This month, we celebrate the holidays with a martial arts movie, as many this season are wont to do! Ben and Tyler strap on their irons and battle over whether Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny has great martial art cinematography or the greatest martial art cinematography! Listen on PodTyrant
Long ago, my grandfather told me the key to avoiding alcoholism is not drinking a lot, but having a large glass to drink out of. My grandfather was German, so I can only assume this is something ingrained in him from generations back. The point I'm trying to make here is that German beer steins are massive, and great for the man who wants to drink a lot...but not get up to do so.
If you're someone who likes to drink a lot, not get up, and likes Star Wars, boy am I about to make your day! These German beer steins are pretty amazing and fairly cheap at $49.99 a piece! Check out the options (Boba Fett, R2-D2, Darth Vader, Chewbacca) below and order one right here!
Matthew Vaughn's Kingsman: The Secret Service was such an insanely bonkers action movie that it's hard to believe that it can get any more insane. I was so happy with how that movie turned out, but according to the film's star, Taron Egerton, Kingsman: The Golden Circle is going to be bigger and badder than the first one. While talking about the sequel with CinemaBlend, he said:
“[Matthew Vaughn] goes even further with it. It's kind of absolutely crazy. Julianne Moore is the villain, and she's genuinely terrifying. She's really, really, really great. So it's bigger, badder, more guns, you know? All that stuff. It's fun.”
I'm sure it is fun! That's pretty exciting to hear! All we know at this point in terms of story is that the sequel involves an attack on Kingsman HQ, and Eggsy and Merlin head to the United States to enlist the help of the Statesman, which is an American spy organization.
The rest of the cast also includes Jeff Bridges, Halle Berry, Pedro Pascal, Mark Strong, Elton John, Channing Tatum, and Vinnie Jones.
20th Century Fox will release the film on June 16th, 2017. Now we know that it will be "absolutely crazy," "bigger," and "badder," and I like the sound of that. If they have a scene in it that can top the church fight scene... I can't wait to see it!
Early word on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story indicates that fans seem to like the film, and they especially like Alan Tudyk's droid K2-SO. Is this the talking droid that will knock C-3PO off his high horse? I guess we will wait until we see the film to make our official ruling, but until then, you can cash in early on the hype with this ThinkGeek K2-SO pendant. Perfect for a formal night out to the cinema or the comic book store to play tabletop games. This luxurious pendant is yours for just $24.99.
HBO's Westworld was a completely awesome and mind-blowing viewing experience. This is easily one of the best shows on TV, and I'm so excited that the story will continue with a second season. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until 2018 until we see it.
In a recent interview with Variety and EW, series showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy talked about the series and offered up some new details on where they will be taking it. If you haven't finished the series yet, then I suggest that you not read ahead because there are spoilers discussed.
One of the first things they confirm right off the bat is that Anthony Hopkins' character John Ford is dead, but it sounds like Hopkins could come back in some form. When asked if the actor would be back in season two, Nolan said:
"Working with Anthony Hopkins on this season of TV has been one of the greatest pleasures and privileges for Lisa and I in our careers. It’s been an incredible experience, and we’ll see where our story takes us."
So it sounds to me like they are keeping their options open. I'm sure they already know how they are going to handle it, but they aren't going to say anything! When developing the series they wanted the story and characters to grow organically. Nolan and Joy have already started working on the outline and scripts for season two, and it's looking very ambitious. Joy said that there are "some surprises and bits of it that you won’t see coming." Nolan explained that the ambition behind the project is one of the reasons why we won't see season two until 2018:
"It’s an ambitious project, and HBO has encouraged us to take the time and resources that we need to work on each stage of that. I love television. One of the fun things about television is that sometimes you find yourself in this place where you have to wear all these hats at once. You have to write, shoot, and cut simultaneously. We wanted to in the second season spend some more time writing, then switch gears into production, then cut. So we’re not going to follow the annual year-on-year tradition of television. Television’s changing. And the ambition of the project is such that we’re going to take our time to get the second season right."
