Zack Snyder's Justice League To Premiere 18 March 2021 on HBO GO (Asia)

Mention the name Zack Snyder and you will find mostly fans from both ends of the spectrums - those who are in rapturous worship of his works or those who bristle with snarky derision. He's the ultimate controversial hot button for any geek conversation concerning DC superhero movies.

Zack Snyder was working on the movie JUSTICE LEAGUE since 2016. Before he had the change to edit and finalise the film, Snyder left the production in 2017. His daughter had died by suicide, and he wanted to spend time with his family. Joss Whedon, well known for being the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the first two Avengers' movies, took over. The movie version released in the same year was a weird combination of Snyder's original take and Whedon's more colourful style. Not surprisingly, with an uneven tone given to the characters and the script, the movie did not turn out to be the box office hit that Warner Bros. had hoped.

Ardent fans of Snyder began calling for an original cut of JUSTICE LEAGUE, insisting that such a version exists. They flooded social media with the hashtag #releasetheSyndercut soon after the movie's release and continued promoting the grassroots campaign for years. Finally, on the date of JUSTICE LEAGUE'S 2nd anniversary, the fans efforts gained more traction when actors like Gal Gadot and Ben Afflect added their voices to the chorus. Synder also began posting more stills from the alternate cut.

The studio finally gave in despite pundits estimating that it would cost gazillions to produce this version. In May 2020, WarnerMedia announced that the infamous “Snyder Cut” will premiere on HBO's streaming services in the following year. The extended version of the movie would be about 4 hours long.

The Star Wars Identities Exhibition at ArtScience Museum Is A Rare Delight

The Star Wars Identities Exhibition, which will open for the public this Saturday (30 January) at the ArtScience Museum (ASM), is something not to be missed!

The show was supposed to open last year, but then the coronavirus arrived, and Red Dot Island promptly went into a 2-month Circuit Breaker. For many months after, businesses and individuals were following strict safety protocols to help keep everyone healthy.

Despite the long wait, ASM and their partners Pico Pro, X3 Productions and Lucasfilm Ltd, the owner of the show's 200+ original Star Wars movie artefacts, have managed to produce a wonderful exhibition that will delight the franchise's fans - both long-timers as well as newbies.

Through several displays of props, concept artwork, sculpts, costumes and character profiles, Star Wars Identities is structured as an interactive personal journey for fans to learn how an identity is shaped in a lifetime.

Red Dot Diva managed to get a sneak peak of the exhibition, totally geeking out like an Ewok at a raucous forest rave. To keep some of the show's surprises and reveals more exciting for the visitors, she will only list down a few key highlights that you should look out for!

Ubisoft and Lucasfilm Games Collaborate To Develop A New Open-World Star Wars Game

This week, Ubisoft announced a piece of exciting news for gamers and Star Wars fans.

The video game company, home of popular games like Assassin's Creed, Raving Rabids and the Tom Clancy series, is collaborating with Lucasfilm to develop a new story-driven open-world Star Wars game. Ubisoft's critically-acclaimed AAA studio Massive Entertainment will be working to bring their latest technology like the Snowdrop engine, to deliver an epic adventure in the beloved galaxy far far away.

“The vast Star Wars lore is an incredible source of inspiration for our teams,” said Yves Guillemot, co-founder and CEO of Ubisoft. “This is the beginning of a long-term collaboration with Disney and Lucasfilm Games, and we are pleased to be working hand-in-hand to build upon the incredible legacy of Lucasfilm to create a game that we know Star Wars fans will love.”

Live with Red Dot Diva's First Episode of 2021 Will Feature The Curious Unicorn

It's a new year, and a new season of Live with Red Dot Diva!

One of the best things that happened in 2020 was the decision to launch a monthly Facebook livestream featuring mainly creators and artists based in South-East Asia. During these 1-hour livestreams, Red Dot Diva and her guests participated in lively discussions on a wide range of topics like writing for horror stories, creating modern folk tales, and the current state of genre films in Red Dot Island. These interesting conversations will continue in 2021, and Red Dot Island already have the first few guests lined up for the next few months.

The first guest for 2021 will be The Curious Unicorn a.k.a. Hammy. Hammy is an independent visual development artist, graphic designer and 2D animator who is currently based in Brunei. She used to live in Los Angeles as well as in Red Dot Island. Those of you who wandered around the Singapore Comic Con 2019 Artist Alley may remember her booth selling eye-catching artwork, in an unusual wooden scaffolding setup.

Sonny Liew and Dr. Hsu Li Yang Explains The Science Behind Covid-19

What a discombobulating year this has been.

2020's Covid-19 pandemic threw everyone's lives out of whack, and here we are, on the last day of an unforgettable year.

The Covid-19 vaccines arrived in Red Dot Island more than a week ago, and vaccinations have already begun for frontline healthcare workers yesterday. Yes, there is light at the end of the tunnel, but it still feels as if we are treading on thin ice, as the virus is still raging on in other parts of the world.

Red Dot Diva thought that that best way to end 2020 would be a cautious yet positive blog piece about a new webcomic entitled THE SCIENCE BEHIND COVID-19 by local Eisner Award-winning writer/ artist Sonny Liew (The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, Dr. Fate, Malinky Robot, Eternity Girl) and Dr. Hsu Li Yang, Vice Dean of Global Health and Programme Leader of Infectious Diseases at the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. The comic was published on 28 December in both the printed and digital versions of the local English-language daily, The Straits Times.

Click on this link to read the web comic - https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/the-science-behind-covid-19-1

Kanme Studio's Boom Shaka Webcomic Is A Refreshing Read

The realm of webcomics is like an unfiltered pool of digital creativity. Ever since the medium's boom in the 2000's, there has been a growing number of formats and titles published. Readers can decide if they prefer the snappy one panel web comics, or those that are written as an on-going series, like those Hong Kong TV serials you grew up with. Since most webcomics are published independently, there is a wide range of genres out there to cater to a smorgasbord of tastes, especially if you are looking for something really niche.

Kanme Studio is one of those creative collectives who have started publishing webcomics. The studio is founded about 3 years ago by American writer named Yam. The collective's core includes usogami, who mainly takes care of the web-related aspects, and local freelance artist Alan Bay whom Red Dot Diva has gotten to know in recent years. Alan Bay has also done worked in the games industry, and drawn for a number of books including the recently published SACRED GUARDIANS comic (Asiapac Books) and ONCE UPON A SINGAPORE... TRADERS, a finalist for Book of the Year at the Singapore Book Awards 2019.

BOOM SHAKA is the latest web comic published by the Kanme Studio team, and it is off to a promising start. As of now, there is a Prologue, Chapter 1 and a few pages of Chapter 2 available at a very reasonable price on their website, via Gumroad.

Pennyworth Season 2 Premieres on Warner TV Asia on 14 December

Season 2 of the series PENNYWORTH will be back on Warner TV Asia on 14 December, with the first episode premiering at 9 PM Singapore time. This time, there is hardly a delay as Warner TV Asia decides to air the new season on the same day as the U.S. telecast. There will be 10 episodes in this season.

The series is an alternate universe about ex British SAS soldier Alfred Pennyworth (Jack Bannon) set in a more violent version of 60's London. In the show, Alfred, or Alfie as he is affectionately known, is not yet the famous DC comics butler of the Wayne household whom we are familiar with. When we meet him in Season 1, he worked as a bouncer at a nightclub and then started a security company, together with his SAS pals, “Bazza” (Hainsley Lloyd Bennett) and “Daveboy” (Ryan Fletcher), of which, their contract work includes working for Thomas Wayne (Ben Aldridge).