Category: Fanboy

Regrets of the Jedi.


“The original idea was that they would recover [the kidnapped] Han Solo in the early part of the story and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. George then decided he didn’t want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason.“

Thirty years after Empire, and as “new” deleted scenes appear from the OT (just in time for the Blu-Rays), ousted Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz reveals his desired take on Return of the Jedi “The discussed ending of the film that Kurtz favored presented the rebel forces in tatters, Leia grappling with her new duties as queen and Luke walking off alone ‘like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns,’ as Kurtz put it.” [Pic via here (although I almost went with the Han Solo in carbonite desk.)]

Letters from a Birmingham Trek Convention.

“[W]hen I told Dr. King I was leaving the show, I never got to tell him why, because he said, ‘You can’t.’ He explained to me just what I’ve just said. ‘Here you are on the command crew in the 23rd century, fourth in command, while we’re marching in the streets for equality.’” Nichelle Nichols, a.k.a. Lt. Uhura, relates the story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Trekkie.

We Create the Worlds of the Dream…

“There’s one thing you should know about me. I specialize in a very specific type of security: Subconscious security…” You’re talking about dreams! First, it was Bill and Ted’s Excellent Inception. Then Toy Story 3: Inception and UpCeption. And now it’s a full-fledged — and really, really great — meme: Moviefone collects their Top 10 Inception trailer mash-ups, including Titanic, LotR, The Simpsons, The Matrix, ESB, and The Dark Knight. These just never get old for me.

Legends of the Fall.

“I’m glad they took their time, and are trying to make the best zombie movie they can,” said Brooks. ‘I’m so glad they stayed with the project and so glad they found the right team.‘” In Comic-Con news, Brad Pitt will star in Marc Forster’s adaptation of World War Z, the zombie-apocalypse-by-way-of-Studs-Terkel novel by Max Brooks. Move over, True Blood and Team Edward: Between this and AMC’s version of The Walking Dead, zombie apocalypses are the new sparkly vampires.

“‘We are not returning Eddie Murphy’s calls,’ del Toro said, making a surprise appearance onstage, ‘…and we are not making it a comedy… We are making it scary and fun, but the scary will be scary.’” Also at Comic-Con, Guillermo del Toro announces he’s rebooting The Haunted Mansion for Disney. Uh, you dropped The Hobbit for this? I would’ve preferred Cthulhu.

Notorious M.C.P.


It’s not quite as visceral a kick as the teaser, but the just-released-at-Comic-Con-2010 second trailer for Joseph Kosinski’s Tron: Legacy is now online, and it’s not bad at all.

Also recently in the trailer bin, the future Hal Jordan tries to make a full-length movie out of a key moment from The Vanishing in the so-so trailer for Rodrigo Cortes’ Buried, with Ryan Reynolds, Ivana Mino, Stephen Tobolowsky, Samantha Mathis and Dianne Farr. And Ben Affleck learns a thing or two about life after downsizing in the excessively maudlin trailer for John Wells’ The Company Men, also with Rosemarie DeWitt, Maria Bello, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner, Craig T. Nelson, and Chris Cooper. These both look like a pass, but you never know.

Goldeneye and Green Machines. [+X]

A publicity still from Kenneth Branagh’s Thor featuring Odin, Thor, and Loki, a.k.a. Anthony Hopkins, Chris Hemsworth, and Tom Hiddleston respectively, materializes on the tubes. Well, I’ll defer my full assessment until I’ve seen the characters move around under cinema lighting, but, to my mind, these outfits don’t look so hot. I guess they were going for Kirbyesque, but they look too plastic-y and space-age to me. (Also, Loki needs horns badly, but they’re too iconic not to show up in the final movie, I’d think.)

Elsewhere in comic-to-film-news, EW gets a look at Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern (again, too early to tell, but this CGI-approach could work), and, in lieu of Eric Bana and Edward Norton, Mark Ruffalo may well be Hulking out for Joss Whedon’s Avengers. (Eh, fine.)

Update: Forgot to mention the recent goings-on with Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class. Joining McAvoy, Fassbender, and Eve as Xavier, Magneto, and Emma Frost are Kevin Bacon and Jennifer Lawrence (of Winter’s Bone) as the Big Bad (Mr. Sinister?) and Mystique respectively. Also along for the ride: A Single Man‘s Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Friday Night Lights‘ Caleb Landry Jones as Banshee, Hannah Montana‘s Lucas Till as Havok, and purportedly Kick-Ass‘s Aaron Johnson as Cyclops, altho’ that last one is still up in the air.

Update 2: More Thor and Green Lantern images emerge.

Garfield the Spider.

“On selecting Garfield, director Marc Webb said, ‘Though his name may be new to many, those who know this young actor’s work understand his extraordinary talents. He has a rare combination of intelligence, wit, and humanity. Mark my words, you will love Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker.‘”

I’m inclined to agree — this is really great casting. Better than Tobey Maguire, in fact. Sony’s Spiderman reboot finds its friendly neighborhood webslinger in Andrew Garfield of The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus and Red Riding ’74 (and soon of Never Let Me Go and The Social Network.) And given the Peter Parkerish sensiblity at work in Webb’s (500) Days of Summer, this project actually seems to be coming together quite nicely.

Heroes to Zeroes.


I thought this was interesting. Long-time readers may remember that back in the day, I wrote a few posts about the TV show Heroes pretty blatantly ripping off Watchmen and the X-Men “Days of Future Past” storylines, which was all the more annoying because showrunner Tim Kring claimed to never read comics. So, anyway, a representative from Carnival Comics found those old posts and sent along this info about the lawsuit they’ve recently filed against NBC and Heroes for plagiarism (from Season 4, which begs the question: If you pretty clearly plagiarize from someone, and yet nobody in America actually watches your final product, does it still count as plagiarism?) I must say, particularly in light of the earlier grifts, the PDF in question is rather damning.