Sci-Fi Storm

Disney CEO Bob Iger announced during the company’s regular earnings call that Joss Whedon is on board to direct a sequel to the blockbuster movie The Avengers – big news enough – but then also said that Whedon is also developing a live action series using Marvel characters! More when we get it…

Update: Marvel Studios confirms the deal, along with a targeted 2015 release for the sequel. Whedon also has an exclusive deal for film and television development with Marvel Studios until the end of June 2015.

A film based on William Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer, long considered to be the book that defined the “cyberpunk” genre, has been a long time coming, with talk of a film dating back to the late 80s, but nothing ever really getting very far. Now it seems it is on the verge of production.

Back in 2010, Vincenzo Natali (Cube) was attached to direct the film and would rewrite an earlier script, and then in 2011 GFM Films, then merging with Seven Arts, acquired the rights and retained Natali, with the film enter pre-production with an eye towards a 2012 production start.

Well, we’re more than half-way through 2012, and there has been some increasing heat – but in the meantime, GFM Films kinda silently noted on its web site back in June that Liam Neeson and Mark Wahlberg have been offered play-or-pay contracts for the roles of Armitage and Case, respectively. “Play-or-pay” contracts basically mean that the actors will get paid according to the terms of the contract even if the film doesn’t get made or they are otherwise separated from the production (unless they leave of their own accord.)

Does this mean we will finally get to see a vision of Gibson’s Cyberspace on the big screen?

Neuromancer follows Henry Dorsett Case, a drug addict and former computer hacker who ends up in the employ of the mysterious ex-military Armitage, who repairs his neural computer interface so he can perform a task for Armitage.

In two separate suits, both Marvel and NBCU/Syfy are being sued for alleged trademark and copyright infringements.

Marvel (along with Disney corporate sibling Buena Vista Home Entertainment) is being sued by the German luggage manufacturer who made a special luxury briefcase used in the movie. Not because if its use in the movie, however – they had permission – but because Marvel/BVHE planned to distribute a [sfs=1253]special box set of Avengers movies[/sfs] in a replica attache case, and they haven’t received permission for that – yet.

In the other case, Preston Asevedo, a Louisiana artist, filed suit against NBC Universal/Syfy and the creators of the show Dream Machines over the use of a piece of art that can be seen on the outside sign of the Parker Brothers’ shop in each episode of the recently aired first season of the show, where the brothers and their team build custom futuristic vehicles for celebrities and charities. Check out the images below of the original work and the one seen in the show:

It isn’t just similar – it looks like someone took the original, inverted it and dressed it up. It also appears that Asevedo had contacted the Parkers, who acknowledged that they used a variation of the art for their own logo but were unable to determine who the original artist was, and wanted to work with Asevedo to give him credit and remuneration. But apparently they weren’t able to reach and agreement, and Asevedo filed suit.

Lesson learned – unless the art is provably in the public domain, make sure you get permission or don’t use it…

Here is the final movie poster for Judge Dredd. I think Karl Urban has the trademark scowl down, no?

(click to magnabiggen)

See what happens when you work for 24 hours straight without much net access? You miss BIG news.

Peter Jackson announced on his Facebook page yesterday that The Hobbit will, in fact, be split into three films, instead of the originally planned two:

It is only at the end of a shoot that you finally get the chance to sit down and have a look at the film you have made. Recently Fran, Phil and I did just this when we watched for the first time an early cut of the first movie – and a large chunk of the second. We were really pleased with the way the story was coming together, in particular, the strength of the characters and the cast who have brought them to life. All of which gave rise to a simple question: do we take this chance to tell more of the tale? And the answer from our perspective as the filmmakers, and as fans, was an unreserved ‘yes.’

We know how much of the story of Bilbo Baggins, the Wizard Gandalf, the Dwarves of Erebor, the rise of the Necromancer, and the Battle of Dol Guldur will remain untold if we do not take this chance. The richness of the story of The Hobbit, as well as some of the related material in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, allows us to tell the full story of the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and the part he played in the sometimes dangerous, but at all times exciting, history of Middle-earth.

So, without further ado and on behalf of New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Wingnut Films, and the entire cast and crew of “The Hobbit” films, I’d like to announce that two films will become three.

It has been an unexpected journey indeed, and in the words of Professor Tolkien himself, “a tale that grew in the telling.”

Lionsgate confirmed today that acress Jena Malone (Hatfields & McCoys, Sucker Punch) has been cast in the role of Johanna Mason in the upcoming sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Mason is a former victor of the games but left psychologically scarred from the experience – and is selected to take part in the 75th Hunger Games, “The Quarter Quell”.

One of the most eagerly awaited castings (at least according to my The Hunger Games loving tween daughter) is who will play the role of 24 year old heartthrob Tribute Finnick Odair – and it appears that they may have found their man in Sam Claflin, probably best known for his roles as William in Snow White and the Hunstman, and Philip in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. It’s not confirmed yet, but it appears that it is awaiting his acceptance.

If true, he will beat some better known names, such as Tron: Legacy star Garrett Hedlund and Mirror Mirror‘s Armie Hammer.

Actress Amanda Plummer, who has appeared on stage and screen in a wide range of projects including Pulp Fiction, So I Married an Axe Murderer and L.A. Law, will play the eccentric tribute Wiress from District 3 in the sequel to The Hunger Games, Catching Fire. Wiress, nicknamed “Nuts”, is a survivor of a previous Games, but became mentally unstable – she however retains a highly analytical mind.

We already know The Hobbit was being split up into two films, with subtitles “An Unexpected Journey” and “There and Back Again”. But producer/director Peter Jackson sparked rumors that it could in fact become three movies!

While speaking at Comic-Con during which he showed footage of the films, he said that he’d like to film some more footage. “We’ve been certainly talking to the studio about some of the material we can’t film,” he said. “And we’ve been asking them if we can do a bit more filming next year. Which I don’t know what would come of that, whether that would be extended additions or not. But those discussions are ongoing. I’d like to shoot a bunch more material that we can’t shoot. There’s so much good stuff in the appendices that we haven’t been able to squeeze into these movies. That’s a discussion that we’re having.”

It appears that the stuff they “can’t” film is stuff from the appendices, but that they DO have rights to film material from notes that Tolkien made about The Hobbit, and was included in the end of Return of the King.

But with the first movie making it’s debut this December, is it too late to be thinking about reorganizing the films to add footage?

Update: I missed this, but the studio (Warner Bros) told Variety there are “no planned or surprise announcements” involving a third film. “The plan was always for two.”

Popular horror game and movie series Silent Hill will get a little more real this fall, when both Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Florida adds a maze themed on the property to their Halloween Horror Nights events for 2012 – just before the latest movie installment, Silent Hill: Revelation 3D, is released nationwide on October 26th.

From the press release:
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