Michael Keaton's latest film, Birdman, draws inspiration from the actor's Batman career, only in this film his character, Riggan Thomson, is a washed up actor from a superhero film franchise called Birdman. He is trying to crawl his way back to the top with an edgy theater play that he is putting on. To help promote the movie Fox Searchlight Pictures released an awesome 1990s style trailer for Birdman Returns, which stars the fictional Thomson character. Here's the caption that came along with the trailer:

In 1992, Riggan Thomson makes box office history in BIRDMAN RETURNS. It will be another 4 years before Riggan famously pulls out of BIRDMAN 4 and disappears off the face of the planet until reviving his career on Broadway!

This is a really fun trailer, and if you haven't seen Birdman yet, you really need to check it out. It's one of the best films of the year. 

The full cast for Quentin Tarantino's highly anticipated post-Civil War western The Hateful Eight has been officially announced by The Weinstein Company. They also included the names of the characters they will be playing and the synopsis.

The cast includes Samuel L. Jackson (Django Unchained) as Major Marquis Warren, Kurt Russell (Escape From New York) as John “The Hangman” Ruth, Jennifer Jason Leigh (Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle) as Daisy Domergue, Walton Goggins (Justified) as Chris Mannix, Demian Bichir (A Better Life) as Bob, Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs) as Oswaldo Mobray, Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs) as Joe Gage, and Bruce Dern (Nebraska) as General Sanford Smithers. Channing Tatum (Foxcatcher) has also signed on for a role in the film, but it wasn't specified.

In The Hateful Eight, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new Sheriff. Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie's Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces. Bob (Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all…

The film will be presented in 70mm glory, and Bob and Harvey Weinstein released the following statement: 

“Any actor who jumps on board with one of Quentin’s films is in for a wild and rewarding ride. We couldn’t be any more thrilled with the fantastic group of performers we’ve assembled for 'The Hateful Eight' – some perennial fixtures in his movies and some newcomers – and can’t wait to kick off the shoot in Telluride.”

The movie will ride into theaters sometime in 2015. 

Comic artist Lee Bermejo created the covers of a six series comic book run for DC called Secret Origins, and these are what he came up with. Each one highlights the origins of characters such as Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and Cyborg. This is some incredible work, and I hope you enjoy it. 

Pixar has announced that Toy Story 4 is a go and that John Lasseter will be back to direct the CG animated sequel. Lasseter co-created Toy Story and directed the first two films and has served as the chief creative officer of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios for the past 8 years.

I think we all knew that we would see a Toy Story 4 happen. The studio has been keeping the franchise fresh and alive with the television specials that they've been releasing. I truly love how they ended Toy Story 3, and I didn't really need to see another film after that. But Pixar must have cracked a great story that they are passionate about telling. There are no story details at this time, but I'm sure that all the usual suspects will return, along with a few new characters. The movie will be released sometime in 2017, and I'm sure Toy Story fans will be thrilled.

Press release from Disney•Pixar:

Nearly two decades after Pixar Animation Studios created the world’s first computer-animated feature film with “Toy Story,” it revealed plans for Disney•Pixar’s “Toy Story 4,” an adventure that returns audiences to the world of the studio’s signature characters.

John Lasseter, director of the original “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2,” will direct the film, which opens a new chapter in the lives of Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the “Toy Story” gang. The story was dreamt up by Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter and Lee Unkrich, the storytellers who have been the driving force behind all three “Toy Story” films.

“We love these characters so much; they are like family to us,” said Lasseter. “We don’t want to do anything with them unless it lives up to or surpasses what’s gone before. ‘Toy Story 3’ ended Woody and Buzz’s story with Andy so perfectly that for a long time, we never even talked about doing another ‘Toy Story’ movie. But when Andrew, Pete, Lee and I came up with this new idea, I just could not stop thinking about it. It was so exciting to me, I knew we had to make this movie—and I wanted to direct it myself.”

Writing team Rashida Jones and Will McCormack (“Celeste and Jesse Forever”) joined the project, and Pixar veteran Galyn Susman (ABC’s “Toy Story OF TERROR!” and “Toy Story that Time Forgot”) is producing.

Director John Lasseter works with members of his story team on Disney•Pixar's "Toy Story 4," a new chapter in the lives of Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the "Toy Story" gang. 

