“Order 67?” “Wookie Hunters?” “Gungan Frontier?” Could these be some of the new Star Wars titles coming to a theater, TV screen or video game shelf near you soon? IGN seems to think it’s a possibility.

Now since the Walt Disney Company bought Lucasfilm, they have taken the cap off on all sorts of Star Wars related developments be they movies, TV series or video games. The full list of URLs is below. Now you can click on them, but they won’t tell you anything about the nature of the project behind the URL, but the various titles listed do offer some intriguing possibilities.

Here’s the list:

• gunganfrontier2.com
• gunganfrontier3.com
• gunganfrontier4.com
• order67.net
• starwarsalliance.com 
• starwarsrebels.com 
• starwarswolfpack.com 
• wolfpackadventures.net 
• wookieehunters.com

While it’s a bit disturbing that Lucasfilm is planning not just one, but four “Gungan Frontier” projects, “Wookie Hunters” sounds interesting, and is maybe a chance to highlight a little appreciated bit of Star Wars mythology. Meanwhile, “Rebels” and “Alliance” sounds a little broad, “Order 67″ sounds a little vague, and “Wolfpack” or “Wolfpack Adventures” sounds rather generic. I wouldn’t bet the bank that these are projects on the front burner, but they maybe kicking around the Lucasfilm offices regardless. I guess we’ll find out.

More news as it develops.

Source: Blastr

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Each and every week we scour the Internet for nothing but the best in nerdy art. We leave no digital stone unturned, we poke and prod every nook and cranny of the Interwebz. Why? Because we love you, and we love to bring you weekly feed of nerd art.

On with the dump!

Above: A fratboy take on a classic scene from the Star Wars Trilogy by the skillful hand of Marco D’Alfonso. Currently part of the upcoming ”I Love You Man” art show at the Bottleneck Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. [XombieDIRGE]

Hit the jump Disney Street Fighter, DC pin-up girls and more.
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This was inevitable. When a major animation house like Disney buys a company like Marvel it was only a matter of time before the two would work together on an animated film featuring Marvel characters. What they’ve chosen, though, wouldn’t have been my first guess. Expected for release on November 7th, 2014 is Big Hero 6, an animated film from Walt Disney Animation Studios directed by Don Hall (Winnie the Pooh), who came across the comic by Steven T. Seagle and Duncan Rouleau and pitched the idea to John Lasseter. It’ll follow a, “brilliant robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada, who finds himself in the grips of a criminal plot that threatens to destroy the fast-paced, high-tech city of San Fransokyo.” Yes, San Fransokyo, a hybrid city, also a deviation from the original comic which was set in Tokyo.

Hall, speaking with the LA Times, talked about the creative freedom that comes from working with a relatively unknown property,

I was looking for something on the obscure side, something that would mesh well with what we do. The idea of a kid and a robot story with a strong brother element, it’s very Disney… Marvel properties take place in the real world. We were looking for something to do where we could make our own world — bring in the Japanese influences,  have recognizable landmarks mashed up with a Japanese aesthetic.

Here’s a look at those, “recognizable landmarks mashed with a Japanese aesthetic,”

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Surprisingly absolutely no one, Disney has confirmed via a press release that frontrunner Richard Madden will play the prince in their live-action adaptation of Cinderella. He’s joining Lily James as the titular princess, Cate Blanchet as the evil step-mother, and Kenneth Branagh as director. Looking at this talented line-up, I’m quite pleased.

And considering what Madden still has left to endure as Robb Stark in this season of Game of Thrones, getting to be the prince of a peaceful, Disney kingdom will be a well earned vacation. I can’t imagine his choosing to marry Cinderella will cause nearly as many problems as his decision to marry the Lady Talisa, amirite?

Has this casting made you any more excited for Cinderella?

Source: CBM

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Marvel‘s Cinematic Universe is a big hit, yes? Judging by all the box office records broken by The Avengers, now only to be re-broken by Iron Man 3 with its $700 million+ earned so far, it’s safe to say there’s no franchise bigger or more profitable than Marvel’s. And at this point, you have to wonder how much of this franchise’s success is from love of these characters, or was it the performances of Roberty Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Chris Hemsworth that made Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor mega-stars?

