Category Archives: News

NBC decreases ‘The Cape’ episode count by three

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Things are not looking good for NBC’s new superhero drama The Cape.  On the heels of a series ratings low this week, today the Peacock decided to cut the season one episode count from 13 to 10.  All signs are pointing to cancellation, so I hope you’re not too invested in these characters already.  After the five episodes that aired thus far, I’ve stuck with it but news of the cut does not come as a surprise.  As easy as it might be to criticize the show’s cheesy dialogue, lack of top notch action sequences, and poor character development, what it all comes down to is ratings for the network.  Last night’s episode drew a meager 5.3 million viewers; that’s down 6% from the previous week.  The TV watching public doesn’t seem interested in it, and soon the network won’t be either.  According to Deadline, now that The Cape will bow out earlier than expected, fans of the serial sci-fi The Event can prepare for that show to make a return on March 7 in a two-hour block.

[Via Deadline]

Snyder’s Superman is Henry Cavill

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Say hello to the new Superman.  27-year-old British actor Henry Cavill, who is best known in the States for playing Charles Brandon on Showtime’s The Tudors, has been cast to play the Man of Steel in Zack Snyder’s reboot of the franchise.  Said Snyder in a press release: “In the pantheon of superheroes, Superman is the most recognized and revered character of all time, and I am honored to be a part of his return to the big screen. I also join Warner Bros., Legendary and the producers in saying how excited we are about the casting of Henry. He is the perfect choice to don the cape and S shield.”  Interestingly enough, Cavill was tapped for the lead role in 2006’s Superman Returns, but as we all know the role went to Brandon Routh and now they’re rebooting it.  Cavill’s certainly got the looks to play the part, and we’ll soon find out if he’s got the silver screen talent to captivate audiences when he stars in the fantasy-action film Immortals later this year.

Superman was written by David S. Goyer and its producing team includes talents Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Charles Roven, and Deborah Snyder.  The movie’s on track for a 2012 holiday release.

[Via EW]

Google Art Project brings galleries from around the world to your computer screen

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Today Google dipped its paws into the art industry.  Art Project is “a unique collaboration with some of the world’s most acclaimed art museums to enable people to discover and view more than a thousand artworks online in extraordinary detail.”  In short, over the past 18 months Google’s traveled to 17 art museums around the world and captured super high resolution images of famous artworks.  Now online users can take 360 degree tours of individual galleries using the same Street View click, zoom, and pan techniques most are used to using when navigating Google Maps.  Google hit up many world renowned museums including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, State Tretyakov Gallery, and Van Gogh Museum.  And check this: each of the 17 museums hand-picked one piece of artwork to be photographed using gigapixel technology; these super super high definition selections contain around 7 billion pixels allowing users to explore them in extreme detail.  For example, the people hidden behind the tree in Ivanov’s ‘The Apparition of Christ to the People’ suddenly become visible thanks to the gigapixel capture.  In addition to browsing the beautiful works of art, Google is enabling users to create their own collections, share them with others, and make them sociable with commenting support.

Head over to http://www.googleartproject.com/ to check it out!  Look after the break for official PR and some videos detailing the project.

Food for thought: Libraries are dead because of the digitization of books; with instant access to high definition galleries are museums on their way out now as well?

[Via GoogleBlog] Continue reading Google Art Project brings galleries from around the world to your computer screen →

A brand new Angry Birds game based on ‘Rio’ animated flick coming soon [Update: Super Bowl embedded code]

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App developer Rovio has teamed up with 20th Century Fox to put together a new Angry Birds game for iOS and Android.  Following the original Angry Birds and Seasons games, this new installment is inspired by the upcoming Fox animated feature Rio (watch a trailer for it here).  Angry Birds Rio will pack 45 new levels, increased graphics performance, and “a few new twists.”  Future updates will add more levels.  Look out for the app to hit iOS, Android, and Symbian app stores this March, ahead of Rio‘s April 15 theatrical release.

And if you you didn’t know, Team Rovio is currently developing an animated TV series based on the Angry Birds universe.  After watching this trailer for the Rio-inspired game I cannot wait to see what they come up with for the show.  Who needs dialogue when you’ve got furious birds yelling and slimy green pigs snorting?

