One of the scripts on the 2016 Black List is called Fairy Godmother, and it’s exactly what you think. Image: Disney
The Golden Globes may have been the biggest news in Hollywood today, but second was the release of the Black List. It’s an annual list where Hollywood tastemakers vote on the best unproduced screenplays floating around town. And this year, as expected, there’s a good amount of science fiction.
The scripts on the list, and their writers’ names, may not be familiar now, but Black List movies often become big studio films. So take a glimpse and file these away. They could just become the best science fiction movies of the rest of the decade.
Here are the titles, writers, and official descriptions of the science fiction films on the 2016 Black List.
VOYAGERS by Zach Dean
The cosmic love story of Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan.
IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE by Colby Day
Explores the entire history of the universe and our species through three interwoven storylines that question the very nature of life, love, mortality, where we’ve been, and where we’re going; the past, present, and future of the human race.
THE TIME TRAVELER’S LA RONDE by Tom Dean
An exploration of relationships as a man witnesses different types of love across the ages.
FAIRY GODMOTHER by Chiara Atik
When sought after Fairy Godmother Faye is hired by a mind-bogglingly gorgeous teenage client, Kenzie, to find her true love with the hottest prince in the land, Faye finds herself facing an unfamiliar challenge when the prince starts falling for her instead.
FREE GUY by Matt Lieberman
A bank teller stuck in his routine discovers he’s a background character in a realistic, open world action-adventure video game and he is the only one capable of saving the city.
I THINK WE’RE ALONE NOW by Mike Makowsky
The apocalypse proves a blessing in disguise for one lucky recluse — until a second survivor arrives with the threat of companionship.
MAN ALIVE by Joe Greenberg
After an alien invasion takes over the minds of humankind, one survivor known as “Man” must make peace with the alien force to fight a greater evil.
MOTHER by Michael Lloyd Green
A teenage girl is raised underground by a robot “Mother” – designed to repopulate the earth’s surface following an extinction-level event. But their unique bond is threatened when an inexplicable stranger arrives with alarming news.
To read about the other films on the list, as well as find out producers and studios behind these scripts, check out the full list.
The Aquaman movie has found another potential villain, in the form of Aquaman’s half-brother: Orm the Ocean Master.
Deadline has revealed that Patrick Wilson (Watchmen, Insidious, The Conjuring) will be playing Orm, the half-brother of Arthur Curry who eventually becomes the Ocean Master in the comics—envious of his brother after living in his shadow for years, making several attempts to wrestle the throne of Atlantis from him.
Whether or not Orm is the main villain of the film remains to be seen: previous reports stated that iconic Aquaman foe Black Manta would be the primary bad guy of the film. But it’s possible that Black Manta could be saved for potential sequels, instead using the first Aquaman solo movie to focus on a bit more of a brotherly rivalry before pulling out... well, pretty much the only other villain Aquaman is really known for.
The key concern of protesters at Standing Rock has been and remains the environmental hazard posed by Energy Transfer Partners’ 1,200-mile pipeline, which would have the potential to taint local water supplies and destroy sacred grounds. Confirming those exact fears, a pipeline in North Dakota has spilled some 176,000 gallons of crude into a creek 150 miles north of the protest encampments.
CNBC reported the spill poured unrefined petroleum into the Ash Coulee Creek for several hours. Electronic monitoring systems in the Belle Fourche pipeline failed for unknown reasons. Although a shutdown contained further leakage, those 176,000 gallons spread six miles into the surrounding area. The spill was discovered by an unnamed individual in Belfield, ND on December 5th but the actual date of the spill is unknown.
Good news for fans of Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time: the show will return at the end of January for a four-night special event, composed of eight episodes. It’ll be called Adventure Time: Islands, and it promises to delve into the question of what happened to all of Finn’s fellow humans.
Here’s the official synopsis, followed by a sneak peek at the opening credits:
In Adventure Time: Islands, Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada), Jake (John DiMaggio), BMO (Niki Yang) and Susan Strong (Jackie Buscarino)leave the Land of Ooo to embark on a quest of epic proportions across the ocean and into new lands—encountering new creatures, discovering new islands and using teamwork along the way.
The special event kicks off Jan. 30 and runs through February 2 on Cartoon Network. If you can’t wait that long and/or you have some holiday gift cards burning a hole in your pocket, you can pick up Adventure Time: Islands for $15 starting January 24 on DVD, iTunes, Amazon Video, and Google Play. The advance release will contain all eight episodes plus special features like an art gallery and song demos.
Cover credits, from Left to Right: Sandra Lanz, Jaime Hernandez, and Art Baltazar.
They’re only one-shots for now, but who’s to say we couldn’t get a Sabrina book or even more Archie Horror in the future? The world of the “New Riverdale” reboot in Archie Comics is getting a little bigger next year with four new standalone comics.
Announced by Entertainment Weekly, the four new one-shots will come to the “New Riverdale” line as an almost pilot season-esque opportunity. According to Archie Comics CEO Jon Goldwater, if the issues stoke enough excitement, they could become ongoing series themselves:
These new launches give readers a wider lens with which to see the Archie characters and concepts. I think of it as a very ambitious and top-line pilot season that showcases the successful and acclaimed New Riverdale sensibility. If these books resonate, fans might just see them greenlit as regular series.
So what’s on offer? Well, first up, there’s the adorable return of Little Archie, by Art Baltazar and Franco, in a story about Archie getting his homework eaten by a cat (twist!) In The Archies, by Alex Segura, Matt Rosenberg, and Joe Eisma, Archie kicks off his journey to musical stardom and discovers how his quest for fame will affect his closest relationships.
Then there’s Katie Cook, Franco, and Andy Price’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which follows the young witch as she leaves home for the first time to go to College, and then last but not least, a new entry in the Archie Horror line, Jughead: The Hunger, by Frank Tieri and Michael Walsh, which promises to explore the “dark family legacy” of Jughead Jones. It’s not specific, but look at this cover and tell me it’s not going to be about werewolf Jughead:
Cover by Michael Walsh.
Werewolf Jughead is both a) the name of a comic I desperately want to read and b) the name of my fictional ska band.
All four Archie one-shots will hit shelves in March next year.
Dungeons & Dragons has historically used attractive monsters, and especially of the female persuasion, to appeal to potential players. Busty demons and lithe wood maidens populated its source material, namely its Monster Manual, throughout the last 40 years.
With recent editions and supplements, D&D has phased out its bare-breasted female monsters and included more sexy male ones, making it clear that the game is going in a different direction. Now, as the game’s 5th edition, released in 2013, works to bring in a bigger audience, you’ll see fewer bare breasts and more abs in the Monster Manual and its Fall, 2016 supplement, Volo’s Guide to Monsters. Recent design changes to the game’s beasts reflect how D&D meditated on its own marketing practices.
Mike Mearls, the Senior Manager of D&D, told me that “In the game’s earliest years, you definitely had a sense of nudity (looking at you, topless succubus in the 1st edition DMG [Dungeon Master’s Guide]!) as something that was becoming a common counter-culture of the time.” Now, D&D is a different game. The counter-culture Mearls refers to was, for the most part, marketed to straight men.
That’s because D&D’s early fandom was mostly male. A 1978 survey puts the percentage of female fans at between .4 and 2.3 percent. The game’s disinterest in courting women was hotly discussed in early ‘80s Dragonmagazine columns like “Dungeons aren’t supposed to be ‘for men only’” and “Women want equality. And why not?”. In AD&D, players could reference a “Harlot Table,” an array of twelve “brazen strumpets or haughty courtesons.” Early on, the game’s rules penalized players’ strength score if they chose to be female. It’s not hard to see how the game’s ruleset, illustrations and culture, so mired in wargaming, engendered a bit of a boys’ club
Gary Gygax, the game’s co-creator, was a big pulp fantasy guy. Conan was his bible. And, in Conan, women are hot, well-endowed, and ready to get down—even enemy or non-human women. In Robert E. Howard’s “Frost Giant’s Daughter,” a sexy frost giant who, “save for a light veil of gossamer” was “naked as the day,” is used to lure the barbarian to her father and brother, who would kill him. It’s the classic femme fatale trope, Mearls explained. Greek myths and European folk tales, from which D&D take inspiration, often use these non-human women as vulnerable lures or fierce beasts. Mearls said, “I imagine in the early, male-dominated years of the hobby that took root and became a cliché.”
The 1977 Monster Manual’s marilith and auccubus1977 Monster Manual’s lamia and erinyes
“I think there was a feedback cycle where the inner circle of fandom was mostly male, that group gave feedback on what they liked, and you had art that delivered what they wanted,” Mearls said. For D&D’s Monster Manual, the game’s first hardcover supplement, that was especially the case.
Mariliths, Erinyes, Lamias and other female monsters are canonically naked with large breasts in the late ‘70s AD&D (the Dryad is hiding behind a tree in a tattered dress). AD&D’s Monster Manual also features a completely naked succubus, crouching down with her arms covering her nipples. It makes sense—a succubus is traditionally seductive, and appears naked in ancient sculpture and Medieval paintings. But in AD&D, 2e 3.5e or 4e—between the late ‘70s and ‘00s—-there was no male aspect of that mythological paradigm, no incubus. He finally appears in a 4th edition supplement, the Demonomicon, in 2010, two years after 4th edition’s release.
Monster Manual canon added the incubus in 2013’s 5th edition, D&D’s Lead Rules Developer Jeremy Crawford explained to me, to “echo the wondrous variety in the human experience and in the myths that muse on that experience.”
5th edition incubus and succubus
If a creature is canonically sexy, Mearls confirmed, D&D’s 5th edition team designed it with a male and female form. In 5e, the ncubus happens to resemble a Buffy character—definitely a bid for straight women’s interest (in the Demonomicon, he’s fully-armored, cross-armed and leaning back in a chair). “We’re equal opportunity cheesecake merchants,” Mearls added. “We don’t assume heterosexual male players.”
Crawford elaborated, “The question shouldn’t be, ‘Why should we add an incubus to our game?’ The question should be, ‘Why was the incubus taken away?’ Why is only half of the succubus/incubus tradition being carried forward by so many games?”
My early years with D&D can answer that question. The first or second time I played in college, my buddy Sam showed me a picture of the nymph in the 3.5 edition Monster Manual. He flipped through the book and paused on her, a slender, red-haired woman wearing only a thin cloth. She rose from the water, the fabric sheer and revealing her every detail. (The nymph is a staple of the AD&D Monster Manual, and in the next Monster Manual edition, she’s wearing the same sheer dress as she is in 3.5.) That, Sam said, is what got him into the role-playing game.
D&D 3.5e’s Nymph, an example of how D&D has portrayed female monsters
What he said stuck with me. A few days ago, I followed up with him and asked him for more details. He told me that, when he was 12 at summer camp and horny as hell, he got introduced to D&D. The nymph was the first thing that grabbed him. He said, “When I saw that image of that nymph, I was excited, not just because I was turned on, but because, strangely, it wasn’t weird. We were just fantasy nerds saying ‘oh, man, sexy nymph.’” He felt like a part of a community that accepted him.
“Because of the fantasy of D&D, I felt safe in my attraction to her. It played a role in my personal sexual awakening,” he said. Later, he bought some D&D books and accessories. D&D’s edginess, which helped connect my friend Sam to his first D&D party, seduced people on the outskirts of mainstream culture.
Mearls explained that he thinks“it was natural to gravitate toward art that, at the time, would’ve been considered edgy and ‘out there.’” And much of that art showcased ripe, young lady monsters—still ubiquitous in bedroom fantasy posters and figurines.
I never really identified with that. Sure, there were ripped male demons in the D&D Monster Manual. But that wasn’t a lure for me, and in any case, those monsters’ design didn’t really appeal to me or my straight, female friends. I loved the idea of communal storytelling, of escapism, of gaming a very strict (and at that point, complicated) ruleset to get an intended outcome. The nymph, for me, felt a little off-putting. It was so obviously engineered to turn on straight men. Was there anything about the game’s monsters obviously engineered for me?
By the 4th edition of D&D, the nymph is absent from the Monster Manual. By 5th, it’s clear that she’s gone for good. In an e-mail, Mearls said that nymphs were simply unpopular monsters among Dungeon Masters. 5th edition was designed after crowdsourced playtesting, and over 175,000 responses from early testers confirmed that gamers prefer elder brains and beholders, apparently, to monster boobs.
“When we considered the audience, we tried to think of how men and women would react, and make sure the reaction we elicited was in keeping with the monster’s character and the design intent,” Mearls said.
Volo’s Guide’s Yuan-Ti Nightmare Speaker
In the 5th edition of the Monster Manual, nudity is still there when it needs to be—but, when breasts can be covered, generally, they are. Even the harpie, canonically unashamed of her body, is crouched such that none of her lady-bits are visible. Bare breasts are absent from Volo’s Guide, the latest supplement to the Monster Manual out in October of this year, in what Mearls says was a conscious effort to “make sure that the art we presented was as appealing to as wide an audience as possible.” Probably the most stereotypically “sexy” female monster in Volo’s Guide is the Yuan-Ti Nightmare Speaker, a dark, muscled woman in a tight halter top with a snakelike torso. Her male counterpart, the Yuan-Ti Pit Master, is long-haired, hard-bodied and undeniably sexy.
Yuan-Ti Pit Master
It’s worth noting that D&D itself encourages players to riff on what’s in the source material. A Yuan-Ti Nightmare Speaker can be naked in your campaign. The nymph can exist, and she can be wearing a boa and red platforms. How sexy you want your monsters to be all depends on the creativity of your Dungeon Master. For new audiences getting introduced to the game, though, a more toned-down or even sexuality across genders may prove more seductive to diverse audiences.
In filmmaker Phiong Mai Nguyen’s short fantasy film Chez Moi, a little boy is startled to encounter his beloved mother’s new boyfriend one morning at the breakfast table. Making matters even more distressing: he’s not a human, but rather a giant bird. Wearing a shirt and tie, and seemingly friendly... but still. A BIRD.
Chez Moi resembles drawings from a children’s book come to life, but it’s surreal and dark, like a fairy tale set in a time when kids wear hoodies and eat monster-themed breakfast cereal. Is the man really a bird-man, or just a scary adversary conjured by a confused boy? The movie leaves it just as it should—ambiguous.
James Gunn reiterates not to get your hopes up for Nova in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Sigourney Weaver teases her Defenders villain. Ben Affleck offers an update on The Batman. Plus, new footage from Resident Evil: The Final Chapter and Rogue One, and what’s to come on The Walking Dead. To me, my spoilers!
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
While director James Gunn is a fan of the character, don’t expect Nova to make an appearance in the sequel:
You know, I think Nova is a great character. He may definitely show up at some point in the future. It will not be in Guardians 2, but at some point.
Ben Affleck talks about where he’s at with the film with the New York Times, discussing the fact he’s still working on the script:
I’m a real believer in not reverse engineering projects to meet a window or a date. So, that’s what we’re doing.
I’m really mindful of that. I’m not in any hurry to jam a mediocre film down the pipe.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Here’s a new featurette focusing on Alan Tudyk’s droid character, K-2SO
Meanwhile, Ben Mendelsohn talks to Coming Soon about Krennic’s stature within the Empire compared to Grand Moff Tarkin:
Tarkin ranks him, but sort of tangentially. He’s not straight above him, in his way, but he does rank him. And Tarkin, yeah, Tarkin, he ranks him there.
And here’s a new TV spot, featuring a few reactions from the premiere.
Assassin’s Creed
The assassins go on the attack in the past and Callum faces a shady threat in the present in two new clips from the film.
The Dark Tower
Roland and the Man in Black have a staring contest in a new image from the film. [Bloody Disgusting]
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
Two TV spots. You know the drill.
Arrow
TV Line’s Michael Ausiello and Matt Mitovich tease what to expect from Laurel’s surprise return to the Arrow Cave during last week’s midseason finale:
Laurels return will be a 9 on the emotional scale, that’s what [executive producer] Wendy Mericle told me. She said to me specifically that the Laurel storyline—or should we say “Laurel” —depends on what you believe…
That storyline, as a whole, will have an emotional resonance for not just Oliver, but Oliver and Felicity. Felicity, actually, is going to be the biggest skeptic about “Laurel” while Oliver is little bit more into seeing his old friend again, under whatever circumstances he thinks she came back.
Meanwhile, episode 14 of the current season is ominously titled “The Sin-Eater.”
The Defenders
Sigourney Weaver continues to tease her mysterious villain:
Meanwhile, I am doing The Defenders, which is a lot of fun. It has a wonderful cast, and we’re doing it right here in New York, which means a lot to me.
Basically the four heroes come up against this really nice woman, who I’m playing. To me they’re not superheroes; they’re people with a gift. It’s just a different scale, and I’m really enjoying the scale of it. The apocalyptic thing is a little harder for me to understand.
Grant Gustin hopes a new speedster suit is sitting under the Christmas Tree for Barry Allen this year (although he presumably means “past due” unless he’s making some joke about “passed” as in “being passed by other, newer Speedsters).
Grimm
Here’s a synopsis for the season six opener, “Fugitive.”
Following the massacre in Nick’s loft, Captain Renard is hell bent on eliminating him once and for all. Hank and Wu head back to the precinct to keep an eye on the Captain and give the gang the upper hand. Meanwhile, Monroe and Rosalee grapple with staying in Portland now that their family will be expanding. Elsewhere, Eve suffers the side effects of the mysterious stick’s healing power.
Elyse Levesque is set to guest-star as Guinevere, presumably in the Camelot/3000 episode, according to EW. Here’s a tweet from Caity Lotz featuring the actress on set.
The Walking Dead
A clip from the show’s return in February has been released.
Justice League Action
And finally, the show gets a promo with help of Teen Titans Go’s Beast Boy and Cyborg.
Additional reporting by Gordon Jackson. Banner art by Jim Cooke.
Image: Bib Fortuna from Return of the Jedi, Lucasfilm/Disney
Above: a healthy Twi’lek. Below, one who desperately needs a doctor or a bacta tank or something.
Entertainment Weeklypublished photos of new alien and droid characters from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story the other day, and I think there’s something very wrong with one Beezer Fortuna.
His lekku are very small and limp and his neck is all deflated. I don’t know a ton about Twi’lek physiology—maybe this is how they age?—but something just makes this guy look very different from Bib Fortuna, Jabba the Hutt’s majordomo in Return of the Jedi and presumably a relative of Beezer’s.
After declaring DC superhero Wonder Woman an honorary ambassador, the United Nations has decided to revoke the fictional character’s title. Her selection in October had been met with some controversy, both inside and out of the U.N., but it’s hard to see this as anything other than a shame.
To be fair, some of the furor over Wonder Woman’s appointment as Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls is pretty understandable. When “Concerned United Nations staff members” created a petition asking that the character be reconsidered for her role, it noted her “overtly sexualized image” as “a large breasted, white woman of impossible proportions, scantily clad in a shimmery, thigh-baring body suit with an American flag motif and knee high boots” whose American flag-inspired outfit was “not culturally encompassing or sensitive.”
Most damningly, the petition decried that “the United Nations was unable to find a real life woman that would be able to champion the rights of ALL women on the issue of gender equality and the fight for their empowerment.” That’s a very fair point.
All that said, condemning Wonder Woman for her appearance and dress is reductive at best. Not that artists haven’t been guilty of sexifying Diana up, but she’s been recognized as a feminist icon at least since Gloria Steinem put her on the cover of Ms. magazine in 1972. And while she’s done her share of supervillain punching (and occasional killing), Wonder Woman has also spent the vast majority her years in the comics defending those in need, supporting women everywhere, and inspiring... everybody. The reaction to Diana’s revoked ambassadorship gives plenty of evidence of why she deserved it so much:
Rest assured
Here’s my biggest problem, though. Earlier in 2016, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed an Angry Bird—as in, from the cellphone game—as an honorary ambassador for the International Day of Happiness. If a stupid cellphone game mascot from 2009 can represent the United Nations, then there should be no question that the greatest female superhero in the world for over 75 years can and should be Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls. And that’s a truth you don’t need a golden lasso to uncover.
It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that James Gunn writes everything down before he shoots it—the guy has a seemingly endless reservoir of information about the way he filmed things, what music fits where, and storyboards. But now he’s shared a bit from the packet he gave Marvel when he was trying to get the Guardians of the Galaxy directing gig.
Gunn shared the information on—where else?—Facebook. What’s kind of amazing is how much of his initial pitch ended up in the movie. This is almost exactly how we first saw Chris Pratt as Star-Lord:
By the way, the math here tells us that Gunn gave Marvel 72 pages when he was presenting himself as a potential director. You cannot say he didn’t want it.
