Jacob Hall
Jonathan Winters, a titan of comedy on both the big and small screens, passed away at the age of 87.
Legendary film critic Roger Ebert has passed away at the age of 70, leaving a massive void in the world of film analysis and criticism that is unlikely to be filled anytime soon. His impact on his field and how people watch and talk about movies cannot be underestimated. However, there's a reason he was the most influential and widely read critics of all time: he was a damn great writer.
A few weeks ago, director Peter Jackson held an online Q&A and preview for the upcoming 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.' However, if you wanted to watch or take part, you had to have bought 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' on DVD or Blu-ray and followed the proper instructions (you know, typing in codes and such). Although the entire event remains an exclusive, Jackson has posted a six minute excerpt to YouTube, letting everyone get a taste of the what it was like and get a glimpse of the new Middle Earth adventure.
It's the kind of thing that sounds like an April Fool's Day prank, but for 'Star Wars' fans it will be an exploration of one of the greatest "What if?" scenarios of all time. Dark Horse Comics has announced that it is adapting George Lucas' original 'Star Wars' treatment into a comic miniseries. Sure, 'Star Wars' comics are nothing new, but Lucas' original ideas were so radically and wildly different than the finished films that this should prove fascinating and utterly unique.
Like any holiday that sees families congregating together and then desperately seeking activities where they don't have to talk to each other for two hours, this Easter weekend saw a strong bump at the box office thanks to a few new contenders and a handful of holdovers with some surprising staying power.
You can't imagine two films more different than 'The Croods' and 'Olympus Has Fallen,' but right now the two of them sit on top of the box office chart, both temporarily linked by the fact that a bunch of people apparently wanted to see them this weekend. It's the first time in forever that two films have opened to over $30 million at the same time...but it wasn't golden for all of the new releases.
For the second week in a row, 'Oz the Great and Powerful' lived up to its title and dominated the box office. One of the newcomers managed to fare surprisingly well in the face of Sam Raimi's blockbuster...but another simply got crushed.
After a series of increasingly dire weeks at the box office, 'Oz the Great and Powerful' arrived and shook things up in a major way, earning the first truly massive opening weekend of 2013 and setting the table for all kinds of Oz-related content in the near future. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is something that we'll let you judge.
Jon Stewart may be one of the hardest working men on television, but it looks like he's about to take a break from hosting 'The Daily Show' for a few months. But he's not going on a vacation: he's going to direct a movie. 'Rosewater' will not only be Stewart's first time behind the camera, it will be something completely out of his regular wheelhouse.