In a new interview with USA Today, Star Wars creator George Lucas revealed that before he sold Lucasfilm to Disney, he was looking to direct Star Wars: Episode VII for a May 2015 release. His original plan was to direct the film, then afterwards put Lucasfilm up for sale and walk away. This makes a lot of sense as Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher previously talked about having meetings with Lucas regarding them coming back for Episode VII before Disney jumped into the picture.

Lucas ultimately decided that that plan wasn't going to be the right move for him. It would be hard for him to walk away after making the film, and then that would be another 10-year commitment. He just felt spending more time with his family was more important, so he ended up just selling Lucasfilm before he started anything new. He explains:

"It’s better for me to get out at the beginning of a new thing and I can just remove myself. The time is more important to me than the money."

I'm glad that he let the franchise go. I love that he created Star Wars, and I love what he did with the original trilogy. But I don't think I would have been as excited as I am for The Force Awakens because of what Lucas did with the prequel trilogy. Lucas doesn't seem to have any regrets about leaving it behind him either. He just seems excited to get to watch the new Star Wars movies just like the rest of us!

"The only thing I really regret about Star Wars is the fact I never got to see it — I never got to be blown out of my seat when the ship came over the screen. The next one, I'll be able to enjoy it like anybody else."

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is set to be released on December 18th, 2015. I'll be curious to know what Lucas thinks of the movie after he watches it. 

Thanks to CineFix, we have a fun video for you to watch that points out seven interesting things about The Big Lebowski that you might not know. I enjoy watching these videos that CineFix makes, and they always manage to provide a few bits of information that I wasn't aware of before. That's the case with their latest video.

The Big Lebowski may be your favorite source of movie quotes and the reason you drink White Russians… But do you know these seven little-known facts about this perennially popular Coen Brothers movie?

Have any of you ever been to a Lebowski Fest? I've always wanted to go, but have never had the opportunity. I hear they're a blast! 

Melissa McCarthy reunites with her Bridesmaids and The Heat director Paul Feig in Spy, a new action comedy that also stars Jason Statham, Rose Byrne, and Jude Law. 20th Century Fox has released two trailer for the movie (via Yahoo), one of them is a red band trailer, and it looks like a typical McCarthy comedy: some physical humor, some awkward situations...you know the drill. These trailers don't really leave me with much hope that this will turn out to be a memorable movie, but if you're a fan of McCarthy's schtick, it might be a decent way to pass the time.

Spy hits theaters on May 22nd, 2015. I've included both the green band and the red band trailers below. What do you think?

We all know Chewbacca, Groot, and Hodor have what we'll call a limited vocabulary. But while we can't always understand exactly what they're saying, it seems that they can at least understand each other. Filmmaker Kevin Ulrich and his team at Brotherhood Studios have unveiled a video that features Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi walking into the Mos Eisley cantina and listening in on a conversation between three of the most unlikely drinking buddies you'll find in a galaxy far, far away.

Oh, and did I mention the whole short film is made using LEGOs? After the first few seconds, I was completely swept away by the animation. It looks fantastic (especially for a fan-made video), and after doing some research, it appears that the guys at Brotherhood Studios have gotten to work with the team at How It Should Have Ended and for LEGO as well, so they're clearly doing high-quality work. Keep it up, guys.

(Beware: There are some spoilers for season four of Game of Thrones ahead.)

David Lynch is in the process of developing the long-awaited return of Twin Peaks that will air on Showtime. Fans of the classic 1990s series will be happy to know that Kyle MacLachlan is now officially set to reprise his role as FBI Agent Dale Cooper! He revealed the news himself at the Television Critics Association’s semi-annual press tour, saying:

“I’m very excited to return to the strange and wonderful world of Twin Peaks. May the forest be with you.”

Lynch will direct all nine episodes of the series, and according to Showtime president David Nevins, Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost have been “very specific in promising closure, and that’s exciting.” He added:

“From what I’ve seen, I think this going to live up to expectations—and then some.”

Nevis went on to talk about putting this series together, saying he “was kind of begging” Lynch and Frost to make it at Showtime. He went on to explain:

“It felt like only way you could do it is to have David committing to directing all of them and that’s what I was begging for. [The reboot is] something they’ve been toying with. And for David, 25 years was the magic number. There’s a reference in original, ‘I’ll see you in 25 years.'”

