More Exciting Film News

This is the last thing we knew of John Rambo, but new information has come to light. It seems Rambo 5 has been greenlit (as reported in Variety), so we can hopefully expect more carnage on our screens soon. You can read it yourself, but basically it's said to deal with John trying to get a kidnapped girl back in a U.S.-Mexico border town. Colour me excited.





Also, Bad Boys 3 is getting a script written, though none of the principals are attached yet, so no point getting too excited yet, but maybe one day we'll get another Bad Boys film.

New Mamoru Oshii

I was just meant to be doing some job applications, but I've just wasted over an hour catching up on some blog readings, so I really need to stop so I can get these job things done, but I thought this was too cool to share.

Mamoru Oshii (Ghost In The Shell, Jin Roh) has got a new live-action film coming out* and I'm going to try imbed the trailer here. Cross your fingers.

Ok, that didn't work, so just click through to Twitch to watch it. Basic story is post-apocalyptic world, three lovely ;ladies with big guns fighting sand "whales" and probably other threats. Sounds good to me.

* In case you don't know, Oshii is famous as a director of Animae, so that's why there is the distinction of live-action.

Can Science Save Us From Zombies?

Probably won't be many posts this week, or maybe there will be, but if not, at least there is this one.

I came across an article that has some scientific model looking at zombie attacks. Short answer to the question, act fast to contain and kill 'em all as quick as you can. For full article, look here.

One More Movie That Is Not Expendable. No, Wait, It Is!

This is another movie I may have mentioned to some of you before, but it's definitely worth mentioning again, because there is some new casting news that has just come over the wire in the last couple of days that sparked me to write it up here (I would have done it yesterday, but I'd already decided to get that Goon movie news up already).

So, just to recap, Sylvester Stallone is putting another movie together which seems to be in the same line of over the top action as Rambo, but his time with a cast that is mind-blowing.

Jet Li.

Jason Staham.

Dolph Lundgren ("I will break you.")

Mickey Rourke.

And others like Eric Roberts, Steve Austin and Terry Crewes (who I don't know, but looks like a tough guy).

Arnold Schwarznegger was rumored to be playing a part as well.

Now, here's the latest news, Bruce Willis and Arnold Shcwarzenegger are going to be in The Expendables! It's crazy this cast. Granted, Arnold's role is going to be really small, and I don't think Bruce's is going to be much bigger, but SMC, what a cast, all in the same movie. It's too good to be true. I'll give a quick synopsis after this cool lookin' poster, but if you don't want to read that, you already know the good stuff.

Actually, I think the grey-tone poster up the top looks better, but they're both pretty cool.

So it sounds like the basic story is that there's some naughty South American government who aren't playing nice, so the "Powers That Be" form a group from their respective nations to go fix what needs fixing, all strictly hush-hush, and things go differently than planned, and stuff blows up, and if the title doesn't suggest it to you, I think maybe the guys are kind of left to hang by their governments, so they're not only fighting some dictatorship, but also maybe trying to get revenge on those who screwed them over. If you want to find out more, go look it up on Google, what am I, your mother?

Another Upcoming Movie To Keep An Eye Out For

Yesterday's post reminded me of another film I meant to mention to y'all. If you're not familiar with The Goon comic book, you should be. It's seven kinds of fun. And someone's making it into an animated film, David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club), I think. I just checked, he's producing, so don't know who's directing. Not sure I really care, just as long as they know what they're doing. Below is a still they've released of the film, and it looks pretty much like the comic, so I'm cautiously excited about this. It's hard when they translate beloved comics into film, something just gets lost in translation. I think Hellboy is a good example of that.

Movie I Can't Wait To See, But At Least Now I'll Get The Chance To

All the internet sites (AICN, Twitch, HitFlix to name the ones I've see it on) have all been a-twitter with the news release today that Kick-Ass has been picked up for distribution by Lionsgate. This probably means nothing to you, so let me fill you in a bit.

Kick-Ass is based on a comic co-created by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr, called, funnily enough, Kick-Ass. Mark Millar has been doing some of my favourite comic writing of late, and JRJR is one of my favourite comic artists, so get them both on one title, which seems to be aimed squarely at the Geekboy market with a story about about comic book geeks, violence, "superheroes", mafia and vigilantes, and it's a recipe for greatness.

So Matthew Vaughn (Stardust, Layer Cake) gets a hold of this, loves it, and decides to turn it into a film. But no studio would back it, so he decides then to independently produce it, and goes ahead and makes it anyway. So they've got this movie, but no distribution, but there's a lot of love for it in the Geek press, and they show some footage at ComicCon, and everyone loves it, so now there was a bidding war, and now Lionsgate has won it, and hopefully next year we'll get to see it on our screens.

One thing that worries me though is, in the articles I read, it only mentioned North American distribution, no international distribution, so hopefully that can be confirmed and we'll get to see all this glorious violence on the big screen here.

Below is a scan of a variant cover for issue 1 I bought, with nice pencils by Steve McNiven, another really good artist. Aren't you excited?

