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Google has announced a massive organisational overhaul: The search giant will now be controlled by Alphabet, a newly created parent company. 

Meanwhile, many of Google's projects less related to its core internet business — including its investment and human longevity research arms — are being spun out into separate companies under the Alphabet umbrella, each with their own CEO.

Larry Page, formerly Google CEO, is now heading up Alphabet — while Sundar Pichai is taking up the reins of a "slimmed down" Google. 

The new structure isn't yet implemented; according to SEC filings, it "will be introduced in phases over the coming months." Accordingly, we don't yet know everything about exactly what will be kept under the Google umbrella, and what will be spun off to become a separate Alphabet company. 

However, in a blog post by Larry Page, and in the accompanying SEC filings, some of the major divisions are confirmed. We've combined these with their confirmed or likely CEOs to show how the new Alphabet will be structured.

Unclear on some of the divisions?

• Nest is a smart home devices company acquired by Google in 2014. 
• Calico is a project to increase human longevity.
• Sidewalk Labs is all about improving modern cities.
• Google X is the company's "moonshots" division — Google Glass, internet-delivering high-altitude balloons, and so on.
• Fiber builds high-speed internet connections.
• Google Capital is its investment arm, and is distinct from Google Ventures, the search giant's venture capital investment vehicle.
• Google, is well, Google. It contains most of the products that ordinary consumers associate with the search giant, including Search, Android, and Maps. It's worth noting that YouTube, despite already having its own CEO, is not being spun out.

According to Re/code, Google's robotics division will also sit under the Alphabet umbrella — though it's not immediately clear who will head it up.

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NOW WATCH: How to use Google Maps when you have no phone service

Viewers worried about getting into another "all-questions, no-answers" series featuring a convoluted premise can put their fears aside when it comes to incoming NBC drama Blindspot, according to executive producer Martin Gero. He, along with series star Jaimie Alexander, EP Greg Berlanti (Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl) and other cast and producers from the show took the stage during the final day of the summer 2015 Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour to discuss tattoos and secrets on the new NBC series.

Blindspot stars Alexander (known for her role as Lady Sif in Thor), as a mysterious woman with no memory, who shows up in the middle of Times Square, tattooed from neck-to-toe - naked and in a duffle bag, no less. It's quickly determined that her intricate tattoos are clues to crimes, though it's not clear what the meaning is behind the biggest tattoo of all: the name of FBI agent Kurt Weller (Strike Back's Sullivan Stapleton) across the middle of her back.

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Patrick Stewart has confirmed that he will return to the big screen as his X-Men character Professor X in Wolverine 3.

The actor has previously talked about this potential team-up between Hugh Jackman’s Logan and his Xavier, but now in an interview with Collider, Stewart has provided some insight into the film.

“There is a project in development,” he said. “I understand that Professor Xavier will be making more than an appearance, however, and that intrigues me.”

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One of the biggest surprises announced at today's blowout Samsung media event was also one of the smallest gadgets: An $80 accessory called the Keyboard Cover. As the name suggests, it's a cover that also lets you add physical keys to the Galaxy No...

A fresh batch of new Star Wars: The Force Awakens images have been revealed, providing a closer look at the films' broad cast of characters, including Kylo Ren, Rey, and General Hux.

In addition, we get a new look R2-D2 and C-3PO, as well as Captain Phasma, Finn, and even a black X-Wing. Check out all twelve photos released by EW below.

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We've seen concept art for what Marvel Studios' incarnation of Black Panther might look like, but now we finally have our first actual look at the future Avenger's costume in Captain America: Civil War.

ComingSoon posted some new images from the German set of Civil War. You'll also notice the stunt double for Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes, aka Winter Soldier, in the shots below:

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It was officially announced that John Constantine would be appearing on Arrow this coming season at the TCA press tour yesterday, with Matt Ryan reprising his role from the cancelled NBC series as DC’s occult hero, and now we're getting some more info on just how this appearance will work.

I spoke to Arrow executive producer Wendy Mericle at TCA, and she delved a bit more into Constantine's appearance in Arrow: Season 4’s fifth episode, “Haunted."

Regarding how Constantine will fit in on the show, it turns out he will be involved in a big question going into this season - just how will Sara Lance be resurrected? After all, Sara was killed at the start of Season 3, but we know she’ll be back as a part of the upcoming spinoff DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, with Caity Lotz returning as Sara and her new alter ego, White Canary.

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Scientists at Cambridge University and ETH Zurich have collaborated to build a robot which can "have babies".

According to the research published in journal PLOS One, the 'mother' robot is able to build its own babies out of blocks with motors in them. It then watches them take their first steps, and changes its next baby so it can go further.

Image credit: Cambridge University

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Climate change means that it's no longer certain that the tailgate you've planned for the third weekend in August will have clear skies and sunshine. Fortunately, a group of Chinese researchers think that they've developed a system that'll predict...

There's big business in creating TV-sized touchscreens. Microsoft, for instance, developed the Surface Hub, a digital whiteboard for conference rooms. It's likely only a matter of time before Apple follows suit with a full-size iPad or Apple TV with a touch-enabled remote.

But Touchjet, the company behind the Pond pico projector, has other plans.

Instead of buying a touch-enabled screen that might be able to function as a standard TV, it plans on turning your tube into a massive Android 4.4 Kitkat-powered touchscreen using the same technology you'd find in your remote.

An infrared sensor is embedded in a camera that sits on top of the TV and plugs into the back of your screen via an HDMI cable. After tracking your finger movements using infrared light, the data is then interpreted by a processor and transformed into touch gestures that Android can process. Once calibrated, the sensor transforms your TV into a digital easel, an office whiteboard or an impossibly large Candy Crush playing field.

YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECVuW3bKy8E

The whole setup is called the Wave, and Touchjet's plans are to bring it to market by March 2016 after holding a 60-day crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo. The goal is to reach the $100,000 Touchjet needs to refine and enhance Wave's design and feature set.

I spoke to Helen Thomas, an educational entrepreneur and Touchjet's CEO, about the technology, specifically about how it can add to the home entertainment experience and the concerns I had about touching (and potentially damaging) my 60-inch flatscreen at home.

The 'touch everything' generation

The toughest question came first: In a world with Rokus, Apple TVs and Chomecasts galore, what can touch capability possibly add that makes it a viable option over the competition?

Thomas, an affable leader at companies like Leapfrog and LiveScribe before she came to Touchjet eight months ago, responded in turn with a story about her kids.

"This is the experience of the future. It's all interactive, and kids understand touch," she said. "I have two kids myself and everything is under their fingertips today, so why not offer them a larger experience?"

She pointed to games like 2048, Angry Birds and Candy Crush, as well as apps like The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss and Netflix. She sees the potential for children and parents to bond over interactive content, and families to share in a community experience, something that doesn't happen to same extent with other auxiliary home entertainment devices.

Even better, because the system is built on Android instead of a proprietary operating system, it works seamlessly with any of the 1.3 million apps on the Google Play Store. This open ecosystem means little restriction on the content you can choose as well as an abundance of pre-packaged features that you're already familiar with.

The Wave, Thomas believes, will have uses outside the home as well.

Businesses already equipped with flatscreens in conference rooms could utilize the Wave as a presentation tool, highlighting numbers or zooming in on specific areas of a slide, something the Wave can also facilitate.

Sharing, streaming and collaborating in the 21st century

But before businesses can send images to the big screen, they're going to need an app that can facilitate the transferring of files from a phone to Wave.

The app in question is well under way, but wasn't ready to show off during my hands on demo.

The app's purpose is two-fold. First, it's meant to be a collaborative tool, a way to show off family photos at home or presentation slides at the office without relinquishing control of your phone. The second is that if you have control over the Wave from your phone, meaning you won't always need to touch - and smudge - your TV screen.

Thomas understands the hesitancy people might have to touch an expensive television, making an app even more important to the overall experience. In addition to the app, Touchjet is packaging every model with a no-touch stylus that allows you to "write" without having to come in physical contact with the screen.

This desire to give users versatility extends to Touchjet's future plans for the Wave, which include eventually adding in a microphone for voice recognition and a built-in camera for Skype calls. Thomas says that these features are in the works, but the company's focus is first to complete the initial run of units and ship them out to backers as soon as possible.

Touchscreen TVs: the future or a passing fad?

What Thomas can't answer, at least at this point, is how much interest there is for this technology. There are signs that people want it for numerous purposes (why else would Microsoft invest in the Surface Hub or Apple in its touch-sensitive remote?), but the Wave is exploring unknown territory.

My early demo was revealing. Small visual cues like adding a white circle around the spot on the screen where your finger is touching show that real thought has gone into the project, even at its early stage. That said, recognition isn't always perfect and sometimes required me to swipe more than once to get the Wave to register a touch. But the technology is enticing and cutting edge. Toss in voice control and a built-in camera, and Wave could open up a new market for must-own TV peripherals.

The Wave's IndieGoGo campaign runs from August 11 until September 12, and the first batch of sensors can be purchased for $119 (about £76, AU$163). Should Touchjet reach its $100,000 goal, units will ship starting in March 2016.

Today Twitter has finally put into place a change it's announced back in June. It was supposed to be launched in July, but here it finally is. The 140 character limit has now been lifted from Direct Messages on the platform. This means your one-to-one messages can now be as long as you need them to be. The feature will start rolling out today on the Twitter website, as well as in its apps for iOS and Android. You'll also see this in TweetDeck and Twitter for Mac. The rollout is expected to take a few weeks before it reaches all Twitter users out there. This doesn't in any way change the character limit for actual tweets. That's still 140 characters, and it doesn't look like the company is even considering giving that up. But Direct Messages are now unlimited in...

Dropbox added support for USB key authentication. The new feature can be utilized as part of a two-step verification - user will insert the USB key after typing their password instead of entering digits. The feature requires a FIDO Universal 2nd Factor-compatible USB key, which can also work with other U2F authentication accounts, including from Google. Currently, the new login security feature is only available through a Chrome web browser. USB key login will surely appeal to those who are worried about using their account credentials in a phishing attack. Users who lose their U2F key will still be able to access their account via an authenticator app or a text message. Source...

micdotcom:

Yeah, this is probably the best Facebook post you’ll read today. It’s also highlighting a problem that literally happens all over the world.

Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)are developing new methods to grow fully functional limbs arms for Macaque monkeys, a technique that could one day used on humans.

The technique was previously used to grow lungs, a beating heart and regenerate the arm of a rat. According to CNN,  research lead and director of the organ repair and regeneration lab at MGH, Harald Ott, is now trialing the method on monkeys.

First, a scaffold of a monkeys arm is made by flushing out all the donor's cells inside with saline and detergents. The scaffold is rebuilt with progenitor cells obtained from humans that can be stimulated into becoming blood or muscle cells and more.

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The ABC party for the Television Critics Association brought additional talent that was not featured on panels during the day. That included producers on Marvel shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter. I spoke with Agent Carter executive producers Tara Butters and Chris Dingess privately off to the side of the bar.

Earlier in the day, ABC President of Entertainment Paul Lee spoke about season two of Agent Carter taking Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) to Hollywood. Butters and Dingess elaborated on that as well as the new villain Madame Masque, the extended 10 episode order and Peggy moving on from her grief over the loss of Steve Rogers.

Was the original plan for Agent Carter a limited series or had you always hoped for a second season?

Tara: You know what, we’d always hoped for another season of the show. We love doing it so much. It’s so much fun. We always thought there was many, many more stories we could tell for Peggy Carter.

When did you get to see the Ant-Man prologue?

Tara: They invited us to the premiere so that was when we got to see it. We obviously knew she was in the movie because we had to make time in our schedule to get her out to Atlanta, but I thought they did a great job.

Where is Peggy in dealing with her grief over Steve Rogers?

Tara: The nice thing is, I feel like by the end of the first season, she had decided emotionally that she needed to move on. I think that when we start season two, the nice thing is you will see a much lighter Peggy, one who is ready for the adventure of her job and potentially the adventure of a new relationship. She’s not going to be mourning the loss anymore. It’s still someone she absolutely loved but the fact is she knows she has to move forward in her life.

Season one takes place right in the aftermath of Captain America: The First Avenger, so there are rightfully many references to Steve Rogers. Is that less necessary in the second season?

Tara: I definitely think there’ll be references to the greater Marvel universe whenever possible. The fact that her relationship with Jarvis and friendship with Howard, these are all things that play on in our universe. It’s hard to say that we’ll never mention Cap, but I think it will be…

Chris: I think she put that part to rest a bit last season but like any great love in your life, I think his name may come up.

Does 10 episodes let you do a slightly bigger story, or maybe leave room for a standalone episode?

Tara: Less likely that there’ll be a standalone episode but I definitely think it allows for more character, because we can have more personal stories built into the framework of the overall arching mystery, which I like. I like seeing these characters and seeing their relationships to each other.

Are there any Marvel villains exclusively from the ‘40s you have access to?

Tara: Here’s the thing. It’s a little hard. In the comic books, a lot of the Marvel period, there are issue rights. Our villain from the season is very much a Marvel villain that we co-opted a little bit like we did Dr. Fennhoff in the first season.

Chris: It’s a ‘40s version of that villain.

So you’ve adapted her back in time.

Tara: We’ve co-opted her.

Chris: We put our spin on her.

What was modern about Madame Masque that just wouldn’t work in the ‘40s?

Tara: I think we’ve changed the look of her a bit obviously. We’ve made her an actress, which is very Hedy Lamar. She was a ‘40s siren actress who was also a scientific genius, so that’s part of what we’re mining with this character.

Have you cast her?

Tara: Yes, we have but we’re not allowed to announce it yet.

Is it significant that the villain is a woman?

Tara: For me it is, because I feel like that is something that… as much as there are not enough female heroes just on television, I feel like having a female villain is just as equally powerful.

Chris: I also think because she’s a female villain, her story informs Peggy’s story in a unique way and vice versa.

When did the idea for going to Hollywood come about?

Tara: It was something we had talked about in the middle of the first season, just because there are so many fun stories we thought we could tell. But then actually as the season progressed, we realized that not only was it a good idea for the storytelling, but also the idea that for the physical shooting, it’s much easier for us to shoot L.A. for L.A. than try to shoot L.A. for New York. So it served two purposes.

Are there comic book series of Peggy Carter in Hollywood?

Tara: This is all new. Obviously we are drawing from the Marvel universe and they’ve been really generous to us in terms of the characters and getting to play with some iconic [things]. The nice thing is we get to set things up. There’s a lot of fun to that.

How many places in L.A. still look like they do in the ‘40s, that you can use without dressing them up?

Tara: Actually quite a few. Our hope is that you will see places like Musso and Frank, the Formosa, the Griffith Park Observatory. There’s tons of stuff downtown, actual buildings that were there.

Chris: I think they’re redoing the Formosa. I just saw an article, so if we want to do that we have to get a jump on it.

Tara: There are racetracks, the pier. There’s tons of things that are still there. Obviously modern space encroaches on it a bit but the fact is, it’s much easier for us to erase a billboard or a building than it is to build it.

How does Jarvis handle himself in Hollywood?

Tara: He’s hot.

Chris: He’s still wearing wool.

Tara: I think he finds it a bit frivolous but at the same time, he’s here and basically helping Stark start his mansion.

Chris: His west coast operation.

Do you need to build a new SSR office?

Tara: Yes, we will see the new SSR office that we will find out that Agent Sousa is heading that.

Did you build that on the Disney lot?

Tara: We are currently changing our location where we’re shooting. I don’t know if I’m allowed to say.

Would you want real Hollywood stars of the ‘40s to be a presence on the show?

Tara: I think it’s a little tricky if we have somebody who’s pretending to be Humphrey Bogart or something like that. I have no problem with having them mentioned or referenced to who would be working at that time. For the most part, we’re staying within our Marvel universe of we’ll meet an actress, the character Whitney Frost who will have a part to play in our larger storyline.

Chris: Part of me feels like if we introduced real members of the Hollywood community at that time, the focus would shift from story to: does that person look or sound like an actor? I wouldn’t want that to be what the episode is about.

What sort of cool action do you have planned for season two?

Tara: Oh wow, we’ll hopefully see a lot more great fight sequences with Peggy. I would love more scenes where she and Jarvis have to work together.

Chris: I think we can maybe involve Sousa in some more action now. Peggy’s not having to go around behind his back. So the SSR agents, because Peggy’s not having to go behind their back, know she proved herself last year. They’re working a little more
together in the action.

Did Peggy have to leave Angie behind in New York?

Tara: As of right now, the fact is Lyndsy Fonseca is not a series regular. So my hope is that we will see her in this season. We’re just right now figuring out that season so it will be based on actor availability, but she is absolutely part of our universe and we hope that she’ll be in it.

When Daredevil did that hallway fight scene, did that raise the bar for action on Marvel shows?

Tara: I thought that was a fantastic sequence. It was beautifully shot, beautifully performed. I do think that we are true to our show.

Chris: The style is different for each show. We’re even different to a degree from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I’m sure Jessica Jones will be different from all of the other shows.

Tara: But I was absolutely blown away by that scene.

But you don’t feel you have to top it?

Chris: We want to top ourselves.

Tara: Yeah. I think it’s just a different style. We have to figure out what style works best for us.

Do you feel like Agent Carter paved the way for shows like Supergirl and Jessica Jones to come along?

Tara: I don’t know that we paved the way but I definitely think that I like the fact that there are more of us out there. I love the fact that they’re doing Supergirl and I love that they’re doing Jessica Jones. I think the fact is if there are more of these types of shows, more people will get used to them and start watching them.

***

The second season of Marvel’s Agent Carter premieres in 2016.

The post Exclusive: ‘Marvel’s Agent Carter’ Producers on Season Two Villain, Hollywood Setting, and Action appeared first on /Film.

Right now you can catch Saturday Night Live veteran Bill Hader as the love interest of Amy Schumer in her hilarious summer comedy Trainwreck from director Judd Apatow. But this fall, he’ll be returning to the small screen with one of his fellow SNL pals.

Hader will be the new captain in the third season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the Fox comedy series focusing on a New York City police precinct that counts Andy Samberg, Stephanie Beatriz,  Melissa Fumero, Joe LoTruglio, Terry Crews, Chelsea Peretti and the scene-stealing Andre Braugher among its ranks. Find out more about Bill Hader joining Brooklyn Nine-Nine after the jump!

Entertainment Weekly reports Hader will at least be guest starring in the third season premiere on September 27th, but they haven’t revealed whether or not he’ll be sticking around for a few episodes. But the precinct’s former boss, Captain Holt (Braugher), was just recently forced into taking a public relations post for the NYPD, thanks to his rival, Deputy Chief Wuntch (Kyra Sedgwick). So it’s hard to say how long he’ll be kept away from the Nine-Nine.

Considering Andre Braugher has been the captain of the precinct for two seasons, the goal will likely eventually be to get him back to his post, but having Hader around for at least a few episodes would be a lot of fun, if only to shake things up for a bit. But more often than not, guest starts usually are only around for premiere episodes in order to get a bunch of people to tune in and hopefully keep coming back for more of the same.

Hader isn’t the only guest star who will be popping up on the Fox series this season. In fact, in the episode following the season premiere, The Good Wife star Archie Panjabi will be stopping by as Lieutenant Knox, an officer who shows an interest in Jake Peralta’s (Samberg) right-hand man and best friend, Detective Charles Boyle (LoTruglio). It also remains to be seen if Panjabi will recur on the show after her guest appearance in the October 4th episode.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is one of my favorite comedies on television right now, with an ensemble cast that works magnificently together and has the right blend of Samberg’s silly comedy with some great subtle work thanks to the talents of Andre Braugher. If you haven’t given the show a shot, I’d recommend catching up before the third season begins.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine returns on September 27th at 8:30pm Eastern on Fox.

The post Bill Hader Joining ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Season Three as the New Captain appeared first on /Film.

The Deadpool trailer arrived for public view this week, and the two versions of the trailer combined have been viewed over fourteen million times, plus those who saw the actual broadcast debut. For a huge audience, though, Deadpool may still be something of a mystery. We’ve seen footage, but still know relatively little about the movie.

That’s where director Tim Miller comes in. He provided written Deadpool trailer commentary, and the info he shared helps put a lot of the trailer in additional context, while also teasing stuff still to come in the film, and even things that have already failed to make the cut.

Miller explains a bit about the appearance of X-Men Colossus, and some Green Lantern-bashing dialogue that probably won’t make final cut. Oh, and he suggests a sequel character whose name rhymes with Cable. (OK, the name is actually Cable.)

The commentary is at Empire, in a terrific piece that has a lot of info.

One thing we’ll just get out of the way is Miller’s note that a potential Deadpool sequel should include Cable:

There aren’t really many definitive Deadpool villains, apart from Cable. If we don’t put Cable in Deadpool 2 I think we’ll be run out of town on a rail.

Deadpool and Cable creator Rob Liefeld seems pretty interested in that mention, too.

Now on to some of the interesting stuff. While we see Colossus in the trailer, and he is awesome, there might be no Piotr Rasputin in the movie, because we may only see the big metal guy in his big metal form. So perhaps there’s just a voice actor to cast?

I did actually call Daniel Cudmore to ask him if he wanted to do this, even though he’d be entirely CG the whole time. He was very nice about it. He was like, ‘I appreciate your offering, but nah.’

And while one good Green Lantern joke made at least the cut for the trailer, there are some more that probably won’t be seen until the film hits home media.

We shot a few more Green Lantern jokes, but I’m not sure how many will survive the cut. Ryan definitely had some Green Lantern issues to work out. We had about a minute’s worth of dialogue between him and Colossus where he talks about it, like, ‘So a guy comes with a thousand-dollar suit and says, “We want you to play a superhero,” but there’s no script yet and the release date is completely unmakeable…’ He goes on this whole anti-Green Lantern run, but I’m not sure it’ll stay in, because probably not even half the people in the theatres will get those jokes…that scene’s one for the DVD extras, for sure.

There’s a lot more in the piece at Empire, including details about how Deadpool has only 12 bullets to take out the bad guys in the trailer’s primary action scene, the degree to which Reynolds’ character Wade Wilson is made to look messed-up through makeup, and the stars’ approach to doing fight scenes.

***

Deadpool is out on February 12 2016.

The post ‘Deadpool’ Director Opens Up About Colossus, Nixed Green Lantern Jokes, Possible Sequel Character appeared first on /Film.

The cast and producers of Fox’s Minority Report TV series gave a panel for the Television Critics Association today. It is the first series ever adapted from a Steven Spielberg-directed movie, and takes place 10 years after the film. Pre-crime has been abolished, per the film, and the movie’s three precog characters now live in hiding. We’ve got loads of new info on the show, as well as the first poster, below.

Godzilla screenwriter Max Borenstein led the TV sequel and spoke about some of the new changes we’ll see in the show’s future. “We’re in Washington, D.C.” Borenstein said. “[The football team is] now called the Washington Red Clouds. It’s no longer the Redskins.”

The show stars Meagan Good as officer Lara Vega, and Wilmer Valderrama as Lt. Will Blake. The three precogs from the film, Agatha, Arthur and Dash are played by Laura Regan, Nick Zano, and Stark Sands, respectively.

In the 2002 movie, Philip K. Dick’s idea of a policeman enforcing future crime was a high concept. Now television has shows like Person of Interest where the heroes have a machine to give them advanced knowledge, so the premise of Minority Report couldn’t be a “pre-crime of the week” procedural.

“Steven Spielberg finally said after years he was excited to do a Minority Report show, but how?” Borenstein said. “Since then we’ve seen shows about policemen who use extremely advanced investigative tools. Focusing on the enforcer would be limiting. Focusing on the precognitives, who suffered and had traumatic impact of these visions of murder and emerge from this embryonic state as adults, is just fascinating. It also allows us to delve into the responsibilities someone has if they have those visions. What’s their responsibility to get involved?”

Producer Darryl Frank said it was actually the idea of telling more stories of the precogs that got Spielberg to give them the ok. “It came from character,” Frank said. “We’ve gotten a lot of pitches to do this movie. What spoke to him, bringing the precogs to life was something he wasn’t able to do in the movies. Samantha Mortan gets out of the milk bath a little, but the opportunity to humanize them really appealed to him.”

Even still, Spielberg has been hands on. He chose Mark Mylod to direct the pilot, and picked cinematographer David Franco (Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire) and the new production designer. Producers Frank and Borenstein also shared how he’d give notes from the sets of The BFG and Bridge of Spies, including a full schematic for the team to use.

The film’s technology of touch screens and targeted advertising were prescient in 2002. Now they are common. The show promises to explore times when maybe this technology breaks down as often as our present day stuff does.

“Technology breaks down every day,” Borenstein said. “People will always find a way to hack. People will always find a way to get around it, criminals and other people. The fun for us is not only conceiving of expanded reach of surveillance but how people are going to get around that and commit crimes and live their lives regardless.”

The writers of Fox’s Minority Report also follow very specific rules for how the visions work and how the future can be affected.

“We’re not time travel but we deal with an element of that, changing the future,” Borenstein said. “We thought long and hard about the rules and are careful in our writers room to stick by them. The precogs, what they’re seeing is given the moment in time, they’re seeing the future as it’s going to play out. If they don’t interfere, that’s what’s going to happen. However, the moment they start interfering, things get fuzzier. We avoid the fundamental conundrum of that circularity. It becomes: can you do enough to change that future? It comes down to human choice. This future will occur unless you intervene.”

Most Slashfilm readers have surely seen the film Minority Report, but there will be many TV viewers who have not. The show will open with a brief catch-up, explaining how the precogs developed their abilities and were appropriated by the police force, but don’t worry about too much exposition.

“You know how it is with anything where you’re trying to establish a rich backstory, there’s always going to be that balance between how much you say and how much you show,” Borenstein said. “How much you want to catch the audience up on? It’s something we’re always dealing with and we’re excited about the pilot because once we get going with the character, it becomes very clear what his backstory is organically from his trauma and from his relationships. Sometimes with something like this, it’s great to get out that backstory, get people on the same page and they can invest in that character. They’re going to learn about him in a deeper, richer way as the show unfolds. Rather than drop them in sink or swim, it’s accessible and gets richer from there.”

The power of precognition affects the three precogs differently. Arthur, in particular, is very angry and out for revenge. It will take him at least the first season, if not longer, to find the people truly responsible for exploiting him and his siblings.

“That’s a slow burn element in terms of the specifics of the people who did it,” Borenstein said. “Arthur has a very different perspective on what happened, really because of the difference in his power. They split the two halves and Dash gets these visceral visual fragments and they have an emotional impact. It’s the reason he can’t go live on an island and he can’t exploit it, because that’s traumatic. Arthur gets the factual half, the names and bits of information, that comes in a way that’s detached. It allows him to not have such an emotional reaction. He can process it like you’d process news from around the world, not necessarily emotional. He’s more Machiavellian, he’s resentful of the people who did this. He’s protective about making sure this never happens again, because if anyone finds where the precogs are, they’re going to be exploited. Is putting them to work for the metropolitan police department the most productive thing you can do? Probably not.”

***

Minority Report premieres Monday, September 21 at 9 on Fox.

The post ‘Minority Report’ Producers on the New Future and Humanizing the Precogs appeared first on /Film.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens isn’t just looking to conquer the U.S., it wants to dominate the worldwide box office when it opens later this year. So our latest peek at the film comes from the South Korean market, in the form of a new TV spot that reveals a sliver of new footage. Watch the new Star Wars 7 TV spot footage after the jump.

Update from Editor Peter Scrietta: Lucasfilm has officially released a high resolution still of the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens scene. See that below:

And an observation from Lucasfilm’s Matt Martin:

Are those AT-ATs without necks in the back? But that was the AT-ATs only weakness! First Order, you so smart. https://t.co/KfaGeZJh3t

— Matt Martin (@missingwords) August 10, 2015

Here is a close-up:

Pretty cool. Can’t wait to see these first order AT-ATs up close. /Film reader Hector notes they look more like AT-TEs:

@slashfilm looks more loke an AT-TE ain't it? pic.twitter.com/LXHA9zw9Ye

— Hector Navarro (@hect08) August 10, 2015

But I don’t think they are AT-TEs. Star Wars fans have already nicknamed the new AT-AT’s as “Turtle Walkers”.

Angie’s original story follows below:

Star Wars Korea revealed the new Star Wars 7 TV spot footage on YouTube. (Don’t worry — the promo is still in English, it’s just the subtitles that are in Korean.)

The new footage doesn’t amount to more than a couple seconds. Still, it’s nice to get a fresh glimpse of the First Order, which is Episode VII‘s Empire equivalent. Characters associated with the First Order include Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie), and General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson).

That opening scene — which appears to be a reverse shot of the Stormtrooper army shot from earlier trailer, as seen in the header image — gives us a good sense of just how powerful and intimidating that army is. The Resistance (i.e., the Rebels) certainly seem to have their work cut out for them. If you’re curious to know more about the First Order Stormtroopers, you can find some details here.

Besides, with the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens still four months away, we’re willing to take whatever we can get in terms of new material. Though we’ve got our fingers crossed for some cool updates out of Disney’s D23 Expo this weekend.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens arrives December 18, 2015. Directed by J.J. Abrams, it stars John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Gwendoline Christie, Domhnall Gleeson, Max von Sydow, and Lupita Nyong’o, plus returning actors Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Peter Mayhew, and Anthony Daniels.

The post ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Photo Reveals First Order AT-AT? appeared first on /Film.

Note from Editor Peter Sciretta: I am excited to announce a new feature that will be appearing on /Film from Blake J. Harris, who you might know as the writer of the book Console Wars (a book which we’ve featured on the site), soon to be a motion picture produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Blake’s new feature is a companion to the podcast How Did This Get Made with Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas and June Diane Raphael which focuses on movies so bad they are amazing. Here is Blake’s first column, an oral history of the movie Top Dog.

Chuck Norris + Loveable Pup + Neo-Nazi Terrorists = How Did This Get Made?!?!

Nobody sets out to make a bad movie. But the truth is, it happens all the time. And every time it does, there’s a fun misadventure and cautionary tale lurking somewhere behind the scenes. This is that story for the Chuck Norris anticlassic TOP DOG…

Synopsis: Jake Wilder (Chuck Norris) is reluctantly partnered with a police dog named Reno whose handler has just been murdered. Together, this unlikely duo sets out to take down a crew of ruthless, white supremacist, domestic terrorists.

Tagline: They’re Licensed for Action!

At first glance, Top Dog seems like a misguided, mad-libs-like attempt to resurrect the magic of Turner & Hooch (and the mediocrity of K-9), by swapping out Tom Hanks (and Jim Belushi) for action star Chuck Norris. And, to some degree, that’s exactly what this movie is. But, at the same time, it’s also an admirable effort by a pair of likeable brothers—both stand-up guys, both karate masters—to make a gore-free, high-integrity action film that could be enjoyed by the whole family. Unfortunately though, that’s not quite how things turned out.

Here’s what happened, as told by those who made it happen…

Featuring:

• Tim Grayem Writer (Story)
• Boone Narr Animal Trainer
• Peter Schink Editor
• Seth Willenson Executive Producer

PART 1: Old Dog, New Tricks

Tim: Interestingly enough, the whole idea for Top Dog came about while riding my bike with Aaron Norris. He and I, we started out as neighbors—living in Santa Clarita—then quickly became great friends. We used to get up every morning at 6:00 AM and ride our mountain bikes up this giant hill on Sand Canyon road. And, well, what started out as our morning exercise turned into a daily creative exchange. Keep in mind that I’m a businessman—I ran a company at the time and still do to this day—but as Aaron and I huffed and puffed up that hill we started talking about scenes and dialogue for a buddy cop movie, but with a dog, that could star Aaron’s brother Carlos (that’s Chuck’s real name, and what his friends call him). At first, it was all just playful fun, but Aaron Norris, who is infinitely creative, began to flesh out an actual movie.

Seth: I got approached by Chuck’s brother, Aaron, and his partner, Andy Howard (who had produced a lot of Chuck’s movies through private financing) to ask if I could help out with this movie. So that’s how I got involved; I helped them raise part of the financing and find distribution for the picture. Top Dog, really, was a follow-up on the interest of Chuck Norris to do family films.

Tim: Chuck had just done this great movie Sidekicks, so the idea that Aaron and I were talking about made a ton of sense. And, over time, we realized that we had a great story and we knew that Carlos was a natural with a dog. Plus, most people didn’t know how humorous Carlos could be on film. And, after all, Chuck Norris was “top dog” then, just as he still is now.

Chuck may have been top dog, but initially he didn’t want to do the film. That’s because, just one year earlier, his television show Walker, Texas Ranger had come out on CBS. And with the show being renewed for a second season, he didn’t want to spend his summer hiatus on a film set. “But then I finally read it,” Norris stated in interviews at the time, “and I said: Oh man. This is the funniest thing!” And just like that, he was in.   

Tim: Right off the bat, we knew we had a winner.

Seth: I think the idea was well conceived at the time, it was actually a smart conception.

Peter: First of all, Aaron was a sweetheart of a guy. Wonderful to work with. But the Chuck Norris genre has always been, I would say, derivative of something else. And this was really a version K-9 or a version of Turner and Hooch. So they basically, you know, “borrowed” the script to one of those and decided that they would apply it to Chuck. And that’s what it was.

Seth: K-9 and Turner and Hooch? Those were great movies, sure, but that certainly wasn’t something we were consciously aware of while putting the film together.

Peter: From a distance, maybe the idea of Chuck Norris doing a kids movie seems odd, but he had just done Sidekicks and that made a lot of money. So they were trying to take Chuck’s career in a different direction; away from the Delta Forces and more towards things like this.

Seth: Specifically with Top Dog, it really wasn’t that complicated. Chuck wanted to be in this area. Chuck has always been involved with what I would call “Family Heartland” values, so this was a good idea. And there’s a market for these kind of films.

With a vision behind the concept, and the financing coming in to place, Aaron Norris and his colleagues at Tanglewood Entertainment started putting the cast and crew into place.  

Peter: I was just one of these strange kids who had a Super 8 camera. I loved making films, loved everything about it, and built my own little editing room in my closest when I was just 9 years old. Later on, I went to Loyola Marymount for film school. And when I graduated, of course, I wanted to be a writer and director. But I looked around and everyone else wanted to be the same thing. So I said: hmmm…I need to do something to distinguish myself. And I had a background in editing so that’s the route I went.

Tim: One of the things that makes Aaron so great is that he doesn’t just know how to find the right people, but he knows how to inspire them as well. What I mean is that after the guy speaks with you, you’re practically floating on air. He knows how to get the best out of people and fill them up with confidence.

Peter: What happened was that Michael Duthie, a great British editor, had made his name cutting the Chuck Norris films back in Chuck Norris’ heyday. I don’t quite remember if Michael had another project, or if he’d done enough Chuck Norris movies but he knew about me from Roy Watt’s [Peter’s mentor]. He knew that I had just done The Chase with Charlie Sheen, and so Michael got in touch with me and said that I’d really like working with the Norris brothers.

Seth: It was a time when the video business [meaning VHS] was becoming very popular and where cable and pay television could have a good impact as well. From a business and economic standpoint, Top Dog was a good investment.

Peter: So I went and met Aaron Norris and he was just a tremendously nice guy. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a meeting before where, at the end, the guy grabs you in a bear hug and lifts you off the ground.

Boone: I got a call from someone over there at Tanglewood Entertaiment. He said: hey, we’re interviewing a few animal trainers to do this movie with Chuck Norris. Would you come down for an interview?” Sure thing! And so I went down there and we just hit it off. In fact, when I walked in to the office, someone there said to me “Hey, you look like you could be one of the Norris brothers.” And Aaron said “Yeah, you could be our brother!” And I’d never thought about it before, but I gotta admit that we did have the same kind of general look.

Tim: He did bear a rather strong resemblance.

Boone: Maybe that’s part of why I was hired, but there’s another part of it too. A lot of people in this business—and I’m sure in yours too—they tell you what you want to hear and not what’s really is going to happen. And I just told them the real ins and outs of working with animals. And the hardest thing about my job is making the dog look like he belongs to the actor and not have him looking at me. To do that, the eye-lines need to be right and I’m gonna need to step on some dialogue to get a cue in. And some actors really don’t like that; having their lines stepped on or not having the eye-line they want. So I wanted to be up front about all of this. Because, you know, I certainly didn’t want to upset Chuck and have him go all Kung Fu on me.

Peter: Boone was a really good guy. I enjoyed working with. And, if I’m not mistaken, he’s become one of the top guys in the animal training profession.

Boone: How did I become an animal trainer? Well, I don’t know that one sets out to do this. But what happened was I had gotten back from Vietnam and a friend of a friend said “what are you gonna do?” And I said I’m going to mellow out before I figure out what to do with myself. He told me that there was this place that trains animals for the motion picture business. I thought: someone actually trains those animals? Before that, the thought had never crossed my mind. Never thought of it, not once. But it sounded interesting so I went up there and they gave me a job cleaning up after the animals; shoveling shit, mostly. And I kind of worked my way from one end of the animals to another. I liked it and I was good at it—and you usually like what you’re good at. I did that for eight years and then I started my own business. And I’ve done my own business for 30 years.

Over that time, Boone Narr has worked on films such as Buddy, The Green Mile and the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. 

Boone: When I started out, I was basically doing exotic animals. Lions, tigers, leopards, bears, elephants and you name it. And I did that for years and years and years. But as time went on, and it became less favorable to have exotic animals in the pictures, I gravitated more towards dogs and cats. But there were a lot of guys who did dogs and cats so I thought: okay, I need to sort of distinguish myself to kick it up a notch. So we kind of became the company where if something wasn’t going right, or it was a difficult movie to do, we were kind of the go-to guys. We built our reputation on that.

And so, with a team now in place, production for Top Dog was ready to begin.

Continue Reading Top Dog Oral History >>

The post How Did This Get Made? TOP DOG (An Oral History) appeared first on /Film.

Smach has announced its Smach Zero, which was previously known as the Steamboy, will be available for pre-order on November 10 for $299. The Steam Machine handheld is expected to ship out in Q4 2016.

The Smach Zero is said to be the first handheld console that will allow its users to play Steam games on the go. Smach is promising its device will play “more than 1,000 games” from Steam’s library at its launch.

As far as its hardware specs, here’s what Smach announced its Zero will have when it launches:

• AMD embedded G-Series SoC "Steppe Eagle" with Jaguar-based CPU and GCN-based Radeon graphics
• 4 GB RAM memory
• 32GB internal memory and SD Card Slot
• USB OTG
• 5-inch Touch screen with 720p resolution
• Configurable tactile gamepads
• HDMI video output connection
• Wi-Fi connectivity
• Bluetooth connectivity
• 4G mobile network connectivity (PRO model only)

Smach has yet to announce pricing for its Zero outside of its special $299 pre-order price nor do we know the pricing for its PRO model. We’ve reached out to Smach to learn more about its Zero and will update this story accordingly.

It was certainly a blow to Person of Interest fans to learn that the series had received a smaller episode order for Season 5 (only 13) and that the premiere had been pushed to midseason. Did this mean cancellation was around the corner and that the fifth season would be the last?

CBS Entertainment head Nina Tassler made a few noncommittal remarks today during the TCA Press Tour about Person of Interest's future. “We haven’t determined if it’s the end of the series yet,” Tassler said.

“We don’t know those dates," she added. "We’re not anywhere near having to determine what that last storyline will be.”

Might CBS be able to decide whether or not the show ends with Season 5 before the end of the season's production? So as to give the writers and producers time to wrap up the story? “We’ll talk about it when we get there,” Tassler remarked.

Continue reading…

A team at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center may have just uncovered the most unexpected side-effect associated with epilepsy -- musical brainwave synchronization. The idea for the research came to Christine Charyton, PHD, while consid...

Kirk writes, "This weekend we upgraded my 14-year-old son's laptop from Windows 8 to Windows 10. Today I got a creepy-ass email from Microsoft titled 'Weekly activity report for [my kid]', including which websites he's visited, how many hours per day he's used it, and how many minutes he used each of his favorite apps." Read the rest

Today, Google announced that they will undergo reorganization to better represent the growth that the company has seen in the past few years. As a result, Google the company will be now branded as Alphabet.

The big news here is that Google the internet services company will become one subsidiary of the larger Alphabet company - and said subsidiary still operating under the name Google - with the goal of better seperating Google's core business from what are now Alphabet's more experimental, far flung ventures. Consequently this change will see current parts of Google like X labs, Calico, Life Sciences, and other ventures shifted over to Alphabet. Meanwhile web services and software like Android, Maps, and Gmail will remain under the Google brand.

Organizationally, Larry Page will remain CEO of this reorganized company, and Sergey Brin will be President. Sundar Pichai will also be CEO of the new Google. Google stock is also immediately being converted over to Alphabet stock, and going forward Alphabet will be the reporting company, however Google-the-subsidiary results will be broken down and reported as part of Alphabet's results.

Ultimately it remains to be seen what effects this will have on the Google that we’ve known for the past few years. However given that the management structure has remained relatively constant in this move I suspect that business will continue on as usual.

 The first season of “Fargo” was widely acclaimed and award-winning, but at a press event for Season 2, some cast members had an admission to make (which is only appropriate for a show about crime).

Kirsten Dunst, Ted Danson and Jeffrey Donovan were among the Season 2 “Fargo” actors who said they hadn’t watched the TV adaptation until they were approached about playing a role in the second season of the drama, which returns Oct. 12 on FX.

The original Coen brothers film is “a little sacred” to Donovan, he said at a Friday Television Critics Association panel on the show. “And I did not know who [executive producer] Noah [Hawley] was. All I heard was the acclaim about it. But then I finally sat down and watched it and, like everyone, I was blown away.”

Dunst and Danson also committed after they watched Season 1 and read a couple of scripts. Danson said his kids told him he was “an idiot” for not having seen it, but once he watched last year’s episodes, he was in. 

To play his parka-wearing character, cop Hank Larsson, Danson didn’t have to do a lot of physical preparation.

“I grew a beard," Danson said. “That was literally it. For so much of my career, I’ve been so coiffed with hairspray and this and that. I didn’t spend one second in the hair chair” on the Canadian “Fargo” set.

Hawley revealed a few more tidbits about the 1979-set second season, in which Patrick Wilson plays a Vietnam veteran and state trooper who gets caught up in a murder investigation with links to a turf war among crime bosses in the Midwest.

Hawley said he didn’t want to imitate the structure of the first season, in which Billy Bob Thornton’s Lorne Malvo menaced various hapless Minnesotans. This season, the evil comes from multiple directions (hence the large cast, which also includes Jean Smart, Jesse Plemons, Nick Offerman and -- this is true -- Bruce Campbell as Ronald Reagan). 

Season 2 “is a much bigger story, kind of an American epic,” Hawley said. “You have this small-town couple who finds themselves caught in this war between the Kansas City mafia and the Gerhardt family and … they’re both crime syndicates where violence is a real factor. … We’re setting up this dynamic where there are a lot of bad people sort of on a collision course and the idea is, who will emerge?”

Stepping into the role of a Midwesterner was easy for Dunst, whose family still owns a farm in Cambridge, Minnesota.

“Half of my background are those people,” Dunst said. “My grandma, who is not with us anymore, she lived with us forever -- she was born and bred in Minnesota. So it’s kind of within my wheelhouse already. It was very familiar to me to step into that accent and that Lutheran [way] -- keep your chin up and smile even though all this other stuff is happening, keep up a good face.”

Jean Smart also said she had no trouble with the distinctive "Fargo" accent. “I actually grew up in a Scandinavian community in Seattle,” said Smart, who plays the formidable matriarch of the Gerhardt family. “I fit right in. I’m not Scandinavian, but I look like I am. I didn’t know I was tall until I moved to New York. But the accent is not dissimilar … Everybody I grew up with said, ‘Uff da.’”

Wilson’s character, Lou Solverson, is a younger version of the retired cop played by Keith Carradine in Season 1.

“He’s just a good guy,” Hawley said of Solverson. “There is a decency to the man and the character, where he’s not going to brag, and he is not going to complain, and he’s always going to make the best of the scenario. We’ve saddled him with a wife who has cancer and a 6-year-old daughter, and this experience in Vietnam. But you’ll never hear him complain about it.”

When “Fargo” returns , it will run for 10 episodes, and Hawley noted that the 1979 time frame heavily influenced the look and the themes of this year’s edition of the show.

The ‘70s were a time “post-Watergate, post-Vietnam," in which "the American narrative becomes so complicated. The conspiracy did go all the way to the top, and nobody knew if we could get out of this mess. Then along came Reagan, and he said, ‘It’s not that complicated. We are Americans,’ and the country changed dramatically from the ’70s to the ’80s,” Hawley said. “We don’t have a particular point of view about, 'Is that a good change?' It’s not a political idea, it’s just the reality of what happened to the country. So I thought it was interesting to have that element of the time period be part” of the second season, which, he added, also touches on “the death of the family business and the rise of corporate America.”

Speaking of Reagan, Campbell, who plays him, didn't have any scenes with Donovan, his former "Burn Notice" castmate. But Hawley said Campbell, who heads up the fall Starz show "Ash vs. Evil Dead," was a natural in the presidential role. 

 "Bruce obviously did a lot of work with the Coens early on and grew up in Michigan, basically across the border from Reagan," Hawley said. "When I spoke to Bruce, we had a long conversation about it and the accent and the mannerisms and I think he did an amazing job."

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