Nick Romano

Entertainment Journalist

[nickarbocker]

How Shazam! Is the Foil to Man of Steel

Warner Bros. once put all its eggs in the Zack Snyder basket when 2013’s Man of Steel launched what would become (the unofficially nicknamed) the DC Extended Universe. That grittier film gave way to a broodier Batman v Superman, a haphazard Suicide Squad, and a directorial Frankenstein Justice League stitched together from shots filmed by Snyder and his replacement, Joss Whedon — none of which seemed to match expectations. But DC is changing. These films are brighter (no doubt thanks to Wonder Woman’s glimmering gauntlets) and a touch more out-there (cue the “Wahoo!” war cry of Aquaman). It’s during this franchise’s sudden about-face that we now meet Shazam, the cinematic antithesis to the Ayn Rand-ian Kryptonian that started it all.

Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/01/23/how-shazam-is-the-foil-to-man-of-steel 

[nickarbocker]

How Deadly Class Translates the Brutal ‘80s-Set Comic for 2019 TV, Nazis and All

A report from the Vancouver set of the Syfy series. 

Link: http://collider.com/deadly-class-syfy-adaptation-explained/ 

[nickarbocker]

The Punisher Season 2 Will Include Jigsaw (With a Twist)

All the secrets we learned on the set of Netflix and Marvel's The Punisher season 2.

Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/12/28/the-punisher-season-2-jigsaw-karen-netflix-amy-bendix/ 

[nickarbocker]

Trans critics explain the problem with Girl and its Golden Globes nomination

“The 2019 Golden Globe nominees marked a high note for LGBTQ visibility, between The Assassination of Gianni Versace leading the television pack, Pose‘s historic recognitions, and the queer Favourite of awards season. On paper, Netflix’s Girl, a foreign language contender, seems to contribute to these milestones, but the film and now its nomination by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association points to much larger issues amongst LGBTQ critics — especially trans critics.”

Link: https://ew.com/golden-globes/2018/12/06/netflix-girl-backlash-trans-critics/ 

[nickarbocker]

Ashen is a beacon of light against the dark night: EW review

“When choosing to explore the minimalistic animation style of this fantastical landscape, help will always be given in the form of either a fellow gamer (in multiplayer mode) or an A.I. travel buddy (in single player). The former is Ashen’s biggest selling point, despite a few kinks.”

Link: https://ew.com/game-reviews/2018/12/15/ashen-review/ 

[nickarbocker]

American Gods cast address showrunner changes in season 2

Omid Abtahi said the reports weren’t “entirely inaccurate.” For Emily Browning, it was more like, “We hit a giant road bump and I think we’ve managed to correct course.” 

Link: https://ew.com/tv/2018/10/05/american-gods-season-2-showrunner-changes/ 

[nickarbocker]

Peter Jackson, Mortal Engines director discuss fan pushback over Hester's scar

“It’s fine in the book for Hester to be described to be ugly, hideous, and have lost a nose ‘cause, even that, you reimagine it in your own mind as, ‘Okay, yeah, she’s ugly, but she’s not really ugly,'” director Christian Rivers explained. “Tom falls in love with her… and film is a visual medium. With a book you can take what you want and reimagine it in your head and put together your own picture. But when you put it on film, you are literalizing it. You are making it a literal thing, so it was just finding a balance where we need to believe that Tom and Hester fall in love. And her scar does need to be disfiguring enough that she thinks she’s ugly — it can’t just be a little scratch — and I think we’ve struck a good balance of it.”

Link: https://ew.com/movies/2018/10/11/mortal-engines-hester-scar-peter-jackson-christian-rivers/

[nickarbocker]

Ok, Cupid: An ode to same-sex romancing in Assassin's Creed Odyssey

I wrote about hooking up with the hot doctor in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. #Journalism 

Link: https://ew.com/gaming/2018/10/09/assassins-creed-odyssey-lgbtq/ 

[nickarbocker]

How Supernatural was inspired by The House With a Clock in Its Walls

“It established rules that I carried with me into Supernatural,” screenwriter Eric Kripke explains. “Rule 1: I didn’t realize it until years later, but it blew me away that every bit of folklore and every occult object that is mentioned in John Bellairs’ book is something that exists out there in the world, in legend somewhere.”

