Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 1905

JOHN WICK Creator Brings HITMAN TV Series To Hulu

After two feature films, Agent 47 has found a new target on television. Hulu is developing a TV series based upon the Hitman video game franchise with John Wick creator Derek Kolstad, writing the pilot episode.

According to Deadline, the new Hitman series will “hew closely” to Agent 47’s mythology, as laid out in the previously released games. Agent 47 is an assassin-for-hire who has a reputation for never failing to kill his targets. While working for the covert organization known as the International Contract Agency, Agent 47 discovered that he was literally created to be the perfect killer, with no real identity to call his own.

Because the films had to tweak and condense Agent 47’s backstory, it’s possible that the show will be able to explore his history and creation in greater detail. But one of the games’ primary attractions isn’t the backstory, it’s the ability to play Agent 47 as he goes undercover to take out his targets. The most recent title in the series, Hitman, was released episodically while offering increasingly creative ways for players to fulfill Agent 47’s missions. While the show won’t be able to replicate that interactive touch, this Hulu series could easily lend itself to an approach based on that format.

Timothy Olyphant and Rupert Friend portrayed Agent 47 in the two Hitman movies, but the role will most likely be recast again for the TV series. Whoever lands this part is going to have brush up on their action skills and get used to shaving their head for the duration of the series.

Who would you cast as the new Agent 47? Pick out your targets in the comment section below!

Images: 20th Century Fox/Square Enix

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Report: Disney’s STAR TOURS Will Stop Mixing STAR WARS Eras

Taking a ride on Star Tours – The Adventures Continue might be more different than usual in the future. As of now, the Disney Parks attraction is programmed with variables that give guests unique experiences when they ride. The locations and characters that appear in the ride are pulled from all three eras of Star Wars, so your StarSpeeder 1000 can jump from flying around Jakku during the sequel trilogy to visiting Naboo during the prequel trilogy. But that extreme hopping around the timeline might be changing moving forward.

According to a report from WDW News Today, when The Last Jedi planet of Crait comes to Disneyland’s and Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ Star Tours on November 17, it will only feature characters and locations from the sequel trilogy, and that going forward, the sequel trilogy elements won’t be mixed with anything from the first six Star Wars movies.

WDW News Today reports that on a to-be-determined date in the future, guests will be able to choose between two paths: one featuring the characters and locales from the sequel trilogy or one featuring characters from the past. If this is true, it would likely mean Star Tours will have two queues, depending on the ride experience you want. I don’t know if those two queues will be staged in the same area, or if they’ll be completely separated and themed according to the era you choose, e.g. maybe Star Tours in Disney’s Hollywood Studios would lose its Endor Ewok village setting. That doesn’t seem like something Disney would spend dollars on with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opening soon, but maybe?

I’m not a fan of this change, if only because it takes away variables. If you choose the sequel trilogy path, the only currently programmed destinations are Jakku and Crait. They’ll add a new opening sequence (right now the opening sequence variables all feature original trilogy elements like Darth Vader and Imperial stormtroopers) and presumably a new hologram in the middle so that you don’t always get BB-8, but you’re going to visit the same destinations again and again.

What do you think about this report? Do you like seeing a Yoda hologram after visiting Jakku? Would you choose a path for the first six films or one focused on the sequel trilogy? Use the Force to share your thoughts in the comments.

Images: Disney Parks, Lucasfilm

Amy Ratcliffe is an Associate Editor for Nerdist. She likes Star Wars a little. Follow her on Twitter.

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THE WALKING DEAD Proves Anyone Can End Up as Just “Some Guy”

Warning: Spoilers are ahead for the season eight of The Walking Dead. Keep reading at your own risk.

On Sunday we watched Ezekiel, Head of the Kingdom, Speaker of Shakespeare, and Father of Tigers, finally get dethroned. While the lead up to Ezekiel dropping his theatrics was a gory, traumatic, and all around sad affair, I couldn’t help but also think, thank god.

The truth is, I never quite warmed to Ezekiel. I didn’t like how his whole shtick strained credulity. While The Walking Dead requires a certain suspension of disbelief, within the show the characters and situations always felt quite grounded. I accepted that Hershel thought his turned loved ones could be cured; that the Governor was unable to let his dead daughter go and kept her chained; and that some people would, yes, resort to cannibalism when food got scarce. Walkers aside, The Walking Dead gave us a believable look at how people might act in a world-ending situation like this and I loved the show for it.

But that suspension nearly broke with King Ezekiel. In a post apocalypse scenario, it was difficult to believe that people would want to pretend to live in a fiefdom and take comfort in a leader who only spoke in Early Modern English. Then there was the tiger. Tigers are awesome, don’t get me wrong, but a pet tiger is bound to feel out of place in just about any show. The show also never explained how Shiva knew who to attack; in season eight she joins the battlefield, and it’s hard to accept that Ezekiel just lets her loose and she knows which humans are from the Hilltop and Alexandria. There’s a fine line between believable and ludicrous in fiction, and all of this crossed the line for me.

The times I connected most with Ezekiel were, of course, when he dropped the act. One could argue that as the audience — as the assumed members of Rick’s group — we’re not meant to buy into Ezekiel’s theatrics, and that our point-of-view character for the situation has always been Carol. When Ezekiel approached her in season seven and admitted he does what he does to make people feel safe, and that safe people are “less dangerous, more productive,” I finally felt like I understood him. Ezekiel slouching on a couch with Carol, speaking in his native Southern vernacular and admitting he was a zookeeper who did community theater made him a three-dimensional, interesting character, one I wanted to get to know more.

Yet we don’t see much of that Ezekiel going into season eight. Ezekiel leads his people into battle with overblown promises and a wide grin, one that becomes more strained as his act takes its toll. For the last three episodes, his character largely fell flat, with his cheerful attitude in the face of slaughter feeling wholly out of step with everyone else. The fact that Ezekiel was maintaining appearances even while getting shot at felt unbelievable, and Carol’s pensive face throughout the episodes was probably a sign to us that it wasn’t meant to last. And it didn’t.

In “Some Guy,” we find out the garrison Ezekiel is approaching is actually where the guns that Rick was looking for are being held. We also find out they have at least two mounted machine guns, and the Saviors use them to decimate Ezekiel’s army. Ezekiel’s promises to his people of “we shall end them all” and “not one man lost” turn to ash as Ezekiel wakes up under a pile of his people’s bloody bodies. The transition of showing Ezekiel being surrounded by the Kingdomers in a group hug to seeing him buried under their bodies is a startling contrast, one that works incredibly well. Even later we watch Shiva get killed, taking away everything he had left. Here is Ezekiel, broken–no longer a king, but just “some guy.”

David Leslie Johnson wrote this episode, and his character-focused writing has created some of the strongest and most intriguing moments of the show. He wrote “Swear,” when Tara went off and found the Oceanside, the community of all women; “Triggerfinger,” when Rick first broke his “we don’t kill humans” rule and killed the two men at the bar with Hershel and Glenn; and my favorite, “Chupacabra,” the Daryl-focused episode where he confronted how his upbringing has negatively affected him. “Some Guy” benefits from Johnson’s hand as Ezekiel, a character who’s largely been a caricature up til now, finally comes into full focus.

Watching Ezekiel break down is painful to watch, but it also feels necessary to his longevity on the show. We finally see Ezekiel react as a real human being to a horrible situation. As a character-centric show, The Walking Dead is at its most interesting when we see people break–when we see what hurts them, what they fear, what makes them tick. In the wake of his loss, Ezekiel is distraught, but now that we’re seeing the real him, we can be assured he’s likely to stick around for a while.

For being somebody who never quite liked Ezekiel, this is by far my favorite episode of the season. It was focused and quietly affecting and harkened back to the kind of episodes that made me fall in love with the show. At the hands of director Dan Liu, we got some gorgeous shots–the opening scenes of Ezekiel’s morning routine, and then later, Shiva’s blood running through the water–that lent well to the writing. I’m excited to see where they’ll take Ezekiel’s character from here.

What did you think of “Some Guy?” Share your opinions in the comments.

Images: AMC

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A 5-Course Thanksgiving Dinner Ice Cream with Turkey and Gravy

Close your eyes and think of an ideal Thanksgiving dinner and all of the smells and the tastes that come with it. Aren’t you instantly reminded of the holidays? If you’re a fan of the dessert portion of Thanksgiving, you can make your sweet tooth happy because you can have all the familiar fall flavors of the multi-course Thanksgiving meal in the form of ice cream thanks to Salt & Straw. Seriously.

