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Tag: Hand of God

  • Amazon’s ‘Hand of God’, ‘Red Oaks’ Get Full Seasons

    Amazon’s ‘Hand of God’, ‘Red Oaks’ Get Full Seasons

    In late August, Amazon debuted five new pilots for Amazon Prime users’ viewing pleasure: The Cosmopolitans, Really, Hysteria, Hand of God, and Red Oaks. Today, Amazon is announcing that two of those shows have survived the pilot round and have been greenlit for full series productions

    It’s the latter two – Hand of God and Red Oaks. Hand of God is the television debut of director Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball, World War Z). It stars Sons of Anarchy‘s Ron Perlman as Judge Pernell Harris, “a hard-living, law-bending married man with a high-end call girl on the side, who suffers a mental breakdown and goes on a vigilante quest to find the rapist who tore his family apart.”

    Red Oaks is produced by director Steven Soderbergh. It stars Craig Roberts (Submarine), Paul Reiser, Richard Kind, and Jennifer Grey, and is being directed by David Gordon Green of Eastbound & Down acclaim. “A coming-of-age comedy set in the “go-go” 80s that is equal parts hijinks and heartfelt, Red Oaks is about enjoying a last hurrah before summer comes to an end—and the future begins,” says Amazon Studios. It revolves around an assistant tennis pro at a country club, and its “colorful” cast of characters.

    Like with all other Amazon pilot seasons, customer feedback helped determine which pilots got picked up.

    “We are excited to get working on full seasons of Hand of God and Red Oaks,” said Roy Price, Vice President of Amazon Studios. “These shows come from some of the most talented creators in the business. Customers loved the pilot episodes and we can’t wait to hear what they think of the entire series.”

    Amazon, who’s been battling for a while now to gain any ground on Netflix in the original content from streaming providers race, made a significant leap forward last week with the debut of Transparent. It’s receiving rave reviews. Amazon’s also set to premiere the second season of its first-ever original series, Alpha House, on October 24.

    Image via Amazon Studios, YouTube screenshot

  • Two New Amazon Drama Pilots Begin Filming

    Two New Amazon Drama Pilots Begin Filming

    Amazon has just made the official announcement that two new drama pilots have been greenlit for Amazon Studios’ third pilot season, in which Amazon unleashes a handful of new shows and uses viewer feedback to determine which ones stick.

    In January, we learned that the Ron Perlman drama Hand of God had found a home at Amazon Studios, and today Amazon has confirmed it. Shooting begins this week.

    Here’s Amazon’s synopsis:

    Marking the television debut of renowned filmmaker Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland, World War Z) and written by Ben Watkins, Hand of God stars Golden Globe winner Ron Perlman in his first lead television role since Sons of Anarchy as “Judge Pernell Harris.” Hand of God also stars Dana Delany as the Judge’s protective wife “Crystal Harris,” Garret Dillahunt as “KD,” the born-again sociopath, whose violent tendencies are exploited by Pernell, Andre Royo as the slick, smart, gregarious, and greedy mayor “Robert ‘Bobo’ Boston,” Alona Tal as Pernell’s grieving daughter-in-law “Jocelyn Harris,” Julian Morris as the questionable preacher “Paul Dobson,” Elizabeth McLaughlin as the preacher’s sultry girlfriend “Alicia,” and Emayatzy Corinealdi as Pernell’s call girl / confidante “Tessie.” The show centers on the powerful Judge Harris, a hard-living, law-bending married man with a high-end call girl on the side, who suffers a mental breakdown, and goes on a vigilante quest to find the rapist who tore his family apart. With no real evidence to go on, Pernell begins to rely on “visions” and “messages” he believes are being sent by God through Pernell’s ventilator-bound son.

    Can’t say that looks uninteresting.

