Posted by Michael Sacco on Dec 17, 2010 in Television
For a while, it seemed like the cult favorite Stargate series refused to die; between SG-1’s long run, Atlantis, and the more recent Stargate Universe, it just kept chugging along. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to take a portal to another world if you want to see more Stargate Universe after the final set of this season’s episodes — SyFy has officially cancelled the series. This leaves the fate of the entire Stargate franchise in question. Read more…
Photos of Superman’s nauseatingly bad costume for Superman Lives, Tim Burton’s aborted take on the Man of Steel, surfaced a few months ago. We knew it was bad, but it turns out it’s even worse than we thought. There was video taken of the suit in action, and … it defies words. It’s some kind of Tron-style Electric Superman Laser Floyd light show. If I didn’t know for certain that it was supposed to be a Superman costume, I would never have guessed. What were they thinking? Thank goodness someone had the wherewithal to nip this one in the bud. Read more…
U.S. currency is full of references to the Freemasons, the so-called secret brotherhood that oversaw and controlled the burgeoning nation (and, some people say, still does). That sounds an awful lot like a certain evil overlord who dwells in the scarred land of Mordor, doesn’t it? It looks like dschwen on Threadless had the same idea, and he turned into a shirt pitch. It’s a fantastic mashup of the famous “e pluribus unum” Masonic pyramid and the Eye of Sauron. Let’s hope this one makes it to the printing phase. Read more…
Marvel’s been doing a pretty good job of tying their shared-universe films (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, etc) together, and it looks like they won’t stop trying after The Avengers is released. MTV’s Splash Page spoke with Jon Favreau, who said that the third installment of the Iron Man film franchise will continue the story threads started in the Avengers movie. It’s good that they’ve decided to let the superheroes lead separate lives, so to speak, while also letting them get together for coffee and Cosmic Cubes every now and then. Read more…
It seems like every geeky show or movie has some kind of ID card on it, whether the nametags that Chuck and the Nerd Herd wear on, uh, Chuck, to the CSI lab tech badges, to Jack Bauer’s Counter-Terrorism Unit ID cards (above). Of course, since those places and people don’t exist, we can’t just apply for jobs at those locations and grab a badge for ourselves. Thankfully, Identity Props exists, and they sell replicas of famous (or even obscure) ID cards from various media. Just what you need for your Commissioner Gordon cosplay. Don’t pretend like you haven’t been thinking about it. Read more…
We’ve had a rough, unfinished teaser for the upcoming Thor film making the rounds online for a few months now, but now we’ve got a crisp, glorious, official trailer on which to feast our eyes. The trailer’s got pretty much everything you need — Natalie Portman for the fellas, shirtless (and built) Chris Hemsworth for the ladies, a beautiful Asgard for Jack Kirby fans. Heck, there’s even some action in there. It certainly looks great, and we finally get a taste of the Kirby cosmic mythos that could bring the Marvel films up to that next level of awesome. Let’s hope the film itself hits as hard as Mjolnir does in the trailer. Read more…
Yeah, so, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was missing something. A lot of somethings. And Michael Bay, director of the Transformers live-action films thus far, has listened to your complaints. If you thought the answer to “Just what was the Transformers franchise missing?” was “Apollo 11 astronaut and first man on the moon Neil Armstrong,” then you’re going to love the teaser trailer for 2011’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Okay, so it’s just an actor playing him, but still! Admittedly, the trailer’s gorgeous, and Bay says that the CGI in it is only 75-80% done, so it’ll look even better when it’s complete. Bay even reassures fans that this entry into the series will ditch the “goofy comedy” (his words) of Revenge. Hopefully the racial stereotypes, too. Now to figure out who that Transformer rocking the Fu Manchu mustache is… Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Dec 10, 2010 in Cinema, Horror
Word was that Ridley Scott’s long-planned prequel to the sci-fi classic Alien had been pushed back to 2013 or 2014 at best, or shelved at worst. But it looks like it’s finally happening, with production slated to begin in March and a promise of old-school claustrophobia and horror. There’s even casting going on, with some notable hopefuls, including Michelle Yeoh. Sounds good so far! The only weird thing is the actual title, which is “Paradise,” though we’re not sure if it’s just Paradise or whether it’ll be called Alien: Paradise or something along those lines. Kind of an odd name for an Alien movie, but maybe it’s supposed to be ironic. Read more…
