Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

I blogged about this previously. The videos were taken down after a few days and has been available for purchase on iTunes. Now it's available for immediate watching at Hulu.

Wonderful. Just simply wonderful.

YouTube Screening Room

I like YouTube okay. It's not the greatest thing in the world because it just has so much junk on it. But there are videos that are funny (see this previous post), and it's a great place to catch some videos of informative things you might not have seen other wise (see this previous post). But I'd say most of it is trash.

However, earlier this summer, YouTube created a section for quality short films. These shorts are not the ones you and your cousin made in the back yard with that flimsy consumer-grade camcorder. These are top-of-the-line shorts: fiction, nonfiction and animation. Some great stuff.

It's called the YouTube Screening Room. Please, if you like short films, or films in general, do yourself a favor and check it out.

My favorite short film so far:

Thursday, August 21, 2008

The Future of the Dark Knight

Well, I really enjoyed "The Dark Knight." I had intended to come out here and kind of review it. But I'm not really good at that.

Anyway, the Internet (or interwebs as some like to call it) is abuzz about a possible third Bat-flick by Christopher Nolan (too many stories to link to from here. if interested, just Google it). I'm more of a wait-and-see kind of guy. I hope there's a third one, but I'm not gonna chatter on and on about how there should be and who the villain should be and all that nonsense. If there is a third one, Nolan and his writing team will advise us when they want to. Until then, we just have to wait.

But there is this guy out there somewhere, posting art on the interwebs about possible versions of heroes and villains as he envisions them in the Nolan Bat-verse.

Ian, a buddy of mine from my days at Cinemark Fayette Mall, and I had this ongoing discussion about who could play Harley Quinn in a Bat-film. We named a number of possibilities. One who did come up was Kristen Bell. Well, turns out she would like to play Harley Quinn (go to 3:39 of the following video).



Turns out fanboys and fangirls think whe would be a good choice, too (again, too many links to cite).

And so this interwebs artist created the Nolan Bat-verse version of Harley Quinn modeled after Kristen Bell.



Honestly, I think this could work. And it would be a great addition I think. The Joker is probably in Arkham. You could introduce the character of Harleen Quinzeel, a psychiatrist treating the Joker who falls in love with him and assumes the character Harley Quinn. I think you could even do it without ever seeing the Joker.

Now I really want Harley Quinn to be in the next film.

I wonder...

why many adults feel the need to try to get infants and toddlers to give them high-fives...

And why did that just suddenly seem weird to me?

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Quote of the Day - 8/14/08

"The first kiss of the movie was out on Haight Street, with, like, 200 people watching, outside. It was a crane shot--I'm sure in the end it will be a really cool shot, but it starts close and then it takes maybe a minute. That's a long time on film with everybody watching and, like, a fake mustache getting in your mouth. It was long enough that you couldn't help thinking, 'Oh, my God, I'm kissing Spicoli.' "

- James Franco on his role in Gus Van Sant's "Milk," at GQ.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Quote of the Day - 8/11/08

"Needless to say, it was a grand, beautiful, and inspiring event that I’m pretty sure made London say 'Well, f*ck.' "

- Sara Schaefer, blogger for www.bestweekever.tv on how spectacular the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremonies put on by China were

Thursday, August 7, 2008

San Diego Comic-Con

Okay, I know this is later than I had planned, but here are the things that came out of Comic-Con that interested me:

* Ed Brubaker, whose comic work I like, is writing a series for Sony's Crackle.com entitled "Angel of Death." What I like even more about this series is that is staring Zoe Bell, who also starred in the "Death Proof" portion of Grindhouse and has done numerous stunts in film. She was my favorite part of "Death Proof". More info here and here.

* Kevin Smith, whose writing a like though I think his direction is lacking, will be writing a three-issue Batman miniseries called "Batman: Cacaphony". The best part about this news is that two of the three issues already have been written. This is important because it took forever for him to finish "Spider-Man and the Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do." He never finished "Daredevil/Bullseye: The Target." But his run on "Daredevil" reinvigorated the series. I'm really interested to see how he writes Batman.

* I really like Marvel's take on Stephen King's "The Dark Tower." And I'm super pumped about the upcoming series "The Stand." So, I have to admit that I'm excited as well about "N." It's an interesting way to present comics and story.

* An interesting panel took place about whether monthly comics were on the way out in favor of graphic novels and trades telling the stories. Personally, I love monthlies, but I just can't afford to buy all the issues I'd love to. So, sad to say, I wait for the trades. But I also love original graphic novels. What can I say, I'm torn.

* I love the products of DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. They are more adult oriented fare (not that kind of "adult" material, you perv). Titles like "Preacher," "Y: The Last Man," "Sandman," "V For Vendetta," "DMZ" and "Demo" ("Demo" was originally published by AiT/Planet Lar, but now makes its home at Vertigo) make for some very good reading. At the Con, they announced the creation of a Vertigo: Crime imprint. So, SO exciting. I love crime stories.

* Since I wasn't there, there were a few panels that I would have liked to have attended but couldn't. But thanks to YouTube and people who were there I was able to see much of them. They included:

Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible


The Office Writer's Panel


RockNRolla


Pineapple Express


Zack and Miri Make a Porno


Entertainment Weekly's Visionaries: Filmmakers


All of these clips are the first parts. For more, visit YouTube.

That's it. Seemed like a good Con. I'd love to go next year, but might try my hand at a smaller-big one first, like Chicago or Charlotte. I am going to Mid-Ohio Con in October and I'll be sure to blog about all my geek-filled moments.