Huh? We’re back on?

Hey all,

So, there’s not been much blogging of late. I’d like to blame the heat, or any number of other factors, but the truth is I’m rubbish without a deadline. The last few days has mostly been writing for a LARP I’m in and listening to Dio era Black Sabbath. There’s far worse ways to spend the time, but possibly more productive ways. Anyhow, we’re back, so let’s get this going.

We start this week with more than the recommended dose of “You’re joking, right?” I’d love to find a witty way to introduce this, but I can’t, so here goes: Back to the Future: The Musical. Robert Zemeckis is directing, as well as writing the show with Bob Gale (Who co-wrote the film), with composer Alan Silvestri scoring. So, anyone expecting a song about your mother hitting on you?

OK, something less strange. *rummages* Well, the new Doctor’s costume has been unveiled and it’s mighty spiffy. Well, except for the cardigan, but we can’t have everything. As numerous others have pointed out it’s very reminiscent of the Third Doctor Jon Pertwee’s outfit, with Capaldi further adding to that with the post he’s striking. While we’re talking Doctor Who, there’s a fan made Who themed version of Cards Against Humanity called Cards Against Gallifrey and a trailer for the fan made documentary, Who’s Changing?

Cards Against Humanity                That’s the most work-safe combination I could find.

 Fun Fact: Jon Pertwee was one of the back-ups in-case Sean Connery didn’t want to play Henry Jones Snr in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. As much as I’d love to say I came up with the line ‘Only the penitent man shall reverse the polarity’, it’s not one of mine.

The rumours around the Agent Carter TV show continue to rumble, with new word that the show has a script and producers. In more welcome news, Lady Sif will be appearing in Agents of SHIELD and Batman vs Superman has been pushed back 10 months, with Ant-Man taking it’s release date. Anna Paquin might be back in X-Men: Days of Future Past, Gal Gadot has signed up for three  Wonder Woman films, but sadly Stan Lee won’t have a cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Thor 3 has been announced, we have a couple of stills from Tom Hiddleston’s audition for Thor (It’s on the Blu-Ray for the second movie) and has appeared, along with Mark Strong and Ben Kingsley, in a Jaguar car ad that asks Why are all Bad Guys British? Thanks to merchandise we’ve gotten a look at the Guardians of the Galaxy and the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as well as a closer look at the Falcon from Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

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Yes, it’s kinda creepy, but not as bad as the underwear

 There’s trailers for the straight to DVD movies Justice League Adventures: Trapped in Time and Son of Batman and a look at Necessary Evil, a documentary on the villains of DC Comics and which I’m slightly ashamed to admit I only just found out about. We also have a teaser for the anime styled Avengers Confidential: Black Widow and Punisher (Gee, I wonder who’s in that one…),  a TV spot for Amazing Spider-Man 2 and a deleted scene from Thor: The Dark World.

X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner wants to make a Gambit movie starring, you’ll want to be sitting down for this part, Channing Tatum. Yeah… I’m not sure where to place that on the scale of bad ideas – it’s somewhere between ‘getting hit in the crotch with a brick’ and ‘invading Russia in winter’, but below ‘Batman and Robin.’

Both the creator and star of the Leprechaun movies (Mark Jones and Warwick Davis) are working on a reboot of the series called Vamprechaun, the live action version of  Ghost in the Shell has a director and Vin Diesel has been a busy boy – he’s announced that not only is a new Riddick film in development, but a script for a new XXX film is a month away from completion.

1194_5 Vin Diesel contemplating another Pacifier movie.

