Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2053

Tyrannosaurus Rex Probably Didn’t Have Feathers, Scientists Say

Typically, the classic image of Tyrannosaurus rex doesn’t include feathers; look at any dinosaur movie for proof of that. In recent years, however, it’s come out that a lot of the scaly dinosaurs we’ve come to know and love were actually covered in feathers. That might be a hard reality for some of us to swallow, but T. rex enthusiasts don’t have to, because a new study seems to confirm that the strong-jawed dino was actually the scaly creature we’ve always thought it was (via The Washington Post).

Phil R. Bell, a paleontologist at Australia’s University of New England told The Washington Post that the research “shows without question that T. rex had scaly skin.” Along with the T. rex, Bell and his colleagues examined skin from relatives Albertosaurus, Daspletosaurus, Gorgosaurus, and Tarbosaurus, and found it to be scaly, suggesting that if T. rex did have feathers at all, they likely would have only been on its back or spine. They may have had feathers, but they probably didn’t look like giant killer chickens.

Bell says that one reason this may be the case is because T. rex was just so darn big. “Probably the sexiest option is gigantism,” he said. “Big animals have trouble shedding excess heat, so being covered in feathers is not a good idea unless you live somewhere cold.”

T. rex probably looked pretty much how we suspect it did. All is well in the dinosaur world, although we have to admit that a giant bird with the biting power of three cars would have been pretty cool too. Let us know in the comments what you hope T. rex actually looked like!

Featured image: Universal Pictures

Chris Pratt plays F, Marry, Kill with Dinosaurs

Hideo Kojima’s DEATH STRANDING Is Skipping E3 This Year

Ever since Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima left Konami, gamers have eagerly awaited his next project, Death Stranding. So far, there haven’t been many details released about this game, although we do know that it’s an open world action title and the main character has the likeness of Norman Reedus. However, fans hoping for more intel on the game at this year’s E3 are bound to be disappointed.

Via Polygon, Kojima has confirmed on his Twitter account that Death Stranding will not be featured at E3. Kojima also reiterated his plans to personally attend E3 Coliseum panel for a one-on-one panel with Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, the man who is currently attempting to adapt Metal Gear Solid as a film.

Apologies to our fans, Death Stranding will not be @ E3 as we are fully focused on development. Pls see me with @geoffkeighley on 6/14! pic.twitter.com/w9JfmEOqF4

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) June 7, 2017

As noted by Polygon, the word “bridge” and the spiderweb imagery have previously appeared in an earlier Death Stranding teaser trailer. Guillermo del Toro’s character wore a lapel pin with a spiderweb splashed across an image of the United States, with the word “bridges” and “United Cities of America” visible on the pin as well.  This suggests an alternate world or timeline for the game. Mads Mikkelsen’s likeness and performance will also be used in the game as the lead antagonist.

While we’re disappointed that Death Stranding won’t be present at E3, the focus on the development will ultimately be a good thing. We’d love to see Death Stranding reach the heights of the MGS series, and we’re still looking forward to getting our hands on it.

What do you think about Death Stranding‘s newest teaser poster? Let us know in the comment section below!

Images: Kojima Productions

What is the SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING Webgate Controversy?

One month from today, Marvel’s newest Peter Parker, Tom Holland, makes his solo MCU debut in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Of course, Spidey is getting a hand from his mentor Tony Stark, who gave him the upgraded Spidey suit in Captain America: Civil War. In the new film, we’re gonna get to see exactly what this costume is capable of doing. However, a new TV spot for the movie has hinted at a serious downgrade for Spider-Man’s webs. Today’s Nerdist News is hunting for the scoop at the Daily Bugle!

Join host and sleeper agent, Jessica Chobot, as she shares the details of a Homecoming webgate controversy. You may recall, in the recently released third trailer for the film, the indication that Spidey’s suit had 576 webbing combinations available to Peter Parker. That’s an amazing number, but it dropped dramatically in the newest TV ad. Now, it’s only 78 web shooter combinations. So what happened to the 498 other combinations?

