Five Types of Romantic Comedy Movie Posters

A new post in our long-neglected "Movie Marketing Is Hard!" series.

"The Five Types of Romantic Comedy Movie Posters", collected by the geniuses at College Humor.  Here is their collection of #3, The Back-To-Back:

See them all at CollegeHumor.com.

NCC-1701 Smart Car

You may disagree, but I think this is pretty darn cool.  If I had a Smart car, I'd probably do something like this.

Spotted today in Larkspur, California, a Smart car decked out with U.S.S. Enterprise 1701 markings, including Starfleet logos.  The car is marked as the Galileo shuttlecraft, one of the primary shuttlecrafts for the "Star Trek" flagship.

Empty Chair 2012

Download your free "Empty Chair 2012" bumper sticker right here.

DC vs. Marvel Films

click here for larger image

With the recent news that Warner Bros. and DC Comics are looking for a director for "Justice League", I thought it might be an interesting exercise to take a look at the feature films based on the two biggest comic book companies’ properties.

Growing up, I didn’t read comics; I watched movies and tv.  In fact, I probably have only read one entire comic book in my life.  My exposure to comic book superheroes was entirely based on their films and television shows.  One of my favorite movies as a child was “Superman” (1978), I loved the Adam West “Batman” series, and even was a fan of the awesome CBS “Spider-Man” series.  I didn’t know the difference between Marvel heroes or DC heroes.

I only became aware of the two titans’ personalities in the 1990’s, when comic book movies exploded after Tim Burton’s “Batman” became the first in a new line of comic book-based blockbusters.  Comic book films are attractive to risk-averse studios due to characters’ built-in audience awareness and apparent ability to reboot and reinvent themselves every few years.

Since 2000, Marvel has been especially aggressive in Hollywood, making twenty-six films based on their properties.  Marvel maintains partnerships with various studios (Sony produces Spider-Man films, Fox produces X-Men films, for example), but also began independently producing their own movies with Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man” in 2008.  Marvel Studios’ track record has been phenomenal; the Marvel brand has become synonymous with quality superhero flicks.  The culmination of Marvel Studios’ hard work in establishing its brand is Joss Whedon’s “The Avengers”, a universally loved film that has grossed almost $1.5 billion at the box office.

It’s clear that DC and Warner Bros. (DC’s parent) are sitting on a gold mine; they just can’t seem to get their act together.  Well-known properties like Wonder Woman, Aquaman (“Entourage” did it, I know) and The Flash just sit on the shelf, ripe for the picking.  DC needs to follow the simple formula perfected by Marvel: hire quality filmmakers (Whedon, Favreau, Kenneth Branagh) and actors (Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffallo, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johanssen) to make consistent crowd-pleasing films that aren’t monumentally stupid.

The only time DC has been close to mimicking this formula is with its magnificent handling of the Batman films; hiring the brilliant Christopher Nolan to run the franchise was a stroke of genius, which brought along the amazing acting talents of Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, and Heath Ledger.  Nolan’s trilogy is complete, and DC and Warner Bros. will probably reboot Batman by 2015 with, oh, let’s say, McG directing.

DC has essentially struck out on all of their other attempts, failing miserably by the shoddy, forgettable productions of “Catwoman”, “Jonah Hex” and “Green Lantern”.

Interesting notes for the time between 2000-2012:

• Marvel has rebooted three franchises: X-Men, The Punisher, Spider-Man with Fantastic Four on the way (with “Chronicle” director, Josh Trank).  In that time, DC has rebooted zero franchises, but will reboot Superman in 2013, and probably will reboot Batman in 2015.
• Through 2014, DC has only one film slated for release, MAN OF STEEL.  Marvel has eight films slated for release.

Not Dead, Just Busy

Sorry for the lack of updates, folks.  I'm busy working on the future.

I'm sure one of my several dozen half-written articles will make their way to FXRant soon.  In the meantime, read my tweets for up-to-date FXRant-esque words.

This Is Meaningful

This is meaningful.

This inspirational message has been brought to you by Papyrus and stock photography.

The New "The Talk Show" Is Now "The Talk Show With John Gruber"

Last week, amidst the controversy of John Gruber leaving Dan Benjamin's 5by5 Network (and taking the name of the podcast, "The Talk Show," with him), I lamented the fact that there are now two "The Talk Show" podcasts, both with the exact same title.

https://twitter.com/tvaziri/status/206890635716861952

Apparently this is no longer the case.  I noticed on iTunes that Mule Radio Syndicate's "The Talk Show" has changed its name to "The Talk Show With John Gruber".  This is an admirable (albeit small) step in differentiating the new podcast from the previous show's incarnation.

Much has been written in tech-geek-land about Gruber taking the podcast (along with its title) to a new network, and most of it revolves around idle gossip and speculation.  The former partners have made their statements about the split.  Benjamin published a short, four minute special podcast "Regarding The Talk Show", which appeared on May 21, three days after the Mule show debuted.  Gruber mentioned the breakup on Episode 2 of the Mule podcast from May 24, and on May 29, wrote a few words about the split on Daring Fireball.

