THEeCoSTREAM

via www.latinoreview.com

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:03:25 -0700

Calibre Manages Your E-Book Collection

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:35:46 -0700

By Jason Fitzpatrick, 3:00 PM on Sun Mar 15 2009, 9,984 views

Windows\Mac\Linux: If you’ve got a virtual pile of e-books but no good way to organize them, Calibre is a feature rich e-book manager, complete with Cover Flow-like looks and network sharing.

Whether or not you have a portable e-book reader, Calibre is packed with features to help you organize your e-books. To start, you simply tell Calibre where you store your book files. It does a pretty good job pulling the necessary information and self-populating, although you’ll still find yourself making occasional edits, like swapping the author and title fields. If you’re a LibraryThing user, you can also hook into that account to populate the fields.

Calibre has a Cover Flow-like browsing feature for skimming through the covers of your books. You can leave comments on your reads, and a tagging system for organizing your collection beyond the basics of genre and author. Calibre supports extensive file conversions, with the ability to convert over thirteen document formats into EPUB, PRF and MOBI formats for use on popular e-book readers like the SONY PRS 500/505/700, Cybook Gen 3, Amazon Kindle (1 and 2) and the iPhone (with the stanza reader software).

You can also set up Calibre to fetch news from websites and RSS feeds and convert it into a compatible format, so you can load up your e-book reader with information from your favorite sites. There’s even a built-in web server so you can access your e-book collection remotely. Calibre is freeware and is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Calibre [via gHacks]

How to Survive Falling Through Ice

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:02:19 -0700

Survival:

By Adam Pash, 3:00 PM on Fri Mar 13 2009, 12,979 views

That frozen over pond you’ve been hiking over all winter is warming up, so do yourself a favor and check out Wired’s illustrated guide to survive falling through ice.

The guide is simple and direct, with four main steps and some sound advice for handling the pyschological aspects of the scary situation. For example:

As you hit the water, a physiological reaction known as torso reflex will cause you to gasp for air. Force yourself to take slow, deep breaths. You’ll begin to shiver violently and feel intense pain; try to remember that these are natural responses and not life-threatening.

Head on over to Wired to read the full details. It’s good advice, and learning how to survive falling through ice is certainly a good thing, but we’d suggest avoiding that frozen pond altogether if you have a choice.

Survive Falling Through Ice [Wired How-To Wiki]

David Fincher's Animated Version of The Goon

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:01:21 -0700

First Look: « FirstShowing.net

by Alex Billington

Last year during Comic-Con we announced that Eric Powell’s cult comic The Goon was being adapted into an animated feature film by none other than David Fincher. Although I’ve never personally read the comic, it seems like a pretty damn good cult comic, and I’m very interested in seeing how the movie will turn out. Well thanks to Quint at Ain’t It Cool News, we’ve finally got a first look at the first few shots from The Goon movie and it looks much better than I was expecting. Blur Studios, also behind the upcoming Heavy Metal movie, is developing this, which is one of the first complete features they’re entirely behind creating.

The Goon is a comic book series created by Eric Powell in 1999. The story is about the adventures of the Goon, a muscle-bound brawler who claims to be the primary enforcer for the feared mobster Labrazio. The Goon (and his sidekick Franky) often get tied up in other machinations, often in relation to the evil zombie gangs under the command of the Nameless Zombie Priest. The series has a distinctly paranormal slant, with the average story concerning ghosts, ghouls, skunk-apes, extra-dimensional aliens, and mad scientists. I really can’t wait to see more from this soon, because it certainly looks awesome so far! Thoughts?

Finally, Some Real Tron 2.0 Story Details Revealed

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:00:03 -0700

« FirstShowing.net

by Alex Billington

Ever since Disney snuck in that awesome sneak peek at Comic-Con last year, we’ve been trying to figure out what the heck Tron 2.0 is all about. We know the basic premise, or at least some of the characters, including the original Flynn and original Tron, but what exactly is going on? A few months ago I started to try and piece together some of the plot from an amalgamation of casting news, only to come up with a bit of a crazy idea reminiscent of The Matrix. Well, Ain’t It Cool News is claiming to have some details from a trustworthy source in Vancouver, so if you’re interested in knowing a bit more about the plot, read on!

I’ve paraphrased the e-mail they were sent and took out some of the big spoilers, so here goes. The movie starts in 1989 (the original was set in 1982). Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges’ character), who has a five year old son named Sean, has created some of the world’s best selling video games since the events of the first Tron took place. He disappears and Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner’s character, the original Tron) takes over his company. Jump forward roughly 15 years, Flynn’s son Sean is now 20-something, and Alan has info on his dad, which sends Sean back to Flynn’s old arcade where he gets sucked back into the computer world.

Flynn has programmed a CLU character to look like his younger self that goes around and makes the world a better place. However, the CLU is corrupt and is creating his own interpretation of that “perfect world” (hence why you see him kill that guy in the teaser footage). Apparently this CLU is out killing programs called ISOs (anyone catch that reference too?). And these ISOs think Sean Flynn is their savior, but of course, the real Flynn is also still stuck inside the computer world and they eventually catch up with him, too. But will he help? I think there’s a lot more to this story than just that, but it’s a very good start.

While that synopsis is only a tad less vague than what we already know, it’s a good update and introduction to what we’ll see eventually play out in Tron 2.0. The report also claims that we’ll see big disc battles, light cycle fights, and “light jets” (think light cycles that can fly), which should make for some awesome battles. See, the reason I think Tron 2.0 will be incredible, is because they’re taking that classic Tron world and infusing it with some modern energy and excitement (just like J.J. Abrams is doing with Star Trek). And that alone is enough to make me very excited to see what Joseph Kosinski is cooking up for Tron 2.0.

Ridley Scott's Monopoly Movie All About Our Economy?

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 10:59:34 -0700

« FirstShowing.net

by Alex Billington

No matter how much I continue to hear about the Monopoly movie, I still feel like it’s all just a big hoax, created by Hollywood for no legitimate reason. I can’t really imagine that Ridley Scott, the man behind Alien and Blade Runner and Gladiator, would want to direct a movie based on a board game?! Oh, but he does, “I have to direct it,” Scott told MTV. In their recent update, Scott and Hasbro’s CEO Brian Goldner revealed some interesting thoughts on the direction of the movie and it’s modern societal connection - the economy. But is that enough to actually make this into a great movie or instead kill it before it even starts?

“The whole world is about the financial markets,” Goldner told MTV. “You can’t turn on the news today without understanding the financial markets and what’s going on out there.” So why not make this movie about that issue as well as the “personal story” contained with the Monopoly experience? Does anyone know what Goldney is talking about besides the status of Hasbro’s stock? “[Ridley has] built these great big worlds of imagination,” Goldner said. “Combine that with Pamela Pettler who’s writing this great script about real people kind of playing a real-life game of Monopoly, not the board game, although they’re icons of the game. And then you really get the idea why this story could make sense right now.”

I get a feeling that this reminds me a lot of The Day the Earth Stood Still, and how they tried to connect that movie to the current concern over our environment. So it sounds like Hasbro and Universal want to capitalize (pun intended) on our recession and make a movie that hits home with audiences because it deals with money. We’ll let Ridley Scott, who seems to have lost his edge over the last few years, explain why it could be good. “We have identified a pretty good story and it is fundamentally a movie, not a game, probably describing in a way the characters in the film, the passion of the game, and how the game came about.”

I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m not sold yet. I think Ridley has a lot of work to do before he can convince me that this isn’t just a big gimmick designed to capitalize on our ailing economy. Thoughts?

Will Jon Favreau Direct The Avengers?

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:32:07 -0700

| /Film

by: Peter Sciretta

It’s no secret: Jon Favreau would love to helm an Avengers movie. He’s has gone on the record multiple times talking about the possibility. But after Marvel announced their overly ambitious release schedule, Favs was forced to admit that the production schedule would likely prevent him from doing so.

I would love to. Clearly I have stated that The Avengers would be fun. But I look at their release schedule and they have announced ‘Iron Man 2? for 2010 and then Avengers for 2011. I know from experience there is no way I could. I don’t know what they have in mind, but there is no way that The Avengers could be done in a year. Either they are thinking about somebody else doing it or they have something up their sleeve that I don’t know.

But as you now know, Marvel decided to push back the release date of The Avengers an entire year to May 4th, 2012. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Today a spy over at AICN confirms my suspicions:

“The Avengers is delayed a year because of financing issues but also because the plan is for Favreau to helm it. Everybody here loves the guy and he wants to do it, but it would have been impossible for him to do before the date change given his Iron Man 2 commitments. Also partly the reason why he agreed to do the Stark sequel on such an accelerated schedule was so he could get given first dibs on this. It would still be a punishing schedule for him, so hes not firmly confirmed yet, but he is certainly the presumptive director at this point.”

Clearly Favreau is the best many to helm Marvel’s superhero team-up film. He’s been talking about the idea since he got hired to direct Iron Man, and we all know how that turned out. Can you think of a better filmmaker for the job?

OutlookAttachView Lets You Save All File Attachments

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:40:20 -0700

Downloads:

Windows only: Email attachment searching utility OutlookAttachView has a killer feature: You can export or delete multiple attachments at once—so you can finally get your files out of your inbox.

Using the utility is extremely simple—just launch the executable and it will search through your Outlook profile for every attachment, though it might take a while if you have a large amount of mail. The Options -> Show Inline Attachments checkbox is probably a good idea if you get a lot of embedded pictures through email, as they aren’t stored as regular attachments in Outlook. Once you’ve selected the attachments you want to handle, use the File menu to copy the attachments to a folder, and then you can even delete the attachments in bulk to save a ton of space in your mailbox.

OutlookAttachView is a free, portable download from the always useful folks at Nirsoft, the same people that let you recover lost Outlook passwords, manage your Outlook auto-complete entries, and even edit your Explorer right-click menu.

OutlookAttachView [Nirsoft via Life Rocks 2.0]

A Brief Look at Watchmen’s Long Journey to the Screen

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:31:01 -0700

From Development Hell: | Film School Rejects

Posted by Cole Abaius (cole.abaius@filmschoolrejects.com) on March 3, 2009

When I was fourteen years old, I read a graphic novel called “Watchmen.” At this point, it had already been published for over a decade. I came late to the game purely because I was only two years old when it was published originally - but when I got to it, I was hooked. I’ve read it at least once a year since, and last night I got to see the film version of the story for the first time since turning to the first page all those years ago.

Even though I’m squarely in the fanatic base of the graphic novel’s corner, I recognize that there is a huge population of people out there that either haven’t heard of the novel or simply don’t care. “Watchmen” is an odd cultural icon in that it’s held in high regard by a sizable group of people while being completely unknown by others. It’s not Star Wars or Star Trek - two pieces of culture that benefit from “being heard of” by people that haven’t seen a film or an episode. “Watchmen” isn’t so lucky.

Because of this, I felt it important to take a look at why fans (and film fans in general) have been so unbearable for the past year. It has, mostly, to do with the excruciatingly long wait that had to be endured before finally watching Watchmen in film form. Here’s just a brief look at that frustrating wait:

1986 - DC Comics publishes “Watchmen,” a limited series twelve-issue comic featuring a number of superheroes investigating the murder of one of their own under the dark cloud of the Cold War’s mutually assured destruction.
1987 - The final issue of “Watchmen” is released, and the book is collected into graphic novel form.
20th Century Fox (through Larry Gordon and Joel Silver) options the rights for the book and wants Alan Moore to write the screenplay adaptation. Moore refuses the job, and Fox hires Sam Hamm, a writer who, at the time, had written the script for Disney film Never Cry Wolf and the then-in-production Burton Batman film and would go on to write Batman Begins and Monkeybone.
Late 1988 - Hamm completes his draft that changes the ending of the story in a drastic way - opting to send the main “villain” back in time in order to kill one of the main superheroes so that the United States and the world are set back on their rightful course (the one our history is familiar with where Nixon wasn’t President for four terms).
1991 to Mid-90s - Due to several factors, including the massive cost of staging a production, Fox places the project into turnaround where it lingers for a few minutes before Warners picks it up and attaches blockbuster producer Joel Silver and the wonderfully weird Terry Gilliam, who at one point described “Watchmen” as “The ‘War and Peace’ of graphic novels,” in the director’s chair for the feature.
Gilliam works with frequent collaborator Charles McKeown to write a script but is never fully satisfied with it.
For a film that needs at least $100 million budget, Silver can only raise $25 million, and Gilliam decides the comic book is “unfilmable” based on a conversation he has with co-creator Alan Moore. Later, Gilliam would proclaim that he felt the story would work better as a mini-series.
2001 - Film rights revert to Larry Gordon who goes through Universal to hire David Hayter, who wrote X-Men and would also write X2, to pen a new script.
2002 - Hayter finishes a filmmable draft of the story, but other writing jobs stall further work on Watchmen. Then, after shooting a scene to showcase his directing talent, Universal decides he’s not the right man for the directing job and tosses the production into turnaround.
2003 - A partnership between Gordon and Revolution Studios doesn’t manage even to get off the ground.
2004 - Paramount announces that they will be producing Watchmen using Hayter’s draft and up-and-coming director Darren Aronofsky who made waves after making a little film about a paranoid mathematician and another about the horrors of drug addiction. The young director has been stalled on future projects, but just like how you’re only attractive to women when you have a girlfriend, shortly after signing onto Watchmen, the pieces come together for a long-dormant passion project, and Aronofsky leaves the production in order to make The Fountain.
Paramount hires Paul Greengrass to replace Aronofsky and aims for a release in summer of 2006 (which coincidentally is when Superman Returns actually was released).
The production moves forward enough to have screen tests, costume designs, and sets, but it’s in danger of not moving beyond that if the budget can’t be reduced. Fate intervenes when Donald De Line steps down from Paramount and his replacement, Brad Grey, puts the project - you guessed it - into turnaround.
2005 - Gordon and producing partner Lloyd Levin sell the project back to Warners (sans Gilliam this time).
2006 - Zack Snyder - whose 300 will hit theaters later in the year officially takes the helm of Watchmen with first-time screenwriter Alex Tse reworking David Hayter’s draft into a new script. Pre-production begins in earnest.
2007 - After several months of designing and testing, production starts in Toronto. Fans and the press are taking major notice, especially because of special teaser advertising.
2008 - Fox brings a lawsuit against Warners for copyright infringement, citing the turnaround clause in their contract with Larry Gordon. Later in the year, a judge grants Fox’s stake and legitimacy in having their day in court. A last minute panic on the goal line.
2009 - However, the case never sees a courtroom because the two studios settle early in the year. Just two months later, and three days from the publishing of this time line, Watchmen is released wide to audiences everywhere.

Hopefully this gives you just a slight appreciation of not only the lengthy amount of time it’s taken to see this thing through, but the hard work that’s been poured into it (mostly all for naught). Remember, all along the way there were press announcements and trades writing stories about the direction this thing was going. When “Watchmen” was published, it was published to wide public and critical acclaim, so it became a hot commodity for the film world immediately. Imagine every few years that something you’d love to see turned into a movie was announced as a new project featuring a new writer and director. Imagine that shortly after that announcement, the project always fell apart.

So at this point, not only will there be a film version of a fantastically rich story, but there’s a host of What Ifs. Real world, real life dreamcasting that ultimately just fell apart. In a way, it’s this mythos that’s made Watchmen even bigger than it was before, created the air around it that fans salivate over and annoy the uninitiated with.

It’s been a long time coming for some fans, still longer for others, and in three days they get to decide whether Alan Moore was right all along for believing the damned thing was unfilmable in the first place. Luckily, even after it’s released, we can all still wonder what a Gilliam version might look like.

For more Watchmen stuff, check out our Watching the Watchmen homepage.

For a much more in-depth look at the development nightmare for Watchmen, go out and buy “The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made” by David Hughes immediately. Immediately.

McG Wants Robert Patrick for Terminator 5

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:30:31 -0700

| /Film

by: Peter Sciretta

It seems to me that all the excitement over both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton’s potential involvement in Terminator Salvation has gotten McG a little cameo crazy. The director tells FearNet that he has an idea to cast Robert Patrick, who played the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, in the potential sequel to Terminator Salvation.

“I like the idea in a prospective next picture that you meet Robert Patrick the way he looks today, and he’s a scientist that’s working on improving cell replication so we can stay healthier and we can cure juvenile diabetes and all these things that once again sound like good ideas — and once again live as an idealized expression of ourselves. So imagine seeing a sixty-year-old Robert Patrick and knowing, ‘Holy shit! That’s gonna be the T-1000 – who comes back perfect, lean and the whole thing.’ I haven’t concluded that, but Robert and I had dinner the other night and talked about it.”

This would be cool is the T-1000 actually looked like Robert Patrick by default, but anyone who has seen T2 knows that the T-1000 is a more advanced terminator, composed entirely of a mimetic metal alloy, rendering it capable of rapid shapeshifting and near-perfect mimicry.In the beginning of the filme, t he T-1000 ambushes a police officer and takes on his identity. So if I’m correct, the T-1000 does not look like Robert Patrick by default, and thus, McG’s cameo theory just wouldn’t make any sense.

Update: Apparently the T-1000 appears as Robert Patrick before he attacks the police officer, so I’m completely wrong. I’ve just always assumed that the T-1000 wouldn’t have a default human mode, because, what would the point be? The T-1000 can change into anything or anyone, and having a standard look would make him more vulnerable in the war between the humans and machines. On the other hand it would be cool if we eventually seen the moment when the T-1000 is sent back to kill John Conner. Instead of having the T-1000 modeled after the scientist, I would love to see the T-1000 kill the scientist and mimic his look before taking the trip.

via: Cinematical

DisplayFusion 3.0 Manages Everything Across Multi-Monitor Setups

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:29:50 -0700

Downloads: DisplayFusion 3.0 Manages Everything Across Multi-Monitor Setups

By Jason Fitzpatrick, 6:30 AM on Tue Mar 3 2009, 25,393 views

Windows only: If you’re looking to manage windows and wallpapers on multiple monitors, it’s tough to go wrong with the reasonably priced, and recently updated, DisplayFusion.

We’ve sung praises for the excellent multi-monitor tool DisplayFusion before, for it’s ability customize your dual monitors and help you make the most of your dual monitors. DisplayFusion has recently been revamped to include even more features including the ability to grab wallpapers from not only your computer and Flickr, but from the excellent wallpaper collection at Vladstudio—a popular wallpaper site based on responses to where you found your favorite multi-monitor wallpaper.

While the addition of new resources for new wallpaper is great, it isn’t nearly as newsworthy as the addition of multi-monitor windows management. Like previously reviewed UltraMon, DisplayFusion now has the ability to span your taskbar across all of your monitors. You can switch windows between your monitors using hotkeys or by clicking on the title bar of the window with the middle mouse button. There is one small hiccup with the window management tool, though: if you’re using multiple monitors, it doesn’t allow you to select which monitor the window will move to like UltraMon does. Using the hotkey or middle mouse button sends the window to the next monitor in the sequence as Windows sees them. As you can see in the screen shot up top, my monitors are arranged in a 2-1-3 pattern, so to move a window from the center monitor to the far right one requires two clicks. Not a deal breaker by any means, and not even an issue if you only have two monitors, but something to keep if you’re sporting three or more monitors.

Here’s a look at some of DisplayFusion 3.0’s features and abilities (click for larger images):

If you can tolerate the loss of some of the tweaks available in UltraMon, like the multi-monitor screensaver tool, DisplayFusion costs less than half of UltraMon’s $40 price at $16—technically $15.53, based on today’s U.S./Canada currency exchange. I’ve used both over the last year with dual, and then triple, monitors and, dollar for dollar, DisplayFusion is a great value. The day DisplayFusion adds a handy titlebar button for tossing windows from one monitor to another, I’ll stop using the two applications side by side and use DisplayFusion exclusively.

DisplayFusion has a limited-functionality free edition, and you can request a 30-day trial license to test out the full package before purchase. DisplayFusion is $16 for a lifetime license and is Windows only.

DisplayFusion 3.0 [Binary Fortress]

Screedbot: Animated Scrolling Typewriter Text Generator

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:29:23 -0700

Screedbot: Animated Scrolling Typewriter Text Generator

Screedbot lets you generate an animated GIF file with your own scrolling typewriter text. Just write some text into the field and press “Create Screed”. Modify image width, text colour, text font size and the background colour. When you are done, save it to your computer or share it on ImageShack or Flickr with one click.

Features:

Scrolling text generator that lets you create GIF image file with your own scrolling typewriter text.
Modify image width, text font size, text and background colours
Save it to your computer or share it on ImageShack or Flickr with one click.

Check out Screedbot @ www.wigflip.com/screedbot

SXSW Advanced Review: Anvil! The Story of Anvil

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:28:53 -0700

| Film School Rejects

Posted by Cole Abaius (cole.abaius@filmschoolrejects.com) on March 12, 2009

Everyone has a dream. The mail room worker who dreams of being a hot shot agent. The girl playing guitar in her dorm room that dreams of being a Rock Goddess. The cubicle worker that hopes to make it big as an advertising genius. Hell, there’s even an American Dream. A country has its own dream. Unfortunately, most people will never get to achieve theirs. Despite years of toiling, most everyone will eventually give in and succumb to their Plan B. They will look around them, realize they’ve grown too old to do what they longed for in their youth. The members of the band Anvil are not like most people.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil is as simple a story as its title suggests. It examines a critical point in the career of Anvil - a band that made it big without ever making it big. Influential in creating the metal sound of the late 1970s, and acting as the catalyst for bands like Anthrax and Metallica, Anvil are heavy hitters that didn’t reach the level of fame needed to ride the wave of drunken groupies and all-night drug binges. They made it to the middle, and when the ride was over, they ended up middle-aged average joes still striving to become rock stars. The documentary itself picks up on the eve of the first major tour the band has had in years - hitting some major cities and festivals in Europe.

The story may be simple, but the people are complex. Before I go into the worth of the film, you should know one very basic fact: Anvil rocks. They kick ass. They are fantastic musicians who have created some hard rocking music.

That’s what makes watching the film much more difficult.

The documentary - which, I swear, is a real documentary - is like a blend between the pathetic awkwardness of Spinal Tap and the angry frustration of Some Kind of Monster, the Metallica doc that no one ever asked for. It’s a frustrating film because of the subject matter, but ultimately satisfying because of how the subject is treated. There’s zero pretense. Guitarist Steve “Lips” Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner (as if there weren’t enough Spinal Tap references) are genuine, strikingly un-self-aware people who have no choice but to be exactly who they are. There’s no playing to the camera. There’s no holding back. The audience gets a fantastic view from the passenger’s seat in the last chance hand-basket that’s taking both men down to obscurity hell. We see where they grew up, where they live, where they work. We share in what must be the most frustrating reality for anyone with a dream - achieving it without achieving it.

The one question that haunts the action of the film is - why did they get so far without becoming famous?

Every step of the way, Lips - an odd blend of Geddy Lee (if he played wicked guitar) and Eeyore (if he complained more) - pulls the band kicking and screaming toward the mirage of stardom. They embark on an ill-fated European tour which appears to destroy his endless supply of faith until he sends a demo tape to former production partner and metal guru Chris Tsangarides. CT decides there’s potential, but they’ll have to self-finance a recording session. They fight. They almost break up several times. They meet a promoter who can get them a huge show in Japan. Every attempt is always their last shot at fame. Every last shot always comes with a catch.

As a documentary, the story unfolds near-flawlessly - blending shots of the austere Canadian neighborhood where Lips and Robb are fathers and husbands and part-time workers with the sweaty reality of touring with an unproven manager. The dark world of European clubs and metal show venues accentuates the frustrating elements, the emotions riding on high, and the disappointment of filling a 5,000 capacity arena with a 112-person audience. The bleak “real world” of their home lives was almost enough to bring me to tears as they and the people that love them struggle to deal with a dream that should have died years and years ago. Like modern-day Don Quixotes, Anvil are always tilting at a multi-platinum record deal, and the financial and emotional tolls are severe. It’s enough to make you want to ask your local fast-food establishment employee what he once dreamed of becoming and how close he got.

But the beauty of the documentary is that behind all the struggle is a childlike hope and faith in the value of what they’re doing. In the genius of music. In the revelation of the creative process. It’s only sad if you adhere to what most of society defines as “success.” It’s clear that the members of Anvil believe strongly in that definition, but by all accounts they’ve already achieved some major feats - putting out upwards of a dozen albums, getting the recognition they deserve from members of metal’s elite, and getting to play in front of thousands of screaming fans. There’s a lot of joy in that - and that joy isn’t lost on Lips or the filmmakers. The Story of Anvil may feature more than its fair share of poignant, heartfelt, desperate moments, but it’s ultimately a simple story of two friends who refuse to quit on each other and who refuse to stop doing what they’re passionate about.

Oddly enough, with the success of this documentary, there’s a possibility that Anvil may enter back into the public conscious. I’ll admit to never hearing of them before the film (and to buying their album Metal on Metal because of it), but wouldn’t it be fitting if this film acted as their true last shot at stardom and actually paid off. It would be incredibly meta, but it also couldn’t happen to a more deserving crew of musical talent. Not bad for a documentary about a couple of rockers from Canada.

Captain America, Thor, The Avengers, and Spider-Man 4 Get New Release Dates

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:28:07 -0700

| /Film

Marvel has announced a series of new release dates for its upcoming comic book films. The new dates make more sense from a production standpoint than the old ones, and logically lead to the eventual release of The Avengers film, which promises to combine many of Marvel’s characters, in 2012. Hit the jump to see the new dates.

Thor, which was originally scheduled for a fairly soon July 16, 2010 release date has now been moved to June 17, 2011.

The Captain America movie moves a few weeks back from May 6, 2011 to July 22, 2011.

The Avengers film will be released almost a year later than originally announced, moving from July 15, 2011 to May 4, 2012.

In addition, the studio also confirmed that Sony’s Spider-Man 4 will be released on May 6, 2011. Iron Man 2’s original release date of May 7, 2010 (just a little bit over one year from today) remains intact. So, overall, it looks like 2011 will be an insane year of comic-book superhero films. Here’s hoping the eventual release of The Avengers is able to deliver on the insane potential of this whole slate of films.

Scarjo and Rourke Get Into Leather And Whips For Iron Man 2

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:27:49 -0700

Iron Man 2: Scarjo and Rourke Get Into Leather And Whips For Iron Man 2

By Meredith Woerner, 11:21 AM on Thu Mar 12 2009, 4,252 views

Scarlett Johansson is slipping into the leather catsuit and filling the high-heeled boots of Black Widow, while everyone’s favorite Wrestler, Mickey Rourke, is getting his own cybernetic whips in Iron Man 2.

The curvy actress has signed on to play the dangerous Black Widow in the next Iron Man movie. Scarjo in a slinky skin-tight fighting suit, that’s a beautiful thought. Scarjo, with a fake Russian accent….hmmmm, not so sure about that. Either way, I’ll see it - for some reason, her eyes have some sort of weird spell over me.

And Mickey Rourke has finally come to an agreement with Marvel, and will be busting out the cybernetic whips to fight Tony in the sequel as Whiplash. Just the idea of seeing a nunchaku/whip wielding Rourke, buzzing around on a jet disc, fills my heart with joy.

Good decisions, team Iron Man, just make sure to give RDJ the most screen time, as my heart is still dedicated to him and his awesome witticisms.

[E News and Variety]

‘Taken’ Sequel, Americanized ‘District B13′ In the Works

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:27:21 -0700

| Film School Rejects

In the best lower-budget, blow-out action film news of the morning, it appears as though screenwriter par example Robert Mark Kamen will be un-shockingly pairing with Luc Besson to bring a sequel to the box office steamroller Taken at some point in the near future. Also coming through the chute for the pair is an American re-imagining of District B13, a film that parkoured everyone’s face off when it first hit theaters.

The first news is fantastic. The second is solid, although it sets off our bi-weekly debate on Americanizing already-incredible films.

There’s no information beyond the existence and intent of the projects because the news comes from a stark few sentences at the end of an incredible piece written in the LA Times about the unusually strong partnership between the screenwriter and the iconic French producer/director.

The piece is a very cool read - detailing their history and the large-scale goal of Besson’s to create a studio to crank out better action films than Hollywood can make for cheaper and have them rage success all over the US, Europe, and Asia.

Besson does with people’s bodies what Michael Bay does with explosions. He commands things to be IMPRESSIONNANT. Yes, that’s the French word for “AWESOME,” and yes, I know we’re going to need to work on it. Maybe come up with another catch phrase for the guy.

Of course, the best news is that, for probably the first time in history, a screenwriter is getting treated with incredible respect and reverence for the outstanding work that he does.

What do you think? Ready for more parkour and Liam Neeson kicking ass? Yes, you are. Don’t even think about it.

via www.iwatchstuff.com

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:09:16 -0700

via www.iwatchstuff.com

League Of Super Evil Is Ren And Supervillain-Esque

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:01:38 -0700

League Of Super Evil:

By Charlie Jane Anders, 1:09 PM on Thu Mar 5 2009, 4,426 views

A ragged gang of supervillains make their debut on Cartoon Network tonight, and you may just be one of their first conquests. The League Of Super Evil brings cuteness and slapstick to mega-villainy. Spoilers!

I watched a few episodes of League at Wondercon and… it was fun. Not Earth-shattering, or super clever, or outrageous. But good fun. In a nutshell, the League Of Super Evil follows a group of supervillain kids living in a house together. There’s Voltar, their evil leader; Red Menace, who’s green instead of red and is the group’s muscle; Doktor Frogg, who’s the group’s mad scientist; and Doomageddon, the dog.

The show avoids a lot of the cliches you’d expect from a set-up like that. For one thing, the L.O.S.E. spends most of its time fighting other supervillains, not superheroes. (Although there’s a pretty hilarious send-up of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in one episode.) For another, the plots mostly don’t revolve around the supervillains trying to take over the world. More often, Voltar wants to impress the other kids in the neighborhood, or win a bet or something.

In one episode, Voltar brags to the neighbor kids that he gets a zillion TV channels… so he sends Doktor Frogg up into space to rig a special satellite to get a zillion channels for their TV set. And in another episode, the tiny Voltar steals another supervillain’s giant suit of armor so he can beat another kid at a basketball slam-dunk contest…. but that attracts the attention of the afore-mentioned Power Rangers clones. In a third episode — and by far, the funniest I saw — Doktor Frogg builds a machine that will plug up all the toilets in the city, unless the city agrees to his demands… but Doktor Frogg has no clue what those demands are.

Oh yeah… Did I mention there are a lot of poop and fart jokes? Those pretty much form the underpinnings of this series, which is not at all a bad thing. At the Wondercon screening, at least one audience member mentioned it was reminiscent of Ren And Stimpy in terms of its aesthetic, but it’s a lot gentler and sillier. The characters are basically losers, who stumble around in their giant suits of armor or go to ridiculous lengths to prove they’re badass. According to Wikipedia, some other storylines include “selling watered down lemonade” and trying to get a table at the most elite supervillain restaurant in town.

It’s cute and fun, and will probably spawn a cult following. The first episode is tonight at 9 on the Cartoon Network.

Use Texter to Supercharge Your Repetitive Typing

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:01:05 -0700

Video Demonstration:

By Adam Pash, 9:00 AM on Thu Mar 5 2009, 15,001 views

Web development and design site Nettuts goes in-depth with Texter, our very own text replacement application, detailing how Texter can streamline your email replies and coding to save bundles of time.

We’ve got a couple of quick video demos on the Texter homepage, but the Nettuts tutorial takes a great in-depth look at some advanced Texter usage and scripting, focusing on how Texter can save time with repetitive email and coding. Whether or not you’re a developer, the video above (and accompanying post) offer a great look at how you might be able to take advantage of Texter (or some other text replacement app) to save oodles of time at your keyboard. Got any advanced Texter tricks of your own? Share them in the comments.

How I Can Code Twice As Fast As You [Nettuts]

Discuss: Is Graffiti a Viable Means of Film Marketing?

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:00:34 -0700

| Film School Rejects

Posted by Paige MacGregor (paige@filmschoolrejects.com) on March 5, 2009

Is Warner Bros. paying street marketing teams to vandalize public property in New York City? Well, when put that way, it sounds like something the film industry monolith wouldn’t want to own up to. Whether or not they’re responsible, the words “Who Watches the Watchmen?” have appeared in spray-paint on walls across the big apple, inviting the question of whether Warner Bros. is responsible or if renegade street vandal/comic book geeks have taken to the night to publicly display their excitement over this week’s theatrical release of the highly anticipated Watchmen movie.

Better yet, it begs the question of whether advertising like this is effective. On one hand, it places the name of the film squarely on the minds of anyone who gets a glimpse. On the other hand, it’s too esoteric to reach anyone who wouldn’t have been going in the first place.

Some interesting photos of the famous Hiroshima Lovers silhouettes painted next to advertisements for The Veidt Method and more scrawling of the enigmatic rhetorical question of watching Watchmen have also surfaced in Toronto, that’s most likely related to the underground publicity stunt/geektastic orgasm of spray-painted excitement seen across NYC.

Hat tip to our friends at /Film who compiled the pics from flick users: davesbu, kellan, andrewdkeller and twitpic users bonerjamz and HermitHomeboy.

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What do you think? Is marketing like this actually hitting an audience? Is that audience targeting going to translate into box office receipts?