The first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens is about to be released.
Those of you fearing that you will have to go to a movie theater to see it will be relieved to hear that it will also be released online.
In the meantime, from TV Secrets (follow here), here's a fun picture of some of the cast during a script read-through. Note the cameo by R2D2 in the upper right. The actor who plays him was apparently unavailable.
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Tracy Morgan's lawyer gives an update on his condition after suffering a severe brain injury in a highway crash last June. Tracy suffered the injury after a Wal-Mart truck slammed into a limo van that was carrying Morgan and several other friends on their way back from a show in Delaware in June.
Produced by Devan Joseph. Video courtesy of Associated Press.
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"The Babadook" is not your average horror movie. Imagine finding a book on your doorstep only to discover it's more than what it seems and possessed by a ghoulish demon that will haunt whoever dares read the innocent-looking pop-up book.
While there are plenty of jump-scare moments, "The Babadook" is gripping on an emotional level. It's more psychologically horrifying than anything else, as the film poses serious questions about what it means to be a mother in a very complex and disturbing situation.
The film opens with a horrific car accident scene that is so visceral and well put together that it's hard to believe first-time director Jennifer Kent pulled it off. This introduces us to Amelia and her husband, who are on their way to the hospital to deliver their first child when an awful crash occurs. Amelia's husband is killed, and we fast forward six years later as Amelia cares for her son Samuel alone. The young boy has quite the imagination, constructing homemade weapons to defeat a monster that appears in his dreams. When a mysterious children's pop-up book about a creature called Mister Babadook appears on their doorstep and Amelia reads the spooky dark tale to her son, the scares begin.
The Babadook is a creepy, crawly shadowy figure who lives not only in the pages of the book, but who comes out, mostly at night, to terrorize Amelia. He crawls on ceilings and floats menacingly in doorways and back seats of cars.
While the Babadook itself certainly exists in the world of the film, it's really just a manifestation of Amelia's fears of raising her son alone. The film spends most of its 94-minute run time showing us how difficult it is for Amelia to deal with her son, and the relationship between the two of them could not be more complex. She of course loves Samuel, as any mother would, but there's also resentment since her husband died while en route to deliver him.
As Samuel becomes more of a handful for his mother, her visions and interactions with the mysterious Babadook creature grow more frequent. There's a direct coorelation between Amelia's psyche and the presence of the Babadook, so the horror can be interpreted as evidence of her deteriorating mental state. Amelia is overworked as is, so when she comes home to Samuel's antics, she's essentially pulling overtime — it never stops.
Essie Davis is fantastic as Amelia. Davis can express volumes with simply a look, and it's impossible not to feel for her as she becomes possessed by the Babadook. A lead performance this captivating is hard to come by in the genre and really raises the stakes.
Technically speaking, "The Babadook" is incredibly well-shot and gorgeous to look at. Kent makes tons of intriguing stylistic choices throughout the film; her editing is lively and demands attention. There's a shot of Amelia lying in bed, haunted by her past, that perfectly conveys her mental state solely through the visual.
The expressionist feel makes the environment pop so that every creak and shadow is just as unsettling as the monster itself. The horror elements work themselves into the film naturally and never feel out of place despite the fact that the film is more often than not an intense character study of a troubled single mother.
"The Babadook" is an exceptional horror film that is scary enough to satisfy horror laymen and has plenty going on beneath the surface to appeal to the arthouse crowd as well.
"The Babadook" is available via DirecTV VOD now and opens in theaters nationwide November 28th.
SEE ALSO: Jake Gyllenhaal Goes Psycho In His Dark New Movie 'Nightcrawler'
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Larry Charles, a key staff writer on 'Seinfeld' and the director of 'Borat' and 'Religulous,' sat down with comedian/podcaster Pete Holmes for this week's episode of his "You Made It Weird" podcast.
The best moment from the episode comes about 1 hour and 26 minutes in when Charles offers up a story about working with Bob Dylan.
He mentions that back in the 90s, Bob Dylan was endlessly touring and stuck on a bus a lot of the time, so to combat his boredom, he would become "addicted" to different genres of movies and watch "every single one of them" during that period.
At one point, he became "deeply into Jerry Lewis" and decided he wanted to star in a slapstick comedy. Not only that, but he wanted to do it as a TV series for HBO. It wasn't long before Charles got a call.
Charles described the whole experience as "very dreamlike" and says he really only took the meeting so he could tell his friends he had a meeting with Bob Dylan. Charles describes the surreal meeting:
"He owns a boxing gym in Santa Monica, I meet him in the back of this boxing gym in a cubicle, he's chain-smoking the whole time...completely smoke-filled...and his assistant comes over and says 'do you want something to drink' and it's attached to this coffee house so I say 'yeah, I'll just have an iced coffee' and Bob responds 'I want something hot. I want a hot beverage,' because that's sort of how he talks, he talks in this very ornate way. So they bring a hot coffee for him, a cappuccino or something, and they bring an iced coffee for me and they put them together in the middle of the table and he immediately grabs my iced coffee and starts drinking the iced coffee.
"And I'm watching him drink it, and I'm not touching the other thing I didn't want the other thing, and finally he almost finishes my drink and goes 'why aren't you drinking your drink' and it's like 'you're drinking my drink,' y'know, and he kinda laughed, and that kinda broke the ice, strangely enough. It's like going to see a sorcerer...'cause it's like all a test...he drank my drink, how would I react?"
As the meeting progressed, Charles got some fascinating and unique insight into Bob Dylan's writing process.
"He brings out this very ornate beautiful box, like a sorcerer would, and he opens the box and dumps all these pieces of scrap paper on the table...and yes, that is exactly what he does...every piece of scrap paper was a hotel stationary, little scraps from Norway and from Belgium and Brazil and places like that, and each little piece of paper had a line, like some kind of little line scribbled or a name scribbled, 'Uncle Sweetheart,' or a weird poetic line or an idea or whatever, and he was like 'I don't know what to do with all this,'...and for some reason I was able to go 'oh y'know you can take this...this is a line, this is the character, and the character could say this line.' And he said 'you can do that?' and it's like 'yeah, yeah you can do that' because I realized that's how he writes songs, he takes these scraps and he puts them together and makes his poetry out of that.
"He has all these ideas...and then just in a kind of subconscious or unconscious way he lets them kind of synthesize into a coherent thing, and that's how we wound up writing, also. We wound up writing in a very cut-up technique, we would just take scraps of paper, put them together, try to make them make sense, try to find the story points within it, and we finally...we wrote this very elaborate treatment for this slapstick comedy which was filled with surrealism and all kinds of things from his songs and stuff. So we say to Bob, 'if you come to HBO with us, we'll definitely sell the project because they won't have the balls to say no to your face,' and he agrees."
"So he showed up at the meeting...and at the time, by the way, I was only wearing pajamas everywhere I went, I used to just wear pajamas, I worked at 'Mad About You' for two years, I started wearing pajamas, everywhere I went, I would take my kids to events and I'd be wearing pajamas...I probably was having a nervous breakdown and didn't realize, but I wore pajamas everywhere I went."
"So I show up for the meeting in my pajamas...and he shows for the meeting at HBO in a black cowboy hat, a black floor length duster, black boots, he looks like Cat Ballou or something, he looks like a Western guy who's carrying six guns.
"We stride down the hall at HBO, if you can imagine that scene, my hair is super long, beard down to my belly button in f*ckin' pajamas and Bob Dylan is dressed like a cowboy from a movie. We go into the meeting and Chris Albrecht who was the president of HBO says 'Bob, oh, so great to meet you, look I have the original tickets from Woodstock' and Bob goes 'I didn't play Woodstock' and then he walks over to the other side of the office which has floor to ceiling windows overlooking the city and proceeds to have his back turned to us for the entire meeting.
"He never turns around, I have to start pitching this thing...this is who he is. Gavin Polone was there, who has my manager at the time, and he was like [whisper] 'he's like a retarded child.' So I would go 'Bob's going to do this, right Bob?' and at the end, ironically, despite all this discomfort, they bought the project, indeed.
"They bought the project, we go out to the elevator, Bob's manager Jeff, my manager Gavin, me and Bob, the 3 of us are elated we actually sold the project and Bob says 'I don't want to do it anymore.' He says 'I don't want to do it anymore, it's too slapsticky.' He's like not into it, that's over. The slapstick phase has officially ended. He's not into it anymore, and Gavin Polone said to me 'you gotta get out of this', and I said 'I'm on the Bob Dylan train, I'm going to take this train wherever it takes me' and we wound up re-writing that into kinda like a serious movie, and that's what we wound up shooting, which took another year to do that.'
The final product, titled "Masked and Anonymous," debuted at Sundance Film Festival in 2003 and received less than stellar reviews despite an impressive cast (pictured below).
The episode of "You Made It Weird" was a quintessential example of what makes the longform, intimate interview podcast so special — Pete's an incredible conversationalist, and Larry Charles was an open book, telling numerous great stories from his lengthy (and still thriving) career.
