Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2378

LGBT Pride Has Come to GRAND THEFT AUTO V

LGBT Pride is coming to the world of Los Santos in the Grand Theft Auto game series, and it’s all thanks to a group of Swedish fans in Stockholm. According to a report over at Vice, a group of GTA fans got together at Swedish advertising agency to work beside Stockholm Pride on a new (unofficial) mod for the game. JulioNiB, a scripter of previous GTA V mods, is a part of this team, as is 8-Bit Bastard, who cut the trailer above using the Rockstar Editor. The mod is out now, and you can get it right here.

Having a Pride Celebration is just the latest in a long string of pseudo-Los Angeles things found in the GTA game’s world of Los Santos. There is already a thinly veiled version of the Playboy mansion, not to mention Hollywood Blvd., the Santa Monica Pier, Muscle Beach in Venice, and whole lot more, so why not an LGBT Pride Parade? Especially since the actual Pride Parade in West Hollywood is one of the longest running ones in the country.

So what can we expect in Los Santos Pride? Well, according to the preview video, which you can view above, pretty much what you can expect at any real world pride celebration wherever it is you are: lots of uptemo dance music, really attractive people in skimpy clothes, regular looking people watching those attrative people (that’s my category) and rainbow pride symbols as far as the eye can see. Basically, LGBT people and our allies just having a good old time.

Said Stockholm Pride president Christian Valtersson of the project: “The message of love and equality is always needed, and we are happy that players get to host their own Los Santos Pride Parade. It has been wonderful to get to cooperate with such creative and talented people as the ones who made this idea into reality.” In another very welcome touch, The Los Santos Pride project is also intended to honor to the victims of the mass shooting at Orlando’s LGBTQ club, Pulse. “We’ve made the parade indestructible” said Valtersson. “Not to moralize, but rather to show that love will always triumph over hate.”

Are you going to show your support for the LGBT community by downloading the Los Santos Pride mod? Let us know in the comments below.

Featured image: YouTube/Stockholm Pride

 

New SUICIDE SQUAD Concept Art’s Different Takes on Harley Quinn

Next month, Margot Robbie will become the first actress to portray Harley Quinn on the big screen in live action, in the Suicide Squad movie. While the final look for Harley is unique to this film, costume designer Kate Hawley has revealed some even more radical takes on the pasty princess.

Via Batman-News, Entertainment Weekly‘s Comic-Con issue debuted two pieces of Harley Quinn concept art, and it’s more reflective of Jared Leto’s Joker than the classic Harley. Hawley even noted that Courtney Love, Debbie Harry, and Patti Smith inspired these outfits, along with the Instagram accounts of Mexican drug cartels.

“She’s a girl’s hero,” Hawley told EW. “It was understanding how do we make her feel sexy by owning it as opposed to what a man thinks is sexy.” We can definitely see the Courtney Love influence in that pic on the left, and it appears that Harley had the Joker’s face tattooed to her left leg in both images.

A few months ago, Robbie stated that Harley’s classic jester costume was made for the film. Hawley confirmed that account in a new Suicide Squad set report at Comic Book Resources, where she offered some insight as to why that costume didn’t make the cut. “The jester suit has an amazing, powerful quality to it,” said Hawley. “We built that. We actually put it on Margot, and she looked amazing. There’s a moment where there’s homage to that very garment. What happens, though, and the way David [Ayer] works – and I’m not speaking out of turn here – and because it’s a very organic quality and he’s writing it as we speak, the weight of things change. There’s beats that you think you can establish an arc within and then it changes again. We have limited beats to show all the elements.”

We’d love to see Robbie go full classic Harley! Hopefully we’ll eventually get a chance to see her put on that costume in either a deleted scene or perhaps in some behind-the-scenes photos.

What do you think about Hawley’s alternate designs for Harley Quinn? Let us know in the comment section below!

Images: Warner Bros. Pictures/Entertainment Weekly

Stop Everything, Because There Is a New RED FANG Album! (Scream at a Wall)

Wipe the blood from your teeth and get in the pit: it’s time for a recap of this week’s best hardcore, metal, and punk rock. We dug through the record crates to find the new tunes we think you need to spin and rage to. Looking for some new death metal to bring into your life? Got you covered. Need some grindcore to get your wedding reception off on the right foot? Say no more. Stop catching those Pokemon for a moment and get your rock shoes on.

 

What a truly blessed time we live in, for we have been gifted with a new Red Fang song! “Flies” can be heard below, and it’s the first single from the band’s recent announced Only Ghosts, which is due this fall. Is it awesome, you ask? Yes, it’s awesome. It’s rocker of a track filled with riff after riff and that jump from gruff to melody that Red Fang does so damn well. Half ugly, half infectious hooks, “Flies” is everything we love about this band and more.

