Giant Freakin Robot

Kevin Costner is soon going to be in one of the biggest movies of the summer blockbuster season when Man of Steel opens next week. He’ll be playing Jonathan Kent, Clark’s father, but there was a time not too long ago when leading man Costner would have been in line for the role of Supes himself.

For an interview with The Huffington Post, Costner spoke about many of his former roles, including those in Bull Durham and The Untouchables. But he also takes a little time to talk about his biggest and most bloated entries into the science fiction genre: Waterworld and The Postman. Both movies, despite their faults, are still really ambitious and moving pieces of fiction that could probably use some hindsight editing, but they’re nowhere near as bad as the initial critical panning would have had you believe.

For Waterworld, Costner had this to say:

I loved making Waterworld. I like that it’s tied into, you know, where you have to use your wits about you. You’re not able to kind of wink — you’re not able to do that. I like living by your wits…But it stands up as a really exotic, cool movie. I mean, it was flawed — for sure. But, overall, it’s a very inventive, cool movie. It’s pretty robust.

I apologize to those of you who may have experienced heart palpitations while reading the headline, due to either extreme excitement that this talent-lacking pop phenom would possibly be out of our lives forever, or in jealousy that the 19-year-old Biebs can afford to do such amazing things purely by leaking out audible heinousness. We here at Giant Freakin’ Robot know exactly how you feel.

Bieber and his manager, Scooter Braun, are joining the 530+ other paying volunteers (including that other eternal annoyance Ashton Kutcher) who will take an eventual ride in Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip Two whenever the test launching phase is complete. It’s been successful thus far, and Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson is optimistic that flights could begin before the year is out.

Branson himself shared the news via Twitter, saying “Great to hear @justinbieber & @scooterbraun are latest @virgingalactic future astronauts. Congrats, see you up there!” One has to wonder what a guy like Branson even thinks of pop music nowadays.

Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a good solid run, surviving seven seasons on TV and launching spin-off material that continues to this day across darn near every media you can think of. But there’s one painful little footnote, a slice of “coulda been” potential that still stings to this day: an animated Buffy series that died an ignominious death, in spite of looking awesome. Well, scoot over and make space at the bar, Buffy fans, because Whovians are about to join you to cry into their beer over the unrealized reality of a Doctor Who animated series.

Star Trek Into Darkness has come and gone and spilled its secrets, leaving fans to continue arguing its merits for years to come. (For the record, here’s what I thought.) But just because we’re past the premiere date, that doesn’t mean we’ve seen all the cool stuff related to the movie. Case in point, these stunning images from Into Darkness production designer Scott Chambliss (seen above). He’s posted a ton of behind-the-scenes concept art and set pictures on his site, and we’ve gathered a small sample here to whet your appetite.

Chambliss also worked on J.J. Abrams’ first Trek film, as well as Mission: Impossible III, Alias, and Cowboys & Aliens, among others. His online portfolio from Trek 2 includes looks at practically every sequence and set piece from the sequel, from the opening on the red-forested world of Nibiru, to the bleak hellscape of Qo’noS, to the dark, sleek lines of the Vengeance.