Shane Black To Direct Doc Savage Movie
Following the absurdly lucrative success of Iron Man 3 Director Shane Black will reportedly now take on a very different kind of hero, in the shape of 1930s radio and comicbook icon Doc Savage.
Sony is eager to revitalize the once popular character, previously seen on screen in a campy 1975 big screen outing Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze.
Created by author Lester Dent , Doc Savage appeared in over 180 published stories. Dent described his creation as a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan. The rugged blonde adventurer traveled the world using his near superhuman skills as a scientist, doctor, inventor and martial artist to fight evil and the supernatural.
Clad in a habitually torn Khaki shirt Doc Savage was precisely the kind of pulp fiction hero that later inspired the creation of Indiana Jones. He was a tough pistol packing intellectual who frequently squared up against the Nazis and the occult in exotic locations.
As a self-professed fan of the franchise Shane Black is likely to seek to do the character justice and avoid the path of lazy outlandish comedy. So don’t expect to see Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell goofing it up in a blonde wig.
Jurassic Park 4 Release Delayed
In January this year Universal announced a tentative release date for Jurassic Park 4 of 13 June 2014. Soon after they confirmed the appointment of Director Colin Trevorrow, best known for indie time-travel comedy hit Safety Not Guaranteed. It looks like the freshly appointed production team has decided that a year simply isn’t enough time to adequately prepare CGI dinosaurs to once again rule the earth and the summer box office. The film has now been delayed, with a new release date yet to be announced.
Reacting quickly to the news Sony has confirmed it’s now going to move the release date of 21 Jump Street 2 to 13 June 2014. So instead of velociraptors and a T-Rex you’ll now have the consolation prize of Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill to entertain you instead.
The World’s End Trailer
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have finally reunited with Director Edgar Wright for the third and last chapter in their self proclaimed Three Flavours Cornetto or Blood & Ice Cream Trilogy. Following on from previous big screen collaborations Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, the new film is a apocalyptic themed comedy called The World’s End.
Alongside Pegg & Frost the film boasts an impressive assortment of British character actors in the homely shape of Martin Freemanm, Paddy Considine and EddieMarsan.
As revealed by the first official trailer below, The World’s End sees a group of former childhood friends reuniting after two decades to attempt to complete a pub crawl in their hometown. Unfortunately they quickly realize something very sinister is happening, leading to violence, mayhem and justifiably heavy drinking.
Ender’s Game Official Teaser Trailer
The big screen adaptation of classic science fiction book Ender’s Game has it’s first official teaser trailer below. The film directed by Gavin Hood and based on Orson Scott Card’s novel is set 70 years after a horrific alien war and follows an unusually gifted child who is sent to an advanced military school in space to prepare for a future invasion. The film’s impressive cast includes Harrison Ford, Sir Ben Kingsley, Abigail Breslin, Hailee Steinfeld and Asa Butterfield.
Visual Effects Pioneer Ray Harryhausen Dies at 92
Special Effects genuis and stop-motion animation pioneer Ray Harryhausen passed away today in London at the age of 92. The sad news was confirmed by his family through The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation Facebook page.
In a moving obituary reprinted below in full his family outlined the extraordinary legacy Ray left behind. He forever changed the landscape of cinema with astonishing new visual effects that liberated the imagination of film fans and continues to inspire generations of subsequent filmmakers.
The Harryhausen family regret to announce the death of Ray Harryhausen, Visual Effects pioneer and stop-motion model animator. He was a multi-award winner which includes a special Oscar and BAFTA. Ray’s influence on today’s film makers was enormous, with luminaries; Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, George Lucas, John Landis and the UK’s own Nick Park have cited Harryhausen as being the man whose work inspired their own creations.
Harryhausen’s fascination with animated models began when he first saw Willis O’Brien’s creations in KING KONG with his boyhood friend, the author Ray Bradbury in 1933, and he made his first foray into filmmaking in 1935 with home-movies that featured his youthful attempts at model animation. Over the period of the next 46 years, he made some of the genres best known movies – MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949), IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (1955), 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957), MYSTERIUOUS ISLAND (1961), ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966), THER VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969), three films based on the adventures of SINBAD and CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981). He is perhaps best remembered for his extraordinary animation of seven skeletons in JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963) which took him three months to film.
Harryhausen’s genius was in being able to bring his models alive. Whether they were prehistoric dinosaurs or mythological creatures, in Ray’s hands they were no longer puppets but became instead characters in their own right, just as important as the actors they played against and in most cases even more so.
Today The Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation, a charitable Trust set up by Ray on the 10th April 1986, is devoted to the protection of Ray’s name and body of work as well as archiving, preserving and restoring Ray’s extensive Collection.
Tributes have been heaped upon Harryhausen for his work by his peers in recent years.
“Ray has been a great inspiration to us all in special visual industry. The art of his earlier films, which most of us grew up on, inspired us so much.” “Without Ray Harryhausen, there would likely have been no STAR WARS”
George Lucas.“THE LORD OF THE RINGS is my ‘Ray Harryhausen movie’. Without his life-long love of his wondrous images and storytelling it would never have been made – not by me at least”
Peter Jackson“In my mind he will always be the king of stop-motion animation”
Nick Park“His legacy of course is in good hands
Because it’s carried in the DNA of so many film fans.”
Randy Cook“You know I’m always saying to the guys that I work with now on computer graphics “do it like Ray Harryhausen”
Phil Tippett“What we do now digitally with computers, Ray did digitally long before but without computers. Only with his digits.”
Terry Gilliam.“His patience, his endurance have inspired so many of us.”
Peter Jackson“Ray, your inspiration goes with us forever.”
Steven Spielberg“I think all of us who are practioners in the arts of science fiction and fantasy movies now all feel that we’re standing on the shoulders of a giant.
If not for Ray’s contribution to the collective dreamscape, we wouldn’t be who we are.”
James Cameron