Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno played Bruce Banner and his musclebound alter ego, respectively, in the 70s television version of classic comic book series The Incredible Hulk. It ran for a good while, and was probably the most well-known and successful comic book-related TV series ever made. It looks like Marvel is hoping lightning will strike twice — they’ve announced plans to bring the green giant back to television. Stan Lee is excited, and you should be too, because guess who’s thrown his hat into the ring as a possible show runner? None either than Hellboy director and visionary filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro. We figure if there’s anybody who knows how to humanize monsters, it’s that guy. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 17, 2010 in Star Trek
Apparently this couple loves Picard as much as they love each other (and that’s fine; there’s room for a little Jean-Luc in any relationship). Their friend made them this edible cake bust of the Enterprise’s venerable captain; additionally, he made you jealous that you didn’t have this as your wedding cake. First pizza cutters, now this? What’s the next piece of food-related Star Trek paraphernalia we’ll see? A jello mold of Deanna Troi?
NASA, in conjunction with Etsy, is running a contest. The parameters: make something really cool by hand, and theme it around space exploration! There are already some really neat entries, like the above necktie based on the recently-declassified Apollo lander manual. The winner gets a $500 Etsy shopping spree and, presumably, the brag-worthy title of Artisan NASA Thought Was The Best.
Official rules are here — you have until November 2nd to turn in your entry. If you’re not the crafty type, you can always just keep an eye on the page and see what awesome space-y stuff the Etsians have come up with. Read more…
Bilbo Baggins famously said “Not all who wander are lost,” and the axiom appears to be true even where movies are concerned. The two films based on The Hobbit, considered to be the prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, are now finally greenlit despite what appeared to be insurmountable issues with nearly every facet of production. Peter Jackson is set to direct both films (replacing a frustrated Guillermo Del Toro), which will start preliminary filming back-to-back in February of 2011.
As for casting, Ian McKellen is set to return as the wizard Gandalf, and Martin Freeman is rumored to be playing Bilbo Baggins. We should expect to hear more casting news now that the film finally has its greenlight. Read more…
Sillof & Glorbes, makers of countless other incredible custom action figures, did this awesome WWII-themed Star Wars reimagining! There’s a lot to love here, from Darth Vader’s technological downgrade to Han Solo’s Millenium Falcon bomber jacket. The Stormtrooper figure above is “the most literal fusion of WWII and Star Wars imagery,” but other characters deviate a bit. Boba Fett, for example, now has a flamethrower arm. Can’t really argue with that. Read more…
Sony is officially rebooting the Spiderman franchise, and they have their Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) and their Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). But the question on everyone’s mind isn’t who Spiderman is smoochin’ on, it’s who he’s swingin’ at! And it looks like we may finally have our answer. Actor Rhys Ifans was recently added to the cast in the role of the film’s villain, but we didn’t have any idea as to who he was playing until now. The Wrap reports that Ifans, a Welsh actor perhaps best known in America for his role in Notting Hill, will be playing classic Spidey villain The Lizard, a.k.a. Doc Connors. We haven’t heard anything from Sony yet, so take the news with a grain of salt, but it does seem like a pretty good fit. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 10, 2010 in Star Wars
Franco Bambrilla has this great image, titled “Imperial Minigolf Final Exam,” available in giclee print form. I’m trying to figure out what exactly’s going on. Maybe that stormtrooper’s about to make a free throw. I can’t see the hoop, but I imagine that armor has to augment you somehow, right? It’s probably just off-camera. That would probably be a three-pointer, though. Wait, no, this is mini-golf, not basketball. Maybe you have to make a putt through a two-meter exhaust vent? Read more…
