The Force Is Strong With These Custom Star Wars Helmets

Check out these awesome Clone Trooper & Boba Fett helmet mash-ups made by various artists as part of the As You Wish Project.

The As You Wish Project is a charity fundraising event set to auction over 40 redesigned Boba Fett and Clone Trooper helmets in aid of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The helmets will be exhibited at Star Wars: Celebration VI in Orange County, California for one week and will be sold after the event on Ebay, with all proceeds being donated to the charity.
For those with pockets as deep as the Sarlacc pit, the bidding begins this Thursday.

You can find a link to the auction page below:

As You Wish Helmet Auction Site

This year's As You Wish Project is sponsored by The Dented Helmet, eFX Collectibles, and the 501st & includes over 40 artists, some of which were involved in designing and building the original Star Wars costumes, including Joe Johnston and Sandy Dhuyvetter, who helped design Boba Fett's now iconic armor. The artists have taken inspiration from a variety of places, including movies & history, and the art styles of H.R. Giger & Damien Hirst.

The detail in these customs is incredible, especially with the one pictured below, which has to be one of my personal favourites.

Awesome isn't it? Seriously contemplating selling a Kidney to raise the cash to buy it...

All of the artists have done an incredible job & I'm sure each one will fetch a Jabba's Ransom for the charity.

Hit the jump to check out some more of my favourites and visit the As You Wish Project's web site for more information on each artist and their designs.

Cinema Loses One Of Its Greats - Tony Scott Dies Aged 68

Some truly shitty news comes out of California this morning.

Director Tony Scott has died by apparent suicide at the age of 68. According to sources, Scott left a suicide note in his car before jumping from the Vincent Thomas Bridge near Long Beach (apparently without hesitation) at around lunchtime on Sunday.

Tony Scott (left) And The Vincent Thomas Bridge (Right)

Born in Newcastle in 1944, the younger brother of director (and some time business partner) Ridley Scott, he graduated from the Royal College Of Art with dreams of being a painter, but was tempted into film and TV by his brother.

After spending the early part of his career making adverts, his first full feature came in 1982 with The Hunger. The movie flopped and Scott returned to making adverts for a few more years until he caught the attention of producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer who approached him to make Top Gun after being impressed with an advert he had recently made for Saab showing one of their cars racing a fighter jet. The movie landed in cinemas in 1986, making a star of Tom Cruise and a household name out of Scott.

Scott directs a young Tom Cruise on the set of Top Gun

Scott would go on to direct the likes of True Romance, The Last Boy Scout, Beverly Hills Cop II, Crimson Tide, Enemy Of The State, The Taking Of Pelham 123 and, most recently, runaway train drama Unstoppable, starring Denzel Washington.

As well as directing, the Brothers Scott also tried their hands as producers, helping young filmmakers get their own projects off the ground.

Talking to Empire magazine in 2005 Scott said, “I’m getting younger as I get older. It's also a fear of losing the touch, which is why I keep fucking going. Whether you like the movie or don't like it, as long as people continue to pay me to continue to experiment, I'll keep doing that. I do a lot of research and I get paid to touch these other worlds and I want to keep trying to touch these new worlds and bring them to the screen, whether it's the 18th Street Gang or the Vietnamese Gang, or bounty hunting or whatever it is. I love what I do.”

At the time of his death, he had several projects in varying stages of production including a planned Top Gun sequel and a movie version of the comic book "Nemesis".

Scott is survived by his wife, Donna, and two children.

Thoughts go out to his family and friends at this difficult time.

Boarderland Sexism? Hardly.

Gearbox Software caused a bit of a stir today with the reveal of the "Best Friends Forever" skill tree for Borderlands 2. How can something with a name lifted straight off a Valentines card cause such a fuss?

Well, dubbed the "Girlfriend" tree by one designer; this particular set of skills specific to the Mechromancer character class, is designed for people that suck at games.

Borderlands 2 lead designer John Hemingway told Eurogamer:

"The design team was looking at the concept art and thought, you know what, this is actually the cutest character we've ever had. I told them I want to make, for the lack of a better term, the girlfriend skill tree. This is, "I love Borderlands and I want to share it with someone, but they suck at first-person shooters. Can we make a skill tree that actually allows them to understand the game and to play the game? That's what our attempt with the Best Friends Forever skill tree is.""

Can't shoot straight? Borderlands 2 has you covered. Sort of.

