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The Pitch Inspired by the success of disaster films like Airport, The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, writers Bob Barbash and Richard Landau approached Disney Studios to make a disaster film set in space titled “Space Station 1.” The project went through many, many changes, with everything but the space setting being scrapped. Pre-production began in 1976, but a little space opera titled Star Wars came out in 1977, and it’s hard not to look at The Black Hole as an attempt to grab some of that sweet post-Skywalker money....

Ron Howard Will Direct A Biopic About Pianist Lang Lang By Chris Evangelista/Sept. 22, 2020 3:30 pm EST Ron Howard will direct a biopic about Lang Lang, the acclaimed Chinese concert pianist. The movie will be based on Lang’s autobiography Journey of a Thousand Miles, with Michelle Mulroney and Kieran Mulroney handling the screenplay. Howard plans to start work on the film after he finishes the Thai Cave Rescue movie Thirteen Lives....

Studios Could Lose Rights To ‘Terminator’, ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’, ‘Predator’, ‘Beetlejuice’ & More By Ethan Anderton/Oct. 3, 2019 9:30 am EST With all the remakes, reboots, reimaginings and whatnot coming to theaters all the time, you might be excited to hear that some movies studios are in danger of losing the rights to some of their most valuable franchises. The rights to Terminator, Die Hard, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Predator, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Beetlejuice are all in danger of being snapped back by the original creators or those in charge of their estate....

The Best Movies Leaving HBO Max In August (And Also All The ‘Harry Potter’ Films) By Ben Pearson/July 21, 2020 4:00 pm EST There are a bunch of movies leaving HBO Max in August 2020, including all eight of the original Harry Potter movies. This piece highlights five of the best movies leaving the service, and it does not include any Harry Potter movies, because you’ve all probably seen them a few times by now....

The Morning Watch: ‘The Mandalorian’ Episode 2’ Easter Eggs, Designing A ‘Star Wars’ Pop-Up Book & More By Ethan Anderton/Nov. 18, 2019 5:00 am EST The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fanmade productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows. In this edition, check out nearly four dozen Easter eggs and Star Wars references from the second episode of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian....

The Morning Watch: The Accuracy Of Crime Investigation Scenes, ‘Suicide Squad’ Doesn’t Need To Exist & More By Ethan Anderton/Aug. 5, 2020 5:00 am EST The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fanmade productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows. In this edition, a forensics detective reveals how accurate crime investigation scenes are in shows like Dexter and CSI: Miami, as well as movies like The Silence of Lambs and No Country for Old Men....

Watch: ‘E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial’ Gets A Heart-Warming, Holiday Sequel from…Xfinity? By Ethan Anderton/Nov. 28, 2019 10:00 am EST No one has been expecting a sequel to E.T. The Extra Terrestrial to come to fruition, and we certainly weren’t expecting one to drop on Thanksgiving. But here we are. During the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, a commercial for Xfinity aired featuring E.T. reuniting with his old friend Elliot just in time for the holidays....

‘50 States Of Fright’ Trailer: Sam Raimi And Quibi Are Ready To Scare You By Chris Evangelista/April 3, 2020 8:30 am EST We are in April now, which means the dawn of Quibi is almost upon us. The streaming service is devoted to short-form content – 5 to 10-minute episodes that you can quickly watch on your phone. Some of the programs Quibi has lined-up seem…odd, to say the least (there’s one show where chefs get shot in the face with food cannons)....

‘Contagion’ Team Steven Soderbergh And Scott Z. Burns Developing “Philosophical Sequel” By Chris Evangelista/Dec. 28, 2020 1:30 pm EST When the coronavirus pandemic started to make headlines earlier this year, many people returned to Contagion, Steven Soderbergh’s excellent, and oddly prophetic 2011 movie about a deadly virus that starts sweeping through America. At times, elements from Scott Z. Burns’ Contagion script felt like blueprints for our current predicament, so much so that the film found a whole new form of popularity and ended up on the top 10 on the iTunes movie rental chart nine years after it hit theaters....

‘Doctor Who’ Panel Teases First Look, New Details Of Upcoming Holiday Special “Revolution Of The Daleks” [NYCC] By Hoai-Tran Bui/Oct. 8, 2020 1:00 pm EST Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker was joined by her companions played by Mandip Gill and Bradley Walsh to reflect on the game-changing twelfth season of the beloved BBC sci-fi series, and give a tease for the highly anticipated holiday special “Revolution of the Daleks” at this year’s virtual New York Comic-Con....

