Freddie Wong Talks New Hulu Series ‘RocketJump: The Show’

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October 21, 2015

Debuting at New York Comic Con 2015, filmmaker Freddie Wong and the RocketJump team, best known for their YouTube channel and online series Video Game High School, sat down to talk about their upcoming Hulu series entitled RocketJump: The Show, following the RocketJump team as they create their wildly popular YouTube shorts.

The team spoke in depth about how their company has grown over the years, the ups and downs, and what to expect from the upcoming series.

RocketJump: The Show will follow the RocketJump team, as they create single shorts, with half the episode focusing on the creation and the other half displaying the actual short the group has created, in a documentary style series.

“It’ll be a different short per every episode and they range quite a bit, we’re showing one here later today. But, each episode will focus on a short, the shorts like anywhere from six to twelve minutes long. We’re doing like a Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton silent film. We’re doing like a horse race western. We’re doing the one today, it’s like a sci-fi space lightsaber fight. It’s everything…everything you can think of,” said Wong.

Wong also felt that in this series, the shorts will be in a way more evolved and fleshed out, than the shorts people are used to on their Youtube channel.

Reflecting on how his company has grown over the years, with their series with Hulu becoming another step forward,

“Looking back like you know five years ago, when we first started, it’s like whoa that’s a big step! But then going through it, it never felt anything was a big, huge step. It always felt like, oh let’s doing something else and this is more interesting to us and let’s kind of go in this way,” said Wong.

When asked about what has been the most difficult part, in creating this series, Ben Waller, the RocketJump showrunner stated, “I think for me personally the most difficult part, as the show runner, you have a very specific set of concerns, like budget and the overall picture. But then, I dove in on one of the episodes to direct one of the shorts and as a director, you want to be enabled to do whatever you can or whatever you want to do on the day, as long as it sort of fits in the boundaries of the script. And sometimes the director and the producer or the showrunner, push against each other, to figure out what that best direction is. And that’s just sort of a natural part of the process and functioning as someone on both sides of that conflict, you don’t know which side to choice.”

On the opposite side of the spectrum, when asked what the most enjoyable part of creating this series was, Ashim Ahuja, the RocketJump producer said, “Putting it that all together and then actually doing it, we really developed like a family and a bond. And multiple times, this has always been something big for me, we’ve had people that are industry professionals for 20 years and they come to work with us and they time, time again say we’re the best people to work with. And that’s like the best compliment for us because we’re all so cool together and kinda developed this family of filmmakers.”

Wong did go on to talk about the short they showed at Comic Con, entitled Fan Friction, “It starts off like the most fan fictiony thing like ever. Oh, it’s the Battlestar Galactica, the ship Serenity, Sherlock Holmes, then Dracula shows up and they got a lightsaber fight. It’s like come on guys, but then it cuts out and you realize what it is, you’re watching the depiction of two girls watching fan fiction and they’re fighting about it.”

RocketJump: The Show is set to debut on Hulu December 2. Listen to the complete New York Comic Con interview below.

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Review: ‘Beasts Of No Nation’- Beautifully Brutal

By

Dewey Singleton - Film Critic

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October 21, 2015

Beasts of No Nation is a film about the brutality of humanity, but it begins in the most innocent of ways. The boys cajole a group of soldiers and pay them to act on their “Imagination T.V.” (which in reality is just a hollowed out old T.V.) It’s hard to fathom that a movie starting with such exuberance and innocence could quickly turn into a nightmare from which the audience can’t wake.

Quickly orphaned by war as his family is massacred, Agu (Abraham Attah) is captured and told he’s going to be a soldier in Commandant’s (Idris Elba) army. It’s hard to digest the very real notion of an innocent transforming into a cold blooded killer, but as we soon learn, the line between innocence and evil is as thin as paper. Agu initially describes himself as “a good boy from a good family” and he seems harmless at first – a rail thin preadolescent whose love of malice seems to be reserved for pranks towards his older brother. However, Commandant views Agu in a completely different light. “A boy is a dangerous thing,” he states to his fighters, some no more that twelve years old. Commandant views Agu as not a boy, but a vessel of destruction that will serve him well in battle.

Beasts of No Nation doesn’t follow a traditional plotline and instead follows a set of events which gives the movie a more adolescent point of view. This structure makes sense as the story is told through the eyes and narration of Agu. Cary Fukunaga directed, wrote, and was the cinematographer on this picture and it seems that his one focus was making sure we felt what Agu felt. When Agu anguished, so did we. When Agu was enraged, so were we. It’s a roller coaster of emotions that that punches you in the gut. Even with this being the case, Beasts of No Nation was not emotionally exploitative; if anything, you felt empathy to everyone who was involved in this senseless war.

Fukunaga’s cinematography is “run and gun,” and it works brilliantly. Being that this film centers more on events than a set storyline, catching the pace and the sheer savagery of war was essential to the success of the film. Sometimes one little decision can make a huge impact on the overall quality of the picture. Fukunaga used the same technique when he shot season one of True Detective and achieved a similar result just by amplifying the pacing. Fukunaga also uses the right amount of voiceover throughout the film. It’s important to remember this experience is through the eyes of a child, so hearing Agu’s innermost thoughts is crucial to the film’s overall quality.

Idris Elba’s performance as the Commandant is a force of nature. His portrayal was extraordinarily rich in nuance and seductive psychosis that it’s easy to understand why all of those children would die for their Commandant. Agu tries to fight being molded into a killer because of his moral compass, but a child can only hold out for so long. It’s sad, but it speaks to the power Commandant holds. As much as Commandant wants the children to believe he is only training them for glory, it’s easy to look through the vainglorious cracks in his character and see him for the monster that he is.

As Agu, Abraham Attah’s was captivating from beginning to end. Attah’s transformative performance is not only at the heart of this film, but it could be argued that he outperformed Idris Elba. For those who are expecting a happy ending for Agu, that would be settling for a simply Hollywood ending. His ending is honest, true, and a sign of the times in that part of the world. Beasts of No Nation is scintillating from start to finish, the type of film that is deeply impactful no matter how brutal it might be.

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British Filmmakers planning a ‘Max Payne’ Fan-Film

By

Kieran Freemantle

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October 20, 2015

The third person action game series Max Payne has been a highly successful games series. All three games have been critical successes and Max Payne 3 sold four million copies in its first year of release. But its treatment on film has been less favorable, having a critically panned film adaptation in 2008 starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis. Well two filmmakers in the UK want to make amends by proposing their own fan film and have started fundraising.

The game series tells the tragic story of Max Payne, an ex-NYPD detective turned DEA agent who wants revenge for the murder of his wife and daughter. The games fully embraced its dark, neo-noir style with gameplay that used Matrix-style bullet time.

The fan film, Max Payne: Retribution, is being pitched by writer/director Leroy Kincaide, a director, actor and photographer who won the Professional Photographer Magazines Award for Best Fashion Film in 2013, and Chloe Chudasama, a fellow photographer and acting as producer for the project. In their pitch video they state movies like John Wick, The Equalizer and Saw and the pairing is very similar to another British duo, director James Bushe and cinematographer/producer Simon Rowling who made the well-received fan film Predator: Dark Ages earlier this year. Even their pitch videos are similar. Actor Jon Campling (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1) is already attached to the project.

Kincaide and Chudasama are seeking to raise £8,000 ($12,000) for the short, and will be at London Comic Con this weekend for a Q&A session. You can find out more information on their Indiegogo page.

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Is Chris Rock Headed Back to Host The Oscars?

By

Larry Taylor - Managing Editor

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October 20, 2015

It seems Chris Rocks is in “serious talks” to return to host the 2016 Oscars ceremony.

Variety reports the comedian/actor is in the final discussions to return to the Academy Awards: “Chris Rock is in serious talks to host the 88th Academy Awards, Variety has learned, with an official announcement expected shortly,” the report said.

Chris Rock hosted back in 2005. That ceremony is most memorable for ruffling the feathers of notably red-assed actor Sean Penn, who took strange exception to Rock’s Jude Law joke…

The Oscars will be February 28, 2016.

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‘Jack Reacher 2’ Gets a New Title, Official Release Date. Be Optimistic.

By

Larry Taylor - Managing Editor

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October 20, 2015

Like it or not, Jack Reacher 2 is on its way, and now it has an official release date and title.

Instead of Jack Reacher 2, the Tom Cruise sequel will be titled Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. This clumsy title comes from the 18th Lee Child Jack Reacher novel, according to the report over at Collider. It will hit theaters October 16, 2016.

It’s unclear whether or not Never Go Back will follow the story of Child’s novel, but here is a synopsis of the story:

Former military cop Jack Reacher makes it all the way from snowbound South Dakota to his destination in northeastern Virginia, near Washington, D.C.: the headquarters of his old unit, the 110th MP. The old stone building is the closest thing to a home he ever had. Reacher is there to meet-in person-the new commanding officer, Major Susan Turner, so far just a warm, intriguing voice on the phone. But it isn’t Turner behind the CO’s desk. And Reacher is hit with two pieces of shocking news, one with serious criminal consequences, and one too personal to even think about. When threatened, you can run or fight. Reacher fights, aiming to find Turner and clear his name, barely a step ahead of the army, and the FBI, and the D.C. Metro police, and four unidentified thugs. Combining an intricate puzzle of a plot and an exciting chase for truth and justice, Lee Child puts Reacher through his paces-and makes him question who he is, what he’s done, and the very future of his untethered life on the open road.

Despite the lukewarm reception of the original, directed by Chris McQuarrie, Jack Reacher was a decidedly unique, unusual action/thriller. The opening scene was disturbing and perhaps a little too heavy for such a throwaway flick, but the car chase which anchors the action is stellar. McQuarrie, a fine director and the one in charge of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, is no longer on board, replaced by Ed Zwick who previously worked with Cruise on The Last Samurai. It’s also notable as Cruise’s only other sequel outside of the M:I franchise (hoping Top Gun 2 doesn’t come to fruition).

Jack Reacher has the potential to be an interesting franchise, maybe three or four films overall, and if different filmmakers can take the character in different, interesting directions, there’s plenty to be excited about going forward.

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Doctor Who Review: ‘The Girl Who Died’

By

Kieran Freemantle

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October 20, 2015

“The Girl Who Died” is one of the most anticipated episodes of this series of Doctor Who, the episode where Maisie Williams, better known as Ayra Stark from Game of Thrones joins the show as a guest star.

After The Doctor saves Clara from deep space the TARDIS takes the time travellers to the Dark Ages where they are swiftly captured by Vikings and taken to their village. Even worse an alien claiming to be Odin has been taking the village’s best warriors for his once sinister purposes when one girl, Ashildr (Williams) declares war on the aliens. It is up to The Doctor to come up with a plan to train the remaining farmers and fisherman and save the village from the feared, war-like aliens, doing it without the TARDIS or his Sonic Sunglasses.

When Williams was cast in Doctor Who it was met with great fanfare and one of the biggest pieces of news during the season’s production. Williams was solid in her role as a teenage Viking with a big imagination and with certain innocence to her despite coming from a culture that is infamous for raiding and pillaging. This was an introductory episode for Williams and the follow-up should be able to expand on her character.

“The Girl Who Died” is a very light-hearted episode, having well-written jokes throughout. Both The Doctor and Clara are fun, having a great back-and-forth with each other and good jokes during the run time. The Doctor has contempt for the locals and their lack of competency considering their culture, while Clara has a good joke towards the aliens. The Doctor’s interactions with the villagers do raise a lot of smiles, such as the training sequence, with Vikings’ destroying The Doctor’s Sonic Sunglasses, his attempts to impress the villagers and seeing how the whole village react on their day of reckoning. Writers Jamie Mathieson and Steven Moffat and director Ed Bazalgette do keep a jovial tone throughout the episode despite the threat of annihilation, because the Medieval Era was a happy, jolly time and not a period of war, disease and despair.

The episode truly shines in its final five minutes when it flashbacks to “The Fires of Pompeii”, the previous Doctor Who Peter Capaldi appeared in before he became The Doctor. The scene reveals why The Doctor choose the face of Caecilius and results in Capaldi giving his best speech so far in the timelord. The episode does end on a touching, if bittersweet note, that sets up the second part that is going to be important for characterization in the second half of the two-parter. Going into further detail would lead to spoilers, but it was a vivid scene that had excellent direction and editing to bring out the emotional resonant it needed.

The introduction of Maisie Williams to Doctor Who is the success it needed to be and it does set up for a darker follow-up. “The Girl Who Died” was a fun romp episode that was funny but also had plenty of poignancy and drama.

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Gwen Stefani, Up Close And Personal In ‘Used To Love You’ Video

By

Matthew Sardo

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October 20, 2015

Gwen Stefani released the video for her new single ‘Used To Love You’ Tuesday afternoon on Facebook. The single comes two months after announcing her split from husband Gavin Rossdale.

“I needed to go through what I needed to go through to write the record that I needed to write. There was a lot of prayer and meditating in the sense of trying to be open and grateful with this record,” Stefani told EW. “These songs are really natural — they’re from not worrying about what happened or what’s going to happen but about living in the moment, from trying to be present and trying to feel,” said Stefani to Rolling Stone.

Used To Love You – Gwen Stefani

My video for #UsedToLoveYou

Posted by Gwen Stefani on Tuesday, October 20, 2015

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Mark Mallouk Sheds Some Light On His New Book ‘Sunflower’

By

Chris Massari

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October 20, 2015

Debuting at his first comic convention, Mark Mallouk the co-writer of Black Mass, presented his latest work for Michael Bay’s 451 Media, with his comic Sunflower.

“I wanted to write something with a female lead, where the women didn’t need to be rescued by the man and wasn’t crying about whether a man liked her or not. So that’s the seed for Sunflower,” said Mallouk.

Sunflower focuses on a mother, CJ, looking for her daughter Sunflower who she believes has been killed. CJ finds out Sunflower is alive and seeks out the man who she believes kidnapped her, Rush Bridge, a commune leader in the desert.

“She comes to find that yes her daughter is alive but, her daughter doesn’t recognize her and her daughter has become the most violent member of the commune, so the leader of and the most violent and dangerous person. So it’s CJ the mother, joining the commune and doing what she can, to get closer and closer to Sunflower her daughter, doing more and more terrible things, to earn her daughter back,” said Mallouk.

Mallouk talked about what it was like translating his skill set to a comic book.

“I would turn it in screenplay form to those guys and what kept coming back, when I started seeing the visuals and how Lee was doing the art and interpreting everything, I thought, I started seeing it in a different way and what it could be. So I sorta slowed down on it and paid more attention, I wanted to take advantage of the graphic novel form and not just throw my script at it,” said Mallouk.

The screenwriter also spoke about the differences between working with a comic team compared to a big studio, explaining how studios can sometimes get in the way of the creative process.

“Lee, the artist, Andy who adapted it, we all want the same thing. When those guys come back with a suggestion, I know it’s only for the benefit of the graphic novel,” said Mallouk

Besides talking about Sunflower, Mallouk also expressed his excitement about the comic book industry, the buzz of New York Comic Con, a future project he has on his mind, as well advice for young writers looking to break into the business.

You can listen to the complete Mark Mallouk interview below.

SUNFLOWER #1 (OF 6)
Publisher: 451 MEDIA GROUP
(W) Mark Mallouk, Andi Ewington (A/CA) Lee Carter

Ten years ago CJ’s husband and nine-year-old daughter were murdered off a desert highway near the California/Arizona border. Since that day, CJ can feel only two things – paralyzing shame for not being with her family and quiet fury that the perpetrators were never found. CJ should have been there to defend her family. CJ should have been there to die with her family. And, in the decade since, she might as well have been dead. Until the day a letter arrives. There’s no return address, only one word in the letter. It simply reads: Sunflower. CJ’s daughter is alive. And now so is CJ. And she will stop at nothing to get her daughter back.

Sunflower will be in your local comic book store on October 21.

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NYCC ‘The Venture Brothers’ Season 6 Sneak Peak

By

Chris Massari

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October 20, 2015

One of the most entertaining and interactive press roundtables at New York Comic Con 2015 was with Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer at the ADULT SWIM: The Venture Brothers press block. For those unaware, Publick and Hammer are the creators of The Venture Brothers, which has done five seasons since 2003, with a few TV specials sprinkled about, over the last twelve years.

The two creators sat down and gave some hints about season six, as well as reflecting on character deaths, their writing process and how they reach some of the most memorable quotes, from this phenomenal and sometimes underrated show.

Here are some highlights and if you’d like, at the bottom of the article will be the entire recording of the press block if you want to listen to the roundtable in full.

Seasons six of The Venture Brothers will consist of 8 episodes.
Season six will start directly after the All This And Gargantua 2 special.
There will be no “Order of the Triad” for season six, Hammer stated, “This season coming up is very Order of the Triad shy.”
In regards to Jonas Venture, “No he’s pretty dead. He’s as dead as anyone in the show, probably more dead than 24.” “Which is pretty damn dead.” “He is so dead.”
Hammer, “I’ll give you a spoiler, that’s just episode one the door opens, like what the f***.”, when talking about the promotional picture.
There will be “Bieber” Hank.
Publick and Hammer talk to each other in the character’s voices, in order to gauge how funny it’ll be. Publick, “Certain things are only funny because it’s coming out of one of those idiots mouths.”
Hammer, “We don’t really write together, we create together and write separately.”
From what it sounds like, there will be a great scene featuring The Monarch pissing in a sink coming up in the upcoming season.
It seems like Doc Hammer’s favorite jokes don’t get quoted or noticed the way he thought they would, it other jokes or gems.
Doc Hammer register’s Doctor Girlfriends voice as a real person, not a character when he uses it.
Henry Killinger lasted longer than they originally thought as a character.
In regards to the question, what will surprise fans the most, Hammer stated, “That we can change everything, but it’ll still feel like The Venture Brothers.”

Official description for The Venture Bros. Season 6:

Location, location, location! Perfectly situated in the heart of New York City, Season 6 of The Venture Bros. is a billionaire’s dream come true, offering the discerning buyer top-of-the-line drama and panoramic danger in every direction. Super–scientists, bring your loofah! Relax and unwind from a long day in the lab in your luxurious, spa-like, master bath, where floor-to-ceiling windows offer spectacular views of approaching enemies from every direction. This 8 episode, 3 BR, @ BA stunner comes with its own dedicated robot, plus servants’ quarters for the live-in bodyguard.

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Apple TV Preorders Begin Monday

By

Sean McGrath

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October 20, 2015

When it comes to the announcement of Apple TV‘s release date, waiting by the computer the past few weeks has been unbearable to say the least. But, the question has been answered, Apple TV is heading to preorders this coming Monday, October 26th for those (me) looking to get into the newest edition of Apple’s answer to the entertainment industry.

With orders set for Monday and thus reportedly shipping on the 30th, Apple is introducing a long awaited upgrade to a system that many assumed was a dead project. Boasting an upgraded A8 processor, refreshed remote and two separate storage capacities (32 GB for $149 and 64 GB for $199), Apple is looking to blow open the door for in-home entertainment, reopening a rivalry with competitive streaming/set -top boxes in Chromecast, Roku and Amazon Fire TV.

Throw in a revamped UI, Siri-controlled viewing experience, an App Store and and introduction of a gaming platform, the Apple TV is a fresh take on Apple’s evolution of the TV service. Starting from the beginning, Apple TV was introduced in 2006 and first released in 2007 under the code name “iTV.” From there, we saw the interface evolve from the side bar and floating options, to a more stabilized menu option and finish right now in the current menu format, with all your tiles arranged under the iTunes Store options. With the ability to purchase or rent the newest shows and movies, as well as listen to your iTunes library, Apple looked to the living room as their next adventure, but that adventure soon became a tale lost in time.

With Generations 1 and 2 revealed in the time of Steve Jobs, and the third edition revealed just two years following his death, it was evident his dream of entering the living room were dying away. Until this September.

At the September 9th Special Event, Tim Cook announced the newest addition to the Apple TV family along side it’s brand new iPad Pro. Since then, the website has read “Coming Soon,” and my anxiety has skyrocketed. But now, with the reports that pre-orders will begin on Monday, assuming it will open at 12:01 am PT, or 3:01 am EST, we will see if the new Apple TV is going to live up to the hype, or if it is a fresh introduction to another impending neglect? If what I have seen is true, then we are looking at a new and innovative entry into a long list of Apple products.

Stay tuned to MonkeysFightingRobots for my unboxing video of the brand new Apple TV when I receive it!

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