This week’s round up features a lot of science fiction to get excited about, on both the big and small screen.
What’s new in film?
The Martian features Matt Damon behaving like a sci-fi God, and is set for release in October. His character, Mark Watney, finds himself stranded on a mission to Mars. He spends his time surviving on his limited resources and attempting to contact Earth to inform them that he is still in fact alive. The film is based on the best-selling book of the same name by Andy Weir and the film trailer is here:
Coming out this week in Australian cinemas, Hitman: Agent 47 (Carina’s review is here: http://iris.theaureview.com/film-review-hitman-agent-47-ma15-germanyusa-2015/), Southpaw (Chris’ review is here: http://iris.theaureview.com/film-review-southpaw-usa-2015/), Irrational Man (Natalie’s review is here: http://iris.theaureview.com/film-review-irrational-man-usa-2015/), and the Vacation reboot starring Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, and our very own Chris Hemsworth.
What’s new in television?
Empire, Season 2
The Season 2 promo of Empire has just been released by Fox which is set to return in September. The season will feature a lot of new music, produced by Ne-Yo and Timbaland, and have all the drama that was so loved in the first season. “It’s not business. It’s personal”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js-_pJuQ5zg
Colony, Season 1
A new series is set to hit the USA Network and hopefully follow on Aussie television screens. It’s a sci-fi series set in an occupied future Los Angeles. Starring Josh Holloway (Lost) and Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead), the couple battle to find their son after being separated during an invasion. Check out the trailer here:
Festivals and Events
Teen Choice Awards
Over 25 million votes were cast via social media platforms to decide on this year’s Teen Choice Awards on 16 August. The show aired on FOX from the University of Southern California’s Galen Center in Los Angeles. Awards were given out to teen icons from all facets of pop culture including film and TV, music, sport, fashion, comedy and the web. Winners who repeatedly cleaned up in the film world include: If I Stay, Pitch Perfect 2, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and Paper Towns. In television Pretty Little Liars and The Vampire Diaries kept coming up as the favourites. The show was hosted by Ludacris, Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin), and Josh Peck (Nickelodeon’s Drake & Josh).
Disney’s D23 Expo
Described as the “ultimate fan event”, Disney’s D23 Expo was held August 14-16 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Here we found out that Alice Through the Looking Glass will grace cinema screens in 2016. Harrison Ford made a surprise appearance at the expo and revealed that Star Wars: The Force Awakens has a first cut. The pretty new posters were also revealed (Larry shows us here: http://iris.theaureview.com/disneys-d23-expo-artist-drew-struzans-new-the-force-awakens-poster-highlights-han-solo/). It was also confirmed that Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World) will be directing the final film in this new highly-anticipated Star Wars trilogy (http://iris.theaureview.com/disneys-d23-expo-jurassic-world-director-to-helm-star-wars-episode-ix/). Benedict Cumberbatch discussed Doctor Strange, and Chris Evans talked Captain America: Civil War (Larry tells us more here: http://iris.theaureview.com/disneys-d23-expo-watch-benedict-cumberbatch-talk-doctor-strange-and-chris-evans-and-anthony-mackie-talk-captain-america-civil-war/). For more info on what went down, visit https://d23.com/d23-expo/.
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