‘Empire Strikes Back’ 40th Anniversary Celebrations Continue With Even More ‘Star Wars’ Toys By Ethan Anderton/June 23, 2020 11:30 am EST This year marks the 40th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, and Hasbro has been celebrating by releasing a bunch of toys tied to the Star Wars sequel. They began with a series of Black Series re-releases in vintage-style packaging, as well as a new Imperial probe droid and snowspeeder scaled to the 6-inch action figures....

‘Halo’ Series Will Be “PG-13, Almost R” For Violence, And Respect Established Canon [TCA 2019] By Fred Topel/Aug. 2, 2019 12:57 pm EST During his executive session at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, Showtime President of Entertainment Gary Levine announced that production on the network’s Halo TV series will begin in Budapest this fall, to air in early 2021. After the session, Levine stuck around to speak with reporters, so we were able to ask him even more Halo questions....

‘MacGruber’ Update: Will Forte Says The TV Scripts Are Almost Finished By Ben Pearson/April 10, 2020 5:00 pm EST Early this year, reports stated that the potential show had found a home at Peacock, the upcoming streaming service from NBCUniversal. But since the project still hasn’t officially received a go-ahead order yet, it sounds like Peacock may have just hired Forte, John Solomon, and Jorma Taccone to write the scripts before committing to put the series into production....

‘Masters Of The Universe: Revelation’ Animated Series Revival Coming From Kevin Smith At Netflix By Ethan Anderton/Aug. 18, 2019 5:14 pm EST While Sony Pictures is currently getting a new Masters of the Universe movie together, there’s another treat in store for fans who have been anxious to head back to Eternia. Filmmaker Kevin Smith announced at Power-Con that he will act as executive producer and showrunner on a new He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series at Netflix that will pick up where the original series left off back in 1985....

‘Snowpiercer’ Season 2 Adds Sean Bean, But His Character Is A Big Spoiler For Season 1 By Ethan Anderton/July 13, 2020 8:30 am EST The first season finale of Snowpiercer just aired last night on TNT. The television adaptation of the Titan Comics title takes place eight years before the feature film adaptation from director Bong Joon-ho, so there are a lot of gaps to fill in when it comes to the overall narrative of the post-apocalyptic landscape itself....

‘South Park’ Is The Latest Series Looking To Land A Huge Streaming Deal By Ethan Anderton/Oct. 21, 2019 4:00 pm EST South Park has been making headlines lately for poking and prodding at the oppressive Chinese government and its endless attempts to censor its citizens from any criticism in the media whatsoever. That may not be good for the show’s exposure in China, where it’s been banned, but in the United States, it’s not preventing creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone (as well as Comedy Central parent company Viacom Inc....

‘Stuntwomen’ Trailer: Michelle Rodriguez Narrates Documentary About Female Stunt Performers By Ben Pearson/Aug. 4, 2020 3:00 pm EST Stunt performers’ contributions to movies are often highlighted in memorable moments from those films, but the nature of the position means that their faces and names fade into the background in service of the story. Rarely does a stunt performer ever become a household name – especially if they’re a woman. But now Michelle Rodriguez (Fast & Furious) is here to narrate a new documentary called Stuntwomen, which takes these powerhouse performers out of the shadows and (finally) puts them into the spotlight, giving them some much-needed praise and hopefully giving us some insight into the dangerous work they do to give some of our favorite movies unforgettable thrills and an extra level of realism....

‘The Batman’ Finds Its Catwoman In Zoe Kravitz By Chris Evangelista/Oct. 14, 2019 2:23 pm EST Matt Reeves’ The Batman has found its Catwoman. Zoe Kravitz (Big Little Lies) will join Robert Pattinson in the new take on the Dark Knight. Not much is known about Reeves’ new Batman movie, except for the fact that it’s going to be yet another fresh start for the character, completely removed from Ben Affleck’s recent DCEU Caped Crusader....

‘The Beatles: Get Back’ Trailer: Peter Jackson’s New Beatles Documentary Compiles 60 Hours Of Unseen Footage By Chris Evangelista/Dec. 21, 2020 1:30 pm EST Today, Peter Jackson unveiled a five-minute look at The Beatles: Get Back, a new documentary that compiles 60 hours of unseen footage (filmed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg) and more than 150 hours of unheard audio of the Fab Four as they planned their first live show in over two years, as well as the recording of their 1970 album, Let It Be....

By Hoai-Tran Bui/Aug. 25, 2020 9:30 am EST After serving as one of the directors of Beyoncé’s dazzling Disney+ visual album movie Black is King, director Blitz Bazawule has landed another big project. The Ghana-born filmmaker has been tapped by Warner Bros. to direct the feature film adaptation of The Color Purple musical, which won the Tony Award for best musical revival in 2016. The Color Purple is making its way back to the big screen as a movie musical, and it now has one of the most promising rising directors set to helm it....