- I think it’s great that Monty Python is being honored for outstanding contribution to film and television, and I hope some or all of the show is recorded and made available. But I can still remember when Python reunions were rare events, and a little part of me kind of misses that. That said, when I read the award ceremony would be held in New York, I absolutely did wonder about the possibility of getting tickets. (Unlikely, I know, and probably just as well. That’s the evening of my sister’s wedding rehearsal — which, as a groomsman and her brother, I should probably attend.)
- Speaking of comedy reunions, the Kids in the Hall are get back together again…for a murder mystery miniseries? It sounds interesting if nothing else.
- Remaking Yellow Submarine? In “that creepy 3-D motion-capture technology” used in The Polar Express and Beowulf? Okay, Robert Zemeckis needs to be stopped.
- So you say you’ve never read Bradley Denton’s award-winning SF novel Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede, and you’d like to do so before the movie version comes out? Well, Mr. or Ms. Hypothetical-Type-Person, you’re in luck: Denton is making a free, Creative-Commons-licensed copy available at his website. (And at ManyBooks.net.) It’s been years since I read the book, but I remember being pleasantly surprised at the time. I think it’s time I re-read it.
- And finally, ladies and gentlemen, the Batman fish. Whatever happened to the gilled crusader? [via]
I wish people would stop blaming the Motion Capture for the way Polar Express and Beowulf looked. They looked bad because of the crappy CG character designs. They would have looked just as bad whether they were motion captured or not.
Plenty of movies use motion capture and still look fine. Many of the Golum shots, and all of King Kong’s scenes were motion captured. Motion Capturing was used for Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Fair enough. Regardless, I think Robert Zemeckis has proven himself totally incapable of making it look anything less than slightly creepy, and remaking Yellow Submarine this way seems especially pointless.
Weddings happen every week; Python reunions don’t. Can you get your sister to change her wedding date?