I just got blindsided by back-to-back pieces of good news! First, I get news that there's a documentary on one of the most prolific science fiction authors of all time, and then I watch a trailer and it looks pretty awesome! The documentary itself will highlight Neil Gaiman talking about his early life to Sandman, to present.
You know you're a big deal in 2016 when George R.R. Martin is trying to get a selfie with you. Watch the trailer below!
Warning: Game of Thrones spoilers ahead.
Kristian Nairn has been having a rough go of it since Hodor's exit from Game of Thrones. He's been the subject of several hundred incredibly spoilerish internet memes and jokes. Luckily, he seems to be taking the whole thing in stride. He teamed up with Turps for (hopefully) the video to end all "hold the door" jokes. Watch it below.
Hollywood has been catering to the ever-growing Chinese marketplace for years, and I don't see that trend slowing down any time soon. Deadline reports that Dodgeball and We're The Millers director Rawson Marshall Thurber is reuniting with his Central Intelligence star Dwayne Johnson for an action thriller that's described as "Die Hard in China," and as you might expect, the studios are frothing to get their hands on it.
Thurber will write and direct, and Johnson is set to star, but there aren't any other concrete details available at the moment. Legendary, Universal, Sony, Paramount, and New Line are all engaged in a bidding war for the untitled project right now, with a deal expected to happen sometime today or tomorrow.
I think Johnson is one of the most entertaining personalities in the industry right now, so I'd watch him do just about anything. He just wrapped Paramount's Baywatch adaptation, is prepping to head into Fast 8, and has about a hundred other projects on his plate, so there's no telling when he'll be able to carve out a couple of months to make this movie. We'll keep you posted with more info as we get it.
If you grew up in the '80s or '90s and had a library card, I'm guessing you remember The Boxcar Children series of books. They followed orphaned siblings Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny, who lived in an abandoned train car they found in the woods before ultimately moving in with their rich grandfather, who moved the boxcar into his backyard.
Variety reports that Shout! Factory and a company called Legacy Classics are teaming up for three new animated movies based on the beloved books, and their ambitious plan is to release "at least four" new movies in the next two years. There are over 100 novels in the series (though only the first nineteen were written by original creator Gertrude Chandler Warner), so the producers will have plenty of material to mine for theatrical stories. There's no mention in the story of the 2014 animated movie adaptation, so one has to assume they're starting from scratch and pretending that movie doesn't exist. No word yet on any talent who might be involved, but expect to hear word quickly if they're looking to get that many movies into theaters so quickly.
Header Photo: The Learning Basket
I know they're scripted, but I love Onyx the Fortuitous' videos. He's pretty spot-on at nailing that socially inept geek character! In this one, he plays a manga lover purchasing a less than savory comic. I knew it was fake and I still cringed! Still pretty hilarious though!
Director Peter Berg and actor Mark Wahlberg love making based-on-a-true-story movies, and Deepwater Horizon — which tracks the events of 2010's massive off-shore disaster — is their latest collaboration. Lionsgate has just released the full trailer for the movie, and it's a big improvement over the on-the-nose teaser. I'm not crazy about the super-cheesy "gimme those eyes" moments, or Kate Hudson's character in general (she seems like an Amy Schumer sketch), and I'm torn about whether this actually has the potential to be a powerful movie or if it's just shamelessly capitalizing on a relatively recent disaster as a shortcut to an emotional response. What do you all think?
On April 20, 2010, the world’s largest man-made disaster occurred on the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. Directed by Peter Berg (Lone Survivor), this story honors the brave men and women whose heroism would save many on board, and change everyone’s lives forever.
Deepwater Horizon heads to theaters on September 30, 2016.
This is about as close as we'll get to seeing a Netflix model in the comic book world. ComiXology has announced a subscription model service that will run at $5.99 a month! There are no DC or Marvel titles to be found, but you'll find quite a few high-profile titles among the thousands of titles available to read, including:
Much like Netflix, you'll have titles that have long-running volumes to enjoy, and others that offer a taste encouraging you to purchase future issues. No word as to whether a majority are single issues or a couple run series, but you can try a 30 day trial right now.
The best news is that you can read online or offline, which is a huge selling point for me! What do you think? Is it enough to suit your comic needs?
It seems like ages ago that I saw the first trailer for The Little Prince, an animated adaptation of the best-selling novella. It played at the Cannes Film Festival way back in 2014, and was scheduled to be released by Paramount Pictures here in the U.S. a couple of months ago, but the studio ended up deserting the movie altogether at the last minute. But Netflix swooped in to save the film from a lifetime on a dusty shelf somewhere, and picked up the movie for release this summer. Now the streaming service has released a new trailer, and the animation is just as stunning and captivating as it's always been. I can't wait to finally see the full film.
