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Simpsons get stamped, May 7, 2009
After 20 years on television and still going, Fox’s The Simpsons is now the first and only show to be featured on a stampset while still in primetime production.
On May 7, 2009, the United States Postal Service will release 5 stamps featuring Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson nationwide. Matt Groening created the original artwork for the stamps and will present them at a First-Day-of-Issue ceremony in Los Angeles on that day. Stamp collectors and fans can pre-order the stamps right now from the USPS website for home delivery.
Tags: animation, homer, matt groening, postal service, simpsons, stamp collecting, stamps
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Make it right or the fans will squash you like bug.
April Fools passed by without much incident (or did I just miss the hoopla?) but there’s been news of late that I wish was a joke, and some genuine welcome surprises. Unfortunately, this is is one of the former.
Sony Pictures is working on adapting seminal PS2 game Shadow of the Colossus into a movie, as confirmed by both The Hollywood Reporter’s Risky Biz Blog and Variety’s The Cut Scene blog . There’s no expected release date yet, and the project is in the earliest stages of development.
Here come the bad news: the attached screenwriter is Justin Marks, whose only released film to date he worked on is Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. The small ray of hope in this is that Hollywood really sees some potential in this guy and has already entrusted Marks with some real geek fantasy in-development projects like Voltron, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Masters of the Universe. I just hope Chun-Li is him getting started and that Shadow of the Colossus is the last possible adaptation he does, after steadily getting better at the craft.
Shadow of the Colossus had a truly EPIC sense of scale and it does excite me to think about seeing an enormous mountain of a Colossus come to life in properly-done CG on some ginormous IMAX screen. The camerawork in-game and even the soundtrack had a very cinematic quality about them so those are a natural translation to the big screen. But there was also no real spoken dialogue in it, save Wander calling his horse Agro near, so already there is a conflict of narrative devices there. Look around for fans reactions to the movie news and you’ll see I’m not the only one quite unsettled here.
Slashfilm reminds us that Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) once called the game “a masterpiece.” It’s my hope that a director like him who appreciates and understands the vision of the game will be able to whip the “film” into shape, save it from becoming just another “game movie” flop.
- via The Cut Scene [Variety], Risky Biz Blog [The Hollywood Reporter],
Kotaku, Slashfilm
Tags: ps2
Pics of Gondry, Rogen & Chow looking serious since their Green Hornet movie probably won't be.
If director Michel Gondry isn’t a household name in America already, that just might change with this bit of movie news. Columbia has ok’d the Brooklynite Frenchman to direct The Green Hornet, which has Seth Rogen in the title role and Stephen Chow as sidekick Kato. Gondry previously directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, wrote/directed Be Kind, Rewind and much heartfelt The Science of Sleep.
Since the script is written by Rogen and laugh buddy Evan Goldberg, it seems very likely the flick will go in a comedic direction that would upset some die-hard fans of classic Hornet. Gondry is yet another quirk into what is shaping up to become a kind of tongue-in-cheek production. Already I expect scenes of a wheezing Rogen in green tights – resting to catch a breath in between crime-fighting – and sidekick Chow with outlandish martial arts moves (à la Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle). Gondry’s directorial touch will most likely be in the visual areas, though I’m curious what narrative experiments he’ll slip through — especially since Variety notes that Gondry “got the job after presenting a vision that wowed” the production team.
Columbia’s The Green Hornet is set for a June 25, 2010 release.
- via Variety and The Hollywood Reporter
Tags: green hornet, michel gondry
10 noms? really?
Please, also go watch and support smaller, heart-felt films like The Pool if you see it playing nearby.
It will change your life – I guarantee it. NYTimes review
That is all.
Uniqlo teases some new game shirts
UNIQLO, otherwise known as The Gap of Japan, is hinting at another round of videogame-themed t-shirts, coming up in March. Most definitely coming to Japan first, the company teases us with silhouettes of six classic games.
Their previous game-themed shirts for Metal Gear Solid were a little too obscure for my tastes, but who am I to complain − geek is the new cool and everyone knows it.