Salt & Straw, the purveyors of artisanal ice cream that come in unique and sometimes wacky flavors, (how can we forget their Bratwursts and Mustard ice cream?) have outdone themselves by creating a  five course Thanksgiving dinner with ice cream. While this sounds like an abomination of all things hallowed in November, let’s take a walk through this frozen holiday menu and see how it all breaks down.

Since we’re talking ice cream, let’s start with dessert. Pumpkin Pie ice cream isn’t out of the ordinary these days, and this one starts with a a goat cheese ice cream base, pumpkin pie spices, and a pumpkin swirl. So far so good, nothing too unusual here.

Moving on to the sides, a Sweet Potato Casserole with Maple Pecans ice cream is a little edgy, a bit nouveau, and this tasty treat includes best part of a sweet potato casserole—the marshmallows—by incorporating ribbons of maple marshmallow fluff into the sweet and spicy ice cream.

Here’s where it starts to get crazy, there are  savory flavors and then there’s Buttered Mashed Potatoes & Gravy ice cream. The base is made with real potatoes, swirled with a homemade gravy fudge that gives off hints of chocolate, and coffee, all with a baked mashed potato finish. Low carb dieters, you should look away.

At any good Thanksgiving dinner, you can’t have mashed potatoes and gravy without stuffing. The Persimmon Walnut Stuffing ice cream uses a homemade toasted stuffing made with walnuts and bourbon raisins with a bunch of savory additions like olive oil, salt, pepper and even coriander. Roasted persimmons are added to round it all out, but let’s not forget, you’re still eating stuffing on a cone. No judgment.

If you’re not in a food coma already, the pièce de résistance will take you to your limits. The finale to this five course dessert adventure is a savory showstopper. Salted Caramel Thanksgiving Turkey is made with actual turkey stock. You have to give Salt & Straw credit, because there’s no artificial flavors here. Everything is made with the exact ingredients they’re emulating for this holiday dinner. The kicker to this culinary masterpiece is the bits of caramelized roast turkey skin that are folded into the ice cream. I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t the turning point that made this whole dessert dinner sound completely intriguing.

If you simply can’t stomach a five course meal of ice cream— and I don’t blame you if you can’t—Salt & Straw also has the special flavors available in pints to go. Salt & Straw’s Thanksgiving ice cream dinner is available in their stores from now through November 22. Get details on their locations at their website.

Would you rather scoop your Thanksgiving dinner? Let us know in the comments and tag @nerdist and @justjenn on Twitter with your photos if you try it for yourself!

Images: Salt & Straw

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55,000 LEGO Bricks Fortify This WORLD OF WARCRAFT Castle

Last week, Blizzard unveiled a world record breaking video game diorama based upon the upcoming Warcraft expansion, Battle for Azeroth. While that diorama iss definitely impressive, Warcraft fans continue to find inspiration from the game’s long history. For example, one man has recreated a classic World of Warcraft castle with LEGO bricks while staying as true to the original design as possible.

Via The Brothers Brick, this LEGO construction was built by Mark Erickson. Old school fans of the game should recognize that this is Theramore Keep, an Alliance stronghold that once held great strategic value before it was utterly destroyed by the Horde. While the glory of Theramore no longer exists within that fictional world, Erickson’s design is remarkably faithful to the castle as it appeared in the game. For comparison’s sake, here’s what the castle at Theramore used to look like.

Now, take a closer look at Erickson’s custom build and then click on it for an even bigger view. These are the bricks that legends are made of, and it’s easily one of our favorite LEGO creations we’ve seen.

On his Facebook page, Erickson noted that Theramore Castle was his largest LEGO undertaking to date, and he said that it was “built in just over six months and using more than 55,600 pieces.” He added: “It was a fantastic and difficult challenge to complete it.”

To see more pictures of Erickson’s Theramore Castle and other LEGO projects, you can visit his Facebook page, or check out his Flickr account.

What did you think about this LEGO World of Warcraft creation? Declare your allegiance in the comment section below!

