Monday, March 25, 2013

Maybe DC should let the porn industry handle a Wonder Woman feature film

Via Playing D&D with Porn Stars.
So apparently there's another porn movie in the works about the Amazon Princess, Wonder Woman. Unlike the last (also the first about WW, I think) movie, this one will star Kimberly Kane (Twitter, Wikipedia, IAFD) and as you can see from the above picture, Vivid Superhero - the studio behind porn parodies of Batman, Superman, Avengers, Star Wars, and others - aren't fucking around. Look at that costume! They could easily have half-assed it and put her in some off-the-shelf Halloween costume, but they went for authenticity. Same with the casting, as Kane looks like Wonder Woman too.

It's actually pretty bad when the porn industry has put out at least two Wonder Woman movies and meanwhile, DC Comics and Warner Bros. can't even get one mainstream, non-pornographic one out of the gate. Maybe they should just hand the reins over to Axel Braun and his Vivid Superhero studio and let them make a real Wonder Woman movie?

But in all seriousness, maybe Warner Bros. should take the movie rights to Wonder Woman and several other properties away from DC and hand them off to a separate department of production studio, because clearly, the comic book company itself and DC Entertainment are at best, dragging their feet and at worst, don't know what the fuck they're doing.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Sir, someone set us up the newsbomb

Credit: allyourbasearebelongtous.com
  • Peter Jackson wants to direct an episode of Doctor Who. His price: One yellow Dalek. (via Nerd Approved)
  • Karen Gillan has been cast in Adult Swim's National Terrorism Strike Force: San Diego: Sport Utility Vehicle. I'm surprised that she's gone from Doctor Who to a TV show on Adult Swim. (via The Nerdist)
  • John Scalzi (Old Man's War, Redshirts) is promoting a petition by Shadow Ops author Myke Cole to get the United States Department of Agriculture to publish a daily recommended intake of bacon. No really. (via Whatever)
  • inXile Studios is playing hardball with their Kickstarter for a game called Torment: The Tides of Numenera. They've got two stretch goal incentives up sure to appeal to the geek in all of us. They're currently at $2.9 million, but if they manage to raise $3.25 million, Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind) will contribute some writing to the game. If they raise $3.5 million, then Chris Avellone, who wrote for such games as Planescape: Torment, two Fallout games (2 and New Vegas), and others will throw in some writing of his own. (via The Wertzone)

Friday, March 22, 2013

Let's do a book meme!

SF Signal has one up on their site about scifi, fantasy, and horror reads and figure "what the hell?" and do it. I'm leaving out the horror section, because the only horror novel I've ever read was Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box.

Scifi:
  • The last science fiction book I read was: Redshirts by John Scalzi.
  • The science fiction book I am reading right now is: 1633 by Eric Flint.
  • The next science fiction book I will read is: That's a tough one. I might jump back to The Short Victorious War, or finish The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
  • The last science fiction book I didn’t finish was: Hellhole by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.
  • I didn’t finish it because: The premise was good and it was interesting, but it just didn't hook me like other books normally do.
  • The last science fiction I recommended to a friend was: I've recommended books on my Tumblr, but I can't remember what the last scifi one was.
  • The last science fiction book someone recommended to me was (Did you enjoy it?): Can't say that I've ever had anyone recommend a book to me.
  • My favorite science fiction novel is: I honestly have no idea. I like them all.
  • An underrated science fiction author is: George Mann for his Newbury and Hobbes series of steampunk novels.
  • My favorite sub-genre of science fiction is: It's a tie between military science fiction and space opera. I like stories with lots of action and adventure in them.
Fantasy:
  • The last fantasy book I read was: Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling. I'd consider that more fantasy than science fiction.
  • The fantasy book I am reading right now is: The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan.
  • The next fantasy book I will read is: Either Mistborn, A Clash of Kings, or I might go back to The Hobbit.
  • The last fantasy book I didn’t finish was: Sourcery by Terry Pratchett.
  • I didn’t finish it because: The first several books in the Discworld series are focused on wizards and witches (with the exception of Mort) and it got tiring to read another one about them.
  • The last fantasy I recommended to a friend was: See the answer in the scifi section.
  • The last fantasy book someone recommended to me was (Did you enjoy it?): I think someone once recommended The Dresden Files and I fell in love with those books.
  • My favorite fantasy novel is: I can't pick just one and no single book leaps out at me. They're all good.
  • An underrated fantasy author is: Michael J. Sullivan.
  • My favorite sub-genre of fantasy is: I'm partial to military fantasy. Like my answer for the scifi question, I tend to favor stories with lots of action and adventure.

Hopefully the new Star Trek Into Darkness trailer puts the Khan theory to rest

Because I'd more than happy to get the nails to hammer into that particular coffin.



I never believed that Benedict Cumberbatch was playing Khan. Abrams and Co. said that they were remaking any of the TOS movies and putting Khan in the second one would have gone counter to that statement. Following that line of thought, there would be no emotional investment if they went "Hey here's Khan Noonien Singh and he's plotting revenge against Captain Kirk!" because without "Space Seed", Khan is just a guy who doesn't like Kirk and then the movie falls flat on its face.

I think John Harrison (if that is indeed the character's real name and not a red herring) is a member of Section 31. In the trailer, he's described as one of Starfleet's top agents and that ultra-clandestine organization called Section 31 is (nominally) a part of Starfleet. It might also go to explain his uniform. We know, thanks to Star Trek: Enterprise, that the organization existed as far back as the 22nd century and we can presume that the events of Enterprise happened in the new continuity, since they preceded the point of divergence in the 2009 reboot. Then again, he could just be a member of Starfleet's Intelligence branch.

As for Harrison's motives, he mentions a crime committed by Kirk's "commanders" (presumably Starfleet brass) that he sees as 'unforgivable'. A previous trailer showed him volunteering his services to help the family of a dying girl, so maybe Starfleet was in the position to help her and others afflicted with the same condition, but didn't and now he's out for revenge. Or maybe he sees Starfleet (and by extension, the Federation) as corrupt and plots to overthrow one or both.

The possibilities certainly makes me anxious for May to get here so that I can find out.

Monday, March 18, 2013

I totally forgot about Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing movie



What's pretty impressive about this movie is that Whedon filmed it at his house in twelve days while on break from the Avengers movie. Yup, pretty impressive indeed. I'm hoping one of the theaters in town will have it when it premieres on June 7th.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

My response to Google shutting down Reader

I think John Scalzi hit the nail on the head on why Google Reader is being killed, namely that Google couldn't figure out how to make money from it and they're not interested in running something that isn't making them money, regardless of how many people use it. The official explanation is that they're shutting the service down because of declining usage (which is vague as fuck) and wanting to reduce the number of products.

If "declining usage" is the reason for killing Reader, then wouldn't the logical solution be to at least try and boost usage? I can't imagine that it would be difficult to redesign Reader to make it more appealing and user friendly, and give it at least a fraction of the promotion that Plus, Chrome, and the Play Store gets.

Jay over at EXONAUTS! says that there have been rumors over the past year that Blogger could be axed next. I disagree. While Google probably isn't making any money from Blogger, it has value in other areas. Google's been adding a lot of Google Plus integration to Blogger and even revamped its mobile app. They wouldn't do any of that if they were planning on shutting the platform down. Even aside from that, Blogger is one of the biggest blogging platforms on the internet and ditching it would serve no purpose other than to drive users into the arms of Wordpress, Tumblr, and others.