A live-action adaptation of Disney’s 1973 retelling of Robin Hood is in development according to THR.

After working their way through most of their modern animated classics, it was probably only a matter of time before the Mouse House turned its attention to Wolfgang Reitherman’s musical take on the legendary bandit, which featured anthropomorphic animals as the main characters. This version will follow suit, but will utilize a live-action/CG hybrid format along the same lines as the recent Lion King remake (in other words, it’s not live-action!)

Disney’s Robin Hood received something of a mixed reaction around the time of its release, but it has since gained more of a fan-following, and many consider it to be an underrated gem.

The project is being written by Kari Granlund, who previously penned the Disney+ remake of Lady and the Tramp. In addition to Blindspotting, Estrada directed an episode of FX’s Legion, and Sundance drama Summertime.

What do you guys make of this news? Were you a fan of the original animated Robin Hood movie? Drop us a comment in the usual place.

Powered by WPeMatico

A new adaptation of one of Stephen King’s most popular novels, Salem’s Lot, is in development at New Line, and THR reports that It writer Gary Dauberman (Annabelle Comes Home) has signed on to direct. He will also pen the screenplay.

Salem’s Lot tells the story of a writer named Ben Mears who returns to his childhood town of Jerusalem’s Lot only to find himself drawn to an old house that traumatized him as a child. The Marsten House is an evil place, and an evil place attracts evil men. Unfortunately for Ben and the rest of the town, this time the evil men in question are powerful vampire Kurt Barlow and his devious familiar Richard Straker.

The book was previously adapted as a 1979 miniseries from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Tobe Hooper, featuring a scene with child-vampire scratching at the window which terrified an entire generation. There was also a far less successful 2004 version starring Rob Lowe.

Aquaman director James Wan will produce this big-screen take on Salem’s Lot, along with Roy Lee and Mark Wolper.

Powered by WPeMatico

Love them or hate them, both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi received extremely positive reviews from critics (they scored 93% and 91% on Rotten Tomatoes), while a lot of fans did actually enjoy them. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, on the other hand, has 52%, appears to be incredibly divisive, and actually ended up underperforming at the box office. 

Since its release, the backlash from fans has been significant, and it’s clear that a lot of them simply didn’t appreciate the way the Skywalker Saga wrapped up. That was despite a great deal of fan-service from director J.J. Abrams and screenwriter Chris Terrio, and it probably doesn’t help that original helmer Colin Trevorrow’s ideas leaked online and, well, were much better! 

Now, Daisy Ridley has opened up about the response, and it sounds like it hasn’t been easy. 
 

“It’s changed film by film honestly, like 98% it’s so amazing, this last film it was really tricky. January was not that nice. It was weird, I felt like all of this love that we’d sort of been shown the first time around, I was like ‘Where’s the love gone?’ I watched the documentary, the making-of, this week, and it’s so filled with love; and I think it’s that tricky thing of when you’re part of something that is so filled with love and then people…You know, everyone’s entitled to not like something but it feels like it’s changed slightly. I think in general that’s because social media and what have you.”

There’s certainly a lot of very toxic fans out there, but the response to The Rise of Skywalker really can’t be blamed on them, especially when it’s clear from the reviews that this film split opinions right down the middle. Some loved it, of course, but the finale simply didn’t live up to what came before and, in the eyes of many, wasn’t the ending this beloved series of films deserved.

What are your thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker?

For more details about Colin Trevorrow’s Duel
of the Fates, click on the “Next” button below!
 

Rey’s “Boomerang” Lightsaber

The opening of the movie is very much the same but the Resistance can no longer communicate with the rest of the Galaxy as the First Order has found a way to block their transmissions. 

The plan is still to attack the the planet – likely Coruscant – which the villains use as their base but it’s now “the Jedi Spire of Osis” that Rey needs to reach in order to send out a message to the rest of the Galaxy rather than the old Jedi Temple. Kylo Ren, meanwhile, is on a mission to kill Rey so that he can finally fully embrace the Dark Side. 

Talking of Rey, she’s created her own double-sided lightsaber which “works like a boomerang.”

The Knights Of Ren Get Names…And A Sinister Rival To Kylo Ren

The Knights of Ren board a ship called the “Knife 9” in this version of the movie and the biggest difference is that they also get names and personalities! One of them is revealed to be a woman who, like Darth Maul, is from Dathomir. 