Images: Mark Erickson, Blizzard Entertainment

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This Handmade 3D Zoetrope Is a Fascinating IRL Animation Oddity

Before there was video, animation (i.e. moving images or at least the illusion of moving images) was possible, thanks to devices called zoetropes. This video of a LEGO Star Wars zoetrope explains the concept pretty well: a zoetrope is a mechanical device featuring a wheel that rotates a series of images (or in this case, LEGO minifigs) that appear to be moving when viewed through vertical slits. It’s like video because you see one frame at a time, and each subsequent frame features a slight change from the previous one, the resulting effect being animation.

Now it turns out that 3D zoetropes are a thing, meaning that instead of looking through a slit and seeing a flat animation, these ones have depth, almost like some bizarre form of analogue virtual reality. Kevin Holmes of 4-Mation made the “fish eating fish” and “jumping frogs” 3D zoetropes above and below, and they’re both stunning. Once they get spinning at precisely the right speed, what you get is an IRL GIF of some savage sea creatures endlessly munching on each other.

The good news is that folks with access to a 3D printer will soon be able to make one of these devices for themselves, assuming that the Kickstarter campaign that launches in December is successful. Holmes explains the process:

“It’s powered by 24 3Watt RGB LED strobes, precision timed by a microcontroller linked to an encoder motor. RPM(Strobe-rate), brightness, colour are all controlled from a phone app. […] Assemble the kit in about 1/2 hour then download and print one of our free animations – or design your own. Animations can be swapped in a minute.”

Learn more about these fascinating zoetropes here, and let us know in the comments below what other animations it would be neat to see in this form.

Featured image: Kevin Holmes

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Plug into STAR WARS and Other Pop Culture with Electrical Outlet Stickers

Pop culture-related fandom has come a really long way. It used to be hard to track down enough of the nerdy things we loved to use some toys, posters, and comics to decorate our personal spaces. As nerd-related culture has grown and moved to the forefront of, well, pretty much everything–we now live in a wonderful time where everything can be geek-ified. Including our wall sockets.

These shockingly cool decals come to us from a recent post on Geyser Of Awesome. They were created by Seattle-based designer Zachary Dodds and depict some of our favorite pop-culture characters from Star Wars, Doctor Who, Star Trek, and more by using the general face shape electrical outlets already have.

The small decals, which are for sale on Dodds’ Etsy page, ElectricStickerCo, make use of a psychological phenomenon known as pareidolia. We humans are terribly vain creatures and like to see ourselves in just about everything so our brains translate the three-pronged socket as a face.

Each of the nerdy decals, as well as a number of animal themed ones, will run you just over three dollars. Now, even though it’s common sense, we’d be remiss if we didn’t stress that these are probably best for the adult geek’s home or office where they can be used on plugs far away from any children.

And since they’re meant to be looked at, it’d make more sense to use them on outlets that will be seen by friends and co-workers, so they will finally know just how far your nerdy fandom goes.

Take a look at a few more decals below and let us know which ones are your favorite in the comments section!

Images: ElectricStickerCo

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Her Universe Goes Plaid with DOCTOR WHO Fashion Collection

Nothing is wrong with TARDIS t-shirts. I own more than a few of them. But in addition to my casual geek apparel, I like to have dressier and more subtle options. Her Universe has been putting all sorts of those options on the table, and their new Doctor Who collection hits all the right chic notes. This plaid forward line (there are three different custom TARDIS themed plaids in this release) brings lots of TARDIS blue into cozy cardigans, coats, blouses, and leggings. The overall aesthetic is inspired by 1950s British lifestyle.

I can already tell I want to live in the cardigan pictured above. The Police Box wrap is the only indication it’s a Who design, and I like keeping it under the radar sometimes. It would pair well with leggings and jeans and just looking at it makes me want to grab a cup of tea and curl up in a comfy chair.

The plaid is more of an accent in other pieces, like the necktie on the white blouse in the above photo. The top works as styled, with a Doctor Who skirt from the line, but the cut would look fantastic with any ol’ pencil skirt or slacks.

Take the TARDIS to the gallery below to see more photos from the collection. When you’re ready to shop or add items to your wish list, you can get purchase some of the designs at Hot Topic and Torrid now and the line will be available directly from Her Universe soon.

Which pieces in this collection are calling to you? Tell us your top picks in the comments, and let us know how you’d style them.

Images: Her Universe, BBC

Amy Ratcliffe is an Associate Editor for Nerdist. She’d kill for a closet that’s like a TARDIS. Follow her on Twitter.

