We talked last week about a tweet by Deadpool creator Rob Liefield:

Warner Bros. just trying to protect their investment. They don’t want Ryan Reynolds playing Deadpool AND Green Lantern. Interesting 2 watch

Well it sounds like whatever hurdles they were encountering have been cleared. He recently posed this to his twitter account:

Woke up this a.m. to GREAT Deadpool movie news! Full steam ahead baby…

More updates after the break.

The Fantastic Four reboot seems to be taking shape. The Thing is going to be CGI for this one, so the casting is simply voice related, but it sounds like Bruce Willis could be on the short list for that role, and there’s been rumors about True Blood’s Stephen Moyer being on the wish list as Doctor Doom. There are 3 directors in contention to take over this film, each offers interesting possibilities if they get chosen. Here’s the list of rumors:

*No casting notices have been released by the studio; none of the actors mentioned below can or will be officially attached to the project until the studio signs a director.

Fantastic Four Reborn
- Production to begin in May 2011, for a summer 2012 theatrical release.
- The team’s origin (and transformation) will take place during the opening credits of the film (similar to the Incredible Hulk).
Possible Directors: David Yates, Joe Carnahan, James McTeigue
Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic: Adrien Brody, Jonathan Rhys Meyers (courtesy of Rob Keyes at ScreenRant)
Sue Storm/Invisible Woman: Alice Eve, Amber Heard
Johnny Storm/Human Torch: Kevin Pennington
Victor Von Doom/Doctor Doom: Stephen Moyer

There’s an interesting article about Mark Ruffalo talking about why he decided to be the next Bruce Banner. The most interesting quote was this:

“I probably wouldn’t have done this movie in the past. But because of what Robert Downey Jr. had done and where the genre has gone since then, I did it.”

Speaking of interesting interviews, Joss Whedon was in Australia recently to discuss storytelling at the Melbourne Writers Festival and discussed The Avengers.

“This is a gig I’ve waited my whole life to do.”

“I feel connected to this movie in that it’s about a gruop of broken people. And if you look at my work, it’s very clear that that’s the sort of thing that appeals to me.”

Related posts:

• Entry Level Geek: Fake Blood and Quantum Leaps
• Entry Level Geek: Rumors, Leads, and First Looks
• Entry Level Geek: Marvel Comics Reading Chronology

MovieMiscellany has posted the recipe used for the fake blood in The Evil Dead. So if you happened to not have anything going on today, now you’ve got something to do!

My wife (of ‘Thoughts From The Better Half’ fame from my movie reviews) just recently finished watching the entire Quantum Leap series. Now Scott Bakula is talking about an upcoming Quantum Leap movie. It doesn’t sound like he’ll reprise his role, but he’ll be involved somehow.

The good news is that Don [Quantum Leap creator Donald P. Bellisario] is working on the film script and has a big time Hollywood producer who wants to do it … It’s about time. But what I always thought would happen, happened … [that he's now too old for the role]. But Dean [Stockwell, who played Al] and I will have a part in it somehow.

Don did say that as he was writing, he told me he was having trouble, ‘getting you and Dean out of my head.’ But I know he will do it.

Click through the jump for the rest of the recent stories.

Comicbookmovie.com has an exclusive: Although Warner Bros’ superhero film, Green Lantern, has just wrapped it’s principal photography, the hardest part has just begun. The film’s director and crew will be moving back to Los Angeles this week to begin the long process of post production, which for his movie in particular is a daunting task. Not only is the Green Lantern suit Ryan Reynolds wears in the movie completely computer generated, but the majority of alien Lantern Corps members are as well. And speaking of Corps members… eager Green Lantern fans have been waiting a long time to see him, and here he is now. The Poozer-stopping Kilowog!

This is the part where you say, “umm.. who?” I know, I thought the same thing at first, so here’s a quick rundown on what exactly he does courtesy of GeekTyrant:

A towering alien with a brutish and porcine appearance, Kilowog is renowned throughout the Green Lantern Corps as the primary trainer of the Corps’ newest recruits. The Guardians of the Universe recruited Kilowog, a gifted genetic scientist, from the planet Bolovax Vik, located in Space Sector 674. Kilowog was trained by Lantern Ermey, who would often use the word “Poozer”, which meant “useless rookies” (A word Kilowog would later adopt, albeit in a friendlier way). In the middle of a particularly arduous training session, Ermey had Kilowog and his fellow rookies help stop an attack on a group of Lanterns, one of whom was the future renegade Sinestro. Ermey, fatally wounded in battle, commended Kilowog on his abilities, telling him that he had the makings of a great leader. In addition to serving with distinction as the Green Lantern of that sector, Kilowog also began to spend extensive periods of time on the Green Lantern Corps’ home planet of Oa instructing new recruits on how to handle and best utilize their power rings. In this capacity, Kilowog acted as the first trainer to a young Hal Jordan, the ring-recruited successor to the slain Abin Sur of Ungara, the Green Lantern of Space Sector 2814. Kilowog and his new recruit helped the Guardians confront Abin Sur’s murderer, the hive mind interstellar malefactor known as Legion.

…so now you know who he is, what do you think of his picture?

SuperHeroHype has learned that Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios are planning to start shooting The Avengers in February, 2011 for a May 4, 2012 release. Directed by Joss Whedon, the anticipated film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson. The February start is just a few months after Sony’s untitled Spider-Man reboot gets underway this December. Both films are expected to shoot in Los Angeles.

Hopefully, this turns out to be just as innocent as a blogger reading too much into an off the cuff tweet from the Hollywood types, but as GeekTyrant points out, the Deadpool movie might be in trouble. A tweet from Deadpool’s creator Rob Liefeld:

Warner Bros. just trying to protect their investment. They don’t want Ryan Reynolds playing Deadpool AND Green Lantern. Interesting 2 watch

The article incorrectly states that Fox would keep the movie from  happening, but I interpret that tweet as Warner Bros. not wanting their star to be identified as another superhero. Fox would want Green Lantern to be successful so that more people want to see Reynolds in another superhero movie. Either way, Reynolds involvement has been the main force behind the Deadpool movie, and he’s been the one keeping the movie along the right storyline, instead of screwing it up like they did in Wolverine. As it stands, I’m really excited for this movie with Reynolds and possibly Robert Rodriguez attached, but if Reynolds leaves this movie, I have zero interest in seeing it.

And lastly, Slashfilm has a story about how Marvel has some future movie possibilities in mind (among them Ant Man, Iron Fist, Black Panther, Doctor Strange). Meanwhile, Movieweb reports that Andrew W. Marlowe, creator of Castle (one of my favorite shows), wrote the script for Nick Fury, a film that centers on the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in the Marvel universe, played by Samuel L. Jackson. Click on the video interview below to see what Marlowe has to say about this film in development. Video courtesy of Movieweb.com.

Related posts:

• Entry Level Geek: Rumors, Leads, and First Looks
• Entry Level Geek: Marvel Comics Reading Chronology
• Saturday Shenanigans: Recent Entertainment News

We’ve got our first look at Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern! Cinematical says:

One of the more interesting things about Reynolds and this Green Lantern costume is that the entire get-up is being created with computers and placed on Reynolds after the fact. If you’ve seen images of Reynolds on set, the guy is covered in all sorts of dots and whatnot (see an image here) so that they can work their movie magic in post-production and provide the guy with his magic superhero suit. Will this help or hurt the production in the end? That we don’t know … yet.

I just don’t really get into the Green Lantern as a character, seems like one of the dumber superheros to me. The guy just puts on a ring and can become things… I guess it’s not the lamest idea for a super dude, but it doesn’t trip my trigger. I love Ryan Reynolds though, so I’m looking forward to the movie anyway. Some great tidbits about the movie after the jump with possible spoilers, plus info on Superman, Batman, Captain America… and more.

