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Trailer and Premiere Date for AMC’s The Walking Dead

AMC’s unveiled a four minute trailer for The Walking Dead, it’s adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s comics series of the same name. On top of that, we’ve got a firm premiere date of October 31st at 10pm. That’s right, Halloween night. Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Mist) is the man spearheading the long-form tale of the zombie apocalypse. The show stars Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Jon Bernthal (Shane), Emma Bell (Amy),  Steven Yeun (Glenn), Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori Grimes), Chandler Riggs (Carl Grimes), Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale) and Laurie Holden (Andrea).

The premiere will be an extended 90 minute episode written and directed by Frank Darabont with five additional episodes making up the first season. Episode 2 is written by Darabont and directed by Michelle Maxwell MacLaren. Episode 3 is written by Darabont, Chic Eglee and Jack LoGuidice and directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton. Episode 4 is written by comics creator Robert Kirkman and directed by Johan Renck. Episode 5 is written by Glenn Mazzara and directed by Ernest Dickerson while the sixth episode is written by Adam Fierro and directed by Guy Ferland. If the initial season is successful we should expect to see season two expanded to a full thirteen episodes.

Given what we’ve seen in this trailer, Frank Darabont’s involvement, the cool plotting of the comics and the great casting, I think we’re in for a treat come Halloween.





John Carter of Mars Given a Firm Release Date

Disney has set a firm release date of June 8th, 2012 for John Carter of Mars, the adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ stories, specifically A Princess of Mars. The film marks the live-action debut of Andrew Stanton, director of Pixar’s Finding Nemo and WALL-E, though it will make heavy use of performance capture and CGI. Stanton wrote the script with Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon. Michael Giacchino (Lost, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up) will provide the score.

The date is somewhat weird since it’s just one week before Pixar’s Brave (formerly known as The Bear and the Bow). Glancing at the known release dates for that summer, a lot of the weekends are already taken by big sequels and better known licensed properties, but there are still a couple weekends in May and June yet to be staked out. I suppose the two movies have significant enough different demos to support the move, but it leaves Disney doing heavy promotion for two big films at the same time. At the same time, I don’t really care when they come out, as long as they’re great and I have faith on that count.

The original novel, A Princess of Mars, began its serialization in 1912 and spawned eight other novels and several shorter tales over the following thirty years. A Civil War veteran of the Confederate side, John Carter finds himself taking refuge in a cave after an Indian attack when he is mysteriously transported to Mars. Due to the lower gravity, Carter has superhuman strength on the planet, which helps win him favor among the Tharks, a tribe of Green Martians made up of four-armed warriors twice the height of humans. When these people capture Dejah Thoris, princess of the humanlike Red Martians, Carter plots to save her and her people from their oppressors while winning her love along the way.

The film’s quite excellent cast is made up of the following:

  • Taylor Kitsch (John Carter) – Confederate veteran of the Civil War.
  • Lynn Collins (Dejah Thoris) – A Red Martian princess.
  • Willem Dafoe (Tars Tarkas) – High ranking warrior member of the Tharks, one of the Green Martian tribes, who ultimately allies with Carter.
  • Samantha Morton (Sola) – The daughter of Tars Takas, who has an unusually soft side for her species and must hide it.
  • Dominic West (Sab Than) – The prince of the Zodangans, which is a tribe of the Red Martians.
  • Polly Walker (Sarkoja) – A tyrannical Green Martian who delights in having Dejah as a prisoner.
  • Thomas Haden Church (Tal Hajus) – An ambitious Thark, one of the tall four-armed Martians, waiting for his chance to be ruler.
  • James Purefoy (Kantos Kan) – A Red Martian captain of a floating warship.
  • Mark Strong (Matai Shang) – Ruler of the Therns (descendants of the White Martians) with godlike status.
  • Ciarin Hinds (Tardos Mors) – Grandfather of Dejah Thoris and leader of their tribe.
  • Bryan Cranston – A fellow veteran of the Civil War accompanying John Carter at the story’s beginning.
  • Daryl Sabara (Edgar Rice Burroughs) – Fictionalized nephew of John Carter.

