Thing is, Doctor Who's anniversary was huge. Day of the Doctor itself was the highest rated program in the UK for 2013 and now holds a world record for most widely shown simulcast of a scripted drama program and had theatrical screenings for two days which pulled in more money at the UK box office that weekend than any movie playing with the exception of The Hunger Games. This is something people in Hollywood will have noticed and are going to try their damnedest to replicate. Conveniently, Paramount has the movie rights to another of the world's largest sci-fi franchises which has a fiftieth anniversary coming up. I'm pretty sure they are probably frothing at the mouth and doing whatever it takes to lock in a movie for a 2016 release and try to create their own media blitz similar to what Doctor Who had last year.
I am hoping the 50th anniversary will be HUGE, at least as huge as Dr Who's 50th was. I want television documentary specials, mini-sodes, fan films, everything. We had The Voyage Home for the 20th anniversary; The Undiscovered Country for the 25th anniversary; and FC for the 30th anniversary. The 40th anniversary, we had virtually nothing at all. It went by with a whimper, Trek had finished airing on TV a year beforehand. But then , Dr Who's 40th was a non event as well. The show still hadn't returned to the airwaves yet.
Outside the United States. Then a week later after having already opened in a dozen other countries, it will premiere in America. Remember, no spoilers.
I'd rather have a great movie released in 2017, then a rushed movie released for the 50th. Some fans obsese to much with 'when', and are appereantly less worried with 'what'. If they can get a great movie out for the 50th, I'm all for that, sounds like fun. But it's a date in a book, it's not magical. Having the movie released on that day/year, won't actually improve the movie itself you know?
I want it ASAP before 2016. They could start now as far as I'm concerned. What is the actual date of the 50th anniversary? Is it Sep 8, 2016?
I'd prepare for the kick in the balls (but hope for a date). In other words, keep your expectations low!!
Except, it's really not announced as a dare, it's announced as staking out the date, so, competitors can stake out a different date. More of a courtesy in the industry, rather than a dare. It's really not "Man with a Big Truck who's compensating for something else" Syndrome
other movies due summer 2016 that will be competition for ST3 (probably May) April • Mummy (2016) (Uni.) - 4/22 May • Marvel Untitled (2016) (BV) - 5/6 • Untitled Superman/Batman Film (WB) - 5/6 • Alice in Wonderland 2 (BV) - 5/27 • X-Men: Apocalypse (Fox) - 5/27 June • The Amazing Spider-Man 3 (Sony) - 6/10 • Finding Dory (BV) - 6/17 • How to Train Your Dragon 3 (Fox) - 6/17 July • Angry Birds (Sony) - 7/1 • Independence Day 2 (Fox) - 7/1 • Tarzan (2016) (WB) - 7/1 • Marvel Untitled (July 2016) (BV) - 7/8 • Ice Age 5 (Fox) - 7/15 • Untitled Planet of the Apes (Fox) - 7/29 ST3 will no doubt be either 5/13 or 5/20 (between SvB & XM:A!!) i guess the Prometheus sequel could also be summer 2016 (unless they aiming for Xmas 2015) not sure what the Marvel films will be - probably Thor3? Capt America3?, Hulk2? DR Strange?
^ Oh, cool. I thought Independence Day 2, crashed and burned over the last couple of weeks, and was off the table now?
Well, it was September 2006 when the remastered TOS episodes with the CG effects began airing in the US, it was timed that way to celebrate the 40th anniversary. Although they were a week late.
It's used in the States too, but we typically reserve it for politicians and pundits preaching exceptionalism and excessive patriotism, assholes doing some macho bullshit, or people who drive Hummers (a trend which fortunately has gone the way of the dinosaur, which is fitting considering all the dinosaur-based gas they consumed per mile). Studios staking out a release date, on the other hand, is essentially a larger-scale version of getting reservations for dinner. It's just letting other studios know your plans so they can plan accordingly and shift release dates, and vice versa. Sometimes if it's a dissimilar type of film they counter-program and release on the same date as yours, but if they're similar types with both expected to be blockbusters, generally they'll try and find a different weekend to open so as not to conflict for at least one weekend or more. No. That's Rainn Wilson. You might recognize him from Galaxy Quest (he's the one on the right): Open minded, as always.
I'm not only not sure that announcing a release date is dick waving, I'm also sure that it isn't. Dick waving is synonymous with engaging in a pissing contest. From http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Dick%20Waving%20Contest: From http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pissing%20contest: Pissing contests are to see who can piss the farthest, highest, etc., and they aren't to lay claim to territory [link]. A better, more apropos, metaphor involving penises or urine would be "marking territory" the way animals do with scent. I'm not aware of a commonly used metaphor involving peeing on a fire hydrant, but perhaps we can invent one!
There is an aspect of "mine is bigger than yours" in staking out release dates, i.e. "this movie is going to be huge, so don't even think of challenging us for this date," and occasionally another studio will respond with, "Oh, yeah, well, this movie is even bigger," and set its release for the same date, seeking to bully the first studio into moving. To switch metaphors, one of them will generally blink and move, but sometimes the game of chicken plays out to its conclusion and you'll have a pile-up. That dynamic is playing out with the 6th May 2016 release date, which Warners set as the new release date for the Superman/Batman movie, while Disney/Marvel had already staked it out for one of their as-yet-untitled superhero movies.
I see what you mean, but it still sounds like marking territory to me. We won't get to see everybody's dick, ahem, "until the wedding night" (i.e., until the actual films come out). I can't even believe I just wrote that! Setting a date is just posturing, dick waving and pissing contests are based on actual accomplishments.
I'm getting concerned that we're 9 months on from the release of Into Darkness and we still have no news whatsoever, bar the addition of those new writers alongside Orci, you'd have thought a director would be attached to the project by now
Not necessarily. I set out the timescale that oftens prevails for big summer releases earlier in the thread. If a director is announced within the next three, four, five months or so that'll keep things on track for a summer 2016 release. It's only if we get beyond July and there's been no announcement that a summer 2016 release will start to look unlikely. For example, Joss Whedon was announced as director of The Avengers in July 2010, a film set for release in May 2012.
Fair enough, I'm just desperate to hear anything, I've just finished a rewatch of the first 10 movies and I need my fix!
Especially since Orci said they hoped to announce something soon a few months ago (which was followed by the news that Joe Cornish had passed on the movie for a second time :-/)
I'm hoping we will get an announcement soon about a director. Surely a movie of this magnitude will require a ton of post production.