Mandatory News

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Arrow Season 5 Premiere Date, Villain Details, and More

The Flash Season 3 - Hell Yeah

The show that really started it all for the CW will be back for at least one more season. The CW revealed plans for Arrow season 5 back in March, well ahead of this year"s upfronts. In fact, the CW renewed just about everything on the roster, including The Flash Season 3 and Legends of Tomorrow Season 2! Supergirl is joining the superhero party on the network, too, and there will even be a massive crossover between all four shows!

Arrow Season 5 Premiere Date

The CW hasn"t officially confirmed the Arrow Season 5 premiere date, but it happens at the same time every year. Arrow always premieres on the first Wednesday after New York Comic-Con in October. With that in mind, pencil in October 12th, 2016 as your Arrow Season 5 premiere date. If that changes, we"ll let you know.

Arrow Season 5 Villain

TV Line is at it again! Last year they were the first to report the early details of Damian Darhk joining the show, and they have the first word on what to expect from the Arrow Season 5 main villain, too. They report that they"re looking for someone named "James" (guess what? That"s almost never the real name!), who is "irrepressibly charming...a man on a mission."

Supposedly this character has a tragic backstory of his own, and he has some avenging to do. They"re looking for someone with some size and physicality, who could "just as easily shake your hand as your best friend or break your neck as your worst enemy and you never know which one is coming. Either way, hes more than capable of having a good time as he does it.

Stephen Amell added some clues while speaking to Variety. Ive heard that our big bad, our villain, is something that you can really only do once youre in the fifth, sixth or seventh season of a TV show, he said.

I have no clue who this character could be, or if he"ll feature in the present day, the flashbacks, or both. Although, I tell ya, I"d love to see this show mess with some Secret Six characters and have "James" turn out to be Thomas "Catman" Blake. Nah. Never happen, right?

If you have any ideas who this might be, hit us up in the comments.

Arrow Season 5 Flashbacks

One of the stumbling blocks for this year"s season has been the flashback sequences. But Arrow Season 5 would mark the fifth year of flashbacks, which would then have the show caught up to season one by the time we get to season six. So what will the flashbacks be in Arrow Season 5? I dont want to tip too much, Arrow showrunner Wendy Mericle told TV Line, but its a very good possibility that well finally find out how Oliver got that Bratva tattoo and how he learned to speak Russian.

Well, at least he won"t be on an island again.

Arrow Season 5 Cast and Crew

While season four isn"t even finished yet, we have the first bit of Arrow Season 5 casting news right now, courtesy of TV Line. I hope you like Echo Kellum as Michael Holt, because he has been upped to series regular status for next season. So, it"s a fairly safe bet that we"ll get to see his journey towards becoming something a little bit more like the Mr. Terrific of the comics begin soon-ish.

The series has been a little inconsistent during its fourth season, but has found its footing since the midseason break. Things can only get better in Arrow season 5, right?

Fresh off his stint as director on a very good episode of The Flash (our review of "The Runaway Dinosaur" is here), Kevin Smith wants to try his hand at Arrow Season 5 next year. He didn"t write "The Runaway Dinosaur" (that was Zack Stentz, who will serve as a consulting producer on The Flash Season 3), but it seems like he"d want to do that for Arrow.

Smith was responding to a comment on Stephen Amell"s Facebook page, where a fan suggested he work on an Arrow episode, and Amell agreed. So this is all talk right now, but given the positive response to his Flash episode, I wouldn"t be surprised to see Mr. Smith make a trip to Star City next year.

Earlier this year, Stephen Amell put out an informal statement on Facebook revealing that he"s under contract through 2019. So, while that"s not a confirmation of anything, it"s possible that after Arrow Season 5, there"s room for season 6 and season 7, too! But as he cautions, "That doesn"t mean Arrow will run that long, but if it does... I"ll be here." And after season 5, they have to be done with the flashbacks...hopefully.

We"ll update this with more Arrow Season 5 info as it becomes available.

Source: http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/arrow/251849/arrow-season-5-premiere-date-villain-details-and-more

"Captain America: Civil War" gives Marvel"s games and media a big spike

Marvel"s Captain America: Civil War - Trailer 2

Marvels latest film is one of its most critically acclaimed releases ever, an its also pushing gamers tothe companys games and other digital products.

Following the release ofCaptain America: Civil Warlate last month, apps like Marvel Future Fight have seen a huge bump in popularity. That traffic has turned into some serious revenue, which reveals just how wellthe comic publishers strategy for the gaming market is working. Google Play and the iOS App Store are responsible for a $36.9 billion gaming industry, and Marvel has several games near the top of that list thanks to its licensing work with development partners. Marvel is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, which recently revealed it is applying the Marvel andStar Wars model to its entire roster of properties.

