Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2187

Her Universe Returns with New STAR WARS, MARVEL, and TOTORO Products Galore

Fangirls, rejoice! The amazing fandom fashion line Her Universe has just relaunched! Ashley Eckstein’s covetable wares are back and better than ever. In addition to rolling out a bunch of new sizes (with more coming soon) and plans to branch out into men’s clothing, the brand has also unveiled a ton of new, adorable products.

Just like we’ve all come to expect from Her Universe, there’s something for everyone here. The brand is known for having a great range of styles, from tees, hoodies, jackets, pants, and dresses, but they’ve also got something for tons of different fandoms. From Marvel to Star Wars to Studio Ghibli, there’s definitely something that you’re gonna need to add to your closet. My personal favorite is this absolutely adorable Agent Carter dress:

Of course fangirl fashion isn’t just for grownups. Her Universe also has lots of styles for the tiny fangirl in your life. Check out this adorable Ahsoka Lives tee (don’t worry, it comes in grown-up sizes, too):

But one of the coolest things that has come with the Her Universe relaunch is the brand’s commitment to serving a wider range of customers. With branching into more masculine clothing and offering more women’s sizes, everyone can enjoy some awesome Her Universe style. Founder Ashley Eckstein has said that she plans to continue to offer a more diverse range of sizes in the coming months. You can see some of those styles in the gallery below (like their swoon-worthy Howl’s Moving Castle dress).

We are so excited to have Her Universe back in our lives, and it looks like the brand is setting out into a ton of exciting new realms of geek fashion. Check out the gallery below to see some of the new styles on the newly relaunched site, and be sure to check out the rest on the Her Universe (we apologize in advance for any damage this will do to your budget).

What styles are your favorites? Tell us in the comments!

Image credits: Her Universe

First SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING Toys Revealed

Spider-Man, Spider-Man…. Rule the toy aisle, he sure can!

It’s not like he ever really left toy stores: ol’ webhead is as perennial a presence in toy stores as Batman and Darth Vader. But it’s been quite a while–save for one exclusive three-pack last year–since we’ve seen a movie-based line, and with NYC’s Toy Fair just around the corner, Hasbro has revealed the first figures and playsets from Spider-Man: Homecoming.

You didn’t really think they’d unveil villains that haven’t been officially announced yet, did you? Those will come later. For now, check out the 6-inch Marvel Legends-style figures of Spider-Man (with web cannon), Vulture, and Homemade Costume Spider-Man; three other figures to be revealed later will complete the assortment. There are also special “Feature Figures” in the same scale: a Vulture with opening wings and a Spidey with light-up webs. The Spider-Racer, shown above, probably won’t be in the movie, but it will likely be found in plenty of living rooms this summer, as it fires Nerf darts.

And then there are the playsets, which I had to double-check on, as it was hard to believe they’re in 6-inch scale. But indeed they are! The $44.99 Vulture Attack set lets you grab the Vulture (included) with webs, while the $99.99 Mega-City stands a whopping 4 feet tall. Both feature prominent Spider-Man signage, so you know whose city it is. Before you jump the gun, the figures shown are for display purposes–I wouldn’t take this as any kind of “proof” Venom will be in the movie. That doesn’t mean you can’t play as if he were, though.

Will any of these toys be coming home with you? Check them out in our gallery below, and then let us know in comments!

Images: Hasbro

Mondo’s Princess Leia and Wicket Prints Are Simply Stellar

Mondo artist Mike Mitchell has a trademark style of portrait art in his pop culture work. He’s perfected it over years, and his distinctive profile images have become instantly recognizable. While he’s lent his specific brand of art to all sorts of pop culture favorites (seriously, check out his gallery on Mondo and just marvel at the greatness), it’s his recent work in the world of Star Wars that has proved especially enticing. Back at San Diego Comic-Con 2016, we showed off his tremendous Rey print, and we brought you an interview with him and a look at his Lobot portrait from Mondocon.

