a byte of sci fi

Sebastian Stan (Kings) may not have made it to the Captain America role for the upcoming big screen adaptation of the character (that went to Chris Evans), but he will get to play second fiddle to the shield wielding Cap.  He he has officially landed the role of the captain’s side-kick Bucky.  Apparently, though, this will not be playing the teen version from the original comic . . . Anna Friel of Pushing Daisies is currently in talks to co-star with Bradley Cooper (Alias) in the film Dark Fields.  The movie follows a writer who comes by a drug that increases intelligence but which also has deadly side-effects.  Neil Burger (The Illusionist) will direct the film and Robert De Niro and Abbie Cornish are on board as well . . . Sylvain White, who has directed the upcoming big screen take on The Losers comic book series, has expressed interest in helming the live action version of Robotech.  Toby Maguire (Spider-Man) is producing the project and it is still in the earliest stages of production.  Meanwhile, the movie reboot of another 80’s Americanized Anime series, Voltron, appears to have slipped into “development hell” with no script (the previous one was jettisoned), no director, and no cast.

Another week, another new movie in the Number 1 slot at the Box Office.  Last week, How to Train Your Dragon knocked Alice in Wonderland out of the top spot now this week the remake of Ray Harryhausen’s Clash of the Titans toppled Dragon.  Titans pulled in an estimated $61.4 million in receipts domestically, putting it well on the way to recouping its $125 million budget.  And it has not even had its foreign release yet.  How to Train Your Dragon slipped all the way to Number 3 in its second weekend of release, but it still had a respectable draw at $29.2 million for the weekend, bringing its domestic total to over $92 million.  That one also pulled in over $42 million from its foreign debut over the weekend bringing it to a healthy worldwide gross of nearly $135 after two weeks of release.  Alice in Wonderland slipped to the Number 5 slot after its fifth week, but has managed to surpass $670 million in receipts during that period.  Hot Tub Time Machine dropped to Number 6 in its second week.  Note that all of these numbers are estimates as of Monday morning and will change slightly when the final tally comes in.

You can see the full Box Office results from the weekend at Box Office Mojo.

Iron Man 2 is just a little over a month away (May 7th release date) and anticipation is building.  Here is the latest trailer for the movie:

The Lord of the Rings (1978 Animated Movie) (Remastered Deluxe Edition)

Due out April 6th

Amazon.com Product Editorial Review:  Although it was ultimately overshadowed by Peter Jackson’s live-action Lord of the Rings trilogy, Ralph Bakshi’s animated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy classic is not without charms of its own. A target of derision from intolerant fans, this ambitious production is nevertheless a respectably loyal attempt to animate the first half of Tolkien’s trilogy, beginning with the hobbit Frodo’s inheritance of “the One Ring” of power from Bilbo Baggins, and ending with the wizard Gandalf’s triumph over the evil army of orcs. While the dialogue is literate and superbly voiced by a prestigious cast (including John Hurt as Aragorn), Leonard Rosenman’s accomplished score effectively matches the ominous atmosphere that Bakshi’s animation creates and sustains. Bakshi’s lamentable decision to combine traditional cel animation with “rotoscoped” (i.e., meticulously traced) live-action footage is jarringly distracting and aesthetically disastrous, but when judged by its narrative content, this Lord of the Rings deserves more credit than it typically receives. –Jeff Shannon

See more of this week’s new releases at Amazon.com at this link

Word broke yesterday that Joss Whedon is in the lead for consideration as the director for the upcoming Avengers movie.  Several sources confirmed that this is no April Fools joke and the creator of such beloved shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly is currently in talks to take the director’s chair on the upcoming movie set to start filming in 2011 or 2012.  Whedon has written or co-written several motion picture screen plays including the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, Toy Story and Titan A.E..  He directed Firefly’s jump to the big screen, Serenity, and was signed to write and direct the Wonder Woman movie, but that never came about . . . Sam Worthington, who’s Clash of the Titans hits theaters today, continues to stay busy with big screen projects.  He has confirmed in a conversation with MTV that he will star in the upcoming Dan Dare movie, based on the British Buck Rogers-style comic strip.  He will also be working on another big screen adaption of a comic, The Last Days of American Crime.

The CGI, 3-D remake of Ray Harryhausen’s epic about Perseus and the Greek Gods The Clash of the Titans hits the theaters today, but the critics do not consider this one much of a Hommerian saga.  As of its opening day, the movie has only conjured up a 35% Fresh Rating at the Rotten Tomatoes site from the gods . . . er . . . I mean critics.  Following is the current consensus opinion on the movie:

An obviously affectionate remake of the 1981 original, Louis Leterrier’s Clash of the Titans doesn’t offer enough visual thrills to offset the deficiencies of its script.

Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter seemed to favor the movie in his review calling it “a fun digital ride through Greek mythology as humans clash with gods and monsters.”  Nick Setchfield of SFX Magazine was much less kind in his review saying “the first Clash Of The Titans had considerably more charm than this. Money can buy you technology but it can’t buy you magic.”  You can see the trailer for the movie at its official website and you can read more of the critics’ opinions at the movie’s Rotten Tomatoes page.

Sci Fi Wire recently caught up with Lee Unkrich who is the director on the upcoming Pixar release Toy Story 3.  He had this to say on why it has taken so long (15 years) to bring us a third installment in the beloved franchise:

We actually had an idea for years, but the political machinations between Pixar and Disney prevented us from making Toy Story 3.  Luckily when Disney finally ended up buying the studio, that opened up the floodgate of freedom to finally make the sequel. Interestingly enough, the sequel that we thought we were going to make for Toy Story 3 for all those years is not the movie we ended up making. We started talking about it and really getting deeper into it, and we realized it was a cool concept but it wasn’t a deep enough story to sustain a feature. That panicked us, because we never wanted to make a sequel just for the sake of making a sequel. We wanted to do it because we had a good story, but all of a sudden we found ourselves wanting to make a sequel but not having the story. We felt like we were doing it all backwards. Luckily we pounded away on it for a couple of days and talked about what was really important to us and how we could tap the emotional depth of the stories we had told so far. We came up with what over four years is now Toy Story 3.

You can read the full conversation at this link and see the latest trailer at the movie’s official site.  Toy Story 3 hits the theaters on June 18th.

Rumors are floating around that two sequels to Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day could be in the works and that the first of these could be his next project after Anonymous (about the “real” William Shakespeare) he is currently committed to.  In addition, word is that Will Smith will be on board for both of these movies which would shoot back-to-back.  None of this is official at this point, but stay tuned for further developments . . . Middle Earth’s return to the big screen may be further off than previously indicated as rumors fly that Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro’s Hobbit will get pushed.  Apparently the production has run into the wall of MGM’s financial problems.  Previously the movie had a target release date of late 2011/early 2012, but now that could get stretched further . . . With the 3-D frenzy sweeping the theaters lately, word is that all of the Harry Potter films could get a re-release with the extra dimension.  The upcoming film Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows will hit the theaters in 3-D and franchise producer David Heyman has said its possible that the earlier movies could reappear in that format.

Gil Gerard and Erin Gray are probably best known for playing Buck Rogers and Wilma Dering in the NBC series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century in the late 70’s/early 80’s and they will be returning to that franchise this fall.  Only not quite in the same roles.  Cawley Entertainment Company and Retro Film Studios are currently working on an online revival of the character slated to debut later this year as a web-series and the two actors will make an appearance as the parents of Rogers, played by Bobby Quinn Rice.  According to the press release, the web-series “will be bringing Buck back to his beginnings” and will attempt to recreate “the original Buck from the comic strips”.  See the two clips below to get an idea of “retro” look we can expect to see.  James Cawley of Cawley Entertainment has previously made a name for himself with his fan-made web-series Star Trek Phase 2 which continues the original 5 year mission of the Starship Enterprise and in which he stars as Captain Kirk.

