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Though 2016 has been an epic year for movies, it almost feels like a warm-up when you look at the long list of blockbuster films already on the release calendar for 2017. Even though 2017 is just starting it's never too early to get excited about taking a trip to the theater, so i've lined up the biggest upcoming releases—and whether you're into action, comedy, horror, or drama, there's something here for everyone…


1. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter - Despite the long lapse between sequels, this sixth installment will reportedly pick up right where Retribution left off while following director Paul W.S. Anderson's mandate to come full circle with the saga of a dystopian future in which a corporate-created virus has unleashed a zombie plague. Release Date: January 27
 
2. The Lego Batman Movie - The Lego movie gets a superhero-themed spinoff with "The Lego Batman Movie." Release Date: February 10 2017
 
3. Fifty Shades Darker - Remember Fifty Shades of Grey? Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele will try — and definitely succeed — to have a relationship again in "Fifty Shades Darker." Release Date: February 10

4. John Wick: Chapter 2 - John Wick was one of the biggest surprises of 2014, a low-budget, badass, and totally fun revenge thriller starring Keanu Reeves. "John Wick: Chapter 2" looks like it's going to be just as fun. Release Date: February 10
 
5. Logan - Hugh Jackman gets another Wolverine solo movie in the X-Men flick "Logan." Release Date: March 3
 
6. Kong: Skull Island - The King Kong story gets another reboot with "Kong: Skull Island," which looks like it'll be more of a monster movie than a romance as Kong gets featured in its biggest ever size. Word has it that there would be a spinoff where Kong would be face to face with Godzilla. That would be epic "bigly". Release Date: March 10
 
7. Beauty and The Beast - Emma Watson takes her turn as Belle in a lavish new adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast."Release Date: March 17
 
8. Power Ranger - The CGI-era live-action "Power Rangers" movie looks like a weird X-Men movie. It could be awful, or it could be something special. Release Date: March 24
 
9. Fast And Furious 8: The Fate of The Furious - According to the trailer for "The Fate of the Furious," it looks like Vin Diesel's (Dominic Torreto) is turning evil and would betray his family. What ever happened to family? Release Date: April 14
 
10. The Lost City of Z - Director James Gray is best known for his period dramas, but "The Lost City of Z" promises to be a swashbuckling adventure with Charlie Hunman, Robert Pattinson, and Sienna Miller as explorers who search for a lost Mayan city. Release Date: April 21
 
11. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 - Star Lord finally meets his dad in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," but we're most looking forward to more baby Groot. Release Date: May 5
 
12. The Dinner - Based on Herman Koch's bestselling novel, "The Dinner" is a thriller about two parents who have dinner with Dutch politicians who suspect their children of terrorism. Release Date: May 5
 
13. Alien: Covenant - "Prometheus" was okay, but Ridley Scott's return to the "Alien" series proper with "Alien: Covenant" has movie lovers really excited. Release Date: May 19
 
14. Baywatch - Zac Efron and Dwayne Johnson will be shirtless in the "Baywatch" movie. Yup. Release Date: May 26
 
15. Captain Underpants - Dav Pilkey's beloved book series about two kids who hypnotize their school principal into thinking he's an underwear-slinging superhero finally gets its movie due with "Captain Underpants." Release Date: June 2
 
16. Wonder Woman - "Batman v. Superman" and "Suicide Squad" didn't exactly live up to their potential, but Gal Gadot's "Wonder Woman" might be exactly what we needed from DC. Release Date: June 2
 
17. Transformers: The Last Knight - Aside from Mark Wahlberg being back as the saga's current human star, The Last Knight looks like it'll plunge viewers into a time-traveling plot that includes King Arthur and an alternate history in which Nazis won World War II—plus plenty of action and lots of lead-ins to the assortment of spinoff films the studio's planning. Release Date: June 23
 
18. Despicable Me 3 - Despicable Me has grown into an impressively adaptable franchise for Universal. In addition to 2013's Despicable Me 2, it's also spun off a prequel (2015's Minions), six short films, three video games, and a theme park attraction—and as we can see from the 2017 release schedule, it isn't done yet. Release Date: June 30
 
19. Spiderman: Homecoming - Tom Holland, after wowing audience as Spiderman in Captain America - Civil war, puts on the iconic red mask in "Spider-Man: Homecoming," where he'll join the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Release Date: July 7
 
20. War for the Planet of the Apes - A grim foreshadowing of the major conflict brewing between genetically enhanced primates and a human population decimated by a virus dubbed the Simian Flu. The apes and humans are at total global war in "War for the Planet of the Apes." Also, the apes have figured out how to ride horses. Release Date: July 14
 
21. Dunkirk - Christopher Nolan takes on a World War II battle with "Dunkirk," with an all-star cast of Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Cillian Murphy, and Harry Styles. Release Date: July 21
 
22. Dark Tower - The sci-fi western horror film will follow the events of Stephen King's prolific Dark Tower  book series—reportedly picking up some time after the ending of The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower, with elements from the first book, The Gunslinger. Release Date: July 28
 
23. Ninjago - In addition to "Lego Batman," we're also getting "Ninjango," another movie with Lego characters. This one is about teen ninjas. Release Date: September 22
 
24. Blade Runner 2049 - "Arrival" director Denis Villeneuve has been entrusted with "Blade Runner 2049." Harrison Ford returns, now starring along with Ryan Gosling, Barkhad Abdi, and Robin Wright. Release date October 6
 
25. Kingsman: The Golden Circle - The creative team behind 2015's Kingsman: The Secret Service, reunites for this sequel. The Kingsman British spy team will team up with their American equivalents after their headquarters are destroyed by a lethal foe. Release Date: October 6
 
26. Saw: Legacy - Lionsgate was definitely playing a game by presenting 2010's Saw 3D: The Final Chapter as the very last round of Jigsaw's punishing plans. Release Date: October 27
 
27. Thor: Ragnarock - Thor goes back to Asgard only to find out it's been taken over by his evil brother Loki in "Thor: Ragnarok." Luckily, he'll be joined by The Hulk. Release date: November 3
 
28. Justice League - Marvel has done a brilliant job of laying out the template for a successful shared universe, and now Warner Bros. is following in its rival's footsteps with its DC Comics properties, which are due to get their first moments in the all-star superhero team spotlight with Justice League. Release Date: November 17
 
29. The Darkest Hour - Gary Oldman tries again to win an Oscar by playing Winston Churchill fighting the Nazis in "The Darkest Hour." Release Date: November 24
 
30. Star Wars: Episode VIII - The list of things we truly know about Episode VIII is awfully short. But we do know a couple of important facts: one, Rian Johnson (Looper) will be in the director's chair; and two, most of Episode VII's cast will be back, including Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, and Adam Driver, along with OG franchise stars Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher. (Carrie Fisher had wrapped filming for Episode VIII before her tragic and unexpected death.) Release Date: December 15

Here we go again

Our aggrieved grandpas and grandmas from the PDP (Papa deceiving pikin) and APC (Association of past criminals) have come together to form ADP (Aggrieved and Deranged people). Oh lawd, epp we your sheedren.

I buy gas for #3500 per 12kg and it lasts more than 2 months before refilling. U guys should move off kero already. Haba!!

Lol..i know the drill

Horlufemi:

modath:

Oil price, as at January of the following years
2009: $47
2010: $86
2011: $97
2012: $105
2013: $101
2014: $99
2015: $48
2016: $29.4

2017: $55.8

The oil prices at the start of 2011 - 2014 were record highs.

https://mobile.twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/688336065468350465

Ibeju lekki, Lekki phase 1, Lekki peninsula...the keyword there is lekki . So far we don't start referring to Epe as also lekki, No problem.

The kinda woman who best defines the statement "woman of substance".
#HatDoffed

Save for the Arbitration and CEO, I watched every other film on that list and I dare say (for someone with a phobia for Nollywood movies) Nollywood movies are finally beginning to take their rightful place in Cinemas. These are the kind of movies that Nigeria film industry should churn out, not some dumb, dumber, dumbest movies they've been giving us.