Ever since Heath Ledger’s untimely death prior to the release of The Dark Knight, there’s been questions as to the fate of The Joker in the Batman film series. There’s even been rumors lately that director Christopher Nolan would bring Ledger’s Joker back in digital form for The Dark Knight Rises, using CGI and deleted scenes from The Dark Knight. IndieWire reports that they’ve spoken with Nolan and the rumors are not true — he says that Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight is singular and he won’t be “imported” into The Dark Knight in any way. Good call. Read more…
Telltale Games, the studio behind the new Sam and Max games, acquired the rights to make two awesome IPs — Jurassic Park and Back to the Future — into their classic point-and-click adventure style. Ever since we heard that Christopher Lloyd would be returning to voice Doc Brown, we’ve been pumped to hear Marty McFly and see the game in action, and now Telltale has given us the first teaser trailer for much-anticipated game. Is it me, or is the Marty McFly voice actor eerily accurate? Heavy. Read more…
Classic anime series Space Battleship Yamato, a.k.a. Star Blazers in the US, is gearing up for its theatrical release in Japan, along with a limited US release. And now you can watch five whole minutes of it! It looks like a certain other show with “Battle” in it that takes place in space, and the action is pretty 70s, but it’s a pretty neat adaptation. And, for the ladies, the super-hunky lead singer of SMAP, Kimura Takuya, is playing one of the main characters, Susumu Kodai. That’s Derek Wildstar for you 80s kids out there. Read more…
If you’re like many people, you’ve probably enjoyed The Walking Dead’s first season on AMC, likely due in no small part to its strong writing. If that’s the case, you might be just as confused with the news that showrunner Frank Darabont has fired his entire writing staff as we were. Word is that Darabont wants to replace them all with freelancers, which isn’t uncommon in television, but it is a bit strange for a show as high-profile as The Walking Dead, and one based on an established IP, too. Read more…
When a character is ingrained in our heads well enough, we can recognize their color and shape even after they’ve been simplified many times over. 4×4 Pixels is out to prove this, with a growing gallery of 16-pixel renditions of pop culture heroes, like Legend of Zelda’s Link, shown above. I personally loved their interpretation of Jaws (yes, the shark) and Chewbacca — both instantly recognizable despite being little more than blocks of color. It really is amazing the gaps that our brain can fill. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Nov 28, 2010 in Star Trek
Prior to the original Star Trek series, there were never any real science fiction hits on television, or any kind of science fiction television, for that matter. Gene Roddenberry, the show’s creator, seemed to to understand the unique position that he was in as possibly spearheading the mainstreaming of sci-fi, and that’s clearly indicated in this letter unearthed by Letters of Note. In it, Roddenberry instructs his sales agent, who was in charge of pitching the Trek pilot to networks, not to make concessions or adjustments that would compromise the creative vision of the show. It’s almost alarming how candid he is in this letter; as he puts it, “Maybe it’s catharsis. But I think it’s more.” It certainly was. He was successful, though in a roundabout way — NBC rejected the first pilot, “The Cage,” but immediately requested a second pilot. This was the famous “Where No Man Has Gone Before” that kicked off the series right. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Nov 27, 2010 in Star Wars
House of Mouse on Etsy created these incredibly adorable Star Wars mice, in varieties including the above Chewbacca, Stormtroopers, Boba Fett, Vader, and even C3PO! They even manage to make Jabba disarmingly cute. Of course, Chewbacca wins out a little here, having been huggable in the first place. Look at that fuzzy mug and tell me that you wouldn’t let the wookiee win. Read more…
Though it’s no great surprise to people who’ve been following the development of the past two Batman films, Christian Bale recently admitted that unless Chris Nolan tells him otherwise, the upcoming Dark Knight Rises will be his last Batman film. The statement does make sense — Bale is only contractually obligated to star in three Batman movies, and he’s said several times that he’d only star if Nolan was at the helm. He does leave some wiggle room, though; Nolan could very well decide to do another Batman film, and Bale could likely be convinced if that was the case. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Nov 26, 2010 in Comic Books
