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Disney has released five new character posters for Maleficent featuring Angelina Jolie as Maleficent, Sharlto Copley as King Stefan, Elle Fanning as Princess Aurora, Sam Riley as Diaval, and Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, and Lesley Manville as the Pixies. This movie seems to have the makings of an incredible fantasy adventure. A lot of fans are excited about it, so let's hope it live up to our expectations. 

The story "explores the untold story of Disney’s most iconic villain from the classic Sleeping Beauty and the elements of her betrayal that ultimately turn her pure heart to stone. Driven by revenge and a fierce desire to protect the moors over which she presides, Maleficent cruelly places an irrevocable curse upon the human king’s newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Aurora is caught in the middle of the seething conflict between the forest kingdom she has grown to love and the human kingdom that holds her legacy. Maleficent realizes that Aurora may hold the key to peace in the land and is forced to take drastic actions that will change both worlds forever."

The movie comes out on May 30th!

Check out this cool art series by Lowell, Massachusetts artist and writer Isaiah Stephens. He calls it All Grown Up, and it features several popular young cartoon characters reimagined as adults. We've got Pokemon, Power Puff Girls, South Park, Dexter's Laboratory, Doug, Kim Possible, The Wild Thornberrys, Recess, and Hey Arnold. It's kind of fun to see what these characters might look like had they aged like the rest of us. 

THR is reporting that another one of Stephen King’s short stories has been optioned for a film. This story is called "Bad Little Kid," and it was released on March 14th as an e-story in Germany and France. 

According to the report, "the supernatural tale centers on a man whose life changes forever when he realizes that a mysterious boy is causing the deaths of people he loves."

There is no release date for this film yet, but it will be directed and produced by Laurent Bouzereau. 

King is my all-time favorite writer. I have read most of his books, and a lot I've read multiple times. I always get excited to see that one of his stories is being brought to the big screen. I haven’t had a chance to read this one yet, but I plan on fixing that soon. 

If you could see one of King’s stories brought to the big screen, what would it be? I would like to see The Long Walk, Desperation, or The Regulators. 

Businessweek recently published a cover story about Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige — “The Man Who Saved Marvel.” We’ve heard a lot of people gush about Feige the wunderkind, and given the success of Marvel’s films, it seems pretty deserved. But Feige’s old boss, Avi Arad, disagrees. Well, he takes issue with one section of the article, specifically this paragraph:

“Finally, Marvel decided to create its own studio. In 2005 it put up as collateral the film rights to characters it still controlled, such as Captain America and Nick Fury, and got $525 million in financing from Merrill Lynch. Arad, who had doubts about the strategy, resigned the following year. Feige was named studio chief in 2007. He was 33 years old, and he was in charge of Hollywood’s first major independent movie studio since DreamWorks.”

That sounds a lot like Arad left or was booted because he didn’t agree with the independent production plan. It also sounds like he didn’t have much to do with planning Marvel’s slate of films. He says that is false, and he has sent a scathing letter to the reporter. He also sent it to various media outlets, and our friends at Latino Review found it on a French website called Daily Mars, which is run by Philippe Guedj, who directed a recent documentary called Marvel Renaissance, which Arad appears in.

Here’s the letter:

“Good morning Devin. As usual you manage to disappoint me with your false statements. I am sure you were told by Marvel that I resigned over the self-financing strategy. It is about time for a reporter like you to do your homework and check the facts. It will sound arrogant to you, but I single handedly put together the Marvel slate. Read it carefully and you will notice the natural progression of the character’s design to get to where we are today. You should reach out to Merill Lynch and Ambac Insurance and to our international partners that came on board based on my track record. Our financial partners counted on my reputation. I had to work very hard to convert the doubters. They trusted me and without Iron Man this article would have not been written. Iron Man was not even in the original slate. I knew that we needed it so I set out to get it back from Newline and the rest is history. Our financing would have never happened without me reaching out to Brad Grey to make a distribution deal that will give you a corporate guarantee. Other people in Marvel worked for many months with Universal and could not reach a deal. I got tired of waiting and went to Brad. The deal was done in days, successful for both companies. The big presentation to financial institutions and insurance companies took place on the Paramount lot. I was the presenter and it worked. Does this sound to you like someone who disagreed with the strategy to make our own movies? I have forgiven Kevin for following orders and taking the credit, but he had no choice. Shame on you for kowtowing to your business gods. I have given up on journalistic integrity. You called me to talk about Kevin and I gave you the most true and glowing account on someone that I love and respect. Share your notes otherwise you just wasted my time. I will share this letter with other papers and your management to demonstrate the unprofessional self-serving work this reporter demonstrated.”

In addition to airing some of Marvel’s dirty laundry, that letter has a lot of new behind the scenes information. Do you think Universal fired whoever lost them all the Marvel Phase 1 distribution money? And there would be no Iron-Man without Arad? How would you do The Avengers without Tony Stark? The Businessweek article emphasizes Feige’s stubborn insistence on key decisions like setting the first Captain America film entirely in the ’40s and introducing Thor and Captain America in Phase 1 before they joined the Avengers. Is that the false credit the execs supposedly made him take? Marvel keeps a tight lid on things, so some or all of that is likely true, and some of the asserted facts must be on the record somewhere, but Arad leaves one key detail blank. Why did he really leave Marvel? It couldn’t have been to produce Bratz: The Movie.

Source: Daily Mars via Latino Review

This weekend Lucasfilm may have given us our first look at Chewbacca in Star Wars: Episode VII. The above photo features Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger taking a selfie with everyone's favorite Wookiee. The photo was posted to the official Star Wars Instagram account on Sunday, May 4th in celebration of Star Wars Day. 

The photo came along with the following caption… "Chairman’s new co-pilot. #StarWarsDay." A lot of fans are speculating that this could be our first view of Peter Mayhew back in his Chewbacca costume, but let's face it, that really could be anyone in that costume. If this is  Chewbacca in Star Wars Episode VII, then Wookiees must age extremely well. 

HBO has released the first batch of photos for the upcoming seventh and final season of True Blood. I've enjoyed watching this series over the years, and I really hope that they end it on a high note. The last couple of seasons haven't been the greatest, but I'm going to see it through till the end.

Mixing romance, suspense, mystery and humor, the series takes place in a world where vampires and humans co-exist, after vampires have come out of the coffin, thanks to the invention of mass-produced synthetic blood that means they no longer need humans as a nutritional source.

The show is set to premiere on Sunday, June 22nd at 9pm.

Via: Comingsoon

This weekend Amazing Spider-Man 2 stars Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield teamed up on Saturday Night Live to perform a hilarious skit inspired by their new movie. It features the two actors attempting to shoot a crucial kissing scene for the film. The only problem is, neither one of them knows how to kiss! But thanks to the help of Coldplay's Chris Martin, they are finally able to make it work.

When I was growing up, Star Wars was the center of my world. I loved everything about that universe, and it was the coolest freakin' thing when Star Wars video games were introduced to the world. Being able to transport myself into that universe and be actively involved in it was a dream come true for a kid like me — and some adults as well! Hell, I still enjoy playing Star Wars video games! 

With the recent Star Wars mania caused by the new movie casting announcement and Star Wars Day, I started thinking about all of the things I loved about the franchise and memories of playing that very first Star Wars Atari arcade game popped into my head. That took me back to some good times. Then I started thinking about all of the other Star Wars games that I played. So I started to compile a list, and it was a lot of fun reintroducing myself to these games that entertained me for hours-on-end. I haven't played them in years, but watching videos really brought back some great feelings and more memories. 

I didn't include any Star Wars games after 2001 on my list. Even though some great games have come out in the last few years, this list is focused on the ones that I grew up with and haven't even thought about in a very, very long time. 

Star Wars Arcade Game - 1983 - Atari

This is going on my list because it's the first Star Wars game ever made. At the time, who the hell cared about graphics?! The vector graphics were incredible for a little kid like me! The blue, green, and red colors were all that I needed. One of the main things that made this game so special for me is that I got to sit down inside an actual cockpit in the arcade to play it. This was the first time I got to participate in the Death Star Trench run, and it was mind-blowing! Whenever I went to Disneyland when I was a kid I just wanted to go to the arcade in Tomorrowland and play this game — screw the rides! I have so many good memories playing this badass game. I'd love to play it again, but I have no idea where I would be able to find one to play. It was at the Disneyland arcade for as long as I can remember, but that is gone now! It was replaced by a Star Tours gift store.

