Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 1785

Hot Toys Captures Captain America in All His Bearded Glory

With approximately two weeks until the release of Avengers: Infinity War, fan excitement is only going to grow exponentially. From toys and clothing to the inevitable Deadpool 2 parody promotion, you can’t walk two feet without seeing something to get the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU burned into the brain. Hot Toys is no help with relieving any of this, especially with the release of its latest figure, the leader of the Avengers (well, depending on whose side you were on during Civil War, we guess), Captain America.

Depicting the spitting image of the bearded (yes, bearded. What? We WEREN’T going to mention it?) Chris Evans, Captain America is ready to battle Thanos and his army of outriders as they attack Wakanda. We’re formulating this theory from the footage in the trailers. Maybe they’re not racing into battle; for all we know they’re playing a huge game of dodgeball and the referee just blew the whistle to start.

This “Movie Promo” edition of Captian America comes with foursets of interchangeable hands, two Wakandan shields, a stand, and a set piece featuring a fallen Outrider. There are also two “mystery weapons” yet to be revealed. Hmm. Could there be a certain disc-shaped piece of vibranium in Cap’s future? We discussed the possibilities for the mystery weapons on a recent Nerdist News.

You can check out more pictures of the figure below, and you can pre-order it from Sideshow Collectibles.

What do you think? Is Captain America worthy (or scruffy) enough to be an addition to your collection? Let me know on Twitter at @donnielederer or sound off in the comments below.

Images: Hot Toys

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Bill Hader and James McAvoy in Talks for IT Sequel

The grown-up members of the Losers Club are certainly shaping up nicely. It’s already been announced that Jessica Chastain would play the adult version of Beverly in the next installment of Andy Muschietti’s feature film adaptation of Stephen King’s It (and honestly who the hell else could play her? She’s perfect for it!…and It.) and now Variety is reporting two more members of the cast are in talks. James McAvoy and Bill Hader, whose names have been bandied about for a while in relation to playing adults in the movie I wish would be called It 2: Still Clownin’, are circling roles.

McAvoy would play the grown-up version of Bill Denbrough—the lead character in the book—played by Jaeden Lieberher in the first film. Hader would play Finn Wolfhard’s Richie Tozier, the mouthy, comic relief member of the Losers Club. During the press for the first It last year, Wolfhard said his pick to play him was Hader, which is a pretty inspired choice. Interestingly, Sophia Lillis who played young Beverly also said she’d like Jessica Chastain to play her.

Mind you, this is all just in the very early stages of negotiations, so don’t get married to the idea of McAvoy and Hader in the next movie, but we think they’d fit perfectly. It: Chapter 2 is scheduled for a September 2019 release, just in time for the Halloween season. The first It was one of 2017’s most successful movies and the only horror movie to crack the top 10 for the year.

We’ll keep you posted on if these negotiations become the stuff of clown-fearing nightmares, and everything having to do with It: Chapter 2. Let us know your picks to play the rest of the Losers Club in the comments below!

Images: Focus/HBO/Warner Bros

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!

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Learn How to Make a Working Mechanical Robot Hand Entirely from Cardboard

Not all of us have the engineering skills to make our own robots. But as this very cool how-to video shows, with just a little imagination and some common household materials, anyone can make a mechanical friend entirely out of cardboard.

This ingenuous creation, which we learned about at Laughing Squid, comes from the YouTube channel SKM. Using nothing more than paper, an X-Acto knife, cardboard, glue, and scissors, this offers a guide on how to cut and construct the right pieces needed to make working gears and a skeleton hand whose fingers you can then movie with a small handle.



(Remind me how much we’re all about to pay Nintendo for their prepackaged Labo cardboard Switch sets?)

What’s especially cool about this is how easily it could be transformed into an amazing Halloween decoration. If you attached a small motor to the handle and painted this, you would have a “real” robotic hand you wouldn’t have to spend big bucks on.

And this is just the latest cardboard creation from this channel, and surprisingly probably one of the “simpler” ones. For example, this working cardboard wishing well does utilize a motor:

Maybe we don’t all have engineering degrees, but we’re probably all capable of being more creative with cardboard than using empty wrapping paper tubes as lightsabers. Now we can whip up Luke’s mechanical hand for a complete set!

What other working cardboard creation would you like to learn how to make next? Get your gears in motion and tell us in the comments section below.

Featured Image: SKM

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Captain America’s Mystery Weapon Has the Internet Stumped

Earlier this year, Marvel fans took note of Captain America’s new shield in Avengers: Infinity War. Steve Rogers left his iconic shield behind in Civil War, and there’s still some question as to whether he’s even calling himself Captain America in the new film. Hot Toys has released the first pictures of its upcoming Captain America deluxe figure from Infinity War, and they’ve managed to capture the internet’s attention with a “mystery weapon” for Cap. What could it be? Today’s Nerdist News is on the case.

Join host Jessica Chobot as she runs down the four most likely possibilities. The most obvious choice would be if Cap’s “new” weapon is actually his old one. While trailers have refrained from showing Cap and Iron Man mending fences, we’ve long expected a reconciliation to include Tony handing or even throwing the iconic Captain America shield to Steve in battle. If it doesn’t happen in this film, then it’s probably being saved for Avengers 4.

Steve’s new weapon could possibly belong to one of his friends on the Avengers, too. So if say, Hawkeye, were to fall in battle, perhaps Cap would display some previously unseen archery skills at just the right time. It would also be very interesting to see Cap use his energy shield from the comics. A similar device was used on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. a few seasons ago, but it would have more impact here.

Finally, we have to wonder if the “mystery weapon” is the long elusive Soul Stone. In the latest trailers, Cap is going toe-to-toe with Thanos and actually seems to be a good match for his strength. Compare that to the way Thanos has tossed Iron Man around, and we’re starting to think that Cap could be getting an Infinity Stone-fueled power upgrade.

Avengers: Infinity War is coming on April 27, so we will have answers soon.

What do you think Cap’s mystery weapon will be? Share your theories below!

Images: Marvel Studios, Hot Toys

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Disney’s Live-Action MULAN Will Have a Female Villain

In a surprising twist on the subject material, Chinese actress Gong Li has been cast as a female villain in Disney‘s upcoming live-action remake of Mulan. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Li, a major movie star in China, will join the cast as a “powerful witch.” No other information about the character is known at this point, but she will join a legion of other famous Disney sorceresses, from Snow White‘s Evil Queen to The Little Mermaid‘s Ursula.

Fans will recall that the 1998 animated Mulan had a male villain: Shan-Yu, voiced by Twin Peaks‘ Miguel Ferrer, the brutal leader of the Hun Army. There are currently no announcements about casting for Shan-Yu, which may indicate a brand new direction for the remake, which is also adding a sister character for Mulan, played by Chinese-Vietnamese actress Xana Tang.

Disney also announced two other major additions to the Mulan cast: Donnie Yen will play Commander Tung, another new character, and a mentor to Mulan, and Jet Li will play the emperor of China. They join the previously announced Liu Yifei, who won the titular role after an extensive worldwide search. New Zealander Niki Caro, best-known for her Oscar-nominated feature Whale Rider, will direct.

The new characters aren’t the first announced departure for the Mulan remake. The film is allegedly not a musical like the original, although Caro said last March that that decision wasn’t necessarily written in stone. The lack of focus could be why Disney bumped the movie twice; it was originally meant to come out this November, was pushed back to 2019, and will now come out March 27, 2020.

via GIPHY

Adding more women is certainly an exciting move for the film, and we’re curious to see how this thing works as a non-musical, if that is indeed the direction Disney is taking. But what about you? How do you think a witch fits into the Mulan narrative? Let us know in the comments!

Image: Disney 

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Fans Remake JURASSIC PARK on the Cheap, and It’s a Dino-Delight

In 1993, Steven Spielberg‘s adaptation of Michael Crichton‘s Jurassic Park wowed moviegoers with its mix of practical and CGI dinosaurs which were revolutionary for the time. 25 years later, recreating those iconic creatures is still beyond the reach of most fans. However, that didn’t stop hundreds of would-be filmmakers from submitting their attempts to remake Jurassic Park, no matter how ridiculous they appeared to be.



Via Variety, Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom director J. A. Bayona filmed an introduction for the 17 minute fan-made remake of Jurassic Park. Trevorrow and Bayona said they watched every entree for the Jurassic Park 25th anniversary contest, and congratulated everyone involved. They also cited the first film for inspiring them to become filmmakers.

It’s difficult to say if the next great director will be found among these clips, but there were definitely some fun attempts to get around the lack of resources. To make their own dinosaurs, the filmmakers used everything from crude animation to toys, which added a lot of humor to those scenes. It was equally amusing to see the performers offer their take on the characters originally portrayed by Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, and even Wayne Knight.

Perhaps the funniest part of the video featured a recreation of Mr. DNA, the film’s animated exposition icon who explained the science behind the cloned dinosaurs. It certainly looks like everyone involved in this project had a blast making it come to life. Now, we’re curious to see if Universal will eventually release a feature length cut of these fan recreations.

What do you think about the fan-made Jurassic Park remake? Let us know in the comment section below!

Images: Universal Pictures

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SCTV Cast Reunites for Martin Scorsese Directed Special

The two greatest Canadian imports are hockey and comedy. Seriously, the Great White North is basically a factory for producing funny people, many of whom starred on the beloved sketch comedy series Second City Television, best known as SCTV. The show launched the careers of some of the most hilarious people to ever grace the silver screen, including popular performers like John Candy, Rick Moranis, and Harold Ramis. And Netflix will soon pay tribute to the iconic show with a new comedy special directed by Martin Scorsese that will reunite the cast and explore why the series has endured.

The special will bring together the show’s stars Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Joe Flaherty, Andrea Martin, and Dave Thomas (yeah, it was loaded with unbelievable talents) on May 13 in Toronto’s Elgin Theatre for a Jimmy Kimmel-hosted sit down in front of a live-studio audience. Netflix has not announced a release date for the still untitled special, but this photo alone is all the promotion it needs. We’d listen to these people talk about advancements in paper towel technology, so we’re hugely on board to hear them discuss what it was like to produce one of the best loved sketch comedy shows ever.

The comedy legends behind SCTV reunite for a special directed by Martin Scorsese. Coming soon to Netflix. pic.twitter.com/bLgcwOSkul

— Netflix Is A Joke (@NetflixIsAJoke) April 12, 2018

SCTV aired from 1976 to 1984, and it might be remembered best for its original characters, which allowed the talented cast to shine.

Enjoy the SCTV rabbit hole you’re about to go down today.



What’s your favorite SCTV sketch ever? What are your favorite memories from the show? Tell us about them in the comments below, eh?

Featured Image: Cara Howe for Netflix

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This Crochet Infinity Gauntlet Will Help You Conquer the Universe with Coziness

With approximately three weeks left until Avengers: Infinity War hits the big screen, everyone is preparing for the big event in their own way. From deciding what t-shirt to wear to organizing ticket purchases among friends, the MCU frenzy is at an all-time high. Etsy user AmigurumiBarmy took matters into their own hands by crocheting their own Infinity Gauntlet.

The “Infin-Knitty” Gauntlet looks so comfy it makes killing off Avengers feel like a pillow fight. Now, before the universe can be yours, you’ll have to learn how to crochet. AmigurumiBarmy is going to make you earn the right to conquer the universe! For £4.80 ($6.77), you will receive the pattern to create your own gauntlet. With basic crochet skills, you should be able to finish the Gauntlet in roughly three to four hours. A small price to pay for wielding the ultimate power in the MCU… in yarn form, of course.

It’s always awesome to see the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe inspire creativity like this. You can check out more of AmigurumiBarmy crochet creations, ranging from pop culture to tea cozies, on their Etsy site .

So what do you think? Will you be getting the needles out to create your own Gauntlet? Would you want the matching Iron Man Armor to go with it? Let me know on Twitter @donnielederer or tell us about your knitting circle in the comments below. And if you’ve seen any other great exploits in MCU-inspired creativity, no matter what the form, send them our way!

Images: AmigurumiBarmy/Etsy

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GOD OF WAR is The Answer To Your Gaming Prayers (Review)

It’s only April, but God of War is already a strong contender for Game of the Year. One of the single most compelling reasons to own a PlayStation 4 in 2018, God of War strikes an elegant balance between surprisingly thoughtful storytelling, bone-crunching combat, and addictive RPG-style mechanics that will keep you playing into the wee hours of the morning. Trust me on that–late-night God of War sessions have made me late for work no fewer than three times in the past week. This is a spoiler-free review-in-progress as I have yet to finish the game, but having spent approximately 25 to 30 hours battling my way tooth and nail through mystical planes, fending off all manner of fell beasts, and clashing with Norse gods, I can safely say that unless something truly atrocious happens in the game’s finale, it is rocketing right to the top of my ongoing “Best of 2018” list. Once I complete the game, I will update this review to reflect that.

