James Franco has been cast in the lead role in the Hulu and Warner Bros. adaptation of 11/22/63, a time-traveling novel centered around the Kennedy assassination written by horror master Stephen King. Franco, who has quite the diversified filmography, has had roles ranging from a part in a soap opera (General Hospital), to low-brow comedies (The Interview) to Oscar-nominated performances (127 Hours). He definitely has a juicy part ahead of him in this 9-hour miniseries, which Variety reports is being described as “part thriller, part love story.”

11/22/63: A Novel tells the story of Jake Epping, an English teacher who inherits a time portal from the owner of his local diner, along with a mission to prevent the Kennedy assassination. As with all time travel fiction, traveling to the past causes far-reaching future effects, effects for the better, it is hoped, had Kennedy lived. The caveats are: 1) If you return to the future and go back through the portal again, you go back to the exact same date and time of September 9, 1958, 11:58am; 2) That return undoes all the changes you wrought in the previous time travel; 3) History tries to stop you from changing anything. It throws obstacles in your way; And 4) You can stay in the past for a week or for years, you will age the correct amount but only 2 minutes will pass from the present you left.

Today’s Thrashback Thursday theme is: great band, cool song, terrible record. Megadeth‘s anthemic track “Crush ‘Em” was just about the only redeeming factor of their otherwise abysmal 1999 album Risk. The record’s title reflects Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine’s belief that the band was ready to take a risk and step outside of their comfort zone. The problem was that the step they took was toward pop metal and the risk that they took alienated many fans. The album would be the last to feature legendary guitarist Marty Friedman, who left the fold a year later.

“Crush ‘Em” was also used as the theme song for the equally terrible Jean Claude Van Damme and Bill Goldberg movie Universal Soldier: The Return and the song’s official video features both actors.

Divinity #1
Written by Matt Kindt
Pencils by Trevor Hairsine
Inks by Ryan Winn
Colors by David Baron
Letters by Dave Lanphear
Covers by Jelena Kevic Djurdjevic, Tom Muller, Tom Muller and Trevor Hairsine, and Lewis LaRosa with Brian Reber
Valiant Entertainment
Release Date: February 11, 2015
Cover Price: $3.99

Alternative history has always fascinated me, mainly because our past is full of pivotal points in time. If we were to alter a single incident, what else would change? Similarly, time travel offers the exact same scenarios unless you are among those who believe that fate is decreed and cannot be changed. The only reason I mention this is because Divinity #1 works on the premise that during the Cold War, the Soviets were far more advanced than we Americans were. But as oftentimes happens, fledgling science has repercussions. Which leads us to our story…

Kingsman: The Secret Service is already getting high marks for being a very stylish and fun spy-genre film. Based the film adapted from the Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons comic book of the same name. The story centers on a group of well-dress and well-mannered secret agents, where Harry Hart (Colin Firth) recruits (Taron Egerton) into being top spy fit to be a Kingsman.

The heavy British accents might be a dead giveaway as to where the opertion is run, but director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) says that there may be an opportunity to explore just how expansive the Kingsman agency is by going across the pond into U.S. territory for a sequel. Hit the jump for more.

Come this time next year, you will probably have two film options. On one hand, you can watch a generic romantic comedy or you can watch Deadpool. Production has yet to begin for the wise-cracking fourth-wall-breaking anti-hero, and Ryan Reynolds will be reprising the same character he debuted in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Sure that film wasn’t very good, and we only got to see Deadpool for a few moments, but they were enough to warrant a spin-off, especially after leaked test footage was favorably received by the public.

Now, Reynolds has tweeted out a photo of himself with some of the character’s suit and equipment. But since the film is still clearly in pre-production, its not quite yet finalized. That being said, it is still exciting to know that the film is finally coming. Hit the jump to see some of Reynolds’ behind-the-scenes photos.