So I got lazy with my occasional entertainment news posts. All but the last one of these tidbits are from a month ago, but I figured I'd include them anyway...
A federal appeals court upheld a ban at the Waupun Correctional Institution in Wisconsin preventing inmates from playing Dungeons & Dragons (NY Times). Apparently, D&D can “foster an inmate’s obsession with escaping from the real-life correctional environment, fostering hostility, violence and escape behavior.” If this is true, then so can books, for heaven's sake. It's not like gaining the lock pick ability or hide in shadows or fireball for your character in D&D can actually give you the ability in real life. Maybe D&D games would promote groupings among inmates, but that happens anyway and I'd say that a gang of fantasy geeks isn't as bad as other possible prison gangs. Oh well, what do I know anyway?
Avatar officially passed Titanic in record worldwide box office take on January 25, after its sixth weekend at the box office (Variety). Since then it has also passed Titanic in domestic (US) gross. It is still going strong, ranking in the top five at the U.S. box office and number one overseas. Recent tallies place it at over $688 million in the U.S. and over $2.4 billion worldwide (inclusive of U.S.) (Variety).
In further Avatar news, a mountain in China's Hunan province has been renamed for Avatar (BBC news). According to the Xiaoxiang Morning News, a photographer from Hollywood had visited the Wulingyuan Scenic Area in 2008, and the photos had served as a basis for the planet Pandora--particularly for the floating Hallelujah Mountains. The Southern Sky Column mountain in Zhangjiajie has now officially been renamed the Avatar Hallelujah Mountain. Avatar is now the top movie of all time in China, and locals hope that renaming the mountain will allow them to capitalize on its popularity; they are currently promoting Avatar Tours with the slogan "Pandora is far but Zhangjiajie is near." Sweet.
Taylor Lautner has been cast as Stretch Armstrong in the planned Hasbro - Universal film that I'm kind of horrified is being made (Variety). I guess a different toy franchise had already claimed Channing Tatum. In case we've forgotten them, I'll list the other Hasbro movies that are in the works: Battleship, Monopoly, Candyland, Ouija, Clue, and Magic: The Gathering. Really.
OK, finally the news that I actually wanted to share, and it's just a little tidbit:
Dragon Age: Origins was named Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year at the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences--essentially, the Gaming Oscars (Variety: The Cut Scene). And it's well-deserved. I should mention that the big winner of the night was Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Batman: Arkham Asylum also did well (winning, among other things, Best Character Performance for its Joker, voiced by Mark Hamill). Anyway, I was pleased to see a prestigious award go to Dragon Age: Origins. But now I'm ready to move into 2010 and finally get Mass Effect 2 started.
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8 comments:
Wow, one James Cameron movie beat out the other one? Good to be him!
They're making a Monopoly movie...? That sounds quite boring. But the Clue movie from the 80s was quite hilarious, in a quasi-bad way! (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088930/)
TOTALLY want to see the Candyland movie.
Yeah, a Candyland movie might work, whether as a straight-up kids fantasy or as a trippy Tim Burton-esque kind of thing. Clue also seems to be one of the better choices, since it at least has a plot. Battleship almost has a plot--opponents trying to sink each other's battleships. Magic: The Gathering at least has some interesting fantasy creatures and settings. I think Ouija might work, but would probably be cheesy (did you see Paranormal Activity?--it had a good bit with a Ouija board). But you're right that Monopoly sounds dull, and it's mainly Stretch Armstrong that I think is a dumb idea. But in all of these cases, the fact that they're resorting to a whole series of films based on board games makes it sound like Hollywood is out of good ideas.
Ah, you finally found the D&D/jail thing. Pretty crazy, eh?!
It's pretty sad that we live in a world where, somewhere, someone is sitting in an office plotting ways to make an inmate's life more horrible.
They took his D&D books because he had nothing else to take.
(OK OK, he's a murderer, but still... still a human, damnit!)
Finally found isn't exactly right...I collect these little tidbits that aren't worth their own post until I decide I have enough to be worth posting. Lack of interesting news or my own laziness can increase the time delay between when I find the tidbit and when I post it. All but the last of the news items had been sitting in my draft post for several weeks.
Anyway, yeah, their arguments for banning it seemed pretty weak. Poor little murderer.
And what is with these spam comments? At least this one's in English, but really...
Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time unless you are sitting down and recently washed them.
No clue... my blog's spam filter has caught everything so far, but I've noticed a lot of spam hitting Blogger blogs recently :(
I have had to much freaking spam, it needs to stop. I don't get it. Anyway, yay for Dragon Age getting that award! I didn't think it could get better...then I played mass effect 2....lol. I might be changing my costume plans this year...eeek...
You still have to make the Morrigan costume. I want to see it!
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