While it’s unlikely he’ll just end the show on a whim, Family Guy‘s Seth MacFarlane believes the show may have ran its course — at least, on television. In a recent interview with THR, he admitted that the show should have probably ended after its seventh season but believes the series could make the transition to feature films. While I’m sure a few of you might think the series should have ended long before that, Macfarlane seems to think seven is some kind of magic number. If you recall, every recent Star Trek series, with the exception of Enterprise, ran for only seven seasons each. Speaking of which, MacFarlane also mentioned that he’d love to try his hand at relaunching the Star Trek television franchise; not as an animated series, but as a live-action show. He seemed to have an idea for the series, but wasn’t sure who he’d have to pitch it to, or if they’d even consider giving him the time of day. Still, with the success of the recent film, you’d think a new series wouldn’t be completely out of the question, right? I guess that’ll be for Paramount or CBS to decide.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Oct 12, 2011 in Videogames
According to CVG, the upcoming Xbox 360 dashboard update is due to hit consoles on November 25th — a date which just happens to coincide with the busiest day in North American retail, Black Friday. The update, originally announced at E3 earlier this year, will incorporate a modified version of Microsoft’s flash-alternative, Silverlight as the new back-end for their Xbox apps. The update also introduces partner services like YouTube, Bing — shocker, there — Lovefilm and more. I’m excited to see what else the update has in store for us and, while I’m not too keen on Silverlight — I’d take Adobe Flash over it any day of the week — I’m sure Microsoft wouldn’t have decided on using it if they weren’t satisfied with the results. With all the new video and television content they have planned for us in coming months, we have a lot to look forward to. Now, if only they’d partner with BBC here in America — they’re doing it over in England, so why not?
Marvel and Paramount released their latest trailer for The Avengers aheadof their upcoming event at New York Comic Con next week. I’m not sure if they still plan on debuting any new footage at the event, but I hope it’ll still happen, as I’m anxious to see more. It’s not that I’m excited for the film, so much as I found this latest trailer to a bit underwhelming, and I think some additional footage might ease my concerns. Generally speaking, I’ve been a huge fan of everything Joss Whedon’s directed to date, but I simply wasn’t sold on it. Sure, it was nice to see all those characters in one place, but at the same time the dialog seemed a bit stiff, and and the prospect of juggling so many stars already seems daunting enough as it is. Also, am I the only one who cringed when Bruce Banner showed up at the end? It just wasn’t the same without Norton.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Oct 11, 2011 in Cinema, Horror
A SWAT team takes on a horde of zombies? Not quite, but that’d probably be fun to watch. Instead, an actual SWAT team recently raided the set of Brad Pitt’s upcoming horror flick, World War Z — the highly anticipated film adaptation of Max Brooks’ New York Times best-selling novel of the same name. Apparently the team seized and confiscated 85 fully-functional guns capable of firing live ammunition, many of which were fully or semi-automatic in nature. For whatever reason, the production company decided to forgo the use of prop weaponry in favor of real ones without filing the appropriate paperwork. Amazing, right?
Last month, the BBC announced plans to cancel Doctor Who Confidential. The series had given fans a behind-the-scenes look at the Doctor and his companions since the show relaunched in 2005. Despite being a huge fan of Doctor Who, I never managed to catch a single episode of the documentary myself. I suppose if they had actually aired it on television here in the States, I might have, but for whatever reason the BBC decided against it. Instead, they opted to air shot clips of the show via their website. Despite that, there seems to be quite a bit of outcry from fans both in England and abroad regarding the cancellation. There’s currently an online petition asking BBC to reconsider their decision to axe the show — it’s already gained nearly 40,000 signatures.
It’s true that anyone can collect toys or take up photography, but using both to craft your art requires a bit of talent and creativity. Vesa Lehtimäk understands that. Known to most as Avanaut, Vesa’s spent the last few years photographing his kid’s toys, which include everything from their stuffed animals to Star Wars. He employs excellent use of landscapes and lighting, often to dramatic effect. In short, many of his galleries are breathtaking despite the fact that many of these toys by themselves fail to impress when looked upon with our naked eye. While I’d love to post every single photo he’s taken, it behoove you to follow his tweets, or visit his flickr account. If you’d like to own a print or postcard, several of his works are also available through RedBubble.
One again, the guys at Major League Mods have given Fanboy a peek at their latest work — a special Star Wars-themed surround sound system. This simple 200 watt 2.1 setup features two TIE fighter satellite speakers and a subwoofer modeled after, you guessed it, the Death Star itself. If you’re concerned about how they sound, each TIE fighter comes equipped with a Yamaha 2¾ inch mid-range and 1 inch dome tweeter with built-in crossovers. The Death Star sub comes with a 6½ inch driver, a full set of control knobs and switches — power, treble, bass, and so on — and features a custom paint job by Nub Graffix. In addition to the RCA inputs for the satellites, there’s also an auxiliary headphone jack for your favorite iDevice.
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 9, 2011 in Pulp Fiction
I’m a big fan of literary mashups, and also a big weird fiction fan, so obviously a combination of Dr. Seuss and H.P. Lovecraft is right up my alley. Not only did DeviantArt user DrFaustus take up Seuss’ artistic style, he also turned Lovecraft’s famous story The Call of Cthulhu into Seuss-style rhyming couplets! It’s some kind of adorable eldritch gift from beyond time and space. Can’t wait to see more of these pages as they’re released. He should tackle At the Mountains of Madness next; imagine Elder Things drawn all Seussically. Read more…
Pete Travis may have discovered that justice is blind in the film industry. Travis, director of the upcoming Judge Dredd film (spartanly titled Dredd) is rumored to have been asked to step down as director as the film entered its post-production phase. The LA Times reports that “creative differences” between Travis and the studio were to blame, but who can ever really know what that phrase means? In the meantime, screenwriter Alex Garland has allegedly taken Travis’ place in the editing room. Does this mean dreddful news for the film? We’ll have to see, when and if Dredd meets its September release date.
