Yahoo has debuted a pretty gorgeous trailer for Zack Snyder’s next film, the computer animated feature Legend of the Guardians. The film is based on the popular children’s book series Guardians of Ga’Hoole. I’ve never read any of the FIFTEEN BOOKS, but apparently it’s an animal-epic about warrior owls. That was enough to sell me on the movie.
Take a look at the trailer.
Owls with warrior helmets. Okay, so here’s the synopsis, according to imdb.
Soren, a young barn owl, is kidnapped by owls of St. Aggie’s, ostensibly an orphanage, where owlets are brainwashed into becoming soldiers. He and his new friends escape to the island of Ga’Hoole, to assist its noble, wise owls who fight the army being created by the wicked rulers of St. Aggie’s.
Again, owls with helmets.
The film, which is directed by Zack Snyder (really? I couldn’t tell…) features voices from Emilie de Ravin, Abbie Cornish, Hugo Weaving, Geoffrey Rush, Helen Mirren, Jim Sturgess, Sam Neil and David Wenham.
While the words “from the heathens that brought you Happy Feet” give me the pee-shakes, I really dig this trailer. The animation looks pretty awesome, and I’m curious to see what Zack Snyder can do with the medium. I’m calling it already though, the film will suffer from some pretty watered down dialogue. Ever the pessimist.
Legend of the Guardians hits theaters this September 24.
Feast your eyes on some stills of the flick below:
The wait is almost over for Zach Snyder’s incredible film adaptation of Watchmen to hit DVD and Blu-Ray. The film will be released to retailers this July 21st and this one is a must-own for fans, Blu-Ray-philes and Watchmen fiends alike. As with most comic-book-super-fan-summer films, this movie will no doubt see an endless amount of releases and re-releases each with the most superficial of differences. But to us mega-fans, does it really even matter.
The film will initially be released in a two-disc Director’s Cut
– a theatrical version is available on DVD only – with a third, coaster-worthy digital copy disc. This Director’s Cut has a run-time of over 3 hours; that’s approximately 30 mins of more footage than was shown in the theatrical version. Full details on what these scenes will include are still pretty unknown with the exception being the well-known-filmed on-screen death of the original Nite Owl, Hollis Mason.
Full Disc Specs:
- Disc 1 (BD-50):
- Director’s cut of the film (186 minutes)
- Interactive “Ultimate Watchmen Experience”
- BD-Live
- Disc 2 (BD-25):
- The Phenomenon: The Comic that Changed Comics (30 min.)
- Real Super Heroes, Real Vigilantes (27 min.)
- Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World (27 min.)
- Webisodes (38 min.)
- Music Video: My Chemical Romance Desolation Row (3 min.)
- Disc 3 (DVD):
- Digital Copy – Theatrical version
If you’re more of a collector, there are some special-er editions of this release. Blu-Ray owners can pick up Amazon.com’s exclusive Nite Owl Ship collector’s set
which features the three Director’s Cut discs hidden inside a pretty cool looking statuette of Nite Owl’s ship, Archie. Apparently this beaut has lights and sounds. Again, it’s only exclusive to those shopping online at Amazon.com, and has a fairly hefty price tag of $79.99.
My local Best Buy is also advertising this hideous Rorschach mask packaging for both DVD and Blu-Ray,while HMV UK is offering a similar package with the lifeless face of Dr. Manhattan. Creepy.
Zach Snyder has also been dropping hints for a “Black Freighter” cut of the film, essentially the Director’s Cut with the previously released animated story-within-a-story, The Black Freighter, cut into the film throughout the full run-time. This edition, which really only has appeal to hardcore fans, would run approximately 3 hours and 45 minutes. No release date or further details have been released.
I know I will be having one hell of a Watchmen party on July 21st, and you’re all welcome to come over and enjoy Watchmen on Blu-Ray in all it’s glory.
It’s been quite the week for Watchmen news, and quite the week for my central nervous system as I’ve had a series of body racking love-spasms ever since my eyes beheld the alternate trailer shown at the Spike TV Scream Awards bullshit. Get your eyeballs on that, it’s wonderful.
We also get a new poster to spread out on our bedsheets and leave our sweet love seed on. It’s kind of a departure from what we’ve seen so far, which has been direct samples from the book’s original promo art, but I’m digging it. It certainly does look like it was designed in the same vain as the 300 posters. Click the image to Dr. Manhattan size it!
Lastly, the subject that has set the internet ablaze with debate… the ending. Apparently the film screened in its entirety in Portland last Thursday, and contrary to what Zach Snyder has been saying all along, the film’s ending has been altered from the book’s.
Wanna know what this new ending is, and our thoughts? Highlight the wondrous invisi-text below…
Apparently, the “giant squid” is no more. Manhattan, and other major cities globally, are bombed with a device made by Ozymandias (under the guise of a “free energy” solution) that mimics Dr. Manhattan, thus framing the blue-skinned man-god. Rorschach still bites the dust, and the Cold War crisis is still averted.
Now, I’m going against my intense fanboy instinct to not scream blasphemy to the high heavens because… I actually don’t mind this. Granted, this revised ending may be a ruse, a red herring if you will, used for the screening, with the book’s ending being in the finished cut, but if this is truly to be the movie’s conclusion then I think I can get behind it. My biggest fear with the book being adapted to film, is that damn squid-monster. It does come slightly out of left field, and I can see that mainstream audience hating it. Don’t get me wrong, I am a big yay-sayer of the squid, but let’s be real, it is part of what has deemed the flick “unfilmable” for years. And with the concurrent Tales of The Black Freighter story being told in between chapters of the book missing from the film, that’s another factor taking away from the squid’s relevance.
Let’s be real though, the change makes perfect sense. Instead of adding an element completely new and unrelated to the previous events, you utilize one of the main characters, bringing their arc full circle. There is certainly undertones of a fear of Dr. Manhattan throughout the book anyways; he’s basically a cancer-causing war machine with no immediate loyalty to the human condition. Although we, the reader, understands Manhattan’s dilemma, having him as the other-worldly threat that stops a nuclear war is actually quite fitting. My only worry is that with the book so incredibly layered and dense that it would create a plot-hole looking back, but as of writing this I can’t think of any that would make this ending unreasonable.
I’m pretty used to having my favorite properties raped. Time after time I give a big fuck you to the Hollywood big-wigs, but I’ve generally come to terms with being a minority, as a big fan. It is kind of a new feeling to not be enraged with revising such a huge part of the source material, you might say I feel like a turncoat. But if there’s anyone this film has to impress, its me. I’m the biggest critic. As is everyone else who read and adored the book. But you can guarantee, squid or no squid, I will be there at the midnight showing on opening night, excited to see what could be my most anticipated film to date. If we get what I think we’re going to get, based on what we’ve seen so far, then March 6th should be a glorious day. I have faith in this.
So there you have it. I would love to hear your thoughts all this, and I certainly welcome any and all debate, so let the games begin!
