By George Robbins
Ever since movies were once again able to resume production, we have been learning new things about them left and right. This has made it possible for us to glean all sorts of interesting information and possible plot points about all of those upcoming films. There have been plenty of films which have been worked on recently that plenty of fans have been looking forward to and it has only gotten them more excited as of late. For instance, we found out not too long ago that ‘Jurassic World 3’ would be continuing filming and that they have already got a large portion of the film worked on. Considering everything else happening in the industry right now this is good news.
The film industry is currently abuzz due to the failure of a theatrical release that was the ‘Tenet’ release. This is not the fault of the studio responsible for the movie or the theaters themselves per say. the issue is that the timing was not right and people don’t want to take the risk going back out to public theaters right now. this gives productions more time than they thought to work on upcoming films. It gives ‘Jurassic World 3’ even more time to work on the film than the crew originally thought they had. this is perfect for them to be able to put the movie together properly and show us the big parts the original actors have to play in the film.
Director Colin Trevorrow has said that the characters of Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, and Ian Malcolm will have important roles in the film. This was a a topic that was discussed a lot recently after a statement from the actors said that this would be the case. It was unknown just how true that statement was until now and it has made a lot of fans happy to know that they will get to see the original characters they loved from the first films returning to round out the series. Needless to say we are all now even more excited for when the film releases which is hopefully still going to be next year. All we can do is wait and see if this turns out to be true.
By George Robbins
It is just not Disney’s year this year as the movie theater industry continues to get turned on its head especially as of recently. That is not to say things would be looking great for Disney anyway because of the trouble being caused by their recent release, ‘Mulan.’ The biggest issues being seen by the movie right now revolve around the controversies we are seeing with the movie due to where it was shot and how it was released. This has kind of ignited a firestorm around the Disney company at the moment and it is shaping up to become even worse in the near future. As of now, the biggest issues seem to be stemming from the fact theaters are failing right now.
Movie theaters have had it pretty rough since the pandemic started back in March early this year. They were forced to almost immediately shut down because of the announcement of the pandemic which pushed back the release dates of many films. Studios have been hoping to try and get their releases out as soon as it was possible for theaters to open to some degree once again. Unfortunately, the recent release of ‘Tenet‘ just goes to show that we are still way off from having films return to theaters. Even though they can be shown again, the issue is that they have to actually be able to make money off of their films.
Disney is most definitely not willing to take any truly massive losses and thus have decided to move almost all of their releases into some time next year. Considering how much of a presence Disney has in the market, we are seeing a lot of movies being moved out of this year’s line-up and into next year’s. Only ‘Soul,’ ‘Death on the Nile,’ and ‘The Empty Man’ are still in the line-up for this year and it is highly likely they will either end up delayed again as well, or they will release straight to Disney+. This just seems to be the way of things nowadays and it doesn’t look like things will be changing any time soon.
By George Robbins
For those that haven’t been paying any attention to movie news as of late, Zack Snyder is in the midst of making a director’s cut for his version of ‘Justice League.’ Snyder was actually supposed to be the director for the film, but had to leave the project early for a personal matter. After much time was spent by fans trying to get his version of the film put out to the public, Warner Bros. finally relented and there will be a director’s cut releasing some time next year. The things is that there was never really meant to be any kind of director’s cut, but Warner wanted to appease fans in some way.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it will both shut up the public and also make them a lot of money in the long run. The movie is being edited into a 4-part show with each part being about an hour long and it will premiere on HBO Max some time in early 2021. This gives people a good incentive to actually go and subscribe for the streaming service when the film launches. This has only ended up working out for them in the long run, and Snyder is apparently happy to be working on the film. What they are now hoping for is probably the fact that they will make back the money being spent on the new version.
While they already have pretty much all of the footage they need in order to complete a new version of the film, they still need to edit it properly. If people are going to get the version of the film that they want, they will have to wait for Snyder to edit it how he wants it done which takes a lot of work with stuff like CGI camera cuts. Basically, it is now mostly just digital processing and workarounds, but those are not cheap. Therefore they have apparently had to invest somewhere in the vicinity of $70 million in order to get the film to where they want it for release. Hopefully for Warner Bros. this version of the film will attract the amount of attention they are hoping for.
By George Robbins
Disney is well known now for how large they have become over the years due to how well they can attract crowds. Their ability to bring in the crowds has only expanded over the years due to the fact that they now have so many franchises under their belt. This has made it all the more realistic for them to create a company which manages to span such a large portion of the world. Disney has reached the point where pretty much nothing can really phase them and they seem to have taken advantage of that fact over recent months. That still hasn’t changed the fact that they have a lot to deal with, including plenty of controversies.