And get prepared for some Buck Rogers overload as a big screen take on the character is in the works as well.  Director Paul WS Anderson (Event Horizon, Alien vs. Predator) has signed on to helm the production and Iron Man writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway will pen the script.  And if that’s not enough comic strip space-heroes for you, then watch for the upcoming big screen reboot of Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon with Disney star Zac Efron’s name being bandied about for the lead role.

Screenwriter J.D. Shapiro recently accepted in person the Razzie for Worst Movie of the Decade for Battlefield: Earth.  This apparently prompted him to write a piece for the New York Post apologizing for the screenplay which he started but eventually got fired from (and which he refers to as the  “Suckiest Movie Ever”).  He claims that he initially got involved in the project because he heard that the Celebrity Center (Scientology central in L.A. in the 90’s) was a good place to meet women.  This eventually led to him working with the Church of Scientology on adapting L. Ron Hubbard’s book, though the final script varied significantly from his first draft allegedly following the direction of notes that Hubbard himself had written for a potential movie version.  Shapiro resisted the changes from his original script and was eventually released from the project, though he did share a co-writing credit on the movie . . .  Legendary Pictures has bought the rights to Godzilla and will work with Warner Bros. on a new movie version for major release.  The two companies previously collaborated on the two most recent Batman movies, Superman Returns, and the Clash of the Titans remake which opens this weekend . . . The final word is out and Bryan Singer will not direct the next movie in the X-Men franchise.  Despite rumors that he would return to helm the prequel film X-Men: First Class, he has decided to join the project as a producer only because he will be busy directing the 3-D animated movie Jack the Giant Killer . . . The infamous actor/director Orson Welles may have died in 1985, but expect to hear his bellowing voice on the big screen once again.  Apparently, before he passed away Welles did a voice recording of a children’s Christmas novel and this will be incorporated into a 3-D animated movie based on the tale.  The story is fantasy tale about how Santa’s dog saves Christmas and first appeared in the self-published book Christmas Tails by Robert X. Leed . . . The sequel to last year’s surprise hit Paranormal Activity continues to move forward and the project now has a director attached to it.  The relatively unknown Kip Williams will take the director’s chair after several bigger names like Brian De Palma and Brad Anderson were floated around.

Dreamworks may have yet another hit on its hands as How to Train Your Dragon had a strong opening weekend and managed to knock Alice in Wonderland out of the top slot at the Box Office domestically this past weekend.  The 3-D animated movie pulled in $43.3 million in receipts in its debut in the States and tacked on an additional $8 million worldwide.  While that was a decent opening salvo, it did fall short of the opening weekend of Monsters vs. Aliens which opened from Dreamworks last year at this time with a take of $59 million.  It also has quite a ways to go to make up its $165 million budget.  But with the Easter weekend approaching, it should still have some good traction, though it will have to compete with the debut of Clash of the Titans.  Alice fell to the Number 2 slot domestically, with a $17.3 million take, though it still remained on top worldwide.  The Hot Tub Time Machine did little to steam up the Box Office in its debut as it only managed to climb to the Number 3 slot with $13.6 Million in receipts.  That one has a much more modest budget of $36 million, though, so it still has a chance of finishing in the black.

You can see the full Box Office results from the weekend at Box Office Mojo.

The 3-D animated How to Train Your Dragon opens today from Dreamworks about a viking teen who decides it would be better to be friends with dragons than try to slay them.  Critics have shown nearly unanimous approval for the movie so far as it has achieved a 94% Fresh Rating as of its opening day on the Rotten Tomatoes website.  Following is the current consensus opinion:

Boasting dazzling animation, a script with surprising dramatic depth, and thrilling 3-D sequences, How to Train Your Dragon soars.

In his review on Sci Fi Wire, Mike Szymanski notes that “The 3-D action sequences are as breathtaking as Avatar” and that “although it’s an exciting ride to an easily predictable yarn, this is one kids’ movie that is fun for everyone.”  And Mark Dujsik from Mark Reviews Movies comments that “There’s a level of purity to the storytelling of How to Train Your Dragon that’s rather refreshing.”  You can see the trailer for the movie at its official website and you can read more of the critics’ opinions at the movie’s Rotten Tomatoes page.

