Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 1909
November 8, 2017
Love, Alexi #89: Ally Hilfiger
Ally Hilfiger joins Alexi to talk her book Bite Me: how Lyme disease stole my childhood, made me crazy and almost killed me (available wherever books are sold), and her new podcast “Sit-In” with husband Steve Hash, where they interview creative people. For more Ally, check out her websites: allyhilfiger.com, sit-inpodcast.com, and follow her on Instagram @allyhilfiger as well as @sitinpodcast
Follow @alexiwasser on instagram & twitter, send emails for Alexi to read on air: DearLoveAlexi@gmail.com!
Could The Rock Debut as Black Adam in SUICIDE SQUAD 2?
Can you smeeeeellll what the DCEU is cooking? Because it might be The Rock making his first appearance as Black Adam in Suicide Squad 2. On today’s Nerdist News Talks Back we discussed what that could mean for the entire franchise, along with the first images from the Unbreakable sequel Glass, and if Universal has already killed its Dark Universe.
Back for his second straight day of guest hosting duties was SourceFed’s Steve Zaragoza, and he was joined by producer Jason Nguyen, Nerdist News writer Aliza Pearl, and Director of Development Brendon Schulze. They started with the rumors Dwayne Johnson’s first go-round as Black Adam will be in Suicide Squad 2, with the unlikely crime fighters hunting him down. Are we excited by this possibility, or should Black Adam get his own movie first? And does this report mean the DCEU won’t be moving towards more standalone films and will instead favor a shared universe? Would that be a good thing?
We also got our first (amazing) images of Samuel L. Jackson on the set of Glass, the first full sequel to Unbreakable. Are we excited for the movie? Did we like the pseudo, sneaky Unbreakable sequel Split? Are we now looking forward to M. Night Shyamalan movies for positive reasons? What’s our favorite film of his? Which one do we dislike the most?
Finally, after The Mummy flopped and since its producers are moving on, it looks like it could be a wrap on Universal’s Dark Universe already. Is this a relief, or were we looking forward to more monster madness? Are all of the other shared universes enough to satiate our desire for that type of storytelling? And what are the lessons Hollywood should take from this failed franchise launch?
Just like it is every weekday, Nerdist News Talks Back was live today talking about the biggest pop culture topics of the day at 1:00 p.m. PT on our YouTube and Alpha channels. You can always get in on the conversation with us when you tune in live. Because forget what The Rock might say, it always matters what you think.
But you can still talk back to us about today’s show in the comments below, so head down there to let us share your thoughts on everything we discussed.
Images: Universal
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Hold Onto Your Feathers and Look at All These Porg Tattoos
The Last Jedi isn’t here yet, but many fans are already in love with porgs. It’s hard to resist the fluffy, cute nature of the resident puffin-like creatures on new Star Wars planet, Ahch-To. They’re on track to be some of the cutest critters in the universe, and plus, at least one of them hangs out with Chewbacca in the Millennium Falcon–that gives them a leg up in my book.
Some of those who have jumped aboard the porg train have headed to their local tattoo parlor and immortalized their enthusiasm for the creatures with permanent ink. It’s like having a constant piece of joy on your skin. At least a couple folks at Lucasfilm have porg tattoos, including Daniel Kennedy:
A post shared by DK (@danielkennedy) on Oct 1, 2017 at 6:38pm PDT
It was inked by Mike Bianco at Rose Gold’s Tattoo in San Francisco. He also inked one for Lucasfilm Story Group Creative Executive Matt Martin:
A post shared by Matt Martin (@matthewcmartin) on Sep 1, 2017 at 7:43pm PDT
Bianco did this one for Amanda Jean, too:
A post shared by Amanda Jean (@amandajeannn) on Sep 2, 2017 at 4:54pm PDT
He’s not the only tattooist inking porg portraits. Mahoghany Shaw did this one:
Brace Yourself For The Deeply Dark Humor OF THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI (Review)
English playwright turned filmmaker Martin McDonagh is renowned for unearthing brilliant, gut-busting guffaws out of deeply dark places. His Oscar-winning short Six Shooter followed a suicidal widower on a pivotal journey. His first feature In Bruges centered on a harried hitman hiding out in a historic city. Seven Psychopaths‘offered a showbiz comedy with an array of maniacs and killers. But Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri is his most challenging and sensational film yet. Brace yourself, because this brutal dark comedy is also one of the best films of the year, hands down.
