The few people I know who both never heard of the comic and actually liked the first cinematic bastardpiece for its unabashed stupidity and kitschy-camp*, groaned as well, all worried that 20th Century Fox might turn it into something dark, deep, and good, thus ruining the value of the original (like BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT ruined the value of the old BATMAN TV show, maybe?).

The Verge originally announced this, but Susana Polo just has a better take on it.

So check out her article at Polygon.

*and never short-change the kitschy-camp. They've saved many an aborted attempt at cinema from Showgirls to THE MYSTERYMEN (before there was THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN). They never saved Frank Miller's THE SPIRIT, though. Some garbage just can't be re-purposed no matter how valiant the attempt.

AND

SuicideGirls give ripoff artist a taste of his own medicine
I've never felt one way or the other about the Suicide Girls, but this hard-core Capitalist-style retribution is pretty funny.

Co-founder of the Suicide Girls, Selena Monney, found herself being ripped off by f'artist (faux-artist), Richard Prince, as well as the two-bit, overhyped f'art galleries who carried his f'art. Richard and those galleries sold copies of Selena's property for tens of thousands.

Since they belong to Selena, Selena can make copies and sell them as well. And by selling copies of her property for hundreds instead of tens of thousands, she effectively butchered Richard Prince, the galleries who showcase his work, and the daft inbreds who just lost hundreds of thousands of dollars by buying Prince's now-near worthless f'art.

Now that's true, radical, protest and culturally changing art! Kick-ass, Selena!

Check it out at CultOfMac.

PLUS

Killer robots will leave humans 'utterly defenceless' warns professor
Robots, called LAWS – lethal autonomous weapons systems – will be able to kill without human intervention
They'll also steal our identities and ruin our credit!

Seriously though, this article by Sarah Knapton cannot be so easily laughed at and brushed away as if it came out in the 1980s.

Stuart Russell, Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkley, is offering a sober warning. One that we are seeing repeated by the top computer people in the world from Bill Gates to Elon Musk. The fact that they are both socially misfits doesn't support the idea that their warnings may be coming too late. We already have robot drones murdering innocent people.

Increasing the Artificial Intelligence of a robot designed to autonomously kill people will make us regret having ignored Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics (I know he added a fourth later, shut up!)

Article at The Telegraph.

ALSO

'Batman: Arkham Knight' is a fun distraction, but it's not Batman
Self-avowed fans can be ... fan-ish.

While Anthony John Agnello, makes some definite points, asking where the super villains get the money and other resources to build their outlandish shit is no different than asking why James Bond villains are able to build cutting edge lairs in active volcanoes.

The full tear down at engadget.

WASSMOR

David Duchovny tears up over 'fantastic' new 'X-Files' script
The script is out there. David Duchovny tells Entertainment Weekly he got emotional when reading the initial script for "The X-Files" reboot, and says he'd be open to multiple seasons.

It's not like David has anything better to do.

Oh, Californication (the Red Shoes reboot?)? Oh yeah. That was a real game changer. They'll be having fan conventions for decades over that.

More at Cnet.

IT is a disaster
For the many people who have never seen the 1990 TV movie, Stephen King's IT, but are thoroughly familiar with Tim Curry's Pennywise, it usually comes as a shock upon first viewing, of what a cruddy piece of crap the movie is.

The take-away here is that the despite the script and direction, Tim gave his character his all and stole the movie from everyone. Everyone that is except for maybe Richard Masur, whose part was brief, and Annette O'Toole, who was treated like a veneer.

It would be awesome if Tim could revisit his role with a strong script, director, and cast, but it's 25 years later and that will never be.

Speaking of things that will never be, IT as a reboot may be one of them. At least in the incarnation where it now stands as one hell of a troubled production.

Initially nurtured by Warner Bros. they moved it over to their child company New Line, still - as of this writing - infamously run by Robert Shaye.

The usual Shaynanigans* started almost immediately, with the latest being that popular TV director of the moment, Cary Fukunaga (TRUE DETECTIVE), called it quits this Memorial Day weekend.

Full story at TheWrap.

*Will anyone forget the expensive, money and reputation hemorrhaging tempest New Line created when they stated that all of THE LORD OF THE RINGS movies suffered heavy losses and New Line could not afford to pay anyone their royalties? New Line could not even pay royalties from toys sold that featured the likenesses of the actors?

"Yeah, but Feo," you might very well say, "Shaynanigans?"

Well you tell me. Of the top ten highest grossing movies in the history of New Line, all six top spots are dominated by Peter Jackson. And Jackson was the golden goose New Line sought to kill when Jackson was New Line's #1, then added #2, then added #3. Shaye tried to rip off the best thing that ever happened to his company. Then Robert swore he'd never work with Jackson again. And when Robert was finally pressured into doing so? Jackson filled in spaces 4, 5, and 6.

So yeah, Shaynanigans!

Thing about that is, The movie was shot on Super 8. It cannot come close to Blu-Ray quality. Folks who have seen Blu-Rays of 16mm movies from THE EVIL DEAD to THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE have noted the inferior grainy quality when compared to movies shot on 35mm. In fact, many feature films shot on standard 35mm quality in their day, like GHOSTBUSTERS or John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, appear the worse for the wear.

Moreover, audiences are now accustomed to the clean digital quality of 2k and higher.

But hey, if you are mad for THE DEAD NEXT DOOR like I am for the original, THE EVIL DEAD, let nothing and no one stand in your way!

That's the attitude director J.R. Bookwalter hopes you'll have. The Tempe Video press releases states,

Continued at Feo Amante/ Straight Outta Akron.