Holy Franchise, Batman... coming to a bookstore near you!

Firstly, an apology. It's not very often that I use Flickering Myth for the purposes of self-promotion and in fact, this could be the very first time, but darn it I'm excited and I just can't contain myself any longer!

Long time readers of this site may remember a three part article I put together last year entitled Holy Franchise, Batman!, and now I'm delighted to announce that I've just signed a deal with Robert Hale Publishing to produce a full-length book charting the complete screen history of the Dark Knight Detective, which is set to arrive in the summer of 2012.

It's been an ambition of mine to write a book for as long as I can remember and to actually get the opportunity to do so - coupled with the fact that it's about Batman, my absolute all-time favourite comic-book character - really is a fantastic feeling. In fact, the only downside is that I've had to sit through Batman & Robin again, and yes, it is as bad as I remember (if not worse).

For those of you who may be interested, the book will cover every screen incarnation of the Bat from the movie serials of the 1940s through to The Dark Knight Rises, including his small screen appearances on the 60s Adam West series, the absolutely wonderful Batman: The Animated Series of the 90s and recent efforts such as The Batman and The Brave and the Bold, along with the line of DC Original Animated Movies and spin-offs such as Birds of Prey and Catwoman (shudder).

Hopefully I can do it justice. Now to get writing...

Gary Collinson

Your favourite Martin Scorsese movie is...

To coincide with Trevor Hogg's latest filmmaker profile Understanding Scorsese, we've been running a poll here at Flickering Myth to determine your favourite movie from the illustrious back catalogue of legendary director Martin Scorsese. Well, after five weeks of voting (and 738 responses), the results are finally in and it should come as no surprise that his classic 1990 gangster epic Goodfellas is the clear winner with over a quarter of the entire vote...

Goodfellas (1990) - 205 (27%)
The Departed (2006) - 122 (16%)
Taxi Driver (1976) - 110 (14%)
Shutter Island (2010) - 64 (8%)
Raging Bull (1980) - 57 (7%)
Gangs of New York (2002) - 45 (6%)
Casino (1995) - 35 (4%)
The Aviator (2004) - 23 (3%)
Cape Fear (1991) - 12 (1%)
The King of Comedy (1983) - 12 (1%)
Mean Streets (1973) - 12 (1%)
The Age of Innocence (1993) - 8 (1%)
After Hours (1985) - 7 (0%)
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) - 6 (0%)
The Color of Money (1986) - 6 (0%)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) - 5 (0%)
Bringing Out the Dead (1999) - 4 (0%)
Kundun (1997) - 3 (0%)
Boxcar Bertha (1972) - 1 (0%)
New York, New York (1977) - 1 (0%)
Who's That Knocking at My Door (1968) - 0 (0%)

For more on Martin Scorsese be sure to check out the filmmaker profile, while we've also posted a selection of short films from the director, which you can view here...

Short Film Showcase - What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?
Short Film Showcase - The Big Shave
Short Film Showcase - The Key to Reserva

Stella Artois want to take you to Cannes to star in a movie...

To promote their sponsorship of the 64th annual Cannes Film Festival, beer company Stella Artois have launched an exciting new competition offering film fans and would-be stars the chance to see themselves up on the big-screen as the lead in a biopic of 'Jacques d’Azur', the legendary ‘King Of Cannes’.

In addition to playing the lead in the short film, the winner will receive movie star treatment throughout their trip as they are flown to Cannes, put up in a suite at the Carlton Hotel and receive red-carpet treatment at the festival, including a star-studded after party at Chez Jacques', Stella Artois' luxury, invitation-only lounge at an exclusive beachfront property in Cannes.

To enter, budding movie stars should head over to www.stellaartois.com where you can film your scenes alongside your beautiful leading lady using the latest in webcam and video editing techniques (and ladies, fear not - the online casting call also offers the opportunity to audition for a starring role playing opposite Jacques d’Azur). The footage will then be seamlessly morphed together to produce an audition tape that can be shared with friends and family online, before a panel of judges announce the lucky winner on April 5th.

Vision Quest: The Tree of Life & The Big Lie

On February 20th I sent emails to media outlets asking if they were interested in an exclusive interview I had had with Visual Effects Supervisor Dan Glass, regarding his work on The Tree of Life by Terrence Malick. The email stated that the studio “is more than willing to provide pictures as long as the feature appears after the movie comes out on May 27th.”

One of the media organizations expressing an interest in the piece was the UK film magazine and website Little White Lies; Adam Woodward the editor of the website in his email of February 21st stated, “Would be great to see the 1st draft when you have one.” With the approval of Dan Glass and his promise to secure the necessary pictures over the incoming weeks, I forwarded the completed article. My accompanying email stated, “Let me know if you are interested.”

A media outlet expressed a desire in buying the feature on March 8th via an email; I forwarded the request to the studio and waited to see how the negotiations would develop. Half an hour later my contact at the Hollywood studio called to inform me that Little White Lies had posted The Tree of Life: Vision Quest; the website had put my article online without my knowledge and permission and in complete disregard of all those associated with the film. My emails and phone call for Vision Quest to be pulled IMMEDIATELY went unanswered. It was not until the studio intervened that Little White Lies finally removed the piece, having allowed other sites time to pick it up.

Little White Lies declares that “If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that we have high standards here at LWLies.” I find the line rather disconcerting considering their so called “exclusive” article was posted without word or payment to its unsuspecting author.

With my permission and knowledge, Flickering Myth will be posting Vision Quest: The Making of The Tree of Life after May 27th in respect of the wishes of the studio.

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.

Innocent puts out the call to budding filmmakers for their Mini Movies Competition

Fancy yourself as the next Christopher Nolan, Zack Snyder or Joss Whedon? Think you have what it takes to tackle the superhero genre? Well, you mightn't get your hands on the Batman franchise just yet but everyone has to start somewhere, so why not check out the latest competition from innocent drinks, who have been running a new marketing campaign here in the UK featuring a superhero smoothie who 'saves the peckish', and now they want you to helm the sequel!

If you're a budding filmmaker and want to be in with a chance of bagging a rather fantastic prize of £5000 cash, two tickets to the London Film Festival and your own film broadcast on prime-time television, the Innocent Mini Movies Competition could be your ticket to success. Check out the details...

Shoot a 30 second mini movie where our innocent caped superhero saves the day. It could be anything from rescuing someone from a boring meeting to saving a kitten from a burning tree - the more imaginative the better. To help you on your way to a mini masterpiece, we’ve created some downloadable film kits and ‘how to’ guides, which are available on the website.

Upload your mini superhero sequel to Youtube by 17th April. Our panel of expert judges - including Ben Wheatley (our ad director), Dan Germain (creative director at innocent) and Uri Fruchtman (owner and executive producer of Ealing Studios) and Tim O'Kennedy (Chief Exec of the D&AD)– will then narrow down all the videos to the top 5. The good 'ol public will then vote for their winner, who will get their film screened on prime-time TV, £5000 in cash and 2 tickets to the London Film Festival.

To help you get on your way, innocent have kindly supplied us with ten 'mini film kits', which include a smoothie bottle, superhero cape and random selection of props to get you on your way. If you'd like to grab one of the kits, well you're too late I'm afraid as the giveaway closed on Monday 14th March ay 6pm.


Visit the innocent Youtube channel for more information and guidelines for your mini masterpiece.


The Prize Finder - UK Competitions
Loquax Competitions
Competitions Today

Flickering Myth's second birthday extravaganza!

February 2009... the 3D craze was still in its infancy, James Cameron's Titanic remained untouchable at the all-time box office, The Hobbit was gearing up for production under director Guillermo del Toro and M. Night Shyamalan’s career lay in tatters following the release of The Happening. Fast-forward 24 months and almost every film now comes with that added dimension (and subsequent surcharge), James Cameron’s Avatar sits proudly atop the global box office, The Hobbit is gearing up for production under director Peter Jackson and M. Night Shyamalan’s career lies in tatters following the release of The Last Airbender.

My, how time flies. It really doesn’t seem like two years ago that Flickering Myth first made its way onto the World Wide Web but today marks our second anniversary. We've come a long way since that first posting (a review of Easy Rider, if you’re interested); in July 2009 were we joined by Trevor Hogg, who brought with him fantastic series of filmmaker profiles and interviews, and as the site has grown we’ve continued to expand our writing team in the hope of giving you quality content on a regular basis. With that in mind, here are some of the most popular posts from our archive...

Most popular reviews…

Inception (2010, dir. Christopher Nolan)
Diagnosis Death (2009, dir. Jason Stutter)
Baise-moi (2000, dir. Virginie Despentes and Coralie)
A Clockwork Orange (1971, dir. Stanley Kubrick)
F (2010, dir. Johannes Roberts)

Most popular filmmaker profiles…

Drawn to Anime: A Hayao Miyazaki Profile
Animated Storytellers: A Pixar Animation Studios Profile
Resurfacing: A James Cameron Profile
Theatre of the Mind: A Christopher Nolan Profile
Freakishly Clever: A Tim Burton Profile

Most popular essentials…

Five Essential Films of Alfred Hitchcock
Ten Essential Movie Superheroes
Five Essential Films of Takashi Miike
Five Essential Movie Supervillains
Five Essential Films of Ridley Scott

Most popular special features...

Where Did All the Good Spoofs Go?
Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen
What’s next for Batman after The Dark Knight has risen?
Empire Building: The Making of The Empire Strikes Back
Story Upgrade: Expanding the world of Tron

2011 has been a pretty good year so far here at Flickering Myth; along with our nomination for Best Overall Blog in the Total Film Movie Blog Awards but we've climbed to the dizzying heights of tenth in Wikio's cinema rankings and cracked the top 20 of Technorati's Top 100 Film. Meanwhile the fine folks at MadeMan were nice enough to select us in their 10 Best Free Film Sites and we also appeared on Cision's list of the Top 10 UK Film Blogs of 2010.

So, this would be a perfect time for me to take the opportunity to thank all of our readers, along with everyone who has taken the time to comment on the posts, our contributors past and present (see here) and all of the fabulous sites that have supported us (check out their links in the sidebar, you won’t regret it!). Here's to the next two years!

Gary Collinson

A Stanley Kubrick Odyssey - A Video Tribute

We received an email earlier this week from Richard Vezina to let us know about a rather impressive homage he's put together celebrating the work of the late, great Stanley Kubrick. Described as a "visual-analysis", the 13-minute video juxtaposes imagery from all of the director's films (barring Spartacus, which Richard doesn't consider to be an original Kubrick movie), and really is an exceptional tribute to the legendary filmmaker and his unique visual talents.

"I spent hundreds of hours to achieve it; the result is quite professionnal and expose all the aspects and themes brought up by Kubrick. Dead Can Dance's music has been use for the first part 'Symmetry and Chaos'; Lisa Gerrard's music can be heard in the second part 'Love and Memory'. I'm sure all movie fans and Kubrick's fans will be delighted by this homage."

For more on Stanley Kubrick, be sure to check out our filmmaker profile Capturing Kubrick, along with his 1951 documentary short Day of the Fight.

Vote Flickering Myth for Best Overall Blog in the Total Film Movie Blog Awards 2011

We are absolutely delighted to announce that Flickering Myth has been nominated for Best Overall Blog in the Total Film Movie Blog Awards 2011! It really is an honour to make the shortlist so we'd just like to take this opportunity to thank our lovely readers for putting us forward, and of course Total Film for deeming us worthy of making it through to the final stage of the awards.

Now of course we're under no illusions and fully expect to get slaughtered in the voting so we really, really, really need your help. If you'd like to show your support for Flickering Myth, then please head on over to the Total Film site (either via the link or by clicking the image on the right) where you can register your vote and earn our eternal gratitude in the process.

Voting runs until the 27th January, with the lucky winners announced the following day. Once again, thank you for getting us this far and good luck to all the blogs that have received nominations.

Season's Greetings and a look ahead to 2011's big releases...

Just a quick note to wish our readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from everyone here at Flickering Myth, and to say thank you for your support during this past year.

We'll be posting our 'Top 10 Movies of 2010' on New Year's Eve, but for the moment here's a selection of films to look out for in the coming year...

The Green Hornet (dir. Michel Gondry)
The Way Back (dir. Peter Weir)
The Mechanic (dir. Simon West)
Sanctum (dir. Alister Grierson)
The Eagle (dir. Kevin Macdonald)
Gnomeo and Juliet (dir. Kelly Asbury)
I Am Number Four (dir. D. J. Caruso)
Unknown (dir. Jaume Collet-Serra)
Drive Angry (dir. Patrick Lussier)
Hall Pass (dir. Farrelly Brothers)
The Adjustment Bureau (dir. George Nolfi)
Rango (dir. Gore Verbinski)
Battle: Los Angeles (dir. Jonathan Liebesman)
Red Riding Hood (dir. Catherine Hardwicke)
Paul (dir. Greg Mottola)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules (dir. David Bowers)
Sucker Punch (dir. Zack Snyder)
Win Win (dir. Thomas McCarthy)
Hop (dir. Tim Hill)
Source Code (dir. Duncan Jones)
Hanna (dir. Joe Wright)
Rio (dir. Carlos Saldanha)
Your Highness (dir. David Gordon Green)
Scream 4 (dir. Wes Craven)
Fast Five (dir. Justin Lin)
Thor (dir. Kenneth Branagh)
Priest (dir. Scott Stewart)
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (dir. Rob Marshall)
The Hangover: Part II (dir. Todd Phillips)
Kung Fu Panda 2 (dir. Jennifer Yuh Nelson)
The Tree of Life (dir. Terrence Malick)
X-Men: First Class (dir. Matthew Vaughn)
Super 8 (dir. J.J. Abrams)
Green Lantern (dir. Martin Campbell)
Cars 2 (dir. John Lasseter and Brad Lewis)
Rise of the Apes (dir. Rupert Wyatt)
Larry Crowne (dir. Tom Hanks)
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (dir. Michael Bay)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (dir. David Yates)
Winnie the Pooh (dir. Stephen Anderson and Don Hall)
Captain America: The First Avenger (dir. Joe Johnston)
Cowboys & Aliens (dir. Jon Favreau)
The Smurfs (dir. Raja Gosnell)
The Darkest Hour (dir. Chris Gorak)
Conan the Barbarian (dir. Marcus Nispel)
Fright Night (dir. Craig Gillespie)
Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World (dir. Robert Rodriguez)
Final Destination 5 (dir. Stephen Quale)
Colombiana (dir. Oliver Megaton)
Warrior (dir. Gavin O'Connor)
Drive (dir. Nicolas Winding Refn)
Johnny English Reborn (dir. Oliver Parker)
Pirahna 3DD (dir. John Gulager)
Straw Dogs (dir. Rod Lurie)
Abduction (dir. John Singleton)
Moneyball (dir. Bennett Miller)
Dream House (dir. Jim Sheridan)
Anonymous (dir. Roland Emmerich)
Real Steel (dir. Shawn Levy)
Footloose (dir. Craig Brewer)
The Thing (dir. Matthijs van Heijningen)
The Three Musketeers (dir. Paul W.S. Anderson)
Contagion (dir. Stever Soderbergh)
Paranormal Activity 3 (dir. Tod Williams)
Tower Heist (dir. Brett Ratner)
Puss in Boots (dir. Chris Miller)
Immortals (dir. Tarsem Singh)
Happy Feet 2 (dir. George Miller)
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (dir. Bill Condon)
Arthur Christmas (dir. Sarah Smith and Barry Cook)
The Muppets (dir. James Bobin)
Hugo Cabaret (dir. Martin Scorsese)
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (dir. Brad Bird)
Sherlock Holmes 2 (dir. Guy Ritchie)
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (dir. David Fincher)
The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn (dir. Steven Spielberg)
We Bought a Zoo (dir. Cameron Crowe)
War Horse (dir. Steven Spielberg)

Looks like it could be a very busy year indeed! Feel free to tell us what film you're most looking forward to in 2011 and please, if there's anything that's slipped under our radar do let us know.