Over the years we've seen a ton of great LEGO recreations of big action-packed movie trailers. But stop-motion animators Antonio and Andrea Toscano took LEGO to a disturbing place that I didn't see coming by spoofing Fifty Shades of Grey. They call the video "Fifty Shades of Bricks." This is the team that previously brought us the LEGO trailer Star Trek Into Darkness.

The funny yet awkward video recreates scenes from the trailer from Anatasia Steele first meeting Christian Grey to Grey bring her to his "play room." It even comes complete with Lego abs.

Yeah, for a second there I forgot this zombie movie Cell was happening too. That is, until I was reminded by this photo from it that we received. It took years for this movie to get into production, and today, Clarius Entertainment announced that they will be handling U.S. distribution for the film and releasing it later this year. Here’s a brief rundown of the story:

When a powerful signal is broadcast across mobile networks worldwide, cell phone users’ minds are instantly and dangerously re-programmed. Heading north through New England in search of his wife and son, Clay Riddell (John Cusack) is joined by a group of survivors hoping to fend off the bloodthirsty and hyper-connected “phoners.” 

When the project was first announced, Eli Roth was going to direct it. Luckily, that didn’t happen. When the movie seemed dead there was talk about turning it into a TV series, but that didn't go through. The version that we’ll eventually get to see comes from Paranormal Acivity 2 director Tod "Kip" Williams, and the script for the film was written by Stephen King himself, with some help from Adam Alleca (Last House of the Left).

The movie also stars Samuel L. Jackson, Stacy Keach, and Isabel Fuhrman. I loved the book that the movie is based on, and I’ve been looking forward to see what becomes of this movie. Hopefully they managed to make a solid adaptation. 

While we wait for Batman: Arkham Knight to be released, here’s an officially licensed jacket, which comes from Bay 57. It a limited edition jacket that is inspired by the highly anticipated Batman game, and Bay 57 is currently taking pre-orders.

The jacket comes in sizes from small to 2XL and the company has free worldwide shipping. It will cost you £69.99, which is approximately $106.00.

The video game Batman: Arkham Knight will be released on June 2nd, 2015. You could have the jacket just in time to wear while you play the game!

Via: Fashionably Geek

Since Arnold Schwarzenegger started acting again, the one project that I've been most excited about is Legend of Conan, which will serve as a sequel to Conan the Barbarian. The last thing we heard about the film was that it would start shooting sometime this year.

Empire caught up with producer Chris Morgan, and during their discussion he gave an update on where Legend of Conan currently stands. He started off by saying, "I'm super excited! And Arnold is super excited too. It's the perfect movie for him, because it plays into his own journey."

That's definitely a good sign, and the movie is obviously still moving forward! Morgan goes on to say that the latest draft of the script comes from Will Beall, who is the same guy that wrote Gangster Squad. A lot of people didn't like Gangster Squad, but I actually kind of enjoyed it for its campiness. 

"Andrea Berloff [Straight Outta Compton] did a draft, and then we had Will step on. I approached him early on in the process, but at the time he was unavailable and couldn’t do it. But then a couple of weeks after he passed on the project I got this package from him in the mail, and I opened it and it was a Conan sword, and on the envelope it said, ‘This you can trust!’ So when he called back a while later said he’d had a slot open up, we slammed him in immediately. He’s just perfect for it; he loves it as much as I do and he has a great voice of Conan. It just makes you happy!" 

Morgan is a screenwriter himself who has worked on all of the Fast and Furious films since Tokyo Drift. He has also been writing the upcoming Mummy reboot for Universal, so he has been too busy to write Legend Of Conan himself, but he's obviously involved with the process.

"Conan’s one of those things I’m always involved in shaping, talking, pushing. It’s a full-time, all-consuming job!"

The story will supposedly pick up right where the classic 1982 film left off with an older King Conan sitting on his throne, deep in thought, wearing the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon his brow. The movie will completely ignore Richard Fleischer's 1984 Conan The Destroyer and the 2011 reboot with Jason Momoa. That was definitely the right move. Talking about Conan author Robert E. Howard and the inspiration behind their movie, Morgan said,

"We look at all the source material and we love things that kind of speak to that tone. We’re incredibly respectful to Howard. I’m a huge fan of the stories and books, but I’m a super-huge fan of the first movie, because that crystallised and distilled it all for me. [John] Milius just killed it. He did such a good job. And Legend Of Conan is really resonant and it really digs into the legacy of that original film. I'm already very proud of it."

Morgan previously described his version of Conan in the following way:

"I want the warrior whose joints have started to fuse together, who has to crack the cartilage so he can pick up a sword again. I want the guy who’s not necessarily lost a step, but there’s some rust he has to shake off. I want to embrace that. It makes it a greater hero story.

"Conan needs to be faced with challenges. The greatest challenge to him isn’t the armies that are set before him. It’s, on some level, self-doubt, a little bit of slowing down and forcing yourself to be heroic beyond what people expect of you. What I don’t want is for him to step back in and look the same. That would defeat the purpose of our story. "

I can't freakin' wait to see this movie! If their vision for it is fully realized, it's going to be insane. It will be great to see Schwarzenegger in Terminator: Genisys, but I'm more excited for Conan, and if any movie fully reinvigorates his career, it's going to be Conan. When asked about when we will see Legend of Conan hit theaters, Morgan said,

 "Literally right now we're talking about when it can go ahead. We're figuring it out. I can't really say... but it's sooner than you might think!"

Awesome.

When Star Wars: A New Hope was released in 1977, no one knew how big of a hit it was going to be. No one knew that it would change the world and spawn generation after generation of fans. I can't even imagine a world without Star Wars. It seems like it wold be pretty dull, though. 

There were several bad reviews for the movie after it was first released, and I've read a few of them over the years because I was just curious. But none of the reviews I've seen have hilariously torn the movie apart as this one written by New York Magazine film reviewer John Simon, who called it "a set of giant baubles manipulated by an infant mind."

The full review can be read over on Google Books, and thanks to i09, we have a few of the best excepts from the review, which you can read below:

"I sincerely hope that science and scientists differ from science fiction and its practitioners. Heaven help us if they don't: We may be headed for a very boring world indeed. Strip Star Wars of its often striking images and its high-falutin scientific jargon, and you get a story, characters, and dialogue of overwhelming banality, without even a "future" cast to them. Human beings, anthropoids, or robots, you could probably find them all, more or less like, that, in downtown Los Angeles today...

"O dull new world! We are treated to a galactic civil war, assorted heroes and villains, a princely maiden in distress, a splendid old man surviving from an extinct order of knights who possessed a mysterious power called "the Force," and it is all as exciting as last year's weather reports.... Why, even the most exciting fight is an old-fashioned duel, for all that the swords have laser beams for blades....

"Here it is all trite characterization and paltry verbiage... The one exception is Alec Guinness as the grand old man Ben Kenobi (Ben for the Hebrew ben, to make him sound Biblical and good; Kenobi probably from cannibis, i.e., hashish, for reasons you can probably guess.)...

"Still, Star Wars will do very nicely for those lucky enough to be children or unlucky enough never to have grown up."

Damn! That's cold. But it's also a very amusing read. 

There are a lot of mysteries surrounding J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Many of them are revolves around the characters in the movie, and who some actors that have been cast are playing. Today we have some information on Luke Skywalker's son. 

There has been a lot of speculation regarding Domhnall Gleeson's (About Time, Ex Machina) character, and many people believed that he would be playing Skywalker's son in the film. According to a new report from Making Star Wars that's exactly who he is playing, and that bit of info was supposedly confirmed by four separate "trusted sources."

Now, before you read on, even though none of the following info has been officially confirmed, it may contain SPOILERS. So proceed at your own risk. 

The following information also comes from Making Star Wars, which is a site that has delivered a ton of news and information regarding The Force Awakens. 

There's an interesting twist revealed in which Skywalker's son is an Imperial, who is tasked with sending Chrome Stormtroopers after Jon Boyega's character, Finn. He even helps them hunt Finn down. Oh! Then there's the twist where he's actually a double agent playing both sides against each other in an effort to disarm the galaxy of its super weapons which “should not be allowed to exist according to his internal moral compass.”

The consequences of his actions are huge, and it will be the cause of a major conflict in the universe. The site explains:

"The implications of Gleeson’s actions are supposedly huge in the film. He began this mission before his father went missing. When he succeeds in ending the Intergalactic Cold War by stopping the weapons of galaxy wide destruction he doesn’t anticipate the immediate consequences. The cost? He opens up a new front and the war turns hot as there is nothing to keep the peace with mutually assured destruction no longer on the table. The real war then begins and the fight for the control of planets and territory begins, causing a conflict the storytellers hope will lead to countless Star Wars tales for years to come."

This is heavy, and I hope it's true. It's just such a great set up for some additional major developments in future films and stories. I didn't think that Luke's son would be playing such a pivotal role in the story, but it's good to hear that this could be the case.

Marvel Comics has announced a new all-female Avengers superhero team that will be known as A-Force, and it has an impressive roster of heroes. The team is led by She-Hulk, and other members include Dazzler, Medusa, Nico Minoru, Jean Grey, Vampira, Elektra, and a new "cosmically powered" hero named Singularity. 

A-Force is being co-written by G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel) and Marguerite Bennett (Angela), with art by Jorge Molina. Wilson had this to say about the comic in a statement:

“We've purposefully assembled a team composed of very different characters — from disparate parts of the Marvel U, with very different power sets, identities and ideologies. They'll all have to come together to answer some big questions: What would you sacrifice to succeed? What is being a hero worth?”

This is the first all-female Avengers team, but it's not the first comic to feature an all-female roster. Marvel's female fanbase has been bowing up, so it makes sense that the publisher would bring together a team of heroines to help save the world from evil doers.

Source: Mashable

It has been fifteen years since the last Blair Witch Project movie was made, and the co-director of the original film, Eduardo Sanchez, is still saying that a third film is going to happen. I liked the first movie, and it became a cultural phenomenon that brought in over $250 million. Unfortunately the sequel was a big turd. After that, I never thought we’d see another Blair Witch film, but there has been talk about it over the years, and today that talk continues. In an interview with Dread Central, Sanchez says:

“We have been talking to Lionsgate and there has been a little bit of movement but nothing is concrete. The film seems inevitable to me, but really it’s just a matter of it being the right time. I’m thinking it’s going to happen sooner than later at this point, but I always say that. There’s always rumblings and certain ideas being pushed around and such. While I don’t have anything firm to talk about now, it wouldn’t surprise me if something happened within the next year or two.”

I’d be interested to see what they would do with a third film. I think there’s still potential to tell a decent horror story. Back in 2009, Sanchez talked about a sequel and offered up some information of what they might do with it. Here’s what he said:

"Ideally, each Blair Witch film would be a completely different kind of movie. We've thought about doing a film that takes place in the late 1700s and looks like a [Stanley] Kubrick movie with gritty looking people and lighting.

"But now, we're thinking about going back and and seeing what happened directly after the first film finished. I think it will have some kind of video element in it, but it won't be a first person hand-held movie."

I really like the idea of the film taking place in the 1700s. That is the story I was hoping they would tell in the sequel. It’s definitely a more interesting setting. Who knows if this is what they are even thinking now, though? They might have a completely different idea for a third film at this point. Would any of you even be interesting in seeing a third Blair Witch movie after all these years?

Jimmy Fallon brought The Tonight Show to Los Angeles this week, so that means he's been getting a glut of celebrity guests (even more than usual). Will Smith stopped by, and the two of them used an iPad app called Loopy to beatbox and lay down some layered vocal tracks so they could rap over the top of them. Smith eventually leads the crowd in a call and response, and if you're in need of a little pick-me-up before the weekend, Fallon's goofiness is sure to put a smile on your face.

The upcoming new Thunderbird Are Go! series looks like it has potential to be something cool that fans will enjoy. Everything that's been released so far has looked really cool, but today we bring you one of the best things that I've seen yet. It's a video tour of the locations that will be used in the series, and the detail is stunning.

What makes these so awesome is the fact that they are practical physical miniature sets that were built by the talented wizards over at Weta Workshop. The sets include the Tracy brothers’ island base and several other locations. You can get your first look at the Tracy brothers in the series here.

The cast is led by Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) as Lady Penelope and David Graham (Thunderbirds 1965) is reprising his role as chauffeur and International Rescue agent Parker. Other characters include the unstoppable inventor Brains, who will be voiced by Kayvan Novak, while Tracy brothers Gordon and John are both played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Love Actually, Game of Thrones). Both the youngest and oldest Tracy brothers, Alan and Scott, will be voiced by Rasmus Hardiker, and the fifth brother, Virgil, will be played by David Menkin. Tracy Island matriarch Grandma Tracy is voiced by Sandra Dickinson, and master villain The Hood is played by Andres Williams. Some new characters will be introduced in the series, including Kayo, the Tracy brothers’’ friend and fellow island resident, who will be played by Angel Coulby, and Colonel Casey, voiced by Adjoa Andoh (Doctor Who). 

Saved by the Bell, Full House...what's in line when it comes to cast reunions? Well, how about Tom Hanks and his volleyball pal Wilson from Robert Zemeckis' 2000 film Cast Away? That's exactly what happened when Hanks attended a New York Rangers hockey game earlier this week. Take a look at the video below, and be sure to listen to the song blaring over the PA system - well chosen, Rangers sound guy. Well chosen.

ICYMI at the #NYR game last night Tom Hanks and Wilson were finally reunited! #BFF

A video posted by New York Rangers (@nyrangers) on Feb 5, 2015 at 10:05am PST

Via: Vanity Fair

It's a no-brainer that Lionsgate would want prequels or sequels to its massively successful Hunger Games franchise. With the Twilight series completed and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 set to bring Katniss's saga to a close, the studio will be fresh out of proven moneymakers. Industry analysts have seen the writing on the wall for years, especially after Divergent - The Hunger Games' heir apparent - didn't garner nearly the attention that the studio wanted. But making assumptions is a lot different than hearing the words come out of the studio's CEO's mouth, and that's exactly what happened this morning.

Deadline reports that CEO Jon Feltheimer told analysts this morning that he is “actively looking at some development and thinking about prequel and sequel possibilities” for The Hunger Games films. There's no confirmation that this will actually happen yet, but for the CEO to admit to "actively looking at some development" on it, that seems to imply that the studio has people already working on outlines and pitches for how to continue telling stories in the world of Panem.

Creatively, I'd imagine a prequel would make the most sense: the format is already set up to tell the story of an earlier edition of the Games before Katniss and Peeta come along. But will that be interesting enough to audiences to pull them in, keeping in mind that they won't have the star power of Jennifer Lawrence to lead it? I'm guessing the answer is no. The Hunger Games movies have already worn out their welcome creatively as far as I'm concerned (Mockingjay - Part 1 was so blatantly half of a narrative that it didn't deserve to be called a full movie), but since it's still raking in the cash, Lionsgate likely doesn't care too much about that side of things.

Lawrence is getting busier every year, so the chances that she'd don the bow and arrow one more time to play Katniss again in a sequel seem incredibly slim. We'll have to wait and see how this plays out, but in the meantime, what do you think? Would you be interested in seeing a Hunger Games prequel or sequel? And is this something Lionsgate should be exploring?

The creative team over at Lightning Boy Studio has created one hell of a great adventure story in an animated short film called Le Gouffe a.k.a. The Chasm. It tells an inspiring story of friendship, sacrifice, and conquering the impossible. 

The film follows "two spirited travelers who come across an incredibly wide chasm on their journey and decide to build a bridge to cross it." It doesn't come without its challenges, and it has a very intense, climatic, and beautiful conclusion.

This is the first animated short that was produced and directed by Lightning Boy Studio, which consists of a young creative team based in Montreal. They spent two years bring their 10-minute story to life, and it's absolutely stunning. It's a satisfyingly emotional journey that is worth investing your time it, so please watch it when you get a chance. 

It not an easy task to direct the big budget Marvel superhero films. It's one of the reasons why Joss Whedon won't be coming back to direct the Avengers: Infinity Wars movies. I've been wondering if we would ever see another of the earlier Marvel directors eventually come back to direct another one. Jon Favreau, Joe Johnston, and Kenneth Branagh all did amazing jobs bringing the movies they worked on to life, and I hope they have the opportunity to come back and make another Marvel film.

In a recent interview with THR, Branagh was asked if he would direct another Marvel film, and his reply was:

"I continue to have good relationships with all my Marvel family. It’s a people game the movie game, and although these films are big articulated lorries, they still have to be driven by real people. I fondly remember good times working on Thor. So you always look to repeat that kind of thing, and if it happened again, I’d be delighted."

A lot of the directors that Marvel has worked with in the past have been invited back, including Favreau, Joe and Anthony Russo, and James Gunn. So it's not out of the question that Branagh could come back for more superhero action.

Branagh was asked to come back to direct Thor: The Dark World, but he said he just couldn't find time to fit that film commitment into his schedule, as he had a lot of other things going on. Maybe the studio will ask him to come back for Thor: Ragnarok, even though he's not on the rumored list of directors up for the gig. 

Of course he could always come in to direct a different superhero as well. Would you like to see Branagh direct another Marvel movie?

Imagine, if you will, that Universal's Back to the Future didn't premiere in 1985, but was set to debut this summer instead. In the current blockbuster landscape, what would Doc Brown's time traveling vehicle look like? Artist Khyzyl Saleem created some awesome concept art that envisions the car as a DeTomaso Pantera instead of a DeLorean, and it actually looks pretty freaking awesome. Don't get me wrong: I love the original time machine, but this thing looks like it could get up to 88 miles per hour a hell of a lot faster than a DeLorean ever could. Here's a brief word from the artist himself, and a photo of a non-time-machine DeTomaso Pantera below.

I've always wondered what a DeTomaso Pantera would have looked like as a time machine instead of the not-so-trustworthy Delorean haha. So here it is, a mixture of photo bashing & painting, just my modern-ish interpretation of one.

Via: Kotaku

A letter from George R.R. Martin to his publisher has leaked online and gives us a look into what he was originally planning for his Song of Ice and Fire saga, which would later be adapted into HBO's Game of Thrones, and it was drastically different from what he ended up writing.

Waterstones Books tweeted photos of the letter but were later removed. If you want to see them, the photos were reposted on Tumblr. I don't know if you would consider the following information SPOILER material, as it's a version of the story that we'll never see. But I'll throw out a warning just in case, because it talks about characters who survive through the whole series, and that part of the plan might still be intact. 

The documents reveal that the Song of Ice and Fire saga was meant to be just a trilogy. Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, and Arya and Bran Stark were also the only characters meant to survive. Here are some other notable changes thanks to The Wrap:

Ed and Catelyn Stark still die and Robb Stark kills Joffrey:

"The Starks still don’t end well. Ed Stark dies at the hands of Joffrey Baratheon, and Catelyn flees North with her children Arya and Bran. Catelyn still meets her demise – like on Season 3 of the HBO series – but by the hands of The Others. Her son, Robb, will die in the battlefield against the Lannisters but not before killing the despicable Joffrey."

Arya and Jon fall in love: 

"Arya and her half-brother Jon fall in love although they never act on their feelings. Their love comes to a halt when his true lineage – heavily speculated by book readers – is revealed. While on the run from his brother, Tyrion falls for Arya when he sides with the Starks."

Sansa bears Joffrey’s heir (What?!):

"Betraying her family, Sansa weds Joffrey and bears him an heir before regretting her decision."

Daenerys avenges her ruthless brother Viserys:

"Khal Drogo kills Viserys who keeps pushing his claim to the throne. Drogo’s wife, Daenerys, avenges her cruel brother and prepares an invasion of the Seven Kingdoms."

In closing lines of the letter, Martin wrote,

“I hope you will find some editors who are as excited about all of this as I am. Feel free to share this letter with anyone who wants to know how the story will go." 

