This fall, Italian publisher The World Anvil is publishing a new roleplaying game that flips the worlds of classic fairy tales upside down, where good guys turn bad and villains of yore become the heroes. It’s called Broken Tales, a mash-up for fans of fairy tale retellings that allows players to dive into their favorite fantasy realms, while providing opportunities to expand their adventures beyond the core game. Broken Tales is available now here for pre-order. In advance of the release of the hardcover final edition, gamers can now get immediate access to the 268-page pre-release digital edition–so you can get started on this engaging, imaginative new journey with heroes and villains you only thought you knew.
Prime viewing for October and the Halloween season, and a movie you probably skipped in the theater, is the rebooted Hellboy, now on home video. Far better than critics would have led you to believe, director Neil Marshall′s Hellboy is every bit loyal to the Dark Horse Comics character, stories, and mythos. Both Mike Mignola and Mike Richardson produced this third film in the series, and if you don’t agree it matches the quality of the first Hellboy you’ll likely agree it’s better and more memorable than its sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
In fact this Hellboy–this time with Stranger Things’David Harbour in the red, sawed-off horns and hammer arm–is that kind of dark, violent, monster movie that would have appealed to fans of Freddy Krueger or Hellraiser in the 1980s. It has that same kind of hard R rating that would have prompted 12 to 16-year-old boys to sneak into the theater to see what they were missing. So if you don’t care for the kind of monster movie with innocent victims getting ripped apart by giant demons, re-stitching a witch together, watching another creepy witch and her cauldron of kid stew, and making it through several blood-bursts and beheadings, backed with a never-ending volley of F bombs, by all means run away now.
This isn’t Ron Perlman’s kinder, gentler demon. But this presentation more closely matches Mignola’s stories, including steeping this tale in a variety of classic lore. Here that means the vile Baba Yaga as villain, complete with her chicken-legged mobile house, and a film full of twisted King Arthur legend.
Missing is Doug Jones’ wonderful Abe Sapien, or Selma Blair’s fire-wielding friend Liz. Trying to make up for that is the booming presence of Ian McShane (Magnum, p.i., Dallas, The Golden Compass, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Deadwood) as Hellboy’s father, and Milla Jovovich(Resident Evil series, The Fifth Element, Ultraviolet) as a banished witch trying to return to the present to smite out humanity with a plague. Both McShane and Jovovich are good in anything, as they are here, even when the special effects aren’t up to that Peter Jackson quality we all hope for.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen completely unrealistic, fantasy armor in what otherwise purports to be a historical account of the legend of King Arthur and his sword. Excalibur is barely watchable with its completely strange choice of armor and costuming throughout the film. Guy Ritchie’s next film also opts for fantasy garb over any reach for historical accuracy.
A trailer for King Arthur: Legend of the Sword premiered last weekend at San Diego Comic-Con. Fans of Guy Ritchie may go for this one because of the director alone, yet we need to see a few more trailers before we can decide whether this is one to see in the theater. The first trailer has some elements that are very Ritchie, like his filming style from his popular Sherlock Holmes movies. But what will this new retelling add to our appreciation of this classic story?
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword stars Charlie Hunnam (Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak) as Arthur, along with Jude Law, Djimon Hounsou, Eric Bana, and… famed Brit footballer David Beckham?
Thanks to Simon Guerrier, writer/producer and one-half of the filmmaking team the Guerrier Brothers, borg.com today presents a short film starring the brilliant genre actor David Warner, who we’ve previously discussed as one of our all-time favorite actors. Versatile, dynamic, and compelling, Warner has created some of the most memorable characters of all time across media spanning film, television, audio dramas, animation and video games. Able to create classic, iconic performances as both heroes and villains, his catalog of performances across genres and franchises puts him on a small list with the likes of fellow British thespians Christopher Lee and Ian McKellen for his dramatic, sci-fi, and fantasy roles that have stood the test of time.
Highlights from his roster of film credits only touch on the breadth of Warner’s acting career: Lysander from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Keith Jennings in The Omen, Jack the Ripper in Time After Time, Ed Dillinger/Sark/Master Control in Tron, Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol, St. John Talbot in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, the Abraham Lincoln-inspired Klingon Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Professor Summerlee in The Lost World, Doctor Wrenn in Stephen King’s In the Mouth of Madness, Spicer Lovejoy in James Cameron’s Titanic, chimpanzee Senator Sandar in The Planet of the Apes, and Joseph Lau in James Cameron’s Avatar. On television he’s performed as a Cardassian on Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as Jor-El in Lois and Clark, and he had key roles in Babylon 5, Twin Peaks, Horatio Hornblower, Wallander, The Secret of Crickley Hall, and a guest star role in this season’s Doctor Who. He’s voiced the DC Comics villain Ra’s Al Ghul and the Marvel Comics villain Red Skull in animated series, an alternate Third Doctor and Isaac Newton in Doctor Who audio plays, and voiced Star Trek and Star Wars characters in video games.
David Warner on set of The Wizard with a certain furry co-star.