Bucking the trend completely, Warner Bros. has officially backed out of plans to release Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One in 3D, citing that time constraints wouldn’t allow for a quality conversion. Believe it or not, this actually bodes well for 3D cinema on the whole — it’s the first time a studio has come out in favor of quality over quantity where 3D is concerned. However, Warner Bros. still plans to release the second Deathly Hallows film in 3D, so I’m not sure if we can chalk this up as a win for 3D cinema just yet. Read more…
These awesome photos from the Moscow Aviation Institute depict the aborted Soviet moon lander project. The US ended up winning the space race in the 60s, just as Kennedy promised, but the Soviets weren’t too far behind, as these devices show. Also in this gallery are photos of the Soyuz landing capsule, the docking station for the Internation Space Station, and more marvels of the Soviet space program. Even amidst the metal plating and plexiglass you can see the fragility of it all, the myriad of things that could go wrong in space. It’s a wonder that we ever got to space at all, much less in machines like this, but we did it. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 8, 2010 in Animation
For the honor of Greyskull! He-Man’s female counterpart, She-Ra, just celebrated her 25th anniversary. The Princess of Power, whose first adventure aired in 1985, was one of the first animated female superheroes, and the first real role model for girls amidst the male-dominated 80s cartoonscape. Mattel and Filmation have been celebrating Adora’s anniversary all year by releasing new toys based on characters from her adventures, and there’s a new collection of animated episodes available now on Hulu, iTunes, and regular old DVD. Read more…
Most studios are okay with just using ads and merchandising tie-ins to drum up publicity for their upcoming animated films, but not Dreamworks. No, they had something much bigger in mind to promote Megamind, Will Ferrell’s upcoming CG superhero movie: they wanted to break a world record. Specifically, the record for most superheroes gathered in a single place. And they did it! In Los Angeles’ Nokia Plaza, over 1501 people showed up in superhero garb, edging out the previous record gathering of 1500 costumed crimefighters. Let’s hope that the movie, out November 5th, is worth this kind of (admittedly awesome) publicity. Read more…
While I’m trying not to establish myself as the “concept art guy” around here, sometimes a gallery of images is so cool that I just have to link it. And, not to play semantics or anything, these are concept cars, which are totally different from concept art. Not really. Specifically, though, these are concept cars from Japanese auto companies from the last 50 years, ranging in design from “sporty” to “swanky” to “kind of looks like a mechanical caterpillar” (like the above). Some of them seem straight out of a sci-fi movie — and some of them actually are. Read more…
…he showed up at Marvel HQ and told them so! Isaiah Mustafa (himself a big ol’ geek who even went to Comic-Con) has said several times that he wants to play Marvel brawler Luke Cage in a movie, but this time he took matters into his own hands, showing up at Marvel in the flesh. They filmed this great riff on his famous “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” ads with Old Spice while he was there, using action figures and superimposing Mustafa’s head over Luke Cage’s plastic incarnation. Personally? I think he’s got the chops. The karate chops. Read more…
San Diego Comic-Con is the biggest event in geek culture, the Mecca toward which all self-respecting nerds point themselves once a year. But it almost became Los Angeles Comic-Con, or Anaheim Comic-Con, thanks to price gouging by local venues and hotels looking to capitalize on the 130,000 fans who flock to the area every year. Negotiations were fierce to cash in on the $150+ million dollars the event brings local tourism — Los Angeles reportedly offered the administrators convention space at no cost — but in the end, the con’s old home beat out all comers. Comic-Con will remain in San Diego, at least until 2015. Sorry, Anaheim — looks like you’ll have to lean on BlizzCon for another five years. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 1, 2010 in Star Wars
No, not that kind of 3D. ComingSoon reports that Lucasfilm will be re-releasing the Star Wars films — again — in theaters, this time with a trendy 3D conversion. But even if you’re into Star Wars (or 3D conversions, which are getting pretty tiresome at this point), don’t get excited just yet. The 3D films will be released in story order — in other words, Phantom Menace first. Releasing the objectively worst film of the series first probably isn’t the best way to generate opening-weekend profits, or to guarantee future releases.
Oh well. At least Industrial Light & Magic is overseeing the conversion, so we can expect a treatment that does the original films justice — that is, if the re-releases make it that far. Read more…
It’s not like there was ever really a doubt in the matter, but given that there’s been no word about it either way, one could perhaps get a little antsy as to whether or not visionary director Christopher Nolan would be returning to direct the third installment in the rebooted Batman franchise. Well, doubt no more! Empire recently spoke with the man himself, and he sort kind of semi-confirmed he’d be helming the new Batman film. Though he waffled a bit at the beginning of the interview, with a little prodding he said we can safely assume that he’s directing. The site was also able to confirm that there’s even a script, written by his brother Jonathan — again, no surprise, but comforting news to fans of the superb previous two films. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Sep 16, 2010 in Star Wars
Brandon Griffith, who created the A New Hope chess set made of Lego bricks, followed it up with this awesomely detailed Empire Strikes Back set. The base (which itself is pretty neat) opens up to store all the pieces inside. The only problem? There’s only one, which means I can’t buy it. My shields can’t repel sadness of this magnitude. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Sep 16, 2010 in Star Trek
This new hoodie from Threadless is perfect for the closet geek — while zipped up, it’s just a normal hand with its palm out, but unzip it a bit, and you display Spock’s famous greeting to your kindred spirits. Very clever. Hopefully this design lives long and prospers — but if you’re like me, you won’t wait to buy it anyway. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Sep 15, 2010 in Horror, Star Trek
Quirk Books, the publishing group behind the smash hit Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (and an endless line of imitators), has released an amazing live-action trailer for their upcoming release Night of the Living Trekkies. It’s a zombie comedy romp with a twist — it takes place in a Star Trek convention, and all the zombies are costumed attendees. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Sep 15, 2010 in Comic Books
In the 1970s, Martin Goodman sold Marvel Comics, the company he had founded. He then promptly founded Atlas Comics with strong support for creators’ rights, hired comic heavyweights like Steve Ditko, created a stable of original characters, and … disappeared. But, channeling comic book characters, Atlas refuses to stay dead. Deadline reports that Goodman’s grandson Jason is relaunching the Atlas line, starting with two original characters: Phoenix and the Grim Ghost. Of note is the fact that the film and TV rights for all of Atlas’ characters are available — maybe this means we can stop rebooting Spiderman every ten years.
We’ve heard for a while that Stephen King’s Dark Tower book series stands to be adapted into some kind of moving-picture media format, but it’s been up in the air in terms of the who and the how. Ron Howard, who’s now helming the project, recently told Deadline what he has in mind, and it’s a little crazy: a series that will span three movies and two seasons of a television show, using the same sets and actors. That’s right. He wants to begin the story with a film, then air a season of the television show immediately afterward, then release another film, then air another season of the show, then cap off the entire thing with another film. Howard hopes that reusing sets and actors between the media formats will help save money; beyond costs, he says that the movies can provide really epic moments while the television show would allow character and story nuances to shine through. If he can get the project off the ground, along with screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, it might just be the Next Big Thing. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Sep 14, 2010 in Cinema, Horror
Bruce Campbell leveraged a long and successful career out of Sam Raimi’s cult classic horror film Evil Dead, but he’s hardly forgotten his roots, according to a recent interview with the LA Times. Campbell says that working on the Dead films was a long, grueling experience, and the advice he gives fledgling filmmakers is “get two other friends and be prepared to sink four years into your project.” Besides a lot of other interesting tidbits — Evil Dead‘s production was funded by Detroit-area doctors and lawyers, for example — the coolest thing by far mentioned in this interview was Campbell’s desire to make an Expendables-style horror-comedy ensemble movie. He says it could happen in the next year or so, and that he wants horror greats like Robert Englund and Kane Hodder to be in it with him. There’s even a script! The only problem? “It just kind of blows right now.” That’s Bruce Campbell honesty for you. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Sep 13, 2010 in Videogames
It looks like even the folks behind the Iron Curtain couldn’t resist the appeal of an arcade. Dangerous Business highlights their visit to the Museum of Soviet Arcade Games with shots of the amazing arcade machines therein, from the undoubtedly thrilling “Torpedo Attack” (above) to the slightly more mundane “Traffic Sign Quiz” to the incomprehensible “Turnip Strength Tester” (below). What’s notable is that none of these machines seem particularly jovial — all hard edges and dull colors, the hardware equivalent of “programmer art.” Connal Hughes of Dangerous Business noticed it too, commenting that they “looked like they were designed with the same sense of fun that an engineer would use to construct a hospital waiting room.” Who would’ve known that Brutalist design could even producethese kinds of machines? I guess when things in your country are as bad as they were for the Soviets, you have to take what you can get. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Sep 13, 2010 in Star Trek
The Star Trek reboot was one of the biggest cinema hits of 2009, for good reason — it was a great movie. Director J.J. Abrams did a lot of things right, and he’d like to keep that pattern going for the film’s sequel, according to a new interview with SFX Magazine. Fans have been clamoring for Klingons to be featured in the second film of the rebooted series, and Abrams says he isn’t deaf to those pleas, but it’s a matter of seeing what works in the lens of this slightly different film universe. He said that adding something that’s popular with fans to the franchise for the sake of likeability isn’t necessarily the best idea, but if it can work, they’ll do it. He also told fans not to worry — the tone of the first film should be carried over to the second, in terms of humor interspersed with the drama. Good news there. No evidence of gritty sequelitis found — put that needle away, Bones. Read more…
