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More Deadpool? Yes Please

January 24th, 2009 by Fraser

deadpool_large.jpgdeadpool.jpgSo, according to IESB, the X-Men Origins: Wolverine re-shoots now underway are to incorporate more  in the movie. I’m all for that. For one, I actually like the character. Given a good writer, Deadpool can be quite amusing. Second, as any who know me can tell you, I have a bit of a man-crush on Ryan Reynolds. The guy consistently cracks me up, is a Canuck, and married Scarlett Johansson. His character and quips were some of the few bright spots in Blade: Trinity (along with Jessica Biel . . . just being there!). So adding more Deadpool to this Wolverine movie is cool by me.

That’s not saying this might not all end up taking a huge steaming poop on the X-Men franchise. Oh, wait, Brett Ratner already did that!

Posted in News | No Comments

Please Don’t Mess This Up!

January 18th, 2009 by Fraser

Problems with X-Men Origins: Wolverine?

x-menwolverine.jpgWhy does the universe hate me so? Yes, it is all about me and my suffering.

Well, maybe this is just because the universe understands that with a new baby in the house, it will be unlikely that I’ll be able to see this in the theatre. Note to universe: a few months delay won’t make a difference, so I’d prefer it if you just cleaned this mess up and put this movie out. Thanks. Bye!

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The Day the Bebop Stood Still

January 16th, 2009 by Fraser

Keanu Reeves, who sometimes does well but more often than not, does not, will be taking on the role of Spike Spiegel in a live-action version of Cowboy Bebop.

This does not fill me with joy.

Posted in News | 1 Comment

Samuel L Jackson IS Nick Fury . . . Maybe

January 14th, 2009 by Fraser

SCI FI Wire is reporting that Samuel L Jackson may not continue in the role of Nick Fury, as portrayed at the end of Iron Man.nick_fury.jpg

The story indicates it’s about the money.

This is insane. How can you have Nick Fury and not have Samuel L (mother-f$%kin’) Jackson? The only other person to portray Nick Fury on the screen was David Hasselhoff. We are simply given no choice but to bow to SL(mf)J’s demands.

Give him whatever he was paid for Snakes On A Plane, because, seriously, if he was willing to do that for a paycheque, he should be willing to do anything.

While pre-Ultimate era Marvel fandom might be willing to consider a slew of other actors for Nick Fury, his portrayal in the Ultimates makes it pretty much a no-brainer that SL(mf)J has to be the man up on the screen. If that gives him leverage to get some extra cake out of the production, what’s so wrong with that? SL(mf)J as Nick Fury will actually be a draw for me, as much as Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.

And I really don’t want to consider the repercussions of losing SL(mf)J!

nick-fury-shield-movie-12.jpg

Posted in News | 1 Comment

Snowflake Project: Alex’s Story

January 14th, 2009 by Fraser

So the Snowflake Method indicates the writer should create a one page plot synopsis for each character. I think I’m going to pass on that. I have two reasons. First, it’s a lot of freaking work! Work which I don’t feel would help move this particular project forward. It might be useful to find each character’s voice, but I prefer to do that in the writing of the work itself. If I were a full-time writer, I could follow this method and it would likely yield up some interesting results. Given that writing isn’t even part-time for me, I’m going to skate across the surface and see what I find.

Second, I fear for you, the audience, this would be hella redundant. The one pager I’ve got for Alex is pretty redundant, following the plot synopsis as it does. Do you really want to read six of these? Didn’t think so.

So here’s the plot synopsis based on Alex’s character and what happens to him. Anything which Alex doesn’t know about or witness isn’t included.

Alexander Scott had retired, had left the world of black ops, secret missions, and covert actions. Then a young but talented spec war operator, Rebbecca Kim, came looking for him. His old friend and her old mentor had disappeared. Boyle, who had stayed in the world of black book operations when Alex had left it, had gone dark. Then he was implicated in the murder of a man known only as the Bedouin–some kind of shadowy fixer, a ghost of the intelligence community.

Against his better judgement, Alex joined Becca. He still had contacts, still had friends and allies in the business that placed Boyle with TANGIBLE STREAM, a unit so dark no one even knew who ran it. Something had happened in Nepal. The Chinese might have been involved. Boyle had been in the middle of it. Since then, he had run silent. Everyone had orders to bag him–either bring him in alive or bring proof of his demise.

Alex’s contacts put he and Becca in a room with Jack and Sarah, two civilians who had connections with the Bedouin. Sarah has some kind of paranormal powers, which she does not explain. Becca confides in Alex that she believes Sarah has been trained in sorcery. The kicker comes when Becca reveals the Bedouin was some kind of master wizard, who trained those he found able to access magic.

While picking up Boyle’s trail in Nepal, the group barely survive an attack by a team of ex-Spetsnaz freelance assassins. They track the team back to their roost, and documentation there indicates that Becca is considered a rogue. Both the CIA and Chinese Ministry of State Security have put a bounty on her head, linking her to Boyle, and possibly TANGIBLE STREAM. Alex doesn’t believe this. Things just aren’t adding up.

