Daily Archives: July 24, 2011

TV

Comic-Con: ‘Spartacus: Vengeance’ Trailer and 2nd Season Casting!

3 Comments

Good Lord Comic-Con is just spoiling us rotten so far this year. I know plenty of you have been waiting for something, anything on the Starz original series Spartacus and it’s second season dubbed ‘Vengeance’. Well the wait is over. In the trailer presented we finally get to see Liam McIntyre in live action and speaking some lines! Will it be everything you hoped for? Watch below to find out:

Seems decent enough to me so far, though not a whole lot to be seen in such a short trailer. But I’m sure like me you’ll be checking out the full trailer they advertised at the end on July 29th. The thing that I found most interesting was seeing Oenomaus being whipped by none other than Ashur, who most definitely has a bone to pick with the fugitive gladiators; especially Crixus. Also, I hope that the full trailer will feature a look at Lucretia and how she’s looking for season 2. From what the panel said she’s looking a little ragged. It also looks like we’re gonna see tons of killing according to what the panel is saying. Take a gander below from Deadline:

As for the upcoming Season 2 titled Spartacus: Vengance, the plan “is to kill more people,” DeKnight said. “There’s an episode where we kill a lot of people. This season is just epic. It’s grand scale… It’s just a gigantic, gigantic season.” Also, a power struggle is about to emerge between Spartacus, Crixus and Gannicus.

Not only tons of killing, but Gannicus is confirmed to be in this season as well. Awesomeness. Another interesting tidbit also from Deadline is that we will be getting a nice female warrior to fight alongside Spartacus. A hot chick who fights and wears armor? Starz is just winning on all points with me for this season. Can it really go wrong?

Ellen Hollman (Skateland) has landed the new female warrior role on Starz’s Spartacus, whose upcoming second season will be titled Spartacus: Vengance. Hollman will play the new regular role of Saxa, a beautiful, vicious, intelligent and fiercely passionate woman that could face any man and have a good chance of coming out the victor. She is a force to reckoned with, on the battlefield or in the bedroom.

Spartacus; Vengeance has a lot in store to make me anxious for January to arrive and at this point the blow of not having Andy Whitfield around is finally starting to subside. Hopefully with the return of the show, other cast mates and a new arrival of a fighting hot broad the season will be equal to the first if not better.

Movie News & Opinions

Spielberg at Comic-Con: Jurassic Park 4 Is Happening

Leave a comment

Jurassic Park 4 has to be one of the most talked about things that never ever seems to be happening. It’s like a missile defense shield or the war on drugs. Or kind of like that on again off again girlfriend or boyfriend that everyone out there is so fond of. And Stephen Spielberg would be that person in the relationship who always initiates it once again with promises of it’s going to work. I guess Sam Neill would be the one in the relationship not willing to give it another shot after a month of trying and tells you it would be stupid to make a sequel because the person who wrote the original books is dead. What were we talking about here?

Oh yes! JP 4. Anyways, Spielberg was making the rounds at Comic-Con this year to promote that retarded Tin-Tin garbage, but while doing so he did indeed confirm that Jurassic Park 4 is happening. Check out the excerpt from IGN below:

“We have a story,” Spielberg said. “A writer is currently working on the treatment for [that story]…and the hope is to see Jurassic Park 4 in the next 2 or 3 years.”

Spielberg did not share who the writer is or what the story is about, nor did we expect him to. What we do know is that this film will be the start of a new trilogy, one that is influenced by the history of the previous films, especially the first two.

It seems they (Hollywood) always assume something should automatically be a trilogy. I’d love to hear what the hell the story for Jurassic Park 4 is so they can justify a damned trilogy. But lord knows if there is another one Spielberg had better involve himself. And by that I mean as a director so it can at least be a decent movie. The whole thing makes you sit and wonder if they’ll have anyone from the first Jurassic Park or if they’re just going to start from scratch casting wise. If Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern don’t return then I definitely need to see Dodgson and his nice hat in there somewhere.

TV

Comic Con 2011: The Walking Dead Interview with Creator Robert Kirkman!

Leave a comment

The Walking Dead season two trailer was revealed at Conic Con yesterday, and is now online! This trailer shows SO MANY different things that I had to watch it twice. So we’ve got it for you, but first here’s some words from Creator Robert Kirkman who did an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

This is how it went:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So what can fans expect at your panel?

ROBERT KIRKMAN: We’re bringing out more actors this year. I’m hoping to get some awkward questions from the audience that I can’t answer too well. And I’ll be wearing a different shirt. Last year my favorite was: “Why aren’t you filming the show in Los Angeles?”

I love the Georgia setting. When you watch Justified — it’s a great show, but it looks like Santa Clarita.

And one of the best things about this season is we’re getting out of Atlanta. It’s very rural. You’re going to see a lot more woods. One of the main set pieces is this farmhouse. It’s going to be pretty awesome, like an Andrew Wyeth painting — with zombies.

In the clip that was released, Rick Grimes is using a rock to kill zombies. Are they running low on ammo?

We’re going to see them run short on pretty much everything this season. It’s going to be a desperate season for our cast. Ammo, food and supplies are going to be scarce, which of course makes it much more fun.

Does the high ratings set by the first season, with only six episodes, put you under pressure for the longer second season?

If we were just coming back for six episodes, it might be more pressure. But we’re confident if you liked the first season, you’re going to really like the second season. It’s everything you liked about the first season, but more of it.

Does the second season follow the comic book more or less than the first?

It’s about as close as the first season, which in my opinion is very faithful to the comic book. The first season took a huge departure in the last episodes. The overall story line is very much taken from the second collection. But there’s also going to be things in there that come out of left field that will leave you completely shocked.

Anything more you can tell us?

We’ve got a tremendous amount of tension between Rick and Shane, with them butting heads. We’ve got Maggie Greene introduced, who’s a potential love interest for Glenn. We’ll possibly be seeing some romance. I think romance and zombies go well together.

POP CULTURE

Amy Winehouse: 1983-2011

6 Comments

Earlier today Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London Camden home. For so many reasons I am deeply saddened by this information. I have been a fan of her music for years now, I have read her biographies, and had much respect for her as a person and as a musician. I will miss her talent dearly, as I am sure many fans will.

Amy Winehouse was born September 14, 1983. This puts her into a very famous group of people… the ‘Forever 27 Club‘. This club includes artists who all passed away at the age of 27. The group’s first member was the Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones, who passed away in 1969 after drowning in a pool. Then followed Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morison, and Janis Joplin. Years later, on April 8 1994, it was discovered that Kurt Cobain had died in his Seattle home days earlier – at the age of 27. His death was pronounced a suicide upon arrival, which I whole-heartedly do not believe, but that is another story entirely. Kurt Cobain’s mother Wendy O’Connor said this after her son’s death: “Now he’s gone and joined that stupid club, I told him not to join that stupid club.” Amy is now a part of that club. A group of extremely talented musicians, hopefully all making beautiful music together in Heaven. (Fact: Amy had been released from a London rehabilitation facility less than two months before her death. Kurt Cobain fled a California rehab facility days before his death.)

Amy Winehouse began singing at a very young age, mostly because of her father Mitchell Winehouse. Mitchell was a taxi cab driver who Amy described as having a great singing voice. He used to sing Frank Sinatra and other older acts to her, which is where her love of older jazzy music blossomed from. Her early years were littered with little bad-girl attempts at trouble-making. She joined a rap group and was constantly berated by teachers for singing, or being loud in class. She was only 10 when she joined the rap group, of which I could not find video evidence, but wish I could. When Amy was 14 years old, she was expelled from school. Apparently piercing her nose and “not applying herself” were enough to get kicked out of theater school. She continued singing and was signed in 2002 by Simon Fuller’s 19 Management.

With much help form producer Salaam Remi, Amy released “Frank” when she was only 20 years old. Then, in 2006 Amy released “Back to Black”, her exciting and soulful follow-up to “Frank”. This gained her world-wide respect and attention. “Rehab” was a huge hit, and made everyone look at her with that paparazzi eye. Even though she had a restraining order against a major tabloid paparazzi crew, her drug/alcohol/mental health issues were no secret to the public. Amy was seen as a hollywood bad girl. Not in the Lindsay Lohan “I am a rich brat with a short attention span” sense, but in the 1960s woeful real-life hardship “I sing the blues for a reason” sense. Her music changed my life. With songs like “You know I’m no good”, “I Heard Love is Blind”, “Tears Dry On Their Own” and “Back to Black”, listening made me feel like I was not alone. Like someone else in the world understood my hardships and had felt what I felt. It helped me through a lot over the years.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the cause of Amy Winehouse’s death is still unknown.

London Police Superintendent Raj Kohli said at this “early stage” of the investigation the death remained “unexplained.”

“I am aware of reports suggesting this death is the result of a suspected drugs overdose, but I would like to re-emphasise that no post-mortem examination has yet taken place and it would be inappropriate to speculate on the cause of death,” Kohli said.

Amy Winehouse was many things. Yes, she was an addict, a boozer, and proclaimed she was “no good”… but I listened to every song she has ever created. I have heard the heartache and the issues she has had to deal with. She died much too early. I know that she had a lot more to give this world. It is a tragedy that she will never be able to get over her hurdles and bare her soul for one more record.

Rest in Peace Amy Winehouse: 1983-2011

Here are a few of my favorites…