Posted by Michael Sacco on Jan 9, 2011 in Television
A Game of Thrones, the first book in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels, is getting its crack at breaking into another media type: television, courtesy of HBO. Sean Bean is even in it, proving that there’s no fantasy series that he can’t improve. And if you want to catch it, you’d better tune your DVR for Sunday, April 17th, because that’s when the series will premiere, according to Entertainment Weekly. Martin himself seems pretty excited about the series, though he notes that fans shouldn’t have unrealistic expectations of the series’ quality: “We don’t have Peter Jackson’s budget!,” he says. Even with that in mind, though, the show looks like it’ll be pretty fancy for a TV fantasy show. Maybe the fanciest ever.Read more…
Yeah, he looks as surprised as we do up there, but Elijah Wood’s reps have confirmed that he’ll be making a return as Frodo Baggins in the upcoming Hobbit films. Now, bear in mind here that Frodo isn’t actually in The Hobbit (the book) in any capacity; it’s been indicated that he’ll be used as a kind of framing device to introduce Bilbo’s story in the film. If it all pans out, we’ll probably see Frodo and Sam hearing Bilbo’s account from Bilbo himself. I was a little leery about the announcement at first, but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of seeing the band back together, you know? Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jan 8, 2011 in Star Wars
Well, can’t really chalk this one up as a surprise — after all, the movies have been released on pretty much every type of film media ever made — but both Star Wars trilogies are officially on their way to Blu-Ray this September. On top of their presentation in the current-best audio and video formats, the six films will also be packaged with over thirty hours of special features, deleted scenes, and alternate endings, some of which we’ve apparently never seen before. Each trilogy retails for $64.99, or you can get the complete collection for $139.99. If that’s a little rich for your blood, then there’s good news: Amazon has special pre-order pricing, and you can get the whole shebang for $89.99. Search your feelings. You know you want it. Read more…
There was news from Comic-Con that Legendary Pictures, the studio behind films like 300 and The Dark Knight, had secured the rights to make a new Godzilla film. They even released a totally awesome piece of concept art for the Big G’s new look, shown above. We haven’t heard any new news since then, though — at least, until now! Variety reports that Gareth Edwards, who directed the successful indie monster flick Monsters, is slated to direct the lizard’s latest outing. Hey, it can’t be any worse than the 90s Godzilla movie we got in the US. Right? Read more…
I Am Legend teased it. Fringe teased it. Once upon a time, it seemed like Warner Bros. really wanted to make it. But if you were looking forward to a Batman/Superman team-up movie, you’re in for a disappointment. WB producer Charles Roven stated in an interview recently that there are currently no plans to move forward with a Marvel-style shared film universe for DC Comics properties. With Chris Nolan’s Batman trilogy ending with The Dark Knight Rises and the Harry Potter franchise ending this year, though, the money has to come from somewhere, so it’s possible that the possibility will be reexamined at some point. Read more…
Since Microsoft’s Kinect hit the market last November, the homebrew community has been hard at work modifying the technology for all sorts of interesting applications. Using open source drivers, developers have created everything from adult-oriented mini-games to musical instruments like a virtual midi drum kit. One such modification makes use of the motion tracking sensors to deliver a 3d shadow puppet show. I’m sure it wasn’t too complicated to devise, but it just goes to show how easily the technology can be adapted for uses outside the gaming environment Microsoft had in mind when creating it.
Get ready to toss those 3D glasses sooner than you expected. That’s right, Toshiba has announced plans to debut their glasses-free 3D televisions worldwide come April. They’ve already been selling the technology to Japanese vendors since December, however those sets were limited to the 12 to 20 inch range. Instead, the TVs hitting North America in April will reportedly be 40 inches on up — so expect a hefty price tag.
I have to admit that I wasn’t very impressed with Little Big Planet’s first outting. While the game gave us plenty of tools to build with, the platforming aspects of the game seemed a bit tiresome. After merely a week and half — I’m told it took some people less time than that — I found myself placing back on my shelf never to be played again. A shame really, considering all the hard work spent on creating countless user-generated content. Thankfully, the upcoming sequel, Little Big Planet 2, features a bit more than just your typical platforming.
