Daily Archives: July 6, 2011

TV

Starz & the BBC Team Up For “Torchwood: Miracle Day”

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This week (in the U.S., next week in the U.K.) sees the return of Torchwood and of Captain Jack – Harkness, not Sparrow – for a fourth series. Now I’ve been told I need to explain what Torchwood is to our mostly North American readership, so here goes with a really brief summary…

Torchwood is a spin-off series from Doctor Who, about a top-secret British organization called the ‘Torchwood Institute’ – which was set up on the instructions of Queen Victoria after she had a run in with an alien werewolf and the 10th Doctor. It’s lead now by the aforementioned Captain Jack (John Barrowman). He is a handsome, charming, heroic, bi-sexual, immortal, ex-time agent. Was that enough adjectives?

The other main character is Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles). She is an ex-cop with the South Wales Police, and is currently the only other member of Torchwood. They are also joined by her husband Rhys (Kai Owen).

Torchwood is aimed much more at an adult audience, unlike Doctor Who which is more family orientated. The Starz (Spartacus, Camelot) channel is co-producing the new series with the BBC. It’s set mainly in America, and was filmed in Los Angeles – except for two weeks in Wales. The stops have been pulled out, with the budget of each of the 10 episodes being, apparently, over £1 million (roughly 1.6 million in US currency).

The general synopsis of the new series – Miracle Day – is as follows.

One day, all across the world, nobody dies. And the next day, and the next day, and the next day… People age, people get sick, people get hurt, but nobody dies. Births continue though. The population sky rockets overnight. Experts predict that in four months the human race will cease to be viable. CIA agent Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer) investigates and discovers a global conspiracy that leads him to a secret British institution. It also features Alexa Havins as Esther Drummond and Bill Pullman as convicted murderer Oswald Danes.

Here’s the trailer:

The series starts on Starz in the U.S. on Friday the 8th of July, and on BBC One in the U.K. on Thursday the 14th of July.

GAMING

Batman: Arkham City – 12 Minutes of Gameplay, Robin Confirmed!

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It seems like I can’t get any more excited for the upcoming sequel to my favorite game of last year. Batman: Arkham City promises to bring us everything we loved about Batman: Arkham Asylum, but bigger, better, and more badass. But this is something I’ve talked about a few times before. Like when they told us that Catwoman would be a playable character with a key role in the campaign mode.

Then there was the rumor that Robin would be a pre-order exclusive (with a probable downloadable version later on) to be used in some challenge maps. Well that rumor has been confirmed, and here’s what the Arkham City version looks like, courtesy of Gotham Knights Online:

Continue reading Batman: Arkham City – 12 Minutes of Gameplay, Robin Confirmed! →

Movie News & Opinions

Fade Out: 25 of Hollywood’s Greatest Closing Lines

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Everyone wants their last words to be memorable. This is the same for screenwriters. If the movie ends with a great last line, it tends to be more memorable and leave you with a feeling of “that was clever”. While re-watching Almost Famous recently for the millionth time, I chuckled out loud to myself as Russell Hammond says to William: “and you can tell Rolling Stone my last words were… I’M ON DRUGS!” William yells to him: “Russell… I think we should work on those last words”.

This is my list of the 25 greatest closing movie lines of all time.

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!

Continue reading Fade Out: 25 of Hollywood’s Greatest Closing Lines →

COMICS/PRINT, Uncategorized

Game of Thrones Novel ‘A Dance of Dragons’ Leaked – George R.R. Martin Pissed

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I would love, love, LOOOOOOOVE to have read A Dance of Dragons early, because it’s been pure torture waiting the last few years for George R.R. Martin’s 5th installment of A Song of Ice and Fire to be released. (That’s the name of the series that the HBO watchers would call a Game of Thrones.) But I have to tell ya, I’m not willing to risk a decapitation for it because that’s what the main man himself has promised to the bastard who sold 180 copies earlier than the July 12th release date of the novel. Check it out below from IGN:

Woe to the Amazon employee who accidentally shipped copies of George R. R. Martin’s 5th book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, A Dance with Dragons, early. 180 copies of the book, which was heavily embargoed until its release date on July 12th, were prematurely shipped out to readers by Amazon in Germany and now spoilers have begun to pop up all over the web.

“I am not happy about this. My publishers are furious. If we find out who is responsible, we will mount his head on a spike,” the Game of Thrones author wrote on his blog.

That’s just great. Now I have to tread very carefully until the 12th because there are 180 potential assholes out there who could spoil what happens in the book. I won’t even be reading the comments on my own article for fear of it being blown wide open for me! But be careful viewers of the TV show before you read on, because I’m unleashing a couple spoilers of my own below!

You’ve been warned!

SPOILERS

See what happens Stark! You see what happens when you release a book early!?

After the last book, A Feast for Crows, we are finally back with some of our more favorite characters. It was nice to see Jaime and Cersei Lannisters’ points of view but I’ll take Arya, Tyrion and Jon Snow any day. Daenerys I don’t mind, but I don’t find her as interesting as the others. We’ll be seeing her for sure as she practices at being Queen in Mereen as well as the development of her three dragons who continue to grow. Tyrion is off across the Narrow Sea to escape the vengeance of his sister Cersei due to his “supposed” killing of Joffrey and his bad ass murder of papa Tywin. Arya now in Bravoss continues her training with the assassins known as the Faceless Men and Jon is now trying to secure his position as the 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch against those who still bear him ill will.

I can’t wait to finally see what is happening with everyone and will definitely be waiting for July 12th because Mr. Martin looks like he could have the penchant for going medieval on your ass.

TV

Charlie Sheen to be Roasted Next on Comedy Central

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Ever wondered what a roasted turd might smell like? Well then look no further (if you have smell-o-vision) than Comedy Central’s next celebrity roast of the tiger blooded blow-hard Charlie Sheen. Yes the coked out former Two and A Half Men star will be joining the ranks of losers class acts including William Shatner, David Hasselhoff and Flavor Flav as people that some of the funniest comedians in the business lambast with plenty of crude jokes.

The Charlie Sheen Roast will air the same night as Ashton Kutcher’s debut on the long-delayed and Sheen-less Two and a Half Men! Take that you earthworms! The Vatican Warlock Assassin just owned you for all time. Seriously though, Two and a Half Men will still be watched by more people than the roast will, but I’m sure those true Sheen followers (Good God is there such a thing?) will tune in to watch their savior deploy his ordinance after he is made a joke of by the likes of Jeff Ross and Lisa Lampanelli. The Sheen has produced enough ammo for them in the past year that they could probably make the roast last three hours to our pure enjoyment. Stay tuned for some highlights of that laugh bombardment.

Movie News & Opinions

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D! (UPDATED)

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At this point a lot of us may be feeling burned out on horror movies. They’ve either been rebooted already by example of Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Halloween. And a few have already been given a couple sequels to those reboots. One in particular, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has two installments thus far since being rebooted in 2003, one of them being the terrible waste of time and material TCM: The Beginning. I would have walked out of that snoozer if I hadn’t paid $8.50 for it. Now starting in June, the cameras will start rolling on the newest TCM in 3D. Honestly, comment below on how surprised you are about this movie being 3D.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Jessica Biel in 3D like that

This movie however, seems to be a sequel to the 1973 original and picking up where it left off according to producer Carl Mazzocone at an article up at IGN:

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Said Paseornek of the project, “This is a franchise with such enduring opportunity, and Nu Image is the perfect partner with which to realize that opportunity.” Adds Constantine, “We have had much success in working with Nu Image to revitalize existing genres or characters – from The Expendables, which was our highest grossing film ever, to this Summer’s Conan The Barbarian 3D. We’re thrilled that Carl Mazzocone has chosen us to help him carry out his vision for this great property. It feels very much like home to be again collaborating with Mark Burg after all of our shared successes with the Saw films.”

“I’m excited to re-conceive this iconic horror classic in a contemporary setting for a new generation of horror fans to enjoy,” said producer Mazzocone. “Our story picks up where the original left off. Both John Luessenhop and I intend to deliver a new chapter derived from Tobe Hooper’s 1973 masterpiece with the goal of making it as horrifying as the original — in 3D!”

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Man I hope this doesn’t mean that they all ignoring everything that happened in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, because that movie was sooooo brilliant. Check out some clips below starring an excellent Matthew McConaughey:

If you haven’t figured it out, I was kidding. That movie was a bonafide piece o’ shit. Seriously, they had Leatherface running around dressed like a woman! Epic fail! So I’m not sure what to expect from the newest bout of Chainsaw killing fun, but I hope it creeps the hell out of me like the 2003 remake did. Anyone have any thoughts or even care that another is coming our way? Comment below about it, or how much you loved those McConaughey clips!

*UPDATE!*

We now have a release date for our next 3D horror crap fest. Check it out below from IGN:

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Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D is set to open in cinemas on 5 October, 2012.

Speaking back in May when the project was originally announced, producer Carl Mazzocone said, “I’m excited to reconceive this iconic horror classic in a contemporary setting for a new generation of horror fans to enjoy.

“Both John Luessenhop and I intend to deliver a new chapter derived from Tobe Hooper’s 1973 masterpiece with the goal of making it as horrifying as the original, in 3D.”

Directed by John Lussenhop, the film will open three weeks before Halloween 3D is scheduled for release (October 26).

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By no means do I hope the movie is a crap fest, I’m all for horror movies; even the remakes. I’m just a little sick of the 3D as I’m sure many people are. It just doesn’t work for me in 3D. It didn’t work for Friday the 13th 3D way back when and it won’t now. I’m just excited for two horror icons having movies out in the same month next year! Let’s get that Elm Street sequel that same October too and we’ll see who’s the better killer! (Box office wise anyways.)