2017

Fellow Hard NOC Media podcaster Preeti Chhibber, of Desi Geek Girls, stops by a brand new episode of Southern Fried Asian.

Preeti tells Keith about her childhood growing up in West Virginia (1:55) and her parents’ experiences (or lack thereof) with racism (7:30) before diving in to the differences between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation (9:30). Later, Preeti explains what led her to identifying as a geek (16:00) and the culture shock of moving from small town West Virginia to South Florida and no longer being the only POC in school (30:30). Then they talk about how 9-11 changed everything about the way kids were racist in the South (36:00) and what it’s like being the “hyphen” between Asian and American (42:50) and the fine line between authenticity and in-authenticity (47:00). As always, Keith closes the pod on a discussion about food, but with a twist as they discuss the politics behind certain people’s food preferences (53:00).

As promised on the pod, this is the Vice news segment regarding the racisim of anti-MSG hysteria.

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Our official theme music is the song “Top Down” by  Chops, Timothy Flu, and Mic Barz. 

Finally the moment we’ve all been waiting for is here! The first trailer for director J.A. Bayona’s Jurassic World sequel, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, has been unleashed on the viewing public and it’s ACTION-PACKED!

The trailer not only delivers some pretty outrageous dinosaur action, but it also confirms the plot that the cast and crew have been hinting at over the last few days. It looks like we’ll be following Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) back to Isla Nublar on a mission to save the creatures who’ve now overrun the remains of the ill-fated park. They’ll be joined by Justice Smith and Daniella Pineda, both of whom are still yet to be named, and from the looks of it they’ll be right in the center of the action. We also see another beloved cast member return too in the shape of the classic T-Rex from the OG Jurassic Park.

Though director Bayona is best known for his simmering horror effort The Orphanage, he does also have a big budget back catalogue that includes true story tsunami tale The Impossible and the criminally underrated A Monster Calls. This first look at the movie confirms that Bayona won’t be holding back when it comes to spectacle, with huge set pieces that include massive amounts of dinosaurs–likely more than we’ve seen in any of the previous films, including a particularly epic moment that focuses around an erupting volcano.

The trailer also gave us more of an idea of what role Jeff Goldblum’s Dr. Ian Malcolm will play as he seems to be testifying at some kind of deposition, discussing whether or not the dinosaurs should be saved. After all, Jurassic Park always needs a good corporate government foe. Could this hint that our team have entered the island after going rogue? With no backup? Uh oh!

We cannot wait to check out more from Fallen Kingdom, but what do you think of the trailer? Happy to see the return of Ian Malcolm? Excited to see some badass dinosaur fights? Or just want to see 1,000 dinosaurs running away from a volcano? Let us know in the comments!

Images: Universal Pictures

Can we actually bring back extinct animals?

Editor’s note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Pictures.

The rumors appear to be rumors no longer: Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek pitch has achieved warp five speeds, with potential writers screened and Paramount seemingly agreeing to the director’s requirement that the film be R-rated.

A few days after the initial buzz of Tarantino’s positive meetings with J.J. Abrams and Paramount (and Teresa exploring the reasons why this creative mash-up gives us pause), Deadline Hollywood today has this report:

Tarantino met for hours in a writers room with Mark L. Smith, Lindsey Beer, and Drew Pearce. They kicked around ideas and one of them will get the job. I’m hearing the frontrunner is Smith, who wrote The Revenant. The film will most certainly go where no Star Trek has gone before: Tarantino has required it to be R rated, and Paramount and Abrams agreed to that condition.

It’s not 100% clear if Tarantino would direct the movie himself or be involved in some kind of producing role, but the implication is that he’d direct—which is why the over-17-and-up rating was on the table:

That rating was crucially important to Tarantino, who hopes to direct this Star Trek and who has helmed R rated films his entire career. Imagine how this could open storytelling lanes, or even what the banter on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise might be, if you conjure up memories of the conversations between Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, or the banter at the diner between robbers before the heist gone wrong that triggered the action in Reservoir Dogs.

Honestly, as a lifelong fan of Star Trek and someone who respects Tarantino’s films well enough, I’m not against this development, nor fundamentally against the idea of a more adult Trek. The movies have been heading in that direction anyway. It’s just still really hard for me to imagine Tarantino’s trademark style grafted onto the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Like, can I picture Kirk and Spock cursing a blue streak while blood fountains out of the decapitated head of an enemy alien? Can I? At least Dr. McCoy would finally get to speak his mind.

Comicbook.com points out that when Tarantino has talked about his interest in directing Trek in the past, he’s cited the Next Generation episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise” as “one of the best episodes of Star Trek ever written.” In “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” the crew encounters a temporal rift that throws them into a timeline where the Klingon Empire and the Federation are locked in a brutal war, which Tarantino calls “the bloodiest war imaginable in the history of any universe,” and says that the episode “could bear a two hour treatment.”

While it’s unknown if his current pitch has anything to do with “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” I’m kind of a glutton for Star Trek stories that mess with time, so this wouldn’t be the worst thread to follow. Regardless, it seems like any Tarantino Trek take is going to see a whole lot of blood.

(via Deadline, image: Wikimedia Commons/Paramount)

• Our new live-action Mulan, Liu Yifei, looks incredible in this Mulan-themed photoshoot to celebrate her casting. (via Colorwebmag) 
• Justice, for once: Michael Slager, the ex-cop who murdered Walter Scott in 2015 in South Carolina, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Slager shot Scott in the back as he was running away, a slaughter caught on video. Scott’s brother thanked witness Feiden Santana, who filmed the shooting, for being brave enough to do so. (via ABC)
• For some reason, Kate Winslet keeps saying good things about Woody Allen. Quit while you are far behind, Kate. (via The Cut)
• Marvel announced an animated film called Secret Warriors that will feature not-so-secret faves like Ms. Marvel, Miss America, Squirrel Girl and Spider-Gwen. Wait, is it Christmas already?! (via Comicbook.com)
• Also looking, um, pretty good in a photo shoot is Jason Momoa in an Aquaman first look. Yeah, this is fine. This will do. (via EW)

It’s officially safe to go back into the water, seems like. What’d you see today, swimmers?

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Crews has filed a lawsuit against Venit, who is still working at his agency.