Since the citizens of Bon Temps dropped like flies (RIP Jesus, Marnie, Nan, and possibly Tara) on True Blood‘s surprising finale, season 5 will introduce fresh meat and showcase some familiar faces. “There will be a very significant, strong, mysterious woman at the center of one of our main stories next year,” says co-executive producer Raelle Tucker. “That will be a very familiar and compelling character. It may be someone you’ve heard of before.” We will also once again visit the fairy world touched upon at the beginning of season 4. Says Tucker, “Season 5 will explore more fairies, new fairies, fairies in a way you haven’t really seen fairies. We will all, as well as Sookie, come to understand fairies more than in previous seasons.”
Amy Winehouse’s last music video, which features the late artist recording the pop standard “Body and Soul” with Tony Bennett at EMI’s Abbey Road studios in London, was released today, on what would have been Winehouse’s 28th birthday.
Bennett’s Duets II is slated for release September 20th.
Disney celebrates the 20th anniversary of director Joe Johnston’s (Captain America: The First Avenger) action-filled, witty The Rocketeer when it releases on blu-ray December 13th. Now with state-of-the-art digital restoration and enhanced high definition sound, The Rocketeer is priced to own at a SRP of $26.50.
The discovery of a top-secret jetpack hurls test pilot Cliff Secord (Billy Campbell) into a daring adventure of mystery, suspense, and intrigue. Cliff encounters an assortment of ruthless villains, led by a Hollywood screen star who is a secret Nazi spy. With the help of his actress girlfriend, the young pilot battles enormous odds to defeat his foes who are anxious to use the device in an evil plan to rule the world. The dangerous mission transforms the ordinary young man into an extraordinary hero.
J.J. Abrams has signed on to direct the sequel to his 2009 hit Star Trek. The first film’s screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are penning the screenplay with producer Damon Lindelof, and the main cast — including Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are all set to return. The untitled sequel was originally scheduled to be released in June 2012, but the film has moved off of that date to give the writers enough time to polish the script.
Abrams’ first Star Trek film netted $257 million domestically and $385 million worldwide; the highest grossing Trek movie ever.
Apple and Starbucks have once again expanded their long-running “Pick of the Week” promotion to include books from the iBookstore. This week’s pick is an iBookstore redemption code for an extended excerpt of The Night Circus, a novel by Erin Morgenstern that normally sells for $12.99.
Earlier this year, Starbucks began to offer apps as part of the “Pick of the Week” promotion, later stating that it would offer redemption codes for “apps, extended samples of books on the iBookstore, TV shows, and more from iTunes.”
Following two highly successful soundtrack releases, Yo Gabba Gabba! is at it again with their third installment, titled, Yo Gabba Gabba! Music is Awesome!: Volume 3, available today via retail outlets and as deluxe versions through iTunes and Amazon. The release is jam-packed with hit songs from the series and live tour and features original tracks from the “Super Music Friends Show,” including tracks by Band of Horses, DEVO, The Flaming Lips, The Killers and more. To celebrate the release of the new album, fans can download DEVO’s original track, Watch Us Work It, here.
The track listing is as follows:
1. Yo Gabba Gabba! – Hello Song
2. The Killers – Spaceship Adventure
3. Yo Gabba Gabba! – Follow the Oskie Bugs
4. DEVO – Watch Us Work It
5. Yo Gabba Gabba! – Help Your Friends
6. Lady Tigra – When I Hear Music
7. Yo Gabba Gabba! – Don’t Bite Your Friends
8. GOGO13 (Feat. Alex Desert of Hepcat) – Pick it Up
9. Yo Gabba Gabba! – Superhero
10. The Flaming Lips – I can Be a Frog
11. Yo Gabba Gabba! – Do Our Own Thing
12. Taking Back Sunday – We All Love Our Pets
13. Weird Al Yankovic – Circus Parade
14. Band of Horses – Out In Nature
15. Yo Gabba Gabba! – I’m So Sorry
16. The Postmarks – Balloons
17. Yo Gabba Gabba! – Save the Princess
18. The Aggrolites – Bananas
19. Yo Gabba Gabba! – Mixing Up Colors
20. The Salteens – I’m So Happy I Can Dance
21. La Casa Azul – Greetings (Remix)
Yo Gabba Gabba! Music is Awesome!: Volume 3 is now available on CD at Target, Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble and independent music retailers nationwide.
