Here's a really cool version of a giant steampunk Iron Man character design that was created by artist Seungjin Woo. I really like this design, it's one of the better ones that I've seen. There are a lot of great intricate little details, and I love where the pilot sits to control it. The size of the pilot gives you a sense at how big this thing actually is. To check out one of the other steampunk Iron Man designs we've posted, click here. 

Disney has released two new featurettes for their upcoming feature film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Into the Woods. The first video focuses on Meryl Streep, who plays The Witch in the movie and includes a clip in which you get to hear her sing the song, “Stay With Me.” The second clip focuses on the adaptation of the musical for the big screen. The videos include interviews with Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the musical, and Chris Pine, Anna Kendrick, Streep, and more as they discuss the movie.

For some reason the trailers that have been released for the movie don’t really highlight the music from the film, which is interesting because this is a musical. So it's nice to see them talk about the music in these featurettes and hear a little number performed by Streep.

Via: Playbill

Hot Toys has released a ton of photos of for Captain America: The Winter Soldier featuring Steve Rogers in and out of his Captain America outfit. I loved the design of this costume in this movie. I even like it better than the one he's wearing in Age of Ultron. It's just a really clean and slick design. Of course, he'll never wear it again, but it was great while it lasted. At least it will live on in all its Hot Toys 1/6th scale action figure glory!

Even though Christian Bale said he was done playing the Dark Knight after The Dark Knight Rises, it seems like there was still a little bit a part of him that wasn’t ready to completely give it up. In a recent interview with Empire Magazine the actor was asked how he felt when he first learned about Ben Affleck being cast as the new Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Apparently, he was just as shocked as the rest of us.

"I've got to admit initially, even though I felt that it was the right time to stop, there was always a bit of me going, 'Oh go on... Let's do another.' So when I heard there was someone else doing it, there was a moment where I just stopped and stared into nothing for half an hour.

"But I'm 40. The fact that I'm jealous of someone else playing Batman...I think I should have gotten over it by now. I haven't spoken with Ben, but I emailed him offering bits of advice that I learned the hard way. I would imagine he is doing everything he can to avoid anything that I did."

There’s no word on whether Warner Bros. offered him the opportunity to reprise his role, but probably not as they were looking to reboot Batman and start from scratch… again. I loved what Bale did as Batman, and I think that Affleck is going to give fans something completely new and different that they’re going to love.

Via: CBM

"Doubles" is a captivating short film that tells a very interesting story of our universe colliding and merging with an alternate universe. Over time a duplicate version of every person and inanimate object on earth start to appear. During this complete madness, a hopeless romantic finds himself in a position to win the heart of his dream girl's double. 

The movie was written and directed by Jacob Motz, and it’s a great concept that he brilliantly brought to life. The short has some witty dialogue with some very amusing moments that I’m sure a lot of you will enjoy. On top of that, the performances are great.  I’m sure some of you will recognize Brea Grant from the TV show Heroes.

How about we take a break from all the news about Star Wars: The Force Awakens to talk about one of the Star Wars spin-off moves that is currently in development. /Film came across some information regarding the plot of the Star Wars standalone film that is being directed by Gareth Edwards and written by Gary Whitta. If you don't want to know anything about this, then I suggest you steer clear of the rest of this article.

Apparently, the 2016 Star Wars movie is going to tell a story about a group of people who will pull off the "ultimate heist in a galaxy far, far away." I'm a huge fan of heist movies, so a heist movie set in the Star Wars universe sounds awesome! Now, what does the heist entail? According to the report, the group is going to steal "one of the most important linchpins in Star Wars history — they are out to steal the plans for the first Death Star."

Whoa! The story is actually going to be set at the same time as A New Hope, but it will not be the Rebel Alliance trying to pull off the job. Instead, the story will center a group of ruthless bounty hunters who are hired by the Alliance for the job. "Think the Seven Samurai or Suicide Squad meets Ocean’s Eleven in the world of Star Wars."

I can already envision what this movie will look like, and I'm really freakin' excited! The site says to consider the news a rumor since Lucasfilm hasn't confirmed it, but they seem confident in their source. 

The Death Star plans played a pivotal role in A New Hope, and they were used to pinpoint the weak spot that needed to be hit to destroy it. Here's a little information about the plans from Star Wars Wiki. 

As the construction of the Death Star drew closer to completion, Mon Mothma and Bail Organa knew that Rebels needed to obtain a complete technical readout of the Death Star. If their engineers could pinpoint a weakness in the battlestation, then the Rebels might be able to destroy it. The Alliance set into motion the biggest anti-Imperial offensive it had ever attempted: a complex, coordinated operation to compile a complete set of plans for the Death Star and transmit it to the Tantive IV. Various missions were undertaken by the Rebel Alliance with this purpose, but while some of them succeeded, others simply confirmed the Death Star's existence, name and purpose, which were in fact already known to the Leader of the Alliance.

One of these missions could have easily involved a group of bounty hunters. There's no information on which bounty hunters will be included in the movie, but Boba Fett could easily be a part of the team if they wanted to include him. The thing about Bounty Hunters is they aren't loyal to any side, good or bad. They just go to where the money is at. 

It's also revealed that the Millennium Falcon is involved somehow, but that Han Solo is not. That doesn't really make sense, Solo should definitely have his ship during this time, unless the bounty hunters steal it. But maybe there is some misinformation here. Solo did play apart in retrieving the Death Star plans in the extended Universe. Here's how he was involved:

For the raid on Vergesso facilities Captain Raymus Antilles secured the assistance of Han Solo's smuggling skills. Solo, originally extremely reluctant to involve himself in Rebel affairs, was forced to comply after Antilles made assisting him the condition for rescuing him from Imperial custody over the surface of Corellia.

Solo undertook a mission to infiltrate the Imperial shipping facilities in the Vergesso Asteroids, planting a tracking device and EMP emitter in a cargo container bound for an Imperial research station in Corulag. The EMP successfully disabled the station's defenses long enough for Rebel search teams to raid the station. The data they acquired "confirmed" the existence of the Death Star I and gave the Rebels an idea of the scale of its destructive capabilities, but failed to provide any technical information with which a weakness could be identified. Even Gial Ackbar, Tarkin's personal slave rescued during the raid, knew little about the plot.

Using funds stolen from the raid on Ylesia and other sources, the Rebellion planted and aided spies on the world of Ralltiir. One of their number, Basso, also "confirmed" the existence of a massive Imperial construction, code-named Death Star. This was later identified as a massive superlaser-wielding battlestation by the Empire's Lord Tion. Shortly before his death, Tion revealed that a convoy containing the Death Star plans was en route to Toprawa from Tarkin's headquarters on Eriadu.

You can read more about the Rebels attempts to acquire the Death Star plans here. Even though Lucasfilm said that the expanded universe would not be used in any of their films, the filmmakers are obviously being inspired by them.

The report also says that the main character in this spinoff movie would be introduced in The Force Awakens. Of course, he would be a much older version of the character. The site goes on to speculate that Max Von Sydow‘s character could be this character. "There’s a rumor he plays a character who introduces Daisy Ridley to Han Solo, which would be a link. He may even be a retired bounty hunter named Montross, which could place him in this story."  That's all just speculation and rumor, though. 

The idea of a Star Wars bounty hunter heist movie is awesome, and I hope this is all true because now I really want to see this movie get made! 

We've got another sci-fi version of Batman for your viewing enjoyment! This one comes in the form of a piece of concept art created by Robin Chyo. It features Batman in a crazy but cool looking space suit type outfit, his insane looking Batmobile, and the Joker in the background, who is probably making some kind of snide remark. I really like Batman's slick suit design. It looks like something he would wear in the Star Wars universe, if he were a Jedi. Someone give Batman his green lightsaber! 

Not only does Andy Serkis have a human character part in Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron, but he also played a behind-the-scenes role in helping bring the Hulk and Ultron to life with the help of motion-capture. In a recent interview with Empire Magazine (via: CBM), the actor discussed both of these characters and how they will be portrayed in the movie. He started out with Ultron, saying,

"We did some work on Ultron. On the development of Ultron before James Spader came on board. In terms of movement styles: was he gonna be human-like? was he gonna be robot-like? So we worked with a bunch of different people, from body-popping experts to dancers, to this guy called Neil who's nearly eight feet tall..." 

He then went on to talk about Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk:

"We gave Mark weights, we had voice projections so he could do his Hulk roar. On screen we could have a virtual representation of the low-res avatar of The Hulk, so he could come out and feel that sense of scale."

So far, from what I've seen from these characters in the trailers, they look freakin' great! I think it's pretty rad that Serkis has been able to turn his motion capture character work into a lucrative career. When talking about working with Ruffalo and Spader on the art of motion capture acting, he said:

"It's a journey I end up going on with the actors. To find out what they want to get out of it, and and [sic] what we can do to help them so it's still them authoring the role. Initially when you're asking them to put a grey suit on, they're not very into the idea. But it's usually within the first hour, when they can see the result of them being in that suit [on screen] in real-time, they settle in. And then they've lost themselves in our world. James in particular - he loved every minute of it."

It seems like it would be so much fun being a part of a movie like this. These actors are lucky to be a part of something so cool! Then the money they make from it isn't that bad either. Serkis is a talented guy, and I would love to see him get nominated for his role as Caesar in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. He at least deserves the nomination. 

Artist and animator Stephen Byrne is currently working on a new fan-made animated project called The Animated Adventures of Firefly. He released a brief two second emotional clip from this upcoming short that features the characters Zoe and Wash reuniting. It’s really quite wonderful, and you can see all of the hard work that went into creating this 2-second gif clip that you see above and in a behind-the-scenes video below. 

We’ve posted a lot of Byrne’s art over the past year, and a couple of other fan-made animated shorts that he’s created. You can watch his Buffy the Vampire Slayer video here, and his Doctor Who video here.

Firefly was such an amazing show, and thanks to fans like Byrne, the classic series will live on and fans like us can enjoy things like this that brighten our days. I can't wait to see what the finished product looks like! 

Via: Nerd Approved

Another Peter Pan movie? Yes, it's titled Pan and comes from director Joe Wright, who has done some great films like Hanna, Pride & Prejudice, and Atonement. It stars Levi Miller as Peter Pan and Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard.

What about Captain Hook? Apparently in this movie he isn't yet a captain and does not have a hook for a hand. Garrett Hedlund will play the now oddly named Hook who is said to have an Indiana Jones-type swagger about him.

When does this take place? It's prequel telling of the well known story of Peter Pan and Wendy.

When does the movie come out? July 17th, 2015 (USA).

Source: EW

UPDATE:

StarWars.Com has released a list of all 30 theaters across the United States and Canada that will be showing the teaser trailer. This will be a big blow to our international readers. But I'm pretty sure the trailer will be released/leaked online shortly after.

Just a few hours ago, we post that a teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens would be coming to select Regal Theaters. Director J.J. Abrams, on the Bad Robot Twitter account, posted a photo confirming the teaser trailer event this Friday and also confirming its nearly minute and a half length. Shortly after that tweet, AMC Theaters announced and Cinemark Theatres announced that they would also be getting the Star Wars teaser trailer. 

There is no officially available list online at the moment, but I'm sure we'll have them by the end of the day. We'll update the post when that happens.

It's been rumored that the trailer would premiere in 100 theaters in the United States alone. Also leaked is a description of what is in the teaser trailer.

Disney likes to stage big events like this, and with Lucasfilm under its wing, we are now going to see a lot more events like this in the future.

Oscar Isaac, so hot right now. Oscar Isaac. He may have been snubbed by the Academy, not receiving an Oscar nod for his brilliant performance in Inside Llewyn Davis, but that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Not only will Isaac be seen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Deadline is reporting that the actor has officially signed on to star in yet another gigantic geek property. Isaac will take on the villainous role of the ancient mutant Apocalypse in X-Men: Apocalypse. The Dark Knight Rises’ Tom Hardy was previously rumored to be up for the role. This news comes on the heels of reports last week that Fox is narrowing down their choices for actors to play younger versions of Jean Grey and Cyclops in the upcoming 1980s set sequel to X-Men: Days of Future Past, which will continue to follow the X-Men: First Class cast.

In the comics, Apocalypse is 7 feet tall and can grow to much greater heights, so I would imagine that Isaac will at least be wearing heavy prosthetics, or that the role could possibly even be a purely motion capture performance — much like what Josh Brolin has done to inhabit the role of Thanos in the MCU. Although, the younger actor who played Apocalypse in the post credits scene at the end of Days of Future Past only wore a bit of makeup. So it just depends on how closely they want to adhere to the look of the character from the comics, which has never been a major priority for Fox in their interpretations of these Marvel characters.

Director Bryan Singer is back to helm X-Men: Apocalypse, which will start filming in April of 2015 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with a planned May 27th, 2016 release. The film will involve ancient mutants and further explore the relationship between Magneto and Mystique. Isaac will be joining the First Class cast (James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult), along with Days of Future Past scene stealer Quicksilver (Evan Peters), who is confirmed to be returning for at least one scene. 

As for what Isaac’s role will be in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, we’ve only seen rumors so far, but we’ll likely get some bigger clues when the teaser for that movie is released this Friday. You can read a possible description of what will be included in the trailer, here.

Stjepan Sejic strikes again, this time with Superman showing Batman the Fortress of Solitude. The comic makes a connection I hadn't thought of before.

H/T: Geek X Girls

A couple weeks ago it was reported that Christoph Waltz was going to play the villain in Sam Mendes' Bond 24. It wasn't announced who exactly he would play, but today we have word that he will take on the role of none other than James Bond nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld!

Rumors of the character were sparked last year after MGM settled a lawsuit with writer Kevin McClory regarding the rights to the Blofeld character and the infamous SPECTRE organization. Now it looks there was a reason they made the settlement. When Bond 24 writer, John Logan, was asked about the character in a previous interview all he said was:

"You know, I think our villain's appropriate to the story we're telling."

Blofeld has been a part of six of the previous James Bond films that have been made. Sometimes his face is shown, other times we just hear his voice. He's an iconic villain in the series who made his last appearance in 1981's For Your Eyes Only. It makes sense that he would eventually show up in the latest iteration of the franchise. Waltz is going to be amazing in the role! I'm so excited to hear that this is the villain that he'll be playing. 

Production is expected to begin on the sequel next month, and it will be released on November 6th, 2015. Waltz joins Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, and Dave Bautista. 

Source: The Daily Mail

Art by JPRart

Last week we learned that Michelle MacLaren was in talks to direct Wonder Woman for Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment. Today it has been made official! The deal is done, and I think she's a great choice! If you're not familiar with MacLaren's work, she has worked on high profile shows such as Breaking Bad, The X-Files, The Walking Dead, and Game of Thrones. 

Gal Gadot will reprise her role as Wonder Woman, who will first be introduced in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. There are no confirmed details on what the first Wonder Woman movie will be about, but there have been rumors that it will be set in the 1920s and be the first in a trilogy of standalone films. The report does say that the director's "deal culminates an on-and-off again dance with the Amazonian princess." So she will indeed be back to direct multiple films. 

Charles Roven, Zack Snyder, and Deborah Snyder will be producing the long awaited movie, which is set to be released in 2017. The last director attached to a Wonder Woman movie was Joss Whedon way back in 2007. I can't help but imagine that Warner Bros. is still kicking themselves in the ass for letting that talented guy get away from them. 

We've got a really long way to go before we see Wonder Woman in her first solo movie, but I hope it will be worth the wait.

Source: THR

If the Jurassic World teaser released over the weekend didn’t whip up enough excitement or nostalgia for you with its haunting, single-hand piano rendition of John Williams’ classic theme, then this mashup surely will. Jurassic Park and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls were released only a couple of years apart in the mid ‘90s, so the similar lighting and video quality make this mashup by What’s The Mashup all too seamless. Relive the shock and awe of both of these scenes now! I've also embedded the original scenes below the video.

Original Scenes:

Thanks to io9!

It sounds like Sylvester Stallone is entertaining the idea of making a fourth Expendables movie even though Part 3 was supposed to be the last one. The Expendables 3 completely bombed at the box office, and fans were not happy about it having a PG-13 rating. While promoting the upcoming Blu-ray release, Stallone told Crave Online that any future Expendables will be R-rated, and admitted that they made a mistake giving the third one a PG-13 rating.

"Absolutely unequivocally yes. I believe it was a horrible miscalculation on everyone’s part in trying to reach a wider audience, but in doing such, diminish the violence that the audience expects. I’m quite certain it won’t happen again."

The Expendables 4 hasn't gone into development or anything yet, but Stallone has some ideas rolling around in his head.

"I have actually entertained the idea of putting the group into such an unnatural environment that it, in an of itself, creates extra suspense and tension: the 'fish out of water' scenario. That environment might not be time travel, but nearly just as jarring."

I want to see the Expendables team go into space! Imagine Interstellar, but with the whole Expendables team going on some kind of crazy intergalactic mission. That's a perfect "fish out of water" scenario. We can even take it to a more absurd level by having them fight Jason from Jason X while trying to accomplish their mission. 

My two favorite characters in the last movie were Mel Gibson and Antonio Banderas, who offered some fantastic comic relief. When talking about Banderas' character, Stallone said,

“His true personality is naturally dynamic so all I did was say 'be yourself and pretend you’re a mercenary,' and the rest including the dialog was all his.”