It’s entirely possible that the creative team decided to simply change the number and re-record the line. In fact, it sounds like the voice of the suit’s internal A.I. may have been recast altogether. However, we do have a theory about how and why both audio clips could be correct. We’ve already seen indications that the Spidey suit has abilities that Peter Parker hasn’t fully grasped yet. But he and his pal, Ned Leeds, may end up hacking the suit to unlock the hidden features left behind by Tony Stark.

And if Spidey somehow screws up with his enhanced suit (as hinted at in the trailers), then it would give Stark added reasons for taking it away from Peter. But if Stark ends up returning the suit after Peter proves himself, then perhaps it will feature the wildly upgraded 576 web combinations. We’ll find out for sure when Spider-Man: Homecoming swings into theaters on July 7.

What do you think about the webgate controversy? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!

Police Are Using Facebook to Find Stolen STAR TREK Trading Cards

There is no more loyal a fanbase than Star Trek‘s fanbase, and it’s a well known fact that you do not separate a Trekker from any of their beloved memorabilia. Sadly, a Star Trek fan in Northern Ireland recently had their prize collection of vintage Star Trek trading cards stolen in a burglary.

The collection in question amounts to some 3800 Star Trek trading cards that were stolen, and the collection is worth quite a pretty penny (they range in price from £1 to a couple of hundred pounds on online auction sites). Right now, police in Northern Ireland are hunting for them and determined to return them to their owner, who is no doubt doing an “angry Kirk” impersonation right about now.

Of course, because we live in a social media dominated world, PSNI (Police Services of Northern Ireland) Foyle has asked for any leads or information leading to the whereabouts of these vintage cards with a Facebook post, one that of course includes several obvious Star Trek quotes. You can see the Facebook post in question down below (via i09).

Well, the constable’s heart is certainly in the right place, that’s for sure. But if you want to stump people with “guess the Star Trek quote”, you’re probably going to have to try a little bit harder than “live long and prosper” and “the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few.” I mean, even your grandma knows those.

Recently PSNI was able to use Facebook to return a missing dog named Pixie to their owner, here’s hoping they have the same luck bringing the Enterprise crew back home.

What are your most valued fan collectibles that you’d be heartbroken to lose? Be sure to let us know down below in the comments.

Images: CBS

THE MUMMY Isn’t the Monster We Deserve (Review)

In the franchise-driven world of big-budget Hollywood movies, executives are ripping their hair out to find their own IP worth turning into a bunch of interconnected movies. Universal’s answered seemed perfect, steeped in the entire history of both the studio and Hollywood as a whole. Their monster movies from the 1930s-1950s were some of the most popular films of the era, and truly were the first cinematic universe after a fashion. So on the outset going in to Alex Kurtzman’s inaugural Dark Universe outing, The Mummy, I had a lot of excitement. Excitement that was quickly dashed.

A horror adventure movie starring Tom Cruise and featuring both a badass lady mummy seemed like it had potential to be great, and the addition of a monster-hunting government entity headed up by Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll seemed like a cool way to use Gothic monster movie lore to their advantage. The problem, however, is that the script is full of corny, obvious lines and moments, and the whole movie never strikes a consistent tone, be it fun adventure or darker haunted house. Overall, The Mummy feels like a collection of edited highlights from a movie rather than a movie.

The story follows a military guy named Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) who goes on personal adventures to find and sell antiquaries on the black market. He’s joined in this endeavor by Vail (Jake Johnson) and the two happen upon a buried Egyptian tomb in the middle of Iraq. Pretty weird. An archaeologist named Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) joins them in the excavation and, long story short, they disrupt the tomb of the forgotten Egyptian princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), a woman poised to rule Egypt but forced out by a male heir. She sold her soul to Set, the god of the dead, and bad stuff happened, causing her to be mummified.

