FIRST TRAILER: War for the Planet of the Apes!

In this first trailer to the third entry in the rebooted for Planet of the Apes series, Caesar faces a committed and desperate enemy in Woody Harrelson. And it may all hinge on the betrayal of a fellow simian...

The primate war beings July 14, 2017.

APES--TOGETHER--STRONG!

VIDEO: Mad Max has nothin' on these "New Barbarians"

This trailer for The New Barbarians, a.k.a. Warriors of the Wasteland (1983) sold me when they showed a motorcycle bandit take an exploding arrow to the neck (hilarity ensues thereafter). This is Italian-made Saturday afternoon, eighties Gamma-cheese at it's finest.

It looks like the prequel to my favorite Spaghetti-pocalypse film, 2019: The Fall of New York. (Somehow I missed doing a recap on that one, I'll have to correct that soon.)

It stars exploitation film staple Fred Williamson (Black Caesar, the Black Cobra series) as said, explosive archer. Really, what more can you ask for?

Anyway, check out the awesome trailer for Barbarians:

TRAILER - MAD MAD: FURY ROAD

Whoa! The new Mad Max trailer that debuted at Comic Con last week looks INSANE! So excited!!! The film premieres May 15, 2015.

UPDATE: Here's four character posters also released at Comic Con!

VIDEO: "Apes" raises the stakes!

This latest Dawn of the Planet of the Apes clip shows just how crafty the apes have become. And brutal!

New Dawn of the Planet of the Apes poster...

...is making me feel a little nostalgic!

VIDEO: X-men: Days of Future Past brings the post-apocalypse

I'm really looking forward to this new installment of the X-men. It looks like they've done a bang-up job of envisioning a desolate future. This clip apparently appears early in the film with mutants on the run. It'd make a great adventure scenario--similar to the first part of the Gamma World War campaign's adventure path.

In any case, the visuals are stunning--and that's more than enough reason to post it!

Excelsior!

VIDEO: Viral ads for Dawn of the Apes are great setting primers!

Need something to help set the scene in your next Gamma-esque game? Give players the heebie-jeebies as they watch civilzation fall into ruin in seconds! These timelapse clips from the upcoming Dawn of the Planet of the Apes flick should do the trick nicely:

LONDON



SAN FRANCISCO



NEW YORK

TRAILER: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes--Caesar speaks!

"APES! TOGETHER! STRONG!"

GODZILLA is the ultimate weapon!

HOLY F@#$! The new trailer for Godzilla reveals a previously unreleased plot detail. A BIG ONE. Monster movie fans will immediately get what's going--and it changes the big G's role in the film.

This feels like a spoiler to me, so fair warning to you--though, this just makes me want to see it even MORE!



If you watch it and comment below, spoilers be damned!

Has anyone statted-up Godzilla for use in a Gamma World or Mutant Future campaign? I recall once someone doing the Krakken from Clash of the Titans, but it was basically a force of nature. Impossible to destroy, but still had some stats to make it playable.


Some content reposted from Exonauts

TRAILER: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes!

The trailer for the second part of the rebooted Planet of the Apes series is here! Here's the official description:

A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth's dominant species.

Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, and Judy Greer join the cast this time around. Look for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes sometime in July of 2014.



Chimp leader Caesar adorns the official poster for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Thoughts on the trailer?

TRAILER: "Pacific Rim" - Giant Robots vs. Kaiju!!!

So who else wants to be 9 years old again?

First trailer: OBLIVION starring Tom Cruise

So here's a Tom Cruise film I'd only heard a few whispers about until now. I'd nearly written it off it had been so long since I'd seen anything, Now that I see the trailer, I think it looks interesting in that it's got a sparse cast, but has a pretty tight concept. I'll be keeping an eye out for future trailers and plot leaks. Here's the synopsis so far, via io9:

Tom Cruise stars in Oblivion, an original and groundbreaking cinematic event from the director of TRON: Legacy and the producer of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. On a spectacular future Earth that has evolved beyond recognition, one man's confrontation with the past will lead him on a journey of redemption and discovery as he battles to save mankind.

Jack Harper (Cruise) is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack's mission is nearly complete.

Living in and patrolling the breathtaking skies from thousands of feet above, his soaring existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.

Here's the poster:

So far I'm digging it and if my guess is right, it could make for some inspired campaign setting. By the looks of it a subterranean Morgan Freeman is leading a band of merry rebels against the drones meant to keep the escaped humans safe.That sounds like a good lead-in for an adventure, yes?

Also posted over at Exonauts.

