Universal Reveals Epic Universe’s How To Train Your Dragon Land
Although Universal Orlando already has three theme parks in the resort, the fourth park, Epic Universe, has grand plans for the future including lands built around Universal’s Dark Universe, Super Nintendo World, and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic. Today, Universal Orlando shared the first look at the fourth major land in Epic Universe: How To Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk.
Set between the second and third movies in the How to Train Your Dragon series, Isle of Berk will be an immersive experience that allows visitors to go through Viking Training Camp and even lets fans meet and greet Hiccup and his iconic dragon, Toothless.
Universal’s announcement video included an early look at several of the attractions in Isle of Berk, including the family coaster, Hiccup’s Wing Gliders, and Dragon Racer’s Rally, which puts guests in control of how fast they’re going to spin and how long they’re going to be upside down.
Additionally, there is a water-based attraction called Fyre Drill, in which guests will ride in boats armed with water cannons to practice putting out fires. Beyond the rides, perhaps the most intriguing addition is the live-action stage show, The Untrainable Dragon, which is being adapted from a similar play that originated at Universal Beijing Resort. The Untrainable Dragon will feature the characters from the films and elaborate fire-breathing dragons on stage.
Universal Orlando hasn’t set a specific date for Epic Universe yet, but the new theme park is expected to open in 2025.
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See The Terrifying Facehugger That Weta Workshop Made For Alien Romulus And Never Sleep Again
The Alien franchise has some of the most iconic creature designs in all of film. From the Facehugger to the fully-formed Xenomorphs themselves, the monsters have gone through from being practical, to CGI, and now back to partially practical.
For Alien: Covenant, Odd Studios, and CreatureNFX provided the film’s makeup and animatronic creature effects, respectively. There were even actors wearing creature suits with animatronic heads used to portray the aliens on set, with CGI aliens used for elaborate shots. In the upcoming Alien: Romulus director Fede Álvarez brought on Lord of the Rings creature shop Weta Workshop for some fun practical effects magic.
On Twitter, Álvarez posted a quick video of a remote control Facehugger zooming around the set last summer.
Álvarez is pulling double duty as director and co-writer with Evil Dead collaborator Rodo Sayagues. The events of the film take place between Alien and Aliens, as there are 57 years between the two. It stars Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu, with some of the technical crew from Aliens returning.
The film was originally scheduled to be released on Hulu, like the Predator prequel Prey, but was switched to a theatrical release right before filming began.
Alien: Romulus is scheduled to land in theaters on August 16, 2024.
Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito Considered A Hit On Himself For Insurance Money
Between Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Mandalorian, and even the short-lived Revolution, Giancarlo Esposito has positioned himself as an in-demand actor who excels at playing villains. However, he didn’t always enjoy such good fortune in his career. During a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s Jim & Sam, Esposito recalled a time in 2008 when he was near bankruptcy and so desperate for a way out that he considered placing a hit on himself to provide for his family with the insurance money.
“My way out in my brain was: ‘Hey, do you get life insurance if someone commits suicide? Do they get the bread?’ My wife had no idea why I was asking this stuff,” recalled Esposito via Variety. “I started scheming. If I got somebody to knock me off, death by misadventure, [my kids] would get the insurance. I had four kids. I wanted them to have a life. It was a hard moment in time. I literally thought of self-annihilation so they could survive. That’s how low I was.”
“That was the first inkling that there was a way out, but I wouldn’t be here to be available to my kids,” continued Esposito. “Then I started to think that’s not viable because the pain I would cause them would be lifelong, and there’d be lifelong trauma that would just extend the generational trauma I’m trying to move away from. The light at the end of the tunnel was Breaking Bad.”
Esposito’s role as Gus Fring on both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul was a transformational moment for his standing in Hollywood, and he’s been constantly working ever since. Ironically, Esposito had a starring role in 2017’s The Show, a movie in which he played a desperate man, Mason Washington, who contemplates committing suicide on a live TV show in order to provide for his family. In case of art imitating life, Mason also chooses to survive.
Parish, Esposito’s new drama series, is currently airing Sunday nights on AMC.
Tarantino Abandons His 10th And Final Movie – Report
Oscar-winning director Quentin Tarantino is abandoning The Movie Critic, a film that was planned to be his 10th and final movie, according to Deadline. The site reported that Tarantino “simply changed his mind” and is now working on something else.
The Movie Critic was reportedly going to star Brad Pitt. Pitt previously starred in Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Inglourious Basterds.
The story was going to focus on a a man who wrote movie reviews for a pornographic magazine in California in the 1970s. Tarantino was apparently inspired by his own personal experiences of loading porn magazines into a vending machine when he was a teenager.
Deadline said Tarantino rewrote the script for The Movie Critic, which led to a delay in production, and later ultimately decided to abandon it altogether and move on.
If this all sounds familiar, it’s because, years ago, Tarantino said he gave up on The Hateful Eight after the script was sent around Hollywood against his wishes. However, Tarantino later returned to the project and released it in 2015; The Hateful Eight was nominated for three Oscars and won one.