Nick isn’t the best guy in the world and is cursed upon disrupting the tomb to be the human embodiment for Set’s return. But there’s a clandestine organization called Prodigium in London that attempts to find, observe, and stop the activity of monsters. It’s run by the kindly (and weird) Dr. Jekyll (Crowe) who may or may not also have evil in him (you don’t say). Ahmanet wants to win, everybody else is rather against this, fighting, etc.

Even just in  thinking about what plot elements to put into the spoiler-free synopsis, I reached a point where I said “Well, that’s really all there is to it unless I want to start describing individual scenes.” You know exactly from the first images of the film what the ultimate endpoint will be and it was almost totally devoid of surprises. We’d seen just about every scene in the film in trailers and marketing material and it all just felt in service of setting up the franchise rather than telling a compelling Mummy story.

And that’s a shame because the Mummy elements are easily the movie’s strongest parts. The backstory of Ahmanet is compelling and Boutella delivers a performance that’s at once terrifying and tragic, something which is integral to the Universal monsters–they’re never straight-up villains. And the scariest parts within this are of the newly awakened Ahmanet, in her rickety living dead guise, sucking the life out of hapless police officers, thus turning them into emaciated slaves intent on fulfilling their mistress’ wishes. However, even these aspects that work better than others, toward the end of the movie, they too are rushed and underdeveloped.

The entire runtime just about had things that reminded me of other movies. Oh, there’s that from An American Werewolf in London, and that from Tombs of the Blind Dead, and ooh Prodigium reminds me a bit of Hellboy. Each time I’d say “man, I wish I was watching that movie instead.” And when your whole movie makes the audience wish they were watching the things you’re referencing rather than the movie they’re actually watching, we have a major problem. And any movie that fully wastes Courtney B. Vance and manages to make Jake Johnson unfunny and Tom Cruise uncharismatic is really not going to make any friends.

I still feel like the concept, the notion of a shared universe of monsters is a good idea and could be really exciting and a fresh, macabre take on the superhero thing. I just don’t think The Mummy is it at all, and certainly isn’t the kind of movie that will excite the fan of those old classic monsters, or even the fans of 1999 Stephen Sommers Mummy movie. I sadly just think this is an instance of putting the sarcophagus before the horse.

2 out of 5 sandy, cobwebby burritos

Images: Universal

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist and the host of the horror documentary series One Good Scare. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!

DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY NT Trailer Brings the Ultimate Battle to PS4

It may be a few years before the Final Fantasy VII Remake hits, but Cloud Strife and Sephiroth are going to get their rematch early in 2018…and they won’t be alone. Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is coming out next year, and it’s pitting several familiar faces from the Final Fantasy series against each other in the ultimate battle of good and evil.

Square Enix has released the first trailer for Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, the Final Fantasy inspired fighting game that brings together fan favorites from across multiple games, including Cloud Strife, Sephiroth, Squall Leonhart, Tidus, Onion Knight, Lightning, and even Noctis Lucis Caelum, the hero of the recently released Final Fantasy XV. There will be at least twenty playable characters in the game, and possibly more if Square Enix adds to the lineup via DLC.

Within the story of the game, the various characters have been drawn to the alternate world known as Dissidia and forced to take sides in the conflict between two gods: Chaos and Cosmos. The most recent iteration of the game was an arcade hit in Japan, and it introduced the three-on-three battles that will be used in Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. Additionally, players will be able to use legendary summons, including Ifrit, Shiva and Odin.

Further details about the game are expected to be revealed at E3 later this month. Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is scheduled to be released on Playstation 4 in early 2018.

What did you think about the first trailer for Dissidia Final Fantasy NT? Let us know in the comment section below!

Image: Square Enix

Talking THE MUMMY, MARY POPPINS, Jerry Seinfeld Avoiding Kesha

While the world is keeping their eyes glued to Twitter for any bit of information about James Comey’s hearing tomorrow, we are just trying to keep our gosh darn heads on straight and get through the week. And what better way to do that then by assembling a Nerdist News Talks Back quorum to talk about everything from apparently lukewarm The Mummy reviews, fanciful new photos of Marry Poppins, and an exceptionally uncomfortable clip of Jerry Seinfeld refusing a hug from Kesha : ( ?

