In order to get the look right for "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens," costume designer Michael Kaplan had to throw out all the designs he was working with from the original trilogy. 

Kaplan, who previously worked on "Blade Runner," "Fight Club," and J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek," didn't think anything from the original "Star Wars" trilogy could apply to a new film.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Kaplan says that a lot of the old costumes, such as the stormtrooper uniforms, would not be usable anymore. 

"Audiences of today have become so sophisticated that a lot of things you could get away with in the past, you can’t anymore." Kaplan told Vanity Fair. "So the new uniforms are much heavier."

Much of the action in the film is different than it was in the original and because of that, the new costumes had to be designed to accommodate that. 

"The action in the film required them to not be 'VacuFormed' [like the old uniforms] as those all broke and cracked. These new ones are much more heavy-duty, but they are redesigned, too, they’re not the same stormtroopers." Kaplan added.

While director J.J. Abrams wanted to hold on to the "uniqueness" of the stormtroopers, he also realized that it would be odd to "have the same stormtroopers this much later when Leia and Han are so much older."

"The Force Awakens" will take place 30 years after the events of "Return of the Jedi," which came out in 1983.

Instead of drastically changing the way the stormtroopers look, they decided to make their outfits a little simpler. Or, as Kaplan puts it, he thought: "what would Apple do?"

Like with a lot of new Apple products, Abrams wanted the stormtroopers to still look the same "at a glance" but also "different enough to kind of wow people and get them excited about the new design."

There were some other looks that Kaplan wanted to alter as well. He recalls being confused by the look of the warring factions. 

"...The uniform colors kind of overlapped—both [the rebels and the Empire] had some khakis and olive, and I kind of thought, Now I’m in a position to do something about this." Kaplan said.

To remedy this problem, he gave The Empire "very cold blacks and grays and metallics and teal blues." Meanwhile, The Rebels are given a warmer look of "khakis and olives and some oranges."

Even the looks of classic characters such as Leia, Luke, and Han, who will return for "The Force Awakens," weren't completely sacred. However, Kaplan realizes that there is a line he must walk between preserving what the characters always were, and making necessary changes. 

"A lot of it had to do with what was right for the story and the action, but a lot of it was also, you know, people have a way of dressing." Kaplain said. "I wouldn’t really be doing my job if I thought, Hey, let’s redesign this character totally and put them in colors they’ve never worn. It just wouldn’t make any sense. But you also want new, interesting things to look at. You want enough change to be there."

You'll have to wait until the end of the year to see the new looks. "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" will be in theaters December 18, 2015.

SEE ALSO: Here are two new Stormtroopers that will be in 'Star Wars: Episode VII'

SEE ALSO: Here's the mystery character this 'Game of Thrones' actress will play in 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'

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NOW WATCH: Disney just released a new 'Star Wars: Episode VII' trailer and it's incredible

The new "Daredevil" show has a stunning 4.6 rating on Netflix — that's a tenth of a point higher than "House of Cards." Everyone I know loves it, including me, and I'm only on episode 6. If you're still not convinced, though, check out the top-rated member reviews.

2,691 out of 2,693 members found this five-star review helpful:

Better than I ever in a million years could have even imagined this was going to turn out. As a long time Daredevil fan I am in tears after the first episode. They did it, they brought him to life; for real this time.

1,608 out of 1,610 members found this five-star review helpful:

What a fantastic job Marvel has done in recreating Daredevil for the small screen. The cinematography and fight choreography are unparalleled to other Marvel properties that have come to television thus far. With this first episode of Daredevil, Marvel has clearly foreshadowed what to expect from the future of its Defenders line-up. Murdock's swift punches, silent movements, and constant awareness of his environment showcases the physical brutality of the "powerless" Daredevil. Further, the quality of the storytelling draws this viewer in beyond the action scenes. Charlie Cox's charisma and banter with Foggy Nelson contrasted against the serious tones underlying Kingpin's diverse mob network delivers a stellar crime drama with heartfelt humor. An excellent start to Marvel's expansion into the Defenders mythos and the NF community.

926 out of 927 members found this five-star review helpful:

I'm 51. Believe it or not, I used to be a 10 year old boy. When I got my allowance, I'd buy comics. They were 20 cents then. Now, I work, I sleep, I get up and do it again. Not a lot of fun really. But, for the past few days, I've had a ton a fun. I laughed, cried, cheered, cursed, I even jumped out of my chair once. Yeah. For the past few days...I was 10 again.

SEE ALSO: We explain why 'Daredevil' is a masterpiece

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NOW WATCH: 70 people were injured while filming this movie with 100 untamed lions

While summer used to be the time of year that most TV shows took a break, this summer is more crowded than ever.

There are new offerings from streaming services and networks alike.

In order to help narrow it down, here is a guide for the must-watch shows of summer 2015.

"Wayward Pines" (FOX)

Premiere date: Thursday, May 14 at 9:00 p.m.

What it's about: A secret service agent (Matt Dillon) travels to a small town to solve a mystery. What he finds out, however, is that he may never leave it alive. 

Why you should watch: "Wayward Pines" is directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

A series of high profile box-office bombs have turned him into a convenient punching bag. Perhaps this foray into television will finally be the project that restores him to "Sixth Sense" glory. Since the show debuted, reviews have been positive.

"Aquarius" (NBC)

Premiere date: May 28 at 9:00 p.m.

What it's about: Police officer Sam Hodiak (David Duchovny) goes deep undercover to track Charles Manson and his family. 

Why you should watch: With "The Jinx," "Serial," and "Thought Crimes," America's recent fasciation with true crime is far from over. Now, the infamous (yet endlessly fascinating) legend of the Manson family gets its own hour. Just like "Hannibal," "Aquarius" looks as far from a network show as possible, which might be why we are so excited for NBC's latest drama. 

"Halt and Catch Fire" (AMC)

Premiere date: Sunday, May 31 at 10:00 p.m.

What it's about: This drama set in the early 1980s traces the beginnings of the home computer.

Why you should watch: The show received mostly positive reviews in its first season. But with some tense-looking commercials and some cool posters, it looks like AMC is now putting a lot of energy behind this show. Perhaps they are looking for a new period piece to fill the huge, nearly impossible to fill gap left by "Mad Men" in the network's schedule.

