Haibane.info

Category: Movies and Television

  • yes

    hey Brian? I agree:

    Most people, when talking about the emotional impact of The Lion King, talk about the death of Mufasa, or the ensuing expulsion of Simba, or one of those other plot elements that’s overtly emotionally charged. Now, I don’t know if I’m just a freak, or if these other people are just redirecting their visceral reactions into other parts of the movie; but the scene that choked me up – and continues to do so to this day, even during something as far removed from the movie experience as typing this paragraph describing it – was where the zebras splash through the river, followed by the elephants with their tusks covered with birds, striding along with the beat of the music (“And the sun rolling high, through the sapphire sky,” etc). Somehow all the visuals and music just suddenly come together at that moment and create some kind of implosion in my brain, where suddenly the mystery that the whole sequence has been alluding to becomes revealed, and you find yourself looking at a natural world all brought together by a single event, and treating it with the triumphant pomp even human ceremonies can’t muster, only in a purer, wilder way, with exuberant music crashing over the scene and the camera flying over the gathered crowd in a bird’s-eye view designed to give the audience a sort of virtual-reality experience of the joy of flying, in much the same way as had been done a few years before in The Rescuers Down Under (which I hadn’t yet seen at the time). The song quiets down at that point, after the first chorus; but then there’s the anointing scene followed by a new buildup to a second chorus as Simba is presented and the beams of light shine down through the clouds…

    I am even prepared to say that the Lion King is the greatest animated movie ever made.

    I had the title song as my alarm clock every day for a long time, in fact.

  • They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard!

    I think Stareagorn would appreciate this.

  • Galatica season 4 confirmed

    Season 3 ends in March, and Season 4 was just greenlighted:

    For a while, things looked iffy for “Battlestar Galactica.” After the Sci Fi Channel last month moved the third-season drama about a human resistance movement against an occupying race of robots from Friday nights to Sunday nights in an attempt to goose ratings, viewership remained stagnant.

    The network has ruled, however, that the show won’t live by numbers alone: The Sci Fi Channel is expected to announce Tuesday that it has renewed the series for a fourth season. At least 13 new episodes will be produced this summer for a premiere next January.

    The show’s audience has always been modest, especially when compared with those for basic cable’s “The Closer” and “Nip/Tuck,” which typically reach double or triple the audience of “Battlestar Galactica.” Since moving to 10 p.m. Sundays, the science-fiction show’s episodes have averaged 1.7 million viewers overall and 1.1 viewers ages 18 to 49, the key demographic targeted by advertisers.

    But “Battlestar Galactica” stands as one of the most critically acclaimed series on television. It also won the prestigious Peabody Award and was counted among the American Film Institute’s top 10 outstanding TV programs two years in a row. Critics often describe the show in lofty terms, referring to it as a multilayered allegory for a post-9/11 world that raises questions about the ethics and politics of war.

    The Sci Fi Channel cites the series’ strong buzz and critical praise – a halo effect that can’t be quantified in ratings points or ad dollars – as the reason for its renewal.

    I am thankful. Ratings alone shouldn’t be the sole driver for a series viability; the article mentions that strong DVD sales were also taken into account. Ultimately if you cater towards ratings and nothing else, you are explicitly aiming for least-common denominator fare. That about fits my low expectations for broadcast TV but SciFi, as a cable network, knows better.

    That said, am I a hypocrite? I don’t actually contribute to the Galactica revenue stream in any way directly. If I had the option of a la carte cable, SciFi would be on my list of channels I’d pay for in a nanosecond. I’d also be willing to pay a dollar or two if I could download the episodes to burn to DVD without commercial breaks. But that’s not an option either. So I have to torrent the show to stay current; and Galactica’s future remains under threat for want of revenue. Surely the cable companies and content providers have an incentive to offer me, the consumer, better models for consumption? Wouldn’t we all benefit? Except for producers of reality television, of course. They must have a good lobby.

  • Keith Richards – Pirate

    AICN has a scan of a British tabloid that shows Keith Richards in full Pirate outfit for Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Richards plays the father of Captain Jack Sparrow, which is fitting because Johnny Depp invoked Richards as inspiration for Sparrow’s swagger.

    Keith Richards

  • Remastered Trek: Doomsday and Constellation

    AICN has some stunning before and after shots from the remastered Trek:TOS series, from the episode The Doomsday Machine. The shots are just awesome, there’s no other word. I loved this profile shot of the damaged USS Constellation in particular:

    Damaged USS Constellation

    and this flyby of the Enterprise with the Doomsday Machine in the distance:

    Enterprise flyby of Doomsday machine

    Click the images to see the original broadcast versions so you can appreciate the sheer awesomeness. This isn’t “Greedo shoots first”, it’s an expression of love for the source material. There are plenty more to gawk at so take a look.

  • Diamond Age miniseries

    more torrent fodder! Neil Stephenson’s The Diamond Age is coming to SciFi Channel as a mini-series:

    Diamond Age, based on Neal Stephenson’s best-selling novel The Diamond Age: Or a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, is a six-hour miniseries from Clooney and fellow executive producer Grant Heslov of Smokehouse Productions.

    When a prominent member of society concludes that the futuristic civilization in which he lives is stifling creativity, he commissions an interactive book for his daughter that serves as a guide through a surreal alternate world. Stephenson will adapt his novel for the miniseries, the first time the Hugo and Nebula award winner has written for TV.

    Could be magnificent, like Dune (so I’ve heard… must torrent!) or teh suck, like Earthsea (which was adapted to miniseries before Goro took his own ill-fated swipe). I’m not sure whether George Clooney as director is a good omen or bad.

    To be honest, I vastly preferred Snow Crash (the best cyberpunk novel I’ve ever read) and Cryptonomicon than of Diamond Age. I’d be really excited if SnowCrash was being made into a live series, but let’s see whether SciFi gets DA right before I trust them to do it right. Actually, let the small screen have DA and let’s have SC in the theater where it really belongs.

  • JJ Abrams and Star Trek

    In case you heard from somewhere that ubergeek director JJ Abrams is no longer affiliated with the new Star Trek motion picture about Kirk, Spock and Bones at the Academy, rest easy – AICN has JJ’s personal assurance that he’s still onboard.

    The reason it matters is because JJ is a Star Trek geek at heart – he has a genuine love of Trek, and that enthusiasm is going to be visible just as Lord of the Rings lived and breathed because of the passion of the Peter.

    It also bears mentioning that the classic Trek is getting a CGI make-over, too.

  • Dreamworks and Aardman split

    This is unfortunate news, but the long-term impact will impact Dreamworks more than it does Aardman:

    After a critically lauded but commercially troubled six-year partnership with DreamWorks Animation, Aardman is back on its own.

    The British claymation giant, best known for its signature Wallace and Gromit characters and 2000 hit “Chicken Run,” officially terminated its five-picture deal with DreamWorks on Tuesday.

    The main reason is that neither the Wallace and Gromit film nor Flushed Away did well enough at the box-office. To be honest, the latter film actually bored my daughter, who is probably Aardman’s prime demographic. If Aardman can return to its roots in claymation and build up a decent CG capability in house, or even better if they can find a way to merge the two, then they will do fine on their own. Or maybe they will just get picked up by Pixar 🙂

    This puts Dreamworks at a major content/talent disadvantage relative to Disney, though. Other than Shrek, what does Dreamworks really have?

    AICN also has the story and will be talking to people inside Dreamworks for more details.

  • More Galactica Simpsons

    updated character sketches of the BSG cast, rendered as Simpsons characters. Awesome.

  • Indy 4

    Lucas says it starts shooting next year, for real for sure this time. The gang at AICN are skeptical, but if Stallone pulled it off, why can’t Harrison Ford, in closing the book on their iconic roles?

    UPDATE: Lucas and Spielberg confirm:

    Producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg confirmed details of the project Monday after Lucas tipped off the media to Indiana Jones’ imminent return as he prepared to serve as grand marshal of the Rose Parade in Pasadena.

    After years spent in script development, a fourth installment of the famously successful franchise is set to begin production in June in locations around the world and in the U.S.