Below is a YouTube clip with an abridged version of the story. The full episode is available for free here.
SEE ALSO: The Holy Grail For Bob Dylan Fans Has Just Been Released
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I have a confession to make: I have an embarrassing addiction to a freemium game.
Three years ago, I downloaded "The Simpsons: Tapped Out." One of my favorite shows of all time is “The Simpsons,” and as a proud owner of a new iPhone 4S at the time, I wanted to own this game.
In the end, it ended up owning me.
The gist of the game is that Homer Simpson caused the town of Springfield to blow up, and now you, the "Sky Finger," must recreate the town and bring back all its residents. You make money by collecting rent from buildings and making characters do various jobs, which all take time to complete.
I have witnessed how this game has grown through the years, with the load times and overall quality improving with each new iPhone release. I’ve been there for every new character, new building, holiday and special promotion. My Springfield is immaculate. It's gorgeous. You wish you lived there.
I want to quit. I do. I'm maxed out at Level 47, as high as Electronic Arts will allow me to go, and have all the current characters and buildings you can own through normal gameplay.
But I don't have it all. And I'll never have it all.
That's what makes this a "freemium" game and not a "free" game. (Also why Apple needed to subtly change the App Store recently.)
Getting the premium items requires a special kind of currency, which can only be attained through either time or money. In the case of “The Simpsons: Tapped Out,” donuts are your “premium” currency, which you can collect by leveling up, or simply when the Electronic Arts developers feel charitable.
I've saved — no, hoarded — donuts for years, but my 458 donuts will only get me two or three quality items. I’m not kidding: I can’t even afford all four of these characters.
And there’s the rub: Even after spending three years collecting donuts, I would still have to spend money to achieve “100% completion.”
But in mobile games like “The Simpsons: Tapped Out,” 100% completion doesn’t even exist; EA regularly adds new characters and premium items each month. If you truly want to own everything, you’ll need to shell out money regularly.
The idea that you can get all the items through time and patience is just a red herring.
The freemium model has gained momentum on mobile, thanks to early popular games like “Angry Birds,” but now it’s spreading elsewhere. While watching a review of “LittleBigPlanet 3,” a new game for the PlayStation 4, I learned that in order to collect some really fun costumes for your characters, you need to spend money in addition to the $60-plus you’ve already spent on the game.
These gaming companies are smart to implement freemium into their titles: The game teases you with its best rewards, which can only be attained by a spending an inordinate amount of time in the game — each day, and consistently over time — or by spending money. And there are plenty of people who will spend thousands of dollars to progress through their favorite games, just ask the lead singer of the Sex Pistols.
So freemium works out great for these gaming companies. But for the consumer, it’s downright cruel.
And yet, I can’t stop playing.
SEE ALSO: How Flip Phones Could Return In A Big Way
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A few years ago, not many people knew the name Benedict Cumberbatch.
Now, the 38-year-old actor has an Emmy-winning miniseries, "Sherlock," and a rabid fan following known as the "Cumberbitches." Dozensupondozens of Tumblr pages are devoted to the London-born actor.
In his latest role, he plays brilliant British cryptanalyst and war hero Alan Turing in "The Imitation Game," opening in theaters Nov. 28th.
He also plays not one, but two villains in "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies."
Source: ElleUK
Source: Digital Spy
The first trailer teaser for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is here and it's amazing!
The 88-second teaser debuted on Apple's iTunes trailers.
Directed by J.J. Abrams, the film will reunite original "Star Wars" actors Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher and introduce new cast mates including Oscar Isaac and Adam Driver along with newcomers Daisy Ridley and John Boyega.
30 select theaters are showing the trailer in theaters this holiday weekend. It will play in theaters nationwide in December.
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is in theaters Dec. 18, 2015.
Let's take a closer look at the trailer.
Boyega appears as a stormtrooper.
Actress Daisy Ridley is soaring through the desert.
Here's our first look at the new Sith Lord. Check out that lightsaber!
Here's our favorite shot featuring the Millennium Falcon.
SEE ALSO: A breakdown of everything in the "Star Wars: Episode VII" trailer
AND: Check out the cast of "Star Wars: Episode VII" during a script read-through
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The days of broadcast TV are numbered according to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.
Hastings said that while traditional broadcast TV has served a purpose in the past, on-demand streaming will cause broadcast TV to die off within the next 16 years.
"It's kind of like the horse, you know, the horse was good until we had the car," Hastings said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "The age of broadcast TV will probably last until 2030."
With over 53 million users, Netflix is largely responsible for changing how consumers watch TV shows and movies, and the company is already in the process of disrupting how movies will make their official debut.
Netflix will debut the sequel to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" the same day as it hits IMAX theaters, a move which Hastings said is "breaking the stranglehold that movie theaters have" on how movies are released.
You can read more about Hastings' vision for the future of streaming over at The Hollywood Reporter.
SEE ALSO: 17 iPhone-Only Apps That Will Make Your Android Friends Jealous
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The new "Star Wars" trailer is here!
For the uninitiated, let's catch up.
This movie is called "Star Wars: Episode VII." The subtitle is "The Force Awakens." The story takes place approximately 30 years after "Return of the Jedi," the third movie in the original trilogy that ended with the death of Darth Vader. (You know, the trilogy starring Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill.)
Got all that? Now let's break down "The Force Awakens" trailer.
So, what the heck does that title mean? Some more speculation: At the end of the prequel trilogy, the movies that came out in the late 90s/early 2000s that explained how Darth Vader became Darth Vader, almost all of the Jedi were killed by the Empire. In the next trilogy, Luke Skywalker becomes the first of a new generation of Jedi.
In the new trailer, the creepy voiceover guy alludes to a resurgence in the Force, meaning a lot of new potential Jedi and Sith are starting to show up across the galaxy. Boyega's character is likely one of the new Jedi. Driver's character is likely one of the new Sith.
A lot. Remember, Hamill, Fisher, and Ford are all coming back to reprise their original roles. Many have speculated that Hamill's character, Luke Skywalker, will return to teach the new generation of Jedi. Expect him to play the same kind of wise old master that Obi Wan Kenobi was in the very first Star Wars movie.
Other characters like R2-D2, C-3P0, and Chewbacca are also confirmed to be in the new movie. Still, we have no clue who the new characters played by Boyega, Ridley, Driver, and more will be. Here's a look at the new cast:
Now watch the trailer:
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Despite spending evenings masquerading as an online warrior named “GentlemanTryken” in Ultra Street Fighter 4, most people throughout my day refer to me as Professor Tullis. I teach English, reiterating to a diverse student population how to format essays, argue logically, and interpret literature. This sounds like an easy gig—and sometimes it is—but there exists an almost insurmountable barrier that tries to prevent me from connecting my love of communication with my students. I've learned to call this blockade “a lack of interest”.
The first day of class in Comp. 1 is particularly problematic. Many of my students are fresh out of high school. Some of them have been spoon fed Shakespeare, To Kill a Mockingbird, and other state required texts. More than a few have little knowledge of active reading or good writing. Furthermore, the first day of the semester is usually all business. It's where the professor usually goes over their syllabus and discusses class expectations, which is also extremely important.
So how do you shake up the routine in students who've been going through the same day one lecture over and over again, who've grown up in an age where communication is flaunted all around us, but hardly anyone is effectively communicating?
My Answer: You show them EVO Moment #37.
I gave my class no explanation, and when I was done I asked them to explain what they saw to me. The answers ranged from teenagers who'd played Street Fighter IV casually shouting out a loud “haudoken” before laughing to a student's simplified answer of “the blonde guy was getting beat up, but then he did something that made the screen weird and won." I showed it to them again. Now one of those students with minor experience in fighting games answered, “The Ken player did something like a block. It's where you press back.”
“Did it seem impressive?” I asked. That's the important question. A few students chimed in that it must have been because people were screaming. That's good. Their attention to detail is important. “What do you think? Do you think it was a big deal?” A mixture of “no,” “not really,” and “I don't know” flooded the room.
I have to admit here that EVO Moment #37 was only part of my focus. What I cared about more was an article written on it by Seth Killian for the Penny Arcade Report. In it, Capcom's former Community Manager completely broke down the famous scene. He expertly weaved a narrative of the dominant Justin Wong against the flailing Daigo Umehara. In the process, he never spoke over the head of his audience, instead choosing to carefully define each piece of the puzzle clearly or compare it to a large sport that the majority of readers would understand. He wrote, “Umehara tends to be a much more aggressive player, and the strain of playing against Wong's ultra-conservative Chun-Li was beginning to show.” Following his play-by-play is easy and enthralling to anyone who appreciates competitive sports.
After having my students read through Killian's explanation, I replayed the video. One of my students, now better understanding the full extent of Daigo's brilliance, murmured out, “That's sick.” Surely enough, the others discussed the moment with a much higher appreciation and understanding after Killian's explanation.
I asked if anyone knows why I showed them this. Most students remained silent or shook their head. Next, I asked if anyone played a sport other than football or basketball. One replied, “Track.” I told her that I didn't understand track and only perceived it as a bunch of people running in a circle where some happen to run faster than others. She thought it was an ignorant statement. I agreed, but I also asked her how she would explain its subtleties to someone who knows nothing about the sport.
Communication is a major problem in a generation that's told it never has to justify itself. It only takes a few minutes on Facebook to see the motivational messages about ignoring people who don't understand you or your life choices, how you never have to defend or explain your actions. It's a wonderful ideal, isn't it? Sadly, it has little basis in reality. The truth is that you could be the smartest person in the room, but if you can't communicate clearly, no one will care to listen.
What we say, how we say it, and even what we don't say affects how others perceive us and our passions, but most people continue to funnel themselves into circles of those already initiated in their hobbies. While comradery is great, there is an undeniable importance to apologetics and to a lesser extent minor evangelism. It's how a community grows.
Communication is also how we defend ourselves. To give an example, if we're a supervisor for a cyber security department that receives a $400,000 budget during a time when the company posts a loss for the year, the CEO and Human Resources might comb through their budget and wonder, “Why the hell are we giving almost half a million dollars to a bunch of geeks?” Let's say the CEO is an elderly gentleman who uses a computer primarily for e-mail and little else. Agitated and busy, he calls you. You're given ten minutes to explain what your department does and why it needs that money to function. I hope you know how to communicate effectively.
But why am I writing all of this to you, the fighting game player? I'm explaining this because growth and perception have always been a major problem for the FGC. We wonder why gaming media outlets often hone in on our scandals. Some argue that the rough and politically incorrect nature of the FGC is part of its grass roots beginnings, that we're actually one of the most racially diverse communities in gaming. We're even extremely generous and selfless in the pursuit of helping others. How many players have we given the chance to be seen domestically or on the national stage through donations? How many families have we helped get through tragedy?
How will anyone know this, though, if the FGC refuses to understand the importance of perception and communication? It's up to us to be the salespeople and defenders of our coven. This applies to any group, but especially to ours. The community likes to state that fighting games are one of the easiest to appreciate since the basic ideas are easy to grasp (ex. A player loses when their health reaches zero, and getting hit causes damage, etc); however, the flip side is that it causes the casual spectator to oversimplify what it is they're watching. Though this is anecdotal evidence, I witnessed plenty of gamer friends comment on Street Fighter's boring “fireball spamming." We can reply, “They should figure out the difference,” but how can they know what they don't know?
Those we inadvertently turn away through our interactions miss out on one of the finest gaming communities. They miss out on a deep and competitive genre. And, most importantly, we miss out on them.
This article was originally published at Event Hubs.
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The trailer for the new Star Wars movie, "The Force Awakens," debuted Friday.
And geeks around the internet have already discovered an Easter egg.
The end of the trailer shows Han Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon, the same ship he had in the old movies. It looks like this:
But upon closer inspection, fans have noticed something different. Let's flash back to this moment in 1983's "Return of the Jedi" when Lando Calrissian is piloting the Falcon through the second Death Star on his way to blow it up.
He knocks off the radar dish at the top of the ship!
The new Star Wars movie takes place about 30 years after that moment. It looks like Han Solo replaced the old circular dish with a rectangular one.
See?
Now watch the full trailer:
SEE ALSO: An explanation for everything you see in the new Star Wars trailer
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sony Pictures Entertainment is investigating to determine if hackers working on behalf of North Korea might be responsible for a cyber attack that knocked out the studio's computer network earlier this week, the technology news site Re/code reported.
The attack occurred a month before Sony Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp, is to release "The Interview." The movie is a comedy about two journalists who are recruited by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The Pyongyang government denounced the film as "undisguised sponsoring of terrorism, as well as an act of war" in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in June.
Representatives of the North Korean mission to the United Nations could not immediately be reached for comment on Saturday.
Sony Pictures' computer system went down on Monday. Before screens went dark, they displayed a red skull and the phrase "Hacked By #GOP," which reportedly stands for Guardians of Peace, the Los Angeles Times said.
The hackers also warned they would release "secrets" stolen from the Sony servers, the Times reported.
Re/code said in a report late Friday that Sony and security consultants were investigating the possibility that someone acting on behalf of North Korea, possibly from China, was responsible. Re/code said a link to North Korea had not been confirmed but it had not been ruled out.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that Sony Pictures was investigating every possibility, adding no link to North Korea has been uncovered.
Sony acknowledged the computer outage in a statement on Tuesday. Emails to Sony were bouncing back on Saturday with a message asking senders to contact employees by telephone because its email system was "experiencing a disruption."
"The Interview," scheduled for release in the United States on Dec. 25, stars James Franco as the host of a tabloid television show that is enjoyed by Kim, and Seth Rogen as the show's producer. When they are granted a rare interview with Kim, the CIA wants to turn them into assassins.
KCNA, the official news agency in isolationist North Korea, quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman in June as promising a "merciless counter-measure" if the film is released. The government also wrote to U.S. President Barack Obama asking him to stop it, the Voice of America reported.
(Reporting by Ron Grover, Michelle Nichols and Jim Finkle; Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Frances Kerry)
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While TV series are about to go into winter hiatus with the holidays quickly approaching, Netflix has announced its list of releases for December.
Among the highlights this month are "The Wolf of Wall Street," the horror movie "Oculus," and the first season of the critically acclaimed BBC series "Broadchurch."
Netflix is also releasing its new $90 million series "Marco Polo," along with its Nick Offerman comedy special "Nick Offerman: American Ham."
"American Horror Story: Coven" (available 12/6)
The third season of FX's wildly popular series adds Emma Roberts among a group of backstabbing witches.
"Broadchurch" (available 12/12)
The first season of the hit BBC series follows the aftermath of the murder of a young boy in a small town. While Fox just introduced a remake of the series featuring original star David Tennant called "Gracepoint" to less-than-stellar ratings, the original eight-episode series is a must-watch.
"Marco Polo" (available 12/12)
Netflix is betting $90 million on its new original series, which looks like the streaming service's answer to HBO's "Game of Thrones." The series executive producer Dan Minahan actually worked on "Thrones." The series will follow the titular explorer in 13th century China as he comes toe to toe with Kublai Khan.
"Nick Offerman: American Ham" (available 12/12)
If you're waiting for the final season of "Parks and Rec" to arrive on NBC, Offerman's new Netflix comedy special should hold you over. Netflix says the special will feature the comedian's "woodworking skills and tips for prosperity."
"Almost Famous"
Kate Hudson and Jason Lee star in the Oscar winner in which a high school student (Patrick Fugit) follows around a rock band on tour to write a story for Rolling Stone.
"American Beauty"
The film, which won five Oscars, follows a father (Kevin Spacey) who becomes infatuated with his daughter's friend.
"Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues"
If you skipped out on seeing the return of Ron Burgundy and his dog, Baxter, to the big screen last year, now's your chance to catch up.
"Oculus"
This spring's low-budget horror hit starring Karen Gillan ("Doctor Who") was well-received by critics and fans alike and is likely spawning a new series.
"Son of God"
The breakout religious hit from Mark Burnett is his follow-up to popular TV miniseries "The Bible."
"The Wolf of Wall Street"
If you haven't seen Martin Scorsese's three-hour movie, it's worth a watch not only for Leonardo DiCaprio's Oscar-nominated performance but also a cameo from Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey.
Here's the full list of December releases:
Available 12/1
"A Knight's Tale" (2001)
"Almost Famous" (2000)
"American Beauty" (1999)
"Bewitched" (2005)
"Jewtopia" (2012)
"Knights of Badassdom" (2014)
"Madison" (2005)
"Out of the Clear Blue Sky" (2012)
"Out of Time" (2003)
"The Out-of-Towners" (1999)
"Troop Beverly Hills" (1989)
"Turbo FAST"
Available 12/3
"Oculus" (2014)
"Son of God" (2014)
Available 12/5
"Bill Burr: I'm Sorry You Feel That Way" (2014)
Available 12/6
"American Horror Story: Coven"
"Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues" Super-sized version (2013)
"Ava & Lala" (2014)
"Sharknado 2: The Second One" (2014)
Available 12/8
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown: Season 3
Available 12/9
"I Am Ali" (2014)
"Drive Hard" (2014)
Available 12/10
"A Haunted House 2" (2014)
Available 12/11
"The Village" (2004)
"The Wolf of Wall Street" (2013)
Available 12/12
"Broadchurch: Season 1"
"Marco Polo"
"Nick Offerman: American Ham"
Available 12/13
"Don't Blink" (2014)
Available 12/15
"Jake Squared" (2014)
Available 12/18
"Ragnarok" (2014)
"The Honourable Woman: Season 1"
Available 12/19
"All Hail King Julien"
Available 12/20
"Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones" Extended Edition (2014)
Available 12/22
"Dark Skies" (2013)
"Romy and Michele's High School Reunion" (1997)
Available 12/23
"The Trip to Italy" (2014)
Available 12/24
"Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return" (2014)
Available 12/25
"Good People" (2014)
Available 12/27
"Child of God" (2014)
"Labor Day" (2013)
Available 12/28
"Behaving Badly" (2014)
"Comedy Bang! Bang! Season 3"
"I, Frankenstein" (2014)
"Maron: Season 2"
"Jessie: Season 3"
Available 12/30
"Last Weekend" (2014)
SEE ALSO: 10 Foreign TV Shows You Should Be Watching
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The First 'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed' Trailer is finally upon us and now the YouTube parodies begin.
One of the initial ones flying around the internet is a genius iteration. Somebody made a Lego version and it's pretty brilliant.
It comes via Snooperking on YouTube, and there's a lot of attention to detail here:
Watch the whole thing here:
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In 2006 former guitar teacher, Andy Mckee, uploaded a video of himself playing his song "Drifting". The video garnerened over 50 million views, and even caught the attention of Prince who flew Mckee out to Austrailia to join him for a few shows.
Produced by Devan Joseph. Video courtesy of Associated Press.
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The 1980s were an amazing time for video games. But it's not just the games themselves that were notable.
Red Bull Academy's documentary series "Diggin' in the Carts" digs deep into the history of Japanese video game music. The first episode, called "The Rise of Video Game Music," takes a look at some of the industry's early pioneers.
Among the interesting tidbits is how the music was actually made. Before this era, music in games was used pretty sparingly. Players would just hear some beeps and boops or looped tracks in between levels. In 1980, Namco released "Rally-X," which became the first game to feature continuous melodic music in the background, according to GamesRadar.
But when the Nintendo came out, background music became standard. As the technology improved, the music improved. So game companies turned to composers to help create music for these games.
Composers played music on keyboards and then wrote the score. But instead of writing the score for instruments, they wrote sound wave data. A sound driver read the data, and then played it back as music.
"First, they'd play the music as they composed, and then write the score," says Hiroshi Okubo, who heads the sound team at Bandai Namco Studios. "And then turn that into numbers and program them in."
The wave forms look like shapes. So the sound for one kind of tone could look like a square, and a different-sounding tone could look like a staircase.
One of Namco's composers, Junko Ozawa, kept the sound waves she made in a little graphing notebook. Her music can be heard in various games, such as "Tower of Druaga" and "R.B.I Baseball 2."
"Tower of Druaga," for example, had eight different patterns.
Composers found inspiration for their 8-bit and later 16-bit tunes everywhere, ranging from night clubs, to Hirokazu Tanaka's love of Reggae music. He's one of Nintendo's most famous composers who created the music for "Metroid."
And now, music-makers find their inspiration from the sounds that came out of some of those early video games.
See more about how video game music was made in the 1980s in the video below:
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Netflix is preparing to launch its newest original series this month, "Marco Polo," which focuses on the life of the famous explorer, including his interactions with Kublai Kahn.
It's one of the most expensive TV series ever made, according to The New York Times, since it costs $90 million to produce 10 episodes. The only show with a higher budget is HBO's "Game Of Thrones."
But there's another reason "Marco Polo" is so important for Netflix. The company is hoping the series will appeal to international audiences as it expands, especially since Netflix holds the international rights to "Marco Polo."
Netflix didn't hold any international rights to other popular shows such as "House Of Cards," which is why the series was able to appear on rival platforms in Germany and France, according to The New York Times.
But offering a blockbuster show that subscribers — including those overseas — can only get through Netflix could help the company reach its goal of becoming a global company.
Netflix is already hard at work with its international rollout, but subscriber growth hasn't been booming as much as many had hoped.
In October, following its European launch in September, the company reported that it had added 2 million international subscribers, which is below the 2.36 million estimate many were expecting. Domestic growth has slowed too, as Netflix reported 975,000 subscribers in the US versus the 1.33 million many were expecting.
This sluggish growth in the US makes international expansion that much more important for Netflix. Executives and producers working on the show told The New York Times they think the show will resonate with audiences overseas, especially since the plot focuses on a heroic journey all cultures can relate to. Netflix is also relying on the show to promote its streaming service in general as in enters new markets.
"Marco Polo" will debut on all of its global properties on Dec. 12. Check out the trailer below to get an idea of what to expect.
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James Cameron's "Avatar" became the highest-grossing movie ever making over $2.7 billion after it came out in 2009.
Three sequels are set for release consecutively in 2016, 2017, and 2018, and, apparently, they'll be worth the long wait.
In a new interview with Empire Magazine, Cameron wouldn't say much about the films, but he did say one thing.
"They’re gonna be bitchin’," said Cameron. "You will s--- yourself with your mouth wide open.”
That's some high praise, but when you've made two of the highest-grossing movies ever at the box office, who can argue with that?
So far, we know Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana will reprise their roles in all three sequels. Stephen Lang, who played the villain, and was killed off in the 2009 film, will also return.
Sigourney Weaver will also return in all three movies in a new role.
The films are expected to be in theaters December 2016, 2017, and 2018.
SEE ALSO: The "Avatar" sequels will use groundbreaking underwater technology
AND: James Cameron explains how he wrote three "Avatar" sequels simultaneously
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Warning: There are some spoilers ahead for season 5 and from the comic book.
"The Walking Dead" fans may have been surprised this season when the new big villains this season, a group of cannibals, were quickly and brutally killed off in episode three.
It seemed like we were in for the long haul (or at least a little while) with this storyline. The leader of the cannibals, Andrew J. West's Gareth, seemed like the successor to the show's previous popular villain, The Governor (David Morrissey).
The Governor was on the series for two seasons. The cannibal crew lasted about a total of five episodes after heavily being teased over the course of season 4.
Now that they're gone, the group doesn't have any main antagonist. Sure, Beth (Emily Kinney) was taken by a group of mysterious survivors, but they don't seem like any real threat Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and his group of survivors can't handle by the close of season 5.
What's next?
Any one who reads the comic knows there's a huge fan favorite villain coming eventually to the series named Negan.
Who's Negan?
If you thought the one-eyed, prison slaughtering Governor was awful, Negan's at least 10 times worse. The character is the leader of a large group of survivors coined "The Saviors" made up of mostly violent men. Negan delivers his own brand of justice with the swing of a bat wrapped in barbed wire he calls Lucille.
"The Walking Dead" creator Robert Kirkman confirmed to MTV News in April he's coming eventually.
There's just one problem.
The character isn't the easiest to bring to life on screen. Negan is known for throwing around the "f-bomb" in nearly every panel of the comic.
While at New York Comic Con last month, we caught up with "The Walking Dead" creator Robert Kirkman and asked him when we could expect to see Negan on the series and how the character would be adapted to screen.
It doesn't sound like we should be gearing up to see Negan in the rest of season 5.
"Negan says a word that you can't say on television. I understand that. I think that there are ways around that," Kirkman tells Business Insider. "Luckily, we're not going to have to work that out for some time. I'm not going to say when Negan will possibly show up on the show, but it's not any time soon."
How do you adapt a character who appears virtually unadaptable?
It's not even clear Kirkman's sure yet.
"We'll figure that out along the way," Kirkman added. "Maybe AMC can change the rules on TV."
SEE ALSO: Why "The Walking Dead" casts so many actors from HBO's hit show "The Wire"
AND: "The Walking Dead" actress tells us the hardest part about season 4
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The "Star Wars: Episode VII" trailer premiered Friday online and in theaters.
The film will star newcomers John Boyega and Daisy Ridley while reuniting original cast members Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford.
While we didn't see any of them in the trailer teaser, "Star Wars" creator George Lucas was thinking about Episode VII and beyond back when the original trilogy debuted in the 1970s.
After the trailer launch, Reddit user Dessel posted an interview clip of Mark Hamill from 1983 discussing a potential "Episode VII" that wouldn't be filmed for about three decades.
Lucas "at one time said, 'Would you consider playing an Obi Wan-type character handing Excalibur down to the next generation?'" Hamill said.
Hamill wondered when that sequel would take place.
"At the time he [Lucas] said, 'Oh, around 2011,'" Hamill said.
With "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" set for a 2015 theatrical release, Lucas wasn't that far off.
Watch the clip below.
According to a Time magazine article from March 1978, Lucas originally had plans for up to 12 "Star Wars" films.
Over the years, that number changed. In 1983, Lucas hinted to Time not only about the prequel series that eventually came to be, but also a third trilogy that wouldn't happen until after the '90s.
Via Time's May 23, 1983 issue:
If he does carry the story any further, he will probably go back to the beginning, before these characters were born, and make what he calls a 'prequel,' another trilogy that would explain how the Republic fell. Only after that — and certainly not before the 1990s — would he do the sequel and show what happens to the Star Wars trio after Jedi.
When Disney purchased Lucasfilm Ltd. in 2012 for $4 billion, the Mouse House received Lucas' treatments for the next three "Star Wars" movies.
We don't know anything about the plot yet for "Episode VII," but we could easily see Hamill play an older Jedi similar to Alec Guinness in the original trilogy.
SEE ALSO: Watch The Episode VII Trailer
AND: An Explanation Of The 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Trailer
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