The only reason we are getting a Pacific Rim sequel is because the movie raked in a huge pile of cash at the Chinese box office. In a smart move Legendary has added Chinese action superstar Zhang Jin (IP Man 3, Kill Zone 2) to the cast. This is a growing trend for Legendary, who have put popular Chinese actors in Kong: Skull Island, Transformers 4, and The Great Wall to guarantee solid box office results in China.

Pacific Rim: Maelstrom has started shooting, which means leaked set photos. These photos feature John Boyega wearing what I imagine will become another iconic jacket. February 23rd, 2018 is over a year away, and I can't wait to see more from this film.

MORE PACRIM2 SET PICS HERE HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE https://t.co/OrtqLojzUZ pic.twitter.com/eKGZvcI4wC

— adri 💀 (@felandaris) November 21, 2016

good by e pic.twitter.com/T2A9c8kiRy

— adri 💀 (@felandaris) November 21, 2016

H/T: ScreenCrush and Coming Soon

Since Hamilton has become a smash Broadway hit, its creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda has been joining lots of film projects, mostly at Disney. He worked on Moana and is also working on films such as Mary Poppins Returns, The Little Mermaid, and a secret animated project as well.

When I think of Miranda, the last thing I think about is him playing a villain in a Marvel film, but that's the kind of role that he wants to take on! During a recent episode of Meet The Movie Press, host Simon Thompson said Miranda is interested in taking on the role of the Spider-Man villain Carnage. 

“He [Miranda] is a big fan of Marvel. There is one particular character that he would actually like to play, that he has already specified. It’s Carnage.

“He [Miranda] said if Disney and Marvel were looking at doing a Maximum Carnage movie or bringing Carnage in [the Marvel Cinematic Universe] as a character, he wants to be Carnage. Genuinely as a fan, he would love to play Carnage. That is a goal of his.”

I have no idea if that will ever happen, but if Miranda really wants to play him, I'm sure he'll be talking to Disney since he has a pretty solid relationship with them. Miranda would be a completely unexpected choice for Carnage, and I can't even imagine what that might be like. 

Carnage is just such an insanely nasty character, who was a serial killer before he became Carnage. I'd be interested to see what Miranda envisions for this character and how he would play him. I don't want to dismiss Miranda wanting to be Carnage because you never know... He's a talented guy who might have the ability to give us something completely terrifying. 

Thanks to EW we have a collection of new photos to share with you from director Gareth Edwards' Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Many of the main characters are featured in these photos along with some of the vehicles that are being used in the story. Each of the photos come with additional information on the story and characters that are worth reading through, especially if you're excited about seeing this movie!

Below you'll find additional details on Darth Vader, Chirrut Imwe, Captain Cassian Andor, Krennic, Bodhi Rook, the Rebels, the Empire, some of the ships, and more. We also learn that the Emperor built a giant energy field wall around a whole planet. There really is a lot of interesting info that EW laid out for us! I also included a couple of the magazine covers.

Look who's back. The man in black. With the Empire at peak strength, so is Darth Vader (again voiced by James Earl Jones.) But this time he is a threat not just to the Rebels but to Imperial special weapons director Orson Krennic (played by Ben Mendelsohn.) “There are military men who are interested in a really effective piece of military hardware, and Darth Vader is a little bit beyond that, right?” says Kiri Hart, Lucasfilm’s head of story development. “He’s tapped into something on another level, on a spiritual level. So, that’s part of the fun of Vader in the context of the Imperial Military. He’s got a broader perspective.”

Donnie Yen's Chirrut Imwe is not a Jedi, not Force-sensitive in the way they were, but he does believe in the lost faith they followed. "Something that’s a very obvious departure on this picture is that we really have no Jedi," Knoll says. "This takes place in a time that’s after the Jedi purge in Episode III and before Obi-Wan reemerges and starts training Luke, and before Yoda gets involved. So this is a dark time when things are very bleak and the Jedi have not come back."

But there is still hope.

