"One cannot simply walk into Mordor."

Just the other day when I posted an article about a Hobbit Pub called The Green Dragon in New Zealand, I mentioned how I've always wanted to go to New Zealand to take the Middle Earth tour. I'm not sure when or if that will ever happen, but I'd love to do what these two Lord of the Rings fans did! 

Kerry Shawcross and Chris Demarais are the Red Vs. Blue guys who run the website Rooster Teeth. They decided to take a trip to New Zealand, and put Boromir's words to the test. With a guide, sleeping bags and lembas bread they set off from Hobbiton to make the 120 mile long trek to Mount Ngauruhoe, which is the mountain that stood in for Mount Doom in the films. Along the way they have fun chasing and yelling at farm animals and get shocked by electric fences. The end goal is to simply walk into Mordor. 

They recorded their journey, and this is the first part of it. I imagine in part 2 we will see them come face to face with Sauron's army. Enjoy the entertaining journey. 

Source: TheOneRing.net (http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2012/12/09/66889-exclusive-video-can-one-simply-walk-into-mordor/)

Just last week Jesse Wigutow was hired to pump out a new script for Tron 3, and today we've learned that Garrett Hedlund is set to reprise his role as Sam Flynn in the film. NextMovie caught up with the actor and asked him if he was coming back, his reply...

Yeah, Are we gonna break this now? Disney's very excited. That's about that. You know, yeah, I'm very excited, Disney's very excited.

Hell, I'm very excited as well! Regardless of the weak script, I really enjoyed Tron: Legacy. It was just such a wild ride. I'm happy that Joseph Kosinski will be back to direct it as well. He brought such an incredibly cool visible style to that world that I absolutely loved. This time around maybe they'll shoot it in 48fps, if any film deserves to be shot in a higher frame rate it is Tron. It's more suited for a film like this than it is a fantasy film like The Hobbit. 

Hopefully Wigutow can pump out a solid script for this sequel. He previously wrote the fantasy film Eragon though, which doesn't spark a lot of confidence. But, he also wrote Disney's Peter and the Starcatchers, which the studio is obviously happy with otherwise they wouldn't have hired him, so I remain hopeful. 

Hey guys and gals! In this episode of Gaming Disassembled we discuss the new Tomb Raider Trailer, a possibly bad marketing move by Ubisoft, and Valve's possible entry into the console war (rumored to be the Steam Box). We also spotlight some great art and a replica portal gun, as well as sound off on Gail Simone's recent dismissal from Batgirl (and maybe DC Comics entirely). Hope you enjoy the show!

"Zombies are real... they're just not what you think they are."

I joke around about the zombie apocalypse happening all the time, but did you know that there's a group of people out there that truly believe it's only a matter of time before it happens? And they're preparing for it. The Discovery Channel did a special called Zombie Apocalypse, that focuses on this group of people. 

According to THR the special features the stories of four individuals -- "a teacher, mother of two, ex-military firearms instructor and founder of the Kansas Anti-Zombie militia -- who are preparing for what they confident is an impending outbreak circa The Walking Dead." 

There's even scientific proof showing that a zombie outbreak could happen! Dr. Robert Smith of the department of mathematics at the University of Ottawa warns,

A zombie pandemic … is something that is plausible, it's something that at least in terms of spread, is very likely.

They also say that experts predict that "a potential virus leading to an outbreak could overwhelm a city the size of New York in eight to nine days once a single zombie is infected."

So maybe I should stop joking around about it and actually start preparing for real. The show airs on December 18th at 10 p.m. Check out the promo trailer, and let us know what you think about the possible reality of a zombie Apocalypse!

I'm ready for my midnight screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey tonight! I think we're one of the only online movie news websites that didn't attend a press screening for this film. Not sure why, but it doesn't matter, because it's always more fun to go to the midnight screenings with the rest of the true hardcore fans! 

Peter Jackson has released a very fun new clip from the film featuring the dwarves presenting Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) with his contract. 

