An interesting bit of news from CES this week is that the entire James Bond franchise–a total of 22 films, from Dr. No to Quantum of Solace–will make its way to high-def this year in a collection dubbed “Bond 50″ to celebrate 50 years of her majesty’s best secret agent on the silver screen. No release date has been specified but look for the set in stores around the time the next installment, Skyfall, hits theaters later this year.
I took a new interest in the Bond series last year (largely due to the fantastic discussion on The Talk Show), and while I really prefer most of the later entries, it’s good to know that every film will now be available on Blu-ray for die-hard fans. And considering the spotty selection over the last few years, one can only hope that MGM will eventually make each film available separately for those looking to round out their collections.
The ongoing second season of The Walking Dead is unquestionably better than the first, if a little unambitious. One of the biggest mysteries in recent TV history is why AMC canned the big name behind their biggest hit ever and what exactly he wanted to do that rubbed them the wrong way. A recent email exchange between Ain’t It Cool News and Frank Darabont himself may shed a little light on that, as he laid out his plans for a sweeping season opener with almost no participation from the already huge ensemble cast. It’s a pretty great idea, but it sounds really expensive, and it’s pretty obvious that executives already jittery about their big hit being off the air for nearly a year would want to hop right back in with the characters the audience already identifies with.
Tim Burton is probably the only household name director in America besides Steven Spielberg, and is at the height of his commercial powers after making two of the biggest blockbusters of all time with his spins on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland. He’s also light years away from the exciting, iconoclastic genius who turned out classic after classic in the late 80′s and early 90′s like Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice and Ed Wood. As soon as he got the clout to make whatever he wanted, Burton turned his attention almost exclusively to phoning in his uninspired riffing on his favorite stories, from Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman to Planet of the Apes. Whenever he breaks out of the box — as with the uncompromising musical Sweeney Todd or the lovely Southern fairy tale Big Fish — he reminds us why we fell in love with him in the first place. Sadly, he’s continuing his and our time with his next project:
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Burton wants to make a retelling of PINOCCHIO with Warner Brothers (not at Disney, interestingly enough), and Robert Downey Jr. would play Gepetto, the lovable inventor who wants a son so badly that he makes a puppet that comes to life. This new tale would be from the perspective of Gepetto and his adventures trying to find his lost wooden marionette.
Expect lots of cartoonish goth imagery and Danny Elfman-scored “la la la”-ing. Yawn.
