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Will Tom Herman make another comfort hire?

With Todd Orlando officially out as the Texas Longhorns defensive coordinator, here’s a look at a few possible candidates that could replace him in Austin.

Chris Ash

According to Anwar Richardson of Orangebloods, the former Rutgers head coach is currently a top candidate to replace Orlando at defensive coordinator. Along with his ties to the Longhorns program this season as an analyst, Ash coached with Herman on Ohio State’s championship winning team as the co-defensive coordinator and as the defensive backs coach at Iowa State in 2009.

During his time at Ohio State, Ash’s primary defensive scheme was a 4-3 over, quarters-based coverage look. While it requires timely rotations throughout the secondary, this aggressive-yet-conservative coverage look helps keep things simple and sound against a variety of offensive schemes.

Hiring Ash would signify that Herman has enough trust in his former partner to succeed against Big 12 offenses in a coaching role that he hasn’t been in since his days at Ohio State.

Iowa State DC Jon Heacock

In 2018, Heacock’s 3-3-5 defensive scheme warranted praise on a national level, as the Cyclones held 11 of 13 opponents below their points per game average and 10 of 13 opponents below their yards per play average.

Iowa State’s 3-3-5 defense and TCU’s 4-2-5 defense held Texas in check offensively this season. While it requires solid play at the linebacker position, these defensive schemes best fit the kind of defensive backs that the Longhorns have recruited over the years.

Heacock offers the right personnel mix along with a fundamental-driven style of coaching from his time at Toledo and Iowa State. Fundamentals and technique were problems for Texas all season long due to poor tackling and discipline.

Utah DC Morgan Scalley

The Utah Utes are on the verge of a possible playoff appearance in large part to Scalley’s defense, currently ranked No. 3 nationally in total defense and No. 6 nationally in SP+. Utah ranks No. 1 in run defense and No. 14 in passing yards allowed. Scalley’s defense is predicated on a primary 4-3 under look with heavy man-to-man coverage on the outside.

Coincidentally, top Texas offensive coordinator candidate Graham Harrell was the only one who exploited the Utes through the air this season, as USC threw for 350 yards en route to a 30-23 victory.

Utah has a veteran group this season with a lot of talent graduating, including their starting quarterback Tyler Huntley and running back Zack Moss, and several key defensive linemen.

Unless Scalley decides to make the jump for a bigger brand and more money under the same position, the rising 40-year-old defensive coach and former Utah safety could be in store for a possible head coaching gig in the Mountain West or at a smaller school out West following his success this season.

Auburn DC Kevin Steele

Steele is currently making $2 million a year at Auburn, so it’d certainly take a lot for him to leave the plains. Similar to Orlando, Steele has utilized different multiple defensive back coverage looks to defend all the heavy spread and Air Raid attacks that have proliferated across college football. Unlike Orlando, Steele’s reached significant success with his methods in the SEC.

He often used a 3-2-6, 3-1-7 defensive scheme to counter some of the SEC’s most prolific passing attacks this season. Even though Mack Jones and Alabama scored 45 points in that wild Iron Bowl game, Steele’s defense held every other opponent to 24 points or less this season. That includes games against Oregon, Florida, Georgia, and soon-to-be Heisman winner Joe Burrow and LSU.

Steele’s unique defensive concepts consist of both three and four-man defensive fronts with dime personnel and quarters coverage in the secondary.

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Although Orlando’s defense improved over the last month of the season as the defense got healthier, Texas struggled at getting off the field on third-downs and was near of the bottom of the Big 12 in three-and-out rate. Oklahoma and Baylor both excelled at forcing three-and-outs this season. A 4-3 defensive scheme would primarily focus on limiting gains on first and second-down to create blitzing opportunities to get off the field quickly on third-down.

Who knows, maybe this next defensive coordinator hire entails new defensive position coaches as well. But before Herman settles on a former partner in Ash, he should assess the rest of the market and at least consider some other names.

Legendary television trailblazers Norman Lear, Lily Tomlin, Bob Newhart, and Carl Reiner were recently honored at a Paley Center gala in Los Angeles. Together, the quartet is responsible for some of comedy’s finest moments of the last 60-odd years, including shows like All In The Family, Laugh-In, Newhart, and The…

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Starship Troopers: Terran Command is coming to PC next year.

Starship Troopers, otherwise known as the greatest film ever made in the humble opinion this writer, is getting its own real-time strategy game. In development from Slitherine Games and The Aristocrats, who previously worked on Order of Battle: World War II, Starship Troopers: Terran Command puts you in charge of armies as they go head-to-head with giant alien bugs.

“If you take one of the most iconic movies from the 90s and shape it into a strategy game of survival, that mixes classic real-time mechanics, tower defense and tactical deployment of units then you have ‘Starship Troopers – Terran Command’ in a nutshell,” writes Slitherine development director Iain McNeil in a post announcing the new title.

“Modern strategy games are fast-paced and they successfully blend unit management, survival and captivating storytelling. Nothing is more suited to this type of gameplay than the Starship Troopers universe, where there is a continuous sense of danger and uncertainty.”

The game promises dynamically generated campaigns, and a campaign mode where the storyline and missions will develop according to your choices and how well you do on the battlefield. Remain obedient to the fascist Terran Command to benefit from fancy unit types and special abilities, or follow your own path to glory.

Would you like to know more? Check out the official announcement trailer for Starship Trooper: Terran Command:

The post Starship Troopers is getting its own RTS game in 2020 appeared first on VG247.

Photo by Jevone Moore/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The former Texas Tech quarterback has been enormously successful in his four years as an offensive coordinator.

Eleven years after destroying the national championship hopes of the Texas Longhorns with a legendary pass to Michael Crabtree, former Texas Tech Red Raiders quarterback Graham Harrell could quickly become the presumed savior for the Longhorns offense.

Following the reassignment of Texas offensive coordinator Tim Beck on Sunday — Beck will remain the quarterbacks coach for the bowl game — reports surfaced linking Harrell to the Texas job as a top candidate to replace Beck. Currently the offensive coordinator at USC, Harrell’s future in Los Angeles is in question because the current Trojans head coach, Clay Helton, may be on the way out.

Sources told FootballScoop.com in the immediate aftermath of the staff changes at Texas that Harrell would be interested in taking the job at Texas regardless of Helton’s job status. A native of Ennis, Texas, Harrell runs a version of Mike Leach’s Air Raid system with an increased emphasis on the run and influences from his time as a quarterback with the Green Bay Packers running a West Coast offense.

The NFL influence manifests itself as an understanding that simplicity and empowering players to operate with as much confidence and speed as possible is key.

After setting the NCAA record with 134 touchdown passes as the quarterback at Texas Tech, Harrell spent a brief period of time as an offensive quality control coach at Oklahoma State in 2010 before resuming his professional career.

Harrell re-joined Leach at Washington State in 2014, serving as an offensive analyst for one season before joining the on-field coaching staff as an outside receivers coach. Then his Texas Tech connections paid off, as former Red Raiders running back coach Seth Littrell hired Harrell as his offensive coordinator at North Texas, giving Harrell his first big coaching break.

Following Harrell’s arrival in Denton, he turned around the Mean Green’s offense, producing a record-setting quarterback in Mason Fine and elevating one of the nation’s worst offenses to one of the nation’s best in scoring, passing yards per game, and total offense.

When Kliff Kingbury took the head coaching job with the Arizona Cardinals after an extremely brief stint as the offensive coordinator at USC, Helton hired Harrell as his replacement.

Once again, Harrell sparked a significant turnaround despite the season-ending injury to JT Daniels, developing third-string, true freshman quarterback Kedon Slovis into a productive passer who has completed nearly 72 percent of his passes and thrown for 28 touchdowns against only nine interceptions. The rise of Slovis helped the Trojans offense improve from No. 46 nationally in SP+ to a top-10 attack this season.

So if Texas head coach Tom Herman hires Harrell to take over his offense, it would be hard to see it as anything other than the type of home-run hire that Herman didn’t even attempt to make when he arrived in Austin.

Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images

If Texas pursues the LSU passing game coordinator, it can pay him whatever he wants. So can the Tigers.

Sometimes, decisions aren’t all about the Benjamins.

As the LSU Tigers prepare to pay big money to keep first-year passing game coordinator Joe Brady and the Texas Longhorns looking for a new offensive coordinator, Brady has emerged as one of the top two candidates for the position, along with USC Trojans offensive coordinator Graham Harrell.

Currently making $400,000 per year to serve an assistant to Tigers offensive coordinator Steve Emsminger, Brady is in line for a significant raise that has been in the works for several weeks. It’s likely that the contract offer from LSU to Brady will significantly surpass $1.5 million per season, perhaps even reaching $2 million, according to FootballScoop.com.

So while the discussion from the Texas perspective has been about the possibility of athletics director Chris Del Conte and head coach Tom Herman money-whipping Brady to accept the position in Austin, in reality money will almost certainly not be the deciding factor for Brady.

Right now, reports indicate that both schools have the wherewithal to make Brady one of the highest-paid assistants in college football.

So there are multiple factors more likely to determine Brady’s ultimate decision than money, including the future of Emsminger, who is 61 years old and could conceivably step aside to let Brady take over as the offensive coordinator.

Next season, the Tigers will have to replace leading Heisman Trophy contender Joe Burrow, not an easy proposition for any program, especially one with a history of failing to develop signees at the position. Brady’s assessment of the quarterback depth chart in Baton Rouge and the potential ability to land a graduate transfer like D’Eriq King or Feleipe Franks could influence his ultimate decision.

In making the move to Austin, Brady would have the chance to coach Sam Ehlinger for a final season with an overall roster that should peak in the 2020 season, potentially providing the springboard to a head coaching job.

On the other hand, Texas head coach Tom Herman is increasingly on the hot seat and just bet his coaching career with the Longhorns on his ability to improve his coaching staff — if Brady takes the job in Austin and falters, helping contribute to Herman’s termination, his coaching career would suffer a significant setback.

In Baton Rouge, Ed Orgeron is on the verge of leading his team to an SEC championship and the College Football Playoffs and all the job security that comes with those accomplishments. Brady is the beloved architect of LSU’s offensive emergence from the Stone Ages and all the job security that comes with that accomplishment.

Simply put, Brady has a higher margin for error with the Tigers, especially if he spends another season as the passing game coordinator.

Herman is also under a lot of pressure to get this hire right and Brady doesn’t have any track record calling plays anywhere. Harrell has four years of experience with high-level results, including this season at a high-profile Power 5 job. Perhaps Brady has more upside than Harrell, but that perception may simply be a result of the fact that Brady’s comparative inexperience makes him something of a blank slate on which to project an unlimited amount of optimism.

Regardless of money or where Brady wants to end up, Herman will have to decide whether he wants to take a risk on the hottest offensive mind in college football that doesn’t have any actual play-calling experience or extend the offer to Harrell, who actually has a proven track record in that regard.

From Brady’s current position as the passing game coordinator, taking the offensive coordinator job at Texas would represent a promotion, but within the context of where the two programs are at currently and the reality that money won’t be the difference in his eventual decision, it makes sense for Brady to remain at LSU.

And it also makes sense for Herman for bet his future on Harrell.

"Even if I become the number one, there is an entity that cannot be defeated."

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The ’90s series The Maxx from Image Comics was turned into an animated series for MTV back in ’95, and up next it’s getting a brand new adaptation from producer Channing Tatum!

THR reports that Tatum and Roy Lee (It) are producing the adaptation of Sam Kieth’s comic series, though the site is unsure if it’ll be a movie or a new television series.

“The original series followed the adventures of The Maxx, who appears in both the real world and an alternate reality, the Outback.”

“In the real world, he is a homeless man living in a box but in the Outback, he is a powerful masked being who is the protector of the Jungle Queen. In the real world, the latter is a social worker named Julie Winters who frequently works to help the homeless man, unaware that the alternate reality exists and is exerting a dangerous influence on her life.”

It sounds like this one is in the very early stages of development, with no writer(s) or director(s) attached at this time. Stay tuned for more as we learn it.

The Good Place is a great show because it succeeds on multiple levels. It’s masterfully acted, beautifully written, and somehow even manages to be educational. It’s also visually charming, with its visual in-jokes, and horribly deformed cartoon giraffe horses. That charm is due in part to the show’s art direction,…

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If you need something from pop culture brought to life, then the first person to call is Colin Furze, YouTube's own mad inventor. Furze has already made working versions of the grapple gauntlet from Assassin's Creed and Wolverine's claws from the X-M...

Available at Amazon:

The new Polaroid Lab is your very own desktop darkroom. It uses 100% real film chemistry to expose the digital photos on your phone and process them into a Polaroid picture. Something real, something to hold, something to give.

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Unleash all the creative power within the Polaroid Lab with the Polaroid Originals companion app. The app connects the Lab to your phone to turn your digital pictures into Polaroid photos you can keep. App available on the Apple App Store or Google Play.

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Our new augmented reality tool brings your memories to life. Using the Polaroid Originals app, you can layer still images with motion.

Sorry, Quentin Tarantino: Your Star Trek thing is going to the back of the line. According to Deadline, the actual next Star Trek movie is going to be directed by Fargo and Legion mastermind Noah Hawley, presumably on the strength of his recent feature directorial debut Lucy In The Sky—which was also about space,…

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mud–enthusiast:

unholy pancakes

boudhabar:

Branta canadensis

One could say that Left 4 Dead 2 is much like DOOM 2. Both games came out around a year after the first game, but more importantly, the games also took their predecessors, changed nothing of the base game, and threw in a few new things. And much like DOOM 2, L4D2 was criticized for being more of the same. Indeed, a good portion of those critics ended up coming from the Left 4 Dead community itself. But amidst the controversy, did it warrant fans plunking down money for a game that was painted as “more of the same” by some?

Left 4 Dead 2 is set in the aftermath of a worldwide pandemic (one week after the first game) that saw humans rapidly transform into zombie-like creatures and mutated forms that demonstrate extreme aggression towards non-infected. Few humans are immune to the disease, still carrying the infection but showing no symptoms. The Civil Emergency and Defense Agency (CEDA) and the U.S. Military create safe zones to attempt to evacuate as many American survivors as possible. The sequel focuses on four new Survivors: Coach, Ellis, Nick, and Rochelle, who are immune to the disease. The four Survivors must now fight their way through hordes of Infected, using safehouses along the way to rest and recuperate in order to reach extraction points.

Admittedly, it can be a difficult task to improve upon what was so good about a game like Left 4 Dead. The concept of relying on teammates to help you make your way to the end of a level, keeping up with the pace and the frenetic energy of the campaigns, all while being surprisingly accessible to a variety of skill levels, was already excellent. Also not to mention the attention Valve and Turtle Rock paid to creating characters that were likeable and appealing to the player. Yet, the teams were able to do just that and more.

For one, all of the campaigns in L4D2 are now strung together into one big adventure, with more varied locations. This all makes the feelings of dread and despair while trekking through these areas wax and wane as any good zombie apocalypse story should. Along the way, the chatter between the survivors is marked by moments of levity and personality, which goes a long way to developing and establishing connections with the players. Ellis’ stories about his buddy Keith (and the other survivors’ responses) still do a great job of character development, thanks in large part to the top notch voice acting.

Of course, L4D2‘s story and gameplay thrives on chaos, and who can forget the chaos that’s unleashed when a horde of zombies descends on your location when you activate one of the “Crescendo Events” during the campaign? All of that is punctuated by the improved AI Director system, which as in the first game procedurally spawns enemies, weapons and items based on players’ performance, but also now tweaks the level layouts and conditions, and rewards those who elect to go the more difficult way with more powerful weapons and ammo.

This comes back to the importance of you and your teammates working together. Much like Valve’s other multiplayer classic in Team Fortress 2, you live and die in L4D2 based on how well you and your team functions. No matter your experience level with the game, you’re only as good as the guy who just picked it up for the first time. You still have to revive downed teammates or rescue them if they fall off of a ledge, or supply them with pills for a health boost. This time around, Valve elected to give players “second chances”, supplying adrenaline and a portable defibrillator to give your teammates a little boost when they need it (or to save their life).

That’s not all you get with L4D2. What would a zombie game be without weapons. Valve expanded the roster of weapons across all tiers with L4D2, including new mechanics. Most notable is now players actually have a melee attack. In the first game, you merely shoved away zombies with your weapon. Here, while you can still shove enemies back with your weapon, you now have specific melee weapons available to kill zombies. Most notable is the chainsaw, which is practically a requirement when it comes to first-person shooters involving zombies. You even get Special Tier weapons in the M60 and Grenade Launcher that, while you can’t refill at ammunition dumps, are incredibly valuable to have when it comes to crowd clearing.

And, much like what id Software did with DOOM 2 and it giving players a boost in enemy difficulty on top of the offensive goodies, Valve did the same with L4D2. The previous game’s Special Infected return, but have been given revamped behaviour. Most notable is The Witch, which now has a variant that wanders about for unsuspecting players to accidentally provoke. Then there are the three new Special Infected: The Charger, the Spitter, and the appropriately-annoying Jockey. The introduction of the three new Special Infected again reinforces the importance of teamwork and strategy, having teammates work to help rescue those carried off by the Charger, or knocking the Jockey off of another player’s back before they end up running into health-depleting goo left by the Spitter.

While L4D2‘s main draw is the Campaign, as was in the first game, Valve still included the original modes from the first game. Despite the AI still not being quite as good as real humans, you can play Singleplayer, but the real meat is with other humans. Versus still allows you and seven other people in 4-on-4 matchups to increase the mayhem even more, and Survival is the ultimate test of endurance as you face unending waves of zombies. But new to L4D2 was Scavenge, another 4-on-4 mode that requires the Survivor players to collect and use as many fuel cans scattered about a level to fill up a power generator, while the Infected players attempt to stop them. It’s a variation on the Versus, but by no means any less fun. For the truly hardcore, there’s also a Realism mode, which removes some of the “video game logic” that helps players along (such as the player silhouettes when your teammates are behind walls). Again, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Just add a little more to make it a little different, but also that much better.

And yes, just like the original game, Left 4 Dead 2 is an absolute feast for the modding community. Throwing in models of the Mars Attacks! Martians to replace the zombies, or mashing up Resident Evil 6 or Silent Hill with the game, it’s all part of increasing the longevity and enjoyment. If you want to talk about longevity, L4D2 even had a recent crossover with Dying Light! Not bad for a game that’s a decade old.

But invariably, the ultimate decision has to be made, particularly again with the sequel being released so close to the original. Is Left 4 Dead 2 superior to Left 4 Dead? It turned out to be a more definitive version of Left 4 Dead, to put it one way. Don’t get that misconstrued, though. Both games are still amazing to play today, and you can’t go wrong with either of them. Left 4 Dead 2, however, feels more “complete” when it comes to the experience. There’s more variation, more weapons, more zombies and more challenge in the sequel. You do miss out on the original survivors (which is a testament to the job the team and the actors did to bring them to life), but with the tie-in campaign The Sacrifice, L4D2 players can get their fix of Bill and company.

The other question you might be asking is just when we’d get that third game (since Valve has so much trouble with that number). Sadly, while it doesn’t appear that Left 4 Dead 3 is on the horizon, the team at Turtle Rock studios are pulling the “spiritual sequel” card with Warner Bros’ help with Back 4 Blood, which was announced back in March of this year. No details have been revealed as of this writing, but the hope is that the game will bear some of the hallmarks of what made the two Left 4 Dead games so good. And given Turtle Rock’s past efforts, that may very well be the case.

