This Friday sees the release of Charlemagne: The Omens of Death, the second metal LP by actor/secret agent/metal musician Sir Christopher Lee. Death and Taxes has song clips and a video where Lee “shares the inspiration for his calling as a metal sorcerer.”

…good thing Idris Elba‘s on that.

I’m getting real sick of winter, guys. There are no good holidays left (Valentine’s Day doesn’t count) and it doesn’t seem like it’ll ever get warm. Also we have five more months to wait until Guillermo del Toro‘s Pacific Rim comes out. Can I just cryogenically freeze myself and wake up when the summer movies get here? No? Dang. I guess these new pictures (Mecha! Panicking civilians! Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi!) will have to tide me over.

If Idris Elba cancels the apocalypse twice, is it back on? Either way, you know you want to see him do it again, and get a glimpse of more Jaeger fighting and pilot teams.

Someone did an awesome job photoshopping Community’s Alison Brie as Captain America. What they failed to realize was she would have looked equally cool with her sensitive stomach region protected. (via ScreenRant)

Skyfall‘s Naomie Harris had something interesting to say when asked in an interview with The Huffington Post about the possibility of a black James Bond. Namely, that fellow Londoner Idris Elba (The Wire, Thor, Prometheus, Pacific Rim) might be up for the role after Daniel Craig leaves.

Yes, please!

For those eagerly awaiting the release of Guillermo del Toro‘s Pacific Rim, scheduled to hit theaters next July, you might not have to wait quite that long–not for the film, but for a better idea of the world in which it takes place: Legendary Comics has announced that they’ll be releasing a three-part prequel graphic novel that will likely come out before the film itself.

Iridis Elba, veteran of many, many amazing television roles, this summer’s Prometheus and next summer’s Pacific Rim, talked to the Examiner about returning to the role of Heimdall in Thor 2, otherwise known as Thor: The Dark World. The actor delicately skipped around talking about the substance of the movie:

In the new film we’re going to get to know Heimdall the Asgardian a bit better, and we’re going to get to know Asgard a bit better,” Elba said. “I can’t say too much, but the expansion of Thor in his world is going to be huge.

We’ve already seen a few hints of the huge in T:TDW, in leaked set photos that I initially took to be the most boring photos of a rainy graveyard I’d ever seen and wondered why anyone had even bothered posting them. Then I noticed that there was a blue van in the photo, and what I’d mistaken for tombstones were actually huge obelisks.

The 2012 Primetime Emmy nominations are out, and you know what that means: the upcoming 2 months of baseless speculation and over-analysis by your favorite entertainment blogs starts right here, right now. Before everyone goes to war in the comments, let’s take a moment to look at the nominations!

As director or audience member, it’s difficult to approach a property with as much expectation built around it as the Alien series. In the 33 years since the first Alien film came out, both it and its sequels (of debatable quality) have spawned a library’s worth of critical analysis and design homages. Not to mention, it’s generated a lot of fan attachment. I am hardly exempt from this baggage train, considering that the original 1979 Alien is not only one of my favorite sci-fi movies, but one of my favorite movies, period. As you might have guessed, this doesn’t mean I’m unwilling to call a spade a spade. Or, as is more apt in this case; a near-xenomorphic-mess is still a near-xenomorphic-mess.

Unlike his Robin Hood-turned-Republican-allegory, Ridley Scott‘s Prometheus is by contrast daringly liberal, atheistic, and, dare I say it, pro-choice. This modern vehicle is an existential space horror flick packed with body horror, dazzling imagination, and little rational sense. Like the molecular structure of the self-sacrificing Space Jockey that kicks off the puzzling proceedings, the longer you watch Prometheus, the more it comes apart.

It should go without saying, but this entire discussion is rife with spoilers, start to finish. It’s a “discussion,” rather than a “review,” because I figure if you care about spoilers you won’t read this until you’ve seen it. Even so, you’ve been warned, and in bold and italics, no less.

He’s done Thor and can be seen this weekend in Prometheus. Blastr has it right: Idris Elba has caught the sci-fi/fantasy bug, and we’re a-ok with that. Here he is, in the first look at Guillermo Del Toro‘s Pacific Rim, due in theaters next July.