It’s confirmed: Karen Allen is reprising her role as Marion Ravenwood in Indy IV. Here’s a photo of the cast that was revealed yesterday at Comic-Con:
My enthusiasm for this project continues to grow… I think Karen looks great, and it’s good to see her alongside Steven and Harrison again. It’s like a reunion of long-estranged family members or something. Click the photo to enlarge, click through for more Indy goodness!
Just a couple of curiosities that are apparently making their way around the interweb this morning:
After a long stretch of crazy-making days in which the temperature topped 100 degrees and the humidity hovered somewhere around “Sahara,” the skies finally started taking pity on us poor Salt Lakers earlier this week. It’s rained on four successive evenings, but the first three nights saw only tentative overtures to last night’s symphony. Some areas — like The Girlfriend’s apartment complex — got pummelled by hurricance-style thundershowers and hail, but here at the Bennion Compound, it was simply a good, steady downpour, exactly the sort of cleansing, nourishing rain I’ve been craving for ages. It was accompanied by a constant spectacle of lightning that would’ve made Nicola Tesla squeal with delight, and roars of thunder that were loud enough to feel in your belly. I love storms like that…
Here’s something else I’m obsessing over lately: the upcoming DVD release of Blade Runner: The Final Cut. (Actually, I’m obsessed with the fact that all the earlier, non-digitally-enhanced versions of this movie will be made available along with this revised version, just like the fans desire, unlike a certain other highly desirable landmark film of the science fiction persuasion, whose fans apparently don’t have a voice in the matter…)
The crew from The Digital Bits is currently at the legendary Comic-Con convention in San Diego (which these days covers a lot more than just comics), and they’ve just posted up the official details of the release, including photos of the two-disc, four-disc, and “Deckard’s briefcase” variants. The details generally match what I already posted a while back, but clear up (for you non-fanatics in the audience) what the differences between the movie versions are and describe exactly which features are included in which set. I’m pleased to see that I won’t be forced to buy the briefcase full of unnecessary doodads in order to get the original theatrical cut of the movie. (I am kind of bummed that the legendary Work Print will only be available in the briefcase set, but I’ve reached a point where I just don’t need all the little premiums and the oddball packaging cluttering up my place. If it won’t fit nicely on a shelf with all the other standardized cases — reference my experience with The Big Stupid Cylon Head — then I don’t want it. And while I’m curious about the Work Print, it’s really not enough to justify the aggravation of finding someplace to store the oddball package. He said bravely, knowing there was still a good chance he’d cave and buy the damn thing anyway.)
All three variants of Blade Runner will be out on December 18th. A little late for a Christmas gift, but maybe you can buy it for yourself with the money you get every year from your favorite auntie, and watch it on New Year’s Day instead of football…
In other news, The Bits is also reporting a rumor that Lucasfilm is going to make some kind of DVD-related announcement at the con, and naturally there’s speculation that it involves the long-promised “Ultimate Edition Star Wars Saga” Set. But you guys know where I stand on that: if there’s no anamorphic transfer of the unrevised original film, then there’s no sale here.
I’m not one to get all gooey over news of someone successfully procreating, especially someone I don’t personally know, but I thought Telstar Logistic‘s “press release” this morning was both clever and funny:
PRESS RELEASE
TELSTAR LOGISTICS LAUNCHES NEXT GENERATION BRAND EXTENSION
Genetic Technology Yields Robust, Scalable, Cute New Life
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – 25 July, 2007 Telstar Logistics Genetics Systems, working in collaboration with the Biological Imperative Group and Evolutionary Optimization Inc., is proud to announce the successful launch and deployment of our newest brand extension, Miel Avril Lappin.
…
A state-of-the-art newborn, Miel is equipped with the latest onboard diagnostic and maintenance technologies, including fully autonomic respiratory, circulatory, and waste-disposal systems, as well as pre-installed grasping and suckling subroutines. A built-in acoustic alarm alerts the executive team when ambient conditions are sub-optimal, and the user interface is calibrated for maximum cuteness.
He goes on in that vein for a bit; it’s worth a glance and a chuckle. I especially liked that bit about the acoustic alarm for sub-optimal conditions…
OK, you know you’ve been reading too much Harry Potter when you’re proofing a technology-related document at work, you start reading a sentence that begins, “Defense against viruses,” and your mind sees it as “Defense Against the Dark Arts.”
And I’m still only on Book 5. Somebody help me…
Yes, I’m obsessing. We fanboys do that from time to time…
***VIDEO MISSING***
The cool thing about this clip — the opening titles from the 1980 Flash Gordon feature film, in case you didn’t know — is the artwork that appears in and among the credits. That’s taken from the original comic-strip by Alex Raymond, my friends, the medium where Flash was born. It’s neat stuff, I think, and I’d love to see a live-action movie or television series that was truly faithful to the look. That’s what I was hoping to see in the new Sci-Fi Channel series. Maybe in the next remake…
In yesterday’s blatheration about the new Flash Gordon series, I made several references to previous versions of the story. The best known of these are, of course, the 1930s-vintage movie serials starring Buster Crabbe, and the 1980 feature film with the so-cheesy-it’s-awesome soundtrack by the rock group Queen. However, there have also been a number of Flash television shows over the years, including an animated version that debuted in 1979. Known variously as The New Adventures of Flash Gordon, The Adventures of Flash Gordon, or just plain Flash Gordon, this series was a weekly Saturday-morning must-see for me:
This series is available on DVD, but honestly, I’m half-afraid to watch it again, because it might not hold up to my adult scrutiny and I don’t want to ruin a fond memory. Even so, there are a lot of things in that clip above that still look good to me: rocketships, robots, ray guns, alien creatures, exotic landscapes, giant drilling machines tunneling beneath the ground, and scantily clad women with swords in hand… ah, now that’s Flash Gordon, in all its pulpy, comic-strippy glory! Somehow, I doubt the Sci-Fi Channel’s take on the material will quite live up to this standard…
Arg! I have several longer entries that I’d like to finish and get posted up here, but naturally my days have been too hectic recently to allow that. So, in lieu of writing anything genuinely interesting, allow me to direct you to this preview of the Sci-Fi Channel’s upcoming Flash Gordon series.
The trailer doesn’t show you very much, but my first impression is that it looks promising. I’m getting a definite sense of cliffhanger-style derring-do, although that could just be an artifact of fast editing and the proper choice of music. (I must admit, I started grinning like an idiot when I noticed the “dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-Flash!-Ah-aaaahhh!” in the background. I hope they actually use some of the old Queen theme song in this new show, and that it’s not just a tease to get us thirtysomething fanboys all hyped up.)
I have heard some rumors that I’m not happy about, namely that Flash and his sidekicks reach the planet Mongo via some kind of stargate, rather than aboard a rocketship as in every previous version of Alex Raymond‘s venerable tale. Also, the new series will apparently lack many of the familiar supporting characters from the earlier versions — no Barin, Aura, Fria, Thun, or Vultan, and probably no hawkmen or floating city in the sky either. In short, many of the elements that distinguish Flash Gordon in the first place. I find myself wondering yet again, as I did when I first saw the new Battlestar Galactica, exactly how much you can get away with changing before a remake should more properly be allowed to develop into a whole new (if somewhat similar) property, with a different title and different characters.
On the positive side, however, a glance through Sci-Fi’s gallery of publicity stills turns up a number of Flash Gordon-y images, including some good, old-fashioned female pulchritude and our hero in pulpy peril. Oh, and I’ve heard that the producers have approached Sam J. Jones, the 1980 Flash, about doing a cameo or longer guest appearance. That sort of thing makes me happy; it’s like when the 1979 Buck Rogers series included a role for Buster Crabbe, the original Buck and Flash. While some may dismiss these inclusions as stunts calculated to draw fans of the older version, I think they demonstrate that the producers of the new version respect what came before them. It’s a decent thing to do for the older actors, and for fanboys like me who still revere the originals, it’s fun and heartwarming.
The new Flash is set to premiere on August 10.
Damn it! I just heard that the Weekly World News — that most outrageous of supermarket tabloids, the one which brings us vital updates on the impending end of the world as well as the latest adventures of Bat Boy — is ceasing publication in only a few short weeks.
The WWN is utterly ridiculous, of course — is there anyone, even in the farthest reaches of the Ozarks, who actually believes anything they read in its pages? — but it’s always brought me some much-needed amusement as I stood in line at the checkout stand with the Muzak boring into my skull and my eyeballs burning from the flourescent overheads. I’m going to miss seeing which politicians are meeting with the aliens this month…
One note of interest: the article I linked to above says that WWN “…was also known as a reliable source of paychecks for science fiction and fantasy writers looking to make a few extra bucks.” I always wondered where that stuff came from.
