Gina Carano to Star in Film Adaptation of Avengelyne

Last week, the Grizzly Bomb editors got together to write-up a casting couch for the forthcoming Justice League movie. Amidst said casting couch feature was the notion to have MMA fighter turned actress Gina Carano play the role of Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman! I thought that was a fantastic pick and wouldn’t have minded one bit had that happened. Actually, I wouldn’t mind it still happening, but who’s to say at this point since Carano is now going to be the star of a different and more unexpected comic book movie adaptation: Avengelyne.

Who is Avengelyne you ask? Well she’s a fallen angel who battles demons on Earth to prepare for the coming apocalypse of course! Created by Rob Liefield in 1995, and presented by Maximum Press comics, I can’t remember much of the series except a scantily clad heroine with Rob Liefield’s over  imagining of what is necessary for female breasts. That’s not to say the movie won’t be good.

IGN is stating that Liefield will be “re-conceiving” and “rebuilding” the comic story to fit with Carano and it will have an Underworld vibe ala Kate Beckinsale. And I’ll be the first to say I didn’t mind some of the shortcomings of the Underworld franchise as long as Kate Beckinsale graced the screen.

Carano has proven herself to be pretty capable with her acting hat on, as evidenced in Fast and Furious 6 and Haywire. Who knows, even if Avengelyne is not a commercial success maybe it can still be her audition for a role in the Justice League movie as Wonder Woman.

‘Batman: Arkham Origins’ Reveals Another Villain – The Mad Hatter!

Hot on the heels of the SDCC’s announcement that Copperhead will be one of the assassins hunting Batman in Arkham Origins, we’ve just heard of another addition. Jervis Tech, AKA the Mad Hatter, will be joining the rest of the Arkham Origins rogues gallery. Jervis has a penchant for dressing in the get up of the Mad Hatter from the Alice in Wonderland stories, and underneath his various caps are mind control devices that Tech uses to his evil ends, which have varied over the years from the disturbing to downright ridiculous.

As many players of the previous game Arkham City already know, The Mad Hatter had a brief appearance in the entry. I thought his portion was a pretty fun time and helped bring me back to the trippy fun that Scarecrow’s fear toxin brought in Arkham Asylum. According to IGN that’s what we’ll be treated to in the prequel, a longer variation of the Mad Hatter level from Arkham City. So be on the lookout for Bats wearing one of good ole’ Jervis’ mind control hats to fight out of!

The number of rogues in this game is certainly building every few weeks. In the line-up so far we have The Joker, Penguin, Mad Hatter, Black Mask, Bane, Copperhead, Deathstroke, and Deadshot. And unless they are counting the first four on that list as the eight assassins after Batman, then that means we have about four assassins left to be announced.

Who else will we see in Arkham Origins? The game is looking fantastic at this point and comes out October 25th 2013! Let us know your predictions below!

The End of ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia premieres it’s 9th season this fall on their new comedy channel FXX, September 4th at 10pm ET/PT. Then after season 10 next year, the gang will be saying “so long bitches” for good! In a not so stunning move Glenn Howerton has announced that the show doesn’t want to overstay it’s welcome so they’re going to end on their terms. Read more below from IGN:

“There’s a certain point where you wear out your welcome and we don’t want to do that,” the actor/writer/producer said. “We want to leave them wanting more. We spend a lot of time trying to find new lines to cross. We’re not trying to offend people or gross them out, but we’re looking to surprise them. I think we’re proud of what we’ve done so far, so it’s time to stop.”

I’m glad Howerton is saying it because in my opinion the show has become a bit stale, even though I’ll always love it. I long for the earlier seasons when all of the characters weren’t so over the top.

But in the show’s defense the subsequent seasons have been pretty entertaining. From Kitten “Mittons” to Dance Marathons and Project Bad Ass to Thundergun Express, the show will definitely be missed. It is better for it to end before the fans decide to stop watching. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia is a great show to have leading the charge on the network’s newest efforts at gaining viewership with FXX. The network has triumphed time and again, and not only with comedies, but dramas like The Shield, Justified, Rescue Me, Sons of Anarchy, American Horror Story and Nip/Tuck just to name a few.