Embedding his story in rural Middle America, McDonagh strips away the theatricality that gave his past dark comedies bounce. This time, his hero is no mugging murderer or scandalized screenwriter, buzzing with bad boy charm courtesy of Colin Farrell. Coolly ferocious with a cutting smirk, Frances McDormand stars and sets up a bitter, biting brand of humor grounded in small town desperation. She plays Mildred Hayes, the grieving mother furiously seeking justice for murdered daughter, Angela. When the local police stop calling, Mildred takes matters into her own hand by calling them out with a series of three big, red billboards that stand angry and defiant on the edge of town. They read: “RAPED WHILE DYING / AND STILL NO ARRESTS / HOW COME, CHIEF WILLOUGHBY?”
Woody Harrelson plays Chief Willoughby. Gone is Harrelson’s signature snark, traded for a world-weariness he wears like a crown. Willoughby visits Mildred’s home, and as they sit on her yard’s rusted swing set, they have a frank heart-to-heart. He pleads they’ve done all they can do; she declares it’s not enough. These are hardworking, caring people who respect each other, but are irrevocably at odds. Their tightly knit community has been ripped in two, sparking violence, an explosion, but ultimately some crucial moments of striking compassion.
Empathy beats at the bloody heart of even McDonagh’s darkest tales. He invites us to understand characters that could easily be written off as despicable. His Ebbing is full of them: the bad mom, the unruly teen, the inept chief, the racist cop, the alcoholic car salesman, and the belligerent wife-beater. But with a script as loaded with compassion as it is curse words, McDonagh–who has elevated foul-language to an four-lettered art form–urges you to laugh at and care for these rascals and scoundrels. While they banter with wit, fury and trembling vulnerability, he dares you to look behind their hard exteriors, greatest sins, and gruff language, to see their common humanity. But this can be hard to swallow when it comes to an arrogant, ignorant cop notorious in the force.
McDormand is gives the performance of an already incredible career, crafting a volatile portrait of grief that is blistering with rage and regret, but studded with a stirring resilience and wrathful humor. Whether she’s cussing at the local priest, offering tenderness in a grim moment, or kicking a teen vandal square in the crotch, McDormand commands the screen and plays her audience like a fiddle, stroking our outrage, tugging at our heartstrings, and coaxing screams of reckless laughter.
Harrelson is her straight man, adversary, and with a panoply of curse words and a dollop of macho charm, proves to be her perfect scene partner. Sharp supporting turns are offered John Hawkes, Lucas Hedges, and Peter Dinklage, who play some of the men in her life, past, present and possibly future. But it’s Sam Rockwell’s role that’s most likely to spark debate.
Rockwell co-stars as Dixon, a redneck cop who has a reputation for “torturing” Black suspects. It makes him the disgrace of the Ebbing police, and the butt of jokes around an otherwise friendly pool hall. It also makes his character a kind of Chekov’s gun. Dixon’s reputation dooms him to go off, and we are left to wait and worry how that might hit the locals who are far more likable. But McDonagh excavates to uncover the humanity in even this vile fool, offering a message of hope in Dixon’s savage quest for redemption.
Touching on rape culture and Black Lives Matter, Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri feels very much a movie of this moment, where battle lines are firmly drawn, and a peaceable compromise seems increasingly impossible. McDonagh won’t do these issues the disservice of offering up an easy answer. Instead, his film ends in a curious–and even frustrating–place that refuses to let audiences off the hook. Fuck closure. Rejecting a witty ending or a happy one, this thought-provoking filmmaker leaves his audience with no exit out of Ebbing. Like its deeply flawed locals, we’re left to linger, and wonder, “How come?” And more unnerving, “What now?”
4.5 out of 5 burritos
Images: Fox Searchlight
Kristy Puchko is a freelance entertainment reporter and film critic. You can find more of her reviews here. Follow her on Twitter!
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Will JUSTICE LEAGUE Start a Retcon For the DC Extended Universe?
Justice League is the fifth movie in the DC Extended Universe, but it may also be the start of a brand new era for some of Earth’s greatest superheroes. When Zack Snyder stepped aside and Joss Whedon signed on, we expected Justice League‘s tone to wildly vary between the two directors. But now there are signs that the changes to Justice League may extend to a broader shift for the DCEU beyond this film. Today’s Nerdist News is answering the Trouble Alert and explaining what it means.
