Just spent a few hours cleaning Development Hell. Archived over 95 movie titles that are long dead...released...etc. If I missed any, let me know...
From now on, I will also be adding up-to-date trailers, teaser, behind-the-scene featurettes on the movies in that database..And making it cleaner to read.
Also, each movie's Dev. Hell section will now look like this:
-Release Date
-Studio
-Director
-Screenwriter
-Cast
-Genre
-Plot
-Trailers & Teasers
Check it out when you get a chance..Later!
I'll put it here because I've been pondering these thoughts for the last few days..The very same thoughts that we all get when a studio does something which baffles the hell out of me.
I'll go into more detail on Sunday's box office but I can sum up my thoughts with this...
"What the hell are they thinking???"
That's what comes to mind when trying to rationalize Universal and Imagine Entertainment's release of American Gangster this weekend.
What the hell are they thinking??
I've been having Grindhouse flashbacks all week long on this one. The Weinstein Company released a 3 hr & 20 minute Grindhouse film against three family movies which ran around 1 hr & 30 minutes. These three family movies had more screens distributed as well and were rated PG or PG-13. Did the Weinstein Company think they had a shot at that kind of competition on Easter Weekend, a family effing holiday??
Enter the same thoughts this week..
Universal and Imagine Entertainment are releasing a film made by three Oscar-categorized stars...Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington and director Ridley Scott.
They're releasing this 2 hr & 37 minute Rated-R film against a 1 Hr & 40 minute Rated-PG family film called Bee Movie?
Why?
Do the math, Universal and Imagine Entertainment. Please do the math...
Bee Movie---1 hr & 40 min--Rated PG---3,928 Screens
American Gangster--2 hr & 37 min---Rated R---3,054 Screens
Who the bloody hell makes these types of release decisions?
Right here if you want to...I'll put up the disclaimer from Freeclassics in notifying you that we are not ripping off George A. Romero by putting this movie up..Here's the disclaimer:
I just want everyone to know... It is public domain. The reason it's public domain is because the Walter Reade Organization failed to put a copyright notice on the original prints. Back in 1968, the United States Copyright Law required a proper notice for a work to maintain a copyright, but Walter Reade failed to do so, so then the movie fell into public domain and George Romero states that Walter Reade ripped him off. And now over 20 DVD companies release Night of the Living Dead and make money off of Romero's film, while Romero makes none. By posting this movie online, people can watch the movie with out having to give money to these DVD companies that don't deserve it.
Enjoy and Have a Great Halloween!
Since I'm having fun uploading these kick ass horror moments in our Video section (add your own if you have some cool ones), why not make a blog so we can discuss them. These are the moments of Horror classics that I truly can't get enough of...Every once in a while, a horror film will come along that gives us great moment-after-great moment. Obviously, in recent years, this is very hard to come by...
I can put up literally 5 kick ass scenes from American Werewolf in London but only find ...say one clip from the original Hostel film. I'll admit it's nostalgia playing a factor in old school horror having better scenes for me. It's also my lack of respect for the latest fads inside the horror genre from Hollywood.
I like more subtle moments. I'll take 10 The Things and 25 Halloweens from John Carpenter over ONE Rob Zombie Halloween or Eli Roth Hostel moment. Again, that's my perogative...If you disagree, chime in below!
But enough about that...Time to put up some cool clips.
1. An American Werewolf in London--The Transformation
http://www.youtube.com/v/AKgjUop81Tg&rel=1
This shows FX make-up artist Rick Baker at his best at a time before CGI came into effect inside Hollywood. If Rick Baker does ANYTHING as good as this for The Wolfman (2009), I'm reserving my seat for that film right now!
2. John Carpenter's The Thing--Norris Transformation
http://www.youtube.com/v/Mk_TEbr7IGU&rel=1
How can anyone do wrong by referencing this wonderful film by Carpenter. It didn't do well at the box office being released in the same summer of the cute and cuddly E.T but nearly 3 decades later, it has become a definite fan favorite for many horror fans.
3. Nightmare on Elm Street-Freddy Kills Glen (Johnny Depp)
http://www.youtube.com/v/s4JwoAg0jnA&rel=1
Long before there any Edward Scissorhands or Jack Sparrow gracing the big screen, Johnny Depp accepted this first feature film role not knowing how popular a movie it would come to be inside the horror genre. Not knowing that this film alone would rescue a studio like New Line being dubbed "The studio that Freddy built".
In a time when other slashers were finally taking heat due to the oversaturation of the slasher genre and the controversy of Silent Night, Dead Night, this film from Wes Craven still stood on top.
