MOVIE NEWS FOR DEC. 17: IRON MAN 2 TRAILER, AVATAR INTERVIEW, FAMILY GUY STAR TREK PARODY, AND GOLDEN COMPASS SEQUELS

from Meredith Woerner at i09: First Iron Man 2 Trailer Explodes With Gadgets, Guns And The American Way
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Check out War Machine, the Iron Man dancers, and all new Tony Stark banter, in the first Iron Man 2 trailer. It seems Tony’s handling his new superhero status with style: partying, jumping out of planes and pissing off everyone.

See the trailer here

By Michelle Kung at Speak Easy/Wall Street Journal: “Avatar’s” Sigourney Weaver on James Cameron, “Ghostbusters 3,” and Younger Men
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Get ready for a lot more Sigourney Weaver. The 60-year-old actress plays botanist Grace Augustine in James Cameron’s highly-anticipated “Avatar,” out this Friday. She also has (at the moment) five films — primarily comedies — slated for 2010, including her “Galaxy Quest” co-star Tim Allen’s directorial debut and “Cedar Rapids,” where she plays Ed Helm’s cougar-esque ex-teacher and lover. Speakeasy spoke with Weaver about finding her inner “goof,” what makes a good science fiction film and reading the “Ghostbusters 3″ script.

The Wall Street Journal: Was working with James Cameron again something you’d been thinking about for a while?

Sigourney Weaver: We kept in touch [after “Aliens”]. It’s wonderful to work with him, because whatever he takes on is always challenging. He also has such a common touch, even with sci fi — he’ll populate a story with something you can immediately identify with. For example, in “Aliens,” when everyone first gets off the spaceship, Hudson says he’s cold and the sergeant says, “You want me to fetch your slippers, Hudson?”, which is wonderful way of mixing science with true reality.

Read More here

By Amy Hertz at the Huffington Post: Sam Elliott, Philip Pullman Says Religious Right Blocked Golden Compass Sequel
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The author, a star, and others are all asking the same question: when the movie adaptation of the book, “The Golden Compass” looks like it’s going to be a hit, why are no sequels being made? It was the first of a trilogy written by self-proclaimed atheist Philip Pullman, a successful fantasy starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.

The Guardian says:

After the success of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy looked a dead cert for epic fantasy book franchise success. In 2007, when first installment The Golden Compass was released, it looked to have all the right ingredients: moppet actors, spectacular battles, a sexy baddie, Ian McKellen, snow. But no sequels were made. Why?

In an interview with the NCRegister,

Actor Sam Elliott claims that the Catholic Church prevented Hollywood from proceeding with the next two film’s in the His Dark Materials trilogy based on Philip Pullman’s books.”The Catholic Church … lambasted them,” said Elliott. “I think it scared New Line off.”

Read More here

by Anthony Pascale at trekmovie.com: Seth MacFarlane Still Wants To Do Star Trek Family Guy Parody Episode – Will Paramount Cooperate?
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Seth MacFarlane’s animated FOX comedy Family Guy has long been rife with sci-fi references, which have culminated in doing full parody episodes remaking two Star Wars movies. And what movies does he want to do next? According to a new interview, MacFarlaine is still interested in taking on Star Trek, but will Paramount let him?

In 2007 Family Guy took on the original Star Wars movie in a full length parody called “Blue Harvest.” Next week the Family Guy re-imagining of Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back as “Something Something Dark Side” is coming out on DVD and Blu-ray. The Family Guy team plan to finish off the original Star Wars trilogy, taking on Return of the Jedi in 2010.

So what is next for the pop cultural referencing fanboy MacFarlane? In a new interview with the LA Times he gives a clue…

Read More here

Iron Man 2 looks as good as the first so far. I would love Family Guy to do Star Trek, I thought Blue Harvest was awesome. And it is so irritating that New Line backed down about the Golden Compass sequels. They had planned to do the entire trilogy when they started it; Chris Weitz was signed on for all three. If they knew the material when the ok’d the project, they should have known there would be controversy. It doesn’t seem like they really thought it through (or they didn’t bother reading all three books).

What do you think of Iron Man so far? Are you excited about Ghostbusters 3?