The first trailer for Len Wiseman’s Total Recall hit the net this week, and surprisingly, it really looks good. Given Hollywood’s current fetish for reinventing classic films, I had plenty of reservations when plans were announced a year ago, especially after hearing that Colin Farrell would be cast as Douglas Quaid, a character we’ve only ever associated with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Farrell isn’t unknown to the action genre but for a time, Schwarzenegger defined it. So how do they plan on tackling it? The answer is simple, believability.
The other day, Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim played a little April Fool’s joke by bringing back their Toonami anime blockfor an evening. They caught a lot of fans off guard, by marathoning classic Toonami programming like Astro Boy, Big O, Outlaw Star, Gundam Wing and more — they even had Steve Blum return as the voice of T.O.M. the robot, going as far as reviewing Mass Effect 3. When Toonami left the air a few years back, I remember fans calling it as an end of an era, well now it looks like they might get a chance to revive it. Adult Swim is asking its fans to voice their desire via twitter with the hash tag #BringBackToonami. Read more…
The guys over at Nerdistmay be famous for their fandom, but we’re not jealous. Sure, Hardwick and the gang happen to rub elbows with some of our favorite stars on a regular basis, even convinced BBC America to fund a series of television specials, but the truth is he’s as much of a nerd as the rest of us. With that in mind, I thought it’d be nice to mention the launch of their brand new YouTube channel. While I’m not sure if they plan on transitioning any of their podcasts to videocasts, I’m sure they’ll have plenty of interesting content to keep you entertained. Read more…
Every year ThinkGeek likes to tease us with a wonderful array of fake products we’d love to waste money on. Well, some of us any way, and this year was no exception. Some of their better gag gifts this year included a Skyrim electronic dragon shout hoodie, Minecraft-themed green marshmallow peeps, or ‘Creeps,’ and even an inflatable Star Trek Captain’s chair. Okay, so that last one is actually a real product they’re selling. Still, a Skyrim dragon shout hoodie? I’d totally get one for Halloween next year. Read more…
There are so many awesome gadgets out there, many of which I can’t afford. The latest to catch my eye is a portable, projection-based Bluetooth keyboard for iOS and Android devices. The Elecom TK-PBL042BK — catchy name, I know — is a self-contained, rechargeable unit that projects a red wire-frame keyboard onto the surface of your choice. The keyboard itself comes with adjustable brightness settings to save battery life, and features up three levels of sensitivity, clocked up to 350 characters per minute. There’s even a mouse-mode built-in. Impressive, isn’t it?
These busts from Gentle Giant for the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man film look pretty good. They have a fair attention to detail and have nice poses. The Lizard looks menacing, and Spider-Man is leaping in action from buildings – it’s all good stuff. But the alternate version with Spidey’s mask off isn’t quite there yet: I think it needs another revision or two, mainly because it doesn’t look like Andrew Garfield at all. Am I the only one thinking this? Read more…
By now you’ve probably heard of Google’s fantastic April Fools joke: 8-bit Google Maps. They partnered with Square Enix to Dragon Quest-ify the entirety of Google Maps, and even produced a fake commercial for a cartridge version of the software. Given that this is Google, though, they hid tons of little items and cute references within the joke (like the adorable pixel art, seen above, found at the Google HQ). Don’t want to go hunting yourself? Hit the jump for a few cool easter eggs! Read more…
The LEGO CUUSOO site has been a big focus of the internet recently. The ability to vote up neat ideas to become official LEGO sets is too cool to pass up for many, so we’ve seen an explosion of popularity, especially with the recent Minecraft set. So what’s the latest? Shaun of the Dead! It’s a great model of the Winchester from the zombie film, in ‘Modular’ form which is LEGO’s line of buildings aimed at adult collectors. It needs 10,000 supporters for LEGO to begin the process to make it a set (it has around 8200 currently), so get on over to the CUUSOO site and sign up! Read more…
Was “Turn Off the Dark” not enough for you? Need a few more geek-related musicals in your life? Well thank Broadway, Topps, and IDW, because they’re bring you a musical adaption of Mars Attacks, the popular sci-fi trading card set, and it’s set to debut next year. Not only that, IDW will be releasing a Mars Attacks comic book series this June. The full title of the musical is Mars Attacks: 21st Century Slaughter, and I’m sure it will be interesting… but will it be good? Read more…
A scenic trip to Gotham City? Maybe scenic isn’t the best way to describe “getting robbed at gunpoint.” I don’t want to spoil the jokes here – Awkward Spaceship has put together a cute little video emulating the classic tourism commercial, only this time the city that’s begging for your visit is Gotham, a crime-riddled hive of scum and villainy. I certainly don’t recommend going to the opera and the walking out via the alleyway… Read more…
I’m a big fan of Genndy Tartakovsky’s work – and I bet many of you are too. Just the mention of Samurai Jack, Dexter’s Laboratory, or the Clone Wars series are enough to get people excited, so I like to keep an eye out for whatever he works on next. We’d gotten teasers and small bits of info about “Hotel Transylvania” here and there, but here’s the first official trailer. Yes, it’s CGI. I’m a little wary, but also hoping that Tartakovsky magic will pull through. Read more…
The guys over at TrekMovie recently chronicled an interesting, albeit hilarious conversation between Star Trek‘s Simon Pegg and Wil Wheaton via Twitter. As the story goes, Pegg was set to make an appearance on Conan promoting the upcoming video release of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Wheaton just happened to be shooting an episode of The Big Bang Theory on an adjacent set, and as soon as he caught wind that Pegg would be on the same lot, hilarity ensued. While the two ultimately didn’t meet, the tweets they shared are absolutely priceless. Check out the tweets after the jump, and if you want to hear more about Pegg’s visit with Conan O’Brien, click here.