The first thing you’ll notice about God of War is that it’s a gorgeous game. With sprawling vistas, screen-filling bosses, and visceral combat, you will want every pixel of processing power available to you to enjoy God of War in its fullest glory. Every animation from tender cutscenes between Kratos and his son Atreus to stunning moments like the World Serpent Jormungandr erupting from the watery deep are rendered with excruciating attention to detail. This review was conducted on a normal PlayStation 4 using a review copy provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment of America. Having tried the game on a PS4 Pro in 4K, I can safely assert that the PS4 Pro version is one of the most dazzling graphical displays I’ve experienced. That being said, the game still looked terrific on my regular old PS4 and on my regular old TV.

Addictive, frenetic combo-based combat has always been the bread and butter of the God of War series, allowing you to pummel your enemies into a fine red mist, and perform all manner of brutal finishing moves on a wide variety of mythological beasts. This time around, Kratos has left Greece behind for the land of Norse mythology, which comes with a host of nasty new enemies for him to face. From undead draugr to gruesome ogres to dragons so large that defeating them seems impossible, the creature design never disappoints. You’ll need to use every skill at your disposal, too, if you want to defeat the game’s myriad enemies as God of War will throw wave after wave of nasties at you and pit you against bosses that will test your strategic mettle. With multiple difficulty settings, the game is as challenging as you want it to be. I suggest playing on medium or higher if you want to experience just how deep this combat system can truly be.

While the game still employs the occasional quick-time event—a mode of frantic button pushing to make a cutscene feel interactive that the series popularized way back when—it avoids over reliance on the outdated game mechanic by putting you into dynamic, fast-paced combat situations where you must use your Leviathan Axe (and its magical boomerang like qualities), tactical evasion, and well-timed arrow strikes from Kratos’ son Atreus in order to survive. As you slaughter enemies and complete quests, you will accrue experience points and hacksilver (the game’s currency), which you can spend on upgrading combat skills and items, respectively. There is a rich RPG-style character progression here that gives you a tangible sense of evolution as you conquer your way through the myriad planes of this frozen Norse land you now find yourself in. (Pro-tip: upgrade Atreus’ arrows to do stun damage and thank me later.)

When it was revealed at E3 2016 that Kratos wasn’t just a daddy, bur rather a father, my eyebrows raised because everything we saw screamed of glorified escort quest. Thankfully, as I learned from both my hands-on gameplay preview and countless hours playing the game, that isn’t the case. It was something that the development team was well aware of, too.

“We knew out of the gate—being fans of games ourselves and AI in general—that we didn’t want to have to manage this character,” Shroff told me earlier this year.

The result feels like a companion character who can aid and abet you in combat, help keep you on track when you feel lost trying to complete an objective, point out items you may have missed, and resurrect you when you perish during a particularly grueling fight (provided, of course, that you purchased a resurrection stone from your friendly local dwarf merchant). Atreus never felt like a burden to me during my time playing the game; rather, I came to rely on him especially during combat, strategically pressing the square button to unleash a salvo of shock arrows which stunned my opponent, providing Kratos with an opening to pulverize them into a Jackson Pollock painting on the frozen tundra.

While the gameplay mechanics are incredibly polished and unreasonably addictive, God of War‘s greatest asset is its storytelling, which took me by surprise. Tragedy, regret, and wistfulness pervade God of War‘s storytelling as Kratos and Atreus make their way to the top of a mountain to bid farewell to a loved one. Echoes of Kratos’ past, which he is reticent to discuss, haunt the warrior-turned-reluctant father, dogging his every step. It is a legacy of blood, fire, and violence that threatens to consume not only Kratos once more, but his son as well–and the thought of that happening terrifies the itinerant god. Ripping the wings off of a dark elf and harpooning it with its own spear is second-nature to Kratos; being emotionally vulnerable and placing a comforting hand on his son’s shoulder during times of struggle are not. It’s an astonishing amount of character development for someone who I had largely written off as a one-dimensional rage avatar. And most of all, it made me feel personally invested in God of War in a way I never could have expected.

God of War isn’t just a game that I’ll be thinking about for a long time, but playing and replaying as well. With countless collectibles, secret areas, hidden mini-bosses, and a seemingly endless amount of challenges to complete, the game feels incredibly repayable, which is important given its lack of multiplayer and $60 price tag. My complaints are few and far between. This is not your father’s God of War. This is *your* God of War and now you are the father. It’s a surprising and thoughtful evolution for the series, showing an emotional maturity that makes it perhaps my favorite entry in the franchise to date.

Images: Sony Interactive Entertainment; Santa Monica Studio

 

Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@DanCasey).

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THE EXPANSE Season 3 Premiere Promises a Galaxy at War

With the first episode of The Expanse‘s third season, “Fight or Flight,” everything has changed but the series still feels the same. Same snare-tight plots. Same boiling tension. Same gorgeous interplanetary scenery. Same Avasarala mic drops.

It starts right where the nuclear blast of the finale left us: a Roci crew divided by Naomi’s (Dominique Tipper) “betrayal” of giving the protomolecule to Fred Johnson (Chad L. Coleman) so the Belt could have a blue dog in the fight; Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo), Draper (Frankie Adams), and Cotyar (Nick E. Tarabay) stuck on Mao’s pleasure ship; and the UN hemming and hawing about a potential peace treaty with Mars.

So what’s changed?

War. It’s the threat bubbling underneath the surface since the very first episode, given fresh life with a casual wave of the hand from Errinwright (Shawn Doyle). After all this time, after all that cautious diplomacy, after all the breath-holding following the deaths on Ganymede it’s almost funny how simple it was.

Avasarala’s team spent the entirety of the episode escaping from a ship targeted with missiles and, with one hell of a head start, Errinwright browbeats Secretary General Gillis (Jonathan Whittaker) into declaring war within his first few minutes back. It’s a terrifying lesson: prime everyone for an oncoming fight, and they become that much more pliable and eager to start one.

What that means for this season isn’t clear yet. Can Earth hold back after such a declaration? Will Mars show restraint? Can further movement from the protomolecule still unite the factions?

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Regardless of the future, this moment was a true anti-Independence Day move. Forget the flowery speech from President Bill Pullman. We got Errinwright barely raising his voice and a Google news alert to let Holden (Steven Strait) know that war was on.

Errinwright also painted Avasarala as a traitor (and referenced the assassination of the Martian ambassador with a straight face!). You’ve got to appreciate Avasarala’s unwillingness to die as well as Cotyar’s loyalty and Draper’s pure martial ability. It’s a good thing she’d seen Star Trek: First Contact so she could space walk along the side of the ship to help get her and Avasarala to a racing ship while missiles bore down on them. The prospect of her teaming up with Avasarala for the foreseeable future is thrilling. The seasoned politician can deliver ice cold disses with a voice like gravel’s been stuffed into a tutu, and the Martian marine can cold-cock anyone who gets in their way.

Should they get their own spin-off sitcom? Yes. Should it be called Chrisjen Confidential or My Favorite Martian? I can’t be the one to make that call.

At any rate, here’s hoping that Draper’s last line as they zoomed away in a rich girl’s race was aimed at the audience. “Brace for impact.” Yes, ma’am.

What was most aggravatingly satisfying about the episode was that there was no real closure for the Roci crew. Alex (Cas Anvar) was desperate for the in-fighting to be over, confronting an increasingly nihilistic Amos (Wes Chatham) and getting absolutely nowhere. What’s worse (and deeply delightful) is that the chill still exists between Naomi and Holden. They were mostly all on board with changing their course to go help find Prax’s (Terry Chen) daughter—who we know is in a creepy sleep chamber controlled by Dr. Strickland (Ted Atherton)—but there was no honest cohesion.

They are as divided as they’ve ever been, war has arrived, and every side has their own extra-system biological weapon that turns people into super soldiers or infects whatever it touches until the fun planet you love looks like Doctor Manhattan redecorated FernGully.

In other words, The Expanse has successfully set up a season where everything has fallen apart, and the people we’ve trusted so far to clean up the messes are at each other’s throats. I cannot wait for next Wednesday.

Some Stray Thoughts:

With a ship that large, wouldn’t it need to be built from a non-magnetic metal? And, if so, how would you walk on the outside of it?
Errinwright looks like Hooli founder Gavin Belson from Silicon Valley so I assume Belson is his great-great-great-great-grandfather.

Images: Syfy

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