Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2390

Sir Patrick Stewart Is England’s Greatest Cowboy Singer

You know him as a Shakespearean master thespian, a Star Trek Captain, and a professor of mutation. But did you know Patrick Stewart‘s real career all these years has been as a country and western singer, and the greatest one in England, no less? Think Autry and Rogers at the Rio Grande….Or Crockett, when the Alamo fell.

We certainly didn’t, and we’re not entirely sure it’s all true. But we do know that that’s really him belting out classic western tunes in the alleged infomercial above, found via Bonnie Burton on Twitter. Stewart, of course, follows in a long and proud tradition of Star Trek actors hilariously transitioning to music, from William Shatner yelling “MISTER TAMBOURINE MAAAAAAAN!” in an inexplicable Irish accent, to Leonard Nimoy crooning alongside a tuba solo about Bilbo Baggins, and Brent Spiner singing Sinatra.

While the full-length albums shown in the video exist only in our wildest fantasies, a five-track EP is available at CDBaby, with all proceeds going to the International Rescue Committee, which helps crisis-affected families around the world. It is currently sold out as of this writing, but more are expected and you can get on the waiting list right now. Do we really have to tell you to “Make it so”? Order a “T-bone, medium pink, hot” and git down to the strains of a Southern-sounding Stewart like you’ve never heard him before.

What should Sir Pat sing next? And when can we expect Chris Pine to get the music bug? Trek down to comments and engage us with your thoughts.

Featured image: pstewsings.com

Who Did Negan Kill on WALKING DEAD? Our Summer Update!

We’re taking a quick trip back to Pee-Pee Pants City for a special summer update about The Walking Dead on today’s Nerdist News! It’ll still be a long time coming before we get a peek at the season premiere, but if you watched the… controversial finale, you know brand new big bad Negan kept the gang at a barbed-wire bat‘s length for a terrifying game of eenie, meenie, miney, mo, but the question remains: who the heck did Negan actually kill? We’ve sifted through all the evidence, and our theory may surprise you. Everyone’s been so busy asking which of the eleven potential victims Negan killed, but according to our theory, that’s the wrong question! People should be asking which two potential victims he killed? THAT’S RIGHT!

Our first candidate is controversial because it’s so obvious, but c’mon- we definitely think Glenn is walker food. His head is the one that goes AWOL in the comics, but even in the show, there’s evidence. The recurring first person shot throughout the episode starting with the van turned out to actually appear to be Glenn’s point of view instead of the previously believed Daryl! That, plus the fact that in episode twelve of this season, he snuck a peek at some polaroids of Negan’s previous victims on the wall. Was this as simple as a regular ol’ easter egg or a foreshadowing of his tragic future?

Outside the show as well, Steven Yeun, the actor who plays Glenn, was quietly cast in new Netflix film “Okja,” which is currently shooting in Seoul, South Korea, which is most famously not Atlanta, Georgia. It would however, be crazy, though, to leave us with a cliffhanger that was the exact same one as in the comics… unless! Unless there’s going to be a second victim! And who would be both meaningful and surprising enough to account for the major cliffhanger showrunner Robert Kirkman left us with? Our money’s on Honest Abe. That’s right Abraham Ford!

And here’s why! First of all, Negan’s known for making big impressions, and he doesn’t particularly love people that stand up to him. Abraham doesn’t flinch when Negan approaches for eenie-meenie-miney-please-no, plus, it would send a major message to the heroes. Also, comics-wise, Abe already bit the dust! Sweet, sweet Denise got the former Army sergeant’s death in the comics, so Abraham might just be ready to meet his comic alter-ego in the afterlife. There really isn’t a better time to kill him off!

On the actor side, Michael Cudlitz responded to a tweet from Josh McDermitt with “I had a blast working with you…” As in past tense. But a short ten minutes later amended the tweet to a simple “Enjoy!!” In other suspicious news, two months into filming season seven, Cudlitz was spotted at Wizard World in Sacramento with his notable Abraham red hair back to it’s original color. All these things together have us practically shouting “Death by Lucille!”

This double-down would mean a major curveball and a definite justification for that controversial cliffhanger. But what do you guys think about our theory? Do you think two fan favorites getting slaughtered before our eyes would be enough to forgive that insane cliffhanger? Do you think we’ve totally lost it and there are a ton of other characters are more likely to bite the bullet? Let’s discuss!

SAUSAGE PARTY’s Frank Wants You to Blow up Your Barbecue Today

Happy Fourth of July! Are you getting ready to head outside with some cold drinks to chill, and some cold meats to grill? Seth Rogen, in the form of Frank the Sausage, wants you to rethink that plan. In his new movie Sausage Party, “meat is murder” isn’t just a catchphrase. The meat is literally still alive, as far as he’s concerned, and you are literally burning his pals alive. So in this public service announcement, via Entertainment Weekly, he urges you to take a moment and think about that. And he doesn’t even go for the obvious “put a wiener in your mouth” joke.

Are you a vegetarian, and think you’re somehow safe from Frank’s guilt-tripping? Hell no! In his world, bread is alive, and getting painfully slashed to pieces. Heads of lettuce, when they become salad, are getting their brains ripped apart. Poor potato chips are a close-knit family until you tear their home open like a fleshy tornado with fingers. He may be asking folks to blow up their barbecue grills, but his next step is a full-scale food grab. Do not fall for his unhappy, emoji-like face–this wiener-head wants you to starve!

Should you appease him now, knowing he’d leave you hungry later? We can’t make that decision for you. We’ll only note that he has said nothing about beer. YET.

Are you digging this movie’s beefy sense of humor? We’ll “meat” you down in the comments and you can stick it to us.

Featured image: Sony Pictures

Revisiting BLOOD SIMPLE. Reminds Us Where That Coen Brothers Genius Came from

Returning to Blood Simple. after three subsequent decades of Coen Brothers movies is an interesting undertaking. On the one hand, Blood Simple. predicts the expert temperament for which the directing duo have been addressed as living legends. Long, dry conversations between Dan Hedaya and M. Emmet Walsh unearth the roots of the kind of drawling double talk that’d approach perfection in Barton Fink and O Brother Where Art Thou. Dreadful traipses through thick sheaths of tension, notably throughout the backrooms of the Hedaya’s character’s deliciously creepy bar, plant the seeds for what would sprout into masterpiece in Fargo and No Country for Old Men.

On the other hand, the Coens’ 1984 debut doesn’t speak in quite the same rhythms as the rest of their filmography, as should be expected from the earliest turnout of any artist with as vivid a penmanship as the pair. The ambiance of Blood Simple. are considerably more fluid than the thick, stale air of just about each one of the Coen dramas from Miller’s Crossing onward. Speech patterns don’t reach the level of verse that we see in everything from The Hudsucker Proxy straight through Hail, Caesar!.

Though it’s unfair to hold Blood Simple. up against any of the Coen projects it preceded, it’s almost impossible to consider the film in vacuum. Approaching Blood Simple. here and now in 2016, by way of its 4K restoration, anyone who’s spent even nominal time with the directors in the interim years would be hard-pressed to not compare the “philosophizing” of M. Emmet Walsh’s two-bit gun-for-hire up to the solemn ruminations of Tommy Lee Jones at the end of No Country, the skulking cat-and-mouse game in Frances McDormand’s unlit studio apartment up to the doom-filled climax of Fink—or McDormand’s performance itself up to every other she has given in a Coen-helmed feature.

This is such a difficult task because of the very fact that you can evoke such a specific picture simply by mentioning the Coen name. In the 32 years to pass since Blood Simple. hit theaters, the Minnesota-born brothers have become an entity that transcends any and all of their films; their voice and aesthetic seems to exist between features, stringing the lot together in some kind of unspoken cinematic universe.