Synopsis:

The adventure follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers. 

Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever…Gollum. 

Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s "precious" ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities … A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.

Here's a fun piece of Walking Dead fan art that shows several Disney and other animated movie characters used to make up the characters from The Walking Dead. Can you point out all of the animated movie characters used in this little mashup? 

You have to hand it to Treyarch, they always seem to deliver those little tidbits in their games that pleases many fans. A while back someone found the Thor easter egg within the game. Now another gamer has found something even more epic, a Batman easter egg!

If you’re like me and have a big “WTF” face right now, I totally understand. I really don’t get the basis behind it either, other than just doing it. If you check out the video, ChaosXSilencer on YouTube details everything out for us.

It all takes place on the “Hijacked” multiplayer map in Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Within this map you even find little clues, right down to Christian Bale’s favorite childhood books. Follow all the instructions carefully (and there are MANY), and you too can have the Dark Knight appear out of the ocean.

...BTW if you haven't realized that this is more than likely very fake, then I don't know what to tell ya.

"A Movie bursting with so much manly compassion, you'll think your watching Brokeback Mount Doom."

This last weekend I re-watched The Lord of the Rings trilogy in preparation of see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey tonight at midnight. It is such an incredible trilogy, and are collectively some of my favorite films of all time. Of course the guys over at Screen Junkies managed to find a bunch of stuff to make fun of, and it's really funny so I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

I love concept art created for movies, it's the point in the film making process where the story's visuals start to come to life. Disney has shared one piece of concept art out of hundreds they have laying around for their new CG animated film Frozen. This will be a big screen adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s classic story "The Snow Queen", and it's being directed by Chris Buck (Tarzan, Surf’s Up) and stars the voices of Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel. Here's a previously released synopsis,

In Frozen, a prophecy traps a kingdom in eternal winter, so Anna (voice of Bell) must team up with Kristoff, a daring mountain man, on the grandest of journeys to find the Snow Queen (voice of Menzel) and put an end to the icy spell. Encountering Everest-like extremes, mystical creatures and magic at every turn, Anna and Kristoff battle the elements in a race to save the kingdom from destruction.

The movie has been set to be released in theaters in November of 2013, and it will feature original songs by Tony-award winner Robert Lopez (The Book of Mormon, Avenue Q) and Kristen Anderson-Lopez (In Transit).

I really enjoyed Disney's last film, Wreck-It Ralph, and I hope this one turns out just as entertaining.

Check out this fun collection of Star Wars style sports team logos created by David Creighton-Pester. If these were real football teams who would you root for? Anyone looking to get prints of these, they go for $15 at Society6.

As I sit here getting caught up on some Doctor Who episodes I came across this extremely cool looking officially licensed TARDIS desktop PC. I'm not a big PC guy, so I don't think I would spend the money on it, but for those of you who prefer PC's and are Doctor Who fans this is something you might be interested in looking into. It's a really nice looking TARDIS replica. 

Here are the specs:

• High quality aluminium model matches official Pantone blue colour of the original Tardis.
• Official BBC WW Ltd licensed product
• Designed and manufactured in the UK
• Exclusively available from Scan Computers
• Handles and poster on the front door match original TARDIS (door does not open)
• Includes DVD or Blu-ray drive hidden behind 'Police Box' sign
• Dr. Who TARDIS PC Chassis
• Intel Pentium G2120 Dual Core, 3.1GHz
• Gigabyte GA-H61N-USB3, Intel H61
• 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz
• 500GB Western Digital HDD
• 300W be quiet! BN133 SFX Micro-ATX PSU
• Sony Blu-ray Writer
• Microsoft Windows 7 Premium 64bit

For more information click here.

CinemaSins sets its all plot hole seeing eyes on The Amazing Spider-Man for its inaugural video. Along the same lines as Honest Trailers and How It Should Have Ended, it almost goes without saying that this contains a whole ton of SPOILERS.