Youtibe Clip: Alive In Jobuurg

I went and saw District 9 last night, so in honour of that I thought I'd post a link to the short film that was the catalyst for it. I saw this some time ago, and know I sent the link to some people then, but it's nice to be able to share it with everyone here : Alive In Joberg. Sorry Clay, it's longer than 47 seconds, so I'll just put up a picture for you to look at.

My Moment Of Romance Shirt

So this is a screenprint I did the other night at Craft Club, when I should have been working on Zine stuff, but opportunity knocked, and I had this idea for a stencil I'd been wanting to do, which looked a lot like this.

And this was my lunch today.

Inglorious Basterds: Nation's Pride

Here you go Clay, this is what I was talking about the other day. I don't know if Inglorious Basterds is going to be better than District 9, but I thought you'd like to see this since you think it will be. Nation's Pride.

Interview With Michael Giacchino

The music, through the themes and their elaboration, should be like the engine of a story. If a film were a book, the music should be something that makes the pages turn.

The above is a quote from composer Michael Giacchino, a name I started noticing about a year ago, but seems to be popping up all the time. I think Speed Racer is the first time I noticed it, but I've seen it plenty of times since then, Star Trek and Land of the Lost just recently come to mind. After reading the interview, I also discovered he does the soundtrack for Lost. The interview maybe isn't all that interesting if you never really think about soundtracks, but I've put it up if you want to read it. Head over to Twitch.com.

The Walking Dead

Brad, check this out.

Apparently, "The Walking Dead" is being picked up to be turned into a TV series. This is going to be awesome (potentially). 'The Walking Dead" is a really good comic set in a world infested with zombies. Robert Kirkman, the creator talked about it like watching a zombie film, but then having it keep on going. What happens next? Well, this comic answers that. It just keeps on going, and life is not pretty. I buy the trades, and I've got up to Vol. 8 now. Not sure if Vol 9 has been released or not yet, anyway, you get the idea, it keeps on going. So TV is the perfect way to do this. For more info, check here.

Most Eagerly Anticipated

Link To Why Chicks Cry

I talked briefly about this the other day, when I put up the Public Service Announcement, but this is what I found first on this guys blog, and it made me laugh. So if you want a laugh too, check out Why Chicks Cry In Comics.

One Thing I'm Excited About...

This poster was released a few weeks ago now, but I just hadn't got round to putting it up here, but now I have. I'd like to say I can't wait for this film, but the truth is I probably can. Nightmare On Elm Street 4 was the first horror film I went and saw at the cinema, so I have a soft spot for Freddy Kreuger, and any new Nightmare film gets me excited, but we'll just have to see what the actual film is like before I start getting too worked up. Though Jackie Earle Haley should make a good Freddy.

If anyone's interested, here's an interview with some of the people behind the project.

Død Snø (Dead Snow)

Last night I got to see Dead Snow, a film from Norway. Or, more importantly, a Zombie film from Norway, and I just had to tell you, if you get the chance to see this film, do not pass it up. If you like Zombie films, that is. If you're not a fan of the chase and dismemberment that you get in a Zombie film, then go see something else. But this is a really good one. With Nazi Zombies. I could say more, I could probably rave about it, and maybe I will, but I just wanted say I saw it and loved it.

Bodyguards & Assassins

There's a trailer and promo reel for this new film up over at Twitch.com. Looks pretty good, I'll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for this one. I really miss the Chinatown cinemas. Now I have to wait for DVD.

Terry Gillam quote

More words, less pictures.

I was reading an interview with Terry Gillam, and came across this quote, which I think totally nailed the problem maybe with Public Enemies.

Because most of the things he's aiming to do... I'm not a great fan of "Public Enemies," because I think he's a fucking extraordinary film maker, but personally I didn't think Johnny had enough room to act. The one scene that was good was where he's in prison, in jail, and Chris is outside. That was the only time I really thought, "Okay, now you've got some room here to do something." And that's what bothered me about it. It didn't allow him enough moments like that. It was just push, push, push. Put that fedora on. Wear the clothing. Because he can be fantastic and I like it when he plays it down, I agree. I just thought there was too much of it where he just was there, but he didn't have the moments to allow him to do just a little bit more. [laughs] He's making so much money.

For full interview go to Part One and Part Two.

Gatchaman Poster

Less words, more pictures.

Picture taken from Felix Ip blog.

For All The Conspiracy Nuts Who Think The Moon Landing Was Faked; You're Right!

I never believed the theories that the moon-landing was faked. I thought mankind was arrogant enough to do it. But I guess I was wrong. If you're not prepared to have your world rocked, don't follow the link below. If, on the other hand, you're ready to have your mind blown click here.

I don't want to build it up too much if you read this before following the above link, it's just something I thought was mildly amusing.

For more Fantastic Mr. Fox, follow the link over to an article at USA Today.

When Public Service Announcements Get Left Behind

I came across this on on someone else blog when I followed a link about why girls cry in comics. That was highly amusing, and if I haven't linked to it here, I will in the future. But this was just something that couldn't wait any longer. It's one of those things where it's funny because it is so wrong and misguided, even if it was from over 50 years ago. Click on picture I think for larger view.

On closer viewing, you can see it has been altered. But I was suckered in and thought it was the real deal, until I realised he was saying "assface", which would never fly in a comic from the '50's. Still funny, but maybe not as much now.