Sci-Fi Storm

Although people who purchased [sfs=1287]The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey[/sfs] were able to watch Peter Jackson’s presentation and preview of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug live (and if you missed it and have an Ultraviolet code, you can still watch it), you can watch an excerpt of the question and answer section right here…and you might recognize a couple of the people asking questions…
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This UK trailer for Star Trek: Into Darkness is sure to generate some heat…interesting that Cumberbatch’s “I’m better…at everything” lines could apply to either Khan or Mitchell… 🙂
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Tomorrow is the big day – the first installment of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is released on [sfs=1287]Blu-ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1288]DVD[/sfs] tomorrow. And while we have to wait until December for part 2, The Desolation of Smaug, we can now journey back to Middle-earth to our heart’s content to see how the journey began…(don’t forget…you can use your Ultraviolet code from either version to access the Peter Jackson Q&A session and get the first sneak peek at The Desolation of Smaug on 3/24!)

(And I’ve discovered that I’ve probably been pronouncing Smaug wrong for many, many years…I’ve always just said “Smog”, but it seems it should be two syllables, something approximating “Sma-oohg”.)

First, let’s talk a bit about the feature…An Unexpected Journey covers approximately the first third of the book, up through the Gollum and goblin fights. From my own memory I thought it covered a lot more of the book, but it really is about a third. And it holds pretty true, at least from my memories of the book, which are probably about 15 years removed. It does start with a link-in to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, in the form of the older Bilbo (played Ian Holm again) writing in the Red Book, while explaining to Frodo (Elijah Wood) about his big adventure, showing events that took place just prior to his birthday party but weren’t shown in the The Fellowship of the Ring. This serves as a gateway in to the story using the familiar characters, and then flashes back to the younger Bilbo (now played by Martin Freeman), just before he is about to receive quite a few unexpected visitors.
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We could see a new Snake Plissken soon…Studio Canal is partnering with Joel Silver’s Silver Pictures to come up with a new take on John Carpenter’s Escape From New York story and it’s convict-turned-hero character played by Kurt Russell, which became a cult classic in 1981 and had a 1996 sequel, Escape From L.A..

According to Deadline, the new version is expect to be expanded into a trilogy starting with an origin story (we assume of Plissken), and Studio Canal will fund development before shopping for a studio.

New Line attempted a reboot several years ago, and had several actors under consideration for the role of Snake, including Gerard Butler, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hardy, but let the rights lapse back in 2011. It’s too early to attach any actors at this point.

Jai Courtney (A Good Day To Die Hard) will join Shailene Woodley (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) in Divergent, based on the [asin=0062024035]dystopian Veronica Roth novel[/asin] often being compared to The Hunger Games in young adult circles (and not just because of the similar-looking symbol on the cover of the book…).

Divergent is about a future in which everyone is divided into factions based on their personality. Those who don’t fit exactly into one of 5 factions are labeled as Divergents. Beatrice “Tris” Prior (Woodley) is a Divergent, showing traits of 3 factions. After undergoing a trial to join the brave Dauntless faction, she discovers what it really means to be Divergent – and why it can be dangerous.

Courtney’s role has not been identified yet. Evan Daugherty (Snow White and the Huntsman ) wrote the script and it will be directed by Neil Burger (The Illusionist ).

Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson will host a live first look at The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second film in The Hobbit Trilogy, on Sunday, March 24 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern/12pm Pacific at www.hobbit.com/sneak. Just added: The live event will now include a Q&A with Jackson and fans! Video questions can be submitted beginning March 12 through March 19 on “The Hobbit” Facebook page, or through the Vine mobile app using the hashtag #askPeterJackson. Fans can also Tweet links to video questions using the hashtag #askPeterJackson. The live event will be limited to holders of an UltraViolet™ code, available by purchasing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which arrives on [sfs=1287]Blu-ray Combo Pack[/sfs], [asin=B00BEZTMWW]Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack[/asin] and [sfs=1288]2-disc DVD Special Edition[/sfs] on March 19. Visit thehobbit.com/sneak for more information.

We still don’t know the real name of Cumberbatch’s character…but lots and lots of action…can’t wait…
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I’ve been hearing about this for a while, but this is the first I’ve seen decent footage of it…After Earth features the father-son team of Will and Jaden Smith as a military father and son (shocking!) who failed Ranger training, who crash land on a distant future, hostile Earth and try to survive to be rescued.

After Earth opens June 7th.
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It seems the U.K. will find out who their superactor Benedict Cumberbatch is really playing before the U.S. will…according to Deadline, the movie premiere has been pushed up to Thursday, May 9th, the week ahead of the U.S. release (May 15th for IMAX, May 17th for wide release).

Buried on the last page of an article with Businessweek about Disney’s plans for the Star Wars franchise, George Lucas was asked the billion dollar question – have the Big Three – Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford – all signed on for the next Star Wars movie.

“We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison—or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation. So I called them to say, ‘Look, this is what’s going on.’ ” he said. “Maybe I’m not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them.”

Did he let the Jawa out of the bag? Fisher is already saying she is involved but her rep is now retracting that saying she was “joking”, so it all seems to be just waiting for the official word from Disney. (Could they be waiting for Star Wars Weekends, which start in May? Seems unlikely…)

He added, “I won’t say whether the negotiations were successful or not.” Sure, George…