Thursday, May 31, 2007

Spider-Man no more...

I just got the call. I didn't make it to the finals with the Target Spin Your Own Webisode contest. I still think my entry was pretty great. I hope you all enjoyed watching it. And I just want to thank everyone for their support of me throughout the contest. While I do think I deserved to make it to the finals, and am consequently pretty bummed out, I at least have consolation in knowing that I have good friends who will go to the wall supporting me with both votes and very some kind words.

I'm not giving up on this film stuff kids, so no worries. I've got a big plan up my sleeve that I hope to be able to start working on in earnest after my wedding a few weeks from now. As for Spider-Man in the Volleyball Tournament of Doom, well it was honestly a great contest and I enjoyed making the film immensely. I wasn't 100% happy with the outcome, but I was probably 90% and that's pretty good considering the time constraints I placed on myself. I will still receive the semi final prizes of two $100 target gift cards, and (I believe) the signed art book of the making of Spider-Man 3. I will not however make it to the LA Film Festival or have my movie put on the Spider-Man 3 dvd. Well... c'est la vie.

Once again thanks for the support everyone, it's really meant to world to me.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Star Wars: The Clone Wars new trailer




As this YouTube clip is obviously not the best quality, I'd recommend you also check out the official version for more detail.

I think that overall it looks pretty great. I know that Lucas heavy handed Genndy out of the project after the man literally handed him a successful series to make this. But I think it honestly looks pretty cool. This teaser trailer was released at the Star Wars Celebration held this past weekend in L.A. The show itself isn't set to dubeut until the Fall of next year.

Still its pretty cool to finally see some stuff...

Friday, May 25, 2007

Sicko Trailer

Here's the trailer for Michael Moore's new film Sicko.
It opens on June 29th.

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Thursday, May 24, 2007

I have the Power!!!

From the vault of 'I never thought it would happen'... comes today's news; another awesome 80s cartoon franchise is once again making it's way to the silver screen! Unquestionably the greatest muscley barbarian ever is coming back to theaters with a vengeance! And don't be silly, no I don't mean Conan, I mean He-Man!!!

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe! wow. quite a ring to it, eh? ... Anyhow, Variety is reporting that producer extrordinare Joel Silver is teaming up with Mattel to bring the Eternian champion back to the big screen. So far there's not too much news, only that they want to make it happen, and have hired writer Justin Marks (of upcoming fame with the big screen versions of Voltron, Street Fighter, and Green Arrow) to script the beast. No word on a release dates, and no cast, or director.... just a script. BUT, we know Joel Silver is a man who can make things happen, and I can imagine the idea of a He-Man movie working well.

The thing about making an updated He-Man film though, is you really need a good script. One that strikes the right balances, between serious fantasy elements, kickass action sequences, and not too serious fun. The biggest problem I see with it comes in this balance. It would be really easy to take this movie too seriously, try to make it all dark and brooding high fantasy. And it would also be extremely easy to make this movie total camp. One scene that pushes it too far could make the entire rest of the film look like a cartoon, or worse... something starring Dolph Lundgren ;)

Hopefully this film will get made, and hopefully it will kick all kinds of ass. While the various series of the 80s were at times way over the top cartoony; there are some things that I can see translating well: He-Man himself, Beast Man, Castle Greyskull, and Battlecat, Teela, Man-at-Arms, and of course all the fighting. At its core He-Man also offers some really solid relationships. it's characters we're varied and I always thought fascinating; and the world of Eternia could look magical on the big screen. For doubters out there I suggest they try to track down some episodes of the excellent 2002 cartoon series. Yes, the design may need to be updated but I think the spirit of the franchise is strong enough to hold its own.

According to sources the update was 'pitched' as "a classic good vs. evil battle, using the kind of visual effects strategy employed in 300. A warrior is touted as the last hope of a magical land called Eternia, which is being ravaged by technology and the evil Skeletor." I read somewhere online the film described as 300 for kids...

It's an interesting idea for sure. I'll keep my eyes posted for more info as it become available.


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Tuesday, May 22, 2007

28 Weeks Later review

28 Weeks Later, is really fun in a lot of ways. Visually its frenetic, action packed, scary even at times. And the action itself is intense, like a good zombie movie should be, quiet then crazy, quiet then crazy. This film does a good job of maintaining the roller coaster pacing and generally heightened suspense that it needs to be successful.

Unfortunately where the film fails miserably is in its plotting. Simply put this film makes no sense. Oh the actual A to B to C makes sense, I was ale to follow exactly what was happening, but the film is littered with stupid stupid people doing stupid stupid things. And its not just on the small scale either; none of the reasoning makes any sense for the big overarching plot points either. Why would the US military be so clusterfuck stupid to start the repatriation in this way? What the hell are all those civilians actually doing on the small island, I mean they can't be rebuilding infrastructure... Are all the power plants located there? Or the Water refinery's? or Sewage? So if you are already breaching quarantine to let workers out then you're screwed... Why they fuck would they let those stupid ass kids run amok in the city for literally hours, when they knew what was up the minute they'd escaped? Why isn’t it a quarantine problem for the military guys to be disposing of all the infected bodies? And most importantly, I understand that the US military has some 'issues' but once the virus gets loose in their camp, their "Code Red" plan is just about the most retarded thing I've ever heard of. Finally I just wanted to point out what no one in the film seems to want to mention. The entire reason the virus got back into the population was the fault of the protagonists! i mean can someone just kill them please!?

There are moments in this film where everything really works well. I LOVED the first 5 minutes of the film. Thought it was absolutely fantastic. The score was great too. And really the acting wasn't horrible. I was just pissed that people kept acting out stupid horror movie clichés. Everyone knows you don't open that creepy door. It’s just common sense at this point. This film is still fun, I will grant it that, but its logic may annoy you.

I would recommend this film only if you really enjoyed the first one, and are totally capable of turning your brain off for an hour and a half.

2 stars out of 5

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Monday, May 21, 2007

SEMI-FINALS !!!1!

Hola friends,

I'm back once again with some fantastic news! My short video Spider-Man in the Volleyball Tournament of Doom, has made it into the Target Spin Your Own Webisode semi finals!!!

A few weeks ago I told you about my video that I'd entered in the online webisode contest. And while I'm sure a bunch of you went over and checked it out. I'd now like to implore you more than ever; please go have a look at my 2 minute stop motion Lego animated video of Spider-Man facing off against The Sandman in a beach volleyball tournament of epic proportions. I'm really stoked to make it this far, and now its time to try to pull for the win.

Public voting has opened on the contest and I could really use your support. Please go over to the contest website - http://www.target.com/spiderman3 and watch the videos of the 10 semi-finalists. If you'd like to vote for mine It's the one that is listed as "Spider-Man in Volleyball", and has a screencap of an orange ball in the center of the frame.

Voting is open now, and while you DO have to sign up with Grouper.com (a video sharing social networking site a la YouTube) to vote; since I've been a member they haven't sent me a single piece of spam. Every vote counts, and you can send me your love once a day from now until the 26th.

Thank you so much for the support. And feel free to let me know what you think of the video down in the comments. As promised here are the screencaps of the deleted face melting scene that people we're asking about. Click to embiggen. Enjoy :)



Pretty gross , eh?

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Friday, May 18, 2007

Sweet newTransformers tv spot

When I got in today, I decided I was going to dedicate myself to doing stuff. Really be productive... That simply has not happened. I'll try to write a good Upfront roundup for the blog first thing next week. As for now, be contented with this awesome new Transformers tv spot that debuted yesterday.


Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Bruce Ahoy!

Bruce Campbell is The MAN. We all know it. Remember a few months ago I showed you his great Old Spice commercial, well check it; Bruce is back with a vengeance. It's another truly fantastic ad from the Old Spice guys. Bruce is as ever, a master craftsman.



If you're interested you can also check out a little behind the scenes video on the making of that ad. Good stuff.

Man this really got me thinking of something, why the heck hasn't someone put Bruce Campbell on Heroes yet?! The guy is made for that show!

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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

master of the mystic arts

Well, if like me you've been generally enjoying Marvels fare of theatrical run films you might also be interested to check out some of their direct to dvd animated offerings. That's right, continuing the company's aggressive timetable of live action superhero movie adaptations, Marvel has been quietly complimenting their body of cinematic work with direct to market animated films for over a year now. Today they have launched the website, and trailer for their fourth, and for the moment, final scheduled release: Doctor Strange...

Once a brilliant surgeon, Doctor Stephen Strange lost his faith after losing the use of his hands in an accident. Determined to fins a cure, he traveled the world only to stumble upon and eventually become trained by Tibetan monks in the dark and mystical arts of magic. He is also a skills martial artist, and eventually became the go to sorcerer for most of the heroes in the the Marvel universe. He often finds himself pitted against demons and other villains of the supernatural.

Check out this trailer and the new website.



The film comes to market on August 14th.

I think it looks pretty cool. Last year I read the first Essential Dr Strange and really enjoyed it. Also if the film is as good as the other Marvel animated releases: Avengers, Avengers 2, and Iron Man, it'll be well worth picking up. Anyone else out there read any Dr Strange? Anyone else interested in this?

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Monday, May 14, 2007

Heroes: Origins announced

Today NBC announced their upfronts for next season. Here's the official press release. Besides a number of goodies, like Bionic Woman, Journeyman, and a second season (thank god) of Friday Night Lights, we are also in store for a brand new Heroes spin off series! Yes that's right, a Heroes spin off!!!

The show is to be called Heroes: Origins and will be more of a complementary series than a true stand alone spin off. In fact it will be airing in the Heroes time slot during the Fall hiatus before Heroes comes back on the air. The show will consist of 8 episodes total bringing the overall Heroes television for the season from 22 episodes up to 30 total. And while we don't know too many details yet we do know that the show will, according to NBC, be "an innovative new spin-off that each week will introduce a new character -- one of whom will be chosen by viewers through the “Heroes” website on NBC.com to become a cast regular the following season." According to Variety the decision to create Origins stemmed from the lower ratings Heroes has seen post hiatus. Effectively this is an attempt to keep viewer interest levels high.

So just so we're all clear here. The show will purportedly feature a brand new, never before seen character each week and tell single episode stand alone stories. Then viewers will vote, via the internet or text, to NBC as to which hero will make it onto the real show, in season 3.... This idea is pretty crazy. I mean, I think it could be cool, but the whole American Idol style voting makes me very nervous. And the fact that it's being pitched to us as a show to air while Heroes is on hiatus... does it sound like maybe Origins will be of a lower quality than we've come to expect from the 'real' show? The details on this are really very slight at the moment. Even surfing around the official fansite 9th Wonders hasn't produced much in the way of insight. Somehow it seems like this shows development has completely slipped under the radar until now. While I'm sure more details will be forthcoming, for now we're left with only our speculations...

Tell me what do you guys think about this? Will it be really cool? or has NBC just jumped the shark? We've already seen them develop characters (like Wireless) outside of the regular series format to some success; will this concept work in this new form? In the best case scenario I can imagine this will really help flesh out the world of our heroes; but in the worst it could be campy, freak of the week crap that will drag Heroes down with it... For now I think I'll try to have faith in Kring and co. They haven't let me down so far, and I prefer to think that they never will :)

Thanks to Bernard for giving me the scoop on this story.

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Sunday, May 13, 2007

Bionic Woman redux

Now that some of the potential tv shows set to air for next season have been picked up I should probably get back into thinking about new tv mode. It's amazing to think that yet another tv season has come and gone. And while you can probably guess that I am most excited to see the Sarah Connor Chronicles come to light next season, I am also getting interested by a few other projects on the September horizon. There are a few very interesting sounding sci-fi and genre shows looming. The ones that immediately spring to mind are Journeyman, Reaper, and two updates of older shows whose original incarnations were unfortunately both before my time: Flash Gordon, and The Bionic Woman.

More on those other shows in posts to come. For now I wanted to share these photos of Michelle Ryan, former EastEnder, and soon to be cyborg on FOX. These picks were grabbed off the Access Hollywood site and I assume are from the pilot episode, in which we meet our titular heroine, and learn how she gets her go-go-gadgety upgrades. I wish I'd seen the original series, sounds kinda cool, although everyone who tries to describe the effects to me makes it sound terribly cheesy (apparently slow motion used to equal fast).







She's pretty sexy, even though I'm not sure if that super flippy hair should stay. I'm looking forward to a cool new action show with decent practical effects. And so far, reports say that the show is a decent combination of Dark Angel, Smallville, and Alias; which all things considered is not a bad genre pedigree. AICN has some reviews of the pilot episode up that you can check out if you like. Also its probably worth mentioning that fan favorite Starbuck herself, Katee Sackhoff plays a potentially recoccuring villian in the series.

I for one am intregued...

Friday, May 11, 2007

Dark Knight Logo

This is a prertty cool looking logo for The Dark Knight, care of a newly launched teaser webpage. And what exactly is a teaser webpage? well, for now at least, all it is is this photo.... but it's still pretty cool.

The Dark Knight opens June 18th 2008.


New Transformers pics

With Transformers coming out pretty soon, July 4 for those with lagging short-term memory problems, we're starting to move into the marketing endgame, and especially now that Spider-Man 3 is out of the way, Transformers alongside POTC:AWE, and HP:OOTP is one of the biggest remaining summer tentpole film. So I expect to be inundated with the Transformers marketing for the next month or so on a level I suspect we haven't seen since... well, Spider-Man 3.

So lets kick it off with a little pre-marketing marketing as Michael Bay has posted some super high res pictures of all the Transformers on his blog. These are very sweet. I'm only showing you these 4 but he has great pics of all of the bots over at his blog. So go check it out for more.









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Thursday, May 10, 2007

new Terminator films on the fastrack

With todays press release that the rights to the Terminator franchise have been snapped up by The Halcyon Company a whole bunch of balls have all of a sudden been put into play. Headed by producers Andrew Vajna, and Mario Kassar work on a new trilogy of Terminator films has begun not just in earnest, but on a serious fastrack. Halcyon plans to have Terminator 4 in theaters as early as Summer 2009! now that's fast...

Halcyon, which is a recently formed privately financed development studio scored quite the coup by winning the rights to terminator, apparently one of only a handful of big film properties that is not already under the wing of a major studio. Needless to say, seeing as no one really knew who these guys were before, that the terminator films will be their biggest franchise by far. And hey, it sounds like a really good match to me. Vajna and Kassar have aggressively pursued these rights for years now, and they have a plan well in place for how to move quickly and decisively on these films. For example, they've brought Terminator 3 producer Moritz Borman into the fold to help them realize their vision.

And what vision is that exactly? Well, obviously exact plot details are sketchy at this time, it looks like T4 will pick up with John Connor in his early 30s leading the resistance movement against the machines. Borman says that in T3 they worked to specifically included "many incidental details and plot points that, along with the main narrative, set the stage for an entirely new set of inter-related stories covering the future adventures of John Connor and the Terminators."

And what does the Govenator think about all this? Apparently its "not even on his radar". With a term of office lasting until 2011 it would be more than a little irresponsible for Arnold to go off and star in a film. Besides, I don't exactly think the creative team is looking to cast a 60 something as a lead action star. That said, I think as fans we'd love to see him come back for a cameo, if only to wrap up past plotlines. Hey, if you're a fan of my blog though, you already know my ideas for the new films ;)

I'm sure they'll come up with something huge no matter what. The franchise as a whole has earned just over a Billion dollars to date, and I'm sure it'll only get stronger. I am definitely looking forward to this.

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Prince of Persia movie on the way

So speaking of cool looking films on the horizon, I thought I'd mention the next project looming for uber action director Michael Bay. It looks sure to be a crowd pleaser too, and hot on the heels of this summers highly anticipated Transformers flick, I have to say I'm already getting excited. Because Michael Bay is bringing an adaptation of the Ubisoft period adventure video game Prince of Persia to the big screen. And not only that its Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer, who'se previous collaborations have included the Bad Boys films, Armageddon The Rock, and Pearl Harbor.

The story of the game being adapted, subtitled The Sands of Time, follows a young prince of medevil Persia who has to save his kingdom and the world from the evil Maharaja and his army of zombified followers. To do this he uses the sands of time to slow, stop, and even reverse time, as he runs, fights, and climbs his way to The game is really great. It's one of the few recent games that I enjoyed so much that I actually beat it. And while the game has a lot of fighting involved, I think it qualifies more as an adventure game. There is a large focus on running, jumping, climbing and puzzle solving. In fact it reminds me a fair bit of the Tomb Raider series. And the graphics are beautiful. I'd definitely recommend the game. And even though I haven't played the two or three sequels that have hit the streets I've heard that they are all pretty decent.

Check out these great pieces of pre-production concept artwork.







Disney is looking for a summer '09 release.
Look for more to come on this film in the months ahead.

For a bit of a feel for the game watch this...

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Robot Chicken Star Wars trailer

Hey guys, so over the past few weeks I've been a bit busy and I missed a few little things that I'd really wanted to blog on, or at least mention, but got sidetracked before doing. Especially when some of these posts really do take a while to compose. This one should be short though.

When I first mentioned the Adult Swim Robot Chicken Star Wars special airing on June 17th, the trailer wasn't available yet. So now for you're enjoyment here is a funny teaser of whats to come. Oh how I do love me some Robot Chicken :)




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I'm a Marvel and I'm a DC

These are very funny :)
poor poor Superman...
These are all made by ItsJustSomerandomGuy













Ok that's a lot of videos, I know. But they're really funny.

Roth is an Abomination

Well the final big casting piece has fallen into place for Louis LeTerrier's upcoming Incredible Hulk movie. Late yesterday, it was revealed that none other than Tim Roth will be playing the villain of the film: Abomination.

Like the Hulk, Abomination began as a regular human. As Russian KGB named Emil Blonsky, he found out about the good doctor's experiments with gamma radiation, and intentionally exposed himself to levels twice that which created the Hulk. As a result he turned inthe the green skin menace Abomination, whose power level apparently doubles that of a calm Hulk. Unfortunately for Emil, he found out too late that he did not have the ability as Dr Banner does to revert to human form. And so trapped in the body of a monster he vows to destroy our hero at all costs. At least thats the gist of his backstory as I understand it ;)

I think this is a great idea. Tim Roth is a great actor who, although I feel has been absent from my movies for the past few years plays dark and conflicted characters extremely well. For some great conflicted character work check out Heart of Darkness where Roth plays Marlow to a brilliant John Malkovich's Kurtz. Really this is shaping up to be a very interesting film.

To keep up on all things mean and green, I like to surf Superherohype's Hulk page.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

more Star Wars?

Oh George...

You tantalizingly overgrown ewok... George Lucas is a master at giving people hints of really exciting information that either isn't true or is a loooing ways off. He also is known to strongly imply (I don't think its fair to say 'promise') that he will give us fans things that he never delivers on. Well he's at it again, and dare I say it, I think there might be more chance of these suggested projects actually happening than some of the others he's put forward. Then again, that's the problem with listening to Lucas, everything he suggests sounds great, and of course totally plausible... it just doesn't materialize. Or if it does, it looks nothing like what we thought.

A reporter from FOX411 spoke with Lucas at the Time magazine all star dinner and quotes Lucas as saying that there will be two more Star Wars movies, made for tv. They will be live action and an hour long each, but won't focus on the Skywalker family... What?! I suspect that this is just a reported misunderstanding Lucas talking about the long anticipated live action Star Wars television series set for screen after the new clone wars cartoon airs, in approximately 2010.

This is the kind of non-story-story that annoys me. In fact I shouldn't even be blogging about it. Lucas isn't a trickster, but he's too much of a fanboy himself to hold back on early plans. And I have serious doubts that our friends at FOX can report anything accurately... My first real thought on this is that if anything, Lucas was saying that they might do a tv movie or two to launch the series. Because why on earth would they do more stand alone films? At least yet... there's already enough on their plate. Oh, unless we're going to get some more kickass ewok films. Those were so awesome.

That all said, I am really looking forward to more info on the Star Wars live action series... we just might have to wait a few years for something we can really trust.

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Spider-Man 3 review

Poor, poor Spider-Man 3; such potential, and so much waste. I am what you might call, a Spider-Man fanboy. I love the first films, I've read the comics, I let myself get excited by the previews, I am someone who really wants this to be a good film. That said, I went into Spidey 3 with the understanding that it hasn't gotten great reviews, and that's ok. I may be a fanboy but I also try to be a realist. I wasn't expecting Spider-Man 2. I honestly wasn't; I just wasn't expecting this.

I won't say I hated Spider-Man 3, because there were some really great moments. Some beautiful shots, some great effects, a few great action sequences, and some funny lines. But these moments were spread thinly between some of the most insipid storytelling I've seen on screen in ages. Part of me wants to say I'm holding this film to too high a standard, but that would be making excuses. And if the standard is set high, its only because Raimi and crew set the bar there with the first two films. Spider-Man 3 should have been great. So where did it go wrong?

Mostly the problems with Spider-Man 3 fall in the department of storytelling. Technically this is as sound a movie as ever, but somewhere along the way these guys forgot that the characters need motivation for their actions. I was extremely disappointed to see the lack of motivation, the leaps in logic, and the disrespect for everything that has come before. Frankly, I'm surprised at how badly the characters are handled here, particularly the already established ones like Peter and Mary Jane. In one of many examples of poor character development we see Eddie Brock go from opportunistic photog who gets a comeuppance from Peter Parker, that I'll grant you ruins his career, but he goes from this regular guy pissed off at Peter Parker, to someone literally praying for Peter Parkers death, and not in a funny I'm kidding way, in an obviously insane psychotic way. There is no middle point of these two states though, we go directly from anger to homicidal machinations. But that's just one of the many inescapable flaws in storytelling. I can understand that the black suit amplifies emotion. But Peter puts on the black costume and all of a sudden becomes super emo. I mean with hair and attitude to boot. His transformation is absurd. No one would believe he was serious, especially his friends who seem to calmly accept that their friend the do gooder has all of a sudden gone evil. And that's all before the song and dance number. Yes, I said song and dance number...

Maybe the best storyline is that of the Sandman. His story is pretty well encapsulated away from the rest of the characters and that's a good thing. I enjoyed how they tied his story to the Spider-Man mythos, and thought that his reasons for being a criminal while flawed by any real world standard (are you serious that robbing banks is your only skill at this point?!), at least had some basis to ground them. I was annoyed that we didn't get the full story, the full revelation of his plotline until a somewhat tacked on epilogue, but at least we got it.

Harry also had a few nice moments, and James Franco, while a total ham on screen sometimes, worked well and pulls of a canny Dafoe-esque menace. In fact most of the characters had elements to them that did work, which is I suppose why I can't say I hated this film. There were moments were it was good, not great, but decent. But in a story where character is all important, it wasn't enough to have a few ok moments. there was too much bad to make up for the good.

Spider-man needs an overhaul. I love these films, and I want them to be good, I want them to succeed, and I'm glad this won't be the end of the series. But I'll be fine if Sony wants to bring in new blood on all creative fronts, maybe give us something a bit darker (and no, not in an MTV 'edgy' way), and hopefully get a better screenwriter than Sam Raimi's older brother. They had Michael Chabon for Spider-Man 2... maybe they could ask him again, or how about someone like Warren Ellis...

I'm going to go easy on rating Spider-Man 3, because while I think its seriously flawed I can see myself getting softer on it in times to come. If I was watching TBS (or FX i suppose) on a Sunday afternoon I would probably love to see Spider-Man 3. It's got some good popcorn entertainment fun that can't be denied. I just wish it was more than that.

2 1/2 out of 5

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Some Spider-Man Thoughts

I haven't seen Spider-Man 3 yet. I'm planning on going tonight. And while I'll definitely let you know my thoughts on it afterwards, I wanted to talk a bit about the franchise. And maybe have some fun speculating :)

So Spidey 3 has broken all box office records!!! Pulling in some $382 Million worldwide on it's opening weekend, and the biggest single opening day of $59 Million. Or at least that's the big headline this week. And we're not a week before analysts we're naysaying about how this film cost more than any other film ever. And how it just wasn't as good as the others... Well technically the reviews and reactions haven't been nearly as good as Spider-Man 2, but there is no denying that Spider-Man, despite the reported inflated costs, is an unequivocal success.

Accompanying the release, the main cast have been on a whirlwind press tour promoting the film for the past two or three weeks. Perhaps it was the pace, or the endless questions, but frankly none of them seemed very excited. And ultimately when the inevitable question was asked of them if they would return for another go round in Spider-Man 4, they all shied away giving cagey answers that seemed to me to fall more on the side of no, than yes. That's fine with me, I mean I understand that these guys might be a bit tired of making Spider-Man films, and if they really are considering it I can see how the prospect of renewed contract negotiations might make them hesitate to give a definite answer. That's all fine. And despite some completely absurd comments by Kirsten Dunst, like another film would flop without her (CORRECTION - this is a misquote, see the comments for more) I think we can all understand their general hesitation. The one thing we can say for sure about the cast, and of course Sam Rami, is that none of them sound too eager to come back without the others.

But especially post the record breaking money making box office bonanza that happened this past weekend for Sony. it's now become clear that they have "every intention" of moving ahead, and my guess would be soon, on a Spider-Man 4, 5, and 6. Despite rumors of Rami moving onto The Hobbit he has stated that he might be interested in returning to the franchise if the right story was in place. And to that end, Sony is apparently in talks to get uber-talented writer David Keopp to pen the Spidery 4 script. So we know for sure that this is coming now, there will be no escaping it. And that of course leads us to the next inescapable question, who or what would you like to see in future installments of the Spider-Man series? should we get a new cast? new director? new story direction?

This week the film site Freeze Dried Movie, a site I'm unfamiliar with but apparently has gotten scoops right in the past, reports that their source inside the production offices are rambling that the villains for Spider-Man 4 will be none other than The Lizard, and Carnage! Yup, that's right, the set up for the last 3 films has apparently not been in vain, and Dr Connors will in fact become The Lizard. And as for Carnage, well I personally left comics just as he was coming into the scene so I'm not super familiar with the character. And since I've been back reading them I haven't yet caught up on his story, but I know he is a serial killer, Cletus Cassidy, who encounters the same alien symbiote (or was it the mate?) of the Venom alien, transforming him into a horrible killing machine. The word coming from Freeze Dried Movies is that this movie will be darker in tone that the first 3, and might also include the first appearance of Felicia Hardy, aka The Black Cat.

All said, I think that while we obviously can't take this report too seriously, I mean even if it is accurate they're still a loooong ways off, generally speaking the idea of Lizard and Carnage is a good one. Both are (or should be) very dark characters. Monsters in the night types, who would lend themselves to a darker tone. And darker is definitely where the franchise needs to go, especially if we're talking about a film that might feature an all new cast. We need more scariness, more danger, more badassedness if we're going to accept a slew of new faces in these roles. I know that ultimately Spider-Man is not an overly dark comic most of the time, but hey, even he teamed up with Blade once or twice, and I know he faced down creatures of the night like Morbius. That's where we should go for Spider-Man 4.

In terms of looking ahead of that, well I think the second trilogy should focus on Spider-Man finding his place in the larger world. If the first three films are about him coming to terms in his own life with being a superhero, now we need to see him dealing with a bigger picture. Yes Spider-Man should always be set in New York, and of course at it's core it's about the people of the city, and the people in Peter's life, I don't want to see Spider-Man in space quite yet, he's not that kind of hero. But the film Spider-Man hasn't dealt much with the bigger picture, so far its mostly been about his inner journey. My suggestions for future villains would have to include my favorite, Kraven the Hunter, and the Night of the Hunter storyline, and one I really want to see just for the amazing effects it would take, Rhino. Maybe we could even get a Sinister Six story... Really Spidey has a pretty amazing rogues gallery.

What do you want though? Let me know down in the comments...

I know I'll be pretty happy as long as they keep making them. Spider-Man films are great, and I think they can in theory keep going for a long time, with or without the current cast. Maybe one day we'll even get an Avengers film. For now though I'm pretty excited to catch up with old webhead tonight. I'll be happy with that, oh and of course I'll keep my fingers crossed for Fantastic Four 2 being great, leading to an even greater Silver Surfer movie ;)

Here's a list of the upcoming films and tv shows on Marvel's plate:

Films - Spider-Man 3 (release May 4th), Fantastic Four 2 (release June 15th), Iron Man (in production, release May 2nd '08), The Incredible Hulk (in production, release June 27th '08), Ant Man (writer and director engaged), Captain America (writter engaged), Nick Fury (writer engaged), Thor (writer engaged), Avengers (writer engaged)

Also - Black Panther, Cloak & Dagger, Dr Strange, Hawkeye, Power Pack, Shang Chi, Wolverine, Punisher 2, Magneto, Namor (trilogy)

Tv animated - Wolverine and the X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man
TV live action - Moon Knight, Skrull Kill Crew, Alter Ego

direct to dvd films - Dr Strange

Rumored/Potential projects - Silver Surfer, Daredevil 2, Avengers 3 (dvd), Ghostrider 2, X-Men 4, Spider-Man 4, Deadpool

I obviously love superhero films, and this list sounds great to me. Even when we get missteps like with Elektra, or Man Thing, Marvel has done a great job overall. I hope this continues in Spider-Man 3 and beyond. If you're interested in more info, check this Wiki entry, or just read this. Thanks for the time kids, I'll chat with you later :)

ps - I just got word, my Spider-Man webisode just made it to the Quarter finals!!!! woohoo!!!

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Monday, May 07, 2007

Liv Tyler joins Hulk

Well, you knew it had to happen, with the new Incredible Hulk film getting a full on 'reboot' treatment you just knew they couldn't have stuck with Jennifer Connelly as love interest Betty Ross. Not after scrapping the very capable leading lad Eric Bana in favor of the admittedly also very astute thesp Ed Norton. Fortunately for us they've just cast someone who almost rivals her amazing hotness, Liv Tyler. And I suppose if this sort of substitution had to come, I'm glad it came with Liv Tyler. I've always thought she was a fine actress. I know she's gotten some flack for films like Armageddon, but I think she can hold her own in the right role; just look at Stealing Beauty. Also I can never hold a grudge against anyone who was in Empire Records.


I seriously almost died...

I was so busy last week that I barely got time to read up on the latest film news, and unfortunately a few things might've fallen through the cracks. Not to worry though, I'll do my best to pick up the pop culture crumbs for you very soon.

First though, business: If you're here looking for my production post on the Spider-Man Volleyball of Doom movie, well, its right below this one. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, please go read the post, because I could use your support. Regarding the contest though, I 'm still feeling pretty good about it. I'm happy overall with how my little webisode turned out. Not perfect, but not bad. I've actually read some of the rules on judging etc now, and I'm hopeful that I can make it to the semi finals. From my understanding of how this thing will work, this first week, all the vids are being judged, i think, by the people who are running the contest, probably some mid level web marketing people at Target. These people will be able to take out all the really bad ones. Then the next week, Quarter finals, the films are judged by Target and Sony officially, that probably means some of the higher ups in marketing picking the ones they like best, and giving grades for technicality and creativeness (theres a more complex break down of the scoring in the rules), but finally comes the Semi Finals, which is the point I hope I can make it to. That's where we get into the public stage of voting for whichever webisode you want to win. I'm not sure whoever gets the most votes will actually win or not, but we'll see... I did go through and watch all of the webisodes this weekend, and I have to say I think I'm doing ok. Maybe not the best, but definitely up there. Other webisodes I particularly like are the Behind the Scenes of Spider-Man 3, The Heist, and Bad Venom. I counted about 8 that I thought were pretty good, and deserved recognition. I also think that mine is still the best, hopefully you do too. If you haven't had a chance to see my webisode yet, just head over to http://www.target.com/spiderman3 and check out the one that has a screencap of a big orange ball coming at the screen. The title is "Spider-Man in the Volleyball Tournament of Doom". Oh and speaking of Spider-man 3, I'm planning on going to catch the film tomorrow night. Hope it does the series justice. I've definitely been hearing some mixed things so far...

This weekend was really nice here. I mean like it was probably the nicest weekend of the year so far, and as such, we picked a perfect time to go camping. Erica and me, along with our friends Cecile and Jan headed out to China Camp State Park up in Marin for the weekend and wow it was really beautiful. I totally missed camping. Its been at least 6 months, and while we went a lot last season I'm hoping for even more, or at least more elaborate, trips this year. China Camp was great though, very close by, and somewhere I'd never been before. We went on a hike, probably 10 miles, and ended up at the old Chinese shrimp fishing village. It was pretty interesting. There was really only one downside to the weekend. the dreaded TICK.

Yes that's right people, I actually got a tick! I've never had one before, and hopefully never will again. But I woke up on Sunday morning with my stomach hurting and not understanding why it was like a surface hurt, not on the inside. When I looked down to my utter horror and disgust I had a tick eating away at my. And where was it? but inside my bellybutton! so totally gross, I know! But really I think I got off easy, Imagine where else it could've gone... shudder... anyhow, So I have this bug eating away at my flesh, I kinda started to freak out a bit. I didn't know what to do So I called up my dad, he suggested holding a flame to the back of the tick, make it uncomfortable enough so that it'll want to come out, and release its deathgrip. So that's what we tried, but instead of making it back out, the fire just made it wriggle around a bunch. Soon it's legs were all burnt off, and the tick stopped his spastic flailing about. Thank goodness, its dead I thought, but then Oh gross I have a dead bug half inside my stomach, I'm like some sort of horrid alien hybrid gone awry. Like those poor failed experiments that Ripley had to incinerate in Alien: Resurrection. So I called the doctor, the Sunday on call doctor, and she said to me that I should put petroleum jelly or something like it on top of the tick. Soon it would suffocate and release me from its mandibles of death. But of course, we had already crossed that bridge. The tick was already dead, and so the doctor said well go ahead and try to carefully remove it with tweezers... the thing about ticks though, once their head is buried into your flesh its pretty hard to get it out. And when you don't want to do above all, is remove the tick, and leave the head inside your skin. Well unfortunately that's exactly what happened... Erica removed the body of the tick, and left the decapitated skull festering inside my stomach. This was the point of the camping trip that I feared would be my last, I had horrible visions of Lyme disease taking over my body, which was made all the scarier by the fact that I have no real clue what Lyme disease actually is. Furthering the thought led me to the inevitable conclusion that I would end up losing my entire lower torso and legs being forced to roll around by my hands pushing a dirty old skateboard and begging for change in the New York subways. So I decided that drastic action was required. I basically got Erica to rip into my skin and pull the head out of me before the ticks horrible venom could destroy my life... so now I have a really really gross wound on my bellybutton. But at least I've spared myself a life of deformity, scarred and hiding from those who fear and misunderstand me. I suspect my life would've been much like that of Vincent from Beauty and the Beast, only without the tender heart of Linda Hamilton to guide and center me.

The doctor thinks I should be ok in a day or two, and anything left will work itself out of my system by them. Apparently Lyme disease is pretty rare out here. Still I think I've maybe just dodged a bullet... maybe.

I'll talk with you later friends. Godspeed.

Friday, May 04, 2007

Spider-Man in the Volleyball Tournament of Doom

Ok people the big day has FINALLY arrived...

After a month or so of hard work, and an intense crunch this past week which actually involved me literally pulling an all nighter working on Wednesday I have finished my not-so-secret fanfilm project entitled

Spider-Man in the Volleyball Tournament of Doom


I made the 2 minute film for the Target "Spin Your Own Webisode" contest promoting the release of Spider-Man 3. Which incidentally comes out stateside today :) Target has set up this contest using the Grouper, a video sharing and social networking site, and if you go over to http://www.target.com/spiderman3 you can watch and eventually vote on my (yay!), and other (grr!) contest entries. You do have to sign up to Grouper to actually vote on the entries, but seeing as you are all my loyal readers, when the time comes I ask that you please consider taking the time to do so. Every vote will help me out. That said, voting won't begin, if at all, until May 20th, and you don't need to sign up to watch any of the videos there, so please go have a look, I'd love to know what you think of my film.

So I checked the contest rules to make sure, and the public voting phase comes only in the Semi-Final rounds, starting May 20 and going until May 26th. So if I make it that far, that's the time I will ask you to vote for me. For now though, if you sign up to Grouper you can give my video a star rating out of five, but I'm not sure that will make a huge difference in the actual contest ;)

As of this writing there was a bit of a kerfuffle and my video is actually posted twice. I had uploaded at two different resolutions. I'm trying to get them to take down the low res one so my votes don't get split, hopefully that'll happen soon. Anyhow, look for the video with the screen-capture of a big orange ball coming over at net right in center frame. That's the good quality version and the one you want to watch.

Once again please goto www.target.com/spiderman3 to see my awesome video.

Leave me any thoughts on the piece in the comments section below.

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Production Blog - Spider-Man in the Volleyball Tournament of Doom

The following is more or less a Production Blog on the film. As it's pretty specific, I imagine it might not be for everyone. But I spent a fair bit of time making the film and if you're interested in the details, please enjoy the following. But this isn't a regular blog post.

If you have any questions about the film, please drop me an email
geoffchapman123@yahoo.ca

Ok so now that the official stuff is out of the way, I'll tell you a little about the film itself. Since it was made for and entered it in the contest, I have given up my rights to distribute the short, hence I can't post it on YouTube or whatever for you all to see, and they didn't think to include the code to post it for your blog on the contest page :( of course, if you know me, you'll know my stance on Internet... like pee in a swimming pool... who knows where my clip will turn up one day... For now though there is a contest to win!

It's probably best to read this after watching the film. Go HERE to do so... Obviously the story follows our intrepid hero the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man as he faces down the deadly Sandman who seems to have homecourt advantage in a rooftop beach volleyball tournament. It's quick, fun and I think a pretty cool little video; but the story didn't start that way.

I'd been wanting to try my hand at making a stop motion film for a while. And since I had a bunch of old Legos around I figured that'd definitely be the way. There are whole communities online that are dedicated to making brickfilms, although I warn you if you go and see the quality of some of these peoples stuff you might get a bit discouraged to try it yourself. Frankly I saw a few films that just dropped my jaw in amazement (check The Gauntlet). But really I don't fee like I'm a part of that community, just a visitor. That said I've always wanted to try it, and when this Spider-man contest came up it seemed like a good opportunity. Deadlines can be great motivators. So inspired by the rooftop beach volleyball court at The Sticky Wicket, where I spent many a sunny afternoon in downtown Victoria, I started work on this little labor of love.

I realized pretty quickly that basically I suck at doing stop motion. It takes so much time, patience and exacting precision. I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. And since it was my first time trying this I knew pretty quick that I didn't have time to make a true stop motion video. So as you can tell I've sort of done a quasi half level of motion, kind of like a picture book.But i think it works, especially with the right music cues in place.

The story, once I worked it out was huge. my extremely limited storyboards took 10 full pages. Maybe I'll post one or two of those so you can see my ridiculous stick figures and try to comprehend how my mind works. Anyhow, I found that even when I planned the shots I ended up shooting more in order to make sure I had the coverage I wanted. Then on top of that I had problems getting the focal distances correct, considering how small the actors are. This film involved more trial and error than I care to admit, and in the end I still had to go into almost every frame and digitally clean something up. Be it a shadow or what not. But the film is fairly quick and on the small size in terms of its clarity for web purposes so mostly I don't think you can tell. I'm sure if I were to try this film again I would do it somewhat differently. Especially if I didn't have the size or time limitations.

The film that I had intended to make, a directors cut if you will (which I might actually put together) is definitely more on the side of 5+ minutes long. I even shot sections of it that never got assembled for the film cause I knew I'd have to cut them. Other than a few shots here and there these deleted scenes involve an extended introduction, with Spider-man landing on, flipping around, and then crawling up the side of the Lego building in the opening scene. Then there was an extended scene before the Sandman reveal starring Reggie and Troy, two Lego men who were playing doubles on the volleyball court before Sandman comes and sucks them down to a sandy finish. I had even planned a Top Gun reference into that scene... oh well. I sort of wanted Sandman to be played like The Eradicator from that old Kids in the Hall sketch. Super overconfident, which is of course his downfall. Another cut scene involves the crowd of spectator who are watching the match. While Spidey is off getting his water balloon ready Sandman gets into a scuffle with a heckler and ultimately punches him off the side of the building. It was pretty funny I thought, but added nothing to the overall story. A lot of the other scenes throughout the film were slightly longer, but when it came down to it there just wasn't time to accommodate everything.

The final scene, or really not a scene but a series of shots, that I omitted from the final version of the film involved Sandman in his big monster form right after the balloon popped. I actually had a real water balloon there and exploded it onto the set. Despite the added realism of using a real balloon, it made a HUGE mess. Including covering the sky with splotches of mud and caking my kitchen walls and floor with gunk. Both the sandwall and the sandman monster we're created by taking objects that were roughly the right shape and coating their surface with some homemade play-doh, then I just rolled the object in some sand that I brought home from the beach. So as you might imagine when I put the water on, it mostly just started to wash off the sand, but left a lot of dirty play-doh behind. I had really intended to use a few of the shots in sequence at the end of the film, but ultimately it looked more like the face melting scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark than I cared for. Its supposed to be a fun upbeat movie, and while it did look kind neat, in a grotesque sort of way, I think the feel of the film is better served by leaving them out. That said you can see in the end couple of shots the horrible debris left from Sandman's melting. Whereas I had envisioned a more or less cartoon death complete with Xs for eyes, and I ended up with the what looks more like the remains of a horrible battle field, and carnage as far as the eye can see. Not exactly family fun.

While I'm not exactly sure Spider-Man would act as deviously as he does in the fight, its not like Sandman is exactly an honorable opponent either. And hey Spidey did get the trophy. And although as an official contest piece, I couldn't get away with it, I imagine the last shot and the end little triumph tune, to actually be an homage (especially musically) to the ending of The Legend of Zelda. Speaking of the sound fx, due to time constraints I didn't get all of the effects put in I wanted. I think the film works fine, but the ones I really miss not being there are Spidey's insult, which was what provokes the transformation to the sand monster, and I was planning on making the slow motion sound effect during the balloon toss. You know the sound "sha sha sha sha sha sha sha..." (just whisper it fast to yourself).

Hmm, well really I think that's about all I have to say regarding the film. I might go ahead and try to put together a directors cut of it, and I'll definitely put a few of the face melting pics up here. But for now that all. I hope you enjoy the film. I want to thank my fantastic fiance Erica for helping me put it all together, and especially for assisting me in making those tough calls while editing.

Also please feel free to view and rate the film over at http://www.target.com/spiderman3. The grand prize is a trip to the LA Film Festival and the chance to have your webisode put as a special feature on the Spider-Man 3 dvd! Presuming I make it to the Semi-final rounds (fingers crossed) Voting for the public will run from May 20th until May 26th, 2007.




Take care peeps. Peace

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Wednesday, May 02, 2007

New Iron Man Armor

Every once in a while, one of the more traditional media news sources manages to scoop Internet's cabal of movie spies and come out with a great piece of info before anyone else. Today Entertainment Weekly managed to pull that off with the first pic of the Iron Man Armor (mark III). Of course if they'd tried to sit on it until they went to print next week I'm not sure they would've made it. So without further ado...



This is the best quality version of the image to hit the net today at least. If a better one does come around I'll post it though. So if you'll remember, this isn't the first version of the armor Tony Stark builds, the first version was designed to help him escape a P.O.W. camp. Anyhow, for my money, the armor looks pretty good. We'll have to see how it looks practically. Are we going to get another Green Goblin affair, or will it move and feel right. I'm leaning towards things going right on this film. I have faith that Favs and Downey Jr can handle this.


UPDATE - 05/10/07 - Aintitcoolnews has posted some high res pics from the film, including a great big version of the suit pic above. Check em out :)
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All that you know is at an end...

Wow, the Silver Surfer speaks, and I don't think thats Morpheus was it? or am i just hearing things...? We've also got power switching, the Fantasti-car in action, good effects shots of both Sue, and Doom, the military trying to shoot down the Surfer (with missiles no less, haha like that would work), and of course more of Johnny's zany shenanigans, scorching looks for the ladies, and general tom foolery. Really though, this trailer is mostly about how freakin cool the Silver Surfer is. I like everything I've seen of him so far. And I just hope the film can hold up well enough for us to get that Surfer origin story spin off I've been dreaming of since I was 13.

Check out the brand new full length trailer for Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer, due in theaters June 15th. watch below or go here for nice big versions.


Tired at work, again

Although I know I haven't talked about it online, over the past few weeks I've been making some moves to get bacvk into doing some film work again. Nothing too serious, just a couple fun liitle 'slightly' above home movie stuff to keep me occupied, and maybe add to my resume. But its been a pretty tiring process. So far I've been working on two projects. The first is a fan film (of sorts) based on Spider-man, and the second is an end of year video for my cousin's class. She's a Kindergarden teacher up in Concord (sort of outside Berkeley). The Spider-Man one is the tough one though. I don't really want to go into too much detail, because you'll all see it soon enough. But I've been up late at night pretty much every night for the past 2 weeks working on it. And now I'm finally coming down to the deadline. last night I was up until 3am working on it, and tonight I suspect a probably even longer night ahead of me.... ugh.

S'ok I guess... Its pretty fun at the end of the day. And it'll all be over by Friday. I know I'm not explaining it all well right now, but just wait. I'll be needing your help with it soon enough ;)

Also, I wanted you guys to know why I've been so lax at blogging this past month.
Sure enough I'll get back to a more regular schedule soon.

This morning I was so tired I fell asleep on the commuter train that takes me from San Fran down to my work in Redwood Shores. I missed my stop! Ended up in Palo Alto. What a fiasco...

I'll leave you this morning with what I thought was a fantastic performance by Blake on Idol last night. I had it on in the background.

Blake Lewis - Shot Through the Heart

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Underwhelmed - Sloan in San Fran 04/30

So last night I went and saw what was at one point in my life, my absolute, all time most favorite band ever. Sloan. And honestly the experience was pretty bittersweet.

If you don't know, you can check out their Wiki, or just listen up. Sloan was at the heart of the mid 90s east coast Canadian rock scene. Which anyone from Canada should know something about. They play rock that veers onto the pop side, with strong deliberate vocals. They specialize in catchy rhythms, and fun lyrics. Still they don't have a pop, or light rock sound, they have an edge to them that I might call... alt-pop. is that a term? well, if not, it is now.

Here's one of their old songs, to listen to while you read the rest of this post... It's called Penpals off their 3nd (and arguably most popular) album Twice Removed




So anyhow, I used to be a big big fan of their music, but now things are pretty different. A couple of things were going on last night that made me pretty uncertain how I felt. Although that said, I think I am definitely too emotionally invested in this band to be objective. So take this all with a grain of salt. Firstly and foremost though, I'll say that they played a great set, I think the vocal mix was a bit low, but really they still played a very solid show. And really that's understandable, they've been playing and touring together for ages now. They are unmistakably technical and creative professionals, and I enjoyed the music a lot. They played mostly new stuff, off their current (9th I think) album, which of course makes sense, but they played a few older tracks too that I was very familiar with. My issues, such that they were, didn't have as much to do with the music as it did with the scene I was a part of.

You have to understand that Sloan is not a band that has stopped creating new music, they have really kept on plugging away. They're not that band you liked in high school that never stylistically progressed. I think that its fair to say they've stayed creative throughout their career. But at one point in the show last night lead singer Patrick told us 'hey it's a new song but you just might like it' and of course I did. They have managed to keep creating what I thought sounded like a honest and naturally progressing new sounding music for themselves over the years; but much of my interests and tastes have moved on. I don't fault Sloan for that obviously, in fact I feel bad. These guys come across as so genuine; such hard working musicians. And they've brought me so much happiness over the years, I wish I could support them more. But there's not too much I can do. Regardless of the fact that they've stayed innovative from their perspective, I'm listening to bands like Kasabian and TV on the Radio now more than any kind of sound that could even remotely be called alt-pop. And maybe I'm feeling a bit guilty for that. Patrick also at one point asked the crowd, made up of late 20 to late 30-somethings, for a show of hands as to who was seeing them for the first time. I'd say it was 15% at most. 'We need new fans' was Patrick's next line... While I'm sure they appriciate us old timers supporting them, we're also the 'Rush' fan who has trouble letting go.

Check out this vid for Everything You've Done Wrong, another fantastic older song :)



On top of that though, while Patrick's comment about needing new fans kind of upset me, I don't know that the show last night was totally representative of what the band sees regularly. Sloan is a band that never broke in the States, for whatever reason it just really never happened, there isn't much rhyme or reason to it. Why does someone like Barenaked Ladies, Sum 41 or even Treblecharger to an extent break here, and not Sloan, or The Tragically Hip? I don't know. Maybe After Navy Blues they should've g1one back to a big label... but probably not. That probably would've just compromised their creativity. Anyhow, this means two things here in San Francisco: firstly there was a relatively small crowd of only maybe 200 people (just a guess), and I strongly suspect that most of them were Canadian. The relative age of the crowd as compared to when the band was at the height of popularity meant that the was there was also a lot of familiarity with all of the old songs, and not much of the new. Although you have to remember that especially with the Bay Area, the Canadian that have an opportunity to move here are generally speaking (ie not me) very smart. It generally takes a lot to get a work permit here and while there's a decent sized group of Canucks in the Bay area, they are almost all necessarily a very specific demographic. I'd say there were at least 5 songs that Sloan played which were if not chart toppers, were definitely somewhere on the music charts in Canada, So while the band really didn't focus on old stuff, that was what almost all of the crowd knew best.

So like I said, kind of bittersweet. Good music that means a lot to me personally but that I still felt unconnected to. Maybe I shouldn't feel so bad. Sloan had 2 albums full of legitimately chart topping songs (TR, and OCTA), and two more that were still very popular with a handful of big songs on each (Smeared, and NB). That's more success than 90% of the bands out there...

Although, that doesn't really make it any less frustrating. I'll leave you with the single off their new album Never Hear the End of It - Who Taught You to Live Like That (live). have a listen, its really not bad...



You can stream the full album right here ;)