AND WHO DO WE HAVE ON TODAY’S EP; I’M GLAD YOU ASKED. We’ve got Nerdist News Host and for-all-we-know-the-resurrected-mummy-of-queen-Nefertiti Jessica Chobot, Nerdist’s associate editor and Youngest Poop Boy, Kyle Anderson, and Nerdist’s managing editor and friend to all dogs, Alicia Lutes. Oooweee, it’s sure to be a wild ride.

Okay, so first thing’s first: How bad is The Mummy actually? We know that reception has been pretty dicey so far–check that tepid 26% on Rotten Tomatoes–but what were we really expecting from this? It looks like a big, dumb movie, and a great excuse for Tommy C to flex his perennial leading man chops before we get the sequel to Top Gun.

Moving right along: this new Marry Poppins movie looks fancy as f-ck! This morning, Entertainment Weekly unveiled our first real glimpses of Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda in character and the images looks bright and in spirit with the story of the magical umbrella riding nanny. Better hope that magical umbrella is built for five, though:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVC4E9mF0...

And finally, the most important story of the day: Jerry Seinfeld refused to hug Kesha, and it was really sad to watch. Here are some errant thoughts about why before these two inevitably hug on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon for a silly bit.

-This is not the first time Jerry has played hard to get with his hugs. Exhibit A:

-Kesha has had a legitimately tough narrative over the last few years, so if anyone needs/deserves a hug, it is her. That is partly why this is so sad to watch.

-BUT Jerry was in the middle of a comedic bit for an interview and she interrupted him, so there is not much you can really expect in that situation! Timing and context is everything!

-At least Jerry was polite about the whole thing. “No thanks” and “I wish her the best” are kind of the only things you can say in a situation where you refuse a hug to a pop singer that you are unaware of.

How are you guys feeling about The Mummy reviews? Are you more bummed by the Kesha-hug sitation? I know I sure am.

Featured Image: Universal

US MISFITS Reboot Announces Cast

The long rumored remake of the cult E4 superhero show Misfits has finally found a home with the announcement that a pilot has been ordered at Freeform. Coming from The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz’s Fake Empire for ABC/Disney’s family channel, it’ll likely be a departure from the crass classic that fans of the original know and love.

Misfits tells the story of five teenagers who during community service gain superpowers after getting caught in a freak storm. Though the premise sounds like something you’ve likely heard before, over five seasons the series managed to craft one of the most unique and quintessentially British science fiction shows ever broadcast. Creating an expansive universe of characters affected by the storm, the show explored everything from bullying, sexually transmitted diseases (and superpowers), death by a lactose controlling supervillain, and time traveling to the past to kill Hitler, all done with a healthy dose of curse words and authentic London sarcasm.

via GIPHYWith four of the quintet already cast—Ashleigh LaThrop as Alisha, Tre Hall as Curtis, Allie MacDonald as Kelly, and Jake Cannavale as fan fave Nathan–we’re just waiting to know who’ll play Simon, portrayed in the original series by Game of Thrones‘ Iwan Rheon and part of one of the most iconic story arcs of the original show. The character descriptions already hint at a move away from the source material, describing Curtis as a footballer with a bright future ahead of him rather than a disgraced drug using athlete. Most telling of all, it describes Alisha as a “middle class party girl” whereas the UK show was very heavily rooted in British working class culture, arguably an exploration of the young working class experience.

Freeform is clearly focused on branching out into the superhero market–unsurprisingly as their owners at Disney also own Marvel–and with Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger and Misfits, the network is clearly attempting to corner the teens with powers market. Though chances are Misfits will be unlike any American show we’ve seen before, here’s hoping it keeps a little bit of the grit, humor, and honesty that made the original so special.

via GIPHY

What are you feelings? Sad you’ll never hear Robert Sheehan say awfully explicit things on American TV? Excited for a new take on our favorite parole officer-killing antiheroes? Or just tired of endless remakes? Let us know in the comments!