The Hot Tub Time Machine opens today about a group of men who travel back in time to the 1980’s with the use of a hot tub and it might have some interest for genre fans and/or anybody who grew up during that decade.  Critics, however, have been less than enthusiastic about the movie as it has only garnered a 62% Fresh Rating at the Rotten Tomatoes site so far.  Following is the consensus view on the movie:

Its flagrantly silly script — and immensely likable cast — make up for most of its flaws.

JimmyO from JoBlo’s Movie Emporium had these thoughts on the movie: “What we have here is a fun ride that will bring back memories for some, and bring laughs because of the ridiculous clothes and hair for others.”  Joe Morgenstern Wall Street Journal was less king in his review asking: “How bad must a movie be to be good fun? How dumb to be smart? Whatever the case, Hot Tub Time Machine doesn’t make the cut.” You can see the trailer for the movie at its official site and you read more of the critics’ reactions at the movie’s Rotten Tomatoes page.

Work progresses on the sequel to Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog, but it appears that the followup will not be available online like the original.  According to Neil Patrick Harris who plays the title character, they are targeting a big-screen release for Dr. Horrible 2.  He has no additional information on the project but the best news is that this franchise will definitely continue . . . After a long search that has paraded any of a number of names as the possible next Captain America (including The Office’s John Krasinski!) a decision has finally been reached.  Chris Evans, who has superhero experience on his resume as the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four film, will don the cowl and wield the shield.  He has signed on to play the character in both the Captain America and Avengers movies along with an unspecified third movie as the Cap.  Now what happens if they decided to do a Fantastic Four / Captain America team up movie? . . . If you remember the quasi-documentary The Legend of the Boggy Creek from the 70’s, you may be interested in knowing a remake of sorts is on the way.  The new producers will dispense with the documentary element, though, and do a straight monster-flick with the beast of the bog terrorizing a group of kids who encroach on its territory.  You can see the trailer at this link.

Tim Burton’s updating of Alice in Wonderland held onto the Box Office for a third week in a row as the movie held tight to the Number 1 slot and tacked on another $35 million to its domestic total bringing it to an amazing $266 million so far.  And, the visual extravaganza has preformed even better overseas where it has added close to $300 million to the bottom line meaning that the movie has broken the half a billion threshold and is still going strong.  With these sort of returns, Disney will definitely get right to work on pumping out a stream of sequels.  Not so lucky over the weekend was new-opener Repo Men which got ravaged by the critics and only managed to claw its way to the Number 4 slot at the Box Office with just over $6 million in receipts.  This movie may only have a modest budget of $32 million, but it looks like it will not be able to make it to the black before it ends its theatrical run.  Avatar may be fading, but it still remained in the Top 10 after fourteen weeks of release as that one brought in another $4 million domestically.  Expect to see it disappear from the theaters in the next week or two, though, as the DVD release looms for April.  Also, it may make an encore run on the big screen this Summer.  You can see the full Box Office results from the weekend at Box Office Mojo.

Back in 1910, Thomas Edison Productions tackled Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein as a project for the nascent film industry.  A silent movie running only 12 minutes, it provides a “liberal adaption” of the classic book.  The later, and better known, 1931 Universal movie with Boris Karloff obviously drew more heavily from this movie than the original book (though it added much more to the story including the “abnormal” brain). In the 1910 movie, Victor Frankenstein goes off to study and in the process creates a living being. However, he is appalled by the creature and flees from it. He returns home to marry his bride and the monster follows which leads to a final confrontation on the wedding night.  The Edison movie will get a full DVD treatment later this year, but you can watch it online here.  Note that this is a very early example of the cinema with crude effects that the current generation spoiled by the visuals from such blockbusters as Avatar and Alice in Wonderland may not take a shining to.  We liked it, though, and suggest you give it a look.

