….Or, McLovin is finally in a superhero movie.
Based on the comic by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., Kick-Ass already looks like its going to live up to its name. It certainly isn’t the first comedy to feature superheroes with no super powers, Mystery Men comes immediately to mind, but it may be the most epic. Come on, how can watching fail-tastic teenagers beat up hardened criminals not be entertaining?
Oh, and the man in the red cape at the beginning of the trailer? He’s my new hero.
It is rant time for the ole bald man.
When I learned that the 1981 classic Clash of the Titans was going to be given the Hollywood remake treatment, I just shook my head, growled under my breath, and moved on with my day.
I was annoyed for a week.
First, here is the newly released trailer for Clash of the Titans:
So second, why does this remake irk me so?
Remakes have littered Hollywood for decades. Some stories have been told more than five or six times. Every version has a different take on it but the story usually stays the same. I know how they begin. I know how they end. Sometimes it can be a great thing; sometimes it can be a terrible failure of intention.
Recently Hollywood seems to have been relying on the remake more and more. It’s not the cost of the recession; it has been happening for years now. Originality has gone to the wayside. Remakes have become as prevalent as H1N1, and I have no doubt they will destroy the world.
No, I don’t actually believe that. Well, not entirely.
In case you missed it, George Romero, the father of the modern zombie movie, was the guest of honor on Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me…, NPR’s humorous weekly news quiz show. Here’s the way this game works, for those who are unfamiliar: George is interviewed for the audience and then he’s asked three questions on a subject or topic completely unrelated to their perceived expertise, so in this case George Romero, Mr. Zombie, gets three questions about Disney.
But wait! There are some great tidbits about George and his career contained in the interview. And the game portion isn’t that bad either. For instance, apparently Romero never explicitly called his monsters “zombies” in Night of the Living Dead, it was the press coverage that started calling them such. It’s neat little things like that. You’ll hear a lot about George’s early career and his thoughts on his zombies versus the new zombie trend. Give it a listen, I think you’ll be entertained.
From NPR’s Site:
In honor of Halloween we’re talking zombies with legendary movie director George Romero — how to recognize them, how to defend against them, and—since this is Public Radio—how to try to reason with them, and come to mutual understanding and respect.
Romero is the man behind Dawn of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead. He’s made a career out of zombies and exploding brains and dismemberment, so we’ve invited him to play a gamed called “Bippity-boppityBRAAAAAINS!” Three questions about nice, cuddly Disney movies.
Source: NPR.org, Director George Romero Plays ‘Not My Job’
* note: the following blog was submitted in the evening; however, the author requested it be published this morning.
Good Evening. I am the Vampire, Miles Proctor.
As someone who’s lived through more than his share of fads (pantaloons, the telegraph, the hula hoop and the Hustle were just a few of my favorites), I can tell you that we are in the midst of a full-blown craze for all things fanged. From soft drinks to understated and tasteful pictorials in gentleman’s publications, that certain vampire je ne sais quoi has been co-opted for most every purpose you can think of.
But many of these new fictional vampires aren’t actually vampires at all. They never sleep in coffins, they don’t drink human blood - some of them even walk about in the day, their greatest fear not death from exposure to the sun, but being caught in the act of sparkling.
One of the most liberal, modern interpretations of the vampire ethos is of course Edward Cullen, the troubled teen vampire hero of the exceedingly popular and wildly inaccurate Twilight series. Cullen is so handsome, delicate and sensitive that one might mistake him for a particularly toothy, excruciatingly pale mumblecore filmmaker, rather than a fearsome, powerful creature of the night.
Not that the glittering creatures of Twilight are the first ones to get it wrong. Bela Lugosi’s theatrical Dracula was just another end of the stereotypical spectrum, albeit from an era of cartoonishly ghoulish vampires. In reality, neither portrait is definitive or entirely accurate.
I have laid out the truth, once and for all, in The New Vampire’s Handbook, about the habits and characteristics native to the true vampire. As it was written and edited by an actual handsome and successful vampire, there can be no doubt as to its accuracy —though I invite your comments as to how the reality squares with your notion of all things vampire.
Personally, I find the whole phenomenon mildly amusing, and await its passing. But I am curious as to what others think of the genteel, approachable, considerate, “new vampire” that’s so en vogue. Is the rise of vampire-lite in popular culture good for actual vampires like myself? Is it an affront to all of vampirekind? Will it outlast the popularity of Nu Metal, the Tamagochi, the Rubik’s Cube, or the Internet? I encourage you to speak freely.
I remain eternally yours,
The Vampire, Miles Proctor.
So, last week Joe Schreiber did this great post about the book he’d like to write, but is never going to. His is called The Survivors Club.
Mine is called Player.
It’s the story of a young black man in the Jim Crow south. He’s a talented musician and is starting to pick up good money playing piano in honky tonks. But then one night he breaks up a lynching, a man dies in the process and he has to flee. He runs to Washington DC where he seeks help from his former girlfriend, only he has to be REALLY careful, because she’s passing and is now married to a US Senator.
She helps him get enough money to make a run for it, and in the end, decides to go with him. They marry and Our Hero finds himself alone in Paris in the Ex-Patriot community of African Americans, living the high life and playing piano for the likes of Dancer and Jazz Queen Josephine Baker.
All is fantastic, until Fascism begins to rise and Hitler begins his March. Our Hero is contacted by the US Government. They want him to spy for them. As a musician he can travel with a fair amount of impunity and pass coded messages in the form of musical scores (Josephine Baker actually did this). Our Hero, although bitter about how he was treated in America, agrees HItler and the Nazis are much worse. He sends his wife and kids back to the US, and finds himself a down-and-out white ex-pat to act as a front to set up a Jazz club where he can play and use as a base. Problem is the guy’s a boozer and has a tendancy to get mixed up with women who turn out to be trouble.
Then comes the invasion of Paris. Our Hero wants out, but his handlers have a job for him. A major member of the German resistance has escaped the Nazis and is on his way to Paris to rejoin his wife. Our Hero is asked to get to the Resistor, help him hide, find his wife and get the pair of them the BLEEP out of town.
Our Hero’s quite stunned to find out the Resistor’s wife is currently hanging around with his boozing front man. Our Hero has to get her away from the front man, get her back with her husband and get the pair of them out of Paris. He’s almost not quick enough, and has himself to flee with his front man whom he can’t quite bring himself to leave behind. When he’s sober, he’s a decent guy and good in a fight, and he makes great cover.
Together, they end up setting up a new nightclub in Morocco, ostensibly to wait out the war.
Yes, Our Hero’s name is Sam.
And in the “Where do you get your ideas from?” department: This all came from the initial realization, after watching the movie for the umpteenth time that Sam MUST have known the letters were in the piano. They would have affected the tone.
C.L. Anderson has been known to tell people she lives in a stately Victorian home on a windswept island in Lake Superior with her three sisters and their pet wolf Manfred. She has also been known to tell people she is a science fiction writer living near Ann Arbor, Michigan with her husband, son and cat. What is known is that she is the author of the novel Bitter Angels and that she’s very much looking forward to many more.
Labor Day Weekend essentials:
Barbecues…check.
Laying out at the beach… check.
Star Trek… check.
Okay, I know Star Trek isn’t everyone’s idea of something to do this holiday weekend, but I just had to add it to my list—the newest movie in the franchise is making its way back into IMAX theatres with a limited release beginning this Friday!
And Labor Day is meant to celebrate the achievements of workers and unions, right? So why not take it a step further and spend some time with the hard-working crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise?
I swear it isn’t my intention to write a weekly movie review here at Suvudu. OTOH, the mere fact that there are enough science fiction, fantasy and comic book films coming out to make it a viable possibility is really kind of awesome. I love living in a world where the geeks have won.
Now, look. I go to movies to be entertained. I’m willing to forgive plot holes as long as they don’t distract me in the moment, and I’m almost always willing to be pleasantly surprised. I had hopes, but not much confidence, in Wolverine, and was, well, pleasantly surprised.
But Star Trek. Man. I remember watching the original episodes (in re-runs) when I was less than five years of age. I watched TNG and DS9 and most of Voyager and…hardly any Enterprise, honestly. I loved the even-numbered films, particularly Star Trek Saves The Whales and Star Trek Does Hamlet. So the possibility of JJ Abrams screwing this up was nerve-wracking to me. Forget half-naked Hugh Jackman; Star Trek was this summer’s must-see TV (as it were) for me, and I couldn’t restrain my hopes. I was either going to love it or be crushingly disappointed.
The fact that the trailers, right from the very first one with the Enterprise in spacedock and Leonard Nimoy’s “Space: the final frontier” voice-over, were apparently hard-wired to my tear ducts was both a positive and a negative sign. If I was that affected, maybe they were doing it right. But if I was that affected, holy crap, if they screwed up I was going to spend a week sobbing under the bed.
As far as I’m concerned, they hit it out of the ballpark. (Continued without spoilers below.)
It is a rare thing that living in Ireland offers a scoop on films, but I have just gotten back from Wolverine, and as a die-hard screaming X-Men fan girl, I have one important thing to say:
Gambit didn’t suck.
Non-spoilery comments on the film behind the cut, but one other thing if you’re like me and don’t read these kinds of blog comment thingies at all (ah yes, I are a professional writer, do not try this at home) until after you’ve seen the movie: stay through the credits.
On the face of it, you might not realize at Kazou Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go sits within the realm of science fiction. It does though. The story centers itself around three students attending an exclusive and secluded boarding school, Hailsham. And gradually we learn that things at said school are not exactly as they seem to be. For that matter, perhaps the students aren’t either.
The novel, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize, is character driven, atmospheric, and was probably not on your radar the first time around as it wasn’t really presented as a science fiction title. If you enjoy this sort of character story, then you should find the book and give it a try.
Otherwise, there’s this movie coming out…
Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, and Andrew Garfield will star as Ruth, Kathy, and Tommy, respectively. Mark Romanek, who directed One Hour Photo, has signed on to direct and the shooting schedule has been reported as spanning seven weeks in the United Kingdom.
Any other pertinent details? You’ll have to keep an eye on IMDB and of course, we’ll keep our eyes on it as well.
The trailer for the long-awaited, long-delayed, and, for everyone who has cherished the book since childhood, slightly dreaded, live-action version of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are was unleashed on the interwebs. I had the usual fan overprotectiveness upon hearing about this project, but after several enraptured repeat viewings of the trailer, I’m already deeply in love with this film. After the jump, the trailer, and six other reasons to not fear the Wild Things:
A new Pixar movie is always a reason to celebrate!
Well, the more I see from the forthcoming movie Up, the more I can’t wait!
Yesterday it was announced that Up will be the Opening Ceremony film of the 62nd Festival de Cannes in Disney Digital 3-D on Wednesday May 13th, 2009. This is the first time that an animation film, in 3-D, will be the Opening Ceremony film at the distinguished film festival.
Here is the new Theatrical Trailer! (High | Low)
I don’t know about you, but I am loving Up! In this new trailer Pixar shows us some of the various environments Carl and his little Wildlife Explorer stowaway Russell visit and explore, as well as two new characters.
I have one word to say!
Squirrel!
Here is a list of other book, DVD and theater new releases for this week!
BOOKS
Carrying on from Saturday’s post, I give you the rest of my top sci fi thriller movies…
Calling Sunshine
an environmental disaster film in space doesn’t quite do it justice. It’s a film about consequences, scientific difficulties, and disaster. Among the troubles faced by the crew are maneuvering the space ship through space (it isn’t as easy as Star Wars and Star Trek would have us believe…also not nearly as much fun), solar radiation, and decisions about rescue ops vs. greater-good ops (so to speak). The crew of the Icarus are on a journey to the sun, well, to near the sun anyway in an attempt to reinvigorate the dying star and secure a future for humanity on Earth. Along the way they pick up a distress signal from another ship and make the decision to alter course, rescue those aboard and whatever else might be on the stranded ship worth salvaging. As this puts their original mission in a bit of jeopardy, it is not a popular move will all of the crew. As it turns out, it not only puts Earth in serious peril, but also the crew of the Icarus, as they have added a serial killer to their ranks as a result of the rendezvous. And while that might sound as if that sort of storyline has been done to death, Sunshine keeps things tense and the outcome of the mission is constantly in doubt.
All that is fine and makes for a great movie, but what I really love about Sunshine, and why I think all you true science fiction fans out there should make it a point to see this film, is how far the makers of this film went to attempt to use credible science, or credible scientific speculation, in the story. And that’s something I think any fan of this genre should support. Though the rest of the story makes from some pretty tasty icing on this cake.
I was wandering around my Netflix queue and all the recommendations that they had for me, when this topic came to mind: how many Science Fiction Thrillers are there? And of those, how many would I actually recommend? And so I committed fingers to the keyboard and produced the list below.
Just a quick word, I say Thrillers, but I originally wanted to say horror. Finding honest-to-goodness science fiction horror can be a chore. Finding good science fiction horror can be even harder. Many of the movies on these lists (I’d peg at least 7 of them) are actual sci fi horror. With a few of them, the horror might be a little weak, but the feeling of suspense and dread are strong enough that I wanted to keep them here. So I went with calling this a sci fi thriller list.
Call ‘em whatever you want, but if you like you like your science fiction with a dark tint and foreboding atmosphere, then you should find a few goodies below. More to follow tomorrow.
Enjoy (I sure did)!
Cube is the natural evolution of the haunted house story into the science fiction realm. A group of strangers awaken in a square room, having been abducted seemingly at random from their lives. The room moves at regular intervals, but they don’t know where. On every side is a portal that leads to another room of equal dimensions and inscribed on each side of the portal doors is a mathematical sequence that determines whether or not the rooms are safe.Safe? Oh yes, because most of these other cubed rooms will kill you. Save for those few safe rooms, each is booby-trapped with new and inventive ways eliminate any one who steps inside. The problem is that the strangers don’t realize any of this, they have to figure it out as they go while trying desperately to escape.
It would have been easy to sit back and let the body count take care of the movie, but Cube doesn’t rest on those laurels, slowly but surely the characters become paranoid and stressed and eventually being working against each other. And the ending? Well, you’ll just have to see for yourself.
Oh, a word of warning, there were two other Cube movies made after this one: Cube: Hyperspace and Cube Zero. Avoid these. Oh, they’re horrific, all right…but in a totally different sense of the word. You’ve been warned.
What if you changed just one letter in a movie’s title? Get Smart becomes Bet Smart and you’ve got a very different movie. That was the challenge posted recently to members of Worth1000.com, a talented community of 500,000 digital artists that participate in amazing daily contests. Another recent challenge was Villain Swap. The contests are meant to test the artist’s creativity and skills using graphics software such as PhotoShop and Aviary (Aviary just so happens to sponsor the website).
I thought Suvudu readers might get a kick out of these. Jump to see more of my favorites and links for all the entries from both contests.
“The book is always better than the movie.”
As I sat in the theater last Monday and waited for the opening credits and the beginning of Watchmen, that all too true saying repeated in my mind. For decades Hollywood has pilfered great novels—and most of the time squandered them to mediocrity or downright failure. A very small percentage have been adapted to the silver screen to the delight of readers, even fewer still well-done adaptations of sci-fi/fantasy/comic book stories. Carrie, Contact, The Green Mile, The Lord of the Rings, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Iron Man—these adaptations have proven a great movie can come from books and graphic novels.
Would I be able to add Watchmen to that list?
Almost.
So much I can almost taste it.
Alan Moore, the man who wrote Watchmen and who is also responsible for V For Vendetta, once related he didn’t think Watchmen could be adapted in an honest way:
“There are things that we did with Watchmen that could only work in a comic, and were indeed designed to show off things that other media can’t.”
Alan Moore is right—to a point. Like many Hollywood adaptations from other sources, a lost in translation moment happens when it comes to elements of the original source. A graphic novel like Watchmen is extremely complex, working on many levels, and it would be impossible to try to interweave all of those threads, many of them taking place in characters’ thoughts, into one coherent film—a medium that simply does not allow for it.
The shortcomings of the film Watchmen lie in that place.
When I started collecting comic books I only bought three titles: Action Comics, Wolverine and Green Lantern.
Don’t ask me why. It has been lost to me over the last 17 years. But those three were the start and they blossomed into almost 20 titles a month at one point. I imagine I collected those initial three because they were 1) great titles at the time with strong creative teams, and 2) because those characters are just plain cool!
Well, Superman has gotten multiple movie treatments.
Wolverine is getting his first solo movie in theaters on May 1st, 2009.
And now Green Lantern has been green lit into production for a December 17, 2010 release!
Martin Campbell, who directed such movies as Golden Eye, The Mask of Zorro andCasino Royale, will bring the origin story of Hal Jordan to life on the silver screen. Hal Jordan is probably the most famous character to bear a green lantern ring, a man “utterly honest and born without fear.” He wields the green lantern ring as he sees fit, a ring that gives him unlimited power (except against anything yellow) to enact right in a world filled with wrongs.
Rumors swirl about who will play the role of Hal Jordan and the rest of the cast. If you hear anything please bring it to my attention. I’m always curious…
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“In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight! Let those who worship evil’s might, beware my power.. Green Lantern’s light!” |
I’ll be reciting that mantra over and over again as the film opens on December 17, 2010, hoping nothing evil happens to this adaptation—an adaptation that if done properly could be as great as the recent Batman movies!
Stay tuned!
A few days ago I posted the first TV Spot for the movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which reunites Hugh Jackman as Wolverine with Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth in a movie of epic proportions.
The first TV spot, Outcasts, hints at the origins of Logan, who as a child witnessed the murder of his stepfather and through his anger exhibits the claws that would later make him so distinguishable from other heroes.
Here are the second and third TV Spots Fox will be using to spur interest in this May 1, 2009 movie release!
TV Spot II: Brothers
TV Spot II: Legends
I’ll be there opening night. Yup. Fer sure, bub!
Over the next few days, the tubes of all fashions will be showing short spots from X-Men Origins: Wolverine!
To say the geek in me can’t wait for this movie is an understatement. I cut my teeth (claws?) on the monthly comic book Wolverine back in the 90’s and I’ve been waiting for any number of stories in the ole’ canucklehead’s long story arc to be told on the silver screen. Most of my favorite stories centered around the Weapon X project and the relationship Logan shares with Victor Creed (AKA Sabretooth), their pasts so intertwined to remove one would destroy the yin and yang they represent.
Now my inner geek is jumping up and down with joy. Because the movie is coming and so far I am liking what I am seeing!
Love the flashback to the Origins story Marvel did years back. Love the bone claws and their first appearance. Love Victor and the disdain written all over his face for Logan; love how the pain driving Logan to enter the Weapon X project oozes from Hugh Jackman. I really hope they’ve made something special.