Marvel provided GamesBeat with an exclusive look at some of the numbers for its games from April 28 through May 11, which is the two-week period following the international release ofCivil War. And its clear that the movies are a huge reason that people get excited to install and play apps featuring Captain America, Spider-Man, and Iron Man.

Here are those figures:

Marvel Future Fight: Revenues for the role-playing adventure jumped 300 percent from the preceding two-week period.
Marvel Contest of Champions: The fighting games downloads increased by 50 percent from the previous period. It rose as high as No. 7 on the App Stores top-grossing list.
Marvel Avengers Academy: The social-life sims downloads increased 200 percent compared to the previous two weeks.

But these impressive performance metrics are not limited to Marvels games. The entertainment company also saw people hop on its content apps and website as well:

Marvel Unlimited: The Netflix of Marvel comics saw a week-to-week increase of 67 percent.
Marvel Comics: This digital store for new Marvel comics is the No. 2 highest-grossing books app, and it had an increase in downloads from 98 percent compared to the previous two weeks.
Marvel.com: The companys official website received 43 percent more pageviews.

Above: The movie is leading people into the games.

Image Credit: Marvel

MarvelsCaptain America: Civil Warhas had an incredibly significant and sustained impact on our digital portfolio, Marvel general manager for interactive and digital distribution Peter Phillips said in a statement provided to GamesBeat. Our top-performing games, apps,and digital comics have all seen an incremental lift in revenue and installs, which is especially meaningful for products that were already topping the charts.

Phillips explained that people were so quick to install these games in part because Marvel worked with its partner developers to introduce all of the characters and themes fromCivil War. But this is not a one-time bump, because Marvel purposefully held back certain heroes until the movie-going audience had a chance to learn about them.

The unprecedented number of characters in the film has presented an opportunity unlike past Marvel events by allowing us to offer an extended release schedule beyond the films debut, he said. We launched the films established characters in our games prior to the release of the film and are just beginning to roll out characters, such asBlack Panther, that the broader audience is just getting know.

While Marvel clearly uses its games to get its massive player audience excited about upcoming films and comics, this success shows that the movies also feed into the games. Disney recently canceled its Disney Infinity interactive-toy series, which was one of its biggest internal game publishing efforts. The company is obviously seeing what divisions like Marvel are doing with licensing, and it is planning to emulate that for all of its various brands.

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Source: http://venturebeat.com/2016/05/25/captain-america-civil-war-gives-marvels-games-and-media-a-big-spike/

Amber Heard Files For Divorce From Johnny Depp After 15-Month Marriage

Johnny Depp: Amber Heard Files for Divorce ... On Heels of His Mom"s Death

Amber Heard has filed for divorce from Johnny Depp after about 15 months of marriage, People confirmed on Wednesday.

TMZ first reported the news, alleging that Heard filed a divorce petition on Monday, citing irreconcilable differences.

Depp and Heard, who met while filming 2011s The Rum Diary, married in a private Los Angeles ceremony in February 2015. Days after, they celebrated with a slightly larger ceremony on Depps private island in the Bahamas.

At the time, People reported that only a few dozen of their closest family and friends look[ed] on as they swapped vows under a white marquee decorated with flowers on the idyllic beach of Little Hall"s Pond Cay.

The couple first confirmed their relationship after Depp split with his partner of 14 years, French singer and actress Vanessa Paradis, with whom he has one daughter, Lily-Rose, and one son, Jack.

Speaking to E! last year, Depp reveals what first drew him to Heard.

We connect on a lot of levels but the first things that really got me was she"s an aficionado of the blues, the actor revealed. I would play a song, some old obscure blues song, and she knew what it was.

She"s very very literate,he added. She"s a voracious reader as I have been, so we connected on that as well and she"s kind of brilliant and beautiful.

Last June, while promoting Magic Mike 2, Heard opened up about the marriage, telling The Times of London, I never thought I would get married. But Ive always loved who Ive loved.

Heard also spoke about the transition from being Depp"s girlfriend to his wife, telling Elle, Nothing is a dramatic change. We"ve been together for a long time now, so it"s been a fairly organic process. . .I have a fiercely independent spirit.

The thing that really scares me is the potential of losing my freedom,she added to the magazine. I never want for my life to lose the ability to transverse the world, with freedom and ease.

Entertainment Tonight claims this is not the first personal setback for Depp this month. The actor"s beloved mother, Betty Sue, is said to have died on Friday at 82 after battling a long illness. The actor has a tattoo of his mother"s name inside a heart on his inner arm.

