Is it a sequel? A prequel? A remake? A premake? Yes.

Director Matthijs van Heijningen, Jr. (yes, that is a real name) takes a lot of inspiration and most of the story from John Carpenter’s 1982 classic, the only ostensible difference being that this film takes place in the Norwegian camp immediately before the events of Carpenter’s.

The Norwegians unearth the titular Thing and call in some American paleontologists, among them the comely Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a young graduate student whose major qualification is that she provides a reason for the movie to be in English.

And from there, it plays out as you’d expect.

Continue Reading →

If you loved the nonstop action that Liam Neeson and Luc Besson brought us back in 2008 with Taken, then you should get ready now that the excellent Rade Sherbedgia (best known in everything from 24 to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1) is being cast as the film’s major villain for Neeson to use his “particular set of skills” on. Here’s the scoop from THR:

Sherbedgia will play Murad, the father of a kidnapper slain by Bryan Mills (Neeson) in the first film. Murad is described as a vengeful man who gives orders and doesn’t take them. When Murad takes Mills and his wife hostage, their daughter is enlisted to help save them.

Sherbedgia will next star in Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, which will be released in December. Sherbedgia’s credits include Batman Begins, Mission: Impossible II and a memorable turn as Boris “The Blade” Yurinov in Snatch.

Continue Reading →

Everyone loves evil counterparts. Superman had Bizarro, He-Man had Faker, and Captain Planet had Captain Pollution. For decades, people have loved seeing evil “mirror universe” versions of our favorite characters, so why don’t the Muppets get the same love?

That’s exactly what we’re getting in the brand new trailer for Jason Segel’s upcoming revamp, The Muppets. In the film Segel attempts to bring the once superstar Muppets back to the stage they were made to perform on. Here’s the full synopsis.

On vacation in Los Angeles, Walter, the world’s biggest Muppet fan, and his friends Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) from Smalltown, USA, discover the nefarious plan of oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to raze the Muppet Theater and drill for the oil recently discovered beneath the Muppets’ former stomping grounds.

To stage The Greatest Muppet Telethon Ever and raise the $10 million needed to save the theater, Walter, Mary and Gary help Kermit reunite the Muppets, who have all gone their separate ways: Fozzie now performs with a Reno casino tribute band called the Moopets, Miss Piggy is a plus-size fashion editor at Vogue Paris, Animal is in a Santa Barbara clinic for anger management, and Gonzo is a high-powered plumbing magnate.

Check out these “Moopets” and the full trailer after the jump. The film is set to hit theaters on November 23rd.

Continue Reading →

It’s been almost six years since Agent 47 last donned his trademark black suit and dual .45s, and not much has filled the void he left behind. While game series like Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell have given us plenty of stealthy, stabby action, they don’t deliver the same rush of excitement or sense of accomplishment gamers received when playing the Hitman titles. Next year, however, the bald assassin returns in Hitman: Absolution, the fifth game in the series cannon. Yesterday, IO Interactive and SquareEnix release a whopping 16 minutes of gameplay footage.

The demo introduces several new abilities, including improvised weapons (such as unplugging a power cable to use as a garotte) and ‘Instinct Mode.’ Instinct allowes players a glimpse into the mind of 47, showing weapon and item locations, enemy positions, even the path that the Hitman thinks they’ll patrol. Footage also showcased some impressive and dynamic enemy AI, dubbed by IO as the “comprehensive intelligence spectrum.” It not only allows NPCs to counter your tactics individually, but actually work together as a team to  take you down.

In an interview with IGN, developer Martin Amor noted that, “In the earlier Hitman games when you started to shoot, the AI would take out their weapons and start shooting back … Now the AI is like – what exactly is going on? And the AI is always talking … Very complex AI is worthless if you don’t make it clear to the player what it’s doing and what it’s thinking.”

Check out the full 16-minute gameplay demo after the jump; while the official release date for Absolution has yet to be announced, but keep an eye out for it between Q2 and Q3 of 2012 on 360, PS3 and PC.

Continue Reading →

It’s Thursday so that means NBC has pretty much all the shows we watch tonight. Of course, that means we’ve also got previews for all those shows for you to enjoy.

First up is one of our favorites, Community. In the episode the study group leaves the library and heads to Troy and Abed’s new pad. Of course, it won’t be that simple.

Next up on Parks and Recreation, it’s “Treat Yo Self “day for Tom and Donna while Ron and Leslie march their respective troops to the great outdoors. The Office also heads outside, but the Scranton crew is going to a very fancy garden party — at Schrute Farms. That won’t go well.

Next is Whitney where she and Alex want to bring back the romance. To to it, they really step it up. Finally, Prime Suspect rounds out the night as Jane searches for a murderer. But this week, she’s extra edgy as she tries a new technique to quit smoking.

Check out all the previews after the break. Everything starts tonight at 8/7C with Community.

Continue Reading →

There was a time when anything Geoff Johns wrote was gold especially if it had Green Lantern in the title. This was the man that gave us an amazing 100 issue run on JSA, redeemed and redefined Hal Jordan as a character in Green Lantern: Rebirth, and was one of the architects of the brilliant weekly series 52.

Somewhere around the time of Blackest Night, Geoff Johns became stale for me. Whereas once his plots were epic and revolutionary, now the plots are stale, and do little but set up his next event. Green Lantern #2 does little to change my opinion.

Hal Jordan is no longer Green Lantern following the events of the War of the Green Lanterns. Sinestro has been granted Hal’s ring, and he shows up on Hal’s doorstep offering to give it back to him. Like any deal with the devil, there is price.

Most of the issue is a simple conversation between Hal and Sinestro. Sinestro plays the role of over-bearing arrogant mother by spending the issue insulting Hal by saying he never really changed the Earth, he just used the ring to show-off. Hal spends most of the issue filling his role as petty brat constantly yelling at Sinestro, and saying, “Gimmie my ring back!”

Continue Reading →

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Paramount is still looking to capitalize on the success of the first Paranormal Activity. That movie, made for a shoestring budget, went on to be one of the most successful horror films in history.

One of the main reasons for the original film’s success (in addition to the fack that it was scary good) was the inspired marketing by Paramount. It really helped get the word out and get people extremely interested in seeing the movie.

Well, the company is at it again and has a third film coming soon to a theater near you. Of course, they’ve got a new trailer for it out now and we’ve got it for you right here.

In it you’ll see the new film retains many of the elements of the first and tells the story of the young Katie and Kristi when they were kids back in 1988 and the first time Bloody Mary began haunting them. Look for Paranormal Activity 3 in theaters on October 21.

Check out the new trailer after the break. That is, if you dare.

Continue Reading →

There you have it. The title for the fifth (and hopefully final) chapter in the Die Hard franchise will be A Good Day to Die Hard. Before you get up in geeky arms, remember how much everyone hated the title Live Free or Die Hard when it was first announced, and there were plenty of folks that enjoyed that flick.

We’re hoping that this next flick won’t be social commentary pitting John McClane against the internet, but from what we’re getting from SlashFilm, it looks like things are getting a bit international.

The story is set in Russia and begins with John McClane heading to Moscow to sweet talk some cops into letting his apparently-wayward son out of jail for something he did, but when he gets there, things surrounding his son’s arrest are not as they appear and world-threatening terrorist hijinks ensue.

Wait, McClane has a son now? Where was he when everything was going down in Live Free? Or maybe the studio just decided to give Mary Elizabeth Winstead a sex change since the last we checked in with the McClanes.

Continue Reading →

We love video mashups, but this is insane, several songs and score segments come together to make one excellent music video and mashup.

Stop motion plus some favorite retro toys equals one awesome video titled The King of LEGOland. And yes, Micronauts are still cool.

Talked about for months, the official Dragon Age webseries, titled “Redemption”, hits the web. Enjoy it here!

In getting you ready for this weekend’s prequel/reboot of The Thing, here’s a flashy musical that wraps up John Carpenter’s classic film nicely.

In what should become a regular prank at Madame Tussauds, Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu put the scare into some unsuspecting football fans.

Continue Reading →

After studios going bankrupt, directors walking out, and everyone giving up hope on what would be the 23rd James Bond flick, it looks like things are finally coming together on what could be a huge sequel.

We know that Daniel Craig will be back, and he has recently gone on record as to say that fan favorite bad guy Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men) was in contention with Ralph Fiennes to play the film’s main villain. After an interview with ABC Nightline, it looks like Bardem let slip who the victor of that battle was. From ScreenRant:

For all the secrecy surrounding director Sam Mendes’ (American Beauty) Bond film, the confirmation of Bardem’s casting came pretty casually (irony alert) as the actor sat down to talk to ABC Nightline about more serious matters – like suffering refugees. Of course, most people reading this are probably more interested in the Bond news – said Bardem:

Continue Reading →

We love how Batman and Bruce Wayne have been portrayed over the years. Whether it’s whimsical and lighthearted as played by Adam West and Diedrich Bader, or dark and mysterious as played by Kevin Conroy and Christian Bale.

Now we’re getting an interesting look for the first time, as Ben McKenzie portrays Bruce Wayne as a pompous, young playboy. At least that’s what we’re getting in this brand new clip from Warner Home Video’s Batman: Year One.

Taken straight from Frank Miller’s Year One story arc from 1987 in which we follow the years from when Bruce Wayne donned the cape and cowl and decided to fight crime. Here, we get a far less confident and mysterious Bruce Wayne, and much more of the billionaire playboy philanthropist that we never got to see.

Continue Reading →

Warner Interactive and DC Comics announced today that as of November 1st, gamers will be able to download Nightwing as a playable character in Batman: Arkham City. The downloadable content pack will run for 560 Microsoft Points ($6.99 in the PSN Store), and include two new challenge maps – Wayne Manor and the ‘Main Hall’. Nightwing, much like the downloadable Robin character, will come with his own unique weapons and gadgets to put to use against the thugs in Arkham City.

In keeping with the ‘bonus skins’ available, the Nightwing DLC will also contain an alternate Animated Series character model. It was also announced recently that the pre-order Robin bonus (granted to those who reserve the game at Best Buy) will be available to the masses on November 22nd for the same price.

Aside from a robust amount of downloadable goodies, it has also come to light in the past few weeks that the cast of Arkham City will be much larger than some may have expected. While villains like The Penguin, Two-Face, Mr. Freeze and The Riddler have all received their own trailers, many of Batman’s foes within the game have yet to step fully into the spotlight.  It has been confirmed that, in addition to all of the above, the following members of the Rogues Gallery will appear in-game: Calendar Man, Poison Ivy, Solomon Grundy, Bane, the Mad Hatter, DeadShot, Talia Al’Ghul, Black Mask, and of course, Prof. Hugo Strange.

Check out the gallery after the jump for the images and videos released so far for the new heroes and villains of Batman: Arkham City – available October 18th, 2011.

Continue Reading →