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Infographic Examines Whether Heroes or Villains Caused The Most Destruction in Recent Superhero Films

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It seems like Zack Snyder's Man of Steel was the tipping point for the conversation about superheroes causing collateral damage on film, largely because the final fight between Superman and General Zod essentially levels a huge section of Metropolis. The fallout of that is going to be a part of the story in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but strangely that aspect isn't a part of this new infographic from HomeAdvisor that specifically addresses whether heroes or villains cause the most destruction in recent superhero movies. Man of Steel makes an appearance, but they decided to look at the Smallville battle scene instead of Metropolis.

Take a look at the breakdown of damage in ten superhero movies that have come out over the past couple of years. The results might actually surprise you a little bit.


Jennifer Lawrence is Writing a Movie With Amy Schumer

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After Trainwreck came out, superstar actress Jennifer Lawrence e-mailed writer/comedian/actress Amy Schumer to express her fandom, and the two struck up a friendship. You may have seen photos of the two hanging out on vacation together earlier this summer, riding jet skis and being part of human pyramids. (Schumer discussed this trip on her appearance on The Daily Show during Jon Stewart's final week on the air.)

But it turns out the duo isn't content with just hanging out: they're working on their own screenplay together. Lawrence told The New York Times that the script is a comedy and the two intend to play sisters in it.

“We’re almost done writing. It just flowed out of us. We’ve got about 100 pages right now. Amy and I were creatively made for each other. We have different flavors. It’s been the most fun experience of my life. We start the day off on the phone, laughing. And then we send each other pages. And we crack up. I’m flying out tomorrow to see her in Chicago. We’ll write a little bit with her sister, Kim, who worked with Amy when she was writing ‘Trainwreck.’”

It's no surprise that I'm a big fan of both of these women, and I can't wait to see what they come up with. Schumer directed the excellent 12 Angry Men parody episode of Inside Amy Schumer, so I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up directing this movie as her feature directorial debut. This could be a lot of fun. 

Violent Viking vs. Monsters Animated Short - ODIN'S AFTERBIRTH

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Odin's Afterbirth is a fantastic animated short film that features a ton of over-the-top violence filled with blood and gore. It's safe to say that this short probably isn't safe for work. It tells a dark and twisted tale of a Viking who is hell-bent on revenge, and it's told in a very rough and raw style, which I loved.

The story follows its hero as he "battles his way through an army of freaks and monsters and defies the gods that rule his world." The film was directed by Joseph Bennett and it was made of the course of four years. It was inspired by Nicolas Winding Refn’s Valhalla Rising, and he wanted to make something “absurd and brutishly sentimental.” 

Well, he definitely succeeded. I hope you enjoy the film!

Via: Short of the Week

Watch James Spader Play Ultron in His Mo-Cap Suit in AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

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James Spader gave a mesmerizing performance in Joss Whedon's Avengers: Age of Ultron. Yeah, I know that the character he played was completely CG, but you could definitely see his mannerisms in the character. Turns out he was so good while shooting the film that his co-stars had trouble concentrating on what they were supposed to be doing because they just wanted to watch Spader do his thing.

A behind the scene video has been released for the film that offers us some footage of Spader dressed up in his motion-capture suit as he performs. It also features interviews with the cast and crew talking about what it was like working with Spader. It also touches on bringing Scarlett Witch into the story.

Source: USA Today

PRINCESS MONONOKE 8-Bit Cinema

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We've got another episode of 8-Bit Cinema from CineFix for you to watch, and this one pays tribute to Hayao Miyazaki's classic anime film Princess Mononoke. One of the things I love about these 8-Bit Cinema videos is that they make me wish these kinds of games based on movies actually existed! I think CineFix should actually start making playable versions of these. A Princess Mononoke game like this would be awesome!

Possible Plot Summary for Marvel's LUKE CAGE Reveals Villain and Love Interest

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With Marvel and Netflix getting ready to start production on Luke Cage, some new possible details on the series have come to light. The news comes from Heroic Hollywood, whose well-placed sources have given him a plot synopsis that gives us information on the villain and the love interest.

Here is the plot summary that they were given, which they say is subject to change.

“Luke Cage is a former gang member who is framed for a crime. In prison, he volunteers for a medical experiment that goes awry, giving him super strength and bulletproof skin. Using his newfound powers, Cage escapes and becomes a hero for hire. His archenemy is Willy Stryker, a former childhood friend from Harlem. The two committed petty crimes together, and both fell for the same woman, Reva Connors, which led to their eventual falling out. It was Stryker who framed Cage for a drug deal that sent him to prison.”

