After leaving the theaters on Tuesday and seeing what Spielberg and Abrams brought to he masses, all I had in my head was this cheesy quote. “Storytelling and Filmmaking together again!”.

Yes I am aware of the bold statement, but nothing since the likes of The Goonies, Stand By Me, E.T. have we seen a story and filmmaking collide like I did with Super 8.

Super 8 follows the story of a few small town film geeks. Middle school brace face’d kids through what seems to be just a train crash. A small town feel, a small town look, a small town group of kids, living in a larger than life situation. Did I tell you there is some sort of monster thing that has been unleashed also? Pay attention to it, it’s a great realization in the end!

We have something special on our hands here folks! Back to the glory days of when a storyline was what it was about. We could look past bad acting if the story was great. We could look past terrible special effects if the story was great.

Why can’t we have both? Get deep for us writers, directors, producers. I want to get to know these kids!

Well in Super 8 you do, you live life right alongside them, you feel their pain, their want for something bigger. They grow up a bit before our eyes on the screen. They fall in love on screen and you feel it. They almost get blown up on screen and you sure as heck feel and hear it.

The special effects are not over done, but done so well that it feels as if you are stuck in the late 70′s era. It is very well done.

Amazed at the clothing, the cars, the bikes, even down to the haircuts with big lamb-chops, they did this one right.

J.J. and Steven really brought us something special. Something that I feel has been missing from the theater for a while. A story-line that you want to see unfold from the beginning. From the opening scene to four months later you want to be involved in the story, their story.

Filming of The Case began on the tracks and the film ends on the tracks.

This is a must see movie in my eyes. A film that people of all ages will enjoy! Make sure to shell out your 11 bucks and sit with eyes wide open. I know I did!

Get ready, because like it or not, everyone’s favorite archaeologist is headed back to the big screen. Indy 5 is moving forward, albeit slowly.

Forget the fact that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull faced almost immediate fan backlash, or that Lucas and Spielberg haven’t exactly been wowing the masses with their recent attempts at blockbuster adventure. None of it seems to matter, because it looks like all three of the names needed to get this thing off the ground are approaching agreement.

 Harrison Ford was talking to the BBC recently and he confirmed what Shia LeBeouf was muttering over the summer; the trio have an basic story idea for the fifth film in the Indiana Jones franchise. From Ford’s mouth, this is what they have got: “Steven [Spielberg] and George [Lucas] and I are sort of agreed on a germ of an idea and we’re seeing what comes of it.”  There’s no scriptwriter in place as of yet, and literally nothing formal has transpired. From Harrison’s elaboration it looks like the ball is in George’s court for now:
 

“The process works like this… We come to some basic agreement and then George goes away for a long time and works on it. Then Steven and I get it in some form, some embryonic form. Then if we like it we start working with George on it and at some point down the line it’s ready and we do it.”

Considering how long it took to get Indy 4 moving, this news hardly means we will see another Indy anytime soon. Then again, there’s definitely a sell-by date for this franchise and its leading man–a date many think has long since passed– and Lucas can’t sit on this one all that long unless he’s gonna make Shia the star. At which point, the fans may actually stage a rebel assault on Skywalker Ranch.

Funny, though. What exactly is the creative process for Lucas pulling together a story? I get the feeling he writes the whole thing down breathlessly in crayon while he’s on the can, finishes it in twenty minutes, and then drops it in a desk drawer until Ford and Steven are desperate enough to settle for anything.

I’m not a hater of the fourth Indy movie, but to this day I have trouble remembering exactly what happened in it. There were a few good scenes, some worthwhile moments, but ultimately it felt out-of-practice and lazy and most of that blame goes to Spielberg and Lucas, who never seemed to defer to anybody else in regards to their over-the-top insane ideas, including Indy’s survival of a nuclear explosion by hiding in a refrigerator.

What do you fine people think about this? Would a fifth Indiana Jones be worth any-body’s time? After making box office bank with the last entry, what’s Lucas’ incentive for making a stronger product?

Probably doesn’t matter, because it’s far too early to suppose much. I will make this forecast: I bet we get an update announcing the film will be in 3-D long before we get an announcement regarding a screenwriter.

As though we all don’t already think this — the Internet is AWESOME. The Internet, whether Al Gore’s brainchild or a Big Bang-style happy accident, allows artists to share their work with the largest audience ever. As a member of that audience I say “thank you!” (I’m not sure where Al Gore stands on Intellegent Design but I’m pretty sure he’s never been opposite the Big Bang theory.) I say all of this because daily there are wonderful works of art, inspired by film, put on display (the Internet) and every instance I find/know of/or you share with me/us, I will share with you! Today the work of Brandon Schaefer, found at his website (under construction right now) which includes Fred Savage’s The Wizard, The Rocketeer and Jack Nicholson’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

as well as Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day, Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and (yet another!) Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining! One of these days we’ll have a gallery of just The Shining inspired works of art!

and check out these brilliant Bluray covers for Steven Spielberg’s JAWS and the children’s classic The Secret Garden.

Consider this a continuation of the pursuit of beautiful film-inspired art. We’ve already seen one artist’s interpretation of the Stanley Kubrick classic The Shining now here is another artistic rendition.

And Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park-

Finally this collection of posters simplified an otherwise complex time travel story if only Doc Brown had these in hand he might have saved Marty McFly a lot of trouble. Back to the Future Parts I, II & III-

All of these prints and more can be purchased at SHOOT THE GLASS including a Star Wars series! So what do you think? Anybody buy one of these? Know of any other artists with television or film inspired works, please share them with us!

Legendary director Steven Spielberg is taking his first steps into all-digital, motion-captured filmmaking with his much-anticipated The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn.

The Hollywood giant spoke to The Los Angeles Times recently about the project, and about his experience working with a completely computerized world.

“It was based on my respect for the art of Hergé and wanting to get as close to that art as I could,” says the director, referring to Tintin‘s author-illustrator, who created the international blockbuster graphic novel series (200 million copies in print) starring intrepid cub reporter Tintin, and his irrepressible canine companion, Snowy, as they venture through the pre-WWII world.

“Hergé wrote about fictional people in a real world, not in a fantasy universe,” Spielberg said. “It was the real universe he was working with, and he used National Geographic to research his adventure stories. It just seemed that live action would be too stylized for an audience to relate to. You’d have to have costumes that are a little outrageous when you see actors wearing them. The costumes seem to fit better when the medium chosen is a digital one.”

Spielberg has had loads of experience with massive, CGI-filled blockbusters and digital creatures, even breaking new ground in the pioneering days of the CG Age of film with Jurassic Park, but he has never attempted a fully computer-animated movie, and he says the new experience has expanded his artistic horizons.

“I just adored it,” he says. “It made me more like a painter than ever before. I got a chance to do so many jobs that I don’t often do as a director. You get to paint with this device that puts you into a virtual world, and allows you to make your shots and block all the actors with a small hand-held device only three times as large as an Xbox game controller.”

The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn is set to open around the world on December 23, 2011.

After working for over six months on his remake of 1950′s Harvey, Steven Spielberg announced this week that he was backing out of the project. And this after 20th Century Fox had already scheduled soundstages to be ready to go for the film to begin production at the beginning of 2010.

Despite the idea phase of Harvey starting out strong last summer, the film has seen some trouble getting started, with Spielberg and the studio courting both Tom Hanks and Robert Downey Jr. to play the role made famous by James Stewart, but both turned the part down–Downey after creative differences regarding the script occurred with Spielberg. Now, Spielberg has officially walked, with no specific reason being given for doing so.

Spielberg does have several potential projects at his disposal, so it’s likely a matter of deciding to seek greener pastures. Thus the question is what he’ll decide to do instead of Harvey, and who DreamWorks will choose to helm the film in Spielberg’s place.

Wow, talk about your power couple. Both giants in their fields, Steven Spielberg and Stephen King are teaming up to bring King’s recently released Under the Dome to the screen.

The book, which has already received positive reviews, is a supernatural thriller that follows a town in Maine that has been trapped within an invisible force field. The town splits into battling sects headed by enigmatic characters, and drama ensues.

The possibility of adapting Under the Dome for the screen was picked up by DreamWorks TV, which is looking to put the adaptation on the small screen rather than the big screen, likely turning it into a cable event series.

Spielberg, who has worked with King in the past, will serve as the series’ executive producer, along with several heads of DreamWorks TV.

DreamWorks TV and Spielberg are also currently working together to create a series for Showtime about the development of a Broadway show, and a costume-drama that focuses on the infamous Borgia family.

Having recently revisited Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy, I’ve come to the conclusion that that film has a little slice of everything. It has incredibly light humor followed by the darkest of gallows humor,  and then proceeds to toss any funny business aside to strike at some of the darkest themes I’ve ever seen in a film. It’s one of those movies that could only be satisfactorily completed in another country with values and tolerance levels significantly different from our own.

Which is why the idea that Steven Spielberg would be teaming with Will Smith to deliver a remake of the film was a horrible one indeed. There’s no way they could possibly create something as powerful as the original. It just wasn’t feasible in Hollywood.

The great news is that Latino Review is reporting the remake dead in the water, as Spielberg and Smith have jumped ship. If any filmmaker stood a chance at bringing this thing to light, it would have been Spielberg, so I have faith that the beast has truly been slain.

If you’re interested in seeing just what they couldn’t have gotten away with, I encourage you to check out the original film.