Game of Thrones
Season Two, Episode 5 – The Ghost of Harrenhal
Directed by: David Petrarca
Written by: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss
Starring: Mark Addy, Alfie Allen, Emilia Clarke, Liam Cunningham, Charles Dance, Stephen Dillane, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Fairley, Aidan Gillen, Jack Gleeson, Iain Glen, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Conleth Hill, Carice van Houten, Harry Lloyd, Richard Madden, Patrick Malahide, Rory McCann, Sophie Turner, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Maisie Williams, and Issac Hempstead-Wright

Now things are getting interesting.

“The Ghost of Harrenhal” is an arbitrarily important episode of Game of Thrones for several reasons. First, this fifth episode of Season 2 marks the halfway point in the season. Second, and more importantly, this is the episode (much like last week’s) continues some much needed plot advancement in a truly compelling manner by presenting each of our major players with a unique strategic advantage or ally. [...]

HBO has announced that there will officially be a second season for their two newest shows, Girls and Veep.

Girls is created by and stars Lena Dunham (Tiny Furniture) and executive produced by Judd Apatow. It follows four girls in New York City as they struggle to figure out their lives and all of the little joys it brings with it. It has been compared to another HBO show, Sex and the City, presented in a much more realistic and less glamorous light, and from a much younger perspective. [...]

The Cinderella Diamond Edition Blu-ray/DVD combo pack is now available for pre-order. Disney will be offering two different versions of the same product, a three-Disc Blu-ray Combo Pack (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy), a two-Disc Blu-ray Combo Pack (Blu-ray + DVD), and High-Definition Disney Digital. In addition, there is a coupon for $8 off the purchase.

The three-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack (top right) pre-sale price is $31.49, that’s 30% off the original sales price, which is $44.99, while the two-disc Blu-ray/DVD (top left) pre-sale price is $27.99, that’s also 30% off the original sales price, which is $39.99. [...]

Released last August, Rise of the Planet of the Apes overcame months of lackluster buzz to become one of the year’s unexpected blockbusters. It was the first truly great film in the Apes franchise since 1972′s Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and it benefited strongly from the central performance by Andy Serkis as the intelligent ape Caesar and the revolutionary motion-capture CGI used to bring the character to life. Although the actor’s performance was overlooked at Oscar time (as many great performances tend to be) the film’s impact on audiences and critics around the world was undeniable.

Rise‘s $468 million worldwide gross all but guaranteed additional sequels and in November we reported that Serkis had signed on to reprise the role of Caesar in a future return to the Planet of the Apes for a seven-figure salary. Director Rupert Wyatt was also set to return as his original contract for Rise contained an option for a sequel, with Rise screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver writing the script for the next Apes movie [...]

There’s no doubt now that Marvel Studios’ superhero team-up spectacle The Avengers, once a gigantic question mark seemingly earmarked for a spectacular failure, is going to be the blockbuster to beat this summer.

Although its U.S. release won’t happen until this Friday, the movie is already taking in record grosses around the world and early reviews have been overwhelmingly positive; critics who were practically foaming at the mouth to excoriate the Joss Whedon-directed comic book extravaganza have hailed The Avengers as Marvel’s best film since Iron Man…or even its best film since EVER. [...]

The remake of Steven Spielberg and Tobe Hooper’s classic 1982 horror flick, Poltergeist, is still moving forward over at MGM, and now an interesting new name is involved.

It’s being reported that Sam Raimi, director of the Evil Dead and Spider-Man trilogies, has joined the project, and will produce alongside Nathan Kahane, Roy Lee, and Robert Tapert. [...]

The first trailer for Judd Apatow‘s sequel/spinoff to the 2007 Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl comedy Knocked Up, titled This Is 40, has been released online.

The movie stars Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann as the same characters they played in Knocked Up as they deal with all of the troubles and adjustments that come with hitting 40 years of age.

You can check out the first trailer for This Is 40 by heading below now. [...]

As part of Amazon’s monthly $5 MP3 album deal for April 2012, Playlist: The Very Best Of Elvis Presley is on sale for only $5.

The saga and adoration of Elvis Presley brings on a division among people that gives new meaning to the word love/hate. But make no mistake about a few points here, Elvis Presley may not have invented rock and roll and he may not invented rockabilly, but what he almost singlehandedly DID invent was how to project a certain attitude and style to it, infusing a danger and an edge. Nobody, no front man in music history who has followed him, does not owe at least something to the unpredictability of the swagger and charisma that was the early Elvis Presley, from Iggy Pop, to John Lennon, to Jim Morrison, to Robert Plant and up and down the musical ladder [...]

The always-busy Guillermo del Toro is setting up yet another project he’ll act as a producer on.

The master storyteller, writer, director, producer, author, game maker, and all-around geek god and his Necropia Entertainment are teaming up with Don Murphy and Susan Montford and their Angry Films banner to option The Bloody Benders, a spec script by Bryan Singer protege Adam Robitel.

The script is based on the very real story of the Bender family, who ran an inn on the outskirts of Kansas’s prairie lands in 1873. [...]

As part of Amazon’s monthly $5 MP3 album deals for April 2012, Cake’s Fashion Nugget explicit version is on sale for only $5. The edited version without the parental advisory is also available for $5.

Cake is the quirky band that had us singing about going “The Distance” and nodding in time with their rockin’ remake of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” (both on this album!) in the mid-1990s. Fashion Nugget was their second album, but thankfully not their last. Formed in Sacramento, CA in 1991, Cake is still active today. Their seventh album was released in 2011 and the band is currently touring the USA [...]

From the Haunted Mansion to the cemetery, Disney has acquired the rights to acclaimed author Neil Gaiman’s Newbery Award-winning 2008 youth novel, The Graveyard Book.

Deadline also reports that Henry Selick (Coraline, The Nightmare Before Christmas) will be directing the stop-motion adaptation of Gaiman’s kid-friendly novel, which is still looking for a screenwriter.

The Graveyard Book tells the tale of Nobody Owens, a boy raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens. [...]

Every day here at Doom HQ we receive tons of tips from our readers about really cool stuff from the world of geek, as well as promotional materials for new films, comic books, collectibles, and much more. While we do our best to bring you as much of it as possible, we don’t always have enough geek manpower available to cover it all on a daily basis. But we hate the idea of all of this really cool stuff wasting away in our inbox. How could we NOT cover it? Hence why we’ve resurrected our long-defunct column Bits Of Doom, now rebranded and revamped as Doom Digest, a collection of easily digestible bits of news, videos, photos, and other goodies.

Today: [REC]3 poster, new trailer for Disney’s Brave, a dancing TARDIS, Avengers eye makeup designs, the CAT-AT cat condo based on the AT-ATs from The Empire Strikes Back, plus some Bits Of Doom [and a special Avengers birthday!] …

A quickie update for all of you box office junkies out there. The Hunger Games, the first movie based on the Suzanne Collins book series, has now officially passed $600 million worldwide at the box office.

Lionsgate released the updated numbers, showing that the movie—which stars Jennifer Lawrence as one of the combatants in the Hunger Games, where two teenagers from each of twelve districts are forced to fight to the death until only one remains—has made $372.4 million right here in the States, and $228.5 million overseas. [...]

Every so often Amazon’s 100 MP3 Albums For $5 monthly deal throws up a great live album. This time Festivals Of The Wicked by heavy metal bruisers Iced Earth is the one.

Festivals Of The Wicked covers the best of three Iced Earth shows recorded in 2007 and 2008 and features the band’s two greatest lead singers. All 2008 shows have Matt Barlow’s signature tones and you can hear Barlow belt out the likes of “Dracula,” “Vengeance Is Mine,” and “Burning Times.” The Wacken Open Air festival tracks such as “The Coming Curse” and “Birth Of The Wicked” are performed by one-time Judas Priest singer Tim “Ripper” Owens [...]

Amazon is at it again. They have another batch of 100 MP3 albums for $5 and this month it includes Slash’s 2010 solo album, Slash.

Nearly every track has a different lead singer. Current Slash band lead singer, the phenomenal talent of Myles Kennedy adds his vocal presence to “Back From Cali” and “Starlight.” There are some of Slash’s greatest songs on here: the Lemmy-growled “Doctor Alibi”, “I Hold On” with Kid Rock on fine don’t-even-want-to-punch-him form, and “We’re All Gonna Die” with the irrepressible Lord Iggy Pop [...]