Tolkien Biopic to Be Released on May 10, 2019

The first still images from the upcoming #Tolkien biopic film have been released. They show Nicholas Hoult as the iconic #fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien. Born 1892 in South Africa, Tolkien was orphaned as a teen after his parents died. The film (directed by Dome Karukoski) will follow these formative years as he attends school in Birmingham and finds companionship with a group of outcasts.

The still images that were released offer snapshots from J.R.R. Tolkien’s life, including his younger years with future wife Edith (being played by actress Lily Collins) and the approach of World War I. The events of that war would come to impact Tolkien’s work with #TheHobbit, #TheLordOfTheRings, and #TheSilmarillion. For example, his war experience inspired The Fellowship of the Rings, and his relationship with Edith affected how he wrote the literary romance between Aragorn and Arwen.

Nicholas Hoult as J.R.R. Tolkien in “Tolkien”

Nicholas Hoult as J.R.R. Tolkien & Lily Collins as Edith Bratt in “Tolkien”

Nicholas Hoult as J.R.R. Tolkien (Right) with School Chums in “Tolkien”

Lily Collins (as Edith Bratt) & Nicholas Hoult (as J.R.R. Tolkien) in “Tolkien”

References

• See Nicholas Hoult as Lord of the Rings author in first Tolkien biopic photos
• Head’s up, Ringers! See exclusive first photos of Nicholas Hoult as ‘Tolkien’

RIP James Frawley

#RIP: actor & director James Frawley has died at the age of 82. He directed episodes of #Smallville, #Earth2 & #FaerieTaleTheatre. He also played Mr. Frisby in #MyFavoriteMartian, Manolo / Semenev / Smiling Jack in #VoyageToTheBottomOfTheSea, Pvt. Renalto in #TheOuterLimits; & more.

Our condolences to his family, friends & fans. May he rest in peace.

James Frawley (1936-2019)

References

• James Frawley, ‘The Monkees’ and ‘The Muppet Movie’ Director, Dies at 82

91st Academy Award Nominees

The 2018 #Oscar nominees have been announced and eight #SciFi & #Fantasy films have been nominated in multiple categories, including for “Best Picture”!

The eight sci-fi & fantasy films that have received at least one nomination are as follows:

• #AvengersInfinityWar
• #BlackPanther
• #ChristopherRobin
• #IsleOfDogs
• #MaryPoppinsReturns
• #ReadyPlayerOne
• “#Solo: A #StarWars Story”
• “#SpiderMan: Into the Spider-Verse”

Award Categories Breakdown

For Best Animated Film:

• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

For Costume Design:

• Black Panther (Ruth Carter)
• Mary Poppins Returns (Sandy Powell)

For Music (Original Score):

• Black Panther (Ludwig Goransso)
• Isle of Dogs (Alexandre Desplat)
• Mary Poppins Returns (Marc Shaiman)

For Music (Original Song):

• “All the Stars” from Black Panther
• “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from Mary Poppins Returns

For Best Picture:

• Black Panther

For Production Design:

• Black Panther (Production Design: Hannah Beachler; Set Decoration: Jay Hart)
• Mary Poppins Returns (Production Design: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim)

For Sound Mixing:

• Black Panther (Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor and Peter Devlin)

For Visual Effects:

• Avengers: Infinity War (Dan DeLeeuw, Kelly Port, Russell Earl and Dan Sudick)
• Christopher Robin (Christopher Lawrence, Michael Eames, Theo Jones and Chris Corbould)
• Ready Player One (Roger Guyett, Grady Cofer, Matthew E. Butler and David Shirk)
• Solo: A Star Wars Story (Rob Bredow, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Dominic Tuohy)

Total Number of Nominations for Each Film

Here’s how many nominations each sci-fi & fantasy film received:

• Black Panther: 6
• Mary Poppins Returns: 4
• Avengers: Infinity War: 1
• Christopher Robin: 1
• Isle of Dogs: 1
• Ready Player One: 1
• Solo: A Star Wars Story: 1
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: 1

References

• 91st Academy Award Nominees

EA Cancels Another “Star Wars” Video Game

#ElectronicArts (#EA) has canceled development of an open-world #StarWars game, which they had originally announced when they had also announced the shutdown of #VisceralGames back in 2017. The video game that had been under development at Visceral, codenamed #Ragtag and under the helm of Amy Henning, was being partially developed at EA’s offices in Vancouver, Canada. After the closure of Visceral, EA Vancouver totally rebooted the Ragtag project and transformed it into the open-world Star Wars game that EA was more interested in. Some of the art assets developed for Ragtag were all that was kept of Ragtag for the open-world game. (EA Vancouver handles support for a variety of the publisher’s games, including FIFA and Battlefront.)

Unlike Ragtag, EA had not shown any of EA Vancouver’s open-world Star Wars game publicly. EA talked about it when they announced Visceral’s demise. “It has become clear that to deliver an experience that players will want to come back to and enjoy for a long time to come, we needed to pivot the design,” the company said at the time. “A development team from across EA Worldwide Studios will take over development of this game, led by a team from EA Vancouver that has already been working on the project.”

EA had codenamed the open-world Star Wars game as #Orca, which would have involved playing as a scoundrel or bounty hunter who could explore various open-world planets and work with different factions across the Star Wars universe.

According to insiders, EA canceled Orca so that it could instead focus on a smaller-scale Star Wars project that they could release sooner, possibly late 2020, which coincides with possible new next-generation game consoles will be released.

Reaction to the game’s cancelation has been largely negative, including from “Rogue One” writer Gary Whitta, who said,

“It has been catastrophically mismanaged. If I were Disney, I’d be fucking furious. I saw a bunch of that game, and it looked terrific. It would have been Star Wars Uncharted.”

