After months of rumours, the news became official today: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be divided into two movies. So the seven-book franchise will now be an eight-movie franchise, with the final installment arriving in theatres in May 2011, only six months before the 10th anniversary of the first movie — and only six or seven months before the currently anticipated release date of The Hobbit, which would be distributed by the same studio, assuming it gets made... Read more

Click here for the newest trailer for Pixar’s WALL-E. The graphics look fantastic, of course, but the story — more of which is revealed here than in any previous trailer — remains something of a mystery. Incidentally, the bit with the bra reminds me of something I read in Entertainment Weekly — way, way back in 1992 — about the making of Disney’s Aladdin, and the improv that Robin Williams did there: Williams was especially fertile extemporizing as still another... Read more

My sources tell me that Doomsday — the latest film from Neil Marshall, writer-director of The Descent (2005) — will be opening this Friday without being screened for critics in advance. That would seem to be backed up by the fact that there are currently no reviews of the film at Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes, both of which would usually have something to link to by now. Read more

Last year, I mentioned that Doug TenNapel — animator, comic-book artist, video-game creator and occasional collaborator with one of my favorite musicians of all time, Terry Scott Taylor — had sold the film rights to his graphic novel Creature Tech to Regency Enterprises and 20th Century Fox a few years earlier. Now, Variety reports that Paramount Pictures and Sam Raimi’s Buckaroo Entertainment have acquired the film rights to his next graphic novel, Monster Zoo, which is about “a young boy... Read more

This is for those who thought pro-lifers were going out on a limb by trying to claim Juno and Knocked Up as their own: A kid-friendly movie doesn’t need to be “Harry Potter” to draw protesters. At least that’s the lesson from the “Horton Hears a Who” premiere. Ove the years, the signature line from Fox’s upcoming “Horton” has been used — to the anger and dismay of Theodore Geisel, or Dr. Seuss — as a rallying cry for the... Read more

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, a documentary on the Intelligent Design movement and the opposition it faces from evolutionary scientists and the academic establishment, was originally going to open in February, on Charles Darwin’s 199th birthday. The release date has since been postponed to April 18, and both the filmmakers and their opponents are using the extra time to raise awareness of the film, whether intentionally or otherwise; Variety was already reporting on the movie’s promotional efforts almost a month ago,... Read more

I am listening to the Star Trek movie soundtrack albums as I type, and I once again felt shivers run up and down my spine as I listened to ‘Stealing the Enterprise’, a track from James Horner’s original score for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984). You can listen to it here, and the bit that gets the shivers going starts around the 6:13 mark and lasts for about a minute. Both the movie and the soundtrack album... Read more

Warning: There be spoilers here. Four months ago, I created a collection of photos depicting all the actors who have played John Connor in all the various timelines covered by the Terminator movies and TV episodes produced so far. Yesterday, I finally caught up and finished watching the entire first season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and I discovered that multiple actors have begun to play some of the other characters too. So here is another photo archive — for... Read more

Here are the figures for the past weekend, arranged from those that owe the highest percentage of their take to the Canadian box office to those that owe the lowest. Step Up 2: The Streets — CDN $5,810,000 — N.AM $53,004,000 — 11.0%The Other Boleyn Girl — CDN $1,530,000 — N.AM $14,612,000 — 10.5%Semi-Pro — CDN $2,420,000 — N.AM $24,835,000 — 9.7%Juno — CDN $13,420,000 — N.AM $137,969,000 — 9.7%Jumper — CDN $6,400,000 — N.AM $72,537,000 — 8.8%The Spiderwick Chronicles... Read more

At last, we no longer have to rely on leaked photos to confirm the alien rumours — the newest poster for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, posted last night at USA Today‘s website, puts the titular artifact front and centre! (Hat tip to ComingSoon.net.) Read more