Tag: The Rock

Movies, Streaming

Life’s a Jungle in the New Trailer for Disney’s ‘Jungle Cruise’

Mike Manalo

Not long after Dwayne Johnson took to social media to announce Disney’s Jungle Cruise will be hitting theaters and Disney+ with Premier Access on July 30th, the mega studio has decided to drop a new, exciting trailer filled to brim with CGI and quippy dialogue. We also get a sense of the film’s plot and some fun looking action sequences in this one. The one thing it needs more of are the dad-jokes we get from the ride! Check out the trailer below:

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Movies, Streaming1 Comment

Disney’s ‘Jungle Cruise’ to Set Sail in Theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access July 30

Mike Manalo

Finally… THE ROCK… WILL COME BACK… to Theaters, AND Disney+!

Coming straight from The People’s Champion himself, Dwayne Johnson announced via his Instragram that the long awaited Disney’s Jungle Cruise will be coming to theaters and Disney+ with Premier Access on July 30, this summer! Check out his announcement right here:

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Interview, Television

NOC Interview: Joseph Lee Anderson, Uli Latukefu and Bradley Constant of NBC’s ‘Young Rock’

Jamal Michel

NBC’s newest sitcom, Young Rock, focuses on different chapters of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s life. From growing up in a strong and resilient family, to being surrounded by the wild characters of his professional wrestling family, to playing football at the University of Miami, the show explores the many life experiences that have helped shape Dwayne into the man he is today.

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Hard N.O.C. Life, Television

Hard NOC Life 202: Wakanda Vision

Hard NOC Media

Shawn, Dominic, Keith, and Jamal return for an all-new episode of Hard NOC Life. This week, the fellas discuss the latest episode of WandaVision, news of a Wakanda series for Disney+, and what the latest DC Comics event reboot means for The Rock.

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News, Streaming

The NRW Show: #WTF2020 Edition, Episode 1

Patrick Strange

The NRW Crew of Loy Lee, “Stand Up Comedian Stand Up Guy” and yours truly, Kuya P AKA Patrick Michael Strange are back with The NRW Show for 2020! However with 2020 being 2020 it has morphed into #WTF2020! Tune in as we discuss our favorite podcasts, Celina Powell, Thots, The Rock Vs. His Gate, Gundam Robots, Vin Diesel The Popstar and my personal poop story that NFL Star, Odell Beckham Jr. would probably appreciate.

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DC Comics, Movies1 Comment

DC FanDome: Dwayne Johnson Stakes His Claim as ‘Black Adam’

Jamal Michel

Watching wrestling as a kid both fascinated and horrified me. To have to step into a ring, in front of tens of thousands of cheering and jeering audience members, was no simple feat in my eyes.

If The Rock wasn’t your favorite in the late ’90s and early 2000s, we probably didn’t talk much. It’s no wonder he was the go-to pick to portray Black Adam on the big screen, and during Saturday’s DC FanDome panel, he made it clear to other heroes and heroines in the DC universe he wasn’t to be trifled with.

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Gone Too Soon, Music, Sports

Mega Ran on The Soul Man

MegaRan

My relationship with professional wrestling is very complicated at best. I watched my first wrestling match sometime around 1983, and the larger than life characters were literal comic books that had exploded in front of me. Like most other kids in the ’80s, I wanted more. I begged my mom to buy me wrestling magazines, toys, and watched every Saturday morning.

I loved guys like Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage, but I remember my eyes widening every time there was a Black or Brown face on my screen. So naturally I had an affinity for characters like The Junkyard Dog, Koko B Ware. But what really turned me on to wrestling was a tag team called The Soul Patrol.

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Interview, Movies

Chin Han on ‘Skyscraper,’ Filming in Asia, and Joining the Academy

Laura Sirikul

Let’s be real. You’ve seen this actor before. He’s that Asian guy who played in that blockbuster movie. No, he played that actor in that other film. You’re right. He’s been in all of them.

Ng Chin Han, known simply as Chin Han, is a face you may recognize in blockbuster films like The Dark Knight, 2012, Contagion, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Independence Day: Resurgence, Ghost in the Shell and now, in this weekend’s Skyscraper. The actor is no stranger to the Hollywood life, but also stays true to his Singaporean roots.

