Untitled Han Solo origin story loses its directors

Robert here! The Star Wars franchise has been enjoying a commercial and critically successful third wind with the release of new trilogy starting The Force Awakens and standalone, universe expanding film Rogue One. While the next installment of the main nonilogy of films, The Last Jedi, is slated to be released in December, the next standalone film, an origin story for series favorite character Han Solo, has hit a major snarl as directing team Phil Lord and Chris Miller have just announced that they are departing the project.

More after the jump...

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Saturn Award Nominations: Rogue One... and Hidden Figures?

The Saturn Awards were created over 40 years go to honor the then generally dishonored genres of sci-fi fantasy and horror. Whether they're still needed in a pop culture climate that veritably worships these things is up for debate. But even if they are -- and its certainly true that genre shows and films are still considered poor cousins to more respectable "drama" and "biopics" when it comes to mainstream awards --  are the Saturn Awards the ones to do it?

Now in their 43rd year, they seem to have lost the thread a little. They have so many categories it feels like they're eager to displace the Grammys, Satellites, or BFCA for "MOST!" and in addition to the ridiculous amounts of categories, they have 6 to 8 nominees per category which negates the need to have much in the way of discernment as to what constitutes "best". The problem in a nutshell: It's great to have an awards group that can say "Captain America: Civil War is superb" with a straight face, but when they also hold up Batman v Superman for the same honor, it kind of kills the impact.

Rogue One leads the nominees with 11 nominations. All 41 categories and more commentary after the jump... 

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Interview: Greig Fraser talks "Lion," his shifting style, and Jane Campion

Here's one mystery solved: Greig Fraser isn't pronounced any sort of fancy way. It's merely "Greg" with a silent extra "i". If you want to say it perfectly, though, you'll have to say it with an Aussie accent, mate.

We've been singing the praises of the cinematographer Greig Fraser for 8 years now, even if we often pronounced his name wrong while doing so. After the visually jaw-dropping calling card of Bright Star (2009) one of the new century's most undervalued and most transcendentally beautiful movies, his name appeared more and more regularly in major prestige films. Curiously though, despite his ever broadening range (he's aced virtually every genre he's hopped to and front) and quite a few critically lauded and Oscar nominated movies under his belt, he is just now enjoying his very first Oscar nomination for his evocative and resourceful lensing of the Australian hit and Best Picture nominee Lion.

Fraser (top left), Sunny Pawar, and director Garth Davis on the set of Lion

I was eager to talk to him about his ability to tackle any genre, his time with Jane Campion and the challenge of Lion. Here's our interview...

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Tweetweek: Deadpool Revival, La La Land Triumph, and A Few Good Jokes

We'll start with two tweets to suit this morning's neurotic Tennessee Williams heroine mood. Continue on for La La Land and Deadpool divisiveness (with jokes), and more... 

sexuality: that thing jessica lange does with her hands when she's acting her hardest

— probably an android (@airportangel) December 29, 2016

I love Altoid smalls b/c you get to feel like a character from a Tennessee Williams' play taking one of their heart pills when you eat them.

— LoreenaMcKennittVEVO (@robertbalkovich) January 3, 2017

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Box Office Christmas: Star Wars, Hidden Figures, and More...

Star Wars is just going to be a thing every Christmas as ubiquitous as Santa one supposes. Rogue One continued to dominate the box office though if you ask your editor here it's kind of... dull (*dodges tomatoes*) and people wouldn't care much about it if it wasn't "a Star Wars". At the very least it's a bummer that it turned out to be just an exact prequel to the original Star Wars -- it really ought to have had an Episode III½ header -- and not a stand-alone adventure with some fresh ideas about that galaxy far far away.

Box office charts with a few points of discussion after the jump. What did you see this weekend? 

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