There’s new trailers for Malificent and 300: Rise of an Empire, which might not be a very good film, but they’ve sampled Black Sabbath’s War Pigs, so they’ve done something right. We have another teaser for the TV adaption of From Dusk Till Dawn and new spots for Scarlet Johansson’s Under the Skin and Terry Gilliam’s latest, The Zero Theorem.  There’s also trailers for Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage, which boats stop motion animation and a voiceover from Patrick Stewart,  and the movie Occulus, which stars  Amy Pond and Kara Thrace. (Or Karen Gillan and Katee Sackhoff for the pedantic)

The rumours about Pixar making a Star Wars movie are most likely false, Billy Dee Williams would love to return for Episode 7 and we also have details on a new character from the upcoming Star Wars: Rebels, a cranky astromech droid known as Chopper. *waves $10 note* This goes to the first person to overdub the droid noise with dialogue from Chopper. C’mon, you know you want to do it…

In the ‘Too Good to be True’ category comes word of a rumour that Dame Judi Dench is to play Mon Mothma in the next Star Wars movie. (For what it’s worth, Caroline Blakiston, who played her in Return of the Jedi, is still active.)

Judi Dench

You can’t tell me that’s not true – I REFUSE TO DISBELIEVE.

The TV remake of Barbarella is still on the way and some casting news for the Rosemary’s Baby adaption. We’ve a collection of new pictures from season 4 of Game of Thrones and if you were spooked by the announcement of a John Constantine TV show, there’s some god news – the mighty Neil Marshall (Who you may remember from directing such films as Dog Soldiers and Centurion) will be directing the pilot. No, that doesn’t guarantee it’ll be good, but there’s a slightly better chance of it!

The week’s most important news is that Lego are releasing a Ghostbusters set this year and in the week’s least important news, it’s been confirmed that Ian Ziering and Tara Reid will return for Sharknado 2. The movie adaption of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series might be back on and the producer of Transformers: Age of Extinction is insisted the film isn’t a reboot. How about you just make a good movie, can you do that?

We end this week with a gloriously nerdy internet flame war between the Star Wars and Marvel Twitter accounts. People are getting paid to do that, with actual money. Alec Hardison was right – it truly is the age of the geek.

Quote of the Week:

Marty: Wait a minute. Wait a minute Doc, uh, are you telling me you built a time machine… out of a DeLorean?

Doc: The way I see it, if you’re going to build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?

Back to the Future

Cheers,

Gavin

Holy Licensing Issues Batman!

Welcome dear readers!

This week (Outside of trying not to melt in the heat) I’ve been re-watching Leverage to prepare for an upcoming game and sorting out my costume for a live action game I’m in. So, basically, I’ll be very dodgy sitting around a table and dodgy dressed up in costume and wielding foam swords. Hey, do I mock your hobbies?

There’s been a fair bit of big news this week, but there’s one story that overshadows them all. It’s something many thought would never happen, but finally, after almost 40 years, Batman 66 is finally getting a home release. The show was long tangled up in rights issues between Fox (Who produced the show) and Warners (Who own DC Comics), with further legal issues over celebrity cameos muddying the waters even more.  The news was broken by a tweet from late night host Conan O’Brien and appears to confirm a complete series box set would be released this year, though there’s no word on special features or whether it’ll be on Blu-Ray and DVD.

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 Hurry Boy Wonder, we have to get to JB Hi Fi in time!

There’s also the trailer for Doomed, the untold story of the Roger Corman Fantastic Four movie. What’s that, you’ve not heard of this? Well, that’s because it was never intended to be released. The film was shot on the cheap as a way of holding onto the rights, with the cast and crew not being told of this at the time. Bootlegs exist of the film, but I’m pretty sure Marvel would like to forget about it, like the two Captain America TV movies made in the 70’s, one of which has Christopher Lee as the villain.

More directors have been linked to a new Masters of the Universe film, the killer in the next Friday the 13th movie might not be Jason Voorhees and Disney are said to be working on a live action musical version of Frozen. We have a list of actors said to be reading for Kyle Reese in the next Terminator film, Sam Neill won’t be in Jurassic World and both Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana have signed up for 3 sequels to  Avatar. Kristen Stewart has signed on to Equals, which (Brace yourself for this part) is described as a romantic version of 1984 and a movie based on the card game (And just behind crack cocaine in it’s addictive properties) Magic: The Gathering is being prepared.