"In that era, there are still brave people who are doing heroic acts, who don’t have those Force powers, who still fight and die for the cause of good," Knoll says. "And I think, I want to hear some of those stories. What are these people who are the more ordinary citizens of the galaxy who see outrageous acts occurring and feel like they have to take up arms against the status quo to, you know, fight for good."

After an encounter on the storm-stricken world of Eadu, Jyn Erso rides aboard a starship with two key members of her commando squad: the blind, Force-faithful warrior monk Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen) and his pal and protector, the machine-gunner Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen). Rogue One is crafted as an extreme underdog story, with the Rebels outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered and outplanned. 

“In many ways, the Rebels don’t have a leg to stand on,” Jones tells EW. “They’re a motley crew, they all have had difficult backgrounds. They’re all outsiders in some way, and they’re coming together to fight something far bigger than them, more efficient. The Empire is wealthier, and it has everything the Rebels don’t, so the odds are definitely stacked against them.”

Diego Luna, right, plays Captain Cassian Andor, a veteran spy for the Rebellion who has a network of contacts throughout the galaxy who help him keep eyes and ears on the activities of the Empire. Andor is like a CIA field agent, and this man, Tivik, played by Daniel Mays (The Infiltrator, Atonement) is one of his underworld connections to the insurgent group led by Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker). "He is one of Cassian's contacts on the moon of Jedha," says co-producer John Swartz.

Krennic has a lot to prove. The Emperor has invested a great deal in the Death Star, and it has taken much longer than expected to develop. Vader is the enforcer, responsible for spurring it along, but he harbors doubts — not just about the planet-destroying laser, but about the man who is responsible for perfecting it. “Here is the thing about Krennic: his perspective obviously is that of a person who doesn’t understand the Force,” says Hart. “And Darth Vader comes at everything from the perspective of understanding the Force. So that I think is the thing that you see sort of separating Darth Vader from other characters with regards to a super weapon like this.”

Riz Ahmed as Bodhi Rook, a pilot from the Force-sacred world of Jedha who was conscripted into service by the Imperials before stealing away to join the Rebellion. He's a character with a lot of anxiety and guilt, and deep agitation." Bodhi was certainly not fully formed when I came on board," says Ahmed (best known for Nightcrawler and The Night Of.) Rogue One director Gareth Edwards described him in terms of a frenetic survivor. "He talked to me about some kind of ideas he had. He spoke about Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now. He spoke about Dustin Hoffman in Papillon," Ahmed says. And during the reshoots, Bodhi was one of the characters whose backstory was deepened to make for (hopefully) a deeper emotional resonance.

Krennic has a long history with Jyn Erso's father, Galen (played by Mads Mikkelsen), a scientist who is an expert at manipulating kyber crystals — which are the key element in the making of a lightsaber blade. They were once friends, and Krennic sponsored his research and protected his family. But the Imperial weapons chief sent his Deathtrooper commandos to capture Galen when he fled to avoid working on their weapon of planetary destruction. This is the world the Ersos retreated to: Lah'mu.

"It’s meant to be a fairly secluded world," says Swartz. "We shot it in Iceland, at a place where there's beautiful black sand and green mountains poking through. The family went into hiding to a world where you wouldn’t normally have a farm, but that’s as far as they could get from Galen’s past life.”

It's named after Laamu, one of the real-life tropical locations in the Maldives where Rogue One shot scenes for the planet Scarif. The filmmakers liked it so much, they named another world after it. 

Rebel Marines, preparing for battle, their spirits stoked by the words of Jyn Erso, who has become their Joan of Arc-like leader. "What George [Lucas] did when he created in Princess Leia was make an incredibly dynamic, funny, strong female character," says Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm. "So he certainly laid the groundwork for that and I think it’s imperative that we carry that forward."

The wheel-shaped space station that an X-wing squadron is attacking is the Shield Gate. The world below is Scarif, a tropical planet that'a one of the Empire’s key military-industrial complexes. The filmmakers describe it as a galactic Los Alamos, the top-secret desert town where scientists and engineers built the first nuclear bomb during World War II.

The Emperor built a giant wall around the whole world — in the form of an energy field. It's meant to keep outsiders away, and the Empire's top secrets locked away beneath. (Some fans have also comically referenced its similarity to a scene from Spaceballs, probably unintentional.)

At the center of the story is Jyn Erso (played by Felicity Jones), an outlaw who becomes a key agent for the struggling alliance of Rebels. Here, we see her and pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed) in a familiar Star Wars scene — a gathering around a briefing room to discuss the plan of attack. But she is surrounded by new faces: Senator Jebel (Jonathan Aris, of Sherlock) in red and grey; Senator Vaspar (Fares Fares, of Tyrant and Zero Dark Thirty) in blue; and Senator Pamlo (Sharon Duncan-Brewster, EastEnders and Bad Girls) in gold. In the foreground with her back to the camera is the leader of these leaders: Mon Mothma, played by Genevieve O'Reilly (Glitch) who is reprising the role from the prequels.

In these shots, you see Rebel X-Wing fighters during the movie’s critical battle — attacking and breeching the space-station gateway as it skims the surface of the shield, opening a doorway into the planet’s atmosphere.

The U-wing is a new Rebel starship in the galaxy, but it's made up of pieces of familiar ones. The cockpit is similar to one from the Y-wing bombers, the engines are straight off of an X-wing, and the front-facing pronged wings are reminiscent of the Jedi Interceptor from the Star Wars prequels. “Our conceit is that the U-wing came from the same factory that was manufacturing X-wings,” says John Knoll, an executive producer and visual-effects supervisor for Rogue One, who also pitched the original story. “It’s just like if you look at cars from one [automaker], you see design themes carried across multiple different product lines.”

Director Gareth Edwards on set with Diego Luna and Felicity Jones. “Even though there’s a lot of pressure on this movie, it’s really impossible to feel it because it reminds you so much of when you grew up and when you felt most comfortable,” says Edwards, speaking from Skywalker Sound in Northern California, where he was tweaking the final audio mix earlier this month. “It’s hard to get intimidated when you can constantly look left and see a Stormtrooper or look right and see an X-Wing. It just feels like you’re at home again.”

Disney has released a trailer for their new animated short called "Inner Workings." The short is attached to their upcoming feature film Moana. It was directed by first-time director Leo Matsuda, who was a story artist for Big Hero 6 and Wreck-It Ralph, and it looks like a really fun and amusing story.

Inner Workings tells the story of "the internal struggle between a man’s pragmatic, logical side and his free-spirited, adventurous half." Basically, it turns the various internal organs of a person into characters. It was created be a small team of animators, and it's described as a unique, fast-paced style "that blends CG and traditional hand-drawn animation, the short explores the importance of finding balance in daily life."

"Inner Workings" opens in theaters on December 2nd in front of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Moana.

FXX has smartly released a red band trailer for It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, because Frank dropping the C-bomb is something America needs? The show has never been known to pull punches, in fact, it's more likely to jump kick you in the chest. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia season 12 premieres on FXX on January 4th.

A collection of new photos and a couple of posters have been released for Martin Scorsese's upcoming film Silence. The movie is an adaptation of Shūsaku Endō‘s acclaimed 1966 novel, and it has an impressive cast that includes Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson, and Adam Driver.

Silence tells the story of "two Christian missionaries (Garfield and Driver) who face the ultimate test of faith when they travel to Japan in search of their missing mentor (Neeson) — at a time when Christianity was outlawed and their presence forbidden."

This film is said to be unlike anything that Scorsese had made before, and in an extensive interview with NY Times, Garfield talked about preparing for his role of Father Rodrigues, saying:

“If I’d had 10 years, it wouldn’t have been enough to prepare for this role. I got totally swept up in all things Jesuit and very taken with Jesuit spirituality. The preparation went on for nearly a year, and by the time we got to Taiwan, it was bursting out of me.

“I don’t think I am called to be a priest. But I had the feeling that I was being called to something: called to work with one of the great directors, and called to this role as something I had to pursue for my spiritual development.”

Driver later said that the movie tells the story of "a crisis of faith.” The first trailer for the film is set to be released later this week, on Saturday, I believe, so stay tuned for that! Silence will get a limited release on December 23rd before expanding in January.

Via: The Film Stage

The topper I put on my Christmas tree does not have the Whovian street cred that this Doctor Who TARDIS does. It's got lights that are unfortunately powered by batteries (also not included) and the switch to turn them on and off is on the bottom. This might make a better night light for my kid or desk toy for how inconvenient the design is. All those negatives aside, it is a 9 inch tall scale replica. If you've got a small tree or don't mind a daily and nightly step stool chore (gotta burn off those Thanksgiving calories), for only $30 this could still be the tree topper for you.

Earlier concept art of Han Solo by Ralph McQuarrie

Lucasfilm has put together quite a talented team of people to bring their highly anticipated Han Solo standalone film to life. The film is being directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, and so far the cast they've brought together is incredible with Alden Ehrenreich talking on the role of solo, Donald Glover playing Lando, and Emilia Clarke taking on a female lead. It's shaping up to be something very exciting!

Producer Kathleen Kennedy recently talked to Variety about the untitled Star Wars Story film and revealed some more interesting information. She said the film will be a western-type story, and she also described the visual look and tone they are going for. She explained:

“This moves closer to a heist or western type feel. We’ve talked about (Frederic) Remington and those primary colors that are used in his paintings defining the look and feel of the film.”

Han Solo is definitely a cowboy-type character, so it makes sense it would have a western feel to it. I love the fact that they are looking at doing a frontier kind of look and feel! If you aren't familiar with Remington's western artwork, I've included a few pieces below to give you an idea of the kind of colors that the filmmakers are looking to emulate.

Disney has released a first look video featuring one of the animatronic Avatar characters that will be included in their Pandora - The World of Avatar portion of Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida. The video is of a character named the Shaman of Song, who is described as a "revered member of the Na’vi people of Pandora."

The animatronic technology on this thing is insane and unlike anything I've seen before from Disney, and it's creepy as hell! There's just something about it that I don't like. I don't think animatronics should be this lifelike. It's unnatural! Check out the video and see for yourself. 

Since 2008, many directors have been attached to a Highlander reboot such as Justin Lin, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and Cedric Nicolas-Troyan. Lionsgate has now tapped John Wick director Chad Stahelski to helm the long digesting project.

Stahelski to THR on Highlander:

"I've been a huge fan of the original property since I saw it in high school."

"Such great themes of immortality, love, and identity are all wrapped up in such colorful mythology. I can't think of a better property that gives the opportunity to create interesting characters, mythic themes and action set pieces."

John Wick has its own self-contained mythology that felt real and rich. I'm excited to see Stahelski bring that kind of myth-making and polish to Highlander. There is no doubt that Stahelski will be able to make the action choreography amazing, let's hope they pair him with a smart writer like Christopher McQuarrie or Lionsgate alums Simon Beaufoy, Peter Craig, or Billy Ray. Done right, this could be a big franchise.

But please-please-please Lionsgate, don't redo the Queen song "Princes of the Universe," and if for some reason you do, keep Fall Out Boy 10K miles away from any movie music.

Art by Dave Keenan

After the Marvel Studios and Sony partnership was struck, many fans were cautiously optimistic about another deal between Fox and Marvel. With the recent news about a character rights trade of Negasonic Teenage Warhead for Ego the Living Planet, fans became even more optimistic. If you don't already know, since Marvel killed Wolverine in the comics and scuttled any X-Men related storylines, tensions are high on a corporate level.

When asked by Variety about some possible collaboration between the studios, Marvel Studios hit maker Kevin Feige commented:

"It’s an impossibility at this juncture. We certainly have enough films to keep us busy for a number of lifetimes."

I wonder how Feige measures junctures? In any case, I'm kind of glad that they are separate cineverses, it just means more comic book movies per year. One thing is for sure, Fox seems to be spinning its wheels from one film to the next. Hopefully, they get things together.

When Variety asked about recasting Iron Man or Captain America, Feige chimed in with:

"Luckily we don’t have to make that decision anytime soon. There are a lot of movies that everyone is signed on for, and we get to enjoy them for a long time. Robert Downey Jr. is Iron Man, and right now I can’t envision anyone else. Chris Evans has embodied Captain America as well as any actor has ever embodied an iconic pop-culture figure like that. I go back to Chris Reeve as Superman as the gold standard, and I think Evans is right there. I couldn’t imagine anybody else.

"But you also look to history: We have a new Spider-Man right now who was in our Civil War film and is in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and the audience has embraced it. And you can look to Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, and Batman as characters that last longer than any one actor playing them. There’s a precedent for it in other franchises that suggests it’s possible. But right now I don’t want to think about it and don’t need to think about it."

This is firmly in line with what Feige has said about "James Bonding" the roles/characters. I hope the Marvel cineverse holds together for a long time using the same actors. But even in the comics reboots at some point become necessary.

Finally, Feige talks a bit about Captain Marvel finding a female director and casting Brie Larson:

"Having a female director at the helm to tell the story of a woman who is also our most powerful hero by far is very important to us.

"With Captain Marvel, who has powers that approach a level that we haven’t seen before in our films, you need to counterbalance that by finding somebody who is also very human and very relatable and can get into a groove with the audience, where they’re willing to see her fly through the sun and punch a moon away from a spacecraft. At the same time, we need her to land and have relatable flaws.

"Brie is a person you’re going to want to go on this journey with, just like Benedict or Robert or Chris Pratt."

The Marvel cineverse is in good hands and every film has been some measure of home run or solid base hit.

As we get closer to the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy is shedding some light on a few things regarding the Star Wars franchise. While talking to EW, she revealed that the standalone films were George Lucas' idea and went on to talk about the future of the franchise. 

When talking about Lucas' role in helping come up with the ideas for the Star Wars Story films, she explained: 

“George talked to me about doing this when I first came aboard. He had often thought about doing it and he had actually written down three or four thoughts and ideas, directions you could go. Obviously inside the mythology there were lots of opportunities. So that was the first conversation I had.”

I kind of wish that Lucas would have actually followed through with some of these ideas. But now it's in the hands of Disney, and it looks like they are on the right track. Kennedy wouldn't say what some of Lucas' ideas were, but she did say that a young Han Solo film wasn't one of them. As for the Rogue One idea, that came from John Knoll, who is a legendary visual effects supervisor from ILM. Kennedy went on to say:

“No, we certainly talked about origin type stories, but we didn’t get into the specifics of that. We talked a lot about the Jedi and the foundational ideas that George had thought about when he created the mythology. It was sort of spit-balling ideas.”

She then confirmed that these standalone films will not have an opening crawl like the saga films, saying:

“More than likely we will not have a crawl. We feel that that is proprietary with the saga films. But how this evolves…? We haven’t fully decided, and [traditional Star Wars elements] may be pretty spare for this first one.”

It makes sense that they wouldn't have the opening crawl in these movies, and as a fan, I'm completely ok with that. Kennedy later talked about the future of the Star Wars franchise and where it's headed.

“That’s a conversation going on right now, too. I have to honestly tell you, could we [do nothing but stand-alones]? Sure. But I don’t know. We are looking at all of that…There are [possible movies] that we have been talking a lot about but we are planning to sit down in January, since we will have had The Force Awakens released, now Rogue One, and we’ve finished shooting Episode VIII. We have enough information where we can step back a little bit and say, What are we doing? What do we feel is exciting? And what are some of the things we want to explore?”

As of right now, their current plan takes them through the year 2018 with Star Wars: Episode IX, but there were rumors of a Boba Fett movie coming in 2020, which turned out to be true! According to the report, that was the movie Josh Trank was hired to direct before he dropped out following the troubled production of his Fantastic Four reboot. They say that Lucasfilm came so close to announcing it that they prepped a teaser reel to show at Star Wars Celebration in 2015. I'm sure they'll get around to doing it. 

One thing is for sure, Kennedy and her creative team are going to talk about what happens after Episode IX. I'm definitely excited for the future of Star Wars. The prospects of what Lucasfilm can do is pretty damn exciting! They better do a Obi-Wan Star Wars Story! 

