I'm fascinated by the history and story behind businesses and how some of the biggest, most popular and successful brands got their start. The Founder tells the true story of how McDonald's exploded into the epic fast food chain that it is now.

Michael Keaton stars in the film as Ray Kroc, who saw potential in the burger business back in the 1950s and wanted to transform it into a moneymaking franchise. To do that he had to pull off some shady shit. From what I've seen in the trailers, the film reminds me a lot of The Social Network. The film just got a limited release so it qualifies for the Oscars. I think Keaton's got a good chance to get nominated for this. Here's the synopsis:

THE FOUNDER, directed by John Lee Hancock (THE BLIND SIDE, SAVING MR. BANKS), features the true story of how Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), a struggling salesman from Illinois, met Mac and Dick McDonald, who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California. Kroc was impressed by the brothers’ speedy system of making the food and saw franchise potential. Writer Robert Siegel (THE WRESTLER) details how Kroc maneuvered himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the brothers and create a billion-dollar empire."

The movie also stars Laura Dern as Ray Kroc’s first wife Ethel; Linda Cardellini as his second wife Joan Smith; John Carroll Lynch as Mac McDonald; and Nick Offerman as Dick McDonald. It's currently playing in Los Angeles and New York, and it will get a wide release on January 20th.

Sure you know that HDR is a good thing and that it means improved visuals...but do you know how it actually changes your experience? As Netflix will tell and show you below, it essentially means a brighter and wider array of colors. That sounds silly because it's not like your television is missing any color in HD, right? Surely you would've noticed missing color in your television show! You'd be surprised, and after watching this video, you'll better understand High Dynamic Range and why it's a good thing for you and your television experience!

PSA: If your television is not HDR compatible you won't notice any of these changes to your Netflix shows. 

Little Shop of Horror is such a great and charmingly horrific dark comedy musical. The 1986 Frank Oz-directed version starring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin is by far my favorite version. Before that, there was a 1960 film from Roger Corman that starred Jack Nicholson. It was also a broadway musical, which I've never seen.

Warner Bros. is now looking to retell the classic tale of a man-eating plant from outer space. The studio has hired Greg Berlanti to direct the film. His name probably sounds familiar to you because he's the same guy who produces The CW's Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl. 

I have absolutely no idea if Berlanti is a good director or not because I've never seen any of the few films he directed early on in his career. With a project like Little Shop of Horrors, though, it would be hard to screw up. 

The story follows a nerdy florist who comes across a plant that appears after an eclipse of the sun. He takes it back to the flower shop he works at to help attract customers. To keep the plant healthy and growing he has to feed it human blood and meat.

The film will be a musical version of the story so you can expect to hear all of those classic songs again. Four years ago, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was developing the remake of the property at WB, and he was going to play the main character, Seymore. He's absolutely perfect for the role! There's no word on if he's still involved, but I really hope that he is. It'd be a shame if this movie happened without such perfect casting. 

If you've never seen the 1986 version of the film, you should definitely check it out. It's such a great film, and it has a hilarious cameo from Bill Murray that you don't want to miss. 

Berlanti is also attached to direct an adaptation of a young adult novel called Simon Vs. the Homo Sapien's Agenda, which has Nick Robinson attached to star. 

Source: THR

"Never send a ninja to do a Viking's job!"

A couple years ago I saw an incredibly funny and fantastically made fantasy short film called "Totally Awesome Viking Power." The short was directed by Morten Forland, and it celebrates the awesomeness of Vikings, LARPing (Live Action Role Playing), and finding the hero within. Here's the synopsis: 

When Viking role player Vidar is sidelined to "the land of the dead" he seeks help of the god Odin, who agrees to teach Vidar the ways of the Vikings if he takes him to a mystical Runestone. Together they embark on a journey that will test Vidar’s wits, bravery and his ability to go completely berserk.

If you are a fan of fantasy, Vikings, LARPing, comedy, or all of the above, make sure to watch this short. It's a fun movie that is loaded with a lot of entertaining stuff that I think you'll really enjoy. 

Paramount Pictures has released the first trailer for their big screen adaption of Baywatch, and it's up to Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron to restore the brand. The movie blends action and comedy, and it looks like the film is going to be a lot of fun. It kind of has a 21 Jump Street movie flavor to it. 

The story centers around "devoted lifeguard Mitch Buchannon (Johnson) as he butts heads with a brash new recruit (Efron). Together, they uncover a local criminal plot that threatens the future of the Bay."

The movie was directed by Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) and also stars Alexandra Daddario, Kelly Rohrbach, Jon Bass, and Ilfenesh Hadera. 

I don't think this is a movie that everyone is going to be into, but it looks entertaining enough for me to want to check out. Baywatch hits theaters on May 19th, 2017. 

SNL and Ghostbusters star Kate McKinnon has just landed another film project called The Lunch Witch, which is set up at Steven Spielberg's Amblin.

The film is based on a book written by Deb Lucke, and the story follows a character named Grunhilda, "who has inherited generations worth of magical recipes. But when no one believes in magic anymore, she is forced to apply to be a school lunch lady, thanks to her knack for cooking up foul dishes. While she spends most of her time scaring the children at the school while serving them lunch, Grunhilda accidentally befriends a shy girl who needs help both at school and at home, given her timidness, something a witch like Grunhilda has a tough time following through on."

McKinnon will take on the role of Grunhilda, which she is absolutely perfect for. Even though I wasn't a fan of the Ghostbusters remake, I've always liked McKinnon, and I think she's a very funny and witty comedian with talent. This could end up being her best role to date, and I'm looking forward to seeing how she brings this character to life. 

The studio has hired Clay Kaytis to direct the film. He has a background in animation, and the only film he's directed up until this point is The Angry Birds Movie, which I didn't really care for, but it wasn't made for me. It was made for the kids! 

Source: Variety

Take a look at "The Lighthouse," a short film that took filmmaker Simon Scheiber seven years to complete. Scheiber was the only person who worked on the animation for the project, and the eleven minute short is comprised of over 14,000 photographs. Watch it and then check out my thoughts below.

I'll admit that this thing takes a long while to get going. For the first four minutes or so, I was wondering what the point of it was. But once the action (such as it is) kicks in and the supernatural element comes into play, things pick up a little bit. The lighthouse keeper struck me as someone who got swept away in a new and exciting event without considering the consequences of his actions; we've all consumed enough stories to know that it's probably not the best idea to just start immediately messing around with something we don't fully understand. But there's a sense of poetry to the final moments — a lighthouse keeper who was formerly tasked with alerting passing ships to the presence of land becomes the captain of his own kind of ship, sailing through space announcing his own presence with his ever-spinning illumination.

What did you think?

Via: io9

Jimmy Fallon got some hands on time with Super Mario Run and the Nintendo Switch during The Tonight Show last night and it was incredible! While Super Mario Run...read more on Gametyrant

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While we wait for the first trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming to be released tonight, we have a new photo to share with you featuring Tom Holland as Spider-Man. The photo comes from USA Today, and it came along with some additional information on Peter Parker and Holland's thoughts on The Vulture.

According to the report, the film begins with Peter Parker returning to his normal life in Queens after the events of Captain America: Civil War. They go on to offer the following new brief plot summary:

The coming-of-age story features Peter attending his high school for gifted kids, trying to impress his new benefactor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and also dealing with a pesky arch enemy, the Vulture (Michael Keaton).

Holland talks about the film, saying that it's more of a character piece "about this kid who’s struggling to talk to girls and also struggling to save the city… This is really a movie where Spider-Man’s not the finished article. He really does learn and he makes massive mistakes. It’s nice to see a kid do that and then try to rectify those mistakes.”

He goes on to talk about how scary The Vulture will be in the film. He says that “The first time we see the Vulture is terrifying. It’s like a horror movie: really scary, very intense and shocking.” I can't wait to see this reveal, and I hope we get a glimpse of The Vulture in the first trailer!

Director Jon Watts added, “It’s fun to think that if Spider-Man is a regular kid who becomes a superhero, there’s got to be a bunch of regular guys who become supervillains, too.”

Spider-Man: Homecoming will be released on May 7, 2017. Stay tuned for that trailer! 

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story just got a Chinese trailer, and it's pretty spectacular! I know we've already seen a ton of trailers and TV spots for this movie and you might be burnt out from watching them, but this is a trailer worth watching. It's definitely one of the better ones. It also offers up a bit of new footage for you to enjoy. 

We are only a week away from the movie's release, and I am so excited to finally be able to see it! I've been hearing nothing but great things about the movie, and I honestly don't think that Lucasfilm or director Gareth Edwards are going to let fans down. It looks like they are going to give us a film that fans will be proud of. 

Enjoy the the new trailer!

If you're someone who enjoys building things with raw materials, you know that a tape measure is one of your trustiest pieces of equipment. (You know what they say: measure twice, cut once.) So what better Star Wars character to serve as inspiration for a geek-friendly tape measure than R2-D2, the trusty little droid who's seen it all and survived some of the craziest things imaginable in a galaxy far, far away? We know he has some serious longevity, too...even if he did admittedly go into sleep mode while Luke Skywalker was missing. Well, there's no sleep mode option on this baby, so you won't have to worry about that this time. Pick yours up from ThinkGeek for $24.99 right here.

As we wait for Niantic's December 12th announcement regarding Pokemon Go, more data miners are uncovering upcoming secrets that will be added to the game. The Silph Road brings the news...read more on Gametyrant

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According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple has been talking with several of the major studios in Hollywood about giving audiences earlier access to films on iTunes. Some of the studios that are thinking about teaming up with Apple for this include 21st Century Fox, Warner Brothers, and Universal Pictures.

According to the report, they are looking to offer "high-priced, home-video rentals of new movies shortly after they open in theaters." Some studio executives are actually "pushing to allow home rentals as early as two weeks after theatrical debuts."

I guess if you are patient enough to wait a couple weeks after a movie opens in theaters you can just wait to watch it at home. This is definitely a service that I would probably use, of course, there are still a lot of films that I still will have to watch on the big screen. Nothing will ever take away the moviegoing experience. 

A move like this will definitely make iTunes stand out in the streaming movie market. iTunes played a huge role in leading the charge with streaming music, and now they are looking to make a big splash in the way that people can watch movies. 

There's always a chance that the studios will choose to go with a platform other than iTunes, but it seems like Apple is the frontrunner. One thing is for sure, and that is that cinema attendance is "mostly stagnant" and home-video revenue has fallen "flat in recent years." So "film companies are under pressure to find new areas of growth." Last week, Warner Bros. chief Kevin Tsujihara said that "earlier availability of new movies could satisfy a growing consumer appetite and deter piracy." 

In case you're wondering what the pricing options would be for a early online movie rental, it could be somewhere from $25 to $50 per film, which I would totally pay because that's about as much it costs for me to go to the movies with my wife. 

As some of you may already know, Napster founder Sean Parker has been shopping around a home-video service called Screening Room, which would offer films to watch on the same day they are released in theaters, but that didn't sit well with theater owners. The option of offering films a couple weeks later seems like something they are willing to work with.

What do you all think about this? Would you choose to watch some movies on iTunes at home over going to the theater? 

This quick montage video from editor Bora Barroso does a great job of tracing the evolution of the Walt Disney Animation style from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (shouldn't that have been "Dwarves" instead of "Dwarfs?", Mr. Disney?) all the way up to this year's jaw-droppingly gorgeous Zootopia. It's cool to see the technological advancements and the way the studio has embraced new looks over the years, and I'm most surprised by how awesome the animation from some of those earlier movies still looks, especially considering the entire medium really hadn't been around all that long before Disney essentially mastered it. Makes me want to go back and rewatch things like Dumbo and Peter Pan, since I haven't seen those in decades. What's your favorite Disney animated movie of all time?

Director Michael Bay is working on a Transformers VR experience. The director shared the news with Slashfilm and said the feature is for a project that could transform filmmaking as we know it.

Bay says his nine minute feature won't be available at home, but rather IMAX theaters...

They’re gonna build pods in theaters around the world. There are all these massive theaters, but they don’t use every theater. So they’ll build like 30 pods.

As far as the tech is concerned to shoot the project, Bay assures us it's all cutting edge. He's using a special VR camera that doesn't require "stitching" (use of multiple cameras to capture a 360-degree image) and offers a higher resolution than what you'll see even on the cutting edge HTC Vive. There's no word on a release for this, or even if the project will be completed, but we can expect more details on the project to be revealed come the release of Transformers: The Last Knight.

I have so many questions, and not nearly enough information for answers. I guess I can start by polling you guys: Would you pay IMAX pricing to see a nine minute VR experience directed by Michael Bay? 

If you enjoyed the original music and miscellaneous covers from the first season of HBO's Westworld, today is your lucky day! The soundtrack is now available for purchase and is also streaming on most major platforms! This 35 song list includes the covers of songs by The Rolling Stones, Radiohead, Soundgarden, The Pixies, and many more! Check out the embed below, and if you're a fan, be sure to pick it up here! 

Hope you enjoy the embed...it doesn't look like anything to me. 

When we see films set in a post-apocalyptic world, it's almost always humanity's fault that things went that bad. Whether humans got greedy and fought each other over things like oil or water, or whether we simply didn't listen when scientists said the world was going to hell (ahem), it seems like our hubris often gets the better of us in the movies. These films are fun entertainment, sure, but they can also be a bit of a subconscious warning for us to take real-world issues a bit more seriously or else they could turn sadly prophetic. Bora Barroso cut together some sequences from movies like I Am Legend, Children of Men, and Mad Max: Fury Road into a post-apocalyptic supercut (via Sploid), and it reminds me that it's good to know there will still be car chases and explosions to give the survivors some action after most of humanity is wiped out.

UFC champion Conor McGregor is confirmed to make an appearance in an upcoming episode of HBO's Game of Thrones. For those unaware, McGregor is the charismatic, crazy fighter who is the only UFC fighter to hold titles in two separate weight classes. His personality and fighting ability have skyrocketed his profile beyond the sport and supposedly into Primetime television.  

The news of McGregor's appearance was confirmed by UFC President Dana White (via Uproxx) who said:

“I did hear that. I knew a few months ago that they were interested in putting him in the show. I’m glad he did it...It will be great. The show is huge. It’s awesome, and I’m excited for him.”

I know not everyone who reads the site is an avid fan of sports, so to help you understand why this is cool and why people are freaking out, I've compiled a couple videos to show you just how great this could be...

Needless to say I'm a little pumped. Are you? There are no details yet as to what role McGregor will have in the upcoming season, but we can assume it's a cameo. 

We may never see another Bully game, but at least Rockstar continues to release the game on current gen for people to enjoy this great game! Polygon reports that this time...read more on GameTyrant

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Yesterday we got our first look at Spider-Man's new suit from Tony Stark in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and it featured the classic web wings! It turns out that the web wings aren't the only new thing that the suit has to offer and not even Peter Parker knows the full extent of what exactly it can do.

While talking to USA Today, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige offered some additional information on Spider-Man's suit, saying that it "can do a lot more than he even realizes right now." He also mentioned that we "begin to see just how much Tony Stark loves bells and whistles."

I love the design of the Spider-Man suit, and I'm looking forward to seeing what else his suit is capable of doing. I have no idea if any of that will be teased in the trailer being released tonight, but we'll see. 

The one big complaint I've seen from fans regarding the suit is that it came from Stark. A lot of fans would have liked to see Parker be the creator of the suit and its technological upgrades because that's kind of how it's always been with the character. Remember, Parker is an incredibly smart kid, but I think Stark just wants to help him out a bit and give him some cool toys to play with, which I don't think Parker would have a problem with.