You may not have realized yet what family film Disney had in store for us this holiday season. What with so many sequels released in recent years from their animation studios, it’s easy to overlook the occasional original story they might release. It only occurred to me the other day as I watched the trailers before a showing of Wreck-it Ralph that this is their holiday theatrical release.

With a budget to the tune of $165,000,000 (estimated) it’s more than surprisingly delightful. This first film — in an undoubtedly new movie franchise — has been well-received. It is sure to attract…

The “S.H.I.E.L.D.” series is moving along with fan favorite Clark Gregg back in action and TV veteran Ming-Na Wen (“ER” and “SGU Stargate Universe”) recently coming on board, and now there’s a start date on the horizon. According to Variety’s Marc Graser, the Joss Whedon produced series will start shooting in January. We presume that this means it will be aimed as an addition to the fall 2013 TV lineup on ABC (owned by Disney).

You can be sure this is one TV show I will be adding to my watch list.

Harrison Ford is open to the idea of bringing Han Solo back to life on the silver screen in 2015, according to sources close to the just-announced Star Wars sequel, but don’t be surprised if his contract includes a mandatory death scene for the sly old space smuggler.

“Harrison is open to the idea of doing the movie and he’s upbeat about it, all three of them are,” said one highly placed source, referring to Ford, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher, the trio that made a hyper-speed jump to global fame on May 25, 1977, the opening night for George Lucas’s original Star Wars film.

Well, we…

In case you missed it I just want to remind you, we’re giving away an HD TV along with a one year subscription to Netflix.

MovieByte has been a smashing success and a lot of fun and we want to see it grow even more. Joseph and I are really loving what we are doing here at MovieByte, finding all the great news each day, writing articles and reviews, doing podcasts and the like are all such great fun and I think that’s coming out in our work. But in order to do what we really want to do here, MovieByte must grow it’s audience. We are so confident in what we are doing, that we’ve decided to…

Well, here’s a gem. It’s a little hard to understand, and watch for that matter: poor quality VHS captured digitally from the looks of it. But it’s fun none the less. Hamill had some information and ideas about the sequels even then. Given where Lucas has gone, and that he’s only minimally involved now who knows how much has changed and what will or won’t happen.

Still, the geek in me rejoiced to find this.

“We’re talking very seriously about revealing [what caused the blackout] before end of this season,” Kripke tells EW.  The answer is something that’s passed muster from a physicist consulted by the producers. So expect what caused the blackout to be at least somewhat scientifically plausible.

“The sweet spot is to find an answer that’s actually scarier than what you were thinking,” Kripke says. “Like, ‘Oh wait, this is not even just about electricity.’ And that’s what we’re designing. I don’t see any reason to withhold it much longer.”

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One fan question about the epic power loss…

Although no one outside of Lucas and Disney executives know the content of the planned movie sequels, the first of which would come out in 2015, they will more than likely be original tales.

That means Zahn’s books won’t be directly adapted, but the author says that was always the case: “The books were always just the books.”

But years ago, he was briefed on Lucas’ plans for sequels, and how the Thrawn books would fit in. “The original idea as I understood it— and Lucas changes his mind off and on, so it may not be what he’s thinking right now – but it was going to be three…

Prometheus writer Damon Lindelof may not be writing Star Wars Episode VII, but he can still suggest plot points. On Thursday, FirstShowing.net debunked some pretty rampant and persistent speculation that 1952, the science-fiction project that Lindelof and Brad Bird are writing for the new owner of LucasFilm, Disney, was the code name for a new Star Wars trilogy. But just two days earlier, when rumors were still making the rounds, Lindelof took to his Twitter feed to suggest some Episode VII ideas that were better suited to a Robot Chicken Star Wars special. “Chewbacca’s great-great…

This week, Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4 billion and is planing to release “Star Wars: Episode VII” in 2015. Check out these exclusive leaked movie posters.

Looks legit…