DIRECTOR BRYAN SINGER has revealed that he will helm the sequel to his forthcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past, currently titled X-Men: Apocalypse. 
The film is rumored to be a direct sequel to both Days of Future Past and X-Men: First Class. Hugh Jackman is said to be bowing out, preferring to partner with James Mangold on another stab at a Wolverine prequel, which will this time use an actual storyline from the comic books as inspiration, as opposed to X-Men: Origins – Wolverine, which focused on an independent story idea, reportedly created by development executives.
Complicating the intriguing plot of Days of Future Past is a new video circulating on the net, that implicates Eric Lyncher (a.k.a. Magneto) as the second shooter on the grassy knoll, supposedly responsible for the death of President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas in 1963. A very bizarre video recently popped up, which can only be described as thoroughly creepy. Have a look:
… HARRISON FORD HAS STATED that he would enjoy returning for another outing as Indiana Jones, and it appears he “may” get his wish. Please note the stress on “may.” Reportedly, actor Harrison Ford recently reached at least a ‘verbal’ agreement with Disney to appear in multiple Star Wars films. He was shown the story arc for Han Solo, and made an agreement to participate on the basis of that material. 
Commensurate with the agreement, is Disney’s involvement in pushing a fifth Indiana Jones film into development by calendar year, 2014. This is interesting news seeing as how Disney recently completed the acquisition of the Indiana Jones franchise from Paramount. And while this will allow Paramount to retain rights to the four films: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Disney now owns rights to the Indy character, and any as yet un-produced films. Paramount will retain a financial participation in any new Indy films, but everything else, literally everything else, from merchandising and distribution to home video and everything in-between, now officially belongs to Disney. There are only two key problems. A) the press release mentions ‘reboot,’ and B) all sources agree that contrary to previous reports and scuttlebutt, there is no Indiana Jones film actually in development at this time. Stay tuned, Indy fans. Oh, by the by, Spielberg recently confirmed a second time that ‘nuking the fridge’ in Crystal Skull was his idea. 
Back in October, he made an appearance at a retrospective screening of Raiders in L.A. and had the following to say: “I know in Indy 4, you didn’t buy the refrigerator and the atomic bomb… I know! I know! But we tried! We tried! I was pushing the envelope! By the way, I take FULL responsibility for that – that was COMPLETELY my idea! Even Harrison said to me: ‘Nobody is going to buy this!'” Last year, when Spielberg initially took credit for the scene, George Lucas responded by saying, “It’s not true. He’s trying to protect me.” … SPEAKING OF MOVIES TO LOOK FORWARD TO, Total Film Magazine has just released their list of the “50 Films To Look Forward To In 2014.” Relevant films in the general areas of science-fiction, sci-fi, or fantasy of some kind, are in bold. Note that when you count them up, there are 31 films dealing with some form of S/F or fantasy, and 19 in other genres. Very interesting. And somewhat lopsided.
1. Guardians of the Galaxy (duh!)
2. Godzilla!
3. X-Men: Days of Future Past
4. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
5. Interstellar
6. 12 Years a Slave
7. The Wolf Of Wall Street
8. Captain America: Winter Soldier
9. The Hobbit: There And Back Again
10. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
11. Sin City: A Dame To Kill For
12. Fifty Shades Of Grey
13. 22 Jump Street
14. Maleficent
15. 300: Rise of an Empire
16. Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
17. How To Train Your Dragon 2
18. Muppets Most Wanted
19. How To Catch A Monster
20. Transformers: Age of Extinction
21. The Monuments Men
22. Edge Of Tomorrow (formerly All You Need Is Kill)
23. The LEGO Movie
24. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
25. Labor Day
26. Neighbors
27. Hercules: The Thracian Wars
28. The Maze Runner
29. Transcendence
30. Jupiter Ascending
31. The Equalizer
32. Divergent
33. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
34. Grudge Match
35. RoboCop
36. Noah
37. The Book Thief
38. I, Frankenstein
39. Pompeii
40. Minions (characters from Despicable Me)
41. Her
42. Out Of The Furnace
43. Sabotage
44. That Awkward Moment
45. Need For Speed
46. Lone Survivor
47. The Expendables 3
48. Non-Stop
49. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
50. Dumb And Dumber To
AND SPEAKING OF GODZILLA! — HEAD’S UP ! Awesome new trailer headed your way:
… HAMMER FILMS is set to remake The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas. 