Adding to our good vibes is another new Descendents track! This one’s called “Without Love” and it’s got a real ALL vibe to it. The Descendents have always said songs are interchangeable between the two bands, but this is the first time you can really hear a track and say, “yeah, I can see ALL doing this one.” That’s not a bad thing, by the way. ALL is great. This song is great. The Descendents are the best there is at what they do, and the song “Without Love” is a perfect example of what they do. We’re super pumped for Hypercaffium Spazzinate to hit on July 29th. We already pre-orderd the hell out of the thing.

Meek is Murder’s full length album Was is now available and I can’t imagine what sort of person would not want to own this thing. Was is a Kurt Ballou produced ripper of an album, fierce from start to finish. You’ll hear these guys getting compared to Converge a lot in the upcoming weeks, and with good reason. While they don’t do the epic, post-metal type tracks that Converge feature once or twice an album, Meek is Murder definitely captures that furious grind that haunts the best Converge albums. This is not to say Meek is Murder are not their own beast, because they certainly are. Intense and math-driven, these guys are all killer, no filler. Don’t sleep on this one; pick it up as soon as possible.

(Decibel)

 

Inter Arma’s Paradise Gallows is one of this year’s best albums. A big, heavy, epic trip of an album, it runs the gamut of all things metal. This extreme range is evident in the video for the track “The Summer Drones,” which is part strange desert adventure and part sinister live footage. It’s maybe about dying in blazing wasteland? Maybe. Or it’s just tripped out imagery to go with a kick-butt song. Either way, it’s rad. Paradise Gallows is available now and you should probably pick it up. It’s really, really good, folks. Really good.

 

Family is a metal band from Brooklyn that has a classic sort of sound. Classic in the Zeppelin sense. Lots of guitar noodling mixed with soaring vocals; that kind of stuff. They also get pretty heavy at times, but there’s most certainly a feeling of a forgotten era of hard rock on their new album Future History. It’s a groovin’ record filled with lots of awesome tracks, and a brand of metal you can listen to with your band while hanging out in the garage. I mean, the band is called Family, so maybe reconnect with your old man and jam this one out? I know you two have been strained recently, but metal brings us together, guys. He misses you, even though he’s too proud to say it.

(MetalSucks)

If you need some punk rock this week – and it’s been a week that calls for punk, if you ask me – check out Get Dead. Their new album, Dyin’ Is Thristy Work, hits at the end of this month and it’s good stuff. Raw and angry, Get Dead play a brand of melodic punk we just don’t hear enough these days. You can’t help but want to sing along to their songs, but there’s a really desire to run a circle pit while it’s on, too. In a week, or maybe year, filled with endless tragedy, this is the sort of music that helps keep you going. These guys have it dialed and their album is one that should be on your pre-order list, for sure.

(BrooklynVegan)

That’s it for this week. Go forth; throw some horns up and keep spinning in the black circle. If there’s a metalcore, grindcore, hardcore, or any other core song you think the world needs to hear, sound off in the comments below. \m/

Image: Relapse Records

BLADE RUNNER 2 Director Reveals New Concept Art of the Future

Even 34 years after its release, director Ridley Scott‘s Blade Runner has one of the most influential cinematic depictions of humanity’s future. While reality isn’t actually going to catch up with Blade Runner‘s future by 2019, there will finally be an official Blade Runner sequel in 2017 from director Denis Villeneuve. And if you thought the future was bleak before, Villeneuve is ready to demonstrate that things have only gotten worse in the decades since the events of the original movie.

Via Entertainment Weekly, Villeneuve has released two new pieces of concept art from Blade Runner 2. He also noted that Los Angeles now covers most of the west coast and that “the climate has gone berserk – the ocean, the rain, the snow is all toxic.” That’s where this first piece of artwork comes in. It features a snow blower that hovers in the air and destroys snow before it can hit the ground. Villeneuve jokingly called it “a Canadian wet dream!”

Also included in the preview was a depiction of Los Angeles at night. It should look familiar to fans of the original film, and yet the omnipresent L.A. smog seems even more oppressive in this image.

Harrison Ford will reprise his role as Rick Deckard for the sequel, alongside a new cast that includes Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, Dave Bautista, Ana de Armas, and Mackenzie Davis. Blade Runner 2 will be released on October 6, 2017.