I can think of a couple of less patronizing terms that don't play to stereotypes that are guaranteed to piss off a cross-section of your gamers... But still, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

In any case, the tree is designed for the noob in your life (whatever their gender/relationship to you), with perks that allow you to shoot without aiming(?) and the ability to summon a large robot whose sole purpose is to sponge enemy fire whilst you scream "which button is reload?!?" at your co-op partner in a blind panic. 

Gearbox president Randy Pitchford quickly took to Twitter to defend the comment, claiming the quote was a "personal anecdote" that was being sensationalized by forum users & the increasingly easy to offend PC Brigade, and that the term "Girlfriend Skill Tree" will not be featured in any part of the finished game.

That's good news for all the do-gooders of the internet as they can put their placards down and go back to harassing pages on Facebook safe in the knowledge that this minor non-injustice never nearly almost existed..

Some GiANT news from Marvel at this years SDCC

I've never been to Comic-Con in San Diego, although I am registered for pre-registration for tickets to next years event (I kid you not, you have to register your interest in registering for tickets before the tickets even exist!) they do NOT make it easy to get your hands on the geek worlds equivalent of one of Wonka's Golden Tickets, so this year, like many others I am left to trawl the internet for info about what went down in Hall H over the weekend.

First up is the news from Marvel Studios, who made some huge announcements on Saturday about what they have planned post Avengers, in what they are calling "Phase Two" of their self-produced movies.

Some of the announcements were expected, whilst others were a bit of a surprise. So, what did we learn?

Next Stop: LV426? - Paris Train Station Gets An Alien Make Over

The marketing campaign for Ridley Scotts long awaited return to the Alien universe has already bucked the trend of simply releasing trailer after trailer showing maybe 3-4 seconds of extra footage in favour of some incredible viral marketing videos, and now they've stepped up their game once again. This time by recreating a part of the movies setting - in a disused subway station in France!

This train is for Fiorina 161, The next station is Prometheus.

Closed in 1939, The Saint-Martin subway station in Paris has been transformed into the surface of the alien world which our intrepid explorers/xeno-bait from Weyland Industries will be running through terrified when we finally get to see the film when it releases next month. 

By the looks of it, passengers won’t be able to get off and have a nosey; instead merely being able to snatch glimpses of it as their train passes by. Probably for the best really as I imagine the large stone head pictured below would make it's way into a fans home before long (although I think they might need a power loader to move it...)

Where d'ya want it? Bay 12?

I'm a massive fan of viral marketing, especially when it's done well and this is one of the best I've seen so far. If your yet to see the other videos released promoting Prometheus you can find links for them below. If your a fan of the franchise and are excited about seeing the film you should definitely take a look as they truly are something else ("Happy Birthday, David" being my favourite so far).

New Assassins Creed 3 Gameplay Trailer Is Awesome!

Unfazed by lawsuits and angry authors, Ubisoft released the first gameplay trailer for Assassin’s Creed 3 today and damn does it look good!

You can clearly see from the trailer below that this is no half-arsed sequel like Brotherhood & Revelations and that claims by the developers that this is the biggest and most ambitious entry in the series yet now seem more than just empty promises.

Yeah, I said it. Brotherhood sucked!
 

Anyway, the clip is chock full of awesome and gives us a peak at new combat, weapons, moves, and free-running tricks that make the previous games look like Tenchu for the PS1.

 

The story takes place between 1753 and 1783, across the American frontier so there aren't going to be many building to climb. Plenty of trees though.

As much of the game takes place out in the sticks instead of the ever familiar busy market places, it looks like you will now have to blend into nature to remain hidden from those pesky Templar's (new stealth system perhaps?). Luckily, Assassin’s Creed 3’s fancy new frontier locations aren’t just cut & paste forests that all look the same, offering little interaction. It looks like Connor can free-run through them just like his ancestors would run across rooftops in the previous Assassin’s Creed games.

Check out the trailer below.

Bad News For Bioshock Fans.

A bit of bad news for Bioshock fans today.

Irrational and 2K Games announced earlier that Bioshock Infinites October 16th release date has slipped back to February next year. Balls. Looks like we'll have to wait a few more months to explore the shiny floating dystopia of Columbia.

In an open letter released today (you can read it in full after the jump), the game's Creative Director, Ken Levine explained that this would give the developers time to fine tune the game, making it, in his own words "Even more extraordinary".

Now, I don't know about you but I think this game already looks incredible, but if 2K Games think they can make it even better, I'll wait as long as they want.

