TV, Movies & Home Theatre News - Page 25

The Empire Strikes Back is returning to the big screen next Friday to celebrate its 40th anniversary.

In what could be an ill-timed event, Lucasfilm and Fandango are partnering to bring The Empire Strikes Back to theaters to commemorate the film's 40th birthday. The iconic film is regarded as the best in the series and was originally released in May 1980. Some theaters (like mine) are showing the film the entire week from Thursday, September 24 all the way to Thursday, October 1, so be sure to check your listings.

Fandango does a good job compiling everything here. Most theaters are requiring patrons to wear full facemask coverings while in the theaters, so keep that in mind too.

I'm a gigantic music score fan, with Hans Zimmer making some of the most beautiful tunes on this planet in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice -- but now it's time for Zack Snyder's Justice League.

Junkie XL has teased his Justice League theme on Twitter for Zack Snyder's Justice League, teased during the huge DC FanDome event. Take a listen above, and if you're like me -- prepare for goosebumps. Junkie XL is working side-by-side with legendary composer Hans Zimmer on the score for Zack Snyder's Justice League (more on that here), who worked on Zack Snyder's Man of Steel and Batman v Superman.

Junkie XL was scoring the original Justice League, but was thrown out like trash when Warner Bros. used Zack Snyder's daughter taking her own life in the post-production of Justice League -- to remove them all. They changed the movie completely, which is an entire story on its own -- and used Danny Elfman to score the movie.

It looks like even The Batman himself has been stopped by COVID-19, with production on the Matt Reeves directed film paused yet again.

Robert Pattinson, who plays Bruce Wayne / The Batman in the movie has tested positive for COVID-19. Vanity Fair has the exclusive, reporting that Warner Bros. said an effected crew member "is isolating in accordance with established protocols".

Vanity Fair explains: "A member of The Batman production has tested positive for Covid-19, and is isolating in accordance with established protocols. Filming is temporarily paused".

Time to re-up your subscription: The Mandalorian season 2 will premiere October 30, 2020 on Disney+, Lucasfilm today announced.

Disney's popular gunslinger lone wolf bounty hunter is back for another season of monster-of-the-week action, spin-off storylines, and of course, Baby Yoda. Season 2 promises big things for the series including a deeper look at the mysterious Mandalorian darksaber wielded by Moff Gideon.

No exact details on season 2 have been revealed so far but expect more of the same only better. The Mandalorian premieres October 30, 2020 on the Disney+ subscription service.

Chadwick Boseman tragically passed away on August 29, after going through a huge 4-year battle with colon cancer.

Twitter has since confirmed that the last tweet on Boseman's account from his family, announcing he had passed away, has become the most-liked tweet in Twitter history. Boseman might have passed away, but what a way to go out as the King of Wakanda.

The obituary tweet quickly gained traction, with over 7.2 million likes -- and unfortunately, records like this shouldn't be broken with someones death. It's just so unfortunate, RIP Mr. Boseman -- King T'Challa of Wakanda.

NVIDIA has just announced the latest software update for its Shield TV lineup of products, with the SHIELD Software Experience Upgrade 8.2 now available.

The company is celebrating over 5 years of Shield TVs being on the market, with the new update a significant one that has a stronger AI upscaler for the 2019 Shield TV and 2019 Shield TV Pro units. The new upgrade allows 360p and 1440p content to be upscaled with AI up to 4K, joining the current 720p and 1080p content being AI-upscaled to 4K.

Not only that, but NVIDIA has also added support for 60FPS video on 2019 Shield TV Pros, and in the weeks ahead the company promises "In the weeks ahead, following an update to the NVIDIA Games app in September, we'll add 4K 60fps upscaling to GeForce NOW".

As cinemas across the country begin to reopen slowly, Hollywood directors are publicly telling Americans not to attend theaters to see Tenet.

If you didn't know, Tenet is Christopher Nolan's, the director behind Inception, The Dark Knight Trilogy and Interstellar, newest movie to be released. Now, Hollywood directors are telling the public not to attend cinemas for safety reasons regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson has taken to his personal Twitter to say, "Don't go see Tenet or any other movie in a theater. There, I said it."

Additionally, Joe and Anthony Russo, who are the directors for Marvel's Avengers: Endgame, recently stated in an interview that going to a movie theater with the current state of the pandemic is far too risky. Joe Russo said, "I think everyone has a different threshold for risk, it seems, in the country right now. I think that really depends what your threshold for risk is, but certainly being in an enclosed space is a high-risk situation."

After the recent trilogy and failure of movies like Solo, Lucasfilm is going through a period of deep introspection before it ramps up new film production.

Star Wars is taking a break for a bit so Disney can really go back to the franchise's roots. Lucasfilm is currently examining George Lucas' mythos more closely so it can make more meaningful original experiences, not unlike The Mandalorian. This slowed-down approach has led to more critical fanfare and reduced the chances of huge box office misses.

According to Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy says the company needs more time to digest the deep lore of Star Wars that's been built up over the last four decades. Only then can they start to comfortably push into their own trailblazing efforts and expand the universe.

Batman was last seen in Justice League, and before that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice -- but the next Batman movie is very different. We now have our first trailer to The Batman, check it out:

You can see that Robert Pattinson is shaping up to be a great take on Bruce Wayne, with what seems to be the darkest and possibly most unhinged Batman we've had yet. Even more hardcore than the Batman that Ben Affleck played in Batman v Superman in the warehouse fight scene, where he goes absolutely ballistic and takes down 15+ guys at once.

We get a great look at the super-unique Batman costume that director Matt Reeves has shining in his shots of The Batman, as well as our first proper look at the new Batmobile. The Batman drops on October 1, 2021 afterproduction on The Batman halted back in March 2020 over the COVID-19 pandemic.

It's here... it's finally here. I woke up and immediately watched this today, shed a lot of tears -- and now I'm writing this news. Check out the trailer to Zack Snyder's Justice League in all its glory:

Pushing the absolute steaming pile of trash that WB and Joss Whedon put out with the theatrical release of Justice League -- stabbing original director Zack Snyder in the back when his daughter tragically took her own life towards the end of Justice League production.

Well, the fans pushed and pushed (myself included) and we got what we wanted: the original vision of Zack Snyder for Justice League. It's coming to HBO Max, will be a 4-part series at a total runtime of 4 hours (holy freaking crap, so awesome to see) and drops in 2021 on HBO Max and another form of release that we'll know more about soon.