Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Behind-the-Scenes Featurette

Courtesy of CraveOnline, we now have behind-the-scene featurette for the upcoming film, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Even though the film is not scheduled to hit theaters till June 22nd, there has already been tons of photo stills and two new trailers released for the film.

If you were a fan of the book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (which has also been optioned for a film) then you will love this new project from Seth Grahame-Smith. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is also written by Grahame-Smith and follows our 16th president as he hunts down the undead and has vengeance against them.

The epistolary-style book is written as a biography of Abraham Lincoln, based on “secret diaries” kept by the 16th President and given to the author by a vampire named Henry Sturges.

When Lincoln is eleven years old, he learns from his father Thomas Lincoln that vampires are in fact real. Thomas explains to his son that a vampire killed Abraham’s grandfather (also named Abraham Lincoln) in 1786. Young Abraham is also shocked to learn that his beloved mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln succumbed not to milk sickness but rather to being given a “fool’s dose” of vampire blood, the result of Thomas’s failure to repay a debt. Lincoln vows in his diary to kill as many vampires as he can.

The cast for the upcoming film includes:

  • Benjamin Walker as Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States.
  • Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Mary Todd Lincoln, Lincoln’s wife.
  • Rufus Sewell as Adam, the lead vampire villain.
  • Jimmi Simpson as Josh Speed, Lincoln’s friend and assistant.
  • Dominic Cooper as Henry Sturges, Lincoln’s mentor in vampire hunting.
  • Anthony Mackie as William Johnson, Lincoln’s valet and friend.
  • Robin McLeavy as Nancy Lincoln, Lincoln’s mother.
  • Alan Tudyk as Stephen A. Douglas, an American politician from Illinois.
  • Marton Csokas
  • Cameron M. Brown as Willie Lincoln, Abraham and Mary’s son.

You can watch the featurette below:

Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper Caught On Film: Again!

Jennifer Lawrence, the 21 year old star of the upcoming film, The Hunger Games is in full demand from Hollywood.

Lawrence who has just completed filming the House at the End of the Street, starring in The Silver Lining Playbook; which is in post-production; is now slated to play the female lead in upcoming adaptation of the period drama novel Serena. I’m not sure how she has the time to do this when she heads back into training for The Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire in July.

Which means that Lawrence is set to reunite with Bradley Cooper on Serena, reports the Hollywood Reporter. This will be their second movie together as they just costarred in The Silver Lining Playbook. It’s good to know that Cooper and Lawrence are rounding out their acting chops, committing to films that should have a higher challenge rating in the ways of acting.

This may be the start of a new Hollywood screen couple. The last pairing I remember was Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler. Yes, that long ago. Since then I haven’t really paid attention.

Bradley Cooper, The Hangover star is also known for the movie Limitless; I didn’t care he was in the Hangover until I saw Limitless. Intelligence enhancer in an addictive pill? It sounds awesome! Cooper also has a full plate in acting. He’s expected to film The Hangover 3 later this year.

Darren Aronofsky was previously attached to helm the film Serena as director. This was to be alongside Angelina Jolie as the evil wife. It is now reported that Susanne Bier, director of In a Better World is also to direct Serena. Bier who is known for movies that tell tales about damaged people, appears to be a better fit to bring this tale of woe to life.

Here is a synopsis for the novel Serena, written by Ron Rash, published in 2008:

“The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains–but she soon shows herself to be the equal of any man, overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving her husband’s life in the wilderness. Together this lord and lady of the woodlands ruthlessly kill or vanquish all who fall out of favor. Yet when Serena learns that she will never bear a child, she sets out to murder the son George fathered without her. Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons’ intense, passionate marriage starts to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.”

So in the film Silver Lining Playbook, Cooper and Lawrence become a couple in what I suppose will be a feel good romance movie about enjoying life. In Serena, they act like the ultimate married couple out to destroy one another, running through the woods in a Hunger Games, killer lumberjack fashion. Hopefully if they have a third movie, it’ll be about a couple that pit their children against one another like in a pokemon battle.  That’s what my parents did.

 

The Amazing Spider-Man Has a New HD Game Trailer

A new HD trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man video game has been released. The tie-in to the upcoming movie already had a trailer back in December, but this one contains new footage. Not unlike a new Malibu Stacey doll; except she has a new hat; this has caught the attention of fans and haters alike.

The game which takes place after the events of the movie seems to be based on robotic insects created by Oscorp. This is a rehash of the Spider-Slayers, robots that were commissioned to seek out and exterminate Spider-Man; as long as they didn’t actually do it in the printed pages as per the comic code authority. J. Jonah Jameson was that rich that he could have scientists whip him up that kind of technology on the fly, but he couldn’t pay for Peter Parkers photos full price. The first appearance of cheesy bipedal spider-slayers occurred in Amazing Spider-Man issue 25. The story has long since been upgraded and re-imagined to be slightly more realistic. Now more of a high tech mass produced robot workforce gone awry than steam punk accident. As ill conceived as the original idea appeared to be, the storyline of spider-slayers has been reused continuously. So far they’ve appeared as plots in games for SNES, Sega and Game Boy, Spider-Man cartoons, and alternate Marvel comic universes. Nick Fury even had spider-slayers built as contingencies in case Spider-Man ever went rogue.

It’s unclear if the new trailer is called the “Rhino” trailer as a code name, or someone had confused a mammoth screaming spider robot as the Rhino. Some video game related websites such as Gamestop have clearly labeled it as such. While some websites have gone so far as to say, “webslinging his way across New York to take on Rhino.”

This is where I descend slightly into madness.

Is the giant spider like robot in the end of the trailer called Rhino? If so, then someone in the writing department must have not read any Spider-Man comics or watched any of the cartoons. The Rhino is a Spider-Man villain who’s a muscle bound guy in a Rhino outfit; sometimes enhanced by tech, drugs or breeding. How can this be though? The narrative was crafted by Hollywood writer Seamus Kevin Fahey. The only reason I know that he’s got the writing chops is because he did episodes of Spartacus: Gods of the Arena; no I don’t watch “Battlestar Galactica”, so no points there.

Next, why does the robot spider scream at the end? Yes, it sounds like a Godzilla era monster ready to rumble which is awesome for game play tone, but it’s still a robot spider. I know I’m suppose to suspend my belief as Spider-Man swings on a thread in his new official Spider-Man shoes, but unless the robot is using echo location; or it’s a oversized prototype of a sonic screwdriver; there’s no reason for it to scream.

So it leaves me with two realistic options. Either the trailer is coded named Rhino to throw people off the sent or inspire this exact type of chatter. Or someone plain didn’t understand what was happening and is making the game out to be Spider-Man versus the Rhino.

Also the shoes that Spider-Man wears in the movies, which are probably designed to work with his spider powers of sticking to things, seem to be really focused on. Trailers, viral treasure hunts, video games, they all want you to see the shoes. Is there a line of official Spider-Man novelty shoes coming out?

The HD trailer is almost the same as the VGA quality trailer that came out before it. It contains hower 8 seconds of new footage of Spider-Man going down a zip cord and 20 new seconds of credits. The game which is in development by game studio Beenox features free-roaming web-slinging across the city of Manhattan which looks more crisp than other Spider-Man video games I’ve seen; trailer wise that is. Too bad this qualifies as a superhero based video game, so it’s going to be compared to Batman: Arkham Asylum. No contest. Nothing beats Batman. Not even future Batman; yes, it’s cannon.

Check out the new HD trailer below; now with a new hat!

Child Becomes Powerful True Blood Vampire

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.

New Pinball Shuffle Game/App Release Has Surprising Origins

When reading that title you might be thinking, “Hey….Wait a minute that doesn’t have to do with optioned things!” and thats what I thought at first. But then I found out this popular new game is actually a game based on the indie comic Stabb Gunner by Joseph Krzemienski.

The original artwork is a defining feature of Pinball Shuffle. Postage, Inc. co-designed the game play and did 100% of the artwork which is derived from Stabb Gunner, an indie comic by Joseph Krzemienski.

“This game meshes classic pinball with the creativity of modern game development,” says Postage, Inc. 3D Animator Riley Hearn. “We know that a good pinball machine is based on a great story and stellar artwork, so we made sure Pinball Shuffle had both.”

The game/app has been released by Postage, Inc., a post production, visual effects, and animation firm. Pinball Shuffle is their second iOS/ MacOS 3D game.

Most pinball games are pretty much the same. You use triggers and bumpers to try and keep the ball in play as long as possible, racking up as many points as possible. But Postage, Inc. took this concept one step further when designing their game.

According to the press release, in the Indie-Comic Based pinball game, you play as Gunner, the perfect assassin (who is apparently a smokin’ hot indie rocker between hits). She sports a bold attitude with a sling of weaponry across her back while clad in the shortest shorts and form-fitting flight jacket. An assassin neither for good or evil, Gunner is tricked into attending the pinball tournament hosted by Well Dressed Man. He hopes to use the tournament as a way to discredit and destroy any would-be heroes in Scene City. In his attempts to rid the city of crime and maintain his utopia, however, he also creates crime. While playing on a pinball table that resembles an iPod (and Gunner’s personality), Well Dressed Man sends his minions, Jefe Grande and Technosaurus Flex, on the table to distract or defeat you as Gunner.

“With ten missions and two bosses, Pinball Shuffle encourages gamers to explore every part of the table instead of just mind numbingly hitting the ball around to gain points,” says Founder of Nuclear Nova Software Jake Leveto.

What also makes this game unique is that is features dynamics that gamers would not normally experience with an average pinball table. Players are able to rack up more points when the pinball grows in size during higher levels of the game. There are three levels of difficulty including “Weak Sauce” (Easy), “Play It Cool” (Medium), and “Get Massacred” (Advanced). In the “Get Massacred” level, players have the chance to test their skills at a shooting gallery when the score gets high enough. Gamers also have the option to follow the pinball’s movements throughout the board with a fixed camera.

The game’s programming, physics, and digital distribution were thanks to Nuclear Nova Software. The game is now available at the MacOS and iOS App stores.


Battle Royale: Complete Collection Soon To Be Released In North American

If you have read The Hunger Games, but haven’t seen or read Battle Royale, then you are missing out. But for the first time in North America, BATTLE ROYALE and BATTLE ROYALE: The Complete Collection will be available on Blu-ray™, DVD and digital download on March 20th from Anchor Bay Entertainment.

BATTLE ROYALE. A title that has shocked, thrilled and unnerved audiences. A film whose fiendishly simple premise has inspired many imitations, including the upcoming The Hunger Games motion picture. The film is based on the 1999 global best-seller by Koushun Takami, the futuristic tale first came to the screen in 2000, directed by the legendary Kinju Fukasaku. Authors, filmmakers and film fans the world over consider the film and its 2003 sequel Battle Royale II: Requiem sacred cinematic classics.

The official press release for the film describes the plot taking place in the near future, the economy has collapsed, unemployment has soared and juvenile crime has exploded. Fearful of their nation’s youth, the Japanese government passes The BR Law: Each year, a 9th grade class is sent to a remote island where they will be locked into exploding neck collars, given a random weapon, and forced to hunt and kill each other until there is only one survivor left. Chiaki Kuriyama (Kill Bill) and screen legend Takeshi Kitano (Boiling Point, Brother) star in the movie that has been argued, acclaimed and banned around the world. More than a decade later, it remains one of the most savage, shocking and emotionally powerful films of all time. Now experience the complete Director’s Cut of Kinji Fukasaku’s uncompromising masterpiece — nominated for 10 Japanese Academy Awards® — available uncensored and unrated for the first time ever in America.

 

NBC Green-lights Hannibal Lecter. Allez Cuisine!

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

 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

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.

John Carter Sequel Already In The Works?

Disney’s John Carter adaptation hasn’t even been released yet and the writers has already begin work on the sequel. Comingsoon.net recently reported that Stanton and his co-writer Michael Chabon have begun talking and planning for the sequel.

John Carter is the big screen adaptation of the series written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The sequel is tentatively being called, John Carter: The Gods of Mars, based on Burroughs’ second novel.

This IS only talk though. The project hasn’t actually been green lit by Walt Disney Pictures, but chances are that if John Carter does well in the box office that the sequel will move forward. After all, Disney will need to contend with hit series movies like the popularity of The Twilight Saga and the upcoming Hunger Games. With the popularity growing in the field of franchised movies, Disney will definitely want to jump of the bandwagon with their own movie series to promote.

Word is, is that the movie  is awesome enough to merit a sequel but those of us who haven’t gotten a sneak peek of it, will have to wait till the film opens on March 9th.