It’s been a busy weekend for those in the House of Mouse following the bi-annual D23 expo, but an announcement that many were hoping for never came to be. On the opening day, Marvel Studios had four giant statues covered in sheets, which many presumed would be the reveal of the Fantastic Four finally joining their MCU-cohorts, only to have them revealed as the The Black Order in Avengers: Infinity War. Speaking with Yahoo!, Kevin Feige has said there are still no plans – as of yet – for Marvel’s First Family to join the MCU. “But too many amazing things have happened over the past 17 years for me ever say never,” he said. “But for now, nothing. There’s a chance that aliens could come down from the sky right now. And we’ll use them in the movie in to save money on visual effects.” Read more here.
Alien: Covenant director Ridely Scott has revealed that he could use CGI to put a young Ripley in his next Alien movie, similar to Tarkin in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story or young Tony Stark in Captain America: Civil War. “We’re heading toward the back end of the first Alien so [using CG] may be feasible,” he said at a recent Q&A. “I don’t think it’ll… but Ripley’s going to be somebody’s daughter. Obviously. We’re coming in from the back end. The time constraints, of what’s the time between this film, where we leave David going off heading for that colony, I think you’re probably two films out from even considering her.” Read more here.
One of the highlights of Comic-Con 2015 was the sizzle reel for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and at D23 Lucasfilm unveiled their newest sizzle reel for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Watch it here.
WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE BOX OFFICE
Matt Reeves’ conclusion of his Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy has come out to great reviews, but not the box office they may have wanted. In total, War for the Planet of the Apes opened to just slightly more than Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but no where close too Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in 2014. However Dawn did cost $20 million less to make. Read more here.
The first footage from Avengers: Infinity War was shown at D23 over the weekend, but sadly not released online. However, we do have a detailed description which you can read here.
While we don’t have any full details for Marvel’s Phase Four outside of Spider-Man 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, we do know that a solo Hulk movie won’t be happening any time soon. “I want to just make one thing perfectly clear today: A standalone Hulk movie will never happen,” Mark Ruffalo said at D23. “Universal has the rights, and for some reason, they don’t know how to play well with Marvel. And, they don’t want to make money.” Read more here.
We’ll end this edition of the Weekend News Roundup with the sad passing of George A. Romero. The godfather of the zombie movie, Romero made his filmmaking debut in 1968 with the hugely influential Night of the Living Dead, which was followed by the sequels Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, along with the more recent Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead. In addition to his zombie series, Romero directed a number of other projects, including The Crazies, Creepshow and The Dark Half. He had recently announced that he would be writing and producing another instalment of the Dead franchise, Road of the Dead, which just this past week he described as “The Fast and the Furious with zombies.” Read more here.
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