Talk About Frequent Flier Miles!

Has anyone out there read the Arthur C. Clarke 2001 books?  The original movie didn't deal with Europa, but the following books in the series (2010, 2061, and 3001) changed the destination planet to Europa.  The reason that he did this is because Europa had the most promise for actually sustaining life.  Now NASA wants to know if this is an actual possibility.

Set to be launched in 2025, NASA is sending up a spacecraft to the icy moon of Jupiter to determine if it's possible for life to exist there.  Even though the planet is covered in ice, their scientists have discovered volcanic fissures underneath the ice.  Their thoughts are that since geothermal vents at the bottom of our oceans give life to underwater organisms, even with the absence of light, that the same thing may be possible on Europa.  Some of the nine instruments that they are planning on sending up there are ice-penetrating radios, a heat detector, and high-tech cameras.

Here's what John Grunsfeld, asociate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directate in Washington, had to say about the mission:

"Europa has tantalized us with its enigmatic icy surface and evidence of a vast ocean, following the amazing data from 11 flybys of the Galileo spacecraft over a decade ago and recent Hubble observations suggesting plumes of water shooting out from the moon.  We're excited about the potential of this new mission and these instruments to unravel the mysteries of Europa in our quest to find evidenceof life beyond Earth."

The mission is bugeted at $30 million, which NASA is using to formulate exactly how the mission will take place.  Right now, the plan is to send up a solar-powered craft that will obtain a "looping orbit" of the moon.  The craft will make 45 flybys over the moon over a three-year period, some of it's flybys getting as close as sixteen miles above Europa's surface.

This is obviouly the first step in exploring the moon.  Any missions that envolve landing a craft on the moon will have to take special precautions to make sure that any contaminatents from our planet do not make their way onto Europa's surface, which could harm it's environment.

Fighter Planes With Laser Cannons?

This is pretty cool!

The United States Air Force made the announcement that they want fighter planes to be equipped with laser cannons by 2022.  This was reported on by Breaking Defense.  They go on to say that they Air Force wants to mount them on both larger planes and smaller fighter jets.  These hyper-focused lasers can cause a lot of damage, and are already aboard Naval warships, and the Army is developing a truck mounted laser weapon.  For the Air Force to accomplish this, though, they have some serious issues that they will have to address.

Naval ships and trucks both bounce around a lot, but the lasers are still able to work under these conditions.  Airplanes, however, are going to have to come up with a plan to compensate for the breakneck speed and the constant vibrations that jets produce in flight.  It's not an impossible problem to solve, but may take more than the seven years that the Air Force has set for it's target date.

Now, if they could only build us some X-Wings...

Transformers Cybertron Movie In The Works

This make me laugh!

Every time Michael Bay comes out with a new Transformers movie, everybody and their brother complains about the lack of a storyline, plot, whatever, and that it's focus on special effects is always over the top and too much.  Yet this remains a billion dollar franchise!  I guess this explains what I read the other day...

Paramount has assembled a group of writers to tackle upcoming Transformers sequels and spin-offs.  These writers include Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (Iron Man) Zak Penn (Pacific Rim 2) and Jeff Pinker (Amazing Spider-Man 2).  That's a pretty talented group of writers!  Paramount wants scripts for the upcoming movies so that Michael Bay can jump right in as soon as he's finished with his current project.

It was also reported that Paramount has brought in Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari (Ant-Man) to work on a prequel that will be an origin story of sorts that focuses on the Autobots and Decepticons home planet of Cybertron.  The two signed on believing that they would be working on a live-action film, but now there's talk that it might be an animated movie, but nothing has been confirmed.

The Transformers franchise is Paramount's highest-grossing property, having made over $4 billion dollars world wide, so it's no surprise that they're wanting to expand their universe.

So which side do you fall on when it comes to the franchise?  Are you a fan, or is it over-hyped?  Let me know in the comments below!