4. Ghostbusters---"Cats and Dogs...living together!"
http://www.youtube.com/v/w91-GMc3j7I&rel=1
I know, I know...This is more of a comedy than a horror film, Jarrod. Still, the moments in this film are truly classic. From the opening libary scene to Murray getting "slimed" to Gozer turning his girlfriend (Weaver) into a dog...Some truly classic scenes in this film. As such, it deserves a clip or two. :)
5. Friday the 13th Part 1--The Ending with the boat.
http://www.youtube.com/v/01_qzROR6YQ&rel=1
Knock the series all you want but that kid jumping out of the boat at the end of the first film really scared the shit out of me when I was young. The original, starring Kevin Bacon, was pretty damn good and deserves a mention on the list...Even if the last 5 Jason films didn't hold up very well.
I'll return with more horror films later today..Be sure to share your own favorites too..Let's talk some good ole' fashion horror..After all, it's Halloween. :)
Hey hey Mr. Alien. Nice to see a new face and welcome to our community.
You asked for some tips but nobody can contact you or post comments in your blog so I'll do it here. First, go to your My Profile in the top right of the page. Click on it. You're now looking at your many new features for the site. If I were ya, I'd first click on your Profile tab on your homepage. Go to the "Options" right near your profile picture icon. Click on it. Click the box for "Allow comments on Blog"...That way, people can respond to you. :)
Now, I understand why you put that link in your first blog..Well, the last few blogs have been used for news links. In actuality, this practice is wrong. I have blogged before that I would prefer people to use either the Scoops email (found in the top right hand side) or my personal email:
jarrodhsarafin @ yahoo com
Be sure to title the email "Scoop" or something related to the subject at hand and be sure to leave a name or a "codename" if you prefer so I'll credit you with the scoop if it's good enough to publish.
Nope, our Blogging should be used for Blogs..Life experiences in the world of genre, our various and crazy thoughts, etc. We need to get out of the habit of just linking to a news stories. There's emails for that.
But you did nothing wrong, Alien. You were only doing what you saw others do and you're not familiar with our many site features..Here's something I wrote on one of my first blogs here last year. In fact, if you click on my name or anyone else's name, you can see their entire history of Blogs, Videos, Images, Cheats, etc...Just click on the name and peruse all their uploads. You can read every one of my blogs since the beginning..
But here's the one spotlighting the many site features.
Previous Blog Entry:
Upon the top of that screen you will see the following link options:
-News
-Movies
-TV
-DVD
-COMICS
-Games
-Books
-Toys
-Music
These are accesses to many of Mania's new and older columnists that have come aboard...Quite a few have been providing reviews and news for these sections for a few months now and some are relatively fresh so welcome them aboard when you get a chance. Our many columnists of Mania's sections look forward to hearing from you all..
Below the individual official media sections, you will see the banner and below that, you will see where the new interactive additions come into play, titled "Maniac Stuff"
You will have fun with these new features, Maniac users.
These new features are solely for the users here to play with as a method of releasing their particular messages, building a community of users in a more interactive file sharing manner then before..
There are 8 tabs for Maniac Stuff. (These are the Green Links you see above this Blog).
New Interactive Features: Maniac Stuff
-Forums
The link to our crazy Maniac forums here. They look forward to hearing from you.
-Blogs
If you have Xanga, Myspace, or....Blogs :) , you are quite familiar with this feature. It gives you a chance to catalog your thoughts in a manner similiar to posting on messageboards. Feel free to see my first few blogs about the wonderous experience of The Thing and how I was in Walmart once when some kid didn't even know who Jimi Hendrix was..Basically, blogging is cutting loose with your fellow community members.
-Fiction
If you have a love for writing entertainment scripts, fan fiction stories, fiction stories, poetry, etc...This will be the feature for you to share it to a much larger medium of people. Alot of people will see your imagination here, including people in the industry so have fun spreading your written artistic skills.
-Videos
This tab is for uploading your favorite entertaining videos for everyone to see. From favorite YouTube comedic clips to favorite movie trailers, the choice is in your hands. Go into your "My Profile", click on the Videos tab and select "Add Entry".
-Cheats
Another tab of sharing your knowledge, this time in the manner of video games. If you know any great cheats or hidden eggs on a particular game or console, here's your chance to share it with your fellow Maniacs. Go to your "My Profile", click on the "Cheats" tab and click on "Add Entry".
-Images
Much like the Video sharing option, this is for great Image files on your computer or around the web that you feel like sharing. Just upload whatever gif, jpg, etc you have in mind and it will be there for all to look upon. Go to your "My Profile", click on the "Images" tab and click on "Add Entry".
