Via: Deadline

Director Ron Howard has attached himself to direct  a new film project called Mena. Universal Pictures acquired the spec script from Gary Spinelli for a million dollars. 

The film will tell the true story of Barry Seal, "a portly pilot who, in the 1980s, was a 300-pound gun runner, and drug trafficker who transported contraband for the CIA and the Medellin cartel. He was eventually shot to death in Baton Rouge by the latter. The title refers to Mena, Arkansas, where a lot of the illegal activity took place, under the noses of Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., and then Arkansas governor Bill Clinton." For more information on the story of Seal click here.

This will be a great project for Howard to take on. I've always enjoyed the movies he's made, and his last film Rush was freakin' awesome. I have no doubt that he will turn the story of Barry Seal into a great film.

It seems like you can throw a laugh track into anything at the right moments, and it will give it the same feel as a scene from Seinfeld. Matin Comedy recently did that with The Walking Dead, and you can watch it below. 

HBO has released an awesome 15-minute preview for Game of Thrones Season 4. Fans of the epic fantasy series are definitely going to want to watch this. It features clips from some of the upcoming episodes, behind-the-scenes-footage, interviews with the talent, and cast members answering questions from their fans. The series is set to return on April 2nd, and it's going to be epic!

Here's a humorous Valentine's Day inspired illustration featuring The Joker and Harley Quinn. It was created by artist Abraham Lopez, and it's called "This Love is Madness." Here's a note from the artist, 

There is someone for everyone, is what I get when I look at this relationship. It could be a bit abusive and one sided at times, but it's love.  

I had sketched this out on the weekend and thought it would be appropriate to post it on Valentine's day. I'm still playing around with a specific look for how I want to draw Joker. I did know that I wanted to draw him with his hat, just because you don't see him wear it nowadays.  A beat and tied up Robin was one of the original ideas when first sketching this, but I also tried having Joker hold a bag of money as if he had just came bank from some successful robbing. Then I showed my friend the sketches and he reminded me that Joker wasn't one for stealing money really, but he sure does like to kill Robin's. Even though I see Damian being too tough and bad ass to be kidnapped, I just drew him there anyways because I try to find every opportunity to draw the kid.

When director Zack Snyder first revealed his Batman Vs. Superman movie at Comic-Con, he used a quote from Frank Miller's classic series The Dark Knight Returns as a way to reveal it.

"I want you to remember Clark in all the years to come. In all your private moments. In all the years to come, my hand at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you."

So how much of this comic book series will influence the movie? While speaking with the French magazine Popcorn, Snyder said the influence of the comic will serve as a building block for the story that they will give us.

"The comic book will influence the history of Batman vs. Superman, on which the writer David S. Goyer and myself will work."

The director went on to explain that Ben Affleck's version of Bruce Wayne will serve as a good opposition to Henry Cavill's Superman.

"Ben brings an interesting counterweight to the performance of Henry in the role of Superman. He has the experience necessary to paint the picture of an older and more advised man than Clark Kent, who bears the scars of a seasoned vigilante while retaining the charm that Bruce Wayne deploys when present in the world."

I think that screenwriter Goyer and Snyder have a good handle on things and what they are doing. I just hope the story runs a bit smoother than Man of Steel, but right now I'm most excited to see the character designs for the film.

The film will also star Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman/Diana Prince, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, and Jeremy Irons as Alfred, with Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, and Diane Lane reprising their roles. The movie is scheduled to be released on May 6th, 2016. 

Via: Comic Book Therapy 

We've got a funny comedy sketch to watch today called "Flash," and no, it has nothing to do with the superhero. But it's still worth two minutes of your time to watch! The short was directed by Will Herbert and here's a plot summary.

Dave is always coming over, and it's starting to annoy Emma. But today is different. Today, Dave has a proposition for her.

The punchline at the end is fantastic, so enjoy!

Fan Poster by Harrell Erik Wong

Warner Bros. has been looking to get a live-action Akira movie into production for years, but it seems like they have no idea how to go about adapting it properly. Back in 2011, Non-Stop director Jaume Collet-Serra was attached to direct it with Garrett Hedlund taking on the role of Kaneda. The movie was then put on hold after the studio decided to cut its budget down to only $90 million. Since then the director dropped out of the project, then came back on to try to develop a more scaled down version of the Katsuhiro Otomo 1988 cult classic anime. If there's one thing this movie doesn't need, it's to be scaled down. 

For those of you who are curious about the film and the direction they plan on taking it, Collet-Serra recent talked about about it with Comingsoon, saying,

"It's different, because you have to be respectful of the source material. Otomo adapted his own work from a manga into an anime and both things are completely different and genius. The only way to do a live version of "Akira" is to take the spirit and adapt it. It will be as different as the anime was from the manga."

