Sci-Fi Storm

Just announced today, and I believe the first celebrity announcement aside from James Arnold Taylor returning as host, is a big one…for the first time ever, Star Wars‘ own Luke Skywalker will appear at Disney’s Hollywood Studios during Star Wars Weekends.

He will be there for one particular weekend – Weekend IV, which is June 6-8. He will take part in the daily “Legends of the Force” motorcade and “talk show”, and presumably (but not confirmed) he will be signing autographs at a few points during the day. If you’re hoping to snag an autograph, though, beware – Disney uses it’s FASTPASS system for celebrity autographs, giving them out just before the park opens for the day – and the lines can form very, very early in the morning for top guests…people reportedly lined up close to midnight for the next day for Billy Dee Williams last year.

The final trailer…opens May 2nd, 2014

Typically a shareholder meeting isn’t generally where you get exciting news, but Disney isn’t your typical company. At this afternoon’s meeting, they gave hints of many upcoming things. Top on the list on the movie front was a peek at the timeline for Star Wars Episode VII, which will take place 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, which is no accident – it’s just over 30 years since the release of Return of the Jedi, which means the actors from the original trilogy will be – wait for it – 30 years older. And given that Chairman Bob Iger said that there will be “very familiar faces returning,” I think we know what that means. He also said that there would be three new young leads, lending credence to past rumors. Principal photography is expected to start this May.

Also mentioned is that Disney/Pixar is working on two new sequels – Cars 3 and Incredibles 2, but gave no further details. In addition, a fifth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean is in development, but has not been given a green light on production.

The full trailer, just released…Maleficent hits theaters May 30th.

Deadline reports today that Fredrick Pohl’s classic SF novel [asin=0345475836]Gateway[/asin] is being adapted as a drama series for TV by Entertainment One Television and De Laurentiis Co.

De Laurentiis has been watching the rights for Gateway for a while, and pursued it aggressively when it became available, always with the idea of it being a TV series as opposed to a feature film. “Television gives us the opportunity of exploring the rich world of the novel and the complexity of its characters,” executive producer Martha De Laurentiis said. De Laurentiis has a long history with novel adaptations, with the 1984 massive Dune the best known.

Gateway revolves around a space station discovered inside an asteroid built by an alien race called the Heechee, who have long since disappeared. Humans struggle to learn the technology left behind, with little success. Among the abandoned equipment are approximately one thousand small starships, capable of taking one, three, or five crewmembers on a potentially highly profitable journey – but incredibly dangerous, as while they have figured out how to select a destination, they have no idea how long it will take to get there, in which case starvation is entirely possible, or what other dangers they may face along the way or when they arrive. Many never return, but for the chance of untold riches many volunteer. Robinette Broadhead is one of them, having one a lottery to make enough money for a one-way trip to Gateway, and the chance for more. He returns very rich – and very haunted…

Gateway won the 1977 Nebula Award and 1978 Hugo, Locus and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards for Science Fiction Best Novel.

Transformers: Age of Extinction opens June 27, 2014.
(continue reading…)

The genre curse lives on – it seemed as if Gravity had a decent shot at breaking the the curse that no science fiction or fantasy film has ever won the Academy Award for Best Picture, especially after director Alfonso Cuarón won Best Director (but don’t tell him we’re calling Gravity science fiction – he doesn’t think it is) – and it’s somewhat rare for Best Director and Best Picture to not go to the same film. But it wasn’t to be, as the Best Picture nod went to 12 Years A Slave, which itself was a likely winner for either award as well. But it did come away with 6 statues, including Best Director, Original Score, Film Editing, Cinematography, Sound Editing, and Visual Effects.

Pretty intense…the monster doesn’t look anything like the classic one, except for perhaps the back plates, and is apparently a LOT larger. The discordian? music at one point reminds me of the wormhole scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
(continue reading…)

With the growing popularity of Star Wars Weekends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park in Walt Disney World, it is perhaps not surprising that they are adding a fifth weekend this year. And maybe not surprising that the theme is “Join the Rebellion”, which will likely tie in Star Wars Rebels. But what is surprising that perhaps the biggest part of the weekends, the Hyperspace Hoopla that happens at the end of the day and features a “dance off” of sorts with the Star Wars characters, is apparently not going to happen this year.

Check out our sister side WDW Untangled for more and continuing coverage of Star Wars Weekends.