Time once again to review how I spent (or misspent, as the case may be) my valuable leisure time during the year just ended…
Jan042008
Film Studies
Dec102007
Official Indy IV One-Sheet
I used to be quite an avid collector of one-sheets, those oversized posters that advertise the coming attractions out in front of movie theaters. I eventually dropped the habit, partly because my interests were pulling me toward other categories of collectibles, but also because the painted artwork-type posters that I particularly loved fell out of style. (If you haven’t noticed, one-sheets for the last decade or so have mostly consisted of boring photoshopped “face collages.” Bleh. I hate those things. One is practically indistinguishable from the next; nothing distinctive or interesting about any of them.) I’m therefore very pleased to see that the powers-that-be have chosen to go retro for the official Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull “teaser” one-sheet*, which was just unveiled today:
The artwork is by master illustrator Drew Struzan, who was one of my faves back in my collecting days. Struzan has one of the most distinctive and recognizable styles out there in the illustration world, and a great deal of his work would no doubt look familiar even to the most casual of movie-goers. He also has a long history with Lucasfilm — he’s painted many one-sheets and book covers for both the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises — so it’s no surprise he was tapped for this project, and it looks like he’s turned in another classic piece.
Although I haven’t collected one-sheets on any kind of regular basis in a very long time, I do still occasionally pick up those that strike my fancy. This is definitely one that’ll find its way into the fabulous Bennion Archives…
*FYI, most “big” movies — a Star Wars or Indiana Jones — will actually come with two one-sheets. The teaser comes out first and is exactly what it sounds like: an advance design that is intended basically just to let the public know the movie is coming. Usually the design on the teaser is more pared back, a single, striking image designed to generate discussion, curiosity, etc. (One of the more interesting teasers I’ve ever seen was for Back to the Future II; it was simply a black poster with a pair of fire trails like those left behind by the time-traveling Delorean receding off into the distance. No text, nothing to tell you what the flick is, unless you remembered that particular effect from the first film.) The second, or “regular” design usually comes out much closer to the film’s actual release date, and will typically feature more elaborate art and design, complete credits, etc. If Crystal Skull follows the usual Indy movie pattern, this first design — which feature Indy alone and looking heroic — will be followed by a collage showing the other characters and one or two of the set pieces from the film. Can’t wait to see it!
Nov282007
New Indy Pics
From the “Oh, God, I Hope They Don’t Screw This Up” file, the latest peeks at Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull that are currently circulating the webospheres:
Nov262007
“The Mangerie,” and My Manifesto on Digital Tinkering
A couple weeks ago, The Girlfriend and I, along with several of our friends from the subgroup I like to think of as “The Usual Suspects,”*attended something rather unusual: a one-time-only theatrical screening of “The Menagerie,” an episode of the original Star Trek television series. The screening was essentially a promotional gimmick for the release of the series on the HD-DVD format, so naturally what we were seeing was the “remastered” version of the episode — that is, the one with all the new digital “enhancements.” Not that anyone except me seemed to mind. We shared a sold-out house with several hundred enthusiastic members of the uniform-wearing faithful (there was even a guy there in full-blown Andorian make-up, complete with antennae!), and there was much ooh-ing and aah-ing over the digital recreations of scenes we’ve all seen a thousand times. Even I have to grudgingly admit that whoever is behind the CG tinkering is doing a very nice job of it. The new footage is very faithful to the look of the original series — the Enterprise isn’t suddenly an unnaturally manuverable cartoon — and there has been no “Greedo shoots first” revisionism to any of the stories that I have seen. I will even concede that some of what’s been done is an improvement. (Click here for a gallery of screencaps and judge for yourselves; my thanks to Mike G for sending me the link.) Nevertheless, as my Three Loyal Readers can probably predict, I remain opposed to the updates on basic principle.
My stubbornness on this point led to a pretty interesting conversation following the screening, which in turn led me to a whole new understanding of my own thoughts on this matter of updating old movies and TV properties, and which types of changes bother me and which types don’t.
Nov132007
The Hollywood Writers Strike Explained
Courtesy of John Rogers, a concise, easy-to-follow, and surprisingly entertaining explanation of why all your favorite shows are drifting into re-runs:
And in case you’re wondering, yes, I support the WGA wholeheartedly in this matter. Writers don’t typically get a lot of recognition or respect in the film and television industry, but they are, to my mind, the most important part of the process. If somebody doesn’t write the story to begin with, the guy in the jodhpurs and riding boots has nothing to direct, and the “talent” have nothing to say. It’s that simple. And in a business as flush as Hollywood, to say there isn’t enough money to go around is disingenuous at best. The vast majority of WGA members really don’t make much money for their efforts, and if they’re trying to survive purely on screenwriting, their income is likely to be pretty sporadic. In my book, they deserve their modest cut of the residuals pie a lot more than the suits deserve another Gulfstream…
Nov092007
Joss on Writing
Joss Whedon, the revered creator of the cult-fave TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly, has been venting online about the way some in the press describe the ongoing writer’s strike out in Hollywood. His comments are worth reading in their entirety, but I like the way he describes the act and art of writing (something I am not entirely unfamiliar with myself…):
Writing is largely not considered work. Art in general is not considered work. Work is a thing you physically labor at, or at the very least, hate. Art is fun. (And Hollywood writers are overpaid, scarf-wearing dainties.) It’s an easy argument to make. And a hard one to dispute.
…Writing is enjoyable and ephemeral. And it’s hard work.
It’s always hard. Not just dealing with obtuse, intrusive studio execs, temperamental stars and family-prohibiting hours. Those are producer issues as much as anything else. Not just trying to get your first script sold, or seen, or finished, when nobody around believes you can/will/should… the ACT of writing is hard. When Buffy was flowing at its flowingest, David Greenwalt [Ed. note: Greenwalt was a writer and producer on Buffy] used to turn to me at some point during every torturous story-breaking session and say “Why is it still hard? When do we just get to be good at it?” I’ll only bore you with one theory: because every good story needs to be completely personal (so there are no guidelines) and completely universal (so it’s all been done). It’s just never simple.
It’s necessary, though. We’re talking about story-telling, the most basic human need. Food? That’s an animal need. Shelter? That’s a luxury item that leads to social grouping, which leads directly to fancy scarves. But human awareness is all about story-telling. The selective narrative of your memory. The story of why the Sky Bully throws lightning at you. From the first, stories, even unspoken, separated us from the other, cooler beasts. And now we’re talking about the stories that define our nation’s popular culture – a huge part of its identity. These are the people that think those up. Working writers.
“Human awareness is all about story-telling.” Nice.
Nov062007
Way Far Down the Geeky Rabbit Hole
This one took a little effort, but you kids are worth it: earlier this afternoon, my buddy Dave sent me a link to a short blog entry which reads as follows:
If you’re a child of the 1980s, you’re no doubt well aware of the movie The Last Starfighter, the fantasy epic about a videogame lovin’ kid in a trailer park who’s recruited by aliens as a gunner an intergalactic battle. I mean, based on that short description alone how can you not think the movie is awesome? The only problem is that the Last Starfighter game was never actually released. As crazy as it is, Atari developed the game but never released it for some reason. Talk about not following through on capitalizing on ancillary markets and product tie-ins.
Well, 23 years later the game has finally seen the light of day. Sure, its tech specs are less than impressive at this point, but you can’t beat the nostalgia value. It was custom-built into a cabinet that looks exactly like the one from the movie, but if you want to try it in the comfort of your own home you can now download the game as a simple exe file. Who knows, maybe you’ll be recruited if you try it out and are good enough.
Hmm, thinks I, this is intriguing. I remember liking The Last Starfighter back in the day. I would’ve been about 14 when it came out, and it was a perfect little piece of summertime adolescent wish fulfillment; what disaffected teen hasn’t dreamed of discovering they have some remarkable talent that will enable them to save the day? Or, in the case of Alex Rogan, the protagonist of TLS, the universe? The summer of ’84 was also the golden age of my interest in video gaming, so naturally I thought it be totally awesome to play a for-real arcade game just like the one in the flick. And now someone has finally made such a game? Awesome! Where do I click for more information? I tried here, the link referenced in the blog entry I quote above. Nope, not the source of this story, just another blog:
Who didn’t walk out of The Last Starfighter — yep, the Lance Guest movie from the ’80s — hoping to find a Starfighter game in the arcade? Sadly, the game was never produced. But some guys over at Rogue Synapse recreated a playable version of the actual game from the movie — it’s a free download — and offer drawings of the movie-prop game cabinet. Add a little MAME ingenuity and you’ve got yourself the arcade you dreamed of as a kid. (Just don’t leave me behind if Centauri comes for you first.)
Okay, now we’re getting somewhere, a destination at last… and I’ll be darned if the screen caps of the game these guys have cooked up don’t look just like what I remember from the movie. Very impressive indeed… personally, I can’t imagine having enough dedication to any movie to spend the time and effort needed to develop a game, let alone build a cabinet to house it, but I am utterly blown away that someone out there has. It’s so easy to imagine myself walking up to this thing in the middle of a dark, cacophonous room that smells of sweat and ozone, a heavy wad of quarters dragging my pants pocket all out of shape, only moments away from becoming the hero of the story behind the screen, and in my own mind… sometimes I really miss being 14.
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Oct102007
Pixar Is Going to Barsoom!
Some of my favorite books growing up were the so-called Martian Tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the pulpy adventures of a Civil War veteran from Virginia named John Carter who is magically transported to the dying planet Mars (Barsoom, to the locals), where he encounters all manner of creatures, monsters, beasts, villains, lunatics, arcane technology, ancient civilizations, and, of course, beautiful, scantily clad women as seen in the wonderful artwork above. (That painting by Michael Whelan was used for the cover of the first book in the series, A Princess of Mars, during the 1970s and ’80s, and is the imagery I automatically associate with these stories. Click to embiggen.)
For an adolescent boy who had moved beyond childish things but hasn’t yet hit the full flush of puberty — say around 11 or 12 — those books were like catnip for the imagination, amazing, swashbuckling stories in which swordplay mingled with anti-gravity technology, and adventure and feats of derring-do were always in the offing. Oh, and did I mention the scantily clad women?
There has been talk of a movie version of Princess of Mars for years, but nothing has ever come of it, probably because special effects technology just wasn’t up to the task of depicting what Burroughs described without coming off as impossibly cheesy. At least not at a halfway-reasonable cost. And an animated Barsoom movie, while always possible, probably would’ve been prohibitively expensive, too, certainly if it was going to be as eye-popping as it deserves to be.
That’s no longer a problem, however, and it looks like a John Carter movie may finally be happening. Even better, it’s being developed by Pixar, a film company with what I would consider to be a flawless record.
Sep262007
Five Sci-Fi Movies
SFSignal asks the pressing question, “What 5 Sci-Fi Movies Do You Watch Over and Over?” I respond thusly:
- Star Wars (Duh! And, of course, by “Star Wars,” I mean the very first one made, what you whippersnappers refer to as “Episode IV: A New Hope.” Of course, again, I stubbornly refuse to think of it in those terms.)
- The Terminator
- Superman: The Movie
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn
- The Fifth Element
Given the make-up of my All-Time Favorites list and my tendency to re-watch pretty much any movie I like, I can’t tell you how hard it was to narrow my choices to a mere five. I finally decided to go with the ones that I never, ever turn off if I happen to find them on television, the ones that still suck me in completely and make me laugh, cry, or just keep watching, no matter how many times I’ve seen them before. Even going by that criterion, however, my choices were still difficult. Because having to choose just sucks.
This has been another time-wasting collection of unsolicited trivia about yours truly. We now return you to more productive activities.
Sep212007
How to Make a Good Remake
I haven’t exactly planned it this way, but it seems like I’ve been blogging a lot lately about movie and television remakes. (Probably just because of how damn many of them are currently under development. Anyone out there know of a site that has a comprehensive list of all the remakes that are either shooting now or at least are being talked about?) As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’m generally opposed to them.
I am utterly convinced that studio heads these days think more in terms of branding than storytelling, that they figure a remake is an easier sell than something wholly original because the title and possibly the general premise are already known to the consumer. It’s like bringing out a new variety of Coke, rather than trying to find a niche for an entirely new beverage. But is that really so bad? My knee-jerk reaction is, yes, of course it’s bad, especially if somebody has the audacity to remake a movie that I personally love. (Escape from New York comes to mind, for example; it made a big impact on me as a kid, and I think it’s perfect just as it is, still a perfectly entertaining B-grade action flick. Except now it’s going to be a big-budget, CGI’d, and probably far-less-cool action flick.) I could go on for eight or nine hundred words about how creatively bankrupt it is to approach movie-making like factory work, and how disposable, forgettable, and ultimately pointless most remakes are.
Except… I can always find exceptions, can’t I? I’m on record here on this blog as saying that I’m okay, at least in principle, with updated versions of Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Logan’s Run. I love the original versions of these, but revisiting them doesn’t bother me. However, the thought of a new Day the Earth Stood Still turns my stomach. So how do I reconcile these opposing viewpoints?
It seems I’m not the only movie buff who struggles with this issue. The proprietor of ScreenRant.com has been pondering the same thing, and he’s come up with several criteria for making a decent remake. As it so happens, I agree completely with his thinking, right down to the examples he’s chosen. With his indulgence for blantantly ripping him off, read on to see how I (and the ScreenRant guy) think remakes ought to be done: