First look at new Godzilla film's poster
The reintroduction of the kaiju genre in mainstream American cinema began last week with Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim release. While the film underperformed at the box office, I still contend that it's one of the better summer movies to have come out thus far. With San Diego Comic Con taking place this weekend, a litany of geeky films will be making their public premieres. One such film is the anticipated American remake of the classic Godzilla.
Directed by Gareth Edwards (Monsters), the upcoming Godzilla remake is slim on the details, but features an amazing lineup of actors including Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass), and Ken Watanabe (Letters from Iwo Jima). With famed writer/director Frank Darabont (The Walking Dead, The Green Mile) attached as one of the screenwriters, you already know that this reboot of the Godzilla franchise will have a lot of hype leading up to its 2014 release.
The poster, which you can view in full below, constructions broken down buildings set to resemble the famed monster. Obviously, Godzilla won't be made up of buildings, but the poster hints at just how fun and destructive the film will be. I'm already excited to see more; hopefully SDCC will reveal the first look at the monster herself or, better yet, some actual footage.
[via IGN]
X-Force film being planned, Kick-Ass 2 director attached
With the Marvel film universe constantly expanding, from Iron Man to Guardians of the Galaxy to the rumored Ant Man film, the stable of popular Marvel comic book characters are prepped to make their film debuts within the next couple of years. Unfortunately, with the way Marvel films were structured, the comic book properties are split across numerous studios, i.e. Spider-Man with Sony, X-Men with Fox, and the bulk of the Avengers under Marvel Films. Because of this, it's hard for a completely unified and cohesive film universe to exist without a ton of money being shuffled around for specific characters/franchises.
The rise of Marvel's film success, let alone mainstream superhero films', began with Fox's X-Men in 2000. With the next entries in the franchise, The Wolverine and X-Men: Days of Future Past, set to come out later this year and next, respectively, the X-Men universe is growing just as large as the core Marvel films, if not larger. Over the weekend, the expansion was teased and confirmed with the announcement of X-Force.
Already attached to the film is Kick-Ass 2's writer/director Jeff Wadlow as X-Force screenwriter... and possibly director. X-Force represents a darker, more mature spin on the X-Men series as the team has primarily represented a psuedo-black ops faction of the mutants willing to kill those who pose a threat to mutants. The film is still in the very, very early stages of production, so any inklings of which characters will be featured won't be announced any time soon.
What do you think of a darker, possibly R-rated X-Men film?
[via Collider]
Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin reveals his Iron Throne
I have to admit something: I haven't watched a single episode of Game of Thrones. Of course, it's not some sort of anti-popularity thing where I naively shun anything "hip" or "cool" with the masses, it's because I don't have HBO and couldn't afford the blu-ray box set at the time Season 1 came out. That's neither here nor there; what is is how massively popular Game of Thrones has become.
Because of this, the Iron Throne has come to be an iconic representation of the show. In fact, whenever Game of Thrones is mentioned, the image of the throne automatically enters my head. For those who may not have seen it, the show's Iron Throne looks like this:
Pretty intimidating, isn't it? Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin loves it, but with a caveat. He explains:
"The HBO throne has become iconic. And well it might. It's a terrific design, and it has served the show very well...everyone knows it. I love it. I have all those replicas right here, sitting on my shelves.And yet, and yet... it's still not right. It's not the Iron Throne I see when I'm working on (the forthcoming sixth Game of Thrones novel) The Winds of Winter. It's not the Iron Throne I want my readers to see. The way the throne is described in the books... HUGE, hulking, black and twisted, with the steep iron stairs in front, the high seat from which the king looks DOWN on everyone in the court... my throne is a hunched beast looming over the throne room, ugly and asymmetric...
The HBO throne is none of those things."
What then, would his version of the Iron Throne look like? French artist Marc Simonetti painted Martin's true vision of the throne, which you can see in full below. While the overall theme of a throne made out of swords is kept in tact (and rightfully so), the Simonetti throne is a lot more rough, intimidating, ugly, and raw when compared to the HBO Iron Throne. Again, this makes sense, considering production and marketing costs - would you rather have the HBO Iron Throne replica on your book shelf, perfectly shaped and proper, or the Simonetti replica, asymmetrical and ugly?
Jamie Foxx looks electrifying in first official Electro image for The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Marc Webb's Amazing Spider-Man reboot was met with a mixed reaction. Considering it retconned the entire Tobey Maguire/Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy so soon after Spider-Man 3 farted its way into our minds with new mythos, new actors, and a new direction, Amazing Spider-Man had a lot working against it when it swung into theaters last year.
