I've always been very interested in all kinds of mythology, and Neil Gaiman's American Gods is a novel that has fascinated me greatly. I was intrigued by the fact that Starz was developing a TV series and so far everything I've seen looks beautiful, and I can hardly wait to see what the series has in store for me and the rest of the fans. 

While we wait for the series to premiere, we have two clips for you to watch teasing the show, and it looks to be very good. The first one deals with two inmates, one of which is Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) the other is Low Key (Jonathan Tucker), talking about not pissing off the ladies in airports. It's cool, but also interesting how much focus they give to this scene. It's well done, but it's just about airport ladies? The other scene is more of a featurette that gives you an idea of who Shadow Moon is and what the story of the whole series is. I also want to point out that the cinematography for this series looks amazing, and the concept behind the whole thing sounds wonderful. Color me impressed.

American Gods airs on Starz April 30th,

American Gods finds traditional Old Gods, with mythological roots from around the world, fearing irrelevance as their believers die off or are seduced by the money, technology and celebrity offered by the New Gods. The 100‘s Ricky Whittle plays Shadow Moon, an ex-con who, left adrift by the recent death of his wife, becomes bodyguard and traveling partner to conman Mr. Wednesday (Deadwood‘s Ian McShane). But in truth, Mr. Wednesday is a powerful old deity, on a cross-country mission to build an army and reclaim his lost glory.

Bryan Fuller (Hannibal) and Michael Green (Kings) are developing the series, and it has a great cast that includes Emily Browning (Sucker Punch) as Laura Moon, Pablo Schreiber (Orange Is the New Black) as Mad Sweeney, Yetide Badaki (Sequestered) as Bilquis, Bruce Langley as Technical Boy, Crispin Glover (Back to the Future) as Mr. World and Orlando Jones (Sleepy Hollow) as Mr. Nancy. Kristin Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies), Gillian Anderson (Hannibal), Cloris Leachman (Raising Hope), Peter Stormare (Prison Break), Corbin Bernsen (Psych) and Jonathan Tucker (Kingdom) also have roles in the series.

Whoever thought that Hans Zimmer would be the highlight of Coachella? To have a well-known film composer have a slot at a music festival is definitely a rare sight, but fans absolutely loved it and Zimmer surpassed all expectations with his performance. This bit of him performing "Inception" is just a snippet of what was an astounding performance, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see Zimmer trying to do a tour sometime down the road! I definitely want to see that, don't you?!

Director James Gunn has said multiple times that he wasn't sure what his next project would be or if he would even return to direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. I think we all knew deep down that he would be back, and now he confirmed on his Facebook page that he will indeed write and direct the film. He also said that it will close a chapter on “this iteration” of the Guardians and will lead into the next ten years and beyond of Marvel movies! Here's what the filmmaker had to say:

Well, this week we start the U.S. press junket, before traveling to Europe at the end of the week. Of course I know some of the questions that come up a lot – “Wasn’t there a lot more pressure dealing with the sequel of a beloved film?” (No, there was less, because this time I knew there was an audience waiting to see it!) and, “What was it like working with Kurt Russell and Sylvester Stallone?” (Daunting and at times overwhelming – I ran around in my backyard as a kid pretending to be Snake Plissken and John Rambo, so these guys are true icons to me.)

But the question that comes up perhaps the most is, “What’s the deal with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and are you going to direct?”

Before I was able to honestly answer this, I needed to know it was, in my heart, what I truly felt called to do. There is a history in Hollywood of haphazard endings to trilogies, and I didn’t want to become a part of that dishonorable tradition of pretending the third one doesn’t exist. I couldn’t do it for the money, and I couldn’t do it because it was what other people wanted me to do. I needed to do it because it was what I needed to do. I have never made choices in my career based on anything other than passion and love for the stories and characters, and I didn’t want to start now.

So, after many months of ruminations and discussions, I know the answer. I could save this answer for the first, random interviewer to ask me during the press junket but instead I thought I’d share it with the most important people in the Guardiansverse – you, the fans, who have been so incredibly supportive and enthusiastic over the past five years, it has moved me to tears on a regular basis.

So, yes, I’m returning to write and direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

In the end, my love for Rocket, Groot, Gamora, Star-Lord, Yondu, Mantis, Drax, and Nebula – and some of the other forthcoming heroes – goes deeper than you guys can possibly imagine, and I feel they have more adventures to go on and things to learn about themselves and the wonderful and sometimes terrifying universe we all inhabit. And, like in both Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, we will work on creating the story that goes beyond what you expect.

My partnership with the folks at Marvel Studios – Kevin Feige, Lou D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, and Jonathan Schwartz – has been the best of my professional career, and is a huge contributing factor to my decision – as is my relationship to the guys at Disney Studios – Bob Iger, Alan Horn, and Alan Bergman – who have been cheerleading innovation and the pure love of movies from the start. This is the kind of thing you’d expect a director to say about the people who have just hired him, but people who know me know I would never put up working with people I don’t like for a single movie, much less two, and much, much less three. I love them all and appreciate immensely their collaboration. I wake up every day pinching myself that they’d allow this punk rock kid from Missouri to help create this wonderful universe, and to not only allow but encourage creative freedom while doing so.

I can’t fricking wait to get started.

Much of what’s happened in the MCU for the past ten or so years has been leading, in a big way, to the Avengers’ Infinity War. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will happen after all that. It will conclude the story of this iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and help catapult both old and new Marvel characters into the next ten years and beyond. I will be working side-by-side with Kevin Feige and the gang to help design where these stories go, and make sure the future of the Marvel Cosmic Universe is as special and authentic and magical as what we have created so far.

I promise you, the fans, I’ll do it all with integrity and love and respect for the characters.

Make mine Marvel.

We are Groot.

Excelsior!

Love,

James

I couldn't be happier and excited that Gunn will return to write and direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and it's going to be really interesting to see what incredible adventure he takes these amazing characters on after the next two Avengers films!

The most powerful moment in Star Wars: The Force Awakens is when Han Solo is killed by his son Ben a.k.a. Kylo Ren. Star Wars fans around the world burst out into tears when we witnessed the hero tragically die. Well, it could have been even more powerful and meaningful if Leia and Luke actually witnessed his death, and that is the ending the Mark Hamill recently shared while talking to Fandango. When asked he would have liked to actually share some screen time with Harrison Ford in the film he explained: 

“Absolutely. In fact, I was reading and thought if Leia is trying to mentally contact me and she’s not successful, she’ll rush to his aid. She’ll get close to him and then get into some dire situation and THAT’S when I show up for a big ‘yay’. Save her life, then we rush to Han and are in the same position that Rey and Finn and Chewie are in. Too late to save him, but witnesses. Because it would carry so much emotional resonance into the next film. For us: his wife, his best friend to witness. Instead of two characters that have known him, what, 20 minutes? [Besides] Chewie. I thought that was a great missed opportunity.”

It definitely was a missed opportunity, but J.J. Abrams and the creative team just wanted to save that last moment of the film to reveal Skywalker when confronted by Rey. I get why they chose to go with that ending, but again, the death of Solo would have been so much more powerful had Luke and Leia been there to see their friend die. After all, Rey and Finn hardly even knew Solo.  

I'm sure changing this ending would've presented some story problems, but what do you think about Hamill's vision of the climatic moment at the end of the film?

Here's @HamillHimself on the Luke Skywalker/Han Solo reunion he wanted to see in #TheForceAwakens #SWCO pic.twitter.com/W3H4qiFpf8

— ErikDavis (@ErikDavis) April 14, 2017

In case you missed it this weekend, you can watch the full panel for Mark Hamill's tribute to Carrie Fisher from Star Wars Celebration. Throughout the event, everyone was thinking about Carrie, and we heard a lot of people say a lot of wonderful touching things about the actress. We even saw a beautifully made touching tribute video that you have to watch if you haven't already.

Hamill gave the ultimate tribute, though, with this panel. As you know, he and Carrie formed a strong friendship and he said that this panel was a way for him to help cope with the loss of his dear friend. He says, "I’m trying to use you as therapy to get through this together."

