Roumen.ganeff

A known weakness of touchscreen PIN entry is that you leave fingerprints, so it's easy for someone holding your phones to tell which numbers you pressed (not their order, but it doesn't take too many tries to guess it). CyanogenMod has provided a solution - scramble the digits on the keyboard! This way the position of your fingerprints doesn't give away which numbers were pressed since each time the numbers are in different positions. This does mean you can't just rely on muscle memory to enter the PIN, but security protocols are rarely pleasant. Unfortunately, it seems that this feature will land on the proprietary version of CyanogenMod that powers the likes of OnePlus One. It's not clear if it will make it to the open-source distribution. Such an option is already available via an Xposed module - Xblast Tools - but that one is paid and (obviously) requires Xposed. Jailbroken iPhones have CodeScrambler for an identical feature. If you know of a solution that works on an unmodified phone, drop a line in the comments. In related news, CyanogenMod 12 based on Android 5.0 Lollipop is already in the works. Source |...

Assassin’s Creed Unity has finally released across all platforms and it’s time to sit back and figure out if Ubisoft’s trip into 18th Century France is a hit success or not. We’ve taken the liberty of rounding up the hottest scores around to help you decide… is the newest installment of Assassin’s Creed as revolutionary as Ubisoft hoped?

Shacknews: 7/10

• “This is everything I've come to know about Assassin's Creed. It's a great story wrapped in a more confusing story, some satisfying stealth action, and mechanics that leave me banging my head against the wall. It's Assassin's Creed, warts and all.”

Eurogamer: 7/10

• “As the seventh major instalment in the series, though, not to mention the first designed for new console hardware, Assassin's Creed Unity feels like a missed opportunity. Going back to basics at this point may have resulted in a less substantial game than recent years have led us to expect, but it might have delivered a more satisfying one. As it is, mild improvements in traversal and combat are quickly overwhelmed by the creaking systems onto which they have been grafted. Revolutionary Paris is one of the most beautifully realised environments in a series that has had its fair share of them, but the game you play doesn't really do it justice.”

Gamespot: 7/10

• “Not all of Unity's more progressive touches are for the best then, but you might spend more time noticing what's old than what's new. The terrific city atmosphere of Paris, the focus on parkour, and the incentives for performing stealthy assassinations, all these things hint at a game that's trying to return to its roots after branching out so wildly in its past two iterations. Yes, Unity is the most ACII -like of the series since, well, ACII, and while it never really hits the dizzying heights of Ezio's jaunt through 15th century Italy, Unity's similarities are comforting enough to take the edge off its less-than-successful changes.”

Joystiq: 2.5/5

• “Assassin's Creed Unity is the best and worst of Assassin's Creed. It's hard not to appreciate everything that it gets right, and you'll have a good time if you can wrangle some friends for co-op, but it's impossible to ignore where Unity falls tragically short.”

Destructoid: 7/10

• “…it struggles to make its own mark on the franchise outside of the new French Revolution setting. If Ubisoft fixes the glitches, Assassin's Creed: Unity will be a much stronger game, even if the ceiling is a bit lower in general. Unity’s potential is not as strong as some of the better entries in the series, but it's good enough for existing fans to continue the journey.”

IGN: 7.8/10

• “The scope is stunning, the customization is satisfying, and the multiplayer touches upon some really ambitious ideas. But the lack of a strong main character or interesting take on the Assassin’s Creed universe costs it momentum and excitement, and the persistent control problems are still a thorn in its side.”

Polygon: 6.5/10

• “The ingredients are all here for a spectacular new standard for the series on Sony and Microsoft's new machines. But in the quest to build something that looked and sounded "next generation," Ubisoft Montreal failed to fix the problems that have accumulated over so many annual releases. Combined with an uninspiring story, and a long list of considerable technical problems, Unity falls short of the fresh start Assassin's Creed needs.”

Dead gods, cyborg clones, and the end of Asgard — Ragnarok could be a big deal. Marvel recently announced that the third Thor movie, Thor: Ragnarok, is due for release in July 2017, with Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston returning to reprise their roles of Thor and Loki. But what is Thor: Ragnarok, exactly?

“This is a very important movie for us in Phase 3,” said Marvel’s Kevin Feige when announcing the movie. “We plan on taking Thor to another level. It picks up where we leave Thor in ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ and impacts everything that comes after.”

So what are the events that will impact Thor and Asgard, and impact the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward into Phase 3? A couple different comics storylines give us some big hints. Below, we’ll explore Thor: Ragnarok in detail. 

Note that there are many spoilers here for various comic book stories, and also for Thor: The Dark World.

There’s also a healthy amount of speculation below. We know that Thor shows up in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and we know that Heimdall (Idris Elba) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) also make an appearance. We don’t know if Thor will show up again until Ragnarok, and given that Hemsworth only has a couple more films in his contract after Age of Ultron, Marvel may need to make them count.

***

What Is Marvel’s Version of Ragnarok?

This is pretty complicated, as many modern Marvel stories tend to be. Ragnarok has come and gone from Asgard multiple times, but for our purposes the most recent iteration seems like the most important. The backstory features Thor inheriting the Odinpower after Odin basically dies during a battle with the fire demon Surtur. Puffed up with this power, Thor goes a little bit crazy, extending the rule of Asgard to rule of Earth, and spends a couple hundred years as an all-powerful and not-at-all cool deity. Eventually he basically said “oops!” and traveled back in time to wipe out that whole storyline.

So, as Thor gets back to Asgard, a variation on the quest from Lord of the Rings is playing out. The mold that created Mjolnir still exists, and could potentially be used to make other serious weapons. The dwarves who originally forged Mjolnir are carrying the mold around, seeking to throw it into the void between worlds. They nearly succeed, but Loki intercepts the mold. Loki has new weapons made, and with a force of powerful allies he attacks Thor and friends. In the first attack Mjolnir is broken, and the subsequent war basically destroys Asgard.

What Does Ragnarok Mean for Thor?

Possession of the Mjolnir mold and the weapons spawned from it gives Loki an almost impossible advantage over all other Asgardians, and he’s also got Surtur on his side. So Thor goes in search of a greater power: the full wisdom of Odin. That’s not so easily attained, however. To get it Thor plucks out both eyes and ultimately hangs himself from Yggdrasil, the world tree, to attain the full wisdom of his father.

Thor learns that a set of powerful beings, Those Who Sit Above in Shadow, have manipulated the Ragnarok cycle for aeons, feeding off the energy it creates. By causing the cycle to repeat over and over, Those Who Sit have cheapened and debased the sacrifices and achievements of Asgardians, essentially keeping them from their glorious deaths.  Thor seeks to break the cycle, and to do so must sacrifice himself.

Just Be Honest — Does Thor Die Here, Or Not?

Yeah, he does. Well, kinda. Maybe? OK, not really. His actions kind of destroy all of Asgard, and leave him technically in limbo, basically floating in a void. Keep in mind that the Marvel Comics version of Thor is much more dependent upon the idea that Thor is occasionally bound to a human man, too, and that ends up being the key to his escape from the void. So he comes back in the comic stories, but there’s a pretty good story set up to kill off Thor. Or at least this version of him.

***

Now that we’ve set out some comic-based background, let’s get into some other details about an alternate Thor, the Odin of the MCU, and other characters who could appear.

Continue Reading What Is Thor: Ragnarok? >>

The post What Is ‘Thor: Ragnarok’? How Marvel’s Phase Three Movie Will Shake Asgard appeared first on /Film.

The people at Amazon must have been bored today.  Out of the blue they announced the Amazon Echo.  The Echo is a do it all gadget, that combines a voice controlled personal assistant and bluetooth speaker.  While this seems like an unlikely combination, the Amazon Echo looks like something that almost anyone could find a use for.

Once setup, you use a “wake word” to get the Echo going.  You can follow the wake word with just about any command you want.  You can ask questions, set reminders or alarms, play music and even add items to your shopping lists.  Amazon says you can even talk to the Echo when you have music playing.  It will be interesting to see where Amazon takes the Echo from here.  If it is successful, will Amazon let us order stuff over the Echo?

If you are interested in an Echo, you need to request an invitation from Amazon.  If you are given an invitation it will come in the next few weeks.  The Echo will cost $199 for non-prime customers and $99 for prime members.  You can request an invitation here.

Source Amazon

Did you know you can advertise your app on AndroidGuys?

The post Amazon surprises everyone, announces the Echo appeared first on AndroidGuys.

The cable industry will sue, the protestors will protest. Situation normal.

(via the-heavy-metal-viking)

In the four years since Inception has come out, we’ve seen roughly a half a million infographics and perhaps another half a million thinkpieces attempting to explain Inception. Still, you’ve probably never seen it broken down and analyzed quite like this.

Filmmaker Joe Nicolosi got his mom to watch the sci-fi mind-bender and then tell him “what she thought happened, and who she thought it happened to.” He then illustrated her version of the story for the rest of us to enjoy. What do Matt Damon, the NSA, and a mole have to do with the plot of Inception? Watch Inception Retold By Mom after the jump to find out.

What Nicolosi’s mom’s summary lacks in accuracy, it more than makes up for in adorable mom-ishness. This is probably exactly how my mom would explain Inception, too. Christopher Nolan‘s film isn’t terribly difficult to follow if you’re paying attention, but I guess it’s a different story if you find it “so tedious” you need to walk around, check your phone, and take some breaks.

The best part is how Nicolosi’s mom never quite figures out that it’s Leonardo DiCaprio, not Matt Damon, who plays the lead, even after correctly identifying DiCaprio as the guy from Titanic. She actually says at one point that Inception “wouldn’t have been the same” if DiCaprio had starred. I can’t wait to see what she makes of Nolan’s Interstellar in a few years.

Nicolosi’s mom previously retold The Matrix, which she didn’t seem to like any better. (Her version involves a guy on a computer named either Moshimo or Mustache, and the question of whether Neo is gay, straight, or bi.) Nicolosi’s other famous Internet videos include the Super Mario Bros.: The Indie Film trailer and HELL NO: The Sensible Horror Film.

Revisit The Matrix Retold By Mom below.

The post LOL: A Mom Explains Christopher Nolan’s ‘Inception’ appeared first on /Film.

It was a rumor, it was confirmed, now the man himself has made it official. Matt Damon has finally confirmed that yes, he’s returning to play Jason Bourne in a 2016 film directed by Paul Greengrass. Read the official Matt Damon Jason Bourne quote below.

E! News got the Matt Damon Jason Bourne scoop, but it didn’t seem like something that was supposed to happen. Ben Affleck mentioned that Damon was returning to the role at a Project Greenlight event, so instead of deny it, Damon said the following:

Yes, next year [we'll shoot it]. It’ll be in 2016 when the movie will actually come out. Paul Greengrass is going to do another one and that’s all I ever said. I just needed him to say yes.

If you head to that link, you can watch a video of the exchange too.

Basically though, this is exactly what we’ve known for years. Damon has long said he’d return to the franchise if Paul Greengrass came back to direct. Latino Review then heard he and Greengrass were coming back, though producers denied it. Deadline followed with a confirmation in September, saying the 2016 slot initially slated to be a Justin Lin directed Bourne film starring Jeremy Renner, was taking a back seat. The question now is, will Renner’s character appear in this Greengrass/Damon film? Initially the news was that the Renner side of the franchise was going to continue in tandem with the Damon films, leading to a showdown/crossover sometime down the road.

Damon will next shoot The Martian for director Ridley Scott. If Bourne is set to shoot in the Fall, he’d likely be able to fit another movie in the middle such as the recently announced Alexander Payne film, Downsizing.

The Bourne franchise has grossed over $1.2 billion worldwide, with each installment crossing the $100 million mark at the domestic box office. A return to the roll for Damon is a sure fire hit for Universal.

The post Matt Damon Confirms He’s Returning As Jason Bourne appeared first on /Film.

