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Posted by Bob Muir on Jul 30, 2013 in Cinema 
Where to go now that the Harry Potter films are finished? There’s a gap that studios are trying to fill with other book-to-film adaptations like Percy Jackson. Cue a press release from Disney: they’ll be adapting Eoin Cofler’s Artemis Fowl series — specifically the first two books — into a movie. The first book’s story involves the titular character, a genius, billionaire, and criminal, kidnapping a fairy and dealing with the results. The script is coming from Michael Goldenberg, who also wrote the script for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; he managed to take the slowest and most bloated Harry Potter book and turn it into a solid film, so that’s a good sign. Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal will executive produce the film. Read more…
Tags: Disney, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Posted by Ben Huber on Jul 27, 2013 in Cinema 
I really am starting to wonder what Christopher Nolan has in store for Interstellar, his upcoming sci-fi film. We still don’t know many story details, aside from that it may incorporate both space travel and time travel. And: the absolutely massive, stacked cast. Just look at this list: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck, Michael Caine, Ellen Burstyn, Timothee Chalamet, Mackenzie Foy, Bill Irwin, and John freaking Lithgow. Not only that, the two latest additions over the past week were Topher Grace and Wes Bentley. Holy. Crap. Will there even be any extras in this movie? Or will every part be played by a recognizable actor?! We’re a little over a year away now, as Interstellar will arrive November 7th, 2014. Read more…
Tags: Christopher Nolan, Interstellar
Posted by Ben Huber on Jul 22, 2013 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Yes, by now you’ve heard the screaming of the fans – Superman and Batman will star in a film together. Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel sequel will include the Dark Knight himself, and will be loosely inspired by Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. It’s planned to arrive in summer 2015, Henry Cavill is confirmed to return, and (as expected) Zack Snyder will direct. However, with all this commotion and excitement, people have one question: who will be Batman? Not to be too presumptuous, but I have a few suggestions of my own below. Read more…
Tags: Batman, Man of Steel, Superman
Posted by Ben Huber on Jun 28, 2013 in Cinema 
At first I hadn’t been too excited for Ridley Scott’s next film, The Counselor. The one sentence blurb didn’t catch my eye (a counselor gets in deep with the drug trade and meets strange people), so I wasn’t really paying attention. That is, until the casting and scripting news arrived. Penned by No Country for Old Men writer Cormac McCarthy, and starring Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, and Penélope Cruz, it looks to be a hard-R return for Scott, and I really can’t wait to see it later this year. The Counselor arrives in theaters October 25th. Trailer after the break. Read more…
Tags: Ridley Scott, The Counselor
Posted by Ben Huber on Jun 7, 2013 in Videogames 
Don’t ever say that math didn’t do anything for you. Michael Birken has made a seriously impressive algorithm that uses Tetris blocks to “print” a pixel image. It detects which piece it needs next and dispenses them in an order so that it creates row by row of the correctly-colored blocks. Eventually, this lines up to form pixel art or a sprite. In the example above: Link! Check out the sped-up video below in which he shows off the algorithm building several iconic pixel images from video games… with a video game. Amazing stuff! Also check out his explanation of the whole process here! Read more…
Tags: Tetris
Posted by Ben Huber on Jun 2, 2013 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Here’s some awesome casting news: one of the most popular companions of Dr. Who, Karen Gillan, will be joining Marvel’s upcoming space opera adventure, Guardians of the Galaxy. This movie’s cast is basically a fanboy’s dream team: Chris Pratt (Star-Lord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Dave Bautista (Drax), Glenn Close (head of the Nova Corps), Michael Rooker (Yondu), John C. Reilly, Lee Pace, and (inhales deeply) David Tennant is rumored to be playing Rocket Racoon. Holy crap, that’s a lot of awesome actors. I’m starting to get very excited for this movie! Read more…
Tags: Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel
Posted by Ben Huber on May 19, 2013 in Cinema, Videogames 
Remember how Ubisoft has been pushing to get an Assassin’s Creed film made? Well, it’s slowly becoming more of a reality. Last year we heard that Michael Fassbender would star and Michael Lesslie would script the affair. Then in last October 20th Century Fox and New Regency put their weight behind it, making it appear much more likely that this would happen. Thus, a date has been assigned: May 22nd, 2015. Now to simply find a director, the rest of the cast, and make the movie! Simple, right? Read more…
Tags: Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft
Posted by Ben Huber on May 17, 2013 in Cinema 
I bet you thought they couldn’t fit more robots in, right? Well, they can, as well as some more Kaiju to beat up as well. Some of the set pieces in this film look really neat, and I’m loving the designs for the various Kaiju. I guess about all else this shows me that a giant robot movie can be done well (go away, Michael Bay), and I kind of want to see a live-action Neon Genesis Evangelion or Big O movie now. Perhaps one day! Until then, this is a wonderful replacement. Check out the trailer below. Read more…
Tags: Pacific Rim
Posted by Ben Huber on May 6, 2013 in Cinema 
The first name I’m going to throw at you will be no surprise: Michael Caine. Christopher Nolan’s “good luck charm” will be returning to act in his next film, Interstellar. That’s not surprising at all, given that he’s been in almost all of Nolan’s recent films. However, a new face in the Nolan-verse is Jessica Chastain, off of Zero Dark Thirty. She seems like a great pick, especially as she’s been recently showing up in a bunch of big films. So now the two new cast members sit with Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway – I want to hear more about the story now. But we’ve got a long wait till November of next year. Read more…
Tags: Christopher Nolan, Interstellar, Michael Caine
Posted by Bob Muir on May 1, 2013 in Videogames 
Rockstar is taking Grand Theft Auto V in an interesting direction when it comes to characters. The PS2 trilogy each had their own main character and city, while Grand Theft Auto IV had one main character each for the main game and its two additional episodes (expansions) that all lived and played in the same city. GTAV will have three main characters in one city in the same game, not spread across separate stories. It’ll be an interesting way to explore the world and story, though actual details of how this is implemented are still missing. Read more…
Tags: Grand Theft Auto, PS3, Xbox 360
Posted by Ben Huber on Apr 28, 2013 in Television 
Are you ready for May 26th? Arrested Development will finally return and a brand new season will arrive on Netflix, all in one batch. You know, it actually feels real now. Seeing all these ads and posters, and now our first clip, Arrested Development is truly back! This orange shipping container seems to play a big part in the story, given that they’re using it in all the promotional material. The posters are all pretty basic, but it’s good to see everyone back in character. The first clip is also available courtesy of EW, featuring Buster and Lucille Bluth, so check that out right here. Read more…
Tags: arrested development, Netflix
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 27, 2013 in Animation 
In those sad years in the 80s before Disney came back Don Bluth was keeping the dream of animation alive with films like The Secret of NIMH. Most of his studio work has been donated to the Savannah College of Art and Design which has placed quite a bit of his studio’s artwork online. If you love animation I’d urge you to check the site out. Read more…
Tags: Don Bluth
Posted by Bob Muir on Apr 16, 2013 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Though this ad for Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel is a “viral” video, it requires some suspension of disbelief. The idea is that General Zod is trying to contact our world to turn over Superman, or get Superman to turn over himself. Normally, I’d think this would be done on TV, and this ad was shown during the MTV Movie Awards. But it premiered online first, and this video is on YouTube. So I suppose I’m expected to believe that General Zod recorded this with the intent to put it online, where people might see it. Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Man of Steel, Superman, Warner Brothers
Posted by Bob Muir on Feb 21, 2013 in Cinema, Star Wars 
Surely you’ve heard all the rumors lately about which classic Star Wars actors are or aren’t returning to Disney’s new trilogy (or spin-off films). Well, don’t get your hopes up, because Mark Hamill is ready to be a complete buzzkill about them. Read more…
Tags: Disney, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 28, 2013 in Cinema, Comic Books 
The latest film in the X-Men saga, Days of Future Past, has started gaining steam with director Bryan Singer announcing some new casting. Well, actually, it’s an old cast, coming back: Anna Paquin, Ellen Paige, and Shawn Ashmore – aka, Rouge, Kitty Pride, and Iceman form X-Men: The Last Stand. They’ll be featuring along with Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence. Basically, this next X-Men film is going to be packed with big-name actors from future and past X-Men storylines. The general gist of the story is the future version of the X-Men team contact their past selves to prevent a terrible event in the future. A little vague, and with enough potential for a sort-of reboot? Yup! We’re good here. Read more…
Tags: X-Men
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 14, 2012 in Cinema 
I like giant robots. Do you like giant robots? I also happen to like giant monsters… Fighting giant robots. It’s silly, it’s fun, and ridiculously cool. So that’s why I’m so excited for Guillermo Del Toro’s latest, Pacific Rim. It combines all the trappings of Japanese giant robot anime with the giant monsters of Godzilla – and it looks to be succeeding. The robots (called Jaegers) are built by various countries around the world to combat the Kaiju, huge, evil monsters that are crawling out of a portal at the bottom of the ocean. So, of course, we have two pilots who have to team up and work together to combat the alien menance. With rocket punches. Oh yes. Read more…
Tags: guillermo del toro, Pacific Rim
Posted by Bob Muir on Nov 29, 2012 in Cinema, Star Wars 
File this one under “rumor,” but at least it has some evidence to justify its existence. We’ve heard about the writer for Star Wars VII (and rumors of writers for VIII and IX), but no director is yet attached, and considering the difference that directors made in the original trilogy (compare A New Hope to Empire), that could very well be the major deciding factor of how much we love or hate the new films. Now Matthew Vaughn, who directed Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class, may be directing the movie for Disney, based on several things. Read more…
Tags: Disney, Star Wars
Posted by Bob Muir on Nov 21, 2012 in Cinema, Star Wars 
We know that Toy Story 3 writer Michael Arndt is writing Star Wars Episode VII, but it’s never too early to look ahead to VIII and IX. After all, Disney didn’t pay $4 billion for Lucasfilm to half-ass a new Star Wars trilogy. So who is getting scouted by the Mouse? There are two guys the company has in mind, and if you’re holding out hope for these movies, you definitely want one over the other.
Read more…
Tags: Disney, Star Wars
Posted by Bob Muir on Nov 13, 2012 in Cinema, Star Wars 
I’ve been mostly optimistic about Disney taking control of Star Wars. It’s not like they could screw it up worse than the prequels, right? Those movies focused on expanding Darth Vader’s life in a way that didn’t need to be explained. The concept of a fallen, yet still honorable knight that finally finds redemption is a powerful one that doesn’t require pointless insight into how he fell. So with Darth Vader dead and Force-ghost-ed, we should be in the clear for Disney and Toy Story 3 writer Michael Arndt to tell new stories, right? Or not. Read more…
Tags: Darth Vader
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 31, 2012 in Comic Books 
Here’s some simultaneously awesome and depressing news: at one point, Phil Jimenez pitched a Justice League/Transformers crossover to both DC (Justice League) and IDW (owners of the comic license for Transformers). And while IDW was more than happy to get the ball rolling, DC didn’t seem to approve of the combo. Perhaps Hasbro had an influence in the decision too, we don’t really know. What an incredible shame! Who wouldn’t want to see Optimus Prime as a Green Lantern? That’s freaking brilliant! Thankfully, the flip side of this, is Brian Michael Bendis has released his art done for the pitch, so you can at least see some awesome art. Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, IDW, Justice League, Transformers
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Aug 7, 2012 in Star Wars 
No, I’m not talking about the classic Star Wars flight sim. Rather, I’m referring to the series of novels that just happen to share that title. Star Wars: X-Wing has been an on-going series featuring the writing of Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston, which follow several squadrons of X-Wing pilots as they battle the Empire, and its remnants after its fall. The series actually consists of ten separate novels, the first four — written by Stackpole — focus on the members of the infamous Rogue Squadron, while the later focus on the efforts of the Wraith Squadron as they battle the enemies of the New Republic. The latest novel in the series, Star Wars: X-Wing: Mercy Kill, was released this week and continues Wraith Squadron’s story following the events of the Fate of the Jedi novels. Mercy Kill serves as a spin-off of the final installment in that series, Apocalypse.
Read more…
Tags: Audiobooks, Star Wars
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 6, 2012 in Design 
Sometimes I see something both cool and bizarre – this is one of them. We seems to distance natural materials from our technology and gadgets (maybe all that wood panelling on our old cars turned us off from that for a long while) but this sandblasted wood grain overlaid on keyboard keys makes a lot of sense. Designed by Michael Roopenian, the tactile nature of it allows your fingers to more easily find the keys you’re looking for as you learn the layout. Although it’s just a prototype at this point, I’d love to see it become a real product someday. Read more…
Tags: Design, Prototype
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 4, 2012 in Cinema 
Since everyone seems to be complaining or celebrating the news that Fox is pushing forward with a Prometheus sequel, I thought I would try to bring a different opinion to the table. While having Michael Fassbender (the best character of Prometheus) and Noomi Rapace return along with director Ridley Scott is good news in my book, I can understand why people may be hesitant about the return to the Alien universe. However, I think a sequel will actually end up solving several problems that existed in the first film. Spoilers for the end of Prometheus after the break! Read more…
Tags: Prometheus, Ridley Scott
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jul 10, 2012 in Comic Books, Hobbies and Collections 
Ex-lawyer, and renown brick artist Nathan Sawaya will be in town for San Diego Comic-Con this year. Apparently Nathan plans on teaming up with artist Jim Lee for a special live exhibition where he’ll recreate one of Jim’s Batman portraits using standard LEGO bricks. As part of the larger Darkness & Light: Art Inspired by Heroes & Villains, Hope & Heroism exhibition that’s currently on display, the live event will take place on Friday, July 13th from 11 am to 4 pm at Michael J. Wolf Fine Art Gallery. Read more…
Tags: Art, Batman, Lego
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