Lots of names come to mind when thinking of the more popular film score composers of the past two decades. Names like Danny Elfman, John Williams, and Quincy Jones have dominated the craft for so long, it’s refreshing when a newcomer joins the ranks. In the last 5 years, Michael Giacchino has earned his slot in the Mount Everest of film composers.

Giacchino has shown his incredible range scoring projects such as LOST, Speed Racer, The Incredibles, Star Trek, and finally getting himself an Oscar for his work on Disney’s Up. It looks like the major studio isn’t letting go of Giacchino any time soon, as they have just hired him to compose the score for the upcoming space adventure John Carter of Mars.

It makes sense that Disney would go with this pick, given his work on their more recent Pixar films, especially with Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton directing the film. While that connection makes the most sense, it could also be attributed to the amazing score Giacchino composed for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, which could easily go down as one of the best sci-fi scores of recent history.

Even with this news, John Carter of Mars is most definitely not shaping up to be a small picture. With Disney backing the film, and a cast made up of Taylor Kitsch, Mark Strong, Willem Dafoe, Bryan Cranston, Dominic West, Polly Walker, Thomas Hayden Church, Samantha Morton and Lynn Collins, you can expect to see big things from the upcoming sci-fi epic.

Maybe it’s the fact that we have an affinity for music games around here. Maybe it’s because two of our review crew are former disc jockeys. Maybe it’s just because it is a damn good game. Whatever the reason, we’ve been big fans of DJ Hero since its release late last year. Between a 9.0 review score and awarding it “Best Music Game of 2009″ along with Beatles: Rock Band, DJ Hero has earned itself a place in our hearts and on our gaming shelves.

Lucky for us (and for you), yesterday Activision announced a downloadable three pack of mashups for DJ Hero featuring the headline artists of the game’s Renegade Edition, Jay-Z and Eminem. Coming on first to the XBox 360, the three pack will include:

“Can I Get A…” by Jay-Z / “Lose Yourself” by Eminem (Shown Below)

“Shake That” by Eminem / “Show Me What You Got” by Jay-Z

“Without Me” by Eminem / “Encore” by Jay-Z

The XBox download will cost 640 Microsoft points ($8.00) on March 18th.
PlayStation 3 will be receiving the pack at $7.99 on March 25th.
Wii will have all three songs as downloadable singles for 300 Nintendo Points ($3.00) each on March 25th.

Take a look at “Can I Get A…”/”Lose Yourself” from the upcoming pack after the jump and keep it here for more news on the game as it breaks!

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Since we started posting videos under our Fan Film Friday banner, some of them have been selected because they were well done and some have been because they were funny. But no matter what, they have always been entertaining. That’s just what today’s video is.

Fans of Lost have been known to take to the Internets with a plethora of fan films and bizarre edits as a show of honor to their favorite confusing sci-fi series. With that said, not many people would probably consider Lost and Miley Cyrus in the same sentence. That is, until now.

YouTube user xSoppySofax has made quite a few Lost-themed fan films, but “Hurley in the U.S.A.” may be the funniest. After the jump, check out how the user took footage of everybody’s favorite lottery winner-turned-castaway and edited it to become Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.” music video. Funny? Yes. Disturbing? Maybe.

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Are you a fan of the hit Fox series Glee? Do you live near Phoenix, Los Angeles, New York, or Chicago? If so, you just may be in for a rare opportunity to catch some of your favorite stars and songs from the show live, as Fox and creator Ryan Murphy present a special live Glee tour for those major cities in the U.S.

From the Fox press release:

Beginning Wednesday, May 18 at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona, “Glee” stars Lea Michele (Rachel), Cory Monteith (Finn), Amber Riley (Mercedes), Chris Colfer (Kurt), Kevin McHale (Artie), Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina), Mark Salling (Puck), Dianna Agron (Quinn), Naya Rivera (Santana), Heather Morris (Brittany), Harry Shum, Jr. (Mike) and Dijon Talton (Matt) will perform in a singing and dancing celebration of the Golden Globe Award winning show.

The four-city exclusive engagement, “Glee Live! In Concert!,” is a unique concert experience conceived by Murphy that will include live performances of some of the show’s most memorable musical numbers including its anthem “Don’t Stop Believin,” fan favorites “Somebody To Love” and “Jump” and hits “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and “Sweet Caroline.”

Tickets will be available on March 12th for the Phoenix show, and March 13th for the shows in LA, New York, and Chicago. A special presale to American Express cardmembers will be available this Friday, at ticketmaster or gleetour2010.com. Check out the official concert dates after the jump.

Glee returns with it’s second season on Tuesday, April 13th at 9/8C on Fox and will feature loads of new guest stars such as Neil Patrick Harris, Olivia Newton-John, and more.

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The ’80’s were an interesting time for many reasons. One of the main ones was the burgeoning music video scene where any band that was trying to “make it” made a video. One such band was Martini Ranch, fronted by a young Bill Paxton. And yes, they made a video.

The difference here is that the video was directed by James Cameron and featured not only Paxton but Judge Reinhold, Paul Reiser, Adrian Pasdar and Cameron’s future wife, director Kathryn Bigelow. In the video you are treated to Paxton as he rides into a typically dusty western town where in typical fashion coffins are being assembled, a beefy lady blacksmith works and prostitutes assemble on the balcony of the local whore house. Paxton then pays a visit to the saloon and said house of ill repute.

But the fun doesn’t end there when Bigelow and her posse hit town and interrupt Paxton’s fun by slipping a CD of the song, entitled “Reach”, into a player. From that point forward, it’s on. In truth, words cannot adequately describe just how cheesy this video is. After all, it was the ’80’s.

Check out this masterpiece after the jump. Thanks goodness the ’80’s are over.

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Now that things have finally calmed down for Kristen Stawart after New Moon swept the nation, it’s finally time for fans to get excited for her upcoming biopic about the legendary rock group The Runaways. Stewart takes the lead in the film as Joan Jett, with Dakota Fanning playing Cherie Currie and Scout Taylor-Compton playing Lita Ford, as well as others.

The film is said to be a coming-of-age biopic that takes place when the band was first being formed, and the turmoil that broke the band up in 1979. In a new clip that we just got our hands on, we get a glimpse at the very first introduction between Joan Jett (Stewart) and Cherie Currie (Fanning).

Check out the clip after the jump, and take a look at the brand new poster for the film, courtesy of our pals at MTV Movies Blog. Catch The Runaways in theaters on March 19th.

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Stephen Colbert has been known for many impressive stunts since his show debuted, including shaving his head on a trip for the troops in Iraq, hosting a star-studded Christmas Special, and declaring war on Glenn Beck. He’s recently outdone himself once again by joining pop superstar Alicia Keys in a suburban Connecticut version of “Empire State of Mind (Part II).”

The song has been in the top 10 charts for months now, and is a love letter to New York City by both Keys and Jay Z. Colbert takes on the Jay Z part, with his own suburban spin, in last night’s episode.

The original song (not this version) is currently available on Alicia Keys’ new album, The Element of Freedom, which is currently available at iTunes and other music retailers. Check out the video from last night’s Colbert Report after the jump.

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Fox’s Glee has tackled a pretty big group of hot-button subjects in it’s sophomore year on the network. So far, the show has touched on teen pregnancy, handicapped accessibility in high schools, bigotry, and this week the next taboo subject to hit is teen crushes with teachers.

In this week’s episode, entitled “Ballad”, Mr. Schuester (Matthew Morrison) splits the Club into pairs to sing their favorite ballad, but when one kid gets sick, he’s forced to step in and winds up in a sticky situation. Meanwhile, Finn and Quinn have to face the music when dinner with her parents (guest stars Gregg Henry and Charlotte Ross) goes awry.

Check out two exclusive clips after the jump. In the first, Will and Rachel (Leah Michele) sing “Endless Love” as an example of a ballad for the other students, while Rachel realizes something new about him. In the second clip, Will remembers the first time a student had a crush on him, and things got weird.

Watch Glee’s “Ballad” this Wednesday, November 18 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT), only on FOX.

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Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment – $49.99

Score: 7.5

The music game formula is nothing new. Start out with a plastic instrument and pick a song. Successful completion of a song unlocks more popular but increasingly difficult tunes. For your sequel, include the ability to play as various famous recording artists, both living and dead. Lather, rinse, repeat. Occasionally pick a specific band and focus a game around them (i.e. Beatles Rock Band) or them and the music they inspired (like when we found out that Van Halen somehow relates to Third Eye Blind).

So what separates Lego Rock Band from the rest of the pack? Personality. Anyone who has picked up Lego Star Wars or Lego Batman sees that something special that Lego-izing a popular character or moment can bring to the screen. The unique and quirky humor of seeing a stormtroopers explode in to a pile of brings or watching the Lego Riddler get locked up in jail hold a special place in our hearts because we don’t just love Star Wars and Batman, but we love Lego too. Sorry Megablocks. It’s great to see that this humor carries over to give the Rock Band series not only its first ever “story” mode, but translates in to unique visuals that fit both the Rock Band and Lego licenses well.

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While most of the country got to watch the Yankees take home the World Series over the past two weeks, fans of the hit FOX show Glee had to sit and wait while their show was on hiatus. That wait ends tonight with the brand new episode, “Wheels.”

In tonight’s episode, the glee club is still on the road to the sectionals, and tonight the story is more about Artie (Kevin McHale). The rest of the group realizes how difficult it can be for Artie to have to keep up from the confines of a wheelchair, so Will (Matthew Morrison) decides to show everyone just how hard it can be.

Tonight’s episode features the songs “Dancing With Myself” by Billy Idol, “Defying Gravity” from the Broadway show Wicked and Ike and Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary.” Check out the clips after the jump, and be sure to catch “Wheels” tonight, November 11th, from 9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT on FOX.

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