Things are heating up for The Watchmen
The Watchmen Cover
When I first saw trailers for 300, I was blown away by the style. The look of the film was so unique and true to the source material in that trailer, that I assumed I was setting myself for disappointment. While 300 is far from a cinematic masterpiece, it was faithful to the graphic novel and was a great movie experience. As the credits started rolling the night I saw it, I looked for one name: the director.
Zack Snyder also directed the remake of Dawn of the Dead. I’d never been a fan of zombie flicks, except for Fido, 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead, but I thought Snyder’s remake was pretty solid. I started to track this guy’s career after 300.
His newest project is Alan Moore’s The Watchmen. If you’re unfamiliar with Alan Moore’s work, he wrote comic books that would be adapted into the films V for Vendetta and From Hell. Alan Moore has been rather reluctant to show any form of support for adaptations of his work, to the point of not even accepting the royalties, but giving them to others he worked with. He has been quoted numerous times saying that The Watchmen is impossible to make into a film. Well, Zack Snyder decided to try and take this statement on.
The film just wrapped shooting on the 19th and Snyder decided to give a still of one of the scenes on the movie’s blog. It got me really excited to see Rorschach in the image, and I’ve been pumped ever since.
There was a bit of news that surfaced today, involving another part of the comic book and movie. Within the comic book itself, there is a parallel comic that takes place inside it, called The Tales of the Black Freighter. It was speculative whether or not this would be included in the film, as it was already pretty lengthy. According to Cinematical.com, this companion piece will be included, but only as a special DVD feature. It will be made in the form of an anime, with Gerard Butler (of King Leonidas fame) as the voice of the principal character. The cast of the actual movie can be found here at FirstShowing.net.
If Snyder can pull this off, it will solidify him as a top Hollywood director. The Watchmen has been in some stage of production for nearly twenty years! After seeing how well he handled the 300 material, I’m really confident that Snyder will do a stand-up job. I’m going to be watching updates on this film like a hawk. If you haven’t read the comic, I suggest you do. It transcends what the medium is considered to be. It is the Holy Grail of comic books. It does things to the Superhero genre that have made Moore a legend, and rightly so.
Amazon Link for graphic novel: The Watchmen
Trigun gets the big screen treatment.
Finally! What great news to find on a seemingly mundane Thursday.
This anime has a special importance for me because it was the first anime series I’d ever watched, and still remains one of my favorite of all time. The plot is basic but some of the action scenes and animation are the best the 90s had to offer. The main character, Vash, remains one of my favorite anime characters of all time for his goofy charm and noble character. The series had some pretty serious issues and themes present, but never took itself too seriously. If you are new to anime, this is an ideal one to get started on.
Apparently the movie will be in Japanese theatres sometime in 2009. Time to add another film to the list of movies to see in the next year. How sad it is that it’s only the end of the second month of the new year and I’m already looking forward to next year’s lineup?
Trigun Collection (Episodes 1-26) [3-DVD Box Set]
Trigun, Vol. 1 (Trigun) Manga
2008 Oscar Wish List
The big day is upon us in the land of movies. The 2008 Oscars are here and the writers are with them! There is a lot to be happy about this year. I’ve seen a good number of the nominees this year, so I’ve already got my picks for who I want to see win.
Best Supporting Actor
My pick for best supporting actor is easy. Javier Bardem played one of the scariest characters to be on screen this year and he played him beautifully in No Country for Old Men. Good luck, Friendo.
Best Supporting Actress
I’m having a hard time picking from any of the nominees here. I figure this will just go to Cate Blanchett, but I just can’t help hoping for Tilda Swinton’s performance in Michael Clayton.
Best Actor
This is a tough one. I thought Viggo was just awesome in Eastern Promises, but Clooney really pulled out an excellent performance in Michael Clayton. I’m going to fold under the pressure here, though, and give it to Daniel Day Lewis for his work in There Will Be Blood. He’s a force to be reckoned with this year.
Best Actress
If you’ve read my review of Juno, this is an easy call. I really want Ellen Page to win this year. It’s going to be tough for her, as this year’s nominees are all strong.
Best Director
I hate to fill my list up with just one movie, but when I see something I couldn’t help but love as a film, it happens. The same thing hit me when I saw Pan’s Labyrinth and it hit me this year with No Country for Old Men. Joel and Ethan Coen for best director.
Best Adapted Screenplay
No Country for Old Men, adapted by the Joel and Ethan Coen. Another easy one for me.
Best Original Screenplay
This came down to two movies for me. I’m hoping for Diablo Cody on this one. Juno, just edges out Michael Clayton for original screenplay.
Best Picture
With such a strong field of candidates, picking the very best of this year is always a bit tough. But if my list so far has been indicative of anything, it’s that I loved No Country for Old Men and will root for it in this category as well.
As I said, these are who I would like to see win, not who I necessarily think will win the category. A few awards already have a lot buzz around them, and that generally carries over and proves to be true. But I’d rather root for my own picks. I won’t really be disappointed if none of my picks come true - with the exception of Supporting Actor. If Javier does not take that award home, there will be blood! (See what I did there?)
My On-the-Run College Apps
This is my 6th semester here at Penn State, and my trusty iBook G4 has been with me every step of the way. I can’t say the same for the applications that have inhabited its hard drive, though. I’ve gone through more than my fair share of applications, looking for the ones that worked best for what I wanted. At this point in my career, I can say “I think I’m set.”
I want to preface my selection with this bit of information. I don’t own my own printer. I can’t get myself to invest in something the campus provides for free. So nearly all of my printing is done in the computer labs on campus. This has its benefits as well as its draw backs. Using Mac OS X means I have to either use a Mac, which aren’t always available in the locations I need to be at, or export the file as a more universal type. The majority of my picks are heavily influenced by this.
First and foremost, as a Film/Video major, I need a good script writing application. I’ve messed with everything from the monstrous Final Draft, down to the screenplay template in iWork’s Pages. The program I decided to go with: Celtx. Celtx is an open source application for the budding screenwriter in all of us. It provides me with all the features I can get in the bulkier programs, but without all the glut. It can export scripts as PDF files, which allows me to print from anywhere. The only other program I really considered was Montage. Its only minuses came from an abundance of features I’d never use.
For basic essays and assignments, I stick to trusty iWork Pages. It has the features of Microsoft Word, in the sleek presentation of normal Apple applications. It does what I need it to and exports to *.doc files when I need to print in a lab.
I also do a bit of creative writing. I’m not a notebook kind of guy. I like to put my thoughts down on a screen. Something about it helps the information flow from my head and into words much easier. So I needed an application that would give me the ability to store notes, move them around, and have them all in one place while writing a much larger work. Scrivener gets this done beautifully. It helps me keep track of hundreds of little ideas and notes that a normal word processor can’t handle.
*On a side note, I have actually started using the screenplay template in Scrivener for larger scriptwriting projects.
Another program I’ve come to love is Genius. It is basically a flash card application. I don’t particularly enjoy memorizing facts and numbers. Genius helps me do just that, with minimal effort. Simply plug the question and answers in, and have it deliver a slide show for you. Not only do you memorize via the flash card method, but having to fill in the actual questions and answers is an additional method of studying.
Podcasts. Use them. Nearly every language you can take will have some kind of pubic podcast out there. Nothing helps learn a language then hearing it spoken by native speakers. Search them out and listen to them on the way to class. Not only does it reinforce what you’ve already learned, but helps with pronunciation.
Those are the programs I used to stay productive in my writing and studying. I keep track of school life and work with a couple other programs. I keep up with assignments via iProcrastinate. What I love about this is that it takes advantage of iCal and puts the assignments in as To Do’s. With Leopard’s streamlining of iCal and Mail, I can always see when something is due.
Although I’ve found what works for me, if there are better applications out there, I’d love to hear about them! What do you use to write?
Claymore Gets Licensed!
Claymore, a 2007 Madhouse fantasy anime, has been officially licensed by FUNimation.
Selective screen-sharing on iChat with Chatter
From the creator of iShowU, a terriffic screencasting application, Chatter allows you to use iChat’s built-in screen-sharing feature selectively.
Related sites
Recent features
The Format - Give It Up
Leah Andreone - Break Your Fall
Coheed and Cambria - The Velorium Camper II: Backend Of Forever
Song of the week
Sara Bareilles - Between the Lines
Sara Bareilles' "Between the Lines" is the Song of the Week for April 20 to 26.
Warning: main(images/faq.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/.eastwood/cdevroe/theubergeeks.net/wp-content/themes/clockworkorange/sidebar.php on line 119
Warning: main(images/faq.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/.eastwood/cdevroe/theubergeeks.net/wp-content/themes/clockworkorange/sidebar.php on line 119
Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening 'images/faq.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/.eastwood/cdevroe/theubergeeks.net/wp-content/themes/clockworkorange/sidebar.php on line 119