Star Wars Episode II & III 3D Both Released 2013

George Lucas is one again bringing an updated version of his ever changing Star Wars Saga back to the big screen. Having seen the 3D re-release of Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace take over $44 million in cinemas worldwide it’s now been announced that Attack of The Clones and Revenge of The Sith 3D versions will both arrive in cinemas next year.

Episode II will arrive on 20 September 2013, followed less than a month later by Episode III on 11 October. Lucasfilm had previously announced that the each of the six Star Wars films would be re-released over six years. However they’ve now accelerated that schedule by putting the remaining prequels out at the same time.

However you feel about the Jedi wisdom of putting Jar Jar Binks and Hayden Christensen’s acting in 3D, at least this means that fans will have at a year less to wait before seeing the original trilogy make a triumphant return to cinemas.

Morgan Freeman & Elizabeth Banks for Lego Movie

Morgan Freeman will be lending his instantly recognisable vocal talents and considerable gravitas to an animated adventure about Lego. He’s reportedly now playing a lead role in Lego: The Piece of Resistance, directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. The directing duo were previously responsible for 21 Jump Street and the more child friendly animated hit Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs.

In a slight change from his usual roles as God or Batman’s Gadget maker Freeman will apparently be playing a Lego character named Vitruvius. While the precise details of his character are yet to be revealed the film does have an interesting official synopsis:

An ordinary Lego mini-figure, mistakenly thought to be the extraordinary MasterBuilder, is recruited to join a quest to stop an evil Lego tyrant from gluing the universe together.

Sounding appealingly like a cross between Toy Story and Lord Of the Rings, the film already has Will Arnett cast as Lego Batman and Channing Tatum as Lego Superman. American TV star Chris Pratt is voicing Emmet the ordinary lego guy mistaken for the mythical MasterBuilder.

It’s also reported that Elizabeth Banks has now joined the growing cast, bringing a much needed piece of girl shaped Lego to our current toy box of pint size plaything heroes.

Michael Bay’s Ninja Turtles Cancelled Indefinitely

Fans of the much beloved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise mostly let out a collective sigh of relief when Paramount shut down pre-production of their much debated big screen re-imagining of the familiar 1980s comicbook characters. Wrath of The Titans Director Jonathan Liebesman was set to direct with Michael Bay producing, but Paramount has officially put an ‘indefinite’ stop to the project, thanks to an apparently lacklustre script.

Initial comments from Michael Bay that the new film would re-create the characters as tough, edgy, funny and completely loveable aliens drew a firestorm of internet criticisms. This fire of fanboy rage was only further fuelled when the name for the new project was changed to Ninja Turtles, seemingly confirming that our half shell heroes would no longer be mutants or teenage.

In the latest developments Paramount has apparently taken legal action against a blog which claimed to publish a leaked first draft of the abandoned Ninja Turtles script. The alleged script appeared to stick closely to the lucrative but ill-conceived Transformers formula.

The supposed draft had our alien turtle warriors befriending an adolescent small town security guard/hockey player named Casey Jones and his wannabe reporter girlfriend April O’Neal. It also dramatically re-imagined the Turtles familiar nemesis the metal masked Shredder as an evil military colonel Schrader with an army of ‘Foot’ soldiers. The leaked script apparently contained plots points such as mystical prophecies and alternate dimensions, alongside dialogue crammed with frequent self-aware pop culture references.

The script was quickly removed online, reportedly at the request of the studio. Seemingly giving validity to the claim it may have been real. It wouldn’t be the first time an ill-conceived early draft or studio treatment has found its way embarrassingly onto the internet. Though to the studio’s credit at least this is one occasion where a bad script definitely won’t be becoming an actual awful film.

Link below to the blog which originally published the script, now providing an account of why it has been removed.

http://tmntnottant.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-script-and-review-takedown-proof-of.html

Check out our own video interview with Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman discussing the then proposed Michael Bay Ninja Turtles movie and praising the ‘amazing’ ideas of production team; defending the new ‘alien’ angle as something which had always been a part his original vision of the characters…

Simon Pegg Rules Out Shaun Of the Dead Sequel

Simon Pegg spoke in London tonight at the Film 4 FrightFest Horror movie festival about whether or not he would ever consider making a sequel to his cult classic zombie themed romantic comedy Shaun Of The Dead.

The Star Trek and Spaced star admitted that while he was open to making a return to the genre he definitely wouldn’t want to do a sequel to Shaun Of The Dead.

While he shared that he was excited to be getting ready to work with Nick Frost and Director Edgar Wright for a third time on The World’s End; he emphatically ruled out the possibility of reteaming for any kind of Shaun follow up.

Explaining his reluctance to pursue the project despite the obvious interest of fans and studios, Simon revealed that the Zombified fate of Nick Frost’s character Ed at the end of the first movie made it difficult to imagine a sequel that would do justice to Nick Frost’s acting skills and avoid breaking any of the unwritten ‘laws’ of the zombie genre.

Simon Pegg will start filming The World’s End in October, finishing off the long awaited and infamous “Three Flavours Cornetto” trilogy of films in collaboration with Frost and Edgar Wright. The new film about an Apocalypse themed pub crawl will serve as a companion piece to the trio’s previous efforts Shaun Of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

Video Clip below with full interview  soon to come:

Billy Crystal Talks Monsters University

Oscars funnyman Billy Crystal has spoken about Pixar’s forthcoming Monsters Inc. prequel Monsters University. Following on from the previously released teaser trailers that saw our familiar monster heroes Mike and Sully enjoying some classic dorm room pranks, Crystal has confirmed that the new film will indeed borrow from classic college capers like Revenge of The Nerds.

Here’s what Crystal had to say about the new pubescent monster adventures:

“They end up in the same fraternity where they have this scare competition – like Greek Games in college. They have to mobilise a group, sort of like Revenge Of The Nerds monsters, and get them ready to be scary.”

In keeping with the Nerds homage Crystal also confirmed that his one eyed pea green monster will definitely wear a retainer in the new film, just to make the stereotype clear. Though we suspect that John Goodman’s Sully might be more of a furry blue Jock.

Official Monsters University teaser trailer below: