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One of the things we talked about this week was the ousting of Edward Norton from the Avengers movie by Kevin Feige in a not so diplomatic announcement. Quoting here from the press release…

“We have made the decision to not bring Ed Norton back to portray the title role of Bruce Banner in the Avengers. Our decision is definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members. The Avengers demands players who thrive working as part of an ensemble, as evidenced by Robert, Chris H, Chris E, Sam, Scarlett, and all of our talented casts. We are looking to announce a name actor who fulfills these requirements, and is passionate about the iconic role in the coming weeks.”

Strong words any way you slice it. It was pretty well documented that Norton and Feige clashed heads over the final cut of the Incredible Hulk film two years ago and we all know how that ended. So maybe Norton was right? Maybe Feige blames Norton for the Hulk’s middling box office returns? (IMHO the movie relied way too much on CGI trickery and action at the expense of character and story) Who knows? Fact is Norton is out and now we’ll get the 3rd actor in 7 years to play the part of Dr. Bruce Banner.

Honestly it’s too bad. I think Norton brought a lightness and charm to Banner that had been missing since the Original TV series and is only now being rediscovered in the comics. Also, I’d rather have an actor who willing to fight for a better movie than one who’s just willing to play ball. That said, I’m typing on a blog and don’t have to make multi-million dollar decisions. So, there’s that.

We also talk about some other stuff but if you’re reading this you’ve probably listened to the podcast already.

(I would like a DVD release of Norton’s cut of the film, BTW)

I think we are up to seventy. New episode is right here. I did not watch a single frame (or interlaced frame portion) of the Emmys this year. I don’t think I did last year either. After a while it’s just nice to find out who won after (or, on this coast, before) they air and not have to sit through hours of the awards actually being given out. Once again Antiques Roadshow was robbed of its rightful glory. I’ll be starting an online campaign to move it over to Best Dramatic Series for next year, so keep an eye out for that and add your futile e-signature to it if you agree with me.

I talked a little bit about Scribblenauts this week. I don’t know if I quite adequately explained what it is, so I’ve embedded the trailer below. Just watching it has given me some ideas of things to go and try out. It’s not particularly challenging yet, which is fine because it’s essentially a kids game, but it does make you think in new ways and kind of redefines the limits of what a game can do. Right now it almost seems to be more about the underlying concept than the actual execution, but I would imagine if there is a Scribblenauts 2 they’ll hammer out some of the physics issues and weird gameplay quirks and make something really amazing.

So we had an inordinate amout of crashes this week while recording the show, but it turned out to be a corrupt GarageBand template so a quick rebuild of our show template fixed everything and allowed us to continue on with the show, just in time to save Doug from storming out in disgust. Unfortunately, the crashes forced us to skip over some talk about True Blood’s second season as well as Hung’s opening episode. I know that Doug has departed the True Blood train after last season’s finale, but I’m still enjoying it quite a bit.  True Blood’s  strange, almost novel like pacing of the story along with the it’s capacity to throw you a wild curve ball in the middle of everything is a welcome change from most shows that follow a predictable formula (RE: CSI : Law and Order Bosnia). As far as Hung is concerned, I haven’t seen it yet, but I do think it’s funny that Doug associates Thomas Jane with Boogie Nights and I just think of him as The Punisher from the lackluster film.

Here are some links to the some of the things we mentioned this week including the rockin’ “Ring Capacity” song from my “Best Thing” this week.

Kirby Krackle – http://www.kirbykracklemusic.com/

Dead Rising and some annoying video of the damn convicts in the game – http://www.capcom.com/deadrising/ -  annoying convicts link here

The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Trailer

And some information about not getting chipped against your will – link

We were a day late recording the new episode, but our reason is a sound one. The Microsoft E3 Press Briefing was this morning and we were fortunate enough to attend and watch as Microsoft showed a few games and then trotted out celebrities such as Yoko Ono, Steven Spielberg, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr. They didn’t really do anything, but I think they were there just so we could all see the immense and unavoidable power of Microsoft. I do not know how Sony or Nintendo will top this although I have heard rumors of Mario himself showing up at the Nintendo conference to announce to the world that “Itsa me!”

We are very heavy on the video game news up front, but we then return to our normal entertainment coverage. Included therein is a discussion on the Alien prequel that is being set up at Fox. I think we can all (all five of us) agree this is a horrible idea. I mentioned director Carl Rinsch (I’m not totally sure if he’s German or not) and his pretty amazing commercial reel, which can be seen here. They’re really all quite cool, and I especially like the last on the list, “Fred.” While the rest rely on a great deal of CGI, this one’s a little more grounded. These spots certainly show the guy has an amazing vision, but does that mean he should direct a movie which has almost no reason to exist?

Hello everyone, here’s this week’s episode. It was mostly a week of news, as Lost was absent and Battlestar ended last month. Fortunately we’re entering the summer movie season starting this week with Wolverine, so there should be plenty to talk about in the weeks to come. One of the films I’m most looking forward to, as I mentioned in this week’s Best Thing, is Rian Johnson’s Brothers Bloom. The opening seven minutes is here on hulu. If you look around you’ll also find Jose’s Worst Thing on hulu, but I won’t link you to it.

This weeks show we talked a great deal about all kinds of stuff this week, but we talked a little bit about reality TV and some of the recent rumblings that Michael Vick and Rod Blagojevich are either looking to be on a reality show or will be on a reality show in the coming months. When major networks are casting alleged and convicted felons in their TV shows for ratings it’s time to storm the studios with flaming pitchforks. One step closer to Armageddon.

Oh and here are some things we talked about this week.

Pilot School

GI Joe : Resolute

Warren Ellis

This week’s episode features yet more Star Trek discussion, including what is a brief plot description of the film that I cobbled together from various reports of footage. I may have made some of it up. There’s also all sorts of non Star Trek stuff and a brief foray into whether or not Bond is better or worse for following the Bourne path.

As for the Wii, here is the stupid commercial with the dudes playing Clone Wars Mediocre Light Saber Battle Party Brawl:

Doug and I talked a bit about the new Guitar Hero: World Tour ad starring Kobe, Tony Hawk, A-Rod and Aquaman. I really think the ad is a big moment in video games, where it really starts crossing the line between Geek Culture and the mainstream. When Kobe starts singing into a plastic mic, they are not aiming at the hardcore audience. That said, this new ad that just cropped up, well it just makes me think that I’m not going to the right parties.

We’ll be talking about this in a future podcast. That is once Doug and I get done plowing through Stillwater City in co-op mode leaving behind us a trail of broken, twisted wreckage in our wake. That said if you want to get an idea of my feelings about the game so far, “Yahtzee” over at Zero Punctuation sums up a lot of what I’m feeling.