A Miracle in Spanish Harlem

Hey all!

It’s that time of the season, Christmas trees, presents, snow, hot Cocoa and of course a great holiday movie with the family to warm the heart and enrich the soul. Speaking of which, I cordially invite everyone to go check out my cousin Derek Partridge’s new movie (A Miracle in Spanish Harlem) opening this weekend in a number of theaters across the country.
My sister Samantha also worked on costumes and I’m so proud of both 😉

Beautiful and alone, Eve (Telenovela superstar Kate del Castillo) feels a spark of romantic interest when she meets Tito, a widower struggling with the loss of a wife, the loss of hope and the loss of his faith. Tito is consumed by the pressures of caring for his children and trying to keep a failing business above water. His growing bitterness overshadows the best parts of his character and drives him to actions that will only add disgrace to his woes. Without a friend left on earth, nothing short of a miracle can relieve Tito’s crushing and solitary burdens. However, miracles have been known to happen…

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Blockbuster U.S. leaves physical retail, 2800 jobs lost

300 stores and remaining distribution centres to close by January 2014

The Dish Network will close all remaining Blockbuster retail stores and distribution centres in the U.S., resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs.

Dish will call time on its Blockbuster retail business in January, 2014, with the DVD-by-mail service scheduled to close one month before. In total, around 2800 jobs will be lost in the process.

“This is not an easy decision, yet consumer demand is clearly moving to digital distribution of video entertainment,” said Dish CEO Joseph P. Clayton. “Despite our closing of the physical distribution elements of the business, we continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand, and we expect to leverage that brand as we continue to expand our digital offerings.”

Dish acquired Blockbuster for $320 million at auction after it filed for bankruptcy in September, 2010. Since then, the business has continued to struggle, trimming or selling assets both in the U.S. and abroad.

Blockbuster will continue to trade through its digital-only services, Blockbuster @Home and Blockbuster On Demand.

[source]

World of Warcraft movie starts shooting early 2014

Film being helmed by Moon and Source Code director Duncan Jones

Producer Charles Roven told SlashFilm: “First quarter 2014 we’re going to shoot that movie.”

Evil Dead and Spider-Man director Sam Raimi originally signed up to make a film based on the game back in July 2009, although the project is now being directed by Duncan Jones, who helmed Moon and Source Code.

In March of this year, Raimi claimed the project was significantly held up while under his watch due to “mismanagement” on the game studio’s behalf.

World of Warcraft lost approximately 1.3 million subscribers in the first quarter of calendar year 2013, Activision Blizzard said last month

Activision boss Bobby Kotick said further quarterly declines “are likely” as the year progresses, raising “concerns” as the firm heads towards the competitive holiday period.

He said Blizzard intends to release new content more frequently, to keep players engaged and to make it easier for lapsed players to return to the game.

Blizzard confirmed last week that its unannounced MMO, codenamed Titan, is undergoing “large design and technology changes”. According to reports, Titan is now not expected to release until 2016.

I must admit, I am not as pumped as I was maybe 1 or 2 years ago for this movie. I stopped playing around that time because I just got bored, plus I was studying so my time was being taken so maybe thats why. I just feel the “WOW” factor for a WOW movie is not as strong as it once was, maybe I am wrong because I’ve been out of it a while. Don’t get me wrong, I love World of Warcraft and I just received a free 7 day invite to come back and play which I will do to see what has changed. I would love to see a well made movie or maybe even a trilogy.

Who else is excited for this… or not? Let me know below. Thanks!

 

 

Gears Of War movie signs up Battleship producer

Scott Stuber to write script alongside Epic Games

The troubled Gears Of War film adaptation is showing signs of life again, as Scott Stuber, the producer behind Battleship, Ted and Love And Other Drugs has signed up for the project.

Variety reports that Stuber will develop the script in partnership with developer and publisher Epic Games. The company have been looking for producers and a new film company to pick up the right for 6 months or so.

News of the film first circulated in 2007 with Len Wiseman (Total Recall, Die Hard 4.0) signed up to direct. In 2010 there were rumours that the scale and the budget of the project had to be scaled back, Wiseman left to focus on an apocalyptic thriller called Nocturne, and New Line gave up the rights to the title.

 

[source]

Anthony Mackie On Playing The Falcon In “Captain America” Sequel

 

It was announced several months ago that Anthony Mackie would be joining Captain America: The Winter Soldier as The Falcon. Since then, we’ve not heard much from Mackie… that is until Ain’t It Cool News managed to catch up with him recently.

Find out what was said after the break.

 

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When asked about his character’s powers:

“I will have wings. I will be able to fly. I will be a superhero and fight people, namely The Winter Soldier.”

Mackie discussed researching the character:

“It was funny; a lot of the research I found was online. My older brother was a huge comic book buff. So when the news came out online, he called me and just gave me the whole rundown. Luckily, I have a lot of friends who weren’t cool growing up, but who are really cool now, so they read a lot of comic books. So I would just call and ask them, and they would send me all this stuff online, and I got to read a bunch of the old comic books. It’s fortunate, because it’s a take off the comic book, but it’s not the exact storyline of the comic book.”

Mackie was asked about other issues, such as whether Redwing, the character’s pet falcon, will feature in the film, but he wasn’t giving any further information away just yet. He did, however, confirm that shooting for Captain America: The Winter Soldier will commence on April 1st.

Chris Evans will be returning as Steve Rogers/Captain America, with Samuel L. Jackson returning as Nick Fury, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill. As well as Mackie, there’s also the new addition of Frank Grillo as the villainous Crossbones.

Then there’s the small part of the Winter Soldier, played by the returning Sebastian Stan, who played Bucky Barnes in Captain America: The First Avenger. The more eagle-eyed of you may have noticed that Bucky fell to his death in the first film after he was knocked out of a train and over a cliff due to an explosion. In the comics, Bucky is killed during World War II and stayed that way for a long, long time. As you should know by now, nobody stays dead in the world of comics –- Bucky waited until 2005 to make his reappearance, now known as the Winter Solider.

His story is, similar to Captain America, presumed dead, he was actually frozen in time. Whereas Cap was found decades later, Bucky was found shortly after initially thought dead. The main difference is that Bucky was found, sans arm, by Russian forces and had suffered brain damage and amnesia as a result of the accident. The Russians nursed him back to health, fit him with a bionic arm, used him as an assassin and renamed him the Winter Soldier. He was frozen between missions, meaning he has barely aged since World War II, much akin to Captain America. Predictably, Cap and the Winter Soldier end up going head to head, with Cap having to fight his former best friend.

Talk also still persists of Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye making an appearance at some point.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is slated for a April 4th, 2014, release.

[AICN]