If you've been keeping an eye on our blogroll, you may have noticed some news from Fan Cinema Today recently about a few fan-made films that, at least for me, are alarmingly intriguing.
The first film concerns my all-time favorite video game franchise: Mega Man.
Filmmaker Eddie LeBron is behind this feature-length fan film. Live action movies based on video games have a painfully terrible track record of being painfully terrible (darn you, Uwe Boll! See also: the Super Mario Bros. movie with Dennis Hopper as King Koopa), but this one seems to recognize that the source material is good and doesn't need to be wildly altered.
It could be a total flop, but you know what? The film's heart seems to be in the right place. And if the music is right, the pacing is good, and the special effects are cool enough, then it doesn't much matter what else happens.
But I have high hopes for you, my blue bomber.
Check out the trailer and see for yourself:
Nevermind. The trailer doesn't work anymore. Just read my review of the film instead. It's from the fuuuuuturrrrre!!!
The second fan film concerns my all-time favorite TV franchise of all time: Star Trek.
Star Trek: Of Gods and Men joins the likes of Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog as proof that we don't need Hollywood to see our favorite actors in action. It's a feature-length fan film with, admittedly, a noticeably lower budget than Star Trek fans are probably accustomed to...
...but look at the cast:
Tim Russ (Tuvok), Garrett Wang (Harry Kim), and Ethan Phillips (Neelix) of Star Trek: Voyager.
Alan Ruck (Captain Harriman of the Enterprise-B) from Star Trek: Generations and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Walter Koenig (Chekov) and Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) of the original Star Trek.
And that's not to mention the several others who have appeared in various Star Trek series, plus shows such as Alien Nation and Battlestar Galactica.
Star power alone is seldom enough to motivate me to see anything, but it is a joy to see actors from every Trek collaborating on a totally independent project. Even if it doesn't have that professional Hollywood look and feel all the time, it is truly a labor of love, and it's still Star Trek.
Check out the official website of Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, where you can watch the film online or get it on DVD as a free gift for buying anything from posters to lithographs to signed autographs from their online store, for prices starting at $20.
This is no doubt a good way to promote their merchandise as well as cover themselves so that they don't get sued for copyright infringement, but hey, if you want to get the DVD then you're a big enough fan that some extra Star Trek swag won't kill you.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sit here for a while with my fingers crossed in the hopes that Joss Whedon will announce that the cast of Firefly will be returning for a Serenity II movie.
2 comments:
I wasn't a big fan of the Mega Man trailer... if anything, its heart seemed to be in the same 90s that spawned Big Bad Beetleborgs, Masked Rider, and VR Troopers along with the Super Mario Brothers movie.
Of Gods and Men looks interesting; I'd heard that George Takei was going to be in it as well until scheduling conflicts came up.
I dunno... The movie does have the potential to be just plain bad, but three things have me thinking positively:
- Mega Man doesn't look like a total dork;
- The special effect for him teleporting in won me over immediately because I'm shallow like that;
- Eddie LeBron sounds like he's thinking about this the right way (at least, in my opinion):
http://megaman.ningin.com/2008/10/06/megaman-film-retrospective-part-i/
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