Chin Han was also recently one of 928 inductees invited to join The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences governing board in an effort to increase diversity and also honor him for his success in Hollywood.

We got to chat with him on the phone about his work on Skyscraper, what his invitation means to him, and why Hollywood is opening its doors to Asia.

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Movies, Television

Entertainment Weekly’s Asian AF Covers

Keith Chow

This morning, Entertainment Weekly unveiled Shirley Li’s cover story featuring the highly anticipated romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians — which is set to hit cinemas on August 17, 2018. Seeing Constance Wu and Henry Golding looking fab on the cover got us thinking, how many EW covers* have featured Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders? So we dug into the EW archives and unearthed the following.

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Marvel2 Comments

Your Move, Marvel

Dennis R. Upkins

So Misty Copeland and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, two of my favorite superheroes, have spoken out against the Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank for his support of President Donald Trump. The athletic clothing company sponsors both A-list superstars. That’s both awesome and to be expected given that both Copeland and Johnson are the epitome of Black/Asian Excellence.

My question however is this. Marvel CEO Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter gave a $1 million to Trump’s presidential campaign and continues to support his administration. Why aren’t any of the white actors from Marvel Studios stepping up and calling him out like Copeland and Johnson did Plank?

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Hard N.O.C. Life, Podcasts1 Comment

Which AAPI Actor Deserves the Nerd Grand Slam?

The Nerds of Color

This week’s reveals from Doctor Strange and Ghost in the Shell are further proof that it’s hard out there for an Asian actor who wants to be in a genre film. Fortunately, there are a few AAPI actors who have claim to the coveted “Nerd Grand Slam;” that is, they’ve starred in a superhero franchise, a Star (Trek or Wars) vehicle, and an epic fantasy. But who is the nerdiest? Dominic Mah, from YOMYOMF.com, joins Keith to decide which actor is the One Nerd to rule them all.

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Animation, Movies6 Comments

Get Your First Look at Disney’s Moana

Keith Chow

Even though the movie is more than a year away, we cannot contain our excitement for Moana, the newest addition to Disney’s iconic princesses. Set for a Thanksgiving 2016 release, the movie will star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the demigod Maui and 14-year old newcomer Auli’i Cravalho has been tapped to play the titular Princess Moana. That’s right, a Disney Princess movie about Hawaii starring actual Pacific Islander actors in the roles of Pacific Islander characters. And Emma Stone is nowhere to be found!

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Movies12 Comments

Asian Americans Should be Movie Stars: an Update

Keith Chow

So a few days ago, I wrote a thing. Maybe you’ve seen it. Ever since that post has been passed around, I’ve been taken to task about the stars I included (or didn’t include) on the list and whether or not I was basically proving Sorkin’s point by coming up with only three names.

On the first point, the names I included were not meant to be my casting suggestions for the role of Brad Katsuyama in a hypothetical Flash Boys movie. Instead, I was more concerned with Sorkin’s assertion that Asian movie stars didn’t exist. So I went to Box Office Mojo, and scanned their list of actors’ all-time domestic grosses and looked for the ones who were (North) American of Asian descent — whether or not you think hapas or Pacific Islanders should’ve been appropriately considered criteria is another matter1.

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Movies98 Comments

There are No Asian American Movie Stars

Keith Chow

Last week, North Korean hackers allegedly broke into the personal files of Sony Pictures execs as retaliation for the studio producing the James Franco and Seth Rogen comedy The Interview, which is about a CIA plot to assassinate Kim Jong Un. Normally, we’d be all over the nerd-friendly news about, say, Spider-Man coming home to Marvel Studios, but that’s been covered plenty of times on the web. Besides, we already told the world the best way to mashup Spidey and the MCU.

The thing to emerge out of the Sony leak that really bugged me was the assertion by Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin that “there aren’t any Asian movie stars.”

