Bill Simmons, one of the most influential figures in contemporary sports media and the founding editor of Grantland.com, and HBO have entered into a major exclusive multi-year, multi-platform agreement highlighted by a new weekly series coming next year, it was announced today by Michael Lombardo, president, HBO Programming.
“We have been fans of Bill Simmons and his work for a very long time,” said Lombardo. “His intelligence, talent and insights are without precedent in the areas he covers. We could not be more thrilled for him to bring those talents to HBO and to become a signature voice at the network, spanning the sports and pop culture landscapes.”
“It’s no secret that HBO is the single best place for creative people in the entire media landscape,” Simmons said. “From the moment I started talking to Michael and Richard [Plepler, HBO chairman and CEO], it was hard to imagine being anywhere else.”
HBO will be Simmons’ exclusive television home. The overall agreement, which begins in October, provides for a comprehensive partnership on a variety of platforms between the network and Simmons. Among the elements of the new deal will be a talk show set to premiere in 2016 that will air on the main HBO service, as well as the HBO digital platforms HBO GO® and HBO NOWSM. Topical and spontaneous, the show will feature stories and guests from across the sports and cultural landscapes.
Simmons will also have a production deal to produce content and assets for the network and its digital platforms, delivering video podcasts and features. In addition, Simmons will be consulting with HBO Sports, working closely with HBO Sports president Ken Hershman on non-boxing-related programming, including the development of shows and documentary films for the network.
Bill Simmons has served as a sports columnist, TV host and analyst, two-time New York Times bestselling author (“Now I Can Die in Peace: How the Sports Guy Found Salvation Thanks to the World Champion (Twice!) Boston Red Sox” and “The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to the Sports Guy,” which was #1 on the New York Times bestseller list), Emmy® Award-winning documentary film executive and podcaster. He was the founding editor of the landmark Grantland.com website, which launched four years ago and was recently nominated for three National Magazine Awards, and wrote the groundbreaking “Sports Guy” column for the past 14 years for ESPN and then Grantland.
A native New Englander, Simmons generated the concept for the network’s acclaimed “30 for 30” documentary series, becoming one of its Emmy®-winning executive producers, in addition to ushering in the network’s presence in podcasting with his highly successful podcast “The B.S. Report,” which debuted in 2007 and featured such guests as President Barack Obama, Jimmy Kimmel, Chris Rock and Lena Dunham, to name a few. It was the #1 sports podcast on iTunes last year with more than four million downloads per month.
Simmons began writing for ESPN.com in 2001, and starting in 2002, was the lead columnist for ESPN The Magazine for seven years. He also served as a writer for “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on ABC from 2002 to 2004.
Simmons earned his Bachelor’s Degree at the College of the Holy Cross and earned a Master’s of Arts in Print Journalism from Boston University. Simmons lives in Los Angeles.
Late Tuesday night it was announced that Michael Chiklis would join the cast of Gotham as a series regular in the role of Captain Nathaniel Barnes.
Barnes character description from TVLine per Gotham’s producers:
He lands on the GCPD like a tornado, ripping out the dead wood of Gotham’s police force. He is a law and order zealot; unafraid of making enemies – on either side of the law. For Gordon (Ben McKenzie), Barnes is a hero and a mentor, someone with whom he can share the burden of heroism. Captain Barnes proves himself to be a strong ally to Gordon… but one day he will make an equally powerful enemy.
Chiklis made famous for his role in The Shield, will bring an anger to Gotham unlike no other.
Gotham Season 2 premieres on Monday, Sept. 25 at 8 p.m. on Fox.
Marvel seems to be hell bent on including as many characters as possible in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What people seem to not realize is that the Marvel universe is so vast and expansive that not every character should be in that cinematic universe. So, in an effort to assist the good people at Marvel, I’m going to give you 5 marvel characters that shouldn’t be in a Marvel movie.
5) The Great Lake Avengers-
The Great Lake Avengers were Marvel’s equivalent of the Avengers if they were based out of Wisconsin. The members of the team were-Mister Immortal, Big Bertha, Doorman, and Flatman. Wisconsin is known for the Packers not terrible superhero teams. These characters looked lame and the story lines were even worse than that.
No one wants to join your group cause you are lame!
4) Sub-Mariner
I’m sure you are looking at that picture and you are thinking “dude, that’s Aquaman but with a speedo.” No, this would be Marvel’s version of Aquaman. It would seem that they only difference is that Sub-Mariner is clean shaven but other than that the similarities are striking. I’m sure the thought crossed the mind of many a Marvel executive about doing a movie around Aquaman’s doppelganger but seriously what is the point? All it’s going to do is bring up the much more famous DC character.
Fear me !
3) She-Hulk
I would think that any Hulk movie would center on Bruce Banner’s character not his cousin Jennifer Walters. She becomes the Hulk due to a blood transfusion from Bruce Banner, which makes no sense to begin with. She is completely fine with being the Hulk unlike Bruce which leads me to believe that Marvel wouldn’t touch that storyline because it contradicts so much of the Banner story line. Besides, she doesn’t look really “Hulk” like anyway. Jennifer Walters looks more like a woman who dressed up to go to Comic-Con.
Is this suppose to be She-Hulk or some lady from comic-con?
2) Alpha Flight
This was Canada’s answer to the X-Men/Avengers. The group consisted of –Aurora, Guardian, Marina, Northstar, Puck, Sasquatch, Shaman, Snowbird, and Vindicator. They all worked for a fictional department of the Canadian Government known as department H. This group was originally suppose to be part of Wolverine’s back story and should have stayed a back story.
Yay ! It’s the Canadian X-Men!
1) Man-Thing
This character looks like something you would see on Bigfoot Hunters. I’m not sure what the story line is behind this Marvel character but I am already disinterested. I’ve seen scarier looking people waiting in line at Disney World than whatever this is. I realize that Man-Thing was created in 1974 but not everything from the 70’s is worth bringing back.
James Bond is back and on the hunt for Spectre. “A cryptic message from the past sends James Bond on a rogue mission to Mexico City and eventually Rome, where he meets Lucia Sciarra (Monica Bellucci), the beautiful and forbidden widow of an infamous criminal. Bond infiltrates a secret meeting and uncovers the existence of the sinister organisation known as SPECTRE.”
What do you guys think of the latest trailer? SPECTRE is released world-wide on November 6.
Welcome to the Summer 2015 Anime Roundup series! New fantasy anime shows that are not in the video game subgenre have been hard to come by for quite some time. Anime fans were pleasantly (and perhaps skeptically) surprised at how much fantasy came out in the Summer 2015 anime season. Here’s some highlights for the shows I’ve seen thus far.
Arslan Senki
Arslan is the crown prince of a country called Pars which has recently been taken over by the neighboring kingdom of Lusitania. After his army suffers a major defeat to Lusitania due to treason within the ranks, he goes on the run. The show follows Arslan’s attempts to pull together a group of advisors and warriors in order to save and hopefully better his country.
I know that this is a carry-over series from spring, but I felt compelled to include it because it continues to be an excellent watch. It’s refreshing to pan over a battlefield and have the hundreds of cavalrymen be moving and fighting instead of panning across a still frame. The characters, politics, battle tactics, and moral discussions on topics such as slavery and religious zealotry are all excellent.
Snow White with the Red Hair
Shirayuki is an herbalist who chooses to flee from her home country rather than become the concubine of a prince obsessed with her red hair. She ends up befriending Zen, the prince of a neighboring country, after an unfortunate run-in with the hair-obsessed prince. She decides to train to become a court herbalist in order to be worthy of staying in the palace with Zen.
I’m a sucker for fairy tale adaptations and I can’t wait to see if they do any more with it other than the obvious references in episode one. Even if they don’t, the show looks amazing and Shirayuki is selfless and determined. She doesn’t just wait around for other people to take action, choosing to help herself whenever possible as she has done at least once in each episode thus far. She knows she has a lot more to learn to get where she wants to be, and she is ready to do the work necessary to meet her goals. I’m really enjoying the slice-of-life aspect of the show and hope it blossoms into a sweet romance as well.
For more on Snow White with the Red Hair, keep an eye on Matthew McCrary’s “Anime of the Week” posts, as he has been impressed with it as well.
Bikini Warriors
This show is primarily about panning across women with huge breasts while they are in sexy poses for four minutes (which is the length of the show). Secondarily, you might think, “Haha, yeah, this joke about MMORPGs hits the mark.” Mostly, though, it’s about close-up shots of lady parts. Since it’s worth at least a chuckle, I’ll probably keep watching the show. It’s so short it hardly takes up any time during my week.
Chaos Dragon: Red Dragon Campaign
Ibuki is the prince of Nil Kamui, which was recently taken over by two neighboring kingdoms. He is content to go into hiding to try to save his country from war. Unfortunately, the red dragon that is supposed to be protecting his country goes berserk and chooses Ibuki as a sort of avatar. Ibuki is forced to kill one of his friends every time he needs to access the red dragon’s power to save everyone else. He dislikes this, so he reluctantly joins a party to hunt down the red dragon.
Does the story of a young prince saving his war-torn country sound familiar at all? Well, it should – and I recommend everyone to just watch Arslan Senki instead. Chaos Dragon has bad CG and a whiny protagonist. It’s painful to watch him try to not make friends when we all know he’s going to make friends anyway. The show relies heavily on the “kill one to save many” gimmick to make it interesting instead of the complex world building and character interactions that make Arslan Senki so compelling.
GATE
A gate to another world opens up in Tokyo’s Ginza district, and Tokyo is invaded by an army of men and monsters. The Japanese Defense Force fights off the invaders and crosses over to the other side to quell the invasion and hopefully make peace with the natives. The show primarily focuses on officer Youji Itami and his reconnaissance team.
It is nice to have a show with an adult protagonist, and it is even better that Youji Itami is an otaku but still has a personality aside from that. When Tokyo is invaded he doesn’t act like a coward or lash out like an amateur and kill people with luck alone. He steps up and protects the city and its people. When faced with silly fantasy tropes (such as naked elf women), there are no nosebleeds or other over-the-top reactions. The show feels a bit more realistic than most.
Rokka no Yuusha
The Braves of the Six Flowers are heroes chosen by the deity of fate to battle the Demon God each time he awakens. Adlet, the self-proclaimed “strongest man in the world”, has been chosen as a Brave time time around. He sets out with Princess Nashetania, a fellow Brave, to meet with the rest of their group in the Land of the Howling Demons and defeat the Demon God. There are rampaging fiends, an assassin who has been picking off some of the most powerful people in the land…and, apparently, seven Braves instead of six.
I really like the animation style in this series even though it can get rough around the edges, and the action is great. Right now we are mostly looking at character interactions as the Braves meet each other. I have seen other viewers say this show is boring, but I haven’t had that problem because I think there is enough action to offset the dialogue. I am willing to concede that since I can’t think of anything more specific to say about the show, I am mostly watching because the characters intrigue me and I am interested in where this story will go.
Overlord
Instead of logging out of the MMORPG called Yggdrasil, the powerful guild master Momonga decides to “go down with the ship” and stay logged in until the very last second. Imagine his surprise when instead of being kicked out of the game, he seems to have physically and mentally become the skeleton character he created! The NPCs guarding his fortress have become sentient, and the fortress itself has been transported to an unfamiliar location. He has decided to call himself Ains Ooal Gown and try to spread word of his existence in this new land, hoping to help any other Yggdrasil players that might be there.
I wasn’t going to include this series because it is yet another “trapped in a video game” show. The first two episodes were fairly boring, and I was forced to listen to two women simper and bicker over Momonga for longer than I’d have liked while nothing of consequence happened. However, episode three finally got around to actually getting some overlording done, and there was no ridiculous harem-simpering to be had. I’ll give this show a few more episodes to see if it keeps up the more serious tone or if it degrades back into harem antics too often for my taste.
Next Time on The Summer 2015 Anime Roundup
Hang on to your pants, because next time, we will be covering some of the darker and more adult shows of the season!
Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace Prison School School Live! God Eater Gangsta
So right now I am on a beach vacation about 30 miles from my home. When the screening schedule came out for this week, I saw one movie title that stuck out to me: Southpaw. This is a movie with a lot Oscar buzz and an equal amount of hope. The problem with these movies is that they either exceed expectations or drastically fall below them. After screening this movie on Monday, I can tell you that Southpaw is one of the top movies of 2015. This movie will be a major player when comes to award season later this year.
Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhall), the reigning junior middle weight boxing champion, has an impressive career, a loving wife (Rachel McAdams) and daughter, and a lavish lifestyle. However, when tragedy strikes, Billy hits rock bottom and loses everything. He soon found an unlikely savior in Tick Willis (Forest Whitaker) who trains boxers. With his future on the line, Hope fights to reclaim the trust his loved ones.
Jake sure undergoes quite the transformation.
Jake Gyllenhall puts on the performance of his career. He undergoes quite the transformation and portrays Billy Hope with such passion. You feel for him as he loses everything and anguish with him as he hits rock bottom. It’s the type of sensational performance that stands out and will speak volumes to many voters when it comes time for nominations for the major awards. However, he isn’t the only person who stands out in this movie.
Antione Fuqua made so many right decisions in making this film that it will be remembered as the best film he’s ever directed. His decision to shoot so tightly on the boxers during the fights and during those emotional moments of the movie made my heart race. His musical and cut-away shots were all wonderful decisions and made the movie that much better.This will be remembered as his opus. Antione Fuqua will be nominated for Best Director this year and has a real shot at winning.
This man should win an Oscar this year.
Forrest Whittaker and Rachel McAdams each brought very layered and tremendous performances to the movie. This, however, is something that we have grown to expect from these two gifted actors. The performance that stuck out to me was Oona Laurence who plays Leila Hope (Billy’s daughter). She brought such pain to the screen that you truly believed that she was watching her father lose it all. She was simply a pleasure to watch. Oona gives such a mature, wonderful performance that she too could be in some serious running for major awards down the road.
Oona Laurence is a name you will hear again come awards season.
Southpaw is a movie that you think is about boxing but about so much more. It’s not a “guy” movie. It’s, without question, a tremendous cinematic experience that is destined to knock out the competition this weekend.
Imagine a 175 pound arctic wolf charging at you at full speed. With a simple command from a nearby trainer the wolf stops dead in it’s tracks. That ends another successful day of filming on the set of Game of Thrones with Andrew Simpson owner of Instinct animals for film and his pack of 30 trained wolves.
Since the wolves were pups animal trainer Simpson has dedicated himself to training these wolves including the arctic wolf who portrays Ghost, Jon Snow’s Dire Wolf, in the series. The 8-year-old arctic wolf responds to the name Quigly in real life. If that isn’t the best name for a wolf ever then I don’t know what is. Similarly, Jon Snow of course discovered Ghost as a pup who has been his lifelong companion.
This past season Quigly’s scenes were shot in Calgary, Alberta Canada. Originally the producers almost had Simpson fly over to Ireland along with the rest of the wolf pack but decided on an undisclosed location in Calgary instead.
Simpson’s training with the pack all started only a few years ago. Over the years he has formed a strong bond with each of them although he attests that you cannot simply train a wolf to do something it does not want to do. Makes sense considering a wolf is a wild animal and can never be fully tamed, only trained. When this all started Simpson never imagined he would be one of the most sought after wolf trainers in Hollywood. His history of work with animals has now appeared in film and television all over the world.
With continued speculation online as to what will happen during season six in Game of Thrones Quigly and Simpson may have some work to do in the coming months. Will Ghost avenge Jon Snow? Will Jon Snow’s spirit see through Ghost’s eyes? The only thing that seems likely at this point…Quigly is coming.
Quigly appearing in HBO’s Game of Thrones
Content Sources:
(2015, May 18). Game of Thrones casts Alberta wolf as Jon Snow’s canine companion. CBC News, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/game-of-thrones-casts-alberta-wolf-as-jon-snow-s-canine-companion-1.3078253
More Monster Girls this week, and like every week I was stuck between getting sexually bothered and laughing over something I know is completely stupid. And I can’t really ask for more than that. Thankfully the show is trying its best to keep its loose premise fresh, and I think it takes a good amount of investment to find the nuggets of gold in this show. But they are there, even if it’s all just in my head, they’re there.
But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows in Monster Girls land. With this being the third episode I’m starting to pick up on some things that, aren’t quite ruining the show, but would improve it if they were changed. The first being the MC’s eyes and how for ninety percent of the show they have just been black outlines and white empty space. I’ve seen this in a similar show, so this brings me to believe this is some Japanese joke or something, but I really don’t like it. Especially when they use those eyes for every emotion. Just freaking draw his eyes like a normal persons! He has nice eyes, why can’t they always be drawn like that?
The other is the toned down scenes that are becoming over apparent. Now granted I notice this probably more than others because I have read its manga counterpart. But this show is way more toned down than it should be, and I’m not just saying that because there are nipples in the manga and not the show. But by the tone and content of the show, there should be nipples. This show should be trying to get away with as much obscene nudity as possible. And if they aren’t going to show any nipples they have to change some of the scenes where the shot pans away because they have no other way to show whats going on. I feel that happened three of four times this episode. When I’m watching a sexy show like this I don’t want the camera to pan away when sexy stuff is going down. Its one thing to cock block a character from seeing something, but to cock block the viewer just seems dumb especially in a show like this. It’s just so blatantly obvious that they want to put nudity in but, whoever they are, wouldn’t let them. I mean they’re not even human nipples, they’re Monster Girls, there’s gotta be a loop-hole in there somewhere.
Okay, whew, now that I got that over with I can talk about the episode. This week finally get to see the living situation with two new girls, and boy is it chaotic. Miia and Cerea are just constantly at each others throats. Miia on the one hand being over forward about how she wants to be alone with Kimihito. And Cerea, who is fronting her love and making it seem like she is only looking out for him. It’s nice to see these characters be consistent. Meanwhile Papi takes advantage of the situation and gets alone with him, but of course that doesn’t last for long. Now that we’ve entered the Harem realm, I see most of these jokes following a formula. That formula being, if Kimihito is with any one of the girls and things are getting sexy, right when it’s about to get good another girl will burst in and spoil the fun. I’m not saying this sort of style can’t be funny, I’m just saying its predictable. But seeing that these are Monster Girls, they tend to get more catty than more normal girls would in a harem. This adds situations where pain is usually inflicted on the MC, or something in his house being ruined.
We do get some development for the trough line of the show. Ms. Smith drops by and tell Kimihito that he’s been elected to try out the new law that allows interspecies marriage. So now he has to choose between Cerea, Miia, and Papi. But he doesn’t seemed too thrilled about it and sort of is overwhelmed by the thought of it. This wavering indecisiveness causes all the girls to take action and become insanely forward. It gets to the point that all three of them might as well be spreading their pussy lips open for him.
Although it’s not entirely them being forward. Some of it can be attributed to the full moon that is out and is enhancing their natural instincts. Not only does the moon make them super horny but they disregard holding back their strength. So even if Kimihito would get down with one of them, odds are he would survive it. “Death by snu-snu” as they say in Futurama. So Kimihito is basically dodging their crazy advances all night. The next morning he realizes that part of the reason that they were being so forward was because of his indecisiveness. So he decides to make it clear that he will date each one of them and then choose who his wife will become. Honestly I don’t think anyone watching the show is being fooled by this. He may have sounded cool in that situation but I’m sure he’ll flake around the situation for a long time.
So now the race is on to see who will be the most suitable wife candidate for Kimihito. Of course each girl will have their own idea at what that means, so we should get a good variety of what each race think befits a good wife. Also we still have three more harem members to be introduced yet. Monster Girls sure hasn’t blown its load of stuff it has to offer too soon. And I think that’s the secret to its success. The show needs to stay fresh and keep the formula from feeling like a formula as much as possible. If they can keep that up, the show will continue to be good. If not, It’ll just turn into something to jerk too. And if that happens, you could just refer to the one-shot Monster Girl manga’s. Because those are basically just sex with each type of monster girl.
The first trailer for Disney’s upcoming animated flick, The Good Dinosaur has hit the internet. Packed with laughs and emotional beats throughout with a fitting soundtrack (Of Monsters and Men’s “Crystal), the film will tell the story of an Apatosaurus named Arlo (voiced by Raymond Ochoa) makes an unlikely human friend and learns the power of confronting his fears in a planet full of danger. The story takes place in a world where the asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaur completely missed the planet leading to a dawn of man in a world already populated by dinosaurs. check out the trailer below
The Good Dinosaur is directed by Peter Sohn and will be released on Thanksgiving Day.
Variety reports that Robbie Amell (The Flash, The Tomorrow People) and Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under) have been added to the growing cast of the X-Files revival as Agent Miller and Agent Einstein respectively. Ambrose’s Agent Einstein is described as “Sharp” and “Confident” while Amell’s Agent Miller is said to be “Smart” and “Smooth”. Their Episodes have been confirmed to take place in the present day, dispelling speculation that they could be playing a younger Mulder and Scully in a Flash back due to their likeness to the original actors (Ambrose’s red hair in particular fueled those theories)
They Join returning cast members David Duchovny (Agent Fox Mulder), Gillian Anderson (Agent Dana Scully), Mitch Pileggi (Walt Skinner) and Willaim B. Davis reprising his role as the fan favorite villian “Cigarette Smoking Man”. The show will also introduce new characters played by Joel McHale, Annet Mahendru, Rhys Darby and Kumail Nanjiani.
The X-Files returns to screens on January 24, 2016 on Fox Network.
