Written PostNews Around the Net!

News Around the Net!

This trailer for SPECTRE is pretty great:

I am tremendously excited for the reintroduction of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and Blofeld to the Bond films — for the first time in four decades!! — and I really hope they don’t blow it.  This new trailer looks large-scale, and I am thrilled that this story looks to be combining threads from the first two Daniel Craig films, and the organization that was named as QUANTUM in the second film, with the mythology of SPECTRE.  Casting Christoph Waltz as Blofeld is genius.  The two things that worry me about the trailer is the re-appearance of the done-to-death idea of Bond going rogue from MI6, and all the hinting that Blofeld is somehow tied to Bond’s past.  I hate this oh-so-common trend in movies that the hero and the villain must be intimately connected.  The Joker didn’t shoot Bruce Wayne’s parents and I am not excited by the idea that Blofeld and Bond have some long shared history.  Well, I will hold my concern in check to see what the filmmakers have come up with.  Anyways, this trailer is slickly made and has me very excited to see this film.

(Click here for a wonderfully in-depth analysis of the SPECTRE trailer.)

The entire Back to the Future trilogy is being re-released back into theatres???  I am there!!  (Click here for my review of Back to the Future’s 25th anniversary screening on the big screen…)

As readers of this blog know I have been pretty disappointed by DC’s recent slate of direct-to-DVD animated films.  But I’m pleased that DC Animation mastermind Bruce Timm seems to be returning to the fold, and I am quite curious at the idea that he is overseeing an animated adaptation of Alan Moore & Brian Bolland’s violent and disturbing Batman: The Killing Joke.  How could that possibly work without having all of its controversial edges shaved completely off?  I dunno, but I’ll admit I am curious.  And the news that Mark Hamill will be playing the Joker has me delighted.  They’d damn well better be casting Kevin Conroy as Batman/Bruce Wayne!!

I can’t wait for Netflix’s Jessica Jones series!  Brian Michael Bendis’ Alias was brilliant.  I hope this adaptation lives up to the original.

I am impressed by the vibrant, colorful costumes seen in these peeks at Bryan Singer’s upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse film.  It’s fun to see these Marvel-movie colors in a Fox X-Men film, which has used mostly far more stripped-down, color-less looks.  I felt that X-Men: Days of Future Past was a great conclusion to Mr. Singer’s X-Men films (click here for my review) and I wish this new film was a total reboot, set in present day or in “the not too distant future” as the first X-Men film was.  But I must admit to being interested by these latest photos.  I mean, I can’t believe we’re actually going to see Jim Lee’s crazy Psylocke costume from the nineties on-screen in a movie!!

It doesn’t look like we’re ever going to see the rumored much-longer-cut of Avengers: Age of Ultron, which is a shame because I’d love to see that version.  That would be cool.  I just got the extended “Rogue Cut” of X-Men: Days of Future Past, and I’m intrigued to see what I think of that version of the film.

In preparation for the new Netflix series, check out this Oral History of the making of Wet Hot American Summer!

Speaking of Netflix: “It is our intent to have a new season of Arrested Development.”  Well, alrighty then!  Let’s make this happen!  (Like all of you, the long-awaited season four did not live up to my hopes and dreams.  Click here for my review.  But I still enjoyed it, and I’d love to see Mitch Hurwitz & co. take another whack at this.)

This is a great, in-depth interview by the AV Club with Alexander Siddig.  Mr. Siddig was great on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and he’s done some great work since then.  He was particularly terrific in Ridley Scott’s vastly underrated Kingdom of Heaven.  (Forget the butchered theatrical version, watch the Director’s Cut.)  I was bummed Mr. Siddig didn’t have more to do in season five of Game of Thrones.  (I am way late in posting my review of season five, but I will get that up soon!!)  I am also glad Mr. Siddig’s work in Syriana got a mention here.  That’s a great film.  And at last I understand why he was so abruptly written out of 24!!  That was a real let-down at the time.  Oh well…

I loved the twenty-minute short-film Prelude to Axanar.  Take a watch:

Click here for my detailed comments on Prelude to Axanar.

The fine folks behind that short film are working to raise money to produce a feature-length Axanar film.  They’re not calling this a Star Trek fan film, but rather the first independent Star Trek film.  There is an extraordinary array of talent involved with this project, both in front of and behind the camera.  They’ve filmed and released a scene from the planned Axanar film, featuring Gary Graham reprising his role from Star Trek: Enterprise as Vulcan Ambassador Soval.  Take a look, it’s great:

They are crowd-funding this project, and you can click here to support their indiegogo project.  I did.  I hope this Star Trek film is able to get made!

That’s all for now!  Have a great week, everyone!