Just like that, Disney shakes up the Star Wars universe and is taking over Lucasfilm for a whopping $4.05 billion, and is already set to bring the next generation of Star Wars films beginning in 2015 with Episode 7.
George Lucas’ statement on the deal:
For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next. It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. I’m confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, [the current co-chair of Lucasfilm who will become president after the deal closes and report directly to Walt Disney Studios chair Alan Horn] and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come. Disney’s reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment, and consumer products.
Here’s the latest featurette clip released from The Avengers Blu-ray. In this short clip, Joss Whedon talks about writing for visual moments in The Avengers.
Marvel just released another clip from the upcoming Blu-ray release of The Avengers. In this clip, we get a look at Joss Whedon working with Chris Evans (Captain America) and Mark Ruffalo (Hulk).
Beginning Monday, Redbox patrons will be shelling out an extra 20 cents for daily DVD rentals. The DVD price increase news overshadowed reports of strong third quarter performance and while the dust still settles from the Netflix decision to sharply increase prices.
Reportedly, Coinstar (Redbox’s parent company) nearly double earnings in an announcement this week, but share price fell on Thurday after news of the price increase hit the streets. The price for a DVD at the Redbox kiosks will rise to $1.20 per day on Monday, however, Blu-ray disc and Xbox game prices will remain at the current $1.50 and $2.00 price respectively.
Coinstar tested the increased price in select markets before the decision was made and found that there will be minimal impact on demand. The blame for the increase is pinned on the rising cost of DVDs and processing debit card transactions.
Apparently, the move to spin off Netflix’s DVD rental business into a separate business was too much for shareholders to stomach. In a blog post on the company’s official blog today, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said Netflix was not moving forward with its previous plan to separate the DVD rental and streaming business. The comment section of that blog post got nasty pretty quick, with numerous customers calling for Reed Hastings’ head.
Following the recent addition of Mad Men to Netflix’s instant streaming offerings, AMC’s other hit show, ‘Breaking Bad’, is now available with the complete seasons 1-3 online.
Sony was pimping the new Green Hornet 3D movie very hard tonight at its CES 2011 press conference. In fact, Sony brought out the big guns with the Black Beauty, which carried Seth Rogen and Jason Chou onto the press conference stage.
James Cameron recently confirmed in an interview with Daily Variety that he and 20th Century Fox will be bring Pandora back to the big screen in Avatar 2 and 3, which are scheduled for release in December 2014 and December 2015, respectively.
To date, Avatar has grossed nearly $2.8 billion, making it the highest box office grossing film of all time.
James Cameron’s Avatar is finally coming to Blu-ray in the way it should – with a massive Extended Edition version that features a third cut of the film adding 16 more minutes to the run time, and a ton of special features.
The new box set will include all three versions of the film: the original theatrical release, theatrical re-release from August 2010, and special edition extended cut. Additionally, there will be family edition cuts with foul language removed for the two theatrical cuts.
Special features include a feature-length documentary on the making of the film, over 45 minutes of deleted scenes, interactive scene deconstruction, production shorts and quite a bit more.
Avatar Extended Collector’s Edition should be available on November 16 at a retail price of $54.99. Check availability on Amazon.com.
So much for that 
