geekosystem

From cinematic young wizard Harry Potter to thespian stable boy to Broadway singer, young actor Daniel Radcliffe is still up and coming. Now his acting pursuits are taking a decidedly darker, and delightfully more thoughtful turn, as Radcliffe is in talks to join a 20th Century Fox production of Frankenstein -- not as the monster or the doctor, but as the twisted manservant Igor. The obvious question is: Why would Radcliffe play second fiddle to the monster or the doc?

Well, this should terrify anyone who has ever experienced the perfectly rational terror inspired by machines that can think for themselves. New Scientist reports that computer scientists at the University of Texas at Dallas have created a computer virus, dubbed Frankenstein, that can make itself more damaging and harder for systems to detect by stealing bits and pieces of code from other programs. If you don't think this ends in a supervirus running out of control through the Internet, making machines come to life and subjugating humanity, you are not being anywhere near reactionary enough.

DeviantART user Rob Roberts made this fairly detailed mask to show us what it would look like if Frankenstein and Cthulhu were able to mate and then produce some sort of offspring that sported the features of its parents. Presenting Frankenthulhu, an even more difficult word to type than just plain "Cthulhu."

Imagine if all the characters who possessed these hands all hung out one day. Imagine the awkward-yet-amazing high-fives they'd share. Imagine the armies of zombies they could kill, either directly or indirectly, with these hands. Just imagine the possibilities. (Glaring omission: Freddy Krueger.) (via The High Definite)

At the beginning of this week we were saddened by the news that Guillermo del Toro will no longer be working on The Hobbit movie. Among other things, we were really looking forward to seeing his Mirkwood, and to watching Weta Workshop's triumphant return to Middle Earth. But we are comforting ourselves by imagining all the other projects he is now free to pursue. Below, we outline four of our Guillermo del Toro dream projects, and a few bonus projects that, you know, might actually happen.