- Great news for Warren Ellis! His upcoming novel — Gun Machine — will be adapted to television by 20th Century Fox and Chernin Entertainment. Ellis himself will oversee the show, serving as Executive Producer, and Trauma creator/writer Dario Scardapane will be the head writer. I’m so happy for Internet Jesus… he’s been an awesome writer for so long, he deserves some mainstream success. (Not that I don’t wish he’d write comics again.)
- Well this is excellent news too: Joss Whedon is returning to directAvengers 2. Not only that, but he’ll also be the creator and executive producer (and probably do some writing too) of a Marvel movie-verse TV show for ABC tied to his films. I figured he wouldn’t want to do the Avengers sequel, considering a project that massive doesn’t allow for much side work. I suppose the C-141′s full of money can’t help (was gonna go with “truckload”… but didn’t think that sufficed). This is awesome though, because ever since the end of Avengers I’ve wondered where Whedon would take the sequel… what with sequels being the darkest of three movies and all (typically) due to dramatic structure.
Coincidentally, Whedon was/is working on a sort-of Internet-show with Warren Ellis. I hope that sees the light of day considering how busy their lives are about to get.
- David Cronenberg has a son who is now directing. And it’s looking like his movie’s will be as grotesquely creepy as his father’s. Antiviral is his first full-length and is I believe out in select cities/theaters. It stars the kid who played Banshee in X-Men: First Class. Caleb Jones. I think he’ll probably become a household name in the next 5 to 10 years. Also, apparently he plays drums and sings in a band called Robert Jones.
- In other movie news, Francis Ford Coppola looks like he’s bitten off a lot more than he can chew with his new film idea. The Edgar Allen Poe masks with 3D eye-holes are one thing, but having to put it on and take it off constantly? Not to mention he has “devised an interface between himself and the film so he could alter it in real time, adjusting the flow of the narrative as he read the audience’s reactions. This interface was built as an iPad app.“ Obviously the rebuttal here is… so he’s going to be present at EVERY ONE of his screenings…? The Bleeding Cool writer called this “several bad ideas crashing into one another”. He should know, he was at the Comic-Con screening.
- More reasons Texas is kinda batshit crazy. Or… at least has their priorities in a bunch. This HIGH SCHOOL football stadium costs $60 million. That’s American bucks. And before we go all “YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE… HOW IMPORTANT HS FOOTBALL IS DOWN HERE”. I do not. But, I hail from Minnesota, where High School hockey is super important. Where professional players, who have played and won the Stanley Cup (and in some cases Gold Medal games in the Olympics) have said that playing in the MN High School final was a more memorable experience. Hell, I bet we have a higher percentage of NHL players than Texas has NFL players. But you know what they do up North? They fucking play outside. In a rink that probably costs a couple grand to manufacture. But hockey is life up there. Really explains both the differences between BOTH hockey and football, and MN and Texas. Down to Earth love-of-the-game shit vs. massive spectacle.
- After Daniel Tosh’s recent remarks to a female heckler, the internet has become ablaze with all kinds of knee-jerk reactions to him. From defending him at all costs to wanting to crucify him and get his show cancelled. MN poet/rapper Guante wrote a piece on his blog about the whole thing that makes a lot of sense. This point needs to be understood especially:
“1. We’re not picking sides between “pro-censorship” and “anti-censorship.” We’re picking sides between “pro-rape jokes” and “anti-rape jokes.”
This is not a free speech issue. As a comic (or poet, or rapper, or singer or whatever), you have the right to say whatever the hell you want to say on stage. But your audience has that same right. If you say something hurtful or offensive, they can heckle you, call you out, start internet campaigns to ban you from clubs, whatever. And you have to deal with that.
No one is trying to make it illegal for a comic to say offensive shit; we’re just trying to hold you accountable. That’s a huge difference, and people hiding behind the “free speech” argument are really missing the point. I want you to take chances on stage, to challenge people, even to deal with hecklers harshly—but there are a million ways to do that without joking about something that is extremely hurtful to so many people. Less offensive ways, sure, but funnier ways too.”
- One of the best things to come out of Comicon thus far this year is news that the second Captain America movie will be titled, Captain America: The WinterSoldier. I didn’t really like the first one, but I love the character of Winter Soldier. I’m sure it still won’t be my favorite movie in the world… but the other awesome part of this is that the character was created by a favorite comics writer of mine, Ed Brubaker. Ed is one of those guys who’s been writing excellent stuff for a really long time. Actually, he rarely writes anything that sucks. So he deserves whatever kind of paycheck he’ll be getting in the mail from Disney and Marvel. I just hope they have him consult on the movie a little. Oh and Brubaker recently started a title simply called “Winter Soldier” and it’s cool: post-Cold War intrigue thriller shit. Great artwork, great writing.
