GUY RITCHIE TO BRING SHERLOCK HOLMES TO LIFE

'Director' Guy Ritchie is to helm a brand new big screen adaptation of the legendary Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This news has been floating around for a little while now, but I’ve held my tongue on the subject until I heard what the direction was going to be. Upon reading the reports of how the film is going to be handled, I have been cursed with a feeling of impending doom, which is shared by many other people who have heard the news.

You see, instead of depicting Sherlock Holmes as a master of deduction in an atmospheric and weighty drama, he is to leap onto the screen in a comic-book style movie featuring him as a swashbuckling action hero. Due to hit screens in 2010 from Warner Bros, it is conjouring all manner of nightmarish visions of some sub-LXG aberration stuffed with ironic cameos and ‘witty’ one liners. Even the version of Watson to feature in this movie is described as a ‘Sidekick.’ SIDEKICK?! This seems like a train wreck waiting to happen (complete with climactic battle in a big CG waterfall, no doubt). The destruction of another literary character begins! I’m not holding much hope for the project whatsoever, but I do hope it is better than Van Helsing. Mind you, that isn’t asking much. How about Warners save themselves a few million quid, stick Stephen Fry in a chair in front of a camera, and have him read a couple of the original stories. That would be a much more entertaining way of getting Holmes onscreen than the cringefest that we are in for with this film. I hope I am proven wrong. Bring him to the screen faithfully, or not at all!

JANUARY 2008- BOLDLY GOING STRONG

Hey there folks, I hope your collective 2008s are going swimmingly thus far. Following the annual Christmas insanity, we’ve been working on improving the store layout for you guys. Over the festive period we identified a number of areas in the store that would benefit from being rearranged and reworked, so that’s exactly what we’ve done! The store is now split into two ‘halves’, namely a merchandise side and a printed material side. Check out the work so far:

It’s far from finished, but we’re working hard to ensure the place is easy to get around and its easier to find the cool stuff you want.

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So what do we have to look forward to in 2008? There’s going to be a ton more to check out from us online for a start, but I’ll leave you in suspense for now on that score. What I will tell you is that as of now, there are a bunch of cool features being worked on by our infamous/illustrious staff that you’ll be able to check out soon.

There’s a mass of movies and TV to look forward to despite the writers strike (But hey, there’s an actor’s guild strike planned too). Personally, I’m looking forward to two movies in particular, even more than Iron Man and the new Indiana Jones (both of which, incidentally, have me stoked). Those films are JJ Abram’s apocalyptic CLOVERFIELD and the long, LONG awaited final part of Dario Argento’s ‘Tears’ trilogy, namely MOTHER OF TEARS. I’m so excited about the prospect of Cloverfield. I just wish we didn’t have to wait until the start of February to see it!

Speaking of JJ Abrams, have you seen the teaser for his STAR TREK reboot? It shows mercifully little, and for once we have a teaser that actually TEASES the audience. I do love the ‘Under Construction text at the end. I think his version of Star Trek is going to kick all kinds of ass, even if the diehards are still arguing about the cast and the plot. Come on, FIRST CONTACT was a time travel story, and that was incredible. THE VOYAGE HOME was too! I can’t wait to get hold of a model of the new version of the Enterprise.

Then there’s the whole Doctor Who universe continuing to take over out TV screens, with the new DW series on the way as well as the now-playing second series of TORCHWOOD, which is shaping up to be even better than the first!

Stuff on the way

Other goodies I’m looking forward to getting in? let’s see… Just in time for the new RAMBO movie, Sideshow are bringing the original FIRST BLOOD 12” doll back out, and about time too. The premium format Rambo figures always looked awesome, even if the holographic packages were so…hypnotic. The Sideshow guys and gals have also unveiled something pretty damn spectacular in the shape of the STAR WARS: DUEL OF THE FATES Diorama, taken from the final moments of The Phantom Menace. Now, I Know all about the feelings towards that film, but you can’t deny that the last 20 minutes were incredible. Featuring Obi Wan, Qui-Gon and Darth maul locked in their saber duel, this diorama is going to be stunning.

While on the subject of Star Wars, there’s a cool 12” of Luke from Ep4 - Luke Skywalker - Episode IV on the way too, just as he appears in the iconic ‘Twin Suns’ shot at the start of the movie. Another Marvel Premium format figure has been unveiled too, namely the Red Skull, who, as we all now know, was the one behind Captain America’s death (God I’m worried about Bucky taking on Cap’s title- that’s gonna be really hard for Marvel to pull off well).

I suppose the other big thing right now would be Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem. Now, it is no secret that I am, lets say, not a fan of this crossover franchise, but a bunch of my colleagues are, and the Sideshow diorama depicting the Predalien Hybrid diving at the Predator looks like a superb piece of work indeed. Also check out the Predalien Maquette Now, if only they would hire a writer for the next one. You know, someone who can provide an actual script? At least the movie LOOKS cool. I’m with the crowd wanting an actual AVP movie with no humans in it, and no dialogue. A lack of dialogue (just alien screams etc) would be much more believable than the cookie cutter schlock Hollywood are content to churn out over and over.

Anyway, I’m gonna go dribble about Cloverfield in a corner for a while.

Expect a much more active presence here from now on!

Peace and starcharts