Yesterday I watched Hook and a few other Robin Williams movies that I haven't seen in years. I found myself overwhelmed with emotion at times. Hook ended up being just as great as I remembered. It's still hard for me to believe that Williams is gone.
As a tribute to to the late actor and his film Hook, artist James Hance created the wonderful portrait above. The artist provided a high resolution print of the illustration for you to print out if you want.
Focus Features starts production on the Scott Derrickson-produced horror sequel Sinister 2 next week. They've announced that James Ransone will reprise his role in the movie, and that he'll be joined franchise newcomer Shannyn Sossamon (The Rules of Attraction).
The press release also offers up the following details on the story:
In the aftermath of the shocking events of Sinister, a protective mother (Sossamon) and her 9-year-old twin sons (real-life twins Robert and Dartanian Sloan) find themselves in a rural house marked for death.
Ciaran Foy (Citadel) is directing the film from a script that Derrickson co-wrote with C. Robert Cargill. The film will be released in theaters on Friday, August 21st, 2015.
I thought the first movie was a fun horror flick, and it offered audiences a solid story with some great creepy scares. I'm sure the sequel will be just as good since the script comes from the original writers.
Dark Hall Mansion has announced that they will be releasing a 10-print Twilight Zone subscription featuring art created by Tom Whalen. To kick it off they've released the first print, which was inspired by one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes, "Eye of the Beholder."
Other episodes that will be covered in the series include “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” “Living Doll,” and “Nick of Time,” plus a few other surprises. Here's some information provided on the illustration above:
A disturbing classic, the episode’s final imagery is arresting and unforgettable even to contemporary audiences. Tom Whalen has created a piece for “Eye of the Beholder” that is deliberate and meticulously crafted, from its “The Twilight Zone” ‘eye’ element, to its “Beholder” font, a font that Tom noted specifically echoes a studied association with the word “beautiful,” the print’s composition is at once grounded in the reality of the episode while still subtly dissolving into an ethereal upper plane that fans will instantly recognize as Tom’s nod to the starry sky from “The Twilight Zone’s” famous opening credit sequences.
Here's some additional information from the announcement.
Dark Hall Mansion, under license by CBS Consumer Products, will release a 10-print “The Twilight Zone” series focused on key classic episodes of the legendary series that redefined television and set a creative bar by which decades of writers and filmmakers still measure themselves today. The importance of “The Twilight Zone” and its unparalleled creative output and unflinching mirror on the individual and society, particularly in an era when this was simply not done, cannot be underscored. Its impact on television, films, screenwriters, directors, authors, the comics industry, and creative artists within all fields still resonates and informs every genre to this day.
Dark Hall Mansion’s officially licensed 10-print limited edition subscription screenprint series goes on sale Tuesday, August 19th, and will feature 10 classic “The Twilight Zone” episodes rendered by leading contemporary artist, Tom Whalen. The 10-print “The Twilight Zone” editions will be offered as a subscription print series with an exclusive worldwide run of only 230 Standard edition subscriptions and 70 Variant edition subscriptions. Each of the 10 individual prints will focus on one classic “The Twilight Zone” episode, each rendered in artist Tom Whalen’s inimitable and dynamic style, each measuring 18″ x 24″ and each fully screen printed.
I remember first reading about Deadpool in the early 2000's in my X-Men anthology series. The picture next to his profile, if I remember right, was DP kicking ass while talking about GI Joe. I remember thinking it was weird and flipping the page, not really giving it a second thought. Longshot was my favorite mutant.
Fast forward to now, when the "Merc with a mouth" has skyrocketed to geek fame. Cons are flooded with geeks in suits, he's in video games and, yes, even children's programs.
So with all the hype of the potential movie on the horizon, you may be toying with the idea of getting into Deadpool. For those people, I have a collection of everything you need to know. Where you need to start reading, basic character background, etc. Let this be that little push you need to dive right into his twisted world!
