By George Robbins
There is a lot going on these days in the movie industry, whether it be due to the state of affairs with movie theaters, movies being delayed which affects theaters, and movie productions resuming or being announced. Of those three things, the only normal one that we would see regardless of this pandemic is the resuming of productions and the announcements of new ones. Numerous new announcements have been made as of late which give us a great deal to look forward to over the next couple of years. A couple of announcements were made which pertained to the continued production of films people are looking forward to. Namely, one that has been trying very hard to get back on track, ‘Mission: Impossible 7,’ which will be resuming in September and they will be getting right back to work with no additional delay.
The company with the most amount of development happening, it seems, would be Disney which owns many other intellectual properties at this point. One of the biggest productions that is currently in the middle of being worked on is one that has been in development for 11 years at this point and that is ‘Avatar 2.’ James Cameron wanted to resume working as soon as he possibly could so that the movie could still make its 2021 release date. In order to succeed in doing this, Cameron took the opportunity given by New Zealand being the first country to completely rid itself of the virus and got his cast and crew there immediately. Although they had to be put into a 2-week quarantine, as per the standard for all who are traveling between countries, they still managed to get back to work only a couple of months after the pandemic was announced.
Another set of properties that Disney has under production are the upcoming Marvel Studios films for their upcoming Phase 4 and beyond releases. Somewhat recently it was announced that ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings‘ would be allowed to resume production and this would allow them the opportunity to move forward with the filming from the end of July onward. This isn’t the only Marvel film to be discussed recently as ‘Ant-Man 3’ was announced to be starting development some time next June. Although the movie is in no way connected to the Phase 4 releases, it was revealed that they would be starting development for it next year. Another very recent announcement was the one that stated that after a decade, the development for another ‘TRON’ was in the works.
The idea for the creation of another ‘TRON’ movie was one that was discussed a number of times after the release of ‘Tron: Legacy’ in 2010. The following few years were tenuous and the idea was eventually scrapped in 2015 after the critical and box office failures of one of Disney’s films ‘Tomorrowland.’ There are plenty of issues they have to sort out before we can truly be excited about the new film with lead star Jared Leto. The stories of many Disney live-action Sci-Fi movies are something that don’t make a lot of sense most of the time and expect audiences to understand what is going on just from what is happening on screen. They often times lack the world-building necessary to get people invested in what is going on throughout the movie. If there is anything they should work on in the upcoming film it should be how they can naturally integrate more exposition into conversations without blatantly saying anything. This is an issue many Sci-Fi movies face, but if done correctly, we could end up with a film unlike anything ever seen before.
By George Robbins
Just like any other conventions, Comic-Con is a multi-day event that gives fans a chance to both speak with one another and find out new information about things they are interested in. Conventions are a time where people of all kinds with a common interest can meet up and talk about the things they like. The thing about conventions is that they often times have hundreds to countless thousands of people gathering together in a relatively confined space. This is already an issue normally because so many people close together usually results in illnesses of all kinds being transmitted. Obviously this is an issue nowadays as the Covid-19 pandemic is sweeping across the world and it is so easily transmitted.
Thus, just like any other large gatherings, all conventions through the end of the year have been canceled and rescheduled. In most cases, people have been able to get refunds if they already bought their tickets or they could put it towards the next time the conventions can take place. The biggest upcoming convention that many people knew about was San Diego Comic-Con which would have taken place nearer to the end of the summer. This is considered one of the biggest events of the year with, often times, the largest crowds seen gathered in one place. This gives the best reason as to why they can’t hold the event even if they tried reducing the number of attendees.
San Diego Comic-Con is the perfect opportunity for companies to bring news of their newest works to the public which helps in more ways than one. Not only are they officially revealing their upcoming projects, but they are also showing it to devoted fans who will help with marketing by spreading the word. So now that the convention will not be held, the question these companies have now is what they are going to do moving forward. As of now, there will be a virtual convention which allows anyone to access new products and news for free from the safety of their home. It also allows companies to hold panels for any new announcements they may have, but it appears not all companies will be taking advantage of this.
San Diego is far from being the only convention that was canceled this year as the yearly Star Wars Celebration was canceled as well and won’t be back until 2022. Also similar to Comic-Con is the DC FanDome event which will be happening around the end of August which will be taking place entirely online just like Comic-Con at Home. This shows that it is still entirely possible for these events to have some semblance of normality but it will take more effort than usual to make it work. There isn’t necessarily anything keeping companies from bringing something to these events, it’s just that it may not really be worth the effort on their part. If something goes wrong on the technical side of things, then a company’s entire demonstration could end up ruined and could cause bad press. So it really isn’t too surprising if they don’t bring anything to the event this year, and it means they will have more for next time.
