Following news of Ed Norton cast as Bruce Banner, we now have news that Liv Tyler has been cast as Betty Ross, a role which had been filled by Jennifer Connelly in the previous Hulk movie. Adding this to the Lord of the Rings on her resume is really giving her some solid geek-cred.

According to Marvel, “As Betty Ross, Tyler will take on the lead female role. Ross is a scientist and has been Bruce Banner’s key ally in the quest to rid him of the Hulk. Bruce’s condition has immensely complicated their longtime romance, and has finally forced Betty to try to put the past behind her. The new movie’s story unfolds when the pursuit for The Hulk – the world’s most misunderstood, primal force of fury – heats up, finding Bruce Banner on the run attempting to cure his condition before his pursuers capture him. This chase is something that Betty cannot ignore – sweeping her right back into Bruce’s life and the heart-pounding action that follows.”

So, Liv Tyler as a love interest? Great! Liv Tyler as a scientist? Well, a that’s a little more questionable. What do you think about this casting decision? Leave a comment below!

Ok, when a person mentions the name Alice Cooper to you, what does your mind usually fill with? Monster rock, thrash, and Satanic concerts probably involving virgin sacrifice, right? Or at least something close to that.

But not….golf.

Seems Mr. Cooper has traded up his self proclaimed alcohol addiction for a new addiction, involving a 18-hole green and thwacking little white balls, after battling with alcoholism since the later 70’s and 80’s decades. Not only that, but he’s also written a book on his experiences, “Alice Cooper, Golf Monster”, which explains his apperent epiphany and change of outlook.

“Golf ended up being a good trade-off,” he says. “The thing about this book, is that when I look at the whole juxtaposition of who Alice Cooper is, the golf addiction and the music addiction, still, it’s pretty interesting how they can co-exist.”

More can be read at Billboard.com.

This very well could be a sign of the coming apocalypse, people. Alice Cooper + Golf = Fire and Brimstone raining down. It’s the only logical explination.

The fifth and final figure in the Botcon 2007 Exclusive set was revealed today. Dreadwind will be a repaint of Classics Jetfire with a remolded head designed by fan club artist Dan Khanna. As always, I have mirrored the images below.

When I first heard that Dreadwind would be one of the exclusives, I hoped that we might get a Darkwing to go along with him. I was a big Darkwing fan when I was younger because I had the toy and he had an unusually cool transformation for the time. If you compare the two G1 characters in jet mode to the jet mode of Classics Jetfire, Darkwing is actually a much closer match. Going by robot mode, though, Dreadwind wins out since he has the cockpit on his chest, while Darkwing’s chest is the underside of the plane.

Source for image of G1 Dreadwind head: TFU.Info.

“We’re Doomed. Not that it matters.”
  

…but just barely. Shigeru Miyamoto comes in at #92 in Time Magazine’s list of the most influence people of 2006. Who can blame them for including the Father of Modern Video games? As one of the main creative forces behind the phenomenally popular Wii, Miyamoto has secured a spot on the list by making video games less threatening and more accessible to everyone, (especially to the senior set, they can’t seem to get enough of the system at assisted living communities).

Although ranked #9 by the public, the fact that a game maker was even included on the list during the newly revived, post Virginia Tech, video game “witch-hunt” really says something about the power of the medium.

Read the feature here

WARNING!!

Taking a by-memory based map of your school, and turning it into a Count-Strike level is, apperently, a very bad idea.

A highschool senior has been suspended from Clements High School in Fort Bend, Texas, after it was found out by a fellow classmate that he had created a level on his PC-version of Counter-Strike that was based around his school’s design and layout. After word got out amongst students, and more imporantly their parents, school officials took action, and removed the teen to be placed in an “alternate education campus”. Stating that the level was considered a ‘terroristic threat”, local police also became involved and searched the boy’s home, though found no evidence of criminal activity.

Duh.

This comes not long after the Virginia Tech shootings, therefore awareness for implications of school violence is back on the high. What doesn’t add up is, why hasn’t this happened before? How do you think such great maps for games such as Counter-Strike are made? People visualize a place they can create from simply memory, and use it to map out a level that’s unique and provides a challenge. Why is this any different than a person making a level out their workplaces from memory? With Columbine, it was obvious that the individuals were disturbed to begin with, but this kid seems to be a normal teen who simply likes video games, as implicated by a fellow student.

“I think he just did it for fun,” said student Maaria Faoqi. “I mean, he goes here. He probably didn’t mean anything.”

The ABC News article can be read HERE.

I give it a week tops before the anti-gaming advocates raise in arms to shout out at this.

Seems that news regarding the PSP-exclusive upcoming chapter of the Silent Hill mythos kinda slips by unnoticed recently. However, it seems a bit of new info and new additions to “Origins” has hit the web for Silent Hill enthusiasts to decend upon.

As a recap, Silent Hill Origins is a prequel to the rest of the games in the series, particularly numbers 1 and 3. Until now, only some character information has been sprinkled about, with some screenshots of over-the-shoulder gameplay, ala Resident Evil 4. Now, it seems the SH team scrapped that concept in favor of the oldschool 3rd person. In this game, you play as newcomer Travis O’Grady, whom finds himself in the misty town of Silent Hill after saving a mysterious girl from a burning house. (series fans should pick up on this right away) After which, Travis tries to investigate what happened to the little girl, only to be thrown into the chaos that permiates from deep within the town itself.

According to Game Informers, despite the smaller screen size, the game itself is no less creepy than it’s large-screen predecessors. Gameplay is simple, with some new features thrown in such as being able to charge your attacks and the ability to lock onto several targets and toggle between them.

Have we mentioned the creepy?

Silent Hill Origins is slated for release in fall of later this year.

IGN has released the first trailer for the upcoming Transformers movie tie-in game. The footage comes from the Xbox 360 version of the game and shows off Bumblebee, Optimus Prime and Barricade in motion. We see them driving, fighting, scaling buildings and we get a good glimpse of Prime transforming! The character models are very impressive and need to be seen in motion to be appreciated. Best of all the trailer is narrated by Optimus Prime himself, Peter Cullen!

Source:Transformers the Game Trailer

When Disney’s “Meet the Robinsons” achieved the largest digital 3-D opening in history, people witnessed what could become the future of cinema. Joshua Greer, the President and Co-founder of Real D had this to say during a recent interview with IGN,

“…what’s really happening now with the filmmakers that are being turned on to 3-D is we’re seeing a new creative renaissance. And at the end of the day it’s about the story, but even more importantly how you tell the story, and what’s happening with these filmmakers is the way they’re thinking about 3-D now, as opposed to being just a gimmick, but actually as a storytelling device, is really, frankly, going to reinvigorate the experience of cinema again. So 3-D in and of itself, if we do our job right, in the next 10 years it’ll be as ubiquitous as colour or sound. It’s not like anyone goes out now looking for a black and white television. It’s just a natural part of the world.”

The technology is quite interesting, and seems to be well within the reach of any major multiplex. I’m not sure how much I like the idea of having a box full of special, ‘Real D’ glasses from every movie I’ve seen, but if they have come this far in the last 10 years, who knows what the future holds. If Real D can engineer a version of this tech that does not require migraine inducing specs, Viva la Revolution!

I’m still of the mindset that this new medium is going to need a mainstream blockbuster in order to thrive and become a viable format. Attn: Peter Jackson, I believe a re-release of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is in order.

Additional “Real D” enhanced movies:
Lions 3D – Spring 2007
U23D – Fall 2007
Sea Monsters – October 2007
Beowulf – November 2007

For the full feature, click here.

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