Nerd News: Doctor Who returns, geek crafts, RED 2 trailer and more

Vol. 4, Issue 3

Lots of good stuff in store for you this week, friends. Read on ...

In movie news:

• Nazi scientist Dr. Arnim Zola (Toby Jones) will return in Captain America: Winter Soldier.
• Jimmy Olson might be a lady in Man of Steel.
• Did Lego spoil an as-yet-unannounced Iron Man 3 villain?
• Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey might be in the running to voice characters in Guardians of the Galaxy.
• Bruce Willis will reprise the role of Detective Hartigan in Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For. Also at the link: a bit of info on Joseph Gordon-Levitt's new character.
• Find out more about the Warm Bodies' zombies in this new interactive poster.
• Ron Howard is interested in working on a live-action adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.
• Ray Liotta will have a role in the Muppets sequel.
• Liam Neeson has signed on for another thriller/action film; in Run All Night, he plays a mob hitman ... who has to fight to save his family. (If it ain't broke, right?)
• Writers have been hired for Terminator 5.
• Warner Bros. is interested in a Gremlins remake.
• Bill Hader will run in slow motion play David Hasselhoff's character in the new Baywatch movie.

Here are a couple of trailers:

G.I. Joe Retaliation

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RED 2

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Mondo is releasing new Lord of the Rings posters today. (They will likely sell out within seconds.)

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Some actual Disney and Pixar Golden Books are illustrated in the "old style." This imagined Hobbit version totally deserves to be printed right along with them.

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In book news:

• George R. R. Martin is releasing a Game of Thrones novella about the Targaryens.
• A BioShock Infinite prequel e-book, BioShock Infinite: Mind in Revolt, will be released Feb. 12. All Amazon pre-orders of the game will receive a free copy. (Thanks, TGG!)

The fact that there's only one headbutt in all of Die Hard is a little disheartening.

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In TV news:

• Doctor Who will return March 30! But once the season's final eight episodes have aired, we might not see any more Who until 2014.
• If you're experiencing Who withdrawal, BBC America will be airing Classic Who starting this weekend.
• S.H.I.E.L.D. started filming this week! Here are a few (super ambiguous) set photos. You can also now follow along with the show on Facebook and via Twitter.
• Sherlock's third series also started production!
• Exclamation marks!
• Alex Kingston (Doctor Who, E.R.) will be playing Dinah Lance on Arrow. (Dinah Lance, in the comics, was the original Black Canary.) Whether Kingston will do any sort of butt-kicking remains to be seen.
• Body of Proof's new season has been delayed a couple of weeks.
• Jessica De Gouw, who. most recently, played Huntress on Arrow, has been cast as the Mina Harker to Jonathan Rhys Meyers' Dracula.
• Mad Men's season 6 will start April 7.
• B.J. Novak and Mindy Kaling will be back on The Office in the show's final episodes.
• HBO's next WWII series will be called Masters of the Air.
• BBC America's new series Black Orphan could be interesting.
• The CW's Hunger Games-esque show The Selection, which was supposed to air this season, has found new life next season.
• Ron Moore (Battlestar: Galactica) is working on a new show for SyFy called Helix. The show is about "a team of scientists investigating a possible disease outbreak at an Arctic research facility who find themselves trying to protect the world from annihilation."
• Amazon is working on a Zombieland series.
• A show based on the video game Fallout might be in the works.
• SyFy's ALPHAS has been cancelled.

A few promos/videos:

Community (More at the link below.)

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Game of Thrones

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The Walking Dead

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Warehouse 13

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I would totally sport this cameo on a T-shirt.

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In SCIENCE! and tech news, from The Mister:

• Minerals found underneath Mars's surface leads could help scientists learn more about the origins of life.
• Scientists have theorized what an image of a black hole might look like.
• Red supergiant star Betelgeuse is on a (long-term) collision course with a "wall" made of space dust.
• Had we been alive in the 8th Century, we might all be Hulks thanks to a blast of Gamma radiation.
• Deep Space Industries has thrown its hat into the asteroid mining ring.
• Immune system cells that can resist HIV infection have been engineered.
• Changing a body's clock might help treat disorders.
• Scientists can use particles of silicon to produce hydrogen.
• Ancient DNA found near Beijing likely belonged to relatives of present-day Asians and Native Americans.
• This new combat armor combines elements of Batman and Iron Man.
• Firefox smartphones will be released this spring.

I found a few items as well:

• Check out high-res photos of Curiosity's trail on Mars.
• A (very) fast-moving star is creating pretty patterns in space.
• NASA has beamed the Mona Lisa to the moon with data-transmitting lasers.
• Ellen Ochoa, the first Latino woman to travel into space, has just become NASA's second female director.
• The organization is also planning for an inflatable space station.
• A misinterpreted article made waves this week for suggesting that a woman was needed to birth a neanderthal baby.
• The Secret Service is considering using "bionic ears."
• A battalion of German (male) soldiers is developing (left) breasts.

Some of these illustrations seems familiar, but the style is awesome. And anything that makes Jabba cute deserves to posted frequently.

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Also super cute, the Ewok in this illustration:

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In gaming news, from TGG:

• The relaunch of the Tomb Raider series will not be getting a demo release in order to keep the story under wraps.
• Temple Run 2 is now out for iOS; the Android version will be available soon. 
• Skyrim's third DLC pack, "Dragonborn," will be available for PCs Feb. 5. PS3 players will finally get all three packs later the same month. 
• The Scott Pilgrim DLC that was supposed to come out last year might finally be on its way. 
• Lots of Wii U info was released at last night's press conference: the Wii U version of the Virtual Console app will be launching this spring; with Virtual Console, users will be able to completely customize their controller setup; and the app will allow all games to be played entirely on the Wii U screen. 
• Titles announced for the Wii U include: A new Mario 3D and Mario Kart; a Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD remake; and a new Yoshi Wii U game by the team behind Kirby's Epic Yarn.
• Blizzard has released a preview for the second StarCraft 2 game, subtitled "Heart of the Swarm," which will be released March 12.
• Bungie (the company behind Halo) sent a kid recovering from a liver transplant an awesome care package.
• Dead Space 3 players can unlock special N7 armor if they have a Mass Effect 3 save file on the same console.
• Elder Scrolls Online beta signups are now live.
• A new Lego City game, Lego City: Undercover, will be released this spring. 
• Numerous Last of Us special editions have been announced. And I do mean numerous.
• This trailer for new Japanese game Killer is Dead is "a very VERY anime trailer for a new game about assassins, and gun hands, and... love, I guess?"
• Antichamber is a new sort of puzzle game in which space and dimensions don't follow the normal rules. Check the link if you want to know more.
• TGG knows I can't resist cute things, and so therefore had to send me a link to this article about Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake, which describes it as "possibly the cutest game on Kickstarter". (It does look super cute.)
• While we're discussing cute games, new game Wonderful 101 has a cute name (but far less cute graphics). Here's a trailer for the game, which TGG describes as one "that has you controlling a large group of superheroes all at once to combine powers and take on a giant alien menace."
• This article describes how players "subconsciously impose their own morality on the games they play, even when there's no reason to in the world of the game." I'm totally guilty of this.
• Specs for the next XBox might have been leaked.
• Game developer THQ filed for bankruptcy in December and this week auctioned off its assets, which included a new South Park Game; Ubisoft (who bought the rights) will meet this year's deadline for releasing the game.
• Have you seen China's bootleg WoW theme park?

Valve's Source Filmmaker is an impressive piece of tech.

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I would like ALL of the bookmarks, please. (Thanks, Kate!)

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These nesting dolls are so pretty!

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And finally, I want this dress so badly. I'd wear it to everything.

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