He-Man2  All the power of Grayskull and he still has that haircut…

 There’s been some big casting news in the world of comic book movies of late, with the announcement of Michael Douglas as Hank Pym in Ant-Man and German actor Thomas Kretschmann as Baron Von Strucker in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Pym was the original Ant-Man, succeeded in the role by Scott Lang (Who Paul Rudd is presumably playing), while Baron Strucker is one of the heads of Hydra, last seen in Captain America.

Now the really awesome part hasn’t been confirmed, but word is that Jason ‘Khal Drogo’ Momoa was up for a role in Batman vs Superman. The part? Arthur Curry, better known as Aquaman. Momoa has denied any involvement, but a list of things I’d do to see that casting happen would be both A: Very long and B: Would get disturbing fast. There was also talk that Marvel wanted Johnny Depp to play Doctor Strange, but mercifully that was debunked quickly. It’s not that I don’t think Depp can’t act, I just don’t want him in the role.

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  Who’s laughing now?

There’s a gallery of pictures from Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the mere mention of cloning in the viral marketing for Amazing Spider-Man 2 has made me very nervous. No, I’ve not read the Clone Saga, but I know enough to know it’s a continuity mess that makes the history of the X-Men look calm. Meanwhile, word is that the Justice League film will be shot back to back with Batman vs Superman, which, oddly, makes a lot of sense.

 Gotham will feature the origins of many of Batman’s villains and the CW has appeared to have cancelled the young Wonder Woman show Amazon. Boooo! The mighty Bill Paxton (AKA the only man to have been killed by an Alien, Predator and Terminator) will have an upcoming arc in Agents of SHIELD and a pilot for a Constantine TV show has been approved. Can we please get John Simm or Tim Roth for the lead? Pictures of Doctor Who filming have Peter Capaldi riding a horse while in his panamas and did you know that Steven Moffat wanted a shout out to Peter Cushing’s Doctor in the 50th Anniversary special?

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 Just forget this, except for Tilda Swinton. Don’t forget her.

 Anna Silk has revealed that George Takei will be appearing in the next season of Lost Girl and the next season of American Horror Story will take place in 1950, with the only other clue that Jessica Lange has been ‘brushing up on her German.’ The first trailer for season 4 of Game of Thrones was released this week and it can’t come soon enough for my taste. We also have the first clips from Knights of BadassdomI, Frankenstein and Robocop, the first teasers for the TV shows Outlander and From Dusk Till Dawn and a fresh teaser for Penny Dreadful. Lastly, there’s a clip from the new Marvel one-shot All Hail the King. If you’ve not seen Iron Man 3 yet, the spoiler warning still applies.

We have some plot details for Star Wars Episode 7, as well some details of a now scrapped script. Actor Peter Mayhew (AKA Chewbacca) has uploaded a stack of pictures from the classic trilogy and there’s a new publicity shot for Star Wars: Rebels that looks very close to that last one we got. We also have a somewhat disturbing storyline intended for the non-canon Star Wars Infinities that would have seen Leia fall to the Dark Side and well, we won’t say any more.

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 Yeeeee-haaaaaaa!

 Gillian ‘Dana Scully’ Anderson is co-writing a sci-fi book series, a new female Transformer has been announced and we’ve a gallery of Game of Thrones based propaganda posters. Lastly, we have an awesome young Doctor Who fan, who decided to dress up as all 11 Doctors.  I don’t care what the commenters say, I choose to believe that he did all that with no help from an adult. Why? Causeit’s more awesome that way and I want a world with more awesome in it.

