Nerd News: Curiosity photos, Ticket-Tooth Philip, WHEDON and more

Vol. 3, Issue 32

Holy crap, you guys. BIG news: Joss Whedon is back for Avengers 2 ... and he'll be working on that Avengers 'verse TV show. SO AWESOME. (Thanks, Mark!)

OK, I'm done fangirling. For the moment.

In other movie news:

• Thor: Dark World is filming partly in Iceland, home of all that Norse mythology business.
• And, you know, in case you were worried—Tom Hiddleston says it's going to be great. (And everyone knows, what Hiddles says is law.)
• I'm so on board for this—Jeremy Renner has been talking about a solo Hawkeye film. (1/2 point to Mark for this news.)
  
• More Catching Fire tributes have been cast: Meet Mags and Brutus and Enobaria.
• In this article, Phillip Seymour Hoffman talks about why he wanted to play the role of Plutarch Heavensbee.
• I love this new Expendables 2 poster. And yes, I did update my Facebook cover photo.

• Another thing I love? The Rock tweeting a photo from the set of Fast 6. I just can't help it.
• These images from Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing adaptation make me giddy. 
• This is good(ish) news for people who were worried about the high frame rate The Hobbitses are being filmed in. (Thanks, Wes!)
• Here's a first look at Chris Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson in the remake of Red Dawn, which will be released in November. (There's also a trailer below.)
• You might have already heard, but I somehow missed that in addition to Jackie Earle Haley, Gary Oldman, Hugh Laurie and Samuel L. Jackson have all signed on to the Robocop reboot.
• Reportedly in the works: a Prometheus sequel with Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender. You know, they only people left from the first movie.
• Aw. Bob Hoskins has been diagnosed with Parkinson's and is retiring from acting.
• Here are some set photos from The Wolverine—including some of an extremely mountain-man-y Hugh Jackman.
• Ben Affleck—yes, Ben Affleck—could possibly be the director of the Justice League movie. (Thanks, Mark.)
• There was a rumor that 20th Century Fox was interested in a rights swap with Marvel involving Daredevil and the Fantastic Four, but that has since been denied by the studios. (Thanks, Mark.) 
• The Great Gatsby's release date has been moved to summer 2013.
• Mary Elizabeth Winstead is back for A Good Day to Die Hard.
• Looks like Javier Bardem is out of the beleaguered Dark Tower project, but Russell Crowe might be in.
• Daniel Day Lewis is playing Abe Lincoln—and really looks the part.
• Ghostbusters 3 is happening, according to Dan Akroyd, but without Bill Murray. (1/2 point to Wes for this.)
• In the works: a reboot of The Little Rascals.
• Bryan Singer is still working on his Battlestar: Galactica movie.
• Mickey Rourke is in talks to reprise his role in Sin City 2.
• A new documentary takes a look at the life of the man behind the (Chewbacca) mask.
• The World of Warcraft movie has a new screenwriter.

A couple of trailers:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

(via)

Red Dawn

The style of these posters remind of of a cartoon (or something) from my childhood, but I can't recall which at the moment. (Rocky and Bullwinkle, maybe?)

(via, via)

I've posted some of Harshness's work before, but I found his Etsy site this week and there's just loads of good stuff there.

(via)

DC is now selling licensed art prints. While I like some of them, I feel like I've seen way better "unofficial" fan art.

(via)

A whole set of the Lantern Spectrum prints would be sweet, though.

In TV news:

• New Supernatural show runner says season 8 will "reboot" the series.
• More actors have joined the Doctor Who Christmas special.
• And some possible spoilers about new companion Jenna-Louise Coleman.
• Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) is working on a new show for SyFy based on a 1969 young-adult sci-fi novel called The Lotus Caves.
• Michael Raymond-James (True Blood) has joined Once Upon a Time as a yet-unannounced character. Captain Hook has been cast as well. 
• The cast of Arrested Development have begun filming new episodes. (Thanks, Colt!)
• The Guillermo del Toro-led Hulk show is "just waiting for a writer." (Thanks, Mark.)
• Could Batman make an appearance in The CW's Arrow?
• Archer's season 4 will feature a crossover with Bob's Burgers. (Thanks, Colt.)
• Here's some information on season 8 of How I Met Your Mother.
• This lies firmly in a "things I really don't need" category: a reboot of The Brady Bunch starring Vince Vaughn.

A couple of teasers:

Grimm

(via)

Revolution

(via)

I like this. (Minimalism+The Doctor=Awesome, always.)

(via)

(I might have posted this before. It feels familiar, but I scrolled through my nearly 2,000 Nerd News image files and didn't see it ...)

These illustrations imagine what the Doctors would look like if their Y chromosome got switched with an X. (Although, to be fair, I have no idea what Time Lord DNA is like, so I could be totally off base with that genetic assumption.)

(via)

SCIENCE! And tech news:

• This is a seriously epic photo of Curiosity during landing. And one of the heat shield. (Thanks, Colt.)
• Here's a video of the descent, from NASA.
• And, Curiosity has finally opened her eyes.
• Has definitive proof of the Loch Ness monster been found?
• While we're talking cryptozoology—Is this the best photo of Sasquatch ever?

From TCC, in comic news:

• Here's a pretty comprehensive post of what's known so far about Marvel NOW!

TGG offered up some info on the TMNT annual issue from Kevin Eastman. (I feel like there's going to be a lot of crossover between these two.)

Related to both SCIENCE! and comics, this fan-made Curiosity rover/Doctor Who comic is short, but totally on point. The first page (of three) is below.

From TGG, in gaming news:

• Here are details on the Mass Effect 3 Leviathan and Firefight DLCs.  (I still haven't played the alternate ending DLC, shame on me.) Also, the Firefight weapons pack is out today.
• Soon, you'll be able to play ME3 on the Wii U.
• The Scott Pilgrim XBox Live game is getting DLC ... two years after the game was released.
• If you're a fan of both Cooking Mama games and Breaking Bad, your day has just been made.
• Sony is releasing game collections for the PS3, starting with the God of War and Infamous series.
• The Star Trek: Infinite Space MMO has been canceled.
• This trailer for "tweedpunk" game Sir, You are Being Hunted looks really great. Plus, I now know there is such a thing as tweedpunk, and that's even greater.
• The Day Z mod for the PC game Arma 2—"a hyper-realistic military combat simulator, like Call of Duty, but if EVERYTHING was realistic and accurate"—is becoming its own game.
• Here's a trailer for Zombeer, a new game which somehow combines zombies and beer. Oh, and there are cheerleaders.
• If QWOP was too realistic for you, try CLOP. With 100% more unicorns.
• Valve will be launching more non-game software on their platform this September.
• And this Matrix video is an example of just how awesome the Valve movie software can be.
• That virtual reality headset I linked to last week? It was fully funded in a day.
• Amazon has moved into the realm of game development with the new Amazon Game Studios.

And TCC ran across the news that Marvel: War of Heroes, a digital battle card game, has been announced. (See what I mean?)

These Shepard and Tali figures are really really ridiculously good looking. (Thanks, Mark.)

(via)

Haha! I love Patrick Stewart. And Simon Pegg. Ryan Lochte, not so much.

(via)

I've long been a fan of Annie Leibovitz's Disney Dream Portrait series, and these two new photos are no exception:

(via)

In case you missed any along the way, here's a collection of all of the photos.

And finally, I will eventually have a child. And when that eventuality becomes reality, you best believe he or she will have a SUPER nerdy nursery like this one. (Thanks, Shaun!)

(via)

I still really, really want that Wampa rug.