I am sure that if you are reading this, you are a fan of the AMC series The Walking Dead. Many of my friends are fans as well as myself, and we have had many discussions about season two. Yes, it ended up being a thrilling season so far, but the beginning could have been much more interesting. The way the season began was not nearly as exciting to me as season 1 was. (It also set up one of the most annoying wild goose chases in television history with Sophia and the gang.)
When I found out via Geek Tyrant that there was another story in mind that we will never see now because AMC fired Frank Darabont, I was a sad panda. Sam Witwer, a character from season 1, explained the idea this way in an interview:
Look, I think it would be really cool to tell a prequel story about how Atlanta fell, do ‘Black Hawk Down,’ but with zombies, have a few main characters pass through, but the lead will be you. You’re a soldier and all these horrible things happen, and the chain of command breaks down, and, eventually, you have to take out your superior officer. Then, eventually, in the end, you get bit.’ He’s pitching me this. ‘You’re crawling and you crawl into this tank and you have a grenade and you’re going to blow yourself up, but you set the grenade next to you and you die. Then, we reprise the scene from the pilot, where Rick gets in the tank and there’s a zombie there.’
Quint from Ain’t It Cool News sought out Frank Darabont to verify that the information from Witwer was legit. Here is his response:
Benedict Cumberbatch is becoming quite the commodity. He just appeared in the acclaimed Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and he’s quickly becoming a phenomenon in the UK. with the success of Sherlock. In addition, he’ll show up later next year in the 2nd movie of The Hobbit series, which we’ll get back to in a minute. First let’s address the fact that it’s been recently reveled that he (along with Doctor Who’s Noel Clarke) will appear in J.J. Abrams’ next Star Trek movie.
Cumberbatch will play the villain in the much-anticipated sequel, and that’s about all we know. When he was asked about it by Collider at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, this is what he said:
There’s a lawyer standing here saying that I can’t say anything. I’m hugely, hugely excited and I’m very, very flattered. I’m very, very excited, but obviously I’m not here to talk about that. I will, in the future, I’m sure. I’m just getting my head around the fact that it’s happened. If you’ll forgive me, I’ll pass on that. But, my headline is that I’m over the moon.
Not a lot to go on there, but rumors have been flying for months that the secret villain will in fact be Kirk’s nemesis Kahn. This was compounded by all the previous casting news had revolved around Latino actors trying out for the part…
Concerning his involvement in The Hobbit (which stars his Sherlock co-star Martin Freeman as the lead), Cumberbatch may have recently let something slip he wasn’t supossed to…
“I’m playing Smaug through motion-capture and voicing the Necromancer, which is a character in the Five Legions War or something which I’m meant to understand. He’s not actually in the original Hobbit. It’s something [Peter Jackson]’s taken from Lord Of The Rings that he wants to put in there.”
Now Empire had some thoughts on said quote, this is their theory…
Now those familiar with the book will notice immediately the big new piece of information here. Assuming that Cumberbatch does mean the Battle of Five Armies (which seems safe), then this points to one way that Peter Jackson and co. have expanded the book’s story to fill two films, and provide a more seamless link to The Lord Of The Rings.
Readers will know that the Necromancer is Sauron, and that Gandalf disappears halfway through (the book of) The Hobbit to lead a coalition force and drive the Necromancer out of his Mirkwood stronghold. But in the book they dispatch the Necromancer back to (as it turns out) Mordor well before the Battle of Five Armies. Here, however, it looks like he’s going to turn up to the finale in person, presumably at the head of the goblin and Warg army, and face Gandalf’s team there.
If that is the case, it’s a narratively neat way to combine the two story threads, that of Bilbo and the dwarves and the other following Gandalf and his team. It also gives the goblins a stronger motivation to suddenly turn up: in the book, they’re avenging the earlier death of one of their leaders and (like all the other armies present) hoping to get their grubby hands on the dragon’s hoard. If they’re incited or led by Sauron, however, their actions will hang more coherently with their behaviour later in Lord Of The Rings.
Interesting theory, and one I guess we will have confirmed or denied December 14th of this year. Anyhow, Benedict was also asked about a return for a 3rd Season of Sherlock, a question which he eluded and said only that he would ‘like’ to do another one, scared of what he could or could not confirm, but lucky for us one of his producers (Rebecca Eaton) stepped in and confirmed just moment later that we will get another dose of Holmes and Watson in the form of a 3rd season.
So appears to be good news all around as far as I’m concerned. Cumberbatch is owning…
Welcome to Dark Knight Station, the Hero Express‘s main stop for all the news onThe Dark Knight Rises.We’ll keep you up to date on all the biggest bat-news coming straight from Gotham City.
Mind the gap and avoid the shadows; This stop is the Dark Knight Station for January 11th, 2012.
Rumors of a Clearer Bane Voice are False – (FilmDrunk)
In the wake of the DKR prologue, reports sprouted up claiming that Christopher Nolan was already working to clean up Bane’s muffled voice, and theaters would soon be getting the new, clearer audio versions to play for audiences. However, Collider recently went to Warner Bros. and IMAX for confirmation, and both have officially stated that no altered versions of the prologue have been sent.
In the trailer that quickly followed the 8-minute preview Bane was a lot easier to understand, with the majority of viewers issuing a pretty vocal sigh of relief. Personally, I’m still not entirely clear on what Bane is saying in the trailer but I’m not desperately worried. As I’ve mentioned earlier, this isn’t something the entire production team would have missed – dozens of people worked on Bane’s character, not to mention the time and energy spent on audio and editing. It would be impossible for this to be an oversight.
Fan Poster by DeviantArtist ~Jo7a
It’s difficult to do with a film as wildly anticipated as The Dark Knight Rises but we all have to sit back and resist judgment for now. We’re picking apart a minor piece of the puzzle that will likely be inconsequential by the time everything comes together. Have a little faith.
Here’s a little change of pace: Kevin Smith, of all people, recently sent out a tweet featuring several minutes of unused and alternate footage from everyone’s favorite Batman movie. It includes some clips of Heath Ledger‘s Joker that you might not have seen before.
The few seconds of Ledger that debut here are just as striking as the footage that made it into the final film. It’s a brief reminder of how memorable the character is, and how talented an actor Ledger was. It’s the long shot of The Joker exiting the hospital that does it for me, rekindling the chilling sensation I had when I first saw The Dark Knight‘s Clown Prince of Crime.
I’ve made clear my admiration for the BBC show Sherlock. It’s well written and acted, its interesting, and all around better than at least 90% of the other TV shows. That said, I thought the latest episode might’ve been their weakest. I recognize that following up the premiere, which I feel to be the best episode to date, was no easy task. It’s like doing stand-up for the first time and going on stage after Eddie Murphy…
Anyhow, that’s not to say it was terrible either. One thing that this episode actually did quite well was attempt to humanize Sherlock some more. In A Scandal in Belgravia it showed Sherlock to be less asexual than previous, as it was clear how he felt for Irene Adler. In The Hounds of Baskerville however, the focus is more on John Watson and their friendship – the only one Sherlock has.
If you’re new to the internet you may not be aware of this, but there was a time when the internet was a simpler place – a place almost entirely made up of cat photos, nutshots and so, so much porn. That is until November 11th came around and Skyrim mounted a devastating invasion on the digital space, nudging the other heavyweights aside to make room for itself atop the internet content hierarchy. It’s become so commonplace for a ‘Fus Ro Dah’ or an ‘arrow to the knee’ to appear on your favorite website that it’s hard to believe both of those phrases were psychobabble as recently as two months ago. Like every other online craze, the Skyrim obsession started off funny and quickly peaked in creativity before it got stale and became the nauseating knee-jerk reaction we know today.
But that’s not to say that there aren’t some hilarious, ingenious or otherwise fantastic things that fans have created about the phenomenal Elder Scrolls title. Here is a list of my favorite Skyrim memes, mods and oddities:
The Mods
PC gamers have at least one advantage over their console peers, in that they have a huge community of people who create and share mods of their favorite games. Skyrim is no exception to this, boasting all kinds of useful tweaks to the standard content like graphical enhancements or health bars for your lockpicks, but it also gives some creative fans way too much freedom. Take for example…
Early last November I reported that the Riddick franchise may have been killed due to financing issues. However, after the lock out fiasco was taken care of production was scheduled to resume on December 28th.
Several sources have stated that the third film is going to explain away the ending of the previous movie and get back to the roots of the franchise. The official synopsis of the new film is as follows.
“Betrayed by his own kind and left for dead on a desolate planet, Riddick (Diesel) fights for survival against alien predators and becomes more powerful and dangerous than ever before. Soon bounty hunters from throughout the galaxy descend on Riddick only to find themselves pawns in his greater scheme for revenge. With his enemies right where he wants them, Riddick unleashes a vicious attack of vengeance before returning to his home planet of Furya to save it from destruction.”
Now you may have noticed that the synopsis above mentions bounty hunters. The latest news from the Underverse is that Katee Sackhoff of Battlestar Galactica fame (and ’24’ infamy) is going to be one of them.
According to Deadline.com Starbuck is in final negotiations to play the female lead of the film, Dahl, a Nordic mercenary who is tracking Riddick.
I can safely say that I am happy with this casting choice, but I see this ending in one of two ways. Either
A) She is the bad guy and Riddick kills her.
OR
B) She befriends Riddick and she get’s killed by the bad guy. No matter how it plays out I’m pretty sure her character is doomed.
The currently untitled Riddick sequel will also star Vin Diesel and Karl Urban, and is scheduled to release in 2013.
I am sure that if you are reading this, you are a fan of the AMC series The Walking Dead. Many of my friends are fans as well as myself, and we have had many discussions about season two. Yes, it ended up being a thrilling season so far, but the beginning could have been much more interesting. The way the season began was not nearly as exciting to me as season 1 was. (It also set up one of the most annoying wild goose chases in television history with Sophia and the gang.)
Grizzly Bomb 