B Movie Celebration is happening in Franklin, Indiana September 26th through the 28th. Tickets are $102 with the online service fee but as long as that covers the admission fee to the 50 or so movies that they're screening and as long as they're showing them on an honest to God cinema big screen, I'd go for it if I was closer to the place. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Night of the Living Dead (which I've never seen on the big screen even though I've seen it probably a hundred times), the George Pal War of the Worlds...crap, now I'm making myself want to go anyway. And hey, Din and Leigh? Plenty of movies with crab monsters and leeches. I'm just saying.
Amazingly, somebody thinks that Family Guy is funny enough to deal with a spinoff, and thus The Cleveland Show shows up next year. Apparently, the story is that Kevin Richardson, an African-American actor, is voicing the white redneck next door, while Mike Henry, the white actor, voices Cleveland, who is African-American. And that just on its own is funnier than the entirety of American Dad.
DC Comics and Warner Brothers are having a meeting to plan a meeting about another meeting regarding a meeting about why they suck at making hit movies based on their properties, when Marvel looks, so far at least, to have finally figured out how to do the shit correctly. There's not much to report, since WB is playing their cards close to the chest, except I wish I could be in a meeting where Grant Morrison tried to explain the fucked up mess that is the DCU to a bunch of executives. "Well, you see there's a Multiverse and...something something Gods...and something meta...and..." "Hey...weren't you attached to write Lawnmower Man 3 at one point?" (That bit's not a joke; he really was.)
Robert Downey Jr. is this close to being Guy Ritchie's Sherlock due out October 2009. Although it's interesting for one reason, worrisome for another. Interesting because technically, it's another comic book movie for Downey and yet another comic book being turned into a movie at all. The producer wrote a comic book (which the article lists as "forthcoming") and that's what the film is based on. Since so many people made hay about Downey playing Tony Stark, comic bookdom's most famous alcoholic, I can't wait to see the first interview that talks about Holmes' tendency to have fun with morphine. The worrisome bit is this: "The concept sees Holmes as more adventurous and less stuffy than previous screen incarnations and mines more obscure character traits." Obscure character traits? He's literature's greatest detective--what else do you need, Guy? Anyway, so is it Jason Statham for Watson then? (We ran down a bunch of different Sherlocks here.)
Why in the hell would you try to keep up with pop culture yourself? Outsource it to us. We're professionals.
Vertigo's Exterminators, from Simon Oliver and Tony Moore, is headed for Showtime. I admit I haven't read the book...should I?
Alfred Hitchcock is getting a boxed set that's worth checking out from MGM: the Premiere Collection. It's eight discs featuring Rebecca, Spellbound, Notorious, The Paradine Case, Sabotage, Young and Innocent, Lifeboat and The Lodger. They all feature new commentaries and "featurettes, screen tests, still galleries, vintage radio interviews, an AFI Tribute to Hitchcock and more." It sounds pretty sweet, although I'll reserve judgement to see how well the main three releases stack up to their out-of-print Criterion compatriots. SRP is $120, so hopefully the Amazon discount will be steep. Not available yet on Amazon, I'll keep you posted.
Rupert Grint, yes, Ron Weasley, is on board with Cherrybomb. It's, the article tells us, "a Belfast-set teen drama about two friends whose furious competition for a beautiful but manipulative girl has tragic consequences." Sounds like it could be an indie success--let's hope so, because I like all three of the main Harry Potter actors and I want them to succeed. In fact, it was Radcliffe I was the most concerned about and he's doing just fine with his post-Potter plans. So rock on. Although I will point out that, since they are all young, they qualify for the Nuts on the Road shitlist.
Amazon has a DVD sale for "Blockbuster and Indie" items. Find the sale here. The only title in there that I think is a must-own is Garden State for $8, but there's 71 of them, so browse away. Found via Dealhack.
Ancient Squid Media. I don't know anything about them other than I saw them in the latest Previews. And their choice of name is stellar. So I just wanted to share.
It looks like Marvel has finally wound down their zombie variant covers. And it's about time. Don't get me wrong: I dig zombies. And I dig Arthur Suydam. But when you start grasping at straws for what covers to parody, it's time to pack it in. So. I'm glad that's behind us.
Moon Knight #21 monkey variant
Ghost Rider #26 monkey variant.
Marvel Apes
Marvel Apes? Are you kidding? Since when did Jonathan Coulton become editor at Marvel? Anyway, how long before they have zombie monkey variants? Anyone placing bets?