Mad Max 4 in production, sounds crazy/awesome

So you heard they're making a fourth Mad Max movie, right? Yep. With this guy as Max:

Tom Hardy wants to be friends

I'm pretty sure that the guy who played Bane has the street cred to pull off Max Rockatansky, post-apocalyptic badass.

And Charlize Theron is in it. Probably because she's in everything. But I heard she shaved her head for the role, so we definitely appreciate her dedication, don't we kids (yes, yes we do). She plays someone called "Imperator Furiosa".

New vehicles from Fury Road

Venerable geek temple io9 has a snippet about the plot which barely makes sense and that's why it's cool:

"Mad Max is caught up with a group of people fleeing across the Wasteland in a War Rig driven by the Imperator Furiosa. This movie is an account of the Road War which follows. It is based on the Word Burgers of the History Men and eyewitness accounts of those who survived."

Read the full report, including the new cast. FAIR WARNING: You'll likely run into spoilers for other movies on that page since it happens to be called MORNING SPOILERS.

UPDATE: What's an imperator anyway? And should she be called "imperatrix" instead?

UPDATE 2: io9 has posted some spoilerific photos of mutants and more vehicles which I won't post here for those hoping to remain blissfilly unaware...at least until the trailer hits.

UPDATE 3: Even MORE images of vehicles over at Comic Book Resources.

Thoughts about Zardoz

I've been trying to get back into the blogging habit and had this post rolling around my brain for a while. So it's at least an exercise in getting creative juices flowing again. A while back I found Zardoz on Netflix and it had been a long while since I'd seen it so I gave it another whirl. It's supposed to be (at least the way I've viewed it over the years) part action adventure/part intellectual experiment.

As an adventure, it has some really inspired moments, but kinda falls short of its potential. As an experiment it does well on grand scale, but the details get sort of muddled.

With movies like Inception, Dark City, and even something as wacky as 12 Monkeys, I think Zardoz could be remade and given a bit more gusto, perhaps fewer suspendered banana hammocks. Side note: I've tried to love the film, but in truth I've found it mostly boring with some good bits and an overall interesting--if sometimes shocking--premise.

Oh, and while the Book of Eli may have borrowed from ol' Zed, I'm talking more a straight-up re-imagining. So the characters and story details would be mostly intact beyond the overall concept. Sorry Singleton, we're not counting that one.

In Japan, Zardoz is in SPAAAACE!

So here's my pitch to re-imagine a new Zardoz:

PLOT
First, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the original plot. Done? Okay, we begin with a band of masked marauders known as Brutals sporting theme park mascot heads as helmets is laying seige to a seaside village. They take no prisoners and bow to a giant floating head, the god Zardoz. The most fierce of the bunch is Zed, whose curiosity leads him to discover the truth about their infallible, flying deity. His journey takes him to Vortex, a clandestine community of Eternals (psionic immortals) who yearn for the excitement that death brings--whether it's their own or the primitive villagers that make up the outer settlements. An artificial being known as Tabernacle rules as a beneficent adjudicator and administrator of Vortex's citizens. She has served humans for more than three centuries as a chorus of consciousnesses trapped in a single synthetic body. Over that time she has grown envious of her wards and planted the seed of their doom in a power hungry Zardoz pilot...Arthur Frayn.

SETTING
Let's leave the English countryside of the original behind and move to a beach on the California coast, dotted with ruined piers and broken highways. Since this is in the future, it'd be nice to see a few twists on the theme, maybe some mutated animals (carnivorous steeds for the Brutals) and evidence of a slightly more advanced civilization than our own (an upgraded Tabernacle that could neurologically control Vortex and its citizens). Zardoz itself is a remnant of a Wizard of Oz theme park erected in the late 21st century to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the film. The giant head really is the "wizard" as it appears inside a replica of the Emerald City--as part of the Wiz's main audience chamber. Vortex is a biodome commune that sprouted several towns over in a more rural area. Vortex appears similar to the Eden Project or Biosphere 2.

CAST

• Zed - Michael Fassbender (X-Men First Class, Inglorious Basterds)
• Arthur Frayn - Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2, Sorcerer's Apprentice)
• Consuella - Marrion Cotillard (Contagion Inception)
• May - Rose Byrne (X-Men First Class, Damages)
• Friend - Tom Hiddleston (Thor)
• Tabernacle - Vera Farminga (Source Code, Up in the Air)

DIRECTOR
Probably the most important aspect since a quirky film like this is usually driven heavily by the hand of the artist in charge. Chris Nolan seems like an easy bet with his deft direction of sci-fi-with-a-message films. Overall, I think he'd be good to reel in some of the more muddled elements that weighed down the Boorman version and still be able to make it the thought-provoking action/thrillers he's known for.

Yeah, cynics may decry him for being a bit over-wrought, but I honestly think he's yet to put out a bad piece of filmmaking. Whom would you rather have, Zack Snyder? (As if!) Ten years ago I would have said Alex Proyas who directed one of my favorite-ever films, the aforementioned Dark City. But until he comes up with something to make up for I, Robot--I think Nolan is the guy to make Zardoz fly.

So what would your Zardoz look like?


Previously: Zardoz Video Game in 8-Bit, Intro

New mayhem-filled Rise of the Planet of the Apes trailer

So the new film needs to show two very important things that will determine it's success as a true "Planet of the Apes" successor:

1. Full-on monkey mayhem (preferably with weapons)
2. Apes standing erect as humanoids

DONE and DONE my friends.

I can't believe this comes out in under TWO WEEKS.

When You Wish Upon a Gamma Ray, Your Dreams Come True...

We all saw Zombieland, yes? Remember the climactic theme park excursion? Now, imagine that about 100 x's bigger, more twisted, with better rides, zombie mascots, android Lincoln, and a labyrinth of underground tunnels for "cast members".

I give you...

MAPS for MICKEYPOCALYPSE:

(Click to embiggen)

Props to Boing Boing. Maps courtesy of Wishbook. Check out the "Download the Large size of this photo" links for each pic on Wishbook's Flickr pages to get supa' high-res versions suitable for gaming. Our 16th robotic president courtesy Monster Brains.

Appendix "G": Inspirational Sources

Literature, movies, and TV have long served as inspirational sources for games (duh!). Fantasy games in particular have a well known list, created by Gary Gygax and co. that has been amended through time, but it's name has remained: Appendix N. Star Frontiers was among one TSR's early efforts at science fiction and they published a comparable list of sci-fi for that game as well.

It got me thinking that it would be nice to have an "Appendix N" for the Post Apocalyptic genre. And while there's no codified criteria, I think there are some easy ones to list, not to mention a few that I personally enjoy. So I've begun compiling a list, which also includes some of my own choices that may or may not be directly related to P.A. per se. For instance, I'm not sure Buckaroo Banzai counts as post apocalyptic, but it's certainly weird and wahoo enough that I find it inspiring. :)

I'm calling the list Appendix Gamma or Appendix G for short. I've had this on the blog for a while, but I've added several new links recently so it seemed appropriate to call it out. It's not a "complete" list (and that's also kind of on purpose since it's mainly stuff I'm looking to inspire this blog) but at least the "easy" ones are on there. Feel free to drop any other suggestions in the comments.

Gamma Cinema: Wild, Wild Planet (1965)

I've not seen it, but it's available through Warner Bros Archive Collection, and is manufactured on-demand. And it looks magnificent. A utopian society that toys with genetics creating mutants that turn on them? Sold. Apparently Italy makes the best sci-fi films of a certain era/type/quality. From WB's product page:

It’s groovy to be a spaceman! The way-out ’60s meet the far-out 21st century in this psychedelic sci-fi head trip. Villains from überpowerful The Corporations think they’d found a way to defeat their rivals, the United Democracies: send robot minions to kidnap UD citizens, shrink them down to suitcase size and transport them to a planetoid for hideous human experiments. But a fearless rescue team is on the way! All that stands between the rescuers and success are four-armed androids in wraparound shades, martial artists wearing silk nighties and sporting sky-high hairdos, flying saucers swinging around the cosmos on strings like interplanetary yo-yos and more mod malevolence. It’s all wild, wild fun and fantasy, brothers and sisters!

That's an incredible amount of copy, considering how little is officially out there:

Wikipedia entry
IMDB listing

Vintage Mars Attacks Cards Scans!

If there's a patient zero in post-modern America that fed the "gamma strain" into the pop culture mileu, the Mars Attacks collectible cards are a prime suspect.

Here's a few juicy scans posted on Flickr (hat tip to Boing Boing, BTW) of the set, as released in the 60s. They were, of course, the guiding inspiration behind Tim Burton's 1996 film.

Enjoy!

Gamma Theater: "America 3000" (1986)

Al over at Beyond the Black Gate posted a picture in his regular Friday Frazetta's for a movie called "America 3000". Set some 900 years after the apocolypse (which, of course, occurred in the 1980s!) the world is reduced to rubble and ruled by women (Amazons?). At least its Wikipedia entry says as much--and not much else.

Here's a bonus clip of the film's highlights "in under 10 minutes" which is both sad and hilarious:

• IMDB listing
• On Amazon (VHS only)