Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2040

Zendaya Didn’t Know Who She Was Playing in SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

For months, one of the biggest mysteries about Spider-Man: Homecoming was the identity of Zendaya‘s character, Michelle. One of the most popular theories was that Zendaya is playing Mary Jane Watson in the film. While Zendaya and the filmmakers have repeatedly shot down that rumor, even Zendaya didn’t know which part she would play until she officially signed on.

“I play a character named Michelle, but nobody believes me,” said Zendaya while appearing on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. “I didn’t even know what kind of character I was going to play until I got there and signed the non-disclosure [agreement] and then read the script.”

Zendaya added that Michelle is “very interesting. She’s kind of like a loner. Super intellectual, very dry humor, one liners, pops in, pops out.”

According to Zendaya, most of her scenes are dealing with Tom Holland‘s Peter Parker instead of his heroic alter ego. Because of that, she didn’t get to see many of the film’s action sequences until recently. “I’m in the Peter Parker side of Spider-Man’s life,” explained Zendaya. “So everything that I shot…it just felt like I was shooting this awkward teen coming of age comedy…and then you realize ‘wow,’ when the trailer comes out, “this is a Spider-Man movie!’ This is like action, it’s going down!”

As we recently learned, Michelle’s first name isn’t a spoiler, but her last name is. A Spider-Man: Homecoming tie-in junior novel revealed Michelle’s secret, and you can check out that info here.

What do you think about Zendaya’s role in Spider-Man: Homecoming? Let us know in the comment section below!

Image: Sony/Marvel

Gentle Giant Conjures up Luke and Vader STAR WARS 40th Anniversary Busts for Comic-Con

Combining what they call “the timeless aesthetics of sculpture from Greek and Roman antiquity, with one of popular cultures most recognizable characters,” Gentle Giant have once again worked their (industrial light and) magic to bring fans the mos screen-accurate likenesses possible, and are bringing space fantasy’s most enduring father and son duo to San Diego Comic-Con.

Designed in 1/6 scale, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker appear as they were suited up for the final space battle in the original Star Wars–admittedly, for Vader that doesn’t mean changing a thing from his normal attire, but Luke needs a flightsuit. Both busts have classical-style stands, with the appropriate lightsaber decorating the base, and, per Gentle Giant, “each limited edition hand-painted polyresin bust comes individually numbered and is paired with a matching special edition certificate of authenticity done by artist Brian Rood.”

Each bust costs $100, and members of Gentle Giant’s Premier Guild club can preorder now; the rest of you will have to take your chances at Comic-Con. And in the spirit of Han Solo, I’ll never tell you the odds. But it could be akin to navigating an asteroid field, as you evade all manner of strange celestial bodies moving in all directions. Just be one with the Force, and let the Force be with you.

To help you decide, check out our image gallery below, which contains almost every conceivable angle on the busts you could imagine (“I don’t know. I can imagine quite a bit!” Hush, Han). Then let us know in comments which one you like best: the dark Darth, or the Force-ful flyboy?

Images: Gentle Giant

Why HAN SOLO Directors Lord and Miller Were Really Fired

Star Wars fans received a massive shock yesterday when Han Solo directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were suddenly fired by Lucasfilm just a few weeks before the film was supposed to wrap. Make no mistake, it is a very rare event for Hollywood directors to be removed during principal photography of a blockbuster movie. But apparently the issues that Lord and Miller had with their bosses finally reached peak Death Star and there’s no turning back now. Today’s Nerdist News is pouring over the intelligence reports to tell you why the Han Solo directors are out and who might replace them.

Join the host who always shoots first, Jessica Chobot, as she tells us all about the issues that came up on the Han Solo set. It’s important to remember that Lord and Miller have a very comedic sensibility that made The LEGO Movie and 21 Jump Street into hits. And yet the early reports indicate that Lucasfilm pushed back when they attempted to make Han Solo funnier and allowed the script to be improvised on the set.

