Still secret, but I got a green light!
Okay, I've been given the go-ahead to write somethin' kinda cool, though I won't get to use all of the plot points I came up with. On the plus side, that means when it finally comes out, I can post a few "director's cut" bits that were nixed for one reason or another (and none of them are "bad" reasons; one was deemed too horror-ish for the intended audience, and the others had to do with what parts of this property I could include and what parts they wouldn't let me play with). I'm really hoping this one leads to more fun stuff to script, as it's for a rather large-ish franchise a lot of you loyal readers are familiar with. I'll let out specifics as soon as the marketing department tells me what's kosher, but at least I can get to typin'. :)
In the next Spider-Man film, we'll have Rhys Ifans playing the role of 'The Lizard.' For those (like me) who've never noticed him before, we'll get a taste of his skills as he plays Xenophilius Lovegood in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." I kind of wanted the Lizard to be in the third Spider-Man film, since we'd seen Doctor Connors in previous movies, but I'm guessing he was the favorite to pick for the reboot since a younger Peter Parker could still be his student. The above link mentions that Venom was rumored for the reboot, but wouldn't that require him being rebooted as well? I'm not a huge believer in this "make him younger because no kid likes movies about superheroes unless the cast is all teenagers," but if they set up what they looked to be setting up in Raimi's films for Venom's origin (having John Jameson become an astronaut and, presumably, bring the Venom symbiote back from space), I'd forgive some of their transgressions.
There's video of a playthrough for "The Force Unleashed 2" demo on YouTube (part 2 is here). The drama is good, though the powers are still ridiculous. It's also yet another demonstration why it sucks to be a stormtrooper, especially if the Empire gives you a jetpack. Also, it seems whoever doesn't install railings over any of the universe's reactor cores is responsible for the windows overlooking drops of two or more stories: One guy in armor with a Jedi Mind Trick on the brain can smash through one with alarming ease. I think this highlights the problems inherent in allowing one's enforcer-level underlings to have far too much time on their hands and nearly unlimited resources.
And thank you "Fringe" for bringing back the squick this week with mercury-blood and brains with wires hooked up to them. I am beginning to wonder why the other dimension doesn't just deploy a bunch of its shapeshifting Terminator-esque mooks to take out Walter, Broyles, and anybody else that could be a possible threat, grab Peter Bishop and use him to stop further damage to the space-time continuum. For a war, they seem to be doing a lot of poking around that either hints at a greater agenda or overly complicated planning.
Now I'm off to help prepare for our kid's first birthday. While a lot of parents mark it as some kind of developmental milestone or a joyous reason to celebrate togetherness, I'm seeing it for the best day of his life thus far: The day when he can start drinking milk instead of that overpriced "formula" substance. Nutrition aside, who came up with the odor for it? Until it starts to curdle because you didn't notice your kid kicked a half-full bottle behind the couch, it horrifies the senses even when fresh. I'm looking forward to just splitting whatever I'm having with Josh instead of mixing powders or popping open jars (and most baby foods turn my stomach as well; having a target market with no basis for comparison has got to be lucrative as all get out). While I dig out our old Wilton "bunny cake" pan and the wife's icing tips, here's some items both nifty and intriguing:
- The description claims that this is a TV ad for the D&D Red Box. I'm not sure what they were going for, but I'm not sure the flash animation look with 80's electric guitar is going to move a whole lot of product.
- This animated promo is much more to my taste. Which is kind of off, but hey...
- I think I'd like a cable physics clock if they could be constructed in real life. They're like a time-telling lava lamp, kinda-sorta.
- Proving that the world is an even stranger place than we thought, the first person to utter the phrase "the cake is a lie" wasn't a scientist at Aperture Laboratories. It was Archie Bunker.
- Here's a flash game that uses the familiar "Tremors" or "Miami Shark" mechanic of diving and surfacing (to gnaw on delicious people, of course): Moby Dick, the Video Game. The creator of the game notes that he's not read the text, so expect some liberties to be taken with the plot.
- A bit of a warning for those averse to seeing blood and/or a fictional serial killer "hero": The electronica mix-master "Pogo" has made an ambient tune out of 'Dexter' clips.
- I've seen furniture made from cars, vintage aircraft, and disused computers, but my current "want" is decor made from undersea mines.
- What could possibly go wrong if we teach robots how much pain they can inflict on us squishy humans? I can't help but think of the T-1000 saying, "I know this hurts..."
- Real estate in New York is always touted as being incredibly expensive, but today we look at how costly some places are in London.
- There's also a flat now available in Paris, though hadn't been opened for 70 years.
- Here's a morbidly cute animated short: Death Buy Lemonade.
- And another, possibly apocryphal, super-weapon that the Nazis had on their drawing boards: an orbital solar death ray. Frankly, I would have preferred this to be the focus of the fourth Indiana Jones film, instead of the flying saucer people.
- A pair of games to finish with: Battle-Shift, which is a retro bossfight type game (every time you 'kill' the bad guy his attack mode changes), and Shopping Cart Hero 2, because we all need a little upgradable jump/stunt gaming in our lives, right?