This isn't as humorous or creative as the stuff they're doing over at ScreenJunkies or HISHE, but they put together a quick and ruthless slam down on movie mistakes. They were dang thorough with this vid that takes greater aim at continuity and factual errors with some nice jabs at believability.

As much as I love having some interesting mistakes or plot holes pointed out to me at times, it would take all the fun out of movie watching if you went in with this attitude. In a movie about a teenager with the power of a spider it's kinda dramatic to get up in arms about a Rubik's Cube... that's where you draw the line?!

It's definitely worth a watch and it'll be interesting to see what they take on next. Visit their page and let them know what movie deserves to be brought to the judgement seat!

Here's a fun little mystery for you. The University of Chicago received a really cool package addressed to Henry Walton Jones, Jr., which is the given name of everyone's favorite archeologist Indiana Jones. No one knows where the package came from, but apparently the contents of the envelope were very faithful to the mythology franchise. Here's some detailed information that was put up on the school's Tumblr blog,

What we know: The package contained an incredibly detailed replica of “University of Chicago Professor” Abner Ravenwood’s journal from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. It looks only sort of like this one, but almost exactly like this one, so much so that we thought it might have been the one that was for sale on Ebay had we not seen some telling inconsistencies in cover color and “Ex Libris” page (and distinct lack of sword). The book itself is a bit dusty, and the cover is teal fabric with a red velvet spine, with weathered inserts and many postcards/pictures of Marion Ravenwood (and some cool old replica money) included. It’s clear that it is mostly, but not completely handmade, as although the included paper is weathered all of the “handwriting” and calligraphy lacks the telltale pressure marks of actual handwriting. 

What we don’t know: Why this came to us. The package does not actually have real stamps on it— the outside of the package was crinkly and dirty as if it came through the mail, but the stamps themselves are pasted on and look like they have been photocopied. There is no US postage on the package, but we did receive it in a bin of mail, and it is addressed to the physical address of our building, Rosenwald Hall, which has a distinctly different address from any other buildings where it might be appropriate to send it (Haskell Hall or the Oriental Institute Museum). However, although now home to the Econ department and College Admissions, Rosenwald Hall used to be the home to our departments of geology and geography. 

If you’re an applicant and sent this to us: Why? How? Did you make it? Why so awesome? If you’re a member of the University community and this belongs to you or you’ve gotten one like it before, PLEASE tell us how you acquired it, and whether or not yours came with a description— or if we’re making a big deal out of the fact that you accidentally slipped a gift for a friend in to the inter-university mail system. If you are an Indiana Jones enthusiast and have any idea who may have sent this to us or who made it, let us know that, too. 

They go on to claim that this is not a hoax, and they've reached out to the internet for help. If you have any answers, clues, ideas, thoughts, or musings they set up an e-mail account so they could deal with this thing... indianajonesjournal@uchicago.edu.

This is really cool, and it'd be great to find out the answers behind it. If the answers never come to light then that's cool as well!

Here's a fun fan-made trailer that features a horror film re-cut of the classic National Lampoon comedy Vacation. The trailer was cut by Chris Bowersox, and he calls it "Slaycation". I like these fun little trailer mash-ups, so if you know of any other good ones please send them our way! 

Taken 2 director Olivier Megaton is set to direct a new action thriller for Emmett/Furla Films called Taking Gotham, and no it's not a new Batman movie being directed by Megaton. Although that would be something.

This movie actually sounds pretty cool. It's based on a true story "about a secret unit of the NYPD that was created in response to a string of brutal robberies in New York City. After a deadly sting operation, the elite unit is disavowed by the NYPD, forcing them to go deep underground in order to clear their names."

This sounds like the most interesting project that Megaton has worked on. Some of the other films he's directed include Columbiana and Transporter 3. All of the films I've seen from him have been mediocre, but this new one has a story that could make for a really good movie.

Next week Kathryn Bigelow's highly anticipated action-drama Zero Dark Thirty will get released in a limited number of theaters before it goes wide. I've heard nothing but great things about this movie, so I'm very excited to see the final product! The new trailer you're about to watch includes some great new footage showing off more of the film's build up and intensity.

For a decade, an elite team of intelligence and military operatives, working in secret across the globe, devoted themselves to a single goal: to find and eliminate Osama bin Laden. Zero Dark Thirty reunites the Oscar(R) winning team of director-producer Kathryn Bigelow and writer-producer Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) for the story of history’s greatest manhunt for the world’s most dangerous man.

Jessica Chastain plays the lead character hunting down Osma Bin Laden in the story, and you can expect her to get an Oscar nomaination. She just got a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress, and the film is also up for Best Picture. It also stars Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Kyle Chandler, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, Edgar Ramirez and more. The movie will hit theaters on December 19th!

Check out this epic fan made LEGO trailer for The Dark Knight Rises. ParanickFilmz has done trailers for Harry Potter and Batman already. This time they took the third trailer for the film and made a two-minute replica with LEGO.

I can't think of anything cooler than The Dark Knight Rises and LEGO mixed together!

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Here's a really cool half Batman, half Superman costume, proving to us that you can have the best of both worlds. This is really a cool costume, but the longer I look at it the more it throws my eyes off. 

Willow, one of my favorite fantasy adventure films, is set to arrive on Blu-ray for the first time in March. George Lucas and Ron Howard bring the classic to life for the film's 25 anniversary! The Blu-ray and DVD combo pack includes an all-new digital transfer overseen by Lucasfilm and Never-Before-Seen Bonus Material.

Here is the press release:

Journey to the far corners of your imagination with Willow, for the first time ever on stunning Blu-ray! Written and produced by George Lucas and directed by Ron Howard, the film tells a timeless fantasy tale in which heroes come in all sizes...and adventure is the greatest magic of all. In celebration of its 25th anniversary, the unforgettable classic has been fully digitally restored and debuts on Blu-ray and DVD Combo Pack March 12, 2013 from Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

When young Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis; Harry Potter franchise) finds an abandoned baby girl, he learns she is destined to end the reign of the wicked Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh; “Upstairs, Downstairs”). In order to protect the child, Willow must team up with a rogue swordsman (Val Kilmer; Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) and overcome the forces of darkness in the ultimate battle of good versus evil!

The Willow Blu-ray and DVD include a dazzling array of extras with never-before-seen exclusive content such as deleted scenes with remarks from Ron Howard, a personal video diary of Warwick Davis, matte paintings and much more. In addition, look out for Ron Howard’s new introduction for the original 1988 featurette “The Making of an Adventure,” as well as special effect legend Dennis Muren’s new intro to his piece, “From Morf to Morphing: The Dawn of Digital Filmmaking.”

Special Features

WILLOW is presented in widescreen with 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio (Lossless). Special features include:

• NEW Willow: Deleted Scenes with Ron Howard
• NEW Willow: An Unlikely Hero Personal Video Diary of Warwick Davis
• The Making of an Adventure with an all new introduction from Ron Howard
• From Morf to Morphing with an all new introduction from Dennis Muren
• Matte Paintings
• Easter Egg

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Dylan McDermott has been cast in the lead role of the big screen adaptation of Stephen King's short story Gramma, which had been re-titled... Mercy.

The story is part of King's 1985 short story collection Skeleton Crew. It follows two young boys who go with their single mother (O'Connor) to take care of their elderly, senile grandmother named Mercy, only to discover that she's a witch who made a pact with a dark force many years before.

The coolest part about this story is that its set in set in H.P. Lovecraft's the Cthulhu Mythos. It includes characters, creatures, and unearthly powers that are featured in Lovecraft's work.

McDermott joins the previously cast Frances O'Connor. Peter Cornwell (The Haunting in Connecticut) is set to direct it from a script written by Matt Greenberg (1408, Halloween H20). Jason Blum, best known for the Paranormal Activity franchise, will produce alongside McG.