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70-year-old Austrian director Michael Haneke may not be a household name in the United States, but Haneke is beloved by film festivals abroad and his popularity in the States is picking up. This is due perhaps in part to a fake Twitter account and most certainly due to an Academy Award win for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Picture nomination for last year's French-language drama Amour. The movie explored the relationship between a husband and wife after the latter has two debilitating strokes and the former remains unwaveringly devoted to her care.
Just days prior to the Academy Awards telecast, Haneke's Amour won five awards at the César Awards, the French version of the Oscars, and, during the telecast, a sketch aired that parodied Haneke's work by imagining what the director might do were he to land the director's chair for Star Wars Episode VII. The results mixes Haneke's work on Amour with Star Wars, but doesn't require one to have seen Amour to understand the jokes, not even when Chewbacca shows up.
watch the sketch >> Posted 03.06.13 by Ryan -
Ever since Disney handed the director's chair for the upcoming Star Wars Episode VII to director J.J. Abrams, Star Trek fans have voiced their displeasure. Even William Shatner, the original Captain Kirk, called Abrams a "pig" for indulging himself in both franchises, though Simon Pegg, who has played Scotty in 2009's Star Trek and its upcoming sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness, spoke up for his director. "I've never come across someone who likes Star Trek but hates Star Wars," Pegg told Digital Spy earlier this month. "If you are that, then clearly that's a sign of some sort of illness, 'cause there's room for everybody."
We're not sure how U.K. YouTube movie critic Unusual Suspect2011 feels about Abrams directing Star Wars, but he has created a mash-up trailer of both franchises, taking footage from the Star Wars movies but using the music from a recent Star Trek Into Darkness trailer. While the trailer likely began as a joke, it's interesting to see the change of tone that occurs with the Star Wars footage, making the trailer probably the best preview of what Abrams will do with the Star Wars franchise (minus the lens flares, of course).
watch the trailer >> Posted 02.26.13 by Ryan -
Some Star Trek fans weren't too pleased with the news that director J.J. Abrams was hand-picked to helm Star Wars Episode VII, especially after Abrams successfully rebooted the Trek franchise with 2009's Star Trek and its upcoming sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness. But no one seems to be angrier about the situation than the original Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner.
While being interviewed by Movie Fanatic about his part in the animated movie Escape From Planet Earth, which opens this week, Shatner called Abrams a "pig" for taking on both franchises, even though he considers Abrams "a buddy."
watch the video >> Posted 02.13.13 by Ryan -
"The force is strong with this one."
The new year has brought one piece of incredible movie news after another for sci-fi fans, but none has sparked as much debate as Disney’s plans for its recently acquired Lucasfilm assets and the Star Wars movie franchise. January was dominated by questions and rumors about who would be chosen to direct the sequel to Return of the Jedi, currently titled simply Star Wars: Episode VII, with the month closing out with fiery debates over whether the man who reignited the Star Trek franchise for Paramount, J.J. Abrams, was the right choice to reignite Star Wars for Disney. Only eight days into February and the internet is practically melting down over the news that Disney is also developing solo movies featuring a young Han Solo and the mysterious bounty hunter Boba Fett.
With Star Wars on our minds, we decided that this would be a fitting time to find out how you would rank the original trilogy of movies — Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi — against other sci-fi movies of the same era. Put down those sabacc cards, pour yourself a glass of blue milk and choose the best sci-fi movies of the 1970s and '80s.
Rate the Top 10 Best Sci-Fi Movies (1970s - 1980s) >>
Posted 02.08.13 by BrentJS -
"I've always liked working on stories that combine people who are relatable with something insane." — J.J. Abrams
The biggest movie news of the new year — of the new millenium, in some circles — is Disney’s recent announcement that popular television writer-producer and movie director J.J. Abrams has been hired to usher in the new era of Star Wars movies as the director of Star Wars: Episode VII. The news was almost universally celebrated, except within the die-hard fan community, where it ignited a firestorm of controversy among sci-fi devotees who love Abrams’ work, but believe that he is too close to a property that has long been Star Wars’ chief competitor to be handed the reins. If you’re not quite up to speed on Abrams and his work and want to be able to join in on what is sure to be a hot topic for the next couple of years, read on to learn how you can become conversant in J.J. Abrams in under eight hours.
why 'the force' is with Abrams >> Posted 01.28.13 by BrentJS -
Which promising movies fell shortest of expectations?
When we first heard the news that J.J. Abrams had been hired by Disney to continue the adventures of Luke Skywalker and company as the director of Star Wars: Episode VII, we were almost beside ourselves with enthusiasm. After all, as the director of Star Trek (2009), Abrams proved that he could revitalize a classic sci-fi franchise while remaining true to its core concepts and respectful of its legacy. Added to that the fact that Abrams will be shooting from a script written by Academy Award-winner Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) and Episode VII is bound to be the greatest Star Wars movie since Return of the Jedi, right? We'll see. We're keeping our fingers crossed, but gearing down from "enthusiastic" to "hopefully optimistic."
Studios don't set out to make bad movies, yet they churn them out each and every year. Sure, most bad movies are doomed from the get-go, be they saddled with a bad script, a director who lacks vision, a cast made up of eye candy instead of actors, or some combination thereof, but even movies that seem to have everything going for them can still turn out to be dreadful. A movie about cowboys fighting aliens starring Indiana Jones and James Bond directed by the man who brought us Iron Man? Sounds awesome! Too bad Cowboys and Aliens turned out to be just another one of those movies that should have been great, but ultimately left us feeling unsatisfied and disappointed.
You've griped about them to your friends, now tell us which movies you found to be the biggest disappointments, the ones that simply failed to live up to expectations.
Rate the Top 10 Most Disappointing Movies >>
Posted 01.25.13 by BrentJS -
Meet the giant robots that will protect us from giant, invading monsters.
The first footage from Guillermo del Toro's upcoming sci-fi monster movie, Pacific Rim, was revealed at a packed San Diego Comic-Con panel last summer, eliciting responses from online journalists like "freaking amazing" and "pretty badass". Those that missed the panel had to wait until the movie's first trailer was released last month to catch a peek at what everyone was talking about, but, thankfully, there's already another trailer online which debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) going on in Las Vegas.
Unlike the previous trailer, which started by showing some of the creatures, the latest trailer focuses almost solely on the giant robots mankind has created to dispose of the monsters.
giant trailers every showSaturdays 10:00a ET / 7:00a PT
watch the trailer, plus del toro discusses his next project >> Posted 01.09.13 by Ryan -
Which Actress Should Play the Last Princess of Alderran?
Now that Disney has expanded its library of fairy tale princesses to include its first space princess, the question is: How does the "House of Mouse" plan to utilize Leia Organa, last princess of the doomed planet Alderran, twin brother to Luke Skywalker, and daughter of evil Sith warlord Darth Vader. Concurrent with the announcement of the purchase of Lucasfilm Ltd., Disney revealed that Star Wars: Episode VII would be blasting into theaters in 2015, which we later learned would be written by Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine); however, nothing about the plot has been revealed.
All three of the principal actors who starred in the original trilogy — Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher — have expressed interest in returning in the new movie and it's likely that Disney will want to capitalize on the popularity of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Leia Organa, but whether Disney brings back the original cast members as a way of bridging the original trilogy with the new trilogy or reboots the characters with younger actors is anyone's guess. Considering how well Paramount's Star Trek reboot was received by the general audience and even die-hard Trekkers and Trekkies, coupled with the fact that Disney skews young, we're thinking Star Wars will get the reboot.
We already asked you to vote for the best actors to play Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. Now, we want to know who you think has what it takes to wag her finger in the face of evil as the feisty princess with a preference for scoundrels?
Rate the Top 10 Actors Who Could Play Princess Leia >>
Posted 11.18.12 by BrentJS -
Which Actor Should Play the Space Pirate?
Unless you've been sentenced to hard labor in the Spice Mines of Kessel or frozen in carbonite for the past few weeks, then you know that George Lucas has sold Lucasfilm Ltd. and that Disney is pushing for a new Star Wars movie to be released in 2015. The details of Star Wars: Episode VII are a closely guarded secret at this point, but we do know that Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) has been hired to write the screenplay and that Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher have all been approached about it, but whether the trio will be playing older versions of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa or simply signing away their likeness rights for digital proxies is anyone's guess.
As much as we would love to see the original actors come back in some way, shape or form, we would much rather see Disney reboot the characters the way Paramount did with Star Trek. After all, if James Bond, Batman and Sherlock Holmes can survive multiple interations, why not Han, Luke and Leia? We already asked you who you think has the right stuff to play the last Jedi; now, help us choose the space pirate, the scoundrel, the scruffy looking nerf herder.
Rate the Top 10 Actors Who Could Play Han Solo >>
Posted 11.16.12 by BrentJS -
Which Actor Should Play the Last Jedi?
Ever since the announcement that George Lucas had sold Lucasfilm Ltd. to Disney and that the studio was making plans for a new Star Wars movie, the internet has been flooded with so many rumors masquerading as news that it's become nearly impossible to know which of them, if any, are true. The general consensus among the more reputable of news sources is that Star Wars: Episode VII will see the return of the majority of the characters from the original trilogy, including Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa and Han Solo, with Luke's efforts to rebuild the Jedi a primary focus of the plot.
Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, revealed shortly after the announcement that he had been told by Lucas that a new trilogy was in the works a year before the sale, and he later expressed interested in being involved with it — Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher are also interested in reprising the roles of Solo and Organa, respectively — but it's hard to imagine a 60-something Jedi kicking off a new trilogy (of course, Yoda was closing in on a millenium and that didn't stop him). If Hamill is not going to be headlining the franchise, then who will? Assuming Disney doesn't pull a Clu — Jeff Bridges was digitally rejuvenated to play a younger version of himself in Tron: Legacy — a younger actor will need to be brought in take up the mantle of the last Jedi. Who do you think has what it takes to play Luke Skywalker?
Rate the Top 10 Actors Who Could Play Luke Skywalker >>
Posted 11.14.12 by BrentJS