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GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT Trailer Pits Batman and Selina Kyle Against Jack the Ripper

Next year, Warner Bros. Animation is adapting one of the first DC Elseworlds tales, Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, which reimagined Bruce Wayne’s alter-ego in a Victorian steampunk story. Writer Brian Augustyn and artist Mike Mignola pit Batman against the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper, but this time, Bruce doesn’t have to face him alone. In a newly released trailer for Gotham by Gaslight, Selina Kyle makes it her personal mission to bring down the Ripper. Selina may not be Catwoman in this tale, but she can more than hold her own in a fight. She even makes her own Bat-signal.

IGN debuted the trailer, which offered a glimpse at the changes made to the narrative for this movie, but it seems to be fairly accurate to the original. The trailer even teases the pivotal moment when the Gotham police suspect that Bruce is the Ripper. But unlike the graphic novel, this animated movie is apparently free to use more characters from the Batman mythos. An earlier trailer revealed that Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Hugo Strange, and Pamela Isley (Poison Ivy) exist in this world. And Pamela may even be the Ripper’s victim at the beginning of the new trailer.

Bruce Greenwood leads the voice cast of this film Bruce Wayne and Batman, while Jennifer Carpenter is portraying Selina Kyle and Anthony Head is playing. Alfred Pennyworth. The rest of the cast includes Chris Cox, John DiMaggio, David Forseth, Grey Griffin, Tara Strong, and more. Batman: Gotham by Gaslight is expected to be released in early 2018.

What did you think about the new trailer for this film? Light the Bat-signal and share your thoughts below!

Images: Warner Bros. Animation

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RIVERDALE’S Cole Sprouse Opens Up About Playing a Weirdo

Archie Comics has a storied history, one that stretches back over 75 years and thousands of comics. When The CW announced that they were reimagining the Archieverse with Archie Horror creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa at the helm, we knew it would likely subvert the tropes that the comics have followed and, in some cases, even created. The dark world of Riverdale has quickly become another iconic interpretation of these classic teen characters, with the creators and cast clearly enjoying the chance to adapt and subvert characters from the beloved books. When we visited the Vancouver set of Riverdale, we spoke to the effervescent Cole Sprouse about how much fun it is to play with expectations and satirize age old archetypes all whilst creating something entirely new.

Cole is incredibly eloquent and personable, and his enthusiasm for the show and its obvious quirks really comes across. When speaking about Riverdale’s flexible adaptation of the comics and their tropes, it was evident that Sprouse is enjoying the freedom and absurdity of the experience. “It’s great! I mean, it’s funny. Archie Comics in very many different ways, because it’s such a long-lived property, is responsible for those archetypes, which were later taken off with and became sort of the stereotypes of not just teen dramas but all kinds of mixed media. I think for us to be able to use those original ones and to amplify them to a degree–to not necessarily make them caricatures but to do something of that sort–I think it’s a blast,” Sprouse told us.

Cole clearly knows his Archie lore and is a dedicated student of the masses of canon, something that he feels adds to the show and its ingenuity. “We have the tremendous luxury of having 75 years of source material to pull from, which is something that almost no production gets. It really puts us in an unique place to poke fun at it and acknowledge what it is and simultaneously take it very seriously. I think, for me, the most enjoyable part is that–and Jughead specifically, because he’s probably the most different from the comics than the rest of the core four–we get to take these characters and make fun of them in a sort of meta sense,” Sprouse explained thoughtfully.

Celebrating the classic camp of the comics, Cole continued by acknowledging the wonderful juxtaposition of absurdity and deadpan at the core of Riverdale’s drama. “When we’re the characters and we’re in the town, everything [lowers voice] is taken so damn seriously. You know, maple syrup can become a bad guy! To me, that’s a blast. It’s always really fun. Can you imagine having to say ‘jingle jangle’ on screen over and over again? I think we didn’t stop laughing for the first four episodes!” Sprouse chuckled.

It’s good to know that we’re not the only ones who find Jingle Jangle hilarious. Are you a big Jughead fan? Can’t wait to to see what happens to your favorite Southside Serpent next? Or do you just really love Cole Sprouse on Twitter? Let us know in the comments!

Images: Archie Comics, CW

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