- Bleeding Cool actually talks about the best movies of all time? Wow… I figured all comic book websites do is speculate about the shit (umm… Captain America?). Kudos to Craig Skinner. This post from him discusses the quarter four releases for “Masters Of Cinema”, who put out old/classic films in modern formats. Their list of releases is impressive. Their quarter four sees the releases of Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc, and Fritz Lang’s longest film Die Nibelungen (among others).
- Blueprint wrote a very humble and appreciative piece on his blog recently about his time being a full-time musician. Ten years ago last week he handed in his resignation as a software programmer to become a musician. It’s kind of impossible not to love that dude:
“I’m very appreciative of the fact that I’ve been doing this as a full-time job for ten years now. Shit, I’ve now held this job twice as long as any other job I’ve ever had. The irony is that unlike most jobs where people grow more jaded and bored as the years go by, I’ve found that my attitude has followed the opposite path where I become more appreciative and excited as the years pass. I don’t know if it’s a result of the extended amount of time I took to make Adventures in Counter-Culture, or a side effect of becoming more mature and realistic about what having a career as an artists really means, but either way I probably wouldn’t be writing this if my perspective were any less positive. For that I’m thankful.
That said, I feel extremely blessed that the people and the universe have blessed me with an opportunity to pursue music full-time for ten years now. It seems like the most common gift to give is one that satisfies someone for a day, but the rarest gift is one that satisfies someone for a lifetime. So I decided to ask the universe for the gift of artistic longevity and will try my best to spend every day cultivating that opportunity and gift.
For all of my people out there that are pursuing their passion, try to build something that brings you a lifetime of joy. Understand that in a world full of people who may have not been given the opportunity to pursue the things they love – you are an exception, and should therefore cherish that opportunity for as long (or as short) as it may last. Be inspired by all the things you don’t know about your craft, and celebrate the fact that get to try to learn them everyday.”
- New Brother Ali song off the forthcoming “Mourning In America, Dreaming In Color”. I really like the combination of Jake One and Ali, they fit together very well. This gets super, super personal. When I saw Ali with his new band (who are awesome by the way, check them out if you get the chance this year) about a month ago he talked about how there was a point in his life a couple years ago that was transcendent, it changed everything. His father died, Eyedea died, and this was during his pilgrimage to Mecca. He talks about that in this track. Just like the title of the album, this song seems to be equal parts despair and hope:
- A piece on the Falun Gong movement of China. A sort of spiritual movement banned in China and “avoided by the American media”:
“Chances are you have noticed followers of Falun Gong practicing their faith even if what they were doing doesn’t look much like prayer. Whether it is an elderly woman keeping vigil in front of the Chinese embassy, or a group of ten or twelve of all ages arranged in neat rows behind the Air and Space Museum, the most distinctive feature of their practice is its apparent lack of motion. Shifting through five meditative stances at a glacial pace, the practitioners sometimes look as if they are holding hula hoops over their heads, other times as if they are making shadow puppets of swans. They hold each of these poses for periods of twenty minutes or more, which makes them, in the words of the movement’s founder, people who “practice stillness.””
- Is Scorsese for real doing a Raging Bull 2?? Oh, okay… Scorsese isn’t directing. I figured he would have more sense than that. A disturbing trend in all sorts of media (books, movies, even video games), the prequel/sequel movements are getting far beyond out of control. And if it ain’t one or the other it’s a “reboot”. I’m not against either for being what they are… but can’t we please have some limits??
“Apple has waged an international patent war since spring 2010, part of its attempt to either limit the growth of Google’s Android or to restrict the number of iPhone-like features that it offers. So far it has had little effect; Android has gone in that time from around 100,000 phones being activated every day to more than 900,000 a day, and from less than 8m devices in use worldwide to more than 390m. Opponents of Apple, meanwhile, say it is using patents too aggressively in its bid to stamp out competition.”
- The BBC should be switching the word “wimps” for “addicts” when discussing the abuse of prescription pain killers in the United States, the “Nation of Wimps”. The USA consumes 80% of the world’s pain killers. And maybe we are complete pussies, but I personally know several people who have been, or are, addicted to pain killers (one being a former employer). It’s a big problem. We don’t think twice about it because, hey… ya know, a doctor told me to take these so it’s okay right? Getting prescribed something from a doctor certainly makes it more acceptable, but not necessarily more safe. As the BBC video and accompanying article explain:
“Prescription drug abuse is the fastest growing drug abuse in the USA with more overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.”
- Currently going through a huge Buck 65 kick. This song is awesome:
- Updates on Ridley Scott’s upcoming projects. Including a sequel to Blade Runner (or… “spin-off”), a Prometheus sequel, and some sort of thriller with a script written by Cormac McCarthy. I’m so glad he got all that epic, historical war shit out of his system.
- I had this thought today that I would watch a movie while writing and doing other things on my computer… then I picked The Tree of Life and now I can’t look away. It almost reminds me more of an Iñárritu movie than a Terence Malick one. The imagery, the narrative nature, even the loud/quiet/loud sound dynamics. It’s beautiful to look at, if anything. And this isn’t a review, cause I’m in the middle of the damn thing. The shots of the Universe and volcanoes erupting and cellular structure are really fucking cool; reminds me a bit of 2001. Also, some of the most realistic portrayals of dinosaurs ever on film.
- Did George Lucas honestly say that Empire Strikes Back is the worst Star Wars flick?? Wow. Now, the context might point in the direction of a joke. So it should be taken with a grain of salt. Or it could be one of those things where somebody makes a joke to cover up the fact that it’s actually a sore subject. Either way, it’s far and away the best Star Wars movie and Lucas didn’t direct it. Thought this was a cool Hitchcockian type poster for Empire, found it on DeviantArt:
- Cody Walker at Sequart.org has some brilliant comics articles (as do other writers at the site). A lot of them are particularly of interest for me, being a massive fan of Grant Morrison’s years-spanning Batman epic. Walker has three part articles on the passive aggressive (eventually turning plain old aggressive) feud between Joker and Dr. Hurt. That series is very interesting to read because he delves into the history of Morrison’s writing of the Joker, including the deconstruction of his personality way back in 1989′s Arkham Asylum (Dave Mckean’s art still messes with my brain every time I open that book). He also writes extensively about the transformation of Bruce Wayne’s son Damien, from his initial appearance in “Batman & Son” to his heroic turn in GM’s Batman & Robin. His character arc was plotted wonderfully: Morrison deliberately wanted him to be hated when he first appeared, the wrote him more and more likeable as the issues and years passed by.
- List of foreign films to see according to Martin Scorsese, a pretty solid authority on films to see I’d say. A few surprises, many expected. I’ve seen a number of these but would like to see more.
The first film is Metropolis, one of the best science fiction movies of all-time. If you haven’t seen it, I’d suggest getting a copy shipped to you courtesy of a rental service. It’s amazing, especially for 1927. A remake is in the works. Anyways, here’s a cool re-imagining of the original movie poster from Deviant Art (original link):
- And speaking of awesome science fiction flicks, Ridley Scott will apparently be doing a sequel/prequel to Blade Runner, which I saw bits and pieces of yesterday at work. I’m certainly all for exploring the dystopian Los Angeles depicted in the first film. The city is somehow ugly and scary and beautiful and appealing all at the same time.
- Last night this guy from upper-peninsula Michigan asked me the age old question “so what’s your favorite band?” over the story-telling of Craig Finn and Boys and Girls In America. [Side Note: After my answer he asked me if I like Tool, Godsmack, and Ozzy. In that order. Just to give an idea of what kind of guy we're talking about here.] My answer was, “that’s an impossible question… rock band??”. I haven’t had a favorite band for years. In terms of rock bands, I thought for a long time it was Pearl Jam. But I don’t even think that’s true anymore. I guess what I’m getting at is that if you’re truly a fan of music — all music, regardless of popularity or genre or anything else — it’s pretty much an impossible question to answer. You wouldn’t ask a lover of food, and I mean a “connoisseur”, what her favorite food is. It wouldn’t be right. She’d likely be able to name her favorite types of food, what she looks for in food (or certain foods), but for to just outright name her favorite food on the spot?? I dunno about that.
- I’ve been told by a couple people now that I should make a sequel of sorts to MM vs. BIG. And I think I might. But I want to make one of my EP’s before doing another remix album. I’m thinking a sample heavy, turntablism based EP dipping into everything from the Platters to Earth, Wind, and Fire. A lot of times these things sound better on paper than in reality…
It’s really hard to tell if Bret Easton Ellis is brilliant, or is running out of ideas. Perhaps both? His last novel — 2005′s Lunar Park — was more like an alternate reality auto-biography than it was an original piece of fiction. The book delves through the career of Ellis himself, as he’s the main character, in an over-the-top, satirical way, but nonetheless fairly accurate to reality. At least in the early years. It quickly morphs into a life that is mostly made up, but very well could have been Bret Easton Ellis’ life had he made some different decisions. As he advances to middle age, his fictional bibliography begins to intertwine with his actual life. It’s a really odd book, and I should probably read it again before giving a formal opinion. Well, Ellis is at it again with another pseudo-real riff on his past work with his new novel, Imperial Bedrooms. Imperial Bedrooms is a sort-of years later sequel to his first ever novel Less Than Zero. The characters of Less Than Zero are examined as they approach middle-age in Imperial Bedrooms. Last year, he revealed the first line would be, “They had made a movie about us”. An apparent reference to the movie version of Less Than Zero which released a mere 2 years after the novel did. So Ellis is once again playing with the fiction/reality/alternate-reality subtexts of Lunar Park. Genius, or running out of ideas?
