Judge Minty Fan Film Teaser Trailer

Considering this is being done for no budget, parts of this fan based film look quite good. It doesn't focus on Dredd, rather a minor Judge character who has taken the long walk to the Cursed Earth.
via Judge Minty Blog

And there are still rumours of an official Dredd movie being made.

RED Trailer

Trailer for RED (based on the comic by Warren Ellis) actually looks pretty good - and it's a pretty amazing cast for a comic book movie. John Malkovich looks like he is playing the character he thought he was in "Burn after Reading".
As Warren Ellis said "if you don’t want to see a film with Helen Mirren with a sniper rifle, I’m not sure I want to know you.."
via WarrenEllisdotcom

Ray Harryhausen Donates Models to Museum

Pioneering special effects guru Ray Harryhausen has donated his models and props to a Media Museum in England to preserve his legacy. Although the effects look slightly jerky now, it shows what painstaking model work and clever editing can do - and I still think they look great - I've loved stop motion since i was a kiddie and saw the Rankin Bass specials.

And speaking of special effects - the state of zombie decay from Frank Darabont's version of "The Walking Dead"

via Propnomicon

Angels - Legion

Had fun doing the Lovecraft theme sketches so for the next week and a bit I might try angels theme sketches (guess I'll have to draw Castiel on Thursday, ha, ha). Any requests would be gratefully received as it means I don't have to think too much.

Above is a pencil sketch of Paul Bettany from "Legion" - didn't nail the likeness, and I mucked around with the tats and wings, but liked it enough to give it a quick colour job. "Legion" certainly wouldn't win any Oscars but I thought it had some nice creepy moments and some silly angelic shenanigans, so for a lower budget B movie I enjoyed it.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec

A comic book movie that doesn't involve superheroes - based on the Adele series written and illustrated by French comics artist Jacques Tardi and directed by Luc Besson.

I'm a Marvel and I'm a DC - the musical episode

Their 100th episode.

Italian Spiderman Trailer

There are more episodes on YouTube - thanks to Jacen and his Italian Spiderman tribute for alerting me to this

"I can read movies.."

A very cute collection of movie-inspired "retro" book covers made by a graphic designer.
I-can-read-movies.

"Warrior monks who pass through walls"...

Pretty stellar cast - saw Jon Ronson when he gave a talk at the Brisbane Powerhouse, so I'll definately be checking this one out.

100 Years of Visual Effects

Cute little collection of the "history of visual effects". Probably misses a few important moments, ("2001" and "The Matrix" for example), but nicely put together. (and kid friendly as it was made for a classroom demonstration)

from Gizmodo

Don't Blame the Writers

I must admit to being overly picky about movie plots - if a movie has a big budget and good actors and special effects, to have a plot that seems cobbled together from a series of set pieces seems a bit inexcusable. However I realise the movie making process often isn't exactly smooth sailing and this elderly article about the writing of "The Puppet Masters" is fairly interesting.


Q: When is a Spaceship Not a Spaceship?
A: When It's a Brain Coral.
Writing the Screen Adaptation of
Robert A. Heinlein's The Puppet Masters

Terry Rossio, 1995


After reading it you don't wonder how bad movies get made, but how do good ones?

Do you remember the Sprieg Brothers highly enjoyable zombie/comedy/horror movie "Undead" that was made locally in Brisbane?
Well they have made another movie dealing with vampires. I was a little dubious at first, as the genre seems to have been a little sucked dry of late (sorry). But the trailer looks like it doesn't deal with sparkly vampires and actually addresses the question of "what happens when the vampires stupidly achieve their goal of world domination?".

DayBreakers Trailer at YouTube

District 9

Managed to score free tickets to "District 9" a lower budget SF piece by South African director Neill Blomkamp - it was a nice change of pace from the disappointing blockbusters of earlier this year with a weird mix of documentary, body horror (think Cronenburg) and action movie.

It was based on the short movie "Alive in Joberg" which is available on YouTube.