‘Portal’ and ‘Half-Life’ Films by JJ Abrams?

‘Portal’ and ‘Half-Life’ Films by JJ Abrams?
/Film

While Star Wars continues to dominate much of the conversation about big-ticket sci-fi film, the outcome of the DICE keynote talk between filmmaker J.J. Abrams and game-master Gabe Newell of Valve Software was even more stunning: the two are likely to collaborate to make games and movies. The stated movie interests are adaptations of popular Valve games Portal and Half-Life.

“We’re making a Half-Life movie” is not quite what they said, but the door was certainly left open to Bad Robot and Valve collaborating on projects. And reading between the lines and taking a few other tips into…

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Connecticut Congressman Challenges ‘Lincoln’ Inaccuracies

Connecticut Congressman Challenges ‘Lincoln’ Inaccuracies
Entertainment Weekly

Joe Courtney, Democratic member of the House from Connecticut, was alarmed to find a historical inaccuracy that depicted his home state in a negative light while watching Oscar-nominated film Lincoln.

In the movie, two congressmen from Connecticut voted against the 13th amendment, which would abolish slavery. Courtney was surprised by the vote, and decided to check the facts.

He started with a simple Internet search, according to the AP, which lead to a request for the Congressional Research Service to look into the issue. In fact, all four Connecticut congressmen voted for the…

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‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ Synopsis

‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ Synopsis
Collider

Earlier today, we reported that Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 began production in New York.  Now, we have the full press release that reveals the first official synopsis and the principal cast.

Full Press Release:

New York, February 5, 2013 – Columbia Pictures announced today that filming has begun on The Amazing Spider-Man™ 2 in New York. The film is the first in the history of the franchise that will be filmed entirely in New York City and New York State.

The sequel to last year’s critical and box office hit The Amazing Spider-Man, the film stars Andrew Garfield, Emma…

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Stand Alone Star Wars Character Films

Stand Alone Star Wars Character Films
The Hollywood Reporter

Disney CEO Bob Iger, whose company acquired Lucasfilm in a $4.05 billion transaction last year, confirmed for investors that his company has lined up Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg to work on stand-alone Star Wars movies.

As THR first reported, Kasdan and Kinberg are working on separate films that will serve as spinoffs of the main new trilogy. Iger told CNBC that the pair are “working on films derived from great Star Wars characters that are not part of the overall saga, so we still plan to make Star Wars VII, VIII and IX roughly over a six-year period of time starting in 2015. But…

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McQuarrie (Jack Reacher) Suggests He’s Directing MI5

McQuarrie (Jack Reacher) Suggests He’s Directing MI5
/Film

Then Jack Reacher came out and while the film did pretty well critically, it underperformedfinancially. Whether that was because it was released days after the tragic shooting in Newtown, Connecticut and the film begins with a savage sniper attack, because people are just over Tom Cruise, or if people just didn’t respond to the marketing and/or film is to be determined.

Either way, the question remained, “Would McQuarrie be handed the keys to one of Paramount’s biggest franchises?” That seems to be the case. McQuarrie took to Twitter and said he’s “deciding to accept” the gig. Which is…

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Tron in ‘Wreck-it Ralph 2’?

Tron in ‘Wreck-it Ralph 2’?
ComingSoon.net

...he also dropped a brief tidbit about a popular video game character he’d love to work into a sequel: Tron.

Played by Bruce Boxleitner in 1982’s TRON, the character was actually intended to have a cameo in the first Wreck-It Ralph.

“I can’t specifically remember why that didn’t happen,” Moore explains. ”...Of course, with a sequel, I’m hoping that we can find a way to see Tron himself in that movie.”

That’s an interesting idea and one I can’t say I would have thought of. Of course, while there is a TRON video game based on the original film, TRON isn’t really a video game…

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Buy Advance Screening Tickets for ‘Star Trek’

Buy Advance Screening Tickets for ‘Star Trek’
TrekMovie.com

You can be one of the first to see Star Trek Into Darkness by attending a “Fan Sneak” showing on the evening of Wednesday May 15th. You can buy tickets now exclusively via Fandango. The early screenings were announced by Paramount via the new mobile app which added a new Fandango button. If you click that button you are lead to a list of local screenings.

I could not get it to work through Fandango’s website, but going through the Star Trek Into Darkness app worked for me. So I’m in, and I even have a fairly decent seat (IMAX being reserved seating and all). Awesome!

Here’s a link to…

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Redesign all the Things (for ‘Transformers 4’)

Redesign all the Things (for ‘Transformers 4’)
/Film

Mark Wahlberg is carrying over from Pain & Gain to the cast of Transformers 4, and is part of a movement to assemble a new cast for T4 to lead a new set of films. We know that Bay wants to do a few new things with the fourth installment, and that same interview that talks about being influenced by the working scale of Pain & Gain the director says that “we’ve redesigned everything from top to bottom” for the latest sequel.

...

We’re going to start off smaller. There’s a brand new cast. To freshen the franchise we’ve redesigned everything from top to bottom. The history of the first…

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James Horner To Score ‘Enders Game’

James Horner To Score ‘Enders Game’
/Film

Oscar-winning composer James Horner has been hired by director Gavin Hood to write the music for Ender’s Game. The film, scheduled for release November 1, stars Asa Butterfield as a kid-genius recruited to space so he can train as a military leader. Harrison Ford co-stars along with Hailee Steinfeld, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, Aramis Knight, Moises Arias and others.

What was the last good film Horner Scored? The Legend of Zorro in 2005? (Yes, there’s Avatar — but I said good film). So yeah, I’m definitely in it to hear a good score from Horner!

Also, the film looks interesting:

In…

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‘The Heat’ Moves to Summer

‘The Heat’ Moves to Summer
/Film

Fox has already put out a couple of very funny trailers for Paul Feig‘s The Heat, but you’ll want to hold your laughter for now. The picture has just been pushed back from April 5 to June 28, where it’ll face off against Universal’s Kick-Ass 2 and Columbia’s White House Down. That slot has traditionally been a good one for comedies; high grossers likeTedBad Teacher, and Grown Ups have all opened on that same weekend in recent years. The studio has already made it clear that it likes what Feig has delivered, so this date comes across as a vote of confidence.

Raise your hand if you…

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