 

Apocalypse Pizza & Video - We Deliver Your Order Amidst The Chaos

When civilisation as we know it comes crashing down around our heads and hordes of the undead fill the streets, one question more than any other will be asked in hushed tones inside safe houses across the globe:

"Where can I order a Pizza and a movie for me and my fellow survivors to enjoy whilst hiding away from scores of brain munching zombies amassed outside?"

Well luckily, Apocalypse Pizza & Video will have you covered.

Happy Birthday ZX80! - The Little Kilobyte That Could Turns 30

I imagine that in 1982, trying to find someone who could use a computer, let alone someone who owned one wasn't easy. Back then when the ZX Spectrum first launched, computers were expensive, chunky, and complicated.

We've com a looooong way, Baby!

British company Sinclair Research wanted to change all that. Aiming to produce computers which were affordable, simple to use and, by 80's standards, compact. the ZX80 was its first attempt. 

The ZX80 - Amazing to think this was cutting edge only 30 years ago

£100 bought you a basic model with a whopping 1KB of RAM and that iconic (& shitty) membrane keyboard. The ZX81 arrived a year later, using the same Z80 processor & 1KB of RAM, but it was cheaper (yours for around £70) and it came housed in a slick black case complete with the same shitty membrane keyboard of its predecessor.

The ZX81 - Sleeker & Cheaper.

And later with added rainbows.

The ZX Spectrum is largely responsible for starting the home computing revolution in the UK. Released on the 23rd of April 1982, it was small, you didn’t need a monitor – any TV would do, and while the use of cassette tapes as a storage medium for games and software might sound like madness to younger ears, this made games (or at least copies of them) relatively cheap.

Although I was only young when we got our first computer (a Commodore) owning one at the time brought with it a range of experiences which have now passed on into electronic legend. Who could forget the seemingly endless wait for a game to load as you stared at an ever strobing 8-bit Jackson Pollock while the screeches and beeps coming from the machine filled your living room? (The “Beeee beep. Beee dee diddly-diddly” sound computers made as they dumped the info from the tapes into the computers memory have been seared into the eardrums of older gamers like a sort of nostalgic Tinnitus). 

And People Complain About Skyrims Loading Screens...

Then there were magazines with type-in games which never worked. You would spend hours sitting patiently as a parent or sibling would read out each line of code as you clumsily typed it in with one finger only to finish and excitedly hit run, play 3-4 minutes of the game then have it crash on you.

Despite its technical flaws, the ZX Spectrum is still one of the most celebrated home computers of its time. Other machines may have been more powerful, but it was the Spectrum more than any other, which helped inspire a generation of teenagers into learning how to program, which in turn helped build the UK games industry that dominated the market throughout the 90's console boom. 

So raise a glass for the little Kilo-byte that could as it celebrates it's 30th birthday, it deserves it.

Plagiarism Or A Tenuous "Link"? - Author sues Ubisoft

American science fiction author John L. Beiswenger is having a stab at suing Ubisoft over alleged similarities between his novel "Link", and the Assassin's Creed franchise. This isn't the first time someone has tried to call "minesies" on a rather lucrative intellectual property but this guys claims may actually have some weight.

Plagiarism or a tenuous Link?

The main point of the authors suit is that the premise of his novel; that the memories of an Ancestor can be "accessed, recalled, relived and re-experienced" by using a nifty gadget called a "Bio-synthesizer" has been ripped off by Ubisoft, with nothing more than a name change to hide it.

Now I'll admit that that does sound quite similar to Ass Creeds "Animus", but then again I don't think that Beiswenger solely owns the rights to the concept of Memetic Legacy...

Zombie Apocalypse: Are You Prepared?

Zombies. They're coming sooner or later,  it's inevitable.  Question is, are you prepared? 

Be prepared or be Zombie food.

If the killer robots don't get us first, those undead rotten bastards will. When Hell fills up and the dead walk the Earth you should already be (at least a little) prepared & if your not, then don't come crying to me when the shit goes down. I'm all good to go. A pack with survival essentials, a meeting point for me & my buddies and a good solid weapon are all packed and stored away in an easy to reach location for when the breakout starts. You wont get one up on me Apocalypse!

Required reading if you want to survive.
Max Brooks knows his shit.

If your not prepared and end up getting caught with your pants down and nothing but a fork to protect yourself with, Map of the Dead.Com can help. Just stick in your location and, using Google Maps, it will break down the locations indexed by Google and highlight in red, the areas most highly populated & therefore most likely to be teeming with Z-Heads. It also points out where your nearest landmarks, supermarkets, shopping centres, military bases, petrol stations, hospitals, camp grounds, radio towers, and even grave yards are so you know where to go to stock up on supplies or head for sanctuary (or in the case of the grave yards, avoid them like eggs at a buffet).

Just don't get comfy and stay too long...

Obviously any highly populated city is going to be dangerous. But with careful planning & plenty of  forethought, even the meekest can survive. As you can see in the image below the area around my house looks fairly safe although I live within walking distance of 3 schools, 4 pubs and the Town centre so I'm taking no chances.

Now obviously the internet is going to go down at some point during the outbreak , so be sure to print out a hard copy or mark what you need on a real map put it with whatever else you have packed for when Z-Day comes. 

Good luck and don't forget:

AIM FOR THE HEAD & DESTROY THE BRAIN!

A Thousand Kisses Deep - Not An Underground Romcom

If I had to guess what type of film "A Thousand Kisses Deep" was without knowing anything about it, I would probably think it was some sort of saccharine sweet Romcom. Something starring the standard girl next door/greasy douche bag combo who spend an hour and a half gawping at each other as the standard "will they? wont they?" horse shit plot unfolds to its soppy conclusion. Maybe it takes place deep underground...

Something like this.
Don't you just want to punch them?

Well I'd be wrong. Turns out it's a British made psychological thriller, directed by Dana Lustig (Wild Cherry, Stranger Than Fiction) starring Emila Fox, Jodie Whittaker and Dougray Scott.

I'll put the trailer before the plot run down because it gives quite a bit away in terms of the stories twists & turns, and you might think it a bit spoiler-y.

What It Lacks In Clowns, It Makes Up For In Crazy - David Lynch Music Video

Check out this bat-shit crazy music video from movie director, song writer and all round weird dude David Lynch.

The title track from his album "Crazy Clown Time" released via Sunday Best Recordings, is far from catchy, and is unlikely to be topping the charts any time soon but it is definitely contender for the weirdest video I've seen in a while & is cool as hell to boot!

From what I can tell the narrator/singer/whatever is supposed to be a child trying to explain what they saw happening at a party for adults, which just makes the video that little bit creepier (not that it needs help), but I could be wrong...

I think its easier for you to just watch it & judge for yourself.

Batman + Lego = Awesome! Dark Knight Rises Trailer Recreated With Lego

If you ask me there is nothing in this world that can't be made better with Lego.

Unless it's Glee.

Nothing can save that "twee as a Baby riding a Unicorn over a rainbow" garbage. Not even a story arc involving a serial killer with sensitive ears and a dislike for catchy pop songs, but I digress.

I'd rather eat all these Legos
than watch 5 minutes of Glee

The internet is full of awesome people doing awesome stuff with Lego, as the custom BTTF Delorian I posted about the other week goes to show; but what's better than building something cool out of Lego? Building something cool out of Lego then making stop motion animations with it! There are a lot of these on Youtube, some are good, some... not so good, but this trailer for "The Dark Knight Rises" made entirely out of those little plastic foot killers is absolutely amazing.

Bane even looks awesome as a mini-fig!

Made by Forrest Fire Films, this has to be one of the most impressive Lego animations I've ever seen, not to mention the most accurate when compared to the "real-life" version.

Check out the 1 minute 30-odd seconds of all plastic awesome below:

Now watch the original trailer:

Pretty impressive right?

I'd love to see a full length Lego Batman movie, but I guess I'll have to make do with "The Dark Knight Rises" (filmed with boring humans) when it hits cinemas this summer.

Head over to Forrest Fire Films Youtube channel here to see some more of the awesome Lego animations they've done.

Bioshock Movie Flushed?

So it seems the Bioshock film has been shelved. Again. 

Gore Verbinski had already recently stepped down as producer, leaving Juan Carlor Fresnadillo sat in the directors chair with his thumb up his ass, and now its seems he's had enough of waiting and is off to butcher The Highlander.

Done right this film could be awesome!

While its the general consensus that films based on videogames generally suck pixelated wang (excluding Mortal Kombat, of course) gamers & movie fans alike are excited about an adaptation of "Bioshock." 

The game and its sequel are both beautiful, brutal, and disquieting tales of mystery & Science fiction that take place in the abandoned underwater Utopia of Rapture; stories that, with the right director (and budget) could really be something special.

But they said that about Resident Evil, and look how much that sucked.

Its hardly even got any Zombies in it...

