The Wil Wheaton Project created and released this amusing 1980s style opening scene for HBO's True Blood. The best part is that it parodies one of my favorite sitcoms of all time… Cheers. This might just be my favorite True Blood spoof that I've seen. I hope you like it!
First of all, if you haven't seen Dawn of the Planet of the Apes yet you need to go out and see it now. It's hands down one of the best films of the year. Whether you've seen it or not, here's a beautiful series of concept art that was created for the Matt Reeves-directed movie by the Aaron Sims Company.
ASC worked closely with Weta on both films to design all of the main and ancillary ape characters from the ground up. In the Rise of the Planet of the Apes, they sculpted a bust for Caesar to ensure a hyper-realistic feel. In Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, ASC worked on aging the apes and creating the apes’ ceremonial look, which includes face paint and other ornamentation taken from nature.
These illustrations are stunning and cool. These are part of the reason that this film turned out so freakin' well.
"This is my city, I've come back, because I care what's happening to it."
The latest TV spot for Gotham features Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) narrating his walk to the crime scene of Bruce Wayne's murdered parents. While he walks through it there are various Gotham City villains staring at the detective, who is going to make an effort to stop them and clean up the city that he loves. The series will premiere on Monday September 22nd. Thanks to THR for the trailer!
This fan-made poster for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice comes from Sysmatic on tumblr, and it features our two heroes coming face to face in the dark, rainy city of Gotham. I really want this movie that Zack Snyder is making to be great. I definitely have my doubts, but hopefully he will surprise fans with some footage at Comic-Con next week to show us what he's doing with it.
Via: CBM
An early teaser trailer has been released for Benicio Del Toro's film Paradise Lost. The movie was directed by Andrea Di Stefano (Life of Pi screenwriter), and Del Toro plays the infamous Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar. The movie is based on a true story about a young Irish surfer named Nick (Josh Hutcherson) who visits his brother in Colombia. While there he decides to fall in love with Pablo Escobar's niece. That sounds like a terrible thing to do! There's no release date for the film yet, but here's the teaser.
We’ve all had that moment watching a movie, tv show, playing a game, or reading a book when there is a cool fictional object we wish were real. To keep this list focused I’ve come up with a few rules.
The Rules:
Nothing unique or specific to only one person — Wonder Woman's Magic Lasso won't qualify.
No fully enclosed vehicles, so no Back to the Future DeLorean or TARDIS.
No robots, artificial intelligences, or androids.
Nothing that is part of a building or vehicle, which disqualifies Star Trek’s transporters.
No suits, costumes, or mechs. Sorry Iron Man, you're out.
Can't already be real (obviously).
Rule #1 is a very limiting rule. My thinking was that if it was real but unique, why would you be able to own it? Now for the wishlist.
Why it's cool
Used by Force wielders, both Jedi and Sith, the lightsaber is a blade of pure plasma suspended in a containment field. It cuts through nearly anything, glows in a variety of colors, and makes cool sounds. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age.
Closest real-world equivalent
Powerful lasers used in industrial fabrication are capable of cutting thick sheets of metal. But we don't yet have anything close to a containment field able to limit the length of a laser beam. We also don't have a strong enough power source that is able to fit in a hilt.
I want it now
The Inferno by Wicked Lasers is the most powerful consumer-ready device that uses 750 mW+ and can do many destructive or helpful things.
Why it's cool
Used by Jack Harkness, The Doctor, River Song, Time Agents, and Clara, the vortex manipulator is able to jump to any point in space or time (time machine and teleporter). This small device is no bigger than a watch and, in my opinion, is the most powerful object on the list.
Closest real-world equivalent
The closest thing we have to time travel is moving near the speed of light, but that only lets you move forward in time. Quantum teleportation only works on the scale of a couple atoms, but nowhere near what we would call teleportation.
I want it now
Hop on a plane to take you to a different time zone, or fly a jet at supersonic speed to travel fractions of a second into the future.
Why it's cool
Used in Back to the Future: Part II and III, the hoverboard is a lightweight skateboard without wheels that can float a foot off the ground. Because you’re off the ground you can go places a skateboard could never go, and with enough power you can even hover across water. Because you wouldn’t have much friction to slow you down you could reach insane speeds.
Closest real-world equivalent
A few attempts with powerful leaf blowers have been able to replicate the "hover" effect, but controlling it has been an entirely different issue. Quantum locking, a.k.a. flux pinning, gained a lot of attention thanks to a semi recent video. But the tech won't be feasible until we discover room-temperature superconductors.