Repo Men opens today about a future world where people can buy replacement organs but better make sure that they keep up with the payments on their new tissue otherwise the Repo Men will pay them a visit.  So far, the critics have been less than enamored by this movie as it has only managed a 19% Fresh Rating at the Rotten Tomatoes website.  Following is the consensus opinion on the movie:

Repo Men has an intriguing premise, as well as a likable pair of leads, but they’re wasted on a rote screenplay, indifferent direction, and mind-numbing gore.

Katey Rich of CinemaBlend.com had this to say about the movie in her review: “There’s a lot of style and even a little bit of substance in Repo Men, but not enough of either to hold the ludicrous plot in place.”  Drew McWeeny from HitFix was a bit kinder in his review saying “Jude Law and Forest Whitaker have surprisingly rich chemistry in the film, and despite one major storytelling stumble, it’s soulful enough to linger.”  You can read more of the critics’ reactions at the movie’s Rotten Tomatoes page.

Character actor Clancy Brown may be most widely known for his role as Captain of the prison guard Byron Hadley in the critically acclaimed movie The Shawshank Redemption, but he should also be a familiar face to fans of Science Fiction and Fantasy as he has had many roles in that genre throughout his long career.  Early on he showed up as Rawhide, one of the Hong Kong Cavaliers in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension (1984).  Two years later, he chewed up the role as the main heavy Kurgan in the first (and best) Highlander (1986) movie.  He showed up as Career Sergeant Zim in 1997’s Starship Troopers and also voice the character in the animated spin-off series Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles (1999).  His other television roles in the genre include the NBC series Earth 2 (1994) along with his standout performance as Brother Justin Crowe in the excellent HBO series Carnivàle (2003).  He has also guest starred on any of a number of television shows including his role as Dharma agent Kelvin Joe Inman on Lost who crossed paths with both Sayid and Desmond.  Along with his acting roles, Brown has stayed busy with voice over roles in animation providing the voices of many characters including Lex Luther and Mr. Freeze from the Batman, Justice League, and Superman shows.  And most surprising of all, Clancy Brown has been the voice of the irascible Mr. Crabs on Nickelodeon’s Spongebob Squarepaints since that show debuted in 1999.  You can read more about his extensive career and the roles he has played at Wikipedia and at his official website.

i09.com recently talked with the two men who penned the script for the remake of Ray Harryhausen’s The Clash of the Titans, Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi.  Following are some bytes from that conversation and you can read the full review at this link.

io9: How did you update this movie for the new millennium?

Hay: All those signature creatures are there; we wanted to do that. I think the way the action is pulled off is different. A lot of the new stuff revolves around the characters, who Perseus [Sam Worthington] is.

Manfredi: We focused on the interactions between the men and gods, and the journey of Perseus. He’s a demigod – a man and a god. And he’s trying to figure that out at a time when man is questioning his relationship to gods who have ruled with an iron fist. Our feeling is that he resists the god side of him. He chooses the side that is a man.

Why do you think Hollywood was interested in doing this remake now?

Manfredi: Honestly I’m surprised that there haven’t been more movies with Greek mythology in them. Especially since it’s the root of superhero movies clearly. 300 is sort of in this vein, and though it’s not about gods there’s a connection to what we’re doing obviously. And as movies like Lord of the Rings make clear, there’s a huge interest in fantasy.

Read the Full Interview at io9.com

James Cameron’s Avatar may still be pulling in the big bucks in the theaters (with a possible re-release planned for this summer), but it will already be hitting the DVD shelves in just over a month.  The 2-D DVD and Blu-ray Disc versions will be released on April 22nd (no word yet on a possible 3-D DVD version) . . . Gareth Edwards’ film Monsters which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival has been bought for release in the U.S. and Mexico.  The movie about about aliens who have infected a quarantined area in Mexico was shot using American actors along with locals from that country . . . Universal Pictures has greenlighted a prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing with Marc Abraham and Eric Newman producing.  That duo also brought us the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead . . . Genre mainstay Sigourney Weaver (Alien, Ghost Busters) has signed on to play a vampire queen in the upcoming romantic horror-comedy Vamps from Amy Heckerling (Clueless, Look Who’s Talking).