The director is asked about the fans, their worries, and how he will maintain the essence of the things we love about Akira without diluting it into essentially Blade Runner: Mark 2?

"I think you cannot make a movie about "Akira" and hope that everyone understands it. Like everything else, you have to make three or four movies in one where there's the essence somewhere. If you're a fan, you already know what it's about and you'll see it's part of the same world, but trying to oversimplify it would be a mistake. I think if at some point a character tries to explain it to the audience at the end of the second act, that's a problem. It's more like an existential opera. It's something that can only be explained in the manga, and even in the anime it's hard to follow."

When asked what he would be bringing to the film that he would specifically make his, the director replied,

"I hope that I can bring strong characters. In the original source material, I don't think the main characters are the protagonists. What I'm hoping is to bring characters."

He expanded on that a little saying, 

"Nobody's interesting. Tetsuo's interesting because weird sh*t happens to him, and Kaneda is so two-dimensional. That's part of the Japanese culture, they never have strong characters. They're used as a way to move the other philosophy forward."

That's a very interesting statement. He does make a point, but I don't necessarily agree with it. I think the characters in Akira are extremely interesting. That being said, it would be pretty awesome if he can make them even more interesting. He then concluded the interview by saying,

"Yeah. So hopefully in my version that will be strong, and you'll have a story that happens in that world that will show you a little bit of the mystery. Then, if you're interested, they'll make "Akira 2 & 3" then you can get deeper into it. I love the world, a lot of people love that world, so why wouldn't we indulge in it a little bit and see how it would be if it was real? Like you say I don't have to explain everything, but wouldn't you like to spend two-hours in a world of "Akira" and follow a character and be like, "that's cool"? That's all I want to offer, is two-hours in a world you can actually feel. We're working on it."

As a long time fan of Akira, I'm very curious to see how this live-action turns out. I'll be honest though, I'm not expecting much. There's a lot of room for it to blow my mind if they really want too. It's definitely going to be really interesting to see how it turns out. 

This adorable illustration of Mr. Freeze freezing Batman comes from artist Chris Uminga. We've featured some of this artist's work before, which you can check out here. He has a very fun character style that simply puts a smile on my face. 

Warner Bros.

Here's a new poster and a short Japanese trailer for director Wally Pfister's sci-fi thriller, Transcendence. The movie stars Johnny Depp, Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall, Kate Mara, Cillian Murphy, Cole Hauser, and Paul Bettany. The movie was also produced by Christopher Nolan, and it looks like it's going to be crazy good. 

Dr. Will Caster is the foremost researcher in the field of Artificial Intelligence, working to create a sentient machine that combines the collective intelligence of everything ever known with the full range of human emotions. His highly controversial experiments have made him famous, but they have also made him the prime target of anti-technology extremists who will do whatever it takes to stop him. However, in their attempt to destroy Will, they inadvertently become the catalyst for him to succeed—to be a participant in his own transcendence. For his wife Evelyn and friend Max, both fellow researchers, the question is not if they can... but if they should. Their worst fears are realized as Will's thirst for knowledge evolves into a seemingly omnipresent quest for power—to what end is unknown. The only thing that is becoming terrifyingly clear is there may be no way to stop him.

The movie hits theaters on April 18th, 2014. To watch the previously released full trailer click here.

I remember reading a while back that Sacha Baron Cohen was bringing Ali G back to television, but I had no idea he meant basic cable. It'll be interesting to see how much he can get away with considering some of the things he did when his show was on HBO. Ali G Rezurection is set to air February 26th on FXX.

Who wants to see Jonah Hill and Maroon 5 doing a short film together? This film is believed to have been shot prior to Hill appearing in Superbad and lwas ikely made possible by the fact that his brother is the manager for the band. There is a big emphasis on dry humor here, so if that's not your cup of tea, you're not going to find this as enjoyable as I did!

The fourth season of The Walking Dead returned last night, and the second half of the season was a great start to what looks like an incredibly intense road for some of our favorite characters. AMC has released a new promo and sneak peek for the next episode called "Inmates," which is going to focus on a few other members of the group that was separated at the end of the mid-season finale. I've also included a couple of behind the scenes videos for last night's episode. 

The LEGO Movie kicked ass at the box office this weekend, pulling in over $69 million! That amount is well deserved, as the movie was just as awesome as this music video says it is. The music video is called "Everything is Awesome," and it was made with the help a 6-year-old boy named Markus Jolly. If you haven't seen the movie yet, make sure you get out and watch it! I have to warn you: this song will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day after you listen to it!

