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Frazetta’s fantasy art, along with that of Boris Vallejo, provided a muscular, dynamically iconic vision of John Carter and Dejah Thoris, as his cover art also did for Conan the Barbarian (perhaps even more so).

With the imminent release of the new Disney fantasy blockbuster John Carter (US-2012; dir. Andrew Stanton), which is due to open in Australia on 8 March, the current generation will acquire, I suspect, a new vision of Burroughs’ characters — even if from the look of recent publicity there is a certain familiarity to it all (as there should be). Check out this latest poster, which ups the fantastical ante over previously released collateral:

Previous:

The stills below tell a similar story and the lush re-imagined familiarity of them makes me very keen to see the film. John Carter has been long overdue to make a big-budget appearance at the movies — one fitting Burroughs’ neglected importance in the genre.

If you haven’t already seen them, check out the trailers and the following clips:

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Yes, from what is rapidly becoming the main enclave for the production of B-movie remakes, Franklin, Indiana, comes the news that the crapfest classic Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (US-1964; dir. Nicholas Webster) is about to be given a revamp.

Undead Backbrain has just heard that exploitation guru Jim Wynorski (fresh from filming a remake of The Giant Gila Monster) announced today that his next production will be a star-studded remake of Santa Claus Conquers The Martians.

“It’s a show that screams out to be remade with today’s modern technology,” declared Wynorski, who, along with producer Bill Dever, feels the infamous ‘kiddie matinee’ is now permanently tattooed on the psyche of film fans around the world.

The original Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, harkening from 1964 before Santa had been turned into a robotic demon by Futurama, regularly appears on lists of the worst films ever made. So following the line that remakes work best when they don’t have to live up to anything, it makes perfect to see it as remake fodder.

Beside being continually resigned to the “bottom 100″ list on the Internet Movie Database, the show was also included in an episode of the 1986 syndicated series, The Canned Film Festival. It stars a cast of deserved unknowns, save for a precocious 8-year old named Pia Zadora, who plays one of the Martian children.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians was made for a mere $200,000 in four days at a converted airport hanger on Long Island, not far from where Jim Wynorski grew up. Producer Bill Dever says that over the next several months of pre-production, Wynorski will be consulting the same “crack team” brought together for his production of Gila, the aforementioned remake of 1959′s The Giant Gila Monster.

With a self-avowed “tireless devotion to all things B-Film”, Dever says he will again be “bringing all the diverse elements together to make sure this new picture has the same high gloss as Gila!”

“The approach we’re taking on this update,” he claims, “will hopefully prove to fans that Santa really has a brand new bag.”

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians shoots this summer in Southern Indiana.

And in case you haven’t seen the original, here’s the trailer from the classic tale of post-colonial terrorism:

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Feeling a tad masochistic? You can watch the whole thing on the Cinema of the Backbrain now!

• Source: Bill Dever via Avery Guerra.

Lost Island [aka L'île: les naufragés de la terre perdue; The Island: Castaways of the Lost Island] is a new French adventure fantasy film from writer/director Olivier Boillot, released in mid-2011 in France and hopefully heading for an English release in 2012 (though it is currently available in France on DVD/Blu-ray, with English subtitles).

Synopsis:

It’s 1942 and three men have just crashed into the ocean in the middle of nowhere. The stranded men find shelter on a nearby deserted island. As they slowly discover, they are not alone.

Lost Island looks to have been inspired by Jules Verne’s novel, L’Île mystérieuse (aka Mysterious Island), and/or any of the films based on it. As you’ll see from the trailer, it also carries suggestions of the TV series Lost and perhaps even Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The Land That Time Forgot, the latter of which was most recently filmed by the Asylum and directed by C. Thomas Howell. Basically what all these have in common is a group of people stranded on an otherwise unknown island that is inhabited by big creatures (mostly dinosaurs). The monsters are often (at least in the case of Mysterious Island and Lost) the result of scientific experimentation or arcane knowledge of some kind.

What sort of monsters Boillot’s film has, and how they got there, are merely hinted at within the trailer (here presented with English subtitles), but it looks pretty intriguing. Certainly the hints not only of monstrosity but of arcane mystical/pseudo scientific artefacts (not to mention the huge hole in the ground — interdimensional portal?) give what might have been a very ordinary survival tale enough interest for me to want to seek it out.

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It fascinates me how much more effective these sort of tales always seem, on film at least, when their creators give them a period setting.

Lost Island stars Michel Béatrix, Cyrielle Debreuil, Paul Descombes, Kaddour Dorgham and Jérémy Duplot Jr. The Gallery below includes some location shots of Jérémy Duplot Jr. and Kaddour Dorgham during filming.

Gallery:

Addendum: Behind The Scenes/Making Of Videos

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Sources: Alexandre Simard and Olivier Chekroun for Highland Film Group and Emylia. Via Avery Guerra. Written by Robert Hood.

• Official Website
• IMDb entry

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Naturally the internet naysayers are out in force already, but this looks pretty good to me, sticking, as it seems to do, to the spirit of the original tale. Love the beanstalk!

