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Tuesday, August 7, 2007

New Home!!!, Books, Movies & More...

Not too many updates today and that’s mainly because my wife & I finally closed on our first home this past Wednesday—a 4-bedroom (plus a den), 2-car garage, new construction with a tiny backyard, which is just the way I like it since I hate mowing the grass ;) Anyways, because of our schedules it’s a little difficult finding the time to get everything we need done, so all of our spare time is pretty much being devoted to the house, with our sights set on being fully moved by August 20th. So, just a FYI in case updates seem a little slow the next few weeks…

News & Tidbits:

First off, for any Lian Hearn fans out there, I recently learned that the winner of the Tales of the Otori GIVEAWAY will get a nice little bonus—some signed bookplates courtesy of Ms. Hearn herself! I’m not sure how many bookplates there are, or which ones, but it definitely makes a great prize even better. So sign up HERE for the giveaway and look out for my review of the last book in the series “Heaven’s Net Is Wide” later this month (hopefully). And following up on my REVIEW for Joe Haldeman’sThe Accidental Time Machine”, there’s now an extract from the book HERE thanks to the author.

In other book related news, Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist is hosting a couple of giveaways that I’d recommend signing up for, including a copy of Daniel Abraham’sA Betrayal In Winter” (Sign Up HERE), which is another book I hope to review soon, and “Sandworms of Dune” by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson (Sign Up HERE). Regarding the former, FantasyBookSpot has their own giveaway going HERE for SIGNED copies of “A Betrayal In Winter”.

Newsarama has been keeping busy with a number of interesting articles including an INTERVIEW with Spawn creator Todd McFarlane that was conducted for the Write Now! magazine issue #16, an INTERVIEW with Austin Grossman, the author of the debut novel “Soon I Will Be Invincible”, NEWS on Wonder Woman and Batman animated DVDs, the latter of which would take place between the films Batman Begins and the forthcoming The Dark Knight, and over at the blog, there is this interesting piece HERE on 44 things said at the Warren Ellis Comic-Con panel. Newsarama also got an exclusive scoop HERE on a Darkchylde motion picture. I’m sure not many have heard of the Darkchylde comic book, but it was a pretty cool indie back in the day that was probably best known for its titillating artwork :D

In film adaptation news, artist Michael Hauge’s (The Wind In the Willows, The Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit) upcoming graphic novel “In The Small” has been picked up by Warner Bros. Pictures. According to Variety, Universal has gained the rights to Daniel Silva’s bestselling series of spy novels featuring recurring character Gabriel Allon, the latest of which was just released on July 24, 2007—“The Secret Servant”. Variety also reports that Guy Walks Into A Bar has acquired the rights to the first-person shooter videogame “Painkiller” from DreamCatcher Interactive. Another videogame, id Software’s (Doom, Quake) Return To Castle Wolfenstein, has been secured by producer Samuel Hadida (Silent Hill, the Resident Evil franchise) with Roger Avary (Beowulf, Silent Hill) writing & directing. And Virgin Comics in cooperation with New Regency (The Fountain, Mr. & Mrs. Smith) is turning the comic book Virulents into a movie with John Moore (The Omen, Behind Enemy Lines) directing. Finally, just how desperate is Hollywood for material? First, I hear that Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator) is involved in a movie based on the popular board game Monopoly, and then Disney recently purchased the rights to “The Dangerous Book For Boys”, basically a nostalgic compendium “covering essential boyhood skills such as building tree houses, learning how to fish, finding true north, and even answering the age old question of what the big deal with girls is…” Doesn’t exactly sound like blockbuster fare, but then again I didn’t think Disney could make a successful movie based on a theme park ride (Pirates of the Caribbean) and look how that turned out :)

In other news, Universal is remaking the Japanese ninja film “Shinobi” (2005), which is based on the book, “The Kouga Ninja Scrolls” (1959) by Futaro Yamada. There’s actually an anime based on the novel as well called “Basilisk”, which I’ve seen and is pretty interesting. The remake is supposed to be a modernization of the story according to Variety. Also being remade is the film Death Race 3000 (1975) that starred Sylvester Stallone (Rambo, Rocky) & David Carradine (Kill Bill, Kung Fu), with the updated version to be directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, AvP) and starring Tyrese Gibson (Transformers, Waist Deep).

Finally, IGN has a couple of exclusive movie trailers to check out: The Nines starring Ryan Reynolds (Smokin’ Aces, Van Wilder) & Hope Davis (The Matodor, The Weather Man) HERE, and Gabriel HERE, which is about warring angels and looks like a cross between Underworld & The Matrix.

8 comments:

John Dent said...

Congratulations on the new House, it looks great!

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the house! I hope you can get a hamburger now.

Robert said...

Hey, thanks! I might have to wait on that hamburger though. Since the house is brand new, and because we've been renting an apartment we have to purchase everything including a fridge, washer / dryer, stove, landscaping, etc. So, we still got a lot left to do, but it's definitely worth it :D

Anonymous said...

Hi Robert.

House looks great! Congrats! Hope the move in goes smooth. I know how stressful it can be, believe me!!;)

All the Best.

Robert said...

Thanks reanimated. It's definitely a bit stressful and now our son is sick :(

Anonymous said...

damn nice crib

David Anthony Durham said...

Robert, I know well the many stresses of moving and buying a home for the first time. It's all worth it, though, of course. Congrats on it.

Robert said...

Thanks David! It is absolutely worth it, and we can't wait until we're finally living in the new place :)

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