HBO has released the first trailer for Mike Judge's hilarious looking new comedy series Silicon Valley. Judge is the man behind TV shows such as Beavis & Butthead, King of the Hill, and the classic comedy Office Space. I like Judge's sense of humor and directing style. I think this new series will be entertaining.

The series is a half-hour show that will have eight-episodes in its first season. The story focuses on "various techies and their startup sundries, all of whom live in the home a dotcom millionaire offering free accommodations in exchange for a 10-percent stake in each person's startup." 

One of the characters, described as an introverted computer programmer, manages to entice a bidding war over his search algorithm, which seems to be the focus of the first season. The show, by all accounts, is rather merciless in its focus on Silicon Valley and all it entails, both in reality and in stereotype, and is based in part on Judge's own past experience.

The series is set to debut on April 6th, and it stars Thomas Middleditch, Josh Brener, Martin Starr, Kumail Nanjiani, Amanda Crew, Zack Woods, Matt Ross, T.J Miller, and Christopher Evan Welch.

Artist Andy Park has released an incredible set of concept art from Thor: The Dark World. In the series you'll find find several alternate designs for Malekith the Accursed and his army of Dark Elves. There's also art featuring Kronan, Volstagg, and Malekith's loyal lieutenant Algrim (Kurse). I hope you enjoy these great designs! 

Via: CBM

Last year producer Joel Silver regained the rights to Escape From New York, and the plan is to remake it and develop it into a trilogy. At least the first film will focus on Snake's backstory. The film is still early in its development – there's not even a script for the movie yet. But in a recent interview with Collider, Silver gives an update on what they are planning for the films and how it is partly inspired by the video game Batman: Arkham City.

“There was a videogame that came out a few years ago called Arkham City, which shows how Gotham became this walled prison. And they never deal with that in the story of Escape From New York, so part of our idea was to see how the city became this walled prison and how the Snake Plissken character was a hero and how he became not looked at as a hero. And then, in the middle of the story, would be the movie that we previously saw about the President’s daughter goes down, [and] he has to go in and get her. And then they did a sequel, Escape from L.A., but I would like to then find a way to have New York go back to a place that we’d like to see what it is today.”

Silver has some big plans for this franchise. I hope that he can pull it off and give fans a cool action-packed movie that they will enjoy. I loved the original Escape From New York, and I might warm up to the remake if they can turn it into something badass. 

Here's another LEGO Cuusoo project looking for some fan support. It's a build of the X-Mansion from the X-Men universe. On one side you have the exterior of the building, and on the other there are various rooms devoted to our favorite mutant superheroes like Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, and more. Click here to show your support for the project!

Via: /Film

IMAX, Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures announced today that we will get to see an exclusive sneak peek of director Noam Murro's epic looking action film 300: Rise of an Empire before RoboCop screens in IMAX theaters on February 12th.

300: Rise of an Empire looks incredibly awesome, and I couldn't be more excited to see the story unfold on the big screen. 

This new chapter of the epic saga takes the action to a fresh battlefield—on the sea—as Greek general Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) attempts to unite all of Greece by leading the charge that will change the course of the war. 300: Rise of an Empire pits Themistokles against the massive invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), and Artemesia (Eva Green), vengeful commander of the Persian navy.

The movie comes out on March 7th.

YouTuber Antonio Toscano has taken the trailer for Captain America: The Winter Solider and LEGOfied it through the magic of stop-motion animation. This isn't the first LEGO movie trailer remake that he's made, either. You can watch his Man of Steel trailer here and his Star Trek Into Darkness trailer here. It looks like it would take a ridiculous amount of work to create these, but it must be worth it because they are really awesome! 

Empire

This is the first trailer for Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst's new thriller The Two Faces of January. The movie was written and directed by screenwriter Hossein Amini, and it's based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith. Amini is best know for writing films such as Drive and 47 Ronin. This looks like a solid movie, and you can't go wrong with Mortensen. The guy always chooses great projects to work on. Here's the synopsis:

In 1962 the American couple Chester MacFarland (Mortensen) and his wife Colette (Dunst) tour Greece and visit the Acropolis of Athens. There, they meet Rydal (Oscar Isaac), who works as a tour guide but scams tourists in the process. The MacFarlands invite Rydal to dinner, and Rydal, entranced by the couple's wealth and beauty, accepts their invitation. While Rydal visits the MacFarlands' hotel, Chester presses him to help move an unconscious body. Rydal helps, but eventually gets caught up in ensuing events. He also becomes infatuated with Colette and runs the risk of provoking Chester's ire.

The movie is set to be released in the UK on May 16th, but as of right now there is no US release date.