Eight years ago, Peter Cushing was digitally resurrected to appear in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as Grand Moff Tarkin, which has now prompted a lawsuit against Disney.

The lawsuit has been filed by Kevin Francis, a film producer and friend of Peter Cushing. He claims that Cushing “agreed not to grant permission for anyone to reproduce his appearance through special effects without his authorization” and that he allegedly “signed the agreement not to allow his image to be used without Francis’s permission in 1993 while preparing to make a television film called A Heritage of Horror, which was not completed.” In addition to Disney, the lawsuit includes Lucasfilm, Lunak Heavy Industries, which produced Rogue One, as well as Cushing’s agency and the estate’s now-deceased executors. The suit alleges that the studio got “unjust enrichment” from Cushing’s digital appearance in the movie.

Disney attempted to have the case dismissed by the High Court in London last year, but it was rejected. Disney subsequently appealed, but Judge Tom Mitcheson upheld the ruling last week, although he admitted he was “far from persuaded” that Francis would win the case. “I am also not persuaded that the case is unarguable to the standard required to give summary judgment or to strike it out,” he said before adding, “In an area of developing law it is very difficult to decide where the boundaries might lie in the absence of a full factual enquiry.“

Disney has claimed it “did not believe permission was required to recreate Cushing because of the terms of his contract in the original film and the nature of the special effects.” They did pay Cushing’s estate “about £28,000” for the use of his likeness in Rogue One. Guy Henry played the role of Tarkin in Rogue One and provided the voice, while ILM duplicated his performance with a digital reconstruction of Cushing. I would wager that this lawsuit will ultimately come out in Disney’s favour, but the issue of digital likeness rights won’t be going away anytime soon, and this could just be the tip of the iceberg.

While we’re on the subject of Rogue One, the second season of Andor, the acclaimed prequel series, is set to debut on Disney+ next year.

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Yesterday, Sony officially unveiled the PlayStation 5 Pro after months of rumors and leaks. The souped-up console will cost $700, let you play many games at higher frame rates, and doesn’t come with a disc drive. That last part has seemingly led to a lot of people buying up PS5 disc drives, leading in turn to the…

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Yesterday, Sony officially unveiled the PlayStation 5 Pro after months of rumors and leaks. The souped-up console will cost $700, let you play many games at higher frame rates, and doesn’t come with a disc drive. That last part has seemingly led to a lot of people buying up PS5 disc drives, leading in turn to the…

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Deadline reports that Judd Apatow has been tapped to direct Cola Wars for Sony, who shelled out $1 million in April for the pitch. The film is based on the true story of “Pepsi’s attempt to challenge Coca-Cola’s century-long reign as the world’s top cola” in the mid-1980s. Steven Spielberg is also on board and will produce the project through his Amblin Entertainment production company.

The Cola Wars brought us many memorable events, including the disastrous launch of New Coke and the Pepsi commercial that left Michael Jackson with severe burns. The film is billed as “the ultimate underdog tale of history’s most iconic second-place contender (Pepsi) vying for the No. 1 spot (Coca-Cola).” Jason Shuman (Acapulco) and Ben Queen (Cars 2) are penning the script for the project, and while it’s still in the early stages, it could be a fun flick.

Although Spielberg is just producing this one, he does have some exciting projects in development. One is said to be a UFO movie based on Steven Spielberg’s own original idea, with David Koepp writing the screenplay. Universal Pictures has slated a May 15, 2026 release date for a “Steven Spielberg Event Film” believed to be the UFO project. It’s been reported that Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer) and Colin Firth (Kingsman: The Secret Service) have been eyeing roles in the movie.

Spielberg has also been working on a new movie based on Bullitt, the classic action thriller starring Steve McQueen. The project received an update late last year from Kristie Macosko Krieger, one of Spielberg’s producing partners. “I’m producing it. Steven [Spielberg] and Josh Singer, who is writing the script, they are working on the story,” Krieger said. “I hope we have a script soon as the writers’ strike put us behind a bit. But they are working on it – I couldn’t tell you if it’s the next movie we are making as I don’t know at this point. I think that it will be a wildly entertaining film.“

Based on Mute Witness by Robert L. Fish, the original film starred Steve McQueen as a no-nonsense San Francisco cop who becomes determined to track down the underworld kingpin who killed the witness in his protection. Spielberg will direct the new Bullitt movie as well as produce it, with Josh Singer writing the script. Bradley Cooper is set to star in the project as Frank Bullitt. However, it won’t necessarily be a remake of the original 1968 film, but will instead tell an original story with the Frank Bullitt character at its center. Steve McQueen’s children, Chad and Molly McQueen, will executive produce the Bullitt project, as will Bradley Cooper.

Now, are you more of a Coke person or a Pepsi person?

The post Begun, the Cola Wars have: Judd Apatow to direct Coke vs Pepsi movie with Steven Spielberg producing appeared first on JoBlo.

This week marks the ten-year anniversary of Destiny, a game that accidentally became my whole personality when it launched back in September of 2014. I’ve loved it since the days of its alpha tests and I still love it now, in the form of Destiny 2. Sometimes it’s been hard to love , whether that’s due to stumbles in…

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This week marks the ten-year anniversary of Destiny, a game that accidentally became my whole personality when it launched back in September of 2014. I’ve loved it since the days of its alpha tests and I still love it now, in the form of Destiny 2. Sometimes it’s been hard to love , whether that’s due to stumbles in…

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World of Warcraft’s The War Within has brought several new features to the title, including a new talent system that gives us a few more passives and customization options. Starting at level 71, you will gain access to the latest talent tree that lets you build upon your character even further.

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World of Warcraft’s The War Within has brought several new features to the title, including a new talent system that gives us a few more passives and customization options. Starting at level 71, you will gain access to the latest talent tree that lets you build upon your character even further.

Read more…

A couple years ago, Spider One – the frontman of Powerman 5000 and the brother of fellow musician/filmmaker Rob Zombie – made his feature directorial debut with the horror anthology Allegoria. Last year, his second feature – a horror film called Bury the Bride – was released through the Tubi streaming service. His third film, which is called Little Bites, recently secured a worldwide distribution deal through RLJE Films and the Shudder streaming service, and RLJE Films will be giving the film a theatrical and VOD release on October 4th. Its streaming debut on Shudder will follow at a later date. With the theatrical and VOD release date swiftly approaching, a trailer for Little Bites has now arrived online and can be seen in the embed above.

Written and directed by Spider One, Little Bites centers on Mindy, a young widow and mother who tries to protect her daughter Alice from a flesh eating monster named Agyar. Mindy has been secretly sacrificing her own life by allowing the creature to feast on her body as she keeps Alice hidden away at her grandmother’s house.

Krsy Fox of Allegoria and Bury the Bride plays Mindy and is joined in the cast by Elizabeth Phoenix Caro (The Christmas Chronicles) as Alice and Jon Sklaroff (Gifted) as Agyar. Also in the cast are Chaz Bono (American Horror Story), Lyndsi LaRose (Frank), Mark Kelly (The Hot Zone), Christopher Alvarenga (Last Girl Standing), and genre icons Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator), Heather Langenkamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street), and Bonnie Aarons (The Nun).

Bono, who also worked on Bury the Bride, serves as an executive producer on Little Bites alongside his mother, Cher, as well as Ian Hoge, Tyler Connolly, and Wendy and Mark Berry. Spider One and Fox’s company OneFox Productions produced. 

Spider One told Deadline, “Little Bites began with an unflinching look at my own experience as a parent. An experience that has been and continues to be a complex mess of love, pain, success and failure. Where the best of intentions are constantly countered by the dark forces of self doubt and the external judgment of others. In the film, Mindy’s relationship with her monster, Agyar, is clearly my allegory for parenthood. His bites are her pain. His words are her insecurities. His intentions are to prove Mindy’s failure as a parent. Krsy Fox and Jon Sklaroff delivered beyond my wildest expectations with their portrayals of Mindy and Agyar and I can’t wait to once again team up with Shudder/RLJE and let horror fans to sink their teeth into Little Bites.“

We recently heard that Spider One was working on his fourth film, Big Baby.

What did you think of the Little Bites trailer? Will you be watching this movie when it’s released in October? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Back in 2022, Get Out, Us, and Nope writer/director Jordan Peele‘s production company Monkeypaw Productions acquired the genre film pitch Goat from writers Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie, the plan being that Peele would be producing Goat as part of Monkeypaw’s overall deal with Universal Pictures. The sports-related horror project made its way through production under the title Him earlier this year, and now – even though the movie won’t be reaching theatres until September 19, 2025 – the finished product has been given its rating from the Motion Picture Association ratings board. Him has been rated R for strong/bloody violence, language throughout, sexual material, nudity and some drug use.

Justin Tipping – who made his feature directorial debut with the 2016 drama Kicks – directed the film, with lead roles going to Marlon Wayans (Scary Movie), Tyriq Withers (The Game), and Julia Fox (Uncut Gems).

Akers and Bronkie’s script centers on a promising young athlete who is invited to train with a team’s retiring star. How exactly horror enters the picture is being kept under wraps. ComicBook.com has heard that the script centers on a rookie QB who goes to train with a retiring star QB who may hold a secret about how he has played so long at such a high level. So obviously the GOAT has been using unusual methods to achieve his success, and finding out about them are going to cause the rookie some trouble.

Wayans plays the greatest-of-all-time athlete, while Withers plays the promising young athlete / rookie QB. Details on the character Fox plays in Him haven’t been revealed.

Writers Akers and Bronkie previously created the Facebook Watch series Limetown, which starred Jessica Biel. Since making Kicks, Tipping has gone on to direct episodes of multiple TV shows, including Black Monday, The Chi, Dear White People, Dare Me, Twenties, Run the World, Flatbush Misdemeanors, and Joe vs. Carole.

Peele is producing Him with Win Rosenfeld, Ian Cooper, and Jamal Watson. David Kern and Kate Oh serve as executive producers. Universal EVP Production Development Sara Scott and Director of Development Tony Ducret are overseeing the project for the studio.

Are you looking forward to Him, and are you glad to hear that the film has been given an R rating? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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