The perennial 1957 favorite starred Peter Cushing and Forrest Tucker as two men who stumble onto evidence of the elusive Yeti in the mountains of Nepal. One a scientist, the other, an adventurer. One man believing the creature to be of scientific interest, the other believing the creature to be of monstrous intent. When they eventually discover the creature, they unexpectedly find that they themselves are the monsters. 
The film is being developed with producer Ben (The Woman in Black) Holden, and the script is being written by Matthew Read and Jon (The Woman in Black: Angel of Death) Croker … IN DEVELOPMENT HELL NEWS, an interesting video made its way to YouTube recently. An apparent animatic for an action sequence, said to be used to pitch a Stretch Armstrong movie to Relativity Media. Based upon the popular blonde, stretchable 1970’s wrestler toy, this reinvention didn’t seem to excite executives very much. Development of the project was cancelled. Have a look:
WARCRAFT is inching from pre-production to principal photography. 
The film based upon the highly popular video game “World of Warcraft,” has now cast Colin (Total Recall) Farrell, Paula (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) Patton, Travis (Vikings) Fimmel, and Dominic (Captain America: First Avenger) Cooper. The production is scheduled to begin filming in Canada sometime next year, and is set for release in March of 2016. Not exactly a production schedule on a rocket launcher, but hey, we’ll take what we can get, right? … MAD MAX: FURY ROAD has gone back for a few weeks of additional shooting in Australia. 
Director George (The Road Warrior) Miller has commented that these are not reshoots, but rather involve the bookend scenes that start and finish this film prequel to the original trilogy. He also confirms that original Max actor Mel Gibson will “not” be making a cameo appearance in the new film … THE TITLE OF THE FORTHCOMING TERMINATOR 5, is … drum-roll, please … Terminator: Genesis. 
And there will also be a TV series that connects to the film. The series follows, “a critical moment from the original 1984 Terminator movie, taking it in a completely different direction than the film.” The film and TV narrative will be separate, but will intersect as the release date of the film approaches. Both are due in 2015 … IN OTHER TV NEWS, MTV AND DIRECTOR JON (IRON MAN) FAVREAU ARE PLANNING a show based on a best-selling series of novels by author Terry Brooks, called Shannara. Brooks began writing the ultimately 25 volume story in 1977, and it has since become the best-selling un-adapted fantasy book series in the world. 
Taking place millennia after our civilization has vanished, the descendants of the family, Shannara, can harness magic. The first season will actually be based on the second book in the series, “The Elfstones of Shannara.” … DIRECTOR PAUL (THE BOURNE SUPREMACY) GREENGRASS is now looking at helming the reboot of Stephen King’s epic novel, The Stand. This after Scott (Crazy Heart) Cooper who reportedly replaced Ben Affleck dropped out … IN THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN SEQUEL NEWS, actor Andrew Garfield has intimated that he might not be returning after the third film in the current reboot of the franchise. 
