Friday, April 29, 2011

Thpiffy New Thor Theme



In honor of the upcoming Thor blockbuster(which premiers on May 6th!), I've dressed our rarely seen mascot, Guardian Beaver, in the trappings of Marvel's Man-god.



Hopefully (fingers crossed), you will see similar themes posted for both Green Lantern and Captain America.*



*Also, hopefully, Marvel doesn't sue us for this. Hey, it's free advertising for the 12 people that come to our site.

Geek Deals - Thwipster - Kick-Ass

written by Mark Millar; illustrated by John Romita, Jr.
$10.99 on Thwipster.com (+$3 shipping)


Amazon.com has Kick-Ass listed for $15.02 new, with cheaper used copies.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Geek Deals - Thwipster Deal of the Day - Invincible Iron Man

We mentioned Thwipster.com last night on the podcast, and I thought it might be fun to showcase their deals for a few days.  We'll also include a link to Amazon to let you see for yourself how much of a "deal" it really is.

written by Matt Fraction; drawn by Salvador Larroca
$22.99 on Thwipster.com (+$3 shipping)


I've embedded a link to give you the latest price, but when I posted this Amazon had the same book
for $26.39, along with several cheaper used copies.

Brand Spanking New Harry Potter 7 Part 2 Trailer*

*released last night, while we were recording.

FIGcast - Episode 15 - "Do The Dance Of Dragons!"

Numfar seems confused....

FIGcast - Episode 15 - "Do The Dance Of Dragons"

Shownotes:
  • (01:43) Darren taught Rachel about football
  • (09:08) Trey went home to hang out with Harry Potter for Easter
  • (13:05) Tripp saw the premiere of Doctor Who
  • (20:40) Blu Rays
  • (24:47) Coming Attractions
  • (33:51) Box Office Results
  • (39:24) Game of Thrones held strong in the ratings, and GRRM has finished book 5
  • (55:40) Trey talks comic book movies, including Man of Steel casting and more cash for Green Lantern
Don't forget, you can email us at FullyIntegratedGeeks@gmail.com, you can follow us on Twitter with @theFIGcast, or you can look for us on Facebook or the iTunes Store.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Casting Game of Thrones - Season 2: Melisandre

HBO's Game of Thrones premiered Sunday, April 17th to rave reviews and decent ratings. That combination was enough for the network to officially greenlight a second season. We'll be getting at least 10 more episodes in the spring of 2012, covering the events of the second book, A Clash of Kings.

If you've read the series, you know that means we'll be seeing a host of new characters, in addition to the favorites who managed to survive season 1. I've always been a huge fan of casting speculation, so I'm channeling my excitement for season 2 into a series of posts where I cast the major roles. And don't forget, Sean Bean and Peter Dinklage were the fan favorites to play Ned & Tyrion, so who knows, maybe I'll actually get one right along the way.


Melisandre
Art by Amoka
Melisandre is a follower of R'hllor from the port city of Asshai, southeast of the Free Cities & the Dothraki Sea of Essos.  She travels to Dragonstone at the beginning of ACoK to meet Stannis Baratheon, and becomes a major player in our story.  R'hllor is also known The Lord of Light, The Heart of Fire and The God of Flame & Shadow.  He is a popular deity in the lands of Essos and beyond, but is virtually unknown in the Seven Kingdoms.  Melisandre is described as "beautiful, with a slender figure, full breasts, and a heart-shaped face. He hair is burnished copper, her eyes are red, and her skin is pale. She always wears red." - (from Tower of the Hand)

















Rachel Hurd-Wood
I'm going to cheat a bit here, and say that my realistic pick for Melisandre is some Scandinavian actress none of us have ever heard of before.  It makes perfect sense, both in terms of finding someone who has pale skin and red hair (or who wouldn't look ridiculous with red hair), and because the accent would do some of the character work in establishing her as hailing from a very Different place.

