Rumors of the Russo Brothers directing the Avengers: Infinity Wars two part saga started five months ago. While there has been no official word from Marvel, readers have been connecting the dots for months. First: Joss Whedon has gone on record several times saying he's not directing Infinity Wars. Second: Captain America: Civil War, which is also being directed by the Russo Brothers, is said to dovetail and overlap with Infinity Wars — so much so that Marvel internally calls it Avengers 2.5.

One week ago, news of the Russos' involvement with a Ghostbuster shared universe sent up a flag with a lot of readers. We've all essentially expected them to be directing Infinity Wars, but it hasn't become official.

According to the solid sources at Badass Digest, the deal (contracts) just got done today and we should expect an official announcement really soon. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a well made film with a story that pretty much changed the trajectory of the Marvel cineverse. I'm excited to see that same creative team return lead the charge on what could be the most ambitious project in movie history.

Remind me not to invite Kratos to my next soirée, because that guy looks miserable. It just goes to show that being made the new God of War isn’t perhaps all it's cracked up to be. Sure, you get a giant throne complete with snazzy armor, and you get to battle Xena and Gabrielle on their quest to….wait, wrong Ares.

Okay, so the job kind of sucks.

Regardless of Kratos' clear lack of enthusiasm, this statue recreation by Gaming Heads is absolutely splendid, and at 29" high, is massive! There is the standard edition with his normal look, and the exclusive edition with Ares armor. Personally, the exclusive edition is just awesome looking, but both are now up for pre-order. The price tag is a hefty one at $499 but, of course, you can break that up into monthly installments. Check out the galleries below for a closer look at the statue.

Director Andrew Jarecki crafted one of the most entertaining pieces of documentary television ever with HBO's The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, which aired its sixth and final episode two Sundays ago on March 15th. If you haven't seen it, I'd highly recommend dropping everything and binge-watching the series as soon as possible. It's a wildly entertaining piece of filmmaking that deserves to be seen and discussed, and the show turned into a pop culture phenomenon when Durst was arrested the day before the finale aired. Since then, there has been a ton of great content written about both the documentary and the real-life players involved, and doing a deep dive into all of this insanity has been the most entertaining thing I've done in 2015 so far.

But The Jinx wasn't the first time Jarecki told the story of Durst, the wealthy real estate heir who's been suspected of at least three murders over the past thirty years. He also directed the 2010 film All Good Things, a film inspired by the true story of Durst and his multiple brushes with the law but which used fictionalized names and took some liberties with a few details of the true story. Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst star, and Nick Offerman and Kristen Wiig pop up in supporting roles, and my curiosity got the better of me: how would All Good Things (a movie I hadn't seen before) play right after watching The Jinx? The answer - not particularly well.

All Good Things opens with Durst stand-in David Marks (Gosling) in court for the murder of a Morris Black stand-in named Malvern Bump (Philip Baker Hall), utilizing much of the real-life court testimony as dialogue as Marks answers questions about his past. It quickly flashes back and spends its first half building up the relationship between Marks and his wife Katie (Dunst). The first half of the film occasionally tweaks the true story for dramatic purposes, which is totally fine - All Good Things had no real obligation to stick to the true details, since it's only based on the true story and not promising to relay it as it happened.

Gosling and Dunst are solid, and Gosling in particular humanizes his character in a way that makes him far more likable than his real-life counterpart. There's some real drama there, and the tension between the husband and wife feels natural and believable. But as soon as Katie disappears (Durst's wife, Kathie, disappeared in 1982 and is presumed dead - it's widely believed that Durst killed her), All Good Things loses its narrative steam. I'm not normally one to give Kirsten Dunst credit since I'm far from her biggest fan, but the story being told up until that point is largely the one of a husband and wife, and when one half of our perspective is abruptly removed from the story, it gives the movie a disjointed feel.

As the audience is left hanging after Katie's disappearance, the film jumps ahead and tackles the rest of Marks' story, but even though those events (like him getting away with the dismemberment of his neighbor) are totally nuts, it's hard to invest when we don't have closure about what happened to Katie, the soul of this film. While the real-life story may not have closure (yet), this narrative spin on it could have done a better job tying that element up. It's tough to see the connective tissue between all of the events in All Good Things, but The Jinx - in which we get to know the real Durst, as well as an exhaustive history of his background and the major players in his life - has the luxury of truth on its side. We're instantly invested in The Jinx because these are real things that happened to real people. Jarecki and his team clearly found Durst's story fascinating, but as a narrative feature, All Good Things fails to keep a necessary throughline for the audience to follow and care about. Everything after Katie just seems like random post-script: "Oh, and then this happened. And then this!" The film doesn't have the time to allow us to get to know David Marks enough to make his exploits worth following. Watching the movie after seeing The Jinx, we can see what they were going for - the details are indeed fascinating - but they were probably a little too close to the material and didn't understand that the audience couldn't invest because they didn't understand the context of the full story.