Cary Fukunaga Leaves Stephen King's "IT"

It looks like the big-screen adaptation of Stephen King's IT is being shelved indefinitely.  Cary Fukunaga, who has won praise for his direction of HBO's True Detective, left the project just three weeks before filming was set to begin.

Fukunaga had a vision of how the story would take place, and it was planned to be a two-movie story.  New Line had recently acquired the rights to the story from Warner Brothers, and after reading Fukunaga's script, realized that his vision was way above their budget.  Fukunaga also wanted to film in New York, while New Line wanted someplace that didn't quite cost so much.  The film had originally tried to get Ben Mendelsohn (Bloodline) to play the part of Pennywise, but New Line wanted Mendelsohn to take a pay cut, which he refused, so the part went to Will Poulter.  Then New Line wanted Fukunaga to condense the two-movie script into one film, due to budget constraints.  Naturally, Fukunaga walked.

You see the pattern that took place here?

Hey, New Line...if you can't afford to make a good movie, don't settle for making one of sub-par quality.  You want to know why movie studios irritate the crap out of us movie goers?  It's because of junk like this!

If everything that's been reported is true, I can honestly say I am glad that they won't be making this film!

**UPDATE**
Warner Brothers regained copyrights for the film, and are currently trying to select a new director...This movie might not be done with after all ! AND they're open to the concept of a two-part film, so if they go with the original script, it might not suck after all!  More updates as they unfold!

Deadpool: The Movie

After Ryan Reynolds disastrous debut as "Deadpool" (I use quotes saying that, because that was definitely not Deadpool!) in the movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the stand-alone movie for the character was shelved...and with good reason.  How could they take away the mouth from "the Merc with a mouth?"  FOX didn't see a future for the character.  They didn't think there was a market for him.  What they didn't realize was that it was the horrible script that turned people off of the character, and many (including myself) blamed Reynolds for the characters early demise.

Jump ahead many, many years later.  San Diego Comic Con had just opened and the big news from the convention was suppose to be the teaser trailer for Batman v Superman, but something strange happened.  Some "lost footage" of a test reel that featured a more comic book based version of Deadpool made it's way online, and the web blew up with people clamoring for more!  The short clip ended up eclipsing the teaser for Batman v Superman, and a movement began to push FOX into making the Deadpool movie that the fans felt they deserved.  Luckily for us (and Reynolds!) FOX heard our cries, and the film has been filming up in Vancouver for the last few months,

This film is a big deal.  If the film follows the same theme for the character that the teaser reel gave us, then we, the fans, are in for an amazing movie!  For Reynolds, it's redemption.  His first go around with the character was horrible.  I'm not going to sugarcoat it, it was pure garbage.  On top of that, his Green Lantern was equally forgettable.  And did anyone actually go and see R.I.P.D.?  No?  Me neither.  Reynolds need this movie to be a success to get back into the fanboy's (and fangirl's) good graces.  So what do we know about the movie so far?

First of all, Deadpool is going to be part of the X-Men universe.  With X-Men: Apocalypse ending the most recent trilogy of the famous mutants, FOX is looking to expand the universe with other X-Men properties, and Deadpool is going to be the front runner.  Besides Deadpool, we are going to be getting a stand-alone Gambit movie, a third Wolverine movie (which will be Hugh Jackman's final go at the title character), and a New Mutants film as well.  Three of these movies will be released next year (X-Men: Apocalypse, Gambit, and Deadpool).  2016 is starting to look like the Year of the Mutants.

The Deadool movie is going to be an origins movie, which is actually good news.  We need to wipe that original appearance of Deadpool from our collective memories.  This will also give us a starting point for the Deadpool franchise, seeing as FOX wants to make this into a multi-movie project.  The movie will be starring, obviously, Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, Morena Baccarin as Copycat, Deadpool's love interest, Ed Skrein as the villanous Ajax, Gina Carano as the Morlock Angel Dust, T.J. Miller as Weasel, and Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead.  Colossus is rumored to be appearing in the film as well, but Daniel Cudmore will not be playing him like he was in the previous X-Men movies.  Not only that, but Reynolds said he's hoping that Wolverine will show up in the film, even if it's just as a cameo appearance.