She shares lots of stories and experiences involving Carrie in this hour-long video and it's worth watching. So if you have an hour to kill, check it out! When talking about what enters his mind when he thinks of Carrie, he says:

“When I think of her, she’s looking down from the celestial stratosphere with those big brown eyes, that sly smile on her face, as she lovingly extends me the middle finger. And that’s how I want you to think of her. That was Carrie."

He also went on to say that we're going to love her in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Enjoy the video!

We've got other Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 TV spot for you to watch that gives us some fantastic new footage of Baby Groot fighting a couple mini alien creatures that look like dinosaurs. It's pretty great watching him full-on punching one of these things in the face.

We've only got about three weeks before Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is released! It's going to be a blast watching the new adventurous story of these great characters unfold. Even after everything I've seen from the film in the trailers that have been released, we still have no idea what to expect from this story and the characters that inhabit it. 

Set to the backdrop of ‘Awesome Mixtape #2,’ Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 continues the team’s adventures as they traverse the outer reaches of the cosmos. The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mysteries of Peter Quill’s true parentage. Old foes become new allies and fan-favorite characters from the classic comics will come to our heroes’ aid as the Marvel cinematic universe continues to expand.

The movie stars Chris Pratt as Star-Lord,  Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Michael Rooker as Yondu, Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot, Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket, Sean Gunn as Kraglin, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Elizabeth Debicki, and Chris Sullivan.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will be released on May 5th.

The team at Omaze is back with a new contest for film fans to win a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If you donate a few bucks to support some charities, you could be the grand prize winner and win a trip to London, where you'll stay in a real castle (!), have drinks with King Arthur: Legend of the Sword star Charlie Hunnam, and walk the red carpet at the movie's premiere. Not bad, eh? At least you know the movie itself will be bonkers, because its most recent trailer is absolutely ridiculous.

If you follow GameTyrant on Twitch, you know that I've been playing a lot of Mr. Shifty as of late. While it might be premature to say, this game is really putting up a fight to be one of my top games of 2017! That doesn't mean it's perfect, mind you, but it's does a lot of things right...read more on GameTyrant

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Personally, I wasn't crazy about the first season of HBO's Westworld. I thought the show spent too much time obscuring its mysteries and deliberately withholding information from the audience in order to pay off those mysteries, and the rest of the show wasn't interesting enough to justify those tactics. But despite that, I am interested to see what happens in season 2 now that all of the set-up has been achieved. Unfortunately, we won't see the second season until 2018 at the earliest.

But in the meantime, The Awesomer has pointed us to this cool western cover version of the show's theme song, which might help ease the pain of knowing we still have a long time to go until we hear it on our TVs again.

Paul lost the Oscar predictions, so this is his punishment. Cody forces Paul to watch The Fate of the Furious. Listen on PodTyrant

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Looks like the honeymoon period is already over for Star Wars Battlefront II, although this issue may not affect nearly as many people as past problems in the franchise...read more on GameTyrant

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Gus Fring returned to the Breaking Bad universe in Better Call Saul last night, but for how long? According to Giancarlo Esposito, Gus will be around for a very long time. Collider sat down with the actor and asked him some questions ahead of his premiere last night, and Esposito indicated that Gus's presence in the show could run right into the events of Breaking Bad...

I said I’d be willing (to return) predicated on a conversation with Vince [Gilligan, Breaking Bad‘s creator who created Saul with Peter Gould] … I respect Vince very, very deeply as I do Peter Gould and all the writers who helped to make Saul a hit in and of itself, outside of Breaking Bad. He assured me that they were going to find the way that would be intriguing and interesting, and I said if that could happen I would come back. It had to be for more than one episode. I’m imagining what Vince was thinking is to take it up to where we begin in Breaking Bad — possibly.

That's great to hear as Gus Fring was definitely one of the best characters in Breaking Bad and a big part of Vince's story. I love how this show is bringing in all the minor characters of Breaking Bad and making us care about the lives they led prior to Heisenberg! Are you excited for Gus to be back? 

