Fanboys Anonymous

A few days ago, a rumor started going going around about a certain masked bounty hunter from the Star Wars universe. Slashfilm, who found the info by way of MakingStarWars.net, reports that Disney executives met at a breakfast in Disney World to discuss various properties related to Star Wars. One of the topics of discussion was Boba Fett and what a movie featuring the character front-and-center would look like.

Something like this, probably.

The paraphrased quote making the rounds speaks to Disney's apparent difficulty with trying to keep the darker qualities of this villainous character while still placing him as the hero of the film. Basically, Disney is unsure how to make a “good guy” film with a traditional “bad guy.” Boba Fett has long been rumored as one of the characters receiving a spinoff film, and perhaps franchise, within the new Star Wars canon. Everyone, Disney execs included, is apparently excited about the character but the trouble remains: how to frame the film or character?

Slashfilm brings up some solid bad-but-good-guy examples from Disney's own roster, citing Wreck-It Ralph and Jack Sparrow as well as Maleficent. These are all characters who are either considered villains in their own world or who aren't quite good guys, and each film (save Maleficent, whose fate remains to be seen) has proven successful. They point out also that Ralph tries to overcome his bad-guy status and Jack Sparrow is never really an out-and-out villain. Their suggestion to set the film prior to the original Star Wars trilogy, focusing on the origins of Boba Fett after his father's death, might help mitigate some of Disney's worries about the character by tracking the development of the bounty hunter before he really becomes evil.

I have a slightly different suggestion for Disney, and they won't like it: they need to get up off their family-friendly high horse and recognize the characters they bought for who they are. I understand Disney has a reputation to consider, and they've done a decent job so far of keeping the Marvel movies (the closest comparison) relatively family-friendly—despite, say, the enormous body count of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. However, if you have a fan-favorite character who you're pretty sure could also make your company a decent chunk of change if given a movie, you're going to have to kowtow to that character's traits a little unless you totally alter the character and thus miss the point. I'm not suggesting Disney should just go and make an R-rated Boba Fett film—although how awesome would that be?—and they never will. That's not their business. They do, however, need to think outside the Mouse House box. Just because a character is villainous, or has villainous traits, doesn't mean he can't have some redeeming characteristics or be impossible to root for. This is basically the same reason George Lucas changed Han Solo shooting Greedo first in A New Hope.

A veeeerrrrry popular decision.

My two cents: there are shades of gray, Disney, and I'm not referring to the erotica. A character doesn't have to be traditionally “good” or “bad.” Boba Fett is a bounty hunter. He hunts or kills people for money. So, he's a businessman. Perhaps at the time of the original trilogy, the Empire was just offering the most amount of money for the work. Over his long career, Fett could have taken other jobs that are more traditionally moral than his disintegration escapades referenced by Darth Vader. Let's find out if he's a hunter with a code of honor. What about the kind-of feud he has with Han Solo? There's a story right there, between two scoundrels. Hell, Disney could kill two birds with one blaster and make a Han Solo/Boba Fett film. The point is, a character can be fun to watch and root for even if he is traditionally a villain. It's all in the story. If you see him as a villain, you'll treat him as such and no more. If you see him as a man with choices, then you have a character, and then you have a film. 

Thoughts? Can Disney produce a satisfactory Boba Fett film? If not, should they even try? Is another character more deserving of a spinoff? Talk about the scum and villainy of the Disney universe in the comments below.

 Hey, hey, hey Dacetacluar nation! Dace Man here with the premiere episode of The Dace Man Plays!! Going forward, yours truly will play a game here and there for about 10 minutes because, frankly, anything longer and you all would lose interest. Hear my commentary as I take on some of the classics and some of the new-age stuff I don't quite understand!

In the premiere edition of The Dace Man Plays, I take on my favorite game of all time: Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back! How excited are you? As excited as I am, I hope! Since I like to give you folks bits and pieces of your favorite games I only tackled level Turtle Woods 1 in our first edition. So check it out below and, as always, #BringBackCrash

As always, check back regularly to see what Chris "The Dace Man" Dace is looking at (and no, not just porn), as well as all of the other bloggers here at Fanboys Anonymous. Remember, keyboard warriors: leave your feedback! Until the next time, for the few, the proud, and, of course, the Dacetacular, grab a beer—and in this case your buddy Aku Aku—and check out what's going on here in the Dace-Sphere. See ya next time!



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There has been yet another addition to the cast of the all new Fantastic Four movie in the form of Tim Blake Nelson, who will be playing villain Harvey Elder, also known by his alias "Mole Man," who is described as a bizarre-looking scientist who lives under the earth and absolutely detests humanity.

Nelson has had many roles in various big films over the years, including starring in Marvel's very own 2008 movie adaptation of The Incredible Hulk as Dr. Samuel Sterns, so he's certainly no stranger to playing a comic-book scientist.

