Livelier than a post-Thanksgiving coma, we are…The Surly Nerd

Welcome to episode 24 of our little broadcast. This week we open up with a little bit of technology news, discussing the Microsoft Surface table and also how well Windows 8 is doing post launch. From there we have a talk about a possible law suit against Hewlett-Packard before we head into level two, gaming news.

We kick off gaming news this week chatting about the humble THQ bundle and what it means for THQ as a company as their stock continues to decline. We move on to the future of Square Enix, when the new Xbox could be coming out and we wrap up level two talking about the Museum of Modern Arts new Design in Gaming exhibit.

In level three we are packed full of movie news, from Much Ado About Nothing to what’s going on with Days of Future Past and what movies Nick Fury is slated to be in next. We finish entertainment news with Sherlock season 3, updates from the set of the Highlander remake and some thoughts about how we feel about a Roger Rabbit sequel. As always we close out the show with our Drinks at the Inn talk.

Grab yourself a drink or two and settle in with us here, at The Surly Nerd.

Not nearly as stuffed as a Thanksgiving turkey, but damn near as tasty…we are, The Surly Nerd!

Welcome to our Thanksgiving holiday blowout special. To be perfectly honest, there’s not a ton of news this week but what we lack in news we make up for in general fucking off.

Level one is technology news, where we cover Firefox 64, the new Xbox casual model, Hulu Plus for Wii U, HPs fourth quarter earnings and what was really going on with that Warner Brothers app. From there we head to level two, entertainment news. More Star Wars, Deus Ex and Hobbit talk takes the stand. A little chatting about Thor 2 and the future of Community before our Drinks at the Inn segment. The news list might seem short this week but we promise it’s worth the listen.

Grab some Thanksgiving leftovers and settle in with us here on…The Surly Nerd

Not nearly as hydrating as water but at least as bland, we are…The Surly Nerd

We open up episode 22 with technology news, discussing Warner Brothers new television app, Google’s new terms and conditions, and a research paper suggesting that people who torrent music are more prone to buy it. From there we move on to level 2, game industry news where we fill you in as to why GTA Vice City was pulled from Steam recently, how much Black Ops made in 24 hours, how many people have finished HALO 4 and what Valve is working on outside of Steam.

Wrapping up the show this week is level 3, entertainment news where we go into the new X-men film, Tarantino talking about retirement, when the new Spider Man is being made, a DEUS EX movie and what Ben Affleck is doing with The Stand. We end the show on a high note discussing some more Star Wars rumors and what types of Video Game levels we hate in our Drinks at the Inn segment.

Grab a drink and curl up by the fire with your MP3 player with all of us here at…The Surly Nerd

Fruitier than a Fruit Roll up but not nearly as sticky, we are…The Surly Nerd

Greetings adventurers and welcome to episode 21 of the show. This week we open up with Technology news where we talk about Steam for Linux, NASA’s upcoming plans, the president going back to Reddit and the Microsoft gaming tablet. From there we head over to Level 2: Entertainment News where Mortal Kombat and Star Wars take center stage followed by news about the new Twilight Zone movie and Del Toro wanting to do a Justice League of monster movies.

We wrap up the show this week in Level 3: Gaming news where we cover what Capcom is up to, the financial state of several gaming companies, more video gaming prints dying and what’s going on over at Blizzard. A little talk about Seal Team Six, the Microsoft rewards program and what we think about video games that are movie tie-ins close out our broadcast.

Grab a seat, grab a drink and curl up with all of us here at…The Surly Nerd

Greetings adventurers and welcome to a special episode of our show. We had the pleasure of speaking with a source that wishes to remain anonymous about the upcoming World War Z movie. There’s been both a lot of hype and bad press about this film and we wanted to get to the core of what’s going on with it. Below is a transcript of what was said and if you listen to the podcast posted with this episode we not only read the transcript for you but also discuss what it means overall to the film.

Grab a drink and kick back with us in an amazing mini episode of: The Surly Nerd

The Surly Nerd: Alright so you worked on the movie World War Z. Were you familiar with the book going into working on the movie?

WWZ Insider: no, I actually read the book a month into filming after having read the script at that time

SN: From what I understand the film really is different than the book, do you think it still holds to the main themes of the book?

WWZ: Not really, the book really focuses on how every country and level of society reacts to the zombie war, the movie is much more intent of Brad Pitt running around playing hero. That said there are aspects of certain countries involvement, but not really in the same detail as the book

SN: So is it more I am Legend than World War Z?

WWZ: It’s more like a prequel to World War Z. The book is interviews told by the U.N guy – in the movie Brad Pitt is the U.N guy and it chronicles *his* story and how he survives the zombie war, which is actually a pretty cool way to tell the story

SN: Alright, I don’t want to spoil it for everyone since so many people are excited about it but I’ve heard the movie has been plagued with problems since the time it started filming. Could you touch on some of those issues?

WWZ: Honestly no large feature film with without issue, WWZ got put on the spotlight mostly because the media is obsessed with everything Brad Pitt does. Probably the most dramatic issue is that the entire end sequence that was shot in Budapest has been scrapped, and they’re actually shooting a completely new ending now in England

SN: Can you elaborate as to why the ending in Budapest was scrapped and had to be refilmed in England?

WWZ: in the weeks running up to Budapest the script getting hacked away, sequences dropped in an effort to save money, what we were left with was something that just didn’t make much sense.. I don’t think there was a single person on that set who didn’t think there was going to be reshoots, although I do think everyone was surprised that they scrapped it entirely, I think we all figured that sequence needed more shots and that’s what the reshoot needed, but I guess the powers that be saw that wouldn’t work

WWZ: I would imagine the new ending being set in England, shot as England was due to budget again

SN: The director is Marc Foster yes?

WWZ: Yea, and still is to my knowledge

SN: Was it Damon Lindeof coming in to oversee what had been filmed and to oversee the ending that made most of the major ending changes?

WWZ: honestly no idea

SN: So Marc Foster has been at the helm of this film and is his creation in your eyes?

WWZ: It seemed like it was more of Brad Pitt’s baby honestly, it’s his production company who own the book rights, he was a producer and obviously the star. During the actual shoot a lot of the time it felt like Bob Richardson the cinematograph was the driving force keeping everyone going, he really was excellent

SN: So Brad Pitt bought the rights to the story before the book was released yes?

WWZ: I have no idea when his company got the rights

SN: I heard there were arguments on the set between cast and the producers. Did this happen or was it Hollywood gossip?

WWZ: Total Hollywood gossip, the cast was so incredibly professional, Pitt was awesome, he just got on with it even in tough conditions – man made dust storms, rain and snow machines. If they argued it was behind closed doors and there was no hint of it on set. Pitt even hosted a little party for the crew one night after shooting; he put on food and a bar with some seriously nice booze and showed us the first preview of the film so we could see some of our hard work.

SN: So we heard two new writers Damon Lindelof and Drew Goddard were brought in to view what had been filmed and also re-write the script. Did this affect your production because it delayed the release by six months?

WWZ: It probably affected editorial and VFX the most everyone else is freelance so one the shooting finished this time last year we all just move onto the next job. So only the post production departments remained on it

SN: Is this a common practice then?

WWZ: I think a lot of the advertising was meant to be geared towards that, but then again who really wants to release a week after The Hobbit.. So maybe not such a bad thing. WWZ is by no means the only film shot last year to go through this. Some movies go from script to scene within months with no hitches. Others need a little more fine tuning, but in the end it’s because when you put that amount of work into something you want it to be good

SN: Do you feel this film is going to be as amazing as the fans want it to be, and did Max Brooks have any interaction on the set?

WWZ: Max Brooks did visit the set, he seemed pretty pleased. I think the film will be good but don’t expect it to be the book

SN: Thank you very much for your time, we really do appreciate it.

Later we received a message from our source who wanted to clear us some rumors that had been spread about the cast and people working on the movie:
Hey, I just thought of something. So there were lots of false media reports while we were filming that I think should be set straight. So here are my top 3 WWZ rumors:

1) Brad and Ange chartered an entire train to take them and the kids to Scotland…
This one I found baffling, the train was rented by production to take the crew of 400 people up to Scotland to film. Brad and Ange were on the train but honestly we didn’t even know they were, we all thought they’d flown. So while the media painted them as mega diva’s who had a whole train, it was actually the opposite, they are so undiva that they were happy to go on the crew train. How all the newspapers missed the 400 people dressed in North Face also getting off the train in Glasgow beats me!

2) That active weapons were confiscated from the set in Budapest…
I think this one is just flat out insulting to the armorers. The guns weren’t active and they had filled out all correct paperwork, these guys are professionals and good at their job. What’s more is the *exact* same guns had already entered Budapest twice before for other films, one of which was Munich. And the authorities never had an issue with the guns – we were all pretty sure this was down to some customs guy either looking for a bribe or wanting to make a name for himself.

3) Brad Pitt’s alleged flirting with his assistant…
This one really pisses me off. Firstly the girl was an assistant director not a personal assistant to Pitt. She actually got engaged to her boyfriend while on the film, and the way the media stalked her was just really disgusting. Such a lovely girl too. And of course it was totally untrue!

That’s everything we have for you on the background of World War Z, the movie. Again, if you listen to the podcast that goes along with this article we go into what this new intel from the set means to us and to the movie overall. Special thanks to our source for being so kind as to give us this information, and a new full episode of our show will be along in just a few days’ time. Until then, good night and good game.