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The Predator Nearly Had An Unbelievable Twist
No one was a fan of The Predator, the 2018 reboot (directed by Shane Black) of the 1987 classic and its sequels. Special effects artist Yuri Everson, who worked on the movie, posted screenshots from two deleted scenes to his Instagram, and they reveal quite a twist. Mind, it’s no great loss — this twist would not have made the movie better. In fact, in the eyes of some, it would have made it worse. According to Everson, the director shot three endings. One made it into the film; the other two would have been somewhat controversial. In Scrapped Ending #1, the surviving crew encounter a spacecraft pod. Ripping it open, they find an astronaut in stasis…with the nametag Ellen Ripley. Though it’s pretty much canon that the Alien and Predator films take place in the same universe, heroes from one series have never crossed over into the other so blatantly. Everson says Sigourney Weaver was not involved in the production and someone else played Ripley in the scene. So
Todd MacFarlane’s Spawn Shall Be Devoid Of Joy
If critics wind up calling the upcoming Spawn movie “joyless,” it will be intentional. Creator Todd MacFarlane is aiming for a “Hard R” superhero movie, with as bleak an atmosphere as possible. “There’s no joy,” McFarlane said to Nerdist, confirming the movie’s lack of joy. “There’s gonna be no fun lines in it, and it’s just gonna be this dark, ugly two hours worth of movie, which is essentially what a lot of supernatural/horror movies are anyway. There’s not a lot of funny in them.” This would, of course, be faithful to the source material — but that material hasn’t aged well, and it may not be what moviegoers are looking for in this day and age. Venom was an edgy, ultraviolent, 90s-extreme version of Spider-Man, but the “Venom” movie wound up being half-comedy because people can’t take grimdark all that seriously anymore. Batman Vs Superman was lacerated by the Internet for this reason. MacFarlane sort of half-acknowledges this. “That seems to be a weird hurdle for a lot of
The Flashback Interview: Aki Aleong
My newest interview subject, Aki Aleong, was introduced to me by Joe Williamson, who previously set up my interviews with Mel Novak, Laurene Landon and Donald F. Glut. Aki Aleong has worked alongside all three of them in this decade, but his career goes back to the 1950s, whether performing onstage in Teahouse Of The August Moon or on the big screen in No Down Payment, an interesting movie that deconstructed the white picket fence image of the 1950s IN the 1950s. Throughout the decades, Aki Aleong has not only been an actor, but a singer, a record label executive, a director, a writer and an activist. As he’s getting ready to wind things down, he agreed to an interview with me, and we spoke on Monday, December 10th. I hope you all enjoy getting to know him. Say hello to Aki Aleong! Aki: Hello. Johnny: Hello, Mr. Aleong. It’s Johnny Caps. Aki: Yes. How are you, sir? Johnny: I’m doing good. Thank you for taking the time out of
T Minus Six Months Until Stranger Things Season 3
We now know when Netflix will disgorge Stranger Things Season 3 from their dimension: July 4, 2019. “But I’ll be busy lighting illegal fireworks then!” you might say. Actually, if you can stay up until midnight on the evening of July 3, that won’t be a problem. The announcement comes with a new trailer, appropriately New Years themed. It’s a local Hawkins broadcast of Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve 1985. They get terrible reception in Hawkins, mainly due to the secret government signals interfering with Ms. Byers’ rabbit ears. Now it’s time for a Popgeeks Exclusive: I actually have access to a recording of that night. Not from YouTube, but from my private collection: Rockin’ Eve 1985 was taped by my dad back in the day. What’s in the trailer was not the video OR the audio that aired during the final minute. Behold: The footage of Dick Clark and the audio of him ushering in a new year seem to be taken from something else; only the shot
We Now Know Why The Runaways Took So Long To Run Away
It’s no secret that we at Popgeeks felt let down by Runaways’ first season, mainly due to the fact that the event we were promised didn’t happen until the season was over. We signed up for a thrilling superhero adventure about six underdogs forced to battle their own parents, not a rehash of The OC. The show has improved now that the kids are underground, but why did they drag their feet in getting there? A new interview with showrunners Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, published by iO9, sheds a little light on that decision. According to Schwartz, they wanted as much time as possible to establish the characters and develop them. The first season was spent setting up our world, our families, having the kids making this terrible discovery, and really earn that moment where they end up blowing up their lives to run away. We knew that once they went on the run, that we had to really hit the ground running and begin telling the story we
Next Big Toonami Event Revealed
For nearly as long as Toonami has been a thing, there has always been the TIE — the Total Immersion Event, or a number of days when the mascot robots stop announcing the schedule, playing video games, or giving life advice — and get into an adventure of their own. Now we know what the next one will be. You’ll have to wait a while for it, though. It was announced by the Toonami crew that they’d be sitting out 2018, and they did just that — the TIE typically runs through November, but nothing unusual appeared. This new trailer teases The Forge for “Fall 2019,” which we assume means November again. This is quite an early trailer. The event should be good. Each TIE tends to have permanent effects on the bumpers for the next year. The very first TIE, The Intruder, ran in 2000 and killed off the original TOM — so that a newer build could take his place. Fifteen years later Toonami ran The Intruder II
Persona 5 R Confirmed With New Trailer
Rumors that something called “Persona 5 R” was on the way have been confirmed. Atlus uploaded a short teaser to YouTube this morning….30 seconds in length, and revealing its existence. And its existence was about it. A date of March 2019 is mentioned at the end, but according to Atlus, this is simply when more of the game will be revealed, not the date of its release. Despite its most recent release being in 2016, it’s been a visible 2018 for the Persona series, culminating with the surprise reveal of Joker, the main character of Persona 5, as a DLC fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Many fans took this to mean a Switch port of Persona 5 is a full possibility, and that Persona 5 R was that port. Well……this teaser pretty explicitly opens with the Playstation logo. All indications would be the series will continue its Sony exclusivity for another year, and that this is simply an enhanced edition of the same game on the same console. That’s
Celeste Collectors Edition Coming January 1
As you may have heard, Limited Run Games is publishing the one title gamers have been begging them to publish all year: Celeste. Preorders go live in a few days, and there WILL be a Collectors Edition of the title. Though Limited Run tends to offer Collectors Editions of most of its titles, Celeste is the one game we figure warrants its own report. Within the Celeste Collectors Edition you get: A plushie shaped like a strawberry A 16″ X 20″ poster of Celeste Mountain Sticker Sheet Celeste Mountain Patch Celeste Mountain Postcard Strawberry Pie Recipe Cassette Soundtrack These aren’t halfhearted items — most of them fit within the spirit of the game, especially the fact that the soundtrack is being offered on cassette. It’s the type of eerie synth that’s just begging to be played on an 80s Walkman (assuming you still have one). The Celeste Collectors Edition will also come in this Steelbook case, with custom artwork. The game is being physically published on both Switch and PS4,
The Pinch Headed To General VOD Release In 2019
The makers of indie movie The Pinch have announced plans to expands its availability soon. Currently an Amazon Prime exclusive, the crime thriller will be migrating to more open VOD platforms in 2019. The Pinch is a Goodfellas-styled crime drama about a low-level Mob worker who gets double-crossed by the organization he works for. He was owed cash for his services, but they figured just shooting him would save a couple bucks. They thought wrong….he’s not so easy to kill, and he’s about to move up the ranks — by force. He’s coming for his boss, he wants his money, and he’ll do whatever it takes to get it! This is the kind of low-budget affair where the biggest name is a stunt double that worked on Deadpool — and since he’s a stuntman, he’ll only be seen in blurry shots, so it doesn’t matter. But it also stars Gunner Wright, who appeared in GI Joe and was a voice actor in the Dead Space video game franchise. It was
The Lost NES Version Of SimCity Has Been Discovered
In 1991 Nintendo announced they were partnering with SimCity creator Will Wright to release the first console version of his PC hit SimCity. Two versions of the game would be made available, one for NES and the other for SNES, with graphics being the only difference between them. 1991 rolled on, and sure enough, there was a SimCity for Super NES shortly after its launch…but the NES version never turned up. It’s still unknown to this day why Nintendo cancelled the NES version of SimCity. But it was close enough to completion that fans figured a playable version must be out there somewhere. It took until 2017 to track down — that was the year a former Nintendo worker stopped by a Seattle game store to pawn off some of his old prototypes. SimCity for NES was among them. The game made its world premiere at the 2017 Portland Retro Gaming Expo. Two prototypes had fallen into the collector’s hands and were both auctioned off. One of the buyers got
DC Comics Solicitations November 2023
It may be roasting outside, but DC has finalized its plans for the days when it’s much colder. Here’s what our favorite caped pals will be up to in November. Are you ready for the biggest event of the fall…TITANS: BEANS WORLD? Our team of young heroes finds themselves confronted with a vicious invading race of giant legumes, who easily use their fearsome Bean Powers to subdue the….wait, I read this wrong. Are you ready for the biggest event of the fall…TITANS: BEAST WORLD? Our team of young heroes finds themselves confronted with an ancient evil who wants to transform the Earth and turn everyone into animals! The Titans are our main line of defense, but when other heroes and villains become transformed and start attacking, can they hold the line and save humanity? And what does Amanda Waller have to do with this? Find out in TITANS BEAST WORLD #1, TITANS BEAST WORLD TOUR: METROPOLIS #1, AND TITANS BEAST WORLD: WALLER RISING, all on sale near the end of
My Hero Academia: Two Heroes Comes To Crunchyroll
The latest My Hero Academia movie, Two Heroes, has arrived on Crunchyroll as of today. The plot: Deku and his friends from Class 1-A are attending I-Expo, the world’s leading hero item exhibition. They don’t get to enjoy themselves for long once a team of villains hacks into the expo’s security to capture All-Might. His only hope of rescue lies with Class 1A! Nothing happening here is anything crucial to canon, but it should make for a nice appetizer as we’re waiting between seasons. My Hero Academia: Two Heroes is available in both sub and dub form. The dub stars the voices of Justin Briner as Izuku Midoriya, Clifford Chapin as Katsuki Bakugo, Luci Christian as Ochaco Uraraka, J. Michael Tatum as Tenya Ida, David Matranga as Shoto Todoroki, Justin Cook as Eijiro Kirishima, Colleen Clinkenbeard as Momo Yaoyorozu, Monica Rial as Tsuyu Asui, Brina Palencia as Minoru Mineta, Jesse James Grelle as Fumikage Tokoyami. Kyle Phillips as Denki Kaminari, Trina Nishimura as Kyoka Jiro, Caitlin Glass as Mina Ashido,
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