The Lone Ranger and his faithful sidekick Tonto started out on Radio in 1933, and ran about 40 shy of 3,000 episodes, ending in 1954, a mighty impressive run. The program had a spin-off in 1938, in which the Lone Ranger’s nephew Dan’s son, Britt Reid, became The Green Hornet with his faithful sidekick, Kato. Except, as we all know, Kato ended up becoming the hero in that one, and the Hornet the sidekick. There were several movie serial series in the late 30s and early 40s, in one of which he had a second sidekick named Juan who went on to become the Cisco Kid. I first ran into him with the TV Series When I was 4 years old, coming in about half way through its run, which lasted from 1949 to 1957. I can still remember the Lone Ranger movie in 1956, the first time I ever saw the show in color, TV being only black and white in those days. I can not wait to see what Johnny Depp does with the part of Tonto in the new Lone Ranger movie; even if they hose the whole rest of the film (not something I would expect from the crew which created the Pirates of the Caribbean series), that performance alone should be worth the price of admission, as this trailer tends to indicate.
The new trailer came out on the 14th, but I haven’t posted it yet, so hear it is. The Great And Powerful Oz is the first Oz project I have been excited about since Tin Man surprised me several years ago.
Before Dorothy headed to Oz, many others proceeded her. One of them was a circus magician later referred to as The Wizard, and coming up next year Disney is going to be telling his story, in Oz The Great And Powerful. L. Frank Baum wrote a lot of Oz books, and while this wasn’t one of them I am really looking forward to the film. It should be hitting the big screen in March of next year.
There are two interesting choices this week. The genre film is Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged: Part II, continuing the story begun with part 1 last year. This is in somewhat limited release, so you may have to hunt around for it, but trust me, it will be worth it, especially if you managed to see part one. And if you missed part 1, no worries; you can pick it up as a DVD or BluRay for $10 or less and watch it before seeing Part II in the theater. The story did not get stale with age since it was written, the conflicts embedded here are as alive as they were when she first wrote the book in 1957. I can not believe how many amazing actors are involved in this project, since it’s 10 million dollar budget could normally only pay for one or two of them, let alone the production costs of the entire film. My guess is it was a labor of love.
The other film worth mentioning will be playing everywhere, and while it isn’t genre I am so ready for this one! Seven Psychopaths is a twisted comedy in which a struggling screenwriter’s strange friends kidnap the beloved pet of a mobster, who then puts out contracts on everyone involved. Just like this weeks other winner, the cast is an amazing ensemble and the trailer tells me there is enough strangeness to make it quite a hoot.
More J.R.R. Tolkien classic storytelling is coming to the big screen! Yes, we have all known this for years, and yes, this trailer has been online for days (or at least 1.5 of those day thingies) but DAMN it is good to finally get a glimpse of it! I am so ready for the next set of feature films from this franchise!
It started out with Starship Sofa, a wonderful podcast that had both a news and a Radio Play segment. Later they added Tales to Terrify, with audio stories for the horror fans. They have now launched District of Wonders, which includes both of the aforementioned series as well as two new ones: Protecting Project Pulp with some wonderful gold and silver age SF and Fantasy stories from the pulp magazines, and Crime City Central, which is the same thing from the True Crime type pulps. Whether you prefer the individual sites or the aggregate collection, these are some classic and world class stories you will really want to hear for yourself. And if you like those, don’t forget to check out Holodeck Workshops if you are one of the aspiring writers out there. Thanks to SF Signal for the heads up on this one.