Now, Mondo, in cooperation with Acme Archives, is giving us a pair of new portraits for the Star Wars mugshot wall in your house by offering a 72-hour sale of Mitchell’s newest: everybody’s favorite Ewok, Wicket W. Warrick, and royalty herself, Princess Leia Organa. First thing’s first:

This 11×14 Wicket print shows off the jittery little thing’s glaring eyeball and never-shut mouth along with his fuzzy ears and face that people love. You can buy that one using this link.

The 12×16 poster of Carrie Fisher’s Leia features her in her Hoth garb from the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back, which is my personal favorite version of the character. You can grab that one (which looks to be the hotter seller) at this link.

Each print is $55.00 and after Sunday, January 29 at 12:00pm CST, both of these will be gone forever (or at least gone everywhere except eBay for probably 400% more).

If your walls could use a bit more galactic heroism (and whose couldn’t) then these might be for you! Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Images: Lucasfilm/Mike Mitchell/Mondo

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

Oh, we got theories about what The Last Jedi means.

BLACK PANTHER Synopsis Revealed as Film Begins Production

After stealing the cinematic show in last year’s Captain America: Civil War—no small feat in a movie with over a dozen superheroes in it—Marvel Studios has begun production on the next standalone superfilm, director Ryan Coogler’s solo Black Panther (which commenced principal photography on Thursday). And now we finally know a bit more about the plot itself. (Read on for spoilers!)

From the mouths of Marvel:

Black Panther follows T’Challa who, after the events of Captain America: Civil War, returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to take his place as King. However, when an old enemy reappears on the radar, T’Challa’s mettle as King and Black Panther is tested when he is drawn into a conflict that puts the entire fate of Wakanda and the world at risk.

If this sounds familiar to the comic book fans out there, it should!

Given the characters we know are confirmed to be involved—Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Danai Gurira (Michonne!) as Okoye, Angela Bassett as T’Challa’s mother Queen Ramonda, Forest Whitaker as elder statesman Zuri, Daniel Kaluuya as W’Kabi (one of T’Challa’s advisors), Winston Duke as M’Baku / Man-Ape, Florence Kasumba as Ayo, Sterling K. Brown as N’Jobu, (“a figure from T’Challa’s past”), and Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman and John Kani reprising their roles as Ulysses Klaue, Everett K. Ross and King T’Chaka—there’s plenty to deduce about the potential storylines.

Like previous Marvel Studios films, expect this one to be a “greatest hits” amalgamation from the character’s long comic book history—stretching back to his earliest stories from the late ’60s, to the more recent comic book runs from creators like Christopher Priest, Reginald Hudlin and Ta-Nehisi Coates. Given that some of the best Black Panther stories revolve around someone trying to take the throne away from T’Challa, overcoming internal/external enemies of Wakanda, and the Black Panther himself rising to the occasion to defend his right to the crown, it feels safe to assume this one’ll be an origin story that combines all three.

Will Erik Killmonger stay as supervillain-y as he’s been in the comics—since he was once an ally and friend of T’Challa’s, who later tried to stage a coup against him?—or will it be N’Jobu that takes that mantle, given the way his veiled description mirrors the synopsis? Might they go more internal, with someone like Queen Ramonda looking for power, or a double-cross from Nakia or Okoye and the Dora Milaje (a.k.a. the king’s bodyguards, as run by Okoye)? Anything’s possible—including all of the above—as red herrings abound in that vague synopsis. But our money is on Michael B. Jordan becoming one hell of a supervillain for the MCU (and frankly, we’re here for it).

One aspect of Black Panther’s legacy we won’t see, however, is T’Challa’s courtship and marriage to Storm of the X-Men, due to Fox owning the rights to the mutants. (In an alternate universe, though, Lupita Nyong’o would have made for a truly amazing iteration of Storm. Or Angela Basssett for that matter.)

Phylicia Rashad and Atandwa Kani have also been cast in still-undisclosed roles, and the film—which opens in U.S. theaters on February 16, 2018—will be shot in Atlanta and South Korea. What storylines from the comics are you hoping Coogler and Marvel draw from when Black Panther hits theaters? Let us know down below in the comments.