In a separate interview with EW, Samurai World was brought up. We got to see a glimpse of this world in the series, and it was quite intriguing, one that I would love to see explored further. Samurai World is an extension of the Westworld park, and there are sure to be other extensions in development as well. Nolan said:
"One of the things we’ve established is Westworld is the proto-park. It’s the first park. The other parks, you would imagine, are extensions. In the Disney universe, you start with a parking lot in Anaheim, California, and then you grow. We would imagine, yes, Ford has had a great deal of sway over everything we’re seeing."
Joy explained:
"We’re definitely teasing there are other worlds. How many other worlds and what is the nature of the other worlds is something we’ll start to explore more in season 2. But it was definitely fun filming those samurai [scenes]."
Nolan added:
"It was awesome. Something we’re constantly asked is, 'Is there a Roman World and Medieval World? We couldn’t say 'no,' because we wanted to go in a slightly different direction. This samurai-shogun world, for us, has a very specific relation to the Western. Some of my favorite movies are the Sergio Leone adaptations of the Akira Kurosawa samurai films: The Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven. In the period when the Western was the biggest genre in the world, the interplay between Westerns and samurai films in the domestic market in Japan was really cool. On that meta level, those two genres have this almost incestuous relationship with each other. We just couldn’t resist."
In yet another interview with THR, Nolan and Joy clarified things a bit more, teasing that Samurai World will play a bigger part in the future of the show. Nolan said that he's been practicing with his Samurai sword, and Joy said:
"I’ve taken years of martial arts that have suddenly fallen by the wayside now that we’re showrunning. (Laughs.) But it’s wonderful to work with actors we haven’t worked with before. This allows us a lot of access to Asian actors and the Asian community which is very important to me as part Asian myself."
I'm not sure what there plans for it will be, but I sure hope that they eventually have an entire season dedicated to it! As for what fans can expect from season two, Joy offered the following insight:
"I think part of it is we’ve looked at the hosts trying to become aware of the reality of their situation and who they are. To hear their own voices. That’s where we’ve gotten to at the end of this season. Now the thing we get to explore is once they’ve heard their own voices and once they’ve embraced who they are, what choices will they make? It speaks to a thing of how identity constantly evolves. They were steeped and raised in violence. These violent delights did indeed have violent ends at the end of the season. And I think we’re going to see how that pendulum swings going forward."
She went on to say that now that the "gloves are off," we're going to see a lot of "flies." She explained:
Well, the flies were always the canary in the coal mine of where the story was going, because they were the one not-programmed creature in the park. So that tiny little slap that Dolores did at the beginning of the season was a harbinger of things to come. Now, in Season 2, now that the gloves are off, we’re gonna see a lot of flies — and they’re not necessarily gonna be actual flies.
I can't wait to see what kind of chaos will ensue in Westworld season two, but I know that Nolan and Joy are going to make sure that they give best possible series they can as they continue the journey that they've started us on.
We're only a few days away from the official release of writer/director Damien Chazelle's new movie La La Land, which has been earning rave reviews ever since its debut on the film festival circuit earlier this year. Editor Kees van Dijkhuizen Jr. decided now would be a good time to take a quick look back at Chazelle's breakout movie, Whiplash, with the latest entry into his Insight video essay series, which takes audio from director commentaries and marries it to the visuals from the films they're discussing.
I've written a lot about Whiplash here on the site — it was my favorite film of 2014 — and this is one of the most succinct, well-edited videos I've seen about it. It's a nice blend of Chazelle talking about the short that inspired the feature, along with some highlights from the feature itself. Do yourself a favor and watch the movie before you check this out, though, because the ending of this video culminates in a discussion of the film's (fantastic) climax.
So that memo that leaked from Starbucks yesterday? It was legit, but it apparently didn't mean new Pokemon would be coming to Pokemon Go...at least not immediately...read more on Gametyrant
If you haven't watched the first two seasons of HBO's The Leftovers yet, you should definitely check it out. It's a fascinating series with one hell of a crazy story that has been quite an interesting experience to watch unfold.
