Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Comic-Con 2015 Reel

Check out this awesome behind-the-scenes look at Star Wars:  The Force Awakens.  You will see some awesome new footage including creatures, characters, and action!  I have goosebumps.

'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' - Comic-Con trailer looks stunning!

Surprise Star Wars Concert

[Buzzfeed]
At the end of the epic Star Wars: The Force Awakens panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, director J.J. Abrams announced a surprise free concert of Star Wars music for the 6,500 fans in attendance — happening immediately after the panel was over.

 

Read about it here.  Amazing!!

Ben Affleck Starring in and Directing Batman Solo Movie With Geoff Johns Writing

From slashfilm, The Warner Bros. panel doesn’t begin at Comic Con until Saturday morning, but big news has already hit.Ben Affleck will star in a solo Batman film to follow the Justice League film, and he’ll also direct the movie, as rumored not long ago. The production will follow Affleck’s adaptation of the novel Live By Night, which was just formally set by Warner Bros. this week. But there’s more of a development for the project that comes in the form of a co-writer with a great deal of DC experience.

Deadline reports that Ben Affleck’s involvement seems to be even deeper than starring and directing. The precise release plan for this film is unclear, but given the timeline of various productions, this will be a couple years down the road. 2018 has been the rumored release window for a stand alone Batman feature film.

He’ll also co-write with DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, who is well known for his work on The WB/CW’s Smallville, Arrow and The Flash. Johns is known for his contributions to a bunch of different comic book series including Green Lantern, Aquaman, Batman, Justice League, The Flash and Superman.

Affleck and Johns have already got a screenplay cooking, and that their script may be turned in this Summer, well before Affleck begins production on Live By Night. That non-Batman film was originally set for October 2016 but delayed when the DC Comics films took priority. We still don’t know the release date for Live By Night, nor whether this new Batman movie will push that movie around further (it is possible).

We don’t know what the story of a Batman solo film might be, much less how it will relate to the two DC films featuring Batman that will be released beforehand. We’ve known that Warner Bros. wanted to do solo Batman films ever since WB made the big DC schedule announcement last year, and we’ve long guessed that Affleck would likely be the director. Rumor had it that the movie was to be titled The Batman.

But whether this will carry on the chronological series of events begun in Man of Steel or veer off in a related but different direction remains to be seen. It is most likely that the film will cary on the story chronology of the other DC comics movies as Warner Bros hopes to build a cinematic universe to compete with Marvel/Disney.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is set for release in March 2016, and Justice League is set for November 2017.

Quadrocopter Disguised As Snoopy's Flying Doghouse

From geekology, This is a video of the quadrocopter built by Otto Dieffenbach to resemble Snoopy and his flying doghouse. He did a great job. Snoopy's head even turns from side to side for ADDED REALISM. Apparently the quadrocopter was built to promote both San Diego Comic-Con and the upcoming Peanuts movie. Did you know this year is the first year I'm allowed back at Comic-Con? I forgot to get tickets though, so I'm going to dress up like security to sneak in, which, FUN FACT, is how I got banned in the first place. Everything in life is a cycle.

Star Wars Is Definitely Giving Han Solo His Own Movie

From cinemablend, Disney and Lucasfilm have continued their trend of hiring sharp young cinematic minds to handle their rapidly expanding Star Wars universe. They’ve now grabbedLego Movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller to helm one of the standalone spinoff movies, and they’ve been given one of the franchise’s most beloved characters: Han Solo.

Just announced at StarWars.com Lord and Miller, who was an intern at Lucasfilm and inside a stormtrooper suit in one of George Lucas’ special editions, have been tasked with bringing a young Han Solo to movie theaters everywhere. It will reportedly be their next directorial project, and they released a statement that says:

This is the first film we've worked on that seems like a good idea to begin with. We promise to take risks, to give the audience a fresh experience, and we pledge ourselves to be faithful stewards of these characters who mean so much to us. This is a dream come true for us. And not the kind of dream where you're late for work and all your clothes are made of pudding, but the kind of dream where you get to make a film with some of the greatest characters ever, in a film franchise you've loved since before you can remember having dreams at all.


As much as I’m not a huge fan of the idea of a movie centered on a young Han Solo—creating a young version of such an iconic character is problematic in any number of ways—if anyone is going to do it, Lord and Miller are aboud as close to a perfect choice as you're going to get. Who expected a 21 Jump Street reboot to be good? And the Lego Movie looked pretty forgettable, but wound up being one of the best movies of the year.

Lord and Miller are clever and sharp, and have their fingers on the pulse of what people want, as well as being respectful to the source material. It will be interesting to see how much input the duo has on the script and story. As it stands now, Joe and Lawrence Kasdan are handling the script, and the official logline is:
The story focuses on how young Han Solo became the smuggler, thief, and scoundrel whom Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi first encountered in the cantina at Mos Eisley.

That sounds like your standard origin story, and what you would expect to learn from a tale about the early days of Han Solo. We’re curious to see if, now that this is happening, we encounter Han’s wife, Sana Solo, who we met a while back in one of the recent Star Wars comics published by Marvel. Those are official canon now, so it is entirely possible we’re going to see what happened there.

It’s also going to be interesting to see what impact this has on a variety of other projects. Lord and Miller are a hot commodity and have a lot of things going right now, including producing an animated Spider-Man project for Sony, as well as The Lego Batman Movie, Ninjago, and The Lego Movie Sequel. They’ve also been linked to DC’s upcoming Ezra Miller-starring adaptation of The Flash, though likely means the duo are leaving that picture.

Lord and Miller’s young Han Solo movie will be the fourth new Star Wars movie we get, preceded by J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Gareth Edwards’Star Wars: Rogue One, and Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: Episode VIII. It is scheduled for release May 25, 2018.

Harry Shearer returning to The Simpsons

From EW, Simpsons fans will find this turn of events nothing short of excellent:Seven weeks after tweeting that he was exiting the animated comedy, EW has learned that Harry Shearer—the voice of Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders, Smithers and a flurry of other memorable characters—has agreed to rejoin Fox’s forever-running animated comedy.

We repeat: Burns is back.

Shearer has signed the same contract as did the other five primary voice actors—Dan Castellaneta, Yeardley Smith, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, and Hank Azaria—keeping the show’s original cast fully intact, EW has learned. These deals, which run for four seasons (including a network option for seasons 29 and 30), are estimated at more than $300,000 per episode. Fox recently renewed The Simpsons for a 27th and 28th season, which will bring its episode tally to 625.

Back in May, Shearer, who had battled with the studio/network previously over compensation, indicated that his departure was not tied to a money issue, but rather the flexibility in his schedule. The actor—who hosts the radio program Le Show and stars in the web series Nixon’s The One—tweeted, “I wanted what we’ve always had: the freedom to do other work.” Simpsons executive producer Al Jean told EW the following day that he found that tweet confusing, saying, “Everybody on the show does lots of outside projects. He actually gets to record on the phone and do the [table] reads on the phone. So we’ve never kept him from doing that stuff.” In that interview, Jean also said that the producers were “still hoping he might come back. Nothing’s done ‘til it’s done.” And executive producer James L. Brooks took to Twitter to reach out to Shearer: “Hey, we tried. We’re still trying. Harry, let’s talk.” On May 15, Shearer already appeared to be warming to the prospect of reconciliation, telling CNNMoney, “Stay tuned,” when asked about the possibility of a return. Two weeks later, during a Twitter exchange with a Simpsons fan, he replied: “Discussions are happening at a level where decisions can be made.”

In order for the Simpsons producers to remain on schedule, they commenced production on season 27 without him. (In any case, they already had seven holdover episodes from last season in the can, and those include Shearer’s voices.) Jean told EW last month that if Shearer did not change his mind and return, his impressive roster of characters—which also include Seymour Skinner, Lenny, Dr. Hibbert, Kent Brockman, Reverend Lovejoy and Otto—would not be retired; new cast members would be hired to continue voicing those roles. Shearer’s deal was completed in enough time to avoid that scenario, and his temporary absence behind the scenes will not be significantly felt on the new season.

The season 27 premiere of The Simpsons will air, appropriately enough, on Sept. 27.

'Can't Buy Me Love' star Amanda Peterson dies at 43

From usatoday, Actress Amanda Peterson, whose most famous role was in the 1987 romantic comedy Can't Buy Me Love, has died at age 43.

Sgt. Mike Moran with the Greeley, Colo., police department told the Associated Press that Peterson's body was found alone in an apartment Sunday. Moran said an investigation is ongoing but no other information was available.

Peterson's mother, Sylvia Peterson, told CNN that the actress died Friday morning.

"It's a big loss. Such a loveable person," Peterson told CNN. "She had some medical problems with her heart but we don't know the cause yet."

Peterson first appeared on the big screen at age 9 as a dancer in the 1982 adaptation of the play Annie, directed by John Huston. She would go on to make several television appearances, including an episode of Silver Spoons with Ricky Schroder.

Peterson's next film role was as Ethan Hawke's crush in the 1985 Sci-Fi comedyExplorers.

The role that brought her the most fame was as cheerleader Cindy Mancini, playing opposite Patrick Dempsey in Can't Buy Me Love. Dempsey played a high school nerd who pays the popular cheerleader Cindy to pretend to be his girlfriend. Of course, they end up really falling for each other.

Peterson's last film was Windrunner, in 1994, according to IMDB.com.

Happy Fourth of July, Horrorthon!

Well we just had our annual "watching the local parade end in our park down the street" tradition (which is way funner than watching it go by, because it was apparrently very slow this year), and now we're lolligagging around the house.  Later we'll go outside and watch fireworks.  Woo hoo America!

Everybody have a great time out there!

Oh yeah, I also had a free corn dog and cupcake!  Yes!

Happy Birthday DCD!

That's right!  It's that special day!  No, not Thirty Days Til Octo's Birthday Day (although that's true), but my favorite little sister's actual birthday!

Please join me in hearty table thumping and mad props!  It's been a crazy year for our Horrorthonner and I couldn't be prouder of her.  Happy Birthday, sweetie!  Mwah!

'Real Fake History; New Documentary Relives The Battle of Endor from ‘Return of the Jedi’

From slashfilm Some film franchises and television shows have a large enough mythology and universe that entire encyclopedias (or more commonly Wikis today) have been written in an attempt to chronicle every facet of the world that some of our favorite stories unfold.Star Wars, Star Trek, Game of Thrones, Lost and more all have expansive and rich histories.

Now a new web series from Machinima is diving into some of the milestone moments of our favorite films and TV shows with Real Fake History. Created in the style of a History Channel show or Ken Burns documentary, these documentary shorts examine the fictional wars, events and stories of films and television. The first episode has just gone live taking a look at the pivotal Battle of Endor, the fight which brought down the Empire, in Return of the Jedi.