Nerdbytes: Looking Forward to The World’s End

Plus, D&D; gets a save, an Ender’s Game trailer and a goodbye to a film legend.

Aliens and Alcohol in The World’s End Trailer – Drink up the first trailer for the long-awaited third entry in writer-director Edgar Wright and writer-star Simon Pegg’s “Blood and Ice Cream” trilogy, fittingly titled The World’s End. It stars Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine and Eddie Marsan as five boyhood friends who get back together for a legendary pub crawl. Unfortunately, it seems like the little burg may have become ground zero in their absence. The hilarity, violence and swearing will invade US cinemas on August 23rd.

Another Dungeons & Dragons Movie – Just when you thought 4-, 6-, 8-, 10-, 12- and 20-sided dice would never again make it to the big screen (it did the small screen just fine on the “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” episode of Community), Warner Bros. rolls for initiative. The studio has aqcuired the rights to and will be producing a brand new D&D movie from a script written by Wrath of the Titans scribe, David Leslie Johnson. This is big news for RPG fans who’ve been hanging their head in shame since the 2000 attempt starring Jeremy Irons failed to connect with… well, anyone. Perhaps this new movie will be the saving throw the franchise needs. 

Sci-fi Greatness Awaits in the Ender’s Game Trailer – One of the biggest science fiction novels of the ’80s, Ender’s Game, is finally getting a film adaptation, courtesy of writer-director Gavin Hood. It tells the story of a young person, Ender be his name, who is tasked with formulating the strategy to end a deadly war between humans and Buggers (insectoid aliens). Played by Hugo‘s Asa Butterfield, Ender is joined by Hailee Steinfeld, Sir Ben Kingsley and Harrison “Don’t Ask Me About Star Wars” Ford. The film is slated for a November 1st release and our jaws are slated for a November 2nd reattachment.

Remembering Ray Harryhausen – One of the most influential and innovative names in filmmaking, Ray Harryhausen, has passed away at the age of 92. Harryhausen was a pioneer of believable stop-motion animation for live-action feature films whose enormous body of work included movies like Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and the 1978 Clash of the Titans.  His work on monsters and alien spacecraft went on to influence the likes of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Stan Winston, Rick Baker, Dennis Muren and literally hundreds of others. He’s way more than a name-check in Monsters Inc.

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