I spoke yesterday at Perth’s Swancon about the DC relaunch of last year. The general consensus of my fellow panellists and the audience was that it has yet to work. However DC may be getting in my good books if July’s He-Man series from James Robinson and Phillip Tan is any good. This is a nice surprise and there haven’t been any Masters of the Universe comics for years. I’m looking forward to this.
Staying with nostalgia, here are two interesting live action fan films based on classic video game characters. Here’s a creatively reinvented Pac-Man, and Mega Man X which was made for only $700.
Batman seems to get more fan films than any other comics character. Here’s the latest one. It’s called Death Wish (no, Charles Bronson isn’t in it) and is just over 12 minutes long. It’s not too bad and stars Batman and Robin (both in their Batman Forever costumes), Nightwing (the adult former Robin), Oracle (the former Batgirl), the Cassandra Cain Batgirl and a host of baddies.
Star Wars Uncut is an ambitious project that has now been finalised after years of work. Basically as part of its crowdsourcing venture, people across the globe remade Episode IV in 15 second segments, and here is the diverse, final, 2 hour result.
film by Alex Popov
produced by Jim Wedaa
represented by “Gersh” agency
agents: Abram Nalibotsky and Sean Barclay
Concept trailer for the Sci-Fi Action “Goliath” shot in 3 days in Alaska and 3 days in San Diego. Total budget: $150 This project was a one man effort, meaning i had to do it all: concept, props, DP, camera op, directing, editing, post VFX, sound design and so on.
However i used a few seconds of b-roll to put VFX on top of it and there is one 1 sec. shot at the end is taken from “the day after tomorrow” guess which one…..
an amazing soundtracks from Inception, Sunshine and 28 days later helped me to bring my idea to life.
Synopsis:
A signal from space ignites a worldwide race to decode it. The Russians decipher it first and learn that a warring alien race is on its way to attack earth. The message, from a second, friendly alien race intent on helping mankind, supplies the Russians with blueprints for a mechanical-human hybrid army of biodroids to defeat our mutual enemy. When the alien armada arrives, however, they wrest control of the newly built biodroid army and it is revealed that there never was a friendly alien race. We have been duped into building that army that destroys us. With the planet in shambles it is up to a group of American soldiers to free the enslaved Russian hybrid army and together defeat the alien invaders.
Christopher Nolan’s last Batman film in his trilogy opens next year. We know Bane and Catwoman are in it, and maybe the former’s breaking of Batman’s back will be too, from the KnightFall storyline from the comics in the ’90s. This is a subtle, but cool teaser for now though, tying in important elements from the first 2 films.
After Isaiah Mustafa (the actor from the Old Spice ads) as Luke Cage comes Jevon Kearse as another Marvel superhero – X-Man/ future soldier Bishop and, man, does he look great. You can check out a behind the scenes video right here at photographer Gary Land’s site and thankfully, there’s more to come.
My niece and nephew have been loving the old Flesicher Superman cartoons on DVD. They may be decades old, but they look great, and now animator Rob Pratt has been inspired by them to do his own take. It’s only a minute long, but it’s brimming with that old time adventure vibe. At the end of the film, Pratt gives some brief background info on the project.
It’s been a while since some good fan films have surfaced online. These two new films aren’t bad. What they lack in editing they make up for in production design. Below is Fight the Foot, a darker, more street level approach to the Ninja Turtles, although only a silent Raphael, and April O’Neil are in it, and some kinda Foot looking soldiers.
Entitled The Rat, this 6 minute film is set in Christopher Nolan’s Batfilm world and has two cops talking, before The Riddler (briefly) shows up, and Batman doesn’t. Like the one above, it sure looks good though.
Two different approaches, for two very different DC characters.
First up is the 30 minute short film made by Bat in the Sun Productions,who also made the Joker-centric Patient J film in 2004. Their latest endeavour, City of Scars was made on a budget of $27, 000 and looks very impressive. It’s all suitably dark, with noir overtones. Batman looks great, as do Joker, Mr. Zsasz, Harley Quinn and Ventriloquist and Scarface. The plot is appropriately low key (Joker escapes Arkham Asylum and takes a boy hostage) befitting its fan made status. The Alex Ross inspiration seems obvious too, evidenced by Bruce’s imposing yet scarred body, the all black and grey costume, and the pose below. See the whole film right here.
Another fan driven project is this first episode of this twelve part Superman web series, utilising live action, CGI and animation. It may not be as polished as City of Scars, but it’s a lot harder to make a good Superman film on a small budget. It features the expected supporting cast, plus Metallo, Toyman and Lex Luthor in future episodes by the looks of things. For the most part, the blend of different visual imagery works rather well. Follow the rest of the series at the team’s website.
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