A few years back, Star Trek fans got together to produce a series of new episodes featuring the continued adventures of the USS Enterprise and their five year mission. Star Trek: New Voyages, as they called it, featured decent production values and less-than-spectacular acting, but I had to hand it to them for trying. Of course, that series took far too long for them to produce in a timely manner. Now, it would seem someone else has taken it upon themselves to produce yet another fan series, Star Trek: Phoenix — this time opting for an original approach. Read more…
At one point, you couldn’t film a space epic without having to use scale models. Studios like Industrial Light and Magic were forced to craft these incredibly detailed models for use in creating some of the most memorable sci-fi films of our time. Fortunately, but the time Joss Whedon’s Firefly came to be, studios were able to rely on CGI, allowing them to fore go the trouble of crafting these models by hand.
Pixel artist Pierre Manry recently threw together this awesome little 8-bit homage to the recently released Tron Legacy. I haven’t seen the film yet — I know, shame on me — but I’ll probably make it to the theater tomorrow. From what I’ve been told, the film is absolutely fantastic. I’m just not sure if I want to see it in 3D, or not. I imagine it’s probably amazing, but is it going to be worth the inevitable headache? Until then, I suppose I’ll just keep watching this video, wishing someone would have actually made a game exactly like this. Kudos for using Mega Man sprites, by the way.
It wasn’t that long ago that Christmas shopping for me included two essential stops: Virgin Megastore and Tower Records. Both retail chains which had been pillars of the industry vanished overnight. And I now find myself wondering if during Christmas 2011 if the same thing will happen to Barnes & Nobel and Borders? Just as Napster and later iTunes devastated chain record shops I’m already seeing the signs that the Kindle and the iPad are delivering body blows to huge book stores. Read more…
Oh sure anybody can protect their laptop by getting one of those ugly locks — but of you want to do it the Yoda way that just won’t do! This Star Wars LightSaber USB Desk Lamp is perfect for wannabe Jedi knights in training who want a bit of light by their laptop. The lamp comes with its own stand — or you can practice your moves freehand (as shown above). Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 3, 2011 in Comic Books
I was quite pleased to discover that DC Comics will be releasing a hardcover collection of Sugar and Spike which will go on sale at the end of August this year. Typically one associates DC with superheroes but this series of comic books which ran from 1956 until 1971 was a kid focused humor book — and in many ways reminiscent of the series Rugrats. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jan 2, 2011 in Videogames
This StarCraft 2 cake is pretty detailed! You’ve got your Nexus, your Probes harvesting minerals, vespene gas nodes, terrain height differences … the only thing that could make it more accurate is an adjoining cake that shows the Zerg six-pooling you. Though I suppose it’s hard to make “scrub” out of fondant. A valiant and ostensibly delicious effort nonetheless. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jan 2, 2011 in Videogames
It should come as no surprise that Japan is bonkers about games involving hunting, collecting, and/or fighting monsters. But as it turns out, the country is so in love with monster-wranglin’ genre that even the flagging PSP can sell like hotcakes if the games are there! In fact, the PSP was the best-selling system of 2010 in Japan, due in large part to Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, which sold over 3 million copies in its first two weeks of release. But even Monster Hunter’s sales were eclipsed by Pokemon Black/White, which helped the Nintendo DS into its spot as Japan’s #2 best-selling system. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jan 1, 2011 in Star Trek
Star Trek Insurrection might not have been a great film, but it certainly had some intriguing behind-the-scenes development stories. In his book Fade In: The Making of Star Trek Insurrection, screenwriter Michael Piller details the original concepts for the film, one involving a fountain-of-youth story and Picard going through a Heart of Darkness-style “journey up the river” to take down an old Academy friend. The only problem? Rick Berman hated the initial concept, saying that Patrick Stewart would never go for a movie that “made him look old.” Its second revision was promptly shot down by Stewart himself, who said that it seemed like an overlong episode of TNG. Proving he was just as much a Trekkie as the fans, he directly cited several episodes that matched the script’s format. Brent Spiner even gave a laundry list of completely logical questions about the alien race featured in Piller’s original treatment that looks like a fan forum argument thread. Nice to know that the franchise was well-loved by its actors even if bad decisions were inevitably made (Nemesis, anyone?). Read more…
