Oblique FX has released a "Making Of" video showing off their VFX work on one of the best films of 2016, Arrival. This is was such a different and unique take on the sci-fi film genre, and it told such an awesome and powerful story. A lot of work went into bringing this story to life and one of the main aspects of it was the VFX work. The video shows us all of the things that were digitally inserted into the film, giving you a look at what was real and what wasn't.
I've got a great video for you to watch in which we get to listen to HAL from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odessy and Samantha from Spike Jones' Her have a conversation/argument about emotions. I honestly never thought what it would be like to hear these two fictional artificial intelligences having a conversation, but here it is thanks to Tillmann Ohm, and it's kinda entertaining. The creator explains:
A conversation about emotions between the two most iconic operating systems in film history: HAL from „2001: A Space Odyssey“ (1968) and Samantha from „Her“ (2013).
Stanley Kubrick and Spike Jonze pictured their artificial main characters as voice recognition and speech synthesis operating systems. Unlike the robots in other science fiction movies, HAL and Samantha are conceptualized without the need of a physical body. In both movies, the machine learning process allows the AI to gain consciousness and independence from human input.
Composed of original lines from „2001: A Space Odyssey“ (1968) and „Her“ (2013), the mashup creates a new context to the words of the electronic protagonists. The two operating systems are in conflict; while Samantha is convinced that the overwhelming and sometimes hurtful process of her learning algorithm improves the complexity of her emotions, HAL is consequentially interpreting them as errors in human programming and analyses the estimated malfunction.
Their conversation is an emotional roller coaster which reflects upon the relation between machines and emotion processing and addresses the enigmatic question of the authenticity of feelings.
We've been seeing a lot of end of year 2016 supercuts recently, mostly for movies, but now we have one that features the best cosplay of the year! It was created by YouTube user mineralblu, who collected video of cosplay from a bunch of geek conventions that took place last year including SDCC, NYCC, C2E2, Anime Expo, Blizzcon, Dragon Con, Comicpalooza, and more. The cosplay presented in the video is spectacular and does a great job of representing the cosplay culture.
You've gotta check out this pair of sneakers inspired by the classic Super Nintendo console! They're pretty radical. Whenever I see something like this is makes me miss the '90s. It was always fun playing Super Nintendo! Hell, I was even in one of the commercials for one of the games! If you want to watch that embarrassment, you can click here.
The custom-made sneakers come from Freaker Sneaks, and they even come complete with controller buttons that can be pressed! Unfortunately, no... you can not plug the soles into a console. The design was built from the Air Jordan 4, and it's based on the JP/PAL version color scheme.
These things turned out looking awesome and the best part is... you'll actually be able to buy them!
Via: Kotaku
Willem Dafoe is the latest actor to join director Kenneth Branagh's star-studded remake of Murder on the Orient Express. He will join Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley, Judi Dench, Michelle Pfeiffer, Josh Gad, Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr., and Branagh.
The film is based on the 1934 novel by Agatha Christie that revolves around the murder of an American on board the famous train. The story centers on Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Branagh) who is tasked with solving the case that has numerous suspects among the passengers. According to Variety, Dafoe will play undercover detective Gerhard Hardman in the film.
The original film was directed by Sidney Lumet and released in 1974 and it was nominated for six Academy Awards. It's a great film that I suggest watching if you haven't already. It has a great cast that consists of Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset, Colin Blakely, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, and Michael York.
Fox will be releasing the remake on November 22, 2017, and as much as I am against remakes, I love this cast and the director, so I'm curious to see how it all comes together.
I'm always in the market for a cool new geeky backpack, and I found my next purchase! This is a Space Invaders backpack that was inspired by the arcade cabinet. It comes with all kinds of pockets and zippers for all my space invader battle needs, but the best part of it is that it comes with an actual coin slot for quarters! Too bad you can't play the game on it!
The backpack comes from Think Geek, and this is their description:
As fun as carrying around an entire arcade cabinet on your back is, we decided to do something a lot more practical... and also something that will raise fewer eyebrows. We made one of the most iconic arcade games of all time into a backpack. A backpack that holds all the fancy things you need to beat back the increasingly speedy invaders, or just the stuff that you need to take notes in class or carry your stuff around. Whichever. That's the glory of it! You're prepared for all occasions!
