Steve D
I saw Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer last night and was blown away. I did not see that ending coming. It reminded me of the ending to Night of the Living Dead the first time I saw it. So, I thought it would be a good idea to post some movies that have endings that you don't see coming and are great. My third pick for best ending would be The Sting. What are your picks?

Batman Begins World Premiere

May 26th, 2005


The world will get its first look at Watanabe Ken's second Hollywood venture, "Batman Begins," on May 31 at Tokyo's fashionable Roppongi Hills. Watanabe (45), currently living in Los Angeles, and star Christian Bale (31) will be in Japan for the world premier. The film goes on general release on June 18. Speaking at a PR event in London yesterday, director Christopher Nolan described Watanabe as an actor with "charisma" who he'd like to work with again. The Japanese star has a fairly minor but "important" role as Ra's al Ghul, a mentor who teaches the young Bruce Wayne about the boundaries between good and evil.

Security tight for 1st Japan screening of 'Batman Begins'

TOKYO - Security was tight at the Marunouchi Picadilly theater in Yurakucho on Thursday night for the first Japan screening of "Batman Begins," ahead of its June 18 release. Nearly 1,000 people had their bags searched and were checked by hand-held scanners in a bid by distributor Warner Bros to prevent piracy.

During the 160-minute film, security guards patroled the aisles in the darkened theater, some with starscopes, looking for anyone with a hidden camera or cell phone camera.

Security has been tight at recent premiere screenings to crack down on illegal copying of films which are then circulated on the Internet prior to the film's box office opening.

"Batman Begins" will have a gala screening at Roppongi Hills on Monday night, with director Christopher Nolan and stars Christian Bale, Katie Holmes, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Ken Watanabe scheduled to attend.

Read the article here.

May 30th, 2005

Check out an article including a picture from HelloMagazine.com on the "Batman Begins" Tokyo Press Conference held at the Roppongi Grand Hyatt Tokyo, Japan. gettyimages,wireimages and SuperHeroHype have some great pictures from the press conference.


May 31st, 2005

Check gettyimages, rexfeatures, and wireimage (here and here) for great new pics from the Batman Begins Tokyo Premiere!
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You know? I'm really really looking forward to new Batman!

OK, first off I feel like a senior member of the board (thanks mostly to "Haiku anyone?") in label only. As I read through many of the threads I feel "I'm not worthy". Now don't get me wrong, I've read the whole Adversary chronical and every RJ book, but to paraphrase Maggers "I have a brain like Teflon, nothing sticks".
That said, I thought I'd start a thread (though it may have been done in the past) about your favorite Repairman Jack moment. Now I may need some help here to place the book (Legacies, Conspiracies?) and the details of the moment, but the one incident that is my favorite is when Jack was about to confront some guys he knew he couldn't beat. So he had in his hand I believe a little bottle with some kind of caustic liquid with red dye and maybe an orb... anyway he squired the liquid in the eye of one of the guys as he made it look like he pulled the guy's eye out. Needless to say the other guys there did want anything to do with Jack. Just a great moment.

Gorehounds and scare seekers rejoice. True horror may very well be making a comback in the blood-soaked guise of French cinema. Who knew?

I am surprised not much has been said about this movie opening June 10th from Lions Gate Films. The comercials look positively horrible, I admit. However, there is apparently good reason the adverts show so little other than a lesbian-ish looking girl fighting back. Apparently the movie doesn't have many scenes that can be shown that don't involve mutilations, geysers of blood, beheadings, and sheer terror.

The film was cut by 1 minute from it's original French release to avoid the dreaded NC-17. The film is dubbed in English from the native French language to produce more commercial appeal and prevent it from being delegated to art house thaters only. With the mass release of this film we are sure to be in for a treat.

The website is up and running and you can view some gory scenes from the film.

The reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are positive, scoring a 70% favorability from reviewers who saw the film at sundance. 70% and the film hasn't been released yet, that's quite a positive for a slasher film.

My only gripe is that the writers seemed to borrow heavily from Dean Koontz's "INTENSITY" as a plot device, so much so that I am surprised he didn't get a creen credit for a "based on the novel by..."

High Tension Website

FPW's June 1 newsletter Wrote:5/2 ˆ signed a contract with Russian publisher Centrepolygraph for a ton of my backlist: LEGACIES, CONSPIRACIES, ALL THE RAGE, HOSTS, THE HAUNTED AIR, GATEWAYS, CRISSCROSS, HEALER, WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS, AN ENEMY OF THE STATE, DYDEETOWN WORLD, THE TERY.

Centrepolygraph has already done THE TOMB, so this will put the complete Repairman Jack series (so far) plus the entire LaNague series into Russian. Nice.

Where do I get these??? I don't remember much of my Russian (I had two years of it from '89 to '91; it's truly a beautiful language), but I always wanted to get back into it. I can't imagine a better way than reading the translations of these books! Can I, please? Huh? Huh? Can I??

There doesn't seem to be an English web page beyond this one, and no order page. Shopping suggestions?

Blake

A few days ago while searching through the site I found where you can sign up for a news letter. Just got my first one today... way cool. I check the news link periodically but that seems to be updated sporadically.
My thanks to the Man.

My top 5 movies:

1. Jurassic Park

2. Master & Commander

3. National Lampoon's Vacation

4. Sleepy Hollow

5. Stand by Me

It's a companion thread for the Films you Can't Bear thread.

What are films you like but everyone else hates? Come on, feel free to list anything no matter how critically (or publicly) maligned. Don't be embarassed.

I enjoy:

A.I.: I can see why one wouldn't dig it but I really enjoy the film. It's got some nice concepts, cinematography and acting. Among Spielberg's Top 10, IMO.

Titanic: While the film won many oscars and such, many have derided the film since it's release. But I really enjoy it. Some nice epic-scale filmmaking from master James Cameron. and I'm still coming with more to post up....

I'm not sure if I've missed that part - does the book mention whose name Jack's country place is in?

(Seeing as Jack cannot legally own anything).

Steve D
Hope everyone enjoyed their three day weekend. I worked. Well, if you count volunteering work.

The reason I worked yesterday? Donations, donations, donations...in droves. And I got first pick at the books. Actually, nothing I really wanted, but...an observation clicked in my head. There are certain authors (in horror, anyway) that get donated more than others. I thought I'd share with you the authors' books that get donated the most (mind you, this is the West Hollywood District; donations vary by district):

1. Stephen King--There is not a King book out there that has not passed through these doors, and mostly first prints.
2. Dean Koontz--Koontz keeps me busy with the abundance of overprinted stuff that comes through here.
3. Robert McCammon--Mostly paperback (the first two are mostly hardbacks) but a ton of books nonetheless.
4. James Herbert--How his Brit hb books got here from across the Pond I'll never know, but his 90's books are aplenty here.
5. Graham Masterton--Paperbacks, paperbacks, paperbacks--and all mostly unread copies.
6. F. Paul Wilson--How many copies of The Select were printed?! We have The Select in every print including bookclub. Sadly, this is the only fpw book to come through here regularly. Many paperback horror anthologies with an fpw story come in and out (mainly carried out by me) but no gold mines, or even silver mines.

Gotta go. I'll update the list if I see an interest.