From Friday, February 17 to Sunday the 19, in Orlando, Florida, Mega Con opened its doors once again to Comic, Sci-fi, and Anime fans for one of Florida’s biggest conventions of the year. People flock from all over, to one of the biggest gatherings of fans for the goal of trying to out nerd each other, and with over an estimated 40,000 attendees, this was one of the busiest years for Mega Con.

Despite the crowd, it is easy to get around the convention and check out all the shops that were set up. There were a vast variety of different shops; Comics, anime, collectables, cosplay costumes, and even weapons (blades). But probably the most impressive thing there were the prices.

Naturally you can find collectable comics that range between $100-$600, but they also sell various comics at a high discounted price. You could purchase a $30 comic set for only $5, and if you’re interested in the Essential or Showcase series, which average $17 a volume, can be picked up for around $9. This is usually the reason why many fans and enthusiasts go to the convention, and it is worth it.

If you were to come to Mega Con without friends, you would have made friends fast within the convention. Thousands of people, with similar interests, gathering together, it is real easy to just go up to someone and reference anything in comics or anime, and you’ll fire an instant connection. Here at Mega Con, you really feel like family.

One issue with Mega Con was that they did not prepare for the crowd that showed up. Employees were pointing people one way and others pointing them another. As for the convention floor, at points, it felt like trying to go downstream against migrating salmon. There were so many people that there was no order on where to go or how to get somewhere.

One solution that Mega Con should do for next year is to set up the convention floor like New York City. Setting the floor up in a grid and having certain paths go in one direction would help with the flow of traffic, rather than having everyone going everywhere which just adds more chaos into a very crowded environment.

Despite the few issues with Mega Con’s crowd, the convention itself was a truly amazing site and one of the best experiences of anyone’s life. If you are a fan of comics or just want to experience something unique, you should check out your local conventions.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/digital_ramapge/

The article 2012 Put The Mega in Mega Con appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

CTV and The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) announced today that Canadian icon William Shatner will host CTV’s broadcast of THE 2012 Juno Awards on Sunday, April 1 from Scotiabank Place in Ottawa. Tickets for the 2012 Juno Awards go on sale on Friday Feb.10, beginning at 10 a.m. ET through the Scotiabank Place Box Office, The Sens Store locations at Carlingwood Mall and Place D’Orleans,

“I’m so pleased to be a part of The Juno Awards,” said William Shatner. “To be part of Canada’s entertainment industry is a point of pride.”

“A true Canadian icon, we are thrilled to welcome the man and the legend, William Shatner, as host of THE 2012 JUNO AWARDS broadcast,” said Phil King, President CTV Programming and Sports. “A recording artist himself, Mr. Shatner will bring his irreverent sense of humour and love for his home country to his role as host of Canada’s Music Awards.”

“We’re delighted to welcome one of our nation’s shining stars to Canada’s biggest night in music,” said Melanie Berry, President & CEO, CARAS/The Juno Awards. “William Shatner is a Canadian hero, and with his love for music, the stage, and entertaining as a whole, it’s sure to be an incredible show!”

Best known for roles as Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek and the Emmy Award- winning role of Denny Crane on Boston Legal, Shatner is one of entertainment’s most recognizable stars. Born and raised in Montreal, Québec, Shatner has a career spanning over 50 years as an award-winning, actor, director, producer, recording artist and author.

His television and film credits span about 200 titles, including Shit My Dad Says, T.J. Hooker, Tekwar, The Practice and Miss Congeniality. And Shatner is no stranger to the music industry. Known for being a quirky and dramatic spoken word artist, Shatner has released three albums over the span of his career, titled The Transformed Man, Has Beenand the recently released Seeking Major Tom .

His renditions of “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” have become cult hits. In February, Shatner opens on Broadway with Shatner’s World at the Music Box Theatre in New York City.

