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.

• via USPS press release

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

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

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.

• Uniqlo via Offworld and Kotaku

Michel Ancel says sequel game is in pre-production.

[UPDATE] Ubisoft officially confirmed the game with a teaser trailer! May 28, 2008

Click here to view the embedded video.

Knighted video game designer Michel Ancel revealed in an interview with JeuxVideo that a sequel to the critically- acclaimed commercial failure Beyond Good & Evil is currently in pre-production. A team of 10 to 12 people are working on the game, and for some head-scratching reason Ubisoft is not yet giving the full green-light for the project to go into real production phase. BG&E may have been a commercial failure but scour the nets and you’ll find legions of fans that are still joining the party after finding the gem of a game in bargain-bins– and those remaining copies are fast drying up; should you want yours, I suggest running to your nearest retailer (bonus hint: it was released in 2003 for the PS2, Xbox, Gamecube and Windows PC).

Anyway, make this game Ubisoft! No dilly-dallyin’! Re-release the first BG&E (so the rest of the world can play the increasingly hard-to-find title) with a coupon for the sequel, bundle the first game when the sequel comes out, whatever, just don’t let it die in a basement somewhere, ‘kay? The way I see it is, even if you move it to production now, it’ll still be 2 years too long for us players to get to it in stores, so chop-chop, I say!

Imagine, a remake of the first game on the Wii, like Capcom did for Okami (just make sure to do something more than just shake-motions like you did for the Prince of Persia 2 remake for the Wii, Ubisoft! — I can see it now, the Dai-jo-wielding, the picture-taking are perfect for the Wii-mote), and the sequel on all current-gen platforms – Wii, PS3, Xbox360 – plus the PS2 (since it looks like it’ll be around for another 5 years).

As adventure games go, BG&E is one of the finest I’ve played, and just to give you an idea, let me say this: when I upgraded from my Gamecube to the Wii (otherwise known as “Gamecube 1.5″) I traded/sold/gave away all of my ‘cube games except BG&E and Legend of Zelda: Windwaker. Sure the story’s been done before (uncovering the workings of a government conspiracy beyond measure) but sneaking around as a journalist with a camera and infiltrating restrticted areas hasn’t been this much fun since trying to get into the girls’ changing room! I kid, I kid (for that you’d have to play Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater – you’ll know what I’m talking about). Plus, in BG&E you get a walking, talking pig as a sidekick! (watch the trailer below – no pigs in it, though – and a link to a thoughtful review from way back when in 2004.)

• Review at Idle Thumbs
• news via JeuxVideo(orig source) and Kotaku

Trailer for Beyond Good and Evil from Ubisoft

Click here to view the embedded video.

Toys at The Korea Society, CG test footage of 'Robot Taekwon V'

Just as The Korea Society opens a new exhibit on 70’s and 80’s toys from Korea with the Taekwondo-style butt-kicking giant robot Taekwon V as its centerpiece today, there’s news that the animated feature film will be made into a live-action/CG film to be released in August, 2009 (Test CG footage looks awesome! read on).

First, straight from The Korea Society’s website:

“Toys – always more meaningful than the simple playthings they appear to be – can embody the fantasies, values, obsessions and anxieties of a generation. Toy Stories: Souvenirs from Korean Childhood includes a veritable toy box of over 90 flamboyantly colored action figures, robots, miniature tanks and paper dolls from 1970’s and 1980’s Korea.”

So the exhibit will have more than just action figures and robots for boys, but also girls’ toys and dolls too. Being that Korea’s growing industrialization made new things possible in the country for the first time during that period, it would be interesting to see just what got kids excited back when there was no Guitar Hero or PlayStation. Here’s some key proceedings tied to the show:

• The opening reception for the exhibit is today at 5:30 PM
• Exhibit runs through April 18
• “Gallery Talk” (lecture): “Our Toys Our Selves: Robot Taekwon V and South Korean Identity” on February 7
• Film screening of animated feature Robot Taekwon V (2007, Digitally restored from original 1976 prints) on March 18

The film was the first Korean animated feature – ever. While original prints were long thought to have been destroyed by fire, a print was later found in one of KOFIC’s (Korean Film Council) off-site storage warehouses, was digitally restored in a 3-year-long process and re-released in 2007 to theaters across the nation in a very successful run.

Second, the live-action/CG adaptation. With Shin Cine(씬씨네) pouring 20 billion Korean Won (more than $20 million US) into the production, and CG/visuals done by (count ‘em!) 5 Korean VFX companies they’re going all-out on this one. Twitch does remind us that releasing in 2009 means it will “go head-to-head with The Transformers 2 in the Korean market.” YTN (Korea’s CNN) cites the movie will be based on the webcomic series “V” but will be a completely separate(different) work, and that the screenplay is in its final drafts. Won Shin-yeon of A Bloody Aria and Seven Days will direct, and in the YTN newscast, Won says

“Though it’s hard to be moved to awe or tears with technology, robots, I want to try doing that with Taekwon V, and I’m confident it will be possible with this.”

V webcomic. The top text reads, "I haven't lost yet."

In the webcomic, Hoon, who at the time of the original animation in 1976 was a young man, is now a 50-something years-old powerless paper-pusher that joins forces with Robot Taekwon V when it (he?) resurrects to fight off an impending evil. The series was produced by comic artist Jaepigaru and Robot Taekwon V, Inc. (yes, amazingly there’s a whole company just for one animated character).

You can watch test CG-render footage in the video below (or click here if it doesn’t work). Let’s hope its historical significance and national-fanbase backing culminates in something much less cringe-inducing than the cg-craptastic flop that was D-War.

• Toy Stories Exhibit, Korea Society
• YTN news video
• Joynews24 article with test footage
• webcomic series “V”
• Twitch

Parties for the 7th and final book release

Summer of ‘07 is turning out to be quite the party for Harry Potter fans — the 5th movie, Order of the Phoenix, opened today just a few minutes before as I write this across theaters nationwide, and now it’s only a week more until the 7th and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is unleashed and children of all ages stay up past bed-time for yet another night. By that I mean just like the movie, booksellers are having wild midnight events for the book’s release and the big apple has a handful of ‘em.

US publisher of the series, Scholastic, is turning their headquarters in New York City (Mercer St. between Prince and Spring) into Harry Potter Place where fans will be able to see a 20 ft. Whomping Willow and the Knightbus along with magicians, street-performers, joining in the unveiling of the first author J.K Rowling-signed U.S. edition of the book and the countdown to July 21, 12:01 AM.

Barnes and Noble has Jim Dale, narrator of the audiobooks in Union Square, and children’s bookstore Books of Wonders has real live owls(!) mixed in with the usual magicians and jugglers.

New York Magazine pointed out one certain bookshop in Greenpoint for their “adult-only” book release party, and apparently there’s much more of that flavor elsewhere too.

Looking back, you realize that the first book was released in 1997, and that for some kids who’ve been following the series loyally, they are now adults — some of them are over 18, 21 and the like.

So, it all begs the question, are you one of them? And if so, which one will you be at? I intend to check out at least two of these parties that crazy Friday night. We’ll see. Me, I only started reading the books five years ago, when I was in college. Still pretty weird to think it’s been that long since, and now it’s almost RLY over. sad.

• via Gothamist

Update: Trailer is out, added below!

Emile Hirsch in full ‘Speed’ gear, Rain (South Korean pop sensation Bi) about to knock Speed out, the Mach 5 car on a crazy psychedelic racetrack, Christina Ricci and everyone else in funny haircuts — it can only mean one thing: Speed Racer pictures from the upcoming Wachowski Brother’s(The Matrix Trilogy, V for Vendetta) anime to live-action movie adaptation. Trying out what they’re calling car-fu - ‘kung-fu with cars’ -- it seems they got the pop-visual look of the 60’s cartoon down pat. The movie will be Rain’s English-langauge debut, and also stars Susan Sarandon and John Goodman as Speed’s parents, Mom & Pops Racer. Gotta love the straightforward naming scheme.

Pictures of Rain, Ricci and more (plus the trailer) after the jump.

• USAToday has the full story and gallery with more pictures.

• via Cinematical

and now the trailer:

The Arrival, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Shortcomings

My picks from tomorrow’s Times’ Sunday Book Review with a bent for the other, miscellaneous and alternative. Hopefully this will be a recurring linkroll that I can keep up with each week. This week of November 11 (11/11!), I choose you, Pikachu! I mean, the Children’s Book section reviews of Shaun Tan’s “The Arrival” — graphic novel, a wordless, timeless meditation on “not an immigrant’s story, but the immigrant’s story,” and Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, his first young-adult title. Also Adrian Tomine’s “Shortcomings,” another graphic novel, about 30-year-old “anti-hero” Ben Tanaka, dealing with his career-driven girlfriend that leaves Cali for NY, a lesbian Korean graduate friend, sprinkled with his penchant for blondes. “The Arrival” has also been picked as one of the Times’ ten Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2007. Link to slideshow gallery

And finally, despite all the other notable books written about in this weeks section including a Picasso biography, an elaborate Star Wars pop-up book, a new translation of Dante’s “Paradiso”… just for kicks… get ready for it… I would like to write about a book review I read today in the review section, of a book written about “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read”, and want you to keep in mind that I haven’t read the actual book, but rather only the book review. Translated from French, psychoanalyst and professor of lit Pierre Bayard gives reason and thought to why he “doesn’t blame us for fudging [about books we haven't read], and he doesn’t want us to blame ourselves.” He apparently says it’s okay!

Just one more reason I think a recap on books we haven’t read yet could become a nice record and incentive to do just that — read more.

All right. Now, choice quotes from each of the above New York times reviews after the jump, plus pretty books covers for you to judge by(!) And just how to talk about that book you haven’t read.

New York Times Online free registration may be required. Click the book covers below to see user reviews/buy online from Amazon.

• “The Arrival” by Shaun Tan – “By placing photorealistic human figures in abstract, surreal environments, Tan evokes the intimacy of an individual immigrant experience without ever settling on a specific person, time or place. [...] Inside [the book's pages], borderless sepia panels are arranged in careful grids. Creases and unidentifiable splotches elegantly blemish many of the pages. [...]
  The effect is mesmerizing. Reading “The Arrival” feels like paging through a family treasure newly discovered up in the attic.” – Gene Luen Yang, author of “American Born Chinese”
• “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, illustrated by Ellen Forney – “[...] is Alexie’s first foray into the young adult genre, and it took him only one book to master the form. Recently nominated for a National Book Award, this is a gem of a book. I keep flipping back to re-read the best scenes and linger over Ellen Forney’s cartoons. [...] For 15 years now, Sherman Alexie has explored the struggle to survive between the grinding plates of the Indian and white worlds. He’s done it through various characters and genres, but [this] may be his best work yet. Working in the voice of a 14-year-old forces Alexie to strip everything down to action and emotion, so that reading becomes more like listening to your smart, funny best friend recount his day while waiting after school for a ride home.” – Bruce Barcott, contributing editor at Outside magazine
• “Shortcomings” by Adrian Tomine – “Ben is a fascinating, maddening character, [...] Tomine takes voyeuristic delight in capturing every gruesome facial expression of a couple in midargument. The author is an expert at hooking the reader without tricks or obvious effort, and you’ll be tempted to buzz through “Shortcomings” in an hour. But you’ll want to slow down to take in the detailed black-and-white panels that casually document the way we live now. [...] his latest investigation into matters of the heart has gently led him to the stuff of more obvious social relevance. In its mood and its analysis of how male sexuality is tied up with ethnicity and social status, “Shortcomings” finds itself somewhere between “Goodbye, Columbus” and “Portnoy’s Complaint.” Eventually, Tomine may have his “American Pastoral.” – Jim Windolf, contributing editor at Vanity Fair
• “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read” by Pierre Bayard, translated by Jeffery Mehlman – “He proposes, and employs, a new set of scholarly abbreviations to go along with op. cit. and ibid.: UB: book unknown to me; SB: book I have skimmed; HB: book I have heard about; and FB: book I have forgotten. [...] After anatomizing the different types of nonreading, Bayard addresses the social implications in a section called “Literary Confrontations.” I commend his advice for meeting an author and being forced to say something about his or her new book: “Praise it without going into detail.” [...] Bayard finally reveals his diabolical intent: he claims that talking about books you haven’t read is “an authentic creative activity.” As a teacher of literature, he seems to believe that his ultimate goal is to encourage creativity. “All education,” he writes, “should strive to help those receiving it to gain enough freedom in relation to works of art to themselves become writers and artists.” – Jay McInerney, author of “A Hedonist in the Cellar: Adventures in Wine” and others