Friday 26 June 2009

Films

A Few Good Men (1992)
[#38 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]
Can I handle the truth? I don't know yet, the damn iTunes rental went screwy 35 minutes before the end. (Currently trying to get hold of another copy to finish it off.)

Articles

Aliens, Actresses and Their Likenesses
(from Sideshow Collectibles)
"For the Sideshow Design and Development Team, the Queen Alien and Power Loader Dioramas were a labor of love and a long time coming... Some of you may have noticed that the woman behind the wheel looks a bit less like Sigourney Weaver than you may have expected, and well, here’s the scoop... Due to licensing issues with Sigourney Weaver’s likeness rights, we were unable to use Weaver’s portrait for Ripley in the Power Loader Diorama."
You've got to appreciate their honesty. It's also to their benefit, of course, because if buyers thought it was meant to look like Weaver then it would look like a poor sculpt. You can see pictures of the new face and whole diorama at the link.

EastEnders films Michael Jackson reference by Kris Green
(from Digital Spy)
"EastEnders has filmed a last-minute scene to be edited into tonight's episode referencing Michael Jackson's death... The three other major UK soaps - Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks - all confirmed that no last-minute editing will be made to tonight's episodes."
Says more about EastEnders than anything else.

Gaiman 'won’t write new Sandman comic' by Tim Parks
(from Digital Spy)
Neil Gaiman: "I wanted to do a 20th anniversary story, and it broke mostly because DC Comics would have loved me to do a 20th anniversary story at the same terms that were agreed upon in 1987, when I was a 26-year-old unknown... And my thought was, 'You know what, guys, it really doesn't work like that'. I wasn't going to do a deal at the same terms we had in 1987, and they were not willing to do any better than that."

Inglourious Basterds prequel still on? by James White
(from Total Film)
Lots of interesting bits & bobs about Tarantino's latest and its possible sequel/prequel from an interview with producer Harvey Weinstein. Did You Know fact of the day: for a while, it was going to be a Band of Brothers-esque TV series. That would've been... interesting...

Russell Davies Q&A on Doctor Who and Torchwood by Alan Sepinwall
(from What's Alan Watching?)
A rather good interview with outgoing Who supremo Russell T Davies about the forthcoming Who specials, forthcoming Torchwood miniseries Children of Earth, and his time on the series. Inevitably fans will have heard much of it before, but it's always nice to be reminded of the show's literally phenomenal success.

Torchwood: Children of Earth - BBC One Trailer



The highly atmospheric BBC One trail
for Torchwood: Children of Earth.

Poem of the Week: Thriller

by Rod Temperton

With the world caught up in a fairly understandable frenzy about the death of Michael Jackson, let's have a look at the lyrics of one of his most famous songs in a semi-poetic context.

It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight, you see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes
You're paralyzed

'Cause this is thriller, thriller night
And no one's gonna save you from the beast about strike
You know it's thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight

You hear the door slam and realize there's nowhere left to run
You feel the cold hand and wonder if you'll ever see the sun
You close your eyes and hope that this is just imagination, girl!
But all the while you hear the creature creeping up behind
You're out of time

'Cause this is thriller, thriller night
There ain't no second chance against the thing with forty eyes, girl
Thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight

Night creatures calling, the dead start to walk in their masquerade
There's no escaping the jaws of the alien this time
(They're open wide)
This is the end of your life

They're out to get you, there's demons closing in on every side
They will possess you unless you change that number on your dial
Now is the time for you and I to cuddle close together, yeah
All through the night I'll save you from the terror on the screen
I'll make you see

That this is thriller, thriller night
'Cause I can thrill you more than any ghost would ever dare try
Thriller, thriller night
So let me hold you tight and share a
Killer, diller, chiller, thriller here tonight

'Cause this is thriller, thriller night
Girl, I can thrill you more than any ghost would ever dare try
Thriller, thriller night
So let me hold you tight and share a killer, thriller, ow!

(I'm gonna thrill ya tonight)
Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y'alls neighborhood

I'm gonna thrill ya tonight, ooh baby
I'm gonna thrill ya tonight, oh darlin'
Thriller night, baby, ooh!

The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom

And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the thriller.

Thriller was released in 1984, sung by Michael Jackson with a soliloquy read by Vincent Price. Despite the success of the album of the same title and other successful tracks from it, Thriller the song only reached number four on the US Billboard singles chart and number ten on the UK singles chart. It's probably most famous for its 14-minute short film-like music video.

The lyrics are as close as I could find them on the Internet. (Yes, this is a fairly silly idea for Poem of the Week.)