As the Cornhuskers continue to rebuild the football program, Nebraska has given coach Scott Frost a two-year extension that ties him to the school through 2026.

Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

David Pierce has the Longhorns on the right track in recruiting.

On Wednesday, the Texas Longhorns signed an impressive 14-man recruiting class that Baseball American ranked as the top group nationally.

“The class of 2020 will be one of the best classes in the country. Their baseball talent is outstanding, but their character and integrity sets them apart for me,” head coach David Pierce said. “They will represent the university, athletic department and UT Baseball with great character and integrity. I want to thank their support systems from their parents, high school coaches, teachers and their travel coaches and organizations for all their hard work in the development of these young men. Our staff is thankful to be entrusted to continue the development of each and every player. We are grateful and excited to have the opportunity to have this group of young men joining our program at The University of Texas.”

It’s a national group that includes three players from California, one from Arizona, and one from Alabama, as well as a junior college prospect.

There are five two-way players in the class among the nine players who project as possible pitchers. Most importantly, Pierce landed three left-handed pitchers after a season spent with only two on the roster.

California product Lucas Gordon is regarded as one of the best left-handed pitchers in the country with a three-pitch mix who started the 2019 World Cup Championship game this summer for the 18U USA National Team.

Outfielder Petey Halpin is one of the other California natives on the team and played with Gordon on the 18U USA National Team. Like Gordon, he’s considered one of the best players at his position in the country and projects as a top-of-the-order hitter.

The final California signee is talented two-way player Jared Jones, who is ranked as the top right-handed pitcher in the state and a top-25 player nationally thanks to a fastball that can reach 99 miles per hour. He can also play in the infield and outfield and shows tremendous power. The difficulty will be getting him to campus, but perhaps the opportunity to play both ways could convince him to spend three years on the Forty Acres.

Refugio right-hander Jared Kelley could also forgo college baseball in favor of a professional career — he has a 100-mph fastball and an elite changeup, a combination good enough to make him the top right-handed pitcher in the country and a top-five prospect. In August, MLB.com ranked Kelley as the top 2020 draft prospect in the country.

At the plate, Odessa Junior College transfer Ivan Melendez will provide the Longhorns with a power bat after hitting .411 with 17 home runs and 70 RBI last season as a freshman.

Houston Episcopal shortstop Tanner Witt could be an early contributor as a fourth-generation Longhorn and son of a former first-round draft pick. With good raw power, Witt is a top-20 player in the country.

Ultimately, whether Texas can convince players like Jones and Kelley to play college baseball will determine whether the ranking as the top recruiting class in the country means anything more than bragging rights in the wake of National Signing Day, but Pierce and his staff do deserve credit for their work in landing some of the nation’s top players.

The signs in the brewery say “Widmer”

When I received the news about the sale of Portland’s biggest brewery to Anheuser-Busch, many thoughts raced through my mind. I spent a year steeped in all things Widmer as I wrote Kurt and Rob Widmer’s biography. Memories of all the people I spoke to came rushing back. I could see myself sitting with Rob and Kurt in a brick-walled room at the brewery listening to their recollections. I heard the protective, sometimes wistful voice of former CEO Terry Michaelson. I remembered the tenderness Barb and Ann, their wives, expressed when they recalled the 35-year adventure.

“I think the interesting thing for you is where do you stop the Widmer story? If you go up to the present day, it’s not really over, but it gets substantially less glamorous as you go after about 2010 or 2012—it really becomes less and less about Widmer.”

But the first person I thought of was Sebastian Pastore, who had been hired early on straight out of Reed College. It was Sebastian’s first real job, and he quickly became one of the most trusted members of the Widmer inner circle. When it came time to buy the new, industrial-sized brewery In the mid-1990s, Kurt put Sebastian in charge and let him make all the decisions. He worked at the company 24 years before leaving in 2014. And it was Pastore who spoke most frankly and presciently about the future of the company. His discussion of the course of events prepared me for this sale, and hung grimly over my year documenting Kurt and Rob’s lives. As a coda to the sale, I’ll quote from our interview in February of 2017.

A Brief History of Craft Brew Alliance

For those not intimately familiar with the story, Widmer Brothers became a part of an evolving CBA. Originally called Craft Brands Alliance, it began in 2008 as a loose partnership with Seattle’s Redhook, which like Widmer had sold a minority stake to Anheuser-Busch, to combine sales and marketing operations. In 2008, it became a single company (called Craft Brewers Alliance) headquartered in Portland. The two companies were of a similar size at that point, but Widmer Brothers soon eclipsed Redhook. CBA had been contract-brewing Kona beer for the mainland since 2001. In 2010 the company acquired Kona outright. It owned a portion of Goose Island and sold it to ABI in 2011. In 2012 it launched a gluten-free brand and in 2013 a cider brand. More recently it began acquiring smaller breweries.

Critically, though, the Widmer brand had started as the dominant identity for the company. All the beer was brewed at Widmer, on equipment designed to make Hefeweizen. The brewery was staffed by Widmer folks. The on-site gasthaus served only Widmer beer. To people in Portland and to an extent at the brewery, it was as if Widmer had purchased and were brewing a bunch of other brands. Until Monday, if you traced the various branches of CBA (which came to be called Craft Brew Alliance around 2012), eventually you came to the trunk and roots, and those were Widmer Brothers.

Unfortunately for the folks in Portland, Widmer didn’t stay the dominant brand in the portfolio. In 2013, as longtime CEO Terry Michaelson was stepping down, Kona equaled Widmer. In the Andy Thomas era that followed, Widmer has declined precipitously, while Kona has soared. Thomas even pursued a “Kona plus” strategy. In my own discussions with folks in the brewery, during his ascent, the company actively ignored the Widmer brand, letting the flagship Hefeweizen—the best-selling beer in Oregon—languish, all of which hastened the decline.

This created a sense of dislocation at the brewery—at least to my eyes. Kurt Widmer stayed at the brewery another year, and Rob may still be there (he left this spring to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, a six-month endeavor). But sometime between 2014 and now—it probably varied by employee—that brewery quit being Widmer Brothers and really did morph into CBA. Toward the end of our conversation, Pastore expressed a sentiment I suspect was widespread: “Twenty-four years. I would drive to work and look down and say, ‘I built that.’ I did not want to go, but it would have been untenable.”

The Moment the Die Was Cast

I will now largely turn this over to Sebastian, who told the story more wholly than anyone I spoke to. He started by observing, “When I look back on Widmer, I see it as a series of fateful decisions that resonated for decades afterward.” The first two were the decision to expand massively and to locate the expansion across the street from the Smithson and McKay building.

