Couch Tomato and Hulk share their Hurricane Matthew Experience and discuss disaster movies...Listen on PodTyrant

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As you know, Iron Man director Jon Favreau is directing a feature film reimagining of the Walt Disney animated classic The Lion King. Writer Justin Marks took screenplay duties for Favreau's version of The Jungle Book, but the director will be working with a different scribe for this project. Deadline reports that the job has gone to Jeff Nathanson, the veteran screenwriter whose best credit is probably Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can.

Nathanson's filmography is spotty, though. He's one of the credited writers of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and he penned The Terminal, Speed 2: Cruise Control, and Brett Ratner's Rush Hour 2, Rush Hour 3, and Tower Heist. Yikes. He's also written the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, so I assume that means some Disney exec likes what he's done with that script enough to hire him again here and keep him under the Mouse House roof.

The Jungle Book was an old enough property that expectations weren't very high for Favreau's version of that (and it helped that the original movie kind of sucks). But The Lion King, on the other hand, is one of the biggest success stories in Disney animated history, and it's massively beloved by just about everyone. There's a lot more pressure this time around, and I hope Nathanson can come up with something that lives up to the original.

HalloweenCostumes.com has created a nice infographic detailing the evolution of gloved killer Freddy Krueger from the classic horror franchise A Nightmare on Elm Street. I hate that we're at the point where I have to praise the artists behind infographics simply for spelling everything correctly, but there are so many garbage infographics out there that don't know what they're talking about, I suppose it's time to give credit where it's due. Well done, HalloweenCostumes. Well done.

You should be able to click on the image to enlarge it, but you may need to zoom to read some of the fine print.

Marvel Studios has released a new featurette for Doctor Strange, the newest entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This one introduces us to the film's protagonist and his supporting cast of good guys, and it features a couple bits of new footage. We've seen most of this before, but there are a few moments between the two Benedicts — Cumberbatch and Wong — that provide more examples of the movie's sense of humor.

Open your mind. Change your reality. Watch this featurette and learn about the characters in #DoctorStrange, in theaters November 4th! pic.twitter.com/cHBFTREvTY

— Doctor Strange (@DrStrange) October 13, 2016

It's crazy to me how they think that we won't notice when they've spliced together different sections of the actors talking to make it sound as if they're saying something naturally, but it's always so clear when they do that. Check out the bit from Rachel McAdams at :27...her words in that sentence have been cut up and moved around so much, she's nearly unintelligible. This is certainly not limited to Doctor Strange marketing — it happens all the time — but I thought that moment was particularly eyebrow-raising. In any case, this movie looks fantastic, and I can't wait to check it out when it arrives in theaters on November 4, 2016.

Since Mythbusters came to an end, Adam Savage has been staying in the pop culture consciousness by dressing up in elaborate costumes and wandering around crowded conventions completely incognito, filming the whole experience for the YouTube show Tested. In his latest video, he dons a full sized Totoro costume from Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro. Check it out!

Adam Savage walks through New York Comic Con in his newest cosplay: the titular forest spirit from the film My Neighbor Totoro! In portraying this friendly and fuzzy character, Adam strolls through the convention floor receiving hugs and warming hearts. Plus, check out Adam’s perspective from a camera mounted on the costume!

As Terry Gilliam continues to struggle to get his Don Quixote movie off the ground, Disney has started developing their own feature film based on the legendary character. The studio has hired The Hunger Games and Captain Phillips scribe Billy Ray to write the script. 

According to THR, the plan is to transform the classic story written by Cervantes Saavedra into a wildly fun and fantastical film that's in the same style of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Makes me wonder if they plan on casting Johnny Depp in the title role.

Don Quixote was published in 1605, and it tells the story told of a lower-class aristocrat named Alanso Quixano who, "after reading too many novels about chivalry, loses his sanity and comes to believe that knights, maidens and dragons really exist. Making a portly neighbor his squire, the man refashions himself a knight named Don Quixote and sets off on a quest for adventure. Innkeepers become lords, windmills become dragons and peasant girls become ladies-in-waiting to him as he and his servant find themselves in situations that are often comical, disastrous and violent."

There's no doubt in my mind that Disney is hoping that this will become another big franchise that they could capitalize on. It definitely has potential, and it could be a lot of fun if done right. I'm still more interested in Gilliam's version, and I hope he gets to release his film first. 

H.G. Wells' classic alien invasion story War of the Worlds is being adapted into a TV series. You would think a big epic project like this would be developed by a major cable network or streaming service, but nope... it's coming from MTV. 

I don't watch any series on MTV because none of them look very good. I tried to watch their Scream series, but I just couldn't get into it. War of the Worlds has been adapted several times over the years, the most recent of which was Steven Spielberg's 2005 film, which ended up being a disappointment. I didn't care for the second half of that film.

Jeff Davis and writer Andrew Cochran, the team behind the series Teen Wolf, will be bringing it to life. But since I never cared for Teen Wolf, I'm not expecting anything special. I just imagine the War of the Worlds series will be just as mediocre. 

