Star Wars, Terminator 6 and more geekly News Round-Up!

A lot of new stuff to discover in the geeky worlds of Star Wars, Marvel and DC Comics! Dive in and see what is coming our way!

Final Defenders Trailer

Netflix' own Marvel superhero team, the Defenders, finally come together this week on Friday! Check out the final trailer for the street level hero bonanza above!

“Marvel’s The Defenders” follows Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. A quartet of singular heroes with one common goal - to save New York City. This is the story of four solitary figures, burdened with their own personal challenges, who realize they just might be stronger when teamed together."

Ben Affleck Talks Justice League

After Zack Snyder had to drop out of the post production of DC Comics long awaited superhero team up movie, Justice League, because of a tragedy in the family, the BvS and MoS director chose Joss Whedon to step in to do some final reshoots and finish editing the film.
Ben Affleck, who plays Batman and is also a producer in the movie, talked to Entertainment Weekly about just that situation.

“It’s a little bit unorthodox. Zack had a family tragedy, and stepped off, which was horrible. For the movie, the best person we could’ve possibly found was Joss. We got really lucky that he stepped in.”

Affleck stated that the JL movie is now

“an interesting product of two directors, both with kind of unique visions, both with really strong takes. I’ve never had that experience before making a movie. I have to say, I really love working with Zack, and I really love the stuff we’ve done with Joss.”

When asked about the reshoots and rumors of them being kind of irregular, if not a sign of trouble for the film, he had this to say.

"I’ve never worked on a movie that didn’t do reshoots. Argo, we did reshoots for a week and a half! Four days on Gone Baby Gone!”

He overall seemed very enthused about the state of the DC films.

"This is a really nice time to work in DC. They’re hitting their stride. They’re getting it right. It’s starting to feel like it’s really working.”

While, as a fan of MoS, BvS and Suicide Squad, I disagree with his statement that these films start to really work (to me they all did), it is exciting to hear him be excited about the franchise again.
Justice League is my most anticipated film of the year and we will be able to judge it for ourselves this November.

Doug Liman Talks About Dropping Out Of Justice League Dark

Doug Liman had been attached to the John Constantine led Justice League Dark movie for a while, but recently had to drop out as a director (after also dropping out as director for the long awaited and probably never arriving Gambit movie). Talking to Cinema Blend he revealed why that happened.

"You know, I develop more movies than I make. There’s a weed-out process, and it’s just that when you get to the comic book one, suddenly everybody hears about them. So, the script never got to a place that was special enough for me. Not for lack of trying."

I am still pretty excited to hopefully finally get a comic accurate depiction of John Constantine on the big screen (as Reeves' wasn't even approaching that and the fantastic Matt Ryan version was doomed in a short lived TV show), but I am uncertain about the future of the project, as it has been stuck in development hell for a while.

Arnold Returns In Terminator 6

James Cameron (Terminator 1 + 2, Avatar, Titanic) recently reaquired the rights for the Terminator sci-fi franchise he created in the early 80s. The legendary filmmaker also revealed that he is currently coming up with another idea for a 6th movie, IF he can come up with an angle to reinvent the franchise. In a live Q and A for the 25th anniversary of T-2, he was asked about Arnold Schwarzeneggers involvement and had this to say:

"Yeah, you got to ask yourself, ‘Why did they make these characters look and sound like Arnold? There has to be a reason. So yeah, it has flashed through my mind that there has to have been a prototype. There has to have been a guy who’s DNA was harvested from – that they grew the organic outer layer that they grew the Terminator from…and that presumably was a real person at some point. Now, the question is, did that person have some sort of meaning to Skynet on WHY they chose that one (Arnold)? Or was it like a whole rack of Terminators and the one that happened to be the Arnold model just happened to be closest to the door going out to the time displacement center and all the others looked different? I’ve asked myself these questions but it’s never been resolved…so stay tuned!"

As hard as it is, I really do think taking the franchise into a Arnold-less direction, like they tried with the Christian Bale led Salvation in 2009, is the right move here, since Arnold simply can't lead these types of movie anymore and the longer they use him the harder it will be to evolve the franchise beyond his involvement. I do know, however, that I am pretty alone in thinking that. Let's just hope we might get another worthwhile movie out of this and not another Genysis debacle.

Star Wars Director On Leia's Role

Director Rian Johnson (Looper, Brick) talked to Entertainment Weekly about his upcoming Star Wars Episode 8, the Last Jedi!

About the stand of the resistance, which is weakened after the destruction of the main republic planets in the Force Awakens, the director had this to say:

"They’re a small band that’s now cut off, on its own, and hunted when the Republic is shattered. When the First Order did that hit, the Resistance is isolated, and they’re very vulnerable. That’s where we pick them up."

On how Leia feels after the death of Han.

"She’s suffered quite a bit. While I was figuring out what her deal was going to be in this film, it’s one of the things I talked about with Carrie before I started writing: where the character would go."

This obviously leads to the question of how Leia actress Carrie Fisher's death has affected the role of Leia in the movie.

"There’s no way that we could’ve known this would’ve been the last Star Wars movie she would be in, so it’s not like we made the film thinking that we were bringing closure to the character. But watching the film, there’s going to be a very emotional reaction to what she does in this movie."

I am very excited to see where the newest Star Wars film will lead its characters. We don't have to wait long to find out, as the movie will enter its theatrical run in December.