“And the third fateful decision was [accepting Anheuser-Busch’s minority stake offer]. We had flirted with Miller Brewing Company prior to doing a deal with A-B and had an offer on the table. A pretty significant offer. I think it was 70 million dollars—it was a lot. And we turned it down. Most of us felt they turned it down because they really liked running the brewery. Kurt would have been in his 40s at that time, and Rob might even have been in his late 30s, and they were nowhere near done. They didn’t know what else they would have done. So they said no.

“Then they did the Anheuser-Busch deal. By the time we did it, we really needed the money. We needed it because we’d made the decision to build this enormous brewery and get into bottles. And then the Anheuser-Busch deal defined the rest of the brewery’s history in a bunch of different ways. A) because they were a significant shareholder. And the thing most people don’t realize about the A-B deal is it’s not too much of an exaggeration to say that CBA only had one customer. Every single case of beer that CBA sold was sold to Anheuser-Busch and then resold to all of their distributors. We operated under something called a Master Distribution Agreement, whereby they were in effect a master distributor. From a wholesaler’s perspective, we really were an Anheuser-Busch product.

This was, of course, hugely important to negotiations. “Think about the leverage you have when you’re the only customer,” Pastore said. Kurt Widmer and August Busch III had a wonderful friendship and admired each other. During the period when the company was run out of St. Louis, this relationship was great. But in 2008, A-B was taken over by the companies that would reconstitute AB InBev. And when that happened, the new company exercised its leverage.

“From 1997 until say the InBev deal, it was really all upside. It was a great honeymoon period until the talks with Redhook. Anheuser-Busch had equal ownership, roughly, in both companies. Widmer was the good child; they were cooperative, profitable, they had a strategy, they were somewhat deferential. Paul Shipman ran an unprofitable company, was uncooperative, and [told] them to go fuck themselves at any opportunity. They wanted to get rid of him but couldn’t and came up with this idea of merging with them.

“You have to remember that they were a 16 billion dollar company and they owned a part ownership stake in two, at that time, maybe 150 million dollars together. We were a pimple on their butt. And they had two pimples. Wouldn’t it just be a lot simpler if we rolled these two together and had the compliant team manage it? And so they tried that; those discussion started in the late 90s.”

Every ten years, Anheuser-Busch and Widmer/CBA signed a distribution deal like the one Pastore outlined. In 2016, the one they signed gave ABI the right to purchase CBA within three years. Over that period of time, CEO Andy Thomas guided the company toward that purchase. And, as Pastore told me almost three years ago, it basically had to go that way.

“Because they had a minority ownership, 32 or 33 percent, and two seats on the board, in theory they weren’t in control, but one of the great dynamics behind the scenes was [that] in effect they were in control of the company. They had rights in the investment agreement that governed resale, they were our only customer, and they could in theory threaten to do things to us like tell their wholesalers not to promote our product anymore.

“It also limited our appeal as a company because no one else was interested in coming in as an investor while Anheuser-Busch was involved—because we have this long-term agreement, changing wholesalers is incredibly difficult, Anheuser-Busch was taking millions of dollars a year [for distribution], and if someone else had come in, they’d have bought that. And if you read what’s going on in the company to this day, they’ve really come full circle and concluded that their best option is to sell it to Anheuser-Busch.”

Afterword

In many ways, the story of the company founded by Rob and Kurt Widmer ended successfully. If you read Josh Noel’s account of Goose Island, founder John Hall was actively steering the company toward acquisition. That’s what happened to businesses. Building something from nothing and selling for a huge profit is a win. Even the way the company shifted feet from Widmer to Kona is impressive. That was a connection forged through personal friendships, and bringing Kona up was the brothers’ doing. This week a company that Kurt and Rob built from an initial investment of around $60,000 sold for $320 million. How on earth is that not a win?

As Pastore describes, however, it may well not have been the inevitable conclusion the Widmers drew up when they signed that minority agreement. Paul Shipman, who founded Redhook, was certainly not happy with how things turned out. He called the decision to partner with AB “the defining error of my career.” I don’t think the Widmers would agree, even now. Nothing in our interviews suggested regret or even equivocation.

But it does go to show that decisions have consequences that may not be evident for years or even decades. Widmer started discussions with A-B in 1995 (finalizing the partnership in 1997) and the brewery wasn’t fully acquired for another quarter century. That’s a long time for things to play out, but here we are.

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Stephen Spillman-USA TODAY Sports

Courtney Ramey keyed the Horns out of halftime with 15 points and his teammates held close out a pesky Lancers squad.

AUSTIN, Texas — As a cold day turned into a colder evening, the Texas Longhorns went cold from the field in the first half, shooting only 29.6 percent, but a strong second half keyed by sophomore guard Courtney Ramey and a strong response to a late run by the Cal Baptist Lancers helped the Longhorns to a 67-54 win at the Erwin Center on Tuesday evening.

Ramey led Texas in scoring with 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting — his career high in points and made baskets — after hitting his first six shots in the second half, many on drives to the basket after the Longhorns settled for 16 three-point attempts in the first half, hitting on only two. The sophomore added six rebounds, three assists, and two of the 11 steals for the Horns.

“He’s good. He’s a confident player,” Cal Baptist head coach Rick Croy said. “When you’re training defensively to start the year, you tell your guys that ultimately you’re going to run into perimeter players that can shoot it, drive it, and make shots off the dribble. He’s that. He’s very confident, they give him space, and he’s got the green light. He plays the right way — he’s not just throwing ‘em up, he’s knows what he’s doing, he knows where to find his gaps and his slots, and he played on his front foot tonight. He played really well.”

At halftime, Ramey said the players and Smart emphasized sticking with the offense and that shots would start falling, but Ramey ended up taking it upon himself to get to the basket as Cal Baptist made defensive adjustments to put more coverage on the Texas perimeter shooters.

“I just think I took my opportunities,” Ramey said. “My teammates, we’ve got great shooters — Jase, Andrew, and Matt, so they stayed home, allowing me to drive, then when you’ve got Jericho down low, they have to stay with him or I can throw the lob. It freed me up, so I just had to play off my teammates.”

Texas also received 11 points apiece from sophomore guard Andrew Jones and junior forward Jericho Sims, who also recorded 11 rebounds for his first career double-double. In the second half, Sims was more aggressive going up for dunks around the basket, at the encouragement of his teammates, after missing four of his six shots in the first half.

“A guy that looks like he’s starting to take advantage of his opportunities,” Croy said of Sims. “Playing hard, looks like he’s figuring it out, looks like he’s connected with his teammates. He’s force — he’s hard to score over and it seems like he’s really active when he’s off the ball. He’s got a lot of skills that are going to help the Longhorns.”

