By: Cody Chavers
“Nerd.” “Geek.” What used to be derogatory words for the smart people that didn’t quite fit in are now used to describe the culture that has taken entertainment of every medium by storm. With the surging popularity of comic books (especially the movies and television shows inspired by them), science fiction and fantasy, “geek” culture is rapidly becoming simply “our” culture. Here, I will endeavor to help the students of PSC keep up with some of the biggest stories in Nerd News. Now.
DC Movie Lineup Reveal
Earlier this week, Warner Brother’s executives dropped a bombshell announcement revealing their planned lineup for cinematic releases all the way to 2020.
2016 – Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad
2017 – Wonder Woman, Justice League Part 1
2018 – The Flash, Aquaman
2019 – Shazam, Justice League Part 2
2020 – Cyborg, Green Lantern
In addition to this announcement, the execs also confirmed a stand-alone Batman movie starring the much debated Ben Affleck and another solo Superman movie starring Henry Cavill and Amy Adams. Little known actor Ezra Miller has also been announced as playing The Flash in this new DC cinematic universe and will most likely make his debut alongside Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and Ray Fisher’s Cyborg.
Ragin’ Cajun Channing Tatum
After several months of silence on the topic, actor Channing Tatum has stated in an interview with MTV that he has been working with the producers on a potential story for a Gambit movie.
“I don’t want to give too much away because we don’t know that much right now other than who Gambit is,” Tatum said. “We really do want to try our hardest to give something fresh. We’re obviously going to go to the ‘saving the world’ superhero movies eventually, but maybe not for the first one. We kinda want to introduce this character in a different way. When you try to do something different, you never know right off the bat what that is.”
Tatum also said that they are still in the process of searching for a writer. As Gambit is an X-Man, there is room for the mutant movie to crossover with the current cinematic X-verse or perhaps this “something fresh” is taking the Cajun totally solo.
Attack on Your Wallet
A company in Japan named Movic has created a one-to-one scale replica of the Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear from the wildly popular anime Attack on Titan and it is awesome. They will be available on the company’s website in January and one can be yours for the low, low price of 107, 784 yen. Which is 1018 US dollars. Wow. Maybe not so low. The replicas are made of aluminum, silicone and resin and weighs 22 pounds. Probably not a lot of 3D maneuvering while wearing it, but for cosplay? Just, so much awesome.
Minecraft Midgar
Minecraft player KillerX20 has finally finished his two-year project: a complete recreation of Final Fantasy VII’s Midgar. Midgar is the starting city of the fan-favorite video game and many of the game’s most iconic sequences take place in the city’s walls. The model not only includes areas from the core game, but also areas shown in spin-offs, such as Advent Children and Crisis Core.
“As a lot are probably wondering,” KillerX20 says in a forum post, “yes, more than 85% of this build WAS indeed hand placed. The only things that were not are the outer plates, tower, and reactors BUT that doesn’t mean they were completed when imported, they were basically detail-less empty shells and I wanted it that way so everything on/inside them had to be hand placed for optimal detail.”
Themyscira, New Mexico?
A small New Mexican town news station captured footage of a set for Zack Snyder’s upcoming movie Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Looking at the style of architecture, with what appears to be temples and Greek-style columns, and knowing that Wonder Woman will make her debut in the movie, one can assume that this set is Themyscira. Deming, New Mexico has been the site of over a dozen films, most notable of which is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It was also revealed earlier this week that the cinematic version of Wonder Woman will draw from the New 52 mythology, making her the daughter of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, and Zeus.