Almost exactly three years from the release of “Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace,” “Episode II - Attack of the Clones” opened in theaters on May 16, 2002 with many excited for the release of the latest chapter, and hopeful that the continuation of the prequel storyline would leave behind the kiddy playfulness in “Episode I.”

10 years later in the saga, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) is under the tutelage of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and is reunited with Senator Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) following an assassination attempt on her. Skywalker is assigned to protect Senator Amidala while Kenobi investigates the attempted assassination. Skywalker and Amidala soon fall in love, while Kenobi learns of the Republic’s clone army and the Separatists’ battle droids led by renegade Jedi master, Count Dooku (Christopher Lee). This leads to the beginning of the Clone Wars. 

The film concludes with Kenobi and Skywalker facing off against Dooku. Once Dooku fights them both off, Yoda enters the battle for a sequence most “Star Wars” fans never thought was possible.

Showing how far the computer graphic wizards at Industrial Light and Magic have come, we watch Yoda have a dazzling lightsaber battle with Dooku.

This goose-bump inducing scene took years to pull off and many sleepless nights for George Lucas.

“To be very honest with you, I was scared to death of this sequence and how we were going to pull this off,” Lucas said on the commentary of the Blu-ray of “Attack of the Clones.” “This was the biggest risk in the whole movie. Could I make this realistic enough to make it believable, or would it be this ludicrous joke.”

It was far from that. Let’s break it down.

Yoda enters the fray by facing off with Dooku using their powers of the Force.

First Dooku tried to throw the rocky ceiling on Yoda.

Dooku then tried to uses his electric power on him, but Yoda sends it right back at him.

When neither finds an advantage they turn to their lightsabers. Yoda uses the Force to unhinge his lightsaber from his holster to his hand and then prepares for battle.

Yoda and Dooku fight throughout the hanger.

Dooku finally ends the duel and escapes by using to Force to land a large generator on top of Kenobi and Skywalker. 

But Yoda uses his powers of the Force to protect them.

There was a lot of tweaking that went on with this sequence before we all finally saw the finished product.

The original script had Yoda entering the Dooku fight right when he appears in the hanger. But some of the senior members of ILM, including visual effects supervisor John Knoll and animation director Rob Coleman were able to convince Lucas to draw the sequence out a bit and include the exchanging of Force powers before Yoda and Dooku turn to lightsabers.

“[We] talked to George month after month about how we could make this real and believable,” Coleman said on the “Clones” Blu-ray commentary. “We felt if we got into the fight too quickly the audience would not be able to travel that distance from Yoda being an 800-year-old character to be able to go around with such speed and be nimble. So we talked to George about, what we called, ‘The Wizards' Battle’ and we added this into the sequence because I think it really helps us as an audience to travel with Yoda to find the inner strength and energy to fight this evil Jedi master, this Sith lord.”

And another decision made before production began was to have a “digital double” of Christopher Lee. Though Lee boasts he holds the record for most sword fights in front of the camera than any other actor, the legend was 79 at the time of shooting, so a majority of his shots in the sequence were done by a stunt double.

Then when the double's face could be revealed on camera, it was replaced digitally by Lee's face. And in regards to knowing where Yoda would be when they filmed the actors for the scene, a small Yoda doll was used on set as a reference point for the actors.

Lucas even had fun with Lee by placing a pair of fangs on the Yoda doll to tease Lee of his legendary performances as Dracula in the 1960s.

The part that brought the most anxiety was making Yoda digital. 

In the theatrical release of “Episode I,” Yoda was still a puppet (a digital version replaced the puppet in the 2011 Blu-ray release of the film), so this was the first time an audience saw the 800-year-old Jedi Master sans Frank Oz (who not only did Yoda's voice but operated the puppet).

One of the biggest challenges for the animators was keeping that puppet feel.

Coleman and his team poured over footage of Yoda from “The Empire Strikes Back” to give their digital version authentic mouth movements and even have Yoda’s ears bounce slightly as the puppet version did.

But for the fight with Dooku, they had to create the believability of Yoda moving quickly. Lucas and Coleman spent months painstakingly going over the sequence that the animators created. They had to make a lot of decisions where Yoda was concerned: Will Yoda have a robe or won't he while fighting? They also had to make sure Yoda wasn't moving too fast in the battle, but enough to prove he was still a master of his craft. 

Lucas said he knew the sequence would work when he saw Yoda's incredible entrance.

"I was worried right up to the point where the animators showed me the shot where he walks in and looks tough," he said. "Suddenly, Yoda in his acting, I believe this was a tough character you had to look out for… This is what we've been waiting for."

Watch the Yoda/Dooku fight below (beginning at the 2:30 mark).

SEE ALSO: How a simple wooden plank helped create the greatest fight in "Star Wars: Episode I"

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In director Brad Bird’s stunning “Tomorrowland” (opening Friday) we are thrust into a futuristic world that’s a playground for those with big ideas.

This magical place is the brainchild of one of the biggest idea men ever, Walt Disney. In 1955 he unveiled the Tomorrowland theme land in his Disney theme parks, which depicted views of the future. 60 years later those ideas have been expanded by the marvels at Industrial Light & Magic.

The visual effects studio created by George Lucas to achieve the special effects feats for his "Star Wars" saga and has since made the impossible possible on everything from "Jurassic Park" to the recent blockbusters from Marvel, were tasked in 2013 to convert Disney’s theme land to an eye-popping futuristic world for the screen.

“There were many, many ideas originally,” “Tomorrowland” co-visual effects supervisor Eddie Pasquarello told Business Insider. “If you see the different iterations you would see the theme park in the '70s, it ran the gamut. Even while making the visual effects for the film, the look of 'Tomorrowland' didn’t get locked until half way through our post production process.”

The look that was finally decided is a sleek city with pointy skyscrapers and filled with people flying on jet packs, rockets launching in the distance, swimmers diving down bottomless floating swimming pools, and monorail tracks weaved throughout it. Oh, and if you look hard enough during the movie you’ll see Space Mountain, the theme land’s flagship ride, tucked away in the city. 


“It wasn’t just a wink to the theme park,” Pasquarello notes, “it’s one of the best designed buildings in the Tomorrowland park.”

ILM spent two-and-a-half years on the film and produced 1,037 effects shots with a staff of close to 200 split between their San Francisco and Vancouver offices.

Most of the effects done for the Tomorrowland world were almost completely computer-generated, though some were done with stationary pieces that the actors stood on during shooting in Vancouver and Valencia, Spain.

Pasquarello said the biggest challenge ILM took on was creating the experience Britt Robertson’s character, Casey, has when she first visits Tomorrowland.

In the film, Casey and Frank (George Clooney) are optimistic dreamers who have visited Tomorrowland and are determined to return. Frank first visited as a young boy, who found his way there when he was at the 1964 World's Fair in New York. Casey's initial visit happens after she finds a special pin that gives her a glimpse of the world when she touches it. In a four-minute sequence that’s one continuous shot, we follow Casey as she marvels over the world.

“Making that feel like one big long shot was a huge undertaking,” said Pasquarello. “It was like a movie within a movie.”

The sequence was broken down into four parts and taken on by a team of 30 people total.

“The challenge was seaming into one shot all of the stationary pieces together [with the computer graphics],” Pasquarello explained.

To give an example, Pasquarello said a shot of Robertson on a sound stage in Vancouver would become her riding a monorail in the sequence. ILM would then have to sync that shot seamlessly with a shot of her standing at a stationary piece in Spain, which after they were done with it would become a section of the sequence where she's standing on a rocket-launch platform.

Pasquarello says out of all the FX shots ILM did for the movie that sequence was the most rewarding when watching the finished film.

“Seeing everything put together to work, I just smiled watching it all,” he said.

SEE ALSO: Walt Disney's original plan for Epcot sounded like an eerie futuristic dystopia

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NOW WATCH: George Clooney goes on a quest to save the world in this new 'Tomorrowland' trailer

It's not hard to tell from the ubiquitous ads for "Game of War: Fire Age," featuring a scantily clad Kate Upton, that it is one of the worst variety of mobile games. If you had any doubt, just read Matt Johnston's walkthrough about how painful it is to gather resources endlessly just to unlock ways to gather more resources without ever engaging in anything close to war.

Despite being painful to play, however, this crappy game is incredibly profitable — as of this writing, it is the number two top grossing app on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

Why are players putting money into "Game of War?" Because the entire game is built around digging hooks into players, getting them invested in its infinite loops and convoluted systems, and then charging money for the ability to stay invested. If you really want to compete, you'll pay in.

That sentiment is echoed in comments on the piece Matt wrote. "Without spending $$$ , building and researching can take months," wrote commenter JoeBroady.

I've been playing the game every day for three weeks now; this is the case with every system in the game. For example:

See all those "speed up" buttons next to the blue arrows? Those enable you to speed up the time to complete a given task in the game. In order to speed up tasks, you must use a one-time use item in the game. When you run out of those items – and you will run out of them quickly – your option is to buy more.

That system is consistent across the board.

Want to train up troops faster or research faster or attack a nearby monster faster? You can! All you have to do is cough up some cash. Your cash converts to in-game "Gold," which enables you to buy speed-ups or to skip the waiting time you'd normally have to endure to build / upgrade your home base. 

After the game loads, the very first screen you'll always see is a "BUY GOLD" advertisement (the in-game currency that costs real world money). They come in a variety of flavors, from the mundane to the holiday-themed:

Garish as this may be, it's the basest level of pushing "Game of War" does for your money. It's the game's many, many systems for "questing" and base building – combined with the online multiplayer aspect – that make "Game of War" such a moneymaker.

The long and short is this: if you want to compete, you have to buy in. As one commenter put it:

The difference between the big spenders and everyone else is huge. Not just 2, 3 or even 10 times more powerful, but a hundred or two hundred times more powerful. This makes it boring and pointless for everyone except the "whales."

And this is how "Game of War" makes so much money. Like other free-to-play successes before it, such as "FarmVille" and "Evony," there is a hard ceiling on your ability to compete unless you dish out real money, and lots of it. You've gotta be a "whale."

The "whales" referenced above are a group commonly associated with free-to-play games. These are the folks spending large amounts of money in order to significantly advance their game. These are the "Rich Kids of Instagram" of gaming, the oil magnates who don't mind dropping a few thousand dollars to fuel their addiction. These are the people who fund the development and maintenance of free games like "Game of War," and they represent 1-3% of players.

Free-to-play? Maybe. But certainly not free to win.

SEE ALSO: The ugly truth about the wildly popular 'Game Of War' featuring Kate Upton

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NOW WATCH: Liam Neeson transformed what could have been an ordinary mobile game ad into a Super Bowl great

This week on The CW, “The Flash” wrapped up a stellar first season, ending a string of bright, colorful, and unabashedly fun episodes with an emotional finale and a hell of a cliffhanger. Like it’s titular hero, “The Flash” bolted out of the gate at top speed, with remarkably few stumbles in its freshman year. It also gave viewers a taste of something longtime DC Comics readers have known for years: That while he isn’t a part of the famed trinity of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, The Flash is secretly the most important character in the entire DC Universe. 

It isn’t even really a matter of opinion — sure, personal taste will dictate how much you enjoy any given Flash story, but the character’s importance is about as objective as you can get in comic books. It was The Flash that comics creators used to introduce or popularize a number of ideas that are now integral to the DC Universe, and comics as a whole. It's quite possible to chart the history of DC Comics, and to a lesser extent, mainstream superhero comics, using the Flash as a measuring stick. 

The Flash made his debut in January 1940, the third of DC’s most-recognizable characters to be created in the Golden Age of comics, coming after Batman but just before Green Lantern. He was also an entirely different character than the one you might know from the current main “Flash” comic being published by DC, on the CW TV series, or the upcoming movie set to star Ezra Miller. Those are all about another Flash — Barry Allen. We’ll get to him in a moment. 

The first Flash, however, was a guy named Jay Garrick.

While his origin was different and his costume goofier than his more recognizable successor, the important part is pretty much the same: He’s a superhero who runs really fast. You don’t really have to read his stories unless you’re a die-hard Flash fan and a completist — most Golden Age comics aren’t all that great — but there are two things that are important about him. The first is a fun bit of trivia — he becomes a part of the first superhero team ever, the Justice Society of America. The second, however, is much more interesting.

The first reboot in comics

In 1956, DC Comics did something crazy: They introduced an entirely new Flash in their variety book “Showcase,” issue #4. Created by writers Robert Kanigher and John Broome with legendary artist Carmine Infantino, this new Flash was Barry Allen, a police scientist who gained his powers after getting doused by chemicals that were struck by lightning. This is where the Flash most people are familiar with began, iconic red suit and all. 

No one had ever done this before — it was, essentially, the first real reboot in superhero comics. The Flash’s success was a key part of reviving the then floundering superhero genre, which had been under attack following the publication of Fredric Wertham’s anticomic-book manifesto “The Seduction of the Innocent.” Thanks to The Flash, superheroes began to come back in a big way — and the birth of Barry Allen effectively marked the start of the Silver Age of comics. 

Make sense? Good. Here’s where things get crazy.

Flash meets Flash

When Barry Allen took over as the Flash, he was originally intended to replace Jay Garrick entirely. After his first appearance in “Showcase” was deemed a success and he was placed in his own book, “The Flash,” the new series picked up where the Jay Garrick-starring “Flash Comics” left off — with issue #105. 

Funny story, though — Jay Garrick wasn’t entirely wiped from existence. Instead, he was a comic book character that Barry Allen read, a character that Allen would name himself after. 

And then they meet.

In the seminal story “The Flash of Two Worlds” by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino, Barry Allen, as The Flash, is demonstrating his powers at a community event when he does something he’s never done before. He vibrates straight out of our universe and into another, Earth-2, where his comic-book hero, Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash, is real (along with the Golden Age versions of all of DC's characters). That story, which took place in “Flash” #123, marked the birth of the DC multiverse, and — to use an old comics cliché— nothing would ever be the same again. 

The sci-fi plot device of parallel universes would become one of the most well-worn tropes in superhero comics, and it got its start with The Flash. “The Flash of Two Worlds” established Earth-2 as the world where all of DC's Golden Age characters resided, and started a trend where DC creators would introduce new parallel Earths to tell stories that deviated greatly from everything that came before — and some of those stories were weird. 

Eventually, it would all get out of hand, with far too many universes in DC for its fans to keep track of and very little consistency regarding its characters’ backstories. To resolve this, DC would bring the multiverse to an end in 1985’s  “Crisis on Infinite Earths” by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. “Crisis” was a watershed moment in comics history, collapsing all of DC’s multiple universes into one greatest-hits filled version of their entire publishing history. It’s even used as a measuring stick for DC chronology — pre and post “Crisis” became descriptors for discussing DC history.

What does this have to do with The Flash? Everything. Barry Allen plays a crucial role in “Crisis,” one that leads to his heroic death at the beginning of the miniseries’ final act. It’s a bit of a poetic, if not tragic, end for the character: The hero whose origin marked the start of the Silver Age would die at its end. 

In doing so, Allen and his story would solidify the one thing that most differentiates DC from its chief competitor, Marvel. 

It’s all about legacy

During the first few years of Barry Allen’s tenure as The Flash, DC introduced a teenaged sidekick for the Scarlet Speedster: Wally West, AKA Kid Flash. At the end of “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” West would take on the mantle of his former mentor and become the Flash of the Modern Age of Comics in DC’s post "Crisis" universe. 

Once again, The Flash was ground zero for another comic book first: The sidekick who inherited the mantle of his mentor. The graduation of Wally West was a huge comics landmark, the canonization of what’s still perceived as a cornerstone of the DC Universe: legacy. Its heroes are ideas, larger than life and bigger than any one person. They’re all symbols proudly carried by multiple people across generations — and sometimes all at once. Families form around them, bearing Superman’s shield or Batman’s signature Bat symbol like coats of arms, noble banners in a mythic tapestry going back more than 75 years. 

This sort of noble heroism that inspires followers and family is something that’s a huge part of these characters’ DNA, but it struggles to make it to the big screen. The superhero movie zeitgeist on the whole — and the DC movie esthetic in particular — favors a certain hard-edged grimness at odds with all that. The utter bigness and limitless fun inherent to most of DC’s pantheon of heroes has yet to be faithfully portrayed on film, and it’s a shame. 

Which brings us back to “The Flash." While it’s not entirely without fault, the CW’s “Flash” series is bridging this gap, bringing a sense of unbridled joy and heroism to the small-screen adventures of Barry Allen. It is a complete breath of fresh air, and totally embraces it’s often-campy comic-book roots where other superhero adaptations would have played them down. Its first season concluded in a way that every superhero story should end: With the feeling that anything could happen next. 

It’s been a long time since a live-action superhero story has been able to pull that off so effortlessly. Once again, The Flash has heralded a watershed moment for comic books. 

Run, Barry, run. 

SEE ALSO: It's astonishing how far Disney is going to bury the X-Men

SEE ALSO: George Clooney considered playing Marvel's Nick Fury until he saw this unbelievably gory scene

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NOW WATCH: Marvel's new 'Ant-Man' trailer looks even better than 'Guardians of the Galaxy'

Mac started gaining attention when she began posting photos of herself as the Queen of the Dragons from the set of the fantasy drama based on George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels.

According to Metro UK, Mac had been standing in on the show's fifth season. Currently 18 years old, Mac moved to Marbella, Spain, when she was 10 years old.

Although some reports refer to Mac as a stand-in and double for Clarke, an HBO representative told Business Insider that she was only a stand-in.

What's the difference? A stand-in is typically used to set cameras and lighting while the actor is away, while a double is used on camera for stunts, sex scenes, and other scenes actors are unable to do or won't do.

Also, despite what Mac's boss and star of Dublin's "Real Housewives" series, Virginia Macari, told Ireland's Sunday World, don't hold your breath waiting to see Mac in her own role on "Game of Thrones." An individual close to the show told Business Insider that producers may have discussed an extra role for Mac, but it never came to be. 

In the meantime, check out Mac on-set below with "GOT" actor and Daenerys' current love interest, Michiel Huisman.

When not in her "Game of Thrones" garb, Mac tends to post more model shots:

And recently dyed her blonde hair brown:

SEE ALSO: HBO's 'Game of Thrones' got the Iron Throne all wrong

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NOW WATCH: 'Game of Thrones' superfans caught George R.R. Martin's mistake so he hired them

Alan Wilzig, a real-life inspiration for a character in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” has dropped the price of his self-listed Tribeca condo from $43.5 million to $38.5 million.   

The 7,500-square-foot townhouse at 3 Hubert Street has a 2,500-square-foot roof deck, backyard, six bedrooms, and an attached garage where Wilzig currently stores his motorcycle memorabilia. It also has bulletproof windows and a lighting system that would give Miami clubs a run for their money.

In the film, Wilzig inspired the character at the pool party scene who introduced Leonardo Di Caprio’s character to his future wife.  

Entrepreneur and semi-professional race car driver Alan Wilzig is selling his townhouse for $38.5 million — with no broker.

In total, the home has 7,500 square feet of space.

It also has a 2,500-square-foot roof deck.

You can't rely entirely on your lucky game piece if you want to demolish your friends and family members in a game of Monopoly. Here are a few math-based game tricks that you can take straight to the bank. 

Narrated by Sara Silverstein. Special thanks to Walter Hickey.

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Jay Z's $9.99-per-month artist-owned streaming music service, Tidal, launched last month with a star-studded presentation and the promise to “forever change the course of music history.”

Usher, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Madonna, Kanye West, Daft Punk, Arcade Fire, Beyoncé, and many others all showed up to support the world's first streaming platform owned by musicians, which will pay established musicians for playing their songs.

But many notable artists who weren't on stage that day are now publicly speaking out about the ridiculous display of riches.

"I think they totally blew it by bringing out a bunch of millionaires and billionaires and propping them up onstage and then having them all complain about not being paid," Death Cab for Cutie singer Ben Gibbard said in a recent interview with The Daily Beast. "That’s why this thing is going to fail miserably."

Instead, Gibbard says Jay Z should have taken a different approach.

"If I had been Jay Z, I would have brought out ten artists that were underground or independent and said, 'These are the people who are struggling to make a living in today’s music industry. Whereas this competitor streaming site pays this person 15 cents for X amount of streams, that same amount of streams on my site, on Tidal, will pay that artist this much.'"

Gibbard continued: "There was a wonderful opportunity squandered to highlight what this service would mean for artists who are struggling and to make a plea to people’s hearts and pocketbooks to pay a little more for this service that was going to pay these artists a more reasonable streaming rate. And they didn’t do it."

Tidal's Chief Investment Officer, Vania Schlogel, disputes the claims, telling Business Insider: "Indie artists are paid less than their major label counterparts across the board – it’s been an industry standard for years.  They’re paid at 55% royalty rate, versus major label artists at 60%. We pay all artists not only at the same rate, but a higher rate – the highest in the industry at 62.5%."

But while A-listers from Madonna to Rihanna were asked personally by Jay Z to join Tidal, many big musicians were left off the rapper's hit list, including Grammy-winning British indie rock band Mumford & Sons.

The band's front man, Marcus Mumford, told The Daily Beast in a separate interview earlier this month: "We wouldn’t have joined it anyway, even if they had asked. We don’t want to be tribal."

"We just want to play music, and I don’t want to align myself with Spotify, Beats, Tidal, or whatever," Mumford explained. "We want people to listen to our music in their most comfortable way, and if they’re not up for paying for it, I don’t really care."

Mumford, whose 2012 album "Babel" was the highest-selling debut of the year, agrees with Gibbard's sentiments that Jay Z's plea to make the rich richer wasn't exactly the best approach to consumers.

"I think smaller bands should get paid more for it, too. Bigger bands have other ways of making money, so I don’t think you can complain," Mumford added to The Daily Beast. "A band of our size shouldn’t be complaining. And when they say it’s artist-owned, it’s owned by those rich, wealthy artists."

Mumford & Sons guitarist Winston Marshall had a harsher stance, calling the celebrities involved with Tidal "new school f---ing plutocrats."

Singer Lily Allen has also spoken out against Tidal, saying it will turn people to piracy.

"I love Jay Z so much, but TIDAL is so expensive compared to other perfectly good streaming services," she tweeted to her 5.11 million followers earlier this month. "He’s taken the biggest artists & made them exclusive to TIDAL (am i right in thinking this ?), people are going to swarm back to pirate sites in droves sending traffic to torrent sites. Up and coming (not yet millionaires) artists are going to suffer as a result… my concern is that Tidal may set emerging artists back."

Music producer Steve Albini, who has worked on nearly 1,500 albums and wrote the widely circulated "The Problem With Music" in 1993, is also anti-Tidal.

"The for-pay services are deluding themselves by trying to establish a permanent monetization of something that’s in flux," Albini recently explained to Vulture. "The internet provides access to materials and things. Creating these little streaming fiefdoms where certain streaming services have certain artists and certain streaming services have other artists is a crippled use of the internet. If the internet has demonstrated anything over the years, it’s that it has a way of breaking limitations placed on its content."

In the wake of the negative press surrounding Tidal, including the recent departure of the service's CEO and 25 employees, Jay Z is still working hard to promote the streaming service.

After recent layoffs at the company, Jay Z and Jack White personally called customers to reassure fans.

On Thursday, it was reported that Jay Z and Beyoncé might be releasing a secret album exclusively on Tidal to get more people to use the service.

Despite his efforts, the rapper's celebrity doesn't appear to be boosting business.

On Tuesday, two weeks after Tidal briefly cracked the US iPhone top-20 download chart, the app crashed out of the top 700, notes BGR.

"To make matters worse for Tidal, its main rivals are now surging," adds BGR. "On April 20th, Pandora and Spotify occupied positions No. 3 and No. 4 on the U.S. iPhone revenue chart, respectively."

Tidal launched last year and was bought by Jay Z in January for a reported $56 million. The newly relaunched app charges $9.99 a month for standard-definition streaming and $19.99 for a high-definition audio version.

Unlike competitors such as Spotify and Pandora, Tidal boasts exclusive content from musicians, like Beyoncé's recent track that coincided with her and Jay Z’s wedding anniversary. But even a peek into the superstar couple's private relationship doesn't appear to be enough to warrant $9.99 a month. 

SEE ALSO: The CEO of Jay Z's music streaming site Tidal has left the company

MORE: Jay Z and Beyoncé might be releasing a secret album on Tidal to get more people to use the service

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NOW WATCH: If You're Going To Pay For Music — Pay For This

People have a tendency to make legends out of highly successful businesspeople, thinking they must know something deep and insightful to get to the top.

Yet this is a dangerous mindset to have, said "Shark Tank" investor Robert Herjavec.

Business Insider recently spoke with the cyber security entrepreneur at a press conference for Deluxe's entrepreneur initiative, Small Business Revolution.

"You know, people always ask that question: 'What's the one piece of advice that changes everything?'" Herjavec said. To him, that piece of advice doesn't exist.

The most successful entrepreneurs are certainly talented and intelligent, Herjavec explained, but it's the long hours and tireless focus that causes them to triumph, even though those experiences are hard to capture in a sound bite. "It's the thousand little, non-sexy, non-exciting, mundane things that you have to do in order to be recognized."

That doesn't mean you should disregard everything you hear or that you shouldn't share your own insight with less experienced colleagues.

After all, Herjavec has written two books filled with lessons learned from founding and growing the Herjavec Group and investing in other companies. He's just saying that there are few universal truths in business.

If he had to offer one piece of advice, it's to "take the advice that helps you, and discard the stuff that doesn't." In other words, figure out what works well for you, and stick with it.

"I do what I do well," Herjavec said. "All of the things I don't do well, I forget!"

Ultimately, he said, "free advice is worth exactly what you've paid for it."

SEE ALSO: 'Shark Tank' investor Robert Herjavec explains how to know you should quit your job and become a full-time entrepreneur

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NOW WATCH: The surprising reason 'Shark Tank' investor Robert Herjavec started his own company

Fans have just assumed that HBO's "Silicon Valley" based its raunchy venture capitalist Russell Hanneman on Mark Cuban, but Sunday's episode pretty much answers the question.

In a scene with the guys of Pied Piper, Russ (Chris Diamantopoulos) says that he has been informed that his net worth had fallen below a billion dollars. The news sent him into a tailspin and he asked the guys to prematurely jump to a revenue-producing model of Pied Piper.

During that conversation, he describes the moment he became a billionaire.

"I remember the second I became a billionaire," Russ said. "I was a-- naked, sitting right there, just clicking and refreshing, clicking and refreshing, watching the stock rise. And when it happened, I popped a [expletive] so fast I went blind for a full minute, [expletive] all over those cushions."

Sound familiar?

Cuban told a very similar story (minus the raunchy, expletive part) in August 2014 during a podcast interview.

"Literally, I was sitting in front of a computer, naked, hitting the refresh because we were close — waiting until my net worth hit that billion when the stock price got to a certain point, and then I kinda screamed and jumped around and then got dressed," the "Shark Tank" co-host said.

Cuban didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment on the "Silicon Valley" scene.

So, Russell and Cuban are both colorful characters. They both brought radio to the internet in billion dollar deals. They both have invested in several companies. And now, both of them watched their money grow to the billion dollar level. Those are some pretty compelling similarities.

SEE ALSO: HBO is talking to a producer from 'Arrested Development' about working on the next season of 'Silicon Valley'

MORE: An entrepreneur says this is one of the most realistic scenes on 'Silicon Valley'

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NOW WATCH: Mark Cuban Reveals Why He Was Inspired To Join 'Shark Tank'

Currently in its seventh and final season, "Mad Men" will soon say goodbye after eight years on the air.

When that time comes, the show's creator and writer, Matthew Weiner, says, "I'm pretty sure I'm going to be sad." 

The 49-year-old spoke to Business Insider at the Time 100 gala, where he explained that in the meantime, he's just trying to live in the moment.

"I'm doing something I don't usually do, I'm trying to really savor these current experiences and the love that I'm getting from people about the show," says Weiner. "I'm hearing things that I always wanted to hear, people telling me what the show means to them, people worried about how I'm doing. I'm just a writer, and I love that this meant something to people."

With a cast and crew that have become like family over the years, Weiner says, "We have all sworn to stay in touch, I'll tell you that."

When it comes time for the final episode, Weiner says, "I think we'll all watch the end of the show together."

But Weiner usually prefers to watch the show on Sunday nights with a smaller crowd.

"I do like to watch it," Weiner says of his hit AMC show. "I watch it with my family, and we're going to have some viewing parties. But I'm not fun to watch it with. I'm totally intolerant of any conversation."

While Weiner says that the show "does look different when when you see it with other people," he never has any regrets because "I had the chance to do whatever I wanted to do" during filming.

But to this day, Weiner says, "I get anxious on Sundays. For me, it's like a performance."

"It's such a pleasure," Weiner adds of his experience on the show. "Do you know how weird it is to see your name on TV? I haven't gotten over that yet, believe it or not."

SEE ALSO: Here's how 'Mad Men' creator Matthew Weiner manages his super busy schedule

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NOW WATCH: How the stars of AMC's blockbuster 'Mad Men' have changed over the years

Who's down with HRC? 

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is getting tons of endorsements from rap stars and her campaign is clearly enjoying the love.

Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, has recently earned the support of rappers 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, Ja Rule, and Waka Flocka Flame.

So many rap endorsements piled up that comedian Jimmy Fallon gave Clinton a new nickname at the end of last week.

"Thank you Hillary Clinton for getting endorsed for president by several rappers. Which explains your new nickname: 'Ghostface Hill,'" Fallon quipped on "The Tonight Show."

Clinton's campaign responded to the segment Tuesday with a nickname of their own, "Run HRC," which is based on the Queens hip-hop group Run DMC, As The New York Times recently noted, the Clinton campaign is attempting to rebrand its candidate with a cooler image. 

Here's the tweet:

And the Fallon segment can be viewed below:

SEE ALSO: 50 Cent is a huge Hillary Clinton fan

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NOW WATCH: This is the hardest part about being President Obama's personal chef

Ryan Seacrest has found a new summer gig.

He will be producing and hosting a new reality show on Fox called "Knock Knock Live," the network said in a press release on Tuesday.

Premiering July 21 at 9 p.m., the show will feature Seacrest from its Los Angeles studios while a "Knock Knock" team surprises people with "life altering" prizes ranging from cash, visits from with their favorite celebrities, or the opportunity to fulfill their wildest fantasy.

But contestants will have to win the prize by either answering a question correctly or performing some other kind of challenge. Those questions could span from being asked to name nine kids who live on the block to playing a game of H-O-R-S-E.

To apply or to nominate someone else for the show, visit knockknocklive.com.

Seacrest's production company will produce the show alongside Dick Clark Productions and "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller's XIX Entertainment.

News of this new summer show arrives just two weeks after Fox announced that "Idol" would end after the upcoming 15th season.

Seacrest also hosts and produces "On Air With Ryan Seacrest" on 102.7 FM, ABC's "Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve" and serves as the executive producer of E!'s "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" franchise, Bravo's “Shahs of Sunset,” CMT's “I Love Kellie Pickler," ABC Family's “Becoming Us," and the upcoming NBC drama “Shades of Blue,” which stars "American Idol" judge Jennifer Lopez.

SEE ALSO: 15 TV shows to watch this summer

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NOW WATCH: 'The Little Prince' trailer looks better than anything Pixar has made in years

Mark Cuban's private messaging app Cyber Dust is getting into the content creation business.

Cyber Dust is producing a new original series titled "That's a First With Adam Rose," according to TheWrap.

It stars actor Adam Rose as he does things for the first time, ranging from eating exotic foods to flying a helicopter and scuba diving.

Each episode will be 90-seconds long and premiere on YouTube. Exclusive behind-the-scenes content can then be seen on Cyber Dust. It's set to premiere sometime this summer.

“One of the great things about Cyber Dust is the value our users get out of the exclusive content that’s being created and shared amongst millions of dusters. We are excited to have Adam doing our first Cyber Dust Original Series that we’re sure his fans and many Cyber Dust users will be thrilled to engage with,” Cyber Dust CEO Ryan Ozo told TheWrap.

Rose's acting credits include Showtime's "Weeds," USA Network's "Necessary Roughness" and the feature films "Up in the Air" and "The Squid and the Whale."

Cyber Dust was launched in March 2014 to provide its users a secure and private means in which to communicate with others, an alternative to SnapChat. Its messages are never saved or cached to the device's hard drive and disappear in 30 seconds from the device's random access memory.

SEE ALSO: HBO's 'Silicon Valley' took a page from Mark Cuban's story about being naked and becoming a billionaire

MORE: The apps Mark Cuban loves — and those he doesn't

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NOW WATCH: Mark Cuban Explains How His Confidential Messaging App Cyber Dust Works

"Destiny" is not the same game that was released nine months ago.

From the makers of “Halo,” one of the biggest gaming franchises of all time, “Destiny” lets players create their own space warriors, called Guardians, to fight all the minions of the Darkness that inhabit the Earth, the Moon, Venus, and Mars. 

“Destiny” didn’t receive the same critical praise “Halo” did when it first released back in 2001. It was criticized for its apparent lack of plot and its redundant gameplay that encouraged grinding (playing for hours on end) rather than good performance. But fans have been vocal about many of these issues, and "The House of Wolves," the second major expansion for "Destiny" that launched last week, shows that Bungie listening.

Thanks to these additions, "Destiny" feels more complete than it’s ever felt. With all the additions and tweaks, “Destiny” feels like a much more balanced and ultimately more satisfying experience.

The good

There are a ton of new things to discover in “Destiny” now that “The House Of Wolves” is available. Here’s all the positive takeaways:

• The new social space. There’s a new area called the Vestian Outpost, which serves as your main site for getting new bounties, weapons, and other missions specific to the House of Wolves storyline. This area is relatively small but gorgeous, especially as the nearby asteroid belt bathes the area in a warm purple glow. There are new non-playable characters (NPCs) to interact with at this Outpost, which all have funny things to say if you listen closely, and Bungie even added new music for this particular area, which sounds both haunting and epic. That said, there are a ton of doors in this new area, and you can open only a few of them. Hopefully we see new areas open up over time.
• New story missions. In this expansion, the Queen calls upon all Guardians to hunt down the House of Wolves, a group of aliens called Fallen that were once loyal to the Queen before they decided to rebel. The story missions weren’t a highlight in the original game or the first “Destiny” expansion, but they shine in “House of Wolves”: The voiceovers are colorful and engaging, and they give you a sense of purpose as you move forward in the story. There are also a few welcome surprises and epic boss fights, all of which are highly memorable.
• The new strike.“The Shadow Thief” won’t be a long adventure for your three-man team, but boy is it fun. You and your teammates must hunt down Tanniks the Scarred, a Fallen warrior — you chase him across through the moon’s caverns, and eventually follow him into his spaceship, inflicting damage along the way. Finally you’ll square off against him in a giant arena-like room. It’s a heart-pounding ride with excellent pacing.

• The new content. Weapons, armor, enemies, bosses, gear, and more — there is a ton of new stuff to discover in “Destiny.” And it’s all designed to fit certain themes, like the Queen, the House of Wolves, and some of the other challenges you’ll find along the way.  
• The “new” Crucible. If you want to fight against other Guardians, you play the Crucible — but after last week’s update, you’ll now get double rewards for everything you do, and you’ll be rewarded based on your performance, not just at random. Bungie added a few new maps, too, which are all beautiful and fun to play. 
• The Trials of Osiris. This is the ultimate test for fans of the Crucible: It’s a weekly event that runs every Friday through Monday, where teams of three square off in elimination-style rounds: Win five rounds and you’ve won the match, and you need either nine wins, or three losses, to complete the Trials. As incredible rewards await those Guardians that complete the Trials of Osiris flawlessly (nine wins and zero losses), you won’t find a more thrilling experience in Destiny, especially as you start to rack up the wins — since you won’t know which teams you’re playing ahead of time, your winning streak is always at risk.

The not-so-good

“Destiny” has never been a perfect game, so even though “The House of Wolves” introduces a ton of positive changes, I still have a few gripes:

• The new social space is a bit limited. One of the first things I noticed while perusing the Vestian Outpost is how many locked doors I encountered. Hopefully we see some new areas open up in this social space over time.
• One's storage vault isn't nearly as big as it needs to be. If you need more room to store all the weapons, armor, and materials you've collected from the game, you simply drop them in your vault, which you can even access over mobile in case you want to quickly switch items between characters. Unfortunately, the size of the vault can't possibly contain all the new goodies you'll come across in "House of Wolves," meaning you'll need to find ways to clear up space — namely, deleting old items you've picked up. This is unfortunate: I want to keep all the goods I've collected since September, but there's no way I can do that right now.
• Matchmaking is still an issue. Many of the best experiences in “Destiny” require three or six other players — but if you don’t have many friends that play the game, you’ll be forced to look for pick-up groups online, or you’re out of luck. Two of the new endgame activities, “Prison of Elders” and “Trials of Osiris,” both fall under this category, where you’ll be forced to look for “Destiny” players online if you want to play the game. Bungie acknowledges that everyone plays “Destiny” differently, and even offers matchmaking for certain aspects of the game, but it would be nice to see more matchmaking for other parts of the game.
• Many “new” locations aren’t actually new at all. New Crucible maps aside, “The House of Wolves” doesn’t offer many new sights. You’ll be running through the same spots on the same planets as before, but you’ll see them in new ways — for example, you revisit one of the first areas you play when you start a new game, but you play through that level backwards. And aside from the Prison of Elders and the new planet that emerges if you score a perfect 9-0 in Trials of Osiris, you’ll be treated to many of the same old maps. That’s a bit disappointing considering how much else in this expansion is “new.” 

• “The Prison of Elders” is flawed and repetitive. In lieu of a traditional “raid,” where six players are sent to a giant area and forced to use teamwork to solve puzzles and defeat enemies, The House of Wolves comes with an “arena” mode called “Prison of Elders,” where you’ll fight wave after wave of enemies. If you beat all five rounds in the prison, you’ll be treated to the Queen’s treasures. But despite the great rewards in the Prison of Elders, the journey to get there is tired and unremarkable. You’ll fight the same enemies over and over — albeit with different “modifiers” that change aspects of gameplay, like making certain weapons do more damage or the ability to deal out more damage while airborne. But the modifiers don’t help much; Prison of Elders feels like a grind. There’s no real story in this game mode, it’s all about killing off enemies and completing mini-missions that will kill you and your entire team if you don’t complete them in a certain time frame. Some people will love having what essentially boils down to a shooting gallery, but personally, I was disappointed at the tedium of this new mode. I prefer Trials of Osiris for getting the new endgame gear, even though that mode’s restricted to weekends only.

I have other small nitpicks — the inability to re-join a fire team can be particularly frustrating for players that were accidentally booted due to a bad internet connection — but by and large, much of “Destiny” will continue to change (and hopefully improve) over time. Since its September launch, Bungie has proven it’s constantly listening to fans and shaping the game based off that feedback to create the best, frictionless experience possible. Many of the improvements and additions in “House of Wolves” were originally suggested by the “Destiny” community.

In all, “Destiny” feels like a more complete game thanks to the “House of Wolves” expansion. There’s heaps of new armor and weapons to discover, countless weekly challenges that offer equally great challenges and rewards, and the best multiplayer experience I’ve ever had thanks to “Trials of Osiris.” If you haven’t played “Destiny” — ever, or in the last week especially — now’s a great time. But what’s most exciting is the fact that “Destiny” isn’t done growing: This is only the first year of Bungie’s 10-year plan for the franchise. And so far, it’s off to a great start.

SEE ALSO: Here are the insane rewards you get for a flawless victory in 'The Trials of Osiris,' the new hardcore mode in 'Destiny'

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NOW WATCH: How you could end up spending thousands on Kate Upton's 'Game of War'

"X-Men: Apocalypse" director Bryan Singer—ever the plugged-in, social media-loving, 21st century filmmaker—just dropped a pretty huge tease about the upcoming movie via Instagram on Tuesday. It looks like the 2016 film will be the first X-Men film to feature a pretty important group of X-Men characters: The Morlocks.

Shooting Caliban's place of "business" #Xmen #XMenApocalypse

A photo posted by Bryan Singer (@bryanjaysinger) on May 26, 2015 at 10:56am PDT

According to Singer's post, one of the sets to be featured in "Apocalypse" will be "Caliban's place of 'business.'" For the uninitiated, Caliban is notorious for two things: being a member of the Morlocks, and becoming one of Apocalypse's Horsemen. 

It's that first bit that's a big deal. 

The Morlocks—intentionally named after the creatures from H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine"—first appeared during writer Chris Claremont's seminal run on "Uncanny X-Men" as a group of mutants that felt they were outcasts that could never live among humankind and decided to retreat to the sewers. They're led by the fierce Callisto, and come into conflict with the X-Men after they kidnap Angel to be her mate. It's a little weird, but it leads to one of Storm's defining moments when she fights Callisto in a duel to the death in order to save him. 

Here's the group in a clip from the '90s animated "X-Men" series:

Caliban, then, is one of the original Morlocks, an albino mutant gifted with the ability to sense other mutants. Since Apocalypse is the villain next summer's movie is named after, chances are he'll follow his comic book counterpart and join Team Apocalypse somehow—but how much of the Morlocks will we see?

The photo from Singer appears to show the sort of underground hideout favored by the Morlocks, and is a good sign that they might appear—but we'll have to wait and see how deeply Singer will plumb one of the most classic X-Men stories in his new film. 

SEE ALSO: How far Disney is trying to bury the X-Men

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NOW WATCH: Before you see the 'Poltergeist' reboot, watch the terrifying trailer from the 1982 original

"Mad Max: Fury Road" has been praised as one of the best action movies ever made. Check out exclusive behind-the-scenes footage from the film.

Video courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

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