Said Garfield, “I mean I’m under contract for another one after this … as far as a fourth one? That’s not anything to do with me. But yea, I think what we’re doing here is we’ve established the world. And now we get to really play inside that world.” Garfield also commented on how the makers of the second film have expanded that established world. “I think there was something missing in the first one because our focus wasn’t on character as much, we were trying to keep a number of plates spinning in the air — how can we reintroduce the character? How do we not upset this guy or this guy? That was a tough wasteland we had to move through. Now we could say, ‘Who is this guy? How can we best serve Spider-Man?'” The sequel, opening in theaters in May of next year, stars Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Colm Feore, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field, Chris Cooper, Sarah Gadon, and B.J. Novak … NOVAK, (Ryan on the defunct sitcom, The Office) has revealed that he is playing a character known to comic book fans in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Said Novak, “I’m in a couple of scenes. Yeah, I was never told whether or not I could say. I can say that I work at Oscorp. And I am someone from the comic books, someone from the original. So, yeah, I’m somebody. I wouldn’t say I’m pivotal, but I’m not an extra, either.” This has led some to point out that the name Dr. Otto Octavius, appears in a fake Daily Bugle article. And he’s listed as an employee of Oscorp … AND SPEAKING YET AGAIN OF THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, here’s the second trailer released by Sony:
TWO RELATIVELY UNKNOWN WRITERS, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, both of which have no credits listed under their names on imdb — have been hired to write the third Star Trek film under J.J. Abrams’ banner. Robert Orci and Damon Lindelof (two of the writers who worked on Into Darkness) will apparently punch up the work done by the novices. Abrams will still only produce the film, and now word comes that Joe (Attack the Block) Cornish, who was rumored to be Abrams and Paramount’s choice to replace him, has turned them down … SPEAKING OF ABRAMS, the helmer of Star Wars: Episode VII has revealed very little about the film, but has confirmed that R2D2 will feature prominently, along with the Millennium Falcon. Which only further hints to the potential appearances of both C-3PO and Han Solo. (Read above for the reported deal between Disney and actor Harrison Ford) 
This information has surfaced in spite of sources stating that they see no evidence of more than one of the original actors having already signed on, and that it would not be surprising to those on the inside of this production, if each actor only made a brief appearance in each of the three forthcoming films, and perhaps a cameo in one of the spinoffs the studio now has in development. In other Episode VII news, Abrams and Lawrence (Empire Strikes Back) Kasdan, recently took over script chores from Michael Arndt, and this is said to be due to the increasingly tight shooting schedule. 
And lastly, it has been hinted that a specific planet or world mentioned several times in Star Wars mythology, but never seen on film, will feature prominently in the storyline of the new film, now scheduled to be released during the 2015 holiday season … AND SPEAKING OF SCREENWRITING, it appears that a new round of producers haven’t quite given up on the Chronicles of Narnia film franchise just yet. 
Life of Pi screenwriter David Magee has been hired to write The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair. The Mark Gordon Company and the C.S. Lewis Company will produce the fourth film. … RIDLEY SCOTT gave an update on the scripts for sequels to both Prometheus and Blade Runner. 
Said Scott, “Prometheus 2 is written. I thought I’d left science-fiction for too long, that I had better climb back in. Prometheus was a great experience for me. Chasing number two, we can start evolving the grand idea.” As for the Blade Runner sequel, “Yea, we’re working on that right now — that will happen sooner or later.” 
Scott’s next two films will be, Exodus, a biblical epic starring Christian Bale as Moses and features Scott’s own interpretation of the parting of the Red Sea. And an adaptation of Joe Haldeman’s classic science-fiction novel, The Forever War. “We’ve finally got a very good draft of that for Fox.” … JURRASIC WORLD has pretty much signed actor Chris (Parks and Recreation, Guardians of the Galaxy) to play a part in Colin (Safety Not Guaranteed) Trevorrow’s new sequel. 
And Trevorrow additionally made a point recently to state that the film is a sequel that takes place 20-some-odd years after the events of the initial film, and is “not a reboot.” Very good to know … THE CO-WRITER AND DIRECTOR OF CABIN IN THE WOODS, will be the showrunner on a new Daredevil TV series that will be available on Netflix in 2015 … THE PRODUCTION OF DIANA GABALDON’S OUTLANDER has released a still of actor Sam Heughan as the titular Jamie Fraser. 
The cable series, based upon Gabaldon’s novel of the same name, follows a married combat nurse from the Second World War, back in time to Scotland in the 18th Century. Once there, she becomes involved with a local man, and eventually, is torn between her lover in the 1940’s and her lover in the 1700’s. 
The show, produced by Ron (BSG) Moore, will begin airing in 2014 … SCREENWRITER SIMON (X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST) KINBERG has been tasked by Twentieth Century Fox with integrating both the X-Men and the Fantastic Four into a single film — i.e. a crossover. Kinberg, currently heavily involved in writing scripts for both the X-Men franchise, as well as the reboot of Fantastic Four, commented, “I have a lot of ideas on how to built those brands and do what everybody is thinking of these days: Be like Marvel. I want to be able to build stories over multiple movies.” … TIM BURTON has reportedly signed to direct the sequel to Beetlejuice. The current draft of the script, written by Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg is said to be the element that got Burton on-board. Soon after, Beetlejuice himself, Michael Keaton signed on as well. And actress Winona Ryder has more or less confirmed that she will return as well. Said Ryder: “I’m kind of sworn to secrecy but it sounds like it might be happening. It’s 27 years later. And I have to say, I love Lydia Deetz so much. She was such a huge part of me. I would be really interested in what she is doing 27 years later.” …
FAST AND FURIOUS ACTRESS Gal Gadot has been cast by Warner Bros., DC Comics, and Zak Snyder as Wonder Woman in Snyder’s Man of Steel sequel, Batman Vs. Superman. Jason (Conan the Barbarian remake) Momoa is signing on, Warner Bros. are tight-lipped on the nature of his character. Speculation has pointed to either Doomsday or Martian Manhunter.. And actor Callan (300: Rise of an Empire, Captain America: Winter Soldier) Mulvey is also rumored to be playing the villain Metallo. Now comes word that none other than both Denzel Washington and Idris (Pacific Rim) Elba may very well take on the role of Lex Luthor. The character would reportedly appear in a cameo in the forthcoming sequel, as well as a fully fleshed out antagonist role in the film Justice League … THE OFFICIAL TRAILER HAS BEEN RELEASED FOR 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE, the sequel to 300 that showcases the origin of Persian god-king Xerxes and his relationship with naval commander Artemisia. See here:
IN GHOSTBUSTERS III NEWS, EMMA STONE has passed on a role in the proposed sequel. No further word on whether or not actor Jonah (21 Jump Street, Moneyball) Hill will sign on, however, sources speaking for Sony Pictures have now stated for the record that the new Ghostbusters film will not be a sequel to the original, but definitely a reboot. This due to Bill Murray’s unwillingness to be involved. Prepare to say so long to that ‘III’ in the title … COMIC BOOK CREATOR AND ARTIST ROB LIEFELD has praised writer/director Jeff (Kick Ass 2) Wadlow’s script for the potential X-Force film. Taking to Twitter, Liefeld commented: “X-Force cast/film will please/appeal to fans of all eras. Wadlow carefully, cleverly navigates the legacy. Every film needs a proper script b4 they can cast&shoot. 1st mission accomplished for X-Force. When the casting begins we can scream together.” … ACTOR CHRISTOPH (INGLORIOUS BASTARDS) WALTZ will more than likely be playing Captain Brand in the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. 
The story is said to concern Jack, and his team in a search for a Trident, which Keith Richards’ Captain Teague (Jack’s father) holds valuable information to. The villain, Captain Brand, is a ghost that wants the Trident so he can get revenge on Jack for the death of his brother. Captain Barbosa’s daughter also figures into the plot, as a beautiful astronomer. The film begins shooting next Autumn for a 2016 release date … DOING PRESS FOR MAN OF TAI CHI, actor Keanu Reeves recently commented on the still in gestation, Bill and Ted 3. Said Reeves, “Bill & Ted 3 is waiting for a rewrite from the writers, and we’re still trying to find a way to finance the film. 
We don’t have a director, we don’t have any money, so we’re trying to get a script. Maybe if we have a script, they will come, I don’t know. It still has to come together. It has to find the right producer and director. I think they’ve created a story that is fun and funny and would be very surreal for me to play, so if everything comes together the right way it could be fun.” … RINGLEADER STUDIOS will produce a TV series based upon Colin Wilson’s 1976 science-fiction horror novel, “The Space Vampires.” 
