John Krasinski roared into popularity while portraying paper salesman Jim Halpert in the NBC sitcom ‘The Office.’ Since then, he has made several film appearances and has stepped into directing with the science fiction horror ‘A Quiet Place’ and its recently released sequel ‘A Quiet Place Part II.’
In a recent interview with Den of Geek, Krasinski discussed how the Steven Spielberg shark thriller ‘Jaws’ influenced how he framed the plot of his sci-fi films.
Speaking specifically about ‘A Quiet Place Part II,’ he explained, “This movie I really want to feel like a throwback.”
He continued, “So it was definitely all the Hitchcock stuff for sure. I watched [that] religiously, and then I watched Alien, but certainly, ‘Jaws’ is a huge touchstone for me. With the opening of [A Quiet Place Part II], I think there’s even visuals I wanted to feel from the sense of ‘Jaws.”
“[It’s] almost like on the beach when we’re at the baseball game, you get that sense,” The ‘Leatherheads’ actor continued. “And I think Jaws is a perfect film, and I think that, storytelling-wise, what I learned from it was simplicity, the strength that comes from simplicity. The idea that just getting your characters you love from Point A to Point B is sometimes journey enough. You don’t have to think of all these crazy ways to ‘sequel’ this thing, you just tell a story that’s organic and real, and it may be as emotionally impactful if not more so.”
“Most recently I certainly loved ‘Us,'” Krasinski continued. “I love everything that Jordan [Peele is] doing. That was an amazing follow-up for me to watch. Most recently what I liked was The Lighthouse. I really loved Robert Eggers’ follow-up to The Witch. [It] was so horror, yes, but such an artistic accomplishment that happened to be extremely eerie and scary.”
As of the writing of this article, ‘A Quiet Place Part II’ netted over 47 million on its opening weekend and has since gone on to gain over 57 million globally according to Box Office Mojo.
John Krasinski Discusses How ‘Jaws’ Influenced ‘A Quiet Place’
Scout Partners with Execution Posse for New Horror Comic
‘Paradise City’ star Lorenzo Antonucci has gone from music with the thrash metal band Sworn Enemy to filmmaking and now to executive producing a comic book. The ‘American Satan’ actor has partnered with Scout Comics to bring an action-horror series ‘Night of the Cadillacs.’
According to a press release, the comic book is “a captivating new horror comic executive produced by Lorenzo Antonucci, star & executive producer of the trending hit series Paradise City (Amazon Prime) in collaboration with Sean E. Demott, Jake Hearns and Terrance Zdunich. Comic book art by Kirk Manley and Rob Prior.” It adds that the story is “a compelling story inspired by L.A.’s Fairfax District’s street culture and cult films The Lost Boys and The Warriors. Supernatural gangs come to Earth on a mission to retrieve live-restoring blood from humans during a rare blood moon.”
Demott told the Hollywood Reporter that the writers “met in this shady, shady bar in the Valley. I said ‘We need to have Warriors, but it’s supernatural with a love story.'”
Hearns said that they “made this agreement early on. No capes, no tights.”
Antonucci added, “Ripped jeans and ripped shorts and tattoos and fangs.”
The official synopsis explains that “‘Night of the Cadillacs’ is a high-octane, genre-bending mix of horror, hard action, forbidden love and street culture. Rival supernatural gangs come to earth on an overnight raiding mission to retrieve life-restoring blood from humans. The gangs fight among themselves for prized human captives and the survival of their clan. While the battle rages, a defiant and charismatic gangbanger (our hero Stiv) breaks free from his crew to go on the run with a rebellious, 18-year-old human girl (our other hero Hope) to protect her from his predatory family.”
‘Night of the Cadillacs’ will be released by Scout Comics & Entertainment Holdings Inc. with distribution by Simon & Schuster and Lunar in September 2021.
Kartoon Channel! Continues to Expand Offerings With 240 Hours of Content Coming to the Platform
Following the successful premiere of Stan Lee’s Super Hero Kindergarten, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, on Kartoon Channel!, Genius Brands International, Inc., continues to grow its content offering with the acquisition of proven hit series from award-winning third party producers.