Willis Stryker is the Marvel villain known as Diamondback, and it was previously rumored that Cottonmouth would also be a villain. It would make sense to see these two characters working together.

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All of these characters mentioned in the synopsis are essential to the story of Luke Cage, and I think anyone that has read the comics expected these Stryker and Connors to be involved. It'd be hard to tell the story of Cage without them.

Luke Cage is scheduled to start production next month in New York City and will shoot 13 episodes through December with Mike Colter, who is playing the title character. The series is set to premiere on Netflix in 2016. 

5 Insanely Bizarre Products Of Disney Fandom

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They say for everything that exists in the world there is a complete opposite that exists. In the spirit of that, I took one of the happiest companies on Earth, Disney, and unearthed some of the most disgusting and depraved things that have spawned from its brand. Be warned: this post is gonna get weird...real weird.

 

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This is one of those things where it could completely be a troll, but what does that matter? You found costumes, dressed up as Goofy, and filmed an incredibly long fan video for a prank?! This guy haunted the internet for a bit when he first appeared in a 4Chan thread. A lot of the stuff is harder to find since this is kind of old, but he had a ton of photos and implied that he was sexually aroused by the thought of making love to other Goofys.

Russian Cult That Worships "Gadget" From Rescue Rangers...

This is a bit of a weird one for me because as a kid I thought Gadget Hackwrench was one of the most beautiful mouse women I had ever seen. That being said I had no inclination to worship her. There is a cult in Russia, however, that does exactly that. Oddity Central did a piece on these guys and when asked about their love the worshippers had this to say...

“She is the divine being, the most untouched and perfect sibling of the great God on Earth.” "Why I love her? It’s a stupid question, how could I not love the Goddess?” “She is strict, cute, optimistic and her level of technical knowledge is unachievable for a mortal being."

Disney Princess Sex Fan Fiction

It's one of those things you wouldn't think exists because you've never thought "Hm, I wonder if anyone has ever written about a Disney princess getting it on." I never thought of it until I started writing this post...

Don't ever google it.

What you'll find is some of the most depraved, over the top and insane sexual literature there is...

Just to give you a taste, here's an excerpt from "The Not So Little Mermaid'" in which Ariel eats spinach to get really big muscles and fight Ursula and in the process really arouses Prince Eric.

Ariel would eat more of that sea spinach and give Eric the most sensual and sexual thrill rides of his life. She loved to show off her rippling muscles and ripping gigantic boulders from their foundations and holding them over her head with one hand. She even went so far as lifting the ship itself with Eric on it. It felt so good to exert her incredible strength like this. She would also turn into mermaid form and with Eric on their ship, she'd use her spinach enhanced strength to push the ship across the waters as fast as a modern day speed boat.
Unfortunately, when Eric tried to eat the spinach, he found out it didn't work on him. Turns out it only works on those with mermaid blood in them. And even when in human form, Ariel would always have mermaid blood. But he didn't mind.
And the two lived deliriously happily ever after!

This doesn't even scratch the surface of the weird s*** I found. The craziest part? Most of it is surprisingly well-written.

People Who Believe Disney Is The Devil Or Illuminati

Of course how could we forget the group who believes Disney was created as a vessel to promote Satanism to children? There's actually a much larger community discussing this than you think. Sites range from showing hidden dongs in child's imagery to the subtle Illuminati imagery supposedly found around their theme parks. An often cited source is a classic Donald Duck cartoon in which he learns the story of Pythagoras, who is believed by some to be the father of the Illuminati. 

People Obsessed With Going To Disneyland On MDMA Or Acid

This is a bit of a newer one but it's all over the web here lately. Scores of people are either talking about or learning about how to get into Disneyland with drugs just so they can trip out inside the park. One crazy rumor is that if park security finds you under the influence, they'll throw you in Disney jail. Disney jail does exist apparently, and may or may not have pictures of every Disney character frowning at you on its walls.

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Will Be in IMAX Theaters for a Whole Month

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Disney and Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be taking over IMAX theaters for an entire month! This is a pretty big deal as most films that go to IMAX theaters cycle in and out of them fairly quickly. This gives lots of films the chance to be seen in IMAX glory. 

