Like many of you, I’m a great fan of Robert Kirkman.  Like many of you, I’m also a great fan of The Walking Dead.  Like many of you, I’m also a great fan of Frank Darabont.

For those of you who don’t know, The Walking Dead (which you can order on Amazon here, and I strongly suggest it), is the continuing story of survival in a world over run by zombies.  In your average zombie movie, all we really see are how people react in the short term, and then the movie ends.  The Walking Dead doesn’t end.  It goes on.  And we watch a group of people, led usually by former police officer Rick Grimes, follow the path of survival in ways you can’t even imagine.  This is easily one of my favorite comic books and it will probably be one of my favorite television shows.

I’ve heard rumblings for a while now that Frank Darabont had the property and wanted to do it on television and the prospect of it excited me greatly.  Even as recently as the San Diego Con, I heard that he’d hinted to some people (and if they want to come forward and tell that story, that would be great) that there was something in the works.

Never did I think an announcement would be this soon.

But it’s true.  AMC, the producers of Mad Men and Breaking Bad, are looking to sign up Darabont (and perenial geek producer Gale Anne Hurd) to make The Walking Dead an ongoing television series for the network.

This should make geeks everywhere very, very happy.  I know some people will be bummed that it’s not on HBO, but AMC can get away with plenty.  And if there’s anything I’ve learned in all my years of watching and making movies, it’s that what you don’t show is often more scary than what you do.

Here’s a piece from the Variety article, which you can read in full here.

Joel Stillerman, AMC’s senior veep of programming, production and original content, said the project appealed to the cabler because of “the quality of the storytelling” in Kirkman’s work. The series will stay faithful to the tone of the original novels, he said.

“This is not about zombies popping out of closets,” Stillerman said. “This is a story about survival, and the dynamics of what happens when a group is forced to survive under these circumstances. The world (in ‘Walking Dead’) is portrayed in a smart, sophisticated way.”

Stillerman goes on to explain that basically, they’d be stupid not to.

I agree.

I got a chance to interview the man in the golden mask during this years San Diego Comic-Con, Anthony Daniels.  He was there to talk about Star Wars in Concert, which will be coming to a city near you in the coming months.  (Tickets are on sale now.)

He’s hosting it, and it would be best to let him describe the show in his own words, because I think he describes it better than I can:

Anthony Daniels: It’s a breathtakingly, huge, spectacular, rock concert, orchestral experience.  It really does have the majesty and hugeness of an amazing rock concert.  But, on the stage is basically a symphony orchestra and conductor, a highly skilled and clever conductor, and behind them is a 100 foot LED screen that emits a huge amount of light and it’s there principally, partly it shows the workings of the orchestra as the music goes along, because we’ve got a lot of cameras within the auditorium and on stage, but it’s there also there to show 10 or 12 specially re-edited sequences from all the Star Wars films all put together to work on a certain theme.  A theme might be about…I don’t know…the Dark Side and there John Williams, scores, he’s re-worked his scores to fit together with the specially recut films.  The lighting and sound and lasers are huge and wonderful and beautiful.  And in the middle of all this, I stroll on, calm and serene, and tell the story of Star Wars in segments followed by films and music and so on.  And you follow the very, very simple theme of Star Wars.  For instance, if you’ve never seen Star Wars, this is instant story.  You get it.  You get the main theme of it.  The going to the bad, the coming good, the redemption which is basically what it’s all about that journey.  On screen you may see all the elements that may tweak your memory superbly, but we don’t necessarily talk about them.  And that makes for a very simple, very direct, rather beautiful show.

He also spoke about his connection with Threepio.  I asked him what it was like to be the one actor from the original films whose be the mainstay in the series who had done all of the ancillary properties, cartoons, video games, etc.

AD: It’s almost become… not a duty, but almost a responsibility.  I feel I should, strangley, I’ve not really thought about that.  But I think I almost feel an obligation to Threepio more than to George, certainly he wouldn’t want me to be obligated.  I feel Threepio needs me, in a way, that he’d be rather upset if I went away.  I’ll have to ask him one time.  It’s been a bit of a privelige to be able to be a part of so many things.  And of course what many people won’t realize is that Threepio’s voice is actually quite hard to do.  He’s so tense as a character and creating his voice creates a certain amount of tension and sort of uptightness and so your stomach muscles can get really–and back muscles–can get quite knotted after a recording session.  And because he is not a relaxed character, therefore you cannot reproduce his voice in a relaxed way and I often think I should have come up with a more…  Do you remember HAL in 2001?

At that point in the interview, he went into quite an impressive facsimile of HAL from 2001.

