Nicolas Cage is taking on one of the most illustrious roles of his career, himself. In the upcoming action-comedy ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,’ Cage will play a fictionalized version of himself who accepts a million-dollar paycheck to attend the birthday party of a businessman played by Pedro Pascal, who also is a criminal. Things quickly escalate from there.
The movie, directed by Tom Gormican also stars Tiffany Hadish, Sharon Horgan, and Neil Patrick Harris. It is set to be released in Spring 2022 and while fans seem eager to see it, Cage has no such plans.
“That is a really great question and I’m still trying to answer it. One of my answers is that I’m never going to see that movie. I’m told it’s a good movie,” Cage told Collider. “My manager, Mike Nilon, who is also a producer on it, looked at it. He was very happy. I’m told the audience loved the movie. But it’s just too much of a whacked-out trip for me to go to a movie theater and watch me play Tom Gormican’s highly-neurotic, anxiety-ridden version of me. Because he kept pushing me in that direction. I said ‘Tom, that’s not really me. I’m really [made of] quiet, meditative, thoughtful moments. I’m not this neurotic, high-strung, anxiety-ridden guy all the time.’ But he said, ‘well, neurotic Cage is the best Cage.’ I said, ‘okay, okay. Let’s go, man. I’ll do what you want.’ I won’t see it. But I do hope you enjoy it.”
A “whacked-out trip” can describe several recent Cage films including ‘Willy’s Wonderland.’
The film’s official synopsis explains, “Nicolas Cage stars as… Nicolas Cage in the action-comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Creatively unfulfilled and facing financial ruin, the fictionalized version of Cage must accept a $1 million offer to attend the birthday of a dangerous superfan (Pedro Pascal). Things take a wildly unexpected turn when Cage is recruited by a CIA operative (Tiffany Haddish) and forced to live up to his own legend, channeling his most iconic and beloved on-screen characters in order to save himself and his loved ones. With a career built for this very moment, the seminal award-winning actor must take on the role of a lifetime: Nicolas Cage.”
Nicolas Cages Reveals Why He Won’t Be Seeing ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’
Netflix Announces A New Show Based On The Dark Horse Comic Grendel
Netflix is bringing Matt Wagner’s comic book assassin “Grendel” to life in an upcoming eight-episode series led by showrunner Andrew Dabb, who also serves as writer and as an executive producer along with Wagner.
According to a press release, “The series is a Netflix production and comes out of Netflix’s first-look deal with Dark Horse Entertainment. Netflix and Dark Horse have previously collaborated on the popular series The Umbrella Academy, Jonas Åkerlund’s feature film “Polar,” and they are currently in production on the animated series, “Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles.” They add, “The cast is lead by Abubakr Ali (Power Book II: Ghost, Katy Keene, and lead in the upcoming feature from Orion Pictures/Killer Films What If, directed by Billy Porter) as the titular Grendel/Hunter Rose.”
The rest of the cast includes Brittany Allen, Julian Black Antelope, Kevin Corrigan, Emma Ho, Andy Mientus, Jaime Ray Newman, Erik Palladino, and Madeline Zima.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled about the GRENDEL saga, one of the longest-running independent comics series, finally being translated into live-action for the screen,” Wagner said. “Under the sharp guidance of showrunner Andrew Dabb, our incredible creative team, sure-to-be stellar cast and Dark Horse Entertainment have teamed with Netflix to produce this provocative adaptation that will bring my characters and concepts to an all new audience and yet still provide excitement and surprises for die-hard fans. I’m especially excited to see Abubakr Ali bring the character of Grendel/Hunter Rose to life — he has the charisma, style and vital edginess that I’ve been envisioning in the role for years.”
Grendel first appeared in Comico before transition into Dark Horse Entertainment. It was originally a noir story following Hunter Rose before it transitioned into what Wagner called, “a study of the nature of aggression.” Grendel twice crossed over with DC Comics’ Batman and in 2009 was ranked as IGN’s 88th-greatest villain of all time.
LootCrate’s Exclusive TMNT Dark Turtle Figure Is Already $400 on eBay!
Figures.com gave us the good news and the bad news all at once. The good news was that LootCrate’s final TMNT crate would include this figure from NECA. The bad news? If you weren’t already subscribed, your only way of securing Donnie the Bat would be through the secondary market.
So, it’s off to eBay or the Facebook marketplace for you! This morning, I just learned about the LootCrate exclusive Batman-themed Donatello figure, and he is already going for $400+ on eBay. As someone who made a living buying and selling action figures on eBay, I was stunned at how high of an asking price this toy was going for.
If this character doesn’t look familiar, it’s because he had a one-time appearance in the ’87 Turtles cartoon. Donnie took up the mantle of “totally, not Batman, dude” and tried to take on the Shredder single-handed. Unfortunately, it didn’t end up well for the brainy reptile.
If you didn’t know, LootCrates are subscription services where a box of stuff arrives at your door monthly. The company offers several themed boxes aside from the general geeky one. Sometimes the stuff is cool, like Dark Turtle. Other times it is crap.
I subscribed to the standard crate a few months several years ago. I got some leftover advanced issue books, poorly fitting t-shirts, and nothing memorable. At the time, it felt like the stuff in these boxes was surplus junk from PR giftbags and promo items.
What are your thoughts on this exclusive? What about LootCrates? Let us know in the comments.
[Source: Figures.com]
Jesse Eisenberg Denies Rumors He Was Slated To Cameo In ‘The Batman’
Jesse Eisenberg was cast to play Lex Luthor in the Zack Snyder film ‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice’ and would reprise the role in both the theatrical and director’s cut of ‘Justice League.’ With confusion on which direction DC Comics and Warner Media will take its DCEU franchise, this led to rumors that Eisenberg would cameo as the master criminal in ‘The Batman,’ an upcoming film starring Robert Pattinson as the Gotham City vigilante.
Eisenberg seemingly put those rumors to rest when he denied that he had been contacted by ‘The Batman’ director Matt Reeves about returning as the Lex Corp founder.
“Oh, yeah,” he said according to Digital Spy. “Yeah, of course. Also, if there were [plans], I didn’t know about them. Otherwise, I’d have some great material, but I didn’t know about it!”
When asked if he would ever reprise the role, he responded, “Umm… I’m probably the last person to know the answer to that question because I don’t know how they make those decisions.”
“You know, my background is in theater where you do a play 200 times and you feel like you’re just getting the hang of it by the last performance. I would love to play any character again,” he continued. “After a movie ends, the actors usually turn to each other and say, ‘Oh, now I finally know what I’m doing and I understand what my purpose [was].’
Eisenberg added, “Actors, in my experience, do like playing roles again but that particular one is just not up to me.”
It does seem that ‘The Batman’ will primarily focus on characters native to Gotham City, based on the trailer and casting confirmations. Zoë Kravitz will portray Catwoman, Colin Farrell is playing the Penguin, and Paul Dano will portray Riddler, a role that was rumored to go to Eisenberg in the early days of what fans call the SnyderVerse.
Spider-Man Star Andrew Garfield Calls Leaked ‘No Way Home’ Photos Of Him A “Photoshop”
Former Spidey actor Andrew Garfield has vehemently denied that he is appearing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s third entry into their Spider-Man franchise ‘No Way Home.’ Despite his persistence, alleged photos of him appearing on the set with current Peter Parker actor Tom Holland leaked online. Garfield was directly about these photos on ‘The Tonight Show’ by host Jimmy Fallon where ‘The Social Network’ actor called them “photoshop” fakes.
Fallon told Garfield that photos of him on the set were “going around,” according to SyFy.
“You’re sure about that,” asked Garfield. As the audience started to react, he admitted, “I heard about it, and I did see it, and it’s a Photoshop.”
The audience began to shout back “no” to which Garfield replied, “I’m trying to manage expectations. You say ‘No.'”
Garfield then went to praise Tom Holland for his portrayal of Spider-Man, saying, “Tom Holland is just the perfect Peter Parker and Spider-Man.”
You can check out the interview:
In an interview with Collider, Garfield reflected on his time filming ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ and its sequel.
“I mean, I feel a lot of ways about it. I’m really glad I did it. There’s not one part of me that regrets it at all. I feel so grateful for all the friendships and relationships I built and the experience. I got to have that experience of being a part of that kind of behemoth kind of thing, and playing a character that has meant the world to me since I was three, as we all know. So there was nothing, and I learned so much about myself, about how I like to work, how I don’t like to work, about what storytelling means to me, about what it doesn’t mean to me,” he said.
‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ is directed by Jon Watts and expected to hit theaters December 17, 2021.
Netflix Creates a New Anime Creators’ Base in Japan
On their youtube anime channel, Netflix Anime announced a new “community space” in Tokyo, Japan. This was launched specifically to develop ideas and concepts for anime content to air on the streaming platform. Netflix describes this as their first-ever Anime Creators’ Base which will host designers, writers, and Netflix team members to work on bolstering their anime lineup. Their goal with this new space is to promote the best practices and high production standards, and to empower creators with the necessary tools and resources of anime production over time.
The Tokyo space is divided into three separate parts, as described below:
Designers’ Garage: This space seats up to 10 designers and artists. At launch, designers will focus on creating conceptual art at the early developmental stages of an anime series or film to ensure creative staff is aligned on the look and feel of a project.
Writers’ Garage: This meeting room is designed to be a collaborative space for creatives working on anime shows, where teams will develop and edit scripts, and invite creators to discuss new projects (and of course, geek out a little on anime).
Lab: This multi-functional space is designed to be a versatile room for innovation, like testing out new creative technologies such as VR or playing around with the latest motion capture technologies.
Netflix Anime Creators’ Base will focus on developing conceptual art to support creators and production studios during pre-production. Two designers, Namiko Ishidate and Saina Cisse, will be based there to help with this work.
See the full video tour here:
Source: Netflix
Naruto Stage Play Producers Drop Promotional Video And Visuals
Manga creator Masashi Kishimoto’s ninja warrior Naruto Uzumaki is coming back to the stage with the announcement that “Live Spectacle NARUTO – Uzumaki Naruto Monogatari (The Story of Naruto Uzumaki)” is returning in December 2021.
According to Crunchyroll, the show will be performed at Nihon Seinenkan Hall in Tokyo then at Mielparque Hall in Osaka and will run through January 2022. The producers of the show released a promotional teaser and several stunning visuals to showcase the stage play.
You can check out the video below:
Naruto actor Masaki Nakao explained, “I’m very happy to play the role of Naruto in this series that I’ve been watching since I was a child. This stage has a long history, but this is my first time participating, so I hope I can bring a new breeze and create a good reaction to this stage. ‘Live Spectacle Naruto’ will be performed in Tokyo and Osaka starting in December. I’m looking forward to seeing you all at the theater. Please look forward to it!”
Sasuke Uchiha actor Ryuji Sato added, “It finally comes! This is my favorite visual in Sasuke’s history. There are many favorite scenes and many favorite actions, but I like his outfit and hairstyle during this period, so I’m really looking forward to it. Anyway, Sasuke is very fast in action and movement. I hope that I can deliver them with even more speed than the previous plays, so that you can understand how scary Sasuke is.”
The images below feature Nakao as Naruto and actress Sena as Hinata, who eventually becomes Naruto’s wife.
Naruto and Hinata in new play of Live Spectacle Naruto. pic.twitter.com/4NRnZ2GKVW
— hourly naruhina (@hourly_naruhina) September 13, 2021
The story is based on the manga’s “Pain’s Assault” and “Five Kage Summit” arcs. Masashi Kishimoto began publishing Naruto in 1999 where it was picked up by Jump Comics, who published it in their Weekly Shōnen Jump. The series would lead to two highly successful anime and the spin-off series “Baruto: Naruto Next Generation.”
Netflix Drops English Dub Trailer For ‘Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle’
Netflix and The Pokémon Company released an international trailer for the upcoming ‘Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle’ the latest film to follow protagonist Ash and his loyal friend Pikachu. Set to premiere in North America on October 8, 2021 on the streaming service, the movie will get a different release in Japan.
Netflix released the synopsis, which explains, “Deep within the Forest of Okoya, the Mythical Pokémon Zarude live in a troop and maintain a strict rule that forbids outsiders from entering their territory. Elsewhere in the jungle lives Koko, a human boy raised by a lone Zarude who left the troop. Koko has grown up never doubting that he is a Zarude. But one day, a chance meeting with Ash and Pikachu leaves Koko with his first human friend. Is he truly a Pokémon? Or is he, in fact, a human? When danger threatens the jungle, the bonds between Pokémon and human—and the love between parent and child—will be put to the test.”
You can check out the trailer:
The Pokémon Company International Senior VP of Licensing Emily Arons said, “During Pokémon’s 25th anniversary year, we wanted fans to have the opportunity to experience the newest animated Pokémon movie simultaneously as a global community. Pokémon animation is a much beloved pillar of the franchise and Netflix is the perfect partner to once again help us deliver a worldwide moment for fans as we celebrate 25 years of action and adventure with Ash and his Pikachu.”
Netflix said in a press release, “To further celebrate the announcement, beginning today, Trainers will be able to receive the alternate form of Zarude that is featured in the movie, as well as Shiny Celebi, in their Pokémon Sword or Pokémon Shield video games by signing up for Pokémon Trainer Club email notifications by September 25, 2021. Trainers who register in this way will receive a Pokémon Trainer Club email containing a distribution code for both on October 7, 2021.”
They added, “Fans can also look forward to activations in Pokémon GO celebrating the global launch of ‘Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle’ with details being announced soon. In the meantime, fans can visit the official movie website and join the conversation online with #Pokemon25.”
This will be the twenty-third feature film within the Pokémon franchise.
Arcade1Up’s Head-To-Head Table Pits Marvel VS Capcom!
Arcade1Up has announced two new table arcade machines loaded with classic fighting games. One is dedicated to Capcom’s Marvel fighting games and includes X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, The Punisher, X-Men vs Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, Marvel vs Capcom, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse, and Marvel Super Heroes: War of the Gems.
The other table focuses on Mortal Kombat, and both feature simultaneous two-player action! Both tables are priced at $699 and stand at 29″ tall. Having assembled my fair share of them, I can tell you that these things are easy to put together. You’ll be smashing buttons and yelling at your friend in no time!
Arcade1Up
Bringing you authentic retrogaming experiences in an affordable classic cocktail form factor, Arcade1Up head-to-heads are must-haves for your family game room, man cave, or a welcome distraction in the office.
Standing 29” high, head-to-heads play great, look great, and are instant conversation pieces. And YES, they have clear cover tops, to protect from those accidental spills!
Keep in mind that these tables are not the same size as the ones we’re used to seeing in bars or arcades. Instead, they’re a bit smaller. If you’re a taller person like myself, you may want to invest in a few blocks to put under the table, so you’re not slouched over.
The tables can be pre-ordered directly through Arcade1Up’s website. These are estimated to ship in October, just like the Countercades.
What are your thoughts on these old-school cocktail table arcade machines? Is the split-screen mode useful, or is it easier to play it on a regular cabinet? Let us know in the comments.
X-MEN’s Mojo and Spiral Have Escaped Mojoworld! Thanks Sideshow!
Mojoworld exists in a dimension where everything evolves around entertainment, whether that involves putting people in real danger or not. So, it’s just like our world but far less fun. Nevertheless, the ruler of Mojoworld, a globulous being named Mojo, and his dimension-hopping servant Spiral have made it to our world thanks to Sideshow Collectibles and Iron Studios.
Mojo is part of a humanoid race called the Spineless Ones (beings without a spine), derived from a planet later named after him, known as the Mojoworld. Located in a compact dimension called the Mojoverse, his species can mentally receive waves of TV program broadcasts sent from Earth, which has made these creatures go crazy, having humans as demons or myths. Once a primitive society, because of one of their scientific geniuses, the Spineless Ones evolved very fast, technologically speaking, becoming dependent and driven by television entertainment. Taking advantage of this, megalomaniac Mojo started creating and producing his shows using slaves as actors in dangerous situations, conquering power among his audience, and becoming the ruler and absolute leader. A constant threat to the X-Men, as they were often abducted by Mojo just for pleasure. With that, he magnified his power.
Rita “Ricochet” Wayword, a professional stuntman in the past, is a temporal paradox. Attacked by a mutated version of herself from the future called Spiral, she was captured by Mojo, the lord of another dimension, ruled by the entertainment of its inhabitants. In this dimension, Rita underwent physical and mental changes, gaining six arms, some of which are robotic, and an intense enhancement of her mind, allowing her to see and travel through other dimensions and teleport through time. Besides these new abilities, she also acquired mystical knowledge, and under Mojo’s command, traveled back in time and created the events that made her what she is today. With gestures or dance moves, Spiral can teleport herself and countless people across great distances.
Mojo’s dimensions are as follows:
- Height: 10.2″ (25.9 cm)
- Width: 10.6″ (26.9 cm)
- Depth: 10.6″ (26.9 cm)
- Weight: 7 lbs (3.2 kg)
Spiral will take up this much space on your shelf:
- Height: 12.6″ (32 cm)
- Width: 5″ (12.7 cm)
- Depth: 6.3″ (16 cm)
These two inhabitants of Mojoworld will be arriving late next year, between October and December 2022. In addition, we got a small cameo of a Mojoworld citizen in Deadpool 2 with Shatterstar’s concise appearance. Mojo is priced at $315, while Spiral is set at $180.
Mojo also had his own episode on the original X-MEN animated series. It’s a pretty funny episode, and Wolverine does get to cut up some characters who’d rarely appear outside of the comics.
If Disney wanted to bring in a whole bunch of off-the-wall Mutants and aliens into the MCU, Mojoworld would be the way to do it. Plus, if we could get a huge CGI Mojo voiced by Gilbert Gottfried, that would be perfection.
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.
[Source: Sideshow]