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We see a ton of deals on affordable Bluetooth earbuds, but if you’ve been waiting for a solid discount on noise-cancelling on-ears before you cut the cord, you’re in luck today.
Amazon’s marked down BÖHM’s Bluetooth headphones to $63 today as part of a Gold Box deal. These 4.1 star-rated cans include 18 hours of battery life, 40mm drivers, and yes, even active noise cancellation. One color has already sold out, so I wouldn’t wait.
It’s true that Vizio 5.1 sound bars are cheaper and simpler to set up, but if you’re willing to make room for a receiver and run some wires, you’ll be able to get much more separation on the front channels by using separate speakers. Today’s price is within a dollar of an all-time low, so it’s a great chance to give your home theater a huge boost.
With the football season in full swing, it’s about time you rep your team with this NFL Gear Gold Box. Even if your fantasy team is doing better than your actual team, there are discounted team tees, hoodies, and snapbacks to at least help pad your tailgating budget. As with all Gold Box deals, it’s only around for a day (which is only slightly shorter than most football games).
If you’ve been avoiding the inevitable purchasing of a new winter coat in hopes of the world ending before you actually need it, your time is running out. In the meantime, why not grab a super discounted one from Amazon’s one-day sale on winter coats? There are also some lighter styles in there in case you’ve thrown out all your outerwear for some reason.
There are a couple pages of options for men, women, and kids with styles ranging from the typical winter parka to a lined peacoat. Here are a few of the better-rated styles, but head to Amazon to see the rest.
Eddie Bauer is one of those reliable, every day brands. You can basically get anything you need for work or outdoors all in one place, for a reasonable price. Use the code LIGHTS and get 50% off nearly every thing in their store in honor of an extended Green Monday (Stop trying to make Green Monday happen, it’s not going to happen.).
There’s an entire section dedicated to NERF stuff, with dozens of options available for $15 or less. A few of our favorites are below, but head over to Amazon to browse the complete arsenal.
...Red Baron Pack and the Lawrence of Arabia Pack - containing themed weapons, vehicles and items. Plus five Battlepacks containing combinations of items. Also exchanges the visual appearance on three of the largest vehicles in the game.
Whichever one you choose, you’ll get a 14" statue, steelbook packaging, a cloth poster, a deck of playing cards, an exclusive patch, and a messenger pigeon tube with extra DLC content that’s only available in this package.
Just remember that this is a Gold Box deal, so go over the top and start your offensive before Amazon sells out or changes the prices back to normal.
Philips’ indoor grill isn’t the Foreman grill you’re probably picturing. Rather than heating the grill plate directly, the Philips uses two infrared burners on the bottom to direct heat upwards at a constant 446 degrees, which is far hotter than most electric grills, and perfect for searing meat.
Today’s $200 deal is about $60-$80 less than usual, and an all-time low. And no, that’s still not exactly cheap, but if you live in an apartment and can’t use a real grill outdoors, this is the closest indoor facsimile you’re going to find. In fact, I’d go so far as to call this deal...sizzling.
$50 gets you the Yi Dash Cam in gold today, down from its usual $70. The key feature here is 1080p/60 recording, compared to the 1080/30 you normally see in this price range. That means you have twice as many frames to get a clear shot of a license plate. Its f/1.8 aperture, 165 degree FOV, and 2.7" screen are nothing to sneeze at either.
If you remember the old label makers that literally pressed the letters into a piece of tape, this is a bit more advanced than what you’re picturing. The P-Touch can print in nine fonts across two lines, along with clipart and special characters, and can even print on multiple label widths, including special iron-on labels.
Stanley’s growler kit includes a 64 oz. stainless steel growler, plus four 12 oz. steel tumblers to match, and you can get the whole set for $40 today with code LIGHTS, plus free shipping. If you have any beer lovers on your shopping list who still need a gift, you could do a whole lot worse.
The loss of headphone jack on the iPhone 7 has been felt most acutely by owners of older cars, who until now could use the port to listen to audio in the car while still charging their phones. This $18 Bluetooth/FM transmitter will be a cold comfort to those people, I’m sure, but it’s certainly better than nothing.
Star Wars: Battlefrontisn’t a perfect game, but it’s pretty tempting at $10 on PS4 and Xbox One, the lowest price we’ve seen. If nothing else, it’ll give you something to do while you wait for Rogue One to come out.
The next two months are a treacherous time for your waistline, and I’m not just talking about election night stress-eating and binge drinking. That’s where the Sweethome-recommendedWithings Body comes in.
The Withings Body Composition Wi-Fi Scale looks like any other bathroom scale at first glance, but it can automatically sync your vitals to your phone (including Apple’s HealthKit), track your indoor air quality (what?!), and even measure your heart rate. It typically sells for around $130, but Amazon has it for $68 right now after you clip the 25% coupon, which is by far the best price we’ve ever seen.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was available for $25 around Black Friday. But if that wasn’t enough to convince you, how’s $20 sound? If you’re still on the fence, be sure to check out Kotaku’s review.
It’s time to get started on holiday decorating, but you can save money, not to mention time, by taking advantage of Amazon’s Star Shower Motion deal.
If you aren’t familiar, these genius little gadgets use lasers to project red and green lights onto the front of your house, giving the appearance of holiday spirit without the hassle of actually hanging up outdoor lights. We’ve seen a few deals lately on on these things, but this is the original, as-seen-on-TV Star Shower that started the trend last year, now marked down to $34, which is actually $1 less than Cyber Monday.
