Whatastory: Whataburger and Wonder Woman’s “Friendly Trademark Discussion”

There’s been reports that DC Comics and American burger chain Whataburger have been embroiled in a bitter dispute over logos. The chain has a stacked W logo, which it launched in 1972, 13 years before Wonder Woman‘s  original logo was trademarked. The new version of the logo, relaunched to tie in with Gal Gadot‘s incarnation of the superheroine, appears to stepped on Whattaburger’s toes.

However, according to Chron, the press folks at Whataburger seem to be taken aback at claims that there is a nasty dispute between them and the home of the Amazon princess. They describe the ‘row’ as a ‘friendly trademark discussion’. In fact, their statements are unbelievably cute, as if written by characters from the 1970s series.

“Contrary to some suggestions, Whataburger is not at war with Wonder Woman over her newly redesigned logo. In fact, Whataburger supports superheroes like Wonder Woman and her friends in the Justice League.” Whataburger actually have a superhero mascot -Whataguy – and they would apparently love to see a crossover with these two. Maybe DC should introduce him as a character for the Wonder Woman solo film? He could be a love rival against Bruce Wayne…

“Wonder Woman’s stacked W logo has both made it appear more similar to Whataburger’s long-standing Flying W trademark and has been accompanied by nine new trademark applications, covering a much more substantial list of goods and services than just comic books, including a variety of food and beverage products.”

And therein lies the problem – the original logo was only related to comic book merch; now it maybe linked to similar products as Whataburger.

“Whataburger anticipates a positive discussion with DC Comics and a resolution of that discussion that will be acceptable to both parties.”

In a quaint closing of the statement, Whataburger said they wanted Wonder Woman to be able to focus on keeping “planet Earth safe from villains” while they focused on making burgers.

Whataclassact.

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New Luke Cage Promo Features Cottonmouth

Marvel is at it again with clever marketing to draw us all in. This time it’s for the latest instalment of the Netflix hosted TV series, Luke Cage (not Nick Cage as I am frequently paranoid I will call it…) The series, which is due to go live on the streaming service on 30^th September will focus on Hell’s Kitchen’s own man of steel (are DC going to come after me for that one?). The eponymous hero was introduced as Jessica Jones’ on-again-off-again love interest, and a man so strong, with super strength and unbreakable skin, he could flick attacking bruisers off him like gnats. The show promises to be gritty and edgy like its predecessors Daredevil and Jessica Jones, but also   showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker has promised fans that the drama will be infused with ’90s hip-hop.

The new promo shows villain Cottonmouth, played by Mahershala Ali (House of Cards), appearing to break the fourth wall and talk directly to the audience. He has a large portrait of rapper Biggie Smalls in the background, and explains how the late hip-hop star is the real King of New York. There is quite a cool shot that looks like Ali is wearing the crown in the portrait – some nice camera work there! He is not, in fact, addressing us, but rather his unfortunate victim who gets a beating as he’s told “Everybody wants to wear the crown”.

Watch the promo:

The whole series of Luke Cage will launch on Netflix 30^th September

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New ‘Scream Queens’ Season 2 News and Premiere Clips

Are you ready, Idiot Hookers? The horror-comedy returns with Season 2 on Tuesday September 20^th on Fox (US).

“Season Two of SCREAM QUEENS graduates from the college campus and into an all-new location, as a terrifyingly funny murder mystery will begin once again. This time, the show will be set in a hospital, where some of the most fascinating and bizarre medical cases are under observation.”

The Latest News:

• Scream Queens adds another new addition because the show wasn’t already star studded enough. Former ‘Cheers’ and ‘Hot in Cleveland’ star Kirstie Alley joins the show in major role, playing a “brilliant and devious administrator”.
• In other news, people have been freaking out over Taylor Lautner‘s new hair. Lautner posted a picture on his Instagram sporting purple hair, leaving us to assume this is for his role as Dr Cassidy Cascade, who will make his Scream Queens debut in this upcoming season.
• Also, it has been announced that during the season 2 premiere of Scream Queens, Lady GaGa’s new music video for “Perfect Illusion” will be aired.

In addition, two new clips of the Season 2 premiere have been released (by TVLine and EW). Check out the clips below:

 

The star studded cast includes returning cast members Emma Roberts, Jamie Lee Curtis, Lea Michelle, Abigail Breslin, Keke Palmer, Billie Lourd, Niecy Nash and Glenn Powell, alongside newbies John Stamos, Taylor Lautner, James Earl and Kirstie Alley, and guest stars Colton Haynes and Celcily Strong. It’s sure to be a bloody good season! 😉

Let us know what your most looking forward to in the upcoming season.

 

Vincent D’Onofrio Teases a Return for Kingpin

Best things about Daredevil (in no particular order):
1. Charlie Cox is super handsome and a pleasure to look at
2. Foggy has classic lines all the time – “why are you fancy?” is still said in our house all the time
3. Karen giving Matt a balloon was hilarious
4. The 2 epic corridor fight scenes
5. The villains – both Kingpin and Punisher were incredible

Vincent D’Onofrio‘s star turn as Wilson Fisk was one of the highlights of season 1 for me. No cat stroking, one-dimensional bad guy here; Fisk was portrayed as sensitive, deep, and all together reasonable in his villainy. D’Onofrio was terrifying with his calm, quiet, anger culminating in violent, deadly rage. At times, he cut quite an empathetic figure, and creating that in the big bad is a real talent.

Fans were delighted earlier this year when Fisk had a cameo appearance in Daredevil season 2 (resulting in an incredible prison fight sequence), and D’Onofrio has not ruled out a reprisal of the Kingpin in future Marvel series. Last week he spoke to LRM Online, and said that although he hadn’t signed on to do any further work with Marvel, he would go back to the character if the right chance came up.

He told the website, “Marvel, the company, and especially Jeff Loeb, who runs Marvel Television, he’s a clever dude. All those people over there are pretty clever and they love talent. There’s no giant commitment for me at Daredevil. Like I didn’t have to sign my life away at all. When Jeff tells me there’s something coming up and if I’m available, I’ll be there. And because it’s written so well, I’m going to show up. I’m going to do everything I can because the writing is so good. And then there’s a company like Netflix and they’re not pressuring you either. They just want good material, good content. They give you money to make good content, so they’re not pressuring actors to sign their life away either…. I think that there’s this common ground where they say, ‘Look, if the material is good are you going to show up?’ and I said,  ‘Definitely’.”

When asked directly if he would be appearing again in a Marvel/Netflix series, D’Onofrio was coy. “That I can’t answer. I do know, but I can’t answer… so take that how you will. Jeff and Charlie (Cox) and Netflix love Kingpin, and so, Kingpin is good for Marvel’s television stuff and I think they agree.”

So, although our favourite Kingpin might not be back on Netflix for Luke Cage on 30th September, we might not be waiting too long to see him again.

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Annabelle 2 Trailer Dropped

Alright, this is for my fellow horror film goers! If suspense, thriller, and creepy get your heart racing then you’ll be on the edge of your seat waiting for this! The sequel to “Annabelle” which made its debut in 2014 has just dropped their trailer for “Annabelle 2”. With a great cast to include, Miranda Otto, Stephanie Sigman, and Anthonoy LaPaglia we can expect this movie to come to life just like Annabelle!

From rattling of teacups to possession of little girls, this possessed doll will have everyone holding on to a cross!

In this sequel, it is several years after the tragic death of their little girl, a dollmaker and his wife welcome a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home, soon becoming the target of the dollmaker’s possessed creation, Annabelle! (Plot provided from IMDB).

So get ready as Annabelle 2 will be on screen May 2017! , I’m Malia Mercedes, blogging for Skatronixx.com. You can also catch me at maliamercedes.com where I’m always boasting my loyalty with “Loyal Bloodline”.

“Loyal people wear their loyalty with Loyalbloodline.clothing”

James Gunn Shares Yondu Concept Art on Instagram

As we know, James Gunn is a very fan-centric director. He is a comic book fan himself, so treats his films with the respect you’d expect from someone with a great love of the stimulus material. He also spends a lot of time on social media, and makes an effort to share little Easter eggs with the fans, engaging with them in the comments section. This is awesome, because it draws the audience in and gives them an investment in the movie well before it’s released. It also gives me a lot of James Gunn stuff to write about, which is no bad thing.

This week, Gunn treated his Instagram fans to early concept art for Yondu:

View this post on Instagram

Sweet early concept art for #Yondu in #GotG by Andrew Kim featuring a fantastic vision of @michael_rooker's abs.

A post shared by James Gunn (@jamesgunn) on Sep 13, 2016 at 10:43am PDT

In the artwork, Michael Rooker‘s space outlaw has a different image – something more Egyptian than intergalactic. He also has a red Mohawk (more in keeping with comic book Yondu than the one we came to love in the movie); face gills; and a fancy eye patch. The artist (Andrew Kim) also showed the character wearing a lot of heavy and ornate armour/jewellery (I think it looks like costume jewellery but my other half insists it’s armour!)

One fan asked Gunn why he doesn’t stick to the concept art, but the director advised that he does – just different concept art. He explained that while the picture is beautiful, the costuming was impractical and not the concept he had for movie Yondu.

Knowing how GotG turned out, I think the Egyptian (almost Apocalypse-esque) god figure in the artwork would have jarred massively with the cool crew of the Alyssa Milano. Thanks for sharing James, and I think you made the right choice!

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is due for release in the United Kingdom on April 28 and in USA on May 5

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Rob Lowe and Emmanuelle Chriqui join Super Troopers 2

Lots of Shenanigans going on in Boston as Rob Lowe and Emmanuelle Chriqui join the cast of Super Troopers 2!!

Fresh off his Comedy Central Roast, Rob Lowe will play Guy Le Franc, a former hockey star and mayor of a nearby Canadian town.  Lowe was recently seen in CBS’s Code Black and is set to be in Pantelion Film’s How To Be A Latin Lover.

On Friday, Emmanuelle Chriqui was announced to play Genevieve Aubois, a French/Canadian cultural attache.  Chriqui has been friends with the Super Troopers 2 director Jay Chandrasekhar for some time and they finally have the chance to work together.  The Entourage actress can also be seen in the upcoming Hulu drama Shut Eye beginning December 7.

Lowe and Chriqui join the original cast members including Brian Cox, who will return as Capt. O’Hagan, Marisa Coughlan returns as Ursula, and Lynda Carter also returns as Governor Jessman.  All members of the Broken Lizard comedy team will reprise their roles from the original 2001 film, Super Troopers; a zany comedy about Vermont state troopers and the creative pranks they pull on the patrons that they stop.  Broken Lizard members are Chandrasekhar as Thorny Ramathorn, Kevin Heffernan as Rodney Farva, Steve Lemme as MacIntyre “Mac” Womac, Paul Soter as Jeff Foster, and Eric Stolhanske as Robert “Rabbit” Roto.

Broken Lizard sequel is currently filming in Boston but no release date has been announced yet. The group launched an Indiegogo campaign to cover the budget for the sequel and after 30 days, the group had raised $4.4 million.  The campaign is over, but you can still contribute for some cool swag.

If you haven’t seen Super Troopers, I highly recommend seeing it meow!!!!!!

Agents of Shield Season 4: First ‘Sneak Peek’ Clip Released

Hot on the trail of releasing character portraits and promos, ABC has now released the first sneak peak at the Season 4 premiere of ‘Agents of Shield’. I swear they waited until I had finished my other piece before doing so, but it’s nonetheless exciting.

The clip sees Agent May pull back Coulson and Mack from field duty in order to deliver some bad news. It seems horribly mangled bodies have been popping up everywhere, and with Daisy now viewed as the outlaw Quake, all fingers are pointing in her direction. Whilst it’s most likely the work of Ghost Rider, May seems to have lost faith in Daisy’s capacity to do good and has no trouble believing it was her.

The scene worked to set up what will likely be some major storylines running through the season. Comments about the new Director seemed to be of the negative variety, whilst May’s new attitude towards Daisy will no doubt cause some strife later on. Offhand comments about the Watchdogs suggest they might have a part to play, and it looks like Daisy is hunting for Ghost Rider. Question is, will she ultimately come around to his way of thinking, or will she rejoin her friends at Shield?

‘Agents of Shield’ Season 4 premieres Tuesday, September 20th 10pm on ABC.

Agents of Shield Season 4: Character Portraits and New Promo

Only 4 days to go now until the Season 4 premiere of ‘Agents of Shield’ and the promotional push keeps moving forward. Today we were treated to a full cast photo, as well as official character portraits for all the main members of the cast, including John Hannah as Dr Radcliffe and Natalia Cordova-Buckley as Yo-Yo, hopefully hinting at larger roles for the two going forward.

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In addition to this a new promo has been released, giving us a few brief but awesome glimpses at the Ghost Rider’s ride, accompanied by a voiceover of him. Things are heating up now with the premiere just days away, so you all best get ready for vengeance to come.

‘Agents of Shield’ Season 4 premieres Tuesday, September 20th 10pm on ABC.

Daredevil Ep. 16 New York’s Finest

Anyone familiar with the “Welcome Back Frank” storyline in Punhiser will likely recognize the setup for this episode. That’s not a bad thing, in fact it is pretty good. This is a solid adaption of the comic so fans of the comic should recognize the reference, and anyone who doesn’t recongize will at least be treated to something new (and hey, maybe this will lead them to the comics). Much of the episode takes place with Daredevil chained down so the Punisher can do his job.

Action is light for the first about 2/3 of the episode. However this episode has some great psychology between Daredevil and the Punisher. After a few episodes of coming off like a human Terminator, we learn more about why he does what he does. Not to mention, this is the first time Daredevil is confronted about why he lets criminals live.  The show vilifies neither man, actually showing both men having good arguments. Daredevil believes there be a sliver of a chance of even the worst criminal reforming or having some good in them. Punisher believes that if criminals continue to live, they are just gonna keep coming back and do crimes.

Much of the tension in this episode is waiting for action. We know how volatile both men can be and simply WAITING for the action  to start makes this episode a nail-biter. There’s a good scene where the Punisher bonds with a fellow vet. Tension skyrockets when Punisher gives Daredevil an option of saving a criminal at the expense of killing the Punisher. Fights do break out between Punisher, Daredevil and some thugs. These are pretty impressive – as well as pretty brutal. We learn how Frank Castle and Matt Murdock REALLY operate – The Punisher openly murders criminals, while Daredevil pummels them until they wish they were dead.

There is a B-plot where Karen investigates the Punisher. More exciting is a B-plot about Claire and Foggy trying to maintain order at a hospital. Shows nowadays like to juggle a lot of different plots, but these scenes were effective in keeping the episode from being more than two guys just talking. As good as the scenes between Punisher and Daredevil are, on a show like this, people expect a little more. On that note, this is an episode that won’t leave anyone wanting. This is an overall great episode – season 2 is 3 for 3 so far.