“Warner Bros. wants to send Jonny Quest on his first bigscreen adventure. Adrian Askarieh and Daniel Alter, who have the vidgame-based “Hitman” bowing in October from Fox, will produce the live-action adaptation of the popular 1960s animated TV series from Hanna-Barbera, with Dan Mazeau penning the script.
Askarieh, a longtime fan of the series, is hoping to turn the property into a family-friendly adventure franchise — something the studio is clearly looking for now that “Harry Potter” is winding down. Mazeau recently sold his fantasy adventure spec “Land of Lost Things” to Paramount Pictures’ Nickelodeon Films, with Arnold and Anne Kopelson producing.”
Shown above is the Mitsubishi i Princess Kitty which features a Hello Kitty design motif (click to see all the detail at full size, trust me it’s worth it):
“It was bound to happen sooner or later… and after ANCEL and DAMD’s pimp of the Mitsubishi I, here’s the Hello Kitty version of our beloved Kei-Car. Don’t panic though, because only one of these will be sold! If you want to see this car irl, jet over to Japan because it will be on display in a big Japanese store between July 25th and 31st.”
“Continuing to expand its inhouse videogame work, Warner Bros. will self-publish the game based on next summer’s tentpole “Speed Racer.” Versions of the game playable on Nintendo’s Wii and DS will launch day-and-date with the pic’s theatrical release in May. A version for Sony’s PlayStation 2 comes out in the fall along with the DVD. Given the short development schedule, Warner Bros. apparently decided not to invest in “Speed Racer” games for the high-powered PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 7, 2007 in Comic Books
The folks at filmick.co.uk have come up with a very well done chart showing previous and current efforts to cast Watchman as a film. It’s sad that we’ll never know what the Terry Gilliam version of the film would have looked like.
“Warner Bros. apparently is putting together an anime project that would help bridge the gap between “Batman Begins” and the upcoming sequel, “The Dark Knight,” according to Batman-On-Film. The anime series will carry a PG-13 equivalent rating, and include stories written by Josh Olsen of “A History of Violence” fame as well as “Batman Begins” writer David Goyer. Also onboard to write episodes is comic book scribe Brian Azzarello.
It is not clear whether these will be animated episodes available on the Web, or if Warner Bros. will take the Matrix route and release them directly to DVD instead. Online promotion of television and movies, especially through the areas of online video, have become much more popular in recent years, and Warner could choose to take the viral promotion route. At the same time, however, comic book fans have been known to buy just about anything that is released on their favorite characters, so it might be a better money-making opportunity for the studio to go directly to DVD.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 6, 2007 in Animation
Shown above is a trailer for Robota by Star Wars mecha designer Doug Chaing. I have no idea if there’s any sort of story, but man do the visuals look great!
“…Then nerdcore came along. A largely white subgenre of hip-hop that celebrates the solitary pleasures of science fiction, computers and bad teenage movies, nerdcore is emerging from the shadows of the Internet, where it spent the last half-decade as an in-joke. This do-it-yourself brand of rap, part self-expression and part self-satire, has inspired two documentary films, and its own festival, Nerdapalooza, in California. This month, MC Chris — otherwise known as Christopher Ward, 31, the son of a finance executive from the affluent Chicago suburb of Libertyville, Ill. — will attempt an unprecedented nerdcore crossover when he joins mosh-pit-friendly rock acts like New Found Glory and Sum 41 on the Warped Tour.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 6, 2007 in Videogames
The Pachimon Game Museum is an online Japanese website that shows off gaming rip-offs from China from the PolyStation II (shown above) to the Jank Box 36X.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 5, 2007 in Japanese TV
The above commercial for Oreo Cookies in Japan stars actress Narumi Riko who got her first beak with the tv series Trick which was sort of like X-Files meets Scooby-Doo.
Peter Schneider is a fanboy from Germany who has put together an amazing gallery of Girls with Guns on Flickr. His collection of 433 spans both the globe (Europe to Korea) and muliple genres (old westerns to sci fi).
I don’t know why they didn’t think of this sooner! Now you can now buy a Hello Kitty outfit to humiliate, err “dress up” your cat. But I have to admit that there’s something very cute about the photo above, although I can only guess at what poor neko is thinking.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 4, 2007 in Star Wars
Here’s your chance for fame and fortune, well maybe just a little bit of fame: The producers of the Fanboys film are having a contest for the Ultimate Fanboy Video. What’s neat is that the winner will get a walk on part in the upcoming film Fanboys.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 4, 2007 in Videogames
Distraction Game (also known as Pyo Pyo Fruits) is a fun Flash game from Japan. What nice about it is that as you play characters outside the frame of the game (shown above) nudge the creen to distract you. My hat is off to whomever cam eup with the design…
“NASA is to launch a spacecraft on a nine-month journey to Mars, where it will dig below the surface for clues to the existence of past or present life. The Phoenix probe is scheduled to lift off on Saturday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop a Delta II rocket.
The mission will aim to shed light not only on the history of this water ice but also on whether the region could support microbial life. Crucial to this question will be tests for complex, carbon-based chemicals (organics) in the soil and signs the ice periodically melts. “The real question we’re trying to answer is: ‘has that ice melted’, because liquid water in contact with soil may provide us with a habitable environment,” said Peter Smith, the mission’s principal investigator and a professor at the University of Arizona.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 3, 2007 in Star Wars
Luke use the turn signal! The Star Wars Talking Dashboard Statues shown above spout a clever Star Wars phrase when you push their yellow button. Although I’m surprised that they don’t have an R2-D2, even though he doesn’t speak human he seems more like an ideal passanger for ones own X-Wing vehicle…
“The first CM was held in December 1975, with only about 30 participating circles and an estimated 700 attendees. Attendance has since swelled to over a quarter of a million people. The convention lasts for three days. It is a grassroots, DIY effort for selling dōjinshi, self-published Japanese works. As items sold in CM are considered very rare (because dōjinshi are seldom reprinted), some items sold at CM can be found in shops or on the Internet at prices up to 10 times the item’s original price.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 1, 2007 in Animation
I had my doubts at first, but this trailer doesn’t look half bad. I guess my thinking at this point is that it’s better to do Dr. Seuss with computer animation rather than live action. In fact I dare say that the character designs don’t look half bad in terms of getting the spirit of Seuss. But the voice acting sounds quite bad, Jim Carey and Steve Carell sound flat and unspired which is a bad sign for a trailer.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 1, 2007 in Star Wars
It’s Han Solo ala Lego! At almost 3 feet long and containing over 5,000 pieces, the Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon ($500) is the biggest Lego set ever made. Pre-orders are now open and the starships will start shipping on October 1, 2007:
