Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2355

POKEMON-Inspired Butt Bookmarks Are Real and You Want Them

The love of Nintendo‘s Pokémon series has reached an all-time high thanks to the Pokémon Go app. At the very least, it’s reached a height in the mainstream zeitgeist in a way not seen since the first game and anime took over everything in the late ’90s. And even though there are over many games, 900 episodes of the show, dozens of movies, and hundreds upon hundreds of Pokémon all together, it is the 151 pocket monsters from Generation 1 that still still have our heart captured. So much so that we’d be willing to buy their butt on a bookmark.

An artist named Olena Mysnyk living in Ukraine has begun making and selling a tribute to several of the best original Pokémon by having their butts adorn a bookmark—so that it looks as though the little critters are burrowing into the bottom of whatever book you’re reading. And you can be real specific too; for instance, if you’re reading The Goblet of Fire, you can throw Charmander’s butt in there, and if you’re reading The Hunt for Red October, you can make Squirtle dive in. (Think about it.)

The bookmarks will be available beginning August 15 but pre-orders are being taken now. These aren’t official Pokémon swag, but these polymer clay, acrylic paint, and metal hand-made sculpts are really delightful and will make for hilarious conversation starters and just neat things to have around. You can find these little guys, plus more of Olena Mysnyk’s pop culture stuff on her Etsy site. And you can find more pictures in the gallery below!

Tell us which Pokébutts you’d like to have in your book in the comments below.

Here’s all the “improvements” to Pokémon Go:

Images: Olena Mysnyk

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. Follow him on Twitter!

Firing Rocket in Slow-Mo Looks Like a Portal to an Alternate Dimension

A spaceship attached to the most powerful rockets mankind has ever created is a pretty good way to get humanity into space, but are we sure we can’t travel somewhere even more exciting, like to a different dimension per chance, if we just use the rocket all by itself? That seemingly absurd question will make a whole lot more sense after you watch this breathtaking video of a burning rocket, one that makes it look like we have found the opening to a parallel world.

This genuinely stunning footage provided by NASA is from a test firing of an Orbital ATK QM-2 rocket booster, recorded with NASA’s High Dynamic Range Stereo X camera (a.k.a. HiDyRS-X). Most cameras used for recording this kind of super-fast event can only capture one exposure at a time, but this camera is specifically designed to record “high speed, high dynamic range footage in multiple exposures” at the same time “for use in analyzing rocket engine tests.” It accomplishes that by filming “multiple high speed video exposures at once” and then combining them into a single “high dynamic range video.”

That all makes sense, but yet it’s hard to wrap your head around the beautiful images captured here.

Nothing about this seems real; it resembles something out of a big budget science-fiction movie. This looks like the purple cloud Peter Quill and the rest of the Guardians found themselves in at the end of the movie, or like a storm conjured up by some foreign god.

So though I’m fairly certain we can’t use this rocket to travel among the realms of the universe as though it is earth’s very own Bifröst, I’m not totally ruling it out either.

How would you describe what this looks like? Give us your best description in the comments below.

Image: NASA

The LETHAL WEAPON Show Has a More Grounded (But Still Reckless) Martin Riggs

When Lethal Weapon makes the jump from fan-favorite film to shiny-and-new TV series, Martin Riggs is going to be a wildly different sort of man. And not just because he won’t be played by Mel Gibson.

One of the biggest changes in FOX’s reboot of the iconic film—premiering September 21—is an updated Martin Riggs. The FOX series stars Clayne Crawford as a much more “grounded, broken” version of the reckless, suicidal member of the LAPD. (Read: so way, way less cocaine usage.)

“In the films he was also doing cocaine, which jacked things up a little bit,” Crawford said at the 2016 Summer TCA press tour. “This is FOX and family hour, so no cocaine. I was playing just the sadness more. If I lost my children, I don’t know how I would continue with life. I tried to ground Riggs in a real place. As an audience, we want things more grounded today.”

As for how the hour-long action drama series will compare to the fan-favorite films, executive producer/writer Matt Miller revealed that FOX’s show will be more like the first movie, only darker and more emotional.

“The first one is the one that resonated the most for me. It was darker,” Miller said. “By the fourth one it was more of a comedy than anything else. When we were launching the show, in order to do something that had legs, you had to have some depth that the characters were drawing. We rebooted the stories slightly and the show does play emotionally which is surprising to some people. It’s really about two guys that are broken for different reasons and they need each other to become whole again.”

