Here's a fun behind-the-scenes from Logan featuring Hugh Jackman doing some Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR) work for the film. You can watch as he really gets into it with the crazy Wolverine grunting and yelling. The scene he's working on in the video is the part where he's running through the forest violently slicing and dicing up bad guys who are going after the young mutant kids trying to reach the border. It's cool to see Jackman get crazy behind a microphone! The actor posted the video on his Facebook page, check it out below!
Legendary Pictures has released one final trailer for Kong: Skull Island, which comes out in theaters this weekend. It's loaded with new footage that highlights some pretty awesome-looking action sequences. It also features original dubstep music called "Groove" by Young Guru. Kong: Skull Island looks like it's gonna be a hell of a great, entertaining, and adventurous movie. I can't wait to see it!
I've also included four beautiful pieces of poster art for the film. The first three were created by artist Karl Fitzgerald and the last one comes from artist Francesco Francavilla.
The film tells the story of "a diverse team of scientists, soldiers and adventurers uniting to explore a mythical, uncharted island in the Pacific, as dangerous as it is beautiful. Cut off from everything they know, the team ventures into the domain of the mighty Kong, igniting the ultimate battle between man and nature. As their mission of discovery becomes one of survival, they must fight to escape a primal Eden in which humanity does not belong."
The movie has a fantastic cast that includes Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, and John Goodman. Kong: Skull Island was directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, and it's set to be released on March 10th, 2017.
If you've been watching HBO then you'll notice they've been showing extremely short clips from the upcoming season seven of Game Of Thrones. If you haven't, don't get your hopes up, but here's a super brief glimpse of Cersei and Oathkeeper via Gamesradar:
Yeah, I know it's not a lot, but it is something. I would imagine we're going to be seeing a trailer for season seven sometime soon as the expected release date is set for July. What's your wackiest — but still plausible — prediction for the upcoming season?
If you've seen Logan, then you'll know that the X-Men comics are actually a part of the world of the film. Thanks to Slashfilm, we get an inside look at the comic that Wolverine was holding when he was talking to X-23! The comic itself is not real, but was created for the film and features quite a few familiar faces. Check it out below and see Logan in theaters right now.
There was more CGI actor work in director James Mangold's Logan than you realized. Cartoon Brew released a fascinating breakdown of all the CGI actor work that was done for the film, and both Hugh Jackman and Dafne Keen had CGI doubles for Wolverine and X-23. I know that may not be surprising because CGI work is done like this in films all the time, but there are scenes in this movie using these digital actors that you would have never even noticed had the details in this article not been revealed.
For example, when we see close-up shots of Jackman's Wolverine in a high-speed chase behind the wheel of his limo, that's really a stunt driver whose face was replaced with a digital version of Jackman. As you all saw in the movie, it's shockingly realistic!
The article includes an in-depth interview with the staff of Image Engine, the Canadian VFX studio who helped create the CG versions of Jackman and Keen that were used in several action scenes throughout Logan. The work they did was seamless and you can see some photos that were released showing you the digital builds and comparisons below.
Image Engine ended up making full body CG renders of both Jackman and Keen that would stand in for Wolverine and X-23 multiple times in the movie. As you'll see, the level of detail in creating these CG actors is incredible. I honestly would've never known that CG stand-ins were used in the film.
As the report says, this is "another example of where things are headed with digital actors and how they can be used to help tell the stories directors are wanting to tell." The whole article is definitely worth reading if you're interested in learning the details about how they accomplished all this.
Polygon got 22 minutes of Yooka-Laylee and I'm so incredibly jealous! This game doesn't just play like a Banjo-Kazooie game, it looks absolutely gorgeous...read more on GameTyrant
Wired did an awesome interview with Samuel L. Jackson that I wish I would've thought of first! The actor answers Google's burning questions about his life. The interview is genius as it takes the most popular questions you would ask about an actor and then makes him answer them! Sometimes, you learn too much, like that Jackson likes Hentai. Minus that crazy image, the rest is great! Check it out below.
Harry Potter actor Jason Isaacs has joined the cast of CBS' Star Trek: Discovery, and he will take on the role of Captain Lorca, who is the Captain of the Starship Discovery. This is a major role in the series, and he stars opposite the lead played by Sonequa Martin- Green, who will be referred to as "Number One".
Isaacs joins a prestigious list of actors who have played Star Trek Captains over the years, including William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew and Scott Bakula.
The new series also stars the previously announced cast that includes Doug Jones as Lt. Saru, a Starfleet Science Officer; Anthony Rapp as Lt. Stamets, an astromycologist, fungus expert, and Starfleet Science Officer; Michelle Yeoh as Starfleet captain Georgiou; and James Frain as Spock's father.
Star Trek: Discovery is set on a new ship and will follow new characters who emabark on new adventurous missions while embracing the same ideology and hope for the future that inspired a generation of dreamers and doers.
A wonderful new featurette has been released for Logan called "Legacy," and it puts the focus on Hugh Jackman's 17 years as Wolverine. It's a great tribute to the actor who perfectly brought this heroic character to life. It features interview with Patrick Stewart and director James Mangold talking about Jackman's time in the role. We also get to see Jackman talk about playing Wolverine and some behind-the-scenes footage of him on the set of Wolverine completing his final scene in the Logan, which is where he offers a heartfelt farewell to the crew of the film. This is definitely a must-watch for any fan of Jackman.
I've been cautiously excited for the upcoming feature film adaptation of Stephen King's classic horror story It. I'm a huge fan of the book, and I loved the 90s TV movie that featured Tim Curry perfect portrayal of Pennywise the Clown.
I was really hoping that director Andy Muschietti (Mama) would be able to pull it off, and according to King, he has. The legendary master of horror has already seen a cut of the film, and according to his long-time assistant Marsha DeFilippo, he thought it was wonderful and told fans that they shouldn't worry. Producer Seth Grahame-Smith shared King's reaction on Instagram:
A post shared by Seth Grahame-Smith (@instagrahamesmith) on
That's a good sign that It is actually going to be the great movie fans like me were all hoping for! King is the ultimate critic when it comes to his own work, and if he didn't like it, we'd know. We all know how vocal he is about his hate for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining. The fact that he praises this movie ups my excitement level for it, and I'm less concerned.
The first film in the two film series will be rated R and it's set in the 1980s and will focus on the "Losers Club" as they come together to battle It. When previously talking about the rating and adapting the novel, producer Dan Lin said:
"It is a rated-R movie. If you’re going to make a 'Rated-R movie', you have to fully embrace what it is, and you have to embrace the source material. It is a scary clown that’s trying to kill kids. So of course that’s going to be a rated-R movie. The kids are amazing. You very much get a Stand by Me vibe as far as their camaraderie and the way they joke with each other and that they really care for each other. They do have a scary clown that’s taken over the town of Derry, so it’s going to be rated R."
The second film starts production soon. It's set 30 years later in modern times when the monster returns and the group of friends are forced to come back together as adults to destroy It once and for all.
The movie stars Jaeden Lieberher (Midnight Special) as Bill Denbrough, Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things) as Richie Tozier, newcomer Sophia Lillis as Beverly Marsh, Jack Dylan Grazer (Tales of Halloween) as Stan Uris, Wyatt Oleff (Guardians of the Galaxy) as Eddie Kaspbrak, Chosen Jacobs (Hawaii Five-0) as Mike Hanlon, Jeremy Ray Taylor (42) as Ben Hanscom, and Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise.
The first film is set to be released on September 8th, 2017.
Remember that guy we wrote about who said he was going to eat a picture of Jason Segel's face every day until Segel ate a picture of his face? That guy is still going. Here's day 19...
Here he is on a talk show...
It only gets weirder...
Jason Segel, please respond to this man because I'm afraid he's going to get a bowel obstruction from all this paper! We need resolve! I can't believe this guy is still going, but I respect him for the effort.
With Ben Affleck dropping out as the director of The Batman and being replaced by Matt Reeves and rumors of there being trouble with the production, fans seem to be jumping to conclusions. There's so much negativity surrounding the film because of it. The fact of the matter is, Hollywood is full of drama when it comes to movie productions regardless of the film, we just don't hear about a lot of those other stories because they aren't Batman and the fans don't care.
Fans care about The Batman, though, because it's Batman! Of course we all want to see the best possible movie come out of it! Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment seem to be taking the steps necessary to do that. Affleck dropping out could seem like the movie is in trouble, but then he was replaced by another great director who seemed to excite fans.
It's all about how you look at the information we get. Are you a half full or half empty glass kinda person? I will admit that it a little more fun to talk about the negative aspect of things, but when we don't have all the details, we really don't know what's happening behind the scenes and it might not be as bad as some fans make it out to be.