Once It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia goes away, comedies such as Archer, Louie, The League and Wilfred will have to pick up the slack, which they are more than capable of doing. As the show reaches closer to it’s inevitable conclusion, what are everyone’s favorite episodes with so many to choose from?

You know Grizzly Bomb will be doing a top ten best episodes once the show has it’s series finale.

SDCC 2013 Rumor Mill: J.J. Abrams May Quit Star Wars?

Here’s some news that may cause massive system shock to Star Wars fans everywhere: Rumors that J.J. Abrams may be contemplating dropping out of Star Wars Episode 7! Dun Dun Dun! It’s pretty much just a rumor floating around the San Diego Comic Con, but still that would be dreadful news from the viewpoint of a geek like me, who thought there would never be another Star Wars movie ever! Then to find out that not only were there more coming, but they weren’t being directed by George Lucas! I love the J.J. Abrams choice for the man in charge simply based off the success of the Star Trek franchise these past 4 years. If he could turn a Star Wars fan like me (who hated Star Trek since first seeing it as a child) into a believer then just imagine what he can do with the galaxy far far away! Check out the rumor from over at IGN below:

 

[box_dark]Badass Digest‘s Devin Faraci claims that while at this past weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con, he kept “hearing tons of rumors that JJ Abrams is on the verge of dropping out of Star Wars”.

Faraci added, “This has been something I’ve heard for a while now, and from multiple insiders. I know that he didn’t want to shoot the movie in England and was overruled, but that happened a while ago. This weekend at Comic Con I continued to hear these whispers. No director for [Star] Trek 3 has been found yet – might Abrams end up coming back after all, leaving Star Wars to someone else? I’m expecting Star Wars news out of the German Star Wars Celebration at the end of the month – if there is some sort of announcement of a title or casting and Abrams isn’t there, start wondering.”[/box_dark]

 

To sort of calm the nerves of Jed-Heads everywhere, Lucasfilm has denied any of these rumors thus far. However much comfort that provides everyone I’m not so sure, because of course they’re not going to admit to any problems with Disney’s newest milking of one of the most profitable franchises ever. Would Abrams departing be the end of Star Wars? No, of course not. Although, they would have been off to a great start to only settle for something mediocre with some of the talent out there nowadays. Here are my three worst case scenarios if J.J. Abrams jets from the project:

1.)    Star Wars, Directed by Brett Ratner

2.)    Star Wars, Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson

3.)    Star Wars, Directed by Stephen Sommers

Please, Disney (and essentially Lucasfilm), spare me any of the above heartbreak or I just may explode into oblivion. I suppose we’ll see in the coming months after the D23 Expo from Disney and the German Star Wars: Celebration if these rumors bear any fruit. Fans are expecting some sort of casting news by the time these geek gatherings occur…. me included.

‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’: Joss Whedon Discusses Hank Pym & Ultron’s New Origin

From the Marvel Studios panel at Comic-Con come some small tidbits of information from the man, Joss Whedon himself, in regards to his now titled film Avengers: Age of Ultron. Tidbit one: Hank Pym will not be in Avengers 2, hence the second tidbit that Ultron’s origin may be a little different. As you may or may not know, Hank Pym is one of the foremost scientists in the Marvel Universe, able to create such things as a helmet that can control ants and a chemical substance that can shrink someone down to the size of said ants. He also created one crazy ass robot named Ultron (who has quite the Oedipus Complex for ole daddy Pym) seeking to eradicate him, the Avengers and pretty much all mankind.

Since the Ant-Man film won’t be released until November 2015, after Avengers: Age of Ultron, I guess it will stand to reason that Ultron’s creator may be Tony Stark. Shocker, I know, like every geek in geekdom didn’t see that one coming after the announcement of Pym not having a part in Avengers 2. I could be wrong but it would appear that Stark may be done with playing superhero after Iron Man 3. This may lead him into making something similar to Iron Man to do the fighting for him, and once that creation becomes self-aware and threatens the world, Tony may have to don the armor again to take down Ultron with the combined might of the Avengers. Or we could all be wrong and Ultron is a weapon that S.H.I.E.L.D. may have built modeled off the Tesseract technology.

Whatever the case may be, everyone is wondering just how much source material the movie will cull from the actual Age of Ultron storyline that debuted earlier this year. Is it just a cool name or will there be actual time travel stuff involved? Seems like 20^th Century Fox is doing the time travel gig and gathering all of their stars to catch up with the Avengers in the cinema, is this Marvel’s counter to that? The answer is no. Whedon has said that they would not be using the recent story and that in the movie they will be doing their own version of Ultron’s origin story. Perhaps they are just trying to usurp the name recognition from Age of Apocalypse since there are rumors that Fox is attempting to make Apocalypse to be their answer to Thanos in their cinematic-comic universe. Time will tell as 2015 approaches and we are treated to the automaton menace of Ultron.

As a quick side note it sounds like Hawkeye will be back, but with a bigger part to play since he won’t be a mind controlled bad guy for more than half of the movie. No news on whether or not Jeremy Renner will be filling the boots of Hawkeye this time around, but we imagine he will stay with the role. Check out Whedon discussing the finer points of Avengers: Age of Ultron.

The Purge: More Purging on the Way in Form of a Sequel

So last week’s surprise box office winner The Purge was made for a meager $3 million dollars and ended up with $30 million plus for it’s opening weekend. That’s a pretty damned good investment I’d say. Blumhouse Productions actually has a pretty good record of making nothing into something. They are responsible for the extremely successful Paranormal Activity movie franchise, the first movie being made for $15,000 and grossing $193 million worldwide. Sinister is a similar success story like The Purge, being made for only $3 million and ultimately grossing $80 million, which The Purge could potentially do by the end of its run. So, its only logical that they do the same thing with The Purge and give it a sequel right?

Well that’s what is going down. Apparently the studio has green lit the sequel for The Purge and now all that remains is to determine what the sequel might be about. I was previously thinking that they could change the setting to the inner city to see how Purge Night affects those homeless people and other random people living there. It was evident from the security footage during the open credits that things get pretty gruesome out there so that could be the direction they go.

Another idea could be that they do a prequel instead of a sequel to show how the idea of The Purge came into place, or perhaps the experience for certain people during the first Purge Night. They left it pretty mysterious with the “new” America that was created by the New Founding Fathers. I think it would be interesting to find out who these new founding fathers were and how they got the public support for the idea of Purge Night. That seems like the studio wouldn’t be sticking to the cheap budget format so it will more than likely not happen, but it would be just as interesting to see another fight for survival by other characters during Purge Night. I really can’t see the Sandin family from the first Purge movie being a part of the sequel because their story is complete.

What’s everyone else think? What are some ideas for a new Purge movie? Did anyone enjoy the first movie as much as I did? Purge your thoughts below!

“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” Teaser Trailer Has Arrived!

Finally the teaser trailer for The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug is out! Set to run before Man of Steel in theaters this week, the next chapter of the Hobbit trilogy is available now online. The story continues as the company of Thorin Oakenshield continues their quest to reclaim their homeland of Erabor from the menace of Smaug the dragon. Along the way the company will encounter not only the wood elves who Thorin believes betrayed him during the fall of Erabor but the men of Laketown as well as they near the Lonely Mountain. And lets not forget the pale Orc Azog is still hot on their trail. Check out all of the action in the trailer below

Lots of exciting stuff going on, whether it’s from the book itself or added in for the movie. The movie looks just as gorgeous and eye popping as the first one, which also featured a good amount added to the film. We get to see more Elves, including Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel and the return of everyone’s favorite pointy-eared archer, Legolas! There’s also a quick glimpse of Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman and more of Bilbo and company, but honestly, let’s get to the elephant in the room… or dragon, as it were.

“I… Am…. Kahn! Err… Smaug!”

Smaug the Terrible doesn’t look very terrible, visually. He actually looks breathtakingly awesome in the last seconds of the trailer as he finds our lead Hobbit in his treasure horde. I was surprised they show Smaug in his full glory onscreen instead of saving it as a surprise for when the movie is released. At this point the extra bonus will be hearing Smaug speak in the voice of actor Benedict Cumberbatch. I doubt they really could have hired a better actor for the role of the ancient and angry dragon. Cumberbatch has a very baritone and intimidating voice more than equipped for the likes of Smaug. Did you hear this guy in Star Trek: Into Darkness? I’ll walk over your cold corpses?! Can’t wait till December!

“Who you calling pointy-eared?”

What did everyone think of the trailer, and Smaug in particular? Sound off in the comments section below!

Arkham Origins: First Gameplay Trailer and the Return of The Joker…

We have yet another Arkham Origins trailer, except this time we get to see some actual gameplay. I’m of the mind that if ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and in the case of Arkham Origins the combat and other gameplay look to be about the same with only a few changes. As mentioned before Batman will be utilizing the Bat computer on the go to holographically reconstruct crime scenes. It looks pretty nifty, can’t wait to give it a go. But enough out of me check out the trailer:

I loved the trailer and the look of Arkham Origins so far. It’s so far confirmed that Bane, Deadshot and Deathstroke are in the game as assassins but no others have been confirmed. They definitely showcased the Joker in the trailer and he looked awesome as usual. He only had one line and a laugh in the trailer, but I thought it was decent. Obviously Mark Hamil is a hard act to follow for any voice actor involving the Joker but I have high hopes for Troy Baker, who voiced both Two-Face and Robin in the last game. Likewise, Batman’s new voice (Roger Craig Smith) didn’t sound too bad either.

Baker and Smith have worked together before this as well. They voice Hawkeye and Captain America for the Avengers Assemble cartoon…

Only time will tell however as we wait until October 18th when the game is released. Unfortunately it’s not till October 25th for everyone outside of the United States.

So what’s everyone think finally seeing the gameplay action from the game? Any thoughts on the looks of Bane and the Joker or the new voices for the clown prince and Batman? Sound off below bat-fans!

Game of Thrones – Top 12 Kills (Season 3)

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Another season of Game of Thrones behind us and a whole plethora of kills for us to make a top 12 list of. Like last season, we couldn’t narrow things down to 10, but this season was by far the bloodiest. Like the Blackwater episode before it, the Red Wedding episode; The Rains of Castamere will definitely being filling multiple spots below. Enough chit chat!

Start the list!

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The Arrowhead…to the head

Before we knew the sick bastard was Ramsay Snow, he played a little game with Theon. He assisted him in escape after being tortured at the Dreadfort, seemingly saving him by killing his pursuers and then returning him to be tortured some more. As he finishes off the last of his men who chased Theon, Ramsay firmly plants a bow shot into the unfortunate man’s head at point blank range. Brutal.

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Karstark’s Treason

Rickard Karstark, or Rickard I’m-Such-a-Negative-Nancy, did some crazy stuff. He began doubting his king as he traveled to his grandfather’s funeral and let his lust for vengeance get the better of him by killing Lannister hostages. He was in direct defiance of his king, Robb Stark, not to mention the Lannister hostages were boys who had even reached their teens. Lord Karstark paid the ultimate price for that one by getting a good old fashioned beheading by his boss, spewing insults until the very end. Good riddance. Although that move didn’t help Robb in the long run.

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Joffrey’s Plaything…

Ros was a character who only showed up in the Game of Thrones TV series, but she was a mainstay throughout the three seasons, having minor interactions with a number of characters. I was just as dismayed as the next person when Littlefinger informed Varys that he found out she was spying on him. Then to add insult to injury we get to see that Ros was used as a plaything for Joffrey and his crossbow.

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Craster’s Comeuppance

Here’s a kill we can all get behind. Sure it wasn’t inventive, but it was surely deserved. For some reason, Craster decided it would be a great idea to invite a large group of seasoned warriors who are half starved and frozen into his home. Then get this, he lords his food and women over them without expecting some sort of backlash.

Unfortunately he doesn’t take kindly to being called a bastard by the more mutinous members of the Night’s Watchmen, and takes a dagger to the throat. I would say I was sorry but this is a guy who had sex with numerous daughters and probably granddaughters and then sacrificed his sons to the White Walkers. Real class act there.

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The Old Bear

Jeor Mormont, or the Old Bear as he’s known in the Night’s Watch, was a casualty immediately following the death of the old bastard Craster. Mormont was a great character who I was sad to see killed off by Rast who I’ve hated since season one. At least Mormont was almost able to choke Rast to death before he finally succumbed to more knife wounds.