If you’ve beaten your current phone or tablet case all to hell, you can treat yourself to a new one from Speck during their big holiday sale. For a limited time, they’re marking down every smartphone case they sell by 30%, and every tablet case by 40%, plus free two day shipping on all orders. They still aren’t the cheapest smartphone cases you can buy, but they’re among the best.
iPhone and iPad owners can never own enough Lightning cables, especially when you can get two for $10. As an aside, Apple still charges $19 for a single cable.
With physical buttons and a touch screen, the ability to control up to 15 devices, a handy charging cradle, and more compatibility than any other brand, the Harmony Ultimate One is a worthy addition to your home and home theater, and today’s $100 deal is easily the best we’ve ever seen.
Why stop with just a griddle, grill, and panini press? Add the optional waffle iron plates to your cart, and get even more use out of your new toy.
In case you missed out during Deals Week, several of Amazon’s most popular gadgets are back on sale for one last push during the holiday shopping season.
The Echoes and Paperwhite are back down to the same prices at Black Friday, while the $40 Fire Tablet deal is $7 higher than it was before. Interestingly, the Fire HD 10 actually didn’t get a Black Friday discount, so today’s $200 deal is your first chance to save on that model in quite some time.
While it doesn’t print in color, it more than makes up for that with the ability to spit out 32 pages per minute, duplex printing, and inexpensive toner cartridges that can last for years without being replaced. We’ve posted a lot of Brother deals in the past, and we’ve heard nothing but good things from readers about them. Plus, this particular model has a sterling 4.4 star review average on Amazon, a built-in scanner, and AirPrint and Google Cloud Print support, so it should serve you well for years.
You’ve got two choices when it comes to checking on the progress of your dinner in the oven. You could poke at it with a kitchen thermometer until you think it’s done, or you could sit on the couch and wait for your phone to tell you when it’s ready.
The highly-rated iDevices iGrill Mini Thermometer uses a leave-in probe to monitor the progress of your meal on the grill, on the stovetop, or even in the oven, and connects to your iPhone or Android device over Bluetooth to alert you as soon as it reaches the proper temperature. I actually gave a slightly different iDevices thermometer to my dad for his birthday a few years ago, and it worked as advertised. Today’s $24 price tag is an all-time low, so be sure to grab yours before this deal overcooks.
Perfect for the film buff on your holiday shopping list, if you buy a $50 Regal Cinemas gift card, you’ll get a $10 bonus code via email. If you keep that code for yourself, we won’t tell.
Anker’s home goods brand, Eufy, put its new set of copper string lights back on sale today for their lowest price ever, complete with adjustable brightness and multiple effects. A version of these lights without the remote was on sale for $7 last week, but the remote’s convenience and added lighting options make it well worth the price premium.
Hot off the heels of its $10-off-$25 physical book sale last weekend, Amazon’s now taking $5 off any $15 book purchase (including multiple, cheaper books) with promo code GIFTBOOK.
Just like last time, this deal excludes Kindle titles and audiobooks, but if there are any commemorative coffee table-type books or collector’s editions that you’ve been eyeing, this is a great opportunity. Just choose carefully; you can only use the code once per account.
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The most moving moments in the history of Star Wars are always the darkest. The end of The Empire Strikes Back and the deaths of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda are a few examples on a much longer list. Thankfully, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story understands that and more. It’s a movie that nails what it means to be Star Wars in seemingly every way, and it’s not afraid to scare the bejeezus out of a few kids to get there.
Because Rogue One is dark. There’s death, there’s destruction, there’s emotion, and there’s struggle. Not everyone is going to make it out okay, and yet, at the end of the film, somehow it’s all worth it. That’s because the darkness is balanced with the familiar iconography and tone of Star Wars, resulting in a film that gives its audience a truly fulfilling experience.
We all knew the story, well before the movie was even announced: Rebels steal the plans to the Death Star, which Princess Leia will eventually put into R2-D2. We already know how the movie ends, but director Gareth Edwards uses its clear, direct path to instantly suck the audience in. At each step, new characters are introduced, new challenges are presented, and we’re showered in glorious Star Wars easter eggs. Things rarely let up until the final credits.
The relatively uncomplicated structure also helps the movie’s pacing. We see what’s happening with the Rebels, then we see what’s happening with the Imperials. There’s exposition, but not a lot of filler, and those strands regularly link with gritty, handheld, boots-on-the-ground action that gives the audience a more human view of the galaxy. It’s a Star Wars story, but on the street level.
Rogue One’s characters, on the other hand, run the gamut from instantly iconic to disappointing. There are probably 10 major new characters, depending on your definition of “major.” The hero is Jyn Erso, played by Felicity Jones. She’s the focal point of everything and yet, despite having the most time to develop, the audience’s connection with her ebbs and flows. Her relationship with her father (played by Mads Mikkelsen) is a highlight, but how she goes from there to a powerful leader isn’t quite developed. She’s a great fighter at the start, but she seems to forget that towards the end. It’s almost as if she’s several different characters rolled into one, and it’s hard to get a grip on.