According to a report on Slashfilm, it sounds like there was a culture clash between the directors and Lucasfilm from day one. It finally came to a head when Lord and Miller refused to compromise on their vision for the film, but even they may have been surprised by their swift dismissal. One thing is clear: Han Solo needs a new director ASAP and the movie may be facing massive reshoots. There may not be much of Lord and Miller’s work left when Han Solo finally hits theaters.

So, who could possibly step in to replace that directing duo at this late hour? Ron Howard is supposedly the top choice, with Joe Johnston and Robert Zemeckis also reportedly in the mix. To be sure, all three are very talented directors, but we would have loved to have seen Lord and Miller’s take on one of Star Wars‘ most beloved characters.

How do you feel about the Han Solo shakeup? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!

3D Printer Makes Chocolate Structures and We Need One

Right now, it looks like the future will be built by 3D printers. Although they’re often on the pricier now, the technology will eventually become more accessible and allow just about everybody to make items they want or need, like plastic parts, toys, and what have you, in their own homes. We’re reaching a critical point in 3D printing technology at this very moment. Case-in-point: We’re starting to print food, and it all looks super neat.

Take, for example, this 3D chocolate printer, a LulzBot TAZ 4 3D Printer, that ditches plastic “inks” in favor of chocolate.

In the clip above, using a piece of bread as a base for what we’re sure are valid reasons, you can see this beautiful machine in action, first making a chocolate mug from the ground up and then another type of mug: a human face. We’re already imagining the possibilities. Let’s say you’re cramming for a big test and you don’t have time to leisurely sip your coffee but still need that sweet, sweet caffeine. All you gotta do is pour your hot liquid gold into a chocolate mug, and then it’s a race against time to finish your beverage before the mug melts and gets a big coffee and chocolate mess on yourself.

Perhaps there are more practical reasons for using a 3D chocolate printer, so if you can think of any, let your vivid imaginations run wild in the comments below.

Featured image: Hazel B. Runge

Tiny, Lightning-Fast Sumo Robots Will Change How You Think About Sumo Wrestling

To uninformed Western audiences, sumo wrestling might seem like little more than two giant Japanese men bumping their large bodies into each other until one steps outside the fighting area. What gets lost to those not paying attention to nuance, though, is that there’s a metric ton of strategy involved: Forcing somebody to go where they don’t want to go, while they’re trying to do the same to you, involves creative thinking and the speed to act on that thinking quickly.

Perhaps the best way to see how strategic sumo really is, while also showing how super cool things can be when creativity and technology meet, is by watching this video of sumo wrestling robots, which turns the martial art into something very different. Blink and you’ll miss it.

While traditional sumo seems to be ruled by bulk, the duels between these tiny sumo robots are all about speed and quickness. The video above, which is a compilation of footage shot over multiple years, shows lightning-quick battles that sometimes last less than a second, and are often displays of which human operator is thinking a fraction of a second quicker, or which robot is better optimized for this fun type of competition.

Sumo robot wrestling is like Battlebots with less destruction, but that lack of robo-gore is supplanted by a different kind of thinking and preparation that goes into each face-off. Check out the clip above, and let us know if you’re aware of any other robot sports we need to see right now.

Featured image: Robert McGregor/YouTube

Winter is Here in GAME OF THRONES 12 New Character Posters

Thank the old gods and the new–and HBO‘s marketing department–for the unexpected bounty of Game of Thrones‘ season seven goodies we’ve been given today. (And on the first day of summer. Perfect.) First we got that amazing new trailer (Sansa! No Sansa don’t!), and now we have twelve new posters to study like we’re Sam with an old book.

First up, the King in the North! What wonderful news about Jon Snow might we….oh seven bloody hells! Blue eyes? Blue skin? Please, please, please don’t be a sign of things to come.

Better look at some more to see if this is a “Jon thing” or an “everybody thing.”

Ah, what a relief. Everyone is probably doomed, not just Jon.

Or, if you’re one of those few remaining hopeful fans of the show who doesn’t always assume the worst, this just might mean everyone is going to have to face the White Walkers this season, and that’s what this entire #WinterIsHere slogan and campaign is referring too.

That seems correct, though in fairness with this show the smart money is always on “doomed.”

