The Phantom – Alex Ross paints a badass Ghost Who Walks

This is an alternate cover from a series called The Last Phantom. Due out from Dynamite in August.

Source: Bleeding Cool

Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands – Trailer for the new video game

XCOM – First screenshots of UFO sequel

Remember UFO: Enemy Unknown or XCOM: UFO as it was called in a other places. A great turn based strategy game were you ran a Worldwide organistion combating an alien invasion. You had to protect the sky, build bases, send out teams to salvage alien tech and research what you found. A fantastic game that I loved. There were a couple of sequels (Terrot from the Deep was one of them) and now a new one is heading our way by 2K.

This one is set in Fifties USA and unfortunately looks as if it will be a FPS with limited input on the whole research and team work that made the original so good. The official spiel for the game is this:

XCOM is the re-imagining of the classic tale of humanity’s struggle against an unknown enemy that puts players directly into the shoes of an FBI agent tasked with identifying and eliminating the growing threat. True to the roots of the franchise, players will be placed in charge of overcoming high-stake odds through risky strategic gambits coupled with heart-stopping combat experiences that pit human ingenuity – and frailty – against a foe beyond comprehension. By setting the game in a first-person perspective, players will be able to feel the tension and fear that comes with combating a faceless enemy that is violently probing and plotting its way into our world.

It looks as if the aliens are making people go all blocky or something. Hard to tell at the minute.

However NeoGAF have had a go at it and have posted a detailed synopsis. Here is a bit of it:

-The level zones are huge, but if you want to poke your head into just one house, find a bit of intel, and go home unscathed, you can do that. The tradeoff, though, is that you lose out on other potential intelligence hidden around the area, and crucially, you’ll miss any opportunities to gather precious Elerium. Eventually clarifies lead designer Ed Orman ominously, “You do have to leave no matter what. “

-In the quaint Flagstaff neighborhood, Carter and Co come across a rather impressive two-story house halfway down the street. According to the mailbox in front the Sweeter family live inside. But, clearly, something’s gone sour. A dark grayish black trail of….something leads from the front yard into the back through the gate.

-All is quiet in the backyard except for some odd sounds-foreign noises made even more eerie silence permeating the entire neighborhood-and the continued trail of residue running up the side of the white house. A red lawnmower lies on its side. Still running, its exposed blades remain spinning, ready to slice and dice anyone-or anything-that gets too close. Here, we receive our first look at XCOM’s unique array of gadgets.

-Dr Goldeberg really outdid himself; in Carter’s left hand is a Petrie dish containing what appears to be a living, nebulous sample of the black, inky residue that led us to the Sweeter’s backyard. It’s as if someone captured Spider Man’s Venom in a glass sphere. Plugged into the dish are electrical leads connected to a battery-fed compass in Carter’s other hand.

-As we move closer to the trail of goo the electronically stimulated contents of the dish vibrate wildly. Because the substance wants to combine with itself whenever possible, the gadget ends up guiding you closer and closer to the source of the gooey material.

-We move through the backyard toward the opposite side. The black stuff begins to react even more violently, leading us straight over and through a doghouse to a grassy patch behind some bushes in the back of the property. On a different day we’d stop to admire the scenic view of the valley below, just as a man standing there was doing, camera in had. But this isn’t that day; the man with the camera lies dead next to his tripod, coated in black nastiness. Ironically it is now our job to photograph him to document the incident for Goldberg, Quinn, and crew to study for precious intel.

-With the goo compass spastic and the trail of horror getting worse it’s obvious we’re close to something. Heading towards the home’s side entrance we finally glimpse it; a big black glob of goo. You quickly put away your compass for a loaded shotgun. You and your two pals unload pellet blasts into the extraterrestrial substance. It shrieks and breaks into smaller-but-still-very-much alive pieces and immediately starts to reform. A good ol-fashioned lead diet, it seems, is only going to slow down this alien invader, not stop it.

-Your man carter plunges his hand into his pocket to pull out another Goldberg contraption.: the Blobatov (aka a goo grenade rigged to catch fire when shattered), The dichotomy of its visual appearance is almost laughable: a clear glass sphere containing a radically advanced alien substance, rigged up as a grenade with primitive analog 50s’ era switches and misc hardware. Still, it proves satisfyingly effective when you throw it into the goo. The orb shatters, the goo ignites, and the entire tar like mass evaporates in a flash of fire and ear piercing, terrorizing shriek o what must be pure pain.