Following announcements made by CTV and CARAS today, the current performance lineup for The 2012 Juno Awards broadcast is Blue Rodeo, City and Colour, deadmau5, Feist, Hedley and Nickelback.

Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com

The article William Shatner to Host CTV’s Broadcast of The 2012 JUNO AWARDS appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

On January 23, Priceline.com revealed that it will kill off the popular Priceline Negotiator, a character played by William Shatner, in its new national TV campaign.

Mr. Shatner has been Priceline.com’s celebrity spokesman for 14 years and remains under contract to the company.  He first stepped into the role of The Negotiator in 2007.  Priceline.com said it decided to kill off The Negotiator character in order to focus consumers’ attention on its published-price hotel service, which is the fastest-growing segment of Priceline.com’s hotel business.  Priceline.com said it will continue to offer its Name-Your-Own Price hotel service.

“The Priceline Negotiator has become very strongly associated with the Priceline.com brand and the concept of negotiating to get a deal on a hotel room,” said Brett Keller, Priceline.com’s Chief Marketing Officer.  “However, Priceline.com customers don’t have to negotiate themselves to get a deal.

Without bidding, they can choose from over 200,000 quality hotels around the world, with thousands of them on sale every day at rates we’ve negotiated for them.  In fact, in the past three years, Priceline.com has more than tripled the number of hotels available through our published-price hotel service.”

Keller continued, “We felt it was necessary to go to extremes to grab the attention of every consumer in America and drive home the message that you don’t have to negotiate to save money on a hotel at Priceline.com.  We know that The Negotiator has a lot of fans, and we hope that everyone understands this was something that just had to be done.”

The new campaign opens with The Negotiator coming to the rescue of a family whose bus is teetering on a bridge.  Heroically, The Negotiator manages to get them safely off the bus – and find a hotel for the night.  However, The Negotiator himself is unable to exit the bus before it plunges off the bridge.  Future spots in the campaign explore the aftermath of the crash.

The article The Priceline Negotiator Will Meet His Demise appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Paramount Pictures announced it ended 2011 in the No. 1 position among all studios, having achieved the highest total combined gross of any studio for the year, earning a record $5.17 billion worldwide. The studio, which released a total of 16 new releases domestically this year, placed first in the North American market share with $1.96 billion, while also amassing record grosses at the international box office with $3.21 billion.

“This achievement reflects the combined efforts of our entire team across the globe and the careful process by which we select the projects and partners we believe in,” said Paramount Pictures Chairman & CEO Brad Grey. “We produce pictures that aspire to entertain audiences around the world, while at the same time we have sought to find innovative ways to reach movie-goers in this changing entertainment environment.

“This year our studio reached some key milestones, including the release of three vibrant Paramount franchise pictures and our first original CGI animated film. Our studio had its first ever $1 billion worldwide grossing film in Michael Bay’s hit ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’; we successfully re-launched our ‘Mission Impossible’ franchise with Tom Cruise, JJ Abrams and Brad Bird; our latest installment in the ‘Paranormal Activity’ franchise had another $100 million dollar success; our first original animated film ‘Rango,’ from director Gore Verbinski, earned rave reviews and more than $100 million at the domestic box office; and  we released global phenomenon ‘Super 8,’ directed by JJ Abrams, who will now direct the newest ‘Star Trek’ for 2013. We also benefited from our distribution partnerships with DreamWorks Animation and Marvel and I want to thank them both.”

“Film President Adam Goodman and his team in production and development, and Vice Chairman Rob Moore and his team in marketing and distribution, did outstanding work and truly delivered. As we prepare to celebrate Paramount’s 100th year in 2012, we are all grateful to be part of this wonderful institution as it continues to prosper,” added Grey.

In 2012, Paramount’s release slate highlights include ‘World War Z,’ a zombie thriller starring Brad Pitt and directed by Marc Forster, ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation,’ the next installment in the global franchise starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Channing Tatum, a new chapter in the ‘Paranormal Activity’ franchise, and ‘The Dictator,’ starring Sacha Baron Cohen and directed by Larry Charles, the team behind ‘Borat.’

The 2011 box office results seen from the studio were built on a wide reaching range of titles, including the following (with current domestic grosses): ‘True Grit’ ($85 mil this year, $171.2 million total), Ivan Reitman’s ‘No Strings Attached’ ($70.7 mil), Jon Chu’s ‘Justin Bieber: Never Say Never’ ($73 mil), Gore Verbinski’s ‘Rango’  ($123.5 mil), Marvel Studio’s ‘Thor’ ($181 mil), DreamWorks Animation’s ‘Kung Fu Panda 2’ ($165.2 mil), JJ Abrams ‘Super 8’  ($127 mil), Michael Bay’s ‘Transformers:  Dark of the Moon’ ($352.4 mil), Marvel Studio’s ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’  ($176.7 mil), Craig Brewer’s ‘Footloose’ ($51.7 mil), the third installment in the hit ‘Paranormal Activity’ franchise ($104 mil), DreamWorks Animation’s ‘Puss In Boots’ ($145.8 mil), Sundance prize-winner ‘Like Crazy’ ($3.4 mil), Martin Scorsese and GK Films’ ‘Hugo’ ($50.2 mil), Jason Reitman’s ‘Young Adult’ ($12.8 mil), Brad Bird’s ‘Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol’ ($142.8 mil) and Steven Spielberg’s ‘Tintin’ ($51.4 mil).

The article Paramount Pictures Has Biggest Box Office Gross in 2011 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Wondering what action movie to see this summer? Consider Colombiana, an action/adventure starring Zoe Saldana as a young woman who witnessed both of her parents murder by the mob when she was nine years old. Similar to Angelina Jolie’s character in Wanted, she grows up to be a “stone-cold” assassin, embarking on a fifteen year journey to hunt down the mobster responsible for her parents murders and achieve vengeance. During this time, she works for her uncle as a hit(wo)man by day, and come nightfall she becomes a rogue killer. Responsible for over 22 deaths within four years, she is getting closer to her target and, typical of Saldana, is looking good while doing it.

As its name indicates, the film is set in Bogota, Colombia, though it is filmed in throughout the United States, Mexico and Paris studios. With a focus on Latin America, many message boards are questioning the stereotypes which may arise due to the setting in Latin American culture. The murder and expected drug use–along with the common misconception that Bogota is located in a tropical jungle when it apparently has a more similar climate to Chicago, rarely reaching above 65 degrees Fahrenheit– has many Colombian natives questioning the authenticity. One blogger wrote, “I just hope to find in this movie at least some slight interest on the true Colombia, and not some pretension of creating a Latin Lara Croft raised in a non-existing and decontextualized Bogota.” With a looped tagline in the trailer of “Never forget where you came from,” will the movie live up to a higher standard?

Directed by Olivier Megaton and produced by Luc Besson, the French pair will take on the challenge. Megaton is best known for Transformers 3 (2008), though some would argue that it was their least favorite installment of the series. In addition, Transformers 3 is his only English-language film to date, making for some speculation amongst movie goers if he will be able to deliver.

However, teamed up with mega-producer Luc Besson the odds are looking quite likely. Besson wrote and directed the 1990 box office hit Nikita, which was focused around a femme fatale assassin. He is also responsible for other action films, such as The Fifth Element and Taken, making him a veteran of putting action and powerful female characters onto the screen.

To add to the hype is Saldana herself, who has become cinema’s “bad ass female” through her roles in the highly acclaimed Avatar and Star Trek. Present in a wave of action heroines, Saldana continues to hold her role as a sexually empowered and machine gun wielding vigilante, prevailing above whoever has done wrong until personal justice is achieved. Will she help make Colombiana a box office hit that stays true to Colombian culture, while asserting her presence as a femme fatale?

The article Colombiana, Saldana Back on The Screen as Another Femme Fatale appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.