Images & GIFs: Marvel Studios

Here’s everything you need to know about Black Panther’s origins:

Infamous Glitch POKÉMON MissingNo. is Causing Trouble Again in SUN and MOON

If the name MissingNo. means nothing to you, then you’re probably a relatively new Pokémon player, so let us fill you in: MissingNo. is actually a Pokémon (sort of) that appears in Pokémon Red and Blue through a glitch. When the games first came out and the internet wasn’t as big a part of kids’ lives as it is now, MissingNo. was a mystical figure, a story your friend told you about and an oddity that did a bunch of fascinating and weird stuff to your game if you were to encounter and catch one yourself.

That was years ago, though, and MissingNo. has been a non-factor in subsequent Pokémon games… until its return in Pokémon Sun and Moon, thanks to the 3DS Virtual Console release of Red, Blue, and Yellow (via IGN).

Casual fans also might not know about Pokémon Bank, a downloadable 3DS application that gives users an extended PC to store Pokémon from DS and 3DS Pokémon games. The software was recently updated to include compatibility with Sun and Moon, and alongside that update, a companion app, Poké Transporter, which allows players to transfer creatures from the Virtual Console versions of the first-generation games to the current-generation titles.

Some players checked to see what would happen if MissingNo. was transferred to Sun and Moon, and as you’d imagine, it causes some mayhem, although significantly less than in its native game. When transferred, it disappears from the Transport Box, and shifts the names of the Pokémon in your box over by one. For example, Twitter user blazevoir had his Tentacool renamed “MISSINGNO-,” his Rhydon renamed “TENTACOOL,” and so on.

If you try to Transport Pokemon in a box with Missingno., the names of the Pokemon get shifted over by one. pic.twitter.com/zpsMuMZSh8

— blazevoir (@blazevoir) January 25, 2017

Another player filmed the process, so check it out below, and long live MissingNo.

Featured image: Destro-the-Dragon/DeviantArt

Puck Soup #35: Chris #2 of Anti-Flag

Greg and Dave welcome Pittsburgh Penguins fan Chris Barker, a.k.a. Chris #2, from the punk band Anti-Flag to talk Mario Lemieux, how hockey is punk rock, his sneaky plans to get punk music at NHL games and what art is going to look like under the Trump administration. Plus, we rank the NHL All-Star Game skills competitions, discuss our new book “The 100 Greatest Players In NHL History (and other stuff),” finally review ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY, discuss the finer points of Limp Bizkit, debate the best donuts and food combinations and offer our take on NHL entertainment. Sponsored by Seat Geek!

Follow @wyshynski, @davelozo and @PuckSoupPodcast on Twitter!

VOLTRON Recap: It All Ends in a ‘Blackout’

This is the recap for the final episode of Voltron: Legendary Defender season 2. There’s gonna be spoilers here. Duh, you guys. Duh.

We’ve done it! We’ve gotten all the way to the end of Voltron: Legendary Defender season 2, and by and large, it has felt like the second half of a regular 26-episode anime series, and that’s a good thing. From picking up exactly where season 1 ended to heightening the stakes and expanding on–but not fully answering–several mysterious questions we’ve had from the start, this series continued to be one of the most densely plotted, fun, adventurous, and all-around enjoyable shows on TV, regardless of format or medium.

So let’s not wait any further! Let’s dive into episode 13, “Blackout.” If you remember, “Best Laid Plans” ended in a cliffhanger of epic proportions, with the Paladins forming Voltron after successfully crippling and wormholing Zarkon’s command ship. But things did not remain hunky dory for long. After Voltron formed the sword and began to attack, Zarkon bellowed to Haggar that he wanted to go get the Black Lion himself, to which the witch was very concerned, since they’d yet to test whatever massive weapon Zarkon was talking about. In order to give her emperor time, Haggar launched her own weapon: a way to channel her own magic and zap Voltron with a concentrated beam of quintessence, the stuff she’s always removing from people. This was very bad, and Voltron was incapacitated because of it.