That being said, of the people I was able to find, I'd cast Rachel Hurd-Wood. She's a terrific young actress who first appeared on the international scene playing Wendy in the 2003 version of Peter Pan.  She then played Betsy, the main character in 2005's An American Haunting.  She also had a major role in the 2006 German film Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.  She most recently appeared in Tomorrow, When The War Began, a sort-of Australian Red Dawn movie where teens fight a guerrilla war against an invading army.  The biggest argument against Ms. Hurd-Wood will likely be her age.  She'll turn 21 this summer.  I wasn't ever able to find a specific reference to Melisandre's age in the books, but I'm sure many people will equate age with gravitas.  That aside, I like what I've seen from her thus far on screen, and I think she's someone who has some level of fame, but would also be game for acting in a show on HBO for a year (or more?).

P.S. - click here to see a picture of her with much more extreme red hair, albeit from when she was considerably younger.

--------

NEXT TIME:  I haven't decided for sure, I may finish out the Dragonstone trio with Davos Seaworth, or I might start thinking about the Tullys.

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PREVIOUS GoT S2 CASTING SPECULATION:
Stannis Baratheon

Thursday, April 21, 2011

FIGclub - Fahrenheit 451 - Part 3



In the third edition of our book club, we discuss "Burning Bright", the final section of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. This is definitely a spoiler-y podcast, so don't listen if you don't want to know how the story ends.

FIGclub - Fahrenheit 451 - Part 3


Wednesday, April 20, 2011

FIGcast - Episode 14 - Supplemental Post


In episode 14 we discussed Game of Throne's opening credits. In the course of our conversation, we compared it to Rome's opening credits. Just in case you are not familiar with the credits in question, I've reposted them here.



FIGcast - Episode 14 - "Self-Depreciating Asides"

I hope you all survived the thermonuclear warfare.

FIGcast - Episode 14 - "Self-Depreciating Asides" (no, not self-deprecating, that's different)

Shownotes

We also have the final part of our Fahrenheit 451 discussion, but that's for another post.

Don't forget, you can email us at FullyIntegratedGeeks@gmail.com, you can follow us on Twitter with @theFIGcast, or you can look for us on Facebook and the iTunes Store.

Casting Game of Thrones - Season 2: Stannis Baratheon

HBO's Game of Thrones premiered Sunday night to rave reviews and decent ratings. That combination was enough for the network to officially greenlight a second season of the show. We'll be getting at least 10 more episodes in the spring of 2012, covering the events of the second book, A Clash of Kings.

If you've read the series, you know that means we'll be seeing a host of new characters on screen, in addition to the favorites who managed to survive season 1. I've always been a huge fan of casting speculation, so I'm channeling my excitement for season 2 into the start of a series of posts where I cast the major roles. And don't forget, Sean Bean and Peter Dinklage were the early favorites to play Ned & Tyrion, so who knows, maybe I'll actually get one right along the way.

Stannis Baratheon Art by Amoka
Stannis is the middle Baratheon brother, younger than Robert and older than Renly. He is mentioned in Game of Thrones, but never seen. When Jon Arryn died, Stannis was the Master of Ships and sat on the Small Council. By the time everyone makes it back to King's Landing from Winterfell, Stannis has left for his home on Dragonstone.

Stannis is a major player in future installments of the series. For most of the Rebellion, he was under siege as the commander of the forces at the Baratheon's home and castle, Storm's End. When Eddard broke the siege, Stannis was sent to the last Targaryen stronghold, Dragonstone, to find the Queen & her two remaining children, Viserys & Daenerys. By the time he arrived, they had fled.

Robert installed Stannis as the new Lord of Dragonstone, and put him in charge of the navy. Stannis is the most somber and conservative of the Baratheon brothers, and he feels slighted that his younger brother Renly was given Storm's End. He is described as "broad-shouldered and sinewy with leathery skin and a pinched, narrow face. He has only a fringe of black hair remaining around his head and a close-copped beard covering a square jaw. He has dark blue eyes." (from Tower of the Hand)


Brian F. O'Byrne
Here's my realistic choice for Stannis. He was born in Ireland, even though he's been living and working out of New York City for the last 20 years, so he could actually work for the production without a bunch of red tape. He's about 4 years younger than Mark Addy, our Robert, so he fits in the right age range. He's 6'2, so he has the physicality to fit in with his brothers, but he's not as heavily built. He's been nominated for 3 Tony Awards, and won it in 2004. He's got an in with HBO, having just appeared in the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce. Best of all, he's somewhat familiar to American audiences, having appeared in the terrible ABC show FlashForward, and the under-rated Showtime series Brotherhood. Short of pulling a major movie star for the role, I think Brian O'Byrne is perfect for this part.








