Two Tickets For...'s 20 Most Anticipated Films of 2015

Andrew: Hello dear readers! With arguably the busiest part of the year for my and Sarah's day jobs, we're able to turn a focus back to the blog like it deserves. We're hoping to start seeing more movies now and getting some reviews up, especially now that the Oscars have happened, somewhat marking the official beginning of the new year in movies.

With that said, we want to present the movies we are looking forward to the most in 2015. The way we went about this, Sarah and I each ranked the top 15 films we were looking forward to respectively. Then we took our individual rankings and combined them to find an average score for each film that got listed on at least one of our lists and listed every film by the cumulative ranking they received. For reference we have embedded trailers for the films that have them available online.

Without further ado, we present Two Tickets For...'s 20 Most Anticipated Films of 2015!

20.) Chappie
Sarah: This one I am so looking forward to. I think the motion capture looks brilliant and while I didn't see Elysium, I'm excited to see the new sci-fi film from the man who made District 9 (Neill Blomkamp). Hoping it'll be another winner! (Individual Ranking - Sarah: 14th Andrew: Not Ranked)

19.) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
A: While Mockingjay Part 1 fell victim to the nature of being literally one half of a whole story, I'm really looking forward to the conclusion of the Hunger Games films because "Mockingjay" was my favorite book of Suzanne Collins' trilogy. This film series hasn't really shied away from showing the violence in the books and Mockingjay Part 2 should have some of the most shocking moments in the whole series when the rebels move on The Capitol. I'll be curious to see the film's depiction of some of the more important moments in the book, along with how they worked around the tragic death of Philip Seymour Hoffman. (Individual Rankings - S: Not Ranked  A: 14th)


18.) Ant-Man
S: I’m more curious than anything about this movie. I'm an unabashed Marvel Cinematic Universe fan, so I'm looking forward to another tale in the series.

A: Like Sarah I'm more just looking forward to seeing what this entry in the MCU will be like. Loved the trailer, I'm intrigued by Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas as the two versions of Ant-Man, and I'm curious to see the final product following all the pre-production problems with original writer/director Edgar Wright leaving the project and Bring It On director Peyton Reed coming on to direct and Anchorman director Adam McKay and Paul Rudd taking over writing duties. (Individual Rankings - S: 15th A: 15th)

Two Tickets For… Visits the 2014 Atlanta Walker Stalker Con: Wrap-Up and More Pics!

Andrew: Hello dear readers! If you've been checking out our recent series of posts recapping the trip Sarah and I made to Walker Stalker Con Atlanta on Saturday, October 18th, you know that we were able to sit in on panels where stars of AMC's The Walking Dead answered fan questions, and that we had a blast listening to them and recapping them for you here!

And while we really, really enjoyed the panels, we gotta be honest and say that our most favorite aspect  of the convention was walking the convention floors, checking out the vendors, watching some of the show's stars from afar, and getting to actually meet a few special makeup effects artists that we're HUGE fans of.

Today's post is going to be a simple wrap-up of our trip to Walker Stalker Con, with some pictures Sarah took while walking the floor, some pics of stuff we bought from a couple of vendors, and I'll tell you about our encounters with those special makeup effects artists.

WALKING THE WALKER STALKER CON FLOOR

- You may or may not know this about us, but Sarah and I are BIG fans of SyFy's movie makeup effects competition show Face Off. We've religiously watched it from the start of season two when we found out it existed. And during the course of the show we've had favorites every season, but there were always two that really stood out to us and whom we rooted for in their time on the show: RJ Haddy and Roy Wooley.

RJ was a contestant in season two, and as we mentioned it was the first season we caught, so contestants from that season have always been a little closer to our heart than some from more recent seasons. RJ in particular was one we rooted hard for because of his outgoing nature and his incredible work, particularly he fantastic makeup on the Tim Burton episode where he created a Burton-esque Bellhop. Check it out below.

RJ Haddy's character he created for the Tim Burton challenge in Season 2 of SyFy's Face Off, a Burton-esque Bellhop who is part dresser with clothes askew, and an actual bell he can ring if he taps the top of his head.

To meet RJ we literally just walked right up to his booth where he was selling makeup tools and promoting a class he would be giving later that day that we regrettably were unable to attend. He had just finished chatting with someone and he walked right up to us as we were looking at some of his work! We mentioned to him how we were big fans of the show and of his, and he gleefully discussed aspects of the show, including some tidbits viewers at home probably don't know about, like:

• On Day 3 of a Spotlight Challenge, between the 4 hours the contestants have in the lab and then Final Looks backstage before the judges see their work, all of the models get an hour for dinner. RJ told us that he learned to not do the work around his model's mouth before the model ate dinner because the act of eating meals would mess up whatever work he had already done. In particular he mentioned that any pasta meals that included oil were particularly harmful to any makeup already put on.

• Some models are fought over by the contestants far more than some others. We had been talking to him about this current season (season finale on Tuesday the 28th!) and how he enjoyed a particular fairy makeup that was made, and when we mentioned how great the model used in that makeup seemed to be a popular one, RJ told us that she was by far one of the most fought over models. We thought that was neat.

• In the same vein, while it's very obvious on the show that for each week's challenge the contestants have to wait their turn to select whatever character they'll try to do, it's not as obvious that the contestants then go in reverse order to select the model they want to use back in the lab. RJ also joked of a possible conspiracy theory that the "random" order that's drawn out of a hat isn't quite so random as you'd believe.