So who else got a poster? Beyond the most obvious characters like Jaime, Cersei, Tyrion, Sansa, Arya, Bran, and Littlefinger, there are also posters for Tormund, Brienne, and Theon, indicating their roles in season seven could be larger than we might have even guessed based on the trailers so far.

Tormund and the wildlings make up a big part of Jon’s army, and we know from the trailers Jon is heading beyond The Wall. Brienne hasn’t been featured as much in those, but she’s also at Winterfell, the sworn sword of Sansa, and therefore not loyal to Jon Snow. Any animosity between Sansa and Jon could very easily involve Brienne. And Theon looks like he will engage in a massive sea battle with his uncle Euron, which could help decide the fate of King’s Landing, where the Greyjoy ships are, if Euron has allied with Cersei.

We might even have learned something from someone who isn’t included in this posters I can’t help but notice Sam is nowhere to be found here. However, that might indicate an even bigger role for him and big surprise from the Citadel, one the show is trying to hide by leaving him out.

You can see the rest of the posters in our gallery below.

But before you do that stop in our comments section to tell us what you think of these posters, while we are busy placing some money on “everyone is doomed.”

Just in case.

Images: HBO

Could Tony Stark Get His Arc Reactor back in INFINITY WAR?

A set photo from Avengers: Infinity War was posted across Robert Downey Jr’s various social media accounts on Wednesday featuring himself, Doctor Strange/Benedict Cumberbatch, Hulk/Mark Ruffalo, and Wong/Benedict Wong sharing a meal that does not, somehow, appear to be shawarma. And it also possibly/maybe hints at something major for Tony in the upcoming film.

This is the first time we’ve seen the actors together and in costume (though it remains to be seen whether or not Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner will wear a simple T-shirt), and it appears the science vs. magic rivalry has not invaded their personal lives (yet). In fact, Tony Stark and Stephen Strange have a history of friendship in the comics, despite their radically different approaches to superhero-dom.

More interesting, however, are the details in the photo. Like the fact that Robert Downey Jr. has a particularly arc reactor-shaped hole in his shirt. Fans will remember that Tony Stark had the arc reactor surgically removed at the end of Iron Man 3, no longer needing it to keep him alive or power the suit, so what could prompt him to return to his cyborg-esque days?

Well, there are three real possibilities, ranging from highly plausible to a little more out there. The first is that Tony’s recent struggles in Civil War and the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming have brought back his heart problems. The man had shrapnel in his chest for Beyonder’s sake. No amount of Marvel science-magic is going to get rid of all those long-term effects. And with Tony’s feud with Steve Rogers—and his increasing worry about Peter Parker—it’s not difficult to imagine his health problems returning in a big way.

The second theory is that the Iron Man suit won’t be powerful enough to stop Thanos. Since the original Iron Man, Tony has traded his bulky, tank of a suit for a more sleek and agile design, losing firepower in favor of speed.

If Thanos is anywhere near as powerful as his comic counterpart, Iron Man won’t stand a chance. Adding the arc reactor might give Tony the added power he needs to at least hurt the Mad Titan.

Third, and maybe most fun, is that the Time Infinity Stone might play a role.

Doctor Strange’s Eye of Agamotto contains the Time Stone, which we’ve seen has the ability to turn back time for a given object. If Thanos or any of his minions were to obtain the stone (which will almost certainly happen) they would be able to return Tony to his chest-shrapnel state, forcing him to turn to the arc reactor as a life-saving measure once more.

 

Do you think the arc reactor will show up in Infinity War? How about the awesome facial hair bros? Let us know in the comments below!

Image: Robert Downey Jr., Marvel Studios, Marvel Comics

Patty Jenkins and Geoff Johns Already Working on WONDER WOMAN 2

Today on Nerdist News Talks Back, Jessica Chobot was joined by Nerdist’s Managing Editor Alicia Lutes and Mothership writer/host Amy Vorpahl to talk about all sorts of things, like the Whedoning of the DCEU, the creators of Sherlock going full vampire, and NASA’s journey to your butt.

Since the release of Wonder Woman, there’s been lots of chatter about the suddenly more hopeful tone of the DC Expanded Universe, and evidently director Patty Jenkins and DC’s overlord Geoff Johns are already at work on a treatment for the sequel. This coupled with Joss Whedon taking over reshoot duties for the Justice League makes us think there’s a definite lane-change when it comes to the DC Comics movie films universe. And we’re into it!

Sherlock creators and Doctor Who writers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss are heading back to television following what was very likely the finale of their sleuthing program. This time they’re going to tackle a TV version of Bram Stoker’s classic Gothic novel, Dracula. Moffat has already adapted a beloved horror novel with his 2007 series Jekyll, and Gatiss has long been a horror aficionado and creator. This is a cool thing, and our panelists agree.

There’s now a frigging Ken Doll with a frigging man bun. The panel says it’d be great if the hairstyles were detachable accessories. But, for reals, man buns are stupid. Either have long hair or don’t. You don’t see Kyle Hill with a man bun. (Editor’s Note: Sometimes you do.)

And finally, in celebration of Nerdist Science Week, we discussed NASA’s desire to make a return journey to Uranus. If you think they didn’t make all the puns in the known universe about this, then you haven’t met Jess, Amy, or Alicia.

Want to join us for a live discussion? Tune in tomorrow and every weekday at 1:00pm PST for another episode of Nerdist News Talks Back on YouTube and Alpha, and catch up with the archives immediately thereafter!

Images: Warner Bros/

Cannibals and Keanu Reeves Chew Scenery in THE BAD BATCH (Review)

Writer/director Ana Lily Amirpour roared onto the film stage with A Girl Walks Home At Night, which took the vampire genre into a trippy realm both romantic and brutal. Critics were overwhelmingly awed by her eccentric and daring debut, and have been eagerly anticipating Amirpour’s assuredly odd follow-up, The Bad Batch. This deranged drama pitches Jason Momoa, Keanu Reeves, and Jim Carrey into a dystopian wasteland of misfits, loners, and cannibals. Once more, Amirpour digs into genre to mold something uniquely her own: fierce, fucked up, and defiantly feminine.

English ingénue Suki Waterhouse fronts the film as Texas bad girl Arlen, who’s tossed out of the United States and left on the other side of a gun-lined border wall with just a bag of burgers and a jug of water. For some unknown trespass, she’s been branded “Bad Batch,” and cast out. So now, she must make her way in a desert littered with trash and creeping with cannibals. Before the first act is out, she’s been snatched and had her right arm and leg severed by a ravenous band of bodybuilders. But with wit, grit, and a pile of shit, she’s able to escape. Kicking herself across the hardened sand one-legged and supine on a skateboard, she finds Comfort, a fortressed colony in Bad Batch land where a drug peddling guru called The Dream (a porn-stached Keanu Reeves) rules.

Safe but bored, Arlen soon straps on a prosthetic leg and handgun to stroll out into the wastelands. There, she finds a bit of vengeance, and accidentally kidnaps the cherub-cheeked daughter of cannibal Miami Man (Jason Momoa, tatted, topless and draped in pristine pinstriped dress slacks). When their paths first cross, it seems like Arlen’s met her end. But through trying to retrieve his lost daughter from the clutches of The Dream, these menacing misfits discover a chain-wielding warrior, a mute but magnanimous nomad (an unrecognizable but excellent Jim Carrey), and an unexpected but brilliant bond.

The Bad Batch is devotedly weird, looping in drug trips, cults, mad men, man-eaters, and a pitch-black brand of comedy forged to make audiences only bark-laugh or church-giggle. As Arlen awakes strapped to a crude cutting board and at the mercy of hacksaw-wielding redneck, the Ace of Base song “All That She Wants” chirps from a nearby radio, mocking her with the lyrics, “When she woke up late in the morning light /And the day had just begun / She opened up her eyes and thought / Oh what a morning.” As Arlen pitifully but doggedly drags her dismembered self across the desert, a small painted sign in the foreground snarks: “FIND COMFORT.” And she strides out into the open wasteland, looking for trouble and some strange sense of solace, the winking smiley face on the butt of her yellow cutoffs winks at us. Even in darkness, there is a joyful absurdity, because fate is as funny as it is unkind.