I don't know about you, but I prefer watching my movies in IMAX, and I need to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens in that format. Looks like I'll have plenty of opportunities to watch the film multiple times in IMAX if I want to. 

This isn't the first time IMAX has made a deal like this. The last deal they made that was similar was four years ago for all three of The Hobbit movies. According to THRStar Wars: The Force Awakens will debut on anywhere from 375 to 400 IMAX screens in the United States and 400 more theaters internationally. These theaters could even include museums and other non-theater chains that have IMAX screens. 

Because of this, Ron Howard and Chris Hemsworth's In the Heart of the Sea will only get a one week run in IMAX theaters, and Alejandro González Iñárritu and Leonardo Dicaprio's film The Revenant probably won't even get a chance. That's a movie I would have loved to see in IMAX.

The Force Awakens is going to make a ridiculous amount of money. If any film takes Avatar's spot as the highest-grossing movie of all time, I hope it's Star Wars!


Movie Dream Team: BORDERLANDS 2

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A couple weeks ago I wrote about what my dream Borderlands movie team would look like. Well, let's continue this crazy train ride into the wasteland that is Pandora.

Borderlands 2 continues the insanity that is this franchise. They ramped up the number of guns to roughly 87 GAZILLION (at least according to the trailer.) If you're at all familiar with this franchise, you're already ready to go for this shindig. For those of you who aren't familiar, Borderlands takes place on a planet called Pandora (yes, there's a box). You play as a Vault Hunter who hunts vaults filled with treasure. Pretty simple stuff. But let's talk about the plot of this glorious fight-fest.

THE PLOT

The story for Borderlands 2 follows a group of vault hunters who are set up by the nefarious Hyperion corporation, who wants to kill them. Following the events of Borderlands (the first one), a strange element called Eridium has begun to grow all over Pandora, and it can do some pretty wild stuff. Handsome Jack wants all the vaults and Eridium for the Hyperion corporation, so he just wantonly kills vault hunters. Pretty good guy, Jack. So these vault hunters you play as survive Jack's little assassination attempt, and as the story progresses you slowly link up with the main heroes of the first installment, which, of course, we would have reprisals from those same actors. So you build a vault key, guided by an AI named Angel (all pretty familiar territory here), then Jack opens the second Vault and behold, there's another giant monster. This one, called The Warrior, is a giant lava, rock, eridium, dragon type of monster, so good fun to be had there. After besting both The Warrior and Handsome Jack, Lilith attempts to destroy the Vault Key. Instead, she opens a giant map of the galaxy, showing the locations of several more vaults.

Ain't no rest for the wicked.

THE DIRECTOR

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So I don't think I need to go too much into this, but James Gunn is coming back to helm the second installment in the Borderlands franchise. He's got the skill, the mindset, and the gumption to make this work again.

THE CAST

Along with the list of actors I'd like to return from the first installment, we'll also have several new heroes joining the merry band of vault hunters.

Nathan Fillion as Axton

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Nathan Fillion is a wonderful actor. His perfmormances in both Firefly and Castle sold me on this casting immediately. The suggestion actually came from one of our other writers, Bryam. I was initially thinking Michael Fassbender, but after giving it some thought, Fillion is the clear choice. Not that Fassbender couldn't pull this roll off, but Fillion can bring that same kind of mix of seriousness and suave humor that Firefly had, which will fit nicely into the Borderlands universe.

Jennifer Lawrence as Maya

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I, like most of America, love Jennifer Lawrence. To me, her best performance so far is definitely Silver Linings Playbook. She's deep and emotional, but also snarky and quick-witted, which works perfectly for Maya! Maya is the more serious of our heroes, with one hell of a dark backstory to reinforce the point of her cynical humor. Besides, who doesn't want to see Lawrence throw out some huge energy explosions!?

Dave Bautista as Salvador

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Another recruit from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, Dave Bautista proved his acting chops as Drax the Destroyer. Salvador is more of the laughing uproariously while dual wielding machine guns type of guy, but I still see Bautista pulling that off extremely well. This would just be another great opportunity for him to prove to the world that he's more than just a wrestler. Maybe he'll be our next Dwayne Johnson, who knows? But from what I've seen of him in interviews, and off screen appearances, plus his wrestling career, he definitely has what it takes to play this monstrosity of a man.

Ray Park as Zer0

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Paul Bettany as Zer0's voice

Ray Park has proven time and again that he is the man for ninja-like stunts. With credits like Star Wars: Episode I, the G.I. Joe franchise, and even a quick turn as Toad in X-Men, Park is more than capable of pulling off the insane acrobatics and swordplay style of Zer0. His voice, however, has still been in few movies, and I see nothing wrong with that. With that in mind, Paul Bettany HAS to be the man for Zer0's voice. With a solid voice acting credit as Jarvis in the Marvel movies, there's more than enough proof to show he has what it takes to play the oh so lovable psychopathic...whatever Zer0 actually is.

John Barrowman as Handsome Jack

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This may seem strange at first, but bear with me! Barrowman plays a character a little similar to Jack in Arrow, just less sarcastically. Watching interviews and panels with him, there's no doubt in my mind that he could easily adapt that style of character, add in a bit of his own natural sarcasm and snarkiness, and end up with a solid performance as the main antagonist of this series. Throw in some scenes of him riding around on Butt Stallion (his diamond pony) and you've got yourself an instant hit! Forget the rest of the movie, just give me two hours of John Barrowman on a diamond pony!

With that rounding out the primary cast of Borderlands 2, I feel good about this casting. We've got a couple out of the box calls, but these are solid actors who know their craft and can sell a wacky, somewhat insane script.

What do you guys think? Who would you cast for these roles? Let us know in the comments below!

HONORABLE MENTION

Okay, I don't normally do these, but I had to put this out there for everyone to know.

Terry Crews as Krieg the Psycho

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Seriously, though, can you not see this?! Go watch any given Old Spice commercial starring him, and tell me this doesn't work. He's wacky, funny, and already has a constant yelling voice that would be absolutely perfect for yelling such beautifully crafted lines as “I HAVE THE SHINIEST MEAT BICYCLE!” and “LOOOOVE YOOOOU.” This had to be said, so you enjoy that image for a bit.

Joaquin Phoenix and M. Night Shyamalan to Team up Again for a New Film

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Wait what?! M. Night Shyamalan is actually being allowed to make another movie? How does this keep happening?! On top of that, Joaquin Pheonix is in negotiations to join the project. The two previously worked together on Signs and The Village. Signs was the first Shyamalan movie that didn't sit well with me, and it was all downhill from there.

According to Deadline, the project will start shooting this coming November in the director’s hometown of Philadelphia. There are no details on what story will be. There's not even a title, but it will have a small budget like his upcoming found footage film, The Visit. That movie had a $5 million budget.

The Visit looks like it could be interesting, but I'm in no rush to see it. After seeing The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, I thought Shyamalan would be doing incredible things by now. Unfortunately, that's not the path he went down. He just kept making one wrong turn after another, and now he's trying to salvage his career by making these low-budget films, which actually is probably a good thing for him. He needed to get back to the basics.  

Maybe these smaller films that he's developing will surprise me, but I'll be going in to see them with the lowest expectations possible.

Are you surprised to hear that Phoenix is looking to team up with Shyamalan again? Is this a team-up that you'd like to see happen? Phoenix is a fantastic actor, and he was great in Shymalan's films, but the films as a whole just didn't do it for me. 

Watch: How Old Game Graphics Worked

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Various mediums are always defined by their limitations, and video games of the past had several. In this video, The iBookGuy talks about how clever programmers got around memory issues of old computing systems. He also details how limiting screen resolutions and colors allowed for more interesting looking games. It's a really interesting video, and I can't wait to watch the next one in the series.

Trailer for the THE HOBBIT TRILOGY: EXTENDED EDITION Theatrical Release

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Earlier this month we learned that Warner Bros. and Fathom Events are teaming up for a three-night event in which fans can watch the entire Extended Editions of The Hobbit trilogy on the big screen. We now have a trailer promoting it.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will screen on October 5th, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will be shown on October 7th, and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, which was recently confirmed to be rated R, will show on October 13th.

The trailer also offers us a few bits of never-before-scene footage from The Battle of the Five Armies. That footage includes the character Beorn, who was one of the best parts of the movie. 

You can check out The Hobbit Trilogy Extended Edition trailer below, and click here if you want to order tickets for the films. As big of a fan as I am of Peter Jackson's Middle Earth films, I think I'll just wait for The Battle of the Five Armies to be released on Blu-ray.

