San Diego Comic-Con Goes Virtual this Year!

[Source: Syfy] San Diego Comic-Con will indeed go on as scheduled this summer — from the comfort of your living room.

After initially scrapping the 51-year-old convention for the first time in its history due to coronavirus concerns, organizers of the granddaddy of all cons have announced that they're putting on a virtual edition that will enable convention goers to cosplay all they want on their cozy couches at home.

No doubt regular attendees will appreciate not having to stand in line for hours on end to cram into Hall H. The legendary room has become a hotbed for Hollywood studios teasing their biggest superhero tentpoles, not to mention a go-to source for breaking entertainment news.

A virtual version of the fan-favorite con is clearly better than nothing, though it's still unclear exactly what that looks like, or even whether it's taking place on the previously scheduled dates of July 23-26. Nor do we know what Hollywood and comic book talent will be zooming in to participate.

A rep for Comic-Con wasn't immediately available for comment.

Still, this is welcomed news, seeing as it wasn't a certainty that an online SDCC confab would even happen at all when organizers confirmed they were calling things off back in mid-April due to the spread of COVID-19.

"Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures, and while we are saddened to take this action, we know it is the right decision,” Comic-Con spokesman David Glanzer said at the time.

That announcement, which came in the wake of a string of other cancellations, including WonderCon Anaheim and SXSW, also noted that Comic-Con would be rescheduled for July 22-25, 2021. Presumably that date will still stand next year.

While others attempted to put together other cyber events, such as last month's HomeCon, the lone major live-action convention holdout is Disney's Star Wars Celebration 2020, which as of press time is still scheduled to go on in August.

Rick and Morty Season 4 Episode 6

Never Ricking Morty

Rick and Morty find themselves aboard the Story Train, which serves as a literal story device for an anthology episode, featuring passengers telling each other tales about Rick. After killing the train's ticket taker, using a "continuity explosion" to find a map of the train, and fabricating a story that passes the Bechdel test, the two reach the train's engine room. There they confront Story Lord, who beats and captures them with the intent of using their "story potential" to power the train enough to take it beyond the fifth wall. They experience various possible futures, culminating in Rick and Morty facing an army of Meeseeks, Gazorpazorpian males, and robotic Ricks commanded by Evil Morty and Evil Mr. Poopybutthole. Rick averts the battle by having himself and Morty give their lives to Jesus. The anticlimax slows Story Train to a halt, causing Story Lord to angrily enter the potential future as Jesus himself appears. Rick and Morty use the literal deus ex machina to escape back onto Story Train and strand Story Lord in "every writer's hell: the Bible." When they try to return home, however, Rick discovers the train control panel is fake, and it's revealed that Story Train is a model train operating inside the Smith household. After Story Lord explains the nature of their reality and the origins of Yahweh to Jesus, he breaks the toy. Rick chastises Morty to buy another one, as "Nobody's out there shopping with this fucking virus."

▶ Watch the Video

ET's Interview with Dave Filoni

Dave Filoni on THAT Clone Wars Finale

and Mandalorian Season 2

ET’s Ash Crossan spoke with ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ and ‘The Mandalorian’ executive producer, Dave Filoni. The ‘Clone Wars’ series finale drops May 4 on Disney+, the same day as the premiere of the behind-the-scenes docu-series ‘Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian.’

▶ Watch the Interview

PARAMOUNT: A Tribute to Makoto Shinkai

P  A  R  A  M  O  U  N  T

Anime Tribute to Director Makoto Shinkai

A native of Nagano Prefecture, Makoto Shinkai studied Japanese literature at Chuo University, where he was a member of the juvenile literature club and drew picture books. He traces his passion for creation to the manga, anime, and novels he was exposed to in middle school. His favorite anime films are Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Nausicaä, and The Castle of Cagliostro by Hayao Miyazaki, The End of Evangelion by Hideaki Anno and Patlabor 2 by Mamoru Oshii. Shinkai has been called "The New Miyazaki" in several reviews, including those by Anime Advocates and ActiveAnime—comparisons he calls an "overestimation". He is married to retired actress and producer Chieko Misaka, star of films including Versus by Ryuhei Kitamura; they have a daughter, child actress Chise Niitsu (born 2010). Asteroid 55222 Makotoshinkai is named after him. 

▶ Watch the Anime Tribute

Kyoto Festival: Jidai Matsuri

Kyoto Festival: Jidai Matsuri

Considered to be one of the top three festivals in all of Kyoto despite its status as a relatively new tradition, Heian Shrine's Jidai Matsuri (Festival of the Ages) is held on October 22nd from noon each year.

The festival is primarily composed of a two-kilometer, five-hour-long procession of countless volunteers dressed in historical garb representing Japanese cultural history from the Meiji era all the way back to the Enryaku era in the 780’s. Painstakingly recreated and researched, going so far as to even make and dye the fabric using the same techniques as they used a thousand years ago, the procession is akin to watching a living history museum march by. Not only do famous historical figures and princesses make an appearance, but warriors, priests, politicians, merchants, and commoners are all represented. With that many characters, the Jidai Matsuri gives a very comprehensive look into the clothing and appearance of the Japanese past.

