yes! Yes! YES! Finally, a true WIDEscreen television. Measuring in with an aspect ration of 21:9, this super wide tele from Phillips is sure to dazzle film buffs everywhere. I've actually wondered what one of these might look like. CNET UK got to see the TV in person, and of course they have a few issues with the screen. I'm all for this, but I doubt it'll become standard anytime soon. Seriously people, there will always be black bars as long as content is produced in different aspect ratios. Or you could just get a dedicated constant height theater.

Yatterman trailer:


Is that a key-chain at the end? This could be awesome.

The guys at the Pixar Blog are salty. And perhaps justifiably so, the internet is ablaze with angry Pixar fan boys foaming at the mouth ready to call bull shit on the Annie Award's decision to completely snub Wall-e, and award best picture to Kung Fu Panda. The thing is, I really liked Wall-E, but I also liked Kung fu Panda. The whole idea of one being better than the other is preposterous in the first place, but to imply that Katzenberg had anything to do with it may be even more absurd. I'm sure we'll being hearing more on this subject in the coming weeks, or at least until Wall-E gets crowned (which it will) the king of animation entertainment at Oscars this year.

This is a pretty cool interview with director of Sleep Dealer Alex Rivera VIA Wired.

If you've ever been interested in checking out videos about artists like Matthew Barney that aren't limited to the 2 minute run-time of the art 21 clips, check out UbuWeb.
About the site:

UbuWeb is a completely independent resource dedicated to all strains of the avant-garde, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts.

All materials on UbuWeb are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights belong to the author(s).

And the Directors Guild of America 2009 Honorary Life Member Award goes to...Roger Ebert! I've been thinking about the role of criticism recently and about how vital it is. Critics contextualize film and champion directors much to the benefit of film fans worldwide. So this one's for you Roger Ebert. Thanks for so many years of great input!

P.S. Be sure to check out his desert island dialogues.

According to Filmonic John Stevenson is set to direct a new version of the used-to-be popular He-Man IP. Why does this all seem so eerily familiar? Oh that's right, it's because they already did this way back in 1987. Perhaps Warner Bros. Thought that they could handle this one with a little more composure and make it a little more faithful to the original franchise. Whatever the case may be, I'm so tired of seeing these "re-boots." The studios must be counting on the short memory of the audience. Otherwise why would they made two entirely different Incredible Hulk movies in less than six years, and now with talks of another Superman re-boot just around the corner, will it ever end? But sometimes they get it right, right? After all, most people would probably argue that the Chris Nolan Batman franchise is better than the Tim Burton/Joel Shumacher series. Still, isn't there a grace period in which we should wait before we start remaking freshly made movies. With Hollywood relentlessly mining the archives for movie ideas, the well is running dry. And they've all but reached the present. Pretty soon they'll start to re-make movies while the original is still in production à la Spaceballs. When will then be now? Well...now, I guess.

Check out my slide show of some of his work.


Check his personel site out here.

3D is the new buzzword. Although it's been around for a while. Anyway, last night I saw My Bloody Valentine 3D. It wasn't without it's charm, but it was a good waste of time. It followed the breadcrumbs left behind by past slasher films. The 3D murders were amazing even if they were a bit tacky. Every 20 minutes or so there were body parts or bullets flying out into the audience. The 3d looked great. It was pretty transparent to the film. And by that I mean, for the most part, the 3D aspect wasn't too intrusive. It served its purpose, and with the exceptions of the kills, it never felt gimmicky. But about 20 minutes into the movie there was, of course, a sex scene. It had bouncing boobs and jiggling asses. I'm fairly certain this is the first time I've seen either of T or A in 3D. Which brings me to my next question. Are 3D skin skin flicks on the horizon? Variety reports that Chinese director Stephen Shiu Jr. is planning on making a sequel to the 1991 movie Sex and Zen
. Really though, who's the audience for these movies? Will there be a XXX theater renaissance? Only time will tell. I'm still waiting for 3D video games...

According to the BBC Michael Jackson is set to "help develop a US stage musical based on the video to his hit song Thriller." The musical is to include music from both Thriller and Off the Wall. I don't know why but this reminds of the Simpson's spoof of Planet of the Apes gone Broadway.
Still, this looks like it'll be fun, especially with input from MJ.

This is what I do all day...I listen to podcast. What do I listen to? Here's my short list, but it's not without a bit of drama. (A few weeks ago UGO's parent corporation scooped up Ziff Davis media which left the future of some great podcast from 1up.com rather uncertain. The dissolution of the 1up's media network left a huge hole in my podcast lineup. It killed 1up yours, 1up show, 1up fm, and last but not least, retronauts. These were all excellent podcast.)

What I've Been listenin' to:

The Slash Filmcast This is a great podcast from the guys at slash film. It covers topics from the entertainment industry, specifically movies and television.

Rebel FM From Eat-Sleep-Game.com this is a fledgling podcast produced by ex-members of the 1up network. They're still trying to get it right, but hopefully they'll find they're footing.

The Giant Bombcast Post 1up yours, this is my principle gaming podcast. It'll have to do for now.

With the promise of a new flagship podcast from Garnett Lee, I guess I'll have to wait patiently and keep scouring the web for new podcast habits.

The push for 3D movies as the standard, may be happening sooner rather than latter. With movies like Beowulf and Bolt legitimately pushing the boundaries of what 3-Dimensional cinema can be, the world is ready to take this technology seriously. The Telegraph reports that Terra Firma owned Odeon will future proof 111 of its 200 theaters in the UK by making them 3D ready. So we might as well welcome this new wave of cinema tech, because it's coming anyway.

I was trying to express to my friend how cool the movie Mary and Max looked, even though I've yet to see a proper trailer. I don't know much about the movie other than what was listed in the Sundance Press Kit, but I'm impressed by visual direction and the seemingly mature content. The character design ain't to shabby either. From the kit:

MARY & MAX is a claymated feature film from the creators of the Academy Award winning short animation HARVIE KRUMPET. It is a simple tale of pen-friendship between two very different people; Mary Dinkle, a chubby lonely eight year old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max Horovitz, a 44 year old, severely obese, Jewish man with Aspergers Syndrome living in the chaos of New York. Spanning 20 years and 2 continents, Mary and Max's friendship survives much more than the average diet of life's ups and downs. Like Harvie Krumpet, MARY AND MAX is innocent but not naïve, as it takes us on a journey that explores friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, sexual difference, trust, copulating dogs, religious difference, agoraphobia and much much more.

It slated to open on April 9 2009. Also, be sure to check out its website to see the rest of the characters.

EDIT: I just found the trailer thanks to Slashfilm.