Rather than finding Boyle, Boyle finds them. He had thought the Spetsnaz team was after him. A confrontation ensues since Sarah believes that Boyle killed the Bedouin. A standoff ensues, until Alex talks Sarah into giving Boyle a chance to prove his innocence. Boyle believes the Spetsnaz team’s financier will put them a step closer to the Bedouin’s real killer, so they follow the money.

Boyle reveals that TANGIBLE STREAM is black ops team tasked to eliminating paranormal threats. Unfortunately, Boyle’s team uncovered an attempt to start a hot war between Western and Chinese intelligence agencies, possibly to remove their paranormal assets. Now Alex and the rest will be targets as well, linked to the TANGIBLE STREAM “conspiracy.” Whoever is pulling the strings is trying to weaken the big players on the board, but Boyle doesn’t know why.

The money leads to the eastern European nation of Turveria. The team plans to infiltrate the banks and recover the information on the assassins’ payments. Before they set their plan in motion, a special operations group led by agents out of the CIA’s ESPer unit, Narcissus, intercept them. The ESPer, Dylan Lincoln, is powerful, but Sarah’s magic gives her the upper hand. With the tables turned, Alex and Becca bring the Narcissus agents on side by providing them all the information uncovered.

Dylan has been tracking an unbelievably powerful parapsyche. No one can accept this as a coincidence, and the team decides to take this parapsyche down. If he is not the Bedouin’s killer, the team can continue the hunt with Narcissus’ help.

The team covertly infiltrates the castle location which Dylan pinpoints as the parapsyche’s location. The parapsyche detects them just before they can strike, and bedlam unfolds. But the team proves more than a match for the parapsyche–who calls himself St. Martin–and the Turverian special forces that protect him. Though St. Martin is rendered braindead, the Turverian forces within the castle lair are alerted, and it looks like the team will go down fighting. And unexpected ally allows a hasty retreat out of Turveria, and an international incident is avoided.

Next on the drawing board is a four-page plot synopsis that is supposed to add a lot more meat to the plot bones. This should be interesting!

Posted in Fiction | No Comments

EVE Online: Apocrypha Uncovers a New Version of the Universe Itself

January 14th, 2009 by Fraser

CCP’s massive free expansion slated for March Release

 Reykjavik, Iceland: January 8, 2008 – CCP, one of the world’s leading independent game developers, today announced the launch of the tenth free expansion for EVE Online, its popular science fiction massively multi-player online game (MMOG). EVE Online: Apocrypha is the most ambitious EVE expansion in the game’s over five year history and it coincides with the March 10th, 2009 release of EVE Online as a boxed product through a partnership with Atari.

The fabric of space itself will be transformed as vast, unpredictable wormholes open to connect previously unexplored regions of the universe to the stars of New Eden. The seeds of advanced new technology await inside of these cosmic anomalies for those brave enough to explore them. This infusion of technology will enable production of the most dynamic vessels ever–Tech 3 modular ships with an astounding amount of customizability that can fill any role from skirmish muscle to industrial support.

Furthermore, NPC agents in EVE Online: Apocrypha will be authorized to assign Epic Mission Arcs to the pilots of New Eden. These branching, far-reaching mission strings are full of meaningful stories and more intelligent and deadly adversaries.

In addition, we are offering an entirely reworked New Player Experience for those joining (or rejoining) the game–giving them better insight into how to thrive in a truly limitless universe. We’ve already launched EVElopedia (http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Main_Page)–a great repository for information on all things EVE where our players are also building their own living history of the previous five years of Alliance warfare, political intrigue and nostalgic recollection

“Just this past week we broke our concurrent user record with 45,186 people flying unbound in the same game world at the same time–a huge percentage of our quarter of a million current subscribers and a true testament to EVE in our sixth year of operation,” said EVE Online Senior Producer Torfi Frans Olafsson. “Today is an unprecedented time to start playing, as you can get ahead of the curve before Apocrypha releases in stores and our hard work hits the server cluster. It’ll be easier than ever to get ‘lost in the wormhole’ that is EVE with what we have planned for the future of our expanding universe.”

Leading up to the release of EVE Online: Apocrypha and the boxed version of EVE Online in stores, we’ll be revealing more features on www.eveonline.com.

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The New Doctor Who

January 5th, 2009 by Fraser

eleventh_doctor.jpg Is Matt Smith, which seems fitting, since when I heard that, I asked “Who?”

Matt’s got a couple of tough acts to follow, what with Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant kicking all kinds of stuff in their performances as the Doctor. And that doesn’t include all the great actors who came in the series first incarnation.

I don’t know when we here in Canada will get to see Mr. Smith in action. I actually haven’t seen the last couple of seasons of the new series, but I know some of the episodes are available on the CBC.

And if you need a fix, check out the amazing web-comid The Ten Doctors. A lot of fun for those of us who remember the series from Way Back (TM).

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