The cast of The Big Bang Theory is on the cover of PEOPLE this week (on newsstands Friday), and as the show enters its eighth season (it’s been renewed through season 10), we’ve gathered some handy trivia to pull out at viewing parties, Comic-Cons, or anywhere BBT fans may assemble. Use it wisely.
1. Frequently, Leonard has no actual glass in his glasses. 2. Penny is the only one of the show’s main characters whose last name is still a mystery. 3. Mayim Bialik is the only cast member with a PhD: In 2008, she received her advanced degree in neuroscience. 4. Penny has been using the same purse on the show since the second episode of the first season. 5. The line in the show’s theme, “Autotrophs began to drool,” is a purposeful error/joke: Autotrophs are life forms like plants or algae that create their own energy, and therefore don’t need to eat. 6. The actors actually learned how to play the instruments their characters play on the show (theremin, cello, harp). 7. Melissa Rauch based her character’s voice on her mother’s, “Only without the Jersey.” 8. Sheldon’s “soothing song,” “Soft Kitty,” is based on an Australian children’s song from executive producer Bill Prady’s daughter’s preschool. 9. Jim Parsons has never seen Star Trek or Doctor Who, a fact that would be seriously depressing to Sheldon Cooper. 10. Briefly, a complete rip-off of the show called The Theorists was aired in Belarus. When the actors discovered they were performing in a stolen show, they all quit, which negated the need for legal action from BBT’s creators. 11. Kunal Nayyar (Raj)’s wife, Neha Kapur, is a former Miss India. 12. There’s a species of Brazilian bee named for the show: Euglossa bazinga.
A new preview of Minecraft Update 1.9 has been released by Mojang, just less than a week after our last glimpse at the next big Minecraft patch, but fans hoping for loads of new content might be disappointed by the scarcity of new content in Minecraft snapshot 15w38a.
As longtime Minecraft fans know, weekly previews of upcoming content can pretty much run the gamut, from tiny patches with few noticeable changes to massive influxes of new blocks and/or major overhauls of existing game mechanics. Unfortunately, according to patch notes for Minecraft snapshot 15w38a, this week’s Minecraft Update 1.9 preview build definitely falls into the first category.
In all fairness, Minecraft snapshot 15w38a does include some changes that will be evident when playing Minecraft in coming days. All pet deaths will now be communicated to the creatures’ owner, even if the ocelot/wolf in question wasn’t named, and players can expect some noticeable changes to the spawn process for Skeleton Horses.
For the most part, Minecraft snapshot 15w38a is a fix-focused patch. Nearly two dozen issues with the Minecraft client have been fixed in the new build, including a bug that caused players to fall through moving pistons and one that let players duplicate banners from bannered shields. The Minecraft team also tweaked beetroot farming, making it a sustainable for those who prefer the agricultural aspects of Minecraft. And that’s just the start.
Here are all the changes introduced in Minecraft snapshot 15w38a, via Jens Bergensten:
Further improvements to general mob AI
Skeletons now move randomly when shooting
Made all pet (ocelot & wolves) deaths be announced to their owners, not just named ones
Performance enhancements
More bones
Not items or animation related
Skeleton horses now spawn with thunder and lightning
Fixed some bugs
Fixed players and mobs falling through extending/retracting pistons
Fixed some hItboxes being broken
Fixed some block collision box issues (mobs glitching through blocks and more)
Fixed hoppers splitting items into “Minecart with chest”s next to each other
Fixed a crash: IndexOutOfBoundsException on Tesselating block in world
Fixed villagers not picking up Beet Roots or Beet Root Seeds
Fixed beetroot farming being non-sustainable
Fixed monsters seeing players through walls
Fixed retracting blocks not moving entities correctly
Fixed a crash when going outside height limit or into the void with F3
Fixed a crash when crafting an empty shield with a banner
Fixed pistons not moving unextended pistons
Fixed pistons being able to move obsidian
Fixed vines being unplacable
Fixed unconditional impulse command blocks interacting unexpectedly with conditionMet
Fixed joining a multiplayer game within render distance of another player causing “invisibility”
Fixed minecarts accepting items from hoppers 2 blocks above
Fixed a crash: java.lang.NullPointerException: Rendering screen
Fixed banner items in chests becoming invisible after 6-7 chests full
Fixed banners not rendering if there’s too many
Fixed large mushrooms not generating correctly in mushroom biomes
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for more Minecraft coverage throughout the rest of 2015 and for however long Microsoft and Mojang continue to support Minecraft in the coming years.
There aren’t any big comic book movies coming up in the last few months of 2015, but when 2016 hits, it will bring a veritable tidal wave of superheroes from Marvel, DC, and Fox. So many grown ups running around in tights. One of the characters we’re most excited to see is Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme when he shows up in Doctor Strange next fall, and while we knew Beneict Cumberbatch will play the title character, we now know who his leading lady will be.
According to The Wrap, Rachel McAdams confirmed the rumor that she will star in Doctor Strange while talking to them at the Toronto International Film Festival. While this rumor has been making the rounds for the last few months, and the True Detective Season 2 star has never played demure when it comes to revealing that she was in fact in discussions for the part, which now appears to be all hers.
What we don’t know, however, is what exactly the nature of her role is. We speculated about it a bit back when McAdams’ involvement was first rumored, but we don’t know for sure. She could be Clea, who is Doctor Strange’s most notable love interest in the comics, not to mention related to some of his most powerful adversaries; though there are other notable female characters within his purview, including Victoria Bentley and Morgana Blessing, or it’s possible McAdams could play a wholly original character, one specifically cooked up for the MCU.
Directed by Sinister helmer Scott Derrickson, Rachel McAdams joins what has quickly become a fantastic cast. Along with Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role, the call sheet also includes Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo, and Tilda Swinton playing Stephen Strange’s mystical mentor, the Ancient One. We’re very curious about this role, as the character is traditionally male, and Swinton is obviously a woman; and while the initial reaction is to assume the gender has been swapped, there were also rumors going around that Swinton could play the character as male, so it will be interesting to see what happens there. Additionally, Hannibal star Mads Mikkelsen will also play an adversarial role in the film.
Moving into Phase 3 of the MCU, Doctor Strange will reportedly continue to expand the boundaries of the movie world, much like how Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man tried to bring something different to the slate of films that are often criticized for being overly homogenous. In pursuit of that goal, they’ve certainly put together a fantastic team of creative in front of and behind the cameras.
Doctor Strange will begin shooting this November, and hit theaters on November 4, 2016.
We’re in an age of cinema where superhero movies dominate the landscape of blockbuster releases, both from Marvel Studios and Warner Bros/DC Entertainment. Both studios have a five year plan in place that spans the scope of their respective comic book universes, featuring heroes both old and new. It’s a strategy that so far has made a lot of people a whole bunch of money. Even a decidedly smaller Marvel release like Ant-Man has the potential to bring in a box office haul of over $400 million, making the stakes even higher for films featuring marquee superheroes.
One such hero is Wonder Woman, whose standalone movie from Warner/DC will be hitting theaters in June of 2017. Before then, we’ll get our first look at her in a supporting role, in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Across Marvel and DC’s movie universes, Wonder Woman’s growing presence will represent a groundbreaking event. Why you ask? The reason is simple: Neither studio has put out a female-led film, and it’s past time they did.
Marvel has managed to stay ahead of the game at least in their television sector, with both Agent Carter and November’s Jessica Jones featuring female leads. On the DC side, they have yet to launch their own cinematic universe in earnest, while their collection of wildly popular television series has women playing supporting roles. On the surface, it seems like a small distinction to make; isn’t the job of a studio to make a movie with the best possible story, regardless of the gender of its protagonist? The answer to this question is more complicated than a simple yes or no, and it’s worth emphasizing just how important Wonder Woman will be when it hits theaters.
Much of the justification for the scarcity of female comic book heroes in Hollywood is based around two failed efforts from the mid-00s in Elektra and Catwoman. Studio execs have propped these two subpar efforts up as living proof of how women simply aren’t marketable for wide audiences. The fact of the matter though is that both films flopped at the box office because they were poorly constructed, not because of the women they featured. Flashing forward into the modern era of superhero films, we have Wonder Woman, the first effort since Elektra in 2005 to put a female superhero in the driver’s seat.
Details on the Wonder Woman movie are scarce, but what we do know is that Gal Gadot will be assuming the title role alongside co-star Chris Pine. The story is rumored to date back to World War I, making the titular hero about 200 years old by the time she shows up in Dawn of Justice. More than anything, the reception of Wonder Woman will be a barometer for all future female-led movies with DC and Marvel’s cinematic universe. A well-made movie that does favorably at the box office has the potential to knock over the first domino, especially with Marvel releasing Captain Marvel in the following year.
If Elektra and Catwoman are still being held up as litmus tests for the marketability female superheroes 10 years after the fact, it stands to reason that Wonder Woman will do the same for the modern era of the genre. A lot is riding on that single release, and a successful run in theaters could spell a much-needed proliferation of women in lead roles in future films from both DC and Marvel. The superhero model is one that hasn’t changed much since Marvel mastered it in the late 00s with Iron Man and company, but it could be in for a major shift come 2017. Simply put, Wonder Woman may very well change the way comic book movies are approached for the foreseeable future.
It’s a question that will be asked until the end of time. And frankly, why not? When two similar franchises are making movies, they are bound to be compared. When arguing, you often hear about
1: The Funny Avengers vs. The Brooding Justice League
2: The box office competition
3: The better story
and so on and so forth.
However.
There is an interesting point that I have not yet heard made in this argument. A point that, while it may not decide who wins the arguement, sheds a bit of light on what has been going on, and what could happen in the future.
The real difference between Marvel and DC is!
*insert drumroll
The actors!!!
.
.
.
No please don’t go! There’s more to this! This whole idea come down to it! I mean, we don’t go to movie that don’t have characters in them do we? That’s why the actors are so important, they draw people into the movie. Many a time has a friend of mine gone to see a movie because they like the actor.
And that’s where the difference lies
All Marvel movies are a part of the MCU or Marvel Cinematic Universe(except for Big Hero 6). Because of that, they need to keep continuity with the actors playing the characters(except for Rhodie….) Because thats what people want to see.
When you see this man:
Do you think Tony Stark/Iron Man? Or do you think Robert Downey Jr?
Marvel has given us actors over and over again to plat roles because that’s what we expect to see in a connected universe.
On the other hand….Batman.
Batman has been played by, soon to be 6, different actors. And that’s fine, because he isn’t in a connected universe, so they can do that.
But is DC doing something more with this???
Yes.
What’s going on is that DC has been doing exactly what Marvel has been trying to avoid. They are intentionally having new actors playing their characters.
Why?
Well its a brilliant idea really.
In comic books we didn’t have a specific actos to root for. Batman was Batman, in any iteration. That’s what DC is trying to replicate. With different actors playing the same person, one doesn’t get as engrossed on the actor because, well, they’ll be gone soon. And if the movie flops (here’s looking at you Batman and Robin) they can blame the actor and get right on to the next movie.
But will DC buck that trend now that they are starting to have a Universe of its own? Only time will tell.