EA’s record with Star Wars video games is certainly mixed. While Battlefront was good, Battlefront II became highly controversial when news of EA’s micro-transactions built into the expensive game infuriated the gaming community. Only time will tell how the community reacts to the future games.

References

• EA Cancels Open-World Star Wars Game
• “Star Wars” Video Game “Ragtag” & Video Game Studio Visceral Shut Down
• AN UPDATE ON THE VISCERAL STAR WARS PROJECT
• ‘Rogue One’ Writer Rips Into EA Over Cancelled ‘Star Wars’ Game, “It Would Have Been ‘Star Wars’ Uncharted”
• “Star Wars Battlefront II” Becomes PR Nightmare for EA Games Due to In-Game Micro-Transactions

Comic Books Legend George Pérez Announces Retirement

#ComicBooks legend George Pérez has announced his retirement from comics. In a letter published on Facebook, the artist wrote,

“While I know it’s been no secret that I’ve been dealing with a myriad number of health issues (diabetes, heart ailments, vision issues, etc.), they have indeed have [sic] forced me to, for all intents and purposes, formally retire from the business of creating new comic stories.”

Pérez went on to to announce he will no longer be completing commissions, and that 2019 will be his final year making a full slate of convention appearances. He currently plans to continue to attend DragonCon and FetishCon annually.

Pérez closed his letter with the following:

“I’ve had a wonderfully good run doing exactly what I have wanted to do since I was a child. Now I can sit back and watch the stuff I helped create entertain whole new generations. That’s a pretty nice legacy to look back on.”

Pérez’ extensive works during his long career include the following:

For #MarvelComics:

• The Avengers
• Fantastic Four
• Man-Wolf
• The Inhumans
• The Infinity Gauntlet
• Sachs and Violens
• Hulk: Future Imperfect

For #DCComics:

• The New Teen Titans
• Nightwing (co-creator)
• Justice League of America
• Crisis on Infinite Earths
• Superman
• Batman
• Wonder Woman (relaunched series and introduced the Greek mythology into the character for the first time)
• The New Titans
• Deathstroke
• War of the Gods
• Silver Surfer
• Justice Society of America
• The Brave and the Bold
• Infinite Crisis
• Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds
• Green Arrow
• World’s Finest

For #MalibuComics:

• Break-thru
• Ultraforce

For #ToppsComics:

• Jurassic Park

For #GorillaComics, #EventComics & #CrossGen:

• Crimson Plague (creator)
• CrossGen Chronicles
• Solus

For #BOOMStudios:

• Sirens

We wish George Pérez a wonderful retirement and thank him for all of his contributions to comic books, science fiction & fantasy!

George Pérez

References

• The New Teen Titans Illustrator George Pérez Formally Retires From Comics Work
• George Pérez Announces his Retirement from Comics
• George Pérez Wikipedia Article

Toxic Fans Strike Again: Film Critic Receives Death Threats over “Aquaman” Review

#ToxicFans have struck again. But, this time, it has nothing to do with #StarWars. This time, it’s toxic fans of the #DCComics-based film #Aquaman. The recipient of the toxic fans’ online anger (which includes death threats to herself and to her family) is a professional film critic. Her crime in the eyes of the toxic fans? She dared to write a negative review for “Aquaman”.

The recipient of the toxic fans online outrage and harassment is film critic Mara Reinstein. She is a contributor to the publication “US Weekly”, she’s a “Top Critic” on the website #RottenTomatoes, and she operates her own website. Toxic fans have not only harassed her on those sites, they tracked her down to her personal social media accounts and began to attack her there as well: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Not everyone who sees a film is going to like it and when it comes to film critics, critiquing films and publicizing their opinions is their job. Harassment and death threats are never okay.

References

• HuffPost Guest Article: “I Got Death Threats For Writing A Bad Review Of ‘Aquaman’”

Paramount Has Reportedly Shelved “Star Trek IV”

In not-so-good news for #StarTrek fans, #Paramount has reportedly shelved plans for #StarTrekIV. Contributing factors appear to include:

• Poor box office revenue for “Star Trek Beyond”, the third film.
• Contract negotiations with Captain Kirk star Chris Pine (and Chris Hemsworth, who played his father George in the 2009 reboot) collapsed around August, 2018, which we reported about.
• Attached director S.J. Clarkson has moved on to direct the upcoming>Game Of Thrones prequel pilot.

References

• Star Trek IV Reportedly Shelved by Paramount
• Chris Pine & Chris Hemsworth ‘drop out’ of “Star Trek IV”
• ‘Game Of Thrones’ Prequel HBO Pilot: SJ Clarkson To Direct; Naomi Ackie & 7 More Cast

RIP William Morgan Sheppard

#RIP: actor William Morgan Sheppard has died at the age of 86. He played a Vulcan science minister in the #StarTrek reboot, Qatai in #Voyager, Rura Penthe Klingon commander in #TheUndiscoveredCountry, Dr. Ira Graves in #TNG; Warleader G’Sten / the soul hunter in #Babylon5; Capt. Witwhicky in #Tranformers; Old Canton Delaware in #DoctorWho; Blank Reg in #MaxHeadroom; the professor in #SeaQuest2032; Gooshie the miner in #QuantumLeap; Merrill in #Charmed; & much more, including a lot of voice work for animated productions & video games.

Our sincerest condolences to his family, friends and fans. May he rest in peace.

William Morgan Sheppard (1932-2019)

References

• William Morgan Sheppard death: Star Trek and Doctor Who actor dies aged 86