And then Zarkon launched his own weapon, which turned out to be a specially-made mech/RoBeast to fight against Voltron. It was just as big as Voltron, and armed to the teeth with tons and tons of weapons. With Voltron having a…blackout…for the moment, the Paladins were sitting ducks. Allura demanded that all of the Castle Ship’s power be diverted to weapons to help defend Voltron, to which Coran objected profusely, since they too would be sitting ducks. But Allura got her wish and a massive beam was fired from the castle, hitting Zarkon, but he was able to mirror the beam back, knocking out power to the castle, as well as knocking Allura unconscious (since she’s psychically linked to the castle).

However, this gave Voltron enough time to reawaken and get its trusty sword up and running. What happened next was a good ol’ fashioned robots-in-space sword fight, and it was super great. On top of his own sword, Zarkon had a pretty hefty and effective shielding mechanism, which proved a match even for Voltron’s shoulder-mounted cannon. While this fight went on, Allura awoke and realized that they’d have to stop Haggar from firing the quintessence beam again. She flew over to the Galra command ship along with Kolivan and Antok of the Blade of Marmora to fight hand-to-hand against the dark witch and her Druids. And while THAT went on, Coran and the uber-neurotic Slav got to work repairing the castle.

Zarkon then used a massive blast which resulted in splitting Voltron apart into the five Lions. Shiro was knocked unconscious, leaving the Black Lion defenseless. The other four Lions then leaped to aid their friend, doing their best to block the Galra Emperor from getting to his treasured Lion. While unconscious, Shiro and the consciousness of the Black Lion fuse fully and he awakens, and the Lion’s regular red wings turn into massive mega-wings. Traveling at the speed of thought, the Black Lion and Zarkon head towards each other, but rather than colliding, Shiro and his Lion travel through Zarkon, and in the process, Shiro had finally taken the black Bayard that was Zarkon’s final connection to the Black Lion. With Shiro now at 110%, the Paladins once again formed Voltron.

In the Galra ship, Allura, Kolivan, and Antok continued their fight against the Druids. Antok was rather unceremoniously killed, sending Kolivan into a rage. Allura uses her staff and gives Witch Haggar a massive wallop to the dome-piece, knocking off her hood, revealing to Allura for the first time that the evil magician was not a Galra after all, but an Altean like herself. As she stood stunned, Haggar attempted to remove the princess’ quintessence–which is substantial–but it couldn’t be stolen. “Impossible!” the witch shouted. You guys, Allura is VERY powerful, and this moment illustrated that even she was unaware of just how powerful she truly was. Haggar disappeared, while Kolivan killed the final Druids and Allura used her powers to destroy the quintessence weapon.

Coran and Slav got the castle working again, but it was right at the time the Galra ship became operational again. The paladins would have to work fast to defeat the Zarkon RoBeast. Using Shiro’s newfound strength, Voltron plunges the sword into Zarkon’s RoBeast, but it wasn’t quite enough. Suddenly, a new compartment in the Black Lion’s cockpit opened up, and Shiro put the Bayard into it, which then created–what fans of the classic Voltron show have been wanting for a long time–the flame sword! The power of the flaming sword was so strong that it bathed the Paladins in light (in what was one of the coolest images the show has ever done, depicted below).

Zarkon’s RoBeast is all but destroyed, and Voltron again split back into Lions. All of the Paladins, as well as Allura and Kolivan, head back to the Castle Ship to wormhole away, leaving Zarkon’s ship adrift in the middle of nowhere. However, the Black Lion was unresponsive and the other Lions had to drag it back to the ship in order to make it before the wormhole opened. As Pidge, Hunk, Lance, and Keith revel in their victory, they went to check on Shiro…however, the Black Lion was empty! Where did Shiro go?!

Before the episode ended, we got a glimpse of Witch Haggar tending to an unconscious Zarkon, still half-fused to his RoBeast. In a sinister line to camera, she bellowed, “Summon Prince Lotar.” OH NO! Who is Prince Lotar?!?!?!

