Results tagged “movie”

Have you seen Heat Vision yet? The recently launched blog is one that any and every science fiction, fantasy, and/or comics movie fan should have bookmarked. I’ll give you a few seconds to bookmark it now. Or subscribe to their RSS feed.

See, here’s the deal: we here on Suvudu attempt to give you news about great science fiction and fantasy books, comics and graphic novels, and related media. But we also try to lift the curtain a bit to give you some behind-the-scenes access to stuff and a chance to meet some of our authors as well. And we all have a fun time. Well, if you take that philosophy and apply it to the world of science fiction, fantasy, and comics-related television and films, then you’ll get Heat Vision.

Here’s the site’s brief about information:

Heat Vision sets its sights on what’s hot in the world of fanboy entertainment, from blockbuster films to the comic books that inspire them. Its author is Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter.

So, you’re probably wondering if Heat Vision is related to Suvudu. Nope, it’s not. We heard about it through the grapevine and I liked it so much, I’m passing it along to you. Heat Vision endeavors to bring the worlds of film insider-information and fanboys & fangirls together under one digital roof. It’s put together by a group of reporters who have worked in film and entertainment reporting for years. These people have what we in publishing call a “strong platform” (which means, for those of you who don’t already know, that they know their stuff and are on top of their game).

Anyway, I’ll let you click over and discover them for yourself - and you should do so if you’re into film entertainment news. Just because they’re new doesn’t mean you have to wait for the content to flow either, already up on their site is an overview of who is in negotiations to join Bruce Willis in the coming adaptation of Red, Wildstorm/DC Comics miniseries, a run-down of relevant Oscar candidates, news on Quentin Tarantino quirky “White Family” commercials (they feature a talking dog, apparently), and details on the team behind 1995’s Seven coming together again for a new project, among other things.

So there you are, one more must-read (or subscribe) insider blogs to keep up with. Enjoy!

Because we couldn’t get the cast of New Moon (in theaters this Friday!) on Suvudu, we decided to do the next-best thing. We’ve spent the past two Mondays honoring our current, favorite vampires from True Blood and Vampire Diaries.

The wait is over. Today’s feature is all about New Moon.

We had to limit ourselves to just 10 but there are endless reasons why we love New Moon. Feel free to add your own reasons.

10. It’s all about the werewolves, baby.

[Credit: Clevver]

9. It stars improbably beautiful people in high school, who seemingly never attend class.

8. The worst break-up scene in history. Worse than: Britney and Justin, Jen and Brad, and yes, even worse than Nicole and Paris.

7. Road trip: Benvenuto in Italia. Ciao, Bella!

[Credit: ThinkingOfRob]

6. Victoria’s back. And she’s crazier than ever.

[Credit: TwilightMoms]

5. Taylor Lautner: have you seen the 17 yr-old shirtless? Can we even legally say that?

[Credit: GossipTeen]

4. Bella almost hallucinates herself to death.

3. Because we truly believe in Edward and Bella’s love.

[Credit: Fanpop]

2. Superhot Edward Cullen: Robert Pattinson. Sigh.

[Credit: davidarchuletanetwork]

And the #1 reason why we love New Moon…

Steamy, vampire-human love connections. Need we say more?

The Road, the movie adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy book of the same name, will be released November 25, 2010. It has been pushed back several times by more than a year, hopefully due to the movie studio wanting to create something as special as the source material. The movie only cost $30 million to make, a pittance by standards today, but it stars Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce, and newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee. Those are some pretty powerful names for so low budget of a movie.

A few days ago, director John Hillcoat and the Wesinstein movie studio decided to release the long-awaited second trailer to The Road!

Here it is:

Again, this movie will be up for Oscars just like the last McCarthy movie adaptation, No Country For Old Men. The subject matter makes it so.

The only question is: Will people go out and watch such a dreary-looking movie over the Thanksgiving weekend?

We’ll see. But I plan to be there!

You knew this time was coming, right?

It is almost November and James Cameron has decided to release the full trailer for his forthcoming December 3D sci-fi movie, Avatar!

I will let the trailer speak for itself!

Click HERE!

