Could we be seeing a Hollywood-produced Star Blazers live-action film in foreseeable future? Well, it’s not 100% official just yet. Skydance Productions are reportedly in the process of negotiating the license for the series. If some of you recall, Japan recently produced a live-action adaptation of their own that performed pretty well, so I imagine there’s probably some pressure to make sure the Hollywood adaptation will at least hold a candle to that. It probably won’t be a problem, seeing as they plan on hiring Christopher McQuarrie to write the script — he’s also working on the upcoming Wolverine “sequel.”
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Feb 22, 2011 in Science, Tech
Japan recently announced that they’re considering sending a talking humanoid robot to the International Space Station in 2013. In addition to offering companionship, and being generally creepy — it’s suppose to monitor the astronauts while they sleep — it’ll communicate with Earth via twitter, where it’ll tweet images to its followers on the ground. Sadly, I don’t think the robot will posess super-human strength, or any form of self-awareness. After all, I doubt Japan has any cyberneticists capable of crafting the appropriate positronic components. Read more…
Japanese anime run on a four season schedule, so to be serious about this hobby, a fan must be aware of anime that is going to be happening in the following season. The next season is slated to begin from March until June. Referring to the chart below, anyone would realize that there is a number of titles already announced. From those announced titles, these are my ten choices to not just watch, but know that a lot more fans might be checking out. Read more…
Posted by Linda Yau on Feb 21, 2011 in Comic Books
Maintaining a blog and growing with it, has been an personal interest, since I began my own blog. My own blogigng life has been what I believe to be an ever changing one with writing as well as reading other blogs. There is one blogging niche that I have actively been keeping apace with, and the manga blogging community is a close knit group. Certain names are mentioned and appear time and again. Thanks in part to the Twitter networking, Google reader, and continuing blogging projects like an annual Great Manga Gift Guide recommendation list or Manga Movable Feast, it would be good to have these bloggers on your blog reading radar. This list is listed in alphabetical order, by the blogger’s first name; a link to their writing/blogs is also included with additional information about what makes them memorable bloggers. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Feb 20, 2011 in Cinema, Star Trek
This is one of those stories that makes me wonder if things wouldn’t actually have been better if they had turned out as originally planned. Star Trek producer Rick Berman stated in a recent interview that the last film to star the Next Generation crew, Star Trek: Nemesis, was originally going to star a completely new cast of characters, but Berman fought to keep the TNG cast around for another film. At that point, Berman argues, Enterprise was just about to hit TV, so he felt like introducing yet another new Federation crew would’ve alienated series fans. Nemesis was not a great film by any means, its production was hampered with problems with both its script and cast, and it certainly didn’t make any money for Paramount, so one has to wonder if maybe a new cast and a fresh take on Trek would’ve made a better movie. Fun fact: Shinzon, Picard’s clone (shown above), was played by a young Tom Hardy, who you may know from Inception, and who’ll soon be playing Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. Read more…
Seems like we’re seeing lots more anime adaptations of quintessentially American IPs, like Supernatural, coming out of Japan these days, and a lot of them are through the animation studio Madhouse. Their latest offering, an X-Men anime, has all the hallmarks of such an adaptation — achingly beautiful hero (Cyclops), a whole lot of fire, and a Thundercats character. Wait, no, that’s Beast. But you can’t deny that there’s a family resemblance there! I think that X-Men is actually a property that might work well in anime, with its mix of character drama and over-the-top action, so I’ll be interested to see the final product. Read more…
Brand-new brawler Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has a pretty robust roster of 38 characters (including announced DLC characters), but just because a character didn’t make it into the game in playable form doesn’t mean they didn’t make it in at all. Each playable character’s ending in Arcade mode has unique art and dialogue, and almost every ending has cameos from both sides of the Marvel-Capcom spectrum. GamesRadar has collected them all and catalogued them for your perusal, and there are cameos from some seriously obscure or second-string characters here. Shanna the She-Devil? Dazzler? Fin Fang Foom? Awesome. And then there are some matchups that just make sense, like Devil May Cry‘s Dante duking it out with Ghost Rider. I’d pay to see that fight. Read more…
No, not Val Kilmer, the other guy. Shane Black, who directed RDJ in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, is said to be helming the third Iron Man film after Jon Favreau was booted from the director’s spot. Downey ultimately has choice of director in that he is allowed to leave the project if he doesn’t approve of the director, so Paramount and Marvel Studios have reason to keep him happy. Black and Downey have a long history and a good friendship — in fact, much of the original Iron Man‘s dialogue was cribbed from discussions between the two in Downey’s trailer even while filming was ongoing. Black is a great choice for director, and he may even be writing the film as well, so let’s hope that the third film in the series fares better script-wise than the second did. Read more…
Director Matthew Vaughn isn’t even done with X-Men: First Class yet, but that isn’t stopping him from planning his next venture, which he says a major studio is ready to fund. It’s called The Golden Age, and it’s based on an unreleased comic book written by UK TV personality Jonathan Ross, and Vaughn likens it to “The Expendables with superheroes.” The comic book follows several retired superheroes who have to team up one last time to fix the problems their superhero children have caused in the world. Vaughn says that he’d love to have Jack Nicholson or Warren Beatty in lead roles, or any other former big-time star who’s now relegated to side roles. Sounds like a neat concept, but I’ll have to wait until the comic is released to make a real judgement on the film’s prospects. Read more…
The last few Thor trailers haven’t really had a lot to say in terms of Thor the character, just how people around him react to him. We haven’t gotten a chance to see the oblivious oaf side of the Odinson, a necessary counterpart to his more stalwart and heroic side. Well, in this latest trailer, we get a little more action and a little more oaf. And Kat Dennings taking out the depowered god of thunder with a taser. This I like. We even get the indication that Loki is the villain of the film, not just a side character! Not that followers of the film didn’t already know that, but at least the trailer is making it obvious to the average viewer. It’s a big summer for comic book movies — let’s hope Thor makes an impact. Read more…
Various outlets are reporting that Friday Night Lights star Adrianne Palicki has been cast as Diana Prince in NBC’s upcoming Wonder Woman television series. The joint venture between writer David E. Kelley and Jeffrey Reiner had a bumpy start, but after being passed on by a number of networks, NBC finally came to the rescue. Unfortunately, like rival network Fox, NBC is often quick to pull the plug if a show doesn’t hit the ground running. We’ll just have to hope that Palicki has the skills to match her striking looks — after all, anyone can dye their hair black, but handling that Lasso of Truth? Well, that remains to be seen.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Feb 17, 2011 in Videogames
Xbox 360 owners are in for a bit of treat when they pre-order Larin Studios’ upcoming expansion for their hit RPG Divinity II, entitled The Dragon Knight Saga. Those of you who were unfortunate enough to own the previous title for your console may be happy to know that this upcoming release will feature a remastered version, complete with new content, an improved engine and support for the Flames of Vengeance add-on. On top of that, Atlus, the game’s North American publisher has decided to sell it for the low price of $39.99, and those of you who pre-order will recieve an art book and soundtrack to boot.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 16, 2011 in Animation, Fandom
You know how when you go to a really popular anime convention that there might be say a 100 people waiting on line to get their badge? Well back in the 80s those 100 people would be pretty much the sum total of anime fandom in New York City! Thanks to Saul Trabal (show in the photo above) we have a wonderful little photo essay from that era when anime was limited to getting VHS tapes from friends of friends who had pen pals in Japan: Read more…
Check out this fantastic little mash-up by writer & graphic designer Ben Huber. Anyone who’s a fan of Baccano! will recognize the characters but the image is quite clearly paying homage to a certain poster from Christopher Nolan’s box office hit, Inception. On top of that, you’ll really appreciate the attention to detail, as while you may be unable to see the text without enlarging the image, those credits are completely accurate. It sort of blows my mind that he had time to do that, but it’s certainly cool that he did.
Last week, fellow fanboy Mike Sacco posted the X-Men: First Class trailer that premiered on the film’s official facebook. Like most of you, I was pretty excited about the new direction the series will be taking with this prequel of sorts. The trailer itself did a great job of selling us on the premise — the young Charles Xavier befriends Erik Lensherr and forms the original X-Men, amidst what we came to know as the cold war. Recently, IGN broke down the trailer piece by piece to show us all the little easter eggs we missed the first time around, and if you’re big on Marvel lore, or some hints about the plot, you’ll want to give it a watch. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Feb 15, 2011 in Videogames
If you’re a Playstation Plus user — and I know most of you aren’t — you’re in for a treat today. Sony passed along a free copy of the PS3/PSP mini The Flying Hamster as their gift to you — just check your PS3 message box for a note containing an attachment that’ll allow you to download it for free.I have to admit, I wasn’t very optimistic with the initial offerings for Playstation Plus subscribers. For a paid subscription service, Xbox Live! looked far more attractive, with a plethora of content fuled by the seemingly endless stream of income generated by the enormous user base.
Visitors from all around flocked to San Francisco’s Union Square Park yesterday to catch a glimpse of Lawrence Noble’s giant fiber glass Yoda heart. The attraction is part of San Francisco’s Heroes and Hearts fundraiser to benefit San Francisco General’s Hospital Foundation — an independent NPO that supports patient care at the city’s largest hospital. I’m glad they finished it just in time for Valentine’s Day, but I really wish they had gotten to word out sooner. As you can see from the video above, people have been posing for pictures with it all day. No word on how long this temporary attraction will be on display, but if you do visit, don’t be that guy who has to throw up the Vulcan salute. It’s just not cool.