Part of what I was worried about, simply as a fan of this show, is that the season would end with a definite ending, and we’d be done with Voltron: Legendary Defender. Not that I wouldn’t have loved to see a great, happy ending, but I don’t want this show to be over, and certainly not with so many mysteries left to solve. Luckily, this was not the case. It seems a given that we’ll get a third season of Voltron: Legendary Defender, and that’s a great thing.

I truly loved this season, and I know executive producers Joaquim dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery (et al) have more great stories, action, humor, and heart to share with us. I just can’t believe there’s no more to watch!

Share your thoughts about the season in the comments below!

Images: DreamWorks/Netflix

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

Want something else to watch? Here’s our most anticipate TV of 2017!

ADULT SWIM Short Contains Flappy Balloon Head from Hell

Warning: This video may induce seizures. It may also cause clown flashbacks or maybe even clown flashforwards. Please be advised. 

It’s probably been a while since your last truly horrific nightmare. You know, one of those nightmares that scares you so bad you take a few minutes after you wake up just to thank Yoda that you’re in a safe, warm bed that’s only slightly damp from sweat. To help you get out of that dry spell, here’s one of Adult Swim’s latest videos titled “Face Lift.” After watching it, you may want an “eye gouge.”

The video, which comes via Digg, is the flappy headed brainchild of Steve Smith and Lucas W. Nathan (who goes by “Jerry Paper… when he is grooving”). Smith, an animator living in Los Angeles, did the visuals, and Paper, also in L.A., made the beats.

The result of the collaboration between Smith and Paper is very Adult Swim in its tone, style, and strangeness—the network is no stranger to this kind of content—but the video is still uniquely odd. The only explanation under the clip is “Be better and more beautiful than you were before,” with Nathan and Paper’s twitter accounts, as well as a link to the crossword show, BloodFeast.

Also, the video apparently utilized a scanned version of Paper’s head, which isn’t really bizarre or creepy, but pretty cool from a tech standpoint.

hi me and @sleevesmith worked on this vid for @adultswim https://t.co/vqJ9htaNGQ

got my head scanned and made some music

— ॐ Jerry Friggin’ P ॐ (@JerryPaperREAL) January 23, 2017

What do you think about this Adult Swim video? Do you love the bright colors and abstract interplay of shapes, or are you just going to be haunted by a flappy eyeless head for the next fortnight? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Images: Adult Swim

Schlock & Awe: A Guide to Streaming VHS

Hiya folks! This week is going to be a little different. Most of you who regularly read this column will know what a big fan I am of weird and obscure sci-fi, horror, and action movies. Obviously; that’s the whole point of this. But I’m guessing a lot of you have the same proclivities, so I wanted to share a thing that I’ve had the pleasure of being involved in over on Legendary Digital Networks’ subscription video-on-demand service, Project Alpha. We did a series of watch-along commentaries called Streaming VHS, in which we showcased eight forgotten genre classics from the VHS era.

For each of these pieces of cinematic gold, some lovers of crazy cinema sat down and commented on the movie in real time; you know, how an audio commentary works. These commentaries are available to stream on Alpha right now, as are the movies on their own, without us yammering. They were a lot of fun, and I wanted to give y’all a rundown of what we did and who talked about them so you can join in the fun!

Arena (1989)



First up is a little movie from 1989 called Arena in which a cook aboard a huge space station gets turned into a fighter in the galaxy’s most popular sport: punching. Produced by the low-budget maestro Charles Band, the movie actually has some impressive production value and make-up and creature effects, even though it’s very clear the crowd watching the matches is mostly made up of cardboard cut-outs. It also featured performances by soon-to-be sci-fi TV staples Claudia Christian from Babylon 5, and Marc Alaimo and Armin Shimerman from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

The commentary for this one was done by myself and writer, film critic, and podcaster extraordinaire Drew McWeeny, and it was a damn fine conversation about ’80s sci-fi and video stores in general.