Jyn’s main ally, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), is similar in that same way. Like Jyn, he’s given plenty of scenes to explain why he acts the way he does, yet we feel a little ambiguous toward him. He talks about his emotions, but we only see them on occasion. Both characters are worth cheering for, but they’re not the real standouts.
Those are a bit further down the roster, and include Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen) and Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang). Like all the best Star Wars characters, the pair, friends who join Jyn’s crew along the way, feel like they have an incredible history we don’t yet know, and it helps make their friendship feel real and strong. They’re the perfect example of characters you don’t get to know much about, so all you want is more of them.
But K-2SO is the real star of Rogue One. The Imperial droid played by Alan Tudyk is by far one of the best things in the film. His dry sense of humor and brutal honesty are like an electric shock to the movie every single time he’s on screen. He’s the antithesis of Forest Whitaker’s Saw Gerrera, a character from The Clone Wars animated series whose appearance in Rogue One was much anticipated, but who serves little purpose in the movie except as a plot point.
Over on the Imperial side, there’s Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn). He’s a mostly worthy adversary in the film, but he never really gets the “wow” moments you expect from a Star Wars bad guy. He is, however, in some “wow” scenes thanks to characters like Darth Vader appearing alongside him. Nevertheless, Krennic’s presence in the film never really inspires fear.
While the characters can be a mixed bag, the technical aspects of the film are not. The effects in Rogue One are outstanding. The costumes and creature work are stupendous. And though Michael Giacchino’s score doesn’t use as much of John Williams’ original score as fans may like, it serves the story well. Cinematographer Greig Fraser also deserves a mention, because whether it’s a sweeping vista or a close-up action scene, everything about the film is beautiful. (Well, almost everything—in a few instances that are too spoiler-y to explain, sometimes Rogue One’s visual effects are quite jarring. However, their ambition overshadows a less-than-seamless integration.)
Still, like a lot of Star Wars films, minor flaws kind of melt away, especially when you get to the third act, and Rogue One is no exception. The actual stealing of the plans is a rousing finale, with lots of moving parts, plenty of drama, and varied action. Even when individual moments feel a tad underwhelming, the film’s velocity—and the way it nails what make Star Wars so wonderful—carries you through so even as you leave the theater you’ll think about when you’re going to see it again.
But as you leave, you may also start to wonder something. The film has so many surprises and winks to the rest of the franchise—are all those fan moments of excitement and recognition masking the film’s other flaws? If you’re a Star Wars fan, it’s hard to say definitively when you’re on one side or the other, but I do feel the characters, pacing, and story are engaging without them. Hopefully the many connections to the other films—and there are a lot of them—act more as sprinkles on top.
Either way, while Rogue One has a few problems, it ultimately comes together nicely. The stakes and consequences for the characters give it a real emotional anchor, and you’ll marvel at how dense every frame is packed with (for lack of a better word) Star Wars-ness. Sure, not every character is a classic, but some of them are, and the way this story leads into A New Hope is delightful. Like its predecessors, Rogue One is a Star Wars movie we’re going to be watching for a long time.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens in the US this Friday, December 16.
Artist’s impression of exoplanet HAT-P-7b. (Image: Warwick University)
A Jupiter-like planet located 1,000 light-years from Earth is exhibiting some rather strange meteorological behavior. The clouds on this planet appear to be made from corundum—the same mineral that produces rubies and sapphires.
Using the Kepler space telescope, astronomers from Warwick University have detected individual weather patterns on HAT-P-7b, a hot Jupiter that’s about 16 times larger than Earth. These weather reports are now described in the latest edition of Nature Astronomy, and they’re among the first to be produced for a planet outside our solar system.
Strangely, the clouds on HAT-P-7b appear to be infused with a crystalline form of aluminium oxide—a compound otherwise known as corundum, and the mineral from which rubies and sapphires are formed. Powerful and highly variable winds blow these clouds across the planet, likely leading to catastrophic storms. Gazing upon this planet from space, a visitor would scarcely believe their eyes at the shimmering, jewel-like spectacle.
A team led by David Armstrong made the discovery by monitoring the light being reflected from the planet’s atmosphere, and identifying changes in the light over time. Bright cloud patches were seen shifting position as they were blown across the sky by the planet’s powerful and variable equatorial jet stream. These changes, monitored over a four-year period, were recorded across timescales of tens to hundreds of days.
Not surprisingly, this planet could never be habitable, owing to its violent weather systems and hostile temperatures (this planet is so close to its star that it requires just 2.2 days to make a complete orbit). One side of the planet perpetually faces its massive star, producing temperatures exceeding 2,500 degrees Celsius (2860 Kelvin).
“HAT-P-7b is a tidally locked planet, with the same side always facing its star,” explained Armstrong in a press release. “We expect clouds to form on the cold night side of the planet, but they would evaporate quickly on the hot dayside.”
These results, say the researchers, show that strong winds circle the planet, bringing clouds from the night side to the dayside. The winds change speed dramatically, leading to massive cloud formations that build up and gradually fade away.
At a distance of 1,000 light-years from Earth, it’s unlikely that we’ll ever get a chance to visit. Hopefully the next generation of space telescopes will give us a better view of this spectacular planet and its dramatic weather conditions.
Or actually, she’s already been introduced—and she’s not a replacement, but a part of Ghost Rider history. Say hello to Kushala: your newest, oldest Ghost Rider.
