Digital eye candy ... Final Fantasy. Woah!

When's the last time you took a long, hard, serious look at anime, and digitally animated movies, not to mention the games that either spin off them or spawn them?

You might not have looked in a while ... I haven't. I just did. I'm fairly speechless here (and for AG that's saying a lot).

What can I tell you? There's going to come a time when human actors are going to be out of work! What they're doing with animation these days is aready enough to blow you away ... you know what this is going to be like in another 10 years?!

Take a squizz at this ... and think of Storm Comstantine's Wraethu while you're squizzing ... because both these characters are guys -- namely Sephiroth and Cloud, villain and hero, from Final Fantasy.






What can you say? Johnny Quest was never like this!

Christian Bale must be blushing (again) when Auntie Beeb does an oopsie

You just have to chuckle, but I can also imagine some red faces -- and Christian Bale must be among them. Check this out:

BBC Breakfast has avoided censure by Ofcom after it quickly apologised for broadcasting an unedited version of Christian Bale's foul-mouthed tirade on a film set.

On 16 February, the BBC One breakfast news show featured part of the sound-clip in which Bale is heard losing his temper with a member of the film crew.

After introducing the Bale item, the word "fucking" was heard almost immediately.

The clip was stopped and the presenters apologised stating that the clip should have been edited.
The Ofcom code states that "most offensive language must not be broadcast before the watershed".

The BBC explained to Ofcom that two versions of the Bale rant item existed in its production database – one containing the most offensive language and one with this language bleeped out for transmission.

Apparently the original unedited version was played by mistake because the two different versions were not clearly labelled.

Ofcom said it considered the matter adequately resolved in view of the broadcaster's swift action to stop the clip and apologise for offence to viewers.
(From http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=43399&c=1)

Nice one, Auntie.

The problem is, Christian Bale might never live this down!




Along the same lines ... but it's a very, very safe bet that it's a clever publicity stunt ... is Gary Oldman's absolutely hilarious tirade ostensibly aimed at a bunch of TV or magazine journalists who appear to be pursuing/harassing him. It's all about a movie that must need some advertising -- because this is just about the best kind of advertising it could get. God knows, even I want to see it now, to figure out what the brewhaha is about! Have a butcher's at this:



I laughed and laughed. And I'm honestly curious to know what the heck The Perfect Sleep is all about. Good one, guys: the advertising worked ... and you got the Internet to spread it "virally" for nothing, right?! Glad to help.

Richard Dean Anderson: Macgyver rides again, big sceen style!

Richard Dean Anderson fans: you want good news to wind up today's business?! It couldn't be better, and AG is wearing a mile-wide smile!

Cast an eye upon this, from Reuters:

"It will take more than twine, bubble gum and a pencil to do it, but the science-oriented adventure series "MacGyver" is being developed as a feature film for New Line.

"MacGyver" ran from 1985 to 1992 on ABC. Richard Dean Anderson, later of "Stargate: Atlantis" and "SG-1" fame, starred as an incredibly resourceful secret agent for the Phoenix Foundation who frequently would escape from dangerous situations with ingenious and lightning-quick engineering trickery.

Two telefilms starring Anderson aired in the years after the show's cancellation. The character eventually achieved enough cultural recognition to become a reference for anyone attempting to jury-rig a solution out of household items. "Saturday Night Live" took the concept to the next level with its "MacGruber" spoofs starring Will Forte.

Raffaella De Laurentiis, daughter of veteran producer Dino De Laurentiis, is producing the movie through her Raffaella Prods. along with Martha De Laurentiis and series creator Lee Zlotoff. Dino De Laurentiis is executive producing.

No writer has been hired. The studio hopes to find a script that acknowledges the concept's pop-culture profile yet still makes for a serious and fun adventure movie.

"We think we're a stick of chewing gum, a paper clip and an A-list writer away from a global franchise," said New Line's Richard Brener."
http://www.reuters.com/article/filmNews/idUSTRE52F0PX20090316

And if that isn't reason enough to hop up and do a small dance for the sheer joy of it, what is? It's also MORE than reason enough for some eye candy!

Wedding Bells for James Spader and William Shatner

This, from the Windy City Times ... and don't you just love this? Bromance. Has to be the cutest term dreamed up for the "zone between the clear-cut genders" since someone in the UK coined "omnisexual" ...

From the “Whatdya-Call-It-If-2-Guys-Really-Really-Like-Each-Other-But-Ahem-Aren't-Gay?” file, the Chicago Tribune ( Dec. 16 ) and the Chicago Sun-Times ( Dec. 31 ) more-or-less jointly announce the “bromance.” The Trib lists the TV shows Scrubs with J.O. & Turk, House with House & Wilson, Heroes with Hiro & Ando, Entourage with Vince & Eric and How I Met Your Mother with Ted & Barney, while the Sun-Times had a story on Boston Legal with Denny & Alan. All of these pairs would be married if they were gay ( and it was legal ) ; they are thisclose. The Sun-Times even shows a pic of Denny ( William Shatner ) and Alan ( James Spader ) , who DO get married for plot reasons waltzing around at the wedding: Spader's the lead. Some movies with this theme are in the offing: there's going to be an awful lot of dialog about how one guy can tell another guy he loves him without being, you know, uhhh, gay.
http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=20689

Want more? This is great ... and so's this!

Kewel. I mean, this is cute as all get out, and so without further ado, let's get into the pictures!

Brad Pitt: give the man some credit -- he's an actor!

There's a curious little piece running on The Times of India, and it just leaves you shaking your head. I've heard of some dumb things, but this just about takes the cake.

Pitt out of film for his good looks
Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt is out of upcoming movie State of Play as the director on hindsight felt he was too good-looking to play the role.

Pitt was originally to star in the big-screen thriller as a journalist but the actor quit during pre-production, citing concerns with the script, contactmusic.com reports. Gladiator star Russell Crowe was roped in as a late replacement for Brad to star opposite actor Ben Affleck's character of a Congressman in the film. Director Kevin McDonald is convinced that Crowe's rough features are more suited to the role. "In a way, I was lucky it didn't work out with Brad. The relationship between the journalist and the politician was meant to be between somebody who feels inferior, who's a bit of a schlump, who kind of can't get a girlfriend, and somebody he's looking up to and admires his polished politician friend," he said. "That is not the dynamic of a Brad Pitt. He's not looking up to anyone thinking 'Oh, I wish I could have your girlfriend'," he added.

Here's the rub, boys and girls: THE MAN IS AN ACTOR. He isn't actually Achilles. Nor doe she race about machine-gunning people. Nor was born at age 90 and grow younger throughout life. All these parts are ACTING.

And he's not supposed to be able to act the part of someone who looks up to others and envies their girl friends?!

I would venture to say that if Mr. Pitt decided to play the part of a blind leper, he'd do just fine. Being an ACTOR. Professionally. Meaning, "getting paid to do the job and being bloody good at it."

Anyway, Russell Crowe will also be just fine, but -- and Russ, we love you, man! --it's just the principle of the thing, you know?!

Okay, AG: off the soapbox and on with the eye candy. Here we go:

Matthew Broderick: happy birthday 2009

And it's happy birthday to Matthew Broderick, who turns 46 today (same age as AG). Is it really 25 years since Ladyhawke?! Good gods, it is. I mean ... that's a quarter of a century! I was a mere child when I sat in the dark, eating popcorn and watching Rutger Hauer turn into a wolf, and Matthew Broderick picking locks --! Marvelous memories, which I relive every time I play the DVD. Here's a bit of trivia for you: did you know, Ladyhawke was only his fourth credited role? True.

And Matthew Broderick went on to do loads of great projects, not just as an actor (for instance, Godzilla), but also as a voice artist (ex., The Lion King). In fact, I'm remembering all the way back to Wargames, and wishing I had a DVD of that one. Note to self: get one!

So -- happy birthday, man! Have a great one. (And now, shut up AG, and paste in the pictures -- sheesh, you think people visit this page because they want to listen to you babble on?)

Gary Oldman ... happy birthday, 2009!

It's also happy birthday to Gary Oldman today ... and I can't believe he's 51. Mind you, I've enjoyed his movies for a couple of decades now, so I guess he must be!

His roles are so diverse, you're just left blinking. He has a gift for accents that is quite the equal of Johnny Depp ... in fact, I don't think I've heard Gary Oldman sound the same in two consecutive movies! My favorites from among his movies? It's almost impossible to choose. Immortal Beloved, Air Force One, The Dark Knight, The Fifth Element, Lost in Space ... the Harry Potter movies ...?! Like I said, utterly impossible to choose.

So I'm not going to choose -- I'm just going to nominate Gary Oldman as one of my most favorite actors, wish him Happy Birthday, and get on with the eye candy ... which is the whole reason you're on this page anyway, right? (In other words, shut up already, AG, and paste in the pictures. Right.)