Every week, we at the Flickcast try to bring you a new web video in the that relates to the geek culture we all know and love. This week’s video, 8-Bit Trip, came from a true labor of love, or possible insanity. To animate classic video game moments and characters, the skilled filmmakers spent 1500 hours doing the most “stop motion” capture around.
Instead of being able to move just a single piece per frame, they had to deconstruct and reconstruct models to produce this 3:49 piece of Lego insanity. To give you some frame of reference, that comes out to 62.5 days working non-stop or 37.5 standard forty hour work weeks to complete this project.
Hats off to these incredibly talented, and somewhat insane, filmmakers for their work on this project. One can only wonder just how many thousands of Legos went in to the production of it.
We got the chance to talk to Rob Zombie about his release of Halloween 2 this week, and though he stated that he has no intention of remaking any other horror movies, it looks like Genre Co.’s Richard Sapperstein may have made his mind up for him.
According to Variety, Genre Co., which is founded by former Dimension Pictures President Sapperstein, will be producing a remake of the 1958 classic The Blob along with the original producers at Worldwide Entertainment Corp. According to Zombie, this is something new for him, and he’s ready to take a crack at it.
“I’d been looking to break out of the horror genre, and this really is a science fiction movie about a thing from outer space,” Zombie said. “I intend to make it scary, and the great thing is I have the freedom once again to take it in any crazy direction I want to.”
Zombie has begun writing. He’ll follow the release of “Halloween II” with a new album and tour this fall and get the script done at that time.
If you happen to be an aspiring director then this is for you. Film Independent, the non-profit devoted to artists and independent filmmaking is now accepting applications for its 9th Annual Director’s Lab, an eight-week course designed to help directors who are in the midst of prepping films. Sound good? Well, read on to get all the latest details on the program, how to apply and other goodies.
FILM INDEPENDENT NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS
FOR 2010 DIRECTORS LAB
* Deadline is October 5, 2009 -
Film Independent’s 9th Annual Directors Lab is an intensive eight-week incubator designed to help directors who are prepping their feature films, and is sponsored by Kodak.
Taking place in Los Angeles during the winter, the Lab assists directors with strong, original voices develop new narrative feature films, improve their craft, and advance their filmmaking careers in a nurturing, yet challenging creative environment.
To apply, please visit: http://filmindependent.org/fellowships/filmmaker_labs/directors_lab
Application fee is $55 for Film Independent Members and $75 for Non-Members.
Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2 doesn’t live up to the promise of his first effort and is only marginally entertaining for its running time. The film, which begins about a minute after the last one ends, continues the tale of Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) and her descent into madness. During the film she’s also pursued by Michael Myers, a sinister and relentless killing machine who even thought he’s on a mission to find Laurie and do whatever it is sociopaths do with people they find instead of killing them, he manages to stop along the way and kill many people seemingly at random or just because they happen to be in his way.
There are some things to like about this sequel. First, Zombie manages to up the tension and the stakes a bit from the first one — its now even more about saving Laurie — plus he throws in a pretty effective misdirection at the beginning of the film that leads us to believe we’re going to be watching a very faithful remake of the original Halloween sequel. Fortunately, he’s able to get away from that concept pretty gracefully and ends up taking the film into another less familiar, but in the end no less predictable, direction.
Our friends at Activision have dropped a couple more cool videos from the upcoming game DJ Heroon us and we’ve decided, since you’ve been so good lately, to share them with you. These new ones showcase more of the fun that can be had when playing the upcoming DJ Hero game and feature an appearance from one of the greatest entertainers of all time: Grandmaster Flash.
The other video is more “educational” and, well, tries to teach you a little something about the game. As we’ve previously shown you, this game looks very cool and, unfortunately for someone like myself still mastering Guitar Hero, complicated but definitely worth playing. DJ Hero let’s you “scratch and mix the hottest hits” and comes to all next gen consoles on later this year.
Don’t forget to check out the review of the “Pull of the Week” Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter, 28 Days Later and Batman and Robin on yesterday’s The Pull List
Dark Reign: Elektra #5 – Marvel – $3.99
Score: 7.5
“If I had wronged them, I would simply kill them all.” That quote pretty much sums up what is so cool about Elektra. If only the makers of the Jennifer Gardner movie had figured that out. Dark Reign: Elektra #5 concludes the series as Elektra, having been returned from her Skrull and subsequent Norman Osborn imprisonment, tries to find out just who has put a price on her head. After having been attacked by agent Nico and Bullseye, Elektra is by Wolverine (the good one, not the Dark Avengers one). Wolverine takes Elektra somewhere safe and lets her know the whereabouts of where he tracked Nico to.
Elektra, wanting to find out what happened that these people want to kill her that was caused by her Skrull impersonator, tracks down the agents. When she gets to the Nico and Hammer Agent Brothers, she finds out that they blame her for the death of so many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents when she and the Hand has crashed the helicarrier. At the same time, Norman Osborn has found out through his interrogations of Skrull captives just when Elektra was abducted and what the Skrulls found out from her.
Writer Zeb Wells and artist Clay Mann are a great time to work on an Elektra story. Zeb gets what makes Elektra intriguing as she lives her life in shades of gray while Clay does a great job of bringing it to the page. The only character who doesn’t fit in strongly with this story is Norman Osborn as it seems he was forced in as a main component because of the “Dark Reign” banner. It feels like it should have been more of a post-Secret Invasion tie-in instead of putting so much focus on the storytelling on Norman who has been plastered in literally every corner of the Marvel U.
According to Variety, the super hot and talented Christina Hendricks, currently seen on AMC’s Mad Men and former guest star on Joss Whedon’s Firely, just added another role to her already impressive list of projects. According to the trade, Hendricks is set to star alongside Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel in Warner Bros. romantic comedy Life as We Know It.
The film, written by Ian Deitchman and Kristin Rusk Robinson, “follows two unattached adults whose worlds are turned upside down when their mutual best friends die in an accident and name them as caregivers of their orphaned daughter.” Hendricks will play the best friend to Heigl’s and Duhamel’s characters. Why don’t I have friends like that? Greg Berlanti, who is currently writing and producing Green Lantern, among other projects, will direct. Barry Josephson and Paul Brooks are producing.
Life as We Know it is slated to begin production in Atlanta this fall for an anticipated release sometime in 2010. To be honest, I’m not that interested in the movie or pretty much anything else the annoying Katherine Heigl is involved with, I just like talking about and posting pictures of the beautiful Christina Hendricks. You got a problem with that?
Well…not really. It may not be Fan Film Friday yet, but this is a fan trailer that just needs to get seen. Those who have seen the Inglourious Plummers fan trailer are in store for something special, as the first trailer for Mario Kart: The Movie has popped up.
The obsession with the animated racing game began in 1992 with the release of Super Mario Kart on the Super NES system. Of the other sports Mario and his gang partook in, from golf to baseball, grand prix racing seemed to be the most popular. The game series ran through all of Nintendo’s systems including the Nintendo 64, Wii, and even the handheld systems.
The trailer shows the inner emotion of each of these races, and just what kind of a toll it took on our Italian-American hero. For fan films, the acting was pretty good, the story was quite well thought out, and there are even a few laugh-out-loud moments.
Do you love Star Wars? Of course you do. Comics? Check. How about the iPhone? Copy that. Well, if you’re actually a fan, reader and avid user of these three things then today is truly your lucky day. Why?
Well, its simple really. Dark Horse Comics, in partnership with Lucasfilm and THQ Wireless, has just announced that they will release Star Wars comics to the iPhone for the first time ever. Excited? You should be. It’s pretty darn cool.
Here’s all the info from the official Dark Horse Comics press release:
In a partnership that will echo through the cosmos, Lucasfilm, THQ Wireless, and Dark Horse Comics will release Star Wars™ comics to the iPhone mobile platform for the first time ever!
As with some of NBC’s other upcoming Fall shows, we’ve been following Community pretty closely for a few reasons. One, I went to community college for a bit, so I know first hand what it feels like to go there while most of your friends go off to more prestigious four year institutions of higher learning.
Second, the show looks funny and features a great cast including Joel McHale, comedy legend Chevy Chase and the hilarious Ken Jeong — who if you haven’t seen his performance in The Hangover, you have not seen comedy gold.
Fortunately, one of these new clips here is an interview with the man himself, Ken Jeong. The other offers a further look at life at a community college and how best to maximize your potential while you’re there. Both clips are fun, funny and fantastic and you should watch them andCommunity, when it debuts on NBC on Thursday, September 17th at 9:30/8:30C.
Who here hasn’t been freaked our during a video? Playing a game in a room that is pitch black except for the light of the TV screen and walking down a narrow corridor with your character only to have something jump out of a corner and scare the hell out of you causing you to scream in terror and wake up the rest of your house. What? Only me?
Well one of those games that has gotten a reputation for scaring its players on every playthrough has been F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin and today, it’s getting a free demo for its latest expansion pack.
F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn, as the expansion is titled, will give the player a four level single player campaign from the perspective of Replica Soldier Foxtrot 813, a character in the F.E.A.R. lore that no player has had the opportunity to play from before. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Monolith Studios should be praised for the release of this free demo as most downloadable content is usually purchase only, leaving players uneasy about dropping money on something they cannot try before they buy.
The full release of this downloadable content will hit the XBox Live Marketplace and Playstation Store on September 3rd. Also coming the 3rd will be a free title update/patch featuring a new Slow-Mo Deathmatch mode.
Its probably only a matter of time before Hollywood studios remake or reboot each and every movie and tv show that’s been made in the last thirty years. Its inevitable as original ideas and creativity dry up and are replaced more and more with new projects obviously pitched during a heated ten minutes between rounds of golf at the Wilshire Country Club.
Case in point this time is the planned reboot of director Michael Lehman’s classic black comedy Heathers which, according to Variety, Fox, Sony TV and Lakeshore Entertainment are planning on doing. Why you may ask? Well, my personal favorite quote from the Variety piece illustrates my earlier point perfectly.
“We had the title, and talked about doing a film remake at times,” said Lakeshore prexy Gary Lucchesi. “But doing it for TV seemed like a fresh and original idea.”
So, taking what was once a movie and making it a TV show is what passes for “fresh and original” in Hollywood these days? Awesome.
If you happen to be an aspiring director then this is for you. 
Our friends at Activision have dropped a couple more cool videos from the upcoming game 
Dark Reign: Elektra #5 – Marvel – $3.99
According to 
Do you love Star Wars? Of course you do. Comics? Check. How about the iPhone? Copy that. Well, if you’re actually a fan, reader and avid user of these three things then today is truly your lucky day. Why?
As with some of NBC’s other upcoming Fall shows, we’ve been following 
Who here hasn’t been freaked our during a video? Playing a game in a room that is pitch black except for the light of the TV screen and walking down a narrow corridor with your character only to have something jump out of a corner and scare the hell out of you causing you to scream in terror and wake up the rest of your house. What? Only me?
Its probably only a matter of time before Hollywood studios 
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