What do you think about the new concept art from the Blade Runner sequel? “How do you react?” Pass the test, and share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Images: Alcon Entertainment/Warner Bros. Pictures

Forgotten Any of JASON BOURNE’s Backstory? This Supercut Can Help

It’s been 16 years since Matt Damon stepped into the role of Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity, and nine years since Damon’s last appearance as Bourne. But he’ll be back later this month in Jason Bourne, which reintroduces its title character to a world that may have passed him by.

To bring fans up to speed on Bourne’s exploits, Burger Fiction has created a new supercut that greatly condenses the story that was told through the first four Bourne movies. Damon only appeared in the first three films: The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum, while Jeremy Renner headlined The Bourne Legacy as Aaron Cross. The supercut also serves as a reminder of Bourne’s quest for answers regarding his identity and the secret program known as Operation Treadstone. However, the video doesn’t really explain what Treadstone was. So that’s what we’re here for! Treadstone was the secret CIA program to create physically and mentally superior assassins who would perform black ops missions without question. It made Bourne into a nearly unstoppable operative, and he is the only known survivor of the original program.

By the time of The Bourne Legacy, Treadstone had given way to Operation Outcome, which genetically enhanced its operatives (including Aaron Cross) with an ongoing chemical regimen that could theoretically make them even more dangerous than Bourne. At the end of that film, Cross was modified further to keep his abilities without the constant chemical intake.

So why is Jason Bourne resurfacing in the fifth film after letting the world believe he was dead for nearly a decade? The likely answer is that the legacy of Treadstone and Outcome lives on, and there’s a new program in place to create black ops super soldiers. But we’ll learn more when Jason Bourne hits theaters on July 29.

What did you think of the new Bourne Quadrilogy supercut? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Image: Universal Pictures

New FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S Building Sets Spotlight the Sequels

McFarlane Toys‘ first series of Five Nights at Freddy‘s LEGO-ish construction sets aren’t even widely available yet, but the company clearly has faith, as they just announced three new sets, which draw from the sequels and promise more. While the initial offerings focus on Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, and can be put together to create a larger floor plan, two of the new sets come from the bedroom in the fourth game—because of course; it’s a rule that any scary, hat-wearing character named Freddy has to appear in somebody’s nightmares (who would win that Freddy vs. Freddy battle in the dreamworld, anyway?).

My wife loves a bed covered in teddy bears, and is particularly drawn to plush characters in little hats; as such, the new “Bedroom” set is probably not one I will ever be allowed to show her. The “Closet” set, below, is bizarre enough that I can probably get away with it; it also looks like a good base for customizing all kinds of minifigs in the style of Masters of the Universe‘s Multi-Bot.

“Arcade Cabinet,” the smallest and cheapest of the sets at a suggested retail price of just $7.99, comes from Fazbear’s Fright, the horror attraction in game three. At this point, it’s not designed to be attached to any other set, but perhaps it hints at the direction of the next few. We definitely need to get Springtrap, and I can’t imagine Todd McFarlane passing up that opportunity.

Are your construction block sets ready for Freddy? Keep your eyes on the comments and let us know!

Images: McFarlane Toys

 

You’ll Soon Be Able to Encounter Darth Vader in Virtual Reality

There have been a lot of surprises at this weekend’s Star Wars Celebration Europe, and this may be the biggest one yet! Lucasfilm has revealed plans for a Darth Vader virtual reality movie that will put viewers in the path of Star Wars‘ most iconic villain.

Via The Verge, Lucasfilm’s creative executive Pablo Hidalgo said that the Darth Vader VR film will be an original Star Wars narrative experience written by David Goyer, who was also on hand for the announcement. Goyer is best known for co-writing Christopher Nolan‘s Dark Knight trilogy, as well as the Blade trilogy, Man of Steel, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The project is being crafted by Lucasfilms’ xLab, the division behind the upcoming lightsaber game Trials on Tatooine. However, this is much more ambitious in terms of scope and story.

The Darth Vader VR movie will be a part of the new canon for the franchise, and fans will be able to have some impact on the story as it unfolds. “You are the visitor in this story that is happening in and around you, and to a certain extent you might even have some effect on,” explained Goyer. “You can pick up things, you can open things. You can push things, you can walk. You can touch characters.” The report notes that the VR film has a “persistent world,” one that goes through day and night cycles that continues even after the story has been initially completed by fans.

Goyer added that “it’s surprisingly very emotional. It can make you sad, and make you lean in, and make you feel for a character in a way you haven’t before. In a way that you can’t really do in any other medium. And it can scare you.” According to Goyer, the Darth Vader VR movie could be out in a year or two, but a firm release date has not been announced.

While the story reportedly won’t be an adaptation of previous Darth Vader tales, Marvel’s recent Darth Vader comic book series had an excellent take on the title character that portrayed him as master of manipulation and an unexpected tactical genius. We’d love to see those aspects of Vader’s personality show up in this VR project!

What do you think about the Darth Vader VR movie? Embrace your feelings and share them with us in the comment section below!

Image: Lucasfilm

GHOSTBUSTERS II Honest Trailer Explains How Your Childhood Was Ruined Back in ’89

The Screen Junkies have become that friend who always tells us exactly what we need to hear—and boy oh boy do we love them for that. Their latest Honest Trailer, for Ghostbusters II, gives us a good dose of their brand of medicine, made especially for those fans who think the new Ghostbusters film somehow threatens their childhood. The truth is that anyone who thinks X-chromosomed lady busters will somehow ruin the franchise needn’t worry. First, because you’re wrong to think that, and second? Because you never noticed that Ghostbusters II already ruined it.

After watching this (an avid GB fan myself) even I cannot deny the fact that the second installment is a carbon copy of the first in almost every way—or that the humor of the original was watered down for more kid-friendly appeal. Those facts are somewhat excusable since these are films I loved as a child, and therefore they hold a special place in the nostalgia centers of my brain. But as an adult who loves to pick apart movies, I cannot get over the fact that we all collectively accepted the Ghostbusters being treated as jokes a mere five years after the events of the first film.

The city of New York faced a potential world-ending event featuring real-life literal ghosts and a malevolent marshmallow giant that was stopped by the Ghostbusters—and yet everyone treats them like crap half a decade later. The equivalent would be like insulting a NYC fireman in 2006 and then, I guess, wanting He-Man instead?

Despite showing us out how blind we’ve all been for so many years, it’s good that this video exists. The golden-voiced Jon Bailey really does say it best toward the end of the trailer: “So before you go and see the movie that people have decided will ruin the franchise before they’ve even see it, re-visit the movie that already ruined the franchise.”

Childhood un-ruined? re-ruined? Let’s discuss how people need to take it down a notch in the comments below!

Image: Columbia Pictures

STRANGER THINGS is a Refreshing Shot of Creepy, Nostalgic Fun (review)

Nostalgia, as the saying goes, is a hell of a drug, and it at least partially explains why the social media pipes are frequently clogged with arguments about things like Pokemon, Star Wars, Ghostbusters, and countless superheroes. Humans are fiercely loyal to the things we loved as children, and that (at least partially) explains why we’re frequently inundated with unnecessary remakes, late-arriving sequels, and simplistic copycats. But every once in a while we’re treated to something that’s both highly nostalgic and relatively original at the same time, and that’s when good things happen.

Case in point: Matt and Ross Duffer’s Stranger Things, which is a clever, compelling, and an altogether fantastic homage to the best in 1980s genre fiction. Scattered throughout this epic tale of small-town terror are images, concepts, and themes that evoke filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, Joe Dante, and (of course) Stephen King, but (and this is the important part) Stranger Things never feels like less than its own creation. Frankly speaking, it’s not all that difficult to simply copy from the genre masters, but it is quite impressive when a production team is able to strike an astute balance homage and originality—and that’s what makes this eight-episode series such a pleasant surprise. The Duffer brothers were clearly raised on great sci-fi, horror, and adventure films, but you always need to bring some of your own ideas into the equation; Stranger Things does that remarkably well.

Without spoiling any of the nifty twists and unexpected plot contortions: Stranger Things is about three geeky yet effortlessly affable pre-teens who sneak out to go searching for a friend who went missing after a particularly epic Dungeons & Dragons battle. Meanwhile, in another part of Hawkins, Indiana, a mysterious young girl appears (seemingly) out of nowhere, and she’s got a whole platoon of shady people on her trail. There’s also the devoted yet desperate mother of the missing kid, a gruff but lovable sheriff on the case, and a collection of teenagers who are noteworthy in that they’re well-crafted, three-dimensional characters. And that’s always nice to see.

So we’ve got a strong ensemble of excellent young newcomers and seasoned pros like Winona Ryder, Matthew Modine, and David Harbour; a pitch-perfect 1983 production design (right down to the clothes, cars, hairstyles, and the music: not only the soundtrack selections but also the excellently synthy score); some very sharp writing that, for the most part, allows its young characters to behave like actual kids; and a warm, moody (yes, even nostalgic) visual presentation that’s quite beautiful… oh, and we haven’t even touched on the scary parts yet.