The Little Prince will be available theatrically and to stream on Netflix starting on August 5, 2016.
If you're a fan of the new DC Cinematic Universe, you'll like Warner Bros. latest exhibit. The exhibit showcases set pieces, costumes, and props from Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad! I'm still holding out hope for Suicide Squad, but I don't know if I'd drop full ticket price to see more Batman v Superman stuff again. Also once again I'm upset that DC has shunned their television universe in this project, as well as ignored some of their older hero films! You might as well call this the "this is what we're selling now" hero exhibit!
Anyway, take a tour of the new studio below. I guess it's cool if you happen to be in the area. I wouldn't mind goofing around with that Kryptonite.
J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot has been developing a small-budget thriller called God Particle over the past few years, and casting has been ramping up in recent months. David Oyelowo, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Daniel Bruhl are already on board to star, and now THR brings word that Bridesmaids star Chris O'Dowd has also joined the cast. John Krasinski was in talks at one point, but O'Dowd has taken over that role.
Here's what we know about the plot 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. Fanboy rumors peg this as the next movie in the "Cloververse," joining Cloverfield and this year's 10 Cloverfield Lane, but that's still just speculation at this point.
In any case, God Particle arrives in theaters on February 24, 2017, and O'Dowd is a welcome addition to an already-great group of actors. He appeared in movies like Thor: The Dark World and Cuban Fury, and will next be seen in Tim Burton's Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children.
It's incredible to see how much this Chewbacca Lady has blown up online. The internet is a crazy place and this shows that you never know what the next big internet-breaking thing is going to be. Who would have thought a lady laughing while wearing a Chewbacca mask would have exploded like this?
I haven't seen many video parodies of Chewbacca Lady, but then I haven't really been looking for them. A friend sent me this one that he cut together called The Empire Strikes: The Chewbacca Lady, and I thought was pretty damn amusing. The video was created by YouTube user kreshjun, who offered the following note:
The Chewbacca Lady has gained the attention of the entire galaxy with her viral video. Now the Empire seeks to put an end to it!
Mel Gibson's name has been connected to superhero movies ever since he was initially wanted to play Wolverine in the first X-Men movie, and a couple of years ago, Robert Downey Jr. made headlines saying that he wanted Gibson to direct Iron Man 4, and that was after Gibson's racist tirade. While at the Cannes Film Festival promoting his new movie Blood Father, the Aussie actor revealed that he was approached by Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios for a role in front of the camera in the MCU:
“Yeah, long time ago, to play Thor’s dad,” Gibson told The Guardian when they asked him if he'd been approached to star in a superhero film. “But I didn’t do it.” Anthony Hopkins ended up taking that role, and brought a the thundering Shakespearean quality to the character that I'm not sure Gibson could have replicated. It might have been interesting to see his take on Odin, but I think he burned bridges with a large audience after his off-screen rants.
In the interview, Gibson also spoke about the state of modern superhero films:
“Some are good. Some are kind of funny … ‘Guardians of the Galaxy.’ Or the first ‘Iron Man.’ And some of them are just like [retreads]. I mean you can watch them do Spider-Man five times … There is a slight shift in film. But, then again, I think all films are suffering from people not being able to now open them with their name. It’s a different kind of business these days...I think you used to get more variety of stories, films and performances. You had more of a chance of a profound film experience. But that’s not gone. I think that has been relegated to the independent world – but they have to do it twice as fast for half the money.”
Like it or not, the actor/director has been given yet another chance in Hollywood, and his newest directorial effort, Hacksaw Ridge, is nearly complete, so we'll probably be seeing that one hit theaters sometime this fall.
Ah the good old mouse and keyboard. PC's bread and butter to gaming peripherals, but sometimes the WASD set up just doesn't quite let you reach comfortably...read more on Gametyrant
The HBO comedy Silicon Valley is in the middle of one of its best seasons so far, and one of the scenes I laughed at the hardest is the scene in which T.J. Miller's Erlich Bachman meets and promptly insults Stephen Tobolowsky's "Action" Jack Barker with a string of jokes about Barker's old age. The network has now released a new outtake reel that shows Miller riffing on the concept with new one-liners for four straight minutes, and as you might expect, it's pretty damn great. My favorite part? Seeing Tobolowsky, a long-time veteran of the industry, visibly cracking up from behind as Miller hits him with some of the more ridiculous insults. Check it out below:
Via: Uproxx
We had to watch Rory Williams die all over again! We continue our reviews of Chibnall-written episodes and discuss the latest news in this episode of Bad Wolf Radio. Listen on PodTyrant
I'm not exactly sure how this physically works, but apparently a hologram artist carved grooves into the upcoming vinyl release of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens soundtrack and when a light is shined directly on it, holograms of some of the movie's spaceships appear to float just above the spinning record. Pretty cool, right? Disc one contains a hologram of the Millennium Falcon, and disc two features a TIE Fighter hologram.
