Personally I find Robert Rankin's books a bit crap but there are a few other people at this signing that may be of interest.

BRIGHTONCOMICON audio book signing
Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Wednesday 13th February 5pm-6.30pm

Listed outside FP as appearing at the signing:

Robert Rankin
Rupert Degas
David Warner
Sarah Douglas
Jason Isaacs
Andy Serkis




EDIT: I got my Rankins wrong

The year it moved to Liverpool was the year CBBC started slowly reducing the age of its target demographic by about half. Grange Hill mainly concentrated on years 9 -13 (well it did during my time) and rightly so, it was basically the only young adult programming around. Then all of a sudden you're expected to care about snotty twerps in year seven who are too smart-arsed for their won good.

Grange Hill also got shit when Arnie left/died/whatever, I don't remember.
I loved Arnie.

I want Agent Z and the Penguins from Mars back.

And the latest celeb to enter re-hab is . . .

I'm amazed she lasted as long as she did.

I remember seeing her on Letterman when Spiderman came out. It was near impossible to work out if she was really, really dumb or stoned.

I guess now we know.

Kilmer to voice KITT.

Odd, isn't it? Although gentlemanly of Arnett to drop out over the silliest conflict of interest ever.

The Hitchcock-themed Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue.

I like Naomarnie the best.

Rene Zellweger looks odd.

I'd love to see Lifeboat remade with that cast.

I mean, it's a classic and shouldn't be touched, but it's be great to see a film featuring all those people.

I also like Seth Rogen in North By Northwest and Hirsch/McAvoy in Strangers on a Train.

I reckon I'd watch a remake of North By Northwest starring Seth Rogen.

You might have to make do with The Pineapple Express, which is about as close and we'll ever get.

Cronenberg/Hwang /Shore operatic "Fly" definitely coming to LA in the fall.

I'm beside myself with morbidly curious excitement.

Video Of Making Of Hitchcock VF

Randy Quaid Banned From Equity For Life

That is quite excellent.



I was about to say the same thing! But her face hasn't looked right for years.

Thanks for posting those, I've been looking forward to seeing them. The Rogen one is hilarious.

I may have to invest in a copy. Maybe two so I can cut one up.

Vertigo looks great. Zellweger is almost unrecognisable

Naomi Watts does good Tippi.

Not surprising that she's apparently been cast in The Birds remake, really.

Say what?!

20th Century Fox sues Warner Bros. to stop production of Watchmen.



I'm trying to figure out who she does look like.... not herself, and clearly not Kim Novak. But she looks exactly like.... someone.

For fucks' sake.

I meant to post this yesterday, but for those that are interested, The Times are doing a series on screenwriting this week.

I've picked up yesterday's copy, but haven't had the chance to look through it yet.

You can find out more here: Times Film School.

She looks exactly like Sharon from Eastenders.

Sinatra's friend, shakra lady.

Sinatra knew Shakira? I though the died before she broke?

She does look slightly like Eve Arden...

How Insects Have Sex...Starring Isabella Rossellini

Ooo... According to IMDBs news roundup, Jane Fonda's in trouble, having said what is described as "the 'c' word" on live television during a Today Show interview concerning The Vagina Monologues.

I hope no children were listening! We don't want them growing up to be foul-mouth Comsymps like ol' Hanoi Jane, do we?

Seriously, though, what's the big deal? Why is it okay to show someone's head being blown off on television, but if anyone happens to utter a profanity or show a little more skin than usual, Brent Bozell and his minions threaten to destroy the networks (or something) unless the FCC fines them several hundred thousand dollars?

As the headline on their website has it, "NBC Assaults Families with Offensive Language on Today Show." There's even a convenient link to a prepared complaint form that you, too, can send to the FCC expressing your outrage.

Is anyone laughing at us right now, and our schizophrenically puritanical television standards? You'd be right to. I wish I could, but it's more maddening than amusing for someone who has to live with it.

Like any children are going to be within listening range of The Today Show. It's white noise to them even they are in the room.

I never watch it, either.

I'm just sick of Bozell the Clown and his ilk trying to force their insane standards of decency on the rest of us.

It's not that I want more profanity or nudity on television, but I wouldn't mind allowing such things to be broadcast without fear of considerable fines and/or lawsuits. These days, most cable boxes/satellite receivers have parental controls built into them, and televisions have the V-Chip, so why not start using those rather than punishing broadcasters?

As far as I'm concerned, it's far more in keeping with the spirit of the First Amendment to allow me to choose what I watch, rather than someone else choose for me. If you don't want your kids watching NYPD Blue, unplug the television or block the channel. Don't sue so those who do want to watch it have to settle for a watered-down, sanitised version.

Not that I've ever watched an episode of that show, either.

You should, it's very good.

So, the Onion's AV Club (the part of the Onion that's actually serious) is reporting that there are fresh rumours of an Arrested Development film on the horizon. It's nothing substantial, and I'm sure they're just trying to jump-start some buzz to make something happen, but it's worth mentioning just to get said buzz going.

I think Jason Bateman has been talking about the possibility of a film at Juno press junkets. I remember him saying that the cast have been approached but they had to wait until after the writer's strike had finished before they could actually discuss anything.

This time, apparently, it's Tambor.

That would seem to support the idea that the writers and producers have been in contact, though whether or not they will be able to get it off the ground is another matter. I suppose the current high-profile of Bateman and especially Michael Cera could help.

