Everything You Need to Know About Syfy’s 12 Monkeys
While TV hasn't exactly had an exemplary track record when it comes to turning movies into ongoing series, there've been bright spots. And certainly the recent entries of NBC's Hannibal and FX's Fargo have proven that great minds can take a classic film and turn it into something awesome - whether the greatness stems from emulating a particular creator's style and tone or creating something almost completely new using the original as a springboard.
Syfy, in the network's recent course-correction back into harder-edged science fiction, is going all-in on a 12 Monkeys series, based on Terry Gilliam's acclaimed 1995 time travel film starring Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe and Brad Pitt. In the movie, Willis' Cole is sent back in time from a dead-future world to track down a sample of a super-virus that winds up wiping out most of humanity. A plague that he believes has its roots in something called the "Army of the 12 Monkeys."
Gillian Anderson on Hunting Down a Killer in The Fall
The very cool and compelling The Fall is about to debut its entire second season on Netflix in the US this Friday.
Picking up just a couple weeks after Season 1, the six new episodes continue to follow Superintendent Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson), a Senior Detective on the trail of a serial killer - Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan), who was last seen at the end of Season 1 fleeing Ireland, where the series takes place.
I spoke to Anderson about Season 2, the depiction of Stella, the face off between Stella and Paul and more.
Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan in The Fall: Season 2.
Wii U Had Its Best Sales Month Ever in December
Wii U closed out 2014 with its most successful month of sales ever.
Nintendo didn't release full sales numbers for hardware, but they did say the Wii U sold 29% better in 2014 than it did in 2013, thanks largely to December sales.
On the games front, Mario Kart 8 sold over 1.7 million units, and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U sold over 1.3 million units in 2014. Those numbers represent both physical and digital sales, and they contributed to a huge 75% increase in total software sales over 2013.
“Wii U had its strongest year yet thanks to the highly anticipated software lineup and the introduction of the amiibo platform,” said Nintendo of America's Scott Moffitt. “Fans can anticipate another strong year for 2015, especially with more highly anticipated games like Splatoon and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D, as well as New Nintendo 3DS XL, arriving in the first half of 2015.”
Yacht Club Games Hints at Shovel Knight DLC
Developer Yacht Club Games has revealed that the first DLC for Shovel Knight will be a new campaign featuring the Plague Knight boss as a playable character.
"The pedal is to the proverbial metal on Plague Knight! We are working full time on update content (Plague Knight, Body Swap Mode, and Battle Mode!), and it’s shaping up to be amazing. The Plague Knight campaign will be the first content released, and it’s feeling like a whole new adventure already! A new relic system! New characters and bosses! Remixed content!" Said Yacht Club in a Kickstarter update.
StarDrive 2 Alters its Strategy
Space 4x is actually becoming a crowded genre, which would have seemed like a ridiculous prediction a few short years ago. Of the latest batch of mostly indie star-conquering offerings, StarDrive is among those few that sucked me in for a considerable length of time. However, technical and design issues held it back in a lot of areas. The sequel, I was happy to discover, is shaping up to be an almost across-the-board improvement.
If I had to describe the original StarDrive in terms of well-known space vessels, I’d compare it to the Serenity from Joss Whedon’s Firefly. The passion project of a sole developer, Daniel Dicicco, it felt like it was mostly held together by bag clips and gum. It had a lot of the right ideas about what made classics like Master of Orion 2 fun, but ultimately, the primary buffer panel would go flying off somewhere between the mid-game and your inevitable victory. Like a leaf on the wind, it was swept from center stage without leaving much of a lasting impact.
NASA’s Robots May Head to Mars via Earth’s Volcanoes
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory researcher’s development of robots to study terrestrial volcanoes may be be used to explore volcanoes on other planetary bodies like Mars in the future.
Carolyn Parcheta, NASA postdoctoral fellow based at JPL and JPL robotics researchers and co-advisors Aaron Parness and Karl Mitchell are creating robots that can enter geological crevices inaccessible to human to gain valuable data.
"We don't know exactly how volcanoes erupt. We have models but they are all very, very simplified. This project aims to help make those models more realistic," Parcheta said in a NASA JPL press release, adding that the research can be used extraterrestrial volcanoes as both Earth and Mars’ fissures have common physical features.It could also be the case for previously active volcanoes on the moon, Mercury, Enceladus and Europa.
New 3DS XL Majora’s Mask Edition Available for Over $400 Online
In the wake of the New 3DS XL Majora's Mask Edition selling out virtually everywhere, many buyers have resorted to purchasing the special edition handheld via online auction sites and Amazon sellers.
This in turn has led to a dramatic cost increase for the New 3DS, with some bids reaching up to $400, twice the original $200 USD retail price.
Pre-orders for regular copies of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D are still currently available, although the Limited Edition bundle featuring a Skull Kid collector's figurine is also difficult to find. Major retailers such as GameStop, Amazon, and Best Buy list both the special edition New 3DS and the limited edition bundle as being currently unavailable.
JumpJet Rex: Control an 8-bit Dinosaur Who Can Fly
JumpJet Rex is all about messing with time. It stars a Tyrannosaurus Rex who wears a jetpack. He can ride a spaceship to a planet with a giant Game Boy building. For all of those paradoxes, the weirdest time dilation during my recent demo happened after putting down the controller. I thought I'd probably just hit 20 minutes of game time, prepped a few interview questions in my head, and picked up my phone to load up the recording app thinking I'd be out within a half-hour. Lo and behold, I had actually logged twice that time due to JumpJet Rex's “one more try” style, where my attempts to shave seconds off record time in a minute-long stage turns into a hour-long obsession. Fortunately, I kept those urges somewhat in check and saw a handful of other levels.
Hyperloop Transit System “Most Likely” Heading to Texas
SpaceX CTO and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to offer an update on his ambitious Hyperloop transit system, which intends to carry passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes.
According to Musk, the transportation vessel is getting a testing system, most likely in Texas, where student teams and companies can go to try out their pod designs. Engineering students at UCLA's SupraStudio, as well as a network of professionals Boeing, Tesla, and SpaceX are all involved in the project.
As for other Hyperloop plans, Musk also tossed out the idea of a Hyperloop student pod race, similar to design competition Formula SAE.
Will be building a Hyperloop test track for companies and student teams to test out their pods. Most likely in Texas.
Podcast: Marvel Movies, The Oscars & BvS
Welcome back to Keepin' It Reel! In this week's podcast, Jim Vejvoda and Chris Carle bring you the latest in genre movie news.
We discuss the latest movie news, including Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Spider-Man's cinematic future, Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron, Star Wars, Avatar 2 through 4, Ghostbusters, upcoming remakes, as well as our reactions to The Golden Globe Awards winners and today's Academy Awards nominations.
Finally, we wager whether reigning champ Taken 3 can hold off Blackhat, Paddington and The Wedding Ringer at this weekend's box office.