Angry Web

A controversial instillation piece created by French-American artist Douglas Edric Stanley found its way to the Leipzig Games Convention this week. The piece features the classic Space Invaders game in honor of its 30th anniversary, but with a twist: you must prevent the invaders from crashing into the World Trade Center’s twin towers, which are placed in the backdrop.

Taito, a Square Enix subsidiary and owner of the Space Invader rights, had this to say:

Taito Corporation…today stated unequivocally that the Invaders installation by Douglas Edric Stanley and displayed at the Games Convention held in Leipzig, Germany was produced entirely without Taito’s knowledge and that the use of the world-famous Space Invaders content was wholly unauthorized…. [Taito is] seriously considering all available options–including legal actions against the infringer and, if necessary, the Games Convention exhibitor involved–in order to end this unauthorized and impermissible misuse of the Space Invaders content…

I love art, and I love controversy, but not controversy for the sake of controversy. I don’t see a purpose behind Stanley’s work, and it seems pretty insensitive.

With the most ludicrous of rumors racing across entertainment news sites across the net, it is surely evident that Batman fans…quite possibly the world is on a hunger strike that has lasted for T minus July 18th days. Perhaps this widespread crisis is due to the fact that little to no news has come about on whether the Zeus of all “directing-dom”, King Christopher Nolan has plans to make fanboys flood their pants for a third time by concocting another nirvana of a Batman masterpiece. Well, the news is, Mr. Nolan is currently on well-deserved vacation (if I knew where, I assure you I’d be knocking on his hotel room and persuading him right now) and won’t be back for quite some time. However, we have received some ray of light from producer, Charles Roven. Here’s what he had to say:

And Warners and Legendary are both interested in doing a third in the series, but all involved say it will be up to Nolan to come to them with a story and a plan.

“There are a lot of us who emotionally would love to do it,” Roven says. “But it’s really Chris’ call. Chris is the kind of filmmaker who just doesn’t think about the next movie before he has completely finished the movie he is working on.”

For now, Nolan is taking a well-earned vacation.

Says Roven, “When he comes back, we will see how he feels.”

So Mr. Nolan, I humbly ask you, please don’t pull another “Prestige” on us. I’d really prefer not to be married already, cleaning up mine and my own kid’s saliva while staring up at a movie screen in total bliss at “Batman 3″ for the fifteenth time. Let’s see one more! We will build golden altars across the world and offer animal sacrifices to the temple of Nolanism that will explode onto the world when they see a blinding light that makes the glorious luminescence that was “The Dark Knight” seem like pitch black.

PS To all gullible fans out there, if you want Cher to play Catwoman, Nolan will not hesitate to cast Cher as Catwoman as punishment for your ravenous curiosity and utter lack of patience.  What can I say?  Curiosity will kill the cat.  Mwahahaha!

So the news is Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing, Charlie Wilson’s War) is working on a screenplay based off the popular social networking site, Facebook.  Having created a new Facebook page of his own, here’s what he had to say:

I’ve just agreed to write a movie for Sony and producer Scott Rudin about how Facebook was invented. I figured a good first step in my preparation would be finding out what Facebook is, so I’ve started this page. (Actually it was started by my researcher, Ian Reichbach, because my grandmother has more Internet savvy than I do and she’s been dead for 33 years.)

Hmm…interesting.  Well, there are only 2 possible ways I can see how this would work.  One, make it a documentary like what they did with “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”, which wasn’t, I have to say, all that mind-blowing of a movie.  Or two, tell the story behind Mark Zuckenberg and the inventors of Facebook in a semi-humorous style like “Pirates of Silicon Valley” which recounted the rise of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and the schism that came between Microsoft and Apple Computers.  Well, I guess we’ll see how this plays out over the next few years because honestly, I really can’t determine whether this is good news or bad news for now.

On a side note, one word of advice to Facebook: Please don’t become the next MySpace for dignity’s sake.  It’s tacky…and pink (very bad color).  That’s why Paris Hilton, porn stars, and emo bands have profiles on there…

Alright, I don’t REALLY know if Huxley will rock your face. It’s not out yet. A release date hasn’t even been announced. But it’s about time someone got started on a next-gen MMOFPS (Massively Multiplayer First Person Shooter). Some sketchy details are floating around the Net, and the game doesnt even have an official site (just an “official” one… yeah, Google it).

Apparently the gameplay is going to be similar to many other FPS titles, except it will be in the context of one of those life-draining time-sucks we all know and love, the MMO. Step aside, World of Warcraft. Not only will you be able to blast the hell out of your friends, but you’ll be able to own your own motorcycles, buggies, APCs and gunships. Player housing is rumored to be included, a place where you can store all your awesome-sauce armor and weapons. And yes, you can customize your character’s physical appearance.

