Last week, The Hollywood Reporter passed on the disappointing news that Benedict Cumberbatch has withdrawn from Guillermo Del Toro‘s Crimson Peak. One line of their story seems particularly relevant right now:

No reason for his departure was given, although sources say his exit is not due to another project.

But… were these sources lying to us?

According to Film Chronicles, who focus almost exclusively on reviews, interviews and well-sourced content rather than speculation or rumours, Cumberbatch has been cast in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII. As you may recall, Episode…

Pixar Animation has removed the director of its 2014 film, “The Good Dinosaur,” and not named a replacement, marking the fourth time in eight movies that the Emeryville studio has made a director change midstream.

With the film’s release date fast approaching and various creative choices unmade, Pixar executives decided to replace director Bob Peterson this summer, according to the studio’s president, Ed Catmull.

This does not bode well.

“All directors get really deep in their films,” Catmull said this week. “Sometimes you just need a different perspective to get the idea out. Sometimes…

I am silently weeping for humanity… well actually, not so silently. If you are somewhere in the state of Tennessee you can probably hear the wailing. It’s quite loud. You may ask why my sensibilities have been offended so. Well, I think it is related the the “direction” the box office has taken.

Seriously, the entire box office right now looks abysmal.

#1 — One Direction: This Is Us

Budget: $10 M
Totals: $17 M, Weekend and Domestic / $14 M, Foreign / $31.5 M, Worldwide
Weekend: 1

Hey, a teen heartthrob pop boy band, I always wanted to know more about them… NOT! I believe this…

I’m sure you guys know that I don’t mention every single film that is available to you on a weekend. I try to hit the highlights of the films I feel are worth watching, or films I think are so bad, or are going to be so bad that I should draw your attention to them so you don’t waste your time on them. There are, of course, small time releases that would not be widely available that I often don’t mention. This week too, though, there are a couple films that I just don’t really want to mention in the context that I would mention the others you see below. Films like, Passion, One Direction, The…

The Guillermo del Toro-directed robots vs. monsters movie may be doing monster box office in China, but an officer in the People’s Liberation Army is no fan. “Hollywood has always been the best American propaganda machine,” wrote Zhang Jieli late last week in a PLA Daily op-ed about Legendary Pictures-Warner Bros‘ Pacific Rim. The PLA Daily is an official China military publication. “The decisive battle against the monsters was deliberately set in South China Sea adjacent to Hong Kong,” Zhang wrote in the editorial, published Friday. “The intention was to demonstrate the U.S. commitment to…

I wanted to like this film. I really wanted to like this film… but…

This film had all the makings, the trappings of a good fantasy film. But it uses those good elements it has to very bad effect. It plays a bit too much like a parody of the fantasy genre — ineptly moving from story beat to story beat without ever drawing the audience in or making us feel a real connection to the film.

It’s no wonder that this book series, and now subsequently, this film series is being made. Look at the success of the Harry Potter franchise in both book and film form. And truth be told, there is definitely…

I don’t know that we can say there are any clear box office winners this past weekend. When your highest grossing film only makes $17 Million, I would call the box office a bit anemic myself. However, it is clear that, overall, general audiences consider The Butler to be the best choice of film in theaters. But the phenomenon of the lackluster overall box office is somewhat intriguing and I have no idea what is causing it for sure. It may just be that we as audiences are more and more better informed about what is in theaters, and instead of just heading out to the local cinemaplex to catch…

Cinematographer Dan Mindel ASC, BSC will be reteaming with JJ Abrams to shoot Star Wars Episode VII. That comes as no surprise as Mindel worked with Abrams on the Star Trek films and Mission: Impossible III. The big news is that Mindel says that Episode 7 will be shot on Kodak film stock 5219 film, NOT digital cameras like the last couple prequel movies. The Phantom Menace was the last Star Wars film to be shot with film cameras (although some trivia fanatics will note, the movie did include a digitally photographed shot).

This is really, really, extremely good news. Shooting on film…

Make no mistake: It’s not that Joss Whedon doesn’t like The Empire Strikes Back. When recently asked a question about doing a sequel to one of his own works, he cited the fan-favorite entry in the Star Wars saga along with The Godfather Part II as sequels that got it right. But The Avengers writer-director does have an issue withEmpire‘s ending – or its lack of one, to be exact.

“Empire committed the cardinal sin of not actually ending,” Whedon noted during his 10-page deep-dive interview with Entertainment Weekly in this week’s issue. “Which at the time I was appalled by and I still think…