2008 January 29 | Sourfizz

29 01 2008

‘Bond’ Actors Talking Way Too Much About Their Roles

Posted by: in Celebrity news

Filed under: Action, Romance, Casting, Fandom, Movie Marketing, James Bond, Remakes and Sequels, Daniel Craig

Yes, I know what the actual title of this film is, but I think it’s so eye-poppingly awful that there’s a very good chance it will be changed at some point before release, so I see no need to mention it now. We’re talking about a film that has to be marketed internationally — surely cooler heads at Sony will step in and demand a title that’s reasonable? What was their second choice, by the way? James Bond in Footpounds of Complacency? Either way, someone needs to start minding the store over there because now the actors are going around giving away major plot details. It’s not often that I have to issue a spoiler warning over something an actor said while out promoting their film, but consider this that spoiler warning and beware. Speaking to BBC Newsround, Gemma Arterton, who I had incorrectly figured for a Moneypenny early on, says that her character, an MI6 agent named Fields, is tasked with trying to “keep Bond under control” in Bolivia, but for her trouble the character “sort of comes to a sticky end.” Thanks, Gemma.

Meanwhile, Mathieu Amalric is also talking up his character, the main villain, and says (another spoiler alert) that he’s going to get into physical training for a big fight scene with Bond that will come at the end the picture. Is Bond in the habit of engaging in fisticuffs with his main adversaries? Not really. Anyway, that’s also much more than I wanted to know, since for all we know this guy could have exited halfway through, like Le Chiffre. Based on the flurry of details that have emerged in the last week, I already think I have a good handle on exactly what will happen in this film, structure-wise, and that’s too much info. In other, less spoiler-filled news, Detroit News is also running a piece on the set design for the film, and informs us that a massive MI6 set — “a two-story suite of steel-gray furniture and frosted glass offices” — will be featured this time around.

[Via MI6]

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29 01 2008

More Sign on For ‘G.I. Joe’

Posted by: in Celebrity news

Filed under: Action, Casting, Deals, Paramount, RumorMonger, Comic/Superhero/Geek, War

My goodness, it seems like everywhere you turn somebody else is signing up for the big-screen adaptation of G.I. Joe. Variety reports that Dennis Quaid has now signed to star as General Hawk. You know, your typical ‘grizzled’ military man. He’s probably going to have a cigar chomped in his teeth for three-quarters of the film. The news came on the heels of official word that Channing Tatum had been hired to play Duke; the second in command of the elite team with ‘kung-fu grip’. Yesterday, Erik had also reported that Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy) will be playing Zartan, but so far there is no official word.

It looks like Quaid is technically one of the biggest name stars in the cast, which includes Marlon Wayans as Ripcord and Sienna Miller as The Baroness. Some of the other ‘Joe’ characters who will be making an appearance are Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who will play Heavy Duty, Byung-hun Lee as Storm shadow, Ray Park as Snake Eyes, and Said Taghmaoui as Breaker.

So far, there aren’t many details about the plot, but what we do know is that Stuart Beattie’s script will focus on “A European-based military unit known as Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity (G.I.J.O.E.), a hi-tech, international force of special operatives that takes on an evil organization led by a notorious arms dealer”. There are still a few more spots to fill, but it looks like director Stephen Sommers has almost finished assembling his team. Just in time too, since the film is scheduled to start shooting next month. G.I. Joe is scheduled for release on August 7th, 2009.

UPDATE: IESB now says that David Murray (a theater actor, apparently) has landed the role of Destro in G.I. Joe. Destro is the main villain in the film, and is described as the “faceless power behind Military Armaments Research System, the largest manufacturer of state-of-the-art weaponry.”

29 01 2008

“Wireless Vibrating Grip” promises to make SIXAXIS rumble, money disappear

Posted by: in Games news

Filed under: Gaming

We know that there’s plenty of folks out there eager to get their hands on Sony’s rumbling DualShock3 controller, but we’re hoping there’s not many desperate enough to consider something like this contraption in the interim. Apparently known only as the “Wireless Vibrating Grip,” the device rather obstructively attaches to your controller and presumably makes it vibrate with no rhyme or reason whatsoever at your command. Apparently sensing that wasn’t enough of a selling point, however, the manufacturer which seemingly does not want to be named has also seen fit to throw an FM radio into the mix, which surely must have Sony reconsidering their whole controller strategy right about now.