Hold all the necessities to keep an invading alien army at bay with the Space Invaders Arcade Cabinet Backpack. Plenty of pockets and sleeves to hold all your pew pew laser ammo for taking down small, large, and medium enemies. It also holds regular people stuff, too, for when you're taking some time off, hiding behind the bases at the bottom of the screen. Added bonus - you can stick your finger in the quarter slot! That is not a euphemism.
If you want to buy one of these things, you can purchase it here for $49.99.
James Gunn released a blood-splattered poster for his upcoming film project The Belko Experiment. The movie looks like it's going to be a bloody and violent good time, and you can watch the red-band trailer for it below. The poster, which features someone killing person with a tape dispenser, was posted on Facebook and it came with a hilarious note from Gunn telling people to tag the last person they'd kill in their office workplace to show them how much they love them! Here's what he said:
"Check out this exclusive first look at The Belko Experiment movie poster! This is the film I wrote and produced in-between Guardians movies, about a group of expatriates office workers locked in a building in South America and forced to kill one another. Tag the last person you'd kill in your workplace below and let them know you love them. Me? In my workplace, I'd kill Michael Rooker first and Sean Gunn last.
Belko is good, clean, incredibly intense, and bloody fun, and if you live in the US or Canada you can see it everywhere on March 17."
The film has a great cast that includes Tony Goldwyn, Michael Rooker, Sean Gunn, Adria Arjona, John Gallagher Jr., John C. McGinley, David Dastmalchian, and Melonie Diaz.
The movie was directed by Greg McLean (Wolf Creek) and is scheduled to be released in theaters on March 17, 2017. Here's the trailer.
I don't know if you're familiar with Sideshow Collectibles' line of Court of the Dead collectibles, but it's pretty awesome. It's an original concept that they've come with featuring some crazy cool characters. To learn more about it and see their whole collection, click here. There's a whole world and story that they are creating that would seriously make for a great film franchise!
There most recent addition to the franchise is a bust of The Executus Reaper Oglavaeil. This is Death's executioner, and Sideshow offers some intriguing information on the character that you can read below:
Do you dare to gaze into the eyes of the one who would be your end?
You may be surprised to discover a hint of pity there
In the Court of the Dead - an original dark fantasy universe created by Sideshow - only Death stands between the Mortal Realm and the warring heavens. Seeking to restore balance to the universe, Death created the Court of the Dead: His Queen, a Chancellor, and an Executioner…
This intricately rendered and hyper-detailed portrait of Oglavaeil, Death’s Executioner, provides a unique view of a compelling character torn between his morbid duty and his compassion for those he must end. Despite his awesome destructive power, Oglavaeil is a gentle spirit. These conflicting elements of the Executioner’s nature have been wonderfully conveyed by Sideshow’s artistic team.
The bust is 23” wide, and expertly crafted from polystone with a metal supporting rod for balance. It is sold with a removable magnetic jaw piece, which offers different expressions for the Oglavaeil portrait. A Sideshow Exclusive version of this piece also features a “Blind Justice” mask.
You can pre-order this limited edition Court of the Dead collectible here if you're interested!
Netflix released a trailer for a new film they are releasing this week called Clinical. It's a psychological thriller that tells the story of a psychiatrist who is trying "to put her life back together after a violent attack by seeking to repair the life of a new patient, but he has his own terrifying history."
The film stars Vinessa Shaw (The Hills Have Eyes) as a psychiatrist with post-traumatic stress disorder from a dark and scary event from her past that keeps coming back to haunt her.
I enjoy these kinds of stories, and it looks like it will be a crazy creepy film worth checking out, especially if you're into this genre. This movie uses post-traumatic stress as the main factor driving the main character and story into complete madness.
Clinical is set to be released on Friday the 13th.
Last week we posted Hot Toy's Batman: Arkham Knight collectible action figure, which is something that fans were pretty stoked about. The toy company has now revealed their Joker 1/6th scale action figure from Batman: Arkham Asylum, and it perfectly captures the twisted wickedness of the insane villain.
