It never rains but it pours.
Comic Book Resources is reporting that the house of Len Wein, the creator of Swamp Thing and Lucius Fox for DC and Wolverine for Marvel, and DC’s editor during Crisis on Infinite Earths and Watchmen, has burned down – over half the house was a complete loss, and his dog was killed as well. Wein was largely working as a freelancer at the time of the fire, so these are tough times for him.
CBR will have details on how we can help as soon as they are available.
The Hollywood Reporter is, well, reporting that Mandalay Pictures (the people who brought you “Enemy at the Gates”) has licenced the US film rights for Full Metal Panic. (Our review of the first series in the franchise is here.)
In addition to game designer Dave Arneson being in the hospital due to his cancer worsening, the official Star Wars blog is reporting Aaron Alliston is in the hospital as well, undergoing a quadrupal bypass surgery. If you want to help, there are two ways you can do it:
I’d like to wish Aaron a speedy recovery, and in general I hope he gets well soon.
This story came of the RPG.net forums, and is on the unofficial Original D&D Forums. Dave Arneson – co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons with E. Gary Gygax, is currently in the hospital due to his cancer worsening, and his outlook is poor. I currently don’t have any additional information from that. Arneson’s family has requested that they not be contacted over this – no cards or anything. So, all we can do right now is keep him in our thoughts/prayers/send vibes/etc.
This weekend’s review is the film spinoff of the Patlabor OVA that was my last weekend review. Mobile Police Patlabor – The Movie. It’s not Oshii’s first film for theaters (that would be the first Urusei Yatsura film), but it does pre-date Ghost In The Shell. So, how does early Oshii work for films, and is his cinematic comedy actually funny?
I hope to ($Supreme Being) that this isn’t an April Fools joke – Shacknews.com is reporting that EA is resurrecting Peter Molyneux, cyberpunk strategy game series Syndicate. According to the article, the game has been designed to Starbreeze studios, who developed the Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and The Darkness games.
Anime News Network reports that Wizard Entertainment has ceased publication of its anime and manga magazine Anime Insider, after 7 years of publication. At this time there are no print anime and manga magazines (in terms of news and genre coverage) being published in the United States of America. ADV had previously been publishing a US version of the Japanese anime and manga magazine Newtype but they stopped publication of that in January of last year as part of other cost-cutting measures (including sourcing distribution of their Full Metal Panic licenses to Funimation). The Japanese version of Newtype is still being published.
Anime Vice is reporting that people are finding the English translation of the novel “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” (which the anime series is adapted from) on shelves earlier than the planned street date of April 1st. Apparently some Barnes & Noble’s have been breaking the street date.
So, October 23d of this year we’re getting a US made CGI adaptation of Osaumu Tezuka’s classic manga (and anime, Astro Boy. The trailer for the movie is finally out, through TrailerAddict.com, and other sites for general viewing. It’s embedded below the cut.
Continue reading →
Anime News Network reports that Hayao Miyazaki’s next film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, which is already out in Japan, is has a US release date. The film, which is getting a name-shortening to just Ponyo will open in US theaters August 14th of this year. John Lasseter (Cars, Toy Story) and Miyazaki are co-producing the US release. The English language dub will include the voices of Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Liam Neeson, and Lily Tomlin (among others).