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Postponed
Avatar 2 Realease Date Pushed
In another world, ‘Avatar 2’ was released on its original schedule … five years ago. The four upcoming sequels to James Cameron’s Avatar have been pushed back once again. Disney, which now controls the franchise following its acquisition of 21st Century Fox, announced Tuesday that the release date for Avatar 2 has been moved back a year to Dec. 17, 2021 — and the three movies that follow it have been delayed, as well. If there’s one thing that’s been entirely consistent about Avatar sequels since their initial announcement, it’s that they’re entirely inconsistent in terms of release dates. And, for that matter, how many sequels there are actually going to be. Originally, the plan was for Cameron to create two follow-ups from the 2009 movie; even before the first film was complete, the filmmaker talked about his original intent for the series to be a trilogy. In October 2010, almost a year after Avatar’s release, Cameron officially announced the two sequels, dated for 2014 and 2015, respectively. A year later, he was still talking about the follow-ups as two movies, and already talking about shooting them at a higher frame rate — 48 and 60 frames per second — as well as in 3D, like the original movie. Read More
Black Widow Release Date Pushed
Add “Black Widow” to the list of films that have delayed release dates due to coronavirus concerns. The Marvel flick was set to arrive in theaters on May 1, but has been moved to an unspecified later date. According to a statement obtained by Variety, Disney — parent company to Marvel Studios — has also pulled “The Personal History of David Copperfield” and “The Woman in the Window” from their release dates. Disney has not been shy about delaying their major motion pictures in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, having already taken “Mulan,” “The New Mutants” and “Antlers” off the release calendar. Read More
Free Comic Book Day Postponed Indefinetly
Diamond Comic Distributors announced Thursday that Free Comic Book Day 2020 is officially postponed. Generally observed on the first Saturday in May, Free Comic Book Day is a day where each person who visits a participating shop is guaranteed one free comic book from a selection of FCBD titles. Diamond had previously announced the 47 titles set for FCBD 2020. “The severity and timing of the impact of the COVID-19 virus can’t be predicted with any certainty, but the safety of our retailer partners and comic book fans is too important to risk,” Diamond Founder and Chief Executive Steve Geppi said in a statement. “As always, we appreciate your enthusiasm for and support of the comic industry’s best event and look forward to celebrating with you later in the Summer.” The announcement follows some confusion generated by Wednesday reports that Diamond was considering changing FCBD 2020 into a monthlong celebration. As with movies, TV and various other entertainment events that have had to alter course in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak, the comic book industry has also been impacted by the public health emergency. This includes postponements and cancellations of larger-scale events. Comic-Con International announced last week that WonderCon 2020 would be postponed from its April dates until some time in the summer. Read More
Bright Side
Bloodshot To Release on Streaming Early
With the nation’s exhibition infrastructure on its knees, and temporarily closed down due to the coronavirus pandemic, Columbia Pictures is making their Vin Diesel action pic Bloodshot available for electronic sell-through on March 24 for the retail price of $19.99. The movie opened at the box office this past Friday to $9.1M and in the wake of the theater closings over the weekend has seen its box office fall from $2.1M on Sunday to $552K on Monday to $191K yesterday. Similar to Universal’s decision of pushing their recent theatrical fare, The Invisible Man, The Hunt and Emma into the home, the best way for Sony to recoup any money here on this $45M Vin Diesel movies is now via a digital release. Sony co-financed a bulk of Bloodshot with Bona Film Group Co., LTD. and Cross Creek Pictures. The movie is based on the Valiant comic book and follows a soldier, recently killed in action, who is brought back to life by a tech corp. However, despite being an unstoppable force, he begins to learn that the company has control over his mind. “Sony Pictures is firmly committed to theatrical exhibition and we support windowing,” said Tom Rothman, Chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Motion Picture Group. “This is a unique and exceedingly rare circumstance where theaters have been required to close nationwide for the greater good and Bloodshot is abruptly unavailable in any medium. Audiences will now have the chance to own Bloodshot right away and see it at home, where we are all spending more time. We are confident that — like other businesses hit hard by the virus — movie theaters will bounce back strongly, and we will be there to support them.” Read More
New Movies Coming to Streaming
For a handful of recent 2020 movies, many of which had planned to bring customers to movie theaters throughout the spring, the theatrical window is closed. It was only Monday that NBCUniversal announced plans to make its recent theatrical releases and the upcoming Trolls World Tour available to consumers at home via on-demand providers, a break from the tradition of allowing a spread of between 70 and 90 days before a new movie is given a second life. “Given the rapidly evolving and unprecedented changes to consumers’ daily lives during this difficult time, the company felt that now was the right time to provide this option in the home as well as in theaters,” NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said in a statement. That decision was made just before movie theaters around the country were forced to close during the coronavirus pandemic—and it didn’t take long for other studios, including Warner Bros. and Sony, to follow a similar business plan. On Friday, even Disney joined the movement, announcing that the Pixar film Onward will be made available for purchase starting Friday before arriving on the Disney+ streaming service on April 3.
Pluto TV ads Tokusatsu
Rider fight! Against all odds, and the most haunting of alien-cacti cackles, Kamen Rider is here to save the day versus the evil Cactogron in this exclusive clip celebrating the launch of Shout Factory’s all-new and completely free PlutoTV channel, TokuSHOUTsu. Ardent Ultraman, Power Rangers, and Godzilla fans (aka our people) should see that’s a play on the word tokusatsu, the popular Japanese genre camply and amply filled with masked superheroes, gigantic monsters, and evil scientists. But if you haven’t been to Japan, you’ve likely never seen Kamen Rider — the uber popular kid’s program and franchise fueller that features a motorcycling insect-inspired superhero hell bent on stopping the evil supervillains of Shocker. Located at Channel 681, in the Tech + Geek section at PlutoTV, TokuSHOUTsu will launch with the very first episode of fan favorite Kamen Rider (translated from Japanese as Masked Rider Series), which originally aired in Japan on Apr. 3, 1971, but has been unavailable on any format in North America, until now. Read More
The Mandelorian Season 2 Adds Who?
Deadline has confirmed that Rosario Dawson is making an appearance on the second season of Disney+’s Star Wars: The Mandalorian. Production on season 2 has already wrapped. While many have remained silent about Dawson’s casting, what we know at this time is that it’s not a series regular role. It remains to be officially confirmed that Dawson will play the fan-favorite character of Ahsoka Tano, a Jedi apprentice and foil of Anakin Skywalker’s from the animated TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels, which is what Slash Film first reported. Both series were co-created by Dave Filoni, who is also a director, writer and EP on Mandalorian. Ahsoka is from the alien species Togruta, who are known for their large montrals and head tails, and colorful pigments. The character of Ahsoka was co-created by George Lucas and Filoni. Mandalorian, set five years after the 1983 Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi, follows a bounty hunter, who is protecting a highly coveted Jedi-powered baby Yoda from falling into the hands of the villainous Imperial Empire. The bounty hunter is from the same rogue warrior class as legacy Star Wars character Jango Fett. Read More
Trailers to Watch
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Exorcism at 60,000 Feet