Watching The Bad Batch, I was reminded over and over of the willfully bonkers B-movies and salacious sexploitation flicks that Gilbert Godfried used to MC late nights on USA with Up All Night. I stayed up past bedtime to drink them in. Sneaking them by playing the volume low so as not to wake my parents, or disturb my little sister snoring on the bunk bed beneath me. In these low-budget genre flicks, I discovered the illicit bits kept from me on parent-approved television. I found violence, gore, and sex, sex, sex. Usually in very soft-core ways. But for a middle-schooler, it was exhilarating enough to make a lasting impression.

The Bad Batch revels in the same kinds of stories marked by sex and violence, but Amirpour is too clever to make a spectacle out of either. The severing of Arlen’s limbs happens out of frame, the focus instead on her face as she screams then blacks out from the overwhelming pain. Rather than some torrid sex scene between her and the beefy cannibal or the beer-bellied guru, there’s only highly charged sexual tension that relishes in chemistry and proximity. Yet this doesn’t feel like a cheat. It’s Amirpour bringing an unexpected level of sophistication into a schlocky genre. In quiet moments with Waterhouse, she folds in introspection, as Arlen tries to reclaim herself, fantasizing about being whole and desirable, or encouraging her little captive to help her put on eye-liner. Admittedly, the film’s slow pace and winding narrative might try audience patience. But the sheer force of Amirpour’s style kept this critic swooning.

With vivid colors, grease and grime, Amirpour creates a world both beautiful and ugly, brutal yet laced with grace, like a dapper cannibal who sketches soulful portraits, when he’s not butchering yowling outcasts. The performances range from wooden (Waterhouse) to stoic (Momoa), from playful (Carrey) to abject scene chewing (Reeves). But this too feels a tribute to the B-movies that came before. And what? Do you want a Daniel Day-Lewis level of gravitas and severity in a drama where snowglobes are traded for weapons, pregnant women rest machine guns on their swollen bellies, and Diego Luna pops by to play a swaggering DJ whose uniform is an unbuttoned disco shirt and cigarette-stashing tighty-whities? Now that would be absurd.

Ultimately, The Bad Batch is challenging, unnerving, and even hilarious in whip-smart bursts. It’s a drama with its tongue planted firmly in cheek, and it’s comedy firmly sticking up a proud middle finger. It’s strange and surreal, grotesque and glorious. And It follows a deeply flawed, recklessly rebellious, and unapologetically passionate young woman through a treacherous terrain of the damned. In short, it’s a pitch-perfect sister flick to A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night.

Kristy Puchko is a freelance entertainment reporter and film critic. You can find more of her reviews here. Follow her on Twitter! 

HBO’s Making a WATCHMEN TV Series with Damon Lindelof

Who watches the Watchmen? Damon Lindelof, it seems! The co-creator of Lost and The Leftovers has reportedly struck a deal with HBO to bring the comic book series to the small screen.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the deal is still very much in its early stages, with nothing official/set in stone, but—clearly—a lot of excitement. Coming off an incredibly successful and critically acclaimed run with his adaptation of the Tom Perotta novel, The Leftovers, which dealt with a heaping helping of dark topics, it makes sense that HBO would want to stay in cahoots with Lindelof and his particular point of view for this product during this moment of superhero obsession in pop culture.

If you’re not at all familiar with Aaron Moore and Dave Gibbons’ original work—which came out between 1986 – 1987—Watchmen was a dark allegory, used to reflect contemporary anxieties and deconstruct/parody superheroes as a whole. Set in an alternative universe where superheroes were de rigueur in the 40s and 50s, it was ultimately their rise that brought about a darker, more nefarious world. (So it’s not hard to see what attracted Lindelof, a longtime fan of the comic, to the series.)

This is, naturally, not the first time Watchmen has been brought to the screen. Back in 2009 Zack Snyder directed the hotly debated film adaptation before being briefly attached to the HBO iteration in 2015.

What do you think of this news? Let us know in the comments below.

Image: Warner Bros.