Update: We have updated with video of Neil deGrasse Tyson talking about the scientific accuracy of Interstellar.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has been critical of Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity in the past, and in particular, some of the film’s scientific inaccuracies. He even narrated a 9-minute long Everything Wrong With the movie Gravity video. So what did Tyson think of Christopher Nolan‘s Interstellar? The Cosmos host took to twitter to praise some of the film’s ambitions and scientific accuracy. Hit the jump to read the Neil deGrasse Tyson Interstellar comments.

First of all, Tyson was quick to remind his followers that his tweets should not be considered a review or even an opinion:

“REMINDER: Never look to me for opinions on new films. All I do is highlight the science one might or might not find in them.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson Interstellar Comments

Update: Neil deGrasse Tyson appeared on CBS News to talk about the scientific accuracy of Interstellar. Here is the video:

Here is a list of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s comments on Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, each of which are prefixed with “In Interstellar…” (WARNING: potential spoilers for Interstellar follow)

• Experience Einstein’s Relativity of Time as no other feature film has shown.
• Experience Einstein’s Curvature of Space as no other feature film has shown.
• Relativity. Gravity. Quantum. Electrodynamics. Evolution. Each of these theories is true, whether or not you believe in them.
• And in the real universe, strong gravitational fields measurably slow passage of time relative to others. GPS satellites, located farther from Earth’s center than we are, keep faster time than do our clocks on Earth’s surface. GPS Satellites are pre-corrected for General Relativity, allowing them to beam us the accurate time for Earth’s surface.
• You enter a 3-Dimensional portal in space. Yes, you can fall in from any direction. Yes, it’s a Worm Hole.
• The producers knew exactly how, why, & when you’d achieve zero-G in space.
• You observe great Tidal Waves from great Tidal Forces, of magnitude that orbiting a Black Hole might create
• All leading characters, including McConaughey, Hathaway, Chastain, & Caine play a scientist or engineer. Of the leading characters (all of whom are scientists or engineers) half are women. Just an FYI.
• They reprise the matched-rotation docking maneuver from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” but they spin 100x faster.
• On another planet, around another star, in another part of the galaxy, two guys get into a fist fight.
• There’s a robot named KIPP. One of the Executive Producers, a physicist, is named Kip. I’m just saying.
• If you didn’t understand the physics, try Kip Thorne’s highly readable Bbook “The Science of Interstellar”. If you didn’t understand the plot, there is no published book to help you.
• They explore a planet near a Black Hole. Personally, I’d stay as far the hell away from BlackHoles as I can.

And speaking of getting to close to a Black Hole, Neil deGrasse Tyson talked about this topic in 2008:

You can follow Tyson on Twitter.

The post Neil deGrasse Tyson Interstellar Comments: Is It More Scientifically Accurate Than Gravity? appeared first on /Film.

/Film reader and artist Dogan Can Gundogdu created an infographic which visually explains the timeline of Christopher Nolan‘s Interstellar. While I’m not sure Interstellar needs a chart explaining the chronology of the story like Nolan’s earlier film Memento, that didn’t stop many artists from creating such infographics to explain the tired levels of Inception — which I still think is very easy to understand without additional aids. Gundogdu’s Interstellar Timeline is a well designed beautiful flowchart explaining how everything went down, taking into consideration Einstein’s theory of relativity and space-time distortion. Hit the jump now to check out Dogan Can Gundogdu’s Interstellar time-line for yourself.

Interstellar Timeline Chart

You can find more from Dogan Can Gundogdu, an animator and founder of Frametale Visual Arts, at dogancangundogdu.com.

The post Interstellar Timeline Chart Explains Christopher Nolan’s Theory Of Space-Time Relativity appeared first on /Film.

At the Blizzcon 2014, lead designer Dustin Browder revealed a first trailer and look at StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void. Being released as a stand-alone game, Legacy of the Void concludes the StarCraft II trilogy in a big way. The Protoss have amassed their forces and are ready to retake their homeworld. At the same time, all three races (Protoss, Humans, and Zerg) must band together to defeat the Xel'naga, an ancient race that's rising back power. 

