Sci-Fi Storm

Finally had a chance to check out the third installment of The Chronicles Of Narnia, and the first without Disney’s involvement, Voyage Of The Dawn Treader. It’s been a while since I’ve read the book so I’m not sure of the total differences (and I’m sure there are many due to it being made into a film). The real question is, did Fox and a much smaller budget have a good or bad influence?
(continue reading…)

The National Film Preservation Board, part of the Library Of Congress Archives, has released its list of 25 films to be added to the National Film Registry, where the films are to be specially preserved against degradation and damage (now if only that could include bans against horrible remakes). This year’s list includes The Empire Strikes Back and Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB (George Lucas’ original short that led to the full THX 1138). With Star Wars: A New Hope already in the registry (added in 1989), I expect we’ll eventually see Return Of The Jedi as well – but perhaps not the pre-trilogy.

I’ve been hearing many polarized opinions about Tron: Legacy, from a special effects-laden visual spectacular with zero plot to a thousand-fold better story than the original – alas, my own opinion won’t be formed until after the holiday weekend due to scheduling. But regardless of opinions, the facts show that people are watching it – to the tune of $43.6 million domestic over opening weekend, including a record 25% of that coming from IMAX showings. This was far over the #2 debut of the hybrid live action/CGI Yogi Bear, which took in $16.7 million on what is being considered a soft weekend at the box office.

Syfy Ventures and Universal will be partnering up to launch Syfy Films, a film company that will leverage Syfy’s knowledge of the science fiction, fantasy, horror and supernatural genres and aims to produce 1-2 films a year starting in 2012. The joint venture will be headed by Mark Stern, Syfy’s head of original programming and and co-head of content at Universal Cable, and Donna Langley, co-chair of Universal Pictures.

The obvious question is – will we get space opera ala Battlestar Galactica, or monster movies ala Sharktopus?

Jon Favreau, who brought Iron Man to the screen twice to large box offices and bringing comic-based movies back to the forefront, has told Marvel Studios he will not return for Iron Man 3. I’m sure we’ll get an official reason from one or both sides soon (and will likely step around the issue), but the street-word is that it was either the studio wanting to throw in a bunch of other Marvel heroes into the movie in the hopes of seeding more spinoffs (I thought that was what The Avengers was for?), and/or Favreau’s price tag this time around. And with Marvel now owned by Disney (they paid $4 billion for Marvel, and another $115 million to Paramount to fully own the rights to Iron Man 3 and The Avengers), Disney dislikes the idea of too many gross-based contracts skimming off their money.

Let me throw out another idea – rather than throwing in more heroes to seed more movies, Disney may want to take advantage of their ownership to seed their theme parks, which thus far have not benefited from the acquisition and thanks to Universal Orlando’s open-ended contact for a number of the major characters (Spider-Man, The Hulk, etc.), Disney would need to raise visibility of some to be able to capitalize.

Favreau will still work with Disney in the near-term, however – he’s working on the tentatively-titled Magic Kingdom project, which deals with a family trapped in the Disney park at night – where the the characters come to life.

Update: Jon Favreau confirmed the news on Twitter.

Marvel/Paramount released a new trailer for Thor yesterday. Wow!

Thor will be released on May 6th, 2011.

Cate Blanchett has signed on to reprise the role of Galadriel in The Hobbit – although how she will fit in is unknown as I don’t recall her in the book – but it would help bridge some familiarity to the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Also confirmed (finally) is Sylvester McCoy playing the wizard Radagast the Brown, as well as Ken Stott (Casanova) as Balin; Swedish actor Mikael Persbrandt (Everlasting Moments) as Beorn, the skin-changer; Ryan Gage (Hamlet) as Drogo Baggins; and William Kircher (Out Of The Blue) and Jed Brophy (District 9) as the dwarves Bifur and Nori. Brophy is no stranger to Middle-Earth either – he appeared in the The Two Towers and The Return Of The King as different orcs.

Peter Jackson will be filming The Hobbit for 3D, and he will be doing it with the brand new RED EPIC camera, the successor to the successful RED One digital camera. The EPIC will have a “5k” resolution, which means the horizontal resolution will exceed 5,000 pixels (the EPIC is reportedly 5120×2700). By comparison, “1080p” for your standard HD TV is 1920×1080. This allows for better theater projection resolutions and also allows for limited digital zooming to reframe shots without re-shoots.

The size of the EPIC makes it far more practical for 3D filming, where they have to mount two cameras together to get the stereoscopic view. Dual mounted Panavision cameras are quite heavy and bulky.

Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) recently spoke with Reuters about both parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Regarding the slow pace of the first part, Radcliffe said, “In (Harry Potter) seven … people keep talking about ‘Oh it’s an action movie’ (but) … this is so sedate compared to what the next one is going to be like. The next film, because you’ve had all the plot set up already, you can just kind of enjoy the insanity of all the action.”

When asked about Rupert Grint describing Part 2 as a “war movie”, Radcliffe retorted, “They’ve all stolen my line! My pitch (for Deathly Hallows 1 and 2) was that it’s a road movie that turns into a heist movie that turns into a war film. I was saying it to Rupert and Emma (Watson) the other day. Damn it! The last movie is going to be really, really fast-paced and a load of action in it and it is like a war film. If we had done this book in one film, the stuff that would have got cut is most of this film. For me that is the most interesting part of the story, because it’s where the characters develop and change.”

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 will be released on July 15th, 2011.

See the whole interview here.

Walt Disney Pictures and Imagemovers Digital are releasing the animated motion-capture feature Mars Needs Moms, based on the illustrated book by Berkeley Breathed (Pulitzer Prize winner for the comic strip Bloom County) on March 11th, 2011, and features the talents of Seth Green, Dan Fogler, Elisabeth Harnois, Mindy Sterling, Kevin Cahoon and Joan Cusack, and is directed by Simon Wells, who also shares the screenplay credits with Wendy Wells. The movie is produced by the team of Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke, Steve Starkey, and Steven Boyd.
(continue reading…)