‘Doctor Strange’ was recently announced by Marvel Studio’s President Kevin Feige at Disney’s D23 Expo in Anaheim last August 14-16, 2015. Benedict Cumberbatch sent out a message from overseas about his title character as well what to expect from the second film in the MCU’s Phase Three.
According to Mirror.co.uk, Cumberbatch was announced by Feige as the titular neurosurgeon-turned-sorcerer for Marvel and Disney’s collaboration. The live-action adaptation’s plot follows the transformation of comic book character Stephen Strange into Doctor Strange.
After a car accident that renders his hands useless ruins his medical career, he sets out to a journey in the Himalayas for the purpose of getting healed. He then encounters the Ancient One who trains him to become the Sorcerer Supreme to fight against supernatural enemies from parallel worlds. The Ancient One will be portrayed by actress Tilda Swinton.
The actor of ‘Sherlock Holmes’ fame seemed thrilled on his latest role as he talked about the film in a video message. “I’m very excited and very lucky to be taking on Doctor Strange… He’s an extraordinary character and brings in a whole ‘nother dimension – multiple dimensions – to the Marvel Universe.”
Cumberbatch was unable to attend the recent convention due to his ‘Hamlet’ commitments in London, according to another article by Vanity Fair. Together with Feige, they emphasized how different – how weird – the new film will be in comparison to other Marvel productions. The latest concept art that showed Doctor Strange “standing on planets and gazing into galaxies” was also revealed at the expo.
According to Cinema Blend, the unusual Marvel film hasn’t begun on production yet and kept developments in high secrecy. However, Feige revealed the latest artwork for the movie as well as the first look at Cumberbatch’s character. Doctor Strange’s costume was darker than in the comic books but retained the original color palette.
Cumberbatch was also said to wear the powerful sorcerer’s signature goatee. A featurette shown during D23 also gave audiences a short look at the film’s villain Baron Mordo, to be played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, as well as various scenes of levitating cars and astral projection visuals.
‘Doctor Strange’ is the 14th independent installment in the Marvel’s cinematic universe and will be featured in its Phase Three. The live-action adaptation is set to be released on November 4, 2016 under the direction of Scott Derrickson.
Behind the scenes from ‘Jungle Book’Instagram/Jon Favreau
Last week’s D23 Expo 2015 brought scoops from many big names of Hollywood, including Disney Animation, Pixas, Lucasfilm and Disney. The presentations teased us with what can be expected from some of the most anticipated films in the coming months.
We have compiled some of the greatest reveals from D23 Expo 2012:
“Star Wars”
Along with new cast member announcements, everything you need to know about “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” before its December release was revealed last week. A new poster of the film by veteran poster artist Drew Struzan was released, while director JJ Abrams revealed how long the movie currently runs.
While it was announced that “Jurassic World” director Colin Trevorrow will direct “Star Wars Episode 9”, a cast photo — which confirmed many casting rumours — of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” was also displayed at the event.
“Doctor Strange”
Although titular star of Marvel’s upcoming movie Benedict Cumberbatch could not make it to the convention, he did send a video message wherein he said that he is “very lucky and very excited to take on Doctor Strange,” calling the superhero an “extraordinary character who brings in a whole other dimension, multiple dimensions to the Marvel Universe.”
Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, said that the plans for “Doctor Strange” began to take shape even before the inception of Marvel Cinematic Universe, saying that movies like this are basically a means to consistently expand the concept of what a comic book film is, and what an MCU film is.
“Captain America: Civil War”
The final instalment of “Captain America” is currently being shot in Germany will introduce the Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), as expected, and proof of this was given to fans with the new footage from the movie, which was released at D23 Expo. At the event, which was attended by both Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and the Falcon (Anthony Mackie), the video that also featured Black Widow, Crossbones, Falcon, Captain America, Bucky, Ant Man, Scarlett Witch, Vision and Hawkeye was played.
The video also showed Martin Freeman — whose character has still been kept a secret — seemingly tracking down superheroes.
Disney Animation and Live-Action
Latin singer Shakira has been signed on as the voice actor for upcoming “Zootopia”, while it was announced that a new take on “Jack and the Beanstalk” will be created by Disney with the title, “Gigantic”.
Jon Favreau’s “Jungle Book” was also premiered at D23 Expo with a great footage that left the fans in awe, everyone is especially impressed with the CGI. In the clip that was shared, we hear the voice some of the most pivotal characters, including Kaa (Scarlett Johanson), Bagheera (Ben kinglsey), Shere Khan (Idris Elba) and Baloo (Bill Murray).
