Here's a great little video presentation from BuzzFeed called "The Truth Behind Pixar." It features several interesting little known facts about the incredibly successful Pixar Animation.

Reviews for The LEGO Movie have been pouring out all over the internet, and it's been getting a lot of positive buzz! I haven't seen it for myself yet, but from everything I've seen, it looks like something that I'll enjoy watching. 

One of the things I like most is the animation style, which is pretty different from anything we've seen before. If you want to learn how directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller pulled it off, we have a new featurette for the film called "How They Created The LEGO Movie," which is worth watching if you're into the behind the scenes stuff. I've also included a video of some B-roll footage.

When the movie was announced we learned that it would be developed using a mix of stop-motion and CGI. This video shows us how exactly that worked.

Director Marc Webb has revealed which character B.J. Novak will be playing in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. He will be taking on the villainous role of Alistair Smythe. It will be interesting to see how big of a role he will be playing in the sequel, and whether or not we'll he will end up as Ultimate Spider-Slayer, or if we'll get see the Spider-Slayers in the movie.

It's hard not to think that maybe this character is one of the many who could get their own spin-off movie. I don't see why they would introduce this character and not plan to use him as Ultimate Spider-Slayer at some point in the franchise. I've included some detailed information on the character below.

Novak is a great choice for this character, and I hope they utilize him more in the franchise. 

This is the tweet that Webb sent out:

Almost shot ASM2 in B+W til @bjnovak's (A. Smythe) promo for his excellent book ONE MORE THING beat me to it: http://t.co/axmFgum6fJ

— Marc Webb (@MarcW) February 3, 2014

Here's some information on the Spider-Slayers:

Alistair Smythe was the son of Spencer Smythe, inventor of the Spider-Slayers - a series of robots designed to destroy Spider-Man. The initial generation of Spider-Slayers were created by Alistair's father and commissioned by J. Jonah Jameson. After Spencer failed to kill Spider-Man - and ended up getting destroyed as a result - Alistair inherited the legacy from his father and gained a new-found hatred toward Spider-Man. He initially worked for the Kingpin but left in disagreement over how to deal with Spider-Man and went solo.

Here's some information on Ultimate Spider-Slayer:

After being confined in an asylum, Alistair released himself and took several other inmates with him in order to construct a new series of Spider-Slayers that tracked Spider-Man across the city. His plan of revenge forced the inmates to assist in the machines' construction. After sending a series of slayers after Spider-Man, Alistair lured Spider-Man to his residence for one final battle.

In order to defeat Spider-Man on his own, Alistair enhanced himself by encasing his entire body in a biorganic carapace that not only served as a full body armor, but increased his strength and gave him the ability to walk again by interconnecting with his spine. The physical structure of the carapace gave Alistair bird-like talons for feet, a long, curved blade-like weapon jutting from each shoulder, a pair of smaller jagged blade weapons on each forearm, and a specially made web-shooter that fired from the forearm area. Eventually, Spider-Man defeated Alistair and made sure he and the surviving asylum inmates were taken to custody.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has released a new clip from Justice League: War. It features The Flash meeting Batman for the first time, and Flash is a little bit starstruck. It's a pretty fun clip. Yesterday it was reported that this will start a cinematic continuity between the DC animated films. Comic Book Resources spoke to James Tucker, producer of Justice League: War, who had this to say,

This will definitely be the first salvo in doing new movies that are in continuity with each other. Our next movie’s going to be ‘Son of Batman,’ and that Batman will be the same Batman that you see in ‘Justice League: War.’ Basically, we’ll have two concurrent series of Justice League movies and Batman movies, and they’ll be in continuity with each other. So it’s kind of world-building.

That should definitely make these movies a lot more fun to watch. Here's the synopsis for War:

When the powerful Darkseid and his massive, relentless forces invade Earth, a group of previously unaligned super heroes – misunderstood and, in some cases, hunted by the authorities – discover the only way to fend off the attack will be to work together as a cohesive unit. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Shazam and, in his origin story, Cyborg combine their respective talents in an all-out battle to save the planet. Based on the 2012 graphic novel, “Justice League: Origin,” by Geoff Johns & Jim Lee, Justice League: War provides a glance into the world before the Justice League was created, and offers the initial animated incarnation of DC Entertainment’s “The New 52.”

Justice League: War is now available on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download. So it's available to watch if you want to. 

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and today we have a fun series of geeky Valentine's Day cards created by PJ McQuade. I'll admit, I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day. Shouldn't people that love each other show their love every day? Why wait for a day when everywhere is going to be crowded, and flowers and chocolate are going to be sold out? These cards are really cool, and if you want to purchase any of them or the whole set click here.