Thankfully, when the movie was released in 2010, it was enough to get the attention of the real Robert Durst, who reached out to Jarecki and asked if he'd be interested in telling Durst's story even though he'd been notoriously tight-lipped with journalists until then. The result was The Jinx, so I suppose we can look at All Good Things as a flawed but necessary prologue to what eventually became one of the most riveting pieces of television ever produced.

The Jinx is available on HBO and HBO Go right now, and All Good Things is currently streaming on Netflix.

It's standard practice these days for actors involved with huge franchises to sign up for a three-picture deal, and it seems that's the case for Jennifer Lawrence and the X-Men movies. Lawrence is one of the biggest stars in the world thanks to her work in The Hunger Games films, and while those will come to an end later this year, she's still a part of one of the biggest superhero franchises out there, playing the shape-shifting Mystique in X-Men: First Class and Days of Future Past.

MTV caught up with Lawrence and Bradley Cooper on a recent red carpet, where J-Law confirmed that the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse "is my last one, actually." From her demeanor, it doesn't seem like she's too terribly upset about it, either — I'm guessing she'll be glad to not have to sit in that makeup chair for hours and hours before shooting begins.

This isn't too much of a surprise, but it does confirm that Lawrence's career is about to get a lot more interesting now that she's out of the franchise phase. Those movies have helped turn her into a mega-star, so I'm very, very curious to see what she does with all of the good will she's built up over the past few years and how she moves forward in Hollywood. The X-Men franchise will be fine without her — they're always bringing in new blood — but I'm sure some Lawrence super-fans will be disappointed that Apocalypse will be her last outing in that blue body suit and body paint.

Along with his green hood, it's arguable that Link's most iconic piece of identifying gear is his Hylian shield. The shield has saved The Legend of Zelda hero's life on numerous occasions (not to mention the digital lives of many Smash Bros. players), and now the team at Man at Arms: Reforged have built a staggeringly awesome recreation of it. It's really cool to see these guys work, because even though they have some modern technology, this isn't a 3D printed rush job — these people are putting some real sweat into their work, and it shows in the final product. It's all the more impressive that blacksmiths used to forge real things like this back in the day, and it makes me really appreciate the prop work that goes into fantasy films like The Lord of the Rings and its contemporaries.

Via: Sploid

Minor, Yet Obvious Spoilers Ahead

Latino-Review's El Mayimbe, well-known for his many Marvel casting news "rumors," gives us an update on Captain Marvel. Badass Digest had previously reported that Avengers are splitting up at the end of Age of Ultron, setting up Captain America: Civil War. It has also been rumored that in an end sequence or post credit sequence, we will see Captain America assembling a new team with the character Carol Danvers making a cameo appearance.

El Mayimbe confirms those two rumors with his own pool of inside sources and adds that Captain Marvel has already been cast. Instead of paraphrasing further:

RT! HOT #MARVEL #RUMOR ABOUT #CAPTAINMARVEL #SPOILER Apparently, from what I'm being told, the rumor is that the studio has cast the role of Carol Danvers & keeping it top secret. I'm also being told we will first see her in #AVENGERS #AgeofUltron as originally written in previous drafts of the screenplay. In terms of the standalone film, the Marvel brain trust has blocked out the plot & story with the intention of bringing an established writer to write the script. Comic writer Kelly Sue DeConnick wanted to take a crack at writing the screenplay but I'm not sure if she got the gig. Also, I'm told legendary comic writer Jim Starlin, who has a rich history with Captain Marvel is aboard the project as a consultant. All of the above is #UNCONFIRMED so take with grain of salt until further notice but it's within the realm of plausibility.

A photo posted by Umberto Gonzalez (@umbertogonzalez) on Mar 24, 2015 at 6:11am PDT

We posted our fan-casting list, 8 Actresses We'd Cast, a few months ago, and since then we've yet to hear a single rumor on who Marvel might be considering. This is in direct contrast with Doctor Strange, which had 18 actors rumored to be up for the part over four years.

All we can do now is speculate on who they cast. Crazy idea: what if they cast Jennifer Lawrence? She finished The Hunger Games and will be done with the X-Men franchise after Apocalypse. She's got a ton of star power and has a wide acting range, and she's even the right age. Pshhh... crazy idea.

