Well, it’s been one big winter for movies. First off, The Interview was pulled from theaters. After theaters received threats from cyber terrorists that any screen showing it would suffer casualties in the audiences, most major theater chains in the country pulled the film from showings. It was subsequently released on home media and has been added on Netflix for all those still curious to see it.
Asides from that, the much anticipated Avatar sequels have been pushed back a year so that Avatar 2 will be released in 2017, as opposed to the previous announced date of Christmas, 2016. However, new Avatar sequels will come annually, with Avatar 3 and 4 following in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Also moved back was the sequel to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, now coming out in 2017 rather than previously announced 2016. The delay is to focus on the visual effects, which were undoubtedly one of the best parts of Dawn. Michael Keaton, who recently starred in Birdman, is set to star in 2017’s King Kong film Skull Island, alongside JK Simmons and Tom Hiddleston.
In the X-Men universe, a Gambit film has been announced to premiere Oct. 7, 2016. This will be the third X-Men film of 2016, after Deadpool and Apocalypse are released earlier. While in the news of comic book movies, the first Ant-Man trailer was released. Not showing much, the trailer did show Paul Rudd, playing the titular character, shrink down to insect size as he rides wasps. Ant-Man will come out July 17, 2015.
Most upsetting to me is the upcoming Ron Howard film In the Heart of the Sea being pushed from a March 13 release to Dec. 10. A huge fan of seafaring epics like Mutiny on the Bounty, Master and Commander, and Kon Tiki, I was immensely excited for this movie, especially for it to come out in March which is usually a bland time for movies. The main reason for the push back is that the studio likely thinks it to be Oscar worthy, hence the December release. Yet I have always felt that a good movie is a good movie, no matter when it comes out.
And of course, the big news was the announcement of the 87th Academy Award nominees, which will air on ABC Feb. 22. The nominees can be found at www.oscars.org for a full list of the nominees and the awards are sure to be covered by the Charger Bulletin in coming weeks.