▶ Watch the Video

Waititi to direct new 'Star Wars' film

New STAR WARS Movies Are Coming!

Los Angeles (AFP) - New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi will write and direct a new "Star Wars" film, Disney announced Monday. Waititi has shot from indie acclaim to mainstream Hollywood success in recent years, overseeing Marvel superhero smash hit "Thor: Ragnarok" in 2017 before winning a screenplay Oscar for Nazi satire "Jojo Rabbit" in February. He also directed the first season finale of "The Mandalorian," the hit television show set in the blockbuster sci-fi franchise universe. No date was set for the new movie. But the first of three currently scheduled "Star Wars" on Disney's release calendar is penciled in for December 2022.

Announcing the news on May 4 -- a date typically celebrated by "Star Wars" fans around the world who wish each other "May the 4th be with you" -- Disney also confirmed reports that "Russian Doll" co-creator Leslye Headland will develop a new television series set in the same universe."Headland will write, executive produce, and serve as showrunner for the series, which adds to a growing list of 'Star Wars' stories for Disney's streaming platform including 'The Mandalorian,' now in post-production on Season Two," said the announcement on StarWars.com.According to Hollywood trade reports, Headland's live-action show will be a "female-driven action thriller" and "set in an alternate timeline from the usual 'Star Wars' universe."

"The Mandalorian," featuring the viral internet sensation Baby Yoda, was the flagship launch show for on-demand streaming platform Disney+ last year, proving a hit with critics and audiences. In addition, two other new live-action "Star Wars" television series are in the works for Disney+, including the return of Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and a prequel to movie spin-off "Rogue One." Disney has slowed down the release of its upcoming "Star Wars" films, with its recently concluded trilogy seeing diminishing box office returns and mixed reviews. Waititi will co-write his "Star Wars" film with Krysty Wilson-Cairns, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter for World War I epic "1917."

May the Fourth Be With You!

HAPPY STAR WARS DAY!

Behold! The Star Wars Day Gift Guide

[Source: TechRadar] It's Star Wars Day, also known as May the 4th be with you! Why does this day exist, outside of this single torturous pun? Well, other than being an excuse for social media to be bombarded with bad opinions about Star Wars movies, it's a day to celebrate the films with stuff.

In that spirit, here's a list of Star Wars-related gift ideas below. We say 'gift', because it definitely counts as a gift if it's for yourself. We're aware that there's a ton of Star Wars tat out there, so we've only selected stuff that we actually like.

Click Here to Read More

Remembering the Best Cosplay of C2E2 2020

Best Cosplay of C2E2 2020

After weeks of self-isolation, we know many of you are just craving to go back to the way things were. Here's something to ease your minds. C2E2 2020 continued rocking some amazing cosplays for that whole weekend. Enjoy!

▶ Watch the Video

Tenchi Muyo! GXP all episodes 1-26

Tenchi Muyo! GXP

Seina Yamada is a young Japanese high school student living with his parents and younger sister in rural Okayama, Japan. One morning, following a hapless bike ride through the country, a large spacecraft crashes into the lake behind the Masaki residence, causing a violent tsunami that Seina is unable to escape from and he sinks, almost drowning. 

He regains consciousness shortly after, meeting Amane Kaunaq, the spacecraft's pilot, who gives Seina an application. Seina takes it, and shows it to his family at home. Mistaking it for a contest entry, his mother and sister aggressively force him to fill it out; afterwards, he retreats to his room and falls asleep. The following morning, awakened aboard a vessel in orbit, Seina is informed by an official that he has successfully joined the Galaxy Police. It also revealed that the Galaxy Police originally meant to recruit Tenchi, but they got Seina instead. 

Here's something to binge-watch while you shelter-at-home.

▶ Watch all Tenchi Muyo! GXP

Secret of Cerulaean Sand

SECRET of CERULEAN SAND

Secret of Cerulean Sand is a 26-episode anime television series that ran in 2002. The main character is a 15-year-old English girl named Jane Buxton, who dreams of building a flying machine. The series documents her journey across the Near East to find her brother. It is set in the late 19th century where impossible technologies such as landships and "floating liquid" exist side by side in a steampunk world. 

The series is loosely based on two works by Jules Verne — his posthumous 1919 novel The Barsac Mission (L’Étonnante Aventure de la mission Barsac, consisting of two volumes—Book 1, Into the Niger Bend, and Book 2, City in the Sahara) as well as his 1896 novel Facing the Flag (Face au Drapeau).

Jane's mother dies when she is born, and her father, a rich English aristocrat, soon remarries to a woman with a son, William, who despises his new father and brother. George and Jane grow up with a dream to make a flying machine. George believes the distant Asian sands hold a secret: a mysterious cerulean sand that can make machines fly. He goes on an expedition to find it and soon is reported executed for treason. William disappears too. After she receives an unsigned letter holding a handful of pale-blue sand that floats in the air, Jane is sure her brother is alive and leaves to the East to find him and prove him innocent. There are many mysteries to unravel in store for Jane and her new friends on her journey. But perhaps a mystery should forever remain a mystery...

▶ Watch the Entire Series "Secret of Cerulean Sand"