Aardman strikes again, because this looks like it just became my most anticipated animated film right now. Yes, above Pixar’s Brave, which I’ve been looking forward to for 5 years.
Hugh Grant, starring in his first animated role, is the luxuriantly bearded Pirate Captain – a boundlessly enthusiastic, if somewhat less-than-successful, terror of the High Seas. With a rag-tag crew at his side (Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey, and Ashley Jensen), and seemingly blind to the impossible odds stacked against him, the Captain has one dream: to beat his bitter rivals Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) to the much coveted Pirate Of The Year Award. It’s a quest that takes our heroes from the shores of exotic Blood Island to the foggy streets of Victorian London. Along the way they battle a diabolical queen (Imelda Staunton) and team up with a haplessly smitten young scientist (David Tennant), but never lose sight of what a pirate loves best: adventure!
Peter Jackson on the set of The Hobbit. Three months in, and we already have a ‘best photo of 2011’…
Spoiler Alert in the 2nd photo!
Wong Fu Productions and NigaHigaTV released their ‘medium’ film ‘Agents of Secret Stuff’ yesterday (35 mins!), and while there are a lot of scenes this could be done to, I figured this one was ripe for a caption contest. Either download the image and add your text, or just reblog/comment and write without editing the image.
Unfortunately I don’t have prizes— I’d send folks some Wong Fu gear if I had any, but bragging rights are good enough :D If you want the photoshop/PSD file to edit the text I’ve already put in, @reply me on twitter and I’ll figure out a way to hook you up!
Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon: The History of Rap
When Jimmy Fallon first started his late night show, I had a feeling that he might just end up being one of the greats. Like, beyond Conan. It sounds crazy, but I think I should just put that out there now so I can say ‘I told you so’ 20 years from now.
This is great on a lot of levels, and is clearly a television show doing a bit that’s meant to go viral online. It’s also troubling. It reminds me of the fact that a lot of North American pop culture is really arts and culture from black folk that got taken and given a lighter face to sell to the wannabe-gangsta kids from the suburbs in order to take it big. This is literally two white guys telling/owning the history of rap, with THE ROOTS playing backup.
As problematic as that is, it’s also part of what makes the clip funny. If it was Jaime Foxx and Will Smith, I might think it was cool but not surprising or particularly forward-able. So when all’s said and done, as long as we can recognize this as a well put-together promo for The Social Network (and a fan-freaking-tastic performance by Jimmy Fallon; performing right along with TImberlake is no small feat), we can all look back on this and laugh. But seriously it’s weird that The Roots are the background in this, even if their instrumentals were perfect.
I love this, and am always fascinated with the skill it takes to make a compelling ad in a single frame.
Remember, women notice the details first. Grazia Magazine. Fashion is in the little things.
Advertising Agency: McCann Erickson, Milan, Italy
Creative Directors: Marco Cremona, Milka Pogliani
Art Director: Erik Loi
Copywriters: Chiara Castiglioni, Francesca Pagliarini
Photographer: Zona 13
Published: March 2009
(via ads of the world)
Many writers called 2009 the greatest year in the history of animation, or the equivalent to 1939 in Hollywood history. One writer commented that animated movies have become more mature, while live-action movies have grown less mature.
So true.
Prince of Persia film trailer:
As fun as I’m sure this film will be, the use of british accents to mean ‘foreign’ in general always confuses me. Don’t worry, the super evil characters will have Persian accents for sure!
(500) Days of Summer
“Ikea”
I saw Transformers the day after it came out in IMAX - but I wouldn’t say that it was a film that I was anticipating in as much as I was more in it to be with some friends on the first day of Summer.
To be honest, there are only two films that I’m looking forward to this Summer that come to mind. The first, in more of a ‘curious to see how it’s done and hey the last movie was fun’ would be Harry Potter. The second, however, is one that truly intrigues and excites me in a way that no film has for a while. **500 Days of Summer**.
1. It’s a Fox Searchlight picture. They really do have a reputation for the best live action films, and I can’t help but think of them as the live-action Pixar in terms of cinematic quality. Ironic how much I love them since I’ve spent most of my life growing up being vilified by Fox NEWS (I’m Muslim), but as John Lasseter says, “quality is the best business plan”
2. The cast. Joseph Gordon-Levitt + Zooey Deschanel? I shouldn’t really need to elaborate, just watch **Brick** and **The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy** if you need convincing.
3. Writing. It all seems pretty original and fun, and, overall innovative and just non-standard. I’ve grown up with older sisters. I could outline a typical rom-com for you in an hour. This is not a typical rom-com.
4. Style. This goes hand-in-hand with the writing, but the visual style fascinates me. How the sets and costumes all seem to just… match. It’s like they’ve created a whole world for the story to live in, just adding to the originality.
The clips in this post hopefully give an idea of what the film is like - the trailer is pretty great too, and TrailerAddict has 4 pages full of videos on this thing. The film comes out on July 17th, although Searchlight usually rolls out their films over the course of a few months.
“Expectations Vs. Reality”
Say what you will about Night at the Museum, Shawn Levy, whatever - but this 20 minute “day in the life” video from MakingOf.com is pretty fascinating to someone like me. I love seeing as much uninterrupted, fly-on-the-wall sort of on-set footage as possible - Peter Jackson’s ‘King Kong Production Diaries’ (now on DVD), Edgar Wright’s ‘Scott Pilgrim’ video blogs, Kevin Smith’s ‘Train Wreck’ behind-the-scenes videos from Clerks 2 - I really can’t ever get enough.
Enjoy.
