Deadline recently reported that SyFy has picked up a new 12 Monkeys series for 12 episodes, starting in January 2015. This series is based on the 1995 Terry Gilliam film starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. 

The story for the show "follows the journey of a time traveler (Aaron Stanford) from the post-apocalyptic future who appears in present day on a mission to locate and eradicate the source of a deadly plague that will eventually decimate the human race."

The series also stars Amanda Schull, Noah Bean, and Kirk Acevedo.

I am such a huge fan of the movie, and I completely recommend watching it if you haven't already. Pitt was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film. He would have won that year had he not been up against Kevin Spacey as Verbal Kint. 

I am excited to see that it is coming to TV. The movie left me feeling that there was so much more they could have done. 

Until Next Time…

Billy Out!

I don’t think Zach Braff’s Wish I Was Here made the splash at this year’s Sundance that he, or the many that crowdfunded the film, would have liked. It received negative reviews from most critics, including myself, who felt that it tread much of the same water as 2004’s Garden State, while failing to live up to his acclaimed directorial debut. In Braff's sophomore effort, he stars as an out-of-work actor who takes on the responsibility of homeschooling his son and daughter when his ailing father can no longer pay their tuition.

This teaser trailer is mostly quick shots of the film’s beautiful cinematography cut to The Shins’ stirring single “Simple Song.” I’ve ranted about how deceptive trailers can be, and having seen the film, I can say this trailer (thanks mostly to the music) makes the movie look better than it was. It felt every minute of its 2 hour runtime, and, as I said in my review, it fell “into a tedious pattern very quickly -- a loop of out of place sci-fi dream sequences, pandering geek references, and characters imparting impossibly eloquent wisdom to each other… throw in a cameo and repeat.” Perhaps Focus Features, who quickly picked up the film at Sundance, made a tighter cut of the film, but I doubt it. That’s just the kind of thing I believe Braff was trying to avoid when he controversially funded the film through Kickstarter.

Though the film as a whole fell flat for me, I will say the cast was very likable. Braff’s Oz The Great and Powerful co-star, Joey King, and Looper's Pierce Gagnon gave standout performances playing Braff’s daughter and son. Josh Gad, Ashley Greene, Kate Hudson, and the great Mandy Patinkin also turned in satisfying performances. Maybe that is enough for those who have been eagerly awaiting this film.

The movie is set to be released July 18th.

X-Men: Days of Future Past has a new 1.5 minute featurette. Bryan Singer talks about the production with bits of behind the scenes footage and clips from the film. If feels like Marvel and Sony really like to super saturate the media with tons of trailers and clips for their movies, while Fox is just giving us sprinklings of things.

X-Men: Days of Future Past's release date of May 23rd is still awhile away, so Fox could at any moment blitz the Internet with the same kind of overexposure we've seen with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Genderbent Jack and Sally

I’m not sure what the official term is, but "crossplay" or rule 63 cosplay seems to be all the rage. I think gender bending interpretations of characters hit its pinnacle the other day with Batman as a pretty princess, which was a male cosplayer dressed as a female Batman, maybe? I’m not quite certain what the point of it actually was, I just know it was funny.

While rule 63 art is no more uncommon than all the femme/male twists we see in cosplay, it is rare to see genderswap art that can firmly straddle being faithful and accurate to the character while also being totally inventive. Artist Sakimi Chan does just that with this spectacular series of genderswap fan art.

We’ve previously featured Chan’s more traditional takes on a couple of these characters, like Princess Mononoke and Ariel, as well as some of the best versions of the Gotham City Sirens and Wonder Woman that you’ve ever seen.

You can view more of Sakimi Chan’s art on Deviant Art and CGHUB. Thanks to GeekxGirls!

Male Cruella Deville

Male Pocahontas, Female Meko, Female Flit

Male Ariel, Female Flounder

Male Elsa

Fem Jack Frost

Male Maleficent

Male Esmeralda

Female Hades

Prince Mononoke and Lady Ashitaka

Genderbent Howl's Moving Castle

FOX has released a behind the scenes special for 24: Live Another Day called "Jack is Back". The special is broken up into four parts and features the cast and producers talking about bringing the classic action drama back to life. They go into detail about the story and the characters. It also features all kinds of footage, both from the show and from the set. I'm very excited about 24 coming back, and the show's return looks like it's going to be a crazy awesome! This is a must watch for any fan of the series. 

We have more concept art from Captain America: The Winter Solider featuring some action-packed scenes from the film. The art was created Tim Flattery, and it was used by Industrial Light and Magic to help create the special effects for the film. You can see more of the process that ILM went through in bringing these designs to life over on Animation World Network. I also included some digital designs that that show off the interior of the S.H.I.E.L.D. aircraft. 

Via: io9

I've got an awesome CG animated short film to share with you today called "Dysco." The sci-fi-inspired short was created by Simon Russell, who says it's an experimental short about "synesthetic drones, neon dubstep, and the surveillance state." This short is really impressive, the animation is beautiful, and I liked the dubstep beat. There are so many amazing details in the short that it's like you're eyes can't process it all. I'd like to Russell make another one. 

Sony Pictures has released what they're saying is the final red-band trailer for 22 Jump Street. I think studios need to stop saying there is a final trailer for a movie because it always seems like another trailer comes out shortly after. Whether this is the last trailer or not, it's still a good one! The red-band trailer is packed with a lot of new vulgar footage that I'm sure most of you will have a fun time watching. The sequel comes out on June 14th, and it looks great! 

Whenever a movie is extremely successful, people start coming out of the woodworks filing lawsuits and trying to cash in. This happened with Disney's Frozen when filmmakers Kelly Wilson and Neil Wrischnik filed a lawsuit claiming that the studio stole the concept from their short film "The Snowman." You can read the details about that here.

The short is somewhat similar to the teaser trailer that Disney released for the film featuring the snowman Olaf and the reindeer Sven as they go out on a frozen lake trying to get Olaf's carrot nose. The same thing happens in the short film, only instead of a reindeer there's a group of rabbits. 

It's actually a entertaining short, but that doesn't mean Disney stole the idea. Disney had this to say in a statement, "The claim is utterly without merit and we will defend against it vigorously." You can watch both of the shorts below and decide for yourself.

There's been a lot of discussion lately regarding Hugh Jackman and his Wolverine role. Over the last few months he's been hinting that he's almost done with playing the character and that it's inevitable that he will be replaced one day. There's also been a lot of uncertainty over whether or not he would return for the Wolverine sequel currently being developed by James Mangold. He's not officially signed on to do it, but according to a recent interview, he could very well end up playing the character for an eighth time!

Yahoo Movies conducted a joint-interview with Jackman and his X-Men: Days of Future Past co-stars, Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy. During the interview they answered fan questions from Twitter. When Jackman was asked if he would return to play Wolverine in the sequel he gave a hopeful answer,

"Um, I am not signed on, but if I was a betting man, there's a good chance. Yes."

He's then asked to reconfirm:

"There's a good chance you're coming back?"

The actor replied:

"There's a good chance."

So there it is. It looks like we can expect Jackman to play Wolverine at least one more time. Let's just wait to see if he actually signs up again to do it because if he's not signed on anything can happen between now and then. It would be good to see the actor play the character at least one more time. His final Wolverine movie needs to be an epic send-off. 

The currently untitled Wolverine sequel is scheduled to be released on March 3rd, 2017. You can watch the twitter Q&A below. 

Prince Hans, Queen Elsa, Princess Anna, and Kristoff Bjorgman

Magical Disney characters attending Hogwarts makes a kind of logical sense, but what about the muggles? Artist Annabella, aka Eira1893, gives no clear answer on that but does give us some really fun art. My only wish is that these pieces didn't have the ragged border.

