There have been many movies based on the writings of Howard Philips Lovecraft, most of them lacking the truly eerie qualities of Lovecraft's weird tales. In fact, horror films and science fiction films with little or nothing to do with Lovecraft have often done better at representing the themes Lovecraft addresses in his writings.
Lovecraft fans have had to endure:
Die, Monster, Die -- a theatrical version of Colour Out of Space.
The Dunwich Horror -- Roger Corman AIP Production.
Reanimator -- A cult classic, and fun sure, but not exactly horrifying.
The Unnamable -- The less said the better.
From Beyond -- I wish it had stayed there.
Sure there are many more, but I have seen the films above and they have played their little games with my psyche. Surely nothing could be as Unspeakable as Unnamable
Now Lovecraft fans have Cthulhu. All I have to say is that my first glance at the trailer made me think the film might be enjoyable, but then I saw the madness bringing work of the Old Ones had indeed infected this film. For the film's cast includes Tori Spelling. If that doesn't require a Sanity Check...nothing does.
Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fhtagn!
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
The Adventures of Doctor McNinja
It has often been asked whether Pirates were cooler than Ninjas (even on Bones, but we now know that we no longer have to ask which is cooler Doctors or Ninjas. That is because we can read the Adventures of Doctor McNinja!
Who knew?
Who knew?
Ba-bada-bahhh, bup-badda-bah, whooom-whooom: Knight Rider Coming to the Big Screen
According to Movies Online the Weinstein brothers have acquired the rights to produce a big screen version of the early 80s television show Knight Rider.
While there has been a trend of late to turn 70s and 80s shows into films, the current trend has been to make them into spoofs of the original shows. While I enjoyed Starsky and Hutch by the time Dukes of Hazzard came out the spoofing had gone too far. Sure the car chase in Dukes is great, but about 1/3 the movie was unwatchable. I'll leave it to you to decide which 2/3 were watchable. I hope the trend of spoofs doesn't continue with Knight Rider or the eventual Six Million Dollar Man. I know the ideas behind the film are "high concept." Knight Rider was like the Fugitive meets Magnum PI, but with a talking car, and the Bionic Man was superspy with bionic limbs. I know that the shows seem silly by modern standards of production. I know all that.
None of that means that the movies can't be played "straight" or that they may even be better for it.
While there has been a trend of late to turn 70s and 80s shows into films, the current trend has been to make them into spoofs of the original shows. While I enjoyed Starsky and Hutch by the time Dukes of Hazzard came out the spoofing had gone too far. Sure the car chase in Dukes is great, but about 1/3 the movie was unwatchable. I'll leave it to you to decide which 2/3 were watchable. I hope the trend of spoofs doesn't continue with Knight Rider or the eventual Six Million Dollar Man. I know the ideas behind the film are "high concept." Knight Rider was like the Fugitive meets Magnum PI, but with a talking car, and the Bionic Man was superspy with bionic limbs. I know that the shows seem silly by modern standards of production. I know all that.
None of that means that the movies can't be played "straight" or that they may even be better for it.
Trying to Figure Out What to Write Today
While I am waiting for some muse to beam thoughts into my head...I believe I have discovered David Chute's favorite game. David C., as you might recall, hinted that he may not actually have a favorite game. Hogwash!
David C.'s favorite game is Scene It!: The Shaw Brothers Edition. His favorite "game" within the game is when you have to unscramble PinYin sayings and translate them into ideomatic English. He does have the caveat that you must buy the subtitled and not dubbed version of the game. Five Deadly Venoms with wierd New Zealand accents is a little goofy, but when seen in Cantonese/Mandarin audiences can pay attention to the story.
David C.'s favorite game is Scene It!: The Shaw Brothers Edition. His favorite "game" within the game is when you have to unscramble PinYin sayings and translate them into ideomatic English. He does have the caveat that you must buy the subtitled and not dubbed version of the game. Five Deadly Venoms with wierd New Zealand accents is a little goofy, but when seen in Cantonese/Mandarin audiences can pay attention to the story.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Warner Bros. to P2P Users: Viva la Revolucion!
According to DISContent and the Wall Street Journal, Warner has announced that it will sell and rent television shows and movies using BitTorrent technology.
To see how Warner looks at the situation, let's have them speak for themselves. According to the WSJ:
To see how Warner looks at the situation, let's have them speak for themselves. According to the WSJ:
"We've always known peer-to-peer technology represents a huge opportunity for us," said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros.' home entertainment group. "If we can convert 5%, 10%, 15% of those [illegal peer-to-peer] users to become legitimate users of our product, it can have a significant impact on our industry and Warner Bros."
Prices haven't yet been determined, but they could be less than physical DVDs. "We're working with a user base that is accustomed to not paying for content," said Ashwin Navin, president and co-founder of BitTorrent, who says TV shows might sell for as little as $1.
World of $$$? -- Legendary Pictures to Make World of Warcraft Film
According to Variety Magazine, the Warner affiliated production company Legendary Pictures has purchased the rights to produce a film based on the popular World of Warcraft massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG).
Legendary Pictures is the production company responsible for last Summer's Batman Begins and this Summer's Superman Returns.
No word whether the film will be live action or animated, but one thing is certain...with over 6 million subscribers worldwide paying $14.99 a month, the expected take both in b.o. and dvd sales is extraordinary.
The film will also provide ample opportunity for crossover merchandizing. WoW has already garnered a boardgame and collectible card game and one can only imagine that "when" (not if) special items are offered "in game" to players who see the movie opening weekend the opening weekend will be huge. Combine this with "bonus features" on the DVD and the money will be pouring in. Given the average lifespan of an MMORPG, even one as good as WoW, the timing on the film is perfect.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Why I Love Savage Worlds
Everybody has a favorite game. For some it is Scrabble, others Risk, for Curt Schilling it is Advanced Squad Leader (he loved the game so much he bought the publishing rights). As a person who love games, period, I don't judge whether your favorite game is "mainstream" or "avant-garde." All I care about is whether or not you are willing to hang out, chat, and play a game of (insert game here) some time. That's not true of a lot of gamers, particularly roleplaying gamers.
It is bad enough in the game-playing industry (I was going to say gaming, but since I worked in a casino once the term has specific meaning for me), on the consumer side, we have armed camps around game types. All rpg-ers know that larpers are freaky goths with no life. All ccgers know that rpgers are 300lb. bearded freaks who live in their parent's basement. All miniature gamers know that ccgers are fad of the moment players with no sense of commitment of duty to the "hobby." The list could go on forever, but needless to say the games hobby has its many niches and few are the players who overlap in more than one area. As for me, I have played some in all the areas, but I have my preferences and prefer straight improv theater to larping. Though I do have friends who larp like crazy.
Anyway, one of my favorite gaming milieu is that of the roleplaying game. Like game-playing in general, there are often armed camps in the roleplaying "sector." But I will save a discussion of where the armed camps are aligned for another time, for the present let me merely state that like games in general, when it come to role playing games I have played/read/owned my share. Also, as above, I am a crossover player. There are few game systems I think aren't worth the time of day, though Alma Mater probably makes the list, I like and own a lot of RPGs. The one I play most often is Dungeons and Dragons, for those who lived through the 80s it is the "Devil's Game." Just ask Tipper Gore. But the one that inspires me most and, in my opinion, represents the best of the hobby with regard to enthusiasm and sheer focus on fun is Savage Worlds.
Savage Worlds is roleplaying which attempts to be "Fast, Furious, and Fun!" It also attempts to be a simple to learn, simple to play game which can cover any genre. Not a small task, but one that I think the game does admirably. The game is the brainchild of Shane Lacy Hensley, but it is really the culmination of an interesting developmental journey.
The following are my observations and not the official story.
In the early 90s roleplaying had a quick surge in sales, not as big as the early 80s but substantial. The surge was primarily due to the emergence of some new games which captured the roleplayer/and new player's imagination. I call this era the Shadowrun/Vampire revolution because these two games brought so many new gamers to the hobby that they are almost as important event in gaming as the creation of D&D. Vampire brought in more gamers, but Shadowrun shouldn't be left out of the equation because it did something wonderful it was one of the first successful Hybrid RPGs. Shadowrun combined Fantasy and Cyberpunk, not enough Punk for Chris Pramas (but what exactly punk is would be a wonderful discussion to have with Chris) but Cyberpunk none-the-less. It had a world of elves, dragons, hackers, and machine guns. Vampire, in addition to having great artwork and a subject that Goths adore, contained advice for a gaming style which focused on narrative rather than event based stories. It wasn't the first game to do this, but along with the West End Games Star Wars it was one of the best.
So the early 90s saw a revolution containing both hybrid games and games that focused on narrative interaction. The best, in my opinion, of the games to merge these two new-ish gaming ideas was Deadlands. Deadlands combined horror and the Old West with an innovative game system designed by Greg Gorden (who also designed the flexible DC Heroes System) which captured the genre perfectly. Imagine playing an Old West rpg with dice, playing cards, and poker chips, that's how well it captured the genre. Deadlands had "Dime Novels" which contained serialized adventures with a short story and then an adventure along the lines of the story. The game was furious and fun, but it wasn't very fast. Gameplay could bog down from time to time. But the system was extremely flexible, Matt Forbeck adapted it for Brave New World a Dark Future Dystopian Superhero RPG (roleplaying in a Fascist America), showing that the game system was flexible. It could also be made faster, which Hensley and crew accomplished with the Great Rail Wars Miniatures game, a miniature skirmish game based on Deadlands. If it was Brave New World that showed that the Deadlands system was multi-genre capable, it was Great Rail Wars which streamlined the Deadlands system to be fast.
By 2000, sales in RPGs had dropped down to extremely low levels. The biggest rpg company had almost ceased to exist, was saved by a collectible card game company, and was finally purchased by Hasbro (who make consistent, but not awe-inspiring money from D&D). But that changed when the Third Edition of D&D was released in the Fall of 2000. Sales jumped, but the large boost to the industry was temporary. By 2002, players were already grumbling about the impending release of Edition 3.5 and how Habro was ruining the industry and how there were too many d20 products by non-Hasbro companies that were awful. It was around this point that Hensley noticed another new niche to be developed, Gamers with little time. Those of us who had been able to play all-nighters in college were married, had jobs, and often children. They couldn't play in crazy weeklong sessions. They needed a quick and easy game, with guaranteed quality production values. So he released Savage Worlds a quick and easy system which has a fast a loose style that lends itself to a casual style of gameplay. It is also a game which has the kind of excitement, on the part of the creators, that so many games are lacking today. Oh, and the prices are pretty cheap compared to the marketplace. Shane and crew wanted to minimize the "necessary" purchase to one book and possibly one setting book to play. Combine this with their company's support of the pdf revolution and you have an inspiring company.
I love Savage Worlds because it loves the hobby. I also love Savage Worlds because its settings are still wonderful examples of genre hybrid, but that will be the focus of tommorrow's post.
It is bad enough in the game-playing industry (I was going to say gaming, but since I worked in a casino once the term has specific meaning for me), on the consumer side, we have armed camps around game types. All rpg-ers know that larpers are freaky goths with no life. All ccgers know that rpgers are 300lb. bearded freaks who live in their parent's basement. All miniature gamers know that ccgers are fad of the moment players with no sense of commitment of duty to the "hobby." The list could go on forever, but needless to say the games hobby has its many niches and few are the players who overlap in more than one area. As for me, I have played some in all the areas, but I have my preferences and prefer straight improv theater to larping. Though I do have friends who larp like crazy.
Anyway, one of my favorite gaming milieu is that of the roleplaying game. Like game-playing in general, there are often armed camps in the roleplaying "sector." But I will save a discussion of where the armed camps are aligned for another time, for the present let me merely state that like games in general, when it come to role playing games I have played/read/owned my share. Also, as above, I am a crossover player. There are few game systems I think aren't worth the time of day, though Alma Mater probably makes the list, I like and own a lot of RPGs. The one I play most often is Dungeons and Dragons, for those who lived through the 80s it is the "Devil's Game." Just ask Tipper Gore. But the one that inspires me most and, in my opinion, represents the best of the hobby with regard to enthusiasm and sheer focus on fun is Savage Worlds.
Savage Worlds is roleplaying which attempts to be "Fast, Furious, and Fun!" It also attempts to be a simple to learn, simple to play game which can cover any genre. Not a small task, but one that I think the game does admirably. The game is the brainchild of Shane Lacy Hensley, but it is really the culmination of an interesting developmental journey.
The following are my observations and not the official story.
In the early 90s roleplaying had a quick surge in sales, not as big as the early 80s but substantial. The surge was primarily due to the emergence of some new games which captured the roleplayer/and new player's imagination. I call this era the Shadowrun/Vampire revolution because these two games brought so many new gamers to the hobby that they are almost as important event in gaming as the creation of D&D. Vampire brought in more gamers, but Shadowrun shouldn't be left out of the equation because it did something wonderful it was one of the first successful Hybrid RPGs. Shadowrun combined Fantasy and Cyberpunk, not enough Punk for Chris Pramas (but what exactly punk is would be a wonderful discussion to have with Chris) but Cyberpunk none-the-less. It had a world of elves, dragons, hackers, and machine guns. Vampire, in addition to having great artwork and a subject that Goths adore, contained advice for a gaming style which focused on narrative rather than event based stories. It wasn't the first game to do this, but along with the West End Games Star Wars it was one of the best.
So the early 90s saw a revolution containing both hybrid games and games that focused on narrative interaction. The best, in my opinion, of the games to merge these two new-ish gaming ideas was Deadlands. Deadlands combined horror and the Old West with an innovative game system designed by Greg Gorden (who also designed the flexible DC Heroes System) which captured the genre perfectly. Imagine playing an Old West rpg with dice, playing cards, and poker chips, that's how well it captured the genre. Deadlands had "Dime Novels" which contained serialized adventures with a short story and then an adventure along the lines of the story. The game was furious and fun, but it wasn't very fast. Gameplay could bog down from time to time. But the system was extremely flexible, Matt Forbeck adapted it for Brave New World a Dark Future Dystopian Superhero RPG (roleplaying in a Fascist America), showing that the game system was flexible. It could also be made faster, which Hensley and crew accomplished with the Great Rail Wars Miniatures game, a miniature skirmish game based on Deadlands. If it was Brave New World that showed that the Deadlands system was multi-genre capable, it was Great Rail Wars which streamlined the Deadlands system to be fast.
By 2000, sales in RPGs had dropped down to extremely low levels. The biggest rpg company had almost ceased to exist, was saved by a collectible card game company, and was finally purchased by Hasbro (who make consistent, but not awe-inspiring money from D&D). But that changed when the Third Edition of D&D was released in the Fall of 2000. Sales jumped, but the large boost to the industry was temporary. By 2002, players were already grumbling about the impending release of Edition 3.5 and how Habro was ruining the industry and how there were too many d20 products by non-Hasbro companies that were awful. It was around this point that Hensley noticed another new niche to be developed, Gamers with little time. Those of us who had been able to play all-nighters in college were married, had jobs, and often children. They couldn't play in crazy weeklong sessions. They needed a quick and easy game, with guaranteed quality production values. So he released Savage Worlds a quick and easy system which has a fast a loose style that lends itself to a casual style of gameplay. It is also a game which has the kind of excitement, on the part of the creators, that so many games are lacking today. Oh, and the prices are pretty cheap compared to the marketplace. Shane and crew wanted to minimize the "necessary" purchase to one book and possibly one setting book to play. Combine this with their company's support of the pdf revolution and you have an inspiring company.
I love Savage Worlds because it loves the hobby. I also love Savage Worlds because its settings are still wonderful examples of genre hybrid, but that will be the focus of tommorrow's post.
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