With Kylo Ren off on his own mission, she’s in charge and even General Hux reports to her. Why is this important? Well, we’ll get to that later in this post but she doubts Kylo’s ability to usher in a new era of darkness for her and this group.

The Millennium Falcon Crashes

Pursued by the Knights of Ren, Poe Dameron pushes the Millennium Falcon too hard as they try to make their escape and it crashes into a frozen ocean. The ship begins to sink and after Rey uses her lightsaber to save them from drowning, she swims back to retrieve the ancient Jedi texts from inside.
 

Kylo Ren’s New Mask

Kylo Ren is in a bad way and seemingly relying on droids to keep him alive after being badly burned and scarred by that Force lightning. Sollony notices that he’s found the Sith Holocron they were looking for and points out that he now needs to sever his connections with both Luke Skywalker and Rey in order to clear his path to the Dark Side. 

Donning “a new, more savage” mask which is said to be similar in appearance to Darth Vader, Ren now knows what he must do.
 

Finn Meets A Fellow Stormtrooper

Finn’s subplot remains largely unchanged but he does come to blows with a First Order Stormtrooper whose helmet falls off as they fight. He tells him to remember his past before being taken by the First Order and tells him to get a name and a cause that’s actually worth fighting for. 

He later takes the name “Rafe” and joins our heroes during the movie’s final battle. 

There’s also a throwback to Rian Johnson introducing those Force Sensitive children at the end of The Last Jedi as a kid is shown with a Rey doll, clearly inspired by the reputation she’s gained in the Galaxy.
 

Purple Lightning

Much of the movie deals with Rey coming to terms with some of her darker impulses and anger about her past, something that comes to a head when she battles the Knights of Ren. 

In a moment of pure rage, she kills one of them with purple lightning that explodes from her fingertips. Rey makes Poe and Chewie leave her so she can tackle what comes next alone. 

Rey Goes Full Jedi

Deciding that she needs to face Kylo Ren and end this, Rey goes full on Jedi (with a robe and everything). Luke warns her that he can feel her anger building and reveals that the Knights of Ren are indeed some of his former students who Supreme Leader Snoke and Kylo Ren managed to turn to the Dark Side.

They’re both heading for the Spire that can be used to send out a message to the Galaxy and it’s there that Kylo seems to believe he will find a weapon capable of ending the Resistance for good.
 

Lando Calrissian Returns

This time, it’s Poe and Chewbacca who track down Lando and it’s revealed that the former captain of the Millennium Falcon once flew with Poe’s mother (something we’ve seen in Marvel’s tie-in comics). Lando refuses to help the Resistance in this draft too and Poe leaves by telling him that when his mom always said about him was right.

Clearly, that strikes a chord with Lando because just as things are looking bleak for the Resistance during the final battle, he returns with thousands of ships in toe.
 

Kylo Ren Vs. Rey

It’s the big Kylo Ren vs. Rey battle but there’s no vampire-like Force powers this time. He is still blamed for murdering her parents but it sounds like it was actually Snoke in this version. 

While this is happening, Sollony finally gets her hands on the Sith Holocron and unleashes the “Dark Power” within. Unlike Kylo Ren, it doesn’t hurt her because she’s fully embraced the Dark.
 

Sollony Strikes

Rey has a chance to kill Kylo but chooses to forgive him and pleads with the Supreme Leader to bring Ben Solo back. Before he can reply, Sollony grabs him and she’s now too powerful for them both. 

Kylo saves her from being crushed by rubble and she splits her double-sided lightsaber with him so they can fight this Knight of Ren. Kylo sacrifices himself by taking a blow that was meant for Rey and she unleashes her own Dark Side in a bid to finish the powered up Knight once and for all. 

After sharing a look of love, Kylo dies in Rey’s arms but reveals her name: Rey Solana.
 

Rey’s Message

Despite being “almost dead,” Rey climbs the Jedi spire and manages to send a message out to the Galaxy. Revealing her full name, she tells them that hope is not lost. 

It’s at this point in the screenplay that Rey is healed by those Force Ghosts we mentioned in our last breakdown and with the Dark Side defeated, the Light again rises. 
 

The End

During the closing few minutes, Chewbacca finally gets a medal while everyone wonders whether Rey really has gone. Finn is reading a story to a group of young kids and they ask him that very question; he says that he believes that she’s alive because of the Force (a hint, perhaps, that he’s also Force sensitive). 

Lando has a moment with Threepio as R2-D2 comes back online and it’s him who gets to see their memories whereas it was Leia in the earlier version of the screenplay. 