Fabian Glez created these 77 rectangles, each of them representing a superhero with a bare minimum of detail. How many of them can you identify? If you can’t figure them all out, Fabian has a cheat sheet on his Flickr page. Prints of the work are available if you’d like to make your wall minimally super. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Nov 26, 2010 in Cinema, Horror
The prequel film to John Carpenter’s The Thing was originally slated for an April 2011 release, but it just got bumped from that slot thanks to some reshoots. Thankfully, Universal decided not to just give up on the film entirely — it’s set to be released October 14th, 2011. Just in time for Halloween! Carpenter’s original film is a tense, claustrophobic horror classic, and the fact that the prequel is being handled by another director gives me cause for concern, but honestly I’m a little surprised it got made at all. Maybe there’s something here after all — and with a year until the release date, there’s enough time for the film to shapeshift into something compelling. Read more…
The upcoming Judge Dredd remake, spartanly titled Dredd, has just started filming, but a set photo of Karl Urban as the titular ass-kicker has already leaked, giving us a sneak peek at his costume. Thankfully, it looks like very few liberties have been taken with Dredd’s getup, and it looks slightly more gritty than the version used in Stallone’s terrible take on the character. Urban has done pretty well in the other genre pieces he’s been in, sometimes in spite of the subject matter, so it’ll be interesting to see how we judge this Dredd. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Nov 21, 2010 in Television
Fox’s dimension-hopping sci-fi drama, Fringe, took its time to get good, but by golly did it get good. Unfortunately, its ratings haven’t been up to par — it’s in a difficult timeslot, competing with shows like CSI Thursdays at 9 PM. Well, the good news is that it won’t have much competition anymore. The bad news is that it’s because it’s being moved to Friday at 9 PM instead. This timeslot is colloquially referred to as the “Friday Night Death Slot,” where dozens of other shows — usually genre shows, at that — have gone to die. So is there any good news? Actually, yes — Fringe’s grand-daddy The X-Files lived a good long life Fridays at 9, so if you care about it, make sure you watch it at its new time, or it’s bye-bye Fringe Division. Read more…
Casting has officially begun for the upcoming Superman reboot (yes, another one), and Warner Bros. is ready to make a star, whether they like it or not. Not only are they looking for relatively unknown actors, they’re also saying that it may be impossible to hire a famous name anyway due to budget constraints. If you think they’re trying to get this film out the door quickly and cheaply, you’re probably right — if the Warners don’t start production by the middle of 2011, they risk losing the Superman license. But hey, whoever ends up being the new Supes will either deal with being Superman forever (Christopher Reeve), remaining in relative obscurity (Brandon Routh), or dating a Playmate (Dean Cain). I guess some of those aren’t too bad. Read more…
Reportedly, the script for Christopher Nolan’s next (and likely final) Batman movie is almost complete, and rumors are pouring in as to its contents. The latest rumblings indicate that, contrary to previous speculation, there’s not a more supernatural villain like Killer Croc or Clayface — instead, so they say, the story arc is based on Doug Moench’s Prey storyline. For those who haven’t read it, it involves Hugo Strange hypnotizing a man into becoming a vigilante and pursuing Batman. Catwoman even makes an appearance, which would make sense given other casting rumors. Of course, we won’t know anything for certain until we get some details from Nolan himself, and that might be a while. The film doesn’t start shooting until next year. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Nov 19, 2010 in Comic Books
French photographer Sacha Goldberger’s 91-year-old grandmother was feeling depressed, so he suggested they have a photo shoot to cheer her up. But not just any photo shoot: he turned her into the superhero Mamika and lined up a ton of amazing shots. Grandma Goldberger looks like she’s having a great time throughout. In fact, says Goldberger, his grandmother hasn’t shown a trace of her old depression since, because the experience has let her share her amazing life story — living through World War II, surviving Nazism and Communism — with thousands of people worldwide. In my book, that makes her extraordinary enough. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Nov 19, 2010 in Cinema, Star Wars
Helvetica: it’s a font, not an alien planet, though apparently it’s right at home in the Star Wars universe. Ad firm H-57 created these great Star Wars images composed entirely of typography elements, and they’re pretty elegant in their simplicity. Makes you wonder who did the Empire’s design work. Imagine the repercussions if the kerning wasn’t right on Vader’s business cards. Read more…