Here is the new movie poster for the forthcoming movie, The Road.

The Road is one of the finest novels I have read. It is dark, gritty, real and depressing with an enormous amount of literary merit. The Pulitzer Prize winning story by Cormac McCarthy is of a nameless father and son who trek across a post-apocalyptic America to find safer shores.

It is one of a handful of novels that has reduced me to tears.

Yes, the big bad scary bald man does cry on occasion.

The movie poster is what I expected this time around. The first two were in grayscale, a black and white style that showcases the dreary, ash-choked lifestyle the two main characters endure. This new one has the yellow-orange of fire in the background, a dangerous color, one that reflects the threat in the world around them.

The Road opens in movie theaters on November 25th.

Mark my words: It will be up for Oscars.

And if you haven’t read it, do yourself the favor.

I first encountered “Surrogates” when one of the curvy blondes hired to cripple the intergalactic young brains at New York Comic Con handed me a black postcard featuring an evenly tanned, non-bald Bruce Willis. Bruce also appeared to have a metal neck. Hm. I turned it over, read the marketing copy, and immediately decided that this movie was about Facebook. Yeah, that Facebook.

Then the preview began to show, and the posters of pulchritudinous people with titanium endoskeletons started to pop up in subway stations. And I would point to them and turn to whomever I was with and casually say, “Oh that’s that movie about Facebook.” Most of them assumed I was joking or were just plain confused. By all appearances, this was an action movie, not a montage of Jesus-fish wall graffiti and What Lawn Ornament Are You? results. (Flamingo, if you were curious.)

Having now seen it, I hold my ground: this movie is about Facebook. (OK, and Twitter and Second Life and WoW, etc.)

The concept itself, however, I’d come across in The Time Before Facebook, in David Foster Wallace’s novel Infinite Jest, which I had been reading just as Facebook was trickling its way to the Midwest. The book housed about 10 pages devoted to the hypothetical rise and fall of the hypothetical video-phone. There’s a great little synopsis at conversationalreading.com, which I’ll copy here:

Basically it works like this: First consumers flock to the technology. However, they soon notice the drawback — now the person you are talking to on the phone can see you…[C]onsumers develop horrible complexes about appearing ugly on their video phones. Soon new technology enables users to “upgrade” their appearance, and this idea runs away until eventually there is an entire industry built around providing fake appearances to hardwire into video-phones. At this point people realize that for all intents and purposes they’re right back where they started, voice-only phone communication, and the bottom drops out of the video-phone market.

Apparently, Mr. Wallace saw it when he wrote this way back in 1994-that technology was allowing people to carefully manipulate and craft their outward appearances. He saw how easy it was for the Marketing Gods to pray on our vanities.

These days, Facebook is the ultimate tool for persona-honing. We can choose our most flattering picture. We can fake our interest in soccer. We can de-tag that one photo where we’re violating the coat rack. We can elicit desired reactions from peers with carefully vague status updates. Moreover, we can present ourselves how we want to be seen, and almost believe that it’s true. And that’s what “Surrogates” is all about, underneath the action.

I should probably talk about the movie now.

Finally, Summer is ending. My apologies to those of you who relish and enjoy the season, but I’m excited for it to be over. There’s just too much to be excited about for the Fall.

Now, I’m jaded. I’ll admit I prefer Fall to Summer in every way. The weather, the colors, the smells*, the food (sure, you can make chili in summertime, but why would you?), the ability to wear sweaters. And Fall is when everything picks up again. Books, movies, television, events, we’re about to face another flood of them. Here’s some of what I’m looking forward to as we hike into the last few months of 2009.

Books

Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber (October)
(Click here for more details)

I’ll come clean. I’m a horror fan from nearly as far back as I can remember. To clarify, I’m a fan of horror fiction (I can’t do the movies though). Back in my high school days** as I was being barraged by reading assignments covering the Romantic poetry movement, or and endless array of long drawn out works, I nearly lost my interest in reading. Then I found Stephen King. It didn’t take long until I was raiding the county library and buying up paperbacks from genre racks near and far. But it was that first book, Tommyknockers that really gripped me. It intertwined horror and science fiction to make the story, equal parts Eureka and They Live, if you’re interested.

Well, Joe Schreiber will be taking horror to the Star Wars universe this fall and I’m excited to return to that particular part of the genre melting pot again. Schreiber is a writer who can turn a terse phrase and scare you with things happening on this world. I wonder (oh, how I do wonder), what he’s thought up for Death Troopers. We know there’s zombies. We know there’s Storm Troopers. But what happens when the two get together in deep space? Like you, I’ll find out next month. I can’t wait.

The Devil’s Alphabet by Daryl Gregory (November)
(Click here for more details)

His debut novel, Pandemonium, is the type of book you read and think, “Horsefeathers! This isn’t his first book!” Well, here he is again and I’m hoping for a similar ride. The brilliance of that first book, and what has me excited in the set up for this book, is that Gregory creates a world that is so very, very similar to ours. He just tweaks one thing here or there to set the stage and then his characters come forward and it isn’t long before you’re sucked in to the story, all sense of time gone, all hope of sleep abandoned as you push on for just one more page, just one more chapter.

That’s the kind of writer Daryl Gregory is. In this book, we come to a town that has been decimated by a mysterious virus. The virus has killed off a substantial portion of the population, mutated others, and occasionally left some residents alone. Or so it seems. Returning to this town is Paxton Abel Martin, who fled when he was 14 and the virus was raging at full tilt and fled town shortly thereafter. Paxton appears to be fine, but is he?

Here’s a bit from the book’s description that hooked me and vaulted this book to one of the highest spots on my Must Read list for 2009:

Having fled shortly after the pandemic, Pax now returns to Switchcreek fifteen years later, following the suicide of Jo Lynn. What he finds is a town seething with secrets, among which murder may well be numbered. But there are even darker-and far weirder-mysteries hiding below the surface that will threaten not only Pax’s future but the future of the whole human race.

Mmmmm…a town with mutants and deep-dark secrets. Sign. Me. Up!

Read on for a few TV shows worth watching (or Hulu-ing) this Fall as well as a couple movies I’m looking forward to.

What happens when a burnt out bestselling science fiction author needs to turn a completed book in to his editor and he doesn’t have it?

Gentlemen Broncos is the answer!

I laughed throughout this entire trailer! I missed it when Darth Duff and The Hound posted on it, so I thought I’d better do it again… well… because I’m stupid and I want to highlight it again. Gentlemen Broncos is written and directed by Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre). It looks so cheesy it could actually be great!

And it pertains to what we all love! Science fiction and fantasy!

Whatcha think?

I like Bruce Willis in science fiction / fantasy movies. 12 Monkeys, Sin City, Unbreakable (my favorite M. Night movie), The Sixth Sense, The Fifth Element, Armageddon, Death Becomes Her — all great quirky flicks in their own way.

Well, Bruce has returned to a science fiction movie, based on a graphic novel. It is called Surrogates and the television is being inundated with commercials for it.

Click HERE for a new trailer!

Old material in a new movie or possibly something new in disguise?

Whatcha think?

The other day, I asked some people on Twitter if they were excited about the new movie coming out today, 9. More specifically, I asked if I was the only one who really hoped it didn’t suck.

For the most part, the response was overwhelmingly in favor of it not sucking.

What struck me, though, was that many people thought it wasn’t going to suck because Tim Burton was involved. This gave me pause. While I’ve always recognized Burton as one of the established purveyors of dark, quirky fantasy stories, for some reason that I couldn’t quite put a finger on, I found myself shaking my head at the sentiment that the man has the golden touch.

In fact, I couldn’t help thinking he had the opposite (The copper touch? No, copper’s pretty valuable as scrap…the nickel touch? Sure, I’ll go with that). But that didn’t seem quite right, either. I mean—he’s Tim Burton. You don’t get that kind of reputation without doing something good.

So I kept prodding the proud followers of @bantamspectra, and true to form, they came through in commendable fashion. What I asked was: what’s your favorite Tim Burton movie. They reminded me that this man has made some classics (and some stinkers, which was probably what I was keying in on—yes, I’m talking about your movie, you dirty ape. Seriously, with so many good actors, how could that movie have been so bad? Oh, yeah—all the good actors were dressed as frickin’ monkeys).