Join guest host and the Legion of Substitute Heroes’ seventh alternate member, Steve Zaragoza, as he runs down the latest changes to the DCEU. Right off the bat, so to speak, the biggest retcon for Wonder Woman has already been acknowledged by Gal Gadot. While Batman v Superman made it seem as if Diana had abandoned humanity decades before, the Wonder Woman movie made it clear that its heroine would never give up like that. During the Justice League press junket in London, Gadot indicated that, “Wonder Woman was out there or incognito. She was always very involved and always very active in man’s world. And she was always acting to save and to help and to better the world.”
On the surface, that doesn’t sound like a big deal. But it makes investigative journalist Clark Kent and “world’s greatest detective” Bruce Wayne look pretty dim if they couldn’t figure out who Diana was when she had that kind of world saving history. Even if she tried to be “incognito,” people tend to notice a woman who can carry a tank over her head. This appears to be a course correction for Diana’s character, and we’re all in favor of it, even if it does violate continuity.
Another indication of the new era is that Dwayne Johnson‘s Black Adam is heavily rumored to be appearing in Suicide Squad 2. If you recall, both Shazam and Black Adam were said to be shipped off to New Line Studios and semi-separated from the rest of the DCEU. If Black Adam is back in the fold, then it stands to reason that Shazam will also be a part of the larger world of the DC films. And if the Whedon-inspired humor from Justice League takes hold, then Shazam will be right at home.
Finally, DC Comics added long-time Marvel writer, Brian Michael Bendis, to its ranks earlier this week. While that will probably leave Bendis more involved on the publication side of DC, he does have experience as part of Marvel’s creative committee that oversaw the first few MCU films. With Bendis now firmly in DC’s corner, there’s a strong possibility that his influence will be felt in the films as well.
How do you feel about the potential shifts within the DCEU? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!
Images: Warner Bros., DC
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STAR WARS Jar Jar Binks’ Actor Likes the Character’s Dark, Dramatic Fate
Ahmed Best and Jar Jar Binks have a long history. The actor portrayed the Gungan character in the prequel trilogy through motion capture and voice performance. The clumsy but kind Jar Jar appeared repeatedly in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and his time in the Star Wars galaxy stretches far beyond the events of the prequels. Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath: Empire’s End, released in February 2017 and set after Return of the Jedi, checked in with a very much still alive Jar Jar Binks on Naboo.
In a recent interview with YouTuber Jamie Stangroom (via io9), Best reacts positively to Ja
That fate? Jar Jar became a clown. He brought joy to those he could with his antics, but the story painted him as a being haunted by his past. He made mistakes. He inadvertently helped Palpatine achieve his ultimate plan. Now, he’s on Naboo trying to earn a living in solitude because people don’t want to hang around him. So, calling his ending tragic isn’t far off the mark (though I think it’s sweet that he’s still trying to make people happy). Best is a fan of this outcome.
He told Stangroom (at about eight minutes into the video), “It’s a very somber, very dark eventuality for Jar Jar. I quite liked it actually, it was really dramatic.” He thinks it’s fitting that Jar Jar realizes he’s been manipulated and kind of lost his mind.
He went on to say he had a different ending in mind. He wanted George Lucas to kill the character. “When I realized that [Revenge of the] Sith was pretty much not going to have Jar Jar in it, and they were moving very, very far from me, I always complained to George that I didn’t get a good death. I wanted to really be just hacked to pieces in some kind of way, and George wouldn’t do it.”
I’m glad Lucas didn’t kill Jar Jar, partially because fans would probably have been obnoxious about it. But also, because I’m happy to see Jar Jar trying to atone. I don’t view it as the character receiving some sort of punishment, but I like that his arc continued.
What do you think about how Jar Jar ended up? Do you find it to be a miserable fate? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
Images: Lucasfilm, Giphy
Amy Ratcliffe is an Associate Editor for Nerdist. She likes Star Wars a little. Follow her on Twitter.
