Sci-Fi Storm

Forget the Oscars – the 2012 Saturn Award nominees were announced today by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, and the complete, long list of nominees are below. Hugo and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 each received 10 nominations to lead in the movie nominations, while AMC’s Breaking Bad led the TV categories with six nominations, one ahead of Fox’s American Horror Story.
(continue reading…)

Here is the latest trailer for the Avengers (which in the UK is called Marvel Avengers Assemble!):

If you’ve been waiting for Ghostbusters 3, it might be time to find something else to wait for.

In a recent interview with The Telegraph, actor/writer Dan Aykroyd, who has been trying to get Ghostbusters 3 going for a while, appears to be frustrated – and the cause still appears to be fellow Ghostbuster Bill Murray.

“I honestly don’t know. At this point it’s in suspended animation,” he said. “The studio, the director Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis feel there must be a way to do it, but Bill Murray will not do the movie. He doesn’t want to be involved. He’s got six kids, houses all over America. He golfs in these tournaments where they pay him to turn up and have a laugh. He’s into this life and living it. I know we’d have a lot of fun [but] I can’t be mad at him. He’s a friend first, a colleague second. We have a deep personal relationship that transcends business and he doesn’t want to know.”

There could be other options – the article says they could consider recasting (something that I don’t think would go well for the fans) or making Venkman a CGI ghost (which would likely still require Murray’s approval), and there is always writing him out completely. But in the same vein, they don’t want to make the movie just to make a movie. “We’re not going to do a movie that exploits the franchise,” he added. “The script has to be perfect. I’m the cheerleader, but I’m only one voice in the matter. It’s a surety that Bill Murray will not do the movie, however there is still interest from the studio.”

Wonder who the Weyland of Weland-Yutani Corporation (i.e. “the Company”) was in the Alien franchise? Now we have a bit of an answer – Peter Weyland a man who wants to “change the world”, speaking at the TED conference – in 2023. See the video below, and head on over to Weyland Industries, the company that in the future will merge with Yutani Corp…Prometheus will be release on June 8th, 2012.
(continue reading…)

OK, this looks like the first salvo from Disney’s renewed marketing push…an extended scene involving John Carter’s battle with the white apes in the gladiator ring, plus another trailer-type montage following it.

Does this improve things? At first, I was thinking how fake the whole jumping and landing looked – but then again, he’s supposedly fighting on a world with less gravity – maybe it isn’t so far fetched.

Disney’s John Carter, based on the Barsoom series of novels by author Edgar Rice Burroughs, opens March 9th, but Disney is scrambling to save the big budget film from bad buzz…and Disney itself may be to blame.

Last month it was announced that tracking numbers for the movie were mind-numbingly poor – people just weren’t that interested in it. And why should they be? Do you know what the movie is about? People who read this site might, especially since I described what it was based on above…but if you only went by the trailers, would you know? Or would you think it’s just a Conan clone? It wasn’t helped by the fact that “of Mars” was dropped from the title in all marketing material last year, which might have actually clued people in more as to the subject – I know people familiar with the books who didn’t know the movie was based on them. The title doesn’t give any indication what the movie is about, except it is about a guy. But Disney was apparently skittish about associating any movie with the planet Mars, given the massive flop of Mars Needs Moms, as well as previous Mars movies – Disney also had flops in Mission to Mars and Mars Attacks!. Disney’s former marketing president, MT Carney, has taken most of the blame but there were failures at several levels.
(continue reading…)

In just over a month, the highly anticipated The Hunger Games hits the screens. To help promote the movie, fans in some cities will have the opportunity to meet the tributes as they embark on a national mall tour, kicking off on March 3rd in Los Angeles!

Cast members including Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson will be participating in local festivities on the eight-city tour, sponsored by the Microsoft Store, China Glaze, and h2O Spring Water. Fans in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, Phoenix, Dallas, Miami, Chicago, and Minneapolis can participate in Q&As and enter giveaways to win Hunger Games Gear.

Check out the schedule for who, where and when…then catch the latest TV spots (via ScreenRant):
(continue reading…)

Michael Stahl-David (Cloverfield) and Zoe Kazan (Fracture) have been tagged to star in Joss Whedon’s In Your Eyes, described as a “sci-fi/romance” which is “a metaphysical love story about two seemingly polar opposites who are deeply connected in ways neither could have ever imagined.”

Stahl-David playes Dylan, an ex-con convicted of robbery and living in a trailer in New Mexico, while Kazan plays Rebecca, an awkward woman married to an older doctor and living in Connecticut. The two share a connection in which they each can hear and see the other, yet they have never met.

This is just breaking: Scottish actor Billy Connolly (The Last Samurai, Brave) will join the cast of The Hobbit as Dain Ironfoot, the cousin to Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage, Robin Hood). And it appears that there are just around 100 days left of shooting!

Seems like casting rumors have run rampant lately about various movies. First up, the David Yates-led Doctor Who movie that Steven Moffat insists isn’t happening? Well, apparently Daniel Radcliffe had been associated with the role – which was an absolute surprise to him, and he seemed taken aback that anyone but Matt Smith would be playing the role:
(continue reading…)