Brad Bird's animated masterpiece The Iron Giant is finally coming to Blu-ray and it's about damn time! This is one of the best animated films ever made and for some reason the studio hasn't treated it like that. But, on September 6, 2016, it will finally get the proper home video release it deserves.

There are two versions that fans have the option of purchasing. The Iron Giant Blu-ray will be available as a regular “Signature Edition” and there will also be a “Ultimate Collector’s Edition,” which will come with an art book, Mondo art cards, and even a little statuette of the robot from outer space. 

Both versions will have the same special features, which include the theatrical cut of the film, the remastered and extended editions, a director’s commentary, and a making-of documentary called The Giant’s Dream, which is described as follows:

“The Giant’s Dream” is the dramatic story about a rare moment in movie history that allowed a first-time director to make one of the world’s greatest animated films, “The Iron Giant.” Using stylized animatics, archival footage, original concept art, and revealing interviews, The Giant’s Dreamcharts the incredible ups and downs, industry firsts, and amazing history behind this iconic film, and its rebel director, Brad Bird.

I'm incredibly excited about watching that "making of" doc. I love that kind of stuff. I'm also excited about watching the film in high definition! Here are the specs with everything that will be included:

• “The Giant’s Dream” documentary NEW!
• “The Iron Giant: Signature Edition” trailer
• Theatrical version commentary by Brad Bird
• Additional scenes, including alternate opening
• Mini documentary segments
• Teddy Newton The X Factor
• Duck and Cover sequence
• The Voice of the Giant
• Motion Gallery
• Brad Bird trailer

The regular Blu-ray will cost you $14.99 while the Ultimate Collector’s Edition will cost $74.99, which is well worth it for a fan like myself.

We all know about Star Wars Day (May the Fourth be with you) and last year's Back to the Future Day (the date Marty McFly traveled to "the future" in BTTF Part 2), but did you know there's also an Alien Day? It's on April 26th, and if you're wondering about the significance of that date, look no further than planet LV-426 for the pop culture holiday's inspiration. THR reports that 20th Century Fox is going to be releasing a bunch of Alien-themed merchandise to celebrate the occasion, including Ellen Ripley's Reebok Alien Stompers, the shoes worn by Sigourney Weaver in James Cameron's Aliens.

Mid-top versions of the shoes that Bishop (Lance Henriksen) wore are also being released, and you'll be able to buy both pair on Reebok.com and in select stores starting on the 26th. Fox isn't stopping there, though:

As part of Alien Day, certain Alamo theater locations are showing a double feature of Alien and Aliens, and Amazon’s Audible will be release a brand-new audio drama, Alien: Out of the Shadows, starring Rutger Hauer, the '80s actor best known for starring in Blade Runner. Among other activities planned is an online trivia challenge in which movie fans can win prizes every 42.6 minutes on Twitter.

Sounds like a pretty cool way to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of Aliens. Meanwhile, Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant hits theaters on August 4, 2017. 

Empire has released a new photo from Paul Feig's upcoming Ghostbusters reboot, and it features the four leading ladies lighting it up on stage at some sort of concert. Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones juice up their proton packs and let 'em rip into the sky to take down a ghost — well, I'm assuming they're shooting at a ghost. It could be a zeppelin, or a particularly annoying bug that refuses to leave them alone.

Feig also offered some context for the image with a few quotes:

“I wanted my ladies to be badass. I wanted them to get in over their heads and fight ghosts. I like the idea of them having to enter a giant setting and take on ghosts...I like action movies. I got to play with that in Spy, and it felt very natural here. It makes it fun and very unexpected for people when they hear it’s four lady Ghostbusters...it may be quite different than what they think.”

Ghostbusters opens in theaters on July 15th. Kevin Smith offered a surprisingly nuanced reaction to the trailer, which you can hear right here if you missed it.

You may prefer the original series or another incarnation story-wise, but there's no denying that the theme song of Star Trek: The Next Generation reigns supreme over all others! Here we have a recording of composer Jerry Goldsmith's first ever recording and performance of the immortal theme song. You can notice small differences between this one and the final product, but it's still very much the version you know and love.

Thanks to Cliffedward for sharing! The music starts playing around 1:30 if you're tired of listening to banter and rustling.

