Savage Popcorn

The sock zombies are hungry

It all began in a university biology department. What seemed like a routine procedure in a level 3 biohazard facility went terribly wrong. One researcher felt her foot tingle and discovered……her sock had come back from the dead. Thus sock zombies were born and the infection spread rapidly. By nightfall the socks were rising in every neighborhood

David Thompson pointed me in the direction of Pixeloo, a rather interesting photoshopper who ‘untoons’ familiar animated icons. The untooned images are not attempts to make the characters look real, but what you would see if the cartoon characters – with their toon proportions unchanged – were realistically textured and lit.

He has three up so far – Jessica Rabbit, a very creepy looking Mario and a downright disturbing Homer. There is also a video showing the process in action.

Thanks are owed to Starship Sofa (who have a Michael Moorcock interview coming soon) for pointing me in the direction of Solar Flare and their article, Seven Things Sci-Fi Fans Should Stop Doing.

All seven points are good ones and I have probably been as guilty as the next geek for most of them. But the one that really leapt out at me is Just Because It’s Good Doesn’t Mean People Will Watch.

This is very true but it’s also worth bearing in mind, Michael Bay, that just because lots of people watch doesn’t mean it’s good.

As has been widely reported, Paul Verhoeven is set to publish a biography of Jesus in September that claims that Christ was probably fathered by a Roman soldier who raped Mary during an uprising in Galilee. Verhoeven also claims that Christ was not betrayed by Judas Iscariot.

According to The Hollywood Reporter (via) the book – which was co-written by his biographer, Rob van Scheers - is the result of more than 20 years of research.

Verhoeven, who turns 70 in July, has had a lifelong ambition to make a film about Jesus, based on scientific research. Verhoeven decided to write the book to raise interest in the project. His publisher is in negotiations for an English-language translation.

Predictably enough, the instantly outraged are getting their complaints in already. Bill Donohue of the US Catholic League complained to Fox News (via) that the book is “with idle speculation grounded in absolutely nothing.”

Sounds like a religion, then. And on the subject of religion, here’s Pat Condell.

For an alternative take on the Jesus myth, I can’t recommend strongly enough that you check out The God Who Wasn’t There.

Where do I start with this one. Russian director Timur Bekmambetov made his name internationally with the visually stunning fantasy epic Night Watch, the first in a three-part adaptation of a trilogy of novels written by Sergei Lukyanenko.

Night Watch was followed by the equally acclaimed Day Watch and… then Bekmambetov went to Hollywood where he is now working on an adaptation of Mark Millar’s Wanted.

On the subject of Twilight Watch – the third entry in the trilogy – Bekmambetov told IGN (via):

[Wanted] is my Dusk Watch for now because it’s really the same chance, a different story, but the same genre. Unfortunately I don’t know when Dusk Watch will happen… Let’s say this is Dusk Watch.

So it’s the same genre so that’s all right then. I can see his point, Barbarella and 2001: A Space Odyssey are both science fiction films and no-one can tell the difference between the two.

What a pathetic excuse for cutting and running.

There are films out there being made for very little money. These films don’t have any stars attached to them to pull in the audiences and the sets and special effects can often be pretty basic.

Of course, the size of the budget is never a limitation for either a good script or well developed characters and, sometimes, independent films can do a great job of dealing with themes or ideas – or pushing an envelope – that mainstream filmmakers simply aren’t able to touch.

When all else fails, a great title goes a long way. I know absolutely nothing about Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust, but I want to see it.

According to Sigourney Weaver (via)

The last time [Ridley and I] saw each other we talked about [making another Alien film]. The character is still interesting [and] I’d love to work with Ridley again… But Fox has effectively killed it because of ‘Alien vs. Predator.’ What else can you do with the creature? You can take the situation, you can go back to where they came from.

“To play someone who ages a couple hundred years was fascinating,” she added. “[But] let [Ripley] rest.”

So there you have it. Instead of seeing Ridley Scott returning to the franchise, with Ripley, Fox decided to dump a pile of derivative pap into cinemas. It’s disheartening because, although AvP was a blatant exercise in movie making by marketing metrics, it’s far from unique. And, as blockbuster budgets rise, these films are going to get a lot worse before they get any better.

This comment was buried in an older post about the Tarantino/Rodriguez split double bill that was Grindhouse. It’s a pretty significant piece of news and something that I though would be worth highlighting. So here goes:

Grindhouse is playing in the UK. Both parts. Together. With the trailers. Check you cinema listings. Now.

Check out Wednesday’s Dork Tower.

CHUD have laid ther hands on a, frankly awful, poster for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Still, if the film is as good as this clip suggests, I’ll forgive anything.