Tuesday, January 13, 2015

1-13-15 Movie News

        Hello ladies and gentlemen, here is some movie news with some of my thoughts and opinions (which will be in BOLD print). So without further ado...


(NOTE: All of these stories come from comingsoon.net)


        We now know that as far back as August 2011 there were rumblings of more “Star Wars” movies in the pipeline, and when Disney announced they would acquire Lucasfilm in October 2012, they made it official. Now, in an interview with USA Today, the maestro himself George Lucas revealed that he originally thought of developing “Episode VII” himself  and release it in May 2015 before selling off the company. “It’s better for me to get out at the beginning of a new thing and I can just remove myself….The time is more important to me than the money,” he added. Lucas went on to note that his only regret about “Star Wars” is that he never got to experience it like the fans did, though he’ll get his wish with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. “The only thing I really regret about Star Wars is the fact I never got to see it — I never got to be blown out of my seat when the ship came over the screen. The next one, I’ll be able to enjoy it like anybody else.” Star Wars: The Force Awakens will hit theaters on December 18, 2015.

        These are some pretty interesting comments. First off it's nice to hear from George as he usually stays out if the spotlight most of the time. As for his plan I kind wish it would've came true in the sense that Star Wars would come out in May. as for the other part why would you make a film and then sell it to Disney. either make a new trilogy or sell it before you make episode 7 and he did do the latter than the former. I am glad for George that he finally gets to watch a Star Wars film without having anything to do with the franchise. 



        Walt Disney Pictures has today updated its release schedule, setting David Lowery’s remake of Pete’s Dragon for release on August 12, 2016 and Rupert Sanders’ live-action take on Ghost in the Shell for release on April 14, 2017. They’ve also swapped the dates previously set for Craig Gillespie’s The Finest Hours and Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book. Those films will now arrive October 9, 2015 and April 15, 2016, respectively. Pete’s Dragon is about to enter production with a cast that includes Academy Award winner Robert Redford, Bryce Dallas Howard, Oakes Fegley and Oona Laurence. The film will now open opposite Universal Pictures’ comedy Dirty Grandpa and Universal and Legendary’s action-thriller Spectral. Ghost in the Shell, which recently set Marvel’s The Avengers and Lucy star Scarlett Johansson to headline, is the first film to claim that April 14, 2017 date. It hits one week after Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim 2 and one week before a still-unrevealed Universal Monsters film. The Finest Hours, starring Ben Foster, Casey Affleck, Chris Pine, Eric Bana, Holliday Grainger, is set in February of 1952, and follows one of the worst storms to ever hit the East Coast and struck New England, damaging an oil tanker off the coast of Cape Cod and literally ripping it in half. On a small lifeboat faced with frigid temperatures and 70-foot high waves, four members of the Coast Guard set out to rescue the more than 30 stranded sailors trapped aboard the rapidly-sinking vessel. The new date has The Finest Hours opening opposite New Line Cinema’s Vacation sequel/reboot and Relativity Media’s thriller Kidnap. The Jungle Book, finally, adapts Rudyard Kipling’s classic tome with a cast that includes Christopher Walken, Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o and Neel Sethi. It arrive opposite Columbia Pictures’ Goosebumps and Universal’s still-untitled third entry in Malcolm D. Lee’s The Best Man franchise.

        These are some pretty interesting release dates. Let's go in chronological order for each of these films. The Finest Hours has some good competition on it's opening weekend going up against Vacation and Kidnap, but this film sounds pretty interesting enough that it will probably win the weekend. The Jungle Book (2016) is going up against some films that could be really great as it will go up against a film that is the third in a franchise and Goosebumps so that will be an interesting weekend at the box office. Pete's Dragon is going to have its work cut out for it as it will be going up against two raunchy comedies and plus it is coming out a week after Suicide Squad so it may not reach the number one spot or have a good opening weekend. Ghost in the Shell is pretty much on an island by itself and it is coming out a week after Pacific Rim 2 so it may do very well at the box office.



