Now HBO is just toying with fans leading into Season 4 of Game of Thrones.
After the infamous Red Wedding, they are seizing the opportunity to remind everyone that anyone can die with these character posters that have “valar morghulis” on them which translates to “all men must die” in High Valyrian.
If you have not read the books then I can only sit back, as I did last season, and wait on your reactions. The statement on the posters is apropos for more than one of these characters.
Our new feature will give you the quick hits from the world of the interwebs in movies, games, TV, ballroom dancing, lighting fixtures, whatever catches our eye.
Movies
Star Wars Episode VII
There are reports from multiple sites and sources that both Benedict Cumberbatch AND Gary Oldman are set for the next Star Wars directed by J.J. Abrams. If this is true, the force is strong with this movie. As long as the name Hayden Christensen is nowhere to be found.
The Amazing Spider-Man 3
Marc Webb will come back to direct the third (sixth) Spider-Man movie. They will be wasting no time. It is planned for release on June 10, 2016.
Dredd 2
While in Germany at a Star Trek convention, Karl Urban said that conversations had started with Lionsgate and writer Alex Garland about a follow-up to 2012’s amazing Dredd. The film bombed at the box office but since has picked up a lot of ground in DVD and Blu-Ray sales.
Indiana Jones
It looks like Harrison Ford is on his way to donning his whip and fedora two more times. The price for getting him back to do Star Wars may have been a commitment by Disney (who bought the rights to Indy as well) to make two more Dr. Jones tales. What will they do about Indy’s kid since Shia is not famous anymore (his words, not mine)?
Console Wars
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are keeping busy with their work to bring Preacher to AMC and now they are wanting to make a film version of Blake Harris’ Console Wars which tells of Nintendo and Sega’s fight for supremacy in the 90’s.
Independence Day 2
Will Smith has officially said no to the sequel because he is too busy riding the wave of money made by After Earth last year. He won’t be in the sequel to the one sci-fi movie people want to see him in but he will make garbage with Shyamalan?
TV
Heroes
Did you hear the big news? NBC is pulling a 24 and bringing back Heroes for a 13 episode mini-series in 2015. The run will feature all-new characters although they say that some people from the original run may return. They were doing so well until they said that.
http://youtu.be/xXUjpHHfTLY
Games
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
The next-gen version of the prequel to The Phantom Pain has been dropped in price by 25% to $29.99. Likewise, I am now 25% more likely to buy the game.
Titanfall
The shooter will require up to 40GB of space on your Xbox One. Damn next-gen, you take up space.
World of Warcraft
If you want more than one of your WOW characters to level up to 90 it is going to cost you. The new expansion, Warlords of Draenor, will allow you to level one character up to 90 but other characters will run you $60. For a game that has been taking $15 a month from around ten million people for a decade, that’s harsh.
I can’t start this recap without first mentioning the launch of the WWE Network yesterday. God knows they let you know about it on Raw last night. That was the main crux of why Hogan even made an appearance in Green Bay.
“Hulkamania, brother. WWE Univer…Network. Vitamins. Prayers. WWE Network. WrestleMania, brother.”
I did sign up for the WWE Network yesterday and for a day one launch it went fairly smoothly. There were some loading issues and long buffer times but there was no catastrophic crashes, so I call that a big win.
And the library…the sweet, sweet nectar of what every wrestling fan has wanted to watch at their leisure without having to spend thousands of dollars for overpriced DVD’s on eBay or from some Craigslist ad where you aren’t sure if you are going to get a copy of Fall Brawl ’98 or a knifey hello from a chick with anger issues.
Anyway…there is almost too much to take in for only $10 a month. And yes I am aware of how that sounded.
Getting to the actual show itself, for a Raw that WWE wanted to build as a PPV on TV, it certainly was…a show. So I guess they accomplished what they wanted since Elimination Chamber was a big, heaping pile of “shit I knew was going to happen”.
Last night did pretty much firmly set in place the WrestleMania card we all knew was coming, but the one we didn’t want to see.
Daniel Bryan made it actually believable that he wants to wrestle HHH at Mania. What hurts here is that I could easily see the talking heads backstage wanting to put Bryan in the main event with Orton and Batista. They know as well as we do that the crowd is most likely going to highjack the main event and make WrestleMania end on an embarrassing note.
That would leave HHH without a match and you sure as shit know that’s not happening. I wouldn’t even put it past him to have such a wounded ego about Punk leaving, because he did not think a match with Terra Ryzing was worth his time, that Hunter will make Bryan do the job.
Leave it to Undertaker and Brock Lesnar to do their best to get people excited about WrestleMania 30. Yes, this match may be a decade too late and I am still wondering why WWE went this direction especially if Sting is WANTING TO WRESTLE UNDERTAKER.
You heard me right. Sting was willing to travel down to Texas and work with Taker on their Mania match when he signs with the company. Now don’t get them wrong, the WWE want Sting, they just don’t consider it very high on their list of to-do’s.
I can’t make this shit up.
They are so set on their WrestleMania card that they don’t want to give fans the one fucking match that has been talked about ever since WCW shut their doors 13 years ago. There are talks about Sting coming in after WrestleMania for a run and ending with a match at Mania 31, but with both guys being at the point they are in their careers, don’t you put that match on whenever and wherever you can?
Even with all my bitching, I still know that Lesnar and Taker will, most likely, steal the show.
Side note- Is it coincidence that Taker came back with the Ministry goatee only days after I shaved my mustache and went full-on Amish? I think not!
That is just Cesaro doing his Cesaro thing. Damn.
How big a shit was taken in everyone’s pants last night when Cena hurt his knee?
Normally I am all for Cena taking time off no matter how it happens, but this is the wroooong time of year, especially with a genuine excitement for his match with Bray Wyatt building in my twinkie-filled body (RIP Harold Ramis).
The injury sure did look legit. One of those fluke things that was no one’s fault, you just have to file it under “shit happens”. Early reports are it could be a hyperextension or even a dislocated kneecap. If that is true I have send respect Cena’s way for still gutting through it to finish the segment. Here is hoping it is not too serious. Mania is already looking weak, we don’t need one of the few interesting matches on the card to get scratched.
#Emmalution #CaptainHappyPants
I can’t help but feel a little bad for Batista. He has been gone four years and the fans are giving him the business because he is being forced into a spot that they want Daniel Bryan to be in. The Bootista train has left the station and there is no derailing it.
At least they made light of it last night with Orton asking if Drax was even happy he came back because of the boos. They seem to be taking the Cena approach and telling Batista to go with the flow.
Wrong. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.
The reason why it is the Cena approach is that it only works with Cena. People love to cheer him and they love to hate him…it’s his thing. It has and forever will define his career. People are booing Batista because they genuinely don’t want him in the main event and since WWE has painted themselves into this corner they need to turn him heel, either at Mania or right after.
Batista is more The Rock than John Cena. He doesn’t have to be there. He wanted to come back for one more run. He could be off doing other shit like sexually harassing women, picking things up and putting them down or hanging out with Chris Pratt.
That last thing is why Batista is better than all of us.
Leave it to Green Bay to shit all over a good match between Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns. As one member of Twitter succinctly put it “it reminds me of The Rock and HHH in their Nation/DX days”. We can only hope those two have the careers ahead of them like Rock and HHH. One of the bright spots about watching Raw now is seeing all the potential that could flourish into main event stardom in the future.
I keep wondering when Bray will have a bad week on the microphone and it never happens. Every week he shows everyone in the locker room how to keep people hanging on his words, even if they make as much sense as Ted Nugent after three days of Grey Goose and ecstasy.
Here is the card for WrestleMania 30 so far:
Randy Orton vs. Batista for the WWE World Heavyweight Title
Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar
HHH vs. Daniel Bryan
John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt
I do genuinely want to watch Taker/Lesnar and Cena/Wyatt. I would be more excited about the Bryan match if I did not have this lingering feeling that HHH will get the win.
How am I feeling about WrestleMania 30 with only 40 days to go? As it looks now, partly shitty with a 75% chance of disappointment. Let’s hope the WWE can build a solid undercard to liven things up a bit.
