TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8
GODZILLA VS KONG---teaser trailer released for the sequel..
LINK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VyrLOJJpoQ
STAR WARS---in the book STAR WARS ARCHIVES: EPISODES I-III, George Lucas explained why he sold Lucasfilm to the Walt Disney Company, “At that time I was starting the next trilogy; I talked to the actors and I was starting to gear up. I was also about to have a daughter with my wife. It takes 10 years to make a trilogy – ‘Episodes I ‘ to ‘III’ took from 1995 to 2005. I’d still be working on ‘Episode IX!’ In 2012, I was 69. So the question was am I going to keep doing this the rest of my life? Do I want to go through this again? Finally, I decided I’d rather raise my daughter and enjoy life for a while.”
Lucas added, “I could have not sold Lucasfilm and gotten somebody to run the productions, but that isn’t retiring. On ‘The Empire Strikes Back‘ and ‘Return of the Jedi‘ I tried to stay out of the way but I couldn’t. I was there every day. Even though the people were friends of mine and they did great work, it wasn’t the same as me doing it. It was like being once removed. I knew that probably wouldn’t work again, that I’d be frustrated.
I’m one of those micro-manger guys and I can’t help it. So I figured I would forgo that, enjoy what I had and I was looking forward to raising my daughter. Also, I wanted to build a museum, which I’d always wanted to do, so I was thinking, ‘If I don’t do this now, I’ll never get that done.’”
Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Walt Disney for $4.05 billion.
WARNER BROS./HBO MAX---Christopher Nolan commented on the Warner Bros. decision to release its upcoming movies in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously, “Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service.” The deal involves all 17 of the studio's 2021 movies including DUNE, THE MATRIX 4, and GODZILLA VS KONG.
Legendary Pictures will reportedly try to block Warner Bros. from releasing DUNE and GODZILLA VS KONG in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously after the studio did so without consulting Legendary. Legendary financed about 75% of both movies. Warner Bros. blocked Legendary's attempt to sell GODZILLA VS KONG to Netflix for $250 million.
Gal Gadot, whose WONDER WOMAN 1984, will be released in theaters and on HBO Max on Christmas day, received over $10 million in compensation due to the deal. Keanu Reeves, the star of THE MATRIX 4, did not receive a bonus due to the deal.
THE STAND---photos released of Amber Heard, Nat Wolff and Ezra Miller co-starring in the CBS All-Access miniseries based on the Stephen King novel.
SAM SPADE---Scott Frank (THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT) said he is developing a Sam Spade tv miniseries starring Clive Owen, “I got the rights, through a couple wonderful producers, to the character of Sam Spade… They called me and said, ‘Would you ever want to do something with it?’ and I said, ‘No, I don’t know what to do with Sam Spade. It feels a little retro to me, I don’t want to do it,’ and I hung up. The minute I hung up, I got an idea. I thought, wait, what if you do Sam Spade later in life, when he’s 60 years old? I thought, Let’s not have him be living in San Francisco anymore. He’s now an ex-pat living in the south of France…he’d gone over there to help some woman, who owned a winery, with a problem. He’d gone over professionally, fallen in love with her, she died of cancer, he inherited her winery, and now he’s living in Bozel, France. It’s 1963, the end of the Algerian War, so all these guys are coming back into the country and there’s all this sort of Muslim sociopolitical stuff happening. He’s in this little town, and the daughter of Sam Spade and [THE MALTESE FALCON character] Bridget O’Shaughnessy he has in a convent living nearby, and he doesn’t even know if it’s his daughter or not. It’s very complicated, but basically his past comes and finds him in this little town in the south of France.”
GUCCI---Jeremy Irons will play the father of fashion leader Maurizio Gucci in the Ridley Scott movie about Gucci, whose murder was orchestrated by his ex-wife. Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino and Jared Leto also star.
DARK MATTER---Apple TV+/Sony Pictures Television tv series underway based on the novel. Author Blake Crouch is the writer.
TRIVIA---more James Bond movie trivia.
The Walther PP pistol used by Sean Connery in the first James Bond movie, DR. NO, sold for a surprising $256,000 at auction to an anonymous US buyer. The Walther had been expected to sell for $150,000-$200,000. The seller, producer/prop collector Dan Lanigan, said the pistol is incorrectly referred to as a Walther PPK in DR. NO, “I tried to get to the bottom of that, but couldn’t get a real answer. Most people wouldn’t know the difference.”