Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Since I’ve been out of town at MegaCon, I may be a bit behind the curve on the news that the Predators movie site has gone live. There’s a gallery, a synopsis of the movie and some behind the scenes stuff introduced by executive producer, Robert Rodriguez. If you haven’t seen the site already, it’s worth a look… or two.
You’ve heard me sing the praises [well, write ’em anyway] of Jonathan Maberry before. If you read his first Joe Ledger novel, Patient Zero, then you’re a fan of his work. [If you haven’t read it, you should. Yeah, it’s that good great.]
Maberry’s second Ledger novel, The Dragon Factory, is now available. [Yes, I’ve already got my copy!] Maberry talks about Joe Ledger, and more in a great little interview over at StaticEchoes.com. Here’s a bit of what Maberry has to say:
I always loved the thinking hero, so Joe Ledger grew out of that; and I dug the concept of villains who were smart and devious, and who sometimes used the appearance of the supernatural as a smokescreen. In a lot of ways my villains owe more to the pulps than they do to, say, James Bond.
…the second Joe Ledger novel.. deals with geneticists using transgenic science for ethnic cleansing and to complete the Nazi Master Race program. Lots of monsters and mutations…
The Dragon Factory also has about twice the action –and Patient Zero had a lot—but I dial things way up in the second book.
You can [and should] read the entire interview by clicking here.
FilmFilia scored a first look a the red band trailer and some new posters for George Romero’s Survival of the Dead. Although I’m not feeling the poster or the trailer like I hoped I would, you know at some point I’m going to have to check out Survival of the Dead. I mean, c’mon, it’s George Romero and zombies. Which is, pardon the expression a No BRAINSer.
A couple of days ago I posted about the controversy that director Michael Winterbottom’s adaptation of Jim Thompson’s classic novel The Killer Inside Me received at the Sundance Film Festival. Several people walked out of the screening due to the amount and depiction of violence, especially against women.
The film starring, Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba, Simon Baker and Bill Pulman is set to be shown at the Berlin Film Festival. Of course questions about the controversy at Sundance and the level of violence came up. I like Winterbottom’s response:
“A lot of noir books and films show violence as something which is entertaining… What I liked about Jim Thompson’s books is that… he doesn’t use the violence as entertainment — there is something shocking about the violence… For me that was the point of the violence in the film in a way — it is something very repulsive. In terms of how we depicted it, we were just trying to make it as close to the book as possible. The book is very shocking.”
Although I like Winterbottom’s response, I wonder how I’ll enjoy his movie. There are ways to depict violence that is shocking without dwelling on it or being overly graphic. Some times, many times in fact, the more left to the imagination, the more shocking the result. It’ll be interesting to see the response The Killer Inside Me gets in Berlin.
No sooner had I posted this, then I saw that.
The Crazies doesn’t open until February 26th, but between now and then we’re going to be exposed to a lot of media promoting the remake of the George Romero cult classic about a small group of family and friends trying to survive after their little town is exposed to toxic materials that turn folks into crazed killers. Not only does the group have to worry about the crazies, but also the military that has been sent in to eliminate everyone.
But back to the promotional tie-ins. There’s this article at USAToday that talks about the comic book tie-ins. And this digital motion comic trailer. The Crazies web site is now live and features all of the bells and whistles.
Now all that is left is to hope the movie lives up to the hype.
In our on-going coverage of The Walking Dead moving from a comic series to a tv series… the website Bloody Disgusting reports…
…that a May 15 start date has been announced for the pilot episode of “The Walking Dead”, AMC’s live-action comic book adaptation being directed by Frank Darabont. Shooting will commence in Atlanta, GA.
For the full report, click here. Good times.
I was already looking forward to Turf, a four issue mini-series by writer, Jonathan Ross and artist, Tommy Lee Edwards, before I read this interview with them over at Newsarama. As you may recall, Turf is set in New York in 1929 and involves gangsters, vampires and aliens. Or as Turf is described on the Image site:
A 4-issue hard-boiled noir crime thriller with girls, guns, fangs and aliens.
New York, 1929. The height of prohibition. The cops turn a blind eye while the mobs run the city, dealing in guns, girls and illegal liquor. But the arrival of the mysterious Dragonmir Family from Eastern Europe with more of a taste for blood then booze coincides with a series of brutal attacks on the gangsters themselves. As the gangs fall before the fangs, only a handful of mobsters survive. But an unlikely alliance formed between tough guy Eddie Falco and a character from a long way from New York City – a long way from Earth in fact – offers the humans a glimmer of hope. As the strong willed young reporter Susie Dale from the Gotham Herald tries to survive in the middle of the maelstrom, and an ancient prophecy unfolds, no one can guess who’s going to win the battle for this particular slice of Turf.
I’ve already put in my order for the series. You may want to as well.
Patrick Sauriol at Coming Attractions has posted an exclusive review of Frank Darabont’s pilot script for AMC’s “The Walking Dead”. Darabont, who will also be directing the pilot is perhaps best known for his work as the screenwriter/director of “The Shawshank Redepmption”, “The Green Mile” and “The Mist”.
Saurol’s review is extremely positive and the following paragraph gives the best indication of why he thinks “The Walking Dead” will be a great series:
Contained in Darabont’s 60-page pilot script are all the elements to make the show a success. There’s plenty of horror that happens in those 60 pages. The director’s script covers the broad range of the zombie horror emotional spectrum, such as giving us moments of extreme gore (hey, any zombie TV show wouldn’t be a zombie show if it didn’t have folks being munched on!), moments of shock value (hey, you didn’t think that there was a zombie hiding behind that car, did you?) and the moments that I believe are the best indicator that The Walking Dead TV series has what it takes to transcend the boundaries of being simply labelled a horror show, the psychological horror scenes. Those scenes are the hammers that you’re going to remember and the ones that are going to propel this show to be viewed as something more important than just a scary show.
You can read the full piece by clicking here.
As a long-time fan of “The Walking Dead” comic series, I’m psyched as the television adaption moves closer and closer to my tv screen.
Tomorrow morning starting at 8am EST, the Syfy channel is running a “The Invaders” marathon. “The Invaders” premiered January 10, 1967. I was 8 years old and can still remember that scary, ominous music and then the opening…
The Invaders, alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination Earth. Their purpose? To make it their world. David Vincent has seen them. For him it began one lost night on a lonely country road, looking for a short-cut… that he never found. It began with a closed deserted diner, and a man too long without sleep to continue his journey. It began with the landing of a craft from another galaxy… Now, David Vincent knows that the Invaders are here… that they have taken human form. Somehow he must convince a disbelieving world that the nightmare has already begun.
I probably haven’t seen any episodes of “The Invaders” since they originally aired, but you can bet I’ll be tuned in tomorrow. In fact, I’ve got the DVR ready to record ’em all. I’m hoping that the eight year old in me won’t be disappointed.
AVP Galaxy.net scored several behind-the-scenes photos from the now in production “Predators”. My guess is that the pics won’t be around for long, so if you’re at all interested, I’d head over there now.
If you’re a fan of horror comics, especially the old Warren Comics that featured Uncle Creepy, you owe it to yourself to check out this cool 2 minute 35 second video. It might even inspire you to search out some of the old comics or to check out what Dark Horse is doing with the character these days.
Thanks to Harry @ AICN for the link.
Since many of the folks that drop by here are fans of zombie movies, I thought that they [and hopefully you are part of “they”] would get a kick out of this short humorous take on two guys hoping to survive a zombie outbreak. Without further adieu I give you Sketch of the Dead.
Here’s the latest poster for the soon-to-be-released vampire movie with a twist, Daybreakers. I like the new spin that vampires out number humans.
Daybreakers looks like it will be a fun couple of hours. If you’d like to see a big-as-vampires-are-popular version of this poster then click over and check out IMPAwards.com version.
Although I’m still holding on to hope that the remake of George Romero’s “The Crazies” will be worthy, I’m not too crazy about the poster above. If you want to see an insanely large version then click on over to IMPAwards.com.