Executive producer/director McG was surprised with how much emotion they were able to inject into the action-packed series. “It’s actually an emotional viewing experience, which I didn’t expect,” he said. “It all came together. We honor the original and do our own thing that works.”

And executive producer Dan Lin revealed that while “there may be a Lethal Weapon 5 [movie] in the future,” right now they are just focusing on the TV show. “This is a chance to revive the Lethal Weapon franchise in a fresh, new way,” he said.

When it came to finding new actors to reboot the series and stand out from the iconic performances that Gibson and Danny Glover delivered in the original films, the producers went right for Damon Wayans to play family man Murtaugh. But for Riggs, they actually found Clayne Crawford in an independent movie and had to take him away from his “happiness” on a farm in Alabama with his family because they were confident that he was the only one for the role.

“I didn’t want to read the script and I certainly didn’t want to leave Alabama,” Crawford said. “But I read the material and as an actor, I couldn’t say no to a man that was so broken but yet was like a hero and trying to do the right thing. It kind of grabbed me immediately. Terrifying. I don’t know how we’re going to maintain this but I have confidence that we’re going to give it our best effort and leave it all on the field.”

As for the structure of the reboot, Miller explained that while there will be cases of the week and it will act as a procedural with “crimes we’ll solve on a weekly basis,” there is also a season-long story that they’ll be telling to keep viewers coming back every week.

And of course the panel wouldn’t be complete with Wayans uttering Murtaugh’s infamous line: “I’m too old for that shit.” But this time, he was simply answering a journalist’s question of whether or not he’ll have any more kids in the future.

Image: FOX

Lethal Weapon premieres Sept. 21 on FOX.

Tim Curry Endorsed FOX’s THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW Remake

Calling all the doubters and the haters of FOX’s upcoming remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show: please take a step to the right, because Tim Curry just gave the TV movie his blessing.

When the iconic actor was asked at the 2016 Summer TCA press tour if he endorsed the upcoming remake, he replied, “I do indeed.”

“[Anytime there is anything related to Rocky Horror], I’m pretty much there,” Curry said. “I remember quite a lot of the original film because it was my first movie. I didn’t miss much. It was fun to do it again. I actually offered myself as Dr. Scott because I was already in a wheelchair, but they thought Narrator was a better fit. I enjoyed it a lot.”

As for what made the production magical this time around, Curry explained that he just couldn’t wait to return to the story. “Just doing it again, but in a different role,” Curry said. “[Executive producer/director/choreographer] Kenny [Ortega] runs a very, not easy set, but a set where you really feel you can try anything. It was a lot of fun. I loved being there.”

And for the record, Curry is pretty chill about the fact that Dr. Frank-N-Furter will always be his legacy. “There’s not a lot I can do about it, really,” he deadpanned to the room of journalists, who immediately laughed.

When it came to casting Curry’s iconic role, Ortega revealed that Orange Is the New Black‘s Laverne Cox gave the best screen test that FOX had ever seen.

“A trans woman that wanted to play this role ever since she was a little child. She’s a force,” Ortega said. “Five octave range. A degree in dance from a major university. Walking in and bringing something into the room that made us realize there was no B plan. She had so much to give to it, a life experience, a depth of talent, an enthusiasm and an incredible respect. She was an absolute joy. We knew from the beginning that this was the person who gave us reason to make this movie.”

According to Ortega, casting a trans woman in a role originated by a male didn’t change the character.

“As I studied and as I remembered, Dr. Frank-N-Furter is an alien, so I felt that both Tim and Laverne, that’s what they moved into,” Ortega said. “There’s really lots of room there. Tim is not a transvestite nor is Laverne. They’re both iconic actors. That’s really what we were looking for, the right actor that could breathe life and imagination and fun into this and liberate this character.”

The producers actually revealed that while this project has taken over 10 years to bring to life, it was really Laverne that made it happen. “Laverne made this happen in her own time and our own time,” executive producer Gail Berman said.

Because audience participation is so key to why The Rocky Horror Picture Show has remained a pop culture icon 40 years later, the FOX remake is including all the fun callbacks that fans do in theaters.

“It was there from the beginning,” Ortega said. “When we first embarked on developing this re-imagining, the very first thing that was laid out was that we wanted to celebrate the fans in this departure. The midnight screenings, the adoration, it was really important that we had that connected as a character to the new piece. [But] we wanted to make sure that the callbacks didn’t get in the way of telling the story, that they celebrated telling the story. We found a way to balance the callbacks into the arc of the whole story.”

