As we all know, this past week or two has been incredibly unfortunate with the passing of many beloved celebrities, including David Carradine, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. As depressing as all of this loss was, at one point in the chaos that occurred on the day that Fawcett and Jackson were lost, there were also various reports that actor Jeff Goldblum had also died after falling off a cliff in New Zealand while filming. This news never really seemed legit and we later found out that it was in fact false — but it had actually gotten as far as foreign news programs reporting that police in New Zealand had confirmed it as true.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to bring a little laughter to us at a time where many are mourning, Stephen Colbert decided to report the sad demise of Jeff Goldblum on The Colbert Report while touching on the journalistic accuracy of Twitter. [...]

At this point, most of us are aware of Sacha Baron Cohen, the British actor who has portrayed a Kazakhstanian reporter in Borat; a gay Austrian fashion buff in this summer’s Brüno, and a French car racing star in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby — among many other things. What many of us are not so much aware of is that Sacha has a cousin named Ash, and he’s been here in America and working in movies for much longer than his superstar relative.

In the July issue of Esquire, they did a small story on Ash Baron Cohen, and while he hasn’t made the most well-known films we’ve ever heard of, his story is wonderful and decorated with the praises of cinematic legends. Some of the films he has made are: Bang, which Roger Ebert called one of the best movies of 1997; Pups, which had Mischa Barton and Burt Reynolds; and probably his biggest project was This Girl’s Life, which starred James Woods, Rosario Dawson, Michael Rapaport, and Ioan Gruffudd. He also currently has three movies on the way that are in various states of production.

Most of his projects were directed under the one-name format: Ash. This was because he was initially here illegally. Apparently Oliver Stone loved his movie Bang so much, that he said “We need to get you legal,” and actually wrote the INS to make it happen.

Click over to the other side for one of the best Hollywood stories I’ve ever heard — WITH video! Pre-click warning: this video has some heavy NSFW language from thespian Richard Harris (that’d be Professor Dumbledore from the first two Harry Potter films, for you younger generation folks). Now you’re too curious not to look, aren’t you? [...]

Vampires. These bitey little rascals have always been popular sources of entertainment — a fact that remains strong today with multiple movies and TV shows. Some are immensely popular like HBO’s True Blood and foreign film Let the Right One In; others are maybe not so good — depending on who you are, of course — such as Twilight and 30 Days of Night.

Whether you adore these creatures of the night, or if they’re really not your thing, the fact of it all is that they’re just not going anywhere. And with that assessment, here’s presenting the trailer for a brand new vampire tale that is well on its way: Daybreakers.

Daybreakers looks pretty interesting. It has a creepy Dark City with a touch of Guillermo del Toro’s Blade II look to it and deals with the vampire race trying to discover a way to survive when it becomes apparent that the human race is endangered and blood is running out. The movie stars Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill, and Willem Dafoe. It is directed by Peter Spierig and Michael Spierig, who have also directed Undead. [...]

An extended preview of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ran on Sunday night during the premiere of the NBC miniseries Merlin.

Watch the clip here below.

The clip focuses on the dark elements of this sixth Harry Potter story, which sees the dark forces of the magical world crossover in our world, revealing themselves to “Muggles.” There’s also an emphasis on Harry himself as the “chosen one.” Those who know the story, know there’s a entire subplot on the light side, with all the romance amongst the teenagers of Hogwarts. There’s only a touch of that in this preview, which contains new footage from the film [...]

What happens when the most powerful man on the planet in President of the United States, Barack Obama, meets the most “explosive” director in cinematic history, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen director Michael Bay? Does the universe implode? Does God shoot off some fireworks synchronized to an Aerosmith soundtrack to set the mood? Maybe we just get an innocent and amusing little story and quote.

While at a press conference recently, Bay was asked about why he chose to use President Obama’s name in his Transformers sequel instead of a fictional presidential figure. Bay went on to tell the story of his meeting Obama in an airport in Vegas right after the start of his presidential campaign. The entertaining part of the story comes when Obama found out Bay was a director and which movies he had made, he humorously corrected him by saying “So you’re a big-ass director,” to which Bay surely takes pride in.