Update: It’s been revealed that during the Super Bowl 20th Century Fox will air a 30-second commercial promoting Rio that features an embedded code, the first of its kind.  The secret code will be inserted into a single frame of the ad.  When it’s entered into the Angry Birds app a new level will be unlocked and it will enter players into a Rio sweepstakes.  Winners will attend the animated flick’s world premiere in Rio de Janeiro on March 22. That also happens to be the day Angry Birds Rio hits the App Store, in case you were wondering.

[Via Nerdist; UnwiredView; Reuters]

SOCOM 4 ships April 19, new multiplayer trailer and game stills enclosed

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Fans of the beloved PlayStation franchise SOCOM, listen here!  Developer Zipper Interactive announced a release date for the latest installment.  SOCOM 4 hits shelves April 19 exclusively for the PlayStation 3.  As promised the game will boast multiplayer support we’ve come to know and love, as well as a significantly enhanced single player campaign.  As I’ve shared with you before, all SOCOM games following PS2’s SOCOM II never sat well with me. Thankfully, Zipper promises that they’re going back to their roots with SOCOM 4, eliminating all of the fluff and nixing all the problems of past iterations (namely SOCOM 3, Combined Assault, and Confrontation; online lag issues and weak (and sometimes totally absent) single player modes plagued these titles).  After previewing SOCOM 4 at E3 2010 I am happy to report that the updated graphics are stunning and at the same time the title manages to capture the classic feel I last experienced playing the 2003 sequel.  Add in the PlayStation Move support, and you’ve got a PS3 shooter that deserves wild anticipation.

Preorder SOCOM 4 at GameStop.  Why?  Because you’ll receive a GameStop exclusive map. “Abandoned” is a modern take on SOCOM & SOCOM II’s “Suppression” map and it’s being described like this: “Abandoned takes place in the daytime around an ancient Thai village deep in the misty jungle. Fight your way over dense hillsides, through dark caves, and into the close-quarters mayhem of the archeological site. Classic SOCOM heritage meets evolved SOCOM 4 action.”  That’s what I like to hear.  You’ll also receive a weapon, the Super M90 Shotgun.  Whether you purchase the game online or pick it up in-store, you will be given instructions and a code to download the exclusive map and weapon when you load the game.  Want to get in on the action early?  For a limited time new copies of Killzone 3 (which releases February 22) will include an access code to the SOCOM 4 multiplayer beta. Specially marked cases for the Killzone 3 standalone and Helghast editions are your ticket into the beta, so keep an eye out of them.  Zipper has not announced when they will turn the beta on.

According to a Zipper rep, “the good news is that this is just the beginning of an upcoming flood of SOCOM goodness.”  So stick it right here for the latest news in SOCOM 4 single and mulitplayer news.  For now, check out the brand new multiplayer trailer (embedded after the break) called “Not For Self” and look in the gallery below for game stills.  And that’s some slick box art up there, huh?

[Via PlayStationBlog; Socom]

Continue reading SOCOM 4 ships April 19, new multiplayer trailer and game stills enclosed →

Sony unveils the PSP successor, brings PS games to Android devices with PlayStation Suite

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Today Sony hosted PlayStation Meeting 2011 in Japan, and there they announced the successor to the PSP (codenamed NGP) and provided details on how they plan to expand the PlayStation brand to Android devices.

Let’s start with what you’ve been waiting oh-so-long for.  The oft-rumored PSP2 has finally been unveiled.  But don’t call it that; Sony has branded the new device “Next Generation Portable” or NGP for short.  Though at first glance the NGP aesthetically appears similar to its predecessor, additional control options and the spec sheet will blow your mind.  The NGP packs a 5-inch 960×544 OLED capacitive multitouch display (OLED screen technology allows for great viewing angles, and the screen resolution is 4x greater than the PSP’s), a powerful quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, a quad-core Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX543MP4+ GPU, dual analog sticks (as opposed to the PSP’s single analog nub), front and rear-facing cameras, built-in GPS, WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth, microphone, stereo speakers, the same Six-axis motion sensing system that’s featured in the PlayStation Move controller (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), and there’s a three-axis electronic compass.  Buttons-wise, you’ll find the usual suspects: the D-Pad, action buttons (triangle, circle, cross, square), left and right shoulder buttons, start, select, volume, power and PS buttons.  And I’ve managed to save the coolest new input implementation for last. The NGP packs a rear-mounted multitouch pad; it’s the same size as the front-facing OLED display, so the location of your finger is mapped directly to the game screen.  This new kind of input allows for “touch, grab, trace, push and pull” finger gestures and will open up a whole new world of gaming opportunities for developers.  All of this is stuffed inside a “Super Oval Design” form factor that is, again, similar to the PSP (there is no slide-up mechanism as featured in the PSP Go). Continue reading Sony unveils the PSP successor, brings PS games to Android devices with PlayStation Suite →

Kid Cudi joins Twitter (again), says new mixtape coming this summer

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In December 2009, shortly after Kid Cudi dropped his debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day, he stated, “I will never get back on Twitter or Facebook. I’m getting my blog back together and that will be the only way to stay connected with me.”  So much for that.  Today Cudder joined Twitter again, and you can follow him @wizardcud. Why the change of heart?  “i really only got back on twitter becuz i heard will smith tweeted about a fresh prince reunion and i wanted to post my response to that…” he joked.  Only hours after reintroducing himself (“yes, its true. its me, the real wizard”), Cudi dropped an explosion of headlines.

First he announced that his upcoming rock-themed album Wizard is expected to release this summer.  Cudi will serve as producer and he says every track will feature his guitar talents, while collaborator Dot Da Genius is currently learning the bass.  He also spilled that the long lost “Dose of Dopeness” will be a bonus track on the album. He describes Wizard in a tweet: “Wizard is a rock album, no raps, just singing. brand new thing. flavor.”

What else, what else.  He mentions the “Maniac” music video/short film is still under construction; Cudder, Cage, and video director Shia LaBeouf are holding back on dropping it until “everything [is] just right…i need the proper time for scoring…the edit must be epic.”

Last, Cudi drops this exciting bombshell: he’s releasing a brand new mixtape this summer called A Man Named Scott, the followup to 2008’s A Kid Named Cudi.  Of the mixtape he says, “for all those who fucks with my raps, this is for u since ima be all rocked out with the wizard shit. also its free! yes!”  In other words, since Wizard is going to be all about Cudder crooning, he wants to hold over his rap fans with the mixtape until the true successor of Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager releases presumably later this year.

He concluded all these hot tweets with this: “man im really happy to FINALLY get all that good news out there. more to come, not even close.”  And the man’s not lying; in between all this news he revealed that he’s been working with Kanye West and Jay-Z, almost definitely on their collab album Watch the Throne so you can expect a Cudi feature there.  He also shared that HBO’s How To Make It In America starts filming its second season in March and he’s excited to reprise his true-to-life character Domingo Dean.

[Via @wizardcud]

Will Ferrell is headed to ‘The Office’ for a multi-episode arc

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With Steve Carell exiting The Office before season’s end, the producers promised that viewers could expect the introduction of new characters in the wake of Michael Scott’s departure.  Following Ricky Gervais’ quick cameo this week, funnyman Will Ferrell will reunite with his Anchorman co-star later this season for a lengthier four-episode arc.  According to Deadline, Ferrell “will play a branch manager who comes from the home office and is just as inappropriate as Steve Carell’s Michael Scott character.”  He will work alongside Scott for three episodes and his character will remain with the Office gang for one additional episode post-Scott’s departure “to help create a bridge” between the old and new (still undisclosed) boss.

The Office’s executive producer Paul Lieberstein (who also plays HR rep Toby Flenderson) had this to say about the Ferrell addition: “We found Steve Carell when he was nothing but a movie star and we turned him into a television star. We are proud to continue The Office’s tradition of discovering famous talent, and we hope that once America gets a good look at Will, they’ll see what we see, tremendous raw sexuality.”

Oh, and I just thought of this.  If the producers decide to bring David Koechner’s Todd Packer into the mix, we’ll have ourselves an even mightier Anchorman reunion.

Update: Rainn Wilson (aka Dwight Schrute) commented on Ferrell’s Office visit and what’s in store for the show post-Michael Scott; hop after the break for some quotes!

[Via Deadline; EW] Continue reading Will Ferrell is headed to ‘The Office’ for a multi-episode arc →

2011 Oscar nods are in!

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Today the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for this year’s Academy Awards show.  Leading the pack is The King’s Speech with 12 nominations, followed by True Grit with 10.  In addition for being up for Best Picture, The King’s Speech is also being recognized for its actors (Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter are up for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress, respectively) director (Tom Hooper), and screenwriter (David Seidler).  True Grit is also up for Best Picture, Best Director (Joel & Ethan Coen), and Best Adapted Screenplay (the Coens).  Actors Jeff Bridges and the young but brilliantly talented Hailee Steinfeld nabbed Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor nods, respectively.  127 Hours, Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, and Winter’s Bone round out the coveted Best Picture category.

Time to talk snubs.  First up: Christopher Nolan, the man behind Inception.  Though the fantastical mind trip nabbed 8 nods (including Best Picture and Screenplay), Nolan was not recognized for his superb direction.  Next: Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) and Mila Kunis (Black Swan) are noticeably absent from the Best Supporting Actor/Actress category.  Then there’s the Best Animated Feature category; though Toy Story 3 is locked for the win, Illumination Entertainment’s Despicable Me deserves a spot there amongst TS3 and How to Train Your Dragon.  As critically acclaimed as Ben Affleck’s The Town was this past year, the flick only picked up a nod for Best Supporting Actor (Jeremy Renner).  And finally there’s Tron: Legacy; it’s one thing not to nominate Daft Punk’s wonderfully electric score, but it’s quite laughable that the Academy did not nominate the movie for Best Visual Effects.

Look after the break to see the full rundown of all 24 award categories.  The 83rd Annual Academy Awards, hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway, airs live Sunday February 27 at 8PM on ABC.

[Via EW] Continue reading 2011 Oscar nods are in! →

Kanye West tweets new album coming this summer!?

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Over the weekend Kanye West jumped back onto Twitter and made some surprising and exiting announcements. Whether or not they pan out is up for discussion, but what he exclaimed in caps remains newsworthy nonetheless. He mentioned his collab album with Jay-Z and shouted, “WATCH THE THRONE COMING IN 2 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!” That makes for a March drop date which nicely supports the early spring release date speculation.  Next up he shared, “ALL THE LIGHTS VIDEO IN 1 WEEK!!!!!!”  This will be the second music video to come out of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy; the “Power” painting dropped in August and the “Monster” video is MIA.  And finally he spilled, “I’ll be back this SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!”; he then followed this up with another tweet: “MY NEW ALBUM COMING THIS SUMMER.”  Are ‘Ye fans expected to anticipate Watch the Throne to come this March and the Twisted Fantasy followup LP this summer?  Hellz yes.  My guess is that West created so much content for Dark Fantasy that he has enough to carry over the unreleased tracks (“Mama’s Boyfriend”?) onto an entirely new album, much like Eminem was planning on doing with Relapse 2 before Recovery took hold.

[Via @kanyewest]

Apple App Store hits 10 billion downloads

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On Sunday Apple proclaimed that it hit the incredible 10 billion mark in terms of number of iOS apps sold.  Today the App Store offers more than 350,000 apps to iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users in 90 countries around the world.  Says Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing: “With more than 10 billion apps downloaded in just two and a half years–a staggering seven billion apps in the last year alone–the App Store has surpassed our wildest dreams.”  Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, UK downloaded the 10 billionth app (it was Paper Glider) and will now receive a $10,000 iTunes gift card.  She should host a party with Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia; he also received the enormous gift for downloading the 10 billionth song using iTunes.

This really is a remarkable milestone for Apple, and I hope that competitors Android and Windows Phone 7 take this news and use it as fuel to amp up their respective app development following.

[Via Apple]

Eric Schmidt leaves Google CEO post, Larry Page steps in

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On Thursday Eric Schmidt announced that he will be leaving his post as Google CEO come April 4 and Google co-founder Larry Page will fill the role.  From that day on, Page will “lead product development and technology strategy” and “take charge of [Google] day-to-day operations,” while Schmidt will stay with the company as Executive Chairman.  In a blog post Schmidt says, “I will focus wherever I can add the greatest value: externally, on the deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership that are increasingly important given Google’s global reach; and internally as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.” He hands the reigns to Page under amicable conditions.  “In this new role I know [Page] will merge Google’s technology and business vision brilliantly,” he said. “I am enormously proud of my last decade as CEO, and I am certain that the next 10 years under Larry will be even better! Larry, in my clear opinion, is ready to lead.”  And what of the other co-founder, Sergey Brin?  He “has decided to devote his time and energy to strategic projects, in particular working on new products.”  Schmidt adds, “He’s an innovator and entrepreneur to the core, and this role suits him perfectly.”  And he concludes, “Larry, Sergey and I have worked exceptionally closely together for over a decade—and we anticipate working together for a long time to come.”

This is certainly a big shakeup for one of the world’s most dominant companies.  Whether or not this transitional shift of control affects Google’s products and services…time will tell.

[Via GoogleBlog]