I've always loved this version of the Joker. It's definitely one of the creepiest character designs and Hoy Toys did an incredible job bringing it to life in action figure form. Make sure to check out all the photos below showing off all of the details.
"Welcome to the madhouse, Batman!"
In Batman: Arkham Asylum, the game title that jumpstarted the critically acclaimed Batman Arkham game series, Batman must do all it takes to stop The Joker's elaborate plot to destroy Gotham City with the terrifying TITAN drug! As the game's main antagonist and mastermind of the evil plan, The Joker is menacing yet captivated many fans' "love" for this maniacal Clown Prince of Crime!
Today, Hot Toys is delighted to officially introduce many fans' widely anticipated 1/6th scale collectible figure of The Joker in Batman: Arkham Asylum! The collectible figure is expertly crafted based on the appearance of The Joker in the game. It features a newly sculpted head sculpt with Joker's iconic grin on his face, newly developed body, skillfully tailored costume, a number of detailed weapons and accessories including a pistol, injection gun, chattering teeth explosive, and a figure stand with specially designed backdrop. It is time to get the party started and add Bats' nemesis to your Hot Toys collection!
I loved watching the TV show CHiPs when I was growing up, and now there's a feature film adaptation starring Michael Peña and Dax Shepard. The first trailer was just released for the movie, and you can tell that they tried to capture that 21 Jump Street movie vibe and humor, but it just doesn't hit that bar. I guess that's what happens when you aren't as insanely talented as Jump Street writers and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Maybe you'll like what you see in the trailer, though! I personally wasn't impressed. CHiPs was written and directed by Shepard, and this is the synopsis:
In CHiPs, Jon Baker (Shepard) and Frank “Ponch” Poncherello (Peña) have just joined the California Highway Patrol (CHP) in Los Angeles but for very different reasons. Baker is a beaten up pro motorbiker trying to put his life and marriage back together. Poncherello is a cocky undercover Federal agent investigating a multi-million dollar heist that may be an inside job—inside the CHP. The inexperienced rookie and hardened pro are teamed together, but clash more than click, so kickstarting a partnership is easier said than done. But with Baker’s bike skills combined with Ponch’s street savvy it might just work… if they don’t drive each other crazy along the way.
CHiPs also co-stars Rosa Salazar (The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, Alita Battle Angel), Adam Brody (The O.C.), Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars), and Vincent D’Onofrio (Emerald City, Marvel’s Daredevil). The movie opens in theaters on March 24.
I've got four impressive short films for you to check out today. The shorts were beautifully made by Polish animator Tomasz Bagiński and the modern stories they tell are based on Slavic legends. The films range from 13 to 30 minutes, so it will take some time to get through, but it's worth it. I included the title of each film along with a Google translated version of each synopsis:
Basilisk
From the sea to the Tatra Mountains open the gates of hell. It is not known who is behind this, but I know who it stepped: Bogus Kolodziej and his loosely affiliated with the reality of Uncle Eugene. The two police officers look hard in the eye prastaremu danger, and even collide with it through the Polonaise!
Dragon
Castle Krak and its inhabitants are in danger. The city is threatening dragon, which, however, does not resemble at all the legendary monster. This tattooed and heavily muscled Adolf Kamchatkov and its huge flying machine. Great amateur beautiful Polish women who kidnaps and holds in his hiding place, coming within one of the suburban villa. One of the kidnapped girls is Ola, which has a crush on a young genius and designer of robots, Janek. The city authorities are helpless, no one knows how to stop the Dragon. Just like in a fairy tale, a boy gets an idea of how to outwit the monster, having luckily access a technology far more advanced than those which had Szewczyk Dratewka.
Twardowsky Part I
Pan Twardowski, or rather Mr. Twardowsky, sitting all alone in a space station on the moon. Such are the consequences of his pact with the devil. Terribly bored, resigned to their fate is not. When the devil comes in the form of a beautiful woman, Twardowsky asks for some time to be able to go back to the ground. Realizing that little wytarguje, escapes the devil, even though he knows that not for long. Eventually, the time comes to pay the agreed price.
