I didn’t think posting my thoughts about my daughter’s social dilemmas in junior kindergarten fit, but if you are interested, you can check it out on my tumblr feed.

The article is here.

I love hardcover books. I love them because they look good displayed. Now it used to be that most of my reading was done at home or—when I lived in Korea—in my office. In such a situation, a hardcover is just as good as a softcover. These days, though, all my reading—at least all my reading for pleasure—is done on the bus and occasionally—very occasionally—in bed. For the bus, at least, the paperback is the way to go, both for ease of storage, weight, and required space.

Right now I’ve got about ten hardcover books that I want to get into, but that I won’t. Should my circumstances change, I’ll be diving right in. As it stands now, I’m going to have to get paperback copies of those—likely used—or I won’t ever read them.

Strange how things change.

Okay, this is totally just a rumour, and one that I actually have a hard time believing, but it is so infused with awesome I just had to share.

Apparently, after the release of the Dark Knight Rises, Warner Bros. is going to produce a TV series based on Nolan’s Batman franchise–well, based on the comic book, of course, but the rumour indicates the suit running this show would keep it in line with Nolan’s movies–except for one important caveat. The bad guy for this TV series is going to be the Joker.

Now this sounds interesting, but it is not enough to get me excited, especially since what made Batman Begins and the Dark Knight so amazing was Christopher’s Nolan vision of the character and his ability to shield the production from tampering. Moving it onto the small screen without that protection means all bets are off. This could be all kinds of awesome or all kinds of suck.

The part that gets me excited is the name attached to play Batman/Bruce Wayne: Karl Urban. I’ve been a fan of Karl Urban’s since seeing him as Eomer in the Two Towers. I even endured Pathfinder because it gave him a starring role–only the inclusion of Clancy Brown allows me to mention that movie without beating my head against the table. Having him as Batman is an inspired choice. He’s got the look, he’s got the chops, and he’s got the physicality to deliver.

Get this production a good show runner and a slew of good scripts, and you might have a real winner.

More likely than that, though, is that this will all evaporate like dream vapours shat out the ass of pessimism.

See the original article here.

I like me some martial arts in my movies. That doesn’t mean I inordinately love martial arts movies, but if you give me some awesome fight scenes, I’ll forgive a lot (though not anything, as I still haven’t forgiven Ong Bak 2 for not being Ong Bak). I also tend to enjoy a lot of Korean movies. Having lived there, I have a soft spot for them, and there are some really, really awesome flicks from out of South Korea.

And here comes the Warrior’s Way. It’s got a Korean heart-throb/action star and a Korean director, but seems to be a Western film, in both senses of the word. This seems like a North American production with at least some of the film in the Western genre–but straight Western, rather than a pastiche, like the awe-inspiring the Good, the Bad, and the Weird.

There’s a trailer and a TV spot out now, from which I deduce that the main character is supposed to be Japanese rather than Korean. That kind of pisses me off, but that’s likely something to do with financing and targeting the American audience. Considering the animosity Koreans feel for the Japanese, that might not float so well back in the Republic.

I’m tentatively optimistic about this movie, and if it hits Ottawa, I’ll try to get a babysitter so the long-suffering wife and I can check it out together.

See the trailer here.

Just wanted to do a very quick post then get back to doing abso-fucking-lutely nothing.

Go check out Old School Hack. Corey Reid (he of the awesome Dino Pirates of Ninja Island) pointed the way, and it was my road to Damascus.

Old School Hack is just about the best synthesis of old school and new ideas in a very, very rules light package I‘ve ever seen. I love this. So. Very. Cool. 18 pages, and that includes a character sheet, 7 class sheets, and even action cards (and a cool . . . excuse me, Super Cool card displayer). Fast read, looks like fast mechanics, and a very cooperative, fun vibe. I think I might try me some S&S action with this if I ever get the band back together.

Go download the free PDF now.

And go check out Corey Reid’s web presence at Scratch Factory.

Some of you out there might know of the film-maker Tarsem Singh, also known simply as Tarsem. While I never did see the Cell, I was mesmerized by the Fall . . . that is until my wife asked me to switch movies because it was putting her to sleep.

Yeah, anyway. . .

I found Singh’s style arresting. The pace of the Fall was languid, but I was digging it, mostly because it was packed with atmosphere, I liked the story as I saw it unravel before me, and the performances were fabulous. Yes, I will be returning to finish that movie some night when my wife is busy.

Right now, Singh is working on Immortals, which sounds like it will do what the Clash of the Titans re-make attempted to do, and that is make a good, exciting movie about war between gods and men. There’s very little on the internet about this movie, but everything I’ve seen so far get me excited.

Now I’m hearing rumours that Singh has been brought onboard to direct a re-telling of Snow White that is closer to its original roots, no longer whitewashed Mother Goose/Disney pablum. That sounds interesting. If I see it, it’ll be because of the director and not the source material.

Also, there’s another movie that’s supposedly in production that focuses on the Woodsman as a mentor and protector of Snow White after he refuses to kill her on the Evil Queen’s orders. Less likely to see that one.

All this just to say I’m excited to see what Singh does with Immortals. Fingers crossed.

More information on Immortals here.

I’m not the biggest Zack Snyder fan on the planet, but I enjoyed 300 and thought the Watchmen was a good but far from perfect product. I have to admit, though, to being jazzed by what I’ve seen from Sucker Punch. It seems to play to Snyder’s strengths: action and visuals.

I have no expectations for story. I have no expectations for characterization. I want the over-the-top action scenes promised in the trailers. And to those too-cool-for-school hipsters out there who scoff at this and talk about how they’ve seen all the slow-mo then revved up style before I say: “Good. Don’t fuckin’ go. Let me check and see if I care . . . oh, what a surprised, I don’t.”

There’s a new trailer up here.

And on the Zack Snyder front, he’s also recently kicked me in the junk . . . metaphorically, thankfully.

He’s come out and said Zod is not the villain for Man of Steel, the new Snyder-helmed Superman movie on the horizon.

Listen, I knew it was a long shot getting Terrence Stamp to reprise the role, and I also knew that if not handled correctly Zod would be a piss-poor villain, but goddamn if it wouldn’t be cool to a have some Stamp-tastic Zodyssey on film.

Snyder, I have a strong feeling I’m going to enjoy Sucker Punch, but that doesn’t mean you can mess up Superman.

You’ve been warned.

With the MGM having filed for bankruptcy, projects can begin production (or not, I really have no fucking clue about financial stuff), and it seems that there is some hope that the next Bond movie might be out as early as November 2012.

Yeah, I know, 2 years doesn’t seem “early,” but considering that’s from dead to total, public life, that’s not too bad. There is a script out there, but will it be used? There is a director attached (Sam Mendes), but will he still be available? And how will this fit into Daniel Craig’s schedule?

There’s hope at least, and if things do actually get cleared up, we’re told the Bond movies will be coming pretty regularly.

Let’s hope. Let’s also hope this resurrected Bond doesn’t begin the decline that seems to invariably hit every re-energized, re-focused moment in the film franchise.

A little bit of casting news for Friday.

There are reports floating around out there—or are they rumours?—that Martin Sheen and Sally Field have been cast in the Spider-man reboot as—who else?—Uncle Ben and Aunt May.

Now this would be quite a casting coup, though—honestly—I think Cliff Robertson has more of the “Uncle Ben” vibe than Martin Sheen. Sheen, to me, has too much Apocalypse Now and West Wing for me to ever think of him as Uncle Ben. He’s too distinct. These days, he just carries too much intrinsic gravitas to be kindly Uncle Ben.

Sally Field as Aunt May I might buy, though for a visual likeness from the comics, Rosemary Harris totally won. I can’t see Sally Field doing the same. Then again, maybe they are going for a younger Aunt May.

What all this means—sadly—is that we’re going to see another origin story, that is unless all the Uncle Ben scenes are flashbacks. For the number of people who will see this movie who don’t know the Spider-man mythology, re-doing the origin is a waste of time. It’s a waste of time that could be used selling us on this new Spider-man. Seriously, I don’t want to see origins of Spider-man, Superman, or Batman ever again.

Someone like Green Lantern, who is a little off the mainstream media radar, okay. He also hasn’t had an origin movie (or two) already. Think of X-Men. That movie showed the origin of Rogue, in a manner of speaking, but it was over quick and the movie got on doing what we wanted it to do.

It’s too bad that this Spider-man reboot can’t do the same.

Fuck. You. Paul Anderson.

Fuck.

You.

So, we have a synopsis for the new Three Musketeers movie. Up until now, I heard that it was going to be in 3D, which did not fill me with joy, but also did not fill me with dread. Then I heard how it was going to be modernized, but in the style of Sherlock Holmes. This started to worry me. I mean, I liked Sherlock Holmes, but that was a great pair of actors with a director who had proved he could be entertaining on a good day. Paul “Soldier” Anderson? Paul “AVP” Anderson? Oh shit, this doesn’t look good.

And now it is looking much, much worse.

There’s a synopsis available. It basically tells us that this is not a Three Musketeers movie. This is a movie with characters that have the same names and some of the same attributes as the Three Musketeers, but are not the Three Musketeers.

Bringing it back to the Sherlock Holmes example, while the movie did change much about the characters, Holmes was still a private detective and Watson was still his partner, who was a medical doctor and had served in the military. Their essential characters were there, just as they were in the Basil Rathbone movies. Anderson’s film has the Three Musketeers as some kind of A-Team, a bunch of special operators that got screwed over and kicked out of the military. See, these Three Musketeers? They aren’t actually Musketeers. This is the Three ex-Musketeers.

And, buying into the same bullshit as Disney’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Musketeers from the 90s, Cardinal Richelieu has moved from the power behind the throne to an attempted usurper. WTF? Seriously, where the fuck does this come from?

Well, I actually know where this comes from: it comes from a mind too stupid to see that the power of Richelieu is greater when he can make the king do things for him, and take the blame for those things, while the Cardinal remains the unsullied power behind the throne. That was the great part about the Cardinal.

And when you are bringing this movie to the screen, you have to do it better than Richard Lester’s the Three Musketeers. Seriously, it’d be like re-making the Seven Samurai as a cheap FX Star Wars rip-off. Yes, someone did do that. Yes, it was campy fun. No, I don’t think this one will be fun. I think this will be Peter Hyam’s the Musketeer. Forgot that one, did you? Wish I could.

So, to be succinct: fuck you, Paul Anderson. Fuck you in your stupid ass.

You can find the bad news here.