Audrey and I have been catching up with Avatar on Netflicks. We just finished the second disc of Book 3: Fire and we’ve become big fans. With that in mind, I’m not so sure I want to see a live-action version.

M. Night Shyamalan will direct The Last Airbender set for release on July 2, 2010. Notice that the word “Avatar” has been cut from the title. That’s because James Cameron is directing his own Avatar film which has no relation to the show. The live-action adaptation is planned as a trilogy with the first film dealing with Book One: Water.

I’m iffy on this. Sure, Shyamalan is a big fan of the show. But I’m a bit skeptical. He has yet to demonstrate that he can tell a story straight up letting the characters develop the plot. Avatar is a heavily character driven show and I feel Shyamalan is at times, way too into plot twists and intricate reveals.

My other problem is that it’s difficult for me to imagine actors in the roles of the characters. However, Dante Basco must be cast as Zuko. Must I say! And I think Emmanuelle Chriqui would be perfect for Katara. Mako would have be brilliant as Uncle Iro, but that won’t happen. So let’s play the casting game! Who would you cast as Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toth, Zuko, Azula, or whoever?

[Via Buddy TV]

Share This

We’ve all heard his voice, but until that Geico commercial spot a few years back, those of use who aren’t voice actors never knew his name. Don LaFontaine made over 750,000 television spots and 5,000 movie trailers over his 33 year career. On Monday at age 68, he passed away.

I’m so impressed that until just a few years ago, few of us knew who he was. That’s a real testament to his humility. Certainly LaFontaine was the best at what he did. Movie trailers are going to sound a little less awesome.

Thanks to Greg, Paul Jang, and Varazakazarav for the sad news.

[Via AP]

Share This

Hawk sent me this article about a quick method for generating 3D textures. The system interprets the difference in pixel brightness between two photos, one taken with and one taken without flash, to reconstruct depth. It’s much quicker than constructing depth maps or normal maps by hand, but it has its limitations. If you have vines or branches over a rock wall, the system cannot interpret those as separate features. Still, the results are pretty damn good.

You know, pretty soon they’re going to develop a consumer grade camera that just scans whatever is in the viewfinder, stores it in 3D, and dumps it out onto your computer as geometry that you can stick into a virtual environment and explore.

[Via New Scientist]

Share This

It appears that Skynet has manufactured harmless looking boxes with the ability to fight back.

This is a sketch from BBC 3’s late night sketch comedy show, The Wrong Door. You can head on over to their website to see the first full episode online. I like the giant robot lumbering around their site. Such a great design.

I hope Sci Fi or some other network picks it up for American distribution. Just looks too fun not to share with the rest of us!

[Via The Wrong Door]

Share This

What’s good enough for the DGA, WGA, and AFTRA is apparently not good enough for the SAG. Last Thursday, the SAG voted to tell its negotiating committee to continue to reject the AMPTP’s June 30th deal. However, this stance may change after the SAG board elections. Ballots have been sent out, but the results won’t be announced until September 18. There are two factions vying for control, the newly formed Unite for Strength and incumbent Membership First.

Unite for Strength alleges that Membership First has botched negotiations and is responsible for the lack of progress. Unite for Strength also wants the SAG to merge with the AFTRA hence the “unite for strength” thing. Membership First alleges that Unite for Strength wants to institute qualified voting on SAG contracts meaning that unless you’ve worked a certain number of days out the year, you would be ineligible to vote on contract negotiations. Unite for Strength denies this claim and the two sides have exchanged some pretty heated words.

The AMPTP refuses to change their terms so it looks like the stalemate will continue at least until September 18. I guess they’re still operating under the expired contract until then. I doubt there’s much support for a strike at this point so even if Membership First reclaims the board, I imagine SAG will have to give in sooner than later.

[Via Variety]

Share This

Much like Power Rangers Americanizes the names of the Japanese Super Sentai Characters, Kamen Rider Dragon Knight Americanizes the names of Kamen Rider Ryuki. Henshin Justice has the exclusive list of the new names. Unlike Power Rangers, Kamen Rider Dragon Knight looks like it’s going to be a sausage fest with one female rider among the thirteen. This is typical of the Rider shows since we’ve only seen three or four women Riders throughout the entire history of the show. If Dragon Knight sparks off a new generation of Americanized Kamen Rider shows, I hope they can bring in some more lady riders. It doesn’t matter that the suits don’t have boobs. You could still have a woman henshin and kick some ass without metal cleavatude.

Anyway, I think Dragon Knight will kick all kinds of ass! Can’t wait for it to air and I can’t wait to get my hands on all the wonderful toys that are sure to come!

[Via Henshin Justice]

Share This

As Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) move into an eighth week of stalemate, the Directors Guild of America (DGA) issued a statement defending its new media deal with the AMPTP and the non-union exemption clause for low-budget productions. In the statement written by DGA president Michael Apted, he stated:

We must be flexible to allow that experimentation to flourish. Critics of this approach argue that union jurisdiction must be absolute. If some productions are allowed to be non-union, they claim, producers will take advantage of the loopholes, and eventually, all productions will be non-union. But before there can be a union job, there has to be a job. And despite all the grandiose talk about the coming bonanza, new media hasn’t yet started raining money.

The exemption allows non-union members to be hired for internet based programming and applies to productions with budgets under $15,000 a minute, $300,000 per program or $500,000 per series. Certainly Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog would not have happened if the production was forced to hire everyone at scale. The actors did it for no up front money. The DAG feels this will allow internet based programming room to grow and prove its profitability before a new deal is worked out for more of a share of internet revenue. Sounds like a decent enough idea to me. But the SAG thinks otherwise. SAG national executive director Doug Allen responded:

I think what really stands logic on its head is the idea that the way to organize union work is to encourage signatories to produce non-union under our contracts. It is not appropriate to wait until new media reigns supreme to assert jurisdiction.

So the stalemate continues. It’s interesting that the word “strike” hasn’t be thrown around. I think the SAG knows they’d have a very difficult time with a strike. But they just won’t budge over this new media issue. More as it develops.

[Via Variety]

Share This

AZM Ally Greg sends word that James Doohan’s ashes never made it out to space. Along with 208 other people, Scotty’s ashes were aboard the privately funded Falcon 1 rocket headed for space when two minutes into the flight, a problem in stage separation forced SpaceX, the company that funded the project, to ground the rocket in the ocean. Despite Falcon 1 being their third failed launch, SpaceX has plans for a fourth launch in the fourth quarter of this year, a fifth and sixth flight, and a larger rocket called Falcon 9 scheduled for launch in 2010 which will deliver cargo to and from the International Space Station.

Apparently, there’s no such thing as test flights. Once you build the rocket, it’s all or nothing. You cross your fingers, launch the sucker, and hope it makes it out of the atmosphere. Sounds a lot like the early days of NASA. I think the future of the space program will depend on private industry. NASA’s funding counts for one tenth of one percent of the federal budget and every center fights for their little piece of the pie. It’s going to take private industry to really kick the space race back into to high gear because, quite frankly, the federal government is not interested in space. Oh, Bush talks a good game about putting people back on the moon and Mars, but where’s the money? Private industry will have to take up the reigns.

Good money is on China or India taking the lead in the space race in the near future. They’ve got the money to throw at their space program and are both genuinely interested in getting a presence up in space. I think it’s about time some other countries started looking to outer space. We could all certainly benefit from more exploration in general. We’ll have to see how China and India will influence our space program should they get their own explorers on the moon.

And that’s my soapbox ranting about the space program for today.

[Via New York Times]

Share This

Live action Cowboy Bebop movie? Okay, could be fun.

Live action Cowboy Bebop movie produced in America for Fox? Uh… well… almost kind of makes sense.

Live action Cowboy Bebop movie produced in America for Fox starring Keanu Reeves? NO!

I sincerely hope that this rumor that Angry Zen Minion Kevin Bahrt sent over is just that. There is indeed a live-action Bebop flick in the works at Fox but rumor has it that Keanu Reeves is up for the part of Spike Spiegel. No, no, no, a thousand times NO!

Keanu’s usual trick of starring blankly and delivering monotone dialog just doesn’t fit a hard boiled, Lupin inspired, noir ass kicker. I’m not entirely certain who I would pick, but Keanu isn’t on my list. Maybe someone like Josh Hartnett or James McAvoy (okay, that’s probably a stretch), but not Keanu and certainly not Shia!

Might as well go ahead and play the casting game. So who would you cast as Spike? Better yet, who would you cast as Jet, Faye, Edward, and Vicious?

[Via X-Realms]

Share This

“The thunder is my penis.”

Sorry, couldn’t resist the Dr. Horrible joke.

At a press junket for Death Race, Tyrese revealed that he’s been heavily involved in the Thundercats movie adaptation. That’s about it. No word on what character he’d play or if it’s still going to be a CG feature as Warner Brothers announced last year. So let’s turn on the internet speculation machine.

I think if it’s going to be Beowulf style CG where the models are based on the actors (well, except for Beowulf), Tyrese would make quite the awesome Panthro or Mumra. You know, I think he’d make a decent Lion-O as well. If he’s just providing voice acting, really anyone would work.

I’m not sure I’m entirely looking forward to this movie. But I like Tyrese well enough. We’ll see.

[Via Coming Soon]

Share This