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‘Quimera’ the Cat’s Stark Coloring Makes Her a Total Feline Two-Face
For a while now, “Venus the Two Face Cat” has held sway as the internet’s choice for most visually striking feline. New Republic facetiously named her the “queen of the internet” and she has over 1.4 million followers on Instagram. But if Game of Thrones has taught us anything, it’s that all those who reign, only reign for so long. Which means, yes, there is now a new contender for feline ruler of the internet, one with perhaps even more striking coloring. Her name is Quimera.
A post shared by Quimera twofacedcat (@gataquimera) on Jan 6, 2017 at 7:28am PST
Laughing Squid picked up on Quimera, who has her own Instagram profile with 33,000 followers — slim relative to Venus, but again, we’re literally talking about following cats. Quimera is a tortoiseshell cat, who’s marked half black and half orange, most starkly on her little pretty kitty face. She also has some bonkers heterochromia going on, giving her one Night King-blue eye and one that’s a kind of sandy orange.
A post shared by Quimera twofacedcat (@gataquimera) on Nov 13, 2016 at 12:31pm PST
As for the genetics behind the scenes of this lovely potpourri of phenotypic traits, Columbia University Professor of Genetics and Development Virginia Papaioannou told New Republic that she would not call the situation with Venus — similar to that of Quimera — an example of a true chimera. She said that it is, instead, “a fairly straightforward example of X-inactivation mosaicism.” Professor Papaioannou is referring to mosaicism, which occurs in mammalian females, who all carry two X chromosomes, as opposed to males who have an X and a Y. While the two X chromosomes in mammalian females have identical genes, at certain points, or loci, along the genome, there are different alleles, or different versions of the same gene.
A post shared by Quimera twofacedcat (@gataquimera) on Oct 20, 2016 at 10:17am PDT
The X-inactivation mosaicism occurs in the early embryo, when each cell randomly inactivates one copy of the X chromosome. This inactivation is then passed on to all of the descendants of the cell. As for males, because the Y chromosome doesn’t contain a locus for certain genes, like the orange fur gene, there’s no chance of an XY male having both orange and non-orange genes simultaneously because it only has one option from its one X chromosome. Although there is a case where males can have two X chromosomes and a Y chromosome. But that’s another genetic story.
A post shared by Quimera twofacedcat (@gataquimera) on Oct 5, 2016 at 10:52am PDT
What do you think about this gorgeous and genetically fascinating kitty? Are you a Venus diehard or are you ready to move over to the Quimera camp? Give us your thoughts in the comments below!
Images: Webbzo Online
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How Did The Hulk Get to Space in THOR: RAGNAROK?
Editor’s note: This post contains mild spoilers for Thor: Ragnarok.
When it was announced that Thor: Ragnarok would pair the flaxen-haired, hammer-wielding Asgardian Avenger with everyone’s favorite not-so-jolly green giant, we were beyond excited. When it was revealed that their buddy comedy would take place halfway across the universe on the planet of Sakaar, our comic book-loving hearts grew three sizes, but our eyebrows raised. How did the Hulk get to space anyway? When we last saw Bruce Banner’s alter ego at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, he was flying off into the sunset on a stolen Quinjet to be alone with his thoughts and feelings. As it turns out, the reason is thanks to a behind-the-scenes retcon made by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige.
In an interview with The Wrap, Feige explained that originally, they weren’t intending on making a Planet Hulk movie, in spite of rumors to the contrary. At one point the script included a bit indicating that they lost the Hulk’s signal somewhere around Saturn, but Feige and company worried this would result in speculation that they were, in fact, sending Hulk to space. As a result, they insisted that director Joss Whedon leave the sky blue at the end of Ultron and mention that they lost signal somewhere over the Caspian Sea.
However, during the development of Thor: Ragnarok, they decided they “wanted to do something totally different with Thor,” according to Feige. For a while, they were even jokingly calling the film “Planet Thor.” Talks amongst the executive team eventually resulted in the fateful decision to pair Hulk with Thor, and to send the dynamic duo to the far-flung planet of Sakaar.
“And this was a year after Ultron came out,” Feige said. “It was kind of a big thing. We were like, ‘You gotta change it Joss, he’s not going to space.’ A year after I go, ‘Joss, guess where he’s going?’ ‘He’s going to space.’”
