SATURDAY: Free Comic Book Day!

If you don't already have plans for this coming Saturday morning, make your way over to your local comic book store!!! It's the industry's fantastic annual holiday, Free Comic Book Day! On May 3rd, you'll be able to walk away with all sorts of free swag, browse the latest figures and collectibles and best of all, rub elbows with your fellow enthusiasts! It's always a terrific time and very family friendly. Here in Portland, Things From Another World hosts quite the shindig - Greg Rucka will be there! Costumed characters are bound to be on hand as well. I wouldn't miss it, as it's a really great little tradition - and fun to think it's going on all over the country at once! I know I'll be taking my little superhero with me, because you're never too young to thrill to a cool story and the exploits of heroes. 

OFFICIAL: Star Wars Cast Revealed!!!

That was fast...here's the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII: John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson and Max von Sydow!!!

Says J.J. Abrams: "We are so excited to finally share the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII. It is both thrilling and surreal to watch the beloved original cast and these brilliant new performers come together to bring this world to life, once again. We start shooting in a couple of weeks, and everyone is doing their best to make the fans proud."

Ridley has been in Silent Witness and Mr Selfridge and is rumored to play the daughter of Han Solo and Princess Leia. Driver is still believed to be playing a Vader-esque villain, Isaac's character will have a Han Solo vibe and Boyega appears as a Jedi.

Exciting to see Max von Sydow in the mix, though we don't know who his character is at this juncture. Veterans Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker are also confirmed to return.

Prepare Yourselves For a Major Tremor in the Force!

The news could break at any time, so fasten your seat-belts - any moment now, we’ll be meeting the new cast of Star Wars.

Director J.J. Abrams is staging a big table reading of the script in London today, supposedly with the full cast – so some kind of official Disney press announcement should break between now and “Star Wars Day,” Sunday, May 4^th (May the Fourth be with You…).

The rumors have been stacking up like planes over LaGuardia, most recently that Inside Llewyn Davis star Oscar Isaac is up for a major role. Adam Driver from Girls has previously been mentioned, Attack the Block’s John Boyega, as well as Maisie Richardson-Sellers, an young actress from Oxford whose name remains prominent.

These new cast members will join original trilogy veterans Carrie Fisher, Mark Hammill and Harrison Ford. Some of the most recent buzz to leak out has it that Ford has a substantial role in the first film of this new trilogy, which unfolds thirty years after the events of Return of the Jedi. 

The big question on everyone's mind, will Disney announce the actual title, or will J.J. continue to keep us in suspense? We should know more very, very soon...

Stark Departures: Thrones Season Four Veers Off the Map!

So if you didn’t catch Game of Thrones last night, STOP READING. Here there be Spoilers… So my advice would be, books or no books, if you haven’t seen the episode, CLOSE YOUR BROWSER. 

I try to stay clear of reveals for the most part, but recent events are simply too fascinating not to consider…

In a season that has already had more than its fair share of seismic moments, last night will go down in the annals of the show as an extremely pivotal, milestone episode, in that never before in the entire history of Game of Thrones has the plot for the series veered so wildly off on its own course and taken such a major series of departures from the book:

Burn Gorman and Bran – the addition of Pacific Rim actor Burn Gorman as Karl, leader of the mutineers at Craster’s Keep, escaped my notice last season. Gorman is a terrific presence (he was also in Dark Knight Rises), and it turns out his character was in a previous episode in season 3, but I clearly didn’t recognize him at the time. Now we don’t just have the “mutineers” holed up at Craster’s, but Karl has been elevated to Richard III awfulness, drinking out of Mormont’s empty skull, overseeing the all-too graphic abuse of Craster’s remaining daughters. So that’s one thing – but now we have Bran, Hodor and the Reeds captured by Karl and his cronies – in the books thus far, Bran and company were still just wondering about. As for their encounter with spectral horseman Coldhands, we haven’t even seen him yet. He joins the ranks of GOT characters such as Lady Stoneheart who have yet to make an appearance on the series. Who knows if they even will? Fan favorite book characters have been omitted from the series before, as was the case with Strong Belwas and Vargo Hoat.

