Kickstart This: Black Asylum

Kickstarter is an awesome opportunity to have the ability to invest in projects that you  or me want to see happen. The talented and awesome Robert Rusler is looking for support with his new venture  – Black Asylum.  Black Asylum is a horror film for the fans and by the fans.  I think the reason why I am trying to help Robert is his earnest devotion to wanting to make a good horror film.  As evidenced by the teaser, this looks like a very promising project with lots of interesting and excellent casting choices and some great backdrops for the story. Check out Robert’s pitch and see the exciting teaser that I think will make you want to see this film be made.

Robert and Jay’s  Pitch

Teaser

 

Black Asylum Cast

• William Sanderson
• Marshell Bell
• Esai Morales
• David Arquette
• Johnny Messner
• James Duvall
• Jason Lodnon
• Keith David
• Arye Gross
• Scott Caan
• Tom Towles

Black Asylum Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/blackasylumcult?ref=stream

Black Asylum Kickstarter

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/387020587/black-asylum

Again, I hope you will consider making Black Asylum a reality! Please spread the word!

Giant God Warrior Appears In Tokyo

Reprinted from Twitchfilm.com:

It was all the way back in May of 2012 when word of an upcoming Japanese tokusatsu film titled Giant God Warrior Appears In Tokyo (Kyōshinhei Tokyo ni Arawaru) was met with great anticipation. And for good reason. Sure, it’s another kaiju film with a giant monster destroying Tokyo coming from a country that has already produced lots and lots of those. But it wasn’t just another kaiju film.

Take a look at the talent involved. First of all, the short was commissioned by Anno Hideaki, the director of landmark anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion and to be directed by Higuchi Shinji, one of Anno’s key Evangelion artists. As intriguing as the Eva connection is, however, the real hook lies farther back in Anno’s past. All the way back to the beginning, in fact, to the days when Anno cut his teeth as a fledgling animator working under Miyazaki Hayao as a key animator on Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind.

Yes, Giant God Warrior Appears In Tokyo has a direct Miyazaki connection. Two of them, in fact. First, Miyazaki himself provided the design for the creature. And, second, the short now stands as the first live action work produced directly by Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli. And I suppose there’s also the little matter of it being a direct precursor to Nausicaa itself.

But enough rambling on … originally commissioned for a museum exhibition the complete short is now available online. Watch it below.

Flight of the Dragons: Live Action

Back in December of 2011, I posted about my love for the vastly unappreciated The Flight of the Dragons cartoon movie that aired on ABC in the 1980s. It had a terrific voice cast including the late great Colonel Potter Mr. Harry Morgan. In fact, Harry’s passing was the reason I combed over some of things I loved as a kid growing up in the 80s. Watching Flight of the Dragons was a ritual when I went to visit my cousin. It reaffirmed a lot of things about life for me as a child, something I needed.

Well, fast forward, a reader of mine tipped me off that a Kickstarter had been created to fund a live action version of The Flight of the Dragons. The film is purely independent and will be funded by fans.

“The Flight of Dragons” unfolds in an age when magic and science coexist uneasily, and humans still walk the earth alongside wizards, unicorns, and dragons. One of the four most powerful mages on the planet, Carolinus the Green Wizard realizes that magic’s power is slipping in favor of the logic of science — a potential detriment to men, who need such magic to provide regular inspiration for themselves. Carolinus thus summons his three brothers for an emergency gathering, and suggests that they create a separate magical realm for themselves, via which they can send man the magic he needs on a regular basis. Two of the brothers agree, but the third — the evil wizard Ommadon — not only refuses to be shuttled off to this removed existence but vows to wage full-scale war on humankind with evil feelings and ideas. Because the rules of the universe forbid Carolinus and his other two siblings from going head-to-head with Ommadon, they must seek out a human hero with the power to stop him. Carolinus sends this request to the Fates. They, in turn, select Peter, who is, of all things, a man of science.

Originally an animated film, this new incarnation will include a special live-action trailer before it is released as a live-action feature in individual parts. This ambitious and passionate project adapted from the speculative natural history book The Flight of Dragons, as well as The Dragon and the George, stars legendary Seattle actor Andrew Tribolini (“A/V”) in the starring role of Carolinus. Joining him is a talented crew including Emmy Award-winning composer Carl Johnson (“Piglet’s Big Movie”), visual effects artist Mikhail E. Merkurieff (“Age of the Dragons”), cinematographer Connor Hair (“5th Street”), as well as acclaimed fantasy artist Christos Achilleos (“Willow”) to create concept designs for the creatures. A couple folks who contributed to the 1982 film are contributing their time and work as well, including artist Wayne Anderson and composer Maury Laws.

The Kickstarter for this project has 38 days to go with a goal of $18,000. [LINK]

Website: http://flightofdragonsmovie.com/?page_id=1385

Jordu Schell: Sculpture Brillance

Love sculptures, especially pop culture related pieces. You must check out Jordu Schell’s work. Schell operates a sculpture studio which boasts “the finest creature and character design available anywhere.The studio has been providing concept art in the industry for over ten years.”

Jordu is the owner and head designer. He has has been in the film and television industry since 1987. His talent as a designer and sculptor landed him work on: “Avatar”, “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”, “300”, “Hellboy”, “Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem”, “Men in Black”, “The Mist”, “Batman Returns”, “Edward Scissorhands”, “Alien: Resurrection”, “The X-Files Movie”, “Predator II”, “Galaxy Quest”, “Evolution”, “Babylon 5-The Series” (on which he designed an Emmy award-winning creature make-up and the first fully digital creature for a television series), and many more.

Check out Schell’s amazing silicon sculpt of Leonard Nimoy as “Spock:”

To view more of Jordu’s work, check out his website at http://www.schellstudio.com/gallery/

Michel Gondry’s Mood Indigo

Brief About: Mood Indigo (French: L’Écume des jours) is an upcoming French film co-written and directed by Michel Gondry and co-written and produced by Luc Bossi, starring Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou. It is an adaptation of Boris Vian’s 1947 novel Froth on the Daydream.

Synopsis: Colin has a very pleasant life: he is rich, he loves the food his cook makes (Nicolas), he loves his pianocktail (contraction of piano and cocktail, a word invented by Boris Vian) and his friend Chick.

One day while having lunch with Chick, Chick tells him that he met a girl named Alise with whom he has a common passion: the writer Jean-Sol Partre.

Colin meets Chloe at a party Chick invited him to. They fall in love, marry, but Chloe becomes ill during their honeymoon. As time passes, Chloe’s condition deteriorates while the relationship between Chick and Alise turns sour …

One quote to locate Boris Vian’s style: “What interests me is not happiness for all men, it is that for each of them. ” (Froth on the Daydream, 1947) (Source: Wikipedia)

Release Date: April 10, 2013 France

Don’t you wish you could live in Michel Gondry’s worlds just for a little while. How wondrous is his imagination and his interpretation of life and it’s ongoings.

What are your favorite Christmas Themed or -Time Movies?

3 more days and it’s Christmas. There doesn’t seem to be any white, fluffy stuff in our future, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t cold. Brrrr! Winter came in last night with a shock. Chilly and windy. Time for cocoa and snuggling with the one you love, right? It’s okay if it’s a furry friend, like your cat or dog.

As we count down to Christmas, there are certain questions that come to mind. Like – what is your favorite Christmas themed or -time movie? It doesn’t necessarily have to revolve around Christmas, but it can have elements of Christmas?

There are old classics like It’s a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, Holiday Inn, and The Christmas Story. Then, you more recent favorites like Christmas Vacation, Grumpy Old Men, Love Actually, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Elf.

But…what are your favorite movies?

The Muppet Christmas Carol

I personally love The Muppet Christmas Carol. One of the reasons I love it is the humor that is injected into the story by the use of The Muppets. It’s heartfelt and reaches people across all ages. It makes Charles Dickens more accessible. The musical numbers are fun and witty. Michael Caine is an excellent Scrooge.

 

 

Elf

For enthusiasm, I reach for Elf. Will Ferrell puts the jingle back in jangle. I don’t know what Will Ferrell is like in the comforts of his own home, but he has such a child-at-heart enthusiasm which he’s able to conjure up so well.

 

 

Gremlins

Strange enough, a lot of people forget that Gremlins was a Christmas movie. The gift of the mogwai. It’s perhaps not the easiest sell on young children, but preteens and those older can enjoy the adventures of Billy and Gizmo out to the save the world from mischievous and deadly gremlins.

 

Parody: Walking Dead meets Dumb Ways to Die

I am pretty sure most of you have seen the Dumb Ways to Die video. Now, we have Dumb Ways to Die according to The Walking Dead!

Enjoy!

Here’s the original if you haven’t seen it before:

Downton Abbey Meets Breaking Bad

As we move into a new day, let us salve our souls with a little humor. I bring you Breaking Abbey. I admit I am not really into the whole Downton Abbey craze, but I do love me some Breaking Bad.

Trailer Alert! : Star Trek Into Darkness

The first teaser trailers have arrived for the new Star Trek film directed by J. J. Abrams.  The trailer is intense and features a silky, sinister voice over by B. Cumberbatch. I know Cumberbatch can do villian, and I believe he will run circles around Bana.

The first movie is decent for a straight up action-adventure. I say decent loosely because the premise was rather lackluster and the director’s need to take a poop on the franchise by icing Vulcan really did not set well with me.  It was like let me take Star Trek and repurpose it as a poor man’s version of Star Wars.

I can appreciate certain aspects of the film. However, I also have distinct abhorrence for many of the things it executed, especially with some of the characters. No one puts McCoy in the corner and they did. I understand they wanted to focus on Spock and Kirk, but I think McCoy had his fair share of time with the twosome that made for a interesting threesome. Now, I am not getting all Yaoi on you,  but I wanted to see more of Karl Urban – sexy Karl Urban.  Ok, I know  – too much.

Anyways, the brief other planetary visuals you see in the teaser look gorgeous.  We will see if the actors can do more with the characters, and I hope there is a better script this time. I am eager to comb the tropes.

I am attached the first teaser trailer and not the Japanese teaser trailer because it has a bonus shot that might be spoilery.  Really, who we kidding, from the Japanese trailer it really looks like this film is rebooting Wrath of Khan.

*****WARNING – if you have NEVER SEEN STAR TREK 2 – THE WRATH OF KHAN…..DON”T READ the next string of words……………………………………………………………………………Anyways, it does look like they are rebooting Wrath of Kahn and in it a certain person dies…really how many of this person’s species are left? Are you setting up for a third film to reboot the Search for Spock? Yeesh! If they kill off you know who… or worse if they kill of the OG again – pissed off I will be. Yep!

This film comes out next May.

Movie Review: “Romantics Anonymous” (Spoiler Alert)

Netflix summarizes this move as “This delightful romantic comedy follows the slow-burn romance of talented chocolatier Anelique and chocolate-factory owner Jean-Rene.” However, this description, while not dishonest, is misleading.

Romantics Anonymous, also called Les émotifs anonymes, came out in 2010 and stars Benoit Poevoorde and Isabelle Carré.  A French-Beligum project directed by Jean-Pierre Améris – the film delves into the topic of hyper emotionality with all it’s quirks and eccentricities. A comedy is perhaps the best vehicle to capture the faux caprice and clumsy whimsy of two people suffering the same affliction; who try to learn to let go and trust in what they truly feel as opposed to their heightened fear of living in general.

The movie would fail if it were not for the two amiable leads Jean-René (Benoît Poelvoorde) and Angélique (Isabelle Carré). Their collective neurosis captures the sensitivity of everyone’s personal plight with anxiety. Some of us suffer from more than others, but I truly believe there is at least one event in a person’s life that truly makes them uneasy. What makes the movie work is that these anxieties are heightened and they portrayed in a way that they while annoying they are not so threatening that it endangers our emotions turning dark.

Jean-René is the owner of a on-the-verge-bankruptcy chocolate factory, who has never overcome his fears and has remained single despite longing to be in a relationship. Angélique  is a superb chocolate maker, but who, for exactly the same reasons, has failed to make a name for herself and to find someone who will love her in return. Houston, we have lift off. Both characters transcend the minimalistic plot through their nuanced exaggerations. The comedy paces itself on how they bounce off one another, increasing the level of hyperemotionality that exists within each other yet the intensity is slow building but alluring in that you hang on each opportunity that pushes them and the dismay and comedy as they revert to their hysterical selfs.

Eventually, their issue circles them, as each release their burden in a group of fellow emotional people. The final scenes of the movie have them prepared for a wedding. However, knowing each so well, they take off down the pastoral roadside.

Their future is unwritten. Their next choices not made. Are they embracing themselves? Are they embracing freedom? The ending has a very existential feel. Authenticity – embracing their true selves, their true nature.