Veidt.com

So Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, the directors of Crank and Crank 2: High Voltage, boon board as directors. The duo, who also wrote the script, backed out of the film over creative differences in November.

Now comes word that Jimmy Hayward, the director of Horton Hears a Who, will be replacing them, and the supernatural-horror themes of the Neveldine/Taylor adaptation will be jettisoned in favor of a more straightforward and traditional western.

I am glad, because a.) i never really cared for Jonah Hex, b.) now I never have to see it, and c.) this means Neveldine/Taylor may shoot a comic book movie based on something I actually care about, instead. Like The Umbrella Academy. Win-win-win-win.

January 6th, 2009
Categories: The Umbrella Academy, Jonah Hex, Crank 2 . Author: Sherry . Comments: No Comments

I wasn’t even going to do one of these, but I’ve seen so many lists that don’t have what is obviously the most towering achievement in television in 2008 in it’s proper position (as #1…or at least in the top 3.) Worse, I’ve seen lists from people I know are intelligent, that don’t even have the show on their list. Such are the things that shake my faith in the universe.

Anyway, it was a banner year for televised entertainment (in terms of content, anyway), making it difficult to narrow down the 10 best.  New series True Blood and Sons of Anarchy were both excellent, and just missed the cut.
10. Dirty, Sexy Money - Gone, but not forgotten. The addition of Lucy Liu got me watching, and this was an ambitious, entertaining soap opera.

  9. Battlestar Galactica - hoping against hope that the upcoming final season’s reveal of the last Cylon won’t be something lame…

  8. The Drinky Crow Show

Darkly funny, and the most beautifully animated show on Adult Swim, The Drinky Crow Show made light of everything from suicide to the objectification of fangirls.

  7. Dexter

Dexter season 3 may have slid further away from the brilliance of the shows amazing first season, and I hate the corner they’ve painted themselves into with Dexter’s wedding, but Jimmy Smits as Assistant District Attorney Miguel Prado, with a dark passenger of his own, provided some series highlights as Dexter’s first, real (at least for awhile) friend.

  6. Torchwood  - it’s a testament to the strength of the characters, and the actors portraying them, that the show could overcome some incredibly dodgy writing in the finale.

  5. Doctor Who - I’m going to be very sad if we never see River Song again.

  4.  Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Season 3 highlights include Quall, a fake bio-pic of James Quall, the beautifully odd tan-man, and “Jim and Derrick“, a mericiless mockery of G4/Spike original programming. Tim and Eric season 4, presumably the final season of the show, starts airing on Adult Swim February 8, 2009.

  3.  The Wire

I got into this late, but it actually is as good as everyone says. The final season featured a storyline that the Dexter writers ought to feel miserable for not thinking of first.

  2.  Xavier: Renegade Angel

Xavier isn’t just the most intellectually and philosophically deep show on teevee, cramming more ideas into  a 12 minute episode than most series touch in a season…it may also be the most darkly funny, borderline nihilistic, program ever aired. At times, it actually does push beyond the boundaries of PFFR’s other pitch black, brilliant comedy series; the late, great WonderShowzen.

The second season of Xavier: Renegade Angel, consisting of ten new episodes, starts February 12, 2009.

  1. The Starter Wife   The Shield

The final act in the series of the decade chronicled the karmic bill coming due for Vic Mackey, the darkest and most complex character on teevee. While nowhere as oblique as The Sopranos finale, the series last moments still managed to be interpreted in many different ways.
Shows to Watch For: Damages was the best new series of 2007, and it returns for its second season on FX, complete with Ted Danson. Also, Showtime is developing their new series based on Perry Moore’s Hero, about a gay teenage superhero.

January 5th, 2009
Categories: Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Battlestar Galactica, The Shield, Doctor Who, Dexter . Author: Sherry . Comments: No Comments

Oh my God, it’s Chev Chelios!

How do you follow up Crank, perhaps the most beautifully absurdist, supra-kinetic, 4th wall-phasing action film ever? Shoot the sequel on a $3000 Canon XH-A1 handheld, adopting the aesthetic of skate videos and porn, and the gun up the bum mis en scene of Baise-Moi, I guess. This looks like the most expensive Troma film never made, and I love it!

Crank 2: High Voltage will be hitting theaters April 19, 2009.

December 31st, 2008
Categories: Crank 2 . Author: Sherry . Comments: 1 Comment

I’d heard this was running in some theaters, but hadn’t seen it online, until now. This is the “Zack Snyder talks directly to the civilians in the audience, and tries to explain the movie in a non-threatening way” extended version of the Watchmen trailer, and it does include some drool-inducing new visuals and music from the Dust Brothers’ Fight Club soundtrack.

Kind of ironic that the video shows up hosted by Fox-owned Myspace.
Watchmen Exclusive

Doctor Manhattan shaking hands with JFK

Jon and Laurie teleporting into Veidt’s stronghold in Karnak, after something happens in New York.

If this is what many of us suspect, then Snyder has taken a brilliant little throwaway joke from The Comedian, and literally translated it, onscreen. I don’t know if actually seeing Blake on the grassy knoll will enhance the story, but will reserve judgement on that.

In this shot, Karnak looks suspiciously like the museum set, from the opening of Batman & Robin.

…but Veidt still looks amazing.

Nite Owl in Karnak, not looking happy.

…and talking to the Comedian, trying to figure out where it all went wrong.

December 31st, 2008
Categories: Watchmen . Author: Sherry . Comments: No Comments

This is an excellent video that goes behind the scenes of Doctor Who, including a look at the TARDIS set, the production of this year’s Christmas special, The Next Doctor, and interviews with David Morrissey and David Tennant.

So how long until Character announces a 2 or 3 foot tall Cyber King action figure/playset, in all its steampunk glory?

Production on the first of four 2009 Doctor Who tv movies will begin in the next two weeks. Expect many (probably spoiler-laden) set spy pics to leak online starting mid-January. The first, Planet of the Dead, is scheduled to air Easter 2009, and is heavily speculated/rumored to deal with Gallifrey, and its potential return.

December 30th, 2008
Categories: Doctor Who . Author: Sherry . Comments: No Comments

You know what depresses me…the certainty that there will never be a Wonder Woman film that lives up to the suggestive promise and potential exuded by this DC Direct maquette. I’m not usually a fan of statues, but I’ll be buying that one…$90 and due out March 25th, to sort-of coincide with the release of Warner home video’s direct-t0-dvd Wonder Woman animated movie; out March 3. 3 days before Watchmen.

Yeah, I never wanted to see another re-dubbed Superfriends video, either…but dammit, they used The Way of the Gun.

…and this is why i can’t believe a Wonder Woman movie can’t get a green light. Cast Megan Fox or keep George Miller’s brilliant pick, Megan Gale, sew her into Lynda Carter’s old costume, and have her bounce around for 90 minutes fighting a spotlight with a red gel. Guaranteed to gross Marley and Me $ in its opening weekend, be more loved than Iron Man, and sell enough blu-ray to save Circuit City.

December 30th, 2008
Categories: wonder woman . Author: Sherry . Comments: No Comments

I don’t know how I missed it, but Adrian Veidt made the Forbes Fictional 15 earlier this month. The annual list counts down the 15 richest fictional characters, and Veidt made the list for the first time!

Net Worth: $5.4 billion
Source: Marketing
Age: 47
Marital Status: Single
Hometown: New York, N.Y.
Education: Self-Educated

Industrialist known as “the smartest man on the planet” inherited sizable fortune at age 17, gave it all to charity. Became costumed crime fighter “Ozymandias” in effort to make world a better place; indulge purple spandex fetish. Retired, made a fortune marketing own heroic image. Ozymandias action figures, novelty underwear, feminine hygiene products all hot sellers. Also genius behind numerous “As Seen On TV” products including “Snuggie” blanket with sleeves, ultra-absorbent “ShamWow” towels. Former hero now reportedly holed up in Antarctic base indulging obsession with octopus, writing seafood cookbook. New member.