From the makers of Buckyballs comes the new fun plaything, Buckycubes ($25). These irresistible magnetic cubes can fold, slide, glide and stack to create buildings, shapes or whatever form your imagination desires. Watch new dimensions unfold as each cube snaps into place just the way you want it to. How fun is that? This makes a perfect stocking stuffer for the holidays!
Jack White, Depeche Mode, Patti Smith and Damian Rice are among the artists on a forthcoming tribute album honoring the 20th anniversary of U2’s Achtung Baby, frontman Bono announced at a press conference this afternoon for the U2 documentary From the Sky Down at the Toronto International Film Festival. Read more HERE.
The 313 Apple patents that list Steven P. Jobs among the group of inventors offer a glimpse at his company’s visionary products — from the company’s iconic computer cases to the glass staircases that are featured in many Apple stores. Read more HERE.
David Sedaris’s brilliantly skewed vision of the world is captured in an entirely new form: six delightfully animated short movies inspired by the author’s diary entries.
Against the backdrop of bold, colorful graphics and music composed especially for this app ($1.99), six stories unfold in David Sedaris’s own voice:
- At a chain hotel near Santa Cruz, perhaps the worst hotel service ever.
- A moment of rare insight into the difference between German and American parenting styles.
- On a plane approaching Michigan, a flight attendant shares the secret of “crop dusting.”
- Pigeons behaving badly prompt a consideration on scatological invective.
- A frost-bitten toe in your cocktail? Welcome to Anchorage!
- How a barn owl in Cheshire, England, made the author think differently about marriage.
You can download the app for your iPhone and iPad HERE.
If you follow Mondo on twitter then you received a link to this video announcement late Monday afternoon.
Tonight Drew Struzan appeared at a very special screening of Frankenstein at the New Beverly Theater in Los Angeles. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Mondo released only 75 prints of Drew’s iconic Frankenstein poster.
This poster is signed by Drew Struzan and hand numbered. 21 colors were utilized in the print which measures 15 x 36. This print is extremely rare due to the limited print run, theme and artist.
I was lucky enough to get # 51/325. The remaining 250 prints will go on sale at a random time so follow Mondo on Twitter for the announcement.
llustrator Randy Glass began creating his The Wall St. Journal “hedcuts” portraitures, often of celebrities, while freelancing there in 1998. Many of the “original pen & ink drawings he created are privately owned by his celebrity subjects”.
These iconic drawings use a variation of the traditional stipple method of many small dots of varied sizes in conjunction with minimal line. They are designed to emulate the look of woodcuts from old-style newspapers and engravings on certificates and currency. The phonetic spelling of “hed” comes from newspapers use of that term for “headline”.
Glass attended the Ringling School of Art and Art Center College of Design and in an interesting sidenote, he supplemented “his tuition by drawing five-minute portraits of people at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World”.
A new excerpt from 11/22/63 by Stephen King is now available. Read it HERE. King’s next novel will be available on November 8th 2011. The epic tour-de-force chronicles the adventures of Jake Epping as he travels back in time to prevent the Kennedy assassination.
Joe Hill’s and Jason Ciaramella’s dark comic, The Cape # 2 ($3.99) arrives this Wednesday.
Something has been awakened. Leaving behind a trail of violence, Eric sets his sights on the city of Boston, and those closest to him. Explore your dark side.
Sean Hartter created this series of vintage looking movie posters based on Stephen King’s The Dark Tower. His huge collection of “alternate universe” posters are displayed here and available for $16 each.
Paramount Pictures has debuted the first poster for director Brad Bird’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, opening in conventional and IMAX theaters on December 21. The action thriller, produced by J.J. Abrams, stars Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Josh Holloway, Michael Nyqvist, Vladimir Mashkov, Lea Seydoux and Anil Kapoor.
