Oldboy; Back in 2003 South Korean Director Park Chan-wook released one of the more screwed up movies I’ve seen, and most of it was awesome. Well now, 10 years later it’s getting the old American Remake treatment from none other than the often controversial lightning rod Spike Lee. This time around Josh Brolin will be in the lead role, and from the looks of this first trailer, things are already a little different than I remember.
The Awesomes is a new comedic superhero cartoon from the brains of SNL‘s Seth Meyers and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’s Mike Shoemaker, that will be debuting on Hulu in August. There’ll also be a screening at Comic-Con, but for now interested parties can watch a trailer below:
As if Alan Moore’s work has not been butchered enough by the motion picture industry, it looks like Fox is going to have a go at one of Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s crowning works. Yes, they want to make a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen TV series. Now maybe I am been a bit harsh on the adaptations of Moore’s work. While Watchmen was pretty good (but not without its flaws) and V for Vendetta certainly had its moments, none of these films have ever come close to the raw emotion and amazement you get from reading the source material. Moore himself is very aware of this, having distanced himself quite publicly from every adaptation so far. Fox’s plans for the book are as follows:
[quote]“A drama series based on Alan Moore’s critically and commercially successful graphic novel series about a group of Victorian-age literary characters, including Captain Nemo, the Invisible Man, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, who team up to fight a common enemy.”[/quote]
Not really much to go on at this stage, but what Fox really needs to do is take a good hard look at the abomination that was The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie starring Sean Connery, and do the exact opposite from that. Turning Moore and O’Neill’s work into an action epic took away most of the wit and charm of the book and dumbed it down for a movie going audience that could have coped with its dark edge. If you take it as a below average popcorn movie it can be quite the enjoyable guilty pleasure, but when you remember what source material this film actually came from it takes all of the joy away from repeat viewings.
Fox already has a team in place with the show runner for Kings, Heroes, and The River; Michael Green taking on multiple roles as writer/executive producer/showrunner, and Erwin Stoff (The Matrix) producing (per Collider).
Could the books work as a TV series is the main thing we have to ask ourselves here? There is a wealth of material from the books, and numerous storylines branching out throughout history, so it could be good if Fox followed this template and had each season follow the various incarnations of the League as they live through the different decades. The television format has proved it can successfully adapt great stuff like Game of Thrones and TheWalking Dead, though less so on network television. If structured correctly though, I think there is potential here but that’s a big IF.
There are other comic book series out there more deserving of a TV show than The League, which has already had its time in the sun Fables for example could be a great book for TV expansion. For the sanity of Alan Moore fans everywhere I certainly hope it will be better than the movie was…
We have been following the sequel to Marc Webb’s Spider-man reboot pretty close for the last few months, as news and set pics keep revealing more and more about the film. A few months ago we were teased with a look at Jamie Foxx after his transformation to Electro, but aside from a few effects and makeup, there really wasn’t much to see. Entertainment Weekly has recently released a few covers for thier Comic-Con issue, and they offer our first good look at the costume of Electro and the make-up we saw earlier in full effect. Let’s take a look at the image after the jump:
Sometimes even when everything goes right, it still turns out wrong. Even though we were cautiously excited over NBC’s decision to renew Community for a fifth season, and were downright elated about the return of Dan Harmon, it appears as if it won’t be the same. Donald Glover, one half of the amazing show Troy and Abed in the Morning, will only be appearing in five episodes in the upcoming fifth season.
He says it is so he can focus on his music career as Childish Gambrino, which I understand and respect, but would one more year really make or break his chance at hip-hop success?
It seems more so that Glover might have made plans as if Community‘a cancellation was a sure thing and now he’s just decided to go through with them. As a fan of the show, a show that relies so heavily on its ensemble nature, this is disheartening. What makes Community work is the relationships between each of these characters that should not have much in common yet they end up being a type of family.
Now another one of the family members is leaving (along with Chevy Chase) and it just doesn’t sit right. Hopefully the writers are in a place in their preparation of the season that they can make Troy’s absence and departure happen organically. Otherwise not even the return of Dan Harmon will likely save the show and it will be canceled for good come next May.
Such a shame, we were so close to #sixseasonsandamovie
With July in full swing and The Last of Us behind us, Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA V) is arguably the most anticipated game for the remainder of this console generation. Developer Rockstar Games has been parcelling out information about the game in little chunks here and there, but today they released a whopping 5-minute gameplay trailer. This is the first time the new world of Los Santos has been expansively detailed and described for the player without pre-rendered cutscenes, and it looks gorgeous. Take a look:
Rather than leave the focal points and important features of GTA V up to the player to find and dissect as Rockstar is wont to do, this trailer is concisely narrated to make sure you’re noticing exactly how huge this game is going to be. No bombastic Stevie Wonder lead-ins or goofy asides here, they have five minutes to show you the largest world map the team has ever created. Eyes front and center kiddies, there’s a lot of content to introduce.
Just a few of the activities you’ll be able to enjoy include scuba diving, skydiving, shopping, yoga, golf, stock trading, hunting, bounty hunting, tennis and bike racing, but those are relatively simple distractions to enjoy amidst all the crime-sprees, missions and major heists that comprise the bulk of Grand Theft Auto V’s campaign. GTA V will also allow for a huge amount of customization for each of your players: cars, clothes, tattoos, guns and maybe more can be tailored to your personal liking.
The trailer finally shows us exactly how switching between the three main characters will work, and at least within the trailer, it looks extremely fluid and seamless. I wonder if it will play as organically when I’m shooting out the passenger window of my Escalade and realize my other me is about to drive headlong into a building, but there’s no way to know just how well it works until the game’s released.
Jumping from character to character looks fun and flashy outside of missions too, but again, I’m curious to see how it works with real player spontaneity. Each of the examples in the trailer shows characters midway through some interesting activity (Michael ending a bike ride with his son and Trevor in a chaotic car chase with the cops); will I always catch my partners in some kind of crazy situation or will I find Trevor asleep on the couch from time to time? Also I’m curious to know if that switch to satellite view, which admittedly looks cool in the video, will become tedious after 10-15 hours of playing the game.
Finally, the trailer boasts that all the mechanics, from shooting to driving, have been fine-tuned to be more responsive. I’m all for that. Despite all of GTA‘s untouchable achievements, for a game all about crime and underworld shenanigans, combat has always been a messy affair. The gunplay shown in this trailer looks far more immediate than GTA IV, though again, there’s no way to know without playing the game ourselves.
Only Rockstar can set the internet ablaze with a video (Okay, maybe Deep Silver did it once), and they seem to outdo themselves with every one they release. This reintroduction to Los Santos just makes the wait for September 17th that much more unbearable.
What do you think of the released gameplay footage? Has it amped up your excitement or cooled you off a bit? Sound off in the comments section below!
Grizzly Bomb 