As of recently, Disney has had their hands full with the controversies surrounding the live-action version of the movie ‘Mulan.’ A majority of the controversy surrounding the movie focuses heavily on two things that people have taken offense to at the moment. One of those things is the whitewashing of the crew for the movie, but the second is seen as being much more serious. That would be the fact that some people view the special thanks in the movie as being acceptance from Disney towards the cultural genocide currently going on in China. This has been the biggest source of controversy Disney has had to deal with recently.
Unfortunately this is not the only form of controversy they have had to deal with as they have been receiving criticism due to their park division. For those unaware, the Disney Parks have been opened to some degree in all different parts of the world and it has upset a lot of people. More specifically, many people domestically are upset by this fact and it has been a vocal issue. Like many of the controversies we have seen recently though, it was not something that actually lasted all that long and people stopped being as angry as they were. The biggest issues people had, and still have, in regards to the Parks issue is the fact that employees are able to work even if they test Covid-positive and they also feel that the parks opened too soon.
Needless to say, Disney has been catching flak on all flanks recently and it is not really any surprise why at this point. This seems like a trend that will only continue as this pandemic goes on and probably even beyond it because of how these things are being handled. Disney hasn’t just had controversies within the past couple of months as they have also been trying to deal with movie releases within the coming months as well. Now that it seems that theaters are having issues drawing in crowds, they have been thinking about pushing back their movie release dates yet again. All of these things just keep stacking up on them and it definitely doesn’t seem like it is going to stop any time soon.
On the brighter side of things, it would appear that Disney is still having their employees work hard to get their content up and running. What this means is that projects are still getting worked on so that they can eventually have some kind of release. Among the discussed projects were the upcoming Marvel films, upcoming Pixar release, and even among possible Pixar releases, the possibility that we may see a ‘Toy Story 5’ in the not too distant future. ‘Toy Story‘ released back in the 90’s and gave Pixar their real start as an animation company. It was among the first major CGI-only films and it helped create an entire industry.
Needless to say, ‘Toy Story’ has cemented its place in the annals of animated movie history and it will remain in that place for all time. Animated films have certainly changed along with technology, but ‘Toy Story’ was so well put together that every new addition to the Pixar series feels like it belongs. It doesn’t feel like they are just adding on to a series to make it longer; as time goes on the movies and the characters in them move along as well. Every movie has its own story and remains highly interesting to crowds no matter the age. Unfortunately, Disney’s curse as of late for contracting controversy has made its way into the ‘Toy Story’ end of things as well.
It would appear as though Disney and Pixar are going to be sued now for supposedly using the likeness of stuntman Evel Knievel in ‘Toy Story 4.’ As already stated, the likeness of the well-known stuntman was apparently used in the most recent entry for the ‘Toy Story’ series and some people aren’t happy about it. K&K Promotions, who manage the late performer’s likeness, have filed a lawsuit against Disney, Pixar, and a number of subsidiaries for the unauthorized homage to the man. They allege that Disney deliberately avoided any reference to Knievel in promotional interviews in order to keep themselves from directly referencing the man. It isn’t hard to see where they are coming from, but at this point they could just be seen as being money-grabbing because paying homage to a character is fine until money is involved.
By George Robbins
What we have learned not too long ago is the fact that ‘Ant-Man 3’ will be starting its production process some time next June. Marvel Studios has all of its movies set up in a certain way for when they decide to start production or release their movies. Although things are not so simple nowadays and their schedules are off, they are trying to keep up with previous production plans. This means that their plans to film ‘Ant-Man 3’ in June are still on track, but it was just a surprise to hear that they would be doing it in the first place. They have all of their films set up by Phase and they film them based on this so with the movie not on the Phase 4 list, wehn will it release.
We are still not entirely sure when the film will release, but we know that it will, hopefully, not be in the too distant future. Interestingly enough, we have been finding out new information about the upcoming entry to the series including the villain for the film. Apparently, the main villain for the movie is going to be Kang the Conqueror which is most definitely not a villain we were expecting for the film. Normally what happens is that the main villain of the film is then defeated within the same film or another entry in the near future. This has some fans worried though because Kang is meant to be a strong villain within the Marvel universe.
What I mean to say is that Kang is a character which could serve as a good replacement for Thanos in the MCU as an overall villain. This means he could be the villain that helps tie together whatever the next arc in the MCU ends up being. Maybe this is what they will actually do, but it is highly unlikely and some feel like using him for this movie will ultimately be kind of a waste. This may be the case, but we just won’t know until we see how things work out in the movie or how things work out within the next few years of releases. Maybe he would serve as a good over-arching villain, but maybe Marvel Studios has a better villain in mind and he is just a good stepping stone. We’ll just have to wait and see how things end up turning out.
