D-9 Debriefing

My friend and I really didn't know what to think when we stepped out of the theater after seeing District 9 tonight. I don't know what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn't what I experienced. The best way I can describe it is like watching a more cinematic two hour game of Halo.



A Halo game at which I'm not behind the controls because although I would love to be a gamer, I particularly suck at the ones in which you have to navigate and shoot with two different controls, especially when they are inverted. Why?! It's complicated enough as it is! Now I have to remember that when I aim the joystick down that I am actually looking up? My ex-boyfriend and his frat brothers took full advantage of this fact and delighted in repeatedly running me over, ambushing and sniping me. The best I could do was memorize where the turrets were, attempt to reach them and make it rain bullets! And I still rarely ended up with a positive kill score. (If we were playing Mario Kart or Super Smash Brothers, it would be a different story. Oh yes.)

Anyways, I don't really get into ARG (Alternative Reality Games) but I heard the one promoting District 9 was decent. They scattered stuff all over the web, which appeared to come from several different "sources." (I think they recently aggregated them at D-9.com since the movie is out now).




They even arrived in full force at Comic Con to warn/inform people.



I don't this ARG was as widespread or as popular as the one for The Dark Knight (which won the Grand Prix in the Cyber Lions category at Cannes this year), but hey, I went to see the movie so at least some part of it worked on me.



I still don't know exactly what to think of the movie. It left me with more questions than answers, which I suspect was it's intention. It was definitely unlike any other movie I've ever seen. Weird how movies are becoming more like video games, whether subtly like this one or blatantly like Gamer, which I will probably end up seeing thanks to all the action and explosions I've seen in the trailers.

Afterthought: I found this screen junkies review online which states that the original intention of this movie WAS actually supposed to an adaptation of Halo. Hmmm...

Curiouser and Curiouser...

Hey y'all! Time to indulge in my AIW obsession once again.





The Loyal Subjects of the Red Queen, the Loyal Subjects of the White Queen, and the Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter are all building armies on Facebook. The fan page with the biggest army at 7PM EST on Thursday, July 23 will get to see an exclusive new trailer from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland before anyone else. Here is the link where you can pick your page and see some pretty character portraits.

Of course I cheated and became fans of all three, which led me to the main Alice in Wonderland Facebook page where I stole these lovely new promotional posters:







It's a ridiculously simple and smart way to engage crazy kids like me and get free promotion (I twittered the link and passed it on to some other fans I know on Facebook). Thanks again to my favorite enabler, MM. :)

Colin and Cannes

Cannes draws huge crowds this time of year, not only for this little film festival you may have heard of, but also for the presentation of the Lions to the best and brightest in advertising. Looks like Sapient acquired quite a few this year:


Including a Gold Lion for these sweet interactive vending machines:


(At a tech convention)


(At a mall)

Not that I personally had anything to do with any of that... but let's see what happens in a few years.

But back to the film festival. I got to catch up with a friend from Miami Ad School last night and he told me about this film Colin which was killing at Cannes, literally and metaphorically.



Horror's not really my thing but there are a few twists to this zombie story. Apparently it's from a single zombie's perspective, trying to figure out what has happened to him rather than a person trying to escape hoards of flesh-eating freaks. Then there's the fact that the entire budget was about $70, which was spent on a crowbar, tea, coffee and some tapes. It's the debut film of director Marc Price and Nowhere Fast Productions. Price lives in London and has no formal film training but picked up his skills from watching the DVD commentary of other directors. He's attracted the attention of some Hollywood and Japanese distributors, who are currently bidding for the rights to it.

And the entire cast of over 100 people worked for free, most of whom were found through Facebook and MySpace. All the make-up artists volunteered their services as well. And when asked where the idea came from, Price said
""A couple of friends were round a few years ago watching Romero's 'Dawn of the Dead,' recalls Price. "And we were lamenting the fact that we could never make a zombie film -- we wouldn't be able to acquire a budget."

"Then I just woke up before everyone else -- I was probably a bit hungover -- and I wondered if a zombie movie from a zombie's perspective had been done before."

Here's a few interesting articles about it from CNN and Times Online.

Movie Mirecommendations

Thanks to MM and Julio for sending me links (First Look and USA Today and Coming Soon) to UH-MAY-ZING pictures and art from Tim Burton's work in progress that is Alice in Wonderland.








Johnny Deep looks creepy as usual, Anne Hathaway looks gorgeous as the White Queen and Helena Bonham Carter looks more like the Red Drag Queen. Lol.

Rumors are that it is more like a sequel, "Alice, 17, attends a party at a Victorian estate only to find she is about to be proposed to in front of hundreds of snooty society types. Off she runs, following a white rabbit into a hole and ending up in Wonderland, a place she visited 10 years before yet doesn't remember..."

It's supposed to be released in theaters March 5 of next year, and I CAN NOT wait to start seeing the promotional materials and trailers. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm obsessed with anything related to the story. I even have my awesome cheshire cat mug for tea-making at the agency. My first official day is Wednesday! Yay!



And speaking of movies in the making, I found this article through Digg, where director David Yates talks about plans for the final two movies based on the last book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

And its about time The Half Blood Prince finally came out! I'm gonna try to reread the book before the movie comes out on July 15! SO EXCITED!!!

Monday Mirecommendations Vol V

Going to be a quick post because once again I wasn't able to finish my must-do list. I guess on the bright side I finished me and Aron's Future Lions entry at the cost of getting any sleep last night. I also get to walk to the South Beach office on Lincoln Road instead of driving 45 minutes each way to Palmetto Bay.

Anyways, I caught Clerks 2 on Comedy Central when I was working the other night. I never saw the first one, I guess because the fact that it's black and white initialy turned me off. But Dogma is one of my all time favs so I guess I'm a semi-fan of Jay and Silent Bob. I guess more accurately I'm a fan of Kevin Smith's kind of comedy.



Here's a scene where they make fun of Lord of the Rings.



I really do think the original Star Wars is better than LOTR and I didn't like the recent SW prequils at all. However, they failed to mention my totally favorite trilogy of all time, Indiana Jones (I don't completely count Crystal Skull because of the ridiculous ending). Maybe I only like trilogies starring Harrison Ford.

And here's the trailer for Dogma in case you've never seen it:



So I guess basically I have the movie taste of a frat boy.

Blueberries!

This blueberry themed post is just for MM! Since I started drinking beer recently I've found one of my favorites is Sea Dog Blue Paw, a blueberry flavored microbrew from Maine. I always buy it at Publix and Zeke's on Lincoln Road usually has it too!



They have a couple other fruity flavors including apricot and raspberry. And I know it's technically not beer but I like woodchuck and strongbow ciders too.

And I can't help but remember this scene from Willy Wonka where Violet transforms into a giant blueberry. I only like the old one. Tim Burton's remake was terrible. And way creepier.



Speaking of Tim Burton, he better not screw up the version of Alice in Wonderland that he is shooting right now because it's pretty much my favorite story of all time. It's due out sometime in 2010; less than a year to go now!



Lastly, I think the best use of blueberries is in muffins. They are barely above lemon poppyseed, only because they pose no risk of failing a drug test. I'm sure most of you have already seen this video, but it's still funny.

Monday Mirecommendations Vol I

Is there such a thing as being too random? Maybe. I was recently inspired by some of my blogging buddies to add a weekly segment to prove I can have some sort of method to my madness. Hence, this is the first entry for the Monday Mirecommendations.
Basically I'll highlight some of my favorite movies, music, artists, whatever.

I was watching TV the other day because it was raining and I've learned the hard way that pretty much the whole island freaks out whenever we get precipitation. One of my favorite underrated movies was on, Into The Blue.

An abundance of action, sweet plot twists, buried treasure, starring Paul Walker in board shorts and Jessica Alba in a bikini. What else do you need in a movie? It's kind of like The Beach mixed with a modern day Pirates of the Caribbean with a dash of the Discovery Channel.



And the best part? Karma bites people in the ass. Literally. They get attacked by sharks. Not as dramatic as Jaws, but still pretty cool.



I don't know what's up with the first schizo, over-photoshopped poster. This second one is much better. They look like two different movies. But they have one thing in common: cheesetastic taglines.

Hollywood meets Bollywood

I know I'm a laggard in the product life cycle of Slumdog Millionaire, but I finally saw it tonight and it was amazing! Cinematography, plot, editing, acting, everything was fantastic!



It totally deserved the 8 Oscars it won:
"Best Achievement in Cinematography"
"Best Achievement in Directing"
"Best Achievement in Editing"
"Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score"
"Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song"
"Best Achievement in Sound"
"Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published"
and most importantly
"Best Motion Picture of the Year"

It was awesome to see so much into Indian culture, especially right after our guest speaker a few weeks ago, Richard Monturo, made such a big deal about BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) Pop. He mentioned Bollywood as one of the most recognizable aspects of Indian pop culture, which is a portmanteau of Bombay (the former name for Mumbai) and Hollywood, the center of the American film industry.

I loved the full-cast choreography during the end credits, which Aman told me is pretty much a staple in Bollywood films. The subtitles were exceptionally well designed and placed. M.I.A. was a brilliant addition to the soundtrack. And Dev Patel, who plays the main character Jamal, reminds me of an Indian version of my close friend's little brother.



Not as big a fan of the movie poster. The only other time I have ever seen (default-gradient-overlayed) 'cracked' used as a typeface may have been for a forgettable low-budget action flick that spent its entire budget on not-so-special effects and had no money left to hire a designer so they made an intern do it for free.
Again, a design that doesn't do the movie justice.

Half-Blood, Half-Assed

Just read MM's blog and got super excited about Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince, supposedly hitting theaters in July. I feel like I need to reread the book to refresh my memory. Anyways, I found the teaser poster and I have to say it's got some pretty bad typography, among other things.


It just doesn't do the movie justice!

Coraline

My last post was fun and airy.
My latest one
may seem a bit scary.
This website promotes Coraline,
Which is coming to theaters
in a very short time.


Check out the website. I like how simple the interaction is: Drop buttons over your eyes. That's it.
Here's the latest trailer:


The movie is based on Neil Gaiman's international & New York Times best-selling children's novel of the same name (released in 2002). The film is a combination of stop-motion and 3D graphics. It's been in a painstaking production for the past three years and a lot of the sets are handmade.



The main character is voiced by Dakota Fanning and is directed by Henry Selick, who did the Nightmare Before Christmas. It makes me think of a more modern, darker version of Alice in Wonderland. So of course I want to see it when it comes out next month!

The 5th Quarter

You can soon see Jamie's boyfriend on the big screen. He is an extra as a male cheerleader in the film The 5th Quarter. The true story is about Wake Forest linebacker Jon Abbate, who's almost 16 year old brother, Luke, was killed in a car wreck right before his junior year season in 2006. Jon changed his jersey to his brother's former number, 5, and always held up five fingers at the beginning of every 4th quarter. His family started The Five Foundation in Luke's memory.

Anyways, as the sister of a Wake student, I vividly remember that season when they went all the way to the ACC Championship and the Orange Bowl. The film is being directed by Rick Bieber and stars Ryan Merriman (my former Disney-channel star crush) as Jon Abbate. Here's the entry on imdb so far and a local news report. I think its cool that they are using some actual game footage and some people from the real-life story. The movie is due in theaters May 2009.

curioser and curioser...

apparently tim burton is remaking my favorite story of all time, alice in wonderland, due in theaters in 2010. no surprise johnny depp has been cast as the mad hatter. it's also rumored that anne hathaway and helena bonham carter will play the white queen and red queen, respectively. i'm glad he cast a relatively unknown girl, mia wasikowska, to play the lead role (even though she looks a little too old). he better not screw it up like charlie and the chocolate factory.

all i can find so far are some pictures from shooting:




and an article from the l.a. times.