20th Century Fox's solo film based on the card-throwing mutant Gambit has experienced its share of ups and downs on its way to the big screen. Though it's been removed from the studio's release schedule, the project is still in the works with Channing Tatum attached to star and Doug Liman lined up to direct. Now THR reports that Reid Carolin, Tatum's producing partner who wrote Magic Mike and Magic Mike XXL, is handling rewrites of the Gambit screenplay and the start of filming has been bumped to later this year.

Because of the delay, Liman (The Bourne Identity, Go, Edge of Tomorrow) is now in negotiations to direct a small-scale thriller called The Wall for Amazon Studios. The script hails from writer Dwain Worrell, and it marks the company's first spec script purchase. Here's the logline from when the project made The Black List in 2014:

A sniper and his spotter must kill and avoid being killed, separated from an enemy sniper by only a 16x6ft prayer wall.

Sounds like exactly the level of contained thriller that Liman could be able to feasibly knock out before he ramps back up on Gambit. Production on The Wall is slated to begin late this spring or early this summer. Meanwhile, Liman is in post-production on Mena, another thriller starring Tom Cruise and Domhnall Gleeson that will come out in 2017.

I’ve already gone on record saying that Ben Affleck’s version of Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is my favorite version so far. I loved the darkness and intensity of the character, and I also loved that classic look of the Dark Knight being brought to life on the big screen. But that’s not the first time we’ve seen this version of Batman in a film.

In 2003, Sandy Collora shook the geek world when he unveiled his badass short film Batman: Dead End, and there are a lot of similarities between that version of Batman (played by Clark Bartram) and Affleck’s version of the character. The costume in Batman v Superman has more detail to it, but the concept of it and how the character was portrayed is exactly the same as what Collora and his team created all those years ago.

Other than the different actors playing Batman, Zack Snyder obviously had a lot more money to bring the Dark Knight to life the way he did. But Collora did it first, and I can’t help but think that Snyder had to have been inspired by the way Collora brought Batman to life when trying to develop his own version of the character.

I’ve been a fan of Bartram’s Batman since I first saw him play the Dark Knight in the fan film, and ever since then I’ve been waiting to see that vision of the hero come to life on the big screen. Well, I finally got it, and that’s one of the main reasons why I loved how Batman was portrayed in Batman v Superman.

Batman: Dead End has been out of the limelight for a long time, so I just wanted to remind everyone that this hardcore dark version of Batman already existed before Snyder came around. Snyder just had the opportunity to put him in a feature film. 

Of course, I understand that there were several other influences involved with Collora’s vision of the hero, but he was the first one to bring this badass Batman to life in a live-action project. After rewatching Batman: Dead End, there are still some aspects of that version that I like better. 

If you need a reminder the awesomeness of Batman: Dead End, check it out below!

Bad Robot has been quietly developing a movie called God Particle for a while now, and though a vague plot synopsis has been revealed, many are wondering whether or not this film will actually serve as another entry in the "Clover-verse," the anthology of movies that began with Cloverfield and continued (in a spiritual sense) with 10 Cloverfield Lane. But while we likely won't know if that's true for some time, at least we know who will star in the new movie: Variety reports that David Oyelowo and Gugu Mbatha-Raw are in negotiations for the J.J. Abrams-produced project.

This is great news, because they're both fantastic actors. (Look no further than Selma and Beyond the Lights for examples.) Mbatha-Raw's casting isn't much of a surprise because she previously worked on the Abrams-produced NBC spy series Undercovers.

Here's what we know about the movie so far: it follows a crew of astronauts aboard an American space station who find that the Earth has vanished after an accident involving a particle accelerator. But they find traces of another space station nearby, and that's when things really get weird.

The film is being directed by Julius Onah, who's directed a bunch of short films and made his feature directorial debut last year with what appears to be a modern noir riff called The Girl is in Trouble. Watch that trailer below:

Onah is a Nigerian-American filmmaker, while Oyelowo and Mbatha-Raw are obviously both black actors. This looks like a great example of Abrams putting his money where his mouth is; Bad Robot recently instituted a policy in which agencies must submit women and minorities for acting, writing, and directing jobs in proportion to their representation in the U.S. population. The new movie will hit theaters on February 24, 2017.