        Brad Pitt and his Plan B production company are planning on adapting Michael Lewis bestseller “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine,” reports Variety. Pitt will star with Christian Bale and Ryan Gosling in The Big Short, which Adam McKay is writing the screenplay for. Released in February of 2011, the book is officially describes as follows: The #1 New York Times bestseller: a brilliant account—character-rich and darkly humorous—of how the U.S. economy was driven over the cliff. When the crash of the U. S. stock market became public knowledge in the fall of 2008, it was already old news. The real crash, the silent crash, had taken place over the previous year, in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn’t shine, and the SEC doesn’t dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can’t pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren’t talking.The crucial question is this: Who understood the risk inherent in the assumption of ever-rising real estate prices, a risk compounded daily by the creation of those arcane, artificial securities loosely based on piles of doubtful mortgages? Michael Lewis turns the inquiry on its head to create a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 best-selling Liar’s Poker. Who got it right? he asks. Who saw the real estate market for the black hole it would become, and eventually made billions of dollars from that perception? And what qualities of character made those few persist when their peers and colleagues dismissed them as Chicken Littles? Out of this handful of unlikely—really unlikely—heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our times. Pitt will produce with DeDe Gardner through their Plan B. When the project was first announced, McKay was also directing, but it is unknown if that is still the case.

        This film sound really interesting. I just want to ahead and say that this film sounds like Oscar bait. Anyway these are 3 really talented actors and putting them in a film together sounds like an amazing idea. The film sounds really interesting and this cast just excites me and I cannot wait to see it. 



        It’s been over seventeen years since anyone has tried to remake one of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic films with Gus Van Sant’s 1998 take on Psycho, but when you have a blockbuster hit like last year’s Gone Girl, which grossed over $350 million worldwide, why not find a reason to bring that team back together for another movie about trying to murder your wife like Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train?  Deadline is reporting that Warner Bros. Pictures is doing just that by reuniting the Gone Girl team of director David Fincher, screenwriter/author Gillian Flynn and actor Ben Affleck to produce a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 thriller Strangers on a Train, which has been hugely influential on so many other movies over the past sixty years. Their version will be based on the Hitchcock adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel, but it will be a modernized version of the story that might just be called Strangers, produced by Affleck and Matt Damon’s production banner Pearl Street with Jon Berg overseeing.

        The original movie starred Farley Granger as a tennis pro who had grown tired of his wife and who meets a rich man on a train who suggests they swap murders to avoid getting caught. According to Deadline, this version would have Affleck playing “a movie star–in the middle of a campaign for an Oscar during awards season” and it would take place on airplanes with Affleck’s character getting a ride to L.A. from a wealthy stranger after his own private plane breaks down. The idea of remaking Strangers on a Train has apparently been volleying around Warner Bros. for a number of years, and Affleck is hoping to make time in his schedule to shoot the film before directing and starring in his second Dennis Lehane adaptation Live by Night, currently scheduled for October 2016.

        This sounds like an amazing idea. Gone Girl was my favorite film of 2014 and one of the things I really liked about the film was the team that was surrounding the project with Fincher, Affleck and Flynn. Now I know people are tired of remakes and say that Hollywood is out of ideas and I simply say look at The Departed and Scarface which are both remakes. Now it will be hard to remake a Hitchcock film (just look at Psycho (1998)), but I think with a couple of changes to the story a remake could work real well.      



        Rodrigo Santoro, well known for playing Xerxes in both 300 and its sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire, has been cast as Jesus Christ in MGM and Paramount’s upcoming Ben-Hur remake. The Hollywood Reporter has the news, bringing word that Santoro will join Toby Kebbell, Morgan Freeman, Olivia Cooke, Ayelet Zurer, Nazanin Boniadi and, in the title role, Jack Huston. Set for a release on February 26, 2016, the new take on Ben-Hur was originally scripted by Keith Clarke (The Way Back), with revisions by Academy Award-winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave). It is based on Lew Wallace’s 1880 epic novel “Ben-Hur: A Tale of The Christ.” The film is said to return to the heart of the epic novel with a focus on the nature of faith. The story follows a falsely-accused nobleman who survives years of slavery to take vengeance on his best friend who betrayed him. Both must come to choose between retribution or forgiveness. Santoro has also had roles in recent big screen releases like The Last Stand, What to Expect When You’re Expecting and Rio 2. He can be seen opposite Will Smith and Margot Robbie in Focus and opposite Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor in Jane Got a Gun. He’s also part of the cast of HBO’s upcoming Michael Crichton adaptation, “Westworld”. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov, Ben-Hur is produced by Mark Burnett, Sean Daniel and Joni Levin with Jason F. Brown, Keith Clarke, Roma Downey and John Ridley serving as executive producers.

        This pretty interesting casting. Now I'm nor familiar with Santoro's work other than 300: Rise of an Empire, but this is a pretty nice role for him. I wasn't excited for this film at first, but with the cast that has been assembled it is starting to peak my interest. 

        So there you have it ladies and gentlemen, which of these stories peaked your interest or was there another story that interested you? Let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.

                                                                                                                                       Jonah Sparks 

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