Haruo Nakajima, the original actor inside the Godzilla suit for the first twelve Toho films, has died at age 88.
The suit was so hot and heavy that Nakajima evidently fainted several times during the making of the original Godzilla.
Here are some video tributes:
It would be remiss of me not to share this…
Premiering on SyFy August 6.
1st part: Slow, static and talky.
2nd part: Slow, static and talky.
3rd part: HOLY FUCK!!!!!
Our long wait is now over: Sharknado 5 now has it’s official subtitle: Global Swarming.
Tagline: Make America Bait Again.
More:
Alongside the announcement of the movie’s official title, the network revealed Sharknado 5’s list of cameos, which include Tony Hawk, Olivia Newton-John, Chloe Lattanzi, Fabio, Clay Aiken, Bret Michaels, Charo, Gilbert Gottfried, Margaret Cho, Al Roker, Kathie Lee Gifford, Hoda Kotb, Greg Louganis, Tom Daley, Gus Kenworthy, Jeff Rossen, Porsha Williams, Tiffany “New York” Pollard, Chris Kattan, Cat Greenleaf, Ross Mullan and Dan Fogler.
Finally, something to bring our divided nation together!
(Hat tip: Bill Crider.)
Picked this up at Half Price Books, and while not along my usual collecting vectors, I knew enough to pick it up.
Foster, Alan Dean (writing as George Lucas). Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker. Ballantine Books, 1976. First edition paperback original (as indicated both by the “First Printing 1976” statement on the copyright page, and by the original Ralph McQuarrie artwork on the cover, which was dropped from all subsequent reprints), a Very Good copy with cover creasing, bottom front corner crease, and general wear.
Although McQuarrie helped design many of the characters, the versions on the cover of this paperback varies wildly from their on-screen counterparts, and every other subsequent piece of official Star Wars art.
In Vietnam, they had an elaborate premiere for the opening of Kong: Skull Island, with fire dancers and a large mock-up of King Kong.
Pro-tip: Try not to let your fire dancers get too close to your giant flammable King Kong facade.
They didn’t follow that guideline.
(Edited to add: There were originally two videos here, but the first video removed from YouTube, so I deleted that. Skip to about 3:45 into this one to see things start to go wrong.)
There’s such a fine line between clever and a crooked movie studio:
The three members of Spinal Tap and the director of the 1984 movie about the fictional band are involved in a very real lawsuit against the media company Vivendi.
Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Rob Reiner have joined an earlier suit filed by Harry Shearer that claims Vivendi and StudioCanal have denied them profits from the 1984 rockumentary.
The amended lawsuit was filed in California federal court yesterday, according to The Hollywood Repoter. Shearer filed a fraud and contract-breach lawsuit last October. The original damages set at $125 million have been increased to $400 million.
The three actors, along with director Reiner, state they were given only $81 in merchandising income and $98 in music sales over the past few decades. They also claim to have not received accounting statements for the past three years in regards to This Is Spinal Tap.
$400 million? Well, that’s just nitpicking, isn’t it?
I was pleasantly surprised to get to the end of the trailer and not automatically think “Boy, this is going to suck.”
It might still suck, but it looks like they’re making a good-faith effort to capture the postcyberpunk vibe at the heart of the franchise. Never mind that I’m a much bigger fan of GitS:SAC than I am of the original movies, and that the movie leans much more heavily on the latter. (“No Tachikomas for you!”)
Mood: Cautious optimism.
I’ve never seen it, but this is evidently from The Witches:
Another signed Neal Barrett, Jr. book for my collection.
Barrett, Neal, Jr. Judge Dread. First edition paperback original, a Fine- copy with slight touches of edgewear. Signed by Barrett. Based on the Sylvester Stallone movie. Bought for $5 at Armadillocon
