how this flew underneath my radar…but apparently at SDCC, JMS mentioned his plans for Babylon 5.

He’s said many times that Warner Bros owns all the TV rights to Babylon 5, and that he’ll never see more money from TV. However, when he negotiated the deal with WB, he managed to retain feature film rights for himself. It seems that WB would still get a cut, making it highly unlikely any other studio would touch the project – but JMS doesn’t have just any other studio in mind…he has Studio JMS, which now has had enough success that it is feasible for it to fund a feature film. So now he plans to have a script done by 2015, and WB will have one year to decide to move forward with it – otherwise in 2016 Studio JMS will do it.

It isn’t certain what form the movie would take, but whispers across the Interweb seem to indicate that it will be a reboot of some form.

Three years removed from the last film and five from the last book, but hot on the heals of a theme park expansion, Warner Bros is hoping to keep Harry Potter fresh and in the minds of people who spend money. They just created the “Harry Potter Global Franchise Development” (HPGFD) which will oversee the relationship with author and HP creator J.K. Rowling, with Josh Berger, currently a Managing Director and the President of Warner UK, Ireland and Spain, at the helm.

What does it mean? For the most part, the group will manage the strategic vision for the brand across all the ancillary business units, including merchandise, online (web sites like Pottermore), theme parks, etc. And who’s to say they won’t also be asking for some more material to work with from J.K.? A new film is already on the way (Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them) along with two more theme park lands (Universal Studios Hollywood and Japan), and a stage play opening in London next year. And the fans want more Harry (perhaps to Daniel Radcliffe’s chagrin), so I think we’ll someday see at least more words written about the Boy Who Lived.

Opens November 21st, 2014

The long-awaited next installment in the Mad Max franchise will debut in theaters on May 15, 2015, starring Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises) and Charlize Theron (Prometheus).
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Speaking of the Guardians of the Galaxy, which opens this weekend, Marvel also announced the Guardians SDCC panel featuring star Chris Pratt and director James Gunn that they have already set a sequel for the movie, which is slotted for July 28, 2017.

With less than a week to the premiere of the live action flick which is to herald a new phase in Marvel’s transition of comics to other media, earlier today at SDCC Marvel announced that Guardians of the Galaxy will get an animated series as well, to air on Disney XD at a time/date to be determined later. They did show a 1 minute teaser featuring Skylord and Rocket. Marvel unfortunately didn’t give any further details, but no one seemed to mind…