Star Wars Triple Feature

My fiance left to visit family for Thanksgiving today so I am fighting the loneliness with a triple feature of the highest order - the theatrical cuts of the original Star Wars trilogy. Now that's a good day at the movies.

Buffy

So the producers behind the originally Buffy The Vampire Slayer film starring Kristy Swanson from the 90's, who still technically hold all rights, are rebooting that shit without Joss Whedon's permission into a tween'ed up feature film. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuukkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk.

FUCK.

First off, Whedon is still putting out new material within the Buffyverse with his Buffy: Season Eight and Angel comics. This better not fuck that up somehow. Also, what kind of creativity-deprived idiots disrespect this obviously beloved franchise enough that they would unwillingly pull the big, beautiful babies out from Joss Whedon's loving hands. These are the worst kind of film business douchebags.

The man himself has me feeling like I need to take it a little lighter with his hilarious response, in which he seems to take it in stride:

"Kristin, I'm glad you asked for my thoughts on the announcement of Buffy the cinema film. This is a sad, sad reflection on our times, when people must feed off the carcasses of beloved stories from their youths—just because they can't think of an original idea of their own, like I did with my Avengers idea that I made up myself.

Obviously I have strong, mixed emotions about something like this. My first reaction upon hearing who was writing it was, "Whit Stillman AND Wes Anderson? This is gonna be the most sardonically adorable movie EVER." Apparently I was misinformed. Then I thought, "I'll make a mint! This is worth more than all my Toy Story residuals combined!" Apparently I am seldom informed of anything. And possibly a little slow. But seriously, are vampires even popular any more?

I always hoped that Buffy would live on even after my death. But, you know, AFTER. I don't love the idea of my creation in other hands, but I'm also well aware that many more hands than mine went into making that show what it was. And there is no legal grounds for doing anything other than sighing audibly. I can't wish people who are passionate about my little myth ill. I can, however, take this time to announce that I'm making a Batman movie. Because there's a franchise that truly needs updating. So look for The Dark Knight Rises Way Earlier Than That Other One And Also More Cheaply And In Toronto, rebooting into a theater near you.

Leave me to my pain! Sincerely, Joss Whedon."

For those not in the know, the Wes Anderson/Whit Stillman comment was sarcastic. The actual screenwriter working the project is a 29-year old actress who has never written a film. And for a very large number of geeks worldwide this is majorly disappointing news.

I guess if I have to talk about something positive afterwards, then I'm enjoying the shit out of Conan's TBS show... particularly now that I've discovered they replay the episode at 1:00am... so I get to watch it even on work nights. And even better it's just a half-our off from its old Late Night With Conan O'Brien slot... that combined with Andy back on the couch feels just like old times. I love it.

Did I post about the Winnie The Pooh trailer yet? I love that thing. apple.com/trailers, folks. Get the damn Winnie The Pooh trailer.

Also, Fallout: New Vegas for PS3 is owning my fucking soul. This game is proof that graphics aren't everything.

Disney nerds... rejoice!

I can't believe I completely overlooked that, along with the other great trailers this week, Disney released a trailer for its traditionally-animated Winnie The Pooh theatrical film slated for 2011. This looks like a promising move on the heels of last year's The Princess And The Frog that the big D may be planning to release one-off hand-drawn films between its CGI blockbusters. After years of their direct-to-DVD sequel bullshit that began with Aladdin 2 (which I have completely ignored and do not personally consider to be canon) they are actually brining an existing property back to the big-screen in big-budget, theatrical 2D. I have a feeling the box office potential for something like this could merit future 2D theatrical sequels to classic Disney properties. Imagine a theatrical sequel to The Lion King or The Little Mermaid. I'd personally love to see a modern theatrical sequel to The Sword In The Stone. As for the Winnie The Pooh, grab it in 1080p Quicktime at apple.com/trailers

Trailer Mania!

Hot on the heels of the highly-anticipated Green Lantern and Battle: Los Angeles trailers release this past week come 2 even more mind-blowing FIRST FULL TRAILERSs in GLORIOUS QUICTIME (apple.com/trailers as always): Jon Favreau's first non-Iron Man feature COWBOYS & ALIENS (starring HARRISON FUCKING FORD) and Disney/Pixar's next picture CARS 2.

It's a good week to be a film fan.

Holy FUCK, it's the GREEN LANTERN trailer!!!!

Head on over to apple.com/trailers for the Green Lantern trailer in glorious quicktime! This shit looks incredible. They've finally nailed an epic super hero character without compromising any of the inherit scope in the translation to film. This is THE Green Lantern we see in the comics... flying around in space with his fist out, ring first, surrounded by a green aura and leaving a laser-like green trail behind. This is truly a comic book in motion. Just wait til you see Oa. Or Kilowog. The only gripe I have, and its a minor one, is that the Guardians Of The Universe have a human fleshtone in the film from what I can tell. They'er supposed to be blue-ish, but whatever. Everthing else is spot on. This whole movie has the Geoff Johns seal of approval all over it, it looks exactly like it's leaping from the pages of a post-Rebirth Green Lantern book.

CAN'T. FUCKING. WAIT.

Easily one of my 10 most anticipated movies. Let's just roll out that list while we're at it. In order from most anticipated to only-slightly-less anticipated:

At The Mountains Of Madness
Super 8
The Hobbit
Tron Legacy
The Avengers
Batman Rises
The Wolverine
Cowboys & Aliens
Green Lantern
And an unsettlable tie for tenth that actually results in an 11-movie list:
X-Men: First Class & Black Swan

I'm not sure if the fact that 5 of these are comic book movies says more about my love of the medium or just the state of the post-Dark Knight/Iron Man industry where so many great comic properties are getting respectable treatment from major studios and major directors. But there you have it. I am hesitant to leave certain titles (like Cars 2, Battle: Los Angeles, Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark, and Arietty: The Borrow off the list, but 10 is 10)

Should be a good couple years for film fans and comic fans

Tron Legacy

So the new Tron Legacy trailer (Trailer 3 if you're at apple.com/trailers getting the preferred 1080p Quicktime file) literally has me more excited of the fact that the movie comes out on December 17 than the fact that it's also my 30th birthday. How pathetic is that. It's that good. Two-and-a-half minutes and hardly any repeat footage from the two-minute teaser. This shit is incredible. My one complaint is that the trailers should use the Daft Punk music featured in the film and not generic trailer scores but otherwise this footage looks unbelievable. The CGI effect allowing Jeff Bridges to portray his younger self leaves something to be desired but I appreciate the historic achievement of attempting it. The rest is flawless. If Tron Uprising is half as good as Star Wars: The Clone Wars (and judging from the voicecast and the ammount of love Disney is currently putting into this franchise, it should) then I foresee Tron as being a very huge franchise in the 2010's in a way no really sees coming right now. Marrrrrrk myyyyyy wooorrrrrrrrrrrrds.

But yeah, it is obvious now that bringing in Pixar and Fincher to advise on post-production, the huge budget they've allowed, and just the general ammount of push they're giving this is paying off in a gigantic way. Now THIS is DISNEY quality film.

Last Eastbound & Down To Air in 0:30

I love this show and I LOVE those bittersweet BBC-style 6 or 7-episode seasons. Every show I've personally watched to follow that template has ruled - Ali G, Office, Extras, and now this shit. Short and sweet. I love the BBC format and also the japanese 13 and 26-episode maxi-series format with no continuing seasons are both far superior to american way (which is 'make 24 episodes a year every year until people stop watching')

Here's to Kenny Powers... I hope season 3 sees you back in the majors and may your show live on its beautiful BBC-inspired format

Fuckin' Teevee

Man, so, my Halloween video marathon was a blast. My feature movie selection ended up being House Of 1000 Corpses, which was sweet because I hadn't seen it in a few years and it takes place on October 30th and 31st. Disney's Halloween Treat really took me back, the 1080p It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was so sharp it was bizarre to watch (don't get me wrong, I love it this way), and the fiance and myself had some nostalgiac fun pulling out Count Duckula - The Complete First Season (which now fetches a handsome price on Amazon) and the Halloween episode of The Adventures Of Pete & Pete. The whole thing would have been perfect, except at 10:00PM I blew a sure thing by passing up the next-to-last Eastbound & Down (I'll On-Demand it ASAP, but I post-poned for the sake of the holiday marathon) in favor of the 90-minute The Walking Dead premier, which was to be the culmination of a whole day of video watching. Boy did I set myself up for failure. This thing was TV-Movie material for sure. The Greg Nicotero FX were brilliant when displayed, but the whole thing was just another big, boring zombie rehash. Boooooooooooring. They managed to stretch the let's-get-it-over-with first 30 to 45 minutes of a zombie movie into 90 minutes. The only interesting novelty was the concept of riding a horse around in the zomie apocalypse and they killed the fuckin horse off after 5 minutes. Otherwise this was some bland shit.

I generally hate TV, with a few exceptions. I have a reverence for the classic late night talk show. I plan to catch Conan's TBS show as much as possible as I feel guilty for being part of his cancellation previously by not watching enough. And I do love Letterman as well. I love Eastbound & Down. Glee. Modern Family. Anything Joss Whedon-related. Trailer Fanatic and At The Movies are a good time as far as I'm concerned. Charlie Rose. But most of all, I fucking LOVE Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I recently re-watched the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and as much as that first movie irks me (and I doubt I will watch it more than one or two more times in my life) I fucking love those second two. And The Clone Wars is incredible. The animation is stellar for television, and the whole thing just genuinely feels like the Star Wars universe. It has the feel of the better novels, it's always like "Oh man, I can't believe this is as juicy as it is. This or that character is like a barely-shown-or-mentioned myth in the feature films, but here they're like... really showing them doing shit." I just ordered season 1 on blu while the prices was marked 50% off (I guess a promotion to promote the release of season 2 on the format) and I am sure to fly through it in no time. My children will surely benefit from this purchase, and my other anticipated Amazon package of the week... Toy Story 3 (best movie of the year as far as I'm concerned, and probably greatest animated film of all time.) Also, How To Train Your Dragon was something that I recently watched and I dug it. I'm excited to hear they're making a series, I just hope that they don't kiddie it down at all. Because it was only at an acceptable level of maturity for adults in film form, going any more kiddie at all would be a tipping point.

Shit I'm done rambling. But yeah, Halloween video marathon at my place ruled. It has inspired me to plan a classic war movie marathon for Veteran's Day thursday 11/11. Anyway I am outtie. Party on, Wayne.