This new trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness has a lot more hints at the plot – and Benedict Cumberbatch’s role – than the previous ones.
Of course the freeze-frame is a half-naked girl. Sigh. Behold: Cumberbatch.
Out this week: Willow on Blu-ray, Star Wars #3
The first Blu-ray of Lucasfilm’s 1989 fantasy film Willow will be out tomorrow. Star Warwick Davis and director Ron Howard will be holding a live Q&A tomorrow under the hashtag #WillowChat.
Willow was my first Lucasfilm movie – first that I remember, anyway – but I haven’t watched it in years, and I’ll be live-tweeting it sometime next weekend. I hope some of you will join me – stay tuned for details.
Now, back to Star Wars – literally. Look for Brian Wood’s Star Wars #3 in the comic shops on Wednesday, as well as the digest The Clone Wars: Defenders of the Lost Temple.
Our next novel, Tim Lebbon’s Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void, is due in May.
Trailer park: Star Trek Into Darkness, Iron Man 3 and more
That’s a brand-new teaser for J.J. Abram’s new Star Trek, with quite a bit of new footage.
Below the cut is the new Iron Man 3 trailer for the three of you who didn’t see it earlier in the week, as well as Will Smith’s After Earth, and the latest from Joss Whedon
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New Hunger Games posters promote Catching Fire’s Victory tour
Meta! Symbolism! Bold-faced propaganda! The first non-logo posters for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire promote the ‘Victory Tour,’ which begins the story. The first poster debuted on the franchise’s Facebook page, while the second was a HitFix exclusive.
Video: First look at Star Trek Into Darkness
Paramount released a new featurette video: a first look video at the upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness, with director J.J. Abrams describing the film as ‘upping the ante’ and ‘everything I’ve ever done, wrapped into one movie’ while Chris Pine calls it ‘relentless’. And a handful of clips, mostly from the previously-released trailers, though there are a few new shots. At least, I don’t recall someone dropping some antacids into water in earlier teasers. And some BWAAAAAAAANH! BWAAAAAAANNHH!
Shatner calls Abrams a ‘pig’ for taking Star Wars gig
You can always count on Crazy Fandom Grandpa William Shatner to fan the tired old Star Wars vs. Star Trek flames.
“He’s being a pig,” Shatner told Movie Fanatic. “He’s probably the most talented director of that ilk we have. But, he’s gone too far this time.”
Looks like Abrams is going to get a real tongue-lashing from the Captain next time they meet up… Maybe he should draft Shatner’s ‘nemesis’ Carrie Fisher for backup?
Lucasfilm, ILM nabs a few pre-Oscar awards
In the land of not-Star Wars, Lucasfilm picked up a couple awards last weekend:
Red Tails won the NAACP Image award for Outstanding Motion Picture, beating out others such as Flight and Django Unchained. In a video clip from the event, George Lucas shares why he produced the WWII action film about the Tuskegee Airmen.
While the Annie Awards were dominated by wins for Wreck-It Ralph and Dragons: Riders of Berk, a team from Industrial Light and Magic won for Outstanding Achievement, Animated Effects in a Live Action Production: Jerome Platteaux, John Sigurdson, Ryan Hopkins, Raul Essig, and Mark Chataway won for their work on The Avengers. Also in the running, we had The Clone Wars crew with four nominations and LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out with one nomination.
Videos: Star Trek, Iron Man, Oz and World War Z in Super Bowl movie spots
First up, here’s the highly relevant Star Trek Into Darkness. Head under the cut for Iron Man 3, Oz the Great and Powerful and World War Z.
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Nine ways George Lucas changed movies forever
The recent recap of last year’s biggest events reminded me of something that has been largely overlooked: George Lucas is retiring. Granted, he’s tried to retire before – a couple of times, if memory serves – with limited success. And the news was understandably overshadowed by the double-whammy of the Sequel Trilogy and the sale to Disney. But still. The Flannelled One is stepping down, off to work on experimental films or build a working X-wing or become a lumberjack or whatever retired billionaires do. Yes, there were the starwars.com videos, where he talked a bit about his future plans, but in general, this story has been ignored. Heck, I saw more chatter about Rick McCallum’s retirement. Rick McCallum is a wonderful guy, but there’s only one George Lucas. He deserves a little more attention.
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Oscars nominations boring as ever for genre fans
Not a whole lot of love for genre pictures at the Oscars this year. The Avengers got just one nomination, for Visual Effects, where it was joined by online punching-bag Prometheus. Both of them will probably lose to Life of Pi.
The good news is that some fan-favorite actors scored big. Jennifer Lawrence was nominated for Best Actress — not for The Hunger Games, but rather for her work in Silver Linings Playbook. She plays a woman suffering from a variety of mental illnesses so who knows, maybe she’ll even win. And though The Dark Knight Rises was shut out, Anne Hathaway got a Supporting Actress nod for playing Fantine in Les Misérables, and she’s pretty much a lock. Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman, was also nominated for Les Misérables, but let’s face it, he has no chance.
The Hobbit got three nominations, for Visual Effects, Makeup, and Production Design. Not bad until you remember that the last Middle-earth epic nabbed eleven nominations, and won all of ’em.
Plus we have to mention: John Williams picked up his 48th nomination for Lincoln. Pretty sure that’s a record. And weirdly enough, the Simpsons are now Oscar nominees. Something called Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare” is up for Best Animated Short.
At least we can always look forward to making fun of the fashions. This year the Academy Awards air on February 24th.
Edit: Thanks to Pablo for pointing out that new Lucasfilm head honcho Kathleen Kennedy (along with Steven Spielberg) was nominated for producing Lincoln! It’s the front-runner for Best Picture, too.