“Kenneth Branagh? A comic-book superhero movie? Are things really that tough? And not even an A-list Marvel hero—but Thor?”: Paid professional, film critic, author and apparent grown-up man Marshall Fine is shocked, shocked, shocked that talented directors and actors might make Hollywood superhero movies or voice cartoon animals. Marshall Fine hasn’t seen a single movie in the last ten years.
“It‘s a physics question…If she‘s falling, say, 100 metres, how fast is she going?”: Here’s a nice Chronicle Journal feature profiling comics fan and physics teacher James Kakalio, author of The Physics of Superheroes. The “she” doing the falling is, of course, Gwen Stacy, just a few seconds before physics murders her.
“I generally think in pretty visual terms when I’m writing…And so, this felt kind of natural in that way, and, of course, easier for me because I can, instead of really struggling over those descriptions, I can just say, here, you do this, you know?”: That’s prose writer-turned-graphic novel writer Kevin Baker on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, talking about Luna Park, his collaboration with artist Danijel Zezelj (and talking specifically about one of the benefits of the medium for someone used to doing all the describing himself). You can listen to it here (or just look at the pretty pictures) or read a transcript here.
Dammit. I shouldn’t have waited so long to write about Spandex: Martin Eden sent me a copy of his book about an all-gay superhero team to review, and I put it on my “to-review” stack and just haven’t gotten there yet. Now I’m missing the press roll-out! The Sun had a short piece on Spandex here, Digital Spy has another short piece here, and I suppose I should also mention that Rich Johnston has a piece over on his website, because if I don’t he’ll just show up in the comments section and let us all know anyway. You can learn more about the book here. (My three-word review of Spandex? Pretty good stuff.)
The biggest news a Moomin/Bjork fan could ever hope to hear: “Bjork Writes New Song for Freaky Finnish Childrens Movie” (Via The Beat)
November 18th, 2009 at 7:00 am
Ahem. Link?
November 18th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Oh, I totally commented on Marshall “Who?” Fine’s post. Worth noting that while I frequent Huffington Post daily, today marked the first time I ever heard of him. What a great column he’s got there.
November 19th, 2009 at 6:02 am
I have to admit I was surprised when I heard that Branagh was attached. But that’s more about his sticking to artsy fair so often. But given the Dark Knight critical response, it isn’t as far off that path.
November 19th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Branagh’s last few “artier” films have just been distribution disasters, though - Sony only put the “Sleuth” remake in a handful of theaters, “As You Like It” appears to have gone straight to HBO and then DVD, and I don’t think his version of “The Magic Flute” has even gotten a VIDEO release in North America. “Thor” is a canny move for both Marvel and Branagh - Marvel is probably landing a great director for a very reasonable price (buying low, so to speak), while Branagh is getting a much-needed boost in visibility.
Plus, I don’t think this is far off Branagh’s usual fare at all. The man did do “Dead Again” and “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”, and his Shakespeare movies are far from stuffy art-house affairs, but highly-entertaining comedies and thrillers. “Thor” is probably the biggest budget he’s ever had, but he bridges the gap between mythology and entertainment as well as anybody.