Photo of the Day: Our First Look at Star Wars: Episode VII's Stormtrooper?

The website known as Making Star Wars posted a cool update featuring a photo of an updated Stormtrooper helmet that is apparently from Star Wars: Episode VII. Look closely at the pic below, and you can make out at least four more helmets (mostly by staring at the ceiling lights reflecting off the white armor) that lucky background actors at Pinewood Studios (where the majority of J.J. Abrams' upcoming and highly-anticipated movie is being filmed) near London and elsewhere will get to wear as what remains of the Empire wreaks havoc on the Galaxy in Episode VII. I'm a huge fan of the designs for the Clonetroopers in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, respectively, but it is totally great to see Abrams creating real costumes for extras and actors to wear for these soldiers...as opposed to the computer-generated army that George Lucas opted to portray in the last two Star Wars prequels. Old school is awesome.

Rest In Peace, Robin Williams...

From the Genie in 1992's Aladdin to a man trying to rescue his wife in the afterlife in 1998's What Dreams May Come to his hilarious role as the head of a marketing company in this year's short-lived CBS TV show, The Crazy Ones, Robin Williams was a totally brilliant actor. Much like everyone else, I remember his portrayal as a wacky alien in the classic TV series, Mork and Mindy, and recall his dark performance as an obsessed photo developer in 2002's One Hour Photo. There are too many memorable movies to mention here that had Robin Williams' comic and Academy Award-winning brilliance in them (like Good Will Hunting, Patch Adams and Mrs. Doubtfire), but one thing is clear, the world will forever miss the heartfelt and geniune hilarity that this man brought to the big and small screen...and elsewhere. God bless you, Robin Williams.

Go Ninja, Go Ninja GO!

In honor of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being unleashed in theaters nationwide today, just thought I'd share this image that I took when I worked at ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood last Tuesday. There was a photo booth inside the lobby where theater patrons could take a picture with the Heroes in a Half Shell superimposed behind them (you're standing in front of a blue screen) and get the image e-mailed to you afterwards. The Ninja Turtles are supposed to be about 7 feet in height, so I think the scale in this photo is correct.

And yes, I do intend to watch the Michael Bay-produced action flick starring Megan Fox sometime this weekend. Autobots, roll out! Oops— Wrong franchise.

Movie News from Comic-Con...

With Comic-Con 2014 now a thing of the past, just thought I'd share these images that were released at the expo or on the Internet around the time these films had their Hall H panels at the San Diego Convention Center. One of the biggest highlights of last week, of course, was the photo above that revealed the lovely Gal Gadot (from the last three Fast & Furious movies) as Wonder Woman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. This was preceded by this pic below showing another glimpse of Ben Affleck as the Dark Knight in Zack Snyder's highly-anticipated film. Another huge highlight for Batman v Superman was the teaser video that Snyder presented to a large crowd during the movie's panel at Hall H last Saturday...which revealed a brooding Caped Crusader flashing the Bat Signal into Gotham City's night sky, only to reveal a hovering Superman staring down at Batman with glowing red eyes on the Man of Steel's face. The video immediately leaked onto the Web and has since been taken down at the behest of Warner Bros., but all you need to know is: Batman v Superman is gonna be epic.



Not to be outdone by the WB and DC Comics are Disney and Marvel Studios, who revealed the awesome poster below for Avengers: Age of Ultron. Not only do we see Iron Man, Captain America and company taking on a massive army of robots built by Ultron, the film's main antagonist, but we also take a glimpse of Paul Bettany's The Vision hovering in the poster's background (he's the caped figure in the upper-left corner), as well as Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Quicksilver and Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch joining the fray against Ultron's metallic minions. Also revealed at Comic-Con were posters for next year's Mad Max: Fury Road, starring The Dark Knight Rises' Tom Hardy as the title character made famous by Mel Gibson in the original 1979 flick. The WB had more news to be shared, with Godzilla set to fight the classic monsters Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah in a sequel to this year's hit film, and King Kong (who we last saw taking Naomi Watts up to the top of the Empire State Building in Peter Jackson's 2005 remake) slated to return in 2016's Skull Island.