Source: THR

Out of all the things we expected we could do in Battlefield 1, controlling a pigeon is not one of them. Yet that's exactly what you'll do in the games campaign...read more on Gametyrant

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I've got a fantastic short film here for you to watch called "Lost Face" which is based on Jack London's classic short story of the same name. The story is set in the mid 1800s and it follows a fur thief who "must think fast to escape the terrible, protracted torture that awaits him at the hands of the native tribe he had helped enslave." The film was written and directed by Sean Meehan for Soma Films, and it is fantastic. If you're familiar with the story, this is a solid adaptation. If you aren't, it's still a great film worth watching. I hope you like it!

The Accountant is one hell of a badass film and is probably one of my favorite movies of the year. I've seen a lot of reviews say that the plot is preposterous, but lots of fun and great movies have preposterous plots, like John Wick for example! Why they decided to single this one out is beyond me because it's awesomely entertaining. I freakin' loved it, and if you get a chance to see it this weekend, make sure you do! Ben Affleck is pretty great in it, and it's easily one of my favorite characters he's played. 

The movie opens today, but before you watch it, here's a motion comic released by DC Comics that introduces the character Christian Wolff and gives you a little background story and the mystery surrounding him. "The story follows Christian from his seemingly simple life as an accountant to reveal his secret life as an assassin as he investigates a case." Enjoy!

Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) is a math savant with more affinity for numbers than people. Behind the cover of a small-town CPA office, he works as a freelance accountant for some of the world’s most dangerous criminal organizations. With the Treasury Department’s Crime Enforcement Division, run by Ray King (J.K. Simmons), starting to close in, Christian takes on a legitimate client: a state-of-the-art robotics company where an accounting clerk (Anna Kendrick) has discovered a discrepancy involving millions of dollars. But as Christian uncooks the books and gets closer to the truth, it is the body count that starts to rise.

As soon as it was confirmed that Rachel McAdams was playing Christine Palmer in Marvel Studios' Doctor Strange, a lot of fans jumped for joy at the thought of McAdams taking on the mantle of the superhero-aiding Night Nurse, which the character does in the comics. But it sounds like that excitement may have been premature.

EW sat down with Marvel Studios president and Doctor Strange producer Kevin Feige, who revealed that transformation won't occur in this film:

“I will say that that story line does not play into the movie,” he reveals. As for the future? “It’s just as much fun for us as it is for the fans to speculate about that.”

McAdams is a bit more vague, simply saying "Mum's the word on that one" when asked about it, but I think we can probably take Feige at his word here.

That means that we'll likely see McAdams step into that alter ego in Doctor Strange 2, which seems an awful lot like what's happening with Evangeline Lilly as The Wasp in the Ant-Man movies. (Though I suppose the same thing happened with War Machine in the Iron Man films.) In any case, I hope McAdams is given something substantial to do in Doctor Strange and isn't just stuck on the sidelines or on the other end of a phone worrying about the main character.

Ridley Scott's classic sci-fi horror film Alien ended up with a pretty simple title design. As simple as it was, though, the way it was presented to us in the opening of the film was pretty awesome. I included that opening below for you to watch if you want.

I'm sure there were a ton of different title designs created for the film, and one of these alternate design popped up online recently over at We Are The Mutants. The design comes from Michael Doret, and as you can see above, it was very much influenced by the art of H.R. Giger. This is what the artist had to say about it:

“The title treatment I designed for Ridley Scott’s Alien never made it into the public arena. It had some small promotional uses before it was run over by the Bill Gold Advertising machine and relegated to the back burner. At any rate, this was great fun to have worked on—the more so since I was able to work on it with my friend (the now famous “pop-surrealist”) Todd Schorr. I designed and drew the forms based on the “bio-mechanical” forms I saw in some publicity stills from the production, and Todd painted the absolutely gorgeous finished art.”

It's a really fun design but it may have been a little bit over the top for the film. I ultimately like what they ended up using, but it's still cool to see alternate designs for stuff that could've been.

Via: Birth.Movies.Death

The beta for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare will be live at 10 AM PST/1 PM EST today. It will run all weekend and come to an end on Monday, October 17th. I'm sure....read more on Gametyrant

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The Ride Along franchise experienced a bit of a drop-off in box office receipts between the first and second films, but it isn't enough to worry Universal, because the studio is putting another sequel into development.

Director Tim Story told The Wrap that Ride Along 3 is in the works:

“We’re writing the script right now, we’re writing away and basically, I’m waiting to see some pages and we’re excited for the idea and what it can be and of course bringing Kevin [Hart] and Ice Cube back together because they are the greatest odd couple in the world. I’m impatiently waiting for a script to be given to me. We have some great ideas.”

If the first film came out in 2014 and the second one hit in 2016, I think it's reasonable to assume this new one might arrive in 2018.

I haven't seen either of these movies (Kevin Hart's schtick can be a little too manic and shriek-y for my tastes), but what do you guys think? Do we have some Ride Hards (that's what fans of this franchise call themselves, right?) out there? Are you excited about the possibility of a third movie?