In the film, the IMF is shut down when it’s implicated in a global terrorist bombing plot. Ghost Protocol is initiated and Ethan Hunt and his rogue new team must go undercover to clear their organization’s name. No help, no contact, off the grid. You have never seen a mission grittier and more intense than this.
Mondo is very proud to announce that they will be teaming up with the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles to do posters for special events and screenings.
They have been big fans of the theater for years and are thrilled to be working with them on a regular basis. To celebrate this, Mondo will be taking over the theater and programming a series of Mondo Mystery Movies on October 7, 8, 9. There will be two shows each day (6 total) and like all MMM’s, there will be a poster for each that you can only get at the event. Tickets will be going on sale for these events on Tuesday, September 13th.
For a show that wasn’t picked up to series, Locke & Key has gotten substantial publicity, with the full pilot even screening at Comic-Con 2011. Now it seems there may be new life for Locke & Key after all, with MTV expressing interest in reviving the horror adaptation.
Movieweb reports that nothing is official yet, and MTV programming president David Janollari has yet to speak with creator Josh Friedman and executive producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. However, David Janollari did receive the pilot and is said to have enjoyed it.
Mondo will release Tom Whalen’s classic Dumbo print tomorrow. Please follow Mondo on Twitter for the on sale announcement. These posters will be for sale online at a random time on Friday, September 9th.
Poster by Tom Whalen. 24″x36″ screen print. Hand numbered. Edition of 395. ($50)
“Something big is coming soon,” Back To The Future producer Frank Marshall Tweeted yesterday, “Can’t say anything yet. No one should know too much about their own destiny.”
Soon thereafter, Marshall followed up with another tweet that read, “Going to need a lot of hover boards,” with a link to the video below, showing off racks and racks of the futuristic shoe design. For those that have not seen Back to the Future II, here is a short clip of the Nikes with power laces.
The Nike MAG ($TBD) shoe won’t feature power-lacing, but they will sport glowing LEDs and an electroluminescent “Nike” in the strap, all glowing for around five hours per charge.
Only 1,500 pairs of the Nike MAG will be available and they’ll all be auctioned off on eBay with all proceeds going to the Michael J. Fox Foundation to help fight Parkinson’s disease. The first of the auctions start tonight at 11:30 ET and will run through September 18th.
Update: The first pair of Back to the Future Marty McFly Nike shoes sell for $37,500. Read about it HERE.
The British comedian and a few of his hilarious friends such as Louis CK, Chris Rock, Karl Pilkington, John Stewart, Larry David would offer their own alternative commentary.
I would definitely turn the volume down on the typically bland awards ceremony and listen to the podcast instead! I will post more should Gervais decide to move forward with his brilliant idea.
Ben & Jerry’s said Wednesday that it’s introducing a new vanilla ice cream flavor called Schweddy Balls with a hint of rum and loaded with fudge-covered rum and malt balls.
The name comes from the skit that features Baldwin, a regular host on the show, along with former castmembers Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer.
“The name is irreverent,” Ben & Jerry’s spokesman Sean Greenwood told Time magazine. “But we’ve always been about having some irreverence and having some fun … We’re not trying to offend people. Our fans get the humor.”
In the skit, Baldwin plays Pete Schweddy, seller of baked goods who notes how popular his “balls” — popcorn balls, rum balls, etc. — are with customers at the holidays.
“No one can resist my Schweddy Balls,” he says.
In a press release quoted by Time, Baldwin said of the new Ben & Jerry’s flavor: “For a long time, I thought that ‘Here Lies Pete Schweddy’ would end up on my tombstone. Now, thanks to Ben & Jerry’s, the goodness of the Schweddy family recipe won’t go with me to the great beyond. It is immortalized here, right now, and it’s an ice cream. Ben & Jerry’s and Schweddy. Two great names in American dessert, together at last.”
Posted by Larry Fire 
