Will audiences, like battered old ships, soon have to weather a year-long barrage of new Pirates of the Caribbean marketing? While the Jerry Bruckheimer and Johnny Depp partnership with Disney isn’t what it once was — Bruckheimer doesn’t even have a deal with the studio any longer — there’s still a plan to make Pirates of the Caribbean 5.

The film has been in development for a while, with Kon-Tiki filmmakers Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg set to direct from a script by Jeff Nathanson. Despite the fact that cast rumors have come up, however, Disney said earlier this year that the film…

Long before Rian Johnson was directing Star Wars movies, the writer/director was a frequent guest on the /Filmcast. Johnson, who directed Brick, The Brothers Bloom, Looperand Breaking Bad, has appeared on the show numerous times to discuss a broad range of topics, and to make fun of host David Chen.

One of those topics, oddly enough, was a film that not only resembled Star Wars, it was by a Star Wars director. Back in May 2009, Johnson appeared on the /Filmcast to review J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek. To say a lot has changed since that happened would be an understatement, the most significant…

Devlin hinted at what form the nextStargate movie may take, hinting that perhaps it may retell the story of the Gate’s discovery.

“Twenty years later, we can’t really do part two,” he said. “We have to start over from the beginning. So let’s reboot the series, put in all the things we couldn’t the first time, and set it up properly.”

Translation: We didn’t really get to do what we wanted to do with the original movie, or finish our trilogy. We know that there’s a lot of work out there since our movie, but we don’t like it and don’t want anything to do with it. We know there’s a big…

Speaking of Joe Darnell:

My children didn’t seem especially engaged. It held their attention, but not like The LEGO Movie. Dragon 2 is entertaining, but for us it’s not like the first film. Something about it…in spite of its fantastic animation and plot development and adorable dragons, it left me feeling like the filmmakers cut corners wherever they knew young audiences wouldn’t be paying attention.

Joe and I certainly had different experiences with our children. I found mine were engaged throughout the entire film. What’s missing from the analysis though is how often our children go to…

My thanks to my good friend Joe Darnell — who officially left the day to day operations of MovieByte almost a year ago now — for taking the helm of the site for me Thursday, Friday, and yes, even going the extra mile and posting a couple things on Saturday while I took a vacation (I hardly ever post on Saturday in consideration of my sanity).

He did a fine job, with a particularly good op-ed and a review of How To Train Your Dragon 2 that I didn’t particularly agree with, but it was good. If you haven’t had the opportunity, make sure you check out his entries from the last couple of… Read The Rest

You know those films that all your friends love, so you feel a little emotional pressure to like them too? How to Train Your Dragon and its sequel are those films for me.

It’s not that I don’t like them, because I do. I just don’t like them as well as anyone else I know. Dreamworks has impressed the masses with these dragon flicks all too easily, in my humble opinion. Critics gave the first film 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. The sequel has 92%. For comparison, Ratatouille has a 96% and Frozen has 89%. It seems to me that people just like dragons—not that Dreamwork’s film was actually as good if…

Star Wars: Episode VII, directed by J.J. Abrams, is deep into production. It’s scheduled for a December 2015 release, which leaves little time in production years to complete one of the greatest film epics of our time. J.J.’s is a monumental assignment.

But if that were not enough, Disney and Lucasfilm have publicly declared they will release another Star Wars film every year for the foreseeable future. That means Star Wars: Episode VIII must be scripted at this very moment, or very close to it. That gives them 1.4 years to finish Abrams’ and 2.5 years to make the sequel from… Read The Rest

Everyone wants to see Iron Man (a.k.a. Robert Downey Jr.) suit up for another Marvel film. Personally, I would enjoy more super hero stuff with Downey, but I’m more interested in the rest of his career.

Mr. Downey and his wife co-produced their very own drama that hits theaters this October 10th. It’s The Judge, the story of a scrupleless lawyer (Robert), his judge father (Robert Duvall), and a tumultuous trial that charges not-so-dear-old-dad with murder. The Judge also stars Billy Bob Thorton, Leighton Meester, and Vera Farmiga.

Robert had some nice things to say about his film on…

Pixar’s Inside Out is scheduled for release June 19, 2015. This is the first time in more than a decade that Pixar has skipped a yearly release cycle.

The upcoming film is shrouded in mystery, as little is known besides a simple summary and the voice cast (no trailers available at this time).

It’s the story of eleven-year-old Riley, a girl in the Midwest that’s moving to San Francisco. It’s about her transition in a wave of new life experiences. It’s the new beginnings that Riley encounters that spur some inner growth, turmoil, and comedy. Pixar’s press release:

Like all of us, Riley is…