News of the separation also follows the couple"s bizarre saga with Australia"s Minister of Agriculture, which began after Heard failed to declare the couple"s two teacup-sized dogs at customs upon entering the country. Presumably as part of some kind of court agreement, the couple appeared in an awkward P.S.A., during which they apologized for not declaring their pets, and stiffly urged others to not make the same mistake they did.

On Monday evening, Depp appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live in seemingly good spirits.

The appearance was one of several planned this week for Depp to promote Alice Through the Looking Glass, which opens in theaters this Friday.

Representatives for the couple did not immediately respond to VF.com requests.

Source: http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/05/johnny-depp-amber-heard-divorce

For #NationalWineDay, an Ode to Manischewitz

National Drink Wine Day

Adulthood: when you stop dreading Passover Seders because you have to wait to eat, and start looking forward to them because of those famous four cups of wine. Its National Wine Day today, giving us a great reason to raise a glass to Manischewitz, the sickly-sweet concoction that is, more often than not, the contents of those four cups.

View post on imgur.com

Manischewitz is the wine version of a superheros sidekick: its well-intentioned, goofy, impossible to get rid of, and decidedly mediocre. In Manischewitzs 128 year history, here are some of the strangest and most enchanting ways they and their devotees have tried to shake off that perception.

1) This 1962 radio spot

Aired on Bob Cranes popular radio show and featuring Crane as both a fanatical winemaker and the beleaguered blackberry salesmen who fail to impress him this spot revolves around a heroic man from Manischewitz and his quest to find big, luscious European blackberries for the labels Blackberry Wine. Lets talk about situations in which you can say the words big and luscious repeatedly, in conjunction, and have people find your enthusiasm endearing, not creepy. They dont exist, especially not for Bob Crane.

2) Man O Manischewitz, a Klezmer tribute

This is genuinely awesome music accompanied by a genuinely delightful video, but I found it difficult to relate to because Manischewitz wine generally makes me want to sleep, not gyrate with a fiddle on a windswept hillside.

3) The infectious Mambo Shevitz

Almost unbelievably, the companys clunky-kitschy advertising slogan man, oh Manischewitz, inspired this danceable and apparently unsponsored tune from The Crows. Man oh man that music, baby, dig that beat, they sing, like a glass of wine its so cool and sweet. Oh, yes, like cough syrup, it is.

4) If Sammy Davis Jr. likes it, its cool

This is an advertisement for Manischewitz in which the undeniably cool Sammy Davis Jr. plays a less-cool French childrens song to try and sell some Manischewitz wine. It has a kind of nutty taste, a kind of gentle taste, he sings, a description that could be conceivably persuasive to someone with no prior concept of what wine tastes like.

5) And last, this Wikipedia persuasion

This is the actual photo, labeled Bottle of Manischewitz, used to illustrate the Wine section of Manischewitzs Wikipedia page. This man is a hero. Im still not craving Manischewitz.

If youd like to learn more about Manischewitzs surprisingly lively history, NPR published a useful examination of the wines popularity in April. And with that, happy National Wine Day to all.

Talya Zax is the Forwards culture intern. Contact her at zax@forward.com or on Twitter, @TalyaZax

The Forward"s independent journalism depends on donations from readers like you.

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Source: http://forward.com/the-assimilator/341386/for-nationalwineday-an-ode-to-manischewitz/

"Alice" Star Beth Howland Dead at 74

"Alice" Actress Beth Howland Dies at 74

Actress Beth Howland, best known for her role as waitress Vera on the long-running CBS show Alice, has died. She was 74.

Howland died on Dec. 31 of lung cancer in Santa Monica, California, her husband, Murphy Brown actor Charles Kimbrough, told The Associated Press. There was no announcement of her death or a funeral service because that was the late stars choice, he explained.

It was the Boston side of her personality coming out, Kimbrough shared with The New York Times. She didnt want to make a fuss.

PHOTOS: Stars Weve Lost in Recent Years

Howland received four Golden Globe nominations for her role on Alice, which aired on CBS from 1976-1985, and was based on the 1974 Martin Scorcese film, Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore. The sitcom was set in a diner in Phoenix, Arizona, and Howland quickly became a fan favorite thanks to her ditzy, accident-prone character, Vera Louise Gorman. She also made a number of guest appearances on other popular television shows, including The Love Boat, Mary Tyler Moore, Little House on the Prairie, Murder, She Wrote, and Sabrina, The Teenage Witch.

Howland was also an accomplished Broadway actress, playing parts in Once Upon a Mattress, Bye Bye Birdie, High Spirits, and Darling of the Day.

