The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger at “Conan the Barbarian”. (Image from kinopoisk.ru)Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be back as Conan. His physical condition and unforgotten acting skills seem to be good enough for Universal Pictures to sign a deal with the actor for new The Legend of Conan movie. According to Deadline.com
6ae
Universal Pictures has signed the ex- governor to star in the movie due for release in 2014. Exactly 30 years ago the role of the mythical barbarian launched the actor’s career in the movie business. Two Conan movies released in 1982 and 1984 were the first Hollywood productions that made Schwarzenegger famous. He later starred in The Terminator movies which made him an international star. Fast and the Furious films’ producers Fredrik Malmberg and Chris Morgan are engaged in the new Conan movie production. The Conan character was the brainchild of writer Robert E. Howard who created him in 1932. Screenwriter Edward Summer decided to develop the Conan stories into a film franchise and wrote a series of screenplays for these pictures. However they were never filmed. The 1982 Conan the Barbarian by John Millius and Olivier Stone was Schwarzenegger’s first and the most successful appearance as the character. He returned in Conan the Destroyer in 1984. “The original ended with Arnold on the throne as a seasoned warrior, and this is the take of the film we will make,” producer Fredrik Malmberg told Deadline. “It’s that Nordic Viking mythic guy who has played the role of king, warrior, soldier and mercenary, and who has bedded more women than anyone, nearing the last cycle of his life. He knows he’ll be going to Valhalla, and wants to go out with a good battle,” he says.Last year Millennium Films attempted to revive the story of Conan on screen, however the reception of the film starring Jason Momoa was poor. … Read More
He is back: Arnold Schwarzenegger ready for another Conan movie
Bees in desperate need of ZZZs
We’re all familiar with the feeling—waking up from a restless night only to realize that this will be a very long, sleepy day. Recent research reveals that honeybees are also sensitive to sleep deprivation, and although a cup of coffee may give you a morning buzz, the bees aren’t so lucky.Neurobiologists at the Free University of Berlin have found that sleepy bees fail to remember lessons learned the day before, a finding that could help scientists discover the neural processes involved in sleep and memory formation. They present their research October 25 in the Journal of Experimental Biology.”We started with the idea that we could look for a neural substrate of learning and memory in bees, since they have a wonderful memory, can be easily trained, and we know their brain well at the neuronal level,” says study co-author Randolf Menzel.Continue Reading… … Read More
Dinosaurs Sprouted Wings Earlier Than Thought
Dinosaurs still walk?and fly?among us: We call them birds. Most paleontologists think birds descended from a group of winged dinosaurs, and thus dinos never went completely extinct. But where did the wings come from? New discoveries from Canada suggest that both wings and feathers arose earlier in dinosaur evolution than previously thought, possibly to attract members of the opposite sex or to protect hatching baby dinos.
FREE: Kindle Edition of High Desert Barbecue, Oct. 27-28
That’s right. On October
27-28, the Kindle edition of
High Desert Barbecue will be free, gratis, no charge to
all-comers. Already have a copy? Impress your friends by gifting
them with copies that don’t cost you a ; frigging
dime. Hey, who’s to know you’re a cheapskate? I won’t tell.
High Desert Barbecue, a book of the month
selection of the Freedom Book Club, was
reviewed by Prometheus Review as:
Equal parts prose that Kurt Vonnegut would approve of,
eccentricity like you might find in a Coen brothers dark comedy,
and libertarian morals embracing the permissive side.
Ars Gratia Libertatis
called it:
A great read. Filled with likable characters, tons of humor, and
a nice sprinkling of libertarianism throughout, its breezy style
makes it an easy story to pick up and get into.
Remember, the totally free Kindle edition will be available
Saturday, October 27 and Sunday, October 28 here.
Because of High Desert Barbecue‘s participation in KDP
Select, which makes this promotion possible, other electronic
versions will be temporarily unavailable. However, the Nook, PDF
and DRM-free ebook will be back with the new year.
The dead-tree edition remains
wonderfully available, though.
Cloud Atlas
For a movie so jammed full of stuff—nearly three hours’ worth of
it—Cloud Atlas feels oddly empty. Written and directed by
Lana and Andy Wachowski and German filmmaker Tom Tykwer (Run
Lola Run, The International), the picture is both madly
ambitious and ultimately banal. Viewers unfamiliar with the 2004
David Mitchell novel on which it’s based may also find it
baffling.
The movie interweaves six stories spread across 500 years—tales
that intend to demonstrate for us the reincarnation of spirits, the
persistence of love, and the timeless yearning for freedom. In his
book, Mitchell firmly establishes each of these stories before
moving on to the next and then circling back. Here, the narrative
elements have been finely diced into what I suppose would have to
be called a mosaic. And so we begin with Tom Hanks muttering by a
post-apocalyptic campfire far in the future, and then abruptly jump
to 1849, where a young attorney (Jim Sturgess), making his way
among the Pacific islands, discovers the ugly realities of the
world slave trade while being slowly poisoned by a skeezy doctor
(Hanks again) aboard the ship on which he’s traveling. Before we
can quite process this, we find ourselves in England in 1936, where
a young composer named Frobisher (Ben Whishaw) is taking leave of
his boyfriend, Rufus Sixsmith (James D’Arcy), before departing for
Edinburgh, where he’s to become an amanuensis to a crabby older
composer named Ayrs (Jim Broadbent). Frobisher is working on a
beautiful piece of music called The Cloud Atlas
Sextet, and as we eventually see, Ayrs wants to claim it as
his own.