Normally spots and sci-fi geekery don't really mix. But during the half-time show of the Ohio State and Illinois game, the Ohio State marching band preformed several sci-fi movie themes. The theme for the band was, "They Came from Outer Space," and the performance included renditions of music from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek, Apollo 13, and more. It turned out pretty cool. I especially liked how they formed iconic images from those films while marching on the field. 

FOX has released the opening couch gag and clip for this weekend's Simpsons and Futurama crossover episode called "Simpsorama," which will send the Simpsons to the 31st century. The episode follows a "Terminator-esque story that involves Bart blowing his nose on a sandwich that he places in a time capsule. When that mixes with Milhouse’s rabbit’s foot and some radioactive ooze, it creates a global catastrophe in the future, prompting Bender to travel back in time to kill Bart and prevent this mega-mess." The episode also has a great tagline that reads, "A show out of ideas teams up with a show out of episodes." 

This is going to be quite the epic event for fans of both series. It will definitely be good to see the return of the characters from Futurama. The episode will also reunite the Futurama voice cast of Billy West, John DiMaggio, Katey Sagal, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr, Tress MacNeille, and Maurice LaMarche. 

The episode is set to premiere on November 9th, and the couch gag they came up with for it is quite humorous.  

Photo: Ngoisao

I’ll admit that I enjoy the occasional trip to Benihana. But I don’t go because the food is amazing. It’s not. And I’m only mildly amused by the showiness of the food preparation. I go because of the slight chance that while performing those random flourishes the chef is going to make a mistake and hurt himself. Provided that a knife isn’t thrown at your face, only the chef and your order of hibachi shrimp are in danger of being harmed. That is not the case if you choose to get your hair cut by this guy wielding Samurai swords.

Meet Nguyen Hoang Hung, a Vietnamese hairdresser who was once a contestant on a game show where he was challenged to cut hair without scissors. On the show he used a handsaw, and he enjoyed the experience so much that it led him to experiment with a more sophisticated and equally unconventional tool for cutting hair. Hung spent four years practicing cutting hair with a traditional razor-sharp Samurai sword called a Wakizashi, which translates to “side inserted sword.” While this all started off as something he would do only during performances and exhibitions, more and more of his clients are asking for this specialty cut.

I certainly appreciate Hung’s innovative approach and the time he spent learning his craft. I am also aware of the more natural layering effects the sword — and other similar tools like razorblades — create. I just don’t need a giant blade waved around my face to get my hair cut. Just like I don’t need the chef at Benihana banging on the grill with a spatula for 3 minutes to turn over one piece of chicken. So if I ever make a trip to Vietnam, it’s gonna involve me spending lots of time eating pho and getting zero haircuts.

Source: Oddity Central via Neatorama

I just happened to be watching the Six Million Dollar Man yesterday and was thinking, "When are they going to remake this?" The answer is now. The adjusted for inflation Six Billion Dollar Man just got Mark Wahlberg as its title character with Peter Berg directing. This seems like a good pairing of talent to material. Seeing a bionic Wahlberg could be a lot of fun.

The last film Wahlberg and Berg did together was Lone Survivor, which did well with critics and audiences. If you haven't seen the Peter Berg-directed commercial for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare I've attached it for you to watch.

Source: Deadline

Stepping on a rogue LEGO brick hurts enough, so wearing a mask made of those jagged little blocks certainly wasn’t on my to-do list. But I’d be lying if I said that I wouldn’t want to own this LEGO version of the mask worn by Guardians of Galaxy’s Peter Quill, a.k.a. “The Legendary” Star-Lord. The mask was built by Orion Pax, who offered some details on its construction, saying,

STAR LORD, the main character from Guardians of the Galaxy, like every famous rapper, for sure is wearing a nice looking mask. This is built with the red light brick, so the eyes light up. The printed pattern reflects nice in the dark on any surface. The scale is close to 1:1!

Okay, so maybe this does look cool enough for me to want to wear. But if Orion Pax somehow manages to make a lego version of Star-Lord’s jacket, that’s where I’ll be drawing the line. Try sticking your arms in and out of a jacket made of LEGO and not come out looking like you’ve been attempting suicide all day.

You can see more hi-res detail images here. Thanks to Fashionably Geek!

“Now I see the funny side. Now I'm always smiling!”

Well, apparently, not always. Artist Luke Flowers has Batman turning the tables on The Joker in this piece called “Why So Serious?” Both characters have had their fair share of humorous one-liners, but it’s always nice to see The Dark Knight turning The Joker’s smile upside down. 

Flowers loves giving a little twist to iconic characters. Earlier this year we posted his wonderful series of Pixar mashup posters that you can check out here. You can see even more of Flowers’ work on his site. Hat tip to Xombiedirge.

The first powerful trailer for director Ava DuVernay’s Martin Luther King, Jr. drama Selma has been released. The movie tells the story of King’s battle to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It has an incredible cast that includes David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson, Cuba Gooding Jr., Alessandro Nivola, Giovanni Ribisi, Common, and Lorraine Toussaint, with Tim Roth and Oprah Winfrey. Here's the synopsis: 

Selma is the story of a movement. The film chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition.  The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement.  Director Ava DuVernay’s Selma tells the story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change that forever altered history.

The movie is set to be released in select theaters on December 25th and will get a wide release on January 9th, 2015.

Artist Neeraj Menon created this fantastically dark and gritty piece of of Spawn art. Spawn has been one of my favorite comic book characters since he was first introduced in the 90s. He is just such a badass character, and it’s always fun to come across cool fan art like this that shows a different vision of this legendary hellish antihero.

A nearly four-minute teaser trailer for Iron Sky: The Coming Race has been unleashed, and it looks just as awesomely crazy as you would expect it to. I mean, for crying’ out loud, it features a scene of Adolf Hitler riding a freakin’ T-Rex! If you watched the first Iron Sky movie, then you should have an idea of the kind of outlandish ideas that you’d expect from this team of filmmakers. The trailer came with the poster below, and the following brief story description:

Twenty years after WWIII the survivors fight against Adolf Hitler & his army of dinosaurs.

It's Iron Sky meets Jurassic Park goes Indiana Jones.

The producers of the film have started a crowdfunding campaign, and they are looking to raise $10 million over the next 18 months so that they can bankroll the picture. I enjoyed the first Iron Sky movie, and this sequel looks so ridiculously insane that I hope they find the funding to get it made.

We've got an awesome video for you to watch today that comes from YouTuber ChiefBrodyRules. It features a trailer for Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier that has been recut to look and feel like a 1980s B-action movie that you would see on VHS. It is hilarious. I especially enjoy the intercutting of actual movies from the 1980s. Here's an explanation and description for the trailer:

This is a fan made trailer mashup. It is not suppose to be real, nor is it true to the comics or films. This is strictly made for fun parody of 70s/80s action movies featuring my favorite Avenger. I hope you enjoy this video.

PLOT: The year is 2007. Crime is at an all time high and the law has a plan to wipe it out! CAPTAIN AMERICA (Chris Evans), a Vietnam vet who was given super strength by a military scientist, Abraham Erskine (Cillian Murphy) is now America’s new crime fighter. When he refuses to kill an innocent Senator he is back stabbed by the very people who made him! He’s out for revenge. If you’re going to make enemies, you better make sure it’s not America!

You're going to love this...

Some new details have surfaced regarding that Attack on Titan and Marvel Comics crossover that was announced by Marvel Comics talent scout C.B. Cebulski a couple of days ago. A piece of concept art showed Spider-Man swinging away from a couple of Titans chasing after him. It looks like Spider-Man won't be the only one involved, though. The upcoming comic will also feature the Avengers team!

According to Japanese pop culture magazine Brutus, issue #790 will include a "what if" comic that will feature the Avengers battling a giant female Titan in the streets of New York City. Could we see Tony Stark develop some kind of giant Titan fighting armor for this battle? Because that would be badass! 

Unfortunately, as of right now, there are no plans to release the comic crossover in the US. It's a Japanese exclusive, but I wouldn't worry. I'm sure it will find its way onto the internet. We won't even have to wait that long for it either, as the comic is set to be released in Japan later this month on November 15th.

Here's an idea... Phase 4 of Marvel's Cinamatic Universe should end with Avengers: Attack on Titan! Season 2 of the anime is currently in development, and there's a live-action movie currently in production, which will be incredibly interesting to see. 

Via: Nerdist and the fan-made image at the top was found on Nerdbastards.

