Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess directs an all-star cast in his upcoming comedic heist film called Masterminds. With a cast like Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, and Ken Marino, this is Hess' most high-profile film to date. I don't think any of the films that Hess has made since Napoleon Dynamite have lived up the comedic greatness of that film.

Masterminds is based on the true story of 1997's Loomis Fargo Robbery in North Carolina. It centers on a night guard at an armored car company in the Southern U.S. who organizes one of the biggest bank heists in American history. The movie actually looks really funny, and it's one I'm looking forward to seeing. 

Jody Hill and Danny McBride had a hand in writing the script, and this is the official synopsis:

In this action comedy based on true events, directed by Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite; Nacho Libre), David Ghantt (Zach Galifianakis) discovers the true meaning of adventure far beyond his wildest dreams. He is an uncomplicated man stuck in a monotonous life. Day in and day out he drives an armored vehicle, transporting millions of other people’s money with no escape in sight. The only glimmer of excitement is his flirtatious work crush Kelly Campbell (Kristen Wiig) who soon lures him into the scheme of a lifetime.

Along with a group of half-brained criminals led by Steve Chambers (Owen Wilson) and an absurdly faulted heist plan, David manages the impossible and makes off with $17 million in cash…only problem is he foolishly hands the money over to this wild group of double crossers and has been set up to take the fall. With the bandits blowing the millions on lavish and ridiculous luxuries, they leave behind a glaring trail of evidence. Now on the lam and in over his head, David must dodge the authorities, evade a hilarious hit man, Mike McKinney (Jason Sudeikis), and try to turn the tables on the ones he trusted most.

The movie is set to be released this summer on August 27th. 

Bandai has been releasing some very kick-ass action figures recently, and we have our first look at their Figuarts line for Avengers: Age of Ultron. The line features Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, and Thor. The figures come with interchangeable heads and hands.

The Figuarts Iron Man Mk. 43 is due out next month, and then there's the Mk. 45 variant due out in August. Captain America and Hulk will be available this coming July, with Thor coming in September. Most of the figures will cost around $52, while the Hulk will cost $80 because its a bigger 9 inch figure. 

Source: Bandai

Bridesmaids and The Heat director Paul Feig reunites with star Melissa McCarthy for Spy, the upcoming comedy that sees McCarthy playing a desk jockey who is thrust into the field under extreme circumstances. It's essentially the same concept as Get Smart, but it's a vague enough premise that it should allow for some good variation and nice opportunities for McCarthy, Jason Statham, Rose Byrne, Jude Law, and the rest of the cast to get some laughs in between action sequences.

The film premiered at this year's South by Southwest Film Festival and received pretty stellar reviews, so I'm definitely looking forward to this one. I skipped both The Heat and Tammy, but this new trailer and the positive early word of mouth has convinced me that Spy is worth checking out. Watch for yourselves below.

Susan Cooper is an unassuming, deskbound CIA analyst, and the unsung hero behind the Agency’s most dangerous missions. But when her partner falls off the grid and another top agent is compromised, she volunteers to go deep undercover to infiltrate the world of a deadly arms dealer, and prevent a global disaster.

Spy opens on June 5th.

I've got a wonderful Star Wars short film for you to watch today called "Artoo in Love." It follows the adorable droid-hero R2-D2 as he tries to find love in our galaxy. The short was directed by Evan Atherton, and it's kind of cute watching one of our favorite droids do a little flirting. 

I just saw Furious 7 last night, and it was incredible. I'll have a full review soon, but trust me, if you're a fan of this franchise at all, it's a must-see. One of the things that the franchise instituted in the past couple installments is the post-credits scene: in Fast Five, it's revealed that Letty is still alive, and in Fast & Furious 6, we get the tease of Jason Statham as the villainous Deckard Shaw who kills Han (Sung Kang). Furious 7 doesn't have a post-credits sequence (the filmmakers probably didn't want to undercut the emotional ending), but that doesn't mean that there aren't more adventures in the works.

Vin Diesel went on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night to discuss the new movie, and he actually revealed the reason Kurt Russell was hired.

You know I always think of these films multiple pictures in advance. I think of them as trilogies. So Kurt Russell came in for this movie, but we really hired him because of a story that follows this that takes place in New York.

