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Things to Do: Movies

Coming out this Friday is Daybreakers, in which most of the human race has been turned into vampires with the remaining humans sufficient to supply their blood needs for a matter of weeks only. With an all star cast that includes Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, and Isabel Lucas, this film has the potential to be something special. Also this week, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus hits screens everywhere, ending its limited release run.

For a small but immediate chunk of Neil Gaiman goodness, go watch his new (short) movie Statuesque at Pink is the New Blog. It stars Bill Nighy and Amanda Palmer, runs about 8 minutes long, and does an amazing job of storytelling with no dialog.

2010 has some very interesting movies scheduled to make the theaters. Other films coming out in January include Legion, The Book of Eli, Tooth Fairy, and When in Rome. February has the sequel District 13: Ultimatum, as well as Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and The Wolfman.

It isn’t coming up until March of 2010, but one of the films I am looking forward to this year is Hot Tub Time Machine, starring John Cusack and Chevy Chase. Nothing profound on this one, just silly fun.

Things to Do: Movies, and Cory Doctorow in the Metaverse

Avatar finally comes out this weekend! The trailers have been amazing, the interactive app has been fun, and the hype has been overwhelming. I have pretty much been waiting all year for this film, and I am glad it is finally time to watch it.

Also showing on the big screen this week is RiffTrax: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza, with special guest Wierd Al Yankovic. The program is live on the 16th, with an encore replay on the 17th; feed your zip code into each date to find the closest theaters to you.

Appearing live in Virtual Reality this week is Cory Doctorow on Copper Robot, doing a real time interview in the Second Life Seaside Theater, over at World2Worlds Island. That happens on Wednesday, the 16th, 8PM SL time (11PM EST, since 2nd Life time is California time). If you already have the free 2nd Life software installed, this is the SLURL that will launch it and take you straight to the event. If you are trapped behind an office firewall and can’t get into the metaverse, you can watch it in real time at Copper Robot, or grab the podcast after the event to listen to at your leisure.

Next week brings both The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Sherlock Holmes to the big screen. I’m going to have to see each of them, and maybe swoop back for a second pass at Avatar.