I like the Expendables franchise, so as long as they make these movies I'll still watch them. I just love seeing all these big action stars team up with each other to kick some ass! Who knows if it will happen, though, since the last movie didn't do too well at the box office. 

The Winter Soldier and Captain America are the greatest star-crossed romance in serialized film today. Seriously, the sturm und drang of their relationship is basically what 50 Shades of Grey would be if it were about super soldiers who were frozen and then reanimated decades later. (Note: I have not read 50 Shades of Grey, so I don’t actually know if the preceding statement was accurate. But it feels true.) This morning we showed you pictures of the Hot Toys 1/6th Scale Steve Rogers from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but I actually got my hands on a Hot Toys 1/6th Scale figure of The Winter Soldier himself. By which I mean, Sideshow sent me a figure to review.

First things first, the clothes are amazing. We’ve talked a lot about how much we liked Cap’s stealth suit in the movie, but it was harder to see all the detail on the Winter Soldier’s all black outfit. You can see all the detail on the figure, and it is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen a villain wear. If I met a real life guy in this outfit, I would definitely go out with him, even if he were an intermittently deployed, mind controlled, cryogenically frozen 90 year old super assassin. As always on a Hot Toys figure, the craftsmanship of the miniature outfit is impeccable. 

Also impeccable is the Winter Soldier’s flowing mane. As someone who grew up with the terrible molded plastic hair on Ken dolls, the incredible molded plastic hair on this figure is basically miraculous. The face is not quite a perfect likeness of Sebastian Stan (I think it's the cheeks), which might upset you if you have a “Carter Baizen Forever” tattoo on your heart, but it is still a perfectly intimidating iteration of an assassin who would kill you as soon as look at you.

The figure comes with an assortment of weapons, including knives, bayonet, handguns, machine guns, and the gun (rocket launcher?) he used to shoot that bomb under Nick Fury’s car. There are directions for where everything goes, but it is pretty easy to figure it out yourself, and much more fun. The figure also comes with an alternate head (one is masked, one is not), as well as three alternate right hands, and three alternate left hands, which is cool, but it requires a lot of force to take them off and put them on. It isn’t super easy to play around with. Also, some of the guns fall out of their holsters pretty easily, so if you actually want to play with this figure (which, let’s be real, most collectors probably don’t), that will be an issue. It isn’t a problem when the figure is just standing still on his display mount.

The instructions give precise angles to use when you remove or move the head and the metal bionic arm to avoid fading the paint, which is considerate, but unfortunately, my mechanical arm doesn’t move at the elbow at all. Each piece is individually cast and assembled by hand, so it is likely that it is an error that won’t be replicated on yours, but I’m reviewing the one they sent me. However, I have not contacted customer service about the problem, and I know that they are very helpful in cases of small problems like this.

The Hot Toys 1/6 Scale Figure Winter Soldier will run you $239.99 and is available now. Click here to see more pictures and details. It’s a great addition to any collector’s shelf, and I’m seriously considering giving myself the gift of a Captain America to go alongside it.

I've yet to make the leap into the new consoles, but Batman: Arkham Knight is a major incentive for me to make the jump. It's been five months since we last saw anything from the game, which is why I'm particularly excited for this new gameplay trailer. The video shows Batman infiltrating Ace Chemicals, gives a bit of the plot, and shows off come amazing graphics. There are some pretty cool Batmobile sequences, but they are very brief, which leads me to believe that those parts of the game mechanics are still in flux.

Unless it's delayed, Batman: Arkham Knight is coming out June 2nd, 2015 (USA) on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

To help promote the Blu-ray release of X-Men: Days of Future Past, 20th Century Fox and Kia have teamed up to create this car inspired by Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. Using Kia’s 2016 Sorento as a base, the car is detailed with Wolverine’s signature claws in the front and rear of the vehicle, as well as claw marks on the doors and other X-Men nods throughout. Kia will showcase the Kia Sorento Wolverine at the 2015 Australian Open. 

Below are more pictures of the car, but there aren’t any images of the interior or any other special specs. So I'm just guessing here, but I imagine the seats are made of chest hair and that the car runs off sweat produced by night terrors — you get more mileage from sweat if it was made while the person woke up screaming, “Jeeeeeeeeeeaaaaan!” As cool as this looks, I would have preferred a Mystique-themed vehicle that was able to morph into a better looking car than the Kia Sorento.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is available from Amazon in regular and Collectors editions.

Source: Motorward (via: ComicBook.com)