The Royal Mail has revealed an awesome new series of Doctor Who first class themed stamps featuring all 11 Doctors! There's also a second class set of stamps that includes some of the villains such as the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Ood, and the awesome Weeping Angels. The collection of stamps marks the 50th anniversary of the classic sci-fi series! I can't wait to see what's in store for us in 2013!
Source: BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20838728)
2012 is about to come to an end and a presumably great year is ahead of us. I am sure a lot has happened to you in these last 365 days. The years bring new friends, different lovers, and experiences you will never forget (or do because, you know, alcohol). We charge into 2013 with the hopes that we can improve ourselves and get a better understanding of the world we live in.
But, video games are far more important.
2012 was an adequate year for video games, in my opinion. It wasn’t amazing, but it offered up a different perspective on gaming. The rise of the indie games has created some interesting discussions in these last few weeks. The fact that a TellTale game is making its way on everyone’s top 10 lists amazes me (and I totally agree). One other thing to note in 2012 is the “fall” of Triple-A games. Now, don’t get me wrong, Mass Effect 3 and Assassin’s Creed III are fine games, but there was quite a bit of public disappointment when people got their hands on them. I have never seen such a volume of people come out against relatively decent games. Does this have to do with how the internet has evolved, or is this just the way gaming is headed? I can assume that with each passing title, the expectations are put higher and higher. I guess the best way to relate this to film would be the case of The Godfather III. People waited years for the story to complete itself but it ended up being limp compared to the earlier entries.
With that said, I found gaming to be rather pleasant this year. My favorites include: Journey, The Walking Dead, Sleeping Dogs, and Persona 4: Arena. Yeah, I know, these are not games that scream GOTY to many of you, but they are ones that I got the most enjoyment out of. Max Payne 3 and Mass Effect 3 were up there, but I had too many problems with them in terms of mechanics (Max Payne) and narrative (Mass Effect 3). Like I said, it seems that the big name games are just missing that final punch home to make it truly rewarding. For me, both Journey and The Walking Dead moved me in an emotional way that I am not used to feeling from playing a video game. If a game has that much power, it is worth more than its gameplay. Unfortunately, you run into problems with games like Papo y Yo where the gameplay actually ruins what could’ve been a rewarding emotional experience.
There were also games I just couldn't get to because I have to work and don't have all the time in the world (contrary to popular belief). I am getting Far Cry 3 today, which is probably going to be on my list of favorite games of the year. I also wanted to check out XCOM, but my wallet is so thin these days.
So, fellow readers, I want you to sound off in the comments section with what games were your favorites this year. There is no incentive other than giving yourself a voice. I will try to interact with as many of you as I can.
Summit Entertainment has released the first four minutes of the Jonathan Levine-directed zombie romantic comedy Warm Bodies. The film is based on the novel by Isaac Marion, which tells the love story of a zombie and a girl, and how the power of love can bring the zombies back from the dead. The trailers show that the film has a great mix of humor, horror, romance, and drama. I really enjoyed this opening sequence, this looks like a great movie, and I'm looking forward to checking it out!
The clip introduces us to a zombie named "R" played by Nicholas Hoult, he introduces himself and this world of zombies in which he is now a part of. "After a zombie epidemic, R (a highly unusual zombie) encounters Julie (a human survivor), and rescues her from a zombie attack. Julie sees that R is different from the other zombies, and as the two form a special relationship in their struggle for survival, R becomes increasingly more human – setting off an exciting, romantic, and often comical chain of events that begins to transform the other zombies and maybe even the whole lifeless world."
The movie will be released on February 1st, 2013, and it also stars Teresa Palmer, Rob Corddry, John Malkovich, Analeigh Tipton, Dave Franco and Cory Hardrict. Watch the clip and let us know what you think!
Source: Fandango (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iI1AkFh3QgU)
The Muppets director James Bobin is set to helm a new musical for Disney called Tribyville, which is being produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. Disney is currently in negotiations to acquire the project from their Gary Sanchez Productions. Bobin also wrote the script for the film, but other than the title and the fact that it will be a musical, we know nothing more about the story. Bobin is also known for directing episodes of Da Ali G Show and Flight of the Conchords. The writer and director is currently working on developing The Muppets sequel. We'll keep you updated as more information becomes available.
Source: The Wrap (http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/disney-talks-period-musical-tribleyville-exclusive-69446)
Here's a really cool TV report from 1982 that gave viewers a sneak peek at the sci-fi films that were set to be released that summer. We see these things a lot these days, but it's awesome to take a trip back in time to see how people were getting their first looks at movies before the internet. Some of the films included in the report are Blade Runner, Poltergeist, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Wrath of Khan, The Thing, and Tron! I love how they completely spoil Spock's death in Wrath of Khan. 1982 was a great summer of movies! I turned four years old that summer, and I actually remember my parents taking me to the theater to see E.T. and Tron.
Source: Laughingsquid (http://laughingsquid.com/summer-sci-fi-movie-sneak-preview-from-1982/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+laughingsquid+%28Laughing+Squid%29)
Thanks to USA Today we have our first look at Danny Boyle's next film Trance, featuring the film's stars James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel and Rosario Dawson.
The movie is an art heist thriller where the heist goes wrong. McAvoy plays an auctioneer, who is in league with a gang of thieves led by Vincent Cassel. Dawson plays a hypnotherapist who is brought in to help recover a lost painting. The film has been described as having the same dark, sexy, hard-edged tone of Boyle's other films like Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. Here's what Boyle had to say in an interview,
It begins like that. But it takes the idea of a stolen painting and develops into something sleeker and more psychological, with twists and turns.
I wanted to do an updated noir, give it a contemporary spin in terms of emotion. Noir is usually cold. I wanted it to be more emotionally charged. It's the first time I put a woman at the heart of a movie.
The movie will be released by Fox Searchlight on March of 2013. I'm a fan of Boyle's work and this looks and sounds like it will be another great film from the director.
I would have loved to see a fourth Evil Dead film that would include Ash going to hell. I always thought that Evil Dead and Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell could make for a good Hell mashup, especially at the end of the movie when the main character was dragged down to hell. She could meet Ash down there, and they could really do some damage. The two films could esily be set in the same universe. Would you like to see a movie where Ash battles the evils of hell?
Source: Bottle neck gallery (http://www.bottleneckgallery.com/products/florey-ash-goes-to-hell)
It looks like Quentin Tarantino is looking to develop another black revenge film called Killer Crow. The idea behind this film was supposed to be part of a much larger story with Inglourious Basterds, but he ended up cutting it out while revising the script. Tarantino explains the story in a recent interview with Roots.com,
My original idea for Inglourious Basterds way back when was that this [would be] a huge story that included the [smaller] story that you saw in the film, but also followed a bunch of black troops, and they had been f---ed over by the American military and kind of go apeshit. They basically -- the way Lt. Aldo Raines (Brad Pitt) and the Basterds are having an 'Apache resistance' -- [the] black troops go on an Apache warpath and kill a bunch of white soldiers and white officers on a military base and are just making a warpath to Switzerland.
The director doesn't know when he is going to make this movie, but it would be part of this historical film trilogy he's been developing. He goes on to say that he's already got most of it written already, and that he just needs to finish it up. This part of the story is set in 1944, and he explains,
That would be the third of the trilogy. It would be [connected to] Inglourious Basterds, too, because Inglourious Basterds are in it, but it is about the soldiers. It would be called Killer Crow or something like that.
The director is obviously fascinated by this subject matter, and he wants to keep it going. Django Unchained was freakin' insane! I loved the movie and how awesomely over-the-top it was. It was a very brutal movie, but it was also extremely entertaining as well. I loved Tarantino's last two films, and chances are this Killer Crow movie will end up being just as good. What do you think of the idea behind the WWII revenge flick that Tarantino wants to do next?