NEXT TIME: I'm pretty sure my second post will be on Melisandre, the Red Lady.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

HBO Greenlights Season Two of Game of Thrones

If you've listened to the podcast, you know Darren and I are big fans of the book series that spawned HBO's Game of Thrones. Now, 36 hours after the premiere of the TV show, HBO has renewed it for a second season. I'm incredibly excited, and I hope this will encourage more people to watch the first episode knowing they now have at least 20 hours of epic storytelling ahead of them. We'll be talking more about our impressions of Episode 1 on tomorrow's podcast.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

FIGclub - Fahrenheit 451 - Part 2




This is the second part of our discussion on the Ray Bradbury classic. If you're not afraid of spoilers, give us a listen while we talk about "The Sieve & The Sand".

FIGclub - Fahrenheit 451 - Part 2




FIGcast - Episode 13 - "Used Comics & Sadness"

This week's title describes Trey's home life.

FIGcast - Episode 13 - "Used Comics & Sadness"

Shownotes
  • (01:55) Darren went to the flea market
  • (08:10) Trey read comics (and was sad)
  • (16:45) Tripp saw Your Highness
  • (22:50) The Man of Steel has a bad guy, kneel before him
  • (50:20) We debut our Comic Book Movie Database
  • (72:53) Blu Rays, (84:03) Coming Attractions & (91:10) Box Office Results

We also have the second part of our Fahrenheit 451 discussion, but that's for another post.

Monday, April 11, 2011

New Zod and Young Ra's

Over the last few days some very villainous casting details have been confirmed for Dark Knight Rises and Superman: Man of Steel (now just titled Man of Steel).

On Friday is was announced that Josh Pence will be bringing Ra's Al Ghul back to the big screen in Dark Knight Returns flashbacks. This makes perfect sense considering all signs point to Ra's daughter Talia making an appearance.


Then yesterday, it was announced that Michael Shannon would be playing the megalomaniacal Kryptonian General Zod. For those keeping score at home, this news means that four out of the five cast members have been nominated for an Oscar for their craft.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

FIGclub - Fahrenheit 451 - Part 1


We decided to do these "book club" recordings as a separate episode each week. We're talking about "Part 1 - The Hearth & The Salamander". Give it a read, then give us a listen. We'll be back discussing Part 2 on April 13th.

FIGclub - Fahrenheit 451 - Part 1



FIGcast - Episode 12 - "Naked Harry Potter"

The title is an Equus reference. You'll have to listen to find out why.

FIGcast - Episode 12 - "Naked Harry Potter"

Shownotes:


We've also got the first Fahrenheit 451 discussion, but it's going to be its own mini-episode. Look for another post here, or it will show up in iTunes just like this episode.

Friday, April 1, 2011

FIGclub - Fahrenheit 451 - An Intro

We talked about this on the podcast this week, but we're gonna try something a little new on the show next week.

We're doing a Book Club!!!

Ok, now that you've contained your excitement...the idea is that we'll pick a book, and tell all of you. Then over the course of a month we'll read through the book, and each week we'll do a segment on the podcast where we talk about how we liked it, what we think might happen next, etc.

So, if you want to read along with us, great. If you don't, you have two choices. You can either listen anyway, and you'll learn all about the book, and then you can act like you've read it and impress all your friends. Or, you can not listen to that section. Our first thought was to just do it as the very last segment of the FIGcast. That way, if you want to avoid spoilers, you can just turn it off. Now we're leaning towards the idea of making it a separate file. It will download on the same feed, so you don't have to do anything new to get it.

Now, onto the first book. We're going to read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. On the show we said we were going to read the first quarter of the book in time for our April 6th episode, but that was before we realized that 451 is both VERY short, and only divided into three big chapters. So, basically, we're reading "Part 1: The Hearth & The Salamander". We'll read Part 2 for the April 13th episode, and Part 3 for the April 20th episode. We'll probably just take the week of the 27th off, before (hopefully) starting a new book in May.