NEWSCHUNKS for 04.30.09

Thursday, April 30, 2009


Another serving of tasty news nibblets. There are a few big sequels in the works, to some of your favorite movies... Let's pray they don't happen.

SCOTT MULLING ALIEN PREQUEL: IESB quotes Fox co-chair Tom Rothman regarding Ridley Scott's possible return to the Alien franchise he began with the original film in 1979. "There's been some talk. Ridley Scott, Ridley is right now working on Robin Hood, but I think he's toying with the idea and that would be great for us. I mean, it's always been a matter of, really, if you can get the originator to do it that would be the greatest thing, so I've got my fingers crossed, all of them." It would be great to see the director of Blade Runner take on a new genre project, instead of just cranking out another earthbound thriller starring Russell Crowe. But as fantastic as the original Alien was, the franchise has been worn into the ground at this point. Even before those lackluster Alien vs. Predator movies, the iconic alien created by H.R. Giger had stopped being scary thanks to overexposure and so-so sequels. An Alien prequel sounds almost as bad as...

A ROGER RABBIT SEQUEL: Robert Zemeckis tells MTV.com he's become interested in making a sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, his blockbuster '90s hit. "I'll tell you what is buzzing around in my head now that we have the ability—the digital tools, performance capture—I'm starting to think about Roger Rabbit." There was a lot of talk of a Roger Rabbit sequel in the early '90s, but it never came to anything. Given that Zemeckis is considering a sequel using the same CGI that brought us such underwhelmers as Polar Express and Beowulf, here's hoping that Roger stays a fondly-remembered cartoon star of yesteryear.

A GREMLINS SEQUEL, TOO?: Original Gremlins director Joe Dante tells Bloody Disgusting he's convinced a sequel is in the works, but he won't be involved: "I find it hard to believe that they won't make a Gremlins 3 because they're remaking Adventures in Babysitting. I mean, they're gonna remake everything. They won't be coming to me. (Laughs) I can tell you that for a fact."

DUELING DEVILS: Every few years, we get hit with a bunch of movies with the same plot. There was the old-people-get-young/body swap wave of the '80s, the killer asteroid vogue of the '90s, etc. Sometimes these things happen because somebody is trying to rip somebody else off. But sometimes it's pure, weird coincidence. That's what appears to be happening with the dueling productions based on John Milton's 17th-century poem Paradise Lost. One production has been in the works for years, the other for decades. And it looks like both will be hitting theaters around the same time.

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About This Blog

"Science fiction plucks from within us our deepest fears and hopes, then shows them to us in rough disguise: the monster and the rocket." - W.H. Auden

Who is he, this one who is called "Greg Stacy"?

Greg Stacy began the MONSTERS AND ROCKETS blog in April of 2009. Prior to that, he was editor of the popular sci-fi/horror news website DARKWOLDS.COM. He has also written for LA WEEKLY, OC WEEKLY, UTNE READER and LOS ANGELES CITYBEAT. He always feels weird writing about himself in the third person.

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