Source: THR (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/quentin-tarantino-discusses-reviving-black-406437)
Joss Whedon always comes up with great strong female characters in the stories he tells, and here's a cool t-shirt design that displays most of them. The only character that doesn't really belong here is Black Widow, because she's technically not really one of Whedon's characters. Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer should be included instead. The shirt was designed by Tom Trager. Who's your favorite female Whedon character?!
Source: RedBubble (http://www.redbubble.com/people/tomtrager/works/9767360-women-of-the-whedonverse)
Here's a really fun sci-fi animated short called E.T.A. directed by Henrik Bjerregaard Clausen. It centers on a character named Marvin who "has the most boring job in the universe - but all is not as it seems..." The short was inspired by the Alien franchise. As you'll see the character is wearing a Weyland Industries shirt, there's also a few other Easter eggs in the short to look out for. I hope you enjoy this! It really has a great ending!
E.T.A. by JUNK from Henrik Bjerregaard Clausen on Vimeo.
Here's a cute piece of geek art created by CGHUB artist sab-m called "Little League," and as you can see it features a younger vision of DC Comics' Justice League team.
As 2012 comes to an end and we gear up for 2013, one of our most anticipated films coming up is J.J. Abrams' sequel Star Trek Into Darkness. Collider had the opportunity to sit down with producer and co-writer Damon Lindelof and talk about the film at a recent press event, and you should definitely check out the whole interview for some great Trek talk about what we can expect from the film. But we wanted to pull out a few highlights and share them in case you don't have time to delve into the whole extensive interview.
On Easter eggs:
Lindelof: The majority of the Easter eggs are already embedded before we go into production. I think that there are a couple things that along the way where you find an opportunity. But I think the fans want to feel that that stuff had a lot of thought behind it and that we’re not being casual about referencing the original series or the Trek-verse. And you have to do your homework especially because we started a new timeline. You have to be very responsible about the sequencing of things because it’s not we can do whatever we want now.
On how dark the film will be:
Lindelof: We’ve been talking about this a lot...I think that one of the things that the best iterations of Trek, whether it was episodes show or the movies that were highly successful, is that they were able to find a blend of those two things where the stakes were monumentally life or death but there were still moments of great humor. Did we want to do The Voyage Home? That is largely a comedic, fish out of water movie. No pun intended, a whale out of water movie. With strong comedy elements, but the stakes were saving the future, but the mechanics of the movies was that there was a lot of funny. No, we wanted to do a very serious movie. But when you look at the first movie you go, O.K. the opening of the movie is that Kirk’s father dies and then the next sequence of events is basically a run up to Vulcan being destroyed and the fundamental aftermath of Vulcan being destroyed. All of that stuff seems pretty dark to me and so I don’t feel like the first movie was necessarily light and frothy and I don’t feel that this movie abberates significantly from the first movie in terms of its own level of self-importance. It’s still Trek. I think that the ways that the characters relate to each other, even in times of immense stress can be humorous because several of them, particularly Bones, use humor as a coping mechanism for dealing with those immense stresses...I don’t think anybody wants to see a dour Star Trek movie.
That last part is particularly interesting, because as you've seen in the trailers and all of the marketing so far, they're definitely selling this movie as the darker, more brooding Star Trek sequel. Part of the reason the first one was so great was because it was so quick in its pacing and filled with light moments amid high stakes, so I'm glad to hear Lindelof directly address this concern. While a lot of people give him crap for Prometheus and the ending of LOST, I'm still a huge fan of his and want to see him do well; hopefully that means that Star Trek Into Darkness will be as satisfying as we all hope.
Again, make sure you check out the full interview at Collider for much more from the writer/producer, and we'll keep our phasers set to "excited" (sorry) for Star Trek Into Darkness, which hits theaters on May 17th, 2013.
Director Guillermo del Toro produced a horror film coming out early next year called Mama, and he introduces the short film that inspired the film. The short is awesomely terrifying, and I can see why Del Toro wanted to adapt it into a feature film. The short supposedly contains one of the scariest scenes that Del Toro has seen. The short was directed by Andy and Barbara Muschietti, and as you'll see it looks like a great horror film! Andy actually ended up directing the feature film.