The game will be heavily PvP based, with battlefields that can hold up to 120 players. Three factions will be featured in the game, two player factions and one NPC faction. The two player factions are the Sapiens (humans) and the Alternatives (mutant humans). The third faction is the Hybrids, an alien species.

Huxley is being developed using the Unreal Engine, so you probably won’t need to have a beastly system to be able to play (although judging from the screenshots, I doubt you can get by if your system is a decade old). Luckily for some, it’s also slated for an Xbox 360 release. And the 360 servers will be linked with the PC servers. Score.

Maybe my excitement is premature. I never really got into Planetside, and I can’t think of any other successful MMOFPSs, so I’m hoping this one is going to be a hit. It’s always refreshing to see a novel idea (at least a SOMEWHAT novel idea), but one must keep in mind that anticipation can lead to bitter disappointment. Remember Ninja Gaiden 2.

This trailer is in Korean, but Awesome is a universal language.

This photo has been passed around the internet the last couple of days and it would be irresponsible of us not to feature it on this site.

Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov has announced to The Wall Street Journal that he wants the studio to release as many as 8 movies a year, centered on DC Comics properties, by 2011.

Warner Bros. also put on hold plans for another movie starring multiple superheroes — known as “Batman vs. Superman” — after the $215 million “Superman Returns,” which had disappointing box-office returns, didn’t please executives. “‘Superman’ didn’t quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to,” says Mr. Robinov. “It didn’t position the character the way he needed to be positioned.” “Had ‘Superman’ worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009,” he adds. “But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all.”

Regarding a “Superman” reboot, past rumored projects such as “Batman vs. Superman”, “Justice League”, and other DC characters that have yet to make it to film, here’s what he had to say:

With “Batman vs. Superman” and “Justice League” stalled, Warner Bros. has quietly adopted Marvel’s model of releasing a single film for each character, and then using those movies and their sequels to build up to a multicharacter film. “Along those lines, we have been developing every DC character that we own,” Mr. Robinov says.

Like the recent Batman sequel — which has become the highest-grossing film of the year thus far — Mr. Robinov wants his next pack of superhero movies to be bathed in the same brooding tone as “The Dark Knight.” Creatively, he sees exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.’ DC properties. “We’re going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it,” he says. That goes for the company’s Superman franchise as well.

So “TDS”, eh? (Why does the word, chlamydia, come to mind? Hmm…) I, personally, don’t think this is the best way to go with the franchise as it’ll defeat the whole yin and yang motif that exists between Batman and Superman. What do you guys think?

The studio is set to announce its plans for future DC movies in the next month. For now, though, it is focused on releasing four comic-book films in the next three years, including a third Batman film, a new film reintroducing Superman, and two movies focusing on other DC Comics characters. Movies featuring Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, and Wonder Woman are all in active development.

Bring on Supermax! The remainder of the article can be found here.

Sweet…

Blizzard has released the cinematic trailer for the new World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. The trailer can be viewed here. All I’m going to say about the trailer is that I hope the creature Arthas summons will be made available as a rideable mount.

It’s about time.  Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens have begun working with director, Guillermo Del Toro, on the screenplays for the two films that “The Hobbit” will be divided into.

Shooting is scheduled to commence in New Zealand during Fall 2009 at the earliest.  The first of “The Hobbit” films is planned for a December 2011 release, and the second one for a December 2012 release.

Well, this is interesting. I’m sure most of you who grew up in the 90s are familiar with the ever-popular junior horror novels “Goosebumps” by R.L. Stine, which were further adapted into a kids TV series. Writers Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander have been negotiating with Columbia Pictures to write a live-action big screen adaption of the series. Neal Moritz and his Sony-based Original Film will be producing with Deborah Forte of Scholastic Entertainment.

Columbia Pictures, which acquired the rights back in May, has stated that it’s open to the possiblity of developing a future franchise for the series. Like the Harry Potter films, Neal Moritz wants to cast children as the leads with a more well-known supporting cast.

Whether this is good news or not, I’m just hoping this is not another movie where they simply stamp a popular franchise name on it, without it ever having to do with the franchise in the first place – like that craptacular sad excuse for a Final Fantasy film we got as The Spirits Within. My question is how they’re going to present this as an actual “Goosebumps” movie, as I doubt they’ll choose one of several books to adapt, but rather tell a completely new story. Personally, I’d want a brand new story that evidently exists in the “Goosebumps” world, making references here and there from some of the more popular books – how about an Amaz-O magic show poster or a Slappy dummy hanging outside of a trash bin? And as cheesy as it sounds (hey, this was the early 90s), I can already predict we’ll have a slew of posters with the slogan, “Viewer beware, you’re in for a scare!” Mwahahaha.