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Terry Gilliam wins fantastic lifetime award

Terry Gilliam wins fantastic lifetime award

The Fantastic Film Festival will present Terry Gilliam with its Lifetime Achievement Award next month.  The festival, which runs from April 18 through April 25, takes place in Amsterdam.

Gilliam deserves the award, festival organizers said, because "he never allows his fantasy to be limited." His films include Time Bandits, Brazil, The Fisher King, The Brothers Grimm and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Gilliam, of course, was a member of the Monty Phthon troupe and had been Harvey Kurtzman’s assistant editor on Help! magazine.

Pan’s Labyrinth, from director Guillermo del Toro, opens the festival.

The first Fantastic Film Festival was in 1984, when it was known as the Weekend of Terror.  The event was then described by the media as a "meeting ground for nerds with a taste for stomach-churning, violent horror."  Since that time, the festival has included fantasy and science fiction films as well as horror.

Previous lifetime achievement award winners include Wes Craven and Paul Verhoeven.

 

 

MICHAEL DAVIS: The Davis List

MICHAEL DAVIS: The Davis List

There seems to be a whole lot of people who get to tell us what they think we should see, what they think we should buy what is the best, worst, the must haves and the stay away froms. Most of these experts put out a list so that we can revel in their genius. How many lists are we subjected to? Let’s see, off the top of my head…

David Letterman’s Top Ten List, the only list I pay any attention to

The Top Ten Movie List

The Hollywood Power List

The richest people in the world list

Blackwell’s worst dress list

The Sexiest Man List (I can’t believe that I have not made that one)

Joan Rivers best / worst dress list

The New York Times Best Seller list

AFI greatest movies of all time list

Rolling Stones greatest albums ever list

These are just the ones I can think of while waiting at LAX for a flight to Chicago. There are a multitude of lists out there. Everybody has a list, every magazine, every TV news show, every critic, every commentator, every Tom, Dick and Harry has a list. Well why can’t we have a list? You, me everybody? What makes Rex Reed’s list better than yours or mine?  With all due respect to Mr. Reed, I seem to remember he hated Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Need I remind everybody that that film is one of the greatest Sci-Fi films of all time. Well I think that it’s time we all have a list. Let’s start with mine.  My list will not be a Top Ten list. Nope. I’m twice as cool, so mine will be a top 20!

Comics:

1. The greatest comic book ever: Avengers #66 (My first comic!)

2. The greatest superhero ever: Batman

3. The second greatest superhero ever: Captain Marvel (Shazam!)

4. The greatest super team: 60’s Teen Titans

5. The greatest superhero fight ever: Hulk vs. Thing

6. The second greatest superhero fight ever: Hulk vs. Sub-Mariner

7. The greatest team up ever: Spider-Man and Superman (the first one)

8. The greatest graphic novel ever: Watchmen

9. The second greatest graphic novel ever: The Killing Joke

10. The third greatest graphic novel ever: The Death Of Captain Marvel

11. The fourth greatest graphic novel ever: Marvels

12. The saddest event in comic books: The death of Gwen Stacy

13. The saddest event in the comics industry: The death of Jack Kirby

14. The greatest writer in comics: Denny O’ Neal

15. The greatest artist in comics: Jack Kirby (DUH!)

16. The greatest publisher in comics: Milestone

17. The second greatest publisher in comics: DC (love them or hate them, they do great books)

18. The smartest man in comics: Mike Richardson

19. The guy with the best job in comics: Paul Levitz

20. The sexiest man in comics: Michael Davis (finally!)

Movies:

1. The greatest movie ever (Tie): My Best Friend’s Wedding / Team America (long story)

2. The greatest movie superhero ever: Batman

3. The second greatest movie superhero ever: Superman

4. The greatest movie team: The Magnificent 7

(more…)

Actor from Batman and Beowulf to appear in Indiana Jones IV

Actor from Batman and Beowulf to appear in Indiana Jones IV

You can’t make a pop-culture classic without Ray Winstone. At least, that’s what the BBC is reporting.  Veteran character actor Ray Winstone is rumored to be the newest addition to next year’s Indiana Jones film.

Winstone has appeared in Batman Begins and The Chronicles of Nania, in addition to The Departed, Sexy Beast, Cold Mountain, Quadrophenia and many more films.  He was Will Scarlett in the British television production of Robin Hood.  This fall, movie audiences will be able to see him in Robert Zemekis’ Beowulf, with a screenplay by Roger Avery and somebody named Neil Gaiman.

“What We Call the News”

“What We Call the News”

The Spiridellis Brothers are at it again. Gregg and Evan Spiridillis,, the creaters of Jibjab.com had their latest satiricial cartoon "What We Call the News" shown on The Tonight Show last night (for all the insomniacs or recovering insomniacs such as myself that are just get ting started at 11:30 Eastern). 

Done in the style made famous by South Park’s Terence-and Phillip show (you know what I mean, the heads split open from the mouth up), and sung to the Battle Hymn of the Republic paradies the evolution of the ole’ time 6:00 pm television news anchors to our current world of cable news and Fox-style "reporting." Fans of the ongoing sitcom Rosie and the Donald (and even pet lovers) will appreciate the clip of the poor innocent cat.

In you aren’t sure of the clever words sung by the singing heads, they are shown ticker-style at the bottom of the screen.

Spider-Man 2.1 extended cut DVD

Spider-Man 2.1 extended cut DVD

On the heels of Fantastic Four 1 getting its extended cut, DVD release, it now looks like Spidey 2 is getting the same special treatment.

The two-DVD Spider-Man Extended Cut includes eight minutes of never-before-seen footage – including extended fight sequences, a big ol’ sneak peak into Spider-Man 3 including an exclusive Spider-Man 3 video game trailer, commentary by Kirsten (Mary Jane) Dunst and producer Luara Ziskin (big whoop), a trivia track with all-new branched video pieces, and, of course, plenty more!

The Spider-Man Extended Cut comes out April 17, two and one-half weeks prior to the opening of Spider-Man 3.

Dr. Who 3rd season previews

Dr. Who 3rd season previews

Admit it, you’re jonesing for "Smith and Jones", the first episode of the next season. Or if you aren’t, Gold and Ostrander sure are. And we’re good little enablers over here. With that in mind, we point you to FreemaAgyeman.com, where the Doctor Who BBCi Red Button Preview Video is appearing.

Will that hold you for a while?

Professor Kumar

Professor Kumar

The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that Kal Penn, star of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and the recent The Namesake, as well as appearing in Superman Returns and 24, will be a guest instructor at the University of Pennsylvania’s department of Asian Studies.  His courses will include "Contemporary American Teen Films" and "Images of Asian Americans in the Media". 

The actor (whose full name is Kalpen Modi) will be on campus during the spring of 2008.  Harold and Kumar 2 is set to be released next year.

Marshall Rogers obituaries

Marshall Rogers obituaries

The untimely passing of Marshall Rogers has not gone unnoticed by the mainstream media, as there have been obituaries from both the  New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Both laud his landmark work on Detective Comics as being a touchstone for many later artists’ interpretation of the Batman.

Hugos for Who?

Hugos for Who?

The 2007 Hugo Awards, most prized of the science-fiction awards, just might wind up in the hands of longest running s-f teevee series of all time

Three episodes of Doctor Who from the past season were nominated in the best dramatic presentation – short form category: "School Reunion," the episode that reintroduced Sarah Jane Smith and written by Toby Whithouse,  Steven Moffatt’s "The Girl in the Fireplace," where the Doctor saves Madame de Pompadour from really neat looking robots, and the season’s two-part finale, "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday," written by executive producer Russell T. Davies and featuring the Cybermen and the Daleks in a battle scene that made 300 look like a Disney flick.

These three shows are up against an episode of Battlestar Galactica ("Downloaded) and an episode of Stargate SG-1 ("200."). As usual, the winner will be announced at the World Science Fiction Convention, to be held in Yokohama, Japan from August 30th to September 3rd.

The new season of Doctor Who begins in England this Saturday.