Twardowsky Part II
However Boruta and his messenger is not easily give up. The latest technology versus the desperate Pole objedzony jelly. The winner can be only one!
The Legend of Baba Yaga
Twardowski diversion begins to bear fruit confusion, this time in the form of a mysterious girl niestroniącej of herbs. Is Boruta able to turn her Slavic ... anger to your advantage? If not, you always have in reserve squad commandos Iron Mountain.
Via: GeeksAre Sexy
Anna Kendrick is in talks with Disney to join a Christmas movie in which she will play a female Santa Claus. The film is currently known as Nicole, and according to Variety, the story "revolves around Santa’s daughter who is forced to take over the family business when her father decides to retire and brother ends up getting cold feet prior to his first big Christmas Eve flight."
That actually sounds like a fun premise and it's easy to imagine Kendrick in a role like this. The script for the film comes from Miss Congeniality scribe Marc Lawrence, who is also attached to direct.
Kendrick comes off as being a very likable person and it's been cool to see her career take off the way it has. She most recently starred in Ben Affleck's The Accountant and the animated film Trolls. She's currently in production on Pitch Perfect 3.
I personally can't wait to see more of Michael Keaton in full on Vulture mode in Marvel's Spider-Man: Homecoming. I really liked from what I saw of him in the trailer, and I'm curious to see how his story arc plays out.
Variety recently had the opportunity to interview Keaton and he opened up a little bit on his portrayal of the classic Spider-Man villain and how he's a different kind of villain than what you might expect. When asked about playing the villainous role, he explained:
"But not to give too much away, but interestingly, he is and he isn’t [a villain], that character. He’s a really interesting — and more interesting than I thought — villain because there’s parts of him that you go, 'You know what? I might see his point.' Really, really. It makes it interesting to play."
He comes off as a pretty evil classic villain type dude in the trailer. Only an evil grown man would choose to go to war with a high school teenager! But there's obviously more to him than that, and we'll learn about that other side of him when the movie is released.
He goes on to say that he didn't hesitate in taking the role. I'm sure some people may have thought that since he played Batman and Birdman that maybe he thought it would be silly to take on another comic book type role, but nope.
Spider-Man: Homecoming will hit theaters on July 7, 2017.
I imagine if a Jedi can move physical objects with his or her mind, they could also create a small force field (get it? "Force" field???) around themselves to protect from inclement weather. But since no human has actually mastered Force powers in real life (...yet), we still need some help from good old fashioned umbrellas when rain comes our way. If you're in the market for a new one, Entertainment Earth has a 33-inch Star Wars-themed umbrella modeled after Luke Skywalker's lightsaber that opens up into a glowing LED shaft and a black canopy with a glow-in-the-dark space battle on top of it.
You can pre-order it now for $44.99, and it is estimated to ship sometime next month.
A recent unnamed insider with Valve has stated simply that if you're waiting for Half-Life 3, stop waiting. Game Informer did an at-length interview with an individual willing to give some background...read more on GameTyrant
Burn Notice creator Matt Nix has been developing a new untitled X-Men TV seriesm and he recently talked to a handful of journalists about his plans for the show. Two of the main things he reveals are that the series is very close to happening and that it will connect with the X-Men cinematic universe. Collider was there to get the following quotes:
“Without getting into specifics that I’ll get murdered for, I would say that a fan of the movies — particularly the movies but also the comic books — would not be disoriented as to where this fits in the mythology. If you look at the movies that take place, they don’t all line up perfectly. So it’s not like I’m slavishly fitting myself into a particular slot [but] if you like that world and the world of the movies, there are definite nods to it, it definitely exists in the same general universe.”
