The Voice of Batman

Well, there was some other nerd-tacular news this week that I've failed to report on. Not so much failed to report on as I was just waiting to have some time.

As you know, we've got the next Batman straight-to-DVD animated movie coming out this summer. Batman: Gotham Knight sees Batman turned over to some of the finest Japanese animators in the world to give Batman an all-new anime spin.

Earlier this week, they announced the voice cast, and boy are the geeks happy.

Kevin Conroy is back as Batman!

Conroy, of course, did the voice of Batman on Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited and the elderly Bruce Wayne on Batman Beyond. To many, he has become THE definitive Batman.

Now, as cool as this is, I'm not so sure it's right for the project. I mean, here's a picture of the anime-styled Batman.



As much as I love Kevin Conroy as Batman, I just can't picture his Batman voice coming out of this Batman.

but then, who knows? Conroy is a good enough actor to maybe alter his Batman voice to make it more appropriate. He's done it in the past. I still think this is a cool concept, though.

And, what I like is, going over the whole voice cast, they've brought together a bunch of all-stars from other DC animation projects to do voices. Here's some of the other legendary voice actors on this project. Sadly, we don't know who exactly they're voicing, but I list their famous voice in the DC animation world.

George Newbern - Superman on Justice League and Justice League Unlimited
Corey Burton - Brainiac on Superman, Justice League and even Legion of Super-Heroes
Kevin Michael Richardson - The Joker on The Batman
Will Friedle - Terry McGuinnes/Future Batman on Batman Beyond
Scott Menville - Robin on Teen Titans
Hynden Walch - Starfire on Teen Titans

Plus some other legendary voice actors like Rob Paulson and Jason Marsden.

Oh, and we've got some celebrity casting as well. Gary Dourdan, still best-known as CSI Warrick Brown on the original CSI is a Gotham City police detective, and David McCallum, star of the legendary 1960s spy show The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and having a bit of a resurgance on NCIS takes the reins as Alfred.

Batman: Gotham Knight comes out straight-to-DVD on July 8. That's one day after my birthday, and yes, I will accept it as a late birthday present.

I'm seriously geeking out.....

Ladies and gentlemen, our first picture of Snake Eyes from the live-action G.I. Joe:



That is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, 100% absolutly spot-on perfect.

August 2009 is when we see it in action.

Fast Food and Fast Movies

Oh, the fast food nerds of the world are on a high!

The McRib is back, bay-bee!

Ah, yes, a fast food sandwich so epic and so mythical they made a Simpsons episode about it.

I have fond memories of eating these as a child in the 1980s. God, when was the last time McDonald's had these? The last time that it was really heavily hyped was in 1994, when the did a whole tie-in with the live-action Flintstones movie. But they had to have brought it back in 1997, because I remember having one on my summer of gravel crusher goodness. Ah, yes, I remember getting off the crusher crew at midnight, hitting the all-night McDonald's drive-thru, and having a McRib picnic under the stars.

I haven't been excited since Wendy's introduced their fish burger.

And because Man cannot live on bread alone, check out this cool new Speed Racer poster.



Not gonna lie...I've had a crush on Cristina Ricci for a long time, and looking at her smirk in that poster just reminds me why.

I'd better end this before it gets stalkery.

Sword in the Stone on DVD

Wow. Every Disney animated film really is getting a special edition!

It was reported today that Disney is prepping a super-special 45th anniversary edition of The Sword in the Stone. This Disney classic, very loosely based on the TH White novel of the same name, tells the tale of a young Arthur Pendragon as he meets an elderly wizard named Merlin, and Merlin begins to prepare Arthur for his destiny. It's truly one of Disney's lesser animated films, but I watched it a lot as a kid.

For the 45th anniversary edition, it's being released in widescreen for the first time ever, along with an all-new 5.1 surround sound mix. You'll get an interactive gallery of concept art, a featurette about the music, two Disney animated shorts, an interactive game, and that wonderfully vague bonus material on every DVD, "more!"

It comes out on June 17.

Now, c'mon Disney! Get around to The Black Cauldron! With the legendary super-gory undead army scenes!

And hey! I discovered some interesting facts on Dumbo the other day.... Dumbo is Disney's shortest animated film, at 64 minutes long. In fact, it was so short, that the distributor, RKO Pictures, asked Disney to either edit it down to a short film, or make it longer. Disney said, "No. It gets released uncut!" and that's what happened.

Dumbo was also Disney's first film released to the growing home entertainment market. Dumbo hit VHS and Beta in 1981.

No Targ This Week

I've recently been reading up on the supposed "lost issue" of Fantastic Four.

It's like this. Marvel Comics popularized a way of making comics called "the Marvel method." Rather than give a complete script to his artists, Stan Lee would just give them a rough outline of what he wants to see happen in that comic. The artist would draw the comic based on the outline, and then give the finished artwork back to Lee to write the dialogue. The quirks of this system can be beneficial. For example, Stan Lee once gave artist Jack Kirby this outline for a Fantastic Four story involving a planet-eating villain named Galactus. When he got the artwork back, Lee saw that Kirby drew in this little guy riding a surfboard. When Lee asked Kirby about it, Kirby said that he reasoned that someone like Galactus would have a herald flying on ahead, searching out tasty planets. Lee agreed, and the Silver Surfer was born.

But this system had its drawbacks. One day, Lee got some artwork back from Kirby, and Lee thought that Kirby had gone of the rails...completely mis-interpreted his outline. Lee asked for the artwork to be re-done, and, well, relations were strained between Kirby and Lee anyway, and Kirby quit Marvel comics. Lee eventually made this unused Kirby artwork work as an extended flashback in a later issue, but for the most part, some considered it a lost issue.

Now what does this tale have to do with the fact that there's no episode of The Targ this week?

It's like this. I'm sick. I've got aches and pains all over my body, and when it reaches the whole left arm/heart area, I got scared. Real scared. And I recorded this week's Targ when I was really scared.

And now, here I am, the next morning. I'm Stan Lee, looking at the artwork, and going, "Gee, this guy went off the rails."

And to top it all off, I'm still not in the mood to record something new for you. In fact, I just got off the phone with my parents, and they were all like, "Pains in the left arm and heart area, hmm? Well, why didn't you GO TO THE HOSPITAL when it all started ON THURSDAY??"

So that's probably how I'm going to spend my Sunday morning.

I'm sorry there's no Targ this week, but I'm just really scared right now.

My Hero's Next Project

I guess I should specify which hero, as I've got so many. Weird Al...Kevin Smith. In this entry, it's Brad Bird.

Bird, of course, made my all-time favourite movie, The Iron Giant, and he brought us the best reviewed film of 2007, Ratatouille.

Well, after months of hinting, it was finally made official this morning. For Bird's next film, he's breaking into live-action.

1906 will be a historical epic about the 1906 San Fransisco Earthquake. It'll focus on a young college student who's investigating his father's murder, and in the course of his investigation, he discovers the flaws that lead to the massive outbreaks of fires that happened after the earthquake.

John Logan, who wrote the historical epics Gladiator, the Aviator and The Last Samurai, and the sadly mediocre Star Trek Nemesis, wrote the script. Bird himself is doing a re-write.

No word yet on when it comes out.

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Ooo! Check it out! There's a new trailer for Speed Racer!

Latest Targ's Up!

Darn you, daylight savings time! I loathe you, and the way you mess up my sleep cycle. My VCR may have sprung ahead, but not my biological clock! It makes me want to move to Saskatchewan, where they don't believe in you!

But I'm not letting you thwart this week's podcast! I've got a brand new episode of The Targ up!

This week, it's Episode 88: Keys in my Pocket, where I say good-bye to The Batman, Data sings, and I read the news stories too hot for radio.

Give it a listen!

Saturday Morning Reivews

The latest chapter in Batman animation has come to a close. The final episode of The Batman just aired. As is the trend, they hit the magic #65, can now sell into worldwide syndication, and really have no reason to go forward.

The Batman was interesting. The legacy of Batman: the Animated Series is still strong in a lot of geeks' minds, so pressing forward with a new Batman cartoon seemed crazy to some, but it still had a lot of good stuff going for it.

What's most fascinating is that The Batman can be split into two distinct eras. For the first two season, it tried venture into Batman Begins/Batman Year One territory. Batman had been in operation for three years, the police were still trying to bring him in as a vigilante, and a lot of episodes focused on new origins for Batman's rogues gallery. In these early days, I dubbed it "Ultimate Batman," because it really seemed like they were applying Marvel's "Ultimate" formula to Batman. Most of the supporting cast were Gotham city police officers, and a major player in the cast was Detective Ellen Yin, the one "good cop" that helped Batman.

But then, with season 3, Alan Burnett took over behind the scene. Burnett was one of the trinity responsible for Batman: The Animated Series, and under his guidance, it became more of a conventional superhero show. Batman was now an accepted superhero, Ellen Yin and the rest of the Gotham PD were dropped. It became your standard formula of superhero vs. supervillain. Batgirl was added in season 3, Robin was added in season 4, and season 5 was The Brave and the Bold, with Batman teaming up with other DC superheroes in about every second episode. Heck, the final episode was Batman and the Justice League. Maybe it was because of Burnett's involvement with B:TAS that he felt there was no need to re-invent the world.

All things considered, The Batman was a worthy addition to Batman animation. It brought us the first animated incarnations of Batman rogues like the Cluemaster and the Black Mask, and even popular one-shots like Wrath. But if you still want a Batman cartoon that's fun AND healthy, then Batman: the Animated Series is still tops.

And another hero gets another chapter in animation. For, right after The Batman finale, it was the premier of The Spectacular Spider-Man. For the latest Spidey cartoon, they decided to go back to the beginning. Peter Parker is still in high school, and once again he's an ass-kicking superhero by night, and scrawny high school nerd who gets the crap beat out of him by bullies in the day.

Of course, though, there are some changes. As part of the back to the beginning, the most prominent girl is Gwen Stacey. But now, she's a grrrl geek who's smarts are at least as equal to Peter Parker. And while Parker hasn't noticed it yet, she's starting to have feeling for him. Eddie Brock is also in it. Brock is a freshman in university, and it's revealed that he went to high school with Peter Parker, and that he was kind of Parker's older brother/protector from bullies. While Brock was a jock in high school, he's now given his life to science where he's a lab assistant to Dr. Curt Connors.

The geek-out factor for me on The Spectacular Spider-Man is that the creator/showrunner is Greg Weisman, the creator of Gargoyles. And in the first episodes, Weisman did give a few tips of the hat to his most famous creation. Spidey trashes a gargoyle that looks just like Broadway, and Keith "Goliath" David is now the voice of the Big Man.

Peter Parker is still new to being Spider-Man. People regard Spidey as "an urban legend," and in the opening narration Spider-Man referrs to his superhero career as "how he spent his summer vacation." They showed two episodes back-to-back...#1 dealt with the origin of the Vulture, and #2 was the origin of Electro.

It seemed like a good start...we've got all those character moments we remember about Spider-Man that we haven't seen in a while...mainly, teen angst. And Joe Quesada didn't have to sell a piece of Spider-Man's soul to get there!

It's off to a good start, I think.

Raunchy News/Data Sings!/What I Do For a Living

I've been thinking about this for a while now, and I think I'm going to do it.

At work, there's a lot of news stories that come down the wire services, and while they are hilarious, I know they're a little too risque for conservative ol' Athabasca.

So, what I think I'm going to do, is whenever one of these news stories comes down the wire, I'm going to post them here at my blog. Cuz really, they're just so funny, they have to be shared.

Like this one that came down today:

Sex toys are getting some respect in Sweden.

The state-owned pharmacy chain (Apoteket) will be stocking
vibrators beginning in June.

Pharmacy officials say the adult novelties will be stocked in 50
select stores for a year-long trial.

A chain spokeswoman says the official pharmacy wants to help
people to have a better sex life -- with or without a partner.

The Swedish Association for Sexuality Education is helping
officials decide which sex toys to stock.

All I can say is: Sweden rocks.

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OH MY GOD! Data has a new album out!

For those who aren't nerd enough, Brent Spiner will forever be known as Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, but he is a bit of a crooner. He released an album back in the early-1990s, and his first acting gig after Star Trek was doing a couple of Broadway shows.

His new album is called "Dreamland," and he says it's not album so much as it is a "radio play/musical." Spiner is releasing it independently, and you can buy it straight from Spiner at his official website.

And, as is the case with every musical artist these days, you can hear a few tracks over at his MySpace page.

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And for those who wonder what happens when my work and my hobbies collide, check this out.

The brand-new Athabasca Regional Multiplex opened up around two weeks ago. And because I love playing with my digital camera, I went up there and took a few photos and posted them on my Facebook page.

A couple hours later, I get an e-mail from head office. "Hey, those are real nice. How about putting them on the station website?" And I said, "Sure!"

So swing by www.fox850.ca and check out my virtual tour of the Athabasca Regional Multiplex.

My Hero's Latest Project

So, the Presidents of the United States of America have a new album coming out on Tuesday.

Now, what does this have to do with my hero, "Weird Al" Yankovic?

Why, Weird Al directed the music video for their lead single, Mixed Up SOB!







Weird Al's actually getting a nice little side career as a music video director. He also directed videos for The Black Crows, Ben Folds, and Hanson, back when boy bands roamed the Earth. And, of course, Weird Al has directed all of his own music videos since Bedrock Anthem.

Indiana Jones and the Dastardly Double-Dip

Well, here's something I should have seen coming.

The Indiana Jones Trilogy is getting re-released on DVD, in time for the fourth movie. The last time the trilogy was released, it was in a 4-disc boxed set, with all your bonus features on disc 4.

For this new release, the films will be available individually, and each film is getting its own 2-disc special edition. And of course, all the bonus features are brand new. Among the new features are each film getting a new introduction by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, more storyboards, and exclusive new featurettes on each film's big special effects scenes.

These new special editions will be available individually, or you can by them all in a big, 6-disc boxed set. It all comes out on May 13...a little less than 2 weeks before the fourth film hits theatres.

I tell ya, I finally broke down and bought the DVDs a little over a year ago. I was doing my Christmas shopping, I saw HMV had it marked down to $30, and I thought, "That's the cheapest I've seen it...why not?"

I think I'll hold off on this double-dip, cuz you just know that, this time next year, they'll be announcing a new boxed set of all four films with even more new bonus features. That's when it'll be worth buying again.

Justice League: the New Frontier Review

Well, I picked up this DVD on Friday, watched it a couple of times, so let's do a review!

Justice League: the New Frontier

Directed by Dave Bullock

Starring the voices of David Boreanaz, Miguel Ferrar, Kyle McLachlan, Lucy Lawless, Jeremy Sisto, Neil Patrick Harris, Brooke Shields, and Keith "Yes, I have the most awesome voice ever" David.

Backstory: So, when Warner Brothers and DC Comics announced that they'd be doing a bunch of straight-to-DVD animated films, and that The New Frontier would be in the bunch, it instantly became the most anticipated. Based on writer/artist Darwyn Cooke's love letter to the Silver Age of comics, The New Frontier re-imagined the origins of the Justice League by plopping them all into the real world of the 1950s. When I first heard about this, I ran down to the library and checked out the original graphic novel. It was a pretty good read, and I was ready to see how they'd adapt this for animation.

Plot: The 1950s was a turbulent time for America, what, with the growing Cold War and the growing paranoia of whether your neighbour might be one of those dreaded Communists. Not even superheroes were above reproach, as there was growing pressure for superheroes to have "nothing to hide" and unmask. Under the growing pressure, there were those like the Justice Society, who chose to retire from superheroing and fade into society. There were those like Superman and Wonder Woman, who swore loyalty oaths to the USA and became government agents. And there were those like Batman and the Flash, who continued to operate as hunted fugitives. Throw into the mix a couple of lost souls: Hal Jordan, a soldier branded a coward because of his refusal to kill, and J'onn J'onzz, the last Martian, stranded on Earth and attempting to assimilate into society. But soon the world is threatened by a demonic force known only as "The Centre," and it's time for all these heroes to put aside their differences and personal politics and do what they do best.

What I Liked: This movie is faithful to the original graphic novel the way Sin City is faithful to its original graphic novel. You swear that all they did was take the comic and use it as storyboards. Granted, to make it a 75-minute film, lots of stuff had to be cut out. This plays out like a hyper-compressed version of the graphic novel, and all the highlights are definitely hit.

What I Didn't Like: As I already mentioned, they had to cut out quite a bit in order to get down to the 75-minutes. Some of the subtleties of the original comic had to be made a bit more blunt (ie preachy) in the interests of time. And despite it being fanboy dream casting, I thought that Lucy "Xena" Lawless came across a little bland as Wonder Woman.

Final Verdict: While still no Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, it is a damn good piece of DC Comics animation.

3.5 Nibs

Bonus Materials: I sprung for the 2-disc special edition, so on disc 1, you get a documentary on the history of the Justice League, a running commentary with the director and producers, a second running commentary with the graphic novel's author Darwyn Cooke, and a preview for the next straight-to-DVD animated film, Batman: Gotham Knight. On disc 2, you get a documentary on the history of super-villains, a featurette on the original graphic novel, and three episodes of Justice League Unlimited.

Latest Targ's Up!

Ah, another lazy Sunday can only mean another episode of The Targ!

For this episode, I talk about some of the news stories I'm covering in Athabasca right now, tell you all about the upcoming Family Guy spin-off, and obsess over Pokemon 10.

And that's why this one is called Episode 87: My Life Summed Up

Giver a go!

Trailer Park!

Lots of new trailers hit the web yesterday.

Firstly, here's the one for Mike Myers' next film, The Love Guru:



I make no apologies! I love Mike Myers!

Now, for the big one, here's the third and final trailer for Iron Man:

Little Bits of Movie News

Wow, lots of cool stuff was announced while I was out goofing around.

First up, Freddie Highmore is going to be doing the voice of AstroBoy. Highmore is the little British boy who was Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and is currently on the big screen in The Spiderwick Chronicles.

AstroBoy is being turned into a computer-animated film by the folks at Imagi Studios. Imagi's first film was last year's CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. AstroBoy is begin directed by David Bowers, a long-time DreamWorks and Aardman storyboard artist who made his directorial debut with Flushed Away. It's due out in '09

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Family Guy is getting a spin-off.

Peter Griffin's mellow, laid back, African American friend Cleveland Brown is getting his own show. Cleveland is being developed by Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane, Family Guy writer/producer and voice of Cleveland Mike Henry, and former Simpsons writer and current American Dad! showrunner Rich Appel.

No word yet on when Cleveland will be hitting the airwaves.

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And it looks like the straight-to-video DC Comics animated film Teen Titans: The Judas Contract is danger.

At a recent comic book convention, Teen Titans: The Judas Contract writer and veteran comic book writer Marv Wolfman revealed that Warner Brothers is considering pulling the plug on the project, because they think that Teen Titans doesn't have a big enough fan base to warrant a straight-to-DVD film.

For those who don't know, in the 1980s, Teen Titans grew to be DC's answer to X-Men, a group of young superheroes dealing with all kinds of teen angst. Their leader was Nightwing, who was Robin all grown up and on his own.

The Judas Contract is considered one of their best storylines. The Titans are betrayed by one of their own to the mercenary Deathstroke, who begins to destroy the Titans one by one. It was greatly watered down and served as the inspiration for the season 2 story arc of the recent Teen Titans animated series.

Mark Cappis's Day Off

I'm playing hookey today!

Well, I guess it's not really hookey when you go through all the proper channels and book the day off a month ago.

But the way I figured it, if you're going to cut loose and go nuts, why not on February 29...a day so rare and special that it only comes around once every four years?

I threw it out there on my blog a couple of days ago as to whether I should go see the Royal Alberta Museum or the Telus World of Science - Edmonton. And today I decided....

The Royal Alberta Museum!

Why? Well, that was always kind of my original plan, and let's face, the Museum needs the attendance so the government will finally get off their duffs and start their expansion.

The gross simplification of the issue: back in 2005, when the Queen was visiting the province for the centennial, and she proclaimed the Provincial Museum of Alberta to be the Royal Alberta Museum, Premier Ralph Klein figured that a great centennial project would be to finally build a much-needed expansion to the museum and truly turn it into a world-class facility. The cost? $200 million.

Flash-forward about a year and a half. Klein retired and Ed Stelmach came to power. Because construction costs are so huge in Alberta, the final expansion plans came in at more than $200 million. I forget the exact number, but I think a fair guess is between $300 and $400 million. (That's just a guess...feel free to correct me if you know the correct number.)

So, the Museum went to the government in early 2007, asking for more money. Stelmach said, "NO!! $200 million is all you're getting! Now, you go back to that drawing board, and come back with a $200 million plan!"

In the original plan, the Royal Alberta Museum was to be closed by now, as construction was going full-bore on the renovations. But, it's now stuck in permanent limbo, as construction costs keep going up and up and up and $200 million won't buy that much anymore.

So I figure the Museum needs all the help it can get.

and besides, as my best friend pointed out, I should save the Telus World of Science for June, because that's when they're bringing in the world-famous and controversial Body Worlds.

Woo! Spending a day at a museum. When I cut loose and go nuts, I really go nuts.

But then, as Tom Hanks's character in Saving Private Ryan said, there are some things I keep just for me.

A Night at Which Museum?

I've got a couple of days off coming to me, and there are two places that I want to check out. I haven't been to either one in a while, so I'm seeking some input.

On the one hand, we've got the Royal Alberta Museum. Last time I was there, it was still the Provincial Museum of Alberta. Granted, museums don't change that much, and looking at the website, they don't really have any really interesting rotating displays this month. But still, it'd be nice to check it out before they get to those renovations. IF they ever get to those renovations. Stupid government cutting funding...grumble grumble.

On the other hand, we've got the Telus World of Science - Edmonton. That one I haven't been to since it was called the Edmonton Space and Science Centre. That's right, I missed the Odyssium period. Last time I was there was 11 years ago. I remember seeing this IMAX documentary called Special Effects, all about making special effects. It's big selling point was that this documentary came out shortly before Star Wars: Special Edition, so a big focus of the film is doing the FX for the special editions. They even hauled the old models out of storage and re-created the opening shot of Star Wars for IMAX.

Ya gotta remember...this was 1997. They weren't showing regular movies in IMAX yet, so seeing a scene from Star Wars in IMAX was a really, really big deal. No pun intended.

That, and R2-D2 and C-3P0 have an amusing cameo at the end.

So, on the one hand, we have a royal museum that I haven't been to in a while, and probably has more interesting stuff for me to photograph with my digital camera.

On the other hand, we've got a science centre that I haven't been to in a REALLY LONG while with IMAX movies.

That's why I'm throwing it out there to you! If you've got an opinion to help me decide, let me know in the comments down below, or send me note with your thoughts.

New DVD Day!

I love Tuesday and the new DVDs it brings! Got lots of notable releases out today.

First up, the one most anticipated by the geeks in the house, is Justice League: The New Frontier. Based on the award-winning graphic novel of the same name by Darwyn Cooke, Justice League: The New Frontier re-imagines the origins of the Justice League by plopping them down into the real world of the politics and the policies of 1950s America. I went down to the library and read the book when this project was first announced, and it's a pretty good read.

This one stars the voices of Kyle McLaughlin as Superman, Lucy Lawless as Wonder Woman, Neil Patrick Harris as the Flash, Jeremy Sisto as Batman, and David Boreanaz as Green Lantern.

For bonus features, you get a documentary about the history of the Justice League, a running commentary by diretor Bruce Timm and writer Darwyn Cooke, and a preview of the next straight-to-DVD DC comics animated film, Batman: Gothan Knight. If you spring for the 2-disc special edition, the on disc 2 you get a documentary about the history and evolution of super-villains, an interview with Cooke about the creation of the original graphic novel, and Timm presents his 3 favourite episodes of Justice League Unlimited.

For people who like bloody historical epics and performance-capture films, we've got Beowulf out today. It's available in both a regular version and an "unrated director's cut."

And for the Wes Anderson junkies in the house, Anderson's latest The Darjeeling Limited hits DVD today. The latest film from the director of The Royal Tennenbaums and The Life Aquatic follows three brothers, played by Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody, and Jason Schwartzman, as they travel across India, re-connecting with each other and finding themselves. For bonus materials, you get a behind-the-scenes featurette, and the prequel short film Hotel Chevalier, which was released through iTunes and stars Natalie Portman. You true Wes Anderson fans may want to save your money for the fully-loaded Criterion edition, which is due out in the fall.

Oscar Reflections

Man, I can't believe I didn't do my annual Oscar picks at my official website. Actually, I do believe I didn't do it. I thought about doing it, but in the end, I just went, "Meh."

Anyway, watched the big show last night. Thought it was kind of bland this year. However, I do have a few things I want to say.

- Ratatouille won Best Animated Film. No surprise there, as Brad Bird is GOD'S GIFT TO FILMMAKING, in my opinion. I can't believe he told his guidance councillor story in his speech. He tells that tale in every interview he does. Can't fault him, though, cuz it's a good story. And he remembered to thank Jan Pinkava, which I thought was classy.

- The Golden Compass beat Transformers for Best Visual Effects. Optimus Prime defeated by Coca Cola polar bears. Biggest upset of the night.

- Seeing the songs from Enchanted performed live once again makes me sad that I missed that one in the theatres. I'm hitting the city this weekend...maybe it's still playing in the dollar theatres.

- Sweetest moment of the night: when host Jon Stewart brought Marketa Irglova, co-winner of the Best Original Song Oscar, back out to say her thank-yous, cuz her song-writing partner hogged the mic and she didn't get a chance to say hers. Irglova and her mic-hogging partner, Glen Hansard, won for the song Falling Slowly from Once.

- Favourite joke of the night: "Someone just won their Oscar pool based on a lucky guess." - Stewart, commenting on The Bourne Ultimatum winning Best Sound Mixing.

Latest Targ's Up!

After last week's impromptu long weekend, I got on my butt and recorded a podcast this week!

Today, I've got Episode 86: Request Show #3. I play your songs and tell little tales of why I like you.

Listen here!

Must Be Thursday

Wow. I've got some crazy news and some cool news that I just have to share with the world.

First, the crazy news. The movie geek community is scratching their heads over this one. Hasbro Toys really wants to get into making movies, what with the success of the live-action Transformers and the live-action G.I. Joe now filming. Today, it was announced that Hasbro just signed a deal with Universal Studios. Universal gets to make a maximum of four films based on...Hasbro's board games.

Hasbro makes some of the biggest board games on the market, like Twister, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Battleship, Candyland, Guess Who?, Operation, Risk, Clue...pretty much every board game going.

And the thing is, directors are actually interested! Shortly after this, it was announced that Michael Bay is actually very interested in making a movie based on...the Ouiji Board. Yes, Hasbro holds the copywright on the Ouiji Board. It's interesting to note that the Ouiji Board inspired a series of slasher films in the late-1980s/early-1990s called Witchboard in which the board unleashed murderous demons. And since Michael Bay owns a company called Platinum Dunes, which is dedicated to re-making old slasher films (Platinum Dunes made that Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake), I think we know where we're going with this one.

Even more shocking, Ridley Scott, director of good movies like Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and the recent American Gangster, is really keen on making the movie version of Monopoly. Scott figures he can make Monopoly into "a comedic thriller about big business."

Yes, Ridley Scott's Monopoly. I can see the trailers now. "The Battle for Boardwalk Begins. Summer 2009. Starring Russel Crowe as the race car."

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And now the cool news, because I love all things Olympics.

Today, it was announced that Singapore will be hosting the world's first Youth Olympics.

The Youth Olympics are a new international sporting event being set by the International Olympic Committee. It's going to be on a smaller-scale than the Olympics, and only be open to atheletes between the ages of 14 and 18. The purpose of the games is to promote sport among the youth...get them off the couch and outside playing.

The first Summer Youth Olympics are already scheduled for 2010. This is the first international sporting competition for Singapore.

Happy Christmas! Format War is Over!

Got some very happy news today for those who want to buy a next generation DVD player, but were having trouble deciding between HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. Your decision just got a whole lot simpler.

The format war is finally over. The winner is...Blu-Ray!

At a press conference in Tokyo earlier this morning, Toshiba conceded defeat and announced that they'd be pulling the plug on HD-DVD.

And thus, a year-and-a-half chapter in the home theatre saga came to an end.

For those who want a re-cap, it's like this. The next generation of DVD was unleased upon us in the summer of 2006. New hardware, new software, it all meant much higher picture and sound quality.

But see, here's where they screwed up. They were smart with DVD. Wanting to avoid the ol' "Beta vs. VHS" format war, all the big electronics companies sat down and came up with a unified format for DVD. 1 player, 1 choice, 1 industry standard. Much nicer for all of us. But with the next generation, I guess they started looking at "Beta vs. VHS" as "the good old days," and decided to have a format war. In one corner, we had Toshiba with HD-DVD, and in the other, it was Sony with Blu-Ray.

Battle lines were drawn! Movie studios started choosing which format they'd back. 20th Century Fox and Disney went Blu-Ray. Universal and Paramount went HD-DVD. Warner Brothers decided to stay neutal and support both.

But then, two things happened in the past month that they say dealt the decisive blow. Warner Brothers finally decided to abandon their neutral stance and side with Blu-Ray. And Wal-Mart decided that they would start carrying only Blu-Ray.

And now comes the next task: convincing the average bloke on the street that it's time to give up their DVD player and upgrade to Blu-Ray.

And yes, your old DVDs can play on Blu-Ray players.

The Story of Family Day

So, here it is, once again, Family Day in the province of Alberta. This little made-in-Alberta holiday is being celebrated for the 18th year. Just think! Albertans born 18 years ago have now been literally raised with Family Day. And, as I like to do every year on this day, I like to come here on my blog and remind people exactly why we celebrate Family Day.

It has long been argued that Canada needs a statutory holiday in February. It's believed that the break between New Years and Easter is far too long, and we need a long weekend in there to help get rid of what former Edmonton radio personality Bill Matheson referred to as "the February Blahs." Sadly, though, it's always been considered a low priority for the federal government.

But, thanks to Alberta, and it's "screw Ottawa! Let's do it oursevles," attitude, former Premier Don Getty decided to do something about it. For those who don't remember, Getty was the premier sandwiched between Peter Lougheed and Ralph Klein...he's the George Lazenby of Alberta politics.

One of Getty's initiatives was to finally bring about a February holiday. the day chosen for this day was the third Monday in February. It's always been believed that that day was chosen because it's the same as the American holiday of President's Day. And, seeing as to how there's a lot of oil money in Alberta, all those American oil men in their offices in Calgary finally wanted to have President's Day off. So...third Monday in February.

But now, what do we call this holiday? What is our reason for celebrating? Well, around this time, Getty's son was busted for dealing cocaine, and tossed into prison. In a speech given at that time, Getty lamented that he never spent enough time with his family, and that if only people spent a little more time with their families, perhaps sons wouldn't get thrown into prison.

A few days later, it was announced that the holiday would be Family Day. And the joke began about how Getty wanted a day off to go visit his son in prison. I don't remember if it was ever officially announced that the Getty coke bust was a direct cause of the declaration of Family Day, but Wikipedia says it was.

However, what I do remember was the Family Day was actually quite controversial in its first few years. People were all like, "Family Day? Yeesh, that sounds like a made-up holiday if there ever was one." Those hard-workin' Albertans wanted to spend another day at work. Besides, since this is just a provincial holiday and not a nationwide one, this meant that a federal holiday had to be sacraficed. So long, August long weekend, which is now no longer recognized in Alberta!

Actually, I'm being melodramatic. How it works is that companies can choose to recognize either Family Day or the August Long Weekend as the paid holiday. For example, the federal government has chosen to recognize the August Long Weekend. That's why you'll find federal institutions, like the post office, open today. Or, if you're lucky, you'll work for a real cool company like mine, which recognizes both days as paid holidays. But I digress.

All I remember is that animosity towards Family Day was so strong in the beginning, that one of Ralph Klein's very first election promises was to abolish Family Day. But then, by the time Klein came to power, Family Day had been celebrated for around 5 years or so, and it was firmly entrenched in the Alberta culture. Besides, who wants to be known as a premier who abolishes holidays?

And that's why we celebrate Family Day. Because Alberta said so.

Actually, the concept of a February holiday is starting to catch on. Saskwatchewan celebrated its first Family Day last year. Ontario celebrates its first Family Day this year. Manitoba is also recognizing its first "third Monday in February" holiday this year, but they don't call it Family Day. They decided to conduct a province wide poll to figure out what the holiday should be called. So, today in Manitoba, they're celebrating the first Louis Riel Day.

But no matter where you are in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, or Ontario, I hope you raise a glass and toast Don Getty and his coke dealing son for giving us this day.

No Targ This Week

So. No new episode of The Targ this week.

It's like this. My car is leaking oil and it's in the shop getting fixed. The prospect of no car for the long weekend and again being on foot for the next couple of days was getting me down. Plus, there's a bunch of work-related stuff going on right now that I won't get into here that's getting me all stressed out. Needless to say, I was being left with that "the walls are closing in on me" feeling.

So I did what I did when I was in college and starting to feel that way. I phoned home and begged my parents to come get me.

I'm home in Entwistle now, sipping tea and feeling much, much, better. The downside is, no episode of The Targ this week, because all my recording equipment is back in Athabasca. The upside is I still plan to make the next one a request show, so you've got another week to get your requests in. E-mail those to requests@chaosinabox.com.

I'll be back with an all new episode next week! But please, help yourself to a rerun.

"I Thought You Were a Teacher." "Part time."

Here it is, the long-awaited first look at Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.



Looking good. May 22.

To Boldly...Wait Longer

The Star Trek world is reeling today with the announcement that we've got to wait longer for the new Star Trek film. It was origianlly slated to come out Christmas Day 2008. It has now been pushed back to May 8, 2009.

The official word from Paramount Pictures for the move is that it has massive earning potential, and therefore is better suited to be summer blockbuster.

The unoffical word is that director J.J. Abrams has been itching to do re-shoots because, now that actors are speaking the dialogue out loud, it sounds lame. And he was prevented from doing re-shoots because of the writer's strike, cuz it would have meant re-writing the script. But now that the writer's strike is done, he is free and clear to do reshoots.

So, to all my fellow trekkies out there, you can start telling your mom you'll be home for Christmas. Star Trek, now coming in May of 2009. This is the first Star Trek film to be given summer blockbuster status ever since Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

In other movie news, here's the first picture of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine from the upcoming Wolverine solo film, also due out in 2009:



Everyone's going, "Yup, looks like Wolverine," but I'd like to point out one little nerdy detail.

Look at his claws. They're coming out from the back of his hands! Finally, they got his claws comic-book-accurate. For all the X-Men movies, they changed it so they came out from between his knuckles.

*sigh* And Mom wonders why I'm alone again on Valentine's Day.

I'll be back later today, when they post that trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

And Knowing is Half the Battle

One little tiny piece of movie news that slipped out today was that, today, the long-awaited live-action movie version of G.I. Joe started filming.

Wow. Right up there with the live-action Transformers, a live-action G.I. Joe is right up there as something that makes my inner child giggle with glee. It all started with me and my brother playing around in the backyard when we were kids, going, "Wouldn't this be cool?" It evolved into many a moonlit night in the Dagligtale office with my best friend going, "Who should play who?" And now, it's actually happening.

Of course, even though G.I. Joe has been around since the 1960s, the movie will largely be based on G.I Joe: A Real American Hero, which we all grew up with in the 1980s. But, sadly, there have been a few changes. It's felt that, in the current global political climate, "A Real American Hero" will be a tough sell overseas. So it's been changed to G.I.J.O.E., a special multi-national task force. But, some things remain the same. They're still based at a military base in New York state codenamed "The Pit," and their mission is still to defend human freedom against Cobra, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world.

Stephen Sommers is directing. He's still best known as the director of The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and Van Helsing. The script was written by Stuart Beattie, who wrote the Oscar-nominated Tom Cruise/Jaimie Foxx thriller Collateral, and he also had a hand in writing the first Pirates of the Carribean film. There's even a rumor going around that Larry Hama, who wrote the G.I. Joe comics back in the 1980s and is pretty much accredited with creating the characters, has been brought in as a consultant. Just like Transformers, it's a joint production between Paramount, DreamWorks, and Hasbro.

But I'm sure you all want to know who our dramatis persona are.

G.I. Joe

Dennis Quaid as Hawk
G.I. Joe's stalwart commanding officer is being played by the veteran character actor of some 25 years worth of films.

Channing Tatum as Duke
The poster boy for G.I. Joe, the man of action who's always on the front line, the man described as "6-foot-2 with eyes of blue," is being played by the virtual unknown Tatum. This is one of his first big roles.

Ray Park as Snake Eyes
Who better to play the Joe's silent ninja commando than Darth Maul?

Rachel Nichols as Scarlett
The Joe's bad-ass special forces operative and the love of Snake Eyes' life if being played by this rising young starlet who was last seen in the thriller P2 but is still best remembered as special agent Rachel Gibson on Alias

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Heavy Duty
This British-born actor who currently plays Mr. Eko on Lost is the Joe's heavy machine gunner. For those veteran Joe fans who are asking, "Who the heck is Heavy Duty?" it's like this. A few years back, Hasbro actually lost the copyright on the name "Roadblock." So Roadblock was given the new code name Heavy Duty.

Marlon Wayans as Ripcord
The star of so many very bad comedies is playing the Joe's daring airborne trooper.

Said Taghmaoui as Breaker
This French actor is the Joe's communications officer.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Rex
The young actor still best remembered as young Tommy on Third Rock from the Sun is all grown up and playing the Joe's newest recruit. This Joe was created just for the movie, leading me to ask, "Gee, I wonder who's not coming back for the sequel?"


Heroes are only as good as the villains they fight, so here's The Cobra Command Team

Christopher Eccleston as Destro
The ninth Doctor Who is playing the Scottish arms dealer who supplies Cobra with all their high-tech weaponry.

Sienna Miller as the Baroness
This highly-acclaimed indie film queen is Cobra's master of espionage and Destro's main squeeze.

Arnold Vosloo as Zartan
Cobra's master of disguise and leader of his own terrorist group, the Dreadnocks, is being played by Imhotep...the mummy in those Mummy films.

Byung-hun Lee as Storm Shadow
This Korean pop star and martial artist makes his English language debut as Snake Eyes' blood brother and bitter enemy.

The identity of the supreme evil himself, Cobra Commander, is still being kept a closely guarded secret.


And of course, we'll all be running out to the theatres to see it on August 7, 2009.

Latest Targ's Up!

It's still a chilly weekend out there, so why not settle in around the computer and listen to this week's episode of U62: The Targ?

That's right, I've got this week's episode of The Targ up! This week, I bring you Episode 85: The Moon Maiden. This time around, I wax poetic about the moon, I tell you about my picture in the Athabasca Country Tourist Guide, and read for you the best news story I've ever written.

Go give it a listen!

And just a head's up. I figure that next week I want to do another request show. So, as always, if there's some MP3 you're dying to hear on the podcast, e-mail that sucker to requests@chaosinabox.com.

Voice Artist News

Well, as we all know by now, the brand new Knight Rider TV movie is going to be hitting the airwaves on February 17th. It's actually a pilot for a new TV show, and it will become a TV show if the ratings are good enough. However, with just barely a week before it airs, they've done some re-casting on the voice of KITT.

As we all know, Will Arnet, still best known as GOB [jobe] Bluth on Arrested Development, was to be the voice of KITT. But get this. Arnet also narrates ads for General Motors. And since the new KITT is a Ford, GM said it was a breach of their contract.

So, then, who's the new voice of KITT?

Val Kilmer!

That's right, KITT is now voiced by Batman, Madmartigan, Jim Morrison, and the Saint.

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Hey, and we got a little more development on the upcoming straight-to-DVD Wonder Woman animated movie.

It was announced this morning that Nathan Fillion will be doing the voice of Steve Trevor.

For those who don't read Wonder Woman, Steve Trevor has been called "the Lois Lane to Wonder Woman's Superman." Steve Trevor is an Air Force pilot who's all hot for Wonder Woman, is always getting kidnapped by supervillains, and Wonder Woman always has to save him.

For those who aren't geeks, Fillion is still best-known as Captain Malcolm Reynolds in Joss Whedon's epic Firefly. And he's from Edmonton!

It was already announced that Keri Russel is doing the voice of Wonder Woman. In an interesting coincidence, Russel and Fillion played a couple in last year's hit indie romantic comedy Waitress.

The Wonder Woman straight-to-DVD animated movie should be out around this time in 2009.

The Greatest News Story I've Ever Written

This is my actual lead story from my newscast on Monday, February 5. I can't believe I wrote. Well, I can believe I wrote it. I can't actually believe I read it. But the act brightened my day, and I hope it brightens yours.

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RIVER RATS ROCK CAPPIS/CKBA 2/5/08

The head of Athabasca Dick has been found. The head of the Magnificent River Rats festival mascot was stolen shortly after the festival back in July. The head was recently recovered in the woods next to Edwin Parr Composite. The head is now at the dry cleaners, being repaired. The search now continues for Athabasca Dick's pants.

---

Athabasca Dick's pants went missing shortly before last year's festival.

If you're wondering why the mascot is named Athabasca Dick, it's because Robert Service wrote a poem about Athabasca and it's called...Athabasca Dick.

Find out everything about this year's festival at The Magnificent River Rats official website.

Trailer Park

What better way to start Monday than with a slew of movie trailers?

First up, here's the Super Bowl commercial for Iron Man. This movie is looking to be 7 different kinds of awesome.



Next up, here's the Super Bowl commercial for Pixar's latest, WALL-E. Ah, Woody and Buzz. Are they as timeless as Pixar would have us believe?



And finally, for those who haven't seen it yet, here's the trailer for the next Star Trek movie.

Latest Targ's Up!

Who's in the mood for a new podcast?

This week's episode of The Targ is up! this week, I have for you Episode 84: Brain Freeze, where I whine about my car not starting in this cold, rave about Weird Al's latest cameo on The Simpsons, and tell you about the brief, fleeting moment I was a football hero.

Listen to it!

The Polanski Tapes

I try not to talk about work or a lot of the news stories I cover at this blog, mainly because I don't know who all reads this and I don't know who I'm going to offend if I get...opinionated. But there's something that came up at Athabasca County council the other day that caught my ear, and I have to spout off on it. Mainly because it connects with one of my favourite things: movies.

Ed Polanski is a former mayor of Athabasca. When he was done being mayor, he moved into the big city of Edmonton, started working for one of the TV stations there, and eventually became a relatively big TV exec. However, his heart was still in Athabasca. He'd frequently return to Athabasca with a film crew, film the town, and interview the locals. He even spent a lot of his own personal money to obtain rare, archival film footage of Athabasca from long, long ago. His goal was to create a thorough and comprehensive documentary on Athabasca. Sadly, Mr. Polanski suffered a rather debilitating stroke a few years back, and the dream kind of died that day.

However, Athabasca knew that this footage and film that Mr. Polanski had acquired would be a valuable historical resource. So, the Town of Athabasca, Athabasca County, and Athabasca University each put up $25,000 (for a total of $75,000) to acquire these Polanski tapes and develop it into some kind of DVD about the town. Well, they spent $10,000 to get the footage, and...that's all they did.

The Polanski Tapes have spent the past 3 years in a cardboard box in the back of town office.

As always, it takes a change in government to get things moving again. Athabasca's new mayor felt that something had to be done. So, the Polanski Tapes are going to be donated to the Athabasca University archives, where, at the very least, they'll be properly stored.

But when all this came to light at the last Athabasca County council meeting, I almost shed a tear. My God! All this archival footage of one town? Amazing!

Seriously, now that it's going to be put away in the Athabasca University archives and pretty much made freely available to the public, now's the time. Someone get a hold of the CBC! Or that National Film Board! Right here is the perfect opportunity for some documentary filmmaker to make an absolutely kick-ass film about Athabasca!

Some filmmaker has to get their hands on this footage and finish Polanski's documentary.

I Hate My Job/I Love My Job

I Hate My Job: Woke up this morning, and in the -40 weather, my car wouldn't start. Since my job demands I be up at 4AM, there's really no one awake or open that I could call for a boost. So, I slipped the longjohns on and walked to work in the -40 weather.

I Love My Job: However, I'm sure I'm making a lot of 8-year-olds day by getting on the radio and announcing school closure after school closure.

And hey, here's something that almost slipped my attention. Yesterday was officiall the 50th anniversary of Lego.

He Who's Tired of Weird Al is Tired of Life

For those who missed it, here's "Weird Al" Yankovic's triumphant second guest appearance on The Simpsons:





Yes, last night's episode entitled That 90's Show was one of their best ones in a long time. Having gone to college in the 1990s, I can tell you that was a fairly accurate depiction of 1990s college life. "Why, lighthouses are nothing but giant penises, built to rape Mother Sky." Didn't have that professor myself, but I heard stories about him.

Cloverfield Review Up!

That heading says it all.

Go read it!

Latest Targ's Up!

Got a new episode of The Targ up!

This week, it's Episode 83: Meh. The title kind of sums up my feelings towards this episode. Didn't really have much to say, so I kinda phoned it it.

"Phoning it in" means I rant about the title of the new James Bond film, predict which film will win the Best Animated Film Oscar, and geek out over a film composer named Michael Giacchino.

Listen if you dare!

Outing

Back from the city! If there's one thing I love about living so far away from the city, it's that every time you go into the city, it's kind of special.

My top priority today was to spend the last Christmas gift card. So I went to Best Buy, plopped down my gift card, and bought a slew of new DVDs. I got:

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - Yeah, it's kinda crappy, but I'm sucker for all that Marvel movie stuff. Besides, I'm one of the few who actually liked it. So many superhero movies have the heroes struggling under the burden of their powers and being heroic...it's nice to see superheroes that like their jobs!

The Simpsons Movie - I find the Simpsons Movie to be good and all, but still kind of disappointing. Nothing really movie-worthy about it.

And, of course

Family Guy presents Blue Harvest - The Family Guy/Star Wars spoof! I couldn't figure out if I wanted to get the regular version or the special edition...so of course I got the special edition. The only difference is the special edition has a box full of swag. Kinda reluctant to open up the T-shirt...to do so, would kind of wreck the fancy box.

Hit the movies as well...saw the giant monster movie everyone's talking about, Cloverfield. It was really pretty good. It suffers from the same problem as a lot of giant monster movies. And that is, when the giant monster isn't on screen (or, in Cloverfield's case, being a vague shape for our heroes to run from) it gets really slow. It's a solid three nibs. As always, a full review will be on my official site in the next couple of days.

But I will say this. Stay to the end of the end credits. Not because of the cool thing at the end of the end credits, but because of the music. My God, there's a spectacular piece of music playing over the end credits! It's like the perfect Godzilla rip-off music! According to the Internet, it's called "Roar! (Cloverfield Overture)", and it's composed by Michael Giacchino. Too bad it's the only piece of music in the film, so there'll probably never be a soundtrack album.

And then, you know, as I was leaving the mall, I had one of those "Whoa, cool," moments. You know how you see the same thing every day for years on end, but then one day, you notice one of the finer details, and it kinds of throws you for a loop?

Had one of those moments leaving the mall. I looked out one of their many skylights and saw...a chimney. There's chimneys on the roof of West Edmonton Mall.

Of course, I'm sure they've always been there. That mall's gotta stay warm some how, so it has to have a hell of a furnace. But still, never seen one. But today it did, and caught me off guard.

Toy Story Goes 3D

Here's another bit of cool movie news that was announced today.

Disney is going to be releasing the Toy Story trilogy in 3D!

Yup, they're going back into their archives, digging out all their original files, and converting the films to 3D. Toy Story and Toy Story 2 director John Lasseter will be personally supervising the 3D remixing and re-mastering, and Toy Story 3 will be done similar by its director, Lee Unkrich.

Toy Story will get its 3D re-release on October 2, 2009.

the 3D Toy Story 2 hits theatres on February 12, 2010.

And Toy Story 3 will get its release in both regular AND 3D theatres on June 18, 2010.

Next James Bond Title/Cloverfield Monster Toys

The fun thing about working so early in the morning on the news desk is sometimes, really cool news gets to you before anyone else.

This morning, it was announced what they're calling the next James Bond film.

The name of the next James Bond film is....

Quantum of Solace

Filming is still underway, and it should be out in November of this year. Unlike previous Bond sequels, this one looks to be a direct sequel to Casino Roayle. In it, Bond goes hunting down the terrorist organization that blackmailed his true love Vesper Lynd into betraying him.

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And for those still wondering what the Cloverfield monster looks like, you'll soon be able to find out at your local Toys R Us.

A couple days ago, Hasbro announced that they'll be putting out a Cloverfield monster action figure. This toy recration of "Clover" will stand at 14" tall and boast 70 points of articulation. He comes with two interchangable heads, a sound chip so he can roar, 10 of those little parasite monsters that fall off its back, and the head of the Statue of Liberty, so you can re-create that classic trailer shot.

Sadly, Hasbro hasn't gotten permission from the filmmakers to spoil the monster's design yet, so Hasbro can't release any pictures of this toy!

And it's available exclusivly at Hasbro's online store, Hasbro Toy Shop.com. It runs $100.

Oscar Nominations Announced!

The best thing about working the morning shift on the news desk is that you're the first to hear the Oscar nominations!

As always, let's look to the category that I've been able to successfully predict ever since it's inception...Best Animated Film! The nominees are:

• Persepolis
• Ratatouille
• Surf's Up

No question, the winner is going to be Ratatouille. I mean, seriously, it's the best reviewed film of 2007. Nothing can compete with that!

And, there's some notable Canadian notes in the nominations. Halifax native Ellen Page nabbed a Best Acress Nomination for her role in the quirky teen pregnancy comedy Juno. But of course, my fellow nerds still best remember her as Kitty Pryde in X-Men 3.

And former Road to Avonlea star and now indie film queen Sarah Polley picked up a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for her tearjerker Away from Her. For those who haven't heard of it, Away from Her is about an elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer's who forgets her husband and falls in love with another man. It was Polley's first film as both writer AND director. (Actually, her first film as either writer OR director.) Away from Her's star, Julie Christie, also got a Best Actress nomination.

The ceremony is on February 24. Depending on the outcome of the writer's strike, it might turn out to be a glorified press conference.

The First Star Trek Trailer!

It's finally online!

The first trailer for the new Star Trek film is now online and ready for your viewing pleasure!

Click here to go and see it in all its hi-def glory!

Of course, if you're like me, you've probably already watched the pirated version a couple of dozen times over the weekend. If you were one of the gazillion people who went to see Cloverfield, then you probably saw it on the big screen.

Oh, and as is the trend these days, they've also launched a viral website to promote the film. Entering the URL ncc-1701.com will take you to "security cam" footage of the Enterprise under construction.

And in other trailer news, the first trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will finally debut on Valentine's Day.

Latest Targ's Up

It's that time of the week again! A new episode of U62: The Targ!

This week, it's Episode 82: What Would Optimus Prime Do?. I tell you how Facebook is like high school, that Star Trek broke my heart, and consider the paradox of Wonder Woman.

Listen here. Listen now.

Star Trek Update

Let's be honest...Star Trek is probably the closest thing I've had to a girlfriend. Our love was young and new with The Next Generation...our relationship reached new depths of maturity with Deep Space Nine, but then with Voyager, I could tell that she was getting bored and just going through the paces, leading to the long, messy break-up that was Enterprise.

And now, with the new movie currently filming, it's like she's banging on my door, going, "C'mon! We were good together! Give it one more chance!" And I'm trying to ignore her and call the cops.

Her latest ploy is the first picture from the new film, which hit ye olde Internet today:



She's using little tricks like this to try and get me back, but you know what? Still not interested.

Let's do a quick re-cap of who all's responsible for this little re-boot. The director is J.J. Abrams, who created the cult classic TV show Alias, co-created the cult classic Lost, and made his feature film debut a couple years back with Mission: Impossible III. Those who wrote the script are Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who wrote last summer's mega-hit Transformers.

For the cast, we've got:

Chris Pine as the young James T. Kirk. Pine was one of the many Prince Charmings in Princess Diaries 2 and was the object of Lindsey Lohan's eye in Just My Luck.

Zachary Quinto is the young Spock. Quinto is still best known as the psycho killer Sylar on Heroes.

Karl Urban as the young Leonard "Bones" McCoy. Urban was Eomer in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Simon Pegg is the young Montgomery "Scotty" Scott. Pegg is the British comedic actor best known for his starring roles in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

Anton Yelchin is the young Pavel Chekov. Yelchin's done a string of indie films and TV guest spots.

Zoe Saldana is the young Nyota Uhura. Saldan was the pirate Anamaria in Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl

And John Cho is the young Hikaru Sulu. Cho is still best-known as Harold in the Harold and Kumar movies.

The villain of our piece is a Romulan general named Nero, played by really amazing and super-cool actor Eric Bana.

Notable actors in supporting roles include:

• Canadian character actor Bruce Greenwood as Captain Christopher Pike (the guy who commanded the Enterprise before Kirk)
  
• Tyler Perry, writer/director/star of all those films about African-American families, as the head of Starfleet Academy
  
• Jennifer Morrison, best known as Dr. Cameron on House, as Winona Kirk, aka Kirk's mama
  
• And Wynona Ryder as Amanda Grayson, aka Spock's mama
  

It all comes out Christmas Day, 2008. The first trailer is going to be in front of the much-hyped Cloverfield, coming out tomorrow, and officially online and available for download on Monday.

And as much as I'd like to keep telling her it's over, I just know that, on Christmas Day 2008, we'll probably be back together, for just one more day, remembering the good time.

But it's over. I mean it.

I Am Legend Review is Up

Hey!

I saw I Am Legend on the weekend!

I got my review up over at the main page.

Its New DVD Day!

Did you know a Dragonlance straight-to-DVD animated movie comes out today? Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight features such celebrity voices as Keifer Sutherland and Lucy Lawless, and veteran voice actors like Jason Marsden, Phil LaMarr, and Michael Rosenbaum. It is, of course, based on the very first Dragonlance novel.

Never read any Dragonlance books myself...I just remember in junior high and high school, when most of my friends started getting into Dungeons and Dragons and all that, they started devouring them. As you know, role playing games are a facet of geek culture I could never get into. Yup, as my friends read their Dragonlance novels, I swore I would never be as nerdy as then, and bury my nose back in Imazadi.

But I digress.

Of course, for all the nerds out there, the big DVD release today is Family Guy presents Blue Harvest. Family Guy's season premiere - an hour-long episode spoofing Star Wars - gets its own special edition DVD. For bonus materials, you get the animatic, a running commentary by Family Guy's creators and animators, and an interview with George Lucas. There's also a speical edition version, which includes some of the fight scenes rendered in 3D, and 3D glasses. Plus, that special edition is in a box full of swag, including a T-shirt, a letter from creator Seth McFarlane, and a booklet The Art of Blue Harvest.

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Looking ahead now to future DVD releases. I'm reading all kinds of news stories about how 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the Smurfs. And that got me to thinking, "Hey! How come The Smurfs and the Magic Flute never got released on DVD?" Well, I did a quick search, and if Amazon.ca is to be believed, The Smurfs and the Magic Flute finally comes out on March 18.

And hey! Keri Russel is playing Wonder Woman...in an upcoming straight-to-DVD animated film.

Yup, because of the popularity of Superman Doomsday and next month's release of Justice League: The New Frontier, Bruce Timm and his gang have gotten the go-ahead to make yet another DC universe straight-to-DVD film. They've chosen Wonder Woman as the subject.

It's most likely to be based on Wonder Woman's origin story, and will be out in about a year or so.

Latest Targ's Up!

It's just not Sunday morning without watching Switchback, going to church, having some waffles at Smitty's, and downloading a new episode of U62: The Targ!

This week, it's Episode 81: 9². I do some complaining about Best Buy, obsess over the two Daxes, share a tale of an experience I had one involving live-action role playing, and tell you all about Weird Al's return to The Simpsons!

So, head on over to the Targ's official website and give it a listen!

I Still Love Politics

Got a few more things on yesterday's little rant about the whole edstelmach.ca controversy.

In today's Edmonton Journal, Premier Ed Stelmach finally releases a statement. Essentially, he's going to fight to protect his name.

However, ol' Daveberta.ca had a brief comeuppance yesterday. Some noticed that the domain "daveberta.com" was still up for grabs, so they registered it, and directed it to the Wikipedia entry for weasels. That only lasted for a few hours...daveberta.com now points to a domain parking service.

I ♥ Politics

This is a story that's currently taking Alberta by storm. I have nothing to contribute, but I have to share.

It's the story of Dave Cournoyer. Dave runs a blog called Daveberta, in which he offers his thoughts on the Conservative government here in Alberta. Now, Cournoyer used to work for the Alberta Liberal party, so his blog has a very strong pro-Liberal/anti-Conservative stance.

Back in April of 2007, Cournoyer registered the domain name "edstelmach.ca," and pointed it towards his blog. As we all know, Ed Stelmach is the current premier of Alberta.

Back before Christmas, Cournoyer got a letter from Stelmach's lawyers. Stelmach was demanding that he get his domain back, plus the funds from the Google ads that Cournoyer has on his blog.

Cournoyer is currently seeking legal advice of his own. But, for the time being, edstelmach.ca points to the Wikipedia entry for Harry Strom. For those who don't bother clicking and reading, Strom was the final Social Credit premier of Alberta...the man who wound up destroying the SoCred's massive majority and losing to the Progressive Conservatives. Cournoyer isn't the only one who's made the comparison.

I just find this all funny...as I'm sure most of Alberta does.

Edmonton Journal columnist Graham Thompson has a column about it in today's Journal, which is better written and sums things up better than I ever could.

WEIRD AL IS ON THE SIMPSONS...AGAIN!!

It's a rare, rare honor when a celebrity gets to make a return guest appearance on The Simpsons. And now, joining that small fraternity is none other than my hero..."Weird Al" Yankovic.

At the start of the TV season, it was revealed that Weird Al would be making a second appearance on The Simpsons. And today, the official "Weird Al" Yankovic website reports that the second Weird Al episode is on January 27!

According to Wikipedia, the episode is called That 90's Show. In it, we finally find out why Homer never reunited with the B-Sharps and conquered the music world. The plot: we flashback to the early 1990s. We find out that Homer gave up music so Marge could go to university. However, when Marge starts falling for one of her professors, Homer returns to music and starts a rock band called Sadgasm. The end result? Home invents grunge music.

Just like when I first heard the premise of the first Weird Al episode, Three Gays of the Condo, I'm left scratching my head wondering, "How does Weird Al fit into this?" To fit with the invention of grunge music theme, will we get a little of Smells Like Nirvana?

Find out on January 27!

Monday Musings

Saw a joke on last night's episode of The Simpsons that I think I'm going to duplicate in the next federal and/or provincial election.

I'm going to get a special lawn sign made up that says "Undecided" and put that up on my lawn.

Besides, my standard bit of "get a lawn sign for every candidate and put all of them on my lawn" is getting stale.

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And here's today's random bit of trivia for you.

The 1997 re-make of Frogger was the final video game released for both the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo. They came out 10 years ago this month.

Latest Targ's Up!

Got a new episode of U62: The Targ up!

I was hit with a twinge of melancholy today, hence this week's episode Episode 80: The Depressed Philosopher. I get off on a philosophical bent, share a New Years Resolution, and talk about a new Law & Order.

Give it a listen!

Ski Jumping: No Girls Allowed

I saw this on the 6 o'clock news this evening, and it caught my eye.

Did you know that women's ski jumping is NOT an Olympic sport? it's just one of those things that I always assumed it was. But it's not. If you're a woman, and you kick ass at the ski jump, you cannot win an Olympic medal for it.

the International Olympic Committee officially rejected it as an Olympic sport back in 2006. Their arguments were that there's not very many atheletes in it, and that it really hasn't spread to a lot of countries yet. Current statistics say that there are more female atheletes in ski jumping than in any other women's sport.

Needless to say, it's not just the women ski jumpers who are getting pissed off. The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee, whom we all know as VANOC, is supportive of allowing it into the games. Daivd Emmerson, our minister in charge of the Olympics, has gone on record as saying it's disappointing that they don't allow it. but in the biggest move, a group of female ski jumpers actually filed a human rights complaint against the International Olympic Committee...they say that the IOC not making women's ski jumping an Olympic sport amounts to sexual discrimination. The Human Rights Commission is expected to hand down their ruling very soon.

For a sport to qualify as an Olympic event, it has to be approved 3 years before the games. So, it looks life women's ski jumping at Vancouver 2010 may have missed the boat. But, there are some who are optimistic that some kind of special consideration can be made and it'll be added at the last minute. If not, the fight continues to the 2014 Winter Olympics. Too bad the Olympics don't do demonstration sports anymore...making it a demonstration sport for 2010 would have been, at the very least, a goodwill gesture.

I wish I had some profound insights to share, but I don't. I've always had a soft spot for ski jumping...watching the Olympics on TV when I was a kid, the image of the skiiers taking flight is one that always stands out in my mind. When I do get to Vancouver for the 2010 games, I do hope to take in some ski jumping, and not just because it's one of the cheaper tickets.

C'mon. Let the women play. It just makes sense.

Here's the complete news article over at the CBC.

Law and Order International

I find this rather interesting. Dick Wolf Productions, the company that makes the Law and Order franchise, and the British television network ITV, have just signed a deal to do an official British remake of Law & Order. This new series has a working title of Law & Order: London. They've already ordered 13 episodes for a first series, and what they're going to do is take some of the better scripts from Law & Order's 18 seasons and just tweak them to fit with the British legal system.

This isn't the first time they've done this with the Law & Order franchise. France has an official French remake of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which is apparently a runaway hit in France. And Russia even has official remakes of both Criminal Intent and Special Victims Unit, both incredibly popular. Apparently, they're even considering doing an international crossover between the American and French Criminal Intents.

Of course, the British version made headlines because, with the explosion of digital cable channels, and more and more of them padding their line-ups with English programing from overseas, there's a very real chance we'll be watching on Law & Order: London on some digital cable channel some day.

Reflections on Augustana

Leafing through today's Edmonton Journal, and they have a little write-up saying that the Augustana University Choir has a new album out. I'm sorry...it's the Augustana Faculty of the University of Alberta now, but it'll always be Augustana University to me!

Actually, this new album was a connection to my new home town of Athabasca...a portion of it was recorded at the Athabasca United Church. I think I've blogged about this in the past. The Athabasca United Church is the largest church in Alberta...when you add a long string of qualifiers. When you add the qualifiers, it's the largest wooden church in northern Alberta in a gothic architectural style. And according to Augustana's Dean, it's got great acoustics.

I traded e-mail with the Dean a few months back...I spied him at my sister's graduation from Red Deer College, but I didn't get a chance to go over and say hello, so I e-mailed him a few days later to say hello, and he said, "Yeah, I was in Athabasca not too long ago..the choir was laying down some tracks in your church." Of course, then, I was a little miffed. I wish he said something, so I could have gotten the Augustana Choir into our little radio station to perform live on the air.

I remember back at CLCR - Augustana's college station - that was always one of the things I wanted to do on my radio show. Around Chrismtas time, I wanted to have the Choir on the show to sing some Christmas carrols. Of course, everyone looked at me like I was nuts. "But the station is so small! You'd never get them all in here!" to which I replied that the chapel wasn't too far from the station, so let's just get some really long extension cords to run down to the chapel. They still looked at me like I was nuts.

That's still one of goals in radio: have the entire Augustana Choir performing live some day.

Reflections on my New Years Tradition

First and foremost, I've got that promised review of Sweeny Todd up. Head on over to the main page to check it out!

So, I just finished my completely arbitrary and made-up New Years tradition. I watched Titanic. What can I say? Around three or four years ago, I found myself home alone on New Years Day. Bored out of my mind, I pulled it out of my home video library and watched it. And, as the VHS was rewinding, I thought to myself, "Hey! I should turn this into an arbitrary and made-up New Years tradition!" And I did.

But yeah, the fun thing about having the super-special edition DVD is, after the film, I go into the bonus features and watch the original ending. I'm sure I've blogged about this in the past.

In the original ending, what happens is our present day treasure hunter Brock Lovett, played by Bill Paxton, catches Old Rose as she's about to toss the diamond into the ocean. As Brock pleads for the diamond, Old Rose gives him a speech about how money isn't everything, and he should live life to the fullest, cuz if he doesn't he'll wind up like that dastardly Cal. Old Rose then tosses the diamond into the ocean, Brock is able to let it go, and he starts putting the moves on Rose's granddaughter.

In the deleted scene's running commentary, director James Cameron explains why he cut it. Firstly, he thought that, after the three hour epic, people got the message, and that Old Rose's speech was kind of preachy. Secondly, in test screenings, he found that, by the end of the film, the audience had become so invested in the Jack and Rose romance that people just didn't care about Brock and his search for the diamond anymore. But I was one of those people who still cared about Brock's search, so the alternate ending provides me with the closure I need.

Actually, this reminds me. If I ever head out to Halifax, I'm going to have to see Jack Dawson's grave. You've heard this story, right? Just outside of Halifax is a cemetery where all the unclaimed bodies of Titanic's victims were buried. One of the headstones is labeled "J. Dawson." Many fans of the film (who can't tell the difference between reality and fantasy) think that it's the grave of Jack Dawson - the character that Leonardo diCaprio played. As we all know, there was no Jack Dawson. Historians say that the "J. Dawson" is most likely Joseph Dawson, who shoveled coal in the engine room. But still, that doesn't stop lovestruck young women from leaving flowers, gifts, and even their undergarments, on J. Dawson's grave. As the cemetery's caretaker once commented to the press, "Poor bugger's probably doing better in death than he ever did in life." James Cameron even briefly mentions this in Titanic's running commentary, saying that he'd never heard of the guy.

After watching Titanic, I felt compelled to watch Apollo 13. I always felt that Titanic and Apollo 13 share similar themes. I mean, both are about mighty vessels that were considered to be unsinkable, only to run into unprecidented disasters. Hell, James Horner's scores for each film are strikingly similar.

But I don't have Apollo 13 on DVD, and my VHS copy is still home in Entwistle. I don't know why I don't own it on DVD yet. It was released in a very nice, 2-disc 10th anniversary edition a few years back...I could probably fish it out of a discount bin now.

I'm dwelling on this now. I'm going over my VHS collection in my mind and my DVDs...there's probably three films in my collection that I haven't bought on DVD yet: Apollo 13, The X-Files Movie, and the American Godzilla. When I first got my DVD player, I swore that I would not buy movies a second time, unless the DVD has enough bonus features that it demands me buying it again. I still use the same rule when it comes to the DVD double dip.

Welcome to the World of Tomorrow

Happy New Year.