Category: News

New Pulp author, Don Gates has announced Episode 8 of “Challenger Storm: The Valley of Fear”, in which he admits that his years of playing “Tomb Raider” have finally paid off creatively.

Read all about it here.

It took a project like THE FOLLOWING to lure Kevin Bacon to series television, and he tells he just why he made the move plus James Purefoy talks about why his serial killer character is so hard to hate. And have you heard about BAR RESCUE? The hit Spike TV series is heading into it’s third season and host Jon Taffer explains what we may have missed. Plus ENTOURAGE is headed to the big screen and John Byrne heads back to DOOMSDAY.

Check out our <a href=”

target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>exclusive video interview with KEVIN BACON right here on our YouTube Channel. Take us ANYWHERE! The Point Radio App is now in the iTunes App store – and it’s FREE! Just search under “pop culture The Point”. The Point Radio  – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun for FREE. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE on any computer or on any other  mobile device with the Tune In Radio app – and follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

Summit Entertainment is getting in on the Super Bowl fun with an ad for their film, Snitch, opening in a few weeks.

The studio describes the film, starring the odd combination of the Rock and Susan Sarandon, this way: In this fast-paced action thriller inspired by true events, Dwayne Johnson stars as a father whose teenage son is wrongly accused of a drug distribution crime and is looking at a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years.  Desperate and determined to rescue his son at all costs, he makes a deal with the U.S. attorney to work as an undercover informant and infiltrate a drug cartel on a dangerous mission — risking everything, including his family and his own life.

For those of you not inclined to watch, we have the spot below.

Studio: Summit Entertainment

Genre: Action/Thriller

Rating: PG-13

Release date: February 22, 2013

Director: Ric Roman Waugh

Writers: Justin Haythe and Ric Roman Waugh

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Susan Sarandon, Benjamin Bratt and Barry Pepper

 “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

– 1 Corinthians 13:11

Uh uh.

Leaving aside the gender issues that run rampant through our so-called holy books, I find myself about to enter my seventh decade with a computer full of rock’n’roll songs, shelves full of toys, and a plastic figure of <a href=”

Doody watching over my bed as I sleep. I revel in childish things.

So when I saw a story about Mattel’s latest attempt to revive the Max Steel line of action figures, I was curious. And then a little bit horrified. And then fascinated again.

When I was a kid, I loved team-up comics. The Legion, the Justice League, the Teen Titans – they were great because I could imagine myself as different characters depending on my mood. If I had friends who were also into comics, there were enough characters that we could each play our favorite. It was fun. We didn’t need any accouterments except maybe towels tied around our necks as capes.

In the 1980s, when my son was a boy, the ways corporations marketed to kids had changed a lot. My husband and I were real opinionated about it, and we had bunches of rules. We didn’t allow him to watch any cartoons that were created just to sell toys. No He-Man. No G.I. Joe. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were okay, because they were based on a comic book that was a satire of Frank Miller’s Ronin. The rules relaxed as he got older and better able to understand how marketing worked. Also, at four years old, he could tell the difference between a Tex Avery cartoon and a Chuck Jones cartoon.

Here’s what I noticed as a mom. Favorite characters came and went. Ghostbusters. Dick Tracy. Batman. Turtles. Whatever was in vogue, the kids would run around the playground, pretending to shoot (or send rays out of their hands, or wave swords). The names of the characters would change, but the game was always the same.

Back then, kids didn’t have computers. There was only television and, if the family budget allowed it, books and comics. Kids knew the story lines of their characters, but there was still a lot of room for running and fighting evil.

Maybe I’m wrong, but that doesn’t seem to be what’s happening here. According to the article I cite, Mattel is creating a rather ornate web site with lots of information about the various characters and what they can do, even before the toys are available or the cartoon goes on television. “The intent of the wide distribution is to create viral marketing on social networks,” said Bob Higgins, the executive vice president for children’s and family programming at Fremantle. “Around the world, kids will start hearing about this,” he said. “Kids want to do what their friends do. If they are watching Max Steel, they want to be a part of that party.”

Before I buy my kid a toy, I want to know that he will actually play with it. Not hold onto it while he sits in front of the computer, but play. I want it to engage his imagination so he makes up his own stories, or thinks of ways the characters could participate in his own life.

Toys are media. They are how children learn about the world and how they fit into it. I don’t want my kids to learn that their place is in front of a screen, absorbing content.

Capes. I want capes.

SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman

Phase 2 of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe kicks off in May with Iron Man 3, to be followed in November with the second Thor film. There will be a new commercial for the feature to be aired during the Super Bowl. Here is Disney’s teaser for those who can’t wait. The studio is betting heavily on the audience for the Ravens-49ers contest (we’re rooting for the Ravens) with spots of Oz the Great and Powerful, The Lone Ranger, and Iron Man 3.

IRON MAN 3  (in Digital 3D and RealD)

MARVEL STUDIOS presents in association with PARAMOUNT PICTURES and DMG ENTERTAINMENT

Website and Mobile site: IronManMovie3.com

Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/ironman

Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/Iron_Man

Genre:                          Action-adventure

Rating:

U.S. Release date:        May 3, 2013

Running time:

Cast:                            Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Stephanie Szostak, James Badge Dale with Jon Favreau and Ben Kingsley

Director:                       Shane Black

Producer:                      Kevin Feige

Executive Producers:    Jon Favreau, Louis D’Esposito, Charles Newirth, Victoria Alonso, Stephen Broussard, Alan Fine, Stan Lee, Dan Mintz

Screenplay by:              Drew Pearce & Shane Black

Marvel’s “Iron Man 3” pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy’s hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Stephanie Szostak, James Badge Dale with Jon Favreau and Ben Kingsley, Marvel’s “Iron Man 3” is directed by Shane Black from a screenplay by Drew Pearce & Shane Black and is based on Marvel’s iconic Super Hero Iron Man, who first appeared on the pages of “Tales of Suspense” (#39) in 1963 and had his solo comic book debut with “The Invincible Iron Man” (#1) in May of 1968. 

In Marvel’s “Iron Man 3,” Tony Stark/Iron Man finds his world reduced to rubble by a malevolent enemy and must use his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him as he seeks to destroy the enemy and his cohorts.