So what do you think?  Are you getting as excited for this movie's release as I am?  Leave your thought in the comments section down below.

Deadpool is set to open February 12, 2016.

What Happened Between A New Hope And The Empire Strikes Back?

Now that Marvel has re-acquired the licensing rights to publish Star Wars comic books from Dark Horse Comics, the task begins on filling in the gaps that took place in between each of the movies.  There have been a number of comic books and novels that have been published over the years that have covered these time periods, but after Disney bought LucasFilm, all of these books became "legends," and were labeled not officially part of the Star Wars canon.   Some of these time periods have started to be known through Disney's Star Wars: Rebels, as well as the cartoon Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  Now, Marvel is publishing the story of what happened during the three years that took place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.  Here's what's been happening with each of the main characters from the Star Wars universe:

Han Solo

So how was it that Han Solo stuck around with the Rebels after the destruction of the Death Star?  It was pretty obvious that he had no interest in joining the fight, yet there he was on Hoth, running a scouting mission opposite Luke at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back.  So what changed?  We've seen in the comics that Han was recruited to help a strike team attack and destroy The Empire's Weapons Factory Alpha on Cymoon 1.  The attack was a success, but it put Han on the Empire's radar, and landed him on their "Most Wanted" list.  With both the Empire and Jabba the Hutt gunning for him, his smuggling days were pretty much over, so in order to stay alive, he continued to stay with the Rebels.  It did come with a price, though. During his stay with the Rebels, his ship, the Millennium Falcon, was torn apart by scavengers.  This is one of the reasons that he and Chewie were working on the Falcon while stationed on Hoth.  It also allowed him to become closer to...

Princess Leia

Leia now has her own comic book from Marvel, and hers is more of a side story than a "fill in the gaps" story.  We actually get to see her being the Rebel leader that they say she is in the movies.  Her story picks up right after the final scene of A New Hope. 

Alderaan is considered to be one of the birthplaces of the Rebel Alliance.  So why after its destruction are they have a celebration ceremony after the destruction of the Death Star?  An Alderaan-born soldier asks her just that, and during their conversation, Leia tasks him with the mission to find other Alderannians, and to try to find a way to preserve their history and their people.

Leia and Han's relationship begins to grow through this series as well, and also follows them in their task to find a new base, which leads them to Hoth.  Which leads us to...

Luke Skywalker

At the end of A New Hope Luke can barely use the Force, and with Obi-Wan gone, how does he get to the point where he can summon his lightsaber while being held captive in the Wampa's lair? 

Luke is set to get his own series later this year, called Heir to the Jedi.  In it, Luke realizes early on that his anger and frustration is leading him away from the Force, and closer to the Dark Side.  He starts to trust in his own instincts more, and learns to rely less on other people.  He will meet Darth Vader face-to-face for the first time, and also have a fight with Boba Fett, so keep a close look out for this series.  And since I brought him up, let's talk about...

Darth Vader

Not only did Darth Vader let the destruction of the Death Star take place, but he was also placed in charge of Weapons Factory Alpha, which as I mentioned earlier, the Rebels destroyed.  During this battle, Vader comes into contact with the X-Wing pilot that destroyed the Death Star.  During their encounter, he realizes that Luke is wielding his old lightsaber, the one from when he was Anakin Skywalker, and starts to "feel" the connection that he has with Luke.  He also notices that Obi-Wan has disappeared into the force, and ends up confronting his old master through meditation.  All of this causes him to become more powerful with the Dark Side of the Force.

