Source: Empire Online | Posted By: Dan Geer

One of the greatest aspects of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings is composer Howard Shore’s score for the films. The music of The Lord of the Rings functions as much more than just filler to get us from one scene to the next without awkward silence. Memorable themes and musical cues were meticulously crafted for specific characters and fantastical environments, giving the soundrack that rare ability to immediately take you back to an iconic fictional world without having to even re-watch the trilogy, something that few composers achieve. John Williams (Star Wars, Superman, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter) is really the only other film composer that comes to mind that has that gift.

So the question is, will Shore’s new score for The Hobbit Trilogy live up to what he created for The Lord of the Rings? Well, fans can now preview the entire soundtrack to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey over at Empire Online and decide for themselves. As a fan myself, I can say with confidence that the film’s score will live up to the legacy of The Lord of the Rings, more specifically The Fellowship of the Ring. Cues from various Lord of the Rings themes are scattered throughout, and the rest, while completely new, still feels like a part of Middle Earth. Head on over to Empire Online and have a listen!

Read more »

Source: X-Files Lexicon | Posted By: Dan Geer

Photo via BacktoFrankBlack.com

While Glen Morgan may not be a name that is immediately recognizable to the average movie/TV fan, it is more than likely that most are familiar with his work. Whether it’d be through TV series such as 21 Jump Street, The X-Files or Millennium, or films such as Final Destination and Willard, the man has had quite an extensive career in storytelling. For me, he wrote some of my all-time favorite episodes of The X-Files, including “Home,” which was banned from network television after its first airing because of the episode’s intensely dark subject matter and visuals.

Over the years, the general perception amongst Glen Morgan fans has been that creative blood existed between he and his colleagues at Ten Thirteen Productions, and that, because of it, Morgan was unwilling to discuss his work on The X-Files, Millennium, etc. In a recent (and rare) interview conducted by Matt Allair from The X-Files Lexicon, Morgan got the chance to shed some light on the subject, as well as provide some interesting insight into his amazing career. Hit the jump to read some highlights from the interview!

Read more »

Source: UJAM | Nolan Fans | Posted By: Dan Geer

Ever wanted to be a part of creating the musical score for your favorite films? Well, here’s your chance!

If your remember, in the teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, there was a type of chanting heard in the background. The film’s music composer, Hans Zimmer, is now creating more chanting for the film, and has set up a way to record your voice to be a part of it via UJAM, a website Zimmer co-founded. Read on to find out how you can lend your voice to the film!

Read more »

Source: Christopher Lee Web | Posted By: Dan Geer

Christopher Lee, Guinness book world record holder for acting in more films than any other actor in history (266 to be exact), turns 89 today. Modern film fans know him for playing Saruman in The Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels, but his film career goes back all the way to the late 1940s. Most will say that his most famous role of all time is that of Count Dracula, whom he first played in Horror of Dracula in 1958 as well as the many Dracula films that followed from Hammer Film Productions.

In honor of his birthday, the Official Christopher Lee website posted a three-part Forbes interview with Lee discussing his web site, new media and how it has affected the entertainment industry. Just listening to the man talk is incredibly intriguing, and even comforting. Hit the jump to watch the entire Forbes interview as well as a vintage movie trailer for Horror of Dracula!

Read more »

Source: Disney | TheForce.net | Posted By: Dan Geer

If you have ever been to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Flordia or Disneyland in Anaheim, California, chances are you have ridden Star Tours – a flight simulator ride that whisks you away to various locations within George Lucas’s Star Wars universe. If you rode it in the 1980s or 90s, you might have thought it was really cool. However, experiencing it now may prove to feel a bit outdated.

In 2005, George Lucas announced that a new version of the ride was in the works that would include new 3-D flight simulation scenarios. Fans were overjoyed at the news, and have long since awaited the arrival of the new Star Tours, which finally opens on May 20th at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and June 3rd at Disneyland. Hit the jump to watch a brand new ad for Star Tours: The Adventures Continue!

Read more »

Posted By: Dan Geer

Today marks the two-year anniversary of PopcornMonster.com! It’s has been a great couple of years for the site, and I just want to say thank you to all who have visited and contributed. I especially would like to give a special shout-out to FEARnet, BLT & Associates, X-Files Lexicon, HBO, Back to Frank Black, X-Files News and DC Comics for helping to provide some great content for this site over the last year. Your support is truly appreciated!

Here’s to another great year for PopcornMonster.com!

Read more »

Source: DuPont | Cinematical | Posted By: Dan Geer

Ever wondered what it would be like to chill out at Kevin Flynn’s Safe House from TRON: Legacy? Well, if you happen to be in Milan, Italy, you could find out! Read on for more info!

Read more »

Source: FEARnet | Posted By: Dan Geer

Award-winning filmmaker Mick Garris, host of FEARnet‘s signature series Post-Mortem with Mick Garris, has conducted many interviews with horror film legends on the show, including Roger Corman (which we featured here), Robert Englund and Frank Darabont.

More recently, Garris sat down with Halloween creator John Carpenter to discuss his career. While this five-part interview does not debut on FEARnet until Monday, February 28th (and also Verizon FiOS cable channel 197 starting March 4th and On Demand March 7th), FEARnet was kind enough to send us the official press release as well as photos and an exclusive preview clip of the interview. Hit the jump to check them out!

Read more »

Source: One Cool Thing a Day | Official Star Wars Blog | Posted By: Dan Geer

Image from One Cool Thing a Day

Since the “Blizzard of 2011″ seems to be the hot topic in today’s news, it seemed fitting to post artist Colin McGreal‘s great Star Wars-themed photos of a blizzard, apparently from some time last year, depicting various “Hoth” scenes set in real world New York City. These are really cool. Check ‘em out below!

Read more »

Source: Damon Lindelof | Collider

According to a Tweet by LOST co-creator Damon Lindelof, 9,078 people played the New York Mega Millions Lottery last night, using LOST character Hugo “Hurley” Reyes’s (Jorge Garcia) “lucky” numbers from the TV series. Those numbers, being 4 8 15 16 23 42, won each person $150 since the winning numbers were 4-8-15-25-47 with a mega ball of 42!

Hurley’s numbers played a significant role on the series, both in bringing him extreme wealth ($156 million as a matter of fact) as well as extremely unlucky circumstances. They show up time and time again throughout the course of the series and end up tying in to the destinies of certain characters on “The Island.” Looks like 9,078 people – albeit a small, indirect way – have also partaken in this phenomenon.

I knew it! “The Island” is real!