If you are anxiously awaiting the new season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” you are not alone. However, there is a new mobile app that might help make the wait a little easier to bear. “A World of Ice and Fire” is a brand new iPhone and iPad app that helps fans of the book and television series keep track of the ever mounting list of characters, locations, and Houses throughout the series.
Although the app uses the book for references rather than the television series, fans of the “Game of Thrones” should have no trouble using the app.
The app is free, but without buying content the app only gives basic information on some characters and places. for $1.99, you can gain access to more information about the characters for the first book and $0.99 for each subsequent novel or $4.99 for everything in the app. The $4.99 purchase saves $1 over buying the pack individually. After buying the “InfoPacks” users can tell the app where they read to in the series so they can avoid any spoilers.
The app seems to be most helpful to those reading the series as the ever growing character list can get confusing as well as the different Houses and the locations of Essos and Westeros. The maps will help readers find where the characters are in relation to one another, which is especially useful when war breaks out in the realm.
A World of Ice and Fire is currently available for iPhone and iPad, though Mashable says versions of the app are coming for Android and Nook tablets sometime in the future.
Lionsgate announced that they have entered final negotiations to aquire the film rights to R.J. Palacio’s bestselling debut novel “Wonder” and has entered talks with “Frankenweenie” scribe John August to adapt the pre-teen tale, which David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman are producing for Mandeville Films.
Wonder follows a 10-year-old boy named Auggie whose facial deformity prevented him from attending a mainstream school. Starting fifth grade at a new school, he struggles to convince his new classmates that, despite appearances, he’s just like them. Story explores the theme of bullying and is told from multiple points of view.
The novel has done extremely well since it’s release. It has sold more than 15,000 copies worldwide between print and ebooks and spent 32 weeks on the New York Times’ bestseller list since its publication in February. It has been long-listed for the Carnegie Medal and the UKLA Book Award, two of the most prestigious and well-known children’s book awards in the U.K.
Lionsgate is currently working on several other major adaptation such as the adaptation of Patrick Ness’ dystopian sci-fi tale “Chaos Walking” and the last two “Hunger Games” pics based on Suzanne Collins’ “Mockingjay.”
Mandelville also has a few high profile adaptation readying for release such as developing “Swiss Family Robinson” and “Jungle Cruise” for Disney and Summit’s zombie romancer “Warm Bodies” and Relativity Media’s comedy “21 and Over.”
August previously worked with Tim Burton on writing “Big Fish,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Corpse Bride” and “Frankenweenie. He also aided in the adaptation of “Dark Shadows,” to film. He recently adapted the Monsterpocalypse strategy game for a DreamWorks film and Garth Ennis’ comicbook “Preacher” for Sony.
While the deal has yet to be closed, it appears to be lining up to be final in the next few weeks.
Lionsgate is already promoting the highly anticipated next film, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire which releases in theaters and IMAX on November 22, 2013. The studio has begun the promotions by releasing a brand new motion poster that can be seen above.
Catching Fire is directed by Francis Lawrence and sees the return of main cast members Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Lenny Kravitz, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland. However, with a new set of games comes a new set of tributes and actors. New cast additions include Jena Malone, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amanda Plummer, Lynn Cohen, Patrick St. Esprit, Meta Golding, Bruno Gunn, Alan Ritchson, E. Roger Mitchell, Maria Howell, Stephanie Leigh Schlund, Sam Claflin and Jeffrey Wright.
Beginning where the first film and novel left off, Catching Fire shows the aftermath of Katniss and Peeta returning from the 74th Hunger Games both as victors. Embarking on a Victor’s Tour, Katniss and Peeta realize the implications of their actions while civil unrest grows throughout Panem. Soon the 75th Hunger Games, Quarter Quell edition, are being prepared and its revealed that there is a special twist that will change Panem forever.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire will be released November 22, 2013.
McG’s Wonderland Sound & Vision and Red Crown Prods. have announced that they are adapting “School of Fear” for the big screen. The children’s book series was written by Gitty Daneshvari. McG will be producing the adaptation and will be looking for a director.
The first book in the trilogy was published in 2010 and follows four children, all suffering from phobias, who are sent to the exclusive yet secretive school where they conquer their fears and survive a perilous final test.
Graham King acquired the movie feature rights to “School of Fear” back in 2007 before it had been published. However, the rights lapsed and Red Crown picked up the project. They later brought the project to Wonderland and McG.
It was also announced that Mary Viola and Scott Fischer will produce for Wonderland with Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Daniel Crown and Riva Marker producing for Red Crown. Mike Saunders and Daneshvari will executive produce.
“We’re a bunch neurotic New Yorkers so Gitty’s story really resonated with us,” Marker told Variety. “We get a ton of submissions but we think this has franchise potential.”
Daniel Mackey is set to write the script. He recently wrote the second season of Wonderland’s “Aim High” series.
There is no word on a project release date or who will be directing the project.
It was recently announced that Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Good Universe have acquired multipicture rights to Susan Ee’s bestselling Amazon Publishing book series ANGELFALL. Raimi, most know for his work on the Spider-Man trilogy, and Tapert, known for his work on The Possession, are set to produce the adaptation.
The novel was initially self-published and later released through Amazon Children’s Publishing after being courted by multiple publishing houses. Angelfall became an instant success across a broad demographic of readers resonating with the ravenous young adult crowd as well as adults. The book ranked #1 on Amazon’s Most Wished For Teen Book list and #1 best seller in Sci-fi & Fantasy. Susan Ee is a lawyer turned writer and Angelfall is her debut novel.
Lucy Stille of Paradigm brokered the deal on behalf of Susan Ee whose book she first read as a self-published e-book and took on the project immediately because she so believed in the potential of the franchise. The deal was negotiated for the producers by Dan Freedman.Aaron Lam brought the book to the producers. Nicole Brown will oversee for Good Universe.
Raimi commented on the acquisition saying.
“Susan is a brilliant writer. She has created a fantastic world with instantly engaging and real characters. I immediately connected with the material and knew that she had conceived the perfect combination for a great fantasy film.”
The official synopsis of the novel is as follows:
Six weeks after angels of the apocalypse descend to demolish the modern world, street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back… even if that means making a deal with an enemy angel Raffe, a warrior who has been left bleeding and wingless. Having only each other to rely on for survival, the two journey towards the angel’s stronghold where she must risk everything to rescue her sister and he must decide whether to put himself at the mercy of his enemies for the chance to be made whole again.
The second book in the series will release in Fall 2013.
Sony has officially released the debut trailer and a brand new poster for the upcoming big screen adaptation of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Opening in theaters on August 23, 2013, the Harald Zwart-directed film stars Lily Collins, Jaime Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan, Jemima West, Kevin Segers, Kevin Durand, Robert Maillet, Lena Headey, Jared Harris, Godfrey Gao, Aidan Turner, CCH Pounder and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
City of Bones is the first novel of the hit YA series, The Mortal Instruments, written by Cassandra Clare.
The official plot description of the novel is as follows:
Set in contemporary New York City, a seemingly ordinary teenager, Clary Fray, discovers she is the descendant of a line of Shadowhunters, a secret cadre of young half-angel warriors locked in an ancient battle to protect our world from demons. After the disappearance of her mother, Clary must join forces with a group of Shadowhunters, who introduce her to a dangerous alternate New York called Downworld, filled with demons, warlocks, vampires, werewolves and other deadly creatures.
It is set to be released in theaters on August 23, 2013.
You can see the trailer for the upcoming adaptation below:
Picture images of little kitties playfully spinning about with a meme tagging the photo “Calgon, take me away” or imagine a video of a massive St. Bernard so scared to go down a stairwell as his owner tries to lure him down that all he can do is cower and whine at the thought. These are the types of things you can view on the website icanhas.cheezburger.com. They are cute and they are funny.
Founder and CEO of Cheezburger Inc, which landed on The Wall Street Journal’s 2012 list of top 50 U.S. venture-backed companies, Ben Huh has a very simple philosophy: “We want people to make each other happy.” It seems to be working because, according to the Wall Street Journal, the company now has $32 million in venture funding. Cheezburger asks for user-generated content, which is reviewed by the employees and highlighted on the home page.
The website is so huge that Bravo has based a television series on it called “LOLwork,” and it’s basically a show about how to make the Internet funny. It highlights amusing animals, funny videos and the swift and nimble rise of Internet pop culture and the people behind the Web pages.
“Platform of Humor”
Cheezburger’s motto is to “make people laugh 5 minutes a day.” The I Can Has Cheezburger? website is not about cheeseburgers or food at all; it’s about funny cats, adorable dogs and kooky animals of all kinds. It highlights images and videos capturing our domesticated and loveable furry (sometimes furless) friends adorned with quick-witted grammatically incorrect captions. That’s it. But that seems to be enough.
The employees at Cheezburger work all day to understand what users want to see, so they research what is trending and put that on their website. It isn’t easy creating content that is not only funny but appropriate for all ages to view. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Huh says they want to avoid the “starfish” shots (this is when an animal is showing too much anus) and obeying the rule “absolutely no dead cats” (being sure there are no posts of animals that did not survive the highlighted incident) is a testament to their values and convictions.
Not only do they operate the website I Can Has Cheezburger but also Fail Blog, Memebase, ROFLrazzi and The Daily What — all of which offer different types of humorous content, not strictly animal-based.