We also spoke about his favorite moments as Threepio, how he approaches the part from the perspective of being in the costume on set.  He also talks about Threepio’s relationship with Han Solo.

It was a pleasure to do the interview, and I hope it’s a pleasure for you to listen to.  You can download the full interview from The Geek Show Podcast by clicking this sentence.

I would also highly recommend subscribing to their full feed on iTunes.  (You can click that here.)

I know this post is huge, I took a lot of pictures and most of them made me laugh. I cut these down from over 30 excluding pictures that I didn’t have the heart to take. For example there was a 400 pound Wonder Woman at this years con. In fact, I mostly stayed away from funny pictures that were just funny because of someones weight.

Although I don’t know when I grew a Grinch sized heart either, so enough with the sob story and on to the show!

15. Sub-Zero

The thing I find most hilarious about taking pictures with people in costumes is to direct them into their character’s poses. As stated before, I grew a heart somewhere between this year and last, and I didn’t do it as much as I should have, but when I did the pictures would turn out like this.

I told him the real Sub-Zero would bend his knees farther, but you can only push people so far.

14./13. The Klingon and Short Riker

Surprisingly enough I didn’t have to direct Riker in the slightest, he was all action as soon as he caught sight of that damn Klingon.

Another note I would like to add is that in a way fat Klingons are normal, but he took it to the hoop.

12. Power Girl

I’ve never thought blending costumes was that good of an idea, but this Power Girl/Medusa outfit is off the chain. Earth 2 better watch the fuck out!

11. Black Canary/Green Arrow

This is just something you have in store for you when you come to Comic-Con. And it makes me ask myself who’s bright idea was this. Imagine telling your red headed, pale, skinny boyfriend you wanted to dress up as Fat Canary to his Oliver Queen. Or on the other side, asking a pig to put on lip-stick.

10. Ryu

As if you didn’t know, this isn’t just regular Ryu. This is stung by a bee Ryu! Which, as you can see, he is very allergic to.

9. Scarecrow

What I like about this picture isn’t that it looks like the Scarecrow’s costume used to be a sack of potatoes. The best part of this picture is  the dude in the background wearing rainbow spandex which, in contrast, is much scarier than the Scarecrow himself.

8. Thors

I couldn’t decide which Thor was worse so I just picked both, (actually there is another Thor higher on the list that makes these guys look like mere morons.) Fake Biceps and an aluminum foil skirt, or a man that looks like he hasn’t known where he’s been in some time? You decide.

7./6. Optimus Prime and The Kool-aid Man

How bizarre.

5. Gambits

As you all know, Remy LeBeau has had a long frustrating relationship with his fellow X-man, Rogue. He lusts after her day by day, but they are unable to kiss or even touch because her mutant power would suck his own powers away and eventually kill him. And so he cloned himself!

This inflection should obviously have thinking people such as yourselves asking other questions. Such as, “which one’s the clone?” I wish I could tell you. All I can say for certain is one (or maybe both) is a  perfect copy of the Gambit we all know and love.

4./3. Captain America’s

#4: (The idiot foiled in a costume on the left.) It is my personal opinion that this Captain America used his super solider training to drink lots of beer. That’s the only explanation.

#3: This is one of those seconds that I told my heart it couldn’t do this to me. And thank God it listened for a fraction of a second. Long enough for me to snap a picture. When I look at a guy like this my first assumption is always that he’s actually an alien wearing an imperfect human costume trying to appear normal by wearing another costume just to throw us off, thereby learning all the secrets we hide in our soft heads.

2. I can’t decide who makes the list and who doesn’t

I submit to you the worst group photo that I have ever taken. Ever. The way the top of Magneto’s helmet is as big as the rest of his head. The Beast who strangely resembles John Candy, pretending to hump Spider-Woman. The little boy who was obviously forced by his parents to get into arms reach of pedophile Thor for a picture, but just doesn’t want any part of it. And the way a normal looking girl is smashed between all of them.

This one will go down in the record books!

1. Nightwing

You’ll never recognize the full majesty of this boys nerdity without knowing who the puppeteer was behind his wily pose. Not me, when I got his picture he was standing straight as a post. But a second later a pair of broads dressed as female Spock, and a green alien chick asked if they could have his picture, and he did this. I then stole what I thought was the worst picture since the con’s conception. But I was wrong, for a moment later he stopped posing for the girls, and began to talk to them half posed. Allowing me to take the worst follow-up picture in recorded history! Just remember you saw it here on Big Shiny Robot! first.

Note the fact that he wears a black fanny pack which I always find to add another layer of loser to a person. (Also in this case, it’s possibly containing his package. It’s got to be somewhere right?)

P.S. Here’s the ladies he was showing off for, posing with Marcus, the Rear Admiral of Comedy.

Be sure to check out The 5 Loveliest Ladies of the Con and the 5 Best Costumes of the Con.

And here’s Dr. Cyborg’s first ever bad costume round-up from 2007.

Released in 1980, Kagemusha marked a return to filmmaking for Japanese Filmmaker Akira Kurosawa who, by that time, was a living legend. It had been five years since he’d made a film (though he had worked briefly on Tora! Tora! Tora! before exiting as the director of the Japanese language segments over creative differences) and he was having trouble financing it. Two filmmakers then at the top of their game (Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas) swooped in to make sure he had the financing he needed and the result is this haunting and beautiful film.

Kagemusha tells the story of a thief who becomes the double for his feudal lord, Lord Shingen, after he is killed and swears his loyal retainers to secrecy for at least three years. The thief is thrust into a very difficult political situation and is under the constant strain of being under constant watchful eyes. Any slip up would mean certain doom.

The film is told in an exceedingly economical style, most of the action takes place off screen. Although I’m sure budgetary considerations were part of the reason for that, it makes for a very compelling style-choice. We’re as distant from the actual violence as the lords, generals, and retainers. We see the march to battle, but too little do we see the effects and it creates a disconnect in the attitude towards the wars we hear are being waged and the level of the inner turmoil in the individual characters.

The broader themes of the film deal with the idea of living in the shadow of another man. Both the fallen lord’s brother, Nobukado, who served as his double for a time, and the thief have to live in the shadow of a great man who isn’t even among the living. Though I may be far off the mark, it felt to me as though Kurosawa himself were the thief, living in the shadow of the man he used to be. At that time in his life, he was quite stressed, unable to get films off the ground. He hadn’t directed in years. The film is so full of somber sadness that it would be no stretch to think that he thought of the filmmaker he used to be as Shingen, and his current plight that of the thief, hoping to stay in the castle just long enough to serve the dead lord and make a movie worthy of his reputation after his confidence had been shaken.

I really wish Kurosawa had been more prolific in that era, sure, he still had Ran ahead of him, but in the ten years between 1975 to 1985, he made only one movie: Kagemusha.

As for this edition of the film, Criterion has spared no expense in putting together a very clean, beautiful transfer of the film that has all of the detail and vivid color that you would expect from one of Kurosawa’s most vibrantly photographed films. And just to make sure, I broke out my DVD version of Criterion’s Kagemusha just to look at the difference, to be sure that this was, indeed, the definitive version I needed.

The Blu-ray blew all of my expectations out of the water. Though there was a lot of film noise and grain, the level of detail and the depth of the color were far superior. This is a very good reason to jump onto the Blu-ray bandwagon with your Kurosawa pictures. And as someone who has bought every Kurosawa release Criterion has had to offer since the advent of DVD, I can tell you, I was looking for any excuse I could find NOT to re-purchase all of my Kurosawa films.

But I really couldn’t find one.

Add to the pristine picture and sound quality a batch of extras that I devoured in one sitting along with the movie and you’ve got what I would call the definitive version of Akira Kurosawa’s Kagemusha.

To pre-order it on Amazon, click here.

Few people have had a larger or more lasting impact on the Batman mythos than Paul Dini.  From the creation of the Animated Series in the 90s with Bruce Timm, to Batman Beyond and more recently his tenure on Detective Comics and the newly launched Streets of Gotham and Gotham City Sirens.

He’s helped shape the character over the last 20 years in ways that will be felt for the foreseeable future.

Though the purpose of this interview was to discuss Batman: Arkham Asylum, and it was, indeed, discussed. We talked about why Catwoman wasn’t in the game, the development of sub-plots, the way they were able to sneak the back-stories of the villains in the game without disrupting the story, among many other things.

He also spoke to us about the 60s TV series, Superfriends, his relationship to the character and his work on the comics. The topic did turn to Marvel Divas vs. Gotham City Sirens for a bit as well.

All in all, it’s a great interview and you really should check it out.

To listen to this and other interviews like it on iTunes, you need to subscribe to The Geek Show Podcast. Paul Dini isn’t the only interview we got. Kevin Conroy, Steve Sansweet and Anthony Daniels (among others) will be available soon. And The Geek Show is really good, too. Click here for their iTunes feed.

There were two other video interviews in this particular series, click the links to check them out: Kevin Conroy and Game Director Sefton Hill.

You’ve read about my interview with head of fan relations at Lucasfilm Steve Sansweet about Star Wars, and there’s a story in the interview that has been overlooked a little bit and that was about Indiana Jones 5 and the Blu-ray of the existing 4 Indiana Jones movies.

