That's Moranic...

I've just discovered some unsettling news:

Rick Moranis hasn't had a job since 2006.

Not only was his last appearance in a direct to dvd sequel, it was a sequel to Disney's animated "Brother Bear", cleverly titled "Brother Bear 2".

Yes, the man who brought joy to millions and starred in such films as "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids" and "Ghostbusters", hasn't had a major, let alone any role in almost 3 years.

If that doesn't depress you, consider this: Pick a Baldwn. Seriously, anyone of them will do. Alec? Stephen? William? Daniel?

They've all gotten work within the past year, hell all of them have films coming out next year. But the star of "Little Shop Of Horrors" and "Spaceballs"? Nothing slated for the forseeable future.

Starred in The Flintstones 2 as Barney Rubble. Rick Moranis did not.

If that doesn't surprise you howzabout this little nugget? Daniel Stern was in a movie last year. Forgot about him, didn't you?

Seriously. This guy.

Sure, Moranis is probably living off of fantastic royalty checks from "Little Giants" and "Strange Brew", but does the world really need to wait three more years before this relatable nerd makes us chortle again at the inherent awkwardness that lies inside all of us?

I hope not.

Sic Semper Tyrannis

So I've made no attempts to ever hide my love of comic books.

I've also made no attempt to hide my love of music.

So when the two come together, oh man it's a beautiful thing.

Last year, Gerard Way, frontman of the band My Chemical Romance put out a comic book called The Umbrella Academy.

As soon as the miniseries was announced it drew cries of: "he sux" or "that band is for gheys" from every corner of the internet.

Then at the begining of May, publisher Dark Horse Comics, showcased the first story featuring Way's Umbrella Academy in their offering for the 2007 Free Comic Book Day. On this FCBD, comic book stores across the country offer special free issues from each major comic publisher to coax people in to try out the medium, or to simply get scared fanboys out of their comfort zone and try something new.

Shortly after the event the praise started rolling in, and people were no longer calling for Way's head on a stake and actually saying, "hey this was really good". Soon after, the Umbrella Academy #0 became one of the most sought after offerings from that year, and actually goes for $10 online now (keeping in mind that this was a book that was just given out en masse for FREE).

Now the name Gerard Way has new weight behind it, not as someone who sells cds but someone who knows and loves comics. His name is now mentioned alongside Mike Mignola and Grant Morrison in the pantheon of "Weird Stories That Are To Good To Be Passed Up" writers. The Umbrella Academy has even gone as far as winning an Eisner (the comic book equivalent of an Oscar) for Best Limited Series based on fan and retailer voting.

The second Umbrella Academy miniseries debuts this wednesday, a couple months after the announcement that the Umbrella Academy is in development to become a major motion picture. Personally I can't wait, and based on the preview for the new series, it looks to be just as over the top as the first.

For a sneak preview of The Umbrella Academy: Dallas in which the now sentinent Lincoln Memorial is assassinated by a pistol packing statue of John Wilkes Booth, click here: http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/Previews/15-604?page=1

II Am Legend?

So rumor has it that there's a sequel in the works for the flick I Am Legend.

Which may be hard considering that, you know, Will Smith's character dies at the end, oh and spoiler alert for people who don't know that Will Smith dies at the end of this movie from last year.

Now don't get me wrong, I really dug this film, in fact I'd go so far as to say I liked it a lot. But this is going to be a straight up sequel, focusing on what I guess would wind up being Will Smith's charred corpse, shuffling around the floor of his basment lab or something.

Originally the plan was to have a prequel (I think I owe George Lucas a dime for using that word), in which we see Smith's character, Dr. Robert Neville trying to fight a losing battle across, as the disease slowly spreads to pockets of survivors across NYC. But I guess this idea was scrapped since the studio would basically be making a pointless prequel since everyone would know Neville's quest was all for naught if they had seen the first film, or second film I guess it would be then.

So instead we MAY (being the operative word here) get a sequel.

Which would make sense had the studio used the original ending they filmed:



and not the second one where, well the Fresh Prince becomes slightly less fresh after blowing up his lab with a grenade.

They could have used the original ending but thought, "nah forget it".

If we're somehow lucky, this sequel will center around Neville's ghost palin' around with his wacky break dancing cousin, and together they solve mysteries and bring down a corrupt toy company. Also, Sinbad guest stars.

But this movie would have to be made in the 80's somehow.

Pulling for it...

So I've always been a pretty huge Disney fan.

When I was little, it was my dream job to work at the Mouse House, and it's always been a little part of me. So as a result I keep a close eye on the stuff going on at Disney, whether it be at the parks or in the movies.



While Disney's newest release might not look like much more than a dog-version of Buzz Lightyear, but to a diehard Disney fan it's a step in a new direction.

Bolt marks (no pun intended) Disney's first animated release after the appointment of John Lasseter as Cheif Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Principal Creative Advisor of Imagineering.

If his name sounds familiar it's probably from some of his other film work, which includes:
Toy Story
A Bug's Life
Toy Story 2
Monsters Inc.
Spirited Away
Finding Nemo
The Incredibles
Cars
Ratatoullie
WALL-E

Yes, Lasseter is a founding member of Pixar Studios. And thanks to Disney's 2006, $7.4 Billion buyout of Pixar, he's now Disneys heir apparent.

Once brought on board, Lasseter along with other Disney execs. approached Lilo and Stitch director Chris Sanders about the current feature he was working on, American Dog, saying it wasn't quite where it needed to be. After not listening to and resisting any changes Sanders was removed and replaced with Bryon Howard and Chris Willaims, two Disney writers making their directing debut.

Bolt seems like a lot of fun and so far reviews have been over-whelmingly positive. So will Disney see newdirection with Pixar's King Midas at the helm? I'm hoping so.

New Star Trek Trailer!

Seriously.

What a week for movie trailers.

While it's not officially online yet, there's a leaked version of the trailer that is showing before the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.

http://io9.com/5088091/first-glimpse-of-the-star-trek-trailer

Unfortunately it's not embed-able but I'm pretty jazzed about this one too.

Not only can J.J Abrams do no wrong. neither can Simon Pegg. So while I've always been more of a "Wars-nerd" than a "Trek-nerd", I can honestly say I'm really excited about this reboot.

New Watchmen Trailer!

It's seriously a great week for movie trailers.



Sure, die-hard fans of the source material are complaining that the term "watchmen" is never uttered in the book and only appears innocuously as graffiti in the background. But I can see the studio wanting an actual usage of the term in the movie.

I think it is better than the name the teams went by in the book, those being The Minutemen and Crimebusters.

Sure the Crimebusters existed for about 5 minutes, but it still counts.

Whatever though, the more I see about this movie the more excited I get for it. Also, this is just further proof that if you put something to Muse, it gets 10x more awesome.



Although thats a tough call, because Sandshrew alone is pretty awesome in his own right.

New Harry Potter Trailer!

So the waiting seems to be more than worth it.

When it was announced that the movie had been pushed back until summer '09, I couldn't say I was excited about having to wait. But for all the looking forward I WAS doing, I have to say the release of the new trailer has trumped my expectaions.



Seriously. How awesome is that?

And since I probably don't bash it as much as I should let's compare:



Sorry Bella, your sad acting couldn't carry Cedric Diggory's lukewarm body away from graveyard battle with Voldemort.

Because who cares about charisma when you're trying to watch a love story?

I'm having Arrested Development flashbacks.

I usually don't buy into hype too much, but could it be that Twilight found my number and the jig is up?

Up against the odds teen wizards > sadsack teen vampires.

Meh...

So November 21st sees the release of the newest book to film adaptation: Twilight.

And I really have to say I can't see what all the buzz is about.

I love to read, and I'll pretty much demolish whatever is put in front of me. So when I heard that this "Harry Potter for the Goth set" was the next big thing, I genuinely thought it was something worth hitching my wagon to.

A little backstory about yours truly: I've always been a reader. As a child I demolished the complete Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis and everything by Madeleine L'Engle (even the obscenely dry Many Waters, and yes that is a pun considering that the book revolves around the great flood of Noah).

I'd blow through R.L. Stines Goosebumps in a sitting. Bruce Coville's fun kid-horror books like "The Monsters Ring" or his sci-fi "My Teacher Is An Alien" series posed no threat. And while we're somewhat on the topic, when it came to vampires in literature I'd go for anything like James Howe's "Bunnicula" and the subsequent "Howliday Inn" and "Celery Stalks At Midnight" to Anne Rice's "Interview With The Vampire. "The Vampire Lestat, and "Memnoch The Devil".

Awesomeness between two covers

So in summation: I was a kid on the cutting edge who knew my shit.

So when given the opportunity to sink my teeth into this already established franchise (horrible pun), I leapt at the chance.

I have to seriously ask why?

I'm more than halfway through the first book in the series which the upcoming feature film is based off of, Twilight, and I can't help but be disappointed.

The dialogue is clunky and the exposition is terrible. I don't care about any of the characters because there is nothing to them. We can buy the mystery about Edward Cullen since he is the vampire whose mystery we're supposed to unravel, but when your main character (here being 17 year old Bella Swan) really doesn't do anything, what is there to relate to or feel for?

She's awkward and shy. She doesn't excel in gym class. She moved from Phoenix where she lived with her mom to a town outside of Seattle to live with her dad. There, I've summed up everything you can learn about the character in the first 234 pages of the book in three lines.

The first person style of narration doesn't help the book much either, as it feels more like slowing down the story instead of having you involved in it, like it should. But more-so than anything, the book is just BORING. We're treated to days of Bella going to school, where she pines for a boy who's a dick one day, and slightly less dick-ish the next. It moved so slow that I took a four week hiatus from reading beyond Chapter 7, because I felt like the book had just become a chore.

Granted I picked it up again today and read an additional four chapters since I was stuck sitting in a parking lot for an hour and a half while waiting for someone, but it was more out of necessity than actually wanting to read it (as I strongly considered taking my copy of Michael Chabon's "Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" instead).

You should probably read this

Working at Hot Topic, I'm in the awesomely pendulumic business of peddling pop culture, and I have to say I don't like where Twilight is leading the youth of today. For how much buzz this film is generating, you'd figure the books could cure cancer, world hunger and the economy all at once, while at the same time detailing your car.

While I'm keeping an open mind, and still trying to read the book so I can see the movie when it comes out, the book is a severe letdown. It's hard to understand why this book has done so well for it's self, not just to spawn a full length feature but also print sequels.

A quick internet search reveals that not only was Twilight not too warmly received but the following books all less so. So much so that a leaked version of the manuscript for the fifth garnered such snark from fans that the whole project was shevled.

The Hollywood machine is a hard one to understand though.

J.K Rowling's Harry Potter has been a grand slam on every front since it's release. Both the books as well as their adaptations have done amazingly well and garnered much deserved praise. It's a safe bet that the remaining film relesases will do just as well, both financially and critcally.

A synonym for excitement: Harry Potter

The Lord of the Rings has been a pinnacle of fantasy literature for decades, and after years of lackluster adaptations it finally recieved a worthy mulitmedia heir while in the caring hands of Peter Jackson.

The Chronicles of Narnia, by longtime friend of J.R.R Tolkein and noted author C.S. Lewis are often mentioned in the same breath when it comes to fantastic all-ages reading. But those movies have struggled to find their audience. So much so that Disney is constantly looking at the box office numbers, dvd sales, and licensing to determine whether or not it's worth it to go ahead as planned on the rest of the films in the series.

A scene from Wanted Chronicles of Narnia

A similar story can be told for Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series. While the books have been fantastically received the film it's self didn't perform as well as expected, and as a result the two sequels didn't even get into pre-production.

So what does this mean for Twilight? Well it'll take a few weeks to see where this goes, and I'm not always the best judge of this stuff. I mean, I'm still hoping for a sequel to Lemony Snicket's "A Series Of Unfortunate Events".

Yes. I'm a sucker

Help me Anderson Cooper, you're my only hope.

So yesterday was a night of firsts. Not only was the first African-American elected as President, but the first African-American spoke to CNN's Anderson Cooper via Hologram.

+1 to Will.I.Am for making an awesome Star Wars reference
-1 to Anderson Cooper for immediately undercutting it with a Trek one

Yes, I think that makes it official.

Will.I.Am is the third black person to impact the Star Wars universe in some respect. He now resides in the lofty heavens alongside Mace Windu and Lando Calrissian.

Wait, this isn't the "Pump It" video!

Or actually, since Star Wars takes place "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away", would this mean that we've JUST perfected the kind of technology that would allow Leia to coax crazy old Ben Kenobi and his rag tag group of wet behind the ears adventurers to take down the Galactic Empire, and we have the Black Eyed Peas to thank for it? Therefore making the Will the FIRST black man in the Star Wars Universe?

I just got the chills.

Still no reply to what Leia is going to do with all that junk. All that junk inside her trunk.

Repo: The Genetic Opera

So two things I love are horror/sci-fi movies and musicals.

There's no way to dance around it. I really do enjoy musicals.

So when I heard about Repo: The Genetic Opera, I was more than elated.

Yes, that is Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The combination of the two genres just made sense in my mind. This was BEFORE the film adaptation of Sweeney Todd came out, and for what it's worth Repo looks like it does it better.

The film releases this weekend, and I have to say I'm a little disappointed. Because, it turns out that it's not getting a nationwide release and is only showing in major cities. Thankfully it'll probably be released on DVD within the upcomming year, so I'll be fully able to enjoy it but for now this is the best we can get. Soundtrack clips online:

Flash in the pan?

Today on MTV's comic book website the "Splash Page" (note the article is missing now), writer Grant Morrison may have slipped up and by saying he could say nothing actually in turn said a whole lot.

Since Morrison's currently involved in a few film properties, and the Scottish-born writer just brought the long dead Flash, Barry Allen back to life the interview turned towards his thoughts on the long drawn out process of bringing the Flash movie to life:

“Yeah, that’s the kind of thing I can’t talk about,” Morrison said. “Yes, I have talked to them. I’m deeply involved in those discussions. I know what’s going down with all of that, and it’s actually really exciting. But beyond that, I can’t say anything. I wish I could tell you. I’m sure announcements will probably be made at some point, but I can’t say anything.”

So by saying he's deeply involved in discussions, knows whats going on with the property, and that there will be announcements made at some point, isn't he just kind of letting the cat out of the bag?

A Flash movie by David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Blade, Blade II, Blade: Trinity) and supposedly/hopefully starring Ryan Reynolds has long been in the dreaded purgatory that is "pre-production", but if a big name creator like Grant Morrison is involved that means things may be progressing.

The List - 11/03

It's hard to believe that it's already been a week, but once again it's time for the weekly pull list from Diamond Comics New Releases:

Final Crisis Resist #1 - $3.99 - I tried out Checkmate when it began publication and it honestly didn't do anything for me. I've always enjoyed Greg Rucka's writing , but the title just didn't hit me. But based on the strength of not only Final Crisis but the various tie in books as well, I think I definitely need to give this one a shot.

Secret Six #3 - $2.99 - After Villains United, and the subsequent Secret Six minis I'm positive that Gail Simone can do no wrong with these characters. I originally passed on this title with the argument that I was cutting back on my comics, but after reading a friends copy of #1 I realized that there was no way I could pass it up.

Terra #1 - $2.99 - Still unsure about this one. I love Amanda Palmer's artwork, but Jimmy Palmiotti's kind of hit or miss with me. I'm curious about the new Terra character and how she'll play out with what's been going on with Geo-Force (especially after the amazing Last Will and Testament one-shot a couple months ago).

Terror Titans #2 - $2.99 - The first issue was pretty strong, mostly based on McKeever's handling of Ravager. He makes her a genuinely interesting character, and I honestly have to say if it was another Titans character starring in this book, I'd probably pass on it.

Trinity #23 - $2.99 - Almost halfway through DC's third weekly series, and I have to say this one has been a success. For the amount of work the teams involved are putting out, this series is amazingly strong. If this was a monthly series I probably would have stuck with it, but it works very well in the weekly format.