International Trailer and New Poster for “Angel Has Fallen”
Today we have a new poster and an international trailer for Angel Has Fallen. While I don’t care for the poster, the trailer is the bests one yet for Angel Has Fallen.
Behind the Scenes of “What We Do in the Dark”
What We Do in the Shadows is a FX tv series based on the movie of the same name. The premise is that a documentary crew is following four vampires who share a house together. The movie was surprisingly good and the tv does a great job of meeting that standard. Today we have a video that takes us behind-the-scenes.
Justin Bieber vs Tom Cruise + Conor McGregor vs Mark Wahlberg – Craig’s Thoughts
So Justin Bieber issued a challenge to fight Tom Cruise in a cage match.
Any way you look at this…
If Bieber did it for free publicity…
If Bieber thinks Tom Cruise is a real fighter because of his movies…
If Bieber believes he is a tough guy and wants to prove it by fighting Tom Cruise, an actor who is more than twice as old as Bieber…
…it is just plain stupid.
If Bieber wants to prove he’s a tough guy, then he should challenge someone known for fighting like say, Nate Diaz. Nate would probably show up at any location for free if Bieber called him out.
How could this get any dumber?
Oh, boy. I shouldn’t have asked.
So Conor McGregor, the former UFC Champion and now also a sports and entertainment promoter has offered to promote/host the Bieber vs Cruise fight should it ever happen. If it wasn’t for the fact that McGregor is already known for saying outrageous things and looking for free publicity where he can get it, I’d say he should know better than to get involved in something so stupid.
Well, at least McGregor didn’t go full on stupid and challenge an actor to a cage fight.
Are you kidding me?
So McGregor has upped the ante and challenged actor Mark Walhberg to a cage fight? For my thoughts on this please refer back above to “Any way you look at this…” and substitute McGregor’s name for Bieber and Wahlberg’s name for Cruise.
I also offer the same suggestion as to an alternate fight — McGregor should challenge Nate Diaz to a cage match. They’ve already fought twice with each man winning once, so a third time would make sense.
Hey! I’ve got an idea: How about Bieber and McGregor fight each other? McGregor could promote it and each of them would get what they want. Bieber would get a chance to prove he’s a tough guy. McGregor would get to fight a celebrity.
The reality is of course that Bieber would get knocked out. McGregor would be ridiculed for taking the fight and hardly anyone would tune in.
You know I started by saying that Bieber challenging Cruise was stupid. I still think it is, but I will say this, Bieber is sure getting the publicity. The news of his challenge is blowing up everywhere. Heck, in all my years of blogging, I’ve never mentioned Bieber even once. Yet today I’ve devoted a long post to him.
Well played, Justin Bieber. Well played.
Sebela and Visions: New Supernatural Crime Series!
Trust Fall by Christopher Sebela (writer) and Chris Visions (artist) is a new comic series that’s worth a look. Here’s how Aftershock describes it…
Ash Parsons was raised to believe she’s special. As someone with a quirk of genetics that lets her teleport things, she’s the golden goose of her family — the foundation of a struggling criminal outfit.
Ash is able to pop out whole fleets of cars and entire bank vaults. But while she can teleport valuables and her accomplices, she can’t teleport herself — making every job a trust fall with her family there to catch her and escort her to safety. It’s a perfect setup, but as things begin to change and the Parsons move up in the world, Ash will find herself pushing back against her golden cage, with deadly results.
Dead Letters’ Christopher Sebela (COLD WAR, Shanghai Red) and Chris Visions (Spider-Gwen, Bitch Planet) reunite for a criminally provocative tale of give-and-take with a style all its own.
If you’d like to see a preview of Trust Fall, you’re in luck because Syfy has an exclusive nine page preview!
McKay’s Used Books and Collectibles Stores!
Today my wife and I are going to do something we really enjoy. Any guesses?
No, not that. Get your mind out of the gutter. Try again?
Good guess, but HeroesCon doesn’t start until Friday. Give up? Ok, I’ll tell you.
Today we’re going to go to two McKay’s Used Book Stores. We’ll be swinging by the Greensboro and Winston-Salem locations. Later this week we’ll go to the Knoxville location. Yeah, we’re used book store junkies, but especially McKay’s Used Book Store junkies.
McKay Used Books was founded in 1974. The idea was that it would be a…
…book store that would contain a wide variety of books that an individual could obtain cheaply, keep as long as they wanted to, and return for credit on other books in the future… Since that time, the brand split ownership and McKay’s was born in Tennessee. In 1985, the first Tennessee location opened in Knoxville. Since then, two more TN locations have been added: McKay’s Chattanooga opened in 1990, and McKay’s Nashville opened in 2007… During this time, the original idea of a bookstore has expanded to include music, movies, electronics, games, musical instruments, collectibles, and more!
We love McKay’s not only because of the wide variety of books, music, movies and other things that they carry, but because we can trade in similar items we no longer want for either cash or store credit. (Give us store credit, please!). Plus McKay’s prices are reasonable and they always have sales. (Where you will usually find my wife.) I love finding books I need for my collection and discovering new authors thanks to McKays. The only thing that would make McKay’s Used Book Stores better is if they had a central Florida location.
“Alfred Hitchcock Presents” Trivia
Jake Rossen and Mental Floss present 10 Facts About Alfred Hitchcock Presents. I love AHP… especially the half hour episodes. Here are my top three facts from a very good list…
5. IT COULD HAVE BEEN TITLED HENRY SLESAR PRESENTS.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents drew primarily from published short stories it optioned from writers. One such author, Henry Slesar, was a frequent contributor to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, the monthly short story collection that had the director’s endorsement. When producer Norman Lloyd realized the prolific Slesar and three other authors had a story in the magazine every month, he invited all four of them out to California for a meeting about writing teleplays based on their stories. According to Lloyd, only Slesar showed up. This was because the other three writers were all his pseudonyms. Slesar ended up writing 55 scripts for the series, the most of any contributor.
3. HITCHCOCK’S DIRECT INVOLVEMENT IN THE SERIES WAS VERY LIMITED.
In style and substance, Alfred Hitchcock Presents shares a lot in common with Hitchcock’s films, particularly the scheming characters with murder on the mind in 1948’s Rope and 1951’s Strangers on a Train. Despite the Hitchcock aesthetic, his direct involvement in the show was limited. Because he was so busy with his movie career, he was convinced by MCA executive Lew Wasserman that lending his name and likeness to the series would not take up much of his time. Producers and frequent Hitchcock collaborators Joan Harrison and Norman Lloyd handled most of the production chores, though Hitchcock did direct 17 episodes over the course of the series. The director later said his supervision of the show extended to delivering “fatherly words of advice without trying to usurp their position.”Viewers, however, seemed to infer he wrote and directed much of what they saw, sending fan letters to the director stating as much. While his effort was not as significant as they believed, it proved to be lucrative. Hitchcock drew a reported $129,000 per episode from CBS and sponsor Bristol-Myers.
8. ONE EPISODE WAS DEEMED TOO GRUESOME TO AIR.
While none of the criminal deeds depicted in Alfred Hitchcock Presents were explicit, one episode in season 7 written by Psycho author Robert Bloch inferred something so disturbing that it was kept off the air by NBC. (Spoilers follow.) In “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” a boy who dreams of becoming a magician is coerced into murdering his stage idol by the performer’s cheating spouse. She convinces him to do it by telling the boy—who is none too quick of mind—that he will absorb her husband’s “powers” once the deed is done. He believes it, and proceeds to saw her in half despite not having much of an idea about how the illusion is actually supposed to work. At the conclusion, Hitchcock makes a characteristically grim observation that the scheming widow must be “beside herself.” The episode later ran in syndication.
Sly Stallone Cancels Keystone Comic Con Appearance
Sly Stallone was scheduled to be a guest at the Keystone Comic Con, August 23rd – 25th at the Philly Convention Center. Unfortunately Sly has had to cancel. See the announcement from Keystone Comic Con below.
Thomas Boatwright, Cobra and Pizza!
Today we have a video of Thomas Boatwright creating a watercolor Stallone as Cobra sketch for me. I was surprised at how much Boatwright knew about Sly and Cobra. As always, I love the Boatwright’s art. You can see more of it here.
Sly Stallone Starring in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” Video!
Most fans of this site have probably seen the poster for Stallone in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. (You definitely did if you saw Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Last Action Hero.) Now, thanks to Ctrl Shift Face we can see what the Stallone Terminator 2 movie would have looked like.
Oh, and if you like the Stallone Terminator 2: Judgment Day poster, click on it to see a apocalyptic-sized version.
Alex Toth’s Bravo for Adventure!
Alex Toth’s Bravo for Adventure is out in a trade paperback for the first time and fans are going to want to grab a copy.
Alex Toth’s magnum opus contains all three of The Genius’s stories starring Jesse Bravo, knock-about pilot and reluctant swashbuckler, including the original graphic novel.
More than forty years after its creation, Bravo For Adventure remains a rollicking pastiche of 1930s high-adventure, replete in the visual trappings of film noir without any of that genre’s existential depression. By this point in his career Toth had stripped out all extraneous lines and detail, demonstrating complete command of his staging and chiaraoscruo technique, and cementing his reputation as the medium’s most sophisticated storyteller.
Also included are never-before-seen pencil roughs, preliminary drawings, and story fragments, as well as Toth’s own coloring samples for an edition that never saw print, and–freed from storage after 40-some-years–the coloring for what was intended to be Bravo’s original 1975 first printing in France! It’s not just a comics collection, it’s a capital “E” Event — the ultimate Bravo for Adventure, published by special arrangement with the Toth family!
Tom Reilly Teams Jack Carter and John Wick!
I usually don’t post any of my Stallone commissions until I’ve received them, but Tom Reilly sent me a scan of the Jack Carter/John Wick piece he did for me and I like it so much I just couldn’t wait!
Tom Reilly is an artist from Mount Desert Island, Maine. He is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, with a BFA in Illustration. Tom’s work has been included in exhibits such as the Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship Exhibition, the Rhode Island School of Design Illustration Triennial Exhibition, and the 2017 MoCCA Arts Festival.
You can check out more of Tom’s art at his website or follow him on Twitter.
The “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” Poster and Trailer are Here!
The Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark poster and trailer are here!
From the dark imaginations of Academy Award®-winner Guillermo del Toro and acclaimed director André Øvredal, based on the iconic book series, comes Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark — in theaters this summer.
It’s 1968 in America. Change is blowing in the wind…but seemingly far removed from the unrest in the cities is the small town of Mill Valley where for generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large. It is in their mansion on the edge of town that Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time—stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah’s terrifying home.
The Best Noir Comics
Eddie Muller (Host of TCM’s Noir Alley) and Michael Kronenberg (Designer/Artist for the Film Noir Foundation) posted their choices for the Top Ten Noir Comics. Their list is a good one as you can see above.
I’ve read 8 of their top 10 only missing out on Crime Suspense Stories (their first choice!) and Blacksad. I’ve heard great things about both and plan to check them out at some point.
My top three (in alpha order) would be:
- Chandler by Steranko
- Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson
- Richard Stark’s Parker adapted by Darwyn Cooke.
If you’re a fan of crime fiction/noir, then check them out. I’d also add one more. That would be Frank Miller’s Sin City yarns and I’d start with The Hard Goodbye.
Shot by Shot with the “Rambo: Last Blood” Trailer!
Samantha Olthof at Film School Rejects takes us through Shot by Shot with the Rambo: Last Blood Trailer. I did catch something I missed in the trailer – Rambo coming up out of the ground during the attack on his property. Check and out and see if there’s anything you missed.
‘John Wick’ Franchise Director Chad Stahelski Interview
Jack Giroux at /Film has an interesting interview with John Wick 3 director, Chad Stahelski. It’s worth a read and here are a couple of tidbits to whet your appetite before you click over…
They call it the curse of the sequel. They love the first movie because it’s original, but by its very nature, the sequel can’t be original in the same way as the first one is because it’s a sequel [Laughs]. So how do you become original, how do you keep the audience invested in what they love and at the same time, show them something new? They want to see it again, but they don’t want you to repeat exactly.
Same with backstory. Halle [Berry] can look at John with the anger, the love, and the look and stoicism and still agree to help, and that should tell you there’s something there. I don’t need her to say, “I love you. We were together for five years.” If you’ve gotta say that, you got the wrong cast or you’ve gotta drop the writers.
Click over and get your John Wick 3 fix!