Sometimes stuff happens. And you actually need to know about it. But you could do without 500 words on the subject. We're here to help.
Archaeologists have found a shopping centre in Britain that dates back to Roman times. This is in a field in Monmouthshire, South Wales. The archaeologists have so far found "coins, glass, ceramics, human and animal bones, lead patches used for repairing, and bits of mosaic" as well as evidence of an Orange Julius. Found via ArchaeBlog.
There's a new piece of artwork by Leonardo Da Vinci. Well, not new, but rather newly discovered--in a private Swiss collection. The portrait of a young woman, "...actually a mixed-media of white, red and black chalks with additions of watercolor, is executed on vellum and measures approximately 24X33 centimeters. This is the first known Da Vinci work executed on vellum, a factor that probably led experts to believe that it was painted by a 19th century German 'Nazarene' artist. Moreover, the portrait appears to have been somewhat painted over in the 19th century during a very sensitive restoration." The owner was overwhelmed. Considering they bought it originally for $20,000, I should say so. Especially considering they were told it was rubbish on an episode of Antiques Roadshow in 2005.
The Day The Earth Stood Still, the remake of which is now called The Day The Earth Was Apparently Devoured By Alien Tornadoes, has a trailer online today:
"If you die, the Earth survives." Oh come on. That's a bit much, isn't? The first Hulk movie wasn't that bad, Keanu. And hasn't she suffered enough for her role in it? Step off, man.
Update: You know, now that I look at this again--having traded out the embedded video for one that works, it's like Jerry Bruckheimer's Stranger in a Strange Land, isn't it? (more...)
The Berkeley Pit was thought to be so terribly toxic that nothing could live there. Fish died. Birds who just stopped by to ask directions died. Things that were already dead came back to life just to die again. But--! They found 160 species of extremophiles living in there. Which is exactly 14 more than in most male-only dorm rooms. Source.
Gillian Anderson's busy. She's snagged the rights to Gelhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life and she's going to produce and star in a biopic of Martha Gelhorn, a female war correspondent. My prayers are answered--can't find a role you like? Help produce the damn film. Well done.
Boston Legal's fourth season hits DVD on September 23rd from Fox. Looks like there will be one featurette included. But it does have the Shatner. And he's like a walking Criterion, isn't he?
Child's Play has turned 20. Je-sus, I'm old. The Chucky's 20th Birthday Edition is coming September 9th from MGM. Two commentaries plus "Select Scene Chucky Commentary" with I'm assuming Brad Dourif in character. That might be amusing.
This is where we take all the pop culture news of the day, strip out all the extraneous hoobah surrounding it, then shove it into a burrito and hand it to you. Eat it. It's delicious.
AVG's new ad campaign is Hugs for Hackers. Basically, the idea is that AVG will stop the hackers dead in their tracks, so they're going to be pretty bummed. And they'll need a hug. They even snagged and put up a site on hugsforhackers.org. No, I haven't linked to it because I went there and trust me, I've already told you the clever bit. We must all now smirk, nod, and keep moving.
Godfather's back. "The Coppola Restoration" is hitting DVD and Blu-Ray (no pre-order available yet) on September 23rd. From what I can tell from Paramount's press release, there's no new footage or anything, it's just that they restored it frame by frame over the course of a year, which is unlike that reel by reel restoration...I...guess. Regardless, the four-disc set we had previously is replaced by a five-disc set where the fifth disc is all new stuff, so it's the old set and then some. The Blu-Ray collection is four-disc but appears to just slam all the bonus bits onto a single disc. However, I'd like to point out that there never was a Godfather III. That is a vicious rumor and by me posting this I am in no way subscribing to the crackpot theory that the film ever existed.
Amazon's kicking off a new deal called the Friday Five, where you can get an entire album of DRM-free music on MP3 for $5. Not bad. This week, it's Miles Davis, Fleetwood Mac, Sublime, The Raconteurs and Sheryl Crow:
? I don't know about you, but some of these aren't bad, especially the Ultimate Edition of Dawn of the Dead (must-own, I'm serious about that--classic trailer here), which is the most expensive must-own on there. You can pair that and get Day of the Dead (Japanese trailer here) for free, Demons (previously mentioned and with trailers here) for free, or the Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn Book of the Dead edition for free. Anyway, regardless, lots of good titles on there. FYI.