Super Star Wars - 1992 - Super NES

This game was 16-bit awesomeness! I played this game for hours on end at my friend's house growing up. I remember thinking the 3D graphics were amazing back then. It featured mostly run and gun gameplay, but it also had level where you could pilot a landspeeder and an X-wing. You could also play multiple characters. What sucked is the fact that you couldn't save the game! You just needed to play and survive in one sitting.

Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - 1993 - Super NES

A year after Super Star Wars came out we got this one, and it was just as awesome! At the time there wasn't a lot going on with Star Wars. Between Return of the Jedi in 1993 and the Special Editions of the original series, all that Star Wars fans had to keep them happy were toys, books, and video games like this. This game was so cool, and it had a save system!

Star Wars: TIE Fighter - 1994 - PC

This game perfectly captured the feeling of piloting a TIE Fighter in the Star Wars Universe because it was a freakin' flight simulator, and it was the first time that Star Wars fans finally got to be in the cockpit of one of these things. I had a ton of fun playing this game, and it had a lot cool stuff to offer fans, like the fact we got to play as an Imperial star fighter, have some awesome dogfights, and take on secret missions for the Emperor. I remember it being frustratingly intense, but the graphics were great for the time. The events of the game took place between Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

Star Wars Trilogy Arcade - 1998 - Sega

This game was made specifically for the arcade. It's a 3D rail shooter based on the original Star Wars trilogy, and it was released at around the same time the special editions of those films were released. This might just be the most fun I ever had playing a Star Wars video game: the gameplay was fun and players got to reenact the best scenes of the movies. It's also another one that I used to play a lot when I went to Disneyland. I do have to say, though, it was a really easy game to beat. All you had to do move the crosshair on the screen using a joystick and press the fire button. I also owned the game on Sega 32X.

Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader - 2001 - Game Cube

This was everything any Star Wars fan could want in a Star Wars video game. It had everything from big epic battles from the whole original trilogy, to Luke Skywalker straight up murdering womp rats just because he could. This was just such a fast-paced, fun, and solid-looking game, and it's Death Star trench run was amazing. You could even play as Luke Skywalker's friend Wedge Antilles.

With most of the Star Wars: Episode VII cast announced, it was only a matter of time before we saw a fan-made poster featuring all of the actors that will be in the movie. The poster above is a collaboration between MTV News and Old Red Jalop.  It's going to be so amazing to see all these people on the big screen playing out the long-awaited next chapter of the Star Wars saga.

As of right now, the film stars John Boyega (Attack the Block), Daisy Ridley (The Inbetweeners 2), Adam Driver (Girls), Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis), Andy Serkis (LOTR), Domhnall Gleeson (About Time), and Max von Sydow (The Exorsist), who will join the original stars of the sci-fi fantasy saga: Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker. 

More casting announcements are expected to come soon, so stay tuned!

This slick-looking piece of Star Wars fan art comes from artist Ray-Ann Sagun. It features a really badass female Jedi X-Wing pilot. 

When Star Wars: Episode VII was first announced, it was rumored that one of the main characters in the film would be a young female Jedi. I'm not sure if that's changed since J.J. Abrams took over the writing duties for the film, but it would be great if we did finally see a female Jedi in a lead role. 

Paul Giamatti's Rhino may not have had a lot of screen time in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but that's ok because he'll be back for the sequel. At the end of the movie we got to see him terrorize New York City in his mech Rhino suit. The design of that armor was ok, but here's a collection of alternate versions that are a little better than what ended up in the film. Some of the designs feature four-legged and two-legged suits, as well as a some alternate helmets. It looks like the final look of suit is a combination of all of the designs that you will see here. The art comes from Robert Simons, who also worked on Ender's Game.

I've also included more concept art for the film created by Kelton Cram, who did some character design work for The Wolverine. They feature some different suit designs for the Rhino as well as Spider-Man, and Green Goblin. These designs are pretty cool, but the classic design that we saw for Spider-Man in the movie was perfect. The artist had this to say about his Spidey designs:

"First, make the body type look younger. Secondly, they wanted some recall to the original suit from The Amazing Spider Man comic. Lastly, they wanted to see lines in the suit, and different takes on the eyes/goggles"

When talking about the Rhino suit he says it "kept changing to alterations in the script. This is common in concept for film." When talking about Green Goblin and his rider he explained, "It was a more complex order. The Glider had to move in certain ways, limiting what we could do with it. The Rhino suit had a bit more freedom to try new things."

