UFO movie news round-up (6 May, 2013)

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

‘Europa Report’ concept art

Check out these three new pieces of concept art for the upcoming sci-fi thriller Europa Report, which is described by Comingsoon.net as “a unique blend of documentary, alternative history and science fiction thriller [which] follows a contemporary mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, to investigate the possible existence of alien life within our solar system.”

 

 

Developed in close collaboration with NASA, JPL, SpaceX and other leaders in the scientific community, Europa Report “imagines the next step in manned space exploration and is based on recent scientific discoveries and theories.”

The film is due for theatrical release on August 2, and will be available On Demand from June 27.

Directed by Sebastian Cordero, Europa Report stars Sharlto Copley, Michael Nyqvist, Daniel Wu, Anamaria Marinca, Christian Camargo and Karolina Wydra. The film features music by Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead).

‘Men in Black 4’ planned

 

A fourth Men in Black movie is being planned, according to The Wrap. No plot details are forthcoming, and there’s no word yet on who will star, but the script is being penned by Oren Uziel, the writer behind the upcoming The Kitchen Sink, which Deadline.comdescribes as a “genre collision about the unlikely alliance between a high school-aged vampire, zombie and human as they try to save their town from invading aliens.”

‘Man of Steel’ backed by Department of Defense

 

Writing for AntiWar.com, Sean McElwee noted last week that the hotly anticipated Superman reboot, Man of Steel (which I discussed here recently in the context of UFOlogy/Exoploitics), has been backed by the US Department of Defense.

McElwee points out that, in exchange for the Pentagon’s right to edit the movie’s script and monitor its production, the superhero movie has been granted access to military facilities and hardware in order to cut its production costs. Most notably, Man of Steel will showcase the USAF’s $400 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (pictured), which is currently grounded due to flight difficulties. Reuters reported last year that the final cost of the F-35 program might be as much as $1.5 trillion dollars(!).

According to Wired, the Pentagon’s Hollywood Liaison, Phil Strub is remaining tight lipped as to whether or not the F-35 actually interacts with Superman in the new movie, but, notes Wired, “it gets the troubled aircraft program in the same sentence as the four-color symbol of truth, justice and the American way.”

Robot children to feature in Disney’s ‘Tomorrowland’, no sign yet of aliens 

The Hollywood Reporter has it that Raffey Cassidy (Snow White and the Huntsman, Dark Shadows) has joined the cast of Brad Bird's oh-so-mysterious Tomorrowland (working title 1952). The cast already includes George Clooney (as an inventor) and Hugh Laurie

According to THR: “Cassidy will play a robot child that has been around for many decades, has a history with Clooney's inventor character, and reportedly knows several different fighting styles.”

Tomorrowland has been written by Damon Lindelof (Prometheus) and Brad Bird. It is set for release on December 19, 2014. The jury’s still out on whether or not aliens might make an appearance. 

“You were only supposed to blow the bloody spaceship doors off!”

 

Deadline.com reports that Michael Caine has signed on to join the cast of Christopher Nolan’s upcoming sci-fi epic, Interstellar, which is based on the work of renowned theoretical physicist Kip Thorne (who will executive produce). Caine will star opposite Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain.

Interstellar is being described as “a heroic interstellar voyage to the furthest reaches of our scientific understanding.” It’s due for a November 7, 2014 release. UFO obsessive Steven Spielberg was originally linked to the project, so it’s hoped (by me, at least) that aliens might feature in the plot.

Michael Bay’s Turtles not as “alien” as feared

 

Speaking with Moviefone recently, Michael Bay made some clarifying statements on the nature of the ‘heroes-in-a-half-shell’ in his upcoming big screen production of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

"There was that quote saying that we’re making [the Ninja Turtles as] aliens. We're not. It’s the ooze! It’s from the original source material. These are from the original writers, and I never went out to correct myself in the press. I do listen to the fans and I do want this to be authentic. I think they’re going to be really happy with this movie. When I see the digital stuff, the turtles look great."

Bay had riled TMNT fans back in March of last year by stating that his Turtles would be “from an alien race.”

Directed by Jonathan Liebesman, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles features a screenplay by Josh Appelbaum, Andrew Nemec, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway and John Fusco, and is based on the characters created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman.

The film stars Megan Fox in the role of April O'Neil, Alan Ritchson as Raphael, Jeremy Howard as Donatello, Pete Ploszek as Leonardo, Noel Fisher as Michelangelo, Will Arnett in an unspecified role, and Danny Woodburn as Master Splinter. It is scheduled for release June 6, 2014.

UFO movie news round-up (5 April, 2013)

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Disney to remake ‘The Black Hole’

 

The Hollywood Reporter has it that Walt Disney Pictures is to remake its 1979 sci-fi epic The Black Hole, which followed the exploratory craft U.S.S. Palomino on its long journey back to Earth after a fruitless 18-month search for extraterrestrial life.

In the original movie – a shameless star wars rip-off featuring some of the most inert fight scenes ever committed to film – the crew of the Palomino stumbles across a supposedly lost ship, the U.S.S. Cygnus, which is stationed near a black hole. What the crew find onboard the Cygnus is as ‘wondrous’ (read as ‘boring’) as it is ‘terrifying’ (read as ‘really, reallyboring’).

Though the 1979 version of The Black Hole was alien-less, don’t be surprised if the remake throws in an ET element, especially as Disney has hired Jon Spaihts (Prometheus, The Darkest Hour) to rewrite the original story.

Joseph Kosinski, (Oblivion), is attached to direct. No release date yet.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ concept art

Geek Zenith has uncovered four pieces of concept art for Marvel’s upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy, which is scheduled for release August 1, 2014...

 

‘Transformers 4’ to shoot in China

 

In addition to filming in Chicago and Michigan, Paramount Pictures has announced that Michael Bay’s upcoming Transformers 4will shoot partially in China. According to an official press release:

“China Movie Channel, under the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT), will cooperate with Paramount in broad-based support of the production of the film in China.

The parties also intend to cooperate in a number of other areas related to Transformers 4, including the selection of filming sites within China, theatrical promotion, and possible post-production activities in China as well as casting of Chinese actors and actresses in the film.

This agreement represents the first time that China Movie Channel will work with a western studio in the production of a major motion picture.”

For more info on the Transformers 4 production arrangement, see here.

‘The Host’: reviews, plus comments from director

The new body-snatching alien movie The Host has received appalling reviews from critics, scoring just 10% on RottenTomatoes.com.

Manohla Dargis of the New York Times calls The Host “Dopey, derivative and dull... a brazen combination of unoriginal science-fiction themes, young-adult pandering and bottom-line calculation.” CNN’s Tom Charity criticized the tween movie for being played “with maximum solemnity,” while having “no discernible humor and minimal excitement.”

Total Film, meanwhile, slammed The Host for its dismal storytelling and “general disregard for narrative structure and pacing.”

A poorly executed movie, then, but one with an interesting premise, nevertheless. The director of The Host, Andrew Niccol, told io9.com recently that the underlying message of his film is one of coexistence:

“For me the message is… Can we coexist with each other? And even with a species from another planet. For me that's what it is, coexisting.

One of the things that attracted me to this particular story is the ambiguity of it. Which is of course a dirty word in Hollywood, because they just want either good or evil. I was just intrigued by the [question of], are these aliens really the enemy? Because they're so often portrayed as the enemy. And in this story the context is, what if they're better for the world than we are? I kind of liked that, because of course [the aliens in The Host] have ended wars and famine. They're much kinder to each other and they've healed the planet. All we lose is our free will, but it's our free will that makes this place what it is in the first place.”

UFO movie news round-up (19 March, 2013)

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Alien contact movie based on “factual data” seeks funding 

A new independent film about alien contact based on “factual data” is seeking public funding. According to io9.com, the movie – titled Ellipse– “is about a girl who is destined to be an astrophysicist. It's also about an Enlightenment-era woman who helped discover longitude. And it's about aliens. Plus, it's made by seasoned SF filmmakers in collaboration with scientists at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.”

The filmmakers behind Ellipse describe it as follows:

“Leo is from another world, many light years from Earth. He is a player in an intergalactic game, travelling to other worlds and planting the seed of knowledge about whether we are alone in the universe.

On Earth he has tried many times to point us toward the truth but our technology and the recipients of his 'sharing' have not been able to take the steps needed to unlock the secret.

Then he finds Ro, an exceptionally bright girl who he draws into the game. She becomes fated to study astrophysics and, as a grown up astronomer, her research leads her to identify a particular comet and send a lander to explore it…

The film begins over 400 years ago at The Queen's House. We meet Louise de Kerouaille, a mistress to Charles II. She was responsible for convincing the King to create the observatory as a way to map the stars and solve the problem of longitude, an amazing woman.

Next, the whole of Ro's study and the data seen in the film from the alien world is from NASA's Kepler mission and the amazing app called EXOPLANET. Hanno Rein, from the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton has chosen several stars with exoplanets to be discussed on screen and in the educational pack we are producing to support the film for schools, this will be written by Dr Lewis Dartnell and Marek Kukula, the Public Astronomer at the ROG…

Also, the whole film is being made in collaboration with the Royal Observatory Greenwich, home of the Prime Meridian.”

Ellipse needs £12,000 to get off the ground. If you want to support this movie, you can make a donation here.

‘Jupiter Ascending’ gets a release date

Warner Bros. has announced that its epic (and, by the sounds of it, completely bonkers) science-fiction movie Jupiter Ascending will be released on July 25, 2014.  

Directed by the Wachowski brothers (Cloud Atlas, The Matrix) and starring Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Eddie Redmayne, and Sean Bean, Jupiter Ascending “focuses on higher forms of life who are watching us from other worlds. Kunis will play a Russian immigrant who is busily scrubbing toilets for a living. Unbeknownst to her, she actually possesses the same perfect genetic makeup as the Queen of the Universe and is therefore a threat to her otherwise immortal rule.”

‘Defiance’: SyFy’s new alien drama reviewed

The hotly-anticipated (exopolitical?) TV series Defiancewill premiere on SyFy on April 15. io9.com has already seen the first three episodes and has delivered its verdict:

“On a Syfy scale of Battlestar Galactica to Piranhaconda, Defiance is in the upper middle. It's got heaps of promise and an amazing cast… It's got a lot of heart and so far is a lot of fun.”

For the full, spoiler-free review of Defiance– which is set on Earth 30 years after a collective of five alien races arrives, turning our civilization upside down – head on over to io9.com.

‘Monsters vs. Aliens’ TV show

DreamWorks Animation's Monsters vs. Aliensis headed to the small screen as a Nickelodeon TV series.

 

Based on the 2009 feature film, Monsters vs. Aliens tells the story of a team of monsters brought together to protect the Earth from interstellar threats.

The pilot episode – titled "Welcome to Area Fifty-Something" – will premiere on March 23, with the series proper beginning April 6.

Check out the series trailer here...
 

UFO movie news round-up (11 March, 2013)

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Nolan’s ‘Interstellar’ gets a release date

 

Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures jointly announced last week that writer/director Christopher Nolan's sci-fi epic Interstellar will be will be released beginning November 7, 2014, in theaters and IMAX. The film will be co-produced and distributed by the two studios, with Paramount Pictures on domestic distribution duties and Warner Bros. Pictures handling International distribution.

Based on a script by Jonathan Nolan, and inspired by the work of theortical physicist Kip Thorne, Interstellar will be produced by Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan. Kip Thorne will executive produce. According to Paramount, “the film will depict a heroic interstellar voyage to the furthest reaches of our scientific understanding.”

Jeff Robinov, President, Warner Bros. Pictures Group, said, "Christopher Nolan is truly one of the great auteurs working in film today, and we're extremely proud of our successful and ongoing collaboration with him and Emma Thomas. We are excited to be teaming with Paramount, and look forward to working with the Nolans, and producer Lynda Obst, on this extraordinary new project."

Interstellar was originally being developed by Steven Spielberg, who eventually let the project go due to other film commitments. Whether or not it the film’s heroic explorers will encounter alien life on their travels remains to be seen.

New ‘After Earth’ trailer

Columbia Pictures has released the new trailer for After Earth, the official synopsis for which reads as follows:

“A crash landing leaves teenager Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) and his legendary father Cypher (Will Smith) stranded on Earth, 1,000 years after cataclysmic events forced humanity’s escape. With Cypher critically injured, Kitai must embark on a perilous journey to signal for help, facing uncharted terrain, evolved animal species that now rule the planet, and an unstoppable alien creature that escaped during the crash. Father and son must learn to work together and trust one another if they want any chance of returning home.”

 

 

 

After Earth hits cinemas June 7 this year.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ will be set mainly in space

 

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has told SFX that the vast majority of the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie will take place in space.

“The Thor film and the Guardians of the Galaxy film certainly are cosmic,” he said. “Guardians and Thor will take the brunt of the cosmic side of the universe, particularly Guardians, which is 95% in space...”

Feige also added that while Guardians of the Galaxy is very much “a standalone film” in the Marvel franchise, “It takes place in the same universe” as The Avengers, “but the Avengers are not involved with what's happening out there at this time.” If that makes any sense.

Tarantino mocks ‘Prometheus’

 

Ever wondered what Quentin Tarantino thought of Prometheus? No, me neither. But now we know...

While being interviewed by Craig Ferguson late last year, Tarantino said:

"I saw Prometheus. I loved it and I was disappointed at the same time. On one hand I was a little disappointed about it. On the other hand, it was actually kind of cool to see such a big deal, serious, science fiction epic by a director like Ridley Scott. There were parts of it I actually did like and over-all the experience was really cool having been in it. There was also a lot of dumb stuff in it, though."

Tarantino then mocked what he called the “space cobra” scene where the crew’s exobiologist greets a hideous and clearly deadly alien snake-thing as if it were fluffy puppy before dying a horrible death. A contender for the dumbest scene of 2012?

Tarantino’s Prometheus comments begin at counter reading 4:48 in the video below...

 

 

UFO movie news round-up (22 Feb. 2013)

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

‘Escape from Planet Earth' reviews and box-office

Released in cinemas last week, Escape from Planet Earthhas received generally negative reviews from critics, scoring a measly 27% on RottenTomatoes.comat the time of writing. The children’s film -- which sees aliens escape from Area 51 -- has so far grossedapproximately $23 million against its $40 million budget.

In one of its more positive write-ups, The Hollywood Reporter’s Stephen Farber describes Escape from Planet Earth as “Passable animated entertainment” that is “stronger on humor than adventure.”

The Wrap’s Alonso Duralde was less kind, noting that “The kids in the theater with me never mustered a single laugh or gasp of excitement” and calling the film “a black hole of entertainment.”

Laramey Legel of Film.comis even more to the point with his observation that the film “Has it all for people looking for nothing.” Ouch. 

Megan Fox to star in ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’

Michael Bay has announced via his websitethat he will reunite with Megan Fox for his upcoming alien-flavored Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. There's no word yet on who Fox will play, but it seems almost certain she’ll take the role of reporter April O'Neil.

The good news is that Bay will not be directing TMNT, only producing it. The bad news is that the director is to be Jonathan Liebesman, who delivered the filmic abortions Battle Los Angeles and Wrath of the Titans. In case readers still care, the film will begin shooting in April and is currently scheduled for release on May 16, 2014.

‘Ben 10’ movie gets a writer

 

It was announced in 2011 that producer Joel Silver was working to bring Cartoon Network’s Ben 10 to the big screen. The project has been developing ever since, and now The Hollywood Reporter has it that Ryan Engle has been hired to rewrite the screenplay (which was previously drafted by Albert Torres).

 

The kids’ TV series is about a boy, Ben Tennyson, who discovers a strange wrist watch that allows him to transforms into 10 different aliens with super powers.

Engle is best known for his work on the forthcoming video game adaptation Rampage.

Expect a 2014 release.

‘The Host’: new trailer

The latest trailer for the up-coming body-snatching alien teen flick The Host...

 

 

 

J.J. Abrams to make ‘Half-Life’ and ‘Portal’ movies?

 

Big screen versions of the Half-Life and Portalvideo games may be on the horizon. Polygonreports that Gabe Newell – managing director of game company Valve – joined director J.J. Abrams on stage at the recent DICE Summit where the pair dropped hints that they are to team up creatively.

"There's an idea we have for a game that we'd like to work with Valve on," said Abrams, who recently signed-upto helm the new Star Wars movie for Disney and LucasFilm.

"We're super excited about that," Newell added, "and we also want to talk about making movies, either a 'Portal' movie or a 'Half-Life' movie... What we are actually doing here, we are recapitulating a series of conversations going on. We reached the point that we decided to do more than talk."

The first Half-Life game was released in 1998 and follows a theoretical physicist, Gordon Freeman, who opens a dimensional rift between a New Mexico research facility and a world of alien monsters called Xen.

Portal, meanwhile, is a spinoff of Half-Life released in 2007. In it, a test subject named Chell is forced to navigate a rival research company's laboratories armed with a device that can open portals through space.

For more discussion of the Half-Life franchise and other UFO-themed video games, check out this excellent article by Silver Screen Saucers’ pal Red Pill Junkie.

UFO movie news round-up (8 Feb. 2013)

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Illuminati to launch giant green monster into space

The Latino Review reports that the ending of Marvel's The Avengers 2will see Mark Ruffalo's Hulk lost in space and headed for his very own movie in which the temperamental superhero becomes a gladiatorial champion on an alien world. Planet Hulk will be based on Greg Pak’s 2006 storyline.

 

But just how does Hulk end up in space in the first place? According to The Latino Review, The Avengers 2 will offer its own take on the Illuminati – a “secret order” possibly comprised of Doctor Strange, Black Bolt, Charles Xavier, Reed Richards, Namor and Iron Man. It is this secret order that banishes The Hulk into space.

Planet Hulk was previously adapted into a direct-to-DVD feature in 2010.

 

Teen aliens on TV

The CW has commissioned a pilot for Oxygen, which, according to TVLine.comwill chronicle “an epic romance between a human girl and an alien boy when he and eight others of his kind (The Orion 9) are integrated into a suburban high school 10 years after they and hundreds of others landed on Earth and were immediately consigned to an internment camp where they’ve been imprisoned ever since.”

Life on Mars’ Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg are on board as Executive Producers.

‘Transformers 4’ will “freshen the franchise” 

 

With Transformers 4 due to shoot in May, director Michael Bay spoke with Forbes recently about what we can expect from his movie:

"We’re going to start off smaller," Bay toldForbes. "There’s a brand new cast. To freshen the franchise, we’ve redesigned everything from top to bottom. The history of the first three movies is still there. We start four years later and there’s a reason why we’re meeting a new cast."

Bay’s new cast includes Mark Wahlberg (who recently stated that Transformers 4 was the most important movie of his career!) and Jack Reynor.

Bay continues:

"I said that 3 was going to be my last one. Paramount was letting me do 'Pain & Gain' and the 'Transformers' ride was opening at Universal and it was bittersweet to think of passing it off. I wanted to set it up on a really sure footing and to bring someone else in on that, it would have been overwhelming."

Although Transformers 4 is offering a fresh start for the franchise, Bay stresses that this sequel will not be a reboot:

"We keep the 'Transformers' the way they were, it’s just four years later. There’s a reason the Transformers are redesigned. We’re trying to broaden the franchise and give it more places to go."

Transformers 4is scheduled for release June 27, 2014.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ finds its leading man

 

James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy has found its leading man. Deadlinereports that Zero Dark Thirtystar Chris Pratt will play Peter Quill (aka Star-Lord) in Marvel’s upcoming alien-themed movie.

Raised on Earth, the Quill character learns that his father was from outer space and is drawn into an intergalactic conflict that eventually leads to him becoming the leader of the team. This team protects the solar system from “an evil alien race”.

Guardians of the Galaxy is expected to be Marvel’s most ‘offbeat’ movie to date. It is scheduled for release August 1, 2014.