While using Protoss forces, players will be able call down fire from The Spear of Adun, a massive battle cruiser that's always in orbit. It has the power to wipe out entire armies at the touch of a button. In other exciting news, the Lurker will be making a comeback. New gameplay includes Archon modes, where two players work cooperatively using the same base and armies, so players can have a truer sense of having eyes everywhere all the time to react to threats and exploit opportunities.

Another new mode includes Allied Commanders, which is an objective based co-op experience. Players team together and assume the roles of powerful commanders from the StarCraft saga. Each commander has different abilities and upgrades, which benefits their armies in unique way. Player work together to fight their way through different scenarios and level up their commanders while doing so. 

In competitve multiplayer, the Protoss will be outfitted with a new weapon called the Disruptor, which uses enemy spikes to tear apart ground forces. Terrans will have new abilities like Tactical Jump, which allows Battlecrusiers to teleport to anywhere on the battlefield. 

The official release window was announced, but we're hoping that Blizzard is aiming for the early half of 2015.

Quentin Tarantino has finalized the cast for his next film, The Hateful Eight. We already knew almost all of them: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Walton Goggins, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Now two new names have been added. Yes, Channing Tatum is one of them. The other is Demian Bichir, the Oscar-nominated star of A Better Life and current star of The Bridge.

Below, find out who each actor is playing and read the official press release about The Hateful Eight cast.

Deadline broke the latest casting news before The Weinstein Company sent out the following press release. It has all the roles each actor is playing and a full, detailed plot description. Also of note, it pretty much confirms Tatum does not have a large role.

The Weinstein Company (TWC) announced today that an incredible list of top acting talent has come on board to star in Academy Award winning writer/director Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming post-Civil War western, THE HATEFUL EIGHT. The Hateful Eight are: Academy Award nominee Samuel L. Jackson (DJANGO UNCHAINED) as Major Marquis Warren, Golden Globe nominee Kurt Russell (ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK) as John “The Hangman” Ruth, Golden Globe nominee Jennifer Jason Leigh (MRS. PARKER AND THE VICIOUS CIRCLE) as Daisy Domergue, Emmy nominee Walton Goggins (Justified) as Chris Mannix, Academy Award nominee Demian Bichir (A BETTER LIFE) as Bob, Academy Award nominee Tim Roth (RESERVOIR DOGS) as Oswaldo Mobray, Michael Madsen (RESERVOIR DOGS) as Joe Gage and Academy Award nominee Bruce Dern (NEBRASKA) General Sanford Smithers. Also, Channing Tatum (FOXCATCHER) has signed on for a role in the project. This will be Leigh, Bichir and Tatum’s first film with Tarantino, while the rest of the cast has worked with him in the past. THE HATEFUL EIGHT is the eighth feature for the filmmaker, whose last film DJANGO UNCHAINED earned him an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and grossed over $425 million worldwide.

In THE HATEFUL EIGHT, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new Sheriff. Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces. Bob (Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all…

Written and directed by Tarantino, THE HATEFUL EIGHT is produced by long-time Tarantino collaborators Richard N. Gladstein, Stacey Sher and Shannon McIntosh. Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein and G. Mac Brown are THE HATEFUL EIGHT’s executive producers, and Coco Francini and William Paul Clark are associate producers.

Presented in glorious 70mm, THE HATEFUL EIGHT will be released by TWC in 2015. The film marks a continuation of the long-standing relationship between the celebrated filmmaker and the Weinsteins, who have collaborated on all of Tarantino’s films, from RESERVOIR DOGS through DJANGO UNCHAINED.

“Any actor who jumps on board with one of Quentin’s films is in for a wild and rewarding ride,” commented Bob and Harvey Weinstein, TWC Co-Chairmen. “We couldn’t be any more thrilled with the fantastic group of performers we’ve assembled for THE HATEFUL EIGHT – some perennial fixtures in his movies and some newcomers – and can’t wait to kick off the shoot in Telluride.”

The post Final Cast Revealed For Quentin Tarantino’s ‘The Hateful Eight;’ Read New Plot Description appeared first on /Film.