This fantastically feel-good LEGO build of Calvin and Hobbes is a co-creation of Evan and Simon from the brothers brick. It pays wonderful homage to the beloved comic strip by Bill Watterson. I grew up reading the adventures of these characters, and I still enjoy looking back on the comics from time to time, especially when I need a little pick-me-up! See, I don't need drugs, I just need Calvin and Hobbes. 

Harvey Dent is set to make his first appearance on Fox’s Gotham later this month, but he has a long way to go before he actually transformed into the villain Two-Face. Thanks to EW we don't have to wait to see what the character will look like in the series, and guess what? He looks just like actor Nicholas D’Agosto wearing a suit that you might find at your local Express for Men. They also offer up the following description of the character:

"Bright, charming and idealistic, Harvey Dent’s sole mission is to eradicate the crime and corruption that has poisoned Gotham. He is described as appealing, energetic and full of light and life, even while taking on the worst Gotham has to offer. Though he one day serves as the white knight Gotham desperately needs, Harvey also shows glimpses of who he will become: Two-Face."

The episode he appears in is set to air on November 17th. It was also recently announced that Scarecrow will eventually be introduced in the series as well.

This amazingly cool, murky action short called "The Harrowing" is actually an ad created by Elastic for Riot Games' League of Legends. The characters in the short are created in the style of marionette puppets, and it's so cool watching them fight and wander around in this dark and haunting environment. The animation in this gloomy tale is absolutely beautiful, and I really hope you like it. 

It great to know that director James Gunn will be coming back to direct Guardians of the Galaxy 2 for Marvel. He was the perfect director to bring these characters to the big screen, and it sounds like he might already have plans for them beyond the sequel! In a interview with The Playlist at the Tokyo International Film Festival, the director discussed his plans for the sequel, and what might happen after that. When asked about Guardians of the Galaxy 2 he said,

"We open up on a Mission: Impossible scenario where all the characters die…No, to be honest, I had the basic story for number two while I was working on number one, and perhaps even beyond that. So it’s gonna answer a lot of questions that are proposed in the first one, and we’ll be able to get to know some of the characters we didn’t get to know in the first one a little bit more, and we might meet a few new characters too."

It seems like Gunn has already laid out a whole storyline for the Guardians of the Galaxy that would span across multiple films, which is great! The world could definitely use more Guardians of the Galaxy films. I know the fans would love it. Gunn went on to talk about making movies the Marvel way and explains that there is a fine balance,

"I very much knew that there were certain things about Guardians that needed to stay the Marvel way, but then figuring out a way around them to do my own thing was I think part of what made me have so much fun with the movie. So there’s always those things, whether they’re budgetary or otherwise. And even on Guardians, there was a lot of budgetary constraints."

Gunn is currently in the process of writing the script for the sequel, and I'm sure it's taking a lot of his time and energy. Asked whether attending the Tokyo International Film Festival has inspired him to return to his low-budget indie film roots, he said,

"I think if I were to do something in a lower budget, I’d probably do it in another medium. I would be more interested in doing something like that on television —something I haven’t done.....Definitely True Detective was a great example of one director, one story. It worked fantastically well. Well, I thought it worked fantastically well, I know a lot people didn’t. A lot of people didn’t like the last episode, I loved it. But I do have a lot of hardcore atheist friends who react badly whenever there’s even a hint of mysticism."

It sounds like he wants to stick with this big budget movie making for right now. I guess some people figure once your foot is in the door with a studio like Marvel, you might as well ride that wave of awesomeness for as long as they can. It would be cool to see Gunn do smaller indie film projects again, but I think he's in a place now where he'll be getting tons of offers to direct big budget feature films. As of right now, though, his focus is on Guardians of the Galaxy 2, and I can't wait to see what he has planned.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 will be released in theaters on May 5th, 2017.

When George Lucas started shooting Star Wars, no one knew exactly what Darth Vader was going to sound like. While shooting the film, the guy in the Darth Vader costume, David Prowse, was the guy delivering all of the the lines from the script, and it's pretty hilarious listening to him. There was nothing menacing or threatening about his west country English accent at all.

There are clips of the actor delivering his lines while shooting the film that were part of a Star Wars documentary that you may or may not have already seen. Either way, this video is still worth watching as a reminder of what the actors of this movie had to work with. 

It is kind of sad that Prowse didn't know his voice would be replaced at the time, but let's face it... it was for the greater good. 

Via: Gizmodo