Oct 9 2009 Kids Screaming for the 'Where the Wild Things Are' Soundtrack
At last, child screaming is being used for something better than alerting nearby authorities. Spike Jonze and Karen O harnessed untrained kid vocals for the Where the Wild Things Are Soundtrack (remember listening to that?), and now there's this featurette where you can see how they did it, why they did it, if Jonze cried the first time he saw picture & music matched up, etc.
Enjoy--or decry as over-hyped hipster bullshit, if you want to pee on my party:
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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 21 2009 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' Featurette: Posthumously Author Approved
Spike Jonze has some competition in the author approved children's book adaptation department. While a recent featurette revealed that Where the Wild Thing Are had the blessing and spirit of its author, Maurice Sendak, putting Jonze in the clear lead, Wes Anderson has answered back with a similar behind-the-scenes look in which you see how the director has literally recreated author Roald Dahl's pastoral home in miniature for use in his stop-motion Fantastic Mr. Fox adaptation. And if that's not enough, the widow Dahl says Anderson achieved the atmosphere Roald Dahl would have wanted so well, she burst into tears when she saw the set. Though, I suppose we'd have to know if she also burst into tears on the set of Danny DeVito's Matilda to know if her weeping holds any meaning whatsoever.
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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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Jul 24 2009 'Where the Wild Things Are' Featurette: Author Approved
Another reminder to stay non-bedridden until at least after October 16th: a new behind-the-scenes featurette for one of this fall's most anticipated releases, Where the Wild Things Are. In it, author Maurice Sendak voices his enthusiastic approval for Spike Jonze's adaptation, and draws parallels between himself and the director--plus, there's new, awe-inspiring footage. My expectations are reaching a point that, to meet them, the actual film strip is probably going to have to give me a handjob in the theater.
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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.
Mar 2 2009 Just Who Is This Professor Manhattan Character?
All this week, NBC will be posting a new video profile of a Watchmen character every day. By Friday, you'll know so much about these heroes that you won't even need Teen Beat's "Which Watchmen Do You Kiss Most Like?" quiz to discern that I definitely kiss like The Comedian (rough but funny and flirty).
Today's profile is Dr. Manhattan. It's not embeddable, so you'll have to click around here if you want at it. I'm sorry.
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 31 2008 'Watchmen' Featurette: Hey, It's Moloch!
Seeing that it might be a bit longer than originally anticipated before you get to see that Watchmen movie everyone is talking about, curb your desire with this new footage-filled featurette. With Star Trek and this (hopefully) coming out in the coming months, 2009 is shaping up to be a big year for prosthetic pointed ears in films that can't possibly live up to their hype.
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Aug 12 2008 'Coraline' Featurette Further Appeases My Nerdiness
Any movie directed by stop-motion animation master Henry Selick, based on a story by Neil Gaiman story, and with music by They Might Be Giants is going to really appeal to a certain type of geek. Namely, the type who used to read Sandman, listen to Flood on a regular basis, and watch The Nightmare Before Christmas at least every Halloween. I already knew Coraline had all of these things going for it, but man, no one told me John Hodgman was doing a voice in this thing, too. It's like angsty 9th-grade me's tastes shaking hands with current, listening-to-The Areas of My Expertise-audiobook-on-the-train me. They probably shouldn't literally shake hands, because I know what 9th grade me was doing with his hand nearly to the point of it becoming a problem, but you get the idea.
Coraline featurette under the cut.
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Aug 8 2008 New 'Burn After Reading' Featurettes Show Impressive Idiot Characterization
Want to see Brad Pitt act like a dolt and George Clooney act like a womanizer (more than usual)? Believe me, you do, so watch these new Burn After Reading character featurettes. The variety and complexity of Pitt's dimwit expressions are guaranteed to impress.
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Jul 9 2008 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' Featurette, Despite Appearances, Isn't a Video Game
Well, they found a way to make this thing both stupider and even cheaper looking. In this short preview, we learn that at George Lucas's insistence, explains the Clone Wars director who is indiscriminately wearing a fedora, the clone troopers now have tattoos and personalized hairstyles in an attempt to make them seem more like individuals. This utterly fails, and instead it looks like an online game where character customization is limited to picking your hair's degree of stupidity. And I can't wait to see how Lucas has given all of these identical clone troopers unique personalities. If the main characters the live-action films barely had personalities, how do these guys have a shot?
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Jul 7 2008 'Watchmen' Video Update: Artist Dave Gibbons Dodders About the Set
UGO has a new Watchmen featurette in which artist Dave Gibbons, who illustrated the comic series, discusses how director Zack Snyder's detailed sets look exactly like his vague memories of what he drew 20-some years back. It's heartwarming to see Gibbons wander the environments he created on paper so long ago if you can ignore the bittersweet "grandpa gets to live his dream before he dies" undertones.
Jun 6 2008 'The Dark Knight' Chooses Cable Over Satellite (in Featurettes!)
Comcast has hit some dire straits. How can they compete against the powerhouse of advertising that is the IO Digital Cable Reggaeton Commercial, an ad that continues to resonate even now that it's been usurped by a far less catchy replacement? With Batman shit, of course! The cable giant has set up a Flash-heavy Dark Knight page with two featurettes that contain some new footage. You'll learn how the Joker gang masks were made, why sections of the film were shot in IMAX, and why you should definitely switch to Comcast. Because Comcast will probably eventually show Dark Knight on one of its numerous cable stations?
The Dark Knight [Comcast]
Nov 7 2007 'Valkyrie' Featurette Now High Quality
Astute readers, and those obsessed with Entertainment Tonight, may realize this featurette for Valkyrie was already released on ET and posted a month ago. But this new version has two distinct advantages:
First, it does not contain a preamble by Mary Hart or the ear-shattering theme music that announces to your neighbors the shame of you watching Entertainment Tonight.
Second, this version is much higher quality (even available on the fabled HD format!), allowing you to really make out the details of Tom Cruise as a happy pirate nazi, which will clearly be the next big internet meme once people get sick of robot zombie unicorns.
Valkyrie Featurette [Apple]