Obviously this is more just a fun little tid-bit and not that important. But while the story is entertaining, the original question is a bit odd. [...]

Battlestar Galactica mastermind and general science fiction genius Ronald D. Moore has had another project in the works for a while now called Virtuality. Moore sold the property to Fox as a movie-length pilot for a new series, but since then, it’s been unsure whether it would actually become a full TV series, or if it would just be a TV movie. At the moment, it appears Fox wants to see the movie and how it does first and then decide on the show’s fate. This is not good as the movie’s premise is built specifically for a TV series, meaning this movie will merely set the series up, and many, many…if not all answers will remain mysteries unless a show is ordered. It’s hard to believe that any station — including Fox — would think twice about whether to order a new Ronald D. Moore show or not, but this appears to be the case here.

Virtuality tells the story of twelve astronauts who embark on one of the most important space missions of all-time — a decade-long task to find a habitable planet after it is discovered that Earth will no longer be able to support human life in one hundred years. [...]

Many fans still lay in bed at night, unable to sleep due to the end of Battlestar Galactica a few months back. We all know about and are excited that the new prequel series Caprica is on the way and has already started out with a fantastic opening movie (Read: DVD Review: ‘Caprica’); but when it comes to our beloved BSG, only one more story is yet to be told, and that story is called Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. Thankfully there’s now a new trailer and a video clip from the movie.

The Plan will combine old footage and new footage to revisit crucial points in the series and present them from the perspective of the Cylons. It’s presented by the usual suspects in Ronald D. Moore and David Eick; and it’s directed by Admiral Adama himself: Edward James Olmos.

Where the show ended is blanketed in finality and it would be nearly impossible to pick up from there and do something the fans would accept. However, there are so many layers and storylines to this world that they have created, it would not at all surprise me if more prequel movies like this come along down the road. [...]

On June 21, 2009 at 8PM EST, the hit BBC miniseries Merlin premieres in the U.S. on NBC — and not a moment too soon. We live in a world where TV is ruled by disgusting amounts of cop/authority dramas and hospital dramas and what we really need, is some good old fantasy! With Merlin, we will get just that.

As it is known, Merlin is the legendary wizard who is most-often associated with the tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table in Camelot. The truth to the character is hard to even put into words. He was first written about in the year 1136 and has shown up in an infinite amount of movies, TV shows, cartoons, games, artworks, and who knows how many other things. Quite simply put: when you think of a wizard, you most likely think of the greatest wizard of them all: Merlin..

So as not to be unoriginal, the creators of this 13-part miniseries, starring Buffy’s Anthony Head and Michelle Ryan (from the Bionic Woman reboot), have basically rebooted the world and the character to offer many fresh, wonderful new adventures to existing fans, and any new ones that may come [...]

Is there anyone out there who doesn’t like Betty White?

I didn’t think so.

White made an appearance this week on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon where the 87-year-old beloved actress went up against the host in a game of Beer Pong. I suggest you take a moment to watch the clip here below; it’s funny and quite enjoyable. I think I could have watched like an hour of Betty White playing Beer Pong. And I love how the audience loved White too, screaming her name like she was a rock star. Awesome.

White was promoting her new movie The Proposal, a rom-com starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds that I probably wouldn’t have given a second glance to had it not been for White’s role in it [...]

It has been a few days now since the E3 video game and electronics convention just came and went, leaving many exciting previews and announcements in its wake, but we here at Geeks of Doom wanted to put together a basic wrap-up for those of you who missed it all and do not yet know of all of the treasures that came of it. The big dogs in Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all had exciting conventions, with Sony and Microsoft making some magnificent announcements. Included in this mass of geek-tastic announcements: A look at Microsoft’s motion-capture attempt with Project Natal, Sony’s motion-capture prototype, and games like Mass Effect 2, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Halo: ODST, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, God of War III, and others.

In celebration of the convention and all of the great things that came out of it, we’ve decided to put together this little recap of the biggest and brightest things that we saw. We will do our very best to offer information on the products, as well as the mind-blowing videos that were shown! To start, we’ll go over the three main outlets and what they presented to us. [...]