R.O.T.O.R. (1987)



Legitimately one of the cheesiest and hokiest movies you’re likely to watch, the supremely dirt-cheap R.O.T.O.R. was attempting to mix The Terminator with RoboCop in an exciting way, but ended up mostly just being confusing.

I would definitely recommend you watch this one with the commentary. Dan Casey and ETC’s Ricky Hayberg joined me, and together we marveled at the baffling filmmaking choices and cheer at the cinematic character of the millennium, Shoeboogie, who was played by an actor not even IMDb can identify.

The Video Dead (1987)

Easily the best direct-to-video horror movie made in the ’80s, Video Dead is about a mysterious old TV is delivered to various people and when they watch it, the only station that can be tuned in is playing a weird old zombie movie. Except, the zombies climb out of the TV and begin feasting on locals. It’s up to a doofus brother and his way-smarter sister, as well as a few other people, to put an end to the gory dilemma.

For this commentary, I was joined by filmmaker, Bizarre States co-host, and Onyx the Fortuitous himself, Andrew Bowser. We talked at length about the merits of cheap horror movies, share stories of making our own low-budget zombie films in college, and ultimately rate The Video Dead‘s infamous chainsaw effects.

The Dungeonmaster (1984)

Another production by the inimitable Charles Band, The Dungeonmaster is sort of an anthology movie following one character on one quest. A mix of everything from Mad Max to sword and sandal epics to zombie movies, the movie follows a warrior sent on various tasks by the evil Dungeonmaster (Night Court‘s Richard Moll), and each of those tasks is written and directed by a different low-budget schlockmaestro. It also came under a lot of fire at the time because of its ties to Dungeons & Dragons, which tons of people thought was going to spread paganism and devil worship. Dummos. Anyway. It’s quite the film.

As expected with such a movie, there are ups and downs in the vignettes, and this was discussed fully in the commentary by Dan Casey and Andrew Bowser. Make-up effects, stop-motion gorgons, cars driving in the desert; this movie had everything. They also marveled at the seemingly unnecessary scene of nudity that feels like it was in a different movie. So there’s that, should you so desire.

Alienator (1990)



A film from the veritable B-movie juggernaut that is Fred Olen Ray, Alienator featured a prisoner from outer space who lands, wounded, in a forest on planet Earth and it falls to a group of cool teens in an RV, a forest ranger (played by the awesome John Phillip Law), and a grizzled old army colonel to protect him from a female cyborg with a penchant for blowing people up. A framing story was added about the prison warden and featured performances by Jan Michael Vincent and P.J. Soles.

For this commentary, Dan and I were delighted to be joined by director-producer Fred Olen Ray himself, a man who has made well over 200 films. Though Mr. Ray hadn’t seen the movie in a very long time, he regaled us with all kinds of stories from the production, notes about the cast members, and great stuff about making low-budget movie in the ’80s and ’90s.

Robot Holocaust (1986)



You know it’s a winner when the movie was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000. This film features an unlikely band of heroes in a post-apocalyptic wasteland who have to rescue a scientist from the clutches of a tyrannical dictator called the Dark One and his army of robots.

For this commentary, critic Drew McWeeny and Talks Machina producer Eddie Doty–old friends from back in the day–reminisced about video store finds and loving any and all weird movie they could find.

Alien Predators (1985)



This title is a bit of a misnomer; the original title is The Falling and is much more indicative of the kind of movie you’re about to watch. It follows a trio of young folks (Dennis Christopher, Martin Hewitt, and Lynn-Holly Johnson) as they go on a RV holiday through Spain, only to find that the little town they come to is the center of a terrifying alien outbreak, which causes humans to become mindless, murderous zombie things.

This commentary was my personal favorite. I was joined by film critic and co-host of the Battleship Pretension podcast, Tyler Smith, and by the film’s director and co-writer, Deran Sarafian. Mr. Sarafian is now a major television director, having done 48 episodes of House, M.D. among other shows and he sort of half-cringed his way through his first film, which he hadn’t seen in a very long time. Truly a delightful discussion, and not without a fair amount of jokes made at his own inexperience while Tyler and I try to convince him the movie’s good.