So, what’s the canonical explanation for how Hulk eventually made his way to become a gladiator in the Grandmaster’s arena? Well, in Thor: Ragnarok, Hulk winds up on the trash planet of Sakaar, which has multiple vortexes in the sky that function as interdimensional garbage chutes, dumping the universe’s refuse on the planet’s surface. It stands to reason that as the Quinjet approached the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere, it could have been sucked through one of these vortexes, stranding Banner among the outcasts, misfits, and literal trash people of Sakaar.
Now the big question is how will the Hulk make his way back to Earth for Avengers: Infinity War? Let us know your theories in the comments below.
Image: Marvel Studios
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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Hot Toys’ THOR: RAGNAROK Hela Figure Is Hella Good
It’s not often that we would recommend welcoming the Goddess of Death into your home, but in the case of Hot Toys‘ newly announced sixth scale Hela figure, we highly recommend it. Encourage it, even. Who doesn’t want to be awed by the power of Cate Blanchett‘s Thor: Ragnarok villain on a regular basis? Hot Toys has gone above and beyond bringing the magnitude of this character to their high quality collectible format. She comes with two swords, a wrecked Mjolnir (of course), and her wicked headdress.
And if you’re wondering how the sculpt looks when you get up close and personal (which you only want to do with the toy and not if you ever encounter Hela in person), don’t worry. Hot Toys continually nails it with likenesses, and they’ve captured every detail of Hela’s face, down to fading her black eye makeup just so. I never cease to be impressed by how much emotion and nuance they infuse into their sculpts. Her threatening power completely comes through. And yeah, I think you’re sort of obligated to purchase the Ragnarok Thor figure just so you can recreate this pose.
If you’re ready to bring Blanchett’s utterly perfect/terrible villain to your shelves and display cases, you can pre-order the figure from Sideshow Collectibles. You’ll have to be patient once you place your order because the collectible won’t ship until October – December 2018. Pass the time by scrolling to the gallery below to view more photos of the figure.
Will you be pre-ordering Hela? Are you getting all the Thor: Ragnarok photos to recreate the entire movie in your living room? Let us know in the comments.
Images: Marvel, Sideshow Collectibles
Amy Ratcliffe is an Associate Editor for Nerdist. Follow her on Twitter.
Throw Mjolnir and read more Thor: Ragnarok stories!
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November 7, 2017
What Would it Mean If Disney Really Did Buy Fox?
That potential Disney purchase of Fox is dead…for now, which means it could still happen. What would that mega-merger mean for Hollywood? We broke it down on today’s Nerdist News Talks Back, along with how Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series could work, and Mark Hamill‘s comments that Luke has not turned to the Dark Side.
Leading today’s show was very special guest host Steve Zaragoza from SourceFed, and he was joined by Nerdist News writer Joan Ford, Director of Development Brendon Schulze, and Geek and Sundry‘s Amy Vorpahl. They started with the reports Disney was in talks–now apparently off–to buy most of Fox, including their entertainment properties. That would bring the X-Men and Fantastic Four back under the Marvel umbrella. Would we like to see that happen? Do we expect this deal to be resurrected? Would having all the Star Wars films back together (Fox owns A New Hope) be enough to make up for all the bad that would come with having an entertainment monopoly?
They also discussed Amazon’s idea to create their own Game of Thrones by making a Lord of the Rings TV show. Do we want to see this, or did Peter Jackson already give us everything we wanted? Would we rather see other stories from Middle Earth, or even brand new stories set in that world? And could Amazon make the show look as good as it needs to be on a TV budget?
Finally, Mark Hamill confirmed in an interview Luke Skywalker will not be turning to the dark side in The Last Jedi, but we will still see a very different, unsure of himself version of Luke Hamill never expected. Does this put to rest for good the possibility of Darth Luke? Does the fact he is in such a bad place make him susceptible to Snoke or Kylo? What do we think will be the biggest surprise from the film?
Nerdist News Talks Back was live today at 1:00 p.m. PT on our YouTube and Alpha channels, just like it is every weekday. You can get in on the conversation when you tune in with us, so be on time every day.
Especially because you never know when Disney might just purchase every other studio in the world. Thor: Ragnarok made all the money this past weekend, and we bet The Last Jedi will do pretty well too, so they can probably afford it.
But even if you missed today’s show, we still want to hear from you. So share your thoughts on today’s topics in the comments below.
Images: Disney, Fox
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