She is survived by a daughter, Holly, from her previous marriage to Bonnie and Clyde actor Michael J. Pollard. Pollard and Howland split in 1969 after eight years of marriage.

Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&ct2=us&usg=AFQjCNEBk0DBBYjj3y0jymQmexGkMMygTg&clid=c3a7d30bb8a4878e06b80cf16b898331&ei=Z4pGV8C3LNHK3QG1t4aoCg&url=https://www.yahoo.com/celebrity/alice-star-beth-howland-dead-162000718.html

"The Flash" Season 3: New Timeline To Erase WestAllen Kiss? Grant Gustin Explains [VIDEO]

The Flash Season 3 - Hell Yeah

WestAllen "shippers finally got the kiss they"ve been waiting for. Find out if it will it survive Barry"s alterations to the timeline.

WestAllen "shippers finally got the kiss they"ve been waiting for. Find out if it will it survive Barry"s alterations to the timeline. (Photo : Katie Yu/The CW )

Just as The Flashbrought WestAllen to fruition, Barry Allen went and supersonic punched the reset button on his life.

From the future to Earth-2, Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris (Candice Patton) are destined to be together. It took two seasons for the speedster and the reporter to get on the same page, but, now that they have, fans are worried their front porch romance will fade out of existence.

Gustin is here to calm your fears. While the actor can"t speak for Iris, he can promise that Barry won"t quickly forget their little chat.

But seriously, what is it about WestAllen kisses and sudden time line upheaval? Those two crazy kids just can"t get it together. The WestAllen comment wasn"t the only teaser Gustin dropped on Wednesday. The Team Flashpowers that be have yet to utter the word "Flashpoint," but the DC star did tip his hat to the theory in the wake of Nora Allen"s sudden reversal of fortune.

...BUT...

For those unfamiliar with Geoff Johns" Flashpoint storyline, we suggest you check it out. The long and short of it is that Barry"s little trip back in time will quickly send his timeline spiraling out of control. Thanks to a little speed force legerdemain, however, the comic book Barry is completely unaware of why his life has suddenly been turned upside down. Confused? That"s okay; check out a brief breakdown here.

Will The Flashgo down this path? Find out when the STAR Labs team returns to The CW this fall!

Source: http://www.enstarz.com/articles/160802/20160525/the-flash-season-3-new-timeline-to-erase-westallen-kiss-grant-gustin-explains-video.htm

Did Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob jinx his team?

Golden State Warriors vs Oklahoma City Thunder - Game 4 - 1st Qtr Highlights | 2016 NBA Playoffs

The Golden State Warriors won an NBA-record 73 games this season. They ran through the league, defiling opponents night in and night out with historic three-point shooting and cement-wall defense, wrapped inside a traveling circus atmosphere.

For 16 months, the Warriors were the best and most thrilling team in the sport"s history, and, at least at the ownership level, all the success got to their head. Now that Golden State trails the Oklahoma City Thunder 3-1, these words from Warriors owner Joe Lacob are resurfacing in a karmic way (via New York Times Magazine):

When I asked him about the previous night"s game, he could hardly contain himself. He boasted that the Warriors are playing in a far more sophisticated fashion than the rest of the league. "We"ve crushed them on the basketball court, and we"re going to for years because of the way we"ve built this team," he said. But what really set the franchise apart, he said, was the way it operated as a business. "We"re light-years ahead of probably every other team in structure, in planning, in how we"re going to go about things," he said. "We"re going to be a handful for the rest of the N.B.A. to deal with for a long time."

If you believe in jinxes, there"s a solid case to be made that Lacob"s comments jinxed Golden State:

The Warriors were 68-7 when NYT Magazine published Golden State owner Joe Lacob"s "Light Years Ahead" interview. Will fall to 14-7 since.

Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver)May 25, 2016

The arrogance is bothersome, along with the flat-out ridiculousness in saying the Warriors are so far ahead of every other organization in the league. Yes, they"re highly intelligent and accomplished. But no franchise will ever outsmart luck. Steph Curry slipping on a wet spot against the Houston Rockets and spraining his MCL? Draymond Green hurting his ankle in Game 5 against the Portland Trail Blazers?

There"s no getting around injuries, or having your best player drown in an inexplicable shooting slump.

It"s always better to be humble and gracious, particularly in a field like professional sports, where so many factors outside any person"s control can influence who wins and who loses. Lacob may have to find this out the hard way.

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Source: http://www.foxsports.com/nba/story/golden-state-warriors-jinx-joe-lacob-owner-new-york-times-magazine-052516