By now, Marvel’s got themselves a reputation of tying actors into long contracts for little pay – obviously, we’re talking comparatively, whatever an actor makes can never really be called “little pay” – which works out great for Disney and Marvel when they’re looking to make at least two or three sequels. Evans’ is current signed into a six-picture deal, after renegotiating down from nine, and Mark Ruffalo is signed on for six, Avengers being his first. And what their paid is a pitiful fraction of their film’s earnings.

Not so for RDJ. He, smartly, had his agents renegotiate his contract after the first Iron Man which is what allowed him to take home over $50 million from The Avengers‘ haul. And he’s doing so again, because officially RDJ doesn’t have to put on the metal suit even if Tony Stark/Iron Man are an integral part of The Avengers 2. So the question is, how much will Marvel have to pony up to re-sign RDJ? And is that an option? I know, I know, it’s unimaginable to think they’d ever recast Tony Stark but if a company believes they can make a good enough product for cheaper, they will. Let us not forget, as Screen Rant rightly reminds us, Terrance Howard was the highest paid actor in Iron Man and look how quickly they recast him once he asked for more money.

Now, yes, Howard is no RDJ, but what of his Avengers‘ co-stars? How will they fare in their contract negotiations? Deadline is reporting they are rallying behind RDJ, who with his success both at the box office and in negotiations, has become something of a leader.

He’s the only guy with real power in this situation. and balls of steel, too. He’s already sent a message that he’s not going to work for a place where they treat his colleagues like shit.

What if RDJ holds off on resigning in order for his fellow Avengers to get better deals? Will Marvel play that game, or will they simply recast and possibly downsize his role? Honestly, I think it’s tough to tell what they’ll do, but I, like many of you, can’t see anyone besides RDJ in the role. And I’d figure Marvel and Disney will be checking these box office figures, collected again by Screen Rant, showing the gross of the Marvel films with and without RDJ,

With.
$585 million - Iron Man
$624 million – Iron Man 2
$1,512 million – The Avengers
$711 million – Iron Man 3 (in less than two weeks)
Without.
$263 million – The Incredible Hulk
$369 million – Captain America: The First Avengers
$449 million – Thor

Soo, where do you think this leaves us? Can Marvel re-assemble The Avengers?

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Disney and Electronic Arts announced today the completion of an exclusive deal for EA to develop and publish a new series of Star Wars video games. Frank Gibeau, the President of EA labels had this to say:

Although the word exclusive was used, Disney does reserve the right to develop other new Star Wars games for mobile, social, tablet, and online platforms. Neither company divulged the financial terms of the agreement in their announcements, but it’s no secret the deal is worth millions to EA.

The question as to what this new deal means to existing Star Wars games like Star Wars 1313 is still unclear. Many already published Star Wars titles and those under development over at LucasFilm were shut down last month. A spokesperson for Disney has said that nothing was being announced about the pre-existing titles at this point, those decisions will most likely be made jointly by Disney, EA, and Lucasfilm.

EA has been struggling in the last few years, both creatively and financially, which has led to layoffs and shutdowns culminating with EA’s addition to the list of the worst companies to work for last year.

What should Star Wars fans expect from EA? My reaction to the news can be summed up in the picture below.

Disney has gone to the Dark Side of the video game industry. Most of the games developed by EA are crap and EA’s customer service is one of the worst in the business.

The “only hope” for Star Wars video game fans is that Bioware, a subdivision of EA and the one shining gem in a sea of EA mediocrity, should be taking a lead in the development of many of the new Star Wars games. A Star Wars based game in the style of Mass Effect or Dragon Age would be a welcome addition to the mix.

What do you think about the announcement? What would you suggest to EA and Bioware using the contact information given above?

Via: CNet

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Over the weekend nerds across the globe celebrated Star Wars Day on May 4th (as well as Free Comic Book Day) and many, I’m sure, marathoned either all six or only the original three of the trilogy. But, did your screening of Return of the Jedi include a special appearance by Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill? I’m gonna go with no. Hamill surprised fans attending a special screening of Jedi at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood; the very theatre where the filmed premiered in 1983. Unsurprisingly, when Hamill answered questions from the audience the topic of Episode VII was broached.

Ain’t It Cool News was on hand and they’ve given an excellent rundown of the Q&A. First of all, he doesn’t know any specifics about Episode VII, but he shared he has had one meeting with Kathleen Kennedy, head of Lucasfilm, and they both agreed the new trilogy should have, “a more balanced approach to the effects,” meaning both CGI and practical effects. And apparently, this has also already been discussed with George Lucas.

Part of me is cautious, saying ‘let well enough alone, let everyone keep their nice memories if they have nice memories and don’t try to go back and do it again.’ But the other side of me, the adventerous side, thinks ‘If everyone’s in, how could I miss this?’

I’m one of you, I feel like you’re one of us. I’ll be in there fighting and trying to be as honest as I can be about what I think it is made these movies so special in the first place. It always starts with the script and that’s why I’m so encouraged by Michael Arndt‘s involvement because I respect his writing so much. He’s a big fan of these movies, so hopefully we can make something that doesn’t make everyone want to find us, cut off our heads and throw it right in our faces.

Hamill also confirmed Carrie Fisher is 100% involved, and that he’s heard Harrison Ford has signed on, too, but hasn’t spoken to him personally about it. He hasn’t yet met with J.J. Abrams, so technically, Hamill involvement isn’t set is stone, but I imagine it’s all but guaranteed. Speaking of what he’d like to see his involvement be Hamill said, “I want it to be age appropriate, so heavy on the Jedi mind tricks and lighten up on the lightsaber duels. Let the kids do the heavily lifting!” Which matches what most of us figured we’d get, Hamill filling that Ben Kenobi role.

AICN reports on a lot more, including Hamill discussing how Lucas had originally intended the saga to be 12 films, what he thinks of Jedi - “Really? A second Death Star? Really? That’s the plot?” – and his issues with Boba Fett’s exit from the series. Definitely worth your time checking out.

At this point, I feel confidant we’re going to see all three – Luke, Leia, and Han – appear in the Episode VII in some capacity. If they can manage to tone down the excessive CGI and include more practical effects I believe this trilogy will be the one to mend those wounds opened by the prequels. Though, I’m still leery about their plans for a new Star Wars film every year. What are you guys thinking?

Source: AICN via Geek Tyrant

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Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige can’t stop talking, and that’s a good thing because we’ve got a lot of mega-pixels of space to fill. But joking aside, Feige’s just doing his job and chatting up the press on the occasion of the release of Iron Man 3 today.

There are some pretty big questions out there, and first and foremost is whether or not there will be a future for Tony Stark post-IM3, and whether or not Robert Downy, Jr will be involved. In a new interview with Superhero Hype, that’s the first thing that Feige addressed:

Currently, as you may imagine, Iron Man is a big part of “Avengers 2” and that’s what we’re focusing on and what Joss (Whedon) is focusing on. So where we go after that remains to be seen, but certainly, “Avengers 2” being the next appearance, the next storyline for Iron Man. Do I think there will be another Iron Man movie? Of course I do. Who will be in that movie and who will be a part of that movie? Who knows? And how far down the line will it be? Will it be right after “Avengers 2,” will it be a few years after “Avengers 2”? Who knows? For as advanced as we are in terms of the advanced planning that we do, we’re already looking out to 2015, 2016 and that’s further than most people look out. Beyond that, we’re still not sure.”

Next, Feige talked about why he’s so driven to give Ant Man his big screen debut:

“Well, it’s for a couple of reasons. The primary reason is because I met a very talented filmmaker who was about my age almost ten years ago, we got along very well. He had a movie called “Shaun of the Dead” which hadn’t come out yet and he said he really wanted to meet to talk about “Ant-Man”… and this was even before we were on the studio. This was just at the dawn of us even discussing becoming our own studio. But we met with him, he had a cool idea and when we became our own studio, we hired him and Joe Cornish, who as you know, went on to do “Attack the Block” and become a very talented filmmaker in his own right. At the time he hadn’t done much at all but we really believed in him and we believed in Edgar [Wright] and they delivered a draft that was sort of unlike anything we’d done before that was sort of wholly Edgar and wholly Marvel and a very fun spin on the Ant-Man mythology. And if you’ve seen the in-progress test we showed at Comic-Con last year and there’s been some clips of it we’ve released. People go like, “Ant-Man, is that a joke? What happens? He talks to ants?” And Edgar and his team put together this test of basically just Ant-Man going down the hallway and it is so kick-ass and so bad-ass, people instantly go, “Oh, I get it! Now we see what it can be.” And that of course is only 1% of what the movie is, but it’s certainly enough to get people to realize, ‘Oh, that’s why you’ve been thinking about this for so long.’”

And finally, somewhat off topic, Feige responded to a question about whether or not the development of new Star Wars at Disney is going to impact Marvel’s production slate:

“Well, we’ll see. We’re definitely doing our own thing and that’s what’s been so great about the relationship with Disney. As they said, ‘We’re purchasing Marvel because we like what you’re doing.’ Keep doing it. And that’s been three years now and that’s certainly what they’ve allowed us to do, so I hope that means I can get into an advanced screening of a new ‘Star Wars‘ movie, that’d be fun (laughs) but I don’t know how much more it will effect us than that.”

Well I hope if there’s one perk being one of Disney’s top producers, it’s free Star Wars tickets…

Source: Comic Book Movie

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A long time ago, when Marvel was struggling to survive, let along make superhero movies, they sold the rights to numerous characters to various studios looking to cash in. Jump forward a decade or so and suddenly Marvel Studios is making some pretty successful movies, but those heroes rights that had been sold, remained out of reach, even for a cameo.

Studios often cranked out movies just to retain the rights, just look at Sony and the recent Amazing Spider-man reboot. You know that Marvel would have loved to put a Spider-Man cameo in the Avengers, fans would have loved it too.

Recently, many of the rights for those Marvel heroes have lapsed and returned to Marvel Studios, like the Punisher and Daredevil. Now, according to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, two more names can now be added to the list of returned rights.

Ghost Rider & Blade

Entertainment Weekly recently interviewed Feige, Here’s what he had to say about the returning hero rights:

Whenever a character comes back to us, it’s usually because the other studios don’t want to make the movies anymore – and that usually means the [previous] movies may not have been particularly well-received.

Although Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance grossed $132 million, it was panned by many fans and reviewers and wasn’t a strong return on the film’s investment. Don’t get excited about the rights return yet though, just because these character rights are back, Disney’s not just gonna crank out new movies.

They all have potential, but we’re not going to say ‘We got it back – make it.’

Who knows though, maybe we could see some Midnight Sons on the big screen. The return also opens the door for cameos. No one is sure what Disney will do with the more adult, violent characters like Ghost Rider, the Punisher, or Blade. Many are betting that Disney won’t make movies with “R” ratings.

There’s a market for these films though, and Disney won’t let valuable properties lay around gathering dust and doing nothing. Sooner or later those characters will be used, even if it’s just to resell the rights to another studio willing to make movies with those characters.

Via: /Film

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The final piece has been found for Disney‘s live-action Cinderella, their princess. A role rumored have once gone to Emma Watson has been snagged by Downton Abbey‘s Lily James. The news came in this very short press release from Disney which simply stated,

Actress Lily James (Downton Abbey) has been cast as Cinderella in Disney’s upcoming live-action interpretation of the beloved classic tale. The film is being directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh and stars Cate Blanchett as the iconic evil stepmother.

Additional announcements regarding Cinderella are expected in the coming weeks.

I’m going to guess one of those other expected announcements is who will play Prince Charming. Current frontrunner is Game of Thrones‘ Richard Madden, a decision of which I highly approve. Kenneth Branagh is directing, and Cate Blanchet has been attached as the evil step-mother for ages.

James plays the fiesty and free-spirited niece of Lord Grantham on Downton, so having her scrub floors and be bullied by her step-sisters will be a change of pace. One I’m happy to see her tackle. Do you think James is the right choice to fill that glass slipper?

Source: CBM

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