-One blob is down, but we still have to fine Elerium before we flee Flagstaff. Our sense of dread intensifies as we move through the house. In these close quarters and tight hallways, we’d have a difficult time dodging the goo if any of it leaps out at us here. We follow a slime trail upstairs and discover the nursery, complete with mutilated mom and no baby. There is no Elerium either.

-With Frank and Jones at our back we move back downstairs and toward the front door. Remember how we’d come in through the side? A wise decision as three blobs ambush us in the living room! One gloms onto Frank. He tries to pull it off, but at the end of the battle we find his body lifeless beneath an end table with a knocked over lamp on his head. Carter and Jones manage to fight off the springy alien tar with shotguns and Blobatovs, but not before being dragged to the brink of death in the process. Still in search of Elerium, we move outside and head up the street; that’s when the vortex appears in the sky and the Titan monolith shows up.

Still it is early days so we’ll have to see how it develops.

You can check out the official site.

Source: Kotaku

Let Me In – New photo of Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smit-Mcphee

Here is a new image from the Let the Right One In remake by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield). It shows Chloe Moretz (Kick-Ass) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road). It actually doesn’t look too bad.

The LA Times had the pic and an interview with Reeves.

A respectful devotee of both the original novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist as well as the first film, Reeves understands the concerns of those with strong feelings for the original. He had his own reservations about the remake and corresponded with Lindqvist, who also wrote the script for “Let The Right One In,” before taking on the project.

“I think because of ‘Cloverfield,’ people have an assumption, which is, ‘Oh, crazy handicam, he’s going to jazz it up,’ “ Reeves said. “And I think that’s probably what a lot of people were afraid of when they thought of the most cynical version. And that’s the last thing we tried to do. We tried to create the approaching, foreboding dread of movies like ‘The Shining,’ where you feel like something wicked is unraveling and it’s not going to end well. That’s what I responded to about the original, the juxtaposition of those tones, this very disturbing story but at the center of it there are these very tender emotions. That’s a very unusual mix, and that’s what drew me in and dug into me.”

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – Extended Featurette

Extended featurette for Prince of Persia gives an in-depth introduction to the film and its source material while showing never before seen footage

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Directed Mike Newell. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Alfred Molina.

Due out on May 28, 2010

Super 8 – Trailer leads to viral mysteries

The teaser trailer for J J Abrams’ Super 8 leaked out yesterday (or was it a deliberate release?) and like Cloverfield before it there are many clues in the trailer – watch it here.

During the last bit when you see the lens of a Super 8 camera letters flash by which spell out Scariest Thing I Ever Saw. Over on scariestthingieversaw.com the mystery deepens.

If you go over there and run through everything and then print it brings up the message:

Stop posting publicly. I can answer your questions.
I have proof.
>>>>

It also mentions a D. Morris and /Film found this out:

Dan Morris is a retired Air Force career Master Sergeant who was involved in the extraterrestrial projects for many years. After leaving the Air Force, he was recruited into the super-secret National Reconnaissance Organization, or NRO, during which time he worked specifically on extraterrestrial-connected operations. He had a cosmic top-secret clearance (38 levels above top secret) which, he states, no U.S. president, to his knowledge, has ever held. In his testimony, he talks of assassinations committed by the NSA; he tells how our military deliberately caused the 1947 ET craft crashes near Roswell, and captured one of the ETs, which they kept at Los Alamos for 3 years, until he died. He talks about the intelligence teams that were charged with intimidating, discrediting, and even eliminating witnesses to ET/UFO events. He talks about Germany’s re-engineering of UFOs, even prior to WWII. He talks about our current energy crisis — and the fact that we haven’t needed fossil fuels since the 1940s, when free energy technologies were developed — but have been kept from humanity. This is the real reason for the secrecy of the ET/UFO subject. “What the people in power right now don’t want us to know is that this free energy is available to everybody.” In conclusion, he warns against the weaponization of space and the shooting down of ET craft — this could force them to retaliate, and that would be our destruction.

