Josh Brolin is Thanos?

According to Variety, former Goonie, Josh Brolin has been cast to play Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy. Say Wha??? The film opens in 2 months. Does that mean he filmed his scenes already? It's probably just a cameo right? Brolin has the grizzled face for the role, but he'll probably either be in heavy prosthetics or providing motion capture for the character. I think he's certainly a good enough actor to pull it off and this isn't his first comic book role having been in Jonah Hex, Men in Black 3, and the upcoming Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. What do you think?

He's Back, And He's Old!

Credit: The Daily Mail

The Daily Mail managed to get their hands on some on set pics from Terminator: Genesis, the "reboot" of the Terminator film franchise. It stars Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones as the new Sarah Connor and Jai Courtney from Spartacus & A Good Day to Die Hard as the new Kyle Reese. The film also stars Jason Clarke as the new John Connor, and Arnold Schwarzenegger who returns to the franchise as an aging Terminator. In an interview with MTV, Arnold explained why the Terminator looks older.

“The way that the character is written, it’s a machine underneath.  It’s this metal skeleton. But above that is human flesh. And the Terminator’s flesh ages, just like any other human being’s flesh. Maybe not as fast. But it definitely ages.”

Who knows where this movie will fit in the already convoluted Terminator timeline. Sarah & Kyle are both at a relatively young age. John Connor is being played by a 44 year old actor. And you have a grey haired Terminator in the mix. All signs point to some form of time travel within the movie that gets all of them together.

The franchise is batting .500 with the last two which had no James Cameron involvement being pretty bad. Where is this one going to land? Terminator: Genesis is directed by Alan Taylor who has directed multiple episodes of Game of Thrones (no wonder Emilia Clarke was cast!) and Thor: The Dark World, and will hit theaters on July 1, 2015.

The Book of Life Trailer

The Book of Life is an upcoming animated film produced by visual movie master Guillermo del Toro. And this movie definitely has a unique visual style to it. It reminds me a lot of the old LucasArts game Grim Fandango, which incidentally was also about Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead.

From the iTunes description:

"THE BOOK OF LIFE is the journey of Manolo, a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart. Before choosing which path to follow, he embarks on an incredible adventure that spans three fantastical worlds where he must face his greatest fears. Rich with a fresh take on pop music favorites, THE BOOK OF LIFE encourages us to celebrate the past while looking forward to the future."

The movie stars the voice talents of Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana, Channing Tatum, and Christina Applegate. And it opens October 17th just in time for Halloween.



And for reference, here's a trailer for Grim Fandango.

Underdogs

With Prince Oberyn Martell facing off against the Mountain in the next episode of Game of Thrones, it marks another in a long line of underdog fights in TV and movie history. And why not? Everybody loves a good underdog fight, except maybe for Barney Stinson.



But underdog fights are great. It's good vs evil, small vs big, right vs wrong. In many cases, good prevails because that's what the audience likes. In some cases, the good guy loses but has some kind of moral victory. In the movies, the bad guy rarely wins. George R.R. Martin isn't one to follow convention so the Oberyn/Mountain fight may have a quick and painful end for us, but who knows. Actually, book readers know so no spoilers! So Barney not withstanding, let's take a look at some of the more entertaining underdog fights in pop culture history.

Evolution of Godzilla

The original 1954 Godzilla film was a very serious take on the fallout of nuclear weapons. With the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki less than a decade prior, the idea of nuclear war was still fresh in the minds of the Japanese. Godzilla was a representation of nature's revenge for the atomic bomb, and man's utter futility in dealing with it. This version of Godzilla was all about destruction and he was definitely the enemy of mankind. For the next 10 years, Godzilla would rise from the sea in three more movies to lay waste to Japan for no apparent reason. Humans even enlisted the help of King Kong and Mothra to help defeat the big guy. But the following decade marked a big change in direction for the Godzilla franchise.

Mark Wahlberg Shows His Acting Range

Okay, it's not really Mark Wahlberg, but in this animated clip from FOX's Animation Domination, Wahlberg meets Optimus Prime and I'd imagine the exchange is going to be very similar to what it's like in the movie.



And because I still find it extremely hilarious:

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark is the latest game in the War for Cybertron series. While I played the first game, I never finished it due to its difficulty. Or maybe it was my general ineptitude with these kinds of games. Anyway, I love the robot designs in these games as they are very G1 inspired. And if there's anything I love more than robots it's robots that combine to form bigger robots. From Voltron to Devastator to even the Power Rangers, it always awakens that wide-eyed inner child in me. So here's a trailer of Bruticus combining!