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Disney Removes ‘Mulan’ From Its Schedule; Pushes All ‘Avatar’ Sequels And ‘Star Wars’ Movies Back By A Year

Jax Motes — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 22:18:07 +0000

Disney has pulled ‘Mulan’ off of its release schedule entirely. It had been scheduled to open on August 21. But the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on Hollywood, as virus transmissions are only going up as Americans refuse to wear masks or avoid large gatherings. The virus is a threat all over the world, but other nations have… well, gotten their shit together and cases are decreasing rather than skyrocketing as they are here. A Disney spokesperson stated (via Deadline): “Over the last few months, it’s become clear that nothing can be set in stone when it comes to how we release films during this global health crisis, and today that means pausing our release plans for Mulan as we assess how we can most effectively bring this film to audiences around the world.” Warner Brothers similarly pulled ‘Tenet’ from its schedule, and it looks as though that movie will be released in other countries as they reopen their cinemas. WB is adamant that ‘Tenet’ will open on the big screen and it will not give it away for free on HBO Max. (It cost a reported $400 million to make and needs to make over $800 million just to […]

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New Zealand Welcomes Back Productions Including ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ Series, ‘Cowboy Bebop’, And ‘Sweet Tooth’

Jax Motes — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 12:00:37 +0000

New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment has announced that a number of high-profile productions will be allowed to resume or begin productions as the country has decided to allow “border exemptions” for Amazon Prime Video’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ series, Netflix’s ‘Cowboy Bebop’ and ‘Sweet Tooth’, and ‘Power Rangers Beast Morphers’ as well as Peter Farrelly’s film ‘Greatest Beer Run Ever’ starring Viggo Mortensen. The ‘Avatar’ sequels have already resumed production, as had Jane Campion’s ‘The Power of the Dog’, an original movie for Netflix. New Zealand’s Stuff reports that according to the MBIE manager of immigration policy Sian Roguski, a total of 206 foreign-based cast and crew members, along with 35 family members, will be allowed to enter the country in the upcoming six months. All will be responsible for their own quarantine or self-isolation costs. However, it is estimated that these productions will generate 3000 local jobs and $400 million in revenue. James Cameron is directing four sequels to his 2009 smash, ‘Avatar’, which became the highest-grossing movie of all time, until it was surpassed by ‘Avengers: Endgame’ last year, but Cameron is confident that his sequels will top that Disney/Marvel crossover epic. The sequels […]

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Toy News Tuesday: Mega Madness

Jordan DesJardins — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 00:42:45 +0000

Hello and welcome one and all to an all new Toy News Tuesday! We’re the one weekly column right here on ScienceFiction.com where we seek out all of the awesome news you need to know about any announcements and cool happenings in the toy industry and put them all in one easy to find place for you! January may have been relatively uneventful for the toy industry as we begin our build-up for the New York Toy Fair next month, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some great things on the way! Some of our favorite companies are jumping the gun a bit and leaking out a few new reveals ahead of the big event, with awesome new stuff from Hasbro, NECA, Mezco, and more all making their debuts this week. It may still be pretty early in the year, but 2020 is already shaping up into an excellent year for collectors! So what are you waiting for? Scroll on down to Toy News for the week of January 21st, 2020! Hasbro Widens ‘Black Widow’s Web With Marvel’s upcoming Black Widow film coming out this Spring, the team at Hasbro is starting to really rev up their engines with […]

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Toy News Tuesday: The Clock Is Ticking

Jordan DesJardins — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 01:46:51 +0000

Hello there toy fans, we are back yet again with an all new Toy News Tuesday! We’re the one weekly column right here on ScienceFiction.com where we seek out all of the awesome news you need to know about any announcements and cool happenings in the toy industry and put them all in one easy to find place for you! This week things have been quiet. A little too quiet. With New York Toy Fair 2020 just a few weeks away, it would only make sense that things would go mostly silent on the toy news front. Most of our favorite companies are holding back all of their cool new reveals for the convention itself, which just means we all have to wait a little longer to see all of the neat stuff we will be adding to our collections this year. Still, this week we have some great new items to check out from our friends at Diamond Select Toys, NECA, Super7, Spinmaster, and Mezco! It may not be much, but there is still plenty to be excited about in the Toy News for the week of January 14th, 2020! In Stores Now From Diamond Select Toys Things might be […]

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‘Avatar’ Sequels Share A Behind-The-Scenes Look At A New Aquatic Mothership As Production Wraps