Annabella should do Disney villains as Hogwarts headmasters. That would be pretty cool to see.

We found this on Nerd Approved, Nerd Approved found it on BuzzFeed, BuzzFeed did a post on Kevin Bacon. Boom! Kevin Bacon!

Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip

Princess Jasmine, Rajah, Aladdin, Merida, and Flynn

Tarzan, Jane Porter, Milo Thatch, and Princess Kida

Belle and Prince Adam

Cinderella and Prince Henry

 Tiana and Prince Naveen

Ariel, Prince Eric, Snow White and Prince Florian

The first clip has been released for Brett Ratner's Hercules, and damn… it doesn't look any better. This movie simply looks bad. I know Dwayne Johnson put a lot of effort into making this movie, and he's really excited for it, but it seriously looks like it could be one of those laughably bad films. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm just judging by what I've seen so far, and this clip didn't help its cause. I have yet to see something that impresses me. In the clip Hercules and his army walk into a trap, but Hercules isn't afraid to take them on. We don't see him fight, but he does yell at them! The movie comes out on July 25th.

Are you ready to be taken deeper into the world of mythical dragons and vikings with Scottish accents? How To Train Your Dragon 2 picks up 5 years after the events of the first film, and Hiccup is older and wiser, but still sounds like Jay Baruchel — puberty is a strange thing.

I’ve actually steered clear of trailers for this film (the first movie already sold me on a sequel) but did a quick refresher course so I could let you know if this new trailer is worth your time. It is. More of Cate Blanchett’s storyline is revealed, perhaps a bit too much, but the new set of wild dragons and this ever expanding world is beautifully showcased in this third trailer. The stakes seem higher, the action more intense, and the dragons more… dragony??? 

The highly anticipated sequel also stars America Ferrera as Astrid, Kristen Wiig as Ruffnut, Jonah Hill as Snotlout, T.J. Miller as Tuffnut, Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fishleg, Craig Ferguson as Gobber, and Gerard Butler as Stoick the Vast, with Kit Harrington as a Dragon Prince.

DreamWorks Animation’s How To Train Your Dragon 2 hits theaters June 20, 2014.

It has been five years since Hiccup and Toothless successfully united Vikings and Dragons on the island of Berk. While Astrid, Snotlout and the rest of the gang are challenging each other to dragon races (the island's new favorite contact sport), the now inseparable pair journey through the skies, charting unmapped territories and exploring new worlds. At the beginning, Hiccup is pressured by Stoick to become chief, but Hiccup declines and flies away from Berk to explore new lands.[3] When one of their adventures leads to the discovery of a secret ice cave that is home to hundreds of new species of dragons and the mysterious Dragon Rider, the two friends find themselves at the center of a battle to protect the peace when Drago Bludvist plans to raise an army of dragons to take over the world. Now, Hiccup and Toothless must unite to stand up for what they believe while recognizing that only together do they have the power to change the future of both men and dragons with the help of his long-lost mother and his friends.

Here's a couple of fan made things for Game of Thrones for you to check out today! Above you'll find some custom made LEGO minifigs featuring several characters from the epic fantasy series. These are not official, but if you're willing to drop $220 you can purchase them by heading over to Werd. 

Below, we have a really cool video from Brady Wold that reimagines the Game of Thrones intro for the video game Skyrim. The creator had this to say,

"This started off as an exercise to kill time one afternoon about two years ago, never intending it to be a finished product. I continued to work on it here and there throughout various freelance projects, internships, and other personal projects, until it eventually became a burden; my very own 'white whale.'"

I'm glad he finished it because it's awesome! It's kind of fun to be taken on a tour through the world of Skyrim... Game of Thrones style! 

It has only been a week since David Letterman announced his retirement, but CBS has already officially announced his successor, ending all the fun of the speculation game. Lame, CBS. Not so lame, however, is their selection of Stephen Colbert, who has been the frontrunner since the beginning — which was last week, so for a week.