Link: https://ew.com/movies/2018/09/21/supernatural-house-with-a-clock-in-its-walls-eric-kripke/

[nickarbocker]

Eli Roth hopes The House With a Clock in Its Walls is a gateway to the horror genre

“If you love Hostel, if you love It and The Nun and you want your kids to be into those movies, you can’t take them to those movies because they’ll traumatize them. You take them to a movie like The House With a Clock in Its Walls. It’s like going in a fun haunted house.”

Link: https://ew.com/movies/2018/09/19/eli-roth-house-with-a-clock-in-its-walls-horror-gateway/ 

[nickarbocker]

In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Camilla Luddington crafts a Croft that rivals Hollywood

“In this game, she ends up losing herself in tunnel vision for hunting Trinity,” Luddington says. “And I think the process for her becoming the Tomb Raider and finding herself is to turn the mirror around and shine a light on herself and ask herself whether she is doing the things that her enemies are doing. The lines get a little blurred in this game whether she could be the hero or the villain, and I think that’s really interesting to play because she’s lost herself within her own journey and part of her becoming the Tomb Raider is her finding herself again and asking herself what her drive is. Are her decisions the right decisions?”

Link: https://ew.com/gaming/2018/09/15/shadow-of-the-tomb-raider-camilla-luddington/

[nickarbocker]

Javier Botet, Slender Man and Mara actor, is Hollywood’s nightmare fuel

At age 6, Javier Botet was diagnosed with Marfan syndrome that made him 6 feet, 6 inches and 120 lbs. At age 41, he's one of the most sought-after monster movie actors.

Link: https://ew.com/movies/2018/09/07/javier-botet-slender-man-mara/ 

[nickarbocker]

From Steven Universe to Voltron: The fight to bring LGBTQ characters to kids' shows

Six showrunners spoke with EW about LGBTQ visibility in animated shows and kids cartoons. 

“By including LGBTQIA content and characters in G-rated entertainment for kids, you tell kids when they’re young that they belong in this world. You can’t not tell them that. There can’t be only a certain group of kids who are told someone will love you by all the entertainment that they see. It’s just so unfair.” — Rebecca Sugar, Steven Universe

Link: https://ew.com/tv/2018/08/22/steven-universe-voltron-kids-cartoons-lgbtq-characters/

[nickarbocker]

First photo of Rosamund Pike playing slain war correspondent Marie Colvin in A Private War 

Pike: “There’s a word that people often use with courageous people, that they’re fearless, and I think it’s interesting because she had fear and did what she did anyway. It’s feeling your fear and then having the courage to put one foot in front of the other no matter how afraid you are, to carry on doing what you believe in. I’m interested in the cost of life choices. What is the cost of living any kind of extreme conviction, vision, passion? Anything that pushes your life beyond what most of your peers are experiencing. What is the cost of the fractured life that you necessarily lead?”

Link: https://ew.com/movies/2018/08/09/rosamund-pike-a-private-war-photo-marie-colvin-biopic/

[nickarbocker]

Even In a Post-Moonlight World, It’s Nearly Impossible to Get a Gay Movie Made

I interviewed directors Justin Kelly, Eliza Hittman, Andrew Ahn, Sydney Freeland, Ira Sachs, and Jamie Babbit on the realities of making LGBTQ films. 

Link: http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/06/lgbtq-movies-moonlight-pride

[nickarbocker]

Big Hero 6: How One of Marvel's Most Bizarre Comics Got Disney-fied 

Guardians of the Galaxy did more than break the 2014 box office – it proved that Disney’s Marvel Studios could turn even the most obscure and weird set of comic book characters into international sensations. Now, the Mouse House hopes to do it again with its first animated feature-length Marvel movie: Big Hero 6.

Link: http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/7/7157579/big-hero-6-is-much-weirder-than-you-think?tumblr

[nickarbocker]

Guys, this has been so long in the making...

For the past few months, I've been shadowing the guys behind Thinkmodo, the digital agency responsible for some of your favorite viral video pranks ('The Devil Baby,' 'Carrie Coffee Shop,' etc.) I got to go behind the scenes on their latest project, 'Ouija Psychic Terror,' to see how these guys made what they call "viral video gold."

READ THE FULL FEATURE HERE