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Animation, Guest Post, Marvel, Movies3 Comments

Big Hero 6 Shows That an Asian American Cast Can Top the Box Office

Guest N.O.C.

by Adriel Luis | Originally posted at Smithsonian APA NOW

This past weekend’s box office numbers are in, and Disney’s latest project Big Hero 6 stands soundly on top. This might not come as a big surprise, considering that Frozen-fever is still holding every auntie’s TV hostage — but the film still breaks ground, especially in the scope of Asian Americans in cinema. And Hollywood should take note.

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DC Comics, Movies4 Comments

Forget Aquaman, Jason Momoa Must be Shazam!

Keith Chow

In the history of comic book superhero movies, having a casting announcement be met with near-universal praise by the fickle fanboy community is a very rare occurrence. In fact, I’m not sure it’s ever happened. From Keaton to Affleck, ScarJo to Gal Gadot, the nerd reflex is to cry foul — or at least raise a suspicious eyebrow — at Hollywood’s disrespect of comic book continuity. (And don’t even think about casting non-white actors in any of these roles). Nine times out of ten, though, fanboy condemnation — at casting, say, a “vapid pretty boy” like Chris Evans as Captain America or a “gay cowboy” like Heath Ledger as the Joker — gives way to reluctant acceptance and eventually hyperbole over how perfect these actors are in their respective roles.

A few weeks ago, though, when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson finally revealed he will be playing Black Adam in a Shazam! movie, the internet reaction was entirely positive. It probably helped that this rumored casting had been gestating for nearly a decade. But while fans were celebrating The Rock as Black Adam, I had one question: who could possibly be (physically) big enough to play Shazam1?

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DC Comics, Movies5 Comments

Mystery Solved: The Rock Will Be Black Adam

Keith Chow

For a few months now, everyone’s favorite wrestler-turned-action-movie-franchise-savior Dwayne Johnson has been hinting at his involvement in the nascent DC Cinematic Universe. A few weeks ago, he all but confirmed that movie would be Shazam though he wouldn’t confirm which part he’d play. William Evans of Black Nerd Problems speculated on what it might mean if The Rock actually played the lead hero (née Captain Marvel) in that upcoming DC movie.

Well, The Rock took to twitter this morning to reveal his role, once and for all.

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DC Comics, Guest Post, Movies4 Comments

What if Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Chooses Shazam?

Guest N.O.C.

by William Evans | Originally posted at Black Nerd Problems

Yes, my people, it is I, he who typically slams everything the DCU does with its movie franchises. But look, if this all but confirmed news that Dwayne Johnson will portray Shazam comes to fruition: I like this one. I really, really like this one. If we’re being 100% honest, I think the actor formerly known as the wrestler known as The Rock would be a great Black Adam. Besides the comically-not-really-him-CGI depiction in The Mummy Returns, have we really had Johnson play a villain?

If the news is to be believed, Johnson hasn’t decided which character he’ll portray, but the smart money is on Shazam, and I can’t blame him. As far as franchising, being a good guy on the Justice League is going to afford you many more opportunities in the franchise than a villain who might appear in one flick. But I digress. For the first time since Zack Snyder started signing off on costume designs, I actually like a casting choice for this Justice League universe without having to have seventeen think-pieces to convince me of it. Johnson has proven he can be heroic, goofy, lighthearted, and certainly looks the part of being a “superman-ish” hero.

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Misc1 Comment

Waking Up From a Long Winter’s Nap

Keith Chow

Since The Nerds of Color is not the only awesome thing on the internet, we spent the holiday break scouring the web for some of the most NOC-relevant links around. Here are six things that have gotten the most buzz around the N.O.C. offices.

The folks over at Comics Alliance have posted some New Year’s resolutions for the comic book industry that we can all get behind.

Among their 10 Diversity Resolutions for Superhero Comics in 2014, this one is probably the most important. Heck, they even say so themselves!

These resolutions aren’t ordered by importance, but if superhero publishers only make one pledge in 2014, this one matters most; we need more minority creators in the industry. More editors, more pencillers, inkers, colorists and cover artists, and, perhaps most importantly, more writers. If the people making comics are as diverse as their potential audience, the comics they make are more likely to reflect and appeal to that audience.

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