Sci-Fi Storm

It’s looking more and more like the classic trio of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo will be returning to tell the further story of Star Wars. Although there aren’t any details about plot yet, Carrie Fisher did confirm in an interview with Palm Beach Illustrated that she will return to the role of Leia.

And when asked what Princess Leia would be like today, she said, “Elderly. She’s in an intergalactic old folks’ home [laughs]. I just think she would be just like she was before, only slower and less inclined to be up for the big battle.”

She did not say for certain if it would be for Episode VII, a later episode or one of the “out of saga” movies, but presumably if they were bringing in the classic characters, even for cameos to kick off a new story, it would be in Episode VII.

Update: Seems there is a bit of premature announcement damage control going on. Fisher’s representative is now saying that Fisher was “joking”, and that no announcement has been made. Well yeah, we know no announcement has been made yet…but George Lucas himself seems to be spilling the beans too…

Here is the latest trailer for Iron Man 3…we see War Machine has a more patriotic design, and we get a good look at The Mandarin…and of course lots of booms and Tony Stark out for revenge…it opens in wide release and IMAX in the U.S. on May 3rd, and internationally on April 25th.
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Another member of the original X-Men movies has signed on to appear in the generation-linking X-Men: Days of Future Past. Halle Berry, who starred as Storm, has been confirmed to appear according to Deadline.

She joins past mutant players Patrick Stewart (Professor Xavier), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Anna Paquin (Rogue), Ellen Page (Kitty Pride), Shawn Ashmore (Iceman) and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine). I’m beginning to wonder which group the movie is actually about…

Warner Bros has said that that they are pushing back the release date for Part 3 of The Hobbit to December 17th, 2014 from its original July 18th date. This puts it in to the same holiday timeframe as the first two installments, and away from X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Not having been in a movie theater for a bit, I haven’t seen the full trailer for Jack the Giant Slayer, but I caught it on TV today – and I’ve got to say, for a movie that opens tomorrow vut I hadn’t really known about until more recently, this trailer has actually done its job and I’m interested in seeing it now…
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We still have to wait until December for the next part of The Hobbit – but we don’t have to wait that long to watch Part 1 at home. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be release on [sfs=1287]Blu-Ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1288]DVD[/sfs] in three weeks, on March 19th. Pre-order now!

The Oscars opened up last night to host Seth Macfarlane interrupted by a large-screen bearing the image of Captain James T. Kirk himself, having come back in time to help prevent Seth from being labeled the worst Oscar host ever (whether that was successful of not is a matter of opinion – although a number of jokes fell flat or may have been a little too off color, I think overall he did well – we did laugh hysterically at the “We saw your boobs” number…), but that was about the limit of the genre recognition – not that it was up for many awards. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Snow White and the Huntsman and Mirror, Mirror all came up empty.

The one place where it couldn’t use was the Animated Feature category, where it was it was generally felt to be a two-film race between Disney features, with Brave beating Wreck-it Ralph for the honor.

Henri is a Kickstarter-funded sci-fi short film starring Kier Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey) and Margot Kidder (Superman) and written and directed by Eli Sasich (Lifeless), about a derelict spaceship that becomes self-aware and builds itself a mechanical body in order to feel alive.

Although it has a 2001 feel about it (I couldn’t help but think that it could be HAL after the events of 2001, left alone…), it definitely looks cool.

The movie itself is available now online at www.henrithefilm.com to stream for $1.99 ($2.99 with a making-of feature), or for purchase on Blu-ray/DVD (from the website) or digital download on iTunes and [asin=B007R9L7DQ]Amazon[/asin].

Do you need a little extra help on your path as a Jedi – at least in how to handle a lightsaber? We’ll, you can just take a class.

In San Francisco some Star Wars fans got together and started offering a course in fighting with a lightsaber as the Golden Knights, led by Alain Bloch as the “Jedi Master”, who is actually has a background in martial arts and stage combat (and looks a bit like later-prequel Obi-Wan Kenobi…)

Although it sounds a bit silly, and some treat it as such at the start, many in the class come over to the Light Side. “At first they giggle because they think it’s a little silly. Then they’re like, actually that’s kind of cool,” said Julio Reyes, a student. “Then they start asking more questions.”

Although apparently there are a few Sith out there as well.

This isn’t the first class offered in fighting with a lightsaber – young Padawans have been taught the ways of the elegant weapon and fend of Darth Vader daily at Walt Disney World since 2007.

Apparently J.J. Abrams still isn’t satisfied with his workload…he was at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas today where he appeared on stage with Gabe Newell – the head of computer game maker Valve – the studio that produced the immensely popular Half-Life and Portal franchises.

And of course, they announced a partnership, under the guise of a conversation about the strengths and weaknesses of storytelling in movies and games.

J.J. Abrams said, “There’s an idea we have for a game that we’d like to work with Valve on.”

And perhaps the bigger news, “We’re going to figure out if we can make a Portal movie or Half-Life movie together,” according to Newell.