Back in 2014, it was announced that Edgar Wright would be directing a feature film adaptation of the Andrew Smith YA novel Grasshopper Jungle. We haven't heard anything about the film since. Now it looks like the film is finally going to move forward. According to THR, New Regency is about to pick up the adaptation and push it into production. 

The story is described as Stand By Me meets Attack The Block, which is a perfect story for Wright to bring to the big screen! If you're not familiar with the story, it's a coming-of-age tale that "focuses on an Iowa teen trying to come to grips with his own raging hormones and sexual feelings as he and his cohorts cause a deadly genetically engineered plague that unleashes an army of 6-foot-tall praying mantises. Those bugs live the life these guys wish for, acting on an insatiable appetite for fighting, food, and fornicating."

Sounds like fun doesn't it!? The script for the movie was written by Scott Rosenberg (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle). Here's the official description:

In the small town of Ealing, Iowa, Austin and his best friend, Robby, have accidentally unleashed an unstoppable army. An army of horny, hungry, six-foot-tall praying mantises that only want to do two things. This is the truth. This is history. It’s the end of the world. And nobody knows anything about it. You know what I mean.

Wright is the director behind films such as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and the next film of his that we'll see is Baby Driver, which looks amazing! I'm a big fan of Wright's work and I think he'll have a ton of fun with this Grasshopper Jungle film.

A couple magical new trailers have been released for the beautifully animated anime film Mary and the Witch's Flower. A few months ago we shared a teaser trailer for the film, but these new trailers feature a lot more new footage and offer us a better look at the story it tells. 

The film tells the story of a girl who finds a broomstick that leads her to a school for witches where she learns that there are deformed mutant animals from experiments being locked away in cages. As you'll see in the trailer, the film seems to emulate some of that Studio Ghibli magic, even though it's not a Studio Ghibli film. 

The film is based on a book by Mary Stewart called The Little Broomstick, and it was directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who previously helmed The Secret World of Arrietty and When Marnie Was There. The movie comes from Studio Ponoc and as you'll see, they've done an incredible job bringing this story to life. I'm excited to watch this movie with my girls.

It is Tib the black cat who leads Mary to the strange flower in the woods. When she discovers a broomstick shortly afterwards, she is astonished to feel it jump in to action. Before she can gather her wits, it is whisking her over the treetops, above the clouds, and in to the grounds of Endor College, where: 'All Examinations Coached for by A Competent Staff of Fully-Qualified Witches.' Here she discovers evidence of a terrible experiment in transformation - deformed and mutant animals imprisoned in cages. In the moment after her broomstick takes off, she realises that Tib has been captured.

The film is set to open in Japan in the summer of 2017. I'm sure it will eventually make its way to the U.S.

Via: FirstShowing

While it was looking more and more likely that Michael Shannon would be playing Cable in the upcoming Deadpool 2, but Josh Brolin ended up landing the gig and now we have an idea of what he could look like thanks to this awesomely drawn concept by BossLogic! Take a look at the picture below. I love that Brolin is taking on the role! He's gonna be great!

Over the years, Disney has bought up lots of companies that include Pixar, Lucasfilm, and Marvel making them the biggest powerhouse in Hollywood. Now it looks like Disney could end up being the one that is bought and that buyer is reportedly Apple. 

According to Variety, they are looking to pull off a $237 billion takeover of Disney, which would create "a company worth $1 trillion with 'almost limitless opportunities in content and technology."

This is an acquisition of epic proportions and it's a reality. This could happen! According to RBC analyst reports, "Recently, investors have increased their expectations that Apple could seriously consider acquiring Disney." They go on to say that the purchasing of Disney would be "contingent on Apple getting tax breaks to 'repatriate' overseas cash."

A combined Apple-Disney would create an instant competitor to Netflix that would take advantage of the Mouse House’s content and Apple’s user base, the anlaysts speculated. Other benefits: integrating Apple consumer tech as experiences in Disney’s theme parks; and landing global streaming sports rights for ESPN via the combo of Disney-backed BAMTech and Apple distribution and a strong balance sheet.

