Blog

NBC’s Sound of Music Live! was a bit of a disaster as an actual musical production. Lead Carrie Underwood couldn’t act to save her life, and as a result the whole thing kind of fell flat. But Sound of Music Live! was an unambiguous success in terms of ratings, with 18.62 million viewers tuning in.

So NBC is trying the live musical thing again this winter with Peter Pan Live!, starring Allison Williams as the boy who never grew up and Christopher Walken as his embittered pirate nemesis. Watch the Peter Pan Live trailer after the jump.

NBC unveiled the new Peter Pan Live trailer on YouTube.

While we’ve seen pics of Williams and Walken in costume before, the new Peter Pan Live! promo offers a better taste of what they’ll look like in action. Walken looks much more like himself than he did on the poster, and he definitely brings his own spin to the character. As exec producer Neil Meron commented in a behind-the-scenes video, “The Christopher Walken way of playing Hook is the Christopher Walken way of playing Hook.”

As for Williams, she looks like she’s having a grand old time in what she’s called “the absolute dream job.” And that’s not just idle chatter. When she won the gig, her father Brian Williams got to make the announcement on his program, NBC Nightly News. “Family members confirm she’s been rehearsing for this role since the age of three, and they look forward to seeing her fly,” he said.

Brian Williams’ report is worth seeing if only for the adorable photo of a 3-year-old Allison in full Pan regalia. It starts around 0:25 below:

Peter Pan Live! airs Thursday, December 4 at 8/7c. Also starring are Minnie Driver as the adult Wendy Darling, Christian Borle as Mr. Smee and Mr. Darling, Kelli O’Hara as Mrs. Darling, Taylor Louderman as the young Wendy, and Alanna Saunders as Tiger Lily.

The post NBC’s ‘Peter Pan Live!’ Trailer Features a Very Christopher Walken-y Captain Hook appeared first on /Film.

Powered by WPeMatico

The Master Builders of The Lego Movie were an eclectic bunch. There were Batman and all of his fellow Justice Leaguers, Gandalf and Dubbledore (sorry, Dumbledore), Shaq, Abraham Lincoln, Michelangelo (the painter) and Michelangelo (the turtle). One that didn’t make it in, however, was R2-D2.

Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller revealed they originally planned for the lovable droid to be a main character in the The Lego Movie, in keeping with the gleeful mash-up spirit of the film. But in the final product, he’s nowhere to be seen. Find out why the R2-D2 Lego Movie appearance never happened after the jump.

Miller told Yahoo! Movies UK that R2-D2 was supposed to be one of the core group helping Emmet. “He was a Batman-level character,” said Miller. Lord added, “We figured we could get R2-D2 because his voice wasn’t a human being.” The duo wrote the script without giving much thought to which studios owned which rights, but once the film got moving that turned out to be a big issue.

“A kid doesn’t have lawyers that won’t allow the toys to play together,” Miller pointed out. “Part of the appeal for us was that Roger Rabbit thing that you can get these characters together that you couldn’t get in any other type of movie. Watching my own son play, he does put Batman on the Millennium Falcon and there’s no-one saying they take place in completely different times and galaxies.”

In retrospect, it’s not all surprising that Disney would be reluctant to let Warner Bros. play with its characters, or that Warner Bros. would be unwilling to promote a Disney property. Just one of the many ways the real world is a sad disappointment compared to the anything-goes universe of a child’s imagination, I guess.

Still, Lord and Miller were ultimately able to work in a smaller Star Wars cameo. There’s a scene in which Batman briefly joins Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, and C-3PO on the Millennium Falcon. Actually, on second thought, maybe it’s better R2-D2 had to sit out The Lego Movie. Things didn’t go so well for the Star Wars characters who did show up.

The post Trivia: R2-D2 Almost Starred in ‘The Lego Movie’ appeared first on /Film.

Powered by WPeMatico

What’s a Friday the 13th without Jason, a Nightmare on Elm Street without Freddy, or a Scream without Ghostface? Well, we have no idea about the first two, but we’re about to find out about the last one.

Last month, word got around that MTV’s Scream TV series would not involve the iconic Ghostface mask. Instead, we’ve now learned, it’ll debut a more “organic” new mask. Meaning it’ll possibly be made of flesh. Ew. More details on the Scream TV series mask after the jump.

EW reports the new Scream TV series mask will have an “organic feel,” but whether it’ll be made of flesh hasn’t yet been confirmed. The look is inspired by the Edvard Munch painting The Scream. MTV insists the change was not driven by rights issues, but by the desire to deliver a fresh take. MTV exec Mina Lefevre explained:

It’s a darker, almost more grounded, evolved version of the mask It’s something we’re constantly talking about. How did that mask become that mask? What’s its purpose? How did it evolve? If the Scream movie mask was the more plastic version, for a lack of a better description, this one is a more organic looking and frankly darker version.

Lefevre said the new Scream TV series will aim to honor the spirit of the originals, while bringing a more modern spin.

Scream was incredibly iconic, but we wanted to reinvent that for TV while of course keeping all the main elements that made it so iconic, including a mask, but also the soapy teen stories, pop culture humor, the scares and the killer. We’re tonally walking that line, yet delivering the scares in a significant way. The mask was a big discussion creatively. We wanted to get a nod and a wink to what the original was, but we definitely wanted to make it more on par with what horror is now, which is darker.

All that said, she isn’t ruling out the possibility that Ghostface will show up eventually. “It’s a little preliminary, obviously because we haven’t even started our writers room, to say that we will never see that other mask or not,” she said. RJ Torbert, whose Fun World holds the rights to the Ghostface mask, made a similar remark last month: “Never say never.”

The new Scream TV series will follow a bunch of high school kids, including popular girl Emma Duval (Willa Fitzgerald), artsy loner Audrey Jensen (Amy Forsyth), pop culture-savvy tech genius Noah Foster (John Karna), charismatic socialite Brooke Maddox (Carlson Young), and mysterious new kid Kieran Wilcox (Amadeus Serafini). Adult characters include Joel Gretsch as Kieran’s father Sheriff Clark Hudson, and Tracy Middendorf as Maggie.

The Scream TV series will premiere sometime in 2015.

The post ‘Scream’ Mask Gets “Darker,” More “Organic” Redesign for MTV Series appeared first on /Film.

Powered by WPeMatico

With the world waiting for a new Star Wars trailer, it’s fun to look back at the trailers of old. Fans have taken to looking at the release patterns and revelations of some of the first six films to try and figure out when and what we might see in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. What they’ve found is most of the earliest Star Wars trailers show a good amount of tantalizing footage, but don’t really reveal much. That’s decidedly against what modern Hollywood does.

These days, Hollywood shows everything they’ve got in their biggest trailer, hoping to coax people into the theater. Trailers sell something epic and incredible and very rarely do they deliver. But what would have happened if you were sitting in a theater in 1979 and saw a 2014-style trailer to the sequel to Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back? It would have spoiled a lot, but also lived up to expectations.

One YouTube user cut an Empire Strikes Back modern trailer, and it’s pretty great. Check out the trailer below.

Thanks to Cameron Arrigioni (via Newsarama).

The Empire Strikes Back modern trailer

That’s Michael Giacchino’s score to Star Trek, by the way, a nice nod to the new J.J. Abrams-ness of the saga. Also, it’s too bad the editors decided to credit George Lucas for the film, rather than the real director, Irvin Kershner. Sure, any of the first six Star Wars movies might really be George Lucas films, but give Kershner some credit.

Nevertheless, as exciting as that trailer edit is, the only big moment it doesn’t give away in some way is the Darth Vader reveal. You see the Hoth battle, you see Yoda, you see Han going into Carbonite, Cloud City, “There is another,” just crazy spoilers all throughout. The question is if you didn’t know what happens in that movie, would they still be spoilers? A few of them, but not all, and that’s what modern Hollywood does. They spoil things without you knowing it. Watch a trailer for any new movie you see after you see the movie and marvel at all the spoilers.

What did you think of the modern Empire Strikes Back trailer?

The post Watch: Modernized ‘Empire Strikes Back’ Trailer is Awesome appeared first on /Film.

Powered by WPeMatico

Whether you loved it or hated it, heard it or didn’t, the one thing we can all agree on regarding Interstellar is that it is a fantastic conversation piece. Christopher Nolan‘s latest film has so many moving parts, so many budding mysteries and surprises, it’s a movie that’s well worth visiting more than once. Now, AMC Theaters is allowing you to do that as many times as possible for one price.

AMC is offering their members an industry-first “unlimited ticket” that’ll get you into Interstellar whenever you want, for as long as it’s playing. Below, read more about AMC’s Interstellar unlimited ticket.

Here’s the full press release on the Interstellar unlimited ticket. There isn’t a website up yet to allow you to find info for your individual theater, but AMC Theaters would be a good place to start. The key info below is bolded.

AMC Theatres and Paramount Pictures are excited to offer AMC Stubs members a first-of-its-kind INTERSTELLAR Unlimited Ticket, which allows AMC’s loyal moviegoers to see the film as many times as they’d like for one price. AMC Stubs members who have already seen the movie have an option to upgrade to the unlimited ticket at AMC.

For two weeks, movie lovers have flocked to AMC Theatres to experience Christopher Nolan’s latest blockbuster, INTERSTELLAR. Guest feedback indicates that guests not only love the movie, many are expressing a strong interest in seeing it again in the theatre.

“Christopher Nolan has created a masterpiece that movie fans are saying gets better every time they see it,” said Elizabeth Frank, executive vice president and chief content and programming officer, AMC Theatres. “The INTERSTELLAR Unlimited Ticket gives these fans an opportunity to experience the spectacular cinematography and heart-warming stories as many times as they would like – at any AMC location, any showtime, in any format, including IMAX.”

INTERSTELLAR Unlimited Tickets are available for sale to AMC Stubs members at AMC box offices in 330 locations across the country. The INTERSTELLAR Unlimited Ticket price varies by location, ranging from $19.99 to $34.99. All AMC Stubs members who have already purchased a ticket to the movie can upgrade for $14.99.
 
A commemorative INTERSTELLAR pass will be issued, which can be used at any AMC location playing the film. While the ticket is unlimited, quantities are not, and guests are encouraged to get their Unlimited Ticket while supplies last.

“INTERSTELLAR” stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Bill Irwin, Ellen Burstyn, John Lithgow and Michael Caine. With our time on Earth coming to an end, a team of explorers undertakes the most important mission in human history; traveling beyond this galaxy to discover whether mankind has a future among the stars. Directed by Christopher Nolan, written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, and produced by Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Lynda Obst.

What do you think about this idea? Is it something you’re interested in for this film? If not, what film would you buy an unlimited ticket for?

The post ‘Interstellar’ Unlimited Ticket Allows You to See the Film as Many Times as You Want appeared first on /Film.

Powered by WPeMatico