Well, I couldn’t be more excited about the return of Twin Peaks with Lynch on board! I have no doubt that it will be as wonderfully insane as the original series.

Source: EW

There’s a lot of stuff that was loaded into the second trailer for Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, and a lot of questions raised by the new scenes we were shown. Marvel threw a lot of this stuff in there on purpose to get fans talking, and it worked! One of the big questions is who is that mystery woman in the cave? It looks like there are a few scenes in the movie that take place in the city of Wakanda, which is where T’Challa, a.k.a. Black Panther, is from. The shot of the mystery woman is in the cave is leading a lot of fans to believe that this is could be T’Challa’s younger sister Shuri in a vibranium cave. The villain, Ulysses S. Claw (Andy Serkis), has also been featured in the trailers, and there is a whole action sequence with the Hulk that seems to take place in Wakanda between Hulk and Iron Man in his Hulkbuster armor. In one of the shots with the police, we see a South African restaurant franchise named "Nyama & Chips" in the background. This will apparently all lead up to Black Panther coming into play in Captain America: Civil War.

Then there’s Hulk, who has some crazy-looking red blood-shot eyes. He looks like he’s beyond rage while he's fighting Iron Man. The green goliath is out of control, and he must be being influenced by someone. Scarlet Witch seems to be the most likely candidate to make this happen, but that’s just speculation. There’s always the chance that this event could lead to him to being launched into outer space for the protection of everyone on Earth, but maybe the scene between him and Black Widow that shows her calming him down and bringing that fight to an end could change that. We’ll just have to wait and see.

One of the other things I want to discuss is the scene featuring Thor being overcome with lightning. It seems like the scene takes place in Asgard, and Thor is being attacked by a woman in the background. It looks like she might be casting some kind of spell on him, and is drawing Thor’s thunderous power and lightening from him. This could turn out to be any character, but a few options might be Moodragon, Hela, or Enchantress, who I have been waiting to see introduced into the MCU since Thor was first introduced. Who do you think it could be?

You can check out 87 screenshots below and see if anything else sticks out to you. Hit us up with any theories you might have in the comment section!

Well, this is unexpected. Amazon Studios announced today (via ComingSoon) that they've signed acclaimed filmmaker Woody Allen to create his first TV series. Allen will write and direct all of the episodes of the still-unnamed series, which will be a half-hour show. Casting announcements and a synopsis will be released sometime in the future. 

“Woody Allen is a visionary creator who has made some of the greatest films of all-time, and it’s an honor to be working with him on his first television series,” said Roy Price, Vice President of Amazon Studios. “From Annie Hall to Blue Jasmine, Woody has been at the creative forefront of American cinema and we couldn't be more excited to premiere his first TV series exclusively on Prime Instant Video next year.”

And here's what Allen himself had to say:

“I don’t know how I got into this. I have no ideas and I’m not sure where to begin. My guess is that Roy Price will regret this.”

I suppose from a business standpoint, Amazon has to make some flashy moves to truly compete with Netflix. Transparent just won a Golden Globe (and Jeffrey Tambor took home an acting prize as well), so that's a step in the right direction, but with House of Cards and Orange is the New Black looming as Netflix's cultural touchstones right now, I guess Amazon feels like they need to pull their own auteur into the fold and generate some content that people will talk about. If Allen is being genuine in his statement, though, it sounds like he has no clue what the heck he's doing, and was signed on name recognition alone. Will that be enough to pull audiences in? Will he be able to come up with a compelling story that's told over the span of multiple hours of television?

Then there's the more complex topic of the allegations of sexual abuse against Allen. I know people who refuse to watch his films anymore because of those allegations, and with the Bill Cosby situation still very fresh in our minds, more people than ever are struggling to reconcile the difference between someone's work and their behavior behind the scenes. It's a complicated thing, and it will certainly impact how many people end up tuning into this new show.

Will you be watching when the show debuts next year?

Gone Girl was one of my favorite movies of last year, and Screen Junkies calls it the "best acted, coolest looking, most well written Lifetime movie ever made." They hilariously break down the truths that surround this movie. Like the video says, the message all boils down to this: "Don't have sex with crazy people."

Get ready to cower in terror as you relive David Fincher's married-people version of Fatal Attraction: Gone Girl.

