Free Republic

The highly anticipated next installment of the "Star Wars" franchise will be set 30 years after "Episode VI: Return of the Jedi," Walt Disney Co.'s chief executive officer Bob Iger said on Tuesday at the company's annual shareholders meeting. Disney purchased "Star Wars" production company LucasFilm for $4.05 billion in 2012 and announced it would release three new films in the popular sci-fi series. Fans have been avidly awaiting details of the next film, "Star Wars: Episode VII."

PEANUTS MOVIE March 18, 2014 For the first time ever, Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the rest of the gang we know and love from Charles Schulz's timeless "Peanuts" comic strip will be making their big-screen debut; like they've never been seen before in a CG-Animated Feature film in 3D. Click the pic below to go directly to the teaser trailer.

Pope Francis has nixed a would-be meet and greet with the creative team behind “Noah,” including star Russell Crowe, director Darren Aronofsky and Paramount vice chair Rob Moore, which studio executives had been scrambling to schedule as a photo-op, Variety has learned. The meeting was tentatively on the calendar for 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in the VIP section so the pope could figuratively lend a blessing to the $125 million biblical epic. The reason the Vatican cancelled it, according to a source, is over concerns word would leak, causing a spectacle as Crowe and Aronofsky landed in Rome. When reached by...

For you movie buffs, this is a fascinating documentary called "Life After Pi" about the special effects company called Rhythm and Hues that did the incredible effects for "Life of Pi" and "Snow White and the Huntsman." They begin by blaming "foreign subsidies" (i.e., Canadian and British subsidies for outsourcing work, often to Vancouver) and feature Obama making one of his typical stupid appearances calling for "supporting" Hollywood. But then you lean that this company, which has been in business for over 20 years, was using a poor, unsustainable business model in that it would bid "fixed" price contracts on...

I've never posted a thread before, but I thought FReepers might want this information. I just contacted Netflix to let them know that I do NOT want to see Gay / Lesbian films listed under the "Romance" category. I've been a Netflix subscriber since the early days, but this is my second dispute with them the last few months (the first was over the Sarah Palin bashing tweet from April, 2013). I told them that I understand they may have a market for these films, but listing them under "Romance" amounts to pushing their GLBT agenda on customers, and that...

Comedian David Brenner passed away Saturday, a spokesman for his family said. He was 78. Jeff Abraham, who was Brenner’s publicist, said the “Tonight Show” favorite died Saturday afternoon at his home in New York City. The gangly, toothy Brenner made more than 150 appearances as a guest and substitute host on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show,” starting in the 1970s. The exposure turned the former documentary filmmaker into a hot comedian. Brenner was a regular on other TV talk shows and game shows and starred in four HBO comedy specials. He also briefly hosted his own syndicated talk show in...

Hal Douglas, the voice behind scores of movie trailers and television commercials, died Thursday. The Connecticut-born voice actor died in his home in Lovettsville, Va., of complications from pancreatic cancer — his daughter, Sarah Douglas, confirmed to TMZ. Douglas was 89 years old. The voice artist enjoyed a career spanning over several decades, lending his voice to trailers and roles in movies like "Forrest Gump," "Lethal Weapon," and "The Holiday." “I’m not outstanding in any way,” he told The New York Times in 2009. “It’s a craft that you learn, like making a good pair of shoes. And I just...

Siskel and Ebert they ain’t, but Islamic scholars, supremacists, jihadists and pressure groups have made their views known, often in quite colorful ways, about numerous motion pictures that you may want to catch. So grab some popcorn and some old tomatoes: it’s movie time down at the mosque!5. Thumbs down: Noah Russell Crowe’s lavish Biblical epic Noah is about to be released in the Middle East, and Muslim scholars are enraged. It has been banned in Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. Cairo’s Al-Azhar, which Barack Obama has praised as “a beacon of Islamic learning,” issued a statement denouncing...

With the actual film due to come out in just a couple weeks — indeed, it had its world premiere just two nights ago — you might think that people would be less inclined to dwell on that early draft of the Noah screenplay that leaked a couple years ago and wait for the finished film. But no. Today, The Wrap posted a review of the script by Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, and it covers much of the same territory that has been covered by other early critics of the script. (Among other things, he assumes, as others have, that the...

What Pop Star Lady Gaga Did on Stage Thursday Night Has Some Calling It Downright ‘Sick’ (GRAPHIC) Pop star Lady Gaga is known for her shocking outfits and antics. But what she did on stage Thursday night at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, has left even some of the most desensitized critics calling it “ridiculous” and “sick.” While performing her song “Swine,” the singer was joined by someone named Millie Brown. Brown is an artist of sorts who specializes in painting with…vomit. That’s right, she ingests colored liquid and then sticks her fingers down her throat and...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bob Thomas, the longtime Associated Press writer and dean of Hollywood reporters who covered a record 66 Oscar ceremonies, reported on the biggest stars, from Clark Gable to Tom Cruise, and filed AP's bulletin that Robert F. Kennedy had been shot, died Friday. He was 92. Thomas, a last link to Hollywood's studio age who retired in 2010, died of age-related illnesses at his longtime Encino, Calif., home, his daughter Janet Thomas said. A room filled with his interview subjects would have made for the most glittering of ceremonies: Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe, Katharine Hepburn...

In an interview with the Daily Beast, living legend and Oscar-winner Robert Duvall blasted the Civil Rights film "The Butler" as "very inaccurate." The 83 year-old star added, "JFK had one of the worst Civil Rights voting records," and "All the atrocities in the South were committed by the Democratic Party."

Frozen might just be the most talked-about kids movie since Toy Story, but it’s not all accolades and awards for the Oscar-winning animated flick. There is a fear campaign mounting against the film, warning conservative parents and grandparents to keep their impressionable young children away from what some believe is a musical advertisement for the gay agenda.

Screen legend Doris Day is celebrating a landmark birthday with an auction to benefit her favorite cause: animals. A spokesman for Day said Tuesday the nonprofit Doris Day Animal Foundation will mark her 90th birthday in April with a bash in Carmel, Calif. A sold-out fundraising celebration at Day's Cypress Inn will include a doggie fashion show, adoption event and an April 4 tribute dinner for fans and friends.

Frozen, the Oscar-winning Disney cartoon adapted from Hans Christian Andersen, is a vehicle for pro-gay propaganda as well a promoting bestiality, according to a Christian radio show in Colorado. Pastor Kevin Swanson of the Reformation Church, who hosts Generations Radio, denounced the film as "very evil", and that Disney was "one of the most pro-homosexual organisations in the country". Swanson said: "You wonder sometimes if maybe there's something very evil happening here ... I wonder if people are thinking: 'You know I think this cute little movie is going to indoctrinate my 5-year-old to be a lesbian or treat homosexuality...

As a conservative, I have often bemoaned movies, tv shows, and musical acts that relentlessly push a progressive liberal agenda that is anathema to the American character. I know many others look at the entertainment industry and education and throw their hands up in despair or, even worse, meekly accept the garbage being spewed. Too often we are willing to turn the other cheek in the ongoing culture war, and I think that's a colossal mistake. I agree with the late Andrew Breitbart that we need to engage in the culture war as it impacts every facet of our lives...

How ironic is it that Hollywood studios walk on eggshells with faith-based groups hoping their religious epics like Noah do a fraction of the business Mel Gibson did with The Passion Of The Christ, while those studios continue to shun Gibson like a leper? What better way to commemorate Passion‘s 10th anniversary than journalist Allison Hope Weiner‘s examination of her relationship with Gibson and how it evolved from harsh coverage to the point where she feels strongly enough about his good qualities and recovery to urge Hollywood to consider giving him another chance. Weiner has written about Gibson for Deadline...

For years, conservatives have puzzled over President Barack Obama's continued personal popularity in the face of his dramatically uninspiring performance as commander-in-chief. Obama seems to inspire a bizarre personal loyalty among his advocates, particularly among young people who should by all rights be concerned with their fading futures and collapsing prospects. Why do his numbers remain so stubbornly mediocre? The answer came Tuesday in the form of a ridiculous video cut by Obama with the help of "The Hangover" star Zach Galifianakis and the online outlet Funny or Die. Funny or Die is in the viral video business; it often...

MEXICO CITY – Darren Aronofsky's biblical epic Noah got a mixed reception at its world premiere in Mexico City Monday evening. Hundreds of screaming teens attended the red carpet event at the Pepsi Center, many on hand to see actors Logan Lerman, Jennifer Connelly and Douglas Booth. Co-writer Ari Handel also joined Aronofsky onstage before the screening. The film's star, Russell Crowe, wasn't present.

The director of the upcoming Bible epic "Noah" shot down rumors that the movie had caused a hullabaloo for himself and Paramount Pictures. "There isn't really a controversy," Darren Aronofsky told Variety on Thursday, at "Foundations of the Deep: Noah and the Flood," an art exhibition with work inspired by the story. The director of "Black Swan" and "The Wrestler" added that he made the film for both "believers and non-believers" and was especially interested in challenging any preconceptions that the latter group might have about attending a religious film. "I'm more concerned about getting non-believers into the theater or...