Jon Ollwerther, who was recently promoted as President of Kartoon Channel! and EVP of Business Development of Genius Brands commented: “We are continuing to grow Kartoon Channel! each month, with more and more viewers enjoying what we believe is the very best combination of original, exclusive, and acquired content in the kid’s entertainment industry, including our hit Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. With Lou Fazio, former Executive Director of Programming & Acquisitions at Disney Channel, leading the charge, we are excited about our content pipeline, including 240 hours of newly acquired content from partners, including WildBrain, ABC Australia, Nelvana, and Zodiak Kids which will begin to premier on Kartoon Channel! in June.”
Since launching in June 2020, Kartoon Channel!, which is now widely available and fully distributed in the U.S. across all platforms, has significantly expanded its catalog of original and third-party programming. On April 23, 2021, Genius Brands launched its first Kartoon Channel! original, Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten, which has since garnered over 22 million views, making it one of the fastest growing children’s series today.
The new content acquisitions for Kartoon Channel! include classic evergreen and new popular series and feature films. From WildBrain, Genius Brands has licensed the rights to Super Mario Bros., Adventures of Paddington Bear, Trollz, Madeline, and Liberty’s Kids.
From Nelvana, movies and series acquired for Kartoon Channel! include Donkey Kong Country, movie specials from the Franklin franchise, including Franklin and the Green Knight, Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure, A Franklin and Friends Adventure: Polar Explorer, A Franklin and Friends Adventure: Deep Sea Voyage, Franklin Back to School, and Franklin’s Magic Christmas; and lastly, The Santa Clause Brothers movie special
ABC Australia has licensed to the Kartoon Channel! the rights to The Wiggles World, Wiggle Pop special, among others.
Source: Genius Brands & Kartoon Channel!
New Sonic Team, Remastered Sonic Colors Games Coming Says SEGA
Sonic is turning 30. He can officially drink and drive and vote and be a terrible person like all the other 30-somethings on Twitter. Yay! On his birthday, I hope he gets a kiss from the king. It feels like only yesterday that Sonic turned 18 years old.
According to Gamespot, SEGA teased and pleased with a bunch of announcements. Some things were new titles, while others were glimpses into random cameo appearances the little blue needle mouse will be making in non-SEGA properties.
Sonic Colors, one of the few great games from Sonic’s past decade, will finally jump into the modern era. A remastered version of the Wii game will debut on September 7th under the new title … Sonic Colors: Ultimate. Strangely the game is only coming out on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Optimized versions of the game for the PS5 and Series X have not been announced.
A compilation called Origins is also in the works. Supposedly this will contain four titles: the first three Sonic games and Sonic CD. I wish I could give you more information, but Gamespot says that there isn’t any yet. Based on SEGA’s previous compilations, there will be lots of filters, a rewind feature, promo art, and maybe some interviews. Please don’t hold me to any of that, though.
As far as brand new games go, there will be another Sonic Team title. Not much was given away at the reveal; aside from that, it came to PC and the current-gen consoles. If it’s a new racing title or something akin to Sonic Forces is yet to be seen. From Gamespot’s report, there were no vehicles in the reveal. So, I guess that this will be an on-foot adventure.
The other news isn’t super thrilling. Sonic will make cameos in non-SEGA titles, and there will be lots of merchandise. If my internet petition finally paid off, we’ll get “Sonic for President” plushies and body pillows.
Want A PS5? Here Is The Best Way To Get One Without Paying A Scalper
Getting Sony’s Playstation 5 has been a colossal pain. Between the chip shortages and the scalpers, the regular person really has to be quick to snag their own.
Over the past few months, I’ve been keeping an eye on sites claiming to help consumers. Some are just scams to get your credit card. A few were really scummy get-rich-quick schemes selling you a secret tip.
You wanna know what that tip is? Email Sony’s PR and say you’re a “journalist” who wants a copy to review for a blog. Yes, they want you to commit fraud.
Or you could go the other way and use the current sociopolitical climate to shame Sony as a certain e-celeb did, but you’re not a piece of trash, are you?
Matt Swider the editor-in-chief of Tech Radar.
Matt’s informants were often spot on, allow him to give potential buyers the heads up as to when a restock of both the PS5 and XBOX X consoles would drop. The catch is being fast on that mouse and keyboard.
To test out Matt’s validity, I would stay logged into the sites that would allegedly get the restocks. These would be Walmart, Amazon, Target, and Gamestop. There are others, like Dell and Sam’s Club, but the frequency wasn’t as often as the previously mentioned retailers.
There is also a shuffle over at NewEgg that has the PS5 listed. You enter the shuffle during a certain time during the day, and a few hours later, names are drawn. If you win, you must purchase the item within a certain timeframe. Simple, but not as direct.
Now, back to the online retailer rat race.
Drops would come around mid-day or early afternoon. Some, like the one today was announced in the early evening. As soon as I’d get an alert about his tweet, I’d click the link and see if the item could be added to my cart.
3 out of 10 times, it would work. Keep in mind that some retailers like Walmart will put you into a “waiting room” while their stock cycles, which could take up to 15 minutes in some cases.
Even though the item is in your cart, that doesn’t mean it is in stock. The only real way to know for sure is once the transaction is complete, most of the time. I’ve seen responses to his tweet saying the order was canceled within 24 hours due to shortages.
When the rush is on, don’t be surprised to see these retailer websites crash or slow to a crawl as scalpers, their bots, and untold thousands if not millions of people dash for the hard-to-find consoles.
We managed to get to the very end during our experiments and successfully order two PS5 consoles. The caveat was that they were the $700-$800 bundles. The stand-alone systems sell out in under 2 seconds from what we’ve seen, and we have never successfully been able to add those to our carts.
So, out of all the various ways, it looks like Swider‘s Twitter is the way to go. Not only could we validate a successful order on our part, but several people responded to him with proof of their own:
🥳I see success for GameStop PS5 / Xbox Series X restock!
😅Persistent > ⏲️Speed
👉PS5 bundles https://t.co/VRX42vM02H
👉Xbox bundles https://t.co/mjG5KZFhjSThere's 100% still time to cart a console BUNDLE. If you saw sold out before, it was too early. Try, try again! https://t.co/H2iNOQANuZ
— Matt Swider (tracking PS5 / Xbox / GPU restock) (@mattswider) May 26, 2021
Retro: Boglins Golden Ticket Giveaway Going On Now!
I saw some familiar gross little faces today. Gross, fleshy, and smelly Boglins! If you didn’t have one in the early ’90s, let me tell you … they smelled. It was all part of the appeal. These little puppets allowed for the mouth and eye to articulate.
Toys R Us would have an entire wall of them during the initial release. They’ve since become quite the commodity. I’ve seen them go for over $100 at conventions, and that’s out of the box with signs of wear and tear.
Thankfully, Boglins are back in production again at a reasonable price. The little demons also come in cages, very similar to the originals.
Oh, what’s that? Golden tickets?! Are these Boglins filled with chocolate, and I’ve got to dig through their innards to find the prize? That’s gross. Why would you think that? Please stop it.
For a chance at the golden ticket event, a Boglin has to be purchased from ToyNK. However, the event details weren’t clear on that site, but they were listed at Figures.com.
Three golden tickets have been hidden within random boxes of Boglins. The three lucky winners will receive the following:
- 30-minute Zoom Call to design a Boglin with creator Tim Clarke
- Customized paint design
- A One-of-A-Kind Boglin signed by Tim Clarke
As far as what you get when ordering a Boglin:
- Ready For Action: This 8-inch action puppet features movable arms and glow-in-the-dark eyes. Made from top-quality foam, this hand puppet is durable and perfect for playtime. Boglins come alive in your hands, with no batteries required.
- Unique Packaging: Delivered in its signature “cage” with bent bars. This makeshift prison crate is barely keeping this monster puppet contained. King Dwork is ready to break out and join your collection.
