So there has been a lot of talk about the Ant-Man movie project over the last few months, between the epic casting announcements a while back (Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, Patrick Wilson) and the revolving list of directors (first Edgar Wright, then Adam McKay, and now finally Peyton Reed) attached to the film. But it is moving full speed ahead now, and is scheduled for a July 17th, 2015 release. With only a year of promotion ahead, and the 2014 SDCC about to kick off, we are sure to get a bunch of 'Ant-Man' information, footage, and news in the next few days. Shit, even Michael Douglas is set to appear at the Marvel panels this weekend, and Liberace don't have to do promos if he don't want to! But, the first news (and great news at that) has to be the beautiful first 'official' poster for the film. It features typical corniness like floating heads in the background and the like... but, it also has an amazing shot of Ant-Man in all his helmeted glory warping from mini to large as he flips in one classic shot. It also features a full suited Ant-Man atop a flying insect... yup, this is what we, or at least I, have been hoping for. It will be a key part in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 3, and alongside 'Avengers 2: Age of Ultron' next summer, we should get some great new characters to add to the mix we already have (Pym & Lang Ant-Men, Evangeline Lilly might be Wasp, Scarlett Witch, Quciksilver, Ultron, etc). Enjoy this first official piece of movie merch after the jump, and expect a lot more to come in the next few days....
The CCD team is back... we have seen 'Days of Future Past' and have plenty to say about it. We also chat about 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' news, Edgar Wright leaving 'Ant-Man', and Guillermo del Torro's upcoming FX TV show 'The Strain'... and much more nerdy comedic banter. This thing is starting to come along, man... we are getting it together. Make sure you download, listen and share the podcast on all social media platforms!
IGN is a great website filled with a ton of cool content. They seemed to have found a way to be helpful to people who are trying to understand the true comic origins of characters that companies like Marvel are using in their movies. After all, its nice to know a little back story on the characters, especially the true original stuff that lies in the dusty pages of comic books past. This episode of Comic History 101 tackles Ant Man... well, Ant MEN. There have been three guys who have donned the Ant Man costume throughout the years (Hank Pym, Scott Lang, and Eric O'Grady) in the comics, but only two (Pym & Lang) will be appearing in Edgar Wright's full length movie adaption. Before we can move forward, take a cool look back at the origins of the great characters that Pym & Lang both are... and they even got scans of the original comics to illustrate the key points. A perfect precursor for a comic virgin (or a great refresher for a vet like myself) before another huge movie hits the theaters. Check out the full video after the jump...
David Chen is one of the key contributors to /Film, the best movie website on the planet. One of the coolest things that he does is sit down with directors and discuss some of their trademark techniques. The latest of this series has Chen sitting down with one of my current favorite directors, Edgar Wright, and talk about the art of the close up. Wright often employees the close up in his films, accompanied by quick cuts. My favorite occurs at the beginning of Shaun of the Dead, when Shaun is getting ready for work. Shaun (Simon Pegg) is completely out of focus, but things like his tie, name tag and cup of coffee are the highlight of the shot, Cool to hear thoughts on how and why directors shoot things in a certain way, and what makes their style unique. You can see more of Chen's sit downs by clicking on his Youtube page, and check out the Wright interview after the jump...
I am eagerly anticipating the release of the latest Nick Frost/Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright collaboration... literally gonna be one of the best moments of my cinematic summer. But I am getting even more excited when I see the newest promotional materials being issued for the movie. I am getting a very spacey, galactic feel to these pics... and that plays into the alien twist that has been rumored to plague the protagonists, who are on a quest to complete a 12 bar pub crawl that they had failed on when they were younger. With Frost & Pegg leading the charge and Wright behind the camera, I am in. These guys never disappointed me before... why think different now? Check out the new posters after the jump...
Ever since I saw the pure genius that was Shaun of the Dead, I knew that I was going to be a forever fan of Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost. The movie was pure perfection, and truth be told there hasn't been much that the three have done since (either as a team or solo) that I haven't enjoyed. They have all branched out to do great stuff, but a chance at getting them back together now that they have reached such great heights in their career is a dream for a fan like me. It looks like I will be getting my wish this year with The World's End, the third chapter in the 'Blood & Ice Cream' trilogy started by Shaun & Hot Fuzz. The movie is top secret, but it revolves around a reunion of 5 high school buddies who started out on a bar crawl through their town bars (there are 12) years ago and only got through 9 of them. Now adults, they plan on tackling the circuit of pubs once again. They plan on culminating the lifelong journey at a pub called The World's End. Only something seems to get in the way... something like aliens perhaps... or another major world ending threat... yeah, shit gets real! With an excellent supporting cast joining Frost & Pegg (Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, and Eddie Marsan) and Wright behind the lens, I am in. The film comes out here in the States in October, but take a look at the 1st movie poster and four stills from the film to wet your beak a bit after the jump...
