‘Divergent: Ascendent’ Has Its Budget Cut

Last week, Part 1 in The Divergent Series finale Allegiant, hit theatres to a wavering fan-fare leading to the lowest opening weekend for the young adult franchise so far.

Sources out of The Hollywood Reporter are circulating the news that in reaction to Allegiant’s disappointing return, Lionsgate are slashing the budget for its predecessor Ascendent – the final film in the franchise – due out next year. The source revealed that “the budget for the next one will be reduced,” but “they haven’t said by how much,” indicating that a significant cut will be in effect given Allegiant’s $110 Million budget.

The first film in the series Divergent earned a $29.1 Million on its opening weekend, with its sequel Insurgent giving the series an all time high with $52.3. The dwindling numbers showing the franchise inability to retain a new audience outside of its core fan base.

Although the weekend opening is a disappointment for the studio, It is believed that Lionsgate still plan on releasing Ascendent alongside Universals eagerly anticipated The Mummy reboot and Paramounts sequel World War Z 2.  Going head-to-head with both Summer Blockbusters on June 9, 2017.

For all your Disappointing-Young-Adult-Genre-News, stick with @mitch_rated at Skatronixxx

‘Zack Snyder’ Looks To Expand The ‘300’ Franchise

Although Director and Producer Zack Snyder has moved on to pastures-new as lead visionary and Universe builder for Warner Bros. DC franchise. He hasn’t lost the passion for his previous action-romp 300, which Snyder is hoping to expand across history.

In an interview with Collider, Snyder revealed that discussions have taken place about different incarnations of 300, bringing its unique visual style and framing out of Ancient Greece and into other conflicts in time. “I think I mentioned that we talked about the Revolutionary War version, and we talked about the Alamo,” revealed the Batman V Superman director. “There’s a battle in China, a “Lost Legion” kind of concept, any of those kinds of things are on the table.”

Released in 2007, 300 was the first of two films based on legendary comic book writer and artist Frank Miller works, with 2014’s Rise of an Empire based on Miller’s as-of-yet unreleased story Xerxes.

Should Snyder get the go ahead, it would give the creator the opportunity to bring his George Washington passion project to the big-screen – an idea that Snyder has previously expressed an interest in producing – commenting that the painted visual display of 300 would suit the era.

Snyder’s current big-screen venture Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theatres March 25, 2016.

For all your Hack-N-Slash-Sandal-Wearing-News, stick with @mitch_rated only on Skatronixxx

Star War’s ‘Daisy Ridley’ In Talks For ‘Tomb Raider’ Reboot

With a hugely successful Inter-Galatic franchise under her belt, Star Wars The Force Awaken’s Daisy Ridley could get her own Blockbuster to helm if talks with the Big-Wigs over at Warner Bros. goes well.

Speaking on the red carpet for the 2016 Empire Awards. The Jedi-in-training confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that there “have been conversations” about her helming the rebooted adaptation of Crystal Dynamics acclaimed Tomb Raider video game series, with the British actress currently just “waiting for someone to say ‘I want you, let’s do it’.”

Earlier this month, Norwegian Director Roar Uthaug revealed that he would be taking on the rebooted action-adventure series that previously starred Angelina Jolie as the British archeologist Lara Croft. In an interview with IGN, Uthaug confirmed that his film would tread familiar ground as 2013’s Tomb Raider game, concentrating on Lara’s origin with the director looking “to make people relate to Lara as a character.”

Although the film is still in the pre-production stage, it seems that Ridley certainly has the endorsement of her Star Wars co-star Joh Boyega – who after playing the video game – told THR that he texted the star, telling her that “‘this is you!’ and ‘you need to get on that because you could be Lara Croft.’ She should be.”

For all your Tomb-Raiding-Lightsaber-Fighting-News, stick with @mitch_rated only on Skatronixxx

Vampire Diaries Returns on April 1st

The Vampire Diaries ends their Spring Hiatus with a big episode directed by star Ian Somerhalder.  The episode titled Days of Future Past will in Somerhalder’s words “tug at your heart strings”.

The official synopsis of the episode says… “Stefan will find himself with a choice to make and his decision will determine the fates of everyone he cares about, especially Damon.”  I’m definitely going to need therapy after this episode!

And, I’m in luck.  Ian himself will be live tweeting the episode!  Ian will also be choosing a twitter handle at random to give a special prize… his leather script binder that he’s used for each episode of the show up to this point!  What a great prize for some lucky fan!  I don’t know about all of you, but I will certainly make sure he sees my twitter handle while he’s live tweeting!

S7E16 airs on Friday, April 1st on the CW.

Interview & Review: Dark Libra Films; Bloody Mary: Possession

I am a massive horror film fan. I always have been and always will be. It’s where my passion for film lies. So, being given the opportunity to interview the members of an up and coming indie horror film production company was a big thing for me. I was also given the chance to view their latest release; Bloody Mary: Possession. This, as I’m sure you can imagine, is a big thing for me! Here is the interview….. review at the bottom of the article:

INTERVIEW: Dark Libra Films

Hi guys,

Firstly, thanks very much for agreeing to let us interview you. It’s always a privilege to be able to interview people who are passionate about film.

So, let’s jump straight in here….. I hope you don’t mind, but I like to cut to the chase!!

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1) How long have you been going as a production company?

We’ve had films in the works for nearly a year now.

2) How did it all get started?

I think we were inspired primarily by the constant improvement within Smartphone technology. It was once hard to imagine that a cell phone’s camera would be able to shoot 60 frames per second; now it’s the norm.

3) Where does the name Dark Libra come from?

Pretty simple, really. The name “Dark Libra” was drawn up because our founder’s zodiac sign is Libra… and he prefers darker films; we ran with it as it seemed to have a nice ring.

4) Who, or what, has been your biggest inspiration overall?

The biggest inspiration would have to be old, black & white horror films such as “Nosferatu”, “The Wolfman”, “Frankenstein”, etc. It dawned on us that nothing like those classic films has been developed for almost a century now. That was how the idea of our premiere film “Angelic Wolves” was born. We wanted to bring back that vintage, black & white look while also implementing some more modern attributes, such as sound, gore effects and so on. Some viewers appreciated the hybrid elements, some didn’t. We then wanted to try something different with “Bloody Mary Possession”, combining high resolution (color) cinematography with both horror and slapstick-comedy characteristics. So far the response has been mainly positive.

5) Why have you chosen to concentrate your efforts in the horror genre?

The horror genre was appealing in the sense that you could have a ton of fun creating an entertaining product without the added pressure that many other film genres can face. I think it’s apparent that we want to create films that an audience can have fun with, but by no means are we trying to win an Oscar!

6) Which movie of yours has been the most fun to film and why?

“Bloody Mary Possession” was more fun in the sense that it was a bit more planned out, which led to a more efficient shoot. Being that “Angelic Wolves” was our debut film, it served as more of an experimental project to see if we could actually complete a project solely with the use of an iPhone.

7) If there was one horror movie you wish you could have made, what would it be?

Truthfully, there is no existing film that I wish I could’ve created and taken credit for. I see A LOT of films, I like A LOT of films, but there are always many aspects of every film that I would tweak if it we’re in my hands.

8) Do you do all of your own special effects?

Yes, we do indeed do all of our own special effects. We prefer to have total control over our product, aside from the work of the actors of course.

9) What inspired you to write and film Bloody Mary: Possession?

I must say I’ve always found ghost based films to be the most terrifying out of the bunch. Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to group some of those frightening images with a sense of comedy. I’ve always found the urban legend of Bloody Mary to be fairly creepy and it became apparent that there aren’t many Bloody Mary titles out there.

10) There seems to be a lot of films made about possession recently. Does Bloody Mary offer anything new for viewers?

Again, it does have some similar characteristics to other films, but I believe the added humor here and there adds a pleasant aspect of unpredictability.

11) How far do you think possession movies have come since The Exorcist?

It’s clear that a vast amount of horror fans still claim “The Exorcist” to be #1; I certainly can’t argue that. Any film that is perceived as ‘revolutionary’ within its genre is going to be talked about for some time, maybe even eternity. One could say that certain visual effects have come a long way since then (although I prefer to use less CGI than what is currently expected) but as far as writing and overall production comes, I think it’s tricky to compete with some of those oldies.

12) Do you feel that horror has become more acceptable for mainstream audiences in the modern cinema era, or do you still consider it to be a niche taste?

I think the majority of audiences prefer a little horror now and then. Even though some viewers may be bored by the plot, writing, etc. it’s hard to claim that you never, ever appreciate an adrenaline rush.

13) If you could have any famous actor/actress in one of your films, who would it be?

We sort of prefer to use ‘unknown’ cast members in our films but if I had to choose a famous actor I’d probably have to go with Christopher Walken for a variety of reasons. 

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REVIEW: Bloody Mary: Possession

It’s not very often that you get asked to view a film that is trying to take films into a new era of technological advancement. Dark Libra film all of their movies on iPhones. Given the recent acceleration in smartphones, it seems like a logical step to take for independent production companies. There’s less equipment to carry around, which leads to reduced overheads and increases the ability to produce exciting films on a lower budget. 

Bloody Mary: Possession is one such film. Based on the urban legend of a figure that will tell you who you are going to marry if you complete a ritual, it’s a story that many people will recognise. However, it’s given a modern twist by the injection of humour that infiltrates the film throughout its 25min running time. The only downside of the film for me is that I feel it could have been a little longer, if only to explore the subject matter in greater depth. 

Centered around the a couple who are struggling with their day to day life together (the daily grind of the 9-5 job and a struggle to fully understand eachother), an argument ensues. A night apart leads to an interesting discovery in the basement and the ritual is performed. What follows is both amusing (the look on her face the following day was a proper laugh out loud moment for me…..) and suspenseful, which makes for an interesting combination. 

This film is not full spoof, but not full suspenseful horror. It’s an interesting blend of the two which keeps you interested for the whole length of the short. It’s also very groundbreaking, given that it was filmed entirely on an iPhone. Sure, independent filmmakers have been making movies using basic filming equipment for years, but Dark Libra are really seeking to exploit the technology of the Smartphone and really show it’s capabilities with this film. 

It will be interesting to see where Dark Libra films take their inspiration from next and what they do with this new blend of genres. It will also be interesting to see how much they can really do with the iPhone. I suspect that this will be the beginning of a new way of film-making that, eventually, the big players of the movie world can’t ignore. 

Rating: 8/10

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 Interested? You can rent the film here and be don’t be shy add go say hi and add them on twitter too they’re @darklibrafilms and tell them ‘Skatronixxx Sent Me’.

An Interview With American Actress Erin Stegeman

It’s time for another interview on http://www.skatronixx.com , this time we chat with ‘modern day triple threat’, Erin Stegeman. She can act, write and produce films and was previously a stand up comedienne.

Erin is one of our followers on our twitter account and I approached her for an interview after reading her bio. I thought her wide array of talents would be an interesting read for you. After a couple of emails and getting to know Erin an interview was agreed.

Let’s find out some more about another insanely talented and awesome member of our #SkatFamily Erin Stegeman !

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1) Wow you’re certainly a triple threat, can you tell us how you got into acting and film making?

A: Well thank you. I’m so honored to hear that! It’s a weird adjustment to really sink into this idea of multi-tasking because, for a long time, I felt like I was pretty crappy at most of those things. I never studied screenwriting or film directing formally, so most of my training has been on set literally doing it. I’d write and perform plays with the neighbors. I always wanted to do everything back then too, mostly because I was the oldest and I was a ten-year old with a vision! The kids all revolted one day and called me bossy. I believe they’re all in computer science jobs anyway…

So my mom put me in piano, dance, theater – anything to keep me from running around the house and dancing in the living room next to breakable objects. I’m from the Midwest, and I was a class clown for sure, but sort of nerdy and introverted, and I was also a bit of an athlete. I felt really unclear as to what I was – there was a lot of pressure back then (and still today) to be defined by what you do and like. I loved a lot of things – which can appear unfocused and indecisive, especially when it came time to pick a major in college and then pick an area in the entertainment industry to pursue. When I was strictly acting in NYC and LA, I was miserable. Even though I loved performing, there was something missing for me. Being happy was an uphill battle. Then, one day I just decided to start doing more things that I truly enjoyed, whether they were acting-related or not. I started experimenting with Twitter and writing. I quickly fell in love and opportunities began to come easily. I found a comedic voice, but also a reunited love of genre content. Instead of fighting the divide I started blending it all. Now I approach things project to project as opposed to this title of what I do. It’s much more from a place of “how can I best serve this idea?”, which feels more like who I am.

There was this moment though in college – I was presenting a scene for my theater directing class, and I had selected one of the witch sequences from MACBETH. I added a dance routine, the Harry Potter theme song, special effects, modernized it, and made Macbeth a female…I just went all out. To this day one, it’s still of the best moments of my life. When that scene ended, I knew I wanted to direct. I still have the feedback sheet from my professor from that.

2) You are well known from ‘Once Upon A Time: The Rock Opera’, can you tell us how you got involved with the project and how the idea came about? Also are you a fan of the TV show?

Back when the show first aired, a few friends from Facebook started posting the show’s poster on my feed and asked if that was me. I had literally just dyed my hair back to blonde from red after being compared to Emma Stone at every single audition. Life is super ironic and you just have to go with it. I checked out the show and became addicted quickly…it was around season 2, I had just started writing and Youtube was booming. I wanted to do something, so I came up with this idea of these fairytale characters not yet seen on OUAT in a 12 step support group in Storybrooke, led by Emma. It was written, shot, and up in less than a week. We had an amazing response to the video which allowed us to make a few more episodes. I want to be clear – this wasn’t poof and now life is easy! It meant launching social media, networking in the once community, and taking daily actions to stay relevant. But, I loved it, so it was easy to stay motivated.

I started exploring making short films and wanted to go in a different direction with the series. I love films like ROCKY HORROR and DEVIL’S CARNIVAL, that are much more of an audience experience, sort of merging movies with convention culture. I wanted to mirror the same, so we decided to go with a rock opera. I had no clue how to write music and even hired another director because I’d never done a feature. As fate and scheduling would have it, I ended up doing both.

3) You even got to perform at Comic-Con what was that like and did you see many famous faces watching your performance?

COMIC-CON WAS AMAZING. Truly a bucket list experience. I don’t think it sunk in for us until we all went back to our rental house afterwards. My cast just sat in the living room together and we kept saying, “one milestone down”. You can’t really beat singing songs you wrote, on a pirate ship, with your best friends, in front of a shit ton of people in cosplay. I owe it all to my friend Brandon, who I met at another con. He invited us to perform and I will never be able thank him enough for that opportunity. I love when I go to other cons and people come up and say, “I saw you perform at Comic-Con!” That’s nerd gold.

4) Your first short film you wrote and directed was ‘Meet The Tweeds’ how did this come about?

Honestly, I was so jealous of my husband and his friends who were making all these horror films and having a lot of success with them, that I sort of invited myself to the party. We both have a lot of connections in the horror space, but I had never written anything. So I saw an opportunity to get a team together and possibly get some exposure. I love sickly dark comedies and satire, which is essentially what it was – this super conservative family who eats children.

The night we shot it, I thought I was going to die. It was so unbelievably difficult for me, and I was miserable. It’s very technical compared to directing theater, and when you have a lean mean team and you’re the weak link – it’s just awful. My husband sliced his arm open on set, we had 3 kid actors, we went way overtime…I thought for certain I would never direct again. Then it went up on Dread Central’s home page on Halloween, and I thought I just need to keep practicing. Maybe it will get better. Honestly it’s still awful, but enjoyable-awful.

5) You have a background in journalism, how did you find this prepared you for your very versatile career?

I was that kid that preferred to do essays instead of multiple choice growing up. Journalism was very natural for me. I had already been blogging on my personal site for about a year when I was offered a couple gigs with LA WEEKLY and THE HOLLYWOOD JOURNAL through friends of friends. The LA WEEKLY stuff was focused on reviewing web series, which absolutely trained me for everything. I interviewed successful creators, saw what they did versus others, started to cultivate relationships at YouTube and at Sundance, and really learned everything behind the scenes of content creating. I was unattached to the job, so networking became fun again. I highly recommend sinking your teeth, however you can, into the world you want to be a part of. I interviewed celebrities that I would NEVER have the courage to approach, but because I had this fancy PRESS badge on, it gave me courage…and contacts for future projects.

6) Is it true you have been in over 50 commercials? If so could you tell us what some of these were for?

I’ve not been in 50 commercials – just a handful, but I have been in over 50 films, shorts, and tv shows. I’m currently the customer in that musical commercial for Amazon Prime. That was one of those incredible coincidences because I filmed that just a couple days before shooting the rock opera. Such a learning experience – I don’t think I ever left the set.

7) What’s this I heard about you winning a ‘Pig Roast Pie Eating Championship’????

My agent made me take that off my resume lol. At my college (Stephens College in Columbia, MO) the theater majors spend one summer in Okoboji, IA, performing at a local theater. It’s a crazy experience – I even wrote a screenplay about it. To break up all the stress, the theater puts on this festival called the OKOBOJI PIG ROAST. You can enter with a team and compete in these ridiculous obstacles. One of my events was pie-eating contest. I’m like a really fast eater. Impressively fast. It’s been a concern to my parents on numerous occasions. I freakin nailed this. You compete with a teammate and mine started to vomit – it was a whole cherry pie, which is the worst kind of pie. So I picked up the slack and won by a landslide. My husband (although not at the time) was on another team and he and his partner didn’t even make it through. I bring that up from time to time. My team won the entire event and I got MVP – also one of my favorite life moments.

8) What can we expect to see from you in the 2016?

The Rock Opera will be doing a screening and convention tour in the spring and early summer (indietix.net). Depending how that goes we may extend into early fall. I’ve partnered with another production company and we’re rebranding my YouTube channel (erinstegeman), so you can expect more sketches and content that expand past OUAT at a higher production value. My company is slated to direct a Sci-fi pilot this year as well, and I’m in pre production on two features – a psychological thriller and a horror fairytale musical. Aiming to start shooting the first in the late fall/winter. I have seriously never been this busy, but I honestly love every second of it. It’s been over ten years in the making to have a year like this, so I’m just gonna drink a lot of green tea and enjoy the ride.

9) Tell our readers one fun fact about yourself that they may not already know?

I love these questions and can never think of anything remotely cool enough. I climbed into the chamber of a volcano on my honeymoon. I’m a certified personal trainer. My aunt dated Brad Pitt. I didn’t get cast in any musicals in college. I see ghosts (seriously).

10) Finally what advice would you have for an upcoming actress?

I think the biggest hiccup for me was trying to be like everyone else. Be a Kate Winslet type, be a funny girl, lose 20 pounds, be younger….but YOU are a brand new thing, it’s evolutionary. Spend time really getting to know yourself. There’s no rush – I’ve had more success in my 30s than in my 20s. Have a ton of fun. Give up the diet. Self-improvement is a total myth. There’s only self-discovery – which is presenting to the world who you’ve always been. And it is so, so powerful. When you can really tap into that, there’s no stopping you.

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Wow what an interview! I for one wish Erin all the best and am sure the musical will be a huge success. If they are lucky enough to tour the UK I for one will be there supporting them!

Check out Erin’s personal webpage on erinstegeman.com and find out more about the ‘Once Upon A Time: Rock Opera’ including where to buy tickets and tour dates on  on onceuponatimespoof.com

Don’t be shy go say hi and follow ‘Once Upon A Time: Rock Opera’ on Twitter @ouatspoof and Erin’s personal account on Twitter at @erinstegeman and tell her ‘Skatronixxx sent me!’

Is The TV Show Lucifer ‘As Hot As Hell?’

I stumbled across Lucifer on the American streaming service I’m subscribed to Hulu. It aired on the 25th Jan 2016 and it to like Damien had me intrigued and a little hook after the first episode. Its an American fantasy police procedural comedy-drama series.
The series focuses on Lucifer Morningstar, ‘who is bored and unhappy as the Lord of Hell and resigns his throne and abandones his kingdom for the beauty of Los Angeles, where Lucifer gets his kicks from helping the LAPD punish criminals.’

So to get you up to speed here is a quick summary of the first 7 episodes

SN1 EP1 – ‘Pilot’

Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis), the retired angel of Hell, owns a high end night club in Los Angeles. When the pop star her tries to help is murdered in front of him by a drug dealer, he uses his powers of persuasion to assist Detective Decker (Lauren German) in apprehension the true culprit behind the murder. All the while, he must deal with his brother angel (D. B. Woodside) who is putting pressure on him from their ‘father’ to return to running Hell. Now I’m not normally attracted to men but Lucifer Morningstar with that english accent, i have to admit he’s a bit sexy guys and gals!

If your still with us, I’m guessing you’re wanting more so on to episode 2

SN1 EP2 – ‘Lucifer, Stay. Good Devil’

Lucifer and Detective Decker work together again to solve a homicide, this time that of a movie star’s son who was killed by an overeager paparazzo who frequently created volatile situationsin order to get the ‘first scoop’ on the story. We are now starting to see a chemistry between Lucifer and Detective Decker, but were are also seeing jealousy from Lucifer’s confidante and devoted ally Mazikeen (Lesley-Ann Brandt). She is the war leader of the Lilim, a race descended from Lilith, she acts as the bartender at Lucifer’s club.

SN1 EP3 – ‘The Would-Be Prince of Darkness’

When a football star whom Lucifer convinced to lose his virginity is arrested for the murder of the girl with whom he slept, Lucifer works to prove his innocence. Lucifer is becoming aware that his powers are useless on Detective Decker and that intrigues him. We now start to see him become increasingly captivated with the notion of all things ‘human’.

 SN1 EP4 – ‘Manly Whatnot’

Chloe (Detective Decker) and Lucifer investigate a missing persons case involving a girl who was involved with a pick-up artist. The investigation is complicated by Lucifer’s repeated attempts to seduce Chloe in an effort to better understand her. Meanwhile, Amenadiel (D. B. Woodside) confronts a reluctant Mazikeen about Lucifer. At Lucifer’s encouragement, Chloe shoots him in the leg. To Lucifer’s bewilderment, he feels pain and bleeds. Lucifer and Mazikeen are starting to see changes in himself the longer he stays on earth, In the pilot Lucifer is filled with bullets but doesn’t die nor does he bleed or feel the pain, it’s like he is becoming a little more human the longer he stays out of Hell.

SN1 EP5 – ‘Manly Whatnot’

Lucifer assist Chloe in a case involving an artist/high-end shoe designer who once in a street gang. In doing so, Lucifer knowingly puts himself in danger, finding it exciting to test mortality. He and Chloe are ultimately rescued from a hostile situation by Mazikeen. Meanwhile, Amenadiel surprises Dr. Martin (Rachael Harris) by showing up at her office after hours, stating he is a fellow psychotherapist who has moved into the office next door. The two agree to have drinks and openly discuss patients.

SN1 EP6 – ‘Favorite Son’

When a warehouse is robbed and the security guard murdered; Well it turns out that the stolen container belongs to Lucifer. He and Decker then work to find the culprit, which Lucifer sees as protecting his status in the city. Meanwhile, Lucifer continues to struggle with his identity, and Amenadiel continues to try to use Dr. Martin to get to Lucifer. The stolen shipment contained Lucifer’s wings, and in the wrong hands they are extremely dangerous.

SN1 EP7 – ‘Favorite Son’

Lucifer continues to search for his wing, and turns to Amenadiel for help after his search is fruitless. Chole askes her ex-husband Dan (Kevin Alejandro) for his help investigating the Palmetto casevin the hopes that she can find something to confirm her accusations against the cop who is about to die. Lucifer finally finds his wings and once they are in his possession, he burns them to anger his brother Amenadiel and in doing so it halts his own return to his former throne as the King of Hell. He is really enjoying his new life on earth and is surprisingly skilled at investigating, that he is now a consultant for the LAPD and he is enjoying punishing criminals.

I’m really enjoying this series, its something a little different and so far it’s not predictable and keeps giving me little testers to keep me hooked and watching it each week. I recommend it if you’re after something refreshingly diffrent. Given that I have done 7 episodes at one I will rate the 7 episodes as a whole.
My rating for the first 7 episodes is: 🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬

Presh Scale:

1 x🎬 The Worst
2 x🎬 Not Bad
3 x🎬 Good
4 x🎬 Very Good
5 x🎬 Awesomeness
Reference:

Wikipedia

Boybands Meet Zombies In ‘Dead 7’

Who remember boy band’s Backstreet Boys and NSync? For those of you that dont remember here is a little reminder.
The Backstreet Boys formed in 1993 and consisted of 5 members, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson, Brian Littrell, Howie Dorough, and A.J. McLean. Their hits include, ‘I Want It That Way’, ‘Everybody’ and ‘As Long As You Love Me’.
NSYNC formed in 1995 and the band consisted of Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone and pased member Chris Kirkpatrick. Their hits inclued, ‘Bye Bye Bye’, ‘This I Promise You’ and ‘Tearing Up My Heart’.

Now the two bands have come together for a project this year but it has nothing to do with an album collaboration, I’ll give you a little hint it involves zombies and the guns….. The boys have come together to make a movie!  The movie is ‘Dead 7’ and is directed by Danny Roew and written by Nick Carter (Backstreet Boys) and produced by David Michael Latt and David Rimawi, who produced the original Sharknado and Syfy’s Z Nation . Members from 98 Degrees, O-Town, All-4-One, Everclear and No Authority will also feature in the film.

The cast include Nick Carter (BB), A.J. McLean (BB), Joey Fatone (NSYNC), Howie Dorough (BB), Jeff Timmons (98Degrees), Jon Secada (Singer Songwriter), Art Alexakis (Everclear), Delious (All-4-One), Tommy McCarthy ( No Authority) and rounding out the cast is Carrie Keagan, Debra Wilson, Dylan Vox, Gerardo Mejia and Chloe Lattanzi.

Dead 7 an American post-apocalyptic Western that follows a group of gunslingers as they look to rid a small town of a zombie plague. Carter revealed the he is going to be “a good guy that helps save the day” while hinting it will be “musically based.”
Dead 7 is an original movie for Syfy and is set to air on April 1st 2016 on the Syfy channel.

I wont be turning in, but if you’re into zombies and boy bands then this might just be up your ally.

Watch the trailer below

Source : Buzzfeed

References:

Wikipedia, IMDB.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. SN3 EP12 – ‘The Inside Man’

This review contains spoilers.

Last episode, we left off on HiveWard playing the worst game of ‘pull my finger’ known to man, whilst Coulson and the team gear up to take on Malick, to take down the final head of Hydra once and for all. Alongside this, we find out the President has assigned our favourite General Talbot as the new head of the ATCU.

 This weeks episode is largely a good, old fashioned undercover episode. It’s good to see these kinds of episodes where the whole team work undercover with new stories and names, and show the spy work SHIELD also does outside of helping the Avengers.

The episode starts with a flashback to the mid-season finale scene where Coulson kills Ward by crushing his heart inside his chest – because what better was to violently and personally kill the man who shot the person you love?

The flashback then proceeds to show the gross and violent possession of Ward’s corpse, and a series of flashbacks of Ward’s life before and after Shield before it cuts to his possessed face opening it’s eyes and saying “Grant Ward. I wish we could have met under different circumstances.” It makes Hive all the more terrifying that to accompany his ever decomposing Ward-Suit, that he constantly refers to himself as “we.” – and the other part of the “we” there probably isn’t Ward.

Then, they proceed to drag in Lucio, the Inhuman cop from Bouncing Back who can paralyze people simply by looking into their eyes – at first he’s bandaged, but then Hive demands to see his eyes. Creepily (but kind of predictably enough.), Hive isn’t hurt by this Inhumans particular power, which naturally causes Lucio to be just a little bit on the afraid side. Then Hive proceeds to step backwards out of an outline of his body, and when Lucio asks “what are you?”, Hive responds with “What are we?” before sending the outline of himself forward. Yikes.

Then, we open up the episode post the Agent’s of S.H.I.E.L.D logo and we’re in an airport with General Talbot and his very angry wife, Carla. He’s asking her not to leave like this, to which she angrily responds telling him he’s always put his work above his family, and now they’re paying for it. Talbot calls after her, looking rather defeated, that he will fix it – and Carla storms away with one last disappointed look. I can’t help but feel a bit sad about it – it was fairly obvious from their last interactions that they have a deeply loving relationship. (Taco Tuesday’s was so adorable.) Then Phil meets up with him, and they proceed to talk/argue about their roles and relationship now, and about the undercover operation they’re involved in – and then we find out shortly later, much to the others agents horror, that Talbot has Creel on his side.

The next 40 minutes of the episode, we’re treated to Talbot and his overwhelming inability to do espionage. The man was in the army for God’s sake, and yet, the man can barely hold it together. He makes casual racist ignorant (“I don’t just wear a dress for anyone!” – regarding the ceremonial robe he’s been asked to wear to honour the country he’s in, and “It’s good to finally put faces to all of your unpronounceable names” – oh, oh dude. Why have you been made head of the ATCU when it requires being a people person.) There’s also some really cool spy moments in there, including Coulson using his high-tech prosthetic to create film gloves for his team-mates to break into their targets rooms and try and find out which one of them is working for Malick.

Then, during the meeting in which three very important politicians want to make a sanctuary state for Inhumans, the absolute unthinkable happens – Talbot blows Coulson’s cover wide open. He exposes the team, Phil’s arm, everything – and then just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, Malick strolls on in and tells the room that Phil Coulson is the director of Hydra.

At the point, I briefly started to worry about the direction this show is going in – because it makes literally no sense for Talbot to be Hydra, and it wouldn’t have held the same shock value as say, when Ward turned out to be Hydra. However, it turns out that Malick has Talbot’s son (which explains Carla’s fury in the beginning of the episode.) – and Talbot is bound to helping him to save his son.

There’s also some side action going on with Lincoln and Daisy but it’s not an awful lot – it’s mostly them fighting and being cute. And oddly enough, pushed to the side is this little tidbit – Creel’s blood contains the secret to stopping people with Inhuman blood from transforming. Why this is only a side story and not a massive focus, I’m not entirely sure, but it does crop up an argument between Daisy and Lincoln, with Lincoln on team “not everyone should change” and Daisy on team “It’s a birthright and if this gets into the wrong hands they will wipe us out”. Both have really valid points – it’d be nice to have control over the people who could turn and use whatever powers they’re given to murder or hurt people, but who gets to decide that path for another person? I wish this had been given more focus than just fleeting scenes between the spy-story side of things.

Overall, this is a fun episode. It doesn’t hold anything too consequential in the main characters story lines, because by the end of it, Talbot’s son is safe again and Phil and Talbot go back to their “hate-buddy” routine. I think if they’d kept the child with Hydra longer, kept using Talbot as a pawn, it might have held some more weight, but this was just more of a filler episode. That’s not a bad thing – it was still a lot of fun, and I always really enjoy the undercover SHIELD stuff a lot. The gadgets, the cover stories, it’s just good old-fashioned spy stuff that makes the show enjoyable.  It’s a bit of a fluffy episode with some action, a few character pointers and very little development, but that’s honestly fine, as long as this is just a bit of ground work for the adrenaline pumping stuff we’ve become used to on this show.

 Well, all was fun until the end of the episode.

About halfway through the episode, Hive asks for five regular, healthy humans to be delivered to him. Under the assumption he’s going to choose one as a host body because Ward’s is literally rotting around him, he’s left alone with them – and outside, you hear a lot of horrifying screaming that seems to even make the bad guys deeply uncomfortable.

And then the end of the episode reveals why they were screaming. Because standing in the middle of five skeletons, red bloody and still with a bit of flesh on them skeletons, covered in human slime and blood, kneels Hive. And slowly, oh so slowly, he rises up and stands, dripping so much of this sickly ooze, rising until he looks dead into the camera through the muck, staring right into you for a really uncomfortably long measure of time, before the episode ends.

