TV, Movies & Home Theatre News - Page 25

If you're stuck at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, or settling in for the holidays -- then you'll be glad to know that you can watch the first 19 movies in the James Bond franchise for free right now.

Out of nowhere, the first 19 James Bond movies have been bundled into YouTube's "Free to Watch" section in the US. This means only US viewers can watch a bunch of different James Bond movies -- pretty much every single one without Daniel Craig -- for free right now.

You can go back and watch Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye, living out the nostalgia of that movie and memories of playing Goldeneye 007 on the Nintendo 64. You could go back further and watch the older James Bond movies with Sean Connery in them as well, but if you want some of the newer James Bond movies starring Daniel Craig -- they aren't included.

Warner Bros. today announced a new hybrid distribution model for its films: Simultaneous release on HBO Max and in theaters.

Warner Bros. Pictures plans to premiere its entire 2021 movie slate on HBO Max as well as theaters. The slate consists of 17 movies including The Matrix 4, Denis Villeneuve's Dune remake, the new Space Jam starring LeBron James, the Mortal Kombat adaption, and the Suicide Squad remake.

New movies will be available on HBO Max streaming for a month after they're released, and will be pulled after the month is over.

If you've got a spare $50K laying around then you might want to take a gander at Samsung's gigantic and life-changing and living room changing and everything changing 98-inch 8K TV for $50,000 -- down from its original prrice of $100,000.

Yeah, a $50,000 discount on Samsung's 98-inch Q900 HDR 8K QLED TV and its regular price of $100,000 right now on B&H. Samsung has one of the biggest and best TVs on the market with its 98-inch Q900 HDR 8K QLED TV, so imagine what it would be like plugged into a grunty gaming PC.

I think it would be blasphemy to hook up an Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5 to it, but I guess if you had the money for this TV then a handful of Benjamins for a next-gen console is nothing.

Amazon Studios has just announced early renewal for Season 6, which will be its last season -- just on the edge of Season 5 debuting on Amazon Prime in December 16.

Deadline reports that production on Season 6 of The Expanse will begin on January 20, 2021 -- but the start date could change given the on-going COVID-19 pandemic affecting shooting schedules. The Expanse started off on Syfy, but was cancelled in 2018 -- after which fans launched a huge Save Our Show campaign and Amazon bought the show.

The Expanse Season 4 was released in December 2019 as an Amazon Original Series, with Season 5 debuting on December 16 -- not too far away now!

I wrote an article just under a week ago, saying Wonder Woman 1984 debuting on HBO Max could be just what we need -- and it seems I was right.

Warner Bros. Pictures have just announced that Wonder Woman 1984, after many delays related to COVID-19, we have a new release date: Christmas Day, or December 25, 2020. Overseas, Wonder Woman 1984 will debut in cinemas on December 16 in markets where HBO Max isn't available.

Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins explains: "The time has come. At some point you have to choose to share any love and joy you have to give, over everything else. We love our move as we love our fans, so we truly hope that our film brings a little bit of joy and reprieve to all of you this holiday season".

Wonder Woman 1984 was meant to open up on June 5, 2020 -- but the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to that. It was pushed to August 14, and then again to October 2 -- and then another delay to December 25... but we might not be finished yet.

Warner Bros. executives are now reportedly talking about delaying Wonder Woman 1984 into the summer of 2021, or alternatively, release it on December 25 and throw it on their new streaming service HBO Max in January 2021. The latter, is how I think it should go down.

Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins is a big fan of cinema, making WW84 for the big screen, meanwhile a Warner Bros. representative wasn't clear on what was happening with WW84, but did say: "'WW84' will be in theaters".

Production for Amazon's Lord of the Rings TV show has already begun, and now the director has revealed filming has reached a milestone.

The director for the coming TV show, J.A Bayona, took to his Instagram story and took a photo of himself and said, "This is my face of having completed more than half the weeks of shooting. More tomorrow!". We can assume he is talking about the Lord of the Rings TV show from the emoji's he used at the end of the statement, which were wizards and elves.

Bayona has previously directed Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and will be directing the series's first two episodes. For those who don't know, the show's filming is taking place in New Zealand, and we can assume that production is running slightly behind schedule due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, New Zealand has recently listed all restrictions for Auckland.

Warner Bros. has once again delayed The Batman, with its original release of June 25, 2021 pushed out -- then once again when The Batman himself Robert Pattinson was confirmed with COVID-19 -- and now again, into 2022.

The Batman had a delayed release scheduled for October 2021 after its push from June 25, 2021 -- and has been delayed now through to March 4, 2022. This is another 6 months out from its October 2021 schedule, while other movies in the DC franchise have been affected, too.

Shazam 2 will now open on June 2, 2023 instead of its original release of November 4, 2022 -- while Black Adam was scheduled for December 22, 2021 and has been removed from WB's calendar entirely, reports Variety.

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.