OMG, I'm so excited to see this movie! Quentin Tarantino's next flick is coming out late this summer, and the first trailer just aired this week. The film's called Inglourious Basterds [sic] starring Brad Pitt, amongst many other notable faces. At first I was put off by the idea of Pitt being in a Tarantino production. For some reason, the two didn't seem a right fit. I like Brad's work, don't get me wrong, but really?
Anyway, this trailer has proved me wrong. I can see the genius behind casting Mr. Jolie now. I should have known to leave it to my man Quentin to know what the hell he's doing! And, hey, from a purely marketing viewpoint it works as well. I mean, how many more women will turn up now? Probably a heck of a lot more than usual for Tarantino, I can tell you that much.
Sometimes--just sometimes--YouTube has something truly geeky and amazing to behold. This my friends . . . this is that time! :)
Someone went ahead and, as a purely technical exercise, constructed a fictitious trailer for a fake live-action Thundercats movie. For those of you who do not know the awesome animated greatness that was the Thundecats series -- it was pretty much the be all and end all of existence for little 8 and 9 year old boys in the mid 80s like my brother and I.
Well, this ingenious person or persons spliced together a bunch of clips from various recent movies like: Pitch Black, Lord of the Rings, Troy, Planet of the Apes, Chronicles of Riddick, Farscape, Stargate, and a few more I can't quite place but know I've seen. The faces were superimposed with gimpy Thundercats F/X makeup, but it still works somehow. I mean, check it out for yourself. Kudos to whoever is behind this. You will go far in Hollywood someday, methinks.
And while I'm not particularly itching for a live-action Thundercats movie to be made (my childhood would be raped yet again, I fear), I confess I did suffer a minor geekasm watching this!
As some of you know, I'm a huge China buff. I love the country, the people, the language, the art, the music, the literature, etc. And I especially love its movies--both the dramatic and the wu-xia varieties. I like the serious and the action-y stuff alike!
Recently, however, I've been expanding my tastes to include other Asian cultures. Japan was a natural, followed by Korea. But now I'm totally hooked on India, too! While still not a terribly huge fan of Bollywood-type movies, I do in fact enjoy the music a lot. I've been on a serious Indian DVD watching fix since the beginning of this year, collecting the ones I like and scoping the music of the films from various sources both on the web and in the stores.
Well, seems like someone has made a movie just for me, and it's being called: Chandni Chowk To China. It's sort of a zany East meets . . . er, further East mismatch. Bollywood meets Chinese Kung-fu comedy -- a wickedly fun looking actioner in the vein of Stephen Chow! I had no idea this movie was being made, but now I MUST watch it when it hits stateside. Thank god I live in NYC, where I always have access to limited release art-house and foreign films. Sweet!
Check out the trailer for yourself. Oh, and the movie will have Gordon Liu playing the villain. You don't get any more awesome than having the original Master Killer of the 36 Chambers in your movie. I'd pay full admission just on this fact alone!
A while ago I posted an entry here about a DVD box set dilemma I was having. I'm still up in the air about the Fraggle Rock box set, but I finally bowed to the pressures of consumerism and purchased the Blu-ray HD dvd set of the Planet of the Apes. Because, you know, I care so much about our economy that I thought I'd give it a little boost. Yeah.
This set commemorates the 40th anniversary of the original film starring Charlton Heston. It also contains the 4 sequels as well. And since this is a collectors' set, it comes with a hefty and very, very nice 200-page production booklet. Oh, and the box art/construction is pretty SWEET, too! Take a look:
I don't know when I'll get the chance to watch this, tho. Probably during my 2-week Xmas vacation I'm taking starting on the 2oth. I plan to be busy during my time off, but I should have free time at night at least to sit back and watch a movie or two. It will be a luxury for me.
Finally! It took them nearly two years from acquiring the rights to George R. R. Martin's acclaimed fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, but HBO has finally greenlit the production of the first book in the series, A Game of Thrones, for their original lineup. Variety.com announced the details earlier this week, so check out the link if you want the full scoop.
I'm ecstatic! This is the best set of fantasy books since Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Trust me, I don't deliver such praise lightly. The funny thing is, ASoIaF doesn't actually delve so much on tried and true fantasy tropes as most books of this ilk do. There are no elves, barely any magic at all, and dragons (for the most part) are only mentioned in songs. There are giants and ghouls and all sorts of weird, crazy things in this world though. But they're kept behind a massive protection wall, sort of like what China tried to do with the invading Mongolian hordes (and look how well that worked out for 'em!)