You may recognize the story of a group of Astronauts who discover a derelict spaceship and return to Earth with three humanoid aliens that unleash a life-sucking plague upon humanity. In 1985, the novel was adapted by screenwriters Dan (Alien) O’Bannon and Don (Blue Thunder) Jakoby, along with other contributions by two additional writers and director Tobe (Poltergeist) Hooper, into the cult-classic, unintentional laugh fest, Lifeforce. Perhaps this new iteration will be closer in spirit to the source material. But sadly, the author Colin Wilson did not live long enough to see it. In fact, his passing was reported while this post was being written. Please see a brief obit on the author at the end the current post, for a little more background info on this accomplished writer … THE FIRST TRAILER FOR DISNEY’S MALEFICENT went on-line a few weeks back. This live action version of Sleeping Beauty, is sure to intrigue Disney fans:
THE INDEPENDENCE DAY SEQUEL(S) ID Forever I and ID Forever II, has/have been delayed for approximately one year. Fox has pushed back the planned production(s) originally slated for release in 2015. The first of the films, if there are still two being planned, will now bow in theaters on July 1, 2016, which will be the 20th Anniversary of the film. Director Roland Emmerich has been hard at work on the sequel with co-writer Dean (Stargate, Independence Day) Devlin and James (Zodiac, The Amazing Spider-Man) Vanderbilt. Will Smith is not expected to return … GUILLERMO del TORO RECENTLY MADE FURTHER COMMENT ON HIS DC ENSEMBLE FILM, apparently now titled Justice League Dark. The film, featuring Swamp Thing, The Demon, Constantine, Deadman, and the Spectre, has been in development for many months now, but it appears to be getting no closer to actual production.
Said del Toro: “We’re still on it, writing, and hopefully it will happen but there are no developments that are new. It’s still at Warner Bros., they are making plans for the entire DC universe. All the superheroes, all the mythologies, and part of that is Justice League Dark. They’re planning on TV, movies, and all the media, so we have to fit into that plan.” … ACTOR JOSH (JOBS, 1600 PENN) GAD, NOW A CO-WRITER WORKING ON TRIPLETS, the sequel to the 1988 comedy, Twins, made a brief statement regarding the project and his work on the film. Said Gad, “We’re very reverential to the original, but have our tongue firmly in our cheek. As it needs to be, it’s very modernized. It’s taking them into the new world and it’s acknowledging that comedy’s changed a lot in 20 years. If you saw Twins and it was released as a movie currently, you’d be like, ‘This is really strange,’ so we honor that and we respect it, but we also play on it.” 
The original 1988 film concerned two characters from completely different backgrounds and seemingly genetic material, played by Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who find out that they are actually brothers, i.e. fraternal twins. Discovering this, they set off on a journey to find their parents. Triplets would see them discovering and being paired with a third brother: Eddie Murphy … THE WACHOWSKIS GAVE AN UPDATE ON THEIR SCI-FI OPERA, Jupiter Ascending, back in October. Lana Wachowski had the following to say: “It’s a science-fiction space opera. It has a lot of things from a lot of genres that we love. It’s got a lot of original action, it’s got a lot of romance. We seem not to be very good at making small things. We keep saying ‘Let’s go make a small movie.’ But then they always end up being enormously complex. We want to somehow always find something that is different or that no one has tried. People come up to us and just break into tears talking about (‘Cloud Atlas’), even ‘Speed Racer,’ we get people that come up and say it was their favorite movie of all time. We’ve been very lucky that way. We have great fans. … And we keep trying to keep surprising them.” The film is due in theaters next summer. See the new trailer, here:
AND NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS … AND HOLD ON, THIS IS GONNA BE A BAD ONE. STARTING WITH ACTOR PAUL (TIMELINE) WALKER, who was recently killed in a terrible car accident in California. 
Walker, born in Glendale, California, was a professional actor from childhood (1985) who accomplished memorable turns on TV and in many notable films, including Clint Eastwood’s Flags of our Fathers, Eight Below, and of course, The Fast and the Furious films. 
But to S/F fans, he will best be remembered for his roles in Timeline and Pleasantville. 