Shaun of the Dead is one of my favorite movies of the past decade. I loved that freaking movie so much it hurts. It also helped introduce the world to actors Nick Frost & Simon Pegg, and director Edgar Wright. So how cool is it to come across a re-creation of the tavern in the film, The Winchester, made entirely of Legos? Pretty fucking cool... lol. Not only can you enjoy many detailed pics after the jump, but you can also learn how to create the set itself by clicking on this step by step website. I gotta think about putting my utter hatred for assembling Legos myself aside and make this display for my home office. I really might. Enjoy the pics after the jump...
I have been salivating to get a shot a seeing Edgar Wright's Ant Man test footage from San Diego Comic Con 2012 since the day after it aired and he 'Net nearly exploded talking about it. As a fan of the character in general, the Robert Kirkman 'Irredeemable Ant Man' comic series, and Edgar Wright as a film maker in general this is the perfect storm for me. But Marvel has been chincy with releasing the material (for once they should take a page out of DC Comics playbook from when they leaked that Blue Beatle test footage to much fan fare) and since Avengers just came & went on Blu Ray without it appearing (there was a rumor it would be a special feature on there) it seems like we might never actually see it. But artist Samurai Jack (someone we have featured here on CCD before) was in attendance at the panel back in August, so he decided to storyboard and animate what he saw on the big screen. This is the closest we are gonna get to the footage for now, and going from what I heard sounds ALOT like what was really shown. Way to show iniative Samurai!!! Check out the clip after the jump....
As the self proclaimed "World's Biggest Edgar Wright Fan" I have been eagerly awaiting the third installment in his Blood & Ice Cream trilogy with Simon Pegg & Nick Frost. Shaun of the Dead & Hot Fuzz are two of my all time favorite flicks of all time. So obviously I am super excited to see what they have in store for us in 'The World's End'... and now we have a teaser poster & synopsis for the movie. Holy fucking shit, this one sounds epic. Check out the poster & synopsis after the jump...
Shaun of the Dead is one of my all time favorite flicks. Edgar Wright killed it. So did Simon Pegg & Nick Frost. Anytime I see a new take on artwork for the film, I am going to get excited and probably post it here on CCD. Why? Because I can... and because Shaun of the Dead is just rad enough to warrant constant posts... Catch the full size poster from William Henry after the jump...
I attended an advance screening last night of "Attack The Block" in NYC. ATB is a UK imported film that has been tearing up the interwebs since it's screening at SXSW. It centers around a group of street kids defending their block against alien invaders.
It's being touted as a Sci-Fi "Shaun of the Dead," which is somewhat appropriate. It shares some Shaun Producers, most notably the talented Edgar Wright, and co-stars Shaun sidekick Nick Frost. It has been getting some severely high praise from numerous geek sites and blogs. Claims of it being brilliant and an instant classic have been rampant. Needless to say I was quite excited to see it for myself.
It's a good movie, not great, but good. It's very close to being great, but it never quite gets there. The narrative takes some risks, which I definitely admire, but they don't all pay off. It has one major flaw story wise, that could have been easily avoided, which I think prevented me from going all in on it. All that said, there is lots of cool here.
The aliens in this thing are some of the coolest designs I've seen in a long time. Like no other alien you've seen and totally scary. They are rendered and utilized fantastically and I never doubted them for a minute, which is saying a lot. The kids are equally believable. Relatively unknown, the young cast does a great job of selling us on the fantastic events that transpire. The leader John Boyega and one of the supporting kids Alex Esmail particularity stand out. They benefit from a tight script full of witty one liners, that progresses at a break neck speed never letting us catch our breath.
Writer/Director Joe Cornish definitely had a clear vision of what he was trying to do here.His first time directing a feature, he's mostly worked as a writer, with his biggest credit in the upcoming mammoth Tin Tin film as a screenwriter along side Edgar Wright and Steven Moffat (ridiculous). He does a great job here and the movie is slick and goal oriented. It's also pretty brutal.