Kushala, a Native American warrior from the late 19th century, isn’t getting her own comic quite yet, but she’s been rolling around as part of Doctor Strange’s weird and wonderful magic team in Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme, where her mystical abilities and fiery warhorse have seen her referred to as the “Demon Rider.” Except now the latest issue will reveal that that’s just old-timey nomenclature for describing someone who wields the powers of the spirit of vengeance as Ghost Rider.
Revealed by Comicbook.com today, the “twist” will take place in Sorcerers Supreme #3, featuring a cover that in part reveals her flaming-skull-based legacy, and what appears to be a small part of her origin story:
Naturally, it involves bad things, and also a little bit of vengeance. Perfect for any Ghost Rider! While Robbie Reyes might be back in action as Ghost Rider in the comics, its pretty cool to see the history and legacy of the character fleshed out in ways like this. One day a Ghost Rider anthology miniseries looking at different incarnations of the character throughout history wouldn’t go amiss, Marvel.
Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme is due out December 28th.
Here is the new trailer for the next series of Power Rangers, Ninja Steel, set to begin airing on Nick next month. It’s got, as you might have judged by the title of the show, ninja Power Rangersin it. But it does not yet have the greatest ninja ranger of them all in it, and that saddens me.
As you are probably aware of by now, ever since it first began decades ago, Power Rangers has adapted its action footage, giant robots, and super uniforms from the Japanese tokustatsu franchise Super Sentai. Ninja Steel is no exception, taking footage from the 2015 sentai show Shuriken Sentai Ninninger, and while you can see the main team of five Rangers in action in the trailer above, you don’t get to see the eventual sixth addition to the ranger team: the now-traditional mysterious addition to the team that usually shows up at first as an antagonist before deciding to join the good guys.
Having seen the original Japanese series, I am proud to introduce you ahead of time to the sixth Ranger who will be making his appearance on Ninja Steel:
Yes, he’s a cowboy ninja Ranger. Because you see in Nininnger, StarNinger—a.k.a Kinji Takigawa—grew up in America fighting evil spirits called Yokai alongside his family. If you can’t tell the American influence on his upbringing without the rocking guitar sword or the helmet shaped like a cowboy hat...
Perhaps the fact that his morphing device is shaped like a burger might be a clue?
Or that he used said burger morpher to take selfies with monsters?
Power Rangers always inevitably changes a lot when it borrows Super Sentai footage—it’s never the same story or characters, it’s often a completely different show. But there’s no way they would be able to work around the cowboy ninja up there as the sixth addition to the team. So frankly, the thing I’m most excited about with this new show is seeing just how Power Rangers will adapt the character. It’s going to be really goofy, hopefully.
The “Harley and other Female DC characters” movie Warner Bros. has been developing with Margot Robbie now has a name and two familiar faces: The name is Gotham City Sirens, which is now set to star Margot Robbie, who will return as Harley Quinn, along with Suicide Squad’s David Ayer as director.
No other characters were teased, but they now specifically say that it’ll be a villain team-up movie,rather than the previously rumored Birds of Prey angle. Geneva Robertson-Dworet, who penned the script for Sherlock Holmes 3 and the upcoming Tomb Raider reboot, will write the screenplay. That clashes with reports that Christina Hudson was tapped to write the scriptwhen the Birds of Prey name was still attached, so it’s possible that’s developed into a different movie without Harley.
It’s perhaps an unsurprising move considering Ayer’s involvement in the character’s debut in the DCEU, but fans who didn’t exactly love Suicide Squad might be a little disheartened to see his return. The THR report also says a Deadshot spinoff is being looked at too, but Gotham City Sirens was “furthest along,” and will now be fast tracked into production.
We’ll bring you more on Gotham City Sirens when we hear it.
Watching Chris Evans as Captain America, it’s become obvious he’s got great range. He can be funny, imposing, and intense all at the same time. Now, he’s got a director who’ll try to bring that all out of him as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Back in July, we reported that Evans would play the lead role in Jekyll in an adaptation of the 2007 BBC One series written by Sherlock and Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat. Now, Deadline reports that Ruben Fleischer, best known for directing Zombieland, is attached to make the film for Lionsgate.
Like the miniseries, Jekyll won’t be a straight adaptation of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novel. It’s more of a sequel, set in modern times, about a descendant of Jekyll who starts to exhibit the same split personality. He attempts to shut himself out from the world, but the draw of his family is too great.
Though every single element of this project sounds amazing, Deadline points out it’s not a sure thing. Evans is busy with his Avengers films, there are other Jekyll and Hyde projects in development (including the fact Russell Crowe is playing him in the Universal Monster films), and that Fleischer has a few other films on his plate, the most exciting of which is Zombieland 2. So, though Jekyll sounds great, it may take a while to happen, if it does at all.
After Agents of SHIELD came to a close for the midseason last week, Marvel announced a short new webseries for the show, Slingshot, starring speedy Inhuman Yo-Yo Rodriguez. Well, the wait is already over: you can now watch the whole thing online.
ABC’s YouYube channel has dropped all six episodes of Slingshot, which you can check out in the conveniently-placed video playlist below. The episodes are only about 4-5 minutes long, so in total it’s pretty much half an episode of Agents of SHIELD in length, but if you want to learn more about Yo-Yo and her past while you twiddle your thumbs waiting for the show to return next year, it’s a good way to spend some time.
