"This Week on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Podcast

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Troy Benjamin and filed under TV and tagged marvel marvel cinematic universe marvel comics agents of s.h.i.e.l.d. marvel's agents of s.h.i.e.l.d. clark gregg nick blood elizabeth henstridge ming-na wen mark kolpack adrianne palicki ann foley podcast most popular.

The New Star Wars Sequel: Adventure Has a New Name...

StarWars.com slipped a huge nugget of cold hard fact through the interweb pipeline this morning when it announced via its Twitter, Instagram and the official site that the name of J.J. Abrams' forthcoming Episode VII will be Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Interestingly all of the graphics and announcements have dropped the cumbersome "Star Wars - Episode VII" nonsense that started back with The Phantom Menace in '99, which I find as a welcome nomenclature change. Nobody called Empire or Jedi "Episode V" or "Episode VI" and it's nice to have a title that rolls off the tongue like Awakens. (Though some have already snarked that they can see themselves slipping and calling it Awakenings, which yes - is a completely different film.

The Force also tells me that this will be a lot of peoples' computer wallpaper in 3... 2... 

While fanboys are currently in the process of doing what they do best on the internet lately, complaining like there is no tomorrow, I'm pretty pleased with the title. It instantly tells you what the themes of the film will explore. It instantly gets the imagination going. And, as some have already pointed out, it's a little bit meta because it could also refer to the magic of Star Wars having been dormant for so long finally coming back into the spotlight.

I'm a little surprised with what little fanfare the title was released with however. Having been there at Comic-Con when Revenge of the Sith was announced and the huge hub-bub that surrounded that title reveal (even so much as creating a video that heralded it in the context of the other five films). So I'm wondering if something more is on the near-horizon, like an official photo, or a featurette, or something else to feed the marketing frenzy. There have also been rumors that a teaser trailer is in the near-distant future, though I would expect something like that closer to the end of the year at the soonest. 

One thing is for sure, this certainly is a whole lot of fun. The conversations that I've been having with my friend Jason are excited moments of pure joy that I haven't had since around 1998. Before the dark times... Star Wars: The Force Awakens is in theaters December 18, 2015.

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Troy Benjamin and filed under Movies and tagged star wars episode vii the force awakens j.j. abrams.

Ghostbusters Reunite for the 30th Anniversary

8 casts are together again for Entertainment Weekly, but let's be honest: only one really matters, right?

An unexpected surprise was waiting this morning as Entertainment Weekly revealed their latest cover featuring a reunion of the Boys in Grey in celebration of Ghostbusters' 30th Anniversary.

The cover image features Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Sigourney Weaver but curiously a video created in tandem for the Today Show features Bill Murray, Annie Potts, Ernie Hudson and Ivan Reitman.

Maybe Dan had some vodka to go and sell during the video or something, it's strange that he was around for the cover photo but not the interview (and that Annie and Ivan weren't on the cover). I'm wondering if maybe the reunion wasn't exactly a reunion and the cover was cobbled together from multiple shoots?

Regardless of those curiosities, the video is fun if brief. I had no idea that Al Roker was such a Ghostbusters fan and never picked up on any of his various references throughout the years. The article inside the issue will most likely go more in-depth and feature more photos of the cast reunion, and hopefully a longer interview with more Al Roker conversation exists and will be released somewhere down the line.

UPDATE: Apparently the whole gang was together for the photo shoot portion of the reunion if this photo released by Entertainment Weekly is to be believed:

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Troy Benjamin and filed under Movies and tagged ghostbusters bill murray ghostbusters 30th anniversary entertainment weekly reunions cover stories sigourney weaver ernie hudson dan aykroyd annie potts.

Bits & Bobs - 6th Edition

Bits & Bobs collects some of the cool things around the interwebs that I think are noteworthy and worth your time but don't necessarily fill up a full blog post or news item. On with the show...

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BASS (JUST LIKE THE 90'S)

Nerdist has a parody video up today of the catchy "All About That Bass" featuring the ladies of Team Unicorn. While the song may not be your cup of tea (it's definitely not mine), the lyrics are pretty damn clever and get a good guffaw or two. Plus the costume changes and production value, including dancing astromech droids and backup Royal Imperial Guard dancers make it worth a view. And you know, it's the Team Unicorn ladies so... it's worth a view for obvious reasons. For those interested, the Team Unicorn Saturday Morning Cartoon inspired show should be hitting Adult Swim soon.

AGENT CARTER, I PRESUME?

Last night, during its 75th Anniversary documentary special, Marvel released a new trailer for the upcoming Agent Carter series which highlights a fantastic moment between Carter herself and father of a future Iron Man Howard Stark. The clip also introduces us to the original Jarvis, who presumably will be the inspiration of the artificial intelligence J.A.R.V.I.S. utilized by Tony later in the films. I'm really loving the tone of the series, it has that amazing Rocketeer feel (which is the major reason I'm such a fan of the first Cap movie as well) and can't wait to see what the rest of this series brings.

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Troy Benjamin and filed under Bits & Bobs and tagged team unicorn Alison Haislip clare grant Rileah Vanderbilt Milynn Sarley all about that bass marvel marvel cinematic universe peggy carter agent carter.