It’s very rare of Marvel, particularly Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to go all out on the gore like this. While it has had it’s gross connotations and it’s violence, I can’t pinpoint much of a moment when it’s been that grim and visually shocking. It had a tonne of weight behind it, and it’s made me scared and excited to see what Brett Dalton’s character is going to do next.

I’m hoping next episode, more actual plot will start to weave it’s way into the main team, and that we get those full rich episodes that make this show fantastic.

Arrow SN4 EP12 – ‘Unchained’

So it’s time for this week’s  review of Arrow and it brings with it the return of 3 characters from previous seasons  and also we return to the flash backs of Oliver on Lian Yu so without further ado this jump right on in.

So the main story line this week revolves around the introduction of a new villain called the Calculator and a hired thief who we see the team come face to face with at the start of the episode after stealing his first piece of tech and also where we see there is something not quite right with Thea. Oliver goes it alone on his second attempt at catching the thief and after a brief chase we find out it is none other than Roy Harper. The team are shocked by the revelation as Roy used to be on Team Arrow as Arsenal before heading to Hub city via Monument point this is a lot to process especially with the teams concerns around Thea’s health.

The team eventually catch up with Roy at Palmer tech as he is trying to steal the last piece of tech the Calculator needs to make a web bomb that could take out the entire internet, Felicity notices something different about Roy’s eyes and whispers something in Oliver’s ear piece prompting him to shoot Roy with a tranquiliser arrow. The team get Roy back to the secret hideout and find that Roy has a special lens in his eye that transmits what he is seeing before waking Roy up to find out what is going on.  He explains that someone found out who he really was and threatened to expose him as not being The Arrow as the police thought and he wanted to protect Oliver.

This prompts Felicity to try and back trace where the lens has been transmitting back to and having the team’s first encounter with the Calculator who eventually manages to block her out of his systems (Has Felicity finally met her technological equal?) She later realises that the web nuke could also be used as a bomb to blow a water treatment plant, Gas main plant or an electrical plant causing thousands of people to be killed. Eventually the team track down the Calculator’s team and manage to stop the attack or so they thought as the Calculator has put a block on any electrical devices being used near the bomb. Roy who has joined the team to help out says that he is the only one who can out run the blast so offers to stay back and destroy the bomb with an explosive arrow and luckily makes it out in time.

Also in this episode we see Thea almost taking a fall over the edge of a building on the first run in with Roy we find out that this is due to the effects of the Lazerus pit and her not feeding her blood lust from Malcolm Merlyn. Oliver asks why this never happened with Sara only to be told that when Constantine cast his incantation he restored the balance of the Lazerus pit. Oliver is beginning to worry that all of this is his fault due to the decisions he has made the team try to reassure him that it is not all his fault cue the flash backs of Oliver’s time on Lian Yu to begin. We see Oliver being tortured for information on his glowing tattoo from episode 10, Oliver eventually passes out and sees a vision of Shadow killing his captors and teaching him that he needs to forgive himself for all the lives he has had to take and he starts by admitting to Vlad’s sister that it was him that killed Vlad and not Conklin as he has told her.

We also see the return of Nyssa still being held Captive in Nanda Parbat but this only last for a moment as she is slipped a blade by another woman from the League as the pair manage to kill some of the guards and make their escape it appears not everyone is happy with Malcolm as the new Ra’s Al Ghul. She makes it to a clearing in the forest only to come face to face with none other than Tatsu, Nyssa advises her that she has come for something called the lotus  but Tatsu has been tasked with protecting this and the pair draw their swords and begin to fight. It turns out the pair are evenly matched with a blade and instead of fighting the night away Nyssa advises Tatsu that she needs the lotus to help Oliver.

We also see Felicity struggling to run Palmer tech and keep them out of bankruptcy but there is hope in the new power cell battery they are planning on announcing in a few days (The same battery the Calculator was after). She struggles through a practice run of her presentation in front of one of the board members who suggests she leaves the presenting to someone more capable. Later we see Felicity flying around the lab at Palmer tech in her chair frantically looking for a piece of tech to help trace the Calculator. Curtis tells her that she should be this kind of Felicity that is doing the presentation and she eventually agrees and knocks the launch out of the park, we see none other than the Calculator in the audience sat next to Oliver and leans in and says that she is very talented. After Oliver congratulates Felicity and leaves we see the Calculator appear behind Felicity as she turns around she has a shocked look on her face and can only mutter the words “Dad”.

The episode comes to an end and it appears Thea has taken a turn for the worse and is in hospital in an induced coma, Cue Nyssa walking in to announce she has an elixir that can cure Thea but in return Oliver must kill Malcolm Merlyn.

To find out who next attempts to fail this city stick with Deadpool_1984