Disney Confirms Iron Man 3 Is A Christmas Movie

“Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?” That’s a question that’s trotted out every year by film fans, but here’s a more original spin on the enigma: “Is Iron Man 3 a Christmas movie?” Much like the classic Bruce Willis flick, IM3 is an action film set around the Holidays. But does this mean it can be classified as a Christmas movie when it doesn’t fully get to grips with the spirit of the season? If you ask Disney Plus, the answer is… yes.

If you search for “Christmas” on the newly unveiled streaming service full of the Mouse House’s properties, you’ll find Iron Man 3 among the titles that comes up. Some who haven’t seen the film for a while might be surprised by this designation, but there’s definitely a festive feel running through the background of the movie. For instance, Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark is seen working away to “Jingle Bell Rock” in his lab in one scene. Santa hats, presents and seasonal music also feature throughout.

Avengers: Endgame Behind The Scenes Photos

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Fans of the films of Shane Black weren’t too surprised, though, when Iron Man 3 turned out to be set at Christmas, despite it releasing in the summer of 2013. Black is known for setting his films, at least partially, around the holiday season. See also Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, among others. Like IM3, there’s some discussion around whether Black’s December-set actioners can be called Christmas films, depending on whatever your personal definition of that loose term is.

Iron Man 3 has always been something of an unsung entry in the MCU, though it does have a firm fanbase who maintain that it didn’t deserve the backlash it received at the time of its release. Maybe even more will come to love it now when they watch it on Disney Plus this Christmas.

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New Justice League Snyder Cut Photo Shows Cyborg Vs. Steppenwolf

Of all the characters affected by Joss Whedon and Warner Bros.’ slimmed-down theatrical cut of Justice League, Ray Fisher’s Cyborg got the worst of it. Zack Snyder had envisioned a fascinating dramatic arc for the hero that positioned him as the heart of the movie. This was severely truncated in the released version, though, with the best bits of Fisher’s performance ending up on the cutting room floor. Since then, we’ve seen glimpses of what we missed out on, but now Zack Snyder has released (and Ray Fisher has retweeted) a picture of a scene showing Cyborg defending STAR Labs from Steppenwolf.

Snyder captioned the picture “Defending the father” and the scene presumably shows Cyborg making a last-ditch attempt to prevent the Apokalyptian villain from seizing the Mother Box. It looks like a really interesting sequence, too, and if Cyborg suffered a beatdown from Steppenwolf earlier in the film, it’d have given him a crisis of confidence when it came to the final moments.

Zack Snyder Shares New Justice League Photo Of Cyborg Vs. Steppenwolf

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The release of this picture comes from yet another targeted campaign against Warner Bros. to officially release the Snyder cut. This week has seen “one-hour tweet events” on certain days focused on members of the league and so far, these have been Wonder Woman on Monday, the Flash on Tuesday, Cyborg today, Aquaman tomorrow and Batman on Friday. This is all adding up to one big push on Sunday, which is the two year anniversary of Justice League‘s theatrical cut.

I can’t help but admire the dedication and organization of these fans. Most would have assumed that a lost cut of a poorly received superhero movie would be very far down the priority list, but the community (with the support of the cast and Zack Snyder) have kept this a going concern. Can you imagine the goodwill that the studio would receive if they, for example, decided to release the Snyder cut on HBO Max? C’mon Warner Bros., do the right thing!

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The org that doles out .org websites just sold itself to a for-profit company

Today, the Public Interest Registry (PIR), which maintains the .org top-level domain, announced that it will be acquired by Ethos Capital, a private equity firm (via Domain Name Wire). This move will make PIR, previously a non-profit domain registry, officially part of a for-profit company — which certainly seems at odds with what .org might represent to some. Originally, “.org” was an alternative to the “.com” that was earmarked for commercial entities, which lent itself to non-profit use.

That’s not all: On June 30th, ICANN, the non-profit that oversees all domain names on the internet, agreed to remove price caps on rates for .org domain names — which were previously pretty cheap. Seems like something a for-profit company might want.

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Original Star Wars Trilogy Features Rare Deleted Scenes On Disney Plus

Disney Plus is here and represents the biggest challenge to Netflix’s dominance of streaming services yet. It’s gotten off to a strong start with The Mandalorian, promises to bring a raft of exclusive MCU and Star Wars TV shows and features some deep dives into the Mouse House’s extensive back catalogue. One set of films in pride of place is the original Star Wars trilogy. The downside is that the versions available for streaming still include the regrettable CGI additions inserted in the mid-90s, but the upside is that they’re available in pixel-perfect 4K and with a selection of rare deleted scenes for each one.

These scenes aren’t exactly new, but all fans have seen of them to date are bootleg versions found online. On Disney Plus, though, the company has taken the trouble to smarten them up and provide an explanation for why they didn’t make the cut.

The two deleted scenes in A New Hope both come from the Tatooine portion of the movie. The first gives us a window into Luke’s life on Tatooine prior to meeting Obi-Wan, including his friendship with Biggs Darklighter. The second is a rough cut of the cantina sequence, showing an alternate take on what we see in the final movie. The Empire Strikes Back‘s deleted scenes, meanwhile, expand on the burgeoning romance between Luke and Leia on Hoth (in retrospect, ew).

Disney Releases 15 New Official Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Photos

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We also get another version of Han and Leia’s kiss aboard the Millennium Falcon and finally, Return of the Jedi shows Commander JerJarrod expressing concern about firing the Death Star on the forest moon of Endor. We also see Luke building his green lightsaber.

It’s a pretty cool package all things considered and a nice encouragement for fans to check out the Original Trilogy again before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Hopefully Disney will continue on in his vein and use the service to release some more rare material like this.

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John Carmack stepping down as CTO of Oculus to work on AI

John Carmack (Credit: Quakecon_Flickr)

The chief technology officer of Oculus, Facebook’s VR subsidiary, is stepping down this week, he posted on Facebook today. John Carmack, who is responsible for helping make Doom and for putting the Oculus Rift on the map in 2012, says he plans to focus his time instead on artificial intelligence.

Carmack will remain in a “consulting CTO” position at Oculus, where he will “still have a voice” in the development work at the company, he wrote.

Carmack joined Oculus as CTO in 2013, leaving id Software, the maker of Doom. In March 2014, Facebook announced it would acquire Oculus. In May 2014, ZeniMax Media, id’s parent company, sued Oculus, alleging that misappropriated trade secrets were used to build development tools for the Oculus Rift....

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John Carmack stepping down as CTO of Oculus to work on AI

John Carmack (Credit: Quakecon_Flickr)

The chief technology officer of Oculus, Facebook’s VR subsidiary, is stepping down this week, he posted on Facebook today. John Carmack, who is responsible for helping make Doom and for putting the Oculus Rift on the map in 2012, says he plans to focus his time instead on artificial intelligence.

Carmack will remain in a “consulting CTO” position at Oculus, where he will “still have a voice” in the development work at the company, he wrote.

Carmack joined Oculus as CTO in 2013, leaving id Software, the maker of Doom. In March 2014, Facebook announced it would acquire Oculus. In May 2014, ZeniMax Media, id’s parent company, sued Oculus, alleging that misappropriated trade secrets were used to build development tools for the Oculus Rift....

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