The Flickcast – Page 377 of 1030 – Stuff Nerds Love

Doctor Who vs. Muppets, Real-Life Futurama, & David Lynch’s Nightclub Are All ‘On The Radar’

Welcome to another edition of On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage during the week. Let is know if we missed something interesting.

Let’s get started!

• One of our favorite video game fanfilms of recent history, Fallout: Nuka Break is now an even more awesome web series. Enjoy it!

• Want to know what the Futurama characters would look like if they were real and in 3D? Check out these haunting clay busts of Zoidberg, Nibbler, Farnsworth, and Leela.

• Looking for that awesome party beverage for the long weekend? Why not bring it back to the 80s with a home replication of Hi-C’s Ecto-Cooler!

• Fans of both The Muppets and Doctor Who will both be entertained for hours and may have an exploded brain after seeing this mashup of the two universes.

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Film Score Friday: ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’ by Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders

A couple years ago I named Christopher Young’s Drag Me To Hell as my favorite score of the year. It had all of the big, bold, bombastic sounds you think of with true gothic horror. What raised that score above its genre and made it stand alone as the best was its sense of fun. It very well could have been the theme music for the tea cups ride at Inferno-Disney.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is a new horror film with a strong pedigree. It takes its cues from a more classical age of horror movies and the film’s score follow suite. The music sounds like it’s from another time and shares many of the trademarks of Young’s score. This is particularly evident with the opening title, which actually made me look at my iTunes to confirm I wasn’t listening to Drag Me To Hell.

Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders have put together a very consistent sounding soundtrack for this throwback horror flick, in fact I often went ten minutes without realizing the track had changed. This ends up being a double edged sword for the album, on one hand I like what the music is giving me, so consistency means it is all gravy.

However, after the strong opening, the album never really hooks you again. You pretty much have heard everything dynamic this score has to offer in the first few tracks.

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TNT Cancels ‘Hawthorne’, ‘Memphis Beat’ May Not Return Either

I guess it doesn’t pay to be Jada Pinkett Smith these days. First, rumors surface of your alleged affair with Mark Anthony which made Will Smith cry and now TNT has decided not to renew your TV show.

That’s right, for those of you watching Smith and her co-stars each week on Hawthorne, the show will not be back for a fourth season. This news comes after TNT recently canceled another show that, at least in my opinion, was pretty good and worth watching: Men of a Certain Age.

Apparently also “on the bubble” is the Jason Lee starrer Memphis Beat, which has been on for two seasons already. According to reports, the odds of it returning are pretty much even money.

Here’s the official statement about Hawthorne from TNT:

TNT has decided not to order a fourth season of HawthoRNe. TNT truly appreciates the tremendous dedication of everyone involved in HawthoRNe. The series gave TNT the opportunity to work with many outstanding people, including Jada Pinkett Smith and the rest of the show’s talented cast, crew, producers and writers. We wish everyone involved with HawthoRNe nothing but the best.

Nothing but the best. Isn’t that nice? And they say people in Hollywood don’t care.

Check Out a Preview of Warren Ellis’ ‘Secret Avengers #17, Plus Issue #16 Sells Out

If there’s one particular Marvel comics series I’ve been enjoying for the last many months it’s Secret Avengers. The story and characters really seem to resonate with me and I really like where the series is going.

As pleased as I am with the series I was even more intrigued to learn that one of my favorite writers, Warren Ellis, was taking over the scripting duties on it. That work has now arrived with Secret Avengers #16 and, not surprisingly, it was hugely successful. In fact, it sold out and is going back for a second printing.

That second printing hits store shelves on September 28th. But wait, there’s more.

To get you interested in this great arc, we’ve got a preview for Ellis’ next issue for you today. In this one, Ellis is joined by artist Kev Walker and sends Steve Rogers and his team to Eastern Europe to stop a global bio-threat.

Can’t wait to check that one out. Sounds awesome.

Check out the preview for Secret Avengers #17 after the break. Look for it in comic store on September 28th too.

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Starz To Discontinue Content Partnership with Netflix

If you’re as addicted to Instant Netflix as the rest of us, you’re probably glued to the New Releases feed to see what the benevolent Netflix gods will bring you to enjoy from the comfort of your bed/couch every night. One company who has helped aid in their vast streaming library is Starz, which expands to original series and films that make it to their movie channels.

It looks like that deal won’t last much longer, as it’s been announced that Starz will choose to discontinue their deal with Netflix and Instant Netflix, pulling their content from the servers. Here’s the press release from Starz.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Sept. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Starz, LLC, President and Chief Executive Officer, Chris Albrecht, issued the following statement today regarding the status of affiliation agreement renewal discussions with Netflix.

“Starz Entertainment has ended contract renewal negotiations with Netflix. When the agreement expires on February 28, 2012, Starz will cease to distribute its content on the Netflix streaming platform. This decision is a result of our strategy to protect the premium nature of our brand by preserving the appropriate pricing and packaging of our exclusive and highly valuable content.”

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First Teaser for ‘American Pie’ Sequel, ‘American Reunion’, Hits the Web

It’s hard to believe but there are some franchises that seem to take on a life of their own long after the original cast & crew has moved on to greener pastures. One of those franchises is American Pie, with an insane 7 films under its belt.

Who says you can’t go back to the drawing board for number 8? Certainly not the original cast, as they’re ALL returning for the 10-year reunion of when they started back with the first American Pie.

Hard to believe the only person who’s made it through all 7 films is Eugene Levy (or maybe it’s not that hard to believe) but he’s back and still playing the poor man’s Jerry Lewis. Here’s the film’s synopsis.

In the comedy “American Reunion,” all the “American Pie” characters we met a little more than a decade ago are returning to East Great Falls for their high-school reunion. In one long-overdue weekend, they will discover what has changed, who hasn’t and that time and distance can’t break the bonds of friendship.

It was summer 1999 when four small-town Michigan boys began a quest to lose their virginity. In the years that have passed, Jim and Michelle married while Kevin and Vicky said goodbye. Oz and Heather grew apart, but Finch still longs for Stifler’s mom. Now these lifelong friends have come home as adults to reminisce about—and get inspired by—the hormonal teens who launched a comedy legend.

Check out the first “trailer” for the film after the jump, which has no official footage, but rather a photo booth-style slideshow giving us a taste of whats in store when American Reunion hits theaters on April 6th.

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‘Star Tours: The Adventures Continue’ Ride Walkthrough & Analysis

As a fan of the Star Tours attractions on both coasts, I was excited to go to the D23 panel on the making of Star Tours: The Adventures Continue… I crowded into the 1,000+ seat ballroom, not knowing what Imagineer insights awaited me.

In true Disney fashion, the panel was a professionally crafted presentation, with no room for questions..errr, I mean error. In this panel, lead Imagineer, Tom Fitzgerald, spoke with the aid of Powerpoint and took us on the journey to bring this attraction into the future.

Tom Fitzgerald, began his Star Tours story in 1998 when George Lucas summoned the Imagineer team to his ranch to watch the pod race, and only the pod race. After seeing the infamous scene, the Imagineers decided to wait to see the rest of the film, hoping against hope that it would the pod race would be scrapped for something way cooler.

Ok, so Tom said, “In fact, we did think it was a great idea”, but I can read between the lines. Interestingly back in 1998, way before the 3D onslaught, the Imagineers knew the ride was going to be in 3D.

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Check Out a Promo for ‘Crash and Burn’ Starring Lee Majors and Produced by Tony Hawk

I don’t know about you but I was a huge fan of The Six Million Dollar Man when I was a kid. So much so that I hoped to one day be bionic, just like my hero Steve Austin — a man barely alive. Years and many sessions of therapy later I can now appreciate the show for what it was: cool and a lot of fun.

Of course, one of the reasons the show was so cool was Lee Majors. After The Six Million Dollar Man ended, he went on to play another cool character on TV, Hollywood stuntman Colt Seavers in The Fall Guy. That was another fun show that I watched all the time. Of course, some of that interest may have had to do with Heather Thomas, but I can’t be sure.

Lee Majors has been absent from the small screen for too long. Fortunately, pro skater and cool guy Tony Hawk, along with Lance Krall, have decided to do something about it. That something is a new show called Crash & Burn.

It’s a show about stuntmen (and women) and looks to be pretty damn funny. To help spread the word about this new show, which looks to be no more than a pilot or even, as they call it in “the biz” a pilot presentation at this point, we’ve got the promo for it to share with you today.

Let’s hope it becomes a series because it’s pretty awesome. Click through to check it out.

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