David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis" Teaser Trailer

Check out the trailer for the new David Cronenberg film: "COSMOPOLIS" an adaptation of the Don DeLillo book about a 28 year-old billionaire who crosses Manhattan for a haircut. Sounds about right for a film with Sparkles McDouchenstein in it... But this is a Cronenberg movie so I'm not writing it off just yet.

Sourpuss Gets a Haircut (Working Title)

The story follows Eric Packer. A young billionaire financier who, whilst on his way to have his mop chopped, manages to lose all of his wealth by betting against the rise of the Yen.

Still sounds a bit dull, right? But like I said this is Cronenberg, I'm sure he can pull it off. 

Along the way, Packer's voyage is obstructed by traffic jams caused by a Presidential visit to the city, a funeral procession for a rap star and a full-fledged riot. He also has several chance meetings with his wife in very strange locations & is stalked by two men, a comical "pastry assassin" and an unstable "credible threat". 

OK, maybe there's a bit more to it than haircuts...

Thats Just Creepy... Meet Bioshock: Infinites "Boys of Silence"

2K Games have released info on yet another one of the terrifying mini-boss type enemies you will be squaring off against in Bioshock: Infinite. 

Boys Of Silence
Sounds like a Christian Boy Band...

First it was a Clockwork George Washington with a Mini gun, then the massive dudes with the giant porcelain hands. Both pretty formidable, but BioShock Infinite's latest "heavy hitter", the "Boys of Silence" are definitely the creepiest of the bunch.

Creepy eh?

All Hands And No Manners:- Meet Bioshock: Infinites "Handymen"

 

Today 2K Games released some info on another one of the enemies you will be facing in Bioshock: Infinite when you finally get to explore Columbia - the games new setting, later this year. 

Columbia: A far cry from the cramped city of Rapture.

The info came in the form of a trailer posted on Machinima's Youtube Page & gives a sneak peak at the design process behind "The Handymen" - hulking great cyborgs that tower above the player & make the Big Daddy seen in previous games look like a Little Bitch.

Great Scott! Amazing Lego DeLorian

Check out this amazing 1:15 model of the DeLorian from Back to the Future 2 built entirely out of LEGO! 

Built by LEGO artist Orion Pax (Alex Jones) using nothing but standard bricks (& a coat of silver paint, but we'll let him off), this is his third and final attempt at the iconic time travelling vehicle & I think you'll agree it's pretty accurate. According to Alex it took around 20 hours to build, and includes working gull-wing doors, wheels that fold-up for "hover mode", and even a tiny Mr. Fusion on the back. All its missing is a miniature copy of the Sports Almanac & Hoverboard in the back.

Check out these other pictures below to truly appreciate the amount of time & detail that has gone in to making this. 

Swanky New Banner!

Check out the awesome new banner Patrick over @Draw Me Something.com did for me!

Sweet eh?

The guys over at Draw Me Something do exactly what you'd expect: you think of something for them to draw, they pick ones they like the most & draw them. The requests can be funny, serious, random, anything your warped little mind can come up with.

They don’t judge, they just draw.

For example if you ask them "Can you draw me Elmo popping out of Barney’s chest (Alien Style)?"

Then you get something like this:

Thats gotta Hurt! (Gedditt?!)

Let Sleeping Turtles Lie

When I read last week that they were going to be making a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, I knew not to expect much.

Then I found out Michael Bay was producing it & Jonathan Liebesman (the guy responsible for Battle: Los Angeles) was directing it, I figured that makes sense, who better to ruin another childhood memory than the guy who butchered Transformers & his explosion loving, plot hating friend?

This is not a Transformer

THIS is a Transformer

Then I saw the short video below & I lost my shit.

Aliens? Are you fucking kidding me?

Awesome New Prometheus Trailer!

UPDATE


New full HD UK Trailer now available on Youtube, now with extra added "HO-LY SHIT!"

A new full trailer for Ridley Scotts "Prometheus" hit the internet today, & I'll be honest, I got so excited watching it I think a little wee came out.

Ridley Scott returns to the Alien franchise.
Sort of...

Prometheus could be considered a prequel of sorts to Alien - also directed by Scott, but according to the director: Although it shares "strands of Alien's DNA, so to speak", and takes place in the same universe, the film will explore its own mythology and ideas.

Call it whatever you want but the crew all work for Weyland Industries, its got the "Space Jockeys" we see a glimpse of in Alien in it, & it uses the same eerie music in the trailer, that's enough of a connection for me.