Charles Bramesco
J.J. Abrams Wants Out of the Reboot/Remake/Re-Whatever Business
J.J. Abrams made his bed, stuffed it with money and gold bricks, but now he‘d rather not lie in it. The director has risen to the top of Hollywood’s most-wanted list in recent years as a serviceable conductor of franchise pictures; he did right by the Mission: Impossible series, then moved on to mount the massive Star Trek resurgence, and brought Star Wars back to the grateful people of Earth with Episode VII. But this whole money-in-the-bank reputation comes with its downsides. Speaking with People, Abrams indicated that he‘s had his fill of franchise pictures and would prefer to explore some original concepts in the years to come.
The Onion’s Three-Movie Development Deal Is No Joke
Now that falsehoods have become almost entirely indistinguishable from fact in the American news media, the staffers of satirical publication The Onion can sit back and relax, having effectively taken over the industry they set out to spoof. (Full disclosure: I contribute to the A.V. Club, a division of the Onion media empire.) But instead of resting on their laurels, the originators of ‘fake news’ have set out to conquer new frontiers, having already moved into publishing and the untamed wilds of television. A new exclusive from the Hollywood Reporter indicates that not even the movie theaters of this great nation will be safe from the increasingly plausible absurdities of America’s self-proclaimed ‘finest news source.’
CBS and Paramount Put Judicial Vulcan Death Grip on ‘Star Trek’ Fan Film
The latest chapter in the ongoing saga of CBS and Paramount’s efforts to sue the Spock ears off of the producers of Star Trek fan film Axanar continues today, with a new development from the Los Angeles federal court system. This hullabaloo began back in December of 2015, when copyright-holding studios CBS and Paramount got wind that a fellow by the name of Alec Peters had raised nearly a million dollars (that figure is now well over a million) for an independent film project taking place in the Star Trek universe. Because studio executives did not remember selling the creative rights to Mr. Peters, they did the reasonable thing and hauled him into court, claiming the man had infringed on ‘thousands’ of copyrights. In March, Paramount tightened their case up, specifically naming the most heinous violations contained within Axanar, and come June, Paramount released a list of 10 guidelines that fan enthusiasts crafting their own homemade spinoffs can follow to avoid legal action.
Revisit Carrie Fisher’s Uproarious Roast of George Lucas at the 2005 AFI Awards
The world’s still stinging from the loss of Carrie Fisher yesterday, and while we will most likely remember her first as Princess Leia, the actress cultivated a long career of comedy after her Star Wars years. Her one-woman show Wishful Drinking was a must-see on Broadway, and her hilarious, often inscrutable Twitter account will stand as a testament to her bizarre wit. In the wake of Fisher’s sad death on Tuesday, one video in particular has begun to pop up again, and it might just be the comic’s most searing public appearance of all.
Over 50 Disney Movies Will Soon Make Hulu Their New Streaming Home
More streaming services than you can shake a virtual stick at have cropped up over the past year, which makes it all the more aggravating when that one movie you want to watch is nowhere to be found. You shell out every month for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Shudder, Filmstruck and a dozen more, and yet once that craving to rewatch The Lion King hits, you’re plum out of luck. What’s the point of having countless hours of programming at your fingertips for your immediate enjoyment if that doesn’t include The Little Mermaid?
Zsa Zsa Gabor, Embodiment of Hollywood Glitz, Dies at 99
Before the era of reality television popularized the concept of “being famous for being famous,” Hungarian-born actress Zsa Zsa Gabor elevated celebrity to its own sort of art form. She brought her European sense of sophistication to a handful of big-name films as their star, including John Huston’s Moulin Rouge. (The famed director described Gabor as a “creditable” actress.) Mostly, however, she commanded gossip headlines with her flashy and impossibly ritzy personal life. The revolving door of husbands, the uniform of furs and jewels she was seldom seen without, the way she purred “dahhhhling” to everyone she addressed — even offscreen, she was a larger-than-life character.
Alec Baldwin Is So Excited For You to Watch ‘The Boss Baby’ Trailer, Really
It’s not uncommon for stars to speak for a moment or two before a trailer for their upcoming film, hyping the release a touch while lending their celebrity directly to the proceedings. Especially for animated projects such as the upcoming The Boss Baby, it’s helpful to see the talent’s face as a reassurance of the film’s pedigree. But it almost looks like the Academy Award-nominated actor is trying to hold a straight face when he reads the words, “You are seconds away from seeing a sneak peek of Dreamwork’s new animated film The Boss Baby. I’m so excited for you. Really.” That little “really” tacked on to the end makes it sound like he’s got something to prove. Baldwin knows exactly what he’s gotten himself into. He knows how the phrase “The Boss Baby, starring Alec Baldwin” sounds.
2017 SAG Awards Nominees Include ‘Manchester By the Sea,’ ‘Moonlight,’ ‘Stranger Things’
The major inside-industry awards come from the Producers’ Guild of America, the Writers’ Guild of America, the Directors’ Guild of America, and the Screen Actors’ Guild. This morning, the nominations for the 2017 SAG Awards were announced from Los Angeles, with a smattering of surprises and populist favorites (what’s up, Stranger Things) among the established awards season juggernauts. (The Natalie Portman v. Emma Stone showdown continues.)
Fort Worth PD Enlists Empire Stormtroopers for New Recruitment Video
Over the past couple of years, policemen have fallen pretty far out of favor with the American people. The U.S. police force is in dire need of a little PR management, something that shows their sense of humor and gives a more human, relatable slant to the boys in blue.
T-Minus 11 Days to ‘Rogue One,’ So Here’s a Featurette and TV Spot
Eleven long days separate the general public from the wide release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. I dreamt last night that in their efforts to continue to stoke the eternal flame of hype, Lucasfilm unknowingly released the entirety of the film piecemeal over dozens of spliced-together promos. Some ambitious fan isolated each snippet of footage and stitched it back together into the competed feature and released it on his own under the title Not Rogue One. Other Star Wars aficionados, out of respect for the effort, then started to edit fan videos devoted to the DIY film that pretty much resembled the original promos from Lucasfilm. If Borges was alive today and far worse at writing, this would be his latest novella.
Felicity Jones Beats the Bejesus Out of Stormtroopers in First ‘Rogue One’ Clip
We’ve still got 15 days on the clock until the wait for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story comes to an end. And while fans can kill the next couple of weeks watching the two-and-a-half-minute trailer approximately 8,600 times, there are better ways to run out the clock, and of course I don’t mean “going outside” or “talking to another person.” Felicity Jones, out on the publicity circuit to talk up the impending release of Rogue One, sat down with late-night talk show host/overgrown summer camp counselor Jimmy Fallon last night. The actress showed off some of the moves she picked up during her martial arts training for the film, and then Fallon casually introduced the first official clip of footage from Rogue One as if he wasn’t giving fans simultaneous heart attacks across the globe.
‘Jason Bourne’ Producer Down for More Sequels, If You’d Be Into That
Jason Bourne, the latest installment in the popular Bourne Identity series of espionage films, approaches its home video release next week on December 6. That film, released this past summer, raked in a grand total of $415.2 million at the global box office.