DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?

25 years after its release, WIRED magazine has an interesting interview with director Ridley Scott discussing one of our favourite movies, the "future-noir epic" Blade Runner, and the upcoming release of the definitive Final Cut version... (readable online)

VIRTUALLY REALITY.

Angelina. Kind of.

Just watched the hi-res trailer for BEOWULF, the upcoming movie from director Robert Zemeckis (Back To The Future, Forrest Gump) and felt it deserved a mention... Not because the cast is decent (Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich), or because the story is a classic, but because the whole film is computer animated and the graphics are pretty stunning...

Tony

Until now computer generated animated films have mostly been aimed at the younger market, featuring stylized main characters. Comparing Beowulf to Toy Story from 10 years ago shows how far graphics and kinematics have progressed. Easy to believe it won't be long before actors don't even need to be on set...

Burnout Paradise

Looking at the previews from the recent E3 electronics expo shows that video game graphics are also jumping ahead pretty quickly. Gotta remember too, these graphics are rendered on-the-fly at 30-60 frames per second, not over hours using banks of computers...

Having said all this, as Pixar's latest, Ratatouille, or tennis on the Wii successfully show, realistic graphics aren't everything...

Gran Turismo 5

TIME FOR A KWIK-E.

It's good to see a movie studio doing some inspired marketing for a change... For the impending release of the SIMPSONS MOVIE, a number of 7-11 stores around the U.S. have been changed to Kwik-E-Marts, with new signage, cutouts of Apu ("I have been shot eight times this year. As a result, I almost missed work."), and even a Squishee machine ("An all syrup Super Squishy? Oh, such a thing has never been done.").

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE.

Ok, we know Martin Scorcese has more talent in his eyebrows than Michael Bay has in his whole body, but the latest shots of TRANSFORMERS are looking pretty slick - allegedly taking 38 hours a frame to render... Anyway, when it comes down to it, we like cars, and we like robots, and this has cars that ARE ALSO robots. You get that? Not just cars (although there are probably a few of those too) or just robots, BUT cars that ARE ALSO robots. Now that's movie gold.

BOND BEGINS.

If you're looking for silhouettes of naked women flying in all directions (who isn't?), and super-retro graphics, you gotta check all the recent uploads of old Bond movie intros on Youtube.

Managing to be kitsch and stylish at the same time, on occasion the best part of the movie, and more often than not backed by classic songs... Nobody does it better.

Haven't seen the new 'improved' Bond yet, but if it's missing the traditional credit sequence it's getting an automatic two thumbs down.

{via CITY OF FILMS}

UPDATE: Saw Casino Royale. 7/10 for the movie. 2/10 for the intro. No naked silhouettes, animation looked like something made with Flash, and again, no naked silhouettes...

SLEEPER.

Vintage bubblegum cards featuring the classic Woody Allen comedy 'SLEEPER'. This was a cult film back when I was a kid - BAZOOKA gum was definitely cooler back in the day...

great quote...

{via BOINGBOING}