Disney’s ‘1952’ now called ‘Tomorrowland’ and is not about aliens... or is it?

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

So, Brad Bird’s hotly-anticipated sci-fi project for Disney – tentatively titled 1952 – now has its official name: Tomorrowland.

Rumors have been swirling online for months that Bird’s film – which will star George Clooney – is to be a Close Encounters-style UFO epic. Bird himself has remained tight-lipped.

In October of last year, Vulture reported on the movie’s mysterious back-story, which goes like this:

last spring, Disney’s head of production, Sean Bailey, arranged for screenwriter Damon Lindelof (Cowboys and Aliens, Prometheus) to be given access to “one of the studio’s odder curiosities: a banker’s box of files and documents that had been left moldering in Walt Disney’s personal development lab, WED Enterprises, which later became the studio’s vaunted Imagineering department.”

According to Vulture’s “spies”, the box was originally labelled with the title of Disney’s 1965 comedy That Darn Cat!, which had been crossed out and in its place was written “1952.” Apparently, inside the box was a “collection of documents and primary source materials that, when looked at all together, indicated that someone had been working on a project (movie? Theme park ride?) about alien contact.”

The identity of this “someone” from Disney’s bygone era working on a project about alien contact was never specified, but I speculated that it might be Ward Kimball – who famously claimed to have worked on an aborted government-sponsored Disney UFO documentary that was supposed to have featured real UFO footage.

However, within hours of publishing his inside scoop on 1952, Vulture’s Claude Brodesser-Akner made a public apology, stating that he had “misunderstood” his source for his story and that Brad Bird’s movie “is not in fact about an alien encounter.”

Now, the movie’s screenwriter Damon Lindelof has chipped in with the following Tweet: “We won't tell you what it's about (yet), but we will tell you what it's NOT about. And that would be ALIENS.”

Teasing us even further, Brad Bird last week Tweeted a picture of the aforementioned “box of files and documents” which is serving as inspiration for this mysterious movie project...

 

This marks the beginning of what will surely be an elaborate marketing campaign for Tomorrowland, with the contents of the box clearly intended to spark further speculation about the film’s plot. So let the speculation continue...

Looking at the box, we are afforded a glimpse of a magazine cover – which is obviously an issue of Amazing Stories. To be precise, it’s the August 1928 issue, which famously laid the foundations for the adventures of Buck Rodgers in the story Armageddon 2419 A.D. However, the cover of the issue is not related to Buck Rodgers, but depicts a scene from the story The Skylark of Space, by E.E. Smith. You can read the full plot for The Skylark of Space here, but suffice to say it deals with the discovery and implications of free energy; interstellar travel; and, yes, aliens.

 

So, basically, what on Earth (or in space) Tomorrowlandis about is still anyone’s guess. Care to guess, anyone? Who are the men pictured with Walt Disney in those photographs? What’s in those dusty files? What’s in that brown sleeve? Is that a music record? Is there film in that Technicolor box? If so, what’s on it?? Damn you Brad Bird and Disney!

Tomorrowland is scheduled for release December 19, 2014.

'Hangar 18': The most significant UFO conspiracy movie of all time?

Silver Screen Saucers

 

Tune into Coast to Coast AM January 31 when Robbie Graham will be chatting with Linda Moulton Howe about one of the most significant UFO conspiracy movies of all time, Hangar 18 (1980), in the context of the CIA, the Knights of Malta, and the Mormon Church.

Linda Moulton Howe’s reporting begins at 11pm PST. Robbie Graham will discuss Hangar 18 from Midnight – 1am PST.

More Chicks

The albatross chicks are hatching all over the place now.  I'd say only about 1 out of 10 nests are hatching so there's a quite a few more to go.  I like them when they are tiny because they don't try to snap at you yet.

We found a dead duck the other day, so we're back to checking the seeps every day for ducks that are sick or have died from botulism.  So far we haven't found any more.  That means a trip to Eastern Island every day too.  

We'll be short on people for the next couple of months, so we've got a person here to fill in for Greg, Sue, and I when each of us are off island.  I'm glad that Larry will be here on detail, especially since we've got the seep checks to do now, so if you hear me mention Larry, that's who it is.

This adult is letting the chick get warmed up in the sun.

 Here's a chick that's only about 2 days old.

A White-tailed tropicbird flies around checking out possible nesting trees every afternoon.

 I showed you a photo last week of the glass float that Greg found in the water.  A set of two green glass floats tied together washed up on Eastern Island yesterday.

I've showed you this view before, but I never get tired of it.  This is from the pier on the north side of Eastern Island looking toward Sand Island.  It's nice and calm inside the atoll.  The next few photos are on the south side of Eastern Island looking to the reef outside the atoll.  The waves are always a bit more dramatic when there's a good wind because you get a lot of spray off of the top.  The waves were 10 to 20 ft today.

Prometheus did go to Zeta Reticuli, after all

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

In Ridley Scott’s classic 1979 movie Alien, after the crew of the Nostromo has awakened from their hyper-sleep, the ship’s navigator, Lambert (veronica Cartwright), states that they are “just short of Zeta II Reticuli.”

It’s a UFOlogical reference so fleeting that few in the UFO community seem to have noticed it – or, if they have, it’s rarely been discussed.

Zeta Reticuli, as any self-respecting UFO buff knows, is a binary star system in the constellation of Reticulum located approximately 39 light-years from Earth. The UFO buff knows this because Zeta Reticuli is also thought by many to be the home system of the so-called “Grey” aliens – an idea that has its roots in the 1961 Hill abduction incident in which Betty and Barney Hill were allegedly taken aboard an extraterrestrial spacecraft in rural New Hampshire and subjected to medical tests. It was the first UFO abduction account to gain widespread media attention.

When the Hills underwent regression hypnosis a couple of years after their abduction experience, Betty recalled being shown a star map by the ETs, which she later sketched from memory at the urging of her psychiatrist. That star map was later interpreted by amateur astronomer Marjorie Fish as a depiction of the Zeta Reticuli star system and quickly entered UFO lore. Zeta Reticuli would also be cited in later years as being home to the Greys in connection with Project Serpo and by Area 51 “whistleblower,” Bob Lazar.

 

Above: The Betty Hill star map

 

 

 

Last year, during the marketing campaign for his Alien prequel Prometheus, Ridley Scott made explicit reference to Zeta(2) Reticuli. In a promotional featurette, the director said: “The planet where they [the crew of the Prometheus] go is called Zeta(2) Reticuli, and what they find there is an establishment that is not what they expected it to be.” Scott added, “This story kind of walks around the truth of what there may be out there... It presents some big questions.”

The implication of Scott’s statement was that the UFOlogical significance of Zeta(2) Reticuli would receive greater emphasis in the Prometheus narrative (the film’s plot is, after all, heavily indebted to Ancient Astronaut theory).

However, when Prometheusfinally hit cinemas, it contained no spoken reference whatsoever to Zeta(2) Reticuli. This was something of a head-scratcher (as, indeed, was the entire movie). Why bother drawing attention to the name of your characters’ destination during the promotion of your movie, only to include no obvious reference to it in the movie itself?

We may never know the answer to this question (I doubt even Ridley Scott knows), but take a look at the composite image below, which shows the Betty Hill star map overlaid against a still from Prometheus in which the aliens’ star system is depicted in ancient cave art...

 

The above image proves two things:

1.   That Prometheusdid go to Zeta(2) Reticuli after all and drew its influence in this regard directly from imagery associated with the Hill abduction case.

2.   That I have entirely too much time on my hands today.

Important new book: ‘UFOs, Area-51, and Government Informants’

 Silver Screen Saucers

On Sunday January 27^th Grant Cameron will be appearing on Coast to Coast AM with host George Knapp to discuss the release of a new book co-authored by Cameron called “UFOs, Area-51, and Government Informants.” The interview will run from 11:00pm – 2:00am Pacific. The book should be available on Amazon.comsometime on Monday or Tuesday.

The book is a detailed analysis of a number of leaks that have occurred which give a glimpse of what has occurred inside the classified government world of UFO investigation, and how the U.S. government has gradually disclosed key elements of the UFO story into the public.

Topics of discussion in this interview will include the early days of flying saucer investigation in Canada and how that work lead to a key U.S. official, Dr. Eric Walker, who was there when the cover-up began and understood why the cover-up needed to continue. The interview will also look behind the story of the MJ-12 document that dominated discussion in the UFO world in the late 1980s, and a group of high level government officials who were behind the release of this document.

The interview will discuss three key US government intelligence operations which were carried out to get out the truth about UFOs but contain the classified aspects needed for reasons of national security. These three events were 1) the UFO documentary in 1975 called UFOs, Past Present, and Future 2) The television show UFO Cover-up? Live ! broadcast in October 1988 3) The Area-51 story that broke on KLAS-TV in the spring of 1989.

The discussion of the Area-51 story should be interesting as George Knapp was the reporter who broke the story that made Area-51 one of the most famous places in the world.

Those who do not get the show can listen at

http://www.cjob.com/

The station also has the show in their audio vault for 30 days at

http://www.cjob.com/other/audiovault.html

Set the clock to 1:00am January 28 to listen

_______________________________

This report was originally published at PresidentialUFO.com

UFO movie news round-up (25 Jan. 2013)

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

J.J. Abrams to direct Star Wars Episode VII

 

J.J. Abrams is headed for a galaxy far, far away. Yes indeed, he has signed on to direct the next instalment of the iconic Star Wars franchise.

According to The Wrap, Abrams – who directed the UFO movie Super 8 (2011), as well as the hugely successful Star Trek reboot (2009) and its upcoming sequel (2013) – will direct Star Wars: Episode VII for Walt Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm. Apparently, Ben Affleck was also in contention.

Okay, so the Star Wars films don’t exactly qualify as ‘UFO movies’, but to many fans of the broader sci-fi genre, Abrams helming a new Star Wars flick is pant-wettingly exciting news.

Star Wars: Episode VII is scheduled for release in 2015. Michael Arndt is writing the script. Disney and Lucasfilm are planning a new trilogy with a new movie coming our way every other year.

Aliens vs. Robots in new short film, ‘R’ha’

A new sci-fi short titled R'ha calls to mind Ancient Astronaut theory with its alien protagonist bearing more than a passing resemblance to depictions of the Egyptian sun god, Ra. The movie took 22-year-old Kaleb Lechowski seven months to create... 

 

‘Dark Skies’ movie: new infographic

Dimension Films has released a new infographic as part of the marketing campaign for its upcoming alien horror flick Dark Skies (which, once again, I feel compelled to point out, stole its title from another UFO-themed production)...

According to its official blurb, “Dark Skies is a psychological thriller about a suburban couple whose lives become a nightmare when a terrifying alien presence enters their home each night to prey upon their children. Increasingly isolated from skeptical friends and neighbors, the couple is forced to take matters into their own hands to save their family.”

Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton star in the February 22, 2013 release.

‘The Host’: new featurettes

Two new featurettes for the upcoming body-snatching alien movie The Host, which is based on Stephanie Meyer’s book and will be taking over multiplexes this year from March 29...

 

Humans, vampires and zombies vs. aliens 

Mackenzie Davis (Breathe In), Nicholas Braun (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) and Josh Fadem (The Eric Andre Show) are in talks to star in Sony Pictures’ genre mash-up movie The Kitchen Sink.

According to Variety, the story – which is said to be in the vein of Zombieland – “follows a pair of teens (Davis and Braun) who form an unlikely alliance with vampires and zombies in order to take on an alien army.”

Matt Tolmach is producing and Robbie Pickering will direct from a script by Oren Uziel. The movie is expected to shoot this summer in time for a 2014 release.

Carrey or Sandler to star in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’?

The Latino Reviewreports that Marvel is eying Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler for its upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Although it's not clear which role Marvel has in mind for the comedy superstars, the obvious answer would be the loud-mouthed Rocket Raccoon.

Wes Bentley, Chris Lowell and Cam Gigandet are apparently also on Marvel’s shortlist for the Peter Quill/Star-Lord character.

Guardians of the Galaxy will be directed by James Gunn (Super, Slither) and has been written by Chris McCoy and Nicole Periman. The superhero team consists of Star-Lord, Drax the Destroyer, Groot, Rocket Raccoon and Gamora.

The movie is set to shoot this summer in London for an August 1, 2014 release date.

Terrifying (possibly UFO-related) real-life horror story headed for the big screen

Readers well-versed in paranormal-lore may already be familiar with the Dyatlov Pass Incident, which resulted in the grisly deaths of nine ski hikers in the northern Ural Mountains on the night of February 2, 1959. If you’re not familiar with this case – which some have suggested has a possible UFO connection – you’ll find a detailed examination of it over at Mysterious Universe. For a briefer summary, watch the video below...

 

This could make for one of the most terrifying movies ever – a thought which obviously has occurred to director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger), who has only gone and shot the damn thing already. The Dyatlov Pass Incident is due for release in Russia on 28 February this year (no US release date has yet been set). Check out the poster...

Harlin says: “I was fascinated by this story, which remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of modern paranormal lore. The facts, the script, and the very dramatic setting convinced me that there is a thrilling movie there, just waiting to rivet audiences.”

Harlin’s movie will not focus on the original ill-fated Russian hikers, but instead will be an updated story following a group of American college students who decide to retrace the footsteps of the Russians in an attempt to discover what happened to them. The official blurb reads, in part:

“Present Day: Five ambitious American college students are issued a grant to return to the site of the original events in the belief that they can uncover and document the truth of what happened at Dyatlov Pass. But what they find is more shocking than anything they could have imagined. Their trek through the Ural Mountains, retracing the steps of that ill-fated journey, is plagued by strange and increasingly terrifying phenomena, all of which suggest that in spite of their desolate surroundings, they are not alone. The forces behind the Dyatlov Pass Incident have been waiting for them.”

Chicks are Hatching!

It's another 3 day weekend.  How do they expect us to get any work done when we keep getting days off?  The albatross plots have been keeping us busy lately.  We go around and read all of the leg bands to find out how many have come back from previous years. At least it gives me a good chance to get out of the office.

I've got another source for information on that airplane wreck that I told you about last week:
http://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/maritime/brewsterf2a3buffalo_midway.html

There's a lot of info on other WWII airplanes as well as all of the shipwrecks in the monument for you history buffs and a lot of other general info too.  You should be able to find interesting things on there no matter what kind of buff you are.

While we were checking the albatross last week, we found this egg starting to hatch.

 The Black-footed albatross chicks are now hatching all over.  This chick is yawning.  They aren't too active at this stage and just being out of the egg seems to wear them out.

 Greg found a large glass ball floating in the lagoon last week.  It's about 16" in diameter.  It has a tiny hole in it, so it's got water and sand in it, kind of like a terrarium.

 This is one of the algae covered seeps at radar hill.  I put this photo up more for you to see how the Bonin petrels have dug up the side of the hill.

 We've only seen one bird of prey here so far this winter.  A White tern is harassing the juvenile Peregrine falcon.

 This Pacific Golden Plover caught a centipede in front of the office.  I watched it shake it around and slam it on the ground for a few minutes, but it looked like it was going to be a while before the bird ate it.  I'm sure it didn't want to try to eat it if it could still bite.

 There was a nice sunrise last week.  This is a picture of the reflection of the sunrise in the window of the office.

