Bliss
Some good news for fantasy fans with word that Germany’s Krabat landed its first major sale at TIFF before it even had a single public screening. That sale was for Russia and word is that strong interest has been express in Spain, France, Italy, Japan, the USA, and a good number of Eastern European countries.
Imagi Studios has updated some new content to the Gatchaman section of their official site. To access the new content, go to the official site and select “Our Films”, then “Gatchaman”. What you’ll find is a dozen of screen shot images with some previously seen on Felix Ip’s blog site a month ago. The other cool item is the first actual footage of the animation. Its only a 10 second clip of the last shot in a trailer and while we don’t get even a glimpse of the superhero ninjas in action, the visual presented in the clip looks stunning. Keep in mind that the animation is a work in progress so its subject to change. Check it out at our Twitch Player after the jump.
According to the site, the theatrical release date is in 2010.
Continue Reading "Teaser Clip and Images for Imagi’s GATCHAMAN"...
A stop motion animated feature fusing childhood animation techniques with gouts of blood, absurd violence, copious jokes about Winnipeg, and 19th century science from the mind of Guy Maddin’s regular screen writing partner as directed by a key animator on uber-surreal television series What It’s Like Being Alone and Aaron Woodley’s Rhinoceros Eyes. Should be a recipe for instant gold in these parts, right? I mean, what could go wrong? Well, rather a lot, really, rendering Neil Burns’ Edison and Leo a significant misfire on a number of levels.
“Somewhere, in a country similar to ours There are children who do not become adults. They are very similar to us.” goes the tagline of Mamoru Oshii‘s latest film. One that carried the promise (during its production cycle) of a more linear form of story telling after the convoluted Ghost in the Shell: Innocence and the strange Tachigui. I am overjoyed to report that while the story is linear, it is anything but straightforward or simple, and not the least bit diluted or dumbed down in regards to his philosophical and social musings - basically the essence of what makes Oshii stand out from his generation of masters of the Japanese animated feature. Using a pastiche of elements of contemporary science fiction (From Ender’s Game to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep) mashed up with stirring World War II aerial dogfights and a his unique brand of austere and cold melodrama, The Sky Crawlers certainly will not be for everyone. The film is a feast for the senses, not only in the gargantuan fighter plane battles, which may be safe to say are the best ever committed to celluloid (and yes, that includes Hell’s Angels and the space climaxes of any of the best of the Star Wars pictures). This is true in ever single detail of the film (Production I.G. have outdone themselves!) even the small moments: The cigarette smoke swirls, a Vespa engine hums as it idles, the airplane hangars and living quarters are textured, lived in, and the apple pie and coffee diners are gorgeously rendered down to the most minute detail. And the sound design (courtesy of Skywalker Sound) is among the best work they have ever done.
But wait, much this technical praise could be more or less said of, say, Katsuhiro Ôtomo‘s equally well crafted Steam Boy, and that movie was more or less a failure due to overly convoluted and stilted story telling. The narrative may be cool and deliberately paced for a film with designs on a gigantic canvas, but that dovetails beautifully with the story Oshii is trying to tell (call it the antithesis of Hayao Miyazaki‘s similar setting, but radically different Porco Rosso). Make no mistake, this is social science fiction, and tonally controlled storytelling at its finest.
Thanks to generations of Disney-fication it’s easy to think of fairy tales as simple, pleasant children’s tales loaded with easy to swallow moral messages but in the original incarnation they were something far, far different. The worlds created by the Brothers Grimm we dark, bleak places, places where death lurked around every corner, places where any mis-step could easily be your last, any mistake could see you eaten. We comfort our children, the Grimms scared them. We make cheery cartoons, Marco Kreuzpaintner has made Krabat. Adapted from a novel subtitled The Satanic Mill, Krabat is a living, breathing Grimm tale come to life. Impeccably crafted and taking full advantage of the stunning scenery provided by the Alpine region in which it was shot it is also an incredibly dirty and grimy film, a film filled with much and filth where dangers both seen and unseen lurk around every corner.
Its not very often to hear a studio willing to produce an edgy animated feature film with mature themes for the R-rated audience so when word got out in March that Paramount is developing another Heavy Metal anthology (the first film came out in 1981), I was quite pleased. Based on a dark sci-fi and fantasy comics magazine of the same name, the film will contain eight or nine segment with each directed by a different director. Much like its past predecessors, there will most likely be bloody violence and sexual content. Director David Fincher is already attached to the project with CG animation provided by Blur, the studio responsible for various intro cinematics in video games and an Oscar nominated animated short. Then in July, Paramount has decided to put the project on hold, citing its “too risque for mainstream audiences”. Apparently, that was not entirely the whole story. Kevin Eastman, the co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and owner of the Heavy Metal magazine, gave us the lowdown on why Paramount really pulled the plug and where the project has moved.
