Man, poor Bale. The English born actor’s recent tirade on the set of the new Terminator flick has already been lampooned on Family Guy in an upcoming episode, as well as in the teaser for the new Marvel Super Heroes: What The?!. The series looks like a more upmarket Robot Chicken, with ‘animated’ action figures. The trailer has big-faced baddie M.O.D.O.K shouting at an A.I.M agent. It’s not as funny as the Family Guy one. Hopefully the series will be, but there’s no details about it as yet. In related news the upcoming kid’s toon, Marvel Super Hero Squad has 26 episodes heading to the Cartoon Network later this year.
Civil War: The Game
Well, not quite, but they might as well have called it that. The trailer for the next-gen console game Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 has just been released -and it’s a doozy. It doesn’t look graphically superior to the previous installment, but I’ll definitely get it. Based on Marvel’s Civil War series (one of the best things they’ve done in the last few years) the game looks like it has Captain America and his team and Iron Man and his team facing each other in battle over the idea of superhero registration.
Like the first one, it will be filled with fanboy friendly moments and appearances from every character you can think of. I’m so there.
New Watchmen Viral Video
Those whacky Watchmen marketing gurus have done it again. This viral video, direct from 1977 is all about the Keene Act and how upright citizens can protect themselves from nutty vigilantes. Or at least try. Done with great visual flair it looks like an authentic Public Service Announcement from three decades ago.
Watchmen On Your Mobile
Or at least updates of the greatly anticipated film. It’s hard to believe that this adaptation fanboys and girls have cautiously wanted to witness on celluloid is just around the corner. Below are some gorgeous promo pics for the Zack Snyder helmed film hitting the screens on March 6. For the uninitiated, Watchmen is a classic DC Comics 12 issue series written by Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, From Hell) with art by Dave Gibbons. It’s an epic telling of an alternate 1985 where Nixon is President and superheroes are real and endangered.
I’ve gotta give props to Warner Bros. All of their marketing for this film has been well orchestrated. From the pics released a year before the film to the recent viral video and variety of bold posters they know how to get the attention of curious geeks.
See the details below to register for mobile updates. Hi-tech marketing is a beautiful thing.
Trailers Galore
We don’t get ads like this during our cricket season or AFL Grand final! Well, those Americans sure know how to make good trailers when they want to. The internet is all a buzz about the latest which debuted today, including some great films coming out in the next few months. Below are teasers for G.I.Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and for a different pace, Year One, starring the hilarious Jack Black and Michael Cena. The first two look awesome, if not entirely accurate to their 80s portrayals, and Year One looks like it might just give us the laughs we were promised with Tropic Thunder. It’s a good year for good films.
Unproduced Superman Scripts
For those, like me, who love Superman and believe that apart from the first film with Christopher Reeve he hasn’t been fairly represented on-screen, here’s some interesting news.
To cut a long story short, Warner Bros. have been facing legal proceedings for a while now in regards to the copyright of Superman and Superboy. You can read the article at Newsarama here. However, the interesting thing for us Supes fans is that some of the court documents presented include several unproduced Superman screenplays dating back to 1995, including the one from comic book fan/director Kevin Smith. You can check out the 13mb collection of scripts here. It’ll be fascinating reading I’m sure – all 794 pages of it.
Watchmen Viral Video
The landmark comic maxi-series from the mid 1980s has officially become a film. Despite lawsuits between 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. over actual ownership of the rights, it’s now been legally decided that the film will get a release. Yay for that! I didn’t want to have to pick up a dodgy bootleg of the film at some convention. Released on March 6, the troubled adaptation, directed by Zack Snyder (300) will be exciting, hopefully. Below is a clever viral video (it’s all the rage these days) focusing on a 1970 NBS Nightly News broadcast celebrating the 10th anniversary of Dr. Manhattan, the only true superhero in the Watchmen world. It has a fantastic authentic feel and really helps sell the film.
Hulk Vs Concept Art
Like Hulk? What about Thor? How do you feel about Wolverine? If you’re fond of those three Marvel superheroes, then the Hulk Vs DVD is for you. Being released on January 27, the animated film is made up of two features, where Bruce Banner’s alter ego battles the norse god Thor and the popular X-Man Wolverine. Marvel has just released some great concept sketches of the film, including some from Jeff Matsuda, art director on the recent The Batman cartoon.
For more info on the DVD and it’s new-fan friendly features, go here, and for more art take a gander below, or go here.
Twilight Zone: The Movie Review
I’ve wanted to watch this film for a long time, but only saw it for the first time recently on cable TV. I knew about it, mostly due to the parodies (from two classic Simpsons Halloween specials) and the fact that this film was responsible for the helicopter accident that killed actor Vic Morrow. Me and me housemates were engrossed. It’s a good film, and I’m a sucker for anthologies in any medium. Released in 1983 and based on the classic 50s and 60s TV show, the film remakes three separate stories from the show, and creates an original one.
The first film features Morrow who leaves after a bar after his racist ranting and then discovers himself as a Jew in Germany occupied France. Each “death” after that has the man reliving a different minority at different periods of social unrest, such as a black man being hunted by the KKK and as a VietCong soldier. This is the only original story and is directed by John Landis (Coming To America). It moves briskly and has a great message behind it – “Bigots must die – repeatedly.” Actually, it’s more subtle than that, but certainly engrossing.
The second feature has the voice of the Autobot Jazz, Scatman Crothers, but that’s the highlight of this one I’m afraid. Crothers plays a man who visits different nursing homes and allows the residents to literally feel young again, and then it’s up to them to decide if they want to stay that way and live their lives all over again. Basically, a lot of of old people talking, then their younger selves playing. Directed by Steven Spielberg it has his magical touch to it and light humour.
The third (directed by Joe Dante-Gremlin 2) and last (George Miller-Mad Max) features are the ones known by Simpsons fans. Kathleen Quinlan plays a teacher who visits a home in a small town, and eventually learns that a young boy has more or less re-made his house as he sees fit. All his “family” members, ie, captives including Bart Simpson herself Nancy Cartwright, live in his fantasy land, ruled by his magical powers. He’s the king, but his subjects aren’t happy. Finally, John Lithgow (Third Rock From The Sun) stars as a passenger on a plane who appears to be the only one who can see a creature on the wing, terrorising him.
This is a classic film, with some tightly written stories. One of them at least will surely grab you.
Kong & The Kid
A couple of great documentaries I’ve seen this week are The King of Kong and The Kid Stays in The Picture. The King of Kong follows two Donkey Kong champions as they try to top one another’s (extremely) high scores. It’s remarkable the passion people can have, and there’s a handful of gamers world wide who have the high levels of focus and manual dexterity to ocnquer these old-school arcade games. The mind games seem exaggerated, but the difficulty of Kong, etc don’t. Games these days seem like a walk in the park. Apart from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, naturally. Despite what the blurbs say, Kong is not hilarious. It’s funny in a quirky way like The Office (UK version) is due to the differing personalities of the two competitors, but also how stereotypical the gaming geeks really are . If you like King of Kong, you’ll love Trekkies, which is an older doco about Star Trek fans. That film makes me laugh till I cry every time I see it.
The Kid follows Robert Evans’ rise to film producing for Paramount in the 1960s and 70s. Discovered at a pool he became a baby faced actor and then a novice producer. His credits speak for himself though, with The Godfather, Rosemary’s Baby, Marathon Man and many 70s classics which all owe their existence to his firm belief. Cocaine and pride played his downfall though and then he went to helping make stellar films, to producing How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days. Let that be a lesson about the dangers of drugs, kids.
Both films are gripping in a way only true stories can be, filled with head scratching moments. Trailers for both films, plus the classic Trekkies, are below. Good holiday viewing.
Flash Fanatic
So apparently Frank Miller’s next film project after The Spirit, which opens on Christmas Day, will be Buck Rogers. That’s not very exciting really. The Sin City and 300 creator has a deft visual hand to be sure, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to box office mojo. I wouldn’t be surprised if The Spirit doesn’t set cinema screens ablaze, and if it doesn’t maybe he won’t get Buck Rogers after all.
A better choice would be Flash Gordon. He’s not as old as the Buckster, but is much more recognisable. (Even if non-geeks do confuse him with DC’s The Flash). The 1980 film starring Sam Jones and Timothy Dalton was glorious, especially with the unforgettable Queen soundtrack. Plus the classic character is on a high at the moment. Superstar painter Alex Ross is a fan and even helped BifBangPow! with their Series 2 figures based on the film, which you can pre-order now.
There’s also the excellent new series by Ardden Entertainment. The next issue, #4 is out next month and features Flash, Prince Thun, and the blonde Arborian ranger Eldun invading the Hawk Men’s floating prison city to rescue Dr. Zarkov. It also features Prince Barin in the icy land of Frigia and Dale and Ming getting a little too cosy.
Really, Flash Gordon is begging for a film re-make. Just not by Frank Miller.
Christmas Cheer
This was just too funny not to share. My mate Shayne grabbed a few faces of us hunks from church and threw them onto dancing elf bodies. Sounds weird, and slightly creepy, but it’s oh so funny, as evidenced by the laughs on Sunday morning. You can do the same thing yourself, right here.
Just in case you’re wondering, I’m the hairless one with the raised eyebrow. Merry Christmas!
Official Wolverine Trailer
This trailer was supposed to go live on-line (after being released with prints of sci-fi re-make The Day The Earth Stood Still) yesterday. However, I looked everywhere and couldn’t find it, until now. (Then I realised that due to the time difference between the U.S and Oz, I was too eager) So, here’s the latest trailer (not the one shown at Comic-Con this year) for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, opening May 1 next year. It has elements from the Origin comic series, plus guest stars such as fan faves Gambit, Deadpool, the Blob, White Queen and more. Sabretooth is in it too, of course, and it looks like Liev Schrieber was a good choice. So sit back and enjoy. Marvel really are making some fine films these days.
Cool, huh? And what a way to celebrate my 200th post! Woo hoo!
IDW Film Prequels Galore
IDW has some impressive TV and film licences, including CSI, Angel, Ghost Whisperer and Doctor Who. Come Januray, they’ll also be launching three different mini-series that will effectively act as prequels to some of 2009’s biggest films. They include January’s Terminator Salvation Movie Prequel #1 by Dara Naghi and Alex Robinson, and two different series for the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Movie Prequel. Alliance starts next month, with art by Alex Milne and Defiance begins in January, with art by Dan Khanna. Both series are written by Chris Mowry. Perhaps their most exciting movie prequel is the one tying into the new Star Trek film. Official press release below, as is the cover, and if you haven’t seen the fantastic new trailer for the film, beam down here.
IDW Publishing has joined with Paramount Pictures, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions, Kurtzman/Orci Productions and CBS Consumer Products to publish a four-issue limited comic book series tied to next summer’s new Star Trek movie, which will be released in theaters on May 8, 2009.
The first comic in the series, Star Trek: Countdown #1, will be released in January 2009 to the comic book direct market. The story is presented by Abrams and plotted by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. It is written by Mike Johnson (Superman/Batman) and Tim Jones, and features stunning art by David Messina (Star Trek: Mirror Images). Messina also provides covers for the series.
“There was a lot of back and forth about doing this project, how to do it, what it would be about, but what all parties agreed on was that we needed the right story and that it needed to matter. It had to count both on its own merits and when read in conjunction with the new movie,” said series editor Andy Schmidt. “I couldn’t be happier with the project and what it means to the overall Star Trek franchise!”
“Star Trek: Countdown lays the groundwork for what happens in the movie,” said Roberto Orci. “It’s our way of passing the baton from the Next Generation characters and their movies to the new film.” Star Trek: Countdown is sure to be in huge demand as eager fans look for a sneak peak into director J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek vision! Star Trek: Countdown #1 (Diamond item code NOV08 4113), a 32-page, $3.99 comic, premieres in January 2009.
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