For a complete history of the original toyline, check out this video from Toy Galaxy:
Did you have a Boglin or several? Whatever happened to them? What about the smell? How did you get it off your hands? Let us know in the comments.
[Source: Figures.com]
Actress Halley Berry’s Sci-Fi Disaster ‘Moonfall’ Gets Release Date
Halle Berry is set to return to outer space in Roland Emmerich’s science fiction disaster “Moonfall.” Despite being plagued by production delays due to pandemic measures, it seems the film will finally see the light.
According to a report by MovieWeb, Lionsgate has acquired the distribution rights to the film and will release it on February 4, 2022. Besides Berry, the cast includes Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring), John Bradley (Game of Thrones), Charlie Plummer (Spontaneous), Donald Sutherland (Without Limits), and Michael Peña (Narcos: Mexico), who replaced Stanley Tucci after ‘The Hunger Games’ star dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.
The premise explains that “a mysterious force knocks the Moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know it. With mere weeks before impact and the world on the brink of annihilation, NASA executive and former astronaut Jo Fowler (Halle Berry) is convinced she has the key to saving us all – but only one astronaut from her past, Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) and a conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman (John Bradley) believe her. These unlikely heroes will mount an impossible last-ditch mission into space, leaving behind everyone they love, only to find out that our Moon is not what we think it is.”
Emmerich not only directed the film but co-produced it and co-wrote the screenplay with Harald Kloser and Spenser Cohen.
The ‘Midway’ director explained to Deadline what was it like to film during the pandemic.
“As an independent movie it wasn’t easy to overcome $5-6M at least in Covid costs,” Emmerich said in February 2021. That’s a big hole. We had to find a bank to finance us. We were plain sailing at the start of last year but then we had to immediately shut down due to the pandemic. There was a lot of back and forth between insurance companies and banks. It was a miracle this movie happened at all. We got it done but it took a lot longer than I thought it would.”
‘Transformers: The Movie’ Is Getting A 4K Release For Its 35th Anniversary
Directed by Nelson Shin, the 1986 ‘Transformers: The Movie’ was a follow-up to ‘The Transformers’ animated series launched in 1984. It is set between season two and three, bringing in a new generation of Autobots and Decepticons. It has since become a fan-favorite, arguably more popular than the Michael Bay-directed film franchise.
Shout! Factory has announced that they are releasing a 4k Blu-Ray DVD limited edition release on August 3, 2021 to celebrate the film’s 35th Anniversary, GeekVibes Nation reports. It promises a “meticulously re-restored from a cleaner-than-ever, brand-new 4K transfer of the original 35mm film elements.”
According to the synopsis, “The year is 2005 … For millennia, the heroic Autobots, led by Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), have been at war with the evil Megatron (Frank Welker) and his Decepticons over control of their home planet of Cybertron. However, an even greater threat – Unicron (Orson Welles, Citizen Kane), a colossal converting planet that devours everything in its path – is heading right for Cybertron. The only hope is the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. Will the Autobots be able to save themselves and their home world in time?
An all-star cast, including Judd Nelson (The Breakfast Club), Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek), Eric Idle (the Monty Python films) and Robert Stack (The Untouchables), brings this inimitable, explosively entertaining Autobot adventure to life.”
Shout! Factory announced several features including a recording of Stan Bush performing acoustic versions of soundtrack songs “The Touch” And “Dare” from the 30th anniversary Fathom Events celebration.
It also includes the documentary ‘Till All Are One,’ which features interviews with “Members Of The Cast And Crew, Including Story Consultant Flint Dille, Cast Members Gregg Berger, Susan Blu, Neil Ross, Dan Gilvezan, Singer/Songwriter Stan Bush, Composer Vince DiCola And Others!”
The set is available for pre-order now at the Shout! Factory website.
Check out the trailer from the 30th anniversary release:
Netflix Announces ‘Ultraman’ CGI Animated Film
Ultraman is one of the most iconic figures to come from Japan. First appearing in 1966’s “The Birth of Ultraman,” the character has gone on to appear in live-action, animated, manga, and comic book form, even crossing over with properties like Kamen Rider.
In a press release, Netflix announced a partnership with Tsuburaya Productions to create a new CGI animated film based on Ultraman.
According to the official synopsis, “Baseball superstar Ken Sato returns to his home country of Japan to pick up the mantle of Earth-defending superhero Ultraman, but quickly finds more than he bargained for when he’s forced to raise the offspring of his greatest foe, a newborn Kaiju. Struggling to balance the roles of teammate and new father, Ken must confront his own ego, his estranged father, and the conniving Kaiju Defense Force to rise up and discover what it truly means to be Ultraman.”
This will be the second Ultraman iteration Netflix has produced following the second season of the anime-style television show.
Film director Shannon Tindle said, “Making this film is a dream come true. What began as an original story inspired by my love for Eiji Tsuburaya’s Ultraman somehow became an actual Ultraman film thanks to the incredible trust of the team at Tsuburaya Productions, and the support of the folks at Netflix Animation. We’ve assembled an all-star team and I can’t wait to share our unique take on Ultraman with the rest of the world.”
Tsuburaya Productions CEO Takayuki Tsukagoshi added, “Ultraman was born in Japan 55 years ago. This partnership with Netflix will be the first full-scale endeavor to reach the global market for Tsuburaya Productions. Ultraman, since it was created, has charmed many people around the world. And Shannon Tindle is one of those people. He was greatly influenced by Ultraman as a child, and he grew up to become a creator himself. I am delighted that families around the world will be able to watch Shannon and his team’s vision for Ultraman on Netflix and foster feelings of courage, hope and kindness.”
As stated earlier, the character appeared in the 1996 self-titled show where Japanese Earth defender Shin Hayata, played by Susumu Kurobe, would transform into Ultraman, played by Bin Furuya, to defend Japan against kaiju.
Ultraman was an alien from another planet who merged with Hayata in order to protect the Earth before he was recalled and replaced with a second Ultraman.
Rumor: Valve Producing A Portable Steam Console?
Handheld PCs running Valve’s Steam are nothing new. There are some on the market right now. Several crowdfunding campaigns have surfaced, too. A lot of those were quite unreliable and outright fishy. “Our Console has a crystal quality.” If you know that Kickstarter video, you know which vaporware portable gaming PC I’m talking about.
What would be great is if a portable console was coming out directly from Valve. Something that wasn’t tied to shady foreign businessmen. Well, a device called ‘SteamPal’ may be on the way. Maybe. It’s … iffy.
Arstechnica reports on some interesting wording that Steam DataBase creator Pavel Djundik found in the most recent Steam client beta. Check it out below:
This update also added a "quick access menu" and a "power menu"
I have a feeling all these strings related to "Neptune": https://t.co/Ih0K2y4E5A
Is Valve making a handheld Steam console?
— Pavel Djundik (@thexpaw) May 25, 2021
Arstechnica claims that the device is in the prototype stages, but images of the thing haven’t been released. Take what is being reported here with a massive grain of salt.
Handhelds mirroring Nintendo’s Switch are not too uncommon. Various versions have already hit the market or will very soon, but having the Steam/Valve branding behind it could be a game-changer.
As we’ve seen from the outdated hardware on the Switch, it is possible to run newer games, but at the cost of resolution, texture quality, and FPS. Imagine a newer chip with newer hardware running Steam and allowing you access to your entire library of games.
That’s some blue sky thinking, but it is possible. Sure, you’d probably not get your 4K experience as you do on a desktop, but all that portable convenience! Then again, this thing could turn out to be a streaming machine like a portable Stadia. I hope not.
If what is being proposed is your Steam library via a handheld, which games will be compatible? If you play retro titles, you’ve seen how fidgety older ’90s and even ’00s games can be to get running. Will Stream curate a list of titles optimized for the rumored platform?
What are your thoughts on a mobile Steam machine straight from Valve? Yay or nay? Let us know in the comments.
[Source: Arstechnica]
