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[UPDATE] Ubisoft officially confirmed the game with a teaser trailer - watch it here! May 28, 2008

Knighted video game designer Michel Ancel revealed in an interview with JeuxVideo that a sequel to the critically- acclaimed commercial failure Beyond Good & Evil is currently in pre-production. A team of 10 to 12 people are working on the game, and for some head-scratching reason Ubisoft is not yet giving the full green-light for the project to go into real production phase. BG&E may have been a commercial failure but scour the nets and you'll find legions of fans that are still joining the party after finding the gem of a game in bargain-bins-- and those remaining copies are fast drying up; should you want yours, I suggest running to your nearest retailer (bonus hint: it was released in 2003 for the PS2, Xbox, Gamecube and Windows PC).

Anyway, make this game Ubisoft! No dilly-dallyin'! Re-release the first BG&E (so the rest of the world can play the increasingly hard-to-find title) with a coupon for the sequel, bundle the first game when the sequel comes out, whatever, just don't let it die in a basement somewhere, 'kay? The way I see it is, even if you move it to production now, it'll still be 2 years too long for us players to get to it in stores, so chop-chop, I say!

Imagine, a remake of the first game on the Wii, like Capcom did for Okami (just make sure to do something more than just shake-motions like you did for the Prince of Persia 2 remake for the Wii, Ubisoft! -- i can see it now, the Dai-jo-wielding, the picture-taking are perfect for the Wii-mote), and the sequel on all current-gen platforms - Wii, PS3, Xbox360 - plus the PS2 (since it looks like it'll be around for another 5 years).

As adventure games go, BG&E is one of the finest I've played, and just to give you an idea, let me say this: when I upgraded from my Gamecube to the Wii (otherwise known as "Gamecube 1.5") I traded/sold/gave away all of my 'cube games except BG&E and Legend of Zelda: Windwaker. Sure the story's been done before (uncovering the workings of a government conspiracy beyond measure) but sneaking around as a journalist with a camera and infiltrating restrticted areas hasn't been this much fun since trying to get into the girls' changing room! I kid, I kid (for that you'd have to play Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - you'll know what I'm talking about). Plus, in BG&E you get a walking, talking pig as a sidekick! (watch the trailer below - no pigs in it, though - and a link to a thoughtful review from way back when in 2004.)
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Like another colleague of mine, I too have been lax in the updating department.
I'll come out and say it, I am Iron Man I mean, I was busy. And lazy.
We'll see how much longer this newfound impulse to blab lasts. Just don't hold your breath, 'cause I wouldn't myself.

And is it just me or was Robert Downey Jr. born to rock as Tony Stark?!!!

What else happened while I was blanked out...
Speed Racer was released (yeah, it's a pathetic two posts down that i wrote about 'first look'), Rain smoked Stephen Colbert on DDR (youtube), Grand Theft Auto 4 was unleashed and is taking names across the world (immigrant struggles), Metal Gear Solid 4 t-shirts aren't available at the New York Uniqlo store (at least not yet, bummer), I continue to suck at drums in Rock Band (pathetic), got new head phones (pretty cool - update soon), beat Guild Wars' first campaign (update soon again)...

read on when I write on, friends.

Just as The Korea Society opens a new exhibit on 70's and 80's toys from Korea with the Taekwondo-style butt-kicking giant robot Taekwon V as its centerpiece today, there's news that the animated feature film will be made into a live-action/CG film to be released in August, 2009 (Test CG footage looks awesome! read on).

"Toys - always more meaningful than the simple playthings they appear to be - can embody the fantasies, values, obsessions and anxieties of a generation. Toy Stories: Souvenirs from Korean Childhood includes a veritable toy box of over 90 flamboyantly colored action figures, robots, miniature tanks and paper dolls from 1970's and 1980's Korea."

So the exhibit will have more than just action figures and robots for boys, but also girls' toys and dolls too. Being that Korea's growing industrialization made new things possible in the country for the first time during that period, it would be interesting to see just what got kids excited back when there was no Guitar Hero or PlayStation. Here's some key proceedings tied to the show:

• The opening reception for the exhibit is today at 5:30 PM
• Exhibit runs through April 18
• "Gallery Talk" (lecture): "Our Toys Our Selves: Robot Taekwon V and South Korean Identity" on February 7
• Film screening of animated feature Robot Taekwon V (2007, Digitally restored from original 1976 prints) on March 18

The film was the first Korean animated feature - ever. While original prints were long thought to have been destroyed by fire, a print was later found in one of KOFIC's (Korean Film Council) off-site storage warehouses, was digitally restored in a 3-year-long process and re-released in 2007 to theaters across the nation in a very successful run.

Second, the live-action/CG adaptation.  (More)

Update: Trailer is out, added below!
Emile Hirsch in full 'Speed' gear, Rain (South Korean pop sensation Bi) about to knock Speed out, the Mach 5 car on a crazy psychedelic racetrack, Christina Ricci and everyone else in funny haircuts -- it can only mean one thing: Speed Racer pictures from the upcoming Wachowski Brother's(The Matrix Trilogy, V for Vendetta) anime to live-action movie adaptation. Trying out what they're calling car-fu - 'kung-fu with cars' - it seems they got the pop-visual look of the 60's cartoon down pat. The movie will be Rain's English-langauge debut, and also stars Susan Sarandon and John Goodman as Speed's parents, Mom & Pops Racer. Gotta love the straightforward naming scheme.

Pictures of Rain, Ricci and more (plus the trailer) after the jump. (More)

My picks from tomorrow's Times' Sunday Book Review with a bent for the other, miscellaneous and alternative. Hopefully this will be a recurring linkroll that I can keep up with each week. This week of November 11 (11/11!), I choose you, Pikachu! I mean, the Children's Book section reviews of Shaun Tan's "The Arrival" -- graphic novel, a wordless, timeless meditation on "not an immigrant's story, but the immigrant's story," and Sherman Alexie's "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian", his first young-adult title. Also Adrian Tomine's "Shortcomings," another graphic novel, about 30-year-old "anti-hero" Ben Tanaka, dealing with his career-driven girlfriend that leaves Cali for NY, a lesbian Korean graduate friend, sprinkled with his penchant for blondes. "The Arrival" has also been picked as one of the Times' ten Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2007. Link to slideshow gallery

And finally, despite all the other notable books written about in this weeks section including a Picasso biography, an elaborate Star Wars pop-up book, a new translation of Dante's "Paradiso"... just for kicks... get ready for it... I would like to write about a book review I read today in the review section, of a book written about "How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read", and want you to keep in mind that I haven't read the actual book, but rather only the book review. Translated from French, psychoanalyst and professor of lit Pierre Bayard gives reason and thought to why he "doesn’t blame us for fudging [about books we haven't read], and he doesn’t want us to blame ourselves." He apparently says it's okay!

Just one more reason I think starting up this recap section on books we haven't read yet could become a nice record and incentive to do just that -- read more.

All right. Now, choice quotes from each of the above New York times reviews after the jump, plus pretty books covers for you to judge by(!) And just how to talk about that book you haven't read.