I'm not a car guy, but I love the Fast and Furious movies. The franchise has obviously shifted into a globe-trotting adventure series over the years, but for those of you who still tune in for the races and the cars, this video is for you. Wired sat down with Dennis McCarthy, the man who built all of these cars throughout the movies, and got him to go through each one of them. From the movie that started it all, all the way to The Fate of the Furious, no hood is left unopened. Enjoy:

Almost a year has passed since Civil War. We all saw Spider-Man appear on the big screen in the MCU, where we wowed and thanked all our gods that something in the cinematic universe worked out for a change. But this has got many people thinking. When exactly will Spider-Man: Homecoming be taking place in the MCU? Obviously, it's after Civil War because he's watching clips of himself from the Civil War movie, but if a lot of time has passed, is he ready to graduate? Well, Spider-Man: Homecoming producer Eric Carroll recently made the timeline clear, telling Screen Rant:

“There will be some awkward chronology in that the movie comes out almost two years after Civil War, but we’re playing it like it’s a few months after Civil War. It hasn’t been years since Tony called him back. It came down to one of things we wanted to do was keep him in high school as long as possible. Let’s have him do something fun and different. Sony came to ourselves when we sat down and we thought, ‘Why do this version?’ And it is because we can really do a high school. Show that this is a young hero. Otherwise you have seen it all before…

"This is a fun, different take. If we say that it was actually two years after Civil War then he’s moving on, he’s a senior, and when the next movie comes out, it’s his sophomore year of college, and we really wanted to do multiple movies where he’s in high school.”

So, the reason for this has to do with their overall plan for Spider-Man. Making each movie a year of his schooling. I think that's a great idea. I love the idea of Watching a Superhero actually grow up in front of us. Learning things about life as well as fighting bad guys. It's one of the reasons so many people grew up loving Harry Potter, because we grew up with him. Carroll goes on to say:

This new movie already has my hopes up, especially with some superb casting like Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Donald Glover, and Marisa Tomei. On top of they have a solid idea of the direction they want to take the franchise.

Lucasfilm has released a new Force For Change campaign video from Omaze that features Star Wars legend, Warwick Davis. In the video, he amusingly takes us on a tour of the Han Solo movie set, and along the way teases an alien creature that's hanging around with directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller. At one point the directors hilariously try to edit Davis out in the video because he's a spoiler. I love how much fun these Star Wars crews have had with these Force For Change Omaze videos! 

If you donate to the campaign you will be entered for a chance to visit the Han Solo set for real and also appear in the movie!

No official story details have been released for the film, but we know it will explore Han and Chewbacca's adventures "before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, including their early encounters with that other card-playing rogue from a galaxy far, far away, Lando Calrissian."

The film stars Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Woody Harrelson, Michael K. Williams, Warwick Davis, and Emilia Clarke. The script for the movie was written by Jon and Lawrence Kasdan. 

The movie is set to be released on May 25, 2018.

Some interesting details have surfaced regarding the design of the costume that Brie Larson will be wearing in the highly anticipated Captain Marvel movie. Marvel Studios recently showed off a bunch of cool stuff for some of the upcoming films to several press outlets at the Marvel Studios offices on the Disney Studio lot. 

From what I've heard, the costume that Carol Danvers' will be wearing is inspired by the characters look from Kelly Sue DeConnick's 2012/13 comic run. Thanks to Nerdist, we have a detailed description of three pieces of concept art that they were shown. They say:

"The first two featured Brie Larson in her costume, which appears to draw heavy inspiration from her classic comics suit. Though the design kept Captain Marvel’s signature eight-pointed star emblem square on the chest, its look and feel were more akin to Ant Man’s suit than Iron Man’s. Like a form-fitting armor, her suit is less spandex and more military grade, covering her whole body. Her iconic sash is more of a utility belt, favoring function over form. In the concept art she stands tall, staring off into the distance, looking hopeful but tough."

When talking about the third piece of art that they saw, it showed Captain Marvel in battle with a villainous character described as "something in a giant metal suit with a helmet; the creature looked almost like the Kree sentries."