Anyway, Joe Manganiello, who is set to play the villain Deathstroke in the film, recently expressed his excitement for it and says that the creative team are looking to give fans a legendary Batman film. He also hilariously calls the media drama queens for blowing things out of proportion. While talking with ChefIrvine.com, he talked about the timeline of the film production:
"Last year, I said May and that was my understanding. It depends. They have big plans for this movie. Whether or not we start exactly on that date or in June, whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. Here’s the thing: The creative process needs to be respected and no one involved in this film wants to make anything less than an unbelievable film, a legendary film. The movie will start shooting whenever those pieces are in place and we know this is gonna be something that we’re proud of. What we’re not gonna do is be backed into a start date, scrambling to get something off the ground just to get it off the ground. Everyone involved wants to make this the best film possible, so that’s really what it’s about. It’s funny how the media likes to run with, 'Oh there’s trouble!' 'Oh, the script needs to be revised!' They’re drama queens. There’s a creative process, and everyone on the cast and crew wants to make this the best movie possible. So that’s what we’re gonna do. When we start shooting it, we’ll start shooting it. It will be soon, I can say that. Here’s the thing: No one wants to create that superhero movie that’s polarizing to fans and critics. Rest assured, we’re gonna do this thing right."
So basically WB will start work on it as soon as they are ready. With Reeves just coming on board to direct, there's no doubt he's going to take what they have so far and then put his whole personal spin on it, which will take some time. It was previously reported that he has full creative control over the production, so who knows what he's going to do with it.
One thing that's refreshing to hear is that the creative team are all looking to give us the best Batman film possible.
GHOST RECON: WILDLANDS is upon us and boy oh boy is it an absolutely delicious gaming morsel. While we prep our final review, check out some of the 4K screenshots we've captured so far. Better yet, we're giving away of Ghost Recon: Wildlands on PC for you to experience for yourself...check out our contest below...read more on GameTyrant
With Hugh Jackman’s 17 year run as Wolverine at an end, there is someone that can sympathize with the loss that he is going to feel when he is no longer the most popular of the X-Men. Voice actor Cal Dodd was the voice of Logan/Wolverine for the classic '90s X-Men animated series. He was the only voice we knew for the show's five year run. THR recently sat down with Dodd and talked to him about his time as Wolverine, the time he got to meet Jackman before the filming of the first X-Men movie, and what it was like to let the character go.
When talking about landing the part of the voice of Wolverine for the first time Dodd said:
"I went over to the studio and these guys from New York were there. They had been casting for months. This was the last person they were trying to cast, Wolverine.
"They gave me this script and a picture of Wolverine. I said, 'Yikes! Who is this person? What is this?' I had not an inkling of what I was about to get into. So they gave me this script to read. I said, "What do you hear him sounding like? They just said: 'Steve McQueen, because he's very introspective and very quiet and kind of a loner.' And Ward Bond, who is from the '30s and '40s and stuff, from Wagon Train, and they said Clint Eastwood. I said, 'Yeah, I get I can see that.'"
He went on to explain that he threw in a bit of Wolfman Jack in his voice and he recounted moment he read the script at the audition, saying:
"I read the script and one of the particular lines I will never forget: 'You like picking on people smaller than you. Well pick on me pal, I'm smaller than you!' I loved his attitude. I'm looking through the glass at these people and they all in unison stood up and started clapping and said, 'Bingo!' They were so exited. 'Jesus. We got him. Finally.'"
When talking about meeting Hugh Jackman for the first time he said:
"I love Hugh Jackman. I met him before he was going to shoot the first movie. They were in town at some function, and I was there because we were the animated cast and he just came up to me and he joked, 'I'm really tired of listening to your voice!' Because he had no other reference for a Wolverine but the animated series. So he had to listen to the voice to try to emulate that, or that sort of feel of him and the character. He said, 'It's a great voice. I don't know if I'll be able to nail it or not but, I'll give it whirl.' When I saw the very first movie, I thought 'This guy's huge!' Wolverine was 5'3 or something. I quickly got used to it and there were lines he would say, and I was itching in my seat. 'Exactly, that's what he would have said.' I loved Hugh. 17 years he's been doing it. Good lord. He'll never forget the role. You can't. that's a huge a part of his life."