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Sam the Slayer

It’s hard to believe that Samwell Tarly had one of the coolest kills in the season. After being chucked a good 25 feet by a White Walker, Sam rebounds to use a dragonglass spearhead on the icy jerk resulting in him shattering into tiny little pieces. Sam the Slayer in the house!

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The Resurrection

When Beric Dondarrion fights the Hound in trial by combat everything seems to be going his way. How can he lose? The Hound hates fire and Beric has a flaming freakin’ sword! But lose he does as the Hound cuts not only through his flaming sword but half of his upper torso resulting in one of the most gruesome deaths of the season. Then Dondarrion is almost immediately resurrected by Thoros of Myr, but he was killed nonetheless. Well done on both accounts.

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Little Ned Stark

Talisa Stark wasn’t queen for very long, and was not able to be a mother at all after the Freys savagely murdered every Northman in attendance at Edmure Tully’s wedding to Roslyn Frey, which would later become known as the Red Wedding. It was truly brutal that they murdered an expectant mother, but what were they expecting naming him after a character played by Sean Bean.

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Long Live the King

Robb Stark was the second major casualty of the Red Wedding, being filled with crossbow bolts before he watched his wife and unborn son die in his arms. You would think it would be enough that his bannerman Roose Bolton killed him with a knife to the heart in front of his mother but even after the events of the wedding the Freys parade his decapitated corpse outside on horseback… with his direwolf’s head sewn onto his body.

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Mother of the North

Catelyn Stark’s death was quite haunting as her eyes went vacant after a scream that could only be that of a mother watching her son die right in front of her. The cutting of her throat seemed miniscule in comparison.

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Valar Morghulis

Arya’s first intentional kill was quite a sight as her and the Hound rode by a small encampment of Frey men bragging about killing her mother and brother at the Red Wedding. In a “your shoe’s untied” moment with a fatal endgame, Arya shows the Hound that she has what it takes to pull the trigger… err swing the sword.

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Dracarys

Master Kraznys of Astapor by far made up my favorite death this season. After a couple episodes of insulting Daenerys in High Valyrian, Kraznys has an “oh shit” moment realizing that it’s actually her native tongue. He frantically orders her killed but only succeeds in getting extra crispy in quite possibly the most bad ass moment in the series.

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Grey Wind

The Direwolf would have seriously owned some Freys had he not been locked away in the stables and riddled with arrows by them. It was truly heartbreaking watching his last moments as he made eye contact with Arya before closing them forever.

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It’s Time for a Timecop Reboot!

I often get ripped on for one of my favorite time travel movies being the Jean-Claude Van Damme starrer Timecop. Sure it’s not on the same level as a time travel masterpiece like Back to the Future or The Terminator, but I like the concept of people using the technology for financial and personal gain. Timecop was cheesy, but it starred Van Damme so what did you expect? It was almost like a less intelligent version of Looper.

The story is about… well Timecops. Law enforcement agents who travel through time to stop those with rogue technology trying to get rich and gain influence for political gain. The time travel tech began in the government’s hands but soon enough was used by the wrong people. Of course Van Damme’s character, Agent Walker, runs afoul of a crooked senator and goes after him for more personal reasons than the guy just wanting to be President. Various one liners and splits ensue throughout. The most interesting concept in the movie was the whole “The same matter cannot occupy the same space” where if you so much as touch your past or future self while on the same temporal plane you merge and are effectively reduced into… nothingness.

According to Heat Vision, Universal is in the initial steps of rebooting Timecop and it will be a “reimaging” of the concept from the old movie. Also, Jean-Claude will not be involved in the reboot of the movie so take that as you will. I can understand them not using Van Damme, his time has sort of come and gone. (That pun was not intended but it sure did work.) I look forward to them rebooting a movie I thoroughly enjoyed and can’t wait to see what they do with the concept. The closest thing that I can think of to compare Timecop with is The One, that involved agents traveling through a multiverse to stop criminals… but it was god awful. Cheers and good luck to Universal on their latest venture.

Is anyone upset that Jean-Claude won’t be returning for the reboot? Spout off below in the comments section!