Barely Related: The Rock is Black Adam, telepathy exists
Today, let's take a moment to stop and revel in how amazing, terrifying and grand the world is. Our lives are composed of dark, light and every shade in between. That's why, when we get serious shade thrown our way, we can absorb it and move on.
Welcome to Barely Related, a conversational Friday column that presents the non-gaming news stories that we, the Joystiq staff, have been talking about over the past week. And no, we're not stopping our focus on industry and gaming news. Think of this as your casual weekly recap of interesting (and mostly geeky) news, presented just in time to fill your brain with things to discuss at all of those weekend shindigs.
Grab a fresh drink, lean back in your armchair, and get ready to talk nerdy with us.
The Rock is obviously Black Adam
The Rock, known by the normal-people name of Dwayne Johnson, will play Shazam's adversary and noted antihero Black Adam in DC and Warner Bros' coming Shazam film. Mr. Rock tweeted the news, including the quote, "Kneel at his feet or get crushed by his boot." He said it was his "honor to become" Black Adam.
Darren Lemke, author of Turbo and Jack the Giant Slayer scripts, is set to write the screenplay for Shazam.
Telepathy is a thing now
...
Oh, you didn't receive this story in your mind bank? OK, we'll write it out (like peasants): Two people telepathically communicated the words "ciao" and "hola" to each other across a distance of 5,000 miles, with one participant in India and the other in France. They were hooked up to robotic emitters and receivers, and the words were translated into binary over the internet before making it to the recipients.
That's obviously a very pared down explanation of the procedure, but the whole thing is outlined on PLOS One.
Ghost in the Shell movie goes Margot
Margot Robbie, most recently known for her work opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street, will star in the DreamWorks film adaptation of Ghost in the Shell, Deadline reports. This places her in the role of Major Motoko Kusanagi, the transhumanist leader of a special ops team tracking a wild hacker.
Rupert Sanders of Snow White and the Huntsman is directing the film, with The Reluctant Fundamentalist's Bill Wheeler writing the script.
Supergirl flies to the small screen
WB and DC are putting together a TV series based on Supergirl, Deadline reports. Arrow and The Flash producer Greg Berlanti is producing and The New Normal co-creator Ali Adler is on board to write the script. DC Chief Creative Officer and writer Geoff Johns is involved in some way as well. Deadline says the show will be a "new interpretation" of Supergirl as a character, and it may be called "Super" or "Girl," both of which follow the pattern set by DC's other show titles (but somehow these ones don't have quite the same charm).
We're still digging up the bones of really big, unknown dinosaurs
The largest land animal known to man is now the Dreadnought, a species of titanosaur that was at least 85 feet long, 30 feet tall and weighed 130,000 pounds. We say "at least" because the fossils unearthed by paleontologist Kenneth J. Lacovara and his team in Argentina belonged to a Dreadnought that wasn't done growing when it died. (Side note: Naming dinosaurs sounds like a lot of fun).
For comparison, The New York Times notes that an empty Boeing 737-900 weighs about 94,000 pounds, and a Brachiosaurus averaged 75,000 pounds. Blue whales are the largest animal on land or sea, past or present, coming in at 300,000 pounds.
Netflix nabs Gotham before it even premieres
Netflix is banking on Gotham to be a big-ticket show – in a deal with Warner Bros. made before the show sees its first air date, Netflix has the exclusive streaming rights to Gotham in the US and all applicable Netflix territories. The show will begin streaming in September 2015, after the season one TV run and coinciding with the premiere of its second season, Deadline reports. The site estimates the deal at $1.75 million per episode.
This whole shebang went down after Gotham's LA screening in May was met with a great reception, Deadline says.
4K Blu-ray, rah rah rah
4K Blu-ray is due out for consumers by the end on 2015, Victor Matsuda, Chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association Global Promotions Committee, said. In other news, there's a Blu-ray association.
4K Blu-ray supports up to 60fps, 4K resolution (3840 × 2160p), plus more upgraded goodies.
RIP Joan Rivers
Emmy-award winning comedian Joan Rivers died on September 4, 2014, at the age of 81, of complications following throat surgery. Rivers was active in show business for 50 years, and she was known for tackling taboo subjects in her comedy and being unabashed about plastic surgery.
"I've had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware," she once said. The announcement was made by her daughter and fellow television personality, Melissa Rivers.
Look at this otter
Look at it. Thanks for sharing, Brandon Boyer.
[Images: DC, annaclapes.com, Jennifer Hall]
