All the News That’s Fit to Rank: Week of July 24, 2015
We’ve collected news stories all week, and the staff have ranked the most interesting articles – and now we’re passing it on to you. The Best News of the Week – according to Flickchart.
1. Disney Developing Live-Action Aladdin Prequel AND Sword in the Stone Remake
Disney’s current modus operandi is doing live-action takes on their animated classics, whether straight remakes (Cinderella) or giving alternate viewpoints (Maleficent). Now they’re going the prequel route with Aladdin, planning a film called Genies that will explain just how our loveable Genie ended up in that lamp. Who’s going to fill Robin Williams’ shoes? We don’t know yet, nor has a release date been announced. Meanwhile, Disney is also adding a live-action remake of King Arthur origin story The Sword in the Stone, tapping Game of Thrones writer Bryan Cogman for the script. (via /Film and Collider)
2. AP Putting Nearly 17,000 Hours of Archival News Footage on YouTube
The Associated Press is one of the largest news organizations in the world, and their archive of news footage dates back to 1895. They’re putting 550,000 clips on YouTube (on AP Archive and British Movietone), including footage from iconic events such as the 1906 San Francisco fire, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and more, as a resource for the public and for documentary filmmakers to easily find licensable clips for their projects. A lot of this footage was already searchable on the AP’s own archive site, but this will increase the exposure greatly. Note also that British Pathe uploaded some 85,000 clips last year. (via Variety)
3. Back to the Future Heads Back to Theatres in October for 30th Anniversary
Can you believe Back to the Future is 30 years old? Well, it is, and to celebrate, we’re going to get not just the first film but the whole trilogy back in theatres on October 31. Details are sparse so far, including exactly what theatres the re-release will hit, but keep an eye out for Marty McFly and the gang at your local theatre! (via /Film)
4. Fincher-Affleck-Flynn Strangers on a Train Remake Faces Big Delays
After the solid Gone Girl, it looked like the creative team of director David Fincher, writer Gillian Flynn, and actor Ben Affleck might take on a remake of a Hitchcock classic next, but it sounds like they’re all too busy on other projects to get to it right away. Fincher and Flynn are working on BBC TV series Utopia, and Affleck is busy with a little thing called Batman. Of course, the real question is whether remaking one of the Master of Suspense’s greatest films was a good idea in the first place… (via /Film)
5. James Horner Secretly Wrote Score for Antoine Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven Before His Death
Last month we lost one of cinema’s greatest and most prolific composers when James Horner’s personal plane crashed. At the time, it seemed that Horner’s scores for Antoine Fuqua’s Southpaw and Antonio Banderas’s The 33 would be the last scores we’d hear from him. Now Fuqua has revealed that Horner had already written the full score for his upcoming remake of The Magnificent Seven, composing the score in secret as a surprise for the director. (via /Film)
6. 12 Years a Slave Steve McQueen Directs Latest Kanye West Video
A lot of current film directors got their start directing music videos; Steve McQueen is going the other direction, taking time out of directing features to direct Kanye West’s latest music video, which apparently features both “All Day” and “I Feel Like That.” The film makes its US debut at the LA County Museum of Art this weekend – that sounds like a surprising venue for a music video, but if you know that McQueen got his filmmaking start with art film shorts that largely played in museum installations, it suddenly makes sense. (via Indiewire)
7. Hot Toys Plans to Make 18-ft Millennium Falcon
This year’s Comic-Con featured a 1/6 scale Millennium Falcon model (that’s 18 feet long!), a high point for Star Wars fans at the con. Turns out Hot Toys actually plans to make them. Who’s planning to build a room onto their house for one of these? (via /Film)
Just How Big is Hot Toys' Millennium Falcon? THIS Big! http://t.co/yENlaBETCh pic.twitter.com/SEHzByYBaP
— Comic Book Resources (@CBR) July 23, 2015
8. Jurassic World Becomes #3 Movie of All Time, Sequel Announced for 2018
This week Jurassic World, which already holds the new opening box office record, surpassed The Avengers in global box office to become the #3 movie of all time (not adjusted for inflation) with $1.522 billion. Still a ways to go before watching #2 (Titanic with $2.168 billion) and #1 (Avatar with $2.788 billion). Unsurprisingly, a sequel has been announced with a projected 2018 release. (via Hollywood Reporter and Variety)
9. Minecraft Movie Gets Director: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s Rob McElhenney
Minecraft is a huge phenomenon in the gaming world, a sandbox creative game that drops players into a procedurally generated world and basically lets them gather resources and build whatever they want, with a side of exploration and fighting zombies and other nasties – a healthy modding community has added more quest-based or PvP experiences, but it’s still kind of weird to think of the game becoming a feature film. But Warner is going to try, building on its success with The Lego Movie (based on a similarly open/creative experience), and they’ve tapped It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-creator and star Rob McElhenney to helm. (via Deadline)
10. Jamie Lee Curtis Cosplays at EVO 2015
Who knew Jamie Lee Curtis was into fighting game tournaments? This is so cool. She cosplayed as Vega from Street Fighter so she could accompany her teenaged son to the tournament. Now I’m wondering how many other cosplayers are secretly famous movie stars… (via Polygon)
Top Trailers of the Week
Spectre – The next Bond film from director Sam Mendes looks AWESOME. Rogue Bond!
Joy – Jennifer Lawrence in another David O. Russell film? Sign me up.
The Revenant – Alejandro Gonzalez Iñáritu tries to top Birdman with Leo di Caprio.
The Good Dinosaur – Pixar’s back on top with Inside Out; will the streak continue?
Pan – Joe Wright explores Peter Pan’s backstory in a fantastical take on the classic story.
“Disney Developing Live-Action Aladdin Prequel AND Sword in the Stone Remake”
This is perfect news, because Aladdin needs a prequel (I’m serious! where did Jafar get the first half of the scarab? What happened when the Genie tried to raise the dead? He said it wasn’t pretty!) and Sword in the Stone badly needs a remake (it’s a beautiful book and a really weak Disney film.)