A lot has changed over the last 22 years. So far all of the characters that were originally meant to survive by story's end are still alive in the current series. So that might still be the plan. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. 

Game of Thrones Season 5 premieres on HBO on Sunday, April 12th at 9 p.m.

Jamie Benning's Filmumentaries are some of the best behind-the-scenes documentaries I've ever seen. Benning combines rarely seen video with interviews he's conducted himself, commentary tracks from Blu-ray and DVD releases of the films in question, and just generally provides an amazing in-depth experience for film fans so they can learn more about some of their favorite movies. He's done excellent work on Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, and Back to the Future.

Now he's back with a 20-minute documentary about Toby Philpott and Dave Barclay, the puppeteers who operated Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi. It includes a new interview with Philpott, who goes into great detail about the design work, how it operates, and even speculates that George Lucas would have liked to create Jabba in CGI back then, but the technology wasn't available to him yet. Benning has created another fantastic piece of work here, and it's definitely worth watching if you're a Star Wars fan to get a better appreciation for how this character came to life.

I thought Neighbors was pretty solid for a big studio comedy, and apparently a lot of other people did too, since the film grossed more than $268 million worldwide. So it should come as no surprise that Universal just penciled in Neighbors 2 on its calendar, giving it a May 13th, 2016 release date and pitting it against Paramount's next Friday the 13th remake.

Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne will reprise their roles as a couple who had a frat house move in next to them, but this time, they're going to have to call Zac Efron and his fellow frat buddies to help solve a new problem: the sorority that just moved in next door. Director Nicholas Stoller is returning to helm this sequel, and production begins this summer. But will Dave Franco return? He was great the first time around, but there's no word on whether he'll be back as well.

I enjoyed the first one, but I'm hoping the writers are able to come up with a fresh angle on this and avoid recycling jokes and situations from the first movie and trying to up the ante with the gross-out humor. They're not going to be able to top Rose Byrne's lactating scene from the first one, and what other bodily functions can they even make fun of at this point that haven't been done already? Melissa McCarthy sh*tting in a sink in Bridesmaids may have been the peak of that particular strain of humor.

Excited about a sequel to Neighbors?

Via: The Playlist

When I was in college, my dorm room walls were full of album covers. Artist Rocky Davies has a fantastic series of iconic 80s movie villains featured on the covers of a bunch of fake albums, and I would have loved to have had these up on my walls. It's funny seeing people like Shredder and The Predator surrounded by neon, and it makes me wonder what those characters would actually sound like if they'd recorded an album. Davies says:

I’ve been having a lot of fun with this series.  I had the idea to depict a ton of 80’s villains in a new light.  Kinda like they decided to improve their public relations image by releasing pop albums and doing cover songs.  Here is the result.

We posted a few of these illustrations before, but some of them are new to the series.

Via: Geekologie

Art by KejaBlank

Big news for video game fans who also love television (which I imagine would be a lot of you): according to the Wall Street Journal, Netflix is in the early stages of development on a live-action Legend of Zelda TV show. Although fans have been clamoring for a live-action film for years, I think a TV series is a better option that will allow for a more immersive, expanded storytelling style that should do justice to the expansive story that's appeared in video game form for the past 25+ years.

There aren't many details at this early stage in development, other than the story will follow "an ordinary boy named Link who must rescue a princess named Zelda and save a fantasy world called Hyrule," and that the show is being compared to Game of Thrones, but for a family audience. Netflix has been very aggressive about developing original content over the past few years, and they just secured funding to develop even more shows, and this sounds like it could be an expensive - but potentially extremely popular - series for them.

Netflix and Nintendo are reportedly working close together on this project, although the report cautions that since a writer for the show hasn't been found yet, there's still a chance this could end up falling through and never making it to the streaming service at all. But I'm guessing fans will still be thrilled at this announcement, as it shows that there is some real interest in bringing the famous video game series to life on the small screen.

What do you think?

(If anyone knows who created the artwork in the preview image for this post, e-mail me at benp@geektyrant.com or hit me up on Twitter and I'd be glad to give credit where it's due.)