Let the music play. Worries for another day. Dance your cares away. Down at the big screen debut of the Fraggle Rock movie!

The Jim Henson Company will produce a big screen feature of Fraggle Rock with the Weinstein Company distributing. How fun! And about freaking time. Okay, so I don’t hate all 80’s remakes. Such a perfect idea for a family feature, it’s a wonder why they haven’t made a Fraggle Rock movie until now.

[Via Variety]

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Damn. I’ve run out of pants!

Does this look like the face of a Hobbit director to you? Cause it looks like the face of a Hobbit director to me!

It’s official! Guillermo del Toro has signed on to direct The Hobbit for New Line! He’s moving to New Zealand for four years after Hell Boy 2 drops to work with Peter Jackson and his Weta and Wingnut teams. There will be two films, The Hobbit and a sequel that fills in the period between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Rings.

We may have to wait until 2011 and 2012 to see these films. It also kind of sucks that in the mean time, we’ll be without del Toro movies in the theater. But I suspect there will be much awesomesauce four years from now.

If you’ll excuse me, I must now find new pants…

[Via Variety]

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Reader Colabris (who helped me order parts to my PC) sent along this encouraging bit of Watchmen news. This is the first of twelve web journals that will be released documenting the creation of this film. This first one goes behind the scenes of creating the real live sets used to recreate the comic’s alternate 1985 America. I’m glad they’re taking this approach rather than doing it all in CG ala 300 and Sin City. New York is almost a character in itself in the comic and as good as CG is these days, real sets will allow the characters to interact with the city directly. The sets look great. Can’t wait to see them on film!

[Via Superhero Hype]

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So. Fucking. Awesome!

I just love the creature work. And the Golden Army looks badass. Can’t wait to see them in action on the big screen!

Don’t know how long this one will be up so if they’ve pulled it by the time you read this, check it out over at Yahoo.

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I have been a huge fan of Neil Gaiman’s comics work. Sandman actually helped me sort through my divorce (you know you’re a geek when comics are your therapy. Blech). And I’ve thoroughly enjoyed his movies. But while my wife and my father have both read a number of Gaiman’s novels, I have yet to read any of his books that don’t have pictures. Now, I have no excuse.

I got this in the email this morning:

Hi Jami,

I go on and on in the comments on the AZM site about Neil Gaiman’s offerings - his movies, his comics, but most of all: his books. Well, he ran a poll on his website asking which book people would most like to see him release for free. The results are in and the book has been unleashed gratis upon the masses. American Gods is that book and it is mighty. If you point your browser at this link: http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780060558123 you can have a read through it, start to finish.

Enjoy!
Aegis//Lars Gronholt
——————–
www.legalwarfare.com
Trial by Firepower

I’ve so been meaning to read American Gods. Numerous people have recommended it to me and now there’s absolutely no excuse. It’s high time I start reading books now.

Browse Inside this book Get this for your site

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Before America knew of the existence of tentacle penis monsters, the 1981 animated film Heavy Metal was about as hardcore as animation got. Revolutionary at the time, the original Heavy Metal was a collection of animated shorts loosely connected together by the appearance of an evil green sphere of doom. Not the greatest movie of all times, to be sure, but it still fairly entertaining. Certainly a cult classic.

In 2000, Heavy Metal got a less than worthy sequel, Heavy Metal 2000. I don’t remember what it was about and am too lazy to look it up because frankly, you should never see this movie on purpose. Ever.

Well, this should surprise no one. Paramount is making another animated Heavy Metal movie. This new version will return to the format of the original with eight to nine animated stories by different directors. So far, they’ve got David Fincher, Kevin Eastman who currently owns Heavy Metal magazine, and Tim Miller of Blur Studios.

It’s about damn time some American studios got back to doing some adult-themed animation. Of course, the novelty has kind of worn off by now. I mean, once you’ve seen La Blue Girl and Bible Black, there’s nothing anyone can animate that will ever shock you, ever. I hope there’s a decent mix of 2D work. Blur is well known for its 3D CG work, but I still enjoy seeing solid 2D animation, even if it’s really cell-shaded 3D.

Probably going to see this in some form or another.

[Via Variety]

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Jeff Smith’s Bone is heading to the theaters! Whoohoo!

Warner Brothers has picked up the film rights and will work with Smith to determine if it will be a live action or animated adaptation. The best part? Jeff Smith is executive producer! Awesome! You can be sure that whatever type of adaptation comes out of this, it will be as close to Smith’s vision as is possible. Input from the creators made Hell Boy and Sin City very successful. I expect Bone will find similar success.

[Via Hollywood Reporter]

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The Tolkein Trust wants to layeth the smack down upon New Line’s candy ass! What is it with these fucks not wanting to pay? The trust along with publisher HaperCollins has filed a $150 million suit against New Line claiming that the trust has not received any money from the gross profits of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Not only do they want their money, but the trust is also suing for the rights to stop production on any future film based on Tolkein’s work putting production on The Hobbit in jeopardy.

Back in 1969 when the trust was approached by United Artists to adapt the Lord of the Rings for the big screen, the trust was promised 7.5% of the gross profits. When New Line inherited the film rights, they also inherited that profit participation clause.

This totally sucks. The Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro combo is a crunchy pants worthy movie match. The Hobbit would have been all kinds of geekful awesomeness. If this suit isn’t settled soon, which is a remote possibility given New Line’s track record with the Peter Jackson suit, Jackson and del Toro will probably move on to something else pushing The Hobbit back to maybe never.

Dammit New Line, how hard is it to cash a check? The trilogy vacuumed in nearly $6 billion world wide! You can spare the 7.5%! Dumb fucks. Give us our Hobbit dammit!

[Via Variety]

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Guillermo del Toro is in official negotiations to direct The Hobbit. The story will be filmed in back0to-back installments, the first being released in 2010 and the second in 2011. Peter Jackson will stay on as executive producer and will have final approval over creative elements of the films.

My hope is that Jackson will respect del Toro’s creative vision and not exert too much creative control. Sure, The Hobbit should probably look and feel like it exists in the same universe as The Lord of the Rings. But I’d love to see del Toro’s visual take on the orcs and Smaug and even maybe a retake of Gollum. The team del Toro put together for the visual effects on Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hell Boy movies would do wonders for Middle Earth. I’m sure Weta will no doubt be involved, but I hope they take art direction from del Toro.

[Via Hollywood Reporter]

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After reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (yes, I actually read something without pictures and word balloons) and taking a few moments to absorb what I had just read, my first thought was how in the bloody hell will they fit all this into even a three hour film? If the rumors are true, we won’t have to worry. The film adaptation of Deathly Hallows will be split into two films. I imagine they’ll be filmed back-to-back and hopefully be released within the same year. It will be really frustrating to wait a full year to see the ending. Sure, at this point most of us know what happens anyway, but it would really suck to have to wait that long to see it on the screen.

There are also rumors of the studio courting a big name director, like Steven Spielberg, to bring the series home. That could be interesting. If it is indeed Spielberg and he does indeed take the gig, it’ll be interesting to see how he interprets the material and how well it matches up with the previous films. I think the Potter films have been getting better and more open, really stretching what they do with the material while still rooted in the soul of the books.

When the Potter films finally come to an end, what giant fantasy franchise will take their place? Will Narnia rise to the challenge? Will anyone bother with another Eragon film? Or is there something waiting in the wings that hasn’t yet hit the mainstream? What say you mighty readers?

[Via Daily Motion]

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