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What happened to M Night?

Race Bending in Air Bending?

All I know about the movie is that someone sent me this picture alleging some Race Bending in the casting and I find it funny. all the asians are white guys and the bad white guy from the cartoon is now an (Indian) Asian actor (the slumdog millionaire, actually).

But M. Night Shayamalan is, er, also of Indian origin. sooo… isn’t it the rule in America that we never call anyone non-white a racist? so like. wtf is going on then?

Here’s the trailer:

I’d rather watch this movie:

Why you should hate 3-D

Roger Ebert explains why the format must be stopped. Not as an option, he says, but as a way of life. 3-D should not become the new standard. It can be fun on a nice big-&-bright IMAX screen like Avatar (the only 3-D IMAX ive seen outside of a museum) but when I saw UP and Alice and Wonderland on a regular screen in 3-D, I was left seriously disappointed in the experience vs the extra ticket price…

That’s my position. I know it’s heresy to the biz side of show business. After all, 3-D has not only given Hollywood its biggest payday ($2.7 billion and counting for Avatar), but a slew of other hits. The year’s top three films—Alice in Wonderland, How to Train Your Dragon, and Clash of the Titans—were all projected in 3-D, and they’re only the beginning. The very notion of Jackass in 3-D may induce a wave of hysterical blindness, to avoid seeing Steve-O’s you-know-what in that way. But many directors, editors, and cinematographers agree with me about the shortcomings of 3-D. So do many movie lovers—even executives who feel stampeded by another Hollywood infatuation with a technology that was already pointless when their grandfathers played with stereoscopes.

That’s the summary and it’s really all you need, but if you’re thirsty for more detail you can go read the heretics’ case, point by point.

Ebert acknowledges that Avatar was awesome in 3D-IMAX but points out what I’ve been saying on that in how it was a movie made mostly on computers specifically for the purpose of being 3D. When movies add 3D as an afterthought, it sucks horribly, and its not a medium that is suited to anything other than kids and action films (Ebert brings up Fargo, Casablanca and Precious as “can you imagine that shit in 3D” examples).

The article contains info that explains the details of things like the darker picture in more complex ways:

Lenny Lipton is known as the father of the electronic stereoscopic-display industry. He knows how films made with his systems should look. Current digital projectors, he writes, are “intrinsically inefficient. Half the light goes to one eye and half to the other, which immediately results in a 50 percent reduction in illumination.” Then the glasses themselves absorb light. The vast majority of theaters show 3-D at between three and six foot-lamberts (fLs). Film projection provides about 15fLs. The original IMAX format threw 22fLs at the screen. If you don’t know what a foot-lambert is, join the crowd. (In short: it’s the level of light thrown on the screen from a projector with no film in it.) And don’t mistake a standard film for an IMAX film, or “fake IMAX” for original IMAX. What’s the difference? IMAX is building new theaters that have larger screens, which are quite nice, but are not the huge IMAX screens and do not use IMAX film technology. But since all their theaters are called IMAX anyway, this is confusing.

confusing indeed.

(false) Claim: Johnny Depp will be the Riddler, Hoffman to play Penguin

There have been insane and scary buzz rumors about the next Batman movie, including Cher playing Catwoman, Johnny Depp give us a new interpretation of the Riddler and suggestions turned into speculation about Hoffman playing the penguin (which he denied just days ago, which shouldn’t surprise anyone considering the weakness of these claims and rumors).

One rumor’s source has been confirmed though, and that is that Johnny Depp and Phil Hoffman were in fact suggested to play their rumored parts. Stuff.co.nz has “confirmed” that both actors will appear in Batman 3, but the actual claim is just that they were wanted for the job.

Michael Caine, who plays Alfred in the Nolan-Batmen said to MTV: “I was with a Warner Bros executive and I said, ‘Are we going to make another one?’ They said, ‘Yeah’.

“I said, ‘How the hell are we going to top Heath Ledger as The Joker? And he says, ‘I’ll tell you how you top Heath – Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin’.

“I said, ‘Shit, they’ve done it again’.”

“Shit they’ve done it again” sounds like an odd exclamation for Cain to utter, but ok.

Work is expected to begin on the next movie, starring Christian Bale as Batman, some time next year.

A downer for Nolan fans however, as he says he ain interested in making another Batman:

Ain’t It Cool News: Eckhart: I think Heath was the one that was going to come back. And since he can’t… (Pauses) You know, Chris hasn’t said that he’s going to make another one.

[Interviewer]: True. He’s been on vacation. I spoke to David Goyer at Comic Con, and he said there have been no discussions.

Eckhart: (Smiling) He never said he’s going to make another one. I’m sure they drove the Brinks truck up to his house and dumped money on his lawn. But I think Chris wants to go out and make other movies, too. And he should. He’s an independent filmmaker at heart. He’s got a lot of ideas.

An American Carol

Not your average Super Hero

This cracks me up.

Obviously a sign promoting the upcoming Will Smith movie Hancock, in which he plays – well, ok, nevermind. I’m ruining it by explaining it. Just enjoy. =)

Update: Apparently the movie had a crossover with the Dark Knight?…

What Disney has in store for us

Disney/pixar’s animation release timeline (after WALL-E) is:

Bolt (2008): A German Shepard version of Buzz Lightyear in that he’s spent his whole life on the set of a tv show in the style of Thunderbolt (the dog-hero show that the 101 Damations puppies watch, which makes me wonder if the name Bolt is an homage/tip off for nerds like me to notice).

His isolated life makes him think his tv powers are real and probably has some self realization story arc similar to Buzz’s after he meets a cat named Mittens and a hamster that never leaves its ball.

The Princess and the Frog (2009): Disney’s first black princess. first return to traditional 2D animation since Emperors new Groove.

Rapunzel (2010): Originally, the film’s plot revolved around two ‘romantically challenged’, real-world teenagers who are transformed into Rapunzel and her Prince by a disgruntled witch who can no longer stand happy fairy-tale endings. However, since production was halted in 2004 for major retooling, Glen Keane has “promised” that the film will revert back to the fairy tale’s “literary origins” and be less of a steaming pile of shit than what was just described.

King of the Elves (2012): Based on Science Fiction writer Phillip K. Dick’s 1953 short story fantasy about a band of elves living in the modern-day Mississippi Delta who name a local guy working at a gas station their king after he helps save them from an evil troll.

Cars 2 (2012): Lightning McQueen and his pal Mater travel the globe in a series of excuses to make more inside references and jokes about or otherwise concerning non-american made automobiles. joy.