The latest Bryan Singer X-Men: Apocalypse teaser on Instagram shows a a fight club scene with hashtag ‘ANGEL.’ In the comic Warren Worthington III (Angel) loses his wings and Apocalypse transforms him into Death, one of the four horsemen. Worthington later changes his name to Archangel.
Could this fight club scene be where Angel loses his wings and Apocalypse recruits him to become a horsemen? Ben Hardy has been cast to play Worthington. On Hardy’s Twitter you can see concept art of Angel with real wings in the fight club. In Singer’s Intagram post you can see Hardy screaming. Did he just lose his wings?
About X-Men: Apocalypse:
Ancient mutant Apocalypse is unearthed after 5,000 years and recruits his four horsemen; Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Psylocke (Olivia Munn), Storm (Alexandra Shipp) and Angel (Ben Hardy). The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse try to reboot the world through destruction.
X-Men: Apocalypse is directed by Bryan Singer and stars Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy and Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac (Apocalypse), Sophie Turner (Jean Grey), Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), Lana Condor (Jubilee), Olivia Munn, and Kodi Smit-McPhee.
The film is set in 1980s and we will see younger versions of previously-seen characters.
X-Men: Apocalypse opens in theaters on May 27, 2016.
Melissa Benoist takes ownership of the Kryptonian mantle in the new trailer for CBS’ Supergirl ‘A Hero Will Rise.’
The show stars Melissa Benoist as Kara Zor-El, Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen, Laura Benanti as Alura Zor-El, Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant, Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers, Jeremy Jordan as Winn Schott, Jenna Dewan Tatum as Lucy Lane, David Harewood as Hank Henshaw, Peter Facinelli as Maxwell Lord, and, Dean Cain and Helen Slater as Kara’s adoptive parents.
The Devil in the White City is a book that has been bouncing around Hollywood for several years, waiting on an adaptation. Now it appears that Martin Scorsese will be adapting Erik Larson’s bestselling novel, teaming up for the sixth time with Leonardo DiCaprio.
The novel tells the story of H.H. Holmes, America’s first serial killer, who murdered an untold number of people at the World’s Fair in Chicago, in 1893. DiCaprio will take on the role of Holmes with Captain Phillips scribe Billy Ray working on the screenplay, according to the report in Deadline late last night.
Here is the synopsis of The Devil in The White City:
Not long after Jack the Ripper haunted the ill-lit streets of 1888 London, H.H. Holmes (born Herman Webster Mudgett) dispatched somewhere between 27 and 200 people, mostly single young women, in the churning new metropolis of Chicago; many of the murders occurred during (and exploited) the city’s finest moment, the World’s Fair of 1893. Larson’s breathtaking new history is a novelistic yet wholly factual account of the fair and the mass murderer who lurked within it.
If The Revenant doesn’t get DiCaprio that elusive gold statue from the academy later this year, it seems that The Devil in The White City would do the trick. Then again, how many times have we said that very same thing about Leo throughout the years?
The star of ‘Laverne & Shirley’ Cindy Williams stopped by to talk about her new book ‘Shirley, I Jest.’ Williams talked about one of the funniest scenes on ‘Laverne & Shirley,’ and the time Jim Morrison pranked her, but the most animated part of our conversation was when Williams talked about her relationship with Andy Kaufman.
Bonus track: ‘True Detective’ Season 2 review
ABOUT CINDY WILLIAMS
Actress, writer, and producer Cindy Williams has starred in some of the most historical movies and television programs in entertainment history. Her career began in the 1970s in prestigious movies like Travels with My Aunt (with Maggie Smith, directed by George Cukor), American Graffiti (with Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, and Richard Dreyfuss and directed by George Lucas), and The Conversation (with Gene Hackman and directed by Francis Ford Coppola).
Once she and Penny Marshall played “loose girls” on the hit TV show Happy Days, the network quickly ordered a spin-off of the dynamic comedy duo. After changing their characters to blue-collar workers in the mid-West, they made their debut in Laverne & Shirley in 1976. The show quickly became the most-watched American television program, surpassing Happy Days in popularity. The show remains in syndication around the world and has a very loyal following of original and new fans.
Cindy continues to work in her first love, the theater, as she performs in musicals all over the country, and she is currently promoting her book, SHIRLEY, I JEST.
ABOUT CINDY’S BOOK SHIRLEY, I JEST
Actress, writer, and producer Cindy Williams shares some of her most memorable stories in this hilarious and heartfelt new book — including her role as Shirley Feeney in the iconic TV show Laverne & Shirley.
Cindy Williams is one of the most recognizable names and faces of 1970s & 1980s television. While millions have been entertained by her good-natured personality and comedy antics, she has rarely spoken about her life in entertainment, and how she came to star in one of the most popular shows of all time.
Without privilege or wealth, Cindy worked as a waitress at diners and clubs like The Whisky a Go Go until she finally got her big break, first in movies like American Graffiti and The Conversation, and then in television. In fact, Laverne & Shirley debuted in the number 1 spot with over 60 million viewers — something unheard of in today’s fractured TV landscape!
With her trademark humor, Cindy shares stories of her experiences in her personal life (growing up in a blue-collar family), show business and her encounters with entertainment giants like Gene Kelly, Lucille Ball, Little Richard, Cary Grant, Jim Morrison, Ron Howard, and many more. Of course, she also talks about her professional partnership and personal relationship with her co-star and friend Penny Marshall.
Cindy also reveals the real reason she left the popular TV show, Laverne & Shirley – something that would (hopefully) never happen today – and should not have happened then! Many people think she walked out, but that’s not what happened. She had even started filming the 8th season, without a contract.
Here’s what others are saying about Cindy Williams and her book, SHIRLEY, I JEST:
“Cindy Williams: Talented in everything she does. Writing her first book is NO exception…get ready to enjoy.”- Henry Winkler
“Cindy Williams has the comedic timing of Lucille Ball and the physical prowess of Dick Van Dyke. She’s one of our best!” – Suzanne Somers
“What can I say about my best friend? She is hysterically funny, loves dogs, and over-tips. Get ready to go on a wonderful roller coaster ride that is Cindy Williams’ life.” – Lynne Stewart
“Cindy’s book brings back a lot of great personal memories, but it also entertained the hell out of me. The lady can write!” – Ron Howard
“You thought she could act, well wait and see how well she writes. Great book by a great friend.” – Penny Marshall
“A great read – I couldn’t put it down. Not a word of it is true. Cindy who?” – Harrison Ford
What is Alphabet? Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies. The largest of which, of course, is Google. This newer Google is a bit slimmed down, with the companies that are pretty far afield of our main Internet products contained in Alphabet instead. What do we mean by far afield? Good examples are our health efforts: Life Sciences (that works on the glucose-sensing contact lens), and Calico (focused on longevity). Fundamentally, we believe this allows us more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren’t very related. Alphabet is about businesses prospering through strong leaders and independence. In general, our model is to have a strong CEO who runs each business, with Sergey and me in service to them as needed. We will rigorously handle capital allocation and work to make sure each business is executing well. We’ll also make sure we have a great CEO for each business, and we’ll determine their compensation. In addition, with this new structure we plan to implement segment reporting for our Q4 results, where Google financials will be provided separately than those for the rest of Alphabet businesses as a whole.
This new structure will allow us to keep tremendous focus on the extraordinary opportunities we have inside of Google. A key part of this is Sundar Pichai. Sundar has been saying the things I would have said (and sometimes better!) for quite some time now, and I’ve been tremendously enjoying our work together. He has really stepped up since October of last year, when he took on product and engineering responsibility for our Internet businesses. Sergey and I have been super excited about his progress and dedication to the company. And it is clear to us and our board that it is time for Sundar to be CEO of Google. I feel very fortunate to have someone as talented as he is to run the slightly slimmed down Google and this frees up time for me to continue to scale our aspirations. I have been spending quite a bit of time with Sundar, helping him and the company in any way I can, and I will of course continue to do that. Google itself is also making all sorts of new products, and I know Sundar will always be focused on innovation — continuing to stretch boundaries. I know he deeply cares that we can continue to make big strides on our core mission to organize the world’s information. Recent launches like Google Photos and Google Now using machine learning are amazing progress. Google also has some services that are run with their own identity, like YouTube. Susan is doing a great job as CEO, running a strong brand and driving incredible growth.
Alphabet Inc. will replace Google Inc. as the publicly-traded entity and all shares of Google will automatically convert into the same number of shares of Alphabet, with all of the same rights. Google will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet. Our two classes of shares will continue to trade on Nasdaq as GOOGL and GOOG.
With the second season of True Detective wrapped up, HBO needed to tease fans with a new series. They did just that Sunday night with a 30-second teaser for the 2016 series Westworld.
J.J. Abrams, Jonathan Nolan and Bryan Burk are the executive producers on the project based on Michael Crichton’s book/film Westworld. Crichton wrote and directed the 1973 film, which starred James Brolin and Yul Brynner as the murderous gunfighter. Westworld also spawned a sequel, Futureworld, starring Peter Fonda. It was less well received. Nolan is the creator for the HBO series.
Described as “a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin,” the series tells the story of a futuristic theme park called Westworld.
Westworld stars Anthony Hopkins, James Marsden, Evan Rachel Wood, Rodrigo Santoro, Thandie Newton, and Ed Harris.
I feel like I can call you Nic at this point. I feel like I know you. I know you are a talented writer, with a penchant for dense, stylish noir prose. I know you have delivered two vastly different seasons of True Detective, one universally lauded, the second universally befuddling. I admire what you tried to do in season 2 of True Detective, deliver an Ellroy-esque narrative labyrinth of broken people and dreams. It didn’t always work out, did it? I mean, sure, things got incredibly strong and promising with each passing episode, reaching new heights in the penultimate episode last weekend. And then, well, was there any other way to end this bizzaro second season outside of delivering a wild-ass mess of action and self-satisfying seriousness over ninety minutes? Probably not.
I like the way “Omega Station” began and ended, Nic. The opening scene reminded us why we are watching this whole thing in the first place. The cathartic pillow talk confessional between Ray Velcoro and Ani Bezzerides was emotionally fraught and continued to strengthen the two characters I feel you cared about the most in the writing room. Bravo with Colin Farrell and Rachel McAdams, they really kept this whole thing afloat. They started things off in “Omega Station” with promise, but then we had to sit through that second act.
The midsection was heavy and aimless. Then again, that midsection dealt with the Caspere murder and corruption and the whole diamond heist from 1992 or whatever, and let’s be honest, nobody cared about that. You didn’t. The entire murder mystery was a red herring, from the diamonds to the murders to the hard drive, which had this magical security feature where it erased itself. Thankfully, that entire plot was wrapped up with still an hour left to go in the season finale. That left plenty of time for us to get back to what anyone cared about: Ray, Ani, and Frank.
Boy, getting Vince Vaughn to a place where he handled the character of Frank Semyon with some aplomb was quite the chore, wasn’t it? I didn’t think Vaughn could ever manage to pull off Frank Semyon the way he needed to, but eventually he began slipping into this role once you gave him more to do than stand around and scowl. When Frank sends Jordan to Venezuela, promising to meet up with her in two weeks, we all knew that wasn’t going to happen. Frank even knew, and it made these final scenes with the gangster with a heart of gold carry plenty of weight. Frank’s death scene was Homeric, Shakespearean, Ellory-ian, as he was done in by an enemy he had ignored. Though his trek across the desert as he bled out, running into the ghosts of his past, was a bit heavy handed, you must admit.
And Ray, poor pitiful Ray. Colin Farrell deserves an Emmy nomination for his performance this season, though I feel he won’t get it. The gauntlet of emotions you sent this sad sonofabitch through was incredible. I held out hope for Ray after seeing him smile when he tells Ani he is on his way, and the two will escape to Venezuela together. But I knew True Detective isn’t about unexpected happiness, so I knew down in my heart of hearts Ray would die unceremoniously, having let everyone in his life down. Poor bastard.
Nic, I feel like the scene where Ray makes an ill-advised trip to see his son on the playground one last time was a touching moment, mishandled by the fact you had Chad Velcoro sitting with some friends at a table on the playground with his grandfather’s blocked police badge. That has to be a pain in the ass to carry around, and why set it on the table? Oh, right, so Ray can see it and understand his son still loves him. Oh yeah! HIS son! Turns out Chad was his kiddo all along, we found that out as Ray was being gunned down among the redwoods (which was predicted by his father in the purgatory Conway Twitty concert in episode three).
As for Ani, well, now she has to carry Ray’s child around Venzuela and having to hang with Jordan. It’s an odd pairing, but hey, they’re the only ones who made it out alive. The men had to handle man shit, leaving the women to fend for themselves and be moms. Dancing on the razor’s edge of sexism here, Nic. But it’s okay. Ani deserved a fresh start, her demons were not as self-imposed as the dude’s demons. Too bad she has to talk to Jordan all the time, maybe she won’t be eating lemons and making those faces during their conversations.
Like I said earlier, I admire what you attempted with this new True Detective. I might even argue more of it worked than did not. But that would be an uphill battle. If you ask me (and you most certainly are not), I think your reach far exceeded your grasp here. There was a way for this second season to be even better than the first, but its belly was too full on exposition and storylines on top of storylines. So much was going on, and so much of what was going on didn’t make a damn bit of difference. You had three compelling characters, plus Taylor Kitsch, but you had very few tangible things for them to do. Bring in reinforcements for season three of True Detective, a few “no” men to tell you what works and what doesn’t. Maybe that will help you streamline your convoluted ideas.
Regardless, I will be there waiting for season three of True Detective, wearing a white suit and a red rose.
The Fantastic Four bombed at the box office this past weekend and even the director Josh Trank took a few shots at FOX for re-editing the film. Which makes it even more bizarre that FOX would release some of the b-roll footage which shows completely different scenes. You can see that there is some version of a flying car and you can also see that Johnny Storm looks to be severely injured during battle as Sue attends to him.
Hopefully FOX, in an attempt to recoup the $130 million invested in the film will release a directors cut so fans can see a true version of Trank’s vision.
The more inside news that comes out about the making of the 'Fantastic Four,' the more is sounds like Josh Trank's vision was never realized. In the b-roll clips you can see the Fantastic-Car and the apparent death of Johnny Storm. It looks like the final battle might have been bigger and better if Trank was able to finish his film.
An international trailer for Star Wars: the Force Awakens dropped on the internet last night. There are a few new scenes and the look and the feel are more in line with the original trilogy.
Lucasfilm and visionary director J.J. Abrams join forces to take you back again to a galaxy far, far away as “Star Wars” returns to the big screen with Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Episode VII in the Star Wars Saga, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, opens in theaters December 18, 2015.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, directed by J.J. Abrams from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan & Abrams, features a cast including actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendoline Christie, Crystal Clarke, Pip Andersen, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow. They will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker.
The film is being produced by Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, and Bryan Burk, and John Williams returns as the composer.
The episode begins with a reminder that our intrepid heroes are busy being a bunch of idiots. Gee, I wonder who possibly could have manipulated a sword without entering the temple. I dunno, maybe it’s the one who is pretending to faint so people will forget she can beat the crap out of everything. You know. The one that can control blades. Honestly, how was Adelet going to fake his mark in a prison cell?
Then we have to watch Adelet not have a brain for a while even though last episode everyone was admonished for not suspecting Maura just because that she was well known. He gets his ideas shot down quickly, and all of the other Braves except for Nachetanya (and Maura, who says it is too early to judge) are pretty much ready to kill him. Nachetanya is such a good actor that I almost believed she wasn’t the culprit. Almost.
The Braves attack Adelet, and he knocks Flamie out with poison, threatening her with more if they try to kill him again. Of course, this just makes everyone more sure he is the fake Brave. He escapes the temple with Flamie as a hostage, but takes a dagger in the back as he does so. Unfortunately for Adelet, he passes out before he can remove the dagger. The others stop pursuing him after nightfall. They know Flamie is still alive because the crests haven’t changed. Nachetanya keeps up the drama and nobody questions her at all because I guess princesses are supposed to just trust people unconditionally. Tch. Yeah, right.
Meanwhile, we get some backstory from Adelet. He had a nice home life as a child and was more interested in cooking with his mama than fighting. Then the next scene is of him angry and emaciated, asking an old to train him to be the strongest in the world so he can get back what he lost. The old man kicks him a couple yards and orders him to smile if he wants to be strong, even if he wants to die. Adelet does so and is struck again and told to laugh at despair. My poor heartstrings! As a new mama myself, this part was a bit painful to watch.
Adelet wakes up from remembering his past and finds that Flamie has dressed his wounds. She still doesn’t trust him, but saved him in case she’s wrong and he is a genuine Brave. She starts a fire by ordering gunpowder to burn, which is pretty awesome. We get more confirmation that nobody else could have entered the temple before Adelet. Adelet decides there must be an eighth person who snuck into the temple and set off the seal, and the plot of these two enemies was to turn everyone against Adelet.
Well, Flamie thinks Adelet is full of crap (hasn’t Adelet ever heard of Occam’s Razor?) and says she won’t help him find the eighth “Brave”. We learn that Adelet is following the old man’s advice and is always smiling as a show of willpower. He says he will never give up. Flamie asks why he wanted to be one of the six Braves. The episode ends with Adelet being amazed that Flamie cared about someone other than herself.
Adelet in his “Space Ghost” pose.
I have to admit I really don’t want there to be two enemies. If there are two enemies there’s no reason for the seventh to be Nachetanya, because she wouldn’t be needed to manipulate the sword and dias. I was suspecting her for a while because it seemed in the beginning that she hadn’t considered becoming a Brave before Adelet said he’d like to travel with her. Perhaps she’s a fake but it’s just to come along and not to be an enemy, and someone else is taking advantage of the turmoil? That seems a lot less likely. In any event, I hope she stops that damsel in distress crying crap soon. She is supposed to be a butt-kicking princess, and I’m sick of her whiny whiner act. I’ll be really disappointed if she turns out not to be an enemy and really is just another wuss-princess.
Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers airs on Crunchyroll and updates Saturdays at 3:30pm.
