Since the big move to Disney, those of you Star Wars fans should remember that there were plans on producing spin-off movies featuring the well-loved characters from the trilogy.
Director Jon Schnepp has recently claimed that he has inside info on the upcoming spin-offs coming to the Star Wars universe when he spoke recently to a host from AMC's movie news about Disney's upcoming plans for the franchise.
"One of them is Boba Fett. It is. I know. I know for a fact. I will never reveal my source, but it is the one written by Lawrence Kasdan."
Disney has not disclosed any information about the movie, although, and apparently dissed off the claims last February when the talks about the spin-off movies began. It makes us suspicious that Jon Schnepp is being so secretive about this knowledgeable source.
These spin-off movies are said to take on an origins vibe, telling the back stories of the characters. Not only is bounty hunter Boba Fett rumored to have a spin off; apparently, a Han Solo saga is also in the works, which is said to take place in the time between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. This obviously means that a new, younger actor will be cast for the part. (Let's just pray that it's not Justin Bieber.)
Who knows? Maybe we'll see a Yoda a spin-off movie in the future. Watch this space.
Those of you who are huge fans of the award-winning series The Vampire Diaries will notice the vast number of differences between the TV show and the books (written by L.J. Smith). One of the biggest differences is the fact that the actors cast in the show look absolutely nothing like the characters in the book. I know they're not exactly following the storyline, but come on! So I decided to take it upon myself to create a list of actors who look like the characters described in the book and who I believe would have rocked the part.
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| The Vampire Diaries Season 5 |
Elena Gilbert is the main character of the series, and the books are written from her perspective. She's the love interest of the Salvatore brothers and the envy of everyone in town. In the books, Elena Gilbert is referred to as having long hair lighter than the sun, eyes the color of lapis lazuli with flecks of gold (which references the rings the vampires wear to prevent them from burning up in the harsh sunlight). Her skin is said to be like porcelain and so translucent that her veins are in plain sight, which doesn't go unnoticed by the vampire brothers Stefan and Damon and makes their lust for her even stronger.
TV Show: The actress who was cast as Elena is quite the opposite of the books' description. The stunning Nina Dobrev is a bronzed beauty of Bulgarian descent with eyes a dark, mysterious brown and hair to match.
My Choice: Emilie De Ravin would have made the perfect choice for Elena if the series had followed the books more closely.
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| Emilie De Ravin - Book Elena | Nina Dobrev - TV show Elena |
Damon Salvatore
Damon Salvatore is a vampire and love rival for Elena's affections. He can turn from irresistibly charming and playful to a stone-cold killer in a heartbeat.
TV Show: Damon Salvatore's casted actor, Ian Somerhalter, does bear somewhat of a resemblance to how he is described in the books. There are only two minor differences: His eye color was said to be jet black, whereas Somerhalder has stunning blue eyes. I think this works better, because he's often described as hauntingly beautiful, and the piercing eyes fit the character perfectly. The other difference is in their heights. Damon is described as short but well built, around 5'5–5'7.
My Choice: I think Ian Somerhalder is the perfect casting choice for Damon, despite the small differences. I think he enhances the character all that much more, not to mention his acting is just spot-on for the part.
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| Ian Somerhalder - Damon Salvatore |
Stefan Salvatore
Stefan Salvatore is Damon's brother, a 500-year-old vampire and the supposed hero of the series. He is described as looking a lot like Damon, with the same dark hair and square facial features. Instead of having his deep, dark eyes, he has green eyes and is a few inches taller than Damon, standing at about 5'10.
TV Show: The series' casting for the Salvatore brothers was not too far off. Paul Wesley is tall, with square facial features and green eyes. He does have sandy blonde hair, however, and he and Ian Somerhalder look nothing alike!
My Choice: I would have chosen Drew Fuller for the part of Stefan Salvatore; he's tall, dark, and mysterious, not to mention he and Ian Somerhalder look alike.