I can’t express how floored I am that there’s a Watchmen octopus joke in Forbes. Veidt’s net worth is estimated at $5.4 billion, coming in just behind Bruce Wayne (clearly someone at Forbes reads comics, in Wayne’s bio they reference his son and the Black Glove from Morrison’s Batman R.I.P. arc!)

Read the full list, and do also check its sister list of the 25 largest fictional companies, at Forbes.com.

December 27th, 2008
Categories: Watchmen . Author: Sherry . Comments: No Comments

I can be prone to hyperbole (which is an understatement.) I also have a tendency to love stuff virtually nobody else does. When so many, both online and irl (even one or two Lionsgate employees, with vested interests in saying otherwise) heaped so much scorn on The Spirit, I felt pretty insecure about thoroughly and intensely digging it at a screening. Insecure to the point of needing to see it again, as a check against temporary goofiness.

Having seen it twice now, I know I could sit through it another half-dozen times while it’s in theaters. The Spirit is wonderfully strange, intensely weird, and everything I go to movies for. Maybe if I knew anything about the characters prior to watching this, I might understand all the butthurt and bile simmering over this at aint-it-cool…but I think some of that has to do with the Miller backlash that’s been building since Dark Knight Strikes Back, culminating in the rampant hate-fest for his ongoing All-Star Batman and Robin. To paraphrase Harvey Dent, “You either die a genius, or you live long enough to see yourself called a tired hack.”

My admiration for everyone involved with this mutant little masterwork has increased exponentially. I never liked Scarlett Johansson, but she won me over here…and the next time a friend goes off on a geek rant slagging off on Samuel L., they’re getting a dented head. Between Unbreakable and this, he gets a lifetime pass.

The Spirit is insanely dope, and my second favorite comic movie of the year, but clearly I’m in the minority.

December 26th, 2008
Categories: The Spirit . Author: Sherry . Comments: 2 Comments

Here’s today’s 2008 Doctor Who Christmas special, The Next Doctor.

Part 1

Find the rest after the jump, and yeah, it is excellent. Possibly the best of the Christmas episodes, though they all have spectacular moments.

Read more…

December 26th, 2008
Categories: Doctor Who . Author: Sherry . Comments: 2 Comments

After having seen it a couple days ago, I’ve kept my mouth shut about The Spirit. I know there’s something of a contest in progress to determine who can most artfully declare that it sucks, or win at hating it the most. Does it? I don’t know. It’s definitely very different, and like most things wholly alien, unusual, and unique, it’s destined to anger those who embrace and affirm the status quo.

I’m not defending the movie…yet. I really need to see it again. I do know that Frank Miller is a genius, far smarter than I, and sprinting to dismiss something so strange is a great way to (potentially) look like a chump to the future.

Another thing I know is that the film’s marketing campaign was kind of awkward and embarrassing, and this is borne out by the film’s performance this weekend (current projections are for a gross in the low-teens, across the long Christmas weekend.) Not helping matters are the 3 supra-exaggeratedly positive pull quotes featured in current teevee spots (ie “One of the best films of the year!”, “Full of jaw-dropping moments.”) All of these happen to come from one 4 star review, posted on moviepicturefilm.com, a site that’s posted only 6 reviews this year (all positive.) The reviewer, Scott Hoffman, also gave 4 star reviews to The Dark Knight and Southland Tales; if he’s a plant, at least he’s got good taste.

And with that, here’s Attack of the Show’s excellent (if wholly unneccessary) parody of The Spirit.

December 25th, 2008
Categories: The Spirit . Author: Sherry . Comments: No Comments