He went on to explain that the connection between the series and the cinematic universe will be similar to the way Agents Of SHIELD fits in with the Marvel cinematic universe, which really isn't much of a connection right now. He also talked about how he pitched the series to the network, saying:
“Without getting into specifics, it’s sort of designed to side-step questions like ‘Where is Wolverine?’ So you sort of have to answer those questions, and I didn’t want to do anything like ‘Wolverine is just offscreen!’ You know what I mean. So it exists in a world where those questions are answered without needing to name a lot of names or spend time dwelling on that issue. So within that, there are a certain amount of those characters I can use, and I’m using some of those, but others I’m inventing. But everything is invented with a nod towards the existing mythology. When I was pitching the show, I pitched some characters that appear nowhere in the mythology, but the guys from Marvel, when I started describing them, all gave each other knowing nods. It was like ‘Oh I see what he’s doing, yes.’ So I tried to do a lot of that. I didn’t want to get into the realm of too much ‘Yep! New X-Men here we go!’ because with this there’s a little bit of fan service.”
There are no details on which mutant characters will be involved with the upcoming X-Men series, but we know that it will focus on "two ordinary parents who discover their children possess mutant powers. Forced to go on the run from a hostile government, the family joins up with an underground network of mutants and must fight to survive."
It's said that this series will be the first collaboration between Marvel TV and Fox, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn has been working on a new film project called The Avenging Silence, which sounds incredibly interesting., He's been developing it with James Bond screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, and the Tokyo-set thriller will focus on a mute man who is a former spy on a mission to assassinate the head of a yakuza family.
According to The Playlist, the movie came from the director's desire to make “a big extravagant action film.” The site also did some digging and found a full detailed synopsis at Crouching Tigers Project Lab that is sure to get fans of Refn excited for his new project:
The spy was one of the leading spies in Europe. An injury inflicted to his vocal cords during a failed mission six years ago left him mute, forcing him to leave his profession. Now, six years later, he is sought out and put on confidential assignment by a former Yakuza, now a retired Japanese businessman in exile in France, to track down and kill the head of the most dangerous Yakuza family in Japan.
Afraid of flying, our spy anonymously boards a cargo ship headed for Tokyo. An onboard explosion sinks the ship and our spy finds himself washed ashore on a life raft in southern Japan. As a mute, our spy must silently journey through Japan seeking 4 clues – symbolizing conquest, war, famine, and death – which will guide him to the unknown location of the Yakuza boss. Meanwhile, the Yakuza boss, known for his 2004 mass slaughter of Yakuza members who had turned against him, is believed to be plotting to reenter the Japanese underworld after living in his own surreptitious world in the mountains, void of all technology. This way of life becomes an obsession for the Yakuza boss. Rumors spread that he had committed suicide years ago but escaped prisoners from his hidden camp told stories of his plan for a comeback. Now rival Yakuza families suspect he is forming a master plan to return, a plan that unburies the most infamous story of Yakuza betrayal.
Our spy finds himself on an existential journey through Japan in search of pieces to the puzzle that will lead him to a confrontation with the ultimate Yakuza boss in a terrifying conclusion.
This definitely has all the signature story and character points that Refn likes to work with in his films that also include Bronson, Only God Forgives, and his most recent film, The Neon Demon. His films are definitely an acquired taste for general audiences, but this next film of his sounds like it might be a movie with a coherent plot.
I do love the idea of a mute former spy taking on the yakuza in Japan! I'm sure Refn has some cool things planned for it. I wonder if he'll cast Ryan Gosling as the main character.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have had bizarre staying power in pop culture. They were mega-popular when I was growing up in the '80s and '90s, and through various iterations and a steady stream of movies over the years, they've managed to remain popular for multiple generations. So it's probably safe to say there are a lot of you out there who, at one point or another (during childhood or otherwise), imagined you were a Ninja Turtle. And now GeekAlerts has, uh, alerted us to a way for you to kind of make that happen: Entertainment Earth has a bright green TMNT robe that comes complete with interchangeable masks so you can role play as your favorite turtle after you take a shower or while you have your coffee in the morning. You do you. No judgments here.
This sucker is 100% polyester, and though the picture doesn't prove it, it does indeed have a shell on the back (as if that was the make-or-break aspect to this for someone out there). You can pre-order it now for $45.99, and it's supposed to ship later this month.
A 2D platformer where you are the boss?! I'm surprised this has never been done before! In Nefarious you play the enemy and travel around the globe snatching up princesses...read more on GameTyrant
