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Tag Archive: Comic-Con


NBC lends assist with “six seasons and a movie” signing Community to fifth season

Filed under: Pop Culture, TV — 1 Comment
May 11, 2013

Community cast

It may be a sign that fans of much-loved TV series are finally having a say in determining what stays on TV.  With fans voting with their wallets last month to bring Veronica Mars to the silver screen via an unprecedented Kickstarter campaign, someone savvy at NBC programming must have realized the loyal fan following of Community was worth keeping by saving the half-hour comedy series.   Last night NBC announced Community will be back for a fifth season, moving it ever closer to the series not-so secret mantra “six seasons and a movie”.

The roars of thousands of series fans who chanted along with the montage of key scenes from the past three seasons at Comic-Con last summer said it all.  And it didn’t matter that Chevy Chase wasn’t returning to the series or the much liked show creator Dan Harmon was cast away, as show regulars Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, and Donald Glover continued to provide all the fans want and more over the past 84 episodes.

Community McHale

Why do fans like the show?  The humor?  The characters?  The actors?  All of the above?  Watch the series cast talk about the show last year at Comic-Con:

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On video–Total Recall remake doesn’t measure up to the sci-fi classic

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February 7, 2013

Total Recall Farrell

By Elizabeth C. Bunce

The 2012 remake of Total Recall was one of our most hotly-anticipated films.  Somehow we missed it in the theater, and our first efforts to catch it on video ought to have told us something (two broken Blu-Rays, an extra-long wait for a Netflix copy, and part of the audience dozing off during the initial screening).  It all seemed so promising–proven material, a top-notch cast (Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel, and Kate Beckinsale in her signature running-and-jumping role), and some pretty cool teasers at Comic-Con.  What could go wrong?

Total Recall trip to Australia

Well, as it turns out, everything.  Gloomy set design and glacial pacing dragged down the first act, and while the action sequences are acceptable genre fare, the movie just doesn’t have any zip to it.  The actors seem bored with the material, and the story (which owes more to the Bourne franchise than to Philip K. Dick’s classic short piece “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale”) suffers from utterly uninteresting gimmicks and a preposterous premise.  The villain has one of the least credible goals I can remember seeing in movie (kill everyone in Australia and replace them with robots, and I am not making that up).  But most baffling of all is the filmmakers’ decision to abandon the Recall plot device almost from the get-go.  There is none of the mind-bending “is it real, or is it Recall?” mystery played up so well in the 1990 version starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone, let alone Dick’s bizarre original story.  Why call this film Total Recall at all?  Because they couldn’t get the rights for The Bourne Future?

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Cheer for the next Godzilla in del Toro’s mecha vs. monster flick, Pacific Rim

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December 19, 2012

Pacific Rim very big teeth

It’s December, and that means holiday movie releases, which means we’re getting bombarded with movie trailers.  That includes a film focusing on the heir-apparent to the classic Japanese mega-monster, Godzilla.  At Comic-Con this year, Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures started some buzz for a new monster movie by Guillermo del Toro, simply titled Pacific Rim, with giveaways of an eye-catching exclusive teaser poster (the newly released poster is to the right):

Pacific Rim rare Comic-Con poster   Pacific Rim new poster

A fun mini-teaser was released last week, and it may peak your interest further:

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Firefly refuses to die–10 years later and new show generates 1.2 million viewers

Filed under: Behind the Scenes, Blasts from the Past, Fantasy, Sci Fi, TV — Leave a comment
November 14, 2012

This past July at San Diego Comic-Con the panel generating the most buzz before and after was the 10th Anniversary of the cult sci-fi TV series Firefly, featuring the first reunion of most of the main cast since they created the 2005 movie Serenity.  The panel opened to thousands of fans that camped out overnight (re-live all the fun we had there again here) and featured creator Joss Whedon, and writer/producers Tim Minnear and Jose Molina, and cast members Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau, and Sean Maher.   The panel was hosted by the Science Channel, which was producing a one-hour TV special that aired Sunday night.  The TV special celebrating the anniversary of the series, titled Firefly: Browncoats Unite, was filmed right before the Comic-Con panel, and included excerpts of the panel, as well as scenes from the series and interviews with show stars who did not attend the panel: Gina Torres, Morena Baccarin, and Jewel Staite.

Science Channel’s one-hour production of Firefly: Browncoats Unite proved yet again the incredible popularity of the short-lived series, which continues to garner new fans each year in a sort of grassroots fan movement driven by the idea that maybe Joss Whedon can one day “put the gang back together again.”   Firefly: Browncoats Unite was watched by 1.2 million distinct viewers–the night was the single most watched Sunday ever for the Science Channel, and the second highest-rated telecast of the year among 25-54 year-olds.  Chatter about the series also tallied 25,000 tweets on Twitter, generating 26 million impressions.

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Comic-Con-inspired advice for the polls today–who is your favorite fictional candidate?

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November 6, 2012

If you haven’t voted yet.  Go do it.  Longer than usual voting lines are expected today.  But who knows long lines better than Comic-Con fans?  Today is your day.  You can show the others how it’s done.  And why not drag your comic book-toting friends along?  Heck, bring along a stack to read.  It’s going to be a long day.

If you’re like me, you get a bit annoyed in the weeks prior to Comic-Con with people trying to hand out tips for your first Comic-Con.  Like we can’t figure it out.  So, in return, here’s a list you can send to your non-comic book-lovin’, non-genre-lovin’, the “who the heck is Buffy the Vampire Slayer voters” you’ll be stuck with all day.  Here’s a modified advice list snatched from lists of advice for first-timers at past San Diego Comic-Cons, a list which seems to apply well to your neighbors who think they know long lines but don’t:  View full article »

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Is the CW quietly building DC’s answer to The Avengers with “Arrow”?

Filed under: Comics & Books, Superheroes, TV — Leave a comment
August 23, 2012

First up, John Barrowman, who you may know as the suave Captain Jack Harkness from Doctor Who and Torchwood, has signed on to play a yet-to-be-revealed character in the opening season of CW Network’s Fall TV series Arrow, centered on the classic DC Comics character, Green Arrow.  We previewed the pilot episode here last month, and it looks to be a great series, full of action and energy, with ample nods to Green Arrow’s established canon.

It seems impossible, but wouldn’t he make a perfect Hal Jordan, aka Green Lantern?

I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

The show’s creators have only released that Barrowman will play a “well-dressed man” (huh?) “as mysterious as he is wealthy” and that he is an “acquaintance of the Queen family and a prominent figure in Starling City.”

  

And now the CW announced that they are adding another familiar DC Comics character to the series in a multiple-episode story arc:  Enter:  Helena Bertinelli, The Huntress.  Part of the classic DC series and trio Birds of Prey (along with Barbara Gordon/Oracle and Dinah Lance/Black Canary), which had its own short-lived TV series, Australian actress Jessica De Gouw will play Helena Bertinelli, a “potential love interest for Oliver Queen; a fellow vigilante, set on destroying her father’s organized crime empire. But Helena’s blind pursuit of revenge will put her on a collision course with the Arrow.”  Perhaps Barrowman will play her father?

Jessica De Gouw to be the new Huntress

Adding the Huntress opens the possibility of including Batman at some point, because of their long connection, but I’m also not getting my hopes up about that.  Because of the Birds of Prey connection, the Huntress is a natural fit for fleshing out Dinah Laurel Lance’s storyline, allowing her to operate separately from Oliver Queen if the writers want to go in that direction. And how about making her look like Cat Skaggs’s drawing of Huntress in her classic costume shown above?

So we now have Green Arrow, Black Canary (who the creators seemed to indicate would get her fish-net clad supersuit in the first season in their Comic-Con panel interview), the villain and now the Huntress. CW’s Smallville had its own established set of DC characters, so what better place to experiment with a Justice League story than this new series?  If I was writing it, I know I would try to free up as many JLA characters as possible to share a vision of the JLA long overdue, and finally respond to the pleas of DC Comics fans around the world wanting something to match Joss Whedon’s hit 2012 movie, The Avengers.  Unlike Smallville, the pilot revealed that this new series will be a superhero show, not just another CW soap opera.  Moreover, we have established genre character actors in key roles lending some credibility to the series with former Star Trek Voyager Borg Queen Susanna Thompson as Moira Queen and The Dresden File’s Paul Blackthorne as Detective Quentin Lance.

Arrow premieres on the CW Network Wednesday, October 10, 2012.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

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NBC’s Grimm returns for a bigger and badder Season Two

Filed under: Fantasy, TV — Leave a comment
August 16, 2012

Review by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Season One of borg.com favorite Grimm ended on a high-stakes cliffhanger, with Juliette in a coma, evil Adalind missing, and surprise-of-surprises, Nick’s mom alive and kicking Wesen butt.

Thankfully, NBC didn’t make us wait long for the outcome to all this suspenseful buildup, and Monday night’s Season Two pilot jumped right in with both feet, ratcheting up the tension and stakes with more twisty mysteries, otherworldly conspiracies, and good old-fashioned drama.  What it didn’t do was wrap up any of those storylines–Juliette is still in a coma, Adalind is still missing, and Nick’s mom is a back-from-the-faked-her-own-death UberGrimm–presaging a season full of complex mystery and perhaps more questions raised than answered.

Its attention soundly focused on building the series mythos, “Bad Teeth” follows a French Wesen assassin, or Mauvais Dentes, sent to Portland to presumably dispatch Nick (David Giuntoli)–and anyone standing in his way, including cargo ship stowaways, crewmen, harbormasters, security guards, and FBI agents.  A brief appearance by veteran character actor James Frain (Leverage, Burn Notice, The Closer, etc.) hints at the involvement of the Verrat, one of the ancient secret societies of the Grimmverse introduced last season.  Frain, who is always solid, was especially fun in his one short scene–and we hope to see him again this season.  He’d make a great ongoing villain, and it would be nice to see him in a regular role, instead of just popping up for guest appearances.

Meanwhile, Nick’s reunion with his mother is equal parts tender and educational. Kelly (Kelly? Really?) Burkhardt, in a fun, Chuck-style stunt casting move, is played by longtime favorite Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Abyss, Without a Trace).  They navigate the secrets of Nick’s past and her disappearance/supposed murder, explore Aunt Marie’s trailer, and decipher some of the mystery of the Verrat, the Mauvais Dentes, and the fabled Seven Royal Families in charge of it all.

Meanwhile-meanwhile, as Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner) work on an antidote to Juliette’s (Bitsie Tulloch) magically-induced coma, the backstage machinations of shady police captain Renard continue.  All last season we watched Renard (Sasha Roiz) lurking in the background, conspiring with Hexenbiest Adalind Schade (Claire Coffee), and menacing Nick’s early efforts to harness his Grimm abilities.  The Season Two Renard seems less altogether evil, and more nuanced and complex–a welcome and fascinating development. In fact, it is Renard who seems most dedicated to waking Juliette, although for his own yet-to-be-revealed motives.

If there were missteps in the episode, they’re the same ones to haunt the series thus far.  Primarily?  The consistently underutilized Juliette could hardly be more marginalized–not merely sidelined, but comatose!  Her storyline is compelling, but she’s not doing anything.  The late-season additions of Rosalee and Nick’s mom have helped bolster the female power structure of the show, but we definitely hope to see Juliette recover and take a truly active role in the series.  If she must be kept out of Nick’s secret life, fine–but let’s see more of the smart veterinarian (who, seriously, could be a terrific asset to Wesen investigations).  And how about more scenes showing off one of our favorite cities–the filming location, Portland, Oregon?