Most importantly, Croy said that Sims is competing at a high level and looks like he’s found his confidence, two areas where Sims often struggles as a result of his low-key personality and penchant to disconnect when he becomes frustrated.

On Tuesday, it was sophomore forward Gerald Liddell who suffered the most from his frustrations — Smart felt that he played frustrated after missing his first shot in the paint. Liddell also spent most of the game in foul trouble that limited him to playing only 19 minutes. He finished with nine points on eight shots and also turned the ball over twice.

Consider it a growing experience for a young player who Smart says is extremely hard on himself and set an extremely high standard with his remarkable performance against Purdue.

After entering halftime with a 26-22 lead because the Horns shot only 28.6 percent from the field in the first half, it was Ramey who started out the second half by driving to the basket and finishing at the rim with a slick layup. Another drive produced a kick out to sophomore forward Liddell, who sunk his first three-pointer of the game. Another drive produced a basket by junior guard Matt Coleman, then Ramey took his turn to score on another drive.

As a result, the first nine points of the second half by Texas were all scored in the paint or included a paint touch as the lead stretched to 13, the largest of the game to that point.

Cal Baptist was able to mount a comeback by hitting four of five three-point attempts to cut the Texas lead to 50-47, prompting a timeout by Longhorns head coach Shaka Smart with 7:22 remaining.

Coming out of the timeout, however, junior guard Jase Febres hit from the corner for a much-needed basket after missing four of his first five attempts from beyond the arc and Texas forced a turnover on the other end before capitalizing on a second-chance opportunity when Coleman found Sims for a dunk.

The Lancers were never able to get closer than seven points for the rest of the game.

As Cal Baptist cut into the lead, Ramey and his teammates fell back on the experiences of last season, when Texas gave up big margins against teams like Radford by not maintaining a high level of intensity by trying to treat every team like it’s North Carolina or Kentucky, Ramey said.

The result of those growing experiences was a more poised team on Tuesday.

“I really liked the look of our guys’ eyes during the timeout,” Smart said. “They were poised, they were determined, they knew what we needed to do. I told them, ‘Some of you guys have phenomenal experience in these situations, so now’s the time to use it.’”

And they did.

Overall, the Texas defense was able to force Cal Baptist to shot 34.5 percent from the floor while forcing 16 turnovers, including 10 by the experienced lead guards for the Lancers. The Longhorns aim for 32 deflections in every game and had 39 on Tuesday — the defense had extremely active hands. As a result, a team that entered the game averaging 102.5 points in its first two contests was held to 54 by the Horns.

“I think they’re committed defensively,” Croy said. “They made it real hard on us. We like the three ball and they put a tremendous amount of focus on taking away the three and making us shoot over hands. They’re long and athletic.”

Smart said that when the Longhorns gave the Lancers open looks, Cal Baptist took advantage virtually every time. So this is a game that Texas could have lost had it let those experienced, aggressive guards get more open looks from distance.

Of course, taking away those three-point attempts is the primary feature of assistant coach Luke Yacklich’s defense, but it’s keyed by the ability of Texas defenders to guard one on one.

“They don’t help a lot, so they don’t come off guys,” Croy said. “For some teams, that’s hard to do. A lot of teams defensively, they need to help each other a lot. These guys can lock up the ball, they’ve obviously put a lot of work into it, they’ve been well coached, but they’ve accepted they challenge to guard people one on one with great pride and to do it with foul discipline. That’s hard to do.”

Once again, that one-on-one defense and ability to play without helping forced Cal Baptist to play one-on-one offense — the Lancers only had seven assists on 20 made baskets, in part because of the high effort level by all five players on nearly every possession, Croy said.

Offensively, Smart said it’s a fine line between continuing to take open shots that aren’t going in and instead abandoning the three-point line to get the ball into the paint. For this Texas team, however, it’s all about the identity defensively.

“I thought tonight we really started the game with the defensive intensity and effort that we demand of our guys,” Smart said.

There was some frustration because shots weren’t going in, but the growth for players like Febres is that they don’t have to rely on making shots to give defensive effort. After finishing and losing 10 of 16 close games, the Longhorns will have more chances to win those games if it maintains its early-season defensive intensity and execution.

“We’re three games into our season,” Smart said. “We have a lot of growing to do, a lot of improving to do, but I like the fact that our guys understand that our anchor is defense. They understand that we’re best when we play ‘We over me offense,’ and they know we’ve got to get better.”

Texas returns to action on Friday at the Erwin Center against Prairie View A&M.

One of today’s most fun Halloween surprises is all treats with William Maranci‘s mash-up of Ray Parker Jr.‘s Ghostbusters theme with Nine Inch Nails‘ “Closer“.

The result is a near-perfect reinterpretation of NIN’s industrial metal masterpiece with Ghostbusters bumping in the background. It’s shocking how seamless these two songs mix together and I kind of wish I could add this to my Halloween playlist.

Who you gonna call? (Closebusters)!

The Overlook plays what you might call a supporting role in Doctor Sleep. Aside from some fleeting flashbacks to a little boy biking down hallways, it’s a good two hours before the haunted hotel of The Shining first appears in this belated sequel, which otherwise seems to take place everywhere but the iconic Colorado…

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Horror tends to be at its most effective when we least expect it. When fear catches us completely off guard. Take children’s comedy series Salute Your Shorts, for example. The Nickelodeon ‘90s sitcom ran for two seasons, and revolved around a group of teen campers in the fictional summer camp, Camp Anawanna. Often the episodes centered around pranks, camp life, and the dynamics between the diverse personalities at camp, but the second episode opted to go for the jugular with its creepy slant on a camp staple: the ghost story.

Titled “The Ghost Story,” episode two sees the campers gathered around to spook each other silly with tales of terror. Resident bully, Budnick (Danny Cooksey), spins the yarn of Zeke the Plumber, the camp’s former custodian that had no sense of smell because his nose had been bitten off by a parrot. Because of this, Zeke couldn’t smell the gas leak when digging a hole. He strikes up a match and sparks an explosion, leaving only his beloved plunger behind. Anyone who finds and touches the plunger is cursed with nightmares of Zeke.

“What is this guy? The Freddy Krueger of custodians?” a skeptical camper asks Budnick.

