Teaser for second season of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D debuts

Not just content with dominating at the cinema, Marvel has also remained focused on its small screen efforts, as a new teaser for the second season of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D was recently unveiled. There is very little in terms of spoilers to speak of, with many of the regulars from season one returning to reprise their respective roles.

What we can divulge is that this season, S.H.I.E.L.D's operatives are on the backfoot and trying to fight off attacks from all sides. The TV series itself may have received some mixed reactions in its debut season, but Marvel and American broadcaster ABC have clearly thrown their full weight behind it. As far as when the new series will broadcast locally, nothing is confirmed, but series two of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D is set to start airing stateside on 23 September.   

Hulkbuster confirmed by Joss Whedon in Avengers: Age of Ultron

Having spoken about Marvel's small screen efforts, we shift focus to their far larger endeavour, in the form of the April 2015-slated Avengers: Age of Ultron. To ramp up a little more hype (although it never really needed it), Marvel has debuted three new stills from the movie, as well as letting director Joss Whedon divulge details on the heavily rumoured battle between the Hulk and Iron-Man's Hulkbuster.

The images, courtesy of Empire magazine, don't give too much away, with Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) ,sans greenness and Tony Stark (Robert Downey-Jr) featuring. One of the other images shows off two newcomers in the form of sibling pair Quicksilver (Aaron Johnson) and The Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). More interesting though, is Whedon, who confirmed that Iron-Man would in fact be donning the Hulkbuster suit to take on an enraged Bruce Banner. We think for that scene alone, the film will prove to be well worth watching when it hits cinemas in April next year.

Loki conjures his own movie

If you are similarly of the opinion that Loki was the far more interesting character in the Thor movies, then rejoice, as the God of Thunder’s trickster brother has received his own own movie. No, alas, this is not on the same scale as Thor: The Dark World, but, to its credit, the fanmade Loki: Brother of Thor at least doesn’t have him playing second fiddle.

Instead, it combines Loki’s appearances (masterfully played by Tom Hiddleston) in both Thor movies, along with deleted and bonus content into two and a quarter hours, which is not too shabby at all. Oh, further on the plus side, you don’t have to sit through another Thor and Jane scene while waiting for the real action to start.  

HBO announces premiere date for Banksy does New York documentary

US broadcaster HBO, is set to premiere a new documentary on the street artist known as Banksy. For those unfamiliar with his work, Banksy creates evocative works of art on a number of public spaces, with the underlying message often incorporating socially relevant happenings at the time. Last year, Banksy's work was seen throughout New York City, in an  impromptu art exhibition of sorts that lasted close to one month named Better Out Than In.

Banksy is widely considered to be a bit of a recluse, which presented a challenge for the documentary's filmmaker Chris Moukarbel, who had to crowdsource footage from New Yorkers who saw Banksy in the act. The documentary, titled Banksy does New York is set to air on HBO on 17 November. There's no word on whether it will be broadcasted locally, but given the fact that both HBO's VICE and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver have debuted in recent months, we hope the same goes for this interesting documentary.

Radiohead releases new music and visuals via their PolyFauna app

Always on the cusp of innovation, both from a creative and marketing standpoint, Radiohead has debuted new music and visuals on their PolyFauna app, which debuted in the early part of this year on iOS and Android. It was initially believed that PolyFuana was a companion app to the band's 2011-released album, The King of Limbs. This latest update showcases some new content from the band, including a range of atmospheric sounds and some haunting vocals from lead singer Thom Yorke.

While members of Radiohead are currently busy with their own side projects, it is being reported that the group will head back into the studio this month, although there is no detail on when a new album will be released. Hopefully they will continue to use the app as a platform to showcase more of their work in future. For a little taste of what their upcoming sound may be like, check the video below.

Dragon training to only continue in 2017

Now for the bad news - apparently further lessons in How to Train your Dragon have been delayed – i.e. How to Train your Dragon 3 has been pushed from release in 2016 into 2017 - a disappointingly distant three years hence.

When it does return, we can expect to hear some familiar voices – as Jay Baruchel, America Ferrerra, and new addition, Cate Blanchet will be reprising their roles as Hiccup, Astrid, and Hiccup’s mom respectively.

The delay is despite the fact that this year’s How to Train your Dragon 2 racked up very respectable sales past the $600 million mark. However, apparently it has less to do with the studio’s lack of confidence in the franchise (or the impossibility of dragons somehow falling out of favour) and more to do with it clashing with the sequel to Finding Nemo, called Finding Dory (what else?).

Aorus announces competition for trip to California

Well, now this is what you could call an incentive – Aorus has announced that it is running a competition for owners of its gaming notebooks, which could see a lucky winner jetting off to California (in first class if you please), and enjoying a luxurious stay in the Golden State.

The competition naturally is only open to those who own or newly acquire one of the   notebooks in the Aorus range, including the X7, X7 v2 (review), X3, and X3 Plus.  By the 25^th of this month, five finalists will then be selected by Aorus, and amongst them the lucky winner will be picked by popular vote. The prize runs from the 6^th to the 9^th of November.

If you are fortunate enough to already one one of these bad boys, and have a yen to get some travelling under your belt, then head over to http://supervip.aorus.com/ for more details.

Contributions by Robin-Leigh Chetty