Poe and Chewie find a beacon on a planet that may lead them to Rey while we watch the Jedi pull the Millennium Falcon out of the ocean before turning around to teach kids in her own Jedi school.
 

Powered by WPeMatico

Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, production on practically everything across the globe has been shut down indefinitely, including work on a number of Disney+ series, none bigger than Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Marvel’s WandaVision and Marvel’s Loki.

During our recent interview with Academy Award-winning special effects supervisor Neal Scanlan, we also learned that, in addition to those aforementioned Marvel series, pre-production work on a number of Star Wars shows has also been put on hold for the foreseeable future.

Scanlan reveals that after finishing publicity for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, he had already been working on the Cassian Andor series (The Cassian Andor Story?) for about six weeks before they were forced to shut down. He also tells us that they were expected to begin work on a couple other shows as well, but it’s not entirely clear which ones he’s referring to – although our best guess is either Obi-Wan Kenobi or the rumored Ahsoka Tano project.

The untitled Cassian Andor series was slated to begin filming this year with a 2021 premiere date in mind, but its production status is now uncertain with the coronavirus pandemic not expected to subside anytime soon.

ROHAN:  After Rise of Skywalker, are you moving on to more Star Wars films or TV?

NEAL SCANLAN: Originally, we were hoping to move into a few TV series, The Mandalorian had obviously already started and has done incredibly well, it’s brilliant piece of work.

We were here in the U.K. about to start on a couple of shows ourselves, but they all unfortunately got bumped. We just literally started about six weeks ago on the Cassian story until unfortunately the virus hit and we’re now all on lockdown. So, we’re trying to do the best we can from home.

 

 

 

Lucasfilm and director J.J. Abrams join forces once again to take viewers on an epic journey to a galaxy far, far away with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the riveting conclusion of the seminal Skywalker saga, where new legends will be born and the final battle for freedom is yet to come. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens in U.S. theaters on December 20.

Powered by WPeMatico

We knew it was only a matter of time before movie studios began to develop projects related to the current COVID-19 pandemic in some form or fashion, and it’s now been announced that Lionsgate is moving forward with what’s been described as a “zombie pandemic thriller” called 16 States.

Don’t Breath and Evil Dead remake director Fede Alvarez has signed on to helm the project, and the script was written by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra (Jungle Cruise, This Is Us).

The plot, which is said to have “shades of the Will Smith zombie movie I Am Legend,” focuses on a mother attempting to reach her family at the center of a pandemic which turns people into zombies. It’s a timely, if far from original concept, but with Alvarez at the helm there should still be some excitement surrounding this one.

Roy Lee and Miri Yoon of Vertigo Entertainment will produce along with Requa, Ficarra and Charlie Gogolak via their Zaftig Films. Alvarez, Shintaro Shimosawa and Rodolfo Sayagues of Bad Hombre are also on board as producers.

What do you make of this news? Do you think developing a project like 16 States sounds like the right move at the moment? Drop us a comment down below.

Powered by WPeMatico

Academy Award-winning writer/director Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit) is currently in the midst of hosting an Instagram Live commentary for his 2017 Marvel blockbuster Thor: Ragnarok and to kick the evening off, he shared a few exclusive pieces of concept art from his next hotly awaited Marvel project, Thor: Love and Thunder.

None of the images are particularly revealing, at least as far as plot details are concerned, but they do offer an updated look at the expansion of New Asgard under the rule of Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and also confirm the return of Miek (Stephen Murdoch), who has been revealed to actually be female.

Waititi’s Instagram Live session is currently in session, so be sure to head on over to his page now to tune into his hilarious commentary and catch up with special guests, including Tessa Thompson, Mark Ruffalo… and maybe, Chris Hemsworth?!

In Thor: Love and Thunder, Chris Hemsworth (Avengers: Endgame) will reprise his iconic role as the titular God of Thunder with a supporting cast that will also return Tessa Thompson (Avengers: Endgame) as Valkyrie, Natalie Portman (Thor: The Dark World) as Jane Foster/Mighty Thor, Taika Waititi (Avengers: Endgame) as Korg and Christian Bale (The Dark Knight) as the film’s villain.

While production was originally slated to begin in August, it seems likely that it will ultimately be delayed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which also recently pushed back the film’s release date from November 2021 to February 18, 2022.

The screenshots below were provided by our friends over at The Direct.

Powered by WPeMatico