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Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 10, 2014 in Cinema 
After rumors swirling for the past month, it has officially been confirmed: Bridesmaids director Paul Feig will direct a new Ghostbusters film, it’ll be scripted by Katie Dippold (who wrote The Heat), and will reportedly feature an all-female leading cast. If we’re going to have to make a new Ghostbusters film, I think this is a great direction to take it. Feig has a great interview over at EW where he goes into detail about his ideas regarding the film as a reboot, as well as addressing some internet complainers about the cast: “When people accuse it of being a gimmick I go, why is a movie starring women considered a gimmick and a movie starring men is just a normal movie?” Good question, Paul! I doubt the internet commenters have a satisfactory answer to that retort, though. Read the full interview here. Read more…
Tags: Ghostbusters
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 9, 2014 in Cinema 
Remember when Disney adapted their Disneyland ride Pirates of the Caribbean into a movie? While the sequels and fellow ride-turned-movie The Haunted Mansion got mixed reviews, the first Pirates movie was great fun. Brad Bird (The Incredibles) is currently adapting Disneyland’s Tomorrowland section — or at least adapting the name and concept — into a movie starring George Clooney. The story involves a young girl (Britt Robertson) teaming up with a failed inventor (Clooney) to rediscover Tomorrowland, a sort-of separate, better world of science. Ordinary people have difficulty finding this wonderland, much in the way that only wizards can enter Platform 9 ¾ to go to Hogwarts. Obviously, most of the production is shrouded in mystery, but this first image sets the imagination on fire. Tomorrowland seems to be a mix of dreamy nostalgia and retro-futuristic optimism, another sign that escapist stories are continuing to move away from depressing dystopias in favor of dreams of a better tomorrow. Read more…
Tags: Brad Bird, Disney, Tomorrowland
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 9, 2014 in Television, Videogames 
Here’s a blast from the past. Many will remember Myst, the prerendered videogame from 1993 that has the player touching books to enter immersive worlds (or “ages”) filled with puzzles. The series ended with Myst V in 2005, but now Legendary Entertainment has announced a deal that will allow them to develop Myst for TV. Since there is little story in the game, there are many ways this adaptation could go. I wouldn’t be surprised if they included a new age or two if their story needs it. But dormant fans should take note: developers Rand and Robyn Miller have discussed making a new videogame to tie-in to the TV series, so the franchise may see a sudden revival. Read more…
Tags: Myst
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 8, 2014 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Since Robert Downey Jr. is only contracted for one more Avengers movie after 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, many assumed that individual Iron Man films may be no more. The actor commands an extremely high paycheck, and he has also expressed an interest in retiring from the role as he gets older. It would make sense for Marvel to continue to build up newer heroes while giving Iron Man a big send-off (before a later recasting) in Avengers 3. But lo and behold, maybe Downey will be starring in more films than expected! On Ellen, he admitted that Iron Man 4 was in development. It would be strange for him to allow the crowd to get excited if he wasn’t involved, so perhaps Marvel’s willing to pony up the cash to keep their biggest star around. It also gives me hope that he may remain involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Avengers 3, at least in some capacity. Read more…
Tags: Iron Man, Marvel
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 8, 2014 in Videogames 
I’ll be honest: I didn’t think Super Smash Bros. for Wii U would come out this year. Though the tie-in Amiibo toys were scheduled to be released soon, it was somewhat strange that it was already October and no one knew the release date of the supposed “Holiday 2014” release. But apparently I was wrong, because Nintendo has finally announced that the game would be out on November 21, the same day as Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire. As a reminder, you can also get a bundle with a Gamecube controller adapter and a Smash-branded controller for $100, $10 cheaper than grabbing the adapter and controller separately. Read more…
Tags: Nintendo, Super Smash Bros., Wii U
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 7, 2014 in Television 
