Early Christmas Present!!!

I am in geek heaven. Just announced yesterday (Dec 18), Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have settled their differences, and are going ahead with… THE HOBBIT!!!! HAZZAH!!!! I am so looking forward to this film, and with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh serving as Executive Producers, it will be as high a quality of film as The Lord of the Rings was. This will be an epic prequel to one of the best Trilogies ever put to celluloid.

WOW!!! I just can’t believe how excited I am to see this picture. We’ll get to see Bilbo, Elrond, lots of Dwarves, Gandalf (let’s hope that Ian comes back, which I’m sure he will… he said he would love to play Gandalf again), Gollum, and of course Smaug: A BIG FREAKING DRAGON!

Here’s some details stolen from Dark Horizons (where I go to get my movie info):

* MGM and New Line will co-finance and co-distribute two films, "The Hobbit" and a sequel to "The Hobbit." New Line will distribute in North America and MGM will distribute internationally.

* Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will serve as Executive Producers of two films based on "The Hobbit." New Line will manage the production of the films, which will be shot simultaneously.

The two "Hobbit" films - "The Hobbit" and its sequel - are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, with pre-production beginning as soon as possible. Principal photography is tentatively set for a 2009 start, with the intention of "The Hobbit" release slated for 2010 and its sequel the following year, in 2011.

I’m not sure what a sequel to the Hobbit would entail, unless they are breaking up the book over two movies. Perhaps it’s the goings on of all the characters between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, which would make for a good story as well. Get Viggo back to hunt down Gollum. Ooh… shivers. Let's also hope that Jackson jumps on board to Direct as well.

We now have a new date to look forward too. Christmas 2010! Three years of waiting has started!

WOOT!!!!!

More Movie News

A poster, a poster! The official Indiana Jones site has posted the poster for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Though I think the name of the movie is a mouthful, the poster definately looks like there is a skull present. Perhaps it's even crystal.

Batman and Indy... what a great summer this is going to be! GLEEE!

Instructions on How to Use a Hankie... and how to cross a street.

These were lifted from the National Archives in Jolly Olde Englande. I must say that I laughed out loud at the guy getting nudged into the pond... I'm lauging about it as I type this. Good show, old chap! I also love how when the guy does sneeze it appears that no one around him has ever heard a sneeze in their lives and felt the poor chap was infact shooting a puppy with a large caliber hand gun.

Anyway. Go here to find out how to use a hankie... and also some clever ideas on how to be a jerk.

Go here to learn how to cross the street in England without getting run down. You can watch the unfortunate actor GET run down, in an attempt to show how NOT to cross the street.

I love old PSA's.

Lego: The Force Unleashed and The Clone Wars

Well, a few new ships and a walker are being released into stores already. These are on the 2008 slate, and one of them is a “need to get” as it is clearly an Imperial ship, though it is not from the movies. This one is from the upcoming game “The Force Unleashed” and is called the Rogue Shadow. It looks like a pretty funky ship, but the crazy thing about it is, it comes with a Battle Damaged Darth Vader. And by the looks of things, he gets pretty battle damaged. I am very much looking forward to this game, and fortunately it is coming out on the Wii platform. Will the Wiimote handle like a proper lightsaber, or will it fall short like Red Steel? Wii will see.


The next set is a walker. This one is called an AT-AP which stands for All Terrain Attack Pod, which was shown somewhere in Episode 3 on Felucia. It comes with a retractable 3rd leg which will stablize it when firing the main cannon. This one is another "Need to get" as I have all the other walkers that Lego has made.




The next set is from the upcoming cartoon series “The Clone Wars” which looks great. This set falls into my “wouldn’t mind having” list. It’s Anakin’s Jedi Starfighter, which is an altogether different model from Episode 2 and Episode 3 (and may even be different from the Clone Wars shorts that came out before Episode 3). It looks… interesting. What I really like about this set though is the hair that Anakin is sporting. That’s quite the mold that Lego has made. He also has very different eyes then other minifig heads have had, and think this is because it's based on a cartoon.

Sorry that all the links go to amazon.de but they aren't up at amazon.com yet.

Movie News

Three little tidbits of movie news have come up.

The first: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian has released the trailer, and it looks really good. You can find it here.

GIJOE has some casting news. GIJOE, of course is based off of G I Joe, but as the rest of the world doesn’t really like the US right now, they have to change it. So now GIJOE stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, which is based out of Brussels… lame. Anyway, Snake Eyes has been cast, and it is Ray Park, whose movie credits include The Headless Horseman (Sleepy Hollow), Toad (X-men), and of course, the way cool Darth Maul (whose life and body were cut short). I may actually have to see this movie now.


Finally, Warner Bros. has released a teaser poster for the much anticipated “The Dark Knight” which is the next Batman movie coming up this summer. Chris Nolan did not disappoint with Batman Begins, and so hopefully he can top that movie with “The Dark Knight”. Having the Joker as the main villain should make it easier to top Scarecrow and Ra’s al Ghul (The Demon’s Head).

Asteroids do not concern me, Admiral. I want that ship… not excuses.

Coming in at nearly 5200 pieces, this is the Madre con Lego. Being a self proclaimed Dark Lord of the Sith, I have stated that I will only collect Imperial (and possibly Republic) Star Ships and Fighters that come out of the Lego Group. However, even a Dark Lord knows a nice looking ship when he sees one, and this would be one good spoil of war. The only thing that stops me from purchasing this today is the ghastly price tag of $679.99 CAD. This really irritates me, as Lego sells this model in the states for $499.99 USD. Have they not heard that the Canadian Dollar is bouncing around par with the US Dollar? I *could* have it shipped to my sister in Seattle, but The Eradicator weighed an impressive 10 kilograms (22 lbs) and it was only 3100 pieces, and I wouldn’t want to drop this package in her lap to somehow get it to Edmonton. What makes this model even cooler is that it is scaled to fit the minifigs, so you can fit Han, Chewie, Luke, and Old Ben in the cockpit to make the experience complete. I guess Leia would be outside giving it a push to help it off the ground.

Just like Darth Vader, this starship will continue to slip through my grasp as I watch it inexplicable continue to make the jump to hyperspace… which makes me sad.

Me Wantee!

Nintendo DS Gold Edition. This just looks faboo! I am now taking donations so I can afford it!

Snakes... why'd it have to be snakes?

As much as I really didn’t like the design of the Star Wars Galactic Heroes when they first arrived on the scene, I really like them now. I watch my kids play with them, and their design, though looking a little odd, works great. They are the same scale as the Fisher Price Imaginext Adventure Castle and so my son can have Darth Vader go through the castle and decimate the knights that are there. Now I am more excited because Hasbro will be releasing an Indiana Jones Adventure Heroes set. These will go great with the castle, because LOOK!!! It comes with an Arc of the Covenant! And as Fisher Price is no longer making Knights for that Imaginext line, Indy will be able to go into ancient English structures and steal tomb raid acquire relics for the museum. How fun will that be… for my son.

Hello World

Being my first blog on this page, I have to start with the obligatory "Hello World". Well... Hello World!

This Picture is stolen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and is taken with a HD camera onboard Japan's Lunar Orbiting Satalite, "KAGUYA".