Sci-Fi Storm

The full trailer, just released…Maleficent hits theaters May 30th.

Check out the latest trailer for Disney’s Maleficent, which re-tells the Sleeping Beauty story from the point of view of the evil witch…this trailer blends some of the original movie’s animation with the re-spun live action scenes as well.
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While details of what is exactly going to be in it, Walt Disney World finally broke ground at its Animal Kingdom park to add the new land based on James Cameron’s Avatar – more than two years after it was announced.

And not only was Mickey Mouse present, but a Na’vi as well – as well as (pictured, l to r) George Kalogridis, president of Walt Disney World Resort; Meg Crofton, president of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Operations, United States and France; Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts; Jon Landau, producer of Avatar; Bruce Vaughn, chief creative executive for Walt Disney Imagineering; and Joe Rhode, creative executive for Walt Disney Imagineering.

Check out the video as well for what they said about Avatar.
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Classic science fiction film Forbidden Planet and Disney’s Mary Poppins will join Pulp Fiction, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Magnificent Seven and others as the 25 films chosen to join the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress this year.

Being inducted into the Registry means that the Library’s Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation takes special effort to insure that the film is preserved for future generations.

The National Film Preservation Board selects the inductees, and is taking nominations for 2014.

In a further consolidation of distribution and marketing rights from studios it has acquired in recent years, Disney has reached an agreement with Paramount to acquire the rights for any future Indiana Jones films – not that they’ve announced any plans for them.

Paramount retains the distribution rights for the existing films and will receive a cut of future ones.

Disney and Paramount reached similar agreements over Iron Man 3 and The Avengers after Disney acquired Marvel.

Now with Lucasfilm, Disney will produce, distribute and market all future Star Wars and Indiana Jones films. Does this mean we will see more Indy? Well, right now Disney seems to have all of the Lucasfilm guns aimed at Star Wars Episode VII as well as a couple ancillary Star Wars films and a new upcoming animated series, Star Wars: Rebels, and they haven’t announced anything for the future of Indy, but it seems an unusual deal if Disney didn’t plan on doing something, since it only applies to future productions. So it seems likely we’ll be hearing something in the near future…

Disney and Netflix issued a joint statement today about a plan to bring several series and a miniseries to Netflix based on Marvel characters, including Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron First and Luke Cage, over the course of several years, culminating in The Defenders, a “mini-series event that reimagines a dream team of self-sacrificing, heroic characters.”

“This deal is unparalleled in its scope and size, and reinforces our commitment to deliver Marvel’s brand, content and characters across all platforms of storytelling. Netflix offers an incredible platform for the kind of rich storytelling that is Marvel’s specialty,” said Alan Fine, President of Marvel Entertainment. “This serialized epic expands the narrative possibilities of on-demand television and gives fans the flexibility to immerse themselves how and when they want in what’s sure to be a thrilling and engaging adventure.”

“Marvel’s movies, such as ‘Iron Man’ and Marvel’s ‘The Avengers’, are huge favorites on our service around the world. Like Disney, Marvel is a known and loved brand that travels,” said Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. “With ‘House of Cards’ and our other original series, we have pioneered new approaches to storytelling and to global distribution and we’re thrilled to be working with Disney and Marvel to take our brand of television to new levels with a creative project of this magnitude.”

This new original TV deal follows last year’s landmark movie distribution deal through which, beginning with 2016 theatrically released feature films, Netflix will be the exclusive U.S. subscription television service for first-run, live-action and animated movies from the Walt Disney Studios, including titles from Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, Disneynature and Lucasfilm. Netflix members can currently enjoy a wide range of Disney, ABC TV and Disney Channel films and shows across the 41 countries where Netflix operates.

Stan Lee Media has lost yet again.

Back in October 2012 the company (no longer associated with the real Stan Lee) filed a $5.5 billion lawsuit against Disney, stating that Stan Lee had signed over the rights to his characters to the predecessor company of Stan Lee Media, and therefore Disney does not own any of the rights when they purchased Marvel in 2009. They have sued in other courts before, notably in New York and California, and been dismissed. This time it was in Colorado, but U.S. District Judge William J. Martinez agreed with the previous rulings, even noting them in his own, and adding that those decisions preclude it from litigating the matter further, and dismissed the case with prejudice (in other words, cannot be refiled.)

It seems that two things that people thought would never happen are happening…first, Harvey Weinstein is going to work with Disney again. Harvey and his brother Bob sold their Miramax Films to Disney in 1993, but continued running the studio until 2005, when they had a very public split with Disney and formed The Weinstein Company. But now it appears that a film that’s been on the backburner at Miramax for over a decade has resulted in both sides putting aside the past, with the hopes of finally producing a film based on author Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series.

The books are about an extremely intelligent and rich Irish criminal mastermind, Artemis Fowl II – who happens to be just 12 years old, descended from a long line of criminal masterminds. With his mother suffering from a nervous breakdown, he’s determined to find his missing father, and will stop and nothing…even if it means revealing and potentially destroying the world of the fairies, who have moved underground.

“If you would have told me five years ago I would be producing a project with Disney I would have thought you were crazy,” Weinstein, Co-Chairman of The Weinstein Company, said. “I feel as though everything is coming full circle considering Bob DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal brought me this book while I was still at Miramax and within hours I told them I wanted the rights to the film.

“This is a special project for me because my children absolutely love this book. This story is for everyone and there is no one better than Disney to make a film that will excite people young and old.”

DeNiro and Rosenthal will executive produce the project. Michael Goldenberg, who adapted Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, is tapped to adapt the books. Many consider the character of Artemis Fowl to be the “Anti-Harry Potter”.

Ok, I’ve put some of the best pics I got from this past weekend’s trip to Star Wars Weekends – man, it was blasted hot! We ended up taking it easy and some of the stuff was family oriented, and I’m still getting used to the new camera. But you can see the pics over at our Google+ photo album here.

It was a great time. Ashley Eckstein was great as usual – always friendly and remembers everything. And you could see her HerUniverse shirts being worn everywhere! It was good to see Sam Witwer again as well – he’s really funny in person.

Warwick Davis also put on a short but amazing show called “An Ewok’s Tale”, which covered his early life (very humorously) and how he got the part of an Ewok in Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi that later turned into a starring role, as well as his later roles. It included footage I’ve not seen before as well.

If you are a Star Wars fan and can get to Florida for a weekend, this is well worth it! This coming weekend is the last for this year, but it seems pretty certain there will be more next year!