Suffice to say that there are some very shady dealings going on at a mysterious research facility located within the Hawkins city limits, and once little Will Byers goes missing, his disappearance kick-starts an investigation that unleashes all sorts of supernatural malfeasance. Is it monsters? Aliens? Indescribable entities from an alternate dimension? Again, you won’t get any spoilers here. I suspect that most genre fans will enjoy discovering what Stranger Things has to offer for themselves—especially if they have even the vaguest recollection of growing up in the early 1980s.

4.5 of those burritos you loved as a kid out of 5:

Are you going to watch Stranger Things? Let us know in the comments below.

Image: Netflix

OUTCAST’s Latest Episode Shed Light on Reverend Anderson (Review)

One of the reasons Outcast continues to work so well is that although it is dealing with the supernatural, it has been rooted in a gritty realism, approximating what real demonic possession would be like. It’s why the show is genuinely scary, with its ever present sense of doom, the kind you only get when it feels like everyone and everything is constantly in the worst kind of danger. So this week’s opening scene, the montage of Philip Glenister‘s Reverend Anderson’s past exorcisms, stood out as a departure from the first five episodes in that it was very theatrical. Yet it worked, and helped set up the revelation of what has actually motivated the Reverend all these years.

We already know how awful possession can be, but that montage let us know just how much–and for how long–it has been the driving force of Reverend Anderson’s life. He’s seen some shit. Watching it, I couldn’t help wonder why he taped them all. What was the benefit? Was it to learn something? To prove he was helping the afflicted and and not causing the harm? Why keep a record of these terrible things?

I got my answer when the beaten down Reverend, realizing his life’s work was a total failure because he’d done nothing to help these people, confessed his real motivation wasn’t to do the lord’s work, but to feel god’s power, to be praised and loved. Those tapes were trophies; they were his rewards. Being admired for doing the deed mattered more than actually saving people. His motivations were selfish, no different than the demons taking over the bodies (in an apparent attempt to save themselves, which is, despite their proclivity to evil, more defensible).

It was a huge realization for him and for us, that even the “good” can fall prey to wickedness in the pursuit of good. Of course, that self-actualization didn’t prevent him later on from insisting Kyle leave the possessed Caleb to him (“God dammit he’s mine!”), because it’s not about saving people, it’s about being able to say you saved them. Giving up his life, and his son, those weren’t sacrifices the Reverend made, they were necessary for his own pride and vanity. For a show that would appear to pit good versus evil, the two sides are growing more and more alike the more we learn about them.

Possession comes in many forms, and sin is everywhere, even within a man of god. That’s why Sidney’s branding of the Reverend might backfire, because it’s Anderson’s chance to truly feel his shame and to fight back against it. That sign of the devil carved into his chest is his scarlet letter, and wearing it might be just what he needs to shed his own sins and actually be the instrument of god he knows he should be.

Just like Kyle was motivated to really join the fight by his vision of the black tar as one of the fleeing demons, causing him to realize he can’t escape this battle, this episode could be the turning point for the Reverend. He can’t save these souls on his own, and if he can overcome his pride, his favorite sin, he might be able to realize that god has given him the tool he needs in the form of Kyle.

That is, if Kyle really is a tool of god. We know Kyle is the “Outcast,” but from what is he an outcast? The devil was cast out from heaven, and these demons seem to need Kyle’s light for something, so is it possible that he is really a tool of satan? Mildred wanted his “kiss,” and in doing so she risked many other “compatriots” of hers and Sidney’s, so what is Kyle exactly? Which side needs him more? And based on Caleb’s comments that he wasn’t afraid while he was possessed, I have no idea what is happening, and which side is more fearful of the mysterious Merge to come. Maybe they both are.

All I know is the more questions the show raises the better it gets.

(Let us pause to bid a bittersweet farewell to Mildred, played to perfection by the always excellent Grace Zabriskie. You were the sweetest old creepy demon ever.)

Beyond the opening scene’s overly cinematic feel, there was a consistency to director’s Tricia Brock’s framing that also made this look and feel different than the previous episode: wide angle shots of two people consistently used throughout gave it a picture-come-to-life feel, where two forces are in a face off. Additionally, she also used unconventional framing in other scenes, like when Mark was interviewing the girl that rendezvoused with the Chief Giles firefighter friend in the trailer (also connected to Mildred, so that subplot is only getting bigger). Instead of placing them in the normal spot to the right or left she transposed them to the other side.

This was aesthetically the most interesting looking episode yet, but it didn’t result in a loss of the show’s general terror, nor even it’s uneasy realism.

Something is watching in the shadows, I just have no idea if I’m supposed to be afraid of that or the light.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Talk about it with us in the comments below.

Images: Cinemax