Captain Marvel's costume certainly sounds like it'll be cool. With all of the costumes that we've seen designed for the other characters throughout the course of these Marvel films, we know what the style is for the MCU costumes. So, it's not hard to imagine how the Captain Marvel design will look. 

Marvel hasn't really gone wrong with any of their costume designs. For the most part, fans have liked what Marvel has done with these characters and I imagine that fans will like what the studio has done with Captain Marvel as well. We'll just have to wait and see! 

Captain Marvel isn't set to be released until March 8th, 2019 so we've got a long way to go.

King Kong is now headed to TV in a new series that's currently being developed by MarVista Entertainment and IM Global. The series will be called King Kong Skull Island and the report says that it will be an adaptation of DeVito ArtWorks' Skull Island and Merian C. Cooper's King Kong. The series is described as being a "serialized, contemporary continuation of the classic franchise."

The story will center around a female lead with "a multicultural ensemble that will explore both the wonders and horrors of Skull Island and its origins." I enjoyed the most recent film Kong: Skull Island. It was a lot of fun and this new project has potential to be a very entertaining series, which is "backed by the estate of King Kong's creator, a key element when rebooting any franchise."

The series will be written and produced by Jonathan Penner and Stacy Title, who most recently worked on the horror film The Bye Bye Man. MarVista CEO Fernando Szew had this to say in a statement: 

"Jonathan and Stacy have taken a world that has enraptured audiences in all its many forms over the years and given it a contemporary, female-focused spin. It is with great anticipation that we partner with IM Global Television to bring this exciting new vision directly into viewers' homes."

IM Global Television president Mark Stern added:

“There's clearly a deep and abiding interest in this timeless story. We love Stacy and Jonathan's approach to this adaptation and look forward to partnering with MarVista as we bring this gripping tale of survival and adventure to life for a new generation of Kong fans."

Everyone seems pretty confident in the project and the direction that they are taking it. As a long time fan of King Kong, I'm curious to see how this turns out. I hope they have a decent budget to effectively pull off the epic scale of Kong.

Source: THR

The Rock and Vin Diesel are no longer feuding according to reports. TMZ says that while the two had a very public feud that went for months, the two are "good" and no longer at odds. Mind you this is all unnamed sources but apparently, the reason for the feud was Vin Diesel getting upset that The Rock was not acknowledging him as the star of the franchise. That's probably a legitimate concern considering Dwayne Johnson's incredibly massive star power at the moment and Vin's work primarily limited to the Fast And Furious franchise and GOTG voice work. Both men are apparently committed to the next film "1000%".

Boat loads of cash will solve anything right? I don't think it's any surprise that this beef was squashed so quickly after seeing the box office records the latest film is breaking. I'm sure both actors will be seeing a sizable payday for the next film. 

There are good ideas and there are bad ideas, and then there are ideas that could be good but are executed poorly. As far as ideas go, I think I'd go ahead and say this is probably the latter. Found footage is interesting for certain movies, but if your movie is intended not to be a found footage movie like Alien: Covenant then I don't think a found footage trailer is a good idea. For one it can lead some into thinking it is a found footage and they want to see it, but more than not, it can make people think it's a found footage film and not want to see it. I don't know, though, maybe it will be effective for some people and some people might like the vibe. Watch them for yourself and let me know what you think:

In my opinion, found footage movies are made because of the gimmick of the idea of what if it's real, and we know that Alien: Covenant isn't real. But say it's for aesthetic. Fine. Then don't jumpily edit it together with random clips. Found footage doesn't cut to random moments of the footage and then back to an interview. A better way would be either to have the person talking to the camera and then cut at the end to something weird or have multiple journal entries showing people looking worse and worse, OR just not use found footage to promote your Alien movie. It's Alien. People want to see aliens. Show us some of those clips and if you really must have some sort of found footage, have someone talking directly to camera at the end of the trailer only to have something eerie lurking in the background. But, what do I know.

I'm sure I'm wrong and a whiner and should go back to my hole that I died in.

We told you last week that superhero RPG Marvel Heroes Omega was headed to Xbox One and PS4, and today we learn that PS4 players are getting an exclusive first look at the game on console...read more on GameTyrant

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