I want it now
The Marble is a electrically powered skateboard capable of traveling 10 miles on a single charge, reaches top speeds of 25 MPH, weighs 9.9 pounds, and pulls you up hills with a 15% grade. Available in early 2015. There are other powered skateboards, but this is the most advanced.
Why it's cool
A tool for M.I.B., the neuralyzer lets its agents selectively wipe someone's memory. About the size of a cigar, it has controls that let them select a time period they would like to "rewrite." After someone is flashed with a neuralyzer an auditory suggestion is given that the neuralyzed person will believe is real.
Closest real-world equivalent
SR-8993 is a chemical currently in clinical trials on people with PTSD. To be able to remember something a memory must move from short-term memory into long-term memory. This process is called encoding. When a memory is recalled it's moved out of long-term into short-term. SR-8993 blocks the brain's ability to encode or re-encode short-term memory into long-term memory, effectively erasing it as if it was a dream with fuzzy details.
I want it now
Lack of sleep keeps your brain from being able to encode memories into long-term. This is why sleep is so very important to learning. Naps can make you smarter, that's the excuse I use for my midday siesta.
Why it's cool
Small, yellow, lives in your ear... and translates any language into something you understand by interfacing directly with the speech centers of your brain.
Closest real-world equivalent
Computers still don't understand and hear human speech perfectly, but they are constantly improving. iTranslate Voice 2 is a voice to voice translator for iOS and Voice Translator Free is its comparable Android equivalent. These smartphone apps are pretty mind-blowing and only a few years old.
I want it now
The babel fish only translates what you hear. The Word Lens app translates signs and text. Pair it with one of the aforementioned voice-to-voice apps, and you could confidently travel to foreign language nations, neighborhoods, and restaurants.
Why it's cool
A diagnostic tool, data recorder, and scanner, the tricorder is a laboratory worth of tools in a small portable device. The ability to quickly diagnose an ill patient or malfunctioning tech saves lives and time.
Closest real-world equivalent
XPRIZE in partnership with Qualcomm are offering $10 million dollars in prize money to teams that can build a working medical tricorder. There are 5 teams that are very close to making a real one.
I want it now
Health and fitness tracker the “Carbon Steel Edition” by Basic tracks your heart rate, skin temperature, perspiration rate, sleep pattern, and the types of exercise you’ve been doing. These small personal devices are finally affordable and in the future will become more advanced.
Why it's cool
The Stargate is built of and powered by a fictional superconductive mineral naqahdah. It’s able to create a stable wormhole across the universe to another Stargate. Created the by the Ancients, these Stargates were built and scattered across the universe mostly to planets that could sustain life, although they have also been placed inside large ships, and some are free floating in space.
Closest real-world equivalent
Quantum teleportation only works in the lab and is most likely going to be used for communication. As of now we don’t have a way of creating a wormhole, let alone a stable and controllable one.
I want it now
Ava 500 by iRobot is a virtual telepresence robot used in business and hospitals. It’s like Skype but with a robot you can control to move about the location it’s in.
Why it's cool
The person firing the weapon is able to share their “point of view” with someone. While it’s not mind control, it does transmit ideas and feelings. It is effective at ending nearly all arguments because the person being shot is able to understand the wielder’s “point of view.”
Closest real-world equivalent
We do have lots of technology emerging soon that will be able to read your mind. Current tech is limited to experimental flight navigation and prosthetic limb control. Transmitting information, memories, or emotions into the brain still looks a long way from being real.
I want it now
Communicating ideas and emotions is the work of artists, musicians, poets, writers, dancers, filmmakers, actors, and makers. You might already be one of these. If not, become one. It can be emotionally rewarding and often fun.
Why it's cool
Turn any pokemon/living organism into energy and store it in a device the size of a golf ball. Regardless of the captured creature’s size, the pokeball remains incredibly light. Some variants can even heal captured pokemon.
Closest real-world equivalent
We have nothing that can turn energy into matter or turn matter into raw energy. We do burn a lot of things for energy, but that’s not really the same thing.
I want it now
Play the game Pokemon. I’m likely opening a can of worms, but I really wish Nintendo games were legally available on iOS and Android.
Why it's cool
They enhance or grant magical ability and are both offensive and defensive weapons, tools for conjuring objects and spirits, and back scratchers.
Closest real-world equivalent
We yet to invent magic, but technology of the future will be indistinguishable from magic
I want it now
Smartphones — only widely in existence for 7 years — are getting connected to more things everyday. You can control every aspect of a smarthome, tell your car to start the air conditioning, communicate wirelessly to billions of people, and be guided to places you’ve never been.
Why it didn't qualify
Rule #6 — Already real but not widely available due to safety and cost. If they were widely and cheaply available, I can see flashmobs taking things to an insane level. Look out Area 51.