25 years after Twin Peaks finished airing on ABC, David Lynch and Mark Frost are reviving the cult TV show on Showtime as a nine-episode limited series. Lynch and Frost are writing and producing every episode, with Lynch directing the entire series. It seems as though actor Kyle MacLachlan will be returning, and it’s likely many other of Lynch’s collaborators will return. The two creators promise to finish long-standing mysteries and give the story a full conclusion with this present-day continuation. Perhaps this is the reason that the original series (and movie) were released on Blu-ray recently. If you don’t want to buy Twin Peaks, you can find the whole series on Netflix; or you can watch Showtime, which will rerun the original series as a precursor to the 2016 premiere of the limited series. Read more…
Tags: Twin Peaks
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 7, 2014 in Anime, Comic Books 
The Big Three shonen manga series has been slowly crumbling as the stories get longer and longer. The Bleach anime stopped in 2012 (though it seems they could finish it later a la InuYasha: The Final Act), and the manga has been working towards a conclusion for a while. And while the Naruto anime (Naruto Shippuden) is still going strong, Weekly Shonen Jump (which serializes all three manga) has announced that the manga will end on November 10, only five weeks away. Author Masashi Kishimoto had mentioned the manga was nearing its conclusion in 2012, so it’s not like this is unexpected or anything. But once Naruto anime winds down and the Bleach manga ends, the only surviving member of the Big Three will be One Piece. And while the manga hid its midpoint in 2010, it shows no sign of stopping any time soon. Read more…
Tags: Naruto, Shonen Jump
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 6, 2014 in Television 
Marvel wants you to come and meet the cast of their new Daredevil series! The Netflix show won’t be starting until next year, but you’ll be able to meet the actors and actresses at New York Comic-Con this coming weekend, on October 11th. Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock), Deborah Ann Woll (Karen Page), Elden Henson (Foggy Nelson), and Vincent D’Onofrio (Wilson Fisk) will all be there. In addition, Marvel released the logo for the series, which looks pretty similar to the usual Daredevil logo, a few minor tweaks aside. I wonder if the emblem will show up anywhere, too? Read more…
Tags: Daredevil, Marvel
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 6, 2014 in Videogames 
After a long and illustrious career, Satoru Okada has retired from his job at Nintendo. If you don’t know Okada, here’s a few things he’s worked on that you might know: he was the director of Metroid, Kid Icarus, and Super Mario Land. He also designed the Game Boy with the legendary Gunpei Yokoi. After Yokoi left, Okada headed up Nintendo’s Research & Engineering department, leading the design work on the Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS. Basically, while not quite as famous as some of the other Nintendo staff, he did a ton of impressive work. Okada has now retired. He has also written the foreword for the upcoming book Before Mario, which chronicles the exploits of Nintendo before they jumped into the home console business. Read more…
Tags: Nintendo
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 5, 2014 in Design, Hobbies and Collections 
Florey has been doing some really cool art recently, but I simply had to mention these great Transformers shirts that he made from 80sTees.com. Available in Autobot and Decepticon varieties (of course), it features a multitude of Transformers in vehicle form. It has enough of them to satisfy any fan, I would imagine. These are screen printed, too, and look pretty awesome as far as quality goes. They’re available now and you can pick it up in Autobots flavor here, and Decpticon flavor here. Then check out Florey’s blog for more cool pop culture art!
Tags: T-Shirts, Transformers
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 5, 2014 in Star Wars 
The new Lucasfilm under Disney has done a lot of work on rebooting the the Expanded Universe and ensuring that all future Star Wars media fits into the canon. The Wall Street Journal recently did a profile of Kiri Hart, the vice president of development, who’s responsible for making sure that everything lines up nicely. There’s an interesting note, though, that SlashFilm points out: all the spinoff films and any spinoff story ideas are formulated inside Lucasfilm, and then they find artists, directors, and writers who they feel fit the concept. The old rumors of Zack Snyder pitching a Seven Samurai-styled Star Wars film weren’t exactly correct. It’s interesting how closely they’re holding their cards. Read more…
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 4, 2014 in Animation, Cinema 
After spending a while in development, Pixar’s next film, Inside Out, has gotten a teaser trailer. Sadly, like most teaser trailers, it doesn’t show much. In fact, most of the trailer is footage from previous Pixar films, reminding you how good they were. It feels like Disney’s marketing department said, “Hey guys, we know this isn’t a sequel, so we’ve got to sell people on it by showing them characters they DO know!” Maybe that’ll be successful — I don’t know. Still, I’m interested, as this film is from Pete Docter, the fellow behind Up and Monsters Inc., so there is a skilled craftsman at the helm, at least. The last few Pixar films didn’t really blow me away, so I’m hoping this will be a return to form. Check out the teaser below! Read more…
Tags: Inside Out, Pixar
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 4, 2014 in Cinema 
John Landis, the director of Michael Jackson’s iconic music video, Thriller, has been stuck in a legal dispute with the singer’s estate for several years (it started prior to Jackson’s death), over the video itself. Now that the dispute has finally been resolved, Landis says he plans on re-releasing the music video on Blu-ray as well as in theaters — in 3D. He hasn’t elaborated too much, aside from saying, “It is going to reappear in a highly polished and three-dimensional way that is very exciting on the big screen.” I wonder if this will be on its own, or as part of a larger compilation of music videos. Although, Thriller on Blu-ray, restored, will be a sight to see. Read more…
Tags: Michael Jackson
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 3, 2014 in Cinema, Comic Books 
We had heard plenty of rumblings that Marvel was heavily courting Joaquin Phoenix to play Doctor Strange (there were even reported sightings of Phoenix buying Strange comics). Alas, it is not to be, as it seems Phoenix’s careful and picky nature has left Marvel without a Doctor, and the company is moving on to find another lead. They need to find one fairly soon, too, as they used up a fair bit of time waiting on Phoenix to decide. Now who’s up, instead? We’re not really sure. There was a rumor of Ethan Hawke, but Deadline says that’s unfounded. Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, and Jared Leto have recently been mentioned, but not in any solid sense. We’ll probably have to wait for news to leak out of Marvel’s next pick! Read more…
Tags: Doctor Strange
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 3, 2014 in Comic Books, Videogames 
I’m not sure why, but the latest playable character announced for LEGO Batman 3 is Kevin Smith. Yes, that Kevin Smith, of Clerks fame. The guy who named his daughter after Harley Quinn — didn’t you know? This is an interesting choice for a playable character in a Batman game, but I guess once you’ve used up all the expected Batman and DC characters it’s time to start dipping into the surrounding pop culture pool. You want to know who else is joining Smith as a playable character? DC Entertainment chief creative officer Geoff Johns. Ok, that makes a bit more sense. More info will debut about the game at New York Comic-con. Read more…
Tags: Batman, DC Comics, Kevin Smith, Lego
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 2, 2014 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Now that DC has sorted out their animated movie universe to be more in line with The New 52 comic initiative they’ve had going on, it’s time for more New 52 adaptations! Justice League: Throne of Atlantis is the sequel to Justice League: War from earlier this year, the movie that basically adapted the origin of the new Justice League in The New 52. Aquaman is going through his own origin in this movie, as he didn’t appear in the previous one. It seems they’re going with the more “bad-ass” version of Aquaman from recent years instead of the joke everyone remembers from the Super Friends. Good on ’em, but I still can’t stand the bright orange and green outfit. (It clashes!) No date on the movie yet, but the release date shouldn’t be far off. Read more…
Tags: Aquaman, DC Comics, Warner Brothers
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 2, 2014 in Cinema 
In one month’s time, we’ll all be able to enjoy Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic Interstellar, a story about leaving a dead Earth to find a new home for humanity outside our solar system. If you’ve been watching the previous trailers, you’re likely already hyped up about what looks to be an excellent, gripping sci-fi movie. If you haven’t seen them yet, do yourself a favor and check out the ideas presented in this final trailer. Interstellar premieres November 5, so get your tickets now! Read more…
Tags: Christopher Nolan, Interstellar, Science Fiction
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 1, 2014 in Cinema, Videogames 
As Hollywood runs out of viable properties to remake, reboot, and sequelize the past, it has expanded to brands that don’t even really have stories. Perhaps spurred by the ludicrous existence of the Battleship movie, Threshold Entertainment has announced that they are producing a Tetris movie in conjunction with The Tetris Company. The movie will be live-action, described as “a very big, epic sci-fi movie” by Threshold CEO Larry Kasanoff. Kasanoff has adapted videogames in the past; he produced the cheesy Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Meanwhile, Threshold is most notable for Foodfight!, an ugly CGI monstrosity where the product placement are the characters. Read more…
Tags: Tetris
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 1, 2014 in Comic Books, Television 
When James D’Arcy was cast as Edwin Jarvis, the butler of Howard Stark (and inspiration for Iron Man’s AI), in Marvel’s Agent Carter, many wondered if that meant we would see Howard Stark (Iron Man’s father) in the upcoming TV series. While John Slattery portrayed an older, Walt Disney-like version of Howard in Iron Man 2, Agent Carter’s post-WWII setting meant asking Dominic Cooper to play the younger version, as he did in Captain America: The First Avenger. With Dominic Cooper mainly sticking to films, it was uncertain whether he would work on a TV show. But Marvel has confirmed that Cooper will return and portray Howard in Agent Carter, so no worries! Cooper is great in the role, taking inspiration from the portrayal of his son Tony Stark, so I’m happy to see him still involved with the setting. Read more…
Tags: Agent Carter, Marvel
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 30, 2014 in Videogames 
I love this new trailer for The Evil Within, Bethesda’s new horror game from Shinji Mikami, the man behind Resident Evil and Resident Evil 4, among other critically-acclaimed games. It reads like an old-style ad, with a straight-laced narrator extolling the virtues of a product instead of visually selling the experience. Not that the visuals don’t command your attention, especially those elements that seem to call back to Shinji Mikami’s past games. (There’s a spooky house like RE1, a chainsaw enemy like RE4, a body-burning mechanic like the RE Gamecube remake, etc.) The trailer makes The Evil Within look rather action-oriented at parts, so hopefully the game spans the whole range of horror and doesn’t just become a horror-skinned shooter that happens to have limited ammo. The game releases on October 14, just in time for Halloween. Read more…
Tags: shinji mikami, The Evil Within
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 30, 2014 in Videogames 
Japan will soon see the release of the New 3DS, an upgraded version of the 3DS handheld with extra controls and horsepower. One of the features of the smaller model (not the bigger New 3DS XL) is changeable faceplates, featuring Nintendo characters and other designs. So to promote this and tie-in with the recent release of Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, Nintendo made an ad with Japanese pop idol Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. This girl is like the Japanese version of Lady Gaga, but more cute-weird than sexy-weird. After learning this sequence of events, you can see how this ad turned out to be so weird, with various Nintendo characters getting sort of dressed up, if you somehow consider a mish-mash of patterns to be proper formal wear. Read more…
Tags: New 3DS, Nintendo
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 29, 2014 in Animation, Videogames 
The Fourth Annual Saxxy Awards voting period is almost over, so if you haven’t had a chance yet, you should get over there and vote! The Saxxys is Valve’s annual video competition in which fans use the Source Filmmaker software to create CGI videos using game assets from Team Fortress 2, Portal 2, and Left 4 Dead. Most of the submitted films are TF2 -themed, but there’s really no limit to what you can put in your film, as long as it’s either using game assets or your own original work. There’s multiple categories and several awards to give out. I’ve put a few of the best I’ve seen below the jump. And then get voting here! Read more…
Tags: Saxxy Awards, Source Filmmaker, Team Fortress, Valve
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 29, 2014 in Animation, Cinema 
Here’s an odd tale for the day: SoftBank, as in the Japanese telecom, is in talks to possibly acquire DreamWorks Animation SKG. Apparently DreamWorks has been looking for new funding for a while now, but most companies haven’t been interested. DreamWorks films has been having a certain issue since it went public: its movies would open soft and then build up a huge final gross. Great, right? Well, investors don’t like soft openings, and shares would frequently plummet when a film would open. Sadly, shareholders don’t understand the movie industry, it seems. Thus, getting additional funding could help DreamWorks Animation quite a bit. No paper has been signed yet, but it’ll be interesting to see how this whole affair proceeds. Read more…
Tags: Dreamworks, SoftBank
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 28, 2014 in Fandom, Videogames 
This is the internet, you know, so I’m formally obligated to provide you with any and all high-quality cat videos for your perusal. YouTube channel Mr. TVCow has put together an adorable video featuring four kittens dress up as the main characters from Assassin’s Creed Unity, leaping across tables, rocks, and two hapless guards. Then they murder them. I kind of want an outfit like that for my cat! I know this isn’t an official ad for the game, but it’s basically the best commercial I’ve seen yet for Unity, as I’ve already been bored by their typical feature trailers. And time for a low blow: do you think any of the kittens are female? Check out the cuteness below. Read more…
Tags: Assassin's Creed, cats
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