Sad news today with the passing of actor/writer/director Harold Ramis, who died surrounded by family, at the age of 69. Ramis was one of the true comic greats in Hollywood. He is best known for his role of Egon Spengler in 1984’s Ghostbusters and its 1989 sequel.
To only know of Ramis from that one role is a gross understatement of how legendary he was to the world of comedy. Besides acting in Stripes, Ghostbusters, Orange County, Knocked Up and many other roles, he wrote Animal House, Meatballs, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, Back to School, Groundhog Day, Analyze This and its sequel Analyze That as well as many other credits to his name.
His directing chops were just as robust getting behind the camera for Caddyshack, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Groundhog Day, Analyze This/That and more.
When you stack up his resume with John Hughes these two men basically ran the comedy game in Hollywood for over a decade.
Our condolences go out to his family. He will be greatly missed.
For the third week in a row The LEGO Movie claimed a new set of victims. This time bringing down Bull Durham and Jon Snow. Taking in $31.4 million easily won the weekend for the tiny feet killers. It should cross $200 million domestically next week.
Pompeii was a disaster movie that lived up to its description. The $100 million movie brought in $10 million for a third place finish. That is even below the studio lowball $15 million estimate.
Robocop had a big drop off to $9.4 million in its second weekend. Luckily it has crossed $100 million internationally making back its budget.
Today the WWE announced what most of the internet wrestling community knew; Hulk Hogan is on his way to WrestleMania.
The Hall of Famer will serve as host of WrestleMania 30 in New Orleans on April 6th. The Rock was the last “host” back at WrestleMania 27 in Atlanta. Hogan will not be in a match or be doing anything physically taxing since the WWE doctors would not clear him because of the fact he is held together by fishing line and metal plates after multiple surgeries to his knees and back.
The fact that Hogan will be there is a good thing for WWE. The card for WrestleMania 30 is shaping up to be less than expected and having him at the show, no matter how, will bring a great nostalgia factor.
Doctor Strange will be on the big screen eventually. Marvel has said that the Sorcerer Supreme will be a part of their Phase 3 set of movies. Now reports are out that four directors are on Marvel’s radar and have either already met or will soon meet with the big wigs very soon.
The directors are: Mark Andrews (co-director of Brave), Dean Israelite (Welcome to Yesterday), Jonathon Levine (Warm Bodies) and Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair).
I only personally have seen work by Andrews and Levine with my viewings of Brave and Warm Bodies. Andrews could have an upper hand seeing how Brad Bird went from The Incredibles to Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol director. Marvel may hope lightning can strike twice from the house of Woody and Buzz.
Arcel is a hot name in Hollywood with his movie, A Royal Affair, being nominated for an Academy Award last year for Best Foreign Film.
Whoever gets the job certainly will have a unique task in bringing Doctor Strange to the screen. Johnny Depp has been rumored to be Marvel’s man when it comes to playing the part. While I am a huge Depp fan, it may be better suited to get someone lesser known, especially if Marvel hopes to turn the Doctor’s adventures into a franchise. Depp does not come cheap and Marvel is widely known for low-balling money amounts as long as your name is not Robert Downey, Jr.
And with that tagline we see that this will be some fun shit about to go down.
The reason I think Guardians of the Galaxy will ultimately work is that it is so different. Audiences have had seven years to get used to what the Marvel formula is in movies. The only way you do not grow stale is to change things and Guardians is definitely going to be a change.
Now that the first trailer has been released, Marvel is in full-on marketing mode with the poster above as well as individual video profiles for each of the Guardians of the Galaxy. They are only around 30 seconds a piece so give them a watch. We also get our first tiny preview of Bradley Cooper voicing Rocket Raccoon.
A new poster has popped up for this summer’s comeback of everyone’s favorite giant lizard, Godzilla.
The image keeps with the darker tone that was used in the first trailer for the movie. It looks to be keeping as far away as possible from the 1998 disaster. As long as Godzilla doesn’t lay eggs in Madison Square Garden, it is a win.
