#March2012
‘JURASSIC PARK’ Set For 3D Re-Release Next Year. OH JOY.
Steven Spielberg may lament changing E.T., but it appears he isn’t beyond throwing together some shitty 3D for a re-release of Jurassic Park. Hey, you win some, you lose some.
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Spielberg Says ‘Robopocalypse’ Set In Future, Has Totally Unoriginal Plot.
Spielberg and robots. How can I hate? I can’t. So despite the fact that Spielberg’s next movie is centered around a twenty-times refried beans of a plot, I’m stoked.
Hit the jump for details.
THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN Is the Spielberg Movie You’ve Been Waiting For
Spielberg, where you been, man? The last time you thrilled me out of my seat was with Minority Report way back in 2002. Since then you’ve made some great flicks, but that Crystal Skull trick you tried to pull for your last movie was garbage. You’re back in one big way with a whirlwind of a movie: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. You’ve brought some friends with you too: Peter Jackson as producer and Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, and Joe Cornish as writers. I wasn’t scared off by WETA’s motion-capture animation either, which is usually terrifying and gives humans cold, soulless eyes. Tintin is a balls-out action adventure mystery thrill ride form beginning to end. Take your War Horse and shove it, Tintin’s running this show.
Steven Spielberg Thinks ‘Indy IV’ Sucked Too. Blames Lucas.
Indy IV was a giant crap-covered piece of cinematic toast, and it seems that Steven Spielberg was well aware of that. Spielberg was shooting the shit with Empire while promoting Tintin when he owned up to the suckitude and did what most of us geeks do these days: blame our sadness and failure on George Lucas.
Abrams’ Speilbergsploitation Falls Short
Super 8, the latest effort from J.J. Abrams’ mystery box, is a blend of alien invasion, coming of age, and learning to let go films wrapped up in a glossy, nostalgic shell. The problem is, it never comes close to pulling off any of these narrative instruments completely. It never settles on what it wants to be and muddles through a lot of the narrative to shift to the next set piece. The alien invasion aspect is never given any high stakes that feel real. The coming of age bits are ham fisted. And the letting go element comes up empty with no real emotional depth to it. But, just like Star Trek, Super 8 looks damn good.
Spielberg Says ‘Jaws’ Is Coming To Blu-ray With NO Digital Changes. Dude Rules.
Steven Spielberg is indubitably the man. If you want to form a hierarchy of The Man, I don’t care where you place him. As long as he’s on it. Most recent proof: Spielberg is prepping to release Jaws on Blu-Ray, and has come out and said he’s not going to make any changes. Also? He regrets fucking with E.T.
Good man.
WEEKEND OPEN BAR: Lucas Dies in `81
[WEEKEND OPEN BAR: The one-stop ramble-about-anything weekend post at OL. Comment on the topic at hand. Tell us how drunk you are. Describe a comic you bought. This is your chance to bring the party.]
It’s become the stuff of legend – as Star Wars neared the end of production, the pressure began to take its toll on George Lucas. The director found himself working round the clock and constantly worrying about the budget, doing everything in his power to finish the film he’d been imagining for years. Under this incredible strain, Lucas even believed that he suffered a heart attack.
The doctor assured George that he hadn’t had a proper attack, but was suffering from supreme exhaustion and hypertension. And so the film was finished.
The rest, as they say, is history.
But in this tale, it turns out that the ailments weren’t confined to fatigue and irregular blood pressure. George Lucas, despite being told otherwise, had in fact survived a heart attack. The motivation for the misdiagnosis? With so much on the line, both in terms of money and reputation, Twentieth Century Fox had greased the palm of Lucas’ physician, thereby ensuring that their product would be delivered.
Star Wars, of course, was a goddamn commercial and critical juggernaut. Lucas immediately began work on the sequel, and in 1980 The Empire Strikes Back was met with even more admiration. Personally and professionally, the USC alum was on top of the world.
But when it came time to finish the trilogy, George’s heart just couldn’t take it.
The bickering with Marcia climbed to new, more incendiary summits. George knew his wife was talented – hell, the whole world knew – but he couldn’t shake the feeling that his gut instincts were always the ones worth following. Love and work and sex made for a dangerous cocktail, and his home life was far from happy. In fact, it was pretty fucking terrible.
He and Stevie had barely finished their pet project when it was time to return to his space-epic. George was at a loss – he had some real, inspired ideas as to how the trilogy should conclude – like the serials of his childhood and the Spaghetti Westerns of his adolescence, this new movie should end on a somber, open-ended note. Perhaps the battle is won, but a new war looms on the horizon.
But he also knew what the studio executives were expecting. Cutesy. Cuddly. Lunchboxes and action figures. He was willing to bend, allowing for merchandise to made and marketed. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that they were trying to break him. They had come dangerously close to ruining him back in `78.
So on an October evening in 1981, when George Lucas felt those same chest pains he had experienced on the set of Star Wars, he put aside his notes and tried to relax, take his mind off the troubles at hand. He sat back in his recliner, rubbed his temples, closed his eyes, and tried to escape his woes.
George Lucas died at the age of 37.
FRESH, Check Out The New ‘Super 8’ Poster.
Yeah son, yeah! Did you check out the Super 8 trailer? Did it make you feel like you were staring at Ronald Reagan on television as President, and worshipping at the feet of Hulk Hogan before he was a bloated orange hot dog ready to burst?
Then hit the jump and check out the poster for it that has dropped.
They’re Watching Vintage Gremlins Featurettes. And They Love It.
I know what you’re thinking. “Patrick, you’re posts are SO relevant. If it’s not Nicolas Cage minutiae then it’s about movies no one wants to watch.” Honestly, I agree. I still don’t know why the Brothers Omega let me write for them. BUT if you don’t love Gremlins you’re an idiot and I will fight you. I just rewatched it yesterday – along with Gremlins 2 – then followed it up with cruising the web for cool Gremlins shit. That’s right, it’s called being productive, you malmsey-nosed devil-mon!
My Gremlins VHS is seriously lacking in special features so I checked YouTube for juicy making of videos and found some great stuff. I wish the video after the jump went into more of the technical aspects of making the Gremlins be all mischievous (aka puppetry), but I’ll settle for director Joe Dante being a huge fucking nerd. Dante is the legendary director of The ‘burbs, several Eerie Indiana episodes, and The Howling. He’s basically the king of horror-comedy. Nowadays he wears suits and contact lenses, but back in the day he looked like me but with a better head of hair. Steven Spielberg also makes an appearance, looking well put together like he always has. The second BTS feature for G2 is sort of goofy, but fun nonetheless.
Hit thee jump and enjoy and thank me later!
