I’m back in the podcasting game with a new show for TechnoBuffalo.

Although Scattercast is currently on hiatus due to my schedule – and the difficulty of doing a solo show – that doesn’t mean my love of podcasting has decreased in the least. With that in mind, and finally getting all of the pieces aligned, I introduce you to Tech on the Range, the podcast of TechnoBuffalo.

This new show is going to be a weekly roundtable discussion amongst various members of the TechnoBuffalo staff. The general rule of thumb will be myself and Senior Gaming Editor Joey Davidson filling two of the seats with the third one rotating somewhat. Most of the time it will be filled by Senior Mobile Editor Todd Haselton, but for Episode #0 we brought in Jon Rettinger, the president of the company.

We;re looking forward to a doing this for a long time to come, and we have many plans along the way for different stages of the show. For now, sit back and enjoy the first episode. I won’t be posting these here every week, but I wanted to at least introduce all of my readers to the show.

Subscribe to the show on iTunes. If you’re not an iTunes user, you can use this RSS feed right now.

JWoww,Snooki, DJ Pauley D, The Situation, Sammi Sweetheart and the rest of the Jersey Shore crew are out of a job as MTV has announced the upcoming sixth season will be the last.

The sad thing about this? I was able to name all of those people without having watched a single episode of the series.

How is it that a show as repugnant as the Jersey Shore is able to worm itself so deeply into the national consciousness that I can name the majority of the cast without ever having watched it? I have to wonder what useful piece of information was kicked out of my brain to make room for this utter garbage.

With the announcement today that the show is coming to end, I feel like a long national nightmare has come to a close. My biggest regret is that we some how infected the U.K. before we cured the disease. Sorry about that.

ABC has given the approval for a pilot based on S.H.I.E.L.D. with Joss Whedon slated to co-write and possibly direct.

S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division) has been a key part of the Marvel comic universe for decades and has managed to become an essential part of the cinematic universe as well. While it is most associated with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), as you could see in The Avengers, the organization is much more than just him. With this in mind, get ready for the further TV adventures of the various divisions and agents.

According to Deadline ABC has given the order to film a pilot with a script from Joss Whedon (the co-writer and director of The Avengers), his brother Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen. Should his schedule permit, Joss will also direct the pilot.

It was known when Whedon signed his deal with Disney earlier this month that a TV series was included in the arrangement, but no confirmation had been given to what the subject matter would be. There had been some speculation that it was a S.H.I.E.L.D. series, but with a Hulk series stuck in development, no one was quite sure.

While this series will more than likely focus on unknown agents, one can always hope for a cameo by Director Fury, but I won’t be holding my breath.

Of course this is one of those times where I have to remind the readers that just because a project gets a pilot doesn’t mean it will ever be seen, so don’t be setting your DVRs quite yet.

[via Deadline]

The Dark Knight Returns animated feature is shaping up to look awesome.

While I’m still not thrilled that this is being split in to multiple parts for the release – and you know there’ll be a boxed set release shortly after the final part comes out – I have to say this is looking fantastic. The way they handled the iconic lightning bolt shot in this just looks great, and I can’t wait to watch it.

… when I buy it as the inevitable boxed set.

That giant yawn you heard this weekend was coming from the box office.

Welcome to late August, folks. This is traditionally a slow time for movie going, but this weekend was insane. I can’t remember the last time that a summer weekend ended up being the lowest for the year, but that’s exactly what happened. The three new releases bombed: Premium Rush (7th for the weekend), Hit and Run (10th) and The Apparition (12th, but to be fair, it only played on 810 screens, the other two were 2,000+). I mean, a $35 million dollar movie about bike messengers (Premium Rush) couldn’t bring in more than $6.3 million in its debut weekend? What is the world of movies coming to?

The Expendables 2 won its second weekend, but considering what it was up against that isn’t that big of s surprise. The geriatric action film brought in $13.5 million in its second weekend, down 52.8% from its debut. It’s trailing the original by about $13 million at this point its run.

The Bourne Legacy was again in second place, this time bringing in $9.3 million, down 45.5% from the weekend before.

