Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus
Directed by Jack Perez
Starring Deborah Gibson, Lorenzo Lamas, Vic Chao, Sean Lawlor, Stephen Blackehart
Asylum Home Entertainment
Release date: May 26, 2009

A few weeks ago, an absolutely insane movie trailer was unleashed upon the world. A trailer that, among other things, featured a GIANT shark eating a passenger plane and a GIANT octopus doing some other crazy shit that no one could even comprehend. The film in question? The Asylum’s Mega Shark VS. Giant Octopus.

With over two million views on YouTube and MTV’s website combined, MSVGO is the Asylum’s most anticipated release to date. Coming from a company that has released such knock-offs as Transmorphers and The Da Vinci Treasure, this mockbuster-making group of “filmmakers” has clearly begun to take pride in their reputation as the go-to guys when you want a movie that is “so bad it’s good.”

But is the film worth all of the hype? Is the relatively small internet buzz behind this like a mini Snakes on a Plane? Yes and no. Let me break it down [...]

Kuzui Enterprises and Vertigo Entertainment are officially working on a possible relaunch of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The relaunch wouldn’t likely involve Buffy-master Joss Whedon, as it would be a new take for a new generation. The original 1992 Whedon-penned script was discovered by Fran Rubel Kuzui, who also directed the movie which starred Kristy Swanson, Luke Perry, and Paul Reubens. Fran and her husband Kaz Kuzui, along with Roy Lee and Doug Davison of Vertigo are currently exploring options and hearing ideas from writers.

Kuzi explained that they receive inquiries all the time about new sequels, video games, stage shows, and even foreign remakes, but it was Lee’s call and their respect for what he does and Vertigo Entertainment that caught her attention and got things moving forward.

The plan of making a new Buffy for a new generation follows in the footsteps of Star Trek and their many incarnations. While unlikely, there is still a chance that Whedon may become involved in one way or another, but they haven’t contacted him about it yet; and with Dollhouse getting a new season, it’s pretty doubtful aside from maybe a producer role. [...]

You’ve seen them on gaming tables or in display cases, preserved and painted to amazing quality. If you’re a Dungeons & Dragons player like myself, odds are you have one of your own to represent your fantasy persona. They come separately packaged or in multi-figure kits, typically sculpted from plastic or pewter. These days, they can even be bought pre-painted for the avid gamer who would rather spend more time rolling dice than sitting at a painting table.

But where’s the fun in that?

If you’ve ever looked at a beautifully painted miniature and said to yourself, “I wanna do THAT!” then this, my friend, is the column for you.

I’m sure some of you may be thinking, “There’s no way I could ever be able to paint like that,” but don’t be discouraged! The people who do those incredible paint jobs started off just like you, and with the right guidance and plenty of practice, you could be giving them a run for their money in no time.

For the duration of this column, I will be discussing the techniques of painting your own miniature. I do not profess to being a professional by any stretch of the imagination, but that is the beauty of this rewarding and relaxing hobby… You don’t have to be a professional to share the tips and techniques that you’ve discovered! [...]

Remakes are back on the menu today, so let’s just skip the unoriginality of Hollywood discussion and get right to it, shall we?

Disney is planning a remake of the 1986 science fiction family movie, Flight of the Navigator. Brad Copeland — writer of Wild Hogs as well as a few episodes of Arrested Development and My Name is Earl — is working on the screenplay. It will be produced by David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman of Mandeville and executive producer Johny Hyde, who did the same for the original.

I have to say, if we’re remaking all of these movies, this is one of the ones that makes sense and might just work well. Flight of the Navigator is one of my personal childhood favorites, and it always seemed a little before its time, only making near $20 Million at the box office. It did a lot better on that glorious VHS, but maybe today’s technologies are what it really needs to thrive. [...]

The Daily Mail has obtained a few great paparazzi photographs from the set of Ridley Scott‘s epic retelling of Robin Hood. The shots show a legion of King John’s men crossing a stone bridge in what looks like some sort of attack or battle. No stars, and not the highest of quality shots, but just [...]

Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles is becoming a comic book movie-lovers best friend. The shop has their own blog, and when Hollywood’s talent comes in an purchases an insta-collection of one particular comic, they let the world know. Obviously when a star just shows up and buys a pile, there’s something going on — most likely they’re going to audition, or maybe they’ve even already landed the role.

In any case, the latest rumor is quite interesting. The comic store shared that a one Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica‘s Starbuck) came into the shop and bought all of the Typhoid Mary comic books that should could carry with “hopes of getting a Marvel role.” This has lead all to assume two things: The planned reboot of Daredevil, or the Deadpool spin-off movie.

This is all purely speculation of course, but from what I hear of Typhoid Mary, she’s completely insane. Hearing this, I can’t imagine you could find many ladies who could swing that quite like Miss Sackhoff.

Typhoid Mary could quite possibly be one of the most intriguing characters in the land of superheroes and villains. She suffers from a severe case of schizophrenia, in which she has two other personalities. [...]

Empire Magazine has been throwing quite the birthday party for themselves after turning an impressive 20-years old recently. Along with some great movie stories and information, the magazine has now created The Cryptic Canvas, and they’re inviting you to come on over and see if you have the ultimate movie knowledge it takes to de-crypt the cryptic!

Basically, it’s one giant painting, and on this giant painting are 50 different things that depict a movie title. You look around, then click it on an image in the painting and a box opens where you type in the movie title. The site promises that all films come from the past twenty years to coincide with their 20th anniversary, but be warned, I did find at least one sneaky sneaky one that slipped in. I know your tricks, Dewey.

After figuring out that these weren’t literally translated, I was personally able to get about half deciphered before hitting the proverbial wall. Since then it’s been a slow, pecking process toward the completion of this master movie puzzle [...]

We kicked off our Terminator Salvation Week of Geek with an awesome Terminator Salvation Videogame contest, so to bring this event to a close, we’re giving away Terminator Salvation: The Official Movie Companion!

Thanks to the good folks at Titan Books, we have three copies of this companion book to the film, which opened this weekend. The book includes loads of production stills and behind-the-scenes images, along with features on all of the characters and interviews with the cast and crew.

What do you have to do to get a chance to win? Glad you asked ’cause it’s really easy. Just make sure you’re a subscriber to our email digest, and then go ahead and fill out the handy dandy form below. Done [...]

This fun little story does our geeky hearts proud, and comes to us from Bizarre New World creator, Skipper Martin.

Towards the beginning of 2008, Skipper ran a contest on his website in conjunction with the release of a recent BNW story, Population Explosion. The winner of the contest would receive a custom-built light saber from Advanced Light Weaponry (a prize that made perfect sense in the context of the book).

The winner, Frank Wilson, was chosen, and the saber was shipped to him in Texas, with a request that he send back a picture of himself holding the saber to be posted on the website. It wasn’t until a year later that Skipper finally received the picture, along with an explanation of the delay [...]

Today is a special holiday. I’m not referring to Memorial Day or Geek Pride Day (though those are special in their own rights), but Towel Day. What is Towel Day, you ask? It is the holiday observed by fans of the Douglas Adams book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

It all started in 2001 when someone on an internet forum suggested that the day two weeks after the anniversary of Douglas’ untimely death on May 11, 2001 from cardiac arrest should be turned into a holiday celebrating his life’s work. Thus, Towel Day was born.

The stipulations of the holiday vary, but it always includes the small detail of carrying around a towel for most, if not all, of the day. This is based on a passage in chapter 3 of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy that goes like this…

“A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.” [...]

TwitterFon Pro
Mobile Twitter Client
Developer: Kazuho Okui
Price: $4.99

TwitterFon, the popular iPhone and iPod Touch Twitter Client, released a long overdue update to their app that introduced several new features, the most noticeable being ad support for the free version. But if you think you can get around the introduction of advertisements by skipping the update, you may want to reconsider due to the number of general usability issues that slow functionality and often times crash the app.

Alternately, TwitterFon released the first Pro version of the app. Gone are the load time issues that accompanied Twitter’s recent change to how often API’s can retrieve information. The pro version offers the familiar interface with a few changes to accommodate new features.

The most noticeable difference between its free-version counterpart is that it removes the advertisements. Users will also get multiple accounts support, the ability to save search results, four different themes Shake to reload (who cares?), and landscape Keyboard mode. If those features weren’t enough to sell you, the Pro version has user authenticated support for bit.ly, which can be useful if you need to track statistics while on the go, and integration with Instapaper, a site that lets you save links from your feed so you can continue scanning the bulk of updates [...]

It’s not an easy thing to make a good movie trailer — to find the right clips and shots; the right music; and not give anything away in a two-minute span is really an unsung art form. Every once in a great while, a regular, everyday you or I loads up their editing program and puts together and creates a great trailer for a movie that technically doesn’t exist, thus showing that they could very well be the next great trailer-cutting master.

While on Twitter today, a one Mr. Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Slither) pointed out just such a trailer that someone had made. This trailer featured Fillion in the much-rumored role of Hal Jordan for the upcoming feature film version of The Green Lantern. The trailer features some obvious pieces of other TV and movie titles, but with a little addition here and there, some good music, and an all-around well-edited sequence of shots, you have yourself an impressive new Green Lantern trailer! And when the man you choose and use in your fan-made trailer notices and loves it, then you know you’ve done a mighty damn fine job. [...]

As part of celebratory Week of Geek, we’ve put together a preview of all of the books being released in association with the Terminator Salvation, which was released this weekend.

We have novelizations, prequel books and comics, and art and film companion books — all of the books that Terminator fans would want to have in their library or on their coffee table!

Below you’ll find the brief summaries of the books, along with authors, illustrators, number of pages, publishers, and a link to where you can go and get your own copy.

Also, be sure to check back tomorrow for information on your chance to win one of the Terminator Salvation tie-in books, courtesy of the awesome folks at Titan Books..

Enjoy! [...]

Driven to Kill
Directed by Jeff King
Starring Steven Seagal
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
Release Date: May 19, 2009

If people in Hollywood were wise (and with rumors of a Guitar Hero movie on the horizon, there is no reason to believe they are), Steven Seagal‘s long, precipitous fall from grace would be utilized as a horror story for young actors: a hefty, pony-tailed boogeyman toiling under the beds of these hair-gelled sissies they call movie stars nowadays.

“See that, young Shia? That’s what happens when you act like a dick and defy men such as I!”

“Jesus! I’ll do whatever you say, Mister Katzenberg! I’ll do whatever you say! JUST DON’T PUT ME IN A MOVIE WITH DMX AND TOM ARNOLD! I’M TOO PRETTY TO DIE!”

Fifteen years after his prime, Seagal is still breaking wrists, throwing people out of windows, and running like a goddamned girl without any hint of irony or self-effacement. Only now it’s in Straight-To-DVD Land, where the least amount of collateral damage occurs.

In truth, I looked at the apparently thriving Seagal DVD market like I looked at the fur trade: I know it’s going on, and I know I vaguely don’t approve, but it doesn’t really have any bearing on my life. So let bygones be bygones for whomever is into that kinda thing [...]

Grease
Rockin’ Rydell Blu-ray Edition
Directed by Randal Kleiser
Starring John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway
Release Date: May 5, 2009

It’s hard to imagine there’s anybody out there who has not seen this landmark piece of American cinema. Forget Troy and Gabriella, they’ve got nothing on Danny (John Travolta) and Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) and Grease will always be the original high school musical. Even 31 years after its original release, Grease is still regarded as the definitive American musical and a masterpiece of a film.

The Blu-ray release, however, is not as ground-breaking as the film itself. Though long-time fans of the film may jump at the chance for a high-def version, if they already own the DVD “Rockin’ Rydell” edition, there is little reason to repurchase.

Even as Blu-ray technology becomes more widespread, it seems a vast majority of people who use it are videophiles who want the absolute best. Unfortunately, the picture quality on the Grease Blu-ray leaves a bit to be desired. The disc contains a 1080p high-def transfer of the film, but seems spotty at points. Though the film’s vibrant colors really pop in high definition, many scenes lack the crispness one has come to expect from Blu-ray. This is especially noticeable when skipping chapters, as one scene may look great but the next looks practically blurry by comparison [...]