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Star Wars has been many things over the years. It started as a game-changing space-adventure movie that would forever alter the course of Hollywood filmmaking, and now the series has grown into a massive franchise complete with a dozen films, an exponentially growing number of live-action and animated television series, hit theme park rides, fan-favorite video games and far, far more than that. Considering how all-encompassing the Star Wars brand has become, there are bound to be points of division within the fan base over the material being produced....

It feels like an embarrassment of riches for Star Wars fans at the moment, with multiple animated series such as Young Jedi Adventures due to drop in the new year and new films such as Rogue Squadron already on the drawing board. But although Star Wars: Andor is already wowing audiences and critics alike since its premiere in September, and Skeleton Crew is shaping up for a 2023 release, no one at Disney+ is resting on their laurels....

During Geeked Week, one of the things discussed about Stranger Things 4 was the inevitable march of time. As the actors grow up, the characters have to grow up to. Though not at the same rate, season 4 sees the former youngsters just entering high school. This aging up also informed a tone shift going forward in the show. “Them growing older forces the show to evolve. [For us] middle school was a fun adventure [and] high school was horrible....

The latest clip from Stranger Things Season 4 finds the delightful relationship between Dustin Henderson and Steve Harrington continue, as Dustin once again turns to his “big brother” for help as the gang once again embark on a secret mission. Released courtesy of DiscussingFilm, the clip will no doubt have Stranger Things fans excited to return to the hit Netflix show when it lands on the streaming service tomorrow. Stranger Things season 4 will pick up around six months since the Battle of Starcourt, which brought terror and destruction to the small town of Hawkins....

CLOONEY CLOBBERED George Clooney may have wanted to seek treatment in the E.R. over the weekend as he suffered a nasty beating at the box office. Although Leatherheads,the film he directed and starred in, had been expected to earn $15-20 million and thereby win the box office contest, it instead wound up with just 13.5 million and had to settle for second place, according to studio estimates, with some analysts predicting it will actually come in third when Sunday receipts are finally tallied....

“ONE MORE THING” Just three weeks before the scheduled annual Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Apple announced that the 2009 event would be the last in which it would participate and that Steve Jobs would not deliver the keynote address as he has done every year previously. The news immediately fueled new rumors about the health of Jobs, who is not only regarded as the principal architect of Apple’s resurgence in recent years but also a major force in the restructuring of the Walt Disney Company, where he is the largest shareholder....

IDOL TAKES THE GOLDLike a figure skater crashing to the ice, ratings for NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics tumbled Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The network’s average for the two nights represented about half the viewers who tuned in for the comparable nights during the Salt Lake City Games four years ago. The real ratings champ for both nights turned out to be Fox’s American Idol, whose own numbers declined a bit from previous weeks due to the Olympics, but nonetheless remained more than 50 percent higher than those for the contests on ice and snow....

SCHIEFFER ROLLS OUT CARPET FOR COURICBob Schieffer, the “interim” anchor of the CBS Evening News, has taped several promos, which began airing Monday, trumpeting the arrival of his Sept. 5 replacement, Katie Couric. Apparently aimed at dispelling Couric’s “perky” image, the promos feature Schieffer ad-libbing such comments as, “She’s tough. She’s fair. She’s a straight shooter. She’ll be terrific. Just watch.” There are also some shots of Couric herself, looking serious....

THE SLOW TRANSITION Some 3.6 million homes will be without TV reception on June 12, the date now set for the transition to mandatory digital broadcasting, according to the Nielsen Company. The figure represents 3.17 percent of all households, but in some cities the figure is strikingly higher. In the Albuquerque/Santa Fe market, it amounts to 9.13 percent of households, nearly one in ten. But market size apparently has little to do with transition readiness....

ELECTION RETURNS: TV NEWS CALLS IT CLOSE Almost as if they were each waiting to see who would make “the call” first, all of the major broadcast and cable networks reported at about the same time Tuesday night that the Democrats had regained the House of Representatives. NBC was the first to do so, at 10:54 p.m. Eastern Time, followed by sister cable news network MSNBC two minutes later. ABC, CNN, and CBS each made their announcements a minute or so afterwards....

FOOTBALL: TV’S MOST EXPENSIVE TICKET This season, NBC is offering both the most expensive and the cheapest TV spots on network television, according to Advertising Age. The highest-priced 30-second spot averages $339,700 for Sunday Night Football, it noted. By contrast, a spot on TheJay Leno Show can be had for as little as $48,803. The trade publication cautions however that the “figures should be taken as directional indicators, not gospel.” Nevertheless, AdAge figures that overall, network ad prices are declining....

CBS ONLY IN “SECOND INNING” WITH COURIC On the one-year anniversary of Katie Couric’s ascension to the anchor’s desk on the CBS Evening News,CBS News chief Sean McManus has indicated that there will be many more anniversaries – regardless of how well Couric performs in the ratings. “I look at us right now being in the top of the second inning at the latest,” McManus told the Hollywood Reporter. “This is a long, long process, and I’m extremely pleased at the quality of our show....

Summit Entertainment has released their slate of 2009 movie releases including New Moon, Push, Knowing, The Hurt Locker, Next Day Air, The Brothers Bloom, Bandslam, Sorority Row and Astro Boy. Push - February 6th A riveting action-thriller, Push burrows deep into the deadly world of psychic espionage where artificially enhanced paranormal operatives have the ability to move objects with their minds, see the future, create new realities and kill without ever touching their victims....

The 2023 Sundance Film Festival, which took place in Park City, Utah, in person for the first time since 2020, has announced the winners in the Grand Jury and other categories. Many films and documentaries received positive reviews at the festival, which attracted significant attention from the media and audience, as well as the studios, and some of them have already become popular. For example, Netflix spent at least $20 million and bought the finance-industry psychodrama Chloe Domont’s Fair Play, which returned from the festival with only a nomination, the horror movie Run Rabbit Run starring Sarah Snook, and the adventure documentary Deepest Breath....

While Blu-Ray’s format-war victory was decisive, it still remains clear that the format has a long way to go before it reins supreme over all of home entertainment. According to The Hollywood Reporter, citing research from Redhill Group, Blu-Ray DVD sales have taken over 81% of the high-def market in March, up from just 63% in December, when the format war still waged on. However, while that business is rising, the DVD market in general is slowing....

Taika Waititi has previously revealed that Thor: Love and Thunder produced a lot of unused footage. By a lot, he meant around two hours worth when all is said and done, and that included scenes filmed with former Marvel stars Jeff Goldblum and Peter Dinklage, along with Lena Headey. However, fans shouldn’t get too excited about seeing any of those guest stars appearing in a deleted scenes collection on the Blu-ray or DVD release, as Waititi doesn’t plan on anyone ever seeing them....

The 100 might soon be coming to an end on The CW, but the series might live on through a planned prequel series at the network. According to a new report, the network has ordered a pilot for a potential prequel series with series creator Jason Rothenberg developing the project. The plan is to air the backdoor pilot as an episode of The 100’s upcoming seventh and final season, with The CW ordering more episodes if the concept is well-received by fans....

Pull a job with Jason Statham and friends on standard and 1080p this July. The Bank Job is coming to DVD on July 15. The film will be released in a single-disc edition ($29.99 SRP), two-disc edition ($34.99 SRP) and Blu-Ray edition ($39.99 SRP). The film stars Jason Statham and Saffron Burrows. The Bank Job was inspired by a real-life 1971 London bank robbery that was never solved. A band of thieves tunneled their way into a safe deposit vault, taking millions of dollars in cash and jewelry....

As Aesop, the Ancient Greek storyteller and philosopher once said, “We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.” Whether it’s a testament to his clairvoyance, or simply down to the fact that humanity has always failed to separate fraudsters from the forthright, that statement still rings disturbingly true today. From Trump and Putin to Bush Jr. and Boris Johnson, world leaders have taken the “hold my beer” meme to truly catastrophic heights....

In a means to keep you updated on all the things happening in Narnia, Walt Disney has updated the blog on their The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian homepage. This particular entry was written by the films screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. They discuss how they have weaved two plots together to bring the Pevensies into the storyline a little earlier. They plan to have them be more a part of the story this time around....