Marvel announced Wednesday that Scott Glenn will return to season two of Marvel’s Daredevil as Stick for three episodes.
The announcement states that Stick crashes into Daredevil’s life right when he needs him the least. In the first season Stick trained young Matt Murdock and then abandoned him, Stick returns in season two with a new mission that Daredevil wants no part of.
“After seeing Scott’s performance in the first season, we knew that we had to bring him back for more. He is an extraordinary actor and we leapt at the chance to expand on his adventures with Matt and Daredevil,” said Executive Producer / Marvel’s Head of Television Jeph Loeb.
“In some ways, Stick is to ‘Marvel’s Daredevil’ what Scott Glenn has been to film and TV – a magnetic and awesome force to be reckoned with. It’s an honor to welcome him back, and the Daredevil team can’t wait to unleash Scott’s unique brand of bad-assery upon the world in Season 2,” said Executive Producer/Showrunner Marco Ramirez.
Daredevil is Executive Produced by Doug Petrie, Marco Ramirez and Drew Goddard, along with Marvel TV’s Jeph Loeb. The series stars stars Charlie Cox, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, Jon Bernthal, Elodie Yung and Rosario Dawson. The second season of Daredevil is currently filming and will return to Netflix in 2016.
It appears the science fiction adventure monster that was Pacific Rim, will only have one entry.
The Guillermo del Toro directed film cost $190 million to produced and only grossed only $101 in the states. Overall the Pacific Rim pulled in $411 million, on paper that should be good enough to green light a sequel.
The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Legendary wanted to produce a sequel and they liked that the original performed exceptionally well in China, where the company is heavily invested, but for now the project has been halted indefinitely and will be pushed back.
The film was schedule for a 2017 release.
At this time the only hope for Pacific Rim 2 is if Crimson Peak, the del Toro directed, haunted house thriller starring Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain, has huge box office success. Crimson Peak will be in theaters on October 16.
Today we’re going to cover High School Musical the AnimeI mean the Shortform, Music, Slice-of-Life, anime Star Mu, also called High School Star Musical… yeah.
“The story involves a group of high school students at Ayana Academy, a school with music as its main focus. A trio of students are called Hanasakura-kai, designating the most talented from the music department. To get in, individuals must enter through a Star Frame class. The series tells the story of Yuuta Hoshiya, Tooru Nayuki, Kaito Tsukikage, Shou Tengeiji, and Shuu Kuga as they aim for a position in the musical department after being spotted by Ootori, one of the Hanasakura-kai members.” (Source)
One of the big selling points of this anime is the musical focus. Collaborating with people like Takeshi Masuda (Outbreak Company), Wataru Maeguchi (Hayate the Combat Butler), and Ken Arai (Parasyte).
The trailer doesn’t really get me pumped or excited for the show. The staff is somewhat promising, with Prince of Tennis and Kuroko no Basket, but then there’s… Dragonar Academy. Which doesn’t lend itself too much narrative credit.
High School Star Musical will begin airing October 5th, 2015 for the Fall 2015 season.
Director Rupert Wyatt has quit the Channing Tatum X-Men spinoff Gambit being made by Fox, according to sources at The Hollywood Reporter.
“I was very much looking forward to working with my friend Channing and the team at Fox, but regrettably a push in the start date now conflicts with another project. I thank them for the opportunity, and I know that Gambit will make a terrific film,” said Wyatt.
Most recently Lea Seydoux was cast as Belladonna Boudreaux in the film. Gambit is supposed to start filming in early 2016.
Lionsgate released a ‘For Prim’ trailer to emotionally charge fans for the release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 on November 20.
Be careful if you watch this trailer on YouTube as the comment section has become a warzone as some fans are posting spoilers from the book.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 s directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Peter Craig and Danny Strong and stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Willow Shields, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone, Natalie Dormer, with Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland.
Calling all Johnny Depp fans, especially those who might have been worried about their favorite star and his relatively poor track record at the box office lately: your boy is as good as ever in Black Mass, delivering a chilling performance as real-life South Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger in a film that’s every bit as no-holds-barred as it looks in its marketing. Depp and Joel Edgerton lead an all-star cast in this bloody and brutal depiction of Bulger and his decades-long “alliance” with FBI Agent John Connolly, an arrangement that benefited the agency by helping them put away major Italian Mafia figures attempting to muscle in on Bulger’s territory, but also in effect gave Bulger free rein to become of the most feared crime lords in the history of the city.
In 1975, James Bulger was just another cog in the criminal machine that was known in the area thanks to a Boston Herald story as “the Winter Hill Gang.” Recently released from a prison stay in Alcatraz, Bulger, whose younger brother Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch) had kept his nose clean and risen from their Southie projects origins to the post of state senator, had ambitions of his own, most of which had a great deal to do with keeping local racketeering under Winter Hill control and out of the hands of Cosa Nostra family members moving into the area looking to take over the action.
Enter rising FBI star Connolly (Joel Edgerton, The Gift), who grew up in the same South Boston neighborhood with James and Billy, where family and loyalty mean more than any laws or rules made by those outside “Southie”, and who now looks to further his career by taking down Mafia operations in his hometown. What he proposes to James seems unthinkable: that Bulger serve as an informant for the Bureau, serving up actionable intel on the Angiulo branch of the Mafia making life difficult for Winter Hill. In exchange for said intel, Connolly and his supervisor, Agent Morris (David Harbour) would allow Bulger and his associates to keep doing business within certain limits. “You can’t kill anybody, Jimmy,” Connolly says as the two men come to their accord.
Yeah. As if that’s really going to happen.
What follows this pact is almost twenty years of unchecked criminal business activity by Bulger and his associates as their revenue streams branch out into gambling and the drug trade, while FBI investigations led by Connolly and Morris slowly but surely dismantle the Angiulo operation in Boston. That time isn’t without personal setbacks for Bulger and Connolly both — they suffer losses both professional and deeply personal in the course of their “alliance” — but for the most part Bulger seems virtually untouchable despite committing almost every sort of violent crime thanks to his “FBI connection.”
That is, until the day when more scrupulous men in the Justice Department, men not connected to Southie in any way and led by a new federal prosecutor (Corey Stoll), begin to question how and why Bulger has remained in operation all this time and never been investigated. Those inquiring eyes turn to Connolly, and from then on it’s only a matter of time before everything starts to crash down around them both.
As violent and bloody as Black Mass gets, and it’s certainly not for the feint of heart, what’s perhaps most compelling about the film is the tremendously complex characterization of Bulger that’s at the film’s heart. Director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart), working from a script by Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth (Get on Up, Fair Game), keeps the narrative lens focused tightly on Johnny Depp as the performer strives to bring to life all of Bulger’s many sides, from ruthless murdering mob boss to devoted son and doting father to loyal friend and brother. As notorious as Bulger was and as heinous as his crimes turned out to be, the film takes extra care to allow screen time for moments that illustrate an undeniable truth: that Bulger was beloved by many in Southie, likely at least as many as those that feared him. It’s arguably in these moments that Depp is at his finest in this role, as the gentility and genuine affection he shows toward those he loves stands in stark contrast to the cold blooded, vicious murderer he shows himself to be just minutes later. For Depp, whose recent work includes such forgettable films as Mortdecai, Transcendence, and Dark Shadows, Black Mass is the return to the acting form we all know he’s capable of when he’s not out to specifically be “quirky.”
Outside of Depp and his performance here, Black Mass certainly does have its flaws, the most glaring of which is the woeful under-use of the talent pooled in the film’s ensemble cast. Joel Edgerton is the sole member of the group whose screen time even comes close to that of Depp’s; beyond him, every other performer here is relegated to the equivalent of a bit part. Now, to be sure, had each of these performers been given their due in terms of meaningful scenes and screen time, the film might have stretched to four hours in length, rather than the just over two hours where it currently stands. But the fine work turned in by Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson as Bulger’s girlfriend and the mother of his young son Doug, and Peter Sarsgaard as Bulger associate Brian Halloran will certainly make you wish they’d been in the final cut of the film even just a little bit more.
Another legitimate criticism longtime mob/gangster film fans might make about Black Mass might be the relative lack of on-screen representation of just how Bulger built his criminal power base in Southie as the power of the Angiulos waned. A lot of “telling” and not “showing” goes on in the film in this regard, and a great deal seems to happen during the rather large time jumps the script makes in order to stay focused on the more character drama oriented narrative beats. We’re told Bulger introduced drugs to every teenager in Southie, for example, but we never see it, not even in a montage. For more casual film goers and fans buying tickets just to watch Depp chew scenery, this probably won’t be an issue. But for those gangster/crime drama devotees out there, those who relish the scenes in films like Goodfellas, Casino, and last year’s The Drop where the nuts and bolts of everyday underworld operations are broken down and translated into compelling film, the absence of such insight into the work of one of America’s most infamous real-life gangsters might feel like a glaring oversight.
So really, just how much you enjoy Black Mass may just depend on your expectations going into the film. If you’re there to enjoy the performance of one of the most versatile actors of our age finally taking on a role worthy of his talents after years of hamming it up as the Once and Future Capt. Jack Sparrow and other caricature roles (Oh, didn’t you know? There’s another Pirates of the Caribbean coming! :: groan ::), then you’re in for a fun, creepy treat. But if you’re there expecting the next truly great gangster epic, one to hold up alongside The Departed, for example, then you may come away slightly disappointed. Make no mistake: Black Mass is a fine film that’s worthy of your box office buck and should be in the conversation when awards season rolls around in a few months.
Just don’t expect to see it on anyone’s “Top 10 Gangster Films of All Time” lists anytime soon.
Black Mass
Starring Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rory Cochrane, Jesse Plemons, Kevin Bacon. Directed by Scott Cooper.
Running Time: 122 minutes
Rated R for brutal violence, language throughout, some sexual references and brief drug use.
In the Heart of The Sea, Ron Howard’s new nautical epic starring Chris Hemsworth, has a new full-length trailer loaded with tension, CGI, and the promise of high-seas adventure.
In the winter of 1820, the New England whaling ship Essex was assaulted by something no one could believe: a whale of mammoth size and will, and an almost human sense of vengeance. The real-life maritime disaster would inspire Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. But that told only half the story. “In the Heart of the Sea” reveals the encounter’s harrowing aftermath, as the ship’s surviving crew is pushed to their limits and forced to do the unthinkable to stay alive. Braving storms, starvation, panic and despair, the men will call into question their deepest beliefs, from the value of their lives to the morality of their trade, as their captain searches for direction on the open sea and his first mate still seeks to bring the great whale down.
Howard and Hemsworth most recently worked together on Driven, the race-car biopic. I wonder if Howard has, perhaps, found a muse for his projects moving forward. Regardless, Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow must have supreme faith in the film, as they moved it from the spring to a December 11 release date, in the heart of Awards Season.
Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar talked with Monkeys Fighting Robots about his new book Yes, My Accent Is Real; the conversation led to a dialogue about how celebrity culture has changed, and how Nayyar hopes to inspire one person to quit his or her job and follow their dream.
Nayyar talked about being socially awkward and that the TMZ culture doesn’t help.
“I feel that movie actors or TV actors used to be celebrated, and now everyone is waiting for us to make a mistake so they can pounce on us. So they can write some funny piece in TMZ or watch us say something stupid on YouTube a hundred times,” said Nayyar.
Nayyar hopes that people realize that everyone’s journey is human.
“There is no one way to get what you want to get. I really hope that someone reads this book and is sitting and their office and has always dreamt about doing something and quits (their job) and does it,” said Nayyar.
Listen to the complete Kunal Nayyar interview below.
Yes, My Accent Is Real is available now in your local book store and online.
YES, MY ACCENT IS REAL unfurls as an intercontinental journey replete with nostalgia by way of familiar cultural references and lighthearted musings on the origins of Indian holidays and traditions. Chapters romp through standard-issue coming-of-age tropes in a fashion that is anything but standard. Strange juxtapositions of the utterly embarrassing and the ultra-smooth abound—for instance, Nayyar grabs your heart in the book’s first pages by detailing the defining occasion of his very first kiss. He deftly muddled through the occasion, with only Kevin and Winnie from TV’s The Wonder Years as inspiration, only to be paired with the one and only Danica McKellar (a.k.a. Winnie Cooper herself) in a Big Bang Theory kissing scene years later. After bluffing his way into his first “real job” writing a manual for computer software, he spent his shifts masquerading as a tennis star in chatrooms and got a promotion anyway. He found himself auditioning for plays as a college business administration major at the University of Portland—not because he fancied himself a star or envisioned a luxurious future in the biz, but because he saw it as a way to make friends and get girls.
Nayyar illustrates poignant relationships in his uniquely droll style, tempered by tenderness and respect. We meet his French expat college roommate, Diaby, a 6′ 8″, 250-pound power forward who defines the term “gentle giant” and lends Nayyar an assist with both losing his virginity and nearly becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg, among other more typical collegiate exploits. Nayyar expertly recounts some of his father’s advice—including “Use a spreadsheet” (“Dad was an accountant, so I knew how to use Excel before I knew how to unhook a bra”) and “Treat a king and a beggar the same” (“This says it all”). When he first meets his first true love, Sarah, she’s wearing intoxicating Egyptian Musk perfume, a smell that haunts him to this day. She also makes him lick her eyeball, and then introduces him to Radiohead—all in the same night.
Throughout YES, MY ACCENT IS REAL, Nayyar’s quirkiness and self-deprecation imbue even the most commonplace scenarios with levity and intrigue. We learn that Nayyar’s sport isn’t cricket or track, but badminton—and that a birdie is technically named a shuttlecock. We come to understand that the holiday tradition of Dessehra (a Hindu festival that celebrates the victory of good over evil) also closely resembles a real life Game of Thrones. Nayyar teaches himself guitar by learning Poison’s seminal hair-rock hit “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” ultimately parlaying his talents into a two-man emo band called the Prince and the Pauper (he’s the Prince). They play their first gig at the Java Bean—a gig you can reenact by following the lyrics included to the Prince and the Pauper original “So I’m Lonely Again,” (sample lyric: “I note I was barely breathing / Did you feel the same?”). As far as his first big break as an actor goes, it was for the play Huck and Holden, for which he auditioned not on a stage or via video, but in a New York City Apple Store, via iChat with the play’s L.A.-based director. Nayyar insists on the spelling aeroplane; he is addicted to mints, estimating he’s consumed over 19,000 Altoids since The Big Bang Theory began taping; and his wife, Neha, is an actual beauty queen. (Their meeting is touchingly described in the chapter “And Then I Fell in Love” and their “Big Fat Indian Wedding” recollected in a dizzying blur of one thousand guests, a band of friendly neighborhood eunuchs, Prince of Persia outfits, and time honored traditions, including riding a bejeweled horse into the wedding ceremony.)
YES, MY ACCENT IS REAL will embolden anyone whose name has been mispronounced countless times, whose background has been constantly misunderstood, or whose social awkwardness has been a consistent barrier. The ultimate achievement of the book is in collecting all of these happenings, which add up to the meaningful life that Nayyar enjoys today—convincing us to believe in a sliver of advice from his father: “If it happens, good. If it doesn’t happen, very good.” Accidental miracles and relationships forged in inexplicable circumstances give Nayyar’s life story its own patently believable Big Bang Theory. You will be inspired, amused, and mildly appalled—at least as much as you are when you watch Raj fumbling through life as an astrophysicist on TV. And at the book’s completion, you’ll be compelled to follow a bit of Nayyar’s own advice, jotted on a reliable aeroplane cocktail napkin: “Keep pushing forward. You’re stronger and more resilient than you can imagine. We are incredible creatures.”
Actor Steve Rannazzisi who is most famous for his roll as Kevin on FX’s The League, and is the current spokesman for Buffalo Wild Wings admitted Wednesday morning via Facebook that he lied about his involvement during the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
Rannazzisi stated that his was on the 54th floor of the south tower as an employee of Merrill Lynch when the planes struck the north tower. He gave accounts of this during an appearance on Marc Maron’s podcast in 2009.
“As a young man, I made a mistake that I deeply regret and for which apologies may still not be enough. After I moved with my wife to Los Angeles from New York City in 2001 shortly after 9/11, I told people that I was in one of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. It wasn’t true. I was in Manhattan but working in a building in midtown and I was not at the Trade Center on that day. I don’t know why I said this. This was inexcusable. I am truly, truly sorry,” said Rannazzisi.
“For many years, more than anything, I have wished that, with silence, I could somehow erase a story told by an immature young man. It only made me more ashamed. How could I tell my children to be honest when I hadn’t come clean about this? It is to the victims of 9/11 and to the people that love them–and the people that love me–that I ask for forgiveness,” said Rannazzisi.
Do you think that Rannazzisi should be fired from The League?
As a young man, I made a mistake that I deeply regret and for which apologies may still not be enough.After I moved…