Somewhere in Hollywood, a dark assembly of producers, directors, studio heads, and other figures cloaked in shadow gather. One, older and more wizened than the rest, relays the grave news he’s been reluctant to surrender. “Gentleman,” he croaks, “we have run out of Ideas.” A younger man, handsome, speaks up over the uproar. “No! That can’t be true. We had enough Ideas to last through at least 2014. We did the math.” Lifting his hood, a gray-haired man solemnly shakes his head. “That whole Pauly Shore revival thing ended up not working out.” The old man lifts a hand, gesturing for silence from the cabal. “We have no choice,” he says, his voice quivering. “Drastic measures must be taken. We must make two Snow White movies in the same year. And one of them will star Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen for some reason.” Read more…
Persona 4 was practically an anime to begin with, just like all Persona games before it, but if you’re anything like my JRPG-playing friends, you probably want to watch the new Persona 4 anime anyway. The bad news? It just premiered in Japan. The good news? You can watch it subtitled right now. The Anime Network offers you a heaping helping of streaming Persona animation almost unreasonably soon after it airs in Japan, so get on it! You don’t even need to go to A/V club or flirt with that mousy girl to make it happen. Read more…
Here’s a bit of a treat for those of you planning on attending New York Comic-Con and Anime Festival next week. For the first time, Marvel Studios will be officially attending the convention, and hosting an special panel where they’ll debut never-before-seen footage from The Avengers. The event will take place on October 15th at the IGN theater — wait, when did IGN get their own theater? Any way, it’s expected to last an hour, starting at 6:30 PM, so cancel those dinner plans if you want to attend. The panelists scheduled to be present include producer Kevin Feige, Captain America himself, Chris Evans, Thor’s Tom Hiddleston, and actors Clark Gregg and and Cobie Smulders, who play Agent Coulson and Hill respectively.
This week, Sony launched a line of PlayStation 2 titles to be distributed digitally via the PlayStation store. Under normal circumstances, this would be welcome news. However a few gamers are more than a little ticked. Some of you may recall the console having launched with backwards compatibility, allowing PS2 owners the option to carry their libraries over to the new platform. Current models no longer support hardware emulation and, until now, have lacked the means to play PS2 software. Sony finally seems to have perfected their software emulation, but won’t be giving it to us for free. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised, after all where’s the profit in giving us backwards compatibility when Sony could simply charge us twice for the games we already own. At least early adopters can still brag — that is, assuming their consoles haven’t died yet.
It’s been a long time coming, but for fans, I suppose its been worth the wait. Both Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: the Animated Series are now available for streaming via Netflix. I was already excited about Deep Space Nine, as the series eventually grew on me over the years. Initially, I wasn’t very fond of the characters and while I appreciated the serialized approach to the series, I always felt the scripts paled in comparison to The Next Generation which, at the time the series aired, had been my long-running staple. As far as the Animated Series goes, I never really saw much of it but I’ve never heard any nice things about it either. Still, I’m looking forward to seeing whether or not it’s as terrible as everyone makes it out to be.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Oct 4, 2011 in Design, Fandom
A few months back, Chronicle Books published The MAD Fold-In Collection: 1964-2010, a collection of Al Jaffee’s award-winning fold-ins featured on the back of MAD Magazine over the past four decades. For those of us who grew up reading MAD, this special collection is an absolute must-buy. Though I haven’t personally subscribed to the publication in recent years, I have fond memories of purchasing issues and immediately flipping them over to see what Jaffee had in store for us. His brilliant designs are not only humorous and satirical, but constantly remain topical and are often thought-provoking.
Okay, this is a bit of exciting news and I really could help but write about it, but it looks as though — wait for it — Arrested Development will be returning for a fourth season! Okay, well, maybe not a entire season, but at least nine or ten new episodes that will serve as a lead-in for the upcoming feature film. The announcement came from series creator Mitch Hurwitz during a recent cast reunion. No word on when the episodes will start full production, or where they’ll end up, but there’s some reports that both Netflix and Showtime have shown interest.
Feast your eyes on Big Chief’s Doctor Who Limited Edition Eleventh Doctor collectible figure. From the sculpt itself to the accessories, it’s about as high-end as it gets — I’d even say it’s almost on par with some of the Hot Toys figures we’ve been seeing recently. Of course, it’ll cost you about as much as one too. A special signature edition of the 1:6th scale figure retails for roughly $265 without shipping, while the less expensive limited edition will run for only $233. Both of them should be hitting the market around December or early January. To make up for that asking price, the signature edition includes a plaque hand-signed by Smith, while both figures will come with several interchangeable hands, and numerous accessories like the Doctor’s invitation to Lake Silencio, a sonic screwdriver, and more — sorry, no fez or stetson. The signature edition will be incredibly limited in supply as only 250 units are being produced. Ironically, the limited edition may not be so limited in number. If you want to get yours hands on one, head over to the official Big Chief website and sign up to pre-order yours today. Read more…
China recently unveiled the logo for its version of NASA, the Chinese National Space Administration, and it looks… let’s say it looks a little familiar. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I feel like it looks a lot like what would happen if you mixed the logos for, say, a united federation of planets and a fleet that traveled through the stars. Admittedly, if you have to design a logo for a space program you want to be successful, you could do worse than drawing inspiration from sci-fi’s most beloved space program. Just be sure to give NASA a call when you discover warp technology because, let’s face it, the US space program sure isn’t going to do it. Read more…
