After a stressful week or so, I’m back with another roller-coaster of film news! It’s all over the place with shocking and brain-debilitating information!
In this week’s”Get off my set!” story, director Gareth Edwards says that George Lucas showed up on set while he was shooting Rogue One and bestowed some words of wisdom. Lucas said: Don’t screw it up.
Gee, thanks, George. Very helpful. Maybe you should have told yourself that same thing while shooting The Phantom Menace…and the other two.
Edwards did show some empathy for Lucas, acknowledging how truly weird it must be for him to watch someone else make a Star Wars movie without his input at all:
“I think there are two things that are incredibly surreal that you can do in your life. Number two is having to show George Lucas your Star Wars movie. Like, that was really crazy. And I think number one is to be George Lucas and have someone show you a Star Wars movie. So I felt for him, and he was incredibly gracious.”
Lucas did manage to express a bit of self-deprecating humor, offering Edwards some free advice:
“He joked a lot about how we should do more in the computer, and not build so much. We didn’t take his advice. We tried to shoot as much in-camera as possible.”
In this week’s “Speaking of Rogue One” story, director Gareth Edwards says we should look for a couple of Easter Eggs in Rogue One. Forrest Whittaker’s character, Saw Gerrera, is one of the Rebels in the film. Edwards explains what to look for:
“In Saw’s cave, there are some cave paintings. One of them is of the creatures that were in my first film, called Monsters, and then there’s some MUTOs and Godzilla. I didn’t ask for it, they (the set designers) just did it as a joke. I came in one day and spotted it in the middle of a take.”
Cool. The question is, will we be able to see them? I’ll find out on Dec. 15.
In this week’s “Weavers Says” story, actress Sigourney Weaver is saying that James Cameron’s next THREE Avatar sequels are “many times more amazing in terms of their scope”. Of course she’s IN these films so what else is she going to say?
She says they’re going to shoot all three of them simultaneously so that should be fun for everyone. Except me. I don’t want to see any more of these Avatar movies. I’m out.
However, Weaver also said a little – what she could without Marvel offing her – about her upcoming villain role in The Defenders series for Netflix. But, she said, “I have the most delicious character. She’s really smart, and she’s very in charge.”
Ok, at least I WANT to see that show. AND she said not to give up on the Neill Blomkamp Alien film, because it ain’t dead yet. Weaver said, “I hope that Neill Blomkamp and I will eventually get back to it. He’s written such a wonderful script,” she said. “I look forward to finishing Ripley’s story.”
Yeah, I’m kinda looking forward to Ripley’s story ending, too. Let’s face it, it’s been a long time and with too many mediocre Alien sequels. Let’s just put that part to rest, ok?
In this week’s “Most anticipated horror film” story, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, directed by Andre’ Ovredal (Trollhunters), comes out in limited release and VOD on December 21. It stars Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch as a father/son team of coroners who, when a mysterious Jane Doe body arrives in their morgue, begin to unravel the mysteries of Doe as their autopsy progresses.
This is being called a “scarily unpredictable, supernatural shocker that never lets up”. Ok, I’m sold. I wanted to see it when I first heard about it and I still want to see it now.
In this week’s “More goodbyes” story, character actor Don Calfa, known mostly as Ernie the mortician in Return of the Living Dead, passed away two days before his 77th birthday this week. He was also known as Paulie the Hitman in Weekend At Bernie’s.
And if that weren’t enough, British television star Andrew Sachs, best known as Manuel, the Spanish waiter in Fawlty Towers, has also died, at the age of 86. The actor died in a care home last week after a four-year battle with vascular dementia, and was buried on Thursday, his wife, Melody Lang, told the Daily Mail.
In this week’s “It’s Barbie time!” story, Amy Schumer will be starring in a film about Barbie. Specifically, the film is about a woman who wakes up in a land of Barbies, realizes she doesn’t fit in, and goes to the real world where she discovers the best thing she can be is herself.
