August 2007

Back in 2005 - probably timed to coincide with the release of Revenge of the Sith - artist Eric Deschamps was commissioned by Giant Magazine to paint a Star Wars version of Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper.

Here it is:

And here is the original:

(Click on both images for an enlarged version)

[Link via Digg]

> Check out the official website of Eric Deschamps
> Find out more about The Last Supper at Wikipedia

I’ve come to this a little late but Damian Corvallis is doing some sterling work on his blog about Steven Spielberg.

He’s writing a series of posts called 31 Days of Spielberg about the director’s films. They are smart, highly informative and essential reading for any Spielberg fans.

Find out more about the director’s early years, the episode of Columbo he directed in 1971, Duel, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. and more.

[Link via Matt Zoeller Sietz]

> Check out 31 Days of Spielberg here
> Steven Spielberg at the IMDb

** UPDATE ** Maybe Damian’s work is not as sterling as I first thought. Click here for more details.

The quirky comedy Eagle vs Shark is out this week and I recently caught up with its writer and director Taika Waititi.

A director, writer, painter, comedian and actor of Maori descent he comes from the East Coast region of New Zealand.

He is most notable for his short film Two Cars, One Night for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

We spoke about Eagle vs Shark and how he got the film made.

Listen to the interview here:

You can also download this interview via iTunes by clicking the image below:

Eagle vs Shark is out at selected UK cinemas now

> Download the interview as an MP3
> Taika Waititi at the IMDb
> Find out more about Eagle vs Shark at the IMDb
> Check out local cinema times for the film at UK cinemas
> Taika’s MySpace page

Earlier this week I spoke to Nathalia Ramos, Logan Browning, Skyler Shaye and Janel Parrish who star in Bratz: The Movie.

Based on cartoon characters and dolls of the same name it is about four friends in their first year of high school who have to deal with a student president who splits everyone into divisive cliques.

Listen to the interview here:

You can also download this interview via iTunes by clicking the image below:

Bratz the Movie is out at UK cinemas now

> Bratz The Movie at the IMDb
> Official site for the film

CIA trained assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is back in the third installment of the Bourne series in The Bourne Ultimatum.

Also returning is director Paul Greengrass who gave the last film (The Bourne Supremacy in 2004) such a distinctive look and feel.

This one sees all hell break loose when a journalist uncovers a wider CIA black ops program named Blackbriar.

Bourne comes out of hiding to find out more and soon becomes involved in a battle with the very people who made him into a killer.

Joan Allen, Julia Stiles, Paddy Considine and David Strathairn co-star.

Listen to our review here:

Download the review as a podcast via iTunes:

The Bourne Ultimatum is out now at cinemas in the UK

> Download the review as an MP3 file
> Official site for The Bourne Ultimatum
> Read reviews of The Bourne Ultimatum at Metacritic
> Find out more about the series at Wikipedia
> Check out some photos I took whilst the film was shooting in London back in January

In recent New York Times article, Woody Allen pays tribute to Ingmar Bergman:

Because I sang his praises so enthusiastically over the decades, when he died many newspapers and magazines called me for comments or interviews.

As if I had anything of real value to add to the grim news besides once again simply extolling his greatness.

How had he influenced me, they asked? He couldn’t have influenced me, I said, he was a genius and I am not a genius and genius cannot be learned or its magic passed on.

When Bergman emerged in the New York art houses as a great filmmaker, I was a young comedy writer and nightclub comic. Can one’s work be influenced by Groucho Marx and Ingmar Bergman?

But I did manage to absorb one thing from him, a thing not dependent on genius or even talent but something that can actually be learned and developed. I am talking about what is often very loosely called a work ethic but is really plain discipline.

Read the full article here.

> Woody Allen at the IMDb
> Find out more about Ingmar Bergman at Wikipedia

The amount of bandwidth consumed by the BBC iPlayer is causing alarm at UK Internet service providers according to an article in yesterday’s Independent by Andrew Murray-Watson:

Some of the largest broadband providers in the UK are threatening to “pull the plug” from the BBC’s new iPlayer unless the corporation contributes to the cost of streaming its videos over the internet.

The likes of Tiscali, BT and Carphone Warehouse are all growing concerned that the impact of hundreds of thousands of consumers watching BBC programmes on its iPlayer – which allows viewers to watch shows over the internet – will place an intolerable strain on their networks.

Some of the companies involved have told the BBC that they will consider limiting the bandwidth available to iPlayer – a process known as traffic shaping. The measure would limit the number of consumers who could access the iPlayer at any one time.

A spokeswoman for Tiscali said: “The potential for iPlayer to suck up capacity is a concern and we need a better dialogue with the BBC about that.”

A senior insider at BT added: “It is certainly a live debate between ISPs [internet service providers] and the BBC. If the BBC gets the numbers it wants for iPlayer then network capacity could become an issue.”

Company representatives have expressed their concerns to Ashley Highfield, the director of new media and technology at the BBC.

Read the rest of the article here.