Celebration Europe took place in London over the weekend, and one of the highlights of the Star Wars convention was a presentation by Steve Sansweet on the upcoming The Clone Wars cartoon series.

X-Realms staffers attended the behind-the-scenes presentation hosted by Sansweet, who revealed that 18 chapters of the series would be produced at first, of which about four are now already completed. The aim is to debut the 22-minute episodes on television in autumn 2008, but Lucas hasn’t made deals yet with any TV stations.

Sansweet’s introduction was followed by a behind-the-scenes video which showed that George Lucas is very much personally involved in the making of the series. He’s got the last word on everything and is regularly consulted by his crew, which sadly enough are still a bunch of ass-kissers without the bravery to stand up the Lucas and tell him when one of his ideas is downright awful.

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Posted in Movies, Star Wars •

A new teaser trailer for New Line Cinema’s The Golden Compass has been released on Apple.com.

The clip is similar to the first teaser that was released in May, but is nonetheless worth noting for a few different reasons. For one, it drops the clumy Lord of the Rings intro that tried to position the film as the successor to the Oscar-winning Tolkien adaptations. But the video also shows some improved CGI (which in the first teaser were notably rough around the edges) and features a bunch of new scenes, like Lyra spitting at a Tartan, Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter about to kiss, and the two polar bears having a go at eachother.

The adaptation of the first His Dark Materials book opens in cinemas December 7.

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Posted in Movies •

Various new details on the upcoming fourth Indiana Jones film can be extracted from a new article by the Associated Press.

Scenes shot on the Los Angeles set will make up half of the finished film’s runtime, and another 20% will be scenes done in Hawaii which include the movie’s biggest action scene. Production just wrapped the first of three weeks filming in the coastal areas surrounding Hilo, Hawaii’s biggest island, which will fill in as a South American rain forest. A week’s worth of filming each has already been completed in Connecticut and New Mexico.

The shooting on Hilo involved about 25 stunt performers and a ‘vehicle over the waterfall’ stunt which will cost in excess of $1 million alone. The film’s budget clocks in at $125 million.

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Posted in Movies •

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix took in a massive $190.3 million at the international box office over the weekend, reports Variety. Together with the $140 million US tally, the film’s worldwide gross has now reached $330.3 million.

The launch represents the third biggest international opening ever, trailing only Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. It is also the most successful of all five Harry Potter films so far, with the quintett now having raked in a massive $3.9 billion worldwide.

Click here to read our review of the film.

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Posted in Harry Potter, Movies •

Christina Cabot (Fight Club) has joined the cast of Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk, reports Variety.

The movie stars Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth and William Hurt. Cabot will play an aide to General Ross (played by Hurt), who pursues Norton’s Bruce Banner. Filming begins this summer in Toronto.

Marvel Studios and Universal release the pic in cinemas on June 13, 2008.

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Posted in Movies •

ComingSoon.net claims that WarnerBros. will debut a teaser trailer for The Dark Knight with copies of The Simpsons Movie, which is released in cinemas July 27 (watch out for our review in the next few days), in the United States.

The information comes from one of the site’s ‘most reliable sources’. There’s a possibility that Warner will show the trailer during their 10:30AM panel at Comic-Con on the same day, in spite of word that the studio wouldn’t show anything from the Batman Begins sequel at this year’s convention in San Diego.

The film is scheduled for release July 18, 2008.

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Posted in Batman, Movies •

Current James Bond actor Daniel Craig is quoted in the Daily Express as saying that there will be more humour in the next Bond film:

‘They [the producers] just want more gags,’ he said. ‘The next one’s going to be a lot funnier. Octopussy and Pussy Galore style gags. They’re all great names – but that’s the thing, the Bond jokes will be flipped on their heads.’

The 39-year-old actor also mentioned that he wants to go for a softer, less macho side of the character: ‘Bond is supposedly the most male moment [in film] but to me he’s never been macho. That Bond is something that Sean Connery created in Dr No.’

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Posted in James Bond, Movies •

Naomi Watts (King Kong, The Ring) will star opposite Clive Owen in The International, says The Hollywood Reporter.

The action-thriller directed by Tom Tykwer (Perfume - The Story of a Murderer, Run, Lola, Run) centers on an obsessive Interpol agent (Owen) who spearheads an investigation into one of the world’s most high-profile and powerful banking institutions in an attempt to expose them for worldwide arms brokering, corruption and murder. Watts will play a Manhattan assistant district attorney who partners with the agent to take down the bank.

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Posted in Movies •

Michael Bay’s latest movie is not this summer’s best blockbuster, but it’s at least as fun as it is downright silly. Giant alien robots wreaking havoc on Earth - what else could you expect?

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Posted in Movies, Reviews, Transformers •