Ok, here’s something quite amazing. Take a look at it, and make it a benchmark for whatever you’re trying to accomplish.
(Via BoingBoing).
Archive for the ‘Awesome’ Category
Benchmark
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009New Poster And Images For Where the Wild Things Are
Friday, April 17th, 2009We here at Zombie Room are totally in love with Spike Jonzes new film Where the Wild Things Are. We are keeping a close eye on this one and we will be posting news etc. as they appear. Here is the amazing looking new poster and some images.
Mr. and Mrs. Zombie wishes everyone a great weekend!
- Essi
Worst Case Scenario is dead, all hail Army of Frankenstein!
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009I’ve been following the downfall of Worst Case Scenario, a Nazi zombie film, for quite a long time, and when Twitch told few weeks ago that the film is dead, I felt bad. They had released two of the most promising teasers for the film, and things had been rolling quite well – the project is widely known around the world, and a lot of freaks have been waiting for it. But now it’s dead, and not to be re-animated anytime soon.
The good news, though, is that the director has dragged some of the ideas from the film, re-wrote the story and is now working on a new film with a great title: Army of Frankenstein.
Here’s what the director Richard Raaphors says about the production:
“The market for zombie movies is saturated and no distributor is buying them anymore: chances for financing WCS became very small. Also there are two other nazi-zombie flicks out there and as a result of that ours would look like a rip-off… When it became clear last year that WCS was as good as dead I came up with the idea of a WSC-prequel with a really low-budget of half a million Euro. That project almost came to fruition, but I can’t use the name Worst Case Scenario due to some rights-issues. The only way to get it on track was a different story and new title: Army of Frankenstein. This is still a working title but I think it covers the story nicely. The visual style will be the same as I will direct AoF! WCS can stay what is is, two kick-ass trailers and a great and promising story that never saw the light of day. Mabye someday we’ll dig it up, but than the Army of Frank[en]stein will be roaming the Earth! This time we don’t want to rush things, we’re talking with a producer and are still writing the script with Miguel Tejada Flores.”
I certainly hope he’s wrong about the impossibility to fund another Zombie film – reading Times article “Zombies Are the New Vampires” makes me think otherwise – but other than that, Army of Frankenstein sounds just absolutely awesome! Let’s hope they get it rolling this time, working on an internationally interesting film as a first-time feature film director is a hard job, I should know that…
Zombie Room adds this as nr. 1 in the list of most interesting Zombie films in production, and shall keep following the production as closely as possible.
Here’s the first concept art of the film (click to view it bigger):
Oh, and don’t forget to check out the two teasers of the now-abandoned Worst Case Scenario production, out of where Army of Frankenstein has been spawned from.
(Via Twitch/Bloody Disgusting)
What’s going on with David Lynch?
Friday, April 10th, 2009
It’s hard to talk about David Lynch without sounding like a complete fresh-out-of-filmschool-douchebag about to end up in development hell with your completely ununderstandable 3-hour feature nobody wants to see – not to mention, to fund, but then again, that’s me deep down.
What I love about Lynch’s films is the one thing that annoys and drives away most of the audience: the focus on the atmosphere instead of the story. His work tells me that film can be so much more than just a series of pictures that tell a story of a character or two. It can be a painting where you have to guess parts of the story, maybe stop for a while to just admire some brushstrokes and beautiful details and suddenly find yourself decoding the entirety all over again.
Let’s take a quick look at what Lynch is doing right now. I’m referring to Wikipedia and IMDB mostly (since most of the Lynch websites are quite as informative as his films are easy to follow..), so please excuse me in advance if some of the information is either outdated or wrong.
Lynch’s latest feature film was INLAND EMPIRE (2006), and after that he has completed a deleted scenes/extended storyline of INLAND into a 73-minute film More Things Happened (2007). He has also contributed a segment into a French film called Chacun son cinéma ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s’éteing te que le film commence, a “collection of 33 shorts directed by different dierctors about their feeling about cinema”, and did a short film called Boat, about – well, David Lynch on a boat.
