Published on
January 21, 2009 in
News.
- The superhero movie of 2008 was The Dark Knight right? Not if you’re a member of the Visual Effects Society who this weekend gave five nominations to Iron Man in their annual VES Awards Other movies to receive nominations include Hellboy II, Benjamin Button, Cloverfield, and of course Wall-E, with Doctor Who, and Battlestar Galactica recognized in the television categories.
- If you are looking to turn your Dungeons and Dragons to something a little darker the new manual Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead has been getting
grave rave reviews. If you have been missing van Richten or Libris Mortis this book is probably for you.
- Dr Who spin off series Torchwood will be more subtle in its third season because the show has been such a huge success here in the US but no major network can air it. No word if the changes will be made for BBC America’s sake or if one of the major American networks may pick it up
- The Eddie Murphy as the Riddler rumors surrounding the next installment of Batman have been put to rest by Eddie Murphy. No no no and no. Yay. Christopher Nolan does not even have the story yet, so casting is out of the question.
- Eartha Kitt widely considered one of the top two Catwomen in all of Batman’s film legacy passed away on Christmas Day. She was 81.
- Lost in Space actor Bob May died of congestive heart failure on Sunday, January 18th. He was 69.
- Patrick McGoohan, has passed away at age 80. He created and starred in The Prisoner which was a fresh look on the secret agent genre and has been an inspiration and reference to everything from Alias to the Simpsons.
- Ricardo Montalban of Fantasy Island, and perhaps better known to geeks as Star Trek’s KHAAAAAN also passed away on January 14th. He was 88.
- Majel Barrett Roddenberry, the most ubiquitous actor in Star Trek, died December 18th at age 76. The wife of Trek creator Gene Roddenberry she provided the computer voices on every version of Trek. And she also played three pivotal characters: Number One in the pilot, Nurse Chapel in the original series, and Lwaxana Troi in TNG and DS9. She was providing the computer voices for the new Trek movie and it’s not clear if she had finished recording them.
- David Gerrold, famous for writing the “Trouble with Tribbles” Star Trek episode, also wrote an episode for TNG that included gay characters but it was shot down by Paramount. Now you can watch it online as he has teamed up with fan crew Stargate Phase 2 to rework and film the episode called Blood and Fire.
- While some companies may disapprove of such things IBM has admitted that it prefers to higher gamers, especially World of Warcraft players as the company looks to integrate better with gaming products and states that such games teach leadership and bigger picture thinking.
- Wikipedia has met its 6 million dollar donation goal for the 2008 fiscal year. The money will go toward improving the software Wikipedia runs on as well as upgrading the servers and Internet bandwidth that accommodate the site’s traffic. The foundation operates the site without advertising as a matter of principle, making donations critical. [citation needed]
- iLOLed. During MacWorld 4Chan members hacked into MacRumors Livestream from the event to falsely announce that Steve Jobs had died, then flooded the stream with graphic images and comments.
- The Sci Fi channel had its most successful year of all time in 2008. A 7% increase in viewership, largely due to reality show Ghost Hunters which was renewed for a 6th season.
- Warner Bros. and Fox have resolved their dispute over Watchmen, with the studios scheduled to present a settlement to Judge Gary Feess this morning and request that the case be dismissed.Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but the deal is said to involve a sizable cash payment to Fox and a percentage of the film’s box office grosses; Fox will not be a co-distributor on the film, nor will it co-own the Watchmen property.
- 26 year-old Matt Smith will be the eleventh Doctor Who, starting in 2010′s fifth season along with new executive producers Steven Moffat and Piers Wenger. Smith has starred in television adaptations of Phillip Pullmans “The Ruby in the Smoke” and “The Shadow in the North” alongside Billie Piper.
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