No director yet, but it will be written by sibling writers Hilary Winston (“The Lego Ninjago Movie,” “My Name Is Earl“) and Kim Caramele (who has worked with Schumer, as a producer on Trainwreck, and producer/writer on “Inside Amy Schumer“). No release date yet, either, but i’m sure Sony will figure that out.
In this week’s “Zombie Office Space Apocalypse?” story, Alan Ritchson has joined Brenton Thwaites in Office Uprising which has started filming in Alabama. Lin Oeding is directing from a script written by Ian Shorr and Peter Gamble.
Office Uprising is set inside one of the world’s leading arms manufacturers where a substance is slipped into the employees’ drinks by the board of directors that supposedly makes them work more efficiently. Due to a slacker within the company, though, they are fed the wrong formula and start turning into homicidal maniacs — leaving the slacker needing to step up his game to rescue himself and his friends from the growing zombie plague inside the company compound.
Well, ok. Despite that it’s yet another zombie project, the cast does sound fun. It also includes, Jane Levy, Zachary Levi and Ian Harding. But the article doesn’t say anything about humor…that cast – and the idea – is ripe with comic possibilities. They really should go for the funny here. But I’m sure i’ll be disappointed.
In this week’s “Yay! Alan Tudyk!” story, actor Alan Tudyk, Wash from Firefly, is playing the droid K2-SO. He got to do the whole motion capture suit and everything, but you’ll hear his voice. Gotta love that Alan Tudyk.
In this week’s “Spidey sense!” story, Peter Parker’s Spiderman suit in Spiderman: Homecoming, will feature the spider netting “wings” often seen in some of Spidey’s classic comics. Neat! (They’re not really wings. They’re just a stretch of webbing under the arms. Sorta looks like those suits some base jumpers wear, but not as practical).
In this week’s “Does it really matter, anymore?” story, Warner Bros. finally has a release date for their Aquaman film: October 5, 2018. Jason Mamoa stars as Aquaman, AKA Arthur Curry, King of Atlantis, and also stars Amber Heard as Mera, Queen of Atlantis. The film is to be directed by James Wan. Unless something changes.
In this week’s “Speaking of Amber Heard” story, Amber Heard and Johnny Depp are finalizing their divorce settlement. Check this out:
“Under the former couple’s agreement, Heard is expected to receive $6.8 million — $200,000 less than their original $7 million settlement. Depp donated $200,000 directly to Heard’s chosen charities, the American Civil Liberties Union and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, in August.
Heard is set to receive the settlement over the next 12 months, which she will in turn donate to the Aclu and Children’s Hospital La by the end of 2018. The actress is also allowing Depp to receive the tax deduction on his donations.”
“Heard’s team initially criticized the 53-year-old actor at the time of his first donation to her chosen charities, insisting that in order to fulfill his settlement without tax deductions, he must double the amount donated.
“Amber Heard appreciates Johnny Depp’s novel interest in supporting two of her favorite charities, the ACLU for domestic violence and the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. This is great and unexpected news,” a member of Heard’s team said in a statement said at the time. “However, if Johnny wishes to change the settlement agreement, we must insist that he honor the full amount by donating $14M to charity, which, after accounting for his tax deduction, is equal to his $7M payment obligation to Amber. We would also insist that the full amount be paid immediately and not drawn out over many years.”
“Anything less would be a transparent attempt by Johnny’s counsel, Laura Wasser and Patti Glaser, to reduce their client’s true payment by half under the guise of newfound concern for charities that he has never previously supported,” the statement continued.”
Wow. Donating to a charity at what is essentially gun-point. Crazy Hollywood divorce settlements. And why isn’t this a reality show yet?
In this week’s “Newest celebrity kids name” story, Mila Kunis and Asthon Kutcher have had a baby boy -and just released his name! Dimitri Portwood…Kutcher, I presume? Ok, it could be weirder. At least he’s not named after a kind of fruit.
Ok, thanks for stopping by this week. See y’all next time!
~Neil T Weakley, your average movie-goer, really looking forward to seeing a bunch of movies!