Colbert’s contract with Comedy Central goes through the end of 2014, so he will take over Late Show at some unspecified date in 2015. I am guessing that he will host the show as himself, rather than as “Stephen Colbert,” the right wing narcissist he plays on The Colbert Report, but confirmation of that, as well as information about who will produce the show and where it will be filmed, has yet to be announced.

Colbert will probably be great on the show, and hopefully he will draw the younger audience that CBS is hoping for, but some people are going to be disappointed that CBS didn’t take the opportunity to break up the blitzkrieg of white male late night hosts stretching across network and cable TV. It would have been nice to see CBS make a less conventional choice, but I’m mostly disappointed that this means “Stephen Colbert” won’t be feeling the truth at me anymore.

Via: Variety

Sony Pictures and producer Scott Rudin are currently in the process of acquiring the rights to a book set on Wall Street called Flash Boys. The book was written by Michael Lewis, and it's the complete opposite of what Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street was. Flash Boys is based on a true story, and the players in it are the kind of people that would absolutely hate what Jordan Belfort was doing in Scorsese's film. In fact, that's the kind of people that they were fighting against. 

The story follows "a group of Wall Street guys who grew frustrated by a loophole that gave traders the opportunity to game the stock market. They banded together to reform the financial markets by creating an exchange that rendered impotent the act of high-frequency trading, a growing form of trading that gave insiders an advantage." These guys walked away from high paying jobs to fight against the liars and the cheaters.

After seeing a movie like The Wolf of Wall Street, it would be really interesting to see the other side and watch this group of crusaders out on a mission to expose Wall Street for what it is. This will make a great film, and knowing the kind of producer Rudin is, he'll bring together a team of very talented individuals to bring it to life.  

Here's a more detailed description of the story from the book:

Flash Boys is about a small group of Wall Street guys who figure out that the U.S. stock market has been rigged for the benefit of insiders and that, post–financial crisis, the markets have become not more free but less, and more controlled by the big Wall Street banks. Working at different firms, they come to this realization separately; but after they discover one another, the flash boys band together and set out to reform the financial markets. This they do by creating an exchange in which high-frequency trading—source of the most intractable problems—will have no advantage whatsoever.

The characters in Flash Boys are fabulous, each completely different from what you think of when you think “Wall Street guy.” Several have walked away from jobs in the financial sector that paid them millions of dollars a year. From their new vantage point they investigate the big banks, the world’s stock exchanges, and high-frequency trading firms as they have never been investigated, and expose the many strange new ways that Wall Street generates profits.

The light that Lewis shines into the darkest corners of the financial world may not be good for your blood pressure, because if you have any contact with the market, even a retirement account, this story is happening to you. But in the end, Flash Boys is an uplifting read. Here are people who have somehow preserved a moral sense in an environment where you don’t get paid for that; they have perceived an institutionalized injustice and are willing to go to war to fix it.

Via: Deadline

For the 30th anniversary of Ghostbusters, QMx has released this fantastic poster created by design director Mohammad Haque. It perfectly captures the spirit of the classic 1984 film. Ghostbusters in one of my favorite films of all time. I've seen it hundreds of times. It never gets old. I can't believe that it's been 30 years since it was released in theaters. I remember going to the theaters to watch this movie, and I was even wearing a glow in the dark Ghostbusters t-shirt. I even managed to find a picture of me as a kid wearing the shirt. For your amusement, I've included that photo below. After all… it is throwback Thursday. 

The print is the same size as a movie one-sheet, measuring 27 inches wide x 40 inches high, and is printed on 100-pound, satin-finish paper. It sells for just $19.95. If you want one click here!

That's me in the middle and two of my cousins.

