More gifs by Robin Davey who I’d unknowingly featured a few months back with his take on The Avengers. Blade Runner above in case you didn’t get it.
Film
Cribbed from Live For Films
and here’s a fake pulp novel cover by Timothy Anderson of the same 
I was lucky enough to hear this in full the other night and it is stunning. Straight up Hip Hop, the way you like(d) it but far from an old school nostalgia-fest. One producer, one MC and only one track featuring guests – it’s 10 tracks of no nonsense beats, rhymes and the odd scratch. Fast and funky as fuck with a Mr Krum sleeve to boot – another addition to the ever-growing list of great albums released this year. Out 28th October 2013 on Project Blue Book on Vinyl, CD and Download. Check out the video sampler below.
Those of you with a good memory might recall that I posted a short film nearly 2 years ago called ‘Keloid’ by the BLR_VFX studio – some of whom worked on District 9 and Elysium. BLR stands for Big Lazy Robot – check the out here. In the last 3 days they’ve updated it and all I can say is ‘wow!’ No one does mecha better, make a full length feature like this and I’m there.
Awesome.
Well that looks pretty freaky! Apparently filmed in Disneyland without permission…
It’s here, Jim Mahfood, Scott Mosier and Joe Casey‘s D.I.S.C.O. Destroyer cartoon – available on iTunes and MTV‘s new Liquid Television (I think these are probably both N. America only at this point though).
Just saw this on a blog – 2011 Mondo poster apparently – but look at that gorgeous type! Wow. By Aaron Horkey and Vania Zouravliov Title: Dracula Size: 23.75″ x 36″ Edition of 330 Mondotees Numbered Edition Screenprint. Just too many talented people out there. Long gone and $500 minimum on eBay…
By Robin Davey
I missed this earlier this year – a film about a record shop opening in Belfast in the 70’s and the punk scene set amongst the Troubles.
The film got great reviews and Julian House did seven different poster designs for it. There’s a seller on eBay who currently has all 7 designs for sale at £40 each.
I’ve not even heard the whole album yet but I know I’m going to love it. As the description says: “Studio wizard Chop pulls out all of the analogue stops on the Motorik highway to Cybotron by way of a Tangerine Dream on his debut album for Now-Again. Album out NOW; download a free track at the link!”
Buy: Chop ‘Illuminate’ on iTunes
Download: Chop ‘Building Blocks’
Video By: MR.IMD
Chop website: here
I saw ‘Elysium’ earlier today and loved it. The design, acting and pace were all spot on, the cgi was incredible and, despite some seriously implausible technological aspects, it was excellent, easily my favourite film so far this year.
Comparisons with director Neill Blomkamp‘s earlier ‘District 9‘ were obvious but it definitely isn’t a retread as some reviewers have called it. The overall design is fantastic, especially the weathered, beaten up older tech on the ground and we were spoiled with both that and Syd Mead‘s shiny new designs for the rich living above the earth.
This is rather good, the BBC have produced a new radio play, ‘Darkside’, written by Tom Stoppard. He apparently wrote his dialogue over Pink Floyd‘s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, using it as a kind of “emotional underscore.” It’s going to be broadcast at 10pm next Monday on Radio 2 and Aardman Animation have created this trailer for it.
Terrible film but great poster and animated film intro. Theme tune sung by Julie Driscoll.
How cool is this? An animated version of the Micronauts toy and comic franchise that looks pitched somewhere between Transformers Animated and Tron: Uprising.
These are concept drawings, posted by Dave Johnson aka @Devilpig666 via his Twitter account after reaching 10k followers.
The pitch ultimately failed and it looks like it won’t be made because Hasbro bought the rights but he revealed that they would have got original Micronauts comic artist Michael Golden in to do some designs too.
Regardless, it’s just nice to see this modern day re-imagining of an old classic although this does look like it would be a bit less brutal than the old comics.
From the Heritage Auctions sale site where these two original Jack Kirby pieces are due to be auctioned this weekend:
“Jack Kirby Lord of Light/Argo “Pavilions of Joy” Illustration Original Art (1978). This incredible Jack Kirby illustration, loaded with the kind of style only “King” Kirby could provide, has a very interesting story connected with it. Originally conceived as production pieces for a proposed film, based on a Roger Zelazny Science Fiction novel, the commissioned art was stored away when producer Barry Geller lost his funding. It was later picked up by the CIA for use in a daring covert rescue mission of six Americans held in Iran. A fake film production company was created, with offices set up in Hollywood, and permission to film scenes in Iran was obtained, all as a ruse to spirit the Americans out. The Ben Affleck film, Argo, is based on these true events, and this piece of art played a pivotal role in that astounding and successful mission.
The art is in ink on paper, with an approximate image area of 22.25″ x 17″, matted to an overall size of 26″ x 20″. The art is in Excellent condition, and even without the fascinating story behind it, this is Classic Kirby as you love him.
Incidentally, this piece and the other “Lord of Light” piece we’re offering have spent the last 20 years in the collection of star artist and DC Comics co-publisher Jim Lee.”
* post script: in the end these two pieces sold for $16, 730 and $23,900!
Looking better and better…
shinjuku from robert valley on Vimeo.
More beautiful animation and design from Robert Valley, not sure what this is for exactly.
I should have written about Pacific Rim over last weekend but didn’t find time, but I’m happy to report that it was excellent for a big summer sci-fi blockbuster. Whilst not perfect, it certainly lived up to the promise all those posters I’ve been putting up. As far as giant robots fighting giant monsters goes, it will take some beating (no pun intended). The Jaegers (the bots) looked incredible, with each one having its own distinct visual personality to tell them apart and they had weight when they moved even if the science behind them was shot through with holes. In fact, don’t even try to start picking apart that side of things as the film would just fall down immediately. The Kaiju (the monsters) are also not your run of the mill brainless city-destroying cannon fodder, they have a few tricks up their sleeves that you don’t see coming along with a reason why they’re there in the first place.
Character-wise it was full of stereotypes with some seriously clunky dialogue at times, my main gripe being that we didn’t need two kooky scientists, one straight man to play against the oddball would have been more effective. Sometimes I wanted it played a little more seriously than it was, Ron Perlman hammed it up for all he’s worth which, along with the aforementioned scientists, made it seem a lot less terrifying in light of what was happening. Idris Elba was very good though as the first in command with a couple of great lines.
The 3D was decent 99% of the time, not forced like the Star Trek: Into Darkness trailer I saw some months back where it was so unnatural as to be virtually unwatchable. Compared to it’s nearest rival – Michael Bay’s Transformers trilogy – it beats all three with a rocket-powered punch, and that’s just in the first 20 minutes. This is how to do big budget mech movies, less of a hasty, blurry washing machine battle, Del Toro brings something more visually coherent. It’s been said that this could start a new franchise as there’s enough scope before and after the storyline here, let’s hope he’s on board if they do continue (and that he somehow slips in Hellboy 3 along the way).
Not much of a deconstructive critique I know, but I got exactly what I was expecting and loved it although I did feel a little shell shocked as the credits rolled in the IMAX, watching it at that size is really the way to do it. Next films I’m looking forward to are the sci-fi epic Elysium, then Gravity which I’m told has some of the most ground-breaking sequences and cgi ever seen (and this comes from someone who worked on it at the Framestore).
The ever-brilliant Cyriak takes his Photoshop scalpel to Bloc Party for his latest piece, combining footage from two existing videos apparently. As with all his work, he just keeps going, long after most people would have stopped and repeated an earlier clip again, he takes it another step further. Incredible.