From Cheezburger to “LOLwork”
Going from icanhas.cheezburger.com to the Bravo TV Network, “LOLwork” is quite a leap for this Seattle-based Internet company of 90 employees. While not all of the staff will appear on the show, the ones that do are quirky, charismatic and quite-curious computer gurus who create content, debate about what is and isn’t funny and argue, but this documentary is low drama. It’s more a tongue-in-cheek view of the world behind what we see everyday on our computers. The things happening behind the scenes are really happening in their lives and not scripted.
Their jobs are strange, their work is odd and that is just normal to these employees. They aren’t actors but they do know they are being filmed. So their “normal” may be a little over the top, and that is OK because they are all awkwardly entertaining.
What’s Up With Ben Huh
Cheezburger is “a thesis about the Internet; (the Internet) needs it’s own platform for humor, so we are going to let people express their sense of humor and remix it to create something brand new,” explains Huh on Forbes.com. Huh was named Entreprenuer of the Year in media and entertainment for the Pacific Northwest region by Ernst & Young, reports The Seattle Times. With a network of online humor sites, the Cheezburger Network’s fan base is at 20 million users monthly.
Written by Casey Farley.
The first film review Casey ever wrote was on a McDonald’s napkin. It said E.T. = awesome! He was 5.
It was announced today that actor Sean Penn is set to star in an upcoming action movie franchise. Penn is currently in negotiations for the upcoming film adaptation of Prone Gunman, an action thriller being produced by Silver Pictures’ Joel Silver and Andrew Rona.
Prone Gunman is based on the novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette. The story centers on an international operative named Martin Terrier (Penn) who is betrayed by the organization he works for and must go on the run in a relentless game of cat-and-mouse across Europe.
Martin Terrier is a hired killer who wants out of the game—so he can settle down and marry his childhood sweetheart. After all, that’s why he took up this profession! But the Organization won’t let him go: they have other plans. Once again, the gunman must assume the prone shooting position. A tour de force, this violent tale shatters as many illusions about life and politics as bodies.
Manchette has been described as leftist French author, and his books — in the French noir genre — as an existentialist and involving explorations of politics as well as the human condition. Sound’s right up Penn’s alley who is most known for his high-profile roles such as gay politician in Milk to a lost soul in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, as well as winning a pair of Oscars along the way.
Peter Travis is writing the script. StudioCanal is financing the project and is currently looking for a director to helm the adaptation.
There is no word of who else may be attached to the project or an anticipated release date.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura and David Goyer has announced they are teaming up to produce a feature film adaptation of The Breach, written by Patrick Lee. Justin Rhodes is set to adapt the screenplay and Goyer is the only producer attached. No director has been officially announced.
The novel which was published in 2009 and Patrick’s other novels include Ghost Country and Deep Sky.
The official plot of the novel is as follows:
Travis Chase, a man putting his life back together after fifteen years in prison, takes a solo hike into the Alaskan Rockies. He’s just looking for a quiet place to think about his future, but what he finds is trouble: a 747, downed in remote wilderness, the wreck impossibly undiscovered by authorities. Those aboard are dead, though not because of the crash. They’ve been shot.
This aircraft, along with the terrifying object it was transporting, is only the beginning for Travis. Within hours he finds himself at the center of a violent conflict that spans the globe, and a secret war that dates back three decades. A war for possession of radically advanced technology—that wasn’t created by human hands.
There has been no word yet on who will star in the adaptation or a projected release date.
We (and the rest of the collective internets) reported on the 20th anniversary release of Jurassic Park: 3D earlier this year as it is set to return to theaters on April 5th 2013. Today, the re-release has unveiled a brand new poster which you can see above.
Next Summer marks the 20th anniversary of the big screen adaptation of the 1990 novel written by Michael Crichton. The film featured a cast that includes Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough and many more.
Jurassic Park was initially released in 1993 and was directed by Steven Spielberg. The film centers on the fictional Isla Nublar near Costa Rica in the Central American Pacific Coast, where a billionaire philanthropist and a small team of genetic scientists have created an amusement park of cloned dinosaurs. The novel was already amidst a film rights bidding war before it was even published with Universal Studios winning out.
Over the years, Jurassic Park has remained one of the most loved films as well as being highly regarded as a landmark in the use of computer-generated imagery, and received positive reviews from most critics. During its release, the film grossed over $900 million worldwide, becoming the highest grossing film released up to that time (surpassing E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and surpassed four years later by Titanic), and it is currently the 23rd-highest-grossing feature film (adjusted for inflation, it is the 20th-highest-grossing film in North America). It is the highest grossing film produced by Universal and directed by Steven Spielberg.
Jurassic Park 3D will hit theaters next summer, April 5th, 2013 with a trailer set to be released later this week.
