Thoughts And Prayers .

Just a quick post. We are saddened by the death and devestation in New Orleans and Mississippi areas. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those left homeless or mourning the loss of loved ones.

Rue Morgue Magazine. Giving Fango A Run For Its Money.

Through the years Fangoria magazine has held a strangle hold over the horror cinema magazine market. But slowly over the past years another magazine has been chipping away at Fangos place on the pedestal. That magazine is Canada's own Rue Morgue. I have read both magazines since the beginning (oops, I am dating myself with Fango) and enjoy both, reading them cover to cover on a monthly basis. Now I don't want readers to think I am discrediting Fango in any way, it is a wonderful magazine, but it does mostly cover mainstream and the big Hollywood movies. They do add in looks at past movies and even coverage of overseas fare. The nice thing about Rue Morgue is that it pulls away from the Hollywood movie and cover all the rest floating around in the horror cinema sea. In the last issue they had a great story on the reemmergence of the Spanish gore fest Aftermath and its follower Genisis. The newest issue on shelves now has a good interview with Takashi Miike (Audition) and some artwork sample from Dr Death himself Jack Kevorkian. There is just something about Rue Morgue that grabs you and doesn't let go until you've read the whole magazine. The stories are well written, the reviews are spot-on and the magazine is always full of some of the grittiest and bloodiest photos around. They have a great website set up here, and just this past weekend they hosted the Rue Morgue's Festival Of Fear Expo in Toronto with Clive Barker as its main guest. Also if you live in the greater Toronto area you can visit their new digs at the Rue Morgue House Of Horrors at 2926 Dundas Street West. the new home of Rue Morgue is a past funeral home built at the turn of the century and was a funeral home for over 100 yrs. The new set-up includes a theater and a special Shoppe of Horrors carrying some great collectibles and one-offs.
So if you happen to be out at your local book store, take a chance and pick up a copy of Rue Morge.

Would You Pay $1200.00 For A XBOX 360 ??

It is still months away from the release of the new XBOX 360 (supposedly November 15 at this time) and the retailers "Bundle Wars" have already begun. Like the release of just about any major system, the retailers try to put together a special package unique to their store and charge the buyer sometimes outrageous prices. Well, GameStop has struck first with what they are calling their "Ultimate Bundle" for the rock bottom price of $1,199.83. Yep that's right, it's not a typo, almost $1200 for a XBOX 360. Basically it is the XBOX Bundle which retails for $299 plus several of the of the launch game titles. Here is a breakdown of the "Ultimate Bundle"

XBOX 360 System
Perfect Dark Zero Collector's Edition
Project Gotham Racing 3
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Dead or Alive 4
Call of Duty 2
GUN
Quake 4
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
Condemned
Madden NFL 06
Kameo
Xbox 360 Wireless Controller
Xbox 360 Play and Charge Kit
Xbox 360 Rechargeable Battery
Xbox Live 12 Month Card
1 Year Product Replacement Plan

The inclusion of the games is cool for those who think they need to have every title, but there are probably only 4 games on the list I would personally buy. Also if you sit and do the math this package is still more expensive then if you purchased thing separate. The games themselves are the brunt of the price at $660.00 ($59.99 each), the XBOX is the normal bundle at $299 and the remaining accessories are about $162. Your total separate would be $1,121.00. The other way to do this would be to purchase the XBOX "Pro Bundle" which includes all the accessories listed plus more (like the headset,20 GB harddrive and included Live account) which would be $399, which would make your total only $1059.00. Another thing to remember is that without the harddrive add-on you will not be able to play the choice XBOX games on our XBOX 360.
Also all the games listed in the bundle might not be released on the launch day. This has happened in the past when a developer just doesn't make the cut-off date. So you might not get all the titles you paid for and will have to wait for their release.

So as the price wars heat up, remember to be careful and shop safe. Sometime the dazzling package deals are not what they seem to be.

Matt Wagners' GRENDEL Heads To Warner Bros.

After years of rumors and speculation, it finally looks like Matt Wagner's Grendel character will soon be coming to the silver screen. matt Wagner, the creator of Grendel and Mage spoke with IGN Comics last week and stated he was close to signing a movie deal with Warner Bros. to produce a feature film. It will be produced in conjunction with Dark Horse Entertainment and Arsenal Entertainment. Carl Lund has been attached to adapt the project, hopefully with the guidance of Matt Wagner. So far it is unknown which Grendel the movie will cover, but it is supposed that Lund's script centers on the Christine Spar story line.

Wagner created the Gendel character back in 1982 and over the years the character has evolved to span centuries and some of the most interesting and thought provoking stories ever put into comics. The Grendel character started with Hunter Rose and his fight against the wolf Argent. After the death of Hunter the next grendel to arise was Christine Spar, Hunter's grandaughter, who took up the mantel when her son was kidnapped by a vampire kabuki actor. The next Grendel, if only for a span of weeks was Brian li Sung, the boyfriend of Christine Spar, who died during her battle with the vampire. Brian took up the mask for revenge and was killed shortly after. After the span of centuries the story continues with Eppy Thatcher, an addled drug addict trying to upset the status quo. After another passage of time we come into the time of the Grendelkhan and then that of Grendel Prime. There is just too much to really go into detail. There are over 100 various issues of Grendel and most can be located easily at your local comic shop. Though some of the earliest Comico and Primer issues might be a little harder to find. You can check out matt Wagner's official site here.

Halo Movie Has A Green Light.

It appears that 20th Century Fox and Universal have sealed the deal for the Halo movie. The two studios are reported to have paid Microsoft $5 million against 10% of the movies gross. Alex Garland, who wrote the initial script (and also wrote 28 Days Later) will now start doing rewrites. No directors or cast have been announced yet, but they will be aiming for a summer 2007 release. Now, this could be a great movie is done correctly. Lets not waste money on hiring The Rock or someone for Master Chief. We never see the Chiefs' face anyway so any actor could fit the role, all they need is a good voice. You could even have the voice actor from the game do the lip work and have anyone wear the suit. This would have to be a monster CGI movie, right up there on par with a Star Wars special effects budget. You know they have high hopes for the movie, and the studios are probably looking at the games sales of over $600 million as a pretty good standing fan base for any production. Now we just have to sit around and wait for news to start trickling out of Hollywood. Who will direct ? Who will star ? Will it be a mix of Halo and Halo 2 stories ? Time will only tell.

2 Beowulf Movies On The Horizon.

Well actually it is 1 on the horizon and 1 still lingering in the dark.

A quick history for those who might not be familiar with the story. Beowulf was a Anglo-Saxon work of prose and is considered oldest written English language myth. It centers around the warrior Beowulf and his battle with the monster Grendel. It has also been said that Beowulf helped inspire J.R.R. Tolkien in the writing of The Lord Of The Rings. There have been several different publications of the story over the years and you can locate a copy and just about any book store or library. There is also a animated Beowulf movie from many years back.

The first one out of the gate is Beowulf and Grendel, directed by Sturla Gunnarson from a script by Andrew Rai Berzins. The cast includes Gerard Butler as Beowulf, Sarah Polley as Selma and Ingvar Sigurdsson as Grendel. The movie was filmed entirely on the South coast of Iceland. The film is now in post-production and will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Out of the 2 new movies, this one does have the smaller budget and not as much star-power behind it, but could be closer to the source material and is at least live-action. The Icelandic born Director has already stated how important the original work is to him and appears to be taking this production as a work of the heart and not just as a money-maker. They have a very nice website with a lot of production shots and loads of information. There is even a link on the site to go to read the original wok with translations.

The second adaptation, titled Beowulf, is still in the early pre-production stages and has yet been given a start date. This one will be directed by Hollywood heavyweight Robert Zemeckis from a script by Roger Avery and comic great Neil Gaiman. So far some top stars have signed on for the movie, including Angelina Jolie, Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins and Robin Wright Penn. One thing that stands out is that this will be a animated feature film. It will use the performance-capture technology used in the making of The Polar Express. At this point I cannot really grasp this idea for this kind of source material, but I guess time will tell. The movie will be distributed by Paramount Pictures.

So we have 2 movies springing from the same source material, but taking 2 different views. I have been a Beowulf devotee since first reading the work back in the dark-ages of school. The Beowulf and Grendel movie I believe will be the better of the 2, with the directors view and a solid cast, I look forward to it's release.

The Corpse Bride.

The official site for Tim Burton's Corpse Bride has been launched. The website is very impressive with tons of links and information including video clips, downloads and more. This looks to be another hit from the twisted mind of Tim Burton in the same vein as A Nightmare Before Christmas. The stop-motion looks just as impressive as ANBC and Danny Elfman once again provides the music score. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter supply the voices for the main characters. Make sure to mark your
calendar for the Sept 23rd release.

Does Hollywood Have Any Original Ideas Left ??

That is a question that has to be going through many movie-goers heads recently with the constant crop off movie remakes and the dozens of more announced for the future. I just don't understand, that with the hundreds, maybe thousands of writers and screenwriters in the studios employ, that no one can come up with a original idea. Don't get me wrong, there are some good new movies hitting, like Red Eye from Wes Craven, Michael Bay's kinda sci-fi The Island and others. But the bulk seem to be remakes. So far we have seen remakes of Willie Wonka, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, War Of The Worlds,Longest Yard, Amityville Horror and more. Yes some are good (Massacre was a good remake) and some do give us a completely different view of the film (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and War Of The Worlds gave us a view closer to the book), but others are just plain bad (Amityville Horror was just that, a horror). Now studios are remaking just about everything they can get the rights to including some of our childhood favorites. Some of the upcoming remakes include The Posiden Adventure, The Wicker Man, The Omen, The Fog,The Hitcher (who could out-creep Rutger Haur),When A Stranger Calls,The Hills Have Eyes,Invasion Of The Body Snatchers(this will be about remake # 6),Superman(this one I will be looking forward to),Logans Run and I am sure there are many more on this list. Then there are the 80s tv and cartoons that they want to butcher. So far they have announced project involving The Smurfs,Voltron,The Transformers(with Spielberg on-board) and even hints of another shot at Speed Racer and the A-Team. I mean what's next,,,H.R. Puffnstuff the Movie or Charles In Charge:The Return. American studios are also grabbing the rights to overseas movies in the attempt to make them over into US hits. So far the fruit from these labors have bee satisfing with The Ring,The Grudge and Dark Water. But how long will this last. The Japanese market has some off the most inventive and original movies in production today, and some I would really hate to see Americanized. I have no problem with the adaptation of books or the use of comic characters, at least they are still creating something new even though the source is published material. Like the upcoming DaVinci Code movie, that is a book adaptation but really hasn't been done before. So come on Hollywood, there has to be new ideas out there. Maybe it's time to vear away from all those high-paid screenwriters sitting around and gathering paychecks for using other peoples work and start looking to the small guy out there whose creative mind has not been tapped yet. The are some amazing independent writers and directors out there who if given the chance could give the industry the jump start it needs. So lets give them a chance, because I really don't want to have to see The Courtship Of Eddies' Father II : The Revenge.

V For Vendetta Release Changed.

Warner Bros. has announced that the movie adaptation of Alan Moore's V For Vendetta has been pushed back to a March 17th 2006 release date. The original release date was supposed to be November 4th which tied closely in with the movies tagline, "Remember, remember the 5th of November". At first I thought this delay could be to help distance the film from the current terrorist attacks in London, due to the similarities to the events in the movie. But SCI FI Wire states that the studio moved the date back to accommodate the post-production schedule of the movie. I was really looking forward to this movie, especially after the ComicCon footage was shown. Hopefully it will hit its new release date and not be pushed back a second time. You can check out the official site HERE.

XBOX 360 Pricing Announced.

Microsoft has officially announced the pricing plan for the release of the XBOX 360 next gen system. The system is set for a Holiday 2005 release and will be available in 2 configurations. There will be a "Core System" release that will be priced at $299.99 and consist of the base console and 1 wired controller. That's about as bare boned as you can get. The second configuration is being called the "Premium Package" and will be priced at $399.99. This may sound like a lot, but for the extra $100.00 you are getting over $250.00 worth of accessories over the Core system. In the Premium package you get the 20GB hard drive,1 wireless controller,XBOX live headset,"chill" white faceplate,metallic detailing,component HD-AV cable,Ethernet cable and a wireless media remote control.

One thing that stands out is that the Core system has no hard drive, which means no storage. How will you be able to save games? The system would have to have some small internal flash memory or you are forced to buy the $39.99 64 MB memory unit. Also when the unit was shown at E3 it was being toted for its hard drive and wireless controller which led many to believe this would be the base configuration, so a lot of people will be slightly upset by this news. This is also surprising because Microsoft has always stated how beneficial the hard drive is to game play. So is this because they cannot afford to sell the unit as it was originally presented, or are they just trying to make more money off the product by making you have to by the Premium set to have everything you need. And with Microsofts lock-down on on all 3rd party accessories, they will have total control of the market. Another key point is that it appears the the base system will not be backwards compatible due to the fact that the hard drive is needed to optimize the games from the original system. It is going to be very interesting to see how much more changes by the release date.

Back From The Wild.

Sorry for the lack of updates the last 2 weeks. Took a nice long vacation away from it all, (including my mean, demanding boss), up in the north woods of WI doing some camping, fishing and general lying around. So now it is time to catch up on some news. Thanks for reading.

Warner Bros. Fall Release List.

With the Summer movie season coming to an end, Warner Bros. has released its Fall movie preview. There are some very promising movies for the fall season including Darren Androwsky's long in production The Fountain with Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz, Val Kilmers action thriller Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, North Country with Charlize Theron, Rob Reiner's Rumor Has It with Jennifer Aniston. Two other highlights are Tim Burton's Corpse Bride and the comic adaptation V For Vendetta. Oh Yea, and there is that other little movie called Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

GTA Fallout Continues.........

Rockstar Games and GTA:San Andreas continue their roll downhill after the investigation into the "Hot Coffee" mod. With the changing of the games rating to "AO", Rockstar will be forced to pull existing copies off the shelves and have them re-labeled. This will cause a lot of retail chains to stop carrying the game. Store like Walmart, Target and Toys R Us refuse to stock "Adults Only" games. Now it has been announced that Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification has ordered that the game be removed from store shelves and that all furure sales of the game are banned.

Shadow Of the Colossus.

After months of sneak peeks and teasing, the creators of the PS2 hit ICO will release Shadow of the Colossus on Sept. 20th. The game has that same ethereal feeling and look of ICO. But where as ICO was contained in and around a castle, this game appears to be prominently outside in lush landscapes. The giants (or Colossus) are huge and the sense of scale is amazing. Also the inclusion of a horse for the main character adds a new game-play element to the game. I have not purchased many PS2 games lately, but this one I will defiantly buy when it hits the shelves. You can check out a stunning trailer for the game here.