One of the pieces of media I'm most excited about consuming in 2015 is season six of Community. Dan Harmon's brilliant sitcom was cancelled by NBC but miraculously saved at the last second by Yahoo Screen (of all places), where it will debut this year. Now, thanks to info from EW, we know exactly when we'll be able to return to Greendale Community College: March 17th, 2015. The first two episodes will be available on that date, and then a new episode will be released each Tuesday until the 13-episode season is finished.

Some brief tidbits about what we can expect moving forward:

• Harmon confirms we won't have to pay to watch the show on Yahoo Screen - it's advertising-supported.
• Despite being freed from traditional network restrictions, we shouldn't expect the show to change too much. “Three-act stories are what work for me,” Harmon said. There also won't be any profanity or nudity.
• The first episode will address the departure of Yvette Nicole Brown's Shirley Bennett character, but it sounds like Harmon would be happy to work her and former co-star Donald Glover back in whenever they can drop by.
• Harmon doesn't plan on ending the show after this season. 

  “I’m definitely not writing [this season] as if it’s the end,” he said. “Only when people stop watching would I ever stop wanting to make the product. I have to continue writing the show as if it’s going to last for 20 seasons. I do have a naive feeling that we've demonstrated that Greendale itself is an environment, is a character. One of the things that we've learned how to do is make sure the cast fluctuations don’t destroy the show immediately.”

Community is one of my favorite shows of all time, and I can't wait to see what Harmon and his team have cooked up for us on their new platform.

Last week, Sony announced a new subscription program for PlayStation Now, and while it is a step in the right direction, the service is still missing a lot of the classics that would make such a service desirable - especially on PS4. Since RPGs are my preferred genre, as well as the fact that outside of Nintendo most RPGs call PlayStation their home anyway, here are the 5 RPGs the service needs in order to bring me (and hopefully many others) on board. 

Final Fantasy Tactics

The game is a classic, and at this point it's been ported to almost every Sony system imaginable, but that doesn't necessarily matter. If you're going to have a service like this, Tactics deserves to be there. The gameplay and Job system still hold up, and the graphics are still charming despite their age. I would include the redone PSP version's cinematics to boot.

Suikoden 2/Suikoden 5

Suikoden 2 has already made its presence felt on the sales charts, so it should be a no-brainer. Suikoden 5, on the other hand, isn't as well known, but still ranks as one of the best in the series. Both of these titles showcase the franchise's best features and contain a widely varied and entertaining cast. Even if we only got these two, I would be a happy camper. 

(This is just for giggles, but man, cover art has come a long way.)

Tales of Xillia/Xillia 2

When Final Fantasy dropped the ball with XIII, there was a console-filled void when it came to JRPGs. Namco Bandai picked it up and hasn't dropped it yet. The Tales games have just gotten better and better, and Xillia is everything I love about JRPGs presented with slick UI and with characters that you enjoy spending 80-plus hours with. Go ahead and include both in the set, and you have a surefire winner. 

Saga Frontier 2

Square's Saga series never truly gained a foothold here in America, though Square did try its best. While the first one was rather forgettable, Saga Frontier 2 was anything but. With its beautiful (even by today's standards) watercolor graphic palette, and its unique generational story, Frontier 2 is a game that would benefit from the many new eyes that PS Now can bring, and is a world most definitely worth going back to. 

Breath of Fire 3

Capcom's most recent entries have tried to bring unique spins to the RPG genre with mixed results, but Breath Of Fire III is a turn-based RPG through and through, and that's a good thing. A colorful cast of party members and a very traditional but still engaging story await gamers who give it a chance. The soundtrack was probably pretty good too, but I don't rmember it, mostly because I was just listening to K-Ci & JoJo's "All My Life" on constant blast. Not really sure why - it was a rough time, okay!?

So, what do you think of the list? Let us know in the comments which RPGs you would like to see. 

We wrote about David Fincher's Gone Girl just a little while ago when we published the Honest Trailer for that movie, but the film has popped up again for a different reason: Deadline reports that much of the creative team behind Gone Girl - Fincher, actor Ben Affleck, and writer Gillian Flynn - are reuniting for a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock film Strangers on a Train. Affleck will be able to fit this into his schedule between shooting and starring in Live By Night this spring and reprising his role as Batman in Zack Snyder's upcoming Justice League.