Warner Bros. released some more details about the Green Lantern moive *possible spoilers*:

The image that we saw of Green Lantern on the cover of EW is still a work in progress. From the neck down is basically what we see in the film. The CGI is still not finished in the image.

The mask was obviously photoshopped in. The real mask will be a physical mask and not look like it’s been painted on his face.

25 alien Green Lanterns, each with a different energy signature, were designed for major and minor roles in the movie.

The film will mostly be based mainly Secret Origins.

A key-scene in the film will feature all the 3,600 Green Lanterns!

Parallax’s origin is different from the comics.

Fans of Sinestro will be happy to know that the mustache is untouched. It’s thin and divided into the corners of his mouth

Writers have already outlined ideas for the second and the third movie, which include Sinestro’s downfall; The Sinestro Corps War; the destruction of Coast City; Hal Jordan becoming Parallax and etc.

One of the main alien Green Lanterns is a completelly original character and his design was created by Ivan Reis.

Superman is getting rebooted, let’s face it, Superman Returns just wasn’t very good. Superman is DC’s flagship character, they need his movies to be at least somewhat successful. It helps that they have Batman doing so well, otherwise they wouldn’t have much going for themselves. Smallville has worked fairly well for about 4 or 5 years of it’s decade on TV, so a live action Superman can work, it just needs everything to fit just so. There’s a rumor that we might have a potential director for the first film, and that Zachary Levi (Chuck) is auditioning for the role. At first I’m not in love with that idea, but the more I think about it, the better and better it sounds. Chuck basically IS Clark Kent, and Levi is terrific in that role, so maybe that would work out after all.

io9 has a list of domain names that Warner Bros. recently registered. These could be possibilities for viral marketing websites, or maybe they’re tied to the next Batman video game. Whatever the case, there are some interesting names in the list. I’m just excited that Inception is finally out and now Christopher Nolan can turn his attention to the next Batman movie, which will start production in April 2011. If it is able to come anywhere close to The Dark Knight, this is a trilogy that will blow people’s minds considering the success rate of superhero movies previous to Batman Begins.

While on the subject of Batman, you can file this one into the ‘please, oh please be true’ rumor category: Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the Riddler in Batman 3? I really think the Riddler is the perfect villain to cast to help people to move on from Heath Ledger’s Joker, and Gordon-Levitt is a terrific actor that could pull it off. Plus, he just worked with Nolan on Inception, and both sides seemed to really enjoy the time together. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this one comes true.

What you’re looking at is a picture of Chris Evans, Captain America, and a fan made poster of him in the suit. I’m still not sold on the idea of Evans as Captain America. Then again, I hated the idea of Heath Ledger as the Joker, and that turned out to be my favorite character in any movie ever. I hope he can pull it off, but I don’t understand why Marvel is totally ditching the Fantastic 4, Evans was such a great Johnny Storm (aka Human Torch), why eliminate the chance of them ever showing up in an Avengers movie? Of course, they’ve already recast Rhodey in the Iron Man franchise, and are doing the same with the Hulk, so why not? Director Joe Johnston had some details on how they are treating this silver screen version of Steve Rogers:

We’re sort of putting a slightly different spin on Steve Rogers, He’s a guy that wants to serve his country, but he’s not a flag-waver. We’re reinterpreting, sort of, what the comic book version of Steve Rogers was.

He’s just a good person. We make a point of that in the script: Don’t change who you are once you go from Steve Rogers to this super-soldier, you have to stay who you are inside, that’s really what’s important more than your strength and everything. It’ll be interesting and fun to put a different spin on the character and one that the fans are really going to appreciate.”

…it’s also the idea that this is not about America so much as it is about the spirit of doing the right thing. It’s an international cast and an international story. It’s about what makes America great and what make the rest of the world great too.

Here’s the first look at the cast (the human cast that is) of AMC’s highly anticipated zombie show, ‘The Walking Dead,’ based on the best-selling comic book series by Robert Kirkman and is set to premiere in October. Back in June, show creator Frank Darabont described his show, “This is a story about a group of people trying to survive difficult-to-impossible circumstances. They need to figure out how to survive it, but they also need to figure out how to survive each other… We hope to do for zombies what ’Mad Men’ has done for advertising.” If you’d like to have a look at some of the zombies to see two outstanding pictures (warning, it’s graphic) then click here.

Here’s the first picture of Thor and his hammer. Chris Hemsworth will be playing the superhero/god in the 2011 movie. This is probably the superhero movie I’m least looking forward to, but let’s be honest, the guy is going to end up in the Avengers movie, so I’m going to be seeing it.

According to GeekTyrant.com, it looks like Kevin Bacon’s villainous role in the upcoming X-Men: First Class is possibly going to be Sebastian Shaw, a mutant who possesses the ability to absorb kinetic energy and transform it into raw strength. He’s the leader of the New York branch of the Hellfire Club, which has an exclusive secret society bent on world domination, although to the public, he’s a legitimate businessman and ordinary human. He once funded the mutant-hunting Sentinel program to keep it under his thumb. To read more about the character click here.

In other news from GeekTyrant.com, Zach Snyder has started working on a script for Xerxes, a prequel/sequel to his hit 300.  Although not yet signed to direct this one, Snyder is confidant that a deal will get done. Here’s what he has to say about the movie:

This movie follows Themistocles and the Battle of Artemisium, which coincidentally happens on the exact same three days as the Battle of Thermopylae [which was the basis of '300'], This one starts off with a quick retelling of the why of the Persian wars. It starts off at the Battle of Marathon and then it goes back to Themistocles  finding out that Persians are invading again. and off we go over to learn a little bit about why Xerxes is the way he is.

Darius [the Persian king and father of Xerxes] gets wounded at Marathon and he’s super cool and like a great guy. Even the Greeks are like, ‘Darius is awesome.’ After Darius dies, Xerxes is so distraught, but Darius had told him, ‘Don’t attack the Greeks, only a god can punish the Greeks.’  So that’s when he calls his mystics and wizards and says, ‘Make me a god so I can avenge my father.’

And in closing, now that we have officially have our new Spider-Man for the franchises reboot, filmcritic.com has some interesting ideas to fill out the rest of the cast, and here’s a fantastic list of villain possibilities put together on Listal by user Exclusive_Henrik.

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• Entry Level Geek: Marvel Comics Reading Chronology
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I ran across an article on this website and thought that we ought to have a day to de-lurk and get to know some of you who frequent our website, not only to make us feel better about ourselves, but because we’d like to continue to write about the stuff that interests you.

So here’s what we’d like you to do, we’d appreciate it if you would take some time and leave us a comment or two. We’d love it if you’d look over a few of our articles and comment on all of them. In fact, over the course of the next 30 days, each comment you leave (worthwhile comments only, don’t break a single comment into 2 or 3 just to up your total) will qualify you to win a $25 iTunes gift card. The more comments you leave, the more you’ll be qualified to win!

If you choose to add a comment below, don’t think of it as a favor to me but as a favor to everyone else. See, as much as I enjoy reading a comment, I can assure you many comments are added just because other comments preceded them.

In this vein, if you choose to de-lurk and leave a comment, here’s what to do:

1. Whether you are reading this in a feed reader, an email message, or a syndicated blog post somewhere, click here to visit the actual post.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and follow the directions to add a comment, or jump straight to this page to register for an account.
3. Type in your email address so I can email you privately, thanking you for de-lurking.
4. Type in your blog address, or your corporate website, or maybe your Facebook page. Somewhere where I and others can click your name (your web link will be linked to your name) and read more about you.
5. Want to take a step further? Become our fan on Facebook for an extra shot at winning.

Please don’t be shy. Care to de-lurk now?

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With that entry out of the way, welcome to Entry Level Geek. This title inadvertently describes the reason I’m here at Hijinks in the first place! Said nicely, I’m not at the same level of geekdom or nerdery as the rest of our terrific staff, you probably realized that after the first or second post I made. But they haven’t kicked me out yet, so I must trudge forward. Entry Level Geek will include an assortment of things but will probably center mostly around comics and maybe some rumors about upcoming movies based on comics (Avengers anyone? The next Batman flick?). I chose Entry Level Geek because I’ve just recently begun my trip into the world of comics, so I’m far from an expert, but I’m having fun taking it all in.

To find out what all this nonsense is about, follow me through the jump.

Before I started actually reading comics, I would usually refer to the Marvel Comics Database and the DC Comics Database. These were great sites to get both general and specific information on any superhero under either of these umbrellas. But when I decided to take the plunge and start to read the comics for myself instead of just gleaning other people’s knowledge, I wanted to be sure to do it the right way, chronologically.

I understood comics enough to know that there is an overall story that each issue for every character helps to move along. Characters would show up in each others story lines, a big event in one issue of Captain America would affect something happening over in Iron Man’s story. Because of this, I didn’t want to simply pick up a random issue and start, and I didn’t want to read only the big mainstream stories. I wanted to experience the whole thing for myself.

It was during my research that I stumbled across this website. Travis Starnes had similar goals. I was able to get a hold Travis and see if he wanted to add anything to this story, and I found out that it was his brother that initially get him interested in comics. He looked around the internet for a guide like this and when he wasn’t able to find anything, he took it upon himself to create the master list, and he’s already completed over 1000 issues. Every issue of consequence, in chronological order, spanning every important characters story lines in the Marvel universe.

He gives a quick overview as to why he’s undertaking this massive project, and why he’s been kind enough to share it with the rest of the world. It’s quite astounding, and very helpful to ‘completionists’ like me. The only things he asks in return are feedback from those that find the list useful, and if there are any discrepancies, to have them pointed out, to make it as accurate as possible. Travis, you’re doing a great job, keep up the good work, I hope I’m able to bring your work to a few more people along the way.

So Travis’ guide will help me through the Marvel timeline. I found a number of websites to help me through the DC side of things. Batman is really the only character that interests me from DC, so I focused mainly on his story line, but also mixed in the big stories from the other characters into the timeline, I’d be happy to give you more information from my own research if that sounds like something that might interest you.

In closing, I’d like to encourage you to let me know if there’s anything you’d like me to review or blog about, geek or otherwise. Movies, games, TV Shows, comics… if you’re curious what it’s all about but don’t want to waste any time, I’d be happy to offer my time for the wasting. Plus, it’s always encouraging to know people out there are getting anything out of our posts, so feedback is always appreciated.

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Hit the jump for the complete breakdown.

Introduction

In the original Final Fantasy VII, your characters leveled up by getting XP, and leveled up their Materia by acquiring AP. Every time Cloud, Tifa or any character was hit, the damage was translated into a progress bar, called the Limit Gauge. Once the gauge filled all the way up that character gained a Limit Break, essentially a high damage attack or series of attacks with pretty colors and animation.

In Crisis Core, levels, materia skill ups, Limit Breaks, and special status changes are all determined by the DMW. As you meet characters in the game their portraits are added to the DMW slot machine. As best I understand, the DMW is a trippy representation of Zack’s mind. Sometimes while the numbers and portraits are spinning you’ll see flashbacks to events that arn’t neccesarily seen in the actual game, and there is a sequence in the final battle that reinforces the idea that this slot machine is how Zack’s mako infused brain functions. Far be it from me to theorize on exactly why Zack can get special combat powers by focusing on these people’s faces, but that is as close to a reasonable explanation as I’ve come up with. And hey, its a video game.

DMW 101 (from the manual)

The DMW is a slot reel system that continues to spin and stop during battle by expending SP. Matching numbers of character panels can active a variety of special effects, such as “Invincible” and “No MP Cost.”
- The DMW cannot be manually controlled by the player.
- The DMW will not spin or activate effects if SP is insufficient.

