Composer John Williams took a break from a galaxy far, far away during Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as Alexandre Desplat took over music duties for the standalone film. But now we know for sure that he's having something of a homecoming: after composing the scores for all seven saga live-action movies, Williams will return to create the music for Rian Johnson's Star Wars: Episode VIII.

The composer told an audience in Boston (via Masslive) that he'd begin working on the new score "in a few weeks."

Williams is a legend, plain and simple, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed with his score for The Force Awakens. I felt it lacked the big, recognizable themes he mastered so well in the original trilogy, and aside from a few moments, I sadly felt that the music of The Force Awakens was just sort of...there. I sort of feel like an idiot for saying, "Here's hoping he steps it up for Episode VIII" because this man has given us hours of amazing entertainment over an extremely long career, but I guess I'm greedy when it comes to wanting Star Wars music to be exceptional.

I'm seeing Williams perform at the Hollywood Bowl at the beginning of next month, so I'll be sure to update you if he reveals any more information about his progress.

20th Century Fox has revealed the first trailer for Hidden Figures, a new movie starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monae as three African-American women who helped write equations for NASA that allowed John Glenn to be the first American to orbit the Earth. It has a really cool pro-women vibe and shines a light on some of the people who were responsible for our space program's successes but have never received proper credit in the public eye. The film hits theaters on January 13, 2017. 

Hidden Figures is the incredible untold story of Katherine G. Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe)—brilliant African-American women working at NASA, who served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation’s confidence, turned around the Space Race, and galvanized the world.  The visionary trio crossed all gender and race lines to inspire generations to dream big.

James Wan took some time with IGN to talk about Aquaman, and while he couldn't say much, he managed to say a lot. For starters, he more or less emphasized that he was not as involved with Aquaman's presence in Justice League as he could have been and that's more Zack Snyder's vision than his:

"The train on Justice League has kind of set off already! That's basically Zack's vision for that world, but you know, early on, Zack [Snyder] tried to involve me as much as he could and I really appreciated that. It's just that it was very hard for me to solely focus on it, because I was still in the midst of finishing up and shooting Conjuring 2 for Warner Bros. - the same studio! So it's this very interesting world, you know? As much as they wanted me to be involved with Aquaman early on, I was busy making a movie for them. [Laughs] But now that everything is finishing up, I'm definitely getting in there much, much more. And I'm definitely really excited about running with my standalone movie."

Although Snyder will have a good say in our first major look at Aquaman, Wan seems to indicate that nothing is permanent:

"Listen, I'll be honest, in some ways, JL will be an experiment for me to see what works and what may not work as well. And then kind of go, okay... Here’s the great thing, with all these superhero movies, you watch from one movie to another, and they always sort of slightly change things along the way. You kind of have to do that to make what's best for your film."

That's good, as I was really into the fact that Wan was up for making a horror-themed Aquaman, and I was wondering how a whiskey-chugging, wave crashing king of the sea played into that. I can't fault Wan for not taking more time with the character (especially since The Conjuring 2 was so good), and I really like his comparison of Aquaman to Wolverine:

"...he's kind of the Wolverine in some respect. He's the outsider who gets pulled into this world and he kind of doesn't want to belong and he was doing his own thing. And he prided freedom above everything else. That kind of plays nicely into who his character is. He's like a reluctant superhero, right? He's the reluctant king, basically, or would-be king."

Sounds like Wan has the Aquaman I want to see lined up, and I can't wait to see what he does with it. Hopefully Snyder didn't run too much with his version of the character vs. Wan's!

A landing page has appeared on Netflix's mobile platform for their announced series The Punisher and rumors are spiraling! Comicbook writes the page appears when you search "The Punisher" on the mobile app and what pops up can be seen in the picture below:

This has led to speculation that we could possibly be seeing The Punisher in 2017 because the site typically puts up these landing pages about a year out from release, but I wouldn't hold my breath. I was there at SDCC when Jeph Loeb said Netflix is limiting Marvel to two products a year and with no casting news, director, or even writing rumors, I just can't believe we will see it before 2018 at the earliest. Really, I don't see it happening until 2019, but you never know.

Still, it does cause one to wonder why Netflix went ahead and threw this up there. Maybe in preparation for The Defenders in 2017? What's your guess?

