The daily gossip: Disney's Star Wars spin-offs will be origin stories, and more
5 top pieces of celebrity gossip — from Ben Affleck's "tired and weary" Batman to the director behind Universal's reboot of The Mummy
1. Disney's Star Wars spin-offs will be origin stories
Now that Disney has the entire Star Wars universe at their fingertips, what new stories will they tell? At a recent investor conference, CFO Jay Rasulo revealed that the company — like George Lucas before them — has decided to use the infinite possibilities of the Star Wars universe to tell a bunch of stories about characters we've already seen before. According to Rasulo, each spin-off will serve as an "origin story film" revealing the past of a Star Wars character — because everybody loved when they did that for Darth Vader, right? [Variety]
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2. Ben Affleck's Batman will be "tired and weary"
If the idea of yet another Batman reboot has made you tired and weary, you have something in common with Batman. At a recent gathering of investors, Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara reported that the version of Batman in the upcoming Man of Steel sequel will be "tired and weary and seasoned and been doing it for awhile." Tsujihara added that Ben Affleck is the "perfect" choice to play Batman, adding that the impassioned response was "a testament to the love that people have for this character" — and ignoring that it was equally a testament to the hatred that people have Ben Affleck. [Variety]
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3. The FCC got 150 complaints about Miley Cyrus' VMAs performance
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If you've spent the past two weeks in a coma, you might have missed the foofaraw over Miley Cyrus' twerk-happy VMAs performance. But while the rest of the world has largely moved on, the FCC is still sorting through the 150 angry messages they received during the performance. Complaints ranged from "implied sexual acts with bears" to "acting like a devil flicking that tongue as daemons do." As a punishment, one commenter suggested that Cyrus "needs to be spanked" — an action, alas, that would probably garner another 150 FCC comments. [The Smoking Gun]
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4. J.J. Abrams was "emotionally hurt" by the crappy Star Trek video game
Star Trek Into Darkness director J.J. Abrams may be one of the hottest young talents in Hollywood, but deep down, he's a marshmallow — so it's no great surprise that he described himself as "emotionally hurt" by the low-quality Star Trek game released alongside his movie. Abrams explained that he was originally involved in the game's production, but dropped out when his team realized "it was not going in a place where [they] were going to get what they wanted" — which should offer plenty of comfort to all the fans who dropped $50 on it before he said anything. [Polygon]
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5. The director behind Mama will direct that reboot of The Mummy
The Mummy franchise ended a whopping five years ago, so of course, it's time to reboot it — but what kind of director could possibly live up to the Brendan Fraser-starring original? According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal has found its answer: Mama director Andres Muschietti, who does, admittedly, have a proven track record of directing movies with titles that sort of sound like "mummy." [The Hollywood Reporter]
Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.
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