I wasn't a big fan of Green Goblins costume design in the movie. I'm not sure If these other designs work for him either though. What did you think of the costume and character designs that ended up in the movie? Do you like any of this concept art better? 

CBM

I have some very early memories from my childhood, and I'm amazed by the things that I can remember. They are very vivid and really interesting to me. My earliest memory comes from when I was 2 years old, and it is of me pushing one of those awesome, old-school, metal yellow Tonka Trucks up and down the walkway in front of my family's apartment. I loved playing with that thing. 

I've been a Marvel fan for as long as I can remember, and The Hulk was my first favorite superhero. When I was 3 years old I wanted to be The Hulk for Halloween, so my parents went out and got me one of those vintage 1980s Ben Cooper halloween costumes. I was so excited when they brought it home for me, and I couldn't wait to wear it. 

Ben Cooper was one of the three largest Halloween costume manufacturers in the U.S. from the 1950s to the mid-1980s. The costume came along with a very inexpensive plastic mask with little holes that you could barely see out of and scratched around your eyes. It also came along with a vinyl suit that tied in the back. Those things were so cheap but so freakin' cool. When I looked up the Hulk costume online the memories just came flooding back.

My parents made me wait until Halloween to wear it, but when the day finally came arrived and it was time to go trick-or-treating, I couldn't wait! We put the costume on and my first stop was going to be our neighbor's house. I was just going to go over there and come back home before the real trick-or-treating adventure began. I went running out the door and my mom stopped me. Why? Because she wanted me to put my coat on, a typically motherly thing to do. I was so mad that she was making me put my coat on because it covered the costume! What was the point of even putting on the costume if I had to wear a coat!? The Hulk didn't wear a coat, why did I have to!? I threw a little tantrum, but in the end Mom won. Mom always wins. 

So I ran over to our neighbor's house while my mom watches me, I got my candy, showed off my cool costume, and came running back home. Of course, I don't want to wait so I ran into the apartment and ate the candy I just got. The one thing I can't remember about about this whole thing is what kind of candy I got! I got inside, took off my coat, and what did I find…?

My Hulk costume had been torn up! The whole front of my costume was shredded, and to this day I have no idea how it happened. Maybe my coat zipper got stuck in it or something, but I was so mad! That wouldn't have happened had my mom not made me put on my coat in the middle of the winter. So what does a 3-year-old do when he's angry? He turns into a real Hulk of course. There was crying, a tantrum, and Joey Hulk smashing the floor. 

All I wanted to be was the Hulk for Halloween, and that's exactly what I turned into. My poor parents had to deal with a real Hulk that night. Of course, now I understand that my mom just didn't want to me to get sick, but as a 3-year-old I didn't see things that way. I just wanted to show off my radical costume! 

I eventually calmed down and turned back into calm, happy Joey. I put on my Hulk mask, my mom put my jacket on, covering up my torn costume, and I had a fun night of trick-or-treating.   

What is your earliest memory of Halloween? What was the first costume you can remember wearing? 

*Disclaimer: The photo in the preview is not me. I couldn't find any photos of myself wearing it, but that was what it looked like. 

Apparently, the original post credits scene in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was going to feature Norman Osborn's head in a jar. The character died early in the film from an illness that he spent years at Oscorp trying to cure. There might actually be plans to bring him back in future installments of the franchise, though.

It seems Oscorp is secretly keeping his head cryogenically frozen so that they can bring him back to life when technology catches up to them. There are some pretty disturbing screenshots from the scene that have leaked online.

The scene is described as showing the shadow man from the film walking up to Norman's cryogenically frozen head in a chamber and saying, "Wake up old friend."

Yikes! It would make sense if he did come back, though, if only to bring Chris Cooper back to reprise the role! That guy is such a great actor, and he was completely underutilized in the movie, so it would be great if they had bigger plans for him. 

I'm not sure why the scene was cut. Instead all we got was that X-Men: Days of Future Past promo, which had nothing to do with Spider-Man. Either Norman Osborn's head has nothing to do with what is to come, or they are just waiting to make the official reveal in one of the later films. Would you like to see Norman Osborn make a comeback?