Limit Gauge: The limit gauge monitors DMW status. It fluctuates between five levels (from LOW to HEAVENLY) depending on Zack’s emotional state and DMW results. A higher gauge level increases the chances of a limit verge.

Limit Verge: When the left and right slots have matching characater panels, the screen changes to show a limit verge. Matching character panels or numbers on this screen can activate different effects.

SP: SOLDIER points indicate strength based on mako. DMW results and defeating the enemy earn SP. DMW activation and materia fusion cost SP.

DMW 102 (Fred’s explanation)

During battle the DMW spins in the top left corner of the screen, and when the right numbers line up you’ll get a number of different status changes. Sometimes, completely removed from any player input, you’ll see “Power Surge” flash across the screen in attractive blue letters. Why? Who knows. The only connections between the gameplay you control and getting Power Surges is the level of difficulty of the opponents you happen to be fighting, and the amount of SP you have stockpiled.
For example, if you are playing a mission rated “Very Hard”, you’re much more likely to get a Power Surge then if you’re playing a mission rated “Easy”. At certain times during the game you’ll receive a message that “Heightened emotions have effected the DMW” (usually whenever Zack meets a girl, go figure). In your menu you’ll notice that there’s a little meter that looks a whole lot like a heart monitor. When you get the “Heightened Emotions” message that meter switches up to ‘Heavenly’, from wherever it was before. The faster that line is bouncing up and down, the better a chance you have to get a Power Surge.
At one point during my second play-through I got the “Heightened Emotions” message and immediately ran to a save point to run some missions. When I started up a “Very Hard” mission I was literally getting Power Surges every three seconds. It was awesome.

Status Changes

These changes are gained from the correct combination of sevens lining up in the little DMW slot machine on the HUD.

• Endure: x-x-7

• No MP Cost: x-7-x

• No AP Cost: 7-x-x

• Null Magic Damage: x-7-7

• Null Physical Damage: 7-x-7

• Invincible: 7-7-7, 6-6-6, 5-5-5, 4-4-4, 3-3-3, 2-2-2, 1-1-1

• Critical: 7-7-x

Power Surges

Once you get a Power Surge (or Limit Verge as the manual calls it) there are three possible outcomes.

• Number one: All three character portraits line up, and you perform a Limit Break attack.

• Number two: Two or three of the same numbers line up, and the materia in the corresponding slot levels up. Once if two numbers line up, and twice if all three numbers line up.

• Number three: A beautiful trio of 7s line up, and Zack goes up a level.

As you might guess, you can get a Limit Break and level up, or get a Limit Break and have your materia level up too. Here’s where it gets a little hazy. When, and only when you get a Limit Break, Zack’s HP, MP, and AP increase. Exactly how and why they increase is what I spent a lot of time trying to figure out, and this is what I came up with:
….
It’s all completely random. At least with the data I gathered, I found no correlation between the numbers on the DMW, the level of the Limit Break, or the amount or percentage HP, MP, and AP were raised. And believe me, I tried. I did come up with a few interesting tidbits though, such as:

• Zack’s HP, MP, and AP can only gain up to 200% of their original value through bonuses given by Limit Breaks.
• If you get a Summon Limit Break (i.e. Ifrit, Bahamut, etc), your HP/MP/AP increase exponentially more then they would with a normal Limit Break (Angeal, Cloud, etc). I had values increase up to 135%.
• Normal Limit Breaks on average provide a 20-35% increase in HP/MP/AP values. I had percentages as low as 0.89% percent and as high as 55%.

When I started writing this article I envisioned a treasury of content. A plethora of factoids. Spreadsheets.
Unfortunately (or perhaps thankfully), I ended up with a decent grasp on what to expect from the DMW system, and not much else. When I think about my goal in relation to the greater scheme of things, understanding the mathematical relationship between Limit Breaks and HP/MP/AP values in Crisis Core probably ranks right around watching YouTube videos and playing Second Life. Not all that important. I better stop before I wax philosophical any more.

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