Super 8 News have discovered that there is a countdown leading to the date of 15th May 2010. No idea what happens when the countdown ends though.

Lots to find out on this one. Post any findings in the comments below.

Source: Unfiction Forums, First Showing

Cyborgs – Everything you ever wanted to know about them

Twilight Zone art show at Gallery 1988

Gallery 1988 are having an exhibition of Twilight Zone inspired art and it looks like it could be epic.

More info on the Gallery 1988 website.

I love the one by Tom Whalen below from the episode “Nightmare at 20000 Feet.” The Shat is always good to watch.

Source: io9

Doctor Who: Episode 5 – Flesh and Stone

Just realised I didn’t post a review of last weeks Doctor Who episode and there is a new one due later today!

Flesh and Stone was the conclusion of the Weeping Angels storyline (my 3 year old daughter calls them the Peeping Angels which seems so much nicer). It gave us information on what the Crack is or could be, what River Song is up to and moved on the Amy Pond is getting married in the morning story. However, it also raised more questions. I’ll get to them in a bit.

The wrap up of the Weeping Angels was handled pretty well, but the suspense from the previous episode was missing. The Crack in Time was interesting and sad when the soldiers went to investigate and were forgotten by their team mates as they were erased from time. This also explained why Amy could not remember the Daleks. The fact that the Doctor kept mentioning that time coule be rewritten means he may well have a go himself somewhere down the line. Why is the Crack following Amy?

The most intriguing bit was when Amy had to keep her eyes closed and the Doctor headed off with River to sort out the ship. The Doctor when he left was without a jacket (the Angels got it earlier). The camera stayed on Amy and the Doctor was back within seconds and told her to remember when she was seven – If you recall in the first episode you see young Amy sitting outside and then the sound of the TARDIS, but it hasn’t been mentioned since – The Doctor was filmed close up, but you could tell he was wearing his jacket. The next scene saw the Doctor with River and he again had no jacket. You can see what I mean in the clip below – starts round about the 1:45 mark.

I put it to you that the Doctor with the Jacket was from the future and he came back to speak to Amy at that point (the previous episode showed that the TARDIS can materialize without the distinctive sound – see clip below) and means we are having a great big weaving through time storyline. It could also explain how Amy has been so helpful in previous episodes. Maybe she keeps getting told spoilers.

All just a theory of mine, but you never know.

River Song’s character was fleshed out and we learnt she was in prison as she had killed a man, the greatest man she ever knew. Does that mean she at some point kills the Doctor? When it is Matt Smith’s time to regenerate will it be because of River Song? Is she going to be his Wife or is that misdirection?

The death of Father Octavian was very well done and rather emotional. Great acting by Iain Glenn.

All things to ponder on. Matt Smith gets better with each episode and I love the fact he doesn’t know what his plans are going to be until he finishes speaking. I get the impression his brain is full of so much stuff that he talks to focus it all on the matter at hand. Karen Gillan as Amy was great, but the bit at the end when she came onto the Doctor seemed a little forced and didn’t seem to fit with the characters we have seen so far.

However, the Doctor realises that she is at the centre of all the cracks and that the time explosion which created them occurs on the day of her wedding.

To sum up. Not as good as the previous episode, but great that it moved the whole story arc forward. What did you think of it all?

Tonight we have female Vampires in Venice.

Live for Films Movie Club – Bond…James Bond

With the future of the next Bond movie on indefinite hold now is the time to look back on what makes Bond great. As you can see from the poster starting next week Live for Films is having a Bond Themed Movie Club.

It is going to be the first film for each Bond…apart from George Lazenby.

15th May – Dr No

22nd May – Live and Let Die

29th May – The Living Daylights

5th June – Goldeneye

12th June – Casino Royale

Of course you can watch any James Bond film you wish, these are just to get you started.

The Live For Films Movie Club works by a load of people around the World watching the same movie on the same weekend and then heading over to the LFF Forum to discuss the film. Who is your favrourite Bond? The best looking? Best Bond girl? Who has the best one-liners? Greates escape? Best Villain? Best location? Coolest Gadget?

The James Bond LFF Film Club can be found on the Forum here.

Thanks to Another Zen for sorting out the excellent poster. Please feel free to post it on your sites to help spread the word.