“You must not forget that all the people in the movie are perpetrators and are bad.”
– Oliver Hirschbiegel
Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich is a very difficult but important film. The plot of the movie has Traudl Junge [Alexandra Maria Lara], the final stenographer for Adolf Hitler [Bruno Ganz], telling the story of the Nazi dictator’s final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII. Downfall has been nominated for Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.
Oliver Hirschbiegel is the brilliant director of Downfall who first made an impression on US soil with the psychological horror film Das Experiment which was partially based on the Stanford Prison Experiment. Before making that feature he created Kommissar Rex and directed dozens of television movies. With Downfall he tackles another very high pressure situation which has become his trademark.
“Most people are just happy that I punched David Duchovny.”
– Madeline Zima
I actually met Madeline Zima in person at the South by Southwest film festival where her new film, Crazy Eyes, premiered in March. I ended up sitting right next to her as she took the reserved seat to my left. She was perfectly lovely and laughed throughout the film.
By midway through the film I was surprised she found it so funny though, considering many of the scenes involve what they call “Struggle Fucking.” It’s what it sounds like, you fuck someone even while they’re struggling against you. If Zima was in the scene and she was laughing, then I guess it’s okay to laugh.
Crazy Eyes is a semi-autobiographical film from writer/director Adam Sherman. Lukas Haas plays Zach, an aimless hard partying drinker who becomes obsessed with Rebecca (Zima.) He calls Rebecca “Crazy Eyes” and pines for her even though she’s made it clear she’s not interested in him, hence the struggle fucking.
Now that the film is out, I got to catch up with my movie date properly. Speaking by phone, Zima wasn’t quite as aggressive as her character in the movie, or certainly her character Mia Lewis on TV’s Californication. Zima actually revealed some vulnerable moments and had fun discussing the ins and outs of struggle fucking with me.
The Walking Dead is not only one of the biggest shows on television, but is also one of the best selling comic books in the world, and now Robert Kirkman’s zombie tale has reached its historic 100th issue. It has already become the top selling single issue of the 21st century, prompting a second printing less than a week after its release.
According to Image Comics, the issue sold out of its 383,612 initial order the same day it was released. Meanwhile, BleedingCool reports that a copy of the rare ComiXology variant issue (pictured) was sold on eBay for $500.
“The Walking Dead continues to greatly exceed all my expectations in all forms,” said Robert Kirkman. “I am especially excited for what this means for comics as an industry, that this is an independent comic hitting that number. The future of comics couldn’t be brighter as more and more readers are embracing new ideas in a big way.”
The Walking Dead Magazine
You know there’s a Walking Dead comic book and a Walking Dead TV show, but what about a Walking Dead magazine? Well you’re in luck! Debuting on October 23, The Walking Dead Magazine will feature an insider look at both the comic book and the TV show. With exclusive content including interviews, spoilers, and previews, it will feature plenty of extra material for fans of the zombie epic.
“This magazine will be your one stop destination for all the news pertaining to the comic, TV show, video game, toys, games, and whatever else exists in the ever-expanding Walking Dead universe! If it’s happening, you’ll find out all about it right here,” creator Robert Kirkman said.
An alternate version of the debut issue will be available exclusively in comic stores. The cover of this special edition (pictured above), will feature a previously unreleased image by Walking Dead comic artist Charlie Adlard.
Get Ready For The Ricktatorship
“Get one thing straight, if you’re staying this isn’t a democracy anymore!”
Those were the infamous final words of Rick Grimes as Season 2 of The Walking Dead closed on AMC just a few short months ago. Now that the cast is in full swing production for Season 3 some details are starting to emerge about what to expect as the group of survivors moves into a prison.
Andrew Lincoln, who portrays Grimes in the zombie drama, says he gained inspiration from a seminal apocalyptic novel to help him understand the depths to which the former sheriff’s deputy has fallen as he’s seen friends and family die time and time again since the undead came back to life.
“I was reading…The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I saved reading that until now and I think Rick is very much at that point. It’s interesting because the time scale in that book and this season I think is very similar. He’s been pushing people away all the way through Cormac McCarthy’s book to protect his son,” Lincold explained during last weekend’s San Diego Comic Con. “In doing so, he loses his humanity. I think Rick has isolated himself from the group and in his marriage and that’s the way that he is protecting everybody. I think that’s a very interesting place to start this season.”
