"Within Temptation" Covers "Skyfall" with Metal Flavorings

My kids played this cover of Skyfall from Dutch symphonic metal rockers, Within Temptation, for me last night.

Oblivion Movie Trailers 2 & 3, Tom Cruise & Morgan Freeman Sci-Fi Flick

Trailers 2 and 3 have been released for Oblivion, directed by Joseph Kosinksi (TRON: Legacy), starring Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, and Olga Kurylenko. Oblivion will be in theaters April 19.

Cruise stars as Jack Harper, a combat drone repairman, patrolling the skies thousands of feet above an Earth devastated sixty years before in a war with aliens known as the Scavs. He spies a downed spacecraft and descends to the surface to investigate. He finds a survivor in an escape pod, a woman (Olga Kurylenko) of mysterious origins. He is taken captive by a band of humans living in the ruins, who are led by Morgan Freeman's character, Malcolm Beech. He is then forced to confront everything the truth about Earth's recent history and the war with the Scavs.

We've embedded trailer 3 below, you can see trailer 2 here.

"Oblivion" Sci-Fi Movie Trailer

Oblivion Movie Poster

Oblivion is an upcoming sci-fi film based on the as-yet unreleased Joseph Kosinski and Arvid Nelson graphic novel of the same title, (illustrated by Swedish digital artist Andree Wallin). It stars Tom Cruise, Olga Kurylenko, and Morgan Freeman. The general release date is currently set for April 19, 2013. A limited IMAX release is scheduled one week earlier.

The first trailer and the movie poster were released this month. We've embedded the trailer video below.

The story is set centuries from now after the Earth has been devastated by a decades-long war with some dire threat called "the Scavs." For safety, the surviving humans live in orbit and in floating installations thousands of feet above ground. Tom Cruise stars as drone repairman Jack Harper, who descends to rescue a woman from a spaceship that's crash-landed on the surface. Her arrival kicks off the action that overturns everything that Harper thinks he knows about the war and its aftermath.

A gallery of concept art, Wallin's drawings from the graphic novel, and publicity stills is available here at www.oblivionmovie2013.com. I do not know if that site is officially affiliated with Universal Studios or not (I don't think it is)... the official studio site is here. Nonetheless, it's got a lot of material and a movie news blog, so check it out, too.

"Ender's Game" Coming to the Big Screen

Harrison Ford & Asa Butterfield, Entertainment Weekly

I just saw this Entertainment Weekly publicity still from the film adaptation of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game at ScienceFiction.com. The film stars Asa Butterfield as Ender, Harrison Ford as Col. Hyrum Graff, and Sir Ben Kingsley as Mazer Rackham.

Entertainment Weekly has previously reported that the film's release date has been pushed from March 15, 2013 to November 1, 2013.

Entertainment Weekly has posted a gallery of the cast members.


      

Blade Runner Sequel Site

Sean Young as Rachel

I found this site, Blade Runner 2, dedicated to news about the upcoming Blade Runner sequel. It is an independent site, not affiliated with Ridley Scott or the production company.  Pretty, cool, check it out.

Looper, the Movie

Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Bruce Willis in Looper

I posted about the coming sci-fi flick Looper when the first teaser-trailer was released back in April. It opened last Friday, so I went to see it over the weekend and really liked it. The basic plot concept is that a man is sent back thirty years to the past in order to be executed by his younger self (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), but that goes awry when he recognizes his future self (played by Bruce Willis) and hesitates before pulling the trigger... his future self makes a run for it then, and havoc subsequently ensues.

The use of time travel in film and television plots usually rubs me the wrong way because I feel it tends to be a gimmick or deus ex machina sort-of copout that papers over the screenplay writer's lack of imagination. It seems that you inevitably end up with a plot that makes no sense. But in the case of Looper, writer-director Rian Johnson handled the time travel aspects beautifully. Indeed, they are central to the plot's premise.

If you are a sci-fi fan, definitely go see it. However, be forewarned that it is pretty violent, has some female nudity, and some truly horrifying moments.

I thought Gordon-Levitt was excellent in the lead role... I think this is really his movie, not Bruce Willis's. Watching the play of expressions over Gordon-Levitt's face, and his mannerisms, I got the impression that he went into the archives of the Eighties hit TV show, Moonlighting, to study the young Bruce Willis.

And by the way, if you are a film noir fan and have never seen the 2006 Rian Johnson film, Brick, definitely do rectify that. It's a very classic kind of noir story set in a SoCal high school, and also starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a type of teen-aged Philip Marlowe trying to solve the mystery of his former girlfriend's murder.


   

William Gibson's Neuromancer Headed for the Big Screen

Neuromancer Concept Art from BlueSunCorp Website

Popular sci-fi website io9 is reporting that William Gibson's cyberpunk classic, Neuromancer, is indeed headed for the big screen after many fits and false starts over the years. They link to the GFM Films Neuromancer page with concept art and some minimal information about the production and direction personnel, and a synopsis.

Liam Neeson and Mark Wahlberg have reportedly been offered lead roles in the movie. The budget is claimed to be $60M.

There is a further link to a recent io9 interview with William Gibson in which he discusses the novel and the film.

I haven't yet found any info concerning a timeline for the film's release, thought it still seems to be early days in the production cycle.

I also found a page of cool Neuromancer concept art at the website of BlueSunCorp, though I have no idea if they have any connection to the film or not.

Tony Scott, RIP

Very sad news this morning: Famed producer-director Tony Scott, brother of Ridley Scott, leapt to his death from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in LA County yesterday. He reportedly left a note behind in his car, which he apparently drove to the site, though at this time no motive has been reported.

Tony Scott produced many action films, such as Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Beverly Hills Cop II, and the Denzel Washington/ Chris Pine film, Unstoppable. He was also credited as a producer of his brother's latest film, Prometheus. He reportedly was most recently working on a Top Gun sequel with Tom Cruise.

May he rest in peace.

Cafe Racers Japan Documentary Fundraiser of Indiegogo

I stumbled into the website for the Cafe Racers Japan film project while looking around for bratstyle bikes this evening. The director, Christopher Andrew Cooke, describes Cafe Racers Japan as "a documentary exploring the day in the life of Tokyo's cafe racers scene," in which the city itself is an integral part of the story.  He's currently raising funds at Indiegogo, with a goal of $5,000. As of this writing, $850 has been committed.

Check out the trailer below.

"It's Better in the Wind" Cafe Racer Photo-Essay Book

Cafe Racer in the Wind

We just saw this cafe racer photo-essay book for sale at the Dime City Cycles website, It's Better in the Wind by Scott Toepfer. From the excerpted pictures we've seen, it looks to be shot all in black and white film, the old-fashioned way... not digital.

In this book, photographer Scott Toepfer has documented a classic American road trip. See some of our great country's finest spaces from the saddle of a cafe racer.

He also created a short film, which you can read more about here at his website.

Men in Black 3, New Trailer

The latest MIB3 trailer is out.

Standing in the Shadows of Motown

They called themselves The Funk Brothers... a band of Detroit jazz and blues men, first recruited by producer Berry Gordy in 1959, to play backup for Motown Records recording sessions. Playing in the shadows behind the greats... Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Night and The Pips... It's claimed that they played on more number one hits than Elvis, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Beach Boys combined.

As far as the general public is concerned, these great musicians were pretty much unknown and unheard-of until they were celebrated in this documentary of 2003, Standing in the Shadows of Motown. A couple of old friends of ours, both amateur musicians, were inspired by Grammy Award winning composer and producer Alan "Dr. Licks" Slutsky's book of that same title, which focused largely on the story of the great bass player, James Jamerson. So, they formed a production company and teamed up with Slutsky and film producer Paul Justman to produce this documentary.

An all-star cast of musicians and vocalists was recruited to film and record covers of more than a dozen great Motown hits... to name a few: Bootsy Collins doing "Do You Love Me", Ben Harper for "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", Joan Osborne for "Heat Wave" and my favorite on the playlist, "What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted." Chaka Khan won a Grammy in 2003 for her cover here of "What's Goin' On," and the documentary's soundtrack won a Grammy that year for Best Compilation Soundtrack. And playing behind them all are many of the surviving Funk Brothers... coming out from the shadows and into the limelight... In 2004, The Funk Brothers were awarded a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

We are proud of this wonderful labor of  love that our old friends had the vision for, and worked hard to make happen. Whether or not you are old enough to have heard them back in the day, check 'em out... the DVD and the soundtrack are still available, as is the Alan Slutsky book that inspired this work of art and love.


         

Looper Teaser Trailer

Looper Movie Poster

You know the old brainteaser paradox about time travel... What happens if you travel back in time and kill your father or mother before you were born? Or, even weirder, what if you met and killed your younger self?

Looper, a new Bruce Willis & Joseph Gordon-Levitt sci-fi flick, spins it another way... In the year 2042, a gangland killer (Gordon-Levitt) recognizes one of his targets (Willis) as his future self sent back from thirty years in the future. When he hesitates to pull the trigger, his future self gets away...

The first teaser trailer was released yesterday, the second today... the full trailer will be released at Apple movie previews site this Wednesday.

Looper is coming to a theater near you this September.

Meanwhile, we loved Inception, and thought Gordon-Levitt was excellent in that. And the Hans Zimmer soundtrack made it twice the movie it would otherwise have been.

   

New Prometheus Trailer from Ridley Scott

Ridley Scott opens the Prometheus kimono a great deal more in the newest trailer... two-and-a-half minutes long! Actually gives us quite a bit of new information about the backstory. Scary!

Also check out our post of the Guy Pearce Peter Weyland "TED Talk" teaser trailer for Prometheus below. 

MIB & Gray Barker: Engineering an Urban Legend

Where did this whole notion of the "Men in Black" come from? Well, the answer to that question is, according to journalist John C. Sherwood, a fascinating story of deception and social engineering, or cultural engineering, perpetrated by a man named Gray Barker.

Gray Barker wrote about UFOs and paranormal phenomena in the Fifties and Sixties. In 1956 he published a book called They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers, which introduced the Men in Black into the folklore of UFOs. Somehow, this concept of shadowy, mysterious agents in black suits, white dress shirts, pork-pie hats, and skinny ties, tooling around the countryside in black Lincoln Continental convertibles (with those cool suicide doors!) to intimidate witnesses to UFOs and Mothmen sightings just caught fire with the public imagination.

A year or so after the first MIB movie hit the theaters, a prominent journalist by the name of John C. Sherwood wrote a piece for Skeptical Inquirer magazine confessing his own role in the wholesale invention of the Men in Black. He was only seventeen when he got involved with Gray Barker's myth-making exercise, writing under the pseudonym of Dr. Richard H. Pratt. Here's the link:

Gray Barker: My Friend the Myth Maker

Somewhere I read a related article, it may have been by Sherwood, also, in which the author describes how Barker hired actors to play the role of Men in Black and actually go intimidate (purported) witnesses to strange phenomena, such as UFO and the Mothman. He'd get them dressed up in the classic MIB apparel, put 'em in a black Lincoln, and send them off to hassle the witness, or witnesses. They'd roll into some little town in the boondocks where the witness lived, flash phony credentials, and drop dark hints and threats designed to scare the witness into clamming up. People would talk about it, of course, and so the rumors of the scary Men in Black from some cryptic Federal agency would be spread. If I can track that down, I will post it here.

Here's what I find really hilarious about the whole deal: Remember how Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones would scour the tabloids for stories of alien sightings in the MIB movies, then go pay a visit to the witness? Well, according to the guy that wrote that article I am trying to find, that was precisely Barker's modus operandi: He'd find his victims in tabloid stories.

In 2008, a documentary about Barker called Shades of Gray was released, and is available on Amazon.