Not too long ago, we ran a Bohemian Rhapsody parody starring The Muppets, and now we’ve come across another parody of the classic Queen song — this time based on the Battlestar Galactica ‘verse. It’s a pretty hilarious lyrical spin on the series, and fans will find a lot to love. BSG virgins, and those still working through the show, should steer clear however. It’s chock full of spoilers right up until the end of the series.
Posted on Sunday, December 27th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
I think that we should first of all indulge in a little primer on Tesujin 28-go aka Gigantor, my favourite giant robot of all - because, yes, I do like some giant robots, honest.
Created in the mid-50s as a Manga series, Tetsujin 28-go tells the story of a three-storey tall robot invented to help fight on behalf of Japan in World War 2. By the time the robot is perfected - which is after 27 failed builds, if you couldn’t guess - the war is actually over and so there’s nothing else to do but… er… give the remote controlled weapon-bot to a ten year old boy. Don’t ask me, I’m only passing this along - it was Mitsuteru Yokoyama that actually baked it all up in the first place.
Luckily, this young lad doesn’t use the robot the way I think many kids would (you’d have to see the Twilight Zone episode It’s a Good Life for a portrayal of young ‘uns with extreme power that I might buy into more easily) and instead puts it to use fighting crime and, of course, other giant robots. Evil ones, mind. What a good lad! The kid gets away with it because the chief of police is both very nice and obviously a bit of a soft touch when it comes to the kids.
There’s already a CG-animated version of the story in development at Imagi studios, though the relative failure of their Astroboy movie may slow that process down or even stop it altogether. They released an early-early teaser on their official website and, to my eye, it looked rather unattractive.
For a different attack on the material, we can look to Mamrou Oshii, the director of The Ghost in the Shell, Avalon and The Sky Crawlers. During a presentation to launch his latest picture, Assault Girls, Oshii announced that his next live action picture will be a new version of the classic big-bot story.
Posted on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
The first teaser for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland left me scratching my head a little. That may have partly down to incomplete effects, but some of it was down to the unexpected aesthetic. By the time the next trailers rolled around, however, the images and I were ready to meet in the middle.
After the break are a series of big, big pictures that showcase the White Rabbit, the March Hare, the Dormouse and the Cheshire Cat, and a smaller one of the Caterpillar. Looking at these new hi-res images of itchy critters, I’m properly on side with the picture. There’s a richness to the images, and a consistency.
Burton’s tastes are evolving slowly, I think. I see similarities between this film and the sea-side fantasies in Sweeney Todd, likely influenced in part by Dariusz Wolski, Burton’s cinematographer on just these two films. There’s a crushed and textured, desaturated style here that nicely complements his career-long love of stark contrasts and emo-inspiring gothic detailing.
Posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 by Russ Fischer
This post is probably going to be a bit like kicking a beehive. Every time we run an article about the upcoming Thor movie, starring Chris Hemsworth as the Norse god of Marvel comics and legend, there is a flurry of comments reiterating the fan opinion that Alexander Skarsgård should have been the one cast. And, in a small interview, he says he very nearly was, and that he auditioned quite a few times. Read More »
Posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 by Devindra Hardawar
Consider me shocked that The Karate Kid remake starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan actually looks like it may be a fun film. We’ve covered the film over the past year with increasing trepidation — especially when the studio decided to stick with the Karate Kid title instead of The Kung Fu Kid. But now we have the first trailer for the film, and somehow my first response isn’t to burn it at the stake.
Posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 by Russ Fischer
I hope Twilight fans are happy with the fast-growing monster that is Taylor Lautner. He’s got two big movies in the works already (Max Steel and Cancun) and now he may star in a remake of the Matthew Modine coming of age film Vision Quest. This one would be comically appropriate, at least, as it would have Lautner as a kid who gets entangled with a slightly older woman while trying to prep for a wrestling match. But do we really need another version of Vision Quest? Read More »
Posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
With US audiences at least, Yuen Woo Ping is probably the best known and most popular of Chinese martial arts movie choreographers. His work on American pictures like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Matrix helped cement his cult status, though it’s probably fair to say much of his best work is found in his Chinese and Hong Kong productions like Fist of Legend and Iron Monkey.
After a break of fourteen years since his last big screen outing as a director, as opposed to just action director, stunt co-ordinator or choreographer, Yuen is now completing True Legend. As you’d see from the trailer - embedded after the break - it’s another telling of the story of Beggar Su, the legendary character described in the official synopsis thus:
A wealthy man living during the Qing Dynasty loses his fortune and reputation as a result of a conspiracy against him. After being forced out onto the streets, Su dedicates his life to martial arts and reemerges as a patriotic hero known as the King of Beggars.
This is Yuen’s third Beggar Su film after Drunken Master, one of Jackie Chan’s masterpieces and a perennial favourite round at my place, and Heroes Among Heroes which saw Donnie Yen in the role.
Posted on Monday, December 21st, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
This story will eventually get along to news of a potential original film from Robert Rodriguez but first of all, we need to tidy up a lot of loose ends regarding his ever mounting pile of in-the-works sequels. He’s a franchisomaniac.
All of this info comes from the fact that a number of online press were last week invited down to the set of Predators and they duly squeezed Rodriguez for all they could. We’ll take it one franchise at a time.
Here’s the man on future Machete movies:
We always talked about making him a franchise character. Danny and I talked about it in ‘94…maybe Desperado that’s when I first mentioned the Machete character. So imagine that…he’s been bugging me since ‘94.
Add into the mix a bit of light, hype-building and pot-stirring by Machete himself, Danny Trejo:
We want Machete, Machete Kills, and Machete Kills Again. [Laughter] That’s mine and Robert’s standards, you know? Every time I text him, he’ll text me back, Machete 2, coming up. [Laughs]
I’m sure we’ll see more Machete if it’s a hit and won’t if it isn’t. Of course, that’s like pretty much every other action picture, so… no news here.
How about Sin City 2, then? Is there something more solid on that front?
Posted on Sunday, December 20th, 2009 by Devindra Hardawar
Jonah Hill’s upcoming 21 Jump Street remake is getting weirder (and more awesome) the more we hear about it. First, Hill mentioned that he wanted to make a “Bad Boys meets John Hughes” R-rated action film, and now we’ve learned that Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are in negotiations to direct. I personally loved the heck out of Cloudy, and have firmly committed myself to following Lord and Miller’s careers very closely. The duo also created the MTV animated series Clone High, and have written and co-exec produced for How I Met Your Mother. Basically, they rank high on the scales of awesome.
Posted on Saturday, December 19th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
According to Sam Worthington, the Clash of the Titans cast and crew will be reconvening in January to film some more scenes for the film, just a couple of months ahead of its release. What’s more, he’s also saying there’s a chance that the film will be ‘dimensionalised’ into 3D. Is there really time for all this monkeying about?
And why are they doing this? Have Louis Letterier’s cuts been playing badly so far? Worthington says:
There were some creaky parts but they are the parts that we knew were creaky and that we knew were going to be creaky going into it. The studio is also letting us add some gods and scenes.
So, he admits that the shooting is to fix stuff up as well as to add more material, which is refreshingly honest. And what’s this about more gods? That’s a funny one. It’s not like the deities are the marquee names here. Well, not literally - but maybe they might pull in a couple of big name stars to cameo and add a little more bang to the final trailer and TV spots. Sean Connery, maybe? Okay - my tongue’s in my cheek, but I am curious to see who these extra gods are and who ends up playing them. Who do you think could stand alongside Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Danny Huston?