[Via Tech Digest]

29 01 2008

DIY Wii Zapper exemplifies tawdry, gets the job done

Posted by: in Games news

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Oh sure, we’ve seen homegrown Wii Zappers before, but nothing screams janky like an iteration crafted from spare plastic acrylate sheets, or better yet, your recently finished box of Corn Flakes. That’s right kids, you can save yourself quite a few buckaroos by simply swallowing your pride, heading down to the read link and printing out a template to create your very own Wii Zapper accessory. ‘Course, the sky’s really the limit with this one, but may we be the first to ask that you not use colorful sheets of cardboard if at all possible? Thanks.

[Via MAKE]

29 01 2008

Hackers Take Out Scientology Web Site

Posted by: in World news

Filed under: Computers, Celebrities

Well, it looks like the war is on. The Church of Scientology’s attempts to squash circulation of a video of Tom Cruise last week seem to have been the final straw for a group that calls itself “Anonymous.” According to a recent report in Wired, the cryptically-named organization recently stated that its main goal is to destroy the leadership of the Church of Scientology.

The first public salvo was launched over the past couple of days as a group of hackers claiming affiliation with Anonymous took down the home page of the Church with repeated distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. DDOS attacks flood target servers with requests, so that they become overwhelmed with data and shut down. This results in a site that doesn’t work, which is exactly what visitors to the Scienology Web site experienced during the attack. The attacks flooded Scientology’s Web servers with as much as 220 megabits per-second, which security experts claim is a mid-sized attack.

While this attack is not the largest of its kind ever seen, it does show some level of organization, “It’s not just one or two guys hanging out in the university dorms doing this,” said Jose Nazario, a senior security engineer with Arbor Networks. The church has since moved its site to servers run by Prolexic Technologies, a company that specialized in protection from DDOS attacks.

From Wired (via InfoWorld)

29 01 2008

Bush To Request $6 Billion to Combat Cyber-Terrorism

Posted by: in World news

Filed under: Computers

Just last week it was revealed that the group that perpetrated the cyber-attacks on Estonian networks, escalating the already high tension between that nation and its neighbor Russia, wasn’t really a group at all. It was a 20-year-old hacker from within Estonia itself. That revelation was a bit of a wake-up call for the global community — that a strong-minded individual could create an international incident without much trouble. President Bush seems to have been paying attention and is reportedly ready to propose a $6 billion project to create some sort of National Security Agency for American networks.

It’s unclear just what the plan would entail at this point. And, knowing the government’s penchant for secrecy, it’s unlikely that we’ll get any more details after it is formally proposed next month as part of Bush’s budget. However, you can be sure that it will to some degree focus on the passive monitoring of Internet traffic, something that will frustrate privacy advocates to no end.

The question now is, of course, what amount of privacy lost and money spent is a worthy trade for the prevention of American networks from attack? An outage here caused by an attack like that seen in Estonia would have a devastating effect on our already soft economy. That is, of course, assuming there’s a group of malicious hackers out there powerful enough to do such a thing here. Our networks are, after all, a bit more redundant than those in Estonia.

From WSJ.com

29 01 2008

Today Show Host Licks MacBook Air On-Air

Posted by: in World news

Filed under: Computers, Laptop

Gadget licking: It’s an odd phenomenon that we first heard of when gamer pin-up Jessica Chobot made a name for herself as the celebrated PSP licker. Since then, gadget licking (or GL) has became a bit of an underground trend, with Olivia Munn licking an Apple TV on G4TV and some dude licking his iPhone. However, it certainly didn’t seem like a mainstream phenomenon — until ‘Today Show’ host Meredith Viera expressed her love for the MacBook Air by giving it a big ‘ol lick on-air.

The ‘Today Show’ crew was giving a review of the product and predictably oohing and aaahing over the aesthetics while glossing over the negatives of the thing. But, honestly, that’s what most people will do when they first get their hands on one, so we can’t say we blame them. Just please, people, keep it decent if you happen to see one of these sitting on a shelf at your local Apple Store.

From Engadget

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