A couple weeks back I got a chance to talk to Jonathan Nolan, the brother of filmmaker Christopher Nolan and co-screenwriter of Interstellar. Jonah started developing Interstellar as a project for Steven Spielberg to direct, before getting sucked into the television world showrunning Person Of Interest for Bad Robot. Jonathan has also been making the transition into directing, helming the pilot of the HBO/Bad Robot television adaptation of Michael Crichton’s Westworld (which we talk about briefly). Read all this and more in our Jonathan Nolan interstellar interview, after the jump.

Jonathan Nolan Interstellar Interview

Peter Sciretta: Hey, how’s it going?

Jonathan Nolan: Going well. How are you doing?

Question: I’m doing good. Okay, so I’m primarily interested in how this project has evolved over the years. ‘Cause this has been a project long in the making. I first heard about this in I think June 2008 when Spielberg first got this idea from the Caltech talk. How did you get involved and what was that original pitch that Spielberg presented to you?

Nolan: I presented it to him. He and Linda Obst and Kip Thorne, Linda’s great friend, Kip Thorne, who’s a legend in physics over at Caltech. Steven had wanted to do a science exploration film that was grounded in good physics. He wanted to get it right. No huge flights of fancy. More real, authentic. They had been working for several months fleshing out the ideas, you know, in general terms and looking for a screenwriter. So I came in and sat down with Steven. And he wanted to do a contemporary space exploration film. I said, Steven, if it was a contemporary space exploration film, it would be about 15 minutes long. And it would consist of the they all go in to the Appropriations Committee and quietly die, right? We don’t do that anymore. It’s fucking done. We peaked. In the years when the anthropologists come down, they’ll find a little polyester flag in the Moon and they’ll say, fuck, they almost made it. Right?

Question: Yeah.

Nolan: Like they got so far. So that was 2006, 2007, so it was a somewhat misanthropic take on it. Probably not a great way to pitch it. But so I said, well, you know, it has to be set in the future. It has to be set in a future in which you understand, because that’s the case and anyone who’s looked into a realistic science and space exploration understands that we don’t do it anymore. It’s done. The Apollo missions were before we were kids and it’s over. But that’s not readily apparent to people. So you have to set it in a moment in the future in which that is readily apparent to people. And it’s clear. So it was great fun working with Steven for a couple years on the project. And hammering out a script.

Question: So that was always the pitch that like it was set in the future where resources are, were our future’s looking bleak?

Nolan: Absolutely. I mean, look the reality is we stopped going to space because we’re too fucking wrapped up in whatever narcissistic bullshit, you know, as a sort of a collective. I mean, look, there’s an awful lot of things that still need to be fixed here on Earth, right? You know, problems that never seem to go away. Poverty, disease and a lot of stuff that we turned our attention to that is a good thing. We’re also just kind of sucked in the bullshit. I was talking downstairs, I grew up in Apollo space travel, we were promised jetpacks and fucking teleportation and instead we got fucking Facebook and Instagram. That’s a bummer.

But we don’t think of it in those terms. We think of ourselves as being the most magnificent, amazing universe ever and if we wanna go back to the Moon, sure, we could. It’s like no, those guys are all dead or retired. We’re not going back to the Moon. And if we wanted to, we’d have to spend billions of dollars and it would take years and years and years. We’re just done. We’re not doing that. We’re out of that business. And so people  don’t think in those terms. We had to set the movie in the future in which that was abundantly clear.

Question: Yeah. And the whole idea always had a wormhole of some kind?

Nolan: Yeah, absolutely. That was one of the things that they, that Kip, you know, Kip’s field is gravitation. Wormholes are a gravitational phenomena. Or imaginary gravitational phenomena as the case may be. And so the reality is if you wanna do a grounded space exploration film, one of the first things you have to do is throw out, you have to have a wormhole. Right? Because if it’s in a remotely contemporary timeframe, we don’t have a technology that could get us any further than our own solar system. Right? I mean, we’re packets of water and protein. We’re extremely fragile. Right? And if we travel in a spaceship for any longer than about a year of interstellar space, we’d be so fried with radiation that there would be nothing left of us. So we, you know, we’re not going anywhere. That again, boring movie, right?

So you have to have a wormhole in order to, you need a shortcut to take you to a what’s nice about a wormhole is that it’s not only a shortcut, you know, by nature of the fact that a wormhole could not exist without some higher order of intelligence putting it there. The existence of one, this is one of the things I was fascinated by in the project, the very fact that the wormhole exists suggests…

Question: That someone’s trying to take us somewhere.

Nolan: Yeah.

After the jump, Jonathan Nolan talks about directing Westworld, Christopher Nolan’s contributions to the script and more.,

Continue Reading Jonathan Nolan Interstellar Interview >>

The post Interview: ‘Interstellar’ Writer Jonathan Nolan: Real Space Exploration Is “Fucking Done, We Peaked!” appeared first on /Film.

Update: A new promo teaser has been released for the Iron Sky sequel, Iron Sky: The Coming Race. While the first Iron Sky The Coming Race trailer showed Adolf Hitler riding a T-Rex, the new promo teaser shows a zombie jesus breaking free from the cross and going on a machine gun rampage. Seems like the filmmakers behind Iron Sky are selling the movie on fun ridiculous politically incorrect imagery not for the easily offend-able,  and I’m fine with that. Watch both clips after the jump.

Iron Sky The Coming Race Trailer – Zombie Jesus

The original story from November 7th 2014 follows:

I have to admit that the trailer for Iron Sky got me excited, but for some reason or another I have never actually seen the film. The concept looked so ridiculously fun and pulpy, with the Nazis setting up a secret base on the dark side of the moon in 1945 where they hide out and built a space fleet to return in 2018 and conquer Earth. But it doesn’t seem like I missed much as the 2012 Finnish-Australian-German film was not liked by both critics and moviegoers alike (6.0 user rating on IMDb and 36% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes). But the film was an international cult hit, spawning a comic book prequel (Iron Sky: Bad Moon Rising), a video game (Iron Sky: Invasion), a board game (Iron Sky: The Board Game), and a feature film sequel, Iron Sky: The Coming Race.

And now like the original film, the filmmakers have released the Iron Sky The Coming Race trailer, a promo trailer for a film which doesn’t yet exist. The sequel is hoping to film in 2015 with a budget of $15 million (about $5 million more than the first film) and the project is currently on Indiegogo trying to raise the $500,000 they need for pre-production. So you can now “make history” and pre-buy the 2016 movie now and help it get made.

The Iron Sky: The Coming Race trailer promises that “Nazis on the moon was just scraping the surface” and “the ugly truth about mankind is about to be revealed”. What could this truth world be?  Set twenty years after World War III, the survivors must fight against Adolf Hitler & his army of dinosaurs. Thats right, Hitler rides his own Tyrannosaurus Rex into battle in the new film. Watch the Iron Sky The Coming Race trailer below.

Iron Sky The Coming Race Trailer – Hitler T-Rex

Just like the original Iron Sky trailer, I’m impressed with the visual effects and insane concept of this independently funded science fiction film. I feel like this is the sort of thing that crowdfunding was made for — insane independent projects that otherwise would not get made in the standard Hollywood or international film system. And sure, this is the type of pulpy concept that The Asylum does on a regular basis, but somehow these guys are able to create a more polished film with good effects.

The post ‘Iron Sky The Coming Race’ Trailers: Zombie Jesus Goes Scarface and Adolf Hitler On A T-Rex appeared first on /Film.

We haven’t seen much at all from the new Duncan Jones movie Warcraft, but at Blizzcon today the gates are opening on some of the film’s story. We’ve known most of the cast of the film, which includes Ben Foster, Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Toby Kebbell, Rob Kazinsky, Dominic Cooper, Daniel Wu and Clancy Brown. Until today we weren’t certain about most of their characters beyond the fact that Foster would play Medivh. Now we know roles for all the major players, and we’ve even got early renders of a couple of them in character. Meet the Warcraft movie characters below.

These shots come from our friend Reza Lackey, who is at Blizzcon today, where Duncan Jones is presenting Warcraft to fans of Blizzard’s original game series.