'Truth Embargo' film demands attention at Sundance Film Festival

Silver Screen Saucers

 

Press Release

CHD² Productions, LLC
4130 Del Rey Avenue, Marina Del Rey, CA 90292
prg@paradigmresearchgroup.org

January 15, 2013

 

Los Angeles, CA - CHD²Productionswill hold a media event at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah to launch a major event/documentary project. At the press conference Apollo14 Astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the sixth person to walk on the Moon, will be introduced as the international spokesperson for the Citizens' Hearing on Disclosure and Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell will be announced as Director of a documentary film, Truth Embargo, based upon this Citizens' Hearing. See film Trailer...

 

 

 

 

The media event will be held in the Aspen Roomat the Park City Peaks, 2121 Park Avenue, Park City, UT on Friday, January 18 from 2-3 pm MST.

 

The Citizens' Hearing on Disclosure will be produced by Paradigm Research Group and will take place between April 29 and May 3 in Washington, DC at the National Press Club where the main ballroom will be turned into a "Congressional Hearing Room." This unprecedented project will bring top researchers from around the world along with government/agency witnesses to testify for 30 hours over five days before former members of the United States Congress. The subject of this hearing is an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race. The motto of this hearing is, "If Congress will not do its job, the people will." The last time the Congress of the United States held a hearing on what is arguably the most important issue in the world today was in 1968 before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics.

 

Producing the accompanying documentary film Truth Embargo will be Just Cause Entertainment, a film/television/special effects company located in Marina Del Rey, California.

 

Just Cause Entertainment President Reuben Langdon and Paradigm Research Group Executive Director Stephen Bassettwill moderate the press conference. Langdon and Bassett will be meeting throughout the week with activist writers, directors and producers regarding endorsements for the Citizens' Hearing project.

 

Truth Embargomini-trailer: www.youtube.com/embed/23ZxPuDOkfs

 

CHD² Productions Contacts: Stephen Bassett Reuben Langdon
202-215-8344 818-324-6294

 

Media Interview Contact: Janet Donovan, Creative Enterprises International, 202-904-1035 (cell), 202-822-9318

_______________________________________

CHD²Productions, LLC
4130 Del Rey Avenue, Marina Del Rey, CA 90292
prg@paradigmresearchgroup.org

News

I'm a bit late this week because our internet has been kind of non-functional lately.  You'd think that would give me more time to go out and take pictures, but it didn't. There was some recent news about Midway though. Last summer, the NOAA marine debris team found a plane wreck in the lagoon.  Here's a link to a short article about it.  I haven't seen it yet.
http://www.flyingmag.com/news/rare-brewster-buffalo-found-near-midway-atoll

I neglected to tell you about some other news from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI).  Tern Island got hit with a microburst/wind event and caused a lot of damage.  There are photos on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwspacific/sets/72157632306522680/

When I was manager out there, I had one wall blow out in the warehouse, but this was a lot worse.  It must have been pretty scary when the walls were coming down on people.  At least everyone is ok.  They ended up evacuating everyone from the island last month since the facilities were ruined.  Laysan was also evacuated a couple of months earlier, so now Midway and Kure are the only islands currently inhabited in the NWHI.

Here's a couple of the pics I took this week, and one fish from a couple of weeks ago for a bit of color.

A few albatross nesting in the parade field.

 This was a curious Laysan albatross wondering what the camera was. 

This is the old fuel farm.  The shed is still used for storage, but there's no power there anymore, and the tanks have been replaced.

Another picture with the dramatic setting on my little point and shoot underwater camera.

This is a milletseed butterflyfish that I saw on our Christmas snorkel.

UFO movie news round-up (13 Jan. 2013)

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Maya ‘Disclosure documentary’ exposed as fraudulent

The producer of the much-hyped but yet to be released ‘Disclosure documentary’ Revelations of the Mayans 2012 and Beyond has officially been exposed as a fraudster. ‘Raul Julia-Levy’ (a.k.a.  Salvador Alba Fuentes) had been claiming since 2011 that his documentary was being produced with the full cooperation of the Mexican and Guatemalan governments and that its content – based on previously classified documentation provided by said governments – would “shake the world”.

Julia-Levy had repeatedly told the press that his film would provide conclusive proof that the Maya had direct interactions with an advanced extraterrestrial civilization. The documentary was originally scheduled for release late last year, but was mysteriously stalled. Now we know why...

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“In April 2012, Julia-Levy suddenly stopped production of the documentary, firing the crew and terminating an agreement with a company that was hired to do postproduction. As a result of the action, he was taken to arbitration at the Independent Film & Television Alliance by his partner on the documentary, Elizabeth Theriot.

The arbitrator [Gerald F. Phillips] who wrote that he was the subject of an intimidation attempt by Julia-Levy during the proceedings, also knocked down one-by-one all of Julia-Levy's assertions that he was getting government assistance on the documentary beyond a permit to film. There was no federal government order to deliver footage. There was no proof that the governments had promised to provide security and transportation. And certainly not last and least, there was no proof that the Mexican and Guatemalan governments were supporting the revelation of evidence about a contract between the Mayans and extraterrestrials.”

Phillips, wrote: "[Julia-Levy] represented that he would produce actual artifacts, tangible proof of an agreement between the Mayans and extraterrestrials. He stated that he would produce archaeological papers, which he did. However [Theriot] testified that she later learned that they were falsified."

And, for the record, contrary to Julia-Levy’s claims, physicist Stephen Hawking was never involved with the production. His office confirmed it.

For more details on this story, read Jason McClellan’s report over at OpenMinds.TV

Independence Day sequel could start shooting “within a year”

 

Actor Bill Pullman last week told CraveOnline that plans are being made to produce a sequel to Independence Day, with or without the involvement of Will Smith.

“The Will Smith part of it may be ongoing," Pullman says, "but I think there’s strategies for both. I like what I have to do in both of them. I’m not in an old age home in a wheelchair being wheeled out for one more moment. It’s a very interesting conception of what happens to Whitmore between then and when it picks back up.”

Pullman also said that production on a sequel could begin "within a year" but that he remains cautious about the project's chances...

"Nobody’s holding their breath," he says, "because it’s been continually plagued.”

Christopher Nolan goes ‘Interstellar’

 

The Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan (above) is in talks to direct and produce Interstellar – a cerebral sci-fi epic based on the work of renowned theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, who wrote Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy.

The movie has been in development for years now, with Steven Spielberg originally attached to direct.

Interstellar is based at Paramount but would be made by both Paramount and Warner Bros., where Nolan and his Syncopy banner are based.

The plot has yet to be revealed, but the scope of Kip Thorne’s work leaves plenty of room for ideas concerning extraterrestrial life. Certainly that would have appealed to Spielberg. Interstellar is unlikely to hit cinemas any time before 2015.

‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ TV series set post-alien invasion

 

The story for Marvel’s upcoming TV series S.H.I.E.L.D. has been confirmed as taking place after the alien invasion that unfolded in The Avengers. S.H.I.E.L.D. is essentially a quasi-governmental Men in Black-style organization with little or no official oversight. Following the arrival on Earth of Thor and Loki, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s activities in the Marvel movie universe began to include the monitoring of extraterrestrial activity. It seems likely that ET-themed plotlines will feature strongly in the upcoming TV series.

The pilot episode for S.H.I.E.L.D. will begin filming this month and is expected to air later this year. Clark Gregg will star as Agent Coulson, along with Brett Dalton as Agent Grant Ward, Iain De Caestecker as Agent Leo Fitz, Elizabeth Henstridge as Agent Gemma Simmons, Ming-Na Wen as Agent Melinda May, and Chloe Bennet as Skye.

Joss Whedon will direct the pilot and co-write it with his brother Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen.