What is Movie News After Dark? It’s the thing that makes you feel better about the world after a long, tough day. And lets just all agree that it’s been a long, tough day for so many people. So a little escapism is in order.
Hobbit Wizardry – We begin tonight with a shout out to our friend Eric Vespe, best known as “Quint” from Ain’t It Cool News. That’s pertinent information, because this excellent article he wrote about Peter Jackson and The Hobbit for Popular Mechanics includes his real name in the byline. It looks like everyone’s using their real name lately. The article is excellent, even if it is dealing in-trade with one of the more disappointing films of the year, according to some.
9 Things You Need to Know About The Hobbit – It’s certain that despite my own pleading review and Rob Hunter’s less than impressed notes, you may still go see The Hobbit as it hits theaters in full force today. So you might as well be prepared, as Cinema Blend would have you. They’ve got a good primer for the who, the what and the why behind all that mountainous walking.
Five Justice League Comics That Would Make Excellent Movies – Who’s going to be the villain? Which heroes will be there beyond the big names? Will Joseph Gordon-Levitt play every character in a mo-cap style ensemble? Plenty will be answered between now and 2015, when WB intends to team up DC’s biggest heroes. But for now, this article from Chris Clow is a nice start for folks wondering where the story may come from.
del Toro on del Toro – Here’s something you don’t see every day: a director analyzing the trailer for his own movie. A trailer commentary. It’s like a trailer for the trailer, only slightly more interesting.
Snubbed by the Globes – THR runs down some of the folks who were snubbed by the Golden Globes nominations, which were announced this week. Among them was Mad Men, Game of Thrones and Matthew McConaughey. The last of which is a crime. Seriously.
Breaking Abbey – Courtesy of the ever-fun Colbert Report, it’s the cast of Downton Abbey reenacting Breaking Bad.
Omar isn’t comin, yo – Donnie Andrews, the man who inspired the character of Omar Little on The Wire, perhaps one of the great characters the small screen has ever seen, died this week of natural causes. Devin at Badass Digest has a nice rundown of some of the ways Andrews informed David Simon’s creation of the iconic character.
A Chris Tucker Renaissance – Nathan Rabin at AV Club has an interesting (to say the least) interview with Chris Tucker, who came back to the big screen with a strong supporting role in David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook. One of the sure surprises of the year was seeing Tucker in a role that did not make me want to rip my ears off.
Black, white and Dead - AMC is planning to re-air the first two seasons of The Walking Dead in black and white, replicating an experiment they successfully pulled off in July with the show’s pilot episode. A call-out to the aesthetic of Robert Kirkman’s book, the re-run will take place this February, French New Wave style.
Most Valuable Movie Art – New Jersey resident Ralph DeLuca paid $1.2 million for an original Metropolis poster (pictured below) by Heinz Schulz-Neudamm, the German expressionist who made the poster for the film by Fritz Lang. It was purchased as part of a Los Angeles bankruptcy court auction. It makes my Mondo poster collection look pretty weak, to be honest.