Geeks who love nostalgia, praise Disney for their recent, wondrous decision! The seasons 1-3  of Gargoyles, which is 75 episodes, is now streaming on their Youtube channel.  Each individual episode can be found on their page, but if you are too eager and want to jump in, we have the playlists to get you started below!

Season 1 // 12 Episodes // 4 hours

Season 2 // 50 Episodes // 18 Hours

Season 3 // 12 Episodes // 4 Hours

Billy Murray made one of the most awesome late night entrances ever when he flew into Late Show with David Letterman as Peter Pan. Murray came in singing and joked around about auditioning for the lead role in the upcoming live Peter Pan broadcast. Ya gotta love this guy! 

I'm way too excited for Captain America: The Winter Soldier! I'll watch anything I can get my hands on, knowing that when I do see the movie it's still going to be packed full of awesome surprises. We've got a new behind the scenes video for you to watch that includes footage from the the incredible-looking movie and also features interviews with the cast and crew talking more about what we'll see in the highly anticipated sequel. The exclusive look at the film comes from the Thor: The Dark World Blu-ray.

IssssE is Black Widow | Photo by: Sergio Aguirre

Very few in the Marvel universe, or any universe for that matter, can hold a candle to the elite super spy that is Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow. Her expertise in pretty much anything that can hurt you coupled with her get the job done at any cost attitude is a potent combination. It's one of the many reasons why she’s been an Avengers mainstay for most of her career. With no shortage of wonderful cosplay to choose from, it was hard to come up with a comprehensive list, but we certainly tried our best. Alright, enough talking. Time to check out some of the best Black Widow cosplay around.

Rayi-Kun is Black Widow | Photo by: Franky-Chan

Giorgia Cosplay is Black Widow | Photo by: Daniele Faccioli

Alexia Jean Grey is Black Widow | Photo by: Superhero Photography

Charlotte Clark is Black Widow | Photo by: Sassy Studios

Crystal Graziano is Black Widow | Photo by: Big White Bazooka

Nikita Cosplay is Black Widow | Photo by: Omaru

Crystal Graziano is Black Widow | Photo by: Big White Bazooka

Sugarbunny Cosplay is Black Widow | Photo by: Surfsama

Alexia Jean Grey is Black Widow | Photo by: Bryan Humphrey Photography

Crystal Graziano is Black Widow | Photo by: Big White Bazooka

Ayuko Cosplay is Black Widow | Photo by: Antony Gomes

Vera Chimera is Black Widow | Photo by: Andy Wana

Giorgia Cosplay is Black Widow | Photo by: Daniele Faccioli

Kitty Honey is Black Widow | Photo by: Magic Alex Photo

IssssE is Black Widow | Photo by: Sergio Aguirre

Fork Ninja is Black Widow | Photo by: Wolfenheim84

Giorgia Cosplay is Black Widow | Photo by: Daniele Faccioli

Crystal Graziano is Black Widow | Photo by: Martin Wong Arts

We've got a great fan-made teaser trailer for the movie Hawkman. It was created by Rhett & Link from the YouTube channel Good Mythical Morning. It's kind of imagined as a comedy, which would actually be a pretty fantastic take on a comic book character that is so hard to take seriously. If Warner Bros. ever gets around to making one, I doubt they would take it down this path, but they should. I've also included a video of the guys that made it talking about their vision of a Hawkman film. 

One of the major films that Philip Seymour Hoffman was working on before he passed away was The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2. For those of you who are wondering where that leaves the production, Lionsgate released a statement saying that his sudden death will not impact the release date of the film. There is one very crucial scene in the movie that involved his character, and it looks like that scene will have to be reconceived. The studio is confident that the filmmakers can complete the movie in a way that will satisfy fans.

An executive form the the studio told THR the following,

"We’re all extraordinarily sad. But as it relates to production, it’s going to have no impact. Obviously, we're going to have a couple of work-around issues but the movie will be creatively whole. His performances in both [remaining] movies will be up to the best of his craft. We feel it will be a good tribute to him."

When asked to expand on the crucial scene that remains to be shot, this executive responded,

"Why would I want to give people something to look for two years from now?"

That's a good point. Hoffman played head gamesmaker Plutarch Heavensbee in the film, and he only had seven more days of shooting. It will be interesting to see what changes they make to the story to work around this character. Hoffman was awesome in the role, and it's sad to think that he won't be making movies anymore. 

