If you woke up a little bleary-eyed this Sunday morning and figured all the strange news stories could be blamed on your hangover, stop worrying! It's just April Fool's Day, the day when media outlets all over the place-- along with your weird uncle Marvin-- delight in pulling the wool over the eyes of anyone who didn't check the calendar. Even though the prankster holiday falls on a Sunday this year, plenty of websites have run with jokes-- even Google Maps got in on the fun.
We enjoy fun here at Cinema Blend, of course, but April Fool's has never really been our thing. We scour the web for all the not-quite-right movie news stories out there and instead bring your our guide to avoid getting tricked today. Consider it our public service, so that you don't get caught telling all your friends that Zac Efron has been cast in some last-minute Avengers reshoots, or whatever else our crazy movie writer colleagues have come up with.
We'll be updating this page throughout the day with more pranks as we come across them. If you spot any we didn't, let us know in the comments! Through teamwork we can all survive this day unharmed.
April Fools: Confirmed Holiday Lies
Taylor Lautner cast as Leonardo in Ninja Turtles. Extra points to Screen Rant for including some hilarious Photoshop work with their frighteningly plausible story. Hey, if Michael Bay can make the Turtles aliens, anything is possible.
Film School Rejects goes print. As usual, the April Fool's Joke at Film School Rejects goes far beyond your average fake casting story. If you click on the pop-up that shows up on their homepage, you can see the first edition of their "zine," with all the usual blog content awkwardly formatted to an amateur print paper--- complete with the coding for their podcast. Well-thought out and hilarious, though not likely to actually fool anyone.
Spielburgers. A theme restaurant inspired by all the great Steven Spielberg movies you love! This is one prank we actually wish were true. It'd totally be worth traveling to Orlando to eat some Devil's Tower Mashed Potatoes, no?
Ryan Gosling cast in Walt Disney biopic. If fan posters circulated widely on the Internet could make movies happen, the "Ryan Gosling in Walt directed by Ron Howard" one probably would exist. But since these things never happen, this is merely a joke over at JoBlo-- though with a very convincing, Variety-referencing story to go with it.
Buy a certified pre-owned TARDIS. It's a once-in-a-millennium opportunity says TFAW.com, though the companion isn't included. Careful about how you spend your cash on April 1st, you hopeful geeks!
Conan O'Brien takes over Mashable. This video is more likely to freak out the tech geeks than the movie geeks, but it's nice seeing Conan O'Brien play evil corporate CEO for the length of an April Fool's joke.
The Admiral Ackbar Singing Bass, and much more. Think Geek has come up with a bunch of geek-friendly products and featured them on their homepage, all looking so tempting and realistic… until you realize they don't exist. Drat. Maybe someone will have them on the market in time for next year!
A Star Wars/My Little Pony crossover? The Star Wars loving site Club Jade has announced the lineup for an upcoming convention, including an announcement from Hasbro about a very, very strange crossover effort.
George Takei announces new Star Trek movie, Excelsior. Captain Sulu himself gets in on the fun on his Facebook page, suggesting that the next Star Trek movie won't be Star Trek 2, but a movie starring Sulu as the Captain of ship. It also apparently features Gilbert Gottfried-- so maybe it's a good thing this can't be real.
