One month on and a month to go in my Grumble 2 Indiegogo campaign:
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Monday, May 5, 2014
Happy Birthday, Sarah
I can't remember how old you are, but Happy Birthday and many, many, many more.
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Terminator Reboot Gets Its Doctor... Who?
MATT SMITH SET TO STAR IN PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND SKYDANCE PRODUCTIONS’ “TERMINATOR” REBOOT
Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions announced today that “Doctor Who” star Matt Smith will join the cast of the upcoming “TERMINATOR” reboot.
Smith will play a new character with a strong connection to John Connor, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, J.K. Simmons, Dayo Okeniyi and Byung Hun Lee.
Alan Taylor is directing the film from a screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier. David Ellison and Dana Goldberg of Skydance Productions are producing. Skydance’s Paul Schwake, Annapurna Pictures’ Megan Ellison, Kalogridis and Lussier are executive producing.
Smith is best known for playing The Doctor on the popular “Doctor Who” television series during the 2011-2103 seasons. His other television credits include “Christopher and His Kind,” “Moses Jones,” and “The Street.” He can be seen next on the big screen in “LOST RIVER,” directed by Ryan Gosling, alongside Christina Hendricks, Saoirse Ronan and Eva Mendes.
He is represented by United Talent Agency and Michael Duff at Troika.
The “TERMINATOR” franchise launched in 1984 with Schwarzenegger as the title character and spanned three subsequent films, which have earned more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office.
Paramount will distribute the film worldwide on July 1, 2015.
About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. Paramount controls a collection of some of the most powerful brands in filmed entertainment, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Home Media Distribution, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., and Paramount Studio Group.
About Skydance Productions
Skydance Productions creates and produces elevated event-level commercial entertainment. Skydance’s recent releases include JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT, from director Kenneth Branagh and starring Chris Pine, WORLD WAR Z, starring Brad Pitt and directed by Marc Forster; J.J. Abrams' STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS, starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, and G.I. JOE: RETALIATION, starring Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum and Dwayne Johnson. Skydance projects currently in development include the reboot of the TERMINATOR franchise, to be released on July 1, 2015, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 5 with Christopher McQuarrie directing and a disaster film on a global scale titled GEOSTORM written by Dean Devlin and Paul Guyot with Devlin also directing. Skydance’s previous projects include the award-winning Coen Brothers film TRUE GRIT, starring Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon; MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL, starring Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner and Christopher McQuarrie’s JACK REACHER, starring Tom Cruise. Skydance’s new television division recently started production on its first series, Manhattan, to WGN America. From writer Sam Shaw and director Tommy Schlamme, this 13-episode drama is set against the backdrop of the clandestine mission to build the world’s first atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico and follows the brilliant but flawed scientists and their families as they attempt to co-exist in a world where secrets and lies infiltrate every aspect of their lives.
Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions announced today that “Doctor Who” star Matt Smith will join the cast of the upcoming “TERMINATOR” reboot.
Smith will play a new character with a strong connection to John Connor, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, J.K. Simmons, Dayo Okeniyi and Byung Hun Lee.
Alan Taylor is directing the film from a screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier. David Ellison and Dana Goldberg of Skydance Productions are producing. Skydance’s Paul Schwake, Annapurna Pictures’ Megan Ellison, Kalogridis and Lussier are executive producing.
Smith is best known for playing The Doctor on the popular “Doctor Who” television series during the 2011-2103 seasons. His other television credits include “Christopher and His Kind,” “Moses Jones,” and “The Street.” He can be seen next on the big screen in “LOST RIVER,” directed by Ryan Gosling, alongside Christina Hendricks, Saoirse Ronan and Eva Mendes.
He is represented by United Talent Agency and Michael Duff at Troika.
The “TERMINATOR” franchise launched in 1984 with Schwarzenegger as the title character and spanned three subsequent films, which have earned more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office.
Paramount will distribute the film worldwide on July 1, 2015.
About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. Paramount controls a collection of some of the most powerful brands in filmed entertainment, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Home Media Distribution, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., and Paramount Studio Group.
About Skydance Productions
Skydance Productions creates and produces elevated event-level commercial entertainment. Skydance’s recent releases include JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT, from director Kenneth Branagh and starring Chris Pine, WORLD WAR Z, starring Brad Pitt and directed by Marc Forster; J.J. Abrams' STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS, starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, and G.I. JOE: RETALIATION, starring Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum and Dwayne Johnson. Skydance projects currently in development include the reboot of the TERMINATOR franchise, to be released on July 1, 2015, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 5 with Christopher McQuarrie directing and a disaster film on a global scale titled GEOSTORM written by Dean Devlin and Paul Guyot with Devlin also directing. Skydance’s previous projects include the award-winning Coen Brothers film TRUE GRIT, starring Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon; MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL, starring Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner and Christopher McQuarrie’s JACK REACHER, starring Tom Cruise. Skydance’s new television division recently started production on its first series, Manhattan, to WGN America. From writer Sam Shaw and director Tommy Schlamme, this 13-episode drama is set against the backdrop of the clandestine mission to build the world’s first atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico and follows the brilliant but flawed scientists and their families as they attempt to co-exist in a world where secrets and lies infiltrate every aspect of their lives.
Review: "The Kingdom" is a Thrill Ride (Happy B'day, Richard Jenkins)
The Kingdom (2007)
Running time: 110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes)
MPAA – R for intense sequences of graphic brutal violence and for language
DIRECTOR: Peter Berg
WRITER: Matthew Michael Carnahan
PRODUCERS: Peter Berg, Michael Mann, and Scott Stuber
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Mauro Fiore (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Colby Parker, Jr. and Kevin Stitt
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman
ACTION/THRILLER/CRIME/DRAMA
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Ashraf Barhom, Ali Suliman, Jeremy Piven, Richard Jenkins, Kyle Chandler, Frances Fisher, Danny Huston, Kelly AuCoin, Anna Deavere Smith, and Minka Kelly
The subject of this movie review is The Kingdom, a 2007 action thriller and crime drama directed by Peter Berg. The film follows a team of agents from the United States, investigating the bombing of an American facility in the Middle East.
When terrorists attack and kill over 100 people at the Al Rahmah Western Housing Compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, FBI Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) leads a small squad to investigate the bombing and find the culprits. Once Fleury and the other U.S. agents – Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper), Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), and Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman) – arrive, they learn that in Saudi Arabia, many consider them the true enemy.
Culture and the local bureaucracy hamper their investigation, but a local policeman, Col. Faris Al Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom), becomes sympathetic to Fleury’s predicament. Soon, Fleury realizes that he and his team are the targets of the mysterious terrorist leader, Abu Hamza, but neither the threat of death or disgrace back home will stop Fleury’s mission.
With The Kingdom, director Peter Berg (The Rundown, Friday Night Lights) and writer Matthew Michael Carnahan (Lions for Lambs) dive headlong into the snake pit that movies about the “war on terrorism” and set in Middle East can be. What Berg and Carnahan come up with is an imperfect, but entertaining and engaging action flick that doesn’t shy away from the fact that there are few if any easy answers when fighting the murderous criminals who are terrorists.
Berg doesn’t shy away from making a hardcore action movie. There are intense car chases, with the requisite automobile flips and explosions, and there are sequences of manic gun battles that arrive in the kind of big slabs that keep an action movie junkie euphoric. The screenplay even insists on being a police procedural, making The Kingdom something like Black Hawk Down meets Michael Mann’s Heat (Mann also co-produced The Kingdom), and TV’s “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”
Honestly, the movie drags when it focuses on the investigation, detective work, and forensics. On the other hand, The Kingdom soars when it lays on the gun battles and car violence. When the movie tries to be an FBI investigation flick, the narrative and indeed the performances get bogged down in detective work and the complications that can arise when different cultures meet. The film does raise several issues – asking questions that complicate what many only want to see as black and white. Are the FBI agents seeking justice or are they out for revenge? Does the subsequent violence only make matters worse? Does anyone gain anything or does everyone lose? These are the kind of questions that get a movie like this in trouble in the current political/social climate. An action movie requires that everything be in black and white, but the film’s setting and the issues it tackles just won’t be divided in two like that.
Ultimately, The Kingdom is a riveting action thriller that delivers. It affirms that Jamie Foxx can carry an action flick (but is there room for more than one or two action “stars of color?”), that Jason Bateman is funny, and that Jeremy Piven is a great character actor. However, the audience might have to take on some sticky issues to enjoy the thrill ride that is The Kingdom.
7 of 10
B+
Friday, January 18, 2008
Updated: Sunday, May 04, 2014
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.
Saturday, May 3, 2014
New Tom Cruise Movie Makes Comic Book Appearance at Free Comic Book Day 2014
Visit And Support Local Comics Retailers On May 3rd To Receive 2 FREE Samplers Featuring HELLO KITTY®, BRAVEST WARRIORS, ALL YOU NEED IS KILL, And TERRA FORMARS!
VIZ Media is proud to be a supporter and sponsor of 2014 Free Comic Book Day, and participates this year with a pair of special FREE manga and full-color original graphic novel samplers from the all-ages Perfect Square imprint, as well as out-of-this world previews from its first Haikasoru original graphic novel and VIZ Signature.
Scheduled for Saturday, May 3th at thousands of locations nationwide, Free Comic Book Day is an annual promotional campaign in the North American comic book industry to help bring new readers of all ages and interests into independent comic book stores. Free Comic Book Day began in 2002 and is coordinated by the industry's single largest distributor, Diamond Comic Distributors. Readers should visit freecomicbookday.com to find a local participating retailer in their area.
VIZ Media participates this year as a Gold Level Sponsor and will offer two FREE exclusive releases (available while supplies last).
HELLO KITTY AND FRIENDS, FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2014 EDITION
Readers of all ages can join in the fun with Hello Kitty and her friends in all-new full-color adventures! This time they're letting their imaginations run wild in two stories from the upcoming HELLO KITTY: JUST IMAGINE..., scheduled for August 2014 (MSRP: $7.99 U.S. / $9.99 CAN). Plus don't miss a special sneak peek of Perfect Square's upcoming tribute book, HELLO KITTY, HELLO 40: A Celebration in 40 Stories, celebrating Hello Kitty's 40th anniversary and iconic cultural impact. Scheduled for Fall release (MSRP: $29.99 U.S. / $34.99 CAN).
Also debuting in the Perfect Square 2014 Free Comic Book Day sampler are special bonus pages from BRAVEST WARRIORS: THE SEARCH FOR CATBUG (July, MSRP $19.99 U.S. / $22.99 CAN), featuring the adventures of the irrepressible Catbug, the darling, fan favorite character from Cartoon Hangover’s Bravest Warriors!
A special Perfect Square trailer for Free Comic Book Day may be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE-4DlsiWMc&authuser=0.
The VIZ Media 2014 Free Comic Book Day VIZ Signature manga sampler is aimed at older teen and adult readers and will offer excerpts from the new ALL YOU NEED IS KILL official graphic novel adaptation and the forthcoming manga series, TERRA FORMARS.
ALL YOU NEED IS KILL, AND TERRA FORMARS SNEAK PREVIEW!
Live…Die…Repeat… The mantra continues in exciting new graphic novel form and sci-fi and action fans are invited to preview an entire chapter from the new ALL YOU NEED IS KILL official graphic novel adaptation (May 6th debut, MSRP: $14.99 U.S. / $17.99 CAN). The gripping release from the Haikasoru imprint offers a single-volume retelling of the acclaimed ALL YOU NEED IS KILL novel (which has been adapted into the new Tom Cruise movie, Edge of Tomorrow), and is written by Haikasoru editor and noted sci-fi author, Nick Mamatas featuring full-color artwork by popular comic book artist Lee Ferguson (Green Arrow, Miranda Mercury). When the alien Mimics invade, Keiji Kiriya is one of many recruits shoved into battle armor Jackets and sent out to kill. Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to be reborn to fight and die again and again. He receives a message from a mysterious ally – is she the key to Keiji's escape or his final death? The full ALL YOU NEED IS KILL graphic novel carries an MSRP of $14.99 U.S. / $17.99 CAN.
Manga fans can also catch an early peek of TERRA FORMARS, the tense sci-fi horror series created by Yu Sasuga and illustrated by Kenichi Tachibana that has become a bestseller in Japan (MSRP: $12.99 U.S. / $14.99 CAN). In TERRA FORMARS, the colonization of Mars is an epoch-making event, but an unintended side effect of the terra-forming process unleashes a monstrous horror that no one could ever have imagined... Look for its serialized debut this July in print and digital formats from the VIZ Signature imprint and VIZManga.com.
For information on other all-ages titles available from the Perfect Square imprint, please visit: www.perfectsquare.com.
For more information on VIZ Signature and other manga titles published by VIZ Media, please visit: www.viz.com.
Free Comic Book Day 2014 is Today
Over 4.6 million comics to be given away free to comic shop customers
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On May 3rd, over two thousand comic book shops across North America and around the world will share the magic of comic books with their communities when they give out over 4.6 million comic books—free of charge—during Free Comic Book Day, which marks its thirteenth anniversary this year. Comic Book Specialty Retailers expect record breaking attendance and have been preparing their shops for this event for months.
“Free Comic Book Day is a perfect occasion for fans to discover new types of comic books”
There’s literally a free comic book available for everyone’s taste, including Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, DC’s The New 52: Futures End, Archie, SpongeBob, Transformers vs GI Joe, Hello Kitty, The Simpsons and more to choose from!
Comic book publishing heavyweights Dark Horse Comics, DC Entertainment, IDW Publishing, Image Comics, and Marvel Comics are among the many sponsors who created 60 special titles for Free Comic Book Day 2014. The free books are designed to appeal to a broad range of tastes, including:
Action-Packed Super-Hero Stories
DC’s The New 52: Futures End
DC’s Teen Titans
Stories Featuring Classic Characters
Archie
Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck
Buck Rogers
The Smurfs
The Tick
Sci-Fi Adventures
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
Marvel’s Rocket Raccoon
Project Black Sky
Stories for Kids
Avata: The Last Airbender
Hello Kitty
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
SpongeBob SquarePants
“Free Comic Book Day is a perfect occasion for fans to discover new types of comic books,” said FCBD spokesperson Jason Blanchard, “especially if they’re new to the wide variety of titles that are being published today. On May 3rd, we encourage new and current readers to use Free Comic Book Day as an opportunity to learn about the great comic books and pop-culture merchandise to be found at their local comic book shop. Hopefully, they’ll walk away with free comics they can't wait to read, and then keep coming back to their local shop for more!”
Along with free comics, many comic book shops will feature events during the day including creator signings, appearances of favorite super-heroes or cosplayers and great deals on exclusives and sale items.
Customers can check out the full list of all 60 titles on the Free Comic Book Day website, http://www.freecomicbookday.com/comics, and use the FCBD Store Locator to find a participating comic book shop in their area http://www.freecomicbookday.com/storelocator.
Legendary comic creator Stan Lee promotes Free Comic Book Day in a special video message to comic fans, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbdCVF7I3rc.
Reading Activist, actor, producer, director and host of Reading Rainbow LeVar Burton encourages people to participate in Free Comic Book Day in a special video message. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi8HNxiIsEk
ABOUT FREE COMIC BOOK DAY— Celebrating its thirteenth year, Free Comic Book Day is an annual event where participating comic book specialty shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely free to anyone who comes into their shops. The event is held the first Saturday in May and is the perfect opportunity to introduce friends and family to the many worlds of wonder available at local comic book shops. From super-heroes to slice of life to action/adventure and beyond, Free Comic Book Day has a comic book for everyone!
© 2014 Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. and Free Comic Book Day, Inc. All rights reserved.
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