J.J. Abrams

We knew it wouldn’t take Lucasfilm long to find a new director for Star Wars: Episode IX. When Colin Trevorrow parted ways with the studio last week, it seemed obvious that there would be two names at the top of their list: Rian Johnson, director of The Last Jedi, and J.J. Abrams, Star Wars executive producer and director of The Force Awakens. Johnson took his name out of the running pretty early on, and now it seems as though Abrams is stepping up to the plate.

The Oscars haven’t even been over for a day, and already the predictions for next year are rolling in. The latest comes from J.J. Abrams, director of The Force Awakens, who doesn’t know for sure who’s winning at next year’s Academy Awards, but he thinks Mark Hamill should.

J.J. Abrams’ Cloverfield universe is quickly becoming one of the more interesting cinematic universes. Instead of stringing together a series of connected sequels and spinoffs à la the Marvel and DC cinematic universes, the 2008 found footage thriller has spawned something a little more ambiguous. This year saw the surprise release of Bad Robot’s 10 Cloverfield Lane, which was less a sequel to the 2008 movie and more of a blood relative. And now we finally have confirmation of what the third film in the Clover-verse will be.

It may seem a bit soon to be discussing the future of a franchise when the latest installment hasn’t even hit theaters yet, but the early buzz surrounding Star Trek Beyond is so positive that Paramount has already announced plans for Star Trek 4. Following the recent, tragic passing of Anton Yelchin, some fans have wondered how the Trek universe will address that loss, and producer J.J. Abrams has an answer.

Producer (and former franchise director) J.J. Abrams has been teasing it during the Star Trek Beyond press tour and now it’s official: The new Star Trek series (now often referred to as the “Kelvin Timeline” movies) will get a fourth installment. And much like the fourth installment of the original Trek franchise, this one will involve time travel. Via a press release:

Just when you thought Fred Armisen’s deleted SNL finale sketch the last of Season 41 to hold you over for summer, in swoops a bonus round of celebrity Star Wars auditions! SNL dusted off the November sketch for another round, this time including Matthew McConaughey, along with impressive impressions the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Shia LaBeouf and more.

HBO’s Westworld has had its share of production setbacks (as of publishing, without a premiere date as well), but showrunner Jonathan Nolan insists that the sci-fi drama hasn’t undergone any re-calibration, only that the massive production requirements proved significantly more complicated than HBO thought.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released on digital HD, Blu-ray and DVD earlier this month with plenty of bonus features, including six deleted scenes. But those scenes only make up about three minutes, when we know that director J.J. Abrams cut almost 30 minutes from his original edit...

Among the many questions raised by CBS’ announcement of a new All-Access streaming Star Trek for 2017 under Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller, fans had to wonder if a TV return would follow the J.J. Abrams reboot films, return to the original timeline, or perhaps exist independent of both. Now, reports suggest that not only is the original continuity back in play, we know which Star Trek properties the new CBS iteration will fall between.

Fan theories, a perplexing recent trend in which devotees of a work of fiction claim to unearth hidden truths about it through elaborate and often nonsensical analyses of minor peripheral details, are bigger than all of us. They serve no real purpose other than giving denizens of the internet something to occupy our time while we wait for the sweet release of death, and in some instances can even detract from actual criticism, but for the most part they’re harmless fun. In recent weeks, however, they’ve caused J.J. Abrams a bit of frustration.

ABC’s LOST may not have answered every mystery set up over the course of five seasons, but did you know that J.J. Abrams first pitched the island drama to ABC as having no serialized mystery whatsoever? Or that the costly pilot got ABC’s then-president fired for his trouble? We don’t have to go back, the 21st episode of ‘You Think You Know TV?’ is right here, smoking out all the island secrets of LOST!

Your mission if you choose to accept it: save ‘Mission: Impossible 5’ from being trampled by ‘Star Wars: Episode 7’ at the box office. Mission complete. While ‘Mission: Impossible 5’ was originally set to open this Christmas, just one week after the juggernaut that is ‘Star Wars’, Paramount has wisely thought this over and moved the new Ethan Hunt adventure up to this July.