The story’s most-notable previous cinematic re-telling was Jack the Giant Killer (US-1962; dir. Nathan Duran), which featured 60s “historical hero” Kerwin Mathews (who had become well-known thanks to the 1958 classic The 7th Voyage of Sinbad) and the stop-motion work of an assortment of animators, most notably the uncredited Jim Danforth.

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The film still has undeniable charm, but was never one of the great stop-motion classics, despite the power of nostalgia to evoke negative online comparisons with the as-yet-unseen 2012 CGI-based remake.

• Written by Robert Hood

The Curse of the Phantom Shadow (US-2012; short [approx. 30 min.]; dir. Mark Ross)

Synopsis:

The year is 1948 and the United States has a new enemy, The Phantom Shadow. This dark figure has diabolical plans for captured scientist, Dr Hammond and his War Department weapons of mass destruction. When the Phantom Shadow launches a treacherous missile attack on key locations in the United States, the government takes action.

There is only one man to call, Agent 236, an elite government agent. Agent 236 has been dispatched to launch a rescue.

Along the way, Agent 236 is befriended by a  spunky, sarcastic gas-station attendant ,who just happens to have pinup-girl good looks.  She also just happens to be in the market for a little action and excitement. Luckily, Agent 236 is the man of her dreams. Agent 236 puts the station attendant and her tow truck into service in pursuit of the Phantom Shadow and together they take on the most diabolical villain the world has ever faced.

“Our film takes place in 1948,” explained director Mark Ross. “We have professional actors, some of which have been in Hollywood productions.” The Backbrain asked him  what inspired him.

As a kid growing up in the 1970s/1980s I was a huge Star Wars fan. After I learned that Star Wars was influenced by pulp magazines and movie serials, I started to track them down and soon fell in love with the source material. I have always had a huge affinity for the 1940s, as my father was a 16mm film collector. Growing up, my dad screened classic movies in our basement. Before there were VCRs or DVD players, our family watched full length movies on a cold New England night.

My father was both an engineer and cinematographer. He gave me my first movie camera when I was in grammar school. By the time I was in 4th grade my father had already taught me stop motion animation. He had also introduced my to radio dramas, decoder badges, and his vintage 1940s Gilbert Erector set. Before I knew it, I was already trying to find a way to combine all of these interests.

The short film is well underway, and looks great (as you can see from the promotional video below) but more money is need to complete the task. Hence, like many others before him, Mark is making a play for backing through the Kickstarter website. “Until recently,” he explained, “we were 100% self financed from my personal savings. We are now trying to raise money to finish our production.”

The Backbrain asked Mark what he was aiming to achieve through this film:

I’m trying to put together a concept film that will demonstrate the skill and talent of my cast and crew. It is my hope that someone will see this movie, and fund us to shoot either a feature-length film or television pilot based upon these characters and story situations. I would like to be able to bring back my entire cast and crew for a full-length movie, and beyond that a series of films based upon these characters.

If you think you’d like to help Mark complete his film and fulfil these ambitions, check out the Kickstarter site to see what rewards your pledge will get you.

Source: Mark Ross; Kickstarter. Written by Robert Hood

Filmed in the “camera verité” style made famous (in more recent times anyway) by The Blair Witch Project (1998), Paranormal Activity (2007), Cloverfield (2008), The Zombie Dairies (2006) and The Troll Hunter (2010) — to name but a few — The Dinosaur Project follows the fortunes of a film crew traveling deep in the Congo, who discover that assorted 65-million-year-old dinosaur species are alive, thriving and generally predatory, as is their wont.

Below is a dead one, caught at ground-level by a dropped camera.

The film stars  Natasha Loring (pictured below), Peter Brooke (Spooks, Doctor Who, The Wild West) and Matt Kane (The Cut). It is produced by Moonlighting Films and will be distributed through StudioCanal, with digital SFX by BAFTA award-winning effects house Jellyfish Pictures, who got some dino practice in via the TV movie The Last Dragon (2004) and T-Rex: A Dinosaur in Hollywood (2005).

Going on the dinosaurs featured in some of the production shots the Backbrain acquired, all dino lovers out there are in for a treat.

The film is currently in post-production for release in 2012.

Source: via Avery Guerra; StudioCanal; IMDb. Written by Robert Hood.

He has allowed Undead Backbrain to release the first English teaser trailer for Spores. Check it out below:

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Original Russian version:

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“Spores represents four years of work,” he explained to Undead Backbrain. “I have done it myself, without backing. In Russia, it is possible to shoot such films. Production costs are not too expensive and the situation there offers good money-saving opportunities. I want to make a movie trilogy under the title Spores, of which this first one — which I call Spores: Invasion — is the first. I am willing to cooperate to get the rest made. I’m hoping that a producer in the US and Europe will be in the audience when this first Spores premiers and will recognise the potential of what I can achieve.”

Post-production work on Spores is almost completed, and the film will be available in November.

“The script, video camera work and visual effects are all my own work,” Dyachuk explained. “I was inspired by Gareth Edwards. He also makes films virtually by himself. But I live in Siberia. The film is in the Russian language. There will be English subtitles and if I find a producer in the USA, there will be an English dub version.”

On the issue of the film’s genre, Dyachuk explained: “In Russia, fantasy, sci-fi and horror movies are not popular. And this is my favorite genre. But there are interesting stories, places, and actors here and it is ideal to take advantage of that.”

We look forward to seeing the result once post-production is complete.

Synopsis:

A group of youthful friends go out of town on an outing and stumble upon an old Soviet factory. The factory has been long abandoned and is derelict. It interests them and they decide to explore and to document what they find. But their curiosity brings them face-to-face with unimaginable danger. It transpires that alien spores have come to Earth on a meteorite, and that these spores quickly multiply and take on a monstrous form once they touch the ground. Who among the group of threatened humans will fight? Who will survive? And what will the ultimate outcome of this terror be for the planet?

Crew:

• Directed by Maksim Dyachuk
• Director of Photography: Maksim Dyachuk
• Produced by Dina Green
• Sound design: Igor Faust
• Editing: Maksim Dyachuk
• Scenario: Maksim Dyachuk
• Music: Igor Faust
• VFX Effects and Compositing: Maksim Dyachuk

Cast:

Natalia Rybjakova, Valery Kuzmenko, Oleg Burlakov, Elena Sherbakova, Nikolay Dubkov, Vladimir Kokin and Leonid Gusarov

More stills, production pictures and conceptual artwork is available in the Gallery below.

• Sources: Maksim Dyachuk via Avery Guerra; Official website

Gallery:

Laputa: Castle in the Sky

Reviewed by Robert Hood

There is a distinctly steampunk — or perhaps more accurately retro, post-Industrial — aesthetic  to Hayao Miyazaki’s typically luminous fantasy anime, Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Technological imagery combines with more fantastical elements to create the sort of magical ambiance  quintessential to Miyazaki’s grandmaster status in the field of animation. Though science fiction in general appearance, replete with flying machines, robots and advanced, if ancient, technology, much of the film feels like magic. The combination makes for a wonderful two-hours of family entertainment — profound simplicity, darkness wrapped in auras of light.

After an opening scene in which a young girl (Sheeta) falls from a huge dirigible while trying to escape both a mysterious enemy and air-pirates, the action shifts to Pazu, an engineer’s apprentice at work in a vast mining construct, clearly well past its prime. He sees the young girl not so much falling as floating down from the sky, apparently carried to safety by the glowing pendant she wears around her neck. He catches her in his arms.

This encounter is the beginning of an adventurous journey that involves spectacular chase scenes, pseudo-fascist troops, air battles, puzzles to be solved — and a mythical flying castle that is what remains of an ancient civilisation whose power had been vast but has long since been lost to ground-dwelling humanity. Many seek the source of that power, however, and Pazu must not only help Sheeta escape them, but also unravel the mystery of who she is and how she is connected to Laputa.

Though the sinister pirates convincingly turn into eccentric comrades during the unravelling of the narrative,  and the overall tone of the film is one of well-meaning optimism, there is a dark and melancholy undercurrent as well. It is this that creates the film’s complexity and gives an effective texture to the story. If nothing else, evidence of human civilisation here is in various stages of decay — from the mining township of Slag Ravine, which appears to be living under the shadow of economic decline, to Laputa itself, which is the last evidence of an advanced civilisation that has now all but disappeared. Parts of it are overgrown, crumbling, with only the natural reserves — kept up by a strange and strangely endearing robotic ecologist — surviving to the end. In that end the island in the sky becomes more or less a huge tree (the Tree of Life?), with the debris of greatness entangled in its roots — a significant symbol of the continuity of the natural world and the ephemeral nature of humanity’s creations, no matter how magnificent.

This new Blu-ray edition of Laputa: Castle in the Sky is absolutely beautiful, evidence, if any were needed, that traditional cel animation can stand up to scrutiny against CGI and in some areas perhaps even surpass it. Apparently 69,262 traditional “cels” and 381 colors were needed to give Laputa its radiant splendor, and there is no stinting on the quality of the animation itself. The luminosity of this transfer to Blu-ray has to be the best the film has ever looked and is more than worthy of this great work of animated cinema.

If you love Miyazaki’s work, you will need to upgrade to this edition, which you can watch with its original Japanese soundtrack or with an effective English dub. If you don’t love Miyazaki’s work… what’s your problem?

Laputa: Castle in the Sky is released on DVD and on Blu-ray by Madman Entertainment.

Despite a certain affection for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s earlier version of Robert E. Howard’s iconic warrior barbarian — a product of the magazine Weird Tales at its height, mingling swordplay, dark magic and monstrosity to create a compelling imaginative world of its own — I’ve always been disappointed by cinematic versions of the Barbarian King’s adventures.

Well, for me this new trailer looks like it’s got all the right moves — and Jason Momoa as Conan has the right sort of muscle and an appropriately rough appearance, indicative of strength gained not through a gym regime but through a brutal life of conflict and near-death experience. Along with giant tentacles, sorcery and other magical adversaries, he gives me hope that this Conan will reflect well on Conan’s literary origins.

Bring it on!