Taiwanese animator Jordan Tseng has a fun new video that uses stop-motion in a battle between Dragon Ball figures, but Tseng himself quickly gets involved (teaming with the heroic Goku, naturally). It's a cool blending of worlds, with the real world impeding on the fake reality he's set up in which his figures come to life and fight on his shelf. The camera work is dynamic, and the visual effects are pretty impressive for a video like this. DBZ fans will definitely get a kick out of this.

Via: Kotaku

When Doctor Who star Matt Smith was initially cast in the upcoming Terminator Genisys, the press release said he'd be playing "a new character with a strong connection to John Connor." Since then, we've seen trailers, magazine covers, photos, and even heard some details about the fight between Arnold Schwarzenegger's old and young T-800s. We know that Emilia Clarke is Sarah Connor, Jason Clarke is John Connor, and Jai Courtney is Kyle Reese, but we haven't heard much about who exactly Smith will be playing in all of this.

Now Latino-Review has the answer, and it's a massive spoiler. I realize I warned you in the headline, but seriously: if you don't want to know, this is your last chance to turn back.

Apparently the movie just screened for test audiences in Arizona, and one of the attendees got in touch with LR and revealed the following:

In Terminator: Genisys Matt Smith plays the embodiment of Skynet. Similar to Helena Bonham Carter's role in McG's Terminator: Salvation, Smith will be the antagonist system given form, different from the nebulous corporate villainy of Terminator 2: Judgment Day and vague apocalypse technophobia of the first.

I completely forgot that Helena Bonham Carter was even in Terminator: Salvation. That movie was so disappointing, I've wiped it almost entirely from my brain. I have to say that I'm a little disappointed that this new film is even acknowledging it in the Terminator mythos, but I suppose if Smith is playing a gun-toting embodiment of Skynet, that can't be a totally bad thing, right? I have faith in writers Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier, and I'm hoping that director Alan Taylor knocks this one out of the park after (if you'll allow the analogy to continue) the pop-up fly ball he hit with Thor: The Dark World.

What do you think? Does Smith as Skynet sound like a cool idea?

"Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars is such a catchy tune with an equally addicting music video. KFaceTv parodied both with a Harry Potter twist titled "Dark Lord Funk." The dancing, singing, and lyrics are brilliantly executed.

I found this on our new partner FantasyCon's Facebook page last night, and it only had a couple thousand plays. Now it's at couple hundred thousand and climbing.This thing is going viral quick.

Side-note: I've been told several times that I look like Bruno Mars, almost exclusively by black people. Are they racist or am I for noticing? Either way, maybe I'll dress like him for Halloween this year.

There is so little official Star Wars: The Force Awakens news that even a seemingly obvious tidbit is worth reporting. John Williams recently pulled out of scoring Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies due to a minor health issue. He's doing better, and we now have official word that Williams will be scoring The Force Awakens in Los Angeles. All previous Star Wars scores were recorded at Abbey Road with the London Symphony Orchestra, so this is a major break in tradition. The move is due to the tight editing and effects collaboration required to deliver the film on time.

Williams had some kind words about his long time past collaborators in both countries:

“I’ve had the privilege of working with the very best musicians in both the U.K. and the U.S. The London Symphony Orchestra has consistently performed with great artistry on all six of the prior films in the Star Wars saga, and I will be forever grateful for their commitment and dedication.  Equally, it has been my honor to have worked with my brilliant colleagues in Los Angeles, and always appreciate the invaluable contribution they’ve made to my scores and to those of other composers.”

As if you didn't already know, Star Wars: The Force Awakens blasts into theaters December 18th (USA).

I think film is the best art form available to capture the sense of being in a dream. While someone may be able to paint a dream-like image or even create a song that may represent the ethereal nature of being asleep, it takes the combination of both images and audio to get as close as possible to the real thing. Dream sequences on film appear quite often, and now Gabriel Adelman has created a supercut of some of cinemas most famous dream worlds. From the eyeball slice of Un Chien Andalou to Inception's hallway fight, this video covers a wide range of film history. The use of "Hand Covers Bruise" from The Social Network score is always a nice touch, too.

Let us know what you think about the supercut below.

Via: LaughingSquid

When Independence Day 2 hits theaters, it will be almost 20 years to the day after the first film was released. The sequel has been in development for years, but director Roland Emmerich is finally moving forward with it and he's continuing to wrangle up his cast. We know that Jeff Goldblum will be back to reprise his role, with Liam Hemsworth possibly playing Bill Pullman's character's nephew or son-in-law. (Does that mean Mae Whitman will be back as his daughter? And what about Pullman himself? Still no word on that.) Jesse Usher is playing the son of Will Smith's Steven Hiller, and now there's a new addition to the cast that will be in the same family: Vivica A. Fox is back as Jasmine, Hiller's exotic dancer girlfriend/wife.