As such, I’ve decided to make a list of the movies that Tim Burton has made that have made his fans, well, fans. And while not necessarily ranked (because, regrettably, I haven’t seen all of these movies), I do believe this could work in a “best of,” starting with “the best.”

Here are the other book, DVD and movie releases for the week!

HARDCOVER BOOKS

• Fledgling by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
• Absolute V for Vendetta by Alan Moore

• The Serrano Succession by Elizabeth Moon

• Bedknobs and Broomsticks
• Catwoman [Blu-ray]
• Freddy vs. Jason [Blu-ray]
• Fringe: The Complete First Season
• The Postman [Blu-ray]
• Sphere [Blu-ray]

• 9
• Whiteout

Here are the other book, DVD and movie releases for the week!

HARDCOVER BOOKS

• The Child Thief by Brom
• Dark Slayer by Christine Feehan
• Flight of the Renshai by Mickey Zucker Reichert
• Dreamwish Beasts and Snarks by Mike Resnick

• Must Love Hellhounds by Ilona Andrews, Charlaine Harris, Nalini Singh, and Meljean Brook
• All the Windwracked Stars by Elizabeth Bear
• Green by Ted Dekker
• The Drowning City by Amanda Downum
• Dark Vengeance by Ed Greenwood
• Witch Craft by Caitlin Kittredge
• A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire
• The Soldier King by Violette Malan
• The Storm Witch by Violette Malan
• Rosemary and Rue Novel by Seanan McGuire
• The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia A. McKillip
• Night’s Cold Kiss by Tracey O’hara
• Ravens of Avalon by Diana L. Paxson
• Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer
• Lamentation by Ken Scholes
• Anathem by Neal Stephenson
• The Scourge of God by S. M. Stirling
• Trick of the Light by Rob Thurman
• Fugitive Prince by Janny Wurts

• Braveheart [Blu-ray]
• Gladiator [Blu-ray]
• Heroes - Season Three
• Impact
• Supernatural: The Complete Fourth Season

• Gamer

Let’s say that I was walking along the beach in Malibu one summer afternoon with the surf lapping zestfully at my bare feet, and I came across a lamp washed up on shore, and rubbed it the way you’re always supposed to do, releasing a genie who chose to express his or her gratitude by granting me three wishes, I know exactly what I’d start with.

Not a million bucks.

Not the promise of safety and longevity and good health for me and mine.

Not even the old childhood favorite, a wish for three more wishes.

No, I think I’d blindside that genie with three wishes that I’m pretty sure nobody’s ever asked for in the history of lamp-rubbing.

A) Access to a film crew and director with an unlimited budget.
B) A guaranteed automatic greenlight from the studio of my choice.
C) Complete remake rights to the John Hughes film library.

Not that I’d ever wish to remake any of the John Hughes movies that filled my own adolescent experience with moments so real that half of them seemed to have actually happened to me. Hell, no. I love those movies, and their setups are so perfect that any attempt to redo them straight would necessarily be doomed to failure.

No. I want to re-imagine them.

As horror movies.

Now just hear me out. My theory is this. If John Hughes had stuck around long enough in Hollywood, instead of pulling his post-Curly Sue J.D. Salinger act, I think he would’ve been a whole lot happier if he’d made at least one balls-out screamfest. Who knows? He actually might have made a good one. But since he didn’t, (I’m not counting Weird Science, and neither should you) we’re forced to imagine how much more mind-bogglingly awesome his greatest movies would have been, if they’d transcended from teen angst into a flat-out limbic-system overload of horror.

Why? Because, unlike almost all the directors and screenwriters cranking out slasher movies in the late 70s and 80s, Hughes could actually write credible teenagers. His kids were funny, canny, sympathetic and utterly familiar. All they lacked was a guy with a machete.

Ever sit and watch a movie where, as the credits are rolling at its end, the audience just doesn’t want to get up and leave?

The sign of a quality movie, right?

It happened to me today—and not for a full movie.

It was 16 minutes from the forthcoming James Cameron blockbuster, Avatar.

And oh what a 16 minutes they were!

James Cameron has been a science fiction pioneer since he broke into the industry. The Terminator made us realize the true horror of what artificial intelligence could mean to our future. Aliens produced some of the most colorful characters and acting careers ever put on film and gave a level of action that was unparalleled in its day. The Abyss took CG to a whole new level and had a great literary ending about how we treat each other as well as our environment. Even movies like True Lies and Titanic, not science fiction by any standard, were written with utmost care and still bear a bit of fantasy within them.

On December 18th, after 14 years of development, Avatar will grace screens worldwide.

And be counted as a James Cameron masterpiece like the before mentioned movies.

Mark my words.

For the most part, I hate remakes.

Why? Because I feel like if a movie has been done well before, there is no need to remake it. And, not only that, there are thousands of great original screenplays out there that never get the chance to be made.

But there is something primordial about certain elements of our storytelling and film history, where the most basic and animalistic elements that make up the human being are brought out externally into horror—and can be made over and over again without losing any power or mystique.

And the werewolf myth is one those!

Throw the fur and claws on such a great actor as Benicio Del Toro, and I already know my butt is going to be in a seat on opening night.

Here is the trailer for The Wolfman:

So? What do you think?

The Wolfman will be released on February 10, 2010.

Look out Valentine’s Day!

The teaser trailer for the forthcoming blockbuster Avatar is now released.

Click HERE!

It kicks all sorts of ass!

Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!

This kind of day doesn’t come along often.

Director James Cameron, who has brought us some of the best science fiction and fantasy movies ever made with The Terminator, T-2: Judgment Day, Aliens, The Abyss, True Lies, and Titanic, is starting to ramp up his marketing and publicity for Avatar.

What is Avatar, you may ask?

Avatar is a forthcoming science fiction movie that Cameron has had percolating in his head for 14 years and which has been in production for four years of production.

In movie terms, that is a long time. And with a genius like James Cameron at the helm and given all of that time to perfect a movie, look out December movie going populace! Avatar takes place on the planet Pandora, where human explorers put their minds into artificial bodies, or avatars, to interact with the native population. That population: 10-foot-tall blue creatures called the Na’vi.

While at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con, Cameron initially revealed footage from his sci-fi epic. People were in awe of what they saw.

This week, he’s letting a nationwide but still selective audience get their glimpse at what he’s been working on. Starting Monday at noon PT, free tickets were distributed on the film’s official website — avatarmovie.com — for screening of footage on IMAX 3D screens across the country on August 21st.

Once finished, we won’t get another viewing until the official trailer is released.

And it is a long time before the movie hits screens on December 18th!

To gain tickets to the advance minutes-long screening, visit avatarmovie.com.

Seating is very limited! Good luck!

G.I. JOE: The Rise of Cobra opens in movie theaters on Friday and Suvudu is celebrating by offering you a chance to win copies of the three G.I. JOE books Del Rey published this summer.

Jump for details on how you can play and win.

The second half of this year has been the one I’ve been waiting for at the movie theater.

And all because of books that I love being adapted to the silver screen!

First up, The Time Traveler’s Wife.

Yes, I am a sap for romantic drama and if this movie can be adapted right it will assuredly be a favorite. I also have a minor love affinity for actress Rachel McAdams so… there you have it. The movie comes out next week. Time to get a date, I guess!

Second, The Road.

Unbelievably written book, post-apocalyptic fiction. Has some of the best literary writing I’ve read and has a torturous tear-jerking ending. The movie stars Viggo Mortensen and will be out in October.

And lastly, The Lovely Bones

This is the one I a most looking forward to! It is the story of a young girl who is murdered and must watch her family cope with her loss as they try to discover her killer. Director Peter Jackson and his wife Fran tackled this adaptation, and undoubtedly they will put their signature great stamp on it. Plus, Jackson’s vision of Susie’s heaven should be a beautiful wonder to watch on the big screen.

Happily, Jackson just released the first trailer for The Lovely Bones! Watch it HERE!

A warning: The trailer has a great deal of spoiler scenes in it.

What are you looking forward to?