Yuri Lowenthal: Nerdage’s #9 actor with geek appeal
Yuri Lowenthal
The cool-as-ice Yuri Lowenthal comes in at No. 9 on Nerdage’s list of actors with geek appeal.
The versatile live-action and voice actor Yuri Lowenthal voiced the animated Superman in “Legion of Super-Heroes.” Adding to his superhero resume, he portrayed Iceman in the recent “Wolverine and the X-Men” animated series and voices Mister Miracle on “Batman: The Brave and the Bold.” Lowenthal voiced Ben Tennyson aka Ben 10 in “Ben 10: Alien Force” and “Ben 10: Ultimate Alien.” He’s reprising his Iceman role in the upcoming “Ultimate Spider-Man” series, according to IMDB.
Lowenthal is a well-known anime voice over artist, with credits including “Naruto,” “Code Geass,” ”Gurren Lagann,” and “Naruto Shippuden.”
He voiced the Prince of Persia character in video games that inspired the Jake Gyllenhaal film.
In live-action television in 2009, he appeared in a two-part series of episodes in “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.”
With wife Tara Platt, he’s written a book on voice-over called “Voice-Over Voice Actor: What It’s Like Behind the Mic.”
This weekend, you can catch Lowenthal and Platt at the Lillian Theatre in Hollywood in a performance of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
You can follow Yuri Lowenthal on twitter or check out a recent audio interview with him at KPCC.
- Matt Price
Do you want Arnold Schwarzenegger back in Terminator 5?
Arnold Schwarzenegger (AP)
Arnold Schwarzenegger is out of politics and heading back to movies. The Hollywood Reporter indicates Schwarzenegger wants to return to perhaps his most-successful franchise, the “Terminator” movies. Are you excited about a possible Arnold return in “Terminator 5″?
The Terminator handheld game simulated online
Pica Pic has an assortment of handheld games simulated online, including The Terminator, shown above. It’s amazing how such graphically limited games could be so much fun.
Terminator: Secondary Objectives #1 (1991) review
Terminator: Secondary Objectives #1
Terminator: Secondary Objectives #1 (July 1991 cover date)
Written by James Robinson, art by Paul Gulacy.
I guess 1991 was 20 years ago – this one seems kind of dated, but it’s still pretty good. James Robinson writes a pretty cracking story, and Paul Gulacy art is always worth picking up. The second “Terminator” series from Dark Horse, this features a group of Terminators sent to the past to take out a now-pregnant Sarah Connor. The group of heroes from the first Dark Horse “Terminator” series, part of a resistance group from the future, aim to stop them.
- Matt Price
Comics read in 2,011: 121. Still to go: 1890.
Anton Yelchin: Nerdage’s #20 actor
Anton Yelchin (AP)
With a 2009 doubleheader of “Star Trek” and “Terminator: Salvation,” Anton Yelchin comes in at #20 on Nerdage’s list of actors with geek appeal.
Yelchin talked to George Lang’s Staticblog last year about his part in both franchises, as Kyle Reece in “Terminator Salvation” and Chekov in “Star Trek.”
“They’re both really incredible to be a part of and to experience, and to be on the set is just insane — they’re both iconic franchises but two totally different moods and philosophies, really,” Yelchin said during a press day at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. “It was pretty wonderful to go from one universe into a totally different universe even though they’re both science fiction.”
- Matt Price
Buffy may come to Web; Zack Whedon nabs Terminator comics gig
Two big Whedon-related announcements have come out today.
First, according to SciFi Wire, Joss Whedon’s “Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight” comics could be coming to the Web as motion comics webisodes. For anyone who hasn’t yet read the comics, they are quite good. I’m not completely sold on motion comics as yet (I have, so far, always preferred the original comic), but it should be a good way to share “season eight” with those who might prefer it in this format.
In other Whedon family news, Zack Whedon, one of the writers of “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” announced via Techland that he will be writing a new Terminator comic-book series for Dark Horse.
“I am not a big-time, famous dude and yet now I am choreographing action sequences set in a post-apocalyptic future overrun by evil cybernetic organisms hell bent on destroying the human race. How is that possible?! I’ll answer your question, Made-Up Person. It’s possible because in comics it doesn’t cost 150 million dollars to tell that story. They can put an idiot like me in charge!” Zack Whedon writes.
While it’s been a rough month for Whedonites with the cancellation of “Dollhouse,” maybe this will ease the sting somewhat.
- Matt Price
Terminator, Star Trek comics go mobile
Given the advanced technology in the future worlds of “The Terminator” and “Star Trek,” it’s perhaps not surprising that the comic books based on these franchises are among the first big-name comic books making the leap to the iPhone.
Publishers IDW and Dark Horse have made “Star Trek” and “Terminator” comic books available in the iPhone App Store this summer, tying in to the release of the movies “Star Trek” and “Terminator Salvation.”
The first iPhone comic book from veteran publisher Dark Horse is “Terminator: Death Valley.” In Death Valley, Calif., two Terminators have been sent back in time to kill John Connor as a boy. Each of the four issues is available for 99 cents from the App Store. The story also is available in print as part of “Terminator Omnibus” Vol. 2, which contains “Death Valley” and four other “Terminator” miniseries for $24.95.
“Death Valley” is by Alan Grant and Steve Pugh and originally was published in 1998. “Death Valley” is meant to be the first in a line of comics apps from Dark Horse.
“This is an evolution for the comics industry, and we look forward to bringing our tradition of innovation and creativity into this new medium,” Dale LaFountain, chief information officer of Dark Horse, said in a release.
IDW’s “Terminator Salvation” prequel also is available on the iPhone, with each of the five issues going for 99 cents or the entire graphic novel for just $3.99.
Warner Bros. and IDW Publishing present the “Terminator Salvation” graphic novel prequel, which takes readers through a series of events that have transpired since Judgment Day, leading up to “Terminator Salvation”.
IDW made its entry onto the iPhone in late 2008 with “Star Trek Archives” and gained even more momentum with “Star Trek: Countdown,” a prequel to the 2009 “Star Trek” movie.
Selected “Star Trek” comics from IDW are available via iVerse, which also distributes iPhone comics from Red 5, Image, Archie Comics, Antartic Press, Boom! Studios and others.
- by Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
Two Terminator games come to iPhone
"The Terminator" for the iPhone
In addition to seeing “Terminator” at the cinema or reading the comics, gamers can become characters from the “Terminator” franchise in new games for the iPhone.
In “Terminator,” an iPhone game from Dark Horse Comics and Big Head Games, gamers take on the role of Resistance fighter Kyle Reese in a top-down shooter.
The game features an episodic story mode and ongoing quick-play mode.
In quick play, Reese attempts to rescue fallen Resistance soldiers. T-800s and Hunter-Killer tanks attempt to stop Kyle at every turn. Power-ups, health bars and improved weapons, such as bazookas and Gatling guns, help Kyle stay on his feet.
A planned update will take Kyle underground to face the machines on their turf.
“Combining Dark Horse Comics’ extensive catalog of material and our game-development expertise has been a great experience and opportunity that we hope to continue long into the future,” Big Head’s 
business director, Dave Vout, said in a release.
Also available as “Terminator Salvation” is in theaters is an app of the same name, a 3-D third-person shooter in which gamers can play as John Connor and Marcus Wright.
Gamers have six available weapons, including a shotgun and grenade launcher.
The “Terminator Salvation” game download was available for $4.99 at press time at the Apps Store; “The Terminator” was available for $2.99.
by Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
Comics Q&A: The Terminator
Kyle Roberts and I discuss the Terminator comics throughout the years. A few things ended up being omitted, like the availability of the current IDW comics on the iPhone, and the Frank Miller-Walt Simonson RoboCop vs. Terminator comic-book series. Kyle did throw in some art from RoboCop vs. Terminator, so we got it in that way, and I’ll probably write a longer story about how the IDW Terminator Salvation prequel is available as an iPhone app. I also forgot to mention that the Alex Ross Terminator story, “The Burning Earth,” which came out from NOW, was in print as a graphic novel at one point, but is now out of print again.
Click past the cut for some “Terminator” comics art.
- Matt Price
T2 Blu-ray update stays true to original
Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2
THE NEXT LEVEL
While both “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” have now updated the visual effects of their original incarnations, don’t expect the same from “Terminator.”
Van Ling, the producer of the new Blu-ray “Skynet Edition” of “Terminator 2,” said it’s exciting to create new ways of presenting information, but creating new effects or adding characters could be a slippery slope.
Van Ling
“There is a theory that says that artforms should evolve but artworks should not because they represent a moment in time and have meaning as such,” Ling said in an interview with The Oklahoman. “Creative works are not like refrigerators that you can just replace with a newer model every few years.”
Movies and television are our cultural memories, and just because we can change them with digital technology doesn’t mean we should, Ling said.
“It’s one thing to make revisions and treat it as an alternate version of the original work; it’s another thing entirely to replace that original work with the ‘new and improved’ version as if the original never existed,” he said. “It’s very Orwellian – or Terminatoresque – in the idea that you go back and change the past to have control over the present and the future.”
That doesn’t mean there aren’t new ways to present films. On the T2 Skynet Edition, the Blu-ray allows viewers to call up storyboards, script or production information and video segments while the movie is playing.
“Interestingly, some of the things we’ve done for the new T2 Skynet Edition are things that I had wanted to do with T2 even as far back as the early ’90s with CD-ROM format but never got a chance to try,” Ling said. “And now we can do it with much better picture and sound quality.”
More from The Oklahoman interview with Van Ling available here.
By Matthew Price
From Tuesday’s The Oklahoman