Before we can get too caught up in the Frobisher story, we’re
whisked off to 1973 San Francisco, where an investigative reporter
(Halle Berry) is looking into the sinister machinations of a
nuclear-plant executive (Hugh Grant) with the help of a
whistleblower—who turns out to be the older Rufus Sixsmith—and a
plant employee (Hanks yet again) to whom Berry’s character seems
strangely familiar. This element of the movie, with its gritty tone
of ’70s-style high-level intrigue, is just taking hold when we’re
suddenly transported to present-day London, where a tweedy
publisher (Broadbent again) is appalled at a party when his
best-selling author Dermot Hoggins (Hanks, with complicated chin
hair and a honking Scottish accent) deals with a snotty critic by
tossing him off a high balcony. (We don’t actually hear the
Wachowskis chuckling here, but can perhaps be forgiven for sensing
their approval.)
Before long we find ourselves in the year 2144, in the blazing
Korean metropolis of Neo Seoul, where a genetically manufactured
waitress called Sonmi-451 (Doona Bae) is feeling the first,
forbidden stirrings of human consciousness. Soon she initiates a
struggle for clone liberation, aided by a freedom fighter named
Hae-Joo Chang (Sturgess again, disconcertingly accessorized with
epicanthic eyefolds). Meanwhile, back at the beginning, in the
post-apocalyptic year of 2321, we find Hanks—who turns out to be a
retro-primitive goat-herder—consulting with a village priestess
(Susan Sarandon!) about the sayings of Sonmi—now revered as a
goddess—and being drawn into the high-tech exploits of another
freedom fighter, named Meronym (Berry again).
It should be said that Halle Berry has never looked lovelier
than she does in this section of the film. Also that Ben Whishaw
and Jim Sturgess are full-fledged stars, that Hanks proves himself
game for anything (even the preposterous yob comedy of the London
party scene), and that much of the movie is beautifully designed
and shot. But its attempted epic sweep collapses into jarring
narrative shards, and is further undone by its wildly clashing
tones (sci-fi versus period adventure versus whatever) and by the
distracting use of well-known actors in multiple roles. (Is that
Hugo Weaving in drag? Look, there he is again! And again!) The
proposition that we are all connected beyond the borders of time,
and may dimly recognize earlier others as our soul-travels proceed,
is hardly new. And any romantic charge that might have lent the
film a unifying emotional lift is smothered by its disjointed
structure. The movie’s clamoring complexity may justify its length.
But by the time the ultra-silly conclusion heaves into view, some
viewers may decide they’ve taken a very long trip to nowhere.
Microsoft Badly Wants to Rock Your Face off With its New Times Square Store
The store in all her glory. (Photo: Joe Zaga on Instagram)
Does employee training at Microsoft now just consist of watching CEO Steve Ballmer flipping his shit on loop? After attending the opening of the company’s new store in Times Square, we can’t help but wonder.
The store itself–the first of many Microsoft is opening in anticipation of the holidays–was well executed. But it seemed a little small for Times Square’s massive foot traffic. Inside we found a crowd heavy on photographers, store staffers, and dudes in sharp suits–as well as lots of very excited people buying Surface tablets. (Not that they could walk out with them. Nothing could leave the premises until midnight, so early buyers had to come back.)
The interior felt like a weird riff on an Apple store, as though the designers had started with the same bare-bones IKEA-chic aesthetic then added back giant Surface banners and faux stained-oak tables.
But the most striking thing about the unveiling was just how fucking psyched Microsoft employees seem to be about these products and this store and life in general.
“Hello TIMES SQUARE!” Malinda, the manager of “this beautiful Microsoft store” greeted us from a small stage in front of the still-covered storefront, channeling the pep of an SEC cheerleader and demonstrating the lung capacity of a drill sergent. She introduced Microsoft COO Kevin Turner, who stepped to the stage and began shouting in the same register, sounding uncannily like his boss: “Hello NEW YORK!”
“This is an epic moment,” he added. “It’s been a monumentous day for us, it’s one that we’re very very excited to be able to bring you the first place in the country where we’re going to sell Windows 8 and Surface tonight.” He paused for woo-hoos from Malinda and her t-shirt-clad squadron.
Friday, he said, Microsoft would be opening 33 additional holiday stores. “But tonight, at 10 o’clock, we’re going to be opening up this store, the first in the country.” “Yes we are!!” seconded Malinda, can-I-get-a-witness style.
If there’s anything that was epic, it was the amount of money Microsoft must’ve spent on the retail pagentry. Everywhere we looked, we saw ads. It wasn’t quite a full Times Square takeover–even Microsoft doesn’t have the resources to buy out every inch of Times Square, we suppose–but you couldn’t turn your head without spotting the Surface on another enormous screen. Stretching out to either side of the store were signs touting Windows 8 on Acer, on HP, on Sony, like Stark bannermen massing for war.
Finally, after a New Year Eve-style countdown (“from 8, as in Windows 8!”) the sheet covering the exterior came down, revealing a cheerful exterior covered in Windows logos and a giant Surface. Inside, store staffers were jumping up and down to the Flo Rida song “Good Feeling.”
Never before had we noticed the lyric “No trick plays, I’m Bill Gates, Take a genius to understand me.” Sadly, we did not see Mr. Rida in evidence. … Read More
Malala attack response ‘turning point’ for Pakistan, says father
The response of Pakistan to the shooting by the Taliban of the schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was a “turning point” for the country, her father said Friday at the British hospital where is recovering. “When she fell, Pakistan stood… This is a turning point,” Ziauddin…