It's explained that content is a major focus for Apple right now and taking on Disney offers an avenue to "diversify away from hardware without diluting the strong Apple brand."

Apple and Disney are two incredibly huge company and by combining forces they could pretty much freakin' rule the world if they wanted to! It'll be interesting to see if this acquisition actually goes down. Does anyone have any thoughts on Apple buying Disney?

Star Wars creator George Lucas showed up at Star Wars Celebration today to talk about all kinds of cool Star Wars stuff at the 40th anniversary panel. While he was there he showed off some very early concept art that was done for Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, R2-D2, Chewbacca, and Princess Leia. 

The legendary filmmaker also talked about the process he went through in casting Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia. In the process, he reveals why ultimately cast Mark Hamill in the role of Luke. He said:

“We did a lot of testing for a year, a year of sitting in a little room, talking to actors every five minutes, weeding those out... We went on and then we did screen tests. We did screen tests with all the finalists for three main characters and we would mix them. I think we had maybe two or three of each of you and you would each test with another person. We found the combination of the group that worked the best together. The group that was ready to be an ensemble and played it as old friends. I was trying to get that even though they start out not knowing each other. I wanted to have the chemistry built in. That, and the fact that he was shorter than I was.”

I know he may come off as joking around about Hamill's height playing a role in why he was cast, but I can't help but think there's a little truth to it. Regardless of that, it sounds like he went through an intense casting process! It worked, though! Lucas ended up with the perfect cast for this film. 

You can check out the concept art below, and is it just me, or was Luke Skywalker originally designed to look like George Lucas? 

Via: CB

We've hit a new low in anime culture. When the waifu trend started I was cool with it because it seems like it was mostly a meme and guys aren't actually in love with female characters from popular anime. It seems like the other shoe dropped sometime recently and now Japan is offering men the chance to make the union with their waifu an eternal bond...through marriage.

As Destructoid points out, this Japanese chapel isn't just letting you marry whoever you want though, but rather doing it as a promotion for the dating sim Nitzuma Lovely x Cation. Men will have the opportunity to win the hearts of one of three totally imaginary ladies...and then marry them. Here's a trailer for the game...

Is the dating scene really that bad in Japan? Is this the new normal? The game doesn't release until April 28th...and the weddings will begin June 30th according to the promotion. Let's hope the promotion fails, for humanity's sake.

TinyBuild has a new game out, and it's nothing short of incredible. I've only spent a brief amount of time playing Mr. Shifty, and I'll have my full review up here soon, but I can tell you this game is like X-Men meets Hotline Miami...read more on GameTyrant

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The first trailer for the live-action film based on the manga of Tokyo Ghoul has arrived, and it looks like fun! That really depends on how you view Japanese live-action films based of manga and anime though as I've yet to see one that I enjoy. While the trailer looks cool, I always have that nagging thought in the back of my head that the minute I commit and watch this movie I'll be let down by slow pacing and less than top of the line CGI. Not trying to get you bummed out or anything just felt like I needed to speak my peace before showing it to you! Tokyo Ghoul releases July 29th. 

We made it to the last narrative episode. Even after a faux academic conference, we still have questions. We agree on what Offred’s real name is, but we disagree about what happened to her. Gileadeans held onto the caduceus, an odd mistake from the U.S. Army medical corps....Listen on PodTyrant

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The animated Spider-Man movie just cast its two main leads! Shameik Moore will be taking on the role of Miles Morales. You might know him from the fantastic indie film Dope and Netflix's hip-hop drama The Get Down. He will be joined by Liev Schreiber (Ray Donavan, X-Men Origins: Wolverine), who will be providing the voice of the villain of the story. We have yet to learn who exactly that villain will be. 

This is the first Spider-Man film project to be made that doesn't feature the Peter Parker version of Spider-Man and I'm excited to see how Miles Morales is handled in this adaptation. I'm sure it will be great because Phil Lord wrote the script. Lord has co-developed projects such as The LEGO Movie, 21 Jump Street, and he's currently shooting Lucasfilm's Han Solo movie.

All we know about the movie at this point is that the story will focus on Morales as "he juggles school life and superheroics in the classic Spider-Man mold." The Little Prince writer Bob Persichetti is attached to co-direct alongside Peter Ramsey (Rise of the Guardians).

Miles Morales was created by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli and this character was introduced in 2011 in Ultimate Fallout #4, following the death of Peter Parker. He's grown to be quite a popular character and he's also appeared in the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man. where he was voiced by Donald Glover. It would've been cool to see Glover reprise the role for the movie, but Moore will be great!

Now, who do you think the big bad villain of the film will be?

Source: THR

There are two new things have been revealed for classic characters of the Star Wars universe that fans of the franchise might find interesting. The information comes from Star Wars Celebration and one part of the information reveals how Boba Fett got the dent on his helmet. The other part pretty much confirms that the white bearded man on Endor helping the Rebels is Captain Rex!

Long story short, Boba Fett has a standoff with Star Wars fan favorite Cad Bane. Fett wants to save his friends, while Bane... doesn't want that. The two face each other and draw their weapons and fire at each other. Both characters are hit and go flying and now Boba Fett has a dent in his helmet. You can check out the unfinished footage that was going to be shown on the Clone Wars series that they showed at the celebration below.

As for Captain Rex, They showed some new concept art of him from Star Wars Rebels that you can see below that shows him wearing gear that is similar to the Rebel strike force that destroyed the Empire’s shield generator in Return of the Jedi. You can see a photo from the classic film below that shows the white-bearded man that many fans have speculated could be Rex for years. We'll, now it seems to have been confirmed. For many Star Wars fans, this is huge. 

This information was all revealed by Pablo Hidalgo and Dave Filoni at the Animated Origins and Unexpected Fates panel at the Star Wars event currently taking place in Orlando. 

Via: THR

Jimmy Kimmel Live premiered the first official clip from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 last night and it's really strange. The clip was shown at the end of a funny skit featuring Kimmel's buddy Guillermo talking to the Chris Pratt and Kurt Russell about the art of acting. This is all leading up to a cameo appearance that he will be shot for the film. The video ends showing the actual scene from the movie that Gullermo appeared in.

The clip features a scene from the film that is set on earth in a small town setting. There is a stunned crowd of people who are gathering to look at massive blue blob of electrified goo that has landed in the center of their town. Guillermo plays a cop in this scene trying to keep the crowd away from the blob, but then the blob starts to engulf the town!

 I have no idea what this is or how it plays into the story, but it's one of the few scenes that will be set on the planet Earth. The whole video is amusing, so I suggest watching the whole thing, but if you want, you can skip to the 6:06 mark to just see the clip from the movie. 

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 is already expected to pull in $150 million its opening weekend. The news comes from Deadline, which notes the predictions currently on the tracking board only account for the domestic release of the film, and that international releases could push those numbers much higher. These predictions list current audience awareness of the film at 88%, which is pretty awesome for a film and a positive sign of having a good release.

Not that anyone expected GOTG 2 to be a failure, but the more predictions come in, it looks like the film is on a trajectory to perform just as well (if not better) than Captain America: Civil War. Should that happen I won't be that surprised. The first Guardians of the Galaxy film was everything Marvel does right put up to a 10, and everything I've seen for the sequel looks to be the same. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 releases May 5th. 

Here it is! The first teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi has been unleashed and I couldn't be happier and more excited with what I'm seeing! It's crazy how emotional it is to watch these trailers! I didn't think I would get as emotional as I got when I saw the first trailer for The Force Awakens, but I totally did! I love getting the Star Wars feels!

The trailer premiered at Star Wars Celebration and the crowd in attendance exploded with excitement and I'm sure you'll do the same thing when you watch the trailer! I also included the wonderfully designed poster for the film featuring Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker and Daisy Ridley as Rey. Enjoy!

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is set to open on December 15, 2017.

Here's yet another of those classic "what if" scenarios that movie lovers often talk about. What the heck would the Fast and Furious franchise look like with Justified star Timothy Olyphant playing Dominic Toretto instead of Vin Diesel? I'm shocked that this was even up for discussion, but producer Neil Moritz revealed the piece of trivia on Bill Simmons' podcast (via Uproxx):

“I had been working with Paul Walker on another movie, Skulls, and I gave him the script [for The Fast and the Furious],” Moritz said. “Rob Cohen, who I had made The Rat Pack with, we gave him the script. The two of them liked the idea. And then we had to look for Dom Toretto. The studio said, ‘If you can get Timothy Olyphant to play that role we will greenlight the movie… The luckiest thing that ever happened to us is Tim Olyphant turned us down. He’s a great actor. In fact, I’m curious to see what that movie would have been.”

What a wild switch. I can't fathom how different the series might be with Timmy O in a lead role opposite Paul Walker.

But it seems as if Diesel somehow tricked Moritz into giving him the part through sheer force of will:

“I went and met him at Kate Mantilini [restaurant] and he wasn’t a star yet, but the great thing about Vin is he always believed he was a star,” recalls Moritz. “And I was going in there to think he’s coming to me to want the role and I’m the one there now having to convince him to do the role! Lucky for both of us that happened.”

I mean, that sounds exactly like something Dom would do, so I guess the right man ended up with the job.

Earlier this week, comedian Charlie Murphy died after a fight with leukemia. Murphy was a big part of Chappelle's Show back in the mid-2000s, and musician John Mayer appeared in a memorable sketch on the show as well. On the day Charlie Murphy died, Mayer hit a tour spot in Ohio, where Chappelle lives, and the musician invited the comedian out to the stage and they reminisced a little about Murphy and their time together. Take a look at their touching tribute below:

During the Star Wars: The Last Jedi panel at Star Wars Celebration, director Rian Johnson shared some behind-the-scenes photos that he took while shooting the film. He explains that he's always got a camera with him and when he sees something catch his eye he snaps a photo on the spot and he did this throughout the entire production of The Last Jedi. These are just a few of the images that he took and I also included a couple of other photos that were shared that wren't taken by Johnson. They are color photos that featuring Johnson working with Carrie Fisher in the role of General Organa.

Oh, and if you haven't watched the trailer for Str Wars: The Last Jedi yet you can check it out here! 

Pretty much every film fan on Earth agrees that a Black Widow solo movie from Marvel Studios would make some serious bank at the box office — and that includes Captain America himself, Chris Evans.

The actor was asked by Elle why that hasn't happened yet, and he responded:

“That’s a good question. It would really just clean up, wouldn’t it? Scarlett [Johansson] is so good at everything she does. She’s played such a crucial part in the other films. She always makes her presence so felt — even when there are 50 different superheroes running around onscreen. I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens at some point in the future. I’m sure Scarlett would be open to it.”

Now, granted, just because a movie would obviously pull in a lot of money doesn't mean that should be the sole reason it gets made. But with the talented writers Marvel has access to, and considering how long fans have been clamoring for a Widow movie, it's starting to look like Kevin Feige and the studio are actively avoiding it rather than it just not organically working out. We'll see if the film is finally announced sometime in the next Phase of movies.

During the Nintendo 64 era I was never a huge fan of the Banjo-Kazooie games.  I always found them slower and not as fun as Super Mario 64.  Then Rare went on to make Donkey Kong 64...read more on GameTyrant

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There's a new featurette for Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant that's been released called "The Next Chapter" and gives us an explanation of how this new Alien film connects to Prometheus by bridging the ten-year gap between the two stories. It includes interviews with Ridley Scott and Michael Fassbender and even offers us some new footage for you check out.

Some of that footage includes a younger version of Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) in deep conversation with the android Walter and a few other shots that fans will be interested in checking out. I've also included a new international poster you can see above along with a previously released poster below that I never got around to posting. 

The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world. When they uncover a threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape.

Alien: Covenant stars Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, Amy Seimetz, Jussie Smollett, Callie Hernandez, Nathaniel Dean, Alexander England, Benjamin Rigby, and James Franco.

Alien: Covenant is set to open in theaters on May 19.