So you've probably seen an ad or two for the 3-D animated movie Disney's A Christmas Carol, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge. Yes, another adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic holiday tale.
What you might not know is that the company responsible for the groundbreaking animation is ImageMoversDigital, and the art director/chairman of said company is Academy Award-winning artist, production designer and author Doug Chiang. Believe it or not, he started his career as a stop-motion animator on Pee Wee's Playhouse.
Jason Rogel informs me that he has a role in the independent film Splinterheads, a quirky romantic comedy opening in limited release today. According to the movie website, Jason plays Wayne Chung, Owner and Master Landscaper of Wayne Chung's Landscaping. Watch these funny videos of Jason as Wayne Chung. Snakes? No problem!
I've also been meaning to mention a couple of titles that were recently released on DVD... Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
: Fanboy fave Grace Park reprises her role as Lt. Sharon 'Boomer' Valerii, in this feature film installment of the Battlestar Galactica saga, telling the story through the eyes of humanity's deadly robotic adversaries, the Cylons.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
: South Korean star Lee Byung-hun makes his Hollywood debut as the Cobra ninja Storm Shadow. I never actually got around to seeing this movie, as it looked rather awful. But I heard Storm Shadow was pretty cool (or at least, he looked pretty cool).
The Sam Fuller Film Collection
: Finally! Director Sam Fuller's 1959 film noir classic The Crimson Kimono, starring Asian American screen star James Shigeta, is now available for the first time on DVD. Unfortunately, it's only being released as part of this collection, and not an individual disc, but it's worth taking a look.Two detectives investigate the murder of a stripper. As their search takes them through skid row, Little Tokyo and other L.A. neighborhoods, the tension between the two cops rises to a boil as they both fall for the same girl. Definitely notable for its progressive racial politics and casting, with the dashing James Shigeta in his screen debut -- as a romantic lead, no less.