Giant Freakin Robot

The Walking Dead generally uses each half-season to tell a single story. They’re obviously not entirely standalone installments, and there are larger things that play out over more time, but each section definitely has its own distinct arc. Showrunner Scott Gimple has talked about this strategy quite a bit, and it’s served them well, as every time the show comes back from an extended break, like the current midseason hiatus, you start anew in many ways, keeping things fresh. This latest instance is no exception, and when the zombie drama returns for the rest of season 5 this weekend, expect some big changes.

There may be some spoilers beyond this point if you’re not caught up, then again, if you’re not current, why do you want to know what happens next?

With new Star Wars movies on their way to theaters beginning later this year, many fans are diving back into their love of a franchise the prequels may have tarnished, or just embracing it with even more excitement and enthusiasm. Well, in between Rebels marathons and reading the comics and novels, now you can explore Star Wars’ history courtesy of a new traveling Smithsonian show focused on the franchise’s amazing costumes.

From Darth Vader’s imposing silhouette to the Rebel pilots’ orange jumpsuits or the elaborate garb of Queen Amidala, Star Wars’ costume design has been an integral part of making George Lucas’ galaxy far, far away feel rich and detailed and real. An exhibition entitled “Rebel, Jedi, Princess, Queen: Star Wars and the Power of Costume” opened in Seattle on January 31 and will remain on display at the EMP Museum through October 4, 2015, after which it will travel to 11 more as-yet-unannounced cities. The show is a collaboration between Lucasfilm, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES).

Hollywood spends a lot of time considering what potential audiences are nostalgic for, which is why damn near every movie that gets released is a remake, a reboot, a sequel, or an adaptation of something that came before. If they liked it once, they’ll like it again, right? We’ve got Transformers, G.I. Joe, and maybe even a GoBots in the future, but two more projects that have the potential to be pretty cool, and that are now in the works, are live action Astro Boy and Robotech adaptations.

Heat Vision reports that Astro Boy, which had a 2009 animated movie that face-planted so hard almost no one remembers it happened, is in the works, being guided by Australian special effects house Animal Logic. They’re best known for working on Happy Feet and Avengers: Age of Ultron, though they’re also working on a Betty Boop movie.

Ever since Samuel L. Jackson showed up as Nick Fury in the post-credits sequence to Iron Man, Marvel’s Cinematic Universe films have had a tradition of serving up a little something awesome for the folks who stick around until after that bit about which film stock the movie used. Usually these little teasers have set up the next movie in the over-arching continuity, but Guardians of the Galaxy — in typical irreverent fashion — instead introduced an obscure Marvel character into the MCU canon. Moviegoers who weren’t hardcore fans were probably just confused when an anthropomorphic duck showed up to talk smack to Benecio del Toro’s Collector, but true fans knew that duck’s name was Howard, and that he was around long before George Lucas’ much-maligned ’80s flick. Now Marvel’s print side plans to follow up on the Guardians movie’s tease, with an upcoming comic story revealing just how Howard wound up in The Collector’s collection.

Last fall we wrote about how George Romero’s son was trying to crowdfund a new addition to the Living Dead canon. Dead old dad has added plenty over the years, from the original trilogy of Night of… Dawn of…, and Day of…, to the more modern installments, like Land of…, Diary of…, and Survival of…. His son, G. Cameron Romero, however, wants to create a prequel, and the project is successfully moving forward.

Simply called Origins, Cameron, who will direct, developed the story and wrote the screenplay with Darrin Reed and Bryce C. Campbell. If the idea of a prequel to Night of the Living Dead sounds like it will just be a bunch of people wandering around in the mid-1960s going about their daily business, you’re not alone, but apparently there’s more to it.

It’s been well over a year since it was first announced that Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin will reteam with MGM and Warner Bros. for a reimagining of the highly popular Stargate franchise, but the first film in the proposed trilogy finally has someone tapped for screenwriting duties. Two people actually, as James A. Woods and Nicholas Wright have been brought in to script the initial entry to this rebooted series.

Woods and Wright are somewhat surprising choices for this high-profile project, as they’re far more known for their acting credentials than their screenwriting ones. On the other hand, it makes almost perfect sense, as Emmerich and Devlin brought the duo in last year to do a rewrite on the long-gestating Independence Day 2. Emmerich first gained knowledge of the pair’s talents when his company, Centropolis Entertainment, acquired an untitled action thriller they wrote. Are these the guys that will usher in a blazing new era of 1990s science fiction?