The first trailer for Martin Scorsese’s new film Shutter Island has been released on Apple, and it looks intense. You can head over there for the HD version of the trailer.

The movie follows Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), two U.S. Marshals who come to a prison-like hospital for the criminally insane that is located on an island off the coast of Massachusetts. The marshals are called out to the hospital due to the disappearance of a woman who was being kept there for committing murder. The confusing thing about it all, is that the hospital is in a seemingly-inescapable Alcatraz-like location with eleven miles of cold, cold water between them and land. To make things even more chaotic — the presence of a 67th patient in a hospital inhabited by 66 causes the marshals to wonder what exactly is going on at Shutter Island.

This is one of the best trailers that I’ve seen in a while. It has a really creepy vibe to it and looks like it could be a third movie among The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. I also do not think that I would be out of line to claim that this trailer alone is scarier than most full-length horror movies that we see these days. [...]

Since Terminator Salvation was released a couple of weeks ago, it seemed like the unbelievable amounts of images, trailers, TV spots, and various others types of news would finally be coming to an end. Instead, in a bit of a surprise twist, Warner Brothers has decided to release at least one more new TV spot and throw us all off!

The newest TV spot is just like all of the others…until the end, that is. Toward the end, you will get a little peek (if you haven’t already seen the movie, of course) of what the digitally-added Arnold Schwarzenegger that they used looks like in action. As you’ll recall, the biggest question throughout production was: is Arnie involved, and if so, how? (Read: Is Digital Arnold Schwarzenegger A Good Move For ‘Terminator Salvation’?) Here is your definitive answer.

We knew there could be voice-over, and that they might even attempt a digital version of the California Governor in order to ensure his younger image from the original The Terminator. Actually, color me surprised, but he looks pretty decent — especially the very first image in this spot. The second is a little more fake looking, but better than I expected, all-around. [...]

While watching The Colbert Report, as I so often do, they let loose one of their great movie references as it relates to a real news story. This particular news story is from The Raw Story, who reported the announcement that a United States weapons laboratory has officially created a “super laser” which was capable of creating temperatures and pressure equal to that of a star or a large planet’s core. Naturally, this got people to thinking: do we have our very own Star Wars Death Star!?

While the exact damage this little baby would cause isn’t really known, it is expected to keep nuclear weapons in check, as well as offer a possible answer to safe fusion power. I wonder if this is how we would take out Texas-sized meteor that were threatening to hit Earth, instead of the standard oil drilling crew. Asteroids style.

Click over to the dark side to see the great video from The Colbert Report!

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke at a dedication ceremony for the weapons and energy breakthrough achievement, saying: [...]

I’m just going to come right out and say it: The MTV Movie Awards are not quite what they used to be. Not only does everyone know the winners, allowing most of the losers to not even bother showing up; those who do win always end up being highly undeserving of the award thanks to the scary-large amount of little kids out there who rock the vote. In the few minutes that I did watch, here’s what I saw: Andy Samberg ripping off Billy Crystal’s Oscar bit; Ashley Tisdale winning “Breakout Female Performer of the Year” for High School Musical 3; Hayden Panettiere swearing a lot to show that she’s all grown up now; and Miley Cyrus winning for Best Song over A.R. Rahman’s “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire, and Bruce Springsteen’s song “The Wrestler” from The Wrestler. These few brief moments were so painful to watch, it was literally all my little heart could take, bless it so. I’ve recorded the ceremony, so I can watch the rest later with the ability to fast forward through anything so bad that it has me tempted to inflict self-harm as a valid alternative.

While the show may be unbearable to most, they do at least show a handful of new clips and trailers from some of the year’s biggest upcoming movies, and those, my friends, I am nothing but happy to share with you here! [...]

Game Trailers TV had a great special on recently which debuted a bunch of great new videos for games expected to make impacts at the great E3 convention — the convention where most of the year’s biggest and best video games make their first impressions.

Below is a list of big upcoming games, a little about them, and the links to some great video previews that video game fans just need to go and watch. Once you watch one of the videos, you can search for a title on the website and watch any other videos or trailers that they may have.

Keep in mind these are just previews of some of the promising-looking multi-platform games that might be big at E3, which takes place June 2-4 at the LA Convention Center. There’s a whole lot more games than this that are coming out soon that have us all Christmas Day-excited for them. There will also be countless other games talked about at E3. Hopefully, you might find a game here that you weren’t aware of!

Think of this like our Summer Movie Mayhem, but with games. Be sure to stay tuned for any giant E3 announcements that may come along this June! [...]

Every Summer, Pixar releases their latest and greatest movie, which always seems to be be even more loved than the last. Along with these movies, we usually get just a little teeny weeny look at what next Summer has in store for us in the form of a teaser trailer. This year was a special year though, because we knew that in 2010, Toy Story 3 would finally greet us…a decade after we last saw our favorite animated toys. Unfortunately, we quickly learned that Disney’s newest return to hand-drawn animation, The Princess and the Frog, would actually be the one teased in front of this year’s Up, and that Toy Story 3’s teaser would show in front of the new 3-D double-feature re-release of Toy Story & Toy Story 2 this October. Thankfully, this did not last long!

In a joyous turn-of-events, Disney/Pixar chose not to make everyone wait that long, and hook the teaser to Up after all, and now, it is here to watch as many times as you want. [...]

The first footage of Disney’s A Christmas Carol premiered today at Cannes.

Director Robert Zemeckis and stars Jim Carrey and Colin Firth were on-hand to debut the footage for the upcoming 3D motion-capture animated film, based on the classic Christmas tale by Charles Dickens.

Watch the 19-second video clip here below.

Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey) begins the Christmas holiday with his usual miserly contempt, barking at his faithful clerk (Gary Oldman) and his cheery nephew (Colin Firth). But when the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come take him on an eye-opening journey revealing truths Old Scrooge is reluctant to face, he must open his heart to undo years of ill will before it’s too late.

A Christmas Carol arrives in conventional and IMAX theaters on November 6, 2009 [...]

The team behind Mass Effect 2 sat down for a cool new video preview of what to expect out of the mecca for all of the biggest video game reveals of the year: E3.

In the video, the team discusses the improvements you will see: the immediate notice of a better playing game; the demo some will be able to play at the convention; new weapons we’ll be able to use; the A.I. enhancements and how enemies will react; how much darker the game is visually, in tone, and musically; new species of aliens that will be featured; and the much-talked about feature that allows your stats from the first game to set the foundation of your sequel adventure — most notably, the absence of any of the characters who perished in Mass Effect.

Keep in mind, this is just a preview video and no real details are given, they’re just telling you what’s coming and what will probably be unveiled at E3. For a prelude video, I assure you, it’s exciting to watch. I can only imagine what will come out of E3! Plus, there’s some new footage and concept art to peek at. [...]

The first BioShock 2 trailer finally showed us some gameplay footage and it was a wonderful treat — now comes a 9-minute long video walkthrough from IGN of what’s likely to be the game’s opening sequence and/or demo.

The walkthrough is with BioShock 2 Creative Designer Jordan Thomas, who will offer a little insight into what to expect in the game while showing you in the game itself. You will notice many parts that were featured in the trailer above, but with a much more in-depth look at these parts.

Many people seem to be against this game coming out, but we have to keep in mind that is a game, not a movie. Game’s are built to have sequels if the original finds success, and their sequels tend to be a lot more well-done than the movie follow-ups that we’re so used to. Even if the first game is the best of the best and can not possibly surpass the first, why not travel back to our haunting and beloved Rapture for more adventures? This is why I’m so excited to see what they come up with. [...]

The dudes over at College Humor have a new video comparing the new Star Trek film with the first Star Wars movie.

While on the surface, it would seem like these two iconic science fiction franchises would obviously be alike — both in space, young heroes fighting evil foes, advanced weaponry and technology, and so on. But, after watching this short video you’ll really see the similarities [...]