Buzztown

From the look of this clip I’d say in a few years time we’ll be getting a whole string of movies with animated actors that are indistinguishable from real ones.

In the same way that 300 and Sin City replaced ‘traditional’ backgrounds with CGI.

Maybe this is the next step.

It seems that a regular Serenity comic book is getting closer to reality, or at least I hope that’s what this means.

Dark Horse, who released the Captain Hammer comic on their Myspace page a few weeks ago (Dr Horrible spin-off) have teamed up with creator Joss Whedon again for Serenity - The Other Half.

Available for free, this short 5 page story, written by Jim Krueger and illustrated by Will Conrad apparently acts as a preview to a brand new Serenity comic due at the end of the year, The Shepherd’s Tale, by the same creators.

There is also, Serenity - Better Days avilable soon, and Serenity - Those Left Behind,  see the Buzztown Amazon Recomendations for a link.

With all the news that The Dark Knight is breaking all box office records, I wondered how many actual tickets were sold compared to other movies in history.

Inflation can give us a warped view of the success of movies these days, and I think ‘total tickets sold’ gives us a much better idea of a films popularity.

The Dark Knight took $342 million at the US box office in just 13 days. Compare that to Star Wars‘ total domestic take of $461 million, and that figure includes the various re-release, you could say The Dark Knight is on track to be the biggest movie ever.

But, the entertainment world is a different place than it was even 5 years ago. Movies don’t hang around in the cinema so long. They get released on DVD and usually (with some exceptions) never return.

Titanic for instance, took nine months in theatres to gross $600 million, The Dark Knight took more than half that amount in less than two weeks.

So just for interests sake here are the all time box office tickets numbers. The Dark night is currently sitting at number 94 with 49,588,500 sales.

As previously stated, zombies rock. Short, zombie-related films are usually pretty bad (see the film section here at Buzztown for an example), so when a film like I Love Sarah Jane finds it’s way to Buzztown our quality control team start getting short of breath.

I Love Sarah Jane is set in a bleak, post-apocalyptic Australian suburb. Where the only adult is a chained-up zombie. Part lord of the Flies, part 28 Days Later the story follows Jimbo, a 13 year old boy with a crush on Sarah Jane.

It’s really an excellent little film and well worth a watch.

With warming oceans and rising water levels predicted for our future, Vincent Callebaut, a visionary Belgian architect, has a solution.

LILYPAD, A Floating Ecopolis for Ecological Refugees can produce more energy than it uses. These floating citys could house 50,000 people and supply leftover energy back to the mainland.

So when the icecaps melt, we’ll all get an ocean view. I think it looks like a pretty awesome place to live. Bring-on the apocalypse.

Take the Jump for more Pictures

If you have a spare $30000 dollars lying around, why not splash-out on Marty McFly’s Hoverboard from Back to the Future II.

The eBay auction claims its an original prop from the movies, and is made out of genuine, eh, wood.

For $30000 I’d want it to actually hover!

One of my favourite book series, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy has been announced, in the Hollywood Reporter, as finally getting a movie green-light.

It will be produced by Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne who’s last sci-fi project was the family orientated ‘The Last Mimzy’.

The Movie’s have long been in development, due perhaps to their political theme and the huge scope of the stories, which covers centuries in time. Asimov admitted that the original inspiration for the stories was the ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire‘.

Shaye said “Our idea to renew the worldwide audience’s appetite for the story,” [but] “This is not a script you can knock out in six months,”.

Buzztown will be following its development.

Comic-Con the worlds largest geek-fest has started in San Diego. News and announcements are beginning to come out.

One story so far thats tickled our geek bone, is news of Tron 2. A scene showing an updated ‘lightcycle’ chase was shown to the audience. Apparently it’s looking good and Jeff Bridges looks old and badass.

No news as to weather the Tron Guy, shown here will be making an appearance!

Update, Here is the Trailer (poor quality)