By George Robbins
Marvel’s Phase 4 is full of new upcoming movies that give us a look at new heroes that haven’t been seen on the big screen before. Among the films that have been announced, ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ has been the one that has been in the news recently. The reason for it being in the news in the first place is because it was supposed to be the next film in production and the one of the next movies to release. The news has been good recently as they will be able to resume production soon for the film which moves everything forward. This means that Phase 4 can move on as planned because they shouldn’t have any more delays.
This upcoming wave of Marvel films is unlike the previous three phases due to the fact many different new heroes are a part of it. It represents an entirely new era within the Marvel era where we will be seeing a new saga begin. With many heroes being involved in the upcoming Phase, a question is asked about what this new saga will really be about. The original heroes are either gone, or may be nearing the end of their journey while many are just about to begin their’s. There are plenty of routes that Marvel Studios could follow moving forward, giving plenty of new opportunities to newer heroes.
There were heroes introduced in the first few Phases that have never really been focused on before outside of comics. This showed us that we could get movies for heroes that could push them into the spotlight and make them well known. ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy‘, ‘Doctor Strange‘, ‘Black Panther,’ and the ‘Ant-Man‘ movies gave some light to heroes with lesser known names. Among those movies is the latterly mentioned ‘Ant-Man’ which gave us an introduction to the titular character who played a massive part in the franchise. No one would have expected to really like the character or think much of him, but the writing for the movies is so well done that it is hard not to like them.
Phase 4 of the MCU is mostly meant to introduce us to the newest wave of characters we will be seeing from this point onward. With this in mind, it isn’t too much of a surprise that the next installment of ‘Ant-Man’ would not be a part of this Phase of films. Thus it was assumed that production for the movie was delayed indefinitely, but there was no official announcement that this was, in fact, the truth. Disney confirmed the new date for the start of production as being some time in June of 2021 as opposed to what was previously announced when it was said they would start in January 2021. This delay allows for the script of the film to be refined which will give us a version of the film that can be seen as one of the best.
By George Robbins
The ‘TRON‘ franchise is not one that is thought of very often because it only ever had a couple of films release and it hasn’t gone anywhere since 2010. Nonetheless, ‘TRON’ as a whole has been cemented in history as a film that cannot and will not be forgotten, no matter how hard people try. The original film was relatively ahead of its time and the 2010 sequel made itself a box office success solely off of its visual style. The storytelling of the movies wasn’t what made them so popular, as instead, they became popular due to the visuals that people saw on the big screen. The two films are something that will remain in history, but newer generations may forget about them, so then, it seems we will get another one after all.
In the original ‘TRON’ film, Jeff Bridges plays the role of computer programmer Kevin Flynn as he is transported into a computer mainframe. What follows is an adventure through a world imagined in a way that would make some kind of sense given the fact he is in a simulation of a computer mainframe. The thing that stood out at the time was the fact that programs within the realm of the computer were portrayed as sentient beings that could develop independent thought over time. This on its own has always remained an interesting concept because it means that a living being having contact with a program can result in them becoming artificial intelligence that can change the world. An interesting thought to be sure, but not really what was intended with the making of the movie.
The follow-up sequel did not come into existence until almost 30 years later in 2010 when ‘Tron: Legacy’ released to theaters. The movie saw the disappearance of Kevin Flynn from the world as a whole for 20 years and his son, Sam Flynn, finds a way of looking for him. By going into a special mainframe created by his father he discovers the same type of world that his father once discovered on his journey so many years earlier. The movie itself has a mixed reception because the story wasn’t all that great, but the incredible visuals brought people to the theaters to see the movie. This is what ended up making the film a box office success. Unfortunately, another movie would not come to pass and plans for one were scrapped after a few years.
According to actor Garrett Hedlund, who played Sam Flynn, plans for a sequel to ‘Tron: Legacy’ were scrapped in 2015 after the box office bomb that was ‘Tomorrowland.’ Recently, Disney executive Mitchell Lieb revealed that ‘TRON 3’ is now officially back in development after these past 10 years. He also stated that the star who is set to appear in the film in the leading role in Jared Leto and that the film itself was actually a sequel and not a reboot like some thought it would be. So it seems it is only a matter of time before we end up with another film to add to the ‘TRON’ franchise and it may breath some life back into something that may soon be forgotten by the newest generations.