Before Jabba the Hutt ended up being a giant slug in Return of the Jedi, he went through several other design iterations. He was played by a human in the original Star Wars movie, but was supposed to be replaced by a stop-motion creature, which can be seen in the concept art above. I've never seen that design until now. It's really weird looking at some of these other Jabba designs. Most of them I've already seen, but in case you haven't, I've included them below.

Jabba made his first appearance in the comic book adaptation of A New Hope looking like this:

These are some more concept drawings of the character:

Here's how Jabba originally looked in A New Hope:

And as you all know, here's how he ultimately looked:

Via: The Geek Twins

Marvel has released eight new photos from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, showing off a few of the characters and some action-packed moments. I was expecting this movie to be amazing, but everything I see continues to just blow my mind with geek awesomeness. If you want to get another adrenaline rush watching the latest trailer, click here.

The Wolf of Wall Street stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill are set to reteam for another project which will be based on Marie Brenner’s 1997 Vanity Fair article The Ballad Of Richard Jewell.

Hill will play Jewell, who was the security guard who discovered a backpack full of explosives in the Olympics compound at the 1996 Atlanta games. "Initially hailed a hero for reporting the suspicious knapsack and then helping clear bystanders from the area before it exploded, Jewell was subsequently vilified just three days later as a potential suspect, his life and reputation torn apart in the advent of the 24 hour news cycle."

According to Deadline, Leonardo DiCaprio will play a lawyer that Jewell knew casually, "a Southern attorney who mostly did real estate closings and seemed in over his head, but he guided Jewell through a hellish Twilight Zone that went on even after the FBI officially cleared Jewell’s name three months later."

DiCaprio and Hill were incredible in The Wolf of Wall Street, and this sounds like another amazing project for them to take on together. This is another film that could eventually lead to a bunch of awards. I think there's potential for this to be one of Hill's greatest roles.

Here are some more details about what actually went down in this story from the report:

This is more a cautionary tale about how a media rush to judgment, based on law enforcement leaks and rumors, can trample the rights of individuals before the facts are even in. Jewell’s move from hero to a potential bomber looking for attention happened in an alarmingly short span before, in his words, the FBI and journalists were on him “like piranha on a bleeding cow.” Based on the flimsiest evidence and the FBI’s zeal to corral a suspect, Jewell, a former sheriff’s deputy who earlier that year moved in with his mother to care for her during a health crisis, and took a security job because he thought it would be strong resume material as he tried to become a cop, was suddenly depicted as a 34-year-old loser who lived with his mother.

After the Atlanta Journal Constitutionboldly wrote a front-page story that flatly said Jewell fit the profile of a lone bomber, 10,000 reporters decamped outside their small apartment, which the FBI tore apart looking for evidence, taking hair samples and fingerprints. Jewell’s mother was particularly traumatized, particularly when her favorite newsman, Tom Brokaw, came on NBC and reported the feds probably had enough to arrest and charge her son, but perhaps not enough to convict him yet. Jay Leno turned Jewell into a nightly running joke on The Tonight Show, ridiculing him for his weight and other matters. It was an ugly chapter for journalism, with bogus reporting that included the assertion on CNN that Jewell was seen before the explosion with a homemade bomb. Lawsuits were filed and settled with several news outlets. Jewell died in 2007 at age 44, and at least in his obits, he was called a hero. An anti-government militant later confessed to the crime.

Here's a funny mockumentary short that traces an ACE Hardware employee's efforts to prepare for the zombie apocalypse. The short is called "When Zombies Come." It premiered at Sundance in 2013, and it's finally been released online for everyone to enjoy. The film was directed by Jon Hurst, and I think a lot of you will enjoy it. I remember it got lots of laughs at the film festival. 

IGN

"Explore the galaxy; join the Imperial Navy"

Here's a fun set of propaganda posters that were created for the new animated series, Star Wars Rebels. The posters feature the Inquisitor, Imperial Star Destroyers, and a few recruits that will help propel The Empire forward with their mission of ruling the galaxy. 

Star Wars Rebels continues the epic tradition of the legendary Star Wars saga with all-new exciting, action-packed adventures. It is a dark time in the galaxy, as the evil Galactic Empire tightens its grip of power from world to world. As the series begins, Imperial forces have occupied a remote planet, ruling with an iron fist and ruining the lives of its people. 

But there are a select few who are brave enough to stand up against the endless Stormtroopers and TIE fighters of the Empire: the clever and motley crew of the starship “Ghost.” Together, this ragtag group will face threatening new villains, have thrilling adventures, and become heroes."

Simon Kinberg (X-Men: First Class) wrote the first episode, with Dave Filoni executive-producing the series. The series is set to debut at the end of 2014 on Disney XD.

Empire

Omelete

ET

Mashable

TheForce.net

Attack on Titan and Nintendo fans alike will love this animation done by AmazingArtistYellow. It took him six months to insert most of the cast from the Super Smash Brothers series into the second intro from Attack on Titan to make the most satisfying fan video I've seen in awhile.

Via: THR

It's being reported that Netflix will be moving forward with House of Cards Season 3. The second season hasn't even premiered yet, but it sure looks like it's going to be a good one! 

The series was originally packaged as a two-season series, but as you can see, they are excited about taking it even further. Apparently, production for Season 3 is set to begin soon. 

House of Cards is such a great series. It's so well-written, and of course, the acting is insanely good. Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, Kate Mara, Michael Kelly, Sakina Jaffrey, and Constance Zimmer star in the series.

Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos had this to say in a statement:

"I think if you look at the original House of Cards, there was a natural third season, and we could go well beyond that."

So there's a strong possibility we could see a fourth and fifth season as well. 

The series tells the story of Democratic Senator Francis Underwood's (Spacey) unscrupulous rise to power. The second season finds the protagonist and wife Claire (Wright) continuing their beltway ascent. Season 2 is set to premiere on Netflix on February 14th.

Magician Penn Jillette has been doing magic with his silent partner Teller for years! I've seen them perform in Vegas a few times, and they are always incredibly entertaining. Jillette is now in the process of making a feature length horror film called Director's Cut. Jillette wrote the screenplay for the film and Adam Rifkin is directing.

The movie he's making was crowd-funded, and what's interesting about that is the plot of the movie itself involves crowd-funding. In a recent interview with Cinemablend, the entertainer explained the story, saying,

"The bad guy in the movie is a crowd-funder. So, one of the people on the site, who’s crowd-funding and writing about crowd-funding is the villain in the movie, played by me. And I am fascinated by supposedly found footage movies. I love The Blair Witch Project, I loved the way that movie happened on the internet, as opposed to happening in the theater. And crowd-funding came along and I thought, wouldn’t it be great (to tie that into a film)…

So the idea of this movie is that a movie is being made, it’s being crowd-funded. People are there helping with it, and then one of the crowd-funding people who gets onto the set with his credentials for crowd-funding, kidnaps the lead actor and keeps her in a dungeon and forces her to act out scenes that he shoots on a camera, then cuts with the footage he stole with the other movie they’re making. So, he makes his own plotted movie using his own footage coupled with real movie footage to tell his story and then it’s all being done as a director’s commentary with his voiceover, talking about how he made the movie, which he didn’t really make. It’s kind of a horror movie, scary suspense, I guess, intellectual thriller."

When asked how crowd-funding is changing the movie industry, Jillette replied:

"I mean, Zach Braff is kind of denying, he’s not really embracing it, and Adam Corrola is just kind of going tangental to it. The crowd-funding is this, oh, this is just a different way, we want crowd funding to be as invisible as the studio is or less visible than the studio is. This movie, we are, from the opening scene, I think the first word that I say in the voiceover is the word crowd-funding. It really embraces it. I also, I think crowd-funding is just fabulous, from both sides. The reason this movie is crowd-funding is I would invest in stuff, invest is not the right word, but I would donate to stuff. I just love it. I love the, there’s this thing that happens in sports that I never understood where people from say we’re in the Superbowl, I always go, 'What do you mean you’re in the Superbowl? You’re going to be playing?' I never understood that team thing, but with crowd-funding, I really do go, 'Hey we’re inventing a new kind of phone.'"

As for where the production of his film currently stands, they are currently casting for the female lead. He goes on to discuss what they are looking for in an actress:

"Everybody else in the movie, every part in the movie, a zillion people can do, but the lead, really she is the hero and she’s also the victim and she’s on the screen all the time, and she has to play really herself in three different levels. She plays in the movie (Director's Cut), in another movie (the fictional one shot within the film), then in another movie (the one shot by Jillette's deranged fan). She has to be just really smart and really understand it. We’ve got people who’ve been very interested, then we’ve kind of gotten cold feet. It’s really her movie. It’s very odd to write a movie for someone and then have to cast it. I realize everybody does that, but in my life, I write stuff for myself. So I know who’s going to do it, but it’s very odd to write something to have so clear, and it’s also really hard, I mean whoever we get to do that, will really be working her ass off."

Since I'm a huge fan of both Jillette and horror movies, I'm very excited to see how this project pans out. It sounds like it could be a solid flick. 

Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch recently appeared on Sesame Street, where he was challenged by the great Murray-arty. Of course, Cumberbatch can't figure out the brain-bending challenge alone, so he gets some help from his friend Count Von Count.