Let it Geek

Ew.com published an  interview of the Master where he unsurprisingly tells us how little he expects from the upcoming Watchmen movie adaptation:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Don’t you have the slightest curiosity about what Watchmen director Zack Snyder is doing with your work?
ALAN MOORE: I would rather not know.

He’s supposed to be a very nice guy.
He may very well be, but the thing is that he’s also the person who made 300. I’ve not seen any recent comic book films, but I didn’t particularly like the book 300. I had a lot of problems with it, and everything I heard or saw about the film tended to increase [those problems] rather than reduce them: [that] it was racist, it was homophobic, and above all it was sublimely stupid. I know that that’s not what people going in to see a film like 300 are thinking about but…I wasn’t impressed with that…. I talked to [director] Terry Gilliam in the ’80s, and he asked me how I would make Watchmen into a film. I said, ”Well actually, Terry, if anybody asked me, I would have said, ‘I wouldn’t.”’ And I think that Terry [who aborted his attempted adaptation of the book] eventually came to agree with me. There are things that we did with Watchmen that could only work in a comic, and were indeed designed to show off things that other media can’t.

Then asked about television here’s what he has to say:

Do you ever relax and just watch television?
Selectively, mostly on DVD. The absolute pinnacle of anything I’ve seen recently has got to be The Wire. It’s the most stunning piece of television that has ever come out of America, possibly the most stunning piece of television full-stop.

That’s a great example of storytelling that takes its time.
Absolutely, that is grown-up television! It’s novelistic. You get to find out about all these tiny different aspects of Baltimore, to build up a huge picture of the city with all of its intricacies — from the wharf side, to the kids in the projects, to the power structure with the boardrooms and police department and governor’s office. And it’s got some great writers: It’s got George Pelecanos and David Simon. And so many wonderful characters, Bubbles, Omar. So yeah, everything else looks pretty lame next to The Wire.

With something like The Wire, do you ever think, I might not mind writing for TV?
That would be a possibility — but there again, I know how hard I have to fight. Apparently, HBO is being absolute princes with regards to The Wire. It’s never had huge audiences, but they’ve kept funding it. They realized that this is a timeless, prestige program. This is one of the reasons why I’ve withdrawn from the comics industry: I do not want to deal with the people in these various industries anymore. But if that could somehow magically be arranged, if I could think of a good enough story, and if it had a chance of being the same caliber as The Wire — then yes, I would perhaps think about it. I do also tend to keep up on comedy programs.

As you can imagine I totally agree with him on The Wire, and I strongly recommend that you watch it if not done already.

They’ve done it, and it’s called Outlander. Ouch.

Ca devait bien finir par arriver: dans le dernier film de M. Night Shyamalan, la nature n’est pas contente et elle le fait savoir aux hommes. Sa théorie (fumeuse) prête aux végétaux le pouvoir de libérer un gaz qui donne envie aux humains de mettre fin a leur jours. L’événement est narré via la cavalcade du couple Mark Whalberg - Zooey Deschanel, accompagnés comme il se doit chez Shyamalan d’un enfant. Leur fuite de ce qu’ils croient d’abord être une attaque terroriste les emmène de Philadelphie à une petite ville, puis les confine à l’isolement en rase campagne.
The Happening parle évidemment de l’Amérique et d’écologie, mais aussi de terrorisme et d’armes à feux, et surtout d’autodestruction. Il rappelle sans trop se mouiller qu’il y a plus matière à flipper de la déforestation ou des tarés à la gâchette facile que des attentats d’AL Qaeda, et Shyamalan fait vraiment mouche lorsqu’il illustre le suicide calme et conscient de notre civilisation : hommes et femmes se suppriment sans hésiter par balles (on y revient) ou à l’aide de machines polluantes (voiture, motoculteur). Comme toujours il réussit à susciter le flip finement, en suggérant plus qu’en montrant et la volonté implacable qui pousse les gens à se suicider est presque plus troublante que leur mort elle-même.
A part la grande force de ces quelques scènes, il faut bien avouer qu’on se fait un peu chier. Mark Whalberg peine à porter le film. Le problème c’est qu’il repose beaucoup sur lui, notamment dans les scènes où la pression retombe. Ce manque de tenue du leading role enferme The happening dans une succession de moments de grâce noyés entre des scènes assez moyennes.
Quoi qu’il en soit, Shyamalan fait partie du club fermé des cinéastes qui ont l’art d’exprimer un point vue pertinent sur la société à travers des films destinés à vendre des seaux de popcorn. Même si The happening n’est pas aussi scotchant visuellement et haletant que la guerre de monde de Spielberg, il va dans le même sens que son maître, et il mérite d’être suivi.

The guy should definitely quit crime and become an artist.

Click here to watch something that definitely looks beautiful.

Those of you who watched HBO’s Rome might have enjoyed Ray Stevenson’s performance as ultra-violent but very kind-hearted Titus Pullo as much as I have. He’s gonna keep ripping off heads and beating his fellow humans to death on the big screens as the Punisher. Bite their tongues out of their mouths Ray!

This time about a stunt shot in the prison. Click on Rorschach’s face to watch it.

The script of this poetic ad is simple, but beautifully written and directed.

Tiji is a TV channel for kids.

Agency: DDB, Paris
Creatives: Pierrette Diaz, Mathieu Elkaim
Agency Producer: Floernec Pottiee Sperry
Production Company : Wanda Productions, Paris
Producer: Jerome Denis
Director/Animator: Yoann Lemoine
Post-Production : Digital District

Mon ami Julien a passé 4 mois en Inde. Petite sélection de ses photos les plus “brobros” (comme on dit chez nous), qui mélangent en vrac animaux rigolos, traditions survivantes et modernité bordélique (cliquez sur une photo pour l’agrandir) :

Si vous aimez les photos de Julien, sachez qu’il sait également tenir différents types de caméras, c’est même son métier. Jetez un oeil à sa bande sur son Myspace et balancez le lien à vos potes producteurs !