Not a day goes by that I don’t think,”Gee, I should blog about this thing I just read, watched or saw that I really dig.” For me the reason for this blog is two-fold. First, I want to let people know about cool things that they might also enjoy. The second is as a kind of pop culture digital back-up memory. With both goals in mind, I think I’ll take to this format of quick hits every week (maybe, we’ll see).
Continue reading My Favorite Things This Week: Arrow, Crimson Peak & More!
The first Need For Speed trailer featuring Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul hit last week and looks pretty interesting. The plot revolves around Paul’s ex-con character getting wrapped up in a cross country race for shady reasons. The film debuts March 14, 2014.
Marvel Studios is rolling out the PR juggernaut for the next film Thor: The Dark World. The movie opens on November 8th. This latest TV spot shines the spotlight on Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster, her concern for Chris Hemsworth Thor and her contempt for Tom Hiddleston’s Loki.
So, technically this is a clip and not a trailer, but it seemed to fit with the theme pretty well. The very first clip from the first episode of Arrow‘s second season features Diggle and Felicity reuniting with Arthur on the island. The episode debuts on The CW, October 9th at 8:00 PM.
Fox scored a series called Gotham, focusing on a young James Gordon from Warner Bros. TV. The series will join DC’s other shows Arrow and the incredibly-likely spinoff Flash. [via Deadline]
Speaking of Batman, Hot Toys has three figures based on the long running franchise that are pretty amazing. In addition to Adam West and Burt Ward toys based on the 60s Batman TV show, they’ve also got the final look at The Dark Knight Rises version of the character. [via Facebook, Facebook & Facebook]
The CW ordered a sci-fi western pilot called Red from the guys who created and produced The Mentalist. [via Deadline]
Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) has officially signed on to direct the Ben-Hur remake at MGM. Now the big question is who can fill Charleton Heston’s mighty sandals? [via Deadline]
Hong Kong has put up The Grandmaster for consideration in the Best Foreign Language Category. [via THR]
Have you ever wondered would it would be like to watch Dwayne Johnson at the end of the world? Wonder no more, just go and download the Rockapocalypse game for iOS and Android! [via Facebook]
Arrow star Stephen Amell isn’t the only star of the show going shirtless to hype the upcoming second season which kicks off on October 9th. E! Online revealed the image of Colton Haynes as Roy Harper, ET showed off David Ramsey’s Diggle and Access Hollywood unveiled Manu Bennett as Slade Wilson.
First and foremost, if you’re a fan of Joss Whedon’s Buffy: The Vampire Slayer or Angel and don’t already have all the seasons on DVD, Amazon’s Gold Box Deal today finds both complete sets on sale for $60 and $55 respectively.
The biggest action release of the week also happens to be a zombie flick. The Brad Pitt global undead thriller World War Z
We here at Explosions Are Rad are big fans of The CW’s Arrow. If you missed out on the first season you can catch up now thanks to Arrow: The Complete First Season before the second season kicks off on October 9th.
is a film that was not on our radar, but the idea of Mickey Rourke facing off against Twilight star Kellan Lutz sounds strangely intriguing.
Bruce Lee fans might want to check out Bruce Lee – A Warrior’s Journey/Pursuit Of The Dragon
, a period piece examining the story of real life Shanghai-based gangster Cheng Daqui.
Another interesting martial arts double feature released today comes from Shout Factory and Timeless Media: Jackie Chan: Beginnings – Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin / Magnificent Bodyguards
The CW’s Arrow is an interesting animal. It not only captures the superhero audience, but also the one that appreciates muscle-y dudes like star Stephen Amell who appears shirtless in posters and ads for the show pretty regularly. TVLine scored this first look at the show’s number one bow lover who looks a lot worse for wear after the first season finale.
Meanwhile, TV Guide showed off the very first look at a character familiar to many comic fans, but not the world at large: Bronze Tiger. Portrayed by Michael Jai White (Spawn) in the show’s second season, Bronze Tiger will first appear in the second episode of the season to test himself against the Hood. “He’s basically the best of the best, so he has come to Starling City to see if the Hood can give him a challenge,” executive produce Marc Guggenheim said. “To that end, he has aligned himself with China White [Kelly Hu] and the Chinese Triad.” Looks to us like he’s taking a few cues from Wolverine, but we’re hopeful that White and Amell will give us the kinds of action scenes we’ve come to know and love from the show.
As the poster says, Arrow Season Two premieres on the CW October 9th and 8:00 PM.
Kurt Russell’s in talks to join Fast & Furious 7. That’s all the information we have, but we’re stoked! [via Deadline]
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire takes the premise of the first film — children killing each other for the entertainment of a dystopian future society — and adds an all new element: old people! Check some of them out in this latest poster. [via Collider]
Mattel’s Max Steel property is back in development with a script by comic book and screenwriter Christopher Yost (Thor: The Dark World) and Halo: Forward Unto Dawn director Stewart Hendler. Before the property got a recent toy and cartoon reboot, Taylor Lautner was previously attached to star in a film starring the action character. [via Variety]
In other Max movie news, it turns out that the long-delayed Mad Max: Fury Road will head to Sydney for three more weeks of shooting. In the time it’s taken to make this film, old school Australian directors could have made 17 movies. [via IF]
We hope someone behind the scenes on Brett Ratner’s Hercules: The Thracian War is paying Dwayne Johnson for getting people to talk about this movie. As he has plenty of times in the past, the actor Tweeted out a picture of himself getting scarred-up for the film. [via @TheRock]
Last week we found out that Amanda Waller will appear in the upcoming season of Arrow and now we know that Spartacus: War Of The Damned star Cynthia Addai-Robinson will play her. [via TV Guide]
Finally, enjoy the above snippet from the Roger Corman-produced martial arts film Fist Of The Dragon. [via Asian Movie Pulse]
Man Of Tai Chi not only marks Keanu Reeves’ return to the world of martial arts movies, but also his first outing as a director. In the film, he plays an evil puppetmaster type figure trying to see if he can corrupt a supposed man of peace played by Tiger Hu Chen. The film hits VOD and iTunes on September 27th and select theaters on October 1st.
The second season of Arrow looks to get pretty epic with the Hood trying to fix the destruction seen at the end of the CW show’s first season while also dealing with all kinds of comic book based characters like Black Canary, Bronze Tiger and Amanda Waller. The new season premieres on October 9th.
According to Asian Movie Pulse, HBO’s working on a series called Serangoon Road set in 60s Singapore dealing with gangs, spies and other shady groups. They’re shooting the series in Singapore and Indonesia right now. Looks pretty intriguing.
One of the most action-packed shows around continues hyping their second season. In addition to revealing the above poster, The CW also announced that the DC Comics-based Arrow will also feature an infamous character from the comics: Amanda Waller. SpoilerTV ran the following synopsis for “Keep Your Enemies Closer,” the sixth episode of the season:
This episode will see the introduction of recurring character Amanda Waller who is an agent of A.R.G.U.S. who sends out a team to kidnap Diggle.
A.R.G.U.S. was introduced as sneaky spy organization in 2011 as part of DC’s New 52 relaunch. In the comics, the group is partially run by Waller, a character with a long history of pulling strings behind the scenes and using superhumans and vigilantes to achieve her goals. The group itself has already appeared on Arrow in the episode “Home Invasion.”
Arrow’s second season kicks off on Wednesday, October 9th at 8:00 PM EST on The CW.
[via SHH]
The Michael Bay-produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles flick from director Jonathan Liebesman got pushed back to August 8, 2014. This movie’s getting moved around more than the Turtle Van on patrol. Is there any hope it will be good? [via THR]
Word on the street is that Disney’s so pissed about the The Lone Ranger not making it’s money back yet that they’re restructuring their deal with producer Jerry Bruckheimer. In the past, his contract said that he had final cut, but that might not be the case anymore with Pirates Of The Caribbean 5. [TheWrap]
CW’s DC Comics-based Arrow is recruiting The Killing actress Bex Taylor-Klaus to play a character called Sin. In the comics, Sin is a girl trained for years to replace super-assassin Lady Shiva who gets adopted by Black Canary. [via THR]
Speaking of Greg Berlanti-created shows, the futuristic prison series Paradise got snatched up by NBC. Berlanti’s teaming up with Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) to make the Prison Break-like show set in a version of Las Vegas that’s been converted into a giant prison. [via Deadline]
Divorces can be rough, especially when kids are involved. When Legendary split from Warners earlier this summer, some of the films the former financed were left without distribution. That was the case with Sergei Bodrov’s The Seventh Son, but don’t worry, the Jeff Bridges film will now be distributed by Legendary’s new partner Universal. [via TheWrap]
Warner Bros. snatched up a pitch by Mark L. Smith (Vacancy) called Herald about a Viking king that Leonardo DiCaprio may or may not play. [via Deadline]
James Cameron revealed to Visionaries that he was thinking of blue ladies well before he came up with the idea for Avatar. [via Movies.com]
Dig this crazy set from Brett Ratner’s Hercules. [via Dwayne Johnson’s Twitter]
Finally, this video reenacts the Peter/Chicken fight from Family Guy as performed by stuntwomen Jessie Graff and Tree O’Toole. [via Topless Robot]
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