Here’s a transcript of the pertinent bits:

Q: As head of [fan relations] at Lucasfilm, you talk about Indiana Jones, although it seems a lot more overshadowed under the fandom of Star Wars, and I’ve got two questions about that, one, the same thing about the high definition of that, and then there’s been talk, obviously, well there’s been talk of the Internet of there being talk of a fifth movie and… And even just a no comment on that.

A: All I know is what I’ve seen on the Internet. I personally would be surprised to see a fifth Indy movie because of all the well known stories about how long it took to get a fourth Indy movie done and everybody in agreement. Who knows.

As far as future DVD releases, Indy is a little different. Star Wars is completely controlled by one man. George. Indy is controlled by George and Steven and to a certain extent Harrison and Paramount. So you have a lot more parties that have to be in agreement when it comes to anything when it comes to Indy. So, that’s something we hear about after some decisions have been made. At least at my level.

Q: So a Blu-ray, maybe, after everybody all sits down and talks about it?

A: I would think that at some point, yeah. But I know absolutely nothing about any Indy plans.

We weren’t really involved very much in the marketing of Indy as far as I’m concerned because there really isn’t a fan community like there is for Star Wars. Indy was never a very toy-etic movie and I really think that got a lot of kids into Star Wars or revived their interest years later and so that whole, the books and the comics, there’s so much more with Star Wars, it’s such a huge galaxy. Whereas Indy is not supernatural, although he goes after the supernatural stuff. He’s a man. And he ages and you know. There’s still more to fill in his story, but it’s not the same depth of fandom interest as it is in Star Wars.

That’s a pretty bleak outlook for the Indiana Jones franchise, both as far as a new movie is concerned and as far as the Blu-ray.

Anything is possible, but it sounds like it will take a lot longer than the Blu-ray of Star Wars to see Indy in hi-definition.

The Geek Show Podcast was kind enough to host the full interview on their iTunes feed, for the full 15 minute interview, click this link.

The Geek Show’s Kerry Jackson (and Zack) were privvy to an interview of Kevin Conroy. Conroy has voiced the Batman for almost 20 years and once you start the video, you’ll know his voice instantly.

To listen to this and other interviews like it on iTunes, you need to subscribe to The Geek Show Podcast. Kevin Conroy isn’t the only interview we got. Paul Dini and Anthony Daniels (among others) will be available soon. And The Geek Show is really good, too. Click here for their iTunes feed.

During the San-Diego Comic-Con, I was able to snag an interview with Steve Sansweet, the head of Fan Relations at Lucasfilm.

You can read my article about the interview here.

But we got to talking about the Blu-ray and he got more specific about when we would be seeing it hit shelves.

Q: Is there any talk whatsoever, and I’m not even going to ask for a date because I know that’s ridiculous, but is there any talk about the Star Wars movies on a high definition format?

A: Yeah.  I mean obviously we’ve been looking at that for a couple of years and I think one of the questions is when is the market penetration there and these days, will there be a market penetration before everything goes streaming? But we’ve been looking at an ultimate box set of the Star Wars movies, all six of the movies.  And what special features would be.  And clearly these days, if you did an ultimate box set and didn’t do it in HD, Blu-ray, it just wouldn’t make any sense.  So now it’s a matter of thinking okay, we’ve been thinking about this for a while, we know what kind of assets we want to use, we’ve done some work in cleaning up things, it’s really a matter of making that decision of when’s the best time to release it.

Do you wait and have an event because you’re working off of the fact that there’s going to be a new live action TV series?

Click over and read the original article to read about what special features and extras we might be seeing.

The Geek Show Podcast was kind enough to host the full interview on their iTunes feed, for the full 15 minute interview, click this link. (In the full interview, there’s also talk about Indiana Jones on Blu-ray and the oft rumoured fifth Indiana Jones movie.)

One of the walls on the Capcom booth.

I stopped by the Capcom booth at this years Comic-Con and I noticed that a very long line circled the booth. I inquired about it, and was told it was a line to play the upcoming Resident Evil title, The Darkside Chronicles. I decided not to wait in line because of the sign that said the wait would be well over an hour.

So I went first thing the next day, I got there about 30 minutes after they opened the exhibit hall, and it was already booked for the full day. So I went back even earlier the next day, and was finally able to get on the list to try the demo out.

The Darkside Chronicles is a direct sequel to the Umbrella Chronicles, it just follows the other games. The Umbrella Chronicles followed RE 0, Re 1, and RE 3. The Darkside Chronicles follows RE 2, and RE code veronica (which are my favorites.) Apparently they are also going to follow another secret title that has yet to be announced. The guys at the Capcom booth said they didn’t even know what the secret title is yet.

