Monday, July 25, 2016
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
‘Happy Days’ Creator and ‘Pretty Woman’ Director Garry Marshall Has Died at 81
From slashfilm, There aren’t too many talents consistently working in Hollywood today who have been around for over 50 years, but Garry Marshall was one of them. As the creator of classic TV shows like Happy Days and director of influential romantic comedies such asPretty Woman, Marshall is an important part of entertainment history. But today, his contributions to film and television have come to an end as Garry Marshall has died at age 81.
We remember Garry Marshall’s long and decorated career below.
The report of Garry Marshall dead first emerged at Access Hollywood and TMZ followed up by confirming that he passed away at a Burbank hospital following complications from pneumonia, which emerged after the writer, director, producer and actor had a stroke.
Marshall is just one sibling in a family of show business stars along with his sisters Penny Marshall (star of Laverne & Shirley and director of Big) and Ronny Marshall Hallin (producer of Step by Step), and he’s been working in entertainment since the golden age of television.
With a career that began with writing for variety shows such as The Tonight Show with Jack Paar and The Joey Bishop Hour, as well as The Dick Van Dyke Show, Marshall would go on to develop and create his own television shows such as an adaptation of Neil Simon’s play The Odd Couple and the classic show Happy Days.
The latter program would turn Garry Marshall into a TV icon, not just because it became a beloved TV show by itself, but it also spawned three extremely well-known spin-off shows. Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy and Joanie Loves Chachiall spawned from Happy Days, and even though the latter was a short-lived spin-off, they’re all extremely well-known shows from the 70s and 80s.
In addition to developing, creating and producing TV shows, Marshall also took his talents to the big screen as the director of plenty of well-known movies such as The Flamingo Kid, Beaches, The Other Sister, Raising Helen, Georgia Rule, The Princess Diaries and the holiday romantic comedy trilogy of Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve and Mother’s Day.
But Marshall’s most beloved film is undoubtedly Pretty Woman, the classic romance starring Julia Robert and Richard Gere. The movie has been referenced countless times in pretty much every facet of pop culture, and it’s easily one of the best romantic comedies every made. Marshall would go on to reunite with the stars nearly 10 years later with Runaway Bride.
In addition to all his work behind the camera, Marshall did plenty of guest appearances on camera in both film and television. Marshall was known to cameo in his own movies and TV shows. But he also popped up in shows like Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Louie, The Simpsons, The Looney Tunes Show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Hot in Cleveland and many more.
More recently, Garry Marshall had discussed the prospect of getting back to together with Anne Hathaway for The Princess Diaries 3 back in March. However, now that Marshall has passed away, it’s probably best to just leave it alone.
Monday, July 18, 2016
Is Disney Planning A Long-Term Cross-Platform Indiana Jones Universe?
From slashfilm, uring the Lucasfilm: The Art of Storytellingpresentation at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016, it was quickly and quietly mentioned that the Lucasfilm Story Group is not only working on the future of Star Wars movies, but also the future of the Indiana Jones series. What does this mean for the future of Indiana Jones stories? Could we get a multi-platform Indiana Jones universe?
The mention came as ILM President Lynwen Brennan was talking about the future of Lucasfilm and how the Lucasfilm Story Group have been planning long-term storylines for Star Wars that will be experienced by fans across many different platforms, not just movies and games but VR, books, comics television and more.
Kiri [Hart] and her group have mapped out a story and timeline across multiple platforms many years in advance, many EXHAUSTING years in advance. … We have a great honor to have responsibility for, so we want to be really careful with that. Not only for Star Wars but with Indiana Jones, which we’re all really excited about as well.
When Disney acquired Lucasfilm, it was first thought that Indiana Jones was not part of the equation. The Mouse House later acquired distribution and marketing rights from Paramount and it was revealed that director Steven Spielberg was developing Indiana Jones 5. Even though initial rumors and reports claimed that Disney wanted to recast Indiana Jones with a younger star, it has since been confirmed that Harrison Ford will reprise his iconic role for the fifth film.
But it now sounds like Lucasfilm is planning for a long future for this franchise, that like Star Wars, will be connected across many different platforms. So the question is how do they do that? Star Wars is a franchise based within a universe while Indiana Jones is a franchise that focuses on one character. So its hard imagine they are planning for a cinematic universe in the same sense of what Marvel Studios has been doing, but telling different Indiana Jones adventures from different time periods across a multitude of mediums.
Not to say a cinematic universe in the traditional sense wouldn’t be possible. They could expand to do films on multiple characters, like imagine a standalone story following Marion Ravenwood or the younger adventures of Henry Jones Sr.But I’m not sure if audiences are interested in that — Indiana Jones is the the selling point of these adventures.
I can’t imagine that Disney won’t recast Indiana Jones at some point, if not after this fifth film than as part of this fifth adventure. I’ve always liked the idea of having the story half set in the past with a new actor taking on the role and in the current timeline with Harrison Ford as an older Indiana Jones, and the story somehow bridging the gap between the two parallel adventures.
There are definitely a lot of cool Indiana Jones stories that could be told, not just in future films but other mediums. Previously George Lucas told some Indiana Jones stories in comics, novels, television and video games, but they never seemed to be taken too seriously by fans and I’m sure Disney would classify those stories as “Legends” if they do take this approach. I’m most excited about what ILMxLab might do with the character, not just for virtual reality experiences that put you in the middle of the adventure (imagine being put inside a booby-trapped temple) but experimental storytelling beyond our current expectations.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Dope-ass concept art on DeviantArt
Saw this one image and followed the link to the artist's page, Polish dude with the handle "WojtekFus". There's some other Star Wars concept art mixed in with some other stuff (Blade Runner, Adventure Time, etc). See the rest here.
Grimes: Kill v Maim
I don't know anything about this person except I bought this song last night and I'm obsessed. Like when I'd get a new 45 rpm record from Ann & Hope, I'm listening to it over and over.
Here's the pre-chorus and chorus, because it's more fun if you know what she's saying (and totally impossible to know if you don't read it).
B-E-H-A-V-E
Arrest us
Italiana mobster
Looking so precious
B-E-H-A-V-E
Never more
You gave up being good when you declared a state of war
[Chorus]
Eh
I don't behave, I don't behave, oh eh
I don't behave, I don't behave, oh eh
I don't behave, I don't behave, oh
Are you going to the party? Are you going to the show?
Cause I'm only a man, do what I can, oh
Cause I'm only a man, do what I can
Are you going to the party? Are you going to the show?
WANT: The Original Nintendo Is Coming Back — Brace For Nostalgia
Well, Nintendo is about to make you feel like it’s the 1980s.
The consumer electronics and software giant just announced the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition, which is slated to hit stores on Nov. 11, according to a press release.
The mini replica of the OG Nintendo console is super cute, plays well with our new-fangled high-definition TVs (it plugs in with HDMI cable!). It already has 30 NES games built in. All for $59.99.
Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime said in a press release that the company “wanted to give fans of all ages the opportunity to revisit Nintendo’s original system and rediscover why they fell in love with Nintendo in the first place.”
We couldn’t agree more, Reggie. This is GREAT news!
The new console comes with one NES Classic Controller, but you can snag another for $9.99 - meaning you can trip down memory lane with a friend. The Classic Controller can also be used to play Virtual Console NES games on a Wii U or Wii system. Woo-hoo!
OK, OK, you probably want to know what games this baby is packing... Here we go:
Balloon Fight™
BUBBLE BOBBLE
Castlevania™
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest™
Donkey Kong™
Donkey Kong Jr. ™
DOUBLE DRAGON II: THE REVENGE
Dr. Mario™
Excitebike™
FINAL FANTASY®
Galaga™
GHOSTS’N GOBLINS®
GRADIUS™
Ice Climber™
Kid Icarus™
Kirby’s Adventure™
Mario Bros. ™
MEGA MAN® 2
Metroid™
NINJA GAIDEN
PAC-MAN™
Punch-Out!! ™ Featuring Mr. Dream
StarTropics™
SUPER C™
Super Mario Bros.™
Super Mario Bros. ™ 2
Super Mario Bros. ™ 3
TECMO BOWL
The Legend of Zelda™
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link™
We’re so excited for this. We’ll be buying some scrunchies, watching Fraggle Rock and blasting Tiffany while we wait for its arrival.
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