Can the world handle another dosage of the God of Thunder? Well, it better get ready as Thor 2 has gotten a release date.

While the first Thor film didn’t exactly burn up the box office compared to some of the other movies out there, that isn’t stopping Disney/Marvel from getting ready to release a sequel.  The film will hit screens on July 26, 2013, only about two months after Iron Man 3 hits on May 3, 2013.

Chris Hemsworth will be returning to the title role, but Director Kenneth Branaghwill not be back for the second film.  Reportedly his departure is not born out of any issues between him and the studio, but rather was a mutually agreed upon decision and was amicable on both parts.

No word on details such as a new director yet or if the script has even be started as of yet.

With the last few films building towards The Avengers coming out next year, I wonder if we’re now building towards The Avengers 2 by using solo movies to build things up again.  Obviously there is a master plan afoot here, we just don’t know what it is as of yet.

We haven’t seen or heard much about Apollo 18 since the first teaser trailer came out in Feb., but a new full trailer has just been released that gives us a bit more of a feeling for the film.

I must say that I don’t think I ever quite envisioned a horror film set on the Moon, but that looks to be exactly what we’re getting come this Sept.  Will the formula work?  I don’t know.  I can’t see plunking down my money in the theater for this, but I can definitely see watching it at home.

The film will hit theaters Sept. 2nd.

There is going to ne nothing fancy about this post as I’m grumpy, dirty and have a raging headache.  Around 12:15 AM or so Monday, my hometown of Kirksville, MO was hit by something called a “straight line wind.”  I still have no idea what the heck that really is, and I haven’t had time to research it yet.  All I know is that it was going 80 MPH and tore the town to shreds.  Trees are down, roofs ripped off, power & Internet have been down most of the past few days, and we’re only starting to get everything back to the way it should be.

I got my power back around 10:20 this morning after spending a night in my darkened house with our dogs.  The folks, at my request, went to a hotel, and I stayed behind to take care of the pets.  I have yet to get a shower as we had no hot water, but that is a trifling matter.  Luckily there have been no reports of deaths or injuries, but a few homes were destroyed and the damage is widespread.

For now, I am working from Ruby Tuesday, which a huge thank you to them for allowing me to essentially be camped here for two days as their Internet was working.

No pictures with this post as I didn’t have time to shoot any of my own, but just trust me when I say it was a mess and I can’t be happier the power is back on.

Now … who is going to explain a “straight line wind” to me?

Cars 2 sped into first place this weekend, but before you sound the horn, there are a couple caveats.

Cars 2 did indeed come in first this weekend with an estimated $68 million, but as Pixar films go, that’s nothing to sing about. Going on attendance as opposed to dollars due to inflation, the second film in the series only beat out A Bug’s Life, Ratatouille and Toy Story. While people weren’t exactly clamoring for this sequel, the merchandising from the first movie did so well that it is believed that is about the only reason this film exists. Another movie, more merchandise.

We’ll see how it fares with a couple more weekends,but it doesn’t look like this one will be setting the film world on fire like some of the previous Pixar productions.

Coming in second was the new Cameron Diaz vehicle, Bad Teacher.  It brought in an estimated $31 million, but Sony has to be singing songs of happiness today as the audience skewed 63 percent female.  Along the same lines as the current hit Bridesmaids that is still bringing in several million a week.

Normally a film sees around a 40 to 50 percent drop in its second weekend. Then you have Green Lantern. Coming in at $18.5 million, that’s around a 65 percent drop from the first weekend. I think we can officially classify this movie as a disaster at this point.

Super 8 came in fourth with $12.1 million, bringing it’s total to $95.2 million and in line with films of this type.

Rounding out the top five Mr. Popper’s Penguins with $10.3 million.  The fact this movie even exists boggles my mind, so lets just leave it there.

The only major release next week is Transformers: Dark of the Moon … PREPARE FOR BAYHEM!

I’ll be the first to admit that when I first heard about Apple’s Magic Trackpad, I mocked it. I don’t remember where I mocked it, but I made fun of the concept somewhere.

Last Sept. I went to Philadelphia on vacation, and with some time to kill one morning, I swung by the Apple Store to just poke around and see what was new.  (mind you, the closest Apple Store to my home is a three hour drive, so being within walking distance of one is actually intriguing to me)  While there I was trying out all of the gadgets I hadn’t before as Apple doesn’t usually send out review devices.  With a large smirk on my face, I tried the “Magic” Trackpad … and instantly fell in love.

While I’m not a huge fan of trackpads on computers – I actually travel with a full-sized mouse – this is a completely different experience.  The size, the smoothness, it’s just a joy to use.  Add in the multi-touch gestures that allow you to do things like go backwards or forwards in your history in a browser and just kicks up the computer experience another notch.

I still use a mouse with the iMac for things like photo editing, but the “Magic” Trackpad sits next to my mouse pad, and quite often I find my hand going there before it goes for the traditional device.

Accuse me of drinking the Apple Kool-Aid if you must, but I am now a fan of the “Magic” Trackpad.  What I’m not a fan of … that blasted “Magic” in front of its name.  Until this thing pulls a rabbit from a hat, it’s not all that “magic.”

Before you go thinking I’ve totally lost my mind to Apple seeing as last week I discussed switching to an iMac as my main computer, next Sunday I will be spitting fire about what turned into a multi-day battle with iTunes.  ”It’s never been easier to switch to a Mac” my hiney!

A total of 43 this week.

FunJug.com

• The Barking Cat
• Crane Crushes House
• Kid playing Dance Central Disturbia on Hard
• Bad GPS Directions
• Lucy Conquers Stairs
• My Drunk Kitchen Ep. 1: Butter Yo Sh*t
• Saturday Shorts: Law And Social Controls

SeanPAune.com

• Fukushima Filtration System Fails After Five Hours
• Green Lantern Opening Weekend Disappoints
• Pirates of the Caribbean 4 Enters Top 10 Biggest Global Releases
• Footloose Movie Trailer; A Remake We Didn’t Need
• The Muppets Trailer
• Scattercast Episode #150: The One with a Contest
• Universal Sets Release Date for Fast Six

TechnoBuffalo.com

• Redbox Officially Starts Game Rentals
• ICANN Approves New Top-Level Domains
• Nokia N9 Press Images Leak Out
• ThunderBolt to Receive Skype and Google Video on June 30th?
• Verizon to Go to Tiered Data on July 7th?
• Apple Launches 3 TB Time Capsule
• Sprint to Release Galaxy Tab 10.1 on June 24th for $499
• Ask The Buffalo: Top Android Tablets and 3D
• Current Verizon Customers Won’t Go to Tiered Plans?
• Angry Birds Seasons Updating with Summer Pignic
• Sprint Files One Last Plea to Stop AT&T/T-Mobile Merger
• Could an Apple TV be Coming as Early as This Fall?
• Amazon Tablets May Launch by Aug. or Sept.
• Hulu Goes Up for Sale; World Wonders “Why?”
• What’s The Apps: Bird Games!
• Nokia’s First Windows Phone 7 Device Shown Off in Video
• New Verizon Data Plans Get Official and Explained
• Could Buyers Begin Circling RIM?
• iPhone 5 Sept. Release Outed by China Mobile Employee
• EVO View 4G Getting Launch Day Update
• Pottermore Site Unveiled; Harry Potter Fans Rejoice
• Skyfire Mobile Browser Aims to Help with Tiered Data
• Zinio and NVIDIA Partner for an Optimized Magazine Experience
• Ask the Buffalo: June 24th Edition
• Conan O’Brien Editors Not Fans of Final Cut Pro X
• Sprint Q3 Plans Include Epic 2, Samsung 4G and Pair of BlackBerries
• Flashback Friday: Hulu, We Hardly Knew Ye
• Android Market Ratings on the Web Get More Details
• Turntable.fm Blocks Non-U.S. Users

From the realm of “absolutely no surprise”, Universal Pictures has announced a release date for the sixth film in The Fast and the Furious series, confirming that the film is indeed on the horizon.

Universal Pictures announced this weekend that we can expect a sixth film in the car-centric series to speed into theaters on May 24th, 2013.  A fascinating move when you consider that there is no word if a script has even been started yet.  Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne Johnson are al expected to return for the next film in the series, which isn’t surprising on the former two’s parts since you really don’t see them get work in other films as of late.

While Fast Five is the highest grossing film in the series at $207.2 million, it is technically not a success by usual Hollywood accounting which calls for a film to gross double its production budget domestically.  With a budget of $125 million, the fifth film would have had to hit $250 million to be considered in the black, but an additional $385 million in foreign reciepts for a global total of $592.2 million is sure to have influenced this decision to press forward with another installment.

Director Justin Lin, who helmed Fast Five and took it in a new direction for the series, is expected to return for whatever the sixth one ends up being named.

The suspicion is that this film is being rushed due to the fact that The Dark Tower is going to miss its original release date of May 17th, 2013 due to numerous delays with that production.  Universal needed a “tentpole” movie for the summer, and this one could get spun up pretty quickly, so there you go.

While I personally have no interest in the content of these movies, I do find the business side of them interesting, and right now I’ll be waiting to see if they dial back the production budget at all for the next installment.

It’s episode #150 and Scattercast wants to give you a prize to celebrate!

Oh sure, there’s some of the normal movie type chit chat this week, but the main thrust of this episode is thank you, the listeners, for tuning in for 150 episodes of this show!

First off, a big than you to Jon “Wafflejon” Quach for my spiffy new logo you see in this post.  Thank ya, Jon!  I figured with a 150 episodes under my belt, it was time for a new look.

Okay, so here we go, the contest.  One lucky winner will receive a Roku XD|S streaming media player.  This is one of my all time favorite gadgets, so I figured it was awesome to share with all of you.  The lucky winner will receive a brand new Roku XD|S purchased by me and shipped directly to your home (so make sure I can contact you).  Please note that the Roku company is in no way involved with this contest, this is just me purchasing it for said lucky winner.  Don’t know what it is?  Go read about it, it is awesome!  (I own three)

Now, how to enter:

1. Go to Empire Avenue, you can read about it here, and purchase at least one share of stock in “Sean P. Aune“.

2. The site is totally free, so this is a “no purchase necessary” type situation.  The site gives you virtual currency, and that’s what you use to purchase the shares in someone.  It’s that easy, sign up – buy a share in me – you’re registered to win the Roku.  Make sure you keep your account through Friday July 8th, 2011 so I can contact you for an address.

3. This contest runs from 1:01 AM EST on Friday June 24th until 5:00 PM EST on Thursday July 7th.

4. Only one entry per person no matter how many shares you buy or how many times you buy a share during that time period.

5. Only open to U.S. citizens as the Roku only works here.

6. Void where prohibited by law.

The winner will be announced on Friday July 8th in Scattercast Episode #152.  Good luck, and thank you all for 150 episodes!

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subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes.

The Muppets are back, and they want revenge!

Okay, maybe not revenge … but they are indeed returning to the silver screen, and that is most definitely not a bad thing.

The last theatrical Muppets movie was Muppet Treasure Island released in 1996, and that is just way too long for them to have been out of the theaters.  (CORRECTION: Muppets From Space was the last theatrical film released in 1999 … I honestly thought that one was straight to TV.) There have been a few television movies since then, but they never had quite the panache of the theatrical films.  From the looks of this trailer, it appears we’re back to a message about friendship and sticking together, but with all of the usual goofy humor that we expect from them.

Jason Segal, best known for his role in How I Met Your Mother, not only stars in the film, but also wrote it.  Bit of a surprise, but kudos to him.  Also along for the ride is Amy Adams who has starred in a ton of movies and will soon be playing Lois Lane in the upcoming Superman movie, Man of Steel.

My biggest question after seeing this trailer … how did they get all of the Muppeteers in that car scene?  Think about it, there’s a person under each of them operating them, that’s a whole lot of people under that car!

Check out the official site for all of the other parody trailers they released before this one.

I have no clue why anyone felt like Footloose needed to be remade, but it’s happened, and it’s coming our way this way October.

Based on the 1984 film of the same name, Footloose follows the story of a preacher who works to ban dancing in his town after several teenagers we killed after a night of partying.  An outsider comes into town, hooks up with the preacher’s daughter and they get the city to dance!