Movie Posters and Screenshots are very cool to upload when you get a chance. Check out my collection and feel free to put yours up too.
-Reviews
This is a new function which corresponds with the official media sections of the new site. Under the official sections at the top....News, Movies, TV, DVD, Comics, Games, Books, Toys, Music.....If you click on a certain review by one of the many columnists, you will have two options. One is to make a regular comment for the article/reviewer in question and the other option is to make your own review of the movie, dvd, game, comic or show in question. By clicking on the review link at the bottom of the article in question, you will have a couple of options to make your review look more presentable. First is to give your review a title, a grade level(A ,A-,B , etc), a sub-summary and then you can upload a picture which corresponds with the review(of the main star, the cast, a clip, etc). Type in your review and send. By clicking on the "Reviews" tab, you will see a compilation of all the Maniac's reviews in the database.
-Development Hell
Much like our older site, this is an archived system where the user may find a list of movies or games being developed in Hollywood/Gaming Industry. Each movie or game listing has the articles corresponding with their subjects in terms of news dating back to whatever years the production began.
Here's the interesting new feature though that goes along with YOU, the user. Now, you may add your own development heck updates to any number of our Development Hell archive files by going to the Dev Heck article in question and clicking on it. Once there, if there is a update or tidbit of news that should be added from a article across the web that you remember, you can now upload it to that Development Heck piece. Click on the "Add update" link at the bottom of the Dev Heck article and from there you will get transported to a submission form. Be sure to provide the link to the site's article, a title for the update(Iron Man, Spiderman, Eragon, etc etc), and the text of the update itself. It will show up on our main page and all of our profiles under the "Mania Stuff: Development Heck tab, plus be added to the Development Heck article in question.
Done reading? Think you have it figured out? Still have questions? Feel free to ask me any old time.
I'm writing a new blog to emphasize this point once again.
Maniacs, DO NOT put up a suggestion for a future scoop in the comment section. I do check the comments to see what people are thinking but I don't check them before looking for news.
I check my email before looking for news because that's where they should be going to...That's where studios, agents, etc send their stuff and that's where my scoopers are going to send in their stuff.
If you have an interesting news story or breaking story, email me....Email me......Email it.
jarrodhsarafin at yahoo.com
That's the email. Title the email with the story name or "Scoop:...."
Be sure to provide your Maniac name or whatever scooper name you want to go as in the email as well as the link to the source article.
It's been a slow news day so I've spent the last 6 and a half hours updating/editing/zapping our Development Hell Section around.
Even when taking out and deleting 38 movies (My god, why was Pluto Nash, Cabin Fever, Dawn of the Dead on there?!?!?).....6 hours gone and 38 old movies gone and I still haven't made one dent.
Basically, I'll just throw this question out there..And use this blog as a means of keeping track.
Which listings in that Development Hell should not be there? Which movies are so dead, they're not coming back and deserve to be taken out.
Edit: Just took out the Jinx ones after reading that one.
What would you like Development Hell to showcase more of...as compared to less of.
Is it too to vague?
Should it only be dedicated to future comic movies, horror, action movies?
Let me know what you think about the Development Hell list here at Mania.
Jarrod Sarafin
Hello you Maniacs,
You're already familiar with me in terms of writing up our weekly Box Office Reports but I want our communication to be above par.
A news and content site would be nothing without everything clicking on all wheels and I want our site to be rolling down the Web highway with style from this point onward.
If you come across a great news scoop or a great story to print, I want you to do two things.
1. Email the Scoop link above which is right under our Search toolbar in the top right hand side of the site.
AND..
2. Email my personal email... jarrodhsarafin@yahoo.com
I'm always open to discuss news and put it on the website for everyone to read.
If you come across something interesting getting no "play" on the news sites, please feel free to email me. Same for any interesting scoops you have.
When emailing me, please put "News Scoop" in the title of the email and in the email itself, place what name you want accredited to it...If you want your Mania username associated with the story or news, put your username in the email.
If you want a "special" scoop name, put that in your email my direction. If you want your real life name, put that in there too.
Basically, let me know in the email if you want your name for the "tip".
Everyone check in and say hello...I'm looking forward on making our site kick ass.
Jarrod H. Sarafin
I posted this at our forums. I'll post it here too for those of you whom are afraid to discuss topics over there.
Yes, you heard me. "Afraid".
I want you to post your Top 10 Comic Movies of the Last 10 Years.
