Indie Kickstarter from Malick Producer

My friend Nick Gonda worked as a producer on both of Terrence Malick's most recent movies (The Tree of Life and To the Wonder), and he's lent his support to a new independent production. Co-produced by writer/director Anna Axster and musician/composer Ryan Bingham (Crazy Heart), A Country Called Home has up-and-comer Imogen Poots attached to star. They plan to start shooting in Texas early next year. I'm glad to see more production coming into the state.

In addition to producing movies, Nick Gonda is CEO of entertainment startup Tugg, a company that does on-demand movies in theaters. Kind of like Kickstarter, you set a day, time, and the movie, along with a ticket price, and once your screening hits a threshold of tickets sold, the screening happens. I've used the service more than once (and will again very soon), and had a great experience with it.

Warner Archive Instant Now on iPad

At long last, you can get Warner Archive's streaming channel on iPad. Sign up here for a free two-week trial, then go get the app. It's been available on Roku, and having the account allows access on either device. The library is continually growing, and includes loads of things in HD that aren't yet on Blu-ray. The app is Airplay-capable for AppleTV users.

Screen Time #17 Named One of Stitcher's Top Podcast Episodes

In my first of two interviews with Andrea Romano, she discussed her entire career. Screen Time #17 is one of my favorite interviews that I've ever done. I'm thrilled to report that Stitcher has named/ranked/noted it as the #3 podcast episode about TV cartoons in their entire library of curated shows. I didn't know Dan had 5by5 shows on Stitcher in the first place.

As highlighted by the people at Stitcher in the splash image they used, she discussed the reunion of the original Jetsons cast in the 1980s. Almost exactly a year later, I'm getting ready to post an episode with animator/director Tom Cook, who was working on Hanna-Barbera cartoons during the same era.

Subscribe to the show to get the latest episodes (iTunes/RSS)

Screen Time #46: How We Get Kryptonite

I'm joined this week by Badass Digest's Devin Faraci, USA Today's Brian Truitt, and DVD/Blu-ray producer Robert Meyer Burnett to discuss the death of Paul Walker, the future of Fast & Furious, the casting of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, the growing slates full of comic book blockbusters coming from major studios, back channel chatter about X-Men: Days of Future Past, and where (or if) we will hit a saturation point. Are Avengers-scale blockbusters the next bubble in filmmaking?

At the end, we get some nice dirt from Rob Burnett about the work he's been doing on the Star Trek Blu-rays, both The Next Generation and Enterprise.

FAST & FURIOUS 6 Extended Edition: Blu-ray review

I wish this could just be your average, everyday disc review. I wish I were running a series of three interviews alongside this piece as planned, and not because I cared so much about getting them. I wish that the reason everyone is so hyper-aware of anything Fast-related hadn't come to pass. My colleague Brian Truitt conducted what now appears acknowledged as the last interview Paul Walker ever did.

The disc being released in the US next week currently defaults not to "Play Movie", but to a two-minute preview of the next Fast & Furious movie. Rumor chatter points to Universal having no choice, given the roadmap they had planned, but to start over from scratch. According to what Devin Faraci hears (as related on the most recent episode of Screen Time), this is by necessity, due to the movie and the planned eighth installment focusing heavily on Paul Walker's Brian O'Conner character. This may be the only footage from the first pass of the movie released, but I hope that isn't the case.

the preview sequence includes lots of Walker

including the final line, about his intent to exact revenge on Statham's character

Contrary to stories posted since the sudden and tragic death of series co-star Paul Walker, there's no way that Universal can remote-hide this, nor is the disc being recalled. The second pressing of the movie is a ways off, one expects, since this was positioned as the biggest mainstream home video release before the end of the year. Universal may remove it in further masterings of the F&F6 Blu-ray, but no one should go crazy buying up copies speculating that this version will be worth dozens of dollars. All around, it's pointless to speculate for now. If you are into this movie or its series, the disc is worth buying no matter what.

Regarding the movie itself, it is the culmination of what Justin Lin started doing in Tokyo Drift, the third in the series and his first in the director's chair. He took a series that was firmly planted in the "street racer" genre and allowed it to drift (pun intended) into espionage, heist, and finally, the superhero genre. The best part is that the audience is always in on the joke, and Lin's pictures (this one especially) manage good/evil divisions in a post-Cold War world by towing the line of selfish versus selfless. The dialogue, characterization, and circumstances are heightened to the point that the capers involved are fun, but that you care about the broad, archetypical characters. Under Lin's care, you will believe a car (and various drivers) can fly.

Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) leaves this room (and this guy) looking like this in a perfect example of the "comicbooking" of the F&F franchise

The highlight of the Blu-ray is far and away Justin Lin's solo commentary, which does point out differences that make the Director's Cut, at under a minute longer, his preferred version. In short, the differences a tiny bit of additional dialogue (maybe three lines), additional on-screen violence (a single kick at the end of Gina Carano's fight with Michelle Rodriguez), and a more harsh, realistic sound mix in Paul Walker's prison fight sequence.

With Lin directly alluding to it twice, I feel safe saying that 99% of the slight alterations made were in the interest of being sure in advance of obtaining a "PG-13" rating instead of "R". The changes are not so big that fans should be banging down the doors that Lin was robbed, shortchanged, or anything of the sort. I enjoyed his acknowledged desire to really re-frame these movies as comic book-style action movies.

this super-sized sequence was, at one time, the end of this movie, with the rest of Fast 6 being part of the 7th movie

The deleted scenes are all minor snips to existing sequences, all of which are better for their not being in the final movie (either version of it). The various featurettes are most notable in a couple of cases for showing just how practical a bunch of the effects were (The Flip Car, Planes Tanks and Automobiles), and at once highlighting just how unlikely it is that as many driving sequences in future franchise films will find the actors doing their own driving. Just as hyper-sensitive as the industry got to on-screen gun usage after Brandon Lee was killed on the set of The Crow, it is a very safe bet that from bond insurers and studio execs down to stunt teams, car safety is going to get ratcheted up significantly, even if only for appearance's sake.

The featurettes aren't EPK-style fluff, but they're basically the sort of things you'll watch once and be done with. The commentary is king.

"that's why your girls wear so much bling"

It's impossible to ignore the effect Paul Walker's death has had not only on the movies to come, but the ones that have come before. There are screen grabs I was planning to run in this article from the fiery climactic sequence, and to use them now would be beyond bad taste. It's tough to look at them in the folder on my desktop, let alone imagine them in some listicle post on Buzzfeed proclaiming "the 10 most prophetic shots of Fast & Furious 6".

When watching the movie for the first time at a press screening, I could have sworn they were setting us up for a tragic death for his character, and I was surprised and delighted to see them swerve away from what it looked like they had telegraphed. For what it's worth, I hope they scrap everything they shot for the seventh movie and take his character into witness protection and relocation off-screen. If they use any of his footage, put it in Dom's dreams or something. It would be the only instance of the "it was all just a dream" mechanism that I would heartily endorse.

Giant Size #35: Neal Adams on The Shallow Seas

In what is definitely the most unique interview-focused episode of the show, I speak with comics legend Neal Adams. John and I spend a few minutes giving a primer as to who Adams is and why new readers should know, because the interview itself is off in its own solar system, barely talking about comics at all. Click on the cover art to order recommended reading material listed further down.

Rather than pepper him with the same series of Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow questions he's been asked for decades, I handed him the reins to explain his beliefs regarding the nature of the Earth and the universe, and how he believes they are growing (not "expanding"!).

Conducted at Dallas Comic Con's Fan Days show, I left in multiple interactions with fans who paid him for signatures at his table. I feel it adds some color in general, on top of how laser-precise Adams' mind is, such that he can pick up right where he left off from essentially every time. Mid-interview, there is a special appearance by Toadies drummer and Buzzkill co-creator Mark Reznicek.

John and I will double back on some of Adams' most prominent work in a near-future episode that will include an already-recorded interview with his collaborator Dennis O'Neil, one of the most important living legends in comics.

Recommended Reading

Green Lantern/Green Arrow
Until I read these, I didn't really care about Green Arrow. This run from the 1970's is one of the most iconic in terms of directly focusing a comics narrative on social justice issues of the day on top of intergalactic threats and so on. Some of the writing, as quoted by John toward the end of the episode, is a bit creaky now, but at the time, was extremely progressive. They make t-shirts of some of these covers, and I would wear them all.

Batman: Illustrated by Neal Adams Vol. 2
The redefinition of the character to counter the Adam West TV series' camp tone occurred on the watch of publisher Carmine Infantino, with the look coming from the pencil of Neal Adams. The reason I recommend skipping the first and starting with this one is that this is where the real gold from his Batman work begins, the stuff that is most-fondly remembered, including his work on some absolutely gorgeous issues of The Brave and the Bold (which undoubtedly is part of the creative influence on the recent Brave and the Bold animated series). Grab Volume 3 while you're at it, which picks up roughly just after the issues found here.

Superman vs. Muhammad Ali (Deluxe Hardcover)
Even if it were just for the novelty value of the Last Son of Krypton boxing The Greatest, the ~$15 you pay for this is pretty reasonable. There's some really outstanding background detail in Adams' art here, and the hardcover has extras in the form of development sketches and additional content of that sort. This is one of the coolest "X Meets Y" crossover one-shots of its kind not just due to historical significance, but because it's some of Adam's absolute best artwork.

The Art of Neal Adams (Hardcover)
If you are into art books, this is a pretty solid collection of a cross-section of Adams' work, runs under $40, and makes a good gift if there's an Adams art fan in your life. His Conan covers are still to die for.

Horse Trading (#166)

There was a time when courting was quite transactional. Giant is one of my favorite restorations of the year. I'm finally chewing through the rest of the James Dean Collection chocolate box this long holiday weekend.

Giant Size #34: Soft Gooey Center

$8.99

$8.99

John and I discuss various and sundry things we're thankful for in comics from 2013 thus far. I also commit to a series of around 17 future show topics and gimmicks.

This week's interview is with the insanely talented Cary Nord, whom I spoke with at the recent Dallas Comic Con Fan Days. See the show notes page for a laundry list of links, including Matt Fraction's outstanding "Halloween" Twitter name.

I've embedded a couple of mentioned TPBs at left (which I'll update as some more come out). Support your local comic shop by ordering and subscribing to series from them. You'd be surprised how many back issues they can find for you.

While you're in the buying mood, spread the unholy brilliance (except on iBooks) gospel of Sex Criminals. Apple pulled it completely from ComiXology. Even though buying from Image results in no DRM whatsoever, pay for it because you nasty like that. This entire paragraph will make sense if you listen to the show, promise.

<-- Ghosted is a ghost heist series, first mentioned on the show by John on our "Not Saga" episode.

Fateful Terminus (#165)

If you've never watched Spaced, you have no idea how soothing it is to hear Julia Deakin's voice saying "Broian?" in your head no matter what role you see her perform. I love that she is the audience for Simon Pegg's trademark speech as Gary King.

iFlicks 2.0

I love this app. I've been progressively cranking terabytes of content through it to convert for iTunes and mobile device compatibility on top of metadata scraping. It's only $10 until 25 November, but worth it even at full price.

BREAKING BAD Barrel Includes All Retailer Exclusives

This is tremendously refreshing, partly as a result of the series creator shilling for his own product, but mostly because this is a truly definitive "ultimate" set. Retailer exclusives bit hits at about 5:20 mark.

Noriko (#164)

This still frame comes from the breathtaking new Criterion Blu-ray of Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story, restored and remastered from a 4K film transfer. It is a noticeable upgrade as compared to the BFI's Region B Blu-ray, from which I've previously featured stills.

I finally saw a 35mm print of Tokyo Story three months ago, thanks to an Austin Film Society screening. I suggested a pair of screenings that I realize I've just missed, of A Story of Floating Weeds and its color sound remake, Floating Weeds. I hope people enjoyed them. I'm actually quite sad to have missed them, but there are worse things to have happen in life, you know?

3D, Flattening

TheWrap reports some rather damning statistics from the opening weeks of Thor 2 in the US, and it's info that studios should use to honestly consider upcoming productions:

With around 80 percent of its 3,841 screens offering the format, roughly 39 percent of Disney’s Marvel superhero sequel’s $85.7 million opening weekend grosses came from 3D. That’s still about $33 million, but a solid majority of moviegoers opted to see it in 2D rather than put on the glasses.

If it always looked great, from production (or post-conversion) to in-theatre execution, the story might have been markedly different. Hollywood cannot offer its customers the promise of an unparalleled, high-end experience and deliver less-than-adequate results. You can only rip people off for so long.

Out of Print Watch: Criterion's IL GENERALE DELLA ROVERE

The 2009 Criterion DVD is suddenly out of stock on Criterion's site, at Amazon, and Barnes & Noble ahead of the 3 December 2013 release of separate Raro Video DVD and Blu-ray editions. For true Criterion collectors, it's wise to snag this as soon as possible in the next couple days before the price skyrockets. Here's a quick look at extras that have been retained, lost, or added in the new edition as compared to the old:

Retained: Adriano Aprà & Renzo Rosselini interviews, theatrical trailer

Lost: Isabella and Ingrid Rosselini interviews, The Choice visual essay by Tag Gallagher, booklet content

Added: a three-minute interview with Aldo Strappini and 45-minute video essay Truth of Fiction

From the Criterion synopsis:

In a magnetic performance, Vittorio De Sica is Emanuele Bardone, an opportunistic rascal in wartime Genoa, conning his fellow Italians and exploiting their tragedies by promising to help find their missing loved ones in exchange for money. But when the Nazis force him to impersonate a dead partisan general in prison to extract information from fellow inmates, Bardone finds himself wrestling with his conscience for the first time. Roberto Rossellini’s gripping drama, a rare box-office breakthrough for the legendary neorealist, is further evidence of the compassionate artistry of one of cinema’s most important voices.

I Don't Know When, I Don't Like How (#160-163)

The first movie I saw in a movie theatre saw a major digital restoration…but the final product has a noticeable, major editing mistake during "Part of That World" of all things (along with a couple other places). Make sure you get a replacement disc through Disney's program that they rather quietly and begrudgingly issued. There are no copies currently available that aren't screwed up.

I went through the process today. Here's a shortcut and a quick rundown of what it was like and what to expect (get ready to be angry):

1. Start by calling: 800-723-4763 (U.S.), 888-877-2843 (Canada)
2. select these menu options in this order: 1 then 5 then 6
3. they'll get some info from the disc packaging and discs themselves from you and ask for a phone number and mailing address
4. they'll mail you two things, a "Consumer Form" and a return label
5. fill out the form when it arrives and put only the discs into something suitable for shipping (keep the case), slapping the label they provided on, and mail
6. wait 4-6 weeks (as of this writing in mid-November 2013) for your replacement discs

color looks muted here as compared to the first frame above, but that's how it's supposed to look

I was on the phone for a total of about nine minutes, with basically no wait time other than menu-hunting. They asked for an email address (which you don't have to give them), and promptly asked if they could use mine to contact me for future offers (which is why I gave them a dummy email).

The thing most people would be galled by was when at the end of the call, I was told about the upcoming Blu-ray release of Mary Poppins, which they could "take a pre-order for right here over the phone". I'm sure this is a compulsory part of the call flow forced on their phone reps, but it's disgusting to tell someone that the product they paid $25+ for retail (mine was a review copy) will be out of their hands for at least a month, and in the same breath ask them to trust you with more money for a product that could be screwed up in the same way.

Granted, mine is a review copy provided by the studio and I'm a grown man, but to think that people with kids could be without a proper corrected copy until after the holidays at this point is shameful.

I mean seriously…they've got gadgets and gizmos a-plenty. Whozits and whatsits galore.

I guess what I'm saying is…I want more (in terms of their caring about their customers).

I'll update as The Process continues. This mess aside, the disc looked and sounded really great. I hope corrected copies actually get put on store shelves at some point.

The Cure for Love (#159)

I prefer Chaplin to Lloyd and Keaton, and I think at least part of it is due to my not thinking much of the latter two's use of black people in stereotyped or buffoonish caricatures, where Chaplin never did. White people will look at me funny when I say something like that, usually responding with "not like you're black", though it turns out I am, in part. I'm also part Chinese and part Latino on top of being half-white. I don't hold the racial mores people grew up with against them, but I do award extra credit for being ahead of one's time.

Whatever Chaplin's other indiscretions or flaws were in life, at least he was beyond progressive on race, and that's something. I like very much that biographer Jeffrey Vance makes a particular point of talking about this on the Criterion commentary for City Lights. I may be teetering back toward calling it my favorite Chaplin, over Modern Times.

It's a Wonderful Lie

Variety is reporting the intent to make a sequel to It's a Wonderful Life for release in 2015, with Karolyn Grimes, the original Zuzu Bailey, attached as an angel and…this is all hooey. This script will not get made. This is a publicist-placed story that notably doesn't mention Paramount having comment at all.

The remake, derivative, and so on rights to the original film are tangled up like crazy, as rightly pointed out by Lou Lumenick in relation to the troubles faced by Broadway producers in the 1980's. Since around 2009, actress Karolyn Grimes has been trying to drum up interest and attention surrounding her association with the original movie. She has a very interesting personal story as related in that last linked story from two years ago, but nothing in that Variety "EXCLUSIVE" says anything about production actually being set in stone or that a green light has been given. According to Lumenick, he visited the location used for the movie back in 2009 and was told something about a TV series that was planned to star Grimes.

I wasn't going to post anything until I saw loads of outlets playing exactly into the purpose of the Variety story and reported this "announcement" as fact. There is no green light, and nothing "real" about this announcement other than the intent by some people to maybe make something in time for a certain release date. Producing partners like a script for a movie that they could not possibly have secured the full rights for without official comment from various other parties. Chief among the entities that would have to have something to say for this to be credible would be Paramount. Note they're nowhere to be found.

The actual movie usually drifts between $15-20 on Blu-ray. It'll probably wiggle a little cheaper as we approach Black Friday. Amazon Prime members can stream the wholly unrelated, Peter Capaldi-directed and Richard E. Grant-starring Oscar winner Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life for free.

GigaOm: Movie "Ownership" is "Over"

This piece from GigaOm is the most idiotic bit of writing from the tech sector about entertainment that I've seen in some time, and that's saying something.

The Digital Entertainment Group, a trade association that tracks revenue in this space, doesn’t differentiate between movie and TV shows when talking about digital sales, but an industry insider told me that between 80 and 90 percent of all digital movie revenue comes from rentals, not sales.

None of his cited data comparisons are compared equitably. He puts gross subscription service (Netflix) revenue, which did not exist a few years ago, against physical media sales. His analysis is anything but objective, and that he doesn't qualify the insight of his "industry insider" source makes them as authoritative as an intern in a mailroom discussing an entire studio's performance.

iTunes sales data has actually shown the opposite, as has physical media purchase data. This one guy's preferences, behavior, and experiences no more dictate the market than I do as an individual. The data contradicts him regarding media ownership, and that he plays so much into what many have said studios want us to do (prefer rental to "ownership") is further evidence of how weak and utterly facile his "analysis" is here.

What would interest me is a look at the conversion of rental revenue since the late 90's from retail into SVOD rentals and RedBox (which GigaOm never mentions…too bourgeois for them?).

Steel Resolve (#158)

I re-watched Man of Steel with my wife last night. It's a movie that I tried to defend and found myself disliking more as I talked about it on The Incomparable. I should have been a bit more forthright in my stance on a few things. I've been proven quite right since we recorded in June, in that Man of Steel was literally the foundation for expanding their DC Cinematic Universe and Goyer has publicly alluded to exactly the Lex Luthor framing I guessed. I would still defend the character choices Kal-El makes, but I'm more emboldened that the destruction porn was overboard.

I've also examined the respective retailer exclusive extras available (from Target and Walmart) in the US, just as I did Star Trek Into Darkness. I'm angry again, too. "Disappointed" may be a better choice of words. Guess what I'm posting about either later tonight or in the morning...