Why it didn't qualify
Rule #1 — The fictional sonic technology is used in more than just a screwdriver. But The Doctor has claimed to invent it. All other users of a “sonic” seem to have one once used by The Doctor.
Why it didn't qualify
Rule #1 — The Invisibility Cloak used by Harry Potter is a Deathly Hallow and is unique. While other invisibility cloaks exist in the Potter-verse, they fade or lose the invisibility effect over time. Had we seen other invisibility cloaks in action in the books or movies, it might have qualified.
Ron Howard is set to direct a documentary on The Beatles. According to THR, it will trace their days from the clubs of Liverpool, England and Hamburg, Germany, to their final appearance at Candlestick Park in San Francisco in 1966.
This is an authorized documentary and Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon, and Olivia Harrison are cooperating with it and the producers involved. This will be the first Beatles movie to be made since Let It Be in 1970.
Howard had this to say in a statement:
“What’s so intriguing to me is not only the subject, but the context we can bring to it now. Not only can we do a study of these touring years, the narrative of an odyssey, we can look at the significance of the Beatles as individuals—as musical geniuses, as societal leaders and their effect on global culture. Dramatically it makes a lot of sense and cinematically, we have a chance to offer a unique experience.”
The film will include footage of the Beatles that was shot in 8mm and Super 8 that has never been seen by the public. Producers are also reaching out to collectors and "finding soundboard recordings, some of which are multi-track, which can now be married." Howard talked about his experience with the legendary band saying:
“My 10th birthday was all about me getting a Beatle wig. While my knowledge isn’t encyclopedic, I’m a lifelong fan and I’m fascinated by what they’ve meant.”
Producer Nigel Sinclair added:
“The Beatles came at a time when people assumed ownership of their stars. I think you can’t tell the story of popular music and its place in popular culture without looking at the live concert relationship between artist and audience. When the Beatles started, it was the job of artists is to tell people like me how we should live our lives. That was one of the massive changes that these four people wrought upon us.
“One of the things that interests Ron and I very much is the word exceptionalism. There is something utterly exceptional about the Beatles beyond any other musical group. I’m hoping, as we go on this journey together and piece together (this film), when it’s finished, you get an understanding of that.”
As a huge fan of The Beatles, I couldn't be more excited that Howard is the director working on this documentary. I'm excited to see what he and the rest of the team brings to it.
GT reader and video editor Yanni Moutsakis sent us this great modern-day style trailer for the classic 1990s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It cut to the same music used in the trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past. If you haven't watched this movie in awhile, this trailer might give you a little nudge to revisit it. This movie is so awesome. I hope the new one coming out has at least a little bit of that same feel and spirit.
Thanks to the upcoming cover of Entertainment Weekly we have our first official look at Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans geared up for Avengers: Age of Ultron and our first glimpse of the villain Ultron. That character design is so freakin' badass. The article also offers up some story details, explaining that Tony Stark will build Ultron as a tool to help save the world and to provide the rest of The Avengers some time off. Of course, things go terribly wrong. Joss Whedon says:
"Ultron sees the big picture and he goes, 'Okay, we need radical change, which will be violent and appalling, in order to make everything better'; he's not just going 'Muhaha, soon I'll rule!' He's on a mission. He wants to save us."
Downey Jr. explains the need for the Avengers downtime, saying:
“What you said about abdication is apt, but I think it’s also about recognizing limitations. The downside of self-sacrifice is that if you make it back, you’ve been out there on the spit and you’ve been turned a couple times and you feel a little burned and traumatized.”
Obviously Stark's plan doesn't work out the way he would have liked it too. Ultron wants to help the world by ridding it of human beings because they are the ones destroying it. That's not good.
Hiro and Baymax meet for the first time in this Japanese trailer that Disney released for Big Hero 6. This trailer is a lot different from the one we saw yesterday, it has a much more somber feel to it in the beginning. As you'll see, Hiro will have to face some very difficult times before his adventure begins.
Big Hero 6 was brought to life for the big screen by directors Don Hall (Winnie the Pooh) and Chris Williams (Bolt). It will be released in theaters in 3D on November 7th, 2014.
Via: CBM
Director Duncan Jones is currently in post-production on his fantasy epic Warcraft, and now he's thinking about what his next project might be. According to a recent tweet he sent out, he's looking to try and get his sci-fi project Mute into development. This is something he first talked about doing over four years ago.
"Thinking about what film I want to try and do after Warcraft. May give Mute one more push before I put it on the "Don Quixote" shelf."
