Ben Affleck Responds to his Batman Casting Internet Backlash

Unless you have been living under a rock, you will be aware that Phantoms star Ben Affleck has been cast as Batman in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel follow-up, currently titled Batman Vs. Superman. The internet has been up in arms about the casting, and so far the man himself has remained relatively tight-lipped. However, Ben Affleck appeared last night on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon to promote his upcoming movie Runner Runner, co-starring Justin Timberlake, and the subject of Affleck playing Batman inevitably came up:

Affleck talks about how he was warned about the internet backlash following previous casting choices. “They said, ‘Just don’t use the Internet for a couple of days,'” the actor told Fallon. “And I said … ‘I handle shit!'” Ben fAffleck’s curiosity couldn’t prevent him from having a little peek when the news was made official. “I saw the announcement, I look down the thing. The first comment? … ‘Nooooooooooooo. And I was done! We’re going to be Luddites for a while.'”

Affleck still seems very pleased with his casting and told Fallon:

[quote]It’s so awesome, man. I’m so excited. They called me up and asked me if I wanted to do this. And I said, ‘I’m not 25, man, are you sure about this?’ And they said, ‘Come down, we wanna show you what we’re doing.’ Zack Snyder’s directing it and he has this amazing take on it. Obviously you can’t do what Christian [Bale] did, those movies were amazing. But Zack wants to something different but still in keeping with that.[/quote]

There is mixed feeling over here at Grizzly Bomb over Affleck’s casting, I for one am on team Affleck. He is a solid actor and in recent years has proved his salt both in front of and behind the camera. At least the rumor that pop star Justin Bieber being in the running to play Robin in the movie has now been quashed. The Wrap reported on Sunday that the whole thing was potentially set up for an upcoming Funny or Die sketch.

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Affleck will next be seen on the big screen alongside of Justin Timberlake in gambling thriller Runner Runner on September 27. Batman Vs. Superman is aiming for a July 15, 2015 release.

Spoiler-Free: First Impressions of Grand Theft Auto V

Grizzly Bomb knows its audience: Fans want to know as much as humanly possible about upcoming titles without having the whole thing spoiled for them and plot details, twists, and an overload of content run rampant on the internet when a game like Grand Theft Auto V hits store shelves. Which is why we’ve put together this quick piece to give you our opinion on the early moments of the game, without getting too deep into the details.

Here are our SPOILER-FREE impressions from the first hour of GTA V:

1. A visual step up from GTA IV, but not quite next-gen graphics: GTA V is a gorgeous game, don’t even dare get me wrong, but you will notice some muddy details and texture hiccups in the opening sequences. There are some janky animations in the establishing shots of Los Santos that might be distracting, but rather than get bogged down by the blemishes, consider that this is a wide open sandbox world (A massive one, too) that looks just below the quality of Max Payne 3. Los Santos is far more beautiful than Liberty City, both in physical attributes and raw graphical power, and it’s far and away the best GTA has ever looked.

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2. A story that embraces play: We haven’t seen much of Los Santos yet, and the majority of mission types, activities and emergent scenarios within the game haven’t even been introduced, but it’s already evident that GTA V has learned from fan feedback on GTA IV. Niko had plenty of mini activities to do in Liberty City, but many of them felt restrictive, hands-off, or just plain boring. The story and pacing pushed the player more toward the next mission than, say, stealing an ambulance and playing pedestrian shot-put. GTA V feels a lot more generous in letting you handle the play style. The characters in V aren’t as mopey and goal-focused as poor ol’ Niko, which makes hauling off and painting the sidewalks red feel less like a no-no.

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3. Mechanics, mechanics, mechanics: Grand Theft Auto has always suffered from the Jack of All Trades issue, in that there are so many gameplay elements that few of them, if any, feel particularly honed. This time around the shooting and driving have been completely reworked and they feel a lot more responsive. Driving takes a while to get used to, as there’s much less a sense of hover-gliding over the asphalt, but that’s a change for the better, and those of us who have played Max Payne 3 will recognize the gun mechanics, which have essentially been cut and pasted into GTA V. Even the menus and the mini-map have been refined to make cycling through information that much more efficient.

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4. That Rockstar shine: It just feels good to be playing a Rockstar game again. The satire seems a little more on the playful side than it did in GTA IV, with the first few digs at the California lifestyle made quite early. The character writing is exactly on par with the developer’s pedigree, introducing characters that you’ll immediately feel like you already know. Finally, the game is just fun. Where we left off, we’d just completed a mission that already felt like an exhilarating, Indiana Jones-style action sequence and our save state shows only 6% game completion. Whoa.

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Avengers Assemble…The Best of the Internet’s Fan Art

The Avengers have been a staple of the Marvel universe since their inception in 1963, but popularity has really exploded into a new stratosphere since the hugely entertaining and popular The Avengers movie. Now it is not just fanboys and girls who appreciate this great team, but non-comic fans too. Since the movie arrived the internet has become swamped with numerous fans that have shown their love by making some great pieces of fan art. With the sequel to The Avengers (for information on that click here) fast approaching we thought it was high time to look at some of these great pieces. Now obviously with the best intentions in the world, not all the fan art is going to be to everyone’s tastes and no doubt one person’s favorite piece will have vacated the list, but this is a starting point for any fans wanting to see some great art. So sit back and let Marvel’s super team wash over you as a gallery of the greatest heroes flash before your eyes.

Continue reading Avengers Assemble…The Best of the Internet’s Fan Art

American Psycho Possibly Getting the TV Treatment with FX

Serial killers seem to be fast becoming the new zombie for entertainment fans. As well as having Dexter, Bates Motel, and Hannibal we now have the return of a character that was thoughtful enough to give musical advice while murdering his victims. Yes Patrick Bateman may be making a return in a televised series of American Psycho. Planned for FX, it has Allison Shearmur (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) producing and Stefan Jaworski (Those Who Kill) behind it as writer.

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For people unaware of Mr. Bateman (and who have been living under a rock since 1991) he is a yuppie executive who in his spare time murders his colleagues and any one he becomes annoyed with. The book American Psycho, where Patrick is first unleashed into the world (he does appear in a very brief scene in The Rules of Attraction novel), came from the brilliant mind of Bret Easton Ellis, and was turned into a movie starring former Batman, Christina Bale, who gives a stunningly mental performance.

It seems in this updated version (which follows on from the movies and novel), Bateman is now in his 50s and has taken on a protegé to help him in a sick social experiment which will hopefully create a new generation of psychos just like him. Sounds promising and if this is crafted as well as the Hannibal series, it should be superb. A big part of what makes Hannibal great is knowing who the killer is and watching him twist the cast around his fingers. We would guess that American Psycho is probably going to take this route as well. It would be difficult to mold him as the likable psycho like we’ve seen in Dexter, because he really is a bit of an unlikable chap. In the movie, though everyone he meets loves him until the moment he snaps in front of them. If it involves a protégé then his manipulation of people Patrick has will definitely come into play.

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No casting news as of yet but the serial killer role is going to be a tough one to fill. TV psychos tend to be more charming and sophisticated with just a hint of menace behind their eyes. It is unlikely that Christian Bale is going to reprise his role as Patrick so the casting of this role is going to be crucial in the audience accepting this new series and character.

The only downside is that first impressions of the book and the movie were you did not actually know if Patrick was a killer or not. The scenes of murder that we see him witness are all discredited by the end and certainly make you wonder if it is all in his head. The ambiguous nature of this ending really appealed to me. However, the existence of a series with a protégé seems to confirm it will not be in his head, unless it is later revealed to all be imagined. That is the great thing about entertainment though, how differently each person interprets the material in front of them. TV interpretations of popular characters from books and film have been incredible as of late and very well scripted pieces. Here is hoping American Psycho can do the same as the many shows before it. If it can it should make for some fantastic television.

Adam Thompson: Artist Draws a Superhero a Day for 50 Days

It is hard not to love hearing these types of stories. The story involves one Adam Thompson, an artist who decided he wanted to improve his skills on Adobe Illustrator and he gave himself quite an inventive way of doing it.

He decided that for the next 50 days he would create, in his own style, a hero. Called 50 Heroes in 50 Days he managed to produce some of the most innovative designs of well-known heroes that the fandom collective have ever seen. Here is what the man himself had to say about his gallery of heroic heroes.

[quote] “As the title indicates, each day for 50 days I drew a new superhero in Adobe Illustrator. In doing so I learned many new shortcuts and tools, and ultimately made myself more efficient in the program.  This project was incredibly fun for me. As an illustrator I am inspired by comics, this project allowed me to pay extra close attention to the details of each character, and gain a greater understanding of what goes into character development. I hope to do a villains series in the future, so keep an eye out, and as always, enjoy!”[/quote]

Now the villains series certainly sounds like it will have promise after such a good job he did on the heroes.  What is so great about these designs is their unique style, making the heroes cute-a-fied while sticking to their superhero roots. The pill shaped body also adds a certain continuity to them that is something to be admired. A lot of the designs are from the film versions of these characters, but the comic designs pop up as well (look out for super cute Agent Coulson!). So enjoy the pictures below and if we keep our fingers crossed we will see more of these in the near future. Mr. Thompson, if you are reading this, these pictures would look great in a book.

Below are some of our favorites…

To see the complete run of all the heroes check out Adam Thompson’s Page.

Star Wars: Rumors Swirl Around Stand-Alone Movies for Han, Yoda, & Boba Fett…

We have known for a while that starting in 2015 Disney plans to release a new Star Wars movie each year, alternating between the new series and stand alone character based movies. We now have confirmation that these movies will be origin stories. Disney’s chief financial officer Jay Rasulo announced during a presentation to financial investors that the intermittent installments would play host to the origins of some of the best-loved characters from the franchise.

Variety broke the story yesterday afternoon stating that Rasulo sees it as “the sky’s the limit”  for the for the sci-fi franchise, including expanding its presence in the company’s theme parks. “There’s incredible flexibility. It’s an unbelievable palette to create from.”

Rasulo also confirmed that from 2015 one Star Wars trilogy film or origin story film would also appear on the release schedule, starting with the seventh installment in the Star Wars saga directed by J.J. Abrams. Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg were previously rumored to have been hired to write the second and third installments, with Michael Arndt already scripting Star Wars Episode VII, however it is now confirmed the Kasdan and Kinberg will be writing the stand-alone origin movies.

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Any Star Wars fan that knows his salt is aware that Kasdan is no new-comer to the saga, having written, in my opinion the best installment, Empire Strikes Back and having an eye in on Return of The Jedi. Aint It Cool News  reported a little while back that one of the stand alone films would focus on Yoda, and Bleeding Cool recently reported that there was also talks of Han Solo and Boba Fett movies with a casting call already out for a young Han. It remains to be seen if Han Solo and Boba Fett would get separate movies or have share the screen. We already know that Harrison Ford and the rest of the central Star Wars cast will be reprising their roles, but this would be the first sign that Disney is looking to recast characters from the original trilogy for the new movies. Granted Harrison Ford is too old to play a young, agile Solo, but this is certainly a piece of casting Disney will need to get right.

It would be great to see two of the best characters from the saga face off against each other. I fear for fanboys the world over whose heads would explode in excitement!