Doctor Strange hit theaters back in November, and to no one’s surprise, was a massive success. It’s brought in over $650 Million as of this writing.
Although the film hasn’t even finished its theatrical run, we won’t have to wait too long to pick it up on Blu-Ray.
According to Comicbook.com, Doctor Strange is slated to get a Blu-Ray release on February 28. The 3D version clocks in at $34.99, with the normal version costing $29.99.
“From Marvel comes DOCTOR STRANGE, the story of world-famous neurosurgeon Dr. Stephen Strange whose life changes forever after a horrific car accident robs him of the use of his hands. When traditional medicine fails him, he is forced to look for healing, and hope, in an unlikely place – a mysterious enclave known as Kamar-Taj. He quickly learns that this is not just a center for healing but also the front line of a battle against unseen dark forces bent on destroying our reality. Before long Strange – armed with newly acquired magical powers – is forced to choose whether to return to his life of fortune and status or leave it all behind to defend the world as the most powerful sorcerer in existence. Join Strange on his dangerous, mystifying, and totally mind-bending journey.”
Since the death of Carrie Fisher, grieving Star Wars fans have been paying tribute to the actress.
Fisher, who died Dec. 27, 2016, played the iconic Princess Leia.
Now, one fan has launched a petition on Change.org to get Leia named as an official Disney princess.
Make Princess Leia a Disney Princess
Cody Christensen, of Cedar City, Utah, started the petition.
In an interview with Geek Magazine, Christensen said he started it after finding out Disney had rules for who could and couldn’t become a princess.
“I started the petition because it was something that bugged me since Disney bought the property,” said Christensen. “Disney had princesses and Leia was a princess.”
Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012 for $4 billion, adding the epic Star Wars franchise its library of characters.
The petition titled “Make Leia an official Disney princess” has a goal of 25,000 supporters. So far, it has garnered more than 21,000 supporters.
Right now, the full roster of official Disney Princesses include Aurora, Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel and Merida.
Dwayne Johnson might be the busiest man in Hollywood. The actor is not only tied to multiple productions in 2017 but he will soon star as Black Adam in Warner Bros. and DC Comics’ Shazam! movie.
Johnson has been attached to the role for years, with no one quite sure when he will first appear in the growing DC Universe. The actor recently conducted Q&A session with his fans on YouTube and was asked why he decided to take the role of Black Adam in the DC Extended Universe.
“I’ve loved the role of Black Adam, I love that he starts off as a slave, that he felt like he was wronged. I’ve just loved that backstory. I think that Black Adam has always been, to me, the most intriguing superhero.”
It certainly seems like Johnson is ready to get going on the Shazam! movie. The official release date isn’t until April 2019 but it’s possible that we could see the character appear in an upcoming DC film like Justice League or as rumored, the in-development Man of Steel sequel.
Are you excited to see Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam in the DC Extended Universe? When should the character first appear? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below!
Rob Liefeld, creator of Deadpool, has more characters set for a film adaptation.
It’s being reported that Liefeld’s Extreme Universe is set to become a live action movie. Graham King and Mark Gao’s Fundamental Films are teaming up with Akiva Goldsman on bringing the property to the big screen.
In a statement, Liefeld talked about his excitement for this project.
“Over the past nearly 25 years, since launching Image Comics, I’ve been lucky enough to see the power of these stories and characters as they’ve resonated with several generations of comic book fans. To now be able to work with Akiva Goldsman and Graham King, who are powerhouses in their own right, to bring these compelling characters and conflicts to life on the big screen is nothing short of a dream come true!”
Although the Extreme Universe consists of over 100 characters, the most notable include Cybrid, Brigade, Bloodstrike, Lethal, Battlestone, Kaboom, and Re-Gex.
This Han Solo cast just gets better and better. According to Variety, Woody Harrelson is in talks to join the Star Wars spin-off movie based on Han Solo.
The report states that sources close to the production claim Harrelson is the top choice for the role, but Disney hasn’t finalized the deal. Harrelson will potentially play a mentor role to a young Han, but no more details we offered surrounding the potential role. Starring Alden Ehrenreich the spin-off will be set before the events of A New Hope similar to Rogue One, which continues to succeed at the box-office.
Harrelson will star in next year’s War for the Planet of the Apes, as well as The Glass Castle and Wilson. The report also claims that while the production has been casting largely upcoming actors it was important to Lucasfilm to get a big name actor for this role.
Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller the Star Wars anthology movie will also star Donald Glover and Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke. The film is slated to hit theaters on May 25, 2018.
Do you want to see Harrelson join the cast of the Han Solo film? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below!
This year’s movie release calendar is full of potential blockbusters like Wonder Woman and The Fate of the Furious. However, several of the most anticipated films have one thing in common: Disney.
In 2016, Disney had six of the 10 top grossing movies in North America. It also had the top three movies of the year.
Finding Dory was the No.1 movie of 2016, with $486.3 million at the box office. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story secured a second-place finish and Captain America: Civil War took third place with $408.1 million.
Could Disney rule the box office once again in 2017?
Disney Tops Most Anticipated Movies List
Fandango released its list of the most anticipated movies of the year. It conducted a survey asking more than 2,000 moviegoers which movies they are most excited to see.
The top five include Star Wars: Episode VIII (Dec. 15), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (May 5), Beauty and the Beast (March 17), Wonder Woman (June 2) and Spider-Man: Homecoming (July 7).
Rounding out the top ten are Justice League, The Fate of the Furious, Fifty Shades Darker, Logan and Despicable Me 3.
Disney is behind three of the top five releases—four, if you factor in Homecoming, which is a Marvel/Sony co-production with Sony distributing.
Wonder Woman will likely be DC’s big winner.
If you take into consideration the fan fervor surrounding this year’s crop of films, Disney is likely to remain on top.
The trailer for Beauty and the Beast (No. 3 on the list) garnered 127.6 million views in the first 24 hours after its release online last year, smashing the record for most views in a day.
The Fifty Shades Darker trailer previous held the record with 114 million views in its first 24 hours, surpassing the Star Wars: The Force Awakens record of 112 million views.
Universal’s The Fate of the Furious (No. 7 on the list) later toppled Beauty and Beast, with 139 million views in its first day.
Disney’s Strategy
The media giant has spent the last several years expanding its portfolio with several acquisitions.
Disney CEO Bob Iger secured the purchase of Marvel ($4B), Pixar ($7.4B) and Lucasfilm ($4B). And the gamble is starting to pay off.
Those acquisitions have given Disney a wider library of characters and stories to pull from, making it a fierce competitor.
Last year, Disney became the first studio in history to cross $7 billion in global box office earnings.
Its success helped propel the North American box office to $11.4 billion, the highest-earning year in history, according to box office tracker comScore. The previous record of $11.14 billion was set in 2015.
Of course, not everything Disney released last year resulted in box office magic. The studio had several costly flops.
Alice Through the Looking Glass and The BFG resulted in the loss of millions of dollars.
Looking at the first trailer for Logan it’s clear that director James Mangold is trying to achieve something different. The director has gone with a raw, gritty feel that is unique in the genre and according to Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds, the film could be a contender at this year’s Oscars.
Talking to Variety, Reynolds discussed the potential for superhero movies to contend at the academy awards and believes that Logan could be the movie to change things.
“‘Logan’ looks like a movie that might break that glass ceiling. I know first-hand that it’s amazing. I’ve seen some of it. It’s mind-blowing. It relies a lot on character.”
While superhero movies aren’t generally given attention at the Oscars, if any upcoming comic book movie could reach those heights it’s Logan. The film is said to be a character driven story that at its core is more of a drama than an action movie.
Set in the future of 2024, Wolverine and Professor Charles Xavier must cope with the loss of the X-Men when a corporation lead by Nathaniel Essex is destroying the world leaving it to destruction, with Logan’s healing abilities slowly fading away and Xavier’s Alzheimer’s forcing him to forget. Logan must defeat Nathaniel Essex with the help of a young girl named Laura Kinney, a female clone of Wolverine.
Hidden Figures is the first ‘must-see’ film of 2017, but not for the usual reasons.
Does it feature powerhouse performances from its lead and supporting casts? Absolutely, yes.
Is it a well-crafted film, solid in terms of storytelling, vision, and execution? Yes — a tad conventional, maybe, but not so much that predictability diminishes enjoyment.
But what makes Hidden Figures ‘must-see’ is that it’s an important story. Drawn from NASA’s legendary “Right Stuff” days, at the height of the “Space Race,” it’s so little known that even members of the cast were unaware of it prior to reading the script.
The real-life people dramatized in Hidden Figures are just as much pioneers as the men they helped rocket to into orbit. The film treats their stories with reverence, but with an eye for realism and detail.
The result is a film worthy of their legacies, and thus certainly worthy of audiences’ attention.
What’s it about?
In 1960, at NASA’s facility in Langley, Virginia, three women — Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) — worked as part of an entirely female group of “computers” – skilled mathematicians crunching numbers vital to the engineering work necessary to put an American into space.
The women of the West Computing Group — all African-American — were all subject to the everyday reality of segregation. They worked and ate their lunches apart from white counterparts, in facilities less modern and comfortable than their white counterparts, all for less pay.
Despite these conditions, Johnson, Vaughn, and Jackson all came to stand out in terms of what they could contribute. Vaughn was already the de facto head of West Computing, a supervisor in all but the title and compensation. Jackson had NASA engineers convinced she could be an engineer herself, the first woman of color to ever hold such a position.
Johnson, a prodigy who had her degree in mathematics by 18, finds herself assigned to NASA’s most critical task. She joins the Space Task Group, the team of engineers and scientists tasked with figuring out how to get an American into space and get him home safely before the Soviets figured it out.
All three women face battles large and small as they work to make NASA’s goals a reality. All three must deal with barriers set against them due to the color of their skin just to do the jobs they love and take care of their families.
And all of them rise to heights of success none imagined possible at the time for men or women of color.
Strong directorial vision
The power of Hidden Figures starts with the vision of director Theodore Melfi. Melfi keeps the narrative frame focused on what it was like for Johnson, Vaughn, and Jackson to live and work in that time and place.
It’s from the details of those experiences that the film derives its power. Melfi makes clear that the achievements of these women would have been remarkable for anyone under any circumstances. Taking into account the particular hurdles they faced, however, makes their story all the more incredible.
That’s not to say that Hidden Figures is all hardship and struggle. The film takes time to dramatize moments of joy, laughter, and gentle romance for the women at its heart. Those moments inject a needed lightness, breaking up what might otherwise have felt like just a well-acted history lesson.
Henson, Spencer lead superb cast
Hidden Figures features an incredible collection of acting talent, both veteran and emerging. Recognizable faces are everywhere here, from Kevin Costner to Jim Parsons to Kirsten Dunst.
Also here is Mahershala Ali, who continues to astound with appearances in both this year’s Golden Globe Best Picture-Drama nominated Moonlight to Netflix’s “Luke Cage.”
But the standouts in this ensemble are easily Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer. Henson’s effort shines brightest in part due to how different it is from her work on TV’s “Empire.” Those who know her just as “Cookie” will likely be the most floored by the range she shows here. Those who remember her stellar work in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Hustle and Flow shouldn’t be as surprised.
Spencer, in comparison, doesn’t get as much screen time as Henson. She makes every moment she gets count, however, projecting dignity and quiet strength as the matriarch among her group. Her scenes with Dunst, who plays a supervisor for the computers, represent, in part, obstacles facing people on both sides of the race divide.
Worth seeing?
Again, Hidden Figures is a ‘must-see’ event. It’s entertaining, enlightening, and uplifting, all qualities that usually lead to a memorable movie experience.
But the film’s value goes beyond just that. In an age when most think of “computers” as keyboards and monitors, it’s important to know the word once meant something else.
At a point when NASA looks to Mars as the next great leap, it’s important to remember those who took part in the first steps.
At a time where those who feel disenfranchised might feel the most disillusioned, it’s important to point to others who could have also given up hope, and didn’t.
Hidden Figures
Starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner, Mahershala Ali, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Kimberly Quinn. Directed by Theodore Melfi.
Running Time: 127 minutes
Rated PG for thematic elements and some language.
Early last week rumors were shot down that Ryan Reynolds had filmed a scene for the upcoming Wolverine movie, Logan. If you are one of the many fans who want to see these two characters on the big screen together, don’t lose hope just yet.
Variety recently published an in-depth look at the career of Reynolds and the Golden Globe nomination for Deadpool. Among other things, the actor reveals that he hopes more than anything to get Deadpool and Wolverine on screen together.
“I would love to play Deadpool for as long as they would let me play Deadpool. We have outlines and stories for a number of different films.” He envisions a standalone movie with Deadpool and Wolverine — although that’s news to Jackman… Reynolds isn’t giving up. “I have no idea if I can change his mind,” he says. “It’s the audience: I would exclusively exploit that relationship to get Hugh back for another one.”
Hugh Jackman has had his heart set on leaving the role behind after Logan, primarily because the role puts such a strain on the actor’s body. Variety also caught up with Jackman who still seems unconvinced but is open to the idea of a shared film between Wolverine and Deadpool.
“I’m hesitating,” says Jackman, who plans on retiring the Wolverine character this year, “because I could totally see how that’s the perfect fit. But the timing may be wrong.”
I think I speak for everyone when I say that this is promising. Hugh Jackman has played the role of Wolverine for 15 years but it’s not every day an opportunity like this comes along. Logan also looks like it will be a unique Wolverine movie with a real focus on the character, so perhaps the success of his next film could push him to return.
It’s exciting to think that we might one day get a movie starring Reynolds and Jackman but for now, the actors have other priorities. Jackman is prepping for the release of Logan, while Reynolds continues to develop and work on a sequel to Deadpool set for release in 2018.
The second international trailer for Wonder Woman has been released via JoBlo Movie Trailers on Youtube. Watch it below.
“Wonder Woman hits movie theaters around the world next summer when Gal Gadot returns as the title character in the epic action adventure from director Patty Jenkins. Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. Raised on a sheltered island paradise, when an American pilot crashes on their shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside man in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers…and her true destiny.”
Directed by Patty Jenkins, Wonder Woman stars Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, and Connie Nielsen.
