We're just 5 days past the mid-point in 2014 and one thing is clear, the box office is struggling. With spring giving us a slew of box office successes like Captain America: Winters Soldier, The Amazing Spider Man 2, X Men: Days of Future Past, Godzilla, Disney's Maleficent and even the very early on Lego Movie, its no wonder that this summers large blockbusters aren't really making the impact that they should. Even at the start of the summer, Transformers: Age of Extinction falling just short opening to the first 100 million box office gross of 2014, dropped 63% in audience attendance this holiday weekend, making this July 4th one of the worst box office weekends since the 1980's. Even with new comers Tammy, Earth to Echo and Deliver us from Evil, no movie created a big box office splash which a lt of analyst speculated the opposite given that the 4th of July fell on a Friday this year. While the next few big films coming out are Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the highly anticipated Guardians of the Galaxy, will this summer be able to turn around their declining profits and get audiences back to the way they use to or is an early start a smarter move?
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Zack Snyder, director of Batman v Superman:Dawn of Justice, just let go a new image of Henry Cavill in the iconic Superman suit standing ominously in the snow. This looks much darker compared to the first films teaser image as well as our new Batman, played by Ben Affleck but seems to fit the over all "darker" tone. While we're still just under 2 years away from the next DC mega blockbuster, we'll have to keep an eye out for this years comic con at the end of July and see what surprises Snyder has in store for us.
The CW has revealed on twitter their fall line up and we got a look at some returning series as well as the debut's of some new ones. For the fans that are still reeling from the season finale of Supernatural can rejoice, it returns October 7th and the Flash series debuts on the same night. Vampire Diaries, Reign, The Originals and Arrow will all be returning as well as the premieres of the new series Jane the Virgin and The 100. The iHeart radio music festival also airs on CW Monday and Tuesday September 29th and the 30th as well. I personally can't wait to see the Flash pilot, get ready for a fun fall line up!
In the movie that should basically be titled, "Justice League Part 1," reports are surfacing that Jason Momoa, most famously known for his role as Khol Drogo in Game of Thrones, has been cast as Aquaman in the ever expanding cast of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. This comes along side of the news that Martian Man Hunter might be added as well Darkseid to be announced as the films main villain. These characters, of course, make sense for the Justice League film but I hardly see how cramming every single character is going to serve this film well. There's even been rumors that Catwoman could end up in the film as well. Hopefully they won't all get some last scene cameo reveal and actually play a bit of a role in the film but only time will tell. Look forward to seeing Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice in theaters in 2016.
After Edgar Wrights exit, Adam Mckays quick turn down and We're the Millers director, Rawson Thurber, now turning it down, Marvel has a serious issue on their hands. This also raises some serious questions, is this movie even worth creating? Fans we're notably upset by Wriggts departure, considering he's been attached to the project since the mid 2000's. Could it be Marvel re-writes are drawing too specific of a vision for Hank Pym? Also, aside from Adam McKay and Wright, the other choices pale in comparison especially with Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas. While hurridly working their way down the list of back up directors, could the best decision be to post-pone the film or scrap the project indefinitely? Looking ahead past Marvel's current movie woes, we know that another character they have on their roster to debut on the big screen is none other than Stephen Strange, or Doctor Strange. The character also had a name drop in Captain America:The Winter Soldier as a possible threat to the HYDRA organization. As it turns out, the film being described as the "doorway" into the supernatural has announced its director and it's quite surprising. Scott Derickson, director of such horror films as The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Sinister and Eric Bana's new film, Deliver us from evil, has announced that his next project will be "STRANGE." While he is certainly one of the stranger choices, it's going to be interesting to see if his unique scare tactics will be part of this film or if it'll be a step away from his normal horror roots. At this time, theres no rumored cast list or release date so more on that when it comes.
ComiXology, a wildly popular iOS app underwent some very controversial changes over the weekend after being acquired by giant online retailer, Amazon, that has quite a few people upset. The major change has come in the form of the large inconvenience now being pushed on to customers through changes in their in app purchase system. The simple touch and buy system that was in place was now changed to a new form of login, redirecting you to a web browser page that requires additional information, some argue that this may infringe on the ability to simply impulsively buy comics and the additional time might make people second guess whether or not they really want to spend their money on that particular comic. Long time comic book writer, Gerry Conway, wrote an article detailing his personal outrage and the threat posed by this change and raises quite a few good points about why this is a touch decision. While this may prove to be beneficial in the future as well as for Amazon profits, it strikes at the impulse to just click and purchase and read immediately on your iPad. ComiXology also ran into a few road blocks while being held to Apple's stores content policies which also lead to their decision to head in a different direction. While I have tried the app out myself, I've never been a huge fan of any sort of E-reading alternatives but can completely understand customers frustration in this sudden change. This seems like a company taking a big gamble and hoping that their loyal fanbase will continue to buy at the rate that they were and expand, only time will tell if this will hurt their profits or if they will continue to hold on to the biggest web app for comics.
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Gaming
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