Dobb then talked about his struggle to let the character go when he was done with the series:
"I hated the fact that it was gone. Then I heard they started a new production in L.A. [X-Men: Evolution] and I wondered, 'Why wouldn't I do that?' It was a younger version, younger X-Men. It was a huge gap in my life. I was doing it for five years and I became him. I created this guy, I created this voice. It was so a part of me that it was unbelievable. I just bought the whole five year series and I'm started to watch it bit by bit. It's so good. It was like losing my right arm. I loved the guy. Because it was like me. He was like a brother."
He went on to say that he still thinks of his time as Wolverine all the time and when asked what comes to mind when he thinks about the legacy of the series, he shared this touching story:
"[Executive story editor] Eric [Lewald] has this great story in his book he just got finished about the making of X-Men. A fan of the show, who was now maybe in his 30s, sent in this letter explaining his life and what the show meant at the time. He was overweight and was being picked on and he was considering suicide, but he was so in love with the X-Men Saturday morning cartoon and Wolverine. They were mutants and they were picked on and not liked by the general public. He identified totally with that. He was about to jump off this roof, but then he said, "I can't do this, I'm going to miss the Saturday morning X-Men episode." That's the kind of impact it had on kids."
Cal Dodd was awesome in the role of Wolverine! He did a fantastic job bringing the character to life in his animated form.
Hugh Jackman reprises the role of Wolverine in Logan, a character he started playing 17 years ago. What follows is a violent, surprisingly moving final chapter for the most popular character in the X-Men movie universe...Listen on PodTyrant
The popular Square Enix video game franchise Just Cause is getting the big screen adaptation and it just took a huge step forward. Jason Momoa (Aquaman) is set to star in the film, which will be directed by Brad Peyton (San Andreas). This is some solid talent for the film, but it also got itself a great screenwriter. The script will be written by John Collee, who in the same guy who wrote the fantastic Russell Crowe film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. If anything, we know that there's a good chance the script will be solid.
Peyton and Momoa previously worked together on the Netflix's Frontier series. It's actually pretty good and it's nice that they are coming together to work on bringing Just Cause to life as a feature film.
The story basically centers around a character named Rico Rodriguez (Momoa), who's an operative for an organization known as the Agency. There are no official plot details for the film, but according to Deadline it's "expected to deal in some way with Rico’s crisis of conscience while on a mission." Here's the plot description for the first game, which will obviously serve as inspiration for the upcoming film:
Just Cause begins with Rico Rodriguez, an operative for an organization known as the Agency, being dropped into a Caribbean tropical island called San Esperito, after being called there by his commanding officer, Tom Sheldon, to help overthrow San Esperito's dictator, Salvador Mendoza, whom the Agency believes to be in possession of weapons of mass destruction. After his arrival, Rico meets up with Sheldon and fellow agent Maria Kane, and they ally themselves with a guerrilla group staging a rebellion against the regime and the Rioja drug cartel, another enemy of the government. Rico assists them in their civil war against Mendoza's corrupt officials; Black Hand mercenaries and the Montano cartel. Rico can also assist in the liberation of various territories to further destabilize the government's rule over the island.
Eventually, Sheldon discovers that Mendoza does, indeed, have control of WMDs, and with San Esperito so politically unstable and with the guerrillas having the upper hand, the president is forced to retreat to his private presidential island just off the mainland. Sheldon and Kane fly Rico to the island to kill Mendoza, but he attempts to escape via jet. However, Rico boards the jet and kills Mendoza and his remaining bodyguards, stopping his reign on the islands.
I've only played the first game in the franchise, but Just Cause is sure to make an action-packed adrenaline-fueled adventure film. That's pretty much what I'd expect from the talent that they've brought on board to develop the movie.
Momoa recently shot Justice League and will also star in the Aquaman solo film. Peyton is about to start production on Dwayne Johnson big screen adaptation of the classic game Rampage. He's also set to direct the sci-fi adventure film Black Hole.
Earlier this week Logan screenwriter Michael Greenrevealed that there was originally supposed to be a flashback scene giving Professor X's tragic backstory with an event that became known as the Westchester Incident. The scene ended up being cut so that the story would focus more on the characters. Director James Mangold recently did an interview with Coming Soon and explained why it was ultimately cut and how it would have fit into the film. In case you haven't seen the movie yet, I'm going to place a spoiler warning here.