The series, instead, deals primarily with internecine and devious strategies between several vying factions and kingdoms, all jockeying for control of the high throne. Hence, the title of the first book, A Game of Thrones. For me, this is the series' best selling point--it's sorta like The Godfather/Sopranos meets King Arthur! In fact, not unlike HBO's previous series, Rome, now that I think of it. Clearly the network has a keen love of the twisted power-play theme for their shows, and in this case Martin's books will fit right in.
Now that the show's been greenlit, fans can breathe a collective sigh of relief. A script for the pilot has been written, and so hopefully this means we can see an air date of sometime in 2010, although early 2011 would be my best guess. I can wait. Maybe in that time the author can *finally* deliver his latest book in the series, A Dance With Dragons, which fans have been waiting on now for going on 5 years!
As my grandma would say: Slap me silly and call me Shirley!
I don't know how this news slipped by me, but apparently at this summer's San Diego Comicon, Marvel announced plans to bring its Black Panther property to the BET network as the channel's first prime time adult animated series. The tv show will hit the air sometime in Feb. 2009.
And just this week IGN.com reported that actor Djimon Hounsou will be voicing the famed Wakandan king turned superhero, which I think is just all sorts of awesome! I mean, DAMN, this is just the guy to get for the role!
Wow, this is so exciting! I've been waiting a long time for Marvel to finally get around to this, although personally I was hoping more along the lines of a movie deal. And starring Wesley Snipes, of course. Since Wesley is currently playing the stupid rich black man role in tax-evasion prison, I guess that will have to wait.
But in the meantime, this is the next best thing. I'm hoping for something along the lines of HBO's animated Spawn series over a decade ago, or even Spike TV's Afro Samurai mini from last year. So far, though, the details are looking good.
Apparently the show will spring directly from the most recent incarnation of the BP comic series as penned by Reginald Hudlin and drawn by John Romita, Jr. Hudlin also happens to be BET's "Entertainment President" at the moment, and the man responsible for bringing the show to the network. Right now it seems the show's run will directly follow the first six issues of the recent comic line, before going off to tell its own story. The art style is being strongly reflective of Romita's artwork, recreating the artist's look for the television screen.
From what I've seen of the teaser trailer (voiced before Hounsou came on board), it appears they've captured the look and feel of the comics perfectly. In fact, it's uncanny! Take a look for yourself:
Those of you reading this thing semi-regularly may be aware of my recent run-in with Fraggle Rock related issues. If not, click here and here for a refresher. Seems I can 't get away from the little buggers now. And to make matters worse, I just learned of a GARGANTUAN box set release of the entire show on DVD!
That's 20 discs of Fraggle mayhem, folks! I mean, my god, how tempting *is* this? And it's not really that bad of a price for such a huge haul -- only 90 bucks on Amazon.com. I want so badly to ask for this for Christmas, but there are so many box sets that, to my chagrin, I've also discovered on Amazon. It must be that time of year I suppose, because already my bank account is screaming at me.
Case in point:
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
Seriously, how can I resist? The Planet of the Apes complete movie collection is especially sweet because it is on Blu-ray. But then, Batman: The Animated Series is the greatest cartoon show of all time.
Surely the solution is simple, no? I must BUY THEM ALL!!!!
Haha, no. I wish I could, but I can't. If I really, really could only choose one . . . I'd have to go with my buddy, the Dark Knight.
In more wacky entertainment news from the Land of the Rising Sun -- oh wait, is there any other kind? -- seems some folks at the WB have gotten creative with the soon-to-be-released Blu-ray edition of the Ultimate Matrix collection. The set will consist of 7 discs, 4 of which will be the high-definition Blu-ray versions of the 3 movies, plus the Animatrix shorts. With the remaining 3 discs consisting of standard definition "making of" documentaries. Since I already have the Ultimate Collection on standard DVD, I would normally pass on this.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg! Because included with this set is a 2-foot scale model of Morpheus's ship, the Nebuchadnezzar, which collectors may use to store the discs in lieu of the standard storage box that's also included.
Of course, I would *never* collect something as gaudy as this, but you have to admit it's pretty damn sweet if you're into this sort of swag. And those worrying about the movies playing here in the U.S., don't. Although this set is only being offered in Japan, WB's Blu-ray movies share the same region coding in both Nippon and North America. So if, like me, you own a PS3 and you find yourself with an overwhelming desire to get your Neo on while rocking out aboard the Neb (in your acid-trip dreams, at least), then this set will bring you that much closer to your goal.
You can find the original scoop over at Gizmodo.com.
That's 20 discs of Fraggle mayhem, folks! I mean, my god, how tempting *is* this? And it's not really that bad of a price for such a huge haul -- only 90 bucks on 
