One of the worst offenses of the Star Wars prequels to me was taking the mysterious, badass character of Boba Fett and turning him into a whiny little clone. I dont’ want to know what Boba Fett was like as a kid, and frankly I don’t even need to know what he looks like under the helmet. That’s why everyone loved the character. He was a notorious ass-kicker who even commanded a little respect from Darth Vader.

Well, it seems like Lawrence Kasdan (co-writer of Empire and Return of the Jedi) has a great idea for retconning Boba Fett so that he can be a badass again in his rumored spin-off movie. Latino Review has the scoop, and really hope it’s true:
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This has been a pretty interesting week for Marvel movie news and rumors. The next couple years is going to be an exciting time for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it continues into Phase 2 and gets into Phase 3.

Ant-Man

First up was the news that Michael Douglas is set to play Hank Pym in Edgar Wright’s Phase 3 kickoff movie Ant-Man. I’ve been excited about this movie for years and this just makes it sound better. We already knew that Paul Rudd was playing the main character (the Scott Lang Ant-man), and that the film will be a heist movie, so setting up an older Hank Pym as the original Ant-Man and casting someone like Douglas to play him is pretty awesome, in my opinion.
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Did you know that The Dark Crystal was originally meant to be darker and more serious, without narration or English-speaking Skesis and Mystics? I had never heard this, but the other day on Reddit I saw someone post their own fan-edit using original dialog and bits of the work-print that had never been seen. Christopher Orgeron worked on the edit for 2 years and you can now watch it on YouTube (or download it in 720p with a browser extension). From Christopher’s description:

Early versions of The Dark Crystal were a bit different than the version we see today. Jim Henson and Frank Oz originally sought to create a much darker story that relied more on the audience and less on voice-overs and inner monologues explaining the plot. In this version there’s no narrator, Jen’s inner monologues are gone, and the Skeksis hardly ever say anything in English (Aughra speaks some Skesis too!). This version is much more modern and a little darker with this original audio and the slightly different score. Some of the scenes are moved around too, which adds to the surreal feel of the original film. Some test audiences were more casual moviegoers and responded negatively to this version so the Henson team redubbed the ENTIRE film to help explain the plot to the audience up front and make things more obvious.

The Dark Crystal is one of my favorite movies and I’m excited to watch this alternate version over the weekend. Besides my love of anything by Jim Henson, I’m a huge fan of world-building in movies and I think Crystal is one of the best examples of this, right up there with Star Wars.

Watch it on YouTube

Edit: Mental Floss just posted a Q&A with Christopher about his edit, check it out!

PS – Dark Crystal Trading Cards are available from Boxsome!

The Muppets was one of my favorite movies of 2011 and it really brought the characters back in a big way. I’ve been very excited about the upcoming sequel, and now Disney has unveiled a trailer and it looks great.

I love the Great Muppet Caper vibe and the European setting. The cast looks great, and I can’t wait to see all the extra cameos that weren’t in the trailer.

Muppets Most Wanted hits theaters on March 21, 2014.

Man of Steel comes out on Blu-ray today, and during an event to promote the release, Kevin Smith raved about the new Batman costume in the upcoming sequel. Zack Snyder also made comments about Lex Luthor, seemingly confirming his role in the movie, but I think everyone expected that. The juicy part of this story is hearing Smith, a huge Batman geek, talk about the new costume.

I saw the costume, more than that I saw him [Ben Affleck] in the costume…I don’t want to give anything away cause that is up to them and stuff, but I am going to say this…I instantly bear hugged him. You have not seen this costume in a movie, on film before. For a comb book fan, it was mind-bending… Because every other movie has done this matrixy black armor thing…There wasn’t a single nipple on this fucking suit man… I think everyone is just gonna be like ‘Holy Shit!’ It’s its own thing, man. We haven’t been down this path before…. There’s a very [beep]-influence to it, I would say.

Fans that attended the event mentioned that the beeped part of his description was Jim Lee. Lee was responsible for the awesome grey/blue suit in the early 2000s, and if that’s the direction they’re taking it for this movie then I am on board. Earlier reports were that the suit would be inspired by the graphic novel Batman Noel, so signs are pointing to a more grey/black/blue/pouchy design.

I think this is great news. Even though I love the Nolan Batman movies, I’m ready for a new version of Bats on the big screen. I doubt Affleck will be running around in tights, but as long as it doesn’t look overly tactical and has some grey in it, I’ll be happy.

What do you think though?

Via SlashFilm