Captain America: Red Skull Concept Art & The Cosmic Cube

The excitement for Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger film has been building steadily since last year when the announcement came out that director Joe Johnston (The Wolfman) would be at the helm. After a wild and rumor-filled casting process, Marvel chose Chris Evans to don the red, white and blue tights and put fans at ease with a fantastic Comic-Con presentation in San Diego last summer.

It was here they unveiled the iconic shield Captain America will use in the movie and teased lucky fans in the audience with a quick glimpse of Captain America in action and the first completed scene of the film. While we saw the shield and know what the live-action version of the iconic costume will look like, we still haven’t been introduced to the other key character of the film: The Red Skull.

Today we have a look at what Comic Book Movie claims to have verified as legit concept art for the Red Skull as well as our first look at the Cosmic Cube thanks to our friends at SFX Magazine in the U.K.

Hopefully audiences will get to see Hugo Weaving in full Red Skull makeup sometime soon – if that rumored trailer releases this month.  And if they manage to make him look like the the character depicted in this concept art, then he’ll look bad-ass.

And for our readers that aren’t able to buy the British version of SFX Magazine, they were kind enough to send us a copy of the pages containing the new Captain America pictures. See them both below:

In the Marvel canon, the Cosmic Cube is an artifact that was originally created by the alien race called the Skrulls. Knowing the Cube is in the Captain America film may help give some weight to the rumor of the Avengers battling the Skrulls and/or the Kree. If for some reason you aren’t familiar with the story for Captain America, here’s how he came to be:

After being deemed unfit for military service, Steve Rogers volunteers for a top secret research project that turns him into Captain America, a superhero dedicated to defending America’s ideals.

On a fun note – we’ve singled the picture of Hugo Weaving holding the Cosmic Cube and couldn’t help but notice that it makes a pretty darned good meme. What do you think?

It’s no surprise that expectations for Captain America: The First Avenger are very high since the character remains one of Marvel’s beloved creations and so far – other than the film being converted to 3D in post – all of the casting news, pictures and concept art look fantastic.

Captain America: The First Avenger pounds evil on July 22nd, 2011.

Follow us on Twitter for TV and Movie News @Walwus and @ScreenRant

Source: SFX, Comic Book Movie

View the original article here

Concept Art for Unmade Batman ‘Gotham High’ Animated Series

There’s a reason Batman is the most adapted comic book character of all time – from movie serials to live action television to animated television to novels to Pez dispensers to feature films (seven in all, if you don’t count Mask of the Phantasm) and so on – it’s because he’s awesome. Straight up.

Over a year ago, artists Jeffrey Thomas and Celeste Green were approached by DC to create a “spec series” based on an old drawing by Thomas. The series, which followed a teenage Bruce Wayne going to school at Gotham High, was never picked up. But now, thanks to the all-powerful, all-knowing Internet, we can look at what could’ve been.

The animated series would have adhered to those high school stereotypes we all know and love. There was the art geek (Clayface), the politically-minded class president (Two-Face), the dorky, fat kid (The Penguin), the super jock (Killer Croc), the incredibly intelligent nerdball (The Riddler), the cute, smart, girl-next-door type (Batgirl), the hipster (Scarecrow), the dangerously hot chick (Catwoman), the Jugallo (The Joker) and his Jugalette (Harley Quinn), the sexy goth girl (Poison Ivy), the meatheaded, steroid-pumping wrestler (Bane), the “cool” guy (Mr. Freeze), and, in the middle, cooler than all of them — Bruce Wayne.

Check out the concept art below, which reimagines Bruce Wayne and his rogues gallery as high school students:

And check out the original drawing that started it all:

Check out Jeff and Celeste’s synopsis for the show below:

“We all go through incredible changes as teenagers: growth spurts, bad skin, a sudden insatiable need to uphold justice and avenge your murdered parents…. Well, that is, if you’re Bruce Wayne. As if being a freshman at Gotham High wasn’t tough enough, Bruce’s insomnia and technological fascinations are taking their toll. Instead of spending his time studying, he has begun to obsess over an emerging personality trait: Batman. But under the watchful eye of his guardian and steward, Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce is forced to put his intelligence to good use: graduating high school. But given his classmates, can Bruce survive Gotham High?”

Call me certifiable, but I would’ve loved to see this thing come to fruition. At first glance, Gotham High just looks like they replaced all the X-Men characters from X-Men: Evolution with Batman and company. However, whereas I couldn’t stand Evolution – it took itself way too seriously for a show about superheroes in high school – Gotham High looks fantastic to me in a really over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek sort of way. Almost like The Muppet Babies meets Clone High meets Batman: The Animated Series, all of which are some of my all-time favorite shows. What could’ve possibly gone wrong?

I’m not saying Gotham High would’ve been as good as all those shows, or even good. I’m just saying, as long as they would’ve kept it weird, funny, and incredibly self-aware…it could’ve been.

Source: Jeff and Celeste [via io9]

View the original article here

Mozilla Calls the Future on its Concept Seabird Phone

November 30 2010 by admin in Gadgets |

The future is now, and I wants it.

We’ve come a long way since the first days of analogue mobile phones. And we’ve seen such rapid advancements in technology that it’s hard not to speculate what will happen next. The Mozilla Seabird Project did just that. The video you’ll see bellow is part of Mozilla Labs’ Concept Series, a crowdsourced experiment that explores how users might interact with multimedia content as devices and technology advance.

Thousands of users called for a goodbye to traditional desktops and hello to absolute connectivity, which designer Billy May, a Mozilla Labs community member turned into an “Open Web Concept Phone,” which later became known as “The Seabird.

May decided to play around with a few futuristic concepts in its new camera concept like Dual Pico projectors (45 Lumens @ 960X600), wireless charging, a built-in bluetooth headset with haptic clicking, 3D pan and zoom and an IR touchpad area, while keeping a few of our established industry standards like an 8.0 MP camera and mini USB port. The future looks pretty awesome, and also like its right around the corner.

N.B. Seabird is not a Mozilla or Mozilla Labs project but part of the Mozilla Labs Concept Series. Mozilla has not plans to produce a mobile phone.

Thanks to @hotlunchrecords for the tip!

View the original article here

‘Alien’ Prequel Space Jockey Concept Art Revealed?

Script Flags was sent some sketches of what are allegedly “The Space Jockeys,” and extraterrestrial race that will be featured in Ridley Scott’s upcoming Alien prequels.

Let me be clear upfront: there is no confirmation that this artwork is the official concept artwork being used by Ridley Scott and the other Alien filmmakers. That said, it is certainly worth a look.

For those who aren’t experts on the Alien franchise, “The Space Jockeys” are a mysterious alien race that appeared in Ridley Scott’s original Alien film. The Jockey (shown above) was actually an alien corpse on a crashed ship that Ripley’s (Sigourney Weaver) crew first encountered on the planet LV-426. On that same crashed vessel, Ripley’s team discovered eggs housing the face-grabbing parasites that give birth to the dreaded titular aliens.

Take a look at the suppossed Space Jockey concept art below:

CLICK FOR A LARGER IMAGE

We know that The Space Jockeys are large in size, and this suppossed concept art does in fact resemble the corpse pictured in the header image up top, which is taken from the original Alien film. So while this art isn’t confirmed to be official, it is interesting nonetheless – I would be happy to see these designs brought to life onscreen.

Previous reports about the story for the two-part Alien prequel have stated that the film will focus on the backstory of The Space Jockeys (and specifically the Jockey seen crash-landed in the first Alien film), as well as their relationship to acid-blooded alien species.

There will also have a human component – as recent Alien casting rumors have indicated. Some early (and admittedly dubious) rumors have already asserted that the prequels will deal with human/Space Jockey relations. If that’s true – if human actors and Space Jockey creatures will be sharing a lot of scenes in the film -  the designs for the Jockeys needs to be fairly impeccable, able to look eerie and alien yet relatable and expressive at the same time.

I for one am hoping that they use practical makeup/animatronic effects to bring the Jockeys to life; no need to go the CGI route, really.

What do you think of the artwork? Could it be official?

The Alien prequels are slated to be in theaters sometime in 2011. However, seeing as how they have yet to even cast a lead actor, we’ll see if they meet that deadline.

Source: Script Flags

View the original article here