Executive producer Lou Adler revealed they didn’t give their audience a “callback” script for them to perform. They were all fans and just knew what to do. “It’s just a natural thing,” Adler said. “You don’t write them, as we didn’t in the original.”

So get your newspapers and toilet paper rolls ready, because even if you watch FOX’s remake in your living room, your participation is key. The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again premieres Oct. 20 on FOX. Let us know what you think about it in the comments below!

Image: FOX

All Our Favorite SUICIDE SQUAD Easter Eggs!

Whether Suicide Squad was good or bad, one thing we can say for sure is, it’s full of Easter Eggs! So what are we waiting for? It’s August, let’s get this Easter party started! First of all, we saw a bit more Batman than we thought, which meant we also got to learn a bit more about Batman in general. Our first Easter Egg came when we learned that Wayne Enterprises partially funds Amanda Waller‘s ARGUS during the mid-credits scene, as well as the fact that Harley, Joker, Killer Croc, and Deadshot all menaced the Bat before BvS. We also noticed the client Deadshot was juicing for cash was named “Angelo,” which leads us to believe that was Angelo Mirti, a member of the Falcone Crime Syndicate.

Speaking of criminals, which, obviously we’ll be doing a lot of, Harley Quinn had her first Easter Egg during her title card intro. We were briefly clued into the fact that she was an accomplice to Robin’s murder, though, we aren’t sure how much exactly she had to do with it. We also see a brief appearance of her animated series’ costume and mallet during the Squad’s dress-up montage. She and Joker even echo their iconic Alex Ross cover.

Even though he wasn’t in a huge portion of the movie, Joker still got a few Easter Eggs in there. Well, at least through his henchman. That big, bearded man had “Frost” on his name tag, making him Johnny Frost, the lead character in Brian Azzarello’s Joker graphic novel. And then there’s Slipknot, who fulfilled his destiny set by the Suicide Squad comics, getting straight-up exploded in the film. And of course everyone knows the Big Captain Boomerang-related Easter Egg already. Flash’s cameo in his full-on superhero garb was a nod to Boomerang’s usual role as a member of the speedster’s rogues.

And finally, Suicide Squad gave us our first look at Midway City on the big screen! The home of Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and the Doom Patrol is like the redheaded step-child of the DC cities, with Gotham and Metropolis hogging all the big screens, and National City hogging the smaller one. However, with no Thanagarians in sight, it looks like Hawkman and Hawkgirl don’t exist in the DCEU just yet. Oh! And did you watch that John Ostrander building when the squad rolled up to Midway? That quick moment was a nice shout-out to the Task Force X‘s creator.

But what do you guys think? Did we catch everything? Were you hoping for more from the film or did it fulfill all your hopes and dreams for this Hot Topic product-placement film? Did you catch any Easter Eggs we missed? Let’s discuss!

A Metal Version of the Jigglypuff Song Will Haunt Your Dreams

The only thing worse than falling victim to Jigglypuff’s soporific hymnal is a metal version of the song haunting your dreams. That is exactly what this metal cover of everybody’s favorite li’l round Pokémon‘s tune will do, so mentally prepare yourself for the sleep-inducing shredding of THEoneNILS, and watch the sweet vid above.

At first I thought that the existence of this metalized nightmare song—complete with “Jiggypuff!” screeches—was a one-off and that surely no other Pokémon remixes could vie for for its absurd supremacy. Obviously I was very wrong and in addition to this cover I found a handful of other remixes that I think are worth your time. Let’s dive in shall we?

First we have a dubstep remix of the Pokécenter, which takes the mollifying, healing tones of the in-game poke-hospital/poke-hotel and wubs it beyond all recognition. How are your starter Pokémon supposed to get any sleep with that bass rattling the walls of the Pokécenter? I feel especially bad for the big eared Pokémon, like Evee, who this would affect most directly.

If you are a fan of the Jigglypuff theme and feel assaulted by the metal version at the top of this post, then fret not, for we have a more pleasant version of the song for you. Beginning with a woodwind version of the aforementioned theme, “Jigglypuff Type Bang” twinkles and sparkles until its bulbous bass drops. This is a legitimately great track and sounds like something Ryan Hemsworth would include in a live DJ set.

Annnnnnd let’s bring this back full circle with one final metalized Pokémon tune. Remember how heart thumpingly exhilarating the original battle music from Pokémon Red and Blue were, how much it raised the stakes of the battle? Now imagine that amplified through a 40 watt tube amp with ample distortion and double kick drums. The pianos are definitely a hokey distraction, but I would still blast this while playing Pokémon Stadium.