The Legendary Twitter feed has been filling in details:

• Dominic Cooper is King Llane Wrynn, beacon of hope to the city of Stormwind during a time of darkness.
• Ben Foster is Medivh the “Guardian”, a mysterious, reclusive protector with formidable power.
• Robert Kazinsky is Orgrim, destined to wield the Doomhammer, heroic Orc weapon, as the right hand of Durotan.
• Paula Patton is Garona, a strong-willed survivor who must decide where true loyalty lies.
• Toby Kebbell is Durotan, Chieftain and defender of the Frostwolf Clan.
• Ben Schnitzer is Khadgar, a gifted young mage on a daring search for the truth.
• Clancy Brown is Blackhand “The Destroyer”, one of the most feared and titanic warchiefs among the Orcs.
• Ruth Negga is Lady Taria, Queen of Stormwind at King Llane’s side. His great love and most trusted counsel.
• Daniel Wu is Gul’dan, supreme Orc ruler fueled by a dark magic that even he cannot control.
• Travis Fimmel is warrior Anduin Lothar, a hero who has sacrificed everything.

Warcraft is set to be released in 2D and 3D on March 11th, 2016.

Legendary Pictures’ WARCRAFT, a 3D epic adventure of world-colliding conflict based upon Blizzard Entertainment’s globally-renowned universe, is directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) and is written by Charles Leavitt and rewritten by Duncan Jones.  The producers are Charles Roven, Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni and Alex Gartner.  Stuart Fenegan, Jillian Share and Brent O’Connor serve as executive producers.  Blizzard’s Chris Metzen co-produces.

The post ‘Warcraft’ Movie Characters Revealed at Blizzcon [Images] appeared first on /Film.

This month is not starting very well for technology enthusiasts. Most of us have fond memories of Zalman, a company that has been producing advanced cooling solutions since 1999. Some are old enough to remember the fan-like CNPS6000 Socket 370 coolers and the first Reserator liquid cooling kits. Zalman was one of the pioneers of low-noise cooling solutions, in an era when stock coolers were noisy enough to drive people insane. Unfortunately for us all, on November 3, 2014 the company filed a bankruptcy protection request in the Seoul Central District Court.

Zalman did not fall victim to recession, competition or even bad corporate management. The whole story is long, complicated, obscure and yet unconfirmed, so unfortunately we may never learn all the details of it. To summarize, Zalman apparently was part of an allegedly very well designed and planned multi-billion dollar corporate fraud.

Zalman is a child company of the robotics manufacturer Moneual. According to The Korea Times, Moneual failed to repay their (massive) export bonds that matured on October 20, 2014, and ultimately filed for bankruptcy. Ever since that incident, Zalman's stock price also began a quick downfall. However, the numbers just do not add up - Moneual has been repeatedly reporting major profits, with their 2013 annual report being nearly 1.2 billion dollars in sales and over 100 million dollars in profit. The local authorities naturally became very suspicious and initiated investigations, the preliminary reports of which indicate that there is evidence of a well-designed corporate fraud.

Long story short, Moneual allegedly acquired Zalman in 2011 as part of their master plan. They forged Zalman's export and accounting documents, greatly overstating their export and income reports, in order to become eligible for huge bank loans. What is even more interesting is an article posted by the Korea JoongAng Daily, where an employee claims that most of the employees knew that the company was a sham but, despite the unearthly profit reports of the past few years, no government officials raised an eyebrow.

During that time, Moneual received about 620 million dollars in loans from several Korean banks and another 275 million dollars as export credit from the Korea Trade Insurance Corp, making the owners of Moneual richer by nearly 900 million dollars, money that will likely never be repaid. They have been arrested and, alongside many top- and mid-level executives of the company, are now facing prison time. Unfortunately, the architects of this fraud may not receive what punishment they deserve; the CEO of Moneual has U.S. citizenship and his brother has Canadian, and there's some concerns that Korean law could face trouble prosecuting them.

Unfortunately, we have little confirmed information on the matter but, from the looks of it, no one from Zalman was involved in this fraud. Depending on the court's decision, there is the possibility that Zalman will be granted bankruptcy protection and severed from Moneual's control. However, even if that happens, Zalman will certainly not have the capabilities they used to and will most certainly struggle to compete on a global scale.