However, his role in the reboot will be a rather small one, although The Hollywood Reporter recently noted: "Elder's appearance does set up the character to be the villain in future installments of the franchise."

How Mole Man appears in the comic books.

The Fantastic Four reboot is set for release in June 2015.

Do you think Tim Blake Nelson will play the role of "Mole Man" well? Let us know!

With Peter Parker returning to The Amazing Spider-Man, Dan Slott is taking the opportunity to update Spidey's famous origin. This is most likely a tie-in to the upcoming "Original Sin" storylines, which look to retcon much of the Marvel Universe as we know it.

J. Scott Campbell exclusive covers for issue 1.1

The book relaunches after Otto Octavious spent a year as a self-proclaimed Superior Spider-Man, confusing his fellow heroes, making a few enemies, and nearly destroying New York City in the process. Peter will have plenty of cleaning up to do, especially with his friends and family. These issues will have to wait, however, as longtime writer Dan Slott takes us back in time with "Learning to Crawl." This retcon of Spidey's famous origin may include some tweaks that lead into this summer's "Original Sin" crossover event, where we learn Peter wasn't the only one granted spider powers by that radioactive spider. It's not clear whether this new character, Silk, will either be friend or foe, but she will be fully explored this summer. Most likely, we're going to be getting another antihero who struggles with her abilities but struggles even more to always do the right thing (after getting a dose of Peter's infectious moral code).

Also notable will be the return of Peter's first love, Gwen Stacy. In flashbacks, everyone who was dead is alive again, and we may learn some new things about her that might endear her to us even more. If Slott is smart, he will officially remove any connection to her and Norman Osborn having a sexual affair (which I believe is still canon unless someone can correct me). It's no coincidence this story is happening at the same time The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is hitting theaters. New readers looking for Gwen will get her and will also feel like they've arrived at a perfect "jumping-on point" for the spider-books.

I'm mostly looking forward to Peter having to deal with Doc Ock's actions while he ran things. Doc Ock all but ruined his relationship with Mary Jane (constantly referring to her as "woman") and completely ignored Aunt May. Aside from all the relationship drama, Ock spent all of Peter's hard-earned money on spider-tech and "Parker Industries," a company he started, ignored, and then allowed to be blown up.

Issue #1 is already on shelves with a huge array of alternate cover options. Here is the official write-up for #1.1:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1.1
DAN SLOTT (W) • RAMÓN PERÉZ (A)
COVER by Alex Ross
Sketch variant by Alex Ross
Variant by John Romita Jr.
YEAR ONE: LEARNING TO CRAWL!
• He sought revenge…and found responsibility. From that night on, a new life began.
• Join Peter Parker as he takes his first steps towards finding his way in the world as Spider-Man.
• The chapter you never knew about the story you know by heart.
• Dan Slott (SPIDER-MAN/HUMAN TORCH) and Ramón Peréz (the Eisner winning TALE OF SAND & WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN) bring you a new & reverent spin on the first 60 days of Spider-Man.
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

Did you follow Superior Spider-Man? Are you back on the Peter Parker bandwagon or have you had enough spider-adventures for now?

Former Doctor Who star Matt Smith has received an upgrade and will move from facing to exterminating daleks to terminating terminators in the Terminator reboot due out next summer.

Smith will play a role not originally featured in the original Terminator film, although a Paramount press release hints he'll play someone close to John Connor who will be played by Jason Clarke. The casting pairs Smith with another fan favorite star, Emilia Clarke of Game of Thrones fame, as well as the Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This will mark the second cult classic revival Smith has starred in following his tenure as Patrick Bateman in the on stage adaptation of American Psycho, although that franchise hasn't had the slew of flops the Terminator brand has recently suffered. What do you think of Smith's casting? Could the former charismatic Doctor be bound for a large scale villainous role? Let us know in the comments section below.

Hey, hey, hey Dacetacular nation! I know it has been an awfully long time, but your Dacetacular leader is once again here in the Dace-sphere! Now, back in mid-April I had the awesome opportunity to man a table with fellow Fanboy Ryan and lead geek Tony Mango at the South Jersey Geek Fest. While there we came across a lot of independent game developers with some pretty kickass games.

Speaking of kicking, that brings me to my main point today: a Kickstarter! One of the games we came across was Mark of the Old Ones - A Metroidvanian Adventure. This game is currently being developed by Hit the Sticks LLC and is inspired by the likes of Metroid and The Legend of Zelda franchises as well as by the mythos of HP Lovecraft. The game explores a world with fantastic animation and difficulty levels that will tease the brain and keep you coming back for more. Check out the teaser trailer below released by HTS.

If you want to get in on this cool adventure and help support the creators in their efforts to make it, you can always check out their Kickstarter by clicking the Kickstarter logo below. We at The Dace Man Show made mention of it on our last episode, and they are in their final week of pushing! I personally went for the IMMORTALIZED DEVOTEE LEVEL, because who the hell wouldn't want their likeness in a game? If things like Candy Crush and 2048 can take off on our phones, this game is leagues ahead.


