Posted by dominic in Films on September 17th, 2008
The X-Files: I Want to Believe will be released on DVD December 2nd. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release the film in a single disc version ($29.98 SRP) a three-disc “The Ultimate X-Phile Edition” ($34.98 SRP) and on Blue-ray ($39.98 SRP). The Blu-ray edition will be Fox’s first release with BD-Live features. All three versions will be presented in widescreen (2.40:1 ratio) with English 5.1 Dolby Surround and Spanish/French Dolby Surround, with English and Spanish subtitles.
I was very excited about the return of the X-Files to the big screen. The idea that Chris Carter and his team were bringing the movie back to the stand alone, episodic format was a breath of fresh air after the last film in 1998, and the final few seasons where things became far to convoluted and out of whack. Then, I finally saw the film and instant disappointment set in. I wont review the picture here, but the fact that the show has been off the air for six years I Want to Believe was the best they could come up with-an uneven and overall flat story of modern day Frankenstein doctors, child molesting priests and a bearded Mulder-really disappointed me. Okay, Duchovny wore the beard well so that really didn’t bother me all that much. Apparently Fox is going all out with the DVD release. (more…)
Posted by bob in Films, News on July 17th, 2008
Rob Cohen reports that Paramount Pictures signed for the remake rights to Fred Dekker’s The Monster Squad. The 1987 original film featured the Frankenstein Monster trying to thwart Dracula, the Wolf Man, the Mummy and the Gill Man from ruling the world. Cohen produced the movie way back when and will likely reprise that role.
Posted by bob in Films, News on June 29th, 2008
While at the Hollywood premiere of Hellboy II: The Golden Army, director Guillermo Del Toro spoke about his dream of making a Frankenstein project. “For the monster I would love to have Doug Jones,” he told the press. Jones, of course, has been a mainstay for the director in Mimic and the two Hellboy films.
“I think he can do a fantastic job. Ron [Perelman] looks seven feet tall in Hellboy, but he’s not. I think we could do that with Doug, but I would love to do it with him. The only vision of the Frankenstein monster I’ve ever latched onto is Bernie Wrightson’s. He’s lanky and long and it’s gorgeous in a tragic way. Doug has all of those qualities.
“I think it’s going to have to be developed very carefully over the next four years,” he guessed. “Look, I would never attempt to recreate the [James] Whale Frankenstein, but I do think there is an alternate story that could be told about the Frankenstein mythos.
“It’s more like a fairy tale, a strange, weird fairy tale.”
Posted by bob in Comics, Interviews on June 4th, 2008
Dean Koontz is literally the dean of horror fiction these days, with an armload of books that consistently hit the bestseller list. That it took this long for his works to be adapted into comics is a bit of a surprise. But, this month the Dabel Brothers released the first issue of a six-part adaptation of Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son, translated into comics form by Chuck Dixon and Brett Booth. Recently, Chuck spoke to us from his Florida home.
FM: So Chuck, you’re usually known for other genres, notably super-heroes and war. Horror and Chuck Dixon are not synonymous leading me to wonder, how’d this come about?
Chuck: I had done work previously for the Dabel Brothers, adapting Robert Jordan’s New Spring. So, they asked if I’d be interested in adapting some Dean Koontz. We settled on the Frankenstein books. And I’m not really a stranger to horror. Some of my earliest comics work was for Eclipse’s various horror anthologies as well as Seven Block with Jorge Zaffino for Epic. And I recently did an eight issue run of Nightmare on Elm Street for WildStorm and a werewolf mini for Platinum called Big Badz. So, I do the scary.
FM: How familiar were you with Dean Koontz’s work before beginning this assignment
Chuck: I read a few of his earlier novels many years ago.
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