Lately, mr. Lynch has also contributed a lot of effort into production of films not by himself. Surveillance (2008) is a film by his daughter Jennifer Lynch, a thriller of sorts, and right now he’s working with Werner Herzog‘s horror drama My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (with Willem Dafoe, Udo Kier & Grace Zabriskie in the cast). The film is going to be released next year, and tells a story of a man who starts to experience mysterious things, and ends up killing his mother. Another production on IMDB’s list related to Lynch is called King Shot, a film by Alexandre Jodorowsky with Nick Nolte, Udo Kier and Marilyn Manson (!) on the cast. Lynch has just recently also filmed three commercials for Gucci, and is said to be working on a road documentary too.
Lately Lynch’s main interest has been – at least that’s where he’s been most active about in the public – is a form of meditative thinking called the transcendental meditation, of which he seems to be quite deep in with. He’s been travelling around the world having seminars about the meditation, which he believes can bring the peace to the world. He actually visited here in Finland as well, but frankly, I’m not interested in meditation so I felt that no matter how big a fan I am, I wouldn’t want to take the place of somebody really interested on his current topic and stayed home, watching INLAND EMPIRE instead.
So, the man is still going strong. We just don’t know what exactly is his next, real, feature film going to be. And most certainly, there’s no way trying to guess it – just remember Straight Story. It can be anything.
Tomorrow, a follow-up article Top 5 Lynch Films here on ZR. Stay 2ned.
The Zombies would like to wish you all a great Easter. The Lynch Rabbits are having one, too.
- Timo.
Where The Wild Things Are
Friday, March 27th, 2009
Spike Jonze‘s Where The Wild Things Are, a feature film about a boy and a group of strange monsters based on one of the world’s most succesful children book, seems to be shaping up pretty nicely, and the trailer that has just been released – and it looks just absolutely fantastic! I had completely forgotten the whole book on which this one is based upon, a book by Maurice Sednak, with the same name (in Finnish, something horrific like “Hassut hurjat hirviöt“…), but after seeing the first images of this awesome film, I was completely blown away and the rush of nostalgia almost knocked me out.
I’m predicting Where The Wild Things Are to be a remarkable masterpiece, around the same level as Big Fish.
- Timo
Thank you, lord Jonze, for filming us.
Feature film ‘Blank’ released for free distribution!
Sunday, March 22nd, 2009
I think it was Star Wreck that just happened to be the first feature film ever released for free on the Internet. After that, we’ve seen such masterpieces as We Are The Strange and Four-Eyed Monsters being released on the Internet, and now it’s time for a new film to emerge for free, torrent-based distribution: Blank.
I’m quoting TorrentFreak‘s blogger enigmax, under CC-By-Sa -license:
Times are certainly changing and slowly but surely people are beginning to realize that rather than trying to fight piracy and destroy file-sharing networks, the best approach is to embrace your one-time rivals and try and create something positive.
Established in 2000 by director Rick L. Winters, Annodam Productions is an independent film company. A forward looking outfit, Annodam will premiere its latest movie Blank, worldwide today.
Blank is the story of a Johnny, a young boy who witnesses the violent death of his parents and older sister. Roll on some 20 years later and Johnny becomes involved in crime with his adoptive father – who is also a crime boss. While watching a game of poker Johnny discovers who murdered his family and sets about planning his revenge. Johnny unwittingly becomes involved with a pair of serial killers and the whole movie climaxes with a bizarre and shocking end.
While the plot may seems standard Hollywood fare, the way this movie has been financed and is set to be distributed is not – Director Rick L.Winters explains, “The thing that makes this film unique is that it is a co-op based concept where the entire cast and crew worked on a deferred percentage of the film’s gross. In other words, the cast and crew own a percentage of the film’s gross, so the profits are not going to Hollywood executives but instead into the pockets of the filmmakers themselves.”
After receiving several distribution offers for Blank, Rick turned them all down.
“I have seen firsthand the greed that lurks in the Hollywood corporate circles,” he said while explaining that after he released his first film, the cast and crew couldn’t understand why a distribution company was making all the money. So instead, Rick decided to let the audience distribute Blank for him – via BitTorrent.
“This time around the fate of the cast and crew getting paid is in the hands of the audience who watch the film. No Hollywood bank accounts being filled to turn out more crappy remakes,” he said, while adding that the future of film is “in the home market, through peer to peer distribution.”
Today, Blank is released on DVD for $14.99, via online streaming and of course, for free on BitTorrent. “No one should have to pay for a film they did not like,” says Rick. “No one should be denied the right to enjoy the art of film.”
The idea is that if people like the movie after they have seen it, they should go to the Blank website and make a donation. People are asked to donate what they feel the movie is worth, and in return will be invited to follow the production of the next movie, which they will have helped finance through their donation.
Rick told TorrentFreak, “I am excited with the aspects of peer to peer distribution and the possibilities. Giving everyone the opportunity to see my film for free in hope of receiving donations is a little nerve wrecking – wondering if I will receive enough donations to make my next film. The concept is still scary for independent filmmakers who don’t have the big budgets like the big studios and most of the time drain their personal accounts and run up credit just to get their film made, in hopes of recouping the cost of making the film.”
Several large BitTorrent sites including Mininova will be offering Blank, but undoubtedly it will spread to many others too. Rick L. Winters is also writing a book which will document the whole process so that others can use the same methods to distribute their own movies.
“I can only hope for the success of this endeavor to show the world that the revolution of peer to peer distribution can no longer be ignored and the time is now,” Rick told TorrentFreak. “I decided to try the concept of a coop base film in hopes of encouraging other independent filmmakers to come together and create and share the art of film for EVERYONE to enjoy.”
Congratulations to Rick and the crew for effectively ending the piracy of their movies and we wish them the best of luck with ‘Blank’ and all future success.
You can grab the torrent for the movie from Mininova.
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This is also a nice lead into our next blogging spree, about to be released possibly during the next week on piracy and free distribution. I’m sad to say that the website of the Blank is quite unattractive and doesn’t really push you to put in the donation, but however the film will turn out (I’m downloading it now, a review is to follow inevitably), I will do my part in donations as well as hoping to get my hands on the DVD as well!
Also, the co-op -model in the production is definitively something independent filmmakers should look into.
All together, I’m happy and proud that these freaks are part of the movement leading us to the brighter future (can’t talk about free distribution without sounding an idealistic communist)! I sure hope the film is at least decent, and we’ll keep an eye on this one. Indeed, The Zombies Are Watching.
-Timo
Comics that should be filmed
Saturday, March 21st, 2009This weekend we’ve been talking about films based on comics and graphic novels that are either done or in production – now, let’s take few steps further, and think about some of the comics that *should* be filmed.
SANDMAN
Some say Zack Snyder succeeded in making an unwatchable film from an unfilmable comic, when he construed Alan Moore‘s Watchmen on silver screen. Without going deeper into Watchmen, which I still haven’t seen, one thing the film proves: the time of the Sandman film(s) is coming nigh. So far, nobody has dared to try to tackle the massive story and the celestial/infernal visions which are required to accompany it, and I’m praying they won’t just toss it to some americanized CGI-megalomaniac, but would be able to find a director who would do something else than the most obvious with Sandman. (For some reason, I’m thinking of paper doll animations by Dave McKean in it…)
Guillermo del Toro is producing Neil Gaiman’s Sandman spinoff Death: The High Cost Of Living, so it’s quite possible that if this goes well (and they cast Sandman and Death with extreme care), the whole world of Sandman will unfold soon on the film. And if not, I’ll do it, dammit!
Enki Bilal tried to adapt his most famous graphic novel trilogy, the Nikopol-trilogy, into a feature film format (under the name Immortel (ad vitam)), but failed to catch the atmosphere of the original stories, as well as failed with a lot of VFX-decisions. The film ended up in being an unintelligible mess that wasn’t sure of what it was – an animation, a computer game or an actor-driven drama.
As there hasn’t been a satisfactory adaptation of the Nikopol-trilogy, I’d loved to see somebody to really dig into the wonderful, visual world and atmosphere of Enki Bilal’s dry and overly-serious, but still comedic (by Stanislaw Lemian terms) work – somebody who knows how to pull things together on the big screen.
BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM – A SERIOUS HOUSE ON SERIOUS EARTH
Arkham Asylum is one of the best-selling graphic novels of all time, but for some reason it hasn’t yet been made into a feature film. This is good – at least for now – because I’d like to wait a little bit to let the action- and CGI-packed steams of Dark Knight cool down a bit, because Arkham Asylum would be a completely different type of a Batman film.
The story starts out when Joker takes Arkham Asylum, the madhouse where they’ve locked Batman’s worst enemies to, over and demands Batman to come over to have a chat with him, otherwise he’ll start killing the staff. The story is much more haunting and grittier than the Batman-films lately, and would propably be a big let-down for most of the fans of the latest installations in Batman saga.
(Arkham Asylum has already been made into a Spanish short film, as well as into a computer game, so the feature film is definitively to follow…)
LOBO
Remember Lobo? He’s the world’s biggest badass, the guy who beat up Santa and the Easter Bunny, died and went to Hell, made such a mess in there that Satan sent him to Heaven where he organized the biggest metal concert ever, and was eventually thrown out back to life, never to return again. Lobo The Movie would be a parade of metal, gore, blasphemy and blood like never before. Soundtrack by Pantera and Vincent Cassel to play Lobo – a definitive hit!
(There has been a film adaptation of Lobo, though a short one, for AFI’s director’s studies program, called Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special)
EDIT: Lobo’s Paramilitary Christmas Special can be actually viewed on YouTube, so just follow this link! (Thanks, OlliS)
MAUS
We’ve lately been force-fed by Hollywood nazi flicks quite extensively, and I think that the subject would deserve a bit of a fresh angle to it. One like this would be an animated film adaptation of Maus, a story of mice and cats – jews and nazis – in wartime Nazi Germany and concentration camps. It’s one of the strongest stories about Nazi germany I’ve come across, based on the writer/artist Art Spiegelman‘s father’s memoirs. Yes, I’m talking about Ratatouille with Nazis – Maus would really open the adult animation floodgates, the ones Vals Im Bashir and Persepolis have been prying open already.
ELÄKELÄINEN MUISTELEE
Eläkeläinen Muistelee is a Finnish comic by Kalervo Palsa, written back in the 80′s. The story is, in short, “Josef Fritzl gone bad” – a story of an old geezer sitting down at the park and starting to ramble on about the life he has lived. Filled with stories of poisoning to death (and while they were dying, also raping) your own family, necrophilia, homosexual orgies with five police officers at the graveyard, Eläkeläinen muistelee is propapbly the REAL ”most unfilmable graphic novel” out there. Not because of the story, but because nobody would ever fund a dime of it.
-Timo
The Green Hornet vs. Green Lantern
Friday, March 20th, 2009
The year 2010 is looking quite interesting on the movie front. There are two movies that have literally gotten the green light: The Green Hornet and Green Lantern. I wanted to investigate this a little bit, so I gathered information for you about both of these up coming movies. And of course since this is Zombie Room… You have to fight! Now, let´s go over the rules.
#1 – The first rule of Zombie Room is, you do not talk about Zombie Room.
#2 – The second rule of Zombie Room is, you DO NOT talk about Zombie Room.
#3 – If someone says stop, goes limp, taps out, the fight is over.
#4 – Two guys to a fight.
#5 – One fight at a time.
#6 – No shirts, no shoes.
#7 – Fights will go on as long as they have to.
#8 – If this is your first night at Zombie Room, you have to fight.
ARE YOU READY? GO!
ACTORS
Let´s start with the main cast. This section is a bit tricky, because the role of Green Lantern has not yet been confirmed, so I will have to bet my money on Ryan Gosling who has been considered for the part. Seth Rogen on the other hand, has been confirmed to play The Green Hornet.
Seth Rogen wins this round, but only just by a little. Ryan Gosling would be an excellent choice for Green Lantern, but since it is still under discussion, and since Seth Rogen as The Green Hornet is the best thing I have heard in a while, round one goes to Rogen! Also he is one part of the writing team, which makes me want to give him an extra half a point. And I will! So it´s Green Hornet 1,5 – Green Lantern 0.
DIRECTORS
According to imdb.com it seem that Martin Campbell is now officially signed on to direct the Green Lantern. That means that Green Lantern will definitely have totally classy, but mind blowing action, with an euro angle. Also Michel Gondry has signed the deal to direct The Green Hornet. He is the mastermind behind movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind Rewind.
This one also goes to The Green Hornet. No matter how awesome Casino Royal was (and it was), the participation of Michel Gondry is almost too good to be true for a movie nerd like me. We can most likely expect a very visual and original take on the whole genre from him. So hands down this one goes to Gondry. Score is now Green Hornet 2,5 – Green Lantern 0.
CONTENT & SOURCE MATERIAL
How about the characters then. The Green Hornet is Britt Reid, a newspaper publisher by day who by night goes out in his masked “Green Hornet” identity to fight crime as a vigilante accompanied by his similarly masked Asian manservant Kato. Green Lantern is Hal Jordan, an ordinary man who was given the power ring and battery (lantern) by a dying alien named Abin Sur. The great thing is that neither of these so called heroes poses any real superpowers.
I just have to give this to Green Hornet again. One reason is that I love the TV-show, another reason is that I think Kato kicks ass! Also I think that the Green Lanterns lantern is actually pretty lame. Score: Green Hornet 3,5 – Green Lantern 0. This is not looking good for Green Lantern, but there is still one category left.
INTERNETS AND MARKETING
There are usually a few basic things I would battle out in this category, which are Facebook fans, posters, trailers etc. But in this case The Green Lantern seems to be so lost that there is no point in even going there. Only The Green Hornet had a teaser poster and a Facebook fan page, but that´s it. So maybe it was a bit too early for this fight to beging with. Fortunately we have the ultimate weapon, the infamous Googlefight.
Well there you have it, the winner is The Green Hornet by 4,5-0. Congratulations! Or as Like DJ Ruby Rhod would say: Supergreen!
As a little extra bonus, here is the teaser poster (or logo) for The Green Hornet.
I will be following these two project very closely and I will keep you up to date on their progress.
Ps. what about 2011, maybe we will be seeing a movie about Green arrow?
Top 15 Best Comic Book Movies
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009Since Watchmen is the hot topic right now, I started to think about comic book movies in general. And since my alter ego is a nerdy 12-year old boy I just had to list the best & the worst of comic book movies.
Enjoy!
I´m not totally sure if Watchmen deserves a place on this list, but I really wanted to give credit to the story. Since story-wise it is one of the best comic book films to date. But not only the story, there were a lot of other good things about it too (you can read my full review here). I also considered Crow to be the 15th, but after a long consideration I went with Watchmen. Besides, it is good to remember that Watchmen did bring something new and fresh to the genre. So good for them! It´s not everyday you see a big blue penis in a movie 
That rave scene where the blood starts gushing out from the ceiling is beyond awesome! When the movie came out that was one my favorite scenes for a long time. WIN! Also I really liked Stephen Dorff as the gloomy vampire Deacon Frost. Unfortunately Dorff hasn´t made anything good since, except Cecil B. DeMented (and of course I have high expectation from Public Enemies). The action-packed sequel by Guillermo del Toro wasn´t half bad either. So you could say this 14th place goes to them both. Oh man I want to see this film again!
Not all comic book movies (or comic books for that matter) are about super-heroes or the super-natural. Here is an example that you can also do a comic book movie about a normal loser guy who becomes a “hero” of a comic and therefore becomes famous. It´s a nice indie film, with the awesome Paul Giamatti in it.
Here is another example of the non-traditional comic book adaptation. Much like American Splendor, it offers a satiric point of view of the world and there´s nothing super about it. Nice little film by Terry Zwigoff starring a young Scarlett Johansson, Thora Birch, Steve Buscemi and the late Brad Renfro.
For me the first Hellboy was awesome. Hellboy must have been hard to cast, but they did an excellent choice with Ron Perlman. Guillermo del Toro once again rocked it out. His unique visual fantasy style came across even more in the sequel. So like with Blade the 11th place is also divided to Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
There is no question about it that when Bryan Singer refused to direct the third edition to the X-Men saga and left to direct Superman Returns the whole franchise died completely, but this first one really nailed it. A great super hero story with political undertones and an important message.
This movie is awesome with a capital A! Everything works in this movie for me. It is the perfect action super-hero movie. It is also very traditional, much like the comic book itself.
It might come as a surprise, but A History of Violence was originally written as a graphic novel. I think this move is one of David Cronenbergs best work. It has very disturbing and graphic violence (as the title suggests), but it is also a very calm and collected piece. A beautiful film with a great cast.
X2 is the perfect sequel. In the first movie you have to spend almost all your screen time introducing your characters, how they become what they are. But in the sequel all of that is already settled and you can focus on making your characters deeper and of course on more action!
Casting Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man completely made this film for me. It is one of the most brilliant casting choices in a long time. Jeff Bridges was pretty cool too. Can´t wait to see the sequel!
Before The Dark Knight Batman Returns was definitely my favorite Batman adaptation to date. I´ve probably seen this movie like 30 times when I was a kid. I still love the gothic vibes and Tim Burton´s fantasy approach on Gotham City. It is of course a little dated now, especially since the new Batman series, but Batman Returns brings back nice memories, and Michelle Pfeiffers Cat-woman was purrrfect!
Sam Mendes is one of my favorite directors right now. I though he really made justice to the original graphic novel and it is always refreshing to see something else than just super-hero comic book movies. Also the participation of Paul Newman was amazing.
Much like with X2 this movie focuses on more action and deepening your characters, but the way it is done is just perfect. For me this movie is a five star film. And it definitely represents the more traditional way of making a comic book films, and I mean that in a good way.
It has always been my dream to some day do my own Batman movie. For years now I have been waiting for the perfect one, and I got to say that The Dark Knight got pretty damn close. But I think there is still some undiscovered ground. Heath Ledgers Joker will live forever and will be hard to top in any movie in the near future.
The first place goes to Sin City. For me this was the perfect comic book movie. First of all Sin City is one of my favorite graphic novels to date, but even more than that it was the perfect adaptation in my opinion. It introduced a totally new and fresh approach to the genre and the massive amounts of eye candy were absolutely mind boggling. I love this film!
But there would not be sweet without the bitter, so I will be posting the Top 20 Worst Comic Book Movies shortly.
- Essi
FAQ About Time Travel
Monday, March 9th, 2009Three guys find a rift in the space-time continuum from the bathroom of the local pub, and end up bouncing around in the time. Sounds like something out of Dr. Who? Well, it’s not – the (awesomely named) film FAQ About Time Travel is going to hit the theaters soon-ish. Or then it’s already released, who knows. IMDB rating doesn’t promise too much (3.3/10, though based on just 5 votes…), but the idea is intriguing, and the trailer too.
