Starting 18 hours ago, and good for 48 hours only, you can download a free copy of The Way of Kings, the first volume of The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. To get your free copy you have to sign up for the Tor email that tells you about new Sci-Fi/Fantasy books, not a bad thing in my opinion. And of course you can opt out at any time.
After a decade of various US companies trying to bring a live-action version of Death Note to the screen, Netflix has finally posted the first trailer for their upcoming release. It will be very interesting to compare it with the Asian live-action TV series, which you can watch online for free at the previous link, which will take you to Crunchyroll. The Netflix version will be hitting the small screen on August 25th.
We get several interesting options this weekend, and while Power Rangers looks pretty campy just like it should, it also looks like they might take a more serious shot at the franchise. Leaning to the Horror side, Life has six astronauts vs. a single celled organism returned from Mars that can out-think them. In the Bollywood fantasy Phillauri, a man must marry a tree to break a curse, but the spirit of that tree has her own agenda.
Assassin’s Creed was a great game and an excellent premise for a movie; I don’t know if it succeeded or not, because I haven’t seen it yet. The critics seemed to be underwhelmed, with “confusing” and “disorienting” being the two words most often used to describe it. I don’t know if that’s because none of them ever played the game, or the script was that poorly done, but either way I will stream it before I consider buying it. I also haven’t seen Sing, but there is no question that this animation needs to be a part of my permanent collection. In Anime the new title is Attack on Titan: Junior High, probably the silliest series from this franchise, but still very worth watching. We also get a S.A.V.E. edition of BlazBlue: Alter Memory; The Complete Series, for those who haven’t seen it before now.
DAOKO is an energetic J-Pop artist from Tokyo who recently had one of her songs selected to be the end theme for Shingeki no Bahamut Virgin Soul. Not bad for someone who posted their home made music videos to Nico Nico Douga, and had one of them take off. The first track is Daisuki with TeddyLoid, the second is If we are the Protagonists of the Game, the third is just called Bang. And I threw in a Rage of Bahamut Virgin Soul trailer at the end.
Everything you need to know is in the title; the Hillywood Show is a brilliant parody presentation put together by Hilly & Hannah Hindi, some truly twisted sisters who combine music, dance, and video production to create some of the most amazing short films you can find these days. It shouldn’t be a shock that they have been parodying such pop culture icons as Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Lord Of The Rings, Supernatural, and Sherlock. The real shock value comes from the fact that their fan base includes the casts of Supernatural and Doctor Who, actor/artists like Billy Boyd, Lady Gaga, and Sean Astin, writers/directors like Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, and production houses including BBC America and MTV. With the key players you are creating your parodies from being in the front row of your cheering squad, you have to know you have gotten it right!