Casting Call: Heir to the Empire

Casting Call: Heir to the Empire

In a just world. An anonymous commenter on yesterday's post asks who should have been cast in a hypothetical 1993 film adaptation of Heir to the Empire. The hour when such a film could have been made has long since passed, but wistful speculation on what might have been is…
April 25, 201916 Comments
Not Even Thrawn Can Save Star Wars

Not Even Thrawn Can Save Star Wars

I'm recovering from the multi-day writing marathon that brought Combat Frame XSeed: Coalition Year 40 to completion. Here's a post from a year ago made timely by the manufactured buzz in advance of Star Wars: Episode IX. And yes, here in Current Year +3 we know that Disney's desecration of this…
April 24, 201916 Comments
The Long Shadow

The Long Shadow

Lately I've been going back and watching movies from the 80s with an eye to overlooked gems that I'd somehow managed to miss all these years. A lot of Gen X and Gen Y folks look back on the 80s as a Silver Age--a George Lucas remake of the Golden…
March 12, 201933 Comments
Movie Ranks: Men vs Women

Movie Ranks: Men vs Women

Seen on Twitter: Cursory analysis: Women like newer children's movies. Men like mature films--with a marked preference for war movies, westerns, and sci-fi--that span all eras of film. Additional observation: Number of entries on each list that also appear on AFI's list of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time…
January 16, 201923 Comments
Book vs Movie

Book vs Movie

In my work as a freelance editor, I've noticed a common tendency among the current crop of science fiction authors to write books as if they're writing movies. That practice is understandable since most science fiction and fantasy novels published after 1980 suck, and therefore today's authors are disproportionately influenced…
January 15, 20198 Comments
PleastantvilleApple

Satanic Boomer Agitprop

Regular readers will be familiar with my penchant for shining a light on Hollywood's hatred of their audience and Boomers' hatred of every other generation. Much as A Bridge Too Far proves Pigman's Caine-Hackman hypothesis, I have been presented with the ultimate intersection of Hollywood diabolism and Boomer propaganda in the…
January 7, 201941 Comments
Disney Drops the Copyright Ball

Disney Drops the Copyright Ball

Last year I reported on Disney's shady practice of spending millions to lobby Congress for copyright extensions every time Mickey and the gang were set to enter the public domain. Now business as usual has taken a major turn as Congress has neglected to pass a copyright extension bill before…
January 3, 20199 Comments
The Other Hollywood Formula

The Other Hollywood Formula

This recent review at Bleeding Fool of 2012's buried gem of a movie Dredd gave me occasion to meditate on Hollywood's continuing implosion. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Dredd, which sadly is most of you, here's a quick primer. The second film iteration of a cult British comic book…
January 2, 201937 Comments
Hollywood Can’t Sonic

Hollywood Can’t Sonic

A professional animator explains why the Hollywood version of beloved video game icon Sonic the Hedgehog looks like blue cancer. Hollywood's meddling with this wildly successful Japanese character is doubly stupid because, if you read Console Wars, you know that Sonic the Hedgehog has at least as much American as…
December 14, 201823 Comments
The Dead End State of Pop Culture

The Dead End State of Pop Culture

Author JD Cowan offers a grim prognosis on the fate of pop culture based on Hollywood's manifest inability to connect with its audience. The Predator is a shallow, spiritually dead movie of stolen imagination and rehashed ideas with a message that could only have been thought up by someone too…
November 9, 201819 Comments