NEWS AND NEAT STUFF - December 26, 2014

Some of the best horror being made these days is on television, and one of my favorites of the bunch is Showtime's PENNY DREADFUL. It successfully mashes up classic monsters, gives it a dark fantasy sheen, and doesn't skimp on the Gothic imagery. Solid writing, great performances, and amazing production value, I am a happy little horror fiend knowing this show is a hit and will be staying around. Excitement builds for the season 2 premier this spring, but in the meantime, enjoy a teaser for terrors to come!



And if you have catching up to do, Showtime is running a PENNY DREADFUL marathon New Years Eve and New Years Day. Ring in 2015 with vampires, werewolves, mad doctors, re-animated corpses, possessed heroines, and monster hunters galore!






Will Idris Elba be the next Agent 007? I sure am hoping so. Not since the announcement of the Fantastic
Four reboot's Johnny Storm being cast with a black actor has controversy about the race of an actor kicked up so much dust. Studio exec Amy Pascal apparently suggested Elba to take over for Daniel Craig when his run is over, and I think it's a great idea. Bond is all about attitude in my book, and in actuality, as people who know me can attest, I've been dreaming of Elba taking over the role of James Bond for literally years. His layered character work in LUTHER, his being one of the only saving graces in PROMETHEUS as the semi-heroic ship captain, all the way back to his playing a despicable drug kingpin on THE WIRE. This guy has what it takes, the chops, the charisma, all of it. I am in 1,000% support of this idea. What are your thoughts readers?

Robert Orci isn't only not directing STAR TREK 3, now he's not writing it. And he doesn't seem super stoked about that idea. He was recently replace as director by Justin Lin, recent helmer and keeper of the FAST AND FURIOUS franchise. Now we're going to get another screenwriter in futzing around in the newly developing TREK universe, supposedly in order to bring a "Guardians Of The Galaxy feel to it". Um, why not just hire fucking James Gunn?

Orci has this to say:
About initial changes in the STAR TREK mythology -
"Stop blaming BR (Bad Robot). It was my idea so that you would not know what was gonna happen next. Nothing more or less. I stand behind it. And it, again, is the reason why I make movies and you don’t."
About it all coming together into the territory we are more familiar with -
"In [Into Darkness] they set out finally where the original series started. The first two films – especially the 2009 [Star Trek] – was an origin story. It was about them coming together. So they weren’t the characters they were in the original series. They were growing into them and that continues on in the second movie. So in this movie they are closer than they are to the original series characters that you have ever seen. They have set off on their five-year mission. So their adventure is going to be in deep space."

Will I be seeing STAR TREK 3? Of course I will, even if it did take 4 or more tries to get through INTO DARKNESS (sometimes too much is just too much as far as action set pieces go). if anything I'll hopefully enjoy the whiz bang-iness of it all. Am I happy Orci off the project as anything other than a producer? Not totally. I dug the first one quite a bit. I would have liked to have seen Orci helm this baby. but alas, it is not to be. I find this illogical.


The THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO! reboot nearing it's premier. I am a huge, and I mean HUGE fan of
Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation, his puppet driven sci-fi shows for kids. FIREBALL XL5, CAPTAIN SCARLETT, my personal favorite STINGRAY, and the list goes on and on. It looks like his most well known property has been given a facelift, and will feature live actors and CGI animation. I'm not sure how I feel about this yet, since no narrative footage has dropped, but you can the press release out below -

Fifty years after its television debut the iconic series is back in production featuring a talented cast led by Rosamund Pike (The World’s End, Gone Girl) as Lady Penelope and David Graham (Thunderbirds 1965) reprising his role as chauffeur and International Rescue agent Parker.

Debuting on ITV in 2015 this re-invention of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s much-loved series will be produced using an innovative mix of CGI animation and live-action miniature sets.

Unstoppable inventor Brains will be voiced by Kayvan Novak (Fonejacker, Facejacker) whilst Tracy brothers Gordon and John are both played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Love Actually, Game of Thrones). Rasmus Hardiker (Saxondale, Lead Balloon) has been cast as both the youngest and oldest Tracy brothers Alan and Scott. The fifth Tracy brother, Virgil, will be played by David Menkin. Tracy Island matriarch Grandma Tracy is voiced by Sandra Dickinson (Amazing World of Gumball, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and master villain The Hood played by Andres Williams (M.I. High, Foyle’s War).

Plus Thunderbirds Are Go! will feature new characters including Kayo, the Tracy brothers’ friend and fellow island resident, who will be played by Angel Coulby (Merlin, Dancing on the Edge) and Colonel Casey voiced by Adjoa Andoh (Invictus, Doctor Who).

WETA is doing the FX, but after the janky look of THE HOBBIT films, which were completely in-congruent in my opinion, this doesn't denote a technical victory. But I will be watching the second this baby drops, and my fingers are crossed. I want to like this, I really reallllly do!



Here's the BBC talking about two years ago, so this has been in the works a LONG time!

Living up to the NEAT STUFF in our title, check this out. Are you like me? Do you like to collect genre movie posters, but have found the collectors market incredibly inflated since the boom of "Horror Chic", where a red version poster for John Carpenter's THE FOG will run upwards of 50-100 bucks, when a couple years ago you could find them for around 10 dollars US? Well my friends, here is a site for you. It's called WRONG SIDE OF THE ART, and their scanned library includes thousands of amazing titles, with foreign versions galore. Even better? They are scanned at full size, so you can whip these puppies onto a thumb drive and hit your local print shop, and soon have them hanging on your wall! You'll also find lobby card sets, promo stills and other cool movie related material scanned. Now if they'd only carry pressbooks! Hit the site right HERE and start uncovering those treasures now!