If you’ve never seen the original, yes, that really is the plot of the film.

One of the most notable aspects of the film is it was the vehicle that really brought Kevin Bacon to the attention of the world.  He had already gotten attention in Diner, but it was Footloose that got him noticed by younger folks.  It was certainly not high art, but it was entertaining enough.

What the world definitely did not need was a remake.  This one stars someone named Kenny Wormald that has a less than impressive resume, and Julianne Hough who is best known for being one of the professionals on Dancing With the Stars.  In other words, I’m not sure what to expect from the acting, but I’m not holding my breath for anything spectacular.

Here’s the trailer for the 2011 remake of Footloose … this just looks painful.

Why, Hollywood? Why do you do this to us? Did we anger you in some way?

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides may not be tearing up the domestic box office, but it’s doing something right overseas. As a matter of fact, it’s doing a whole lot of things right.

The fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has been disappointing in the U.S. box office, bringing in only $221.5 million thus far.  While some movies would kill for that number, that is not so great compared to the other three films in the series.  What is making everyone take notice, however, is how it is doing in the foreign box office.

To date it has brought in $753.2 million making for a combined total of $956.7 million.  This is enough to make it the tenth highest grossing film worldwide, putting it only $6.7 million behind Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, the third film in the series.  It has a real shot at becoming only the eighth film to ever break the $1 billion dollar global mark, and the third time for Disney.

The other Disney films to do it?  Alice in Wonderland and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest … both of which happen to star Johnny Depp.

Yep, Mr. Depp currently has the honor of having starred in four of the top 10 grossing films of all time across the world.  Three of them were films in the Pirates franchise, and the other was the afore mentioned Alice. His highest spot right now is with Dead Man’s Chest, which is at the number four spot with $1.066 billion.

Normally everything is judged by domestic box office because it is more expensive to distribute films internationally, but there is no way that you can turn a blind eye to these numbers.  A lot of people are making money off of this film, and no one is going to really care where it came from.

There is no doubt some people will wonder why Pirates of the Caribbean 5 is in our theaters some time down the road, and there will be a very good reason why … the world still loves Capt. Jack even if American’s are tiring of him.

Yes, it’s true, a $53.2 million opening weekend is a disappointment in this day and age for big budget films. Add in the fact that Green Lantern was supposed to shepherd in a new age of movies based on DC Comics, and it gets even worse.

Where the issues for Green Lantern really kick in is that revenue dropped 22 percent between Friday and Saturday, a far larger than usual number for a major film.  There is no way the pounding this film took from the critics didn’t play a factor, and the average comments on sites such as Twitter that I saw over the weekend eld me to believe the paid reviewers got it right this time.

The final insult?  Based on attendance instead of dollar amount, Green Lantern fared worse than Daredevil or Ghost Rider … ouch.

Coming in second was Super 8 with $21.2 million, just over a 40 percent decline from last week, but seeing as 50 percent is considered average, this film may have some legs to it.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins opened in third place with $18.2 million.  I think this means we’re officially over Jim Carrey, and I for once couldn’t be happier about this.  He hasn’t been funny in years, and even then it was very touch and go when he actually was good.  Even discounting Carrey, this film did poorly for a summer family film, apparently no one wanted to watch a movie about a guy with penguins in his house.

X-Men: First Class came in third with $11.5 million and a decline of 52.5 percent from last weekend.  This marks the third worst weekend for any X-Men film, so it looks like this one is definitely not living up to expectations.

Rounding out the top 5 was The Hangover: Part II with $9.6 million, off 45.5 percent from last weekend.  It’s still at $233.1 million domestic gross, however, off of an $80 million dollar budget.  Translation?  It’s in the black.  I still would say a third film is on the way.

Other recent films such as Kung-Fu Panda 2 took a major hit, falling to sixth and not performing anywhere near expectations with $8.7 million this weekend. Bridesmaids brought in nearly $7.5 million and just keeps chugging along. This movie just won’t quit.

Next week?  Cars 2 from Pixar … prepare for an astronomical number.