Over at Empire Onlinethe movie mag’s site (the newest issue of the magazine itself features an iron clad Robert Downy Jr. from Iron Man 2on the cover; not that I’m a fanboy or anything, the only interesting aspect of Iron Manis that it’s title character is an alcoholic) features a whole slew of movie poster mash-ups. Everything from Hip-Hop to Board Games to Bible mash-ups with famous movie posters. It’s excellent to browse through while killing time in a cubicle. These entries come from the movie poster/Sesame Street mashups. Enjoy!
A lot of gamers thought 2008 was THE year for the PS3. Sony released everything from Metal Gear 4, Resistance 2, Fallout 3, to Little Big Planet last year. They got murdered in shipped units however; not by Microsoft, but by the Wii, which is another can of worms for another day (if ever). I discovered a few WordPress Gamer pages this morning which are discussing the big, BIG titles being released for the PS3 in 2009. One of which, cited these games as examples (I’m not going to link anyone to this site however, because these assholes have the balls to ask people for “donations”. That’s right, they want your fucking money so they can tell you about video-games):
God of War III. Of course this game’s getting all the attention. It’s on the verge of becoming the FRANCHISE exclusive for the Playstation brand. No doubt it will kick a whole lot of ass. Many people stake the “God of War II= the best PS2 game ever” claim still; I disagree. The first was better. We’ll see if III can live up to 1. Typically “no”: Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Prince of Persia, even the Nolan Bat-Films (I’m guessing obviously).
Killzone 2. I’d give this more of a “meh”. The first Killzone was cool, I’m not gonna lie. But as far as MMO-Shooters go in 2009, I’d be more on the lookout for a game like MAG, which promises to be one of the grandest undertakings in online gaming history. 50 bucks says they fuck up the programming and interface though. They’ll still release it, then a patch, then an upgrade, then they’ll charge us for new maps.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The original Uncharted game delivered a punch to the gut of anyone who doubted the PS3′s sheer power compared to the 360. For a launch title, that game was one of the best there was at pushing a brand new, uncharted, beta, system to its very limits. Not to mention the game had a super sweet story and overall ambiance which flipped it from the “Industrial Light & Magic digital effects fest” side to the “holy shit these guys take game making very seriously” side.
Gran Turismo 5. What else could possibly be said about the Gran Turismo brand. This is the top of the line, the bar, for all realistic driving games out there. Me personally, I’d chose Wipe-Out before this in a heartbeat. I don’t like having to get my permits and license all over again in a virtual world. However, I’ve played lots of Gran Turismo in the past and will in the future. This will be perhaps the most realistic looking game ever when it’s released.
All these titles have three things in common: they’re all sequels of some sort, they all slip into the “been done before” file, and none of them really seem to be taking any chances. Now, this unnamed WordPress Page DID include a 5th “most anticipated 2009″ PS3 game in its list; one that surpasses all four of these titles in imagination, ambiance (which oddly reminds me of the German film “M”), risk-taking, story, and originality. The game is called HEAVY RAIN. It’s made by a French studio called Quantic Dream. This will be QD’s 3rd title after Omnikron: The Nomad Soul and Farenhiet. Little is known about the game, but creator David Cage has been quoted as saying “[it] will be a very dark film noir thriller with mature themes”. One very interesting little tidbit to the game is that it will supposedly feature NO super-natural elements at all. Themes, places, people, nothing. This is very interesting considering the game’s trailer. OK- wow, just read that the game’s trailer, below, is NOT a part of the game and is only a demo to provide a preview into the game’s content, visuals, and gameplay. Here are some Heavy Rain links:
Developers still are trying to produce the one game that breaks the barrier between just playing a story and actually experiencing it. Later this year, Sony plans to release “Heavy Rain” for the PlayStation 3, a murder mystery that touts detailed facial animation for characters. Also eagerly anticipated by gamers is “Alan Wake” (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360), an adventure game about a man who visits a new town that some are comparing to the TV series “Twin Peaks,” in the way that series created a mysterious place. “It’s just going to evolve. It’s getting better,” Dille said.
And here’s the 2008 E3 Trailer for Heavy Rain I referred to:
