Illuminating lightsabers in 54 material overseas markets, Disney/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi showed its force with a $230M opening at the international box office. Combined with domestic, that puts the global launch at $450M. The worldwide figure ranks The Last Jedi as the No. 5 debut ever.
I could live off just the interest of that money for the rest of my life.
The Game of Thrones visual effects team put together this amazing behind-the-scenes demo of some of their work over the past season, especially focused on the intricate dragon effects...
They really do an awesome job on that show.
Now we just have to wait a year until the final season finally airs.
To promote the upcoming second season of One Day at a Time, Netflix recreated the original show opening theme (above). You can compare it to the original (below).
It's kinda fun to play both videos at the exact same time and watch how closely they matched everything, which is pretty impressive.
Someone posted this gal's poetry performance about sadness on Facebook today and, after watching it, I found that it is still hanging in my brain and heart many hours later.
I'm not sad a lot, but I have felt that way more times than I'd like to admit.
Already busy prepping to direct the film he just set up at Sony Pictures, Quentin Tarantino is also planning to boldly go where he has not gone before. Sources said that Tarantino has come up with a great idea for a Star Trek movie at Paramount. After sharing his idea with JJ Abrams (who himself is busy prepping Star Wars Episode IX), I’ve heard the plan is to assemble a writers room of scribes who’ll hear Tarantino’s take and begin to put together a movie. If it all works out, Tarantino might direct it, with Abrams producing.
Well, this will be interesting. Let's hope he's a big fan and not just doing it to fit in with his other movies. Otherwise it could be one of the most violent Star Trek movies ever made.
The first trailer for Please Stand By was released today. It's about a girl with autism who runs away from her group home so she can turn in her Star Trek script for a national competition.
It looks like the kind of film that I'd enjoy. It has a Star Trek-related plot, Patton Oswalt, and a road trip adventure.
Jim Nabors, who gave popular culture its most enduring image of a wide-eyed, good-natured if none too bright hayseed in a character whose very name – Gomer Pyle – would become synonymous with lovable rube, died Thursday in Hawaii. He was 87. With catchphrases “Shazam!” and “Gollllly!” (the latter drawn out to four or five lilting syllables), Nabors debuted his downhome, gas station attendant character in 1962 on The Andy Griffith Show, where the slow-going, dim-witted Gomer was a constant irritation to Don Knotts’ officious, high-strung Deputy Barney Fife. The Gomer character, and Nabors’ odd-couple chemistry with Knotts, proved so popular with audiences that he was given his own spin-off series in 1964. Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C, co-starring Frank Sutton as his ever-yelling drill sergeant Vince Carter (“I can’t heeearrrr youuu!”) ran until 1969 on CBS. His 1966 LP Jim Nabors Sings with All Your Heart, made the Billboard Top 25 and went gold. He charted a dozen albums through 1972 and though he never matched that initial chart success two more were half-million-sellers. One of those was Jim Nabors’ Christmas Album, which topped the holiday albums chart in 1967 and again two years later. His singing made him a frequent guest of variety shows in the 1960s and ’70s, including The Johnny Cash Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Dean Martin Show, The Flip Wilson and, most notably, The Carol Burnett Show, where his appearance on each season premiere became an annual tradition. He hosted his own variety show, The Jim Nabors Hour, from 1969-71.
He had a very long and successful career and will definitely be missed.
Entertainer and 1970s teen idol David Cassidy has died.
The musician and actor, 67, who starred in TV's The Partridge Family (1970 to 1974), died Tuesday night in Florida after being hospitalized with organ failure. A child of Hollywood, he was the iconic teen idol of the 1970s. Before Shawn Mendes, Justin Bieber, Zac Efron and the members of the 1980s Brat Pack, there was pop star Cassidy in his colorful polyester ensembles featuring giant collars and flared slacks. And while he did perform as a solo artist, he and The Partridge Family had a No. 1 hit with the catchy tune I Think I Love You in fall 1970. His biggest solo single was a version of Cherish, which peaked at No. 9 after its release in 1971. Cassidy had largely kept a low profile, making headlines in recent years mostly with DUI cases. In March 2014, a judge in Los Angeles sentenced Cassidy to three months in rehab and five years of probation in a drunken-driving case. Later that year, the performer pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated in upstate New York. At the time, the sentence was expected to be a conditional discharge that would include community service in Florida, where he lived. He continued to add acting credits through the decades, appearing in television shows such as Fantasy Island, Malcolm in the Middle, Ruby & The Rockits and CSI, as well as the movie Poster.
