J.J. Abrams has always had an air of mystery with his projects, always keeping something intentionally held back for the good of the viewing audience. It’s made his ideas heavily sought after and one of his best kept secrets is the “Mystery Box.”

Back in 2007 the director, prior to his hiring for Star Wars Episode VII and before his work reinventing the Star Trek universe, was a guest speaker at the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference, otherwise known as TED. Abrams gave a speech explaining his development for TV shows and movies, saying, “The intentional withholding of information is much more engaging,” and he used Star Wars as an example for this mystery box formula.

Want to hear the whole speech? Check out the full video after the jump.
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It was bound to happen sometime, the blowback. You can make $1.5 billion at the box office, re-ignite the flailing comic movie subgenre and create a mini-mogul out of Joss Whedon, but you can’t convince Los Angeles Times readers that you’re not overrated.

In an online poll, Times readers were asked what film, in their opinion, was the most overrated of 2012 and the winner, by an overwhelming margin was The Avengers. Here’s the breakdown of the vote:

• The Avengers – 85.39%
• Prometheus – 4.62%
• Ted – 3.03%
• Cloud Atlas – 2.38%
• The Master – 1.78%
• Project X – 1.78%
• Brave – 1.02%

Now before you start getting your nerd Irish up, keep in mind that this is a web poll, and thus extremely unscientific. If you want to dump your nerd rage on someone, try David Cronenberg.

In a new interview with Playlist, Cronenberg clarified some earlier comments about the comic book film genre. Don’t worry, he just thinks that comic book movies are kept from true cinematic greatness because they’re based on material original meant for young people (I had to clean that up a bit). Read Cronenberg’s full comment below:

“What I was saying was that a comic book movie is really a comic book movie. Comic books were — especially those comic books which I was raised on (I loved Captain Marvel) — created for adolescents and they have a core that is adolescent [...] To me, that limits the discourse of your movie if you’re basing it accurately on that, and you cannot rise to the highest level of cinematic art. That’s my take on it. I went on to say that, of course, technically they can be incredibly interesting, since there are very clever people making the movie and of course have a lot of money they are throwing at it. But creatively, artistically, they are incredibly limited.”

I don’t think anyone would argue that Avengers is high art, but it seems that Cronenberg has a rather limited (or old-fashioned, if you like) definition of “comic book.” I don’t think you’d classify Maus or even Watchmen as “adolescent,” would you? It seems that Cronenberg knows about as much about comics as he does about teleportation, but I digress.

Source: Screen Rant

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He might not be able to find the live microphone when presenting at the Emmys, but Fox executives still have enough confidence in Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy, The Cleveland Show) to place a pilot order (with series penalty commitment) for a LIVE-ACTION comedy.

MacFarlane, along with the writers of Ted (Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild) will be the creative forces behind the untitled sitcom as well as executive producing. The core idea behind the show is:

“Two successful guys in their 30s and the insanity that ensues after their crazy fathers unexpectedly move in with them.”

Wait, didn’t Adam Sandler just do a movie along those same lines or is this just a flip around of Sh@t My Dad Says? Considering MacFarlane’s well known twisted sense of humor and the raunchiness of the comedy in the movie Ted, one can easily see this series pushing the censor’s limits to the breaking point.

This would be the first live action show for MacFarlane since The Winner in 2007. Yeah, I didn’t know what the hell that show was either so I looked it up.

“A successful guy looks back to the time he spent living with his parents when he was in his thirties.”

Sounds kinda familiar doesn’t it? I can almost imagine the brainstorming meeting that took place . . .

We gotta come up with a sitcom for Fox . . .

Well, you did that “Winner” show a couple of years ago . . .

Yeah, but maybe this time we turn the whole thing around . . .

Have the parents come stay with the kid ? ? ?

That’s comedic genius ! ! !

Meeting adjourned, bring in the hookers and blow!

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Admit it, you’ve always wanted to ask the Bastardcast Boys about their deepest, darkest opinions and yearnings. Well, in this very special “Lil Bastardcast” dreams really do come true as the boys steal and pilfer from the weekly “Ask the Bastards” segment and kidnap site dark overlord Luke Gallagher to answer some questions about the New 52, our worst theater experience, and more!

Naturally hillariosity breaks out of it’s confinement and goes on a tickle spree so listen up and then wait patiently for an ALL NEW REGULAR SIZED EDITION of THE BASTARDCAST premiering later this week. What’s on tap for this week’s full length episode? Whatever the fuck we want and also DOCTOR WHO!!! Why am I yelling?

 Wanna be on the next Ask The Bastards podcast? Email us! your questions or (even better) a recording of you asking your question and we just may use it on the show!

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Every day the internet produces an astounding amount of goodies and gems. Most hilarious, some amusing, but all worth at least a few seconds of your time. We here at Nerd Bastards try to bring you the best bits of news and nerdery the webz has to offer, with a bit of snark thrown in. But sometimes not everything makes the cut. Monday through Friday we’ll be bringing you our inbox leftovers, our forgotten bookmarks, the nerdy bits that simply slipped through the cracks. You can submit items to Nerdy Bits by emailing us at nerdybits@nerdbastards.com.

ABOVE: Cosplay babe Andrea Nami Herrera dressed up Sonya Blade from Mortal Kombat. Cosplay, you’re doing it right! [CBM]

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This week on the emporium of dastardly bastardness, also know as The Bastardcast: Jason recounts his wild, possibly grifted birthday adventure, Jeremy has a nerdy quibble with a new Justice League project, the guys unleash the official NOW ITS SUMMER, SUMMER MOVIE PREVIEW, and discuss a new study that shows how positive internet buzz leads to positive box office.

Do to you like gladiator movies? Spectacular, the guys won’t be talking about that in headlines, but they will discuss the guy from The Man Show dragging his knuckles to get attention, Justin Timberlake‘s continued campaign to bring sexy back AND make it safe to go to the beach again, and Barbarella. All that and some potator chips (not for you) on the podcast. It’s almost a radio show, and we’re almost getting paid for this… but not really.

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It’s a busy day for new trailers and amongst them, we’ve gotten our first look at Seth McFarlane’s feature directorial-debut, Ted. I believe there was some kind of preview at South By Southwest, but to the public at large, this is the first time we’ve seen any footage from this comedy about a man and his teddy.

The plot follows Mark Wahlberg’s John who meets the woman of his dreams (Mila Kunis), but his roommate Ted (voiced by McFarlane), a walking, talking teddy bear, keeps getting in the way of them taking their romance to the next level. It’s a Woody Allen movie, except with dick and fart jokes and a teddy bear that sounds like Peter Griffin .

Obviously, the trailer is red band for a reason, so watch at your own risk. But I will say that if the humor of Family Guy is in your ball park, then this is probably going to strike your fancy. Watch the link (through Funny or Die) to see for yourself.

Source: /Film

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So to be an angst-ridden reborn man or the devil himself, this was Bradley Cooper’s dilemma when it came to deciding which film he’d rather take. Why did he have to choose? Well, insider sources say that The Crow and Paradise Lost, both films with Cooper casted, would shoot around the same time next year. Between the two options, The Hollywood Reporter says that Bradley Cooper chose Satan, and has flown out on The Crow.

Of course despite the fact that these allegations haven’t been confirmed, Channing Tatum and Mark Wahlberg are listed as possible replacements if this turns out to be true. Coming Soon Net reports that both men are already in different film projects.

Wahlberg can soon be seen in Seth MacFarlane’s feature debut Ted and recently signed on for the crime thriller Broken City. Tatum, meanwhile, is currently in production on the still-untitled G.I. Joe sequel and will re-team with Steven Soderbergh for Magic Mike, based on the actor’s own experiences working as a stripper in Tampa, Florida.

So, could we see scheduling problems arise once more if Bradley Cooper does have to be replaced? For now we just have to wait and see little Nerbastards. For now though we do know that the film will be directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later). This film will be  a  re-adaptation to James O’Barr’s comic book series that was previously made into the 1994 film of the same name.  This reboot is reported as a grittier version compared to its 1994 counterpart, but will once again tell the story of Eric Draven, who returns from the grave to avenge the death of his wife. Script written originally by Fresandillo has been reported as going under the ‘editing knife’ once Alex Tse came on board.

Will this film work, or is the curse of ‘The Crow’ coming back to bite everyone’s derriere so that it is left alone?

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