Author Archives: Leo Choy

About Leo Choy

Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Leo Choy stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own, and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Leo can see and hear. And so, Leo finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home.

Child Becomes Powerful True Blood Vampire

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The American television series True Blood, created and produced by Alan Ball has cast the reoccurring role of Alexander Drew for the upcoming season 5, a Chancellor of the vaunted Vampire Authority. Also known as “The” Authority for emphasis.

Based on “The Southern Vampire Mysteries” novel series by Charlaine Harris, True Blood is about the co-existence of vampires and humans in a fictional world were vampires have revealed themselves to be unliving amongst humans. To sway humans that they’re no threat to them, a blood substitute called True Blood is popularized as the alternative to human blood. The television series focuses on the fictional small town of Bon Temp, in Louisiana, around the adventures of Sookie Stackhouse; played by Anna Paquin. Sookie here is a well-to-do waitress with telepathy and problems discerning love and lust.

Though the veneer of the show is about vampires and other supernatural creatures that go bump in the night, True Blood is essentially the fantasy version of racial tension, bigotry and organized crime.

Alexander Drew will be played by nine year old child actor

Jacob Hopkins, the Newest Face of Evil

, reports the Hollywood Reporter.

Well hopefully this will be one supernatural creature that Sookie won’t be sleeping with. I know, it would end up breaking the theme of the show and possibly other vampire related filmography that encourages old vampires and underaged teens.

As the member of the Authority, Alexander Drew is a Chancellor of the vampire governing body. Turned at the age of nine. Thanks to the suspended belief of immortality, Drew is most likely an ancient creature that has lived longer than Erik Northman’s maker, Godric. I suggest this because usually in vampire related storytelling, age equates to power. So frozen in time in the body of a nine year old, Drew is probably three thousand years old. Or at least old enough to know he’s missing out on life.

Alexander has been described as an impetuous vampire who likes to taunt those around him, irritating his fellow council members and smoking cigarettes. Whether or not HBO will ever show the child smoking is another matter. Even if they CGI it.  I would be worried because of impressionable idiot children that irresponsible parents let watch the show might light up. Said parents will probably attempt to blame True Blood for convincing their children to smoke their favorite brand of cigarettes; up to only three packs a day now.   Ow!  Circular thought. In your heart you know this to be true.

So yay. Another creepy vampire child. In a fantasy world that forbids making children into vampires. They had problems turning redhead Jessica into a vampire because she was a teenager. It’s really annoying when the powerful get to flaunt how badly they break their own rules.

Many vampire shows and films often brandish a child vampire at one point or another. Often emphasizing power in an unexpected form. Same thing with superheroes. The more innocent, cute and young the vampire or superhero appears, the more powerful they are. For vampires the set includes knowledgeable and ruthless. Oh, and did I forget to mention evil?

To truly make this a shocking twist would have been to move away from the child vampire cliché. Instead they could make the member of the vampire ruling class an evil dolphin or infant that spoke in a creepy baritone, like King Xerxes in 300.

The fifth season of “True Blood” begins this summer.

NBC Green-lights Hannibal Lecter. Allez Cuisine!

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Morbid fans of the fictional serial killer, Hannibal Lecter can finally crack a smile; presumably from their unfeeling, detached lips. The psychotic psychiatrist with a hunger; not of the cow bell variety; will be re-imaged for television, this time in his early years.

The show will expand upon the events alluded to in the novel Red Dragon, written by Thomas Harris. Set in Lecter’s early days, the show will examine the time Lecter went head-to-head with FBI agent Will Graham, instead of instead of Harris’ original protagonist, FBI trainee Clarice Starling.

The CW is doing the same with Sex and the City, in the process of making “The Carrie Diaries” aimed at a younger generation. Maybe that’s what NBC is trying to do with a new crop of uneducated sociopaths. Giving them a chance to learn their fictional roots and plenty of “how to” lessons. Both shows follow a form of passion really.

NBC must have liked what they saw in the script, because they’ve given the green light for 13 episodes to L.A.-based indie studio, Gaumont International Television. No pilot was needed either. It’s straight to series for them. Written by Bryan Fuller, the Hannibal project is a one-hour drama that will essentially set as a prequel to the Hannibal Lecter films.

