RIP Ray Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen, the legendary effects wizard responsible for the pioneering stop-animation work in Mighty Joe Young, Jason & the Argonauts and The 7^th Voyage of Sinbad, has passed away at the age of 92.

His family took to Facebook to make the announcement this morning:

"Raymond Frederick Harryhausen
Born: Los Angeles 29th June 1920
Died: London 7th May 2013.

The Harryhausen family regret to announce the death of Ray Harryhausen, Visual Effects pioneer and stop-motion model animator. He was a multi-award winner which includes a special Oscar and BAFTA. Ray’s influence on today’s film makers was enormous, with luminaries; Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, George Lucas, John Landis and the UK’s own Nick Park have cited Harryhausen as being the man whose work inspired their own creations.

Harryhausen’s fascination with animated models began when he first saw Willis O’Brien’s creations in KING KONG with his boyhood friend, the author Ray Bradbury in 1933, and he made his first foray into filmmaking in 1935 with home-movies that featured his youthful attempts at model animation. Over the period of the next 46 years, he made some of the genres best known movies – MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949), IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (1955), 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957), MYSTERIUOUS ISLAND (1961), ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966), THER VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969), three films based on the adventures of SINBAD and CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981). He is perhaps best remembered for his extraordinary animation of seven skeletons in JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963) which took him three months to film.

Harryhausen’s genius was in being able to bring his models alive. Whether they were prehistoric dinosaurs or mythological creatures, in Ray’s hands they were no longer puppets but became instead characters in their own right, just as important as the actors they played against and in most cases even more so.

Today The Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation, a charitable Trust set up by Ray on the 10th April 1986, is devoted to the protection of Ray’s name and body of work as well as archiving, preserving and restoring Ray’s extensive Collection.

Tributes have been heaped upon Harryhausen for his work by his peers in recent years.

‘Ray has been a great inspiration to us all in special visual industry. The art of his earlier films, which most of us grew up on, inspired us so much.’ ‘Without Ray Harryhausen, there would likely have been no STAR WARS’
George Lucas.

‘THE LORD OF THE RINGS is my ‘Ray Harryhausen movie’. Without his life-long love of his wondrous images and storytelling it would never have been made – not by me at least’
Peter Jackson

‘In my mind he will always be the king of stop-motion animation’
Nick Park

‘His legacy of course is in good hands
Because it’s carried in the DNA of so many film fans.’
Randy Cook

‘You know I’m always saying to the guys that I work with now on computer graphics “do it like Ray Harryhausen’
Phil Tippett

‘What we do now digitally with computers, Ray did digitally long before but without computers. Only with his digits.’
Terry Gilliam.

‘His patience, his endurance have inspired so many of us.’
Peter Jackson

‘Ray, your inspiration goes with us forever.’
Steven Spielberg

‘I think all of us who are practioners in the arts of science fiction and fantasy movies now all feel that we’re standing on the shoulders of a giant.
If not for Ray’s contribution to the collective dreamscape, we wouldn’t be who we are.’
James Cameron"

Superman Takes Flight In New "Man Of Steel" Banner

A young boy learns that he has extraordinary powers and is not of this Earth. As a young man, he journeys to discover where he came from and what he was sent here to do. But the hero in him must emerge if he is to save the world from annihilation and become the symbol of hope for all mankind.

Poster for Sci-Fic Thriller "Europa Report"

A unique blend of documentary, alternative history and science fiction thriller, Europa Report follows a contemporary mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, to investigate the possible existence of alien life within our solar system. Developed in close collaboration with NASA, JPL, SpaceX and other leaders in the scientific community, the film imagines the next step in manned space exploration and is based on recent scientific discoveries and theories.

io9 via COMINGSOON.NET

"Pacific Rim" Poster - Charlie Hunnam As Raleigh Becket

When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity's resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes—a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)—who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse.

"Grown Ups 2" Poster - Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock & David Spade

In the follow-up, Lenny (Sandler) has relocated his family back to the small town where he and his friends grew up. This time around, the grown ups are the ones learning lessons from their kids on a day notoriously full of surprises: the last day of school.

Tom Cruise Signs On for 'Mission: Impossible 5'

In what should come as no surprise considering the last film made near $700 million worldwide, Tom Cruise has agreed to both star in and produce Mission: Impossible 5.  Both Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions confirmed today that the still most-bankable actor in Hollywood has agreed for a 5th go-around as Ethan Hunt.

The real question though is who will write and direct.

Word is Jack Reacher writer & director Christopher McQuarrie is the favorite to land the gig; however, news just came out today as well that he has signed on to handle the remake of the 1968 film, Ice Station Zebra, which might affect his candidacy for M:I 5.

Cruise - on the other hand - is coming off the very underrated Oblivion (which has made well over $200 million now globally) and just finished up next year's sci-fi actioner, All You Need is Kill (do you know if that film hits $200 million worldwide as well, it will be Cruise's 20th straight starring film to reach that mark?  Greatest movie star of all-time, period.)

As far as the Mission: Impossible franchise, the most recent entry - Ghost Protocol, directed by Brad Bird - was both a commercial and critical success so it will be a huge challenge to top for whomever sign on to helm the next one.

It should also be noted that JJ Abrams - who directed the 3rd Mission: Impossible as well as produce the 4th with his production company, Bad Robot - will take on the same executive duties this time too which can also be seen as nothing but good news.

Expect more on this project shortly as the announcement for the writer/director of M:I 5 is seemingly imminent.

Source: Deadline

New "Man Of Steel" TV Spot

A young boy learns that he has extraordinary powers and is not of this Earth. As a young man he journeys to discover where he came from and what he was sent here to do. But the hero in him must emerge if he is to save the world from annihilation and become the symbol of hope for all mankind.

THESKYEWALKKNIGHT YOUTUBE ACCOUNT

Poster For Edgar Wright's "The World's End"

In The World's End, 20 years after attempting an epic pub crawl, five childhood friends reunite when one of them becomes hellbent on trying the drinking marathon again. They are convinced to stage an encore by Gary King (Simon Pegg), a 40-year-old man trapped at the cigarette end of his teens, who drags his reluctant pals to their hometown and once again attempts to reach the fabled pub – The World's End. As they attempt to reconcile the past and present, they realize the real struggle is for the future, not just theirs but humankind's. Reaching The World's End is the least of their worries.

EDGAR WRIGHT

Weekend Box Office: May 3-5

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Iron Man 3 - $175.3 million

2.  Pain and Gain - $7.6 million

3.  42 - $6.2 million

4.  Oblivion - $5.7 million

5.  The Croods - $4.2 million

6.  The Big Wedding - $3.8 million

7.  Mud - $2.1 million

8.  Oz The Great and Powerful - $1.8 million

9.  Scary Movie 5 - $1.4 million

10.  The Place Beyond the Pines - $1.2 million

Now that's kicking the summer movie season off in style.  Iron Man 3 rocked the box office this weekend with an estimated $175.3 million, which is the second-highest opening weekend of all time.  First place, of course, was The Avengers, which opened with $207 million on this same weekend last year.  It also blew away the openings of the previous Iron Man films ($98 million for Iron Man and $128 million for Iron Man 2) - which is rare for a third film, although that was definitely helped by the megahit that was The Avengers.  It certainly bodes well for Marvel's upcoming sequels for Thor and Captain America, although without that Robert Downey Jr. awesomeness that audiences really love, neither of those films should see opening weekends like this.

Overseas, Iron Man 3 has earned a staggering $504 million since opening last weekend.  At $680 million worldwide, the threequel will absolutely hit the $1 billion mark, which is pretty damn amazing.  And despite some plot twists that have left fans of the comics somewhat disgruntled, the film still managed an "A" Cinemascore rating from audiences, which bodes well for its longevity...at least until the end of the month, when it will have to compete against Star Trek: Into Darkness and Fast and the Furious 6.

No one paid much attention to anything else in theaters, as Pain and Gain sunk more than 62% from last weekend to earn just $7.6 million.  After losing its IMAX screens to Iron Man, Oblivion is also becoming a distant memory with just $5.7 million.  42 is still holding up well against a sea of action movies, earning another $6.2 million, and Mud expanded its theater count and earned $2.1 million in just 576 locations.

Expect another big haul for Iron Man 3 again next weekend, as its only competition is Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, and the Tyler Perry comedy Peeples. 

Luke Evans to Star in 'The Crow' Remake

That didn't take long.

Just this week, it was reported that Alexander Skarsgard was up for the title role in the remake of the 1994 cult classic, The Crow, starring the late Brandon Lee and directed by Alex Proyas, but it seems things change quickly.

Up and coming leading man, Luke Evans - the baddie in Fast & Furious 6 as well as the lead in next year's Dracula Year Zero - has been set to topline the reboot based on the famous dark comic book series by James O'Barr.

Evans was apparently the original choice for both studio Relativity Media and director F. Javier Gutierrez but his busy schedule conflicted with the filming start date as the actor is out promoting F&F 6 as well as gearing up to film Dracula (ironically, this film was originally going to be directed by Alex Proyas himself).

I guess they wanted Evans badly as word comes they have pushed the start date to early next year to accomdate his schedule.

I'm still bummed they are remaking this film but Evans seems like a fine choice considering his acting talent as well as his resemblance to Brandon Lee.  Besides, he's a hell of a lot better pick than Alexander Skarsgard would have been.

More to come on this project as further casting is expected to take place over the coming months.

Source: Deadline