Monthly Archives: August 2012

Shadowrun Role-Playing Game gets initial funding for video game version

Russell Crowe may take the role of Roland in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series

A Photo documentary of the Yakuza Crime Family

Movie:  Cockneys vs. Zombies trailer

Pure Awesome: The Batcave Inspired Home Theater

Doom 4 will be done when it is done

Amazing Art Picks … I’m liking that image of Black Cat a lot

As the release date for the next World of Warcraft expansion approaches, Blizzard reports further shedding of subscribers from 10.2 million in May to 9.1 million as of August 2.

Meanwhile, a World of Warcraft movie is still in the pipeline from Legendary Entertainment.

I have been following the development of the World of Warcraft  Mists of Pandaria expansion via MMO Champion for some months.  Some critics feel that adding Kung-Fu Pandas as a playable race somehow makes the game less serious.  Considering that one of the playable characters is already a giant bipedal race of cows and another is a race of goats from outer space, it’s hard for me to get worked up about how Pandas somehow take away from the realism of the game.

At any rate, Blizzard is clearly putting a lot of effort into this one and we shall see if they win back any of their wayward subscriber base.

Christopher Eccleston, who briefly played Doctor Who in 2005, is on board to be the villain in Marvel’s Thor sequel “Thor: The Dark World”.

Meanwhile, the awesome trailer for Doctor Who series 7 features angels, dinosaurs and Daleks, oh my!

Diamond Select Marvel Vs Capcom Minimates 

400,000 American Homes Have Dumped Pay TV This Year

WANT: Warhammer 40K Servo Skull Model

Dude Gets Darth Vader Tattoo On His Face

A really excellent article on Atari founder Nolan Bushnell: Gaming’s Absent Father

Popular Japanese manga “Jack Black” to become a TV series

Richard Garfield creator of “Magic: The Gathering” has a new online CCG coming out

via [Screen Rant]

Turns out that zombies have a very limited political agenda.

As the dog days of summer wind down the winners and losers are in for the movie block buster season.  Some of the summer movies are getting sequels and some not so much.

Also, coming in the future to a theater near you: Ten upcoming Fantasy and Science Fiction Re-Makes.

via [Ain't it Cool News]

For comic geeks the next X-Men movie could be something akin to a religious experience.

The 1981 X-Men story arc of issues #141 – #142 laid groundwork in motion which will echoed through the X-Men title for years.  It is pretty remarkable that two short issues of a comic are packed with so much significance, but there you go.

The collected Days of Future Past story line [amazon_link id="0785164537" target="_blank" container="" container_class="" ]is available as a trade paperback[/amazon_link] from Amazon if you missed the original issues.  The “Days of Future Past” storyline is the epilogue to the classic X-Men: Dark Phoenix saga which is, coincidentally, [amazon_link id="0785164219" target="_blank" container="" container_class="" ]also available as a trade paperback[/amazon_link] from Amazon.

via [The Sun]

Chewbacca’s original head – the mask worn by actor Peter Mayhew in the original Star Wars trilogy – sold at auction for £110,000 ($170,907 U.S. dollars).

To me that sounds like a pretty good haul for a piece of movie memorabilia.  But, just for context, lets compare to some other sales…

• In 2005 the Saturday Night Fever dance floor auctioned for a cool $188,000
• in 2011 Marilyn Monroe’s iconic white dress from The Seven Year Itch sold for $5.6 million at auction
• in 2006 an autographed picture of Joe Piscopo sold for $8 bucks

So there you go… Chewbacca’s head is roughly at value with a disco dance floor, more valuable than a picture of Joe Piscopo and has a long way to go to catch up with Marilyn.

Misc. Links for Aug. 01, 2012

Vince Vaughn is Producing a Reboot of ‘The Brady Bunch’ for CBS

Star Wars: the Old Republic goes free to play in November

Clip from the absurd forthcoming movie Iron Sky: Nazi’s on the Dark Side of the Moon

Awesome Mary Jane Watson Parker image at Stacy of Gotham

Geek Mom’s Comic Book Corner at wired.com

New Zombie MMO The War Z closed beta received over 100,000 registrants in 24 hours

NUPTUALITY!

via [ComicBookMovie.com]

In light of a sequel I cannot help but link once more to Red Letter Media’s take on Prometheus.  Hopefully the next installment will answer all those nagging unanswered questions.

The word is that Sir Ridley Scott is excited about working on the second film.  If this project has his imagination going then hopefully it will be good.  Possible release date in 2014-2015.

via [Neatorama]

Howard the Duck, Squirrel Girl, Frog Man.  Their names inspire puzzlement and indifference in the forces of villainy.  But this  heroic team of rejects will not be deterred from their mission of bringing the Justice(tm).

Marvel comics will be making an animated web series called the All Winners Squad using their odd-ball characters.  Should be a lot of fun to see where this goes.

via [Geekologie]

… and we all know how well that works out.  Reportedly the billionaire, Australian Clive Palmer, is in discussion with the scientific team which cloned Dolly the Sheep.

This could add a whole new dimension to the TV show “Survivor“.

In other Millionaires Building Stuff news, this Dutch fellow has just built Noah’s Ark after dreaming about a flood.

via [Euro Gamer]

The Baldur’s Gate series of RPG game titles which began to be released in 1998 were simply the pinnacle of video Role-Playing games.  Their story was sweeping and legendary in scope, their cast of characters were colorful and their challenges very real.

Fans will get a second shot at the title thanks to a restoration of the game which makes it compatible with modern computers.  Check it out at Beamdog.

via [Comic Vine]

According to producers of the new Green Arrow show “ARROW” the character will be modeled less on the Super-Hero genre and more on the Crime Thriller genre.

Personally I am excited about this show and I hope they do a good job with it in the Bourne and Mission Impossible mold with maybe some CSI thrown in.  However, if they are going that route I do hope they make his arrows obey the laws of physics.

Frank Miller’s iconic take on the Batman depicted in the 1986 comic series [amazon_link id="B001TMX97E" target="_blank" container="" container_class="" ]The Dark Night Returns[/amazon_link] will be released as a two part animated film.  MTV Geek has the trailer.

via [Comic Vine]

The impact of “The Dark Knight Returns” on the Batman character cannot be overstated.  Reading it was a psychic backlash to the campy Batman image generated from the 1968 television series most were familiar with at that time (including myself).  It pretty much cemented the modern view of the Batman character.

The latest Domestic US and International trailers for the new James Bond movie Skyfall.  Here’s the US one embedded: