TV, Movies & Home Theatre - Page 18

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.

The Matrix 4 has resumed filming after production halted for the COVID-19 pandemic, but now Laurence Fishburne -- who played Morpheus in the original Matrix Trilogy, has said he's not coming back for The Matrix 4.

During an interview with SyFy Wire, Fishburne explained: "No. I have not been invited. Maybe that will make me write another play. I wish them well. I hope it's great". Although, Fishburne did have something to add when it came to his iconic role as Morpheus.

Fishburne explained: "It is probably the role that I'll be best remembered for, which is great; it's not the only thing I'll be remembered for, which is better. What I get with him is I've got Darth Vader in this hand, and I've got Obi-Wan in that hand. I've got Bruce Lee, I've got Muhammad Ali shuffled in there, and I've got kung fu".

We all know what that iconic 3-second Netflix intro sounds like, with its kinda-tired "ta dum" sound looking to be replaced by something much more epic by composer Hans Zimmer.

Hans Zimmer's new intro for Netflix can be heard on the above tweet, and it seems like it is coming directly to Netflix original movies coming to cinema -- although right now, cinema is shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing.

I'm a huge Hans Zimmer fan, and saw him with a live orchestra a few years ago and it quickly became one of the best experiences of my life. My favorite soundtrack of all time would have to be Man of Steel (my review on the movie here), followed by Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (my review on the soundtrack here) -- and this new Netflix theme by Hans Zimmer has major Man of Steel vibes.

If you're a fan of the Resident Evil franchise of movies, then you'll be glad to know Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has just announced the Resident Evil 4K Ultra HD Collection.

The new Resident Evil 4K Ultra HD Collection will include Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Apocalypse (both the original theatrical version and an extended cut), Resident Evil: Extinction, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Resident Evil: Retribution, and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter as well as hours of bonus content for all six films.

Not only will you get the physical 4K UHD Blu-ray discs, but you'll get digital copies available in 4K HDR. There will also be "rare archival featurettes that have been previously unavailable".

Keanu Reeves is a busy, busy man -- especially when you mess with his dog.

Lionsgate has just confirmed that John Wick 5 is coming, and that Keanu Reeves is rescheduling his time to shoot both John Wick 4 and John Wick 5 back-to-back in early 2021.

So yeah, he's back.

What's old is new again: Ren and Stimpy is coming back as a new series on Comedy Central.

ViacomCBS today announced 90s favorite Ren and Stimpy will return as a "reimagined" show on Comedy Central. No details have been revealed on whether or not John Kricfalusi, who's been mired in controversy, would return to voice Ren Hoek, or if his Spumco animation company would be attached to the project.

The press release specifically states the new Ren and Stimpy reboot will be a part of the company's push towards adult-oriented content, presumably in a bid to compete with Turner's Adult Swim network. This new push includes revamps of Beavis and Butthead with Mike Judge at the helm, and a new Daria spin-off series called Jodie.

We all knew it was coming -- but now it's here: our first "official" look at the black suit Superman from Zack Snyder's Justice League.

The new footage of Superman in the iconic black suit was shown off during Justice Con, a virtual event where Snyder just finished chatting a few minutes ago and unveiled the footage. It has quickly set the Snyder Cut movement on fire, as I woke up to this news and instantly had tears in my eyes.

Snyder has promised much more footage of his cut of the movie in Zack Snyder's Justice League at DC FanDone in August.

This weekend is a big one for Snyder Cut fans, with the community-organized and run Justice Con event happening on July 25-26 where Zack Snyder himself will make an appearance.

Snyder is expected to show off some new footage to Zack Snyder's Justice League, where during an interview with Grace Randolph he said that he "may show a clip" of his movie. He quickly corrected himself, adding: "It is a small clip - oh, I mean, I may".

At this point, even a 30-second clip would blow the lid off of the internet -- at least in the very tightly contained fanbase this move(ment) has. I've been a part of it since day one, and if we see a proper 30-second clip from Zack Snyder's Justice League this weekend, I'm going to lose my shit.

Tenet has to be the biggest movie of 2020 that has been affected so badly because of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, which has shut most of the world down and especially entertainment-focused businesses like cinemas.

Warner Bros. has now officially delayed Christopher Nolan's new epic Tenet, indefinitely.

US cinemas were pegging their hopes on their doors being re-opened and a big tent pole like Tenet bringing in millions of customers. Well, it's not happening. Tenet was due for release on July 17, 2020 but was delayed until July 31 and then eventually delayed until August 12 -- and now once again, indefinitely.

Netflix has just announced The Grey Man, its most expensive original movie ever -- directed by The Russo Brothers, who directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the record-breaking Avengers: Endgame.

The Grey Man is based on Mark Greaney's The Gray Man series of books, which explores the world of an assassin -- Court Genrtry (who in the movie, will be played by Ryan Gosling). Gentry is an ex-CIA operative, an assassin, and a "a legend in the covert realm".

Chris Evans, who portrayed Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies, will play the villainous CIA agent who has to hunt Gosling's character down.

Man of Steel was released back in 2013 and had a 'sequel' in the form of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but there was no direct sequel to the movie. But now, we're teased with Man of Steel: Cerebral, which could feature Brainiac -- thanks for the excitement, Boss Logic.

Superman fans and myself included, hoped that Man of Steel director Zack Snyder would announce something Man of Steel 2-ish when he revealed Zack Snyder's Justice League, which will be an HBO Max exclusive in 2021 -- but nothing happened.

Now we have the team at Boss Logic teasing the world on Twitter with a simple tweet saying "Let the mind games begin #manofsteel 2" and tagging Zack Snyder himself. The sequel here in this mind game is called Man of Steel: Cerebral, a nod towards Brainiac.