In a way, the description fits. Both Michael (Erik MacArthur) and Telly (Venus DeMilo Thomas) touched the plunger during Budnick’s story, and both dream of Zeke the Plumber soon after. Or rather, suffer traumatic nightmares. In these nightmares, Zeke is waiting for them, digging into their deepest memories and twisting them to evoke fear. There are even threats of death. Just like Freddy Krueger. And also like Freddy, Zeke died in an explosion, and he’s covered head to toe in disfiguring burn scares. What makes Zeke so traumatic for the unsuspecting child, though, is that he covers his scars with a stiff human mask stretched over his face. His eyes lost behind it. He speaks through it in hushed tones. It’s deeply unsettling.

Granted, Salute Your Shorts is a comedy aimed at kids, so the terror eventually eased up and delivered the requisite cheerful ending. That is, Zeke the Plumber was just a figment of imagination, save for Counselor Ug Lee (Kirk Baily) trying to seek revenge by donning the costume and sneaking around the woods. Budnick did get his comeuppance in the form of arachnophobia, and all was right in Camp Anawanna again.

Still, though, for the target audience, Zeke the Plumber’s appearance was unexpected and terrifying. The mask, the unassuming outfit, and the gravelly quiet voice instilled actual nightmares for the generation that watched this infamous episode in 1991. A boogeyman that appeared out of nowhere and disappeared just as quickly. At least with Nickeoldeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark?, which had just wrapped up its inaugural season a month prior to the airing of this episode, you knew to expect the horror and could brace yourself accordingly. There was no mentally preparing for “The Ghost Story.” For a certain age group, Zeke the Plumber remains one of the most traumatic figures from childhood.

Located in Hardwick, New Jersey, Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco played the role of Camp Crystal Lake for the original Friday the 13th, and it’s an active Boy Scouts camp to this day. In other words, that means horror fans don’t typically have access to the campgrounds, *except* for on select special occasions when the premises are opened up for Friday the 13th tours.

This past September, Roger Krzeminski was one of the lucky fans selected by lottery to spend the day at the real-life Camp Crystal Lake, and he used the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something pretty incredible. As Roger explained to us, “I asked at camp if I could take a few gallons of Crystal Lake water to make beer since I’m an avid homebrewer.”

“I figured how cool would it be to make beer……from actual Crystal Lake water!?”

Roger got the okay and indeed took a few gallons of genuine Crystal Lake water home, which he filtered and sanitized to make his Camp Crystal Lake American Red Ale!

The home-brewing horror fan detailed the process to us, “A standard batch of beer is 5 gallons which gives you 54 beers. I use 7 gallons because there is a considerable amount of evaporation when you boil the wort (beer juice if you will) for 1 hour. I came out with 52 bottles as I did lose a little additional volume in the filter/sanitize process.”

Roger continued, “These are purely for personal consumption and gifts for friends/family. I’m not selling these or anything of that sort. If I am fortunate enough to be invited back to camp by the generous folks at Crystal Lake Tours (CLT), I would be thrilled to get the opportunity to make more. At the end of the day, this project of mine would have never left the ground if it weren’t for the generosity and goodwill of the people at CLT. If anything were to come of this, I’d truly love for the outcome to be more people directed to the website and buy souvenirs, tour tickets or merchandise to support the camp and to keep “Camp Crystal Lake” thriving so future fans and scouts can still see this place and enjoy the experiences as much as I really have.”

Check out some images of Roger’s “Camp Crystal Lake” ale below!

Games lend themselves surprisingly well to drinking, even though your hands are full most of the time. Drink while tweaking your settings. Drink during the opening cutscene (it’s always too long anyway.). Drink during load screens. Drink when characters on the screen drink. Drink before you even start playing. Come…

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Cambridge University researchers say some inhalers are bad for the environment because they release greenhouse gases linked to global warming. They recommend patients with asthma talk to their doctors to see if there's a "greener" medication they could switch to to help cut their carbon footprint and save the environment. The BBC reports: There are more than five million people with asthma in the UK. The research looked at the environmental impact of different inhaler medications prescribed to patients on the NHS in England. In 2017, about 50 million inhalers were prescribed. Seven out of every 10 of them were metered-dose inhalers - the type that contain greenhouse gases. The gas -- hydrofluoroalkane -- is used as a propellant to squirt the medicine out of the inhaler. Metered-dose inhalers account for nearly 4% of NHS greenhouse gas emissions, according to experts. The researchers estimate replacing even one in every 10 of these inhalers with a more environmentally friendly type (dry powder inhalers) would reduce carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 58 kilotons. That's similar to the carbon footprint of 180,000 return car journeys from London to Edinburgh, they say. And at the individual level, each metered-dose inhaler replaced by a dry powder inhaler could save the equivalent of between 150kg and 400kg (63 stone) of carbon dioxide a year - similar to the carbon footprint reduction of cutting meat from your diet.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It’s been a long haul, people – but by now, millions of you know it was more than worth the wait. Amazon Prime Video‘s adaptation of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson‘s comic book series The Boys has been sticking some righteously sweet superhero three-point landings since it premiered on Friday, July 26 – and spoiler? Check out Bleeding Cool’s two-scoops-of-spoilers-filled review here to find out why we (like a whole lot of you) are big fans of the series – and see why it was picked up for season 2 (more below).

While Bleeding Cool‘s been doing its part to keep all of you freaks up-to-speed on one of the best series of 2019, even we were surprised by the news posted to Instagram by none other than Karl Urban:

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Cut and print !🤪 That’s a wrap for Billy Butcher on season 2 of @theboystv . Massive thanks to our awesome Crew n cast , love you all . 💥The Boys 2💥 On yer telle Mid 2020 #gonefishing🎣 😎💗

A post shared by Karl Urban (@karlurban) on Nov 6, 2019 at 7:33am PST

Yup, that’s right! His work on the second season of The Boys has wrapped, and “Butcher” is giving us a “mid-2020” launch window for the season premiere. Co-star Antony Starr (Highlander) had some kind words to share in the comments section:

“CONGRATS NEMESIS!!! You’re a machine brother! Love that we are here together and you rocked season two. Fans are gonna go NUTS over you this season. X”

Now give us a teaser, dammit! lol ;)

Last month, Kripke took to Twitter to tease the second-season appearance of The Crimson Countess – which would mean that supes team Payback may not be too far behind:

#TheBoysTV #Season2 @TheBoysTV @PrimeVideo #TheBoys #SPNFamily pic.twitter.com/UMCfX1wbgs

— Eric Kripke (@therealKripke) October 7, 2019

From her name alone, it should come as no surprise that the red-haired “hero” sports a red costume and cape and has heat-based powers. In the comics, the Payback member is involved with Mind Droid but was rumored to be having an affair with fellow team member Stormfront (which could make for an interesting dynamic considering the change in Stormfront’s character for the series, but more on that below).