The vinyl soundtrack, which costs $50, will hit shelves on June 17, 2016. Personally, I thought John Williams' score was one of the least memorable things about this movie, but if you're a completist and haven't picked it up yet, this seems like the coolest way to complete your collection. J.J. Abrams also wrote sixteen pages of liner notes for this thing, so that'll be a nice little bonus, too.
Via: The Wrap
Burger Fiction is back with one of their most niche supercuts yet. "Welcome to a Supercut" involves characters across film history (but mostly confined to the past thirty years) saying the words "welcome to..." and introducing a character to a location. There are a number of nice little editing choices here, including the fact that when a character says "welcome to the middle of the film," it's right in the middle of their own supercut. You know, meta stuff like that. You'll pick up on them if you watch closely.
I'm a little surprised they skipped the recent Kristen Wiig movie where she wins the lotto and creates her own TV show called Welcome to Me, because the words are right there in the title. Can't get 'em all, I guess.
Via: Sploid
We recently heard a rumor that Daniel Craig turned down an offer of $100 million to reprise his role as James Bond. If Craig isn’t going to return will take on the mantle of 007? My vote is for Tom Hiddleston, but it seems like that’s not the direction filmmakers plan on taking it.
While reporting on Craig’s new Steven Soderbergh film project Logan Lucky, which is about group of brothers who attempt a crime during a NASCAR race in Charlotte, Deadline says they have confirmed that Jamie Bell (Fantastic Four) is being considered for the part. He has had discussions with producer Barbara Broccoli, who previously worked with Bell on the movie Film Stars Don’t Lie.
Bell is definitely an interesting and unexpected choice. He is 30 years old, and in case you think that might be too young to play James Bond, actor George Lazenby was 30 years old when he played the character in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Bell is a talented actor who has previously starred in films such as Billy Elliot, King Kong, Jumper, Flags of Our Fathers, Defiance, Jane Eyre, The Adventures of Tintin, Snowpierecer, the AMC series Turn, and more. The guy definitely has range.
The young actor could definitely bring something fresh and new to the character, which is probably what producers will want after Craig. I’m just not sure if Bell embodies the suave gravitas of the character, but we’ll just have to wait and see. I'm still rooting for Hiddleston.
I am the oldest brother in my family, and I have lots of memories of playing video games with my younger brothers. We spent hours on end playing games together on Sega Genesis, PlayStation One, and the Xbox. I’ve got a fantastic animated short film called "Player Two" that “explores the relationship that develops between two brothers of differing age growing up, and how video games foster that bond.”
The film was created Zachary Antell, and it focuses on the younger sibling and how he is “Player Two” to his older brother. If you grew up with siblings who played lots of video games together, you might want to grab a box of tissues because this film might bring on the water works. It packs an emotional punch and makes me miss the good ol’ days.
Last year it was announced that a new Mega Man animated series was going into development. The production is being created by Man of Action Entertainment, which is the studio behind shows such as Ben 10 and Ultimate Spider-Man. Today we have our first look at the character design that we’ll see in the series.
According to the press release, the series will star “a young and otherwise normal robot named Aki Light with a secret power: He can become Mega Man, ‘the world's first robot super-hero’. When activated, his skin re-forms - in a flurry of computer code and visual pyrotechnics - into a suit of impenetrable nanocore armor, including the iconic Mega Buster arm cannon and helmet."
The story is set in Silicon City and will center around Aki’s attempts to balance a normal life with the adventures he embarks on as Mega Man. The show will also include other characters from the classic game franchise as well as new characters that include Mega Mini and his robot dog Rush.
The target audience for the series is kids aged 6 to 9, "as well as their parents who grew up loving the video games." Dentsu Entertainment USA's Kinoshita said, "Mega Man has a rare, almost three-decade-long tradition with fans." I love Mega Man, but nothing will aver beat the awesomeness of that very first game, which was released in 1987.
Since then the character has appeared in over 50 video games, including 10 games in the original Mega Man series. Man of Action says that the new cartoon series will give fans of the character an "unflinching wide-eyed optimism and an over-the-top sense of humor.”
The series is set to debut just in time for the character's 30th anniversary next year in 2017. As a longtime fan, I’m curious to see how this new series is going to turn out.