We knew that Universal was planning to make at least three more movies, so Diesel's comments align with that idea. The idea of bringing Kurt Russell back to New York — a city from which he memorably escaped in a classic action film of his own — is fantastic, and it also serves as a tip of the iceberg when it comes to answering the question of how the heck this franchise can top itself after the absolute insanity of Furious 7. Driving up the side of the Empire State Building? Ramping off of the Statue of Liberty's crown? Anything is possible with these movies, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Just a few days ago, we posted a video from editor Ethan Jones featuring all of the variations of The Walt Disney Pictures logo. It was a cool way to see how each production put its own spin on the classic intro, and how filmmakers can set the tone for their project early with just a few little tweaks on something with which the audience is already familiar.

Now he's back with another supercut, this time taking a look at the DreamWorks logo. Created by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks was once a distribution company as well as a production company, but now its films are distributed by Disney. And here's a bonus piece of trivia: John Williams composed the music for live-action DreamWorks films, while the logo for DreamWorks Animation features music from the Shrek score. Take a look at how the logo has changed over the years below.

Via: Sploid

A couple of weeks ago, we learned that the third Tron movie would start shooting this fall with Joseph Kosinski directing. Disney has yet to confirm this, but I've heard from a studio source that the movie is indeed happening and that Kosinski is coming back to direct. 

Garrett Hedlund is also reportedly coming back to reprise his role, and I would really love to see Jeff Bridges and a few of the other cast members come back as well. I don't see how they could do it without Bridges. He's the heart and soul of the franchise. We haven't heard much on any of the other cast members, but a new report has surfaced that claims that the title of the new film is Tron: Ascension.

The info comes from Production Weekly, who tweeted out the following:

Joseph Kosinski’s TRON: ASCENSION is planning to film in Vancouver from Early-October 2015 thru February 2016. http://t.co/ihBaFAc3O5

— Production Weekly (@prodweek) March 30, 2015

There's no word on what exactly the story entails, but I imagine that Cillian Murphy's character will be involved, as he is the son of original Tron villain Ed Dillinger. Then at the end of Tron: Legacy we saw Olivia Wilde’s character Quorra step out of the program and into and the real world. That seems like a story element that you can't really ignore, so I can't help but think that all of these things will play a role in the upcoming film. When talking about the sequel in a previous interview, Kosinski explained:

"Tron 3 delivers on the promise of Tron Legacy, particular the final scenes. There's a big clue there as to where we'll go with the next one. There's some characters we establish at the beginning of Tron Legacy who have a much larger role in Tron 3."

I also think that we can expect some kind of crazy story that pits the Flynns, the Dillingers, and the digital creations Quorra and Tron/Rinzler against each other, but that's just speculation on my part.

The director also previously talked about the film and explained that it would have a completely different redesign from Tron: Legacy. I loved the designs from that film, and I can't wait to see what Kosinski will do visually with the upcoming sequel. 

Christopher Nolan's Interstellar was a visual marvel, but I'm still not sold on it being a great movie. I've only seen it once (Nolan himself recommends everyone see it multiple times), but I was disappointed with the film's ending. When all is said and done, I have a feeling it will be considered as one of Nolan's least essential movies. Although it was undoubtedly ambitious and even had some powerfully emotional sequences (that bit with Matthew McConaughey watching his kids grow up on video may be the most gut-wrenching thing the director has ever committed to film), I still wasn't crazy about it.

It seems as if the team at Honest Trailers agrees, as they proceed to point out some of the story flaws and take the movie's ending to task for being stupid. Check out the video below, and let us know what you think of Interstellar now that some time has passed from its initial release.

"It was hard to know who was more crazy: me, or everyone else?"

I'm not sure you all need any more convincing that George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road is going to be epic. But just in case, we have a new full trailer for you to watch right now that is packed with some more insane footage that is sure to set your brain on fire.

Haunted by his turbulent past, Mad Max believes the best way to survive is to wander alone. Nevertheless, he becomes swept up with a group fleeing across the Wasteland in a War Rig driven by an elite Imperator, Furiosa. They are escaping a Citadel tyrannized by the Immortan Joe, from whom something irreplaceable has been taken. Enraged, the Warlord marshals all his gangs and pursues the rebels ruthlessly in the high-octane Road War that follows.

Mad Max: Fury Road will be released on May 15th, and it's set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. To watch three previously released TV spots that we posted earlier today, click here. 

#AvengersUnite

Marvel Studios has released four potential IMAX posters for Joss Whedon's Avengers: Age of Ultron. The studio is giving fans the opportunity to vote for the one that they would like to see be the official IMAX poster for the the film. The poster that wins will be handed out to fans at the first IMAX screenings for the movie.

You can see the four posters above and below, and each one comes with their own corresponding hashtag, which fans can use to vote on Twitter or by commenting on the official Avengers Facebook post.

My favorites are #UltronUnleashed and #AvengersLastHope. What are you going to vote for?

#UltronUnleashed

#AvengersLastHope

#UltronNoStrings

We've written a few times about The CW's planned spin-off of The Flash and Arrow, which was initially rumored to be just a spin-off for Brandon Routh's The Atom but has now evolved into a superhero team up show. The untitled series — seriously, give this thing a title already so I don't have to keep referring to it as just "the spin-off" — has already cast Routh as Ray Palmer/The Atom, Wentworth Miller as Leonard Snart/Captain Cold, Dominic Purcell as Mick Rory/Heat Wave, Victor Garber as Dr. Martin Stein, and Caity Lotz, who played Canary before being "killed" on Arrow, so we're not sure if she's playing a resurrected version of that character or someone entirely different.

Now the show has added two more characters to the cast. Deadline reports that Hawkgirl will be played by Ciara Renée, while the time traveling Rip Hunter will be played by Doctor Who actor Arthur Darvill.

In the new series, [Kendra] Saunders is a young woman who is just beginning to learn that she has been repeatedly reincarnated over the centuries. When provoked, her ancient warrior persona manifests itself, along with wings that grow out of her back, earning her the moniker Hawkgirl.

[Rip Hunter is] a roguish time traveler who hides the strains of being responsible for history itself behind a facade of charm and wit.

I especially love the inclusion of Rip Hunter into this universe, and I think that opens the doors for a lot of awesome stuff to come in the future.

The initial reports indicated that there would be three new DC superheroes featured on this spin-off series that had never appeared on TV before, and Deadline seems to think that Hunter is one of them, even though that character has been on an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Taking this error into account, there is one male and one female role still left to cast in that mystery trio, so we'll see if either of those characters actually end up making their debut on the small screen.

Marvel has teamed up with the online fashion service Five Four to give us a stylish clothing line inspired by The Avengers. 

Five Four is a pretty awesome company that combines the benefits of a personal stylist and a subscription box service that delivers affordable clothing to your door on a monthly basis. 

These clothes will now include a line that was influenced by characters such as Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor. They're transformed into subtle, cool designs for the superhero that resides deep in all of us. 

You can watch the announcement video below, and I've also included some additional photos.

Via: Comic Book Resources 

Audi just released an extended commercial for their Audi TTS, and it features plenty of new footage of our heroes in Avengers: Age of Ultron. The ad is called "Striking," and the car is being billed as Marvel's new superhero.

In never-before-seen footage, check out the reloaded Avengers and Audi TTS from the upcoming film Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, as well as a special sneak peak at the newest Marvel Super Hero.

The Avengers are back and ready for anything. So is the all-new 2015 Audi TTS. With quattro all-wheel drive, a turbocharged 265-hp TFSI® engine, and high-performance ultra lightweight technology, the TTS has its own superpowers. And it doesn’t hurt that it happens to be pretty easy on the eyes, too.

Hey, I'm sold on the car! I just can't afford to buy it. Buying a ticket to see Avengers: Age of Ultron in IMAX is more in line with my budget. Oh! And for some reason the commercial ends with a trailer for Ant-Man. There's no new footage in that though. 

Back in 2013, we wrote about how Lionsgate was considering a theme park based on The Hunger Games movies, and now it seems that the studio has found its home: Deadline reports that there will be a Hunger Games "zone" at Motiongate Dubai, a Hollywood-themed park that will open its doors in 2016.

The area will feature rides and a retail facility based on the popular films, but there's still no word on exactly what that will mean. The Hunger Games is about a series of government-sponsored battles that pit children against each other in a battle to the death. How does that translate into a theme park ride? And as Joey pointed out in his previous write-up, the gray color palette and bombed out desolation of the Districts would make for an incredibly depressing theme park.  What are they going to do — have giant screens lording over the area with President Snow telling you how long the wait times are for the rides? This whole thing seems like a pretty terrible idea to me.

Lionsgate is also planning a live stage show based on Step Up: All In and Step Up: Revolution, which makes way more sense. At least that will be able to show off the talents of actual performers and dazzle the crowd with some awesome dance moves.

But what is the studio thinking with that Hunger Games zone? What's next — a Saw theme park?

Marvel has announced that Cheo Hodari Coker will serve as executive producer and showrunner of their highly anticipated Luke Cage Netflix series. They also revealed that the series will premiere in 2016. 

I'm sure many of you aren't familiar with with Coker's work, but he has worked on some solid shows, such as Ray Donovan, Almost Human, Southland, and NCIS: Los Angeles. Luke Cage seems like it would be a great project for him to work on. 

Luke Cage will be played by Mike Colter (The Good Wife, American Horror Story: Coven), and I love that this character is finally going to be brought to life. He previously talked about his excitement for playing the role, and how the series would be geared towards a more adult audience — which is what I think Marvel wanted to do with all of their Netflix shows, which also include Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist.

Here's the official press release from Marvel:

Netflix & Marvel Television announced today that Cheo Hodari Coker will serve as executive producer and showrunner of the anticipated series, Marvel’s Luke Cage. Coker is writing the first two episodes of the series that will premiere in 2016, everywhere that Netflix is available.

Most recently, Coker served as a co-executive producer on the second season of Ray Donovan, and prior to that was a supervising producer on the critically-acclaimed, fourth season of the drama SouthLAnd. Coker was a part of the SouthLAnd team that earned the show a 2012 Peabody Award. Coker also garnered a 2013 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing for a Dramatic Series for his work on that show. Coker’s feature film credits include Fox Searchlight’s rap biopic Notorious. He authored the book Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of The Notorious B.I.G as well. Coker started his writing career in journalism and was a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times and contributed to VIBE, Rolling Stone, Essence, among other publications. He is a graduate of Stanford University.

I always see a ton of Halo cosplay when attending geek conventions, but I've never seen anything like this before. This is a full-scale Halo Hunter cosplay suit that was built by Alexis Smith, who says she feels like she's in a spaceship when wearing it. The thing is massive, as it stands at 12-feet tall! It's an incredible work of cosplay art.

You can watch it action, along with a whole group of other Halo cosplayers, in the Cosplay Boom video from Emerald City Comic-Con below. In it they all talk about their love for Halo.

Via: Kotaku

Remember Mr. Eko from LOST? Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, the actor who played the tortured priest on the hit sci-fi drama and who has appeared in films like G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, The Bourne Identity, Faster, and Thor: The Dark World, is heading from the Marvel Cinematic Universe over to the DCCU with his newest movie. According to The Wrap, he'll play Killer Croc in David Ayer's Suicide Squad.

Killer Croc is a Batman villain who was born with a disease that gave him reptilian traits, and he's a criminal with superhuman strength, agility, speed, stamina, and razor-sharp teeth. He's appeared in comics, Batman: The Animated Series, as well as video games like the Arkham series. He shares some physical similarities with King Shark, another character who was recently rumored to be a part of this film.

Actress Karen Fukuhara has reportedly been added to the cast as well, and while The Wrap wasn't sure who she'd be playing, El Mayimbe at Latino-Review has an idea about that:

RT! #suicidesquad #skwad #RUMOR There is a minor female role on the actual Squad - #PLASTIQUE There is a scene with her set in a nightclub & the rumor is Karen Fukuhara is playing that role. Unconfirmed till further notice but Plastique is in the movie. #DC #dccu #dcmovie #dccomics #KarenFukuhara #SCOOP

Plus, he tells us when the movie will take place:

FREE TWITTER SCOOP! SUICIDE SQUAD is set & takes place between events of MAN OF STEEL & BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE. RT

— Umberto Gonzalez (@elmayimbe) March 31, 2015

And to throw some more fuel on the Suicide Squad fire, we recently heard how Scott Eastwood was added to the cast but weren't sure as to what character he'd be playing. Now Latino-Review says that he'll be playing Steve Trevor, Wonder Woman's love interest, which means we'll likely be seeing a lot more of the younger Eastwood in the coming years.

What do you think about all of these updates?

Furious 7 revs into theaters this week, and Universal has provided us with some prize packs to give away to a few lucky fans. If you love the Fast & Furious franchise as much as I do, you'll definitely want to rock some of this gear. Read on for a list of what we have to give away, as well as how to enter to win.

We have five prize packs to distribute, and they each consist of the following items:

(1) Furious 7 Men's T-shirt

(1) Furious 7 Women's T-shirt

(1) Furious 7 Water Bottle

(1) Furious 7 air freshener

To enter to win, all you have to do is like GeekTyrant's Facebook page and comment on our Facebook post for this giveaway (embedded below) telling us the reason you love the Fast & Furious franchise. We'll choose five winners at random and then we'll reach out to you on Facebook asking for your mailing address so we can ship you the prize (so keep an eye on your Facebook page if you want to be a winner!) It's as easy as that. The contest ends tomorrow (April 1st, 2015) at 12:00pm PST. Good luck!

Giveaway: Win A FURIOUS 7 Prize Pack

Posted by GeekTyrant on Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has announced a new film project that he wrote the script for called The Belco Experiment. This is a project that he's very passionate about, and it will be directed by Greg McLean of the Wolf Creek movie franchise.

The film has a crazy twisted story, and it sounds like it has potential to be a great and intriguing thriller. Gunn is not only a talented director but writer, as well. So if you're a fan of his work, this is a film that's definitely worth following. 

Gunn goes into detail about what the movie is about, and how it came to be in the announcement below. If there's anyone that can sell you on the project, it's him:

"I’m incredibly excited to announce that we’re commencing production on a new film, The Belco Experiment, from my own script. The story revolves around the American Belco company in South America which is mysteriously sealed off at the beginning of a work day, and its employees are ordered to kill each other or be killed themselves. This starts an escalation of violence, where we discover the true nature of each and every Belco employee. 

"The film will be directed by Greg McLean, who directed the Wolf Creek films, and it will be produced by myself, and Peter Safran, who produced Annabelle and The Conjuring. MGM will be financing. We’re in pre-production now and will be shooting in Bogota, Colombia in early June of this year. 

"I cannot tell you how passionate and excited I am about this project! It’s a script I wrote a few years ago, for which I have always had a deep love. Believe it or not, it’s a film that first came to me in a dream, and I woke up and wrote the first draft in a two-week fugue state binge.

"One of the first people to ever read the script, Jonathan Glickman, carried it around with him for years until becoming President of MGM, when he approached Peter Safran and I about financing it. I was all for it, providing two things: 1) Although it has the heart and humor my films have all had, it is also the most intense and uncompromising script I’ve ever written. It would need to stay true to that. 2) I’d only do it if we found the right director – which, in some ways, I thought was unlikely. 

"Jon promised we’d make the film with full integrity – and, so far, MGM has – awesomely – been true to their word. And, after a long, concentrated search for a director we came to Greg McLean. Greg shares my philosophy about honesty in film, and his naturalistic style lends itself to Belco. The past few weeks we’ve spent working together have been a joy – I don’t know if I’ve ever related to another filmmaker’s sense of aesthetics and love of film more.

"Anyway, stay tuned here on my Facebook page and my other social networking sites, as well as Greg’s Twitter (@GregECP) to follow the process of making the film. We want you guys to be a part of this film as we make it. We’ll announce more casting and crew decisions soon – believe me, plenty of familiar faces will be popping up along the way!"

Animated characters often do things that just aren't physically possible in real life. Example: a good friend of mine tried to do the dance move "The Perfect Cast" from A Goofy Movie at my wedding reception, but because Goofy's legs aren't bound by the normal laws of gravity like my friend's were, he couldn't do an exact replica. (He still did a killer rendition of it, though. It was the best a human being could possibly do.)

But armed with some sped-up video footage, CinemaRaven managed to pull off the seemingly impossible task of snacking just like Homer Simpson. Check out his recreation of one of the show's opening moments, and think about how long it must have taken to memorize the snacking pattern and pull this off, all for nine seconds of glory.

Via: Uproxx