Mama comes out in theaters on January 18th, 2013, and it stars Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nellsse. Watch the short and let us know if you're looking forward to seeing the feature film!
A supernatural thriller that tells the haunting tale of two little girls who disappeared into the woods the day that their mother was murdered. When they are rescued years later and begin a new life, they find that someone or something still wants to come tuck them in at night.
The day their father killed their mother, sisters Victoria and Lilly vanished near their suburban neighborhood. For five long years, their Uncle Lucas and his girlfriend, Annabel, have been madly searching for them. But when, incredibly, the kids are found alive in a decrepit cabin, the couple wonders if the girls are the only guests they have welcomed into their home.
As Annabel tries to introduce the children to a normal life, she grows convinced of an evil presence in their house. Are the sisters experiencing traumatic stress, or is a ghost coming to visit them? How did the broken girls survive those years all by themselves? As she answers these disturbing questions, the new mother will find that the whispers she hears at bedtime are coming from the lips of a deadly presence.
Here's an awesome piece of pulp art featuring a pin-up girl fighting off some kind of tentacle monster by stabbing it with pencils. The piece was created by willmurai for the cover of ImagineFX #86, and I love how it turned out! This is just a really cool design! The epic facial expression on the girl is fantastic!
There was a time when Warner Bros. and Alcon Entertainment were looking to develop CG animated feature films based on Looney Tunes' Marvin the Martian, and the 1970's Hanna-Barbera series Hong Kong Phooey. Eddie Murphy was attached to Phooey about a year ago as the voice of the lead character. Both these films are thankfully dead now, because they look like they would have been awful. Director Alex Zamm has released some CG animation and live-action test footage for these films to show you the direction they were headed, and why they didn't end up getting made. Check out the test footage, and let us know what you think!
Netflix has been good to me this year. It's shown me how to steal diamonds through diplomacy in Africa, the secret behind great sushi, and perhaps the best found footage film I've ever seen. For those who haven't seen it, Snow On Tha Bluff is a found footage film following the life of Curtis Snow, a drug dealer living in The Bluff in Atlanta. Here's the beginning to bring you up to speed.
From that point we are taken on the wild ride that is based on the real life of Snow himself - I tell you this now so that you won't spend five minutes searching on your phone whilst watching this fantastic look into a harder side of life. Shot on location and featuring real relatives and friends of Snow, I still have trouble believing it's not real. The dialogue, events, and drama involved seem 100% real. The fact that nearly all of these people have never acted makes it all the more fantastic. Big ups to Damon Russell who directed and co-wrote the script with Snow. I'll definitely be watching for his future releases.
Perhaps the best part of the film however is the way it's shot. This is one of the first found footage style films that not only feels natural in the way it's shot, but executes it in a way that neither nauseates or annoys. Borrowing camera shots from Paranormal Activity and Blair Witch Project portraying impoverished life in the most authentic way since Menace To Society, this is one of those films you have to see, and my top Netlflix hit of 2012.
Back in 2004 director John Woo was developing a live-action adaptation of Metroid. The film production ended up falling apart. We now have some information on the ill-fated film project and where it was headed thanks to the film's producer Brad Foxhoven. During that time Nintendo was developing three Metroid-related video game projects, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes for GameCube, Metroid Prime: Hunters for Nintendo DS, and the Fuse Games spin-off Metroid Prime Pinball. There was a strong revival of the game coming and according to Foxhoven,
We believed there was a great opportunity for John Woo to bring his style of action into a Metroid film. Nintendo was quite supportive of the idea, as they were all fans of John's previous films.
He explains to IGN that Tiger Hill Entertainment ended up spending three years on the development process for the film coming up with a story that would appeal to both new and existing fans of the game franchise.
We knew that a lot of the Metroid mythology had many similarities to other well-known science fiction franchises, so we had to try and propose some fresh ideas that Nintendo would approve. We also knew that the characters were originally developed many years ago, when game systems were limited in their graphics and animation. These same designs needed to be updated, particularly when seen as a live-action representation.
