Try conventional chocolate:
Monday, May 19, 2014
The East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention on Indiegogo
I have never been to this convention, but I plan to go. I think what they do is important for the art form in America:
Bradley Cooper and Todd Phillips Form Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures Announces First-Look Producing Deal with Todd Phillips and Bradley Cooper’s New Production Company
BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Longtime friends and collaborators Todd Phillips and Bradley Cooper have formed a production company as producing partners and signed a three-year, first-look production agreement with Warner Bros. Pictures, it was announced today by Greg Silverman, President, Creative Development and Worldwide Production, Warner Bros. Pictures.
“Bradley is a tremendous talent and one of my closest friends”
“Todd and Bradley have deep personal ties throughout the Studio and we couldn’t be more pleased that they are combining their immense talents into what promises to be one formidable production company,” said Silverman. “The entire Warner Bros. family is excited about the great movies we know will come from this collaboration of two highly successful and original filmmakers.”
“Todd is one of the smartest, coolest guys I know,” said Cooper. “He also happens to be one of the best filmmakers in the business, and I am honored and excited to be his partner.”
“Bradley is a tremendous talent and one of my closest friends,” said Phillips. “He is the hardest working guy I know and truly loves all aspects of filmmaking. The pairing of his intense focus and my good looks should make for some fun, and hopefully compelling, projects. I look forward to causing some trouble with him.”
The first collaboration under the new banner will be “Arms & the Dudes,” which is Phillips’ next project to direct. The film is based on a Rolling Stone article written by Guy Lawson that chronicles the true story of two stoner kids from Miami Beach who wound up becoming big-time arms dealers for the U.S. government, eventually landing a $300 million contract that got them in way over their heads.
Cooper, who became well known from “The Hangover” franchise, has since been nominated for Academy Awards® for his work in “Silver Linings Playbook” and “American Hustle.” He formed 22nd & Indiana Pictures and partnered with Warner Bros. in a two-year development deal in 2012. One of the first projects Cooper acquired under the 22nd & Indiana banner was “American Sniper,” an adaptation of the autobiography of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. Cooper is producing and starring in the film, which is currently shooting in Morocco and Los Angeles, under the direction of Clint Eastwood.
Phillips’ Green Hat Films has been based at Warner Bros. since 2005. The first film under the Green Hat banner was “The Hangover,” which grossed $469.2 million worldwide, and still ranks, domestically, as the highest grossing R-rated comedy ever. The sequel, “The Hangover Part II,” surpassed its predecessor, grossing $587.2 million worldwide. Collectively, “The Hangover” trilogy has grossed over $1.4 billion globally. Phillips also produced and directed “Due Date” for the studio in 2010 and produced “Project X” in 2012.
BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Longtime friends and collaborators Todd Phillips and Bradley Cooper have formed a production company as producing partners and signed a three-year, first-look production agreement with Warner Bros. Pictures, it was announced today by Greg Silverman, President, Creative Development and Worldwide Production, Warner Bros. Pictures.
“Bradley is a tremendous talent and one of my closest friends”
“Todd and Bradley have deep personal ties throughout the Studio and we couldn’t be more pleased that they are combining their immense talents into what promises to be one formidable production company,” said Silverman. “The entire Warner Bros. family is excited about the great movies we know will come from this collaboration of two highly successful and original filmmakers.”
“Todd is one of the smartest, coolest guys I know,” said Cooper. “He also happens to be one of the best filmmakers in the business, and I am honored and excited to be his partner.”
“Bradley is a tremendous talent and one of my closest friends,” said Phillips. “He is the hardest working guy I know and truly loves all aspects of filmmaking. The pairing of his intense focus and my good looks should make for some fun, and hopefully compelling, projects. I look forward to causing some trouble with him.”