An avid car enthusiast and marine biologist, Walker was known for being an interesting mix of both a devout Christian, and an daredevil, who always lived life to the fullest. Reportedly, he was planning a second dive to ‘tag sharks’ the week he was killed. Already missed, he leaves behind a fifteen year old daughter, and an extended on-set family from the Fast and the Furious film franchise. He was only 40 years old … 
SCIENCE FICTION AUTHOR COLIN WILSON’S passing was announced while this post was being written. 
Colin Henry Wilson, was a very prolific English writer of true crime, philosophy, mysticism, the paranormal, and by proxy, science-fiction. In 1956, at the age of 24 he got his non-fiction book, “The Outsider” published. A Wikipedia entry about the work, reads, “[The Outsider] examines the role of the social “outsider” in seminal works of various key literary and cultural figures – such as Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William James, T. E. Lawrence, Vaslav Nijinsky and Vincent van Gogh – and discusses Wilson’s perception of social alienation in their work. The book became a best-seller and helped popularize existentialism in Britain.” 
Heavy stuff for the guy who wrote the book Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce was based on. But in fact, the film used very little material from the book; the filmmakers instead choosing to pattern the material as an homage to Hammer science-fiction-horror thrillers. A massive alteration to the material that Wilson was reportedly incensed by. In fact, he regarded Lifeforce as the worst film adaptation of an S/F novel in history. 
But as stated, Wilson wrote frequently in the various areas of non-fiction, and was known for his ongoing fascination with the Jack the Ripper killings, and sex killings and serial murders in general. This, along with his interest in the metaphysical and the occult, gave Wilson’s fiction writing a certain detail and appeal that meany other authors were lacking. Some of his work in S/F included “The Spider World” books, “The Mind Parasites,” and of course, “The Space Vampires.” Writer Colin Wilson died on December the 5th, in Cornwall, England. He was 82 years old. … NOTED CHARACTER ACTOR ED LAUTER also passed away recently. Lauter graduated from Long Island University in 1961 with a B.A. in Literature, and segued into working as a stand-up comedian. 
He made his Broadway debut in the original 1968 stage production of The Great White Hope, alongside James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander. From there, he moved into dramatic performance and landed a small role in a 1971 episode of Mannix. 
Alfred Hitchcock found his performance in Family Plot (1976) interesting enough that he cast Lauter in his next film, The Short Night. But it was not to be, the aging director died before shooting began, and the film was never made. Lauter went on to make appearances in so many television shows and films, that it would be ridiculous to list them here. 
Among the relevant genre highlights were: Satan’s Triangle (alternately known as The Bermuda Triangle, 1975,) King Kong (1976,) Timerider: The Adventures of Lyle Swann (1982,) Automan (1984,) Real Genius (1985,) The Rocketeer (1991,) Stephen King’s Golden Years (1991,) Star Trek: The Next Generation (1992,) The X-Files (1993,) Highlander (1994,) Millennium (1998,) and Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004.) But Lauter did so much more work in non-genre areas, including roles in episodes of Kojak, The Streets of San Francisco, Nero Wolfe, St. Elsewhere, Magnum P..I., The A-Team, Miami Vice, Murder, She Wrote, The Equalizer, Walker: Texas Ranger, E.R., CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, NYPD Blue, Cold Case, Psyche, The Office, etc. etc. 
And he did roles in so many films in-between, it’s unreal. For example: Hickey & Boggs, Bad Company, The Longest Yard, French Connection II, Breakheart Pass, The White Buffalo, Magic, Death Hunt, Cujo, Lassiter, Death Wish 3, Raw Deal, Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise, Gleaming the Cube, Fat Man and Little Boy, Born of the Fourth of July, School Ties, Leaving Las Vegas, Mulholland Falls, Thirteen Days, Seabiscuit, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Seraphim Falls, The Artist. The man had an impressive career, and leaves an astonishing amount of posterity. 
He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in May and kept working until October. In a 2003 interview, Lauter recalled: “Someone once said to me, ‘Eddie, you’re a “turn” actor.’ What’s that? He said, ‘That’s when a story is going along and your character shows up and the story suddenly takes a major turn.’ That’s kind of neat.”
