Katharine Trendacosta

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 Has a New Shredder

The latest live-action iteration of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has cast a new Shredder, whose design was one of the few unambiguously good things about the first movie. Shredder was played by Tohoru Masamune in the first film, but will now be played by Brian Tee (The Wolverine) in the second movie. Only time…

Cookie Monster Makes an Amazing Hulk In Sesame Street’s Avengers Parody

In a lesson on focus — which Cookie pretty clearly lacks — Sesame Street takes on the climax of The Avengers as only they can. They also make a pretty good case for the Hulk being the most powerful of the Avengers, as Cookie destroys both Cap’s Shield and the Mighty Corn’s hammer. There are…

Why the Tiniest of Fossils Mean Big Things to Scientists

The latest video in the American Museum of Natural History’s “Shelf Life” explores foraminifera, tiny sea creatures also called “forams.” Read more about forams and ammonites, which forams were originally confused for, at AMNH’s website.

Last week, Robert Downey Jr. made an appearance at a charity screening of Avengers: Age of Ultron. See the video here.

An Art Project Turns Cracks in Cities Into Geodes

Artist Paige Smith (AKA “A Common Name”) started Urban Geodes by filling cracks in downtown Los Angeles with these geodesic shapes. They’re made from paper and spray paint or resin. The project has since spread to other cities and countries, and a map of the installations can be seen at the A Common Name website,…

On Outlander, Jamie Can’t Go Home Again

In “Lallybroch,” we met Jamie’s sister, Jenny, and returned to his childhood home. Jenny is amazing. Jamie is less great. While Claire didn’t return home last week, Jamie did this week. And I don’t think it went exactly as he dreamed it would. Spoilers… Plotwise, it was a relatively light week: Jamie takes Claire to…

The Trailer For The Descendants Gives Us Glorious Villain Children 

The first trailer for the Disney Channel Original Movie The Descendants has hit, and it looks… it looks exactly like we thought it was going to look. I don’t even know. It’s like High School Musical and Sky High had a child. And that child shops exclusively at Hot Topic. That said, you’ll have to…

Anime Film The Boy and the Beast Gets a Glorious Action-Filled Trailer

It’s a fighting and training montage of a young human boy learning from his supernatural bear master. It looks so awesome. This English-subtitle version of the trailer was released by the Australian distributor of The Boy and the Beast, Madman Entertainment. The film was written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through…

Marvel’s Been Hiding a Star Wars Easter Egg In Its Movies

If you’ve noticed that hands and arms have been flying pretty regularly in Marvel’s Phase Two movies, congratulations: you’ve found the Empire Strikes Back tribute purposefully placed there by Marvel. Spoilerish information ahead. In an interview with Cinema Blend, Marvel president Kevin Feige revealed how his love of Star Wars turned into this weird little…

JK Simmons Will Travel to an Alternate Universe in Counterpart

Starz has made a deal for Counterpart, a metaphysical show following a lowly UN bureaucrat who discovers that his department has a secret portal to an alternate dimension. Counterpart sounds pretty spectacular. It was created and written by Justin Marks (Disney’s upcoming live-action Jungle Book) and the first two episodes will be directed by Morten…

Happy 25th Anniversary to the Hubble!

A shot of the Hubble Space Telescope just after being captured for service in 2009. Image Credit: NASA Contact the author at [email protected].

In First Maggie Clip, Arnold Schwarzenegger Loves His Zombie Daughter

Arnold Schwarzenegger put the first clip from Maggie, where he plays the father of Maggie (Abigail Breslin), who has been infected with a zombie virus. If this clip is representative of the whole movie, expect a lot more ruminating on family and losing a loved one to a deadly disease than the action typifying the…

Phil Lord and Chris Miller Are Making an Animated Spider-Man Movie

Sony just announced that Phil Miller and Chris Lord (The LEGO Movie) are making a fully animated Spider-Man movie which will hit theaters on July 20, 2018. UPDATED The news comes from Sony Chairman Tom Rothman, who announced it at CinemaCon. The new animated movie will follow the new live-action Spidey’s appearance in the Marvel…

Peter Pan Origin Tale Pan Gets Its Release Date Pushed Back

Joe Wright’s Peter Pan prequel has been moved from a summer release date to October 9, 2015. Which is probably for the best, since the summer movie season is pretty cluttered. Pan, starring Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard, Garrett Hedlund as James Hook, Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily, Levi Miller as Peter Pan, and Amanda Seyfried…

The Agents of SHIELD Spinoff Will Follow Mockingbird and Lance Hunter

Well, this is interesting. It looks like the Agents of SHIELD spinoff and Marvel show being helmed by writer-producer John Ridley aren’t one and the same. And we finally know who the Agents of SHIELD spinoff will follow. So there are two new Marvel TV shows in the works at ABC, but nothing new on…

This Isn’t a Lens Flare, It’s a Galaxy

From the Hubble comes this image of an elliptical galaxy called IC 2006. It’s a huge bright spot, like an eye in the universe. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Image acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt and J. Blakeslee (Dominion Astrophysical Observatory). There is a mystery associated with elliptical galaxies. From NASA: Massive elliptical galaxies like these are…

Disney’s Favorite Kind of Death: A Supercut of Animated Villains Falling

This supercut by Frank Ireland of Disney villains falling is a great way of remembering how many times Disney has avoided having a hero deal the killing blow and making it easy to cut away from a gory end. Of course it has its own TV Tropes page: Disney Villain Death. [via Laughing Squid] Contact…

This Disturbingly Amazing Baby Hulk Mural Just Went Up in New York City

I don’t know what he’s so mad about. $6.99/lb of human flesh is a pretty good deal. Artist Ron English completed this giant Baby Hulk (or “Temper Tot” as he calls it) mural at the corner of Bowery and Houston in New York City this weekend. The angriest baby appears in front of a giant…

On Outlander, It’s Time to Burn Us Some Witches

Outlander has delivered some great episodes already, but “The Devil’s Mark” will probably go down in history as one of the best. Every moment brought us closer to the edge of our seats, until we ran out of edge and ended up on the floor, gaping at the screen. Spoilers… The trick to this episode…

Literally Everyone Except Will Smith Is Returning for Independence Day 2

We’ve known for a while that Will Smith wasn’t going to be reprising his role as Captain Steven Hiller. But it looks like he’s pretty much the only one not coming back, as Friday brought news that Judd Hirsch and Bill Pullman are the latest in a long line of returning actors. Here’s Roland Emmerich…