20 years later and the Ninja Turtles are still teaching important life lessons

Via imgur

Marvel's Uncanny X-Men ending in Oct.

From usatoday, PHILADELPHIA — Marvel's Uncanny X-Men— long one of comics' most tight-knit teams — is being torn apart by a schism between Cyclops and Wolverine to such a degree that something's got to give.

And it's the Uncanny X-Men who will do just that.

Marvel Comics is putting an end to the flagship title with issue No. 544 in October as the brutal effects of the upcoming X-Men: Schism mini-series rends the team apart.

"Well, as anyone who's watched the movies will know, the traditional axis of the X-Men has been the polarity of Magneto and Xavier. Xavier basically believes in peaceful integration. Magneto doesn't," said Kieron Gillen, who has been writing Uncanny X-Men since 2010.

Read the full article here

Promo poster for The Avengers

Someone snapped this picture at the 2011 Licensing International Expo.

Star Wars Live-Action TV Series Plot Details Revealed, On Hold for Another 3-4 Years

From slashfilm, It’s been six years since George Lucas first announced that he was developing a live-action Star Wars television series, and it seems we’re going to be waiting a little longer yet. In an interview, producer Rick McCallum revealed that he and Lucas would be putting the show on hold for another three to four years — but that when shooting does begin, it will be shot largely in the Czech Republic, possibly in Prague. Hit the jump for more details.

Ten years is a long time for a television series to be in development, and were this another filmmaker, I might’ve given up hope on this project by now. But Lucas is the guy who gave us a Star Wars prequel sixteen years after his last Star Wars film, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull nineteen years after Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. A decade to develop a series seems almost speedy in comparison.

If the series really does shoot in the Czech Republic, it’ll be a return to the county for McCallum and Lucas, who recently shot Red Tails in the country. McCallum and Lucas also filmed scenes for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles series in Prague, back in the 1990s. In the interview with Czech Position (via Bleeding Cool), McCallum praised Czech film crews, saying he’d “absolutely” consider shooting the Star Wars television series in Prague: “This would be one of the primary places because of the talent.”

As previously reported, however, the ambitious (read: expensive) scope of the series is holding up the project. Said McCallum:

The TV series is on hold, but that has nothing to do with the Czech Republic; it has to do with [the episodes being] so ambitious… We have 50 hours of third-draft scripts, but the problem we have is there is a lot of digital animation; we don’t have the technology yet to be able to do them at a price that is safe for television. Since we would be financing them, it would be suicide for us to do this [now]. So we are going to wait three or four years.

More details here

Tom Hanks to play Major Matt Mason

From worstpreviews, Tom Hanks is planning to re-team with his "Forrest Gump," "The Polar Express" and "Cast Away" director Robert Zemeckis for a new film, called "Major Matt Mason," based on the popular Mattel action figure.

The live-action family movie is a space adventure that has a budget of over $100 million. The plan is to shoot it in 3D. The script was written by Hanks and Graham Yost ("Justified").

The toy line originated in 1966; Mason led an astronaut team that worked on the moon and lived in a space station. The toy was a hit in the buildup to the first manned moon mission. Mattel retired the line in the 1970s.

Casino Royale Director Martin Campbell Didn't Like Quantum Of Solace Either

From cinemablend, Director Martin Campbell deserves a lot of credit for the way he re-launched the Bond franchise with Casino Royale. Unfortunately the follow-up, directed by Marc Forster, did a pretty good job of erasing at least some of the good will he earned with his redo. Now that Campbell has a new movie set to hit theaters, in Green Lantern, he’s talking to the press about what Forster did with his franchise on Quantum of Solace, and he doesn’t sound any happier about the results than Bond fans were.

Talking to Crave about the film he says of Quantum of Solace, “Oh, I thought it was lousy.” When asked to explain he added, “I just thought the story was pretty uninteresting. I didn’t think the action was related to the characters. I just thought overall it was a bit of a mess really.”

