Charles Bramesco

Over this past weekend, CinemaBlend ran an interview with Marvel Studios decision-maker Kevin Feige. As per usual, the man was exceedingly tight-lipped about the future of his beloved superhero playthings, but even his obfuscating non-answers contained the tiny seedling of a revelation within them. While getting grilled about the fate of the Avengers franchise, its third entry of Infinity War slated for 2018, Feige let slip that there was a good reason that the already-scheduled fourth installment has no subtitle as of yet. Though the film was originally planned as the second half of Infinity War, the two projects were recently split into their own individual spheres, and Feige doesn’t want the fourth installment’s full title coming out because apparently it contains a spoiler.

This past weekend, a seismic shift in box-office history took place and went largely unnoticed. The writing was on the wall for Star Wars’ legacy in the all-time top 10 highest-earning films, as noted on Reddit prior to the start of this past weekend. Box-office behemoth Beauty and the Beast continued to generate healthy grosses in its fifth weekend of release, ending the weekend with a princely (or should I say, princessly!) sum of $471.1 million. This gave the film a slight edge of the next-most-lucrative film on the list, which just so happened to be George Lucas’ original space opus. Star Wars and its lifetime gross of $461 million have now slid down to the #11 spot.

Born in 1927, Donald Aronow made a name for himself as the pioneer behind the modern-day speedboat. He devised several models of seafaring vessel that matured into industry standards, and personally built boats for such luminaries as George H.W. Bush, the Shah of Iran, and Lyndon Baines Johnson. Aronow’s signature creation, the so-called ‘cigarette boat’ (you know, the long and slim ones they use in Miami Vice) became a favorite of cocaine merchants due to its great speed and nimble maneuverability. This would bring Aronow some measure of fame and wealth beyond his wildest dreams, but on the downside, it also resulted in his unceremonious murder in 1987 near his boat-retail facility in Miami. The man lived an eventful life, and now his memory will receive the ultimate commemoration: a biopic-thriller in which John Travolta will most likely wear a goofy hairpiece.

Writing about the latest developments in movie-centric news isn’t a bad job, by any means — I could be mining ore and plucking chickens like my Eastern European forefathers — but some days still make you wanna sharpen up your morning coffee with something a little stronger. The recent trend of movie studios airing brief mini-trailers to tease the release of upcoming slightly-longer trailers numbers among my least favorite developments in online buzz-cultivating, and leave it to Zack Snyder and the DC cinematic universe to take that to the next level. Running a trailer for the trailer is some weak-ass bull, the sort of thing those nerds at Marvel would do — this is DC, baby, where they run five trailers for the trailer.

Google is a wonderful company! They manufacture high-quality products and provide a web-surfing experience unparalleled in its intuitiveness and user ease. They’ve made tracking down a specific page in the endless expanse of the Internet into a few simple clicks, drastically cutting down research time. They connect people. They make the world a better place.

About a month and a half separate the viewing public from the much-hyped live-action remake of Disney’s essential fairytale Beauty and the Beast. While regular TV viewers and net-surfers can look forward to an uninterrupted stream of commercials and ads until then, Disney has given one last push of publicity today with the final trailer promoting their handsomely-appointed new film. And as if to sweeten the deal, they included a snippet of the previously announced re-recording of the majestic theme tune, as sung by La La Land jazz-diluter John Legend and travel-size pop starlet Ariana Grande.

The Internet Movie Database is a fount of helpful information. With a few simple clicks, users can learn who shot the Miley Cyrus vehicle So Undercover (Things to Come cinematographer Denis Lenoir), which sequel in the Hellraiser franchise featured a performance from a young Adam Scott (the fourth one), or how old Taraji P. Henson is (who looks that good at 46?!). As a repository for loose factoids from in and around the world of screen entertainment, it can’t be beat. As a source for critical perspectives on those same films, however... hoo boy. Just take a gander at any comment section for a movie’s page and marvel at the IMDb is the site where rabid anti-Ghostbusters zealots congregated to downvote Paul Feig’s movie into oblivion weeks before its actual release, and the newly-released IMDb Top 10 provides an even clearer view of its user base.

The Avatar-industrial complex churns along apace today, with a new peek into Walt Disney World’s forthcoming theme park modeled after James Cameron’s unforgettable — in that we are all constantly reminded of its existence — sci-fi/fantasy blockbuster. Oh My Disney has a crop of new images giving prospective visitors an early eyeful of the various attractions to be enjoyed at what is officially named “Pandora — The World of Avatar.” And it looks like the many devotees of the franchise and its lore have lots to look forward when the park officially opens this summer.

Damn near everything popular between 1985 and 1999 has been rebooted, reimagined, reworked, or remade in the studios’ relentless efforts to wring every last drop of earning potential from existing creative properties. Some efforts have been more successful than others, but either way, Nickelodeon has moved to throw their own hat into the ring.