If you are a fan of the show, you'll be happy to hear that series creator Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta have announced the season three premiere. It will air on HBO in April of 2017. You can watch them make the announcement in the video below.
I have absolutely no idea what the story for season three will entail, but it will be the final season of the series. When previously talking about how he planned on approaching a third season, Lindelof said:
“The big thing we gotta figure out for season three is: Where are we going to end it? What’s the last episode of this series going to be? We’ll design the entire season basically building up to that moment. I think there was a very purposeful circularity between seasons one and two, with the ‘wherever you go, there you are’ theme of it all. We decided to end the second season very similar to the first season. The Garveys felt like they could pickup and go to this place the Departure didn’t happen, but lo and behold, the same exact thing happened. The only safe place is the place you’re surrounded by the people you love. We can’t do that again, and not just because the audience is expecting it, but because we were telling a story about geography in season two, while season three is going to be something else entirely.”
The cast consists of Justin Theroux, Carrie Coon, Amy Brenneman, Kevin Carroll, Christopher Eccleston, Scott Glenn, Lindsay Duncan, Regina King, Jovan Adepo, Janel Moloney, Margaret Qualley, Jasmin Savoy-Brown, Liv Tyler, and Chris Zylka.
Watch for a special message from the creators of #TheLeftovers. pic.twitter.com/ttbB9Mo3mN
— The Leftovers (@TheLeftoversHBO) December 6, 2016
Marvel has released a brief trailer tease for Spider-Man: Homecoming, and it's a few seconds of footage that is sure to get you excited to see more! The footage features a POV shot from Peter Parker (Tom Holland), and we see Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) walk in on him asking him what he's wearing. Parker had obviously just put on a new Spidey suit sent to him by Tony Stark. That suit comes with a minor upgrade... web wings, and we see him put them to use after he jumps off the top of a building!
The teaser also confirms that we'll see the first full trailer for tomorrow on December 8th during Jimmy Kimmel Live! I can't wait! Spider-Man: Homecoming is set to be released on July 7th, 2017 and now watch the video below!
The punky goth girl Emily the Strange is getting an animated film adaptation at Amazon Studios. The character was created by skateboarder Rob Reger back in the '90s as an advertising mascot for his clothing company, Cosmic Debris. She first appeared on Santa Cruz skateboards and stickers of her were distributed at concerts, record stores, and skateboard shops.
From there, the character just exploded in popularity, and she was featured in books, comic books, toys, and more. Years ago Chloe Moretz was set to play the character in a live-action movie, but nothing ever came of that. Now we have this animated film to look forward to.
I personally like the idea of seeing an animated film based on the character more than a live action film. It will be able to keep that fun style, authenticity, and edginess that fans love about the character.
"Emily the Strange is a goth-looking 13-year old girl who is usually accompanied by her four black cats: Sabbath - the troublemaker, Nee-Chee - the schemer, Miles - the creative, and Mystery, the leader of the group. The franchise has a considerable merchandising catalog, including clothing, stationery, stickers, and accessories."
Dark Horse Entertainment, who has been publishing Emily the Strange comics since 2005, is currently negotiating the deal with Amazon Studios, and Reger is attached as a producer along with Mike Richardson and Dark Horse's Keith Goldberg.
Source: THR
2016 was a bit of a bummer year overall, but it did provide us with some truly amazing films. Clark Zhu has edited together a terrific mashup that reminds us of a lot of the year's best cinematic moments, and it serves as both a nice walk down memory lane and a friendly reminder to check out some of the films that slipped through the cracks this year.
Then there's this one from critic David Ehrlich, who's been consistently creating some of the best year-end countdown videos around this time for the past few years. His tastes can be eclectic sometimes, and there are a few movies here that I'm guessing many of you haven't even heard of before (they're not even close to being in GeekTyrant's wheelhouse), but the editing is on point. Check it out below, and let us know what some of your favorite 2016 films are in the comments.
Damion Lewis, the actor who has starred in projects such as Homeland, Band of Brothers, Dreamcatcher, and Billions, is joining the Ocean's Eleven spinoff film Ocean's Eight.
