Nov 13 2009 See: Wes Anderson Acting Out 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' Scenes
These clips actually make me sort of uncomfortable. Probably similar to how my dad must have felt when he caught me quietly re-enacting the "I'm Batman" Batman scene alone in the living room.
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Oct 22 2009 'A-Team' Set Visit: 'ET' Asks the Questions You Weren't Concerned About
Joe Carnahan's A-Team is currently shooting in Vancouver, and, for some reason, the sociomutants at Entertainment Tonight were allowed on set for a first look at the film. In this video, see: "Rampage" Jackson as Baracus! "Rampage" Jackson attempting to act! Bradley Cooper making jokes! An ET reporter attempting to interact in a way that won't reveal he's an alien! And slightly more!
Have it:
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Oct 19 2009 Behind the Scenes on 'King of Fighters' -- See the Terrible Magic Happen!
Watch out Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, and both Street Figher movies: there's a new contender looking to become king of dismal fighting game adaptations. And how does King of Fighters plan to steal the oft-contested crown? By taking this fight to Tournament World! (Which is the fighting dimension, obviously):
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Oct 5 2009 More 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' Behind the Scenes Things
How did director Wes Anderson get teams of animators to meticulously compose shots so distinctly Wes Andersony? By recording videos of himself playing every part and editing those performances together into an all-Anderson version of the film for the animators to recreate with miniature wildlife, obviously:
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Sep 2 2009 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' Behind-the-Scenes: Stop-Motion Animation Appears Labor Intensive
Here's a Fantastic Mr. Fox featurette, hosted by Jason Schwartzman. If you want to see how laborious it is creating feature-length stop-motion of some well-dressed wildlife, this is just the thing for you. And if you want to see George Clooney roll around on the ground whistling, strangely this is also just the thing for you:
Aug 25 2009 The Making of Your Favorite '80s Movie Besides 'Ghostbusters'
Remember that movie with the kids and pirate boat you liked to watch so much as a kid? The Goony, I believe it was called. Well, now you can see the difficulties director Richard Donner had in working with a cast of children in this 1985 making-of featurette. It looks like this film was probably Donner's most difficult shoot until Maverick, when the white hot chemistry between Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster was surely a distraction to all involved.
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Aug 4 2009 'Sesame Street' Behind the Scenes: Ruin the Magic
Or possibly make it more magical, if seeing a long-haired man with his hand up Ernie is something you find magical, with this clip from a behind-the-scenes Sesame Street thing that aired on the History Channel. The Children's Television Workshop either looks like a delight to work at or a living nightmare, depending on how long you stare into Bert's dead eyes:
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Jul 10 2009 'Cemetary Junction' Behind-the-Scenes: Eat It Again, Voldemort
From the BBC, here's a featurette that gives a behind-the-scenes look at a film high on my "G.D. I want to see this!" list, Cemetary Junction. We briefly get to see some scenes being shot, but more importantly, co-writers/directors Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant take the opportunity to take yet another stab at Ralph Fiennes:
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May 11 2009 Something for Fans of 'Terminator Salvation' and Grease-Soaked Pan Pizzas
Thanks to a partnership between Pizza Hut and Warner Bros. (as a "Hut" rep explained: "Pizza Hut's iconic red Hut may not be as intimidating as the Terminator's red eye, but pizza and movies are time-tested favorites"), the Book-It sponsor has just released a new clip with behind-the-scenes footage from Terminator Salvation.
Director McG introduces it, explaining it's for "Pizza Hut and Terminator fans" (i.e., everyone) and adds, "You're about to see the Harvester attacking humanity," so I was expecting a giant robot going on a long diatribe about man's war-like ways and tendencies towards greed and destruction, but it ended up being more exciting than that. Gas tanker-exploding exciting!:
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May 1 2009 New 'Scott Pilgrim' Blog Reveals Stars Live Nothing Like Us
On the official Scott Pilgrim vs. The World blog, a third video blog has been posted, this one focusing on director Edgar Wright and his cast and crew doing their first week on location in Toronto. Honestly, it isn't particularly interesting save for one fact the costume designer let slip: to help deal with the psychosomatic chill that results from working around fake snow, the actors were offered silk long underwear. SILK! The most luxurious fabric ever made! So I hope that keeps you warm, your majesties, because the entire long underwear budget probably went to making sure your legs were comfortable, and now the rest of the crew has to wear long johns made of loosely woven human hair. Does that make you feel like a big man, Michael Cera?
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Apr 29 2009 Things Exploding on 'Expendables' Set
Want to see some guys diving away from a giant explosion? Sure you do. The entire action genre is based around studio executives knowing you always want to see that. So enjoy this brief behind-the-scenes featurette from the set of The Expendables. You'll not only see just such a classic explosion-dive-away, you'll also get a little Directing 101 from Sylvester Stallone. First lesson: if you like how a scene turned out, grunt "that's sex" so that the crew knows they did a good job.
Feb 9 2009 Rorchach's Mask is Made of Science
Empire has posted a new Watchmen behind-the-scenes video about the process behind making Rorschach's constantly-shifting mask. The secret: computers. They're not just for word processing anymore.
Also there are some never-before-seen Rorschach's youth scenes:
Jan 13 2009 James Cameron Stands Around 'Avatar' Set
Hey, look at this latest shot from Avatar! It's not an actual shot from the movie, but until director James Cameron decides to start putting out legitimate looks at his big December 3-D sci-fi release, this is the best we've got.
Judging by this image, looks like the film will include the light from Dr. Strangelove's war room and some kind of Dr. Scholl's gel coffin. And James Cameron dresses like he's a BMX biker, maybe? He really needs to just release some images of the aliens.
Jan 7 2009 More Video Things of the 'Watchmen'
I wouldn't normally do this, but since you've been so good at keeping up with your chores lately, here's another Watchmen video. They're running out of featurette ideas, so this one is three minutes on how they dressed up some people in old-fashioney superhero clothes to take the above photo. Warning: it's probably a spoiler for the special features on disc 3 of the DVD set.
Dec 8 2008 'Watchmen' Video Journal #9: Art Direction Things
The official Warner Bros. Watchmen page has a new behind-the-scenes video journal, this one discussing the film's props and set decoration. You know all those objects on the walls, and that the actors wield, and those things the Comedian uses for his prop comedy? They don't make themselves. People are working hard to make sure all those extra details are just right.
I love that even though this is a huge budget movie, when those hard-working people need an actor to fly into the air, they still just attach a rope to an actor, drape it over a pulley, and have some set worker grab the other end and jump off a stool:
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Dec 1 2008 So Many Star Wars Photos
Michael Heilemann has a ridiculously large collection of Star Wars production stills, behind-the-scenes photos, and concept artwork, and rather than just brag about it at comic conventions, he's shared it online. Neatorama pointed me to Heilemann's Flickr photostream, a collection of nearly 3,000 Star Wars-related images, most of which I've never before encountered (or looked for in any way), such as the above shot of George Lucas invasively prodding a Death Star model.
It's really great how the internet affords us such a division of geek labor. Instead of everyone scrambling and fighting to get their own Star Wars pictures, we can have this guy work on gathering this sci-fi photo treasury while someone else works on constructing life-size replicas of cast of Dr. Who out of Lego, and in the end we all share the triumph of minutes of idle entertainment.
Nov 6 2008 'Watchmen' Video Diary: Grrrl Power Edition
Girls Kick Ass, the latest production diary from the set of Watchmen, has gone online at MySpace. As you might expect, it focuses on the stars that have ladyparts (Carla Gugino, Malin Akerman), the training they went through, and the relationship between their characters. Girls can be trained to throw punches too, dudes! Here's the proof!
If you only sit at your desk and discreetly masturbate to one production diary this year, make it this one:
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Oct 6 2008 'Kick-Ass' Costumes Look Faithful
Someone on the YouTube has posted some videos from the set of Kick-Ass (via /Film), where you can see a hint of Aaron Johnson in-costume as the titular hero. It's pathetic that Hollywood has beaten me down to a point that just this accurate recreation of the costume has given me a huge jump in expectations for the project. The act of simply not completely fucking something up should not be as laudable as it is.
Oct 6 2008 'Watchmen' Video Journal: Dr. Manhattan is Composed of Numerous Lights
Sci Fi Wire has the latest in the series of video journals documenting the making of Zack Snyder's Watchmen adaptation. This one is titled "Blue Monday," and covers how the special effects crew rigged a suit with a bunch of LED lights to simulate Dr. Manhattan's blue aura. Looks like someone should be getting a special thanks in the credits...
Sep 15 2008 Here's Some Imaginariums from 'Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'
Here's a short preview for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, showing some concept art and early digital work for the new Terry Gilliam film. Even amongst all of Gilliam's typically strange, fantastical designs, the weirdest part is where this implies Verne Troyer is an actual actor. Hasn't he been demoted to comic prop yet?
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