Negative speculation and prognostication has been brewing for months for Disney's sci-fi actioner John Carter thanks to dismal tracking and rumors of bloated budgets, but Disney's finally released their review embargo for the March 9 would-be blockbuster. So what's the early buzz from the first critiques of Andrew Stanton's take on the Edgar Rice Burroughs saga, about a Civil War veteran named John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) who lands in the middle of a civil war on Mars?
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Leave it to Tim Burton to make even the gruesomest scenarios utterly heart-wrenching; I started welling up during the first 30 seconds of the new trailer for Frankenweenie, the black and white stop-motion animation adaptation of Burton's well-loved short of the same name. Watch it and shed a tear for the childhood pets you once loved.
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It's no secret that Disney's been scrambling to counteract bad tracking and mixed word of mouth on their mega-budgeted March actioner John Carter, so it's worth a look to see what they've done with the latest (and "final") trailer for the Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptation. And behold! A trailer filled with nearly everything that makes John Carter worth going to see: Alien creatures, political intrigue, Taylor Kitsch in a loincloth, Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris, and lots of inventive, fantastical action.
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In what seems like a smart move for everyone involved, Disney has hired Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim, Shaun of the Dead) to direct Johnny Depp in The Night Stalker, a feature remake of the 1972 ABC made for TV movie of the same name and the series spin-off it inspired. The property follows reporter Carl Kolchak, whose investigations into criminal happenings lead him to all manner of supernatural villains; Depp will star as Kolchak, which sounds promising given Wright's proven track record in genre work, even if it feels like similar stories have come and gone of late with nary a blip (the Vegas-set, vampire-themed Fright Night remake, for one).
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"We must treat these dog characters with the same respect we show human characters... no condescension, no looking down, no breaking character for the sake of a gag." And that, my friends, is part of the reason why Walt Disney's legacy on film has stood the test of time. After the jump, find deleted scenes and a nifty video culling notes from Disney's story meetings with collaborators on 1955's Lady and the Tramp.
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In spite of the role he played in bringing the movie musical back into prominence, Rob Marshall has been, shall we say, a bit inconsistent over the years. This goes for his work within the musical genre, from the Oscar winning Chicago to the messy Nine, as much as his direction of non-musical films (Memoirs of a Geisha, I'm looking at you). Just look to his most recent effort, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides; commonly accepted as the weakest entry in the series, a sequel that hardly justifies its own existence, it's nevertheless brought in $1 billion for Disney to date. And so, let's discuss: Can Rob Marshall be trusted to adapt Broadway's Into the Woods?
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The new poster for the long-delayed Disney caper John Carter, based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' old series, is awesome in three ways: 1) It is quite red. 2) It is quite bold. 3) It looks like a Super Nintendo/Playstation video game cover. Maybe an RPG featuring shirtless warriors and choppy computer-animated sequences? And the vocals talents of Dana Gould? Or maybe it just resembles the video for Pearl Jam's "Jeremy." Whatever, all of these. Click ahead.
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Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars sci-fi series may have first appeared 100 years ago -- and director Andrew Stanton's Disney adaptation John Carter may be taking forever to come out -- but EW's new photo from the movie is fresh as ever: Friday Night Lights vet Taylor Kitsch yanks on a chain while a gigantic, extraordinary white ape bellows behind him. Shall we caption this big-budget brawn?
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Be Movieline's guest and revisit everyone's favorite tale as old as time, the second release in Disney's quest for total world domination (AKA, The 'See How Much Money Lion King 3D Made Us??' business plan) which brings vintage Disney classics back to screens in limited runs in restored 3-D. Next up is 1991's Beauty and the Beast, a singalong favorite for children of the '90s that's sure to make another bazillion or so dollars. Watch the trailer and decide if you're giddy to see Belle sweep the Beast off his cloven feet with her brainy book smarts or just curious to know what Robby Benson's up to these days...
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When Disney pulled the plug on its expensive Lone Ranger project, which was to reunite Pirates of the Caribbean cohorts Johnny Depp, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Gore Verbinski, a few industry-watchers held out hope that the studio and the filmmakers would yet still reach an agreement over how many hundreds of millions of dollars the would-be franchise would cost. Almost exactly two months later, it seems they've reached that compromise. More stupid money for someone!
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This morning Disney released the first full trailer for Joss Whedon's Marvel superhero party The Avengers, and ZOMG guys -- have there ever been two minutes of action more packed with hero shots, zingers, and things blowing up before this very moment? (Michael Bay might give Whedon a run for his money, but the Avengers trailer has what even his robot spectaculars don't: copious slow-mo superhero booty shots. Consider the bar raised.)
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"Look at this stuff, isn't it neat? Wouldn't you think my collection's complete?" Insert "piles of The Lion King 3D cash" for "stuff" and you'll see why Disney's planning to roll out even more retro hits in similar fashion in the next few years. Why leave those catalogue classics in the vault when they can bring in as much as $80 million more a pop?
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According to a report from insider tipsters, Disney is set to announce that they've licensed the rights to adapt James Cameron's Avatar into a series of theme park rides at Disney World's Animal Kingdom in Florida. The news follows a long battle between Disney and rival amusement parkers Universal Studios for rights to the 20th Century Fox property, but the Avatar-Disney marriage makes good sense for a few reasons or five. Let's help Disney plan the most Na'vi-riffic Avatar experience possible with these proposed attraction ideas!
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Big, bad news, Lone Ranger fans: According to Deadline, Disney has decided to halt production on Gore Verbinski's The Lone Ranger, which was to star Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the titular masked crusader. The pricey blockbuster was to begin filming this October, but too many other $200M+ projects set up at the studio may have led to the project's demise.
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With this morning's news that Disney is courting Never Let Me Go director Mark Romanek to helm a Cinderella remake, it has become even more apparent that Hollywood is not going to keep its hands off of our Disney princesses. (Already, we have at least two Snow White reboots underway, one sensual Little Mermaid project in development, and a Hailee Steinfeld Sleeping Beauty redo.) In fear of which princess project will be announced next, Movieline has outlined four worst-case-scenario Disney adaptations that might make, say, the inevitable live-action Pocahontas action reboot seem less horrific in comparison.
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