Over on FictionMachine...

This is just a reminder that The Angriest is not my only blog. Over on FictionMachine I engage in longer-form critical writing about films, researching the origin and production of interesting movies and trying to work out what makes them tick. Since June this year I've added more than 27,000 words of critical writing on seven different films.

My most recent piece is on Michael Clayton (2007), Dan Gilroy's exceptional legal drama starring George Clooney and Tilda Swinton. You can head to that particular piece by following this link. Other recent pieces focus on Dominion: The Prequel to the Exorcist (2005, link here), Unbreakable (2000, link here) and Danny Boyle's Sunshine (2007, link here). If you're keen to read some free filmmaking stories and criticism, head on over and check it out.

FictionMachine is also the subject of an ongoing Patreon campaign. Patreon is a crowd-funding website that allows you to pledge regular micro-payments to artistic pursuits, so for as little as one dollar a month via Paypal you can support the writing of the FictionMachine essays into the future. Check it out and pledge a buck if you want to see me continue blogging. The Angriest will continue in its present form alongside FictionMachine regardless.

Daily Links: 30 May 2014

• Director talks Jurassic Park sequel. Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow talks to Slashfilm about his forthcoming sequel, including its basic premise and the thinking that got him there. This interview does spoil the basic ideas behind the new film, but it also gave me a lot more reassurance that it might be pretty awesome. (link)
• Penny Dreadful. I haven't seen anything from the new TV series Penny Dreadful, but British critic Mark Lawson has, and he writes interestingly about it at the New Statesman. (link)
• Best Musicals. Buzzfeed runs through the 43 best Broadway musicals that have premiered since 2000. I'm not familiar with half of these, and now want to see quite a few of them one day. (link)
• Evil Gummies. This is kind of gross, but just made me laugh. (link)
• Sting by Leibovitz. Great photo of Sting by the faultless photographer Annie Leibovitz. It's attached to an article about the forthcoming musical The Last Ship, but the interview is behind a paywall. So really this link is purely for the nice photo. (link)

Daily Links: 21 May 2014

• Kung-fu Colin Firth. I am intrigued by Matthew Vaughn's next picture, Kingsman: The Secret Service, which adapts the Mark Millar comic book (much like Vaughn already did with Kick Ass) and re-casts Colin Firth as a martial artist super-spy. Colin Firth is interviewed about the film over at Entertainment Weekly. (link)
• Ninjago movie. Not only is The Lego Movie getting a sequel, it's also sort of getting a spin-off: Warner Bros have announced a movie devoted to the martial arts-themed Lego line Ninjago for September 2016. Charlie Bean makes his directorial debut with the film. (link)
• Pokemon Red figure. I link to cool action figures when I see them, and I really like this upcoming Nenderoid toy based on Pokemon Red. Nintendo fans take note. (link)
• Muscular Matt Smith. Lost River, Ryan Gosling's directorial debut that features Doctor Who's Matt Smith as the villain, gets reviewed over at Twitchfilm. Who fans take note. (link)

Daily Links: 20 May 2014

• Godzilla 2 in the works. Based on a $93m opening weekend in the USA and more than $100m internationally, it's little surprise that Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures have started work on a second Godzilla movie. (link)
• DC Comics massacre. There's a bit of a title cull going on at DC Comics, with All-Star Western, Batwing, Birds of Prey, Superboy, Phantom Stranger and Pandora all getting cancelled as of August. (link)
• Original Star Wars blu-rays? It's hard to decide how believable I think it is, but a rumour is doing the rounds online that Walt Disney Pictures are planning a DVD and blu-ray release of the original and unaltered Star Wars trilogy. Of course asking "which original version of A New Hope" is opening a can of nerdy worms, but as far as rumours go it's a likeable one. (link)

Daily Links: 16 May 2014

By "Daily Links", I don't mean this will be a daily post. Some days I simply won't have the time. These are, however, interesting links that I found today.

• Mortensen laments Jackson's career. Viggo Mortensen says some pretty smart things about Peter Jackson's career post-Fellowship of the Ring, including the director's over-reliance on CGI. (link)
• Rachel Talalay joins Doctor Who. I am very excited to see that Rachel Talalay, producer of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and director of Tank Girl, will be directing an episode of Doctor Who this year. She's the first female director since 2010. (link)
• Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella gets teaser. Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella forms part of Disney's growing range of live-action remakes of their animated back catalogue. The teaser (and it really is just a teaser, no actual footage) has been released. The film is out in 2015; I'm looking forward to Cate Blanchett's wicked stepmother. (link)

Daily Links: 14 May 2014

I read a lot of geek-related news on the Internet each day, and so I figured it was probably about time to start throwing together links to the most interesting things I see each day. I used to do this occasionally as "Odds'n'Sods", but just flat-out calling it "Daily Links" makes it a lot clearer what these posts will be about.

• Snyder debuts new Batman. Director Zack Snyder has posted the first official photograph of Ben Affleck as Batman, along with his Batmobile, from the forthcoming Batman vs Superman movie. The cowl is visibly inspired by Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, which matches the older, more grizzled Batman that Snyder has been hinting at for some time. (link)

Odds'n'Sods: 2 May 2014

Welcome to your Friday night geek/nerd link frenzy.

• Japan's S.H. Figuarts are giving the market very advanced notice of a new Kikaider figure coming out in 2015. I don't actually have a clue who Kikaider is, but the figure looks very funky. On aesthetics alone it might be worth purchasing. (link)
• An interesting piece by Comics Alliance's Rachel Edidin about how Game of Thrones adaptations - both the TV series and the comic book - are using rape as a narrative tool when they very probably shouldn't be. (link)
• Don Hertzfeldt - who's one of my absolute favourite animation directors in the whole world - now has a graphic novel out. It looks odd, and fab. Probably also oddly fab. (link)
• Two new script writers for Doctor Who were announced this week. While I'm happy for them, and it sounds like they're great people for the job, I do wish the BBC would occasionally hire some women to write for the series. (link)
• Ever wonder what the script looks like for an episode of WWE Raw? Now you can find out by following this link. (link)

Odds'n'Sods: 20 September 2013

• British comic and author David Baddiel writes a very nice piece on Tottenham Hotspur, football fans, Prime Minister David Cameron and whether or not the term 'yid' is offensive (hint: it is). (link)
• Over at Comics Alliance Andrew Wheeler writes a neat summation of just how far down the rabbit hole DC Comics' idiocy has gone in recent years. (link)
• Amazing re-imaginings of popular videogames as Little Golden Books: first trio here, second trio here.
• Today is the 12th anniversary of George W. Bush's "war on terror". (link)
• It's also the 826th anniversary of the Siege of Jerusalem. (link)

Odds'n'Sods: 13 September 2013

• This specially-themed set of wedding photographs were doing the runs of the Internet at the beginning of the week. I love them. (link)
• Fumetti is a style of photograph-based comic book popularised in Italy, but which never really caught on in the English-speaking world. Maybe that will change with John Byrne's upcoming Star Trek graphic novel, which tells an entirely new episode using images from pre-existing footage. (link) Is it bad I want to do something like this with Doctor Who?
• J.K. Rowling has signed to write the screenplay to a new Harry Potter spin-off film. I love the idea - it's a wonderful fictional world, and I look forward to seeing it from a different angle. (link)
• Finally, I found this Variety article really interesting: it's on how Ubisoft have hired production company Starlight Runner to develop a franchise book for Splinter Cell. Basically the company has pored over the details of every Splinter Cell game to put all of the in-universe information together and determine the best way to form that information into a hit film. This is the soundest approach for a videogame adaptation I've ever heard, and good luck to them. (link)

Odds'n'Sods: 6 September 2013

• This link has been doing the rounds all week, but it's worth re-posting: I am massively impressed with this home-made range of Masters of the Universe Lego. (link)
• Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik draws a regularly laugh-out-loud webcomic and his company donates huge amounts of money to charity. If only he'd also stop being so damned offensive. The neverending 'dickwolves' controversy got coverage on The New Statesmen (link) while Elizabeth Sampat urges gamers to "quit fucking going to PAX already" (link). Sampat's article begins with a handy series of links to help you understand exactly what this whole shemozzle is all about.
• I am very glad to see that, after completing their excellent series of hardcover collections of the Carl Barks Disney comic books, Fantagraphics are pushing ahead with a Don Rosa range as well. Fantagraphics treat comic creators exceptionally well; I'm hoping to find out if Rosa will be receiving royalties for the first time with these books. (link)
• J.H Williams III and W. Haden Blackman are departing their DC comic book Batwoman after issue #26, citing editorial interference and a refusal by DC management to allow them to depict the marriage of the book's two lead characters (who are both women). This saddens me, not just because of DC refusing to depict a strong lesbian relationship or editorial interference, but also simply because Batwoman has been one of their best titles in recent years. (link)
• This one's been knocking around in my links drawer for a month, and I honestly can't remember if I posted it before or not: Dark Horse are publishing an Ewoks graphic novel by Zack Giallongo that ties together elements of Return of the Jedi, Caravan of Courage and the Star Wars: Ewoks cartoon. It's out in October, and I'm already excited. What? Shut up. (link) Leave me alone.

Odds'n'Sods: Three Links

• A market analysis does some calculations for Deadline and discovers that in all likelihood Waterworld made a small profit for Universal Pictures, and would have been even more profitable if made today. As someone quite sick of this fun adventure flick being used as a punching bag for every lazy pundit wanting to talk about Hollywood flops, this pleases me. (link)
• Super Best Friends Forever had the potential to be a massive commercial hit for DC Comics and Warner Bros, so long as they leveraged it properly. Instead they've cocked it up. (link)
• Mapcrunch is one of my favourite websites: click the button and it transports you to a random Google street view from one of 47 different countries. (link)

Odds'n'Sods: Nine things unrelated to the new Doctor Who

The Internerds are aflame with news that the BBC will reveal the actor playing the next Doctor in Doctor Who this Sunday. In the interests of balance, here are nine other geek/nerd news stories doing the traps at the moment.

• Avatar. I actually quite enjoyed Avatar in a mindless eye candy sort of way, although I agree with many critics of the film that it has some pretty serious issues in regards to how to treats the disabled. All that said, I've never really felt the need to watch a sequel. James Cameron doesn't agree, and he's now going to shoot three sequels in one mega-shoot, for release in 2016, 2017 and 2018. (link)
• Continuum. I haven't a single episode yet, but have many friends who recommend the Canadian science fiction TV drama Continuum. They'll be happy to hear that it's received an order for a third season. (link)
• 24. May Lynn Rajskub, aka Chloe, aka the best one, is rejoining the cast of 24 for its 12-episode ninth season, coming out on Fox next year. This pleases me. Did I mention that she's the best one? (link)
• Pacific Rim. Pacific Rim has opened strongly in China, making it a lot more likely that Warner Bros will greenlight a sequel after all. (link)
• The Cuckoo's Calling. Did you know that J.K. Rowling is donating 100% of her royalties for her pseudonymous crime novel to charity? (link)
• Don't Go Breaking My Heart. Hong Kong's best director Johnnie To has commenced shooting a sequel to his rather excellent romantic comedy Don't Go Breaking My Heart. The film is scheduled for release in Hong Kong and China in mid-2014. (link)
• X-Men: Days of Future Past. Bryan Singer has tweeted a photo of the Sentinel prop from his upcoming X-Men movie. It's rather large and appropriately purple. (link)
• Wander Over Yonder. Craig McCracken (Powerpuff Girls) has a new cartoon starting on the Disney Channel, Wander Over Yonder. Its opening titles are pretty much the happiest thing you'll see today. (link)
• Haunter. Director Vincenzo Natali (Cube, Splice) has a horror movie coming out, a trailer for which has been released onto the Internet. (link)

Odds'n'Sods: 6 May 2013

Monday afternoon links for you: some of these are a bit old, but they've been knocking around for a while waiting for me to put them up.

• The BBC has released details and publicity stills for The Musketeers, based on the Alexandre Dumas novels. This 13 episode adventure series airs some time in 2014, as does Atlantis, the BBC's replacement for Merlin. (link)
• Wired has a fantastic timeline of DC Vertigo, running from its foundation in 1993 right up to Fairest and Saucer Country in 2013. (link)
• Threadless are selling some awesome Iron Man tie-in t-shirts. They're geeky, and also artfully created. (link)
• Whereas this t-shirt over at We Love Fine is my favourite for the month, mainly because the Misfits' songs were better. (link)

Odds'n'Sods: 15 February 2013

Some random links to finish up the working week:

• Want to get kidnapped and locked in a dark room for kicks? There's a Hong Kong game running that may be for you. (link)
• A fabulous alternative history of Doctor Who were the part was played by women. Further proof that a female Doctor would not break the series, and is actually overdue. (link)
• The Hour, a fantastic BBC drama about making news in the 1950s, has been axed after two seasons - if only they handed ended Season 2 on a cliffhanger... (link)
• Now that "Death of the Family" has wrapped, Scott Snyder speaks to Newsarama about what's next for Batman. (link)
• And finally, sticking with "Death of the Family", these animated gifs made out of Batman covers are about the creepiest, most icky thing I've seen this week. Follow the link with caution. (link)
  

Odds'n'Sods, 4 January 2013

• There's a promising new Doctor Who podcast out, titled Verity and named after the series' original producer. The podcast features six brilliantly opinionated Doctor Who fans: Deborah Stanish, Erika Ensign, Katrina Griffiths, L.M. Myles, Lynne M. Thomas and Australia's own overachiever Tansy Rayner Roberts. Episode 1 involves a lengthy discussion of the recent Christmas special "The Snowmen". I was particularly impressed at how orderly and relaxed the podcast was despite five out of the six members being involved. I find a podcast hard to record if there's more than two people involved - and even then I keep accidentally interrupting.
• Ian Mond (who appears on two lovely podcasts of his own - Shooting the Poo and The Writer and the Critic) says very lovely things about me and this blog over on his blog.
• Deadline is running a great series of short interviews with potential Oscar nominees at the moment. Recent interviewees have included director Ava DuVernay, Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann, Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Jackman, producer Walter Parkes and a refreshingly blunt and candid Samuel L. Jackson (who openly declares that he should have won the 1994 Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Pulp Fiction over Martin Landau in Ed Wood).

Odds'n'Sods

A few interesting web links for your weekend:

• It's the 49th anniversary of Doctor Who, and the BBC's celebrated by giving him a new Director General. (link)
• Speaking of Doctor Who, Tansy Rayner Roberts is counting down to the 50th anniversary with a series of great posts like this one: (link)
• Deadline have a short interview with Bill Murray about playing F.D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park on the Hudson, and not winning Oscars. (link)
• Patton Oswalt talks through his film performances - this one is a must-read for his section on Blade III, which is almost on a par with Richard E. Grant's memoirs on making Hudson Hawk. (link)
• Kyrax2, the famous Batgirl of Comicon, writes about Stephanie Brown and DC Comics - it's weird how the only people I see criticising this for being a silly, frivolous issue are men. (link)

Popular Posts: September 2012

I really should write more reviews of Clint Eastwood westerns, since for the third month in a row that review of Pale Rider was the most read post on this blog. Here are the five most-read articles of the month:

1. Pale Rider (1985) (link)
2. On Wonder Woman's costume (link)
3. Secret of Mana (1993) (link)
4. House Calls #1: "Asylum of the Daleks" (link)
5. Sleeping Dogs (2012) (link)

And here are the five most popular posts that were written in September.

1. House Calls #1: "Asylum of the Daleks" (link)
2. Sleeping Dogs (2012) (link)
3. House Calls #2: "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" (link)
4. Judging the New 52 #16: A look at some trades (link)
5. Babble on #25: Season 1 in review (link)

Popular Posts: August 2012

So what were the most popular posts on this blog for the month of August? They're linked below - for some reason that Pale Rider review is insanely popular.

• Pale Rider (link)
• Secret of Mana (link)
• Judging the New 52 #12: Batgirl (link)
• On Wonder Woman's Costume (link)
• The Pull List: 1 August 2012 (link)

As for posts actually published in August, the five most popular were:

• Judging the New 52 #12: Batgirl (link)
• The Pull List: 1 August 2012 (link)
• The Dungeon Masters (link)
• Random Comic: Mister Miracle #3 (link)
• The Pull List: 15 August 2012 (link)

Popular Posts: July 2012

What were the most popular blog posts on The Angriest in July 2012? They're all linked below!

1. Pale Rider review. (link)
2. On Wonder Woman's costume. (link)
3. Secret of Mana review (link)
4. Whither Batman? The Future of the Dark Knight on screen (link)
5. Comic Shop Book Club #1: Captain Marvel (link)

Three links.

• Award-winning horror author and podcaster Kirstyn McDermott writes a lengthy but exceptional review of Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon's Cabin in the Woods. This is the sort of blog post Australian SF fans should remember come Ditmar time next year. (Note: it completely spoils the movie.)
• Similarly award-winning author and podcaster Tansy Rayner Roberts is writing about her favourite female superheroes. Black Canary and Rogue are already up, with (I presume) many more to come.