Exciting news... just officially closed @MsVivicaFox for #IndependenceDay! Here's the pic! pic.twitter.com/hXVjnqOFaD

— Roland Emmerich (@rolandemmerich) March 24, 2015

It's official that I'll b back 4 #IndependenceDay2 sequel playing #Jasmine #LegitimateCareer #NextLevel #Blessed;) pic.twitter.com/2Ajj4XQ3aa

— Vivica A. Fox (@MsVivicaFox) March 24, 2015

On paper, the return of Jasmine will make Will Smith's absence seem even more glaring. But who knows - maybe the writers have figured out a way to have the story work organically without him. I have a feeling we're going to get a quick one-line explanation of why he's not around, and hopefully the movie is good enough that we won't miss him too much. He was such a big part of the first film's success, though, so it's tough to imagine this far out how he'll be replaceable.

Independence Day 2 will arrive in theaters on June 24, 2016.

Jason Edmiston returns to Mondo with a solo art show titled "Eyes Without a Face." It's a simple concept that's expertly rendered. I can identify all but one of these pop culture icons, the one with six eyes has me completely stumped. Sound off in the comments if you know them all. H/T: Geek-Art

We've posted some of Edmiston's work in the past: Rock Hard ROCKY IV Poster Art and Mondo Art for the Devil from LEGEND. 

20th Century Fox has unveiled a new poster for Josh Trank's Fantastic Four, the upcoming reboot of the comic book franchise that hits theaters this summer. Fans have been really mixed with their reactions to the teaser trailer, but I think it's safe to say that we're all hoping the film turns out to be enjoyable.

Meanwhile, star Miles Teller (Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic) recently gave an interview to Moviefone (random trivia: Moviefone was co-founded by The Jinx & All Good Things director Andrew Jarecki!) and spoke about seeing the teaser for the first time:

When I saw the sizzle trailer, that was the first I had seen of it. I saw that at the same time as everyone else, literally. I was excited about it. Because when you're shooting a movie you can kind of get a sense of the tone of it from the director and how they're directing it, but in terms of how you shoot it, the lighting and everything, you're not aware of it. Because I'm just in a scene and I'm talking to another actor but the way he's seeing it in his head, where it's grittier or darker, I'm not acting grittier or darker. All that stuff comes in with the edit. So I'm excited by it. All the actors are really interesting in those parts and it should be fun. I hope people go on that ride with us. Because we're making it our own, we're taking a lot from the "Ultimate Fantastic Four" but I think we're humanizing these characters in a way that's never been done.

He was also asked if he's excited about doing a sequel, and since he's presumably signed for at least three FF movies, it's pretty obvious that unless the film bombs, he's going to be stepping into that classic costume once again:

I mean, the more superhero stuff you get to do, the cooler it is. We'll see what happens, but yes, absolutely, as the thing evolves they should start to materialize to the Fantastic Four people more readily associate with.

Fantastic Four arrives on August 7th, 2015.

Though Community's sixth season may have gotten off to a bit of a rocky start, I'm still glad the show is back. Dan Harmon's brilliant deconstruction of sitcoms is a bit like the work of Quentin Tarantino: it's constantly referencing certain genres while still being good enough on its own to become an actual entry into those genres. The show's 100th episode, "Basic Crisis Room Decorum," is available today on Yahoo Screen, and to celebrate, the cast and crew got together and recorded a video of the party they had on the show's cafeteria set. Check it out below, and let us know what you think about this new season of Community so far.

After a couple lack luster films and a 13-year gap, The X-Files is returning to the medium that fits it the best: television. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are the only original cast officially announced so far. Apparently its return to TV has been in the works since January.

The X-files creator Chris Carter spoke to EW and said:

“I think of it as a 13-year commercial break. The good news is the world has only gotten that much stranger, a perfect time to tell these six stories.

Dana Walden and Gary Newman, Chairmen and CEOs of Fox Television Group, shared:

“We had the privilege of working with Chris on all nine seasons of The X-Files – one of the most rewarding creative experiences of our careers – and we couldn’t be more excited to explore that incredible world with him again,” 

“The X-Files was not only a seminal show for both the studio and the network, it was a worldwide phenomenon that shaped pop culture – yet remained a true gem for the legions of fans who embraced it from the beginning. Few shows on television have drawn such dedicated fans as The X-Files, and we’re ecstatic to give them the next thrilling chapter of Mulder and Scully they’ve been waiting for.”

Based on Carter's statement about "six stories" odd are these will be mostly self contained stories. While six episodes seems like a short run I have a feeling that these will be 90-minute mini movies kind of like Sherlock.

I love the show and I'm so happy that it's back. I really think X-Files works better as a show compared to the attempts to make it work in cinema. I'd be even more excited if they came back every few years with a handful of amazing episodes.

I've ranted on this site before about how much I really don't like The Hobbit movies. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was a joke, and the fact that they stretched a kids' book into an "epic" series of three freakin' movies casts a bad shadow on the brilliant The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I said after seeing Battle of the Five Armies that it seemed as if Peter Jackson was hate-directing sections of it, because if you'll recall, he didn't want to return to direct any of those films at all after LOTR (Guillermo del Toro was supposed to direct). Here's a really great video that will tell you exactly why the Hobbit movies suck in comparison to The Lord of the Rings.

Anyway, the guys at Honest Trailers have teamed up with the folks at How It Should Have Ended for a combo video about The Battle of the Five Armies, and although I still can't stand the "jokes" in the Honest Trailer videos - seriously, those stupid puns at the end are unbearable - the rest of the video does make some solid points, and the HISHE portion is right on the money. Check it out below.

Everyone knows we're in the middle of a new golden age of television, and it's not as easy as it used to be to get attention and acclaim for new dramas. The bar has been raised over the past few years with shows like The Wire, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men, and it's no longer a battle solely between premium networks like HBO and Showtime for supremacy. FX and AMC are major players now, and that's not even including the comparatively new additions of Netflix and Amazon to the fray. Networks are having to step up their game to compete with the best of the best, and that results in some awesome television shows for consumers.

Showtime just sent out a press release saying that they've picked up a new financial drama called Billions for a 12 episode run. The one-hour episodes will star Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis (Band of Brothers, Homeland), and it's being billed as "a complex and contemporary drama about power politics in the New York world of high finance." Rounders writers Brian Koppelman and David Levien will write and executive produce alongside Andrew Ross Sorkin (Too Big To Fail). Sounds like a hell of a team to me.

“The dynamic star pairing of Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis is matched by an equally exciting team in the writing of this show,” said [Showtime President David] Nevins. “Andrew Ross Sorkin, one of the preeminent financial journalists of our time, has joined forces with Brian Koppelman and David Levien, two of Hollywood’s most accomplished screenwriters, to tackle an incredibly timely and buzzy subject. With this caliber of writing and acting, I think the show’s authenticity and insider look will have great appeal to a discerning audience.”

Here's a much better description of the series:

BILLIONS is a fictional drama that takes an insider look at the world of high finance by tracking the approaching collision between two titanic figures – the hard charging, politically savvy U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Giamatti), and the brilliant, ambitious hedge fund king, Bobby "Axe" Axelrod (Lewis). Maggie Siff, Malin Akerman, Toby Leonard Moore, David Costabile and Condola Rashad also star. The pilot was directed by acclaimed director Neil Burger (The Illusionist, Divergent), who also serves as an executive producer.

Billions is set for release sometime in 2016. Sound good to you? Here are two photos from the pilot:

Is your Star Wars collectible Yoda or Wicket not large enough or squishy enough to your liking? These life-size plush dolls from Takara Tomy should fit your requirements. Keep in mind the size and detail when you have to pony-up $250 for Yoda and $330 for Wicket. If you need these plushies and have money to burn, you can pre-order them from Toy-People.com, which is based in China. So expect a huge shipping cost to get these things.

H/T: Geekologie

Lucasfilm has been talking about a live-action Star Wars show since before they were bought by Disney, but once they they got purchased all talk on the TV front went quiet. With Star Wars now returning with a new trilogy and opening up its universe to at least a couple standalone films that we know of, they seem to be following the wildly popular Marvel playbook. As my colleagues at /Film point out, Marvel didn't launch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. until after Iron Man 3. That's seven films in. Don't we have a seventh Star Wars film coming this December?

Several sites have started hearing rumored rumblings that a live-action show is once again in development. The largest thing that kept the show from happening was cost, but now they have  lots of sets built for The Force Awakens and even more coming for Rogue One. According to Cinelinx, once enough films have been released we should expect a live-action show to shoot between the schedules of the larger films making use of all those gigantic sets, props, etc.

While I'm not very familiar with Cinelinx's track record, it does align with a lot that I've read on reputable rumors sites. So a show is coming, it's now just a matter of when.