Weak Effort
The non-Out of the Box posts here have been sparse lately. Sorry about that. First, I want to thank first-timer Jared for pointing out a couple of issues on the main site, particularly one glaring and embarrassing omission. Who says authors don't need editors or at least a proofreader. It's fixed and if you hadn't spotted it before, I'll never tell. Good to see another new face, have a old one rediscover us and encounter another interested party as well. Our growth over the last year has been astounding and has really given our second decade a great start. I'm curious to see how things go during next month's discussion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling and December's with Mark Hodder's The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack .
Fortunately for me, my weak effort hasn't cost me or hundreds or even thousands of people their jobs. The same can't be said of the wrangling between the New Zealand actors' union and the studio over The Hobbit. Despite the union having rescinded its call for performers to boycott working on the soon to start production duology, the incident has Warner Bros. looking very hard at moving the project to Eastern Europe rather than risk more disruptions once they start spending the balance of the $500 million budget. Here's an interview with Sir Peter Jackson and Phillipa Boyens as well as officials from the New Zealand government:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoUN2AGxrnA />
There's a lot of squabbling back and forth. The actors wanted more money, the studio's just trying to make as much as they can regardless of who they screw, etc., etc., etc. Guess what, everybody's trying to make as much as they can off these films. The two Hobbit films will cost half-a-billion and likely bring in the better part of two billion. Without all the cash flowing, I'm of the opinion none of these dogs would've fought over this bone. It'd be easy to kick the union or the studio alone, but both carry a share of the blame. Is an Australian union inserting itself into a New Zealand union's business? Yes. Did New Line screw with both the cast and Sir Peter financially on the original films? Yes. Should everybody back down before they kill the dragon sleeping on the golden eggs? You bet.
Wait. That's right. They want to kill the dragon in this pic. And who might voice Smaug? I've seen Bill Nighy's time mentioned. I guess that's okay since Richard Boone's not available to reprise the role. The rest of the cast is shaping up. In addition to the returning Ian McKellan, Hugo Weaving, and Andy Serkis (Magento and Red Skull teaming up with King Kong! Look out True Believers, it must be some X-Men/Captain America/Ka-zar mega-crossover!), Martin Freeman (The Office) will take over from Sir Ian Holm as Bilbo Baggins. Seven has been strongly rumored for Radagast the Brown while Ten is in the running for a role though I haven't seen which. Oh, Seven and Ten. That'd be Sylvester McCoy, the Seventh Doctor and David Tennant, the Tenth. More cast info can be found in this article from Stuff.com.nz and this one from io9.com. As of now, the Battle of Five Armies only about three years away. Start sharpening those axes now 'cuz Khazad Ai-menu, bitches.
The Hobbit's a prequel to The Lord of the Rings, but the long-rumored, commented on, denied third Star Wars.trilogy's a sequel to the original trilogy. Is it happening? Both IESB.net and TheForce.com have posts suggesting it might, though the link on TFN.com is simply a repeat of iesb.net's blurb. Will it happen? Do we want it to happen? Here's the Wookieepedia article on the Sequel Trilogy and the various conflicting reports over the last thirty years or so. I won't be surprised if it does, especially if George Lucas does plan to include any of the original cast. They've aged into their fifties and sixties, now suitably seasoned to play roles decades after the Battle of Endor or for Hamill as Luke, possibly centuries considering a Jedi's Force-lengthened lifespan.
And would one of these posts be complete if I didn't do some flogging for the Green Lantern film? Uh, no. Check out IGN's latest preview which has a couple of nice new pieces of promotional art. One thing missing from their image gallery and that's the recently released shot of Hal's power battery. While still recognizable as a lantern, it's suitably alien no longer resembling something 1940's railroad engineer Alan Scott might have carried.
Lastly, so there might be something at least tangentially literary. Rumors are swirling about a Nook with a color screen coming out soon, cleverly called Nook Color, rumors I was unaware of until Lou asked about it. No one in the know I could speak had any details but a little Dogpile-digging turned up a number of articles like this from CNET . We knew something was up a couple of months ago, but not what, just like we know something's up for the spring, but not what. I suspected a new device because Amazon wasn't standing still with the Kindle and the I-Pad's greater flexibility was a danger to simple e-readers viability over the long term. I think we'll see a convergent evolution with e-readers becoming more like the I-Pad with fully functional browsers and email and texting access so while reading A Dance with Dragon's one might Tweet, "OMG! JAMIE KIA! GRRMs crazy! Cersee'll get herz!".
Hopefully OoTB'll go up tomorrow afternoon.
Fortunately for me, my weak effort hasn't cost me or hundreds or even thousands of people their jobs. The same can't be said of the wrangling between the New Zealand actors' union and the studio over The Hobbit. Despite the union having rescinded its call for performers to boycott working on the soon to start production duology, the incident has Warner Bros. looking very hard at moving the project to Eastern Europe rather than risk more disruptions once they start spending the balance of the $500 million budget. Here's an interview with Sir Peter Jackson and Phillipa Boyens as well as officials from the New Zealand government:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoUN2AGxrnA
There's a lot of squabbling back and forth. The actors wanted more money, the studio's just trying to make as much as they can regardless of who they screw, etc., etc., etc. Guess what, everybody's trying to make as much as they can off these films. The two Hobbit films will cost half-a-billion and likely bring in the better part of two billion. Without all the cash flowing, I'm of the opinion none of these dogs would've fought over this bone. It'd be easy to kick the union or the studio alone, but both carry a share of the blame. Is an Australian union inserting itself into a New Zealand union's business? Yes. Did New Line screw with both the cast and Sir Peter financially on the original films? Yes. Should everybody back down before they kill the dragon sleeping on the golden eggs? You bet.
Wait. That's right. They want to kill the dragon in this pic. And who might voice Smaug? I've seen Bill Nighy's time mentioned. I guess that's okay since Richard Boone's not available to reprise the role. The rest of the cast is shaping up. In addition to the returning Ian McKellan, Hugo Weaving, and Andy Serkis (Magento and Red Skull teaming up with King Kong! Look out True Believers, it must be some X-Men/Captain America/Ka-zar mega-crossover!), Martin Freeman (The Office) will take over from Sir Ian Holm as Bilbo Baggins. Seven has been strongly rumored for Radagast the Brown while Ten is in the running for a role though I haven't seen which. Oh, Seven and Ten. That'd be Sylvester McCoy, the Seventh Doctor and David Tennant, the Tenth. More cast info can be found in this article from Stuff.com.nz and this one from io9.com. As of now, the Battle of Five Armies only about three years away. Start sharpening those axes now 'cuz Khazad Ai-menu, bitches.
The Hobbit's a prequel to The Lord of the Rings, but the long-rumored, commented on, denied third Star Wars.trilogy's a sequel to the original trilogy. Is it happening? Both IESB.net and TheForce.com have posts suggesting it might, though the link on TFN.com is simply a repeat of iesb.net's blurb. Will it happen? Do we want it to happen? Here's the Wookieepedia article on the Sequel Trilogy and the various conflicting reports over the last thirty years or so. I won't be surprised if it does, especially if George Lucas does plan to include any of the original cast. They've aged into their fifties and sixties, now suitably seasoned to play roles decades after the Battle of Endor or for Hamill as Luke, possibly centuries considering a Jedi's Force-lengthened lifespan.
And would one of these posts be complete if I didn't do some flogging for the Green Lantern film? Uh, no. Check out IGN's latest preview which has a couple of nice new pieces of promotional art. One thing missing from their image gallery and that's the recently released shot of Hal's power battery. While still recognizable as a lantern, it's suitably alien no longer resembling something 1940's railroad engineer Alan Scott might have carried.
Lastly, so there might be something at least tangentially literary. Rumors are swirling about a Nook with a color screen coming out soon, cleverly called Nook Color, rumors I was unaware of until Lou asked about it. No one in the know I could speak had any details but a little Dogpile-digging turned up a number of articles like this from CNET . We knew something was up a couple of months ago, but not what, just like we know something's up for the spring, but not what. I suspected a new device because Amazon wasn't standing still with the Kindle and the I-Pad's greater flexibility was a danger to simple e-readers viability over the long term. I think we'll see a convergent evolution with e-readers becoming more like the I-Pad with fully functional browsers and email and texting access so while reading A Dance with Dragon's one might Tweet, "OMG! JAMIE KIA! GRRMs crazy! Cersee'll get herz!".
Hopefully OoTB'll go up tomorrow afternoon.
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