San Diego Comic-Con breaking news : LIVE with the Indiana Jones 4 cast - Video

Fans were hysterical at the San Diego Comic Con when Steven Spielberg and the cast of the awaited Indiana Jones 4 appeared on the convention screen, as you will see on the video below.

But the big surprise was the return of Karen Allen who will play again the Marion Ravenwood character - the one she played in "Raiders of the Lost Ark"! And the great actor John Hurt will play her father - Abner Ravenwood - yes, the one who was supposedly searching for the Ark of the Covenant in the first movie before Indy gets involved in the search, and find it.



Right now, Steven is filming scenes in Hawai.






No more infos about the story line was revealed, but, always at Comic Con, Hasbro who have the license for some of the coming Indiana Jones 4 products revealed their future action figures. They did a special Indy decor for the display, with Egyptian statues and a real-size Ark of the Covenant. But what intrigued me is this model of a Mayan pyramid, also part of their decor. As we know, the previous Indy expeditions didn't lead him to old Mayan civilisation. So, is this the first proof to the rumours that the "treasure" location of the fourth movie will be in Mexico?



And if you're looking for an Indiana Jones 4 wallpaper, here is a brand-new one!



Photos: copyright Lucasfilm Ltd

Picture of the Mayan pyramid model: indianajones.moviechronicles.com/

San Diego Comic-Con breaking news : Disney will produce film versions of all "Narnia" Books

This is fresh Disney news from Gordon of the excellent Mousevine.com web site:

"The Disney company announced today in San Diego at their Comic-Con presentation that it would produce film versions of every book in the Chronicles of Narnia series. Furthermore, beginning next year with the release of "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" May 16th, moviegoers can expect to see a Narnia film in theaters every following year in May until all books in the series have been translated for the big screen.

"The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" will open May 1st in 2009 followed by "The Silver Chair," "The Horse and His Boy," "The Magician's Nephew" and "The Last Battle."





News from http://www.mousevine.com/

Photos: copyright Disney

Pirates of Caribbean behind the scenes - Artwork , photos and videos

After the Disney and more "Time machine" introduced earlier this week, I am pleased to introduce today a new series of articles, the "Behind the scenes". Each week or so you will find photos, artwork - when available - and, most of all, great videos that will allow you to have an exclusive look "behind the scenes" of an attraction and i hope you will enjoy this new series.

As Tokyo Disneyland opens yesterday his new version of Pirates of Caribbean it seems to me that it was the right time to have a look back at the origin of one of the best E-Ticket ever made, which, just like the Haunted Mansion, is an attraction you can ride forever...So, here is a special "behind the scenes" article, with lot of artwork, photos, and great videos where Walt Disney will introduce you to this beloved attraction.

You probably have already heard about it, but some of the early concept of the attraction had it designed as a walk-through instead of a flume-ride, as shows the rendering below



Of course, as everybody knows, Marc Davis designed most of the scenes of "Pirates" , and here are some of his great renderings












Here is Walt with Marc Davis and Blaine Gibson with one of the first Audio-animatronics.




And here, with Claude Coats who created the fantastic settings of the attraction.









You can find much more renderings and the whole story of the making of the attraction in the great Jason Surell book - the best book ever written on "Pirates of Caribbean" - a "must have" if you don't have it yet!



These first two part youtube video is from a 1960's Disney tv show for Disneylannd 10th anniversary, and here is Walt introducing the future Pirates of Caribbean attraction to a young Disney ambassador.







And on this other video Bruce Gordon, Marty Sklar, Tony Baxter and many other WDI Imagineers will tell you all the history of the attraction.



Let's end with this great painting done by John Horny for the Disneyland Paris Blue Lagoon restaurant.



Artwork, photos and videos: copyright Disney

All my thanks to freedogshampoo and MegaRob64 for the youtube videos

Disneyland Paris 15th anniversary fashion event

At Disneyland Paris, the 15th anniversary event is still going on until next year, and there was recently a "fashion event" at Paris "Magic Kingdom".
The park asked some french fashion creators , among them some world reknowned like Azzedine Alaia or Chantal Thomass to design their own vision for the dress of the Sleeping Beauty or other characters like Tinkerbell.

The drawings of each of them were displayed in the Sleeping Beauty castle walkthrough at the 1st floor of the castle.





Each creator designed also the dress from their drawings and Chantal Thomass choose Tinkerbell.




They even did a mise-en scène of the Sleeping Beauty - still sleeping, as well as everybody around her, as you can see !




A party was organized , too, with musicians dressed in 18th century costumes , here inside the Cinderella restaurant with Jacques Hintzy, president of Unicef france as the event was to the benefit of the Unicef organization.



And even Maleficent was there for a night show with flames around her!



Photos: copyright Disney

Disneyland 52th anniversary special tribute - Photos and Videos

Yes, already 52 years since the picture above was shoot! And, to celebrate this anniversary, here are some great historical photos and many old videos from Youtube, with all my thanks to "freedogshampoo".



The bird-eye view above shows Disneyland in 1960, but before that, it was time for its construction, and for Walt to check that everything was allright - here on Peter Pan's flight.



Talking about construction, here is a video with Walt telling you all about it.




On opening day, Jungle cruise was already there...



And some years later, Walt made a special presentation of it to legendary India's prime minister Nehru...







Many celebrities came at Disneyland, like U.S former president Ike Eisenhower...



...Here riding the now extinct Mine train attraction








The Shah of Iran was there too, when the Matterhorn opens...





Ten years after its opening Disneyland had a special party for this 10th anniversary.





The sixties were also the time of one of Tomorrowland's most famous attraction, the Flying Saucers







This last short video below show Walt some months before he unfortunately die, at the opening of It's a small world, one of the park's most beloved attraction.






Photos and videos: copyright Disney