As a fan of Showtime’s “Dexter”; for the first two seasons; which invariable is a show about politeness and acting human, I worry about how Hannibal on television will turn out. Bryan Fuller is also the creator of “Dead Like Me” and “Pushing Daisies.” One’s a satire about existence and death, the other is the equivalent of a live action cartoon… and death. On top of that, he was co-producer of Heroes. No, not the awesome first season. The other failed seasons. So unless the Hannibal television show is about sarcasm, I’m rather worried.

Not that it would be Fuller’s complete fault. NBC isn’t the first place to think I’d find small screen cannibalism.

I’m sure the show follows the literary Hannibal Lecter as he is described in the novels. I just can’t see anyone else follow the cinematic portrayal of a Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, or play the part other than him.

If the new show is going to be remotely faithful to the novel’s character, he’ll have to be sadistic, manipulative and have no moral quandaries about killing people. Lecter is a thinking man’s serial killer. He should kill people because they annoy him or bore him. Eat them because he’s hungry and because he sees them for the mindless cattle that they are!

Hopefully the show won’t descend into a prime time cliche where Lecter uses his brain powers to find bad guys and then eat them off screen. “Oh, you have something on your face.” says the barista. “Ah, clumsy me. I must have missed a spot when I last had dinner with your friend.” suggests Lecter with a slightly diabolical laugh.  The barista nods and titters nervously as Lecter continues. “In fact, you can almost say that I ate him and he’s in my stomach right now. No wait, scratch the last part.”

Altered Carbon To Be Produced by Mythology Entertainment

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 Mythology Entertainment which was recently formed by Brad Fischer, Laeta Kologridis and James Vanderbilt, have optioned the film rights to the novel Altered Carbon, written by Richard Morgan.

Mike Medavoy and Arnie Messer will act as executive producers for this film, while Kologridis; who’s worked on Shutter Island and Avatar; will be adapting Altered Carbon for the big screen aside David Goodman; previously an executive producer of The Family Guy and the writer behind the Futurama Star Trek parody episode, “Where No Fan Has Gone Before.” Heh, he’s dead Jim.

The film which was initially to be developed by Warner Bros. back in 2006, but has turned over to Mythology Entertainment.

Altered Carbon is described as a “hardboiled science fiction novel” that is set five hundred years in a dystopian future. Here’s the official synopsis from the author Richard K. Morgan’s website:

“In the 26th century mankind has spread through the galaxy, taking its religions and racial divisions out into the cold arena of space. While tensions exist and small dirty wars flare up every now and then, the UN Protectorate maintains an iron grasp on the new worlds, aided by its very own elite shock-troops; the Envoy Corps.

Meanwhile, what religion cannot guarantee technology has already delivered; when your consciousness can be stored in a cortical stack and routinely downloaded into a new body even death has become little more than an inconvenience. As long as you can afford a new body…

Ex-UN Envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before; it was a hazard of the job, but his last death was particularly brutal. Needlecast across light years of space, re-sleeved into a body in San Francisco on Old Earth and throw into the centre of a conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that has forgotten how to value life, he soon realises that the shell that blew a hole in his chest on Harlan’s World was only the beginning of his problems…”

So it’s a cyberpunk fantasy and crime story. The story follows the specially trained Kovacs who’s now leaped into the body of a nicotine addicted hard-boiled ex-cop. A very rich and powerful man has recruited Kovacs because he believes someone murdered his last body, and wants the soldier to find out the truth about the incident.

 “Altered Carbon is one of the most seminal pieces of post-cyberpunk hard science fiction out there — a dark, complex noir story that challenges our ideas of what it means to be human when all information becomes encodable, including the human mind,” said Kalogridis.

The novel which was published in 2002 reminds me of two pieces of science fiction work. The description of a power UN Protectorate over multiple worlds reminds me of televisions Firefly; also released in 2002; and the portion where consciousness travelling done via “hyperspatial data-casting” reminds me of the Ender’s Game series by Orsen Scott Card.

The optioning rights for the film also covers two more novels called Broken Angels and Woken Furies in the Takeshi Kovacs series.

While Altered Carbon is an exciting science fiction and crime hybrid, it does make one think about what the future holds for the human spirt. I’m suddenly plagued by questions about whether the soul exists anchored only to one body, or if it’s truly the sum of our memories and skills. Either way, I hope the film doesn’t turn into another carbon copy of other sci-fi movies that have been cranked out.

 

The Walking Dead Game Pulls a Redeker Plan

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The Walking Dead franchise splits off again, this time becoming a video game adaptation. Originally a graphic novel series, The Walking Dead has since been adapted by AMC into the most watched cable show currently in the history of television.

The franchise is hot and there are lots of merch already out there for The Walking Dead. Not many television series inspire action figures of their characters or melee weapon sets like machetes and knives. Yes, the stuff television Carl finds in the show is a product placement.

So if the franchise is so hot, why isn’t the game out yet?

Well first off, a quality game takes time to develop. Especially for high graphic consoles that don’t want the feel of a 1980’s side scroller or a generic flash game. Development of a game can take years for a console and is at a disadvantage when compared to say, a social media game found on Facebook.

Secondly, investors don’t care about any reason you give them. The franchise is almost at it’s apex of popularity and Telltale needs to come up with a solution to their dilemma. You know, aside from putting the game out there to begin with.

Enter the webs how, “Playing Dead” a web series designed at looking into the development of the game. Is it meant to be a take on playing possum, pretending you’ve ceased to be and joining the choir invisible? Or can it be taken as someone playing the walking dead video? Honestly the title itself is a bit unsavoury. I’m almost cranky over it for no explicable reason. I thought, “Talking Dead” was a good show name; a show that examines the series and thoughts on zombie survival. Playing Dead just invokes my ADHD to look at other things.

The show is actually by Telltale. It’s a stall tactic to reassure potential customers that this hasn’t gone away yet, and they’re oh so close to getting it done. Don’t leave yet!

In the show, developers and designers are asked what appears to be scripted questions about the game. They talk about the tone, progress and how everything ties in with the comic book. That’s time they could have been using to actually make the game.

Here is the official description of the game from Telltale’s official website:

“Learn about the game by watching PLAYING DEAD, a video series that takes you behind the scenes of the creation of the upcoming The Walking Dead video game based on Robert Kirkman’s award-winning comic series. Playing Dead is the online source for exclusive looks at The Walking Dead video game and interviews with the talent responsible for bringing the world of The Walking Dead to life. Check this space for new episodes of Playing Dead regularly.”

In the novel World War Z written by Max Brooks, a plan was enacted to give humanity the best chances of survival. This was called the Redeker plan, an intentional sacrifice of a human population in favor of a more defensible location. This is what Telltale is doing right now. Playing Dead tries to keep the interest alive and bring focus to a game that’s unavailable.

The game is touted as a adventure game but it seems it’ll be more of a Choose Your Own Adventure type as you’re not given free reign of the world unless it’s part of the puzzle or quest. In the interview with lead designers Jake Rodkin and Sean Vanaman, they discuss how the game will be split into five episodes and any decision a player makes will carry through month-to-month. So a character saved or abandoned might come back to haunt you later. This seems to be more like Telltale’s Back to the Future game, with it’s decision tree type gaming. I certainly hope their Walking Dead game isn’t as cartoon like in appearance.

The next episode of Playing Dead promises an talk with The Book of Eli writer Gary Whitta. Yes, a movie about a blind man who’s deadly with a blade. I saw the movie too, it was called Zatoichi when I last saw it reincarnated.

Game of Thrones In Production Featurette in Iceland

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While other cast members of HBO’s hit series “Game of Thrones” get to go experience sunny Croatia, or scenic Belfast in Northern Ireland, there are poor sods who have to film their portion North of the Wall. That’s right, Iceland, during the middle of winter no less.

The critically acclaimed show, based on George R.R. Martin’s book of the same name is revving up the marketing engines. While releasing what is called teaser art, a poster image with the words, “War Is Coming” HBO also released a video to help fans ease their wait.

The teaser poster as explained in the article HBO Warning: War Is Coming to the Game of Thrones.

“Based on the family words of the House of Stark, “Winter Is Coming”, the war that is promised ties in from the first season of “Game of Thrones”. The eldest Stark is coming to whoop the false King for killing their father and holding their sister captive. Though not an official saying in the book series of the same name by George R.R. Martin, the phrase War Is Coming appears to the HBO’s tagline for the second season.”

Winter apparently didn’t come fast enough, so they went to winter instead. The cast and crew discuss in this video how the beautiful environment comes with it’s costs. Featuring soundbites from cast members including James Cosmo, Mark Stanley, John Bradley, Kit Harington and Simon Armstrong. The breathtaking scenery does help the actors dive into character, all contained in the cold and bleak fictional world. Though there are obvious pains for the production crew. Off handed remarks about “nearly” falling off of cliffs and falling into crevices for starters. Then the 4 hour window of light they have a day to film.

Everyone in the video looks cold and annoyed with life. I’m not sure how any of them can manage the smiles when their faces are that numb and exposed. For actors like John Cosmos, that’s either incredible make-up, or some of these actors have cold dried skin burn on their faces.

Woe to the skinny, under-weight actors with visible abs. They must be envious of John Bradley, the actor who plays the fat and timid Samwell Tarly. Though he feels the cold, I’m sure he must retain heat a little bit longer than the rest of them.

Also a sneak peek at Qhorin, also known as Halfhand played by Simon Armstrong. Was it me or did he look a little like older Leonard Nimoy Spock in this video?

Kit Harington, the actor who plays Jon Snow in the series said, “One of the most incredible experiences of my life. Epic.” Of course it is. You’re being paid. Other people endure the cold because they have no choice. Again, You know nothing, Jon Snow.

Game of Thrones returns with Season 2 on April 1st.  Check out the production trailer below.

The Hunger Games Becomes an Adventure Game

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In an associated pairing of entertainment mediums, a new social media game will be released the same day The Hunger Games hits theaters. The game, like the film is based on the popular young adult book series by Suzanne Collins. It’s called The Hunger Games Adventures; Games-Game would have been silly; and will be launched on March 23 of this year with the movie.

It used to be Saturday morning cartoons, action figures and cereal.  Social media games are now the new ploy to capitalize on something that is popular right now.

Funtactix, an independent game developer is no stranger to movie tie-in games. Previously they’ve put out online games based on the animated movie Rango and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

This focus on creating games based on movies comes at a time when others in the industry are wary of touching that game genre.

Which doesn’t come to me as a surprise. Games based on movies have never been good, unless it’s sub-based on Lego. Then it’s cool. Yes, the children do make certain titles popular, but it’s only because parents buy these games for them, hoping it’ll shut them up or win them points with child services. My nephew for example will go absolutely nuts for anything based on the animation Cars. He’ll play a Cars game, but then he’ll drop it after five minutes in favor of angry birds. Anything beyond the age demographic of 6 – 12 is reaching for a developer hoping to make a movie based game.

THQ announced last month that it will no longer work on kids licensed games like Kung Fu Panda 2 or Up. Which makes sense as the initial market was for child fans of the movie back in 2008. It’s been 4 years since, so they might have upgraded to murder simulations and car jacking.

Two years ago, Take-Two Interactive Studios’ then-CEO and president Ben Feder declared to attendees that “Licensing content is dead.” according to Gamasutra. Well the same can be said about movies based on games. Take the Super Mario Bros. Movie of 1993 up to Prince of Persia: Sands of Time in 2010; How was Jake Gyllenhaal Persian?

Funtactix doesn’t think movie tie-ins are dead though. Sam Glassenberg, the CEO of Funtactix had this to say to Gamasutra about the problems with games based on films:

“The console-based film games business is rapidly disappearing. The game quality has fallen for years, and consumers have come to realize this, resulting in a collapse of the console-movie-games market.”

“The production cycle for a good console game has grown to two to three years, which is longer than the production window for a film… Hitting day-and-date on a quality game is a near impossibility.”

Glassenberg however points out that social game developers; say games for Facebook; can bring a Facebook title to market in months, instead of years. This makes it possible for those developers to put out; what is considered high-quality for social media; games at the same time with a movies debut.

Console games are at a distinct disadvantage due to product shipping, selling and review. Social media games on the other hand are instantly available online and free; so long as you don’t buy the credits to give you the needed advantage over others.

Game development is a tricky business overall and requires knowledge of trends, cost analysis, marketing and great workers. Then maybe a decent game on top of all that. I should know. I beat Dev Story, the 8-bit simulation where you manage your own game company and try to create a million-selling game.

HBO Warning: War Is Coming to the Game of Thrones

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“War Is Coming” the central words behind the new piece of teaser art released by HBO. In preparations for the season 2 release of “Game of Thrones”, the new promotional piece is a banner for the upcoming conflict the series promises.

Based on the family words of the House of Stark, “Winter Is Coming”, the war that is promised ties in from the first season of “Game of Thrones”. The eldest Stark is coming to whoop the false King for killing their father and holding their sister captive. Though not an official saying in the book series of the same name by George R.R. Martin, the phrase War Is Coming appears to the HBO’s tagline for the second season.

That or it’s HBO’s warning to AMC’s “The Walking Dead”, which broke cable records of most watched show last Sunday. HBO seems to be gearing up with their own promotional war of sorts. Like a another family from their show, they may be going for the effect of, “Hear me roar!” or better when competing against record breaking numbers, “A Lannister always pays his debts.

Okay, the poster doesn’t seem like a tease to me. I feel more like, “Oh. Okay. Shall I go along my merry business until its here?”

Already with a vast cast of actors, intricate story lines, and rabid fans waiting with swords at the slightest book deviation, the Game of Thrones will be adding a whopping sixteen new faces; some which will be in guest appearances. Joining the cast are the likes of Stephen Dillane, Nonso Anonzie, Natalie Dormer, and Jeyne Westerling; Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter!?! With so many to mention I’m worried that I’m going to need a flowchart or venn diagram to keep track of everyone. Or at least I should make a dead pool of which episodes they’ll start killing characters in.

Mina Kelly of Boomtron explains why:

“As quickly as these characters are born, they will likely also perish. It would be wise not to become too attached to any particular person in this series as any die hard fan would surely know. The lesson was learned when Eddard Stark, who gave the impression of “main character” lost his head near the end of season 1. And, after the initial shock of Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) being pushed out of a castle window by Jamie Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) wears off, you learn quickly that anything can happen.”

Apparently in between the sex scenes, the nudity and violence, there’s a story too. (Looks at his stacks of unread books) Yes, I’ll get to it.

The Season 2 premiere of Game of Thrones will bring the noise April 1st at 9pm EST.

The Walking Dead” Season 2 Midseason Premiere Kills the Cable Rating Record

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“The Walking Dead” from AMC broke their previous record of most watched show. Previously set at 7.3 million viewers for their Season 2 premiere in October 2011, the show outdid it self hitting 8 million viewers this time on February 12 of this year reports the Huffington Post. Combined with the encore showing, it was really more like 11 million. That’s not even counting online downloads.

According to AMC, the premiere was the “strongest telecast for any drama in basic cable history.”

Charlie Collier, president of AMC, had this to say about the show:

“‘The Walking Dead’ is one of those rare television programs that reaches both a core genre fan as well as broad audiences simply looking for a great, character-based story. We’re so proud of and grateful for the amazing team on both sides of the camera who works so hard and is so committed to making this a unique programming event.”

“That ‘The Walking Dead’ is now the most watched drama in the history of basic cable is staggering, just like our zombies.”

“It is a great night for AMC. We’re thrilled to see this incredible record breaking response to ‘The Walking Dead,’ and ‘Comic Book Men’ is off to a strong start as well. Congratulations to the teams behind both of these shows,”

Comic Book Men that Collier is referring to is a comic book reality show by Kevin Smith; Silent Bob nooch! It aired right after “the Walking dead” and was watched by only 2 million viewers. Which to me means that only two million of the viewers are comic book fans who probably read the original The Walking Dead graphic novels..

Forget about the ratings, hocking loosely related spin offs and the money symbols burning out their retinas. What about the show? Warning: Spoilers.

Show begins of course where they last left off. With the shooting of Zombie Sophia. The dust settles and it’s up to the farmers to go nuts and get dangerously close to the walkers. “I know. Let’s all be stupid and cry over our dead zombie relatives, then give them a chance to bite us.  Yes, scratches and bites is all it takes.  That’s why she’s all catatonic.

This is further compounded by Andrea walking around without a care in the world into dark barns and trucks loaded with destroyed walkers. Is this the development of la belle indifference where she is unable to see real danger or a sign that she’s become used to this? She doesn’t even go into the barn with her weapon drawn.  She could have fell backwards in the truck and into an open mouth that bites her from the impact of a pot hole. This is where I see the show finally spiraling into zombie movie domain. The theme? When idiots attack.

I cannot express how much I dislike Shane Walsh on the show. The bullying he does, the contempt on his face, the attitude that he carries himself with, and the way of which he continuously rationalizes his actions. I am continuously annoyed with him. Is there no other development of his character other than flip out and be loud? If that’s the goal, then Shane is a well written character. I feel sorry for John Bernthal the actor who plays him. I hope he doesn’t get type cast.

So Shane continues to flip out on Rick and vies for the matrix of leadership. Shane opens a barn full of walkers to prove a point, instead of safely killing them from the outside. Rick however has to make the hard choices such as shooting Sophia. The show is becoming less about zombie survival and more “Who’s the Boss?” but without comedy.

Poor Dale. Dale is the only one privy to watch the dead frog sing and dance when no one else is around. Shane only likes to reveal his true nature to him. Why? Maybe because he believes no one will side against him. Dale even attempts to explain this to Lori, but they’re all immune to logic. Here is a version of what I heard:

Dale: Shane. He’s dangerous.

Lori: Yes, he can be a hot head.

Dale: No. I said dangerous.

Lori: Hot head?

Dale: *sounding it out now* Dane-Jer-Us

Lori: * slowly * Haw-Tuh Heh-Ed?

Dale goes on to explain that Shane is a threat to their survival and he’ll eventually kill again. I recall saying this fairly recently in The Walking Dead Game: Dead Reckoning article.

To prove that the supporting cast is become more Teflon coated against logic, Lori is all annoyed asking that Rick does not abandon them to find Hershel; one of his kids is sick and he’s gone missing.

“We need Hershel for the baby.” Oh snap! Logic! W…What do I do? Quick, get Shane to flip out!

Then there’s the introduction of new survivors, all bent on shacking up with the rest of the Walking Dead cast and exuding feelings of unsavory intent.

When Rick refuses to let them join or reveal their main base, we hear “I thought we were friends.” All over bearing bullies and rapists tend to say this.

I was surprised that the writers didn’t drag the two interlopers story out and make it into a douche fest between them and Shane.

How did the show redeem itself in less than five seconds? Bam! Another head shot! Followed by some more gun play. I hope this is the beginning of a new running gag or theme. All premieres and finales end and begin with head shots. Maybe this will lead up to Shane’s final close up.

After all, Shane is getting too big for his britches, and only one guy gets to wear the sheriff’s hat around here.

Magic Kingdom for Sale – Sold! To Warner Bros.

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Warner Bros. Pictures has bought a magic kingdom, and it isn’t Disney Land. Terry Brooks, the author of the Shannara fantasy novel series also wrote a series called the “Magic Kingdom of Landover”. The first of the series is Magic Kingdom for Sale – Sold! Had it’s film rights optioned by Warner Bros. reports Variety.

First published in 1986’s, the story follows a talented but depressed trial lawyer who finds an advertisement in an upscale Christmas catalog; reminiscent of those huge Sears catalogs with a massive toy section I used to fawn over as a kid. The advertisement offers a magical kingdom for a million dollars by a man named Mr. Meeks.

As most lawyers have been brought up to crush the dreams of others, he buys this otherworldly magical land and hijinks ensue.

Publishers Write-Up includes:

“Landover is a genuine magic kingdom, complete with fairy folk and wizardry, just as the advertisement promised. But after he purchases it for a million dollars, Ben Holiday discovers that there are a few details the ad failed to mention.

Such as the fact that the kingdom is falling into ruin. The barons refuse to recognise a king and taxes haven’t been collected for years. The dragon, Strabo, is laying waste to the countryside, while the evil witch, Nightshade, is plotting to destroy the world. And if that isn’t enough for a prospective king to deal with, Ben soon learns that the Iron Mark, terrible lord of the demons, has challenged all pretenders to the throne of Landover to a duel to death – a duel no mere mortal can hope to win.

But Ben Holiday has one human trait that even magic can’t overcome. Ben Holiday is stubborn.

Magic Kingdom for Sale – Sold! is the first book in a gripping fantasy of mystery, magic and adventure from the author of the world-famous Shannara series.”

This almost sounds like a reboot of The NeverEnding Story 1984, “A troubled boy dives into a wonderous fantasy world through the pages of a mysterious book.” says IMDb. Except it’s a big shot lawyer with money instead of a whiny kid with wishes. I can almost imagine this movie will be Iron Man to the Batman like Never Ending Story. Light and funny about the antics of real people abusing their power, instead of dark, serious and brooding. Hmmm… The book also came out two years after the NeverEnding Story. Coincidence?

The movie will be produced by Akiva Goldsman’s Weed Road Pictures; I Am Legend, Hancock; Andy Cohen’s Grade A Entertainment, and Weed Road’s Kerry Foster and Alex Block.

Universal Pictures has previously tried to adapt the story back in 2005 with a script by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, while Stephen Sommers was attached to direct. I guess the magic just wasn’t there anymore.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Trailer Enslaves My Imagination

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What seemed to have started as a novelty novel series, has turned into a new well for Hollywood to dip it’s quill into. Twentieth Century Fox has released the first official trailer for the film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter! The film is based on Seth Grahame-Smith’s book by the same name. Continue reading →