‘The Hobbit’ Advanced Tickets on Sale Today

‘The Hobbit’ Advanced Tickets on Sale Today
Entertainment Weekly

Tolkien fanatics, ready your browsers! Advance tickets for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey — which opens Dec. 14 — will be available for purchase on Wednesday, Nov. 7 starting at 12 p.m. ET.

But if snagging the earliest seats for the first of three films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved novel just isn’t enough Middle Earth for you, you’re in luck. The official Extended Editions of director Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy — set 60 years after the events of The Hobbit — will also be screening in back-to-back-to-back marathon runs on Saturday, Dec. 8, and Sunday, Dec. 9.…

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The Machete Order: Star Wars Revisited

The Machete Order: Star Wars Revisited

Why you should watch Star Wars movies out of order

The other day, TJ Draper and I recorded our MovieByte podcast. In this latest episode, we talked about the eventful Star Wars news, and what it means for future episodic releases in the franchise.

But TJ couldn’t help himself. He wanted to address films I through VI too. It was actually a lively discussion, seeing as how no two Star Wars fans’ perspectives of the films are exactly alike, there was room for debate about the merits of each film.

In so doing, TJ remarked that he likes to watch the films in the Machete Order. I hadn’t the…

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Significant Hurdles to More ‘Indiana Jones’

Significant Hurdles to More ‘Indiana Jones’
Entertainment Weekly

Well, it’s complicated. During a shareholders conference call on Tuesday, Disney chief Bob Iger said there were “some encumbrances” to monetizing Indiana Jones. It appears that is a bit of an understatement. EW has confirmed that Paramount Pictures, heretofore the franchise’s sole Hollywood home, retains the rights to distribute any future Indiana Jones movies, as well as all the rights (from distribution to DVD/Blu-ray) for the previous four Indy films. That alone wouldn’t prevent a fifth Indiana Jones from happening — Paramount holds similar distribution rights for several Marvel Studios…

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An Older Luke Skywalker

An Older Luke Skywalker
Indie Wire: The Playlist

However, the part that will get “Star Wars” fans excited is that Pollock says the stories feature Luke Skywalker in his 30s or 40s. “They will need an older Luke Skywalker,” he says. So, sorry, probably no Mark Hamill.

Of course, whether this is accurate or not, or if Lucas scrapped that idea and came up with something else, remains to be seen. But it’s pretty easy to see why Disney would be excited by the prospect of Luke Skywalker featuring in a brand new “Star Wars” trilogy. And all of this seems to suggest that the “original story” will indeed be a continuation of “Star Wars: Episode…

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When You Wish Upon a “Star Wars”

When You Wish Upon a “Star Wars”
The Incomparable 114

Were we pranked, or did Disney really just buy Lucasfilm and announce a new Star Wars trilogy? We decided to just assume it’s happening and record a live flash podcast about this unexpected turn of events.

Special guests Ben BoychukDan MorenJohn Siracusa, and Serenity Caldwell.

This week’s MovieByte podcast is going to be taken over by Star Wars talk, but in the mean time, here’s another geeky podcast full of Star Wars talk. It was a lot of fun to listen to.

 

‘Taken 2’ Criticism

‘Taken 2’ Criticism
Ryan Fleming - Digital Trends

Have you ever watched an action movie and thought to yourself, “you know, I like the action, but what it really needs is about 20 times more camera angles so I’m not entirely certain what I just saw — that would be great.” If so, then you are in luck! If, however, like the vast majority of functioning humans, you actually like to see the things you are looking at, Taken 2might not be the film for you.

Taken 2 is a shallow, kinetic mess of visual trickery that never, ever stops, even when it should. Like a twitchy kid with ADD and an alarming coffee addiction, Director Olivier Megaton…

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‘Looper’ Commentary Track for Theaters

‘Looper’ Commentary Track for Theaters
CNet

In a Tumblr post on October 5, Johnson, who also directed the AMC TV show “Breaking Bad,” provides a downloadable MP3 file to be played during the movie. In the post, Johnson also recommends that the version of the commentary that cinemagoers would enjoy will be different from the one on the upcoming DVD or Blu-rays.

He also encourages good theater etiquette by asking those listening to the commentary to hide the “glowing screens” of their media players (or smartphones) while the movie is playing.

This is a really fascinating idea, and one I’m not sure I would have thought of on my…

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A Talk with ‘Revolution’ Show Runner (SPOILERS!)

A Talk with ‘Revolution’ Show Runner (SPOILERS!)
TV Line

If you already miss Maggie, Kripke is with you. “Anna Lise [Phillips] is a wonderful actress, and I love that character. I sort of have a bad habit in the shows that I run of killing off the people that I love, and Maggie was one of those,” he said.

But to really drive home how perilous and unpredictable the survivors’ reality is, Kripke and his team “very quickly realized the scariest thing we could do was kill the doctor among them,” leaving them helpless, he continued. “It was purely a creative decision about giving the world a real charge of danger. As we move forward in the series,…

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Revolution Episode 4 Recap (SPOILERS!)

Revolution Episode 4 Recap (SPOILERS!)
TV Line

Warning: The following recap, by the very definition of the word “recap,” contains spoilers from NBC’s Revolution.

NBC’s Revolution, in its fourth outing, busted out one of the oldest tricks in the book: inviting us to care, more than we had done to date, about a major-ish character, before killing that person off.

In this case, it was Maggie, the steely British doctor who had been Ben Matheson’s “lady friend” and joined Charlie in the mission to find Danny after Ben was killed by the militia.

They definitely played with out emotions in this one. And they certainly wanted to up the…

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Anna Torv Talks About ‘Fringe’ Final Season

Anna Torv Talks About ‘Fringe’ Final Season
TV Line

While Fringe fans can find solace in the fact that they’ve only scratched the surface of the final season, Anna Torv is dealing with mixed feelings as she crosses the halfway point in filming.

“We’re just about to finish Episode 6, so it’s all a bit, ‘Whew!’” the actress shared with TVLine from the show’s Vancouver set. “You remember how it goes quick and slow at the same time.”

...

Turning to the more tangible matters at hand: In Episode 2, airing tonight at 9/8c, Walter, waylaid by his brutal, memory-muddying interrogation by Captain Windmark, will resolve himself to get back to…

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