Which of these covers do you like best? I am still gunning for the metal version of the Jigglypuff theme song. Share more Pokémon remixes and covers with us on Twitter, too!

Image: OLM

Bid on Amazing STAR WARS, THE 100, and WALKING DEAD Items for Charity

Call us corny if you must, but there are few things we love more than being able to channel our fandom for good. Things like Misha Collins’ GISHWHES and Hannah Hart’s “Have a Hart Day” allow us to have fun with and around the things and people we love while still contributing to a greater cause. Joining their ranks in its 3rd installment, Cancer Gets LOST‘s charity auction is surely going to inherit several (hundred?) of our dollars in the name of giving back.

Started by Executive Director Jo Garfein and Jared Wong to raise money for various cancer support charities through auctions and fundraisers, Cancer Gets LOST’s third iteration is, perhaps, its most insane and impressive yet. The things you can bid on are enough to make any fan of shows like The 100, LOST, Orphan Black, Supernatural, The Walking Dead, and Star Wars enough to lose their gourds AND their wallets.

via GIPHYBecause the list of items? INSANE, legitimately. We’ve had a chance to peruse the 450+ items up for auction and it’s a veritable smorgasbord of fandom faves you’d give an arm to have. Some of the featured items include:

The X-Files “The Truth is Out There” poster signed by Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny

The Walking Dead Season 3 Special Edition Blu-ray Set signed by 26 cast members

The 100 “Thirteen” script cover page signed by Eliza Taylor & Alycia Debnam-Carey

The 100 custom-made Raven necklace signed by Lindsey Morgan

ALIAS original production blueprints, costume design sketches, and sweatshirt

Arrow pilot Script signed by 12 cast members

Breaking Bad Los Pollos Hermanos apron signed by Giancarlo Esposito

Doctor Who Series Six Part One 2-Disc DVD set signed by Arthur Darvill, Karen Gillan, and Matt Smith

The Flash Pilot script signed by 5 cast members

Ghostbusters Holtzmann photo signed by Kate McKinnon

Game of Thrones Khal Drogo Funko Pop! figure signed by Jason Momoa

LOST: Pair of Tickets to the “We Have to Go Back: The LOST Concert” in Los Angeles (9/23/16)

LOST custom Oceanic model airplane signed by Carlton Cuse

LOST custom Nike DHARMA shoes signed by 5 cast members, Carlton Cuse, and Damon Lindelof

Orphan Black men’s briefs signed by Kristian Bruun (a.k.a. Donnie Hendrix)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens script read-through photo signed by Abrams, Burk, and 5 cast members

Star Wars/Marvel Chewbacca action figure cover comic book signed by Peter Mayhew

Supernatural banner signed by Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki

The West Wing: The Complete Series 45-Disc DVD collection with signed pilot script

I mean crazy, right?!

Be sure to check out the auction when it goes LIVE online on August 15, 2016. The net proceeds will be donated directly to Alex’s Lemonade Stand. And let us know what you’d buy in the comments below!

Images: Cancer Gets LOST; AMC

How Long is a Day on the Sun? The Answer is a Hot Mess

A day is measured by how long it takes “a planet to spin around and make one full rotation.” On Earth we know that is roughly 24 hours, but within our own solar system a day can be as short as 10 hours, like it is on the fast-spinning Jupiter, or an interminable 5,832 hours, like it is on slow-moving Venus (that’s 243 days here on Earth).

But what about the big yellow thing that keeps us warm—the Sun? How long is a day there? The answer is simple: “It depends.” Oh, wait, that’s not simple at all.

Fortunately for us, MinutePhysics is here to explain why, and it turns out the answer to that question is all a matter of perspective.

If a day is how long it takes for the Sun to “come back overhead,” that only matters if you are standing on it upside down, which would make the days “infinitesimally short.” If you look at it from the perspective of neighboring stars, and how long it takes the sun to spin back around to them, it matters where on the sun you are talking about. The sun, “a big ball of flowing, gassy plasma,” is so big that at its equator a day would be about 24-and-a-half earth days, but at its slower moves poles it would take about 34 earth days.

Even if we just assign the sun’s length of day at the earthly time of 86,400 seconds it would still be different, coming in at an extra .2 seconds thanks to gravitational time dilation.