Third place was also a hold over from last week with ParaNorman bringing $8.5 million, down 39.3% from its first weekend. Thats actually a pretty healthy hold, so word of mouth must be good on this one.

Hey, guess what. Fourth place was also the same as last weekend! (Are we seeing a trend here?) The Campaign came in with $7.4 million, down 43.3%.

Fifth place actually saw The Dark Knight Rises claw its way back into the top five with $7.1 million.

The biggest movie news this week was 2016 Obama’s America coming in with eighth place finish with $6.2 million off of only 1,091 screens, and even that was pretty ho hum news wise this weekend.

My deathwatch on Total Recall continues as the movie fell to fourteenth place with only $1.85 million. Its domestic gross is now $55.2 million and I think we can safely add it to the pile of “What the hell went wrong?” movies for this year.

Next week’s big releases are Lawless, The Possession and something called Oogieloves In The BIG Balloon Adventure … I don’t even want to know what the heck that is. In short, expect another sleeper of a weekend.

Rumors are circulating that Disney is looking at having another go at The Rocketeer.

Released in 1991, The Rocketeer was based off of a comic by Dave Stevens from the 1980s that was partially responsible for the resurgence in the popularity of 1950s pin-up girl Betty Page. The story centered around a test pilot who finds a prototype rocket pack and uses it to fight Nazis as “The Rocketeer.” It was a fun, quirky story with some great movie serial sensibilities to it that just made it a fun read as well as movie to watch.

Now Disney is apparently thinking about remaking it, but the problem is, Stevens passed away in 2008 at the age of 52 from “hairy cell leukemia.” He was a co-writer and producer on the original film, so he was able to watch over his creation, and sadly this new version – should it come to be – will doubtfully have the same love put into it.

At this time it appears Disney is hunting for a script, and its not a done deal. Even if this does come to be, or doesn’t, do yourself a favor and watch the 1991 version, its fun and entertaining. A new one is almost certain to miss the mark.

The passing of Neil Armstrong this morning isn’t merely a sad day for America, but for the world.

I normally try to avoid writing about the same thing on two blogs in the same day, and even though I already covered the passing of Neil Armstrong on TechnoBuffalo, I felt motivated to also talk about this particular story a bit more personally.

Armstrong has had his detractors over the years with people saying he let the fact that he was the first man to step foot on the Moon go to his head. To that I say, he earned it. Yes, there were thousands of people that helped him get there, and while the reports of whether or not it really did go to his head conflict, I couldn’t really care less. Don’t you think he might have earned a little bit of a right to go, “Yep, that was me!”?

I certainly do.

That aside, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are men that should be remembered for centuries to come. They were the men who put their lives in the hands of those thousands of people in the hope that every single not, bolt, cog and circuit would work properly and not only get them to the Moon, but also land them, take back off and come home. As the Apollo 13 mission demonstrated, this was not some walk in the park to pull these journeys off.

For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by space exploration, and I probably will be for the rest of my life. Many times over the years when I have gazed up at the Moon I have thought about what an amazing feat it was that we put men up there. I then look at the current state of our space program and just shake my head. Anyone up for orbiting the Earth … again?

Perhaps we need men like Armstrong, Aldrin, Conrad, Bean, Shepard, Mitchell, Young, Duke, Cernan and Schmitt to come around again and help us dream of what is out there in the night that surrounds us. One can always hope that people with that sort of fortitude will come along every so often and tell us to get off our back ends and get out there.

For now, I shall just mark the passing of Neil Armstrong and think of him any time I look at the Moon.

If I needed any more proof of how done I am with Star Wars, it arrived today in the form of Star Wars: Detours.

This comedy series is coming to Cartoon Network, and apparently its supposed to be funny, but alas I just find myself going, “Wow, so you’re taking the billion jokes made on the Internet and animating them … awesome.”

I’m so done with this franchise. Thanks, George.

Entertainment Weekly is running some new character portraits to promote the third season of The Walking Dead, and they are a mixed bag to be certain.

First up, Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes. There is no doubt that he does a serviceable job as this character, but there are times where I do feel he plays a bit over the top … as he does in this picture with that face.

