AFTERTHOUGHTS (80)
STAN WINSTON’S LEGACY

The news of Stan Winston’s passing was saddening, as his contribution to imaginative cinema is massive, and from the outpouring of fond, loving remembrance at the AICN tribute, it also quickly became apparent that he was as inspiring a person as he was an artist.
So it was with a certain sense of hope that I saw that the Stan Winston Studio would indeed continue on in his spirit, albeit under a new name.
The studio will now be called The Winston Effects Group, and will be a partnership between Shane Mahan, Lindsay MacGowan, John Rosengrant, and Alan Scott.

In continuing Winston’s legacy, MacGowan had this to say to Quint of AICN: “We have all been taught by Stan, and to try and do something that wouldn’t honor the work that we had done in the past, it’s just not something that we would do. We are completely committed to continuing doing as much groundbreaking work as Stan had done in the past and we will continue doing it.”

That’s a nice ray of hope in the sad wake of his passing…

(Image courtesy of empireonline.com.)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (27)

27.1 Pretty pictures galore!
First up, quite literally a few minutes before I checked email (to find that Budjette had sent me the same image), I saw the new Joker up on AICN.
So this is just one of the many reasons why movies constantly engage and surprise me.
Who would have thought that someone who I first saw in one of those pretty boy-with-an-edge roles (in Gil Junger's 10 Things I Hate About You) would later evolve into an Oscar contender (for Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain). Said someone would then go from gay cowboy to Clown Prince of Crime.
Who’d a thunk?

27.2 Also up on AICN, this Kingdom of the Crystal Skull snap. (It’s one of three, so get on over there, if you want to see the rest.)

27.3 And from the official Watchmen website, a couple of stills that look as if this was the neighborhood Dave Gibbons drew his panels from, instead of the other-way-around reality: a custom backlot in Vancouver, BC, built with, as Zack Snyder puts it, “the vernacular of Watchmen.” (These are two of four, so get on over there to see the others.)

27.4 Then, before I leave you to it, NBC recently announced Chuck got the early Christmas present of a back nine, bringing it up to a full 22-episode season.
More Bartowski nerdly madness! That’s great news.
Now if only the WGA strike gets resolved in the next few weeks, so this Christmas the studios and networks can display some goodwill to all those who live and die by the pen.

(Images courtesy of Empire and aintitcool.com [Empire Joker cover]; IMDB and aintitcool.com [Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull image]; warnerbros.com [Watchmen images]; and buy-more.net [Chuck image].)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (13)

13.1 The U.S. Television Critics Association announced the winners of this year’s awards, so congratulations to Michael C. Hall, for winning the award for Individual Achievement In Drama (for Dexter), and all involved in Heroes, which won the big enchilada, the award for Program of the Year.
Yahoo!

(See the complete list of winners here.)

13.2 I’ve been following the whole Cloverfield/1-18-08 thing since the story broke on aicn, and the latest bit of vital information: the first official teaser poster is online courtesy of ew.com, and newlywed Harry Knowles (congratulations, Harry!) may just know what the film’s real title is. (If Harry’s spy is on the level, X-Men fans will know it too.)

13.3 And before I go, Michael’s coming back to Lost.
I really hope the schmuck returns just so he can wind up dead and have that viewing no one attends in season 3’s finale. (Yes, I’m still ticked off about his not only shooting both Ana Lucia and Libby, but also leaving Jack and company in the hands of the Others.)

(Dexter image courtesy of tv.com; Heroes image courtesy of comicbookresources.com; 1-18-08 teaser OS and Harold Perrineau image courtesy of ew.com.)