HBO vampire drama True Blood brought in 6.4 million total viewers for its season 3 premiere — up 38 percent from last season’s average.

Obviously the show’s presence is much greater now than it was a year ago, thanks in part to cast and crew working the convention circuits, which no doubt adds invaluable buzz for geekier fiction shows as demonstrated in the past.

But it’s also due to an increased attention to all vampire fiction caused by Twilight — the set of books by Stephanie Meyers turned movies. While True Blood is definitely much more mature, it seems like the producers are well aware of this new female audience and aim to keep them interested well through the end of the season.

[NOTE: Light spoilers ahead for anyone who wishes to avoid them.] [...]

The first trailer for The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader has been released online by 20th Century Fox on the film’s official website.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the third chapter in the franchise, and the first since Fox took over. In December of 2008, we found out that The Walt Disney Company had decided not to continue backing the films after the sequel, Prince Caspian, had a major drop at the box office. A month later it was revealed that Fox would be picking it up and continuing on in hopes that this new movie might regain the popularity of the first.

Continue on over to the other side to check out the first trailer for Voyage of the Dawn Treader!

The movie is directed by Michael Apted and stars Skandar Keynes, Georgie Henley, Ben Barnes, Will Poulter, Liam Neeson, Anna Popplewell, and William Moseley.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be released this holiday season on December 10, 2010. [...]

Portal is an incredibly popular game with a very faithful following. The tricky puzzle game with a subtle backstory and super-popular, deceptive villain sucks you in from the start and before you know it, it’s all over.

With a game like that, as you might imagine, a sequel has been demanded for a while. And with the game running fairly short and with three years now separating us from the original, you might also imagine that the fans’ demand has been something along the lines of “Where in the hell is our Portal 2 already!?!?”

Well, Valve has an answer to just such a question at E3 2010, and you can see what they brought with them by clicking over to the other side right now.

The first video you will see is of Valve’s Gabe Newell making the announcement at the Sony presentation, where they run the first trailer for Portal 2. The video after that is a hands-on demonstration that discusses the game, shows off actual gameplay, and talks details and when you might get your hands on it. [...]

All of the big video game corporations have made their presentations at E3 2010, and Sony certainly didn’t hold back.

The main focus of the makers of PlayStation 3 this year was of course, the PlayStation Move. This is the new motion sensor system that Sony has developed to compete with Microsoft’s Kinect (Project Natal) and of course, the Nintendo Wii.

At this time last year, it looked like both Sony and Microsoft had decent motion gaming systems on the way, but the memorable “Milo” demonstration using Natal had me personally thinking that Xbox would be standing the tallest soon. With everyone now having showed off their wares this year, those thoughts may have changed.

Swing your wand this way and that to transport yourself on over to the other side for much more from the Sony press conference, and to watch the whole video.

Now, don’t get me wrong: both of these new motion-based gaming additions can (and likely will, eventually) be great, but after this year’s demos, the PlayStation Move may have taken over in expectations. [...]

Happy Captain Picard Day!

If you don’t know who Captain Picard is, then shame on you! Played by one Patrick Stewart (love, love, love him), Captain Jean-Luc Picard is captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise on Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the episode “The Pegasus,” we learn that Captain Picard Day is an annual event celebrated by the schoolchildren aboard the starship and it’s stated that this is a day the kids look forward to all year. The episode takes place in part on Stardate 47457.1, which apparently translates to June 16 (or something like that), so that’s the day this holiday is celebrated on.

Check out a clip from the episode here below, where you can see the adorable Captain Picard Day banner and learn more about how the day is celebrated. Also below is a clip of Patrick Stewart visiting Sesame Street to help The Count get his numbers in line [...]

Back in February, a leaked picture (shown at right) of what was supposedly one of the new CGI Smurfs being created for the live-action/CG hybrid family flick, The Smurfs.

Since then, most of the attention being given to this movie was toward Hank Azaria being cast as Gargamel and our first looks at the actor in full costume and running around New York City. Now, we return our attention to those little blue creatures, who are finally making their debut.

USA Today has the very first image showing off the Smurfs in all of their full-color CGI glory as they hang out in Times Square. The image features Grouchy Smurf, Papa Smurf, and Clumsy Smurf.

Keep on moving to check out this first peek at those lovable Smurfs.

Also being shared along with these images is a little more info on the movie itself. It’s no secret that the Smurfs and all of these other beloved cartoon characters running around New York is not that appealing. Thankfully, it sounds like the movie will at least begin in the Middle Ages and in the little village in the forest where the Smurfs dwell. [...]

Well it is the decade of the remake and it still is. This weekend the world was introduced to The A-Team all over again and I completely and totally loved it. The movie definitely brought in some big names and actors that I definitely enjoy. Overall the team was the strongest part of the entire movie and I really liked all of them. Bradley Cooper played Face, Liam Neeson played Hannibal, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson played B.A., and Sharlto Copley played Murdock.

I cannot really find anything that is flawed in this movie even though I did have fun thinking about how certain things worked. Overall, the movie was just a fun time and I couldn’t stop watching. Copley definitely stole the show most of the time he was screen, but I may be a little biased because of loving District 9. I really loved how much fun it looked like all the actors where having during the entire movie. Cooper definitely had a smirk that fits the Face character.

When you add Patrick Wilson and Jessica Biel to the mix of talented actors, it definitely makes for a fun ride. I really hope everyone, fans or not, goes to check out this movie just to have a good time. It may not be Shakespeare, but it was a good time at the movie theater and really what more could you ask for?

Well before I just drag you to the theater, let’s get to the SPOILER TALK! The following are my thoughts on The A-Team with spoilers a plenty. What would be even better is if you left your thoughts in our comment section as well [...]

In Geoff Johns‘ most recent post on DC’s The Source Blog, in which he reveals the photos of the live-action Blue Beetle test footage, Johns also talked about the upcoming Young Justice project and the debut of an all new Aqualad. He reveals that not only will this new Aqualad, who will be named Jackson Hyde, be a main character in the upcoming television show, but he will also play a large role in the current Brightest Day title.

If that is not enough information for you, then how about we talk specifics. Johns also revealed that the Aqualad character will be introduced in the Mera and Aquaman storyline in issue #4 and will “come into his own” in issue #10. Both of those issues are a good set up for the show considering they are going to be released before the show hits the airwaves. The best way to understand what kind of character Jackson is is to quote John’s, and here is how he describes the all new Aqualad [...]

Ever since Conan O’Brien‘s exodus from NBC, fans have been frothing at the mouth for his return to late night television programing. Not surprisingly, so have employees at the TBS home office, who gathered to cheer on the arrival of their newest colleague.

Upon emerging from a motorcade of vehicles, O’Brien obliged the crowd, which had “I’m with CoCo” banners draped from the rooftop’s entrance, by acknowledging the support with “victorious” hand gestures.

It’s one hell of a welcome, as shown in the video embedded below, and quite fitting considering the swift kick in the ass from NBC.

O’Brien’s new late night show returns on TBS this Fall [...]

Here I am minding my own business, getting ready to write a post updating Fallout New Vegas with some gameplay footage revealed at E3 and what do I come across? Beta sign ups for the Fallout MMO!

I remember hearing about this awhile ago, but there were legal issues about who was allowed to use the Fallout name. Well I guess those have been settled. In a week where there is already so much gaming news I certainly did not expect something new outside of E3, especially with no accompanying announcement [...]

I guess we can file this news under the “No Duh” department, but after the new The Karate Kid movie decimated all other box office competition with a $56 million opening weekend, Sony Pictures has now begun taking meetings with writers concerning a second installment.

I believe it is a simple case of dollars and cents. When a movie that costs $40 million makes $56 million the first weekend, you have a success. Of course, we haven’t even considered the overseas profits or the money that they will make from DVD sales. Love it or hate it, Sony has rebooted a successful franchise and will make even more money from this concept in the future.

I guess sometimes you can go home again. One thing’s for sure, I certainly hope that Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith aren’t sick of each other. This franchise has trilogy potential (at least) written all over it [...]

The James Bond 11-Movie Collection on Blu-ray is on sale right now for 30% off at the price of $269.99 (down from the list price of $299.99). But, that’s not the true deal.

If you enter code AMZNBOND at checkout, it will deduct $200 from the price, leaving it at only $69.99! That’s huge savings, but it’s for today only, so grab it while you can.

Math time: That’s 11 films on Blu-ray for $69.99, making it on average only $6.36 per Blu-ray!!!

Remember to apply code AMZNBOND at checkout and you’ll see the $200 taken off the price before you finalize the transaction. Also remember, according to Amazon, the code is good for today only (Wednesday, June 16) [...]

Just recently we ran a story that had multiple big-name directors and the high-profile projects that their names were said to be possible candidates for. Usually those never end up playing out, but it now appears that one of those names is officially the man for the job.

Deadline is reporting that Sam Raimi has officially come on board Oz: The Great and Powerful, the new movie from The Walt Disney Company that will offer an alternate perspective to the 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz.

The movie will go back before the ’39 film and the films before that to L. Frank Baum‘s wonderful original story. It was at first thought that it would follow a traveling snake oil salesman who attempts to escape his life by way of hot air balloon and ends up in the magical lands of Oz, where he becomes that familiar wizard. Now it sounds like instead, the man will be a circus wrangler who’s swept away by a tornado. Reports state that a rewrite of the script are planned, so who knows what the final script will hold. [...]

Earlier this week we reported that Geoff Johns tweeted about some footage of a live-action Blue Beetle show was floating around in this mystical “Vault.” [Read Live Action Blue Beetle TV Series In Development?]

Now, Johns has released some screen captures from that test footage, which can be seen at the bottom of this post.

Johns talked about what he has always wanted to see ever since he started working behind the scenes and how as a fanboy himself he wanted to share what he got to see with his fellow fanboys. Well from one fanboy to another, thank you Geoff Johns!

As discussed previously, Johns has continued to say that he will be bringing the actual video footage with him to San Diego Comic Con this year and show it at as many DC panels as he can, so that everyone gets a chance to see it. I am really excited to see how the CGI works. If it works anywhere near as good as it looks in these pictures for a very low budget test than that could end up working very well for the small screen [...]

Metal Gear Solid is one of the most popular video game franchises of all time thanks in part to its stealthy spies and guns gameplay. Because of this, it was a bit of a shock when god of games Hideo Kojima announced a new title that would shake the gameplay style up just a little bit: Metal Gear Solid: Rising. That announcement was made at last year’s E3 convention, but this year, they brought a very cool new hands-on preview of the gameplay to show off.

This time around you’ll be playing as Raiden, a character who has shown up in previous games like Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots as something of a pretty boy, but he’s nothing of the sort in this game.

Click on over to feast your eyes on the great new trailer for Metal Gear Solid: Rising, which opens with a cinematic and then gets to showing off the gameplay! [...]

It feels like Assassin’s Creed II just came out last week, but already the next game in the series is fast-approaching, and I for one am very much okay with this.

If you played the second game (which was actually released November 17 of last year), you know that we got a peek at the great city of Rome but didn’t really get to explore it. This was depressing, considering how incredible it looked, but all indications were that this is where we would get to pick up in the next game, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.

Brotherhood will be released within one year of the last title, on November 16, 2010, and Ubisoft was in attendance at E3 to show off how the game is looking.

Blend into the crowds, stay in the shadows, and move on over to the other side to check out the devastating first peek at gameplay from Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. [...]

Coming out of E3 this year is a new trailer for the highly anticipated Fable 3.

Watch it below.

At the end Fable 2, you become the kind Albion, the nation in the game. At the beginning of Fable 3, your old character is dead and you play as one of your sons. It is an interesting way to tie the two games together, if it is a little confusing.

There are two sons of your former character: one continues on to rule ruthlessly; the other, the one you play, is left to be homeless. Strange that one prince would get it all, while the other gets nothing. Hopefully this will be explained. What is a former prince left with nothing to do, but revolt against his brother to gain power, which is exactly what you do in the game [...]

The Karate Kid (2010)
Directed by Harald Zwart
Starring Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan, Taraji P. Henson
Rated PG
Release date: June 11, 2010

The number one stupid complaint people give in the midst of this sequel/remake craze, besides the fact that they shouldn’t do them, is that too many movies from our childhood are being ruined. I never understood that logic. You like the movies you like, for whatever reason it may be. No matter how bad it is, nothing that comes after it is enough to take away whatever it was that made you like it in the first place. The franchise may be tainted, but the movies within that canon that you loved aren’t impacted. For example, if this Ghostbusters 3 movie ever gets off the ground and sucks, the first one will still be a classic.

I’ve reexamined a lot of my favorite movies from my youth lately and realized that a lot of them really aren’t that good. I liked them at the time and that has carried over to me still liking them, but usually for nostalgic reasons. I am unapologetic about it, but truth be told, they are what they are. That said, comparing a current remake to one we hold dear from back in the day doesn’t usually have a fighting chance for that very reason.

Then there’s the new The Karate Kid [...]

The first actual gameplay footage from Epic Games’ much-anticipated sequel Gears of War 3 was shown off at E3, and my-oh-my is it looking pretty insane.

The amount of goodies and news coming out of the convention is completely absurd, and though we’ll be bringing you a portion of the really exciting stuff, make sure you head over to G4 for any and everything that unfolds pretty much as it happens! They actually have so much going on right now that my computer doesn’t seem to be able to handle their site, which makes getting these gems to share with you pretty tough. Because of this, we’ve adapted to the situation!

First of all, you all need to immediately go out and purchase the new fitness revolution, the Shake Weight, and use it 24 hours a day until Gears 3 comes out. That’s the only way that your arms will be up to par. After you’ve confirmed your order, head to the other side to see the crazy first look at gameplay! [...]

The A-Team
Directed by Joe Carnahan
Written by Joe Carnahan, Brian Bloom, Skip Wood
Starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel, Sharlto Copley
Rated R
Release Date: June 11, 2010

We are barely into the summer movie season, film analysts in La-La land are already predicting the lowest summer box office intake in many years, but who can blame them? With Sex and the City‘s less than sexy opening box office number and Iron Man 2‘s less than invincible reviews, this year’s summer lineup looks to be less than stellar. Perhaps what this sagging box office needs is a group of soldiers for hire, who, if you have a problem and no one else can help, can solve all your problems.

Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith (Liam Neeson), Templeton “Faceman” Peck (Bradley Cooper), B.A. Baracus (Quinton “Rampage” Jackson), and H.M. Murdock (Sharlto Copley) were sent on a covert mission during the Gulf War to retrieve stolen U.S. Treasury plates, and things naturally goes awry. The explosive results leave their commanding officer dead, the plates taken by rogue soldiers of fortune, and this “A-Team” framed for a crime they did not commit. With nothing left to lose, The A-Team sets out to clear their name, avenge their C.O.’s death, and have a lot of fun doing it [...]