Review: Rubicon: “Gone in the Teeth” / “The First Day of School”

I really want to get some thoughts down on Rubicon‘s first two episodes before the third airs, so this might be a bit rushed and random. I’m loving the show, however, and hope to comment on it weekly provided I have the time. To quickly gloss over the premise, the show centers around Will Travers (James Badge Dale), an analyst at the American Policy Institute in New York City, a federally contracted intelligence agency. The teams and individuals here receive analysis assignments from the CIA and are given the available relevant data and then must find the patterns and draw conclusions in order to aid policy and presumably operation decisions. Will stumbles upon a string of identical questions and answers – one involves four-leaf clovers – in several newspaper crossword puzzles which hint at some kind of fourth branch of government (no, not the media). He informs his immediate superior and father of his late wife, David Hadas, who knows something about the crosswords but doesn’t reveal that to Will. Soon enough, David is presumably killed. Shortly before these events, a wealthy New England patriarch named Tom Rhumor commits suicide upon finding a four-leaf clover in his newspaper, leaving his wife Katherine (Miranda Richardson) to discover some of his secrets. Will soon takes over David’s job and we also learn that APL’s apparent boss is part of a group involved in instigating the suicide. Conspiracy and paranoia are afoot!

So, in a general sense I love the setting and atmosphere of the show. I love stories that let us see passionate people at their jobs, and while Rubicon hasn’t gotten too involved in any specific assignment given to Will and his team, we do get Will obsessing over the crosswords pattern and what it might have to do with David’s death. We also get a glimpse at another analyst, Miles, and his inability to deal with the apparent ignoring of work he did foreseeing bloody conflict in Nigeria. Prior to the series opening, we get the sense that Will enjoyed the puzzles and patterns for their own sake, as a challenge and a distraction from his grieving over his late wife and child, but then a pattern emerges that affects his mentor and father-in-law. Suddenly the work means something. Meanwhile, Miles is too obsessed with the aftermath and results of his work to function properly on current assignments. He actually cares about the analysis he’s doing. The fairly abstract problem solving at the heart of the job proves compelling when the characters (and performances) are so passionate and involved in it.

On top of the crosswords puzzle, Will sees indications that he’s being followed after his first day on the job. As an audience, we know he’s being followed and watched so his paranoia and caution is completely justified for us. We also know that there is some sort of conspiratorial group of men with some sort of controlling agenda. We also see that the analysts have limited control over what data they receive for their assignments and again, what their analysis is or is not used for. As the personalized note on David’s chessboard said, these people are pawns. They’re small players in the grand scheme of things. Important perhaps, but also expendable and replaceable (as we see in David’s apparent death and even Tom’s). I’m extrapolating a bit, but we see that David has a host of superstitions that he acknowledges are silly but he still obeys them fully. This is David finding a way of exerting a sense of control over his life. The second episode provides a glimpse that Will might unconsciously see value in the same path, gripping the rabbit’s foot while being tailed through the streets and demanding that David’s broom (purchased to help avoid a curse) is returned to the office. A key theme of the show, it would seem, is the stifling and dehumanizing nature of an analyst’s job. They live secret lives far away from the levels of government with actionable power. Their purpose is to solve puzzles, find patterns, analyze the data and pass the conclusions on up the hierarchy. What happens before and after that, and even during to a certain extent, is beyond their control. Miles sees that sometimes this is all a fruitless exercise with the Nigeria situation, but cannot unconcern himself with it. Tanya takes to drinking after just two weeks on the job. Ed Bancroft’s mind was allegedly broken by the work. David took to controlling minute elements of his life through superstitious beliefs. Will has taken to a potentially dangerous investment in the crosswords puzzle and perhaps to a little superstition himself. What are these people doing to themselves, and for what?

At this point I have to highlight a recurring visual motif that I particularly appreciate. A couple times we see individuals dwarfed by highly geometric pieces of architecture. When Will first leaves the office before finding himself being followed, he walks passed a large building front with cross-cutting steel beams. The shots are composed with Will as a smaller figure at the bottom of the frame with the large metal pattern everywhere above him. At the end of the episode, even the men spying on Will are shown to be tiny figures compared to the large repeating window panes hiding the empty floor in which they’ve set up their stakeout. We get the sense that the conspiracy is vast and pervasive and pawns can be found on every side. To get ahead of the game, these pieces of architecture could also withstand the removal of one its elements without catastrophe. The same seems to be the case for the conspiracy.

Trailer: The Venture Bros: Season 4.5… or Whatever

It’s about time. The second half of the fourth season of The Venture Bros premieres on September 12th and Adult Swim has been kind enough to release a trailer with a good chunk of footage. The half season will consist of eight episodes and the finale will be an hour long. Check out the trailer below or over at Adult Swim.

Previous to this video we knew a few details about what’s coming up, including King Gorilla’s release from jail, another appearance from Professor Impossible and a Fantastic Voyage scenario. Of course, there’s certain to be tons of new SPHINX stuff seeing as that’s the current drive of the mythology. The trailer shows off a few new enticing tidbits, like the return of Hank and Dean’s past selves (read: clones). Oh, and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch will gargle and spit.

It all looks insane and ridiculous and hilarious as usual, so I can’t wait.

Meanwhile, The Venture Bros: Season 4 Vol. 1 will be hitting DVD on October 26th. There won’t be a Blu-ray until around March when the full season is released on disc.

Trailer: Dexter: Season 5

Here’s the trailer for Dexter‘s fifth season. Dexter’s aggressive involvement with Arthur last season and his general sloppiness in concealing his inner demons catch up with him in combination with the investigation into last season’s cliffhanger. If you haven’t seen Season 4 yet, you have no business watching this trailer.

The 5th season won’t have a ‘big bad’ like John Lithgow or Jimmy Smits but that doesn’t mean there aren’t new guest stars. The big two are Peter Weller (Robocop, Fringe‘s “White Tulip”) and Julia Stiles (10 Things I Hate About You, The Bourne Ultimatum), along with Johnny Lee Miller, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Shawn Hatosy and April Lee Hernandez.

Dexter returns to Showtime on September 26th.

FX Reveals the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Season 6 Premiere Date

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia will return to FX on September 16th at 10pm EST for its sixth season. I can’t say I’ve seen any details on any specific things the new season will feature, but I’d expect Charlie, Mac, Dennis, Dee and Frank to terrorize Philadelphia with more offensive antics.

Trailer: TRON: Legacy

Here’s the big new trailer for TRON: Legacy that Disney has unveiled at Yahoo to coincide with its San Diego Comic Con presentation. It’s fairly impressive though the special effects of de-aging Jeff Bridges are a bit iffy.

Tron Legacy picks up a nearly three decades after the original with Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), looks into his father’s disappearance and finds himself pulled into the digital world of Tron where his father has been living for 25 years. Bruce Boxleitner returns as his character, and is joined by Olivia Wilde, Michael Sheen, John Hurt, Beau Garrett and James Frain. Joseph Kosinksi is making his directorial debut on this one. Daft Punk is notably composing the film’s score.

TRON: Legacy will be in theaters on December 17th.

Walking Dead’s Production Company Also Adapting Chew with Stephen Hopkins Directing the Pilot

Circle of Confusion, the production company seemingly kicking ass at bringing The Walking Dead to AMC, has revealed it is also adapting Chew, the comics series written by John Layman. Anyone who’s been reading it can probably tell how it could be a fantastic show on cable or premium television, mixing police procedural elements, sci-fi/supernatural concepts and a whole lot of wacky mythology. Oh, and it’s often really funny. Deadline also reports that Stephen Hopkins is set to executive produce the series and direct the pilot. He’s previously done pilots for 24, Californication and The Unusuals along with movies like Lost in Space, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers and The Reaping. As of now there’s no word on where the show would potentially air.

Here’s the blurb for Chew: Vol. 1:

Tony Chu is a detective with a secret. A weird secret. Tony Chu is Cibopathic, which means he gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats. It also means he’s a hell of a detective, as long as he doesn’t mind nibbling on the corpse of a murder victim to figure out whodunit, and why. He’s been brought on by the Special Crimes Division of the FDA, the most powerful law enforcement agency on the planet, to investigate their strangest, sickest, and most bizarre cases.

If you’re wondering how the FDA became so powerful, Chew takes place in a universe where the avian flu killed millions of people, which leads to the FDA having to enforce a prohibition on chicken. Of course, there might be more to this than meets the eye.

I’ll also join in with many others and ask for Ken Leung (Miles from Lost) to be cast as Tony Chu. It’s just so perfect.

Full Cast of The Walking Dead Featured in New Photo

Here’s a spiffy new photo for The Walking Dead featuring the whole main cast that debuts on AMC in October. The series follows a group of people struggling to survive in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse over the course of weeks, months and years. From left to right the characters and actors in the publicity photo are Emma Bell (presumably Amy), Jon Bernthal (Shane), Steven Yeun (Glenn), Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori Grimes), Chandler Riggs (Carl Grimes), Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale) and Laurie Holden (Andrea).

Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist) is spearheading the project. He’s directing the first episode and writing the first three. Per AICN the other directors are Michelle Maxwell MacLaren, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Johan Renck, Ernest Dickerson and Guy Ferland. The other contributing writers are Chic Eglee, Jack LoGuidice, Robert Kirkman (creator of the comics), Glen Mazzara and Adam Fierro.

