Retroplex Cinema Halloween Special! Hammer Films have been known for over 70 years now as the masters of horror A British Production company founded in 1934, they are best known for their "gothic" horror films but they have also made, science fiction, suspense, and thriller films also. Between the 1950's to the 1970's Hammer was the king of horror films. Hammer films had low budgets, but nonetheless appeared lavish, making use of quality British actors and cleverly designed sets. During its most successful years, Hammer dominated the horror film market, enjoying worldwide distribution and considerable financial success. This success was due, in part, to distribution partnerships with major United States studios, such as Warner Bros. Hammer Films still exist today all though under different owners and are still releasing films, most recently the vampire movie Let Me In.
This Retroplex Cinema is going to take a look at the amazing poster art produced for many of Hammer's classic films. In the 1950's Hammer entered a partnership with Universal Studios, to make their own versions of the classic characters owned by Universal such as, Dracula, The Wolfman, The Mummy, and more. These versions today are considered classic and some horror fans prefer them over the Universal films due to their more graphic nature and slightly better special effects! Posters were a very important part of Hammer Film's marketing campaigns. They would usually have several lavishly designed posters for each film designed by different artists to be used in promoting their pictures. The posters were often quite colorful, imaginative, fantastically designed, and are well sought after today. If a film did go into production then several initial poster designs would be prepared to show how the poster would look. During production some stills would be provided and a final design would be completed combining these reference stills and the initial poster design for a final release poster to be prepared. So below are several examples of Hammer Film posters for you to enjoy this Halloween. Take a look at them and reaqlize that most of these were hand painted and drawn back then, not digital like today's posters. These are truly classic! We also posted several more Hammer posters at our Facebook page so check them out!
The Master of Horror is set to bring you the girl of your dreams. John Carpenter is onboard to direct Darkchylde, based on the comic by Randy Queen about a good hearted southern teen cursed to become the creatures from her many recurring nightmares. Every time Ariel Chylde transforms, she sheds her skin and a new nightmare emerges from her Id to act out her deepest, darkest impulses.
John Carpenter and Sandy King’s Storm King Productions have allied with Randy and Sarah Queen’s Darkchylde Ent. to produce the film, following the release of test footage created by Richard Taylor’s Academy Award Winning Weta Workshop. The promo image below was also released with the announcement!
Everyone be safe tonight and have fun! If you have an awesome costume, go to our Facebook page and drop a picture in the fan photos section of the costume! In the meantime enjoy some Halloween fun!
Suddenly Wizard School Doesn't Seem So Bad
Batman Might Never Fight Crime if Robin Looked Like This
The official website for Transformers: Dark Of The Moon is updated revealing the logo for the film and not much else! Let's just hope that Michael Bay makes a better movie this time than Revenge Of The Fallen.
Superman Lives was to be director Tim Burton's reboot of Superman in the late 90's. The project began development with Nicolas Cage set to star but it obviously never did get made, and probably it's a good thing. People may not have liked Superman Returns but Superman Lives probably would have ended up a disaster. You can find the script floating around online, and let's just say it wasn't very good. Well some lost pictures have shown up on visual effects artists Steve Johnson's facebook page of some work that he did on it when pre-production began before the project got scrapped. Interesting stuff to take a look at.
Hey people! It's Friday. Time for a spooky fun Halloween weekend and time for the best kind of candy! Eye candy!! Enjoy!
Facebook Challenge: If you are on our Facebook page, suggest TMIAJ to your friends! If we get to 150 likes, we will have a TGIF week with a new chick every day! If we get to at least 125, we will do a double shot Friday!
We think the picture above says it all. The fourth Mission: Impossible film will be called Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol. In a news conference in Dubai today the cast and crew made the announcement along with director Brad Bird. "One of the things that I always wanted with the franchise was for it to not have a number after wards, because I haven't made sequels of films, and I never really thought of these films as sequels," Cruise said. "When you see each one of them, I think it's distinctive of each film-maker who has worked on the series. It's a series that I love doing." Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol hits theaters December 16, 2011!
Entertainment Weekly has brand new exclusive images from Captain America: The First Avenger. These include the first looks at Chris Evans in costume as well as the first look at Hugo Weaving as The Red Skull and more!! Check them all out below!
Personally we are very glad that Christopher Nolan will not be filming the conclusion of his Batman Trilogy in 3D and he spoke with The La Times about this after announcing the title of the third film, The Dark Knight Rises. "The title of the new film is 'The Dark Knight Rises' and we will be shooting and exhibiting the film in 2-D. We want the look and feel of the film to be faithful to what has come before in the first two films. There was a large canvas and operatic sweep to 'The Dark Knight' and we want to make a film that will carry on with that look and feel." "Stereoscopic presentation would have significantly changed the feel of certain 'Dark Knight' scenes, such as rooftop and aerial shots in Hong Kong that created vast and startling night vistas. There’s an intimacy at times with spatial illusion of the 3-D effect and we didn’t want to lose scale." "Our ambition for the third movie is to complete a story that has begun. This is not starting over, this not rebooting. We’re finishing something, and keeping a consistency with what’s come before has real value. We’re looking to do something technologically that’s never been done before. Our ambitions are to make a great movie." The Dark Knight Rises is set to be released on July 20, 2012!
Maybe it's just us but it seems to be slim pickings at the comic stores this week, but here's a few to get your hands on!
Superman: Earth One HC
Written ByJ. Michael Straczynski
Art By Shane Davis & Sandra Hope
Forget everything you know about The Man of Steel and brace yourself for a staggering new take on the world's most popular super-hero. Best-selling, Hugo Award-winning writer J. Michael Straczynski red-hot rising star artist Shane Davis team up for this exciting launch of the Earth One graphic novel series. Set in an all-new continuity re-imagining DC's top heroes, Earth One is a wave of original, standalone graphic novels produced by the top writers and artists in the industry. The groundbreaking new line rockets into effect right here with the super-hero who started it all — Superman! What would happen if the origin of the Man of Tomorrow were introduced today for the very first time?
Terminator 1984 #2
Written By Zach Whedon Art By Andy MacDonald
Kyle Reese nears the completion of his mission in the past when he locates Sarah Connor in 1984 Los Angeles. However, protecting her from the Terminator sent to kill her proves more difficult than he realized. In 2029 Kyle had backup, advanced weaponry, and obvious targets--now he's on his own against killer machines that look just like people. Fortunately, Ben is making progress in his own mission-protecting Kyle--as he finally catches up with his friend.
Billy the Kid’s Old Timey Oddities and the Ghastly Fiend of London #2
Written & Art By Eric Powell
Billy the Kid managed to make it nearly a full day in London without passing out drunk and being carted off to jail, which unfortunately wasn't long enough to find Jack the Ripper, who is still on the loose. The remaining members of Fineas Sproule's traveling spectacle of biological curiosities are on the case, but with "freaks" suspected of being behind the Ripper murders, none of them are safe. It's up to a very hung--over Billy and conjoined twins Malcolm and Miles to break out of jail and find the real killer.
According to the LA Times Hero Complex blog, Christopher Nolan has decided to call Batman 3:
The Dark Knight Rises
Interesting title if this is indeed legit and in the interview he also confirms that the Riddler will not be the villian. “We’ll use many of the same characters as we have all along, and we’ll be introducing some new ones,” Nolan said cryptically. He also confirmed the film will be shot in IMAX but not in 3D. Thank goodness for that!.
First up a cool motion poster then second the new music video from Daft Punk featuring new Tron Legacy footage! Tron Legacy hits theaters December 17th!
We all have guilty pleasure films. Some are great, some are bad, and some are just so plain ridiculous that only you may know why you like that film. Today's Retroplex Cinema film could be in all of those categories. Great for it's charm, fun, and cheesy science fiction, so bad for it's terrible acting, crazy costumes, and absurd story, and one your friends may ask, "why in the hell do you like this movie?". The movie is Flash Gordon. It's theme song is unforgettable. "Flashhhh....ah aaaaaa.....he's gonna save everyone of us!" It's cheesiness is undeniable. But it's a hell of a lot of fun to watch and if you grew up with it then you understand why!
Flash Gordon (1980): The movie is based on the long time comic book character of the same name. In this update which hit theaters on December 5th 1980 Flash is a football hero who is skyjacked aboard Dr. Zarkov's rocketship along with beautiful Dale Arden. The threesome are drawn into the influence of the planet Mongo, controlled by Ming the Merciless. Ming has been testing the Earth with unnatural disasters, and deeming it a threat to his rule, he plans to destroy it. He also intends to take Dale as his concubine. Flash must avoid the amorous attentions of Ming's daughter and unite the warring kingdoms of Mongo to rescue Dale and save our world. It's that simple! Normally our plot synopsis' in Retroplex Cinema are a bit longer but that's all you need to know about Flash! It's such a simple science fiction story but yet it's also epic in scale. You ahve winged men helping Flash, women in super tight clothing betraying people, Timothy Dalton has a prince who doesn't want to help Flash unless he passes a gruesome test, and you have a soundtrack featuring music by Queen! It even has a classic 1950's style ending where Ming's ring lying on the floor is picked up by a mysterious hand and the credits asking "The End?". Did critics like it? Of course not and it made no money at the North American box office,. It was a huge hit in Europe however and over the years it has become a cult classic even here in the U.S.A. It has had two DVD releases, one abre bones, and a recent special edition, and was just recently released on Blu-Ray. Flash Gordon still appears in comic books and comic strips tot his day and rumors of a new modern film have been busy all the time. One day it is sure to get made.
Below is a series of screen shots from the movie and artwork to check out!