Jax Motes — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 15:25:32 +0000

The work on the ‘Avatar’ sequels has wrapped for 2019 and in celebration, the film’s Twitter account posted a behind the scenes image from the set. Depicted is a massive vessel called the Sea Dragon, which contains multiple smaller watercraft. That’s a wrap, Na’vi Nation! 💙 It’s our last day of live-action filming in 2019, and we’re celebrating with a sneak peek. 👀 Check out this photo of the aft well deck section of the Sea Dragon, a massive mothership that carries an array of other sea-going craft in the sequels. pic.twitter.com/AXgAve6aTG — Avatar (@officialavatar) November 29, 2019 James Cameron is reportedly filming multiple movies at the same time so that they can be released two years apart. It’s not clear if this tweet means that filming is 100% complete or if they are just wrapping up for the year, and will resume in the New Year. It’s not even clear what they are now filming, as it was previously reported that the motion-capture performances for ‘Avatar 2’ and ‘3’ had been completed. RELATED: James Cameron Explains The Emotional Story Arc Of Upcoming ‘Avatar’ Sequels Earlier this year, executive producer Jon Landau told ComicBook.com: “We’re well into production. […]

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‘Avatar’ Sequels: James Cameron Doesn’t Understand Shooting Entire Movies In High Frame Rate

Jax Motes — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 00:32:33 +0000

Ang Lee has been exploring the limits of filmmaking technology including 3D and shooting in high 120 frames-per-second (FPS) rates. He received acclaim for such innovations in ‘The Life of Pi’ in 2012. Then, Lee shot his drama ‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk’ (2016) in 120 FPS, much to everyone’s confusion. Why bother? It turns out, Lee used ‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk’ as an experiment in order to get more comfortable with the process before moving on to his next movie, the major sci-fi action flick, ‘Gemini Man’. For this picture, Lee used CGI to create a 20-something Will Smith, among other digital enhancements, including the high frame rate (HFR). It didn’t help, as the movie bombed and it is speculated that ‘Gemini Man’ will lose $75 million at the box office. Most movies are shot with 24 FPS, so 48 is double that. ‘The Hobbit’ movies were shot in 48 FPS and some people found that visually disturbing. So 120 is… well, even more visually disturbing. RELATED: ‘Gemini Man’ Special Effects Are Too Advanced For Modern Theaters Another director that has heavily explored and pushed the technologies of CGI is James Cameron, who is busy crafting […]

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Matt Damon Passed On ‘Avatar’ And A Massive Payday

Mike Phalin — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 00:25:32 +0000

Hindsight can sometimes cause us to emit an audible “oof.” In Matt Damon’s case, replace that “oof” with the sound of millions of dollars going down the drain. Yes, Mr. Damon could have been sitting on a massive payday if he’d just taken an ‘Avatar’ deal from James Cameron. Collider reported that Damon admitted to the offered deal during an interview with GQ UK: “Jim Cameron offered me Avatar. And when he offered it to me, he goes, “Now, listen. I don’t need anybody. I don’t need a name for this, a named actor. If you don’t take this, I’m going to find an unknown actor and give it to him, because the movie doesn’t really need you. But if you take the part, I’ll give you ten per cent of…” So, on the subject of money…” RELATED: Disney Reschedules The ‘Avatar’ Sequels For 2021, ’23, ’25, And ’27 Cameron is one of those guys who makes very few movies but typically produces pure gold. Passing on this chance to work with a real legend is an odd choice by the A-List actor. Damon did realize the missed opportunity but makes light of the situation: “I realised in […]

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SDCC 2019: At Long Last, ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Is The #1 Movie Of All Time!

Jax Motes — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 13:30:45 +0000

While most eyes in the nerd-verse were turned to San Diego, where SDCC delivered exciting news of upcoming projects, a few stragglers headed to theaters for one more screening of ‘Avengers: Endgame’, finally pushing that Marvel behemoth past ‘Avatar’ making it the #1 movie of all time. ‘Endgame’ had already shattered records and expectations when it opened on April 26, and scored the #1 opening night ever and made $1.2 billion after its first weekend. But the competition heated up fairly quickly. ‘Endgame’ was only #1 in the world for two weeks (three in the US) before ‘Detective Pikachu’ took it down, followed by ‘John Wick 3’. As phenomenally well as ‘Endgame’ did, it did not look as though it would catch up to ‘Avatar’s $2.7897 billion total, especially with the home video release coming right around the corner. But in June, Marvel tacked some extra footage onto the end of the movie, in order to entice fans back to theaters. It seems to have worked, as ‘Endgame’s total now sits at $2.790 billion, just barely more than James Cameron’s 2009 CGI extravaganza. Just last weekend, ‘Endgame’ lagged behind ‘Avatar’ by a pretty daunting $7 million. In a statement, Disney […]

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Not Surprisingly, 20th Century Fox Won’t Be At SDCC This Year

Jax Motes — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 22:09:19 +0000

Like Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox is sitting out San Diego Comic-Con International this year. This should come as no surprise, as Fox was just bought out by Disney in March and the dust is still settling. Various people in various positions within the company have been given their walking papers. Disney quickly went to work scrapping movies that Fox had in the pipeline, including the stop-motion ‘Mouse Guard’, which had been in development with plans for it to kick off a franchise. All of that is on top of the fact that Fox has never had a huge presence at SDCC to begin with. The biggest movie that Fox has in the works is the first of four ‘Avatar’ sequels, but that isn’t due until December 2021, and director James Cameron is filming multiple movies at once. Post-production may not have even started, so there is probably nothing to show. RELATED: Disney Is Already Cutting Loose Movies Developed By Fox Pre-Buyout But Fox does have a few notable pictures opening later this year and next that perhaps could have used a boost from a presentation or preview at SDCC. These include: the animated ‘Spies in Disguise’ featuring […]

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Disney Reschedules The ‘Avatar’ Sequels For 2021, ’23, ’25, And ’27

Jax Motes — Tue, 07 May 2019 18:51:15 +0000

Disney is ironing out its release schedule, now that it has acquired 20th Century Fox, and as a result, many movies are being moved around, and mostly pushed back. Among those projects are James Cameron‘s ‘Avatar’ sequels. Reportedly, filming has been completed on the first movie (and possibly more), but the majority of these movies is post-production/CGI, so expect a few more years to be spent putting it all together. RELATED: James Cameron Explains The Emotional Story Arc Of Upcoming ‘Avatar’ Sequels According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, ‘Avatar 2’, which may or may not be called ‘The Way of Water’, has been bumped from December 18, 2020 to December 17, 2021. ‘Avatar 3’, which may or may not be called ‘The Seed Bearer’, has been pushed back from December 2021 to December 22, 2023. Reportedly, 20th Century Fox wanted to wait and see how those movies performed before pushing ahead with more, Cameron has plans for fourth (‘The Tulkun Rider’) and fifth (‘The Quest for Eywa’) installments. ‘Avatar 4’ has been pushed from December 2024 to December 29, 2025, while ‘Avatar 5’ has been delayed from December 2025 to December 27, 2027. Disney is replacing […]

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Did Vin Diesel Just Announce His Casting In The ‘Avatar’ Sequels?

Jax Motes — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 19:45:14 +0000

It looks as though Vin Diesel has joined the cast of the ‘Avatar’ sequels. The action star and director James Cameron posted a video on Instagram, in which Diesel discussed his career-long desire to work with Cameron, stating that “All things come…” to those who wait. Diesel captioned the video “And the journey continues…” and added the hashtags #Blessed, #Grateful, and #Avatar. It certainly sounds like Diesel will be starring in, as Cameron said, “‘Avatar 2’, ‘3’, ”4′, and ‘5’” but neither men came right out and announced his casting. RELATED: ‘Avatar’, ‘Alien’, ‘Kingsman’ And ‘Planet Of The Apes’ Will Continue Under Disney Watch the video yourself below: View this post on Instagram And the journey continues… #Blessed #Grateful #Avatar A post shared by Vin Diesel (@vindiesel) on Apr 3, 2019 at 6:45pm PDT The motion-capture portions of ‘Avatar 2’ and ‘3’ are believed to be complete, with filming of the live-action sequences beginning now. Casting isn’t complete, as Brendan Cowell was just announced as having been cast on Monday. RELATED: James Cameron Explains The Emotional Story Arc Of Upcoming ‘Avatar’ Sequels Diesel just wrapped the comic book movie ‘Bloodshot’. He has ‘Fast & […]

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Brendan Cowell Joins The Cast Of The ‘Avatar’ Sequels