The original Strangers on a Train followed a tennis player who meets a wealthy guy on a train who proposes that they each kill someone the other would like dead - that way, the police would be confused when they searched for a motive. The setting will be moved from a train to a plane in this modernized remake, with Affleck playing a movie star in the middle of an Oscar campaign whose private plane breaks down. A wealthy stranger gives him a ride to Los Angeles on another plane, and that's when the dastardly deal is made.

This sounds like a great opportunity for this team to come together again, and after handling Flynn's paperback page-turner so well, the pulpy tension of Hitchcock should provide some more dark, twisted fun for the trio.

I have a fan-made teaser trailer for you to watch that brings together elements from several high profile geek franchises that we will never ever see officially happen on the big screen. It's called Star Wars vs. DC Marvel, and it was created by video editor Alex Luthor. He recently created a couple of other videos such as a Marvel Vs. DC trailer and a Suicide Squad trailer, both of which were great, and this new one is no exception. It's really cool seeing these characters interacting with each other. I greatly enjoyed this, and I hope it gives you the same entertainment value that it gave me.

Talk about an A-list cast! Variety reports that Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, and Ryan Gosling will all star in a financial drama called The Big Short, which is being written by Ant-Man co-writer and Anchorman director Adam McKay. (For those who may find it strange that McKay - who generally sticks to the comedy genre - is involved in a serious drama about America's recent financial crisis, think back to the end credits of The Other Guys, in which McKay laid out how a Ponzi scheme works. He takes this stuff very seriously.)

Pitt's Plan B Productions will produce the film, which is based on Michael Lewis' non-fiction book "The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine." Lewis also wrote "Moneyball," another book Pitt turned into a movie. The film is rumored to feature a bunch of A-list actors in similar sized roles, with Traffic cited as an example. There's no start date yet, and no word about whether or not McKay will also direct in addition to his writing duties, but with Pitt, Bale, and Gosling leading the cast, this is going to be a huge movie.

The #1 New York Times bestseller: a brilliant account—character-rich and darkly humorous—of how the U.S. economy was driven over the cliff.

When the crash of the U. S. stock market became public knowledge in the fall of 2008, it was already old news. The real crash, the silent crash, had taken place over the previous year, in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn’t shine, and the SEC doesn’t dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can’t pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren't talking.

The crucial question is this: Who understood the risk inherent in the assumption of ever-rising real estate prices, a risk compounded daily by the creation of those arcane, artificial securities loosely based on piles of doubtful mortgages? Michael Lewis turns the inquiry on its head to create a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 best-selling Liar’s Poker. Who got it right? he asks. Who saw the real estate market for the black hole it would become, and eventually made billions of dollars from that perception? And what qualities of character made those few persist when their peers and colleagues dismissed them as Chicken Littles? Out of this handful of unlikely—really unlikely—heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our times.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro shared the big screen once before, way back in Marvin's Room in 1996. We've yet to see them appear together in a movie since then, but this may be the closest we get: the two heavy-hitters are starring in a new commercial series for director Martin Scorsese (who also makes an appearance) for a casino called City of Dreams Manila in the Philippines.

De Niro - who has worked with Scorsese eight times (including on another project about casinos called...well, Casino) - faces off against Di Caprio - who has worked with Scorsese five times thus far - for a fictional film role in these commercials, and it's entertaining to see the two of them go back and forth. The actors both have a sense of swagger to them, but perhaps it's just the knowledge that they're each reportedly pulling in $13 million for this series of commercials. The budget supposedly topped out at $70 million, and rumor has it Brad Pitt will show up in at least one of the remaining commercials that haven't aired yet. $70 million seems like a lot of cash for a casino in the Philippines to shell out for a series of ads, but at least it's money well spent - we're talking about their casino, aren't we?

Good news for those of you who are looking forward to the Scarlett Johansson-starring adaptation of Ghost in the Shell: you won't have to wait too long to see it. According to Exhibitor Relations (via /Film), Disney has set the film for release on April 14th, 2017. Another film involving ScarJo, Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book, has been bumped back from this October to April 15, 2016. So it looks like we'll have two ScarJo movies kicking off the summer movie season for two years in a row.

Disney's Pete's Dragon remake, which recently added Michael C. Hall to the cast, is set to arrive in theaters on August 12th, 2016. And finally, The Finest Hours, a Coast Guard rescue film starring Chris Pine and Casey Affleck, has taken The Jungle Book's original release date of October 9th, 2015. Update your calendars accordingly, movie lovers.