Japan has its fair share of strange commercials, but this latest one for Disney’s Tokyo resort has to be one of the most adorable ads I’ve ever seen — so much, that the animated short has me convinced that I’d sit through an entire animated series centered around it. The 30 second anime short tells the story of a little girl and her time spent visiting the theme park over the years, from her first time as a kid, to meeting her future husband, eventually growing old together. It’s well animated, and the cute rendition of “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” fits it so well. Am I weird for wanting them to make more of these? I’ve included a bunch of screenshots from it after the jump.
Last week the BBC promised to release their first trailer for the upcoming season of Doctor Who, and now they’ve delivered. Oddly enough, it includes quite a bit of Amy and Rory, which leads me to believe that most of what we’re seeing takes place within the first half of the season. If that’s the case, then we’re in for a hell of a ride. It also seems like the Daleks will be making their return — I’d call it triumphant, but when is it ever when The Doctor’s involved. Also, any else notice Cleopatra? What’s that about?
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Mar 27, 2012 in Videogames
By now, it’s no secret that Final Fantasy XIII-2 leaves us with a cliff-hanger. It was announced a few months back that the story would continue via downloadable content, and that there were no plans for a Final Fantasy XIII-3 at this time. The first significant piece of DLC to expand the story featured former cast member Sazh Katzroy, and while it added a few casino games, it was much more of a side-story, and didn’t actually progress the plot. I’m hoping the latest piece of DLC to be announced, the much anticipated Lightning chapter, will do just that. According the Japanese gaming mag Dengenki PlayStation, that particular chapter be made available this May. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Mar 27, 2012 in Television
The last few weeks have been absolutely brutal for Sci-Fi fans. First, Fox decides to drop Terra Nova despite relatively strong ratings, then SyFy opts to pass on the latest Battlestar Galactica prequel, even though it looked far more interesting than Caprica. While we had hoped Netflix would provide some light at the end of that tunnel, it now seems as though talks to revive Terra Nova have ceased. I’m sure many of you had your fingers crossed, especially after Netflix managed to pick up Arrested Development the other month. The rumor seemed promising, but perhaps its for the best — the show’s budget would need to be slashed, and I couldn’t begin to imagine what Terra Nova would even be like without it.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Mar 26, 2012 in Television
HBO has thrown together a twenty two minute special summarizing the entire first season of Game of Thrones. If you’ve already seen the series or read the book, the video provides a decent refresher course, but otherwise, there’s quite a few spoilers. If you plan on watching the series in its entirety, or reading the book instead, you’ll want to steer clear. For me, it’s the first time I’ve had a chance to catch Emilia Clarke sporting her natural brown hair. It’s a real shame she has to dye it blonde or wear a wig for her role of Daenerys, she’s quite stunning as a brunette. Season two premieres April 1st on HBO. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 25, 2012 in Anime, Fandom
Joe Vecchio has been working diligently to create a musical based on the romantic comedy manga Maison Ikkoku which was created by Rumiko Takahashi. When I first heard about this project I had my doubts, however at Anime Central in 2011 Joe managed to get a read through of his play for his fellow otaku. And now he’s on a quest to take his dream to the next level via the website Kickstarer: Read more…
Posted by Ben Huber on Mar 25, 2012 in Cinema, Fandom
I love Indiana Jones – it’s my favorite adventure film trilogy (shhhh!) and has some of the most recognizable, iconic imagery of any film. Maxime Pécourt realized that, and made three fantastic posters featuring all the various items and objects from the films, formed into the important relics that Jones went after. If you’re interested in these posters, you can check out Pécourt’s Society6 page. And his blog has more creative geek-related work on it as well, so take a look at that as well! Read more…
If you could go back in time and tell your younger self about the future of videogames, what would you mention? The improvement in graphics? Being able to play online with other people? Maybe the motion controllers? That’s what Freddie wants to warn his past self about – well, that, and also the plague of Just Dance. I didn’t realize that we lived in such a dark, terrible time for videogames.
Big news for Avatar fans out there: today, on Korra Nation, you can watch the premier of The Legend of Korra, the new sequel to The Last Airbender. It’s up now, giving you an introduction to the story and characters. Personally, I think it looks great, so let’s hope Nickelodeon treats it right. The premier will be on TV April 14th, but no dates yet for the following episodes. Read more…
Dr. Grordbort has been around recently: new weapons, Team Fortress 2 promotional items, and now a student film! This nearly-7-minute video made by 11 students at Media Design School was officially endorsed by Weta Workshop and the creator of Dr. Grordbort, Greg Broadmore. It’s a very impressive piece and if this is who is doing our next generation of CGI, then we’re in good hands. Check it out! Read more…
Ok, maybe not, but who doesn’t want to see an Animal House version of the Mass Effect 3 ending? TuneIntoTheRock and some buddies realized after a night of revelry that this combination was one the world needed to see, and now it exists here. It’s quite funny, even for me as someone who isn’t a big Mass Effect fan. The little jab at the writers at the end is cute, but I think we’ve all had enough of that by now. Still, great video, TuneIntoTheRock!
Another creative giant has passed away: Noboru Ishiguro. He was 73. The famed director has had his hands in much of the beloved anime of the 70s, 80s, and beyond: Space Battleship Yamato, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Do You Remember Love?, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Megazone 23, and recently, Tytania. This is only his most well-known work – he’s had a lot of influence in other shows as well, as his studio, Artland, animated shows such as Mushi-shi and Demon King Daimao. Truly, he was one of the greats, and he will be missed. Read more…