Yeah, it was kind of a mess. But that’s in the rear view mirror and now Sam Mendes is hard at work on the next James Bond movie. And since we know Campbell is willing to talk straight with us about the nature of these films, his view on what Mendes is up to with the next one is instantly a lot more valid than the usual backslapping, Hollywood doublespeak. Of the next film he says, “hopefully this next one will be terrific. Sam Mendes is directing it and I’m sure it’ll be terrific.”

Box office report: 'Super 8' is No. 1 with $37 mil

From ew [excerpt], It might be a stretch to call its opening “super,” but the sci-fi flick Super 8 enjoyed a solid start with $37 million this weekend, according to studio estimates. The $50 million movie, which was directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg, fell just a bit short of other recent original sci-fi flicks such as District 9 ($37.4 million) and the Abrams-produced Cloverfield ($40.1 million), but performed better than this year’s Battle: Los Angeles ($35.6 million). With a story that’s set in 1979 and a tone that emulates Spielberg’s own pictures during that era, the well-reviewed film particularly appealed to older moviegoers. According to Paramount, a whopping 71 percent of Super 8‘s audience was at least 25 years old. IMAX theaters accounted for 12 percent of the PG-13 film’s gross, and CinemaScore moviegoers gave it an overall “B+” rating, which could bode well for its staying power. By comparison, Cloverfield received a “C” grade from CinemaScore audiences, and then plummeted 68 percent in its second weekend.

How did the rest do? You'll have to go here to find out!

Happy 30th birthday Raiders of the Lost Ark!

Raiders of the Lost Ark turns 30 today. I have the above poster framed and hanging in my office. This is one of my favorite movies of all time. How the hell can it be 30 years since it came out? Damn.

Have you seen this shit??

From iwatchstuff:

Just in case Tim Burton's Monsterpocalypse, Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim, and Gareth Edwards' Godzilla remake still won't be enough giant monster action to fill your belly, Sony has gone ahead and bought remake and sequel rights to Big Man Japan, the 2007 Japanese film about a man responsible for growing to an enormous size and defending his country from invading big-ass monsters.

Shot largely in mockumentary style, the original played up the protagonist's perceived ineptitude amongst the public, and featured massive creatures with bizarrely comical traits--like a combover, or a giant eyeball penis. For the remake, Sony has Fast Five producer Neal H. Moritz overseeing things, and Clash of the Titans writers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi working on the screenplay, so you'd probably be right to expect something decidedly more action-fueled than its Eastern counterpart. And sadly, yes, probably something with less giant eyeball penises, too. We're still years behind Japan in terms of ocular phallus acceptance.

Watch the Brief Fast Times at Ridgemont High Reunion

Sean Penn Leads A Ridgemont High Reunion
Tags: Sean Penn Leads A Ridgemont High Reunion

Lawsuit May Force Warners To Digitally Alter Ed Helms' Hangover II Tattoo On DVD

From cinemablend, And now for your Odd News Story of the Day. If you saw The Hangover Part II, you certainly remember the new bit of facial decoration Stu acquired during this round of drug-induced amnesia. Specifically, Stu, played by Ed Helms, awoke with a tattoo patterned after boxer Mike Tyson's infamous facial ink. Well, here's a bit of trivia that probably never would have occurred to most of us, but really should have occurred to the Warner Bros. legal department: somebody designed that tattoo, the one that's on Mike Tyson's face, and by extension the one that's on Ed Helms' face for most of The Hangover Part II. And that guy would like a quick word, if you don't mind.

The Hollywood Reporter says that the tattoo's designer and copyright holder, a bloke named S. Victor Whitmill, had previously attempted to stop the film's release. Now that that particular cat's out of the bag, Whitmill is seeking an "injunction against the film's distribution and/or damages for copyright infringement." This could be the biggest tattoo-related case since The Ghost of Norma Jeane Mortenson vs. Megan Fox's Right Forearm.

What does the lawsuit mean for Warner Bros. and The Hangover Part II, aside from probably having to cut a check to Mr. Whitmill? Well, the studio says that if the matter can't be resolved quickly, they will digitally alter the questionable tattoo before the movie's home-video release in December. If they need inspiration, I'm sure the internet can help them out.