The 10 Best Horror Movie Franchises

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Grant Hermanns at ComingSoon.net listed his choices for The 10 Best Horror Movie Franchises.  If you click over you can see when the franchise started, how many films it spawned, how much the franchise has earned and a bit about each series.

Here’s Hermann’s choices:

  • The Conjuring
  • The Evil Dead
  • Final Destination
  • Friday the 13th
  • Halloween
  • Hannibal Lector
  • Insidious
  • Nightmare on Elm Street
  • Saw
  • Scream

I can’t say I agree with all of them.  Also, I wonder why…

  • Alien (and sequels)
  • Predator (and sequels)
  • … Of the Living Dead

…didn’t make the list.  What other horror films failed to make the cut, but should have?

 

ACK! ACK! ACK! MARS ATTACKS CO-CREATOR LEN BROWN LOOKS BACK ON THE ICONIC TRADING CARDS

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Mars Attacks trading cards came out in 1962.  The set consisted of 55 cards telling the story of a Martian invasion of Earth.  Although designed for children, the cards depicted humans and animals being killed by the Martian invaders in graphic detail.  If the only Mars Attacks you know is Tim Burton’s comedy, then you’re missing out.

Josh Weiss, from Syfy.com, recently interviewed Len Brown one of the co-developers of the Mars Attacks cards.  Check out ACK! ACK! ACK! MARS ATTACKS CO-CREATOR LEN BROWN LOOKS BACK ON THE ICONIC TRADING CARDS.

Why Frank Miller Is Revisiting the World of 300 With His New Xerxes

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Abraham Riesman recently spoke with Frank Miller to discover why Why Frank Miller Is Revisiting the World of 300 With His New Xerxes.  Here are a few tidbits…

Did you go back and reread 300 in preparation for Xerxes? I know a lot of creators don’t like looking at their old work.
Oh, I have to refer to it. I’m very, very proud of 300. I look at it and I don’t think, Well, what would I do differently? I simply accept it as what it is. It was very much a product of the time I did it, but it was the best story I ever had my hands on, and I did my very best by it.

But the Athenians can hold their own in the battlefield. Honestly, in junior high, I mostly just learned about them as paragons of democracy and culture.
They were brilliant in battle and they were a culture that succeeded on every level. The Spartans, essentially, became so culturally paranoid that they kind of ceased to exist because they didn’t read. They built for war while the Athenians built for progress. What we have from the Greeks is basically Athenian: the art, the learning, the culture, the sense of democracy.

Any interview with Frank Miller is worth a read especially when it contains (more) preview art.

Lawrence Block’s Eight Million Ways to Die Adapted & Illustrated by John K. Snyder III

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John K. Snyder III has adapted Lawrence Block’s Eight Million Ways to Die into a graphic novel and it is looking great!  There have been 17 novels about Block’s unlicensed detective, Matthew Scudder, and Eight Million Ways to Die is a great place to start.  Here’s the skinny…

In crime-ravaged 1980s New York, a troubled ex-cop turned unlicensed detective takes on his most dangerous case, hunting down a serial killer-hitman, and ultimately coming face-to-face with his deadliest enemy…

Matthew Scudder is dying, one bottle at a time. A young prostitute named Kim Dakkinen is dying too, her life measured out in tricks. She wanted out, had asked for Scudder’s help, but suddenly she wasn’t dying anymore, she was just dead. The former cop turned P.I. promised to protect her, but he failed. Now his atonement is to find her killer. But the secrets in the dead hooker’s past are dirtier than her living, and searching for a killer in a city where everyone’s a victim is a good way to make the role permanent.

 I’m a huge Lawrence Block fan and his Scudder novels are my favorite Block yarns.  I’m looking forward to Snyder’s adaptation.  If you’re still on the fence, check out this interview with Snyder where he talks about bringing the novel to life!

Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Thomas & Mignola Gets the Hardcover Treatment!

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IDW is reprinting Roy Thomas and Mike Mignola’s adaption of Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula in a 136 page hardcover edition.  This was Mignola’s last work before directing his attention to his Hellboy creation.  Mignola is happy to have Bram Stoker’s Dracula back in print…

“I cannot tell you what a relief it is to have this book back in print… People have been asking about this one for ages—More than any other book of mine—and I honestly didn’t think it was ever going to be possible to see an edition, but here it is. Thank you Scott Dunbier and IDW… One of the very few older jobs I’m still pretty proud of.”

Source: Bleeding Cool.

‘Thief’: How Michael Mann’s Cinema Debut Stole the World’s Attention

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Thief: How Michael Mann’s Cinema Debut Stole the World’s Attention.  That’s right, amigos, Michael Mann’s Thief gets the Cinephilia & Beyond treatment.

Click on the link and you’ll find…

  • Mann’s final draft script for Thief
  • Thief the first heist video
  • James Caan on Thief
  • Omar Ahmed’s video essay on Michael Mann’s Thief
  • Michael Mann on Filmmaking (video)
  • An Evening with Michael Mann (video)
  • Many Behind-the-Scenes Photos
  • and more!

The 10 Best 70s Horror Movies

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Guy Vizard came up with The 10 Best 70s Horror Movies for ComingSoon.net.  Vizard’s list is a good one.  It includes…

  • Alien
  • Carrie
  • Dawn of the Dead
  • The Exorcist
  • Halloween
  • The Hills Have Eyes
  • Jaws
  • The Last House on the Left
  • Phantasm
  • The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

What’s cool is that for each movie listed, the original trailer is attached.  Fun stuff.  So, what film(s) did he miss and what would come off the list?

In Praise of Burt Reynolds: The Last Good Ol’ Boy Movie Star

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Dan Epstein created an excellent profile of Burt Reynolds for Rolling Stone.  In Praise of Burt Reynolds: The Last Good Ol’ Boy Movie Star is well worth a read.  Here’s a few tidbits…

…even at the height of his fame, Reynolds was never really taken seriously as an actor. Part of the problem, perhaps, was that he was so damned good-looking…

Nobody had more onscreen or offscreen swagger in his stride or a more knowing twinkle in his eye. He was Cary Grant crossed with Tom Jones – funny, sharp, self-aware and surprisingly unpretentious…

And maybe his natural inclination towards fun was part of the problem. Even in his prime, well before all the Cannonball Runs and Stroker Aces and Rent-a-Cops began piling up like a trash strike, he paid scant attention to “building his brand” as a serious actor. The man preferred instead to do whatever happened to strike his fancy at the time…

Now, thanks to Rifkin, Reynolds is back with what’s arguably his best performance since Boogie Nights…

Source: Al Bundy’s Socks.