In hindsight over 40 years later Star Trek is clearly the most successful science fiction television series of all time — but that wasn’t always the case. In the early 70s (before Star Wars) it was looking like Star Trek was pretty much dead. The only sign of life the series was in 1974 when Filmation ran a well done but poorly rated Saturday morning animated series. But then on September 13th, 1975 sci fi fans had a new option, and for this fanboy Space:1999 captured my heart for the next two years that it ran. Here are nine reasons why I think the show deserves some respect in the 21st Century: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 14, 2011 in Comic Books
Above: “Hurry up Green Arrow: It’s our turn to kiss Lois Lane NOW!”
Most of us know Superman thanks to his many appearances in movies and television shows — but once upon a time the man of steel was mostly a creature of print. And in that tradition DC Comics had to expand the franchise as much as they could: And one of the results was Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane a comic book series that lasted from 1958 until 1974. The cover art and content of each issue was quite silly by today’s standards — in fact after a while you almost feel sorry for poor Superman: Read more…
Idris Elba plays Heimdall in Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming Thor movie, and like any good superhero movie, Thor has its fair share of merchandising. At its Toy Fair yesterday, Hasbro showed off its line of Thor figures, including Elba’s Heimdall, which brings back a feature action figures have really been missing since the 80s — strategically-placed loincloths. That’s not even bringing up the figure’s Captain Morgan pose. It must be strange to have action figures made of you for a film; when Jeff Goldblum was asked about his Jurassic Park action figure, he said “Well, the main difference is the muscles. Mine are much bigger in real life.” Read more…
Licensed games, especially those based on kids’ properties, tend not to be so great, and Transformers games are no exception. Thankfully, Hasbro had the gumption to let High Moon Studios release a non-tie-in, fully canon Transformers game — War for Cybertron — in 2010, and that gamble paid off in the form of a fun, beautiful game. Now it seems Hasbro is banking on High Moon to produce another Transformers title, but this time it’s a tie-in for the upcoming movie Transformers: Dark of the Moon. High Moon’s Sean Miller assured IGN that they got the franchise because they’re all big Transformers fans, and that since the game acts as a prequel to the film, they’re not beholden to a particular script or scenario for their set pieces and gameplay. Can High Moon one-up themselves and make not only another good Transformers game, but a good Transformers movie game? Time will tell. Read more…
Sure, one crew travels in Starfleet’s best ship, and the other travels in a phone booth, but they’re both credited for saving the universe several times over. And now, here they are, together at last: Kirk, Spock, the Doctor, and Amy Pond, ready to kick some Klingon tail! And Dalek tail, and Cyberman tail, and Romulan tail. What, only four evil races? Against these guys? The bad guys don’t stand a chance. Great work from Summerset over at DeviantArt. Read more…
We had heard a rumor several months back that the forces behind the American live-action Akira remake wanted Zac Efron, of all people, to star as Kaneda. It’s bad enough that they’re remaking Akira with no Japanese people, but Zac Efron? Let’s get real, people. Apparently the original rumor was or is now false, because the newest rumor says that James Franco is being courted for the role of Tetsuo’s biker pal. Well, it’s better than Zac Efron, and dude looks good in a leather jacket, though, you know, still not an Asian person. Maybe we can hope for a sequel, Akira 2: Tokyo Drift. Read more…
Finally, the first trailer for X-Men: First Class has been released. Apparently filming is still ongoing, or was up until recently, even though the film has a release date of just four months from now. You wouldn’t know that from the trailer, though, which actually looks pretty good! We see Magneto and Xavier being pals, Azazel bamfing around, Emma Frost going all diamond on us, and some short shots of other X-Men like Beast and Havok (the latter mysteriously present in the 1960s). The movie’s plot seems to revolve around the Cuban Missile Crisis, which would definitely be a compelling point in history for mutants to reveal themselves. Here’s hoping the movie can be completed in a satisfactory manner before June. Read more…
In hindsight over 40 years later Star Trek is clearly the most successful science fiction television series of all time — but that wasn’t always the case. In the early 70s (before Star Wars) it was looking like Star Trek was pretty much dead. The only sign of life the series was in 1974 when Filmation ran a well done but poorly rated Saturday morning animated series. But then on September 13th, 1975 sci fi fans had a new option, and for this fanboy Space:1999 captured my heart for the next two years that it ran. Here are nine reasons why I think the show deserves some respect in the 21st Century: 