As such, deviation from this system will undoubtedly be met with a reaction all its own. It doesn’t matter if the deviation is negative, such as in the uniquely attitude-deficient True Grit, or positive, as you might say of Inside Llewyn Davis (which I’d call the most naturalistic of the duo’s recent films, and the very best thing they’ve directed to date). This “break from routine”—even in the case of revisiting Blood Simple., which predated the routine—is something you’re bound to shoulder even in your most dutiful efforts to consider the film on its own terms.

As such, it’s tough for me to say if Blood Simple. thrives solely on its contemporaneous accomplishments—reinventing the Hitchcockian thriller through the lens of Peckinpah—or on the trust in its directors that we carry into a viewing. I’m not entirely sure if the chills I get watching actors like Hedaya and McDormand navigate this damp, dimly lit story about deceit and betrayal because I can see the film breaking through the genre output of its day, or because I’m able to spot the earliest, rawest signifiers of the Coens’ genius. Either way, the highs are there.

They permeate Hedaya’s magnetic corrosion, that which renders him ever the more monstrous as the movie creeps onward. Just as we occasionally sympathize with this emotionally crippled creature, we see glimmers of demonism in our ostensible hero, McDormand. Her strength and survivalism make her our natural buoy, though we’re only inclined to trust her for so long.

This wickedness is a staple of the Coen brand; it drips from every corner of Blood Simple., whose main driving force is to reveal the pinnacle of darkness in every character and setting it introduces. Slowly and surely, we reach peak menace in all elements presented, and that patient amble is where the film mines its gold.

No, Blood Simple. is not the most charming or the most exciting Coen film, and will perhaps never hold up to the legion of crime capers, dry comedies, and existential spirals down the drain of the New York folk music scene that the directing brothers have delivered ever since. Its relative independence from the Coen tongue is likely what will keep it in the shadow of the Barton Finks, Fargos, No Countrys, and Llewyn Daviss for the rest of time. But it’s not on name alone that Blood Simple. founded that lineage—in the lyricism, the patience, and the doom, we see hints of the legacy yet to come.

3.5 out of 5 burritos

Michael Arbeiter is the East Coast Editor for Nerdist. Find him on Twitter @MichaelArbeiter.

BACK TO THE FUTURE Video Compares Similar Scenes Across the Trilogy

When you feel like you’ve seen something before we call that deja vu, but what about when it happens a third time? Deja vu vu? Dejaja vu? Dedeja vu? Whatever you call it, having an identical experience–three separate times, across three different eras in American history–is heavy.

In this video edited by Daniel Rappe, that we came across at The Playlist, he shows how Back to the Future trilogy writer Bob Gale along with director and co-writer Robert Zemeckis made Mart McFly‘s experiences in the 50s, an alternate 1985, and the Old West, all feel familiar to both the character and the audience. Each movie contains a sequence where Marty got knocked out, only to wake up (believing he had been dreaming about time traveling) to his mother (or a relative that looks just like his mom, even though that doesn’t make sense), only to end with the father figure coming home.

I’ve seen these movies roughly 88 times each, and it never occurred to me before right now that Marty most definitely suffered long-term brain damage as a result of having three serious concussions in the span of about a week. Couple that with the untold toll on the human body when traveling through time and space and who knows if he ever recovered physically.

And even if he did, he was probably emotionally scarred from having his mom hit on him while only wearing purple underwear.

Another video like this could be made exploring the use of the square where the clock tower was, as similar incidents, sequences, and shots happened in all three time periods there as well.  Spoiler alert: manure smells terrible, no matter the decade.

What other recurring motifs are contained in the Back to the Future trilogy? Share your favorites with us in the comments below.