It's sad that his later years were a mix of alcohol and health issues, but his early career in the Partridge Family has definitely secured his place in Pop Culture history. I really enjoyed the show and even had the lunchbox to prove it.
George Clooney put together "The Jimmy Kimmel Story" ...
And Ben Affleck and J.J. Abrams filmed a movie trailer based on the comic book that Jimmy Kimmel wrote and illustrated as a child called "The Terrific Ten", with Jennifer Aniston, Matt Damon, Wanda Sykes and many more...
Amazon has closed a massive deal — said to be close to $250 million — to acquire global TV rights to The Lord of the Rings, based on the fantasy novels by J.R.R. Tolkien. The streaming service has given a multi-season commitment to a LOTR series in the pact, which also includes a potential spinoff series. The LOTR original series, a prequel to Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, will be produced by Amazon Studios in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust; HarperCollins; and New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which produced the hugely successful LOTR movie franchise. No details about the deal were disclosed, but it believed to be dwarfing any TV series pact to date with a whopping price tag attached. Amazon, Netflix and HBO had been approached by the Tolkien estate, who had been shopping the project. It came with an upfront rights payment said to be in the $200 million-$250 million range, and I hear Amazon landed the rights by paying close to $250 million. That is just for the rights, before any costs for development, talent and production, in proposition whose finances industry observers called “insane.” It is a payment that is made sight unseen as there is no concept, and there are no creative auspices attached to the possible series. On top of that, the budget for a fantasy series of that magnitude is likely to be $100 million-$150 million a season.
Wow...that is a LOT of money to pay for the rights to a brand that has already told the story beautifully over multiple films and made a buttload of cash worldwide.
It'll be very interesting to see how this all plays out.
Even though the Deadpool sequel doesn't come out in theaters until June 1st, it appears that the studio marketing department has already landed him an unusual magazine cover...Good Housekeeping.
Thor: Ragnarok opens this weekend....can't wait to see it!
However, if you can't make it to the theater, you can watch all of the actors perform the "live version" of the movie here on James Corden's The Late, Late Show.
A new trailer for Downsizing was released today...
I think a lot of us would volunteer to "get small" if $100K would translate to 12 million dollars, which would mean that $25K should translate to about 3 million dollars.
That's a financial goal I think I could actually make happen.
CBS All Access has announced today that Star Trek: Discovery has been renewed for a second season. The original series broke a new record for subscriber sign-ups in a single day, week and month for the digital service. “In just six episodes, Star Trek: Discovery has driven subscriber growth, critical acclaim and huge global fan interest for the first premium version of this great franchise,” said Marc DeBevoise, President and Chief Operating Officer, CBS Interactive. “This series has a remarkable creative team and cast who have demonstrated their ability to carry on the Star Trek legacy. We are extremely proud of what they’ve accomplished and are thrilled to be bringing fans a second season of this tremendous series.”
Although I've only seen the first episode (I'm not paying for CBS All Access), I'm happy to hear it's been renewed for another season. I'm hoping to either catch it when it gets released on DVD or if/when they release the first season on Netflix (hopefully sometime later next year).
Regardless, it's good news and I hope the series lives long and CBS prospers.
A new Justice League poster was released today and, I've got to say, it's a little cheesy-looking.
They just keep releasing new posters of the same characters in different poses and positions. You'd think there would be something a bit more visual (other characters, some action scene, the villain....anything other than just a Vogue pose).
Kind of weird.
But, I'm still going to see it when it opens on November 17th.