And so begins the Ricktatorship
Executive Producer Glen Mazzara Says There Is No Safe Haven
In a recent interview with The Wrap.com, Executive Producer Glen Mazzara answered questions about the new season, and while he obviously couldn’t reveal much about the highly anticipated third season, he did confirm something that everyone should already know about a world infested by zombies…
There really is no safe place to hide.
The thought of there being some utopia that the survivors of this zombie apocalypse could escape to should just be washed from your brains right now because it ain’t happening.
“There is no safe haven in this world. I want to make that clear. At the end of our Season 2 finale that farm is overtaken and that farm was that last safe haven, and there’s no safe haven in that world. I want to be very clear about that. No one is safe. There is no safe haven,” said Mazzara.
Season 3 Photos Released: The Governor And Michonne Revealed; Merle is Back!
SuicideGirls first told you earlier this year that Michael Rooker’s raging redneck character Merle Dixon would be back in Season 3 of The Walking Dead and now photos released by AMC show his return (albeit less one hand).
The stills also reveal the identity of the badass hooded sword wielding character who debuts from the comic books to the screen to kick off next season as well as the man who will undoubtedly become the most hated villain in Walking Dead history as soon as he makes his first appearance.
Season 3 Debut Date Announced
This bit of news is short and sweet, but probably the most anticipated for any fan of The Walking Dead. As first announced at San Diego Comic Con by executive producer Glen Mazzara, The Walking Dead will return on Sunday, October 14 at 9 PM ET. There has been a 16-episode order for Season 3, and once again the show will be broken into two parts with the first series of episodes airing in 2012 and the second slate debuting in 2013.
“What if the Devil was not the bad guy? Maybe he’s been painted in a wrong light. What if God was not so good?”
– Darren Lynn Bousman
Director Darren Lynn Bousman has been to hell and back getting his recent projects to the big screen. Since leaving the Saw franchise behind after helming films II, III and IV, he’s been forced to seek alternate routes to get his work seen. If necessity is the mother of invention, then Bousman’s latest Rocky Horror-inspired project, The Devil’s Carnival, is invention’s demented bastard child.
Bypassing traditional distribution channels entirely, Bousman took the first installment of his unique episodic cinematic rock opera direct to his considerable fan base via a rock & roll-style cross-country tour earlier this year. The film-cum-theatrical experience played to mostly sold-out houses packed with the willfully immersed, prompting an encore tour – the first date of which was at San Diego’s Comic Con. We caught up with Bousman by phone as he boarded the train back from the annual geek fest…
Let’s be honest with ourselves. America is too fat!…We’re also too skinny. The United States has the most obese people in the world. But we also force an impossible-to-obtain body image on young people. The end result is that everyone is miserable. Check out the video. Let me know if you agree in the comments section below.
When director Christopher Nolan took over the ailing Batman franchise with 2005’s Batman Begins, expectations were exceptionally low after the one-time powerful film series had been reduced to a less than Adam West-worthy version in the final two ‘90s movies.
Nolan resurrected the bat with Batman Begins and raised the stakes even higher with 2008’s The Dark Knight, which is now seen as one of, if not the greatest, single comic book movie ever made. It was with baited breath then that comic book and movie fans alike anticipated the release of Nolan’s final film in the Batman trilogy, aptly titled The Dark Knight Rises.
The film was a guaranteed hit even before it was released in theaters today. The real question therefore was how much quality would be in Nolan’s film to go along with the quantity of tickets that would assuredly be sold.
A the point where the story picks up, our hero Bruce Wayne (played brilliantly by Christian Bale, who was the best Batman this side of Michael Keaton) has been retired for 8 years. Meanwhile Commissioner Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) has managed to clean up Gotham City to a pristine level, and organized crime has been wiped off the map. Enter big, bad mercenary Bane (Tom Hardy), whose sole purpose in life is seemingly to create anarchy in a world ruled by an iron fist. Without giving away any kind of spoilers, the depths of this plot go much deeper than a madman hell bent on chaos (see The Joker in The Dark Knight for a lesson in that).
The dialogue and story in The Dark Knight Rises are once again superb. Nolan and his brother Jonathan have woven a tale that pays homage to both great cinema and the comic books the characters were based on. There are more than a few twists and turns, and while most take place in the final 30-minutes of the film, the set up that leads up to the final few scenes is brilliant.
Bale is a stalwart in his role as Bruce Wayne, the billionaire philanthropist, who has become a bit of a hermit since his caped alter-ego became vilified instead of celebrated. Anne Hathaway gives a strong performance as Selina Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman, although her purr isn’t nearly as powerful as Michelle Pfeiffer’s as seen in1992’s Batman Returns. Still, Hathaway plays a coy and younger version of the classic cat burglar, and a much more modern Selina Kyle for those that read any modern Batman comic books.
The brutish and powerful Bane played by Tom Hardy is a far, far cry from the outstanding and commanding performance given by the late Heath Ledger in his portrayal as The Joker in the last Batman film, but these are two completely different characters. Bane is a hulking thug who uses his fists and fighting style to get his point across, rendering the muffled words that come out of his mask covered mouth almost irrelevant. Hardy should still be commended however for being the element that makes Batman look mortal, as he casts a rather large, muscular shadow over the Dark Knight. The real star in this film however is Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays beat cop John Blake. Levitt shines in a cast full of stars with his quiet and calm demeanor. He unleashes a masterful performance when the buttons get pushed and the bombs start exploding.
If there is one complaint to be made in The Dark Knight Rises, it’s some classic comic book mistakes and plot holes that open up during some of the film’s lesser moments, but those are quickly cast aside thanks to a determined screenplay interlaced with quick, slashing dialogue and plotlines.
The Dark Knight Rises is the final cape and cowl movie from director Christopher Nolan, and while rumors have already begun to swirl that another filmmaker will soon take over the reigns of the powerful DC franchise, it really seems like a shame. Much like when Superman 2 ended and you felt a real sense of closure, the final moments of The Dark Knight Rises makes you believe this is just the way the Batman story was meant to end.
With this film, Nolan’s showed everybody once again that comic books aren’t just for kids and great filmmaking can also involve a superhero wearing a cape and a cowl. The Dark Knight Rises may not be on par with its predecessor, but in the pantheon of great film trilogies, this Batman story can be seen as one complete masterpiece with no failing parts tearing at the seems of a perfectly woven story.
San Diego Comic Con 2012 was packed with so much news that we couldn’t fit it all in one place. Yesterday, I covered the news about the major movies coming from Marvel and DC. In this column, we’ll take a look at some other movies and the rest of the news from the nerd fest.
It was a few years ago at 2006 Comic Con when Edgar Wright first talked about doing an Ant-Man movie. While there still isn’t a date scheduled for it, Wright did come out during the Marvel movie news panel to show off a short teaser trailer. All of the copies of the teaser that made it online were promptly taken down, but the fans that saw it at Comic Con have been raving about it.
If they don’t get their skates on and hit a looming contractual deadline, Fox face losing the rights to Daredevil, a prospect that’s becoming all the more real now that David Slade is out of the picture and the project is director-less. However the studio is moving forward with a new Fantastic Four project before they lose control of those rights too. Josh Trank, director of Chronicle, is confirmed as the director for the upcoming Fantastic Four flick. Fox still has the Wolverine and First Class sequels to push out before they move on the Fantastic Four project however. We’re told there will be an entirely new cast, but it is unclear if the forthcoming Fantastic Four film will be a reboot or in the same continuity. It is confirmed that Jeremy Slater will be writing the next movie though.
The CW’s The Arrow is turning out to be a much darker show than any superhero TV series before it. Calling The Arrow a superhero show might be a stretch as what we’re seeing in the previews makes him out to be quiet the anti-hero. This is the Green Arrow like you’ve never seen before. In the newest clip released by the CW, Green Arrow kills several of his captors to protect his identity.
Suck it, Wolverine! That’s the tagline of the new Deadpool video game being designed by High Moon Studios. The merc’ with a mouth is getting his own game where he’s going to kick a bunch of ass, make a ton of inappropriate jokes, and constantly break the fourth wall. The trailer for the game captures Deadpool’s unique sense of humor and has fans ready well ahead of the 2013 release.
DreamWorks animation is in talks with Classic Media to acquire several classic cartoon properties. Among the titles included in the $150 million dollar package are: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Voltron, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Waldo from ‘Where’s Waldo’, and Lone Ranger. If DreamWorks can make this deal happen, we will likely be seeing CGI remakes of all these titles in the coming years.
The Walking Dead returns to AMC on October 14. Several of the cast were in attendance at SDCC for The Walking Dead panel, which featured clips from the upcoming season three as well as fan questions and answers. The full trailer, which was debuted at the panel, was released online, and there are some special surprises, including an appearance by the Governor.
To wrap things up, Karl Urban promised fans a sneak peak of Star Trek 2 during SDCC. He lived up to his promise, releasing a four minute video of him surfing while music plays. Only in the last ten seconds of the video is there some footage of a wrap from the Star Trek 2 set.
