Charles Bramesco
Paramount Sues Fan-Made ‘Star Trek’ Film Over Copyrights on Ears, Klingon Language
The tough thing about using someone else’s ideas to make money is that it’s not entirely legal. This lesson had to be learned the hard way this past weekend by Alec Peters, producer of an independent film titled Prelude to Axanar. The Star Trek fan film drew quite a bit of ire from copyright holders Paramount after a crowdfunding effort on Indiegogo brought this grassroots DIY production over half a million dollars last summer. The promise to make a “studio-quality” film including characters, settings, and other elements from the heavily-licensed Star Trek franchise with no engagement from the relevant studio spelled doom for the Axanar team, and now the chickens have come home to roost.
New Trailer for ‘Ice Age: Collision Course’ Goes to Space Because Shut Up, That’s Why
Historically, the addition of space travel into the mix has never failed to revitalize a flagging franchise. Take Clive Barker’s series of Hellraiser films, for instance: four films in, and the engine was losing steam. So for Bloodline, the film split into a triptych across centuries, the frame story for it all taking place on a spacecraft orbiting Earth. Demonic tormentor Pinhead killing people on Earth — not very scary, but Pinhead killing people in space — I’ll take two tickets, please. So, in this respect, Ice Age: Collision Course is without a doubt the Hellraiser: Bloodline of the Ice Age franchise.
Amazon Will Release Woody Allen’s Next Movie
Amazon is going all in on the Woody Allen business. The streaming-video giant has made some decisive moves in their quest to supplant Netflix as the dominant player in this increasingly crowded marketplace, one of which was landing Woody Allen for an original TV series back in January 2015. Last time he checked in about it, Allen wasn’t doing so hot with the TV format — he told Deadline that he “regretted every second since I said okay” to helming the six-episode series for Amazon — but he evidently enjoyed working with the studio, because Amazon has now announced that they will release Allen’s untitled next film.
It Finally Happened, Someone Made a TV Miniseries for Instagram
In a development that sounds like something out of Infinite Jest (currently celebrating its twentieth anniversary!), it finally happened, someone has made a miniseries to be distributed via the popular photo-sharing social media platform Instagram...
Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson Pose as Living Mannequins to Promote ‘Zoolander 2’
It’s only apropos that Zoolander 2, a film about beautiful people’s supernatural abilities to help market luxury goods, would have a razor-sharp ad campaign to match. The PR team for the long-awaited sequel to Ben Stiller‘s 2001 haute couture comedy toyed with the film’s title in jokes both clever (stylizing the title to mimic Chanel No...
Harrison Ford to Reveal New ‘Star Wars’ Theme Parks in Upcoming ABC Special
On February 21, ABC will broadcast a new special titled The Wonderful World of Disney: Disneyland 60, a commemoration of the Anaheim amusement park’s sixtieth anniversary and Star Wars devotees just got a reason to tune in that can’t be ignored.
One Movie Theater Is Showing ‘Groundhog Day’ For 24 Straight Hours on Groundhog Day
In the comedy classic Groundhog Day, Bill Murray’s curmudgeonly newscaster Phil Connors starts to lose his mind after repeatedly living the exact same February 2 over and over again. For the low price of ten pounds (approximately $14 in real money), patrons of Liverpool’s Small Cinema can now live Phil’s Groundhog Day experience for real — but not the part where he seduces beautiful women, or becomes a better person, or is Bill Murray. Really just the repetition and its accompanying descent into madness.
Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross Has Been Turned Into an Alan Rickman Memorial
It’s been one full day now since the news of Alan Rickman’s passing first surfaced, and while that may be the regulation time period for mourning, say, a casual work acquaintance or distant relative, many are still stinging over the loss of this esteemed actor...
Ruby Rose, Nina Dobrev Join Upcoming ‘xXx’ Movie With Vin Diesel
In what must take the prize for Most Misleading Headline of this still-young year, Nina Dobrev (of The Vampire Diaries fame) and Ruby Rose (of Orange Is the New Black fame and worldwide lesbian idol-worship) have entered talks to shoot a new xXx movie with Vin Diesel...
‘Bridge of Spies,’ ‘Carol’ Clean Up at BAFTA Nominations
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts polished their monocles, twiddled the ends of their impeccably-groomed mustaches, cleared the straggling bits of crumpet from their throats, and announced the nominees for the BAFTA Film Awards late last night. Though the awards program does have a highlight category specifically designating the year’s most Outstanding British Film, this English critical body still favored Hollywood productions in its slate of nominees. Many of the films that have emerged as this season’s usual suspects made their expected appearances — why hello, ‘Carol’ and ‘The Big Short’ and ‘The Revenant’ and ‘Spotlight’ and ‘Bridge of Spies’ — but the unveiling of the BAFTA hopefuls was not without its surprises, both pleasant and un-pleasant.
New ‘Ghostbusters’ Photo Makes a Good Argument for the New ‘Ghostbusters’
There’s still quite a while to go until the July 15, 2016 release date of Paul Feig’s all-female Ghostbusters reboot, but the fires of fan anticipation must be continually stoked if they’re going to burn strong enough to last through the winter, and the wasteland of pop-cultural apathy that is the month of January...
Armchair Film Critic Barack Obama Names His Favorite Movie of the Year
It’s hard enough for film critics without Barry O. snatching up our freelance gigs, but President Obama and the First Lady weighed in with their choices for 2015’s best film.
Check Out James Gunn’s Awesome ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Coffee Table
The director, a regularly active user of social media platforms Twitter and Facebook, took to the web last night to show off one his one-of-a-kind interior decor. Specifically, he posted a couple photos of his coffee table, a custom-made piece designed to look just like the Awesome Mix cassette tape so cherished by Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord, in Guardians of the Galaxy.
No ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Post-Credits Scene, Says J.J. Abrams
Q: What is the best part about getting a thing of fast-food french fries? A: Believing you have finished your cheat-day treat, only to discover that there are still a few stragglers with a pulse left in the bottom of the bag. This phenomenon might illuminate a bit of the logic behind the recent proliferation of post- and mid-credits scenes in studio blockbusters, the practice in which a film squir
Reese Witherspoon Developing Plastic, Fantastic Biopic of Barbie Creator
Reese Witherspoon has begun development on a biopic of Ruth Handler, best known as the creator behind the Barbie doll.
Jared Leto Thinks Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson’s Jokers Would Be Proud of Him
Jared Leto took to Twitter to reassure his 2.14 million fans that he had the situation well in hand. He did so by posting the following image: