Upcoming Science Fiction Movies

"Interstellar" is having a good opening weekend, and is expected to gross $50 Million Plus:

www.boxofficemojo.com...
"INTERSTELLAR" WINS FRIDAY WITH $17 MILLION
It's now about $6 Million behind "Big Hero 6" (which is a comic-book kid's movie, natch), for the weekend.

Here's an interesting article, where scientists express their opinions on "Interstellar's" science:

mashable.com...
WHY SCIENTISTS ARE IN A LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH "INTERSTELLAR"

There aren't any more major Science Fiction movies coming out between now and the end of the year. But the SyFy channel will be showing its 6-hour mini-series, the generation-ship saga "Ascension", over the course of 3 nights starting December 15th.

www.ign.com...
SYFY'S "ASCENSION" PREMIERING IN DECEMBER
"Ascension" follows a covert 1960s US space mission that sends hundreds of people on a century-long voyage aboard the starship Ascension to populate a new world. Halfway into their journey, the murder of a young woman causes the ship's population to question the true nature of their mission."

www.techtimes.com...
CAST OF SYFY'S "ASCENSION" TALK RACE, POLITICS AND LIFE AFTER 50 YEARS IN SPACE

www.syfy.com...
"ASCENSION" WEBSITE

(In reality, we had an Alien Exchange Program by 1965:

www.serpo.org...
THE ORIGINAL AND TRUE SERPO PROGRAM
"In 1965, we had an exchange program with the aliens. We carefully selected 12 military personnel; ten men and two women. They were trained, vetted and carefully removed from the military system. The 12 were skilled in various specialities.

"Near the northern part of the Nevada Test Site, the aliens landed and the 12 Americans left. One entity was left on Earth. The original plan was for our 12 people to stay 10 years and then return to Earth.

"But something went wrong. The 12 remained until 1978, when they were returned to the same location in Nevada. Seven men and one woman returned. Two died on the alien's home planet. Four others decided to remain, according to the returnees. Of the eight that returned, all have died. The last survivor died in 2002. "

Now that we are so close to the end of 2014, I'm beginning to see some "teasers" for 2015 SciFi movies:

www.youtube.com...
"JURASSIC WORLD" OFFICER TEASER TRAILER

www.youtube.com...
FIRST LOOK: "TERMINATOR 5 GENESIS"

www.youtube.com...
"SUPERMAN VERSUS BATMAN"

screen.yahoo.com...

(VIDEO) 'INDEPENDENCE DAY' SEQUEL GETS GREEN-LIGHT FROM 20TH CENTURY FOX
"Director Roland Emmerich is negotiations to direct the sequel to the 1996 Will Smith blockbuster. Producer Dean Devlin, who worked on the original film, shared the development on his Twitter account on Wednesday.

"While there has been no casting information shared about the film thus far, Jeff Goldblum said in an October interview with Time that he had been in talks with Emmerich and Devlin about appearing in the sequel.

"No word on whether Will Smith will appear in the film."

Hey, 'Star Wars' fans - here it is! The very first teaser for Episode VII - "The Force Awakens"

www.youtube.com...
STAR WARS FIRST TEASER FOR "VII: THE FORCE AWAKENS"

(As usual for teasers, it's basically just a jumble of shots to show off their CGI, with just a few disconnected hints of conflict. But it looks like a good mix of old and new imagery, that should please the die-hard fans.)

me.ign.com...

UPDATES ON "INDEPENDENCE DAY" SEQUELS
The planned sequel trilogy has been scaled back to a duology. The first sequel is moving along nicely, but the producers put the third sequel on hold, to see how Sequel 1 and 2 do first.

Another aspect, is that producers Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich plan a "Stargate" reboot or sequel, which Emmerich wants to direct. That will supposedly take place after the first sequel of "Independence Day". So planning out three "ID" sequels PLUS "Stargate" may have been too ambitious, planning too far ahead into the future.

deadline.com...
ROBERTO ORCI OUT AS DIRECTOR OF "STAR TREK 3"
He is still attached to the project as writer and producer, and he was at least a writer on the first couple reboots. It would have been Orci's first directing gig, and studios are notoriously leery of taking a chance on first-time directors with tent-pole summer spectaculars and established movie franchises.

The short-list for director includes Edgar Wright:

deadline.com...
(May 2014) EDGAR WRIGHT LEAVES "ANT-MAN" OVER CREATIVE DIFFERENCES
Has directed "The World's End" and "Shaun of the Dead". And he may be directing the upcoming "Grasshopper Jungle" for Sony - if they pay the ransom and can "unlock" the script (that's a joke!).

I'm sure we'll be bombarded with endless "lists" in the next few months, about 2014 SciFi movies-or-DVDs, and endless essays on Best / Worst. (Although "Interstellar" and "Guardians of the Galaxy" seem to jockey for the #1 slot on multiple Best/Most Popular lists I found on the Internet.)

Based on Box Office Mojo's list of Major Money-maker Movies in 2014, the surprise is that 8 Science Fiction movies are listed in the Top 10 - and a children's movie was NOT #1!

www.boxofficemojo.com...
2014 CHART OF BEST GROSSING MOVIES AT BOX OFFICE
#1 - Guardians of the Galaxy
#2 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier
#4 - Hunger Games: Mockingjay (Part 1)
#5 - Transformers: Age of Extinction
#7 - X-Men: Days of Future Past
#8 - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
#9 - The Amazing SpiderMan 2
#10 - Godzilla (2014)

As for who is buying what DVDs, the Top Dozen are an even split between kids' movies, and Science Fiction/Fantasy. (NOTE: "Interstellar" was just released, and isn't on DVD/BluRay yet. And "Guardians of the Galaxy" was just released to DVD/BluRay on December 9th. So they aren't on these lists yet, although Amazon reports "Guardians" is their #1 Best Selling Movie right now.)

www.the-numbers.com...
TOP SELLING DVDS IN 2014
#2 - Hunger Games: Catching Fire
#5 - The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
#6 - Thor: The Dark World
#9 - Gravity
#10 - Divergent
#12 - Transformers: Age of Extinction

NOTE: Compared to the Box Office, "Captain America" DVDs are selling at #19, "X-Men Days of Future Past" at #23, and "Amazing Spider-Man 2" at #25. Is the target audience (teens to 30 year olds) too poor to buy DVDs?

Stories about last summer's Comic Con said that it was well attended with enthusiastic fans - but the merchants grumbled about low sales, as kids sat on the curb eating brought-from-home sandwiches. Or are these young people just doing more "streaming" of movies instead of buying DVDs?

There probably is a financial reason, since the more affluent are into the more expensive Blu-Ray and their special players. The SuperHero movies I mentioned as selling poorly on DVD, ARE selling well on Blu-Ray:

www.the-numbers.com...
2014 BLU-RAY SALES
Basically the same as DVD sales, but "Transformers: Age of Extinction" is #5 on Blu-Ray sales, "Captain America: Winter Soldier" is #6, "X-Men Days of Future Past" is at #9, and "The Amazing SpiderMan 2" is at #13..

This could be interesting: Competing "Godzilla" movies/sequels coming from both Japan and U.S.

finance.yahoo.com...
JAPAN MAKING ANOTHER "GODZILLA" AFTER HOLLYWOOD'S SUCCESS
"The Toho Godzilla is set for release in 2016, before Edwards releases his sequel for Legendary Pictures and Warner Brothers in 2018."

The first teaser-trailer is out for Warner Brothers' "San Andreas":

www.firstshowing.net...
DWAYNE JOHNSON IN FIRST TEASER FOR "SAN ANDREAS"
A monster 'quake in Southern California along the San Andreas north-south fault, is always in the back of your mind when living in Los Angeles. And there have been plenty of TV and theatrical movies about The Big One. (I remember one in the last century as a TV movie, that had sync'ed audio with a radio station. We ran around placing radios all over the apartment, and when The Big One started rumbling on TV, it did have a certain do-it-yourself "disaster sound-around" effect.)

I wondered if the CGI could top "2012." According to this teaser, I think it has, since you get a helicopter view over LA as landmark and iconic LA buildings start puffing and pancaking, then fall over. (No LA building I saw in the teaser went straight down, as the controversy over the "internal implosion" of the Twin Towers on 9/11 still rages.)

Disaster movies have been out of vogue since 2012, but this should get some traction as an "action-adventure thriller," at least. And it opens May 29, 2015, just ahead of the Summer Tentpoles.

www.theverge.com...

J.J. ABRAMS REPORTEDLY PRODUCING A TOP-SECRET ALIEN MOVIE
Details are scant, other than the unnamed SciFi project has been bought by Sony Pictures thru Bad Robot.

The director will be Chris Alender, whose 2011 short "Eye of the Storm" got some notice, and is the real eye-opener here. It's a new sub-genre - Steampunk SciFi - and if the proposed movie is anything like this short, it could make for one of the few original SciFi non-franchise movies on the horizon. And looked forward to with great anticipation.

More on the drama about finding a new director for "Star Trek 3" now that Orci is out. The pressure's on, because Paramount wants the movie in the theaters by 2016, in time for the "Star Trek 50th Anniversary".

www.komonews.com...
TWITTER CAMPAIGN TO #BRINGINRIKER - OR JONATHAN FRAKES TO DIRECT "ST3"
He's a long-shot right now, but I don't know why. He's already successfully directed a couple ST:TNG movies ("First Contact" and "Insurrection"), and would love to get the gig!

Otherwise, SciFi director Rian Johnson ("Loopers"), and future director of a couple "Star Wars", might be available:

www.nydailynews.com...
RIAN JOHNSON TAPPED TO DIRECT "STAR WARS" EPISODES VIII AND IX

I'd love either one of these talented and mature directors at the helm of "ST3"! Then again, if Paramount is married to Orci's script for #3, like they were for the dreadful #2, these better directors may just throw up their hands and walk away. (Newbie directors are cheaper anyway. A bigger budget to blow things up amid jokey, juvenile humor ...)

And now, I present the 2014 Movie Award for "The Most Ironical Fantasy Comedy That Almost Brought Down A Studio" - Sony's "The Interview":

www.huffingtonpost.com...
SETH ROGEN NOT HAPPY WITH SUGGESTED CHANGES TO "THE INTERVIEW", STOLEN E-MAILS SHOW
"According to emails that span from August through October and were obtained by Reuters, Sony CEO Hirai asked Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, to change a key shot in the film. It depicts Kim struck by a tank shell, causing his head to explode.

"Rogen responded by promising to remove three of four burn marks on Kim's face, and reduce the "flaming hair" by 50 percent. But he said he could not meet all the demands.

"The head explosion can't be more obscured than it is because we honestly feel that if it's any more obscured, you won't be able to tell it's exploding and the joke won't work," he said."

As most of you may know by now, Sony's hackers are now making terrorist threats against theaters that show "The Interview," and theater chains are starting to cancel showings of the movie.

www.nytimes.com... lines&nlid=49939149
QUANDRY FOR SONY IN TERROR THREATS OVER "THE INTERVIEW"
"On Tuesday night, Landmark’s Sunshine Cinema said it had canceled the film’s New York premiere scheduled for this week; its Los Angeles premiere was held Dec. 11 without incident.

"Late Tuesday, a person with knowledge of Sony’s dealings said that the theater chain Carmike Cinemas had canceled its showings of the movie. Carmike could not be reached for comment."

******************************************************

On a separate note, I watched a little of "Ascension" last evening. I bailed; it looked like typical SyFy schlock.

Since I had the remote, and my husband had nothing on that he wanted to watch, we started channel-surfing. We ended up on a sports channel watching a documentary about football player extraordinaire, Steve McNair. It was absolutely riveting. There was more hope and promise, talent and pride - ending in soul-crushing tragedy - than any movie I've seen in a long time.

At the end, his mother had the perfect end note: "You make decisions in life. And if you make the wrong decision, it can kill you, like it killed Steve."

I think there's a lesson in there for Sony ...

More Drama within Drama over the next "Star Trek" movie:

mashable.com...
ROBERTO ORCI OUT AS NEXT "ST" WRITER AS WELL AS DIRECTOR
"For reasons that aren't entirely clear, the polarizing writer and producer, who was going to make Star Trek 13 (working title) his directorial debut after J.J. Abrams left the franchise to do Star Wars, has also fallen off writing duties.

"Fast & Furious director Justin Lin took over directing earlier this month, per Paramount Pictures, and Star Trek writing duties now apparently fall to John Payne and Patrick McKay.

"Orci apparently let it be known that he was out of the writers' room on a message board where he's previously ranted at disgruntled fans, saying that he'll only be producing Star Trek from here on out. How involved will he be? It's hard to say, but for a lot of Trek fans, this can only be good news.

I'm most excited about Mad Max Fury Road. It look beautiful and Tom Hardy is an excellent actor. (Maybe too good for Mad Max.)
But I'd like to suggest to this thread that they check out my film Battle at Beaver Creek, which is an indie sci-fi film that features ATS.
Please check out this thread.
Thanks and happy viewing.

P.S. Don't worry too much about the new Star Wars films, I have a feeling that JJ Abrams will save the franchise.

Time for year-end tallies of Hollywood Studios' 2014-released movies. And - no surprise - well executed genre films (Sci Fi to Fantasy) from Warner Bros. won the profit-margin for 2014:

www.yahoo.com...
WARNER BROS. HITS $3 BILLION AT THE INTERNATIONAL BOX OFFICE
“Interstellar,” “Godzilla” and the final “Hobbit” film drove Warner Bros. Pictures past $3 billion at the international box office in 2014.

"It’s the second consecutive year that the studio has topped that mark and the seventh time it has exceeded $2 billion in foreign ticket sales. The results are a testament to the increasingly global nature of the business.

"For Warner Bros., burgeoning moviegoing populations in countries such as China are rescuing box office disappointments such as “Edge of Tomorrow” from disaster, and are pushing films such as “Interstellar” into box office territory."

2015 for SciFi movies, looks to be in Flashback mode. Beyond the usual Superhero franchises, we'll also be getting:

Star Wars, Episode VII
Terminator Genisys
Jurassic World

www.imdb.com...,2015
MOST POPULAR SCI-FI FEATURE FILMS RELEASED IN 2015

**************************************************************************
And the Top Three 2014 Movies were all SciFi!

www.boxofficemojo.com...
2014 DOMESTIC GROSSES
1) Guardians of the Galaxy
2) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay (part 1)
3) Captain America: The Winter Soldier

*************************************************************************
gizmodo.com...

GIZMODO: SCI-FI VISIONS OF 2015, RANKED

(These are NOT movie releases for 2015 - just a trippy voyage down memory lane of what was SUPPOSED to be "real and available by 2015." Funny list. You may not agree with Slacker Central, but the writing is sharp-and-tart - and short. Here's a sample

#1 - BACK TO THE FUTURE, PART II
It's 2015, cars are flying, food comes in pill form, and people are still buying and reading paper sports almanacs.

Pros: Self-lacing sneakers. Hoverboards. Jaws 19.

Cons: So. F***ing. Cliched.

Since one small offshoot of SciFi are "techno-thrillers," here's Chris Hemsworth in Michael Mann's latest, opening January 16th:

blackhat.legendary.com...#
BLACKHAT
"We are no longer in control."

Will be curious to see how this does, after the real world mega-hack of Sony Entertainment at the end of last year.

For a quick explanation, White Hats are considered "ethical hackers", Black Hats are "malicious hackers." Their big "Black Hat" convention every year is in Las Vegas, with the gaming "Def Con" convention also in Vegas, the next week:

www.blackhat.com...
BLACKHAT - SPECIAL EVENTS (2014)

To show the schizoid Black/White conundrum of hackers today, the "Black Hat" Con used to accept only cash at the door and NO ID. Yet, our government and big corporations recruit heavily from the BH Con especially - even if Background checks take 6 months, and everyone's still arguing over the allowed-level of marijuana consumption.

The only SciFi movie opening this past weekend, was the third installment of "Taken" with Liam Neeson. It did very well, #1 for the weekend, and taking in over $40 Million:

www.boxofficemojo.com...
"TAKEN 3" SCORES SECOND-HIGHEST JANUARY OPENING EVER

And here's some other SciFi news, about 2015 movies:

news.yahoo.com...
10 SPACE MOVIES TO WATCH IN 2015

news.yahoo.com...
"STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS" NAMED FANDANGO'S 'MOST ANTICIPATED MOVIE OF 2015'