Chris Pratt, Andy on the
brilliant NBC comedy series
Parks & Recreation, has landed the role of Peter
Quill, aka Star-Lord, for Marvel’s
Guardians of the Galaxy. Quill was born of a
human mother and alien father, and is a master strategist and combat expert who
wears an ability-enhancing suit and pilots a psychically-linked ship. While
many actors were rumored for the role, in the end, it appears, it went to an
actor that appeared on no one’s list. Pratt has comedic talents, which shine on
Parks&Rec, but he can be dramatic as well, with his appearances in the
Oscar nominated
Zero Dark Thirty and
Moneyball prove. However, the casting of
Pratt –on the heels of rumors that Marvel was looking to comedic actors as Jim
Carrey or Adam Sandler- does seem to indicate that director James Gunn plans on
adding more humor to the film. Now that the main character has been hired,
expect a fairly rapid casting of the other roles to come out soon, as the film
rolls closer to production.
The theatrical edition of The
Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey arrives on Blu-ray/DVD/download on March 12.
There will be a 3-Disc Blu-ray Combo Pack, a 5-Disc Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack, and
a 2-Disc DVD Special Edition.
We’ve more or less got
confirmation that Disney is indeed working on other Star Wars films besides the
upcoming new trilogy. Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger said in interview on CNBC that
both Larry Kasden and Simon Kinberg are working on them. This comes on the
heels of the latest rumor that there would be a stand-alone film based around
the character of Yoda. So maybe the rumor about Zac Snyder helming a Seven
Samurai style Star Wars movie reported three weeks ago is less of one now.
The saga of director Henry Selick
latest, secret project has finally been revealed. The stop-motion animator was
working on a project for Disney for a while –at least most of 2011 and into
2012. Then in May, Disney announced he would also direct a version of Neil
Gaiman’s
The Graveyard Book. But because he was working on the secret project,
no timeline was released for that Gaiman adaptation. Then in August of last
year, Dsiney pulled the plug on his secret project. That seemed to imply work on
Graveyard Book would begin, but then Disney reversed course and suddenly decided to make a live-action
version of that book, with Ron Howard attached to direct. Go that? Now it looks
like funding has been found for what will now be
The Shadow King, a “magical tale
about nine-year-old New York orphan Hap who hides his fantastically weird hands
with long fingers from a cruel world. But when a living shadow girl teaches him
to make amazing hand shadows that come to life, his hands become incredible
weapons in a shadow war against a ravenous monster bent on killing Hap’s
brother Richard and ultimately destroying New York.” It can be assumed some
work on the stop-motion film has commenced, but there is no word on what has
been completed and what still needs to be done. But the voice cast will include Jaden Betts (Disneys
Doc McStuffins), Pamela Adlon (Bobby on
King of the Hill),
Harry Potter's Brendan Gleeson, Jeffery Tambor and the great Catherine O'Hara.
Legendary make-up artist Stuart Freeborn has died in England at the age of 98. Per Film
Buff Online, his career spanned almost six decades and included classic films
such as Victoria The Great, The Thief Of Bahgdad, The Life And Death Of Colonel
Blimp, and David Lean’s Oliver Twist.
His best-known work began with Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop
Worrying and Love the Bomb by transforming Peter Sellers into three different
characters. Freeborn continued to work
with Stanley Kubrick by designing the apes in the “Dawn of Man” sequence for 2001: A Space Odyssey. But perhaps Freeborn’s most famous work was
serving as make-up supervisor on the original Star Wars trilogy, and helping to
craft the look of Chewbacca, Yoda, and Jabba the Hutt.
Actor Robin Sachs, know to Buffy
the Vampire Slayer fans as the unethical Ethan Raynes, has passed away from
undisclosed causes on February 1, just four days before his 62nd
birthday. The British born actor career took off in the early 1990’s on such
American productions as Dynasty: The Reunion and guest shots on Babylon 5 along
with Buffy, Star Trek: Voyager and Torchwood: Miracle Day. He was also the
villain –in heavy make-up- Sarris in the Star Trek inspired satirical comedy
Galaxy Quest. His other movie appearance was The Lost World: Jurassic Park and
had providing voice work for such games as Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2 & 3, SpongeBob SquarePants and last year’s CGI film Resident Evil:
Damnation.
DreamWorks has shuffled its
animation schedule, bumping their CGI reboot of the classic animated series Mr. Peabody & Sherman from November
to March of next year. Me & My
Shadow, originally scheduled to bow in March of 2014, will go back into
development at the studio. Word is that the shift comes from their production
partner, Twentieth Century Fox, who said that they’ve had a success with
animated films in March, such as Ice Age.
Of course, the cynical nature that is Hollywood –and maybe me- also notes that Mr. Peabody & Sherman originally
debuted in 1959 and has been little seen since 1970s. While for people of
certain age love this animated show that was part of Rocky and Friends, kids
today have no idea what Mr. Peabody
& Sherman is. 
