Here’s a new “Riddick” trailer, and it looks like he’s fallen on hard times. In “Pitch Black” he was a convict, pursued by a bounty hunter and seemingly trapped on a world of deadly, inhuman creatures. In the sequel, “The Chronicles Of Riddick” he somehow became the ruler of the Necromongers, the most powerful army in the galaxy.
In “Riddick” he comes full circle, as he’s once again being pursued by bounty hunters and monsters on a hostile world.
Though what his enemies, human and otherwise, seem to forget that man is the deadliest creature of all.
And no man is as deadly as Riddick.
I assume that this footage for Guillermo Del Toro’s “Pacific Rim” is from the last Comic-con. It shows the most detail of the robots yet, as well as a bit of character development.
And I can’t see why Michael Bay would ever be worried by ‘Rim,’ after all, if the trailers are to be believed, it looks much better than any of his Transformers films.
I have to admit that, while I had heard of Suzanne Collins‘ Hunger Games Trilogy prior to the movie coming out, I didn’t expect it to make much of a splash.
My bias stemmed less from the fact that her books are directed primarily at young adults – John Christopher’s ‘The White Mountains’ trilogy are as well, and remain among the best novels, nevermind the audience they were primarly directed at, I have ever read – but I also expected that it was in the vein (pardon the pun) of the ‘Twilight’ movies, which I might see if someone threatened me with bodily harm if I didn’t (and even then I would still have to think about it for a moment or two).
I thought that Gary Ross did OK with the first film, though it felt that he almost had a disdain for the more technologically-inclined aspects of the story (though I should add that I liked his work enough that I purchased the first book in the trilogy). Ross didn’t return for ‘Catching Fire,’ so the sequel is being directed by Francis Lawrence, a director that is almost the opposite of Gary Ross in that he sometimes appears too enamored of technology, particularly CGI.
When Gerry Anderson died in 2013 I assumed that also meant that not only would there be no more series like “UFO,” “Space: 1999″ or “Space Precinct” but without his leadership there wouldn’t even be an Anderson Entertainment.
It seems that I am wrong because the company’s web site not only went live recently and hints that there are not only future projects in the pipeline, but that one of those projects will be revealed very soon.
What’s also interesting is that, while the Anderson Entertainment website is run by his son, Jamie, I have no idea who’s currently running the company itself.
The point is that whomever is behind the company will hopefully have the clout (and financial backing, because Anderson’s past series aren’t known for being inexpensive) to continue Anderson’s history of innovation.
And speaking of which, what are they producing? Will this upcoming project be a new series based upon their existing catalog? An entirely new series? Movies?
The possibilities are almost endless, and while the following trailers – which are homages to past Anderson productions – don’t answer any of those questions, they are pretty cool in their own right.
Universal Pictures and Hero Complex are having free screenings of “Oblivion,” Joseph Kosinski’s followup to “Tron: Legacy,” starting on the 15th of this month.
If you’re in New York, Philadelphia or Burbank (among others cities) you might want to look into it.
It revolves around Tom Cruise, who’s a repairman of droids on an Earth that is seemingly bereft of human life, due to an alien invasion. Long ago abandoned by humanity, he not only discovers that a small colony (led by, I assume, Morgan Freeman) remains, but also hostile aliens that survived the original conflict.
Of course, for some strange reason the District isn’t on the list of cities.
“Space Precinct,” arguably one of Gerry Anderson’s more controversial series, mainly due to the $1.5 million per episode cost, which made it the most expensive show in Britain at the time. Yet, despite all the money spent, the ratings were only average, which I suspect had more than a little to do with the terrible time slots the show was stuck in, as opposed to the series itself.
I witnessed this personally. It was one of my favorite shows growing up, and I recall trying to force myself to stay up till it aired, which was usually around 12:30 on Friday morning.
Besides the issue of times slots, the show’s greatest problem is that it didn’t seem to know what it wanted to be, which gave it an oddly schizophrenic tone. For instance, an episode would sometimes start off with hardcore scifi, then somehow end as a family drama.
Today is the day that I have decided to celebrate a few of the things to be thankful for, like there being a sequel to Stephen Sommers’ 2009 film “G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra.”
This is something I do, I should add, because I am an advocate of comic book-based films, more so than being a fan of Sommers’ film, in and of itself.
I celebrate that a film that earned just over $302 million during it’s theatrical run, on a production budget of $175 million, somehow manages to warrant a sequel, despite the fact that other films, such as “Rise Of The Guardians” have doubled their production costs, yet somehow end up a failure that results in layoffs for a company like DreamWorks Animation.
I celebrate that John Chu will be helming the aforementioned sequel, despite that there’s nothing in his filmography that illustrates that he can effectively direct an effects-heavy action film.
That being said, Stanley Donen directed “Saturn 3,” which earned $9 million in 1980’s dollars, so it can’t be all bad (snark aside, the Elmer Bernstein soundtrack for “Saturn 3” is all sorts of awesome).
And most of all, I am thankful that Chu remembered what Cobra Commander from the comics and the cartoons actually looked like, which makes me wonder why Sommers felt the need to make him resemble a megalomaniacal plumber.
Thanks to Comicbookmovie.com for the image from “G.I. Joe: Retribution.”
Why is it that Hollywood, whenever it begins to run low on ideas, feels the need to plunder my dreams?
Perhaps I shouldn’t take such things so personally, but after the upcoming (?) reboot of “Space: 1999,” and now “The Tomorrow People,” I am beginning to wonder.
Would ‘Tron: Uprising’ Been Renewed If It Had Been Less Expensive?
I have been watching a lot of Netflix since I have been working getting over my cold. I finished watching “Firefly” – as a result I think I better understand the fixation the fans known as Browncoats have with the show; as an added bonus I appreciate Joss Whedon’s “Serentity” even more.
I am also watching – as I type – “Tron: Uprising.” It hasn’t been renewed by Disney despite being one of the most visually innovative television series on television. Its won numerous Annie Awards, and is breathtakingly beautiful at times.
Oddly enough, it has significantly more depth than “Tron: Legacy,” the movie that inspired it. This can be partially attributed to having more time to unfold its storyline, though truth be told “Tron” Legacy ” was more interested in being visually appealing than telling a cohesive and engaging story.
Thinking about the series two thoughts came to mind, one revolving around Paul Rubens (who voiced a treacherous assistant to General Tessler named Pavel) which will be the subject of another column, and another speculating as to why the series was cancelled.
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