The first collaboration under the new banner will be “Arms & the Dudes,” which is Phillips’ next project to direct. The film is based on a Rolling Stone article written by Guy Lawson that chronicles the true story of two stoner kids from Miami Beach who wound up becoming big-time arms dealers for the U.S. government, eventually landing a $300 million contract that got them in way over their heads.
Cooper, who became well known from “The Hangover” franchise, has since been nominated for Academy Awards® for his work in “Silver Linings Playbook” and “American Hustle.” He formed 22nd & Indiana Pictures and partnered with Warner Bros. in a two-year development deal in 2012. One of the first projects Cooper acquired under the 22nd & Indiana banner was “American Sniper,” an adaptation of the autobiography of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. Cooper is producing and starring in the film, which is currently shooting in Morocco and Los Angeles, under the direction of Clint Eastwood.
Phillips’ Green Hat Films has been based at Warner Bros. since 2005. The first film under the Green Hat banner was “The Hangover,” which grossed $469.2 million worldwide, and still ranks, domestically, as the highest grossing R-rated comedy ever. The sequel, “The Hangover Part II,” surpassed its predecessor, grossing $587.2 million worldwide. Collectively, “The Hangover” trilogy has grossed over $1.4 billion globally. Phillips also produced and directed “Due Date” for the studio in 2010 and produced “Project X” in 2012.
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Review: Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery
Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery (2014) – Video
Running time: 84 minutes (1 hour, 24 minutes)
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Brandon Vietti
WRITER: Michael Ryan
EDITOR: Kyle Stafford
COMPOSER: Ryan Shore
ANIMATION STUDIO: Digital eMation, Inc.
ANIMATION/FANTASY/FAMILY and ACTION/COMEDY/MYSTERY
Starring: (voices) Frank Welker, Matthew Lillard, Grey DeLisle, Mindy Cohn, Charles S. Dutton, Bumper Robinson, Mary McCormack, Corey Burton, and Fred Tatasciore; from WWE: John Cena, Kane, Brodus Clay, AJ Lee, The Miz, Triple H, Michael Cole, Santino Marella, and Vince McMahon
Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery is the 21st animated movie in the Scooby-Doo straight-to-video series from Warner Bros. Animation. This series began in 1998 with Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. In WrestleMania Mystery, Mystery Inc. joins WWE wrestling superstars to solve the mystery of a marauding ghost bear. This film is also a co-production between WWE Studios and Warner Bros. Animation.
Early in Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery, Shaggy Rogers (Matthew Lillard) and Scooby-Doo (Frank Welker) win tickets to WrestleMania. The two then cajole the rest of the Mystery Inc. gang: Fred Jones (Frank Welker), Daphne Blake (Grey DeLisle), and Velma Dinkley (Mindy Cohn), into taking them to the event. The entire gang boards the Mystery Machine and heads to WWE City, the site of WrestleMania.
An accident on the way gives the friends the chance to meet WWE (Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment) superstar, John Cena (John Cena). They even meet WWE boss, Mr. McMahon (Vince McMahon), and the gang gets an invite to visit the WWE training camp. The good times are interrupted, however, by Vicious, a ghost bear whose attacks threaten to ruin WrestleMania. WWE stars join Mystery, Inc. to solve the case and to also protect the health and freedom of Shaggy and Scooby.
I actually did not expect much from Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery, because I am not a fan of professional wrestling. I was when I was a child (and I was huge fan of it, then). However, I liked this movie … a lot. In fact, I found myself wishing for a sequel as soon as I finished watching WrestleMania Mystery.
There are a few reasons. First, WrestleMania Mystery is one of the better recent Scooby-Doo direct-to-DVD movies, with the animation, production values, and voice acting being mostly good. John Cena, or at least the cartoon version of him, comes across as a nice guy, the kind of fella who would make a good mystery-solving pal. The Miz (regular name: Mike Mizanin) is funny in a small role, and I think that he’d also make a good sleuthing buddy. WWE star, Sin Cara, is fantastic in a non-speaking role.