Deadpool first arrived on the scene in 1991. Artist Rob Liefeld penned the character and his abilities (killler with super agility) and sent it off to writer Fabian Nicieza. Nicieza, after viewing the character, contacted Liefeld and told him he “literally created Deathstroke.” Liefeld, a huge fan of the Teen Titans series, took this as a compliment and named the character Wade Wilson after Deathstroke’s real name, Slade Wilson.
Deadpool made his debut in New Mutants #98 where he was hired by a man named Tolliver to kill Cable and crew. Deadpool ended up with three knives in his back and was mailed back to his employer. This Deadpool was very serious, calculated, and a lot more villainous than the Deadpool we know today. It can also be noted that his movements were very Spider-Man-esque.
It wasn’t until writer Joe Kelly that we got the style of Deadpool that we still see today. Kelly was charged with writing the first Deadpool series ever and immediately made some changes. Where Deadpool was initially seen as a villain, Kelly’s incarnation was characterized by being “morally ambiguous” and had as much focus on comedy as it did kicking ass. This 1997 series is viewed as the bible for all writers of Deadpool and most Deadpool fans. Hilariously enough, the randomness and over the top attitude of the comic came from Kelly’s frustration with Marvel…
“With Deadpool, we could do anything we wanted because everybody just expected the book to be canceled every five seconds, so nobody was paying attention. And we could get away with it.”
Kelly said frustration came from the fact that, unlike now, very few people were reading the series. Every third issue he wrote, he was getting a note saying they would be cancelled. This led to very choppy storylines and a lot of half-baked ideas that never came to fruition. After issue 33 Kelly departed to work on other projects, but would later return to work on a Spider-Man/Deadpool crossover.
Other popular series for those looking to delve into the comic world of Deadpool are Deadpool Corps, Merc With A Mouth, and Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe.
Long before he was a mutant, Deadpool was an assassin. Highly skilled in the art of killing, his life was pretty good until he got cancer. Desperate for a cure, Wade Wilson joined the Weapon X program where he was infused with Wolverine’s healing factor. The boosted healing factor cured Wilson's cancer, but at the price of severely scarring his body. Thus he donned the costume he wears today and joined Weapon X.
While his healing ability comes from the manipulation of Wolverine's genes, Deadpool’s healing factor is much more extreme. His mind is in a constant state of healing, which makes him invulnerable to any psychic manipulation. The healing of his cancer did, however, make him insane, or maybe heightened his sense of reality, it’s hard to tell. It’s hard to question the sanity of a character who knows he’s part of a comic book world.
Deadpool’s healing ability is mentally driven. This means he can heal at will, as well as focus his healing on different parts of his body. This gives him superhuman stamina, reaction time, and a boost to the already deadly strength and abilities he had prior to the procedure. His reaction time has been noted to be faster than the finest human athlete.
Chopping off Deadpool’s head will not kill him. Wade Wilson is completely capable of surviving independent of his body, and can reattach his head once it is found. While it has not been officially acknowledged in canon, there have been instances where DP’s head has been destroyed, and he just regrew it. There is also a dispute as to whether Deadpool has an extended life cycle due to his healing, or if he has become immortal through his own healing. Whatever the case, the X-Force stumbles upon him 800 years in the future relatively unchanged.
Deadpool has a lot of cool gear he’s amassed over the years. Most who have a base level understanding of the character know of his two katanas and pistols, but he’s also got a magic satchel! This satchel contains a litany of weapons at any given moment, usually just what he needs. DP’s specialty is the use of blades, but he shoots a fair number of guns as well.
Deadpool has a teleporter, which can teleport him away from or into danger. It can also disguise his identity, which he has abused several times throughout the years to look like other heroes, innocent bystanders, etc. At one point he even had a time machine, where he went back in time to meet and ruin the lives of past Marvel superheroes.
Deadpool’s confusion about his own past is practically a meta joke between the writers who have helmed him. So many storylines have been retconned, rewritten, or flat out ignored that it’s really hard to give a legitimate telling of the character's past. In one telling he was a discharged American soldier, but in another he claims to be Canadian. He’s killed the entire Marvel universe, but then everyone’s still alive, He’s also teamed up with other incarnations of himself that exist in different multiverses, like his zombie self, Headpool.
The most common canon to the character recognized by readers is the Joe Kelly incarnation. Once again, as all fans will say, if you want to get acquainted with Deadpool, this is where you start. It’s what Frank Miller is to Daredevil, if you will, the creme de la creme of Deadpool. The gold standard. You get the picture.
Deadpool is only one of the cool parts about reading his comics. There’s Blind Al, the roommate/hostage old woman in his apartment. There’s Hydra Agent Bob, who, as his name would imply, is an agent of Hydra who teams up with DP. Then there’s all the variations of Deadpool like the zombie Headpool, Kid Deadpool, Lady Deadpool, Dogpool... etc. This doesn't even cover the numerous superhero team ups he's done, which are always fantastic.
Seriously, if you are a fan of superheroes and you haven’t picked up this series yet, do yourself a favor. Deadpool is just as great as the community makes him out to be, and provided you start off reading the right way, you’ll agree. Now get out there, buy his comics in bulk, and feverishly beg for the movie!
The trailer and poster have been released for the Martin Scorsese-produced film Revenge of the Green Dragons. The movie was directed by Andrew Lau and Andrew Loo, and it's based on a New Yorker article by Frederick Dannen's that chronicled the underworld of Asian-American gang life in 80's and 90's New York City.
The story follows "two immigrant brothers Sonny (Justin Chon) and Steven (Kevin Wu) who survive the impoverished despair of New York in the 1980s by joining Chinatown gang 'The Green Dragons.' The brothers quickly rise up the ranks, drawing the unwanted attention of hard-boiled city cops. After an ill-fated love affair pits Sonny against his own brother, he sets out for revenge on the very gang who made him who he is."
The movie will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. DirecTV will immediately follow with an exclusive 30-day window beginning September 11th, followed by an A24 theatrical release in October. The movie also stars Harry Shum, Jr., Shuya Chang, Geoff Pierson, Billy Magnussen, and Ray Liotta.
The Wrap is reporting that Millennium Films is developing a Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel called Leatherface. They've hired newcomer Seth M. Sherwood to write the script for the film. The story will explore the 1970s origins of the horror icon.
I'm a huge fan of the original movie. It scared the living shit out of me when I first saw it. I had never seen anything like it at the time. It was the first real hardcore horror film that I watched when I was growing up. I've come to appreciate that movie more and more over the years.
There have a been a lot of sequels and remakes of Texas Chainsaw over the years, but nothing has ever lived up to the original movie. Every time I see a new Leatherface movie, I can't help but hope that it will decent. It never really is, though. They have all been mediocre. Even though I'm sure this next movie won't be any different, I still hope that it surprises me.
Leatherface will be the eighth addition to the horror franchise, and the studio is looking to get it into production this coming winter. They are currently on the hunt for a director to take on the challenge.
Lisa Lou Who is Bayonetta | Photo by: Andrew DH Photos
The last generation of games saw the birth of a new franchise, and subsequently the birth of a new leading lady with Platinum's Bayonetta. You certainly can't confuse the supernatural ass kicker with anyone else, as people whose hair can be used as an actual weapon are in short supply these days (and no, Willow Smith does not count). Bayonetta will be getting a new lease on life on the Wii U later this year. While you are waiting, here is a compilation of some of the best cosplay around.