Land of Doom (1986)



And finally we had 1986’s Land of Doom, a rarity in the Mad Max ripoffs of the era in that it was made by Americans and not Italians. It was shot in Turkey, though, which adds some interesting set pieces. A woman walks around the apocalyptic wasteland attempting to avoid the roving marauders and cannibals. Eventually, she finds a wounded man and the two form a tenuous friendship, which is put to the test by the constant pursuit of the leather-strap-clad bad guys.

For the final commentary, I was joined by FX Movie Download host Sasha Perl-Raver, and to add a fun wrinkle, none of us had ever seen the movie before. We play the game of trying to figure out what’s going on, counting the actors we’d cast in other things, and listing the parts of the movie that are great. (Spoiler: a guy with a puppy, a bicycle, and a guitar tops the list.)

So head to Project Alpha to get a 30-day free trial and check out some of all of the commentaries we did. And let us know how you enjoyed them in the comments below or on Twitter!

Image: Manson International

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. He writes the weekly look at weird or obscure films in Schlock & Awe. Follow him on Twitter!

Francis Ford Coppola Thinks We Need An APOCALYPSE NOW Video Game

In a bit of a surprise move, director Francis Ford Coppola thinks that now is the time for an Apocalypse Now video game. We can’t imagine why he would think that Now is when the Apocalypse happens; nor can we imagine why a man with his own line of wines would need a Kickstarter to make a project. Maybe you can help us work through this.

As in the film, players will take on the role of Captain Willard, on a secret mission to assassinate renegade Colonel Kurtz. Throughout the course of the game, players will have the ability to make their own decisions independent of the original narrative. As players navigate the unspeakable horrors of the Vietnam War, their reactions to each situation will result in consequences that will alter their journey as the story unfolds. Every decision matters, and each player will tell their own story.

“Forty years ago, I set out to make a personal art picture that could hopefully influence generations of viewers for years to come. Today, I’m joined by new daredevils, a team who want to make an interactive version of Apocalypse Now, where you are Captain Benjamin Willard amidst the harsh backdrop of the Vietnam War. I’ve been watching videogames grow into a meaningful way to tell stories, and I’m excited to explore the possibilities for Apocalypse Now for a new platform and a new generation,” said Coppola.

Check out the Kickstarter page here. There are more videos from the behind the scenes on both the games and the original film.

For gamers, this is a mixed bag in that — yes, of course we want to see what an Apocalypse Now video game looks like — but also, we’ve already seen what an Apocalypse Now video game looks like. A lot. Vietnam has served as the backdrop for innumerable games, but even the story arc and settings and themes have been done in the interactive medium incredibly well, especially in the Far Cry series which even features a helicopter assault scene set to Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.”

And if you haven’t played 2k Games’ Spec Ops: The Line… well, you haven’t discovered what a secret awful person you are. It is last console generation’s answer to Apocalypse Now, and will frankly be hard to beat.

Perhaps the best news about this adaptation is the murderer’s row of creative talent behind the scenes. The team includes: Rob Auten, a lead writer on multiple billion-dollar gaming franchises including Gears of War, Battlefield, and Far Cry; Lawrence Liberty, whose executive producer and director credits include Fallout: New Vegas, The Witcher, and DC Universe Online; Montgomery Markland, who was the lead producer on two of the most successful crowdfunding titles of all time: Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera; in a special advisory capacity, Obsidian Entertainment’s Design Director Josh Sawyer, who directed Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, and many more game luminaries to come.

So what do you think? Has this narrative been done to death already? Are you already burnt out on games wherein “choices” preach at you about your inherent evil? Is today the day you sit down and start Far Cry 3 from the beginning again? Or have you already thrown a bunch of cash at this Kickstarter? Sound off in the comments below.

Image: Omni Zoetrope/United Artists