You know, I was content with thinking that blax-ploitation send-up Black Dynamite was merely a very creative fake trailer (we’ve included the red-band version post-jump, just to stay safe). But every indication seems to suggest that Michael Jai White’s funky fight against The Man is a feature-length affair — and one that’s been accepted to the next Sundance Film Fesitval to boot.
The success of Ray Harryhausen Presents; The Pit and the Pendulum, a short stop motion animated film produced by Hand Made Heroes Film & Television has resulted in a comic book deal with Bluewater Productions. When Bluewater President Darren G. Davis and Director Marc Lougee of Hand Made Heroes discovered they were both producing work independently under the Ray Harryhausen Presents banner, Bluewater immediately penned a deal with director Marc Lougee to further develop film & comic book cross-over properties.
Since it’s premiere hosted by Harry Knowles of Ain’t It Cool News at the BNAT Film Festival, The Pit and the Pendulum short film has screened in over 200 film festivals and comic conventions around the world including AFI Dallas and San Diego Comic-Con. Nearly 100,000 visitors logged into the film’s website within two days of the film’s premier in Austin, TX, and has continued to garner a global fan following.
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Even in an age of terrorism and economic meltdown, these past few years have seen a proliferation of popular satire: from a rejuvenated Saturday Night Live to The Onion, late-night monologues, Internet satires and, most prominently, The Daily Show.
President Bush has frequently been the object of such satires. How will satirists fill the vacuum he leaves behind?
Host Scott Simon talks with Kevin Bleyer, a writer for The Daily Show with John Stewart, about the challenges of making fun of serious news and an earnest president-elect.
Adidas is turning 60 in 2009, so to celebrate they’re releasing a massive campaign to show just how cool and original they are. This is the first spot, created by Sid Lee of Montréal, that makes us wish we could throw mad house parties and wear 3 stripes exclusively for the rest of our lives… or that’s how it makes me feel. They’ve even invited all the big names who they say helped make their brand what it is today. “It’s the house party to end all house partys — and you’re invited.”
As the convoy of 18 SUVs pulls to a halt on the narrow road above Sanjiang, Wenchuan county, Sichuan, the gleeful shrieks of an excited crowd float upwards through the autumnal mist. The vehicles have made the three-hour journey from the provincial capital Chengdu, spending two hours of it crawling through countryside affected by the cataclysmic earthquake in May.
Three thousand miles from where Happy, Dopey and Doc line the walls of the Walt Disney Company’s Burbank studios, the animator Bill Plympton keeps an office in one of those south-of-Midtown Manhattan buildings full of anonymous-looking steel gray doors.
Behind them could be anything from vacuum cleaner dealerships to international drug cartels. But who cares? Clearly, more fantastic things are erupting down the hall at Mr. Plympton’s: Alien marriages. Nose hairs as long as the Nile. Dogs that dream of fire hydrants. And cinema created by pencil.
A lot of pencil
You meet Mickey, you can’t help liking him. He rescues abused dogs! He cries a lot: over his stepfather’s supposed abuse; the loss of his brother to cancer and his dogs to old age; the failure of his marriage to the actress Carré Otis. He admits he destroyed his own career, because, as he puts it: “I was arrogant. . . . I wasn’t smart enough or educated enough” to deal with stardom. He is candid about the people he has crossed paths with: Nicole Kidman is “an ice cube”; Michael Cimino, the director of “Heaven’s Gate,” “is crazy” and “nuts”; and the producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr. is “a liar.”
Come with your questions about being an entrepreneur in the media, arts & entertainment industry. Every Wednesday night at 9pm (EST) host Daron Jenkins will answer your questions as well as share industry news, talk hot topics, share business insights and let you know what networking opportunities are upcoming.
Starting Nov. 19th at 9pm EST on UStream TV
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/scenepr-live