Comic-Con 2015 looks to be action-packed...with a panel by Disney and Lucasfilm that will hopefully reveal some great footage or movie displays from Star Wars: Episode VII, as well as previews of 2016 flicks (besides Batman v Superman) like X-Men: Apocalypse, Avatar 2, Captain America 3, Prometheus 2 and the Independence Day sequel, ID Forever Part I. The chances of me visiting Comic-Con next year are pretty slim (despite the fact San Diego is only a 2-hour drive from me), but I can't wait to read news from this expo once they get posted online next July. That is all!

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Artwork courtesy of The Hobbit Fan Page - Facebook.com

Posted above is the new teaser poster for Peter Jackson's upcoming conclusion to The Hobbit trilogy, The Battle of the Five Armies. This awesome artwork will be autographed by none other than Jackson at the WB booth at San Diego Comic-Con...which starts tomorrow. There will be a special panel about The Battle of the Five Armies in Hall H on Saturday, July 26 (at 10 AM)...while the autograph session will take place afterwards at 12:30 PM.

The production still below featuring Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) taking part in said battle was released online a few days ago.


Photo courtesy of The Hobbit Fan Page - Facebook.com

Star Wars: Episode VII... The New X-Wing Is (Officially) Revealed

Earlier today, another video was released by Lucasfilm and Disney that promoted the Star Wars: Force for Change campaign...which ends later this week. Along with asking viewers to make one last donation to this UNICEF-inspired program, director J.J. Abrams also (officially) revealed to the world an updated version of the X-Wing starfighter that will be featured in Star Wars: Episode VII. This X-Wing was initially shown in leaked photos that were posted online more than a month ago...when the craft was being constructed in a secure location outside of Pinewood Studios near London. What I want to know is...who's playing the X-Wing pilot that climbs aboard the starfighter in this video? A principal actor (like John Boyega)? A lucky background performer [which I totally wish was me—assuming the flight suit fit my size, which I doubt (I'm Filipino, FYI)]? Or a studio employee at Pinewood? Hmm.

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Back in the Day: DUMB & DUMBER Celebrates the Moon Landing!

45 years ago today, the astronauts of Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. Leave it to Lloyd Christmas to share his excitement about this momentous achievement...even if he was a couple of decades too late in doing so. I love Dumb & Dumber! And can't wait for the sequel to get released in theaters this November, hah.


Image courtesy of Dumb and Dumber - Facebook

Avengers: Age of Ultron... The Main Baddie Is Revealed!

Check out the cover for an upcoming issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine...which will feature none other than Ultron, the main villain of the next Avengers movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron. Stating the complete obvious aside, Ultron looks pretty cool. Can't wait to see how James Spader will portray this sinister robot (which Tony Stark apparently creates himself in the movie; damn you, Stark!) when the highly-anticipated sequel comes out in theaters on May 1, 2015. Stay tuned.

Star Wars: Episode VII... IMAX and Cast-Related News

So it was just revealed yesterday on the Twitter page of Bad Robot, J.J. Abrams' production company, that IMAX cameras will be used for the filming of Star Wars: Episode VII. This is great news... Seeing as how Abrams is shooting the next Star Wars movie entirely on film (whether it's 35mm, 65mm or 70mm IMAX celluloid), here's hoping that it will look as great as the images seen in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy [which was also shot entirely on film and employed the ultra-large screen format (without the use of conversion during post-production) as well].

Also, Lucasfilm announced last week that two new actors have joined the cast of Episode VII: Crystal Clarke and Pip Andersen. Welcome aboard! Mentioned in that same press release is news that production will shut down for two weeks next month as Abrams and company reorganize the shooting schedule while Harrison Ford—who broke a leg during filming at Pinewood Studios near London several weeks ago—recuperates from his injury. Wishing Han Solo a full and speedy recovery.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice...

Warner Bros. has just released a promo pic of Henry Cavill in his updated Man of Steel suit for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. We already know how Ben Affleck's Batman and his Batmobile will look in the flick (which will be out in theaters on May 6, 2016), what we need to see now is the lovely Gal Gadot dressed as Wonder Woman...or Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. Carry on.