ENCHANTED

Now available to pre-order at Wolloworths....only £12.97



(free home delivery)

Depp, Law and Farrell to finish Heath Ledger's work on The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Toshiba drops out of HD DVD war.

I can't say I'm surprised, given how things have gone over the last couple of months.

Does anyone have a HD-DVD player?

We do.

Gutted...

Having a PS3 might just be an even better thing if Blu-ray wins.

So do I, and I love it.

The same high-quality video and audio you get from Blu-Ray, with fewer of the archaic firmware/incompatibility issues, not as many HDCP hang-ups, and the HD-DVD format is regionless so you're free to import titles from elsewhere that are Blu-Ray exclusive in your own country.

And it absolutely rocks as an upconverting player for standard DVDs.

Shame mine doesn't do PAL. Oh well; I've got the one downstairs for that...

Nicholas Cage Sues Kathleen Turner For Libel

I'm a bit tempted to get the xbox add on if it dumps price in light of this news. The movies themselves are gonna be scrubbing price as well in a bid to get them off the shelves and out of the warehouses. The library might be limited, and pretty much fixed now, but if it's cheap enough, it doesn't really matter.

But then you'll end up with the problem of having a library of disks you won't be able to play in a few years, surely it's better to go to Blu-Ray now?

ETA:



I thought Blu-Ray was supposed to be better quaility because you could get more data on the disks?

Unless that's a subtle jibe at the fact that my xbox probably won't survive a few more years, I'll still have the box and the add on drive. You're probably right though. I should really just bite the bullet. I wonder if they'll finally agree to bring out a Blu Ray add on now as well? They could whack an HDMI socket on the back and really make it worthwhile as well.

Also, Blu Ray can hold more, but the newer HD-DVDs would have held more still, and the newer Blu Rays more again. Everything is fluid these days. Nothing has any stamina. I have a stack (well, three or four) of memory cards that are basically obsolete, all 16MB, 32MB and 64MB. The standards are still up to date, XD and Memory Stick Duo, but the size makes them pointless. They're less than two years old as well. My 1GB SD and Memory Stick Pro Duos are toeing the line now too. I read that 32GB SDHC cards have been confirmed now by two manufacturers. Although at £260 or £350 quid, that's a bit steep.

I doubt I'll upgrade to Blu-Ray (or HD DVD for that matter) for a LONG time yet. I'm happy with my DVDs as is, and as cheap as they are now. There's no real need unless I get a lovely home cinema system, which will probably be never anyway.

Agreed. The vast majority of film and tv in existence was not filmed in HD. Regardless of any remastering that might go on the picture quality available from the upgrade is likely to be nominal at best. It just isn't worth the money when the same cash could buy a huge pile of cheap DVDs.

Capacity does not necessarily equal quality. For a while, Blu-Ray films had been encoded using the old MPEG-2 technology, while the same film on HD-DVD had been encoded with the newer, higher-quality VC-1 codec.

Theoretically, the higher capacity could allow for a higher bit rate, but it hardly makes a difference when you're using outdated codecs.

That's probably changed now, but there aren't many tricks the Blu-Ray disc has that HD-DVD hasn't been using for a couple of years now. And HD-DVD was far ahead in terms of web-enabled content, which was admittedly anemic, so it's not a hard standard to overcome...

If they'd only found a way to develop one unified tech, it would be great.

As for me, I picked up my HD-DVD player for three reasons: Planet Earth; Blade Runner; and as a good upconverting player for my standard DVDs. And, in those respects, it is perfect.

Planet Earth looks sexy on Blu Ray as well

I'm not sure that's right. Something filmed on actual film would surely have a considerably higher resolution, in the same way that a colour 35mm photo film has an equivelant megapixel count of between 8 and 12. When a movie is converted to a digital source like DVD it was effectively downscaled. That doesn't matter, because the same thing happened when it was broadcast, and the screen couldn't show any more info anyway. Now, you wouldn't then upscale the downscaled copy would you? You'd go back to your original, and downscale it less.

A PAL DVD is 0.4 megapixels (720*576)
A widescreen HD braodcast at 1080p is 2.1 megapixels (1920*1080)

I'm sure they could get that digital resolution from a good quality film couldn't they? And surely, a professional movie filmed on digital would have been filmed on a camera with a higher resolution than 0.4 megapixels, as cinema projectors would be able to show it at much higher than SD TV resolutions.

It isn't, at least for film as I understand it.

If something exists on film I believe it can be rescanned for HD, which is what has been done with the original Star Trek, for example.

I believe that most feature films can be converted to HD because masters for them exist on film, but that there will be problems with some TV series - such as the original Doctor Who - because masters for some episodes no longer exist on film.

Problems may also occur with special effects shots, which is why the HD DVD release of Star Trek has CGI in place of the original effects (which apparently just didn't look right after the transfer).

With regard to the quality of HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray, the basis for my comments on Blu-Ray being better was the fuss Michael Bay kicked up when it was announced that Transformers was only going to be released on HD DVD, something he was against because fans "wouldn't get the best picture quality".

If anyone IS thinking of buying a cheap HD DVD player now, Play has the Toshiba EP30 for £77.99 plus two HD-DVDs, which i think are a Bourne movie and 300. Reg Hardware gives it a prety good write up too. Normal price, £200. I t apparently does a good job upscaling DVDs as well. I am quite tempted, but I might hold out and see if it comes down even further. HD-DVDs themselves haven't come down much yet, but apparently ebay is being flooded, so there should be some bargains to be had.