The Week In Geek: Avatar Comes To Disney, Thor 2, Mass Effect Movie And More…
Pandora Comes To The Magic Kingdom
In what has to be one of the most left field announcement s of the week, James Cameron and the Walt Disney Company have decided to join forces to bring the world of Avatar to the Disney theme parks. The first park that will have any kind of “Avatar Land” will be Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida, and then they will slowly roll out the other Avatar attractions at the other parks as time goes on. At first Cameron though this was gonna be a simulator attraction, much like Star Tours, but this is going to apparently be much bigger, although no real details have been released as of yet. Construction for the first Avatar land is set to begin in 2013.
Frankly, despite the fact that Avatar is the biggest movie ever made (not adjusting for inflation of course) it remains to be seen what the long term legacy of such a property is. Right now, Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 are scheduled for 2014 and 2015, but what if those two sequels are less Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and more Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions? I think it takes a while for a property to become a classic, and the jury is still out on the cultural longevity of Avatar.
My sources says that the only reason Disney even pursued this is because they know Universal wants it, and this is just the latest in an ongoing feud between the two theme park giants. In any event, expect lots of little kids in blue face paint at a Disney Park near you in the not too distant future.
Justin Lin Off Terminator 5? Maybe, Maybe Not
Recently it was reported that the director of the past three Fast and the Furious movies, Justin Lin, was developing a sequel to The Terminator franchise with Arnold onboard in some capacity. Shooting was set to start at the end of next year. But now it looks like due to his commitment to Fast Six, that is looking less and less likely to happen. After three of those movies, I’m shocked that Lin doesn’t wanna do something else at this point that doesn’t involve cars and racing, but money talks I guess.
The current Terminator rights holders, Annapurna Films, want to get this movie rolling by the end of next year, but right now there is no script and no nothing really, so if they wait long enough, it is possible that Lin could come back onboard. One interesting thing is that while James Cameron is not officially part of any T5 in any real capacity, as a favor to his buddy Arnold he has been involved in some brainstorming sessions for the potential sequels when Lin was still involved.
Whatever happens, the rights to the Terminator franchise revert back to James Cameron in 2018, meaning if someone else is gonna finish this saga off, they don’t really have long to squeeze out much more than a couple more movies, especially if they want old ass Arnold in them still. I actually wish the rights would revert to Cameron sooner, so he can save the world from more bastardizations of his saga. Although….pssst….secret….I kinda liked Rise of the Machines. Don’t judge me.
Thor 2 Gets A New Director. Already.
In other changes of director news, it looks like Thor 2 is losing its director, himself only announced last month, that being Game of Throne’s Brian Kirk. Instead, we are possibly going to be getting our second Marvel film to be directed by a woman (the first was Punisher War Zone, believe it or not). Patty Jenkins, who directed the Charlize Theron “I got ugly to get an Oscar” movie Monster, is said to be next in line to direct this one. Of course, it might be that she won’t work out either and in a few weeks I’m talking about Kenneth Branagh coming back again or something. You just never know with Marvel Studios. Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios president also gave a brief update on Thor 2 and what it would entail, but he seemingly did confirm the return of Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, which I wasn’t sure about since she’s all little miss Oscar winner right now. Here is what he had to say:
“Thor 2 will primarily be the journey of that character, of he and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and how the new dynamic with his father is working out, as well as what are the broader stakes for The Nine Worlds.”
Some Details Surface on Mass Effect Movie
I’m not a gamer, but I often here amongst the geek chatter that if there were one video game besides Halo with the potential to be made into a decent blockbuster movie, it would be Mass Effect. Legendary Pictures announced at this past Comic Con that they were still pursing this property as a big budget movie, but not much has been heard about it since July.
This week though, via the Legendary Pictures official blog, some details leaked out, including that the main character, Commander Shepard would be male in the movie (in the game, you have the option of making Shepard male or female) and that the movie would be more of an adaptation of the world presented in the game rather than any single storyline. Whether or not this gets made or goes the way of the Halo movie is anyone’s guess at this point, but Legendary Pictures seems committed to getting it done, at least for the time being.
Dark Shadows Official Cast Pic Released
Last week I showed the strange spy pic taken of Johnny Depp on the set of Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows movie, looking more like Michael Jackson than vampire Barnabas Collins. Well, in response to the overwhelmingly bad reaction that pic resulted in, Warner Brothers have released an official pic of the cast, and damn if Depp doesn’t look JUST like original Barnabas Jonathan Frid here. They even gave him Frid’s big ol’ Dumbo ears via prosthetics. This movie may well be terrible, but I love that they are keeping it in the period the original show was set in (actually, the movie is set in 1972, the year the show went off the air) If it is gonna be a trainwreck, I hope it is at least an enjoyable, massive trainwreck.