While we wait to see how God Particle turns out, make sure to read my review of 10 Cloverfield Lane and check out two interviews with director Dan Trachtenberg: a non-spoilery one, and one that goes a bit more in-depth.

Long continuous shots. Long takes. Oners. Call them whatever you want, but film fans love intricately choreographed shots that cause our minds to reel at the logistics of how directors and cinematographers worked to capture certain moments on film. I get a visceral thrill when I'm sitting in a movie and I realize that I've been watching the same shot go on without a cut for an extended period of time, and I sit there with a dumb grin on my face and wonder how it will stack up in the pantheon of long takes from movies like Goodfellas, The Player, Touch of Evil, and True Detective.

But this video essay from Now You See It shows some of the downsides of these kinds of shots, and offers suggestions about the power of more traditional editing that these shots, by their very nature, are unable to utilize. Basically it all boils down to: do the best thing for the story you're telling. But it's interesting to hear Alfred Hitchcock, who directed one of the most famous long-take movies ever with Rope, later denounce the process. Check it out:

Via: The Playlist

Kevin Smith openly wept on the set of Star Wars: The Force Awakens when he saw the Millennium Falcon for the first time, but now, thanks to a new clip from the film's bonus features (via WSJ), we know that star John Boyega basically had the polar opposite reaction: he was giddy and excited. I think many fans would probably have a combination of both emotions powering through them if they were able to experience seeing that beloved ship like that for the first time since Return of the Jedi, but it's cool to see the child-like elation Boyega has here.

This is one of many bonus features that will be included with The Force Awakens when it hits Digital HD this Friday and Blu-ray/DVD on April 5th.

Have you ever wanted a three-foot-tall replica of a ghost that was loosely inspired by actor John Belushi to call your very own? You're in luck! NECA has a life-sized replica of Slimer from the original Ghostbusters that's going to be on sale in June, just in time for you to buy it and take it with you to the theater to see the brand new reboot in July.

The company used the original molds that the film's special effects team used, and this sucker is completely hand-painted — which helps to justify its steep price tag, which is anywhere from $600 to $700. Who ya gonna call? Your bank, so you can take out a loan to afford this thing.

Via: Toyland

I think you really get a good sense of a movie by watching the film clips that are released for it. Good trailers can hide a bad movie from audiences, but clips let you in on how scenes actually play out in the film. They show you true aspects of dialogue, action, character, and story.

Disney has released three film clips from Jon Favreau’s highly anticipated live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book. The trailers have already got me excited for the movie, but these clips offer of a taste of what we can truly expect and I like what I see!

The first clip is called “Baloo,” and it features Mowgli meeting the big lovable bear for the first time. The second clip is called “Hibernation,” and it features Mowgli helping Baloo get ready for hibernation. The third and final clip is called “Mowgli Leaves The Pack” and it shows us an emotional scene of the man cub leaving the pack of wolves that raised him. 

The story follows the epic adventure of Mowgli (Neel Sethi), “a man-cub who’s been raised by a family of wolves. But Mowgli finds he is no longer welcome in the jungle when fearsome tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba), who bears the scars of Man, promises to eliminate what he sees as a threat. Urged to abandon the only home he’s ever known, Mowgli embarks on a captivating journey of self-discovery, guided by panther-turned-stern mentor Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), and the free-spirited bear Baloo (Bill Murray). Along the way, Mowgli encounters jungle creatures who don’t exactly have his best interests at heart, including Kaa (Scarlett Johansson), a python whose seductive voice and gaze hypnotizes the man-cub, and the smooth-talking King Louie (Christopher Walken), who tries to coerce Mowgli into giving up the secret to the elusive and deadly red flower: fire. The all-star cast also includes Lupita Nyong'o as the voice of the fiercely protective mother wolf Raksha, and Giancarlo Esposito as the voice of wolf pack’s alpha male Akela. “The Jungle Book” seamlessly blends live-action with photorealistic CGI animals and environments, using up-to-the-minute technology and storytelling techniques to immerse audiences in an enchanting and lush world. 

The wild adventure swings into theaters in 3D on April 15th, 2016.