When's the last time you've heard someone say they are going to "rent" a game? As far off as the day seems now, 10 years ago that was still a very common thing...read more on Gametyrant

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For you or the Star Wars fan in your life who also happens to appreciate the intricacies of cuckoo clocks, here's one item that combines both interests. But beware: this thing plays John Williams' iconic Star Wars theme song for 45 seconds, every hour, on the hour. That sounds like more of a threat than a feature. That could drive even the biggest fan totally crazy. But if you're the type who hoards Star Wars-related merch in your house and you need a new clock, you can roll the dice and pick this up this limited edition, officially licensed clock for about $200 right here.

The STAR WARS: Sith Vs. Jedi Wall Clock showcases the memorable lightsaber duel from Return of the Jedi with intricately-detailed sculptural figures of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. Their electroluminescent lightsabers crossed in a clash, they glow in brilliant red and green, against the backdrop of the Emperor which glows blue, watching intently. This collectible clock even plays the STAR WARS theme song for 45 seconds, every hour on the hour, or at the touch of a button!

Officially-licensed artwork is featured across your handcrafted STAR WARS lightsabers battle clock in intense detail, magnified by a sculptural Millennium Falcon that appears to swoop down from above. The body of the clock is expertly sculpted to resemble the hull of an Imperial Star Destroyer, and the face features the STAR Wars logo and traditional Roman numerals. A handsome pendulum below, displaying the insignia of the Rebels on one side and the Empire on the other, and is flanked with hanging weights that resemble the lightsaber hilts of Vader's and Luke's weapons.

Via: NerdApproved

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them is not coming out until late November but you wouldn't know it from the marketing! This film is popping up everywhere! Probably so WB can start pushing that sweet merchandise on Harry Potter films, but I guess I shouldn't be cynical because I'll be one of those people buying that merch.

A new trailer appeared for the film during Olympic coverage, and while there isn't anything new in particular about what we see, it's always great to watch something and get excited about a film!

Remember that Japanese movie announced awhile back that pits the mother and child from The Grudge against the girl from The Ring? You would think promoting that film would be a difficult task, but apparently it's as easy as showing up at a baseball game. I'm not sure you could pull this off in the U.S., but Japan has always played by its own rules. The whole thing is actually pretty funny! I would for sure see the movie after watching this!

Star Trek Beyond may be one of the best critically rated films at the box office this summer, but it's taking a real beating financially. According to Trek News, the film sits at $198.2 million, which is above its budget of $185 million but still not enough for Paramount's liking. Supposedly, the film will need to make around $300 million for Paramount to label the film a success. With a 48% drop in sales during its second week, it doesn't seem likely it'll hit that mark.

I think that's a shame! This was far and away my favorite Star Trek film of the series and I think more people should see it. Then again, if I hadn't had a free ticket at SDCC I probably would've waited for Blu-ray, so I understand the apprehension of people. The Star Trek films are good, no doubt, but do people think they're must-see movies? I'm not so sure.

Have you ever wanted your refrigerator to appear as if it contains Han Solo trapped in carbonite? Well, the gang over at Tested has put together a cool mod that Star Wars fans will surely love. Not only do they have the look down pretty well, but they also installed a light system that pulsed red underneath, making it look like Han is heating up and thawing out.

Via: Geekologie

Yes, a sequel to Disney's classic Mary Poppins is actually happening, and while I'm far from thrilled that Rob Marshall (Into the Woods) is directing Mary Poppins Returns, I've gotta hand it to him and his casting directors: they've certainly acquired a terrific group of talent for the film so far. Emily Blunt will play the title character, Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda is on board as a street lamplighter named Jack, and Meryl Streep is in talks to play Mary Poppins' cousin, Topsy. Now THR brings word that English actor Ben Whishaw (you likely know him Q in the new Bond movies) is in negotiations to play an older version of Michael Banks in the new film. Here's part of the synopsis to get a sense of what that would mean for the story:

Drawing from the wealth of material in P.L. Travers’ seven additional novels, the story will take place in Depression-era London (when the books were originally written) and follows a now-grown Jane and Michael Banks, who, along with Michael’s three children, are visited by the enigmatic Mary Poppins following a personal loss. Through her unique magical skills, and with the aid of her friend Jack, she helps the family rediscover the joy and wonder missing in their lives.

Sounds like the role will tap into Whishaw's outstanding ability to translate vulnerability to the screen. Check him out in the underrated Cloud Atlas if you're looking for more Whishaw to catch up with before this one comes out.

