SciFi Surplus Podcast #052
July 1, 2008
Interview: Denis Loubet - Topics: The Hobbit, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, WALL*E, Rose McGowan, Metropolis
Thank you for taking your valuable time to listen to us. This is show number 52 on the feed July 1st, 2008. There’s lots on the show today. In the news: Guillermo Del Toro is back-pedaling on the Hobbit movies, Dr. Horrible has a release date, there’s a shake-up at the box office, and Rose McGowan has a heroic new gig. We’re also going to talk to video game artist, Denis Loubet.
Casey: You can make contact with SciFi Surplus using the Temporal Temps Hotline by calling 801-938-5525. Our Skype username is “scifisurplus.” For all of this information again or send and email go to scifisurplus.com and click “talk to us.”
Casey: I’m Casey and joining me on the show today is…
John
Randy
Jeromy
The crew is on board. Let’s get our geek on!
Anti-witness News
Jeromy: Guillermo Del Toro is back-pedaling on the second Hobbit movie. The director says they aren’t necessarily going to film the two movies back to back as was previously reported.
Jeromy: Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog has a release date. The project will first be presented on the web for free and will then make its way to DVD. The movie will be presented in three acts for a limited time on the internet at D-R-Horrible-dot-com. The first act will be available for streaming on Tuesday, July 15th. The second act on Thursday, July 17th. And the final act will be available Saturday, July 19th. The latest you can catch them all, for free, will be midnight, Sunday, July 20th.
Jeromy: Disney-Pixar’s WALL-E took the number 1 spot at the box office this weekend with 62-point-5 million dollars in the U.S. Angelina Jolie’s “Wanted” took the number two spot with 51-point-1 million. The two films knocked “Get Smart” down to 3rd place.
Jeromy: Rose McGowan has been tapped by her boyfriend, Robert Rodriguez, to play the lead in an adaptation of Red Sonja. The Conan comic-book spin-off is expected to be an origin story in theaters in 2010.
Interview with Denis Loubet
Joining me now on the Temporal Temps hot-line is Denis Loubet. He’s responsible for much of the artwork associated with the Ultima series of computer games, Steve Jackson Games and the Wing Commander series. His current project is the independent game studio, Pixel Mine. Welcome to the show, Denis.
Personal Website:
http://www.io.com/~dloubet/
Pixel Mine Games:
http://pixelminegames.com
Non Prophets Podcast:
http://www.nonprophetsradio.com/
Casey: I have to give props to my homies at Dafixer’s Hideout. They mentioned SciFi Surplus in their podcast and I just wanted to return the love. The hideout is Fanboys and Fangirls from an Urban perspective. Check the show notes for a link to their feed. We really like it when people talk about us in their shows, on their blogs and when they link to us. Keep spreading the good word and thank you. You’re just 90 seconds away from our discussion about Metropolis.
Dafixer’s Hideout:
http://dafixershideout.blogspot.com/
Topic: Metropolis Discussion.
We’ve been telling you watch Metropolis, the 1927 silent film, as part of the SciFi Surplus DVD club for two weeks now and it’s time to discuss it.
Legendary Pictures has confirmed it is developing a “300″ follow-up for Warner Bros. that Frank Miller is writing and Zack Snyder is intending to direct reports Variety.
“The first trailer for Scott Derrickson’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still” remake will be attached to prints of “Hancock” hitting theaters next week…” http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/06/25/the-day-the-earth-stood-still-movie-trailer-on-hancock/
Casey: Thanks go out to John, Jeromy, and Randy. Great job everyone! If you like SciFi Surplus and you’d like to help out, please take the time to make a donation at SciFi Surplus dot com. Just find “Support SciFi Surplus” on our website. For everyone here, I’m Casey and we’ll talk to you next time!
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:30 am
As always, great podcast, guys. With regard to Metropolis, I just wanted to add that the acting style, which by today’s standards is considered way over the top, combined with the imagery and surreal, slightly out of proportion or distorted sets is a film style known as German Expressionism. Another well known German Expressionist film is the original Nosferatu, which came out in 1922 - five years before the release of Metropolis. Some of the elements of German Expressionism, in addition to the overly dramatic acting style and use of backdrops and sets which seem out of proportion or distorted, is the use of the character’s shadows in that the shadows themselves at times seem capable of manipulating physical objects - in the original Nosferatu the elongated shadow of the vampire’s fingers creep up the stairs ahead of him (check my Facebook avatar) and there is a scene where the shadow of the vampire’s hand moves across the sleeping body of the heroine, comes to rest over her breast and then as the shadow hand closes into a fist, the sleeping woman reacts as if her breast has been clutched, even though the vampire’s actual physical hand is far away from her chest. Francis Ford Copola created a sort of homage to this technique in Bram Stoker’s Dracula in that he actually had Count Dracula’s shadow moving independently of his body to portray the character’s true desire, strangling the shadow of Kianu Reeves as Jonathan Harker while in reality the physical Dracula makes polite small talk with the unsuspecting Harker. The sets depicting Frankestein Castle in the original Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, lovingly recreated for Mel Brookes’ Young Frankenstein, with the crooked, ridiculously wide stair case with no bannister, gigantic doors (with what Gene Wilder referred to has “huge knockers”) and the gigantic fire place with a mantle piece which could serve as a terrace, were all inspired by German Expressionism. The short fims made by the character Dieter in the Sprokets sketches for SNL were all parodies of German Expressionism. Tim Burton’s live action and animated films all show heavy influence of German Expressionism in his set as well as in his story lines in that the heroes of German Expressionist films are all flawed, not necessarily nice or particularly good people. In Nosferatu, Frankenstein and almost all of Time Burton’s films, the most sympathetic “heroes” of the stories are quite literally monsters who in the end display greater humanity and vulnerability than the traditionally “normal” characters around them.
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:57 am
If you are taking suggestions for other movies, I would like to put in my vote for the original 1922 version of Nosferatu, which I know is available on VHS, but I am not sure about DVD. In 1978 Werner Hersog made Nosferatu the Vampyre, which was a faithful recreation with sound, but the imagery and exaggerated acting style of the original silent version should be seen first in order to truly appreciate the German Expressionist style. I would suggest watching the 2000 release, Shadow of the Vampire, which is a fictional depiction of the making of the original Nosferatu in which it theorizes that Max Shrek, the actor who played Dracula in the original film, was a real vampire, a fact known only to the director, portrayed by John Malcovich. Eerily precise recreations of some of the more famous scenes of the original Nosferatu are woven into the story line with a fantastic performance by Eddie Izzard. By the way, you may recall that Max Shrek was the name Tim Burton gave to Christopher Walken’s character in Batman Returns - another nod to German Expressionism by Burton. In addition to the unmistakable influence on future better known American horror classics, Nosferatu set the groundwork for the depiction of the monster as a flawed, yet nonetheless sympathetic character in future science fiction and horror films.