He doesn't come out of the two defeats completely unscathed, though.  After the destruction of Weapons Factory Alpha, the Emperor demotes Vader and places him under the command of Grad General Tagge.  This causes Vader to weigh his options, and he decides to find the young Skywalker, train him in the ways of the Dark Side, and then overthrow the Emperor and rule the galaxy with Luke by his side.

In the comics, Vader also makes a visit to Tatooine where he has a meeting with Jabba the Hutt.  This meeting allows Vader access to Jabba's bounty hunters, which he plans to use as his own separate resource away from the Empire, if the need ever arises.  One of the bounty hunters that Jabba gives him access to is...

Boba Fett

Boba Fett is "loaned" to Vader, along with a Wookie bounty hunter named Black Krrsantan, for a secret mission...finding Luke Skywalker.  This leads to Boba Fett being charged with capturing Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back, in order to lure Luke to the cloud city of Bespin.  During his mission, Boba Fett does come face-to-face with the young Jedi-to-be while Luke is out trying to find more clues about who the Jedi were and how to become one.

I hope this wan't too long for everyone, but the upcoming stories sound too good to pass up and I wanted to share them with everybody.  Hope you enjoyed todays post!  If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them in the comments section below!

Is Eddie Thawne Going To Become Cobolt Blue?

The season finale of the Flash has been over for a week, but it is still being talked about, and a lot of questions are being raised from what we saw.  One of the biggest conversations that's taking place is, "What the heck was Eddie wearing around his neck when he died?"  Here's a still frame shot of what everyone is talking about:



At first, people were speculating that maybe it was the engagement ring that he was going to give Iris, but if you look closely at it, it doesn't look like an engagement ring.  Others thought that maybe it was the Reverse-Flash's ring, and he somehow lifted it from him while he was being held captive, but really?  You honestly think that Eddie could've lifted something from someone that can move at super speed and not get caught?  Seems highly unlikely.  So here's the third theory...he's wearing a talisman.  So now you're asking me...so what? Right?  Okay, check this out...

Over in DC comics, back in the nineties, a writer by the name of Mark Waid introduced a character by the name of Malcolm Thawn, who turned out to be Barry Allen's long lost twin brother.  I know, a little to "soap-opera-y"for me, but it did happen.  When they were born, the doctor told Norah Allen that one of the twins had been stillborn, and so they took Barry home.  The doctor then turned around and gave Malcolm to the Thawne family.  After growing up and learning his true identity, Malcolm became enraged at Barry for having the life of love and privilege that he felt he should have had instead, and swore revenge on Barry.  Malcolm began to dabble in sorcery, magic, and witchcraft and created a talisman that gave the wearer whatever it was that they desired.  What Malcolm desired was everything that Barry had...including his super speed.  The only problem with this was that in the comics, Barry had already died, and Wally West was the current Flash.  Denied revenge on his brother, he focused his hatred onto Wally, who Malcolm saw as Barry's heir.  When Malcolm went after Wally, he took on the name "Cobalt Blue."

Now let's go back to the television show.  Do you remember when Cisco was trying to build Well's time sphere?  They determined that the tungsten plate that they were using would give off some sort of charge that wouldn't allow for the sphere to work, and it was suggested that they use cobalt instead.  It didn't seem very important at the time, but after seeing the talisman around Eddie's neck when he died, and putting it into context with the history of Colbalt Blue that I just gave you, could it be that they were planting the seed for something that's yet to take place?  They would do that, right? Naw...

The writers for the show have already said that Rick Cosnett, who plays Eddie Thawne on the show, will not be returning as a series regular, but he will be making appearances in season two.  They have also said that they are going to be dealing with alternative universes and alternate timelines next season, as well.  Could Eddie be Barry's twin brother in one of these alternate universes and become Colbalt Blue?  They don't seem that far apart in age, and I guess an argument could be made that they actual are, so why not?

What do you think?  Does this argument hold any water, or am I reading way too much into things?  Let me know your thoughts on the whole thing in the comments section below.