Re-run — What To See This Weekend

Re-run — What To See This Weekend

Can you believe there’s not a single new film I feel like is worth mentioning this week? I guess I chose a good week to take off of podcasting (and don’t worry, we’ll be back next week with some special guests to talk about Noah).

Still In Theaters

Captain America: The Winter Soldier — PG-13

I have a very soft spot in my heart for Captain America: The First Avengers. A lot of people complain that it only existed to set up The Avengers but I find that to be quite disingenuous. Yes, the ending leaves you hanging slightly because, duh, it is certainly a lead in to The Avengers. But it is so…

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Scarlett Johansson and Lupita Nyong’o In Talks for Disney’s ‘Jungle Book’

Scarlett Johansson and Lupita Nyong’o In Talks for Disney’s ‘Jungle Book’
Borys Kit — The Hollywood Reporter

Disney is swinging forward with its adaptation of The Jungle Book, with two actresses in the midst of boarding the project being directed by Jon Favreau.

 

Scarlett Johansson and Lupita Nyong’o are in the middle of negotiations to join the already castIdris Elba in what is being envisioned as a live-action/CG hybrid movie.

Nyong’o is in final negotiations to play Rakcha, a mother wolf who adopts Mowgli.

Johansson is in earlier stages of talks to voice the character of Kaa, the python who eats other animals by hypnotizing them. Kaa is the movie’s second villain after Shere Khan, the…

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‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ Passes $600 Million

‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ Passes $600 Million
Pamela McClintock — The Hollywood Reporter

Directors Anthony and Joe Russo‘s Captain America: The Winter Soldier marched past the $600 million mark at the global box office Tuesday as it continues to outpace the first film by nearly 160 percent. The movie is destined to take in more than $700 million by the end of its run, likely making it the No. 9 superhero title of all time.

Not bad, and well deserved.

Based on the the sequel’s performance, sources say Disney still has no plans to move Captain America 3 off of its May 6, 2016 release date. That’s the same day that Warner Bros. Superman-Batman film is set to debut, setting the…

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Barbie Movie Is On The Way

Barbie Movie Is On The Way

Mattel has found a starring role for Barbie, setting up a live action comedy at Sony Pictures that the toymaker will produce with Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald.

The studio plans to start lensing the film by the end of the year, using a script written by Jenny Bicks (she wrote for and executive produced Showtime’s “The Big C,” and co-wrote “Rio 2″).

Universal Pictures had planned to produce a film around the popular doll in 2009, with producerLaurence Mark.

Naturally, Sony sees Barbie as a potential new franchise for the studio.

DO. NOT. WANT!

HBO Gets Cozy With Amazon

HBO Gets Cozy With Amazon
Chris Welch — The Verge

Amazon and HBO have signed an extensive, multi-year agreement that will bring many of the premium channel’s greatest shows including The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, and The Wire to Amazon Prime Instant Video. The deal also includes “early” seasons of Boardwalk Empire and True Blood. Newer shows like Girls, The Newsroom and Veep will eventually be made available to Prime subscribers, but not until three years after they’ve first aired on HBO. And other hits like Game of Thrones aren’t even mentioned as part of the deal, so HBO may be holding at least some popular content away from Amazon’s…

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‘Star Wars VII’ Budget Around $200 Million — George Lucas Consulting

‘Star Wars VII’ Budget Around $200 Million — George Lucas Consulting
Kevin Jagernauth — The Playlist

“We actually don’t even have the completed budget yet. But it will be in that range. These large, tentpole kinds of movies, on the expensive side, are in the neighborhood of $175-200 million, that kind of a number — some are more, some are less,” Horn shared. “We need to give the audience, essentially, a full meal in return for their affection and devotion and love for these properties.”

And who better to ensure that the audience gets what it wants/deserves than George Lucas? Even though he soldLucasfilm to Disney for billions and has said repeatedly he’s retired, Horn reveals he’s still…

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Orci And Kurtzman Ending Partnership, but Orci Angling to Direct ‘Star Trek XIII’

Orci And Kurtzman Ending Partnership, but Orci Angling to Direct ‘Star Trek XIII’
Brian Drew — TrekMovie.com

Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the screenwriting and producing duo who have worked on some of Hollywood’s biggest franchises(Mission:Impossible, Transformers, Star Trek,the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man 2) have decided to end their feature film partnership so they can both pursue directing careers.  Their company, K/O Paper Products, will not dissolve, however.  The two are will continue to collaborate on various television projects, both current and upcoming.

Kurtzman is already set to direct “Venom”, a spinoff of the Spider-Man franchise.  Orci’s directorial ambitions will be of great…

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Will ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Feature The Younger Cast Only?

Will ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Feature The Younger Cast Only?
Russ Fischer — /Film

Until X-Men: Days of Future Past opens, we won’t know who survives and what shape they’re in. But there’s no question that Fox will be making more X-Men movies to follow it, starting with X-Men: Apocalypse. But what about the classic cast — is this year’s film their swan song, with the exception of Hugh Jackman? That’s seemed likely, given past statements from Singer such as “[Apocalypse will]  introduce familiar characters in a younger time,” and the general sense that Apocalypse is a sequel to First Class.

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[Apocalypse] really follows the ‘First Class’ cast. Meaning it is a sequel…

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Is Anna Paquin in ‘Days of Future Past’ or Isn’t She?

Is Anna Paquin in ‘Days of Future Past’ or Isn’t She?
Josh Wilding — ComicBookMovie.com

In an interview with Crave Online, X-Men: Days of Future Past writer and producer Simon Kinberg was asked to clear things up in regards to Anna Paquin’s role in the “inbetweenquel”. Fans were disappointed to learn that the actress had been cut from the movie, although the backlash seemingly led to at least a small part of what was once a significant chunk of screentime being restored. “I just wanted to see Ian [McKellan] and Patrick [Stewart] on a mission together. So I took them away from the main plot of the movie so that they could go off and do something, and [Rogue] was the MacGuffin of…

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‘How To Train Your Dragon 2’ First Five Minutes

‘How To Train Your Dragon 2’ First Five Minutes

DreamWorks has released the first five minutes of How to Train Your Dragon 2 and I have to say, it’s pretty awesome. I have recently sat myself down and watched the first How To Train Your Dragon film and it was amazing. This makes me very hopeful for the second installation in this franchise. I’m liking what I see so far. And the world has so utterly changed from what was going on in the first film that it will be interesting to see where they go with the story.