Tell me and us your thoughts and you know what? Speak your mind! We are ALL fellow Maniacs here. I keep hearing from the same 5 individuals when I want to hear from you ALL. If someone tells you how much your number #4 ranked movie sucks, ignore them...or better yet, tell them right back "Oh well, I liked it more then you!"
To get it started, I'm putting mine up which has caused already a raised eyebrow from my brother in law and my best friend because they disagreed with one or two of my rankings..
Here it is..
My Top 10 Comic Based Movies of the Last 10 Years.
1. Superman Returns
2. Batman Begins
3. 300
4. Spider-Man 2
5. Sin City
6. Spider-Man 3
7. X-Men 2
8. Hellboy
9. X-Men 3
10. The Punisher
Honorable mentions from 11-beyond:
11. Fantastic Four
12. Spider-Man
13. The Hulk
14. X-Men
15. V For Vendetta
Why Superman Returns wins and why I could give a shit about arguements against it. To me, it's all about the "superhero" effect when talking a comic movie...and there was no greater "superhero" moment then what Superman embodied in the last film...from the plane crash which was the whole spirit of being a "superhero" to the moment where he's basking in the sun. The character has been around for almost 80 years now for a reason, he is the true essence of a "superhero".
The reason Superman Returns beats Batman Begins....even if I fawn over Nolan and the fact that I can watch Batman Begins a billion times with fanboy love...is the fact that Batman Begins is a origin tale...It's a setup....whereas Superman Returns continues onward without the origin problems that so many studios are doing today..
Oh and as much as I love Sam Raimi and Spider-Man 2 & 3, I'd like to see Spider-Man stop a plan from crashing at "Whatever" G-Force per Second....like Superman just did. How many webs would a Spidey have to create to stop a plane from crashing or save a city all at once. :-)
Jarrod Sarafin
Tags: top 10 comic movies of the last 10 years
Okay, this has been a rather internet heated topic this week.
As you may have heard, Capcom has announced that the previously PS3 exclusive Devil May Cry 4 will be going Multi-Platform instead.
This has caused a frenzy of console fanboys going at each other.
Here's how I look at Capcom's decision to multi-platform DMC4 and not exclusive it to PS3.
There are two groups of gaming minded individuals.
Group 1: People whom are thinking like a 3rd party developer logically.
Group 2:People whom are thinking like a fan of certain console(The Playstation brand)
One has a personal investment in just one central console/company (ala FANBOY)and one group has no personal investment, they look at all outside factors and base their opinions off that.
The heated conversation popping up over DMC4 going multi-platform seem to mainly incorporate both sides of these two groups of opinions. I think the main reason this is occuring is because of the manner in which the different console communities have split over the last few years. Alot of the arguements between console focus groups (people who are loyal to only ONE console over another) is the now much talked about "exclusive" banter between sides. The more "exclusive" titles a particular console has seems to give ammunition to the people involved in fanboy arguements(whether the fanboy is a Xbox, Nintendo, or Sony focused person). It always comes down to "Well, we have this exclusive!" for our console vs another "Yeah, well we have this one!" ego match between the various fanboys on each side.
By the mid-April to May, the console sales will be somewhere around:
Xbox360: 11-12 million console sales
PS3: 2-3 million console sales
Wii: 6-7 million console sales
Companys like Capcom will be reluctant to making an exclusive contract with Sony in their short term forecasts for this reason. That's as simple as it can be stated. 3rd party Developers are not going to commit one of their products to such a small percent of the gaming market share community around the globe because the number one motivation behind any game developer is profit margin. Capcom has investment portfolios to look after when it comes to short term cause/effects and profit margins. They have to look after their investors above everyone else when it comes to seeing which cost/expense effective decision will work and which will not work by the end of their fiscal year totals.
This is the main reason why 3rd party developers will be hesitant towards making their products exclusive towards PS3 at this time. The only way for SCEA to maintain unique games at this time is for them to develop their exclusive games themselves (ala SCEA develops the God Of War title).
(They developed God of War 2 to PS2 only, they couldn't even get that right-Ed)
LOL Go back to bothering MM, Ed.
I'm sure that Sony will attract 3rd party developers into making exclusive contracts with them in 2008-2009 when the market share for consoles has more of a "balance" between themselves. PS3 will most likely have 5-8 million consoles sold by the END of the 2007 year. When they have this amount of consoles readily available for developers like Capcom, they will will then have the ability to attract more exclusive contracts in 2008 or 2009 product titles.
For now, though, 3rd party developers have to look at the short term profit margins of the fiscal 2007 year for their investors. They have to develop their products towards the biggest console market share available to achieve those profits and that sometimes means going against the grain of their normal decision making when it comes to "exclusive" rights to Sony.
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