Partly as research for my novel, and partly just because I like them, I've been reading tons of fairy tales and folk tales lately. So I was kind of excited to see that a big-screen, Hollywood adaptation of Jack the Giant Slayer was in the works. But I should have figured that in the process of creating such a thing, they would have added all the typical big-screen, Hollywood trappings to the story. Corny catch-phrases, lame love story, overwhelmingly huge action set pieces, bombastic rhyming prophecies, tons of special effects. Oy. This trailer is just gross.
I never got into Lemony Snicket, but I've heard great things, and we do have a book we really like written and illustrated by Jon Klassen, so I'm curious about this book that the two of them are collaborating on, The Dark.
I usually avoid reposting Blastr's top ten lists, because that's all they ever post and it's kind of sad (although I don't have much room to talk...), but this one is rather fun: fake TV shows inside of real TV shows. Itchy & Scratchy is a classic, of course, and All My Circuits is always hilarious.
Exhumed Films is doing their 24-hour Horror-thon at the iHouse again this year. Maybe someday when the kid is old enough I'll go to this with him. Assuming it's still happening then, and the kid likes horror movies, and doesn't mind being seen with me, and I'm still capable of sitting in a movie theater chair for that long without permanently injuring myself.
This trailer for the upcoming animated series Tron: Uprising features lots of cool concept art, an exciting video clip, and bits of the Tron: Legacy soundtrack in the background - a soundtrack which, I may have already mentioned here, I am obsessed with to the point of mania.
The new Ultimate Spider-Man is half-black and half-Hispanic. For some people, this poses a problem. Those people are wrong.
John "Walter Bishop" Noble is hosting a new show for the Science Channel investigating true stories of fringe science. It's called Dark Matters.
Joe Quesada's Twitter feed isn't always all that interesting, but the other day he went through his process for creating a piece of art for the 50th anniversary of the Fantastic Four, and it was really cool. Plus, the piece came out great. Luckily, Comics Alliance collected the entire sequence of tweets.
UPDATE:
I'm certain at least one of you out there wants a desktop wallpaper version of the gender-swapped Justice League illustration, so here you go. (Via)
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
NASA is auctioning off a huge number of items on January 13th. Check out a preview here. Up for sale are the flight plan that went to the moon, a lunar meteorite, and Buzz Aldrin's 8th grade report card. (Via)
The guy who made the Tin Man and Alice miniseries for Syfy is making a four-hour Peter Pan prequel called Neverland - you can watch a behind-the-scenes teaser video here. The filmmaker tells us it will reveal what Neverland is, and where Peter Pan and the Lost Boys came from. Which are things I think we're better off not knowing, actually, but... okay. Interestingly, Bob Hoskins will reprise the role of Smee, which he first played in 1991's Hook.
Wow, Fringe has got a crazy awesome promotional dealie going on. In the next episode, Walter is going to meet his musical idol, the keyboardist for a '70s band called Violet Sedan Chair. The crazy bit is, the show's producers actually created a vinyl album by Violet Sedan Chair called Seven Suns and shipped copies to record stores around the country. Each copy is unique and contains clues and spoilers about the show hidden in the lyrics and liner notes. Awesome.
I've already posted about the rumor that Orlando Bloom might return as Legolas in The Hobbit, and how I think that could work. But now there's a rumor going about that Elijah Wood might reprise his role as Frodo, and that makes less sense, seeing as how his character wasn't born yet during the events of The Hobbit. I guess they could use him in some kind of frame story, but that seems rather lame and unnecessary.
Morgan Freeman is still trying to get a David Fincher-directed film adaptation of Rendezvous with Rama made, and he thinks he's pretty close now. Well, we'll see. I remember reading that that was about to come out in Entertainment Weekly, back in the '90s when I did stuff like read Entertainment Weekly.
According to a survey, these are the top 10 songs most likely to make a man cry. It's a pretty strong set of selections, but clearly the list is flawed, as it is missing the song most likely to make me cry: "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus.
A preview/first episode for that web series I mentioned last week, Previously on Point Dume, is now free to watch on Funny or Die. It's odd, silly, and intriguing. (Via)
Chris Evans has supposedly been offered the role of Captain America, and I can't imagine him saying no, so I guess that's that. I can't say I'm very happy with the choice. Evans always plays a smart mouth and a hotshot, and that's not what Captain America is. But we'll see; maybe he has more range than I'm giving him credit for.
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
Another great entry on Covered: Aaron Renier turns the cover of an issue of the Ewoks comic book into something more realistic, and culturally appropriate.
Interesting details from M. Night Shyamalan about his live-action film adaptation of The Last Airbender. Huge bummer: King Bumi will not appear in the film. Kind of understandable, but still disappointing. I'm glad the guy's dedicated to doing multiple films, and that he seems to understand the nature and importance of the relationship between Aang and Appa. Also, looks like Shyamalan himself will appear in a later entry in the series as "a stinky cameo his family picked out for him." Hmm... Finally, this article mentions the question of whether the cabbage guy will appear in the movie, but doesn't reveal the answer! Tease!!
About
Welcome to the blog of Jim Genzano, writer, web developer, husband, father, and enjoyer of things like the internet, movies, music, games, and books.
by Fëanor
