First the Hunger Games guy, and now this? Is there something in the air that makes directors of incredibly successful movies not want to go back to the well for more sweet, delicious money? Gary Ross pulled out of making Catching Fire because he didn’t believe ]]>

First the Hunger Games guy, and now this? Is there something in the air that makes directors of incredibly successful movies not want to go back to the well for more sweet, delicious money? Gary Ross pulled out of making Catching Fire because he didn’t believe that Lionsgate would give him the time he needed to do justice to the book, and now Joss Whedon is talking like he might not be back for Avengers 2.

The Marvel superhero masterpiece has pulled in over a billion dollars worldwide, so it seems logical to get the band back together for the sequel (which is slated for 2015). But Whedon, who most critics are positioning as a major reason for the first film’s success, is having second thoughts. A recent interview with the Los Angeles Times has the Buffy creator making some unsettling statements about the sequel such as “You know, I’m very torn. It’s an enormous amount of work telling what is ultimately somebody else’s story, even though I feel like I did get to put myself into it. But at the same time, I have a bunch of ideas, and they all seem really cool.”

Marvel Studios also has a well-earned reputation in Hollywood for lowballing directors when they make offers, but with a billion bucks on the line one would think that they’d change that policy a little bit. More details as we get them.

Plus news on Iron Man 3, Thor 2 and more Marvel movies. Nerd up! Disney big bossman Robert Iger did a conference call with the media on Tuesday after the half-a-billion dollar success of The Avengers and, needless to say, he was feeling pretty ]]>

Plus news on Iron Man 3, Thor 2 and more Marvel movies. Nerd up! Disney big bossman Robert Iger did a conference call with the media on Tuesday after the half-a-billion dollar success of The Avengers and, needless to say, he was feeling pretty good. The Los Angeles Times has a full write-up, but here’s the salient point: they want to make more money.

So here’s the slate for upcoming Marvel movies through Disney: Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 in 2013, and the Captain America sequel in 2014. Throw in the rumblings about a new Hulk movie in 2015 and superhero fans have a lot to love. And, of course, another team-up is now on the plate, with Iger saying that it’ll come after the above films. Hope you can wait that long!

Because John Carter was a tremendous flop, although nobody’s coming out and saying it exactly. You know, I liked John Carter, but I saw it high. It was a rousing adventure story with some fine performances and nice effects. Unfortunately, Disney is projecting a

Because John Carter was a tremendous flop, although nobody’s coming out and saying it exactly. You know, I liked John Carter, but I saw it high. It was a rousing adventure story with some fine performances and nice effects. Unfortunately, Disney is projecting a $200 million loss on the movie, which is almost unthinkable in an era where almost everything makes money. It looks like studio head Rich Ross is going to be the sacrificial lamb for this one, and after the similar failure of Mars Needs Moms and Prom last year, it’s not terribly surprising. Deadline has Ross’s statement, in which he says “I no longer believe the Chairman role is the right professional fit for me. For that reason, I have made the very difficult decision to step down as Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, effective today.” Names haven’t been offered up for Ross’s replacement, but I pity the fool who has to step into his shoes.

With Mass Effect 3 just around the corner, time for a song that honors the best part of the franchise: the ability to be a hero, but act like a total douche every step of the way.

As Destructoid notes, Commander Shepard really does come off like ]]>

With Mass Effect 3 just around the corner, time for a song that honors the best part of the franchise: the ability to be a hero, but act like a total douche every step of the way.

As Destructoid notes, Commander Shepard really does come off like a Disney villain in the ditty above. The only real question is why he’s referred to as John, instead of just Shep. Aside from it not sounding nearly as catchy, perhaps that’s his name in the novels and the like?

And does he shoot his comrades in the back and disconnect calls for no good reason in those as well? One can only hope.

At this point, it’s hard to be shocked with whatever rom hackers come up with, but everyone once in a while comes something that breaks new ground.

Those intimately familiar with the rom hacking scene know already that there’s a lot of strange, and at times, frankly messed up stuff ]]>

At this point, it’s hard to be shocked with whatever rom hackers come up with, but everyone once in a while comes something that breaks new ground.

Those intimately familiar with the rom hacking scene know already that there’s a lot of strange, and at times, frankly messed up stuff being done to old NES/SNES/Genesis games. Where I was growing up, there was this one guy who used to rent Nintendo titles at the local super market and then either strip the info contained within the carts, or simply replaced the chips themselves with his own creations.

And what did he replace Mega Man 3 with? Something about killing Jews at concentration camps. Like I said, really batsh*t insane stuff. And the following is right up there: Lion King 5‘s game over screen (another thing about bootlegs is how there’s all these sequels that you didn’t know existed; Super Mario Bros has to be up to part 189 by now, no joke) features Timon, Simba, and Pumbaa, all perishing if you screw up.

Okay, that doesn’t sound too bad, right? Well, they don’t perish because you didn’t stop a fire in time and the like (or whatever peril is illustrated in the movie… to be honest, I’ve never seen it). Nope, they actually kill themselves if your game playing skills sucks…

Talk about the stuff of nightmares. Please keep kids far, FAR away from this one. Though on the bright side, the music sounds pretty rocking, especially for a NES game!

Pirate NES Adaptation Of The Lion King Has Grim Consequences For Failure [GameSetWatch]

If only CNN and Fox News could deliver the news as effectively.

Bonus points for having the Angry Birds also act the role of Twitter birds as well. Though the very last bit has yet to happen. Time will only tell if it ever will. Anyhow, the idea of ]]>

If only CNN and Fox News could deliver the news as effectively.

Bonus points for having the Angry Birds also act the role of Twitter birds as well. Though the very last bit has yet to happen. Time will only tell if it ever will. Anyhow, the idea of video game characters delivering the news is hardly original. Naturally, the Japanese have been doing it for a while.

On the PS3 there’s an app featuring Katsuragi Misato, a character from the anime Evangelion, who reads headlines covering politics, the economy, sports, and entertainment. It’s basically a news reader that address the viewer via some fancy voice synthesis system and in the form of some polygonal anime hottie (whom you can also play dress-up with). Needless to say, Katie Couric can’t possibly compete.

Disney and Angry Birds Explain Three Arab League Revolts in One Amazing Cartoon [Kotaku]

Do you like men recreating popular songs from Disney movies, playing all the parts both male and female, and doing it in the most musical-ish way possible? No? Well how about you watch this anyway. This Nick Pitera dude is damned impressive with his performance.

On the one hand, ]]>

Do you like men recreating popular songs from Disney movies, playing all the parts both male and female, and doing it in the most musical-ish way possible? No? Well how about you watch this anyway. This Nick Pitera dude is damned impressive with his performance.

On the one hand, I can’t help but be impressed with the talent and effort that went into this. On the other hand, his musical theatricality kind of annoyed me. So I think a reasonable compromise would be him ending his medley reenacting the scene with Bambi’s mom. Everybody wins!

One Man Disney Movie [Buzzfeed]

A story starting to make the rounds today involves a Disney employee dressed up as Donald Duck, a photo taken with a park goer, and a little inappropriate groping via Donald’s hands after the photo is taken. All the ingredients for a fine Quote of the Day.

A story starting to make the rounds today involves a Disney employee dressed up as Donald Duck, a photo taken with a park goer, and a little inappropriate groping via Donald’s hands after the photo is taken. All the ingredients for a fine Quote of the Day.

While visiting Epcot Center in Florida, a Pennsylvania woman alleges that a Disney employee dressed as Donald Duck grabbed her breast and molested her after she sought an autograph.

After the alleged groping, Donald Duck made gestures–apparently with his snowy white hands—“indicating he had done something wrong,” according to a lawsuit filed last month by April Magolon. The Upper Darby woman, 27, was visiting Epcot with her children and fiancé in May 2008 when the incident reportedly occurred.

According to Magolon’s complaint, she has suffered “severe physical injury, emotional anguish and distress including, but not limited to post-traumatic stress disorder” as a result of the run-in with Donald Duck.

Grope Claim Against Donald Duck [The Smoking Gun]

After almost 30 years, Disney is releasing a followup to its groundbreaking film Tron and to help promote it they are building non-functioning, prop Lightcycles.Well this guy is on EBAY is selling  functioning Lightcycles and from the looks of it they’re worth every penny.

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After almost 30 years, Disney is releasing a followup to its groundbreaking film Tron and to help promote it they are building non-functioning, prop Lightcycles.Well this guy is on EBAY is selling  functioning Lightcycles and from the looks of it they’re worth every penny.

Can you imagine burning down the road on one of these at night? Of course you’d have to have a recording of the really errie, futuristic sound they make in the films, but I really can’t see how you’d not look cool on one of these bikes. I mean, they are only making 5 and even Harley riders would have to give it up for a Lightcycle.

From the Builders of the now famous “Batpod” replica recently listed here on ebay comes the next exciting movie bike from the big screen. The new Tron Legacy movie will hit theaters in December of this year and the lightcycle sequence will be the hit of the movie. To celebrate this historic event, the Parker Brothers team is building 5 custom one off “Lightcycles” to the exact specs of the movie bikes. Each bike will be black with an accent color – 5 bikes with 5 different accent colors (red, blue, yellow, green, and orange). There will only be one bike made per color so if you must have a certain color, you better call now. This is a first come first serve project so don’t delay. Disney designers built a “movie prop” of this bike for the TRON Legacy  promotions and not a running version so these will be the only known running versions to exist. The engineering behind a fully functional version is mindboggling to say the least.

Uh, yeah, “mindboggling” is a pretty good word to describe these things. Bidding starts at $35,000 (I imagine they’ll sell for far more) for these babies, so tell your mom and dad that you sold your kidney on the black market for a good cause this summer. “It’s a collectors item and an investment…in how awesome I look on the back — HAVE YOU SEEN THIS THING!”

Kidneys aren’t important, right? I can get by with none? Screw it, I’ll chance it.

Shop That Built Batpod Replica Now Selling 5 (Street Legal) TRON Lightcycles On eBay [Geekologie]

Ebay auction

As if you didn’t feel bad enough about going to work today, the New York Post has a list of the highest paid kids in show business.  Surprise! It’s mostly Disney kids.

1. Angus T. Jones, 16 $250,000 an episode to spar with Charlie Sheen ]]>

As if you didn’t feel bad enough about going to work today, the New York Post has a list of the highest paid kids in show business.  Surprise! It’s mostly Disney kids.

1. Angus T. Jones, 16
$250,000 an episode to spar with Charlie Sheen
‘Two and a Half Men’
CBS

6. Miley Cyrus, 17
$15,000 per show but don’t forget about her tours, movies, etc…
‘Hannah Montana’
Disney Channel

8. Demi Lovato, 17
$12,000 per show
‘Sonny With a Chance’
Disney Channel

I can’t believe that the chubby kid from Two and a Half Men gets $250,000 per show. He’s 16-years-old and will stand to make about $5 million in salary this year, and with back-end points on things like DVD sales and whatever % of the he may receive from the deal the airlines have with broadcasting re-runs of all of CBS’s TV shows, he’ll probably fall closer to $7- $8 million this year. But figuring that he hangs around with Charlie Sheen all day long, he’ll probably need all of it for hookers and future divorces.

TV’s Richest Kids [NY Post}

Apparently Jesse James has a little Tiger Woods in him. A third woman has come forward with claims of getting thumped by Jesse James while he was married to Sandra Bullock. Oh, did ]]>

Celebrity gossip items you may have missed this week…

Apparently Jesse James has a little Tiger Woods in him. A third woman has come forward with claims of getting thumped by Jesse James while he was married to Sandra Bullock. Oh, did I fail to mention that there was a second? Brigitte Daguerre — a Los Angeles photographer — claims Jesse hired her in 2008 to do styling work for a West Coast Choppers photo shoot. She says the two emailed and texted each other for a year, but claims they only had sex four times before she cut it off. Yep, more sexts… Wait, late news coming in… Now it’s FOUR women. You go, Jesse…

And speaking of Jesse James, he could have avoided this whole unpleasant situation with “Bombshell” McGee if he’d just been a little looser with some cash. She reports she wanted some hush money, but he wouldn’t pay up, so that’s why she went public. Now who would’ve thought a completely tatted up babe with a Nazi fetish would ever break bad on a guy? Oh well, Jesse should just be thankful that Sandra didn’t have a baseball bat handy.

At least Jesse James can take solace in the fact that he isn’t the only one who got busted for cheating recently. Reggie Bush, come on down!! Reggie Bush was apparently cheating on Kim Kardashian with a blonde waitress named January Gessert. Says a report, “Reggie has reportedly set up an elaborate system to hide his cheating from Kim.” Which, of course, failed. As it always does. Celebs are so stupid.

And the day wouldn’t be complete without just one more Jesse story. It seems that Jesse James settled a sexual harassment lawsuit out of court with a West Coast Chopper employee who apparently blew him while he was still with Sandra Bullock in 2007. In the settlement docs, Jesse neither admitted nor denied the allegations. And now we know why.

Speaking of getting sued, Lady Gaga is getting sued for $30 million by a former lover. Rob Fusari is claiming that while he received some royalties from the songs that he co-wrote with Lady Gaga, he’s been significantly shortchanged. He even claims he came up with her name. Okay, you had me feeling for you Rob, until that part. At least she didn’t ask you to autograph her vagina.

Oh well, don’t feel too bad, Jesse and Gaga, at least you didn’t kill someone, like Pete Doherty (allegedly). In January, filmmaker/heiress Robin Whitehead was found dead of a drug overdose. Last Friday, cops arrested Doherty on suspicion of supplying the drugs that killed Whitehead. Of course, he is now free on bond and claiming innocence. Maybe he was too stoned to know what he was doing? Man, I should have been a lawyer.

In other news, Lindsay Lohan was photographed stumbling over herself and falling into a cactus. Of course, she claims it isn’t because she was drunk, because you know, she quit drinking. Tweeted LiLo: “Only I would get pushed into a large, sharp plant by crazy paparazzi!!! I need to start wearing more flats :/” Wearing more flats = code for Do my drinking at home.

Speaking of famous people with little to no talent, The Hills is getting canceled. Not only is this good news for soceity, it’s good news for us, because once the checks start drying up for Audrina Patridge and Heidi Montag who knows what levels they’ll sink to in order to stay famous. I can hardly wait.

In what will probably shock very few of you, TMZ has learned Brittany Murphy received no fewer than 200 pills every month from January 2008 through August 2009 … and sometimes as many as 400. But yeah, the producers of Surf’s Up 2 killed her, right Simon?

In other news that will also probably shock very few of you, a judge, Judge Irma Gonzalez to be precise, called Dr. Phil “a terrible, terrible man,” adding, “what a charlatan this man is.” Apparently the two defendants in front of her were on his show and the judge said he didn’t give them enough counseling. You mean going on the one show wasn’t enough?

And finally, in news that will give you tremendous relief Pirates of the Caribbean 4 will be fake-boob-free. Disney made clear in a recent casting call that any actresses looking to land a role in Pirates 4 should be silicone-free, and willing to prove it by jiggling. Oh to be a Disney exec these days. What a life…

Gross: Groping a woman in a Minnie Mouse costume in Toon Town at Disneyworld. Grosser: The chick in the costume didn’t run away out of fear she’d lose her job for breaking character. M-I-C…See ya real soon!…K-E-Y…Why? Because I blew a load in my pants while ]]>

Gross: Groping a woman in a Minnie Mouse costume in Toon Town at Disneyworld. Grosser: The chick in the costume didn’t run away out of fear she’d lose her job for breaking character.

M-I-C…See ya real soon!…K-E-Y…Why? Because I blew a load in my pants while feeling up Minnie Mouse.