Do you guys still have any meaningful news left?

He carried her 25years ago, and has carried 3 more women many years later. Eleru gberu e o...na ur load, wagbe!

This just brought back major memories. Where is Zaccheus (Zakewu...in Jegede's voice) and Natti?

The theme song then went like...eli ban San bio bio (3ce), nkun koma no me die, bia oo bio!

Time for ladies to profess their love. Who no like better thing?

Change of name: I previously known as Hip Hop World Awards, later known as The Headies, now wish to be known and addressed as The Deadies. All previous episodes bearing my former remain valid

If only this can be replicated in many more states, many lawyers would return to their original calling -- "charge and bail"

I used to think our prisons were correctional facilities, never knew they were manslaughter houses. Like IDP camps, like Nigerian prisons...smh for this country

Wrong thread. Go to Freeze's thread and comment.

KingGBsky:
I think the devil is really using you against God's people and the church.
To say I listen to your programme on sunday morning with passion and this is what you have turned into fighting against pastors and preachers of the gospel of Christ, then I think you have to watch it or your end will be nearer than you think.

more pics...

Fans of Marvel Cinematic Super Hero, Captain America, played by Chris Evans might have sometime wondered how he was made so small and skinny in the first few scenes of the movie, Captain America -- Winter Soldier.
In a film journal interview, Director of the movie, Joe Johnston gave insights to how this was achieved.

FJI: The glimpses of the skinny, pre-super-serum Steve Rogers we see in the movie’s trailer are quite striking, particularly given how buff Chris Evans is as Captain America. How did you achieve that particular effect?

Joe Johnston: We used two major techniques. Most of the shots were done by an L.A. company called LOLA that specializes in digital "plastic surgery." The technique involved shrinking Chris in all dimensions. We shot each skinny Steve scene at least four times; once like a normal scene with Chris and his fellow actors in the scene, once with Chris alone in front of a green screen so his element could be reduced digitally, again with everyone in the scene but with Chris absent so that the shrunken Steve could be re-inserted into the scene, and finally with a body double mimicking Chris's actions in case the second technique were required. When Chris had to interact with other characters in the scene, we had to either lower Chris or raise the other actors on apple boxes or elevated walkways to make skinny Steve shorter in comparison. For close-ups, Chris' fellow actors had to look at marks on his chin that represented where his eyes would be after the shrinking process, and Chris had to look at marks on the tops of the actor's head to represent their eyes. These marks then had to be digitally removed in post-production.

The second technique involved grafting Chris's head onto the body double. This technique was used mostly when Chris was sitting or lying down, or when a minimum of physical acting was required, although the body double was an actor in his own right. Unfortunately, the body double also proved to be too large and we usually had to shrink his element before we could graft Chris's shrunken head onto the body. Both techniques were time-consuming and immensely complicated for the visual-effects team, but the end result is quite amazing.


For Captain America, Lola worked on over 300 shots, which were primarily the body transformation of Chris Evans, but also some work on the nose replacement of Red Skull (80 some shots). Neither of these were classic Lola anti-aging or beauty work, but like that work required Lola’s vast understanding of human form and skilled compositing.

Lola had three primary approaches to shrinking the 220 pound Evans to the 140 pound guy he needed to be, while maintaining Evans’ performance as closely as possible.

1. Body double / actor doubling for the entire body. The body double was English Shakespearean trained stage actor Leander Deeny (who even dieted for the role).

2. Digital head replacement / face projection – similar to the technique Lola used in The Social Network, where the actor is filmed with multiple cameras and this digital file is object tracked onto a body double’s (Deeny) body. For example, when Rogers was at the recruitment center – standing semi-naked in the queue, about to be rejected near the start of the film. This was only used in about 5% of Lola’s shots.

3. Shrink and scale the actor in the principal photography (no greenscreen) – a 2D scale of the actor Chris Evans. This was used in the majority – about 85% of Lola’s effects shots.

In addition to the central task of shrinking Chris Evans, all the surrounding action needed to be correct, including eye lines and props. Here a number of tricks that were done on set:

- Evans would walk with bent knees, Groucho Marx style, to be lower in shot (although if he was taking more than a couple of steps this was not done as his walk and posture would be wrong.

- Evans would take shorter steps. The character Steve Rogers needed to vary between 6 ft 4″ and 5ft 4″, so smaller Rogers would have a smaller pace naturally. If you tried to scale the walk in post, the feet would appear to slide relative to the ground. “He would seem to moonwalk,” joked Williams. Note: even body double Leander Deeny was 5ft 7″, a full 4 inches taller than ‘Skinny Steve’.

- Seats, such as Evans’ side of the taxi, would be lowered by several inches so his co-stars would naturally look down at him.

- Shirts and hats were oversized. For example, Evans wore the largest army helmet that could be found so that when he and the helmet were shrunk digitally – the helmet would look the same size as everyone else’s but he would appear to barely fit it. Shirt collars were also oversized, so that when Evans was shrunk, the shirt would appear normal but too big for him, again making him look frail.

- Evans’ co-stars would focus on his chin for shots where they was looking directly at him, so that when he was shrunk, their eyeline would line up with his lower positioned eyes. Evans in turn looked at the brow of his co-stars.

- If possible, production would remove things in front of Evans’ face. So when Rogers is crawling through barb wire during basic training, the filmmakers would shoot the real Chris Evans pass without foreground barb wire, and then add it back later based on the reference pass filmed with it in on another pass. This clean pass would allow the slimming down process to happen without the wire being in the way and the new correct-looking, correct scale barb wire added back on top would just sell the illusion.

"Hangaroo"...If rope no do d work, try lagoon.

feodan:
Her hands are irritating @zahra

Has the law been implemented? Doesn't seem so from what I've experienced lately.

Goallllllllll!!!

Diego 'deadly' Costa!!

The other woman who made good use of the other room.

Those that are so good at whatever they do today started from somewhere. A day at a time, she would perfect it. Proud of her.

They cover up their shortcomings, deceive the public and when the whole charade blow up, they start speaking even bigger grammar to explain their failure. God is watching!!

Ariwo ko ni music. Empty barrel lo ma n pariwo

Wole Soyinka has to publicly tear his green card.

We are waitin....

Spurs are led on hostile territory 1-1

They should give him a corner cell in Kuje. He go tey for dere small

By Modestus Umenzekwe  

I have in the last few months been travelling from Lagos to my hometown of Achina in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State at a high frequency for reasons which need not be stated here. I have been going by road because the road is today much better and safer than, say, this time last year. Another reason is to have a firsthand experience with a view to reporting to the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who always solicits for such frank reports with a view to taking appropriate action.
 
Whereas the Onitsha-Asaba-Benin-Ore sections of the Lagos to Onitsha Highway have in the last few years been generally good, the Lagos-Sagamu-Ore sections are in a mess. One is glad to report that tremendous reconstruction work is currently taking place in the worst of all the failed sections. Reynold Construction Company (RCC) has divided the Lagos-Sagamu-Ore sections into four parts and is working on them simultaneously in a rather frenetic manner, even in the rains.
In a fashion reminiscent of the mass attack style, RCC is reconstructing what remains of the Ondo State section of the highway, the Ijebu Ode part, the Sagamu end as well as the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. When I was driving from Anambra State to Lagos two days ago, I had to stop briefly at the Ijebu Ode site because what is going on there looks more like new construction rather than rehabilitation. Rev Sister Christy Okonkwo, an impressed Catholic nun who is from Nnewi in Anambra State and works with the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus Congregation at Epe in Lagos State, remarked after watching the massive deployment of equipment, machines and human resources: “There is still hope for Nigeria”.

Until now, such massive reconstruction which always resulted in the closure of at least one side of the highway invariably led to traffic gridlock. Reverend Sister Christy narrated how she and her colleagues spent three hours on one spot while going for the funeral of a colleague’s relative. Like the rest of her colleagues, she consequently developed a phobia for travelling by road to the Southeast and South-south from Lagos. But this time traffic is directed professionally not just by the RCC workers and Federal Road Safety Commission officials but also by teams of police and army personnel whose presence has injected discipline and order in the heads of commercial motorists, especially those of minibuses whose irresponsible driving exacerbates traffic gridlock.

What is more, the conspicuous presence of soldiers in particular has driven away armed robbers and kidnappers from the highway. Capitalising on the failed portions which naturally forced motorists to stop, kidnappers on one occasion shot an Igbo priest with the Warri Catholic Diocese in the hand and took away a young boy with him; on another occasion, they abducted nuns of the St. Louis Congregation in Ondo State who were travelling on a bus and hid them in a thick forest for a whole 10 days. Today all this criminal nonsense has become history.

 
While driving through Benin, we noticed there were two awfully failed sections of this extraordinarily busy highway. One is directly opposite the NIPCO filling station on the Benin-Agbor section of the road while the other is on the Benin Bypass. Mr. Fashola was contacted on his personal phone, and he quickly began to ask questions about the exact locations, extent of failures and the impact on traffic. It was evident that the officials of the Federal Ministry of Works and the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) had yet to report the failed parts to him. When he was satisfied with details of the failed portions, he promised to immediately get in touch with the contractor to assess the rehabilitation and revert to him. Talk of responsive leadership. Talk of working with passion and commitment.
 
One thing about Fashola is that he executes every assignment as though his life depended on it. He is, to a considerable extent, the face of what the Catholic Church has in recent decades popularised as the common good. He is also a considerable representation of the concept of servant leadership. A few weeks ago when it was brought to his knowledge that the Asaba end of the Lagos-Onitsha Expressway had collapsed, he immediately directed Julius Berger which was working on another project in the neighbourhood to move to the site of the failed part. Work is going on there right now. This work is going on in the rainy season which interestingly has always been given as a reason by governments in Nigeria for suspending infrastructure work. But Fashola is a different kind of fish, as we have seen right from his days as the Lagos State governor.

 
One has not in the last few months been travelling to other parts of the country, but one understands that road reconstruction is taking place all over the federation everywhere there is a provision in the budget for it. Even the most awfully failed part of the Okija-Ihiala-Uli-Egbu-Oguta-Ahoada linking Anambra, Imo and Rivers states which is not captured in this year’s budget is being rehabilitated because it is considered a national emergency. 
 
It has to be noted that RCC, Julius Berger and Integrated Services Ltd are among several companies which moved to sites before the release of the first quarter of this year’s budget. They went to work without the payment of mobilisation fees in these economically hard times because of their trust in the integrity of the minister. As management experts have long noted, integrity or character is a most invaluable asset in business transactions whether in the private or public sector. In other words, as more releases are made, both the scope and intensity of road work by the Federal Government will escalate.
 
Fashola assumed duties as the Minister of Power, Works and Housing only last November, that is, less than a year now. Before he could settle in office, take stock of things, make his own projections and then mobilise funds, critics had gone to town, with some wondering if he could run this enlarged ministry successfully. If Fashola could excel as the Lagos State governor in a way which earned him great praise and awards from the greatest global media and think tanks, he should be expected to continue on the trajectory of high service delivery. Now that work is going on even in the rainy season on federal roads, why have even the media been shy to report it?  Well, if the media fail to report these developments, frequent road users like us who feel and experience the massive work daily cannot deny the evidence of our eyes.

• Umenzekwe is immediate past President of the Odunade Building Materials Dealers Association in Orile-Coker, Lagos.

http://m.guardian.ng/opinion/fashola-at-work-why-is-no-one-talking/?F

Eleribu

Omo, Ozil's goal is already contesting for goal of the year. Damn!

Good work from Barca, but the crossbar wasn't about to cooperate.