Oh dear. Someone at Warner Brothers has obviously been taking lessons from George Lucas on how to really annoy geeks. They’re trying to beat their personal record for dreadful nerd-films by attempting a live action version of Akira. Set in “New Manhattan”. Starring Leonardo Di Caprio. I wish I was joking.
There is a sliver of hope to be taken from the fact that Otomo is being retained as an executive producer, but even he is unlikely to be able to salvage this total non-starter of a project. I predict that this film will redefine the boundaries of celluloid awfulness. I sincerely hope it bombs, because if by some miraculous fluke it succeeds we’ll have a decade or two of even more appalling copycats to endure.
1 comment 2008-02-21 13:34 Categories: Animation, Film, Geek Stuff, Rage
- Literary event of the year: Kittenwar: The Book. The launch party was brilliant fun, thanks to everyone who turned up.
- Best book about cats not written by me and Fraser: Cat Getting Out of a Bag by Jeffrey Brown. This is a smashing little book, endearing and beautifully observed. Chronicle are clearly the quality cat-book publisher.
- Best book not about cats and not written by me and Fraser: Oystercatchers, by my mate Sue, read it now.
- Album of the year: We Can Create by Maps. Lovely.
- Most overrated album of the year: Neon Bible by Arcade Fire. Am I the only person in the world who thinks this is a load of whiny rubbish? And I liked Funeral, too. Deeply disappointing.
- Best animated feature, and about time too: Futurama - Bender’s Big Score.
- Best computer I have owned to date: 15″ Apple MacBook Pro. Not quite perfect, and Leopard is a bit crashy still, but much nicer than using Windows on some shonky PC.
- Depressing non-event of the year: our house sale. The current state of this almost eight-month long transaction is so fragile that I’m wary of discussing it in public for fear of the remote possibility that our buyers might read what I think of them and take offence, so I’m going to leave it until the sale has fallen through entirely or (unlikely, this) completed before relating the full saga. It’s a cracking story though; the whole experience has led me to believe that English property law needs serious reform, perhaps involving the statutory deployment of stocks and public floggings as deterrent measures for recalcitrant parties.
- Scary number of the year: 30.
That’s about it, see you next year.
5 comments 2007-12-31 14:05 Categories: Animation, Books, Cats, Comics, Computers, Consumerism, Geek Stuff, Kittenwar &c., Music, Personal, Rage
It’s my birthday! I’m 30 years old. How did that happen? Time to abandon all ambitions of becoming a rock star, I suppose. It would seem that climbing Everest isn’t technically out of the question yet, though. And apparently I’m still a young adult, which is reassuring.
Upon investigation it turns out that 30 is actually a more interesting number than I thought, being the third primorial, a square pyramidal, “the largest number with the property that all smaller numbers relatively prime to it are prime“, the first sphenic number (I’d never even heard of that one), and the first Guiga number (I’m still too hungover from celebrating last night to even start to think about that sort of thing).
Also, no-one I know will get this but I’m posting it anyway because it’s ace: fantastic birthday drawing of Avatar characters as Futurama characters by my brilliant wife (the Deviant Art links might not work first time, that site still runs like it’s hosted on Commodore 64s full of mashed potato).
4 comments 2007-12-09 12:11 Categories: Animation, Geek Stuff, Personal, Science & Maths
Good news everyone: Futurama is back!
Well, sort of. It’s only back if you’re American, so yet again I have had to resort to (ahem) unofficial distribution channels in order to obtain a copy of a movie that doesn’t even have a UK release date yet. I hasten to add that once Fox remember that there are a load of Futurama fans beyond the borders of the United States, I will gladly, gleefully even, cough up for a legal copy: it’s really good.
(more…)
1 comment 2007-11-29 16:23 Categories: Animation, Computers, Geek Stuff, Rage
Some lovely animated music videos for your viewing pleasure:
0 comments 2007-09-24 22:15 Categories: Animation, Music
These Nickelodeon-commissioned shorts from Aardman Animations are marvellous. Some highlights:
Seagulls.
Balloon.
Magic (Nice Tommy Cooper reference).
Alien.
Above.
I love the way the two main characters are endlessly amused by everything that happens to them, no matter how dreadful. (Via Cartoon Brew.)
1 comment 2007-02-07 13:35 Categories: Animation