Image: Universal Pictures

CALVIN AND HOBBES Strip Rendered in 3D is Beyond Cool

Most know that creator Bill Watterson never wanted to sully his creation with overproduced merchandising, animation rights, or anything outside what he himself created. And while some may pine for a cartoon to exist someday, I’m just fine with it being what it was because it was everything it needed to be. Understanding that Watterson looked at Calvin & Hobbes in such a sacrosanct manner ensures that, for the most part, there’s a certain reverence when it comes to fan creations. There is no doubt that the creator of this interactive 3D rendering of a strip holds Calvin & Hobbes in the highest regard.

Calvin & Hobbes: the big bang

by elbriga

on Sketchfab

A recent post on Laughing Squid brought us to the wonderful piece of high-tech interactive art by designer elbriga. We’re not even going to pretend we comprehend the amount of work that went into this beautiful digital diorama however elbriga shared some stills from its production in his portfolio.

Each panel (or lack thereof when it comes to Calvin & Hobbes strips) was mapped out with distances relative to the various actions in the rest of the strip. As you rotate, zoom, and pan across, the various views become fun to play with as if to capture the perfect off-kilter perspective of the strip seen for the first time in this very special way. And as if this wasn’t already cool enough, this 3D model works in VR mode on mobile devices (although it’s a bit tough to navigate)

Take a closer look at elbriga‘s other work including his recreation of a Peanuts comic strip, the Star Wars Trench Run, and… who are we kidding, we’ll just embed the “I am your father” scene.

Naaaaw! – Star Wars

by elbriga

on Sketchfab

Cool tribute to Calvin & Hobbes? Or Coolest tribute to Calvin & Hobbes? Let’s discuss in the comments below!

Images: elbriga

Movie Morsels: First Look at Idris Elba in THE DARK TOWER

Happy Independence Day, America! Let’s start this July 4th off with a bang — in the form of gunslinger Idris Elba on the set of The Dark Tower. Plus, we have the latest video from Pete’s Dragon, a casting update on Transformers: The Last Knight, and much more for your holiday enjoyment!

The Dark Tower

Is there anything more American than a gunslinger? Probably not. So it’s appropriate that this Fourth of July weekend gave us our first look at Idris Elba as Roland the Gunslinger, on the set of The Dark Tower, the first film in the loooong awaited series adapting Stephen King’s epic multi-volume epic of the same name. The pic was tweeted by Ron Howard himself, who’s producing the adaptation. Joining Elba and Howard in the photo is director Nikolaj Arcel. Matthew McConaughey, of course, co-stars in the February 17, 2017 release as the evil Man in Black.

I joined @idriselba & director Nikolaj Arcel in #NYC for #DarkTowerMovie production Dream Team 4 a Dream Project pic.twitter.com/X3REnQDf7b

— Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) July 2, 2016

[Twitter]

Pete’s Dragon

There’s a brand-new TV spot out for The Good Dinosaur, er, I mean the Pete’s Dragon remake. Actually, it’s pretty easy to tell the latter film’s titular creature apart from Pixar’s dino because he’s covered in fur and… Hey, wait a minute, you don’t suppose that’s the real reason Disney decided to make Elliott look like something out of Where the Wild Things Are this time around, do you? (As opposed to the reason Disney gave us.) Could they have done it to distinguish him from Arlo?! Nah, that’s silly. I mean, that would be like changing the title of John Carter of Mars to John Carter because your marketing people thought film audiences didn’t like the planet Mars. And that’s something the studio would obviously never do. Oh, hang on…

[Moviefone]

Transformers: The Last Knight

And the latest actor to join the cast of Michael Bay’s final Transformers movie is… Santiago Cabrera, star of TV’s Heroes and Merlin. We’ve also received word that the samurai Autobot Drift will be back. No longer a 2013 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, as he was in Transformers: Age of Extinction, Transformers: The Last Knight will see him as a sweet new Mercedes AMG GT R. The Last Knight lands on June 23, 2017.

[Coming Soon]

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

We have confirmation of yet another film’s appearance at this month’s San Diego Comic-Con. Luc Besson’s return to space opera, the comic adaptation Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, will be present at the annual nerd prom. The EuropaCorp film will have a panel on the first day of the event, July 21st. Featuring Besson, producer Virginie Besson-Silla, and too-cute-for-words actors Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne, it will be moderated by Josh Horowitz.