Next up is Danai Gurira as Michonne. There is no question she has the look of the character down, now lets just see how they play her in the writing. If done correctly, she will become a huge part of the story.

While I love David Morrissey as an actor, they decided to go for a very different look from the comics for The Governor. I can’t say why I think this will or will not work as it would give away far too much about this character, but I am intrigued by the choice to change him up.

No offense to Michael Rooker, but I didn’t care for the character of Merle the first time we met him, and I highly doubt I will now.

The third season of The Walking Dead premieres on Oct. 14 on AMC.

Things are definitely picking up on the marketing side of things for Dredd 3D with a month to go before the movie.

The video above showed up earlier this week as a warning against taking Slo Mo, the drug ravaging the streets of Mega-City 1 in the movie. Also launched for viral marketing this week was DreddReport.com which is a take off on the Drudge Report, even down to the spinning police light. It’s a mixture of real news headlines and reports on the number of crimes committed each day through out the city.

The last site launched is part of Dredd Report called “The Peach Tree News.” This site focuses on the happenings in the Peach Trees city block that is controlled by Ma-Ma, the drug lord, and how even Judges fear it. For those unfamiliar with the lore of Judge Dredd, city blocks are usually around 200 floors and people can go their entire lives without ever needing to leave it.

Finally, a new 60 second TV spot has shown up courtesy of Fandango that lets you into the world a little more.

I am hoping and hoping this film works. I’ve been let down once, and that was enough.

Instead of adding to endless speculation about what drove Tony Scott to end his life, instead let us celebrate his life.

Born in 1944, Tony Scott was the younger brother of film director Ridley Scott. While he never received the same level of critical acclaim as his brother, Tony was an excellent director in his own right with a distinctive visual and kinetic style of filmmaking.

While his name may not immediately jump into your head, I can assure you know his work.

• The Hunger
• Top Gun
• Beverly Hills Cop II
• Days of Thunder
• The Last Boy Scout
• True Romance
• Crimson Tide
• Enemy of the State
• Man on Fire
• Domino
• The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
• Unstoppable

This isn’t even a complete list of his works, but it is almost a certainty that you have seen at least one of these movies.

There are plenty of stories out there about his tragic demise, and you can go read these if you care. For me, I think I’ll go pop in True Romance … or maybe Crimson Tide … or perhaps …

It looks like at least a few people were up for another film about things just blowing up … a lot.

The Expendables 2 won the box office this weekend with an estimated $28.7 million. This is off of the $34 million opening of the original, but the (thankfully false) bomb threat called into the Carmike Cinema chain may have been part of the issue.

Coming in second was The Bourne Legacy with $17 million, a drop of 55.4% from last weekend. It appears that perhaps Matt Damon was a bit more important to the series than some suspected.

ParaNorman opened in third with $14 million which is lower than most animated features of late. It played on over 3,400 screens, but seeing as I can pretty much count the amount of TV ads I saw for this movie on one hand, I’m not too surprised by this result.

Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis’ The Campaign came in fourth with $13.3 million for the weekend, representing a decline of 49.7% from last weekend. In comedy and box office terms, that isn’t too bad of a showing for the second weekend.

Wrapping up the top five was Sparkle with $12 million. This film received a last minute push due to the appearance of Whitney Houston in it in one of her final pieces of work. Seeing as the movie was made on a $14 million dollar budget it should do fine.

Elsewhere on the list, it looks like Hollywood has another disaster on its hands with Total Recall. It failed to win its opening weekend, it fell to fifth place last week and this week found it in tenth place with only $3.5 million. That brings its domestic total to $51.7 million, with foreign markets bringing in an additional $58.2 million for a total of $109.9 million off of a $125 million dollar budget. As always, remember budgets don’t take into account marketing or the cost of prints, and foreign box office means less for the studio than domestic. Even if this film somehow gets to a worldwide total of $125 million, it will still be deeply in the red. As it stands, I highly doubt it will even get there.

Next week’s biggest releases are Hit & Run and Premium Rush, both opening in the sub-3,000 screen range, so don’t expect much from them.