The filmmaker admitted in the past that the movie is a hard sell, but I hope that there's a studio and financier out there that sees the potential. I'd like to think Jones will have a little more clout now that he has Warcraft under his belt. The concept has been likened to Blade Runner and the story follows a "woman whose disappearance causes a mystery for her partner, a mute bartender. When she disappears, he has to go up against the city's gangsters." You can read a more detailed and spoiler filled description here if you want. This is what Jones had to say about it years ago:
There's a couple of villains in there which I'm really excited about. They're so different than anything you've seen. I hope I get the chance to make the film because they're going to be very unique, you're not going to have seen anyone like these two guys before...
No aliens, nothing like that. It's a very human story, it's about normal, normal people having to live in this future city. Science fiction is more of a backdrop, in some ways, than you might expect. But I like that, because ... if you allow [science fiction] to be in the backdrop and not be what it's all about, then the humanity is what you're really concentrating on and looking at. You see why people are the way they are , and how they've maintained their humanity in these science-fiction settings. Or the opposite, why their humanity starts to be eroded. When they started to lose their humanity because of the world that they live in, and that's what this film is going to be about.
Jones is an insanely talented director, and I really hope that he is able to make this movie. It would be a shame if he had to shelve it.
The only thing cooler than getting the long rumored (but not actually true) Final Fantasy VII remake would be if it were crossed with Xenogears, given a modern flash of paint, and called "Final Fantasy VII-X5: The Breathless Whisper of the Absorbent Alfalfa."
No?
Okay, well scratch that. We'll just have to settle for Chasing Artwork's cool take on Cloud instead. I love his pieces, mostly because aside from the gorgeous art itself, they always come with a little backstory. He teases there may be more on the way, and if that's the case, can I please put in a requests for a Mecha-Cat-Sith please?
If you enjoy Chasing's work, let him know on his Deviant Art page.
The Avengers: Age of Ultron awesome train continues to plow through the internet with eight new official photos from the film! Thanks to Marvel and Entertainment Weekly, we have images of Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Bruce Banner, and Black Widow, and even Rhodey is back! He's seen in the last image hanging out with a few of the other team members. I hope he get to suit up again as War Machine! This is all obviously leading up to the huge Avengers event set to take place during the Marvel panel at Comic-Con. Even though it's not confirmed, I'm confident that Marvel is going to show off some of the first footage from this highly anticipated movie. In the meantime… enjoy the photos!
Hey look! Michael Rooker's Yondu has his own Guardians of the Galaxy poster! Director James Gunn released it on Twitter earlier with the following caption:
"Yondu poster yo."
This character is basically a space pirate in the Marvel universe, and he's the one the took Peter Quill off of Earth after Quill goes through a tragedy when he was a little kid. As you can see he's holding the same space artifact Star-Lord has been seen with in almost all of the trailers.
When talking about the character, in a previous interview, Rooker said he has "some interesting issues — not a good guy, not a bad guy. There's hope and there's a heart inside… It's not so black and white — I should say blue and white. And I enjoy roles that are like that, even if they're not in some galaxy somewhere other than ours."
Check out this amazing Boba Fett costume created by a dad for his six-year-old son. The costume is a replication of the Lego Boba Fett that was featured in the 9496 Desert Skiff LEGO set. The creator talked about the construction of it on The Dented Helmet saying:
“The entire costume is built from scratch using photo references and scans I took myself. The costume is built primarily out of sintra with pink insulation foam used to carve the helmet dome and a small amount of plastazote foam used on the tips and base of the jetpack rockets.” Which jetpack, it bears mentioning, is removable – just like the one on the minifig.
"All elements of this costume were approached the same way – photos, measurements, 2D drawings, scale, proportions. I used Adobe illustrator to hash out linear drawings of the helmet. Once I had the correct size of the dome, I was able to start. After a couple failed attempts at creating the dome with plastazote foam (making wedges to form the dome) I decided to carve it the old fashion way and simply used pink insulation foam from Home depot. Once I completed the dome, I began building the helmet using the antenna mount as my anchor point. I used a heat gun to shape and form the sintra, and glued layers to create the details throughout the helmet. After a few revisions ( the dark green concave section wasn’t deep enough and I had to redo it) the helmet was ready for bondo glazing putty. I use this to fill the seams and rough spots in order to achieve a seamless plastic molded look, much like a Lego minifigure."
The guy put in an incredible amount of thought and dedication into this project, and the outcome is extremely cool!
Via: Fashionably Geek
Mortal Kombat web-series director Kevin Tancharoen is set to develop a new action film project called The Guns of Christmas Past. The movie sounds as awesome as the title, and it was obviously inspired by A Christmas Carol, but with an action-packed twist. In this version of the story we follow a retired hitman who "returns to Chicago on Christmas Eve to avenge the death of his friend. During his mission, he must fight his way past three unlikely adversaries from his past, present, and future. In the process, he finds out who he really is."
I absolutely love this concept. The script for the film was written by Andrew Hilton, and this seems like a perfect project for Tancharoen to develop. I enjoyed what he did with the Mortal Kombat series, and his talents should translate well to a movie like The Guns of Christmas Past.
Via: Deadline
Universal Pictures has released six photos from their upcoming vampire thriller Dracula Untold. I'm a big fan of vampire flicks. I grew up on these kinds of films and this is a very unique take on the legend that I've never seen before. Judging from the trailer that was released, it looks like the filmmakers pulled it off.
The movie has a great cast which includes Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon, Dominic Cooper, Zach McGowan, Samantha Barks, Thor Kristjansson and Art Parkinson.
Evans stars as Dracula and the movie tells an "origin story that sees a Transylvanian prince risk eternal damnation in order to save his wife and son from a Turkish horde. Barks will play a figure in Eastern European folk tales known as a baba yaga, a beautiful young woman who turns into a savage witch. Kristjansson will play Bright Eyes, an Eastern European taken as a slave as a young boy and now a vicious assassin in the Ottoman Army."
The film hits theaters October 3, 2014.
You've got to check out this fantastic video mashup of Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings. It was cut together by Austen Saltz, and it shows us a scene of what might happen if Brienne stumbled across the fellowship. The whole thing is actually cut together really well. Fans are definitely going to get a kick out of this.
I've been a fan of vampires for an incredibly long time. I was into vampires before liking them was the "cool" thing to do, and before I really even knew what they were. These days vampires are all over the place. There's a ton of movies and TV shows that have flooded the market over the years that are based on these demons of the night.
My first exposure to vampires came when I was around 2 years old. A group of family and friends rented out an old creepy stage theater, and set out on a journey to produce a production of Dracula. Strange things took place during the production that were hilarious and terrifying, and one day I will share that story, but today is not that day. I will say though that the theater that it took place in was supposedly haunted, and that the production turned out to be what's been described to me as a "beautiful disaster." It was during that production that I became fascinated with this Dracula character.
My dad played Dracula, and I have memories of him rehearsing his lines and dressing up in costume. I remember visiting him at the playhouse, and walking through the creepy corridors that led to main theater. One of my favorite parts about going there was I got all the free 3 Musketeer candy bars that I wanted out of a fridge they had there.
I may have only been almost three years old, but I was around this stuff so much that I got to know the story of Dracula really well, and it just kind of stuck with me. I never lost that interest, and my curiosity about vampires just grew. As I got older, I would read everything I could and watch all the movies that my parents would let me watch about vampires. I was always discovering new things about them, and I just thought that they were the coolest creatures.
I've included a couple of pictures of me to prove just how far back my history goes with with this stuff. The one above is of me as a toddler sporting some awesome teeth. The one at the top is of me on Halloween, years later, all decked out as a crazy looking vampire type demon. This is one of my favorite and most memorable Halloween costumes ever. This was a very different and innovative vampire look at the time that my dad dreamed up. I was terrifying other kids while trick 'r treating, and I even recall adults being a little shocked by the look. You could tell that they never saw a vampire quite like that before. I soaked up the attention, and loved it. I've always liked taking my costumes and stories to dark and different places.
This is just a little background on why I get so excited about movies and TV shows about vampires. And I'm talking about real vampires here, not that Twilight shit that gave vampires a bad name. I'm more into the scary hardcore stuff, and I know I've seen almost every movie that has ever been made that revolves around these insane creatures. What was your first encounter with a vampire?
"I made a monster… a beautiful monster."
You can never have too much of Samuel L. Jackson in your life, so here's a new trailer that has been released for his action film project Kite. It's sure to give you a nice little Sam Jackson high.
Kite is a live-action adaptation of the Japanese anime that was written and directed by Yasuomi Umetsu. The live action version was directed by Ralph Ziman, and the story follows a young orphaned schoolgirl named Sawa "living in a failed state, post-financial collapse, where the corrupt security force profits on the trafficking of young women. When her father, a cop, is slain by someone dirty inside the force, she vows to track the murderer down with the help of her father’s ex-partner."
The movie also stars India Eisley, Callan McAuliffe, Cleo Rinkwest, Russel Savadier, Keci Eatock, Matthew Van Leeve, and Jaco Muller. The movie will be released on October 10th, 2014, and it looks like a really fun adaptation. Thanks to IGN for the trailer.
