Vin Diesel Posts New Riddick Photo
Vin Diesel just posted a new photo of himself as Riddick. The photo above is just a close-up of the image. You can see the full photo at Diesel’s Facebook page.
“Cecilla” Covered by the Skeleton Crew Motion Pictures Quartet
I asked always liked the song “Cecilla” by Simon & Garfunkel. I even like this version by the Skeleton Crew Motion Pictures Quartet.
Oh, and if you liked this video, you might want to check out the making of video for the, uh, video.
Guy Pearce, Iron Man 3 & a Suggested Role
I’m a Guy Pearce fan. He may be the most under-rated actor today. Pearce is always good and brings something different to each role.
So, I’m glad to see Guy Pearce is going to be in Iron Man 3. That’s definitely a plus.
Looking at this poster though, the first thing that went through my mind was, if I was casting an updated Miami Vice, I know who would play Sonny Crockett.
New “Dead Man Down” Posters
I like this poster for Dead Man Down.
If I would make any suggestion, it would be to have a smaller version of the “falling man” figure that appears in this poster for Dead Man Down “falling” along the right side of this poster. But then again, that might make it too busy.
If you’d like to see a Dead Man Down Up-sized version of this poster, you can thanks to IMPAwards.
Josh Brolin Knows a Dame to Kill For
Robert Rodriguez recently sent out a couple of on-set photos taken during the filming of Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.
This one of Josh Brolin playing Dwight, reminds me of how much I’d love Frank Miller to do a new Sin City yarn, and how happy I’ll be when October 4, 2013 rolls around.
Thanks and a tip o’ Rodriguez’s cowboy hat to CBR.com.
How Well Do You Know Your US Presidents?
I was happy getting 13 out of 16 questions right on the Buzzfeed Presidential Trivia Quiz. If you want to see how well you’d do, then give it a try.
Thanks and a 21 gun salute to Neatorama for the original link.
Evan Bryce Knocks It Out of the Park with Rocky
This week we have the return of Evan Bryce Cranston with an unexpected addition to my Stallone Sketch Collection. To help celebrate Valentine’s Day and to have some fun for those that follow Evan’s Art Blog, Evan decided to have a random drawing and the winner would receive a specially created piece of art for a Valentine’s Day card.
The random number generator pushed out my number and I ended up winning this awesome Rocky piece. It’s a, uh, knockout!
Check out Evan’s site and say, “Hi.” He’s not only a talented artist but a great guy.
Thanks Evan!
The Top Ten Unsolved Murders
Who doesn’t like a good mystery? Especially if it is a murder mystery.
Smashing Lists posted their choices for the Top Ten Unsolved Crimes… all of which involved murder. Here are my thoughts about each…
10. The Zodiac Killer – I would have placed the Zodiac Killer much higher on the list.
- Not only did the Zodiac Killer murder at least 7 people, he wrote notes to newspapers taunting the police even as his killing streak continued.
- The Zodiac Killer was the inspiration for many movie serial killers with my favorite being The Scorpio Killer played by Andrew Robinson in Dirty Harry.
- Unfortunately, there was no real life Harry Callahan to bring down The Zodiac Killer, so we may never know his true identity.
09. The Murder of Edgar Allan Poe – This would not have even made my list.
- No one is sure what killed Poe. Note that I said what, not who.
- Poe’s death has been attributed to everything from heart disease to rabies. Murder? Maybe, maybe not.
- So if we’re not sure he was killed, should Poe’s death be part of a list of the top ten unsolved murders? No mystery to my answer — I say, “No.”
08. The Tylenol Poisonings – In 1982, seven people mysteriously died after taking Tylenol.
- Once the link to Tylenol was found, Johnson & Johnson recalled over 31 million bottles of their product nationwide, issued warnings and offered a $100,000 reward.
- The seven deaths caused a national alarm and eventually led to the development of tamper-proof packaging.
- Despite the reward and the involvement of the FBI, the Tylenol Killer was never found.
07. The Murder of JonBenet Ramsey – Six year old JonBenet Ramsey was found in the basement of the family home more than seven hours after she had been reported missing.
- JonBenet had been the victim of blunt force trauma to the head and died of strangulation.
- Immediate suspects included her father, her mother and her brother and this was leaked to the media. A ransom note was found and there was speculation that JonBenet’s mother wrote it.
- The local police bungled the investigation and JonBenet’s killer was never found.
06. The Murder of the Black Dahlia – Elizabeth Short aka the Black Dahlia wanted to be a famous actress. Although she became famous, it was because she was the victim of one of the most infamous murders of all time.
- Short’s nude body was found on a residential street cut in half and drained of all blood.
- Hundreds of men were questioned but the murderer was never caught. Investigations continue to this day.
- I would have placed The Murder of the Black Dahlia higher on the list.
05. The Murder of Tupac Shakur – Tupac Shakur gained fame as a former gang member who became a rapper and was branching out into acting.
- Shakur never backed away from his gang affiliations and was gunned down in a drive-by shooting that came after an earlier gang-related altercation the same evening.
- Tupac’s murderer(s) were never identified.
04. The Lizzie Borden Murders – Over 100 years later, the chant: “Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks, upon seeing what she’d done, she gave her father forty-one” is still known.
- Although the counts are wrong and Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the murders, the chant isn’t too far off from the truth. Or is it? Did Lizzie Borden really kill her parents?
- We may never know and that’s why The Lizzie Borden Murders deserves it’s place on this list.
03. Jack the Stripper – Did you know that in the 1960’s there was a serial killer the press named Jack the Stripper because he killed at least 6 prostitutes and left them nude?
- I didn’t either. Perhaps then, this case shouldn’t have made the list. How famous can it be, if we didn’t know about it?
02. The Assassination of Oscar Romero – On March 24, 1980, Oscar Romero, an El Savadorian priest who spoke out against the ruling powers was shot and killed in El Salvidor. His killer was never identified.
01. Jack the Ripper – The most famous of all serial killers.
- For three years, Jack the Ripper killed and mutilated his victims and taunted the police through his letters to newspapers.
- Jack the Ripper inspired scores of movies, books and perhaps serial killers and definitely deserves the top spot.
Had I made the list, I would have included The Assassination of President Kennedy and The Killing of Jimmy Hoffa.
Some may argue that the Kennedy assassination was solved with the capture of Lee Harvey Oswald, I would say that due to the huge number of conspiracy theories about the Kennedy Assassination that it deserves a spot on the list.
While it is true that it was never proven that Jimmy Hoffa was killed, I think that his disappearance coupled with his mob connections and the unsolved nature of the case would allow it’s inclusion on the list.
So… what unsolved murder didn’t make the list that you’d put there?
Riddick: Pitch Black or Chronicles?
If won’t be long until Vin Diesel returns as in his third outing as Riddick in the aptly named Riddick. Diesel’s first appearance as the character was in Pitch Black.
Not only was Pitch Black Vin Diesel’s breakout film, it was also the movie that put writer/director David Twohy on the map. It’s obvious that they would have an affinity for the Riddick character, and thankfully so did movie fans.
It was only natural then, that Riddick would appear in a sequel. Twohy and Diesel had big, big plans for the character. The Chronicles of Riddick was born.
The Chronicles of Riddick was to be a huge tentpole movie which took Riddick into the Neccromonger underverse. As Twohy explains…
“Had Universal said to us, ‘Let’s roll over, let’s pick it up right at the end of the last movie’ and funded it, we would have ventured into the Necromonger underverse and we would have had a big The Lord of the Rings-style movie on our hands.
The Chronicles of Riddick under-performed at the box office and many thought that would be the last of the Riddick character. Yet, Twohy and Diesel realized there was still a lot of potential left in the character.
They got the rights back and decided to make a third movie. Although this time Twohy and Diesel had a more limited budget, they also had a clear idea of what made Riddick in Pitch Black work so well.
Trent Moore, at Blastr asks…
But imagine what could’ve been if Chronicles had performed a little better. Would you have liked to see a big budget sequel, or do you prefer the current plan for Riddick?
For me the answer is easy. I prefer the current plan for Riddick.
Fast & Furious 6 Theatrical Trailer
Here’s the theatrical trailer for Fast & Furious 6.
My guess is if you enjoyed the previous F&F movies, you’ll dig this one.
Hinkson, Beetner & Robinson
Look what was waiting for me when I got home tonight…
The Posthumous Man by Jake Hinkson
When Elliot Stilling killed himself, he thought his troubles were over. Then the ER doctors revived him. It’s infatuation at first sight when he meets his nurse, Felicia Vogan, a strange young woman with a weakness for sad sacks and losers. After she helps Elliot escape from the hospital, she takes him back to her place. He’s happy to go with her, even when she leads him straight to a gang planning a million dollar heist. Does Felicia just want Elliot to protect her from the outfit’s psychotic leader, Stan the Man? Or is Elliot being set up to take the hard fall? One thing’s for sure: if he’s going to survive this long night of deceit and murder, Elliot will have to finally face himself and his own dark past.
One Too Many Blows to the Head by Eric Beetner
Kansas City, 1939. One story from two points of view: the hunter and the hunted. Ray Ward – seeking revenge for his brother’s death in the boxing ring. Detective Dean Fokoli – hot on a killer’s trail.Ray’s hunt takes him underground into Kansas City’s criminal nightlife. Dean Fokoli lives there full time but he’s on the run from his own troubles. Two men racing forward to collide like a knockout punch.A razor-edged story of revenge, redemption and what happens when you confront the ghosts of the past.
From the creator of Thuglit.com–DIRTY WORDS The first collection from award-winning short story writer, Todd Robinson. Featuring: SO LONG JOHNNIE SCUMBAG—selected for The Year’s Best Writing 2003 by Writer’s Digest. The Derringer Award nominated short, ROSES AT HIS FEET THE LONG COUNT—selected as a Notable Story of the Year in Best American Mystery Stories 2005. PLUS eight more tales of in-your-face crime fiction.
Dig Two Graves by Eric Beetner
Dig Two Graves is a novella-length piece about Val, an ex-con who thinks he has figured out the trick to continuing his bank robbing life without ever getting caught. Except then he gets caught.
It’s not his plan that backfires, oh no. There’s a rat somewhere and Val is pretty damn sure who it is. Ernesto, his prison lover who has joined him on the outside as his partner in bank robbery.
Val stalks the city night on the hunt for Ernesto to exact revenge for breaking the ultimate criminal code: you don’t rat out a partner.
A Bouquet of Bullets by Eric Beetner
From Award-winning short story writer Eric Beetner comes a collection of hardboiled crime tales about losers, punks and wanna-be criminals. These gritty stories bleed and sweat all over the page, but always with a pitch black sense of humor. For fans of Victor Gischler and Duane Swierczynski as much as Cornell Woolrich and Raymond Chandler these crime tales represent the new wave in pulp writers at its best. Winner of the 2012 Stalker award for Most Underrated Author, a finalist in the Derringer Awards, the Watery Grave International and the Million Writers Award, Eric Beetner’s short stories have appeared in Thuglit, Needle Magazine, Crimefactory, A Twist Of Noir, Beat To A Pulp, Pulp Pusher, Powder Burn Flash, Darkest Before Dawn, Thrillers, Killers N Chillers, Flash Fiction Offensive and more.
The toughest part will be deciding which to read first.
Meet Crime Writer/Reviewer Eric Beetner
I first learned about Eric Beetner from his 60 Second Book Reviews blog.
Beetner and I like the same type of books [crime fiction]. His reviews, for the books that I’ve read, are directly in line with my thoughts. So, if Beetner likes it, it’s a good bet that I will as well.
Then I learned Eric Beetner was a writer of crime fiction and his books were all getting 5 star reviews. Now I was intrigued. So I bookmarked Beetner’s blog.
Next I discovered this trailer for Beetner’s The Devil Doesn’t Want Me. Nice.
So the other night I broke down and ordered Beetner’s Dig Two Graves; One Too Many Blows to the Head and A Bouquet of Bullets.
Well played, Eric Beetner. Well played.
Are Drive-Ins Making a Comeback?
It’s no secret that I love drive-in theaters. Most people my age, do… or did. I say did because there aren’t many left [drive-ins, not people my age].
The fact that there aren’t many drive-ins around these days is no surprise. The year I was born, 1958, was the peak for drive-in theaters in the United States. Since then, drive-ins have been on the decline. But, believe it or not, a little over 350 drive-in theaters are still hanging in there.
The real surprising news is that some of these remaining drive-in theaters are upgrading to digital technology. Could this be the start of a comeback?
My guess is no. But I’d love it if I was wrong.
Jerry Gaylord Goes a Round with Rocky
Jerry Gaylord aka The Franchize makes his second, but not his last appearance in my Stallone Sketch Gallery with his take on Sly as Rocky.
I highly recommend Jerry to all sketch collectors. He quickly responds to e-mails, his turnaround time is quick and he packages the art to ensure it arrives safely.
To check out more of Jerry’s art, head here. – Craig
New “Riddick” Photo
Here’s the most recent Vin Diesel posting of himself in character as Riddick.
Riddick opens September 6, 2013!
