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Some of my Books
Mexico
Poaching is never cool. He deserves what he got.
RPGs can be a good release of stress for people.
Very nice blog. I totally agree with your thoughts.
1) Your reflection.
2) Time.
3) Eggs.
4) Dark.
5) Wind.
Here is another riddle:
What has roots as nobody sees, is taller than trees, up up it goes, and yet it never grows?
Mountains.
Thanks for the review! I want to say – thank you for this!
Surak will have to do it.
Psychology is the study of NOT THINKING.
Unfortunately humans are very good at that. But most psychologists don’t want people to think. What effect would that have on the need for psychologists?
Now can we Vulcanize the planet with netbooks?
Hi, good post. I have been woondering about this issue,so thanks for posting. I’ll definitely be coming back to your site.
Replacement generates the same buzz you did around Fuller’s return to the show, and then deliver on it, you may just win many of us back. Carlton Cuse, who is wrapping up his epic run with Lost, might just be the hero you need.
Everything dynamic and very positively!
Hi there,
Everything dynamic and very positively!
Thanks
Add Stan “The Man” Lee to those people who think Disney’s blockbuster $4 billion purchase of Marvel is a stroke of genius.
In some of his first comments on the historic deal, the living-legend Lee, who along with artists such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko created most of the characters and settings that still fuel the media powerhouse that is Marvel to this day, told Newsarama Tuesday the merger is a win-win for both sides.
“I think it’s a terrific deal which will be extremely beneficial to both companies. The synergy between them is perfect,” said Lee, who remains Marvel’s Chairman Emeritus but hasn’t been involved in day-to-day operations for a number of years.
Lee says the strengths of each company fit perfectly with the other’s needs.
“Nobody can produce and market franchises better than Disney, and nobody has the extensive library of characters that would make great franchises that Marvel has,” Lee said.
Lee is quite familiar with the Disney way of doing business. His new company, POW! Entertainment, has a first-look deal with the company, and at the San Diego Comic-Con in July, he unveiled his first Disney project, the digital motion comic “Time Jumper.”
In fact, Lee himself always envisioned Marvel as becoming the next Disney. In his 2002 autobiography, “Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee”, he wrote about how, during Marvel’s boom years in the mid-60s, he tried to convince the company’s upper management to invest in merchandising and other ventures, to take advantage of its stable of popular characters. Alas, his bosses did not share his grand designs.
Throughout the 70s and 80s, Lee worked tirelessly to turn Marvel’s heroes into multimedia superstars — especially in Hollywood — with limited success. It would be many years before the movie industry realized the box-office potential of superheroes.
No one is more closely linked with Marvel Comics than Stan Lee. As writer and editor in the early 1960s, Lee co-created enduring characters such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, the X-Men, Iron Man, and Daredevil. Unlike most of the comic book heroes of the day, Marvel’s superheroes were complex, flawed … human. It transformed the industry, made comics okay for grownups to read, and made Marvel a household name.
Along the way, Lee made a name for himself as the comics industry’s version of P.T. Barnum, an unabashed promoter who was a regular on the college lecture circuit. For decades, his name was even on the masthead of every comic the company published.
In 2005, his six-decade long relationship with the company hit a major obstacle.
Lee sued Marvel, claiming he was owed profits from the Marvel films that had started to take Hollywood by storm. The suit was eventually settled with Lee reportedly getting a settlement of more than $10 million.
With that business taken care of, and his old company and his new firm under the same corporate roof, Lee, who has appeared in nearly every Marvel movie, thinks it could mean more work for him.
“Think of the fun I’ll have since I’m positioned right smack in the middle of them — and maybe some extra cameos, too!”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32645353/ns/business-media_biz/
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-hobbit9-2009sep09,0,3237684.story
Clearing the way to move forward with its two planned films of “The Hobbit,” Warner Bros. resolved a nasty legal battle with the heirs of J.R.R. Tolkien over profit from the “Lord of the Rings” films.
Last year, two of Tolkien’s children, Christopher, 84, and Priscilla, 80, sued New Line, now a unit of Warner Bros., for an estimated $150 million that they claimed was owed from the three “Lord of the Rings” movies, which amassed $2.96 billion at the worldwide box office and at least $3 billion in DVD and other ancillary sales, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit, which alleged breach of contract and fraud, claimed that the heirs had not received any money under a preexisting licensing agreement that guaranteed them 7.5% of the films’ gross receipts (money that movie distributors receive after theaters keep their share of ticket sales). The rights to Tolkien’s work, originally sold to United Artists in 1969, ultimately ended up with New Line.
However, just days after the lawsuit was filed in February 2008 in Los Angeles County Superior Court by the Tolkien heirs and co-plaintiff HarperCollins Publishers, New Line became a division of Warner Bros., ceasing to operate as a separate studio under corporate parent Time Warner Inc.
On Tuesday, the parties announced that they had settled the lawsuit but declined to disclose terms. The trustees’ attorney, Bonnie Eskenazi, said her clients “feel vindicated and are entirely satisfied with the terms of the settlement.”
Warner Bros. President Alan Horn said his studio was “pleased to put this litigation behind us” and “we all look forward to a mutually productive and beneficial relationship in the future.”
The lawsuit, which sought to terminate New Line’s rights to all of Tolkien’s works including “The Hobbit” until the claims were resolved, was settled in the nick of time. Not only were the plaintiffs scheduled to go to trial Oct. 19, but the two “Hobbit” movies are slated to go into production next year with director Guillermo del Toro and producer Peter Jackson.
In late July, Jackson was served with a deposition subpoena as he was announcing the imminent completion of the “Hobbit” script at pop-culture festival Comic-Con. It was not the first time the filmmaker had been involved in litigation surrounding the Tolkien properties.
In 2005, Jackson himself sued New Line, claiming he had been underpaid as much as $100 million. Producer Saul Zaentz also sued New Line twice. Those lawsuits were ultimately settled.
Each of the litigants criticized New Line’s refusal to let them independently audit all the movies. During the course of the Tolkien trustee litigation, the family was allowed to audit the second and third films, which it had been barred previously from doing.
“We really were able to detail all the accounting improprieties that we saw,” Eskenazi said. “We were set, ready, and very excited to go to trial.”
She said a “significant portion” of the settlement will go to the London-based Tolkien Trust, which distributes money to charities such as Save the Children and UNICEF.
“The beneficiaries of this settlement will be needy people literally all over the world,” Eskenazi said.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118008242.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
Removing a roadblock from production of “The Hobbit” films, New Line has settled with the Tolkien Trust and HarperCollins in a suit over profit participation by Tolkien’s heirs in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
Terms of the settlement, announced Tuesday, were confidential. The trust noted that the settlement allows the New Line/MGM films based on Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” to go forward without legal challenge.
“We are pleased to put this litigation behind us,” said Alan Horn, prexy of New Line parent Warner Bros. “We all look foward to a mutually productive and beneficial relationship in the future.”
The case had been set to go to trial Oct. 19 in Los Angeles Superior Court. Shooting on the two films, directed by Guillermo del Toro, is expected to begin next year with releases set for late 2011 and 2012.
The Tolkien Trust and HarperCollins filed the suit in February 2008, alleging New Line had failed to pay at least $220 million to members of the trust. The plaintiffs had asserted that under a 1969 contract, the trust and other plaintiffs were entitled to 7.5% of gross receipts from the three films — which grossed a combined $3 billion worldwide — and related products, minus certain costs.
The plaintiffs had also sought a declaration from the court that the plaintiffs could terminate any further rights New Line had to the Tolkien works under the agreement — which would have included “The Hobbit” films, which are being produced by “Lord of the Rings” producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh.
“The trustees regret that legal action was necessary, but are glad that this dispute has been settled on satisfactory terms that will allow the Tolkien Trust properly to pursue its charitable objectives,” said Christopher Tolkien, son of the author, in a statement. “The trustees acknowledge that New Line may now proceed with its proposed films of ‘The Hobbit.’”
Bonnie E. Eskenazi, an attorney for the Tolkien Trust, told Daily Variety that the estate had not been paid any money from its contractual share. She also said settlement talks had been ongoing in recent months as the trial date approached.
More than one option
* (Co) Daily Variety
Filmography, Year, Role
* (Co) Daily Variety
“The trustees are not litigious people,” she added. “They feel vindicated and completely satisfied with the settlement. This will enhance the trust’s ability to support more than 100 charities throughout the world.”
Those include Save the Children Fund, the Darfur Appeal, Asia Earthquake Appeal and the World Cancer Research Foundation.
MGM and New Line are co-financing “The Hobbit” films. Tolkien’s book, published in 1937, follows the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, who obtains the ring that was the centerpiece for “The Lord of the Rings.
Warner Bros. has domestic rights to “The Hobbit” films and MGM has international rights. With MGM undergoing a financial restructuring, speculation has grown in recent months that MGM might sell off the rights in order to help ease the burden from its massive debt load.
Following the success of the “Rings” trilogy, Jackson sued New Line over profits from the first film, which slowed development of “The Hobbit” films. He settled in 2007.
Ponyo! She’s a magical little fish-girl who lives in an undersea wonderland and ends up in a storybook version of our world. She’s amazing, she meets interesting people straight out of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, she has the Christlike ability to walk on water, heal the sick, and control the sea, she believes her father is an evil wizard, and she can’t stop thinkin’ about that ham. Oh, Ponyo!
The story is… damn, was there a story? There’s an antagonist who is not necessarily a villain, and a goal introduced late in the movie which is not all that difficult to accomplish. This is not necessarily a flaw; one of Miyazaki’s great masterpieces, My Neighbor Totoro, also did not have a strong narrative. In fact, the lack of narrative structure makes for a lot of fun unpredictability. How can you predict what will happen in a film that’s about a bunch of unique characters interacting in a strange world?
I cannot stress this enough: Ponyo does not have what is traditionally considered a “storyline”. It’s more a state of mind. How many meaningful dreams have you had that followed a traditional narrative structure? How many enlightened Buddhas opened the thousand-petaled lotus of metaconsciousness by conforming to rigid notions of what is and is not acceptable? How many blood-spattered Einherjar passed through one of the 540 gates of Valhalla by nitpicking an experience, rather than accepting what the fates had to offer? Not a lot, right? In just the same way, Ponyo has no real storyline – but all the same, it makes for an incredible experience.
Let’s say you’ve never seen a Miyazaki film. Is Ponyo for kids?
I can’t imagine any child understanding the appeal of a magical world of pleasant character interactions and a vision of an era fueled by joy. To me, that seems like something only an adult would care to see, because an adult knows that the minute he leaves the movie theater he’s going to enter into a world where anything can be taken from him at any time, where inhuman monsters drunk on control dictate the course of human potential and the finishing prize is a face full of maggots and an eternal sleep. But children, on the other hand, are naturally amoral and pretty oblivious when it comes to the horror of the everyday. As a child who grew up on Robocop and Conan the Barbarian, all I ever wanted to see were violent displays of power and justice meted out by vigilantes, and I was by no means an abnormal case. Even “Sesame Street” was only just barely tolerable because the Cookie Monster was always making life difficult for those around him.
As such, Ponyo, a work of childish wonder, is most definitely for adults.
Can Ponyo Make You F*E*E*L ?
Is it touching? Is it moving?! Yes and yes. How many times did it make me want to cry? Only twice. But wait: How many movies actually succeed at making me want to cry? Not many; Ponyo made its way onto a very short list of movies that broke through my formidably protective AT Field, navigated through the freezing meat-locker labyrinth of my soul, and bitch-slapped the sensitive child within that still believes in things like fairness and hope.
This is no small feat considering I’ve seen many, many Miyazaki movies, and I’m aware of his usual tactics and finishing moves. Maybe more so than I should be, as I was pretty bored during Howl’s Moving Castle and came close to writing him off. Fortunately, Miyazaki proved with Ponyo that it is possible for experience and ingenuity to offset the creative boundaries of one director’s admittedly limited set of tools.
I don’t know much about Miyazaki’s life before animation. Judging from the gentle, good-natured themes in his work, I can only assume he’s seen more horror than any single man was ever meant to see. To him, suffering must be so real that he can’t imagine making it a part of his art. He’s seen things like children’s hospitals filled with landmine victims. Things like insane asylums where the orderlies forget the line between us and them and vent their most sadistic cravings on those placed in their care while the doctors turn a blind eye. Or maybe small towns that lost their local factory, their only real source of income, and in desperation turned to trafficking in humans, selling their children to the highest bidder. Or maybe he’s just hypersensitive to commonplace horror, like the prison bars of job and family, or the collection of an individual’s personal failures that fit around the neck like a noose that grows tighter and tighter with each passing day, but there’s never any jerk and crack! to release the victim from his misery. I suspect that Miyazaki’s seen the real thing. He’s not a product of the culturally sanitized suburban scene, which would explain how he can make his animations so happy and so tender without making them asinine and irrelevant.
Dub vs. Sub
Should you wait for the subtitled release and watch it alongside the cultural elites, or give up and watch the dubbed version alongside the rest of the mindless herd?
If your Nihon-go is rusty, by all means, watch the English dub. It’s fine. Ten years ago I would have insisted on subtitles; these days, I’m not even really clear on why the Anti-Dubbing Elite still insist on their continued existence. I can’t even remember the last bad dub I saw!
Ponyo has taken some heat because of the English voice acting. The two main characters, Ponyo and her boyfriend Sosuke, were voiced by… nevermind, I won’t mention their names and make them that much more popular, plus I’m not exactly sure who they are. I think they’re some of those kids that Disney clones every few years so as to have a new batch of celebrity sensations; plenty of little kids find them appealing, but then there’s a lot of twenty-somethings who scorn them because of some dramatized rejection of childhood that goes hand in hand with being twenty-something. I say: Don’t worry about it. Little Ponyo is delightfully voiced, and sounds as if she’s intensely happy to be exploring a new world, and her little man Sosuke gives a solid performance that is heart-breaking on more than one occasion.
At this weekend’s D23 convention in Anaheim, Disney finally officially announced that Star Tours II will be coming to Disneyland next year – and showed a quick glimpse of what to expect. Click through for video.
The new ride – initially announced way back in 2005 – will replace the existing Star Tours attraction and feature HD 3D visuals, a new motion simulator and new locales including Tatooine pod-racing, as seen in the video below. The announcement came complete with a guest appearance from Darth Vader, who showed that Empire upper management is really focused on the details these days:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ai-QMMf0Gk&feature=player_embedded
My wife and I flew down to Anaheim, Calif. last night to attend Disney’s first-ever D23 Expo, a fan convention focused on anything related to the House of Mouse. The event kicked off on Thursday with a presentation by Bob Iger, Disney CEO, which we unfortunately missed, but you can read about what he said about the Marvel deal over on CBR.
We picked up our badges — or, actually, wristbands — last night, and headed over to the Anaheim Convention Center this morning for our first full day.
We had a few things on our agenda for today, not the least of which was the big movie presentation by Dick Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios. Cook’s presentation basically covered everything that fell into the live-action category; John Lasseter of Pixar fame will be here on Sunday to talk about their animation slate.
And let me tell you, if there’s one thing Disney knows how to do, it’s put on a good presentation. Cook spoke in the convention center’s huge arena, to a crowd of about 5,000 I think was the number he gave. Before we headed into the arena, we stood in a long but fast-moving line and had to give up all electronic devices to a friendly Disney employee. Cameras, cell phones, laptops, etc. weren’t permitted into the presentation, which killed any thoughts I had about Twitter updates or live coverage, or even photos to share later.
But anyway, you could tell this wasn’t going to be a normal presentation or movie panel when the orchestra and singers took their places next to the stage. It kicked off with a musical/video tribute to past Disney films, everything from Pretty Woman and Pearl Harbor to Mary Poppins and Sleeping Beauty. The orchestra performed all sorts of music from the Disney mainstays, i.e. Circle of Life, Beauty and the Beast, etc.
Then Cook went into the films and started bringing out the stars:
–Robert Zemeckis as there to talk briefly about A Christmas Carol, a 3-D stop motion thing (think Polar Express) starring Jim Carrey as Scrooge and a lot of other characters. They provided 3-D glasses, of course, so we could watch the trailer and some scenes from the film. Zemeckis is also working with Disney on a Yellow Submarine film.
–John Travolta, his wife Kelly Preston and their daughter were there to promote Old Dogs, a film with all three of them, Robin Williams, Seth Green and a lot of other folks. Travolta and Williams are two older single guys, best friends, and they find out Williams’ character has twins from a previous girlfriend. They showed the trailer and a clip, and the crowd seemed to find it hilarious; it just kind of reminded me of something akin to Wild Hogs (which people also went nuts over when they heard there would be a sequel).
–Jerry Bruckheimer was there to talk about Prince of Persia, which comes out next summer. I thought the clips they showed were pretty cool, but the crowd didn’t respond as loudly to them as they did to other clips.
–Nicholas Cage was there to talk about the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. This is one I wasn’t too sure about going into it, but after seeing the clips and behind-the-scenes stuff they showed, I’m probably a little more excited about this one. Cage plays an older sorcerer who has been looking for an apprentice for centuries … and he finds him in New York City. Alfred Molina plays the bad guy. I don’t know; this could end up being really bad, but I dug what I saw during the presentation. Cook also asked Cage if he was up for a third National Treasure movie, which made the crowd roar.
–Tim Burton was on hand to talk about Alice in Wonderland; I was half expecting Johnny Depp to pop out while he was talking, but it didn’t happen. I also had to chuckle when Burton told Cook he wanted to make an Alice in Wonderland film because he thought no one had ever done it justice … cough, cough.
–After showing the Wonderland trailer, Cook said that they were doing a full-length version of Burton’s Frankenweenie short from many moons ago.
–Live via video from New Zealand, Guillermo del Toro talked about the new movie studio he formed with Disney, called Disney’s Double Dare You. They plan to make animated films with a bit of a horror/adventure bent. del Toro mentioned he was a big fan of rides like The Haunted Mansion, and he wanted to capture the storytelling feel of those sorts of rides in these films. The first one is called The Trollhunters, based on one of del Toro’s ideas.
–Miley Cyrus came out to perform a song from … well, I’m not exactly sure. But I can check “See Miley Cyrus perform live” off my bucket list.
–Also performing on stage were the Muppets, who came out from behind the curtain in a big boat and performed a number. This was one of the highlights, but probably not THE highlight … Cook said a new Muppet film was in the works, called The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made.
–Cook also spoke about other films that are further in the future, like John Carter of Mars and The Lone Ranger. They debuted some concept art for the former and said Johnny Depp would play Tonto in the latter (not sure if that was “new” news or not.) It seemed like there were a couple of other films mentioned as well, but I can’t remember what they were. But watch for a report on the main site.
People were already getting up to leave when Cook pulled a Steve Jobs and said there was one more thing he wanted to mention. At that point, the Pirates of the Caribbean logo appeared on the big screen, with the words “On Stranger Tides” underneath it, followed by “Summer 2011.” Of course, the crowd was going nuts, then was standing and cheering as the curtains were pulled back to reveal a giant masthead and sail. You could the silhouette of someone in the sail, and as it rotated around, there was Johnny Depp, dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow, who swaggered out on stage. He stayed in character as he spoke to Cook, saying he was looking for a talking frog because he likes them — “they taste like chicken” then made a reference to it being time for Rum. Overall, it was a really cool moment and a really cool way to end the presentation.
Hello filmmakers, and all the hard working crews of the entertainment world! My name is Phil Guye and I am collaborating with a few close peers of mine to put together a production book that strictly addresses all facets of shooting on a green screen. Now, being a former producer myself, I have extensive knowledge on how to shoot on a green screen, trouble shoot in production and how to handle particular effects in post. The crew that I am working with also have plenty of experience (over 15 years of experience), but we are looking to broaden our knowledge to make a more sound and sharp book. We are touching out to the entertainment industry professionals to try and gather additional advice of past experiences to better help finesse our collection within the book. Now, we are not looking for charity, we will pay your for your time and written advise, but let me better clarify what we are looking for too. You will be compensated for your articles and tips, but we are only looking for those who have serious experience in the subject matter, and those who can properly dictate articles that are properly formatted and grammatically correct. See this link here for a basic example of the type of written work we are looking for ” [url=http://www.atomicstudios.com/green-screen-rentals.html/]Green Screen[/url] ” We are looking to get these articles in as soon as we possible, so if you have any questions at all, please call our office line at 323-851-3825 or email me direct phillipguye@hotmail.com Again, this is not charity, and you will be properly compensated for your time and sited in the completion of the book. Don’t be shy! Please call, we are not fake, we are real hard working people looking to make a solid book to better help other filmmakers in their future endeavors.
Thanks,
Phil
[url=http://atomicstudios.com/green-screen-rentals.html][img]http://atomicstudios.com/Movie-Studios/green-screen-studio.jpg[/img][/url]
Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger must act quickly to replace studio head Dick Cook to avoid further destabilizing the Burbank-based movie operation.
Cook’s abrupt departure Friday is upsetting employees, many of whom are finding it difficult to focus on work because they are anxious about their future. In addition, stars and filmmakers do not like to face uncertainty and want assurances that their projects will remain on track.
Iger is not tipping his hand about whom he will name to fill the job. One executive that’s a subject of speculation is Disney Channel President Rich Ross.
Disney’s new studio chief will face formidable challenges, including integrating the company’s pending $4-billion acquisition of Marvel Entertainment Inc. and attending to its recently struck distribution deal with Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks SKG.
Although the studio has its movie releases set for the remainder of this year and 2010, there are several big-budget projects waiting to move forward, including a fourth installment of “Pirates of the Caribbean,” expected to hit theaters in 2011, and “The Lone Ranger,” both starring Johnny Depp. On Friday, just hours before Cook announced his departure, the studio gave the green light for a remake of Jules Verne’s classic tale “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” to be directed by McG.
Michael Nathanson, a media analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., said there were no near-term financial consequences of having the studio chief’s job vacant since “so much of the products and the plans in the near term are set.”
But there are broader forces roiling Hollywood with which a new Disney studio head will have to grapple.
“From a 10,000-foot view, the entire industry is in need of a rethink,” Nathanson said. “The rental business is eating into the profits of [DVDs], and pay-TV [networks] are moving more toward television-based originals,” eliminating the need for movies.
Ever since Iger succeeded Michael Eisner as chief executive in 2005, he’s emphasized Disney-branded movies and television shows that could be exploited across all of the company’s operations, from theme parks to merchandising.
Disney Studios is now composed mainly of “brands,” among them Pixar Animation Studios, DreamWorks and soon the addition of Marvel, with its vast library of 5,000 characters. In picking a replacement for Cook, Iger might look to someone like Ross as the perfect a “brand manager” to oversee those assets.
Ross’ star has been on the rise since his successful rehab of Disney Channel, once an also-ran pay-cable network that has generated such billion-dollar creative franchises as “High School Musical” and “Hannah Montana.”
Although Ross has virtually no experience on the feature film side, he has helped Disney Channel forge relationships with the company’s other divisions. Such cross-divisional collaboration is a priority for Iger, who often extols the work of Disney Channel on calls with Wall Street analysts.
Another touted prospect for the top studio job is John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, who directed “Toy Story,” “Toy Story 2″ and “Cars.” Lasseter is also principal creative advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering, the group that develops attractions for the theme parks.
Iger could divide the studio chief’s job among two or more executives and include a role for Marvel production chief Kevin Feige, who is relatively inexperienced but has strong filmmaker relationships.
Other links that will help out.
http://www.retrojunk.com/details_articles/5796/
http://www.retrojunk.com/details_articles/5821/
Mike Olivarez says:
As for talking the classics within and without the mecha anime canon, we should also consider all-time favorites like:
Giant Robo ( Mecha goes water margin epic based on Yokoyama’s 60s classics. Still stunning by today’s standards.)
Mazinger Z (the pioneer of human piloted mecha by mad genius Go Nagai!)
Space Runaway Ideon ( Tomino’s post Gundam masterpiece. A heavy influence on Evangelion and numerous other shows. Famous for an unforgettable conclusion)
Top Wo Nerae! GUNBUSTER ( The OAV that introduced Eva creators, GAINAX & fan service to the world vernacular combining fanboy love for classic sci-fi & epic storytelling rarely achieved.)
Rahxephon (Yutaka Izibuchi’s beautiful, lyrical response to Evangelion that nearly outdoes its competitor, and puts even favorites like The Matrix to shame.)
Patlabor ( HEADGEAR’s anime version of Masami Yuuki’s manga fave dealing with a realistic look at mecha as the tools of a ragtag group of city police. Great shows, great movies!)
Tenku No Escaflowne ( More a wild hybrid of girls romance and epic fantasy, Macross co-creator, Shoji Kawamori and pals roll the dice on an ambitious spin on multiple genre tropes with heavy mechanized armor. Also notable for a classic soundtrack by Yoko Kanno & Hajime Mizoguchi.)
Plenty more where this came from, but just felt a need to share. A nice teaser to get started with though!
Mike Olivarez says:
Worth mentioning(IE: Some that slipped my mind)
Armored Trooper VOTOMS ( Gritty, hard-boiled take on the mecha war genre with a soldier on the run with a mysterious humanoid quarry, and his trusty Scopedog, one mean green mutha. Imagine Helinein’s Starship Troopers, and up the melancholy meter!)
Megazone 23 ( Want to know where the Wachowski’s took a lot of inspiration? The team behind Macross tackles virtual worlds, virtual idol singers, sunglasses wearing agents, and some seriously cool 80s action!)
Macross Plus & Macross Frontier (Robotech/Macross fans rejoice, of the many spinoff-cum-sequels, these are the ones to beat. Complete with all the high production, love triangle drama, awesome music & dogfighting one could possibly hope for.)
Sorry. I loves me some mech, and there’s so many diverse types to choose from. It’s practically a medium unto itself.
LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Company hopes an ambitious new digital service it plans to unveil on Tuesday will transform how children read its storybooks.
In what it bills as an industry-defining moment — though rivals are sure to be skeptical about that — Disney Publishing plans to introduce a new subscription-based Web site. For $79.95 a year, families can access electronic replicas of hundreds of Disney books, from “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too” to “Hannah Montana: Crush-tastic!”
DisneyDigitalBooks.com, which is aimed at children ages 3 to 12, is organized by reading level. In the “look and listen” section for beginning readers, the books will be read aloud by voice actors to accompanying music (with each word highlighted on the screen as it is spoken). Another area is dedicated to children who read on their own. Find an unfamiliar word? Click on it and a voice says it aloud. Chapter books for teenagers and trivia features round out the service.
“For parents, this isn’t going to replace snuggle time with a storybook,” said Yves Saada, vice president of digital media. “We think you can have different reading formats co-existing together.”
Publishers, of course, have been experimenting with e-books for the children’s market for years. About 1,000 children’s titles are now available digitally from HarperCollins. Scholastic has BookFlix, a subscription service for schools and libraries that pairs a video storybook with a nonfiction e-book on a related topic. “Curious George” is available on the iPhone.
“It’s not surprising that people are going to be doing more subscriptions with their content libraries,” Margery Mayer, president of Scholastic Education, said of Disney’s new service.
But some e-book observers are impressed. “There isn’t anything like Disney’s product on the market,” said Sarah Rotman Epps, a media analyst at Forrester Research who got a sneak peek at the Web site. “They are the first to say, we’re putting our whole catalog online in this one place, and we’re selling it straight to parents.”
By pursuing a subscription online model — as opposed to focusing on downloads and sales for devices like the Kindle — Disney is placing a specific bet about where the children’s market is going, at least in the next three to five years. The move could send ripples through this corner of publishing, if only because of the size of Disney, which annually sells 250 million children’s books.
“The company feels that devices don’t offer a Disney-level experience for kids and families, and I agree with them,” Ms. Epps said.
Disney Publishing has digital aspirations for cellphones and devices down the road, Mr. Saada said, but for now will focus on the site, which it has designed with safety concerns in mind. Controls are built in, for instance, that make it difficult for children to drift to a seedier section of the Web.
“We want to make reading an even bigger deal in a kid’s life, and if we can do that in a new and interactive way — great,” said Russell Hampton, president of Disney Publishing.
But make no mistake, this is about business. Children are reading less, and Disney, like other publishers, is scrambling to reverse the trend. Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, has also put the entire company on notice that digital media must now be a money maker in and of itself; marketing extensions are no longer enough.
Mr. Hampton said the Disney Digital Books site was designed so other businesses — language learning, for instance — could be added. Disney sees education services as a fruitful area of growth, particularly overseas.
A huge marketing effort will set about drilling the site into the public consciousness. Three million promotional postcards will be distributed at screenings of Disney films, and a social media and advertising component is intended to reach 14 million mothers. In the works are demonstrations at Apple’s retail stores.
Until now, Disney Publishing has only dabbled in the digital arena, offering some young adult titles for the Kindle and licensing a handful of storybook titles to LeapFrog, the educational toy maker. About 500 books will be available on the site Tuesday, with more added twice a month. (Disney owns thousands of titles.) Exclusive content will follow by the end of the year. Disney Digital Books will begin introducing titles in foreign countries in 2011.
The company tested a version of the site with 1,000 children and families earlier this year. Children spent an average of three hours using the product over five days, according to Mr. Saada. After completing the trial, 76 percent of parents said they would subscribe.
Some children who tried the site had trouble navigating between reading levels, however. Ms. Epps, the Forrester analyst, complained that she had some “usability problems.” Mr. Hampton said the bugs had been fixed.
“There is going to be a lot of trial and error anytime you add a new dimension to your business,” he said.
Motoko Rich contributed reporting from New York.
WALT DISNEY PARKS AND RESORTS CHAIRMAN JAY RASULO UNVEILS NEW ATTRACTIONS AND EXPERIENCES AT FIRST D23 EXPO
Re-Imagined “Star Tours” Coming to California and Florida in 2011 and Major Fantasyland Expansion at Walt Disney World Scheduled for 2013
ANAHEIM, Calif. (Sept. 12, 2009) /PRNewswire/ — Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Jay Rasulo detailed plans for future lands, attractions and adventures that will be delighting Disney guests for years to come, at the first D23 Expo. Most notable among the announcements were the confirmation of an all-new Star Tours attraction and the largest expansion in the history of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
“Storytelling is the DNA of Disney dreams and we’re always exploring new ways to tell new stories in new places,” Rasulo told a crowd at the Anaheim Convention Center in California before taking them on a “behind-the-magic” tour of their favorite Disney destinations.
Rasulo announced that a new 3-D version of the tremendously-popular “Star Tours” attraction will debut at the Disneyland Resort and Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 2011. Based on the iconic Lucasfilm “Star Wars” films, the attraction will include immersive new elements that will take guests to many familiar places in the Star Wars galaxy.
For Walt Disney World in Florida, Rasulo outlined plans for the largest expansion in the history of the Magic Kingdom, vastly increasing the size of Fantasyland by 2013. Guests will soon be able to:
-Visit their favorite Disney Princess in her castle, cottage, or chateau to share a dance with Cinderella; celebrate Sleeping Beauty’s birthday with the Good Fairies; or join Belle in an enchanting story performance in the Beast’s castle library.
-Be Our Guest and dine in one of three enchanted rooms inside the Beast’s castle.
-Fly with Dumbo high above brand new circus grounds, twice the size of the existing attraction with a new interactive, three-ring circus tent.
-Journey under the sea with Ariel, The Little Mermaid, in her very own attraction – also opening at Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim in 2011.
-Meet Tinker Bell and her friends in the magical world of Pixie Hollow.
Rasulo provided updates on the multi-year expansion of Disney’s California Adventure including the new “World of Color” attraction slated to open in the spring of 2010 and the addition of the 12-acre Cars Land scheduled to open in 2012 where guests will literally step into the town of Radiator Springs and its six acres of hand-carved rockwork.
Rasulo noted the progress of several other recently-announced projects including the three new lands coming to Hong Kong Disneyland by 2014; the Disney Dream, the new ship being built by Disney Cruise Line; the many diverse itineraries being offered by Adventures by Disney that take guests on 19 unique, once-in-a-lifetime guided vacation experiences; and Disney’s first family destination resort on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.
Rasulo’s keynote presentation was only part of the D23 EXPO experience. Guests were able to discover:
Never-before-seen models of upcoming Disney attractions.
Up close and personal visits with Lucky the Dinosaur and Wall-E.
A preview of the most advanced Audio-Animatronics figures ever created by Walt Disney Imagineering.
Displays showcasing cutting-edge effects technologies that are being developed for Disney attractions, shows and venues.
ABOUT WALT DISNEY PARKS AND RESORTS
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts are where families experience and enjoy the magic of Disney’s beloved characters and where dreams come true. More than 50 years ago, Walt Disney created a new kind of entertainment families could experience together, immersed in detailed atmospheres and vibrant storytelling. His vision now includes a collection of five of the world’s leading family vacation destinations – Disneyland Resort, Anaheim, Calif.; Walt Disney World Resort, Lake Buena Vista, Fla.; Tokyo Disney Resort, Urayasu, Chiba, Japan; Disneyland Resort Paris, Marne-la-Vallée, France; and Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, located on Lantau Island. In addition, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts includes the world-class Disney Cruise Line, Disney Vacation Club, with nine resorts and more than 400,000 members; Adventures by Disney, a guided group vacation experience to some of the world’s most popular destinations; the World of Disney stores; and Walt Disney Imagineering, which creates and designs all Disney parks, resorts and attractions.
Big thanks to John M. for the heads up!
Rich Ross, the television executive who helped revive the moribund Disney Channel, now has to prove he can work movie magic at Walt Disney Studios.
The 47-year-old former talent department head has been tapped by Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert A. Iger to fill the post formerly held by Dick Cook, who was ousted as chairman of the studio Sept. 18 after clashing with his boss and failing to deliver enough hits over the last year.
Iger will look to Ross to reinvigorate Disney’s flagging box-office fortunes and develop film franchises that can be sold across the entertainment giant’s lines of businesses — including theme parks, consumer products and television — as well as grapple with a host of technological issues that are quickly reshaping Hollywood. In his new role, which begins immediately, Ross will oversee worldwide production, distribution and marketing for the company’s live-action and animated film labels, including Walt Disney, Touchstone, Miramax and Disney/Pixar. He will also head Disney’s theatrical and music groups.
“Rich has an outstanding record of creating high-quality family entertainment that delights audiences around the world,” Iger said in a prepared statement. “With his success in building the Disney brand across many of our businesses, his astute marketing sensibility, his proven ability in working effectively with talent and his skill at navigating complex global markets, I’m confident he’s the perfect leader for our studio group.”
By picking an executive from outside the clubby precincts of the movie business, Iger is signaling that he wants Ross to shake up a studio that the Disney chief views as entrenched in the past, with its reliance on high-priced, aging stars to open films and extravagant spending on marketing.
To achieve this, Ross may be borrowing liberally from the playbook he followed to turn around Disney Channel, which has eclipsed the movie studio in recent years as a hothouse for talent and ideas that could be packaged and resold across the company’s various platforms. Ross has proved himself adept at turning entertainment into brands — high-profile examples include “Hannah Montana,” which launched pop star Miley Cyrus’ career, and “High School Musical,” which was created for television but quickly found life — and revenue — in recorded music, a big-screen blockbuster and a stage show.
At a company that stresses team playing among executives, Ross may be the ultimate team player.
“I am very excited to play a key role in continuing the storytelling legacy of the Walt Disney Studios. There has never been a better time to entertain our global audiences with high-quality and compelling content and introduce new characters that will become family favorites. I look forward to working with Bob, the team at the studios and all of our Disney family toward that goal,” Ross said.
Even as Ross’ promotion was being announced, Iger introduced Ross to Cook’s former studio lieutenants. The CEO assured senior staff that everyone’s job was secure and there would be no restructuring.
Since his arrival at Disney Channel in 1996, Ross worked closely with other divisions of the Burbank company. For example, when the channel cast Cyrus as Hannah Montana in 2005, Ross ordered an internal “road show” to introduce the program to other parts of Disney. Within six months of the show’s debut, the consumer products group was shipping Hannah Montana clothing to stores — shaving a year off the time required for new TV-linked merchandise to reach retail outlets.
Such cross-division collaboration is a priority for Iger and something he felt was lacking at the movie studio. Moreover, Disney Channel, under Ross, has become a model for Iger’s oft-touted franchise strategy, in which entertainment properties can feed other parts of the Disney empire.
A prime example is 2006’s “High School Musical” — an update of “West Side Story” set in a high school, where rival cliques strive to keep the young couple apart. Ross revved up the Disney marketing machine, leading to the release of a soundtrack that was a top-selling CD, a sold-out 42-date concert tour in North and South America, a show at Disney’s theme parks and a slew of merchandise.
The 2007 sequel, “High School Musical 2,” became the highest-rated telecast in cable history at the time, and the third installment in 2008, “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” raked in more than $250 million in worldwide box-office sales. Merchandise based on “High School Musical” and other Disney Channel movies and television series accounted for $3.6 billion in retail sales worldwide last year — not including DVDs and CDs.
Despite his success in television, Ross has virtually no experience in feature films — which involve a more protracted process encumbered by big egos, longtime habits and much higher cost structures. He must quickly reach out and calm anxieties among Disney’s movie talent, including director Steven Spielberg, producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Scott Rudin, and stars like Johnny Depp — all of whom were close to Cook and distraught over Iger’s pushing him out.
“I think it’s an interesting choice,” said Bruckheimer, the producer behind the studio’s lucrative “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise. “He’s done a great job at everything he’s been involved with.”
Bruckheimer said it didn’t bother him that Ross doesn’t know the movie business. “Smart executives are smart executives.”
Ross will not have oversight of the latest planned addition to Disney’s family, Marvel Entertainment, whose library of superhero characters the studio will seek to exploit. Disney has lagged behind rival studios that have successively produced film adaptations of Marvel properties such as X-Men and Spider-Man. Ike Perlmutter, Marvel’s chief executive, will report directly to Iger.
Another priority for the incoming studio chief will be forging ties with Spielberg’s DreamWorks Studios, which recently signed a multiyear distribution deal with Disney and expects to supply the studio with four to six movies a year.
But Ross’ greatest challenge will be to address Disney’s creative slump. Although Disney isn’t the only studio to have suffered a bad year at the box office, the division lost $12 million in its most recent quarter — its first loss in four years. A number of its recent movies, including the Adam Sandler family comedy “Bedtime Stories,” the costly 3-D guinea pig saga “G-Force” and the latest installment in the “Witch Mountain” sci-fi adventure franchise, “Race to Witch Mountain,” failed to attract wide audiences.
And like all studio heads, Ross will find himself grappling with a number of sea changes in the business caused by a slump in DVD sales — the most lucrative part of a film’s revenue stream — and technological shifts that have changed how, when and where people watch movies.
Talk about heroic: Four film franchises, one decade, more than $10 billion worth of theater tickets sold.
And more than that, in their very best moments, each of these franchises shown above delivered sparkling adventure and escapism for moviegoers. Now, though, with the decade winding down and all four franchises sitting a nice tidy trilogy, the question must be asked: Isn’t three the magic number? Do we really need a fourth movie from any of these aging popcorn enterprises? Clearly, all of them will be written up in the Hollywood history books but right now the indelicate must be asked: “How can we miss you if you won’t leave?”
Last week we gave you an in-depth report on this quartet of mega-franchises and their quests for a fourth visit to theaters. We told you how “The Hobbit” must escape the the towering shadow of “The Lord of the Rings,” while Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” series needs to get back to its roots to thrive. We also explained that the “X-Men” future looks especially uncertain while the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise might be facing a one-man mutiny with Johnny Depp’s distress over recent changes at Disney.
We also put the question to you: Which of these franchises is making a mistake by adding a fourth film?
You made it clear that “The Hobbit,” with director Guillermo del Toro taking over with a new vision, is in a class by itself — the other franchises may tack on new editions to cash in, but fans are expecting nothing but magic from Del Toro’s arrival in Middle-earth. The remaining three franchises got a frostier reception. For five days last week, more than half of our reader voters named “Pirates” as the cinematic series that should walk the plank. Over the weekend that changed and (with a lot of late-arriving Depp fans?) the surging “X-Men” became the top choice as a franchise hitting bottom.
It’s not too late, though, we’ll take votes for the next 48 hours before declaring our, uh, winning loser. In the meantime, thanks for reading, commenting and voting.
– Geoff Boucher
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In the beginning I had thought that this was a rather stupid way to run an invasion. No plans, no diagrams, no peptalk, no training, no maneuvers–no nothing. It finally dawned on me that this was the ideal way to mount an invasion that you wished to keep secret. The pilots had plenty of piloting experience, and would get more on the outward voyage. The troops were ready to fight; the sources of supply supplied. And somewhere at the top there were locked boxes of plans, course tapes and such. None of which would be opened until we were safe in warpdrive and outside communication would be impossible. All of which made life easier for me since there were few opportunities to trip me up in my knowledge of things Cliaandian.
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