In this episode as we near the end of 2013, TJ talks about the launch of MovieByte’s responsive redesign and he hopes you like it. Then moving on to real and fun news, ‘House of Cards’ Season 2 trailer dropped online earlier this week. The first season was one of the real TV delights of the year and TJ is really looking forward to season 2. Channing Tatum’s character Duke might be coming back for G.I. Joe 3 even though the character is dead? Is this a joke?!? This week was pretty much all about ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’. As such, TJ wrote a review, talked for over an hour with three other guys on ‘The MovieByte Podcast’ about it, and released a video review as well. There’s a new film coming straight to TV about the ‘Descendants’ of well known Disney villains. Ho hum. Gilligan’s Island is on it’s way back to the big screen and will star Josh Gad. And this is why we can’t have nice things. Peter Jackson, Warner Bros. New Line Cinema, and The Tolkien Estate are all busy squabbling over rights and books and adaptions. This is also why we can’t have nice things. Hugh Jackman is being eyed for a role in the upcoming ‘Pan’ origin story. They would like him to play the part of Blackbeard. While TJ is not into yet another adaptation of Peter Pan, he’s all in on Jackman playing Blackbeard. And of course, find out what to see this weekend. And have a Merry Christmas!
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Here it is guys. This is the responsive redesign I’ve been talking about for a couple months. There is very little code reuse from the previous design. I’ve re-factored or re-wrote pretty much every line of code.
There were two primary focuses with this redesign:
Fully responsive, mobile first design
More modern, less heavy desig
The beginning of the trailer looks a little bit re-hashy, but don’t let that fool you. Brand new footage will begin to reveal itself just before the half-way mark. It’s funny how what is probably the most cinematic television show I have ever seen is brought to us by a completely digital delivery method of what is now a completely digital company.
Season 2’s 13 episode run will be released simultaneously on February 14.
In Jon M. Chu’s G.I. Joe: Retaliation, the President of the United States (played by Jonathan Pryce), who is actually Zartan in disguise orders the United States military to kill the Joes. During the ambush Duke (played by Channing Tatum) is blown to smithereens while trying to get Flint (played D.J. Cotrona) to safety. So, that should be all for Duke, right? Maybe not. Jon M. Chu recently signed on to direct the next G.I. Joe film tells MTV News there is a shot Duke might rise from the grave.
he Hobbit trilogy is, I think, perhaps the ultimate fan fiction for the universe surrounding Middle Earth — that is to say, for The Lord of the Rings. Consider: why would one take a book less than 300 pages and make a trilogy out of it where with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, 3 books of about ~400 pages each were made into 3 films? If the same logic was applied to The Lord of the Rings filmmaking as we’re seeing here with The Hobbit, we’d have 9 films, 3 for each book.
So what has happened here? Well, I’ll tell you: Peter Jackson is a fan boy of Middle Earth and he wanted to mix in some (a lot) of fan-fiction with the story of The Hobbit. While this is not altogether a bad thing, it is strange. I cannot recall any time previous that fan-fiction acheived such heights and blockbuster status.
TJ and Chad are joined this week by special guests Mike Fissel and Clark Douglas to talk about ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’. But first, a Peter Pan origin story? Apparently so. No one on this podcast is quite sure they needed this, but whatever. And of course, your hosts must talk about A.V. Club’s 15 worse films of 2013. It seems everyone has something on this list to quibble with. But no one can agree on what that one film on this list is that shouldn’t be there. And of course be sure to find out all about the thoughts and opinions behind ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’. Is this just big-boy fan fiction or is there something more here? And what’s with Tauriel? Who’s she and why was a non-cannon character added to the cast? Is this film worth seeing, is it better than the first film? So many questions, and your intrepid hosts set out to find answers!
TJ walks through the good and the bad of ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’. Is it better than the first installment of this would-be trilogy? Though TJ questions the wisdom of making a trilogy out of a single book, TJ does think this installment is better. Martin Freeman continues to impress as Bilbo and overall, the pacing feels far better. This is one TJ recommends catching in the theater.
The Disney Channel has announced it is making a live-action TV movie featuring the children of Cruella De Vil, Maleficent, the Evil Queen, and Jafar called Descendants.
The movie will be directed by Kenny Ortega of Newsies and High School Musical fame which makes me wonder if it will be a musical.
It’s almost as if we were talking about this very sort of thing on The MovieByte Podcast #73. The thing is, in this case it actually sounds sort of interesting. But at the same time I’m sure not holding my breath.
Remember Gilligan’s Island, the venerable 1960s TV series about seven castaways who wind up stranded on a tropical island after a torrential storm shipwrecks their yacht The S.S. Minnow? Warner Bros is charting a course for a feature film based on the series. It will be fashioned as a star vessel for Book Of Mormon‘s Josh Gad. Gad, Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez will write the script. Lloyd Schwartz, Ross Schwartz, Tracey Silvers and Cathy Silvers will be executive producers. They’re not saying what character Gad would play, but the title character seems a possibility, though he could conceivably play The Skipper.
Ever since the release of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, a conflict has brewed between the author’s estate and Warner Bros., New Line, and Jackson, both over the creative content of the movie and the financial distribution. Years and years of dispute suggest that the future of Middle-earth movies is bleak.
Like many quarrels in Hollywood, the Tolkien/Warner Bros. spat can be narrowed down to an argument about money. Part of the author’s estate’s contract with the film studio said that a percentage of the profits from any adaptation of Tolkien’s work would go back to them, and it became a bit of a controversy following the release of The Lord of The Rings trilogy. The three movies made a reported $2.9 billion at the global box office, but when those box office totals were combined with project’s expenses, the studio claimed that the movie didn’t make a profit – thus reportedly shortchanging the Tolkien estate. In an interview with Le Monde back in 2012, Tolkien Estate lawyer Cathleen Blackburn recounted, “These hugely popular films apparently did not make any profit! We were receiving statements saying that the producers did not owe the Tolkien Estate a dime.”
Hugh Jackman is in negotiations to play the villainous pirate Blackbeard in Warner Bros.’ forthcoming Peter Pan origin film “Pan.”
Joe Wright is directing the adventure tale from a script by Jason Fuchs.
WB had gone to Javier Bardem for the role but the actor passed and the studio pursued Jackman shortly after that.
While the Australian actor isn’t known for playing villains, Jackman has shown the ability to take on the darker roles. His recent perf in WB’s “Prisoners” got high praise from critics and though he’s not the bad guy in the film, the part is much edgier than his previous roles, even that of the anti-hero Wolverine in the “X-Men” movies.
After The Wrap here in about an hour, MovieByte will officially be on Christmas hiatus until the day after Christmas. It’s hard running a website by myself, and I’ve got a lot of work to wrap up, packing, traveling, spending time with family — you know, all that good holiday stuff. So, MovieByte is officially taking some time off.
I want to thank you guys for reading, interacting, and generally being awesome! I really enjoy running the site and I’m glad you all like reading it. I want to take this time to wish each of you a Merry Christmas! However you spend the holiday, I hope it’s a good one! Stay safe, safe travels if you’re traveling, and I’ll see you on the other side!
One of the films I’ve been looking forward to expands to a wide release this weekend. I don’t know if I’m going to have time to see it before Christmas but I’m going to try. But one thing I want to do is watch Mary Poppins again before I see it. It has been many years and it seems like it’d be worth my time to watch again.