Quote of the Week:

Dyson: Hey. Did you guys get anything yet?
Bo: A lecture from the vice principal and 27 invitations to the dance. One delivered in soliloquy.
Kenzi: How nice!
Bo: You?
Dyson: A fist bump. Kenz, you?
Kenzi: Well I was attacked by rabid Muffys, manhandled by Coach ‘Bitchy Butch’ and I got detention.
Bo: We are not getting far are we?
Kenzi: Teen angst. Our greatest foe.

Lost Girl – School’s Out

Cheers,

Gavin

A new beginning…

Hey folks,

So, I haven’t exactly updated things in a while, or at all. We’d like to say we’ve been off on glamorous adventures, but it’s more a combination of camping with the in laws, Motorhead’s latest album and the new Tomb Raider game that have kept me away. I also picked up the board game Lords of Waterdeep, but haven’t had the chance to play it yet. Soon…

Anyhow, given that this is the first proper post and all, I guess I should outline any plans I have for this humble thing. Basically, I want to continue the weekly news blog I was doing for the late, lamented and much missed SF channel, interspersed with freeform ramblings on whatever comes to mind.

The week’s top stories are!

  1. An English town will be changing it’s name to Kings Landing for a week as part of a promotion for the Blu-Ray release of season 3 of Game of Thrones. As naming stunts go, it’s a lot better than the AFL player who was known as Whiskas for a week.
  2. Sega have formally announced the next Alien game, Alien: Isolation. It’ll star Amanda Ripley, Ellen’s daughter and is reportedly focused on stealth and survival, with the player being stalked by a single alien. I’ll be behind the sofa cowering in fear OK?
  3. Direct from the ‘Japan WTF?’ section: Disney Princess lingerie.
  4. It had to happen – My Little Cthulhu Pony.
  5. The world of wacky themed weddings took a post-apocalyptic turn with a Mad Max themed wedding taking place at the Weekend Wasteland festival in Southern California recently. Who was the celebrant? None other than the Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla himself, the Lord Humungous! Ask me there’s something wonderful about a ceremony that ends with the line ‘You may now ravage your man,’ but I’ve always been a hopeless romantic.

Moving to the rest of the news, there’s plans to open a  HR Giger themed bar in the US (Based on the Giger Room in Switzerland) and a fascinating interview with Ron Friedman, writer of Transformers: The Movie and who tore the hearts of out the best part of my generation, THE UNFEELING BASTARD. (To be honest, the smelting pools inside Unicron scarred me more, though nothing has matched Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? for childhood trauma)

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He wasn’t dead, but came back later as a zombie. No, I’m not kidding.

 Trailer wise, we have ones for the live action version of the anime Kite, starring Samuel L Jackson, yet another trailer for Snowpiercer (Just release the original cut Weinstein!) and Donnie Yen’s new film Monkey King, an adaption of Journey to the West, or as I know it Monkey! There’s a new viral ad for the remake of Robocop, another trailer and some posters for The Lego Movie and the opening credits for Black Sails, the Starz network’s new pirate show. The fact that Bear McCreary is doing the soundtrack almost justifies the shows existence as far as I’m concerned.

You can watch the first 15 minutes of Helix, the new Ron Moore show, a clip from indie horror film Blood Glacier, Stan Lee introduces a short promo clip for Amazing Spider-Man 2 and the first part of an Argentinian Robotech fan film, Valkyrie Project, has been released. The first poster for the web series Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist has surfaced, as has a clip from the new Powerpuff Girls special and a short piece from Justice League War.

In comics news, the big recent announcement was that Disney have given the license for Star Wars comics to Marvel, replacing Dark Horse Comics, who’ve had the license for the past 22 years. They’ll be getting one last hurrah though, with the four part finale for The Clone Wars being adapted to comics, titled Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir. Disney are also attempting to refine Star Wars canon, which in recent years has become dangerously overstuffed. Isn’t there one day when nothing happens in that galaxy?

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No sir, I didn’t see you playing with your dolls again sir!