By George Robbins
Since the beginning of this whole pandemic back in the middle of March, it has been an uphill battle for many to try and come up with solutions for various new situations. For instance, how do businesses adjust to the distancing policy which is currently in place and how many people should be allowed to be together at one time. These have answers, but they vary, sometimes wildly, depending on the location of these places and how well they are handling the current crisis. Hollywood is no exception to this and many studios at this point have had almost no choice but to delay movies and shut down productions. Even if they started up productions again, there would be rules in place which force new work standards to prevent possible viral spread. Now that standards are in place, production crews can actually get back to work again.
One of the first productions to start up production again was James Cameron’s ‘Avatar 2’ because a number of different scenarios lined up perfectly for him. Some other productions have not been so lucky because, for Cameron, he was going to be filming in the country that announced that it had completely defeated the virus. On top of that, he was able to start filming with no issue after the initial 2-week quarantine upon arrival in New Zealand. This means that no one was infected and he was able to immediately get to work and started his production again with no hassle. However, he still had a lot of work to do after starting up again and has devoted all of his time recently to making sure that the film ends up finished in the proper amount of time.
Many productions currently have the issue that they have not managed to get much work done at all because they need the whole production crew to get work done. There is at least one production that has been lucky in this regard and as such has managed to actually get some work done. The upcoming final entry to the ‘Jurassic World’ trilogy, ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ has somehow been lucky during this whole pandemic and apparently so has the crew. They are even starting to resume production now after having to wait so many months, but they have at least managed to get some work done over the hiatus they were forced to take. According to director Colin Trevorrow this ended up being a great thing for all of them because it gave them a chance to take care of things without a looming deadline.
Apparently, the reason for why everything worked out so well for them is because the few weeks of filming that they had gotten in before the pandemic was footage that included the dinosaurs. This means that, unlike most productions, work could be done from home because what they needed done at that point was VFX work to get the dinosaurs in place. Trevorrow went on to state that being able to do this kind of work from home has not only helped the production, but also the crew because it means they didn’t have a deadline they had to make. So now that they are resuming work on the film, it shouldn’t be much of hassle to get right back into things.
By George Robbins
There are a number of reasons as to why theaters have had it rough nowadays and over the course if the last few months. Theaters were among one of the first types of business to shut down when the pandemic first started in an attempt to keep the number of new cases down. As a part of the effort theater chains decided to keep their doors closed until the summer in an effort to both keep the number of cases down, and also save money by staying closed until new movies become available. This is what ends up leading to the next major problem which is the fact that even though some theaters are allowed to open now, there is almost no point in doing so and will only end up causing more trouble. Without the new movies to show, it is only a matter of time before they have to shut down due to low attendance.
The theater chains are having an issue as of now due to the fact that they have to maneuver their theater reopenings around movie releases and as of late the number of cases has spiked and movies have longer delays. Originally, the plan was for most theater chains to reopen some time in early-to-mid July in order to be opened when the summer movies were supposed to hit. The two big summer movies that were meant to release were ‘Tenet,’ Christopher Nolan’s newest film, and the live-action version of ‘Mulan,’ which had already been delayed from March due to the pandemic. However, as the weeks go on, it seems as though they are just getting pushed back more and more with their releases now being in mid-to late August respectively.
AMC took note of when they were pushed back and moved their reopening date to the end of July. Cinemark was originally set to reopen their theaters some time in June, but decided not to; the reason for which being backlash from a time where they said customers would not be required to wear masks as well as chasing movie releases. The last of the chains, Regal, was meant to open in the beginning of July, but they have since changed their plans, like the other companies, to reopening at the end of July instead. As stated already, the spikes in cases has resulted in movies being delayed more and more and if it keeps up, the reopening dates for those theater chains will also keep getting pushed back. On top of this, it is also up to the government of each state to allow them to reopen in the first place which many places are still not allowing.
Every state’s phased reopening plan is different and this means that some types of businesses are allowed to reopen sooner than other ones because the government feels the risk is lower for them. In New Jersey, this has resulted in the movie theater companies suing the state for forcing them to stay shut down. Even though they aren’t open anywhere else in the country, they feel that when they do reopen all of their other locations, they should be able to do so unabated by the government of New Jersey and that they have the right to be open in the state. This stems from the fact that Phase 2 reopenings recently took place in the state and among those places are shopping malls, retail stores, and places of worship. They feel that these places are just as high risk as the theaters themselves and they should be allowed to be opened when they feel the time is right. Theaters, like these other businesses, have restrictions in place following reopening and thus have a point when it comes to the risk factor in play.
Fandango has made it possible to see what the restrictions for theaters will be with new services they launched.
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