[ScreenRant]

Supercon

Finally today, acting legend John Malkovich (pictured above in Cesar Chavez) has joined the cast of the comic-book convention heist comedy Supercon. Directed by Zak Knutson, the film co-stars Maggie Grace, Mike Epps, Russell Peters, Clancy Brown, and CariDee English. Currently shooting in New Orleans, Supercon “follows a group of washed up television stars and comic book artists who make their living attending conventions. Down on their luck, the ragtag team hashes a plot to rob the convention and bring justice to a crooked promoter and an overbearing former TV icon.”

[Variety]

What do you think of today’s top stories? Let us know below!

Featured Image: Signet

Images: Signet, Canana Films, EuropaCorp

Jaime Lannister Will Never Get His Redemption, Even if He Earns It

Please note: if you’re not caught up with season six of Game of Thrones, this post contains spoilers for the finale. You’ve been warned!

When you’ve completely immersed yourself in George R.R. Martin‘s fantasy world of dragons and ice zombies, it’s not that you become jaded about what will happen next, it’s that you realize those magical creatures are the only elements that make his story fantasy, because the rest is as brutal, awful, and unfair as real life. Which is why, regardless of what he does the rest of the way, even if he kills Cersei and saves the realm from more death and war, I am sure Jaime Lannister will never be redeemed the way many of us want him to be.

This isn’t some “Martin hates us” diatribe about him screwing with us to make us angry. Martin is always true to the story—the greatest thing an author can do for his readers—and we should all know by now, in this world, that just because we want something to happen it doesn’t mean it will. Because life doesn’t work that way.

And in the same way the victors write the history books, Jaime Lannister can not win, and when whomever is standing at the end of Game of Thrones writes of what happened, Ser Jaime will be the oath breaking Kingslayer, whose family butchered Robb Stark and the North at the Red Wedding, who then blew up the Tyrells and hundreds of innocent people at the Sept of Baelor.

Of course, Jaime has already found a measure of redemption, but only to the audience and a few individuals in Westeros (like Brienne and Bronn). The man that put a sword through the king he swore to protect, that pushed a small child from a tower for catching him sleeping with his twin sister, who killed his own cousin in an attempt to escape, started on the path to redemption when he protected Brienne from a group of would-be rapists. An act of surprise nobility he paid for with his sword hand, but a price that did not slow him down into being a better person than he was before.

Little did we know then that his first act of betrayal, when he killed The Mad King, was an act of heroism that saved thousands and thousands of lives, a secret he accepted along with the scorn of a kingdom that came with it. From there we saw him uphold his promise to a dead Catelyn Stark to protect her daughters, risk his life to save his niece/daughter Myrcella, rescue his brother Tyrion from an execution, all while calling out men (and gods) for the awful hypocrites they are.

Yet, for all of that, when facing Edmure Tully we saw what the realm thinks of Jaime Lannister. While Jaime was trying to give Edmure and his family something resembling a life, with as little bloodshed as possible, we saw the hatred and disgust people have for Jaime and the Lannisters. It’s a hatred Jaime has for himself, too: the fear that he is not a good man, and that he will never be free of his sins because he doesn’t deserve to be free of them.

With the way season six ended, with Cersei on the Iron Throne after resorting to the same wildfire purge The Mad King had planned all those years earlier—the very plan Jaime himself stopped at the cost of his own honor—it feels as though the old theory that the valonqar (“little brother”) prophesied to kill Cersei will be Jaime himself (she was born first). For Jaime to kill an evil ruler who just so happens to be his twin and love of his life, would be the ultimate sacrifice. A moment of complete redemption, when every vow he ever made as a knight to protect others, would be upheld.

If Jaime kills Cersei for the sake of the Seven Kingdoms, it will be one of the greatest, most noble sacrifices ever made in Westeros, an act worthy of the history books and songs for thousands of years.

It just won’t matter, because Jaime can’t and won’t be able to win, and the victors will never grant—hell, they might never even know!—the redemption he will have deserved. It’s not fair, but neither is life. This is George R.R. Martin’s story, and it’s painful, but it’s honest. We, the audience, might know—the way we know about what happened in the Iron Throne room when Jaime killed Aerys II—but it will be lost to time and the people of Westeros.

“The past is already written: the ink is dry,” and sometimes it can’t be crossed out, no matter how much blood we spill, even if it is Cersei’s.

What do you think is Jaime Lannister’s fate on Game of Thrones? How will he be remembered? Tell us in the comments.

Images: HBO

The Best Illusions of the Year Hurt Our Brains

Since 2005, The Best Illusion of the Year contest has been quietly blowing minds in the illusion community. Yes, there is an illusion community, made up of visual scientists, ophthalmologists, neurologists, and artists. Optical illusions call to such professions because they aren’t just a fun way to short-circuit your perception—optical illusions are windows into the way perception works. When something doesn’t look quite right or confuses us, that is evidence that the brain is working in a specific way.

This year’s winners are just as interesting. First place went to Mathew T. Harrison and Gideon P. Caplovitz from the University of Nevada at Reno. It uses Gabor elements—very simply, tiny balls with moving black bars that simulate visual processing in a certain way—to create the illusion of movement. The elements aren’t moving below, only the black bars within them are, and at different rates:

The second place winner has already gone viral on Reddit, and comes from Kokichi Sugihara from Meiji University in Japan. It’s called the “ambiguous cylinder illusion,” and it uses a shape that melds a square and a circle to make the mirror defy your expectations of reflection:

Finally, third place went to Christine Veras at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She produced a silhouette zoetrope that gives the impression of a flapping bird trapped inside a spinning cylinder:

These illusions may not be as immediately viral as The Dress (never forget), but they are fun and useful for the study of human perception nonetheless.

What do you think? Which one blew your mind the most? Let us know in the comments below.

Images: Neural Correlate Society

LADY DEADPOOL, SUPERMAN, and More Make a Kotobukiya Comic-Con

As San Diego Comic-Con draws near, more and more companies are revealing exclusives they will be releasing at the annual pop-culture mecca. It’s now Kotobukiya’s time in the spotlight. As reported by San Diego Comic-Con’s Unofficial Blog, here is what they have in store for us at the end of the month.

First up is a Lady Deadpool Bishoujo statue. She comes with an SDCC bag, badge and lanyard, and a gyro in hand. It is not noted whether or not the swag bag is filled with collectibles or the heads of any fanboys that get in her way at the Hasbro booth. Lady Deadpool runs at 75.99

Next up is the first of two statues in Koto’s DC ArtFX line. Here is the Dark Knight’s alter ego, Bruce Wayne. Looking like an amalgam of Greg Capullo’s and Jim Lee’s art style, Bruce comes with a rose and a Batarang, showing that he can be both a lover AND a fighter.

The other statue is of the Man of Steel. It is based on the recent Action Comics story “Truth” where Superman is greatly depowered and the only remnants of his costume he has left are strips of his cape used as pseudo brass knuckles. Both ArtFX statues will run 49.99.

Lastly, here is a Kawaii rubber charm set featuring Batman, Robin, the Joker, and Harley Quinn. Designed by Sakurai, these cute little things are going for 27.99

You can check our more pics of these exclusives in the gallery down below. Comic-Con attendees will be able to pick up any of these while supplies last at the Kotobukiya booth during SDCC, July 21-24. If you aren’t going to be at the show, fear not. Non-attendees can order them from Kotobukiya’s website here. Regardless of where you purchase them, any of these exclusives are a great fit for your collection.

So what do you think? Are you going to pick up any of these awesome statues as an attendee or otherwise? Let me know on Twitter or sound off in the comments below.

Images: Kotobukiya