Who doesn't love choosing your favorite Mario universe character, jumping in a virtual go-kart, and launching some red shells at enemies while circling ludicrously-designed race tracks? Mario Kart is one of the best multiplayer video games ever made, and YouTube users Fun Facts decided to honor the game by creating a new video (via Kotaku) that lists 10 things you might not know about the franchise. I don't know about you guys, but this makes me want to power up my Wii and burn some rubber.

When Edgar Wright left Marvel's Ant-Man, we wondered when we'd finally get to see him direct a new movie. It looks like Baby Driver is going to be his next project, and now casting is getting underway. Variety reports that Ansel Elgort (Carrie, Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars) is in early talks for the lead role. (For those of you who are really into the business side of things, Variety also indicates that Working Title Films and MRC will team to finance the film, and that Sony will release it through its Tri-Star banner instead of Universal.)

The plot centers on "a talented, young getaway driver who relies on the beat of his personal soundtrack to be the best in the game. But after being coerced into working for a crime boss, he must face the music when a doomed heist threatens his life, love and freedom." The lead kid is supposedly called "Baby" because he's supposed to have a baby face, and Elgort certainly fits that description. Star Wars: The Force Awakens lead John Boyega and Logan Lerman were reportedly also trying to score this role, but it looks like Elgort is going to win it. I haven't seen anything he's done so far, so hopefully Wright knows what he's doing by casting him in this awesome-sounding rock and roll car chase film. Wright is writing and directing Baby Driver, and it should go before cameras shortly.

It's been a while since we last did a "Cosplay Attack" post. We do one of these posts when we have more cosplay photos than we know what to do with. This particular collection features three times more cosplay artists than any previous Cosplay Attack. Enjoy!

Winter Soldier Cosplay by Aaron Rivin — Photo by Dru Phillips

Hellgirl Cosplay by Alexandra Hanson — Via Geeks Are Sexy

Cyclops Cosplay by Nadya Sonika — Photo by Andreas Schneider

Merida Cosplay by Angela Bermudez — Photo by Andrés Herrera — Via Geek X Girls

Dhalsim Cosplay by E-D-G — Photo by Bigwhitebazooka

Cammy White Cosplay by Maryjane Cosplay — Photo by Darkain Multimedia

Link Cosplay by Laovaan — Photo by Echolox — Via Cosgeek

Robin Cosplay by Eve Beauregard — Photo by What A Big Camera — Via Geek X Girls

Tinkerbell Cosplay by Cupcake Disko Cosplay — Photo by Jason Collier

Sally Cosplay  — Via 9gag

Jack Skellington Cosplay by Fenski — Via Fashionably Geek

Scarlet Witch Cosplay by Kayla Ferguson — Photo by Insomniac Dream Productions

Zombie Snow White Cosplay by Jessica McCurry — Zombie Ariel Cosplay by Julia Williams — Makeup by Hillary Hunt — Photo by Jesse Newman — Via Cosplay Blog

Venom Cosplay by Mongrelman

Scorpion Cosplay by Bethany Maddock — Photo by AshB — Via Women of Comicbook Cosplay

We've been hearing about an Escape From New York remake since since 2010, and luckily for fans, it hasn't happened yet. I'm sure one day it though. Fox has recently obtained the remake rights to John Carpenter's classic 1981 film from StudioCanal.

Carpenter is on board to executive produce the remake. Some of you might think that's a good thing or a bad thing. I guess it all depends on how you feel about Carpenter's recent film work. Then there was his Escape From L.A. sequel, which wasn't very good at all. I personally think he's kind of lost his touch.

The story takes place in a dystopian Manhattan after it has been turned into a maximum security prison. It centers on a Snake Plissken, who is recruited to rescue the U.S. President after Air Force One crashes on the island and he is kidnapped. In exchange, they offer Plissken his freedom.

Any previous news on this remake doesn't really matter at this point because I'm sure that FOX will be starting from scratch. I'm a big fan of the original film, and it will be interesting to see how this remake turns out. I'm not really that excited about it, though... are you?

Source: Variety

CineFix has released their latest episode of 8-Bit Cinema, and they have perfectly recreated Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy in old-school video game form. If there's any movie that fits the world of 8-Bit/16-Bit video games, it's director James Gunn's incredibly fun adventure. This looks like it would be a really fun game to play, and I wish it actually existed.