Category: film

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Other worlds: Rowling returns with The Casual Vacancy

J.K. Rowling. The author’s first non-Harry Potter book, The Casual Vacancy, is coming out on tomorrow. ‘Cozy village mystery’ is not a genre we’d cover if Rowling wasn’t writing it, but there is an interesting profile in The New Yorker for the occasion. Naturally, the part that went viral was the quote about sex and unicorns, but if you’re in the mood for a 10-page profile on Jo Rowling, well. Meanwhile, she told The Guardian that she promised her editor she wouldn’t read Fifty Shades of Grey. If we don’t ask every woman in publishing about the ex-fanfic smut, does the ex-fanfic smut win?

It’s (almost) the end of a Big Fat Fantasy era. The final book of the Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light, will be released in January. Dragonmount’s Jason Denzel read the book, and shares some (spoiler-free) reaction and memories. meanwhile, fans can grab the book’s prologue on Amazon, while Tor offers the first chapter.

Adaptions. The latest YA book on the hoping-to-be-the-next-Twilight-franchise assembly line, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s Beautiful Creatures, debuted its first trailer last week, and it looks, well, like a gender-swapped Twilight. (She’s a witch; he’s normal.) I did read the book a while back, and was distinctly unimpressed. The movie features Viola Davis, Emma Thompson, Jeremy Irons and Emmy Rossum in supporting roles. Meanwhile, Dreamworks has optioned Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone. It will be produced by Harry Potter’s David Heyman.

All the powerful ladies. Tor’s Liz Bourke presents an argument against copping out on women in historical fantasy.

Do not want. Robin Hobb is quietly working on a new Fitz novel, a prospect which fills me with dread. Her breakthrough Farseer Trilogy is all well and good, but the second set of Fitz books were probably about 90% chaff and whining. (Despite that, I think parts of the ending – not Fitz – did actually make me cry. YMMV.) Is the character going to be Hobb’s Lestat? Speaking of, Anne Rice is asking her fans why they want Lestat to come back. Dear lord, no. I could write whole essays for her second question.

Also: Terry Brook’s Shannara series optioned for TV; Naomi Novik talks writing and fan fiction; A visual history of the Hugo’s Best Professional Artist winners.

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J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek 2 is now Star Trek Into Darkness

The sequel to J. J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek now has an officially announced title: Star Trek Into Darkness. Shouldn’t there be a colon or something there?

The title popped up as a rumor before the weekend, but now Paramount has confirmed it. First Showing is willing to give the lack of a punctuation mark the benefit of the doubt, while Hollywood.com examines the trend of “dark” movie titles recently.

Star Trek Into Darkness is scheduled to come out on May 17, 2013, adding Benedict Cumberbatch to the cast as a villain. Still no word if Lens Flare gets a higher billing than the Sherlock star.

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Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark debuts in IMAX, and more

Raiders of the Lost Ark - IMAX posterThe IMAX version of Raiders of the Lost Ark opened in theaters this past weekend, grossing about $1.73 million over the three days. Playing in 267 IMAX theaters nationwide, the first Indiana Jones film will continue to run until this Thursday as part of the hype for the upcoming release of the entire Indy film series in a Blu-ray box set on September 18. Can’t make it to an IMAX screening? AMC theaters will be hosting marathon screenings of all four films on Saturday, September 15.

Also helping to herald the Blu-ray release:

With the Blu-ray box set, Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures, coming out next week, you might wonder if there’s a special collector’s edition of the set? And there is…. not in the US. Amazon UK has a Limited Collector’s Edition, which comes with the five disc Blu-ray box set and a huge pile of goodies, including a 144-page replica of the Grail Diary from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, a film cell, other replica prop items. Meanwhile, versions of the set in steelbook collector cases will be available in Germany and France, with the German version also having an optional Zippo lighter.

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46 years of boldly going: Happy Birthday, Star Trek!

Star Trek is 46 today: ‘The Man Trap,’ debuted September 8, 1966 on NBC. We here at CJ have a lot of love for Trek – in fact, being raised by casual sci-fi fans, I hazard to say it was more a part of my childhood than Star Wars was, by virtue of actually being on TV.

Google celebrated the series by debuting an interactive Google Doodle yesterday. Tor.com has an interesting look back at turning points in the franchise’s history, while Hero Complex talks to Michael Dorn about The Next Generation, which turns 25 this month. And, from earlier in the week, io9 has 8 ways judges have cited Trek from the bench.

Looking forward, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto have been dropping hints about the franchise’s next installment, the still-untitled (or is it?) sequel to 2009’s Star Trek.

What’s your favorite Trek memory or moment? I remain partial to the one with the whales, myself.

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Raiders of the Lost Ark to return to theaters – in IMAX!

Running from the boulderThe original Indiana Jones adventure is coming back to the big screen — a very big screen, actually: IMAX. Screencrush reports that Raiders of the Lost Ark will be released in IMAX (and fake IMAX) formats for a limited run (Sept 7 to Sept 13) to promote the upcoming Blu-ray box set. That boulder’s gonna be huge!

As reported earlier, The Complete Adventures of Indiana Jones Blu-ray box set (containing all four Indy films) comes out on September 18. For a movie that came out 31 years ago, the enduring classic adventure of Raiders shows that it’s not the years or the mileage… it’s the awesome.

Also, to help promote the Blu-ray, Lucasfilm has been updating Indiana Jones’ timeline on Facebook with actual dates for his epic adventures. So far, 1957 is full of Crystal Skull events, while they’ve just started on his quest of Temple of Doom in 1935.

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Brenda Chapman leaves Pixar for Lucasfilm

The original director of Brave, Brenda Chapman has left Pixar for Lucasfilm. She’ll be consulting in the animation department on “something new.” Is it something as obvious as the Seth Green comedy project, or something else we haven’t heard about yet? After all, LucasFilm Animation “is also focusing efforts on feature film animation and other new intellectual properties.”

Chapman has an impressive resume. She has writing credits not only on Brave, but Disney’s The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, as well as directing The Prince of Egypt for Dreamworks – the first American woman to direct an animated feature film from a major studio, according to IMDB. Learn more about her career and Brave in an interview she did with Pixar Portal last year.

Whatever Lucasfilm has brewing, Chapman certainly has the chops!