Locke – and thpeaking of Hoat, the villain who cut off Jaime’s hand has infiltrated the Night’s Watch at the behest of the Boltons, and is on his way with Jon Snow to Craster’s, to deal with the mutineers! This raises a fascinating question, and one of the potentially biggest departures from the books – is Bran going to be reunited with his half-brother Jon?!? Will Jon rescue his little brother? Admittedly, Bran’s lengthy meanderings with the Reeds have always been some of the slower, less engaging parts of the books. So I really find the idea of putting Bran, Hodor et al in some actually jeopardy and more woven into the actual plot, a satisfying choice – but Karl and the mutineers are turning into mustache-twirling cartoons at this point. Enough with the raping, already… Let’s not forget that similarly (though more compressed than it feels in the books) we now have both Sansa and Arya heading for the Eyrie – could this be another Stark sibling reunion, potentially occurring before we read about it in the next book?

The Night’s King – whatever he’s called, we saw a crowned White Walker transform a human baby into one of their own! This is major. Not one of the Wight/zombies, but an Other. We’ve never seen anything like this in the books yet – is it a leap-ahead that the showrunners have gleaned from Martin? This was a really fascinating reveal and opens up the entire mythology more than we’ve seen from any source thus far. In fact, HBO may have let the cat out of the bag a little early. Briefly after the episode aired, the HBO synopsis identified this being as the Night’s King: “A White Walker claims the baby and rides to a city of ice. The child is presented at an alter, where the Night’s King greets the infant and lays a finger on its cheek. The baby’s eyes turn White Walker blue.” Evidently realizing the inadvertent slip, HBO quickly changed the synopsis from Night’s King to “Walker.” 

For all these elements, this has to be considered a major episode, given how it was practically an outright declaration on the part of the show that they’re willing to play fast-and-loose, serving notice to readers that just like winter, surprises and differences are coming.

Sorcerer on Blu - A Friedkin Action Masterpiece

"No one is just anything."  Like the film's desperate protagonists, William Friedkin's Sorcerer has spent a long time in exile from polite civilization. It's been hard to find, subject to a ton of abuse and been misunderstood. The wait is finally over. I've written previously about Sorcerer's long road to respectability. Friedkin fought like the devil to get this film made and then decades later fought a series of legal battles in order to properly put the film back together again.

The result is a masterpiece - one of the most astonishing depictions of dire straits I've ever seen. Imagine an existential fusion of Bogart's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Apocalypse Now - that's how I felt when the final image of Sorcerer faded to black.

The film begins with four substantial character introductions, potent shorts in their own right. Four men in locales ranging from New Jersey to Paris are all going to have to run for their lives. Where they end up is a spot in the Nicaraguan jungle that's nothing short of the end of the line. Friedkin captures the rancid squalor of the place with incredible detail. The cinematography by Dick Bush and John M. Stephens feels like it must have been shot by Ernest Hemingway. Sorcerer was written by Walon Green (The Wild Bunch) and creates an incredibly atmosphere of escalating tension that feels utterly believable yet wildly surreal at the same time. When these guys went on location they went on location - the environments in Sorcerer feel so remote, it's easy to imagine Friedkin and company feeling complete freedom to just go for it - it's hard to picture much studio interference this far off the map.

The center role is played by Roy Scheider, right after his success of Jaws. He's phenomenal here. Low key, haunted, his last bits of dignity slipping away like a handful of sand. I saw Sorcerer when it first came out, but I was way too young to get it. Plus, like the rest of the universe, I'd just seen Star Wars, which utterly eclipsed Sorcerer. It'd be like releasing Taxi Driver the week after Close Encounters - or The Things right on the heels of E.T. - oh yeah, that actually happened. Sorcerer is absolutely a creature of the seventies - it belongs right next to Serpico, All the President's Men, Deliverance and of course, The French Connection. After The Exorcist and French Connection, Friedkin still had some tricks up his sleeve he was hungry to show - and a lot left to prove - it's too bad the world was too agog over lightsabers to really notice at the time.

If you like gritty, suspenseful action pictures with a touch of existential dread - if you loved Friedkin's other classic thrillers, you owe it to yourself to find Sorcerer immediately. It's been nicely delivered in blu-ray book packaging and the transfer is pretty obviously a labor of love. There's still plenty of appropriate grain - the film looks like it should. But the colors are just insane - the restoration work here is simply amazing. It's a super print and the audio is flawless. The sounds of those trucks, the rain - that swaying bridge - plunge you right into the middle of the jungle. The electronic score by Tangerine Dream just adds to the surreal, moody other worldliness. It sounds like a John Carpenter score at times.

The one disappointment with this historic release is the complete lack of extras - no commentary, no making-of docs, not even a retrospective. This film demands some kind of "look back" retrospective on its long journey to rediscovery - we want to hear Friedkin tell us what it was like back then. But as beautiful as the packaging is, the extras are lean. Don't let that deter you. Sorcerer is a classic on a par with Touch of Evil and Apocalypse Now. We're lucky to have this action masterpiece available for new generations to discover and thrill to.

Sons-a-poppin'! Exclusive Clay!

Yep, Entertainment Earth has yet another exclusive Sons of Anarchy figure - you hear that, Kyle?!? This one seems destined to be referred to as "Dew-Rag Clay," depicting Ron Perlmam sporting a sweet bandana. Let's hope he comes with a Cortisone syringe, to boot. With this many exclusives, we can't help but wonder about Comic Con...? Gemma, Mezco...?! GEMMA?!!

A Sons Exclusive Variant

Mezco is definitely preparing for October's final season of Sons of Anarchy in a big way. We've already seen several figures since the first of the year. Now our pals over at Entertainment Earth have landed an exclusive variant Jax Teller, this one sporting a Reaper Crew cap and dark shades. It's up for pre-order and looks pretty solid! Get 'em while they're hot!

Game of Thrones in Space?! Syfy mounting The Expanse series: Leviathan Wakes

Time to head on over to the bookstore. A novel called Leviathan Wakes is about to get an awful lot of attention, as Syfy will be mounting a new program based on The Expanse, a book series that's earning this project the nickname, Game of Thrones in space. 

The book series (Leviathan Wakes is the first volume) tells a sweeping, adult saga - a thriller set 200 years in the future as a hardened detective and a rogue ship's captain search for a missing woman and the answer to "the greatest conspiracy in human history." 

Author James S. A. Corey is the pseudonym of collaborators Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. Author George R. R, Martin has provided an enthusiastic cover endorsement - it should also be noted that Franck has worked for a number of years as Martin's personal assistant. 

Leviathan Wakes was a nominee for the 2012 Hugo Award for best novel and has received plenty of strong reviews and positive buzz for reinventing the space opera. Syfy president Dave Howe says the project will be their most ambitious series to date. Hear that, Battlestar Galactica fans? Syfy has been moving back towards more high concept traditional sci-f series, with 12 Monkeys and Ascension among their other recently announced projects - it's good to see them moving away from Sharknado programming and looking to up their game again. Academy Award nominated screenwriters Mark Fergus and Hawk Otsby (Children of Men, Iron Man) will both write and executive produce for Syfy. Sean Daniel and Jason Brown of the Sean Daniel Company developed the project along with Fergus and Otsby. "The Expanse is one of the most special pieces of material we've ever encountered and it has been our dream to bring it to life since the moment we read it," Daniel and Brown commented. "We couldn't be more excited to be doing it with this team of all-stars." Alcon president Sharon Hall also enthused, "The Expanse is an addictive, sophisticated, character-driven franchise and Mark and Hawk are the perfect people to steer it. Their script is a totally immersive and accessible sci-fi journey."

So far, there are two other books in the series, Caliban's War and Abaddon's Gate, with a fourth volume, Cibola Burn, due to be released on June 17th. I always love it when you stumble across something that sounds this exciting, that somehow you've managed to stay completely ignorant of! Skimming brief plot descriptions of these novels, they sound utterly fantastic - the kind of sci-fi I haven't read for years. If Syfy follows through on this promise, we could be looking at an even bigger, more involving show than Galactica. Stay tuned as the project evolves...and add these books to your summer reading list!

The Winter of Our Discontent – Captain America’s Cold Dark Thirty

I’d better start this one off with some advice: Run, don’t walk. Because Captain America: The Winter Soldier is not only one of the absolute best of the Marvel Studios films, it’s easily one of the most successful pure action movies of the last decade – maybe more. The innocence of socking Hitler in the jaw has been replaced with a here-and-now that’s got SHIELD taking its “H” for Homeland and putting the emphasis more on Fatherland. SHIELD is ever-vigilant at making sure we’re safe from our enemies – and you might just be your own worst enemy, at least if SHIELD has any say in the matter. Without giving too much away, know that this is a little different take on the usual Villainous Entity our superheroes tend to encounter. The Winter Soldier has a lot to say about the here-and-now, our government, and what happens when authority thinks it knows best.

