Sci-Fi Squad Sci-Fi Movies, News, Trailers, DVDs and More

This is a fun little image that is making the rounds online. It compares shots from the end of Back to the Future and the beginning of Back to the Future II, complete with new Jennifer and a shorter haircut for Marty McFly. It also looks like Marty's shirt had a little more red in it the first time around, and Michael J. Fox even seems like he may have lost a little weight between films.

Oh, but there's more -- can you spot all the differences in each photo?

[via topherchris]

He may just be a toy voiced by Tim Allen in the Toy Story movies, but one artist wants you to see what Buzz Lightyear would look like if he was a real dude. And, um, honestly ... he looks a lot like Jason Patric. These "untooned" images have been popular as of late, with artists showing us what everyone from the Simpsons characters to Jessica Rabbit would look like if they were real people. This Buzz Lightyear image comes from 3D artist Raoni Nery, and you can check out more of his work right over here. Meanwhile, you can see the toy version of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 3, which hits theaters on June 18th.

Which sci-fi characters would you like to see untooned?

While the rest of the world was celebrating Valentine's Day with their loved ones this year, a group of Star Trek fans decided to skip the lovefest and do a little something different ... like try to break a record for the most amount of people dressed up in Trek costumes in one place. Now, when you think of such a record, you'd probably imagine it to be at least in the hundreds, right? Especially considering all the Star Trek conventions held around the world each year, as well as the many different groups of fans spread out in every city in every country. That said, go ahead and give a guess as to how many people in costume broke the record.

Ready?

99. Yup. All it took was 99 Trek fans dressed up in costume in one location in order to break a world record. Kinda lame if you ask me, Trek fans. The event was pieced together by the folks over at Star Trek Online, and, hey, I guess you gotta give them credit for breaking a world record ... even though it was probably one of the easiest to break ever. (And I wonder ... do you think any of them hooked up? I mean, it being Valentine's Day and all?)

[via Joystiq]

Update: Thanks to our pal Maxim Pozderac, we now have video of the goods in store for you, should you try to track down your local Flynn Lives operative. If you're the kind of fan who wants their hands on some cool (and presumably rare) Tron Legacy memorabilia, keep checking FlynnLives.com for updates on the city nearest you.

Last week a bunch of folks received a different colored (red, yellow, blue) diamond-shaped piece of viral awesomeness from the Tron: Legacy people, and it revealed a website that was counting down to 11am EST, today. What has now been revealed over at the official Flynn Lives website is a scavenger hunt that's taking place in cities across the world ... right this very second. Says a note on the site: "We are deploying envoys to 27 locations around the world and we need you to meet up with the Flynn Lives contact in your area. Check the link below to find out when and where this rendezvous will take place. Then, get ready to hit the streets."

Only Chicago, Orlando and Paris are active right now, with directions to head to a certain location (which appear to be arcades or spaces large enough to hold a make-shift arcade) and give someone in a Flynn Lives t-shirt a password, but those of you who live in the following cities should continue to check this site to see when your turn is up: Sydney, Denver, Madrid, Boston, Washington DC, Atlanta, Raleigh, San Diego, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, Austin, Minneapolis, Nashville, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Las Vegas, Phoenix and London.

If you do head out, let us know what you find. As we saw with similar viral campaigns for films like The Dark Knight, this all will most likely end later today with some sort of trailer premiere (we hope), image reveal ... or perhaps some sort of 3D footage reveal at said locations. Sound off if you happen to find anything cool ...

Not long after the film 2012 hit theaters, its director Roland Emmerich was running around telling people that they were planning a spin-off television show that would follow survivors of the first film attempting to rebuild humanity after arriving in Africa. Speaking to Movieweb about the upcoming 2012 DVD, Emmerich now says the TV show is most likely dead in the water because what they wanted to do was just too expensive for TV.

He says, "It's not totally dead. Mark Gordon is still trying to come up with an idea on how to make it cheaper. I don't think it will happen. I had a certain vision. We realized what kind of compromises we were going to have to make. Because of that, I said, "No thank you." Speaking more about the plot, Emmerich added, "It would have been a great TV show. Because it would have dealt with the facts of arriving in Africa. We would have seen what happened had Cape Town survived. Those people already living there would be majorly pissed. Because the ships didn't take them. There was this whole political edge to it. It would have been a very political TV show. It had such big themes. It was about reaching for the stars. There was an economic reality that kept it from becoming a reality. We didn't want to compromise. We said, "Let's not do it."

Hey, no skin off my back -- Emmerich's films are usually more about the spectacle than the characters, and it's easy to lose yourself in spectacle for two hours, but week in and week out? No thanks.

What about you? Pissed there's not going to be a 2012 TV show?

Just a quick casting update: Though he was rumored to be the frontrunner for the role (after the Jackie Earle Haley rumors went away), it was never officially confirmed. Well, D.C.'s CCO Geoff Johns announced via his Twitter that Mark Strong is indeed playing the villainous Sinestro (who may or may not a villain in this first Green Lantern movie). Most of you know Strong as the dude who played the villain in the recent Robert Downey Jr.-led Sherlock Holmes, and he's also playing the villain in Kick-Ass. What is it with this guy and villains, anyway? Kinda creepy ... maybe a little bit?

Johns said via Twitter: "Back from an amazing trip to Green Lantern town a.k.a. New Orleans. Ryan IS Hal. And Mark Strong is going to be a brilliant Sinestro." Sinestro is the quintessential villain, and the arch-nemesis of the Green Lantern Corps., however it's been reported that he may not become that arch-nemesis until either late in the first film or in the sequel, if one happens.

If you're looking to get ahead of the next Mad Max movie and/or stock up on accessories in case the apocalypse decides to pay a visit to earth in, say, the next couple of months, then might I suggest picking up a pair of these freak-ish goggles that look like they're straight out of a really bad 80s sci-fi film. Kids today seem to be using them for raves and cyber-gothic house parties, but I think they'd make a great present for someone with a Statue of Liberty fetish.

The goggles come from the folks over at F#@K The Mainstream (and if you're at work, I might suggest not visiting that site), and something tells me all proceeds won't be going toward building a new Baby Gap in an under-developed city like New York. I will say that it's comforting to know that if the world were to end tomorrow, we'd be looking toward the rave culture for fashion advice. Check out more images over at TrendHunter. So who's buying a pair?

From Cinematical:

What do you do when Hollywood won't give you a leading role unless it's in a film you already starred in? Well, if you're Vin Diesel, you put your head down, thank God you managed to survive as an actor for this long, and take those horrible sequels like a man. Not only is Diesel getting ready to star in sequels for XxX and Fast and the Furious, but now he's leaping over to another dead franchise hoping to breathe a little more life into it and his career.

Variety tells us Diesel has signed to produce and star in a third installment of his Riddick franchise, with David Twohy taking on writing and directing duties after previously penning and helming both Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick. No storyline has been revealed yet, though some claim this sequel will nudge closer to the more successful (with fans, anyway) Pitch Black by focusing on the character of Riddick rather than the universe he inhabits. After he's done with Riddick, Fast and the Furious 5 and XxX (2? 3? 4? Where are we on this one?), one imagines Diesel will then move on down the list to see what other previously successful Vin Diesel films he can sequelize -- most notably, The Pacifier, which earned roughly $113 million at the box office. Then, hopefully, we'll get to see Diesel team up with The Rock in a film that combines the action and the family-friendly; perhaps something like Santa Clause vs. Chanukah Harry: To The Death!

Which Diesel sequel are you looking forward to most?

It took art student Jamie Bell roughly three weeks to create this fantastic little flipbook piece that tells the history of the universe -- from the Big Bang through, well, pretty much everything that followed -- in all of about three minutes. According to Bell, the flipbook was "something like 2100 pages long, and about 50 jotter books." The end result -- set primarily to the French CanCan -- is pretty amazing, and it goes to show that those kids doodling in their notebooks in the back of the classroom actually put all of their slacking off to good use.

Oh, and in case you're wondering how Jamie scored on the project, an update to his YouTube page says the final piece "got full marks!" Watch it after the jump.

The final season of Lost premieres tonight, and after waiting several months (and years) for more answers than we had to give when taking the SAT test, let us all hope some relief begins with tonight's two-hour premiere. Let us know what you thought of the premiere in the comments section below. Did it hold up to previous seasons? Was it worth the long wait? Do you like the new direction the series is taking in its final season? Should Kate just ditch Jack and marry the smoke monster?

Sound off below Losties!