SandySuicide is Bayonetta | Photo by: Sergio Aguirre
Nebulaluben is Bayonetta | Photo by: Jose Manchado
Yuna is Bayonetta | Photo by: Yuegene
Nebulaluben is Bayonetta | Photo by: Jose Manchado
Carolina Angulo is Bayonetta | Photo by: Ramon Cabrera
Daireth Winehouse is Bayonetta | Photo by: Killian Pitt
MoonFoxUltima is Bayonetta | Photo by: jkdimagery
Nebulaluben is Bayonetta | Photo by: Urbandancer Photography
Traumatic Candy is Bayonetta | Photo by: Ducesa
Aoi-Takamura is Bayonetta
MoonFoxUltima is Bayonetta | Photo by: jkdimagery
Daelyth is Bayonetta | Photo by: Noriyuki Wakabayashi
SandySuicide is Bayonetta | Photo by: Sergio Aguirre
Daran Eichi is Bayonetta | Photo by: LEWO Saito
Arienai-ten is Bayonetta | Photo by: ArturFoto
Fantasy Ninja is Bayonetta | Photo by: Hooded Woman
Nebulaluben is Bayonetta | Photo by: Jose Manchado
Kasane is Bayonetta
Lisa Lou Who is Bayonetta | Photo by: Anna Fischer
Dark Tifa Strife is Bayonetta | Photo by: Erick Paz Villaroel
Daelyth is Bayonetta | Photo by: Noriyuki Wakabayashi
Nebulaluben is Bayonetta | Photo by: Urbandancer Photography
Daelyth is Bayonetta
Nebulaluben is Bayonetta | Photo by: Jose Manchado
After the the trailer for James Franco and Seth Rogen's new comedy The Interview was released, North Korea released a statement saying that releasing the movie would be like an act of war. They went on to say that they would retaliate. Well, Sony Picture still plans on releasing the movie but it will be going through some alterations to hopefully prevent a nuclear attack.
THR mention two changes that will be made. One is minor, and the other is a huge change that only makes me want to see the original cut of the movie even more. The first change is that the studio is "digitally altering thousands of buttons worn by characters in the film because they depict the actual hardware worn by the North Korean military to honor the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, 31, and his late father, Kim Jong Il."
The second change is that the studio is considering cutting a scene in which "the face of Kim Jong Un (played by Randall Park) is melted off graphically in slow motion." No way! They can't cut out the Raiders of the Lost Ark moment of the film! I was already excited about seeing the movie, but this whole face-melting scene seems way too good take out. The report says that the scene being cut isn't official yet, At the moment, they are "just trying to gauge whether it's funny."
The release date for the film was recently changed from October to December 25th so that the studio has time to make all the changes before they unleash it. Do you think the studio should have to make these kinds of changes because of one country's sensitivity?
Here's a couple of pieces of fan-made concept art that imagines what Jason Momoa might look like as Aquaman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the standalone movie that Warner Bros. is also developing. The illustrations were created by James Bousema, and each one has a slightly different design.
Via: CBM
A new feaurette that explores the world of director Wes Ball's really cool looking new film The Maze Runner has been released for your viewing enjoyment. The movie is based on the the novel by James Dashner.
The featurette introduces us to The Gladers, the group of boys who have been stuck in the area called The Glade. It's surrounded by a giant deadly maze, and they've been trying to figure out how to get through it.
When Thomas (O'Brien) wakes up trapped in a massive maze with a group of other boys, he has no memory of the outside world other than strange dreams about a mysterious organization known as W.C.K.D. Only by piecing together fragments of his past with clues he discovers in the maze can Thomas hope to uncover his true purpose and a way to escape.
The film stars Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Will Poulter, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Aml Ameen. It's set to hit theaters on September 19th.
Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner has been cast as Frankenstein author Mary Shelly in a film project called Mary Shelley's Monster. The story "tracks the young writer as she writes her seminal novel and is drawn into a Faustian bargain with her own 'monster' of an alter ego, who offers literary fame at a desperate personal cost." Shelley first published her classic novel Frankenstein anonymously at the age of 21.
The film's producer Rose Ganguzza envisions Shelley's life as "the story of the most extraordinary 19th century teenage heroine told in a visceral, sexy, contemporary way. Our film is not a period drama. It is a story of youth that transcends time, a gothic romance, a love triangle that involves a dark passenger and we are tremendously excited to have such an exciting cast onboard this wonderful project."
Turner joins Jeremy Irvine (War Horse, Stonewall), who is playing Percy Shelley, and Taissa Farmiga (American Horror Story, The Bling Ring) who is set to play Mary’s stepsister, Claire Clairmont. The movie is being directed Coky Giedroyc (The Killing, Penny Dreadful).
This is unrelated to the other Mary Shelly project in development with Elle Fanning called A Storm in the Stars.
Source: Deadline
The Marvel Movies Wiki has released an entry on the Infinity Stones that describes the ones used in the moves. It states that the Tesseract is the Space Stone, the Orb used in Guardians of the Galaxy is the Power Stone, and the Aether is still unknown, but I disagree, and I will tell you why. This is purely my opinion and whatever I say has no pull in the Marvel universe, but I feel like the wiki entry and what Marvel reps have told us about the stones doesn't make much sense. In my opinion the Stones that we have seen so far are Wisdom, Power, and Space. I am basing my opinion on the Stones’ properties mentioned on the comic wikipedia page.
In Avengers the Tesseract should be the Mind Gem, because the Tesseract was giving knowledge to those it was used on. When it was used on Hawkeye, he “knew his next target.” It also allows the user to access the thoughts of others and control them, or in layman’s terms: mind control. In Thor: the Dark World we see the Aether, a power so immense that it could destroy the entire universe, and it would succeeded if not for Chris Hemsworth. I think that the Aether should be the Power Stone due to its ability to decimate entire galaxies into nothing.
Now for the Stone in Guardians referred to as The Orb. This one got me thinking. It was a bit hard to figure out when I first saw the movie, but once I got it, it made total sense to me. I say it should be the Space Stone because of what it did. In Guardians, the Stone would rip apart whatever it touched, including the wielder if they weren’t strong enough to use it. One of the powers of the Space Stone is to warp or rearrange space — in other words, teleportation. What I think is that in order to teleport an object it needs to be torn down into molecules and put back together somewhere else, but someone who can’t control that power (or chooses not to) won’t put the object back together. So the people and things that were destroyed by the Stone in Guardians were really just half teleporting.
The Aether is clearly more powerful than The Orb used in Guardians so, to me, it makes more sense for it to be the Power Stone, however The Aether could be the Reality Stone, bending and twisting the other realms into nothing making a new reality of darkness. The Tesseract I can see being the Space Gem because Thor did use it to get back to Asgard, and in Thor: The Dark World, Stellan Skarsgard’s character Erik Selvig was rambling about other worlds and dimensions after being exposed to the power of the Tesseract.
That being said, at the end of the day Marvel does have the last say in things and what they say goes, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Star Wars and unicorns collide in this amusingly ridiculous t-shirt design created by Biotwist. It features Sith and Jedi unicorns locked in battle using their lightsaber horns.
Today I learned for the first time that back in the early 1980s an interactive Ghostbusters ride was actually in development for Six Flags theme parks! It was called The Hauntington Hotel, and it's truly a shame that it never happened. Had it gone through it would have been the first interactive video game/theme park ride. Thanks to /Film we have some concept art for the ride from 2600Connection, which you can check out below.
These pieces came along with an interview with Roger Hector, who managed Atari’s Advanced Products Group. He later worked with Electronic Arts, Walt Disney, Sega, and Namco Bandai. This is what he had to say about the attraction that was never built:
"It was another 'first' of its kind as it was the first interactive theme park game/ride, giving its riders a ghost busting gun mounted in front of them, and a variety of sophisticated 'ghost' targets to shoot at, and receive a score and prizes. In this way, it was a huge game that required many plays to learn and master. The target ghosts were a combination of physical animated props with CG displays that were combined through mirrors, and they reacted/exploded when hit. The guns were a combination of laser pointer and IR emitter that kept track of hits and displayed the player’s score. The whole thing was created, designed, engineered, and prototyped at Sente, and the ride system was in the hands of a prominent roller coaster engineering company, Intamin. But before it could be rolled out in the Six Flags parks (1st one was slated for Texas), Bally sold the Six Flags division in 1987, and the project fell into a corporate black hole, never to be seen again, which is too bad, as it was really pretty cool, even by today’s standards. I hadn’t seen anything like it until 20 years later when Disney installed the Toy Story Midway Mania ride at Disneyland in 2008. I don’t think any of it has ever been seen before outside the company. We had a very strong concept & storyboard artist named Don Carson, and below is some of his work, along with some of my sketches. This is far from complete, but it’s all I could find. The photos below only show some of the many scenes & features. Howie and his team prototyped the technology, and the layouts and sets were all there. At least you can get an idea for it."
The ride would have been two and a half minutes long and was planned to "feature a variety of high-tech and low-tech gags for the scenes. Every target would react to being hit, and guests would get to find out their score when exiting the attraction."
I really wish this ride had been built.
Warner Bros. and Legendary have set the released date for the next installment of their Godzilla franchise, and that date is June 8th, 2018.
Gareth Edwards will return to direct Godzilla 2 after he is finished with the standalone Star Wars movie that he's currently developing for Lucasfilm.
The last film brought in nearly $500 million dollars, so a sequel was bound to happen. I'm sure we'll see multiple sequels, and there will be plenty of classic monsters for Godzilla to fight.
Legendary also recently announced a King Kong prequel, Skull Island, which will be released in November 2016.
Artist Joshua Budich has created a wonderful series of Star Wars trilogy art. The name of the first piece is "We’re Doomed!", the second is "I Love You. I Know", and the third is "Like My Father Before Me."
This was done for the Art V Cancer project, which was set up by artist Chris Thornley (aka Raid71), who was diagnosed at the age of 37 with a rare incurable form of lymphoma.
Source: ZombieDirge
Dimension films has released a new clip and TV spot for Sin City: A Damn to Kill For and they both focus on Eva Green's character. The clip is called "Killing an Innocent Man," and it features an intense scene between Green and Josh Brolin after he had just killed somebody. Green plays quite an evil femme fatale in this flick.
Spot above comes from Moviefone
A full trailer has been released for an extremely awesome looking viking film called Northmen: A Viking Saga. I'm incredibly excited about seeing this movie. I love that the first part of this trailer features an old Viking wrestling down a horse and its rider with his bare hands. The trailer only get more badass from there!
A band of Vikings are stranded behind enemy lines on the coast of Alba as their longboat goes down in a dreadful storm. Their only chance of survival is to find a path to the Viking settlement, Danelag, traversing an unfamiliar and hostile land they have never known. The journey becomes a race for their lives when the King of Alba sends his most feared mercenaries after them. But when the Vikings meet a kind Christian Monk who preaches with his sword, the hunters become the hunted as the Vikings set deadly traps, mercilessly decimating their pursuers one by one, culminating in a final and deadly encounter.
There's still no word on when the film will be released in the states, but when it's announced I'll let you know! The movie stars Tom Hopper, Ryan Kwanten, Ken Duken, Charlie Murphy, James Norton, Ed Skrein, Anatole Taubman, and Johan Hegg.
The town of Springfield from The Simpsons has been entirely built out of LEGO bricks, and we have the photos to prove it. The build was done by LEGO artist Matt De Lanoy, and the details he included to the set are spectacular. You've got Town Hall, the Power Plant, the Blocko store, Moe's, the Church, Krusty Burger, the Kwik-E-Mart, and more. To see more images, head on over to the Flickr Gallery. I've also included a video below all the photos. Thanks to io9 for the tip!
Ant-Man has had an extremely long road to production. It's been the longest movie in development at Marvel. It started even before Iron Man was made. The film is finally going into production though, and that's exciting. Director Peyton Reed has less than a year to complete the film before it's released on July 17th, 2015.
Latino-Review got their hands on some information about the film that gives us an idea of what other Marvel characters might pop in for cameos. There are potential SPOILERS that lay ahead so if you don't want to know any of this… then why did you click through?
Here's what the site claims:
In earlier drafts of the script, Hank Pym in the first act prologue has a meeting at S.H.I.E.L.D. and meets up with Howard Stark, Peggy Carter, Armin Zola, and here is a cool one…a young Alexander Pierce.
Yes, it's from an earlier draft of the script, but it doesn't mean that these characters didn't make it into the shooting draft of the script. If it's important to the story and its connection to the rest of the of the cinematic universe, then it's probably still in there. It seems like these characters would play on an important part in the connection.
We've heard for awhile that the film opens with a Hank Pym prologue, so linking it to S.H.I.E.L.D. and these characters would make sense.