At 84 minutes in length, WrestleMania Mystery is more like a full-length movie than most of the Scooby-Doo movies of the last several years. For the most part, the story does not seem padded. Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery works. It is genuinely good and funny, and it has a nice, action-filled last act. I like it enough that it almost makes me want to watch some real-life WWE action … almost.
7 of 10
A-
Saturday, May 17, 2014
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Happy Birthday, Albert Avilla
Happy Birthday to my longtime friend and comics collaborator, Albert Avilla. Al is also a contributor at Negromancer's sister blog, I Reads You. Have a Happy Birthday and many, many, many more ... pal o' mine!
by Leroy
by Leroy
Review: "Club Dread" is an Awkward Mix of Horror and Comedy (Happy B'day, Bill Paxton)
Broken Lizard’s Club Dread (2004)
Running time: 104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence/gore, sexual content, language and drug use
DIRECTOR: Jay Chandrasekhar
WRITERS: Broken Lizard (Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, and Jay Chandrasekhar)
PRODUCER: Richard Perello
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Lawrence Sher
EDITOR: Ryan Folsey
COMPOSER: Nathan Barr
COMEDY/HORROR/THRILLER
Starring: Bill Paxton, Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, Brittany Daniel, Jordan Ladd, M.C. Gainey, Samm Levine, Lindsay Price, and Michael Yurchak
The subject of this movie review is Club Dread, a 2004 comic horror-thriller directed by Jay Chandrasekhar. The film stars and is written by the comedy troupe, Broken Lizard, of which Chandrasekhar is a member. Club Dread focuses on the staff members of an island resort, as they try to stop a serial killer’s rampage ... or at least hide bodies.
Broken Lizard, the comedy troupe who gave us the hilarious Super Troopers, returns with a new film decidedly different from Super Troopers, and it is entitled Club Dread. Coconut Pete’s Coconut Beach Resort is an island retreat off the coast of Costa Rica for swinging singles i.e. people who want to have lots of recreational sex. The owner is Coconut Pete (Bill Paxton), a burnt out rock singer/songwriter who is a low rent version of Jimmy Buffet.
As the movie begins, a machete-wielding maniac starts killing Pete’s employees. After destroying the only two boats on the island, the killer threatens Coconut Pete and his staff: keep it business as usual; do not tell the tourists about his murderous escapades or he will kill them all. Of course, he keeps on killing; hilarity and paranoia ensue.
On the surface, Club Dread is a strange film, and it would be incorrect to call it a horror comedy. It’s more a comic slasher flick, and it pulls off a rare trick – the horror film that is genuinely funny, not ironic and self-referential funny like the Scream franchise. Amazingly, the film has all the elements that are absolutely required to make a slasher flick. What makes it funny? The answer would be the actions of the characters. Although the players are virtually to a man nothing but wispy caricatures, the things they do and say are outrageous, silly, ridiculous, and sometimes hilarious.
The main reason this film doesn’t become a disaster is director Jay Chandrasekhar, a member of Broken Lizard. He has a deft comic touch, and, for the most part, it works. He manages to take his troupe’s peculiar brand of comedy and make it at least palatable to a broader audience. Club Dread isn’t by any means a really good film. It’s a decent horror flick with lots of laughs. But taken as a whole Chandrasekhar had made a film that will be a good video rental for horror fans. And in an odd way, there is something about Club Dread that makes it hard to stop watching.
5 of 10
C+
Updated: Saturday, May 17, 2014
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.
2014 Student Academy Award Winners Announced
Academy Announces 2014 Student Academy Award® Winners
Beverly Hills, CA – Fifteen students have been selected as winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 41st Student Academy Awards® competition. They will arrive in Los Angeles for a week of industry activities that will culminate in the awards ceremony on Saturday, June 7, at 6 p.m., at the DGA Theater in Hollywood. The medal placements – gold, silver and bronze – in the five award categories will be announced at the ceremony.
The winners are (listed alphabetically by film title):
Alternative
“Oscillate,” Daniel Sierra, School of Visual Arts, New York
“Person,” Drew Brown, The Art Institute of Jacksonville, Florida
Animation
“Higher Sky,” Teng Cheng, University of Southern California
“Owned,” Daniel Clark and Wesley Tippetts, Brigham Young University, Utah
“Yamashita,” Hayley Foster, Loyola Marymount University, California
Documentary
“The Apothecary,” Helen Hood Scheer, Stanford University
“One Child,” Zijian Mu, New York University
“White Earth,” J. Christian Jensen, Stanford University
Narrative
“Above the Sea,” Keola Racela, Columbia University, New York
“Door God,” Yulin Liu, New York University
“Interstate,” Camille Stochitch, American Film Institute, California
Foreign Film
“Border Patrol,” Peter Baumann, The Northern Film School, United Kingdom
“Nocebo,” Lennart Ruff, University of Television and Film Munich, Germany
“Paris on the Water,” Hadas Ayalon, Tel Aviv University, Israel
This year saw first-time honors go to Tel Aviv University, Israel, and The Northern Film School, United Kingdom, in the foreign competition. Academy members voted the winners from a field of 49 finalists, announced earlier this month.
The Academy established the Student Academy Awards in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level. Past Student Academy Award winners have gone on to receive 46 Oscar® nominations and have won or shared eight awards. They include John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Robert Zemeckis, Trey Parker and Spike Lee.
The 41st Student Academy Awards ceremony on June 7 is free and open to the public, but advance tickets are required. Tickets may be obtained online at www.oscars.org or by mail. Any remaining tickets will be made available at the door on the evening of the event. The DGA Theater is located at 7920 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. For more information, call (310) 247-2677.
Beverly Hills, CA – Fifteen students have been selected as winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 41st Student Academy Awards® competition. They will arrive in Los Angeles for a week of industry activities that will culminate in the awards ceremony on Saturday, June 7, at 6 p.m., at the DGA Theater in Hollywood. The medal placements – gold, silver and bronze – in the five award categories will be announced at the ceremony.
The winners are (listed alphabetically by film title):
Alternative
“Oscillate,” Daniel Sierra, School of Visual Arts, New York
“Person,” Drew Brown, The Art Institute of Jacksonville, Florida
Animation
“Higher Sky,” Teng Cheng, University of Southern California
“Owned,” Daniel Clark and Wesley Tippetts, Brigham Young University, Utah
“Yamashita,” Hayley Foster, Loyola Marymount University, California
Documentary
“The Apothecary,” Helen Hood Scheer, Stanford University
“One Child,” Zijian Mu, New York University
“White Earth,” J. Christian Jensen, Stanford University
Narrative
“Above the Sea,” Keola Racela, Columbia University, New York
“Door God,” Yulin Liu, New York University
“Interstate,” Camille Stochitch, American Film Institute, California
Foreign Film
“Border Patrol,” Peter Baumann, The Northern Film School, United Kingdom
“Nocebo,” Lennart Ruff, University of Television and Film Munich, Germany
“Paris on the Water,” Hadas Ayalon, Tel Aviv University, Israel
This year saw first-time honors go to Tel Aviv University, Israel, and The Northern Film School, United Kingdom, in the foreign competition. Academy members voted the winners from a field of 49 finalists, announced earlier this month.
The Academy established the Student Academy Awards in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level. Past Student Academy Award winners have gone on to receive 46 Oscar® nominations and have won or shared eight awards. They include John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Robert Zemeckis, Trey Parker and Spike Lee.
The 41st Student Academy Awards ceremony on June 7 is free and open to the public, but advance tickets are required. Tickets may be obtained online at www.oscars.org or by mail. Any remaining tickets will be made available at the door on the evening of the event. The DGA Theater is located at 7920 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. For more information, call (310) 247-2677.
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