July 27, 2005
New photos of kids from 1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
New photos of kids from 1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: Here's a link to a Willy Wonka fansite (the old-school version) with scans of Poloaroids taken of the five kids from the 1971 flick, all grown up. Augustus is just creepy. Link to larger image here
(Via Boing Boing.)
Posted by jetrotz at 04:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 23, 2005
Wookie Hooky
Meant to blog this last week - but Sam gets in the way of that sort of thing. Anyway, I got a pass from Amy to head out with some fellow geeks from work to catch the midnight showing of the Star Wars prequel, Revenge of the Sith. I've posted a bunch of photos on the moblog I shot of my fellow geeks that night, so check those out. Sounds like I added to what was really a phenomenal opening - surpassing Spiderman for opening weekend ticket sales. NPR this morning had a tidbit estimating that the sum loss of productivity from the 'Wookie Hooky' - people calling in sick on Thursday or Friday - at something approaching $600 million. Maybe Mr. Greenspan will be giving Mr. Lucas a call and asking for some help there...
Posted by jetrotz at 08:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 02, 2005
Wallace & Gromit
Two of my favorite animated characters will soon be featured in their very own full-length film, Curse of the Wererabbit. Their official site reports a release this Autumn, and explains that the film has been in development for four years and will take over 18 months to shoot. A crew of over 200 people are involved in the production covering every aspect of the film making process, from the modelmakers and animators, set dressers and art directors to story artists, directors of photgraphy and editors. This is very funny stuff. Take a look at this video showing behind-the-scenes production. It's amazing how painstaking claymation remains with current technology. And visit the BBC to see another hilarious short - Wallace's take on Soccer, 'Soccomatic'.
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February 16, 2005
More than a Tease...
The first trailer for the upcoming Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy film was posted on the front page of Amazon.com today. Do not stop, do not pass go, etc., just get yourself over to there and watch it NOW. Warning: The video takes a about 60 seconds to load -- traffic issues? or just a slow Flash player?
Of extra note - I reported earlier that the release date for the movie was May 6, 2005 - but Amazon's info has moved this up one week to April 29.
I'm prepared to be hugely underwhelmed by this movie, some twenty years in the making. But I'm cautiously optimistic seeing this trailer, the first showing action from the film (the earlier trailer was just a CG tease). The trailer suggests a bit more of an 'Independence Day 2005' feel, and is perhaps less humorous in tone than I expected. But that's probably just marketing spin for this, an early Summer release. Amazon also has a selection of new screenshots from the film, and the new movie poster, pictured above.
Posted by jetrotz at 08:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 07, 2005
Rob Schneider has more Money than Sense
The way I look at it, you can either be an actor and aspire to do great work and probably starve while doing it, or try to make a buck and grow a thick skin - the critics are going to (rightfully so) tell you how bad your crap is. Mr. Schneider responds to an LA Times column about how Deuce Bigalow 2 is an example of Hollywood not concentrating on quality film making in a full page ad in Variety. Expensive way to show you are more of a tool than we even imagined. Read on at Defamer.
Posted by jetrotz at 07:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 26, 2005
Asteroid Adams
MSNBC.com reports today that Asteroid Douglasadams was among the 71 newly named celestial objects announced Tuesday by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass. Mr. Adams is one of my favorite writers as I blogged about his long-awaited movie recently. Just before Adam's death in 2001, one of the HHGTTG characters - Arthur Dent - became the name of another asteroid. Following the Columbia tradgedy, seven asteroids were named after the fallen astronauts. MSNBC.com solicited readers for future asteroid names. One reader suggested Adams, and upon further research, an asteroid known as 2001 DA42 was identified. How fitting - Douglas died in 2001, it already bore his initials, and the number 42 is, as all Guide fans are aware, the answer to live, the universe and everything.
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January 17, 2005
Hello, McFly
In what seems to be a Ken Russel film gone awry, Crispin Glover has a new 'art film' he's working on featuring some boobies, quite a few actors with Down Syndrome, snails, salt, blackface, swastikas and the eponymous Mr. Glover. Weird, weird, weird. Quicktime preview here (mildly NSFW).
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December 22, 2004
HHGTTG Reviewed!
Some lucky SOB saw an early screening of the long-awaited Hitchihikers Guide to the Galaxy movie and is reporting on it - although the movie isn't due to be released until May 6, 2005. Anyway, he teases us with a BBC video clip of a bit of the movie - the link is dead, site not found. Could be a slashdot effect, or the video was intentionally pulled. Whatever. He has a favorable review, although this bit about Zaphod's second head in his freaking nostril is wacky. But perhaps more sensible for purposes of video.
Read his review here.
See recently released artists renderings here.
Official renderings here.
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November 29, 2004
Marvin Prototype
Okay. So I'm a total geek. Fine. Get over it. Anyway, I found this clip showing a test of the Marvin the robot in the upcoming HHGTTG flick. Once you get over the fact that there's a little person in there, the body language says it all. I think they capture his despair quite well, don't you? You can just hear him droning on about how life is so terrible, etc., etc., etc......
Posted by jetrotz at 05:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 26, 2004
HHGTTG - The Movie - Finally
Opening May 6, 2005 - Let the countdown begin - but don't panic!
As one of the most original, laugh-out-loud while-thinking how-odd-the-universe-really-is type-of-books, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, has finally made it to the 'wrap' phase of production. Douglas Adams, taken from us at far too young an age, unfortunately died without knowing that his beloved novel would go on to become a motion picture after over ten years of heartbreak at the hands of the Hollywood machine. Head on over to the official movie site to see the teaser trailer. Or click on the image above to download some spiffy wallpaper.
Along with some of my other geeky high school friends, I found HHGTTG an amazingly refreshing piece of fiction ten year before that. Funny, thoughtful - and very *real* despite being sci-fi. I used a quote from Marvin the Paranoid Android in my senior year high school yearbook. 'Life! Don't talk to me about life....' Funny - that quote still holds water today.
My only hope is that the film doesn't suck - the directors, known as 'Hammer and Tongs' made up of director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith, have some interesting work in their past, but not much in the way of feature films. Jennings was an actor in Shaun of the Dead, and has directed quite a few music videos ranging from Blur to REM - so that's all promising. Arthur Dent seems to have been cast well - Martin Freeman from Love, Actually steps into Simon Jones role from the BBC Series. Mos Def play Ford Prefect - an interesting call there. Sam Rockwell plays Zaphod, and Zooey Deschanel (from Elf and The Good Girl) plays Trillian. Another alum from Love Actually, Bill Nighy, plays Slartibartfast. Here's to keeping your fingers crossed...
For more background on the trials and tribulations of getting this film made, read this note from Roger Birnbaum, the co-chairman of Spyglass Films who bought convinced Disney to buy the right to the book back in 1995.
Posted by jetrotz at 11:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 23, 2004
Watchmen Movie?
One of the best graphics novels ever, created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon back in the mid-80s, looks to finally be moving closer to becoming a movie. Slashot covers a Reuters report that Bourne Supremacy director Paul Greengrass is taking the helm after another director dropped out of the picture due to scheduling conflicts. I care for two reasons. The first is that this crime drama could make for an amazing, if somewhat geek-centric film. The other is that I bought this baby at a rock-bottom price on HSX.com, and hope it adds a few million more to my Hollywood Stock Exchange portfolio. For those of you who haven't seen this thing - it's rather like a fantasy stock market game for movie buffs. Buy low, sell high, short options - I've been playing this thing since 1998. I started with $2M of their 'Hollywood Bucks', and have a portfolio worth over $150M now. If that had only been real money...sob.
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