I love what Jennifer Lawrence has done with X-Men's Mystique. She's a great actress, and I've always liked the character. She's one of the more interesting characters in the universe because  she's conflicted. She's on the villain side, but at the same time she still has some good in her. According to X-Men franchise producer Lauren Shuler Donner, there's a chance that we could see a spin-off Mystique film. In a recent interview with EW, she started talking about spin-off films saying, 

"There was a regime [at the studio] that didn’t see the worth in [spin-offs], and the current people who run Fox understand, embrace it, and we’re going to do right by it. I’d like to do Gambit. I’d like to do Deadpool. We’ll see. There’s a lot of really great characters."

We've heard all of those names mentioned before as potential spin-off movies and Deadpool for sure needs to happen! Fox is kind of stupid for not pulling the trigger on it yet. The producer then goes on to add Mystique to that list of potential spin-off films saying, 

“I love what Jen Lawrence has done with her, and I feel like because she is in such a crowded ensemble, there’s so much more opportunity if you were to follow her solo.”

It would be great to see this happen, but I think they need to do that Deadpool movie before anything else. That's the one fans want to see the most. It's the one we've all been waiting for, so make it happen Fox! 

Nooka has released a really cool set to superhero style watches based on the characters from Justice League including Superman, Flash, Batman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman. There's no information on how much they will be, but I can see fans sporting them when they are released in the coming months. Below you'll find the press release and some more photos. 

The Justice League is the world’s greatest Super Hero team made up of DC Comics favorites Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman. These Super Heroes, all powerhouses in their own right, unite to protect us from our greatest threats that no one of them could handle on their own. Each of the DC Comics Super Heroes lends their unique strengths to the team – Superman’s strength, Batman’s intelligence, Wonder Woman’s compassion, Green Lantern’s willpower, and The Flash’s speed. NOOKA looks to the future for inspiration and promotes understanding that transcends borders – a mission that resonates with the Justice League to better the world through teamwork.

Each Zub Zirc is finished in one of the Justice League member’s iconic logo and colors; from Superman’s red and blue to Green Lantern’s emerald green. The watch face has twelve dots arranged in a circle to represent the hours, a horizontal bar underneath for the minutes and a small window to the right for seconds. Each watch is also equipped with alarm and chronograph functions. Batman, The Flash, and Wonder Woman will also be featured.

Thanks to Gizmodo for the heads up!

I Origins was one of my very favorite movies at Sundance this year, and I am really excited that the trailer is out now so you can get a taste of the movie’s awesomeness. So it’s kind of weird that I am going to say this, but, don’t watch it. Or, if you insist on watching some of it, turn it off at the 1:26 mark. I’m not kidding. This trailer gives away too much of the story.

I’m not going to get into a generalized rant about trailers and clips and featurettes that show the whole movie before it hits theaters. I just want to say why I think you should go into this particular movie relatively unspoiled. Written and directed by Mike Cahill (Another Earth) the story is about a scientist, played by Michael Pitt, whose postdoctoral work is an effort to disprove irreducible complexity, used by some to argue in favor of God. He meets a mysterious girl (Astrid Berges-Frisbey) at a party and is mysteriously led to find her again. It’s no mystery to her, because she willed the universe to bring him to her. He is science, logic, and data, and she is spirit, mysticism, and symbol. Somehow, they love each other anyway. Then there is a pretty shocking (if you haven’t seen the trailer) twist, followed by a couple more turns along the way.

The movie is about what we believe in and how we approach the world and how we respond when our views are challenged or shaken or disproven. You can still get those ideas if you go into the movie knowing what the twists and turns are, but the surprise drives you along the path with the character. Like the characters, what you think you know is challenged, and you have to decide what that means for you. If you know everything going in, it will place you at a distance from the characters. You might still think about the big questions, but you won’t be confronted by them in the same way.

So there’s my argument. Watch the trailer or don’t watch it, hopefully you’ll see the movie when it hits theaters… sometime. There’s no official release date yet. I Origins also stars Brit Marling and Stephen Yeun. You can watch our video review (it gives away way less than the trailer) here.