ClumpRoll

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)

John Cho has been cast to play Hikaru Sulu, in the new Star Trek XI movie to begin shooting by the end of this year. Directed by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias), the film will tell the story of the original Trek-series characters as they first meet each other in their younger years. Paramount has given a new crop of actors the daunting task of filling the large boots of immortalized characters Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Uhura, Chekov and others - and hopefully revitalize a "tent-pole" franchise that has been sagging in its absence the past few years, hampered by less-than-stellar interest in it the later (post-Next Generation) TV shows and competition from other sci-fi properties like Star Wars, Stargate SG-1 and the phenomenal Battlestar Galactica.

Other actors confirmed for the film include Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) as Scotty, Anton Yelchin as Chekov, Zachary Quinto (Heroes) as Spock, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, and Eric Bana (Troy, Munich, The Incredible Hulk) as a villain character. In what sources say will be a smaller role than the name suggests, Kirk is yet uncast, but they are in talks with Chris Pine who was apparently one of the three strange "country brothers" in the disappointing Smoking Aces. Sure, Pine looks the part but his resumé makes me ask, for Kirk, really??? (for pictures, follow the link at the bottom there.)

Back to John Cho. Though he's been in the business for nearly a decade, Cho has become one of the most recognizable Korean faces in Tinseltown only after playing Harold in the buddy(stoner)-comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (remember that before this movie he was only known, if at all, as "the MILF guy from American Pie"). For a commercial project like the Star Trek franchise right now, this recognizability or star-power is probably the best reason to pick some one like Cho. He's been in numerous sitcoms (like the shortlived Off-Centre *youtube link* with American Pie co-star Eddie Kaye Thomas) as main characters to extra-bits and of course had the feature films recently. After some more dramatic ones in the Asian-American films Better Luck Tomorrow (dir. Justin Lin, 2003) and West 32nd (dir. Michael Kang, 2007, with Grace Park from Battlestar Galactica), he reprises his role in the yet-untitled Harold & Kumar sequel to give us another round of laughs in the next year some time (probably before Star Trek warps wraps).

Though I'm more familiar and trusting of his comic portrayals, I certainly hope the best for John Cho. Sulu (portrayed by George Takei in the TV series and films) was a very stoic, honorable character. Apparently Takei "had previously given his blessing if a non-Japanese actor was cast in the role" so I hope Cho can make fans, and a fellow Asian actor, proud. Being a Trekkie myself, I've sorely missed watching some good Trek recently. Star Trek XI is looking for a Christmas 2008 release.

• Hollywood Reporter via Yahoo!
• IGN's Star Trek Casting Comparison has some pics with the old and new crew (the latest confirmed additions, Pegg and Cho are on the second page)

The schedule for the 45th New York Film Festival was up on Monday, and the biggest titles are already being sold out. A high profile selection of films from all over the world once again converge at Lincoln Center. It runs from September 28 to October 14, 2007

Opening night: Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited. Blade Runner, Ridley Scott's 'Final Cut' after 25 years. Centerpiece Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men.  Closing night, the animated Persepolis, based on the acclaimed graphic novel. A complete retrospective of Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, "father of Brazil’s Cinema Novo movement."
While those are obvious picks for any avid film fan, sold out at no tickets means looking elsewhere. Other personal picks of mine would be: The Orphanage, produced by director Guillermo Del Toro of last year's fantastic closing night film Pan's Labyrinth. Hou Hsiao-hsien directing Juliette Binoche in Flight of the Red Balloon. Nicole Kidman and Jack Black in Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding. Song Kang-ho and Jeon Do-yeon (in her Cannes Best Actress award winning role) in Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine. Claude Chabrol's A Girl Cut in Two. Béla Tarr's The Man from London. Palme D'Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days...

There's just too many interesting films. Enough reading, just go watch something before more tickets are gone.

• Official website, New York Film Festival