The film has a fun cast of actresses that already includes Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, Awkwafina, and Sarah Paulson. The group of thieves and cons are led by Bullock as they try to pull off a major heist.
Lewis will play the main villain in the film. He will be Bullock’s ex-lover and the target of the gang’s robbery. I've always enjoyed this actor's work, and I think he'll make a great addition to the film.
Gary Ross is directing the film from a script that he co-wrote with Olivia Milch. Ocean's Eleven director Stephen Soderbergh is also involved with the project and serves as the film's producer.
Ocean's Eight is set to hit theaters on June 8th, 2018.
Source: Variety
As I got older, I realized it's not a good look to be stuck making the same four or five dishes over and over again for dinner every week. Expanding your cooking abilities is a strong, borderline-necessary tactic, and one way to do that is to up your kitchen utensil game with tools like immersion blenders. I got one not too long ago, and it's resulted in some delicious meals.
But for those who need a little extra convincing to take that next step in the kitchen, how about a Star Wars-themed piece to help ease you into that next stage of adulthood? ThinkGeek has just the thing with an officially licensed lightsaber immersion blender that's designed to look like Anakin Skywalker's blue saber, so it's a good alternative for anyone who thinks the red saber is too Sith Lord-ish for making dinner.
When Anakin Skywalker was training, protecting Padme, traveling through the galaxy, and getting on Obi-Wan's nerves (and ours), there wasn't room for a traditional blender for his energy drinks. That's why he developed the Star Wars Lightsaber Immersion Blender. This corded, adjustable speed blender can make anything from Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina's salsa to blue milk smoothies in a snap. It's not as clumsy or as random as a traditional blender, and it only has one piece to wash!
Yet another TV spot has been released for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but what makes this one so special is that it seems to have a cool little Star Wars Rebels Easter egg!
There's a brief clip where we see what appears to be The Ghost, the ship from the series. So it looks like Hera Syndulla and the rest of the crew of the modified VCX-100 light fighter ship will be joining the fight against the Empire in the film! As a fan of the series, it's pretty exciting to see this. In the screenshot above, you can see the ship on the bottom. Below the spot I included an image of the ship from the series for you to compare.
I've also included a couple new clips for you to watch as well. The first has Krennic confronting Galen Erso about coming with him to work on the Death Star. The second focuses on Bodhi coming up with the team's callsign.
The movie hits theaters on December 16th!
Remember Mario Paint? The 1992 Super Nintendo game gave you the option to sketch and color images using a mouse, so Mike Matei spent a staggering four months using that technology to recreate the intro to the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series. Why? The better question is, why not? Take a look at the impressively-created video (the characters' motion comes across very well), and then let Mike show you in painstaking detail how he made this possible.
I'd say I was surprised that it took the internet until 2016 to get around to doing this, but then again it seems like an incredibly excruciating process, so I guess I actually can believe it took that long.
Via: Sploid
Tom Phillips, the same Eurogamer writer who leaked the general design of Nintendo Switch months ahead of its launch is back with another big reveal. It appears that the Nintendo Switch...read more on Gametyrant
I'm pretty stoked about the upcoming live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. I think the movie looks stunning, and I like everything I've heard about how the story was developed as it's a reimagining of the franchise as a whole. It looks to me like director Rupert Sanders has done a great job, but we'll just have to wait and see when the full movie is released. We all know trailers can be deceiving.
In a recent interview with MTV, Scarlett Johansson opened up about the character she plays in the film, know as The Major, and offers some insight on playing a cyborg. The Major is a real person whose body was replaced with cybernetic parts, but the actual brain of the person it represents is still alive. The actress explained:
“She’s not living a human existence. She’s not living a fully robotic existence, either.”
She said that the film is a "coming-of-age story" for The Major. When we first meet the character, her job is the only thing that matters, and that job is taking down cybercriminals and hackers. Johansson explained:
“She never sleeps. She never really shuts off. She has vague memories of who she was before she became The Major and she has a connection to who she was through her relationship with [Juliette Binoche’s character] Ouelet and the people who work at Hanka — they remind her of what her story was — but the experiences that they’re living around her are totally unfamiliar to her.”
The actress also explained that the closer The Major gets to the film's villain, a cyberterrorist named Kuz played by Michael Pitt, she begins to have glitches and flashbacks. She can't really tell if these are actual memories she remembers or if they were implanted in her. She explained, “As she gets closer to the enemy, she strangely gets closer to herself.”
There is one character in the story who The Major has a very close relationship with, and that is Batou (Pilou Asbæk). Batou is part of the Section 9 task force and is always by the side of The Major. When talking about the relationship between these two characters Johansson said:
“I think Batou is the character that Major feels the closest human connection with. He’s someone who is very much himself. He’s been through the tragedy and loss of war. He’s lived a very human experience. She’s curious about that. Through his experiences, she feels like she’s able to absorb some of them and understand how the past informs the person that you are.”
She then added that the two have a playful relationship and said that it could be romantic "in some other universe." It'll be fun to see how they play with this relationship in the story for this new film. I just really want this adaptation to be great! I'll be so disappointed if it ends up telling a mediocre story. With all of the awesome source material they have to go on, I don't see how they can screw it up. But this is Hollywood, so we'll see what happens.
Ghost in the Shell hits theaters March 31, 2017.
I personally think this whole Fifty Shades thing is absolutely absurd. But, for some reason, there is a huge audience out there for this kind of ridiculousness. Fifty Shades Darker looks like it will be just as bad as Fifty Shades of Grey, but the fans of the franchise will eat it up like candy. The trailer plays out like a comedy! Just listen to the hilariously bad dialogue! If anything, the trailer will give you a good laugh.
When a wounded Christian Grey tries to entice a cautious Ana Steele back into his life, she demands a new arrangement before she will give him another chance. As the two begin to build trust and find stability, shadowy figures from Christian’s past start to circle the couple, determined to destroy their hopes for a future together.
Fifty Shades Darker was directed by James Foley (Fear, House of Cards) and stars Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson. The movie will be released on February 10, 2017.
If you've ever had even a passing interest in storytelling, you've heard of Joseph Campbell. He's the man who came up with the monomyth, aka The Hero's Journey. It's a breakdown of the similarities between every major story and how they all essentially share the same components. Style and specifics change in each story, sure, but for something to be recognizable to us as a story in the first place, it basically follows the same structure.
Community and Rick & Morty creator Dan Harmon has broken down Campbell's storytelling theory into a more simplified version that he uses when writing his screenplays, but he's convinced it works for every story across all types of media — movies, TV shows, songs, books...everything. Editor Will Schoder has helpfully broken down Harmon's breakdown even further into a nice video essay that's easy to digest. Check it out, and maybe you'll even be inspired to use this structure to create your own stories.
Via: Sploid
Not long ago it was reported that Fox was looking to do a light reboot of the X-Men film franchise without director Bryan Singer. There weren't a lot of details on what that would actually entail, but it was later rumored that the next film in the franchise would focus on the Dark Phoenix saga, which I hope is true!
Sophie Turner is expected to reprise her role as Jean Grey, and I imagine some of the other new young actors introduced in X-Men: Apocalypse will also join her. Elements of the Dark Phoenix saga storyline were used in X-Men: The Last Stand, but this next film is said to completely focus on it.
Whether this is what Fox is doing or not, they have a plan in place because they are about to start production on the film in Montreal. The news comes from Le Journal de Montreal, who says that a production office opened up yesterday at the MELS Studios complex, which is where X-Men: Days Of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse both shot.
The report also says that set construction is expected to start up in January and that the production is taking over Studios 2 and 3 of the MELS complex. This all comes from the president of MELS, Michel Trudel, who then reveals that shooting for the film will begin in May and that it will go on for several months.
It'll be interesting to see what the next big X-Men movie announcement will be. It's obviously coming soon.
Via: Den of Geek