I will miss 5by5's "The Talk Show" very much. The Gruber/Benjamin production was the first regular podcast I ever listened to, and it turned me on to other 5by5 podcasts, like "Build and Analyze" with Marco Arment and, in my opinion, the new flagship 5by5 podcast "Hypercritical" with John Siracusa.  In a short period of time, Benjamin has created a brilliant podcast empire.

I will also continue to read Gruber's insightful commentary on Daring Fireball, as well as subscribe to "The Talk Show With John Gruber"; it will take some time for Gruber to find his rhythm as host (rather than guest, which is essentially what he played on the 5by5 podcast), and I'll be listening to hear the show progress and evolve.

Almost Done

New commercial for "The Avengers"

update: One more "The Avengers" promo, this one is a lovely fan-made video by Marc Dubuisson.

 The Avengers Extended TV Spot 3 "What have I to fear?" (FAN-MADE)

"Rango" Wins The Oscar

Congratulations to director Gore Verbinski on his win for "Rango", the Oscar winner for Animated Feature at the 84th Academy Awards!

This was Industrial Light & Magic's first feature-length animated feature, and we were so very happy to bring Gore's vision to the screen.  A hearty congratulations to visual effects supervisors Tim Alexander and John Knoll and animation director Hal Hickel, and absolutely everyone at ILM that contributed to the film.

23 Years In A Row

As detailed in this post, we used The VFX Predictinator formula to predict the winner of the visual effects Oscar, "Hugo". We were correct.

Our single formula has now accurately predicted the winner of the visual effects Academy Award for its 23nd straight year.

Heh heh.

"Hugo" Wins The Oscar

"Hugo"

Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann and Alex Henning

Congratulations to the visual effects team behind Martin Scorsese's "Hugo", the winner of the Oscar for Visual Effects, at the 84th Academy Awards.

Oscar Pool Ballot, 84th Academy Awards

It's time for the Awesomest Oscar Pool Ballot In The History Of Oscar Pool Ballots.

Every year I create a special ballot based on the oscar.com printable ballot -- but on my ballot, each category has a different point value. The highest valued category is "Best Picture," while the mainstream films' categories are valued at two points. The non-mainstream categories (like the documentary and short film categories) are valued at one point.

This way, in a tight race for the winner, the winner most likely would not be determined by the non-mainstream films (i.e., blind guesses).

Download the ballot here for the 84th Academy Awards and use it at your Oscar party.

And if you're wondering why Tom Cruise is on my ballot... he's on every one of my Oscar ballots. Because he's soooooooooo cool.

The VFX Predictinator in Podcast Form

Mike Seymour, Jeff Heusser and I talk about the Oscar race for visual effects on FXGuide's podcast, "The VFX Show" #142.  The podcast leads to a discussion of The VFX Predictinator, my formula that has correctly predicted the visual effects Oscar winner every year since 1989. If don't want to wade through the zillions of posts I've written about The Predictinator, this podcast is for you.

I had a great time talking with Mike and Jeff, and it's always a pleasure to be on the podcast.

"The VFX Show" #142,   Oscar Preview.  Mike Seymour, Jeff Heusser and Todd Vaziri speak live from Los Angeles to preview the VFX Oscar nominated films of 2011.

• FXGuide link
• iTunes link

ILM Wins Big at VES Awards

Last week at the 10th Annual VES Awards hosted by the Visual Effects Society, my friends and colleagues from Industrial Light & Magic were honored with seven awards, including a clean sweep for our first animated feature, "Rango".

"Transformers: Dark of the Moon" won two key awards: one for Outstanding Created Environment and one for Outstanding Models. Both of the awards centered heavily around the Chicago destruction sequence, where Driller, the giant snake-like Transformer circles an already damaged building, squeezing it to the point of spitting the edifice in half, with the top half crashing onto another skyscraper.  Taking home awards for that work was Tim Brakensiek, Kelvin Chu, David Fogler, Rene Garcia, Giles Hancock, John Hanson, Scott Younkin, and my very good friend Tom Martinek, who did an extraordinary job supervising the tilted building sequence.  I have been fortunate to work with Tom for many years now, and I'm glad he now has this tangible proof of his enormous talents.

I have been very lucky in 2011: the three films to which I contributed ("Rango", "Transformers 3" and "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol") have been showered with praise for their innovative visual effects work. I'm proud to have been a part of these magnificent productions.

Congratulations to all the winners that night, and thank you so much to the Visual Effects Society for sponsoring the event.

• Full list of nominees for the 10th Annual VES Awards
• Full list of winners for the 10th Annual VES Awards
• FXGuide TV's video coverage of the event

Resident Universal

I just watched the new teaser for Sony's new film, "Resident Evil: Retribution", and I couldn't help think that the title card's design looks awfully similar to a rival studio's iconic logo.