This was the best WonderCon that I have been to. There was such great content this year. I was not that impressed with the location, but the content was almost up to San Diego standards. It was the first time that I had to decide what panels I was going to attend and which ones I would have to skip due to time constraints. It was great.

One of the best panels that we went to was for AMC’s new show Preacher. In the vein of The Walking Dead, Preacher is an adaptation of the '90s graphic novel by the same name. It is the pretty raw and in your face type of story that AMC has been known to bring to its audiences. After watching the first episode of Preacher, I have a feeling that it will fit in perfectly with their current lineup.

The rest of this post could be considered spoilerish, so if you haven’t read the Preacher series and want to go into the show with a clean slate, (You need to watch this show!) then stop reading. However, if you are familiar with the story and are apprehensive about the show and whether it will do the story justice, you will be pleasantly surprised. Read on.

For those of you not familiar with Preacher, it is a graphic novel published by Vertigo. It follows the story of Jesse Custer, who is not your average preacher. He is possessed by an extraterrestrial that is the spawn of an angel and a demon. He has the power to persuade people to do what he says, good or evil.

The first episode is basically the origin story of Jesse and how he got his powers. The show literally starts off with a bang and ends with you wanting more. The show brings out Preacher’s wonderfully colorful cast of characters, including Tulip, the vampire Cassidy, and the one and only Eugene, aka Arseface.

Dominic Cooper is stellar as Jesse Custer, and he leads a near perfect cast into this story of the fight between good and evil. Complementing Cooper’s performance is Joseph Gilgun as the hysterical Cassidy. With a show that has as deep, dark undertones as this one does, there has to be strong comic relief, and Cassidy is just exactly what this show needs.

I want to go on and on about specific scenes and what to possibly expect, but I want you all to enjoy the first episode as much as I did. Just know that if you are a fan of the graphic novel, then you will not be disappointed with what they have done with the show. Get ready for another great show coming at us from AMC. 

As we’ve already learned, The Tick is going to make a big comeback as a live action series for Amazon. The big blue hero will be played by Peter Serafinowicz, and he will be joined by Griffin Newman (Vinyl) who will play Arthur Everest and Valorie Curry (House of Lies, The Following) who will play his sister, Dot Everest. 

I’ve really been looking forward to seeing how they tackle this new series, and thanks to creator Ben Edlund, we now know what the tone of the series will be. While talking to EW about it, he explains that it will be darker and more grounded:

“We’ve got this show about superheroes [where] we get to have fun with the idea of superheroes by starting with kind of a comedic parody of [an] event-oriented-like universe. It will be darker and more grounded. And it’s going to have a real story, a real hero’s myth. We’re the ones that get to have fun with it and that’s kind of the situation where right now that’s an open field in this area of entertainment.”

The Tick is such a hilarious and unique superhero. I’ve alway imagined that if he teamed up with Deadpool the world would implode. When Edlund talks about making the series darker and more grounded, you have to realize that that is the direction that superhero films are going in general, and The Tick is a superhero satire so it makes sense to take it in that direction. Don’t worry, The Tick will still retain his hysterical humor! The dark aspect of it will probably make it even funnier. Amazon exec Joe Lewis talked about The Tick and how unique he is compared to other superheroes:

“It feels like on one hand you can say the superhero landscape is crowded but I think over the last two decades of it there’s nothing else like The Tick. I feel like it has found this unique place where it’s long existed as a satire and I thought that we had the possibility here to do something really different — something that’s filled with satire but also true to action-comedies and superhero comedies.”

The series has everything it needs to be great, and I’m actually going to finally get myself an Amazon Prime account so I can watch it. Talking about the goal of the series, Edlund added:

“I think we are shooting for kind of a really interesting goal, which is the sort of superhero comedy that you keep wanting to come back to. So we are going to try and land an amazing airplane here. But I think so far we are just building this fantastic siege engine that’s going to attack your heart.”

Sounds good to me! I’m really pumped up about this, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out. It sounds like they are are the right track, though! Transcendence director Wally Pfister is set to helm the pilot.