The Winter Soldier serves up some seriously epic-scale action by way of a definite 1970s political thriller vibe. DNA from The Manchurian Candidate, Three Days of the Condor, Colossus: The Forbin Project and Terminator 2: Judgment Day infuse the film with an edgy paranoia, folded together with an incredibly dynamic and kinetic action sensibility. Anthony and Joe Russo have nothing to proves as directors after this outing, demonstrating they’re able to play in the biggest sandbox imaginable.

It’s always satisfying when a movie that’s crammed with this much spectacle remembers to keep the actors and the characters front and center. Chris Evans does a wonderful job of conveying the melancholy of not fitting in, despite his obvious superiority to all those around him. His age of innocence is over, and trust is very hard coinage to come by in our modern world. He finds two kindred spirits in Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Falcon – a terrific Anthony Mackie, who radiates charisma in every scene – who Cap’ realizes would have fit right  in with his own Howlin’ Commandos. Samuel L. Jackson has his biggest outing yet as Nick Fury, enjoying both small character moments and insane action sequences with equal measure.

Sebastian Stan is awesome as the titular Winter Soldier. He creates an obsessed and damaged cyborg assassin who still manages to make us yearn to see salvage his humanity. Stan and Evans have some terrific combat scenes together – the Winter Soldier is a Ghost Op alright – a specter from the past who’s been warped and twisted to serve the needs of the present. In a delicious nod to his Condor past, Robert Redford embodies the many shades of gray that live between vigilance for safety and the blackness of shadows.

Rip-roaring, funny, audacious, bold and subversive, The Winter Soldier offers up heroics with a purpose, delivering a massively satisfying action spectacle that will have you happily lining up for second helpings. Highly recommended.

Game of Thrones Season 4 Premiere: The Return of the King!

Welcome back, smallfolk! Game of Thrones returned in high style last night, giving us plenty of intrigue for our beloved characters while introducing us to a few new ones. In a phenomenal opening, we saw Tywin having Ned Stark’s iconic sword Ice melted down to slag, to be remade as Lannister swords. Like the most fascistic types of genocide, it was an act that sought to undo the very existence of fallen enemies.

We got to see the dragons, who may not be riding size yet, but are still enormous now, fighting over sheep. Interestingly, Daenerys’ “advisor” Darrio Naharis, has been replaced by a new actor. Dany’s army is on the march to the slave city of Meereen – in a chilling image, that city’s masters have positioned crucified slave children as mile markers to herald her arrival. Farther north, a miraculously healed Jon Snow reports back from his time undercover with the Wildings to a skeptical Janos Slynt, former Lannister Kingsguard stooge. Speaking of Wildings, we got to meet the Thenn tribe, who’ve got the bald/cannibal thing down cold.

We met The Red Viper, Prince Oberyn of Dorne – and if his first appearance is any indication, Pedro Pascal is going to make this character a favorite. The Dornish are being portrayed like exotic Spaniards, with Oberyn having a great Inigo Montoya vibe, conveying the pivotal story of his sister’s marriage to Targaryen Prince Rhaegar and her slaughter by Ser Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane. If you weren’t already chomping at the bit to see The Mountain return, you will be now, as there’s an immediate inevitability to Oberyn’s collision course of vengeance with him. That’s Indira Varma (Luther’s wife Zoe), as the Prince’s companion, Ellaria Sand – Sand is like “Snow,” a surname that connotes bastard birth.

With Jaime back at King’s Landing and fitted with a prosthetic golden hand, he’s getting nothing but disrespect from his family. Tywin gives him the cruel gift of a new sword, his sister rebuffs his advances and King Joffrey does what Joffrey does best: taunts. 




A great scene together has Joff examining the Kingsguard White Book (aka The Book of Brothers), that chronicles all their deeds, remarking at how little there is written about Jaime, “half a page.” Jaime insists there’s still time, but Joffrey snorts at the notion of what a one-handed 40-year-old can still achieve. The answer to that question is going to be fascinating indeed.

Without a doubt, the best sequence of the night goes to The Hound and Arya – a spaghetti western slice of Tarantino payback in a remote tavern that’s the best thing we’ve seen from The Hound yet. Fantastic stuff!

                                         

It was amazing how quickly this first episode flew by. It was beautifully executed, wasted very little time and left me hungry for more! The chess pieces are in motion and it’s great to be back on the board!

Bond Me To a Throne of Marvels - It's the Weekend!

Welcome to the weekend, friends! It's been a rough road getting here, I don't mind telling you. But sitting on the figurative front porch, I have to tell you the view is fine, and things have been well worth it!

