Why ‘The Hobbit’ may not look the same in every US cinema

When 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' is released next month, 400 screens across the US will be showing a technically superior version after Warner Bros announces which theaters will receive the 48 frames per second edition of the movie.

With the release of the first of Peter Jackson’s much-anticipated Hobbit trilogy less than two months away, theater owners are having to come to terms with the fact that, while the movie will be released in a format that allows it to be projected at the increased frame rate of 48 frames per second, that enhanced release will be limited to a small number of theaters in the US, based around two particular theater chains.

Warner Bros. had announced last Spring that it planned to make The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey available at the increased rate – The traditional frame rate for movie projection is 24 frames per second – to excitement from the theater industry in general. However, that excitement has paled when it was revealed that only 400 screens in the US will be receiving this edition of the movie, with the remainder receiving a 24 frame per second edition (For context, it was estimated that there were 39,580 movie screens in total in the US last year).

The limited release for the advanced format is being described by the studio as “a platform release” that utilizes what is called HFR 3D technology present in mostly Regal and AMC theaters, upsetting many theater owners. According to Michael Karagosian, president of cinema consultancy MKPE Consulting, “Several manufacturers set aside profitable projects to switch resources to supporting HFRs for Hobbit,” without realizing that they wouldn’t have the opportunity to show the improved version. Amongst those manufacturers, Sony Electronics, whose Senior Vice President of Digital Cinema Solutions Gary Johns admits “We put the money into it,” before adding that although “the opportunity for sales is diminished,” he “think[s] we will get there. I’m sure it will be back. We think HFRs is great thing.”

The reason for the limited release, according to Warners, is that it wants the movie to be seen in the best light possible, which means taking time to ensure that the technology has been properly installed. “We want to make sure we do it properly and make sure the public sees it in its best form,” Warners President of Domestic Distribution Dan Fellman is on record as saying. “We are very committed to this. [High frame rates are] the most important change in exhibition, probably since the introduction of sound.”

The idea that the technology may not be up to standards everywhere isn’t an entirely fallacious one, according to Dolby’s Senior Director of Cinema Product Marketing Matt Cuson: “Some technical issues have come up in testing and not all the devices did things as well as Warners had expected,” he said, adding that “It’s a high profile fail, should you fail. Nobody wants that.”

The takeaway for fans interested in seeing Jackson’s latest epic as close to the way the director intended it, perhaps, is that they should pick their theaters carefully when the movie is released December 14. Otherwise, who knows what treats you’ll miss?

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Rumor: Armie Hammer may play Batman in Justice League movie

Once again, Armie Hammer is Warner Bros.' top choice to play Batman in a still-hypothetical Justice League movie.

According to a recently published report on Digital Spy, actor Armie Hammer (pictured above at right) is being strongly considered for the role of Batman in Warner Bros. inevitable film based on DC Comics’ Justice League superhero team. 

If that sounds familiar to you, it’s not because we’re reprinting old stories in some kind of ill-conceived “Digital Trends Greatest Hits” initiative. Hammer was originally the top candidate for the Batman role back when Mad Max director George Miller was attached to the Justice League project. That attempt to get this movie made fell apart a few years ago, yet Warner Bros. is determined to pick up a slice of that sweet superhero team movie cash generated by The Avengers earlier this year, and will not rest until someone, somewhere is filming a big-budget Justice League feature film.

As for why Hammer once again leads the list of names vying for the Bruce Wayne/Batman role in this film, Digital Spy’s unnamed insider source claims that Hammer’s recent ascent to the fringes of the Hollywood A-list has put him “back on WB’s radar.” Hammer will next appear as the titular lawman in Disney’s Lone Ranger feature film alongside Johnny Depp, which is undeniably a pretty major role (even if Depp’s silly, borderline-racist crow hat will inevitably overshadow Hammer’s performance).

In case you’re wondering if Hammer’s hypothetical Batman might officially replace the fan-favorite Batman portrayed by Christian Bale in Christopher Nolan’s recently-concluded Batman trilogy, don’t worry: According to the anonymous source, Hammer’s version of the character will only be used in this initial Justice League film and any sequels it might spawn. Unless plans change, Hammer won’t be appearing in any solo Batman adventures.

Finally, Digital Spy claims that the Justice League film will include a relatively standard roster for the superteam. Though the Justice League (and its innumerable spin-off groups) has seen hundreds of members over its half-century-plus in existence, this initial Justice League movie will focus on the core group of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and The Flash. No, we have no idea which iterations of The Flash or Green Lantern Warner Bros. plans to use, but we’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything more concrete than just “our shadowy informant said…”.

Working under the assumption that these rumors are all true, this news doesn’t so much fill us with joyful anticipation as it raises questions in our comic book-addled brains. As much as we like Hammer — other than the Trent Reznor score, his work as the Winklevoss Twins in David Fincher’s The Social Network was easily our favorite part of that film — he simply seems too young and soft to properly portray Batman. Yes, Bruce Wayne grew up in a mega-wealthy family and has never wanted for money, but there’s a certain edge to the character that seems minor but is, in fact, one of his defining traits. Christian Bale was able to pull this off flawlessly, but so far Hammer has yet to do anything that suggests he might have that certain killer instinct that makes Bruce Wayne more than just your average playboy.

More crucially, if Hammer is cast, and his Batman is used solely in Justice League movies, what happens when The WB wants to start churning out new Batman films? Will they go back on their plan? Will they find another actor? Assuming the latter, won’t the public be confused by two entirely separate Batmen coming from the same production studio? Objectively speaking, one of them has to be better than the other, so in that case the studio would be running the risk of overshadowing its own projects and cannibalizing any potential audience either franchise might attract.

Whatever happens, this film isn’t scheduled to hit theaters until at least 2015, so Warner Bros. certainly has lots of time to figure things out. In the mean time, as usual, we invite you to visit the comments section below to either vilify this rumored news, or figuratively clap like one of those wind-up cymbal monkeys. Whichever more accurately conveys your current emotional state.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Garth Evans’ Godzilla reboot officially hits theaters in 2014

Come May 16, 2014, the world's most famous giant, nuclear amphibian will return to the silver screen.

When it was first revealed that Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures had joined forces to reboot the Godzilla franchise, fan opinion was split. On the one hand, the idea that we might see new Godzilla movies is exciting news for any fan of the silver screen’s most famous scaly behemoth. On the other hand, the last time an American studio attempted to create a legitimate Godzilla movie, the result was a 1998 film starring Matthew Broderick that is widely reviled among both hardcore Godzilla fans, and those whose only exposure to the famous monster has been courtesy late-night programs like TNT’s phenomenally entertaining, dearly missed MonsterVision.

Unlike the 1998 movie however, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have stacked the deck in favor of their upcoming flick. The hope, it seems, is that this movie might spawn a new iteration of the nearly 60-year-old Godzilla franchise, and to further that goal the studios reached out to director Gareth Evans to helm the project. Though relatively new to the Hollywood scene, Evans has proven himself a more-than-competent director with his work on Indonesian action movies like 2009′s Merantau and 2011′s The Raid: Redemption. Likewise, this version of Godzilla has the full support of Japan’s Toho Company (the studio that created the character way back in 1954), and is written by the relatively unknown Max Borenstien, Dave Callaham (The Expendables series) and David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight Rises). Roland Emmerich served as director on the 1998 Godzila (which he co-wrote with his long-time writing partner Dean Devlin), and while Emmerich/Devlin productions generally feature amazing explosions and clever CGI work, they tend to lack subtlety, and we expect the new Godzilla movie to be somewhat more nuanced than its most recent American predecessor.

However, none of the above is novel news. We’ve been hearing brief snippets of info about this movie for years, but we’ve spent that entire time unable to discern when we might see Godzilla’s return to the big screen. That all changed this morning though, as Warner Bros. officially unveiled a release date for the movie: May 16, 2014. Alongside the release date, the WB also mentioned that the film is now officially slated to be screened in 3D, though the studio fails to mention whether Godzilla was initially shot in three dimensions, or if the movie was originally in 2D and will be converted to 3D in post-processing.

Regardless, this should be great news for fans. As Deadline points out, Evans and the film’s producers offered attendees of the recent San Diego Comic Con an opportunity to watch the film’s first trailer, and the response was almost universally positive. Statistically speaking, the majority of you weren’t at Comic Con this year, so it seems that May 16 will be the first opportunity most of us have to see the rebooted Godzilla. Our only real concern now is how far Evans, Warner Bros., et alia may have gone in “rebooting” the character. Will this be a largely reimagined Godzilla, like the one seen in Emmerich’s 1998 film, or will Evans simply build on the classic Toho Godzilla films using all the benefits of modern CGI and movie-making techniques? Hopefully we’ll hear official word on that query shortly.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Release dates, subtitles finalized for Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy

Peter Jackson is now making three Hobbit films, and we've got release dates and subtitles for each one.

When news broke that Peter Jackson had convinced executives at Warner Bros. and MGM to let him film J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit as a trilogy, instead of the originally-planned duology, fans were understandably excited. A whole ‘nother film full of Jackson’s vision of Middle Earth? Another two-plus hours of Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins? A third helping of Benedict “Most British Name In History” Cumberbatch as the evil dragon Smaug? What’s not to like about all of this?

Very little, as it turns out. The ‘net is almost unanimously positive about this project (which is weird because you people hate everything), but hardcore fans have kept their excitement in check, preferring to keep the celebration to a minimum until we were granted two very crucial pieces of information about Jackson’s upcoming films: Specifically, their subtitles and an accurate release date for each film.

Fortunately, that information was revealed this morning. ComingSoon has a full report:

Warner Bros. Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures jointly announced today that the final film in Peter Jackson’s trilogy adaptation of the enduringly popular masterpiece “The Hobbit,” by J.R.R. Tolkien, now titled The Hobbit: There and Back Again, will be released worldwide on July 18, 2014. All three films in the trilogy are productions of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures.

The Studios also announced the title of the second installment in the franchise,The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which will be released on December 13, 2013. The first film in the trilogy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, opens this holiday season, on December 14, 2012. Shot in 3D 48 frames-per-second, the trilogy of films will be released in High Frame Rate (HFR) 3D, other 3D formats, IMAX and 2D.

Happy now? With this announcement you hardcore fans now have a proper, verbose title to describe whichever segment of this trilogy you’re most excited for, and we’ve discovered that the producers behind this film series are aiming for an unprecedentedly rapid release schedule. When asked to explain the move, Warner Bros. President Of Domestic Distribution Dan Fellman claimed that this whole scheme is an effort to appease the rabid Tolkien fanbase while simultaneously maximizing these films’ potential profitability. “We wanted to have a shorter gap between the second and third films of The Hobbit trilogy,” Fellman said. “Opening in July affords us not only the perfect summer tentpole, but fans will have less time to wait for the finale of this epic adventure.”

The announcement also describes the relatively recently announced third Hobbit film (now officially dubbed “The Hobbit: There And Back Again“) as “an action spectacle and an emotional conclusion for this already much-anticipated trilogy,” though it does little to explain how Jackson intends to expand what was once a duo of films into this now heavily-anticipated trilogy.

Still, we’ve got faith in the man. Peter Jackson has done more than anyone (save perhaps Tolkien himself) to popularize the Middle Earth mythology, and at this point most audiences will view whatever Jackson puts together as completely canonical. Plus, it’s not exactly like Jackson is going to have to make things up to pad out his film. Tolkien kept an obscene amount of notes and unpublished material related to the universe of The Hobbit, and one could easily fill four or five movies with that extraneous text alone. Consider this an opportunity to finally, officially admit slavering excitement for the trilogy.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Ben Affleck: ‘I’m not working on the Justice League’

Ben Affleck is not going to be directing Warner Bros.' upcoming Justice League movie. He said so himself.

If you’ve been following our ongoing coverage of Warner Bros. upcoming, still-hypothetical movie based on DC Comics’ Justice League superhero team, then you no doubt know that Ben Affleck was rumored to be assuming the role of the director (and possibly one of the stars) for the movie. Likewise, you also probably know that other, separate rumors claim that Affleck will not be directing. With so many conflicting reports, who is a person to believe?

How about Affleck himself?

“I’m not working on the Justice League,” Affleck recently told Vancouver, BC news organization 24 Hours Vancouver. “One of the problems with entertainment web sites is that they need to fill pages, and that’s how rumours get started. Justice League sounds really exciting, but it’s not something I’m working on.”

24 Hours then attempts to work around Affleck’s own words by saying that just because the man is not currently working on Justice League, that does not mean that he wouldn’t be up for it in the future. This movie is still a ways away from entering production, so why couldn’t Affleck sign on later? Or so the site’s reasoning seems to go.

We however, are done with this. If Ben Affleck says he’s not directing Justice League, then as far as we’re concerned he’s not directing Justice League. Until an official press release contradicts this idea, we think it would be more prudent to speculate on other possible directors than to constantly flog this “Affleck as Justice League director” idea to death. Intriguingly, there are new rumors circulating that the Wachowski siblings are among Warner Bros.’ prospective auteurs, and despite their middling success since The Matrix, you can’t deny that a Wachowski-helmed Justice League flick would, at the very least, be a massive visual spectacle — and call us shallow, but we kinda dig Wachowski-brand spectacle, even if it’s severely lacking in complementary substance.

Excitement aside, and as much as this is quite literally our job, can we place a moratorium on Justice League director rumors? We aren’t going to get Christopher Nolan to helm this project, Affleck is presumably out and that Wachowskis thing I just mentioned is as likely to be entirely made up as it is to be legitimate. Maybe those other sites mentioned by Affleck that desperately need to pad out their page views can’t see what’s going on here, but we’re growing tired of reporting on what is effectively a lack of information. We’d convey the same meaning and ramifications by telling you all kid’s fairy tales. You know the Three Billy Goats Gruff, right? Not only is that a great story, it’s also exactly as likely to come true as any of these rumors. Let’s make a pact here: You won’t read any of this stuff, we won’t write about it, and instead we’ll all focus on something more important (like, literally anything else). Deal?

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com