Princess Zelda Vs. Princess Peach in a Fight to the Death

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Zelda Vs. Peach is a short action-packed fan film that features the two Nintendo Universe princesses from The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. locked in an epic battle to the death. They are just a couple women looking to settle their differences... in a violent manner. The short was directed by YouTuber Andrew McMurray, and it is fantastic. There's a good amount of fun specially efects that were used in the making of the film, and it was just entertaining to watch these two classic Nintendo characters fight each other. 

I also included a VFX breakdown video for you to check out. If you missed Andrew's previous film, Fallout's Vault Boy vs. Skyrim's Dovahkiin, make sure to watch that here.

Kurt Sutter Developing a SONS OF ANARCHY Spinoff for FX

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For those of you who were left longing for a motorcycle thriller after Sons of Anarchy ended, your wait will soon be over. Hollywood Reporter recently announced that SoA creator Kurt Sutter is potentially bringing a spinoff series that will follow the antics of the Mayan Motorcycle Club. Here is what they had to say about the limited amount of details for the show:

So questions remain about the time period and the potential for Sons' stars to return. On Sons, the Mayans were positioned as a rival California motorcycle club, comprising mostly Mexican-Americans in the heroin distribution business. The Oakland charter, led by president Marcus Alvarez (played by Emilio Rivera), began the series as SAMCRO’s adversary. But as time went on, SAMCRO built up a tenuous working relationship with the Mayans, both as business partners and partners in crime and turf wars

I am excited to see what Sutter has to offer with this spin off. He is currently working with FX on his show The Bastard Executioner, so I am not sure when he will be getting to the Mayan spinoff. Just knowing that he is interested in making this happen is a great thing. 

What do you think? Will this fill the hole that Sons left in your life?

Harley Quinn Body Paint Makeup Tutorial

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Suicide Squad is going to be Harley Quinn's first appearance in a live-action movie, but she looks a lot different than Bruce Timm's design from Batman: The Animated Series. Lex, aka Madeyewlook, gives us an idea of what Harley might look like in the classic red-and-black. When I first saw an image from Lex's makeup tutorial I thought it was a costume, when it really is amazing body paint. In the first part of the video she even does a little character skit as Harley Quinn. 


The Story Behind the Creation of the BB-8 Droid in STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

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Ever since fans saw the new BB-8 droid from Star Wars: The Force Awakens in action, they instantly fell in love with it. Then the fans' minds were blown when they found out that BB-8 was actually a real life working droid that didn't rely on CG. It was insane to see that thing actually roll across the stage at Star Wars Celebration earlier this year.

StarWars.com has released an article that takes us through the creation and development of the new ball droid, which you can read in its entirety here, but I included some of the quotes from the article for you below.

BB-8 was a very innovative droid that took the imagination of several individuals, including designers, engineers, and puppeteers, to bring it to life.

Director J.J. Abrams started the whole process with a little sketch that he drew on a napkin with one circle on top of another, and one of them had a tiny dot for an eye. That was the basic concept that got the ball rolling. Lucasfilm concept designer Christian Alzmann said,

“J.J. wanted something rolling on a sphere, so I tried a lot of different designs developing that idea. He would give direction on the kinds of shapes to use, and that led to a personality for the droid. Of course, the original sketch had very pleasing, round shapes, so you kind of figured it wasn’t going to be a very serious or angry character. Ultimately, BB-8 developed out of a back-and-forth process with J.J. where he gave feedback on each iteration of the design.”

She went on to confirm that the droid was in fact partially inspired by a soccer ball, which is something fans likened the droid to when they first saw it. After the concept design of BB-8 was finalized, concept designer Jake Lunt Davies took it to the creature shop develop it further as a practical effect. They had to change certain aspects of the design to help in the process of making it work in the real world. Neal Scanlan, the head of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens creature shop revealed that they called the droid ball-bot during its creation, and sayid,

“Outside there in the big open world, the whole ball-bot, as you would call it, concept, is something that universities to individuals have played around with. We looked very closely at what one would consider existing technology and decided that it was not far enough advanced to be able to put that into a droid or into a robot that we could use in the film world. Not yet, anyway…So, the idea of having versions of BB-8, which we knew we could have aspects digitally removed, really then opened up a much greater sphere of possibility.” 

Joshua Lee, a senior animatronic designer on the team then went to start the process of actually bring the droid to life.

