The Awesome Tale of Velocity Gnome

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I spend quite some time trolling the interwebs for things that scratch my nerd itch (sorry, that is one shitty turn of phrase). Well, I found a doozy just the other day that I want to share with as many people as possible, as I think it's a tale packed to the rafters with awesome and stuffed to the gills with rad.

This story is about an adventure that took an ordinary guy across the country on a mission to save the future. Seriously. It's one part prank, one part art project, one part theatre piece, and one of the most detailed and ingenious plans I've ever heard about that didn't involve a robbery or the military.

The story is told here, and while the tale is quite long, do yourself a favour, set aside ten minutes, and read it. I think you'll be as amused and amazed as I was. Go on, read it, I'll wait right here.











Done? Okay, how frickin' cool was that? The guys who planned that are both nuts and also insanely ingenious. They took a real gamble in that Kolin could have just as easily ignored it all, but obviously they chose the right guy. Just an amazing story, through and through.

Green Lantern Trailer

Over at I Watch Stuff, I came across a totally kick-ass fan-made trailer for a Green Lantern flick. Granted, this film doesn't exist yet, but the guy who did this made it look really cool. Waaaay cooler than the picture you see here.

By the by, Nathan Fillion is a great choice for the role of Hal Jordan. He's a good actor with leading man charm who really is due for a break to shoot him into the bigs. And that break is not the abysmal TV show Castle. I know that DC is looking at Chris Pine, but after seeing this I hope they do go with Fillion.

Dead Starship Captain to Play Norse God

According to Nikki Finke's historically accurate blog, Deadline Hollywood Daily, Star Trek actor Chris Hemsworth has been cast in the title role of Marvel Studio's eagerly anticipated Thor film.

For those who can't quite place the Australian actor, you probalby haven't seen Star Trek, where he gave a memorable performance as George Kirk, Captain Kirk's doomed dad. It was not the hugest role, but it had some weight to it, and Hemsworth made a sizable impact, considering. I thought he was pretty good in the role, and I remember thinking, "Who's this guy, and when will he do more?"

Well, it seems that Thor director Kenneth Branagh and Marvel agree:

Chris had read for the part of Thor but wasn't given a test because a casting director had nixed him early on. I'm told Chris' younger brother Liam...then tested for the role of Thor, but Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige passed. Then,... Feige decided to let Chris read again. And once Marvel put him on tape, it was "Oh my god". Branagh came to town last week and saw the Chris test and made the final casting decision today.

However, no word has come from Marvel confirming this, which, as MTV pointed out, is a little fishy. It's probably simply the fact that whoever winds up playing Thor will have to sign up for multiple films, which makes contract negotiations complex. However, that same article does confirm that Tom Hiddleston will be playing Thor's evil half-brother Loki. Here's a pic of Hiddleston:

That's a pretty good match for Loki:

So, now we've got our Thor and our Loki, so we're only days away from people photoshopping their faces onto pictures like this:

I Can Read Movies

In what has to be one of the coolest wastes of time I've ever seen, a guy named Mitch Ansara has created a fictitious books series called "I Can Read Movies", and he's designed funky retro book covers for said series. The one for Blade Runner is seen here, but you can go here to see a slide show of the others. They are extremely cool. Spacesick is Ansara's blog, and it's kind of fun. He also has a pretty cool project on Flickr called Make Something Cool Every Day that is pretty....well.......cool.

He says that this book project was inspired by artist Olly Moss's work redesigning posters for classic films, which you can find here. They're also pretty coolio.

Sci Fi Tech That Will Kill Us All (6)

Meet the Big Dog Robot. This little fella is being developed by the US Army as a sort of robotic pack mule. The idea is that this thing would be able to transport supplies in areas where the terrain is too difficult for conventional vehicles, but too dangerous to just give some guys some backpacks.

According to this article in the NY Daily News, the military has funded the development of this thing, and there's a video below that shows just how creepy its movements are. Seriously. This thing looks alive, and it creeps me the fuck out.

Peter Singer is an author and expert on the use of cutting edge tech in the military and while he says the noise of the Big Dog is a drawback, he also points out that this is just the prototype. Which I guess means later versions will be terrifyingly silent. Like robotic ninja mules. Strap a rail gun to this thing and it could be a bad guy in Halo.

Singer also had this to say:

"You're seeing this big sea change (in the use of robots)," Singer said. "Even though we're using them more and more, it doesn't mean that we are replacing humans."

War is a human story," he said.

Obviously he has not seen any of the Terminator films. Check out this vid (Yeah you can kick that thing now, but do you think it'll forget that? Nope, robots have long memories, and that dude will be the first to get fried when they take over):

They've remade V.......for reasons passing understanding

Hey, look, I'm as big a fan of cheesy 80s sci-fi as the next guy (bigger, probably) but is there really any reason to revisit V? When it originally came out as a miniseries, it was a well done little allegory about political resistance, occupation and whatnot. It also had lizard people. And Marc Singer.

Then came the second minseries, which was more standard laser blasting cheesy sci-fi. Finally, we had the short-lived TV show, which was simply cheese.

Now we've got the new show, which seems to in no way take a fresh slant. Well, here's hoping I'll get to see Morena Baccarin eat a gerbil or something.

Whatever Works

Ahhhh, the Woodman. Sometimes he makes mediocre movies, sometimes he makes genius movies, but I love them all. Now, he's paired up with Larry David, and this could be a match made in heaven.

Check out the trailer: