Posts tagged #j.j. abrams

Bits & Bobs - 7th Edition

Bits & Bobs collects some of the cool things around the interwebs that I think are noteworthy and worth your time but don't necessarily fill up a full blog post or news item. On with the show...

A LONG TIME AGO, IN A MOVIE THEATER FAR, FAR AWAY...

StarWars.com announced on Monday morning that a new 88-second trailer for the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be released in 30 select theaters on the Friday following Thanksgiving. The 88-second teaser trailer will be the first (official) look at the production but has a lot of fans in an uproar that it's such a limited and short-timed release. After weeks of hearing rumors that the teaser trailer would be revealed with something "much bigger than being attached to the new Hobbit film," the confusing marketing and messaging has a lot of Star Wars fans scratching their heads wondering if they'll be able to see the trailer online officially and sadly the overwhelming consensus is that many will most likely be viewing the teaser for the first time as some shaky hand-held iPhone video. Not exactly the ideal viewing conditions for the first live-action Star Wars footage in almost ten years. We'll see what happens later in the week and if the marketing message becomes clearer. Always in motion, the future is (apparently).

HOLD ON, LET ME TAKE A SELFIE

While it wasn't a big surprise, when ABC canceled the much maligned but incredibly misunderstood show Selfie, I'll go ahead and admit it: I was a little bummed. On the surface level, the Karen Gillan and John Cho starring show appeared to be a vapid reflection of Kim Kardashian culture incarnate. I was apprehensive about watching it at first. But sharp writing and a comment on the socially networked culture was to be had and the show actually really grew on me. That and David Harewood's Seinfeldesque boss character really tickled me. The good news is that show runner Emily Kapnek has "unofficially" Tweeted that the remaining episodes of the show will eventually make it to Hulu, where hopefully it will find an audience that will give it a chance.

HE WEARS THE PAN...

Joe Wright, the man behind Atonement, The Soloist, and Hanna has been hard at work on a retelling of the Peter Pan legend simply titled, Pan. The trailer for the film was released amidst the fully of trailers this Thanksgiving week and it's an interesting take on the story. Shades of Spielberg's Hook in there, a little bit of Guillermo del Toro feeling storytelling, and a whole lot of Hugh Jackman in heavy make-up playing Blackbeard. Check out the trailer through YouTube here and let us know what you think in the comments. Have reboots gone too far? Is this a good approach to retelling a classic story? Let us know how you're feeling (even if the answer is "hungry for massive amounts of turkey tomorrow").

Posted on November 26, 2014 by Troy Benjamin and filed under Bits & Bobs and tagged star wars star wars vii star wars the force awakens j.j. abrams episode VII selfie john cho karen gillan social media pan joe wright hugh jackman.

The New Star Wars Sequel: Adventure Has a New Name...

StarWars.com slipped a huge nugget of cold hard fact through the interweb pipeline this morning when it announced via its Twitter, Instagram and the official site that the name of J.J. Abrams' forthcoming Episode VII will be Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Interestingly all of the graphics and announcements have dropped the cumbersome "Star Wars - Episode VII" nonsense that started back with The Phantom Menace in '99, which I find as a welcome nomenclature change. Nobody called Empire or Jedi "Episode V" or "Episode VI" and it's nice to have a title that rolls off the tongue like Awakens. (Though some have already snarked that they can see themselves slipping and calling it Awakenings, which yes - is a completely different film.

The Force also tells me that this will be a lot of peoples' computer wallpaper in 3... 2...

While fanboys are currently in the process of doing what they do best on the internet lately, complaining like there is no tomorrow, I'm pretty pleased with the title. It instantly tells you what the themes of the film will explore. It instantly gets the imagination going. And, as some have already pointed out, it's a little bit meta because it could also refer to the magic of Star Wars having been dormant for so long finally coming back into the spotlight.

I'm a little surprised with what little fanfare the title was released with however. Having been there at Comic-Con when Revenge of the Sith was announced and the huge hub-bub that surrounded that title reveal (even so much as creating a video that heralded it in the context of the other five films). So I'm wondering if something more is on the near-horizon, like an official photo, or a featurette, or something else to feed the marketing frenzy. There have also been rumors that a teaser trailer is in the near-distant future, though I would expect something like that closer to the end of the year at the soonest.

One thing is for sure, this certainly is a whole lot of fun. The conversations that I've been having with my friend Jason are excited moments of pure joy that I haven't had since around 1998. Before the dark times... Star Wars: The Force Awakens is in theaters December 18, 2015.

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Troy Benjamin and filed under Movies and tagged star wars episode vii the force awakens j.j. abrams.

Cynicism and Cinema

"How am I supposed to hate this? What is this emotion that I'm feeling that I can't explain?!? Is it, happy?"

I've been making a point the past few months to be less cynical. But with social media it seems to be too easy, and almost encouraged...

In our popular culture as of late, the trend seems to be snark, disgust and outrage no matter what the subject and no matter what the context. Is there a live event going on? Tune into Twitter or your favorite blog for "live snarking." Was something just announced be it a book, album, movie, or video game? Quick, take to the interwebs to shit all over it as fast as you can!

It didn't used to be that way. In fact, it wasn't all that long ago.

"Ugh, moving molecules around in order to transport them from location to location? That's a terrible idea."

I was listening to Grant Morrison's interview on Chris Hardwick's Nerdist podcast yesterday and it was interesting timing. In the interview, the two discuss how America went from being this happy-go-lucky sky is the limit for our future where Star Trek was our vision of mankind's next steps to a cynical view where essentially we have destroyed everything worth living for and shuffle around in the shambles vision of the future in The Walking Dead. Cynicism has become so prevalent in our culture that we don't even see a distant future for mankind anymore. Our aspiration is just to survive instead of thrive.

What the hell happened to us?

On a whole, has the predominant temperature from being hurt so many times (or on so many various levels) triggered some sort of a defense mechanism where we have to deal with any situation with the snarkiest and most cynical attitude possible? Is this a post-Phantom Menace syndrome where our feelings are attempting to protect themselves from hyping something up so much to a point where expectations are unrealistic by already deeming something terrible so that if it's actually good, it'll be a pleasant surprise? Is it connected to the strange upswing in political correctness and litigious tendencies that put everyone on edge? Is it because now that everyone has a voice through so many outlets that the squeaky wheels are louder?

The reaction isn't necessarily isolated to but has really piqued my curiosity with the most recent news that The Heat writer Katie Dippold would be joining Paul Feig to reboot Ghostbusters with female comedians in starring roles. Not necessarily ALL of the roles (as some are arguing back and forth, nobody has said that this is inspired by Y the Last Man and no testosterone will be present at all in the film). But the outrage seems to be triggered by all sorts of catalysts: it's a reboot, it won't feature the characters from the first two films, female actors will portray roles, Paul Feig wears a suit on set. Okay, that last one I made up but there actually might be someone out there that's angered by that and has taken to expressing so in 140 characters, I haven't checked.

No joke, a long-time fellow fanboy's immediate reaction to the news yesterday was:

"This makes me want to spin around, screaming while firing my space gun like Rocket Raccoon. Gnashing my teeth, rending my garments, pouring fistfuls of dirt on my head."

...oh... but congratulations, Katie for getting a paid writing gig on something still in development which still might never make it in front of cameras. We're happy for you, we swear. - I think is what was left unsaid in that update.

Meet the squeaky clean cast of your new Ghostbusters, bet you want to snark something in 140 characters about it right now? C'mon, admit it.

What happened that, in 1996 when Columbia (then Tri-Star) announced they were teaming with Bohbot to bring us "Super Ghostbusters" which would star a Goth girl, a Latino slacker, an athlete in a wheelchair, and Carlton from Fresh Prince, and my and others' reactions were an immediate, "Holy crap! New Ghostbusters! This sounds awesome! We can't wait!" As a then freshman in high school, I remember running home to watch the precision-set VHS recording that was waiting for me from recording while I was at school on the very first day the show aired. I was excited. It was new. It was different. Holy shit, it was Ghostbusters. Cool! Interestingly, the announcement yesterday that could essentially have mirrored the news in 1996 (that a new writer - yes, the fourth or fifth to be hired on this project by my count - had been hired, that the crew would be comprised of new actors and new characters, maybe one or two of the old guys might come back if they want) was met with this extremely polarized outcry from fanboys, movie blogs, moms, dads and pets all around the world?

Looking back on it, if present day me heard the same news from 1996 - would my reaction be as positive and optimistic? Or would I immediately violently react to the word "Extreme" being used as often was the trend in the 90s and calling the "diversity" of the cast nothing more than a gimmick? And sadly, if that was the case, would I have watched a cartoon that I actually really enjoyed and ended up making several friends from the production staff through the course of all because I had jumped to such a polarized conclusion?

Is it the arm-chair quarterback mentality that many think they could do better in some shape or form? Is it that the sense of humor in present day 2014 veers toward deprecation? Nerds have always found ways to poke holes and complain, that's nothing new (otherwise the Comic Book Guy on Simpsons would have never become the character that he has on that show). But what is it in the human psyche that causes someone to immediately not like something they know nothing about and haven't given a chance? Judging the so-called book by its cover (no matter how many details of the cover have even been revealed). Where's the fun in that?

I guess I'm trying to wrap my mind around why, after years and years of being strung along and finally being close to it happening, another Ghostbusters film being a possibility is causing fanboy flame wars and heated debate well into the early morning hours instead of excitement of potential? Especially considering how scarce details are for the discourse?

I'm guilty of it myself, and will openly admit to it. I reacted adversely to news that the new Terminator film would be called "Genisys" and immediately took to Twitter to be snarky about it. Aside from casting information and a shot of Arnold's back sitting in a director's chair, I know nothing about the film and it could be the awesomest thing that I've seen in my entire life. But why was my instinct upon hearing the (still ridiculously spelled) title to jump onto social media and shit on it?

Considering that this is my hobby, the distraction from the real world that should be adding joy to my life, why was that initial instinct to hate?

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Troy Benjamin and filed under Movies and tagged ghostbusters ghostbusters iii paul feig bill hader katie dippold star wars star trek j.j. abrams grant morrison chris hardwick nerdist super ghostbusters extreme ghostbusters most popular.

Star Wars: This Will Be a Day Long Remembered

Get ready to return to the galaxy far, far away with the new cast of Star Wars VII (Courtesy StarWars.com)

In a surprising move (many were expecting the announcement to come in with the hyper-punny May the 4th faux-celebration), Lucasfilm has announced the cast of the new Star Wars sequel, still as of yet untitled.

Original stars Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Leia Organa), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Kenny Baker (R2-D2) and Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) will be reprising their roles from the original trilogy.

New to the series are actors are John Boyega (Attack the Block), Daisy Ridley (Mr. Selfridge), Adam Driver (Girls), Oscar Issac (Inside Llewyn Davis), Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings), Domhnall Gleeson (Harry Potter)... oh yeah, and freaking Max von Sydow (you know, of many films but let's be honest you know and love him as the voice of Vigo the Carpathian, right?). The new cast's roles are as of yet announced.

The film opens on December 18, 2015 and begins filming in the next few weeks.

UPDATE: Slashfilm has a fantastic breakdown of all the new actors, descriptions of their personalities and how they might coincide with characters on-screen and more. Check it out, it's a great read.