“I made a little puppet version because there was a lot of talk about how this thing could move and whether it needed extra parts, like an extending neck, to allow for greater movement. I had this feeling that it didn’t need anything else, and so to prove that, I built, in half a day, a little polystyrene puppet with the main movements. All the head movements and the ball rolling around, and handles on the back. I remember as soon as I picked that up, it was just so expressive. You could see that there weren’t any other fancy movements needed, that there’s so much expression and character actually in the shapes and in the way the head sort of arched over the sphere. Neal was working in a different office at the time, in another part of the studio, and I excitedly ran down and showed him this thing. We both thought, that’s it, there’s really something there, and a puppet version would be one way of achieving it on set.”

After that, they had to convince Abrams that they could actually pull it off before shooting began. So they did some screen tests with it and were figuring out how the droid's personality would shine in the process. They found a way to incorporate emotions into it so that it could convey joy, sadness, curiosity, and fear. One of the puppeteers, Brian Herring, explained,

“BB-8 can cock his head over and look away, he can double take, he can look scared, he can look angry. We managed to find a whole vocabulary of movement for him, if you will. We worked out a whole bunch of stuff. What would he do if you turned him off? What happens to his head if you power him down? Does he go down stairs? Does he go up stairs?"

Apparently, Abrams didn't even see the final version of the working BB-8 until a week before he started shooting the film. He gave a great sigh of relief when he saw that the droid actually worked well and that they could proceed with it in the film. Up until that point, they were all worried they wouldn't be able to pull off what Abrams was hoping for, but thankfully, they did!

After that, they created an army of BB-8's for filming. Each one had a different purpose and function. Some of those versions are explained in the following excerpt: 

"The 'wiggler,' which was static, but could twist and turn on the spot and was used for close-ups. There were two trike versions, which had stabilizer wheels, allowing them to be driven by remote control without a puppeteer in the shot. There was a version that could be picked up by actors and controlled via remote for specific reactions and movements. There was the 'bowling ball' version, which could literally be thrown into a shot and never fall down (like a Weeble toy). Finally, there was the rod-puppet version, which was operated by Chapman and Herring — one controlling the head, adding nuance and attitude, and the other the body — who would then be digitally erased. It was this version that would be key and able to act on set."

These were all built and designed by Lee and Matthew Denton. Then came the point of actually making BB-8 real. While they were shooting, Scanlan’s team managed to actually make a fully functioning, remote-controlled version. This is the version that all of the fans saw at Star Wars Celebration. Lee said,

“There are several ways of doing a ball robot, but there was nothing that included an articulated head or anything that could spin on the spot — and that’s one of BB-8’s signature moves. So, I started to design the prototype while Matt adapted his existing software to make control of this new BB-8 possible.”

Of course, he doesn't reveal how exactly it works because, "Where’s the fun in that?” That fully functioning droid all came about just in time to show off at Star Wars Celebration. The fans were definitely impressed. There's no doubt he's going to be a fan favorite character when the movie is released this December.

There is one last thing that the article didn't mention that /Film and other fan sites have pointed out. That's that the design could have been inspired by an early concept design by concept artist Ralph McQuarrie for Star Wars: A New Hope. Regarding his original concept for R2-D2, McQuarrie said,

“I think Artoo was just described as a small robot. I thought of him as running on a giant ball bearing — just a sphere, a circle, wheel-like. He had gyros so he could go in any direction on this ball.”

You can see his concept art for that below.

Riveting Batman, Joker, and Harley Quinn Fan Art by Hethe Srodawa

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Here are a couple pieces of Batman fan art created by Hethe Srodawa, that offer us different character designs for the Dark Knight, Joker, and Harley Quinn. They have a stylish animation-type look to them that I really like.

We've seen several Batman cartoon series over the years, but none of them have been as good as Batman: The Animated Series. I'd love to see another great Batman animated series. Maybe one day it will happen as we lead into the Batman films that Warner Bros. is developing. 

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Anne Hathaway Will Tackle an Alien Invasion in Action Comedy THE SHOWER

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Anne Hathaway is looking to stretch her chops by taking on a different kind of project. THR is reporting that the actress has signed on to produce and star in an alien invasion comedy called The Shower. The script, which was written by Jac Schaeffer and made last year’s Black List, centers on a group of women who are at a baby shower when an unexpected meteor shower turns into an alien invasion. Obviously, the women have to fight off the alien threat to save the world. I mean, have you ever seen an Anne Hathaway movie before? She’s always busting out her krav maga skills.

The female-centric action comedy is described as being “in the vein of the Seth Rogen apocalypse comedy This is the End, cult hit Attack the Block, and Kristen Wiig-Melissa McCarthy’s Bridesmaids.” Those are three movies that are basically nothing like each other, so it will be interesting to see how this turns out. Schaeffer says the story is “ultimately about female friendship, with a lot of ass-kicking along the way.” 

The producers, who also include Schaeffer, Hathaway’s husband, Adam Shulman, Andrew Lauren, and D.J. Gugenheim, are trying to get a director and other talent signed on before they shop the project to studios. Schaeffer wrote and directed the movie TiMER, so it’s curious that she won’t be behind the camera this time. They may be looking for someone with more experience shooting action.

This project seems to be part of a calculated move away from Hathaway’s niche of rom coms and serious dramas. She is also developing Colossal, described as "Godzilla meets Being John Malkovich." The actress takes a lot of flak for being a geeky try-hard, but I’ve always liked her work. Hopefully she can pull this one off.

Source: THR via Ain't It Cool News

Weird Science Wednesday: Black Hole News Round Up

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It’s Wednesday afternoon, you are so sick of work, and the weekend is two days away. Why don’t you totally do your head in by watching this PBS Space Time video about black holes. Black holes are a constant trope in science fiction (or, if we’re being accurate, science fantasy because apparently everything Hollywood has taught us is wrong). Host Gabe Perez-Giz breaks down the basic physics of black holes, and even though he sticks to classical general relativity (so no Hawking radiation, string theory, or quantum mechanics), he will blow your mind. Black holes don’t suck things in! Whaaaat?! Also, this is a thing he says:

"A black hole is a bunch of events, so is that collection of events somehow mimicking mass? Or does it actually have mass? Is there even a difference?"

I don’t know! I have to say, now that I’ve watched this video, I no longer have any idea what the hell happened in Interstellar.

As a bonus black hole treat, Stephen Hawking, black hole wizard extraordinaire, posted a new theory on the space giants this week. At the Hawking Radiation conference yesterday he gave a presentation and explained that they store information in a two-dimensional hologram. So if you managed to approach the black hole, you would turn into a two-dimensional holographic smudge on the edge of the event horizon for all of space-time. Or you might go through a portal into another universe. He’s not really sure which one yet. On Monday night, the physicist said,

“The existence of alternative histories with black holes suggests this might be possible. The hole would need to be large and if it was rotating it might have a passage to another universe. But you couldn't come back to our universe.
"So although I'm keen on space flight, I'm not going to try that."

You can watch his entire presentation here. You probably can't understand it, though.

Sources: PBS Space Time, KTH via Gizmodo. Black hole image courtesy of NASA.

Margot Robbie on Working with Jared Leto in SUICIDE SQUAD

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Director David Ayer has wrapped production on Suicide Squad, and it looks like it's going to be one hell of a film. A ton of fans seemed to love what they saw in the trailer that was released at Comic-Con, and I can't wait to see more. All of the actors are getting back to their normal lives, and in an interview with New York Daily News, Margot Robbie, who plays Harley Quinn, talked about what it was like working with Jared Leto, who plays The Joker. 

“What he’s doing with the character is so cool. At first it was kind of confronting (to be up close) but now I’m so used to it, I think if I ever saw him out of makeup now I would be really confused. Actually, I saw him out of makeup once and I was actually petrified of him. I was too scared to go up and didn’t know who that person was, and when he got back into his makeup I was far more comfortable.”

That's actually pretty funny. I imagine that when you do a movie like this, you get to know the characters of the film more than you do the actors who are playing them. That's kind of fascinating to me. Robbie went on to talk about what makes Suicide Squad different from other comic book movies being made:

“I guess the one common denominator is we’re all bad guys, it just makes everything more fun that way. The scenes are more interesting I feel, when you just don’t know how the characters are going to react, especially with Harley, who’s absolutely nuts… she’s either going to kill you or laugh and give you a hug.”

There's no doubt that this movie has a crazy edge because of the fact that it focuses on a team of villains. That's the kind of comic book movie you don't see every day. The actress goes on to reveal that she was up for the role of the Invisible Woman in Josh Trank's Fantastic Four reboot. Regarding that, she said,

“I had a great meeting with the director (Josh Trank) and I really enjoyed that….I guess it’s part of the game: Sometimes you win some, sometimes you lose some.”

She really dodged a bullet, and Suicide Squad is definitely the film she belonged in. She is the perfect Harley Quinn.

Suicide Squad will hit theaters on August 5th, 2016.

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