Later, in a 2012 interview, he said, “A lot of people say, ‘I know you,’ but they don’t know my name. But I’ve had a great run.” The actors name was Ed Lauter. He was 74 years old. … AND THE GUY MOST OF A CERTAIN AGE WILL REMEMBER FOR PLAYING THE PSYCHIATRIST ON THE TV VERSION OF M.A.S.H. has also passed on. Allen Arbus, a rather prolific actor in television and films, who started out as a photographer for the Army in the 1940’s, before segueing into advertising, got into acting in 1969 and eventually became well known for appearances on Wonder Woman (1978) and Salvage 1 (1979) and The Amazing Spider-Man (1979.) But as stated, most will remember him as Major Sidney Freedman on M.A.S.H. Most notably for being a good listener, as seen here:
He died of heart failure in April. He was 95. … WE ALSO LOST ACTOR CONRAD BAIN back in January. Alias Mr. Drummond on Different Strokes, Bain was born in Canada and moved here to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in the 1940’s. 
He had some initial success as a theater actor before being cast on the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, in the role of the town innkeeper, Mr. Wells. That lasted for 2 seasons. Afterward, he kept working steadily in both TV and film. In the early 1960’s, he helped organize the Actors Federal Credit Union. In 1978, he made his own indelible mark on TV viewers everywhere when he created the role of an adopting father on Different Strokes. 
And his work in movies included roles in films like Coogan’s Bluff (1968,) Bananas (1971,) The Anderson Tapes (1971,) and C.H.O.M.P.S., (1979.) The latter, was a Hanna-Barbera produced live-action movie about a bionic dog, that proved very successful on cable. Mr. Bain passed away of natural causes this year, but in life made a solid impression on many viewers. Rest well, Sir. … LISA ROBIN KELLY, best known to S/F fans as “Terry Roberts” in the X-Files episode, “Syzygy,” accumulated a number of TV appearances in her short life, before being cast as Eric’s Foreman’s malicious sister Laurie on the popular sitcom, That 70’s Show. 
Unfortunately, she developed alcoholism while on the show and was written out after five seasons. 
In August, she died in her sleep while staying in a rehab facility in the Los Angeles area. Very sad. Additional Sci-Fi entries on her resume included episodes of Charmed and Poltergeist: The Legacy. Rest in peace. ACTOR LEE THOMPSON YOUNG, known prominently for playing the role of The Famous Jett Jackson on the Disney Channel, has also died. 
He had been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and was taking medication for his condition, when he took his own life in August. He was only 29 years old. In addition to roles in films like Friday Night Lights (based on the original non-fiction book,) Akeelah and the Bee, and The Hills Have Eyes 2, Young also worked regularly in television. Making appearances on shows such as Smallville and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Rest well, and in peace, young man … AND LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST, Filmation co-founder Lou Scheimer has passed away. The Emmy award-winning cartoon guru passed away from Parkinson’s disease in his home in Tarzana, California, in October at the ripe age of 84. 
Together with his partners, Norm Prescott and Hal Sutherland, Scheimer formed Filmation as an animation company worthy of his talents as producer, composer, and voice actor.
Scheimer was a grad of Carnegie Tech University (now Carnegie-Mellon) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1952. After forming Filmation with Prescott and Sutherland, he helped produce animated fare such as The New Adventures of Superman (1966,) Fantastic Voyage (1968,) Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1972,) Star Trek (1973,) The Ghost Busters (live action, unrelated to the 1984 film, 1975,) Shazam! (live action, 1974,)
Ark II (live action, 1976,) Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1976,) The New Adventures of Batman (1977,) Space Academy (live action, 1977,) Jason of Star Command (live action, 1978,) Flash Gordon (1979,) The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour (1980,)
Blackstar (1981,) Gilligan’s Planet (1982,) Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All (1982,) He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983,) and BraveStarr (1987.) 
An entire generation of adults who grew up watching both Filmation’s cartoons and live action Saturday morning fare, as children, were just a little happier for it. You did well, Lou. And thank you very much for all your hard work. We appreciated every minute of it.
STARLOGGER 