    The other show is more of a dramedy, and it stars Adam Brody and Chloë Sevigny, Here’s Amazon’s description of The Cosmopolitans:

    Written, directed and produced by Academy Award nominee Whit Stillman (Metropolitan, Barcelona, The Last Days of Disco), The Cosmopolitans follows a group of young American expatriates in Paris searching for love and friendship in a foreign city. The dramatic comedy pilot stars Adam Brody as “Jimmy,” Chloë Sevigny as “Vicky,” Carrie MacLemore as “Aubrey,” Dree Hemingway as “Camille,” Freddy Åsblom as “Fritz,” Shaun Evans as “Hal,” and Adriano Giannini as “Sando.”

    Filming on that new pilot also kicks off this week.

    Amazon says that these two new dramas will be joined by others for a proper “third pilot season” sometime later this year. The second pilot season kicked off in early February, and the studios have already greenlit full series runs for a handful of the shows, including The X-Files‘ creator Chris Carter’s new apocalypse drama The After.

    When the pilots finally do land, they’ll be available to stream for free on Amazon Instant Video, which I’m sure the company would love for you to watch via your new Amazon Fire TV.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • ‘Hand of God’ Pilot Finds Home at Amazon

    ‘Hand of God’ Pilot Finds Home at Amazon

    Amazon Studios is on a roll, beefing up their upcoming original series lineup with some impressive-sounding new shows. It’s not that surprising – Amazon’s original content wing has to move fast to catch up/keep pace with the Netflix juggernaut.

    Deadline reports the newest Amazon Studios project is called Hand of God, an “edgy” drama starring Hellboy and Sons of Anarchy‘s Ron Perlman and directed by World War Z‘s Marc Forster.

    Here’s the show’s synopsis, per Deadline:

    Hand Of God centers on the powerful Judge Harris Pernell (Perlman), a hard-living, law-bending married man with a high-end call girl on the side who has a religious awakening and starts having visions and hearing voices through his ventilator-bound son that could be God speaking to him.

    If anyone can convincingly play hard-living and law-bending, it’s Perlman.

    Apparently, filming is slated to kick off in March.

    Amazon Studios waded into the water with original comedies, and are now shifting focus to drama. The X-Files‘ Chris Carter has a new show coming out on Amazon (The After), and Amazon Studios recently signed on for a new series based on sci-fi heroine Barbarella.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • ‘Hand of God’, Other Wonders Inspire From Space

    ‘Hand of God’, Other Wonders Inspire From Space

    “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

    Right you are Shakespeare.

    The famous words from his play “Hamlet” has never been more true as people gaze with wonder on the image captured by a NASA space telescope, dubbed the “Hand of God”.

    “We don’t know if the hand shape is an optical illusion,” said Hongjun An of McGill University, Montreal, Canada, in a statement from the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) Mission.

    The NuSTAR space telescope was launched in June 2012 to observe wonders in the heavens.

    The image is actually a pulsar wind nebula, a fancy way to describe a dying star and the cloud of materials left over from the star after it explodes.

    According to NuSTAR, when the particles interact with nearby magnetic fields the particles to seem to glow.

    Humans have always gazed at the heavens and wondered at the marvels to be found there.

    Check out these incredible images of space caught by the Hubble telescope over the past 22 years.

    Image via YouTube

  • Hand Of God Found In Space – Simple Nebula Or Proof Of God?

    Since the beginning of time man has looked up at the heavens and wondered where he came from. Many religions believe that God or another divine being is up there above us somewhere, and is the great creator. Non-believers say otherwise.

    Whether you are religious or not, you can’t deny the beauty of the recent photos taken of the pulsar wind nebula known as the ‘Hand of God’. These photos were taken by Nasa’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array or NuSTAR and scientists are still trying to make sense of the nebula’s amazing shape.

    There is no denying that it looks just like a human hand. Could it be the actual hand of God?

    A nebula was formed by a cloud of gas that surrounds a neutron star called PSR B1509-58, or B1509 for short. A neutron star is a star that is burning out and collapsing within itself. Eventually it will explode and spin extremely fast. As the star spins is throws out gases and materials. The gases react with sub-atomic particles that are also released by the star and create the unique shape of the nebula.

    While science can explain how the nebula is formed, it is not able to explain why it is shaped like a hand. Many just see the photos as a coincidence, while others see them as proof that God exists.

    The photos have caused several religious debates, but regardless of whether you think the images are an illusion or divine, they are no doubt spectacular and a demonstration of how far science and technology have come.

    What do you think of these amazing photos and do you believe the image really could be the hand of God?

    Image via YouTube.

  • “Hand of God” Nebula Raises Interesting Questions

    NASA has released a breath-taking new image of the pulsar wind nebula known as the ‘Hand of God’. The picture may look to some to be a colorful cloud-like mass in space. But to the more imaginative, you may look closely and observe what appears to be a hand.

    The amazing image was captured by Nasa’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array or NuSTAR. Nasa is trying to determine the reason for the unique nebula structure. Are the particles reacting a specific way that causes the appearance of a hand shape or is the nebula in actuality shaped like a hand? The mystery endures.

    This is not the only “God-like” image to be captured by telescopes.

    A Hubble photograph of the Helix Nebula generated a great deal of buzz and has been called “the Eye of God”. This is due to its startling resemblance to a gigantic human eye. Whereas the “Hand of God” is a bit more ambiguous, the Helix Nebula’s structure features an eyebrow and even an iris.

    These human-like traits in the stars inspire some to view it as proof of the existence of a higher power. While others view it as a representation of man’s loneliness and eternal search for kindred spirits in far away galaxies. Opinions will always be divided on this front, but no one can deny that such images are fascinating to look at.

    What’s fascinating is that of course these huge structures are not remotely human in shape. The appearance is an optical illusion. The human mind is trained to recognize human-like features, even in non-human objects. The habit of spotting human features in inanimate objects is referred to as pareidolia. This is defined as assigning significance to a perceived pattern where in reality there is none. A piece of toast is just a piece of toast until a person is convinced they see a human face staring back at them. And a massive nebula is just a nebula until it appears remotely human. Or possibly God-like.

    One thing remains certain: These images continue to remind us just how much greater than us the universe actually is. And they will inspire us to continue to imagine and work towards a day when such images could be seen up close rather than from the lense of a telescope.

    Image via Jason Hunter, Kelson Diego

  • NASA Discovers “Hand of God” Via Telescope

    NASA Discovers “Hand of God” Via Telescope

    Space — the final frontier. In space, there are lots of phenomena and many things that not even the best-educated scientists can even answer nor identify; however, space does bring us a lot of interesting images from the various telescopes that we humans have placed up there. An image that has been recently captured by one of NASA’s telescopes has definitely received a lot of attention these past few days — an image depicting the “Hand of God.”

    According to Yahoo News, the image (captured by NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR) of a hand-like appearance was created by an exploding star that ejected a large amount of material in a cloud formation. Yahoo elaborates on the “Hand of God” in a more scientific explanation provided below.

    “The new image depicts a pulsar wind nebula, produced by the dense remnant of a star that exploded in a supernova. What’s left behind is a pulsar, called PSR B1509-58 (B1509 for short), which spins around 7 times per second blowing a wind of particles into material ejected during the star’s death throes.”

    The various scientists who are currently studying the pulsar wind nebula are unsure if the ejected material forms the shape of a hand, or if the interaction with the particles of the pulsar are just making it appear that way to the eye. Hongjun An, of McGill University in Montreal, stated “We don’t know if the hand shape is an optical illusion. With NuSTAR, the hand looks more like a fist, which is giving us some clues.”

    The “Hand of God” image is an example of pareidolia, which LiveScience.com describes as “the psychological phenomenon that causes some people to see or hear a vague or random image or sound as something significant.” Another form of pareidolia is when a person sees various images and objects in the shapes of clouds.

    Various twitter users have reacted to the “Hand of God” image captured by NASA, and I have provided some of their reactions to this phenomenon below.

    Image via YouTube (0:06)