All posts by Stephen Sanchez

TV

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

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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

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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

Star Wars: Clone Wars Season 4 – Actress Katee Sackhoff as a Mandalorian!

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katee sackhoff

Battlestar Galactica alum Katee Sackhoff was reported to be in the fourth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network, but it left a lot of us wondering exactly who she would be portraying. Turns out, it’s to be the show’s first female Mandalorian!

Of course this is nothing new to expanded universe readers, but it’s great that the female Mando’s are getting some due on the show. And she appears to be a member of the ‘Death Watch’ no less!

Interesting… I suppose that means we’ll probably be graced with the Jon Favreau voiced Pre Viszla as well. Check out the trailer below:

So yup, everyone’s favorite little Separatist Lux is back and it would seem he’s got a batch of ‘Death Watch’ Mando’s with him. Wonder how this will complicate his and Ahsoka’s relationship. The Clone Wars Season 4 is still a ways off into the Fall, but hopefully they keep coming out with little tidbits at Comic Con for us to chew over. All I can say is Ackbar is back!

TV

Game of Thrones Season 2 Casting – Stannis, Melisandre and Davos Seaworth

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It looks like the primary character casting for season two of Game of Thrones is all but done. We already have ‘Brienne of Tarth’ and ‘Margaery Tyrell’ cast, but now the big three that everyone has been waiting for: Stannis Baratheon, one of the self-proclaimed ‘Five Kings’ set to face off in Westeros. Melisandre, a Red Priestess of the Fire God R’hllor and chief advisor to Stannis. And lastly Davos Seaworth, a former smuggler dubbed ‘The Onion Knight’ for his heroics at Storm’s End during Robert’s Rebellion, he is also Stannis’s Hand of the King. The actors and actresses are relative unknowns, even though they are recognizable from different movies.

Check out the news of who which actors/actress will be playing some of our favorite characters from IGN:

Brit actor Stephen Dillane, who played Merlin in Antoine Fuqua’s King Arthur (starring Clive Owen) has been cast as Stannis Baratheon – younger brother to Robert, older brother to Renly. Stannis, believing that Robert has no natural-born heirs, is ready to go to war to prove that he is the rightful successor to Robert’s throne. Dillane must be who actor Clive Standon (Camelot) was talking about when Standon tweeted that two “Camelot” alums were joining Game of Thrones – only one of which was from the actual Starz Camelot series.

Dutch actress Carice van Houten (Valkyrie, Black Book) has been cast as Melisandre. Lady Melisandre’s powers of prophecy may be the key to Stannis’ conquest, or the seed of his destruction.

EW.com reported later on in the day that Liam Cunningham, who played a father on trial on Starz’ recently cancelled Camelot, has been cast as Ser Davos Seaworth, the lowborn “Onion Knight” – a promoted smuggler that Stannis depends on for honest council.

I have to say I’m glad they didn’t go with any big name actors for any of these roles. At the end of season 1, there was plenty of talk about Gerard Butler portraying Stannis and that just didn’t feel right. Stannis is supposed to be a brooding, stern man, and not some spaz who kicks people into bottomless pits and does a chick flick after three action movies. Stephen Dillane is very unknown to me. I remember there being a Merlin in the Clive Owen ‘King Arthur‘ but I honestly couldn’t recall what he looked like except that he had a beard. That wasn’t his fault though, it was on account of that entire movie being completely forgettable.

Carice Van Houten was an interesting choice for Melisandre. In the movie Black Death she played the leader of a sect of Pagans who sacrificed Christians and oversaw the death of a character played by Sean Bean, another Game of Thrones alum who is sadly no longer with the show.

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So she basically killed a Stark before she was even cast on the show! As the Pagan matriarch-whatever the hell she was, Carice Van Houten looks like she can play the part well of a woman who has a penchant for burning men alive to her fire god R’hllor, so great casting choice!

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And last but not least is the man playing Davos Seaworth, the Lord of the Rainwood. Liam Cunnigham bodes a well choice for the role of the Onion Knight. He’s no stranger to anything involving swords having played a knight of the round table in First Knight, a member of Perseus’ band of Medusa killers in Clash of the Titans, a protective father on Camelot, and a loyal Roman in Centurion. This was probably my favorite bit of casting yet, as Cunningham has a track record of playing honorable and humble men on film. Can’t wait to see him in action!

Even though the characters with main parts aside from those who survived season 1, there are still plenty more secondary roles to cast. There is Mace Tyrell, the father to Loras and Margaery. The Greyjoys have a boatload of characters coming into the story including Theon’s father Balon and sister Asha. Balon’s brothers Aeron Damphair and Victarion also make an appearance.

On the Wall side of things there are wildling characters aplenty to be cast including Ygritte and Mance Rayder ‘The King Beyond the Wall’. I’m really looking forward who they cast for Mance.

Any thoughts on the casting of these three characters? Yay, Nay or wait until Spring to see? Either way I’m sure we’ll be seeing plenty more castings taking place in the next few weeks.

“Thank the Gods for Bessie! And her tits!”
GAMING

Batman: Arkham City – Penguin Trailer (Solomon Grundy and Talia Al’Ghul Too!)

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We thought Arkham City couldn’t look any better… but it does. We’ve all known the Penguin, Oswald Cobblepot, was going to show up in the game, and we’ve seen him in a couple pictures, but now we get to see him in his very own trailer. And as he tells Batman – “I’ve got a little surprise for you down there!”

We are indeed surprised to find out what he’s babbling on about in the trailer. There’s also picture of Talia Al’Ghul for everyone to take a gander at. No news yet as to what she might be up to in the game, but the picture is worth looking at for a few minutes.

Here’s the scoop from IGN as well:

If you needed a sexy reason to get even more excited for Batman: Arkham City, developer Rocksteady today revealed Talia al Ghul, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly. Yes, Damian Wayne’s mom, Ra’s daughter and Batman’s love interest Talia is coming to Arkham City and being voiced by Stana Katic from ABC’s Castle.

Oh boy, Catwoman and Talia in the same game? There’s going to be some major cat-fighting going down! (Pun intended to the max) Bats is going to have his hands full in this game, and he’ll be fighting a lot of villains too. Yup, good ole’ Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday, Christened on a Tuesday and all that seems to be having a part in Arkham City. To me that kicks total ass and I know this is exactly what Dr. Kronner is thinking:

He must be stepping in for Bane in this game as the giant baddie you have to take down. Personally I’m still hoping Croc will show up at some point so you can fight him one on one instead of just running away from him. But let’s get back to Penguin.

I thought he looked fantastic in the trailer, and it’s great they gave him the persona of being extremely ruthless in this canon of Batman, because to tell you the truth I was getting a little sick of his crime boss/informant role that he had been relegated to for such a long time in the comics. And his thick English accent is very fitting and makes him more gritty in that “Snatch” sort of way. It was like a hybrid of “Brick Top” and Ray Winstone. I can’t wait until October 18th. I may try the Cartman method of freezing myself so it gets here quicker…

COMICS/PRINT, Uncategorized

Marvel Comics Review: X-Men – Schism #1

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Schism starts off with one theme common in the X-books: Humans hate and fear mutants. Cyclops and Wolverine head off to ask the world to stop the proliferation of various Sentinel programs. Now if you’ve forgotten what Sentinels are, they are big ole’ purple and magenta robots whose speciality is to hunt down and eliminate mutants. In a world where mutants are feared, these Sentinels throughout various countries act as deterrents to mutants the same as nukes do to humans. In the middle of Cyclops’ speech it is of course interrupted by none other than Quentin Quire who I haven’t seen since the Grant Morrison days of the New X-men during the ‘Riot at Xavier’s’ storyline. I actually hated the little turd with a passion but he serves a purpose here, throwing the world into panic against mutants with his antics.

The Schism story so far is decent, though after the reveal on the last page I’m skeptical about where it may be going. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you reach the end. I’m sure by the midway point we’ll see the X-men start to fracture between Wolverine and Cyclops and we will have seen plenty of Sentinel bashing throughout. I’m interested to see how they handle the Hellfire Club in the series and its new leader which is the part I find so ridiculous.

Wolverine had to have been my favorite character in the issue, blowing off a group of students at the beginning of the issue because he’s so exhausted. You would be too if you were on the Avengers and several X-Teams! By the end though he has bought a gift for one of the students he blew off and joins her in eating some ice cream. Cheesy? A little bit, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Overall I give the first issue of Schism a 3 out of 5 bears.

They have me interested to read the next issue, I love sentinels and I never seem to tire of the art of Carlos Pacheco. The points I took away are because of this ludicrous story point involving a young little fell named Kilgore, but maybe more will be revealed in the next issue pertaining to him.