As always, check back regularly to see what Chris "The Dace Man" Dace is looking at (and no, not just porn), as well as all of the other bloggers here at Fanboys Anonymous. Remember, keyboard warriors: leave your feedback! Until the next time, for the few, the proud, and, of course, the Dacetacular, grab a beer—and in this case an Immortalized Devotee—and check out what's going on here in the Dace-Sphere. See ya next time!



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Fox is slowly releasing more footage of X-Men: Days of Future Past, and some of the new footage features Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) kicking butt in a boardroom.

Fox has also released a neat little bit of fun in the form of a time-traveling Internet browser. If you visit this site here, and you're using Google Chrome, you'll get a Facebook extension that will transport you to an alternate timeline. It's a cross-promotion with Norton Anti-Virus, so clearly a gimmick, but I'm appreciating these more unique marketing angles we get nowadays.

Fox also recently announced that some of the mutants they have could make the leap to the small screen successfully. Look for more announcements on that in the next year as they choose who gets the greenlight (I'm expecting low-level heroes like Jubilee over the expensive-screen-time Colussus).

Here is the new footage, also featuring Peter Dinklage:


Sooo many superheroes this summer. Where do you place this movie on your must-see list?

Amazing Spider-Man 2 - Directed by Marc Webb. Written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, James Vanderbilt. Starring Andrew Garfield (Peter Parker / Spider-Man), Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy), Jamie Foxx (Max Dillon / Electro), Dane DeHaan (Harry Osborn / Green Goblin), Felicity Jones (Felicia), Colm Feore (Donald Menken), Paul Giamatti (Aleksei Systevich), and Sally Field (Aunt May).

Following the events of The Amazing Spider-Man, itself a reboot of the franchise that not only made an absurd amount of money from viewers but also made fans cover their eyes to avoid the absurdity of the third film. After Spider-Man 3, things were irreparably damaged and a fresh start was necessary.

While I felt Marc Webb's first attempt had quite a bit of flaws in it—mostly due to pacing issues—I was immediately of the mindset that he was trying to cram everything into the first film to make room for the second. The followup, instead, would be the real one to see. Is that the case? Did this pan out, or did it fall short like the first one did?

It's time for another REVIEWPOINT as we break down the film's hits and misses.


As always, let's start with the bad news first.


1. NORMAN OSBORN'S DEATH

Maybe he isn't actually dead, maybe he isn't. If he is, then I think that was a big mistake to do. If he isn't, then I think this was pretty pointless. I like Chris Cooper's Norman Osborn, so I wanted to see more of it.

2. RHINO

While I'm an advocate that the mechanical suit makes INFINITELY more sense than the skin polymer or just making Rhino another human, I think the actual design came off way too clunky. You mean to tell me that Oscorp built so many things that are extremely efficient and yet they thought this monstrosity was a good idea? Someone needed to go back to the drawing board on that one.

3. FELICIA HARDY

If you've followed my previous opinions on comic book movies, you should know by now that I love cameos and using characters from the comics in roles. However, here is an exception to the rule. This was in no way Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat. Instead of doing anything remotely like her character, she was just a pointless secretary, overall. I see no value in that. They should have gone with someone else that doesn't waste such a more complex character. Perhaps this spot could have been filled with Lily Hollister instead.

4. DR. ASHLEY KAFKA

This is kind of minor, but it bugged me. Why wasn't Ashley Kafka a woman, instead of reminding me of Dr. Kaufman from Tomorrow Never Dies? The character is a woman in the comics and if the whole reasoning was to try to keep women from being killed or villainous in the movie (note: the three primary women are May, Gwen and Felicia, all pretty good people), then that's a shame.


1. ACTION

This was easily the best action out of the Spider-Man franchise so far, in my opinion. Something that was always missing from the Tobey Maguire era was that sense that Peter was mobile and flexible, which they captured here magnificently. Each set piece has something different to offer and delivers.

2. SPECIAL EFFECTS

In particular, Electro's effects were pretty flawless overall. This is just another reminder of how far cinema has come in such a short time frame. We used to have painted backgrounds and minimal sets that were doing their best to give us even basic scenery. Now, we can have a living god of a human made out of pure electricity fighting a masked vigilante through a power grid and it looks believable and unbelievable at the same time.

3. GREEN GOBLIN

This is probably going to split people, but I liked a lot about this interpretation of Harry Osborn. While it kind of irks me that he seemed almost entirely unlikable and not as much of a good friend that Peter is losing, I think his character was really charming in a lot of ways (speaking from a writer's perspective). Making his deformity the reason for the goblin appearance makes a lot of sense and I'm really glad that the glider and bombs were kept in place, rather than being discarded for the fireball throwing Hulk creature like in Ultimate Spider-Man. Sure, those tools weren't really set up as well as they were in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, but I'm okay with it overall. Not everything needs to be explained in vast detail.