As for what Tarantino could make instead of The Movie Critic, Deadline said the filmmaker is “going back to the drawing board to figure out what that final movie will be.” Also unknown is whether or not Tarantino still plans to make just one more movie before calling it quits.
Since his debut with Reservoir Dogs in 1992, Tarantino has made nine films, if you count Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2 as a single film. His films have netted him both critical acclaim and controversy, with Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained both earning him Academy Awards for Best Screenplay.
2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is Tarantino’s latest film, and it won two Academy Awards.
The Fallout Show Is Canon, Despite Fans’ Questions, Todd Howard Says
The Fallout TV show is canon, Bethesda boss Todd Howard has once again confirmed, assuaging fan speculation that the show retconned Fallout: New Vegas. Spoilers for the show follow.
Howard re-confirmed the show’s canonicity, after originally revealing this in 2023, and explainedHoward explained how it fits into the broader timeline in an interview with IGN. The Fallout show is currently the latest canonical entry in the franchise, taking place in 2296, nine years after Fallout 4 and 15 years after New Vegas.
Fan confusion arose from the destruction of Shady Sands. The town is one of the more significant recurring locations in the franchise. It is one of the first towns in the original game and is discussed as the capital of the New California Republic in New Vegas. In the show, characters Lucy and Maxmius find a crater where the city once was. An in-show timeline states that the fall of Shady Sands took place in 2277, just four years before New Vegas. The destruction of the NCR capital before the events of the game would seem to be an outright contradiction.
Howard said, “All I can say is we’re threading it tighter there, but the bombs fall just after the events of New Vegas.” Bethesda studio design director Emil Pagliarulo also confirmed on Twitter/X that New Vegas was still canonical. He wrote, “Of course it is. We’ve never suggested otherwise.” A sign from the show also states that Shady Sands is the first capital of the NCR, implying it was replaced or supplemented with other capital cities.
None of this outright explains the apparent contradiction, but it seems that the show rearranges or adds to previously established canon, rather than outright overwriting it. With the show teasing New Vegas itself at the end of the season, more clarification will likely come.
Ant-Man and the Wasp Star Asked To Be Killed Off In Quantumania
Last year, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania dramatically collapsed at the box office after a strong opening weekend, leaving the future of the franchise in doubt. But there’s at least one Quantumania cast member who wanted out of the MCU before the movie debuted: Michael Douglas.
Via Entertainment Weekly, Douglas was a guest on The View earlier this week, and he wasn’t shy about his desire to see his character, Hank Pym, get killed off in Quantuamania.
“This actually was my request for the third one,” said Douglas “I said I’d like to have a serious [death], with all these great special effects. There’s got to be some fantastic way where I can shrink to an ant size and explode, whatever it is. I want to use all those effects. But, that was on the last one. Now, I don’t think I’m going to show up.”
That adds additional context to the remarks that Douglas made in 2023 when he said that he would only return for Ant-Man and the Wasp 4 “as long as I could die.” There were actually two major deaths in Quantumania, but neither Hank Pym nor any of his extended family were harmed.
Because Quantumania was one of the rare Marvel movies to lose money, the possibility of another Ant-Man and the Wasp sequel certainly no longer seems guaranteed. But we wouldn’t bet against seeing Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly reprise their roles as Scott Lang/Ant-Man and Hope van Dyne/The Wasp in a future Avengers movie.
Jack Black Seemingly Confirms He’s Playing Steve In Minecraft Movie
Somewhere, over the rainbow, actor Jack Black has all but confirmed that he’s portraying Steve in the upcoming Minecraft movie. He begins a recent social media post by singing about a double rainbow–a callback to this internet classic–before bringing viewers inside his trailer.
On Instagram, Black shows the sign “Steve” posted on his door, while the interior is filled with pictures of Steve from the sandbox video game. The actor ends the video (seen below) with a smirk, which heavily implies he’s portraying the iconic character in the Minecraft movie.
This wouldn’t be the first notable video game character Black has portrayed. Last year, he provided the voice for Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Black even landed in the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time as a solo artist for singing Peaches in the animated film. Later this year, he will lend his voice again to a video game movie, this time as Claptrap in the Borderlands adaptation.
The Minecraft movie wrapped filming earlier this month. Star Jason Mamoa (Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom) shared a picture to commemorate the end of shooting the upcoming film, which will also star Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, Jennifer Coolidge, Kate McKinnon, and Jemaine Clement.
To prepare for the Minecraft movie, Black played a lot of… well, Minecraft. He said he focused on only playing the sandbox game for about a month and a half. Meanwhile, earlier this year, Minecraft director Jared Hess mentioned that one of his goals is to avoid the “ugly Sonic” situation from that film’s first trailer, which was derided by fans.
For more, check out everything we know about the Minecraft movie. It will premiere in theaters on April 4, 2025.