Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Avengers vs. The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Star Wars/Disneyland Paris
Star Trek Sequel Spoilage
The Amazing Spiderman Gets Sequel
Casey, we may have a new reason to dislike the French. There’s a rumor that originated on some online forums devoted to Disneyland Paris that appears to have the ring of truth to it. Specifically, Disney Imagineers are designing a “Star Wars Land” for Disenyland Paris that would open in 2015.
The new area of the park would feature the updated Star Tours. Captain EO would be replaced with Jedi Academy. Both are features that exist at other Disney theme parks. The plan appears to be to add a Mos Eisley Cantina themed restaurant with plenty of room for stores and possibly even a couple other rides.
If the rumors are true then it appears that the plans have been in the works for a while. Paris is going to be the last theme park to receive the updated Star Tours adventure. A few years ago the CEO of Disneyland Paris, Phillipe Gas, made an unusual statement about how Paris would be the last to receive the upgrades because of the additional costs. The rumor is that the additional costs he was referring to include all the new features.
http://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-land-rumored-open-disneyland-paris-2015/
Star Trek fans think they have figured out who Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch is going to be playing in the Star Trek sequel. The news has been overwhelmingly met with anger, which has led to hate, and may in fact be leading to the Dark Side.
This is, possibly, a huge spoiler so you might want to skip ahead a few minutes.
For those of you remaining, you have been warned.
Cumberbatch is rumored to be playing Khan. In fact, everybody seems to be pretty certain that he’s playing Khan. Certain to the point that folks out there are talking protest already. I’m definitely a small “f” fan of the rebooted Star Trek, and I’m already prejudiced against the movie.
http://io9.com/5907467/the-real-problem-with-benedict-cumberbatchs-villain-role-in-star-trek-12
The Amazing Spiderman will make it to theatres on July 3rd and Sony just brought in the Super Science Fiction writing team of Kurtzman and Orci to rewrite the script to the sequel. The first draft was written by James Vanderbilt, who wrote the script for this year’s feature. Production on the sequel is scheduled to being early in 2013.
http://www.deadline.com/2012/04/alex-kurtzman-roberto-orci-writing-sequel-to-amazing-spider-man/
On an earlier episode of Sci Fi Surplus we discussed a 7 figure deal between Disney and Lost producer Damon Lindelof for a new movie franchise. Details of that deal are starting to leak and they are sounding intriguing. The new franchise is going to be called 1952. There’s lots of speculation about what that’s about. Over the summer of 1952 there were a large number of UFO sightings over Washington DC and Project Blue Book, the United States Government’s effort to track UFO sightings, began.
http://www.slashfilm.com/brad-bird-set-direct-damon-lindelofs-mysterious-scifi-project-1952/
Fox is bringing Axe Cop to your television screens. The web comic, which was created by two brothers ages 5 and 29 when they starting publishing the series 3 years ago, has been a viral hit. The TV series will be produced as a series of 15 minute episodes that Fox intends to air during a new 90 minute block of television on Saturday nights, opposite Saturday Night Live. It’s being produced by Nick Weidenfeld who came to Fox after working on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. His development unit is called Animation Domination HD. The acronym is ADHD.
Weidenfeld tried to get Axe Cop for Cartoon Network but failed to land the deal for several reasons.
Now that they’ve secured the rights they are seeking a showrunner who can adapt the comic book into a television property without ruining what’s great about the comic book.
http://www.vulture.com/2012/04/fox-plans-to-animate-viral-comic-axe-cop.html?mid=twitter_vulture
It appears that Josh Trank is going to be directing a Fantastic Four reboot for Fox. Fox’s interest in Trank had been rumored for a while but it was confirmed when Collider dot com sat down with Fox CEO Tom Rothman to discuss upcoming projects and Rothman confirmed that Trank would be working on it. Rothman wouldn’t confirm that Trank would be directing the movie but he did say that they are very excited for the vision that Trank would be bringing to the project and the direction that it was heading in.
Trank has been highly sought after since the success of Chronicle, the found footage super hero movie. There will be a sequel to Chronicle that is currently being written by Max Landis.
http://collider.com/tom-rothman-fantastic-four-reboot-chronicle-2/162287/
Warner Bros. has peered into my nightmares and announced this week that they are acquiring the rights to a project that features a rapidly evolving species of dinosaurs that attacks Los Angeles. The project was originally developed as a web series but Warner’s execs saw early tests of the project and snatched it up to turn it into a feature film. The movie will be written by Mike Bayham and directed by John Clisham, who used to work for James Cameron.
http://www.deadline.com/2012/04/warner-bros-acquires-sci-fi-dinosaur-pitc/