The Walking Dead is based on the comics series. The first season will consist of six episodes and premieres in October. Everything about this looks and sounds fantastic, and the comics are quite good in their own right (though Kirkman’s dialogue is a definite weakness), so zombie fans should be in for a real treat in a couple months.

Take a Look at the Live-Action Versions of Thor, Odin and Loki

Here’s a look at the Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) from Marvel’s upcoming live-action film Thor. It’s like Batman and Robin meets the new Clash of the Titans. Marvel and Paramount are going to have their work cut out for them in selling this to the masses, between the costumes and the whole Norse gods thing. I’m pretty sour on Marvel’s movies thus far, especially with the obnoxious drive towards The Avengers, but I’ll wait for a trailer before writing this off. The talent involved is pretty solid after all.

Kenneth Branagh is directing Thor with a cast that also includes Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgård, Rene Russo, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Colm Feore, Jaime Alexander and Clark Gregg.

At the center of the story is the mighty Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth by his father Odin and is forced to live among humans. A beautiful, young scientist, Jane Foster (Portman), has a profound effect on Thor, as she ultimately becomes his first love. It’s while here on Earth that Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.

Thor will hit screens on May 6th, 2011. In select theaters it will feature post-conversion 3D, for those who care about that one way or another.

Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

I’m often intrigued by murder mysteries and thrillers, even bad ones, because the whodunit elements and frequent dark material can stimulate me on multiple levels. It’s rare, however, those pieces coalesce into a story with something to say or a film that earns its mystery and suspense. Unfortunately, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, based on the popular Swedish novel by Stieg Larsson which I have not read, doesn’t transcend those typical failings. It’s kind of a mess with muddled logic, low stakes and an infusion of superficial edginess.

The story begins with popular investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) being convicted of libel against a large corporation. It’s insinuated that he was set up, but that’s not very important. In six months’ time he’ll go to jail for a short while. This has little to do with the film except for forcing the character to resign from his magazine and suddenly find himself with six months of free time. That’s the perfect opportunity for an old business mogul, Henrik Vanger, to hire Blomkvist to investigate the apparent murder of his niece, Harriet, some 40 years ago. For various reasons, the likely culprit is a member of the Vanger family, which includes some former (?) Nazis. Coincidentally, Blomkvist had been babysat by Harriet as a child, which serves as a fairly obnoxious excuse for bad flashback glimpses of the two of them (in fact, all of the flashbacks are strangely but consistently poorly acted and blocked). Presumably these are meant to add some stakes to the investigation and humanize the victim, but they accomplish little on that front. They do contribute to a major clue late in the film, but this feels cheap as it’s so revealing but also so removed from 90% of the investigative work Blomkvist and the film put in.

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Review: Sin & Punishment: Star Successor

Back at the end of the Nintendo 64 era, Nintendo and Treasure (Gunstar Heroes, Ikaruga) teamed up for an on-rails shooter called Sin & Punishment: Successor of the Earth featuring a sci-fi anime aesthetic and a nonsensical story to match. The game was wildly popular with those who got to play it, and eventually the game found its way onto the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console in 2007. More people got to play it, and one thing became very clear: it’s gameplay would benefit greatly from Wii controls. Thankfully, these two companies have delivered the Wii sequel fans wanted, even though it really doesn’t fit Nintendo’s branding at all. This isn’t a game for ‘casual’ players; even easy mode can be pretty damned tough. There’s no handholding or tips during boss fights, just a very basic tutorial in the beginning. Memorizing patterns, experimenting with attack techniques and good ol’ trial and error are necessary to figure out how to proceed. All of this, combined with the again incomprehensible anime story, can be a bit of a shock in contrast to modern game design, but it’s also a hugely fun throwback for those of us who grew up on this kind of design in the NES era.

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Firm Details on Superman/Batman: Apocalypse

Some firm details have emerged regarding the upcoming DC Universe animated movie Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. It’s now confirmed to be based on Jeph Loeb comics arc “Supergirl of Krypton”. The comics served to reintroduce Supergirl into the post-Crisis continuity. She arrives on Earth via the kryptonite asteroid featured in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies and becomes embroiled in a conflict between the titular heroes and Darkseid, as the latter tries to seduce the not-yet-Supergirl to the… er, dark side. Wonder Woman was also prominently featured in the comics, though it’s unclear if that will remain in this adaptation. Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly will reprise their roles as Batman and Superman, respectively, while Summer Glau is confirmed to voice Supergirl.

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse is scheduled for release on September 28th and will feature a Green Arrow short film. A preview will be included on Batman: Under the Red Hood, which hits on July 27th.

This Time It’s Official: Back to the Future Trilogy Coming to Blu-ray in October

There have been false announcements before, but there’s no question this time. Back to the Future and its two sequels are coming to Blu-ray on October 26th to celebrate its 25th anniversary (which actually falls this coming Saturday). Aside from all the obvious technical updates we’ll see with Blu-ray (and hopefully no ‘improvements’ like digital noise reduction or revisionist color timing) and all the special features that have come before, there are some new bonuses planned for this release. I’ve listed those below, or you see the full list of specs and features for the set over at Blu-ray.com.

  • Tales from the Future: new six-part retrospective documentary featuring interviews with Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Director Robert Zemeckis, Producers Bob Gale and Neil Canton, plus Executive Producer Steven Spielberg.
    • In the Beginning…: Delve into the genesis of the project, casting, re-casting, the DeLorean, sets and overall pre-production.
    • Time to Go: Production stories through the release of the first film.
    • Keeping Time: The score and the songs of the Back to the Future Trilogy.
    • Time Flies: Learn more about how the sequel came about, the futuristic look, the special and visual effects, recreating 1955 and more.
    • Third Time’s the Charm: Learn about building a western town, Doc Brown’s love story, the casting of Mary Steenburgen, the train sequence and completing the Trilogy.
    • The Test of Time: Back to the Future becomes a phenomenon! President Reagan quotes the film, the Back to the Future ride opens at Universal Studios theme park and fans rebuild the iconic DeLorean. The film’s cast and crew take a look back and discuss why these beloved movies live on.
  • The Physics of Back to the Future: A discussion with celebrity best-selling author and physicist Dr. Michio Kaku about the overall appreciation of the science in the Back to the Future Trilogy.
  • Nuclear test site ending storyboard sequence: Storyboard sequence of the original proposed ending of the film.

The storyboarded original ending sequence should be pretty interesting to behold. I never picked up the DVDs of these movies for a variety of reasons, beginning with the manufacturing errors on the first printing, so I’m definitely excited to own these in a high quality format. Now if we could just get the Star Wars trilogy in their original forms…

David Cronenberg Reportedly Attached to Adapt Jonathan Lethem’s Novel As She Climbed Across the Table

This isn’t exactly confirmed, but Pajiba has a source they trust that reports David Cronenberg is attached to direct an adaptation of the Jonathan Lethem novel As She Climbed Across the Table. Any and all Cronenberg news is of great interest to me, so I’m passing it along. The word is that Steven Zaillian (screenwriter of Schindler’s List and Moneyball) would serve as a producer.

Here’s the blurb for the novel from Amazon:

Particle physics, false vacuum bubbles, an alternate universe–this is the stuff of Jonathan Lethem’s novel As She Climbed Across the Table. The tale echoes Alice in Wonderland in its mad tumble through a rearranged reality. Narrator Phillip Engstrand is a university professor who has made a career out of studying academic environments. Engstrand is in love with Alice Coombs, a particle physicist engaged in a bold attempt to replicate the origins of the universe. The result of the experiment is Lack, a very selective black hole that sucks some things into its void–a cat, a pair of socks, a strawberry–and rejects others, namely, a love-struck Alice. As Alice’s unrequited obsession with Lack grows, Phillip becomes so desperate to save his beloved from this empty rival that he risks a journey down the metaphysical rabbit hole.

It sounds pretty interesting to me, and something Cronenberg could definitely work some magic with. Even if it doesn’t become a film, with or without Cronenberg, I think I’d like to read the novel.

There’s no indication when this production might happen, but Cronenberg is currently in production on A Dangerous Method, starring Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley and Vincent Cassel. That film is based on the play “The Talking Cure” and explores the relationships between Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and a female patient who comes between them. After that, Cronenberg is scheduled to shoot Cosmopolis next spring, an adaptation of the Don DeLillo novel. That project is set to star Colin Farrell and Marion Cotillard. As of last September, the director was attached to remake his film The Fly, itself a remake. However, nothing has been heard of that since. There are additionally plans for a sequel to Eastern Promises, with star Viggo Mortensen and screenwriter Steven Knight returning.

Note: I can’t help but think of the Maya Deren film At Land when I read the novel’s title. I wonder if it holds any relevance? It could certainly be considered a “mad tumble through a rearranged reality,” though on a different level than Alice in Wonderland.