The balcony is now closed.

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Disney buys LucasFilm! I am confused!

So I’m casually working away when I get a tip from a friend that Disney had just announced something major.

I hit my sources on the web and I find out this:

Then a short while later I found this at starwars.com:

And I really don’t know how to react.

Star Wars has always been a major part of my life since my brother and I had my dad drive us to the St. Louis Park theater to see Episode IV  (even though it wasn’t labelled like that when we saw it) just after we’d gotten off a three hour bus ride to spend the weekend with him…we got the last two seats in the house as I recall.

I read the Empire Strikes Back novel before I saw Episode V in the theater…the local drugstore got the book and put it on the shelf before they were supposed to and I read the book while I was working on the air at my first radio job.

Episode VI was fun and wrapped things up quite well and the Ewoks were cute and all but I left the theater kind of let down as I remember because I expected something a little more…grand I guess.

Move forward to when I was working in Omaha, Nebraska as a Manager for Spectrum Audio/Video and Camelot Music. Through hard work and pre-sales at a VERY reduced price, we sold more copies of this:

than any other store in the entire chain. I don’t even remember how many we sold or at what price.  I just know my local distributor was happy with the extra order from me plus the ones I got direct from the Camelot warehouse filled our little backroom to overflowing. And I got a cool bonus from the company that then fired me less than a year later. I still have mine and it looks better than my DVD’s.  I haven’t gotten the Blu-Rays…Christmas is coming…maybe this year.

I can honestly say I really didn’t care much for Episodes I-III.  Maybe I’d grown old (I did).  Maybe they really weren’t aimed at me (they weren’t). At least I discovered Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor through them!  Plus Samuel L. Jackson was a great Jedi!

I’m kind of hopeful for a theatrical rebirth of the franchise.  I know Clone Wars has been very successful and the stories and animation are very good.  There are some great novels out there as well and the games look good too but I’m not really a gamer, although 1313 has me wanting to play again at the age of 49.

Disney purchasing Marvel opened up a whole new legion of fans through the movies they’ve done together so far. If Kathleen Kennedy can guide LucasFilm along with the marketing muscle of Disney around the world, we could be in for some very good times starting in 2015.

For the first time for me in a long time concerning the Star Wars Universe, I have “A New Hope”!

Step Up to the box office, just Watch what you’re seeing!

The thing I’m most excited about this week isn’t even a movie, it’s the trailer for Cloud Atlas:

I haven’t read the book, in fact I knew very little about this movie until now, but I can’t wait for October 26th now!

As the summer film window begins to wind down, we start seeing some of the releases that the studios hope will see some traffic against the blockbusters that they are still out there.

Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill star in The Watch, about a neighborhood watch team that stumbles upon an alien plot to take over the earth!

Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg with some liberal improv from Ben, Vince and Jonah…if you want to laugh this weekend here’s a sure bet!

The Step Up series of movies is back with Step Up Revolution, as a dance troupe tries to create change and prevent a neighborhood from being destroyed through dance!

I’m not too into these movies,but if you like to watch some good dance moves..head for this!

Another movie trailer that looks amazing is for Ang Lee’s take on the novel Life of Pi:

Here’s one for next spring called Epic, an animated film from the folks that brought you Ice Age and Rio:

Coming soon on Blu-Ray….Jaws!

This hits the shelves on August 14th! This is a must have!

C’ya Tuesday for the weekend review!

 

 

I posted the following on my Facebook page  about Dark Knight Rises, and just wanted to share it with all my followers: I just wanted to add how terrible I feel about what happened in Colorado. A movie theater should be a place to put aside the troubles of the real world and kick back and have a little fantasy time. Reality has never put it’s foot inside of a cinema like this before…and I hope it never does again. I’ll just add in what Christopher Nolan said in his statement about this tragedy, “I believe movies are one of the great American art forms and the shared experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and joyful pastime. The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me.” I couldn’t have put it any better that he does…but even I admit it’ll be a bit before I feel like it’s home again for me. We knew it would do well:

1		The Dark Knight Rises (2012)	$161M	$161M	1
2		Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)	$20.4M	$88.8M	2
3		The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)	$10.9M	$229M	3
4		Ted (2012)	$10M	$180M	4
5		Brave (2012)	$6.02M	$209M	5
6		Magic Mike (2012)	$4.29M	$102M	4
7		Savages (2012)	$3.4M	$40.1M	3
8		Madea’s Witness Protection(2012)	$2.25M	$60.3M	4
9		Moonrise Kingdom (2012)	$1.83M	$36.1M	9
10		To Rome with Love (2012)	$1.42M	$11.1M	5

It’s been a fairly strong summer at the box office between Avengers, Amazing Spider-Man, Brave and now the Dark Knight Rises.  It’ll be interesting to see how this summer compares to the past. Not much out on video today but one set has been eagerly awaited by it’s die hard fans.

Here’s a real good comparison trailer:

Game of Thrones Season One is out today on Blu-Ray as well.  Here’s a clip from the Blu-Ray that sets up the entire story:

Here’s a preview from the season:

Over on Starz, Kelsey Grammer stars in Boss, and you’ve never seen him like this:

 

As far as movies I’m excited to see…how about the latest production video from The Hobbit:

In front of Dark Knight Rises came the first trailer for next summer’s reboot of Superman. Man of Steel.  there are two different trailers, one with the voice of Jor-El done by Russell Crowe and the other with the voice of Jonathan Kent done by Kevin Costner.

Just to trow it in, here’s the international trailer for Django Unchained:

Don’t be a Stooge, mi Padre!

As expected, Ice Age: Continental Drift tops the weekend box office:

1		Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)	$46.6M	$46.6M	1
2		The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)	$34.6M	$201M	2
3		Ted (2012)	$22.4M	$159M	3
4		Brave (2012)	$11.2M	$196M	4
5		Savages (2012)	$9.39M	$32.1M	2
6		Magic Mike (2012)	$9.02M	$91.8M	3
7		Madea’s Witness Protection (2012)	$5.58M	$55.6M	3
8		Katy Perry: Part of Me (2012)	$3.8M	$18.7M	2
9		Moonrise Kingdom (2012)	$3.7M	$32.5M	8
10		Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (2012)	$3.67M	$204M	6

Amazing Spider-Man swings in with 201 million in it’s first two weeks while Seth MacFarlane’s Ted earns another 22.4 million to have a 159 million dollar take in 3 weeks.

Out on video in whatever form you take it today:

Sean Hayes, Will Sasso and Chris Diamantopolous team with the Farrelly brothers for a modern take on The Three Stooges.  It’s a good homage to the guys but nothing can beat the originals!

Will Ferrell tries comedy in Spanish with Casa de mi Padre.  It’s actually really funny once you get past the fact that the jokes are both on screen and in the subtitles!

Quite a few of the cast members of Bridesmaids appear in Friends With Kids, written and directed by Jennifer Westfeldt about two frinds who decide to have a child together but keep thir relationship platonic.

On the more serious side (not really…it’s actually got some great humor in it), Salmon Fishing In The Yemen stars Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt as McGregor plays a fisheries expert asked to introduce fishing to a desert oasis.

Mel Gibson returns to his Mad Max/Lethal Weapon form in Get The Gringo…and boy is it fun!

One of my all time favorite films is out in a 60th Anniversary Blu-Ray edition today:

Singin’ In The Rain is a must have for any collection!

 

 

And suddenly…three months have passed….that’s an Ice Age in the movie business!

I’d say I’ve been busy (which I have been) but that’s no real excuse.  So instead let’s move on and see what can be found in theaters this week!

 

 

The whole gang is back for Ice Age: Continental Drift plus a few new folks including Aziz Ansari, Jennifer Lopez, Drake and more!  It’s almost like a mini reboot for the franchise and there’s already been talk that some of the voice tracks for a fifth installment have already been recorded.  Let’s hope so…these have been some of the funniest animated films over the last decade.

 

Comic-Con is going on this weekend in San Diego and it’s become the place where all the film studios release info on the movies we’ll be checking out next year and beyond.

The big buzz yesterday was created for films coming from Disney.

Sam Raimi is teaming with the Mouse House to deliver “Oz, The Great and Powerful”.  Based more on the Baum book but still giving a nod to Warner’s “The Wizard of Oz”, it stars James Franco as the Wizard and features Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz and looks amazing!  It’s due out next summer.

Also from Disney is “Wreck-It Ralph”, about a video game bad guy who doesn’t want to be the bad guy anymore.  With voice work from John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer and Jane Lynch and appearances from tons of your favorite video game characters…this looks like tons of fun!

Tim Burton and Disney are teaming again, this time for a full version of Tim’s short film “Frankenweenie” about a boy who brings his dog back to life.

They also showed footage from next year’s “The Lone Ranger” with Arnie Hammer in the title role and Johnny Depp as Tonto.  I’ll add footage if it gets posted.

Out in a few weeks is “Dredd” starring Karl Urban as Judge Dredd.  The following clip is very violent and bloody…kids click at your own peril!

Sony showed an IMAX trailer for the James Bond film “Skyfall” it should be attached to “The Dark Knight Rises” next week.  Here’s the original teaser trailer from a month or two ago.

Since I mentioned “The Dark Knight Rises”, I’ll be at the midnight show on Thursday night at the Ho-Chunk Cinema in Tomah to watch it if anyone cares to join me.  Strap yourselves in…it’s just a shade under two hours and forty-five minutes long!

It’s good to be back…it’s a great time for films!