There's this weird meme circulating the internet right now where films are being sped up every time a keyword is said, and it's pretty hilarious! It's one of those weird instances where a meme is inspired by a meme with the main meme being Bee Movie. I don't know why so many people slightly younger than me ironically idolize the film, but I do know this video makes me laugh. See the entirety of Bee Movie sped up when someone says "bee" below.

While the future of VR is still not fully realized, Conan O'Brien makes the future look bright in this new video. The night show host visits YouTube and tries some of the popular software currently on the market and broadcasts it all to us as he experiences it. I'm not entirely sure why this had to be done at YouTube since they don't own any of the software, but I wager Conan is using a Google headset, so there's the connection.

I'm still not sure I'm ready to commit to VR technology, but it's cool to see what is currently available on the market! Personally, I was a big fan of Job Simulator and whatever that boxing game was! It would be cool to punch things in the face without fear of repercussions, right?

Apologies up front for the sound quality (we had audio issues); we persevere and talk one of the weirdest and wackiest film that came from the 1980's, Miami Connection! Friends for eternity...

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Just in time for Thanksgiving, CinemaSins has uploaded their latest "Everything Wrong With" and featured Pocahontas because the film has to do with English settlers and Native Americans. In my personal opinion, Pocahontas is one of the underrated Disney Princess films! I can't tell you how many times I wished to sing with all the colors of the wind, or wished the willow tree at our school would grow an old lady face and start talking.

You think I'm joking about that, but I'm not.

This CinemaSins is a little unfair and unnecessary, but aren't they all? At least they bring up some funny stuff you may not have noticed initially!

Just to prove this isn't sponsored content, let me start this off by saying I think Domino's pizza is garbage. I never thought too much cheese was a bad thing, but they prove me wrong every time I eat it. While I absolutely despise their pizza, I do appreciate this recent spark of innovation they've brought to New Zealand!

If you order a pizza in the Kiwi city of Whangaparaoa, there's a good chance you'll get it via drone! You can see the whole thing in action in the video below. I would order one just for the experience, but there's no way in hell that nasty pizza is going in my mouth. Thanks to Laughing Squid for letting us know about this.

Batman finds himself in a precarious situation when he decides to raid a pub full of villains in this new animated short from How It Should Have Ended. As usual, things only get crazier when the Joker gets involved! Check it out below.

The first trailer has been released for Martin Scorsese's new film Silence, and it looks like he's created another masterpiece. The film is very different from anything he's done before. Scorsese has been trying to make this film for the past 28 years. Now he's finally done it, and it looks like it was well worth the wait. 

The story is set in the 17th century, and it centers on two Christian missionaries, played by Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver, who embark on a mission to Japan in search of their missing mentor, played by Liam Neeson. This journey is described as their ultimate test of faith as they enter a land where Christianity is outlawed. It looks like this is something that they will be struggling with. Of course, the movie is sure to go beyond that basic premise. 

This looks like a deep and powerful film that will go into questions of religious tolerance and explore the dangers of ministering the faith to the Japanese people during that time. There's going to be plenty of stuff to chew on with this film. 

Silence opens in theaters on December 23rd. 

Here are a couple of fun pieces of variant cover art for DC Comic's Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad #1. They feature Harley Quinn and Wonder Woman fighting each other. The art you see here was created by Stanley Lau and Gabriele Dell'otto. I don't know why, but I don't think I've ever really thought about seeing these two characters fight each other before. As much as I love Harley, there's no doubt that Wonder Woman could kick her ass all across the DC universe. Here's the description of the upcoming comic series:

The first major event storyline of DC’s Rebirth era begins with a day Amanda Waller always knew would come: the Justice League discovers the existence of the Suicide Squad! This government-sponsored black-ops team of super-villains with bombs implanted in their brains is obviously a deal-breaker for Earth’s paragons of truth and justice! But you can bet that the Wall and her Task Force X won’t go down without the fight to end all fights as this weekly series gets underway! 

Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad #1 is set to be released on December 21st.