Octogeek – 24th June

The Octogeek (Geektopus?) has 8 arms for gathering geek news. One for each day of the week and one left over for you know, octopus stuff.

Movies

Hulk
There isn’t a Hulk movie in the works. Why is this news? Well it’s not, however the reason why there is no Hulk movie is news. When Avengers hit big everyone wanted to know why the hugely popular and all round huge, Hulk didn’t get his own movie with Mark ‘Rufio’ Ruffalo. Now we kind of have an answer.

Forbes reports that when Universal failed to make a sequel to Ang Lee’s Hulk, the rights to make Hulk movies reverted to Marvel but they still kept distribution rights. That’s why when Marvel made The Incredible Hulk with Edward Norton, Universal distributed it. Marvel (or parent company Disney) could still buy out that deal like they did with Paramount when they held the rights to the Iron Man movies. One other reason though is that it Hulk stand alone movies never did so well and all that CGI Hulk costs mola.

Bourne Identity 5
Juilia Stiles has apparently saved the last dance (she was in that wasn’t she?) for Jason Bourne. We knew some time ago that Matt Damon (Maaaaaaat Daamonnn!) was to return for another Bourne film but now Julia (I call her Julia as she sometimes comes round to mine for a game of Risk) is to return to the franchise too. The villain of the movie is said to be Viggo Mortensen but that hasn’t yet been confirmed.

Daddy’s Home
For anyone who liked The Other Guys there’s a new comedy on the way starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg.
The trailer’s been released and it looks like it could be good for a few yuks. Will (I call him that cos he came round to my house one time to borrow my copy of Schindler’s List, he still hasn’t returned it) plays the straight laced step dad and Mark (I call him that because it’s easier to type than Mark Wahlberg) plays the cool real dad.

Dragon Blade
I’ve saved the best and weirdest movie news ’til last. There’s a trailer out for a bizarre combination of John Cusack, Jackie Chan, Adrian Brodie, action, swords, sandals and all round epic-ness. It’s been a massive hit in its native China and now it’s headed our way.

It looks like they threw a shit ton of money at this one, jammed it with some B list Hollywood stars and gave it an instantly forgettable generic action movie name. Here’s the synopsis and the trailer. It looks like awesome epic nonsense. It’ll be worth watching just to see John Cusack as a roman soldier – that man is not suited to period dress unless he’s playing Edgar Alan Poe. Also, Jackie Chan has a beard.

When corrupt Roman leader Tiberius (Adrien Brody) arrives with a giant army to claim the Silk Road, Huo An (Jackie Chan) and his group of trained warriors teams up with an elite legion of defected Roman soldiers led by General Lucius (John Cusack) to maintain the delicate balance of power in the region.

There’s a bit in the trailer where Brody screams ‘This is an outrage!’ (1.27) and all I can think of is The Mighty Boosh’s Tony Harrison. Fun Fact: Tony Harrison is Octogeek’s uncle.

TV

Fargo
Fargo is back for another season which is good news if you enjoyed this quirky little series as much as I did. I always assumed that it was just a one season kinda deal but no so. Here’s the very brief teaser to prove it.

The season won’t feature any of the cast of the first season and is set in 1979.  It will center around an incident in Sioux Falls, S.D that was mentioned in the first season. Lets hope they can do as good a job with this one as they did with the last.

True Detective
Its back! This time with a whole new story and a whole new set of characters. Its sad to see McConaughey and Woody Harrelson go but we all knew that was a one off. This time Vince Vaughn, Colin Farrell and Taylor Kitsch are our Hollywood actors turned TV cops. The first episode, if you missed it, is currently available on Sky’s ‘On Demand’ service. The rest are to be shown on Sky Atlantic every Monday. Here’s the synopsis for those that want to know more.

A bizarre murder brings together three law-enforcement officers and a career criminal, each of whom must navigate a web of conspiracy and betrayal in the scorched landscapes of California.

Hannibal
Now in its third season, it seemed to be going from strength to strength but NBC in America have decided to no longer air the show after this season finishes. This effectively means that it’s canceled. NBC don’t make the show so there is still the possibility that the show will be shopped around by other networks and online services to secure a season 4. Sky Living air the show in the UK but I reckon whether they make another season depends on them finding a distributer in the US. Watch this space I guess.

Netflix

What’s our offering for Netflix this week then? The Purge and the Sutherland/ Bacon (Kevin not streaky) classic Flatliners have been added to the list. So either one of those would be a good choice if you have some down time. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is a great show if you’re looking for comedy though. It’s not new to Netflix but if you haven’t seen it you should get on it. That’s it for this week. I’ll see y’all in 7.