First, the results of our ongoing poll - a bit of a tie! 40% of you are most looking forward to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, while another 40% of you are most excited for the Sunday night premiere of Game of Thrones - the other 20% of you were on pins and needles for the Walking Dead season finale. Admit it - it's an amazing time to be a nerd!!! I loved the Dead finale, I'm busting a gasket to spend time with all my Lannister and Stark friends, and I'm slated to hit my pal Cap' this coming Tuesday!

In other brief news today, Variety is reporting that 12 Years a Slave (and Serenity!) star Chewitel Ejiofor is the front-runner to play the villain in the next chapter of the James Bond series, to be directed once again by Sam Mendes. That sounds marvelous to me, and I'm just thrilled we're getting another installment in that series!

So let's kick back and embrace some entertainment - it sounds like we've all got a powerful hankering for some! If news breaks over the weekend, we'll be here - let's meet up again on Monday to talk all things Westeros!

First Seven Minutes of Fargo

Ya, it's just a few weeks until that Fargo premieres, ya know? The good folks at FX have released the first 7 minutes of the adaptation for us to feast our retinas on. Have a click below and enjoy! Fargo premieres on Tax Day, filling the void on our DVRs left by the departure of Justified.

Walking Dead Figure Update!

Yep, McFarlane Toys action figure lineup for series 6 will include beloved Hershel Greene, Carol Peletier and Abraham Ford. Plus we'll be getting a new sculpt of Rick and "Bungee Guts Zombie," all in time for the October premiere of season 5! No images have leaked yet, but they're bound to very soon, so watch this space for more news. By my reckoning, that makes Lori and Dale the last of the core characters who have yet to receive the figure treatment. Though I think Beth has earned herself a figure by now, too.

CinemaCon wrap-up: Brace Your Box Office

What happened in Vegas ain't stayin' in Vegas, not when it comes to movies. Last week, film exhibitors and distributors crammed into Caesar's Palace for their annual ballyhoo, and the chance to feast their eyes on what's coming over the next year...and beyond.

Clash of the Titans
Without a doubt, the films that got the biggest response were Godzilla and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Godzilla had theater owners smelling a colossal hit, and the footage from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - now in a more post-apocalyptic environment - has everyone in consensus that this sequel will out-perform the original.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is definitely the most heavily promoted film of the summer. It's certainly buying a place at the table, and should reap big box office, but it didn't evoke the frenzy that Apes and Godzilla unleashed.

Things to Come
Another major needle-mover was the Jon Hamm baseball picture (set in India), Million Dollar Arm, which Disney Chairman Alan Horn boasts as the highest-testing movie he's had under his watch. Hamm received the excellence in acting award and Disney confidently screened the complete film.

Audiences got a peak at Gone Girl and Fifty Shades of Grey, which is somewhat awkwardly being marketed as a romance. Director Angelina Jolie should fare particularly well this year with Unbroken, which showed some very well-received footage (it's written by Joel and Ethan Coen), earning it the early pole position as an Oscar favorite.

Disney held off on any Star Wars reveals, saving them for the future. Instead, they were elated to sneak five minutes of 2015's Inside Out, a Pixar film set within a young girl's mind - her emotions - Joy, Fear, Sadness and Anger - are the film's characters.

The Visionary
Christopher Nolan made it abundantly clear he's not forsaking film stock for digital - Paramount no longer sends out domestic film prints, but made an exception for Nolan's Interstellar, opening this November. Nolan is one of the few remaining directors who shoots exclusively on celluloid, utilizing Imax cameras, which he used to a greater degree on Interstellar than any film he's shot previously. "I think the technical aspect of how this film is presented is going to be more important than on any film I've done before...I grew up in an era that was the golden age of the blockbuster, when something we might call a family film could have universal appeal. That's something I want to see again. In terms of the tone of the film, it looks at where we are as a people and has a universality about human experience." Nolan also revealed he chose to use practical locations rather than CGI as much as possible. Remembering boyhood film experiences such as Star Wars and a reissue of 2001: A Space Odyssey, "I remember very clearly the feeling of magnitude and otherworldly experience. I had no idea what the film meant, but it didn't matter to me in the slightest."

So there you have it - 2014 looks to be a record year at the box office, with 2015 already biting at its heels. Summer gets an early start this year, with Captain America: The Winter Soldier opening in just three days.