As I previously explained, there is a whole backstory that revolves around Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Professor X (Patrick Stewart), and what happened to all of all the mutants. In the Old Man Logan comic, it was Wolverine who was responsible for the deaths of the mutants. In this movie, we learn that Professor X caused the deaths of the mutants.
It's revealed that there was a terrible incident in Westchester, New York, which is the home of the X-Mansion and Xavier's School for Gifted Mutants. We learn from the villain Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook) that the government classifies Xavier's brain as a weapon of mass destruction. Later on we hear a news broadcast on the radio talking about how the incident at the casino in Oklahoma was similar to one that happened Westchester, which injured 600 people and left several members of the X-Men team and mutant students dead. This was something that Logan was trying to hide from Xavier.
Mangold revealed that the scene that showed this event was originally planned to be the opening scene in the movie, but he didn't want it to overpower the rest of the story. He explained:
"Yeah, I wrote that scene. I wrote it, and at one point, it was even the first scene in the movie... It also made the movie about that. It was really interesting. It suddenly made the movie about X-Men dying, as opposed to allowing the movie to be a kind of unwinding onion, like allowing you to kind of enter the story and go, 'Where is this going?' It was so large and loomed so large, and I felt like it also was still falling into the formula of the movies, with the big opener, that is setting up the mythology first. I thought, 'What if we do an opener that leans into character first? Actually underplay those things?' Let them just feel like it’s more like a normal thing, like it’s happened. And instead of underlining it, yeah. Just let it live in the background of all these characters."
Again, it feels like deleting the scene was the right decision. I like how the how history just kind of loomed in the background of the story as we slowly learned what had happened and how this tragic unexpected accident affected them and how it weighed on their souls and influenced their decisions. That was the smart way to do it.
With the live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell coming out soon, Distractotron Channel has released a great video that offers us a brief history of the franchise and focuses on the original manga to the current feature film starring Scarlett Johansson. The video covers everything fans have enjoyed from the franchise including the manga, Dark Horse Comics, art books, feature films, TV series, and video games. It's an incredibly well made video infographic that I think fans will appriciate.
“In every generation, there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer.”
March 10th marks the 20th anniversary of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I seriously can't believe that it's been 20 freakin' years since the incredible series premiered! It's easily one of my favorite series of all time, and we'll never really see anything like it again.
I'm currently rewatching the series with my girls, who have never seen it all the way through before. They love it because they see themselves in Buffy and they want to kick ass like her. Buffy is a strong female character that my girls can look up to.
Creator Joss Whedon recently did an interview with Yahoo to talk about the series and one of the things he’s most proud of is when women tell him:
"'That's the girl I think about when I think about strength.' Strength as in leadership and the ability to deal with a crisis and the decisions they make going forward. When I was still making the show, I had a woman come up to me in the commissary of Fox who was in her late 30s, and she was like, 'I was able to move cities and get this particular job that I was after because of her. Because I could use her power as mine.' I thought I was, at that time, still just talking to young people, and that was an amazing moment."
I really hope that inspiration and motivation rubs off on my girls as I watch the series with them. When asked what he was most invested in while making the series, he explained:
"The issue is always gonna be women’s rights and feminism and the basic respect that we all need to pay to each other. It turns out that there were other things. Obviously the Willow/Tara romance was very important for a lot of people. But I did not set out to do that. I did not think of the world and everything I did that carefully. Obviously we were careful about what we said about people, but I only had a gay romance in it because it was college and I thought, 'This is a good way to follow up Oz. It’s a tough act.' And then later on, I was like, 'Oh. Representation matters. I’m a white guy.'"
I think the show was ahead of its time and 20 years later the themes in it still resonate strongly. It's one of those shows that will stand the test of time and hopefully continue to inspire new generations.
Now that you've all probably experienced James Mangold'sLogan for yourselves, it's a good time to bask in the glory of some of the film's finer details. Artist Shae Shatz has taken to Twitter to reveal a handful of concept art pieces, and they do a tremendous job of evoking the dusty, futuristic world in which Wolverine finds himself in this movie. The Western imagery (Logan wears a cowboy hat and is accompanied by a dog in some shots), the grimy texture of the buildings and worn-down gas stations, the anti-Cerebro tank that serves as Xavier's prison...even though Logan's outfit was different and he didn't have a pet, it looks like these images had a big stylistic influence on Mangold's final film.