Jax Motes — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 08:19:35 +0000

The ‘Avatar’ sequels have enlisted Brendon Cowell, to play human character Mick Scoresby, “captain of a private sector large-scale marine hunting vessel on the planet of Pandora.” He is expected to begin filming for James Cameron in New Zealand in May. RELATED: James Cameron (Sort Of) Confirmed Those Leaked ‘Avatar’ Titles In the US, Cowell is probably best known for his recurring role as Harrag on Season Seven of ‘Game of Thrones’. In the UK, he most recently starred as Peter Langly on the BBC1 series ‘Press’. He was also seen in the miniseries ‘The Letdown’, as well as the thriller ‘Noise’ and war movie ‘Beneath Fill 60’. The motion capture performances for ‘Avatar 2’ and ‘3’ is already complete, but the live action portions have not been shot yet. ‘Avatar 2’ is scheduled to be released on December 17, 2021, with the third arriving on December 20, 2024. A fourth film is already set for December 19, 2025, but filming has not yet begun. Like ‘2’ and ‘3’, ‘4’ and ‘5’ are expected to be filmed simultaneously, and production is expected to start once post-production on ‘2’ and ‘3’ is complete. ‘3’ and ‘4’ are dependent on […]

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Disney Sets A March 20 Closing Date For The Fox Buyout

Jax Motes — Wed, 13 Mar 2019 15:10:49 +0000

It’s been a long time coming, but it looks as though the Disney buyout of 21st Century Fox and its assets will finally “become effective at 12:02 a.m. Eastern time on March 20.” Disney announced on Tuesday morning that it had received the last major approval from regulators in Mexico. Fox shareholders have until 5 pm EST on Thursday, 3/13 to determine how much cash and stock they wish to receive in this $71.3 billion transaction. Each Disney share is valued at $38 in cash. Disney is reportedly expecting to shell out $35.7 billion in cash and issue 343 million new Disney stocks. Certain Fox properties (mostly involving FOX Sports) were determined by the Justice Department as being off-limits to Disney. Those properties will become the independent Fox Corporation on March 19, just before the Disney buyout is finalized. While Disney is obtaining a number of high-profile movie properties from Fox– ‘Aliens’, ‘Avatar’, ‘Planet of the Apes, ‘Predator’, and perhaps most excitingly, the ‘X-Men’ and ‘Fantastic Four’– Disney is actually taking on $13.8 billion in debt. It is also projected that 4,000 people will be laid off as the two companies merge, creating redundancies, as well as Disney’s plans to […]

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James Cameron Explains The Emotional Story Arc Of Upcoming ‘Avatar’ Sequels

Emily Schaab — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 16:12:57 +0000

It has been a decade since James Cameron brought us to Pandora with his film ‘Avatar.’ But now we know that Cameron‘s sci-fi epic is far from over as sequels are set to begin hitting theaters next year. Cameron recently appeared on the Empire podcast, where he spoke about the sequels, from the “dark places” characters will go to in ‘Avatar 2’ to the “emotional rollercoaster” of the franchise as a whole. Speaking about ‘Avatar 2,’ Cameron revealed that the film’s star Sam Worthington had to go to some dark places with his character, Jake Sully. Cameron explains that Jake’s marriage to Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) will be pushed to a breaking point, and their struggles will be shown through the eyes of their children. Cameron said: “There’s a three-page argument scene between Jake and Neytiri, a marital dispute, very, very critical to the storyline. I wound up shooting it all from the point of view of the eight year old hiding under the structure and peeking in.” Cameron explained that everything the characters will go through fits into the overall emotional arc of the franchise, saying: “Having gone through the experience with [Sam Worthington] on ‘Avatar,’ I now knew how […]

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James Cameron (Sort Of) Confirmed Those Leaked ‘Avatar’ Titles

Nick Cavicchio — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 07:18:54 +0000

Ah, ‘Avatar’. The film franchise that ate James Cameron. Or rather, the nascent film franchise. As strange as it feels to describe a ten year old property as “nascent,” the word applies. After all, while the film set box office records that stand to this day, it’s still just the one film (well, there’s also a theme park). but we’ll find out soon enough what sort of legs this franchise has, as the first sequel will at long last arrive late next year. But what are we going to call that sequel? To date, it’s just been known as ‘Avatar 2’, but while that’s not inaccurate (it is, after all, the second ‘Avatar’) it also reeks of “working title.” You may recall, though, that last fall a set of four titles, each apparently corresponding to one of the planned sequels, was leaked to the public via BBC News. Those titles, if you need a refresher, are ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’, ‘Avatar: The Seed Bearer’, ‘Avatar: The Tulkun Rider’, and ‘Avatar: The Quest for Eywa’. But are these the real deal or a bit of fanwank that got blown out of proportion? Well, there’s been no real word on the […]

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