“Pixar”
Jay of “Modern Family”, Ed O’Neill will be part of upcoming “Finding Dory” and it was also confirmed that “Toy Story 4” will depict the romance between Bo Peep and Woody.
In the past, I’ve speculated on the long term impact of the Minecraft craze. I suspect that the game’s narrative shift—away from a typical hero storyline, toward an emphasis on creativity and collectivity (when played on servers)—will significantly impact the way Generation Blockhead kids will navigate their adult lives. Look at the ubiquity of the craze. Then consider that, in spawned virtual worlds, young people are constantly empowered to create not only their own structures, but also their own modifications, rules and outcomes. It sounds like the perfect premise for a science fiction novel—like Ready Player One without the mono-mythic plot arc.
Ready Player One, for those unfamiliar, is a futuristic novel by Ernest Cline that’s currently being developed into a Steven Spielberg movie. The book is about a virtual reality adventure full of classic video game references. During an interview with Mother Jones, Cline said, “Steven Spielberg making a Ready Player One movie is going to change the course of human history as pertains to how quickly virtual reality is adopted.” The author was speaking earlier this summer to promote the release of his new novel Armada. He continued, “[Spielberg] is going to show the whole world the potential of VR, which is one of the reasons I think he’s doing it.”
Cline may be right. But before we decide which single moment to memorialize as the tipping point that leads us into the inevitable future era of VR, let’s remember that while Oculus has been iterating hardware and filmmakers have been building fantasies, the kids have already been practicing in a pixelated world full of creepers and obsidian. They took Markus “Notch” Persson’s system and remade it in their own image. Watching Generation Blockhead play Minecraft should, therefore, make you optimistic about the future. That is, until you realize that on a fundamental level, Minecraft’s conception of the life-world is problematic.
You’re probably wondering if I really meant to write “life-world.” What does the game-world have to do with the life-world? Aren’t games just computer-generated and programmer-authored escapes from reality? No. It is time we accept that video games are one of the primary narrative instruments for the 21st Century. Like fairy tales, mythology, and scripture, they are not simply entertainment. They are complex interactive symbol systems that teach young people how to make sense of their lived experience. It is through narrative tools like these that individuals develop a sense of identity, community, and agency. The game-world of today shapes the adult-world of tomorrow. All games teach players an implicit vision of the life-world. Recommended by Forbes
The issue with Minecraft is that, on the one hand, it offers an impressive virtual maker-space, an exercise in project-based learning that’s only barely limited by the everyday real-world restrictions of time and space. But on the other hand, it approaches its unique virtual landscape through the tired intellectual paradigms of the industrial era: the game-world is to be mined and exploited, each block is only an instrument to accomplish the individual player’s desired outcome.
Minecraft will almost certainly inspire a generation of empowered innovators with key problem solving skills, but its system lacks key components that would demonstrate real material consequences and, therefore, it doesn’t encourage the kind of ethical decision making that will be required of future pioneers.
Huddersfield Town superfan Mark Harrison has spent over a year recreating a digital version of his favourite stadium.
And he’s still hard at work developing the project, using Minecraft.
But the Moldgreen dad insists there’s plenty more work to do.
His latest 3D model of the John Smith’s Stadium, created using the popular video game, includes sections of the surrounding area such as the River Colne, the Odeon cinema and the St Andrew’s Road entrance to the complex.
So even though we have three more years until Guillermo del Toro‘sPacific Rim 2 is released, Legendary Pictures has released a teaser poster for it on their Pacific Rim Facebook feed. It features several warships about be sucked into a vortex in the ocean. It leaves a lot to the imagination, especially since there are no Kaiju and Jaegars in it. It also looks like it may take place in different location.
Del Toro also recently did an interview with Collider, and during that sit down the director talked a little big about the second film and revealed that it would pave the way for a third film. This is what he said about it:
“Some of your favorite characters come back, some others don’t because we have decided that we’re going to shoot ambitiously and say ‘Let’s hope we have three movies,’ so some characters come in at the end of the second, hoping that it will ramp up on the third one.”
I would love to see a couple more Pacific Rim movies! That first film made me feel like I was 10-years-old again, and it’s nice feeling like that sometimes. There are no confirmed details on what the story of Pacific Rim 2 will be, but we know that it will involve more giant robots fighting giant monsters. It’s set to hit theaters on April 7th, 2017.