When I saw reports that there were Easter Eggs I may have missed in the latest Rogue One trailer, I wasn't too surprised. I was too captivated by the awesomeness to really focus in on other stuff. But when I saw Mr. Sunday Movies created a nearly 11-minute video highlighting these Easter Eggs, I began to feel like I missed some major things!

Turns out I did, and you likely did too if you didn't take the time to examine some of the finer details. Hell, I didn't even know there were differences between the classic Star Wars Vader costume and the prequels. 

See 10 things you may have missed and get a lot more info below. 

It's a team up I'm sure no one saw coming. Seriously, who would've thought any universe could house both the Power Rangers and the Justice League? Better question, why would any universe NEED the Power Rangers and the Justice League? It's best not to ask questions and just be thankful as i09 reports both teams will be apart of a six issue series. 

The story will feature the original Power Rangers losing Zack (Black Ranger) when he gets trapped in space and time when the command center malfunctions. He then finds himself with the Justice League, and our story begins from there.

I know the Justice League can be goofy at times, but how will they react to the Rangers doing crazy hand motions before martial arts and crazy backflips? Can the Rangers even hold a candle to the Justice League? 

I guess we will find out when the series begins this January. 

I don't spend much time reading about the tech world because I'm too busy covering stuff that happens in movies and television, but apparently Facebook guru Mark Zuckerberg has created a personal AI that will run his house...similar, I imagine, to Iron Man's Jarvis. So when Zuckerberg put out the call and asked his friends/followers who he should ask to provide the voice to the AI, there were some interesting responses. Someone suggested the actual voice of Jarvis, Paul Bettany himself (to which Zuckerberg responded, "That's what they'd expect us to do"), but among the other responses, one stood out above the rest.

Robert Downey Jr. commented and said he would do it, but there was a somewhat baffling stipulation associated with it:

"I'll do it in a heartbeat if Bettany gets paid and donates it to a cause of Cumberbatch's choosing...that's the right kind of STRANGE!"

Wait...so RDJ would do the voice, Zuckerberg would pay Bettany, and then Bettany would turn the money over to a charity that Benedict Cumberbatch chooses? Strange, indeed.

Zuckerberg quickly responded "This just got real," so it seems as if this might actually happen. Not that any of us will ever get to experience it unless we get invited to Zuck's house for a dinner party of something, but maybe he'll like Downey's voice controlling his house so much that he'll invent some way to work it into the fabric of Facebook itself and it'll eventually trickle down to us.

If you're a fan of pop culture art, you absolutely need to be paying attention to L.A.'s Hero Complex Gallery. It's one of the best spots in the country to score jaw-droppingly awesome artwork based on some of you favorite movies, TV shows, video games, and more, and they're constantly putting out stuff that's so good, I always wonder how they're going to top themselves next. The latest batch of super-impressive art they've released are the pieces they brought to this year's New York Comic Con. I encourage you to check all of those pieces out on their website (where you can also purchase them, if they haven't sold out yet), but some of this stuff was so good that I just had to share it with you guys here. Check their site for all artist info, availability, and pricing.

While Jeffrey Dean Morgan is about to menace Rick and his pals on The Walking Dead, there's a chance he could also end up playing The Dark Knight himself in an upcoming DC film — albeit briefly.

In a new interview, Morgan had an intriguing theory for CinemaBlend about how he could don the cape and cowl. As you know, Morgan was already cast as Thomas Wayne in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but he was gunned down in the opening minutes of that film. So how could Thomas Wayne take on the mantle of the Batman? The answer: If a future DC movie tackled the Flashpoint storyline, a comics event in which Barry Allen traveled back in time to save his mother's life but created an alternate timeline in which young Bruce Wayne was gunned down in that alley and Thomas was driven to become Batman instead.

"Maybe when [Zack Snyder] cast me that was kind of the goal. Hopefully DC can figure this all out, and in a few years I can come back and do a Flashpoint Batman! I would love it. That would be great."

"I have not had any big discussions with him about [Flashpoint], but I remember when we were in Australia doing Watchmen press, and I was having dinner with Zack or whatever. And he was like, 'My dream is to do the Frank Miller Batman.' And he goes, 'You would be an awesome Batman.' The darker version."

Just to be completely clear, we don't know if this is something that's even being tossed around internally at Warner Bros., and there's a good chance it will never come to pass at all. But at the same time, I can easily see this happening in a future DC movie. Sure, maybe not immediately since Wonder Woman, Justice League, and more solo movies are on the way, but maybe in The Flash 2 — and just think of what else they could do with casting and creating a bizarre alternate reality. The possibilities are nearly endless!

Ben Affleck isn't going anywhere any time soon, but what do you think about the chance of seeing Jeffrey Dean Morgan suit up as Batman in an alternate timeline?

The Friday The 13th video game will be delayed until Spring 2017. The decision seems primarily based on the development team wanting to add more features to the game...read more on Gametyrant

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