Boba Fett and Han To Get Their Own "Solo" Films?

Andrew: Hello readers! I'm in the process of transcribing our review of Warm Bodies right now, but I had to take a quick break and write up a quick update on yesterday's Around the Web post where Sarah and I mentioned Ain't It Cool News' scoop that Disney and Lucasfilm plan to make a stand-alone Yoda film.

Well, after we posted that yesterday, Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger gave a conference call yesterday in which he confirmed their plans to make a bunch of stand-alone Star Wars films that will be released during the same time period that they will be releasing Episodes VII through IX.

And today Entertainment Weekly reports that their sources have told them that two of the other stand-alone films Lucasfilm plans on producing will be a Han Solo origin story and a Boba Fett adventure!

As EW says:

"The Han Solo story would take place in the time period between Revenge of the Sith and the first Star Wars (now known as A New Hope), so although it’s possible Harrison Ford could appear as a framing device, the movie would require a new actor for the lead — one presumably much younger than even the 35-year-old Ford when he appeared in the 1977 original.

The Boba Fett film would take place either between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, or between Empire and Jedi, where the bounty hunter was last seen plunging unceremoniously into a sarlacc pit. Exactly who would play him isn’t much of a complication – in the original trilogy, he never took off his helmet. And in the prequels, we learned he was the son of the original stormtrooper clone, played by Temuera Morrison, who’s still the right age for the part if his services were required."

Around the Web: "Anchorman 2" casting, a new Star Wars film, a Marvel scoop, and more!

Andrew: Hello readers! So first, let us apologize for being so quiet around here lately. Whether it's the winter blues getting to us, the craziness of our day jobs keeping us from getting to the theatre...

Sarah:  Or because we've lately been preoccupied with me trying to get Andrew caught up on Downton Abbey from the beginning! 

A: But we've been slacking on the blog and for that we apologize, and we promise to kick it back into gear as we ramp it up to our LIVE BLOGGING of the 85th Academy Awards on February 24th!

We'll be posting more regularly the rest of the month, with new reviews (we're seeing Warm Bodies tonight), fresh columns, analysis of the upcoming Oscars, and some new stuff like THIS particular post.

This post, the first edition of something we're tentatively calling Around the Web, is going to be a weekly post where we share movie or television news and fun tidbits we've seen around the interwebs, as well as stand-out material from our fellow bloggers. We hope to make this a nice round-up of stuff you may or may not have already seen. So let's kick it off with some big movie news that has hit the net recently!

J.J. Abrams Will Direct "Star Wars: Episode VII"!

Andrew: Hello readers! I was trying to come up with a way to introduce this quick little news story, but I'm so excited that I'm just going to get right down to it. After initially denying any chance of his involvement with the new Star Wars trilogy that Disney and Lucasfilm will be producing, The Wrap, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter are all reporting that Star Trek Into Darkness director J.J. Abrams WILL in fact direct Star Wars: Episode VII!

Jumping ship from the U.S.S. Enterprise to the Millennium Falcon, reports
say J.J. Abrams will bethe director of Star Wars: Episode VII.

The Wrap had the story first and reported that Abrams, who initially said he would be sticking with the Star Trek franchise that is overseen by Paramount, had a change of heart after a long courtship from Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. Star Wars: Episode VII is currently being written by Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3 scribe Michael Arndt and already has Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford lined up to reprise the roles that made them famous, so landing a big-name director that fanboys would approve of was one of the last remaining hurdles.

We'd have to imagine that a move like this from Abrams means his involvement with any future Star Trek films is out of the question, which is too bad because we love his 2009 reboot and are looking forward to Star Trek Into Darkness, but other than Brad Bird, we personally couldn't have hoped for a better director to take us back to the universe the George Lucas created.

We'll post updates as more information comes out, but just know how excited we are about this news. What do you think of Abrams' move from one franchise to the other? Would you have rather had a different director like Jon Favreau take a shot at it? Hit us up in the comments section!


Photo Courtesy: Yahoo!

Walt Disney Buys Lucasfilm, New Star Wars Movie Coming To a Galaxy Near You?

Andrew: Hello readers! This is going to be a brief post but it's a pretty crazy one, because Reuters is reporting that the Walt Disney Company is purchasing George Lucas' Lucasfilm studio, including the Star Wars franchise, for $4.05 billion.

Walt Disney Co to buy LucasFilm, Star Wars franchise. Two-paragraph story. Updates to come. reuters.com/article/2012/1…
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) October 30, 2012

According to Reuters' Twitter feed (@Reuters), Disney has also announced that a new Star Wars film will be released in 2015! 

"Star Wars" episode seven will come out in 2015, Disney says
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) October 30, 2012

Could this be the start of the long-rumored Episodes VII-IX? Where would a new Star Wars film even go now following the events of Return of the Jedi? I remember reading some of the Star Wars novels that were canon following the films, but will they really go in that direction or a different one instead?

Lots to talk and think about as this story evolves! Hit us up in the comments section with your thoughts!

UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter has more details, including Kathleen Kennedy becoming the new president of Lucasfilm and George Lucas becoming a consultant. Hopefully this means he won't be too directly involved with the future films, considering how dreadful Episodes I-III are!
UPDATE 2: Reuters' Twitter feed has updated saying:

Star Wars episodes eight and nine will follow, Disney says in press release. Long-term plan is feature film every two-three years.
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) October 30, 2012

Source: Reuters, The Hollywood Reporter