This past weekend at WonderCon, Warner Bros. premiered their latest DC animated film, Justice League Vs. Teen Titans. Although it’s not as good as some of their previous animated movies, it’s still pretty good and a lot of fun to watch. You can read our review of it here.

Three action packed clips for the series have been released, and the first features the Teen Titans doing a little training. The characters that you get to see in action in the clip include Blue Beetle, Raven, and Beast Boy, who we learn sleeps in the nude. The second clip is the first part of the film where the Justice league are in a battle with the Legion of Doom. The third is a continuation of that battle in which they face off with the terrifying power of Trigon.

Justice League vs. Teen Titans welcomes the Teen Titans to the ever-expanding canon of classic DC Comics characters within the DC Universe Original Movies. When Damian’s over-aggressive tendencies almost destroy a Justice League mission, he is sent to learn teamwork by training alongside the Teen Titans. However, adjusting Damian’s attitude turns out to be the least of the Teen Titans’ troubles as Raven’s satanic, world-conquering father Trigon begins an escape from his inter-dimensional prison. To complete his return, Trigon must have Raven’s assistance – and to accomplish his goal, he spreads his demonic forces across the globe, infiltrating the minds and bodies of the Justice League to do his bidding. To save the universe and prevent a literal hell on Earth, the Teen Titans must rescue – or defeat – the Justice League, and intern Trigon for all eternity.

Justice League vs. Teen Titans became available on digital HD yesterday, March 29th, and will be available on Blu-ray/DVD on April 12th, 2016.

Via: CBR, Comic Book

For those of you who are fans of Hiromu Arakawa's action-fantasy manga Fullmetal Alchemist, you might be surprised to learn that there’s a live action movie currently in development! According to Crunchy Roll, this movie will be released in 2017.

Fumihiko Sori (Ping Pong, Ashita no Joe) is directing the film, and it will star Hey! Say! JUMP member Ryosuke Yamada (Assassination Classroom) as Edward Elric. 

The project will start shooting in Italy in June and will be in production through August of 2016. According to the report, the film will heavily use CGI to "recreate the fantastic elements of the comic, such as Alphonse Elric's armor.”

This news was completely unexpected, but since it was such a popular manga and anime, it was bound to happen one day after the series ended in 2010. I’m surprised it took them so long to do it! I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

If you're not familiar with the property, here’s a description of the story:

Imagine a world in which Alchemy is not only possible, but used frequently. Alchemy, though, is a science, and with all sciences there are laws that must be followed. Welcome to the anime, Fullmetal Alchemist. The story begins about two brothers, Alphonse (left) and Edward (right) Elric. Ever since they were young they had practiced the science of alchemy. You follow their journey of being alchemists and their quest to regain that which they have lost.
 
Their father was a well recognized alchemist, which is probably where their knack for it comes from. However, when they were young their father left, and they remained in the care of their mother. One day their mother died, and in their innocence and ignorance, they attempted what was forbidden, human alchemy. 
 
What happened next, they were obviously not prepared for, and in the aftermath the brothers lost more than just their mother. In the freak accident Alphonse loses his body, and in a moment of panic Edward ties his brother's soul to a piece of armor. Edward himself loses an arm and a leg, a costly reminder of what has happend.
 
The story begins and details the brother's journey to find a alchemy amplifier so that they may return to their normal bodies. 

Game Previews has data mined the beta of Pokemon Go and has revealed several key details about the game! All the details are found in the video below, but here are a few I found interesting...read more on Gametyrant

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Guardians of the Galaxy is one of the most unique properties that Marvel has in their cinematic universe, and it's hard to imagine anyone but James Gunn at the helm of these films. He's currently in production on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in Atlanta, Georgia, but he had some time recently to do a live Q&A with his fans on his Facebook page. It's awesome that he makes the time to actually do stuff like that.

A variety of topics were brought up during the conversation from why there isn't a trailer for the film yet to whether or not Howard the Duck would make another appearance (to which Gunn just shrugged). However, when Gunn was asked if he would be back to direct a third installment of the film, which we all know is eventually going to happen, he wasn't quite sure. This is something he isn't really thinking about at the moment because he's focused on what he's doing right now. He explains:

"Right now I really am just concerned with doing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. I’m not sure what I’m going to do after this… Marvel has talked to me about continuing on. I’m not sure if that’s what I want to do or if that’s not what I want to do. I really just want to make Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 the greatest possible movie that I can, and something that’s as honest and sincere and true as it can possibly be.”