Images: E4

NASA Lit Another Spacecraft Fire Because Only Research Can Prevent Space Fires

Despite its infinite wonders, the final frontier is not the most hospitable environment for human explorers. On their journeys into outer space, astronauts require contained habitats in order to keep precious life-giving gases in their lungs and the blood in their bodies from vaporizing away. Unfortunately, it’s possible for these habitats, including the International Space Station (ISS), to face sudden structural failure, from say, a fire. And because there’s no Smokey Bear out there in Low Earth Orbit, it’s up to NASA to prevent space fires. And they’re doing so by lighting space fires.

The report of NASA’s flame-on!-board a cargo spacecraft, which comes via Gizmodo, is only the latest in a series of fires that the space agency has started in space as a part of its Spacecraft Fire Experiment. The Spacecraft Fire Experiment (SAFFIRE) has been ongoing since June of last year, when NASA lit its first fire (SAFFIRE I) aboard the Cygnus cargo spacecraft. Since then, NASA lit another fire inside of Cygnus in November (SAFFIRE II), and then this final, third fire (SAFFIRE III) on June 4 of this year. They’ve all been very controlled, taking place on the unmanned and isolated Cygnus, and were nothing like what Sandra Bullock had to deal with in Gravity.

NASA is igniting these fires in order to study “large-scale flame growth” as well as “material flammability limits in long-duration microgravity.” In microgravity—like that experienced aboard the ISS—fires behave very differently than they do here on Earth. Here on the surface of Earth a flame burns O2, and causes the hotter surrounding air to rise. Cooler, unburned air then fills in the vacuum left by the warmer, less-dense used air, giving the flame more fuel. In microgravity, this feeding process due to gravity and its consequent effects on pressure and density doesn’t occur, which means flames in space burn cooler and slower. Without that pressure difference, they also form globes of flame, rather than the spears of flame we’re used to in everyday life.

These tests need to be conducted because putting out a fire in space will require different resources than it does here on Earth. For example, in 1997 there was a fire aboard the Mir space station, and it was only contained after its source of oxygen fuel ran out. (Our own Kyle Hill spoke with one of the astronauts who had to deal first-hand with that experience.)

For SAFFIRE III, the experiment data is still in the process of being downlinked to NASA scientists here on Earth, but you can check out what the fires generally look like from the SAFFIRE I clip below.

What do you think about these NASA fire tests? Only you can give us your opinion in the comments below!

Images: Flickr / NASA Johnson

SPONGEBOB Singing a Black Sabbath Song Is the Greatest

SpongeBob SquarePants may be one of the most successful children’s programs of all time, yes, but the show about a fun-loving sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea also has a pretty good relationship with metal music, believe it or not. For instance, Pantera contributed a song to the “Prehibernation Week” episode, while Motörhead was included on the album The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie – Music from the Movie and More….

The metalhead foundation is there, and it’s all led to this: a fan edit by YouTube channel Movie Munchies of SpongeBob performing “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath (via Tastefully Offensive).

You’ve surely heard “War Pigs” an uncountable amount of times by this point, so the real beauty here is in the editing. SpongeBob’s mouth movements sync up pretty much perfectly with Ozzy Osbourne’s vocals, and there are nice touches like Squidward playing clarinet during the guitar fills of the song’s intro, and SpongeBob playing organ and guitar elsewhere. A lot of the 7-minute song is instrumental, so it takes some clever editing to avoid dead air during a song of this length, and Movie Munchies pulls it off smoothly.

Does this measure up to the series’ greatest tunes like “Ripped Pants,” “The F.U.N. Song,” or “Campfire Song”? Perhaps not, no, but it could probably made Squidward’s set for halftime at the Bubble Bowl. What other hilarious and fun SpongeBob SquarePants fan edits have you come across? Share your best ones with us in the comments below.

Featured image: Nickelodeon