Free Republic

Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Liam Neeson thinks the many Star Wars spinoff series are "diluting" the franchise. The 70-year-old actor discussed the possibility of starring in a Star Wars spinoff about his character Qui-Gon Jinn during Thursday's episode of Watch What Happens Live. Neeson played Qui-Gon in Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace (1999) and recently appeared as the character in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi starring Ewan McGregor. On WWHL, Neeson was asked if he is interested in his own spinoff. "No, I'm not. There's so many spinoffs of Star Wars. It's diluting it, to me, and...

As we wait for theaters to open up again and studios to stop dragging their feet, 'Coming 2 America' is a passable distraction.To paraphrase Lavelle Junson, people don’t want to see a sequel to an old movie from 30 years ago that no one asked for. Yet, other than standard-issue Disney/Marvel/DC and the occasional sleeper indie hit, we’ve been fed a steady cinematic diet of sequels and reboots to properties from the Reagan-Bush era. “Coming 2 America” is merely the latest entry in the never-ending lineup of stale nostalgia bait. Although occasionally amusing, like its soulless siblings, the follow-up to...

Like more or less everyone I know, I have no desire to see a single entertainment company take over the future, dominating what had been a movie industry of multiple entities, each one fighting for their slice of your attention span. Disney, the movie studio so powerful that it ate another movie studio, looks, to many, like it could be that company. The full impact of its absorption of 20th Century Fox has yet to be felt, but now that the smoke has cleared, the mega-corporation that was formed stands before us like an unprecedented colossus, looming over all other...

What is dead may never die. This is a religious oath recited often by the people of the Iron Islands on Game of Thrones. It is also increasingly the guiding ethos of Hollywood development, where any familiar title, no matter how sacrosanct it might have once seemed, is ripe for a sequel, a prequel, a reboot or all of the above. This includes Game of Thrones itself, which is due to end next year but has a prequel in active development, and several other potential spinoffs waiting in the wings if that one works out OK. Showbiz has been gripped...

Hot off directing back to back pictures in the Oscar contender The Post and the upcoming Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg is now figuring out his next two directorial vehicles. There are several percolating, but sources say he is eyeing Indiana Jones, and then would either precede or follow quickly with another pic. I’m hearing that one might be his dream project, a new version of West Side Story. Spielberg’s camp had no comment on his plans. Deadline revealed back in 2015 that Spielberg had his eye on his Jurassic World star Chris Pratt to be a central part of...

Each month brings a fresh headline containing Hollywood's favourite new buzzphrase, "franchise fatigue." As big-budget sequels from The Mummy to Transformers: The Last Knight stutter to a halt, the consensus reached by news coverage suggests a collective, audible yawn from audiences, as they grow weary and tired of recycled and repackaged films. But is franchise fatigue really a pressing issue for movie studios to address, or is it nothing more than a buzzphrase, a product of anti-franchise bias? The full story of #boxoffice trends is complex and impossible to define in two words alone (lucky for you, this article has...

Think Hollywood is bereft of original ideas? You just might after this. Here's our look at the assorted movie sequels currently in the works. Since we last did a list like this, we've dropped films that seem to have died a death - Wanted 2, Spring Breakers 2 - but we'll keep this rundown up to date over the coming months. Without further ado... Read more:

It's another year chock full of exciting pictures to look forward to!

Harold Ramis said "Ghostbusters" had gone into pre-production and would be out by Christmas 2012, and rumors surrounding the cast started being spread, like Bill Murray possibly appearing as a ghost, and Eliza Dushku joining the team as a female Ghostbuster. And now Eliza Dushku has really piqued fans curiosity, as she recently posted the above photo on her Twitter account, with the following tweet: "Check me out.. I REALLY like THIS get-up! Lol. Who ya gonna call!" It could of course mean nothing, but word from the Supanova convention in Australia, where the above picture was taken, has Eliza...

Two more "Spider-Man" films on the way By Leslie Simmons Sat Sep 6, 11:14 PM ET LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Tobey Maguire and "Spider-Man" director Sam Raimi plan to reunite for the fourth and fifth installments of Columia Pictures' comic book franchise, dispelling speculation that a new actor would play the crime-fighter. "The studio never considered any other actor. Tobey was our only choice and the only person we've discussed the role with," said studio spokesman Steve Elzer. In hopes of containing costs, Columbia is considering shooting the films back-to-back starting in fall 2009, much like New Line did...

We've spent days of our lives scouring the world for news of sequels that you may not have heard of. And here are 30 films in various states of production... The domination of sequels in the big summer and winter schedules continues, and if the following - in particular order - is anything to go by, it's going to carry on for many years to come... The Brazilian Job: the follow up to Paramount’s US remake of The Italian Job is still on the cards, and it’s got a 2009 release date marked. Jason Statham, Mos Def, Mark Wahlberg and...

With Disney's acquisition of Pixar, Pixar President Ed Catmull was named President of the new Pixar and Disney animation studios and Pixar Executive Vice President John Lasseter is the new Chief Creative Office of the animation studios, as well as Principal Creative Advisor at Walt Disney Imagineering. According to a poster at Animation Nation, Catmull and Lasseter "announced to Feature Animation employees [Tuesday] that the 'Toy Story 3' production will end effectively [Tuesday]. They said that sequels should only be made if there is a really great story that demands it, and should be the domain of those who created...

USA Today listed the top 20 anticipated movie sequels, from most to least interest... Here they rank The Two Towers at #4 and Return of the King at #16... 1. STAR WARS EPISODE III 2. THE MATRIX RELOADED 3. SPIDER-MAN 2 4. THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS 5. X-MEN 2 6. HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS 7. TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES 8. AUSTIN POWERS IN GOLDMEMBER 9. STAR TREK: NEMESIS 10. MEN IN BLACK 2 11. DIE ANOTHER DAY 12. INDIANA JONES 4 13. THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS 14. HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION 15. RED DRAGON...

LOS ANGELES, April 16 — If in past summers Hollywood seemed to surrender its creative soul to the making of sequels, prequels, spinoffs, remakes and franchise films based on comic books, television series or video games, take a deep breath and prepare for the summer of 2002. Between this Friday's opening of "The Scorpion King," a muscle-bound spinoff of "The Mummy" series, and the Aug. 9 unveiling of "Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams," at least 16 movies will fall into one or more of the above categories. "Usually, there are four or five of these movies over...