Anyway, It was indeed similar to the Umbrella Chronicles. The changes that I noticed were that it was more from the 1st players perspective. Meaning sometimes the second player can be seen on camera. (When they are opening doors, etc.) Also it is more like you are looking through the first players eyes, so you can see your own hands come up when you reload the gun. It’s really not that big of a difference.

The next thing that seemed to vary was that it seemed like it was a little grittier, like they were going for more of a horror feel. The menu system seemed to change quite a bit, but my memories a little hazy of how it was in the first one. You can use herbs in the menu, and it seems to me they added the danger bar, like the one you would see in all the traditional games.

Based on my experience in the fifteen minute demo, I would guess that they go a bit more into the details of the old games. So the story might be a bit more comprehensive than the Umbrella Chronicles.

They still use the cross hair aim system, which I don’t really care for (Not that it stopped me from enjoying the last game, and I think this one is going to be even better.) But talking to the guy at the booth he said they might have an option to turn it off when the game is complete so that it will be more like a traditional FPS.

Sadly, he didn’t sound too sure.

It wasn’t in the demo I played, but the guy at Capcom said they are also adding a feature so that you and your partner will share ammo, and you’ll both be able to use the same guns at the same time, just with the same source of ammo.

I don’t think these chronicle games are the cream of the crop but they are highly enjoyable, turn your brain off, shoot zombie in the head, relaxing video games. So I have to say, I am excited for this games release.

Oops I almost forgot to mention, they also gave a really cool Darkside Chronicles T-shirt when you played the demo, that has a zombie print on the inside, so that if you flip it, you will have a zombie head. Really cool!

Derek Hunter, the infamous creator of Pirate Club, flaunting his zombie shirt

The Website for the game residentevil.com/darkside Also you can follow Leon and Claire on twitter @Leon_Darkside and @Claire_Darkside

The whole Comic-Con Iron Man panel Line up. (photo by Jason Young)

To be honest I was bored with all the still photos that were released earlier for Iron Man 2, but the trailer they showed at comic-con looks really good and I am officially excited for Iron Man 2 now.

The panel consisted of Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Sam Rockwell, and Scarlett Johansson.

There wasn’t much for news in the panel, mostly just how awesome the clip was. I can say now for certain that War-Machine is indeed in it and kicking ass. Jon Favreau was asked if he was going to direct the upcoming Avengers movie. He didn’t really sound like he was going to be, but he did say, “It is definitely going to shoot after we are wrapped with Iron Man 2.” Which I guess means maybe.

As stated the trailer was the best part of the panel, besides Scarlett Johansson being really cute, saying she had to do mixed martial arts training for her role.

The trailer started with an image of Tony Stark sitting in a giant donut and getting approached by Nick Fury. They are then seen at a table together where Tony asks Nick if he is real, and Nick assures him, he’s the realist person he knows.

Next scene: Tony Stark is in a senate hearing under a Senator Stern, who is questioning him about possessing ‘the weapon’ Tony plays it really cool, telling him he won’t turn over his personal property, and that he has successfully privatized peace. This continues until the senator is forced to adjourn the hearing, and tells Tony to go fuck himself.

Besides that they showed a little action with Black Widow, (Scarlett is totally going to bust some heads.)

Mickey Rourke, playing Whiplash looked really bad ass. He was showed giving some sinister smiles, and walking down a highway (I believe towards Iron Man) with a Stark repulsor chest power pack, that feeds energy winding around his arms and to his electric looking whips. Which he lashes at the ground tearing it up in front of him, really menacing like.

Finally they showed a scene where Sam Rockwell was selling some weapons to Don Cheadle, and then the trailer ends with War Machine flying unloading all of his newly purchased weapons. One in each hand, and a third mounted on his back on a turret that is firing automatically. It looks amazing, I can’t wait.

The last thing I will mention is the swag that they gave out at the panel, which I almost didn’t get my hands on. They were giving out tickets for a T-shirt that says “Stark Expo ’74” But they were only giving them to people with seats, which was a problem for me because I was standing in the press box, so I had to hustle two of the people handing out tickets to give me one anyway. The first person swiftly said he can’t help me, and wouldn’t listen further. The later said she couldn’t help me until I told her how much my “Son” would appreciate it. Anyway, I had to pull a few pubes from between my teeth, and I got my t-shirt.

A better shot of Scarlett (I think she's hot.) (photo by Jason Young)

Robert Downey Jr. with his head cut off. (I was still looking at Scarlett Johansson) (photo by Jason Young)