Moviepilot

Why does it always have to be Donatello? Don't you know he does machines? 

Man, I love that old theme song.

Nostalgia aside, Geroge Gant has taken one of the most underappreciated set of characters in gamedom, the Koopas, and thrown them into a mashup with our favorite green turtles, Mario-esque shredder in tow. I love Gant's art style; it's so colorful and fun. You can peep more of his work on his deviant art page, and hopefully next time Donatello can be doing machines.

Upon further review, that just sounds completely nonsensical. What exactly does "Donatello does machines" mean, anyway? Creates, Fixes, Builds, Constructs are all preferable choices to does. 

I digress, soapbox is complete.

Playing around with lightsabers has always been fun! Back in the day my friends and I would go out and film our own lightsaber fight sequences that GeekTyrant's Free Reyes would edit together. Then he would painstakingly make our toy lightsabers real, one frame at a time. 

Nerdist has filmed a few fun lightsaber duels over the years, and they've released another fun short called "Revenge of the Threesome." In the middle of shooting a Star Wars action figure commercial, the three women who are playing with the toys behind-the-scenes end up getting into a crazy lightsaber battle.

"In an epic follow-up to Saber II, Nerdist presents Saber III: Revenge of the Threesome! Brace yourself for a next level 80's Star Wars lightsaber duel between Clare Grant, Rileah Vanderbilt and Alison Haislip."

Their Saber II video came out last year and is called "Sexy Jedi Bubblebath." In case you missed it, you can click here to watch it. 

Warner Bros. sure does love their movie posters! I think out of every movie studio, they release the most posters for their movies. Today we give you three more posters for their badass looking sci-fi action film Edge of Tomorrow. The posters feature Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, who are looking very confident and ready to fight to the death… over and over and over again. The movie is based on the novel All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, and the movie is directed by Doug Liman.

The action unfolds in a near future in which an alien race has hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, unbeatable by any military unit in the world. Lt. Col. Bill Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop—forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again…and again.

But with each battle, Cage becomes able to engage the adversaries with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Blunt). And, as Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy.

The movie also stars Bill Paxton, Jeremy Piven, Ciaran Hinds, Noah Taylor, Kick Gurry, Dragomir Mrsic, Charlotte Riley, Jonas Armstrong, Franz Drameh, Masayoshi Haneda, and Tony Way. It's set to be released on June 6th, and I can't wait to see it!

LEGO has released the first photos and video of their official Ghostbusters Ecto-1 play set, and it's perfectly awesome! The set will go on sale June first and will cost $49.99. Not a bad price to pay for hardcore Ghostbusters fans. 

The photos feature a side-by-side comparison with the original Lego Cuusoo version designed by Brent Waller, who posted all of these on his Facebook page. The original design is on the left and the official LEGO set is on the right. 

Being the crazy Ghostbusters fan that I am, I'm definitely going to have to get one of these. What about you?

Fox has released their X-Men: Days of Future Past post credits scene that was added on to Sony Picture's The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It had nothing to do with Spider-Man, it was just a little cross promotion thrown in there to confuse the fans. When I saw The Amazing Spider-Man 2 the audience in the theater didn't seem to know what the hell was going on with that clip. Listening to those conversations while walking out of the theater was pretty entertaining. Many of them now seem to be expecting to see Spider-Man in the new X-Men movie, which is not the case at all. The scene features a little uprising of mutants led by Mystique at a military base. The movie is set to be released on May 23rd. 

Robot Chicken has released a hilarious G.I. Joe skit for their show that features the terrorist organization Cobra attempting to make PSAs just like the Joes did. I don't know what  good would come out of a PSA made by a terrorist organization, but this is pretty funny. The video came along with the following caption:

"Can you believe it took them seven seasons to finally think of this one?"

The way it all ends is perfect. I love the stuff they are doing at Robot Chicken. They never fail to make me laugh. Enjoy! 

FOX has released the trailer for their upcoming Batman prequel series Gotham, and it looks freakin' awesome! I seriously couldn't be more excited about this show. 

The trailer gives us our first look at several of the familiar characters in action. They consist of Det. Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie), young Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz), Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor), Catwoman (Camren Bicondova), The Riddler (Cory Michael Smith) and even Poison Ivy! 

Everyone looks amazing as the characters they are portraying in the series. Watch the trailer and see for yourself!