First Orphan Black: Season 4 Teaser
BBC America just released the first teaser for season 4 of Orphan Black. The show returns to the air in April 2016. Watch the video below.
Season 3 wrapped in June, and IGN reviewer Max Nicholson said it was "consistently great, save for a couple episodes (including the finale) that were only just okay." The ending, he said, wasn't as strong as the first two finales, but "it did set up some intriguing thread to follow in season 4."
Tatiana Maslany and her many characters will return next year with fellow cast members Jordan Gavaris, Maria Doyle Kennedy, and Kristian Braun. We'll keep you updated here with more news as it comes.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Once Had a Different Name
Star Wars: The Force Awakens didn't always have that title. Pablo Hidalgo, creative executive at Lucasfilm Story Group, said on Twitter that "for the longest time," The Force Awakens was known as Shadow of the Empire.
@justinlasalata for longest time, the TFA title was the same as an old novel. Thankfully it changed. :) With so many books, it's inevitable
— Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) December 25, 2015
Does the name sound familiar? That's because it's close to the title of a Star Wars Expanded Universe novel by Steven Perry. Shadows of the Empire was released in 1996 and is set between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi—it was one part of a multimedia campaign, which also featured a video game, comic book, and set of action figures.
Michael Fassbender Has Finally Played Assassin’s Creed
While Michael Fassbender is set to star as Callum Lynch in the upcoming Assassin's Creed move, it wasn't until recently that he finally played a game in the popular video game series it's adapted from.
"I hadn’t played it before these guys approached me," Fassbender admitted in an interview with EW, saying he's since played one of the titles "mainly to get an idea of the physicality of the character."
Fassbender went on to note that he's well aware of the passion that Assassin's Creed fans have for the franchise. As such, the studio is "striving to find something special" and deliver the historical accuracy and attention to detail that series veterans expect.
Star Wars Reigns Over Xmas Weekend Box Office
Surprising no one, Star Wars: The Force Awakens took the top spot at this weekend's box office with $153.5 million.
J.J. Abrams' space epic not only dominated the North American charts over the Christmas weekend, it also managed to surpass $1 billion in global sales faster than any other movie in history.
Sean Anders' new comedy Daddy's Home, starring Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell, debuted in second place with $38.8 million, performing well ahead of Paramount's expectations. "This is a movie that the whole family can go to together. This is the Star Wars for comedy," studio vice chairman Rob Moore said told THR.
‘Anti-Earthquake’ Beds Swallow Sleepers Whole
Imagine being woken up to an earthquake shaking everything around you, but to avoid any falling objects or debris, you lock yourself inside your earthquake-proof bed. How's that sound?
Well, Chinese inventor Wang Wenxi has designed such a bed with this exact purpose in mind. According to Gizmodo, Wenxi first received a patent for his creation back in 2010, but has been working on it over the years to provide more protection and to allow people to store any supplies/food they deem necessary.
There are several questions that need to be asked, however, such as how you trigger the bed to eat you. Or what if you don't sleep in the same position shown in the above video? What if you share the bed with someone else? The worst case scenarios have the potential to be very painful.
Christopher Nolan’s 2017 Film Reportedly a World War 2 Epic
Christopher Nolan may be filming a World War II film inspired by the evacuation of the French seaport Dunkirk. Dunkirk's mayor Patrice Vergiete is said to have announced that a "world famous director" is set to shoot an American blockbuster in the city. According to local French newspaper La Voix Du Nord, that director is Nolan.
Via translation from Indiewire, La Voix Du Nord writes, "Completely incognito during his recent visits to Dunkirk with his brother Jonathan,
Star Wars Breaks Another Huge Box Office Milestone
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has hit $1 billion at the box office faster than any other movie in history.
According to the Associated Press, the movie reached the money-milestone today, meaning The Force Awakens now holds the record for biggest domestic opening and biggest worldwide opening, as well as the fastest movie to reach $1 billion.
It took only 12 days for Star Wars: The Force Awakens to reach $1 billion, beating out Jurassic World's previous record of 13 days. However, the AP points out Jurassic World was helped along by a simultaneous opening in China, whereas The Force Awakens isn't set to release there until January 9.
NASA Reveals Best Images of Pluto We’ll See for Decades
The New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto in July, and every week it has been sending back data it recorded. The latest images it has sent back were taken on its closest approach to Pluto, and they're the clearest we'll see for some time.
These new pictures have a resolution of around 250-280 feet per pixel which, according to NASA, reveal "features less than half the size of a city block on Pluto's diverse surface." The images show "a wide variety of cratered, mountainous and glacial terrains."
"These new images give us a breathtaking, super-high resolution window into Pluto’s geology," said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern. John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said "we continue to be amazed by what we see."
NASA Engineer Schools You on How to Build a Death Star
Maybe building the Death Star from scratch wasn't the best idea after all.
According to Brian Muirhead, chief engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a Death Star shouldn't be constructed with parts launched off of a planet like it was in the Star Wars universe. Instead, one should be built using an asteroid.
An already-existing asteroid would provide "all the building blocks you would need to build your family Death Star," says Muirhead, in a Wired video that you can watch below. These building blocks include metals, organic compounds, and water.
Muirhead is currently working on an asteroid redirect mission, which will land on an asteroid, pick up a bolder from its surface, and put it in orbit around our moon. NASA will then go visit the bolder on a crewed mission to collect and bring back samples. The landing is scheduled for 2023.