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| Paul Wesley - TV show Stefan | Drew Fuller - Book Stefan |
Bonnie Bennett is referred to as Bonnie McCullough in the books. She's said to be an unconventional beauty, around 4'7" in height, with big, wide, hazel eyes that give her a child-like appearance. Her heart-shaped face decorated with dimples, making her look almost like a cherub; her skin is likened to the color of snow, a similar hue to Elena's skin with the same visible veins. Her face is framed with long, thick, strawberry-blonde soft curls.
TV Show: Bonnie Bennett (Katerina Graham) is almost unrecognizable on the show by comparison. Katerina Graham is a stunning dark-skinned Swiss-born model and singer. She is a beauty, but she bears absolutely no resemblance to how Bonnie is described in the books.
My Choice: My choice for Bonnie Bennett would be Teen Wolf star Holland Roden.
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| Katerina Graham - TV Show Bonnie | Holland Roden - Book Bonnie |
Caroline Forbes
Caroline Forbes is a supporting character and childhood friend-turned-enemy of Elena Gilbert in the novel. She is model-like in appearance, with bronzed skin (thanks to lots of bronzer); long, thick auburn red hair encasing her delicate features; and bright, green catlike eyes that make her even more striking. She is also a werewolf in the books, compared with the TV series, in which she is a vampire. She is also one of Elena's best friends in the show.
TV Show: Candice Accola plays Caroline in the TV show. She is a tall blonde who definitely could be a model, and she could most certainly pull this character off if she possessed the long, auburn hair.
My Choice: Deborah Ann Woll from the fabulous True Blood series would be the perfect actress for this role. She's tall, model-like, and even has those striking cat-like eyes.
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| Candice Accola - TV Show Caroline | Deborah Ann Woll - Book Caroline |
Jeremy Gilbert
The well-loved character Jeremy Gilbert (Steven R. McQueen) doesn't actually exist in the books. I believe he was added to bulk up the storyline a bit and make the TV show more engaging. For example, making Jeremy a hunter really improved his character and added a great twist to the show as we watched him go from "average whining teenager" to a fierce hunter who would put his own life at risk to protect his friends. On the other hand, maybe he was just added to make Elena seem a bit less lonely. Her entire family dies, and Jeremy is her only family left, which makes her desire to protect him all the more strong.
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| Stephen R. McQueen as Jeremy Gilbert |
Matt Donovan
Although many of the actors cast for the show look nothing like they are described in the books, the creators have occasionally gotten it right. The teenage heartthrob Matt Donovan (known as Matt Honeycutt in the books) is described as having bright blue eyes and blonde hair, giving him the typical boy-next-door kind of look. Actor Zach Roerig has just that!
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| Zach Roerig as Matt Donovan |
Tyler Lockwood
Another character they have cast perfectly is Tyler Lockwood (known as Tyler Smallwood in the novels). He is described as being tall, handsome, and well-built, with great bone structure, dark eyes, and dark hair. That pretty much sums up actor Michael Trevino.
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| Michael Trevino as Tyler Lockwood |
Klaus
My favorite casting choice for the series is Joseph Morgan as the powerful hybrid original Klaus. He's said to be dark, sinister, and sadistic, and Joseph pulls the part off beautifully! Not only is his appearance bang-on, but he has the facial expressions and mannerisms down to a tee! One moment he's making a playful joke and flirting with Caroline, and the next BOOM, he's off on a murdering spree. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more from him in the spin-off series The Originals, which returns to The CW on January 14th.
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| Joseph Morgan as the Powerful Hybrid Klaus |
I'd love to know what you guys think! Who do you think would have played the characters well? Leave your comments below!
Check out Episode 28 of The Dace Man Show with regular Gibby as we start to roll in 2014!!!
- The first week of NFL Play Offs!!!
- The Houston Texans hire Bill O'Brien and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hire Lovie Smith former Chicago Bears head coach. 5 Teams still hunting for Head Coaches
- The Florida State Seminoles taking the BCS title with a dramatic second-half comeback.
- Current NHL Leaders! What's happening in the landa of Canadian Sports
- Chris Wheeler and Gary Matthews will not be returning to the Phillies Broadcasting booth next year.
- First of 2014....Don't mess up.
- Frank disappeared again.
- Eeerbody's getting married.
- Sasheer Zamata -- the first black female "Saturday Night Live" cast member in 5 years
- James Avery passed away last week. Good Bye Uncle Phil
Online Entertainment Radio at Blog Talk Radio with Mega Powers Radio on BlogTalkRadio
Step onto the crazy train with Chris "The Dace Man" Dace, and crew only on The Dace Man Show… cue the Final Countdown!!!
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Spectacular speculation abound, at this point. Marvel could be teasing the straight up return of Peter, or beginning a new "past adventures of…" book, similar to the recent "700.1, 2, 3" series released for sorrowful fans who missed the original Spidey. This book could potentially run aside "Superior Spider-Man", so Ock may not be on his way out. Time will tell, and soon, as this could be a book coming as early as June or July.
The noticeable aspects of this image are definitely Peter's smile and the return of the original costume. What are your thoughts? Do you love "Superior" and want to see it continue if Peter returns? Or are you in preference of a fresh start?
To be completely honest, the novelty of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has worn off for me. Since The Avengers smashed its way through the box office a little more than a year ago, it seems as though Marvel has been doing everything possible to milk every last cent from the franchise. Aspects of the cinematic universe have even percolated into the comic books, and I find myself loathing the incessant overt nods to the movies. As such, I understandably I found myself rolling my eyes when a new series featuring the Black Widow was announced months ago. I dove into the pilot issue today expecting a superficial, trite, and juvenile rendition of the character; bozhe moy, was I wrong.
Score: 10/10
What do you guys think? How do you feel about the portrayal of Black Widow in this new series?
It's not often you'll find me reviewing a new movie fresh out in cinemas. For one, I'm English, and a lot of my readers tend to get first dibs on box office newbies, being American and such. Second, I almost always end up wanting to punch the gobshites who always talk and kick the back of my seat during a film. If you're one of those people and in the slimmest of chances you happen to see me at a cinema, fear the dark, bastard. Generally speaking, however, I hate cinemas and their prices.
Third, a true film fan doesn't let hype interfere with his or her own chances for enjoyment—unless it's a comedy that you need friends there for, so you know when to laugh, because some comedies are shit like that!
Today, after gauging a lot of impressions, interpretations, and criticisms of this movie since its summer release, I picked up the new DVD release of Elysium, waited for mum to stop making confused old people noises, and relaxed into an impressive two hours of well-spent pocket change.
Directed by Neill Blomkamp, the South African guy who put Hollywood to shame in 2009 with his debut full-length feature film (yes, I just made that sound dirty) District 9, Elysium is only his second film, and I still do not know of any other director on this Earth who has launched such an attack on the senses in such a short space of time and yet affected anyone with a heart. Gareth Edwards (Monsters) may prove to be a close second, if Godzilla turns out to be as immense as it looks, but get lost, Edwards, this ain't your show!
Heart and soul…grisly, sweaty, brutal, mechanized death-dealing sci-fi with a heart and soul: That is how I would describe Elysium. With all the mind-blowing visual effects of District 9 plus plenty more tricks up its sleeve, this dystopian distant future thriller uses brilliantly executed and stylish action as its vehicle between plot checkpoints.
At its heart, at the center of all its chaos, is the tale of a boy grown up from as good a life as one could expect on an Earth abandoned for the stars by the rich and powerful into a tired ex-convict factory worker who manufactures the droids that keep humanity scared and obedient.
The soul of Elysium is a suicidal journey of selfishness and desperation simply in the hope of survival.
It is the year 2154, and the rich/poor divide has been driven so far apart that the wealthy now live on the space station Elysium, where the air is clean, the food is pure, and each citizen has access to state-of-the-art medical care that can cure all illnesses and diseases and even just about bring people back from the point of death.
Earth at this time is ruined—overpopulated, polluted to death, crime-ridden, and in a permanent state of martial law. Only the "lucky" few have jobs; two of these are Max (Matt Damon) and Frey (Alice Braga), who grew up together. Frey's daughter is in the last stages of leukemia and dying. Max is forced to risk his life to keep his job at the Armadyne factory and as result is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, shrinking his life expectancy to five days or less.