They had to work around a lot of restrictions that Nintendo slapped on the property, there was stuff they could and couldn't do with the world of Metroid. The reason Nintendo was so tight on these restrictions was because they were still discouraged by the Super Mario Bros. movie failure 20 years prior. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel writer David Greenwalt was hired to help develop a story, and they made it as far as a story treatment for the film.
Early versions of the script focused the origin story of Samus Aran. "Tiger wanted to explore who Samus was before she became the lone bounty hunter featured in the games.... the movie version of Samus was to be an exceptionally talented, but also flawed character who was looking for redemption."
We wanted to see her struggle, to be humbled, and to be forced to rise up against crazy odds. And of course we wanted to see the cool weapons in all of their glory.
That's a story I think we could have all gotten behind. Everything started to fall apart when trying to build a backstory for Samus. They kept hitting walls, both creatively and on the licensing front.
Things started to go south when we tried to dig into the character a bit more. As you know, any film needs a deeper story arc than what is told in the game, where we learn about the characters and their world. What are they doing when they are NOT fighting? What is their daily existence and relationships? What are Samus's aspirations, history, and fears? Nintendo appreciated the questions, but had never thought about them before, and ultimately didn't have a lot of answers. In the end, they felt uncomfortable with our team being the ones to propose those answers.
That's where the film production came to a halt, and that was in 2007. It's really kind of sad that the movie never happened because Nintendo didn't really know who the character they developed was, and they didn't want someone else developing it for them. Foxhoven hopes that one day they will give a Metroid movie another try saying,
I know for Nintendo, they walked away appreciating the process and how much further they needed to explore the franchise so that it has a chance for a feature film at some point. I still believe there is a chance. There are quite a few Hollywood executives in town who grew up playing Metroid, and who would be willing to take the time needed to bring Nintendo along in the process.
Metroid could really be a great movie, and if it happens one day, hopefully they put together a talented team of people to do it! I'm very curious to see what John Woo would have done with it!
Check out this awesome photoshopped image of Community's Alison Brie as Captain America. I don't know or care why this was made, all I know is that she looks completely badass in it!
This was an incredible year for movies! One of the best years in my lifetime. As I was putting together my Top 10 list of favorite films of 2012, it easily turned into 15. There were just some films I didn't want to leave off the list. So this is my Top 15 Favorite Films of 2012, and what I consider to be the best. Of course everyone has their own opinion on things so feel free to share your favorite movies of the year!
If you haven't seen any of these movies yet, you should definitely take the time to watch them, because all of these were really amazing films and worth watching!
How can this one not be at the top of my list?! It was incredible! And the greatest and most epic superhero movie to date. It's the superhero film by which all other superhero films will be judged. It set the new standard, and it seems like Marvel will just keep raising the bar. Watching this was the most fun I had at the movies all year! I have a feeling the second phase of Marvel's master plan is going to be even more glorious! Joss Whedon did an amazing job bringing fans the badass movie we were all hoping for, and I can't wait to see what he does with the sequel!
There was a time when I thought this movie would never see the light of day. It sat around for so long before it was released. Thankfully it was released, and it was one of the best horror films that's ever been made, and it became an instant classic! It took everything that we love about horror movies and turned it on its head, taking a concept that we've seen a hundred times before but with a completely fresh and original take. This was simply a brilliant horror movie.
I'm a huge fan or director Rian Johnson, this guy is going to be a force to be reckoned with. He's just such an incredible storyteller, and I love that the stories he tells are completely original. His films just get better and better, and Looper was super cool, the coolest movie of the year, and I'm excited for what Johnson ends up doing next!
I love a good cop drama, and David Ayer's End of Watch was one of the best I have seen. The intensely badass movie had a solid mix of action, drama, and comedy. It had a great story and script and all the actors gave amazing performances. It's also the only film I watched in theaters more than 3 times this year trying to get other people to see it.
I'm a little shocked by how many people didn't like this movie! I absolutely loved it! It was such an incredibly well made movie, and it was so cool to go back to Middle Earth and see the story that led up to The Lord of the Rings. This was my favorite book when I was growing up, and I love the direction that Peter Jackson is taking it. I can't wait to see the rest of the trilogy. I've been waiting for this story to get a big screen adaptation for as long as I can remember. Now it's here, and Jackson has done an awesome job so far!
This was a wonderful closing film to an awesome trilogy. It left fans wanting more, and unfortunately we aren't going to get it. Regardless of all of the issues that have been pointed out in the movie, I loved it. Bane was such a brutal villain, Catwoman was awesomely sexy, and it was great to see Batman once again save Gotham City with the help of John Blake.
I think this might be one of the most underrated movies of the year. This was 2012's most badass movie! Don't let Shia LaBeouf stop you from seeing this movie! He was the one that helped push it to get made, and he easily gives the best performance of his career in it. But it was Tom Hardy who stole the show, he gave such an awesome performance. I don't see how anyone can see this movie and not like it.
This is definitely the most badass action film that I've seen this year, or ever for that matter! I've seen a ton of action films in my lifetime but nothing that has really blown me away like this one. Whenever I feel the need to get my action film fix, this is the movie I've been popping in my blu-ray player. I can't wait for the sequel!
I can't imagine a world without anymore James Bond movies, so thankfully Skyfall actually got made! When MGM was going through their bankruptcy thing I wasn't sure when we would see another Bond film, but they figured it out and Sam Mendes ended up giving us a fantastic, classic 007 movie. In the whole scheme of things this was a pretty small scale Bond film, because he wasn't trying to save the world, he was trying to save a friend. It still really packed a powerful punch!
This was one of those films that I didn't rush out to see, because I wasn't really overly excited about it. I saw it when I had a little extra time, and holy crap it was such a great movie! I was shocked by how good the movie was, and by how much I liked it. It was an incredible story that I was able to relate to in a way, and the performances from Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence were simply incredible. I loved how this movie made me feel while I was watching it.
If you haven't seen this movie yet, you need to do it right now! This movie was fantastically hilarious! You can't go wrong with this one, it delivers some incredibly fun entertainment. Collin Ferrell, Sam Rockwall, Christopher Walken and Woody Harrelson were amazing, and just watching them play these great characters in this extremely strange film is so worth it. I absolutely loved the story, it was just so odd and different, yet at the same time so damn cool!
I really had no idea whatI was getting myself into when I watched this movie. The only reason I saw it was because I had seen everything else that was out in theaters at the time. It ended up being one of my favorite movies of the year! I absolutely loved this film, it was a fantastic coming of age film that had that classic John Hughes feel to it. This was such an incredible and well made film with a wonderful story, characters, and great acting. It a must watch for anyone that loves movies.
Tarantino did it again. He managed to make yet another incredibly entertaining and shocking film. I've always enjoyed the films that Tarantino has made, and they are getting better and more crazy. This western/southern of his was very brutal, but it was also very humorous, and incredibly entertaining. It's one of the most insane revenge westerns I think I've ever seen. Tarantino is the only guy that I think can get away with this stuff.
Not only was this another incredible film by Steve Spielberg, but Daniel Day Lewis gave the best performance of the year! There's always usually one performance a year that completely blows me away, and this was that performance. If he doesn't win the Oscar for Best Actor then there's something seriously wrong with the system, because no other performance comes even close.
As far as animated films go ParaNorman ended up being my favorite of the year. It was just such an incredibly entertaining film that had everything I love about the movies. I especially love the horror theme of the story. It's one of those films that I was able to relate to, and it brought back some fun childhood memories.
I still haven't seen Zero Dark Thirty yet, and I'm not sure if I'll get that chance before the year is out, which is why it's not on the list in case you were wondering.
Check out this incredible detailed illustration featuring some poor girl uncomfortably strapped in an awesome looking Mech robot suit. I'd think she'd want to wear some kind of jumpsuit when piloting one of these giant metal mech beasts. It just doesn't seem like being naked in one of these things is very practical. Looks cool though! The Geek Art was created by CGHUB user EVANLEE82 for Galaxy Saga.