It's a hard R rated film. There is loads of foul language from the kids with blood and violence galore Completely appropriate of the setting and a welcome change from the all too common PG-13 horror of late.
If I was 13 years old, I would be flipping out over this movie.A bunch of kids, protecting their neighborhood from aliens? That does make for instant classic, but perhaps just not for me. I had Monster Squad, and for lots of kids this is a movie that will be viewed many many times.
The movie is really trying to gather fan support, and while I didn't love it, I did enjoy it and definitely think there is an audience for it. In a sea of remakes and sequels it's a rare original, enjoyable movie. There is some concern about American audiences not understand the accents and whatnot which I think is nonsense. It really just needs a chance, and if it doesn't get it we're all but guaranteed to get an American remake thrown at us.
It opens limited in NY, LA and a few other cities on July 29th. Based on that it may open wider. I definitely encourage everyone to check the links and support The Block.
Check out this cool photograph of some cosplayers flipping the script on Scott Pilgrim's arch nemesis's, The League of Evil Exes!!! They subbed in chicks for the dudes, and a dude for the chick... priceless! Piggy Nukka's phot was retweeted by Edgar Wright himself... very cool. Enjoy!
From L to R: The Katayangi Twins, Roxy Richter, Gideon Graves, Todd Ingram, Lucas Lee, and Matt Patel
Check out this awesome compilation video of the killer fight scences from Scott Pilgrim vs The World that is set to Scott's band Sex Bob-Omb's 'Launchpad McQuack'. I love this movie, and this compilation is one of the best I have seen in a while. Great job Aperfectnin .
Brian Lee O'Malley, you are a chubby little asian genius!!! I have been totally into O'Malley's Canadian uber-comic series since the first time I laid eyes on it. The simplistic yet well done artwork, the witty dialouge, and the tongue & cheek capturing of a twenty something year old slacker's lifestyle all makes the 6 volumes of this title a must read. O'Malley gets it all right in his seminal title, and provides a very well balanced comic that appeals to both guys and gals. Guys love the superhero styled fights and adventurous storyline, and the gals will love the powerful women characters & the complex relationship storyline. It has something for everyone!
Scott is an every guy... he has that Peter Parker appeal. Only thing is, he doesn't have the spiderpowers of Webhead. He does have some unreal fighting skills, but those play second fiddle to his awkward ability to underestimate every situation and constantly get hiimself in trouble. Along comes Ramona, the gorgeous and trendy foreigner (from NYC) that complete rocks Scott's world. He has to be with her, at any cost. So when he finds out that cost will be to defeat her 7 evil ex's, he takes the challenge on. What follows is some crazy battles that involve moviestars, bollywood style dance numbers, lesbians, invisibilty, twin asian guitar players, swordfights, war hammers, numerous battle of the bands, an evil mastermind music producer and my all time fave... Vegan Super Powers!!! I know that all sounds quite silly, but you must read it to believe it. It's all quite magnificient... trust me.
On the flipside, I would be out of line if I did not mention Edgar Wright's fantastic movie adaption of the series. First, let me start off by saying that Wright's version of the material was my favorite movie of last year. I also thought that Michael Cera nailed the Scott Pilgrim of the books. Skinny, scrawny and still able to kick some ass for love. The supporting cast is magnificient... and that was the key to the success of this film. The books featured an amazing supporting cast, and the movie does as well. All in all, it's an almost perfect re-creation of O'Malley's genius comic, and could easily be watched instead of reading the book. I recommend both, because they are absolutely wonderful. Hope this post gets you guys over to both of these wonderful works... enjoy!
Edgar Wright is one of my favorite film directors in the game today. I also love to follow his blog, which he uses as a regular forum to stay in touch with his fans. A few days ago he posted this cool ass montage of scenes involving guns that he compiled when he was 19 years old. Its called 'Gun Fetish', and you can check it out here:
Here is what Wright had to say in the post:
Very cool to get a bit of insight into a successful directors early work... and to get an explanation to boot!!! All in all, a cool trip down memory lane.
Recently I have been sent, have enjoyed and have reposted lots of filmic mash ups and montages. Some of them by editors as young as nineteen, such as Joel Walden who gave us this most recently. The montages I’m sent make me a little nostalgic, because that’s exactly what I was doing at age 19. In between making amateur no budget films as a teen, I’d teach myself to edit by cutting together montages of movie clips on a theme. You might have heard me talking to Kevin Smith about it on a recent podcast. The following clip I edited together while at Bournemouth Art College. Way before I’d ever seen an Avid suite, this was done over some long weekends locked in a VHS tape to tape editing suite. Yes, VHS! So if you are wondering about the low quality of the sound and visuals in the following montage, there’s a simple answer. All of the clips were sourced from either films I’ve recorded off the TV, sell thru VHS tapes I had bought and also films that happened to be in the college library. I literally had piles of VHS tapes in the edit suite. So that explains some of the glitchy clips. As for the audio edits, hey it was VHS and I was 19. This is the first time I used a ‘real’ editing suite. So cast your minds back to the last century and see how I misspent my youth; cutting together bullet ballets to John Lennon’s melodic attack on the NRA. I give you my 1993 mash up; ‘Gun Fetish’.
Check out these wonderful depictions of all of Edgar Wright's films by artist Llyod Stas. He was a big fan of Wright (as am I) and the dude crushed these. He even included Wright's iconic TV show "Spaced" and the movie that never was, the faux Grindhouse trailer "Don't". I love them all, but I gotta say Scott Pilgrim is by far my fave. The coolest thing about this whole bunch is that I found them over at Edgar Wright's official blog (click here to check it out). Wright re-posted them and came upon them on his own, and praises Stas's work as superb. Now that's gotta make ole Lloyd feel good, no? You can see more of his work by clicking here. Which one do you like the best? Tell us in the comment section below.
Thanks to heresjohnny1991 for making such a cool ass video featuring one of my all time favorite directors. In my eyes he is 3 for 3, as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz & 'Scott Pilgrim' are all more then wonderful... enjoy the clip, and lets get started on that Ant Man movie Edgar!!!! Thanks to /Films for bringing this to our attention... you guys rock!!!
... now get off your ass and buy yourself a copy of Edgar Wright's wonderful movie "Scott Pilgrim vs The World". This movie got an unfortunate treatment at the box office this summer despite the fact that it is genuiley amazing!!! Edgar Wright & the wonderful cast were so perfect it is impossible to understand what went wrong... but you can correct that by going out and buying a copy. Shit, you should buy two since you probably didn't see it on the big screen like you should have. Christmas is coming... stocking stuffer anyone?
In honor of Scott Pilgrim, I am going to publish this awesome piece of fan art by Deviant Artist Captain Osaka. This one got everybody in it from the O'malley comic series... now go get that movie!!!
Despite the fact that Scott Pilgrim was the movie I most wanted to see this summer, due to certain scheduling conflicts I have been unable to see it as of yet (we are gonna change that real soon, right KMG?) Anyway, despite getting great reviews from the geek community (I don't want a 65 year old movie critics opinion on something clearly made for a niche group) the film is not performing well at the box office... it's a good thing nobody was hoping for a sequel to this one. Edgar Wright is one of my favorite directors and I am sure he did the Brian Lee O'malley original comic justice. Anyway, I digress. The lovely folks over at Total Film have gotten Dean from Springfield Punx to draw the characters from Scott Pilgrim up in his Simpsonized style... and it is freaking awesome. We have featured Dean's art before, and I'm sure we will again. Click the link above to see all of his marvelous Simpson-style works, and tell us in the comment section who you would want to see Dean give the Springfield Punx treatment in the future. Who knows, maybe we can pass it on to Dean and he can make it happen for ya. Enjoy the pics.
Scott Pilgrim
Ramona Flowers
***Please Click read more below to see the other 5 pics from Dean***
Everybody who reads this blog knows how psyched I am about Scott Pilgrim vs. The World... I can not wait for this F'n movie!!! One of the coolest things about Edgar Wright's filming process was that he kept issuing photos that paired the actors and the characters they are playing (see pic to the left). The resemblance between most of the characters is impeccable, leading many people to speculate that Wright picked his cast on their looks in relation to characters instead of acting ability. I do not know how this will effect the acting in the film, but one thing is for sure, and that's the people in the movie will look just like the ones in the comic book.
So how would you look if you lived in the Pilgrimverse? Well wonder no longer. Just click on this link here, and you will be brought to the official Scott Pilgrim Avatar Creator. Here you can design your own avatar from head to toe using Pilgrim-like attributes. You can even add weapons and accessories to accentuate your characters personality. You can then share your character on Twitter, Facebook, make it nto an IM icon, or use it as desktop wallpaper. Hurry up and make yours now!!! Here is mine:
How cool is this shit!!! Go do yours now, and share it on our Facebook page by clicking here.