Unfortunately, Crimson makes the mistake of going after Butcher’s dog and… well… it doesn’t go well.

In fact, let’s just say that if the series goes the way of the comics? Things don’t go very well for Payback, either…

Kripke also teased the second-season appearance of Patton Oswalt – one of our favorites from Happy! and the thankfully-saved A.P. Bio. Of course, there’s no way we were going to find out what his role is yet (#SecretRole):

Thank you @pattonoswalt, that was AMAZING! #TheBoysTV #Season2 #SecretRole@TheBoysTV #TheBoys @PrimeVideo #SPNFamiIy pic.twitter.com/y47quxLCgR

— Eric Kripke (@therealKripke) October 17, 2019

Though it seemed pretty inevitable when news leaked that Aya Cash (You’re The Worst) was in negotiations for the role of Stormfront if a second season was ordered, Amazon Prime made the second-season renewal official at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) – one week before the highly-anticipated series premiered.

Joining Cash for the sophomore season are Goran Visnjic, Claudia Doumit, and a returning Malcolm Barrett – setting the stage for an unofficial Timeless reunion.

In the comic books series, Cash’s Stormfront is a male character, a member of super team Payback – and representative of every nightmarish aspect of the Neo-Nazi agenda. Even scarier, his power levels put him on par with Homelander and Black Noir. Visnjic’s Alistair Adana is the charismatic and shadowy leader of a mysterious church, while Doumit’s Victoria Neuman is a young wunderkind congresswoman. Barrett returns as Seth Reed, a Vought Marketing executive who had a very “personal” run in with a supe.

#Timeless fans, lookee! Mini-reunion! SO EXCITED to work with some of my fave people. @goranvisnjic & @JustDoumit & @malcolmbarrett, THANKS for coming to play in #TheBoysTV #Season2!#TheBoys @TheBoysTV #SPN #SPNFamily https://t.co/aKHkWxXfpR

— Eric Kripke (@therealKripke) September 5, 2019

Meanwhile, series co-creator Seth Rogen revealed that he’s seen the first episode – and it’s more than any of them could’ve imagined:

“They already have more resources for the second season. They’re adding more characters, the scope of the show organically grows as the show continues. We just watched, actually, the first episode of the second season this week. It was a wonderful thing as producers. This is way better than I ever could’ve hoped it would be.”

With the series released and work on the second season underway, Rogen believes having the first season out there as a resource for the returning actors helps ease the process of getting back into “character mode”:

“With a show like The Boys, especially, where the tone is so unique, for the actors to be able to watch the show and to see like, ‘Oh, that’s what it is.’ It allows them to come back completely locked into it.”

A Look at Amazon Prime’s “The Boys”…

Here’s a look at the previous trailers and teasers for The Boys, with some serious eye-opening NSFW stuff:

(Check out Bleeding Cool’s two-scoops-of-spoilers-filled review of the series premiere here.)

In a world where superheroes embrace the darker side of their massive celebrity and fame, THE BOYS centers on a group of vigilantes known informally as “The Boys,” who set out to take down corrupt superheroes with no more than their blue-collar grit and a willingness to fight dirty.

THE BOYS is a fun and irreverent take on what happens when superheroes – who are as popular as celebrities, as influential as politicians and as revered as Gods – abuse their superpowers rather than use them for good. It’s the powerless against the super powerful as The Boys embark on a heroic quest to expose the truth about “The Seven,” and Vought – the multi-billion dollar conglomerate that manages these superheroes.

On the side of The Boys, Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher is mysterious and brutal, hiding a personal agenda as he approaches potential new recruit Hughie (Jack Quaid), claiming to be a shadowy government operative. Butcher capitalizes on Hughie’s rage over his girlfriend Robin’s accidental death at the hands of Superhero A-Train and enlists Hughie as part of his plan to bring down the super-hero franchise.

Rounding out Butcher’s team are Laz Alonso (The Mysteries of Laura) as second-in-command Mother’s Milk; Karen Fukuhara (Suicide Squad) as The Female, a young Asian assassin with blistering fighting skills who happens to have superpowers; and Tomer Capon as unpredictable wild card Frenchie, a brutal warrior when who lives a life of no attachments or responsibilities.

On the flip side, The Seven are Antony Starr (American Gothic) as The Homelander, leader of the main superhero team, The Seven; Dominique McElligott (The Last Tycoon) as Queen Maeve, a member of The Seven; Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl) as The Seven member The Deep, an aquatic hero; Jesse T. Usher (Survivor’s Remorse) as speedster with a major PR problem, A-Train; Nathan Mitchell (iZombie) as Black Noir, a masked superhero with fighting and Set martial arts skills; Alex Hassell as perverted invisible hero Translucent (who’s not really…you know… “translucent”); and Erin Moriarty (Jessica Jones) is Starlight/Annie, a young woman who can make lightning bolts flash from her eyes and dreams of being a “real superhero” like the famous Seven;

Elisabeth Shue‘s (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Karate Kid) super-hero handler Madelyn Stillwell was the Vice President of Hero Management for Vought and the person responsible for cleaning up after the “heroes.” Jennifer Esposito (NCIS, Blindspot) has also been cast in the recurring role of CIA Agent Susan Raynor, with Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) set as Hughie’s father and Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul) as the mysterious Mr. Edgar

Based on The New York Times best-selling comic by Ennis and Robertson, The Boys was developed by showrunner Kripke (Supernatural), who also serves as writer, executive producer and directed the season finale. Joining Kripke as executive producers are Point Grey Pictures’ Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and James Weaver (Preacher), Original Film’s Neal H. Moritz (Prison Break), Pavun Shetty (New Girl), and Ori Marmur (Preacher), as well as Ken Levin and Jason Netter. Ennis and Robertson also co-executive produce, with the pilot episode directed by Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane).

Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television Studios co-produce the Amazon Prime Video with Point Grey Pictures, Kripke Enterprises and Original Film.

The post “The Boys” Season 2: Karl Urban Signals Filming Wrap; “Mid 2020” Premiere appeared first on Bleeding Cool News And Rumors.

The dark side of electric vehicle production is that the lithium ion batteries most EVs run on require raw materials like cobalt, and cobalt mines have become notorious for using child labor. Now that Volvo has revealed its first fully-electric car,...

Everything about HBO’s Watchmen, the sequel series to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons iconic ‘80s comic series, is kicking us in the gut, and that includes the show’s propulsive score. Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are behind the tunes, which they’ll be dropping, squid-like, on an unsuspecting public…

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Indiana quarterback Michael Penix Jr. had surgery Monday to repair an injury to his right sternoclavicular joint and will miss the rest of the season.