Film

Back in mid April Twitch was proud to present the first images from Tommy Wirkola's Dead Snow 2: Red vs Dead, noting at the time that the sheer level of blood present boded well for fans of the original Nazi zombie comedy. Well, now we come bearing word that this early promise has been realized. The producers of the film were present in the Cannes film market with the first five minutes of the picture and we were fortunate enough to get a look.The film will be shot in both English and Norwegian. In the sequel the story follows the sole survivor of a Nazi zombie attack who battles an even larger army of Zombies with the help of a professional gang of American zombie... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

It was back in November of 2011 that Twitch first caught wind of an animated adaptation of Tad Williams' fantasy novel Tailchaser's Song. Spearheaded by US indie outfit Animetropolis and Japan's IDA (creators of the stellar Cat Shit One), the project has slowly been making its way through development and now we have word that Sam Worthington's Australia based Full Clip Productions has joined the effort while Rise Of The Guardians director Peter Ramsay has signed up as an executive producer. Oh ... and there's also now the first official poster art for the film, which you can see above. Check the full press release below. CANNES -- FRIDAY, MAY 24, 2013 -- Animetropolis, IDA and EFG-Renascence Productions are pleased to unveil the producing team... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

A multi talented artist who works as a filmmaker, musician and designer - he helped create the title sequence for the Guillermo Del Toro produced Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark - Australia's Christopher Frey turns heads with the absolutely gorgeous short film Explosions. Light on narrative but rich on mood and emotion consider this a snapshot of a personal apocalypse. Watch the film below.... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

“La De Da.” A song I never tire of and a revelation the first time I heard the unheralded stunner. Link Wray’s “La De Da” from his sorely underheard 1971 album "Link Wray" was recorded in Wray’s chicken shack on his farm in Accokeek, Maryland and produced by the ingenious Steve Verroca (who also wrote "La De Da"). Boy does it scorch your heart. Soulful, raggedly beautiful vocals and true grit rock by one the great pioneers, the song sounds a lot like the Stone's "Exile" before "Exile" but the genuine article. This is authentic fire and brimstone, sincere swamp ("Black River Swamp"); music full of feeling by a man who had felt and experienced a who hell of a lot. When compared to Elvis and his impoverished background, "Rumble" Wray said: "He grew up white-man poor. I was growing up Shawnee poor." And Wray was creating this primo stuff in the 1960s. On the liner notes for "Wray's Three Track Shack," John Collins stated it beautifully: "In the late 1960s there was a studied attempt by such musicians as The Band, Neil Young, Guy Clark and David Ackles, all in their own way, to evoke a rock n roll version of Americana, of white clapboard chapels, dungareed farmers, dusty drifters and outlaws... It turned out that Link and his brothers had been playing the real thing all along, hidden away on the farm. The eponymous 1971 album grew out of the landscape, the struggles and the religious certainties of Link's own past. He didn't have to adopt the pose of a stubble-chinned homesteader. He was one." Indeed he was. If you can get your hands on it, grab "Wray's Three Track Shack," a compilation containing three Wray albums: "Link Wray," "Beans and Fatback" and "Mordicai Jones." Do it. I'm so glad (and maybe even "so proud," as the Wray song goes) that I got the chance to see brilliant legend Link perform live, before he passed away because, as I wrote last year, Link Wray is God.

While heralded by a dedicated group of cinephiles in the U.S. (as well as most critics in France), director James Gray has always been more talked-about for his sure hand with actors and drama than for his visual style. Not that he hasn't shown before that he has more sense of mis-en-scene than many celebrated stylists (the rain-soaked car chase in We Own the Night comes to mind), but, perhaps because he's never been as showy as say, Martin Scorsese, or found it necessary to maintain a "signature" visual style from film to film, he's never been lifted to the mainstream upper-echelon of American nouveaux-auteurs.The Immigrant may change all of that. Here is, if nothing else, a gorgeous movie to look at. Bathed in sepia... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Back in 1960's France, masked wrestling was not a kitsch, novelty sport with a cult following -- it was serious business. According to the accepted narrative, it was not only a spectacle of brutality, but a powerful assertion of good triumphing over evil. In each match, a white-masked wrestler fought it out with a black-masked one, and ultimately emerged victorious. I don't think I need to elaborate on the symbolism here. And so, using this profession, with clear-cut versions of good and bad, as a backdrop for a film-noir, a genre which thrives on blurring the lines between the two opposing forces, is the first of many clever, inspired decisions director David Perrault makes in his film Our Heroes Are Dead Tonight (Nos Héros Sont... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Spicy Saturday: Spy Vibe has paid tribute in the past to Hugh Hefner, the boy cartoonist who grew up to be a celebrated champion of sex and sophisticated leisure in the 1950s. There were many people in that era who bucked against the post-war suburban ideal and today we spotlight Bettie Page, Queen of the Pin-Ups. Page became a cult hero by modeling for cheesecake, pin-up, and bondage photographs in the 1950s. She appeared in images for under-the-counter portfolio projects as well as high-profile gigs for Playboy and others. She became the center of a Senate Committee investigation that attacked publishers and artists for challenging the strict sexual climate of the times. Page later became a cultural icon of the sexual revolution and appeared as a character in comics, pop art, films, and on merchandise. She passed away at the age of 85 in 2008. "I don't know what they mean by an icon. I never thought of myself as being that. It seems strange to me. I was just modeling, thinking of as many different poses as possible. I made more money modeling than being a secretary. I had a lot of free time. You could go back to work after an absence of a few months. I couldn't do that as a secretary." More info at her site here. Spy Vibe also recommends the 2005 bio-pic, The Notorious Bettie Page. Check Spy Vibe for recent posts about our fiendish villains archive, WWII spy Krystyna Skarbek, recycled James Bond covers, interview with Fu Manchu author William Maynard, Man From UNCLE manga. new James Bond omnibus, Orson Welles the Shadow, rare Piero Umiliani Kriminal soundtrack, new Beatles Yellow Submarine game, James Bond audio book re-issues, Mid-Century Modern in Peanuts, Ralph Byrd Dick Tracy, my review of SKYFALL and more. Spy Vibe is now on Pinterest! Check out our image archives and follow us here.Ian Fleming on Spy Vibe: recent posts include Ian Fleming Music Series links: Noel Coward, Whispering Jack Smith, Hawaiian Guitar, Joe Fingers Carr, new Ian Fleming Catalog, discovery of one of Ian Fleming's WWII Commandos, James Bond book covers, Ian Fleming's Playboy interview for Kindle, Spy Vibe's discovery of a rare Ian Fleming serialization, Fleming's Royal gold typewriter, Ian Fleming's memorial address, and our Ian Fleming image archive link here.Can you help to support Spy Vibe? Please make a small donation with our secure Paypal tip-jar link at the top left of the main page. Nothing is too small to help cover the increasing bills for the domain, web-forwarding and other costs to maintain the site. Thank you!