By George Robbins
Disney is a company that has managed over the years to stick their hands into all different forms of media. This is why Disney is a household name for just about every single household worldwide and they will stay this way for a long time coming. They have turned themselves into one of those companies which will probably end up being around longer than any company has the right to. This is mainly due to the fact that they are so heavily at the forefront of the entertainment industry and everything they produce gains some kind of attention. While most of that attention is good, there is still a fair bit of the attention that is not so good.
Recently, the big issue they have been having is the issue of ‘Mulan‘ which is the live-action remake of the animated film of the same name. Thus far, it has been nothing but issues arising for Disney because the movie has been nothing but a center for controversy since its initial release. Not to mention the fact that the movie was released with a lot of issues behind it such as the actual releasing of the film. For instance, the film was supposed to have released initially back in March, but then the pandemic was announced which changed everything in the movie industry. Therefore a lot of release dates were forced to change.
The movie industry as a whole was having a hard time coping with the fact that they could not figure out any proper release windows. This is how we ended up with so many films being pushed back further and further, or in this case, just released anyway. ‘Mulan’ ended up being a part of the unique camp of films which just ended up releasing to the public anyway. It was just released in a way that was different from the norm like some other movies that have recently come out. Unfortunately for Disney, the entire production for the film just ended up cursing the film, along with their full release plans for the film.
Disney planned on releasing the film on Disney+ for a premium on top of the subscription while having a theatrical release for the film in China. This is exactly how the film ended up having its release and the movie did meet some kind of success with the Disney+ release. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the Chinese release of the film as it did horribly by comparison. This has made it the second time ‘Mulan’ has failed to make some kind of splash in the Chinese movie theater market. Then, even with the release on Disney+, there was plenty of criticism to go around due to the controversies tied to the film.
Almost immediately after Disney released ‘Mulan’ to the public, controversy almost immediately began to ensnare the film. This generated a lot of push back from the public against Disney for a couple of reasons. First of all, one of the biggest controversial topics is that in the credits, Disney thanked a province in China where a cultural genocide is currently taking place. This has perhaps the most people upset with Disney, but it is not the only thing people are upset about as, apparently, the production crew has people upset as well. The Chinese market feels under-represented due to the fact that, even though there is no whitewashing taking place on screen, behind the scenes there was a lot of whitewashing. Much of the crew working on the movie were whitewashed.
Despite these controversies, Disney will not be affected in the slightest and will instead be moving on with their other projects. In fact, they haven’t necessarily stopped working on any other projects and have been working hard to make sure they get done. Fortunately for crews and less fortunate for the studio, there isn’t really too much of a rush right now to get projects done because they can’t really release them. Without a proper window for movie releases, movies can’t come out in theaters because they have no guarantee of bringing in crowds. This has most recently been seen with the movie ‘Tenet.’ The movie has been out now for a month and the box office numbers are so low that a massive loss for the film almost seems inevitable.
‘Tenet’ was the blockbuster film that many were hoping would bring people back into theaters, but this may not be the case. It actually ended up being the film the seems to have shown that people are not willing to go back out to theaters quite yet. This has given many studios pause, and they have all recently begun the process of once again moving back theatrical release dates for new films. Even though many films are either getting back to production, or have even just wrapped up production, it will be a long time before those films get to see the big screen. In a way, this just gives crews a longer opportunity to make films that will draw people in. Needless to say it is still a long time off before people are willing to go out to the movies to see new films again.
While production crews have the time, they can work to make sure their films turn out as perfect as they hope they will. This is most certainly what director James Cameron will be doing with the extra time, even though his films are still keeping their relative release dates. His next upcoming film is the long awaited ‘Avatar 2’ film which has been over a decade in the making at this point. It is still meant to release some time near the end of next year, but we could see this change as time goes on, especially with what is happening with theaters. Cameron is known for making films that look incredible and tell pretty interesting stories so many are looking forward to the upcoming sequel.
No one is perhaps looking forward to the sequel more than Disney as they are now the company which holds the rights to the film after buying out a huge portion of 21st Century Fox. Disney has been known for trying to make Sci-Fi films which could capture the attention of the world the same way their animated films could. Unfortunately, they have yet to have a success on that venture and the closest they came was with ‘TRON: Legacy.’ The latter mentioned film was not the best, but it was the best that Disney had produced in the live-action Sci-Fi genre, but they are hoping for more. It is likely now, given the success of the first ‘Avatar’ that the new one will be successful as well. Perhaps this will be what can finally turn Disney’s losing streak around with Sci-Fi films, or it will just be another Disney Sci-Fi disappointment.
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