4. MUSIC

Hans Zimmer's trumpets and horns for the main, joyous Spider-Man theme is still ringing in my head as I'm writing this up. Do do doooo...doo...do do dooooo.....I love it.

5. HUMOR

Funny jokes, yet again. That was missing from the older films. The laughs from J. Jonah Jameson in particular were favorites of mine.

6. PETER CARES ABOUT AUNT MAY

One of the issues I had with the first movie was that there wasn't enough room to develop a bond between Peter and Aunt May. Sure, I liked the reference at the end with the eggs, but like most people in that film, Peter merely meets them once or has maybe one scene with them and you're supposed to care. Here, since the groundwork was already put down in the first movie, we were able to see Peter and May interact with each other like a normal son and surrogate mother around those ages would.

7. COMIC BOOK FEEL

This is my biggest plus. My main thought throughout this film, repeatedly, was that it felt like I was witnessing a comic book come to life. No, that does not mean that it had stupid panels popping up on the screen like Ang Lee's Hulk or that it was campy and silly and didn't take itself serious like Batman and Robin. Instead, this felt like a film equivalent to an issue of the Ultimate Spider-Man series. Spider-Man joked like he should, enjoyed himself while being in the midst of fantastic action sequences, and the pacing was all there similar to what a seven issue story arc would be.


Very much so. This was better than The Amazing Spider-Man and so far, the truest representation of the Ultimate-inspired franchise so far. It was fun throughout the entire thing and as a big Spider-Man fan for essentially my entire life, it has me excited to see the next installment and satisfied with what was given to me for this one.

The second official trailer for the hotly anticipated, Michael Bay–produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot dropped last night. While much of the trailer is comprised of footage we've already seen (namely, the entire first half), the big reveal is our first real glimpse at all four of our favorite pizza-eating reptiles who are named after famous Renaissance artists.

The new designs for Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo are briefly shown before each fade to black, with the most screen time awarded to Mikey. As a lifelong Turtles fan, I've got to admit that so far I'm liking what I'm seeing. The costume design for the heroes isn't uniform like in previous iterations of the characters—think back to the Jim Henson live-action costumes we all know and love—but instead attempts to reflect their individual personalities. The most notable are skateboarding bro Michelangelo, with his dudetacular shell necklace and bead bracelets, and Donatello, the Turtle who's tragically famous for "doing machines," with his nerdy taped-up tortoise shell (wink!) glasses and whatever new technological wonder he's dreamed up strapped to his back.





The motion capture suits used for the CGI turtles in this go-around are working well enough against the real-life background that I'm able to suspend my disbelief, at least for this minute-and-a-half long trailer. Only time will tell if the final renderings are fluid and believable or clunky and cartoonish, as in Bay's Transformers films. Speaking of Transformers, while I was not pleased with Megan Fox's casting, I do like the costume decisions that have been made, particularly the yellow leather jacket. Fans of the original 1980s cartoon will appreciate the homage to April O'Neil's classic yellow jumpsuit (Seriously though, what was that all about?).

Remember these guys?

Just as in the first one, this second trailer hints that April's father and the Shredder are somehow involved in the creation of the Ninja Turtles. We have known for a while that some fresh tweaking of the original story was going to be done, much to the contention of fans worldwide. All in all, I'd say my interest is definitely piqued. While I'm generally not a fan of Michael Bay's work, I haven't seen anything yet that has made me give up hope in this film. Let's face it; we fans would come out in droves to see anything with the TMNT in it, and Hollywood knows that. Here's hoping they don't disappoint.

Hey, hey, hey, Dacetacular Nation! Check out episode 45 of The Dace Man Show with hosts Dace, Gibby, Frank Ward, and Nikki Mills!

Join the Dace Man and crew this week as they break down the following:

::SPORTS NEWS::

• Current NHL playoff results
• Current MLB standings
• Current NBA playoff results
• Plus much, much more!!

::WEIRD NEWS WITH GIBBY:: 

• Time to get down and weird with Gib and, might I add, Bay

::FRANK'S CORNER::

• What will Frank da Tank have in store this week?

::CELEB NEWS::

• Bob Hoskins passed away
• Celeb birthdays from April 24th to April 30th 
• Miley back on her feet
• George Clooney got engaged this week
• Paul Simon caught up in a domestic dispute

Plus the High Five: Top 5 People Who Shouldn't Twerk and The Douche Bag of The Week! All that and more, only on The Dace Man Show!

Listen live to The Dace Man Show every Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST on Mega Powers Radio.

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Not only does this May mark the 30th Anniversary since the creation of Marvel's symbiotes, but it also marks another special, albeit bittersweet occasion. Ten years ago the first superhero MMORPG, City of Heroes, went live with an innovative character creation system and a bold direction. It rivaled its closest (and, surprisingly, younger) competition, World of Warcraft, and paved the way for both Champions Online and DC Universe Online, both of which still survive to this day.

The game's player community boomed with each new update as the worlds of Paragon City, the Rogue Isles (featured in City of Villains), and Praetoria (an in-between dimension in City of Heroes: Going Rogue) evolved and expanded. It even introduced the very first in-game player-created content system, Mission Architect, to the world of MMO games, which allowed players to create their very own missions and story arcs with premade or custom enemy and ally factions to publish and play with their friends and community.


Unfortunately, the golden age of City of Heroes came to an abrupt and sad end in 2012 when the game's publisher, NCsoft, shut down its servers permanently with little to no explanation as to why. Millions of players—myself included, a veteran since at least 2005—were suddenly displaced from their favorite superhero MMO. Many attempted to fill the void with its aforementioned descendants, but nothing can truly replace Paragon City and its heroes and villains. The City of Heroes player community, however, remained steadfast and took refuge on social websites such as the popular Titan Network.


The game's legacy lives on in its community and in two equally special efforts to relive the golden days. Missing Worlds Media's City of Titans and Plan Z Studios' Heroes and Villains are two player-run video game development projects currently in the preproduction stages of creating City of Heroes' spiritual successors. Once a joint operation under the Plan Z banner, a group of displaced players with little to no experience in developing video games banded together shortly after City of Heroes' demise with a dream of recreating our lost world. Plan Z suffered from a schism of ideas early on, creating the splinter team, Missing Worlds Media, and both have progressed with their projects since.

Last year, Missing Worlds Media was the first of the two studios to both organize a Kickstarter campaign for its project and successfully complete the campaign by accruing a whopping 211% of its initial goal of $320k. The outstanding amount of funds was then used to buy the necessary tools to put some serious elbow grease into the game they promised their backers—even receiving a generous upgrade to an Unreal Engine 4 license from Epic Games itself. Missing Worlds Media reports that it will complete its preproduction phase soon and has revealed a few screenshots and videos of its work with Unreal 4.


On the other side of the map, Plan Z has silently carried on with the production of Heroes and Villains, although it has yet to employ crowd funding as its sister studio has. Nevertheless, it proceeds to astound by regularly updating its community following with development progress on the game's integral systems and even wowed us with rendered screenshots of the character creator screen, zone concept art, and several in-game renderings of the Hanging Gardens of the Antiverse—which bear a striking and fond resemblance to the Shadow Shard of City of Heroes—in celebration of the belated game's tenth anniversary.


Although both projects are at different stages of production, City of Heroes will surely have two amazing, spectacular, astonishing spiritual successors not too far down the road, from which the glory days can once again be revisited in a new and exciting light. Missing Worlds Media and Plan Z aren't planning to fill City of Heroes' big shoes; they only boast two games that will take their inspiration far beyond what City of Heroes could have been and farther than what any other superhero MMO will ever reach.

Were you one of the many displaced heroes, villains, or rogues from the City of Heroes shutdown? Have you been following and supporting City of Titans and Heroes and Villains? How will you celebrate this bittersweet tenth anniversary? Share your memories and experiences in the comments section below.

"We can be heroes
Just for one day…" –David Bowie

Sand & Snow is a Game of Thrones podcast covering all the weekly happenings in the world of Westeros and beyond! Hyle Snow is a film major who exclusively enjoys Game of Thrones through the HBO television series. Jade Sand is a science major who has also read all of the books in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Together they gather to discuss and review the latest episode while also comparing it with the books, with their own brand of insight and speculation.

Beware! This podcast is dark and full of spoilers! This show covers all the content up to and including the titled episode of Game of Thrones. It also discusses the details of the book series A Song of Ice and Fire up to the current part of the story that the show has reached. However, there will be no spoiling of anything in the future of the TV series or story within the books.

Daenarys reaches the city of Meereen; The Hound offers Arya a lesson in how things are; Jamie shows his love for Cersei; and we discuss the rest of the fallout from the "Purple Wedding." Also, we get a new microphone!!

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

Star Wars: Episode VII Cast Announced.

My take: Star Wars: Episode VII—"Sausage Fest"...seriously, one or two women will be in the cast of this movie? JJ Abrams got slammed for tossing Alice Eve into Star Trek 2 as, basically, eye candy. Looks like we'll see some last-minute casting of some bodacious babes for this one. Unfortunate.

Harrison Ford's Han Solo to Feature "Heavily."

My take: Anyone who thinks this wasn't part of Ford's contract is ignorant. Even though he's been desperate for a hit for years, there's no way he'd have signed on for a bit part or cameo. I bet there's a clause that allows him to do his own stunts, as well.

Justice League movie is GO.

My take: DC/WB finally admits they're a planning Justice League movie. I foresee them screwing up Darkseid, Doomsday, and Brainiac in future films. We already know Wonder Woman is screwed with no solo film planned.

Stan Lee Guardians of the Galaxy Cameo After All.

My take: Originally set to be the first Marvel movie without him, he confirmed he already filmed a scene with a beautiful young woman. Sounds awesome.

TELEVISION

Sailor Moon to Return This Summer!

My take: This is a series that will not go away after 22 years. Expect cosplay at Comic Con to feature sailor scouts heavily.

Marvel Netflix Shows Tied to MCU.

My take: Umm…duh? It had never occurred to me that they wouldn't be connected until this was "announced" as news. So, good, I guess.

Arrow Numbers Not Climbing.

My take: Not even final showdowns with Slade "Deathstroke" Wilson are pumping up the numbers on this series. Is it being pirated too much or is interest actually waning?

Fox's X-Men Coming to TV?

My take: Simon Kinberg has Fox convinced that only paying $4–$6 million to produce an episode of TV can be as beneficial as $200 million on a movie. Do we really want more of Fox's X-Men though? I know I don't.

COMIC BOOKS

Original Sin Shaping Up.

My take: To be honest, this event looks pretty awesome. Marvel looks to be using it to retcon a lot of things that might work out, though some might not. It will be nice to know some new characters and how everyone moves forward from there. This looks like everyone's dirty laundry will be coming to surface, and we may see some great drama like we got from 2006's Civil War.

New 52 Wally West is Mixed Race.

My take: I have an issue with "change" like any comic book fan, so making our beloved Wally West half black, half Caucasian is hard to swallow. I almost would have preferred a whole new character who became another Flash and leave Wally out of it. Marvel has done a good job introducing NEW characters like Sam Alexander (Nova) and Miles Morales (Ultimate Spider-Man) to keep their books modern. DC is forcing Cyborg down our throats and changing classic character's entire family line and heritage to meet a "quota."

Wolverine To Be Killed.

My take: Impossible. Wolverine cannot die. Except that time he died and The Hand brought him back as an assassin, then that other time he died and was trapped in hell. I guess this time he will just die and be dead for a while "off screen" before coming back in, I'm guessing, 2016.

Tim Drake, Red Robin, Dead in Future's End.

My take: As a longtime Robin fan, I'm really sick and tired of him being "expendable." Damian is dead. Dick is no longer Nightwing and was almost dead. Now, Tim is being killed off? True, this storyline is all over the map when it comes to timeline and alternate universe stuff, so it may mean nothing, but still: DC, death for shock value got old decades ago.

VIDEO GAMES

Mario Kart 8 Genius Promo.

My take: Free gas if I buy a video game? Sign me up. Nintendo made a simple decision that got headlines. I love marketing ideas like that.

Stash of 1982 E.T. Atari Games Found in New Mexico.

My take: Originally a game so bad they literally got buried for good will now probably sell for 8000% markup once fully unearthed. Capitalism!

TECHNOLOGY

Apple iPhone5 Button Replacement Plan.

My take: A series of the iPhone 5 has sleep button problems, and they've offered to replace them for free. So if yours is wonky, get what's yours, people.

Google+ to Be Cancelled?

My take: Who didn't see this coming? A horribly thought out platform with little to no marketing enforcement.

O2 Trainer Revealed.

My take: Having slightly weaker lungs myself due to lung trauma as a child, this device really peaks my interest. Respiration is extremely important for exercise longevity, and I hope this first prototype sells well, makes money, and makes this cheaper and mainstream.

CELEBRITIES

Bob Hoskins dies.

My take: I know he has a more illustrious career than I am personally aware of, but Hoskins was, surprisingly, my favorite actor in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? I was a kid, and I liked him more than the cartoon characters. That says something.

Monty Python to Stream Worldwide.

My take: Monty Python's final show in July of this year will be streamed to movie theaters, just like all those operas you don't go and see at your local cineplex. This is great news for all comedy fans and a real treat. If you don't know them, check them out online. They shaped comedy as we know it and you owe them your very sense of humor!

Sand & Snow is a Game of Thrones podcast covering all the weekly happenings in the world of Westeros and beyond! Hyle Snow is a film major who exclusively enjoys Game of Thrones through the HBO television series. Jade Sand is a science major who has also read all of the books in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Together they gather to discuss and review the latest episode while also comparing it with the books, with their own brand of insight and speculation.

Beware! This podcast is dark and full of spoilers! This show covers all the content up to and including the titled episode of Game of Thrones. It also discusses the details of the book series A Song of Ice and Fire up to the current part of the story that the show has reached. However, there will be no spoiling of anything in the future of the TV series or story within the books.

It's finally the time for which TV watchers have been clamoring and for which book readers have been giddily waiting: the royal wedding between King Joffrey and Margaery Tyrell. We also get a glimpse into the visions of Bran Stark; Stannis deals with the nonbelievers; and the Boltons find a purpose for Reek.

Addicted to Anime is a monthly radio show celebrating anime, manga, and all forms of Japanese culture. Join the power couple of Stephen and Johnna Wago as they pick a new series every month to review and riff.


The Addicted to Anime radio show returns to the airwaves to discuss the massively popular Pokémon series. Join the Wagos and a panel of friends as they review the series, debate about their favorite monsters, and take your calls live on the air! 

"Ten-year-old Ash aspires to be the greatest Pokémon (pocket monster) trainer in the world. To do this, he enlists the help of two friends, Misty and Brock, and his own Pokémon, Pikachu. Together, they must search their world for all 150 Pokémon, while avoiding the likes of Team Rocket and their Pokémon, Meowth." - IMDB

Sand & Snow is a Game of Thrones podcast covering all the weekly happenings in the world of Westeros and beyond! Hyle Snow is a film major who exclusively enjoys Game of Thrones through the HBO television series. Jade Sand is a science major who has also read all of the books in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Together they gather to discuss and review the latest episode while also comparing it with the books, with their own brand of insight and speculation.

Beware! This podcast is dark and full of spoilers! This show covers all the content up to and including the titled episode of Game of Thrones. It also discusses the details of the book series A Song of Ice and Fire up to the current part of the story that the show has reached. However, there will be no spoiling of anything in the future of the TV series or story within the books.

In this debut episode of the Sand and Snow podcast we discuss the season 4 premiere. This week the "Red Viper" arrives at King's Landing, Jon Snow receives a cold welcome home at Castle Black, Daenerys is pointed to the mother of all slave cities, and The Hound continues his quest for poultry.

The classic British actor Bob Hoskins has died today, aged 71, following a bout of pneumonia!

Easily one of England's most popular actors of the last few decades, he was critically acclaimed for performances such as crime thriller The Long Good Friday and also well-known for appearing in Pink Floyd's The Wall before going on to international success as Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and as Mario in an adaptation of the classic videogame Super Mario Bros. Hoskins appeared in many enjoyable films and never gave a bad performance throughout his entire career, beginning in 1972.


He chose to retire last year as a result of being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, the same neurological condition that affects Back to the Future star Michael J. Fox. Although concerned for his well-being, many of us believed that moment wouldn't have been the last we'd have seen of the lovable thespian.


Retiring as a world-renowned, multiple-award-winning actor of over 40 years, Bob Hoskins not only leaves behind a legacy of great entertainment, he leaves behind armies of fans the world over and generations of performers who have him to thank for catching the acting bug. That isn't half bad for a former window cleaner and lorry driver. Thankfully for IMDb, however, we'll still have his wisdom at least:

When you get to my age, what you want is the cameo. You get paid a lot of money. You fly in for a couple of weeks. Everybody treats you like the crown jewels. It's all great and if the film turns out to be a load of shit, nobody blames you!

Sound off, Fanboys and Fangirls! Tell us your favorite Bob Hoskins movie and television moments in the comments box below and thank you for reading.

We're getting ready to kick off the biggest time of the year for movies: summer blockbuster season! Over the next few months, many of the films that come out are going to score ridiculously high numbers and shatter box office records, raking in millions (or even billions) in ticket sales.

However, the big bad word—piracy—will rear its ugly head as well. These movies are likely to be prime targets that people want to watch, and that means they'll also be the films people will download illegally.

Last year we went through and gave our predictions for what films could top the list of the most downloaded movies of the year. Now it's time to do that again. This time around, we're going to toss out 25 titles that could make it onto this list. At the end of the year, we will add the actual numbers to this list to see how our predictions turned out.

The group for 2013 consisted of several blockbusters of the comic book genre and a smattering of others as well. Comedies can hit big (The Hangover Part 3), and generic action films can get quite a few downloads (Fast and Furious 6). Oscar buzz can also play a part (Silver Linings Playbook), but then again, you can just have a movie that comes out of the blue—one that people didn't want to pay to see but were interested in checking out nonetheless (Gangster Squad and Now You See Me). Keeping that in mind, here are my predictions for 2014's most downloaded films (in alphabetical order). The titles in bold are the ones I think will be in the top 10.

1. 22 Jump Street
2. A Million Ways to Die in the West
3. Brick Mansions
4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
5. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
6. Godzilla
7. Guardians of the Galaxy
8. Hercules
9. How to Train Your Dragon 2
10. Interstellar
11. Jupiter Ascending
12. Maleficent
13. Neighbors
14. RoboCop
15. Sex Tape
16. Tammy
17. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
18. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
19. The Expendables 3
20. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug / The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
21. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
22. The Other Woman
23. Thor: The Dark World
24. Transformers: Age of Extinction
25. X-Men: Days of Future Past

To break this down further, there are plenty of comic book movies on the list, which doesn't really need much explanation. These films do huge numbers, so it shouldn't be a surprise to see a lot of them here. I'm fairly confident that the three comedies on the list (22 Jump Street, Neighbors, and Sex Tape) will end up doing well. 22 Jump Street follows the massive success of the first film and crosses over between comedy and action. Neighbors is getting a lot of buzz, and Seth Rogen's comedies typically appeal to the audience that is really into torrenting files—younger folk. This is what separates it from something like Tammy; fans of Melissa McCarthy will probably go out to the theaters to see it more than anything else.

What I'm not too sure about, however, is the differentiation between The Other Woman and Sex Tape. The former is doing well at the box office and, with Kate Upton being promoted in it, stands a chance at replacing the latter. However, the subject matter for Sex Tape is tough to ignore. People look for pornography all the time, and if the film does not get panned for being a poor comedy, it will have an easy sell with that title. Sadly, a lot of people will stumble across that just hoping to see some nudity in it. Watch out for all of the 13-year-old boys who will download it and then be disappointed, like what happened with Coyote Ugly back when that was released.

If I were to try to pinpoint one film that will beat out every other on this list, I could see that honor going to either The Hunger Games or Transformers: Age of Extinction.

Some honorable movie mentions that almost made my list were The Lego Movie, 300: Rise of an Empire, Need for Speed, Divergent, Lucy, Edge of Tomorrow, Dumb and Dumber To, and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. These are all films that could end up taking one of the spots above in a top 25, particularly if they end up taking spots away from films like Jupiter Ascending and Hercules, but I don't have as much faith in them having a shot at the top 10.

RESULTS (Source: Excipio, hat tip to Variety.com)

1. The Wolf of Wall Street: 30.035 million (Paramount, Dec. 25, 2013)
2. Frozen: 29.919 million (Disney, Nov. 27, 2013)
3. RoboCop: 29.879 million (MGM, Feb. 12, 2014; and Orion, July 17, 1987)
4. Gravity: 29.357 million (Warner Bros., Oct. 4, 2013)
5. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: 27.627 million (Warner Bros., Dec. 13, 2013)
6. Thor: The Dark World: 25.749 million (Disney/Marvel, Nov. 8, 2013)
7. Captain America: The Winter Soldier: 25.628 million (Disney/Marvel, April 4, 2014)
8. The Legend of Hercules: 25.137 million (Summit, Jan. 10, 2014)
9. X-Men: Days of Future Past: 24.380 million (20th Century Fox, May 23, 2014)
10. 12 Years a Slave: 23.653 million (Fox Searchlight, Oct. 18, 2013)
11. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: 23.543 million (Lionsgate, Nov. 22, 2013)
12. American Hustle: 23.143 million (Sony/Columbia, Dec. 13, 2013)
13. 300: Rise of an Empire: 23.096 million (Warner Bros., March 7, 2014)
14. Transformers: Age of Extinction: 21.65 million (Paramount, June 27, 2014)
15. Godzilla: 20.956 million (Warner Bros., May 16, 2014)
16. Noah: 20.334 million (Paramount, March 28, 2014)
17. Divergent: 20.312 million (Lionsgate, March 21, 2014)
18. Edge of Tomorrow: 20.299 million (Warner Bros., June 6, 2014)
19. Captain Phillips: 19.817 million (Sony/Columbia, Oct. 11, 2013)
20. Lone Survivor: 19.130 million (Universal, Dec. 25, 2013)

This list shows once more that the comic book genre has a huge stranglehold on any list that is film related, yet despite being so heavily pirated, these are the movies that are making the most money overall anyway. The most curious of the bunch in my mind for the top ten is The Legend of Hercules, as I just couldn't imagine that many people wanting to view that film—although I certainly understand why they did not wish to pay to do such. The lack of some of the other titles, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Guardians of the Galaxy is even more perplexing. It will be interesting to see what happens in 2015.

Is this the cast we're looking for? Lucasfilm has finally revealed the full cast for Star Wars: Episode VII, and I guarantee your eyebrows will be raised for a week, Milhouse style.

The official main cast, as per StarWars.com, consists of John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow.

These new faces will join the original stars of the saga: Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker!

Many locations have been prepared already and filming starts in May from a script by JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back screenwriter!).

"We are so excited to finally share the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII," says Abrams. "It is both thrilling and surreal to watch the beloved original cast and these brilliant new performers come together to bring this world to life, once again. We start shooting in a couple of weeks, and everyone is doing their best to make the fans proud."

They'd better be, the last trilogy was so ill received it tainted one of the most beloved franchises in history. Episode II made the right decision in using less Jar Jar after fans voiced their outrage at the character. They also got rid of any mention of midichlorians, the microscopic thingies that give Jedis their powers that nobody knew about until 1999.

Most fans seem to be, as comedian Maria Bamford would put it, "paralyzed with hope" when thinking about what to expect. Many fear Abrams could do just as much damage as Episodes I-III did, but everyone seems to think these new films will, at the very least, be more entertaining.

The movie will enter your eyeballs on December 18th, 2015. The questions remains: how many times will you see it?