Disney Cancels TRON 3

Tron 3 won’t be coming to a theater near you.

Disney has chosen not to move forward with a third installment in the sci-fi series, sources say. While sources say the project was never officially greenlit, earlier this year it seemed that things were moving ahead with Tron:Legacy helmer Joseph Kosinski returning to direct and stars Olivia Wilde and Garrett Hedlund reprising their roles.

Wilde gave her response to this cancellation on Twitter:

Tron fans! Don’t trip. Now I don’t have to live on seaweed juice and tofu dust for 6 months to fit into a rubber suit. 

— olivia wilde (@oliviawilde) June 2, 2015

Prep had been started on the third film, and production was looking to begin this fall, likely in Vancouver, British Columbia. Disney had been interested in adding Jared Leto to the cast, but an offer and negotiations never commenced.

Disney has been developing a sequel to Tron:Legacy since the movie, made for $170 million, grossed $400 million worldwide. Legacy was the sequel to the 1982 sci-fi film that took place inside a computer world known as the Grid and starred Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner. The film drew a big cult following and became a notable influence on filmmakers and pop culture.

Decades later, Disney revisited the world with Legacy. The story revealed that the computer-programmer character played by Bridges had a son (Hedlund) who jumped into the Grid to find his father. Wilde was Quorra, an algorithm-made-flesh who also happened to kick butt.

Disney has had strong success with its live-action properties recently, including Maleficent and this year’s Cinderella, which earned $527.4 million worldwide. But it recently had a stumble with the $180 million live-action film Tomorrowland, which underperformed at the box office this past weekend with a $33 million U.S. debut.

Disney’s live-action tentpole calendar is pretty full for the next few years, with live-action versions of many of its animated classics in the works, including The Jungle Book, Alice: Through the Looking Glass and Beauty and the Beast.

Source: THR

J.J. Abrams Talks STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS; Plus New Lupita Nyong’o Still

We still haven’t seen the alien character that Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years A Slave) will play in Star Wars: The Force Awakens — unless you count that brief glimpse of her handing over the lightsaber in the latest trailer — but thanks to Vanity Fair’s recent coverage of the movie, we now know her name and profession at least: Maz Kanata, space pirate.

Above we have a new behind-the-scenes snap of Nyong’o performing a mo-cap scene as Maz, but below we have a new excerpt from J.J. Abrams’ interview with the mag. The director reveals that his film will recall certain things from the earlier instalments in the saga, but suggests that they also held back on including some stuff that could have seemed forced.

“We’ve obviously had a lot of time [during the development process] to talk about what’s happened outside of the borders of the story that you’re seeing. So there are, of course, references to things, and some are very oblique so that hopefully the audience can infer what the characters are referring to. We used to have more references to things that we pulled out because they almost felt like they were trying too hard to allude to something. I think that the key is—and whether we’ve accomplished that or not is, of course, up to the audience—but the key is that references be essential so that you don’t reference a lot of things that feel like, oh, we’re laying pipe for, you know, an animated series or further movies. It should feel like things are being referenced for a reason.”

Starring original cast members Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker and franchise newcomers, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Lupita Nyong’o and Max von Sydow, Star Wars Episode VII is set to be released on December 18th, 2015.

Source: Vanity Fair

Second STAR WARS ANTHOLOGY Movie To Focus On BOBA FETT’s Origin Story

Josh Trank was recently dumped by Disney and Lucasfilm from the still untitled Star Wars Anthology movie, but it’s still moving ahead even without a director currently at the helm. According to The Wrap, whoever takes over will get to tell the origin story of Boba Fett! It’s going to be an origin story for the iconic character, presumably taking place some time after the events of Attack of the Clones. After all, the “adventures” of Boba as a kid wouldn’t be all that exciting!

There had been rumours that Rogue One would revolve around bounty hunters, but it seems as if it will be this movie which delves into that world. There’s no word on who’s set to replace Trank or who will play Fett!

Source: The Wrap

New STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Set Photos; Episode VIII Star Date; Characters Confirmed

The cover of the latest issue of Vanity Fair features some of the cast of J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens in character. There’s Daisy Ridley as Rey, John Boyega as Finn, Harrison Ford as Han Solo; along with Chewie and BB8. 

Below you’ll find a great batch of new official images from Star Wars: The Force Awakens courtesy of Vanity Fair and they’re quite revealing indeed. It seems J.J. Abrams has decided to let a few items slip free from his “mystery box”, as these stills confirm that it is indeed Adam Driver under the mask of the sinister Kylo Ren. Plus we see Lupita Nyong’o shooting scenes as her still unnamed mo-cap character, possibly Maz Kanata, and a whole host of new aliens and creatures. There’s also a BTS video featuring comments from Abrams and some of the cast.

Now that we have confirmation that Adam Driver would be playing the villainous ‘Kylo Ren’ in the much-anticipated seventh installment in the Star Wars saga. We also got a look at several of Driver’s co-stars, including Lupita Nyong’o filming mo-cap scenes. Now it seems we can tick Gwendoline Christie’s character off of the list of unnamed roles. A new image taken from the Star Wars Vanity Fair issue appears to confirm that she will play “First Order Officer, Captain Phasma”.

Also, @VanityFair introduces Gwendoline Christie (@lovegwendoline) as Captain Phasma! #MayThe4thBeWithYou pic.twitter.com/BPpaASR0DP

— The Force Awakens (@EpisodeVII) May 4, 2015

The British government formally announced Monday that episode eight of the Star Wars franchise will be shot at Pinewood Studios just outside of London.

“Pleased to announce #StarWarsVIII will be filmed here in UK @PinewoodStudios – great news for @starwars fans & our UK creative industries,” tweeted George Osborne, the U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer, the British equivalent of the secretary of the Treasury. Osborne also trumped up the $152 million (₤100 million) inward investment and 3,000 jobs the production will bring.

The news comes on Star Wars Day (May the Fourth), but also coincidentally a bank holiday Monday in the U.K. Lucasfilm and Disney representatives couldn’t immediately be reached. Pinewood declined to comment.

Episode VIII to be #MadeinBritain, bringing 100m investment and 3,000 jobs here. #MayThe4thBeWithYou

— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) May 4, 2015

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, opens in theaters December 18, 2015. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is directed by J.J. Abrams from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan & Abrams, and features a cast including actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendoline Christie, Crystal Clarke, Pip Andersen, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow. They will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker. The film is being produced by Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, and Bryan Burk, and John Williams returns as the composer. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is Episode VII in the Star Wars Saga

GHOST IN THE SHELL Release Date Moved

Disney has moved up the release date of Ghost in the Shell by two weeks. The live action adaptation of the 1995 anime movie will now release on March 31, 2017.

The move was likely made to avoid opening on the same week as Furious 8, now slated for released on April 14, 2017.

Ghost in the Shell will star Scarlett Johansson with Snow White and the Huntsman helmer Rupert Sanders directing, and is based on Masamune Shirow’s cyberpunk, near-future stories. Ghost in the Shell follows Section 9, a branch of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission tasked with fighting cybercrime and cyberterrorism, led in the field by Commander Motoko Kusanagi.

Ghost in the Shell begins production in early 2016.

Josh Trank Exits STAR WARS ANTHOLOGY Project And WHY?

Josh Trank said Friday that he had “made a personal decision” to leave the Star Wars universe, sources say reports of the young director’s unusual conduct during the making of Fox’s upcoming Fantastic Four movie had raised alarm among Lucasfilm executives that were entrusting him with the second Star Wars standalone film.

Trank, 30, had raised eyebrows in April when he didn’t appear as scheduled at a Star Wars celebration in Anaheim. At the time, both Disney and the director cited illness as the cause but multiple knowledgeable sources say the studio had asked the filmmaker not to attend while considering whether to proceed with him on the second spinoff in a planned series of films.

Indeed, producers on Fantastic Four, set for release July 30, are said to have faced great challenges pulling the film together given behavior described by one insider as “erratic” and at times “very isolated.” Trank did not offer clear direction, this person adds, saying, “If you’ve got someone who can’t answer questions or who isn’t sure or is in hiding, that’s not good.”

A Fox spokesman says the studio is “very happy with the movie and we can’t wait for audiences to see it” but acknowledges, “There were definitely some bumps in the road.”

Among those bumps: Trank has several small dogs who were left in a rented house in New Orleans while the film was shooting there. According to sources, as much as $100,000 worth of damage was done to the property. A source says the production considers any destruction of the property to be Trank’s responsibility.

Citing Trank’s work on the 2012 found-footage superhero movie Chronicle, an insider says: “No question there’s talent there. You can’t do Chronicle by accident.” But Trank seemed “like one of these kids who comes to the NBA with all the talent and none of the character-based skills to handle it. There’s equipment he doesn’t yet have.”

According to sources, Trank was sometimes indecisive and uncommunicative. Producers Simon Kinberg and Hutch Parker had to step in to help pull the film together, though sources stress that Trank was still on set and directing the film. (Were that not the case, the production could have run afoul of the Directors Guild of America.)

Just over three months from opening, Fox’s Fantastic Four has done re-shoots. Those were complicated because stars Miles Teller, Kate Mara and Michael B. Jordan had obligations on other films. The most recent round, which involved three days of re-shoots at the end of April, had to take place on weekends because of Teller’s work on Todd Phillip’s Arms and the Dude. Parker and Kinberg are said to have been heavily involved in those re-shoots, pulling them away from duties in Canada on X-Men: Apocalypse, which they also are producing.

Given the issues with Trank’s performance, the production added Stephen Rivkin (Avatar) to help pull the film together. Trank had hired his Chronicle editor, Elliot Greenberg, on the project.

Fantastic Four is meant to reboot the Marvel superhero franchise for Fox. The comic is venerated for its place in history as it launched Marvel Comics in 1962 and was the early creation from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Fox made two movies, released in 2005 and 2007, that made $330 million and $289 million respectively but failed to capture moviegoers’ imagination. Fox hastened to make a new movie as it risked having the rights revert back to Marvel.

Kinberg, who is producing the second Star Wars standalone project (the first, Rogue One, is being directed by Gareth Edwards for a December 2016 release), is said to have communicated his displeasure with Trank to Kathleen Kennedy and the team at Lucasfilm. As the Star Wars brain trust heard more about Trank’s behavior and working style, they became less confident in handing over the film to him.

Source: THR 

New Official Images From STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Show Off Rey And BB8

Entertainment Weekly recently caught up with Daisy Ridley to talk Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and while the relatively unknown British actress obviously couldn’t say much about her character Rey, she did have this to say about her favourite shooting location. “Weirdly enough, probably Abu Dhabi, even though it was so hot, it was like you literally can’t imagine that heat. The feeling of stepping onto a real set for the first time, it genuinely was a baptism of fire. To see creatures walking around and speeders chilling in the sand, that was amazing, and because I was shooting there, it was like everything had built up to that moment. So a few days in, I was like, OK. I’m getting my groove now.” Abu Dhabi doubled for Jakku in the Return of the Jedi follow-up, and you can get a better look at it in the images below. Could that be Rey and BB8’s first meeting?

Starring original cast members Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker and franchise newcomers, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Lupita Nyong’o and Max von Sydow, Star Wars Episode VII is set to be released on December 18th, 2015.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Joss Whedon Talks Post AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON Filmmaking

Joss Whedon has been talking about his post-Marvel movie career, telling IGN that he’s definitely interested in directing a Star Wars film, but stating that he wouldn’t want to see the franchise crossover with the MCU.

Disney owns both properties these days, so while Whedon was doing the publicity rounds for Avengers: Age of Ultron, we asked him if he’d be interested in potentially relocating to a galaxy far, far away.

“Right now I’d be interested in a long nap! But are you kidding? It’s Star Wars! It’s always going to be Star Wars!”

Whedon is less interested in seeing the franchise merge with the Marvel Cinematic Universe however. “I rule out nothing” he explained. “But I think it would not be my choice. You have two enormously strong, very textured universes. To say we have just the one would be to in some way dilute them. I think it makes sense to keep them in their own time, which I believe was long ago and not so close by.”

The writer-director added that while it’s great to mine all these properties from the past for material, studios should also be striving to come up with original ideas.

“It’s pretty exciting – I have to say. I saw the new trailer for Star Wars as everyone else had. ‘It’s good to be home.’ But at the same time we’re all painfully aware that at some point we’ll be running on fumes. I love working with the characters I grew up reading about but we need to create the characters that other people are going to grow up reading about.”

Source: IGN

Ewan McGregor to Play Lumiere in Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Ewan McGregor is in negotiations to play Lumiere in Disney’s live-action retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” that stars Emma Watson and Dan Stevens.

Luke Evans is also on board and will play Gaston. Ian McKellen will play Cogsworth.

Bill Condon is directing, with David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman of Mandeville Films producing. The script was written by Evan Spiliotopoulos and rewritten by Steve Chbosky.

Production will begin later this year. The studio has set a March 17, 2017, release for the pic.

The studio’s 1991 animated feature version of “Beauty and the Beast” grossed more than $375 million worldwide, spawned a Broadway play and became one of the few animated pics to receive a best picture Oscar nomination. In that version, Lumiere was the charming and energetic butler/candlestick who is most famous for singing the tune “Be Our Guest.”

Disney has several reboots of classic tales on the horizon, including retellings of “The Jungle Book” “Mulan” and “Winnie the Pooh.”

Source: Variety

STAR WARS ANTHOLOGY: ROGUE ONE Adds Sam Claflin And Riz Ahmed

The Hunger Games star Sam Claflin and Nightcrawler’s Riz Ahmed are both being eyed for roles in the first Star Wars Anthology movie, Rogue One.

According to the Wrap, Claflin is being eyed for one of the ensemble roles in the heist film’s cast. The actor plays Finnick in The Hunger Games franchise.

According to Variety, Ahmed is in negotiations to play the male lead in the film, opposite Felicity Jones. Director Gareth Edwards has reportedly been meeting with actors to test for the role, and Ahmed’s chemistry with Jones set him apart from the rest of the pack.

Rogue One will tell the story of how a group of Rebel Alliance agents stole the plans for the Death Star prior to the events of A New Hope.

Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One is expected to be released in theaters December 16, 2016.