However, with the new mythos established and Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone set as the faces of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, Webb and company are able to swing wild with the upcoming sequel, Amazing Spider-Man 2. Today, the first official look of Jamie Foxx as the film's main villain, Electro, was revealed as part of Entertainment Weekly's cover story for the film. Casual Spider-Man fans might be turned off by the cosmetic changes made to the Sinister Six villain, but diehard webheads might catch Electro's similarities to his Ultimate Spider-Man incarnation of the character.
May 2, 2014 is the proposed release date for Amazing Spider-Man 2. Do you think you'll be ready by then?
[via /Film]
A boycott of Ender's Game is brewing
The Ender's Game adaptation is shaping up to be a solid film for both literature and sci-fi fans alike. However, with anything related to Orson Scott Card's name comes the scrutiny that follows his political views. Years ago, Card made some controversial statements against marriage equality, causing quite a storm that has led to him losing writing opportunities. With the adaptation of arguably his most popular and successful novel set for a November release, the movement to boycott Ender's Game has begun.
LGBT group Geek Out has started a petition, "Skip Ender's Game," with a pretty clear directive: ignore Ender's Game. With Card set to receive money from the film's revenue, the group is aiming directly at his wallet as a show that they don't endorse his views. Card recently responded to the boycott to Entertainment Weekly recently, in which he said the following:
Ender’s Game is set more than a century in the future and has nothing to do with political issues that did not exist when the book was written in 1984.
With the recent Supreme Court ruling, the gay marriage issue becomes moot. The Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution will, sooner or later, give legal force in every state to any marriage contract recognized by any other state.
Now it will be interesting to see whether the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute.
Orson Scott Card
The problem I have with his statement is how ignorant it comes across. Gay rights didn't exist in 1984? Really? However, while I support most LGBT movements and hate when people on a platform spread hate and venom against people, I feel that this boycott might be a bit misdirected. Yes, it's a strong way to battle against Card's views, but in doing so, the decision also affects the actors, the production crew members, the writers, everybody attached who probably don't see eye-to-eye with Card.
What do you think? Will you boycott Ender's Game because of Card's views? Or do you even care about the controversy at all?
[via Entertainment Weekly]
The Lone Ranger's not-so-lonely $150 million flop
Finally, Johnny Depp's star has dimmed just a bit as my predictions for The Lone Ranger's failure have come to fruition. Debuting over the holiday weekend at a dysmal $48.7m box office intake, the modern-day adaptation of the Lone Ranger's and Tonto's adventures is going to cost a lot of people a lot of money. How much? Well, with the estimated budget for the film clocking in around $215m, Disney is set to lose roughly $150m on the film over production and marketing costs.
While Disney distributed the film, the film's producer Jerry Bruckheimer will also carry the load along with Disney, as his huge gamble on Johnny Depp's star recognition didn't pan out quite as well as he was hoping. It also doesn't help that Depp's portrayal of Tonto was borderline offensive. I'm very obviously not a fan of Depp's caricature acting, and it seems like most are growing weary of the act, as his name used to almost guarantee a large box office intake. I'm more concerned with how the flop will affect Armie Hammer's career. The Lone Ranger was to provide Hammer a path towards stardom following The Social Network, but now it seems he might be a lonely ranger for awhile longer.
Of course, despite $150m being a very, very large amount of money to lose, Disney's other big summer films, Iron Man 3 and Monsters University have made enough where the House that Walt Built shouldn't be too worried about their profits for the year. Hopefully, this will mark the end of the Disney and Bruckheimer collaborations, as The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise grew way too long in the tooth, and The Lone Ranger looked nothing more than a simple setting swap.
[via /Film]
Celebrate the App Store's 5th birthday with free games and apps
With Apple's App Store approaching its 5th birthday, both Apple and some of the App Store developers have made their apps and games available for free. Apple is featuring five top-rated games and apps to commemorate its anniversary for iOS-based devices (iPhone, iPad), including the games Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Infinity Blade II, Tiny Wings, BADLAND, and Where's My Water? and apps Barefoot World Atlas, Day One (Journal/Diary), How to Cook Everything, Over, and Traktor DJ for iPhone. A large number of other developers have also made their apps and games free, as well.
Techtola has a small number of the games and apps available for free, with updates to follow as they're discovered. I personally recommend Tiny Wings, Sword & Sworcery, and Infinity Blade II. Happy birthday, App Store!
[via Techtola]