Word is that Lawrence Kasdan will be writing the Boba Fett spin off movie, the Marvel animated film Big Hero 6 has a new director and Kevin Smith has given an update on his next projects, saying Clerks 3 will be shooting in May. Gareth Roberts will be writing for the next season of Doctor Who, which began filming this week. Some on set pictures have leaked, showing the return of several old friends.

 Anna Paquin has been cut from X-Men: Days of Future Past (Bryan Singer said it was one scene and should make the DVD) while Evan Jonigkeit (Who is, I believe, in the TV show Girls) will be playing a younger version of Toad, played by Ray Park in the first movie. The first official image from Guardians of the Galaxy has been released and it was finally confirmed that Vin Diesel is the voice of Groot. There’s some concept art of the Valkyrie that could have featured in Thor: The Dark World and Edgar Wright tweeted a curious image titled ’Homework.’ . Stan Lee is said to have a big role on the upcoming episode of Agents of SHIELD and while there’s been rumblings about Haley Atwell moving to the US for 6 months to start work on the Agent Carter series, it is just a rumour at this stage.

The next Marvel short film, to appear on the Blu-Ray of Thor: The Dark World, is called ‘All Hail the King.’ Now, we know that Ben Kingsley has shot something, possibly in his Iron Man 3 role or it could be related to [THOR THE DARK WORLD SPOILERS]. The film will be released in the US late February, so the wait won’t be too long. The rumours about an X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover movie have come up again and word is Robert Downey Jr wants to bring Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster into the Marvel universe. In all fairness, Gibson spent a long time championing Downey Jr when no-one would hire him, so I can’t blame Downey Jr for wanting to return the favour, but I’ve no idea who Gibson could play. (There’s an easy joke about him playing Hate-Monger, but I’m not going to make it)

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I know more than a few people who’d pay to see that…

Over on the DC front, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson tweeted about a big meeting with Warner Brothers about a DC Comics project and the rumours about Wonder Woman’s origin in Batman vs Superman are ludicrous enough to be believable. They also make me want to BURN ALL THE THINGS ALL OF THE TIME, but I’m normally that way. Oh, and if you need another example of just how much DC is failing, there’s a letter they wrote in response to a young reader, which is a mighty fine example of corporate double speak in claiming their movies are outselling Marvels. Maybe if you put Wonder Woman on the screen before Marvel did a talking tree and Raccoon, you might be able to claim that…

We have a few details on the new show Sense8, which is being developed by J Michael Straczynski and the Wachowskis for Netflix, Danny Cannon (Judge Dredd)  will direct the pilot of Gotham and the first couple of pictures from Guilermo Del Toro’s new series The Strain. Matt Reeves has been hired to direct the third Planet of the Apes movie and some leaked toy pictures have given us a look at the Dinobots of Transformers: Age of Extinction. Michael Bay, if you screw them up…

We end this week with video of what happens when you fire a super soaker of boiling water in sub-zero temperatures. Let’s just say don’t try that at home and I have an idea for an improvised weapon in the next zombie apocalypse game I play in.

  •  Quote of the Week:
  • Rose: Who are you, then? Who’s that lot down there? [The Doctor ignores her] I said, who are they?!
  • The Doctor: They’re made of plastic. Living plastic creatures. They’re being controlled by a relay device on the roof. Which would be a great big problem if — [he pulls a bleeping bomb out of his coat] — I didn’t have this. So I’m gonna go upstairs and blow it up. And I might well die in the process. But don’t worry about me, no. You go home, go on! Go and have your lovely beans on toast. [suddenly serious] Don’t tell anyone about this, ‘cos if you do, you’ll get them killed. [closes the door, then opens it again] I’m the Doctor, by the way. What’s your name?
  • Rose: Rose.
  • The Doctor: Nice to meet you, Rose. [holds up the bomb, shaking it slightly while grinning.] Run for your life!
  • Doctor Who – Rose

Cheers,

Gavin