I know the guy can't do Guardians of the Galaxy for the rest of his career. But it would be nice to see him makes at least one more after Vol. 2. The director previously said that he had already planned out a three film story arc before he even shot the first movie. So he's got to at least finish that out.

Gunn will finish shooting Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in June, and it will be released in theaters on May 5th, 2017. You can watch Gunn's Q&A session below.

Live from my trailer on the set of GotG Vol 2

Posted by James Gunn on Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Damn! There are some fans out there that hated Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice so much that they started a petition to get Zack Snyder booted as the director of Justice League. Sorry guys, it ain't gonna happen. Even though the movie wasn't a critical success, it exploded at the box office! So far the film has made over $468.5 million dollars! That's what the studio cares about. Snyder is able to bring them those big numbers, so why in the world would they fire him?! On top of that, the studio loves the guy!

The petition was started by Bryan Cruz on Change.org and this is what it says:

Zack Snyder is not the person to bring the Justice League to the big screen. He's had two chances now to adapt DC characters and has produced middling results.

Even if you loved Man of Steel and BvS. There has to come a time when WB and DC want someone at the helm that can create something that WON'T divide people in such a way.

The building blocks are there for a great different set of superhero movies. Good actors and actresses and even directors. Zack Snyder is just not the guy that should be in charge of the biggest and most important films in the franchise. Especially with his track record now.

So far the petition has over 5,000 signatures. The goal is 7,500, which isn't going to even make Warner Bros. blink. The fact of the matter is Snyder isn't going anywhere. Warner Bros. is going to keep him around as long as he wants to be around to direct these DC movies and help develop them. You also have to realize that these movies aren't just made by Snyder, they are developed by a studio committee, so no matter who they brought in to direct, the movie would still basically turn out the same. They just wouldn't be as cool looking.

Cartoon Network has ordered 40 episodes of their revitalization of The Powerpuff Girls according to TVSeriesFinale. The episodes will be 11 minutes in length, and if they follow the original format of the show will come out to 20 full-length episodes with two episodes between intro and credits.

While fans are disappointed that original series show-runner Craig McCracken won't be involved, there's still a lot of hype for this series! Many people worry it won't be like the original series, and let's be honest, it likely won't.

Much like Teen Titans GO, this is a different generation of children. They are the target audience for this series, with us being the parents/aunts/uncles who convince them to watch the show. From what I've seen, the humor is definitely a bit different, but maybe I'll be surprised by future episodes.

You have got to check out this incredible Thanos cosplayer who was walking around WonderCon in Los Angeles this past weekend. I've got three videos for you to watch. One is a short rockin' video edit posted by our friends at Sneaky Zebra, another video features Thanos hanging out with Jesus, which I thought was pretty hilarious. 

This is the best Thanos cosplay that I've ever seen. It's like the villain jumped right out of the comic book into real life! The facial makeup effects are freakin' awesome! Watch the videos below and hit us up with your thoughts on the costume. Thanos was cosplayed by mickignis, and his makeup was done by Lee Joyner and Midge Ordonez of Cinema Makeup School.

Epic as ever! @cinemamakeupschool #wondercon2016 #thanos @cchq

A video posted by Sneaky Zebra (@sneaky_zebra) on Mar 27, 2016 at 2:55pm PDT

Clip from 'An Ode To Death', performed at the CMS booth at Wonder Con 2016!! @mickignis as 'Thanos the Mad Titan' with @amandolin414 as Mistress Death. Makeup for Thanos by Lee Joyner and Midge Ordonez, Death by Jasin Adcock. Check out our Facebook page for the full video and credits! Facebook.com/CinemaMakeupSchoolFanPage 💀#thanos #WonderCon #cosplay #cosplayer #geek #geeky #fx #marvel #marvelcomics #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy #GOTG #makeup #costume #actor #acting #villain #CMSthanos #Death #mistressdeath #transformation

A video posted by Cinema Makeup School (@cinemamakeupschool) on Mar 28, 2016 at 9:57am PDT