George Lucas really just needs to learn to stop talking.

On the eve of releasing Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace in 3D, the father of all things Star Wars, George Lucas, answered five questions with The Hollywood Reporter.  One of them was about the changes he makes to his movies, and how he views them compared to the way the fans do.  In particular he was asked about the whole “Han Shot First” controversy.

THR: People can get fanatical about the movies — how does that make you feel? The puppet vs. CGI Yoda ruckus, and the who-shot-first, Han Solo or Greedo furor come to mind.

Lucas: Well, it’s not a religious event. I hate to tell people that. It’s a movie, just a movie. The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in Episode IV, what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo [who seemed to be the one who shot first in the original] to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t. It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down. [...]

The confusion? Here is how the scene appeared in the original edit of the film.

I’m sorry, but is anyone confused about what happened here? Yes, the sub-tittles for Greedo are missing, but I think you can still get the point of what is happening here. Are you in any way confused about what you just saw?

You know, I really don’t care if Lucas wants to change every single shot in the films, its his right to do so.   And here’s how he defended that decision in the interview:

If you look at Blade Runner, it’s been cut sixteen ways from Sunday and there are all kinds of different versions of it. Star Wars, there’s basically one version — it just keeps getting improved a little bit as we move forward. … All art is technology and it improves every year. Whether it’s on the stage or in music or in painting, there are technological answers that happen, and because movies are so technological, the advances become more obvious.

Here’s the problem with that defense … I can buy any one of the sixteen cuts of Blade Runner that I want to. If I want the original theatrical cut, it’s out there. If I want to buy the Director’s Cut, it’s out there. Tell me, Mr. Lucas, can you tell me when the original theatrical cut of any of the original trilogy are coming to DVD or Blu-ray? Oh, that’s right, they aren’t.

Do whatever you want, Lucas, but don’t make lame excuses to try to explain away your poor decisions.  There was absolutely nothing confusing to the original Han/Greedo scene.  By the way, the original script also seems to have been pretty clear on what happened:

GREEDO: You can tell that to Jabba. He may only take your ship.

HAN: Over my dead body.

GREEDO: That’s the idea. I’ve been looking forward to killing you for
a long time.

HAN: Yes, I’ll bet you have.

Suddenly the slimy alien disappears in a blinding flash of light. Han pulls his smoking gun from beneath the table as the other patron look on in bemused amazement. Han gets up and starts out of the cantina, flipping the bartender some coins as he leaves.

HAN: Sorry about the mess.

So, George, just stop keep digging your grave.  It doesn’t help you’re case with the people who made you the billionaire you are today.  Change whatever you want, just don’t insult our intelligence.

After years of development, crowd sourcing and delay after delay, the movie Iron Sky is finally a reality.

First appearing on the Web as a random video in 2008, people were immediately captivated by it’s very simple concept: What if some Nazi’s escaped to the dark side of the Moon and set up a base?  Eventually they would come back, and want revenge.

Okay, fine, lets ignore the fact that they would have next to no body mass … and that gravity would mess with them … and how did they build their base?  We’re just going to ignore all that … it’s Nazis … in space.  How can you not immediately rule this as awesome?

What has changed in the recent past is that it appears the film got into a bit of political commentary as you can see in the most recent trailer.  It isn’t what I was nitially interested in, but I still want to see this movie.

Here’s another teaser that explains a bit more of the story.

And here’s the video that started it all. As you can see, things have changed a bit, but it still appears to be awesome.

The film opens on April 4 in limited release.

Over the past few days more footage for both The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man has been released, and between the two, a MARVELous summer is surely in store. (See what I did there?!? Stop looking at me like that! It was punny!)

First up was The Avengers with a new commercial during the Super Bowl that brought us a lot of new footage.  We still don’t get a clear shot at who is working with Loki, but there are numerous theories floating around out there.

Next up is The Amazing Spider-Man which shows just how far off book the new movie is going … and it’s pretty darn far. Peter finishing The Lizard formula? His father having worked at Oscorp?  Why do they constantly insist on messing around with these origin stories is beyond me, but here we go yet again.

The Avengers hits theaters on May 4, and The Amazing Spider-Man on July 3.  (And both are based on comics from Marvel if you didn’t get my earlier joke …)

Every time something new on Dredd, the ne Judge Dredd film, I somehow end up getting both excited and fearful at the same time.

2000 A.D. released some new still from the upcoming new Judge Dredd film that show off some new shots of Karl Urban as the title character, and our first real looks at Olivia Thirlby as Psi Judge Anderson.  While the new photos give me more of the grimy, dirty feel this dystopian future should come with, I still just can’t get over how silly the helmet is looking.

The producers have promised this film will be more faithful than the last outing and that we won’t see Dress remove his helmet, and we won’t see him kissing the female lead at the end.  At least those are steps in the right direction.

Karl Urban in his father’s helmet?  At least the chin is working.

Psi Judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) teams up with Judge Dredd.

Dredd fires his Lawgiver.  At least we finally see the eagle at shows up in some form on his armor.

Anderson dispenses judgement?  (I’d say the shot came from elsewhere … such as from Dredd)  The Psi Judges are telepaths and empaths, while they do some of the work of a regular Judge, they are not typically around for street duty.

The film comes out September 21 in both 2D and 3D.

A movie with some of the smallest media buzz I have seen in some time managed to take the crown at the box office this weekend.

Chronicle, the latest in the “found footage” genre, ended up winning out the weekend with $22 million at the box office. With a smallish budget of $12 million, and probably the least amount of advertising I’ve seen in some time for a film, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this film is already in the black.  While I’ve gotten fairly annoyed with the found footage film style, this one at least breathed some new life into the idea by being about kids who get super powers instead of your usual attempt at horror.

Coming in second with $21 million was the new Daniel Radcliffe horror film, The Woman in Black.  Analysts were predicting some healthy numbers for this film, so coming in second is sure to have surprised at least a few people, especially when it was beaten by a fairly unknown film.

Dropping 51.7 percent from last weekend to come in third was the Liam Nesson vehicle, The Grey.  The film brought in $9.5 million to bring its domestic total to $34.7 million.

Big Miracle, a new family-friendly film about whales, came in with $8.5 million, which is pretty anemic considering its $40 million budget.  Family films tend to hold on better at the box office than most other properties, so we’ll have to see how this one fares over the long term.

Rounding out the top five was Underworld Awakening, slipping another 54.7 percent, but it still brought in a pretty healthy $5.6 million.  This franchise just does not want to seem to die off, which, I must admit, does surprise me a bit.

There’s four decent sized releases next week, so get ready for Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Safe House, The Vow and, sadly, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (in 3D).

Rumors are circulating that Rick Deckard himself, Harrison Ford, may be returning for at least a little bit of Blade Runner 2.

News of a Blade Runner sequel has been circulating since last March, and I made it fairly clear back then all the reasons I found this to be a bad idea.  I won’t rehash all of the reasons here, but my opinion of this idea hasn’t changed one iota in the interim.  So I’m sure you could imagine my delight when I read that Harrison Ford may be in early talks to make an appearance in the sequel.

According to Twitch Film, the belief has been that only Ridley Scott would return from the original, but now there is word that Harrison Ford may indeed be in early talks to reprise one of his most famous roles.  If true, this is a complete contradiction to what  Alcon Entertainment producer Andrew Kosove told the Los Angeles Times this past August,

In no way do I speak for Ridley Scott but if you’re asking me will this movie have anything to do with Harrison Ford, the answer is no. This is a total reinvention and in my mind that means doing everything fresh, including casting.

My big issue with this whole rumor is that Twitch Movie only says it has “learned” of these talks, but makes absolutely no mention of how they did so.  Was it a source close to Ford?  Was it a source close to Alcon?  Was it the homeless guy who lives in the stove box by the door of the studio?  There is just no indication of how they came about obtaining this information.

For now I’m definitely taking this with a grain of salt.  Depending on which version of the original film you watch, you walk away wondering if Deckard was a replicant himself, which would lead you to believe he wouldn’t age.  If he comes back as Ford currently looks then you’d have no question he was human.  Or would they use the same technology Tron Legacy did to make him young?  Either way it takes some of the mystery out of the original, and that’s just not something I think anyone wants.

[via Twitch Film]

Cristina Preston, 44, was arrested this week amid allegations that she had sexual relations with a 14-year-old male student.

Preston was taken into custody on Tuesday, but has since made bail which, according to the Ledger-Enquirer, came to $25,000 each on two counts of child molestation and $10,000 each on one count of sexual assault on a person in custody and one count of enticing a child for indecent purposes.  Upon her release she resigned from her position with Veterans Memorial Middle School.  She had taught special education in the school district for 19 years.

Apparently the entire series of events happened very quickly.  Reports indicate that the statutory rape occurred at 12:30 AM on Monday in Cooper Creek Park in Columbus, GA, and by 10 PM on Monday the police were called to the boy’s home.  The following day Preston was taking into custody.

Should Preston be convicted on all charges, and her terms stacked consecutively, she is facing up to 120 years in prison.  The count of sexual assault on a person in custody is applied to any teacher and student from the same school, and that charge alone carries 25 to 50 years.

There is no word yet as to what evidence there was to make authorities act so quickly.

[Thanks to Jo for the tip]

It’s episode #175 and Scattercast is … not sure of its future.

Some thoughts on the future of the show.

My thoughts on teachers gone wrong.

Movie news, as always.
subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes.

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Yes, I’m still working on this silly embedding issue.

The hope I had when the first G.I. Joe: Retaliation trailer hit I had a little bit of hope, but that may now be evaporating.

For years now the Super Bowl has become a launch pad for summer movies, and already the commercial for G.I. Joe: Retaliation has hit the Internet, and while the footage still looks far better than the first movie – and more like you would hope a movie based on this franchise would look – they’ve already thrown in something to make you cringe: Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson) quoting a Jay-Z song.

While I can understand wanting to throw a little humor into this, why does it have to be so ham-fisted?

Hopefully this is a one-off moment, but I wouldn’t put it paste Hollywood to go nuts with this sort of dialog.

A 61-year-old elementary school teacher in Los Angeles has been arrested for committing lewd acts on 23 boys and girls, ages 6 to 10, between 2008 and 2010 at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles.

Police arrested Mark Berndt this week after a year-long investigation began when a technician in a CVS Pharmacy film development lab alerted authorities to disturbing pictures he was developing for the teacher.  The 35mm film showed students blindfolded with their mouths covered in clear tape with some of them being fed a white substance later discovered to be his semen on a spoon.  Other students were shown to have large Madagascar-style cockroaches crawling on their faces while bound.

Berndt had taught at the school for 30 years, but was fired in January 2011 when school authorities were alerted to the investigation.

Apparently Mr. Berndt would lock his classroom door and tell the children they were playing a game which involved a taste test where he would put his seman on cookies or a spoon and feed it to them.  It was discovered to be his own bodily fluids after a white bottle was seen in one of the photos and then found in the trash of his classroom.  Once discovered the police ran tests on the contents and found it to be Berndt’s seman inside.

When the police executed a search warrant of his home, they found 100 other similar photos to the ones that had led to the investigation and an adult bondage DVD that depicted similar acts to the ones he had carried out with the students.

He appeared in court today and had his bail set out $23 million.

While most of the teacher sex scandals I write up are reprehensible enough with a teacher having sex with one student, this man, in my book, should the evidence hold up, qualifies as an out and out monster.  Seeing as I won’t be sitting on his jury, I’m just going to go ahead and say that should he be found to be guilty, there is truly no punishment that will be severe enough.  He has committed a crime against these children that is difficult to even comprehend, and I can’t say strongly enough how badly I feel for each of them and their families.

[thanks to the multiple people who sent this to me]

If everything goes according to the most recent plans, Arrested Development won’t feel like it’s missed a moment since its cancellation.

Series writer Dean Lorey took to his blog this weekend with some very welcome news about the return of Arrested Development:

We’re really doing this thing. Mitch Hurwitz, Jim Vallely and I are off writing the new season of ARRESTED to premiere on Netflix in 2013. The original cast is back. There are offices and parking spaces. We’re shooting this year. I wish I could give more specifics but, for the moment, even the schedule is being kept under wraps. But it’s happening and it’s great to be back with my pals from the show. More later as it becomes okay to release further details…

If this is true, and there’s no reason to think it isn’t, that means we can expect:

• Jason Bateman as Michael Bluth
• Portia de Rossi as Lindsay Bluth Fünke
• Will Arnett as George ‘Gob’ Bluth II
• Michael Cera as George-Michael Bluth
• Alia Shawkat as Mae “Maeby” Fünke
• Tony Hale as Byron “Buster” Bluth
• David Cross as Tobias Fünke
• Jeffrey Tambor as George Bluth Sr.
• Jessica Walter as Lucille Bluth

As regular readers of this blog know, I can hardly wait for these new episodes and the follow-up movie. As a matter of fact, I can’t tell you how many people were firing variations of this link off to me through out the day on Monday. (Credit to Jon Rettinger for being the first) With each additional piece of information, it’s looking more and more like this is really happening, and that just continues to amaze me. We haven’t seen new episodes since 2006, and the idea that all of these people coming back together after this long is just a testament in my mind to how special this show was to everyone involved, and that should tell you part of what the fans see in it as well.

It seems that moviegoers were very much in the mood for some fresh films this weekend.

The new Liam Neeson film that shows him fighting wolves in the wilderness, The Grey,  brought in an estimated $20 million this weekend.  It’s behind some other recent films from the actor, but not a horrible showing.

Underworld Awakening slipped 50.6 percent this weekend to bring in an estimated $12.5 million.  It’s currently tracking slightly ahead of the second film in the series, the last to feature Kate Beckinsale, so depending on final numbers I wouldn’t be too surprised to see a fifth film to show up at some point.

The new Katherine Heigl film, One For the Money, was estimated to bring in only $5 million this weekend by some analysts, but the current estimates put it at $11.75 million. Based on a popular series of crime novels by Janet Evanovich, it’s a bit surprising it wasn’t expected to do better, but lets see how it does with a couple more weeks under its belt, but it’s getting marginal reviews.

Red Tails fell 44.6 percent, which is a healthy hold on its box office take, and slightly ahead of the normal decline films see in their second weekends.  It added $10.4 million to its take, bringing its total to $33.78 million.

Opening in fifth place was Man on a Ledge came in with $8.3 million, so it seems unlikely this movie will be around for very long.

Next week will see the releases of Big Miracle, Chronicle and The Woman in Black.