It definitely appears as though NBC is investing more in Grimm this season–moving it to a new timeslot (Mondays at 9/8), getting a jumpstart on the fall season, launching innovative multimedia promotions, including a full-on marketing effort at this year’s Comic-Con, and adding a whole new opening to the series.  We love this, because we love Grimm, and it seemed to lag behind similar series Lost Girl (SyFy) and Once Upon a Time (ABC) last season.  Exciting new developments abound, both behind the scenes and onscreen.  We can’t wait for next Monday’s new episode!

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First look–Showtime’s Homeland, Season 2

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August 12, 2012

If you missed Season One of Showtime’s TV series Homeland, now is a good time to catch up, as Season 2 begins September 30, 2012.  I didn’t watch Homeland until the season wrapped, but once I started, it was really hard to walk away.  It’s nothing like anything I normally like–it’s a real-life drama, which usually I find boring and not “escapist” enough for me.  But tight writing and good actors made this one stand out.  Like Django Unchained this year, Homeland was last year’s biggest promoted new thing at Comic-Con–its banners were almost billboard sized and could be found everywhere you looked.  Why promote something that is not “genre” at Comic-Con then?  I think it goes back to the actors.

The lead is Damian Lewis, star of the short-lived but brilliant two-year series Life, where he co-starred with Sarah Shahi, who went on to star in USA Network’s successful series Fairly Legal.  Lewis is British, but you wouldn’t know it from his roles in Life or Homeland.  In Life he was a cop wrongly convicted of a crime and jailed for it, to later get off and come back to the force after winning a giant settlement against the state.  In Homeland, he is an American soldier held captive in war in the Middle East.  In captivity he converted to Islam, and when he returns to the States he is a hero, but was he ”turned” to become a double agent?  We find out answers to several questions in Season One.

His co-star is the award-winning actress Claire Danes (Stardust, Terminator 3, Princess Mononoke, Shopgirl), who is brilliant as a CIA agent who is tracking a message from an informant that she believes points to Lewis’s character as a spy.  She is a mess.  She has a mental disorder that she takes medicine for and this contributes to what may be paranoia or an incredible insight into the reality of what is happening.  She uses illegal and uncommon methods to make her case, which land her out of the system and left to sign up for electric shock therapy to try to repair herself.

Then you get to the two key supporting actors.  None other than Inigo Montoya from Princess Bride, Mandy Patinkin (Alien Nation, Castle in the Sky) plays Danes’s character’s boss, who looks after her but only so far, has his own life problems by being overly devoted to his job, and commits a strange and unthinkable act toward the end of Season One.  Firefly’s own Morena Baccarin (V, Stargate SG-1, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Justice League) plays Lewis’s character’s wife, who waited for her MIA husband to return before becoming romantically involved with his best friend, leading to much of the conflict at home for Lewis’s character.

So the actors alone–familiar in several ways to genre fans–are enough to give Homeland a try.  Once you do, you will probably get hooked, too.  And if you don’t believe me, trust Jonathan Frakes, who recently commented that he and his wife get excited about each episode of the series.

Here is a brief trailer for Season Two of Homeland, released by Showtime (the original version was pulled by Showtime from YouTube for some reason):

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

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Gentle Giant reveals Star Wars Celebration VI exclusive figure, giant Cantina giveaway

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August 11, 2012

With less than two weeks until the opening of Star Wars Celebration VI in Orlando, Florida (August 23-26), Gentle Giant, the toy company transmogrifying small Kenner classic action figures into giant-sized collectible figures has announced its exclusive figure for this year’s show: Lando Calrissian.  Originally the 3.75 inch figure released during The Empire Strikes Back original run of action figures, this Lando is a whopping 12 inches tall.  Why make small-sized figures bigger and not update the original designs?  Why not?

The Lando figure will be released at $75, similar in price to previous figures in the Star Wars Classic Vintage Jumbo figure line.  The large figures were scanned from the original Kenner figures and reproduced faithfully as a larger collectible.  The Lando includes his vinyl cape and blaster, just like the originals, as well as that classic Lando moustache and charismatic smile.