Desperate to find a way to save his own life, Max chooses to do one last job for his ex-crime boss, Spider, who has been planning a revolution to take Elysium. Standing in his way are Frey and her daughter—whom Max isn't sure he can help—and Kruger (Sharlto Copley), a savage sleeper agent working for Elysium's secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster).
It will take a suicide mission with so slim a chance at success that Max will very likely die trying to cure himself!
We have two worlds at war here—the dystopian rubbish tip that is Earth (Los Angeles looking like Somalia out of Black Hawk Down, but with rust bucket futuristic aircraft lining the sky), and the utopian Elysium, which is clean, polished, and beautiful, everything I hate about sci-fi to the point where I'd sooner live in Junkyard, LA.
The fights and gun battles (again, reminiscent of District 9, in a good way) are awesome, and what I also loved about this movie was the diversity of characters. The bad guys are truly despicable, but they fall on both sides of the line between dystopia and utopia.
Jodie Foster seems so emotionally detached at times that I was distracted for a while until I started to feel that this was a very personal role to her, as a lead villain. It seemed like an impression of somebody, or many bodies, that she held a grudge to. There's a bit of Margaret Thatcher, a bit of Steve Jobs, and a bit of worn-out old sociopathic militant feminist. Delacourt might do everything she can to neutralize the threat to her perfect way of life, but deep down, you learn that she despises the rich too.
Kruger, on the other hand, is thuggish, tyrannical, and outright mentally ill, a true mercenary for the future. Funny that an agent of Elysium is the hungriest, most desperate dog in the yard.
The same sort of description applies in the opposite manner for the heroes and good citizens of Earth. The lowlifes you know will not last long, but even some of the most hardened criminals are pretty nice people, and all because they're all so desperate that they're beyond offing each other gangster-style. Spider, for instance, would have been played by this guy in the '90s…
Squinty-eyed Mexican rent-a-corpse, how we miss you so. But now we have Danny Trejo!
In those days he also would have most definitely met a gruesome end pretty quickly as the leader of the resistance. Instead, Spider becomes quite the hero himself, and I really appreciated the chance for characters who would be villains in any other movie to have the chance to prove themselves heroic.
Matt Damon as Max is fantastic. I felt for him, not just knowing he was dying a horrible death and having to go through every other ordeal (and he really does), but also sensing his sickness through the film's excellent cinematography and editing effects. It never gets to be too much; it's done through necessity. Blomkamp knows the meaning of "too much," unlike so many other filmmakers.
In all, this is a brilliant sci-fi thriller with the perfect mix of action and drama. The ending had me just the slightest bit emotional too. I'd say that it could have been a little smarter, but then, smart films with messages tend to fail with most audiences. It could also have been shorter than 110 minutes, but then the message might have been boring, had it not been lost altogether.
Elysium is most definitely worth the watch, and if you're a fan of sci-fi and action, call it a collector's must-have. It's a nice blend of modern and classic style, and I feel it may be Blomkamp's finest before he possibly chooses the greener pastures of another genre!
Sound off, Fanboys and Fangirls! Did you see Elysium, and what did you think? Comments below and thanks for reading.
Want to know what happened the past few days in nerd culture? WEEK IN GEEK is your quick fix to catch up with the rest of the Fanboys out there.
MOVIES
The Rock hints at an upcoming DC/Warner Bros. project.
My take: Rumors are all OVER the map on this one, from Shazam/Black Adam to a role in Batman vs. Superman. The Rock has been used to reinvigorate dying franchises, so maybe he will be playing a young Bruce Wayne on the upcoming series "Gotham." It's going to need him.
Speaking of The Rock, Brian O'Connor character will be in FF7.
My take: It makes sense to keep Walker's final film as FF7, as silly as it sounds, I think this series gained a lot of respect the last few outings for entertainment value alone.
Kickstarted Veronica Mars movie trailer went online this past week.
My take: Never watched the show but I am very excited that this happened the way it did. The fans, YOU fans, helped control an almost uncontrollable industry. Keep it up and we'll see plenty more pet projects popping up over the next decade.
Evan Jonigkeit of Girls will play Toad in DOFP.
My take: Did anyone scream for more Toad after the first X films? I didn't. If this movie shows Magneto gathering his cohorts so early into his career, then it suggests they effectively accomplish nothing for the next 25 years before the fight on the Statue of Liberty. Lazy mutants.
VIDEO GAMES
China lifts ban on gaming consoles.
My take: The intention of this ban back in 2000 was to protect kids from corrupt imagery? Good luck.
TELEVISION
Stan Lee to appear in "more than just a cameo" on upcoming episode of "Agents of SHIELD."
My take: Speaking of franchises needing a shot in the arm, this series failed to grab me from the get-go. I was expecting intrigue and innovation and got recycled formula instead. Not to say what we're all thinking, but Stan isn't going to be around forever so I'm fine with wherever he can pop up.
Possible Guardians of the Galaxy animated series…?
My take: Oh, hell yes. I have been a huge fan of the space heroes since Abnett and Lanning "rebooted" everything years ago. They still have me hooked and I read their "GotG," "Nova," and "Annihilation" books every year.
COMIC BOOKS
Star Wars comics franchise goes back to Marvel!
My take: Dark Horse did an amazing job giving the franchise a shot in the arm with a whole lot of care and respect 20 years ago. The move makes sense; however, the universe created could really be undone, and we may lose the grim and gritty characters for more fun and colorful ones. Take that as you will.
The puzzle was solved: Deadpool will get hitched.
My take: An awesome marketing campaign by Marvel had several online sites get pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that, when put together, showed us an upcoming storyline. The fact that it's Deadpool getting married is all well and good, but I just loved the innovative marketing on this one.
Original Sin storyline revealed at Marvel.
My take: The story starts with the murder of Uatu, the Watcher. DC's Identity Crisis started in a similar way and was an engaging mystery until the unsatisfying ending that was based on a number of assumptions ("Oh, Batman? He's really Bruce Wayne and his sidekick is named Tim Drake, he has a mom and a dad and I'm going to tell you everything because we're boyfriend and girlfriend…") I am sure this story will be engaging up to a point until the payoff is either too bizarre to be enjoyed or takes too long to reveal.
Watch out for this segment each and every Wednesday. We'll see you next week!
Did we miss something? What are your thoughts on these topics? Leave us a comment below!
A new year means new movies to look forward to. Of all the movies slated to come out this year, here is a list of the top five films that I'm looking forward to watching, ranging from 1 (a must watch in the theater) to 5 (meh, I'd skip it and wait for the DVD).
#1: The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Man oh man, I cannot wait for Spider-Man! I loved The Amazing Spider-Man; I can watch that film numerous times. Sure, they fucked up certain things in the first movie, such as Uncle Ben's catch phrase, but they got a lot of things right, like Emma Stone. I hope it's not going to bomb like Spider-Man 3 with the increase of the number of villains in this new sequel. The thing I am most looking forward to seeing is the new Spidey suit because, let's be honest, the previous The Amazing Spider-Man suit was kinda camp.
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#2: RoboCop
When I first saw this trailer I was miffed, to say the least. I was on a week-long rant with one of my friends because we are huge—and I mean huge—RoboCop fans, but every time I watch this trailer, the more excited I am for this. Hopefully this movie will live up to the RoboCop I knew as a kid when I watched the movie with my dad back on VHS. They need to—no, must—keep the original RoboCop theme, unlike how Man of Steel did with the Superman theme.
.jpe "New RoboCop Poster Reboot") |
#3: Godzilla
As a fan of the Godzilla movie back in 1998, this new trailer looks very interesting. The movie looks a lot darker than the 1998 counterpart, which is a good thing, because the only thing I didn't like about the 1998 version was the love interest aspect of the movie. I hope this film will have a lot more Godzilla and less romance.
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#4: Captain America: The Winter Solider
The first Captain America movie was, in my humble opinion, shit (the only word I could think of to describe that awful movie), but this one actually looks pretty darn good. I really really hated the first Thor movie and loved the second one, so who knows? Maybe the same could happen for Captain America.
.jpe "Marvel's Captain America 2 poster") |
#5: X-Men: Days of Future Past
Where do I begin with this one? The only reason I wanna watch this movie is hope. Hope that they don't fuck it up, hope they will make up for mistakes with the X-Men trilogy, hope it's not all about Hugh-fucking-Jackman, and hope that it wont ruin X-Men: First Class, which in my opinion is the only X-Men movie worth watching.
.jpe "Magneto X-Men: Days Of Future Past Poster") |
Let me know in the comments below which movies you are looking forward to watching and why!
Sci-Fi fans and readers. I like variety in my genres as much as the next guy—Dark Sci-Fi, Dark Fantasy and Sci-Fi Fantasy mixes being my favorite. Such tastes are the reason these genres were invented, I'd like to think, rather than strictly for the purposes of classification.
Why it matters is because The Universe VS series seems operate within a constantly evolving genre as it moves along. It's a quality I can definitely appreciate in a book.
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The first short story in The Universe VS series takes an outside-looking-in approach to story telling. Instead of focusing on any main character heroes, it follows the entire universe in their battle to defeat a single enemy, Osiriz, whom they call The Beast of Harmala. Osiriz is a man from a planet that was destroyed by a black hole without warning and who suspects the Federation, a united universe alliance of planetary nations responsible for universe legislation and military policing, is responsible.
When you are the sole survivor of your kind in the universe, the common consensus might be that you should give up and die, but Osiriz does exactly the opposite. Instead, the newly nurtured hater of all life doubles down and takes on all intelligent universe inhabitants. He just might be the kind of enemy that's motivated enough to do it.
This story is totally without dialogue, it's very short and relies solely on the quick action between the navies of The Federation and The Beast to keep your mind occupied with it.
Pirates of the MultiverseThis story (number two in order) picks up just a couple of years down the road. The Federation, finally set in their scientific minds that a multiverse does in fact exist, has developed a technology to finally investigate. Clearly, like all things involving moving information from one nuclear plane to another, there is a great deal of danger. The team could parish; the two universes could eternally be open to one another, creating any number of problems, specifically if the second universe is particularly dangerous; or maybe something could get through the portal that might be dangerous.
In Pirates of the Multiverse, the latter is exactly what happens. During the entry from one plane to the next, as the federation presents themselves to the unknown universe, so too does a space pirate ship make itself known to our own. Perhaps that wouldn't be an issue if we were technologically in line, or had an easy way to communicate, but that wouldn't make much of a story either, would it? This book quickly turns into a tale of multiverse diplomacy.
Exploring the MultiverseBeyond the discovery of the multiverse and the formation of the multiverse empire, the next step quickly becomes obvious: if we suddenly know that there is a multiverse, is it something we should further investigate?
In the next short story in the series, Exploringthe Multiverse, our heroes and scientists are determined to find out what's out there. When an entity—one not so mortal—stumbles across them and promoting himself as something of a god, there is unrest about what exactly it is that he might be and, especially, what his intentions might be.
The being facetiously attempts to gain a friendly relationship with the multiverse leaders for his own gain. The attempt leads to an immense war of ten times greater proportions than that with The Beast of Harmala. It becomes a battle against robots which the two new multiverse-traveling universe nations can't possibly win.
Rise of Lord VadikRise of Lord Vadik takes a quick turn from the normal Sci-Fi shenanigans. Suddenly, in a very Ancient Aliens-esque flip-flop, the story becomes a tale of gods and demi-gods. The hero from the previous tale rises as a dark emperor of the multiverse and, somewhere along the line, the story picks up an Anakin vs. Luke Skywalker family spat.
At this point in the story, everything seems a bit off the cuff. There are constant failed attempts by leaders to oust the dark emperor via assassination. Time travel is discussed and an entire people are on the verge of annihilation. It all stems from our new hero, a demi-god and son of the dark emperor, making a decision to oblige the rebel faction in their coup d'état, thus taking the reigns of government for himself.
These combined works by Robert Howle are hard to rate. It isn't a simple yay or nay, because the story is there and it has perfect potential to explode into something big. I suppose the issue, then, is that, for me, it didn't. The writing had the bones for structure, which drew up a concept and an overall story, but the meat and the guts were skimpy and the dialogue was atrocious. I found that the story rambled on with repetitive re-mentioning of established ideas, but when it came to detail and the authors job of transporting me to his world, it was an utter fail. Like I said before, it's a skeleton book series—quick to read and makes its points, but I never hung onto its words.
Still, in the void, there glimmers a shimmering spectacle of hope. Deep down, the story is a gem. The entire time as I was reading, I kept thinking, "This feels like a quick comic proposal". I didn't immediately know when I started reading this work what I would quickly find out when I researched Howle a little. He's an artist. Check it out.
That fact alone left me speechless, because I knew immediately that Howle had the potential to bring his work to life in one of my favorite mediums on the planet: within the arena of Sci-Fi comics. He's an amazing artist holding a written diagram in which to base his comic story. Who could ask for more? This sounds like a recipe for success if you ask me; but as the work stands, my opinion, firmly, is that it was underwhelming at best.
Comic Creators, Filmmakers & Authors
There's been a clear divide between fans of the Alien franchise since as far back as the cinematic release of James Cameron's big budget sequel, Aliens, in 1986. Never mind which film was your favorite, out of Ridley Scott's terrifying odyssey and James Cameron's epic bug stomper, which made you fill your pants? Or, more accurately, which made you fill your pants the most?
Alien, made in 1979, remains one of the most spine-chilling sci-fi horrors of all time, even in comparison to its sequel. Much like Cameron's Terminator in comparison to its own sequel, its emphasis was on the horror and suspense of the moment and not the science-fiction element that provided its theatrical stage. So the difference for fans is: if you prefer being shit scared rather than watching stuff blow up lots, you have a preference for the original.
As a fan of the franchise, and specifically the very first film, I'm excited to announce that Sega has been producing a new video game that actually goes back to its roots rather than offer the sour milk of yet another colonial marines-based shoot 'em up (seriously, guys, your cow needs some fresh grass—or shooting). From Creative Assembly, the studio that brought you Total War, and set for Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, comes Alien: Isolation, a survival horror experience that aims to make you wet the bed rather than just shoot at stuff.
Set between Alien and Aliens, its plot is actually taken from a moment in Cameron's sequel where Ellen Ripley learns of the fate of her daughter Amanda. Fifteen years after the events of the original movie, Amanda goes in search of clues as to what happened to her missing mother, which brings her on board an abandoned space station, where she herself encounters a Xenomorph.
So, just like in the original film, our character is facing off against one deadly alien foe, as opposed to having an armory at her disposal and an entire hive as cannon fodder, which will make for a more unpredictable, atmospheric, and ultimately frightening experience.
Granted exclusive access to Fox's extensive Alien archives, Creative Assembly has been busy re-assembling, from scratch, everything about the designs aboard the Nostromo of the original 1979 movie that gave it its dark, dank and suffocatingly claustrophobic atmosphere—from the sterile retro sci-fi deco of the officers' quarters right down to the nightmarish industrial underbelly that provided the terrifying Xenomorph its endless shadows to scurry around in.
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| "Dang I say, you sneaky blighter." |
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| "This spaceship's so big, I need to Google Street View my bathroom!" |
Episode 57 of the I Got Gameplay podcast is now online. In this episode, Michael Burhan, Zack Latour, Travis Goss, Kyla Dipetro, Jeff Croop, Braeden Mayhew, Miguel Leon, Shaun Walker, and Xander Skullion—with special guests Retro Unlim's Console Snob and John Latimer—discuss gaming memories, what motivates each host, and why they decided to become gaming journalists.
You can check out the episode by clicking on the following links:
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(UK and EU) http://nerdgenious.spreadshirt.co.uk/i-got-gameplay-retro-t-A25715613/customize/color/348
(US) http://nerdgenioususa.spreadshirt.com/
The queen of cosplay is at it again! We've already seen Jessica Nigri tribute Pokémon before with costumes of Pikachu and Ash Ketchum. This time she opts for something more royal and lazy with Slowking.
Credits:
Photography by Adam Patrick Murray
