Entertainment Round-up: Amy Pascal out at Sony, Robotech, Astro Boy, Visual Effects Society Winners

As per usual, the Entertainment side of things often seems to a be little slow post-New Comic Book Day, but a couple of headlines have hit the wire that are worth noting:

– It was probably an inevitability, but Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal announced that she will be stepping down from her post and taking on a production role within the studio. While this is surely in response to the devastating Sony hack (which unveiled some very candid emails between Pascal, producers, and top talent), Sony has been in need of a correction course given their struggles of late to launch big picture franchises and the mishandling of the Spider-Man films. Regardless, Pascal leaves a heck of a resume behind her, and I’m sad to see one of the top female creative forces in Hollywood vanish under these circumstances.

– Does the idea of a Robotech movie excite you? After about 8 years of development purgatory, the property may finally see the light of day again. Warner Bros has enlisted 300 screenwriter Michael Gordon to tackle the project and according to Deadline, they have their eyes set on Mama director Andy Muschietti.

– Or how about a live-action Astro Boy? Despite the fact that we had an animated feature in 2009 that barely made a dent in the box office, Animal Logic Entertainment is teaming up with Tezuka Productions to bring Osamu Tezuka‘s creation to life yet again. Here’s what producer Zareh Nalbandian said the studio is aiming for:

We’ve seen him as a manga, an anime and an animated movie but we’ve never seen him as a live-action movie or him as a superhero. We actually see him in the same league as an Iron Man.

– Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive) had long wanted to cast Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) as Wonder Woman in a proposed adaptation of the DC Comics property. Obviously, Warner Bros went another direction entirely, but that hasn’t stopped Refn from working with the actress as he’s cast her in another of his films. This time they’ll be teaming up for The Neon Demon, his first outright horror film, and she’ll be joined by Keanu Reeves, Jena Malone, and Elle Fanning among others. Hopefully it’ll be more appealing to audiences than Only God Forgives, a film that I’m one of the lone defenders of.

– Last night, the Visual Effects Society held their big awards ceremony and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes took home the award for Outstanding Visual Effects while Birdman took home the award for Best Supporting Visual Effects. Big Hero 6 was the talk of the night though, taking 5 awards in total including the award for Outstanding Animation.