Iron Man, Spider-Man and Hulk Computer Animated Crossover
Iron Man, Spider-Man and Hulk Computer Animated Crossover
The Pitch: Marvel released this as a three part webisode series to help promote comic books to kids. The resulting computer animated crossover is actually very cool.
reader Lukáš submitted this video. Brian from Film School Rejects showed me this video a while back, so he also deserves credit.
30 Days season three — An early look
When I first heard that Morgan Spurlock was doing a series for FX, I was thrilled. I really enjoyed Super Size Me and I thought FX was the perfect place for a guy like him to do a show.
For those of you who haven’t seen it. 30 Days uses the same basic premise of Super Size Me but takes it a giant step forward. Instead of adopting a bad habit for a month, like in the film, Spurlock and others actually live a completely different lifestyle. In past episodes, we saw people take human growth hormones, binge drink, work for minimum wage and much more all for thirty days straight.
As if that wasn’t interesting enough, Spurlock sometimes takes the experiment one step further by asking a devout Christian to live as a Muslim or have a homophobic straight guy live and work in the gay community in San Francisco. What you end up with isn’t some Jerry Springer-esque car wreck. It’s an insightful and revealing look at people and lifestyles that most of us know very little about. More importantly, every episode is presented in a convenient sixty minute package.
For season three, Spurlock has made sure to include the same interesting and captivating subjects as in the past. And just like before, he himself is the guinea pig for two of the six episodes.
In the first episode, Spurlock lives the life of a coal miner in West Virginia. At first glance, this seems like a simple sixty minute look into the lives of people who have interesting jobs that most of us would never do. However, Spurlock refuses to make his show that simple.
From the first scene, I started getting chills. Spurlock explains that he grew up in West Virginia and his father repaired the machines that were used in the mines. While he went off to film school, his family and friends stayed in the small town of Pineville and continued in the coal mining industry. Spurlock expertly uses this example to show that the coal mining industry affects the lives of everybody in some way.
Episode one has all the requisite elements. The family he stays with could not be a nicer couple. The man of the house will also be his boss at the mine. Not only has he been working there for over thirty years, he also has a lot to show for it. I was surprised by how much you can make being a coalminer, but as the show points out, it’s not just a dangerous job, it’s a difficult one, therefore the salary is commensurate. What this means is that most of the guys who work in the mining industry have a nice home, a wife who stays there and takes care of it and a house full of kids who all have health insurance and can look forward to a college education. That’s more than most Americans have, including me.
The episode features all the safety information you would expect. There’s plenty of talk about cave-ins, black lung and the like, but Spurlock also takes the time to show us the damage that coal mining does to the environment and the argument for why it should be stopped. As you can expect, he explores both sides of the issue and makes it clear that there is no easy answer.
If the first episode is any indicator as to the quality of the rest of season three, nobody should be disappointed. As always, Spurlock manages to put a very human face on the subject while staying completely neutral on the subject.
The remaining episodes in the season are entitled “30 Days in a Wheelchair,” “Animal Rights,” ” Same Sex Parenting,” “Gun Nation” and “Life on an Indian Reservation.”
Jake Gyllenhaal Up For Lead in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time? Orlando Bloom is Not.
“Keep deleting my comments about laser cats Slashfilm. Keep deleting ‘em.”
Can I just say that I could not stomach the marketing for another movie, let alone a trilogy’s worth, where Orlando Bloom massages a meticulously groomed goatee while having a sword fight? Gracias. Thankfully, Latino Review reports via numerous anonymous sources that an offer has gone out to Jake Gyllenhaal for the lead in Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer’s summer 2009 golden egg Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Their tip arrives as yesterday’s rumor that Bloom had signed a $40 million deal to star in the franchise was dismissed by Slashfilm’s brothers from another Film School Rejects.
The entire Bloom rumor seemed so out of whack that we held out reporting it, especially since it pegged Jerry Bruckheimer to direct instead of produce. Director Mike Newell (Donnie Brasco, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) has been attached for quite a while, and it seems nothing has changed.
Gyllenhaal’s peers all have franchises in the can or on the way, and while he’s not the obvious choice for the adventure video game adaptation (who remems playing it on Turbo Duo?), he definitely adds legitimacy like Depp did for POTC. Latino Review goes on to parlay Hollywood jogging encounters with Mr. Gyllenhaal and points out that he currently has a bum ankle from basketball. Point being: Can Jake’s lil’ ankle heal in time?!?! Hahah. More on this as it develops…
American Teen Poster Inspired by The Breakfast Club
Since it’s premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, movie critics have been comparing this year’s best film (so far) American Teen to John Hughes’ 80’s teen classic The Breakfast Club. Paramount Vantage has decided to run with this idea, and curb the marketing for the film (or at least the poster) around the idea of a modern day real life Breakfast Club. I’ve been more apt to compare it to Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but the Breakfast Club comparison works just as well because of the social class system of the characters followed.
My good friend Neil at Film School Rejects was able to get his hands on the poster art for the July 25th release. Click on the image below to enlarge.
