The CW has released a new, extended trailer for the upcoming Riverdale, the new one-hour live-action drama based on the classic Archie Comics characters. You can watch it below.
https://youtu.be/fE_in4D_S8g
Riverdale is written by Archie Comics Chief Creative Officer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and produced by Warner Brothers Studios and Berlanti Productions and has been described as a subversive take on the classic Archie mythos. Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schecter, Jon Goldwater, and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa serve as executive producers.
The live-action series offers a bold, compelling take on Archie, Betty, Veronica, and their friends, exploring small-town life and the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale’s wholesome facade. The show will focus on the eternal love triangle of Archie Andrews, girl-next-door Betty Cooper, and rich socialite Veronica Lodge, and will include the entire cast of characters from the comic books—including Archie’s rival, Reggie Mantle, and his best friend, Jughead Jones.
‘Riverdale’ stars KJ Apa as Archie Andrews, Lili Reinhart as Betty Cooper, Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge, Ashleigh Murray as Josie McCoy, Luke Perry as Fred Andrews, Molly Ringwald as Molly Andrews, Cole Sprouse as Jughead Jones, Madelaine Petsch as Cheryl Blossom, Ross Butler as Reggie Mantle, Casey Cott as Kevin Keller, Mädchen Amick as Alice Cooper, and Marisol Nichols as Hermione Lodge.
The show will premiere Thursday, January 26th, 2017 at 9/8c on The CW.
Have you ever wanted to be an extra in a large scale, epic Marvel Cinematic Universe film? Well, now’s your chance!
Project Casting is reporting that Avengers: Infinity War is currently looking for actors to play aliens in the upcoming film.
“Aliens: We are now taking submissions to be considered for a fun background role on this upcoming movie. Looking for men and women, all ethnicities, who appear 18 – 50’s, who are TALL with a SLENDER or athletic build. MUST be comfortable being PAINTED (including on your face & any exposed body parts). Also looking for people willing to have prosthetics applied to their face, in addition to being painted. Bumps will be provided for makeup & prosthetic applications.”
Filming is tentatively scheduled for April 5 & May 30- must be available for BOTH days with no conflicts. Must have an open & flexible schedule as you will be needed for multiple wardrobe fittings & makeup tests prior to the film dates.”
Will you submit an application?
Avengers: Infinity War is slated for a May 4, 2018 release date.
The officialy Legion Twitter account has released three new posters for the upcoming television show. Check all three out below.
These images really highlight the trippy, Doctor Strange-esque tone this show will likely have.
“Legion follows David Haller, a troubled young man who may be more than human. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, David has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for years. But after a strange encounter with a fellow patient, he’s confronted with the possibility that the voices he hears and visions might be real.”
Are you looking forward to the show? Let us know in the comments!
Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) and Queen Hippolya (Connie Nielson) are officially confirmed to appear in next year’s Justice League film, according to Heroic Hollywood.
In a press release, the studio confirmed appearances by the two characters.
Assuming Luthor doesn’t pop up in Wonder Woman, Justice League will serve as the second DC Extended Universe appearance for him and Hippolya, who will be making her first appearance in Wonder Woman.
What are your thoughts on both of these characters making it into the film? Drop your comments below!
Justice League hits theaters on November 17, 2017.
A new photo of Caliban (Stephan Merchant) has been released on Twitter. Check it out below.
In Logan, this character will likely help take care of the sick and frail Professor X.
The movie features Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Boyd Holbrook, and Dafne Keen.
“In 2024, mutant births are severely in decline, and people aren’t sure why. A government-type operation is turning mutant children into killing machines. From this, Logan emerges as a mentor to a mutant girl, who has two claws instead of his three.”
For some reason Anime is one of the hardest things to sell to your peers. Whether it’s the childish view, the porn assumption; Anime has always been, for me at least, something that no matter how much I encourage people to watch, never works out. This has always bothered me considering I am an avid believer that Anime is for everyone. Just like music, books, and western T.V. and movies, Anime has enough diversity within its medium to let everyone find a niche that they can grab onto and enjoy.
But again I have trouble breaking through the barrier of opposition and while I can’t force someone to sit down and watch something, I have thought of the next best thing. Guilt them into watching it, by actually gifting them Anime this Christmas. So as per the holiday season I have decided to purchase gifts for family members who have never shown an interest in Anime and have turned down multiple advances of me recommending them shows I think they would like. For these gifts I had to do some agonizing over thinking about what would be the perfect shows to get “them” into Anime. To no Surprise I chose something different for all of them. Death Parade for my Parents, Maria The Virgin Witch for my Sister and her Husband, and Psycho-Pass for my other sister and her fiancee. All the reasons are too deep and personal to explain so I wont bore you with those.
Now sometimes there has to be some serious self-analysis as to why you want a peer or family member to get into Anime. Most of the time it can be seen as pretentious. Like you’re the one who has the best taste in things and everyone else just doesn’t understand, so you’re gonna make them. While I consider that to be a little true, it’s mostly an urge to share something that I think they will truly enjoy. While some of the shows I picked aren’t my absolute favorites or what I think are the best Anime has to offer as a Medium, I tailored them all to the people I care enough about to put this much thought into their christmas present. “Anime is for everyone” is a phrase I will continue to champion until it’s engraved on my tombstone. I’m not hoping for them to become Anime fans due to this either, I just want to show them something they will like, but just needed a little push.
Also to further validate or invalidate my stance, I will be checking in halfway through January with how far and what their experience was watching these shows. Hopefully I can get some good insight from non-anime fans and better hone my skills as a recommender as well as understanding the masses who don’t like Anime, and for what reason.
If this is something you have done or have thought about doing, leave a comment telling me how it worked and who you shared it with. I’m genuinely curious and would like a hint of what to expect.
Michael Fassbender is currently bringing the video game Assassin’s Creed to life on the big screen. However, the actor recently revealed he could have been part of a galaxy far, far away.
Speaking to MTV’s Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Fassbender said he sat down with J.J. Abrams about a role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
“We talked about a role,” Fassbender said. “We had a conversation. I’m pretty sure I was busy doing something else in the summer he was kick-starting that.”
Fassbender didn’t reveal which role. Perhaps, it was for the pilot Poe Dameron, which was played by Oscar Isaac. Maybe Kylo Ren?
Lion is one the best movies of 2016 that very few people are talking about.Why? Maybe it’s how many theaters the film has been released. Lion deals with the loss of losing one’s self and the struggle we often feel to recapture who we once were. It’s a tale told with joyful tones splashed with elements of sorrow throughout the film.
The narrative in Lion centers around a young boy named Saroo. Saroo is born into a poor family and has to fend for himself with help from his brother Guddu. Their mother is a day laborer and doesn’t have the time to keep track of their every move. Saroo looks up to his older brother and begs for him to be allowed to tag along as he heads into Kolkata look for lost money at the train station. He agrees and off they went to one of the busiest train stations in the world. Guddu tells him to wait on the platform while he creeps around looking for money. While this is happening, Saroo dozes off and wakes up to no one on the platform. He immediately searches from train to train( looking for his brother) until he lands on one that eventually begins to move away from home, taking the boy with him. At first, the audience thinks that it might stop, but then we quickly realize that this trip will end about 900 miles down the train tracks.
Now to most this doesn’t seem that complicated of a situation. All Saroo had to do was go and talk to the train engineer and he would know how to get him home. However, Saroo didn’t speak the local language of Bengal. So now we have a young child who’s 900 miles away from home and can’t communicate his issue to anyone who passes by at the train station. Lucky for us, he’s street smart and survives by sleeping on the platform and stealing food from others. Eventually, he’s picked up by the authorities and dropped off at a local orphanage. Saroo ends being adopted by an Australian family, The Brierley’s (played by Nicole Kidman and David Wenham). So what we have here is a real life story of lost and found.
Cinematographer Grieg Fraser enhances this narrative with his shot selection. Fraser filmed many of the earlier scenes from Saroo’s vantage point. He emphasizes the hopelessness of his situation by panning the hundreds of people who just walk by him as he wanders around dazed by his new surroundings. He utilizes tight shots of both young Saroo and some of the other children who are also homeless. My favorite shot is when Saroo finally sits down in the train station and makes eye contact with the little girl across the way. Each of them doesn’t utter a single word to each other but convey a sense of loneliness via eye contact that will leave the toughest of audiences members reaching for a kleenex.
Fraser also manages to capture the utter depravity of Saroo’s home village and his former living conditions. It’s crucial because there is such a stark contrast between where he’s from and where he grows up. Does Saroo just enjoy this new life of ease or should he abandon all of it and seek out who he truly is? This conflict is at the center of the entire film.
This movie has two remarkable performances from both Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman. Patel (who you might remember from Slumdog Millionaire) plays Saroo and conveys such an inner turmoil over the events leading to his adoption. A part of him wants just to let things go and continue to live his life the way it is, but another part feels hollow/incomplete because he’s no longer connected to his true home. Saroo has to make some tough decisions (ones that I’m not sure I could do if I were in his shoes) and he knows that his choices will have an impact on his adoptive mother and father.
Nicole Kidman plays Saroo’s foster mother, Sara Brierley. Kidman portrays Brierley with such strength on screen and such compassion that in the back of mind, you feel that Saroo hit the parental lottery. About midway through the film, the audience begins to wonder why the Brierley’s haven’t had any kids sooner and towards the end of the movie, Sara drops a bombshell that will have people talking long after the film is complete. Both Patel and Kidman deliver such nuanced performances that it shouldn’t shock anyone when both of their names are announced as Oscar Nominees on January 26th.
So avoid films about assassins and singing pigs this holiday season. Lion is a scintillating tale that needs to be seen in theaters. Perhaps if we make an effort to avoid subpar films, 2017 will usher in a year of great cinema. I can’t think of a better wish for the new year.
Justice League vs. Suicide Squad #1 is the first big event of DC Rebirth, which makes this the kind of story that needs to count. To say this event is important to DC as its first event is an understatement. This spins out of recent events in Batman as the Justice League now knows about the Suicide Squad/Task Force X. Which means we get the potential for a massive mega battle, yet there’s more to it than you’d think. Expectations are high for this event and I’m here to dive into this comic. Will it be worth your time? Time to find out if it is the event we’ve been waiting for. Let’s get this party started with Justice League vs. Suicide Squad #1!
The hype is intense for Justice League vs. Suicide Squad #1, let’s see how it fares.
Now with the amount of publicity and hype behind this project, you wonder already if you can start reading from this issue. Yes, yes you can. Joshua Williamson is a writer I’ve been a fan of for awhile and he handles this first issue well. The event comic is a tough one to do for any writer and this one does its job. Look at the intro alone: a mysterious figure wreaks massive amounts of chaos and violence with others in tow. The pacing of that opener had me on the edge of my seat. At this point, you’re not supposed to know who’s causing it, all you know is that these people are bad news and powerful. It’s exquisite storytelling.
Hang on to your hats here, I want to dive into why the intro is so cool.
As Williamson is setting this up, I want to bring special attention to this opener on the art end of things. Jason Fabok’s art on Justice League vs. Suicide Squad is great throughout but this opener is unreal. It’s all about the right tone from Alex Sinclair’s suitably dark colors and flashes of light, with Rob Leigh’s lettering slashing through the scenery. Pops of Leigh’s splats and rips, mixing in with Fabok’s way of showing the horror that Williamson puts to the script, it’s beautiful. Between Fabok, Sinclair, and Leigh, this is the start of one wild, amazing, and action packed comic.
The rest of the issue is part establishing both teams and the motivations for the event to come. The Justice League learning about the Suicide Squad as the Squad is on a mission themselves. In the League segment, Williamson nailed the reaction of the team to the Squad. Now here’s where the issue gets a little tougher to judge, there’s a lot to shove into this. Justice League didn’t require a ton of heavy lifting, they got to react and get on to the party. The Suicide Squad was mainly there to set up Killer Frost and the eventual collision course with the League. As a pure spectacle, it’s cool but when you ponder on it further, it doesn’t gel as well as I would like. It felt like a bit of a mad dash to get to the fight.
Yet from a slightly messy push to the finish line, somehow this works.
That’s what makes this weird, as there is a dash to get to that finish yet by the end it works. It shouldn’t work that well, but it does work. Justice League vs. Suicide Squad has a manic but fun atmosphere to it for a lot of the issue. Yet with that in mind, you get strong character moments, Captain Boomerang is one such example of a character that shines here. Deadshot and Superman have a unique encounter that will make fans smile in a way, it works for both characters. Yet some characters get lost in the shuffle, hence the messy aspect of it. Though when you get to Amanda Waller, she sets off the madness right, and I love how Williamson writes her. I’m still impressed as to how well this works.
As you get to the reveal of the third group, that’s when the real fun begins. I won’t mention too much of that but it makes for a cool ending. It’s a dramatic and powerful reveal to follow up that beautiful beginning of violence and mayhem. As Williamson builds up the chaos of Justice League vs. Suicide Squad, the third team is the one that they all should be terrified of. Which makes me realize that the issues following are where this series will really start to come together.
Now with the spotlight of the intro, I want to say some more about the art.
You get a messy story initially but I think with time to breathe it’ll gel better as the series goes on. I will say that noting the amazing intro to the story the art team keeps getting better. There are powerhouse double page spreads, electric action sequences, and it all works. Fabok took his art to another level with this story without a doubt, especially that final double page spread. I muttered a happy expletive here. One thing you will notice is Sinclair’s coloring trends a bit darker to match the tone of the tale. The tough realism to the violence and action in Williamson’s script gives Fabok and Sinclair the chance to show this world in the best light. Take special note of the Rob Leigh’s lettering, especially with the intros to all the characters and Deadshot alone. Beautiful stuff.
This is the cure for the common event book. It’s excellent work all around with a strong script, great art, and amazing construction to bring this together. Justice League vs. Suicide Squad is going to be a weekly event that will be worth the time of any comic book fan.
Greg Hettinger, a.k.a. The Black Hood thought he could run from the violence. But now he finds himself running across the country from a merciless assassin who calls himself The Nobody. Greg not only has to figure out the identity of his would-be killer, but also his connection to the original Black Hood—which means going to the one place Greg vowed he never visit again: home.
The Black Hood Season 2 #2
“The Nobody Murders Pt. 2”
Written by Duane Swierczynski Art by Gregg Scott
Colors by Kelly Fitzpatrick
Lettering by Rachel Deering
Published by Dark Circle Comics, an imprint of Archie Comics
Writing
Crime comics are at an all-time high, especially with masters like Ed Brubaker and Greg Ruka putting out frequent work. We can now add Duane Swierczynski to that group. Swierczynski is no stranger to the genre, having written several crime fiction novels. He also wrote a few comics for Marvel. But Black Hood is something different. It’s a harmonious fusing of a noir tale and a vigilante story. The narration is exquisitely hardboiled, but it’s paced like an action comic, with plenty of gun fights, intense face-offs, and dramatic reveals. Main character Greg is also filled with the tragic pathos so inherent in comics, his origin filled with guilt and remorse. Having access to his thoughts fleshes out the character, giving us a protagonist we can both root for, but also question. His mental state is obviously unbalanced, and he is not just a typical “man who has been wronged.” It’s layered writing, and dense plotting, with an even pacing that gives you an intense reading experience.
Art
Gregg Scott and Kelly Fitzpatrick are really bringing their A game to this book. Their art here is comparable to Sean Phillips and Michael Lark (whom I consider to be the best modern crime comic artists we have). The panel layouts here are deceptively simple. It doesn’t seem flashy, but when you stop and look at them, you see why it works. With its subtle changes in size, and thick, hand drawn borders, the grid work gives it the feel of gritty crime drama. It allows the characters to really inhabit the space on the page, allowing the reader to focus on details like body position and even facial expression.
The color is phenomenal and brings in a level of atmosphere that can only be described as cinematic in scope. You feel like you can see the yellow street lights luridly shining in the California night. Neon seems to glow off the page. Interiors feel dark and claustrophobic. The darkness feels real. This is quality, quality stuff.
The action and violence also burst with appropriate excitement. When they come out of nowhere it feels shocking. Again, it’s like reading a movie.
Conclusion
This is a must add to your pull list. Dark Circle Comics are creating an identity with quality, sophisticated and grown up books. Black Hood is a definite read if you love stuff like Criminal, Kill or Be Killed, Stray Bullets, or Garth Ennis’ classic Punisher runs.
You can pick up The Black Hood and other Dark Circle Comics here or at your local comics shop.
Nicole Kidman plays Saroo’s foster mother, Sara Brierley. Kidman portrays Brierley with such strength on screen and such compassion that in the back of mind, you feel that Saroo hit the parental lottery. About midway through the film, the audience begins to wonder why the Brierley’s haven’t had any kids sooner and towards the end of the movie, Sara drops a bombshell that will have people talking long after the film is complete. Both Patel and Kidman deliver such nuanced performances that it shouldn’t shock anyone when both of their names are announced as Oscar Nominees on January 26th.
Hang on to your hats here, I want to dive into why the intro is so cool.
The Black Hood Season 2 #2