John August to Direct Heroes: Origins

This is just a geek-out moment. Not that I watch Heroes or anything. I'm not really a film or TV buff but I'm an avid follower of John August's blog. So it's great to hear that he's one of the directors who's going to direct one of the episodes of Heroes: Origins, not necessarily because it opens him up to a wide audience but because he wants to do it (and besides, I have high hopes for the Captain Marvel film).

Takezo Kensei Documentary

I feel I'm an outsider when it comes to TV fandom. Sure, I've heard of Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Supernatural, and Heroes, but I never really took the time to sit down and watch one whole episode of any of those shows.

Anyway, from the Heroes serial, here's a faux Yamagato Fellowship site that has a series of short documentaries on Takezo Kensei (he's a fiction hero in the Heroes universe) narrated by John Rhys-Davies himself. John Rhys-Davies has got to be any SF&F fan's favorite actor, not just because of his prominent roles but because he's been game to do a lot of serious acting for many nonconventional SF&F titles such as Wing Commander and Baldur's Gate.

Masi Oka a Manga Fan

If truth be told, I haven't seen an episode of NBC's Heroes although I have been tracking down news about the show. What caught my interest before was that fan-favorite Masi Oka (who plays Hiro) previously stated that he was a fan of manga such as One Piece.

In a recent interview by Newsarama during the San Diego Comic Con, Oka talks more about the show as well as expands on his love for manga:

“I was definitely a genre fan growing up,” says Oka.. “I was a Star Wars’ fan. I personally didn’t grow up on American comics, either. I saw the movies that portrayed them. I grew up reading Japanese manga. So most of my ‘heroes’ or comic book heroes came from the Japanese manga world. Tezuka Osamu was fantastic. These days I’m a big fan of Urasawa Naoki, who’s doing actually a homage to Osamu-sama. He currently has a series called Pluto, which is loosely based on Mighty Atom.

“But definitely growing up, Tezuka and even more of the kid stuff, like Fujiko Fujio’s Doraemon and the Toriyama Akira’s Dragonball, all those fantastic authors and comic book authors. Manga is a part of our culture and I grew up with that in Japan. I’m fortunate enough to keep in touch with that world in America with imported comic books.”

Another thing that’s making Oka happy is the growing popularity of manga in the U.S.

“It’s fantastic,” he exclaims. “It’s fantastic to see that. There’s also a lot more subtlety with the Japanese Manga and not just One Piece’s and Eyeshield 21’s. There’s a lot more mangas that are deeply rooted in story, more like the romantic comedy or high school life. That’s also very interesting, too. So I’d like to see more of those come to America even though there are cultural differences.”

I might add that most people might know Mighty Atom as Astro Boy.

Kamen Rider Blade

Cartoon Network's new tokusatsu show in the Philippines is Kamen Rider Blade. Not that I don't appreciate it but it makes me wonder how they choose which shows make the cut and which don't. I mean before that (aside from the Saban Power Rangers series) it was Justirisers, which seemed natural considering it was Gransazers that preceded it. I expected they'd end the franchise with Sazer X, but hey, you can't predict everything.

Profit

It's been more than ten years since I took a vacation outside of the Philippines. Not that I regret if... as a kid, I've been fortunate enough to visit three distinct cultures: America, Australia, and Hong Kong.

Anyway, during my last visit to America, I managed to catch the first few episodes of this show called Profit. It had a short life as it was one of those shows that would be cancelled but personally, I found it to be a great series and ahead of its time. It would later be acquired by one of the local TV stations but there wasn't much buzz about it. Today's TV culture will probably recognize the villainous protagonist of the show, Jim Profit, as Nathan Petrelli in Heroes.

Sabbatical

So I've officially disappeared from the Internet for the past few days, isolated myself in my room and spent hours and hours playing video games. As a kid, I wasn't really a bookworm (although I did read lots of magazines). I was into cartoons, comics, video games, and TV in general. I'm catching re-runs of Seinfeld on Star TV and there was this scene where Jerry starts dating a police officer and she introduces to him their lie detector. And then she asks if Jerry watches Melrose Place, the adult equivalent of Beverly Hills 90210. Jerry of course denies it, thinking that a guy admitting to watching it was a very guilty pleasure. Of course back in the day, I was watching Melrose Place (and that's where I first saw Heather Locklear actually, one of my two crushes in the show).

Anyway, I try posting last Monday and Tuesday, but the Internet at home didn't want to cooperate with me. And when I got to the office, it's work, work, work! (Which is as it should be.)

Reality TV Show Dynamics

I think lately, the stream of reality-TV has stabilized, at least here in the Philippines. I mean aside from American Idol and The Amazing Race, there's not much foreign shows airing. On the local scene, it's still a bit rich with the likes of Pinoy Big Brother and that talent show on ABS-CBN.

Of course I can't help but admire the paradoxical dynamics of reality TV shows. I mean with the exception of the last episode, there's a bigger excitement in finding out who's the loser in each episode rather than the winner (not that I don't look forward to knowing who won first place). Mark Burnett instilled in me the question who gets voted/eliminated/didn't make the cut?

The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is only there for the last episode. The "minor" prizes at each episode before then is great (especially if I'm a contestant) but as a viewer, I care more about who I'm not going to see in next week's episode.

Song of Ice and Fire... on HBO

George R.R. Martin has been hinting that he has "big news" for quite some time now and confirms it's a story recently released by Variety: A Song of Ice and Fire HBO series. David Benioff (Troy) and D.B. Weiss (Halo) will be producing it and according to the article, they're thinking of shooting it in either Europe or New Zealand.

While many of Martin's fans know him today for his work in his epic series A Song of Ice and Fire or his super-hero fiction Wild Cards, Martin has done work for TV before, namely The New Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast (yes, the one with Ron Perlman as Vincent and Linda Hamilton as Catherine). Martin will be co-exec producing his series along with others.

Interestingly enough, the article states that A Song of Ice and Fire is a seven book cycle and that the target date for all of it to be finished is 2011. Of course using Murphy's Law, I predict it'll actually finish in book eight (it's an even number), and will be done by 2018 (adding one year delay for each book plus two extra years for the 8th book).

Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards on TV

This just in while randomly channel surfing, the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards will be a segment in tonight's (and tomorrow night's) G3 show on Hero Channel. That's at 8 pm.

Avatar Returns

Steve Fritz of Newsarama writes about the latest news when it comes to animation. Some of my friends can look forward to the fact that the next two-episode release of Avatar: The Last Airbender will be next week, as well as Nickolodeon spending as much as $1 million per episode. In the same article, he also states that Avatar will return to a more regular schedule in the future, and that Nickolodeon has agreed to do a third season (and perhaps more after that, following a new story arc).

In the meantime, it seems Bleach and Trinity Blood will be debuting on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim... in the US.