“We developed it for Paramount in January… And it was time for them to make a decision [about going forward with the project] and they were at odds with Fincher over another project, ’The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,’ [because] they wanted him to reduce the running time… and so they said, ‘Until you step up to do what we want you to do with Benjamin, we’re not going to greenlight any other of [your] movies.’ And David said, ‘Fine, f*ck you, I’m going to set up [Heavy Metal] somewhere else,’ so we jumped over to Sony and set it up there.”
Eastman also dropped a few names of director who express interest in helming one of the segment. These include Guillermo del Toro, Gore Verbinski, and Zack Snyder. What a hell of a line-up if they manage to get all of them onboard. The tentative release date is sometime in 2010.
[It’s one of the more anticipated films of the year, one of Japan’s biggest budget offerings of the year, and one that’s caused me some stress with a pair of underwhelming trailers. It’s Yukihioko Tsutsumi’s adaptation of popular manga 20th Century Boys, it just released in Japanese theaters, and Twitch reader Brad Wilson has seen it. Here are his thoughts.]
‘Cue classic riff’
Friends say it’s fine, friends say it’s good
Ev’rybody says it’s just like rock’n’roll
I move like a cat, talk like a rat
Sting like a bee, babe I wanna be your man
Well it’s plain to see you were meant for me, yeah
I’m your boy, your 20th century toy.....
Yes, the famous song that has long been attached to car commercials and the like now takes on a new meaning, through the form of a seminal manga and it’s big screen counterpart. Speculation has been rampant for this, Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s big budget, multi film adaption of Naoki Urasawa’s crazy popular manga.
Does the flick live up to it’s written father?
Do random Japanese people say the word ‘Friend’ alot?
Are there any schoolgirls in it?
Read on after the break....
To date from the 65th Venice Film Festival we have shown you Coffin Joe, Fabrice Du Welz, Kaiju and now Hayao Miyazaki! A super size image of him at the festival today is at the link below and several more added super size images from Ponyo On The Cliff. Hayao Miyazaki was at Venice screening his latest work and proclaiming his steadfast and unending love for non-computer animation. He told reporters after the Ponyo screening:
“I think animation is something that needs the pencil, needs man’s drawing hand, and that is why I decided to do this work in this way. Currently computer graphics are of course used a great deal and, as I’ve said before, this use can at times be excessive. I will continue to use my pencil as long as I can.”
We have already seen Coffin Joe stomping down the red carpet of the 65th Venice Film Festival (here) and now at last we see Minoru Kawasaki stomping down the red carpet Takemajin-style! While audiences and critics seemed shocked the Coen Brothers, heaven forbid, would make a silly comedy, Kawasaki was sexying up Venice with gigantic romping kaiju action. Click the link below to witness pictures from its showing at Venice and images from the film itself, Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit that feature destruction, confused world leaders, kaiju paparazzi, mayhem and… Takemajin and Guilala locked in fierce deadly fighting!
Here in Todd’s personal literary world there a few authors who rise right to the top of the heap. I’m a big fan of Haruki Murakami. Looking forward to the new Neal Stephenson rather a lot. But the big three here in Todd-land are Douglas Coupland, Chuck Palahniuk and Kurt Vonnegut. I came to Vonnegut the earliest of the three and have read every word the man ever published in his life and love just about all of them. Vonnegut has, however, proven rather difficult to adapt to the screen. Yes, there have been attempts, and a few of them have even been successful - I rather like the recent Breakfast of Champions - but his structural quirks and distinct voice generally make life difficult when people try to bring him to the screen.
Enter 2081, a new feature based on Vonnegut’s short Harrison Bergeron. It’s the story of a future world in which everybody is forcibly made equal thanks to the efforts of the Handicapper General - a government officer responsible for removing or handicapping anything exceptional about any particular individual. Beautiful people are forced to wear masks. Athletes are forced to wear weights to slow them down. It’s a civilization based around enforced mediocrity until, finally, someone rebels.
Given the length of the original story you’ve got to know that the feature will be greatly expanded and while I’m not convinced that the trailer particularly looks like something Vonnegut wrote it does have its own sense of style to it. Check it below the break in the Twitch Player.
Sigh. I want to like this film, I really do. The source material is fascinating stuff and I consider myself a fan of director Yukihiko Tsutsumi. But a teaser and two full trailers into the marketing of this first installment, with theatrical release in Japan due for tomorrow, I just can’t get enthused. This is strongly visual material and Tsutsumi’s handling of it just looks bland as bland can be. Man, I really, really hope these are just bad trailers ... you’ll find ‘em below the break in the Twitch Player.
Continue Reading "Second 20TH CENTURY BOYS Trailer: Still Underwhelming"...
Many thanks to regular reader Raku for spotting this one and loading it into the Twitch Player ...
We’ve been greatly anticipating the arrival of Shimako Sato’s K-20 since first catching wind of it a good while back and the full theatrical trailer has just arrived. The verdict? Looking great. The film is set in an alternate future and revolves around a somewhat modified take on classic Edogawa Rampo character, the Fiend With Twenty Faces. Takeshi Kaneshiro stars as a gymnast police believe is the notorious Fiend who must catch the real fiend to prove his own innocence. Always director Takashi Yamazaki provides all the special effects in this one and the footage in the trailer looks every bit as impressive as you’d expect from Yamazaki.
Set in an alternate world where ninety percent of Japan’s wealth is controlled by a small sliver of the aristocracy, the Fiend is a sort of Robin Hood figure who steals from the rich. Kaneshiro plays a circus acrobat falsely set up as the Fiend who must escape from jail and track down the real thief to clear his name with the help of a beautiful police detective who is being targeted by the real thief.
This one looks to be a big budget blockbuster that pays off on its potential. Check it below the break.
Continue Reading "Beware The Fiend With Twenty Faces! The Full K-20 Trailer Arrives!"...
I don’t think it’s any exaggeration at all to say that Dave McKean is a legendary figure in certain circles, his illustration work on Sandman alone would be enough to guarantee that. The man is one of the most distinctive visual artists in the world whether his work is presented on the page or, increasingly, the screen. And so when the news broke a good while back that McKean was preparing a DVD release of his early and seldom seen short films it was met with great excitement. The project was titled simply Keanoshow and while it was fraught with delays and, sadly, could not be cleared for release in America, the DVD has now arrived and McKean was gracious enough to sit and talk with us. The following interview was conducted by good friend to the site Don Hill.
Continue Reading "Twitch Talks To Legendary Illustrator And MIRROR MASK Director Dave McKean!"...
My thanks goes to “Innocent_Eyes” from the Astro Boy Online forum for uncovering some images from Imagi’s upcoming CG animated feature film Astro Boy. In the forum is a snapshots of the character model of Astro and some concept art which were perhaps photograph from either Comic-con or Siggraph 2008. I have taken the liberty of enhancing and rescaling the snapshots with Photoshop for a clearer view. There is a few slight difference I notice from this one and the work-in-progress screenshot from a year ago but nothing too drastic. Other than that, the CG model is staying true to the original design by Osamu Tezuka. So what do you think of this interpretation of Astro?
Oh you lucky, lucky people. The first wave of titles for this year’s edition of the Toronto After Dark Festival was announced today and you are in for a treat this year! Festival director Adam Lopez and his team, including our lord and master Todd, have put together another fine selection of films for your viewing pleasure and horror and wonder. These titles will already be familiar to Twitch viewers and if you haven’t had the chance to catch yet you can do so in October.
In its first wave of film titles revealed for 2008, Toronto After Dark Film Festival is proud to announce a selection of eight outstanding new horror, sci-fi, action and cult feature films that will have their Toronto Theatrical Premieres at the festival this October 17-24. The initial lineup includes a number of critically acclaimed and award-winning films from around the world including the much-anticipated new sci-fi horror musical REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA, Sundance selection revenge thriller RED based on Jack Ketchum’s novel, cult horror action movie TOKYO GORE POLICE, celebrated vampire feature LET THE RIGHT ONE IN which won Best Picture at the Tribeca Film Festival, and Oscar-nominated animator Bill Plympton’s dark and twisted modern fairytale, IDIOTS & ANGELS.
For more information on the complete lineup of films at this year’s Toronto After Dark Film Festival, to watch trailers, or to buy advance festival passes which are now on sale, visit the festival website.
All eight title descriptions after the jump. We’ll see you in the dark!
Continue Reading "Toronto After Dark 2008: First wave of titles announced!!!"...
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