So what’s the best answer? The one that judges how long a day would be if you were actually on the sun, because, relatively speaking, it’s the easiest answer to understand: one day there would equal your last day.

What other seemingly simple question would you like MinutePhysics to tackle next? Tell us today in the comments below.

Image: MinutePhysics

Foam Toy Transformed Into Flaming Sword Worthy of Thoros of Myr

The night is dark and full of terrors, which is exactly why the one thing we could all use more than anything else is a sword of fire, just like the one Game of Thrones‘ Thoros of Myr is famous for wielding. “Oh, but how can I acquire an item of such extravagance,” you ask, “I’m not a member of a royal court, or even a high priest of R’hllor!”

Not a problem. You just need some propane and a cheap toy sword made of foam.

This video comes from GoPro, who teamed up with famous internet lunatic The Backyard Scientist to turn a cheap kid’s toy into a burning metal instrument of slicing and dicing.

Implementing a thin, hollow steel rod inside the foam, he then covered the sword in plaster, placed it into a mixture of sand and motor oil, and cast it with molten aluminum, making a real metal sword where the foam toy once stood. He then added holes throughout the sword, and, after cleaning it up and sanding it down, he attached a propane tank to it and lit the whole thing on fire

Whoosh. Homemade fire sword.

Now because he has little regard for his own safety and that of his home, he initially lit it up inside his garage (sigh) before taking it out into the yard to cut up some watermelon’s (somewhere Gallagher is scratching his chin and thinking comeback).

All swords are awesome (that’s a science fact), but swords that are on fire are even better, not only because of the whole night being dark and full of terrors thing, but also because they look freaking awesome.

Just please don’t use one inside.

What other weapon would be better if it were on fire? Light up our comments section with your ideas.

Images: GoPro

Tig Notaro Wants You Laugh at Her Trauma in ONE MISSISSIPPI

Amazon needed a new way to describe comedian Tig Notaro‘s new half hour comedy/drama One Mississippi, and “dramedy” clearly just didn’t suffice. When it came time to describe the loosely-inspired dark comedy about Notario’s life, “traumedy” was the only option.

Comprised of six half-hour episodes—the first of which you can watch here—the series follows Tig as she navigates a complex re-entry into her childhood hometown in Mississippi to deal with the unexpected death of her much-loved mother. Reeling from her own recently declining health, Tig struggles to find her footing with the loss of the one person who actually understood her.

“As far as the pilot goes, it was probably 85% real,” Notaro told the room of reporters at the 2016 TCA summer press tour. “There were a few parts where we bridged moments together. The timeline is off from where my life fell apart. We crammed all the info into the pilot so we could go from there if it went to series. Now having gone to series, it’s more fictional but there is still a lot of reality and real moments from my life.”

Notaro then went into detail about her real life struggles that all took place in 2012. “My mother died, I had cancer, I had an intestinal disease and I couldn’t eat, I went through a bad breakup, the list goes on,” Notaro said. “It was over a four month period of time and the pilot captures all that.”

She continued, “[In real life,] my mother and stepfather had moved to Spring, Texas which is outside of Houston but I still have all of my close family in Mississippi and Louisiana. My hometown is in Mississippi and it’s where I consider home. It’s where I got married — the obvious choice for a gay couple. In my real life, after my mother died, I was too sick to return home. I was deteriorating so I stayed in Texas until I felt better.”

But when pressed to explain why she didn’t want to make her series a straight up drama, Notaro remarked in her trademark dry wit that it would have been inauthentic.

“The show, as funny as moments are, it’s just more real and dramatic and the humor is in the real moments,” Notaro said. “There is nothing that I tried to force into real comedy and I think that becomes apparent when you watch. It would be harder to take everything more seriously. It would be a challenge to eliminate comedy altogether and move forward in a strictly dramatic way.”

One Mississippi is one of the first 30-minute comedies created around an openly gay, female actor since Ellen DeGeneres’ CBS sitcom, and Notaro is grateful that while that particular glass ceiling may not be completely shattered, at least it’s starting to crack in substantial ways. But her Amazon series does not focus on her sexuality.

“Setting the series in Mississippi, the topic of being gay and coming out and the conflict with family would be an easy way to go—luckily with my life, that’s a non-issue,” Notaro said. “That’s been an exciting element to present my life the way it is. Nobody flinches if I have a girlfriend … or three.”

Are you a fan of Tig Notaro? Planning on checking out One Mississippi? Let us know in the comments below.

Images: Amazon

One Mississippi premieres Sept. 9 on Amazon Prime Video.