The figure also comes packaged on a 1981-style, The Empire Strikes Back-inspired blister card, featuring original front design, in a re-sealable plastic outer clam shell to help protect and display the figure.

Gentle Giant is offering a special pre-order opportunity here.  At that price point you might not want to collect the whole set, but if there was a single figure that is particularly nostalgic for you, this may be the way to enjoy it all over again.  And if you really do want to build a complete set, you have another opportunity:  At Gentle Giant’s display at Comic-Con this year, they displayed a giant Cantina Playset, inspired by the Sears Roebuck cardboard playsets of the early days of Kenner Star Wars toys.  For the next four days you can enter a drawing to win that prototype.  All the information is here.  Note that they are not giving away any of the figures, just the cardboard backdrop cantina set.

The 2012 Comic-Con exclusive is still available at Gentle Giant’s website for $80–the large boot variety Snaggletooth figure in jumbo form.  The original little figure was pretty rare and second only in desirability to a Boba Fett with firing rocket, and only included in a Sears Roebuck Star Wars Cantina Adventure playset.  The grail of original collectors, this is another cool figure in the jumbo line.

Unfortunately my favorite figure is already sold out–this Chewbacca figure, but I’m sure a Boba Fett would be fun to get, too.

Or an original Luke.  Or  this Ben Kenobi…

Or… (all the figures so far available in the jumbo line can be found here).

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

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First look–Quentin Tarentino’s Django Unchained (psst… “the ‘D’ is silent”)

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August 4, 2012

Has Quentin Tarentino won any big mainstream awards since he won the best screenplay Academy Award for Pulp Fiction?  So what’s going to be his next big winner?  He was nominated for best director for Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds.  I think Jackie Brown is one of the best and coolest retro films ever made.  His Kill Bill series and Grind House films I could probably take or leave.

What about Leonardo DiCaprio?  He has garnered Academy Award nominations for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, The Aviator and Blood Diamond.  He won a Golden Globe Award for The Aviator.  But no Oscar yet?

Inglourious Basterds was an incredible, bloody violent Dirty Dozen meets Guns of Navarone World War II epic, bizarre, parallel history (?) action film (the one where Brad Pitt leads a group of American soldiers scalping Nazis).  The standout performance was Christoph Waltz as the most vile Nazi fiction character in movie history, maybe second only to Ralph Fiennes’ performance as a similar real-life villain in Schindler’s List.  But where Fiennes didn’t win the Oscar, Waltz walked away with one for Inglourious Basterds, and rightly so.  So it is awesome he will be co-star of the new film Django Unchained, along with Jamie Foxx, best actor Oscar winner for playing Ray Charles brilliantly in the movie Ray.

At Comic-Con this year, writer Jason McClain shared with me that the Django Unchained promotion booth offsite was informing people if you found one of the “Django girls” in red shirts throughout San Diego and you recited the key phrase “the D is silent” you’d get a coin that you could exchange for a free T-shirt.  We each ended up with two coins, thanks to Jason’s scanning of the crowds.  As Jason says, T-shirts are top-level swag.  For future reference, here are the shirts given away, and if you got one hold onto it, as I think Django Unchained may actually be a big Christmas release hit film this year.

I have a seen a few trailers for Django Unchained, but this is the first trailer that confirmed I will see this movie.  It clearly lays out what the film is about (rare for trailers these days):  A Civil War era bounty hunter (Waltz) frees a slave named Django (Foxx) who can help him track down his bounty in exchange for Django’s freedom and freeing Django’s wife, apparently sold to a rich Rhett Butler type, played by DiCaprio.  Starting with Johnny Cash singing over a slave driver… An unexpected highwayman confrontation…  Bounty hunters?  A western with 1970s soundtrack that sounds like the theme to Shaft?  Think Quentin Tarentino and it all makes sense.

Enjoy this really, really good trailer for Django Unchained…

This one is certain to get Oscar nominations in the spring and maybe land a few wins for Foxx, DiCaprio and Tarentino.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

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