Wired.com's culture blog features geek culture news and reviews, from sci-fi to humor and beyond.
Created by jennydeluxe on Sep 18, 2008
Last updated: 10/20/10 at 04:30 AM
Flynn pranks! San Francisco’s Wondercon nerdfest kicked into gear Friday night, topped off by a fake news conference for Tron Legacy spearheaded by original Tron star Bruce Boxleitner and new arrival Garrett Hedlund.
Boxleitner settled into his suit-and-tied corporate alter ego Alan Bradley, executive consultant for Tron Legacy’s fictional gamer kingpin ENCOM. Meanwhile Hedlund, who plays Sam Flynn, son of Tron’s disappeared hero Kevin Flynn (played by Jeff Bridges), allegedly skydived out of a helicopter to the event to bring attention to the loss of his genius father.
The goofy event cleverly positioned attention for what may turn out to be the coolest sci-fi sequel of the year. While Iron Man 2, due May 7, looks like it may be irrevocably marred by Scarlett Johansson and the type of camp that doomed the Batman film franchise until Christopher Nolan reinstated a sense of decorum, Tron Legacy is riding a mounting wave of itchy fandom and CGI upgrades all the way to its December release.
Tron Legacy actors Bruce Boxleitner (at top), Garrett Hedlund (below) and protesters liven up Wondercon.Images courtesy Disney
Boxleitner played his smarmy part to the hilt, to the hoots and hollers of the San Francisco crowd. A series of so-called technical difficulties gave protesters bearing signs reading “Flynn Lives!” a chance to raid the stage. After that, it was all about the skydiver, which was supposedly Hedlund.
Disney’s Tron Legacy fan site Flynn Lives has video, pictures and further explanation of the classic prank. Those looking for embeddable footage can check out the YouTube video.
It all adds up to great theater, and further whets fanboy appetite for Tron Legacy’s arrival. But did it work on you? Do you think Tron Legacy can elbow out Iron Man 2, and perhaps even Christopher Nolan’s cerebral sci-fi experiment Inception, due in July, to become the fanboy favorite of the year? Let us know in the comments section below.
See Also:
Flynn Lives in Tron Legacy Teaser Trailer
New Tron Legacy Image Champions Light-Cycle Fetishism
Olivia Wilde Talks Tron Legacy, Light Cycles
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/i-fsz6B8bXI/
With energized colors, a pulse-pounding score and a more straightforward story tease, this modernized trailer for the original Tron brings the 1982 sci-fi film into the modern era.
It was created by YouTube user DrewboiX, who says of the trailer: “[I] wanted to make an exciting trailer with a modern feel as opposed to its original marketing in the ’80s. I hope people will give this movie a try before they see Tron Legacy. Sure it’s dated but there was practically nothing like it in the day.”
Compare and contrast with the original Tron trailer, embedded below, and a recent retro Tron intro that dunks the classic movie in animated ’60s cool.
Follow us on Twitter: @lewiswallace and @theunderwire.
[via CinemaBlend.com]
See Also:
Retro Tron Intro Mimics '60s Cool of Saul Bass
Light Cycles, Disc-Fu Juice Tron Legacy Trailer
Video: Tron VFX Test Footage
Cheech & Chong Light Up Tron Spoof
Olivia Wilde Talks Tron Legacy, Light Cycles
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/y_1Ce7xLYpM/
HOLLYWOOD — You’d never guess it from seeing the verdant freakscape that materializes in Alice in Wonderland, but Tim Burton’s 3-D version of Lewis Carroll’s classic adventure was conjured entirely within the barren confines of a Los Angeles sound stage.
See also:
Review: Captivating Freaks Populate Eye-Popping Alice in Wonderland
How did one actor — Matt Lucas — play both Tweedledum and Tweedledee within the same frame? What’s the trick behind Crispin Glover’s ability to hover 3 feet above every other actor in a scene? Where did Helena Bonham Carter get such a bulbous head? Answers to all that and more are offered up in Wired.com’s exclusive behind-the-scenes look at Alice in Wonderland.
In the video above, free-associating director Burton explains his “whatever works” approach to making the PG-rated movie, which opens Friday. “It’s been such a weird process…. We used so many different techniques that it really didn’t manifest itself. Shots really didn’t come in, in full, till the very end…. It was a constantly evolving thing.”
Shooting the actors against green screen, Burton says he avoided motion capture in favor of real flesh-and-blood performances filmed through special cameras. The human characters “needed to kind of blend in with the Wonderland world,” the animated director says. “It was like their eyes, them, but in this sort of slightly mutated, or redefined, form.”
See Also:
Alice’s Visual Challenge: Make You Believe ‘World of Insanity’
Helena Bonham Carter Is Tim Burton’s Red Queen
Match Made in Wonderland: Danny Elfman’s Music, Tim Burton’s Freaks
Video: Closer Look at Alice in Wonderland 's Dreamscapes
First Look: A Drooling Alice in Wonderland Beast
First Look: Tim Burton Takes Alice to Weird, Wild Wonderland
First Look at Alice in Wonderland's Creepy Caterpillar
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/_oSw7l69NR4/
The world will get its first look at Predators, a reboot of the sci-fi franchise about a badass alien that hunts humans, during the The South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas.
Austin-based filmmaker Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Planet Terror) and director Nimród Antal (Kontroll) will be on hand for the “first look” presentation and a subsequent Q&A session.
Robert RodriguezPhoto courtesy Twentieth Century Fox“My director Nimród Antal and I are excited to bring this first look at Predators to Austin’s SXSW Film Festival, an event that’s become vital to the filmmaking scene,” said Rodriguez, producer and co-writer of the film, in a SXSW press release. “Austin is my home and I’m proud that Predators was conceived and filmed here.”
A synopsis from the release:
“A bold new chapter in the Predator universe, Predators was shot on location under Rodriguez’s creative auspices at the filmmaker’s Austin-based Troublemaker Studios, and is directed by Nimród Antal. The film stars Adrien Brody as Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors who come to realize they’ve been brought together on an alien planet … as prey.
“With the exception of a disgraced physician, they are all cold-blooded killers — mercenaries, Yakuza, convicts, death squad members — human “predators” that are now being systemically hunted and eliminated by a new breed of alien Predators. In addition to Adrien Brody, the film stars Topher Grace, Alice Braga and Laurence Fishburne. Co-starring are Walton Goggins, Danny Trejo, Oleg Taktarov and Mahershalalhashbaz Ali.”
The SXSW first look will take place at the Alamo Ritz Theater in downtown Austin at 10:15 p.m. on March 12. Doors open at 9:45 p.m. The special event is only open to SXSW badge-holders on a first-come, first-served basis. Predators hits theaters July 9.
Also announced Wednesday: SXSW will present the world premiere of Géla Babluani’s 13, a remake of Babluani’s 2005 French film 13 Tzameti. Part of the film festival’s SX Fantastic midnight section — which is programmed by Tim League, founder of Austin’s annual genre-film blowout Fantastic Fest — 13 will screen at midnight March 13 at the Alamo South Lamar Theater.
From the 13 synopsis: “The thriller follows the story of Vince, who unwittingly becomes involved in a degenerate, clandestine world of mental chaos behind closed doors.” The new movie stars Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Ben Gazzara and Alexander Skarsgard.
Follow us on Twitter: @lewiswallace and @theunderwire.
See Also:
Kick-Ass Movie Will Kick Off SXSW Film Fest
MacGruber Movie Heads to SXSW Amid Legal Fight
Swiss Sci-Fi Cargo, Rock 'n' Roll Vampires Hit SXSW
The People vs. George Lucas Is Really a Twisted Love Letter
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/L96tK4sIeyU/
Creators of web-based video content got the big shout-out Monday with the announcement of this year’s Streamy Awards’ finalists.
Contenders include Felicia Day (pictured), who got a nod for best comedic actress in The Guild, and The Hangover star Zach Galifianakis, singled out for web comedy Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis.
Nominees were picked by visitors to the Streamy Awards site. Winners, selected by members of the nonprofit International Academy of Web Television, will be announced April 11.
Here’s a sampling of the 2010 Streamy Award contenders listed at the official site.
Best Comedy Web Series
Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis
Easy to Assemble
The Guild
The Legend of Neil
Wainy Days
Best Drama Web Series
Angel of Death
Compulsions
OzGirl
The Bannen Way
Valemont
Best Hosted Web Series
A Comicbook Orange
Diggnation
Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show
Know Your Meme
The Totally Rad Show
Best New Web Series
$5 Cover: Memphis
Girl Number 9
Odd Jobs
Old Friends
Best Male Actor in a Comedy Web Series
Zach Galifianakis — (Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis)
Tony Hale — (CTRL)
Amir Blumenfeld — (Jake and Amir)
Sandeep Parikh — (The Guild)
David Wain — (Wainy Days)
Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series
Illeana Douglas — (Easy to Assemble)
Justine Bateman — (Easy to Assemble)
Joanna Cassidy — (Sex Ed )
Felicia Day — (The Guild)
Lisa Kudrow — (Web Therapy)
Best Companion Web Series
Assassin’s Creed: Lineage
Dexter: Early Cuts
Harper’s Globe
The Office: Subtle Sexuality
Weeds: University of Andy
Best Animated Web Series
Eli’s Dirty Jokes
Happy Tree Friends
Homestar Runner
How It Should Have Ended
Zero Punctuation
Best Experimental Web Series
Auto-Tune the News
Green Porno
HBO Cube
INST MSGS
Level 26
Photo: The Bui Brothers
See Also:
How Felicia Day Recruited Millions for Her Guild
Streamy Web Awards Honor Dr. Horrible, Battlestar Galactica
Celebs, Nerds Win Big at Streamy Web Awards
Video
Reznor, Fallon Rack Up Webby Awards
Webby Awards Nominees Rope Together Weird, Wonderful
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/fDZw3eIpELk/
Nickelodeon’s stellar animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender was action-packed, goofy and dramatic in equal measure. But the latest trailer from M. Night Shyamalan’s film adaptation is heavy on the soap.
Which makes sense, to a certain extent. The Last Airbender movie introduces the young hero Aang (played by Noah Ringer), his sibling Water Tribe counterparts Katara (Nicola Peltz) and Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) and surly Fire Tribe prince Zuko (Dev Patel). They are brought together by a global, elemental war to end all wars, which more or less began as soon as the first episode of the brilliant animated series unraveled.
But through all the tragedy, Avatar’s first season was filled with jokes, partially because the conflict hadn’t yet fully turned what are essentially prepubescent kids into battle-hardened warriors. That mirth seems to be missing in this extensive new trailer for Shyamalan’s movie, the first installment in a planned cinematic trilogy. Instead, it leans heavily on dark metal, desperate drama and momentous action sequences.
Stretching out that sort of load for three films made sense for Peter Jackson’s cinematic adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s much more mythic The Lord of the Rings. But Avatar: The Last Airbender’s youthful spirit, which was still on brave display as the TV show’s third and last season came to a close, might be too burdened by such a somber approach. Especially stretched across three films, rather than one.
What do you think, Airbender Nation? Can Shyamalan pull it off? Can we judge the film by this trailer? And are you mad that James Cameron ruined your chance to be called Avatar Nation rather than Airbender Nation? Let us know in the comments section below.
See Also:
Last Airbender’s Super Bowl Ad Unleashes Elemental Fun
Shyamalan’s Avatar Trailer Teases Airbender Nation
Mass Suicide and Panic: What’s Causing Chaos in The Happening?
The Happening: Science Fact or Science Fiction?
Does M. Night Shyamalan Have a Thing for Pixies?
Lost Joins Shyamalan’s Pixies Lovefest
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/gkFiehpdyK4/
Captain America has not yet been cast, but whoever gets the nod to play the supersoldier in the upcoming live-action movie will need to take dance lessons.
Director Joe Johnston says his origins movie, The First Avenger: Captain America, will justify the superpatriot’s stars-and-stripes costume by turning the Marvel Comics superhero into a performer for the USO during World War II.
“Captain America is up onstage doing songs and dances with chorus girls,” Johnston told the Hero Complex blog. “After he’s made into this supersoldier, they decide they can’t send him into combat and risk him getting killed so they say, ‘You’re going to be in this USO show,’ and they give him a flag suit. He can’t wait to get out of it.”
Johnston, whose The Wolfman reboot opens Friday, also confirmed to Hitfix.com that the Red Skull will be the main villain in Captain America.
With preproduction beginning March 1, Johnston expects to name the film’s star within the next couple weeks, drawing from a short list of six actors up for wielding Cap’s shield. “The youngest is 23,” Johnston said. “The oldest is 32. Most of the guys in the war are just kids, 18 or 19, but we want to go a little bit older.” Rumored contenders for the title role include Will Smith, Aaron Eckhart and John Barrowman.
Meanwhile, Chud.com reports that The Invaders featured in the movie will be composed of European fighters and will appear in “the entire second half” of Captain America. This opens up a can of speculation, with Chud.com theorizing that Union Jack, The Human Torch, Silver Scorpion and The Sub-Mariner might show up fighting alongside Cap when the film opens July 22, 2011.
Filmmakers routinely take liberties with comic book heroes, but is the USO angle going too far? Assuming the show-biz shtick remains in play, who is best qualified to play Captain America? And who should be on the Invaders team? Weigh in below.
Image courtesy Marvel Studios
See Also:
Marvel Capitalizes on the Day Captain America Died
Captain America Movie Finally on Marvel’s Horizon
Captain America Lands Titanic Casting Rumor
Wolf Man Director Takes on Captain America
Captain America Returns Somehow, Sort Of
Captain America Sounds Roll Call for Actor, Director
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/Kpvl-MC10Ds/
Geek stars including Neil Gaiman, Cory Doctorow and Wil Wheaton bring to life an xkcd webcomic in a new video (embedded above).
Produced by Olga Nunes and Elaine Doyle, the video is a live-action version of “I Love xkcd,” an animated clip by Noam Raby. Both videos are based on the xkcd strip “Xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel.”
See Raby’s video, the original xkcd source material and Nunes and Doyle’s geek-royalty roll call below.
Note from Nunes and Doyle about the new video:
“Featuring the awesomeness of: Neil Gaiman, Wil Wheaton, Cory Doctorow, Lawrence Lessig, Bruce Schneier, Jason Kottke, Google Zurich, Hank Green, MC Frontalot, Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Mr. Toast, Miss Cellania, Team Genius, Phil Plait, Allan Amato, Maddy Gaiman, Charissa Gilreath, Belinda Casas, Chuck Martinez, Jeremy James, Joanna Gaunder, Lee Israel & Octavio Coleman Esq. of The Jejune Institute.”
Noam Raby’s “I Love xkcd“
Xkcd original
[via Waxy.org and Laughing Squid]
Follow us on Twitter: @lewiswallace and @theunderwire.
See Also:
Weezer Jams More Net Memes Into 'Pork and Beans'
Weezer's Memetastic Video Director Spills the 'Pork and Beans …
Weezer Taps YouTube Stars for Its Own YouTube Channel
Real Geek Heart Beats in Xkcd's Stick Figures
EFF Celebrates 20th Anniversary With Xkcd
XKCD-Inspired Robot Makes Sandwiches
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/mDIpookkDRI/
MacGruber, a movie based on Saturday Night Live’s long-running skit parodying ’80s TV show MacGyver, is set to premiere at the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival in March even as the film faces a legal battle.
The movie, which stars SNL regulars Will Forte and Kristen Wiig, is being challenged by Lee Zlotoff, creator of the TV show about a quick-thinking secret agent who uses science and a Swiss Army knife to get out of scrapes. Zlotoff is working on a MacGyver movie based on the 1985-92 series. Though the MacGruber flick is clearly a parody, Zlotoff’s lawyer told The Hollywood Reporter: “We feel [MacGruber producer Relativity Media is] infringing our rights.” MacGruber was directed by Jorma Taccone.
The film fest will also feature the world premiere of Alexandre O. Philippe’s The People vs. George Lucas (trailer above), a crowd-sourced film documenting fan reactions to Star Wars “special edition” movies and other canonical tweaks, and the North American premiere of Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas’ American: The Bill Hicks Story, which tells the true story of the brilliant outlaw comic using “a stunning new animation technique.”
Other features on the 119-film SXSW festival lineup announced Wednesday include:
Michel Gondry’s The Thorn in the Heart, Jay & Mark Duplass’ Cyrus, Bernard Rose’s Mr. Nice, Tim Blake Nelson’s Leaves of Grass, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs, Shane Meadows’ Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee, Steven Soderbergh’s And Everything Is Going Fine, Mike Woolf’s Man on A Mission, Jacob Hatley’s Ain’t in it for My Health: A Film About Levon Helm, Mark Landsman’s Thunder Soul, Daniel Stamm’s Cotton, Chris D’Arienzo’s Barry Munday, and Floria Sigismondi’s The Runaways.
“It was an incredibly competitive year with record submission numbers, and although we had to make really tough decisions, we are extremely excited about this lineup,” said SXSW film fest producer Janet Pierson. “I’m in awe of the talent on display throughout all the sections. We feel we’ve achieved a great balance that continues our tradition of screening films across all budget lines and styles, and we take particular pride in witnessing the evolution of SXSW alumni as well as the vitality of fresh voices.”
The new films join previously announced movies such as SXSW opener Kick-Ass, narrative features Cold Weather and Elektra Luxx, and documentaries Hubble 3D, Lemmy (trailer below), Saturday Night and The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights.
The SXSW film fest runs March 12 to 20 in Austin, Texas.
Follow us on Twitter: @lewiswallace and @theunderwire.
See Also:
Kick-Ass Movie Will Kick Off SXSW Film Fest
People vs. George Lucas Trailer Arrives in HD
Proof That George Lucas Is an Evil Genius
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/vnu2d8VNcJU/
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, tireless sonic architect of The Mars Volta, will watch his new film The Sentimental Engine Slayer premiere Thursday at the Rotterdam Film Festival. So what does it feel like when a guitar god tunes up his career as an indie film auteur?
Wired.com chatted with the philosophical Rodriguez-Lopez (pictured) about his cinematic transition, dangerous technology, masterful cinema and much more in the following e-mail Q&A. (Don’t miss Rodriguez-Lopez’s international list of must-see movies.)
Wired.com: Congratulations on the premiere. Are you nervous at all?
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez: Thank you very much! Of course I am nervous! Like my beginnings in music, I never intended to do anything with this film besides go through the process, learn from it and then move on to the next. It was only through the desires of others, who saw the film and thought it was worth putting out and sharing, that this project began to have its current life. I have them to thank for taking the initiative and doing the work of submitting it to the film festivals!
Wired.com: How did they make it happen?
Rodriguez-Lopez: They submitted my work through the normal channels, like anyone else sending in a film. There was no calling in favors or use of my name; most people in film circles don’t know my work with The Mars Volta anyhow! So I figured their enthusiasm would just wear off. Now that I’m dealing with the reality that it is getting invited to these festivals, and that the film is no longer ‘mine,’ I am nervous as all hell! Like sending your child away on its first day of school.
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez directs and stars in The Sentimental Engine Slayer, premiering Thursday in Rotterdam, Netherlands.Images courtesy Michael Rizzi
Wired.com: You’re a born performer behind a guitar, but were you nervous in front of the camera?
Rodriguez-Lopez: I didn’t have the opportunity to be nervous in front of the camera. It was basically sink or swim. My lead actor pulled out a week before filming began. Understandably, as he was offered another job that could actually pay him! And I was forced to take on the role or cancel the film.
Wired.com: Did simultaneously acting and directing present any difficulties for you?
Rodriguez-Lopez: What at first seemed like a distraction from my duties as a filmmaker quickly became my ally in realizing the film. Again, this sink-or-swim situation forced me to overcome my fears and actually enjoy living the film in such a profound way with the other actors. It also gave me a deep respect for actors and their vulnerabilities, as well as a practical understanding of how to manipulate them. We all lived in the house together for five weeks being these characters, and in the end we were sad and relieved to let them go.
Wired.com: How much of this film is autobiographical?
Rodriguez-Lopez: I think that everything we do as expressive people is autobiographical, no matter how far-fetched the material may be. If we’ve dreamed about it, then we have lived it. But the film is definitely filled with situations that had happened to me while growing up [in El Paso, Texas,] acted out through different personalities that surrounded me at the time.
Wired.com: How does this film communicate for you the anxieties and dangers of coming of age at the turn of our heavily mediated, perhaps overly sedated, century?
Rodriguez-Lopez: I’m not sure what was communicated, or if it’s even any good or not. I only know that I made it. But I am full of anxiety, and hope for our society. I am also terrified and in awe of what will happen next in our evolution. And I’m repulsed and attracted to technology’s double-edged sword. What in one way is bringing us all together like never before is also separating us in so many different ways. We are losing myth, which is, as Carl Jung, Octavio Paz and so many others say, the very thread of what holds a society, and all its wonders, together. And we’re trading it in for an exclusively scientific, corporate and globalized culture of convenience. As Jello Biafra predicted, “Give me convenience or give me death!” is our new American slogan.
Wired.com: Do you feel that we’re out of touch with each other, and ourselves, in the 21st century?
Rodriguez-Lopez: We have our first generation of young people that are not wilder and more adventurous, but instead much more passive and boring than the ones before it. Choosing virtual life over living. People alone in the squares and rectangles that are their homes, TVs or computer screens, rarely venturing out to do the things that are so readily available online. (Which again, also has its benefits!)
As one of my little brother’s friends once asked me, “Why play guitar when Guitar Hero is easier and so much fun?” How many times have we seen people at a table together, but each alone on their iPhone or BlackBerry? But I guess, in the end, we are together in our solitude.
Wired.com: You’re a film buff. What are some movies you would make the world watch, if you could? And why?
Rodriguez-Lopez: I would love for people to watch the works of the great masters from each country and see how all themes are intertwined, that the core of human emotions and desires are all connected. That, in the end, despite culture and geography, we are all the same. It would also help wean some off of the sugar-coated high that is modern cinema, and find joy in seeing internal conflict unravel, where there is no tangible antagonist. Or CGI explosions, car chases or sex scenes holding your hand every step of the way, explaining every fucking plot point, movement or inner emotion through dialogue narration. Or roller-coaster event film tantrums saying, “This is what you should think and feel when you leave the theater.”
There are many more movies, but this is a good start:
Africa: Guimba the Tyrant by Cheick Oumar Sissoko
Japan: Gate of Flesh, by Seijun Suzuki
Poland: A Short Film About Killing, by Krzysztof Kieslowski
Russia: Andrei Rublev, by Andrei Tarkovsky
India: The Adversary, by Satyajit Ray
Germany: Fear of Fear, by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Italy: Accatone, by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Spain: High Heels, by Pedro Almodovar
France: Pickpocket, by Robert Bresson
Netherlands: Turkish Delight, by Paul Verhoeven
Sweden: Through a Glass Darkly, by Ingmar Bergman
USA: Husbands, by John Cassavetes
Mexico: Los Olvidados, by Luis Buñuel. A Mexican classic, although the director is actually from Spain.
Wired.com: Given your insanely productive solo work, your efforts with The Mars Volta and your films, when do you ever sleep? Do you live in your studio?
Rodriguez-Lopez: My studio is in my home. My sleep is wonderful and loaded with sounds and images, and when I awake, I have the pleasure of passing through my tracking and control room every morning in order to get to the kitchen to eat breakfast. Before I’ve even had a bite to eat, I am consciously and unconsciously inspired and motivated by the fortunate life I’ve been blessed with!
Wired.com: Finally, Wired.com picked The Mars Volta as one of the ’00s finest bands. Any thoughts on what you and the band have accomplished so far?
Rodriguez-Lopez: First off, thank you very much for this flattering gesture. I can only say that, from my point of view, we have accomplished, by way of our records and travel, a thorough celebration of and meditation on the absurd. And all its treasures, which were hidden only by our own shadows.
See Also:
Listen Up! Best Music of the Millennium … So Far
5 Audio Atrocities to Throw Down a Sonic Black Hole
Resurgent Autolux Shreds Sonic Envelope on Triumphant Transit
Polvo Accepts ‘Math Rock’ Mantle With Powerful New In Prism
Tortoise’s Beacons of Ancestorship Champions Smart Sonics
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/x1Pl1eDjpYQ/
Jeremy Mayer spent more than 1,400 hours at the typewriter in the past year, but he wasn’t banging out a sci-fi novel. Instead, he was building Nude IV, aka Delilah — a 6-foot-tall sculpture made entirely of typewriter parts.
“It took over a year to make and I’ll probably only make a few more in my lifetime,” said Mayer, the 37-year-old artist who lives in Oakland, California. Mayer’s creations have been displayed at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, Device Gallery in San Diego and Ripley’s Believe it or Not museums. (Wired.com profiled Mayer and his work in 2008 with a gallery: “Typewriters Morph Into Creepy Sci-Fi Creatures.”)
Mayer uses vintage typewriters in his intriguing artwork, carefully taking them apart and then recombining the mechanical pieces into anthropomorphic sculptures. Parts from about 50 typewriters went into making Delilah, said Mayer, who took inspiration from a friend’s artwork as well as the Bible when choosing a name for his latest creation.
“I was kind of inspired by my friend Brent Clifford’s paintings of robot women in very sexy reclined poses, and wanted to do sexy without slutty — a pose with strength and dignity but definitely with a sexually charged presence,” he told Wired.com in an e-mail interview. “So in that vein I named the most recent piece, Nude IV, Delilah. It was not only a meditation on the story of Samson and Delilah, but also named for the woman who modeled for the piece, Delilah Brown.”
See more pictures of Delilah, and hear more about Mayer’s process, below.
Jeremy Mayer works on Nude IV, aka Delilah, his life-size sculpture made of typewriter parts.
The rules: “It took a little over a year (1,400 hours) to make Delilah. I have a couple of rules about my process: I have to use only connections and parts indigenous to the typewriter — no soldering, welding, gluing or wire wrapping is allowed. Second, I try to bend, drill or cut the typewriter components as little as possible. I do cheat a little, but only serious typewriter buffs would be able to tell which parts I’ve modified from their original form. I don’t tap new threads at all.”
Disassembly: “My process involves disassembling typewriters first, which is pretty time-intensive. You can’t really use power tools to do that kind of work because all the screws are slotted, the slots are narrow and the machines are old and require some delicate handling. Beside that, there are a lot of parts and connections in a typewriter. In eight hours I can disassemble two typewriters and categorize, memorize and store their parts in bins and boxes.”
Look deeply into Delilah's typewriter eyes.
Reassembly: “The reassembly is very time-intensive. For example, to do an arm, I have to figure out first what parts I want to use for the larger pieces that correspond to the humerus, the ulna, radius, digits, deltoid muscle, bicep, etc. Then I have to figure out how to connect them to each other by recognizing existing holes and connections on the pieces and utilizing the myriad other smaller parts (screws, pins, set-pin collars, springs, plates, flanges and such) to fit into those holes and connections.
“When putting a screw in an existing threaded hole, I have to find the right length of screw with the right thread, sorting through hundreds of different kinds of screws. In doing an arm, I’ll go through all of my parts bins and pick out the bigger pieces first, then any of the smaller pieces that I think I may use, then put them all on my bench. It winds up being hundreds of parts by the time I’m done.”
Repetition: “Now imagine I’ve spent, say, 100 hours assembling the first arm. In making that arm I would have to find all of the corresponding symmetrical parts for the other arm, then assemble the other arm the same way, following the same steps in the same order, which isn’t as easy as it sounds. That need of symmetry applies to the whole body, and often requires using two or more of the same typewriter to get it. Since I’ve been doing this for 15 years, I do have some habits and formulas for assembling, but generally every sculpture is very different from the previous one.”
Naming: “Many of them have names because the owners would name them. Usually it was based on brand names or models of typewriters — one was named Mr. Smith, because of the L.C. Smith logo on its chest, and another was named Woody for the Underwood logos all over it. I think the collectors liked to name them because they thought they were imbued with a personality worthy of a name.
“I’ve named the last two myself. Nude III is also called Olympia, because of the Olympia logo on her chest, but also as a sort of homage to the Olympia figure painted by Edouard Manet in 1865.”
You can own Delilah for $20,000.Photos: Josh Miller
Follow us on Twitter: @lewiswallace and @theunderwire.
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http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/E9Nhb_SZkgk/
Next time you’re on Pandora, keep your pointy ears primed for this tongue-twisting come-on: “Ke lu ke’u a nulnivew oe pohu tireapivängkxo äo Vitrautral.”
That’s the ultimate pickup line in the alien language used by the Na’vi — the big, blue, tree-hugging warriors who populate James Cameron’s sci-fi blockbuster Avatar. It means: “There’s nobody I’d rather commune with under the Tree of Souls,” according to Paul R. Frommer, the University of Southern California communications professor who created the Na’vi language for the movie.
Frommer holds forth on the Na’vi language and drops some other alien pickup lines (like “Nga yawne lu oer”, which means “I love you”) in a cool interview with Lemondrop. Another noteworthy tidbit: “The Na’vi don’t have dirty words,” Frommer says. “If you want a swear word, though, you could say, ‘Pxasìk.‘ It means, ‘Screw it! No way!’”
Full story: “Calling All Avatar Lovers — Pickup Lines and How to Talk Dirty in Na’vi” by Lemondrop
Photo: WETA, courtesy 20th Century Fox Film
Follow us on Twitter: @lewiswallace and @theunderwire.
See Also:
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Avatar Obsessives: Read Uncut Script, Join Na’vi Tribe
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Avatar’s Stunning Flora, Fauna Give Comic-Con an Eyeful
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/TqtLRs5n10A/
After desperately seeking a U.S. distributor for his cinematic tale of Charles Darwin’s domestic and scientific struggles, director Jon Amiel’s Creation is finally set to open stateside Friday. But the movie wasn’t held up for the reason you might think.
“I’d love to say that it was a conservative, right-wing religious conspiracy that hampered the film’s distribution prospects,” Amiel told Wired.com in an e-mail interview, “but the truth is a little more complicated.”
And banal: The short version is that, in an age of blockbusters like Avatar and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, few studios are comfortable bankrolling period dramas, even if they happen to be about one of human history’s most important thinkers.
That could change if the PG-13 Creation, which stars Paul Bettany as the evolution-touting scientist (pictured), catches fire with a humanity experiencing a startling loss of the biodiversity that Darwin once famously celebrated. Wired.com spoke with an amiable Amiel about Darwin’s personal evolution, why biopic is a dirty word and much more in the conversation below.
Director Jon Amiel has finally brought his Darwin film Creation to the United States. Just don’t call it a biopic.Photos courtesy Newmarket Films
Wired.com: Why is it we can count the amount of biopics about Darwin on one hand?
Jon Amiel: Don’t be calling this a biopic! I hate the damn things! Chronology is not plot. The fact that a person led an interesting life doth not an interesting movie make, and reverence is the enemy of good dramatic exploration. Imagine this pitch to a Hollywood studio exec: “So there’s this guy. He’s dead and he’s bald and he’s English but he’s really interesting. He goes off on The Beagle in his early 20s and finds all this cool stuff but then he comes back, retires to an English country house and for the next 20 years does nothing much, apart from begetting 10 kids and pottering around dissecting barnacles and writing learned monographs about earthworms and the like. Finally he writes the book that changes the world.” Who do you think is going to buy that pitch? Chronology is the rock on which many a movie script about Darwin has foundered.
Wired.com: Fair enough. What does Creation bring to the understanding of Darwin as not only a scientific luminary, but also a man caught up in historical forces outside his control?
Amiel: I knew about Darwin, but I never knew Darwin. Talk about Darwin and I’d imagine, as most of us would, the old fart with the forbidding gray beard and the dark eyes hidden beneath the big eyebrows. But what I came to know about the man and his life astonished me, and I think it will surprise any who see the movie. You can’t do full justice to the man’s ideas in a 110-minute feature film, but you can do justice to the man.
Wired.com: Creation delves quite a bit into his personal life.
Amiel: More than any scientist I can think of, Darwin’s ideas were directly rooted in the details of his daily life, and cannot be separated from that life. His children, the pigeons in his dovecote, his livestock, the ordinary creatures in the hedgerows around his house were as much, more perhaps, of an inspiration for his work than everything he found in the Galapagos.
Wired.com: Why was it so hard for the film to find a U.S. distributor?
Amiel: The fact is that any independent movie that’s A) about something, B) period and C) a drama is likely to have a very hard time finding distribution these days. Half the studios have closed up their indie production and distribution arms. Money to make these films is tight; money to market them is even tighter. Current Hollywood wisdom is that audiences will not support drama. Roughly translated, that means a depressed and recession-hit public don’t want to be made to think very much, or even feel very much. Creation is itself an endangered species. Americans need to understand that there will be an increasing number of films like this, from all around the world, that will never be seen on a big screen near them.
Wired.com: What do you think Darwin would make of our 21st century so far? Would he be freaked out about our future?
Amiel: No. He’d be utterly exhilarated by it! Nanoscience, genetics, neuroscience. He’d be going nuts!
Wired.com: What was it like working with Darwin’s great-great-grandson Randal Keynes? And from his book Annie’s Box: Darwin, His Daughter and Human Evolution, upon which your movie is based?
Amiel: I was most grateful to Randal Keynes for not just assembling so many of the Darwins’ personal documents into a book that was the first really personal familial portrait of Darwin and his family. Nor just that he gave us access to all the artifacts and documents we needed, and advised on so many technical aspects. It was that he enfranchised screenwriter John Collee and myself to use our imaginations! He recognized that the filmmakers can pick up where he, the biographer and historian, has to leave off. He encouraged us to make some really important imaginative leaps in this film. Without those, this film would probably have ended up as precisely the dry, academic and reverential biopic I so fervently didn’t want to make.
See Also:
Controversial Darwin Biopic Creation Coming to U.S.
Legion’s Tattooed Angel Plays Darwin in Creation
10 Knights to Follow Patrick Stewart and Peter Jackson
Backlash to Ben Stein’s Expelled Revs Up With Sexpelled
Review: The Age of Stupid Gets Smart on Enviropocalypse
At 200, Darwin Evolves Beyond Evolution
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/kH4HLt7r0RA/
With Avatar racking up huge box office sales, movie studios are looking to convert classic sci-fi and fantasy films into 3-D for rerelease.
Star Wars, The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings trilogy are just some of the fanboy favorites likely to be “retrofitted” into 3-D versions, according to U.K. newspaper The Times.
“We can turn an older film into 3-D in around 16 weeks,” Bobby Jaffe, chairman of San Diego’s Legend Films, told the paper. “It mostly suits action films, such as Top Gun or The Matrix, but Avatar proved it’s best to use the technology to immerse the audience in the story rather than throw things at them. This is the new, more sophisticated era of 3-D.”
The process of converting 2-D films to 3-D, used recently with portions of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for its Imax release, is becoming increasingly popular as studios look for relatively inexpensive ways to boost revenue. The Times quoted an associate of George Lucas, saying the Star Wars director will spend $10 million to update his 1977 movie into 3-D.
“George cannot leave it alone,” said the unnamed source. “He is salivating at the opportunity to play with it again. This time the Death Star is really going to explode all over the audience and leave them gasping.”
Full story: “Avatar sparks 3-D makeover for action classics” (The Times)
Follow us on Twitter: @lewiswallace and @theunderwire.
See Also:
Review: Powerful Avatar Stuns the Eye, Seduces the Heart
James Cameron's New 3-D Epic Could Change Film Forever
Blue Streak: Avatar Passes $1 Billion Mark Worldwide
Video:Avatar Mirrors Emotions With Motion Capture
Video: Avatar Pushes the Limits of Visual Effects
Inventing Effects to Create the Avatar Universe
Video: How Imax Wizards Convert Harry Potter to 3-D
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/gllC4iWCp5g/
By Andreas Trolf
Wired.com guest blogger
Like a rusted but still mostly reliable old jalopy, The Simpsons‘ odometer clicks over this season, marking the show’s 20th anniversary with a shiny new coat of HDTV paint. To commemorate the occasion, Fox hired filmmaker Morgan Spurlock to helm an hour-long documentary about America’s pre-eminent Springfielders.
The obvious question is, how the hell can you tell the story of the most beloved (and certainly most merchandised) TV show of all time in less than 60 minutes?
The obvious answer is that you can’t. It’s simply not possible. But Spurlock does a passably decent job in satisfying some of our more superficial curiosities. And superficial is precisely what Spurlock’s documentary is at times. Less a voyage of discovery than a saccharine salute, The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special: In 3-D! On Ice is fueled primarily by a halcyon nostalgia. It’s a largely enjoyable nostalgia, but nostalgia nonetheless.
The special, which airs Sunday night on Fox after Episode No. 450 — “Once Upon a Time in Springfield” — opens with a musical montage intercut with interview soundbites. We see various well-known (and sometimes unknown) musicians covering The Simpsons theme song alongside memorable guest stars, outspoken fans and writers, and producers past and present.
Despite the show’s gimmicky title, you won’t need 3-D glasses to watch the anniversary special (and you won’t be subjected to an hour of ice skating). Viewers may marvel, however, at the occasionally gimmicky production value. Spurlock’s obvious talent aside, one can’t help but wonder what a different documentarian — one who hasn’t spent years on Fox’s payroll — might have made from this rich source material.
Imagine the story of The Simpsons told by Ken Burns or Barbara Kopple: The cheap laughs of Spurlock’s everyman imitation of Homer in Brazil might have been replaced with some insight into the “why” of the show instead of the “what.”
Unsurprisingly, the show is shot largely in the documentary style Spurlock used to great effect in Super Size Me and 30 Days, by which I mean it is often the director himself who takes center stage. We can forgive him this misstep, however, because of his own professed devotion to the animated series.
Director Morgan Spurlock brings his trademark style to the Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special.Logically enough, Spurlock begins with the story of how The Simpsons got on the air. Some 20-odd years ago, a young and considerably less doughy Matt Groening turned his comic strip rabbits into a yellow family modeled on his own. Legend has it that he came up with the characters off the cuff, in an elevator ride up to meet with producer James L. Brooks, and the two soon thereafter began making short and somewhat inane bumper clips for The Tracey Ullman Show.
Talented though she may be, Ullman is now best remembered as a footnote in the saga of The Simpsons. Such is the fickle finger of fame, my friends.
While the show’s history is certainly the pretext for the anniversary special, what really stands out is everything other than matters historical.
The rest of the fast-paced special focuses on the global impact the show has had over the past two decades. The funny thing is that, early on, Spurlock mentions a reluctance to be “too congratulatory” in the tone of his documentary, but for good or bad that’s exactly what this is. We see a rapid-fire montage of magazine covers, original-score albums and merchandising of every imaginable kind (from cereal to Krusty Brand home pregnancy tests).
Next we see celebrities discussing their favorite Simpsons characters. Spurlock picks interesting people to put the show in perspective. For example, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom opines on Mayor “Diamond Joe” Quimby, calling him corrupt and patronizing. Newsom’s mention of Diamond Joe’s “sexual escapades and heavy drinking” especially shines, considering the real-life politician’s real-world experiences on similar terrain. There’s got to be a joke in there somewhere.
Finally, we meet Catholic League President Bill Donohue, who seems to take very seriously the idea that the church is not to be the object of lighthearted joking. Donohue comes across as a hilarious parody of religious zealots and, true to form, misses the point of even the most innocuous satire.
“It leaves the impression in the mind of the viewer,” the serious gentleman complains about The Simpsons, “that the Catholic Church really is something that’s fair game to be ridiculed…. It eats away at the moral prestige of the church.” Yep. Segments such as these could have been readily expanded upon to give us more insight into the actual significance of The Simpsons as arbiters of culture rather than the minstrels they’ve occasionally been turned out as.
Superfans like this tattooed fanatic take the spotlight in The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special: In 3-D! On Ice.Photos courtesy Fox
But more than Groening or two decades of writers, producers, guest stars and cultural figureheads, Simpsons fans get top billing throughout most of the special. We meet superfans the world over, including Glynn Williams (pictured top), who has amassed more than 30,000 pieces of show memorabilia, and others who sport Simpsons tattoos. It’s a testament both to the appeal of the show and the seemingly bottomless ability of the Fox network to sign off on licensed products.
(Licensed products, however, will only get you so far. In Argentina, for example, where copyright infringement seems to be a national pastime, unlicensed products and advertisements abound, including an actual Duff brewery.)
While the fan’s perspective is an important and true one, I’m left questioning the validity of the countless man-on-the-street interviews upon which Spurlock relies so heavily. A guy in a parka believes that Smithers is gay? Really? Homer is a glutton? Get right out of town, opinionated pedestrian!
The documentary closes with interviewees opining on what the world would be like without The Simpsons. Musician Sting phrases it poignantly, imagining a world without Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie.
“Desolation!” he says. “Without The Simpsons, it would be like a Cormac McCarthy novel. Scorched earth. I don’t want to imagine it.”
Thankfully it’s a fate we’ve been spared.
WIRED Hilarious interviews with Simpsons voice actors, especially Marcia Wallace (Edna Krabappel), who appears to inhabit her role with almost superhuman prowess.
TIRED Giving short shrift to anything at all “behind the scenes.” Everyone associated with the show in a production capacity seems to be working the press line. The corporate shadow of 20th Century Fox looms large.
Rating:
Read Underwire’s movie ratings guide.
See Also:
Morgan Spurlock Maps The Simpsons‘ Supersize Impact
Simpsons Still Haunts After 2 Decades of ‘Treehouse of Horror’
Scavenger Hunt, Family Values Fuel Simpsons‘ 20th Year
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/sTlIhW5hOXc/
Talk about your Jesus Christ poses.
On Jan. 1, a new law in Ireland made blasphemy an offense punishable by a fine of up to $35,000. That ludicrous political maneuver was promptly answered by Irish advocacy group Atheist Ireland, which published a list of 25 blasphemous quotes from Frank Zappa, George Carlin and other godless jerks.
We decided to toss in 10 more quotations and lyrics from South Park, Arthur C. Clarke and others — including that dick Gandhi — to stand up for free speech (on the Emerald Isle and elsewhere). But we need your help to rub the blasphemy in even deeper.
Scan our list of barbs that might make Bible-thumpers break the First Commandment, then drop your own in the comments section below. Jehovah, Jehovah!
XTC, lyrics to “Dear God“: Dear God, don’t know if you noticed / But your name is on a lot of quotes in this book / And us crazy humans wrote it, you should take a look / And all the people that you made in your image still believe that junk is true / Well I know it ain’t, and so do you.
Sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke, in a Free Inquiry magazine interview: “It is amazing how childishly gullible humans are. There are, for example, so many different religions — each of them claiming to have the truth, each saying that their truths are clearly superior to the truths of others — how can someone possibly take any of them seriously? I mean, that’s insane.”
Indian leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, commenting on religion: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.”
The Mole, in a scene from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut: “Why? Because God hates me, that’s why. He has made my life miserable. So I call him a cock-sucking asshole, and I get grounded…. Where is your God when you need him, huh? Where is your beautiful, merciful faggot now? Here I come, God. Here I come, you fucking rat.”
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, in a Free Inquiry magazine interview: “We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing, all-powerful God, who creates faulty humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes.”
Death-metal band Vader, lyrics to “Helleluyah! (God Is Dead)“: Smell of burnt bodies / Slaughtered virgin lies dead without the face / Men staring at the skies / Singing lines and eating sand of waste / God is dead! Dead! Helleluyah!
Maria the cleaning woman, in a scene from Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life: So now I’m cleaning up in here but I can’t be really sad / ‘Cause you see I feel that life’s a game / You sometimes win or lose / And though I may be down right now at least I don’t work for Jews.
Comedian Bill Hicks: “I’m sorry if anyone here is Catholic. I’m not sorry if you are offended, I’m actually sorry. Just the fact that you’re Catholic. Gotta be one of the most ludicrous fucking beliefs ever. Like these vampire priests sink their twin fangs of guilt and sin into you as a child and suck your joy of life out of you the rest of your fucking existence.”
Rationalist Arab philosopher, poet and writer Al-Ma’arri: “Do not suppose the statements of the prophets to be true; they are all fabrications. Men lived comfortably till they came and spoiled life. The sacred books are only such a set of idle tales as any age could have and indeed did actually produce.”
Punk rocker Jello Biafra and NoMeansNo, lyrics to “Jesus Was a Terrorist“: Jesus was a terrorist, enemy of the state / That’s what the Romans labeled him so he was put to death / He died for his beliefs; what’s changed today / Today Bible-thumping cannibals reap money from his name / Buy cable networks and power with old ladies’ checks
See Also:
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2012’s Doomsday Predecessors: An Apocalyptic Primer
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Review: Colbert Christmas Defends Santa, Beheads Heretics
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/KN_GPUQeGcM/
Before Hellboy and The Hobbit, Guillermo del Toro made The Devil’s Backbone, a creepy little horror flick set in an orphanage. Now the visionary filmmaker has found a director to helm his production of another kids-in-jeopardy scarefest called The Orphanage.
Mark Pellington is in talks to direct New Line Cinema’s remake of the Spanish-language ghost story, with del Toro on board to produce, according to Variety.
The original El Orfanato details the misadventures of a young boy who begins to play with an imaginary friend who might just be a very real demon. Del Toro served as creative supervisor on the 2007 film, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona. For the remake, Pellington brings credits that include The Mothman Prophecies and U2 3D.
See Also:
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Straight to Hellboy: Translating a Dark World From Sketch to Screen
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/CvejcOiK-WQ/
Arty types get a chance to mash fairy tale imagery with high tech futurism thanks to the Sci-Fi Fairy Tales online contest hosted by Super Punch. Deadline for entry is 12 p.m. PST Jan. 1, so this is your last chance to enter. The winner gets bragging rights plus a $100 gift certificate at the Threadless T-shirt store.
Among the competition’s standout entries: Snow White and the Seven Techno-Dwarves (pictured) by Cormac McEvoy. On his art blog, the Pennsyvlania-based toy artist writes: “I like monsters and robots and mystery. I like gadgets and science and space men. I’m a fan of Celtic myth and general folk tales…. If forced to choose pirate or ninja, I’d pick pirate as long as pirate-ninja wasn’t an option.”
Since its 2008 launch, Super Punch has uncovered a trove of quirky artists. In recent days, the blog has covered topics ranging from Coraline dolls and paper Joker ice cream trucks to A Clockwork Orange pins honoring killer droogs.
See Also:
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Artist Pictures Extinct Bestiary in Late Fauna Book
Fantastical Storyboards Offer Peek Inside Imaginarium
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/jUrxbeFsG0I/
Alan Moore, the influential comics visionary who wrote Watchmen and V for Vendetta, has taken up a new mission for our age of global depression: Bringing back the underground fanzine.
The first issue of Moore’s print zine Dodgem Logic, released last month in the United Kingdom, is an engaging, educational and often hilarious read. The new publication is stuffed with subcultural snark as well as post-civilization how-tos on guerrilla gardening, Dumpster diving and surviving the econopocalypse.
Perhaps most promising, Dodgem Logic’s spirit of triumphant creative individualism celebrates Moore’s individualist philosophy, delivering a perfectly timed message for a world filled with failing states and superpowers.
“This might be the time in which big, centralized authorities prove that they are no longer capable of running the show, or even pretending to run the show,” the always eloquent Moore told Wired.com by phone from his home in Northampton, England. “Increasingly, it is going to be up to us if our culture gets through these next couple of decades in any shape at all.”
Moore recruited local Northampton talent to contribute to his zine, and added selections from artists outside his neighborhood. Dodgem Logic’s modest sales already have allowed Moore and crew to hand out food parcels to Northampton’s financially depressed elderly and buy the local basketball team cool uniforms. It’s the type of immediate reward Moore finds lacking in most mainstream cultural and sociopolitical production, and an antidote to the type of pure escapism haunting politics, cinema, celebrity, music and especially comics.
“I have largely, completely given up on the comics industry,” Moore said. “I really don’t believe it is going to do anything to address the modern world.” Moore held forth on that graphic letdown and much more, including the rumored opera with Gorillaz (not happening), print media (not dead yet), the perils of post-civilization (not fun) and his Pynchonian tome Jerusalem (not short), in our extensive interview below.
Disheartened by comics, Alan Moore is turning back to the underground zine with Dodgem Logic.Image courtesy of Top ShelfWired.com: You explain in Dodgem Logic’s first issue that the publication is neither global or local, but lobal.
Alan Moore: Everywhere is both local and also global. It’s that kind of world. We’re hooked up in a way we were not hooked up previously. The world has changed. Now, we all have an individual neighborhood and locale, but we are also bombarded by information from every other neighborhood and locale in the world. We’re connected in a different way. I wanted to deal with what is basically my neighborhood, the area which I was born in, and treat it exactly the same as other people’s neighborhoods. Yes, the neighborhood I grew up in is still a particularly distressed neighborhood, but there’s one in every town in every country, I’m sure. There is a wrong side of the tracks.
Wired.com: How is it going so far?
Moore: Well, one of the best things about Dodgem Logic is that we’ve been able to use the sales of the first issue to give out food parcels for Christmas to all of the old people in sheltered housing in that particular neighborhood. We’re also sponsoring a local basketball team, to get them some really cool, beautifully designed vests to kit them out nicely.
Wired.com: Sounds like a great way to make a local impact.
Moore: That’s the kind of thing we’re interested in. We don’t need to make a huge amount of profit on the magazine; that’s not what we’re looking to do. We’re looking to make enough to plow it back into our local area, and hopefully if other areas take up the idea, then they can do the same with their own areas. It’s not particularly sophisticated, but it seems to be working out OK so far.
Wired.com: Starting a print magazine in a global economic depression seems crazy, but it also makes sense to band one’s community together around a set of common artistic and social goals and put them into print.
Moore: Absolutely. I’m sure there have been a lot of underground magazines and things like that on the net. But I think there is much to be said from having an artifact that you can hold in your hands. That is perhaps a mark of the generation that I grew up in, but I believe it’s true. In an increasingly virtual world, artifacts, beautifully made things, are at a premium. We wanted to be able to bring out a magazine that wasn’t so ephemeral and transient, that people would want to keep.
We enjoyed the idea of having little free gifts with each issue. We’ve got the CD in the first issue, which I was very pleased with. And we’ve got an eight-page mini-comic coming up in the second issue, which is the first comic that I have done completely myself — ever. So that should have a certain collector’s value, I’m sure. And we’re still doing all of this for 2 pounds 50. But it’s all working out fine. As long as we’re not going for ridiculous profits, we can pay all our contributors, put some money back into the community, and have fun while we’re doing it. It seems to be a reasonable agenda.
Wired.com: That spirit of fun is certainly there in the first issue. But there also seems to be a collective purpose in downsizing the kind of hyperconsumption we’ve had in the last few decades.
Moore: Well, yes. I think there has been a growth in awareness that individuals do have a say in how their lives go. What we’re interested in doing is empowering people by whatever means we can. We’ve got articles coming up about the squatters movement in Britain. If you are homeless and there is a vacant property just standing empty, as long as you’re willing to pay rent you have a right to squat on that property. There are hundreds of people being made homeless every day in this town. And with the current credit nightmare and financial plunge into the abyss that we’re all going through, it’s becoming particularly difficult for a lot of people. So we want to address that.
We’ve got an excellent article coming up in the second issue by Magpie, Margaret Killjoy, who was formerly an editor for the excellent Steampunk Magazine. She also helped bring out The Steampunk’s Guide to the Apocalypse, which was very useful. It included, and I think she designed it herself, a design for a desalination unit based upon a completely new principle, which was effective and easy to put together.
She’s moved on from that to the post-civilization movement, which is arguing that increasingly it is not becoming a matter of if civilization breaks down, it’s becoming a matter of when civilization breaks. She’s saying that when that happens, we’re probably going to have to do a lot of work to get things going again. She suggests that perhaps it will be a good idea to start doing this work before civilization has broken down, so that we still have some resources [laughs]!
It’s just new ways of thinking about the human situation. Like the guerrilla gardening column, which suggests ways for people to reclaim the environment around them. It is being neglected and misused by the people who govern us, who very often haven’t got any real concern whether a little grass verge remains a yellowed and neglected strip, or whether it becomes a thriving vegetable garden. It’s just that there is a certain way they’ve always done things, and they’re resistant to change. But if enough people simply take things into their own hands and do things that are obviously beneficial, then in our current time of crisis I somehow think our leaders are going to have bigger problems on their hands than people growing potatoes or carrots on a motorway roundabout. On the one hand, we want to give people the kind of information they need in this current climate, and on the other hand we want to cheer them up and entertain them. Kick their spirits up in this new era.
Wired.com: What else do you have on tap for the second issue?
Moore: We’ve got a lead article that Melinda Gebbie is writing about the new burlesque, comparing it with her memories of the old, unreconstructed burlesque that she saw back in San Francisco. We’ve also got Mitch Jenkins, an absolutely marvelous photographer who is world-class but happens to live just around the corner from us, who has done a wonderful photo shoot accompanying Melinda’s article featuring enigmatic, beautiful pictures of strange women in sort of exotic costumes. Because everybody likes that; it sort of lifts people’s hearts during these lean times.
Wired.com: That type of artistry is usually nascent in eras like these, where economic, political and psychological depression is rampant.
Moore: Well, it has to be always remembered that it was during the ’30s that Snow White was released, which I think was at the time the highest-grossing picture in history. Because no matter if people were starving on bread lines, they wanted to be able to escape from that for an hour or two. It’s always been that way. There is a particular line I remember from The Sopranos where I think Tony Soprano says, “There are only two businesses that are recession-proof. There are certain elements of the entertainment industry, and this thing of ours” [laughs].
I believe that it’s largely the fantastical elements of the entertainment industry that, when people are absolutely sick of this world, they are looking to escape into in their heads. I’m not a fan of pure escapism, because that doesn’t really help us to do with the problems that are besetting us at the moment. But it does us all a bit of good to have a break from reality just for a while, in a positive way that leaves us refreshed and ready to face to the world again.
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/TMt3hwksEkQ/
Yesteryear’s kids in tights are tomorrow’s Comic-Con superhero impersonators. At least that’s the impression you get browsing pictures of pint-size crime-fighters in Growing Up Heroes’ growing photo collection.
Launched earlier this week by Belgian comic book fan Franz Donovan, the crowdsourced site showcases old pictures of boys and girls dressed up like Batman, Superman, Doctor Doom (pictured) and other comic book characters. “Just for fun, I wanted to collect vintage photos about superheroes and other sci-fi heroes,” Donovan told Wired.com in an e-mail interview.
Proud contemporary parents or web-savvy minors who want to send in current snapshots can forget it. “I prefer retro photos,” Donovan said. “I’m only interested in vintage, handmade costumes and photos.”
Donovan pictures his online scrapbook as an exercise in nostalgia. “Growing Up Heroes brings back vivid memories of our own attempts to be heroes when we were uncomplicated, over-imaginative, nerdy kids,” he said.
Photos courtesy Growing Up Heroes
[via kottke.org]
See Also:
1000 Comic Books You Must Read Digs Into Pulp’s Past
Wired Winners: Best Halloween Costumes 2009
Cylons, Watchmen and Zombies Take Comic-Con 2009
Secret Lives of Comic Store Employees
Eye-Popping Blog Remixes Memorable Comic Book Covers
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/f-1opaEbPMY/
We stand mere hours away from Christmas morning. Santa Claus is currently steering his reindeer-powered blockade runner past the Scrooge-ish Imperial Star Destroyers with last-minute gifts ideas for Star Wars fans.
The folks at the Build a Bear Workshop outlets across this great country’s crowded shopping malls now offer several officially licensed Star Wars bear designs allowing kids (and some adults) to design a Darth Vader bear (right), Obi-Wan, Anakin or Clone Trooper stuffed friends. If you can’t make it to the mall, you can build your Sith or Jedi selections online. Costs vary, depending on what options you choose.
Adidas now sells an entire line of Star Wars-themed shoes and clothing to rival the line of Marc Ecko’s hoodies and T-shirts. But, be prepared: The prices of these licensed items runs shoulder-to-shoulder with the Ecko lines, with hoodies topping out at $100 and shoes hovering around $60.
Finally, StarWarsShop.com is hyping its new Death Star Cookie Jar and (a personal favorite) Jawa Garden Gnome. In fairness, the cookie jar doesn’t qualify as a Christmas gift as it’s not available until January 2010. But they make gift cards, and if you get one for $50, go at it.
The Jawa Garden Gnome is an inspired creation bested only by the Taun Taun Sleeping Bag. Not only can it make your garden hip, but it gives you something to take pictures of when you travel to Camino or Endor.
Images courtesy Build-A-Bear, Lucasfilm
See also:
Star Wars, Batman Gear Supercharges Ecko Giveaway
How Star Wars Changed the World
Great Geek Debates: Star Trek vs. Star Wars
Family Guy Strikes Back With New Star Wars Parody
Sci-Fi Satire Fuels Fanboy’s Funny Star Wars Videos
Review and Giveaway: Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars — Win a Copy
Give Thanks for Marc Ecko Star Wars, Black Rhino Giveaway
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/kYrfgPf1Pr0/
There’s no McDonald’s restaurant on Pandora, the intoxicating alien world created by James Cameron for his sci-fi movie Avatar — at least not yet. In the almost-inevitable sequel, all bets are off.
“There might be [a McDonald's] at the human base,” Cameron joked during a Thursday morning webcast announcing the massive Avatar promotional partnership between McDonald’s and 20th Century Fox. Cameron and Avatar producer Jon Landau laughed that they could envision unique regional cuisine for Mickey D’s Pandora franchise.
See also:
Avatar’s Stunning Flora, Fauna Give Comic-Con an Eyeful
James Cameron’s New 3-D Epic Could Change Film Forever
“We do have some arches in the movie,” said Landau.
“My God, that’s right,” Cameron said. “You know, people are gonna assume we knew about this tie-in before.”
The director, whose 1997 movie Titanic remains the all-time box office champ, said the giant, arched rock structures on his incredibly detailed fictional world have nothing to do with McDonald’s.
“Honestly, that was pure coincidence,” Cameron said, “but every time we watch it, it’s like, ‘Oh, those are the Golden Arches‘ — especially at dawn. You could have sturmbeest burgers, you could have a hammerhead Big Mac, Quarter Pounder. It’d be like to be a quarter-ton, though — hammerhead, that’s a pretty big animal.”
“That’s why we like the Big Mac,” Landau said. “Everything’s big on Pandora.”
Diners at earthly McDonald’s will be getting a supersize helping of Avatar, which opens Dec. 18, thanks to high-tech commercial tie-ins with the movie. It’s all part of the global marketing blitz for one of the most expensive films ever made. (The New York Times said the Avatar price tag approached $500 million, although 20th Century Fox called that “a ridiculous number.”)
In the United States, Big Macs will come with an Avatar Thrill Card that gives them access to interactive online experiences known as Pandora Quest and an augmented-reality game called McDVision. Completing Pandora Quest, in which players search for hidden objects within Pandora’s alien landscape, will give Avatar fans a chance to drive a virtual Pandora ROVR, a rugged off-road vehicle that lets them explore Cameron’s vivid sci-fi world online.
In Latin America, Avatar photo backdrops and augmented reality table stations bring the movie into McDonald’s dining rooms. In Australia, hidden codes on cups and trays give McDonald’s customers a shot at $80,000 in prizes. And in Singapore, Avatar commercials introduced a premium chicken sandwich. (OK, so that’s not so cutting-edge.)
“In the movie, we want to transport people to this world, and we want them to leave wanting to return to it,” Landau told Wired.com in an exclusive video interview (embedded above). “So through McDonald’s, you know, they have the opportunity to do exactly that through their various digital online experiences.”
Avatar’s gorgeous 3-D world brims with never-before-seen beasts and vegetation. But Cameron’s elaborate vision for the alien world — complete with a built-from-scratch language and other innovations — goes well beyond what’s seen onscreen.
Marketing efforts like the McDonald’s partnership are “all about expanding that world,” Landau said, “and utilizing technology to bring to the consumer different types of experiences, but all of one world.”
So, why the Big Mac and not some strange new sandwich? “It’s about thrilling your senses,” said Neil Golden, chief marketing officer for McDonald’s USA. “There’s so much going on with a Big Mac — the special sauce and the two all-beef patties. We think it’s a perfect match to tie that product in with a movie like Avatar, which is clearly about thrilling one’s senses.”
Follow us on Twitter: @lewiswallace and @theunderwire.
See Also:
James Cameron's New 3-D Epic Could Change Film Forever
Avatar Spoof Paints James Cameron as CGI Junkie
Avatar Points Way to Future of Movie Games
Avatar’s Stunning Flora, Fauna Give Comic-Con an Eyeful
First Avatar Trailer Reveals Pandora’s Intoxicating Alien World
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/1SlkZ2YF8GM/
A family of four is about to get a rare look into America’s space-exploration HQ, NASA Space Center Houston.
NASA and Walden Media launched the exclusive Totally Cosmic Adventure at NASA Sweepstakes. The two-day, behind-the-scenes tour of NASA coincides with the launch of Cosmic, an “out of this world adventure novel by Frank Cottrell Boyce.
The winning family will get a VIP tour of Space Center Houston, including the astronaut training areas, the astronaut cafeteria, space vehicle mock-up facility, new mission control center, historic mission control center and other unique space environment training facilities, simulators and research laboratories.
Sweepstakes entries will be accepted from January through February 23, 2010, at the HarperCollins Children’s Books website.
Image courtesy NASA
See Also:
Slick NASA iPhone App Puts Space in Your Pocket
NASA Rocket Scientists Did ‘Frickin’ Fantastic’
NASA Falling Short of Asteroid-Detection Goals
NASA’s Most Awesomely Weird Mission Patches
Tiny, DIY Satellites Get NASA Boost
Direction of NASA’s Future at an Impasse
Bring Back NASA’s Crazy Idea Factory
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/EEd89o0Cf6Y/
AMC’s update of The Prisoner makes a game effort at putting a modern face on Patrick McGoohan’s original mind-melting exercise in paranoia.
The flashy mini-series, which debuts Sunday at 8 p.m. EST on AMC and runs through Tuesday, definitely has its merits. Epic-scale cinematography and inventive production design handsomely evoke the isolation of a sun-drenched Village, while Ian McKellen’s deceptively avuncular performance as Number Two elevates every scene the master actor appears in.
Still, this 21st century Prisoner is no match for the original: Read Wired.com’s review, “The Prisoner Reboot Takes Sci-Fi Out of Spy-Fi,” to find out how it falls short of the influential cult series.
To let viewers rekindle fuzzy memories from the ’60s or experience McGoohan’s groundbreaking sci-fi show for the first time, A&E Home Video has upgraded the original series as a five-disc Blu-ray disc collection studded with more than 30 hours of bonus material.
In addition to the 17 original episodes, The Prisoner: No Man Is Just a Number comes with a feature-length documentary made up of nearly 400 new and archival interviews, featurettes about Wilfred Josephs’ eerie score, 1,200 production stills and a paperwork archive including original scripts for each episode.
Remastered in high-def with 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound, this $100 Blu-ray collection anchors Wired.com’s Prisoner grand prize package, which also includes a motion-activated poster (which shifts messages from “Obey” to “Resist”) and a beach-ball version of the sinister Rover sphere. Four runners-up will receive DVD collections in Blu-ray or standard DVD format.
Contest winners will be randomly selected from the comments below, so fire away with what you love or hate about The Prisoner, old and new. Entries must be received by 12:01 a.m. PST Nov. 18.
See Also:
The Prisoner: An All-Star Appreciation
R.I.P. Patrick McGoohan, The Prisoner’s TV Visionary
Q&A: Can Jim Caviezel Fill Patrick McGoohan’s Prisoner Shoes?
Q&A: Sir Ian McKellen Takes On The Prisoner’s Number One Tormenter
The Prisoner Reboots the Panopticon for 21st Century
Prisoner Rollout Includes Online Comic, Pop-Cult Timeline
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/QLkJWK7oaDI/
Foes of President Barack Obama and his policies can vent their frustrations by engaging in fictional warfare, thanks to a new online strategy game with a heavy political component.
The satirical game 2011: Obama’s Coup Fails, launched last month by a group of Ron Paul supporters that call themselves The Founders, throws players into combat against the crumbling Marxist forces of Obama’s loyalist Black Tigers, the Islamic fundamentalist Nation of Malsi and The Cong — a group of deposed Democratic congressional leaders.
See also:
Gay Tony’s Timely Jokes Justify Episodic Gaming
Playable on the United States of Earth website, the game mixes strategy, trivia questions and community elements but has no particular ax to grind with Obama, according to Mike Lodispoto, one of the game’s Libertarian founders. In fact, the next United States of Earth game will target President George W. Bush.
“We detest Republicans and Democrats alike,” Lodispoto told Wired.com in an e-mail interview. The site was cooked up by Libertarians, but Lodispoto says United States of Earth employees are both Republicans and Democrats.
“We allow the right and left to come up with [game's] scenarios, the first being the 2011 Obama Coup one made by right-wingers but tempered by us Libertarians,” he said. “This scenario came out first to capitalize on the various anti-constitutional acts of our current president. The Bush scenario comes out next and I’m sure we will be attacked for being anti-Republican then.”
Players plan their attacks from a simple, web-based interface.
In a scenario seemingly ripped from the darkest corners of a conspiracy theorists’ fevered mind, Obama’s Coup Fails proposes a nightmarish world in which Obama, to prevent a midterm recasting of Congress, suspends the Second Amendment and dissolves the United States in order to form The North American People’s Union with Canada and Mexico. The people rise up in arms, combating whatever government troops choose to align themselves with the errant administration. Faced with annihilation, Obama retreats to Virginia for his last stand.
Screen grabs offer a flavor of the 2011 vibe.What sounds like a potentially fun and humorous diversion to while away a couple hours when your boss isn’t looking turns out to be something of a disappointment. The game itself mirrors the action of war-geek strategy classics such as Axis & Allies, although simplified to accommodate quick and easy play.
In the game, resource development is reduced to training troops; tactics can be boiled down to choosing the number of light, medium or heavy troops to send and where to send them. Deciding upon a target initiates a brief movie sequence recycling actual war footage, then fills in the blanks with results.
Still, the game is nothing if not current, with gameplay elements similar to the topical jokes in Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony. Gamer-scripted news briefs reveal developments with names grabbed from current political headlines: “Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck Found Dead in Camp”; “The Cong Loses Control, Pelosi Captured!”; “Mass Graves Found in Cong and Ameritroop Territory.” (A training video with a Strong Bad-style narrator shows off the gameplay.)
The game is just the beginning of an epic work-in-progress, said Lodispoto. In upcoming months, the Obama’s Coup Fails developers plan to add a trading platform so gamers can swap assets. In-game factories will let players produce tanks, drones and attack helicopters. The game will add “other buildings too, such as libraries, town halls, even brothels to improve a player’s morale, which is another factor in battles,” Lodispoto said.
Good clean fun? On the surface, the poorly designed site appears to be nothing more than the project of second-rate coders who share a sense of political humor (and an obvious attraction to Michelle Malkin). However, news blurbs link you to actual headlines and YouTube videos of conservative commentators and other talking heads waxing philosophical on everything from Barney Frank’s record to the activities of ACORN.
Players earn extra points by writing short essays on the Libertarian Party, the “Obama deception” or similar topics. Videos reward observant viewers with additional points for answering multiple-choice quizzes after watching. If there is a unifying thread throughout the site, it is the sound of Fox News in the background.
News stories and political rants mingle on the United States of Earth site.Images courtesy United States of Earth
In the website’s Community forum, conspiracy theories and political diatribes are interspersed amongst pleas from the game developers to report bugs and offer suggestions.
When it comes to finances, the founders are banking on a novel approach to fund The United States of Earth and reward particularly productive players. While anybody can play free, monthly subscribers compete for monthly cash prizes (in the form of “salaries” and “bonuses”) and are granted advantages in the game.
“Members that become paid, or ‘made’ as we call them, pay $10 per month,” Lodispoto said. “It is from this that we pay them out their salaries but we will also start up micropayments … to speed up production or hurry actions.”
The trivia-oriented portions of the United States of Earth site are more innocuous than the inflammatory Obama game (which was admittedly launched as a tactical maneuver to attract attention for the site). The random, multiple-choice questions are generally apolitical, testing general knowledge and military smarts.
Despite its flaws, United States of Earth has attracted plenty of attention from fans and foes alike — Mother Jones called it a “right-wing wet dream” and the site’s operators claim it has been hacked numerous times in recent weeks as a result.
But the Founders have big plans for United States of Earth — even futuristic gameplay that takes launches politics into outer space.
“If you read the history/timeline [of the game], it is a speech from the President of the United States of Earth in 100 years,” said Lodispoto. “That version will allow players to colonize other worlds and is approximately eight months away.”
See Also:
The Game of Politics Is Ready for Its Upgrade
Review: Political Machine 2008 Makes Politics Fun, Affordable
How Your Political Leanings Influence the Games You Play
Why We Need More Torture in Videogames
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/jGUC8saRR4c/
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When we beamed our lists of favorite science fiction movies onto the pages of Wired.com, we knew some of our readers would think we were goofier than Jar Jar Binks.
Little did we know that Wired.com readers would fire back with such vehemence, vitriol and — most importantly — sincere love for sci-fi flicks that didn’t make our lists.
See also:
Photo Gallery: Wired’s Favorite Sci-Fi Flicks of All Time — Before Star Wars
Wired’s Favorite Sci-Fi Flicks of All Time — Star Wars and After
Well, in cyberspace everyone can hear you scream: We’ve compiled a massive list — make that massive lists, broken down by decade — of your favorite sci-fi films, as well as your reasons for including them on the list.
Some of the movies nominated by Wired.com readers are clearly classics, like Fritz Lang’s silent 1927 masterpiece, Metropolis (pictured above), or 1956’s Forbidden Planet. They obviously fit on any serious sci-fi fan’s list of the best movies of all time.
Others were more obscure, and that’s what makes the lists so compelling. Any list of “favorite” sci-fi movies will be different, and far more personal, than a list of “best” sci-fi movies.
Commenter Dave Morton noted this discrepancy and sought to calm his fellow readers, some of whom were railing, “Why not this movie?” or “WTF is that title doing on the list!?” He suggested compiling a list of readers’ favorites, and that’s exactly what we’ve done. We hope you find plenty of fodder for your Netflix queue.
P.S. Another commenter, icecycle, has Wired.com’s back with regard to the most-often-rebuked entry on our list of favorites, 1943’s Lassie Come Home:
“In defense of Lassie, that puppy was covered by [Mystery Science Theater 3000]. So yes it qualifies. Beep, beep (sound of a dog backing up).”
Metropolis (1927)
Gotta go with Metropolis as the big omission from the pre-Star Wars list. Like much good sci-fi, it addressed current issues using sci-fi as the wrapper. To do that in 1927 was visionary. —LRaydellMundo
It was visionary in 1927 to capture current issues in a sci-fi wrapper. Even Goebbels thought so. —OnlyModerately
See the “restored” version from Kino. Awesome. —jestal
Omitting Metropolis was a surprise. It was not only visionary, but the precursor of the mood in Blade Runner and Fifth Element. And, of course, it still has the coolest robot ever. —mixula
For an 80-plus-year-old film, its special effects are truly remarkable. Plus a great story line. But you’ve got to see the Kino-restored version. The previous ones just didn’t make sense. And they explain how some of the effects were done as well. Amazing! —NoCaDrummer
Silent science fiction with a plot line of societal conflict (Dark Underground versus City of Light) directed by Fritz Lang. Didn’t Star Trek pick up on this? —Coastie716
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/v_hENbj9zbU/
Real-World Horrors
Photo: toonbobo/Flickr
Scientifically Haunted House Suggests You’re a Sucker
Scientists build a haunted house using natural phenomena suspected of eliciting paranormal activity. You might be surprised at the result!
Maniac Pumpkin Carvers Create Custom Jack-o’-Lanterns
A gallery of gorgeous geek-o’lanterns, plus some DIY tips for last-minute gourd gouging.
Meet Stephen King’s Gore Specialist
Stephen King knows the golden rule for horror and sci-fi: Make it real. That’s why he needs Russ Dorr, a physician’s assistant trained at Dartmouth who schools King on everything, from jellied blood to missiles to meth. It was no different for his latest book, Under the Dome.
Oct. 30, 1938: The Martians Have Landed in New Jersey!
Orson Welles doesn’t intend to perpetrate a hoax, or to panic his listeners. But to a 1938 radio audience unused to the intrusion of hysterical reporters, the dramatization seems real enough.
A Legit Treat
Win an iPod in Wired’s Halloween Costume Contest
Snap a photo of your Halloween getup and enter to win. An iPod touch and other great prizes await the top vote-getters.
Maximum Halloween Fun
Doctor Who is a no-brainer Halloween costume.Photos courtesy BBC
Win an iPod in Wired’s Halloween Costume Contest
Snap a photo of your Halloween getup and enter to win. An iPod touch and other great prizes await the top vote-getters.
10 Cheap, Geeky Halloween Costumes
From Doctor Who to Princess Leia, these classic nerd costumes are quick and fairly easy to pull off.
Make the Ultimate DIY Haunted House
Giant spider webs, creepy fog and gallons of fake blood. What else do you need to turn your house, yard or garage into a DIY fright-fest?
Geeky Halloween Idea: PVC Yard Skeletons
Add some freakish art to your lawn with this quick-and-easy idea.
Zillow Analysis Reveals Prime Trick-or-Treating Neighborhoods
Online real estate site Zillow.com comes up with an index of neighborhoods in a few choice cities to guide goblins, freaks and pirates to zero in on the most treat-rich environments.
Movies, TV and Videogames
Dead Space: Extraction will give you the creeps.Photo courtesy EA Games
Video Gallery: 10 Creepy Games That Go Bump in the Night
Want to do more than dress up for Halloween? Here are some of our favorite scary games, where you can play roles from zombies to ghosts to the just plain criminally insane. The horror videogames in this year’s hellish crop unleash a wide variety of things that go bump (and stab) in the night.
Halloween Horrors: 5 Spooky TV Shows You Can Watch Online
From suspenseful classics and offal cook-offs to truly terrifying documentaries, the internet has you covered when it comes to scary stuff to assault your eyeballs.
Top 10 Halloween Movies for Younger Kids
It’s easy to find a list of horror movies to watch for Halloween: They run the gamut from good to bad to so-bad-it’s-good to funny. But for parents of preteens, it can be hard to find something to watch that’s in the proper Halloween spirit — and won’t induce a month of nightmares.
The 10 Scariest Things I Watched as a Kid
You may think growing up in the Bubble Gum Decade of the ’80s was all big hair, hot pink and laugh tracks, but you’d be wrong. There was plenty of scare to go around.
Music
The New Moon soundtrack sports bloody good music.Playlist: Bloodcurdling Songs From Vampire Movies
Bands’ sonic contributions lend a special vibe to bloodsucker flicks. Hear totally non-horrific tracks from Thom Yorke, Tito & Tarantula, Bauhaus and more, including songs from the new The Twilight Saga: New Moon Soundtrack.
Top Halloween Tunes to Freak Out Your Eardrums
A grab bag of spooky sounds (plus some pretty cool music videos) turn up the volume on the weirdo high holiday.
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/8erAPh73oTg/
Some Star Trek fans were upset that J.J. Abrams made crucial edits to his reboot movie. There was no William Shatner. No birth of Spock. And, no hyperkinetic rap songs sung in Klingon.
Fortunately, YouTube exists to solve these problems. The above montage features one of Europe’s lesser-known pop culture phenoms, Klenginem. He evidently travels the Euro-convention circuit performing Eminem songs in the native tongue of the planet Kling.
His website includes albums and several MP3s for the aficionado of crinkle-headed rappers. Sadly, the site’s tour dates page hasn’t been updated in three years, so the recession must’ve crippled the fictional sci-fi language pop music-based economy.
See Also:
Public Radio Speaks Klingon
Revisionist Star Trek History in Klingon Comic Books
Klingons Take It Off
Much Ado About Klingon
No More Lonely Nights for Klingon Speakers
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/tQ8t5S29juA/
This week’s Storyboard Podcast takes a behind-the-scenes look at two features in the September issue of Wired magazine: “The Placebo Problem,” by contributing editor Steve Silberman, and “The Good Enough Revolution,” by senior editor Robert Capps.
Storyboard Podcast: Episode 2
http://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/Storyboard/Storyboard_002.mp3
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The Placebo Problem
Sugar Pills Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.
Senior editor Nancy Miller hosts a conversation between Silberman and articles editor Mark Robinson about the placebo effect, pharmaceutical advertising, bedside manner and why Italian men find little blue pills so invigorating. (Hint: It has to do with scoring!)
The Good Enough Revolution
When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine
If you’re still clinging to your vinyl record collection and complaining about the quality of MP3s, you’re in the minority. Miller, Robinson and Capps talk about digital technology’s crappifying effect — and why we’re better off this way.
Photo: Kenji Aoki; Lego sculpture: Nathan Sawaya
See Also:
Storyboard Podcast: Evan Ratliff Is ‘Gone,’ Wired Guide to Hoaxes
The Birth of Storyboard
Wired Playlist: New Music From Kid Koala, Faves From Atlas Sound
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/3Uw1KW55Glk/
Viral videos have given once-anonymous and rarely talented netizens their requisite 15 minutes of Andy Warhol fame. But more often than not, they’ve given us splitting headaches.
Thanks to “Viral Video Film School,” a particularly snarky segment of Current TV’s program InfoMania, we don’t actually have to watch the truly horrible ones anymore. That crappy task is left to hecklers like Brett Erlich, who co-hosts the show.
Erlich gang-tackles “haulers” in the reel above. What are “haulers,” you ask? People who go shopping, and then share the contents of their bags with the internet. We’re sure that somewhere on Earth there is a sociologist, or several, interested in this type of identity construction, in which humanity’s conspicuous consumption is fed through webcams to an audience of thousands looking for … what again?
Screen Erlich’s “haulers” screed and let us know if he’s on target or off base. Then feel free to return to your prior screening of more supposedly weighty econo-tainment, like Jim Cramer’s Mad Money.
See also:
Twitter and Craiglist Spoofed in SuperNews‘ New Season
Rotten Tomatoes Jumps From Web to TV
Death Star Annihilates Star Trek’s Spotlight-Hogging Enterprise
Video: Shopping for Cewebs at the Viral Video Pet Store
Sci-Fi Satire Fuels Fanboy’s Funny Star Wars Videos
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/qjA8joSu4v8/
The 21st century update of Osamu Tezuka’s classic anime series Astro Boy, sneak-peeked Thursday at Comic-Con International, stars Freddie Highmore (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) as the rocket-booted robot fueled by “Blue Core” energy. Judging from exclusive images provided to Wired.com, the English-language version packs a groovy, techno-colored punch.
Samuel L. Jackson and Charlize Theron will add their voiceover talents to the movie’s already packed roster of movie stars, it was announced Thursday during the Summit Entertainment panel at Comic-Con. Other voice actors include Nicolas Cage, Eugene Levy and Donald Sutherland.
This Astro Boy also introduces a new character, Cora, voiced by Kristen Bell of Veronica Mars and Heroes fame. In San Diego for her fifth Comic-Con appearance, Bell told Wired.com why she hearts Astro Boy.
Wired:com: We haven’t seen any images of Cora yet — what’s your character all about?
Kristen Bell: Cora is this very opinionated young lady with a tough exterior who’s kind of a scavenger. She’s the oldest of this group of runaway orphans who live on the surface of the Earth. She wears a mishmash of different colors and has a choppy little haircut to show how sassy she is.
Kristen Bell in the house: Appearing in San Diego on behalf of Astro Boy, Bell made her fifth visit to Comic-Con International.Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Wired.com: Hovering above the surface of the Earth is Metro City, where all the rich people live, right?
Bell: Right. We’ve destroyed Earth, so it’s become this kind of a junk yard.
Wired.com: How does Cora hook up with Astro Boy?
Bell: When he falls to the surface of the Earth, Cora takes Astro Boy under her wing. She then feels extremely betrayed when she finds out he’s a robot. People are taught not to get too close to robots. They do not have a good reputation.
Wired.com: Astro Boy has this sort of special vibe worldwide — the TV series aired in more than 40 countries — but in the States, not that many people have actually seen the original show. Before you got cast in the movie, were you familiar with the comic book or the TV series?
Bell: Not at all. I was educated by our director, David Bowers, about the world of Astro Boy. He really is the Mickey Mouse of Japan. We think it’s time that Americans learn about Astro Boy.
The ironically named Peacekeeper robot, powered by "Red Core" technology, symbolizes the fruits of Metro City’s mad science.Images courtesy Summit Entertainment
Wired.com: Have you had a chance to see the final product?
Bell: I saw Astro Boy Monday night and I’ll tell you something embarrassing. I know the script, so I know where all the jokes are and I know when they’re going to tug on your heart strings, and I still laughed out loud, and I also got teared up. Maybe that’s pathetic, but to me, that speaks to how good the film is I guess.
Wired.com: Even though you’ve played some tough girls on TV, you’re actually a softie at heart.
Bell: You nailed it! That’s very true.
Wired.com: You’ve done the Comic-Con thing a few times before, right?
Bell: This is my fifth year. You’re a Comic-Con virgin? I’m a Comic-Con whore!
Astro Boy opens Oct. 23.
See also:
From Fairy Tales to Porn, Anime Heats Up for Summer
The Giants of Anime Are Coming
Infoporn: Today’s Playmates Are More Like Anime Figures Than Real Humans
Anime Freaks Now Have a Guide
Spielberg to Make a 3-D Ghost in the Shell
Movies for Budding Anime Geeks
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/rL4rRqSLZL8/
An indie success story, Robert Venditti has come a long way from thinking comics were child’s play. And from packing boxes at a comic book publisher to selling his first sci-fi comic The Surrogates to Hollywood, he’s keeping his cool about the big-league jump.
“I mostly tried to stay out of everyone’s way,” the writer told Wired.com in an e-mail interview ahead of his Thursday appearance at Comic-Con International.
“I wanted to give them the freedom to have fun with it,” he said of director Jonathan Mostow’s cinematic adaptation of The Surrogates, which stars Bruce Willis.
“If this were a case where my crime drama had been rewritten to be a romantic comedy, I’d be nervous. But I know from the screenplay and the set that the themes and subtext of the book have been retained.”
When Surrogates (trailer embedded above) hits the screen in September, it will be a genre convergence of sorts for Venditti. That’s because the writer is more deeply schooled in NYPD Blue than he is The Incredibles. Which is fine, given that recent comics blockbusters like The Dark Knight and Watchmen play more like procedural dramas than superhero spectacles.
“I didn’t grow up reading comics or science fiction,” Venditti said. “I wanted to create a world like our own, and explore how surrogate technology would ripple through society. So I tried to keep the police procedural aspect of the story very here and now.”
Building on the foundation of Blade Runner and its replicants, The Surrogates posits a near future where what David Cronenberg called “the old flesh” in Videodrome is replaced with “the new flesh” of mass-produced synthetic doppelgangers. But the process proves to be more complicated than the marketing admits, and trouble brews once the cops, the streets, serial killers and postmodern prophets seize upon surrogate technology to advance their own mysterious agendas.
Venditti's The Surrogates explores religion, propaganda, media and marketing in its invented critical texts.All images courtesy Top Shelf Productions
Venditti externalizes that patchwork philosophy by mashing up The Surrogates‘ format, careening between subtle comic art and invented critical, marketing and religious texts. The result is a multilevel treatise on a social identity crisis in search of solutions.
“There was so much more ground to cover in terms of bringing the future setting to the page, that if I tried to cram a bunch of information into the dialogue, I would’ve wound up with characters talking to the audience instead of talking to each other,” said Venditti, whose follow-up volumes The Surrogates: Flesh and Bone and The Surrogates: Owner’s Manual were released this month by Top Shelf, the publisher where Venditti got his start in the shipping department.
It’s a technique masterfully employed by Alan Moore, another Top Shelf writer, in his watershed comic book series Watchmen.
“I included the supplemental text as a way of conveying the information without putting undo strain on the central story,” Venditti said. “It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.”
Along the way, Venditti also got a chance to ask some fundamental questions about selfhood in the age of synthetics. And while the final analysis is as open-ended as the important questions asked in The Surrogates, the Florida-born writer says he is content simply raising those questions rather than assuming he has all the answers.
“To what extent will the technological choices we make today impact future generations? How will our culture of immediate gratification affect our children’s worldview?” he asked. “I’m not saying this from an ivory tower: I have TiVo and an iPhone. But I think the question is still a valid one. As consumers, we often welcome technology into our lives without considering the hidden costs.”
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/9zi2SE37f7c/
The mysterious ninth Cylon turned out to be a kitchen appliance capable of making deadly Pop Tarts in a rejected script for BSG.
Apparently, sci-fi fandom merchandisers became obsessed with kitchenette baked goods at some point.
Following closely on the heels of the Darth Vader toaster, the upgraded Battlestar Galactica Cylon model (above) is headed to Comic-Con International with a slate of other NBC/Universal genre merchandise.
In addition to said glowing appliance, genre fans can also pick up a Heroes Double Helix Necklace, a Heroes Kensei Sword Letter Opener and a Caprica USB Drive, celebrating the period 58 years prior to the events seen in Battlestar Galactica. All the sci-fi items are limited editions and will be available on the convention floor while supplies last.
Image courtesy NBC/Universal
See also:
Comic-Con Sellout to Be: Darth Vader Toaster
BSG at the UN: Wow, That Actually Worked!
Design a Steampunk Cylon and Win BSG Swag
Strong Women Steer Battlestar Galactica’s Final Voyage
Blowback: Does Battlestar Galactica Finale Satisfy?
Science of BSG: Why So Sweaty on Demetrius?
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/ueadLfIjBxk/
A television show is going to make Twitter a little more permanent than an ephemeral tweet: Tattoo Highway host Thomas Pendelton plans to ink one Twitter user’s handle on their body.
Pendleton (pictured right), artist-in-residence for A&E’s reality series, has already received a bunch of tweets from fans begging for the chance to be inscribed with their Twitter user names.
“I’d get ‘maryisbusy’ on my wrist so that I could just lift my arm to let people know I’ve no time for them,” said @maryisbusy in a series of tweets. “I’ve been ‘maryisbusy’ for eight years now, I think that’s a tattoo-worthy level of commitment. Or maybe a forearm ambigram like in Angels and Demons so people will see I’m ‘busy’ from all angles?”
To qualify, Twitter users must follow Pendleton, then tweet @ThomasPendelton with hash tag #A&EWed10 stating why (and where) they want their Twitter handle permanently inked onto their body.
Pendleton will pick a winner before the next Tattoo Highway episode, set to air Wednesday at 10 p.m. EST.
See also:
Geek Ink: Comics Fans Show Off Tattoos
Scientific and Geeky Tattoos: Are You Serious?
Zune Tattoo Guy Wants to Lose the Logo
Tat’s the Way Mac Heads Like It
Tattoos for the Blind
Wired.com Readers’ Best Comic Tattoos
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/3fkcVfPVqO0/
Avant-garde Japanese band Boredoms is taking its electronically enhanced drum circle shtick to the middle of the ocean, where it will provide a live soundtrack to a total solar eclipse.
Organizers of Tokara The Sun & Moon Festival have booked a Russian ferry and hired the Boredoms, along with New York’s Gang Gang Dance and Japan’s Goma, to play a show during the next Saros 136 eclipse, which will take place July 22. The spectacle is subtitled, “The Lucy in the Sky With Diamond Ring Tour.”
The Boredoms are pretty much the perfect choice for such an event. The genre-bending band emerged from Osaka’s noise-punk scene in the late 1980s before shifting its style to a percussion-heavy mix of psychedelic rock, trance-heavy beats and sun-worship chants.
Several of the band’s albums, including Vision Creation Newsun and Seadrum/House of Sun, explore this style. As the titles indicate, the themes embrace the solar, the aquatic and the cosmic.
A typical Boredoms show finds the band performing as a four-piece, with three drummers sitting in a circle and pounding out thunderous, lock-step rhythms as bandleader/vocalist Yamantaka Eye plays assorted electronic instruments, manipulates various effects and directs the flow of the action. Things get even noisier once Eye starts screaming and pounding away on his custom seven-neck guitar with a pair of meter-long sticks. (See a video of the band below.)
But the ambitious group has been organizing increasingly grandiose performances: Boredoms got 77 drummers together in a park under the Brooklyn Bridge on July 7, 2007 (that’s 07-07-07), then pulled a similar stunt with 88 drummers in both Los Angeles and New York on August 8, 2008.
July’s eclipse will be extraordinarily long — the totality of the eclipse, the point at which the moon is fully obscuring the sun, will reach 6 minutes, 39 seconds. According to NASA, the umbra of the eclipse will cut a path straight across China and the South Pacific, with the best viewpoint off the southern coast of Japan, at 24.2 degrees N, 144.1 degrees E, when the sun is 86 degrees overhead.
Several tour groups are organizing eclipse-viewing cruises through the South Pacific for July’s event, but the Boredoms-led excursion will likely be the most, er, cosmic. Having seen the band perform several times, we can only imagine how such an otherworldly setting would enhance the experience.
Tickets cost a whopping 168,000 yen (about $1,700). But for that money, you get a concert, three DJ sets, organic food, a bed to sleep in and an area for your kids to keep themselves entertained. Oh yeah, and a three-day party on a boat during a total solar eclipse!
Photo of Boredoms at New York City’s Terminal 5: trontnort/Flickr
See also:
Calling All Drummers: The Boredoms Need 77 of You
May 29, 1919: A Major Eclipse, Relatively Speaking
How to See 93 Million Miles: Plan a Trip to a Total Solar Eclipse
May 28, 585 B.C.: Predicted Solar Eclipse Stops Battle
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/gOMGNtSgfZY/
As every sci-fi buff knows, fantasy auteur Tim Burton brings an eye like no other to his visually sumptuous movies. Art lovers in New York will get a chance to view the filmmaker’s non-cinematic wares starting in November, when an exhibition of Burton’s work goes on display at The Museum of Modern Art.
Slated to run Nov. 22 through April 26, Tim Burton will include more than 700 drawings, storyboards, costumes, puppets and paintings, including the untitled watercolor and pastel alien portrait, pictured above, created during preproduction for Mars Attacks!
In a MoMA statement, exhibition curator Ron Magliozzi said: “There is no other living filmmaker possessing Tim Burton’s level of accomplishment and reputation whose full body of work has been so well hidden from public view. Seeing so much that was previously inaccessible in a museum context should serve to fuel renewed appreciation and fresh appraisal of this much-admired artist.”
In addition to art pieces related to such Burton hits as Batman, Sweeney Todd and Edward Scissorhands, the MoMA exhibition will include lesser-known oddities including 1984’s Frankenweenie.
Image courtesy The Museum of Modern Art © 2009 Tim Burton
See also:
Cast Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland
Depp as Vamp? Tim Burton Probes Dark Shadows
Tim Burton Signs Deal to Make Movies in 3-D
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/c56a4lju2h8/
The Morning Benders have played Washington's Sasquatch Festival and toured with The Kooks and Death Cab for Cutie.
If it took you a while to correctly pronounce Sigur Rós, you may very well be in a bit of trouble for this week’s edition of Wired Playlist. Just like Jenna Maroney’s 30 Rock foray into film with The Rural Juror, a band named UUVVWWZ is simply begging for articulation issues. However, churning out good music helps us get over the tongue twister. After all, it is about our ears (and hearts).
As always, check out new episodes of Wired Playlist on iTunes or steam it here. To submit recommendations, leave comments below or get in touch with us at wiredplaylist@gmail.com.
Playlist Podcast: Episode 7
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Who: The Death Set/Cassettes Won’t Listen
Song: “Around The World (CWL Remix)”
Album: (F)remix
We previously covered Cassettes Won’t Listen due to its banging rendition of INXS’ “Need You Tonight.” Now, Cassette’s Won’t Listen is gracious enough to provide us with “Around The World (CWL Remix),” a collaboration with The Death Set, a formerly Australian band that came to the United States. The Death Set released Worldwide last year. If you like what you hear, you’re in luck — Cassettes Won’t Listen is giving away (F)remix (.zip).
Who: Franz Ferdinand
Song: “Katherine Hit Me”
Album: Blood
It feels as if we are huge fans of pretty much any Glaswegian group, so it should come as no surprise that we are listening to Scottish band Franz Ferdinand’s new album ad nauseam. Blood was released June 1, so be sure to go pick up a copy. Or download it legally. You know, however you crazy kids do it these days.
Who: The Morning Benders
Song: “Damnit Anna”
Album: Talking Through Tin Cans
This week we decided to show some local love. This fun Berkeley, California-based foursome is on tour now, so definitely check them out if you get the chance. The Morning Benders also toured with The Kooks and Death Cab for Cutie last summer.
We still don't necessarily know how to pronounce UUVVWWZ, but we sure like to listen to the group. Photo: Austin Skiles
Who: UUVVWWZ
Song: “Shark Suit”
Album: UUVVWWZ
“Double U, Double V, Double W, Z.” I think. Maybe? Let’s just go with it…. Regardless, Teal Gardner’s vocals definitely stand out on the track “Shark Suit.” Imagine a White Stripesy, Karen-O-y but totally jazzy musical smackdown and that’s what you get on this track.
Who: The Jesus and Mary Chain
Song: “Cracking Up”
Album: 21 Singles 1984-1999
Wouldn’t you know it, our last track is an oldie but goody from another Scottish band, The Jesus and Mary Chain. This group, and this track in particular, show why Sub Pop Records is one of the most legendary labels out there.
See also:
Wired Playlist Podcast: Major Lazer Exclusive
Wired Playlist Podcast: Introducing Guest DJ Thomas Dolby
Wired Playlist Podcast: Remixed Classics and Indie Rock Goodness
Wired Playlist Podcast: Old Computer Parts Make Fine Tunes
Wired Playlist Podcast: Throwbacks, Mashups and New Tunes
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/kheua9BAmh8/
Battlestar Galactica star Katee Sackhoff is joining 24 for the show’s eighth season on Fox. Trading in Kara “Starbuck” Thrace’s high-flying BSG angst for life behind a computer console, Sackhoff will play data analyst Dana Walsh, who logs in for duty when the series’ missing-in-action Counter Terrorism Unit is freshly revived in New York City.
Fox on Tuesday confirmed an EW.com report about the Sackhoff casting, which also revealed that her character will be involved with field operations leader Cole Ortiz, to be played by Freddie Prinze Jr.
Slum Dog Millionaire star Anil Kapoor is also being added to the soap opera/action series as a Middle Eastern politician. He’ll join star Keifer Sutherland (who plays tough guy counterterrorist Jack Bauer) and the rest of the returning cast, including Cherry Jones (President Allison Taylor), Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe) and Annie Wersching (Renee Walker).
It remains to be seen if Sackhoff (pictured) will remain stuck behind a computer, whispering cryptically into the phone, in the vein of Rajskub’s Chloe. The bet here: Producers will break the physically formidable actress out of office-drone mode and give her some gun-slinging chase scenes faster than you can shout “torture is unconstitutional!”
24 begins its new season Jan. 17.
See also:
24 Blowback: Action Clicks as Clock Ticks on Season
Strong Women Steer Battlestar Galactica’s Final Voyage
Battlestar Bikers Helfer and Sackhoff Hit the Road
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/w7HWsw8ogHs/
A remake of Heavy Metal, the 80s hair rock animated movie, seems a step closer now that a list of the directors involved surfaced.
Reports say the David Fincher and James Cameron project will include segment directed by Fincher, Cameron, Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) and Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean). Also, Mark Osborne and Jack Black are supposed to do a comedy segment akin to what SCTV stars Harold Ramis and John Candy did for the original film. That won’t be the whole crew, so additional names are forthcoming.
Fortunately, this story gives us an opportunity to offer a clip of the absolute classic South Park episode, “Major Boobage.” Parental discretion is advised.
See also:
South Park Reveals ‘Major Boobage’ Magic
Fincher to Animate Heavy Metal
Fincher Brings Goon Comic to Big Screen
Weekend Science Fiction Heavy Metal Roundup
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/OIP-iGRPyH8/
When he’s not portraying time-traveling “Hiro” on TV’s Heroes, Masi Oka digs online role-playing games so much that he’s hatched a movie about the world of avatars called The Defenders.
The premise: Game-playing teenagers are forced to emerge from their consoles to take on a real-life enemy.
The DreamWorks project will be produced by sci-fi heavyweights Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Fringe).
Oka, who will executive-produce, met Orci and Kurtzman at a party, then pitched the duo after learning they were interested in family-friendly action pictures like Goonies. He spent a year honing the Defenders concept, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Oka (pictured) said: “The question came to me: What if you had to live up to the person you created in the virtual world?”
World of Warcraft fanatic Gary Whitta is on board to script The Defenders, with J.D. Caruso (Eagle Eye) in talks to direct.
Photo courtesy Wired magazine
See also:
Masi Oka: Coder, Actor, Hero
Behind the Scenes With Heroes Creator Tim Kring and ‘Hiro,’ Masi Oka
Star Trek Writers Brace for Impact
Review: Heroes Girds for Grim Third Season
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/z25K6b-8A_Q/
Being Human will premiere on BBC America HD.
BBC America is riding an old sci-fi classic, a new sci-fi hit and an up-and-coming premiere to highlight the unveiling of the network’s HD channel.
The new high-definition slate takes flight July 20 with a week of exclusive premieres, including Torchwood’s “Children of Earth,” a Doctor Who special (”Planet of the Dead“), a new BBC America co-production (Being Human and the season finale of Primeval’s third season.
That means we finally have an official premiere date for the week-long mini-series marking Torchwood’s return to U.S. screens. Starting July 20 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, Captain Jack (played by John Barrowman), Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) and Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd) will have only five episodes to save the world.
July 25 brings the finale of Primeval’s current run. At 8 p.m. ET/PT, the constantly shifting team at the Anomaly Research Center will try to stop the world’s greatest monster — human ambition.
A new show already making waves in the United Kingdom will join Primeval that Saturday at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Being Human is a dramedy that looks at the lives of three twenty-somethings living double lives as a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost while struggling with the common issues faced by young people. Think a slightly older Twilight with a sense of humor.
Finally, July 26 at 8 p.m. ET/PT is the U.S premiere of Doctor Who’s Easter special, “Planet of the Dead,” offering the first of four final hours with David Tennant in the role.
Image courtesy BBC
See also:
BBC Digs Up Man-Eating Triffids for New Mini-Series
The BBC: A Case Study in Going Digital
BBC Announces Matt Smith as Next Doctor Who
BBC to Open Content Floodgates
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/Ls9l6t8Xi-M/
Legendary rocker and gearhead Neil Young is prepping to release the first volume of his archives on CD, DVD and Blu-ray on June 2. But if you ask him, Blu-ray is the way to go.
“The sound and picture quality is unparalleled,” Young writes in a preface on the Neil Young Archives‘ official site. “There is also an awesome feature that allows you to connect your player to the internet and receive updates and content that is not already included. In a project of this scope, things are always being discovered.”
Perpetual audiophile Young comes out as a cheerleader for Blu-ray, encouraging music lovers to take the plunge into Sony’s high-def format.
“As time passes, you will see that Blu-ray is what you want for the utmost in quality, variety and versatility,” he says. “It is worth it to get into Blu-ray now. Don’t say I didn’t tell you.”
Young describes this first Blu-ray installment of his continuing Archives series, which spans his early 1963 Winnipeg recordings with The Squires to his seminal 1972 solo effort Harvest and is simply loaded with peripheral goodies, as an “old and funky virtual filing cabinet” with a timeline feature that is constantly updated online for free every time he turns up a new photo, tune or video in the vaults.
“New content is found every day,” he says, and it’s there for the taking if you opt for the Blu-ray version.
The cost of those free content upgrades is likely built into the sticker shock: The Blu-ray edition is $300, while the DVD clocks in at $200 and the CD is $100. Young is sweetening the deal by offering a free preview disc with rare tracks before the street date if you purchase the Blu-ray or DVD sets. But is it a fair price? Let us know in the comments section below.
See also:
Neil Young: Failed Warner/YouTube Negotiations ‘Penalized’ Artists
Neil Young: Hi-Res Music Is ‘The Future.’ What’s the Freakin’ Holdup?
Colbert Gets His Spider, Likes Neil Young Again
The Reinvention of Neil Young, Part 6
Neil Young Previews Sugar Mountain, Likes Residuals
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/8anYsmPu9ws/
During their annual “Upfront” sessions this month, TV networks are flinging several dozen new shows against the wall in order to see what sticks to the 2009-2010 prime-time wall. Given corporate media’s 90 percent mortality rate for new comedies and dramas made the old fashioned (expensive) way, webotainment — produced on a shoestring — continues to gain traction.
Getting in on the act, established Hollywood talents like Joss “Dr. Horrible” Whedon, Rosario Dawson (Gemini), Role Models writer-director David Wain (Wainy Days) , Lisa Kudrow (Web Therapy) and Heroes creator Tim Kring, who launches a hush-hush interactive project in July, are digging deeply into the digital domain.
Question is, does webotainment 2.0 deliver? Is the formerly radical anyone-can-upload net technology resulting in experiments that burst the confines of network television hackery, or are the New Webotainers simply producing shorter versions of lame sitcoms and tired sci-fi clichés?
To be sure, dreck aplenty clogs the New Media pipelines but here and there, distinctive storytellers are creating fresh funny work for web consumption. Case in point: the Fine Brothers’ latest Lost parody (embedded above) which pits Star Trek action figures against Sawyer and his Island mates.
After the jump, six more web series worth watching.
My Roommate the Cylon
Creative team Spaceshank Media drags the lofty Battletar Galactica mythology down to earth, where an apartment full of semi-dim twenty-somethings debate Cylon DNA. Smart editing eliminates the need for stunt people to fall off a three-story balcony.
In the tradition of the Lonely Island.com website, which brought Andy Samberg to the attention of Saturday Night Live, SpaceShank’s web work is getting noticed by people with money. Partner Alec McNayr says “Cylon really opened some doors for us. We’ve been pitching Comedy Central, meeting agents and talking to managers. It seems as though a web series is what a screenplay-in-tote used to be: proof of young, untested talent.”
DRAMA
LXD
Dancers as superheroes? Don’t laugh. Jon M. Chu, director of dance movies Step Up 2, uses artful cinematography and a spooky action-movie soundtrack to pump the premise: fightin’ and dancin’ are pretty much the same. The League of Extraordinary Dancers brings together “The most elite crew ever assembled” in this X-Men-meets-booty-shakers concept.
MUSIC
Rockville, CA
TV’s king of teen- and tweenty-something banter Josh Schwartz (The OC, Gossip Girl) points the beautiful people toward a dingy rock club in L.A’s groovy-hip Silver Lake neighborhood. Fast forward past the flirty repartee (codpieces, orange peels and ass-less chaps) to the band performances. Raw, ripping rock from Eagles Of Death Metal, Nico Stai, The Duke Spirit and other groups make this WB.com series rock. Final episodes launched May 12.
PARODY
Everyone Poops
Juvenile humor plus sophisticated execution equals LANDLINETV.COM’s spoof of Spike Jonze’ upcoming Where the Wild Things Are. The Brooklyn collective, which champions the slogan “Comically relevant … for about a week or so,” zeroes in on new targets every week or two. Media types will dig Print Media Gets Lifeline, featuring street corner newsboys selling tiny strips of paper printed with URLs linking to Britney Spears news.
SCI-FI
Spellfury
Canadian writer-director Travis Gordon throws World Of Warcraft video games, Lord of the Rings pomposity and Buffy The Vampire Slayer snark into the blender for this live-action series. Best part: The blue ogre with bloody eyes is every bit as creepy as Billy Crudup’s “Doctor Manhattan,” made for about .00001 of the cost. “We have a huge medieval tavern brawl coming up and also have a puppeteer who worked on Farscape and the Muppets who’s doing a creature for us,” he says.
Next up for Gordon: Mass Stupidity, which he describes as “Austin Powers–Meets–G.I. Joe.” Gordon speaks for many of the New Webotainment auteurs when he says, ”I pretty much do this full-time. it doesn’t pay much but I love doing it.”
AND THERE’S MORE
Here’s a few worthy webotainment hubs where you might just spot the breakout hit of tomorrow.
Atom.com
Comedy Central-affiliated site includes the Fine Brothers’ social
network–mocking comedy My Profile Story. Also new:
stage-your-own cop show The Deepening and Hot Sluts!
Rated R.
AWNTV.com
Up-and-coming student filmmakers showcase experimental animation
shorts like Nigel Wood’s cute outer-space series Cosmonautics.
Crackle.com
Sony Picture Television site, home to Xena stunt gal Zoe Bell’s Angel of Death, launches porn-star reality show Mommy XXX in June, followed in August by the fat-magician comedy series Dusty Peacock from Mall Cop comedian Kevin James.
funnyordie.com
The web’s best-known comedy site continues to score with one-offs from Paris Hilton, Jack Black and co-founder Will Ferrell.
Cardboard-headed robots do a dance beneath the Chicago el tracks in the "Kid Static" rap video.
ironsink.com
Comedy series include Upstairs Girls, a shoe-string budget variation on the Friends formula.
koldcast.com
88 Hits, created by Streamy Award–winning director Blake Calhoun, takes aim at dysfunctional mob family the Pascadellis, while Valley Peaks features cleavage, bows and arrows, and deliberate over-acting. Safety Geeks SVI features comedians Dave Beeler and Tom Konkle.
machinima.com
This hub for sci-fi/fantasy shorts created from videogame engines plans to expand with 15 sitcom pilots from network TV veterans who’ve written for The Simpsons, Futurama, King of the Hill, Seinfeld, Married With Children, Seinfeld and Cheers.
My Damn Channel
Producer of hit series You Suck at Photoshop, the site earlier this month launched season four of dork-dating-babes comedy series Wainy Days.
nextnewnetworks.com
Former MTV creative director Herb Scandell and Spongebob Squarepants creator Fed Seibert co-founded the site, which includes The Obama Girls on its barelypolitical channel.
revision3.com
Ranting heads and DIY filmmakers post here, with instructions on how
to create exploding heads — for free.
vimeo.com
User-generated site focuses on skate and rap culture with pieces like Noah Banks’ absurdist Kid Static music video.
The WB.com
Among the dozen plus original series hosted here: Webby Award-winning comedy Children’s Hospital features Rob Corddry from The Daily Show.
AND THERE’S MORE MORE:
New web series are hitting the ‘net every day. Let us know which webisodes are cracking you up. Weigh in below with your comments and recommendations.
See also:
Reznor, Fallon Rack Up Webby Awards
Webby Awards Nominees Rope Together Weird, Wonderful
Streamy Web Awards Honor Dr. Horrible, Battlestar Galactica
Sarah Silverman’s Super Song About Boinking Matt Damon
Green Porno Star Isabella Rossellini Takes on Insect Sex
2009 Webby Awards Opens Doors to Net Celebs, Viral Videos
Celebs, Nerds Win Big at Streamy Web Awards
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/tCewnq950gE/
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button just arrived on DVD. But it's possible those buying and renting don't realize what they're witnessing in its F. Scott Fitzgerald-inspired story.
See also:
The Curious Case of Reverse-Aging Brad Pitt
Think of the great visual effects films of the color movie era. What film would you name as the greatest of all time, considering its period and its impact on cinema? Forbidden Planet? Star Wars? Terminator 2: Judgment Day? The Matrix?
According to Ed Ulbrich, founding executive of Digital Domain (one of the industry’s top effects houses), the “Holy Grail” of FX films arrived on Blu-ray and DVD this month.
In an exclusive chat with Wired.com, the Academy Award-winning executive producer of Button’s effects said the fact that audiences are generally in the dark on the film’s heavy dependence on digital tools makes the project every VFX technician’s dream.
“For the first hour of the movie, Brad Pitt’s actual face doesn’t appear in the film,” Ulbrich said. “I think the fact that most audiences were unaware of the use of effects is a treat and accomplishment for (visual effects).”
If you take another look at Button, keep in mind that you’re not looking at a living, breathing lead actor until the movie is an hour old.
“There are some films where audiences will obviously realize a spaceship or a monster is CGI, but to make a film in which digital work is undetectable is something (effects professionals) have been working toward for years,” Ulbrich said.
Image courtesy Paramount
See also:
Video: Re-Creating Watchmen’s Comic Book World
New Transformers 2 Trailer Rocks Hard
Wolverine Trailer Trilogy Starts Sunday
People vs. George Lucas Trailer Arrives in HD
Japanese Watchmen Trailer Offers Sad Fans More Evidence
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/zeqHTkNhBCc/
The Rifftrax team of Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy will perform their first live online riff of a feature film this Friday with Planet of the Dinosaurs.
At 6 p.m. Pacific/9 p.m. Eastern, the Mystery Science Theater 3000 alums will open with a send-up of a short subject (Shake Hands with Danger) before launching into the feature presentation. Like the drug pusher looking for new recruits, the first hit of the short is free. But, the feature will cost you $6.99.
Rifftrax offered online live performances before, though there were a few glitches. Site technicians assure Wired.com that the subscription event this Friday night will go off without a hitch.
Image Courtesy Rifftrax
See also:
The Horror: RiffTrax Mocks Classic Fright Flicks
Live Rifftrax Show Crashes Website
RiffTrax’s Mike Nelson Cooks Up All-Bacon Diet
Rifftrax Goes Live With First Streaming Show
RiffTrax’s Nelson Fails Bacon Challenge at Zero Hour
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wiredunderwire/~3/OTH9Nxi6HOw/
There are few better ways to celebrate Earth Day than a screening of Earth, the sprawling, stunning documentary released Wednesday in America from Disney’s newest production house, DisneyNature.
A companion film to the expansive 2008 documentary series Planet Earth produced by the BBC Natural History Unit, Earth enraptured international cinema after its release in 2007, partially because of the eye-popping visuals and partially because of the hypnotic narration of sci-fi Shakespearean Patrick Stewart — or Captain Jean-Luc Picard as he is known to Trekkies worldwide.
The U.S. version taps another sci-fi Shakespearean, James Earl Jones — Darth Vader to Star Wars loyalists — to tell its engrossing story. Yet Earth is more science than speculative fiction, although it is completely compelling in its portrayal of beautiful biodiversity on the brink of extinction.
"Of all the planets in our universe, there is only one we know can support life," the film’s opening message explains. "Just the right distance from its sun, with a perfect climate, it’s been called the lucky planet. All life on Earth is built on chance and powered by the sun, but the delicate balances of our world are faltering as the planet struggles to support our growing demands. This is the time to take stock of what we have, and what we stand to lose."
Employing stellar time-lapse photography over the course of five years and $47 million dollars, the largest ever for a documentary production, Planet Earth and Earth sit atop the throne of climatalogical entertainment until someone, or something, comes along and swipes its scepter.
While the television series was broken down into 11 intoxicating episodes — wait, make that 10, because the episode on caves will make you lose your lunch — Earth
the film is truncated into three narratives following a family of polar bears in the Arctic, African elephants in the Kalahari desert and humpback whales in the tropics.
Nevertheless, it’s still eye-candy cinema, and an environmental wake-up call to boot. Don’t miss it.
See also:
Design Series e2 Visualizes Green Transport
The Linguists Battles Language Extinction on Web
Q&A: Robyn Hitchcock Dreams of Oslo, Synesthesia, Snow
Is God Green? The Green Bible Says Hell Yes!
Review: The Day the Earth Stood Still Takes a Tumble
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Neo-jazz collective El Michels Affair channels the Wu-Tang Clan on Enter the 37th Chamber.Photo courtesy Fat Beats Records
The digital age has globalized distribution lines and taste patterns. That is good news for funk, soul and hip-hop fans, who are mainlining a slew of new and old artists issuing and reissuing kinetic rhythms for Generation Xbox. This week's Free-Music Friday celebrates those sonic signatures and the slipstreaming musicians who are going back to the future. From Peter King's Nigerian shango, the Whitfield Brothers' juiced-up funk and the swamp jazz of Medeski, Martin and Wood to the hybrid-hop of El Michels Affair, Mulatu Astatke and The Heliocentrics, Wired.com probes the outer limits of international soundtracking in search of inner space.Who:Mulatu Astatke and The HeliocentricsWhat: "Masenqo"Where:Inspiration Information, out April 14 (Strut Records)Sounds like: DJ Shadow, Duke Ellington, David AxelrodSpiel: Born in Ethiopia in 1943, classically trained composer Mulatu Astatke was the first African student to enroll at Berklee College of Music. Known as the father of Ethiopian jazz, he has performed with greats like Duke Ellington, been sampled by Jim Jarmusch for the soundtrack to Broken Flowers and, now, has paired up with one of the best rhythm sections you may never have heard of, The Heliocentrics. The U.K. band, led by drummer Malcolm Catto, has itself been sampled by world-beating hip-hop DJs like DJ Shadow and Madlib, while mashing the sonic signatures of David Axelrod and Ennio Morricone. Together with Astatke, Catto and crew have crafted one of the year's finest jazz-soul-hop-whatever records, a stack of tracks so hypnotic and refreshing that you might as well leave it on replay. Speaking of Strut Records ...Who:Peter KingWhat: "Shango"Where:Nigeria 70: The Definitive Story of 1970's Funky Lagos, reissued March 31 (Strut Records)Sounds like: A lesson in music historySpiel: First surfacing on Strut in 2001, this reissued compilation of Afrobeat spectaculars like Fela Kuti, The Funkees, Sunny Ade, Bala Miller, Segun Bucknor and many more shines a light on a Lagos awash in outer-limits jazz, groove and funk. Now that the digital age has hit archivists full force, the record has been expanded to make way for even more DJ-requested rarities, such as the Afro Cult Foundation's underrated soundtrack "The Quest." Nigeria 70's latest iteration comes in a two-disc digipak replete with the original sleeve and track notes and an extensive booklet chronicling one of the most fertile periods in international music.Who:The Whitefield BrothersWhat: "Sol Walk"Where: In the Raw, reissued March 10 (Now-Again Records)Sounds like: Fela Kuti, Psychedelic Aliens, MetersSpiel: Around the turn of the 21st century, before archival funk fever caught hold online and on indie labels, two German brothers named Max and Jan Weissenfeldt departed from their groove outfit Poets of Rhythm in Munich and set out for New York to lay down inspired rhythm. The result of that quest was In the Raw, which debuted in 2001 on Soul Fire, then disappeared as the label folded. But times and trends change: Fast-forward to years later, and the Weissenfeldts' hidden crate classic has been discovered by everyone from Quannum rapper Lyrics Born to DJ and indie mogul Eothen Alapatt, who promptly reissued the sweaty funk dose on the revivalist Now-Again imprint from his lauded label with Peanut Butter Wolf, Stone's Throw Records. The Whitefield Brothers are hard at work on the follow-up to In the Raw, but chances are it is still new to you. Probably not for long.Who:El Michels AffairWhat: "C.R.E.A.M."Where:Enter the 37th Chamber, out April 21 (Fat Beats Records)Sounds like: Wu-Tang Clan, The Dap-KingsSpiel: Usually, hip-hop samples funk and jazz to manufacture its crowd-pleasers. Cinematic soul pusher El Michels Affair has reversed that polarity on its sophomore effort by revising Wu-Tang Clan's immortal debut, Enter the 36th Chamber, using only El Michels' taut rhythm section and a devoted love of hip-hop. But there's plenty of love to go around for the group, which is anchored by sax man Leon Michels and enigneer Jeff Silverman. After its 2005 debut, Sounding Out the City, made the rounds in the music world, El Michels Affair eventually collaborated not just the Wu-Tang Clan but also Iggy Pop,
Sharon Jones and many more, including tabloid fodder singer Amy Winehouse. With this soul-hop mash, El Michels Affair can safely argue that it has arrived. See also:Free-Music Friday: Moody Tunes From Bat for Lashes, Mono, MoreFree-Music Friday: Head-Trips From Aceyalone, Yonlu, MoreSXSW: Free-Music Friday Bids Adieu to AustinFree-Music Friday, SXSW-Style!Free-Music Friday: Iggy Pop, Spindrift, Monument to Masses, MoreFree-Music Friday: Los Straitjackets, Black Lips, More
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The Beatles have mostly avoided the digital age so far. But that stance ends Sept. 9 when the Fab Four's entire digitally remastered catalog and Beatles: Rock Band will be released for the first time to a public still hungry for ways to interact with the legendary pop quartet.
Apple Corps. and EMI announced Tuesday the worldwide release date for 14 remastered Beatles titles, including the band's original 12 albums plus Magical Mystery Tour and a combined disc featuring both volumes of the greatest-hits collection Past Masters. Each remastered effort was transferred to Pro Tools through a Prism A-D converter, with dust removed from the EMI tape head after each track. To keep the integrity of the recordings intact, de-noising technology and overall volume limiting was used sparingly. The project took four years to complete.The remasters will be stacked with replications of the vinyl releases' original artwork and supplements, and also packed with extra archival goodies like photos, liner notes and more, including new documentaries on each album compressed into QuickTime files.As for The Beatles: Rock Band, it will be the first in the franchise to be based on a single band, and will be released on Wii, Xbox and PlayStation 3 for $60. A deluxe bundle with custom-designed instruments modeled on those used by the Fab Four will also be available for $250, although the game will work with Rock Band's standard controllers.
The game will feature songs from Please Please Me through Abbey Road, as well as a visual and musical history of the group and material that has never been seen or heard before. The songs, however, will not be offered as downloads for other Rock Band titles.
Wired.com will chat about this and more with Dhani Harrison, son of late Beatles guitarist George Harrison and one of the prime figures behind the Fab Four's transition to the digital age. "It's been a real headache, but it's been the most enjoyable work I've done in my life," Harrison told Billboard in March.
We'll also talk about Dhani Harrison's band, thenewno2, which takes its name from the revolutionary cult TV series The Prisoner, whose visionary writer, director and actor Patrick McGoohan died in January. Have any questions you'd like to ask Harrison about the Beatles' digital life, The Prisoner or anything else? Let us know with a comment below.
Photo courtesy Apple CorpsSee also:Should The Beatles' 'Revolution' Bootleg Have Stayed in the Vault?Beatles Version of Rock Band to Offer Unprecedented GameplayMcCartney Confirms 'Mystery' Beatles TrackLost Beatles Tape Found, Readied for AuctionMcCartney: No Beatles on iTunes in the Near Future
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With J.J. Abrams' Star Trek about a month away, we knew there would be a constant flow of merchandising tie-ins before and after the film's release. It's safe to say few fans could have predicted the latest licensing deal with Eternal Image.
The Farmington Hills, Mich. company designs and manufactures themed memorial and funeral products -- having already inked deals with The Vatican Library Collection, Precious Moments, the American Kennel Club and Major League Baseball.
Now, Eternal Image signed a deal with Paramount and CBS to distribute Star Trek-themed urns and coffins. Soon, you can be buried in a full-size recreation of the torpedo tube (above) used to launch Spock's corpse to the Genesis Planet at the end of Wrath of Khan.
Or, if you're final remains take on more of a Ashes of Eden motif, they have a gleaming Star Fleet urn for the occasion.
Trek monuments and burial vaults are also coming. The entire collection doesn't arrive until later this year, and no prices are listed yet.
Image courtesy Eternal Image
See also:
Star Trek's 10 Cheesiest Classic Creatures
Trekker Re-Creates Classic Star Trek Scenes With Legos
Hello, Romulus! Star Trek Premiere Goes on Tour
Abrams' Star Trek, Original Series Meet in Mashup
Star Trek: The Experience Returning to Vegas in May
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2009/04/star-trek-burie.html
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