Mary Poppins Returns hits theaters on December 25, 2018.

We've been teased since E3 that Batman VR is a thing for PSVR and that it's "coming soon," and today we learn that "soon" is October! In the first public footage...read more on Gametyrant

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We haven't written about HBO's limited series The Night Of since it started airing, but if you've been watching, you know it's a well-acted, gorgeously shot show that focuses on the ins and outs of New York's criminal justice system through a murder case. Riz Ahmed plays a Pakistani-American student named Nasir "Naz" Khan who is accused of murder, and John Turturro has the other major starring role as his lawyer (or one of them, anyway). You should catch up with the series on HBO Go or HBO Now if you haven't seen it yet, and then continue reading this article.

In the pilot, the series took us through the events of the titular night — all except the actual murder itself. This has allowed recent episodes (including last night's) to introduce and explore possible suspects other than Naz. But for the first few episodes, the story was clearly being told from Naz's point of view. We were with him almost every step of the way on that fateful night, and we were with him throughout the processes of getting arrested, enduring police interrogations, getting a lawyer, and being arraigned at Riker's Island. These first couple of episodes, in my opinion, were the best we've seen so far (last night's was the sixth of eight in season one), largely because for the purposes of the show, we could all identify with Naz at that point.

But here's where things took a frustrating turn. Ever since Naz entered Riker's, he's been acting way differently than he did in the first two episodes. Under the watchful eye of VIP prisoner Freddy Knight (Michael K. Williams), Naz has bulked up, shaved his head, smuggled drugs into jail, etc. The show is making a statement about what being in an environment like that can do to a "normal" person, even if (and maybe especially if) he is actually innocent of the crime the state claims he committed. It's rough living in there, and survival becomes priority number one.

I get all of that. But while the first two episodes put us inside Naz's head, the show has essentially cut us off from his thoughts ever since. We no longer understand his reasoning for making decisions (like getting "SIN" and "BAD" tattooed on his knuckles, something that can't possibly go over well with the jury during his trial), and because we don't have his point of view to justify those decisions, the show feels a little unmoored to me. It seems like it's no longer about Naz, it's more about the system itself. If the show wants to explore the implications of the way the system works and serve as a damning portrait of how screwed up things are with that aspect of our society, that's totally fine — but I think doing that in exchange for losing Naz's perspective on things is an unfortunate misstep in an otherwise strong series. David Simon wonderfully explored deep societal issues in The Wire, but he did it through the prism of his characters and their plights and interactions with the city of Baltimore. The characters were always at the forefront; it was easy to understand to the larger points he was making because we cared about the people these things were happening to. Without that connection, this show might as well just be a documentary about how unfair the criminal justice system is.

For the past few episodes, it's almost seemed as if The Night Of has wanted me to root against Naz. Maybe all of this will come together in a satisfying way in the final two episodes of the first season, but from where I'm sitting right now, I feel like the show has lost the beating heart at its center.

What happens when you sit Scott, Jared, and Daniel down to talk about geek stuff? Well this episode happens of course! Check out all the amazing geek news items the guys cover as well as their thoughts on the cool things coming down the pipeline with Star Wars, this fall's superhero TV shows and more! Listen on PodTyrant

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We've featured the work of artist Stephen Byrne here on the site before, but this is one of his coolest projects yet. Byrne took to YouTube to reveal his teaser trailer for The Animated Adventures of Firefly, a show that I'm guessing won't ever actually happen because of rights issues. But it's still a blast to watch and think about the possibilities either way! There's some terrific work here, and this has to be bittersweet for diehard fans of Firefly and Serenity out there who've been dying for something like this for years.

A Japanese trailer has been released for Lucasfilm’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and it features a bit of new footage from the film. It also offers us a new plot point in the film that we didn’t previously know regarding the Empire’s “weapon test.” 

When it comes to the new footage you’ll see some extra clips of the Deathtroopers, as well as a couple new shots of Diego Luna's Captain Cassian Andor. As for the new piece of plot info, I will talk a little bit about it below the trailer. Some people might consider it a minor spoiler, so I’m just playing it safe. 

Just in case you didn’t catch it in the trailer. We see Mon Mothma telling Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) that they've "intercepted an encoded Imperial transmission" about an upcoming “weapons test,” which is obviously the Death Star. After that Captain Cassian Andor revealed the  information: "The message was sent by your father." 

Mads Mikkelsen is playing Jyn’s father Galen Erso in the film. Here is some previously rumored information on the character, some of which is most likely true. 

Mads Mikkelsen (Galen appears to be his name in the film) is kind of the key to the film in a way. He is a scientist that took over the Geonosian Death Star project. He solved several of the flaws the Empire could not and is sort of a revered person in the Empire for his contributions. However, Mikkelsen’s character is a Robert Oppenheimer-type character. Oppenheimer helped design the atomic bomb only to say, “Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” The guilt “Galen” feels for his contributions to the Empire become too much and he defects, attempting to make things right. In order to do this, he enlists the help of his only daughter….

Rogue One is set to be released on December 16th, 2016.

I’ve been extremely curious about Guillermo del Toro’s next film project The Shape of Water. There hasn’t been a lot of official information released on it, but the film has officially started production in Toronto, Canada. 

The film is described as an “other-worldly love story, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1963.” It’s also said to a “mysterious and magical journey.” The movie has an incredible cast which includes Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine, Happy-Go-Lucky), Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road, 99 Homes), Richard Jenkins (The Visitor), Doug Jones (Crimson Peak, Hellboy), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man, Steve Jobs), and Octavia Spencer (The Help, Gifted). 

There’s been some rumored info regarding the story which is said to follow a “mute janitor named Elisa (Sally Hawkins) who falls for an amphibious man who's being kept at the lab where she works. She tries to break him out with the help of her neighbor (probably played by Richard Jenkins), but ‘the world outside of the lab, however, may prove to be more dangerous for the amphibious man than Elisa could have anticipated.’”

Del Toro had this to say in a statement:

“I started working on The Shape of Water right around the time we moved to Toronto for Pacific Rim. Working with Fox Searchlight and being supported by this beautiful group of actors and artists, I feel extremely blessed and brave.”

The producers of the film are thrilled to have Del Toro working on bringing this story to life and producer J. Miles Dale said:

“It feels like we have an embarrassment of riches on this film. An ensemble of incredible actors who are working at the very top of their craft, a wildly original story from Guillermo’s one-of-a-kind mind, and the brilliant team at Fox Searchlight to shepherd us along. We’re all very excited to see how far we can take it,” says producer Dale.

Del Toro has brought his long-time collaborators on board to help him make this film as great as possible. That includes costume designer Luis Sequeira (The Strain, Mama, Carrie), director of photography Dan Laustsen (John Wick: Chapter Two, Crimson Peak, Mimic), visual effects supervisor Dennis Berardi (Crimson Peak, Mama, Fight Club), and editor Sidney Wolinsky (The Strain, House of Cards, The Sopranos). 

As a huge fan of Del Toro’s previous work I’m excited to see how this next mysterious film project turns out!

It looks like Henry Cavill will be sporting a black Superman suit in Zack Snyder’s Justice League movie. Even though the character seemingly died at the end of Batman v Superman at the hands of Doomsday, we all knew he was going to be coming back. We’re just not sure how his resurrection is going to take place in the DCEU. 

Snyder previously teased that he would return with long hair, and now Cavill teases the black suit he’ll be wearing in a photo he posted on Instagram. This suggests that his return will be influenced by The Death and Return of Superman comic book story arc, which was published back in the early '90s. 

In that storyline, when Superman was brought back to life he had a black costume and long hair. In the comics, after Superman was killed, he was restored in a regeneration chamber at the Fortress of Solitude, and he was resurrected with the new look. I have no idea if that’s how it will go down in the film, but we’ll eventually find out!

Justice League will open in theaters on November 17th, 2017. Here's the photo.

#Superman

A photo posted by Henry Cavill (@henrycavill) on Aug 15, 2016 at 11:58am PDT

Jessica Jones is probably one of the darkest properties that Marvel has brought to life. The main reason for that was David Tennant’s Kilgrave, who was one hell of a disturbing villain. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Marvel has planned for Season 2, which will be set after the events of The Defenders. During an interview with EW, executive producer Melissa Rosenberg talked about Jessica Jones and how she is helping with the character in The Defenders, which is currently in development. 

“My colleagues Marco Ramirez and Doug Petrie, who are doing Defenders, they’ve shared material. We’ve sat down for many conversations about what are they doing, what’s happening with Jessica? They want my input, they want all the different showrunners’ input on the characters that they’re most familiar with. Marvel was very smart in hiring those guys, because they’re really collaborative. They enjoy collaboration, which is not always the case, and they listen, and we listen to them. We’re really trying to find a way to respond to the things that they want to do, and them to respond to the things we want to do. So far so good. It’s working out. If they weren’t who they were as people, it could be very problematic. But they’re the absolutely right people to do this.”

We don’t really know what season two will entail, but Rosenberg talks about some of the themes, relationships, and characters that they are looking to explore further, mostly with Jessica and Trish.

“I’m interested in continuing to explore the relationship between Trish and Jessica. That is the core relationship in the piece. It is about female friendship, it is about how friends evolve — they’re sisters, really — and it’s about how they evolve and ping off each other. I’m interested in relationships, whether they be romantic, or family, or friends, or professional — that’s what’s interesting to me, is Jessica in relationship to people.”

When asked about the how there are fans who would like to see a romantic side of the relationship between Trish and Jessica evolve, she says:

“There are. A lot of people saw that in their relationship. Honestly, I love that people are seeing that. I’m fine with that. It’s not what interests me about their relationship. To me, it’s about their history, and their trust and connection.”

She goes on to talk about how their relationship has changed in the wake of the events they went through together in the first season:

“They started off estranged in season 1, and then came together in the most profound way, where Jessica was willing to sacrifice herself for Trish. And Trish was becoming an equal partner in this relationship. There’s always this element between them of Trish has everything — beauty, grace, success and she’s educated — she has everything you could possibly want, except powers. Jessica has the powers. She’s very comfortable with those powers. One of the places that we’re never going is her going, ‘Oh, I don’t want to have powers anymore.’ That’s Bewitched and I’m never going there. That’s our character. It’s an interesting dichotomy of them figuring out there’s an envy involved, there’s support, there’s compassion, there’s frustration. For Trish, it’s, ‘What I could do if I had your powers.’ I don’t think Jess feels that as much. Jess doesn’t care about money or fame or any of that; she would never want any of it. But I think she would love to have the normalcy of her life in some way. Actually, what she envies most of Trish is her heart, I think, because Trish is such a giving, loving person, and is really about helping other people. Jessica just can’t quite get there. I think if she envies anything in Trish, it would be her generosity.”

It’s good to know that these two characters are going to be explored more in the upcoming season. The question is, who is the villain that they will be fighting against? Turns out there is going to be more than one villain for Jones to take on, and Rosenberg admits that they can’t beat Kilgrave.

“Or antagonists, plural. No one is ever going to beat David Tennant as Kilgrave, so you don’t do that. The biggest mistake would be to try to repeat that. You just go, “OK, we’re not doing that, so we have this open to us.”

She obviously wouldn’t reveal who these villains would be, but I can’t wait to find out. In the meantime, what villains would you like to see Jessica Jones take on?

I remember watching Monster Squad in the theaters when it first came out in 1987. I was nine years old at the time and I loved it! I’ve always been into horror/monster movies so I loved seeing a group of kids take on some of the most iconic movie monsters of all time. The movie failed miserably at the box office but has since become a cult classic.

During an interview with IGN, screenwriter Shane Black talked about the film and expressed his interest in making a sequel. When talking about the original film he said:

“The cult surprised [me]. I didn't even realize it had been successful. I loved it, I had fun working on it and it was one of the first things I'd ever written. And it wasn't just that it wasn't a hit - it was a huge failure. No one saw it. I don't know how on earth it caught on years later.”

People just realized how awesome it was and those of who grew up in the '80s did everything we could spread it like wildfire. It worked, and now Black thinks it would be prime for a sequel and he talks about how he would attempt to pull it off. He suggests the Stephen King It approach: 

“When you say the kids are grown-up the first thing I go to is the movie, or the book really, It by Stephen King, which is about kids who fight monsters when they're young, then as grown-ups they're sort of beckoned and they have to return to their childhood hometown. And I think that's kind of close to what you're saying in a way. I don't know how you would distance yourself from that.

“It would be interesting to have two movies - one The Monster Squad, and one The Monster Squad and they're 30 years apart and so are the kids; the characters have aged. As long as people understood that's what we're doing, I think that could be fun. That's a good idea!”

I would actually love to see that a sequel like that. This idea is the way to go. It would be pretty cool if they managed to bring the same cast together for it. Black needs to start pitching this now before some Hollywood asshat attempts to remake it.